caesar novus

The Last Film Festival 2016 is a satire/farce about independent film world as well as small town USA. It centers around hanky-panky of it's star Dennis Hopper, who appears tip top and vital altho he died well before this film was released. There is a touch of amateurism to the film which probably delayed release, but that just makes it refreshing. I have been to countless film festivals, so really resonated to their cavalcade of gags with a lot of truth to them. I here show a trailer, then a very low res youtube of the whole film which doesn't do it justice compared to the Kanopy or Youtube full res. P.S. youtube is raising their no-ad subscription rates but be aware they offer a half price "lite" plan which doesn't stop ads for music or shorts.

Compare to sumo wrestlers, who supposedly cultivate subcutaneous rather than bad visceral fat (thanks to exercise):

Here is an appetizer of brief videos on Roman mini-monuments; subscribe as appropriate:

Just a heads up that the best Columbo reruns (from the 1970s) has started/resumed on a channel called Great American Family. Not a stream so you can dvr it and skip commercials; weekdays mid day. Columbo is about the only (crime investigation) drama I watch because it's both subtle and a time capsule. Same channel is rerunning best Perry Mason courtroom episodes from about 1958-1964. Here is Columbo with iconic Peugeot econo car. My dad went to Canada to get a later model at favorable currency exchange rates, and a tiny Renault for my mother. I can't imagine where he got it serviced; all neighbors preferred 1 standard US "land yacht" per family.

Playlist with more of the best of retro-shoegaze-psychedelia!

"A New Leaf" 1971 with screwball comedy legend Walter Matthau. His co-star was a ground breaking comedienne from the 1950's and is still making movies in her 90's. Most of Matthau's excellent movies were often shown on TV with themes of schemers trying to pass as old money New Yorkers, but not this one maybe due to slightly dry and mean spirited humor: "The Seven Year Itch" 1955 one of Marilyn Monroe's most memorable screwball comedies also had an excellent comedian co star which this trailer hardly does justice. I watch this about every 5 years, and it's kind of a companion to the previous movie of New York City family (non workers) going north in the summer before air conditioning was common:

It gives me headaches to figure out quantum archeology, but something else caught my ear in their latest podcast which is widely followed by the tech elite. They have already been documenting how AI is lowering starting wages for college graduates, and how they can navigate this. I think of their concept like "elasticity of demand" where AI makes brain work cheaper, incentivizing consumer demand and giving a bigger job ecosystem for AI leveraged workers. And they point out that older workers or retirees can see 401k/Roth and real estate assets mushroom in AI growth. That hillbilly mudpatch or desert shack may mushroom in value due to workers fleeing overpriced city real estate and commuting by flying AI robotaxis, etc. More presently, watch financial assets that support AI, bubbly or not (crashed about 10% in today's stockmarket wipeout). This can be observed by gov't filings by the most successful investors as briefly pointed out starting 2h03m47s in latest podcast below. I followed David's directions to find one of the most successful AI investment funds "Situational Awareness" reporting 20x growth per year with simple approach following AI power and optics stocks BE and LITE in the top holdings: https://13f.info/manager/0002045724-situational-awareness-lp . You can click on recent quarter for more details (beware of "CALL" labels which indicates a bet on those many shares going down) So I sanity check by charting much of a year showing 500% to 750% growth https://stockcharts.com/freecharts/perf.php?$SPX,BE,LITE . Worth watching for their next updates mid-May etc, if not prematurely committing to.

"The Dirty Picture", one of the top India movies of 2011, is available on youtube free. It is about a real 1980s actress who skirted India's quite demure standards of sensuality, Her career skyrockets, then is considered tawdry, then is redeemed, then sags... well, you won't miss much skipping the last half hour of attempted resolution. But the first 90 min sparkles and has wonderful metaphorical observations (on love, women, spouses, etc) in english subtitles. There are many versions on YT (and Kanopy) but I will post a suggested one and beforehand a kind of feeble trailer:

For anyone interested in getting EARLY warning of MD, you can taken a test described in the below video. Since I took it, device sales have been taken over by a different company which I leave to track down on your own. The old company had a lookup tool to tell nearest doc with device.

Sampler from groovy garage band "The Brian Jonestown Massacre"; studio, live, and full concert:

"The Wheel" with ethereal pedal steel guitar from Jerry Garcia's debut solo album 'Garcia':

I've been taking those, which are freely covered by my insurance OTC allowance, but my ophthalmologist insists I need an additional "Z..." (IIRC) ingredient. "Lucky" for me he sells those for about $75 (monthly?), so my frugality can counteract his high pressure tactics. He also turns every visit to include a followup for more tests. I am torn between his genuine skill in measuring acuity vs his fee harvesting from both me and admittedly penny-pinching insurance.

I must apologize for above lists giving terrible first impressions with dud first episodes. One is unsolved, another releases the bad guy, and another was so old that the formula wasn't developed yet. It is supposed to cover the dramatic first few days leading to arresting a maniac, without time for armchair reflections, woke or otherwise. The lists go on to include recent and not so recent years, the latter being rarely available from normal rerun sources. Most episodes adhere to this minimally edited ideal, including an honorable mention docu-series "homicide squad new orleans" which just finished a 3rd season with reruns in the usual places. It has flaws but at least they utilize effective policing tools such as excellent traffic camera network, and quick ability to access perp phone data.

- "The First 48" is doing something right to approach 30 seasons on a TV channel entitled A&E, who now has put dozens of full episodes free on youtube. I think it succeeds due to the discipline of following immediate post murder investigation live action, with a minimum of narrator spin. Whodunnit, and can they be legally put out of action gives the drama. Here is a playlist of 22 episodes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdWZXmdm7-Y&list=PLcviVtB85dLyp0kc6U2ORjYdLZyYZo3B5 Here is a playlist of 33 pairs of episodes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9s68I8W9GI&list=PLcviVtB85dLyBgKiAiiIWLVIUnyC-KKxv Let me know if I encoded these wrong. Save these lists to your own library by clicking 3 dots near the buttons for looping or shuffling. Maybe A&E will add or delete or change what costs or is free. I had a setback due to my TV streaming stick burning out its power block, so those don't last forever. Whew, TV used to be so simple, but I need diversion during an approaching 4 day storm.

I wonder what expectancy for non smoking teetotalers, etc. Anecdotally, I encounter a lot of reports of famous wealthy ancients living that long. And I checked my 100 closest Norwegian ancestors and barring accidents they typically lasted about 87 years. The earliest recorded one lived 1287 to 1377. AI podcasters promise infinite lifespans for those under age 51 due to personalized drugs. edit: it may have been just my male ancestors that lived long, w/o childbirth dangers

This 1974 Italian tragi-comedy can be found under it's English name "All Screwed Up" on Kanopy or Youtube pay sites. From legendary art house director Lina Wertmüller who showed the raw struggles of folks selfish and altruistic sides in vintage Italian context. Jaw dropping scenes, such as bungling father of 7+ trying to make ends meet as a gigolo. Filmed just before her most famous works, like Swept Away:

Lost Treasures of Rome documentary series is at this moment playing nonstop season 2 on Nat Geo TV, and above is season 1. I guess a couple more seasons exist, but I somehow channel surfed past them due to the low-key approach. It can be a refreshing change from the usual sensational themes, especially when they take on lesser known (and advertiser unappealing) stories of Rome.

Yeah, I think the words, topography, and even the bone find have some amount of uncertainty. Luckily we now can assimilate this thru AI, which just told me that Hannibal brought elephants from Italy to Spain! I think that is a so-called hallucination which was meant to temporarily get the search/answer process unstuck. I used to work in this area: Camel safaris bookable thru France, but they forgot to notify my tour had been cancelled. On arrival I ended up alone for days in an encampment at the bottom of Algeria with no english or money exchange. I lived on my sort of powdered gatorade which worked well with Algeria's then-abundant fossil well water. Later they added me to a departed group with last choice of camel; I imagine some of Hannibal's beasts also had personalities that made the journey extra hard. It was scenic but wintry cold with buggy oasis stops that reeked of camel urine. There was drama in getting out of the country for all of us.

The maps with more squiggles may be taking topography into account, as well as linking ancient settlements. For example the Andorra area had Roman presence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra#Iberian_and_Roman_Andorra with a valley linking the east with Spain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andorra#Geography There are maps with even finer granularity that I can't seem to find again; precision vs. accuracy? I take topography as a serious influence having spent a week on a camel touring the Hoggar mountains in Sahara's center, typically on 45 degree sideslopes with trail little more than a foot wide. I had a skittish animal who got bullied off trail. Also have hiked Med coast where the trains and sometimes cars have to use tunnels. Finally I have bounced back and forth from Spain's coast to mountainous inland.

Here is a thumbnail of a good Britannica map of Hannibal's route with rarely shown jogs and diversions. The Cordoba find was just west of the Baecula label. On the encyclopedia site there are full maps and excellent summaries. Not behind a paywall but sort of copyright wall making it hard to point URLs. I think our understanding of the Cordoba find would be better past the sciencedirect paywall, if anyone has some library privilege for it.

Behind Ency Britannica paywall is a detailed map of Hannibal's route with inland jog thru Pyrenees, but nowhere near Cordoba. The second article says it is unlikely a souvenir, but explanation is behind paywall (everywhere they show a "..."). Cordoba is out of the way for those Italy-bound but is close to the Carthaginian occupation zone so could have been pre-Hannibal activity or brought forward for his fighting retreat. The first article cited concludes:

Here is a map of Hannibal's route thru Spain although it probably is speculation, biased by a presumption that coastal lowlands aren't as rugged as they are. Then a topographic map showing inland Cordoba is indeed on a river valley coming close in the east to another river snaking east thru mountains. But again those valleys may be really rugged. So IMHO even if 100 elephants were led thru and occasionally died in Spain it seems unlikely to find any ancient death site vs souvenir pieces spread far and wide.

It seems so unlikely that remains of a once whole visiting animal of extreme rarity could be found in the rugged deep interior of Spain, that I lean to the following afterthought explanation in that article: Think of the fetish for rhino horns, ivory, etc even today leaving widely scattered artifacts that don't indicate animals were there.