Five Bullets 7.25.25
Success, Shadow, Squid, Streams, and Sabbath.
Good Morning and Happy Friday Friends.
We’ve had great weather here in New York City this week with temperatures around 80 but the heat is supposed to return today. I’m going to California for the weekend with plenty of reading and writing materials for the flight.
What’s everyone reading, watching, writing, and working on lately?
Here’s Five Bullets capturing my attention this week:
Martin Scorcese and Vince Gilligan list 1957’s Sweet Smell of Success as one of their favorites films and for good reason. Powerful columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) coerces slimy press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) to break up his beloved sister’s romance. This one-of-a-kind film includes grand, nighttime shots of Manhattan and acerbic banter between Hunsecker and Falco, with endless zingers like “You’ve got more twists than a barrel of pretzels!” New York noir at it’s best.
My friend and Circles In Space reader filmmaker Sean Paulsen screens his documentary Shadow of a Dog at an outdoor film festival in Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery tonight. The film follows animal tracker Jim Tierney as he searches the wild parts of New York City for a lost dog. The New Yorker called the film “a tale of dogged pursuit.” Head over to Rooftop Films for more info!
I’m late to the party but I can’t get enough of terrifyingly twisted Squid Game, Netflix’s wildly popular K-drama meets Parasite/Hunger Games series. Season One takes viewers into a dark underworld where contestants compete in life or death children’s games for $40 million while rich elite bet on the action. Like Parasite, the series is a dark commentary on capitalism and class divides.
“ It turns out that even though we have built all these big buildings and built roads everywhere, that topography is still there, and water, just as it always has done, runs downhill.” The New York City subway geyser I mentioned in last week’s newsletter is caused by an underground stream located at the 28th Street and 7th Avenue stop. On this 1865 map we can see that the station is built on top of a stream and wetlands which overwhelms the current sewer system during heavy rains.
RIP Ozzy Osbourne, legendary frontman of heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Ozzy and the band got back together for one last hurrah only weeks ago. Farewell Ozzy on your journey Into The Void.
That’s all for this week! Thanks for reading.
Congrats Sean! Enjoy California Keith! And RIP Ozzy.