Category: movies

Taste. What I Watched – and Didn’t

Maybe it’s me. Oh, and my wife.

We’re not enamored with either the GOT or LOTR prequels. What are they called again?

We watched the maiden episodes of each of these new prequels. Yes, it’s but one episode of each which we watched. We had our own opinions about them. I’ll not interpret my wife’s thinking, but she was disappointed. I’ll say that I didn’t find anyone to root for in either. They threw so much at me, dangling storylines, trying to force tension while showering me with music and CGI, that it all elicited a weary shrug for me. Yes, it’s just one episode. Needs to grow on me, right? Give it time, right?

Right.

Much better in my mind were several other shows. One that we’re watching now is The Nevers on HBO MAX. It’s a compelling, twisted, and complicated science fiction fantasy speculative fiction beast. Terrific acting, excellent production values, tantalizing spoonfuls of past, present, and future possibilities are regularly dribbled out. We cheer for many on that show.

Second, one we finished, was Paper Girls on Prime. Those were four girls and young women which we enjoyed watching and cheering, with an intriguing and different take on time travel. It was a fascinating look at life as well, about what we try and hope to become, and what we share with the world. I hope the sophomore season is as entertaining as the first. Doesn’t always happen for us. Like The Boys. Loved year one. Year two did little for us.

Of course, some, like The Umbrella Academy and Stranger Things stayed strong for me. My wife didn’t feel the same with either one, as far as I know, but I don’t want to elaborate on that because I didn’t follow her reasoning.

Likewise, we didn’t enjoy Picard season two as so many did, but Strange New Worlds delivered a solid taste of the Star Trek franchise.

We know that taste is subjective. Need the truth of that? Talk to others about food and drink, like pizza and coffee. You’ll see.

Others will love these new series no matter what. Others will never ‘get them’. Like, as fer instance, I enjoyed The Sopranos but had friends who disliked the lying, killing, and violence. Justified always engaged me but friends and others dismissed it as a cowboy soap opera. Yeah, huh? Okay, maybe some, but it had smart dialogue and strong acting.

I also enjoyed the Dune series when it came out, but it didn’t stay with me the way that the novels did. Of course, I was a young and impressionable human when I read the books. Never at all got into the Foundation series. It was a strike out for me. Again, others loved it.

While I loved Game of Thrones and enjoyed the Lord of the Rings movies, I’m dubious that prequels will ever surmount the favorites upon the top of my list, The Last Kingdom and The Expanse. That could change. Someone might bring out The Murderbot Diaries as a successful series. And I’d be interested in seeing how someone handles When Women Were Dragons.

While I’m at it, I’m bemused that Quantum Leap has been rebooted, and that The Sopranos have a prequel series. While I’m at it, did you hear of the Hulu show called Reboot about a reboot of a once popular show? Perry Mason has already been redone. Multiple Sherlock Holmes versions exist and compete. Magnum PI and Hawaii 5-0 were rebooted. What show is next? I doubt they can do I Love Lucy. It wouldn’t be the same without Lucy, would it, although they brought us Lucy. It’s all about finding something that satisfies and entertains. That’s a pretty hard task.

Now excuse me, it’s back to my novel writing for me. Cheers

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Monday’s Theme Music

Monday has landed. You need to be careful when Monday lands that it doesn’t do serious damage to you. Some people really enjoy Mondays landing. They’re depressingly cheerful, shouting things like, “Woo hoo, it’s Monday,” causing the rest of us to raise our eyebrows so high that they get lost in our hair.

It’s August 27, 2022, which, for some, is the deadline. It’s also birthdays and anniversaries, so salutations to you if it is. Hope it’s memorable and the start of a long line of fantastic years.

I’m in Eugene, Oregon, now, a stop off on our way home. It’s 61 F here, 16 C on the coast, and 64 F in Ashland. Respective highs are 85, 68, and 88 F. Sunrise for this local was a classic, with sunshine piercing the eastern sky with a sharp golden lance at 6:323 this morning. Sunset will be at 8:07. I plan to be home then, where the sunset will be 8:01.

I have a 1957 song by Buddy Holley and the Crickets stuck in the morning mental music stream. My fault, totally my fault. After we checked into the room and settled for the evening, we cruised TV offerings where we found BBC America showing Stand By Me. The 1986 movie is about boys in a 1959 small town, their conflicts with themselves and others, and the quest to find a dead body. It features a terrific cast and music of the era. Well, The Neurons heard, ” Everyday, it’s a-gettin’ closer, goin’ faster than a roller coaster,” and they latched onto that like a cat taking over a chair.

Stay pos, test, neg, and so on. Yes, I’ve had coffee and breakfast. Coffee was very good. The breakfast went down well, breaking back tears of joy from being out in the field and enjoying some fine reconstituted eggs. Here’s the music. Cheers

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Friday’s Theme Music

“Today is Friday, July 1, we’re gonna have a special guest.” You need to imagine singing that to the melody of the old Mickey Mouse Club song. Some of you may not know what I’m talking about. YOu might use the net to see if you can figure it out. It’s like a puzzle, yeah?

There’s no special guest with me today, unless you count the floofs. It’s 20 C again. It’ll reach 86 F again. Sun belted out its light at 5:38 AM. It’ll set again at 8:51 PM. Again.

The Neurons have “Romancing the Stone” in my morning mental music stream. This was an Eddy Grant song written for the movie by the same name that was released in 1984. The movie starred Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DiVito. It’s about a writer and her sister and a jewel in South America. Somehow The Neurons tied it up with a dream I had. I remember many dreams from last night. I’m not certain how this song fits them. But, you know, The Neurons often think they know more than you.

That’s the story behind today’s music choice. To go into another old Jon Lovitz schtick, “Yeah, that’s what happened. A dream. That’s the ticket!”

Stay positive and test negative. Wear a mask as needed. Y’all have a good one. I’m getting coffee now. Here’s the tune. Cheers

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Saturday’s Theme Music

It’s 70 F at the moment. A high of 100 is expected. Little warm, yeah, with the usual declarations about furnaces, staying protected, and cooking things on cement.

Today is Saturday, Jun 25, 2022. Sunrise was at 5:36 AM and sunset is at 8:51 PM.

The cats called me away while I was posting this. I return 30 minutes later. It’s eight degrees warmer outside. The temperature leap has an entourage of strong, gusty winds. The cats aren’t pleased and are pestering me to turn the damn winds off. They give me credit for way more power than I possess.

I was washing the car yesterday when The Neurons began playing Cat Stevens, “If You Want to Sing Out Sing Out” which was in the movie, Harold and Maude, 1971. I found that movie so entertaining as a youth, and of course the song stayed with me. I had to think about what movie it was from and the year, and finally looked it all up for confirmation. BTW, I think there’s a specific group of neurons responsible for calling up the music and placing it in the mental music stream. I’ve decided they will be known as The Neurons to differentiate them from the normal, regular neurons.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask if or as needed, etc. Enjoy your Saturday. The cats are telling me that it’s coffee time. Cheers

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The Movie Dream

I dreamed I was in a movie. Then I realized it was a movie and not life, so I stepped out of it. But then, remembering that I’d seen the movie, I tried recalling how it went. It seemed different, so I stepped back in to follow.

The dream was about a man protecting the Pope. Dressed in a black leather trench coat, with a black hat pulled low over his head, he was in a big white Lincoln Town Car. After some changes in camera perspective and mild action, it emerged that he’d been shot. People were after him and he was after them, trying to be proactive by getting them before they got him. I was very young, maybe thirteen or fourteen, with shaggy brown hair. At one point, I was accused of being the one who’d shot him. I was ready to proclaim my innocence, but the Pope’s bodyguard identified me and said, “He’s one of the good guys.” I was flattered to be cited as a good guy.

Now, though, I felt like I had to live up to that billing. I kept my eye on the Pope’s bodyguard, and spied others trying to sneak up on him. I went to give him warning, but he’d noticed them and was on it. It was at this point in my dream when I thought, wasn’t this a movie? Stepping out, I watched on a big screen as a fine silver thread was spooled out along a winding path through a business area. The silver thread was lit.

A fuse, I realized. But isn’t that different from the movie? That’s not how I remembered it happening.

I stepped back into it. Something was going to explode. I raced forward and scuffed out the silver thread. That ignited all manner of chaos as bad guys — in white clothing, or light clothing, male and female — rushing out to re-light the fuse and the Pope’s bodyguard fighting them off.

Which is where it ended, or was interrupted, by an unnamed cat called Tucker.

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Finished

Finished editing and revising The Constant. Final results: 391 pages, 106,291 words. Speculative science fiction mash up. I’ve worked on it throughout the coronavirus pandemic, beginning it around the time in March of 2020 when wearing masks, social distancing, isolation, and watching the daily case numbers became the new norms of the age. I’d been forced into a change of my writing practices. I liked walking to get into the writing rhythm, writing in my head as I did, then settling into a coffee shop, comforted and buffeted by the business activities around me, lowering my head and writing for a few hours. That was all forced aside under COVID-19 rules. Staying at home, shifting into the writing rhythm without the associated rituals was an exhausting, frustrating shift.

Satisfying feeling to finish the novel. I often think of James Caan as author Paul Sheldon in the movie version of the Stephen King version, Misery, when I finish a novel. He had a ritual for when he finished his. He writes ‘The End’ on the final page in pencil. Stacks and tidies the manuscript. Puts it into an attaché. Pours a glass of champagne. Regards a cigarette. Puts it in his mouth, lights the match and then the cigarette. Takes a drag. We learn later, when he’s under Annie Wilke’s care (the nurse and fan played by Kathy Bates) that this was his ritual created when he finished his first successful novel. It’s an engaging film. Was released in 1990. Wow, thirty-two years ago. You should watch it if you haven’t seen it. Also a good book to read. Misery, by Stephen King.

I don’t have any rituals. As others noted after I posted about wrestling with a chapter called Thelma & Louise, it feels good to finish a challenging task. Writing a novel is a challenging task. Finishing it is rewarding. Too, I feel the loss of being done, something felt when I changed duty stations in the military or advanced from one grade to another in school as a child. You’ve done something, and you’re moving forward; yet, to do that, some things must be left behind. What is left behind is part of my fabric of daily activities and focus. Finishing the writing of a novel is about change that I’ve forced on myself.

It’s a change I accept. I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again. The process and finishing are a comforting buffer against the war videos emerging coming out of Europe as Russia attacks Ukraine.

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Saturday’s Theme Music

Excitement is building. They’re forecasting some snow for our state and area next week. Maybe a few inches. Oh, heaven! Snow on the banks. We need it. We’re all worried about the heat, drought, fire, and smoke endured for the last several years. We’d like to avoid more of the same. Some say that last year was the worst because the COVID-19, wildfire, and smoke sucked enjoyment out of going anywhere or doing anything. But the year before, fire struck our town and heavily gutted two neighboring towns. Toss up, to me.

This is Saturday, 2/29/2022. Sunrise kicked in at 7:02 AM. And what a sun. Let’s give the sun a hand. Heat, light, very impressive display. The sky is blue forever and on. Whatever storms and clouds are lurking out there are doing so beyond the mountains that hem our valley. It’s presently 46 degrees F and we will see something in the upper fifties for a high today before the sun downs itself beyond the world’s curvature at 5:48 PM.

Today’s theme song comes from the film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I’ve used “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)” (1985) by Tina Turner before. It came to me today because I looked at my poor sick black cat and said, “Aren’t you a sight, raggedy cat.” Which reminded me of a line that Aunt Entity said to Mad Max. That lined up the neurons to begin playing the song. So here it is, friends and neighbors. Give it all or nothing.

Stay positive, test negative, wear masks as the situation warrants, and get vaxes and boosts when you can. I’m off to meet my maker and pour a cuppa, right? Cheers

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Tuesday’s Theme Music

Blades of sunshine broke over the mountain a while before the sun broke cover at 7:07 AM. We had rain last night — hurray! Not heavy stuff in our area. With the temperature sitting at 37 F, I checked the surrounding mountains for snow. They said we’d get three to six inches about 5000 feet of elevation. And there it was, a creamy white layer topping the northern mountain ridge. Not much but nice to have it, as it’s been too dry this year. Fingers crossed that more will arrive, especially after reading an article that posits the idea that the U.S. West is in a megadrought. Joy.

Feathered clouds streak the sky with cotton candy pink and blue. We expect a high of 47 today, and no more rain around us, alas. Sunset is expected at 5:43 PM on this Tuesday, February 15, 2022. Note to self: February is over half gone.

Today’s song comes out of walking and eyeing the clouds through a cold rain as I took a walk yesterday and from watching the movie CODA the other night. One featured song in the film was “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell. Released back in 1969, it didn’t make a great impression on this thirteen-year-old American male. It wasn’t until later that I appreciated the song’s nuances and insights about change and perspective.

Stay positive, test negative, wear a mask as needed, and get the vax and boosters when you’re able. Here’s the music. Guess what I’m doing now? If you guessed I’m going for coffee, you’re wrong. I already have it. I’m drinking my coffee. Cheers

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“CODA”

We watched the movie, “CODA” last night. CODA is ‘child of deaf adults’. In this remake of a French movie from a few years ago, the setting has been moved to Gloucester, MA, in the U.S., where the family earns their living from fishing. Ruby Rossi is the only hearing person in a family of four, so she serves as the family’s interpreter. But a teenager on the verge of finishing high school, she makes a choice to take up choir as her elective. She does love singing but the true catalyst for this pursuit is the interest in a boy in her class, who signed up for choir.

It causes conflict, of course. That’s why they tell the story. Well-acted, humorous, with a solid plot, the film was recommended to us because it was uplifting. I agree with that assessment and recommend it as entertaining, light fare.

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“Train to Busan”

“Train to Busan” is a Korean movie with English subtitles. It’s all about zombies but it’s the best zombie movies which I’ve seen in years. Taut, well-paced, human, with heroes to root for and villains to root against, we completely enjoyed it. The one problem was that it was on the Roku Channel. Sure, it’s free with your Roku account, but the movie had subtitles built in. The Roku system’s subtitles would come in over the movie subtitles about half a second later. Although the system’s subtitles were more legible, we needed to turn them off because the dynamic distracted and annoyed some viewers.

Part of watching such foreign movies is playing the ‘what if it’s made in America’ game. Who would play the villain and various heroes? Hope you can see it and make recommendations. It’s a movie I wholeheartedly endorse.

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