MOVIES:
Fyre - Chris Smith
3 Mics - Neal Brennan
TV:
Comedians of the World (Season 1) 1x
BOOKS:
Can’t Hurt Me - David Goggins
The Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz
MOVIES:
Fyre - Chris Smith
3 Mics - Neal Brennan
TV:
Comedians of the World (Season 1) 1x
BOOKS:
Can’t Hurt Me - David Goggins
The Beastie Boys Book - Michael Diamond & Adam Horovitz
MOVIES:
The House - Andrew Jay Cohen
Her - Spike Jonze (REWATCH)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest - Milos Foreman (REWATCH)
The Life & Music of Robert Johnson - Peter W. Meyer
Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy (REWATCH)
Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy (REWATCH)
TV:
Baskets (Season 1) - 8x
BOOKS:
Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) - Jeff Tweedy
Every Man A Menace - Patrick Hoffman
Jeff Tweedy - Warm
Twin Shadow - Caer
Ty Segall - Freedom's Goblin
Prince - Piano & A Microphone 1983
Pusha T - Daytona
Ssion - O
Kurt Vile - Bottle It In
Young Fathers - Cocoa Sugar
Courtney Barnett - Tell Me How You Really Feel
Khruangbin - Con Todo El Mundo
Christine and the Queens - Chris
Shakey Graves - Can't Wake Up
Blake Mills - Look
Jon Hopkins - Singularity
Black Thought - Streams of Thought Vol. 1
Parquet Courts - Wide Awake!
Black Panther Soundtrack
Anderson .Paak - Oxnard
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
Grouper - Grid of Points
The Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Vince Staples - FM!
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food
Nas - Nasir!
Chromeo - Head Over Heels
MOVIES:
Anchorman - Adam McKay (REWATCH)
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Joel & Ethan Coen
Ran - Akira Kurosawa
Yellow Submarine - George Dunning
RBG - Betsy West, Julie Cohen
Widows - Steve McQueen
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs - Joel & Ethan Coen (REWATCH)
TV:
Fargo (Season 2) 4x
BOOKS:
The Trial - Franz Kafka
Kiss Me Like A Stranger: My Search for Love and Art - Gene Wilder
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants - Malcolm Gladwell
I’ve been neglecting these more introspective postings for a while. Namely because it’s unclear to me if anyone reads them. I like to imagine there is someone out there who might.
To be alive today involves a constant negotiation with the superficial appearance of any given moment. Twitter replies, IG stories, news feeds, etc. To participate in the narrative of events, you must devote your attention to these ephemeral moments of pride, outrage and disgust. Most interactions with close friends seem to boil back down to this narrative at play, blurring the lines of distinction to whether independent ideas can still be tangible. If the human race was a television show, the ratings would be at an all-time high. We navel-gaze at our own follies and/or fortunes. We’re capable of being dramatic, hilarious, complex, disgusting, ill-fated - and watching it all unravel is wildly addictive.
We can set limits on how much access we will allow ourselves to use these services but it might only deepen the craving for what becomes forbidden. We love to hear ourselves complain much more than we do trying to devise a solution.
And if we’re making broad generalizations, Americans love to gripe about rising tax rates as if it’s an imposition of Satanic forces leeching off of their hard-earned livelihoods. To some, lower taxes means more money to spend freely as an individual, and therefore mitigating excess spending by a large inefficient government. I understand the intention. While that’s all good and well, we Americans still pay some amount of money to Uncle Sam. Taxes still exist. And right now, I don’t feel good about where any of my tax dollars are going. Try spending a day in one of your community’s underfunded public schools (I’ll bet there’s more than one option near you to choose from) and ask yourself if your tax dollars are being put to good use. Yet, a majority of us seem to accept these failures to innovate our most critical institutions as collateral damage that comes with the times; nothing to do about it. Call your senators. Donate money to the ACLU. Go to rallies. Post an impassioned couple hundred words on your Instagram. Then what? Do you see people taking the streets decrying “taxation without representation"?
This is where I bow out. I so no clear path to a solution for our deeply disabled society when all anyone can do is yell at one another. I’ve been to my share of rallies and believe that change is possible. But I’m pressing pause on cosigning with any organization claiming to represent my best interests. The only feelings of hope and positive energy that I’ve ever experienced came via tight-knit communities of people who care enough to show a little empathy to one another. Tribes. We don’t have to agree about everything, but we can at least understand our mutual respect for why we choose to coexist in a given circumstance.
In the past few months, I’ve felt so beaten down by the onslaught of information forced upon me, I’ve been hesitant to write much of anything. Especially anything with a real point-of-view. I’ve made things, but I’ve felt unable to truly buckle myself into the driver’s seat like I have been able to in the past. I aim to seek these places where a tribe mentality can still thrive and create opportunity for progressive thought. If you know of any, please send them to Jordan@jordanharo.net
MOVIES:
Lawrence of Arabia - David Lean
History of The Eagles - Alison Ellwood
22 July - Paul Greengrass
When Harry Met Sally - Rob Reiner
In The Mood For Love - Wong Kar-wai
House of 1000 Corpses - Rob Zombie
The Brood - David Cronenberg
TV:
The Americans (Season 5) 4x
The House on Haunted Hill (Season 1) 1x
BOOKS:
The Chapo Guide to Revolution: A Manifesto Against Logic, Facts, and Reason - Felix Biederman, Will Menaker, Matt Christman, Virgil Texas, Brendan James
MOVIES:
Starship Troopers - Paul Verhoeven (REWATCH)
Max Max: Fury Road - George Miller (REWATCH)
Wings of Desire - Wim Wenders
Scanners - David Cronenberg
The Old Man and The Gun - David Lowery
Raising Arizona - Joel & Ethan Coen (REWATCH)
Mistaken For Strangers - Tom Berninger
American Animals - Bart Layton
TV:
Neo Yokio (Season 1) - 1x
One Punch Man (Season 1) - 3x
Devilman Crybaby (Season 1) - 5x
This Is America (Season 1) - 1x
Ozark (Season 2) - 1x
Kidding (Season 1) - 1x
Succession (Season 1) - 10x
Maniac (Season 1) - 1x
BOOKS:
The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx
MOVIES:
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MOVIES:
TV:
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MOVIES:
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BOOKS:
MOVIES:
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MOVIES:
TV:
MOVIES:
TV:
BOOKS:
The 90th Academy Awards has come to a close. How lucky are we that we get to celebrate movies, those who make them and the art of moviemaking on a stage nearly as big as the Super Bowl?
After my third rewatch, I still think Good Time should have been nominated for something though..
MOVIES:
TV:
BOOKS:
MOVIES:
TV:
BOOKS:
MOVIES:
TV:
BOOKS:
Have not seen: Phantom Thread, Mudbound, Molly's Game, Star Wars, The Florida Project, The Post, I Tonya, Mother!, The Killing of the Sacred Deer, The Beguiled, 120 BPM
For a moment, consider how often our minds are tricked into neglecting memories come and gone. Healthy mindfulness encourages us to focus our intention on the present. This is a tried and true way to curtail anxiety; I have no criticisms there.
But sometimes it's easy to forget how much life we have all lived. Think about how much you've seen in your ____ years of life! You maybe only 10 years old and have already witnessed so much beauty hidden within the world. Sweet utterances from a friend that flash by your eyes like a soft breeze - gone with the wind as quick as it passed you. Or a lovely interaction with a kind stranger. Even a tragedy contains so much to learn and grow from. Sadly, the eloquence of the most special details within fading memories are even harder to picture. Wasted metaphors.. a graveyard of sonnets that flew by without the acknowledgement they may have deserved. Songs, paintings, films, smells can trigger it - bringing forth a treasure trove of emotion forged through experience to the forefront of our mind. It's easy to avoid paying attention at any given moment. I know this firsthand as a filmmaker; MY JOB is to suspend your belief and hack your mind for a moment. At least currently in my country, it's arguably more convenient to suspend reality than it is to nourish yourself. We have millions of solutions to view media made by someone else, but fewer options to educate ourselves. Yet, seemingly most people WANT to check out and forget about their lives for a little bit. Plus, some people are just too busy for honest emotional reflection. Maybe we do this out of protection and self-preservation? I don't know the answer. But consider what would an authentic emotional response be without one's own cocktail of memories, experiences, wishes, desires, hopes, scars, wounds, horrors, dreams?
If you ask me, it seems as if the key to mindfulness is within a healthy balance of appreciating the past, cherishing where you are now, and honoring your intention towards tomorrow. But I'm no yoga teacher so you probably shouldn't take my advice.
JH
I just watched Greta Gerwig's new film 'Ladybird' which gracefully took me into an introspective headspace along with the story's themes and characters. The middle American coming-of-age story is familiar, but this one feels like the one that got it right.
There was one line of dialogue that stuck with me as I exited the theater: when Ladybird/Christine is chatting with her Catholic nun principal, the latter presupposes that love and attention are essentially the same thing. Thinking back on it, this felt like one of 'Ladybird's' biggest motifs. Amidst the setting's stiff suburban American monoculture, the characters we are led to root for are the ones who are simultaneously remain attentive to themselves, others, and their surroundings despite the easy inclination to become passive, despondent, blank, and purposeless. The film's closest thing to an antagonist - a selfish emotionally stunted rich boy who coherses Ladybird into taking her virginity - is more concerned with nihilism and contrarian opinions than paying attention to anything in his own life; never able to look his sorta-girlfriend Ladybird in the eye. We even catch a glimpse of his father - who looks to be completely laid out on tranquilizer pills; unconscious, unaware, and possibly physically ill - providing a potential forecast of his son's future, while Gerwig plants her flag in the ground regarding what kind of life philosophies she values.
"Anybody who talks about California hedonism has never spent a Christmas in Sacramento," is the opening quote, supplied by OG snarkstress/literary god Joan Didion. This seemingly kicks off a film that's trying to tell us how shitty suburban life is. Thankfully, the film takes a mature leap away from easily channeling an exhausted conceit and instead gives us something new and denser to chew on. Most interestingly, in that aforementioned scene between the nun and Ladybird, the nun mentions how its clear from LB's college essay that she really loves her hometown of Sacramento. This comes as a surprise to the rebellious, hair-dyed, angsty East Coast wannabe much in the same way that we as the audience are starting to learn that this isn't just another suburban-commentary flick. When she ultimately leaves Sack-town for New York City, she felt a tremendous homesickness that is associated with the love she felt from her parents - most particularly her mother with whom she has wrestled with across emotional peaks and valleys for most of the film's duration - all back in that crappy town she put up with for 18+ years of her life. Realizations of similarities and differences between her and her mother sparked a newfound maturity that elevates her further than her surroundings, but realizing upon being in a new unfamiliar place that her surroundings mirror what she loves the most. Therein lies Ladybird's poetic, wildly resonant (at least, personally for me) catharsis.
JH