Ataraxia

  Woodstock by Michael Wadleigh was the 1971 Winner of The Oscar for Best Documentary, Features and it is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   8 out of 10   Woodstock is the epitome of the Flower Power movement, the hippy period in America and elsewhere…well, not in my country, where we had communism, which ended with Ceausescu – I took part in the revolution http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html that deposed the dictator   The rock concert took which place in 1969, and it is estimated that between 400,000 and 500,000 people attended, and it was a remarkable achievement as a logistics project, it was incredibly peaceful and memorable There isn’t much else I can say about it, if anything, so I will just digress from here and you should consider th...

  The Beach by Alex Garland Brilliant This book is one of the most enjoyable that I have read in some time. It was mesmerizing. I had such a great pleasure reading it that the end was a disappointment in the sense that I wished it went on. It made me think of some other classics, like The Lord of the Flies, where the same paradise conditions are in place. And yet, humans manage to bring havoc to the most promising settings and in the place that is as close to heaven as you can get. This brings me to another amazing book that I am currently savoring: -            War, What is it Good For Where there are various takes on history and theories are explained on the nature of humans, who seems to be violent. Returning to The Beach- it has a magical pull and even if terrible things happen, I still feel the urge to get there. On the other hand, it may serve as a lesson in positive thinking, with gratitude at the top of the list and the winn...

  A Night to Remember based on the book by Walter Lord  https://notesaboutfilms.blogspot.com/2021/04/77-out-of-100-for-night-to-remember.html 9 out of 10     The Titanic has been again on the news, albeit indirectly, because for the past week or so, people have seen at the news coverage of the disappearance of a small submarine that was supposed to take some wealthy people to the wreck of the ship, but a short time after its departure, it lost contact with land   Hence, speculation on what could have happened, the updates on the remaining oxygen that was dwindling, information on the CEO who was on the ship, as the leader of the company that was doing these things, Ocean something, more about the passengers, and if one really wanted, one could know a lot more The message seems to be that exploration is still a risky venture; also, we have to realize that we know much more about outer space – well, let me rephrase that, and say that we have information about the ...

  Shock Corridor written and directed by Samuel Fuller is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – you find many notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other lists on my blog https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html   8 out of 10   Shock Corridor is on the New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made list, and though it is a good feature, it would not get included on my own Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made selection, unless I run out of material   Nevertheless, seeing that we have so much madness at the top, and in general, a film about a mental institution and the patients, guardians, doctor and the main character in it would be interesting, except this issue: When you look at the news and see what MAGA and their Orange Lunatic are up to (that’s right, he keeps calling the other side radical left lunatics, but he is the epitome of derangement) you feel that you are in an asylum   The magnum opus for ...

  quotes from  The Story of O by Pauline Réage     She gets in. It is autumn, and coming up to dusk. She is dressed as she always is: high heels, a suit with a pleated skirt, a silk blouse, and no hat. But long gloves which come up over the sleeves of her jacket, and in her leather handbag she has her identification papers, her compact, and her lipstick. The taxi moves off slowly   take off your panties."   "Listen," he says. "Now you're ready. This is where I leave you. You're to get out and go ring the doorbell. Follow whoever opens the door for you, and do whatever you're told. If you hesitate about going in, they'll come and take you in. If you don't obey immediately, they'll force you to. Your bag? No, you have no further need for your bag. You're merely the girl I'm furnishing. Yes, of course I'll be there. Now run along."   Another version of the same beginning was simpler and more direct: the you...

  The Housemaid by Freida McFadden has managed to get onto The Greatest Books of All Time site, although it is as low as 16709, nevertheless, it does have an astounding 3,464,056 ratings and 293,265 reviews on Goodreads, with this, we need to add to the ridiculous number…I have about 200k reviews on my blog, I am exaggerating, and even there are too many, they generally avoid the likes of The Housemaid, which is not something I get busy with https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/09/do-you-have-any-feedback.html     6 out of 10   Arthur Schopenhauer https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2025/07/the-history-of-philosophy-by-bertrand.html said “One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.   In order to read what is good one must make it a condition never to read what is bad; for life is short, and both time and strength limited.”   Ergo, we should avoid The Housem...