My questions about “Somewhere in Time”
I still dearly love Somewhere in Time (1980), even with all of its gaping plot holes. I watched it again this past weekend and it remains in my head. So here are a bunch of mostly questions and a few observations. These are almost entirely spoilers, so be careful.
Did Richard (Christopher Reeve) take any dollar bills with him to the past? If he didn’t, how did he pay for his hotel room? And if he did, why didn’t looking at those dollar bills from 1979 cause him to lose his place in 1912 like the 1979 penny did?
Susan French is a terrible choice as the older Elise. She has dark eyes and looks nothing like Jane Seymour, who has lighter eyes.
Elise’s manager (Christopher Plummer) was a huge dick for sending that politely worded note to Richard to get him to duck out of the play, only to have him beaten up and left in the hay (bound and gagged) in the horse stable, to… die? Be pooped on by a horse? What?
Did Richard really drive his convertible all the way from Chicago to Mackinac not knowing where he was going to go, and then he just happened to drive by the Grand Hotel sign, and decided to stay there? I guess the past him was telling him where to go and he didn’t realize it.
How was Elise still at the hotel to hook up with Richard when her theater company was supposed to have left for the next city the night before?
Why did Richard not realize earlier that having a 1970s General Electric cassette recorder would keep him from going into past-hypnosis? And what about the two mid-century modern lamps above the bed? Why couldn’t he get rid of those?
Richard had some serial killer eyes, especially when he was trying to literally put his foot in the door of Elise’s housekeeper/companion in 1979, and when he stubbornly loomed in the hotel door of 1912 Elise. Would not fly today.
How did Elise’s manager “know” that someone like Richard would come into Elise’s life and steal her away? Did he have a warning from the future somehow?
Did Richard buy vintage underwear in 1979 to go with his old looking suit or was he wearing 1979 underwear the whole time?
Kamasi Washington — Dream State (feat. André 3000)
Sarah introduced me to this tonight. What a journey!
Twen at The Camel
Saw Twen play at The Camel last night. Doors opened at 9pm, show started at 9:30, and we left the house around 10:30, which felt surreal and unnatural. That’s when we’d normally be thinking about getting ready for bed on a weeknight, or deciding whether to stream Ghost Adventures or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in the background while we puttered on a Friday night. But we made it and I was glad once we got there. They were fantastic. Played every song I wanted to hear, and with a presence like they were in a bigger venue. All the vocals were spot on (from both Jane and Ian), and Ian is like his generation’s John Squire from The Stone Roses. They were really chatty and gracious when we met them at the merch table. Only wish the crowd had been a little bigger and the sound had been run better.
Jane ran her own vocal effects unit, which I can tell by my other photos is a TC Helicon Voicelive Play. Ian used the same thing probably for his vocals and/or guitar.
Thursday, June 13, 2024
All those people that I used to call on the phone to keep up with during college and post-college years — the ones I’ve almost totally lost touch with — do they care? Is that just the natural state of things and would have happened regardless of the “advances” of the internet and communications tools? Or am I a neglectful, narcissistic “friend” in name only? I feel like a call out of the blue to someone I haven’t even direct-messaged on any platform in years would be received the way it would if I they were calling me: It’s nice to hear your voice, but what’s happening here? Why are you calling? Could you have warned me first?
I like using TiddlyWiki for daily notes, but I don’t like that all these paragraphs may be perceived as related. I don’t necessarily want to put horizontal lines between thoughts. Maybe some fancy decorative character goes between each one?
Yesterday was the second day in a week that I forgot the Apple Watch and left it charging at home. Also notable: the sense of relief I had at not having it on my wrist. Hmm. To that end, I’ve finally turned off notifications for iMessage. What a self-punishing thing to have enabled.
Signed up for a Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) account through work so I can learn Microsoft Power Platform stuff. I love studying new things, but how do people have energy for anything after they get done with a day of work?
June 13, 2024 TiddlyWiki Apple Watch Microsoft Power Platform
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
We need to visit the Second Union Rosenwald School Museum in Goochland.
I learned this this morning and have been haunted by it all day. I knew I lived in a bubble, but I didn’t realize how expansive and blinding it was:
The median income for Richmond singles is $39,115, compared to $87,348 for couples, per Point2 data.
– from How long it takes single people and couples to save for a house in Richmond - Axios Richmond
Point2 data, reported 2024-02-12: https://www.point2homes.com/news/us-real-estate-news/singles-vs-couples-homeownership-savings.html
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
I created a trial account on Pika today after hearing Jack and Alex talk about it: https://twelvety.pika.page There’s nothing much posted there, but I had to try it since it was free for 50 posts. It looks totally great. Though it would scratch the itch of having a super-easy place to blog and it makes titles optional, I’m not going to adopt it because:
- I’m already at home with Blot.im and have got it looking decent for my needs. I don’t need to spend any time migrating anything right now, or feeling bad that I’m neglecting one paid platform over another paid platform.
- I love Blot and it’s super powerful and well thought-out without being overwhelming. The only drawback is its dependence on Dropbox and the like, but you could say that’s also a feature, given all the text editors that work with Dropbox.
- Pika is $5/month. That’s cheap, but it’s unnecessary if I’m on Blot already. Plus, I found out today that I was still on the Blot monthly plan ($4/mo) and the yearly plan is $44/yr ($3.67/mo), so I just switched Blot to yearly.
- The only export option with Pika right now is to “Contact us to get an export of your posts”. I’m sure that in practice, it’s easy to get them to send you the export, but that still seems like extra work. With most tools I like, a zip file download is just a click away on the control panel or dashboard. At worst it’s a button you click to get in a queue and wait for an automated email with an attachment or a download link. With Blot, you can download your config files easily, and all your posts are already in your Dropbox folder because that’s where they started.
So, for me, for now, no Pika, but I’ll remember it for later!