I honestly could see about half of the cats in my life nesting in a guitar with no strings, especially Klothos currently. She has mastered the art of climbing under the couch when she doesn’t want to be bothered by Chaos.
Again, I need to give a little better, lighter news. Although this happened some time ago, even in the The Guardian, I think it’s awesome and a great sign of progress! The guy who had the surgery deserved this opportunity, certainly a lot more than the French woman I recall getting a new face; she was a chain smoker and you’d think she’d quit.
*-Screw you shit talkers about MCU. If there’s anything out there that needs to be put out of its misery, it’s SNL. Funny there’s no fatigue for a painfully, not funny TV show or how certain, overrated directors just make the same movie. On to the movie.
Ignore the bullshit about how bad Marvels‘ opening weekend was and whatever nonsense the worthless Corporate-Owned Media blathers on about since they don’t want to cover real pressing matters. The real point is, is the movie any good? I can say this sincerely and am willing to politely defend my opinion…yes. Has MCU stumbled lately? Uh, it almost lost me with how slow Iron Man 2 and the first Thor‘s lack of any crisis. So something as meh as The Eternals or Wakanda Forever would happen. James Bond struck out yet lived on despite Die Another Day, Moonraker and License Revoked.
Back to why Marvels is in the great column along with Ant-Man 3. It moved the story of Ms. Marvel forward while updating the galaxy’s situation regarding the Skrull and Kree empires. I’m calling Monica Photon going forward too. She was originally Captain Marvel in the Eighties but when Carol Danvers returned, Marvel gave her a different, better fitting name. So the premise is the Kree Empire has rallied around a new leader named Dar-Benn to replace Ronan (killed in Guardians 1) and the Supreme Intelligence, their real leader. The last decade hasn’t been easy neither. Through civil war and/or an ongoing campaign to wipe out their rivals, the Skrull, the Kree homeworld (Hala) is depleted. The oceans are gone, the air is polluted and now their sun fizzling out. Like all crazy zealots, Dar-Benn promises to “Make Hala Great Again!” after finding a bracer identical to Ms. Marvel’s. As you saw in the trailer, Dar-Benn’s usage of the bracer causes the three other heroine’s to be entangled so they trade places when using their powers.
The comedic stuff involving them swapping positions quickly becomes a subplot since they realize there’s a bigger problem, namely Captain Marvel’s past and her role in messing up the Kree Empire in the first place. You have to see it in order conclude how it pans out…and the next hints for the MCU on Disney+ and films.
I also applaud Marvels in being a women-centric movie. Not just with the three principle characters. The movie was written and directed by women. Yes, it easily passes the famous Bechdel Test. Who has time to talk about boy/girlfriends when the galaxy is at stake! There is a great balance between action and humor. Plus I’m biased in how much I enjoy the lady playing Ms. Marvel. I have yet to finish the miniseries. I got sidetracked and then a year passed. It wasn’t a disliking thing, believe me. I’m just thrilled to finally have a character who loves being a superhero at a time when most writers and Hollywood think they must have tragic origins or angst or the burden of responsibility. Ms. Marvel the superhero and show are pure joy, they way Green Arrow and the Flash used to be until DC injected Frank Miller’s Dark Knight crap into them. In some ways, MCU is equally guilty. Check it out, if not for me, but to piss off an Incel.
Alamo Extras:
Lately, my team has us taking turns with weekend shifts so in exchange, I get a weekday to tackle the crap I couldn’t realistically do on Saturday or Sunday, but why do I think I can take it easy. Oh yeah, I used a chunk of time to see The Marvels, more on it another day.
Either way, I’m drained, writing this with my energy reserves in anticipation of tomorrow being Thanksgiving and I don’t have to be at work until 11 AM. Woo hoo! Overtime. Oddly, the exhaustion came from getting our annual Christmas card done. You’d think booking on a week night would be an easy, smooth experience. I’m off today, the movie is over by early afternoon, plenty of time to get ready. Jennifer is done with work at 3 PM. No way in Hell! The poor photographer was on his one, running late and got later thanks to a family before us with little frickin’ idea what they wanted. The one after us was equally pissed and equally unrealistic on what they were going to do.
Good thing we had our collective shit together. Plus, the guy remembered us. He suggested a shot that was even better than what I had in mind. I was grateful he let me tinker with the computer to lay out the card so he could breathe for a couple minutes, finish up or get prepared.
So the cards will be late, sorry. I do promise, they will be bitchin’! It wouldn’t be me if they weren’t at least semi-funny and/or amusing!
It’s designs like these which makes me miss American Motors Corporation! My parents used to have an AMC Hornet Sportabout (station wagon). In addition to its rather weird colors, it was an easy to spot car alongside their legacy from then, the Gremlin. I guess this was never really built or there weren’t many. It would’ve been a better car for Wayne and Garth to go cruisin’ with.
Remember how I mentioned my ongoing nightmare of dying in a nuclear conflict because St. Reagan had an itchy trigger finger? The Day After didn’t help and was my continuous fear’s source until college.
Before ABC became a monopoly hotel piece in the Disney Empire, I seriously think there were people at the network who really believed in balancing entertainment with the public good. Besides Nightline and trying to get people to see what else the world likes with Wide World of Sports, they showed this terrifying movie. Why? I wish I truly knew. Were they letting us know how high the stakes were? Were they just cashing in? Or did it backfire in their sucking up to St. Reagan on how it wouldn’t be so bad. Obviously, the last two were not correct by a long shot. The last hour or so was commercial free. If they sought favor from the man who used to be the oldest POTUS on record, what followed failed too.
Directed by Nicholas Meyer, the guy who made the best Star Trek movie ever (Khan), Day was a depressing, painful story set in current times (1983ish). The conflict’s origin is never explained beyond the US and USSR playing a game of chicken around the two Germanys’ borders. The events leading to the nuclear exchange are mostly background noise and discussed in a few conversations with all the characters the first hour introduces. A farmer with a missile silo on his land; a doctor working in Kansas City, MO; an Air Force enlistee. I can’t remember the rest. Then it escalates to the point of no return and before the bombs hit, ABC gave a warning which I should’ve heeded. Yet, it was like seeing a car accident, you couldn’t turn away easily.
I still remember how my stomach dropped while thinking, “Shit! This is how I may end!” On an otherwise peaceful, Fall Saturday morning, the US goes to DefCon 1 and the missiles launch. As it’s happening, children watching cartoons see an interruption by a newscaster saying Warsaw Pact forces invading West Germany were killed by a small tactical nuke by NATO. Then the Civil Defense horns goes off. Everyone gawks as the US missiles leave their silos. Someone asks, how long do they have and the answer is grim, at most 28 minutes if the Soviets haven’t already launched. You witness the various reactions: denial, panic, fear, resignation, etc. Looting breaks out. The Air Force personnel are torn between seeing if their underground bunkers will survive or should they flee.
Inevitably, it’s too late. The EMP hits. All motor vehicles immediately die. All electronics are rendered useless. The doctor character knows what’s about to go down while he’s stuck in traffic as he ducks behind his dashboard. Mushroom clouds. Bright light flashes. People are disintegrated instantly. ABC toned the last part down immensely by making it look like the people died via X-rays. The original version showed the awful reality: people catch fire, people melt, people killed by flying glass and the worst, people in a bomb shelter suffocate because the immediate firestorm sucked out all the oxygen.
The survivors begin to die slowly from radiation poisoning; mainly by crapping out their organs and losing their hair. There’s a radio broadcast from the a POTUS who sounded much like St. Reagan telling everyone the US won’t surrender. Someone wants to know, who started it? As if matters any longer! Another person from the Feds instructs the living farmers to start planting again despite at least 30 cm of topsoil is radioactive and useless. It just ends with everyone knowing we’re screwed and humanity dies out with a whimper.
If that didn’t make you go to bed crying, the movie’s tag at the end stating, “This nuclear exchange was the bare minimum. The actual thing would be much, much worse.”
For the audience members sticking around, I vaguely recall being one, ABC followed Day with a round table discussion hosted by Ted Koppel. It was mostly Carl Sagan arguing with war criminals Henry Kissinger, Robert McNamara and Brent Scowcroft. In tow as the evil trio’s cheerleader was William F Buckley. Sagan’s illustrative point of being trapped in a gasoline-soaked room with two bullies holding thousands of matches only caring about which of them has the biggest dick…fell on deaf ears since these four shit birds’s apologist stance, nuclear deterrence will keep us safe. Later, the current Secretary of State George Schultz appeared to assure Koppel and the home audience, it’s all OK, blah blah blah. Now knowing what I learned some time ago about Operation Able Archer 83 nearly ending the world two weeks before this movie airing; you can see Schultz doesn’t completely believe the bullshit he’s spouting off. His eyes darted around too much since he probably crapped his pants on the fateful day I refer to and needed valium to function still.
Attending school the next morning was rough. I felt depressed, sad and scared. The news said thousands of children and teens had headaches, stomachaches and other ailments. My World History teacher, Mr. Peck re-quoted another student from an earlier hour of his class on why all this malaise, “the truth hurts.”
What Day‘s “true” legacy is varies. I think it was the last TV movie or event with over 100 million viewers. America has over 330 million people today and the industry is stoked if 20 million people watch something at once. Critics from both sides bitched. The Left/Anti-War crowd were correct to say it wasn’t horrible enough yet I can’t agree on Day making nuclear war look good nor feasible. Many in those movements received bootlegs of early cuts from Meyer too; he did this to make sure ABC wouldn’t scrap the movie and he was having numerous arguments over the graphic nature (aka reality) of nuclear armageddon. You could count on the Right/Conservative viewpoint to be moronic and weak. It was pro-Soviet, it was unpatriotic and if you agreed with the message, then you must be in favor of a Soviet occupation since nukes were the only thing stopping them. I reserve the most hate for the patron saint of Going Backwards and Liar Emeritus, mega asshole Phyllis Schlafly:
“This film was made by people who want to disarm the country, and who are willing to make a $7 million contribution to that cause.”
It’s amazing how willingly these Conservatives would go to the mat for killing all life due to their irrational fears, namely of people who don’t swallow their bullshit about sky cake, Kapitalism being 100% beneficial and patriarchy. It’s also incredibly untrue.
Now as much as I will always hate St. Reagan, I do hope his private screening the previous October inspired him to reconsider America’s nuclear weapon strategies. Allegedly, Day left him depressed and convinced him to sign a treaty with Gorbachev several years later to reduce both superpowers’ stockpiles.
Sadly, all the lessons Day taught the public are mostly ignored. We have a violent, internal terrorism problem professing America has Soviet-style apparatchiks working within the many Federal agencies and Democratic Party. While the Democrats turned into war-loving NeoLiberals who rubber stamp newer, “upgraded” nuclear weapons to deter the Russian Federation and Red China. I think we need to lock at least the worthless Democrats into a room, force them to watch this or make an updated version. The current Republicans are mostly a lost cause given their fealty to Girth Vader and Evangelical nonsense.
If there was a First Lady in my lifetime who wasn’t an opportunist asshole, Rosalynn was the first. Time will only tell when it comes to Laura Bush and Michelle Obama. The verdict has been already determined for Nancy “Blow Job Queen of ’47” Reagan, Barbara “the Bitch” Bush, Bilary “Never My Fault” Clinton, Melania “Trophy Wife” Trump and it’s “Dr.” Jill Biden (PhD, not MD). OK, I will give Betty Ford a pass since she did start her drug and booze rehab center which was a good thing.
I recall my mother mocking her as the first co-president because Jimmy confided in her on numerous issues. Not sure why the jerk attitude. Many past leaders have done the same, I think what made the Carters different than most, they were still glad to be married to each other and Jimmy was one of the few without a mistress. Could you see JFK or Eisenhower discussing the Soviet Union issues with their spouses? Sam Giacana’s mistress, yes. Jackie, hell no; or Mamie. Ike probably shared more state secrets with his caddies.
Thanks for everything Rosalynn. You weren’t perfect, which is what made you more likable than many modern-day First Ladies…you shared the average American’s flaws. You didn’t lord your title past and present over us “commoners” as the Republicans and some Dems have. After you and Jimmy left the White House, you were a partner in helping to make a better world by fighting diseases in Africa, not making bank off Wall Street giving speeches and hiding your connections to union busting. The world will truly miss you.
Once again, Gov. Shitbag has been told “no” regarding school vouchers thanks to the GOP members from rural areas. Why? Unlike other, small, more densely populated states, West Texas is very spread out in distance and people. The public schools are a cornerstone in their communities; employment, social gatherings and more importantly, to practice the state religion…football, even if it’s the six-on-six version. Some regions are already facing consolidations as people leave for greener pastures, there’s only so much of brown you can live with. They’re also impossible and impractical there. Who the hell is going to open up a private school in the boonies to educate a dozen kids for a measly $10 grand a head? Right. In the end, the Christo-Fascist Duo behind this dismantling of public education to create more gullible little stormtroopers, destroy the teaching unions and openly practice their racism, don’t care. They have our hateful, cynical governor by the balls.
So like Veruca Salt, Gov. Shitbag is throwing a tantrum, calling the useless legislature back in to force his way when he should realize it’s pointless. He and his flunkies will do all they can to bribe the rural vote, namely holding other education funding hostage. Too late dick! Numerous teachers have already quit and/or moved away to states where intelligence and critical thinking aren’t a liability.
All five of our cats are very sweet and they spend most of my working hours sleeping but in the early afternoon, they get peckish. To illustrate their demands, one of them would leave a really awful smelling steamer on the guest bathroom’s litter box. Not even the robot box can rotate hard enough to kill the stench.
Currently, Blue MAGA is in its traditional panic as it was in 2019, screaming down the Left to stop supporting anyone but the old fart who will soon be eighty fucking one. I remember when how worried people were when St. Reagan was re-elected at 73.
Their worries are primarily bullshit right now. So much can happen between now and the election. I don’t think it’s necessarily the general public who has the short memory, it’s the Political class, namely the bloviating dickheads on media Boomers cling to and podcasts. I do remember quite well numerous elections that didn’t pan out as predicted.
Now what happened? Riiiiiight. None of those things. I skipped a few cycles because 1984 was a waste of time bothering and other times, there was an incumbent up against a loser who was the runner up in an earlier cycle. Oh they may have scored points in the debates yet I know in two instances racism decided the winner: Dumb Amerikans hated the idea we’d have our first POTUS since FDR that was fluent in a language other than English, plus he was Greek! The other time it went the right way, Mr. Magic Underpants got caught saying the GOP line on tape, “I will find a way to lay off 47% of America!”
Again, let’s remember. All the discussion about a second term for either shitty grandpa is just to sell advertising. American media isn’t interested disseminating information for it doesn’t make any real money. They need ginned up conflict. They need chicken-little shit to get your eyeballs on their terrible hot takes on shit they have no clue about, aka Nathan Silver who got lucky in 2012. They, especially Faux News, need your blood pressure to hit the roof so Big Pharma can sell you pills. We need to follow the advice sung by Paul Anka despite his right-wing politics from Treehouse of Horror, Just Don’t Look, or Listen. The Corporate Media will hopefully wither and die or better, focus on shit which really matters, our horrible, horrible, incompetent domestic governments from local to Federal.
So why the gloomy cartoon? Oh, I think Biden is going to lose anyway since he’s a clueless old fuck. I’ve hated him since 1988 when he was outed as the serial liar he’s always been. I also have never forgotten how he gave Uncle Thomas a pass to the Supreme Court. Plus he never has stopped lying about how his first wife died in the car accident…she was actually at fault, not the SOBER truck driver. Of course, all you Grampa’ Brunch stormtroopers are yelling, “So you want Trump‽” For a bunch who rant on over how hard you support non-binary people, you remain binary in your voting. I never want a Republican. However, how can I support the Democrats given their Neo-Liberal (really Republican Lite) positions? What we need is a multi-party system as many other true democracies have along with no more “first past the post” elections (translation: the winner must land 51% or more of the votes, not the most so there are runoffs) and no more fucking primaries. Will this cure us? Not completely. It’s a start.
Meanwhile, Grampa’ Brunch will lose and the illustration above states it clearly, he’s tone deaf to all the economic hardships Mills and Zoomers are facing because he thinks these voters have nowhere else to go as he kisses the asses of “undecideds.” Nope. They will just stay home or vote for the Third Parties. I predict this though. Count on the Bilary thugs to blame and bitch about Bernie, Jill Stein, Susan Sarandon and Colonel West through 2028.
Good thing Captain Kirk doesn’t share the Enterprise‘s content with our current shit for brains Speaker of the House. This reminds me how I need to pony up for a quick month of Paramount+ so I can binge watch Picard, Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds, the last one sadly having yet another shitty all-singing episode. Another thing I can blame on the very overrated Joss Whedon for causing. However, you Buffy dinguses should know, your show didn’t “invent” this, why suffered through a test drive in the Eighties when he was a writer for Rosanne. Bleck!
The hit you couldn’t escape about 24 years ago…was secretly a song about cannibalism!
For many Star Trek diehards, to boldly go is a phrase they’d barely get to use in the bedroom, well, except solo. Now I’m thinking about the cute lady in Vegas who was the Andorian at the Las Vegas Hilton and her lucky boyfriend, or nowadays, partner. Either way, somebody was lucky there!
Greetings from my new M3 MacBook Pro! It arrived mid last week which is pretty sweet given how Apple only announced their existence a fortnight ago (I don’t like to repeat if I can find a similar word). It lives up to all the expectations so far. Well, what made pleased me the most was the computer arriving with Ventura as the OS, not Sonoma. I’m already using the latest for my work machine (an M1) which is A-OK, the relief comes from my primary system was way back on Big Sur (11) with a handful of apps I paid for. The worries over incompatibility escalate with every upgrade.
The good news? Everything I prefer to use…works! Only one thing needed Rosetta 2 and even it doesn’t trigger the fans to crank up as it did on the MacBook Air 2020 (Intel). The Web site for Hero Forge flows when building a mini without a hiccup! Dang. Maybe there is a stronger upside to the merging of iOS and macOS hardware. Please keep all the cool tower options: RAID, more storage and expansion cards! Is the M3 faster? I’ll have to let you know later since I haven’t gotten around to any Logic or Final Cut work with it.
The bad news? Nothing serious. Not having much luck finding armor for this puppy…in a color I like.
Meanwhile, I have two used MacBooks for sale. In very good condition if you’re interested. You know how to reach me.
When I was really getting into the NHL courtesy of EA’s 2001 game for my newish PS2, Roman was Philly’s hot new goalie and GM Clarke traded Brian Boucher to Phoenix for Robert Esche to assure him. It didn’t matter after a couple seasons, he got the blame like many goalies before him when the blue liners shared responsibility.
But when he was on his game, Cechmanek was fantastic in the net. When he wasn’t he was crap and my biggest complaint was his tendency to confront or “crowd” the shooter too far away from the goal; thus he’d get skated around for the easy empty netter. This irrational move earned him the moniker Roamin’ Cechmanek.
The season before the 2004-05 lockout, the Flyers traded him to the LA Kings and he then returned to his home country to coach until his untimely, sudden death.
Thanks for helping me appreciate and get more into hockey Roman.
