The Conqueror Valentine

Here's what I honestly think happened. At some point during his first term, Trump had a conversation with Putin about how powerful countries used to go out and conquer new territory and why don't they do that anymore? Putin said with his military power he could easily do just that and Trump replied he could do it purely with real estate transactions. Putin scoffed and so the two men made a bet; Putin would conquer all he could militarily, beginning with Ukraine, and Trump would get all he could by negotiation. That's what I think's happening. Trump's making bids for so many countries because he has to make up for lost time.

Maybe that's why I was in the mood to watch Disney's Pocahontas last night (incidentally, Pocahontas is Trump's nickname for Elizabeth Warren because she mistakenly claimed to have Native American heritage). It's the movie with an Australian playing an Englishman with an American accent. It's certainly funny watching such a nakedly leftwing movie starring a man who I heard deny evolution on Joe Rogen a few days ago. Mel Gibson is truly nuts and it's fascinating watching him talk, watching his eyes roll around like a girl speaking tongues for a Salem witch trial. I still say Passion of the Christ is a terrible film, not for its ideology but because it does things like illuminate night scenes with massive floodlights.

Disney's Pocahontas is really sexy which always makes the movie a pleasure to watch. Though maybe less credit ought to go to Glen Keane than is generally given because of how realistic the proportions of the characters are in that movie and how much they resemble the live action models.

It's almost rotoscoping.

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone in this time zone. I could've watched It Happened One Night on The Criterion Channel but I chose poor dated little Pocahontas as my Valentine instead. Maybe I have a soft spot for misbegotten art. It's still edifying, or it ought to be, that Disney thought Pocahontas was going to be the big hit and The Lion King, which was made at the same time, was going to be just a little side project. Hollywood underestimating America's conservatism is nothing new.

X Sonnet 1919

Revealing toys deserve an extra paste.
Connexions break before the bot can walk.
Your morning choc'ate primes your better taste.
Magenta jelly hearts can warmly talk.
The loving coat conducts his dame to court.
Beginning dances blot the soggy card.
The walls were pasted thick with floral sort.
Expensive wine was used to pay the bard.
Her feet were cut with brazen diamond rings.
A rocky floor was thus her battlefield.
The whiles a drunken local crooner sings.
Absurdist dreams do jagged princes yield.
As sharpened crystal hearts would pierce the ball
Her triumph saged the kingdom's boozy fall.