Bits and bobs (2026.08)

Film Brand New Landscape by Yuiga Danzuka. Ren works as a delivery driver for moth orchids — a common gift for business openings in Japan. Since the loss of his mother to suicide, he’s been estranged from his father, a world-renowned landscape designer. During a routine delivery, he unexpectedly comes face to face with him. That’s the extent of what i understood. The rest remains a bit of a blur. Is it the most poetic drunkard’s dream i’ve seen? Is it a clumsy attempt at magical realism? Is it a fairly convincing parallel between the loss of one’s mother and the loss of our common urban spaces? I don’t know, but it was weirdly enticing. Article Ned Resnikoff at Public Comment: If you are still posting on X, you should stop today. Quitting the site yesterday would have been better, but doing it today is better than doing it tomorrow. The moral and political case for quitting X is so obvious that it scarcely bears repeating, but I’ll briefly recap it anyway. The guy who owns X—the…