Just music (third in a series, delayed)

I realize most people are going to read these in the reverse order they're written so when I say "the last one" it's going to be kind of confusing. I assume people will cope. Lots of emotion in this set of tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEitrZU-nCw
I stumbled on this when I was looking for "Thou Shalt Always Kill" to send to someone. As with much of the music in this series the title and the lyrics resonated for me in the current world. This one is pretty explicitly about how we could (and maybe are failing to) raise better children. It's more than ten years old, and sadly still relevant. "Get Better", please.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV1dMqeb4_U
Julien Baker, "Turn Out the Lights". This one came from Film Crit Hulk, who listed it as a song that always makes him cry. I can definitely see why - the song is a cry for help and it's hard to sit with the feelings that the lyrics express. They land very close to my heart, but not directly on it, so there's that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwBjF_VVFvE
This was the "coming out" tune for The Chicks, f/k/a The Dixie Chicks. They didn't exactly come out and say why they were ditching the "Dixie" but it's not hard to figure out. They've not entirely abandoned their southern/country roots, as the track prominently features banjo and strings in traditional styles, but counterposed with the urgency of a marching drum. "March March" indeed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osdoLjUNFnA
Neither Taylor Swift nor Bon Iver is my usual speed, but this collaboration is really moving and well-done. It's spare piano and vocals with the two singers alternating back and forth and also both giving some fantastic harmonies. It's also a very sad breakup song, with the two of them taking the parts of people at their parting - some acrimony, some regret, some defiance. This tune made me cry more than "Turn Out..." did, I think because I can feel the heartbreak of both people here.

https://soundcloud.com/r3hab/wrong-move-acoustic-final-master-14-dec-2018-v2-kopie
Soundcloud has stopped liking Chrome recently and I haven't figured out why Turns out it was a bad cookie; fixed that and the problem went away.

I couldn't end this set of emotional pieces without a rare acoustic piece from R3HAB. This is a collaboration with Olivia Hart, whose vocal punch is just barely restrained here. "Wrong Move" has been covered and remixed a lot in the past year but I don't think any of them touch this one.

We saw "Jupiter Ascending" and it really is that bad

Some people debate the 27% Rotten Tomatoes rating. They're wrong. This film really is that bad. It's "may I have those hours of my life back, please" bad. Do not waste your time unless you want to MST3K something. (0/5 stars because no).

I remarked to Pygment on completing the movie(*) that I was surprised the film doesn't collapse under the weight of all the cliches it's carrying. I mean, literally there are so many cliches piled on top of one another that one of the characters in the film remarks on how cliche it is.

The "plot" makes no sense. I mean, none. Somehow you should accept that identical genetic sequencing means two people are the same. It's not clear if you're supposed to believe in rebirth (one of the characters seems to, some do not) or whatever but anyway, no. Somebody murdered their mother and so when an Earth girl shows up with a genetic sequence now they have to murder her too. I can't even.

The characters' actions make no sense. People who are supposed to be rich behave like proles or bad Bond villains, with nothing in between. Civilizations that have star-spanning technology and city-level instant building capability somehow don't use robots, like at all. Also, they have to harvest organics rather that just molecularly synthesizing anything. Because... not even Reasons. There are no reasons.

The tech is alternately absurd and very flashy and somehow people Doing It All Themselves is the right answer to everything because somehow the person is better than a machine always and in every way. Because... nope, still no Reasons.

The action sequences are also very flashy and also spectacularly dull and predictable. I get it, you're supposed to look at the pretty and not actually turn on your brain but it's just badly choreographed and badly shot and ... bad.

I credit the actors for trying. I blame the Wachowskis for trading on their reputations to get someone to fund this drek.

(*) We saw it outdoors courtesy of friends of ours who have a screen set up in their backyard. Yay for socially distanced movies; better choices next time.

A little moment

Today I needed to edit my (Google) contacts.

Today I deleted my contact record for DHR.