The lack of spontaneity has never bothered me nor did I have this sudden disillusionment after seeing my first rider. I felt more like I knew how to play the game. Besides, arena shows are very staged events. The whiney Washington Post critic Mental Floss linked off of is probably an aging Baby Boomer or Classic Rock stooge.

However, I am not surprised that the finger of blame has been pointed at Bruce Springsteen, the King of Arena/Dull Rock. To be fair, he is a good writer when others cover his songs (Manfred Mann, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Natalie Cole, Basia Bulat). Bruce’s sincerity and energy are impressive too. I just can’t get into his stuff after I went to college despite having a reconciliation with other Classic Rock acts. The Boss ruining the encore is another demonstration of how American Exceptionalism entails the “more is less” problem.

]]> http://maggipicayune.net/wp/?feed=rss2&p=12501 0 http://maggipicayune.net/wp/?p=12500 http://maggipicayune.net/wp/?p=12500#comments Mon, 17 Jun 2013 13:30:19 +0000 Steve http://maggipicayune.net/wp/?p=12500 Continue reading →]]> Two years ago, Slate‘s Mark Oppenheimer said PBS wasn’t worth saving because its audience is mostly aging Baby Boomers and cable has taken its place for programming. I wouldn’t know about the former yet the recent ad campaign with the New York affiliate has proven the cable argument to be bullshit.

We cut the cord years ago but whenever I catch TLC, History or Discovery in the break room at work, it’s always some show featuring rednecks in a pawn shop, rebuilding motorcycles/cars or killing gators. The worse stuff involves paranormal crap. None of this is educational. Then comes the excuse I’ve heard for why SyFy shows wrestling, psychics and ghost chasing (none of which is science fiction, hence the name change); the garbage pays the bills.

All the more reason to keep PBS afloat.

Personally, PBS should be allowed to regain its national feed like when we had Dish TV. This went away once we had to go with the local channels package for KLRU.

I wouldn’t sweat its current swerve to the older demographic. PBS has adapted in the past, it can again. There’s a ton of its content on Netflix streaming.

Friday was my annual health screening. As I have bored you all about the running, eating less, eating more fruit, cutting back on sugar and just trying harder. It panned out really well…everything but my waistline was either optimal or desirable! Even the main boogeymen Glucose (92!) and blood pressure. I was mostly stoked about losing three inches (7.5 cm) on my waistline. According to the Wellness Center’s goals, I only have an inch to go to be in the clear! Somara was saying my shirts weren’t being so snug over the last few months, now I have written proof.

Next up, our vacation was scheduled over 10 days ago. I didn’t put up a countdown until today, when it hit around 100 days to go. Obviously it’s Las Vegas. This will be my ninth trip to Sin City. It’ll be a belated 10th wedding anniversary and joint birthday celebration. The plane tickets were pre-paid through our vacation fund, the timeshare became our permanent property last Summer, now we just need to see who is coming to town for booking show tickets.

What else? Our car will be paid off in early July. Thanks to the house being refinanced, we have no payment next month. Thus we’ve redirected it to Honda. Those of you who know the ins and outs of car buying may get hit up by me this Fall. I need to bone up on the features via Consumer Reports too.

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Documentary film maker Jennifer Nelson is taking on the media barony because the other media baronies just pass the “cost of doing business” on to their customers. Despite the mountain of evidence proving Time Warner’s claim is bullshit, it will be a David v. Goliath fight thanks to the cost of litigation; the source of power behind patent trolls and Scientology.

Next up will be ending the ridiculous extensions being granted to Disney and the pharmaceutical industry. As one critic once pointed out, we have too much ownership in the West.

 …and I have always hoped to avoid Nick Gilder’s only hit at any opportunity

Let’s see what the gift is since I don’t have this stuff memorized…copper or wool. Nice. Wiring or sweaters. Pennies won’t work, they tend to have more zinc since the late Seventies.

We Maggis hope they have a good celebration with the three daughters over there in California. Meanwhile, our card is late as always, see my problem regarding single-digit dates. Extra things for the girls will be included, primarily…pirates!

Yes. In 2008, I mostly went with a new mortgage to get a slightly lower rate, I think it was about a point, yet the action was more about having Somara added. When I originally bought the house, we were not married, hence it was mine. The action also freed up $140/month to put toward killing off her third student loan.

This Spring, after I paid the mortgage online with Wells Fargo, I clicked a link to see what kind of deal we’d get now. Amazingly, I received a phone call from somebody in Phoenix within two hours. It just took a while due to a couple things: Wells Fargo lost the survey of the house from last time and my sulfameth allergy put everything on hold for a week.

It’s all over now. Sure there’s a new 30-year loan. The beauty is we got a rate of 3.875% and our P&I is well under $500/month. Our plan remains to pay what we were paying before the refinancing so the closing costs will be eliminated in a year…maybe longer. We owned almost 21% of the house (based upon its original price), now it’s set back to 18.4%. I’m not worried. If we stick with what we were paying, we’ll be making 15 payments/year.

We still made a wise move. Rents in Austin are jumping thanks to my adopted home gaining 70 assholes/day, ergo, 60 cars appearing and 40 Republicans on I-35. Our house payment will be lower than any rent, even with the escrow. My plan is that we can stay put should we both end up working at the nearby HEB.

Next up, no house payment until August 1. The car will be paid off six weeks ahead of the current schedule. I may be able to test drive the Prius C I have my eye on by late Fall!

When they did a cartoon week, you know I was chompin’ at the bit because it’s a personal strength, especially at Geeks Who Drink competitions.

I nailed three of the four six-question rounds despite Anime being present in them. In my opinion, (Japanese) Anime is a separate sub-genre of its own. Few shows are mainstream enough to be in the same company as Spongebob Squarepants, Flapjack or Phineas & Ferb. One could argue a similar case for the competition including [Adult Swim] programs; Superjail was present.

Either way, I was stoked to be a clear winner on round two! I chose this clear Apple coffee mug due to its circumference being perfect for my Teavana tea thingy.

 Fifth time is not the charm for this famous 20th century novel which I will quickly admit to being one of my favorite books. I read it in high school as most teenagers in the Eighties had to and I’ve even taken the time to re-read it as an adult voluntarily. When I read about Luhrman attempting to make this into a film, I was apprehensive because he’s Australian and his Romeo + Juliet had mixed results. Gatsby being pushed back from Christmas 2012 to Summer 2013 should’ve been a warning sign. The Hip Hop music in the trailer certainly annoyed me; this will just attract White, suburban kids who don’t want to read the book for English class.

Everybody practically knows the whole plot so I’ll skip that. Luhrman did change it up by starting movie with Nick recuperating in a sanatorium (rehab in 1929) and his recovery becomes telling the story of the infamous Summer he met Jay Gatsby. A bit much yet it doesn’t matter, Fitzgerald did frame his novel as a flashback from Nick’s perspective.

I’ve never seen the first, second nor fourth version of Gatsby. I do have number four on DVD starring Mira Sorvino as Daisy and Paul Rudd as Nick (it was made for A&E not theatrically released), I haven’t gotten around to it. I have seen the most common version from the Seventies starring Robert Redford (Gatsby), Mia Farrow (Daisy), Bruce Dern (Tom) and Sam Watterston (Nick). You can currently catch it on Netflix streaming. I’ll warn you now, it’s rather disappointing.

However, what about this take? Luhrman’s is slightly better but not by much. Joel Edgerton was spot on as Tom, a bully with the physique of an aging ex-jock. He has come a long way since being a rather stiff Owen Lars in the horrific Star Wars prequels. Tobey Maguire is a convincing Nick, then again being world-weary is something Tobey excels at. DiCaprio’s performance was surprisingly stiff and robotic. I found this puzzling. He did  great in Django Unchained. Elizabeth Debicki as Jordan was another nice touch due to her height being significantly greater than Nick’s; if you’ve forgotten, Jordan was a professional golfer and athletes of both genders tend to be taller than average. Carey Mulligan’s Daisy is better than Mia Farrow.

Beyond the casting, Luhrman’s use of color and space is unusual. With the former, there’s tones and shades that didn’t likely exist in the Twenties. With the latter, you can tell CG or green screen technologies were used; in another review I read Gatsby was shot at Fox’s Sydney studios, home of the Star Wars prequels. It doesn’t detract from the story, it just doesn’t make it better.

Other than employing flavor-of-the-month music, my biggest criticism is the scene when Myrtle Wilson is hit by Gatsby’s car. Luhrman bludgeons the audience over the head with the symbolism. I won’t spoil it. You have to see it for yourself. Try not to sprain your eyes as they roll in exasperation. I’ve never bought into the interpretation Luhrman chose neither. Fitzgerald wasn’t a deep writer, he only had one or two good novels in him and Gatsby is really more about the zeitgeist of the time. Like Generation X or Easy Rider were just snapshots of their day.

Alamo Drafthouse did a good job warming up the crowd. They mostly showed clips from flicks made in the early Thirties which bore some resemblance to Twenties’ fashions.

A nice gift from my friend, fellow hockey fan and Dexter’s Lab enthusiast Ben! His ears must’ve been burning since I recently caught the Stuff You Should Know podcast about Tesla’s contributions, namely how his AC electrical standard with Westinghouse beat out Edison’s DC for the World’s Fair. You didn’t think I’d be caught dead wearing a shirt plugging the silly hair-rock band from the Eighties? I actually saw them open for Def Leppard in 1987, they were OK but I didn’t care for their public bashing of Marconi.

To celebrate, I’m starting a new poll. Maybe it’ll get a better response. A countdown for something cooler will will follow later, I’m somewhat tired and it’s getting late.

Alaire has always been good to us and she is no slouch when it comes to making dinner as a thank-you gift!

I hope she has a great time.

I did capture two more recently in the last few days. Both are girls and gave them Norse goddess names. The calico is Freya, she has been the easiest to catch next to Balder. The brown tabby/tiger required more research due to her nasty disposition, thus she is Weth, the goddess of anger. Never heard of this deity until Wikipedia, how did Marvel Comics miss out on her as a foe for Thor is beyond me.

One kitten remains. It’s going to be tricky since he or she has the same fur pattern as Balder. I may be getting the two mixed up for all I know. Should I capture a female gray and white kitten, I will know for sure. Getting the two together will be harder.

Enjoy the pictures and movie! When these guys are big enough, they’re off to AHS and momma gets fixed.

Freya is a cutie and you can see her eyes are changing to green.

Weth is angrier than Ramses and Molly combined, watch below.

I went with another montage based upon my favorite images: reruns with George Reeves when I was a little kid; Christopher Reeve from the Richard Donner movie (it remains the best); the Bruce Timm-managed cartoons; awesome comic-book artist Alex Ross; the famous Action Comics #1 cover (recently parodied for Regular Show #1); lastly, the MAD magazine issue my brother and I scoured, read aloud and laughed ourselves silly over, especially when General Zod put Nixon’s image on Mt. Rushmore.

Will I be going to see Man of Steel. Sure. It has promise despite Zack Snyder’s track record being spotty. I’m no fan of rebooting but after how lame Superman III, IV and Returns were, there wasn’t much choice. The damage wasn’t as ridiculous as Burton-Schumacher’s Batman flicks yet Supes is a hard character to sell due to his near-invincible nature. He tends to succeed on the smaller screen like most DC characters. I have never seen Smallville so I have no opinion either way with it. I couldn’t stomach Lois & Clark because it focused on the most boring elements while making Teri Hatcher an undeserved star.

Superman may not be my favorite comic book character (I lean toward Batman) and the only title I buy with him present is Justice League but I respect and understand his place in pop-culture history: Superman was the first big, successful superhero.