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Happened upon this 1964 NYT ad and marveled at the prices. Then I did the inflation conversion and discovered that flying *coach* from NY to LA cost today's equivalent of $1,567.92. (In which case I would indeed upgrade to first-class, costing $1,738.65 in 2026 dollars. Might as well.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“My daughter hasn’t grown out of being trans.” Our advice columnist [author of IRREVERSIBLE DAMAGE: THE TRANSGENDER CRAZE SEDUCING OUR DAUGHTERS] weighs in. I’m on tenterhooks. What will she advise? Next: advice columnist Stephen Miller weighs in on “My best friend overstayed his visa in 1961.”

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I’m informed that it is in fact the product of some “race science” dipshit. Will leave the link up because the test itself is actually quite good and you’re not giving them any personal info or even bullshit fuel by taking it, as far as I can tell.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

This vocab test is genuinely difficult. I still did pretty well (130’s about where I usually land in general IQ), but as I was taking it I had no confidence in that at all. taketest.xyz/vocab-cat

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I mean I don’t know [looks up chart-toppers from oh let’s say 1993, when I was 25 years old and radio was still a thing] “Informer” by Snow (7 weeks at #1), and in fact could not even have told you there was ever a band or mononymed artist (looks like it’s the latter) called Snow.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Oh great they’ve made the Criterion Channel look as generically shitty as every other streaming service.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

And I would watch 500 MILES And I’d *re*watch LIFE AND NOTHING MORE Just to be the man who made a lame-ass joke All Bluesky will abhor Da da dun da! (Da da dun da!)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

What's wrong with you people? Why would you do that? WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!? ("It looks better at thumbnail size" fuck the fuck off Phil Istine)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I’ve seen 75 of the NYT’s top 100 21st-century shows (though bailed on a few). Not bad given that movies are my focus. Highest-ranked shows I haven’t seen at all (they’re on my list): The Crown, The Comeback, Band of Brothers.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

My dad has an annoying tendency (watching movies at home—not in a theater, thankfully) to ask questions about things that are meant to be temporarily mysterious. DAD: Why did she do that? ME: Wait a bit and we’ll find out! But at least he hasn’t convinced himself that it’s a fuckin’ disability.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Apparently we’ve progressed from not knowing what “wherefore” meant to just pretending the line was actually “Where the fuck art thou, Romeo? I don’t see you.” (Also is this really the best use of his time that Eggers can think of?)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

You can tell a lot about someone by which connection immediately leaps out at them. (I got both of these in seconds.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Hilarious that they closed the tour with this. (Was not played at my show, in fact they didn’t share the stage at all.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

This is how it’s done. (I’m still angry over 20 years later that a magazine I worked for didn’t respond to one studio’s absurd embargo by just refusing to review their films or let them buy ad space , as I insisted we should. Had every publication done that they’d have caved instantly.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

I’ve been using this for a year but hesitated to recommend it because it was missing the key features listed below. Still no notifications (so I’m hanging onto the Bluesky app for those), but if you want something 100x more customizable, plus just more aesthetically pleasing, it’s a godsend.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Decent chance I was watching BLUE VELVET 40 years ago tonight. (Just stumbled upon an email from 31 years ago in which I mentioned having seen it three times during its first four days in release, which was 19–22 Sep.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

I choose to believe this movie imagines what might happen if Eleanor Friedberger joined Spoon.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

“Without u, this movie would just be THE DEBT”—Jesse Eisenberg to Julianne Moore

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

TIFF used to run so many press screenings that you often had multiple opportunities to see totally forgettable movies on the same day, just a few hours apart. (Never happens now.)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Leaving TIFF unusually early (for me; I’ve always stayed to the end previously), which means that I saw significantly fewer films. And I couldn’t schedule many that I wanted to see. Of those I did, my favo(u)rites: (Top two are locks for my year-end top 10, unless something astonishing happens.)

1. The Unknown (Harari)
2. Bucking Fastard (Herzog)
3. The Diary of a Chambermaid (Jude)
4. Tender Loving Care (Leigh)
5. The Debut (Eisenberg)

HM: The Beloved (Sorogoyen), Minotaur (Zvyagintsev), A Long Winter (Haigh)

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Should anyone besides me ever need an old TIFF P&I schedule (highly unlikely), they do in fact keep copies (at the library on the Lightbox’s 4th floor).

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

BUCKING FASTARD (which is easily Herzog’s best dramatic film since his 2009 duo and arguably since FITZCARRALDO) poses an interesting Skandies question: Should I allow votes for Kate and Rooney jointly? Leaning toward yes, as it makes little sense to treat their performances separately.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

THE UNKNOWN (which I really liked) is one of those movies where you’re not 100% sure for most of it what the title signifies (though it makes sufficient sense) and then at the end you’re like Ohhhhhhh.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Kinda creeped out that airports apparently no longer scan your boarding pass, instead having you gaze into a camera to be biometrically identified. Seems to be going smoothly but I still don’t care for it.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

Fun fact: Soccer Mommy, who I was unaware was opening until she started playing, was about six weeks old the last time I saw Sleater-Kinney (Central Park, July 1997).

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

“Why are there so many old people at this rock show?”—me, closing in on 60, seeing two artists who were popular in the ’90s.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Fondly remembering the decade-plus when I thought the *NSYNC song went “But it ain’t no jive baby five by five.”

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

There it is, THE SECRET LIVES OF DENTISTS in HD on Netflix. Easily the best film Alan Rudolph made after his ’80s heyday. Placed 7th in the 2003 Skandies, just above LOST IN TRANSLATION. Arguably career-best work from Campbell Scott, Hope Davis, Denis Leary. Was long unavailable. Not to be missed.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

I'm well aware that idealized cartoonish human figures are commonplace in anime but come on this is just not what Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn looked like.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Not sure why Netflix has begun adding stuff exclusively for me but I’m not complaining.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Coming up fast on my 10,000th feature-length film (I’m old) and it occurs to me that the funniest thing I could do is make that film IT ENDS and then never watch another movie.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

One major bummer: I see now that they cut the“Doorway to Hell” sketch that takes over one episode (my fave as a kid). Either because it has Dave Thomas in yellowface or (more likely) because they couldn’t clear Jon & Vangelis’ “The Friends of Mr. Cairo” which plays underneath the whole damn thing.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Didn’t think I’d live to see it: Virtually every SCTV episode is now on Netflix. (The one that’s missing is highly unusual, featuring none of the show’s cast at the time.) Some rights-based cuts/substitutions of music, but fewer than I’d have guessed. It’s 95% complete. Incredible.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Sequel ideas: Coyote vs. Acne Coyote vs. Acre Coyote vs. Ache

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Why go to the trouble of doing your own coursework in a world where nobody noticed that an intended “undeserved” became “underserved”? If you just ran spellcheck and hit publish, without having a competent editor actually read the damn piece, it’s hard to take the moral high ground.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

“Okay, here’s the shot. Jon, you’re gonna tear ass down the walkway making your frantic escape. But you guys, you three guys, get in his way. You’re not *trying* to slow him down. Ok? It should look natural, like you were minding your own business and just happened to block his path. And…action!”

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Amused by Lbox’s search engine defaulting to “Wow, this dude does *not* know how to spell ‘battle.’”

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Reposted by Mike D’Angelo

Michael Sicinski @msicism.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

I sometimes worry about the expression “gutter racism,” because the adjective suggests there is any other kind.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

GOLDEN GIRLS jokes that play better today than they did 35 years ago #2 (same episode).

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

GOLDEN GIRLS jokes that play better today than they did 35 years ago #1.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

My ultimate goal is to get 1% or less across the board. Got fairly close here, underestimated how many people would remember Clarkson as Mrs. Ness. Not sure I’d previously managed 0%; I know that film only because I reviewed it for The Dissolve (and it still took me a bit to remember the title).

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I very much appreciate that “beardless” is the third word in the NYT’s Frank Beard obit.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

The Progressive “becoming your parents” ad about social-media influencers hits too close to home. Those are all questions I would ask. That world is incomprehensible to me.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Man that Oak Street family must suck at miniature golf.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

New achievement in dumbass “These attitudes were wrong then and they are wrong now” revision/censorship just dropped.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I do not care for this new deal wherein my Roku apps keep moving around based on frequency of use.

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Question from the colorblind: What actual color is Aurora’s hair in SLEEPING BEAUTY? Is it gold? I would not call this color yellow (it’s one of a zillion hues for which I don’t really have a name), but of course I’m frequently wrong.

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