Spring is here. The temperature is perfect. My half-marathon is behind me. The pollen hasn’t drowned my enjoyment, yet.

I traded my running shoes for a vintage touring bike. I’ve suffered enough summer runs. I am become bike guy.

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This month’s playlist:

Strange Days

I considered writing about Everything Everywhere All at Once or The Northman, but much has already been said. Both took my breath away in their own way.

Strange Days accomplished the same. The 1995 film introduces its cyberpunk LA, on the cusp of Y2K, with a frantic, single take, POV robbery gone wrong and doesn’t let up until the ball drops. Stripped-down film cameras (massive compared to the digital cameras of today) were mounted to performers’ heads to accomplish these sequences. Innovative at the time, the results are stunning even today.

The movie engages the topics of racism and police brutality with surprising clarity. As my friend put it, Strange Days is a few cuts away from being the most anti-cop film ever made. How the movie depicts a mob boiling over into a full-blown riot is astounding. The terrifying images are burned into my mind.

Katheryn Bigelow and James Cameron know how to make a picture.

Death Stranding

After four months of following stock trackers every day, I finally snagged myself a PS5. And all I’ve done is play a PS4 game I’ve already written about. Twice.

Granted, it has received a few upgrades to take advantage of the new hardware, namely, a locked 60fps. This higher frame rate essentially transforms the game, making the experience consistently fluid and responsive. Less fighting with the game and more playing it.

I’ve already covered what makes this game special. The story is heady near nonsense. And it will always be novel how your actions in this single-player experience impact other players’ game worlds.

Tokyo Vice

A friend of mine kept hyping this series to me. I was prepared to throw it on the watch pile and leave it to mold. Then I heard two words that changed my mind immediately.

Michael. Mann.

My guy buried the lead here. The King of Heat directs the pilot (it’s apparent) and is an executive producer on the series.

Good shit.

Ethel Cain

Can’t remember where I ran across this artist. May have been a stray tweet. Dig the vibe of the singles and EP she’s released so far. As a bonus, I plugged Ms. Cain into Pandora and it generated a station exactly to my taste which has since become my daily driver.

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This month I squandered my writing time tweeting profound statements.