the mummy returns
I. You've Got Something on Your Forehead
Portraits in NYC after various Ash Wednesdays [images below]
II. Keep Your Epistemology Out of My Inductive Scientific Processing
According to [relational quantum mechanics], there are no absolute—that is, observer-independent—physical quantities. Instead, all physical quantities—the entire physical world—are relative to the observer, in a way analogous to motion... Consequently, each observer is inferred to “inhabit” its own physical world, as defined by the context of its own observations.[...]
[It] would seem that biting the bullet of plain quantum theory, without decorating it with imagined bells and whistles, forces us into unresolvable philosophical qualms. Yet, this conclusion is false. To see how we can get out of this quagmire we need only to be rigorous about the epistemic scope of physics.
Go far enough down this rabbit hole and you'll find physicists insisting that "this line of reasoning points to mind as the primary substrate of nature," which is eerily similar to the Aristotelian notion of Unmoved Mover. It's even similar to the Christian's notion of God (the Uncreated Mind) as the ground of reality.
Excerpt from "Letter to a Friend, Unsent" by Rebecca Lindenberg
I am
itched out of reverie
over and over again
by this feeling I don't deserve
my raptures anymore.
Fraser Has Left the Building
This is an amazing profile of Brendan Fraser.
His eyes are pale and a bit watery these days—less wide than they used to be when he was new to the screen, playing guys who were often new to the world. Blue-gray stubble around the once mighty chin, gray long-sleeve shirt draped indifferently over the once mighty body. I'm 35: There was a time when the sight of Fraser was as familiar to me as the furniture in my parents' house. He was in Encino Man and School Ties in 1992, Airheads in 1994, George of the Jungle in 1997, The Mummy in 1999. If you watched movies at the end of the previous century, you watched Brendan Fraser.
Marvel Opinions (SPOILERS)
Black Panther was a good movie. Doctor Strange was not. The first Thor is underrated, the second is a terrible, no-good, very-bad mistake. Thor: Ragnarok was at least as good as Black Panther, if for very different reasons. Ant-Man is mostly a Paul Rudd commercial. Ant-Man and the Wasp looks mostly like a Paul Rudd commercial for Kate-from-Lost fanboys. The next Iron Man should be Shuri from Black Panther. Erik Killmonger was a great villain undermined by at least two very stupid writing choices: He should not have killed his girlfriend, which was a cheap way to vilify and undermine a complicated antagonist. His coup of Wakanda should have caused an out and out civil war among the ruling council from the beginning, and the failure to write this made that section of story almost untenable. The movie, simply, should have been messier. Iron Man 2 shouldn't have been made. The Avengers is impressive for what it meant to the world of film, and less impressive as an actual film. The Age of Ultron was not impressive on almost any level, except that it featured Linda Cardellini, who deserves more and better roles. The Captain America trilogy is the only series of individual hero films in which all the films are good, and the latter two of which are in fact MCU at its best. Guardians of the Galaxy 2 was an embarrassment with good moments and great visuals. Guardians of the Galaxy 1 was Peak Chris Pratt, a being we will never see again from the actor named Chris Pratt. Iron Man 3 is underrated, and Spider-Man: Homecoming was cleverer than it had any right to be. None of the MCU is as good as Batman: Begins or the Dark Knight. Wonder Woman is a top-tier MCU movie, but with better visual panache and a vital sense of daring.
Bonus: the Last Jedi was half-good, and the half that was not good was very, very dumb.
Thanks for letting me bloviate. Comic book movies are fun, and are also not The Godfather. In fact, they are fun for precisely that reason. Have a great weekend!