snow, woodland marimba, Netflix

[asakiyume]

It snowed!

I knocked the snow off the clothesline and it fell all at once, from the entire length of the clothesline, a rope of snow hitting the ground.

I'm back from my dad's house, but while I was there, I found a tiny nature preserve that has been set up across the street from my high school. It's on low-lying land unsuitable for development: a land conservancy has bought it and made it into a preserve, so high school students can learn about wetlands and local people can go for walks.

Because it's a wetland, there are sections with plank walkways to keep you above the water. For one of them, the beams are laid out lengthwise, and when you walk on them, it's musical, like a marimba (you have to turn your sound up to hear; it's a not-great 10-second phone video):

Watch on YouTube

The creator signed it:


The other walkways have the planks laid out crosswise--they don't give the same music (but are fine for walking on!)


I saw an odd but funny and entertaining movie on Netflix, Army of Thieves (2021). In it, a young German bank clerk who has been mastering safecracking in his spare time is recruited to break into a series of bank vaults designed by a master locksmith and themed on Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung operas. (The vaults are named Reingold, Valkyrie, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung.) For each vault, the guy tells the story of that opera, and the music plays in the background, and then you get an image of all the gears and tumblers moving as he goes into a trance, listening to the clicks and slides and whirs. So cool! And the rest of the gang are hilarious characters. I feel like sartorias would enjoy it.

Weirdly, the movie is a prequel to a zombie film, Army of the Dead. This film is not a zombie film at all! Is this a thing that happens often? A prequel that's a totally different genre from the original film? The only way zombies figure in Army of Thieves is that you hear news stories about this zombie outbreak in Nevada, and sometimes the hero has bad dreams about zombies. I think he's the only carryover from one film to the other...

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

Army of Thieves is so fun! I haven't seen Army of the Dead because I do NOT do zombie movies, as a rule, but the fact that Army of Theives technically took place during the early days of a zombie apocalypse, this just didn't really come up because it Wasn't Relevant to the Plot, is so charming to me. I should rewatch this, actually...

[asakiyume]

Oh hurray! I'm glad to find another fan of this movie!

[cmcmck]

Here too although not a lot compared to further south which is not quite what you'd expect!

[asakiyume]

The ways of the weather are strange indeed!

[osprey_archer]

I love the music of the lengthwise walkway! It's like an unintended xylophone.

[asakiyume]

Exactly! That's what marimbas are: wooden xylophones! (Or rather, they're their own thing, but essentially the same idea as a xylophone, but made of wood (Good old Wikipedia tells us more)

I really like the sound of a marimba. (The intro to that song is a marimba.)

[osprey_archer]

Aren't xylophones wooden too? The xylophones in my elementary music room were, at least. They had enough xylophones for the whole class to play, and one lucky person got to play the glockenspiel (it looked like a little metal xylophone), and if it was your glockenspiel day then you felt blessed and chosen.

[asakiyume]

The xylo- part implies so, since it means wood ... otoh the one we had as a kids as a toy was metal. this page describes differences, and they seem highly technical.

[sovay]

The creator signed it

That's so cool!

I am confused but charmed by the heist movie that is a prequel to a zombie movie.

[asakiyume]

I am confused but charmed by the heist movie that is a prequel to a zombie movie. --Yeah, I wonder what creative genius thought, "You know what fans of zombie movies like? Heist movies! Let's go, team, let's go!" And contrariwise, I loved the heist movie, but I'm not interested in the zombie movie.

The thing about the ring cycle and the vaults was just such a weird, cool, fun bit of worldbuilding/storytelling, and has nothing, nothing at all to do with setting up the zombie movie--well, or so I think? The only safe that's left for the guy to crack at the end of this movie is Götterdämmerung, and at the end of the movie you see him, now in the US, and someone has just brought him the plan of that safe and wants him to crack it. Maaaaaybe there'll be some more Norse myth/grand opera in that one too? But there will also be people chewing people's arms and faces off and so on, so ... IDK!

[heleninwales]

We have also had snow, which is not all that usual because we're only a few miles from the coast. When it does fall, it doesn't usually last more than a day, but we're having a very cold week.

[asakiyume]

Yes, everyone I follow in the UK seems to have gotten snow, and wakanomori's family have shared pictures as well!

I know cold is the last thing you all need over there right now -_-

[rimturse]

Those are really pleasant sounds. :)

[asakiyume]

I'm glad you like them too ^_^

[cafenowhere]

I have seen both Army of Thieves and Army of the Dead, and though Army of the Dead has the too-cool-for-school Tig Notaro, it's a lot less innovative and entertaining than the heist flick, imo. And I don't necessarily prefer heist flicks to zombie ones. I can't think of any other prequels in a different genre than the original film. More often it's the sequels that take a slight sidestep into a different subgenre. Like the Friday the 13th film set in space, or how the Pitch Black movies morph from SF monster movie to space opera.

Hooray for snow and surprise!woodland marimba. I'm so glad the artist signed his work.

[asakiyume]

Wow, so you've seen both! So is our man Dieter the only guy from the prequel who's in the zombie flick? I feel so sorry, if so, about Gwen-she was cool and wanted to find the Götterdämmerung with him. Is there any more cool mythology/opera etc., or is it all pretty much face eating, screaming, and running?

[cafenowhere]

Gwen isn't in Army of the Dead but supposedly she will show up in the sequel, so don't count her out yet. The Götterdämmerung heist is the premise for AotD. Basically, the vault with millions of dollars in it is in Las Vegas, which has been overrun by zombies, and the owner contracts a team to retrieve the money--or so it would seem--before the city is nuked. I think AotD would be a slog to watch if you're only in it for Dieter's part.

[asakiyume]

The zombies are enough to put me off it. It would need to be AMAZING to overcome my automatic *no* for zombies.

[skygiants]

I love plank walkways like this! Next best thing to a perilous rope bridge across a chasm.

[asakiyume]

Perilous rope bridges are THE BEST!

[summersgate]

That plank bridge is marvelous! I wonder how he did it. Is there something hidden underneath? Does one step on it produce multiple notes or are those notes you recorded individual steps you took?

[asakiyume]

Those notes were just me doing jump-steps on the planks--by which I mean, I was stepping a little more vigorously than I normally would, but not much more.

I didn't check, but I don't think there was anything underneath; I think it's just the natural resonance of the wood. It's really nice!

[sartorias]

You are right! My son had us watch it together a few weeks back. We thought it a ton of fun!

That does sound like marimbas!

[asakiyume]

Oh yay! I'm so glad I guessed right!

[kore]

OMG, I need to see the musical Wagnerian heist movie.

[asakiyume]

Do it do it do it! And report back! (Please)

[amaebi]

We live in a singing world, amid cults of noise and silencing and carefully framed and limited Attention Occasions.

[asakiyume]

We do! Wonderful music all around.

[wayfaringwordhack]

The heist movie sounds like one for me. If I tell my kids there is a follow-up zombie version, they'd probably beg to see it. :P

Can't say zombies are my thing, either.

No snow here, and I am praying for no rain for the end of the month, during our move. I like imagining a rope of snow. :D

Thanks for the musical interlude. I also like to imagine you stomping out the tune, grinning in glee. ;)

[asakiyume]

Your imagination is accurate!

Are you able to watch Netflix where you are? If so, then yeah, the movie might be fun for the family. (There are some bloody moments, but no worse than in Marvel movies, etc.)

(From Claire)

[(Anonymous)]

I never can figure out how to sign into a Dreamwidth account! Anyway! Army of thieves looks JUST up my mama’s alley! I will tell her! Maybe we will watch it when she visits this Krampustide!

Re: (From Claire)

[asakiyume]

Oh, I hope you do--it's very fun!

[mourningdove333]

I love that the nature preserve of wetlands was created there. I'm so glad the land wasn't suitable for development! Sometimes I feel like that's the only way special places are saved: because they are important to us, to the animals, and to the plants that live there but they, thankfully, don't appeal to the developers and capitalists.

[asakiyume]

I hope that by preserving those spaces and loving them, we somehow are creating a net that's strong and good to withstand and counteract the developers' and capitalists' destructiveness.