Faulkner

Two great dance scenes from the master in Vivre Sa Vie and Band of Outsiders:

The NYT obit for Godard, which I assume has been ready for quite some time given JLG’s advanced age:

I saw St. Vincent open last night at Madison Square Garden for Roxy Music (one of my favorite bands—they were great). I’ve always liked her, but seeing her live gave me a new appreciation for her musicianship and star quality. And I’d buy a full album from her backup singers. Incredible vocals at 4:43:

Paulo from Brazil 🇧🇷

With Godard gone, that’s it for the great French New Wave directors. He was the greatest of them all.

Love.

Harry Styles’s “As It Was” holds at No. 1 for a 13th week. His “Late Night Talking” jumps to No. 3 following a sales push. “Super Freaky Girl” looks to be Nicki’s most stable and organic hit in ages. Kate’s RUTH is finally taking a tumble from its Top 5 perch, and Morgan Wallen is back in the top 10:

More of Gabriel from Brazil 🇧🇷

Birger from Norway 🇳🇴

Well played by Alcaraz. Major champion at 19 and youngest-ever ATP No. 1. With a pair of Masters 1000 titles and a Slam title, he’s backing up a lot of the hype. (Still the Russia/Belarus ban and the decision to not award points at Wimbledon make this year’s rankings a bit wonky.) That third set tiebreak was an absolute shocker from Ruud. He just doesn’t have *it*. At least not yet. Deserves credit for making two major finals this year, though. All that said, social media chatter feels really drowned out by the NFL. Much more so than usual. This sport has a lot of work to do.

Scary stuff.

This is funny:

Soccer player Lachlan McLean, originally from Australia 🇦🇺 but now in Colorado 🇺🇸

Coco Gauff and Alcaraz should attract healthy audiences should they stay competitive and continue to contend for titles over the next few years. Had Tiafoe won this year’s U.S. Open, he’d be a superstar. Swiatek isn’t that charismatic, but if she remains consistent she could be a nice foil in a rivalry. Like a (less evil) Justine Henin.

Aside from moments, like the times she’s broken Iga, Ons feels rather defeated so far. But Iga really lifts her level for finals.

It is. OLTL and GH offer somewhat interesting contrasts, but I doubt I’d be as big of a fan of either had they not course-corrected to more grounded storytelling with Malone and Labine in the ‘90s. DAYS in the ‘90s was too huge to ignore (everyone watched it in my small town), and I have great memories of fun moments like Vivian and Ivan’s antics, etc. But the repetitive Reilly dialogue, days that seemingly went on forever, constant dumbing-down of characters to suit the story, near-misses, fakeouts, and goofy plots just don’t give me the same warm, fuzzy nostalgia I have for the Nixon shows, Y&R, GH, and the P&G soaps (at least before they all went to garbage). I didn’t even bother with DAYS in the 2000s much aside from curiosity about Hogan Sheffer taking over and only started watching somewhat regularly again with the gay stories and Kristen’s return. However, if ‘60s/70s/early ‘80s DAYS turned on streaming somewhere, I’d be super excited.

That’s a very cool observation and a fortuitous link. I appreciate all you gather about DAYS history. Of the long-running soaps, it’s the one I have the least connection to and the least desire to check in on (perhaps because my first exposure to it was during the ‘90s Reilly years, which were entertaining but not grounded in the way I like my drama and set the stage for the next 30 years). But your posts make me want to learn more about the early DAYS, which I think I would have loved.

Our U.S. Open 2022 men’s singles finalists: Carlos Alcaraz vs. Casper Ruud Bonus: the two semifinalists they defeated: Frances Tiafoe and Karen Khachanov:

Given how much ground Carlitos covers, I can see why he might need fresh pairs of shoes every set LOL.