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Mike D’Angelo

@gemko.bsky.social
3.5K followers 44 following 2.8K posts

I may live badly, but at least I don’t have to work to do it. www.patreon.com/gemko

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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 5h
(Ticketing this year has been abysmal, with the website initially offering nothing except a) buy expensive pass or b) submit email to be notified when tix go on sale. There’s a 10-film bundle, but I only discovered that after tickets had been on sale for hours (by which time BEHEMOTH! was gone).
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 5h
AFI Fest alert: If you couldn’t get BEHEMOTH!, try again now. I kept checking back and snagged a ticket just now.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Only the second time I’ve been to this screening room (last time was PICTURES OF GHOSTS) and I’d really like to see things here more often.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
No, $26 isn’t equivalent to anything. It’s just the price cut. So first-class NY—>LA had previously run $186.90, or $2,019.61 If you actually plug $1 (1964) into the inflation calculator you get $10.81 (2026). And in general multiplying by 10 is a good quick ballpark for the mid-20th century.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
(Also I’m just assuming those prices are round-trip. It doesn’t say that they are.)
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
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 · 30/09/2026
(Made the mistake of buying ostensibly cheeseburger-flavored chips that were in fact just pickle-flavored.)
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Which flavor is dominant? Chicken or…maple syrup, I would imagine.
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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
Very odd that they don’t ask for your race then. It’s not clear to me how the aggregate results could be weaponized.
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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
I naïvely read that as an attempt at inclusiveness. (If memory serves it asks for biological sex followed by gender identity, or something like that.) But you’re probably right. They don’t ask for race, though. Odd.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
(Hopefully this is not some racist thing; I’m not sure why white adults are the baseline.)
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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’m not saying I had never heard “Informer” prior to now. In fact I listened to every Billboard #1 song in chronological order maybe 10 years ago. But I still didn’t know it either by title or by artist or by the song itself. I just saw a clerk at Walgreen’s but couldn’t pick her out of a lineup.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Until very recently I had not seen, like, FRASIER. Watched zero TV after I moved to NYC.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Another example! I have to this day zero familiarity with IN LIVING COLOR (though I do at least know *of* it), didn’t know who Carrey was until THE MASK.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I was even in college at the time. That seems like the ideal vector.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Yet I do not know it. (Just listened to be sure.) That’s my point. You can be (blissfully) unaware of very popular stuff.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I know only one of your other two examples (the first one).
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
OMG his album is called 12 INCHES OF SNOW.
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
You did miss out by refusing to look at any “Harlem Shake” videos though. They’re only 30 seconds long. youtu.be/uB_Id1UOM6E?...
youtu.be
Harlem Shake With My Son
YouTube video by Matt McClard
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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 · 27/09/2026
What I briefly assumed the quoted tweet was about, as a non-sports person.
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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 · 25/09/2026
Was curious about how many of those are shorts and damn you watch a lot of short films. (Over 900.)
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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
Gratifying. (The S-K setlist was frustrating but that’s my own fault for last having seen them in 1997.) I was not surrounded by people recording the show on their phones, as I’d feared might happen. Parking turned out to be easy (dedicated lot with shuttle). Plan to get back into the habit.
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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 · 22/09/2026
I am the Supreme Arbiter on this matter and my Word is as follows. Promoting your own work once: fine “Bump for the evening crowd”: if you must Retweeting every single person who quote-tweets you with “D’Angelo is right as usual” or other praise: have some dignity bud
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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
Honestly this alone is worth the $2/month I pay. (Last is the one I actually use; there are many more. Also if you don’t like that color you can pick another!)
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
(If you used Twitterrific, these are the same folks. They know what they’re doing.)
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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
(According to this email, I also saw BRAZIL nine times during its theatrical run, which sounds about right. My high school friend group went just about every weekend for months.)
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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 · 19/09/2026
My dad took me and my brothers to see it in ’78 (possibly early ’79 given that it was a December release). Pretty sure I didn’t know at the time that it was a belated sequel. But it starred Han Solo!
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Mike D’Angelo @gemko.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
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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
On the plane yesterday I idly wondered how many flights I’ve taken in my life. Worked out it has to be close to 150, and I’m not a frequent flier. TIFF and Cannes alone get me to at least 76 (and that’s if I flew direct every time, which I certainly did not).
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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 · 18/09/2026
Man, I’m gonna beat you home. (Just landed in L.A.) Sorry for your hassles bud.
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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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