Inspired by u/ PopeDarthPaul's post, I decided a year ago to start reviewing the many films I watch. Bit by bit, writing these short reviews, became my main creative project for 2021.
The combination of being retired, and alone, plus Corona, enabled me to happily watch an average of nearly 3 films per day, and reverted me to the old days 40 years ago, when I studied Film at the University of Copenhagen under Peter Schepelern, and learned about semiotics, history & film theories.
I enjoyed this year tremendously, and intend to continue spending (“wasting”) my time exploring old and new films alike.
Below are some statistics and a short list of a few curious finds.
I called my project “1,000 films” but ended up seeing a total of 'only' 885. Out of these, 122 were documentaries, 41 Shorts and 10 were stand-ups.
I thought of myself as an an all-round cineast, versed in world cinema, interested to discover rare gems old and new. But sadly, after looking at my end-year summery, I realized that this was not the case and I am far from a completist: Only 302 were “foreign films” and at least 198 (22%, and usually of my best-rated films) were films I had seen before, sometimes more than 2-3 times.
Of the “foreign” films, 64 were French, 43 were from the UK, 40 from Denmark, 19 each were Japanese and Italian, 13 from Germany, 10 from Sweden, 9 each from Poland & Israel, 6 each from Iran, Mexico and Norway. Others were from Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Brazil, Catalonia, Chile, Holland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Romania, Spain, Turkey, Uganda, USSR and Venezuela.
Initially I was hoping to take a sizable bite out of the many films I hadn't seen before. But the field is much too vast: There are too many masterpieces in Russian, Thai, Arabic, Flemish, Mandarin, Portuguese, Swiss and what-not that I may never be able to see.
In the process, I also fell prey to “NEWS”, the 'Never-Ending Watchlist Syndrome', and ended up with a saved list of over 400 more selections waiting to be consumed.
The year was, to my surprise, also heavily populated by newer films, with 98 from 2021, 73 from 2020, a total of 406 from the last 10 years, and only 61 from before 1960. So, not much of Film-History flair either.
Of the individual directors, I was mostly taken by Anders Thomas Jensen (10 films), Agnès Varda (6), Céline Sciamma (4), A
... keep reading on reddit ➡(Sorry for the clickbait title, I just had to, but now that I have your attention, please hear me out).
As a result of the corona pandemic, the European Union has set up a recovery fund, and part of that money will be used to improve emission-free mobility, which is obviously great. However, when I see how some states spend this budget, I get so angry. If there is one thing more frustrating than a government that doesn’t invest in safe bicycle paths, it’s a government that wastes money on a useless bicycle path.
Take a look at my parents’ home country, Belgium. Today, I learned the Flemish competent authority will invest in a ten-kilometer separated bicycle path. The path will be made from smooth asphalt and will be 2 meters wide on either side. [Source: https://wegenenverkeer.be/werken/10-kilometer-nieuw-fietspad-voor-boslaan-n75-dilsen-stokkem (Dutch)]. I can hear you screaming “Why the hell are you complaining? That’s great, right?!”. No, it’s not. It‘s far from great, because the new cycle path will run along a major road (2x2 lanes, speed limit 90 kph). There is no one, not one single person, that will ever enjoy riding along this quasi highway. There is absolutely no joy in riding along noisy diesel trucks and racing cars.
What’s even worse? The are already fantastic 100% car-free roads parallel to this highway, on both sides (north of the busy road, bicycle highway F751; south of the road, touristic route Hoeveweg). It feels amazing to cycle there (or jog, ride a horse, or do anything else you like to do). These small roads are well connected: they run between a shopping center and other tourist hotspots, and connect a few villages together. Simply put, they are perfect. There is no need for a bicycle lane along an express road.
The irony? A few years ago, the local municipality decided not to let cyclists use the N75 (the busy highway) anymore. The local government proposes the same parallel alternatives as I listed above. They even wrote that in their Fietsplan (’bicycle plan’). [Source: https://www.dilsen-stokkem.be/file/download/4807/3A01269C9FD670C24101D376345E2903, bulletpoint 2.3.1 (Dutch)]. (Yes, that’s right, they have a detailed plan of almost 100 pages dedicated to cycling. For reference, the town in question has just a bit over 20,000 inh
... keep reading on reddit ➡To all non-Belgians in this group.
I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.
Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.
THE NAUTILUS didn’t change direction. For the time being, then, we had to set aside any hope of returning to European seas. Captain Nemo kept his prow pointing south. Where was he taking us? I was afraid to guess.
That day the Nautilus crossed an odd part of the Atlantic Ocean. No one is unaware of the existence of that great warm-water current known by name as the Gulf Stream. After emerging from channels off Florida, it heads toward Spitzbergen. But before entering the Gulf of Mexico near latitude 44 degrees north, this current divides into two arms; its chief arm makes for the shores of Ireland and Norway while the second flexes southward at the level of the Azores; then it hits the coast of Africa, sweeps in a long oval, and returns to the Caribbean Sea.
Now then, this second arm—more accurately, a collar—forms a ring of warm water around a section of cool, tranquil, motionless ocean called the Sargasso Sea. This is an actual lake in the open Atlantic, and the great current’s waters take at least three years to circle it.
Properly speaking, the Sargasso Sea covers every submerged part of Atlantis. Certain authors have even held that the many weeds strewn over this sea were torn loose from the prairies of that ancient continent. But it’s more likely that these grasses, algae, and fucus plants were carried off from the beaches of Europe and America, then taken as far as this zone by the Gulf Stream. This is one of the reasons why Christopher Columbus assumed the existence of a New World. When the ships of that bold investigator arrived in the Sargasso Sea, they had great difficulty navigating in the midst of these weeds, which, much to their crews’ dismay, slowed them down to a halt; and they wasted three long weeks crossing this sector.
Such was the region our Nautilus was visiting just then: a genuine prairie, a tightly woven carpet of algae, gulfweed, and bladder wrack so dense and compact a craft’s stempost couldn’t tear through it without difficulty. Accordingly, not wanting to entangle his propeller in this weed-choked mass, Captain Nemo stayed at a depth some meters below the surface of the waves.
The name Sargasso comes from the Spanish word “sargazo,” meaning gulfweed. This gulfweed, the swimming gulfweed or berry carrier, is the chief substance making up this immense shoal. And here’s why these water plants collect in this placid Atlantic basin, according to the expert on the subject, Commander Maury, author of The Physical Geography of th
... keep reading on reddit ➡Alot of great jokes get posted here! However just because you have a joke, doesn't mean it's a dad joke.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT NSFW, THIS IS ABOUT LONG JOKES, BLONDE JOKES, SEXUAL JOKES, KNOCK KNOCK JOKES, POLITICAL JOKES, ETC BEING POSTED IN A DAD JOKE SUB
Try telling these sexual jokes that get posted here, to your kid and see how your spouse likes it.. if that goes well, Try telling one of your friends kid about your sex life being like Coca cola, first it was normal, than light and now zero , and see if the parents are OK with you telling their kid the "dad joke"
I'm not even referencing the NSFW, I'm saying Dad jokes are corny, and sometimes painful, not sexual
So check out r/jokes for all types of jokes
r/unclejokes for dirty jokes
r/3amjokes for real weird and alot of OC
r/cleandadjokes If your really sick of seeing not dad jokes in r/dadjokes
Punchline !
Edit: this is not a post about NSFW , This is about jokes, knock knock jokes, blonde jokes, political jokes etc being posted in a dad joke sub
Edit 2: don't touch the thermostat
Do your worst!
How the hell am I suppose to know when it’s raining in Sweden?
Ants don’t even have the concept fathers, let alone a good dad joke. Keep r/ants out of my r/dadjokes.
But no, seriously. I understand rule 7 is great to have intelligent discussion, but sometimes it feels like 1 in 10 posts here is someone getting upset about the jokes on this sub. Let the mods deal with it, they regulate the sub.
We told her she can lean on us for support. Although, we are going to have to change her driver's license, her height is going down by a foot. I don't want to go too far out on a limb here but it better not be a hack job.
They were cooked in Greece.
I'm surprised it hasn't decade.
He lost May
Now that I listen to albums, I hardly ever leave the house.
Don't you know a good pun is its own reword?
Two muffins are in an oven, one muffin looks at the other and says "is it just me, or is it hot in here?"
Then the other muffin says "AHH, TALKING MUFFIN!!!"
The doctor says it terminal.
For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.
I said "hey look, an escaPEA"
No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!
Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂
It really does, I swear!
And now I’m cannelloni
Because she wanted to see the task manager.
Also known as: u/ByzantineBasileus doesn't have a monopoly on Kings and Generals reviews.
I joke, I joke. He's the one who linked me the K&G vid on the battle of Adrianople.
Anyway, today we're reviewing two videos on the battle of Adrianople. Why? Mainly for how they present the foundation of the Latin Empire in the set up for the battle, I doubt they'll fuck up the battle itself. But if they do we'll correct that too. When I'm putting timestamps, if I put stuff in ' ' it means I'm quoting them word for word. If I'm not, then I'm just summing up what that bit of the video is on about.
The first video will be that of HistoryMache, seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlZoArfWZek here
They do list 'The Asanids: The Political and Military History of the Second Bulgarian Empire - Alexandru Madgearu' as their source, I have managed to find it online and have a download of the relevant chapter. So that's handy.
0:16 - 'The Crusaders deviated from their goal of taking Jerusalem'
Jerusalem wasn't the aim of the Fourth Crusade. Egypt was. It's the same plan they re-attempt in the fifth crusade.
0:30 - 'Dividing it's [Byzantium's] territories among themselvs along western, feudal lines'
Putting aside the issue of using the term 'feudal' (it's a term that is far too widely used), the empire wasn't fully 'feudal divided'. The Imperial quarter and core was only partly feudalised and most of the push for fuedalisation was later abandoned after 1205. A decent chunk of the Byzantine administration and governance survives, especially for provincial administration. Less so in the Latin states that are imperial vassals. This is less 'bad history, they wrong' more 'misleading'.
2:20 - The Latin Empire attempted to negotiate an alliance with Bulgaria
Wrong way around. According to Robert De Clari:
> 'In that time when Murzuphlus [Alexios V] the traitor was emperor, and when the host of the French was so impoverished as I have told you, and when they were hardily preparing their ships and their engines for the assault, that John the Vlach sent word to the high barons that if they would crown him king so that he would be lord of his land of Vlachia, he would hold his land and kingdom from them and would come to their aid to help them take Constantinople [...] When the Barons heard what John the Vlach was asking of them, they said they would consider it, and when they had taken counsel they came to a bad decision; for they answered that they cared nothing f
... keep reading on reddit ➡But that’s comparing apples to oranges
And boy are my arms legs.
Put it on my bill
Heard they've been doing some shady business.
but then I remembered it was ground this morning.
Edit: Thank you guys for the awards, they're much nicer than the cardboard sleeve I've been using and reassures me that my jokes aren't stale
Edit 2: I have already been made aware that Men In Black 3 has told a version of this joke before. If the joke is not new to you, please enjoy any of the single origin puns in the comments
They’re on standbi
A play on words.
Calcium, nickel, neon
My daughter, Chewbecca, not so much.
