That’s what she said, Barclays.
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For a Few Dollars More
As I said the other day, I was about 30 minutes into For a Few Dollars More.
Well now I’ve finished it.
Wow.
I loved it even more than A Fistful of Dollars.
It had a bigger scale, and featured the excellent Lee Van Cleef.
The man with no name and Van Cleef are both competing Bounty Hunters, both in search of a villainous gang leader with a big price on his head.
After an excellent display of skill between the two of them in the dead of night, they decide to join forces to get their hands on the gang leader and the other members — all with varying prices on their heads.
What follows is an unfolding story that keeps its secret right till the end — right before one of the best film endings I’ve ever experienced.
The ending isn’t huge and flashy. But the way it reveals its secret, followed by the music cue as a showdown begins, is just incredible.
It elevated the already enjoyable film into one that instantly became one of my favourites.
Now at the time of writing I am 30 minutes into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. I have more memories of this one than the previous two, but I’m looking forward to the rest of it with my new-found appreciation for the western genre.
YouTube Music has got me pegged.
An American, a Mexican and an Irishman…
I’ve started watching films again.
The Irishman
Firstly, I started with Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman.
Loved it.
The main cast have been great in everything I’ve seen them in. And this film was no different.
A masterclass.
For me it had those Jackie Brown vibes, in that a lot of it felt like I was just chilling out with these characters for most of it. Characters I quickly became fond of, despite their dubious business dealings.
And until I saw the conversation between Martin Scorsese and Pacino, De Niro and Pesci afterwards, I had no idea it was all based on a true story.
It took me three sittings to watch it as it was done between sleeps (raising a 2 month old)
Despite it being such a long film, I actually wished it was longer.
A Fistfull of Dollars
The first spaghetti western, and the film that launched Clint Eastwood’s film career.
A Fistfull of Dollars is cool as hell.
The man with no name wanders into a western town where two families are at war with each other.
So he decides to cleverly pit them against one another for his own gains.
I had seen this many years ago, but for some reason westerns didn’t do much for me. That was until I experienced the Red Dead Redemption games, especially the story of Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2
Since then I have been eager to explore more of the genre.
To be honest I think I’m trying to re-experience what I got with Red Dead Redemption 2, but with other stories.
But Arthur Morgan is always there at the back of my mind.
Sobs.
I loved this film.
Trivia: this features the scene featured in Back to the Future part 2, and the emulation that Marty performs in Back to the Future part 3.
At the time of writing I am 30 minutes into “For a Few Dollars More”.
Only taking breaks as I only get chance to see them at night when I have baby duties and of course at that point I’m knackered.
But I’ll get there eventually.
And at least my little girl is getting a good film education early.
The new resident evil game, Resident Evil Re9uiem, looks great so far.
And from the initial remarks I’ve heard, about a short demo feeling like an extension of the house of Beneviento sequence from RE Village, I find myself getting excited for next year.
The ever-growing sleep debt
I have a compounding sleep debt.
We have a 2 year old and a 6 week old. To say my wife and I are tired is an understatement to say the least.
Our children are definitely worth it all but I am looking forward to a full night’s sleep again.
It’s like being in a constant foggy haze — a fugue state.
The weird thing, is that I know I will miss these times. When they are all grown up, or even a little bit grown; when they no longer need us for basic survival; when I’ll no longer be woken at 3:30am to feed her a bottle, followed by an hour of playing Silent Hill 2 remake whilst she rests on me as her milk settles before she sleeps.
Also those decaf cups of tea in the middle of the night. Delish. And the opening of the fridge door to get the milk, only to be greeted by an ocean of melted ice below the fridge door.
These times will be but a memory sooner than I think — I should enjoy the insomnia while it lasts.
The Tsunami in the fridge
This morning I opened the fridge door to be greeted by a slight splash of water.
Okay — not quite a tsunami — but that’s clickbait for you.
Underneath the veg drawer of our modest 500mm wide fridge freezer lies a small pool of water in the recesses of its base.
First thought of course is “Ah great. Amazing. The fridge is buggered. One of the stalwarts of the modern home… packed in.”
But no.
The fridge is fine.
Upon lifting the vegetable drawer out I notice a block of ice on the back edge of the fridge base.
What I’m assuming is that the temperature drops to freezing to create this block over time, then as the fridge goes through some kind of cycle where it’s not quite freezing, it melts a bit.
I should do something about the temperature but I’m yet to find the dial.
If I should find it surely I should fix the issue with a simple nudge in the direction of non-freezing.
If I was loaded I could trash the old fridge and get a brand spanking new one.
But then… That would be cold…
The ActivityPub plugin for WordPress is incredible.
This morning i had my last decaffeinated tea bag.
All I have left is Alta Rica coffee. I’ve had half-portions but something tells me that I’m going to be wired for half the day, before having a big caffeine crash.
School boy error.
Overtaking — a wake up call
Yesterday I gave a family member a lift somewhere.
On the way there, entering a country road I began overtaking the car in front as I was struggling to get the person to their appointment on time.
The road ahead was clear and overtaking was permitted in this particular part of the stretch.
When all of a sudden a white Tesla — of all cars — came around a corner at the far end of the road I was overtaking on.
So i put my foot down as far as I could to finish the manoeuvre.
As I passed the car I was overtaking, the car In front was getting ever closer — not sure if they were speeding but being a Tesla I wouldn’t be too surprised.
I then pulled across as the on coming car flashed it’s lights twice at me “I’m here”. I flashed once back “sorry”.
Of course signalling with your lights is not encouraged and possibly illegal except under very specific circumstances.
Nevertheless we exchanged our vague highway morse code.
At the time it was obvious we weren’t going to impact.
But since then I’ve been stressing about the “What ifs”.
It’s even been running around my head about “What if the other driver reports me with dash camera footage, and I get prosecuted for dangerous driving”.
My mind automatically goes to the worst-case scenario.
Apparently if a letter isn’t received before 14 days has passed since an incident, then no action will be taken.
Thirteen days to go.
Hopefully I can look back on this post in a couple of weeks and laugh at myself.
Either way it gave me a wake up call to be extra mindful. And to not risk it all to save a potential few minutes. Because the trade off could be the rest of mine, and any passengers, days.
Stay safe out there.
There’s a strange sense of joy and accomplishment that comes after mowing the lawns and thus filling the garden bin.
Knowing that you’ve cleaned the garden somewhat.
And knowing that you’re getting your money’s worth from the garden bin subscription.
Nothing worse than seeing that collection truck go past for another week and having nothing to meet them at the bottom of the drive with. Another few quid wasted (pro-rata).
But not this time. This time I’ll have an almost full bin and I won’t lie — feels pretty good.
Black Mirror: Common People
Dark as fuck. And so brilliantly doing a send-up of the modern “subscription culture”.
Both leads were great.
This is the second thing I’ve seen Chris Dowd act in after The I.T. Crowd. So it was a complete departure for me.
And he is incredible in it.
Similarly with Rashida I’ve only seen her in The Office and Parks and Recreation.
She too was great.
They missed a trick in one scene though.
When they thought that his wife’s implant was malfunctioning and they headed to the Rivermind building. They didn’t have Chris Dowd ask “Have you tried turning it off and on again”.
This is the first time in recent memory I’ve needed to watch something light-hearted after seeing an episode of something.
A bleak, subscription-based nightmare.
And I loved it.