non-fiction

All posts tagged non-fiction

Modify (2005) image

Entertainment > Movies >

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455980/

Stories of people who regard augmenting their bodies as a way of life, whether for artistic reasons or out of pure vanity.

A movie about people who feel so trapped in their body they desperately want to control it. A community that’s basically a hugbox that shackles them together for encouragement.



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Snowball Effect - The Story of 'Clerks' - (2004 movie) image

Entertainment > Movies >

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420917/

This is a 90-minute retrospective documentary for Clerks – (1994 movie) that focuses on Smith’s early inception of the film, the process of making and distributing and finally, the reaction and response to the film from critics and fans.

It’s full of bits of trivia, but is uninteresting to all but the hardcore fans. It’s got a lot of masturbatory stuff in it, but even ignoring that, and including my love of the film it documents, I didn’t like it.

  • Properly titled Snowball Effect: The Story of ‘Clerks’
  • This is available on the bonus CD of “Clerks X”, the 10-year anniversary money grab edition.



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Bastardy (2008) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1310363/

A documentary that follows Jack Charles for seven years.

A thoughtful movie that focuses more on his fallen-lifestyle than his rise, success, fall and recovery. Though it was not its intention to, I find this movie reveals a lot about how fallen men are treated. No respect, no concern, no support. Acting out and desperation are treated as crimes, not cries.

  • Jack Charles, aka Jackie Charles.
  • “Bastardy” is illegitimacy.
  • Jack Charles on IMDB
  • While Jack is notable, and Bastardy won the 2009 AFI Award for Best Feature-Length Documentary, this film has no Wikipedia entry. I feel that says a lot.



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Black Mass (2015) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355683/
https://www.warnerbros.com/movies/black-mass

The FBI make an alliance with the mob.

I’m not a particularly big fan of this type of movie, but this one was good. I don’t think it’s worth watching a second time. I got bored most of the way through.

  • Based on Black Mass (2006?) by Dick Lehr and Gerard O’Neill

The Bounty (1984) picture

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086993/

In the past, a dude retells the story of some stuff that happened on some island way over there. Also there are accents and titties.

Maybe I’m not in the mood or my tastes have changed. I thought I’d like this, but I got bored.

Bridge of Spies (2015) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3682448/
was bridgeofspies.com

A lawyer becomes entangled in intelligence when he accepts a defense case for a Soviet spy.

I’m not sure what to say about this movie. It’s quite good. I like historical intelligence movies.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) poster

Entertainment > Movies >

(on Wikipedia)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0268978/
https://www.abeautifulmind.com/

Based on the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., the nobel prize winning mathematician, this film explores his life, genius and madness.

Media which explore intelligence, its quirks and consequences are (obviously) rarer than the geniuses themselves. That this movie has appealed to a broad audience, helping embrace and enlighten more typical people, is rarer still. This movie is very strongly recommended.



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Reading and Writing Chinese - Third Edition

Chinese > Books for learning Chinese >

Highly recommended – Mnemonics, multiple pictures for stroke order and details for each character’s difficulty level give this book a completely different approach from the others I own.

Feel free to change the Amazon.com URL from .com to your language of choice. Odds are good that it’ll be available from another amazon.foo website.

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Mandarin Chinese English Bilingual Visual Dictionary

Chinese > Books for learning Chinese >

Highly recommended – A stark contrast to the traditional dictionary. Far more visual and friendly. Absolutely not a replacement for an actual dictionary.

Feel free to change the Amazon.com URL from .com to your language of choice. Odds are good that it’ll be available from another amazon.foo website.

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