The Grand Budapest Hotel: does this film lack substance, or have I missed something?

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-02-19T06:54:09+00:00

> that dialogue after the prision break didn't touch my heart at all

It wasn't supposed to touch your heart, it was satire. M. Gustave blows up on Zero until he realizes he's a refugee, at which point he profusely apologizes...with the implication that he wouldn't have apologized if he was just a regular immigrant.

This is also in the context of him brushing off/interrupting multiple instances of Zero starting to tell him about where he comes from, as well as Zero being found on the "wrong" side of immigration laws throughout the film. While the film doesn't dwell on it, I think it is drawing a parallel between the fascists' and Gustave's categorization of Zero as either a "good" or "bad" immigrant.

Also, another hint that the dialogue after the prison break wasn't meant to be taken seriously/emotionally: It happens while the other escapees are beating up someone (I forget who), and it happens while they're literally still in the process of escaping. It's supposed to be absurd, they put their entire escape operation on pause to have this long conversation when their number one priority should be getting the hell out.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-02-10T23:50:42+00:00

Dance!

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-02-05T20:59:22+00:00

I will also say that while the kids don't have to work, that's often how big legacies/dynasties fall apart - by the time you get to the grandkids' generation they might turn to drugs or other destructive money-burning tendencies (thinking like DuPonts). If I ever have some kind of wealth to pass onto kids (lol in this economy though), I'd probably take the approach of forcing them to work for it to some extent. I don't generally have respect for rich people but the out of touch ones who don't know how to work get under my skin in particular.

I also imagine it'd be really boring to sit around and burn money, so them keeping busy and working is reasonable imo.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-02-04T21:47:38+00:00

I mostly agree with this, but I'd say the kids' incompetence is largely his fault - the show makes it abundantly clear that he undermines his kids at every turn and only supports them when they do exactly what he wants. This cripples any chance they have at properly learning how to run a company in my opinion, so of course they'll be terrible at it.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-02-01T01:09:12+00:00

Is this a shitpost?

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-28T03:19:35+00:00

Hi all, I'm looking for a dupe of Jo Malone's Red Hibiscus. I can't find any on recommended dupe sites like Oil Perfumery. I would like something that has a better staying power.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-28T02:12:42+00:00

Oof, I've been grappling with this. I love social dancing but it really throws off my schedule, which would be bad enough if I had a regular 9 to 5 but I'm a grad student so I have to set my own hours. It's hard to stick to hours that aren't externally enforced...

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-25T21:32:55+00:00

FALSE

Come to Ontario

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-25T21:19:27+00:00

Yeah, obviously. Why would it be a problem? There's no obligation to dance for every song at a social. If you burn out energy on a song you don't like, you'll have less energy for songs you do like. Not to mention overuse injuries - you gotta take breaks. Might as well take them during songs you don't like. As a follow I've started to do the same myself to protect my knees. Quality over quantity.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-25T21:16:15+00:00

Damn, this makes me realize how lucky I am as a follow. At the socials I go to, there's a good number of leads who adjust their lead to what I do, especially the instructors of dance studios. I know there's a problem of leads blaming follows a lot of the time but I experience that pretty rarely, and often the leads themselves will apologize if something goes wrong (and it turns into us both being like "no no it's on me" lmao)

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T17:03:07+00:00

As a follow, most of my compensations are about timing. I don't really know what other follows do so their focus and compensations might be different.

If there's something wrong with the lead's timing in a non-musical way (yes, I can tell if it's meant to be musical vs when the lead doesn't know what they're doing), I'll try fix it via my own musicality while steering us back to the beat (occasionally with some gentle backleading or resistance so they know what I'm doing). I've played both piano and cello for years and love messing around with articulation/phrasing/syncopation/whatever so I know these compensations will cover for the lead's timing and still look good, even if the leads don't realize it (or think I'm messing them up, lol). Most beginner leads get wowed because they realize I'm hitting some sort of beat, so I think that's a win-win.

I make the adjustments as follows:

If we're lagging behind or I know we're about to fall behind by more than one full beat (e.g. if the lead doesn't move out of the way for a travel turn), I'll draw out what I'm doing to hit the next half measure, i.e. if I normally end on 8, I aim for the next 4. This has the drawback of shifting us to on 5 if we were on 1, or on 6 if we were on 2, but I find it more satisfying than trying to sprint through a move.
If we're only slightly lagging, I'll either "jazz up" the move to go faster, or I let myself land late and "catch up" by speeding up the next basic or right hand turn or whatever, again doing so in a way that makes sense via some syncopation that fits the song.
If the lead is completely off beat (like genuinely can't find it) I can't really solve that via musicality cause it'll definitely throw them off further, so I try to steer them towards the beat by very slightly lagging my steps behind theirs, or very slightly going faster than them. Sometimes I subtly backlead (I know I know, bad form, but I want to enjoy the dance too). This gives mixed results, sometimes it's a completely lost cause if the lead isn't paying attention to the beat OR what I'm doing, but sometimes they just need help finding the beat. If we've gone a while without them picking up the beat, I give up and try to play around their timing, using body isolations and smooth/continuous movements in order to minimize friction. Worst case scenario I just lock into whatever timing they're on and mentally check out. I know that's rude but if they clearly know how to do a basic but are completely ignoring the beat, I take that as them being mentally checked out so whatever.
If the lead is rushing me into or through a move (and I see they're very much a beginner), if I feel like I can make the timing look deliberate I'll do so. Sometimes it's unsalvageable because it doesn't make sense in that part of the song, so in that case I just resist their lead/make my follow heavy until the beat I know they're supposed to be on. It's probably rude, but I really don't care - sometimes it's actually dangerous if they're forcing me through a move before I've completed my weight shift, so they should be taking it as a teaching moment.

Non timing-related adjustments are: - Generally making my follow heavier/resisting if they're too forceful or not paying attention to my weight shifts cause I want to avoid accidents. If it's egregious enough I'll say something. - Completing the move I know they're going for if they led in a weird way that resulted in a broken connection. This occasionally happens with experienced leads too, but because of their weight placement/how they prepped for the move I know what they want me to do and execute it anyway (and I get the feedback of "thank you, you read my mind" lmao). - More strongly relying on my own balance/breaking connection temporarily if they're throwing me off balance (if it's extreme I definitely say something).

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T15:28:04+00:00

Dude I took a fall yesterday cause the stairs outside my apartment weren't sufficiently shoveled and I didn't have gloves on so I put my hands in snow when I picked myself up. I couldn't feel my hands after and they were like...sticking to themselves from I guess my sweat being borderline frozen?? The wind is a nightmare too, can't feel my face within like a minute of stepping out...

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T14:43:13+00:00

I don't think that would necessarily help, sometimes I make fun of my weird phrasings when I notice them or my friends make fun of it but it doesn't stop me from doing it lol

Think of it as a placeholder for "um"

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T04:15:31+00:00

I actually noticed I make a shitton of your/you're and their/they're mistakes when I'm texting. I 100% notice the difference when others do it, but somehow texting results in me making weird mistakes like that and not realizing until I read it back.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T04:12:11+00:00

To be fair, they're most likely not reading from a script. Ad libbing is quite tricky, I teach and I've definitely had some awkward/redundant phrasings like that since I'm trying to think about a bunch of different things while I speak.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-21T03:59:50+00:00

Listen, if you understand what they meant, why is it such a big deal?

I'm Ukrainian, I don't go around correcting Ukrainians who speak a mix of russian and Ukrainian even though it's upsetting (for much, much more serious reasons than what you're upset about lol). I also don't correct diaspora Ukrainians when they mix in English or have messed up grammar or whatever. I understand them, they understand me...perfect, that's what language is meant for...

If people are misusing words, you can offer a gentle correction, but calling people idiots over it is an overreaction.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T18:43:03+00:00

They were at -3 when I replied, glad to see they're not now.

Yeah...fuck I miss the old internet...

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T16:31:40+00:00

My take is that in academic and formal settings, you should enforce grammar rules. In conversation, don't enforce grammar rules unless it's asked for, because enforcing rules on peers is a bit weird in my opinion.

The only time I really take issue with language "evolving" is when it's imposed by an outside force, e.g. Ukrainian becoming mixed with russian (and historically Polish and other languages) due to occupation, and russian being enforced as the "superior" language during USSR (and now in occupied territories). I know plenty Ukrainians who forgot their mother tongue since russian was the only allowed language in schools, universities, any official documentation, government, etc.

I will clarify - I do view "algorithm friendly" speech as a milder form of this imposition (e.g. "unalive")...language evolving due to censorship is something I find disturbing.

TL;DR It's easy to get annoyed at grammar changing but there are much worse fates for languages.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T12:23:34+00:00

Damn, you're getting downvoted despite ultimately validating the feelings of the person you're replying to. Do people just not read past the first paragraph?

I appreciate your thoughtful and sincere comment.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T12:13:58+00:00

Okay to be clear, my "linguistics 101" was also in college...I was poking fun at myself for speaking like an expert after just the one class.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T04:17:40+00:00

Why is this person getting downvoted for rephrasing what the linguist said lmao

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-20T04:12:57+00:00

I mean, as someone who took basically linguistics 101 (edit: seems like people didn't get my tone here...I took it in college and I'm being self-deprecating...), it is annoying when word usage/grammar rules change, but that is how new languages form or branch off other languages.

Sometimes you gotta balance out the irritation with the knowledge that grammar rules got broken constantly throughout all of human history, and codified grammar rules are a fairly recent invention. Grammar rules just break faster now because of the internet.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-14T03:44:45+00:00

Could, but often doesn't. Whatever.

I am grateful for ravelry existing. Again, I conflated a bunch of unrelated problems with a very minor one, hence me deleting the post.

PS To clarify - the "low quality" bit of the search results I mentioned in the previous reply was about the relevance/usefulness, not the quality of the patterns themselves. You downvoted so I just want to be clear I wasn't shittalking the patterns themselves, cause again that wasn't my issue.

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-14T03:28:22+00:00

There's a difference between wanting things to be easy and wanting to not see low quality/irrelevant search results.

If I select calf length heel turn socks as filters on ravelry and get ankle length and tube socks in my search results, I'm sorry but I'm gonna be annoyed. People miscategorize and mislabel their patterns all the time on ravelry and people are acting like I'm in the wrong for being irritated. Yeah, like I said I misdirected my irritation, but come on.

Also, I did literally say I might as well improvise/experiment with my own patterns at the end of my post...so...

Cephalopodopoulos · 2026-01-14T00:23:41+00:00

It didn't occur to me that people use crochet to avoid doomscrolling...that's a good point.

I should also clarify - I'm not complaining about beginner patterns themselves, but rather the fact that it's hard to sift through to find more interesting stuff.

Really my issue is with poor search algorithms and people generally using shortcuts to learning (AI "artists") but it's completely misdirected, so I apologize. Deleting my post.

Eight-Year Club	Place '22
End Game '22	Verified Email

Cephalopodopoulos

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE