I’ve been a little stressed at work lately, so I decided to take a day off to watch “Dune: Part Two” in theaters. That was today. But then at the end of last week, I happened to see there was this Stand With Crypto thing in Hollywood, so last minute I decided to take yesterday afternoon off as well.
I really had no idea what to expect at the Stand With Crypto event. I figured it would be relatively low key since it was on a Monday at 3pm. Of course in hindsight, I was an idiot for thinking Nas and Brian Armstrong wouldn’t draw a big crowd, especially with Bitcoin on the verge of hitting new all time highs.
On my way there I was even delusional enough to think maybe I’d get a chance to talk to Brian afterward. I thought over what I might say to try and convince him that eCash deserves to be listed on his exchange Coinbase. Thinking about it now, it’s kind of hilarious how lame I can be sometimes. But then I suppose being lame or delusional from time to time isn’t such a bad thing.
Anyway, when I pulled up to the venue, I was about twenty minutes early but there was already a long line. As I’m walking down Hollywood Boulevard, I get a call from someone at work, only the person wasn’t calling about work. They were calling to ask me if I was still into crypto! A big smile spread across my face as I thought to myself, this kind of stuff only happens during a bull market. I said yup, I’m still into it, but I decided not to mention how I was actually at a crypto event as we spoke.
I already gave a quick review of the event on X as you can see above, but let me just add this. Of the people I met, there were those who work in crypto, those who just hold crypto, and those trying to build things on top of crypto. But I couldn’t help but feel like none of the folks I spoke to had quite the same perspective I did.
I’m not talking about supporting crypto because it can bring more economic freedom to the world and make the world a better place. Everyone there seemed to share that sentiment. What I’m talking about is understanding how much work is still needed to get us from where we are today, to a world that actually runs on these decentralized cryptocurrencies.
I get it. Not everyone can or wants to get into the weeds. For example, I wouldn’t expect my mom to know the difference between Nakamoto consensus and Avalanche consensus, but I do wish more people in the industry knew the difference between a custodial wallet and a non-custodial one, or why that difference is so important.
All in all, I’m really glad I attended and got to be a part of what felt like a really cool moment in crypto history. I also got some cool merch, met some cool people, got to see Nas in this tiny venue, and to top it all off, the entire thing was free other than parking, so thanks Brian!
For the second leg of my “Dad’s day off” festivities, I bought a ticket to see “Dune: Part 2” in IMAX 70mm for today. I had watched part one at home so I didn’t want to make that mistake again.
Funny enough, when I got to my seat, the two guys sitting next to me were talking about Bitcoin reaching all time highs again. We’re definitely in a bull market, I thought, and it was even feeling a lot like 2017 again, which isn’t something I felt at all during 2021’s bull run.
As for the movie, while I’m not going to say it was perfect, I would have no problem giving it a 10 out of 10. On my scale, what that means is a movie has to be one of the best movies, if not the best, at the time of its release. I’m talking movies like “Citizen Kane” back in 1941, or “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, or “The Matrix” in 1999. I’d say “Dune: Part Two” in 2024 belongs in that category.
Denis Villeneuve is clearly one of the greatest directors of all time at this point. Putting together nearly 3 hours of these beautiful images while telling this incredibly complex story without ever making me feel bored speaks to the mastery of his craft. It makes me happy to see there are still people of his skill and caliber out there who are capable of pushing the boundaries of art. Maybe one day we get an AI that can make movies as good as this, but I can’t imagine it happening anytime soon.
Overall, there were some moments and lines I found a bit awkward or clumsy, but the visuals, the attention to detail, the drama, and last but not least, the humor, more than made up for any of the movie’s flaws. I highly recommend watching it on IMAX if you can. I felt this movie did a much better job using the larger screen size than Christopher Nolan did with Oppenheimer.
The only other thing I’ll say is that the total cost including fees was about $16 for a matinee screening. I know everyone complains about how everything’s getting more expensive these days, but $16 to be totally transported into another world for 2 hours and 47 minutes seems like an amazing bargain to me.
After the movie, I decided to stop by the nearest voting center to vote for pro-crypto candidates as recommended on the Stand With Crypto website. Since I never vote, I wasn’t sure what kind of scene to expect, but I didn’t think it would be absolutely empty like it was. I asked the guy working there if it was more crowded earlier in the day, and he just looked at me and said no. Made me really wonder what’s the point of even holding these primaries at all.
If you enjoyed reading this, please use the PayButton above to send me a small XEC tip, and it’ll encourage me to write more! Thanks for reading.
