No Second Chance

Alice Lambert (Alexandra Lamy) & Richard Millot (Pascal Elbé) in
No Second Chance on Netflix

What we have here is an insane crime drama with an extra dollop of emotional jerking. There are six episodes in the series and we watched them all in two nights. The characters are good enough that we wanted to find out what happened, and the plot is twisted enough that there is no plausible explanation for any of it, but I have to admit they came up with a pretty good resolution to the story.

To give an example of the insanity, one character gets shot through the heart, and not only do they survive, but a week later they are out and about, running around town with no more than a large band-aid to cover the wound.

And then there are all the bits that get repeated so often they begin to get annoying, like someone's cell phone ringing just when a crucial clue is about to be revealed, or the cell phone battery dies, or the bad guy sneaks up and clobbers someone who should have been aware of their surroundings. And poor Richard. He is constantly getting struck, kicked, beaten or otherwise clobbered.

Dumb, but entertaining.

Quote of the Day

The Four Humors

If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him. - Sun Tzu

From a story about how to combat the The Donald and his cohorts. Via Indy Tom.

GINKGOA - Dolorès

GINKGOA - Dolorès
More Electro Swing, this time en Francais. Interesting pronunciation of Dolorès.

Confidence, Part 2

24 Most Insanely Satisfying Ship Launching Ever Recorded
The splash teaser is totally bogus, pay no attention. I excerpted this one clip from from the 24 in this video because of the water. Note how they have stopped the cars on the road to keep them from getting washed away by the tidal way that will appear when the ship is launched. Then note how close the water comes to the cars at the far end and the people on the near end. Cutting it a little close, aren't you guys?

Update March 2019 replaced missing video.

Update September 2024 replaced missing video.

Confidence

Modern Figure: Andrea Razzaghi
Believing that your competitors may be beset by the same insecurities that trouble you may give you more confidence. However, your competitors may not be troubled by insecurity. They may not even be aware of the challenges they are facing, the errors they have made, or their own impending doom. They can be completely wrong about everything but, by gum, they are confident. They are men, after all, and that's what men do: project confidence even in the face of looming disaster. We may all die, but at least we'll go down fighting.

Previous post on the subject.

The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves

The Absurdity of Detecting Gravitational Waves
I thought I had done a post about this, but all I could find was this photo album of LIGO detectors.

Finding Neverland

Rehearsing the play inside the musical

We saw the Broadway Musical at Keller Auditorium last night. I was tired so I didn't enjoy it all that much. There were plenty of funny bits, and ideas floating about bear consideration, but the musical part went right by me. Couldn't understand most of the words, but that might just be me.

Most of the show was about people, their relationships and feelings, and that was deftly told.

Some of the special effects were pretty spectacular. There is one scene towards the end where there is a big cloud of stardust swirling about in the center of the stage. The bits of stardust were too bright to have been done just with light, and too large to just be floating like dust. Somehow they managed to keep them all in the center of the stage. I have no idea how they managed that.

There was a storm at sea and the audio system was delivering stronger bass notes than I have ever heard anywhere. I was a little confused by this. Eventually I figured out that they were trying to simulate thunder, which makes me wonder if that is even possible. I mean they gave it a good try, giant stacks of speakers on either side of the stage, and louder than anything I have ever heard in a theater, but it didn't quite cut it. If that is what they were trying to do.

I'm thinking I need to be stoned, and well rested, the next time I go one of these.