Among my comics from January and February were two oversized issues called Generations: Shattered and Generations: Forged.
It's a project that began life as a big thingamabob of cosmic shattering import blah blah blah that was the brainchild of publisher Dan Didio. Then Dan Didio got canned and the big thingamabob of cosmic shattering import blah blah blah became something a tad more streamlined and in the end a bit more fun.
Essentially, the two Generations books are dealing with a sort of Crisis on Infinite Earths redux, a big wave of white nothing is eating up worlds and time. A rag tag collection of heroes from the up and down the DC pantheon are called up to make things right.
Of course a self respecting DC crossover event has to have Batman and there he is. But specifically, he's the Batman we saw in Detective Comics #27, dark, taciturn and wearing purple gloves. This is not the Bruce Wayne of modern times who is crazy prepared for anything. This is a Bruce Wayne from 1939 who only just decided last week to dress up like a bat and fight crime. Now he's teaming up with a cadre of heroes from across time and space to take on a big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time.
Of course we have to include Superman but it's not. It's the classic version of Superboy, still young and innocent as only an adopted farm boy from Smallville, Kansas can be.
We also get a Green Lantern but it's Sinestro before he turned all evil.
Kamandi, Jack Kirby's classic "Last Boy on Earth" is part of the team.
As is Superman compatriot John Henry, aka Steel, Starfire from the Teen Titans, Booster Gold and Dr. Light (the female scientist hero version) are among the very eclectic characters to assemble against the threat of the big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time.
Since Dan Jurgens is involved, Booster Gold is involved along with Waverider and the Linear Men. And the big bad is a Jurgen's created cosmic villain from Jurgens' time on Superman, Dominus.
Dominus is using the big wave of white nothing eating up worlds and time to power up an alternate reality where he can live with his wife and kids in a 1950s black and white utopia.
Yes, Generations is ripping off WandaVision before WandaVision came out. Weird, huh?
I want to call attention to letterer Tom Napolitano whose crisp white word balloons filled with thick easy to read lettering made this book a joy to read. None of that fine yellow lettering on a red background for this book. This is classic comic book lettering that does the job of helping me read the book instead of making it a challenge.
The two Generations volumes are exercises in big dumb comic book tropes, filled with lots of dramatic proclamations, punching and zapping against a backdrop of cosmic shenanigans.
Generations is also a lot of fun, an odd mixture of characters from across DC's long history fighting the good fight across locations spanning all of time and space.
Last season Andrea and I invested ourselves in the world of Batwoman for an entire season. It was not an easy season to get through.
I felt the first 2 or 3 episodes were a bit lackluster, taking too long to get to the point: Kate Kane is the Bat that Gotham needs right now.
The series pushed hard on gruesome violence and graphic scenes of assault and torture. I know it creeped Andrea out and I was bit uncomfortable with the levels of both physical and psychological torture.
Still, as the series progressed, Kate Kane began to feel more fleshed out beyond kick ass lesbian. Ruby Rose was even allowing for the occasional flash of humor in Kate's demeanor.
And the compelling near Shakespearean levels of family tragedy that drove the series could not be denied.
Then Ruby Rose announced she was leaving and the producers of the show announced Kate Kane would not be re-cast. That someone completely new would be taking up the mantle of Batwoman.
I understand the arguments against doing a recast. The audience is expected to believe a completely different actor is the same character. I get that going for recasting Kate Kane is a cliche but...
Family was at the core of this Batwoman's saga.
Kate's sister Beth is the mad Alice, Batwoman's arch nemesis.
Kate's step sister Mary Hamilton is part of Batwoman's support team.
Kate's father Jacob Kane is who is determined to use his private security agency to bring down Batwoman.
Kate Kane is the cousin of Bruce Wayne whose absence from Gotham City creates the void that Kate must fill as an entrepreneur and as Batwoman.
Familial connections link Kate Kane and Batwoman into a complex narrative.
If the woman who replaces Kate as Batwoman lacks that familial connection, then what is the point?
Why did Andrea and I invest a year in the Kane family drama if the next Batwoman will have no connection to the Kane family drama?
I know doing a recast can be a cliche but sometimes cliches work.
Way back in the day, my mother was a big fan of the drama series Dallas. Then they wiped out a whole season of shows she watched because it turned out the entire season was a dream. My mom's interest in Dallas significantly waned.
Taking away the central the character from the family dynamics that informed all of season 1 led to Andrea and I losing our interest as well in Batwoman.
I'm not saying the current Batwoman season 2 can't be good. I've heard some good things about season 2.
I'm not saying that Javicia Leslie doesn't look wicked awesome in the Batwoman suit. The clips I've seen suggest she makes a fierce Batwoman.
I have been dutifully recording Batwoman season 2 and I've mentioned to Andrea that maybe we should give this a go after all.
We watched the series premiere and we both enjoyed this new take on Batwoman more than we anticipated. Ryan Wilder is a complex and fascinating character, a woman who has been through some serious shit but hasn't quite given up on life, even if she is living in a van.
And we find out that Ryan has her connection to Alice and her Wonderland goons who killed her adoptive mother.
And as for what happened to Kate Kane, she has disappeared in the wake of a plane crash. The assumption in Gotham is that she's dead even as her body remains lost.
But what has years of reading comics taught me? Ain't no body, they ain't dead.
And just as Andrea and I decided to give Batwoman season 2 a try, the word has come down that Kate Kane is alive with a new actress in the role.
But Kate's return does not mean Ryan Wilder is done as Batwoman. Reports are that Javicia Leslie's Batwoman will continue as the first Black woman to wear the mantle of the Bat.
Which is a good thing. Despite our trepidation surrounding the changes in season 2, Ryan Wilder is a kick ass Batwoman and we're enjoying this ride.
________________________
Last night was the finale of season 2 of Snowpiercer. Once I've made time to see it, I will post my thoughts on that in next week's Tuesday TC Touchbase.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to keep it down will ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here!
It's basically someone who's a jerk but manages to take it a level or three beyond merely being a jerk.
An asshole is a person not merely content with being selfish and obnoxious and a bully but seeks ultimate levels of those qualities.
An asshole is a person who is all those things naturally but also works at it.
Or we can save ourselves the trouble of defining what it means to be an asshole and go for a more succinct definition:
An asshole is Miles Walker.
Miles Walker is the owner and proprietor of A OK Walker Autoworks in Fayetteville, Georgia. Apparently he owed a former employee named Andreas Flaten a final pay check of approximately $915.15.
Miles Walker made payment of the $915.5 to Andreas Flaten.
In pennies. That's right, 91,515 pennies weighing a total of 504 pounds.
That's an asshole move right there.
But Miles Walker is not done.
The 91,515 pennies were covered in grease.
I'm pretty sure Coin Star will not take those coins in that condition.
Yes sir! That's some class A asshole there!
But wait!
Miles Walker is still not done.
The 91,515 grease covered pennies came attached with a note:
"Fuck you!"
Classic depths of asshole achieved!
But not surprising. The reason Andreas Flaten is a former employee is that his time on the job meant being the constant target of bullying and abuse from Miles Walker.
Other former employees of A OK Walker Autoworks tell of a toxic work environment.
But perhaps we are not being fair to Miles Walker.
Let's hear his side of the story.
Miles Walker wants it to be clear he paid Flaten in U.S. currency. But when he was asked about the pennies ...covered in grease ...with the fuck you note, Miles Walker had this to say.
“I don’t know if I did that or not. I don’t really remember. It doesn’t matter; he got paid, that’s all that matters. He’s a fucking weenie for even bringing it up.”
Yep, he said "I don’t know if I did that or not."
A 504 pound pile of 91,515 grease covered pennies with a "Fuck You!" note?
Over the course of the posts I have written under Cinema Sunday, I have endeavored on a project to watch the movies of the Marx Brothers.
While I've had a life long fascination with Groucho Marx and his brethren, my actual exposure to the their films was rather slim. So I've made a concerted effort to experience the movies in their filmography.
Some movies I've enjoyed immensely (A Night at the Opera) and others I have merely tolerated.
Today's movie is one of the latter. If the title The Big Store seems generic, it's a harbinger that the Marx Brothers, after 12 years in Hollywood, are just grinding these movies out. In fact, going into production on The Big Store, Groucho announced that it would be the last Marx Brothers movie.
The plot, such as it is, involves a big department store. Hiram Phelps, owner of Phelps Department Store, has died, leaving the store to his nephew, singer Tommy Rogers and to Tommy 's aunt Martha Phelps.
Tommy wants to be a singer and doesn't want the store. Martha doesn't really want it either but I'll be damned if store manager Mr. Grover really does want the store and is prepared to kill Timmy and Martha to get it.
Wow! That must be some store! '
Martha, suspecting some bad stuff is afoot and worried for Tommy's safety, hire private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho) for protection.
Martha is convinced this is a good decision.
Flywheel along with Ravelli (Chico) and Wacky (Harpo) spend the rest of the movie working to disavow her of that notion.
They do eventually expose Mr. Grover as the villain when Groucho comments, "I told you in the first reel he was a crook."
Groucho also breaks the fourth wall during the fashion show in ladies' wear when he comments on a model's dress "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor is so expensive."
There are two extended scenes with all three Marxes. One is in the store's bed department, with novel beds that come out of the walls and floor. The other is near the end of the film as Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers in a madcap chase through the store, involving the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. It took a month to shoot this chase sequence involving a lot of stunt doubles and stop motion photography,
For all the shenanigans going on in The Big Store, it's hard to escape the feeling that the Marx Brothers know full well they've done this a hundred times.
In April 1941, Groucho told the Los Angeles Herald, "When I say we're getting sick of the movies, I mean the people are about to get sick of us...Our stuff is simply growing stale. So are we."
While it was announce that The Big Store would be their last film, the Marx Brothers did return for A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949) because according to Groucho, Chico needed the money.
Next week for Cinema Sunday, I will post about what was truly the last film to feature Groucho, Chico and Harpo.
Today's Songs For Saturday falls on March 27th which is the birthday of Stacy Ann Ferguson, better known as simply Fergie.
Fergie was a member of the Black Eyed Peas who released their mega hit "I Gotta Feeling" back in 2009. It was a infectious and blood pumping party anthem and after it spent 14 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, I was sick of it.
11 years later and I am quite surprised to find the song still holds up and I find myself enjoying this once more.
Now I am shocked as hell to be posting this next track to this week's Songs For Saturday. On one hand, "Fergalicious" reminds me of an article explaining how microwave ovens work playing music so stupid that only food can hear it. In a way, "Fergalicious" is just that stupid.
But damn if I don't enjoy listening to it with it's fast-paced rhythms and Fergie turning her name into a word and making a song out of it.
It's time for Fergie to get "Fergalicious", yo!
Wrapping up our salute to Fergie is this live performance from U2 with their cover of "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger swaggers in as only Mick Jagger can swagger while Fergie shreds the female solo.
OK, that brings us to the end of another Songs For Saturday. Remember to be good to one another, always keep the music alive and be Fergalicious.
Well into my 5th decade on this planet, I remain in my inevitably encroaching old age a comic book reader. Sometimes, like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon said, I think I'm getting too old for this shit.
But I don't stop.
Comic books remain a constant through line for most of my life. From the squeaky spinner racks of my childhood to my pull list at Acme Comics, comics books are part of a thread that has seen me through all the ups and downs of my life so far and I am loathe to cut that thread.
Sometimes opportunities arise to put the metaphorical scissors in my hand and give that old thread a quick snip.
In the first two months of 2021, DC decided to forego it's normal line up with an event known as Future State. Well, that sounds like a good jumping off point to me.
I did ultimately concede to have three titles from this event on my pull list for January and February.
The Legion of Super Heroes Future State issues feature an epic storyline at its core with ground breaking revelations about Element Lad and his home planet as well as the people of Saturn Girl's home world.
But writer Brian Michael Bendis shoves this epic storyline into 2 rushed issues with artist Riley Rossomo a poor choice to illustrate this hurried and crowded story.
The Future State issues of Justice League had two full length stories. The lead story is a new league with the next generation of heroes, Superman's son, Aquaman's daughter and so on. It's a classic throwback heroes vs. villains story as the Hyperclan returns to cause havoc in the world. The 2nd story is a Justice League Dark set in a dystopia future where magic users are on the run from a deadly malevolent force. It's a bit murky and muddled but any story that has Detective Chimp channeling Etrigan the Demon can't be all bad.
Then there's the 4 issue Future State series, Next Batman. Gotham City is even more of a dystopian hellscape under the grip of the Magistrate and his pack of enforcers, the Peacekeepers. Jace Fox, son of Lucius, has taken up the mantle of the Batman in the wake of Bruce Wayne's disappearance. Nobody is happy about this new Batman, not the Magistrate, not the Peacekeepers and not Jace's family. But in a city in the iron grip of tyranny, Jace's Batman is determined to deliver justice, even at great personal harm.
This Batman storyline is written by Oscar winning screenwriter John Ridley who delivers a script filled with action and thought provoking drama. The book also includes a number of back ups such as Batgirls (Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are in prison as part of a scheme to bring down the Magistrate) and Arkham Knights (a collection of erstwhile Arkham loonies brought together as an ad-hoc super team to fight the oppression of the Magistrate).
The Next Batman treads ground we've been on before (what if Gotham City sank into an even worse cesspool of hopelessness and despair) but there's some pretty cool world building going on here. And there is an ongoing Next Batman series that I might need to add my pull list.
This week 10 people in a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket were killed, slaughtered really, by a nut case with a mad on about some damned thing or another who thought to resolve his issues with a gun
An assault rifle, actually. A weapon of war available to people who are not soldiers in an army in an actual war.
The murderer obtained his assault rifle a mere 6 days before the shooting in a state where an assault rifle ban was overturned by a conservative judge based on the supposed constitutional premise "you can have all the guns you want!"
After yet another mass shooting, we all know our assigned roles.
Republicans snapped to attention to defend the status quo and deflect.
Sean Hannity managed to turn a discussion of the Boulder massacre into a rant against Black Lives Matter?
Ted Cruz had to weigh in, once more reminding us....
Say it with me!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
Bless you!
Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Ted Cruz had this to say:
"Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders. What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens, because that’s their political objective. But what they propose, not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse.”
Let me highlight a couple of troubling passages from the text above:
every time there’s a shooting
after every mass shooting
I think that defending the status quo is a bit problematic when that defense only serves to reiterate this is a recurring problem.
Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana got in on the act.
“We do not need more gun control. We need more idiot control.”
Good luck parsing that statement.
Kennedy also asserted that background checks and other basic gun control measures was like handling drunk drivers by taking cars away from sober drivers.
CNN's Jake Tapper response to that?“I don’t even know what to say to that, it’s so stupid."
Well, no one ever said the Republicans lock step rush to defend guns after yet another mass shooting had to actually make sense.
There were the usual expressions of thoughts and prayers from the same Republican politicians who have and will continue to vote against any kind of meaningful and common sense gun control.
Look, I have no problem with thoughts and prayers but if all you're gonna do is offer up thoughts and prayers while I risk my life to simply go to the grocery store, then fuck you and your thoughts and prayers.
The recurring nature of mass shootings led Seth Meyers to question the use of the word “unimaginable” to describe such tragedies.
“Unimaginable. That’s probably a word we can retire when something happens three or four times a week."
It can be imagined. Kids can imagine it.
When the pandemic began and kids had to adapt to distance learning from home, I read an article where one student noted the bright side this situation: not being killed in a mass shooting at school.
Mass shootings are not unimaginable in a world where we have a routine of what to do after yet another mass shooting.
Sunday afternoon, my wife Andrea and I departed the Fortress of Ineptitude to make a big step towards the future.
We each had appointments to arrive at Four Seasons Mall at 5:00 PM to get our first vaccine shot.
As we approached the mall, there were lighted signs telling me where to go, where to turn and where to park.
As we entered the mall, helpful people in yellow vests guided us along the route to the former Dillards store where the FEMA vaccine distribution center had been established.
The center was staffed by medical officers with the US Army who were consistently patient, courteous and professional throughout the whole process.
Andrea and I were in our respective seats at 5:00 PM on the dot. The medic who administered my shot had a veritable magic touch. I barely felt the needle go in my arm. Andrea reported a similar experience with her shot.
We waited for a quarter of an hour to make sure there were no immediate effects. There were none and we were free to go.
Immediately after our shot, Andrea and I were given cards that not only confirmed we had received a shot but included our appointment for our 2nd shot in three weeks.
As we left the mall, we received text messages confirming our next appointment.
Wow! I wish more things in life worked this well. Kudos to FEMA, the US Army and I guess the fine folks who run Four Seasons Mall.
By the way, the mall was bustling with more traffic than just those arriving for their COVID 19 vaccine shots. A lot of stores in the mall were filled with customers.
The process to get the vaccine shot was smooth, effortless and involved no waiting to get the shot.
There was, however, a very long line at the Cinnabon.
Last week's Snowpiercer delivered a major game changer. For weeks, Wilford's political machinations have poisoned the well for Andre Layton by fomenting a groundswell of distrust and dissatisfaction in Layton's leadership.
Now Wilford has moved on to mechanical manipulations that puts the train itself in danger and imperils the small patch of humanity that dwells upon it.
Wilford engineers (pun intended) a break down in Snowpiercer's key operating system and guess who has the only working part to keep Snowpiercer up and running?
Wilford saves the day and makes sure the train knows it. The episode ends with Layton in cuffs being led to the back of the train where he started two seasons ago and Wilford himself sitting in the engineer's chair at the front of Snowpiercer, a big old smug, satisfied smile on his face.
Wilford is an evil sociopathic bastard but hell, give credit where it is due, he set in a motion a plan of Machiavellian complexity to regain control of Snowpiercer and I'll be damned, it worked.
The look on Layton's face as Wilford repairs and saves Snowpiercer is the look of a man who knows he's done been beat. Layton saw it coming, he tried to control it and he tried to stop it and in the end, Wilford still defeats Layton.
We're not up to the point in the narrative where the train rushes by Melanie Cavill, leaving her stranded in the snow. But that scene does tell us that whatever wonders the people thought they would get from having Wilford in charge again will be short lived.
The two hour season finale event will tell that tale next week.
Marvel's latest Disney+ series dropped last week with Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I don't see F/WS tapping the pop culture Zeitgeist like WandaVision did. Lacking the trippy what the hell is going here sitcom motif of WandaVison, F/WS seems like it will be a more straightforward story, your basic action buddy movie Sam can fly. Bucky has a metal arm. Together, they fight crime. Sometime we don't need much more than that.
I say "seems like it will be" because by the end of the first episode, it ain't as Sam and Bucky's paths have not yet crossed.
F/WS opens with a fast paced sequence with the Falcon in high flying action and we get an intense flashback to the Winter Soldier on a deadly mission. But these happen early with rest of the episode focused on Sam trying to help his financially struggling sister and Bucky not quite grappling with his guilt for his actions as the Winter Soldier.
“Every time something gets better for one group, it gets worse for another,” Sam Wilson notes at one point, addressing life in a post-Blip world as well as the looming threat of the Flag Smashers, a movement with a lot in common with current extreme conspiracy-theory groups.
The episode ends with a game changing reveal. Sam Wilson may have forfeited the role of Captain America by donating Steve Rogers' shield to the Smithsonian. But the Department of Defense has other plans.
Andrea and I were watching Wheel of Fortune last week when this player named Scott was having an extraordinary run of luck. He headed to the bonus round with $45,000. As the puzzle board lit up, I had two premonitions.
1) Scott was going to solve the puzzle. He was too good a player not to suss out this last puzzle.
2) And he was going to win $100,000. He was too lucky to not land on the $100,000 prize.
And I'll be damned but he does. And he does!
I don't know what it is but sometimes I get a certain feeling things are going to go a contestant's way.
Scott recently said he would be donating his total winnings to a pair of charities.
Meanwhile, is Pat Sajak's job as host coming to an end? It seems that after a series of on-air slip ups, Wheel of Fortune producers are ready for Sajak to "take a break."
Pat has had moments of being snappy or even insulting to some of the contestants. I think such jibes on the show might be more forgivable if Pat Sajak was less of an asshole off the show. Pat has not been shy about expressing cringe worthy opinions in social media about how he thinks climate change is a hoax and other right wing conspiracy talking points.
It is pointed contrast to how Jeopardy's Alex Trebek was warmly embraced right up to this death while 74 year old Pat Sajak is getting the old "here's your hat, what's your hurry" routine.
I recognize that at his best, Pat Sajak has an easy going charm and deft control of the game, qualities that were sorely missed when Vanna White was called up to guest host when Pat had emergency surgery. But as nervous as she was at the beginning, White really came into her own by the 3rd week of her gig. When she hosted her last game before turning things back over to Pat, I told Andrea, "I'm really going to miss her as the host."
Over on Jeopardy, Katie Couric finished her run as guest host. She was genial and professional but I noticed that a lot of time questions were still on the board at the end of a round. Andrea observed that Katie speaks a bit slower than other hosts we've seen which I would attribute to her training as a news anchor.
Dr. Oz is coming up as host and I have no idea how this charlatan scored this gig. I'm not going to boycott the show but I'm not going out of my way to catch up any episodes I might miss.
TV News From the Future
While we still suffering the interminable "droughtlander" awaiting the debut of season 6 of Outlander, speculation still won't stop about season 7.
Until....
So great! There will be a season 7.
So why do I think that will be the final season?
Because Caitriona Balfe cannot have a bigger trailer?
My thinking is there is a long range plan to lock the cast and crew in place now to make sure everyone is in board for bringing Outlander to an end.
No speculation on Killing Eve. It's been announced there will be a season 4 AND it will be the last season.
Which is probably a good thing.
Don't get me wrong: the cat and mouse games between MI6 agent Eve Polastri and international psycho killer for hire Villanelle is a fascinating mess to behold but after 3 seasons, I can't see how many more permutations of Eve and Villanelle's will they/won't they we can go through. And when I say "will they/won't they", I mean either have sex or kill each other. Really, it could go either way.
The scene with Eve and Villanelle in the bridge at the end of season 3 was so heartbreaking.....
I'm not really sure how much more of this I can stand.
Coming up next on Tuesday TV Touchbase:
Next week, the TV show I'm NOT watching and why
The week after that, I assess the fallout from the 2nd season finale of Snowpiercer.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya? I'm tryin' to watch some TV over here!
Let us begin today's post with a reading of the sacred text.
"And so sayeth Dave-El in the holy book of My Suffering Amuseth Thou, I Am Doth So Glad Of It, that the Ted Cruz doth goeth forth into the land to lie and lie in a manner of one who doth be a bastard who shall fucketh!"
Say it with me, my children!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
A favorite strategy of Ted Cruz is..
A LYING FUCK BASTARD!
Thank you!
A favorite strategy of Ted Cruz is appeal to the fear that somebody somewhere... Who? Where? It doesn't matter but somebody somewhere is getting away with something.
Ted Cruz tried to pull this shit when the COVID relief bill was in the Senate and he tried to introduce a measure that illegal immigrants would not receive stimulus checks.
Except Ted's efforts were much ado over nothing. No specific measures were introduced in previous relief measures to keep illegal immigrants from getting stimulus checks because no such measures are needed.
You get a stimulus check if you have a social security number.
Illegal immigrants by being illegal do not have social security numbers. Ipso facto, we can draw two conclusions:
1) illegal immigrants CAN'T get stimulus checks.
2) Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
But that's Ted Cruz playing to the conservative base back home, casting himself as the savior of our tax dollars from falling into the hands of illegal immigrants!
Recently, Ted Cruz was being his Ted Cruziest while addressing the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed, conservative group that provides model legislation to state legislators.
The latest scourge of Ted's ire? Somebody somewhere might be voting who shouldn't.
There is a Democratic proposed legislative package called H.R. 1 that would impact voting in various ways. For example, the bill would...
require states to automatically register eligible voters
offer same-day registration.
limit states’ ability to purge registered voters from their rolls
restore former felons’ voting rights.
require states to offer 15 days of early voting
allow no-excuse absentee balloting.
Ted's takeaway from H.R.1 is that it “says America would be better off if more murderers were voting, America would be better off if more rapists and child molesters were voting."
While Ted Cruz is preaching that Democrats really wants that raping, child molesting murderer voting block, he is once more fighting a battle that does not need fighting.
In the United States, the federal government defines a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year. A consequence of being convicted of a felony is disenfranchisement, being denied the right to vote.
Yes, raping, child molesting and murder are felony offenses. There are also other crimes that can be defined as felonies. Including the possession of certain types of illegal drugs for personal use.
Felons who have done their time can still find their right to vote constrained. Each state has it's own provisions for paroled felons to appeal to get their voting rights back. Some states are purely arbitrary in their decision making process.
No surprise Florida is one of them.
A couple of years back, I saw the story of an older African American man in Florida who had felony conviction from his youth for possession of illegal drugs for personal use. He appeared before an all white all Republican panel and made a heartfelt appeal of how he was trying to do right by his second chance at life and his fervent hope to regain his right to vote. The panel denied his appeal.
Rick Scott, the Republican Party's real life Lex Luthor, was on that appeals panel and explained his no vote was because he didn't feel the sincerity of the man's plea for his right to vote to be restored.
This man who made a mistake in his youth is denied the right to vote as an old man because Rick Scott didn't "feel" it.
Neither does Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz does not give a fuck about this man or anyone like him. Hell, some old black man ain't going to vote Republican no how!
Here is what Ted does give a fuck about.
“H.R. 1′s only objective is to ensure that Democrats can never again lose another election, that they will win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and of the state legislatures for the next century."
My blessed children, it's been a minute. Let us speak the sacred mantra once more.
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
Of course Ted Cruz sees the purpose of H.R.1 is only to help the Democratic Party. Because that's how his own party has seen their efforts over the last decade to suppress voting and gerrymandering voting districts, actions taken with the express purpose for Republicans to win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and state legislatures.
Ted Cruz is not alone. There is a massive effort by Republicans in state houses across the country to push for laws to make voting harder, reducing the time for early voting, reducing hours and outlets for voting locations, restricting mail in voting.
This rush to restrict voting is fueled by the great lie perpetuated by Donald Trump that the election of 2020 was rife with fraud and his victory was stolen from him.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the wake of recounts, investigations and legal challenges. But the great lie persists because it is quite the helpful cheeky little lie.
As I've said before, Republicans lack faith in their own beliefs and ideology. Instead they seek victory in the repudiation of their enemies. It's easier to throw up roadblocks to Democratic voters than it is to convince more people to vote Republican.
Ted Cruz knows this. His whole strategy is based on fear and loathing of the other, whoever that other may be.
Ted Cruz hopes to hold on to power hinge on promulgating the fear that somebody somewhere is getting away with something.
If your point of reference of what life is like for other people comes from the movies, one might think sex wasn't invented until the 1970s.
Such a perspective derived from American cinema owes to the heavy handed puritanical code that governed Hollywood known as the Hays Code.
Which is why it's always a surprise for me to encounter a black and white film from the 1930s with a rather casual, adult view of sex.
Made in 1933, Design For Living is what is known as a pre-Code picture, a movie made before the ham fisted moralists of the Hays office got hold of it.
I happened to stumble upon Design For Living late one night and was pleasantly surprised by the principal characters discussing sex while actually using the word sex.
Both artist George Curtis and playwright Thomas Chambers, fellow Americans who share an apartment in Paris, are in love with commercial artist Gilda Farrell. Which is fine with Gilda because she's in love with both of them and is having way too much fun with both of them to choose. George and Tom are uptight Americans and aren't as sanguine about the situation as Gilda.
Unable to choose between the two men, Gilda proposes she live with them as a friend, muse, and critic but with the understanding they will not have sex.
The arrangement works until, with some help from Gilda, a producer takes an interest in Tom's play and Tom has to head off to London where it will be produced.
George and Gilda are left alone. George is prepared, in deference to his friendship with Tom, to honor the gentleman's agreement not to have sex with Gilda.
Gilda, just oozing her luxurious frame over a sofa, purrs, "I am, unfortunately, no gentleman."
And we're off to the races!
Tom returns to Paris for a visit while George is away and rekindles his romance with Gilda.
George is not happy about that and once more, Gilda is forced to choose between Tom and George. She solves this problem by choosing neither of them but instead marries Max, an older stuffed shirt with a stick up his ass. Max is all wrong for Gilda.
George and Tom team up to rescue Gilda from her bad decision marriage.
The movie is based on the 1932 play Design for Living by Noël Coward but all that remains from the play is the title and the premise. Screenwriter Ben Hecht seemed to take some twisted delight that not one line of Coward's play made it into Hecht's screenplay.
The free wheeling sexually adventurous trio at the core of the film certainly evokes the spirit of a Noel Coward creation. But if Ben Hecht was only doing his impression of a Noel Coward script, I can't help but wonder just how much funnier and off the rails the original play can be.
Design For Living may have been made in 1933 but Miriam Hopkins as Gilda Farrell is immediately recognizable as a thoroughly modern woman, bold, direct, playful and passionate. Gilda's scene where she says "I am, unfortunately, no gentleman" is one of the sexiest line readings I've seen in any movie made in any century.
However it may fail the source material, Design for Living has a surprisingly fresh, contemporary feel with moral attitudes ahead of it's time played out against very crisp and sleek film work.
Since this past Wednesday was St. Patrick's Day, let's cast the spotlight for today's Songs For Saturday onto Ireland's biggest musical export, U2.
Kicking off our playlist is U2's first single, "I Will Follow"
A very raw, very primal composition. And it's hard to imagine that the guys from U2 were ever so young.
U2's style would evolve to include some more complex melodies with lush production values. One of my favorite songs from this point in U2's development is a our next song on the playlist, "The Unforgettable Fire"
Wrapping up our U2 focused post today is this start of the century entry from U2, a song with melodic verses and a driving, kinetically charged chorus,. Here is U2 with "Beautiful Day".
And that is that for today's Songs For Saturday.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.
My daughter Randie recently got her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. As a front line worker in a cafe, she qualified for the vaccine. The next phase of vaccine distribution is coming 'round and it looks like Andrea and I will soon be getting our turn.
I am feeling a little bit of trepidation.
Don't get me wrong, I'm going to get the shot and I no reason to doubt it's effectiveness. I'm sure as hell not going to buy in to any of the absurd conspiracy theories surrounding the vaccine.
Look, if the government wants to put a microscopic transmitter in my vaccine shot to keep tabs on me, well, they're going to be bored out of their minds.
The source of my trepidation is a bit weird.
I've gotten used to life in a time of pandemic.
I've gotten used to not eating in restaurants.
I've gotten used to not seeing movies in a theater.
I've gotten used to wearing a mask everywhere.
That's not to say I like living life like this in a time of pandemic.
But I've gotten used to it, this little corner of isolated hell.
To be blunt, life in a time of pandemic is little different for me from life in the before times. Yes, I would go out to eat and see a movie but my first tendency was always to hunker down, away from crowds and the stress they can bring.
Social distancing gave me suitable cover to indulge in that tendency.
A vaccine means I will soon have little excuse to hide behind the necessities of living life in a time of pandemic.
A vaccine will unlock the prison cell door.
It will be up to me to walk through it.
One would expect I should be happy to do that.
But I've become quite accustomed to this cell.
It may be harder to leave that one might think.
___________________
Andrea and I have appointments to get our COVID vaccine this Sunday.
"Stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me."
This was the admonition of my childhood against reacting to insults, to hateful rhetoric.
"Words may never hurt you but I have bullets that can."
This is the response of a small minded person burnished by fear and hate.
Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, Georgia, was arrested for opening fire at three massage spas in northern Georgia hours earlier, killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent.
It may be too early to attribute these attacks as racially motivated but there is no denying that Asian Americans have endured a rising tide of threats and assaults of the last year or so.
In the wake of his bungled management of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, Donald Trump took every opportunity to disparage China. He called COVID-19 the "China virus", "the Wuhan virus" and "kung flu". These racist sentiments were echoed and amplified by his sycophantic political supporters and right wing media, riling up the Trump faithful something fierce.
With the repeated hate mongering proliferating in the Trump World echo chamber, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino recorded a 150% increase in hate crimes against Asian-Americans in the U.S.’s largest cities in 2020.
There were reports of 3,795 reports of harassment against Asian Americans, including assaults that resulted in deaths.
For all the hate and fear directed at China, I have to note that the Asian Americans targeted by violent small mind bigots are not always of Chinese descent. Some of the women killed in the assault in Georgia were Korean.
It's a small detail, I know, but it goes to underscore the petty hate fueled mentality we're dealing with here.
Who knows what exactly was going on in the rage fueled head of Robert Aaron Long. Maybe it might turn out he's more a fucking misogynist than racist.
Whatever his reasons, misogyny or racism or his shoes were too tight, it looks we have yet another small minded white man who thought to sort out his frustrations with a gun.
Below is an image from Lea Thompson's Twitter feed.
Monday I wrote a post called "Cancel Culture Calvacade"
Today, I am going to write about what that title references.
It is an homage to two of the rarest comic books ever published, Cancelled Comic Cavalcade.
1978 saw DC Comics looking to bolster it's fortunes with a publishing initiative called "The DC Explosion" with titles getting expanded page counts and new titles being added to the line up.
But bad sales figures impacted by bad weather in the United States led DC's corporate owners to put a hatchet to DC's plans and the "The DC Explosion" became the "The DC Implosion".
To establish a copyright on the otherwise unpublished material left by the wayside of "The DC Implosion", DC published a two issue series called Cancelled Comic Cavalcade which was inspired by a 1940s DC series called Comic Cavalcade. The two black and white issues were printed by DC staffers on the office photocopier.
The prices on the covers were a joke. The issues were distributed for free to the creators of the material, the U.S. copyright office and the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide as proof of their existence. Only 35 copies of each issue were produced.
Some of the material in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade was later repurposed for use in other books. For example the lead story originally scheduled for Black Lightning #12 was later printed in World's Finest Comics #260. The OMAC back ups by Jim Starlin slated for Kamandi #60-61 would appear two years later The Warlord #37–39.
I don't have the latest numbers but a set of both issues of Cancelled Comic Cavalcade was going for around $4,000 about 8 years ago.
The world of Snowpiercer evolves in a dangerous direction as Mr. Wilford continues his manipulations from the engine room of Big Alice. Snowpiercer's Breachmen, devotedly loyal to Wilford, are sacrificed to Wilford's scheme as they are slaughtered by other mysterious followers of Wilford. The Breachmen were suspected of assauting and mutilating a former Tailie and the murder of the Breachmen looks retaliation from the Tail.
Wilford has his finger on the political pulse of Snowpiercer and knows he has Andre Layton in a vice.
Third Class, which reluctantly agreed to help the Tail in their revolution, thinks Andre has betrayed his promises of democratic reform.
First Class never wanted any of this shit in the first place.
Support for Andre Layton is slim to none. Except from unexpectedly from Ruth, a Wilford loyalist if there ever was one, who comes to Andre's defense.
But Ruth is the exception.
Miss Audrey, grand lady of the Night Car who was supposed to be Layton's spy on the inside on Big Alice, seems to have pledged her devotion to Wilford instead.
Up and down the length of the train, there is an overwhelming amount of support for Wilford's return to Snowpiercer.
Just how bad would that be?
As if the sociopathic actions of Mr. Wilford on full display in season 2 have not provide evidence enough of his unfitness of leading the remnants of humanity, we see more evidence of Wilford's selfish and ruthless pursuit of power and control in the episode of "Many Miles from Snowpiercer".
Melanie Cavill has reached the research station to gather to climate date needed to determine if the Earth is starting to warm up. But an avalanche has destroyed most of Melanie's provisions. She will likely starve to death before Snowpiercer returns. But then Melanie discovers rats have survived at the research center thanks to a geothermal vent. Roast rat sustains Melanie has she continues her lonely work.
Lonely except for her memories to when Snowpiercer began its journey and we see Wilford at his megalomaniacal worst, filling the limited space with on board the train with fewer scientists at the expense of more security and his wholesale slaughter of people trying to desperately get on the train before the deep freeze hits.
We see Melanie's crucial moment of decision, when she can put Snowpiercer in motion and leave Wilford behind even as Melanie has not secured the whereabouts or safety of her own daughter.
A fallen antenna nearly causes Melanie to lose her data; she engineers a rope and pulley system to restore the antenna and recover her data.
Bu the train is overdue. Something has gone wrong.
Melanie makes it back to the tracks but is unable to board the train. Snowpiercer and Big Alice rush by with fire coming out of the underside of Big Alice. We see Alex's face in a window, yelling for help as alarms sound.
Something has gone very wrong indeed.
Superman and Lois
Kudos to a Superman project doing something different with the mythos.
In the comics, Clark and Lois with their one son Jon move from their idyllic farm life back to Metropolis.
Clark and Lois move back to Smallville after the death of Martha Kent to take over the Kent family farm and perhaps provide a better life for their twin 14 year old sons, Jonathan and Jordan.
Jonathan has the easy going manner of a would be jock while Jordan is riddled with anxiety and doubt. So naturally it's Jordan who develops super powers first.
After 14 years, the twins are finally let in on the secret that their father is Superman. Being kept in the dark on something like that does not set well with either of the sons but Jordan is particularly angsty about it.
I'm going to admit that I could do with a lot less Jordan angst on this show. I feel that everyone has to walk on egg shells around him lest the slightest word will set him off.
Tyler Hoechlin, after appearing as Superman on Supergirl, continues to deliver a solid take on both the Man of Steel and his erstwhile mild mannered alter ego Clark Kent trying to make sense of being a dad to two radically different teenage boys.
Elizabeth Tulloch's Lois Lane is a tough cookie but with compassion to spare.
So far, Superman and Lois has done nothing to remind us they exist in a shared universe. No name drops for Supergirl or the Flash. I think Clark should've mentioned Kara Danvers by name at least once by now.
While Clark and Lois are mired in their familial melodrama, there are things a doing to keep Superman busy. A super powered armored Luthor from another universe is making life hell for Superman. Since Jon Cryer's buttonholed Lex Luthor over on Supergirl, this gives this show it's own Luthor to play with. Still, I hope Cryer makes an appearance on Superman & Lois as Supe's arch enemy.
And the malevolent Morgan Edge appears to have some super powered lackeys in his employ. In the comics when Morgan Edge was first introduced, he was an agent of the planet Apokolips. Dare we hope for an appearance of Darkseid on Superman & Lois.
Meanwhile, shenanigans at Smallville High give Superman and Lois more in common with Riverdale than the Arrowverse. Still, as much as I think the teenage angst is way overplayed, I think Superman & Lois is off to a strong start.
Sci-Fi Swing By
My family's project to get through Star Trek: Discovery continues albeit a bit slowly. We are now a 3rd of the way through season 2. The slowness of our pace has more to do with finding time when all three of us (well, four of us as I should include Rosie) have time to watch the same thing at the same time. Over all, we're enjoying the 2nd season of Disco more than we did season 1.
I've got a couple of episodes to finish season 1 of The Orville. My plan is to finish off season 1 of The Orville before I move back over to Justified to start season 3. I am enjoying the show more or less even though I still have issues with the shifting tone of the series.
Game Show Stop By
The first seasons of Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and The Chase have ended. The celebrities on CWoF did not demonstrate any particular talents with puzzle solving and in fact had trouble with some really obvious ones. There was some cool banter and ribbing between contestants that we don't get with the civilians. But I think CWoF has a short shelf life and shouldn't be repeated too often. Once a year, maybe, for a 6 episode run?
The Chase is a strange animal with the Chasers actively working against the hopes, dreams and aspirations of ordinary people. In the penultimate episode, Ken Jennings actually shut down all three contestants. But pendulum swings both ways and the final episode of the season saw all three contestants survive to the end and beat Brad Rutter. I'm not very comfortable with the all or nothing scenario of the show.
Jeopardy continues with Katie Couric as guest host; Katie is personable and professional but no surprise there as she brings decades of experience as a TV host and news anchor to the gig. I'm still pulling for Ken Jennings to get the regular gig.
OK, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase. Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV here!
