Barbara was a great writer and activist who told it like it is! Like most, I never heard of her until she published Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America which came out in 2001. Even then, Barbara was reporting on how Slick Willie’s NeoLiberal reforms and Age of Prosperity were absolute bullshit. As Dave Anthony said in 2019, NAFTA gutted the US and her book demonstrated how things were even worse for women, especially those on a single income with children.
Nickel was only one of her 20 books she authored. While researching this, I was correct in remembering Barbara’s time as a columnist for The New York Times. How fitting they had her filling in for Globalist Apologist Emeritus…Thomas Friedman, an asshole who was her complete opposite; plus he’s another reason why Fascism and illiberalism are on the rise.
Before becoming a full-time author, Barbara grew up an American Gypsy thanks to her parents’ constant pursuit of employment; Amerika! She attended university all the way to earning a PhD in cellular Biology. By 1970, in here words, she underwent a personal and political shift toward getting into the fight for women’s health. A couple years later, she left the cushy professorship to write and take up other causes: peace, social justice, economic justice and all those other whiney lefty things now abandoned by the shitty, NeoLiberal bosses in the Democratic Party. Barbara also used her fame and money to continue helping those in need unlike JD Vance or the Great Equivocator. However, she probably got shunned by the High Priests of Liberalism for backing Sanders and Nader, namely the thin-skinned Eric Alterman who just thinks his articles will save the democracy and the middle class, along with promoting the tired music of Dylan and Springsteen. He’s just another Trust Fund Baby cut from the same cloth as Nate Silver.
Thanks for all you’ve done Barbara! May your efforts not be in vain and I know I plan to get more involved with building up the DSA Party at the local level because America can’t be saved by a third party at the national level.
Normally, I’m not thrilled about this month. Sure we get a three-day weekend with Labor Day but it also means Summer is over. On the upside, Austin gradually starts to cool off, the Renaissance Faire is coming, outdoor shows aren’t a sauna, my Packers might have a strong start despite having an asshole in QB and this year, hitting Vegas to celebrate Jennifer’s mom’s birthday.
This month’s header is dedicated to the short-lived SitCom Square Pegs, a surprise show from CBS (the grandma network) in 1982. Pegs made its debut 40 years ago as the lead-in show to the Monday lineup which had the final season of MASH and the inaugural season for Newhart. I’ll go on more about Pegs later since it needs further research and it didn’t hit the airwaves until September 27, 1982. Sounds about right, I think. I can’t remember if new episodes of shows rolled out this late as they do now. Can’t get my fix of Bob’s Burgers until the 25th! Dying to know how the movie will effect what follows weekly!
I want to close with a big thank you and credit to Freepik for the checkered pattern I tweaked for my site. Click on the link for all the cool stuff their site offers.
Given how poorly things are going in Russia and the former Soviet Republics, Gorbachev will often be remembered in a positive light, despite agreeing with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. He also represented some major shifts over there which hadn’t happened since Kruschev de-Stalinized the country other than being the first (and last) leader who was born and raised in the Soviet system. I always thought he did some time in the KGB but all biographies said no. I guess I was a sucker via a joke Dennis Miller made on SNL long before Miller became Putin’s bitch.
As this is my site, I’ll write about his indirect effect on my life and memory, you’re all free to comment.
Gorbachev was and wasn’t a surprise when he was named head of the USSR in 1985. Was: after Brezhnev died, he was replaced by two old farts who were contemporaries that both died within a couple years. The average American didn’t think the Soviets were going to change course until they ran out of the old guard. They had become a pretty intransigent bunch in the Eighties due to St. Reagan’s saber rattling. Wasn’t: experts whose job it was to observe the USSR beyond the daily news already knew Gorbachev was in the line of succession once Chernenko got the job. His ascension had the world tease the US a little given that for once, America had the older guy as the boss instead of the Russians.
In 1985 I was in high school and my knowledge of “our mortal foe” was about average. I didn’t think the new guy was going to make a difference. I would continue fearing the sight of ICBMs leaving their silos a la The Day After, figured their occupation of Afghanistan would proceed and the Warsaw Pact states were going to remain their pawns. When I got to university and took a philosophy class about Karl Marx in 1989, before the Berlin Wall’s fall, the professor said Gorbachev had been instituting reforms/changes because the USSR had run out of money in the Seventies. It explained why the Russians were experimenting with market-based solutions to fix their supply-chain issues and letting Western stuff in like McDonald’s. He was definitely brave (and powerful) enough to finally tell the govern-ment, “Hey, we’ve stagnated since the late Sixties. Let’s open up, try other ideas and not dismiss them if they weren’t originally ours.” How I wish the assholes running the US into the crapper were pushed aside for those who share this thinking. Those who promote American Exceptionalism are tools.
He was still a dictator. I have no delusions about his overall record. Gorbachev didn’t come completely clean on how disastrous Chernobyl was and he allowed the blame-throwing trial to happen afterwards. The Afghanistan conflict continued for another four years. The KGB and GRU carried out their missions without fail. He never brought Soviet allies or clients to heel in Latin America, Africa or the Middle East. Gorbachev wasn’t a very strong dictator though, the brief coup which made Yeltsin a hero proved it.
What I will give him a high five for was showing how St. Reagan was the war monger by a couple of his actions. Firstly, he was reasonable enough to discuss disarmament which he needed to get more economic reforms; Amerika’s strategy since Truman was to outspend the USSR into bankruptcy…we’re not too far from such a fate today. The second move was during a visit to DC. He insisted on getting out of his limo and shaking hands with all the Americans he encountered, a Secret Service/KGB nightmare. I read how much this pissed off St. Reagan and his thugs. Their years of painting the USSR as the (sole) evil empire was evaporating in a brilliant PR move. Somehow, I think Mikhail was sincere too.
Farewell Mr. Gorbachev. Your legacy will remain complicated since all human beings of all stripers are. In the West, you’ll probably get a whitewashing because it works with the lies promoting St. Reagan as a POTUS on par with Lincoln and FDR when he should be flushed down the crapper with Jackson and Hoover. In Russia, you were already being blamed for everything going wrong and until the Russian people can break free from Putin and the oligarchs, it’s where you will remain.
At Jennifer’s insistence, and for my sanity, I got some more of my Chucks off the floor, out of the temporary crates and boxes and on to the infamous shelving. Last Sunday, I filled it with pairs to spare. And no, I do not have too many shoes! I consider these things to be part investmentor something a relative with size 11 feet will love. If it’s a lady who wears size 13, they should be proud of being tall! I stupidly forgot to count, I was more focused on how I need to find additional support on the deeper shelves.
While organizing, I had to say goodbye to the above pair which I had nicknamed the Andy Warhol Factory set. They lasted just a mere 12 years and I probably wore them maybe 30 times. Sadly, the plastic they were made from wasn’t easy to clean (I never bothered) and as you can see, not durable. I fear my socks transferred the bacterial stuff we all have living on our feet to the materials…and, the bacteria ate the plastic. Going to miss them.
These fared better since I recall getting them new around 2003. Having an alternate color of hot-rod flames was sneeto. Oddly, the rubber walls/lining around the bottom solidified and turned brittle, breaking off. In Converse’s defense, I worse these way more often than the AWF pair because I only had about 20-30 pairs when these arrived so these were in rotation frequently compared to what I have. I scored another traditional hot-rod design during my birthday weekend so I wasn’t too sad to give purple fire to the trash. What I do miss was the Converse Store not having the recycling bin for your old shoes to be ground up into gym floors. Maybe I should ask my friend Sarah to make sure.
Yikes, if this poor person can’t handle her issues with addition via the powerful Crystal Blue Math Jesse and Walter are making in their lab, I fear what will happen when she is offered some uncut Game Theory or Geometry.
However, given all the layoffs in publishing, this typo will be happening more often as news organizations cut budgets to make the hedge funds richer. To them, fact checking and proofreading aren’t important and there’s the evidence above!
Crap! August is practically over and I nearly forgot about this event from 40 years ago! It’s a major reason why I don’t and never will, have a dog in my house. They’re great as I enjoy visiting the ones who live with friends since they choose friendly breeds, yet they’re too needy and unpredictable as this story reveals.
The fateful debacle began way back in May when I managed to scrape up the money to buy the new printing of the Against the Giants trilogy adventure for D&D. I think my family’s move to Houston was a done deal so the clock was ticking to get in as many fun times with friends before I would be the “new kid” again. Thankfully, I was unfamiliar with the earlier Giants incarnations which were sold separately and my inexperience as a DM made this version a page-turner; today it’s viewed as a horribly written dungeon crawl, think LEGO videogames if you’re not a D&D’r.
How was it exciting despite Gygax’s dreadful prose and terrible logic? Unlike his other opus, The Tomb of Horrors, Giants was a world-sprawling mix of action and conspiracy. What begins as an expedition to fight a tribe of really well-organized hill giants harassing a nearby kingdom transforms into an onion-esque mystery as the players’ heroes eventually discover a more sinister force using all the evil giant races as a proxy in their war against the surface dwellers…the mythical and allegedly non-existent dark elves, aka the drow, Written back in 1978 so it was before the dark elves became the tiresome cliche alongside emo, sparkly vampires. At the conclusion in the lower levels of King Snurre’s stronghold, the players find an entrance to a place only discussed in legends or hushed whispers, the Underdark! Home to not just the dark elves but additional nightmares.
Fortunately, another kid who played with us owned the sequels: Descent into the Depths of the Earth, Vault of the Drow and Queen of the Demonweb Pits. He was kind of enough to loan them which allowed me to read them, plan and make a cool map prop. James wasn’t completely altruistic, he wanted to play in them yet you always had to be wary to make sure he didn’t read ahead. Meanwhile, I ran other sessions to give my players’ characters the opportunity to attain the power levels recommended in Giants’ guidelines. My style then was more akin to what would be a computer game now due to its lack of continuity.
The big day finally arrived! I had the family room prepped, primarily the Ponderosa table laid out with paper, dice and seats. My regular players were present and ready to go: Eric, Chris, James and Todd. I think there were a couple guest players to chip in. I do know at least one was present because of what soon followed. While the gang managed to get into the hill giants’ fort and start attacking Chief Nosnra (a mean-spirited anagram of D&D’s co-creator Dave Arneson by Gygax) and allies in their vast banquet hall, my family’s dog, Louie barged in and snapped at the guest kid, freaking him out. He probably fled out the nearby “extra” front door we had in that room.
Weeks of planning, prepping and anticipation all down the crapper courtesy of a terrible dog breed as a pet, the Chow. I never received a second chance to run Giants. Hell, I don’t recall if I ever ran another session before we loaded up the cars to leave for Houston (HL&P paid for a moving company on the majority). I wouldn’t be surprised my days as the DM of Douglas Avenue were kaput but should I be wrong, I’m confident we finished out playing on the porch where the dog wasn’t allowed, just not what I had been jonesing to run all Summer.
In the years since, I’ve never got to be a player in a campaign based upon Giants nor the DM. The new people I joined up with in Houston already knew it and as high school was wrapping up, I had lost interest. Before I graduated from Marquette, I did sit in to watch some associates go through it. By then, my DM style was more sophisticated (more role-playing, less board gaming) and I was a RoleMaster apostate who looked at D&D Second Edition with disdain. They were nice people but I could never play with them due to their murder hobo preference of game.
Wizards of the Coast commissioned novels based upon these adventures yet I will never bother. I slogged through a Dark Sun paperback. It was worse then Tolkien and other than The Hobbit, his stuff isn’t pleasure, it’s homework.
One day, I hope to get re-acquainted with Giants and run it for a new generation who isn’t well-versed on the story, plot twists and the villain Eclavdra’s plans. With all the great tech advances D&D now offers (and I’ve bought), namely minis of giants, dragons, ogres, orcs, elves and others, it would be a million times more exciting over 1982’s theater of the mind while avoiding theater’s older sibling…endless arguments.
Still, I wouldn’t trade all the good and rough times I had with D&D from 1981-82 during my final weeks in Springfield. All those memories rushing back to me via Stranger Things is probably to blame.
No spoilers please! My Netflix is turned off to save money and I haven’t seen the seasons three and four, I promise to catch up in 2023!
Someone at my job did this. As soon as I spotted it, I knew the reference instantly because it’s only one of my favorite movies of all time! Good thing I wasn’t riding by on horseback.
Took Grampa’ Brunch long enough to do the bare fucking minimum on this issue. And right on cue, the Republicans, Corporate Shills and their Right-Wing Noise Machine ramped up their hollow, hypocritical counter point…never mind all the PPP loans they had forgiven and the FBI still never figured out who paid off Justice Jr. Rapist’s huge credit card bills? Besides, if this were a winning tactic to prevent the ass kicking the Dems always receive in the MidTerms, they would’ve done it within Grampa’s first 100 days. Why not? Not because of Sen. Magic Underpants of Utah whining, it was more about Pelosi bitching against it and she made the same nonsense from her noise hole since she and her drunk hubby are multi-millionaire NeoLiberals.
Now there are some of you who might be on their side asking, “Hold on Steve. How can you be in favor of this? Didn’t you pay your student loans of in 2003?” I sure did. The big one was about $11K before all the interest and I tackled over 95% of it by myself. My grandmother kindly killed off the smaller $3K loan held by my alma mater held by 1993 so I could refinance the larger balance via Sallie Mae, allowing me to move to Austin more easily. I was quite fortunate compared to my peers. Given that Marquette ran about ~$11K a year in the Late Eighties and my debt load was quite small thanks to my grandparents’ foresight. However, it would’ve been great to not have the original $160/month obligation after graduation so I could have more money to…I don’t know, buy a car or have a better place to live, wasteful shit which contributes more to the overall Economy! Ergo, all these young people can now participate in home ownership (get closer) and other long-term investments to fuel the Recovery. Inflation? Schmation! Fuck Fed member Powell. It isn’t enough to mean squat and the Dems should’ve let it burn itself out as Truman did in 1947.
Back to my headline’s criticism, what Grampa’ has done is a only a “down river” solution, a term I’ve heard from The Dollop‘s Dave Anthony. In short, forgiving a fraction or all of the student-loan debt is great yet the core problem will continue. We must go “up river” to discover and then eliminate the pollution: universities overcharging while operating practically professional-level sports franchises (the head football coach at UT is the highest paid staffer, not an instructor), bloated bureaucracies, too much spending on construction that’s not necessary and government funding being cut at all levels to help “the poors” and middle class attend. Again, I want to repeat a point I made a couple days ago, by making community college free, UT, Marquette, Harvard, AZ State, etc will shit their pants in fear knowing they can’t gouge students for Western Civilization I or entry-level Spanish.! I would apply my verbal aikido on the Republicans; I thought you said competition is good and lowers prices? Can’t wait to hear my argument being communism. Whoops, I forgot, whenever the government invests in its citizens it’s socialism but when it featherbeds a multi-billionaire who doesn’t need it, it’s job creation*.
* – Mostly shitty jobs which don’t pay a living wage.
This loan forgiveness should be the opening salvo in the Class War by the Left to push back the NeoLiberals and their litany of “now isn’t the time for this” or “this isn’t possible” or “it needs to be means tested.”
In light of yesterday’s screed on how democracy is dying in America via its Senior Citizens, here’s some overdue levity demonstrating my crude PhotoShop skills. I made this creature for my cousin, her husband and their mutual friend as part of my reward with their Savage Worlds Kickstarter. I had such a great time playing in Karl’s Mystery Men event that I had no hesitation chipping in to help them all out on publishing a genre book about Dustbunnies! I got to give one of the characters a name (Italian for “lint”) and a handful of special abilities: he’s immune to static cling, he smells like an ocean breeze and he loves to eat only item if it comes in a pair. When the PDF versions of the rulebooks come out, I’ll let you all know and I hope Chris, Karl and Dana come to Austin for the next Chupacabracon to demonstrate the world under our couches and beds.
Yesterday, the Democratic Party of Amerika demonstrated how much it really doesn’t give a crap about the future, or democracy, with its flawed primaries. To be fair, the ancient, NeoLiberal, Boomer-dominated faction is to blame, they’re known as the DLC. Pelosi, one of the worst Speakers in our history, continued to aid other old farts over younger, more progressive candidates; translation = people who will have to live with the consequences of these selfish, old fucks. And nevermind some are shit birds who vote against the party’s platform for their seniority and fundraising talents overrule principles and morals. Case in point, the AARP Triumvirate of Pelosi, Clyburn and Hoyer went to the mat to save Cuellar over a fellow, female Hispanic who is younger and more in-touch (Cisneros). Their excuse? Someone who’s too progressive will lose the seat to the GOP, so we must rescue this anti-choice turd. It will be for naught in the near future, Cuellar is under investigation by the FBI and I’m confident there’s a prison cell being prepped for him. It’s a familiar mantra the NeoLiberals said against gay rights and when they were proven wrong, Black Nixon said, “Oh, my position evolved.”
Let’s also review too progressive exactly? HRC’s gestapo bullies forget, many Trumpanzes actually agreed with Sanders’ proposals. They still do when AOC wastes her time on FAUX NEWS.
An improved healthcare system on par with the EU which gets better results, costs less and isn’t operated for a profit.
Free community college! Something to scare the bloated, overpriced four-year institutions which are now diploma mills with pseudo NFL and NBA teams.
Investing in our failing, crumbling and decaying infrastructure via improved Internet access/speeds, schools, roads, hospitals, bridges, high-speed rail, etc.
Doing more to combat climate change now instead of kicking the can down as if it were still an existential threat? Also, natural gas and coal aren’t “clean.”
Implementing reforms to eliminate the entrenched, corrupt and useless two-party duopoly made up of red-bag of shit v. blue-bag of shit.
With Texas, I’m not terribly shocked. The Democrats have to be Republican Lite as the racism and ammosexuality remain stubbornly intransigent in the suburbs, gentrified Tech Bro zones and the vast rural wastelands. Florida and New York I’m more bummed for.
Firstly, the people of Redneck Dagobah went from choosing three possible Republicans for governor and now they have two. Crist is fooling nobody. He will always be a Republican and he laid down the possibility for the horrible creatures named Sen. Rick Scott (aka Discount Lex Luthor) and Herr DeSantis (Fascist POTUS for Life in waiting) that followed his tenure. Fried, a weak Democrat in the same NeoLiberal mold as money bagwoman Wasserman-Schultz, was going to be slaughtered in the general election since Florida shares the Deep South’s sexism. On the other hand, the MAGAts must’ve stayed home and/or didn’t participate in the dirty trick of changing party affiliation to give their dictator an easier opponent. Come November, the Democrats are gambling foolishly on the Left and Liberals holding their collective noses to vote for Crist, the Evil Lesser. The Left (my team) knows better, Fried was 90% Crist on the issues and Crist is 95% DeSantis on the issues. Liberals were naive thinking Fried and Crist were vastly different so they’re getting the same outcome. Liberals can also kiss the Left’s ass if the Left choosing to sit out this farce called “democracy.”
Now comes New York’s Dinosaur Duel which resulted in Nadler winning, the decrepit fossil in the clip I posted above shown shitting his pants on C-SPAN. Either way, the people of New York lost even if he’s a spry 75 over the Maloney’s 76. The Corporate-owned media tried to spin the battle as a struggle of survival for two experienced incumbents with 30 years in the House each. HELL NO! The correct, more accurate narrative would be, two selfish Boomer assholes are duking it out to continue overstaying their welcome as they mortgage our collective future! Plus there was little mention of the third, younger person offering the people a serious, better choice.
What these two states have emphasized is the real battle we all need to fight across the political spectrum…abolishing the outdated (The) Permanent Apportionment Act of 1929. It’s the primary reason why Amerika has the second-least representative democracy on the planet. Number one is obvious…India given there’s 1.3 billion people packed into the place. What happened almost a century ago was clinched by the 1920 Census’ results. It showed that the majority of Americans lived in urban areas for the first time, and from then on. The Republicans (famous city haters) and Dixiecrats refused to accept this reality and refused to implement reapportionment altogether, leaving the US with the same, outdated, dysfunctional congressional districts throughout the Roaring Twenties. As the decade was concluding, Congress finally came up with a compromise since they couldn’t figure out what the mythical Founders wanted. My response remains the same as I argue with those Federalist Society Fascists, Who fucking cares! They’re dead and many were morally reprehensible people. The solution enacted was this law locking the House down its membership in 1913, 435 members.
Now we’re constrained by this stupid system every decade with “winners and losers” and ugly fights when a state can’t keep up with another’s growth rate. When these douchebags created this law, the US population was under 100 million. Today we’re over 300 million and many House members have three times the people to represent, making them mini-senators. It’s utter bullshit. New York, California and Illinois continue to grow via their urban centers as they’re home to half of the country’s ten largest cities! Yet they got robbed of a seat while Texas and Florida, places run by Neo-Confederate, Right Wing juntas, stole them. The latter has zero cities in the top ten by the way.
The two major arguments against expanding the House of Representatives didn’t hold up in 1929 nor do they now.
The first excuse we continue to live with through the Senate as well; The rural areas are overly paranoid on how they’ll be ignored when we all know what they’re really scared of, losing their disproportionate say over the levers of power which gets them pork projects (they’re the real welfare queens) and they fear social change more, aka, they’re more often the racists, homophobes and other bigots. City dwellers are not going to cut their own throats by destroying the food supply; COVID-19 exposed our vulnerability on depending on the global supply chains NeoLiberals, Republicans and Rich Assholes destroyed Rust Belt to create! And despite our acceptance of homosexuals, non-whites, trans people, non-KKKristians and education, America will not be re-organized as per the Hunger Games.
The second excuse is, “The House’s continued expansion will eventually lead to the chamber becoming unwieldy as there will be eventually too many members; look at the Senate Chamber in the lame Star Wars prequels or China’s 3000, the biggest rubber-stamp legislature on Earth. It’s a load of crap. Germany is about a third our population size and has 900 members. Lowering the ratio of voters to representative will improve things while giving a non-traditional party a better shot. What should it be? Around 1790, it was ~30K. Today it’s ~750K for the major cities and we know in the vastly empty Great Plains and Alaska, they all get one at large. Personally, I would pull the Senate into the reform. The House has one member for every ~100K residents (not exclusively citizens) and the Senate is elected at large the same way New Zealand and the Dutch do. Then the Senate will no longer be a place for progress to die via NeoConfederates who only speak for a couple million angry Hillbillies or an incompetent, corrupt New Yorker whose children have lucrative jobs at corporations he’s “incapable” of regulating.
Yes, I’m being angry and pissy over these futile pre-elections which have become the new contests to install more rich assholes into power because we live in The Gilded Age 2. But I’m with AOC and the Squad. We’re tired of being told “no” or “this isn’t possible.” Those are lies. Newt Gingrich became Speaker in 1995 and used the Bill of Rights to wipe his ass and the Republican/Right have never stopped. It’s time to go on the Offensive and fight fire with fire. First up. Eliminating all the dead wood in the party of FDR while creating new political parties at the local level.
The only person who should try to pull this off would be Jairo, the Brazilian Capoeira teacher from Bob’s Burgers. Even then I think the bear is too formidable for his trademark pony tail whip attack.
If you still believe you need to stand your ground like an idiot, then may I recommend you find smarter lessons in the latest issues of Shirtless Bear-Fighter 2. It’s a hilarious, absurd comic from Image about the angriest man in the world saving us from the War on Bearor! Very glad it returned for a second run of new adventures!
Ingrid is a stupendous Dark Comedy that’s more than Aubrey Plaza doing her trademark psycho character long perfected with Parks & Rec and The Little Hours. To me it’s also a dig on how lame and shallow the “Instagram Famous” are. It’s what this movie appears to be via its trailer and through the first act when Ingrid crashes another person’s wedding. Meanwhile, you’re asking yourself, Does Ingrid know the bride? Or is it only through Instagram and the bride’s annoying aphorisms prefaced with the pretentious “hashtag”? The latter being the style for stalking.
After assaulting the bride, getting arrested and sentenced to a mental-health institution for a few weeks, Ingrid returns to her recently deceased mother’s house; she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, being unemployed. Sadly, Ingrid returns to the same unhealthy behaviors she had to be treated for; spending too much time on her iPhone posting likes and comments to strangers’ Instagram/Facebook crap. This leads Ingrid to becoming very focused on Taylor, an influencer (a polite word for attention whore struggling to be a professional shill) living in Los Angeles. Days later, she receives a huge check (around $40,000) from her mother’s life insurance policy and she’s off to the West Coast to fuel her new obsession…making Taylor her best friend!
I don’t want to spoil how the story plays out as there a few odd, dark turns. What I will elaborate on are the details I loved. Namely, how superficial and plastic Taylor is. If you’re an older Gen X type as I am, you just want to puke all over her for how sickening the crap spewing from her mouth is. Taylor’s husband Ezra is somewhat better and more grounded despite his crap “art”; a hotel-quality painting/photo of horses stampeding he bought and then painted the words “Squad Goals” on it. Definitely not art, it’s garbage young people buy at the Urban Outfitters to put up in their dorm room next to a Bob Marley poster. Ingrid wants to be friends desperately so she endures their joint vapidity; or is she such a naive, empty vessel lacking the social intelligence to see how shallow Taylor is.
Taylor’s brother Nicky shows up later and he’s as toxic as Taylor is saccharine. What makes Nicky the instant villain is Ezra’s great dislike of him and he immediately begins a mean-spirited, “passive-aggressive” campaign to cut Ingrid out of Taylor’s inner circle. Again, given her recent, fragile mental and spiritual state, what follows in the third act is what shaped my core assessment. Ingrid Goes West is also about the our human need for connection, not fame, not money nor being a guru spouting off Wal-Mart wisdom.
Lastly, I would be amiss to ignore O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s performance as Ingrid’s landlord Dan, the most grounded main character in a land of phonies. His pipe dream is to get his Batman movie script bought and produced by a major studio but at least he doesn’t say fake things nor pretend to like avocado toast.
If you’re into Dark Humor along the same lines as the two ultimate films of the subgenere, World’s Greatest Dad or Uncle Nick, Ingrid Goes West is great addition to the list and you’ll like it. Everybody else? Probably just Aubrey Plaza fanatics. Sadly, Ingrid Goes West left Hulu at the beginning of August 2022. At this time you can only rent/buy it through Amazon and Apple. Showtime Anytime streaming has it until October 2, 2022.
I’m guessing this is Round Rock’s solution to parking-lot crime at the outlet mall, having a cop sitting up there like he’s Sheriff Brody watching for sharks looking for thugs going after shoppers’ discounted Crocs.
Sure, it’s one of the most overquoted movies in Nerd-/Geekdom and D&D circles, but it’s great to see Austin’s very own Terra Toys use one of its Playmobil marketing stuff to make a Holy Grail joke. If you’re in the area, you can see this four-foot wizard in the cafe part on the counter while you order a cool snack or delicious beverage.
“My side” isn’t perfect either, but I don’t recall even the rank-and-file Obama or Clinton apologists being ‘merched up like Trumpanzes, MAGAts, TeaBaggers, Q-Anoners and the pathetic Insane Clown Posse fans. I’m sure there have been a few over the years going overboard with Obummer’s Hope and Change crap. Nor are there Socialist conventions organized to fleece the gullible. It’s so fricking sad too. Again, Europe isn’t the land of the ideal but c’mon, how often do we see even Boorish Johnson or Viktor Orban’s flunkies being this pathetically decked out to alert other intelligent people…Stay Away! Moron Alert! and If your IQ is over 80, there’s a minuscule chance you could ever be friends with such a loser.
Ingrid Goes West
Ingrid is a stupendous Dark Comedy that’s more than Aubrey Plaza doing her trademark psycho character long perfected with Parks & Rec and The Little Hours. To me it’s also a dig on how lame and shallow the “Instagram Famous” are. It’s what this movie appears to be via its trailer and through the first act when Ingrid crashes another person’s wedding. Meanwhile, you’re asking yourself, Does Ingrid know the bride? Or is it only through Instagram and the bride’s annoying aphorisms prefaced with the pretentious “hashtag”? The latter being the style for stalking.
After assaulting the bride, getting arrested and sentenced to a mental-health institution for a few weeks, Ingrid returns to her recently deceased mother’s house; she doesn’t have anywhere else to go, being unemployed. Sadly, Ingrid returns to the same unhealthy behaviors she had to be treated for; spending too much time on her iPhone posting likes and comments to strangers’ Instagram/Facebook crap. This leads Ingrid to becoming very focused on Taylor, an influencer (a polite word for attention whore struggling to be a professional shill) living in Los Angeles. Days later, she receives a huge check (around $40,000) from her mother’s life insurance policy and she’s off to the West Coast to fuel her new obsession…making Taylor her best friend!
I don’t want to spoil how the story plays out as there a few odd, dark turns. What I will elaborate on are the details I loved. Namely, how superficial and plastic Taylor is. If you’re an older Gen X type as I am, you just want to puke all over her for how sickening the crap spewing from her mouth is. Taylor’s husband Ezra is somewhat better and more grounded despite his crap “art”; a hotel-quality painting/photo of horses stampeding he bought and then painted the words “Squad Goals” on it. Definitely not art, it’s garbage young people buy at the Urban Outfitters to put up in their dorm room next to a Bob Marley poster. Ingrid wants to be friends desperately so she endures their joint vapidity; or is she such a naive, empty vessel lacking the social intelligence to see how shallow Taylor is.
Taylor’s brother Nicky shows up later and he’s as toxic as Taylor is saccharine. What makes Nicky the instant villain is Ezra’s great dislike of him and he immediately begins a mean-spirited, “passive-aggressive” campaign to cut Ingrid out of Taylor’s inner circle. Again, given her recent, fragile mental and spiritual state, what follows in the third act is what shaped my core assessment. Ingrid Goes West is also about the our human need for connection, not fame, not money nor being a guru spouting off Wal-Mart wisdom.
Lastly, I would be amiss to ignore O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s performance as Ingrid’s landlord Dan, the most grounded main character in a land of phonies. His pipe dream is to get his Batman movie script bought and produced by a major studio but at least he doesn’t say fake things nor pretend to like avocado toast.
If you’re into Dark Humor along the same lines as the two ultimate films of the subgenere, World’s Greatest Dad or Uncle Nick, Ingrid Goes West is great addition to the list and you’ll like it. Everybody else? Probably just Aubrey Plaza fanatics. Sadly, Ingrid Goes West left Hulu at the beginning of August 2022. At this time you can only rent/buy it through Amazon and Apple. Showtime Anytime streaming has it until October 2, 2022.