Short Chops

Altered version of "288" by grotos is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Keeping Track

I accidentally started keeping track of my daily progress on my current project and I'm finding it really helpful. By the time I'm done I realize how much I accomplished, plus it leaves me set up for the next day. Highly recommend, would report progress again.

As a piece of writing advice though, I'm not sure that it will work for everyone. This is in the midst of a project that is entering its sixth or seventh year, depending on how you count. I need the extra reminder about what I am doing, because I've done so much already. These progress reports were a way for me back into the work; they probably won't offer me the same help for my next project.

Requiem for the 2019 Yankees

The 2019 Yankees' season is over. We shall not see their like again. I hadn't seen a Yankees team this well put together since 1998-2000. Lots of long-time faves won't be back, and four years in it doesn't make a lot of sense to still call these guys the Baby Bombers. Highlight of the 2019 season: this picture by Adam, drawn immediately after the LeMahieu HR. Better times.

Sovev TLV

This was the first year that I've participated in the big looping bike ride around Tel Aviv. I usually don't do road biking but stick to trails, but thought this would be a good way to more or less close the bike riding season for me, as the rains are about to start falling, making most of the trails I ride on impassable. The Sovev isn't technically a race, but I did want to go fast. Thanks to a pair of slick Panracer Gravel King tires that my brother gave me, I was able to do that. If anyone wants 11GB/60km of bike riding GoPro footage to watch I can upload it to Drive lmk

Before and after pics demonstrating the deranging effects of two hours and seven minutes of uninterrupted bike

Halloween Een

Getting ready for Halloween, this weekend I plan on watching some horror movies with a friend who has consistently said that my Halloween movie choices are not scary. In some cases this is true, sometimes I offer some high cheese (see Tourist Trap, Basket Case) but there have been some genuinely scary movies I've offered that this person is just not phased by. What they said scared them was Gaspar Noe's Climax (2018).

It was gripping, and scary in that I was worried about the well being of all these folks. But what kind of recommendations could it give me? As a purely psychological/trippy horror film, maybe the classic Suspiria (1977) is the way to go. Besides the common dance troupe element, you can notice a VHS copy of Suspiria during the opening interview scenes in Climax, so it's a definite intertext. But as far as people being trapped and helpless in rooms with psychos, I also thought of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Last House on the Left, with Maniac (1980) as a reserve. All 70s, all totally bonkers. I'll let you know how it goes.