Steven Aoki's Blog

Nuclear option

5/9/2021

It appears I wasn't the only one who hated watching Twitch streamers clown around in "Among Us". Quite possibly the friendliest Twitch streamer I've ever watched--who smiles like 99% of time and almost never gets mad--went BALLISTIC on Twitter airing one bizarre grievance after another...a full on meltdown about crying herself to sleep because her longtime friend, a beloved streamer, didn't take their "Among Us" game seriously enough and then mistakenly accused her of snubbing him in a Mario game launch (also brief mentions of two moments during their friendship when he drunkenly offended her in front of her husband). WTF? Now with this bridge burned to ashes (plus another streamer who got exiled with her husband, a legendary Mario player, after he banned a transphobe from his stream too belatedly), I feel like Mario Masters Colosseum has been shattered like a picture frame. It's all so surreal.

I've never been a fan of people pretending to be fine (especially after I read about the emotional anguish my former roommate was hiding before his murder–suicide). It's one thing to secretly hate somebody, but it's another to act like you two are still besties. She had kept on smiling and streaming with her longtime friend like nothing was wrong, so it makes me wonder now how much of her sunny personality has just been for show. I still remember when a girl I liked in college snapped at me one day with: "What are you complaining about now?!"--a side of her I never glimpsed before. It made me realize I do complain too much, and motivated me to become a better person. But also, sadly, I never talked to her ever again. How could I?

Watched movie: "Gekijō-ban -Kimetsu no Yaiba- Mugen Ressha-hen" (2020) a.k.a. "Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Movie: Mugen Train" (2021)

Corny but well-animated box-office record breaker in Japan. It's a direct sequel to the first season of a popular Japanese anime series I never watched, but I got up to speed pretty quickly thanks to each demon hunter's dream sequence (though the boar-headed weirdo and the girl with the bamboo gag threw me off). I found the dubbing decent even though it gets laughable when they think aloud too much in English. P.S. I dislike CGI in anime, and I hate it when anime characters shout out the names of their attacks. Rating: 6

Returning to normalcy

4/29/2021

I'm finally back at the office this week after my workplace eased its COVID-19 restrictions. My office still looked frozen in time, except for all the bugs and dust I had to clean off my desks. The parking lots look overgrown with weeds in the asphalt cracks, and a lot of the outside lawns got dug up by animals. It does feel good sitting at my air-conditioned ergonomic workstation, using a mouse again (like riding a bike), connecting to reliable internet, and having access to a working printer. But almost everything is closed, including the cafeteria. So I'm still debating how often to drive into the office.

The scaled-down 93rd Oscars ceremony underwhelmed me, but at least it cut out a lot of the bloat (though I still miss the traditional clips for each acting nominee). I'm still confused why the ceremony didn't end with the Oscar for Best Picture. I'm also still confused how Frances McDormand and Anthony Hopkins pulled off those shocking upsets for Best Actress and Best Actor, respectively. On the plus side, I finally predicted Best Picture correctly after blowing this category for the past five ceremonies.

After years of delays, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally ready to open on September 30, 2021. I'm going to closely watch which film classics will screen there. The museum's inaugural exhibition will showcase Hayao Miyazaki. I'm also interested in that "Oscars Experience" where guests can accept an Academy Award in a simulated environment on the Dolby Theatre stage.

Watched movie: "Mortal Kombat" (2021) in IMAX

More faithful to the video game, e.g., gory fatalities and esoteric one-liners, but nowhere near as entertaining as the original adaptation. Not even ironically entertaining. Though it is laughable that they tried to inject such serious drama into a movie called "Mortal Kombat". Rating: 4

Vax day

4/21/2021

I received my first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine finally, at a Stanford Health clinic set up inside a gigantic roller rink. It was the Pfizer vaccine, so I think my imagination got overactive and made my cheeks and skin feel cold. What a strange sight at the clinic's 15-minute observation zone: everybody waiting quietly in evenly-spaced chairs underneath a disco ball. I receive my next dose on May 13--good timing because I'm attending a wedding not long after.

I was surprised to read about the rain delay at WrestleMania 37, which forced them to postpone the first match of the show for roughly 40 minutes. This has actually never happened in all the years WWE has held WrestleMania outdoors--granted, I did get rained on at WrestleMania XXIV, but only in brief drizzles.

I wasn't impressed with "The Walking Dead" episodes that got annexed to season 10. COVID-19 must have scaled down their production. I did watch the season 6 midseason premiere of "Fear the Walking Dead" after I read spoilers that something major would happen. I haven't watched this show in years, and it's still the same old same old complete with another pointless death. P.S. It still blows my mind how one of the main characters had the same name as my sister; then changed it to the same name as my other sister. That's one helluva coincidence.

I refuse to believe that ArcLight Cinemas has permanently closed. Hollywood needs to come together to save it; at least the ArcLight Hollywood multiplex where the historic Cinerama Dome is located. The mochas at their cafe were out of this world, and I've screened so many films there during my holiday movie marathons, e.g., "Zero Dark Thirty", "The Impossible", "her", "American Sniper" (in the Cinerama Dome), "Selma", "The Revenant", and "The Hateful Eight".

Big news in that cold case of Kristin Smart, the Cal Poly freshman who vanished during the Memorial Day weekend on May 25, 1996. The police finally arrested Paul Flores, the fellow student last seen with her who claimed to have walked her back to her dorm following an off-campus party. This guy's always been super suspicious, lying about how he got his black eye and refusing to cooperate with the investigators. But despite multiple excavations and searches around his family's homes and Cal Poly, Kristin's body has never been found. Interestingly, Paul Flores' father has also been arrested for allegedly helping to conceal the body.

I was on the edge of my seat the whole time the judge read those three guilty verdicts for Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police officer who fatally knelt on George Floyd's neck. Easily the most suspenseful verdict I've watched live since the O.J. Simpson murder trial. I couldn't imagine the jury acquitting Chauvin on any charge given the damning footage and the defense's curious choice not to put him on the stand. (Though off the top of my head, I can think of multiple historic cases where an acquittal dismayed me.) Next step: getting serious on police reforms, starting with how on earth officers mistake their guns for tasers.

The Academy Awards look predictable except for Best Actress, which has become a toss-up. I always lean toward the SAG winner though. My final Oscar predictions for 2020:

• Best picture: "Nomadland"
• Best director: Chloé Zhao, "Nomadland"
• Best actor: Chadwick Boseman, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
• Best actress: Viola Davis, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
• Best supporting actor: Daniel Kaluuya, "Judas and the Black Messiah"
• Best supporting actress: Yuh-Jung Youn, "Minari"

Watched movie: "colectiv" a.k.a. "Collective" (2020)

A profoundly important Oscar nominee for Best Documentary and Best International Film that begins with the suspicious bacterial deaths of several burn victims from the Colectiv nightclub fire in Romania. Then as the investigative journalists and new Minister of Health in this movie dig deeper, we find out that this healthcare failure was just the tip of the iceberg for all the political, medical, and pharmaceutical corruption in the Romanian healthcare system. Corruption so systemic that the whole situation just felt overwhelmingly hopeless to me. From my perspective, this documentary was a microcosm of why we need government transparency, freedom of the press, unbiased and trustworthy information, and most importantly--why voters need to care and hold their leaders accountable. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "In the Earth" (2021)

This movie belongs in the trash. I could take the unnecessary gore and the incoherent storyline; but the parts where the film tried to give me a seizure with all that relentless flashing? Unacceptable. Rating: 2

Floodgates

4/10/2021

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that all California businesses can fully reopen on June 15, 2021 (with the state mask mandate, public health policies, testing, and contract tracing still in place) as long as COVID-19 vaccine is available to all Californians, and hospitalization rates remain low. Meaning no more four-tiered, color-coded "Blueprint for a Safer Economy" to guide when counties can reopen. Assuming that enough of our vulnerable population has been vaccinated by then, I'm fine with reopening--even if the non-serious COVID-19 cases go back up. I'm still waiting eagerly to schedule a vaccination appointment for myself. I'm not essential and currently only Californians over the age of 50 are eligible. Like every other Californian over the age of 16, I'm not eligible until April 15, 2021.

Watched movie: "Come True" (2021)

Haunting sci-fi horror movie highlighted by hauntingly beautiful music by Electric Youth. It's about a female teenage runaway who keeps dreaming of a dark shadow figure with eyes, and volunteers for a cool sleep study where the researchers can actually watch the subjects' dreams on monochrome monitors. I got a David Lynch vibe from the film, because my brain didn't understand the visceral horrors I was seeing--and that made everything much scarier. Every time the movie began showing a new nightmare, it put my nerves on edge. P.S. If anyone understood that ending, please explain it to me. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Godzilla vs. Kong" (2021) in 4DX & 3D

Fun, escapist Monsterverse WrestleMania-quality slobberknocker that lived up to its billing and to my satisfaction, resulted in a definitive winner. Is Godzilla's atomic heat beam an unfair advantage? Is it unfair for Kong to use a weapon? Is it unfair for humans to interfere? Does the venue unfarily favor one combatant over the other? Instead of dwelling on these questions, I just decided to enjoy the spectacle for what it was: anything goes, no holds barred. As usual, all the human stuff struck me as plot filler--but I've accepted that the humans are essential for pacing and hype. Side note: The tempestuous 4DX onslaught was worth every penny--my body reeled from every shock wave (for instance, I felt like I was actually sitting on that aircraft carrier that Kong leapt onto). I also worked out how to best position my face mask to avoid fogging up my 3-D glasses. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "Druk" a.k.a. "Another Round" (2020)

Unamusing international film Oscar frontrunner that if you ask me, glorified alcohol way too much. It's about a secret experiment where four teacher friends drink alcohol everyday at their high school to see if they teach better. This dumb idea reminded me of that Simpsons episode where Homer strove to become morbidly obese; except instead of watching Homer overeat, I had to sit there watching these guys turn into alcoholics. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "The Unholy" (2021)

Quite the audacious premise to have a satanic specter impersonate the Virgin Mary and fool Catholics with faith healings. But in the end, I felt that the film's self-important message about false prophets got lost in a sea of dumb horror movie tripe and awful CGI. I also didn't like the cynical optics of Jeffrey Dean Morgan fighting disinformation with disinformation. Rating: 4

Watched movie: "Voyagers" (2021)

"Lord of the Flies" in space, basically, wherein a crew of 30 young adults stops taking their pleasure-inhibiting medication during their 86-year voyage to a habitable planet. Despite my skepticism that pleasure and sexual desire could transform learned young adults into such gullible savages devoid of conscience and empathy, I liked the movie. Rating: 6

Judas vs. the Black Messiah

3/21/2021

As the wheel of racism revolved against Muslim Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, the hardened cynic in me knew it was only a matter of time before my own ethnicity would become a target once again. Admittedly, I do appreciate all of this public social awareness against anti-Asian racism. When I was little and Japan-bashing was a thing, I basically had to suffer through anti-Asian bullying alone. The lowest point of my life was when my own parents didn't believe me that I was getting bullied at summer school, and kept making me go. I've actually never really forgiven them for it, even though they've long since passed away.

In Oscar news, the Academy Award nominations were finally announced after the eligibility period was extended to the end of February 2021. I noticed "One Night in Miami..." and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" got snubbed for Best Picture. Surprisingly, LaKeith Stanfield got nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "Judas and the Black Messiah" even though he's the lead character. So now both of the title characters in this movie are competing for the same Best Supporting Actor award. Also noteworthy: Glenn Close received both an Oscar nomination and a Razzie nomination for playing Mamaw in "Hillbilly Elegy".

Here's how I rated the 2020 Best Picture nominees from favorite to least favorite:

1. "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (Rating: 7)
2. "Mank" (Rating: 7)
3. "Promising Young Woman" (My rating: 6)
4. "Nomadland" (My rating: 6)
5. "Sound of Metal" (My rating: 6)
6. "Minari" (My rating: 6)
7. "Judas and the Black Messiah" (My rating: 5)
8. "The Father" (My rating: 5)

Watched movie: "Sound of Metal" (2020)

A slow, closed captioned Oscar nominee about a restless heavy-metal drummer (Riz Ahmed) who suddenly loses his hearing, and checks into a deaf community to avoid relapsing into drug addiction. The plot confused me with conflicting messages, as I never understood why he had to cope with deafness when he could still save some of his hearing with cochlear implant surgery. I also got thrown off by all the closed captioning (I could seamlessly understand the conversations even when the movie's sound was off). All in all, I mainly just liked the emotional scenes with his girlfriend (Olivia Cooke). Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Quo Vadis, Aida?" (2020-2021)

Psychologically devastating international film Oscar nominee wherein a desperate UN translator pulls whatever strings she can to save her husband and two sons as they and their fellow Srebrenican refugees--on the run from the Bosnian Serb Army--overcrowd her UN base. The haunting foreshadowing and the impotence of the UN soldiers tasked with protecting these refugees made my skin crawl. Rating: 7

Where in the world is Steven Aoki?

3/13/2021

I'm back in Santa Clara County, where my local movie theatres have reopened (hopefully for good this time). Even Los Angeles County is finally reopening movie theatres. So surreal that COVID-19 has killed over half a million people in the United States. I still remember my incredulity the first time I heard a projection on the radio of over 100,000 deaths.

Al pastor is my new favorite food right now. It's tender slowly cooked pork marinated in adobo spices, and tastes like heavenly bliss. Like the kind of bliss in that Pixar film "Ratatouille". I first tried it in an enchilada in Arizona, but I actually enjoy just eating it by itself. Incidentally, I'm going to miss drinking the café mocha from la Madeleine French Bakery & Cafe in Arizona--such a smooth blend with no aftertaste.

Watched movie: "Chaos Walking" (2021) in IMAX with Laser

Cinematic adaptation of a young adult novel wherein a young female scout (Daisy Ridley) crash-lands on a planet, discovers that the inner thoughts of the male settlers broadcast externally out of their heads, and teams up with a young settler (Tom Holland) who has never seen a woman before. (I guess it would be like if Jon Arbuckle could see and hear Garfield's thought bubbles.) The movie is rated PG-13, so Tom Holland's thoughts were mostly just cute and comical. Part of me wanted something way less superficial, i.e., a scathing exploration of what men and women really think of each other. The other part of me didn't want to go there. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Raya and the Last Dragon" (2021) in IMAX

Another gorgeous and emotional computer-animated movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios. I found Raya's facial expressions particularly well done. Although I'm too cynical to appreciate the film's core message (I believe that people have to actually earn trust, and even then I only trust conditionally), I have to give props to the potent dramatic scenes that resulted. The premise balanced the tone rather well: turning the loved ones to stone felt grievous enough for me to sympathize with the characters, yet not too dark for a kids' movie. As a result, I cared about the fellowship's success and really wanted that big emotional payoff. P.S. Interesting how many people cupped their hands when they turned to stone; made me think about how I'd want to pose my own self in that situation. P.S.S. I liked the "Us Again" short too. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "The Father" (2020-2021)

Oscar contender that simulates the effects of dementia by jumbling everything that Anthony Hopkins sees and remembers. For example, the movie kept changing the actors around him (including his own daughter played by Olivia Colman), altering the flat he lived in, jumping around in time, and presenting contradictory realities. All of which made the film hopeless to follow and unenjoyable for me to watch. Admittedly, it did make me thankful that I never had to go through that with my parents. I also wonder whether late in life, I'll become stubborn and deny truths like my own father. Rating: 5

Nomad Steven

2/20/2021

I've been binging movies in Arizona this past couple of weeks. The weather there was warm, and didn't even feel like winter. The rain there sure gets dirty.

Watched movie: "The Notebook" (2004)

I finally screened a Nicholas Sparks romance movie for the first time. Too bad I'm such a cynic--it actually bothered me that this film cared so much about true love and so little about everything else in life, e.g., self-respect, livelihood, social responsibility, friends, family, children...even World War II was just a footnote! What was the Rachel McAdams character's major? What did the Ryan Gosling character do for a living? They basically let this one romance define their entire self-worth. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "All the President's Men" (1976)

Important, occasionally humorous political drama about two Washington Post reporters' investigation of Watergate. Their sly journalistic tactics highlighted the movie for me, especially whenever they successfully baited reluctant sources into confirming names. My biggest disappointment: Robert Redford's superficial conversations with Deep Throat. P.S. It's scary how much history from the Nixon administration has repeated itself, e.g., the abuses of office and attacks on a free press. Now we have to deal with opinion news, viral disinformation, and insurrection too. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "the little things" (2021) in Dolby Cinema

Denzel Washington, Rami Malek, and Jared Leto all have great screen presence--but to my disappointment, none of them could save this weakly plotted police drama. For a much better movie where detectives struggle to find a serial killer, see "Memories of Murder" or "Se7en" instead. Rating: 4

Watched movie: "Nomadland" (2020) in IMAX

Sorry to everyone out there who lauded this Oscar frontrunner as the best movie of 2020, but I found it...kinda boring. Probably because I've already visited these same sites during my own road trip, and don't romanticize nomadism like the film did. I'm generally not one to talk to strangers either. So strange as it might sound, the scraps of fictional plot engaged me the most. I could actually relate to Frances McDormand's restless character, and can picture a similarly rudderless journey for myself once I retire. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Minari" (2020)

Top dramatic awards winner from Sundance about a family of Korean immigrants who start a farm in Arkansas. I guess the movie was semi-autobiographical like "Roma", so it nary had any plot, formula, message, morality, or answers in it. Mostly just hardship and struggle without any epiphanies, redemption, or catharsis. Although I liked that the film didn't tell me how to think or feel, it kinda bothered me that the most important dramatic scenes just fleeted by without much gravitas or rumination. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "PG: Psycho Goreman" (2020-2021)

Twisted horror-comedy wherein a genocidal alien overlord must obey the whims of an amoral little girl on Earth who found his gem (she nicknames him "Psycho Goreman"). The girl's family, the offbeat aliens, and the irreverent humor reminded me a lot of "Rick and Morty". And just like "Rick and Morty", the irreverence started getting old for me. I would've rated the movie higher had it not crossed the line with that crucifix scene. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "The White Tiger" (2021)

I found this movie worth watching just for its cynical insights into India's socioeconomic caste system and the indoctrination of servants. I hated the film's rags-to-riches story though. How am I supposed to root for a protagonist who acts more like a villain, betraying people who don't deserve it? Even that "confession" didn't make me sympathize with him, because it's not like he wasn't guilty. :P Rating: 5

Watched movie: "Judas and the Black Messiah" (2021) in Dolby Cinema

I liked this movie until violence kept getting used to solve problems instead of words. That made me unhappy, watching Black Panthers and cops kill each other over and over. Props to the strong acting performances of LaKeith Stanfield and Daniel Kaluuya. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "Deux" (2020) a.k.a. "Two of Us" (2021)

Exasperating Oscar entry from France wherein a secretly lesbian grandmother can't bring herself to tell her adult kids that the lesbian tenant in the neighboring apartment is actually her longtime love. Then when a stroke incapacitates the grandmother, her kids hire a caregiver--and the lover (to my chagrin) keeps sneaking back into the apartment like Solid Snake. Long story short, instead of just settling the situation reasonably like mature adults, their choices made me want to wring my hands. But I guess this is a good cautionary tale for what happens when your loved ones don't know what your wishes are. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "Âya to majo" (2020) a.k.a. "Earwig and the Witch" (2021)

I would describe Studio Ghibli's first computer-animated movie as...an eyesore. The characters looked like porcelain dolls with ugly plastic hair. Earwig's sour expressions amused me, at least. I also liked her mischief, e.g., those unflattering caricatures she creates. It was funny to me that unlike the usual Studio Ghibli protagonist, she spent most of the film plotting a big prank on her mean foster mother. I might've rated the movie higher had the characters not behaved so abusively--even the cute talking black cat got bullied. It makes me wonder whether Gorô Miyazaki is making a special effort to deviate from his father. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "The Wanting Mare" (2021)

I read that this movie took five years to make because of all the visual effects and digital backgrounds. So it pains me to say that I hated it. The visuals didn't look very good to me, the jump cuts and needlessly shaky camerawork kept making me lose my bearings, and the complete lack of plot and character development made the whole thing feel like a bad perfume commercial. Rating: 3

Anytime soon

2/7/2021

After double-checking that the blizzard warning passed and the chain controls were lifted, I spent one Saturday in Reno, NV. I drove in, screened one movie, and then drove back to California that same day. The I-80 highway must've had quite the snowfall, as I could see tall walls of snow along the shoulders where the snow blower vehicles had passed through. One of the rest areas looked completely snowed in. All in all, I enjoyed the snowy scenic drive into Nevada a lot more than the dusty nighttime drive out of it (I made a mental note never to do that again).

The Royal Rumble is the only WWE show left that I still watch every year, and I feel like it never disappoints (except maybe those two that the live audience ruined). Despite that clever swerve ending to the Men's Royal Rumble Match (which may or may not have placated a live audience), I have to say I enjoyed the Women's Royal Rumble Match more. I love it when two hungry, evenly matched entrants fight each other with every fiber of their being for that WrestleMania title shot (I still remember marking out in the live audience during the 2007 Royal Rumble Match when the final two came down to The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels). I feel like the live audience would've gone bananas when the final three women became that final two.

Dude, I'm the exact same age as that actor Dustin Diamond who died a mere three weeks after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. I can believe it, as my mom died less than five months after her stage IIIB lung cancer diagnosis.

During an extended Super Bowl LV weekend at my usual hotel in Santa Maria, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber actually paid me $100 in stimulus money just for booking a two-night minimum hotel stay in Santa Maria Valley between 2/4/2021 and 3/31/2021. I heard about the stimulus promotion on the radio. Since I was already planning to visit Santa Maria anyway, I anxiously submitted my qualifying form online (the offer was limited to the first 500 registrations). Then once I checked into my hotel, the front desk gave me tourist information and a Visa gift card for $100. I was encouraged to spend the stimulus locally, so I splurged it all on Santa Maria's finest, most expensive restaurants: The Swiss Steakhouse, Shaw's Steakhouse, and someplace called The Garden Mediterranean Restaurant (I liked their beef shawarma). Did I feel guilty spending the stimulus money even though for the past two decades, I've more or less visited Santa Maria at least once a month? Nope. The way I see it, the stimulus was my reward for the lifetime I spent pumping dollars into Santa Maria's economy. :)

Ageless wonder Tom Brady won his 7th Super Bowl ring in an underwhelming one-sided massacre. Funny how packed the stadium looked with all those cardboard cutouts in the seats.

Alas, I wasn't able to use my AMC Stubs A-List at all in January. But I'm going to make up for it in February during my biggest movie marathon outside of California yet.

Watched movie: "Wrong Turn" (2021)

Pretentious reboot of the cannibal horror series wherein liberal hipsters wander off the Appalachian Trail in Virginia into a secret community's booby-trapped woods. Gimme a break with the message about cultural misunderstanding. If people stalk you, steal your cell phones, and try to flatten you with a gigantic log--it's ok to think they're psycho! Rating: 4

Hype train

1/24/2021

To give you a sense of how laughable it is that I have to quarantine in Santa Clara County for 10 days whenever I return from somewhere that's over 150 miles away...I can't remember the last time since 1Q 2020 that I even stayed put in Santa Clara County for 10 days. It's torturously boring for me to work from home, sitting there at my card table looking at the same four walls. Though it looks like I won't be visiting Reno anytime soon--I see snow in the city's weather forecast. No way I'm buying tire chains and/or scraping windshields.

I tabulated the music video results for 2020. "Cross Me" topped both the songs and videos.

While waiting for a food order, I looked up at a TV and beamed with pride at the sight of Dr. Anthony Fauci answering questions in the White House briefing room. Now that newly inaugurated President Biden has taken Fauci off the sidelines and on day one, rolled out a national COVID-19 strategy that actually takes this pandemic seriously--the Biden administration has already exceeded my low expectations.

Lately, I feel like Twitch streamers have been ruining "Among Us" by playing the video game much less seriously. My misgivings first began during a round where players started getting drunk, and somebody got voted out just for mocking "Sailor Moon". Then in a later round, crewmates literally paid an imposter to kill for them. Nowadays, I see crewmates covering for imposters all the time--even voting for innocent crewmates just to be funny.

More upcoming movies got postponed to later in the year. But curiously, the Monsterverse film "Godzilla vs. Kong" is now releasing this March. The new trailer got me hyped. I heard this fight is going to have a definitive winner, so I predict Godzilla will win because that's the more marketable monster to build a franchise around IMHO. But I feel like in real-life, Kong would tear that tiny-armed slowpoke limb from limb. P.S. I really dislike this Kong clip, even more than the clip of the giant Dune sandworm looking down at Paul Atreides. What is this, E.T.?

I was surprised to learn that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be the first NFL team ever to play a Super Bowl inside their own home stadium. It'll be the greatest football player in NFL history, Tom Brady, versus the future of the NFL, Patrick Mahomes. And with COVID-19 restrictions limiting the stadium capacity to 22,000 fans (7500 of them vaccinated health care workers), I can't imagine how much these tickets will sell for on the scalping markets.

Speaking of that Super Bowl stadium in Tampa Bay, this year's two-night WrestleMania will now be taking place there with fans in attendance. I just hope Daniel Bryan doesn't win this upcoming empty arena Royal Rumble Match. He's a crowd favorite who deserves to win it in an arena with live, energized fans. I say book something bonkers that live fans would absolutely hate--like book The Fiend as a surprise entrant who shoots fire, and eliminates everybody else with movie magic. Or book some part-timer like Goldberg or The Rock to win. Heck, make it a full-blown cinematic spectacle and book Hulk Hogan as a threat to win.

A me party

1/9/2021

I spent New Year's Eve alone in my hotel room watching the Times Square Ball drop. It was a dull affair.

Root beer isn't caffeinated. I confirmed this after my "caffeinated" answer during a round of "The Chameleon" social deduction board game led the players to gang up on me. Even though I had correctly sleuthed the imposter (who vaguely answered "refreshing" because they didn't know the secret word was "root beer"), nobody believed me. I also think my previous stint as imposter hurt my credibility, because of how well I stayed in character. I falsely accused innocent players, and faked pseudo-intellectual "Impressionist" nonsense about a painter whose name was hidden from me. (I found out later the secret painter was Georgia O'Keeffe.) Overall, I feel like it's hardest to deduce the imposter when they get to answer last, because often times the preceding answers give too much of the secret word away.

Sad scenes of rioters invading the US Capitol. Punctuation for the sad post-truth times we live in, where nothing is sacred. Though it's poetic justice that the politicians shamelessly exploiting "election fraud" conspiracy theories for the Trumpism votes probably depressed Republican turnout instead. (I thought it would be a forgone conclusion that the Republicans would win the Georgia runoffs and retain control of the U.S. Senate.) The dumbest disinformation I've heard yet: that Vice President Mike Pence could have just read aloud a different POTUS winner.

Also depressing how slow the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is going. I read that at this current pace, it would take the U.S. ten years to reach herd immunity. :(

I'm currently staying at the Nugget Casino Resort in Sparks, Nevada near Reno. I drove here just to screen an Oscar contender. I'll probably keep coming back here for new movies if California theaters stay shuttered and hotel room prices stay dirt cheap.

Watched movie: "One Night in Miami..." (2020)

Profound discourse about the African American struggle, based on a play that imagines what was discussed when Muhammad Ali celebrated his first world heavyweight championship with his friends Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. Although the movie mostly just took place inside a hotel room, their pointed arguments about social responsibility and civil rights activism kept me engaged. Special props to actor Kingsley Ben-Adir for convincingly baring Malcolm X's soul. I also found the film's more tiered depiction of racism truer to life. Rating: 7

2020 Year in Review

12/30/2020

	Best of 2020	Worst of 2020
Events that happened to Steve	The U.S. presidential election of 2020 finally ending with an incontestable result. Finally binging long-awaited movies like "Tenet" in Las Vegas. My apartment complex actually completing maintenance repairs on time, installing a much nicer bathroom sink and finally fixing my two dead power outlets. Enjoying the fun four-player "Streets of Rage 4" story mode with my friends over Memorial Day weekend. "Parasite" pulling off an Oscars upset to become the first non-English language film to win Best Picture. Honorable mention: Enjoying the Shaun the Sheep sequel at a free family programming event before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down movie theatres and made me permanently uneasy about sitting in auditoriums with other people.	The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic upending my everyday life with cancellations, closures, paranoia, boredom, and layoffs. Choking on ashy smoke from lightning-sparked California wildfires and suffering a power outage during an excessive summer heatwave. (tie) Finding out that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away; and finding out that Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna died in a helicopter crash. (tie) Finding out my all-time favorite taqueria for chili verde stopped making chili verde; and COVID-19 driving some of my favorite eateries like Cookie Cookery out of business. (tie) The San Francisco 49ers losing Super Bowl LIV despite their 10-point lead over the Kansas City Chiefs in the middle of the fourth quarter, with the 49ers pretty much collapsing after the Chiefs gained 44 yards on a 3rd-and-15; and missing out on a dream fourth round retirement match for Caroline Wozniacki because both she and best friend Serena Williams lost their third round matches at the Australian Open. Dishonorable mention: Having to pick up my mail at the post office for several weeks because my apartment complex wouldn't fix a vandalized mailbox cluster.
Movies	"Tenet" "Christopher Nolan's most brain teasing film yet." "Farmageddon" "A Shaun the Sheep movie that delighted me to no end." "WolfWalkers" "Divine hand-drawn animation from the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon..." "Weathering With You" "Breathtaking, emotional Oscar entry from Japan that looked like it took ages to animate." "The Trial of the Chicago 7" "Intellectually stimulating historical drama by Aaron Sorkin..." "Collective" "...profoundly important..." "One Night in Miami..." "Profound discourse about the African American struggle..." "WW84" "...who's to say what's impossible." "Mank" "Densely layered David Fincher film..." "Kajillionaire" "I was pleasantly surprised by this Miranda July film..."	"The Empty Man" "The pointless movie." "Possessor" "Pretty sickening, actually." "The Grudge" "Mind-numbingly bland American sidequel that felt overstuffed with pointless character development..." "Blumhouse's Fantasy Island" "The audacity of Blumhouse to cheapen this beloved TV show into a superficial PG-13 horror flick..." "The Lodge" "By the end of this snowy snoozefest, I lost interest in which scenes were reality and found the characters too unlikeable to care about anymore." "Bloodshot" "Vapid comic book movie..." "Come Play" "Larry's not scary." "Bad Boys for Life" "...three specific plot points ruined the movie for me..." "She Dies Tomorrow" "...surprisingly boring except for some hilariously droll moments." "Blood on Her Name" "This twisty Southern noir actually reminded me of 'The Walking Dead' because of how annoyed I got with the main character's bleeding heart."
Songs	"Blinding Lights" The Weeknd "Center Stage" Zauntee "Running with the Wolves (WolfWalkers Version)" AURORA "The Plan" Travis Scott "Hallucinate" Dua Lipa	"Yummy" Justin Bieber "Gameboy" Jayden Bartels "cardigan" Taylor Swift "Strange Timez (Episode Six)" Gorillaz f/ Robert Smith "No Time To Die" Billie Eilish
Music video	"Blinding Lights" The Weeknd	"Until I Bleed Out" The Weeknd
TV series	"Survivor: Winners At War"	"The Eric Andre Show"
Commercial	Cyberpunk 2077 commercial about a video game with "no limits".	Burger King commercial that time-lapses a moldy Whopper to show the "beauty" of no artificial preservatives.
Movie trailer	"POSSESSOR"	"Swallow"
Beverage	Gatorade Zero Lemon-Lime

Holiday movie marathon 2020

12/29/2020

I triumphed again. I pulled the trigger and reactivated my AMC Stubs A-List membership on 12/18/2020. Turns out that my guess was correct: I indeed had 14 days left in the month my A-List membership was paused. So my new monthly billing date landed exactly on January 1, 2021. Granted, my local AMC theatres probably won't open for quite some time; but I'm willing to donate whatever monthly membership fee I lose as a consequence.

For this year's holiday movie marathon, I drove to Las Vegas and stayed at Treasure Island again. I figured what better place to spend my cancelled Christmas. So I spent my Christmas Day watching "Wonder Woman 1984", then holing up in my hotel room to eat my "Christmas dinner": a "Bobbie" from Capriotti's Sandwich Shop. It's a sandwich full of turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mayo.

For the rest of my holiday movie marathon, I drove to Phoenix, Arizona.

Watched movie: "Monster Hunter" (2020) in IMAX

A satisfactory video game adaptation as long as you don't walk into it expecting plot or character development. I found it particularly cool how one of the tougher monsters took like half the movie to take down. All in all, I'm glad Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich decided to make this instead of another Resident Evil sequel. Stay during the credits. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "WW84" (2020) in IMAX

Billed as "Wonder Woman 1984", but it didn't feel very '80s to me (they at least could've made the POTUS look like Ronald Reagan). The movie did resonate with me, even though a lot of it struck me as corny, cartoonish, and impossible--but I told myself that given Diana Prince is part god, who's to say what's impossible. I still don't get the Steve Trevor thing: did the other guy get kicked out of his own body?! Confusion aside, that Steve Trevor arc sure packed an emotional wallop. Definitely stay during the credits. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "News of the World" (2020)

A good movie, but I'm still puzzled why Paul Greengrass chose to direct such a slow Western. Other than the thrilling cat-and-mouse gunfight, most of it was just Tom Hanks transporting a Kiowa-raised orphan girl across 1870 Texas. Nary any action or politics which IMHO, play to Greengrass' strengths. I suppose Tom Hanks' profession of reading newspaper articles from town to town did get political whenever the more Confederate audiences reacted badly to them. By the end of the film, my romanticism with his line of work evaporated. Too many occupational hazards like lawless roads and having to ride long distances without AAA. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Promising Young Woman" (2020)

I have to applaud this movie for tackling aspects of the #MeToo movement that IMHO, don't get enough exposure: a) complicit nice guys, and b) complicit women. Yet edgy as this film was, I felt like it kept pulling its punches--and I don't just mean in regards to Carey Mulligan's "practical joke" punishments. I felt like the movie inappropriately lightened its tone in places, for example, that unconscionably dangerous hobby of hers of baiting and trifling with date rapists. :( Rating: 6

Watched movie: "The Midnight Sky" (2020)

I wonder if "Gravity" inspired George Clooney to direct this sci-fi movie--I got déjà vu when the astronauts in this film spacewalked on a spaceship being pelted by asteroids. Though unlike the beautiful Earth in "Gravity", the Earth in this movie became uninhabitable. So George Clooney's dying character has to brave arctic perils (to reach an antenna)--and the returning astronauts have to repair their comms dish--just so he can radio them to turn around. Not much of a payoff for sticking this film out, if you ask me. Rating: 5

Christmas cancelled

12/9/2020

My local Bay Area counties jumped ahead of Gavin Newsom again, issuing stay-at-home orders even though our intensive care units haven't dropped below 15% available capacity yet. Meaning that in addition to the indoor dining and movie theaters that were already shut down, we'll have no outdoor dining and hair salons either until at least January 4. Sigh.

Also for the first time ever, Christmas with my family members is cancelled. So I'm going to use Christmas Day to get an early head start on my yearly holiday movie marathon...somewhere outside of California.

Warner Bros. confirmed it will release the Wonder Woman sequel in movie theaters (on Christmas Day in the U.S.) and on HBO Max simultaneously. Interestingly, Warner Bros. also announced that all of its films in 2021 (17 or so including Godzilla vs. Kong, The Suicide Squad, Dune, and The Matrix 4) will be released day-and-date in theaters and on HBO Max.

The Philips DVDR3576 DVD Recorder that I use for music videos can no longer dub DVDs without crashing. I purchased it in 2008 from circuitcity.com, so I guess that was a decent shelf life. It certainly outlived its five-year protection plan.

Lately, I've enjoyed watching Twitch streamers play the "Among Us" online multiplayer video game. It resembles the social deduction games "Mafia" and "Werewolf" in that space crewmates must vote off all of the imposters among them to win (or alternatively, complete all tasks on the map to win). The imposters can kill crewmates, sabotage systems (like the lights, the reactor, or oxygen), and jump across the map through air vents. If the crewmates no longer outnumber the imposters or fail to stop a critical sabotage, the imposters win. Crewmates and imposters can only call a vote by reporting a dead body or pressing the "emergency meeting" button on the map. To my amusement, the players spend these voting discussions throwing "sus" (suspicion) on each other, asserting their alibis and tasks, denying accusations, and trying not to sound guilty. I've seen some entertaining strategies like players tailing suspects, imposters "marinating" crewmates (hanging around them to earn their trust), crewmates voting off multiple suspects just to be safe, and "gaslighting" (imposters contradicting crewmates with boldfaced lies). Sometimes I've heard the players insult a crewmate as a "third imposter" if they mistakenly vouch for an imposter or wrongly accuse a crewmate. The most suspenseful games I've seen occur when the final five vote the suspected imposter off, only to realize that the game didn't end with a crewmate victory screen. Meaning, the final four still have one imposter among them. This scenario typically ends in another kill and then two players heatedly trying to convince the "swing vote" crewmate that they're innocent. I've also watched funny "proximity chat" mod games where players in the same vicinity can converse with one another, eavesdrop, or scream.

Carry On

11/28/2020

I found the "Supernatural" series finale...anticlimactic. Makes me wonder how much of it got scaled down due to COVID-19. The cynic in me did smirk at the consequence of removing God from the show's narrative: a world of meaningless random accidents and plain vanilla deaths. But to be honest, I was hoping for more of an "Avengers: Endgame" finale.

After basking in how perfectly I had timed my AMC Stubs A-List membership reactivation, it got paused again. This time I don't know when it happened--I can only assume it was the day most California theatres closed back down due to the "emergency brake" order. I have until 3/1/2021 to time the next manual reactivation, so my best guess is to do this 14 days before the last day of the month.

Today San Francisco and San Mateo counties rolled back into the purple tier, and my own Santa Clara County tightened COVID-19 restrictions even further. I didn't really mind the 10pm curfew on all of the purple counties, as nary anything is open that late anyway. But this new Santa Clara County directive that I must quarantine for 14 days if I return from somewhere that is more than 150 miles away? Laughable.

Watched movie: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" (2020)

Overdramatic movie adaptation of August Wilson's play wherein blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and a rebellious trumpeter (Chadwick Boseman) won't stop instigating drama at a recording session. I lost patience with their unprofessional conduct pretty early in the film. Rating: 5

Watched movie: "The Croods: A New Age" (2020) in IMAX with Laser

Rudderless sequel but lush with superb, hilarious computer animation. Special props to the comedic voice acting of Nicolas Cage and Peter Dinklage. Rating: 6

Cinephile elegy

11/17/2020

Just when my appetite got whet for this year's Oscar contenders, most of the movie theaters in California shut back down today because Governor Gavin Newsom hit the "emergency brake". Now after all of the new rollbacks, 41 of California's 58 counties are in the purple tier.

I might have to resubscribe to Netflix earlier than expected. They're poised to dominate the 93rd Academy Awards now that streaming and VOD service films may qualify for Best Picture (and other categories) without a seven-day run in a Los Angeles-area theater. And I might need to buy Disney+ just so I can watch Pixar's "Soul", due out on Christmas day. So this year, my holiday movie marathon tradition might have to go virtual.

Watched movie: "Freaky" (2020) in Dolby Cinema

Amusingly irreverent comedy slasher directed by Christopher Landon wherein a bullied high school wallflower (Kathryn Newton) accidentally swaps bodies with a fugitive serial killer (Vince Vaughn), and must swap back before the change becomes permanent. Hijinks ensue. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "WolfWalkers" (2020)

Divine hand-drawn animation from the Irish studio Cartoon Saloon about the bond between a wolf hunter's daughter and a forest girl whose dream self walks the earth as an enchanted wolf. The artwork looked so clean, even for the grody town and the frenzied wolves. Side note: It's really cool they got Sean Bean to voice Bill Goodfellowe. Rating: 8

Watched movie: "Mank" (2020)

Densely layered David Fincher film about what inspired alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz to write and claim credit for the "Citizen Kane" screenplay. Because the movie started out so slowly and I could only understand a fraction of Mank's wit, I had early misgivings. But the film reeled me in with its methodical thread of the political and personal events that led Mank to turn on William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies. I've always been fascinated by how one perfectly wrong statement at the perfectly wrong time can cause someone to hold a grudge for life. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "Hillbilly Elegy" (2020)

One of those lopsided biopics that wallows too much in character woes, e.g., Amy Adams' endless cycle of drug addiction, and not nearly enough on the life-affirming wins, e.g., the main character making his family proud. So the montage where Glenn Close finally reached him and he aced a math test highlighted the movie for me. Although much happier triumphs followed, they got inexplicably dumped into a shotgun montage and narrative onscreen cards. Props to the acting performances of Amy Adams and Glenn Close, at least. Rating: 6

President-elect Joe Biden

11/7/2020

When I think of American democracy, I always think of that profound scene from "Clear and Present Danger" where James Earl Jones tells Harrison Ford that the highest boss in the land isn't the President of the United States...it's the People of the United States. And after four years, the People of the United States just fired Donald J. Trump. It was a fairly close race too. Had he not inexplicably downplayed COVID-19 (even after he himself contracted a serious case of it), he probably could've won.

What a torturously slow ballot count with Trump sprinting to a huge lead on Election Day like the proverbial hare, and Biden crawling to the finish line one mail-in vote at a time like the proverbial tortoise. How dumb that Pennsylvania couldn't just count the mail-in vote before Election Day so we wouldn't have to wait all week. I also couldn't reconcile why Fox News, of all networks, called Arizona for Biden so early in the contest.

To my relief, Biden is expected to win 306 electoral votes instead of just 270 on the nose, as now the result is completely cushioned against recounts, bottomless litigation, faithless electors, and other threats to the legitimacy of the Election. I still remember the contested Election of 2000, and never want to see anything like that again in my lifetime. I also must confess that I'm relieved the Democrats have no Senate majority to entertain that dangerous slippery slope notion of abolishing the filibuster and/or packing the Supreme Court.

The polls were way off on Wisconsin and Michigan (averaging both of them at 8 points ahead for Biden), and Ohio and Iowa (they were nowhere close to being toss-ups). But they did accurately predict that Arizona and Georgia would narrowly flip from red to blue. So I guess even a stopped clock is right two times a day.

Home stretch

11/1/2020

A good year in sports for Los Angeles. Congratulations to the Dodgers (and Clayton Kershaw) for finally winning the World Series after losing it twice in the previous three years. I found Game 6 suspenseful after I had seen that Game 4 clip where the Dodgers were just one strike away from winning the game, when outta nowhere they blew it with a comedy of errors. Too bad Justin Turner tested positive for COVID-19 and had to miss the Dodgers' celebration (though I found out he came out later). I was also curious why the stadium fans kept booing the MLB commissioner.

My local theatres finally reopened at the end of October, requiring that masks be worn at all times with no food or beverage permitted (and patrons must answer a COVID-19 questionnaire). I keep my mask on and avoid concessions the entire time anyway; it just bothers me that my local theatres could go out of business while indoor dining and theatres in neighboring counties were inexplicably allowed to reopen with looser restrictions.

I also screened a movie in PRIME at AMC for the first time. It seemed exactly the same as other large format auditoriums that feature tiers of recliners.

Watched movie: "On the Rocks" (2020)

One of Sofia Coppola's better films thanks mostly to the incomparable Bill Murray. In this one, he plays a charming womanizer in New York who eggs on his daughter (played by Rashida Jones) to investigate circumstantial evidence that her husband might be cheating on her. Although I found the dialogue kinda flat, Bill Murray can make even pseudo-intellectual maundering sound suave. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Come Play" (2020) in PRIME

Larry's not scary. He's like a second-rate Babadook (another invisible storybook monster who haunts a special needs boy and his distraught mother)--except that both Larry and his storybook can only show up through electronic screens. I was more interested in the autistic boy's struggle to make friends and learn to talk, so the ending struck me as anticlimactic. Rating: 4

Memories of movies

10/24/2020

I'm sure glad California makes it so easy to vote by mail. Election Day's gonna suck for the voters waiting hours in line during this latest COVID-19 resurgence. I'm now of the thought that without a vaccine, states can't ever hope to subdue COVID-19 until after they've had at least one major outbreak to make enough people immune. Meaning, all states can hope to do is flatten the inevitable curve and minimize deaths.

Michael C. Hall is returning to Showtime for a 10-episode limited series of "Dexter". It'll have the original showrunner from the first four seasons. I'm still bitter about the series finale, so I can't say I'm very interested in a revival. But come fall of 2021, I doubt I could resist reordering Showtime for that season premiere. (Same would probably go for "Twin Peaks" if that ever came back, despite my constant gripes about that last season.) Incidentally, Netflix has a very similar Dexter-like series titled "You", about a stalker who narrates his romance with the woman he secretly stalked, and stops at nothing to live happily ever after with her. From the scenes I watched on demand and on YouTube, the series intrigued me.

My calculations were correct. Once I reactivated my AMC Stubs A-List membership on October 17, AMC pushed back my billing date to compensate for the 15 days I lost from their membership pause. Per my prediction, this new monthly billing date indeed landed on November 1, 2020. You might be wondering why I reactivated my membership so early given that my local AMC theatres STILL have not reopened (due to county concession bans) and most of the big movies have been postponed to April 2021 and later. Well, if I had miscalcuated the billing date and canceled my membership to fix this, I read in the fine print that I'd have to wait 6 months to qualify for an A-List membership again.

Watched movie: "Salinui chueok" (2003) a.k.a. "Memories of Murder" (2005)

Early Bong Joon Ho police drama wherein the worst detectives I've ever seen struggle to catch a serial killer who likes to rape and murder women on rainy nights. Although it's based on an actual 1986-1991 case in rural South Korea, I felt like I was watching a slapstick comedy from the opening crime scene contamination to the detectives beating and coercing confessions from innocent suspects. But according to Bong Joon Ho's interview after the movie, the real-life detectives really were that incompetent! The case also predated when Korea had profiling and DNA matching. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993)

Not my favorite stop-motion Henry Selick film (that honor goes to his later masterpiece, "Coraline"), but I'd call it ghoulishly entertaining. I found that guy with the ax in his head funny for some reason. Seemed too scary to be a kids' movie, with Santa Claus getting abducted and what not. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "The Kid Detective" (2020)

Amusing dramedy wherein a has-been private detective, still haunted by a childhood case he couldn't solve, agrees to investigate the murder of a high school student's studious but secretive boyfriend. It's probably too lighthearted to be considered noir, as this adult private eye spent much of the screen time suffering teenagers and old people. It did provide some earnest character development that got me invested in this guy's success. But ultimately, I found neither case very good. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "The Empty Man" (2020)

The pointless movie. Rating: 2

Watched movie: "Synchronic" (2020)

Absorbing Moorhead & Benson film about a designer drug in New Orleans that boomerangs people back in time to a variety of unsafe places. A black paramedic experiments with the last of these time travel pills to rescue his best friend's daughter, whom the drug trapped somewhere in time. Based on these facts I mentioned, you would think that the paramedic would want to ration the pills stingily and arm himself wherever he goes. But maybe he wanted to be really scientific, so as not to end up like Homer Simpson in that time travel episode where the present kept changing because of his prehistoric gaffes. Rating: 6

I voted

10/13/2020

Dude, have you ever seen such folly. Trump apparently learned nothing from the Rose Garden ceremony superspreader event that caused a major COVID-19 outbreak at the White House. He departed his own quarantine early, made a point to peel his face mask off on national TV despite being highly contagious, still downplays the virus despite all that expensive special treatment to save his life, and held an even bigger superspreader event at the White House! Plus who was that personal physician who kept spinning how "great!" Trump's health was, disclosing only the good results but refusing to reveal important ones, e.g., the lung scans and PCR test results. Given that Trump needed supplemental oxygen and an immunosuppressant steroid (a drug that masks symptoms and can cause mania), his lungs could've been damaged. Thankfully, the debate commission tried to hold the second presidential debate virtually. It could've been a fatal mistake trusting anything that Trump or his "doctors" claimed about his contagiousness.

As soon as the Esquire IMAX Theatre reopened in Sacramento, I screened its first showing of "Tenet" in IMAX 70mm there. The 70mm format didn't add that much other than the taller ceiling-to-floor scenic shots and action sequences. I noticed the horizontal black bars kept appearing on the top and bottom of the screen during the heavy dialogue scenes, and I think that's because the IMAX camera would have shuttered too loudly to hear them speak. In any case, this was my fourth viewing of the movie and I caught three new things: a) the young Sator found a time capsule with his name written on a letter atop inverted gold bars, b) Sator witnessed the algorithm piece fly backwards (not forwards) from the inverted Protagonist's backseat, meaning Sator and/or his henchmen would have to go forwards from this point in time to the freeport where this car was originally parked, and c) I could actually spot Neil's humvee driving both backwards and forwards in time during the final mission, starting from the backward shockwave to the forward shockwave. To my amusement, somebody returned from the restroom during my favorite part of the film and asked her friend what she missed...her friend attempted to explain that the Protagonist was fighting himself.

Although I'm still annoyed at the conceit of Roland Garros tournament officials to postpone the French Open to this colder, wetter time of year with fans in the stands (limited to 1000 fans per day) despite the COVID-19 pandemic still raging, big congratulations to Rafael Nadal on crushing Djokovic in that French Open final. Now that Nadal has won 13 total French Open titles and tied Federer's record of 20 Grand Slam singles championships, it's official: I have to start thinking of Nadal as the greatest tennis player of all-time.

Speaking of GOATs, now that LeBron James has led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 2019-20 NBA championship, I'm starting to think of LeBron as the greatest basketball player of all-time again. It's such a weird phenomenon how sports (and politics) can polarize human psyches. I supported his move to the Miami Heat to win his first NBA championship ring; then I hated his guts when he kept whining and flopping against the Golden State Warriors (and bragged about the ONE NBA Finals he beat them despite losing the other three); now I'm starting to like him again.

Next year, IBM is planning to split off its IT services business and roughly one-fourth of its employees to a new company, temporarily named NewCo. IBM will stay focused on hybrid cloud and AI, so fingers crossed that I don't get moved to the new company. Mostly because when somebody asks what I do for a living, I can just answer "IBM" with less risk of follow-up questions. Follow-up questions can lead to the listener getting bored and me getting offended. One time I had a relative rude enough to call my career "boring" after I took the time to explain it--as a result, I never talked to that relative ever again.

The safest person in the world just got it

10/3/2020

In the latest cautionary tale about what happens when people don't take COVID-19 seriously, Donald Trump and Melania tested positive for COVID-19. Which goes to show that COVID-19 gives no f**ks who you are, whether you're a homeless person or the President of the United States. I'm still dumbfounded, even though I really shouldn't be surprised after all the times I've seen him hold large public gatherings and inexplicably flout health precautions like masks and social distancing. I thought he got tested every day though--did he not get tested before that debate with Joe Biden???

I actually watched that debate after I told myself I'd just skip it (they don't seem to matter in the long-run). I have to say I was impressed with the moderator Chris Wallace despite widespread criticism that he totally lost control of the reins. He really did his homework and asked the hard-hitting questions, like whether Biden would pack the Supreme Court (which he unsurprisingly dodged) and whether Trump would condemn white supremacist groups (to which he answered, "Stand back and stand by."...WTF?!). Pretty clever debate technique for Biden to speak directly to the camera (possibly to avoid losing his train of thought from all the interruptions)--I read he had a severe childhood stutter, so I kept thinking back to that suspenseful scene in "The King's Speech".

My eyelid finally stopped twitching. It first acted up after RBG died. This last happened to me in college when I didn't get enough sleep. It might also be psychosomatic. Lately I've been stressing that a contested Presidential election could tear the United States apart, especially if courts or legislatures decide the winner rather than the voters themselves.

Recently, I've been staying in Orange County, California to screen new movies. Turns out I didn't have to go to Arizona after all.

Watched movie: "Akira" (1988) in IMAX with Laser

The legendary cyberpunk anime movie with remastered 4K visuals and remixed audio. Undeniably a visual masterpiece, even though I've always found the film hideous to watch and overrated. Admittedly, the original Japanese dialogue sounded much better than the dubbed English voices. Plus I've always liked how the movie begins. Side note: Interesting what this 1988 film got right about 2019. Tokyo indeed constructed an Olympic stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. And we still have civil unrest (I guess not exactly a stretch). Rating: 5

Watched movie: "Kajillionaire" (2020)

I was pleasantly surprised by this Miranda July film given how much I hated her last one (it landed on my worst of the decade list). Some of the cringeworthy behavior still made me frown, but I liked the whole premise of Gina Rodriguez trying to deprogram Old Dolio from her toxic con artist parents. ("Old Dolio" is the name of the guarded, emotionally scarred Evan Rachel Wood character--her parents named her that during a failed inheritance scam.) I'll sheepishly admit that this Old Dolio felt like something of a kindred spirit to me--minus the scumbags parents, of course. It actually hurt my enjoyment of the movie that her parents monopolized so much screen time. P.S. I couldn't help but watch this film again, and realized I missed something hugely important at the end: the gesture of respect meant by the dollar amount on the cash register. That changed my perspective on the entire movie. Rating: 7

Watched movie: "Possessor" (2020)

This movie, billed as "Possessor Uncut", was written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg--the son of David Cronenberg. So I guess I shouldn't be shocked by how graphic it was. I was shocked by how cruel the violence was though. Pretty sickening, actually. The trailers misled me into thinking that once Andrea Riseborough inhabited someone's brain, she'd go for a quick assassination. Rating: 3

Watched movie: "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (2020)

Intellectually stimulating historical drama by Aaron Sorkin about the legal defense of anti-Vietnam War protesters against the Nixon administration's charges of "conspiracy" for "inciting riots" in Chicago. Pretty interesting dynamic to have such eclectic protesters from a variety of groups get lumped together as co-defendants. The movie also showed how little the politicization of "justice" has changed since 1969, particularly when one Attorney General replaces another and suddenly the U.S. Department of Justice's priorities align with the new party in power. Rating: 7

Summer of 2020

9/22/2020

R.I.P. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And probably R.I.P. any hope of the Supreme Court staying apolitical now, whether enraged Democrats wind up "packing the court" or not. Like I said before, politics poisons everything it touches--even the CDC and the FDA. Trump promoting a "warp speed" COVID-19 vaccine by Election Day was all it took to scare me away from that.

My first litmus test of the new Supreme Court will start one week after Election Day with Trump's lawsuit to kill affordable health care. If the Supreme Court overreaches and strikes down the entire Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic (just because of the repealed individual mandate tax penalty), I think the 60-vote supermajority filibuster will be toast the next time Democrats take over the Senate. It might already be on borrowed time now.

I go back and forth on whether to abolish the filibuster. I'd rather not have America's laws swing back and forth endlessly on majority rule. But I feel like we're on the cusp of this situation already.

In movie news, I'm definitely going to watch Denis Villeneuve's cinematic adaptation of "Dune", but something's bugging me about that scene in the trailer where the giant sandworm stops to look down at Paul Atreides. A sandworm has no eyes, so to me it feels illogical and unfaithful to a novel that I had found so intellectual.

To my irritation, my Bay Area counties keep snubbing movie theaters during the lower tier reopenings. I'm thinking of roaming southern California and possibly Arizona for the latest film releases.

Up in flames

9/13/2020

I returned to San Jose to see that the California wildfire smoke had dusked the entire Bay Area orange like some kind of nuclear winter. So I might keep leaving town until the air clears up.

In shocking tennis news, Novak Djokovic was defaulted from his fourth-round match at the US Open "bubble" when he angrily swatted a ball into a line judge's throat by accident! You can't make this stuff up. I had actually been watching this match live, but then turned the TV off figuring Djokovic would most likely cakewalk through the round as well as the rest of the tournament. He was the overwhelming favorite with neither Federer nor Nadal in the draw. But you know what--I can't help thinking this was karma for his long history of on-court bullying, racket abuse, and ball abuse (plus his defiance against what he called a "witch hunt" over his COVID-19 spreading tennis event).

"The Walking Dead" will finally end in late 2022 after 7 season 10 episodes and 24 (!) season 11 episodes. But then, ugh--we'll get a new spin-off series starring Daryl and Carol, as well as a new anthology series of stand-alone episodes titled "Tales of the Walking Dead". :( Plus there's still those other two spin-offs I don't watch: "Fear the Walking Dead" and "The Walking Dead: World Beyond". I have Walking Dead fatigue, man.

The light at the beginning of the tunnel

9/3/2020

I found my room at the Treasure Island Hotel & Casino fairly decent until I stood under the weak shower. That's a dealbreaker for me. I couldn't resist the bargain of $55.97 per night--but once they tacked on a lame mandatory resort fee of $44.22 per night, the nightly price ended up exceeding $100. At least the self-parking was free albeit all the way across a lengthy bridge. I didn't do much inside the casino itself, as most of the restaurants were closed and I don't gamble, smoke, or drink.

Currently I'm staying at the Candlewood Suites. They have an amazing 2-for-1 deal where every third night is free. But I hate my next-door neighbor. I can smell the cigarette smoke from his room, and can hear his loud swear words and racial slurs (sometimes in the middle of the night). Plus he has a stupid laugh. I expected him to check out by now, but it's like he lives there permanently and hardly ever leaves or sleeps.

Stoplights in Las Vegas also try my patience. They seem to take a long time to turn green. I've gotten used to the 100+ F degree desert weather though. It's funny how the birds here keep their beaks open like they're panting in the heat.

I still can't believe "Black Panther" star Chadwick Boseman died. I had no idea he had been battling colon cancer since 2016. I'm only a few days older than him.

At long last, I finally got to screen "Tenet". I had insomnia the night before, arrived to the theater early, and sat there alone in the IMAX auditorium waiting excitedly.

Watched 10th Anniversary Event: "Inception" (2010) in IMAX

Still as awesomely brilliant as ever. This is the twelfth time I've screened "Inception" in a theater, and I STILL caught something new: how Fischer knew the combination to his father's personal safe. ("Mr. Charles" convinced him that the "kidnappers" purposely asked for the first six numbers to pop into his head, "528491", as a technique to extract secrets from the subconscious. Though I'm still unsure why these numbers reappeared in the second level as the blonde's 528-491 phone number and the hotel room 528 directly above hotel room 491.) I also asked myself why Cobb had to drug Fischer even though the flight attendant was paid off, and realized that they needed to ensure Fischer fell asleep at the beginning of the flight.

In regards to the "Rick and Morty" argument about whether "Inception" makes sense--"Inception" makes sense! You just have to premise that dreams don't need to make sense. They're not in some holodeck bound by immutable laws of physics and logic. Impossibilities like the Penrose steps can exist, and subjects in the dream can believe even contradictory fantasies (like why Fischer's father would be in Browning's secret vault). I will confess that I still don't understand what the heck "limbo" is. The movie described limbo as "unconstructed dream space" and "raw infinite subconscious". I keep picturing some kind of cloud storage space made up of human minds, where dreamers can visit each other's islands like in "Animal Crossing: New Horizons".

Two featurettes about "Tenet" and "Inception" preceded the movie screening. I like Christopher Nolan's philosophy of making his films look and feel as authentic as possible. I always considered that CGI-fest in the "Inception" workshop the weakest part of the movie. Rating: 10

Watched movie: "The New Mutants" (2020) in IMAX

Surreal that I finally got to screen this movie after all the times its release got delayed since 2018. All in all, I'd call the film...decent. I felt that the cast playing the mutant teenagers had good screen presence, and liked that whole horror mystery regarding Dani Moonstar's powers (I actually knew everyone's powers and comic book codenames but hers). Some parts felt derivative of "The Breakfast Club", and I hated how racist and malevolent they made Magik--I already see this ad nauseam in politics and just want some escapist entertainment. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Bill & Ted Face the Music" (2020)

Turns out that the daughters of Bill & Ted behave exactly like Bill & Ted. So when you throw in all those future selves of Bill & Ted, you end up with a movie with too much Bill & Ted. I did like that whole premise of the toll that 25 years of failure took on them. And it actually felt cathartic to finally hear the song that unites the world. Mainly I just needed a reprieve now and then from the "Bill & Ted" shtick. Like I was really curious what the wives' future selves were up to, but the film nary gave them any screen time. Strangely, the only plot hole in this whole silly movie that bothered me was how the wives hadn't lost their English accents by now. Side note #1: I've always wondered to myself what Mozart would think of classic rock. Side note #2: I didn't get the whole Dennis the Robot shtick at all. Stay after the credits. Rating: 6

Watched movie: "Tenet" (2020) in IMAX

Christopher Nolan's most brain teasing film yet. I felt like a caveman trying to process it, and could barely wrap my head around the challenging narratives and dialogue. Strange how the first half dragged for me while the second half overloaded my brain. Also, the music sounded like a noisy racket that made me sorely miss Hans Zimmer. But all in all, you have to see this movie. Why? For its groundbreaking, mind-bending action sequences. P.S. I screened the movie again in 4DX, and found myself hanging onto the motion seat to keep it from bucking me off. Strange how water sprinkled down at one point, but didn't squirt me in the face even though I had that turned on. In any case, on the second viewing I confirmed my earlier suspicion that Neil suffered an inverted death in the algorithm chamber. Meaning, Neil went back through the turnstile, unlocked the gate for them, and then inexplicably took a bullet meant for The Protagonist. I'm still confused about inverted wounds, the physics of an inverted car, and the physics of brawling with your inverted self (funny how that went down after he was explicitly warned against coming into contact with himself). I'm also questioning whether we should be rooting against the inversion of the world, as humanity could save itself from extinction by jogging back-and-forth over the same Earth. P.S.S. On my third viewing, I caught how Sator communicates with the future: by time capsule. They leave him inverted items like gold bars and technology, and in exchange he buries the algorithm under rubble for them to excavate. Which begs the question: why can't the Tenet agents just destroy the algorithm instead of hiding the pieces? Rating: 8

Where there's fire, there's smoke

8/23/2020

Such a relief to breathe without my sinuses acting up. I hurriedly drove to Las Vegas ahead of schedule to escape the overpowering smoke from the California wildfires. It blanketed the Bay Area like tear gas, and I couldn't stop coughing and sneezing. I could even see some of the smoky haze as far out as my hotel in Las Vegas. Needless to say, I won't be back in California anytime soon--Labor Day weekend at the earliest.

I thought I would really enjoy my first movie inside a theater since COVID-19 shut theaters down, but that glaring loophole where patrons can stay unmasked while they're eating and drinking their concessions dampened my enthusiasm. I guess my paranoia is the new normal now, as I still got take-out here even though Las Vegas allows indoor dining. I'm also avoiding all of the casinos. I'll tell you one thing, though--I'm not going to let anything dampen my excitement for this upcoming "Tenet" sneak preview that I reserved a seat for.

Currently, I'm staying at the Holiday Inn across the street from Allegiant Stadium, that brand-new Darth Vader-looking home stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders. Tomorrow I move over to the Treasure Island - TI Hotel & Casino.

In "essential" WWE news, I guess I'd call that new WWE ThunderDome an improvement over fake fans in the WWE Performance Center. Now simulated crowd noise gets piped in, and real fans appear via individual web cams on monitors that span each stadium row.

Watched movie: "Train to Busan Presents: Peninsula" (2020) in IMAX

Inferior sequel to "Train to Busan" that went all "Fast & Furious" with its zanier tone and ludicrous car sequences. Admittedly, it was interesting watching the girl whip the car around to best bulldoze the zombie hordes without getting stuck in them. I also admired all the tactics people mastered to exploit the zombies' night blindness, including honking and light baiting, i.e., flares, headlights, floodlights, and drones. Story-wise, it disappointed me that the main character's emotional build-up to atonement turned into such an overdramatic soap opera. Rating: 6

He eyes Nevada

8/18/2020

Hmm...the sequel to "Train to Busan", which has currently been playing in Asian countries, is actually going to premiere at the Capitol Drive-In across the street from me this Friday on August 21. Too bad I've never liked drive-in theatres. I'm currently hatching a plan to screen this movie in Nevada, where it premieres on August 21 on the same date as the 10th-anniversary re-release of "Inception" (this re-release includes a bonus look at "Tenet").

Then coming out in select U.S. theaters on August 28: "The New Mutants" and "Bill & Ted Face the Music".

In streaming news, I never planned to watch the live-action "Mulan", so I shrugged off the news bombshell that it would stream directly on Disney+ on September 4. I also shrugged about "Antebellum" going direct to video on demand as well. But now it's starting to snowball, with "Run" (from the "Searching" filmmakers) now set to stream directly on Hulu, and "The Woman in the Window" now set to stream directly on Netflix.

To my excitement, AMC Theatres e-mailed me an update to my AMC Stubs A-List membership. I now have until 12/1/2020 to reactivate my paused membership before they automatically reactivate it for me. They're also trying to lure me back with double AMC Stubs points and $10 in bonus bucks--promotions that both end on 10/31/2020. Alas, with most new releases postponed to next year, it'll be futile trying to use up 3 movies a week in 2020. My current plan: just reactivate my membership on November 17, then cancel it (thus losing all my account history) if the credit card charge doesn't land exactly on December 1. :P Side note: Starting on 12/1/2020, they'll stop awarding AMC Stubs points for my monthly membership fees. I never understood why they did that anyway, and it was always a nuisance trying to use those rewards before they expired.

Rented Amazon.com movie: "She Dies Tomorrow" (2020)

Eerily fatalistic arthouse film by Amy Seimetz wherein a viral psychosis convinces people they're going to die tomorrow. The movie never bothers to explain why, so I kept wondering how come they spent the whole film chilling instead of racing to put their affairs in order. Maybe it's just me, but I'd have a whole bucket list of priorities. In any case, I found the movie surprisingly boring except for some hilariously droll moments. Rating: 4

Rented Amazon.com movie: "Blood on Her Name" (2020)

This twisty Southern noir actually reminded me of "The Walking Dead" because of how annoyed I got with the main character's bleeding heart. It's one thing for a good person to be bad at covering up a murder--it's a whole other thing to risk capture returning the guy's body to his home (so his family could get closure) and leaving an apology note! At least take him out of the plastic he was wrapped in and stage a home invasion or something, sheesh. Or better yet, have her dad take care of it (what was stopping her, self-righteousness??). The worst part was when she illogically surrendered her gun during a standoff that could've easily just ended with the two mothers parting ways. :( Rating: 5

FOMO

8/5/2020

Now that Warner Bros. formally plans to release "Tenet" in international markets starting on August 26 of this year, I'll have to avoid spoilers as vigilantly as I can until it opens in select U.S. cities on September 3. Hopefully it'll play in a state that borders California, given how California will probably be the last state in all of America to reopen. I've pinpointed the Galaxy Legends as the closest IMAX theater to me--a drive of 4 hours and 20 minutes into Sparks, Nevada. But I'm willing to drive further out for an IMAX 70mm screening, as far as the Grand Canyon or Seattle even. Beyond that, I'd probably just resign myself to wait for something closer. I'm not open to flying or any kind of 14-day quarantine.

I took a break from streaming in July. I only saw one movie that whole entire month.

Now that some professional sports have restarted without fans, I've found NBA basketball pretty much unwatchable without that fan energy. I also hate the simulated crowd noise at those empty MLB baseball games. It did fascinate me listening to MLB sound engineers explain the science of it. They actually have to anticipate the plays and then try to pump out the right crowd reaction before it's too late. Personally, I would just reuse the same three reactions: the normal pop (for a hit), the heightened pop (for a home run), and the booing (for when the pitcher throws to first base). It would be hilarious to be able to play the "M-V-P" chant too.

WTF was that massive explosion in Beirut that injured thousands of people. The Lebanon state-run news blamed it on fireworks going off in a warehouse fire. What kind of fireworks cause a mushroom cloud?!

Summer blockbuster bust

7/26/2020

Depressing how bad COVID-19 has gotten in California despite our consistent quarantine measures since March. Too many irresponsible people, I reckon. I still see a lot of folks entering stores without masks, which goes to show why this has to be mandated rather than just encouraged.

Warner Bros. delayed "Tenet" indefinitely. Rumor has it that they might just give up on a simultaneous global release, and start opening the film wherever they can in select international markets and possibly select U.S. cities. The major movie theater chains subsequently delayed their reopenings as well, which sucks because I'm getting tired of streaming. So tired of streaming that recently, I've been web surfing the closest movie theaters outside of California's borders. :(

"The Walking Dead" will finally air its season 10 finale this year on October 4, as announced during the show's Comic-Con@Home panel. So I'll finally get to see the resolution to that cliffhanger. Though apparently this episode won't be the season 10 finale anymore, because it was also announced that the show will tack on six more "season 10" episodes in early 2021 due to the COVID-19 delays that are postponing season 11.

Cruel summer

7/14/2020

All movie theaters in California have been ordered to reclose--even though nary any of them were open anyway. Also, 30 counties on California's watch list were ordered to reclose their hair salons, gyms, indoor malls, and churches. Meanwhile, Disney World visitors, the NBA, the WNBA, the MLS, and "essential" WWE employees have all been congregating in Florida despite the state recently shattering the record for most new statewide COVID-19 infections in one day. Madness. I'm fed up with the inconsistent and arbitrary criteria for which businesses can reopen when (why do churches get to reopen before equally risky movie theaters?). We could have just locked down the entire United States for a couple of months; embracing quarantine, science, and face masks like much of the rest of the world did. Instead, over four months later, we're towering over the world in coronavirus cases and will probably continue to be plagued with this pandemic going into 2021. And people wonder why I'm a hardened cynic.

I'm still bitter about how close I was to getting my favorite hobby back, movie theaters. Although I should count my blessings, I feel this one pandemic could fill up my entire "worst of the year"/"worst of the decade" list with different woes. For instance, being denied movie theaters and new film releases; the shock from that last round of workplace layoffs; the permanent loss of beloved restaurants; and the torment of working from home in a brutal heat wave.

I tried a 7-day free trial of Sundance Now. Only streamed one movie on it.

Watched SundanceNow.com movie: "Nirgendwo in Afrika" (2001) a.k.a. "Nowhere in Africa" (2003)

Oppressive foreign language Oscar winner from Germany that spans a Jewish family's true riches to rags story as farmers in Kenya during their long refuge from Nazi Germany. I liked the movie's brutal honesty, e.g., the farmland's hardships, the racism, the neverending martial problems, the psychological tolls of losing home and family, and the struggle to find their new place in the world. But I did take some issue with the curation of their life story. Despite the film's long runtime, I felt like important drama got omitted that I really wanted to see. Rating: 6