Your Friday Video Link: I Just Don't Care!

 

Your Friday Video Link for the last Friday of June...

Well...

I'm tired. 

And I just don't care anymore.

It's all just... 

I don't know...

a pile of....

you know...

BALLS!   

It's A Human Thing

Tomorrow is June 30th, the end of the month and the end of Pride Month for 2023. 

Normally a time of joyous celebration for the LGBTQ+ community this year it seemed like a call to arms. 

The voices of anger and fear rising up and passing actual laws restricting the rights of American citizens who happen to be gay or trans makes America seems like a war zone. 

I have written on this blog numerous times in support of the LGBTQ+ community. I personally cannot be found anywhere in that collection of letters. 

And I do not need to be to understand what is at stake.

To diminish the rights of any person out of fear or hate is wrong.

To diminish the rights of any person imperils the rights of everyone. 

Pride month is a time of caution, a call to be on guard.

Nothing less than the freedom of us all is at stake. 

Let's end this post on a quasi funny note.   

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took his Twitter feed  to share the story of how Garth Brooks was booed off the stage at the 123rd Annual Texas Country Jamboree in Hambriston, Texas.

Commenting on the negative reception of the erswhile ally Garth Brooks received, Abbott said “Go woke. Go broke. Good job, Texas.”

There are some problems with the story Abbott shared.

• Garth Brooks was NOT booed off any stage.
• There is no such event as the 123rd Annual Texas Country Jamboree
• And there is no town in Texas called Hambriston.  

The story Abbott linked to was from a satire website called The Dunning-Kruger Times, a  site that clearly states it’s part of “a network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery,” and adds: “If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined.”

The LGBTQ+ community maybe caught in a war zone of hate and fear but with fucking morons like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on the other side, well...

This could all work out OK after all.   

Pool Time

So Andrea and I spent some time at a local pool Sunday.

It is a matter of some small import that it got us out of the Fortress of Ineptitude for a Sunday afternoon. 

And kept me away from my Sunday afternoon nap.

Not to be confused with my beloved Saturday afternoon nap. 

Anyway, we went to the pool for the first time since 2019.

The pandemic put the kibosh on such things in 2020.

And despite being pumped full of every vaccine possible against COVID, Andrea was scared to go to the pool in 2021 and 2022. 

She decided this year, she would chance it. 

So far we don't have COVID.

We are still a bit achy 3 days out from our excursion. 

Andrea and I are not people who cope well with prolong exposure to the sun.

Andrea loads herself down with so much sun screen, she looks Cesar Romero as the Joker. And she still gets sunburned. 

It was a good day for relaxing in the pool. We went to a pool at a place called Bur-Mil Park which is a nice cosy facility with too many damn kids but we managed to avoid them mostly. 

In addition to our first time in a pool since 2019, it was our first time in a pool without our daughter Randie. Which was in the year 2000. 

Technically, Randie was there. Andrea was pregnant with her at the time.  

Anyway, not much to report really. Andrea and I went to the pool.

I bobbed contentedly in the cool water dappling in the warm summer sun.

I can't swim.

I merely bob. 

Which begins with "B" and that rhymes with "P" and that stands for pool.

Which is a stupid way to end a blog post.

But it's my blog so I can end how I want.

A scene from the Bur-Mil Park pool

Who Is Hunter Biden And Why Do We Care?

I had not planned on writing a post about Hunter Biden. But while writing a post about the tragic tale of the Titan submersible going down, somehow Hunter Biden came up. 

So who the hell is Hunter Biden and why do we care?  

Hunter Biden is the second son of U.S. President Joe Biden. 

Hunter has endured a years long struggle with drug and alcohol abuse, This is not a major revelation. Hunter addresses his downward spiral in his memoir, Beautiful Things. His father has acknowledged his son's struggles as well.  

Hunter has held several jobs in his lifetime:  

• attorney
• businessman 
• artist 
• private-equity fund investor
• lobbyist
• banker
• public administration official 

The Hunter Biden job that has aroused the interest of right wing conspiracy nuts is membership on the board of Burisma Holdings, one of the largest private natural gas producers in Ukraine, from 2014 to 2019. Donald Trump and his allies frequently lob accusations that Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine were part of a tangled web of corruption. 

Do I need to say that these accusations are not accompanied bv even a smidgen of anything resembling hard evidence?

But that doesn't stop Trump from continuing to accuse Hunter Biden of being up to sketchy shit.  

So while President, Donald Trump had a special prosecutor tasked with the job of investigating Hunter Biden for... reasons?

Trump's take was "We know Hunter Biden is guilty of something. Now go find out what it is and whatever is, put him in jail for it."

Five years of digging into every nook and cranny of Hunter Biden's life by a Trump appointee to find something, anything he was guilty of and what was achieved by all these efforts?  

On June 20, 2023, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to the following: 

• Two misdemeanor tax charges for filing two years of his taxes late. Note that the charges were not about Hunter Biden not paying his taxes. He did pay them, he was late.
• He also agreed to plead guilty to "illegally owning a gun while a drug user", because he knowingly denied drug use when applying for a gun purchase permit. The gun was never used in the commission of a crime. Hunter simply had the gun and was not supposed to have it. 

Sorry, Li'l Donnie and your sniveling sycophants but nothing here to put Hunter Biden in jail or incriminate Joe Biden.

Which led to cries from the right wing nuts of Hunter Biden getting special treatment. 

And to a certain extent, Hunter Biden did get special treatment of a sort. But not from his dad or to his benefit. 

Hunter Biden did stuff that was wrong but in both cases, there is usually not this much attention to such minor charges. The IRS has too many people to chase down who aren't paying their taxes at all to expend effort to look for those who are paying but paying late. 

The FBI and the ATF have more than enough to do with guns being used for murder and mass shootings. 

In both cases, the authorities involved would have been more lenient or even looked the other way if the defendant was someone other than Hunter Biden. 

Donald Trump and his minions whine incessantly about the weaponization of government against Li'l Donnie to take out a political enemy.  But what transpired in the investigation is a testament that weaponization of government can happen. And Donald Trump and his minions made it happen.   

This is what Trump and his cronies represent, the abuse of power for one's own gain and the for the downfall of another. 

And this is why we need to care about this.   

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Outlander and Star Trek - Strange New Worlds

Over the last couple of weeks, I've been catching up on the long awaited return of some TV friends.

Outlander begins season 7 where the 6th season left off: Claire in jail in Wilmingon NC awaiting trial for the murder of Malva Christie. A trial that will be a long time coming: the American Revolution has begun and little things like a working judiciary are on the back burner. 

Claire gets a reprieve from jail when the exiled colonial governor of North Carolina summons her to his ship off to tend to his ill and pregnant wife. From here, Claire is able to get a message to Tom Christie who in turn tells Jamie where is wife is being held.

Tom Christie's acting weird. 

It was his daughter who was murdered and yet he has taken it upon himself to be of service to the woman who is accused of killing her. My guess was that Tom knows Claire did not kill Malva because he was the one who committed the fatal deed. Tom is a religious extremist who saw Malva, unwed and pregnant, as an abomination against God or some shit like that. 

Jamie gets to the ship and after briefly reuniting with Claire confronts the governor to let Claire go. The governor isn't inclined to do Jamie any favors as Jamie seems to be avoiding taking sides in this revolution. 

It's Tom Christie who secures Claire's release by going out to the ship himself and confessing to Malva's murder.  

He also confesses he's loves Claire. 

Wait! Who loves who when how what now? 

Free of the charges against her, Claire and Jamie are finally together. Except...

There are holes in Tom Christie's confession. They are not satisfied he did in fact kill Malva.

God! I hate this show! 

Then episode 2 happens and...

ARRGH! 

We find out Malva was murdered by her brother Allan who was also the one who got her pregnant and...

What the fuck? Really! 

A well place arrow from Ian sends Allan on his way to hell. 

Also travelling...

Brianna and Roger welcome their baby daughter Amanda into the world. But Claire diagnoses her granddaughter with a heart condition that left untreated will surely kill her. There is a chance to save her with surgery. 

That can be performed in the 20th century. 

So Brianna and Roger with their son Jeremiah and their new baby daughter travel to Ocracoke Island where there's a time travel stone circle and they make the trip back to the future. 

Meanwhile back at Fraser's Ridge, thinks take a tragic turn when Wendigo Donner, another time traveller, makes trouble for Claire and Jamie and sets their house on fire.

Man! I really hate Outlander! 

And I gotta wait a week to find out what happens next!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is back for it's 2nd go round but episode 1 is light on Capt. Pike and 1st Officer Una. Una was arrested at the end of season 1 for her violating the prohibition against genetic modification and Pike is off looking for a good lawyer.

Episode 1 of season 2 finds Spock in charge. The Enterprise in space dock for repairs, upgrades and inspection so nothing is expected to come up.

Something comes up: a message of distress from La'an, the Enterprise's security chief who is on leave and seems to be in some trouble on a planet on the edge of Klingon space. 

Admiral April tells Spock not to answer that call.

Spock decides they are therefore going anyway and gives the word: it's time to steal the Enterprise. 

The plan gets undone almost immediately by Commander Pelia, a strange and quirky Starfleet instructor and engineer played by the strange and quirky Carol Kane. She knows a fake warp core breach when she sees one. But instead of ratting out Spock and the crew, she suggests a better way to get the Enterprise out of space dock. 

The episode is a high octane adventure/caper with lots of fightin' with Klingons and shit and eventually, Spock brokers a temporary peace between the Federation and the Klingons over barrels of blood wine. 

Spock gets a hangover. 

This is the episode which as that scene we saw in the previews: Spock's go to warp catch phrase is “I want the ship to go NOW!" 

There's some divide among the fandom if the catch phrase is perfect for Spock or lame. Me, I love the hell out of it. 

Oh and the Klingons are back to their forehead ridge look and not that white cadaverous look they had in season 1 of Discovery. 

In episode 2, "Ad Astra per Aspera" (Latin for "To the stars through hardship"), Pike gets that lawyer and Una goes on trial for just being herself. 

As even the prosecution must attest, Una has been an exemplary officer and is a positive asset to Starfleet. But she's being charged with the crime of being genetically modified. Which wasn't even her decision. She's from the planet Illyria where everyone is genetically modified. 

Una is not on trial for anything she's done. She's on trial for merely existing as the person she is. 

And if the parallels aren't clear to current assaults on LGBTQ+ community through laws attacking particularly trans gender people here in the 21st century, Una's lawyer Neera is prepared to bring them up. History is filled with laws against people for merely being: for being black, for being Muslim or Jewish, for being gay or trans. 

Neera then flips the Federation's own law book at them and the judges have no choice but to drop all charges against Una. 

This does fuck all for other Illyrians but at least this is one battle won and Una is at least one Illyrian who can serve openly in Starfleet. 

I hope Keith DeCandido is happy. He was kind of pissed about the lack of focus on Una in season 1 but hopefully this episode will make up for it.  We get a lot of back story about Una's childhood and some disturbing cracks in the otherwise utopia paradise that is life in the Federation. Apparently humanity will always find something to look down on other people about.

The 2nd episode is a bit talky but it's still powerful and does what Star Trek does best: using the science fiction of the future to hold up a mirror to our present selves.  

Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase will focus on Abbott Elementary and Community  

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.  

To the Depths

 There was a lot going on last week and I would be remiss if I didn't comment on the big story last week, the tale of the submersible Titan that took 5 people down into the icy depths of the northern Atlantic Ocean to see the wreckage of the Titanic.

 And didn't come back.  

The Titan wasn't the only thing heading for the depths. 

There was humor at the expense of the 5 lives at risk inside the Titan.  Look, I get that there's not a lot of love lost for billionaires doing frivolous things with their obscene amounts of wealth. But these were human lives regardless of the size of their bank accounts. 

At least one of them was the 19 year old son of one of the billionaires who according to the young man's aunt didn't really want to go. Hatred of billionaires aside, did that 19 year old deserve to die?   

The only humor I will indulge in is this: in the match up of Atlantic Ocean Vs. the Hubris of Man, the score is now 2 - 0 in favor of the sea. 

NewsNation reached for the depths of impropriety with it's countdown clock for the Titan's depleting oxygen supply.  Morbid much?  

The news came down on Thursday that the crew of the Titan was dead but not from the slow asphyxiation of dwindling air. It appears that within hours of the start of the Titan's dive, the submersible imploded due to pressure failure, the sheer weight of the ocean collapsing the sub like the proverbial tin can and killing all aboard immediately.  

Which leads us to the depths some Republicans tried to spin this is into a right wing conspiracy to protect Hunter Biden.

I am not kidding. 

So here's the deal. It seems the US Navy has super secret sonic equipment that detected the sound of an implosion from the general vicinity of the Titan's dive.  There was a very real expectation as early as Sunday that the Titan was destroyed and all hands were lost. But the Coast Guard elected to not release that information pending confirmation which it found on Thursday when the Titan's debris field.  

Meanwhile, there's some shit going down with Hunter Biden last week. (I will cover that in a forthcoming post.) 

So Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn (who was crazy long before Donald Trump entered the picture) wondered that it seemed to be a coincidence that the news about the fate of the Titan crew was held back until it could distract from news about Hunter Biden. 

Really. She went there. 

And Republicans found more depths to descend to. 

The Titan was destroyed because Ocean Gate was "woke". 

The CEO of Ocean Gate who built the Titan was once quoted as saying he didn't want just hire 50 year old white guys which Republicans took as prioritizing diversity over experience. 

Since a lot of concerns have been expressed by experts that Ocean Gate built the Titan on the cheap, I'm guessing the CEO's comment about not wanting to just hire 50 year old white guys was less a pledge to diversity and more of a cost cutting business guy looking to not actually want to pay what experienced 50 year old guys would cost.  

As the Titan and it's doomed occupants plunged to the depths of what would become a watery grave, was it necessary for others to plunge to their own depths of morbid humor and depraved quests for ratings and scoring partisan points? 

Cinema Sunday: Inside Daisy Clover and I Am Woman

 Before I kick off this week's Cinema Sunday, a quick word about TCM.  Per a statement from Warner Bros. Discover, the erstwhile Turner Classic Movies will continue as before with classic movies presented ad free with a stable of hosts to introduce them. 

This statement was made in the wake of deep cuts in the staff of TCM by WBD which made a lot of movie fans nervous. 

Life ain't easy for a cable channel these days with declining cable subscribers and more people turning to streaming. And WBD has shown a ruthless efficiency in slashing budgets and projects.  Were TCM's days numbered? 

For now assurances from Warner Bros. Discovery are that the changes made are only the background and viewers will see no change in the programming.

TCM has opened my eyes to movies that I otherwise would not have seen. The first of the two films covered in today's post I would not have sought out but TCM put it on the schedule, host Dave Karger dared me to watch it and so I did. 

For movie lovers, here's hoping WBD keeps it word and TCM continues to enjoy a long and entertaining life. 

Today's Cinema Sunday picks up a couple of music themed movies that didn't quite make the cut of Movie Musical May.  Both center on women who had to put up with all sorts of shit because the men around them wouldn't listen to them.

Our first movie is a 1965 drama called Inside Daisy Clover.

With a title like that, you might wonder, is this our first porno for Cinema Sunday?

No it's not and get your mind out of the gutter. 

Anyway...

In 1936 Santa Monica, Daisy Clover (Natalie Wood) is a tomboy, living with her eccentric mother in a ramshackle trailer. Dreaming of stardom, Daisy submits a recorded song to studio owner Raymond Swan.

Swan is impressed by what he sees and hears, a fresh faced ingenue he can mold and shape into his studio's next big star. He signs her to a five year contract and immediately gets to work on managing and controlling her life. He hides her mother away in a mental institution and creates a whole fabricated biography for his new star. The only thing that stays true is her name, Daisy Clover.

Daisy rebels against Swan's control by getting married to fellow actor Wade Lewis. Wade plays with Daisy until he gets bored and then abandons her for a new lover. Who may or may not be male.  

Brokenhearted over Wade's betrayal, Daisy falls into an affair with her studio Svengali, Raymond Swan.  

After the death of her mother and overcome with all of Swan's expectations of her, Daisy suffers a nervous breakdown. 

There's a scene with Daisy in a sound booth looping dialogue and vocals for the musical Raymond Swan has her starring in. Daisy's watching herself on screen smiling and dancing while she has repeat the same lines over and over and over because Swan wants to get the looping exactly right and it's enough to drive anyone batshit crazy. 

Unable to work, she spends her days in bed at her beach house where Raymond has had enough. While Daisy is totally shattered as a human being, Raymond still insists she returns to work, fulfill her contract and finish the damn movie. 

After that, who gives a damn! Raymond Swan will find another young girl and turn her into his next big star. 

Daisy Clover eventually gets out of bed... to kill herself by sticking her head in a gas oven. Which would work if not for the constant interruptions.  

OK, fine! Daisy decides to live. She leaves the beach house and also leaves the gas on. 

As she walks away on the beach, the house explodes. 

A passing fisherman asks what happened and Daisy replies, “Someone declared war.”

And that's.... the end.  

Man, Daisy Clover is treated like shit, ground up in the gears of the Hollywood star making machine. As Natalie Wood noted, "At every key moment of Daisy's life, she's alone!" Natalie Wood got her start as a child star and understands Daisy's pain.  

A brief note about Wade Lewis, played by Robert Redford. Homosexuality was still prohibited in 1965 by the Hollywood Hays Code expressly.  In the book the film was based on, Lewis is gay but apparently Redford reportedly insisted that his character have some interest in women. His bisexuality was only obliquely referenced in a few bits of dialogue. Despite these limitations, the film is generally recognized for one of the early depictions of a gay or bisexual character in American cinema who is not ashamed of his sexuality and does not commit suicide.

What saves this film is Natalie Wood's performance as Daisy Clover. Otherwise, Inside Daisy Clover feels a bit off, with campy musical numbers juxtaposed with Daisy's dark downward spiral. Is it an amusing satire of the worst excess of the Hollywood movie studio system or a disturbing portrait of a young women's descent into a mental health hell?  

Now we go from one movie where a young woman goes through hell because the manipulative men in her life will not fucking listen to her to the story of a real life performer who had to put up with similar obstacles.  

I Am Woman is a 2019 Australian biographical film about singer Helen Reddy starring Tilda Cobham-Hervey.   

This is not something I would seek out but some damn cable channel or another was running it one Sunday afternoon and I can't begin to explain why I was compelled to watch this. 

The film tracks Helen Reddy from her arrival in New York at age 24 with a 3 year old daughter, a suitcase, $230 and a dream of making a living as a singer. 

In the 1970s, Helen Reddy became one of she the biggest superstars of her time, with eight number one US singles, her own hour-long TV show and an icon of the 1970s feminist movement.  

There's a scene with a meeting with record executives hearing "I Am Woman" for the first time and not thinking it had any potential as a hit.

One executive (smarmily played by Chris Parnell) observes that the song is very much against men.  

Well, no it isn't. "I Am Woman" is very much an anthem extolling the strengths and virtues of being a woman. Leave to a man to think that "pro-woman" means "anti-man".  

There is at least one man who is listening to Helen and it's her husband and manager. The pair along with friends stage a stealth campaign to bolster "I Am Woman", working the phones to make requests to a variety of radio stations to push the single up the charts.  

"I Am Woman" becomes the anthem of the feminist movement. The film shows excerpts from the news of both women seeking to bolster the rights of women and other strident conservative voices seeking to hold those women back.  

The progress (and it's subsequent sad lack there of) of the Equal Rights Amendment is a running thread through the movie. 

Unfortunately, by the 1980's, Helen's husband has spiraled into a major cocaine habit and by the next decade, she is flat broke. 

She quits the music scene and falls into obscurity with a teaching job until she is reluctantly convinced to appear at a women's march to perform "I Am Woman" one more time.  

I Am Woman follows the basic pattern of the superstar biopic: starts off young and with nothing, achieves some success against various obstacles, takes off really big but then some bad shit happens that brings the star down low but ends with a moment of triumph. It's a formula but it works and Tilda Cobham-Hervey deserves a lot of credit for making us care and empathize with Helen Reddy along her journey.  

OK, that is that for this week's Cinema Sunday. I'll be back next week because I have seen a lot of movies and by golly, I'm gonna write about 'em all. 

Songs For Saturday: Let's Get Classical

Next week, Songs for Saturday kicks of a 9 week summer series with songs in alphabetical order. Since those tunes will mostly be rock and pop, this week's Songs For Saturday is going classical. 

Or classical-ish.

Here is violinist Sarah Chang (who I have seen perform in concert) with a selection for Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons".

Next we have Valentina Lisitsa performing Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata, III Presto Agitato".

And in the realm of "classical-ish", here is Brooklyn Duo with "Paint It Black".  

And rounding out our playlist is a performance of Murray Gold's "I Am the Doctor" from Doctor Who.

Next week we kick off the Songs For Saturday Summer Road Trip, 27 songs over 9 weekly posts.  

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

Your Friday Video Link: A Star Trek Technobabble Rap!

 

Your Friday Video Link this week is a Star Trek technobabble rap! 

Take it away, Reina del Cid!

Homework

Like a lot of people, I work from home.  When I first started working from home, I didn’t exactly care for it.  I liked the clear divide of work life from not work life and that divide was work life was over there in that office and not work life was over here at home.

My first impulse if left to my own devices is to take a nap. It’s easier to fight that impulse when the distance to my bed can be measured in miles rather than in feet.  

But exclusively working from home for the last few years, I am hard pressed to imagine doing this any other way.  I don’t miss the commute or the gas bills. I certainly not spending money on breakfast and lunch like I did when I worked in the office.

A lot of other Americans have made similar calculations on the benefits of working from home.  But as the COVID pandemic emergency recedes into the past, there are some employers who exerting a lot of pressure to get people back into the office. 

• Jamie Dimon declared that working from home "doesn't work for those who want to hustle."
• Elon Musk demanded that employees commit to an "extremely hardcore" schedule consisting of "long hours at high intensity."
• Steven Rattner railed against working from home as evidence that America has "gone soft."

Notice none of that applies to any actual productivity.  Me, I am as productive working from home as not, perhaps more so. Knowing that no one can actually see me doing my job, I tend to stay logged in and ready to work. It’s not like I can get away with much. Everyone in the modern work environment is monitored by some kind of time or work flow management system. 

But working from home gets in the way of some traditional management power tactics.  Like showing up early to make people who show up on time feel like they’re late.  Staying late to make people feel guilty for leaving on time.  

Quite frankly, if I was working in the office, I might be less productive. If I was there, I might be hanging over a cubicle wall flirting with a co-worker. 

Yes, I can flirt. I mean, I’m not going  to get anywhere with it.  I’m old and I’m married.  When I was young and not married and desperately needed it to work (I mean, NEEDED IT), I had no idea how to flirt. 

But I digress….

Joan Williams at the University of California College of the Law had this to say: "People like Elon Musk, everything is a masculinity contest, and the workplace is the key arena. They have no desire to continue to work from home. This is not about workplace productivity. It's about masculinity.”

Williams came up with the concept 30 some years ago of what American management considers the ideal worker: "The ideal worker is seen as someone who starts to work in early adulthood and works full time, full force for 40 years without a break, taking no time off for childbearing, child-rearing, or really anything else."

As outdated and sexist as that might seem, it's still the mindset of management 3 decades later. And by God, it's not enough to look at the metrics to see if you have your nose to the grindstone all day, they want to SEE you in PERSON wearing out that proboscis on the grindstone. 

Because that is what REAL MEN do!  

Even if working from home is ultimately beneficial to a company's bottom line. 

But what the fuck does Elon Musk know about running a company anyway. Twitter has lost 25% of it's value since Musk acquired it. 

______________________

Blog bidness: taking Thursday off. Back on Friday with Your Friday Video Link.  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Superman & Lois, Wheel Of Fortune, The Librarians & Doom Patrol

Today’s Tuesday TV Touchbase checks in Superman & Lois.  The series returns tonight for the first of season 3’s last two episodes wherein we finally meet Lex Luthor.

 

Episode 11 which aired a few weeks back provided a quasi-season finale of sorts as Bruno Mannheim was arrested and his wife Peia died when her sonic powers went out of control.  And Lois had a double mastectomy.

 

The season long storyline of Lois Lane’s battle with breast cancer has been particularly compelling with Elizabeth Tulloch conveying Lois’ emotional roller coaster of strong defiance and staggering weakness as she endured her chemotherapy and the knowledge this would all end with a mastectomy.  Lois dealt with multiple blows to her role as a wife, a mother, an investigative reporter, her identity as a woman. This storyline has been handled with respect and sensitivity and deserves to be recognized and hopefully not dismissed because it happened in a super hero show.

 

The news came down last week that Superman & Lois has been renewed for a 4th season on the CW but with conditions. The season will be 10 episodes instead of 13 and most of the cast is being pared down to recurring, leaving only Clark, Lois, Jordan, Jonathan and the newly introduced Lex Luthor as the main cast.

More on Season 3 and a look ahead to season 4 in a future Touchbase.  

 

Also news last week was that Pat Sajak will be leaving as host of Wheel Of Fortune after the completion of the 41st season which will commence this fall. The news was not entirely surprising; Pat's been dropping hints for awhile now that we was close to the end of his time on the show.  Still, Pat Sajak is such an integral part of Wheel's identity which is to be expected after 4 decades.

There was an episode a few weeks back where announcer Jim Thornton subbed in for a segment (apparently a contestant professed to be a big ol' fan of Jim). Jim performed competently but it was a bit awkward. Meanwhile, Pat was in the announcer's booth filling in for Jim very smoothly and professionally. 

Pat is going to be hard to replace and yes, the speculation is running rampant on who that will be.  It is way too early for that but that doesn't stop people from speculating. The early front runner in the speculation derby is Ryan Seacrest. I'm personally partial to John Michael Higgins (host of the game show America Says on the Game Show Network). As long as Sony doesn't pull some kind of "series of guest hosts" crap. Jeopardy's  guest host project was mostly an embarrassing debacle.  

More on Wheel of Fortune in a future Touchbase.  

 

Andrea and I have just finished season 1 of The Librarians.  Andrea has taken to this series as I thought she would. I was a bit concerned how she would react to the transition from the movies with their focus on Noah Wylie as Flynn Carsen to a totally new ensemble picking up the baton with the TV series. But she's caught up with it just fine and Flynn shows up enough to satisfy any Noah Wylie cravings or whatever. 

In the season 1 finale directed by Jonathan Frakes, the evil Dulaque (slitheringly sinister as played by Matt Frewer) has killed his own second in command Lamia (played by Lesley Ann Brandt who was Maze on Lucifer) to gain access to the mythical but very real Loom of Fate which he then cuts, creating a splintered time line with each member of the Librarians team achieving different destinies. Flynn never answered his summons to the Library from the first movie. He's super smart but useless in a fight. And each time line, no matter if Jacob, Ezekiel or Cassandra is THE Librarian, Eve Baird dies.  Which is kind of disturbing to Eve Baird who is bouncing from time line to time line.

It's all very Doctor Who but with magic instead of science. 

Oh and we get John Larroquette as Jenkins in a cool sword fight and the revelation that Jenkins was Sir Galahad, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table.  

We'll be starting up season two next week. I am thinking ahead to what I will introduce Andrea to when we finish up all 4 seasons of The Librarians. I'm thinking maybe The Orville?  

 

I’m almost through season 2 of Doom Patrol. As much as I admire this show,  I’m not sure Doom Patrol is good for my mental health. 

The various members of the Doom Patrol remain as depressingly messed up as always and without Alan Tudyk's Mr. Nobody periodically popping in to remind us that it's just a show on a streaming service and we really should just relax, it's all a bit unrelenting. 

There is some forward momentum with Rita Farr. Instead of devolving into a puddle of protoplasmic goo at the first sign of stress, she's slowly gaining a modicum of control over her shape shifting abilities. And in turn is also growing in her confidence to actually make use of her powers and those of the Doom Patrol to perhaps make a difference.  

Meanwhile, this sad sack team of heroes needs some kind of purpose to counter their very depressing lives. 

 

Next week, the Tuesday TV Touchbase catches up to the returns of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Outlander.  

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.  

And Nothing Bad Ever Happened Again

Today is the federally recognized day commemorating Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Emancipation Day. It is the oldest known commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States and has been an African American tradition since the late 19th century. 

 

On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring, "all persons held as slaves within any States, or designated part of the State, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free."

 

Which was the end of slavery and racism and nothing bad ever happened again.

 

Except….

 

June 19, 1865, two and half frickin’ years later, Union Army Gen. Gordon Granger led  Union soldiers to Galveston, Texas with news that the war was over and the slaves there were free.

 

OK, NOW racism is over forever and nothing bad ever happened again.

 

Except….

 

Everything else.

Nearly 200 years after Lincoln freed the slaves, we're still having to schlep ourselves out to somewhere in this country because someone is being denied the basic rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness because of the color of their skin. 

It's the 21st century and we should be better than that. We are not.  

Just last week I read of a young African American couple who are having a house built and went out to go see the progress on their new home. Long story short, the couple ended up in handcuffs after a nosy neighbor called the cops after seeing a couple of black people poking around where they ain't got no business being.  

It all got sorted out when the couple's realtor came out and convinced the police their story was true and the construction site was indeed their home. 

Welcome to the neighborhood,folks.

This is not a tale from 1953 or 1963 but from 2023. 

That is not right. 

But this is why remembering Juneteenth is important, to remember that for whatever gain is achieved, there is still one more damn battle to fight.  

Certain conservatives are adverse to learning about race in America because they want you to think that Lincoln freed the slaves and BAM! Life has been good ever since. 

Juneteenth is a stark reminder that the battle for freedom and equality is ongoing. Whenever anyone is left out of the equation of "freedom and justice for all", when anyone's rights are infringed for the color of their skin or for any other reason, the work is never done.  

 

Cinema Sunday: Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse

 

OK, it's been a few years since Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse came out. Nearly 5 years since I posted about that movie on the blog back on December 26, 2018, 

Today's Cinema Sunday turns it's attention the long awaited and much anticipated sequel Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse.

SPOILERS! 

Despite the prominent placement of Miles Morales on the movie poster, one might think that Across the Spider Verse is going to be all about Gwen Stacy with the movie beginning with a long extended sequence focusing on Gwen on the Earth where she’s Spider-Woman and is under the weight of her guilt about the death of her best friend Peter Parker.  

Seems picked on Peter Parker decided to get his own super power stuff going on and scienced up a potion that turned him into a giant lizard. Spider-Woman and the giant lizard get into some hard core violence which leads to the death of the lizard who then transforms back into Peter Parker, much to Gwen’s shock and horror.  

Gwen’s father, a police captain, sees Spider-Woman standing over a dead Peter Parker and assumes she murdered him.

Well, that some awkward right there.

And dealing with all this spider shit alone, Gwen really misses Miles Morales.

Meanwhile, it seems the holes in the multiverse are not quite as closed as everyone may have thought at the end of the last movie.  Gwen is joined by two other Spider people who are chasing down a Vulture  from another universe.  These Spiders are part of a a group of Spider people who patrol the multiverse and put right what goes wrong. 

When an encounter with Capt. Stacy goes horribly off the rails, Gwen elects to join them. 

And NOW we pick up with Miles Morales.  It’s been 5 years since Into the Spider Verse but it’s been one year since Miles got bit by a radioactive spider and took up the mantle of Spider-Man.  He’s juggling life as a gifted student and as a super hero and…

Not exactly a spoiler alert: it ain’t going great.  Mom and Dad are perpetually perturbed and perplexed by Miles’ behavior. 

Miles is working double time trying to be the gifted student his parents and everyone else expects him to be with the good grades to match. 

He's also dealing with stuff as Spider-Man that his parents and everyone else have NO idea about. 

Such as super villains like the Spot. Yep, that's what he calls himself: The Spot. OK, dumb name but he does have cool powers that enables him to move across dimensions and stuff. 

And dealing with all this spider shit alone, Miles really misses Gwen Stacy.

Also not exactly a spoiler alert: Gwen has popped into Miles' Earth. Yeah, she misses Miles but she is there on business for the Spider Society. She's tracking a multiversal anomaly who turns out to be the Spot.  

Miles winds up following Gwen as her pursuit of the Spot takes her across the multiverse with encounters with other Spider people such as the Spider Man of India, Pavitr Prabhakar.  

During an epic throw down with the Spot, Miles has a vision of his father, now a police captain, being killed by the Spot. 

Also Miles saves the police captain father of Pavitr Prabhakar's girlfriend. 

Spider Man Miguel O'Hara, head of the Spider Society, is super pissed. Miles saved someone who was supposed to die and now the multiverse is coming apart.  

Miguel O'Hara also tells Miles his father is doomed to die and there's not a damn thing he can do about it. 

Miles disagrees.  

Chaos ensues as Miguel O'Hara sends what seems like an infinite number of Spider people in pursuit of Miles Morales to stop him from returning to his Earth and saving his father.  

1) Miles gets back to his Earth except, no, not quite HIS Earth. He's captured and winds up in the clutches of The Prowler who is really...   well, this can't be happening?

2) Gwen goes back to her Earth and actually reaches a resolution of sorts with her father and decides to assemble a team of Spiders to save Miles and stop the increasingly bat shit crazy...

3) Miguel O'Hara who is on the correct Earth for Miles Morales even if Miles is not as the Spot menacingly draws closer to killing Miles' dad and...

The tension is building. 

And building! 

And...

And....

TO BE CONTINUED! 

...

...

What?

WHAT THE WHAT?!?!

To be...

WHAT?!?!?   

Yep, this movie does not end. 

But... damn! 

This movie works on so many level. Kick ass action, comedy, drama, tragedy. 

For all the multiversal insanity of multiple Spider people, what drives this movie, what anchors it are the emotional beats. Miles Morales is torn in so many directions and we feel his pain. And we feel the pain that Gwen Stacy experiences. 

For all the color and splashy effects and just plain weirdness going on, Spider-Man - Across the Spider-Verse makes you feel things. 

And I hate that. Stupid movie, making me feel things.

And I gotta stay alive until March 2024 to see Part 2?

Well... damn! 

Songs For Saturday: Hayley Westenra

 

I realized recently it's been awhile since I've listened to any Hayley Westenra.

So this week's Songs For Saturday presents Hayley Westenra with her cover of Kate Bush's "Wurthering Heights". 

Next up is Hayley with "River of Dreams" adapted from the Winter section of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons.

Finally, Hayley is joined by her younger sister for "Across the Universe of Time". 

Coming up in two weeks, a big Songs For Saturday event kicks off with the Summer Road Trip: 9 posts over 2 months, 27 songs!

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

Your Friday Video Link: Brad Williams For Father's Day

This Sunday is Father's Day so Your Friday Video Link is a bit from stand up comic Brad Williams about his dad.  

Brad is a little person and yeah, he get's a lot of mileage out of day. One day I need to post his description of a prank he played on John Stamos with a little help from Bob Saget.

It's funny because Stamos has a phobia about little people.

Saget thought it was fucking hilarious.

Anyway, today, we've got Brad's observations about his father.

The Return of the Internet Is For Corn or This Blog Post Is Shucked!

Way back in 2013 when this blog was a wild dystopian landscape of really stupid ideas, I ran a series of posts known as...

THE INTERNET IS FOR CORN!

The premise was at best flimsy, at worst just utter nonsense but I got about a dozen posts out of it. 

Bases on the song "The Internet Is For Porn" from the Broadway puppet show called "Avenue Q", I would post a picture of some ears of corn, attached some song lyrics to suggest the corn was singing and I looked upon this insanity, called it "The Internet Is For Corn" and decided, eh, it'll do. 

Today I bring back THE INTERNET IS FOR CORN!

Watching the Tony Awards Sunday night, Andrea and I were introduced to the wonder that is Shucked!

Shucked is a 2022 musical with music and lyrics by Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally, and a book by Robert Horn. 

In the rural Midwestern community of Cobb County, Maizy and Beau are forced to postpone their wedding on account of corn blight.

Maizy leaves town to try and find a way to save their corn from the corn blight but finds a nefarious con man who ain't up to no good for Cobb County.

Below is the clip from the Tony Awards show as the cast of Shucked perform and tell you their story.

I'll go ahead and say it: It's kind of corny.   

And that my friends is the cause for the return of...

THE INTERNET IS FOR CORN!

And that my friends is that. Thank you and remember to be good to one another.  

And make life "amaizing"!