The Discontent Of Our Winter

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

In the Bleak Midwinter by Christina Rossetti.

It snowed here at the Fortress of Ineptitude Friday night.

Again.

Clumps of ice and snow still clung to the edge of our house from the last time it snowed.

And the time before that. 

I know there are places in this country where this is just life: it snows and it snows again, snow on snow. 

Here in North Carolina, I'm just not used to it and enough is enough. 

My point of view is not helped by the stresses of work.

I have to work 5 extra hours a week at my job. 

Again, I know there are those in the work force who face worse pressures, longer overtime hours or working more than 1 job.

But those 5 hours are for me a bit more than I'm ready to accept.

As I move further from the beginning of my life and closer to the end of it, I am less inclined to put up with things. 

I barely tolerate working 40 hours a week. 

I keep crunching the numbers to see if I can retire already. 

My goals for retirement are simple. I just want to cuddle up under my favorite blanket in a comfy chair and watch my stories on TV.

No, I'm not talking about soap operas but my beloved reruns of Law & Order, MASH, Gilmore Girls and others. 

I think I can get away with early retirement if I am prepared to cuddle up under my favorite blanket in a comfy chair and watch my stories on TV from inside a cardboard box.

So ixnay on the retirement just now?

Unless I can get my hands on a particularly strong cardboard box, a sturdy kind that doesn't mind the snow.

And more snow.  

As if the snow outside and overtime hours inside weren't feeding my discontent for this winter, the news of the world out there does nothing for my mood. 

Inflation is making everything cost more.

Russia's threatening war over Ukraine.

The pandemic is still a thing as various right wing ideologues work aggressively against all strategies to mitigate the spread of COVID and it's variants including saying no to masks and vaccines.

The shadow of the January 6th insurrection from last year still looms large as various right wing ideologues work aggressively against all efforts to get to the truth of what happened and who was responsible. 

There's a lot to feed the discontent of our winter.  

It's enough to make want to just cuddle up under my favorite blanket in a comfy chair and watch my stories on TV.

Cinema Sunday: Star Trek Nemesis

Last year during the summer, I did six posts about the first six Star Trek movies featuring the cast of the original series.   

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture 
• Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan 
• Star Trek: The Search For Spock
• Star Trek: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek: The Final Frontier 
• Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country 

Now here in the winter of this new year of 2022, I'm posting the sequel, posts about the 4 films featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  

Cinema Sunday will be Non Star Trek starting next week on February 6th.  

____________________________

 "Well, that sucked!"

The identity of the gentleman who gave us this cogent review as we rose from our seats at the end of Star Trek Nemesis remains unknown to us but his succinct assessment of what we had just seen is still as profound as it was then.

"Well, that sucked!"

Today, Cinema Sunday concludes its series on the Star Trek movies featuring the Next Generation cast with the movie that did what Final Frontier did not: kill Star Trek.

After the rather "meh" response to Star Trek Insurrection, Paramount opted to bring in some fresh blood in the form of people who had worked on real movies. 

John Logan who had written screenplays for Oliver Stone (Any Given Sunday) and Ridley Scott (Gladiator) was brought in to write the script for Nemesis.

Stuart Baird, the man who directed the spin off from The Fugitive, U.S. Marshals, was signed up to direct the latest Star Trek cinematic outing. 

Both were new to Star Trek which was what Paramount wanted.

Both were new to Star Trek which was also the problem. 

Thus began Star Trek Nemesis.  

Romulan rebel Shinzon shows off his credentials as a big bad by killing off the Romulan Senate in a gruesome manner.

Shinzon has a heavily armed ship called the Scimitar which has a thalaron radiation generator which can eradicate all life on Earth and other planets too because he's got the Evulz. 

He's also a bit snippy towards his "daddy", Jean Luc Picard. 

Oh, it seems as part of some Romulan plot from years ago, the Romulans grew a clone of Picard. But the plot got back burnered due to it was a stupid plot or budget cuts or whatever. So Shinzon has grown up into a pissy little clone with a mad on at everybody. 

And he's not a very healthy clone. Being a clone is not good for long term health it seems. 

Which is a lot of back story for a villain we will not give one tiniest damn about. 

Shinzon takes over the Romulan Empire and sends out a message to the Federation that he desires peace between the two galactic powers. 

Enterprise is ordered on a diplomatic mission to Romulus in case there is anything to this. 

But it's not 'cause Shinzon's got the Evulz.  

He's made a lot of Romulans dead and he's ready to do the same to the Federation and he's got a mad on at this "clone daddy" Jean-Luc Picard because...

He's got the Evulz?

The Enterprise and the Scimitar get caught up in epic space battle which leaves the Enterprise really busted up.

Shinzon is such a total dick that other Romulans show up to help the Enterprise fight the Scimitar but Shinzon's ship is a total shit kicker, the Romulans get beat and there's only one option left.

Picard orders the Enterprise to ram into the Scimitar.

Which sets Shinzon back a bit but he's got the Evulz and he sets the thalaron radiation generator to overload and destroy every damn thing.

Picard beams over to stop Shinzon and the thalaron radiation generator.  Shinzon gets a fricking pole stabbed through his chest so that's one but the generator is still a problem.

Then Data shows up... by jumping from the Enterprise through the void of space to the Scimitar because Data's a total badass.

Data beams Picard back to the Enterprise and then blows up the thalaron radiation generator before it can go off to kill every damn thing but...

Data dies. 

To quote an unnamed wise man, "Well, that sucked!"

Well, it did. 

Lots of shit going down in this one.

Another Soong prototype android is discovered. B-4 looks like Data but has very rudimentary programming, very much more machine than Data's more sophisticated programs allow. 

To put this not at all politely, B-4 is stupid. Much like his whole plot line. 

Deanna Troi has a cool moment where she uses her empathic abilities to target a cloaked Scimitar. But it's not worth the price to get us to that moment because earlier in the film, Deanna is mind raped by one of Shinzon's goons. And Picard's urging her to press on, to use her trauma as a backdoor to strike back at Shinzon and his ship is particularly cold hearted and out of character.  It is ultimately something Deanna does but she comes to the decision on her own. Picard trying to make her work with the damages caused by her assault does not ring true.

Troi gets her revenge an epic bit of payback. "Remember me?"

In the aftermath of Data's death, Riker remembers the first time he met Data on the Enterprise holodeck and Data was trying to whistle. Damned if can remember what it was he was trying to whistle.

It was "Pop Goes The Weasel", you asshole! 

Really! Am I angry about that? Yes, I am. 

Well, Riker's leaving to go be the Captain of the Titan so he can fuck off. 

Yes, there is some actual status quo changing in this movie. 

Will and Deanna get married. Data sings "Blue Skies" at their reception.  Wesley Crusher and Guinan are at the wedding but no dialogue. 

Will finally accepts one of those Captain promotions he's been turning down for years.

Apparently Dr. Beverly Crusher is leaving the Enterprise to go back to Starfleet Medical but we don't know that because it's in the script but not in the goddam movie because what's a Star Trek Next Gen movie if Dr. Crusher doesn't get to do shit. Am I angry about that? Yes, I am. 

Worf is on the Enterprise without any explanation. During the series finale of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Worf off to be the Klingon ambassador to the Federation. Here he is back doing grunt work as the Enterprise security guy and busted back down to Lt. Commander for some goddam reason.  Am I angry about that? Yes, I am. 

Data is dead. I do not need to elaborate on how wrong that is. Am I angry about that? Yes, I am. 

There is a LOT about this movie that makes me angry.  

And it's not just me bitching here.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times:  "I'm smiling like a good sport and trying to get with the dialogue ... and gradually it occurs to me that 'Star Trek' is over for me. I've been looking at these stories for half a lifetime, and, let's face it, they're out of gas." 

Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle:  "(The movie is) a rather harebrained story that's relieved to a degree only by some striking visual effects and by Patrick Stewart's outstanding presence as Picard". 

Stephen Holden of The New York Times:  "(The film) is a "klutzy affair whose warm, fuzzy heart emits intermittent bleats from the sleeve of its gleaming spacesuit". 

Marina Sirtis  called director Stuart Baird "an idiot" and Patrick Stewart described Nemesis as a "pretty weak" finale for The Next Generation.

Which is an even bigger reason for this movie to make me and many other Star Trek fans angry.  

A script was in development by John Logan and Brent Spiner  a fifth and final film that would provide a full and proper wrap up for the Next Gen cast. 

But Nemesis sucked so bad...

In it's opening weekend, Star Trek Nemesis came in second to a Jennifer Lopez rom com called Maid In Mahattan. 

Paramount pulled the plug on the whole shebang. 

I'll let Chris Lough at Tor.Com take it from here: "In the end, Star Trek Nemesis makes fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation feel like crap. We leave Picard, and the half of the crew that survive and don’t leave, at their lowest point... The actors, creators, writers, and crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation essentially saved Star Trek from fading into history. And that’s ultimately why Nemesis is such a spectacular failure. Because it denied these characters, this generation, the respect that their final outing truly deserved."

Am I angry about that? Yes, I am.

Or to put it another way...

 "Well, that sucked!"

And that was the death knell for Star Trek as a movie franchise until JJ Abrams entered the scene with his Original Series reboot in 2009.

Sometime later this year, Cinema Sunday will explore the next (and to date last) phase of Star Trek as a motion picture franchise.

Next week, we'll go back to our regular series of spotlights on movies new and old. 

Goodbye Everyone!

Well, that's it! I'm done!

I outta here!

This blogster, he is kaput!   

OK, not forever but I'm taking a bit of a rest.

So no posts until Sunday when Cinema Sunday comes 'round again to bring the Star Trek Next Gen movies to their interminable end. 

I need to take a moment.

Because quite frankly...

I'm tired! 

So no post on Thursday.

No post on Friday. But Friday's a re-run?! I'm too tired to even read my own blog to find a post to re-post.

No post on Saturday. No Songs For Saturday?!?! I'm too tired to even listen to music, let alone post about it.

I'm too tired to write anything for Sunday. Thankfully, that was written in advance. 

So here's to a mini-blogcation.

Remember to be good to one another.

And remember I'm tired. 

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Peacemaker

 

I've added Peacemaker to my overstuffed TV viewing schedule. 

The HBO Max series follows Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker, after his near-death in last summer's Suicide Squad movie.  He's drafted into an A.R.G.U.S. black ops called Project Butterfly. 

Peacemaker is immediately suspicious. Project Starfish sent him and his team up against a giant alien starfish.

"ALL HAIL STARRO THE CONQUEROR!!!"

"HAIL!!!!"

So he naturally wonders if this involves a giant alien butterfly.

He's not entirely wrong. 

The team is hunting aliens in human disguise. 

Spoiler: there will be butterflies.

Project Butterfly is not exactly a well adjusted group.

Clemson Murn is the mercenary leader of Project Butterfly who reports directly to Amanda Waller. He seems focused and cooly professional but let's face it, you don't wind up working for Waller because your marbles are well organized. 

Emilia Harcourt is an A.R.G.U.S. agent assigned to Project Butterfly by Waller and like Murn, she seems to have her shit together. Deep down, like Murn, you can tell: no she doesn't. But she can still kick your ass in a dozen different ways. 

John Economos who was part of the mutiny against Waller in the Suicide Squad movie is "rewarded" with the role of tactical support for Project Butterfly. He knows his tech shit for sure but really shouldn't be out in the field.  

Also out of place in the field is another project operative, Leota Adebayo who is secretly Amanda Waller's daughter and her eyes and ears on what's what with Project Butterfly.

Peacemaker may be the most fucked person on the team but not by a whole lot.

We find out some background on why  Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker is who is that lands on his father, August "Auggie" Smith who is racist as fucks and is apparently some kind of white supremacist super villain called the White Dragon. And despite the fact that his son is a big strong dude in the strapping musculature of John Cena who has killed many, many, many people, Auggie dismisses his son as a failure and a total wuss.

And to show there are some people in this world crazier than Peacemaker, we also get Adrian Chase, aka Vigilante. He has no sanction from the Justice League or A.R.G.U.S, he's just a crazy loner with a costume and self proclaimed mission to kill criminals such as murderers, sex offenders and graffiti artists. Chase sees Peacemaker as a role model and mentor, a big brother even. Peacemaker wants to be none of these things to this weirdo. 

Peacemaker finds himself compelled to do something that does not come easily to him: introspection. He has a jingoistic, black and white view of the world that is summed in his mission statement, that he believes so much in the cause of peace, he doesn't care how many men, woman or children he has to kill for that cause. 

But when some kids wind up in his gun site while on the group's alien hunt, suddenly that mission seems less clear.

Despite doing everything to live up to his father's expectations, he has neither his father's love or respect.

And Rick Flag's dying words from the Suicide Squad movie continue to haunt him: "Peacemaker... what a joke." 

Christopher Smith doesn't want all this shit on his mind. He just wants to get laid, get drunk, shoot bad guys and get laid some more. Is that too much to ask?  

Peacemaker basically follows the totally violent, completely profane and perversely funny tone of James Gunn's Suicide Squad.  

And nowhere is that more apparently in Peacemaker's theme that opens each episode. 

Next week I reckon I will be talking about the 3rd season premier of Snowpiercer.

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

Mondays, Am I Right?

Oh how I wish I could get away with this.

Look, if I took a "mental health day" every time I wanted to say "Fuck this, I'm staying in bed", I wouldn't have a job, never get anything done and quite frankly be poor.

But damn...

OK, I can't let this happen on Monday but it was Sunday afternoon. Andrea and I were out for lunch for a nice steak meal when I just began to feel just so weary to the bone tired. 

And those bones hurt.

Uh oh! Do I have the 'rona?

When it comes to symptoms for COVID and the omicron variant, I've had the 'rona for 47 and 1/2 years now.

Upon our return home to the Fortress of Ineptitude, I was off to bed and slept there until dark.

So you get this for a blog post.

I'm sure as I wrote this in advance of Monday that will drag my weary to the bone tired body to my work from home office for another day, I will diligently do my job for yet another day.

Even as my spirit cries out, ""Fuck this, I'm staying in bed!" 

Cinema Sunday: Star Trek Insurrection

Last year during the summer, I did six posts about the first six Star Trek movies featuring the cast of the original series.   

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture 
• Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan 
• Star Trek: The Search For Spock
• Star Trek: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek: The Final Frontier 
• Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country 

Now here in the winter of this new year of 2022, I'm posting the sequel, posts about the 4 films featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  

Cinema Sunday will be Non Star Trek starting February 6th.  

____________________________

Coming up third in the series of Next Gen movies, Star Trek Insurrection has the galling temerity to be... not bad.

By no means is Star Trek Insurrection good. It's not. 

But there is no basis to make a sweeping judgement that the movie is completely bad.

The greatest sin Star Trek Insurrection  commits is not that it's bad or good, it just...is.

Star Trek Insurrection is a thing that exists.

Despite some pre-release portents that this movie would represent some kind of dynamic shift in the status quo ("The crew of the Enterprise defies the Federation!"), it's ultimately a story we've seen many, many times before.

We've got the usual Starfleet admiral up to some shenanigans that the violates what the Federation stands for and Picard isn't going to put up with it blah blah blah. 

The leading source of Star Trek protagonists isn't the Klingons or the Romulans or the Borg or the Dominion, it's Starfleet admirals fucking with the ideals of the Federation.  

"Too Short a Season", "The Offspring", "Ensign Ro" and "The Pegasus" are a few that come to mind in this sub genre of Star Trek, "Admirals Being Dicks".   

All the to-do has to do with the Ba'ku.

Due to unique "metaphasic particles" emanating from their planet's rings, the Ba'ku are effectively immortal. 

Admiral Matthew Dougherty (yep, it's a Starfleet Admiral so we've got trouble) is leading a Federation task force to recover those particles.

Said task force is working with the Son'a, a race relying on medical technology to prevent death. They look like frickin' mummies due to excessive cosmetic surgery.

The plan is to scoop up the Ba'ku into a holographic simulation of their village and transport them elsewhere while the Federation/Son'a alliance ravages the planet for the "metaphasic particles" which does not sound like a good plan because it isn't. 

Data agrees and exposes their nefarious deeds.

In doing so, Data appears to have gone koo-koo for Cocoa Puffs and it's up to Picard and Worf (back from Deep Space Nine for... reasons) to scoop him back up by singing Gilbert and Sullivan. 

It sort of makes sense.

Dougherty doesn't want the Enterprise there because he knows he's up to no good. 

The Son'a don't want the Enterprise there because they don't care they're up to no good, they just really don't like having to fuck with the Federation and if Dougherty wasn't such a useful tool in aiding their mad on at the Ba'ku, they would shove his ass out of an airlock.

Dougherty will get his. Having his ass shoved out of an airlock would've been preferable.

The Enterprise ain't leaving because Dougherty and the Son'a are up to no good. 

While in the presence of the  "metaphasic particles", the Enterprise crew experiences some rejuvenating effects.

• Picard dances.
• Worf gets zits. They're Klingon zits so... Ewwww!
• Geordi grows organic eyes in place of his ocular implants.
• Deanna's boobs get more firm. We know this because Deanna tells Beverly Crusher who tells her that modern women shouldn't be concerned with such things.  
• Will Riker's horny as hell and wants to get frisky with Deanna's newly re-firmed boobs. Modern men are concerned with such things.  

There's a lot of fighting and running and shooting, the plot is ultimately resolved by love and forgiveness as the Ba'ku welcome the wayward Son'a back home. 

Some noteworthy things to well, I suppose, note:

• Picard and Worf (most reluctantly) sing a selection from H.M.S Pinafore to re-engage Data's programming when Data enthusiastically joins in.  
• Data walks underwater and is momentarily distracted by fish.
• Picard gets surprisingly chill with future hippie babe while totally blissing out watching a hummingbird in slow motion. Picard be tripping y'all.  
• Riker lets Troi shave his beard during sexy bath time. It's supposed to be sexy but it's not.  
• Riker calls up a joy stick to help pilot the Enterprise out of danger. It's supposed to be cool but it's not. I mean, it kind of is but really, it's more dumb looking than not. 

Star Trek Insurrection is not ultimately a bad movie. It is an oddly disjointed one. The premise of the so-called "Insurrection" is classic Star Trek, how our actions can exact costs to our ideals and what happens when we are prepared to sacrifice those ideals for the sake of expediency.  But that classic Star Trek theme is married to the needs and expectations of a motion picture designed to have broad appeal beyond just loyal Trekkers. 

The upshot is what would've made a fairly effective episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation is joined up with broad jokes and big action sequences which look cool but that's kind of it. 

Star Trek Insurrection is more or less a confused movie.

For a Star Trek Next Gen film that is ultimately a bad movie, we'll get to that next week.

The nemesis that destroyed Star Trek.  

Songs For Saturday: Robert Palmer

 

Today's Songs For Saturday focuses on a single artist, Robert Palmer. He was born on January 19, 1949 and this past Wednesday would've been his 73rd birthday. Sadly, he passed away in 2003.

I'm not sure when I first heard our opening tune for today's playlist. I don't remember "Johnny and Mary" being played a lot on radio but it's accompanying video probably made the rounds on the nascent MTV in the early 1980s.  I know the music stuck around in my head for decades long after I forgot the words.  

Leading off today's Songs For Saturday playlist from Robert Palmer's 1980 album Clues is "Johnny and Mary".  

Moving from the synth pop new wave style of "Johnny and Mary" to a harder edge rock 'n' roll, Robert Palmer joined up with members of Duran Duran to form Power Station.  

Bringing the heat as he blows the roof of the joint, here is Robert Palmer with Power Stations and "Some Like It Hot" 

Robert Palmer's biggest success came with a series of records like Addicted to Love" and "Simply Irresistible" which were accompanied by stylish music videos directed by British fashion photographer Terence Donovan, featuring blank faced fashion models dressed in black.  

My favorite of these songs was "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On" which was written by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and originally performed by Cherrelle in 1984.

From 1986, here's Robert Palmer's version of "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On".  

Robert Palmer was a gifted performer who was taken from us too soon in 2003. 

And that is that for this week's Songs For Saturday.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive.  

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: People Working In A Field

This past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day here in the United States.  8 years ago, I wrote my first blog piece inspired by MLK Day.

So looking back to Monday, January 20, 2014, here is this piece that I wrote entitled....

People Working In A Field

On this, the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day here in the United States, I decided to put down some thoughts on race. Bear with me. I'm more use to writing smart ass comments about TV shows and comic books but I really felt compelled to put this down into words.
________________________________

When you grow up in the American South as I did, one can't help encountering racism in some form or another. Now that sounds like one of those blanket statements that plays into a stereotype, in this case the South is filled with a bunch of redneck yahoos who hold black people in contempt. As all blanket statements, this cannot be universally applied to the entire South. White proponents and defenders of black civil rights were not just from the North but also from the South. But the inescapable truth is that racism was a part of Southern culture and no, it has not disappeared. Racism may be less than it was but it isn't dead yet. 

Back in the 1950's, racism was ingrained not only in culture but in law. Separate schools, hospitals, drinking fountains, seats in the movie theater, churches, etc etc. Black people were put in "their place" and held there. In my home town, years before I was born, a newspaper reporter and editor took it upon himself to challenge this institutionalized separation of black and white. And in the face of lost advertising and death threats, he stood his ground. He knew that segregation of races was on the wrong side of history. And he would eventually convince people of that. 

My mom was one of those people. A young girl working in the tobacco fields, she heard the racial epithets and saw the humiliations and pain visited up black people day after day. But she also saw those same black people, young men and women her age and working in the same tobacco fields. Regardless of the color of their skin, they were all dirty and sweaty and just trying to earn a few dollars. They were all just people working in a field, covered in sweat and dust, just trying to get by.

As the local newspaperman kept up his pressure against the institutions of segregation and racism, certain forces pushed back. The Ku Klux Klan was very active in the region. My mom described a scene that occurred one night while she was still a young girl. I wasn't there, of course, but I can see what she described so vividly. The KKK staged a "parade" where they all dressed in their robes and held up pitchforks and torches and reminded everyone within range of their shouting voices that white people were "superior" and "chosen by God" and that "n****rs needed to remember their place" and "no college boy from up north was going to tell them different". (Never mind that the newspaperman in question was a local resident who grew up in that town.) 

My mom said someone had rigged the front end of a big black car with lights to resemble a burning cross. My mom was and is a Christian and the cross is normally a sign of comfort to her. That night, affixed to that large menacing black car, the glowing cross that led this "parade" did nothing but instill fear. And that was an epiphany for her. She was afraid but not because of black people; they were just poor souls who worked in the same tobacco fields she did, just trying to get by. No, the fear came from these self appointed bastions of white superiority. She realized she had more in common with people whose skin was darker than her's than with these so called leaders with a skin of a paler color.

This is not say that she became a crusading advocate of civil rights. As I said, racism was ingrained in the culture and even in the laws of the time and of the region. But if the KKK sought to solidify their position with that ugly display that night, they did what all villains do: they overplayed their hand. A lot of hearts and minds they had hoped to frighten to their side were lost to them.  

The good news is the institutionalized racism of the past is just that: of the past. The bad news is that racism has just found more subtle ways to survive in bitter people with small hearts and smaller minds.  When I was a young man, there was a political election where the term "welfare queen" was invoked to describe those who were reliant, perhaps too reliant, on government assistance. The image this was meant to conjure was of a black woman, unmotivated to do anything except pop out babies for a variety of anonymous fathers and cash welfare checks. And there were women in our town that I knew fit that description to a "T" except for one inconvenient fact: a lot of them were white. 

There was this one woman named Pearl who was large and snaggletooth with pale freckled skin and stringy red hair. This woman put the "ug" in "ugly". But somebody was sexing this woman up because she would pop out a baby every other year or so. And she wasn't the only one. There were lots of women like that in my small town (although I swear to you, few if any were uglier) and yes, some of them were black. Yes, as a proportion of the population, black women were over-represented in this sad group. But the inescapable fact was this pattern of having babies and living off welfare did not have skin color as a commonality. The common factors were poverty and a lack of education which affected their judgement and impacted the development of their character. 

When Martin Luther King Jr declared his dream "that one day a man would be judged not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character", this is what he was talking about. Even now, into the 2nd decade of this 21st century, there are people who still make judgments based on skin pigment. But the real things that hold people back, hold them down are things like access to economic opportunity and a good education. Without these, people cannot succeed. Without these, people find it hard to just get by.

And ultimately, that's who we all are, just people working in a field, covered in sweat and dust, just trying to get by.

Thank you for reading and, more than ever, be good to one another.  

Batman: Fear State

It's been a minute since I last posted about comic books so let me take a look at my last batch of comics I bought a few weeks back. 

Among those books was the conclusion of the Fear State storyline by James Tynion IV in his final issues as the writer of Batman.  

Gotham City mayor Christopher Nakano, pushing a law & order agenda, makes a deal with industrialist Simon Saint and his organization known as the Magistrate and theirs Peacekeepers to bring order to Gotham through severe draconian methods.

No more mass executions by murder clowns on my watch, says Gotham's new mayor.

Which is not a bad goal to have. 

But getting there....

Before making Gotham City safe, Simon Saint is determined to make a bad situation worse but making Gotham's citizens even more afraid.  To that end, Saint is working with Dr. Jonathan Crane, the fear mongering Scarecrow his own damn self. 

What works about the Fear State storyline is how much it resonates with real world politics, the weaponizing of fear to control the populace. Think Donald Trump and others of his ilk who have parlayed fear into a political force. There is no appeal to be rise above fear but rather the rhetoric that you should be afraid and there is more to be afraid of.  

Granted, Gotham City is a place where there are mass executions by murder clowns so yeah, there is stuff to be afraid of. But Simon Saint's message is that Gotham is worse than you think it is and if you are scared, you're not scared enough.  

Another thing that works for this storyline is that Batman is fighting more than just stopping a murder clown for killing a bunch of people but rather fighting for the soul of this city he has sworn to protect. And he's doing it with diminished resources, without the unlimited wealth of Bruce Wayne and with his own mental capacities compromised by the torture he endured at the hands of the Scarecrow.

But there is a vast and varied network of allies who lend a hand. Barbara Gordon back in the role of Oracle, Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain both taking up the mantle of Batgirl, Harley Quinn working hard at her own redemption, new characters like Ghost Maker and Miracle Molly. 

And with gorgeous artwork by Jorge Jiminez,  the Fear State storyline was a visual spectacle.

Fear State marks the end for James Tynion IV as the writer of Batman who has delivered some solid epic tales during his run.

I still have Batman on my pull list and I am intrigued by what Joshua Williamson has planned with his return to Grant Morrison's Batman Inc concept.  

Batman by Jorge Jiminez

A Winter's Tale: The Aftermath

 As I wrote in last week's post, "we're looking at another winter weather system moving in this weekend that, as I write this, is expected to produce some mild flurries or will bury our corpses until the spring thaw."

Well, winter weather did hit us this past weekend and here is a look at it outside our front door at the Fortress of Ineptitude. 

We got about 4 inches of snow early Sunday morning followed by a continual glaze of sleet and ice to hold that snow in place. 

And a lot of wind though nowhere near as forceful as we endured a few weeks back.  

Three hours to our east, daughter Randie dealt with brutal cold temperatures but no snow, just freezing rain.  

Here at the Fortress,  we had more than sufficient supplies of food to sustain Andrea and I here at the Fortress and also the power stayed on so that was most fortunate as well.

Also always the case when I'm snowed in, even with sufficient amounts and diversity of things to eat, I had an incredible craving for a double pound cheeseburger from McDonald's.  

Working from home means no longer having the luxury of a snow day. Hazardous driving conditions don't mean squat when you don't have to drive to your job.  

I did have Monday off but that was due to it being MLK Day. My wife's job does not take time off for MLK Day.   

I spent my day off watching The Librarians and some Gilmore Girls (alas, no Law & Order) and reading one of the books that Andrea got me for Christmas. (The Stan Lee biography called True Believer of which there will be a blog post about sometime in the future.) 

Tuesday saw all our snow still frozen under an icy glaze but it was time for me to get back to work. With 2 hours of overtime no less.)  

With temperatures not expected to get much above freezing for the rest of this week,  our snow frozen under an icy glaze isn't going away for awhile.  

Which is a damn shame. 

'Cause I'm ready to kill for a double pound cheeseburger from McDonald's.

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you.

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Superman & Lois, Batwoman & Naomi

 

Superman & Lois

The old saying goes that "When momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" and this is never more true than the debut of the 2nd season of Superman and Lois.

It's been three months since Natalie Irons popped out of a pod escaping from an alternative Earth where that world's Lois Lane... and Natalie's mother...  was killed.

And Lois is irritable as fuck about it.

It stands to reason that seeing Natalie would mess with Lois's head in so many ways. We found out in season 1 that Lois had a miscarriage with that would've been her daughter who she and Clark were going to name "Natalie". 

Still, she is so cranky with everyone, with Chrissy at the Smalliville Gazette, with Clark, with Jordan and with Jonathan.

Well, Jonathan crosses a line when Lois catches her 15 year old son half naked in bed with his 15 year old girlfriend. Lois goes from cranky to super pissed off. 

(Also it appears unlike comic book Jonathan Kent, TV Jonathan is not going to be gay.)  

Things smooth out a bit for Lois when she finally agrees to a sit down chat with Natalie and we find out what's really eating at Lois, her lack of reaction to meeting Natalie the first time and the reminders of her own mother's perceived lack of empathy.  

Meanwhile, Superman's dealing with shit.

Sam Lane's replacement with the Department of Defense is not happy that Superman will not put American interests first ahead of the rest of the world.

Someone is psychically attacking Superman at random.

And somewhere, deep down in the Earth, below miles of rock, something is punching it's way out.

Comic book fans recognize what's going with that plot point: Doomsday is coming to Superman & Lois. 

Ooh boy!

Batwoman 

Oh man! Where to start?

Mary Hamilton continues to her descent into becoming Poison Ivy with the sociopathic murdering Alice as her only friend.  

(Alice killed Mary's mother back in season 1. Now Mary and Alice are all "Thelma and Louise".)  

Team Batwoman finds a potential cure in a serum used to incapacitate Pamela Isley, the original Poison Ivy, who is a desiccated comatose zombie buried deep beneath the Bat Cave where Batman trapped her years ago. 

What the what now?  

Getting to the Bat Cave is not so easy since Ryan Wilder lost Wayne Enterprises to Marcus Jett for... reasons.

Marcus Jett is sinking deeper into his own madness, becoming a sociopathic murdering prodigy of the Joker. 

And Rene Montoya has been harboring her own secrets, manipulating Batwoman in order to get close to her girlfriend Pamela and risk unleashing the original sociopathic murdering Poison Ivy on Gotham City once more. 

OK, Batwoman, I am trying to hang in there. 

But you're close to pushing me into becoming sociopathic murdering Bat viewer. 

Naomi  

Based on the comic book created by Brian Michael Bendis, David F. Walker and Jamal Campbell, this new CW series is about a teenage girl named Naomi McDuffie, super smart and weird in a good way who is a major fan girl of Superman.

Superman the comic book character. Unlike the comic book which was firmly rooted in the DC Universe, the TV series is set in a world much like our own where Superman is a comic book character. 

Until one fateful day he isn't.

One day in her home town of Port Oswego, Oregon, Superman and a blue skinned villain get into a brief but devastating brawl before disappearing. 

Superman is... real?  

Naomi misses the event, passing out. Something weird is happening to her. 

• Does she have super powers?
• Who is she really?
• Is the world around her to be trusted?

It does seem that a lot of people in Port Oswego know more than they are telling. Her adoptive parents seem particularly evasive.  

The first hour of Naomi is quiet and methodical as it introduces us to Naomi, her family and friends as well as some of the strangers lurking on the edges of Port Oswego. It is an interesting approach to launch an ostensibly Arrowverse show in a world where super heroes are not real but are comic book characters.  

It's been more than a few years since I was a teenage geek looking at life and wondering if there was more to the world than I was seeing. Sadly, the wonders of imagination did not manifest themselves in my world but they do for Naomi.

A lot of what makes this debut work hinges on the charm of Kaci Walfall as Naomi McDuffie, super smart and geeky but still manages to bridge into a world with more "normal" kids.  I wish I could've been more like Naomi at that age. 

The slow unraveling of her perception of the world around her is every comic book fan's dream and nightmare. Yeah, it would be cool to have super powers but we've read enough comic books to know this will not end well. 

Naomi is off to a strong and intriguing start and I hope it can sustain that quality through it's first season.

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Other TV stuff! 

By the time this posts, I will be 4 episodes into the 6th and final season of Justified. 

It's hard to avoid spoilers for a show that ended nearly a decard ago but I've done my part by avoiding Justified on TV Tropes and Wikipedia. 

But I guess I do know for sure Raylan Givens makes it out of Harlan County, KY for sure. 

Timothy Olyphant his own damn self is coming back as Givens for Justified: City Primeval, a new limited series for FX. 

His baby daughter down in Florida is now a teenager and Givens is trying to live his best life as a US Marshall and a dad down in Florida when pursuit of a violent, sociopathic fugitive takes him to Detroit. 

The press release describes Givens as "His hair is grayer, his hat is dirtier and the road in front of him is suddenly a lot shorter than the road behind."

It's good to know that my journey watching Justified has a new chapter to look forward to.  

Speaking of TV shows getting 2nd acts, the revival of the original and still best Law & Order is debuting February 24th with Sam Waterson set to return as District Attorney Jack McCoy and Anthony Anderson as Detective Kevin Bernard.  I've been glomming reruns of L&O in anticipation for the series return.

The rest of the cast is new. The new cast member I'm looking forward to most is Camryn Manheim as Lieutenant Kate Dixon, filling the spot for held by Lt. Van Buren overseeing the detectives in her squad, a role very similar to Manheim's role in the late and very lamented Stumptown. 

OK, that is that for today's touchbase. 

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here. 

The Greatest Conflict Of Our Time: Elmo Vs. Rock!

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day as we celebrate a great man who strived for peace and unity.

Sadly, peace and unity seem to be in short supply these days.

We are acrimonious to one another, divided by politics, by religion, by sex, by race. 

And there is no greater division, no more terrible acrimony that exists than the one that exists between Muppet and rock.  

Can we not see past our differences and seek peaceful coexistence? 

• Republican and Democrat?
• Black and white?
• Gay and straight?
• Muppet and rock? 

Can we not achieve that most special of goals, to be good to one another?

Cinema Sunday: Star Trek First Contact

Last year during the summer, I did six posts about the first six Star Trek movies featuring the cast of the original series.   

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture 
• Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan 
• Star Trek: The Search For Spock
• Star Trek: The Voyage Home
• Star Trek: The Final Frontier 
• Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country 

Now here in the winter of this new year of 2022, I'm posting the sequel, posts about the 4 films featuring the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation.  

Cinema Sunday will be Non Star Trek starting February 6th. 

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Should Star Trek even be in the movies?

Keith R.A. DeCandido lives, eats and breathes Star Trek. If he's not writing Star Trek novels and short stories, he's blogging about Star Trek.  Here's what Keith once posted on the subject of Star Trek movies:  

"As a general rule, I hate Star Trek movies. Trek is primarily about the exploration of the human condition, and it’s much harder to do that in a two-hour movie, especially in the post-Star Wars age of spectacle."

He goes on to add that First Contact "works, both as a spectacle and as a Star Trek story."

And he is right. 

The best bet for spectacle in the world of the Next Generation is going up against the implacable Borg. 

But for Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, going up against the Borg is personal. 

After staving off an attack by the Borg on planet Earth, a Borg orb goes into a time portal and Earth goes into a more Borgified place. 

The Borg have changed history. 

Picard orders the Enterprise into the portal. They'e gonna change it back. 

The pivotal moment in history under attack is April 4, 2063 when after Earth has been devastated by the nuclear holocaust of World War III (that's 41 years from now. Something to look forward to), Zefram Cochrane makes his historic warp drive test flight which results in first contact with an alien species.  

The Borg do some damage to Cochrane's base before the Enterprise arrives to make them bugger off. Still, enough damage has been done to make the date with history less of a sure thing. Riker and others from the Enterprise get to work to help make sure Zefram Cochrane makes his flight with destiny.

If they can keep him sober long enough. Zefram Cochrane the ideal of the 24th century is hardly living up the reality of the man who built his warp drive ship to get rich and get laid.  

Meanwhile, there's shit going down on the Enterprise. The Borg have established a foothold on the ship and slowly, piece by piece, person by person are turning the ship and crew into Borg. 

Picard's kind of being an asshole about it. The trauma he experienced at the hands of the Borg back in "The Best of Both Worlds" is really messing with his judgement.  The rest of the crew are too deferential to their captain of many years to confront him but Lilly, Cochrane's assistant from Earth, has no such issues and confronts Picard on his bullshit. 

Picard agrees to blow up the ship to stop the Borg. 

Thankfully there is a Borg Queen who has taken an interest in Data which provides a pivotal plot point to defeat the Borg without destroying the ship. 

Which is good because we did not want to lose the Enterprise for two movies in a row. 

Zefram Cochrane makes his first warp flight which leads to Earth's first contact with... Vulcans. 

OK, that is a very high level overview of a far more complex movie but the main thing is First Contact rocks (shit blows up) and rolls (Patrick Stewart acts the hell out of this thing).  

Odds and ends: 

After being written into the Deep Space Nine cast, Worf returns with the Defiant to help fight the Borg and gets to be his wonderfully gruff bad ass self. 

"Assimilate THIS!" 

Hell yeah! 

Deanna Troi gets drunk on tequila to find out that the tall, rowdy drunk man is Zefram Cochrane.  This sequence is one of the funniest things ever in Star Trek and Marina Sirtis really sells this.

TROI: Timeline! This is no time to argue about time. We don't have the time! ...What was I saying?

RIKER: You're drunk.

TROI: I am not.

RIKER: You are.

TROI: Look. He wouldn't even talk to me unless I had a drink with him. And then it took three shots of something called tequila just to find out he was the one we're looking for. And I've spent the last twenty minutes trying to keep his hands off me. So don't go criticizing my counselling techniques. ...It's a primitive culture. I'm just trying to blend in.

RIKER: You're blending all right.

TROI: I've already told him our cover story. He didn't believe me.

RIKER: Yes. We're running out of time. Now if we tell him the truth do you think he'll be able to handle it?

TROI: If you're looking for my professional opinion as ship's Counselor, ...he's nuts.

Dr. Beverly Crusher is overlooked but does get a cool bit where she employs an ingenious distraction against the attacking Borg when she activates the Enterprise Emergency Medical Hologram. 

Robert Picardo, the EMH from Star Trek Voyager, makes a clever appearance here. 

Also from Voyager is Ethan Phillips as a night club Maître D in the Dixon Hill holodeck program. 

About the Dixon Hill sequence...

Jean-Luc and Lilly are in super urgent hurry to stay ahead of the Borg while Picard programs the holodeck for a Borg trap. But they take time to change into period appropriate clothes for the 1930's set Dixon Hill program?  Really?

Jean-Luc Picard machine guns down a horde of Borg while wearing a white tux and it looks cool but strains logic to get him there. 

It's a bit of a misstep in a movie that otherwise hits all the right notes with a heady mixture of humor, drama, action and adventure. 

The introduction of the Borg Queen gives us a strong point of view character to represent the Borg, someone to be all sinister and slimy and exude all the evulz. The Borg Queen will be a significant player in future episodes of Voyager. 

This might be a good point to check in with Data.

DATA: Captain, I believe I speak for everyone here, sir, when I say ...to hell with our orders.

Data has more control over his emotion chip to the point where he can turn it off with a twitch of his head. Convenient.

The sequences where Data is held captive by the Borg Queen is riveting stuff as the BQ tries to use a human skin graft to Data's arm with all its attendant sensations to lure Data to the dark side of the Force...whoops! Wrong franchise. 

There's a moment when it looks like Data has succumbed to the evulz and given into the lure of the dark side of the...uh oh! Doing it again.  Anyway, Data saves the day in good ol' Next Gen fashion.  

Still there was a time when Data was tempted by the Borg Queen.  

PICARD: How long a time?

DATA: Zero point six eight seconds, sir. For an android ...that is nearly an eternity.

Between movies, Geordi LaForge gets cyborg eyes. After having been fucked with twice by aliens manipulating his VISOR (and resulting in the destruction of the Enterprise 1701-D), it's about time. The CGI of his eyeballs clicking and whirling about is pretty cool.  

What we see of the new Enterprise 1701-E looks pretty sleek,  a cool streamlined design. We don't get to spend enough time to appreciate the scale and nuances of the new ship despite a lot running around various corridors against the encroaching Borg. 

I agree with Keith R.A. DeCandido that Star Trek rarely works as a motion picture franchise and is better suited to episode television.

But Star Trek First Contact is a very viable exception to that view. 

Next week, Cinema Sunday continues our series with the Star Trek Next Gen movies as Worf sings Gilbert & Sullivan, Troi comments on the firmness of her breasts and Riker shaves his beard.

Next week we will experience Insurrection.  

Sorry! It's all down hill from here.