Yes, I am repurposing the title of a Joni Mitchell’s 😏 song for:
John Wick: Chapter 4 is a 2023 American action film directed by Chad Stahelski. The fourth installment in the John Wick franchise, it stars Keanu Reeves as the titular character. It has already grossed over $244 million (on a budget of $100 million).
Way too long. Several fight sequences – Osaka, Berlin, and three in Paris – could have been trimmed by 20% (or more). The denouement is satisfying. (And, there is a post-credits scene, so sit tight.)
The first John Wick (101 minutes; $86 million on a budget of $30 million; Rotten Tomatoes 94%) was refreshingly original. The sequel was pretty good (122 minutes; $174 million on a budget of $40 million; RT 89%). The third installment, although enjoyable (saw it in Chestnut Hill SuperLux in Boston, when I was there for the HKS-WEF Schwab Social Entrepreneurship Program, in 2019, which I reprised last month as mentioned in a LI post from one of the participant organizations), was already longer than it should have been (131 minutes; $327 million on a budget of $75 million; RT 89%). Notwithstanding my view on this matter, the market – box office receipts – appears to be rewarding the increased length (169 minutes; RT 94%) consistently. 😳
Liaison. Decent; not as gritty and satisfying like Tehran or Bodyguard or Collateral. The Night Agent. Surprisingly watchable. (Nowhere as good as The Night Manager.) Murder Mystery 2. Short.
My favorite Joni Mitchell lyrics is not from Woodstock although I agree that we got to get ourselves back to the garden (see A Garden of One’s Own), but from The Arrangement, written for the film (but was not used in it):
The Arrangement is a 1969 film drama film directed by Elia Kazan, based upon his 1967 novel of the same title.
You could have been more
Than a name on the door
While you still have the time
You could get away and find
A better life
More than a consumer
More than a credit card
You could have been more than a name on the door
Preparing slides for my Distinguished Lecture at Lehigh (see Quantum! Quantum! Quantum!) scheduled for tomorrow, I received this email:
Dear Prof. Tayur,
As part of the Quantum Computing team at TCS we are planning to organize an hour-long panel discussion on the upcoming World Quantum day on 14th April, where we request the honour of your presence as a panelist. Hoping to hear more about Brahminical Research (along with Quantum) during the discussion.
Many folks know that March 14 is Pi-day (3.14). I did not know, until I received this email, that World Quantum Day is April 14th (4.14. Hint: Planck’s constant). What is Brahminical Research? I first introduced it in An Essay on Operations Management (2017), and then explained in my Moonshot: Quantum Computing video (2019), it is any research that is so pure, so clean, so elegant, so chaste:
that it is not only not useful today, but can never ever be useful, accidentally or otherwise, for any purpose, for anyone or anything: human, alien, machine or divine. ☺️
Why? Because not only is the Physical Universe we experience as Reality (and incorrectly believe it to be Truth) just an Illusion, it is also allegedly deceptively so: it is a falsehood, a Sophism.😳
[Guess who I am re-reading now!]
However, as you know, notwithstanding these lofty aspirations to look beyond the immediately visible, my actual research (seen Through Heaven’s Eyes) is deplorably practical – Too Much in this World 😊 enhancing shareholder value (via SmartOps) managing Trillion Dollars of Inventory or improving lives of people via transplants through OrganJet and Nudge Videos– as I reflected on it a few years back:
University Professor! A Life of Practical Mathematics.
A single thread in a tapestry
Though its color brightly shines
Can never see its purpose
In the pattern of the grand design
So how can you see what your life is worth
Or where your value lies?
The answer will come to him who tries
To look at his life through Heaven’s eyes
This song is from:
The Prince of Egypt is a 1998 American animated musical drama film produced by DreamWorks Animation and released by DreamWorks Pictures. The film grossed $218 million worldwide in theaters (on a budget of $70 million). It won an Academy Award for Best Original Song, When You Believe, music lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, and sung by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
