Goodbye, 2018

Today is Monday, December 31st, 2018. 

New Year's Eve. 

The end of the year that was. 

Personally, 2018 had one thing over 2017 going for it. I hope I'm not jinxing anything as the day is not over but as of now, I've been a patient in a hospital exactly zero times in 2018 compared to 5 times in 2017. So I've got that going for me. 

2018 saw Andrea and I pay off the mortgage on the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

And then we entered into a new debt with a new car (see yesterday's post). Yes, the American dream lives on. 

For my wife Andrea, 2018 had the challenges of the loss of another beloved member of her family with the death of her great aunt Emily and the loss of her job. I have not spoken of the latter problem in this space before now but her employer of over 2 decades decided this fall they no longer needed her services.  Par for the course: corporate America still expects so much from their workers but there is no loyalty in return. 

So far, we're OK. I mean, OK enough to get a new car so shed no tears for us. We are blessed to have what we have and I do not take it for granted. Still, a new job for Andrea would bring some welcome stability to our lives going forward and it would help give her renewed purpose. She's kind of been at loose ends for the last couple of months. 

We tried to have fun this year. We went out and saw 15 movies in the theater this year; all but one gets a thumbs up from me. 

• Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Black Panther

• Ready Player One
• Avengers: Infinity War
• Solo: A Star Wars Story
• Incredibles 2

• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

• Ant Man and the Wasp
• Mama Mia: Here We Go Again

• Christopher Robin

• The House with a Clock in Its Walls

• Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
• *This is the one without the thumbs up.  

• Ralph Breaks the Internet

• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

• Mary Poppins Returns

In addition to the pop culture fun, we had sadly the sucking

sound of the marshland of incompetence and corruption

surrounding Donald Trump still with us as the year ends. If

there is any good news to report on the political front, the

cracks are starting to show through the facade of Li'l Donnie's

not so artful dodge. Hell, when Fox News is throwing shade at

Trump, that can't be good for the ol' moron in chief. I hopeful 

that 2019 will find more light being shown on the dark corners 

of Trump's inanity and lack of moral rectitude.  

We still faced repeated examples of gun violence in American

again in 2018. But in the wake of the tragic mass shooting at

the Parkland, FL high school in February, we saw young 

people, survivors, who seized the moment and inspired a 

passionate level of political involvement not seen before. It 

was a movement that carried through the mid-term elections. 

From tragedy, a movement was born. From death, demands 

for accountability and responsibility came to life and refusedto 

be ignored.   

2018 finds me cautiously hopeful. There were good things

and bad things and I think, on balance, good things

outweighed the bad.

Let's hope and pray that 2019 can deliver more good than

bad.  

A Brand New Ride

There's a new addition to the driveway at the Fortress of Ineptitude. After over 15 years of service to our family, our aging but beloved 2003 Toyota Camry has moved on to be replaces by something new. 

Another Toyota Camry.

Well, we're consistent.

Specifically the 2019 Toyota Camry SE. 

In "celestial silver". 

Driving an older car for so long, we've missed out the newer developments of automotive technology.  Like pushing a button instead of turning a key to start a car.  

By the time this posts, we will have had our new car for about two weeks. I'm still learning about all the technology it contains. And I still keep reaching for the key to turn the car on and off.  

My wife Andrea suggested we name the car "Silver Surfer" but we call her (yes, "her") "Silver".   

Welcome to the fam, Silver.  

Doctor Who: The Complete Series 11

In this blog post from November 10, I looked at the first half of Doctor Who Series 11, ranking episodes 1 through 5. 

And in this blog post from December 16, I looked at the second half of Doctor Who Series 11, ranking episodes 6 through 10. 

Today, at the demand of virtually no one, I rank all 10 episodes of Doctor Who Series 11, episodes 1 through 10. 

#10. It Takes You Away  

I know a lot of people liked this episode. And the episode certainly looks good with its Norwegian “Girl With the Dragon Tatoo” vibe. But ultimately I find this episode is more “vibe” than “story” which is a shame because there is the foundation of a good story here: the sentient universe that is a threat to our universe simply because it’s lonely.  But this concept is shoe-horned into the last 1/3 of the episode via rapid fire exposition dump.  

#9. The Tsuranga Conundrum

Tsuranga is a modern riff on a classic Doctor Who trope, the base under siege adventure. There are story structure weaknesses and the Doctor has to fight for attention in a crowded cast. But the Pting is a clever addition to Doctor Who’s lexicon of alien monsters. 

#8. The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

We get our first recurring threat with the return of Tzim-Sha but there was no burning desire to see him come back. We do get a good bonding moment or 2 with Ryan and Graham which effectively book ends their relationship from where it started at the first of the season.

#7. The Ghost Monument

The TARDIS reveal is epic and moving. The Doctor’s faith that she would find her TARDIS again is shaken and so is that of the viewers. I mean, in previous teasers and what not, the TARDIS was not seen.  Would the Doctor be without her TARDIS for most of Series 11? Chibnall constructed a situation where the obvious (of course she would get her TARDIS back) was in doubt.

#6. Kerblam!

The Doctor gets a fez again and we’re made to be afraid of bubble wrap and (for good measure) Amazon.

#5. Arachnids in the UK

Chris Noth is amazing as the Trump expy and Jodie’s Doctor gets some really funny lines. And the Doctor/Yaz shippers go “squeee” when the Doctor is unsure if she and Yaz are seeing each other.

#4. The Witchfinder

Another tour de force guest star turn, this time from Alan Cumming as King James. Plus the Doctor’s first encounter with a problem where her gender is an obstacle. And Graham wears a big funny hat and quotes Pulp Fiction.

#3. Demons of the Punjab

An intense hour as the Doctor and team finds themselves in a geo-political crisis and a family being torn apart by it. The “make sure history does what it’s supposed to” story is brutal as the Doctor and her friends walk away while someone is murdered. But it’s also personal as Yaz’s life, maybe her existence, is at risk if history is altered.

#2. The Woman Who Fell To Earth

OK the Doctor has her head on straight enough to build her own sonic screwdriver out of scrap metal and random alien tech (which is awesome!) but has trouble remembering she is called the Doctor? Really? OK, that bothers me a lot. Still, this episode does what it needs to do efficiently with style and humor as Jodie hits the ground running as the new Doctor and we’re introduced to our new supporting cast. 

 

#1. Rosa  

Yes, the villain sucks. We get that. But everything else about Rosa is just so freaking amazing. From the powerful performance of Vinette Robinson as Rosa Parks to the painfully accurate recreation of 1950’s Alabama and the unyielding racial segregation that ruled society. We still have room for humor (The Doctor can’t be Banksy! Or is she?) but the heart rending drama at the core of this story is impressive and inescapable. And special kudos to Bradley Walsh who brought to the role of Graham a surprising range of emotion.  The emotional power and scope of this episode sets a high bar for what Doctor Who can accomplish. 

OK, we're now just a few short days away from the New Year's Special where we get the return of the Daleks. Expectations are high for this outing.  

Hangin' With the Vanderbilts

Last weekend, my family and I absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to venture 3 hours to the west to Asheville NC for a visit to the Biltmore Estate. 

The estate is 6950.4 acres or 10.86 square miles with  Biltmore House, the main residence, at its center, a mansion built by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1895 and is the largest privately owned house in the United States at 178,926 square feet of floor space. 

It's a big house with a very big front yard and an even bigger back yard. 

We went to see the house at night for its holiday season candlelight spectacular. 

Here is a photo of my daughter Randie inside the one of the ornate dining halls. 

Here are some additional pics I picked up from the web for an additional look at the house. (One day, I will learn to take decent pics with my own damn phone.) 

It was a beautiful experience with live music from a chorus, a chamber orchestra, a pianist, a harpist and a guitarist.  The house was a glow with light and color, evoking what I'm sure must have been the warm surroundings the Vanderbilts experienced in their heyday.   

We toured the house until past midnight. Then we returned the next day to tour the grounds. 

Here is a photo of Randie posing dramatically from the back of Biltmore House with the majestic range of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the background.  

We walked the winding trails on the property and while the beauty of nature was a wonder to behold, I'm still aching all over several days later. 

Once back at the house, we did some shopping. Here is a very weird looking Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus from the Carriage House store.

And here are Andrea and Randie enjoying a tasty beverage at the Stable Cafe where we had lunch. 

We were supposed to have dinner at the cafe the night before in advance of our candlelight tour of the main house. The story of why that didn't happen is a misadventure best left untold or at least shunted off to its own post.  

Over all, we had a good time hangin' with the ghosts of the Vanderbilts.  

Mary Poppins Returns

Last week on a Friday night, my family left the Fortress of Ineptitude to go see a movie we had collectively been most anxious to see for nearly a year. 

How anxious is demonstrated that we went out on a Friday night to see a movie. Most of our cinema excursions are usually for Saturday or Sunday matinees.  But we had a busy weekend ahead of us and we did not want to wait another day more to see Mary Poppins Returns.   

My wife Andrea has been a life long Disney fan and the original Mary Poppins is long time favorite live action Disney film. It was an affection passed along to our daughter Randie who as a toddler would dance along with the chimney sweeps during "Step In Time".  

For myself, I remember when I was a child we had an album of Disney music that included "Chim Chim Cher-ee" and ""Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"; we used to play that Disney album a lot when I was a little boy. 

Suffice to say, the original Mary Poppins holds a special place for the three of us. So naturally we have been most anxious to see how Mary Poppins Returns would look.  

For Randie and I, one big appeal for this new film was that Lin-Manuel Miranda would have a role. We've been big fans of Lin since he exploded on the scene with Hamilton and quite frankly, I just like the guy. I wish he could be my buddy, my pal. 

Well, enough about all that? What of the movie itself?

If I had to sum up Mary Poppins Returns with one word, that word would be "delightful". The movie captures the spirit of the original but is hardly a mere retread. The new film at times echoes key beats of the original but manages to still be it's own new thing as well.  

Emily Blunt in "practically perfect" in the role of Mary, effortlessly carrying on from the iconic portrayal by Julie Andrews in the first film. Blunt's Poppins does have a slightly more mischievous take as demonstrated in numbers like "Can You Imagine That?" and "A Cover is Not the Book".  

Our buddy and pal Lin-Manuel Miranda absolutely dazzles as Jack, the lamplighter, taking on the role in the film Dick Van Dyke had as Bert in the original movie. Lin has several opportunities to show off not just his considerable acting and singing skills but some really awesome dance moves, most particularly in "Trip a Little Light Fantastic".  And Lin sets the tone for Mary Poppins Returns perfectly, opening up the film with "(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky".    

Special kudos to Pixie Davies, Nathanael Saleh and Joel Dawson  who play Michael Bank's children who are extraordinarily proficient; their reprise of "The Place Where Lost Things Go" late in the film is very moving.   

And speaking of moving, it was very heartwarming when Dick Van Dyke makes his appearance in the last act of the movie. Dick is 93 years old but still up for a little song and dance (on top of a desk, no less).   

If there is any criticism of Mary Poppins Returns, it's the almost clockwork mirroring of story beats from the first movie but you know what, I don't care. Nostalgia is a strong fuel that powers this new movie but Mary Poppins Returns does enough new and differently to make it a worthwhile trip. 

Andrea, Randie and I are anxious to go see it again.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Hi there! 

I'm way behind on write ups where Dave-El and family absconded from the Fortress of Ineptitude to see movies. 

Two weeks ago, we went to see Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.  It's an animated film that features a Peter Parker Spider-Man that looks familiar and 5 other Spider people who may not. The core of this movie is not Peter but one of the other spiders, Miles Morales. 

Miles is a very bright and gifted teenager with a passion for art struggling to adjust to life in an elite boarding school and live up to the expectations of this parents. He would rather hang with his Uncle Aaron and paint graffiti on subway walls. It is one such expedition underground where Miles gets bitten by a radioactive spider. 

The next day, life at school gets even more awkward as Miles' new spider powers began manifesting themselves in surprising and very socially awkward ways. That night, Miles goes back to the scene of the crime to locate the spider that bit him when he discovers a hidden lair with a big honking particle accelerator that Wilson Fisk is using to breach barriers between universes, looking for a version of his wife and son who are still alive. The machine is being guarded by the Green Goblin and the Prowler in a knock down drag out fight with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.  

Things go very badly, the machine goes ka-blooey which seriously injures Spider-Man. He slips a USB drive to Miles that will permanently disable Fisk's machine if he tries to use it again because if he does, it will destroy everything.

Then Wilson Fisk beats Spider-Man to death. 

Wait! What? 

Yep, after guarding and protecting New York City for 10 years, Spider-Man is dead. 

Whoa. Bummer. 

After his death, Spider-Man is revealed to be Peter Parker, a young blonde man with a hot wife, model and actress Mary Jane Watson. 

Wait, did I say "blonde"?  

While New York City is pretty much bummed out that Spider-Man is dead, Miles is particularly stressed out. He alone knows he has spider powers and the only person who could've helped him out with that is dead. And that person's last request before dying was for Miles to stop Fisk from using his big honking particle accelerator again and thereby destroying everything and to be honest, Miles is a bit and understandably freaked out. 

Then Spider-Man appears. 

Wait! What? 

It seems Wilson Fisk's big honking particle accelerator has caused fractured in the multiverse which has pulled over another version of Peter Parker from another Earth, one where Peter has brown hair, a bit of a belly from sitting around eating too much pizza because he's depressed about losing Mary Jane Watson and he's a bit cynical after defending his New York City for 22 years. 

Miles and Peter team up to put a stop to Fisk's big honking particle accelerator but run into problems with Olivia Octavius, AKA Doctor Octopus. So in Mile's universe, Doc Ock is a woman.  

Speaking of lady versions, Gwen Stacy from another Earth shows up where she got bit by the radioactive spider and the great tragedy of her life is she couldn't save the life of her best friend, Peter Parker. 

Also showing up: 

Spider-Man Noir
----a black & white Spider-Man with a fedora and trench coat from 1933. Noir is voiced by Nicholas Cage in what has to be the role of lifetime.  

Peni Parker
---- a Japanese-American middle school student who pilots a psychically-powered mech suit known as the SP//dr, which is partially controlled by a radioactive spider that also shares a psychic link with the pilot

Spider-Ham  
----Peter Porker from a cartoon universe. John Mulaney provides the voice of Spider-Ham because occasionally, things happen in the world the way they should.  

In addition to the danger that Wilson Fisk's big honking particle accelerator poses to everything, all the visitors to Miles' Earth are breaking down, their structures are unstable outside of a universe other than their own. 

There is a lot going on in this movie and at times, it is a bit too frenetic and garish. But the story wisely has Miles Morales as it's focus. Miles' insecurities and frustrations with life are relatable even before he gets zapped with powers he struggles to understand and master.

The film makes using of varying art styles in the animation including reproducing the art styles associated with the characters from the comics. We even get caption boxes on occasion for inner monologues, right out of the comics. 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a wild ride, sometimes a bit too wild with some particularly frantic scenes. But is undeniably a fun ride and worth seeing. 

____________________________________

Upcoming on the blog thing:

• Mary Poppins Returns 
• A travel report on where my family went this weekend
• The long awaited total season review of Doctor Who Series 11. 

Why It's Christmas Day!

Hello! It's Christmas Day!

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you liked what you got under the tree. And if you don't like it now, who knows?

You might like it later. 

A couple of things from past blogs. 

A Doctor Who holiday message from the War Doctor. 

And by the demand of absolutely no one, the return of...

THE VELOCIRAPTOR OF CHRISTMAS!!!!

And in a follow up to yesterday's post, here's another Steve Dikto drawn sci-fi short for the holidays.

Thanks again to Brian Cronin for posting these Steve Dikto Christmas tales at Comic Book Resources.   

I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another.  

A Steve Ditko Christmas

OK, not travelling today but still tired from the travelling and lots to do before Christmas Day (which is TOMORROW?!?)   

So I'm going to let Steve Ditko and Stan Lee do the heavy lifting for today's post with a classic tale from Journey Into Mystery#78. 

And thanks to Brian Cronin for posting this story at Comic Book Resources.  

Going To....Where, Now?

Busy travelling!

No, not to Gay City. 

But travelling.    

Got posts coming up on Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse and Mary Poppins Returns. 

But not today. Still travelling.   

Far Side Saturday #3

Whoops! Sorry, back in Hell!   

Once More, the Wall

OK, as I write this, the US government is staring down the prospect of a shutdown because Veruca Salt…. Er, excuse me, Donald Trump wants a WALL and he wants it NOW!

 

How did we get here? You can thank Fox News.

 

Last week, Li’l Donnie got into a knock down/drag out with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer who let Trump build his own trap then walk into it, saying he would shut down the government to get his wall.

 

Earlier, in the week, the word started going out that Trump might be amenable to a budget deal and negotiate provisions regarding the wall. 

 

The Fox News called Trump a pussy.

 

The screaming pundits and the perfectly coiffed hosts on Fox said, “Hey, Trump, the wall is your big thing and you’ve got Congress by the short and curlies. Don’t let go now! If you do, you’re a big pussy!”  

 

Trump lurched right back in to drama mode, threatening to veto any legislation that did not include the funding he’s requesting for the border wall. 

 

So here we are, all because Li’l Donnie didn’t like that Fox News was being mean to him. 

 

One constant refrain we hear from Trump and his sniveling sycophants equating “border wall” with “border security”. Li’l Donnie will say he’s willing to shut down the government not because of the border wall but for border security.      

 

“Border wall” does not equal “border security”.

 

One might argue that a border wall is needed for border security but that’s not what is at stake here.

 

The border wall is a big shiny thing to distract the ignorant masses from actually solving any issues with immigration and border security.

 

Here’s a nasty secret about the Republican Party. As much as they rant and rage about illegal immigration and border security, a lot of Republicans are OK with the status quo.

 

One way to keep more money in my pocket is to put less money in someone else’s. If I want the landscaping around my mini-mansion to be well groomed, there’s nothing like illegal immigrants who are willing to be paid under the table for less money than their American citizen counterparts. If you’re look to cut corners in wages and benefits, illegal immigrants are good for business. 

 

So here’s where the wall is helpful if you’re a Republican. Anyone looking at the logistical nightmare of building such a wall with an ounce of common sense will recognize the wall for the costly boondoggle it is.  This person opposes the wall. You, Mr. Republican (and odds are, yes, you’re a man) equate “border wall” with “border security” and say the other guy opposes “border security”. The white undereducated morons vote you back in because you’re tough on them there illegal Mexicans who are taking their jobs while back home, you hire a half dozen illegal Mexicans to put in that Japanese rock garden your wife has been bitching at you about for months now.

 

You don’t need to actually build the wall. You know the idea of a border wall is a costly and ultimately ineffective deterrent. But the rubes back home don’t get that so you just need to fight more it so you look tough on border security. 

 

Then a complete and total idiot gets elected President and oh shit, we’ve really gotta build a wall now?

 

You know the wall is a waste of money. You know there are actually effective measures that would do more to curb illegal immigration. But come on, the Japanese rock garden is not quite finished yet and those Mexicans do work very cheap. 

I'm Going Back To Bed

Guys and gals, my head is in a weird space right now and it's been really hard to write stuff. 

So bear with me....

... I need a moment. 

I'm going back to bed.