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Tomorrow

Borat may be a little tired but Sacha Baron Cohen is still a genius. I’ll be watching Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan tomorrow evening on Amazon Prime. Jagshemash?

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Actual Clockwork Orange Filming Locations

Compared to most of Kubrick’s other films, A Clockwork Orange was down and dirty, shot on the cheap. Here are actual locations and a few other goodies. This YouTuber really does his research.

How do you make a futuristic sci-fi movie without building a bunch of crazy sets? In this episode, we take a look at the real futuristic locations and artwork that Stanley Kubrick used for the production design of 1971’s A Clockwork Orange as well as some of the new technology Kubrick used in shooting and recording sound on-location.

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Building A Vostok Wristwatch

Fascinating and informative.

This is a fascinating and informative demonstration of Vostok Komandirskie watches, from how the wristwatches are built, the basics of mechanical timekeeping, to the specific aspects of Vostok wristwatches. Includes a tour and of the Vostok facility and step-by-step explanation of how the wristwatches work and are built. The segment was produced by Russian television. This is an exceptionally well made segment on Vostok in specific, Russian watches in general and the macro of all watch functions. Covers the Komanderskie and Amphibia models. Also gives great demonstrations on how reliable and sturdy the Vostok watch is.

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And There’s A Podcast

Two episodes in to HBO’s new miniseries and I’m hooked. Thanks for the recommendation, Droog!

The attention to detail is amazing, all the way down to the slightly fucked up font used in the credits. There’s a great interview with writer/producer Craig Mazin on Vice regarding his motivation to get it right.

Chernobyl accomplishes this, in part, by adhering as closely as it can to historical fact. Every major character save one—a nuclear physicist played by Emily Watson—has a real-life counterpart, from the scientist in charge of cleanup efforts (Valery Legasov, played by Jared Harris), to the wife of a firefighter at the scene of the explosion (Lyudmilla Ignatenko, played by Jessie Buckley). The clothing Chernobyl’s characters wear, the cars they drive, the cigarettes they smoke, the glassware they drink from, the wallpaper in their homes—all of it is staggeringly accurate, a product of more than two and a half years of research.

So anyway, podcast. It provides additional information for each episode in the five-part series, so watch an episode and then give the podcast a listen.

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Pure Evil

Dimitri Shostakovich wrote this (2nd movement, Symphony #10) as a musical portrait of Stalin, who had harrassed him directly and indirectly throughout his career.  This is pure malevolence, published after Stalin was safely dead.  While Uncle Joe was alive, DS was mostly confined to putting out government approved, “socalist realist” garbage, while keeping much of his “real” work private.  Occasionally he could put one over on the Soviets and follow the letter of their requirements while mocking them.  One cool thing is that in the finale of this same symphony, he has a theme based on his initials, DSCH, vie for dominance against the Stalin theme from this movement.  DSCH wins.  Artistic revenge at its finest.  “He who laughs last, laughs longest.”

The conductor seems a little too into his hair, and I’m not sure why he appears to be grinning during this grim business.    But you’ve gotta give him credit, his musicians are playing the hell out of this.  He made his reputation whipping these young Venezuelans into a respectable unit.  He’s since gone on to greener pastures in LA.

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And Now, A Timely Tip

Because I don’t feel especially creative today.

Wouldn’t it be nice to have better tasting coffee right in your own home or office? Well one of the most important steps you can take to get a better cup of coffee is to regularly clean your coffee maker every 40-80 brews. Here are the steps to follow to clean your manual or digital coffee maker so you can brew that next pot of delicious, hot coffee!