zx3 @zx3@driveinsaturday.org

Ad Astra Per Aspera #nasa
https://astronomy.com/news/2018/01/remembering-the-columbia-disaster

the countdown has begun. your giant #mecha, gleaming and thrumming with power, is ready to be launched into battle. the resident AI has an eclectic musical taste and has offered you a limited selection of power-up anthems. do you choose:

well, "Stalker" sure was a movie. i really am a fan of overlong, atmospheric movies full of philosophical conversations but it's hard to concentrate on the last twenty minutes when my Tom Servo subroutines are all screaming "END! ENNND! ENNNNNNND!"

absolutely 100% worth your time, but know what you're getting into. also, the story behind the production is BONKERS.

attn @mawr :

"when a man is born, he is soft and pliable. when he dies, he is strong and hard. when a tree grows, it is soft and pliable. but when it is dry and hard, it dies. hardness and strength are Death's companions. flexibility and softness are the embodiment of life. that which has become hard will not triumph."
--"Stalker" (Tarkovsky, 1979)

(tl;dr, soff = gud)

finally getting around to watching Tarkovsky's "Stalker." i'm glad i read Roadside Picnic first. if i still can't sleep maybe i should round out the night by re-watching "Annihilation."

honestly, i kind of enjoyed Black Adam. parts were undercooked, and i wish they had done more with the points they brought up about imperialism and self-determination which went nowhere. i have a feeling the "zombie attack" in the third act was a draft rewrite so that we didn't get to see an unarmed proletariat uprising against an evil PMC--which, admittedly, probably wouldn't have gone so good, but it's strange that those guys just vanished halfway through. and doesn't Intergang have ties to Darkseid? i dunno. comic books and DC continuity in particular are weird.

this wouldn't have been the worst place to kick off a second (third?) phase of the DCCU and start moving out of the shadow of the Snyderverse but i guess James Gunn et al. have different plans.

mwahhhaahaaa, 2021, well known for being the last time you could needle-drop a Kanye song in a movie

i could live-riff Black Adam since i am waiting for A Thing and i have nothing better to do and no energy to engage in much else, but there's not a lot to say. most of it's boilerplate Soopahero Stuff and aside from the distinctly Michael Bay-esque portrayal of a Middle Eastern country and its people, it's not offensively bad. Hawkman's armor is badass. The Rock is 100% invested in his role, which is not something i can say for all soopa-actors.

HOWEVER i am a half-hour in and so far i have seen the second-stupidest thing anyone has ever done in a soopahero movie (the first being the *other* reason everybody hates Peter Quill). imagine spending an entire hours-long flight learning about how some moldy Babylonian jabroni has lightning god/speedster powers, and when you get there, then the very first thing you tell him is "KNEEL OR DIE." in the middle of a city full of innocent people.

i just...fuckin'...WHAT