2020 Scanner Adventures

I'm still here and I still have a face, so here it is. I still miss my old scanner for these, because it made really nice, dark, high contrast images, but sometimes you just have to move on. That scanner started making a terrifying screeching noise (something scraping from the inside...), so it had to go.

These are my first scans of 2020, and it's almost the end of February already! I made an Instagram for these a while ago, because I think these scans really lend themselves to being displayed in a grid like that. Maybe not so much if I take a year and a half between posts though, so I guess I'll try to update it more frequently.

Anyway, I like the drained look of these. I won't be stopped... from scanning my face.

Do Not Look Me in the Eyes When I am Wearing This Jumper

Hello, here's an outfit post. Never have I felt more powerful than in this jumper, one of a now uncountable number of jumpers given to me by my boyfriend. I was complimented on it by a girl working at the booze section of Costco recently, so I know it's good (this section is separate from the main Costco area, like a shameful little garage full of gin, and it is great).

You can really tuck any weird jumper into some kind of skater skirt and it will look purposeful, I think. Tucking is a powerful tool. Please use it with caution. I've also been wearing my glasses near constantly lately, and to be honest, it is good to see. These are a very light, mint green, and I got them from Firmoo (I always get cheap glasses online since I discovered this possibility, and also that a lot of normal glasses in shops are weirdly too big for my face). I'm thinking about getting some tortoiseshell or clear frames at some point, but for now it's just these.

If you are a sentient glasses company reading this, please consider sending me some glasses.

I'm also getting more and more into wearing shirts - anything with sort of painterly birds or flowers is perfect, but also any check and flannel shirts. They're just... very cute. Are t-shirts even necessary? When you can wear shirts?

I'll tell you what is definitely necessary though: a frog. This sweet frog is from Jellycat (I got it from TK Maxx for a third of the price though), and I love both him and his incredible shorts.

Hester Street (1975), or: Carol Kane is my Queen

The other day I watched Hester Street (1975) and I can conclude that I love Carol Kane. I was a little lost for the first part of the movie until she showed up and suddenly lent every scene a brilliant sense of tension, gentle but taught. I rewatched the first section of the movie immediately afterwards and with the context of what's to come, it has a great, almost-but-not-quite-comical lightness, and a sort of odd but great scene-setting feel.

But Carol Kane is wonderful from the moment she arrives as Gitl, a Jewish immigrant in New York among a crowd of immigrants, thrilled to suddenly recognise her husband with a kind of schoolgirl-ish excitement. Everything is new to her, including the particular ways her husband's callous personality has moulded to his assimilated, modern life, and Carol Kane plays this with such a touching innocence, but always like there is some kind of fire bug just underneath her tear ducts.

Also, Bernstein is wonderful.

This scene... mwah! This scene towards the end of the movie is so sweet, and it feels so understated. I love Bernstein's stacks of string-tied books, the tentative-yet-purposeful way they speak, and the handshake. People talk about the notorious hand scene in the 2005 version of Pride and Prejudice a lot, and it is very good, but this is my hand scene of choice (mmm, just like the hand touch in The Last Jedi, am I right? note to self: okay, hand touch scenes are a whole thing, and I respect it). As much as I enjoy the Pride and Prejudice hand scene for its expression of sheer tantalisation, the handshake here is so great because it not only expresses affection but also Gitl's growth, emancipation, and ability to make not only an agreement with a man who values tradition as she does, but one where what she values and wants is paramount.

And, I don't know, it's just really cute. The little room, Bernstein's diligent tying up of his books, the tentative and indirect, but very sure way they speak, the reverence and respect they show each other, and their contented expressions. It's perfect.

The divorce scene also slaps hard. I'm not going to say anything about it. Just look at her face. This movie is good.

Also, shout out to this guy who is in the movie for about a minute near the beginning, doing a really good "befuddled immigrant" performance:

I loved this movie so much.