Fat's HEAVY TUNES of the Year 2020

0. Introductionalizing Maunderings
OR
Methodological Preliminaries

Eagle-eyed long-timers may notice I never did manage to publish a 2019 roundup of HEAVY TUNES. Therefore for 2020, I shall start with a shortcut: this precap.

I. Opening the Box

Like a lot of music fans, I have succumbed to the dread forces of streaming, ensuring that my access to music is dependent on a router my cable company bought in nigh-infinite bulk and gave me for "free", and putting my tastes at the mercy of arcane legal maneuverings between those who want to pay artists little and those who want to pay them less. Instead of looking for music to listen to myself (by reading Twitter, the only workable music discovery service left), I let the streaming service find it for me, and I stream even stuff I already own because I feel guilty about paying the service money, so I want to get my money's worth. I use a service that is unpopular, so no pretty popsicle-stick diagrams of my year graced my inbox and then plagued your social feeds. But they did send me a playlist of how they saw my year, which I reproduce below, and subsequently annotate.

1. L'autrier Me'n Aloie by Obsequiae on The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
2. The Return by Deltron 3030 on Event II
3. 2 Candles, 1 Wish by MONO (Japan) on Walking Clouds And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined
4. Leisureforce by Aesop Rock on Skelethon
5. $4 Vic / Nothing but Me and You (Ftl) by El-P on Cancer 4 Cure
6. Bridges And Balloons by Joanna Newsom on The Milk-Eyed Mender
7. In the Garden of Hyacinths by Obsequiae on The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
8. Elliptical Seasons by Starcastle on Starcastle
9. Pay The Price by Deltron 3030 on Event II
10. When I Was Small by Jesu on When I Was Small (Single)
11. Request Denied by El-P on Cancer 4 Cure
12. Cycles To Gehenna by Aesop Rock on Skelethon (Deluxe Edition) (Explicit)
13. This Side Of The Blue by Joanna Newsom on The Milk-Eyed Mender
14. Enter The Realm (Reworked Version) by Iced Earth on Days Of Purgatory (Expanded Version)
15. Lady Of The Lake by Starcastle on Starcastle
16. Speed Dragon by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
17. Miami Morning Coming Down by Earth on Hibernaculum
18. Funeral by Phoebe Bridgers on Stranger in the Alps
19. Never There for You by Jesu on Never
20. Ancient Power Plant by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
21. Engine Of Ruin by Earth on The Bee Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
22. Haitian Fight Song (Remastered) by Charles Mingus on Summertime (Remastered)
23. Rise To Glory by Earth on The Bee Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
24. Oceanride by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
25. Bach's Variatio 26 a 2 Clav by Piano Prayer on Light and Steady Piano Music Pieces

...seems about right. Mostly comfort listens, the things I returned to again and again.

II. The Long Version: The Commentariat on The Comfort Listens

1. L'autrier Me'n Aloie by Obsequiae on The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
   Sounds about right. I spent a LOT of 2020 returning to this slightly embarrassing but unstoppably catchy album of ... look, it's harp metal. I am okay with that. I understand that not everybody will be, but, hey: just means more room on the bandwagon for those of us who enjoy fun. This song does nothing for me, but appears on the list for reasons we'll get to. The album is great, though, you might like it.
2. The Return by Deltron 3030 on Event II
   Finally got around to Event II, and I think its beats are better than the original, and this song is as good an example of that as any. I took a look at some reviews, and this concept album got some criticism for being hard to parse on a plot level, which annoys me in at least two ways. First, no concept album I have heard works super well on any kind of plot level. Second, Event 2 works better than most! (Zen Arcade, Dimension Hätross, 2112, Tommy...Quadrophenia might work as well as Event 2, but that's about it...) Here, for the confused record, is the plot (from memory): there's a bad place and things are bad
   "crash landed on the planet, damn near couldn't under stand it
   Deltron is our hero, if he can't do it nobody can"
   with the help of a rag-tag band of music fans ... he does
   That's all, folks. It's not actually complicated. And the beats ruuuuuule.
3. 2 Candles, 1 Wish by MONO (Japan) on Walking Clouds And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined
   My buddy Pierre Idiot Trudeau turned me on to Mono in 2019. I never put them on specifically, but a couple stations my unpopular streaming service has have a LOT of Mono on them, so this track was selected by them essentially randomly.
4. Leisureforce by Aesop Rock on Skelethon
   Because I mostly listen to albums in their entirety, even on an unpopular streaming service whose specialty is a version of "radio stations" that strive never to play anything you wouldn't like—because, after all, look how well that worked for the terrestrial radio tradition of Top 40 stations, who have never been doing better than they are right now, thanks—the service's list of what I listened to this year is a little heavy on album-opening tracks. Indeed I did continue to return to this album all year long.
5. $4 Vic / Nothing but Me and You (Ftl) by El-P on Cancer 4 Cure
   While I listen to records start-to-finish, I in 2020 began to try to listen to any album only once per day, and no more than one album per artist on any given day. One exception that I made was to play this a number of times in a row a number of times, because I love it.
6. Bridges And Balloons by Joanna Newsom on The Milk-Eyed Mender
   For the last two years, when I need to feel feelings, I put this record on.
7. In the Garden of Hyacinths by Obsequiae on The Palms of Sorrowed Kings
   This is one of the songs I like best on this record, along with Morrigan. Just great shit!
8. Elliptical Seasons by Starcastle on Starcastle
   Another one that's been in heavy rotation for a couple years. Basically a version of Yes that removes a lot of the technical virtuosity and replaces it with a Midwestern driving-around vibe, I like it a lot when it's good, as it is on Starcastle and Citadel.
9. Pay The Price by Deltron 3030 on Event II
10. When I Was Small by Jesu on When I Was Small (Single)
    I don't remember listening to this that much, but late at night when I was sad and sadly awake, I reached for this a lot, partly to ease sleep, partly to puzzle muzzily over the lyrics to see if they were actually objectionable. Verdict still out, but I still love Jesu a lot when I like them, as I do here.
11. Request Denied by El-P on Cancer 4 Cure
    Probably the biggest overlap between "comfort album I turned to a lot in a troubling year" and "first track on that album, therefore overrepresented on the list" is this one.
12. Cycles To Gehenna by Aesop Rock on Skelethon (Deluxe Edition) (Explicit)
    Because for years I have needed to return to the notion of "the product of a DIY inadequate home"...
13. This Side Of The Blue by Joanna Newsom on The Milk-Eyed Mender
    Oddly, one of the songs I don't avidly love off of this album...
14. Enter The Realm (Reworked Version) by Iced Earth on Days Of Purgatory (Expanded Version)
    I really don't remember listening to this record that much this year, but no list of what I listened to is truly complete without a little mediocre power metal, so I'm okay with this.
15. Lady Of The Lake by Starcastle on Starcastle
    There's a really long Kansas song called "Song for America" that I think is a secret influence on a lot of music from the Final Fantasy games, and this song sounds like that, sorta.
16. Speed Dragon by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
    So...I like Tangerine Dream, it turns out. It was news to me (in 2018). Anyway, a lot of nights in 2020, I would put on a Tangerine-Dream-heavy "station" and try to crash. I guess this song came up a lot, when I did that?
17. Miami Morning Coming Down by Earth on Hibernaculum
    LOVE this shit. Never remember to listen as much as I should. I think this played a lot on my Mono station...
18. Funeral by Phoebe Bridgers on Stranger in the Alps
    Best song on the record, for sure.
19. Never There for You by Jesu on Never
    ...I have basically zero memory of listening to this album. Maybe I spun it once or twice late in the year and the unpopular streaming service thought that meant it was a grower? Anyway, what I really listened to a bunch late in the year was Terminus.
20. Ancient Power Plant by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
21. Engine Of Ruin by Earth on The Bee Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
22. Haitian Fight Song (Remastered) by Charles Mingus on Summertime (Remastered)
    Had some jazz moments this year, not gonna lie.
23. Rise To Glory by Earth on The Bee Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
24. Oceanride by Tangerine Dream on Ocean Waves Collection
25. Bach's Variatio 26 a 2 Clav by Piano Prayer on Light and Steady Piano Music Pieces
    Suspect this popped up in the Tangerine Dream station when I was sleeping. Otherwise, no idea.

III. Other and Else

The main thing that landed on me this year that isn't reflected up there is the unbelievably fun Ummon by Slift. French Hawkwind, with screamy drone-vocals and lots of fun riffs. Basically perfect. And French!

Also I listened a lot to the Mike Bagetta / Mike Watt / Stephen Hodges band MSSV. Mostly instrumental, which I needed at work a lot, and the joy and searching the band palpably experiences was also a needed infusion this year.

Oozing Wound, great shit. Ganser, also excellent. Lucidvox! MF Doom. The Paranoid Style, A Goddamn Impossible Way of Life, record-store-person rock, with great hooks and lyrics. Rediscovered the great Ferocious Eagle, who remind us "be not weary, be not weak". Finally realized that being the only fan of godheadSilo still standing meant it behooved me to investigate Enemymine and Dead Low Tide, both of which it turns out ... I like! Some other stuff, too, I am certain.

IV. The Future, Which Is Where We're All Going

I think I enjoy the effort to listen to no more than one album by any given artist per day, and I think I'll continue it. I've tried a few historical listens, where I pick an artist and listen to what they did in order, day by day, but never managed to complete any of these. If I do, and if it seems interesting, I'll put it here. If you want to see a somewhat accurate version of what I'm listening to, you can do so here: https://libre.fm/user/Clsn.

V. Previous Years in HEAVY TUNES

• 2018
• 2017
• 2016
• 2015
• 2014
• 2013
• 2012
• 2011

2020 Year End List of Favorite Movies Seen in Theaters

 

1.  I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020, Charlie Kaufman)

2.  Tenet (2020, Christopher Nolan)

3.  A Rainy Day in New York (2019, Woody Allen)

4.  The Grudge (2020, Nicolas Pesce)

5.  Mank (2020, David Fincher)

6.  Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (2020, Cathy Yan)
7.  Promising Young Woman (2020, Emerald Fennell)
8.  Kajillionaire (2020, Miranda July)
9.  Wonder Woman 1984 (2020, Patty Jenkins)
10. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019, Céline Sciamma)

IIII

Promising Young Woman (2020, Emerald Fennell) is a bubblegum black comedy revenge fantasy with an agenda. And what’s so satisfying about it is that it feels like what I want a Hollywood movie to feel like: assured, absurd, uncomfortable, relatable, relevant, serious, fun, silly, and structured. Well, what I want out of a movie that I guess could be called a date movie, or escapist, or popcorn; but intelligent, even Hitchcock-worthy in its strategies.

     The music works. So much of the tone of Promising Young Woman comes from the songs. The opening alone was worth the price of my admission. Seriously, Charli XCX? I already love it. “Boys” is Charli at her most playful, and its 8-bit NES coin sounds in the soundscape is not just fun, it says something about her demographic. But somewhere around the midpoint there’s a scene where CASSIE goes batshit aggro way over the top to the “Liebestod,” in a set piece that for me shows that character eschewing verisimilitude for emotional authenticity. That scene’s my whole basis for relating to her. And not that at this point I can even rank the music selections but there’s also a montage to Paris Hilton’s one hit, “Stars Are Blind,” that goes so far as to make me wonder why I can’t think of any other movie to knock me over with applause at the alchemy of worthless art into precious art.

 

     But no it wasn’t only the music. The narrative is an airtight genre psychological thriller morality trap. And it doesn’t cop out. Yet still it manages to stay dangerous. Its tone is traumacore. And the central protag is so volatile but not for one second would I say crazy.

 

12/23/2020 AMC Madison Yards 8

Atlanta, GA

DCP

The Parable of the Organ Grinder's Monkey

 Remember the first time someone told you there was a documentary about Apocalypse Now (1979, Francis Coppola) that was even better than the movie itself? How Martin Sheen had a heart attack while filming WILLARD’S breakdown? How Brando was so fat that KURTZ could only be filmed from the neck down, and hidden in deep shadows?

     And what about Heaven’s Gate (1980, Michael Cimino)? Which did you hear about first: the movie or Steven Bach’s Final Cut: Art, Money, and Ego in the Making of Heaven’s Gate, the Film that Sank United Artists?

 

     What is Citizen Kane (1941, Orson Welles) about? That’s a fun topic for conversation. Or a really boring one in an intro film theory context. In the latter it’s supposed to illustrate the point that there is no one definitive answer.

     What is Mank (2020, David Fincher) about? How the screenplay to Citizen Kane came about. And herein lies its weakness. Whereas Welles was a showman, Fincher is a craftsman. In her essay “Raising Kane,” Pauline Kael long ago fired shots at Welles usurping the credit owed to Herman Mankiewicz and Gregg Toland. So, we already have a detailed look at the intriguing making of Citizen Kane. When I say weakness, I mean the heart of the damn thing. Mank is hollow.

     For instance, take the protagonist of Citizen Kane, and for that matter, Fincher’s Citizen Kane: The Social Network (2010, Fincher). Kane and Zuck are mostly depicted as powerful rich men with fragile egos who build an empire but are fated to lose grasp of attaining the love of a woman they desire. What makes those films compelling are the tragic glimpses into their character; it’s the stuff we don’t like about them that makes us, if we’re lucky, identify with their humanity. Mank is in every way their opposite: weak (politically and professionally), far from Rockefeller (though by no means a pauper), with an invincible ego, and a loyal, perfect wife depicted as nothing more than an unquestioning longsuffering servant to him.

     Don’t mistake Mank for the cinnamon roll narratives of Citizen Kane or The Social Network either. Another way The Social Network is such a brilliant story in terms of point of view is that it’s not entirely focused on the making of Facebook. I mean it starts that way sure, but for me the moment it becomes sublime is when we begin jumping between the two litigation scenes, resulting in what we thought was the chronological order of the film being altered on the spot to become flashbacks. Or not only that, but take the Henley Regatta and its amazing opening with tilt shift lenses and Reznor-Ross electronic “In the Hall of the Mountain King” montage; what does any of it have to do with inventing Facebook in the sense of linear narrative? It comes out of nowhere. On the other hand, every scene in Mank is about the screenplay; its motivation; its obstacles; its method.

 

     But once the form of Mank becomes identifiable, the fun begins. It’s an historical comedy. (Fincher’s first comedy?) And finely crafted within the guise of resembling a creation of its period. Mank isn’t compelling as a character because he doesn’t need to be. He’s witty, wry, and hilarious. 

     And the imaginative pitch meeting at Paramount between Selznick, Von Sternberg and the writers takes routine exposition and springboards into an example of fine comedy timing, execution, and delivery. Especially Von Sternberg’s punchline. When before has Fincher been this steeped in classic comedy? I wasn’t sure if I was making a trite observation about the hubris symbolism in the scene where Mank tries to light his cigar in the inferno blasting from W.H.’s fireplace or if in fact Fincher intended it to be indicative of the type of rubbish one would find in the pretentious artiness of the period?

 

     Technically Mank is a marvel of Fincher’s powers of opulence. The framing and lighting of the black and white images is pristine. He throws in a nifty montage. I remain a subscriber to the cult of Fincher. There’s so much to be found in his choices. What about at the first Hearst dinner the way Thalberg sits next to Mayer sharing a settee, while Norma Shearer is in her own chair next to him? In every aspect it’s a movie about the love of movies for people who love movies made by one who love movies. And it is exhilarating to be transported during the third act into the completion of the screenplay. At 327 pages, crashing with a thud upon delivery to Houseman, with its original title framed upside down: American (maybe a little redundant that the effect is repeated again later), Mankiewicz’s first draft is a worthy subject of legend.

12/20/2020 Landmark Midtown Art Cinema

Atlanta, GA

DCP

Write Down What You Need to Do: On a Calendar, Maybe

About a million years ago, before I listened to The Best Show, even, I read Tom Scharpling's rules for getting creative work done.

1. DO THE WORK. Can you look yourself in the mirror at the end of the day and say that you did the best you could?
2. BE THE BEST POSSIBLE VERSION OF YOURSELF. Don’t shortchange yourself or pull your punches because of some internal negative voice!
3. WRITE DOWN WHAT YOU NEED TO DO. It helps. Do those three things and you’ll be more alright than not.

These have stuck with me for a long time, perhaps none more than No. 3 there. (No. 1 and No. 3 jockey for the lead spot over time.) It occurs to me now that my interest in calendars, notebooks, and complicated to-do lists, automated computationally can all be seen as variations on Scharpling's Third Rule.

So's anyways, here is this year's spin on David Malki's devastatingly simple and useful "progressive calendar", a similarly break-free and formatting-light you can print out, look at, and use it as a place to write down what you need to do, along with when you need to do it.

• Fat Contradiction's Continuous Calendar for 2021

Braun Reason to Live -- In Which: My On My Grind Gets Its Glow-Up

Official Sound Accompaniment:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Clsn (@clsn74)

About a year ago, Noodles AKA TWBGITW bestowed upon me a much beloved coffee implement, a Bialetti Moka Pot. (Read more about moka pots at Atlas Obscura.)

It quickly entered the coffee-making-technology rotation, particularly on weekend mornings, when we would call it "fancy coffee". Some mornings, tho, usually work days, I'd fall back on my ancient Braun drip maker, for a more set-it-and-forget-it experience, usually grinding some beans and hitting the GO button and letting it do its thing while I was in the shower. (Read more about Braun drip coffee makers at Super! Hero! Shared! Housing!)

(Loomy Braun.)

A minor iceberg in my ocean of caffeine happiness appeared a couple weeks ago: the light inside that GO button ceased to ... light. Water and grounds still goes in, heat still applies, coffee still comes out, but without the little visual reminder that the Braun is on, I worry that I'll leave the carafe on the burner, burn the coffee, leave it on when I leave the house, burn the place down, etc.

Then, a couple days ago, Noodles gave me an incredible update, a fancy burr grinder for my beans! (Usually Bicycle Coffee's medium roast.) This is one burr that isn't under my saddle!

(Behold Big Burr, aka Barnaby Jones aka my new best friend.)

Counter space being at a premium in my humble abode, I had some thinking to do. And so it has come to pass that Big Braun last night got a thorough cleaning, soap, a vinegar cycle, rinsing, the whole nine, and is now stored on a shelf in my pantry. Big Burr and Big Bialetti stand tall and proud and more than ready to flow freely forth with my brown bean fix.

(The...chamber...comes out. This changes everything.)

Along the way, my old grinder, used daily for coffee for some years, also needed a cleaning for storing. While doing so, I discovered a fascinating feature: the tub where beans go in and are bladed into grounds ... the tub is removable. It comes out, it can be removed. Daily use for probably five years, and I just now discover this as I prepare to retire it from coffee duty to spice detail, where I can think of exactly one recipe I ever need to grind spices for (confidential to Yotam Ottolenghi: black peppercorns don't exactly grow on TREES you know, sheesh, five tablespoons for a dish that feeds two people!? I get that the book is called Plenty, but it still seems a little overkilly.). Some might suggest I had some reason to expect that the tub comes out, but I don't know what those people are talking about, or could be.

(I never peel stickers off. Apparently neither do I read them, however.)

Pen 15 Club: For Tim Donaghy: On Changing a Zebra -- OR -- When the Record Isn't Spotty Nor Checkered but Striped -- AND -- Hot Zebra F-301 VERSUS F-701 Comparison

Pen 15 Club: For Tim Donaghy: On Changing a Zebra
-- OR --
When the Record Isn't Spotty Nor Checkered but Striped
-- AND --
Hot Zebra F-301 VERSUS F-701 Comparison

"Sadness." -Tinzeroes, texting me when New York City's cobblestones juddered his freakbike's DNA fork beyond cohesion or repair.

One of the reasons I have enjoyed using my (second) Zebra F-301 pen is that it's (mostly) metal, and promises to last a long time and keep stuff out of the landfill. However, it's not entirely metal, it's only mostly metal, metal joined to plastic, and where metal and plastic join, there you find weakness, with the unyielding weight and strength of metal able to stress the lighter, brittler plastic.

One easy way to verify this weakness is to drop your F-301 on the streets of San Francisco while trying to promote democracy. If a person needed to re-verify, a solid option would be drop the pen onto the mighty concrete of the Berkeley Bowl's floor. First time, the results were ... shattering. This time, a subtler damage obtained.

(The F-301's obtuse angle.)

The bend isn't something that makes the pen not work. The stability and solidity of the unit are substantially lessened, however, and the way it creaks and shimmies under pressure of writing make it very difficult for me to enjoy using.

(The Zebra F-701.)

Luckily, I have options. I swiftly yoinked from my quiver a pen I've used only occasionally thus far, another Zebra model, the all-metal F-701. I bought it in a frenzy of anxious need a couple months back, along with some F-301 refills, and several—nearly multiple—instances of graph paper. I was very anxious that day. I haven't used the F-701 too much. It is very heavy. I think the ink might be the slightest bit different than the F-301 inserts, and the tip is listed as .8 mm, as opposed to the .7 mm of the F-301, and the writing seems a little smoother, lighter, waterier, and blobbier (at least in the notebook I'm currently using).

Fiddling with the F-701 initially, I discovered that F-301 refills seem to work in it, but F-701 refills do not seem to fit into an F-301. I also discovered that the spring in the F-701 is very stiff, and (thus) incredibly satisfying (to click). A weird fillip: post-click, when the tip is deployed into Writing Mode, there is apparently a secondary spring holding the plunger erect. The F-301, in Writing Mode, offers no (such) support to the plunger. I go back and forth on this. I'm not used to it, on the bad side (I do loathe change). It's quiet, when waving the pen around, and allows a second stage of fiddling—pushing the plunger down, but not enough to engage the tip-retraction mechanism—both of which are on the good side, indeed, on the side of good.

(Note the variance: tip out, plunger down vs. tip out, plunger up. Intriguing.)

The aforementioned ink issues aside, the F-701 isn't the easiest thing in the world to write with. It's heavy as all hell, and it's noticeably thicker than the F-301, which is a bit of an issue for my small hands and extraordinarily short fingers.

• F-701: 24 grams on the digital scale
• F-301: 11 grams on the digital scale

It may well be worth trading away lightness and overall ease of use for incredible durability—which I do expect a fully metal pen to embody—and just that much less waste. But if the use of, the writing with, will be slower, more awkward, more tiring, perhaps I should explore other channels of less waste.

Let's take a little break to listen to some great new French prog-metal.

I have two main tracks of writing by hand: work, and not-work. For work writing, please see the recent approach to writing less by hand and more by computer I pioneered in the following effort: Vim (for non-programmers) Section DCLXVI: Automating Making a To-Do List and Crossing Off Make a To-Do List on Your To-Do List Automatically. Work writing is usually notes, from a meeting or interview, or lists. Not-work writing, like, not to put to fine a point on it, this thing that I'm writing now, tends to be much more connected, and extended, which is to say that the writing tends to go on longer and have fewer breaks. This all means that a less wieldy pen, a heavier pen, is less desirable. And that all means...maybe I should investigate one last option for keeping my F-301 in my hand and out of the landfill.

You see, something you likely don't know about me, unless you're reading this, in which case you almost certainly do know me and thus know or can predict the following about me, is that I throw...little away. When my last F-301 died, I actually saved its busted guts, in case its parts might come in handy. I dug it out recently to see if I could kit-bash the situation together into something fitter, happier, more productive. It appears, though, unfortunately, that what I have here is two broken pens, with three pieces apiece, that share a broken piece.

(Two Donaghys, artist's rendering.)

It should maybe not surprise me that the critical flaw of the F-301 is a piece of plastic: a critical flaw of our civilization itself is dependence on plastic (and other petroleum products) and often can the part reveal and replicate the whole. But even if it's no surprise, it can still be a stone bummer, and indeed and in fact I am bummed, a little, that I can't cobble together one satisfactorily operational F-301 from two broken ones. I can, more or less, use the more recently and less severely damaged model, with...some psychic discomfort (and a likely physical failure impending, as my heavy hand imposes more pressure on the compromised plastic piece.

I find it difficult to disprove my assessment that what I should do is:

1. Use the F-701 at work, where its durability will be great and its drains on my stamina will be less of a problem
2. Deploy another new F-301 for my personal uses, hoping that if—when?—it fails, a different part will be the problem, and I can join fragments of three to make one, where I now can't make a broken two into a one entire

(Two Donaghys, documentary evidence.)

Or maybe I should learn to throw things away, when they're broken?

—Fat, pondering abandonment

Vim (for non-programmers) Section DCLXVI: Automating Making a To-List and Crossing Off Make a To-Do List on Your To-Do List Automatically

Vim (for non-programmers) Section DCLXVI: Automating Making a To-List and Crossing Off Make a To-Do List on Your To-Do List Automatically OR So...I wrote a thing...the thing is a plugin, sort of

Where notebooks and calendars and computers meet is ... well, lots of different places. But one place they meet is at work. Thus it did come to pass that I felt the need to take a daily notebook calendaring exercise and turn it into something that could be replicated on my computer. Which brings us to a thing I wrote, entitled "todotxt.vim", a "plugin" for the Vim text editor, which promises little and delivers less.

As it says in the help file I wrote (lol):

When I start work each day, it makes sense for me to:

1. Start a new page in my work notebook for that day
2. List my meetings for the day (at the top of the page, in order)
3. List my tasks for the day (to use the page efficiently, I populate the tasks starting at the bottom of the page, but I don't generally order them or worry about grouping or managing them)

This plugin creates a digital version of that page of my notebook, with a new file for each day.

The premise of the plugin is that a list of the things you have to do is a good thing to have. The list might as well be in plain text, so you can look at it on pretty much any device, and if it's in plain text, I might as well be able to use the fancy special features of my favorite text editing program, Vim to edit it. I find it helpful to be able to look back and see what I did on a given day, so a big piece of the "functionality" involves knowing what day it is and making a special file for that day. Since I don't always finish everything I want to do on a given day (lol), another big piece of the "functionality" involves looking at a specified previous day and pulling the un-done tasks from that day to the current day. There's also a tiny bit of attention paid to making it look quasi-nice (using Vim's syntax formatting).

Anyway, if you want to try this, there's a link to the files here:

• Big zip file of everything

And while the file itself is more or less definitive, and can be read in a text editor by clicking here, the help file may be more illustrative, so I have pasted it in below. Sorry about the formatting below. If you hate it, click the link, I guess. NOTE: where it says something like \tadd you should replace \ with leader in angle brackets.

*todotxt.txt* for Vim version 7.4 and greater Last change: 2020 Nov 4

Adds limited functionality and syntax highlighting for plain-text to-do files
accessed in Vim.

================================================================================
CONTENTS *todotxtcontents*

1. Introduction ................ |todotxt-introduction|
2. Installation ................ |todotxt-installation|
3. Usage ....................... |todotxt-usage|
4. Mappings .................... |todotxt-mappings|
5. Configuration ............... |todotxt-config|
6. License ..................... |todotxt-license|
7. Bugs, Version, and To-Dos ... |todotxt-bugs|
8. Contributing ................ |todotxt-contributing|
9. Changelog ................... |todotxt-changelog|
10. Credits .................... |todotxt-credits|


================================================================================
Section 1: Introduction *todotxt-introduction*

This is a very simple plugin for creating, using, updating, and (very very
lightly) tracking to-do files in plain text. Syntax highlighting and a few
mappings make the to-do list easier to look at and easier to use.

The basic idea is to start your workday with a file that has the following in
it:

By default, when the empty file is loaded at the beginning of the day, the
plugin will ask if there is a previous file to check for tasks that are not
marked as done. This will usually be the previous workday's file. If the

specified file has tasks not marked as done, those tasks will be added to the
current day's file, along the lines of the following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

To add a task, use \tadd to enter a date-stamped task on the line under
the cursor along the following lines.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

More tasks can be added to the line under the cursor.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-04 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Meetings work similarly, but instead of a datestamp that is added
automatically, meetings ask you to enter a time. Once added, it looks
something like the following. The command for this is \madd.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| - [ ] Twerk Noonish? |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [ ] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Adding tasks and meetings manually can be done throughout the day.

To make a file for the day, \logit is used. This will create a file
with a datestamp in the filename for easy sorting, and to make it simple to
pull the undone tasks from earlier files.

To mark a meeting or task as done, put the cursor on the line of the meeting
or task and enter \done. This will have an effect like the following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| - [ ] Twerk Noonish? |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [X] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

Sometimes a meeting will be cancelled or you will decide to not do a task in a
way you want to document (and not carry the task forward to future days). To
do this, enter the command \skip, which will have an effect like the
following.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
| # Today's Date |
| # Meetings |
| |
| |
| --- |
| |
| # Tasks |
| |
| - [X] McDonalds 2020-11-05 |
| - [ ] Eat Hot Chip 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Charge Phone 2020-11-05 |
| - [X] Lie 2020-11-05 |
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+

This doesn't look very interesting in a help file, but the plugin uses
Markdown formatting to make list items and HTML comments -- like the skipped
meeting above -- visually distinctive. Since the meetings and tasks are added
on the line under the cursor, the line the cursor is on is also highlighted.

To-do-specific functions are mostly handled with mappings. Everything else
about the file is meant to be handled using Vim's built-in capabilities. For
more details, see the credits section.


================================================================================
Section 2: Installation *todotxt-installation*

I think this will work with Pathogen? I'm not sure: I don't use Pathogen.
What I would do is:
1. Put the todotxt.vim file somewhere in your plugins folder
2. Make a todo directory somewhere that makes sense to you
3. Add the following to your .vimrc file. >
augroup filetype_todo
autocmd!
autocmd BufNewFile */todotxt/*todo*.txt :source path/to/todotxt.vim
autocmd BufNewFile */todotxt/*todo*.txt :Todotxtstartup
augroup END
<

Or you could just dump the whole todotxt.vim file into your .vimrc...


================================================================================
Section 3: Usage *todotxt-usage*

This is an opinionated little plugin. It is based on a small set of (my)
practices and makes certain assumptions. If those practices and assumptions
don't work for you, this plugin is almost certainly not going to work for you
either (whether or not I've actually made it functional).

Practices: When I start work each day, it makes sense for me to:
1. Start a new page in my work notebook for that day
2. List my meetings for the day (at the top of the page, in order)
3. List my tasks for the day (to use the page efficiently, I populate the
tasks starting at the bottom of the page, but I don't generally order them or
worry about grouping or managing them)

This plugin creates a digital version of that page of my notebook, with a new
file for each day.

Assumptions:
1. You want to do something (very) like the practices above
2. You want to use Vim to edit to-do files
3. You're okay managing your own files

The way todotxt.txt expects you to use it is:
1. Each day, use the command line to tell Vim to create a file with "todo"
(without the quotes) in its filename and the extension .txt in a folder with
"todo" (without the quotes) in its path
2. Tell todotxt.txt to import undone tasks from a specified previous day (or,
in a very special situation, a lot of days)
3. Add your meetings and tasks over the course of the day
4. Mark meetings and tasks done over the course of the day
5. Save a copy of the list for reference later
6. Repeat 1-5 the next day
7. Every so often (once a month would make a lot of sense) move all the old
daily files into a sub-folder

To make 2, 3, 4, and 5 easier, there are mappings. To make the file easier to
look at, it uses syntax highlighting. That's it. That's all it does. It
should save you some typing of items from day-to-day if on Day 2, you have
some tasks you didn't complete on Day 1, and it should look better than a raw
text file. Otherwise, you're on your own.


================================================================================
Section 4: Mappings *todotxt-mappings*

This is kind of the meat of the plugin, in a weird way. Of course, if you're
a Vim user looking for plugins, you probably have a ton of your own mappings,
which is a problem, because I cannot for the life of me figure out all the
things I'm supposed to do to make sure this plugin's mappings aren't going to
clobber yours. Sorry. To make things easier, I've listed them all below. To
make things less dangerous, I've made them all pretty long.

Type: To: ~
\tadd Add a new task
\madd Add a new meeting
\done Mark a task or meeting accomplished
\skip Mark a meeting or task skipped
\logit Write a file with the current date in the filename
\grabit Pull in undone things from a specified file
\graball Pull in undone things from all files in the folder

graball is meant for big clean-up jobs and should rarely be used. All others
are meant for use daily (logit) or more often (tadd, madd, done, skip). grabit
fires automatically when you open the file, but can be used to add days one at
a time, if needed.


================================================================================
Section 5: Configuration *todotxt-config*

There aren't configuration options at this time. If you want a different path
or a different filename or a different type of syntax highlighting, you can
edit the todotxt.vim file to suit your preferences (but don't blame me if
something goes wrong).


================================================================================
Section 6: License *todotxt-license*

This file is placed in the public domain. But you shouldn't use it if you
aren't literally me.


================================================================================
Section 7: Bugs *todotxt-bugs*

God, there are probably a million bugs. If you find one, shoot me an email at
cfcollision@gmail.com, please! If you fix it, that's even better.

I am having enormous trouble with the apparently important "avoid loading the
file multiple times per buffer" issue, so frequently you may need to manually
set filetype to markdown, and I have no idea why. It loads other shit, but
not the filetype setting and I cannot figure out why that might be. For now,
I just have the entire "1. Filetype Protections from usr_41.txt" section
commented out because I can't make it work properly.

Tasks and meetings are added under the cursor. This is a little clunky, but
since Vim makes it easy to put the cursor where we want it, we can accept this mild inconvenience.

Not a bug, but a behavior: "logit" will (a) overwrite any previous version of
the file you made that day and (b) silently enter the current day if you start
up todotxt.vim on one day but use "logitlogit" on a different day.

"skip" marks things done, so they do not carry over into following days. This
is deliberate, but may not be what you want. My usage is to use "skipskip" only
for meetings that were cancelled, not for tasks I have chosen to leave undone;
those, I would usually allow to carry forward to the next day (and the next
day's file) and simply delete if need be, or use "skipskip" and add a comment
about why I had left the task undone.

This is tested on my home laptop, running Ubuntu 16.4, and my work MacBook.
It has NOT been tested on any Windows machine and probably won't work on one.

This works on Vim version 7.4 on Ubuntu 16.4 and should work on newer
versions. I think it works on Vim version 8.0 on my work MacBook.

Todo:
1. Sorting tasks by datestamp would be pretty cool
2. Auto-sorting meetings by time would also be pretty cool
3. Getting gVim to work would also be sweet (setting pwd on BufNew or
something?)
4. Add menus?
5. Sweet README.md file?
6. Smart enough to check more than one file?
7. Sweep done tasks (but not meetings) to the bottom of the file and hide them
(comment them out or fold them?)
8. Cleverly fold the todotxt.vim file using blank lines?
9. Shortening everything so I could have a cal in there
10. Making long lines work better and not just let them scroll off
endlessly?

================================================================================
Section 8: Contributing *todotxt-contributing*

It is unlikely that this will be useful enough to any other human to merit any
contributions. If you tweak it to your liking, feel free to shoot me an
email about your tweak. If you are okay with me adopting your tweak, please
say so.


================================================================================
Section 9: Changelog *todotxt-changelog*

This document is for plugin version 0.2.1, first even potentially shareable
version, with broken stuff commented out.


================================================================================
Section 10: Credits *todotxt-credits*

This is inspired by three things:
1. Bullet journal practice
2. Hipster PDA practice (documentation here:
http://www.43folders.com/2004/09/03/introducing-the-hipster-pda_ )
3. Steve Losh's program t: "a command-line todo list manager for people who
want to FINISH tasks, not organize them" ... "it does the simplest thing that
could possibly work" ... "hacked together in a couple nights to fit my needs"
with more documentation available here:
https://stevelosh.com/projects/t/

The idea is to mirror in plain text files my particular implementation of
ideas adopted from bullet journaling and the hipster PDA. In particular:
1. Treating a day as a container for the stuff I have to do that day, not
distinguishing between tasks and meetings, because they are both things I have
to do on a given day
2. Devoting a page in a notebook to that day, so everything is available at a
glance
3. Marking things done when done
4. Carrying over things to the next day if they are not done

Losh's program did a lot of things I found interesting, especially with very
short commands to do useful things, but had certain features that didn't work
well for my needs, including a dependency on Python and a need to make
command-line aliases for things. His repeated comment "need to do something?
open it in a text editor" inspired me to harness Vim's capacities and make Vim
the home for the whole thing. Also I have one need his program does not allow
for, which is an occasional but very important need to document what I did on
a given day or set of days: this implies a daily log of some kind. Finally,
hell, sometimes I do want to organize my tasks, not finish them. (And a lot
of his functionality is built around preventing multiple users or computers
clobbering one file, which is not a need I have.)

So, I hacked something together over the course of a couple days, test-drove
it and amended it.

His way -- t -- is almost certainly better, and I encourage you to try it out
rather than muck around with this.

vim:tw=78:ts=8:ft=help:norl:

Previous entries in Vim (for non-programmers):

1. Vim (for non-programmers) Chapter O (NOT 0), recipes which are quick and dirty, example six: Let's Make a Time-Stamped Log of Stuff We Read Online and Want to Have a List Of; Hey, Guess What? I Got a Lot of This from Chris Toomey (heart-eyes emoji)
2. Vim (for non-programmers) Part Three: Refactoring my _vimrc File; Chapter Five: Correct Easy Link Addition (Correcting My Misreading of Steve Losh)
3. Vim (for non-programmers) Part Three: Refactoring my .vimrc File, Chapter Five; Correct Easy Markup of Markdown Headlines (Building on Chris Toomey's "Your First Vim Plugin")
4. Vim (for non-programmers) Chapter O (NOT 0), recipes which are quick and dirty, example two: Dumping Out the Recommendations from IDEOTVPod into One File

Real Life is Fine for People Who Can't Do Any Better

The difference between Woody Allen and say, Todd Solondz or Charlie Kaufman, is Allen will do a romantic comedy without a hint of disillusion or angst. And the problem with a lot of Woody Allen reviews I’ve read is that if his newest film isn’t unexpected or profound they pawn it off as a stale retread—overlooking brilliance cloaked in subtlety.

 
     A Rainy Day in New York (2019, Woody Allen) is a confection of pure escapist romantic illusion that packages many of Allen’s most familiar trademarks except one: nihilism.
 
     What’s my favorite thing about A Rainy Day in New York? The dialogue. It’s like a buffet of delightfully witty one-liners that slowly pass right in front of you on an automatic conveyer belt for you to sit there and enjoy. Next is what the film says about romance.
 
     Or more specifically, what A Rainy Day in New York dreams of romance as. The leads are all young and good-looking. The main couple define the ideal chemistry of a perfect match by means of their matching of wits through intellectually comic sparring. And the characters don’t spend time talking about love or how they feel about each other very much, although when they do it’s about partners that aren’t exactly right for them. 
     But ultimately in Allen’s règle du jeu his most optimistic sentiment is that of how in a vast sea of vain searching only one couple actually get struck by fleeting Cupid’s elusive arrow, and once they finally realize it, the film is over. And this is why Allen can still craft a masterwork in a year of duds.
 
     I’m probably reaching and way off here, but I read some symbolism into how HOLDEN’S paramour wears a sweater and skirt. When he starts hanging out with the other woman CHAN, right after it rains she changes into a sweater and mini-skirt. Could it be the change in costume design is telling us how we can find our ideal where we would least expect to?
     Or maybe another bit of subtext could be how Holden never loses at poker, but with love he doesn't quite have the same luck? Or does he? Is Allen using poker as an analogy about love? Like losing a hand doesn't mean you still can't come back to win the pot?

10/11/2020 Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
Atlanta, GA
DCP

Old Dolio Dyne

Kajillionaire (2020, Miranda July) is an indie comedy set in LA mapping a moral profile of each of its four central protagonists. And none of them ever ring false. 

     I love this movie, is its modern, exquisitely designed narrative. At one point in the movie, OLD DOLIO is said to be incapable of tender feelings. When we think about it, we know this isn’t true. I first pondered the possible irony that for Old Dolio’s parents to even consider this, wouldn’t that mean they are incapable? For me Kajillionaire is about people struggling to deal with tender feelings—whether personal, filial, social or romantic.

     But what impresses me most is this sense of Miranda July really figuring out the trajectory of events and how the emotions of each character are constantly explored in context to their moral choices. And she does this in a way where it makes the film feel personal and not like the usually Hollywood commercial product. 
     The conflict is simple--$2500 owed for 3 months back rent. In Kajillionaire, July focuses and commits to this, wringing an entire microworld form it. Again, I really love how every single beat in this movie fits together and every moment is definitive in allowing us to know these characters.
 
     The wide angle compositions and cool color temperature give Kajillionare a distinctly stylized look. And the spacey dreamy score enhances it. But for me my only personal stumbling block is that Old Dolio dresses, talks, and dances like Napoleon Dynamite. That and her only friend is a Puerto Rican girl. Yeah I know his is a Mexican boy but for me I can’t shake the comparison. And okay maybe the dance comparison is a stretch, especially if you’ve seen The Future (2011, July). 
     In Kajillionaire Miranda July’s idiosyncratic imaginative craft is prevalent, and peerless.
 
9/27/2020 Landmark Midtown Art Cinema
Atlanta, GA

DCP

Talking to the Dog: Checking In On the Local Little Free Library

In my neighborhood, and maybe in yours, there is a Little Free Library. I frequently forget to check it. Based on today, that forgetting may be a fairly bad mistake.

It started fairly innocuously.

(Nothing too terribly exciting here at first glance. Pretty standard stuff, even.)

Okay, Marianne Williamson, no thanks, Anna Karenina, nice...but...wait. What's this Woof book? What's this Grrr! thing? Those are books with titles that are right up this reader's alley! Let's check those ou—

(...oh...oh my...)

Times, as we know, are tough. I don't know where you're at, but my state's on fire, my work is completely unlatched, sickness and infection loom silently and invisibly behind everything I think about, my political enemies are in power, my freshly snaked toilet is backing up again, and I'm frankly finding it very difficult to improve my muscle tone. But...when I see something like this at the Little Free Library...it's hard to stay mad, when there's so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once, and it's too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst...And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can't feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life...You have no idea what I'm talking about, I'm sure. But don't worry...you will someday.

(Okay, sorry about that last joke there.)

Gamera 2 (1996)

Directed by Shusuke Kaneko.