After three-weeks on the road it was Netflix and chill with my fiancéeic last weekend, the longest traveling of my career forcing the longest separation of our 12-year relationship.
And at our age, reconnecting is more Netflix than chill!
On the marquee were A Complete Unknown starring Timothée Chalamet as a young Bob Dylan and The Brutalist starring Adrien Brody as a Holocaust survivor who never re-finds peace. Together the films were nominated for 17 Oscars, including Best Actor in a Leading Role nominations for both men.
In the end it was Brody who brought home the gold, allowing to the longest acceptance speech in Oscar’s history, THE win was Brody’s second for Best Actor, having received that nod in 2003 for an equally dark portrayal of another Holocaust survivor in The Pianist.
It’s that darkness which Brody has become best known for, and the decades spent honing that talent were on display throughout the film. The reprise though should not have been enough to earn Brody the Oscar over Chalamet, who spent more than five-years developing his role.
Because Chalamet would need to be more than an actor to reconstruct Dylan, who Rolling Stone Magazine called the greatest songwriter of all time. To assemble Dylan Chalamet would also need to play the guitar and harmonica.
Which he learned to do for this performance!
Not to mention the effort to sing through his nose, the only way to recreate Dylan’s sound.
To complete the transformation Chalamet captured Dylan’s timbre, leaving each mumbled word straining for a decibel worthy of the great poet who uttered them. A haunting counterfeit of the enigmatic Dylan, who screams his rage without raising his voice.
On Oscar night Brody stole Chalamet's statue with a performance worth the time on the couch, though if there’s only time for one of these movies make it A Complete Unknown.
And while watching take Dylan's advice and play it fucking loud!
THE Sounds of Silence
When more than a third of their coworkers at the Cranberry, Pennsylvania corporate headquarters of Pittsburgh Paints were terminated two-weeks ago remaining employees looked to the company’s leadership and new owners for word of their intentions.
Word which has yet to come.
Since American Industrial Partners acquired PPG’s architectural division in December it’s been the new company’s headquarter’d employees most interested in my screeds, unsurprising considering their vested interests. On the map, darker blues represent more readership, making it hard to miss that trend.
I guess PPG didn’t have any offices in New Mexico?
It’s not just employees impacted by changes at Pittsburgh, the company’s independent retailers are also experiencing turbulence as new owners determine their fate. And like the employees, dealers I'm in touch with share there's been no communications regarding ownership’s vision for their futures.
But while Pittsburgh might not care what their dealers are thinking others do, including one firm who recently engaged me to research the current sentiment of independent Pittsburgh Paints retailers.
This ought to be good!
That work won’t begin for several weeks and THE results will remain private, except for any tidbits I’m able to share with you here. And while there’s no way to know in advance what Pittsburgh dealers will answer when asked for their views on that brand’s current status, I might have a clue.
If you're a Pittsburgh dealer interested in participating in a double-blind compensated survey, lmk here.
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