Saturday was another round of "No Kings" rallies around the United States and the world to protest Donald Trump and the general fuckiness of his fucking fuckery.
Gee! Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said we're in the middle of a Golden Age brought to us by his lord and savior Donald Trump.
Johnson said that before giving Trump a golden idol called the "America First Award" 'cause nothing appeases Li'l Donnie like getting awards.
What pray tell do we have to bitch about?
Let's see what the "No Kings" website has to say.
Masked secret police terrorizing our communities.
An illegal, catastrophic war putting us in danger and driving up our costs.
Attacks on our freedom of speech, our civil rights, our freedom to vote.
Costs pushing families to the brink.
Trump wants to rule over us as a tyrant.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson called the protests “Trump derangement therapy sessions" and “the only people who care are the reporters who are paid to cover them.”
So not that big of a deal, I gather?
Let's take a look around the country and see what's up.
WARNING: Maureen O’Toole of the National Republican Congressional Committee had this to say: “These Hate America Rallies are where the far-left’s most violent, deranged fantasies get a microphone!"
So CAUTION: the following may contain disturbing images of hate filled violence.
Saint Paul, Minnesota
The Memorial Bridge in Washington DC
"No Kings" Take Manhattan
Here's more from New York City
An opinion being expressed in Houston Texas
Atlanta, Georgia
Kansas joins in on the fun!
Boulder,CO
Topeka KS includes CATS against Trump!
And DOGS come out to join the protests in California
Minneapolis MN
A No Kings protest in Palm Beach FL outside of Mar-A-Lago? Fuck Yeah!
Back In Washington DC
It seems White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson may have a point.
Nothing to see here.
All sarcasm aside, there was A LOT to see here with an estimated total 8 million people showing up for "No Kings" rallies, larger than the numbers from the two previous sets of rallies.
Which stands to reason as things seem to have only gotten worse. Since the last round of "No Kings" rallies, der Führer has ramped up his strident demands to curtail voting rights by pushing Congress to pass the so called SAVE Act and unilaterally sent American men and women into harm's way to START a war he cannot properly explain that has only made the world more unstable and unsafe.
And the snivelling syncophants who surround him have only gotten even more intense in their cultish supplication to his every whim and appeal to his fragile ego. Like that damn "America First Award" that Mike Johnson presented to Trump to appease his desperate need for flattery.
Trump wants act like a king and his minions are more than prepared to treat him like one.
At least 8 million people disagree with that.
Hopefully that disagreement will express itself at the polls this November and we can finally hold Donald Trump's fat corrupt ass to account.
Welcome to This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sports by a guy who does not care or know much about sports.
But I do know this: basketball games are 40 minutes long.
Which is an important piece of information.
In today's NCAA Men's Tournament Game between Duke and UConn, Duke was winning after 39 minutes and 50 seconds.
Which is great!
But...
What's that important piece of information?
Let's say it together: All bubble-blowing babies will be beaten senseless by every able-bodied patron in the bar.
NO! Not THAT!
Say THIS with me: basketball games are 40 minutes long.
So....
At 39 minutes and 50 seconds, Duke had the ball and a 2 point lead, 72-70. All they had to do for 10 seconds was keep the ball away from UConn and Duke wins and advances to the Final Four.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
This game is pretty much over, ain't it?
Except....
Basketball games are 40 minutes long.
And UConn steals the ball.
And some UConn player named Braylon Mullins heaves a desperation shot at the basket. Oh, there's NO way that ball is.....
It went in?
Nooooo! It didn't! It couldn't!
IT DID?!?!
IT WENT IN!
For 3 points!
UConn is up 73-72.
What the unholy hell was that?
I mean, 39 minutes and 50 seconds and... and... and...
Damn it! Basketball games are 40 minutes long.
Now if there is a sense of deja vu in this post, well, it's because the same goddam thing happened back in February when Carolina snatched victory from the jaws of defeat with a last second basket from Scott Trimble.
I had hoped today's Star Trekking post would be of a more celebratory nature as I posted about this remarkable era of peak Star Trek creativity.
But I am writing this post under a shadow, a shadow of doubt, of uncertainty and regret.
Last week, Paramount announced that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy would NOT be renewed after it's 2nd season. A 2nd season that has been shot and according to scuttlebutt from series insiders ends on a cliffhanger.
While we face the prospect of life in Star Trek's 32nd century may end unresolved, there is the matter of life in Star Trek's 23rd century with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds coming to end after it's 4th and 5th seasons, seasons that have been shot and completed.
For the first time 2017, there is no Star Trek project happening right now.
2017 was when Alex Kurtzman and his production company Secret Hideout took the reins of the Star Trek franchise and gave us a lot of new Treks to go on.
2017–2024Star Trek: Discovery
This show did not get off to a good start. What we got was another goddam prequel nobody wanted, redesigned Klingons that nobody liked and a dark grim tone that antiethical to what Star Trek was all about.
The show improved a bit with Anson Mount's charming Capt.Christoper Pike taking command in season 2 but it was the jump to the 32nd century in season 3 where Discovery really began to shine and it became to my way of thinking the epitome of what Star Trek is all about: knowledge over power, wisdom over force, compassion over hate.
Unfortunately, the damage done by the 1st season lingered.
And sadly trolls were out in force for a show that put the focus on a capable black woman, especially when she made it to the captain's chair.
Purveyors of hate will be a constant scourge throughout this era of Star Trek.
2018–2020Star Trek: Short Treks
This project of short stories really opened up the world of Star Trek to new possibilities.
And haters are gonna hate. "The Trouble with Edward" where tribbles overwhelm a starship is too silly and doesn't belong in Star Trek. Well, screw you! I thought it was a lot of fun and it's my 2nd favorite short trek.
My favorite is "Q&A" which is just Spock (Ethan Peck) and Lt. Una/Number One (Rebecca Romijn) getting stuck in a turbolift and have to talk to each other.
2020–2023Star Trek: Picard
OK, this is more like it with a return to "present" of the Star Trek universe and following up on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Patrick Stewart agreed to return to the role of Jean-Luc Picard on the understanding this would not just be some kind of nostalgic Next Gen reboot. And I get where he was coming from. But fans wanted some hooks into our Next Gen history.
Season 1 gave us fans some Next Gen era love with the return of Wil Riker, Deanna Troi and from Star Trek: Voyager, the return of Seven of Nine as a space pirate.
Season 2 was a travesty. 'Nuff said.
Season 3 went full in on nostalgia including a return of the freaking Enterprise 1701-D. The finale of season 3 was a genuine thrill ride and set the stage for continuing adventures.
That we may not get. Despite fan demand for a Star Trek: Legacy series, nothing has come of it. (And may not will but that's for the end of the post.)
2020–2024Star Trek: Lower Decks
Yeah, this was kind of a tough sell with a hyperkinetic animated comedy which kind of grated on my nerves but as the seasons progressed, I came to appreciate how much this show was a heartfelt love letter to the fans.
And it helped that the hyperactive nature of season 1 did settle down a bit to provide for nuanced character driven stories.
2021–2024Star Trek: Prodigy
As a production done to present Star Trek to the Nickelodeon audience, this show was definitely not made with me in mind. But over time the annoying kid characters became less annoying and the connections to larger Star Trek lore made this a fundamentally significant show.
A sign of Paramount's lack of respect for the franchise, they cancelled Prodigy after one season with NO plans to release the 2nd completed season. Netflix picked up the show and released the 2nd season.
This may be a harbinger for the future but again, that's for the end of the post.
2022–2027Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
After Anson Mount's very charming turn as Capt. Christopher Pike in season 2 of Discovery with brief but enticing appearances of Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Spock, we HAD to have more.
OK, haters, we DARE you to hate on this one, original recipe Enterprise adventures exploring...well, you know, it's right there in the title.
Hey, trolls! It's a WHITE MAN in the captain's chair. Are you happy now?
Even though the show is designed to appeal to classic Trek tropes, SNW has pushed some boundaries:
Spock has a girlfriend and it's Nurse Christine Chapel?
Not all challenges to the Star Trek: The Original Series status quo have worked. Yeah, I'm talking about the Gorn.
2025 Star Trek: Section 31
The premise of the project: we have Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh under contract to do a Star Trek thing? So let's do a Star Trek thing.
Of all the projects made in the Secret Hideout era, this movie is the only one I would write off as a complete misfire.
2026–2027Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
We're jumping back to the 32nd century with perhaps Secret Hideout's most daring Star Trek concept about young people in space school. Can we do any episode around a prank war run amuck? Yes, we can!
Boy were the trolls out in force for this one with so much for offended white boys to rail against.
Another damn Trek show with a woman in charge?
And a gay Klingon?
And a big bad in Nus Braka who was clearly a repudiation of Donald Trump?
Paramount/Skydance owner David Ellison saw his best bro was being made fun of and naturally Starffleet Academy had to die.
As I wrote last week, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was not created with me in mind (but I enjoyed it anyway) but with an eye on the next generation of Star Trek fans.
In his Dropping Names podcast, Jonathan Frakes chatted with screenwriter John Logan about the importance of bringing Star Trek to a new, young audience.
By the way, Dropping Names with Jonathan Frakes and Brent Spiner is my current favorite podcast.
With Alex Kurtman's contract with Paramount to produce Star Trek ending this year. the franchise stands at a crucial crossroads.
With a Trump supporting executive in charge of the studio, a progressive thing like Star Trek may not be a priority.
And to the trolls and haters, Star Trek has ALWAYS been progressive. No less than Gene Roddenberry envisioned a future that repudiates hate and ignorance and supported those three words you hate so much, diversity, equity and inclusion.
She may have been just answering the damn phone in a mini-skirt but Roddenbery put a black woman on the bridge when the network didn't want her there.
As much as you may want to remember Capt.Kirk as some kind of kick ass man of action, time and time again Kirk turned to curiosity and compassion as guiding principles.
If you want a show that promotes "might makes right", watch Pete Hegseth's press conferences. That attitude was never what Star Trek was about in the 1960's and it's sure as hell not what it's about now.
Another factor working against Star Trek is Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Why hassle with Star Trek when you're taking over a studio that has access to Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and DC Comics?
Whatever the future may bring, I will assess IMHO that Alex Kurtxman's Secret Hideout era has been a success with me. Not all projects have landed as well as I would've hoped but I appreciate they were there to actually try and keep Star Trek fresh and relevant.
It was an era that built up on the foundations of the past while expanding the mythos outward and forward. There were steps that were stumbles but mostly those were surpassed by confident strides to something new and interesting.
The odds seem against it at the moment, I must confess, but I do hope Star Trek has a strong future and I would not object if Kurtzman and company continue to guide it.
I had my laptop perched on my lap while watching the Duke/St. John's basketball game and I was heading down the homestretch on a Movie Time blog post about a movie that was released March 27, 1937 called The King and the Chorus Girl.
To be honest with you, I saw this movie about a year ago on TCM and I was struggling to remember exactly what the hell went down.
There was a king.
And a chorus girl.
That much I knew.
Oh, and the screenplay was by Groucho Marx.
Yeah, that Groucho Marx.
Despite writing from one of the Marx Brothers, I recalled the movie wasn't really that funny or good.
But damn it, I was getting a blog post out of it.
But while typing, I notice my screen was blank.
All the text I was writing as well as pictures and graphics were gone.
I have no idea what key stroke I made to cause that to happen and no efforts on my part were successful in retrieving anything I had created.
Apparently typing on my laptop on top of my lap was a bad idea.
Hey, what happened with the Duke/St. John's game?
<INSERT SCORE HERE>.
...
Psst! Hey....
It still says....
<INSERT SCORE HERE>
....
Whoops! Sorry.
After putting me through 2+ hours of this is too damn close, Duke pulled out the win over St. John's, 80-75.
My favorite You Tube resource for all things comic books is Sasha Wood and Casually Comics.
Her particular interest in silver and bronze age comics and the bizarre minutae found in those classic stories makes for some interesting and funny analysis of this beloved medium.
Your Friday Video Link post today spotlights Sasha's take on some specific oddball topics.
Like Cyclops of the X-Men using his deadly dreadful powers to cut cake!
What was Hawkeye's purpose in the Avengers?
Apparently to bitch at Captain America every damn minute. Sasha explores what that's like.
Over at DC, Sasha examines one of Batman's most unusual villains, the Eraser.
Sasha Wood pokes around at the first adventure of the Elongated Man as the newest member of the Justive League of America. The JLA vs. creatures made of .... putty!
One last video where Sasha has a personal annoucement.
I was saddened to hear that artist Sam Kieth passed away last week. He was 63 years old.
I'm gonna be 63 this April so when someone my own age dies, well, it does make you think.
Sam Kieth (and no that is not a typo, the "I" does come before the "E") drew the first 5 issues of Neil Gaiman's Sandman.
I'm not sure why Sam Kieth was only on Sandman for so short a time but I imagine the rigors of producing this detailed artwork on a monthly basis may have been a bit much.
But those 5 issues made quite an impression and set the tone for all the other artists who followed him.
Art from Sandman#4
Sam produced art for Batman including several covers and some interior art.
Sam Kieth also brought this distinctive style to Marvel Comics, illustrating Wolverine.
Sam's most notable work on his creator owned series in produced for Image Comics, The Maxx which was also turned into an animated series that ran on MTV.
Maxx is a vagrant, a "homeless man living in a box" who is helped by a social worker named Julie.
In an alternate reality, Maxx has a monstrous powerful form where he serves as protector of another version of Julie known as the Leopard Queen.
Mike Sterling described the series as "a tale about trauma, abuse, mental health, and the very nature of imagination and reality. It was weird, it was funny, it was emotional, and it was unique."
Unique is a most apropos word for Sam Kieth's body of work.
Sam had Lewy body dementia and it was complications from this disease that took his life on March 15th.
And the condition also silenced an incredible talent.
It's time for another installment of my bi-monthly look back at comic books I bought 50 years ago.
What the hell did I buy off the ol' spinner rack in March of 1976?
Not much it seems.
When I was a kid, my family was poor and there wasn't always a lot of spare change for anything resembling an allowance.
So I reckon March of 1976 was especially lean in the way of spare change.
Still, I manage to scrunge up some coin from somewhere and bought a few books that month.
Let's start with a really good one: Superman#300.
Bob Oskner really steps up with a very powerful cover for this anniversary issue.
After producing the 4 issue identity crisis storyline, writers Cary Bates and Elliott S! Maggin and artists Curt Swan and Bob Oskner serve up a speculative tale called "Superman 2001".
As it said on the cover, what if Kal-El's rocket land on Earth today and grew up to become Superman in the future world of 2001?
Back in the 1960's, editor Mort Weisenger frequently turned to "imaginary tales" to spin stories told outside of regular continuity. This was the first time editor Julius Schwartz turned to this storytelling device since taking over as Superman editor.
Bates, Maggin, Swan and Oskner come together one more time to craft this story of not only shifting the time of baby Kal-El's arrival on Earth to the present but also what would happen if he were raised not by an earnest couple on a farm but as a child of a government agency.
He adopts the mantle of "Skyboy" to stop the world from nuclear self destruction and also becomes "Clark Kent" in the aftermath of personal tragedy.
Clark adopts the red and blue uniform once more to save the Earth from himself and becomes Superman.
This was before the comics industry began to jack up the page count and thus the cover price for anniversary issues. Superman#300 did get a few extra pages of story at the expense of the letter column.
Justice League of America #131 brings us a god awful cover by Ernie Chan.
Gerry Conway is back at the typewriter joining regular artists Dick Dillin and Frank McLaughin for "The Beasts Who Thought Like Men", a tale I am having a really hard time remembering what the hell happened.
I should cut myself some slack, I suppose. It has been 50 years.
So what the hell is going on here? A plague is ravaging the Earth causing humans to act like animals and animals to gain human intelligence. The culprit? A sonic code on credit cards designed to replace currency.
The lesson from 1976? Credits cards make you crazy. Stick to old fashion cash!
Another Ernie Chan production for the cover of The Flash#242. I will concede this cover is not all that bad. Not all that good either but not... you know what? It's bad.
"The Charge of the Electric Gang" Is by the regular creative team of Cary Bates, Irv Novick and Frank McLaughin and clocks in at 10 pages. Yep, it's the Flash's own book and he only gets 10 pages. He had to share the other 7 pages with Green Lantern.
While the Flash tries to cope with three electricity-wielding crooks, the Rogues' Gallery gathers to mourn the death of one of its members.
GL was in the middle of the Ravegers of Qys storyline by Denny O'Neil, Mike Grell and Tex Blaisdell.
I should note that after DC raised the cover prices from 25 cents to 30 cents, the story page content dropped from 18 pages to 17 pages.
For Superboy#217, we get a pair of tales from writer Jim Shooter and artist Mike Grell.
"The Charge of the Doomed Legionnaires" kicks things off as
Brainiac 5 plays a "chess game" for keeps against Marshal Lorca of the Khunds, with the Legion members as his game pieces.
The Khunds were to the Legion what the Klingons were to Star Trek.
Is it true that the explosion on the final page of the story spells out "Holy cow! Dig the fireworks!"?
Yes, it's true!
The lead story takes up 11 pages while the 6 page back up is a rare in his own book solo outing for the Boy of Steel, "Future Shock For Superboy".
We get the introduction of Laurel Kent. And a display for Mike Grell's penchant for designing women with as little clothing as possible.
Is Laurel supposed to look like Lois Lane? Yeah, I believe that was the point.
World's Finest Comics #238 has an Ernie Chan/John Calnan cover for another installment of writer Bob Haney's trippy Super Sons stories.
"The Angel with a Dirty Name" is drawn by Dick Dillin and John Calnan. And it's another one of Bob Haney's trippy tales of the Super Sons.
Clark Kent Jr. and Bruce Wayne Jr. are still doing their version of Easy Rider when they happen across a darling damsel in distress named Dora.
Through some machinations of plot, she manipulates the duo into her helping her to carry out an escape from a local prison.
The escapee? Lex Luthor, evil scientist, Superman nemesis and Dora's dear devoted dad.
The escape goes from the walls of a prison into.... OUTER SPACE!
To the planet Lexor where Lex Luthori is their hero.
And they need a hero real bad!
Seems Lexor is being devastated by a plague turning the populace into large blobs.
I bought so few comics in March 1976 and this one made the cut? Really?!?
Also making the cut of this month's slim pickings was Action Comics #460 which gave us a pair of Superman tales under a Bob Oskner cover.
"Superman, You'll Be the Death of Me Yet" by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Tex Blaisdell.
Karb-Brak is an alien from Andromeda who has assumed human form to live on Earth, the only world that can cure him of a fatal disease.
Yikes! Superman's presence causes Karb-Brak to assume his alien form again and his illness kicks in and resuming killing him.
To survive, Superman must die!
And here's a fun twist: Karb-Brak thinks Superman's secret ID is Steve Lombard? That blowhard dope?
Elliot S. Maggin and Kurt Schaffenberger collaborae on "Welcome Home to Mxyzpolis" with a spotlight on Superman's 5th dimensional imp nemesis.
For reasons I cannot surmise or recall, I did not buy Batman or Detective Comics that month.
And that is that for my flashback to the comics I bought 50 years ago in March 1976!
More comic book stuff later today with a tribute to the late Sam Kieth and in tomorrow's Your Friday Video Link.
One hour from now, the radio landscape of the Greensboro Triad area will fundementally change.
Today is the last day on the air for Chris Demm at WKRR 92.3 FM, Rock 92.
One half of the iconic radio duo known as the 2 Guys Named Chris has decided to call it a day and retire after 3 decades at Rock 92.
Chris Demm publicly announced his retirement 2 months ago although Chris Kelly said Demm has told of his plans months before.
It is a rare thing for a radio disc jockey to go out on their own terms. Most radio careers end with a DJ signing off with a "see you tomorrow", then getting called into the program director's office and escorted out the door.
Working in radio has never been an easy business. And it's less so now if an industry that has been rocked by technological changes and cultural shifts.
It was recently announced that CBS News Radio, in operation for nearly a century, will cease to be as of May 22, 2026. This cancellation is being led by the Trump aligned CBS news director Bari Weiss and the Trump supporting bean counters at Paramount/Skydance.
Casting this decision as some kind of politically partisan action is tempting but the reality is radio ain't what it used to be. Geez, I don't think I realized CBS Radio was even still a thing until I heard that it would no longer be a thing.
But back to more local radio stuff....
For all it's success, 2 Guys Named Chris still could not escape the headwinds of radio's downward spiral. Just last year, 2GNC lost Dave Aiken when Rock 92's owners fired him in a cost cutting move.
One fears that Chris Demm saw a chance to retire when he can rather than hang on and be forced out by the inevitable heat death of the radio universe.
Boy, this post is taking a turn of the negative.
Let's try to accentuate some positivity.
Chris Demm is a classic old school rock 'n' roll DJ with a smooth delivery and a sharp wit. He also posssess a near encylopedic knowledge of rock 'n' roll trivia.
A big feature of 2GNC was the daily Put Up or Shut Up Rock 'n' Roll trivia game where listeners would match wits with the master. Once in a while, some listener would get lucky. But not often. This man knows his stuff.
Chris Demm has been the perfect counter to the hapless Chris Kelly. Much like the blog's banner says about myself, Kelly is trapped in a world he is not designed to cope with. Demm was there to provide an alternative perspective of someone with a slightly stronger grasp on making life work.
I have no idea what the show's branding will be once today's installment comes to an end.
1 Guy Named Chris?
God only knows how Chris Kelly will survive without Chris Demm to keep him out of trouble.
The lead up to Demm's retirement has been weird, part celebration, part mourning. It's as close to one can get to hearing their own funeral without being dead.
Former co-hosts Dave Aiken and Deidre James returned to the studio on Friday to pay homage to the departing Demm.
Below is a clip posted to You Tube of the start of Friday's show as Chris Kelly welcomes the return of Dave and Deidre.
2 Guys Named Chris has long been a favorite program of mine although I will admit I am part of the problem for traditional radio. As I work from home and do not commute to my job, I don't listen as often as I used to.
Chris Demm is a class act and while I am sorry to see him go, he has certainly earned his right to retirement and I am glad that unlike so many others in radio, he's getting to show himself out the door at the end of the day.
Good luck to Chris Demm in his retirement.
And good luck to Chris Kelly and Rock 92 as they move forward with the unthinkable reality of doing this without Chris Demm.
