After a few warm days sprinkled throughout winter, it seems the spring heat is finally here to stay.
visual philes.
This week I started the series about how the movie The Godfather was made called The Offer. The series stars Miles Teller who was in two movies I recently watched - Top Gun: Maverick and Divergent. Anyway, The Offer is kinda just okay to me. I have heard of some of the people depicted in it but I don’t know enough about them to appreciate the performance. The story does seem interesting so far though, especially how episode one ended.
With John Wick Chapter 4 out this week, I had to watch Chapters 2 and 3 again for a small refresher. The mirror sequence at the end of Chapter 2 is still one of my favorites because of its homage to Enter The Dragon’s final fight. And it just looks fire even without that connection. The underground sequence in that one is another highlight especially because of how John had guns stashed all over it. Honestly, I just love the whole movie. I appreciate the weight of the fact he went through all of the events of the movie only to have basically triple the amount of people after him as the movie ends.
I remember when set photos of Chapter 3 released and it showed John on a HORSE with a gun. I thought it was the dopest thing ever lol. The scene was as cool as I had hoped it would be in the movie.
One thing I like about Chapter 3 is the creativity of the action sequences. The one with him and the horse also involves motorcycles. Just before this, there is a sequence in a horse stable where he truly uses the power of the horse to his advantage. There’s another one where Halle Berry’s character uses her dogs amidst a gunfight involving her and John. They “tag team” with the power of the dogs bites and their guns quite effectively. There were also several action sequences involving knives, swords, blades etc in this entry. It was cool to see John deal with these situations as he figured out a method to win every time. But since he is still “just a man”, he didn’t get through them without taking a few cuts.
I can’t wait to see how everything gets elevated even more in Chapter 4.
audio philes.
I have finally listened to Raven by Kelela. I won’t say I was sleeping on it because I’ve been meaning to check it out for weeks.
I’m so glad I finally did! The album sounds exactly like the cover looks. It felt like an underwater dance club to me. I loved how the first and last song mirrored each other. I literally laid on the floor to listen to “Holier” and yes it sounded amazing down there. The overall sound of the album is quite popular right now and I think Kelela did an excellent job with it.
read philes.
In a world where everything prompts a think piece and/or Twitter thread, sometimes it’s okay to just ENJOY art.
spoke about this in her piece Chapter Two: Spring Fever. I saw many of my perspectives shared in the piece!I like to call myself a collector of several things. The expansion of these collections is directly connected to finances which makes some of them bigger - or smaller - than others. Anyway,
spoke about the various formats they listen to music on and it made me think of how I do the same thing. Titled My Music-Listening Set Up, the piece shares just how many ways we can access music today.experience philes.
My fasting for Lent continued this week and this one was easy until it was hard. I’m still in the midst of and pretty fully adjusted to not having breakfast. But, this week the fast was to not make any unnecessary purchases. I don’t consider myself an “impulse buyer” but if a game I want is on sale (and the average full price is 60+) I’ll get it. Since I recently got two new games on sale and others for “free” from the Game Catalog, I’m pretty much set until later this year. So I was content and focused going into the fast. Until A24 decided to release the Collector’s Edition of their film The Lighthouse that includes all the bells and whistles like a behind the scenes booklet, special packaging, etc. I currently own the standard mass market version that released a few years ago. You’ll be happy to know I passed the test and didn’t buy it! But considering this aspect of the fast ends tomorrow and fortunately it hasn’t sold out yet…
closing philes.
If you’re getting nice spring temperatures like I am lately, please enjoy them outside! I typically like to sit on my porch, play songs from my sunny/warm days playlist and read. Just make sure to stay hydrated too.
Hope you had a great week!