Niels Joaquin

Writer. 75% 🎞, 25% 📚🎵💻🚲. Tech by day. "O day and night, but this is wondrous strange!" "And therefore as a stranger give it welcome."

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

"un rare éclair de bonheur"—Joseph Conrad, in a letter to his aunt, 15 May 1890. Quoted in The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Krasner and Pollock: Past Continuous, The Met

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Third Strokes concert, Flushing Meadows. STILL GOT IT. It's actually inspiring how much they've still got it

First time hearing these live: "Heart in a Cage," "New York City Cops" (!), "Gratisfaction," "Under Control." Really loved hearing AHJ harmonize live on "Gratisfaction"

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Overheard on crowded 7 train to the Strokes: "They're OLD. Like 40s??"

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

NYFF #1: Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall (2026), in 35 mm, world premiere. Fuckin phenomenal. There's no doubt he's going down as one of the greatest

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Wearing my Geese shirt whilst carrying my PTA shirt

[New York Film Festival @TheNYFF]

Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film is here! ✨ To commemorate the world premiere of CAMERON WINTER AT CARNEGIE HALL at #NYFF64, we’re excited to unveil our exclusive “P-Tee-A” shirt with a photo by legendary photographer @Godlis taken at the NYFF35 premiere of BOOGIE NIGHTS in 1997.

The limited-edition shirt is available for purchase only at Alice Tully Hall beginning tonight, October 1, at 7:15pm, while supplies last.

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

The Warriors (1979), in 35 mm

- The Bronx to Coney Island with night train service, oof 😓
- Not even the best Michael Beck film with gratuitous roller skating

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Forgotten Island (2026). There are like seven references to the Filipino love of karaoke, and a direct depiction of it at a graduation party, so we finally have proper representation in mainstream American cinema

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Anticipation of the Night (1958) and Green Desire (1966), both in 16 mm. Experimental film is always a nice brain recalibration

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Random bike tweet: the route from the Navy Yard to Park Slope is so well connected now. Coming from Williamsburg, I used to climb up Vanderbilt to Prospect Heights. Now the path that goes by BAM is a straight shot. Biking is such a great intra-borough solution!

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

The Little Mermaid (1989), first time in 35 mm. Looks like this print was from a 1997 theatrical re-release: a trailer for Mr. Magoo and a teaser for A Bug's Life were attached

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Pumping Iron (1977). Check out Metrograph's ongoing series with American Cinema Editors (ACE) whenever a screening pops up. Good stories about the craft and the industry

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Brandon Flowers at Brooklyn Paramount. Highlights:

- "Plans" (great lead single)
- "Still Want You" (his best!)
- "Magdalena" (another great one from the back catalog)
- "People Who Died" (crazy-good cover!)

Also loved his inter-song storytelling. An underrated songwriter, IMO!

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Daughter of the Nile (1987), DCP. The thing I appreciate most about this Hou film is seeing how people actually use and live in their houses: doing homework on a tiny kitchen table, leaving the bathroom door open, convalescing, farting, finagling cash from your grandparents

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

The pieces that are in some volumes but not in others are either nonfiction (LOA, NN Vol. 9) or character sketches like "Daniel Orme" (Berthoff, NN Vol. 13)

My favorite new-to-me piece is "John Marr," a combo of prose and poetry, like several of his final projects. Achingly sad

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Finished Complete Shorter Fiction by Herman Melville (Everyman's Library, 1997). The section I hadn't read yet was "Uncollected Stories and Sketches"—primarily the short stories that Melville wrote in 1853–1856 for Harper's and Putnam's but that didn't end up in The Piazza Tales

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

There are at least three alternatives for getting uncollected short pieces in book form:

- Great Short Works of Herman Melville, ed. Berthoff
- Northwestern-Newberry Vol. 9 (with Other Prose Pieces) and Vol. 13 (with Uncompleted Writings)
- LOA #24 (with Uncollected Prose)

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Also, there's something so satisfying about train signaling before wireless standards for "communications-based train control" (CBTC) existed. It's the fundamentals of science: placing instruments in the physical world and making inferences from the limited signals

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), in 35 mm. The film integrates the logistics of commuting by train and by car so well. When the police car with the money flips over at Astor Place, you're like Ohhhh shit, game over. 28th Street? Nope, not gonna make it

Similar to:

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), in 35 mm. Amused that a decent chunk of the movie is solving New York transit puzzles ("72nd St. to Wall St. during the daytime in < 30 min without the 2/3, noooo ...")

[Niels Joaquin @nielsj_]

In "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo!" (1853), Melville describes "a very lonely part of the country" where people just pass through "as if that part of the world were only made to fly over, and not to settle upon." Love that he conceived of flyover country before you could fly over the country