Category Archives: General

General

Crazytown…

Yesterday was even crazier than usual, if you’re the type (like me at times) to follow U.S. politics.

Yes, beware, kind folks… what follows is…

POLITICS!

First up and the day before was the revelations of Bob Woodward’s upcoming novel, Fear: Trump In The White House, painted a -surprise, surprise!- picture of extreme dysfunction in the  Trump administration.

So you figure: That’s going to be the big news of the day.  I mean, Woodward is a very prestigious journalist.  He’s 1/2 of the team that wrote All The President’s Men, which painted a grim picture of Richard Nixon and no doubt led to his presidential demise.

Naturally, Trump had plenty to say, negative naturally, regarding the book, but as it turned out that book was nothing compared to the bombshell that appeared yesterday in The New York Times.

A current, senior White House official, writing anonymously, wrote an OP piece wherein s/he offers a chilling glimpse behind the curtains at the Trump White House, and his/her message is that they are part of a “resistance”, adults in the room who are trying to contain Trump and his negative impulses.  Here it is:

I am part of the Resistance inside the Trump administration

Yikes.

Here’s some more, from Brian Stelter and presented on CNN.com, which goes into…

The story behind the New York Times’ anonymous op-ed blasting Trump

There followed immediate reaction from the pundits, those who wondered about the ethics of presenting an “anonymous” op-ed piece.  There were those who were happy to hear someone -anyone!- within that administration finally admit what is all too clear for all to see.

I’m of two minds here: I think people should speak out on what is so freaking clear to anyone who even casually looks: This administration is run by someone who, putting it most kindly, is waaaaaaaay out of his depth.  A man who should never have been elected county dog catcher, much less President of the United States of America.

On the other hand: Don’t be a coward.  You don’t like what’s going on?  Quit.

Publicly, with this opinion piece being your resignation letter.

Too many people are being too damn meek about pushing back against Trump and, sadly, this goes for both Democrats and, most especially, Republicans.

It’s frightening to think that there are people working for Trump who ignore his directives or, as the op-ed piece states, even remove papers with Presidential policies from his desk before he can make them official and/or implement them.

Scary times, for sure.

 

General

So much for that…

…or perhaps its one of those “road to hell is paved with good intention” type stories.

A woman named Kate McClure was driving along an interstate and her car ran out of gas.  A homeless ex-Marine named Johnny Bobbitt approached her car and offered to go out to get her gas, which he did.

A friendship was made and McClure posted her appreciation for the man’s help.  She set up a GoFundMe page to help the man and, along with her husband, kept in touch with him.

People reacted positively to the heartwarming story, contributing $400,000 to help the man get himself off the streets.

Then, things went bad.

The McClures, it is alleged by Mr. Bobbitt, kept those funds mostly to themselves, giving Mr. Bobbitt only a fraction of the money he was entitled to.  Lawsuits followed and now it appears the money is all gone, allegedly spend by the McClures.

From gizmodo.com and written by Rhett Jones, the whole sordid saga:

$400,000 raised for homeless man on GoFundMe is completely gone, lawyer says

General

Absolutely crazy…

You have to see this to believe it:

As someone stated, given the price of LEGOs, it might’ve been cheaper to just buy the real car! 😉

General, Movies

Obituaries in the news…

Over the weekend the biggest news was the passing of Senator John McCain.  He’s been a fixture of the news for many years, becoming all the more well known during his failed campaign for the presidency against Barack Obama.

Like all too many, I personally never knew the man but his background and service during the Vietnam War, at which time he sustained considerable injuries and was captured and held prisoner for a number of years, refusing to be released early until his fellow prisoners were first released, is the stuff of legend.

His personal life afterwards and his political career, however, gives me pause.  He proposed to his much younger current wife while still married.  His ties to the Keating Five is worrisome and during his presidential run he ultimately chose Sarah Palin as his running mate, a decision which very likely hurt his campaign but which hinted -and perhaps encouraged- some of the same far right know-nothings to keep working at taking over the Republican party… which they essentially have today.

Worst still, even though he had painful first-hand experiences with war, when he became senator he was a strong proponent for war against Iraq (he would, practically on his deathbed, acknowledge it was a mistake).  He was also infamously caught mock-singing “Bomb bomb bomb, bomb Iran” at a function…

Certainly these things, among others, disturbed me but even having listed these examples, one can’t help but admire him as well.  One simply cannot sweep under the carpet the literal hell he went through in Vietnam.  He also engendered considerable respect on both sides of the political aisle and, while many of his political leanings do not follow my own, he seemed respectful of others views and was willing to defend his opponents when he felt they were being maligned…

Hard to imagine Donald Trump would show a fraction of the decency of this moment.  In fact, as I write this (at 8:40 am, the day after the announcement of Senator McCain’s passing), the flag over the White House is no longer flying at half-mast and Trump’s only reaction to the Senator’s death was a tweet directed at the family which -of course- never mentioned the Senator by name and -of course, part deux- showed a photograph of Donald Trump himself.

Mixed feelings though I have about the Senator, I respect his service and will miss his presence.

Rest In Peace, Senator.

*****

Senator McCain’s passing all but eclipsed the passing of another very prominent person: Playwright, screenwriter, and author Neil Simon.

Known for creating many memorable stories which made their way to Broadway, television, and film, perhaps his most famous work wound up being this one…

Famous as the movie was, the TV show based on it, featuring Tony Randall and Jack Klugman, was an incredibly big follow up hit.

The Odd Couple would be reworked many, many times in many other ways, including a recent TV series featured Thomas Lennon and Matthew Perry.

One of my personal favorite of his works was Murder By Death (1976).  In some ways, this film predicted the arrival of Airplane! a few years later.  While Airplane! was a hilarious take on the then popular airline disaster/general disaster movie genre, Murder By Death amusingly took on all the major crime/detective works released up to that point.  It featured quite the cast, too!

Rest in Peace, fellows.

Rest in Peace.

Comic Books/Graphic Novels, General

End of an era

Way, waaaaay back in the very early 1980’s and after a period where I had -*gasp*- given up on comic books, I was in Jacksonville and in High School and reintroduced to the comic book world via a friend at the dorm I was living in.

This could have been around 1983 or 84 and the book that got me back into comics was The Saga of the Swamp Thing #16, the first issue featuring the artwork of Stephen Bissette and John Totleban.

Image result for saga of swamp thing 16Though I didn’t know it, at that point in time, the book was running on fumes.  Writer Martin Pasko started the series, the second featuring the character of Swamp Thing, an early favorite of mine in its original series created by Len Wein and Berni Wrightson.  This new series was kicked off thanks to Wes Craven’s 1982 directed Swamp Thing movie.

But the team of Martin Pasko and Tom Yeates, both quite talented, didn’t set the comic book world on fire and by issue #16 Yeates was gone (though he did continue to do covers, including the one presented above), and Martin Pasko was on his way out too.

By issue #19/20, Martin Pasko was ending his run and a new writer was on his way to take over the series.  Though his first officially written issue was #21, this new writer had worked in conjunction with Mr. Pasko on his final issues which involved the return, for the third time, of Swamp Thing’s nemesis Arcane.

The writer would go on to bigger things.  That writer was Alan Moore.

But those final issues officially written by Martin Pasko and deliciously drawn by Mr. Bissette and Totleban, had my full attention.  I LOVED the character of Arcane and I was breathless to find out what became of him.

When issue #18 or #19 of the series was about to be released, I was away from the boarding school and the local comic shop I frequented up there and searched for a comic book shop in my local environs.  The one I found was a small shop called Starship Enterprises.

I picked up the then latest Swamp Thing issues and looked around for other books I wanted to catch up on.  This period of time was, for me, a new golden age of comic book discovery.  I loved the rise of the Independents, I loved the rise of more “serious” works.

And for a while Starship Enterprises was my go-to shop for these books.

So into comics and back issues was I that I searched for other shops and, eventually, Starship Enterprises was no longer my go-to shop.

But the years passed and most of the other shops I frequented closed down.  Starship Enterprises, I found, was sold off to another person and renamed Superheroes.  I once again started to frequent the shop and got to know its owner, Glen, well.

Over the years, I headed to the shop every week or every other week and checked out the latest releases.

Over the years, there also came the rise of digital media.

Bookstores, once frequent in my area, were suddenly gone, and the worst thing was that I didn’t miss them.  I could/would go to Amazon and buy whatever books I wanted, first the physical copies which would be sent to me, then moving on to getting digital copies which I would read on my Kindle or iPad.

But Superheroes, then later known as Villains, continued.

In conversations with him, I suspected Glen knew he was living on borrowed time.  The fact of the matter is that new comic books -pretty much all comic books- are finding their way to the internet.

You’re interested in reading the latest issue of Batman?  Do a quick google search and you may find someone has posted it online.

It’s illegal.  It sucks, but like pirated movies and books, its a sad reality of today.

Just before I headed out to California, I visited Villains and told Glen I’d be gone a couple of weeks.  I told him to hold on to anything that I might like.

Yesterday, after returning to Miami, I headed over to the store to see what I’ve been missing.

I found the store was closed and empty.  A “For Lease” sign was on the window.

Villains is no more.

Photo of Villians - North Miami Beach, FL, United States
Villains, taken from its Facebook page and while still in business

Were the digital issues I noted above to blame?  Did Glen simply have enough of this business and decided to move on?  Had he experienced some health problem which precluded him from continuing?

When I last saw him just before going on my vacation, Glen gave me no indication that he was about to shut the store down, so I do worry that maybe something serious happened in the interval which forced him into this shut down.

Perhaps.

But the bottom line is that a store that has existed in one form or another for some 34+ years (at least that was roughly the first time I went into it), is now gone.

And that saddens me tremendously.

Here’s to you, Starship Enterprises, Superheroes, and Villains.

And here’s to you, Glen.

You’ll be missed.

General

Sometimes, the headline says it all…

From the Miami Herald, our local paper, comes this story which I just HAD to read.  Frankly, I still find it hard to believe…

From Huffington Post and written by Ron Dicker,

Miami Herald endorses candidate who says she was abducted by space aliens

We live in most interesting times, ladies and gentlemen.

General, Movies

Disney and Fox

A few days back it was announced that Disney and Fox shareholders approved a deal in which Disney would essentially buy up Fox.  (You can read the New York Times article about this here).

For those into movies like I am, this means that Disney now owns pretty much ALL the Marvel Movie properties.  For those unaware, Marvel Comics was in trouble in the 1970’s and going into the 1980’s and wound up selling the rights to many of their then biggest properties (Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four, X-Men) to keep afloat.

When Marvel’s magical movie win streak started, they had the rights to what were considered “ancillary” characters but not the “big” ones like those I mentioned above.  Yet the movies were good and audiences loved them and they made a ton of money and, quite suddenly, “ancillary” characters like Iron Man, Thor, Black Panther, etc. became BIG characters.

And yet there was, I strongly suspect, a desire to have all the major characters and their various rights (film, TV, etc.) to be under one house.

Understand, I’m not saying the only reason Disney bought up Fox was to get their hands on the Marvel movie properties they own (X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the characters tied in to them.  Spider-Man’s film rights are owned by Sony and they have come into an agreement with Disney to allow them to make movies with the character).

But it certainly must have been at least one reason they were interested in this purchase.

Some comic book fans are elated at the prospect of seeing all the Marvel characters interact on film, especially if the quality of the films are on the level of the current Marvel works.

Me?

I guess it could be fun and all, but…

We have another massive media company becoming all the more massive.  Recently, AT&T bought Warner Brothers.  Now Disney buys Fox.

I’m going to be blunt about this: It makes me uncomfortable.

Success is wonderful.  Monopolies, less so.

As a consumer, one should welcome competition among companies.  Competition makes companies innovate, effectively try to “one up” their competition.  The result is better product often at lower prices.  A win-win for consumers.

But with monopolies, there are far less competitors.  Further, do you want to live in a world where all your entertainment is provided by only a select few companies?  I can’t help but think it will mean less variety.  And will a “wholesome” company like Disney continue to release R-Rated Deadpool type films, or will they shut that down?

As I said, it bothers me, though given the era we’re living in and unless we have a serious look by politicians into the current monopolistic business practices we’re seeing, it likely won’t change.

General

Too damn funny… July 4th Edition

So Alex Jones, the oh-so-stable radio “commentator” who espouses some wild conspiracy/right wing theories, claims that today, the 4th of July, the despicable “liberals” will begin a second Civil War.

How else does a reasonable, though clearly despicable, liberal react to this?  Why, by posting hilarious Twitter statements about, you guessed it, the ongoing second Civil War.

Amy B. Wang over at the Washington Post wrote an article about this, and I HIGHLY recommend you check it out if you want to have a damn good laugh:

‘No place to recharge my Kindle’: Letters imagine the front lines of America’s ‘second civil war’

The twitter link itself:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/secondcivilwarletters

Some of my favorites:

Particularly love #2’s comment about Trump and his tweets.

Hilarious stuff!

General

I’m probably quite late pointing this out…

…especially since it made the round a few days back.

Probably one of the funniest store-cam movies you’ll ever see…

As someone far more clever than I put it, this video has more twists and turns in its two and a half minutes than most Hollywood big budgeted blockbusters.

And the climax!

I won’t give it away, but the climax/conclusion of this video will have you in stitches.

Btw, the version I embedded has the “Yakety Sax” music (ie, The Benny Hill Show music).  Works incredibly well for this!

General, Movies

Et tu, David Lynch?!

David Lynch was profiled/interviewed in The Guardian (the article is by Rory Carroll and you can read the whole dang thing here) and, though the article focuses mostly on the man behind the camera, a look at his work and Twin Peaks in particular, it went on to other things.

Strange things.

Controversial things.  To put it… nicely.

From the article:

Politically, meanwhile, Lynch is all over the map. He voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary and thinks – he’s not sure – he voted Libertarian in the presidential election. “I am not really a political person, but I really like the freedom to do what you want to do,” says the persecuted Californian smoker.

He is undecided about Donald Trump. “He could go down as one of the greatest presidents in history because he has disrupted the thing so much. No one is able to counter this guy in an intelligent way.” While Trump may not be doing a good job himself, Lynch thinks, he is opening up a space where other outsiders might. “Our so-called leaders can’t take the country forward, can’t get anything done. Like children, they are. Trump has shown all this.”

The second paragraph is the one that really hit sour to a lot of people (Harron Walker over at jezebel.com offered one of the funniest, IMHO, takes in her very brief article which, of course, focuses on that second paragraph presented above).

My take?

While it is tempting to take these paragraphs and say something along the lines of “David Lynch is such a brilliant filmmaker… how could he?!”, I suggest one read the whole article instead of focusing on this one element.

The article paints a portrait of a man who is, at the age of 72, essentially isolated in his own world and has been, one can surmise, for quite some time now.  His studio is described as a “bunker”.  He is asked about going out to see movies (you would think, as a filmmaker, he’d be interested in seeing other films) and he says he doesn’t go out to see movies.  How about seeing them at home?  Not interested.

Look, I’m no David Lynch apologist.  I love some of his works, especially the film Mulholland Drive (a brilliant work which doesn’t seem to get the love of Blue Velvet or Twin Peaks).  I think he is an important figure in the film/TV industry.

However…

I’ve always said people should separate the person from the work.

There are works by many people that I absolutely love, but when one looks at the person behind the works that I love so much, I’ve come to realize that some of them may be fascinating while others… not so much.  Some, I would even say, were people I would want absolutely nothing to do with had I encountered them on a personal basis.

I, someone who cannot stomach Donald Trump and feel he’s a plague on this country and, by extension, the world, don’t feel David Lynch is some kind of an idiot or wacko.  Based on the article, it strikes me he is a man who is so isolated and seems to have so little interest in things outside his world, that it shouldn’t be surprising he would say something like that about Donald Trump.

I feel his statement reflects his ignorance of general events more than anything else and its freaking sad to read but, seriously, what can you do about it?  Tell Mr. Lynch to read more?  To immerse himself in current events?  If he did, I suspect he might develop a more nuanced –perhaps!– understanding of things going on outside his world and -again, perhaps!– his opinion might change.

Having said all that, it ultimately doesn’t matter all that much.  Perhaps as a fan of David Lynch you may be disheartened -to put it mildly- with his opinions.  If they impact you greatly, you can certainly choose to not follow him and his works anymore.  That is within your ability to do.

Otherwise, take it for what it is: The depressing reality of one artistic person.