Weeknotes 2020-08-14

Schools are beginning to start up. While COVID-19 is a continuing problem, people are out and about. I think if we were informed to wear a mask in public back in February/March, and people wore them, things wouldn't be quite as bad as they are currently.

But we are where we are. I can't even imagine the impact this will have in years to come.

Theaters seem to be starting to open back up but I'm not ready to attend one. That's saying something as theaters, Alamo Drafthouse in particular, are my escape. My happy place.

Work

July started the first full month that Power Home Remodeling was back to full capacity. All furloughed workers were back after almost three months. Trained for working during COVID and more than anxious to get back to it.

We were given a July goal that was beyond the best month in our history.

We beat it.

Right now plans are to avoid business travel and in-person meetings of anything over a few people until after first quarter 2021. Offices will remain closed until at least October, so office folks will be continuing to work remotely for now.

Movies

In this post and a number of past ones, you'll find a number of films from the 80's/90's. These are typically (but not always) Reel House Foundation events. They've been organizing weekly genre online screenings to keep attendees of the Alamo Drafthouse's AGFA Secret Screenings held over until we can make it back into theaters.

While not the exact same experience, it's still been fun to watch old films the group of us can chat about and make fun of while watching.

These two were part of that. Both showcasing actor John Saxon who passed away recently. He was in many, many films and tv series, but Enter the Dragon (yes, the Bruce Lee one) is what he'll be mostly remembered for. He was in some fan-fave films like the original Nightmare on Elm Street, too.

• Cannibals in the Streets (aka Invasion of the Flesh Hunters) is about POW's from Viet Nam who were driven to the point of acquiring am insatiable taste for human flesh while in captivity. Now they've come home to the streets of Atlanta and can't control their hunger. Cheesy. Hilariously distasteful. Great fun to watch with a batch of film nerds.

• Battle Beyond the Stars has Saxon playing the villain. A space re-telling of Seven Samarai. Not quite as good as my teenage self remembered it, but a noteworthy film as it was James Horner's first film score, and one of James Cameron's initial screen credits for art direction and visual effects.

Now on to some films that came out more recently.

• Force of Nature wasn't all that good. The trailer had me thinking it'd be a fun film, but meh. In the middle of a hurricane, a bad guy wants to steal some art. Od man Mel Gibson and the cop sent to get everyone out of the apartment building the art is in are there to screw up bad-guy's plans.
• Dunkirk felt a little underwhelming to me after seeing 1917 which kind of blew me away. Told in multiple intersecting timelines, you'll be watching a scene that occurred 2 hours ago, followed by another which was 2 weeks ago, then another yesterday. On the one hand, it felt good to connect the dots at times (something I'm sure was intentional from director Chistopher Nolan), but distracting as there are times with the mental effort of discerning the timeline you are watching.
• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is one I'd missed watching until recently mainly because my in-laws were recently reporting how funny it is. It was a fun film. Probably catch the sequel to it before long.

Takenoko

Some friends and I have been having online board game nights every other week. For the most part, we've been playing a number of the same games which I've reported on already. I'll leave those to those past posts.

While I have the physical game of Takenoko, we played it online recently.

It's been a while since I've played, but it came back quickly and recall how fun it is. I definitely prefer the physical version which is one of the most beautiful games I own. The online experience takes away the appeal of seeing a bamboo forest growing up on the board. The experience makes me want to break it out and play more.