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Dick Powell as Marlowe.My favorite fictional detectives are the erudite, snobbish Philo Vance and the sarcastic, sly Philip Marlowe. Both have been the subject of numerous films, but with middling results. Marlowe has been played by an unusual assortment of actors that includes Humphrey Bogart, Robert Montgomery, George Montgomery, James Garner, Elliott Gould, Robert Mitchum, and Liam Neeson. Bogart captured Marlowe’s toughness. Garner projected the right amount of sarcasm. Mitchum …

At risk of copyright infringement, I wanted to highlight for my loyal readers a super cool book of photographs that I saw pop up on eBay, leading me to the wonderful-looking shop Globus Rare Books & Archives. If you click the link (provided no one has since bought it), you’ll find for sale at the bargain-basement price of $3,750 (man I wish I was rich) a “historically significant collection of …

It's finally happened. A big company said the quiet part out loud. PwC, the behemoth U.S. consulting company, is using surveillance data to monitor and flag employees for violating its "back to office" policy, according to a news report (link). The article concerns the U.K. office. There are some possibilities: this is a pilot program, eventually to be implemented worldwide other locations may already be doing it but quietly other …

“It goes without saying that I’m an activist for Multiplicity.“ The latest title to be translated into English by the eminent Spanish writer Enrique Vila-Matas, Insistence as a Fine Art, is practically a miniature book, measuring about 4 by 2 3/4 inches and only 96 pages long. In January 2023, Vila-Matas gave a lecture at the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga called “La insistencia como una de las bellas artes.” He …

At least in the indie music genre, people are advised to make music videos in order to fulfill a requirement of publicity. The music video needs a certain degree of polish, which creates a natural economic filter weeding out musicians that have less economic resources. (Paying someone to make a suitable music video can easily cost $5K for a video – a price I was quoted by a certain indie …

Signal Is More Than Encrypted Messaging. Under Meredith Whittaker, It’s Out to Prove Surveillance Capitalism Wrong. Excellent interview covering lots of what's wrong with surveillance capitalism and what we need (more folk) to do in order to build a better alternative.Solar will get too cheap to connect to the power grid. In the UK in 2024, I can go online and buy a solar panel with the same dimensions as …

This is a tabloid thriller romp meets gothic romance into what I would probably describe more as caretaker whump appreciation of bad things happening to a male captive than anything traditionally femdom. Still, if your entry to this kink is more focused on the hurt/comfort male suffering part and the power fantasy of being a rescuer, this book has a lot to offer. And, if last week’s review (What… Source

We finally watched Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, an ode to solitude starring Koji Yakusho as a toilet cleaner finding happiness in doing things his way. Wenders told Frieze: “The spirit of the film is in the fact that everything feels almost holy because that’s how he looks at everything.” We’re encouraged to embrace life’s simple pleasures and routine, to leave the past behind and appreciate the current moment — life …

I have finally got the comments section of the site working. If you'd like to suggest corrections; ask questions or make a comment, please feel free. No swearing!You will need to supply an email address (look for the banner at the end of a post) and then check your inbox for an email from [email protected] confirming registration on the site. Click the confirmation link in the email and then you …

We live in and work in a nest of complex adaptive systems and one of the characteristic of this kind of system is that with time and experience, things tend to become more complex and interdependent. As a leader, it is our responsibility to understand this increasing complexity and make sense of it. Then break it down to its simplest form and share this with our teams, so that they …

Back in July 22 I visited Kynance Cove on a gorgeous July evening with my sister. We swam in the sparkling water and I came home with lots of inspiring photos. April 23 I produced a print I named Kynance Light and it was my fastest selling print. Since then I've kept looking at this photograph and wondering if it was suitable for a print. The blurred patch at the …

One of the hardest things about shipping products is balancing this contradiction: you want to do the best possible work everywhere, but optimizing every piece takes time, and time is finite. I’ve done a poor job here countless times in my career. And I have seen many others struggle here, too. If you like your craft, it’s natural that you want to do your best all the time. But the …

Recently, I had a birthday! The birthday was quiet, filled with all kinds of introverted heaven such as good podcasts to listen to, quiet phone calls of love and bliss with my found family, and, of course, some freaking divine holds came in from my many nonresident libraries I subscribe to yearly instead of paying for an Audible subscription. All in all, chefs kiss perfect! Just as I got into …

"The Silver Horde" is undoubtedly the most detailed film ever made about the process of canning salmon. Granted, there's not a lot of competition -- it's like being the world's oldest cat ballet company.Aside from that honor, "The Silver Horde" is an interesting look at two stars early in their career -- Joel McCrea and Jean Arthur, more than a decade before they generated genuine heat onscreen in George Stevens' …