THE VILLAINESS (Jung Byung-gil, 2017)

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(Directed by Jung Byung-gil from a script by Jung and Jung Byeong-sik; starring Kim Ok-vin, Shin Ha-kyun, Sung Joon, Kim Seo-hyung, Jo Eun-jil, and Kim Yeon-woo. Released 21 May 2017; watched 2023w31 via Prime.)

A treasure unearthed (and consumed with urgency) thanks to the most recent Polygon end-of-the-month, "catch them before they leave streaming" piece and, in the best tradition of South Korean genre cinema, one hell of a revenge story that's so very, very much more: led by brilliant performances from stars Kim Ok-vin, Shin Ha-Kyun, and Sung Joon and by turns exhilarating (those action sequences, JFC), pastoral, horrific, comedic, hopeful, and heart-wrenching (I refuse to apply the overused "heartbreaking," thanks CBR), THE VILLAINESS is truly something special. Blu purchased as soon as credits rolled (with three hours and some change to spare before it exited Prime), Jawan Koo's score the soundtrack to today’s work.

Haven't been this excited / inspired / enthralled by a film in awhile; hopeful it will bring with it an ability to be excited by other films again... I've missed the ability to recharge through cinema for far too long.

THE SHADOW promotional matchbooks, 1945

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Second of my two promotional matchbooks for THE SHADOW radio show, from 1945, joined The Collection today. While this latest procurement has far better and more inventive visuals, the first one still has some of the matches inside.

Vertical shot of THE SHADOW matchbook. Green, with The Shadow in... shadow (and red cape) pointing a gun, a skill smoking from its eyes, and, on the matchbook cover, a skeleton with a bloody knife.
Vertical, SHADOW matchbook interiors, against orange. The Shadow, with text, "The Shadow knows."

According to Martin Grams, Jr, in his definitive history of the radio show:

"For DL&W, in the summer of 1945, The Shadow graced the inside and outside of matchbooks... These matchbooks were velvet smooth and sold to Blue Coal dealers in multiples of 500. The price was $3.00 per thousand if the dealer wanted his name, address, and phone number printed on them. 

To promote the matchbooks, a marketing tie-in was featured in the broadcast of September 9, 1945, titled "The Shadow in Danger" ... 

The aforementioned, still-combustible set…

Not sure if there are more variations of them or if I now have the only two variants. If so, very cool. If not, please correct me.

CURSED HEIDI or, generative nightmarish bemusement

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Farm animals watching a film with effortless transitions to Tiki-bearing screaming rabble (or was it the other way 'round)? All that and more in Patrick Karpiczenko's profoundly disturbing AI-generated CURSED HEIDI trailer, sourced from this excellent Daily Beast piece, "AI Won't Just Replace TV and Movie Writers--It Will Make Pop Culture a Nightmare":

flowermove/20230729

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(previously…) After last night's rain (and this morning's deluge) and the lowering of the climapocalypse heat index, work resumed on FlowerMove. All daylilies and peonies are out and in the process of separation from grassy invaders before transitioning to their new pondside dwellings.

Needed something to fill their former space (and the in-the-process-of-being-uncovered patio) and allow for future plant pots and other pretty things, so we bought this homemade powerline-spool-and-palette bench built by a local guy whose house I pass on the day's run. He and his son were kind enough to drive it over and help us (roll) it into place. Will eventually be pergola curtain orange.

A large yellow bench made out of a power line spool in the middle of what used to be a patio which then become a grass haven which is on its way back to patio

Two more views of the backyard, as it stands today, the latter with the powerline bench in its place…

SYSTEMIC (Divide and Dissolve, 2023)

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Seamlessly jarring and jarringly seamless transitions from pastorale to metal to spoken word poetry to any and all combinations in between that speak profoundly to what I can only imagine the Indigenous experience must be. Revelatory.