Trapped in a world he was not designed to cope with, Dave-El (the true Kryptonian name of alleged Earth creature David Long) writes about comics, Doctor Who, Star Trek, politics, the absurdity of the human condition and whatever other nonsense that befuddles his unbalanced mind.
This is.... I'M SO GLAD MY SUFFERING AMUSES YOU!
Over the course of the posts I have written under Cinema Sunday, I have endeavored on a project to watch the movies of the Marx Brothers.
While I've had a life long fascination with Groucho Marx and his brethren, my actual exposure to the their films was rather slim. So I've made a concerted effort to experience the movies in their filmography.
Some movies I've enjoyed immensely (A Night at the Opera) and others I have merely tolerated.
Today's movie is one of the latter. If the title The Big Store seems generic, it's a harbinger that the Marx Brothers, after 12 years in Hollywood, are just grinding these movies out. In fact, going into production on The Big Store, Groucho announced that it would be the last Marx Brothers movie.
The plot, such as it is, involves a big department store. Hiram Phelps, owner of Phelps Department Store, has died, leaving the store to his nephew, singer Tommy Rogers and to Tommy 's aunt Martha Phelps.
Tommy wants to be a singer and doesn't want the store. Martha doesn't really want it either but I'll be damned if store manager Mr. Grover really does want the store and is prepared to kill Timmy and Martha to get it.
Wow! That must be some store! '
Martha, suspecting some bad stuff is afoot and worried for Tommy's safety, hire private detective Wolf J. Flywheel (Groucho) for protection.
Martha is convinced this is a good decision.
Flywheel along with Ravelli (Chico) and Wacky (Harpo) spend the rest of the movie working to disavow her of that notion.
They do eventually expose Mr. Grover as the villain when Groucho comments, "I told you in the first reel he was a crook."
Groucho also breaks the fourth wall during the fashion show in ladies' wear when he comments on a model's dress "This is a bright red dress, but Technicolor is so expensive."
There are two extended scenes with all three Marxes. One is in the store's bed department, with novel beds that come out of the walls and floor. The other is near the end of the film as Groucho, Chico and Harpo escape their pursuers in a madcap chase through the store, involving the elevator, a staircase, chandeliers, roller skates, a mail chute and a bicycle. It took a month to shoot this chase sequence involving a lot of stunt doubles and stop motion photography,
For all the shenanigans going on in The Big Store, it's hard to escape the feeling that the Marx Brothers know full well they've done this a hundred times.
In April 1941, Groucho told the Los Angeles Herald, "When I say we're getting sick of the movies, I mean the people are about to get sick of us...Our stuff is simply growing stale. So are we."
While it was announce that The Big Store would be their last film, the Marx Brothers did return for A Night in Casablanca (1946) and Love Happy (1949) because according to Groucho, Chico needed the money.
Next week for Cinema Sunday, I will post about what was truly the last film to feature Groucho, Chico and Harpo.
Today's Songs For Saturday falls on March 27th which is the birthday of Stacy Ann Ferguson, better known as simply Fergie.
Fergie was a member of the Black Eyed Peas who released their mega hit "I Gotta Feeling" back in 2009. It was a infectious and blood pumping party anthem and after it spent 14 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard Hot 100 in 2009, I was sick of it.
11 years later and I am quite surprised to find the song still holds up and I find myself enjoying this once more.
Now I am shocked as hell to be posting this next track to this week's Songs For Saturday. On one hand, "Fergalicious" reminds me of an article explaining how microwave ovens work playing music so stupid that only food can hear it. In a way, "Fergalicious" is just that stupid.
But damn if I don't enjoy listening to it with it's fast-paced rhythms and Fergie turning her name into a word and making a song out of it.
It's time for Fergie to get "Fergalicious", yo!
Wrapping up our salute to Fergie is this live performance from U2 with their cover of "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger swaggers in as only Mick Jagger can swagger while Fergie shreds the female solo.
OK, that brings us to the end of another Songs For Saturday. Remember to be good to one another, always keep the music alive and be Fergalicious.
Well into my 5th decade on this planet, I remain in my inevitably encroaching old age a comic book reader. Sometimes, like Danny Glover in Lethal Weapon said, I think I'm getting too old for this shit.
But I don't stop.
Comic books remain a constant through line for most of my life. From the squeaky spinner racks of my childhood to my pull list at Acme Comics, comics books are part of a thread that has seen me through all the ups and downs of my life so far and I am loathe to cut that thread.
Sometimes opportunities arise to put the metaphorical scissors in my hand and give that old thread a quick snip.
In the first two months of 2021, DC decided to forego it's normal line up with an event known as Future State. Well, that sounds like a good jumping off point to me.
I did ultimately concede to have three titles from this event on my pull list for January and February.
The Legion of Super Heroes Future State issues feature an epic storyline at its core with ground breaking revelations about Element Lad and his home planet as well as the people of Saturn Girl's home world.
But writer Brian Michael Bendis shoves this epic storyline into 2 rushed issues with artist Riley Rossomo a poor choice to illustrate this hurried and crowded story.
The Future State issues of Justice League had two full length stories. The lead story is a new league with the next generation of heroes, Superman's son, Aquaman's daughter and so on. It's a classic throwback heroes vs. villains story as the Hyperclan returns to cause havoc in the world. The 2nd story is a Justice League Dark set in a dystopia future where magic users are on the run from a deadly malevolent force. It's a bit murky and muddled but any story that has Detective Chimp channeling Etrigan the Demon can't be all bad.
Then there's the 4 issue Future State series, Next Batman. Gotham City is even more of a dystopian hellscape under the grip of the Magistrate and his pack of enforcers, the Peacekeepers. Jace Fox, son of Lucius, has taken up the mantle of the Batman in the wake of Bruce Wayne's disappearance. Nobody is happy about this new Batman, not the Magistrate, not the Peacekeepers and not Jace's family. But in a city in the iron grip of tyranny, Jace's Batman is determined to deliver justice, even at great personal harm.
This Batman storyline is written by Oscar winning screenwriter John Ridley who delivers a script filled with action and thought provoking drama. The book also includes a number of back ups such as Batgirls (Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are in prison as part of a scheme to bring down the Magistrate) and Arkham Knights (a collection of erstwhile Arkham loonies brought together as an ad-hoc super team to fight the oppression of the Magistrate).
The Next Batman treads ground we've been on before (what if Gotham City sank into an even worse cesspool of hopelessness and despair) but there's some pretty cool world building going on here. And there is an ongoing Next Batman series that I might need to add my pull list.
This week 10 people in a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket were killed, slaughtered really, by a nut case with a mad on about some damned thing or another who thought to resolve his issues with a gun
An assault rifle, actually. A weapon of war available to people who are not soldiers in an army in an actual war.
The murderer obtained his assault rifle a mere 6 days before the shooting in a state where an assault rifle ban was overturned by a conservative judge based on the supposed constitutional premise "you can have all the guns you want!"
After yet another mass shooting, we all know our assigned roles.
Republicans snapped to attention to defend the status quo and deflect.
Sean Hannity managed to turn a discussion of the Boulder massacre into a rant against Black Lives Matter?
Ted Cruz had to weigh in, once more reminding us....
Say it with me!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
Bless you!
Speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Ted Cruz had this to say:
"Every time there’s a shooting, we play this ridiculous theater where this committee gets together and proposes a bunch of laws that would do nothing to stop these murders. What happens in this committee after every mass shooting is Democrats propose taking away guns from law-abiding citizens, because that’s their political objective. But what they propose, not only does it not reduce crime, it makes it worse.”
Let me highlight a couple of troubling passages from the text above:
every time there’s a shooting
after every mass shooting
I think that defending the status quo is a bit problematic when that defense only serves to reiterate this is a recurring problem.
Sen. John Kennedy from Louisiana got in on the act.
“We do not need more gun control. We need more idiot control.”
Good luck parsing that statement.
Kennedy also asserted that background checks and other basic gun control measures was like handling drunk drivers by taking cars away from sober drivers.
CNN's Jake Tapper response to that?“I don’t even know what to say to that, it’s so stupid."
Well, no one ever said the Republicans lock step rush to defend guns after yet another mass shooting had to actually make sense.
There were the usual expressions of thoughts and prayers from the same Republican politicians who have and will continue to vote against any kind of meaningful and common sense gun control.
Look, I have no problem with thoughts and prayers but if all you're gonna do is offer up thoughts and prayers while I risk my life to simply go to the grocery store, then fuck you and your thoughts and prayers.
The recurring nature of mass shootings led Seth Meyers to question the use of the word “unimaginable” to describe such tragedies.
“Unimaginable. That’s probably a word we can retire when something happens three or four times a week."
It can be imagined. Kids can imagine it.
When the pandemic began and kids had to adapt to distance learning from home, I read an article where one student noted the bright side this situation: not being killed in a mass shooting at school.
Mass shootings are not unimaginable in a world where we have a routine of what to do after yet another mass shooting.
Sunday afternoon, my wife Andrea and I departed the Fortress of Ineptitude to make a big step towards the future.
We each had appointments to arrive at Four Seasons Mall at 5:00 PM to get our first vaccine shot.
As we approached the mall, there were lighted signs telling me where to go, where to turn and where to park.
As we entered the mall, helpful people in yellow vests guided us along the route to the former Dillards store where the FEMA vaccine distribution center had been established.
The center was staffed by medical officers with the US Army who were consistently patient, courteous and professional throughout the whole process.
Andrea and I were in our respective seats at 5:00 PM on the dot. The medic who administered my shot had a veritable magic touch. I barely felt the needle go in my arm. Andrea reported a similar experience with her shot.
We waited for a quarter of an hour to make sure there were no immediate effects. There were none and we were free to go.
Immediately after our shot, Andrea and I were given cards that not only confirmed we had received a shot but included our appointment for our 2nd shot in three weeks.
As we left the mall, we received text messages confirming our next appointment.
Wow! I wish more things in life worked this well. Kudos to FEMA, the US Army and I guess the fine folks who run Four Seasons Mall.
By the way, the mall was bustling with more traffic than just those arriving for their COVID 19 vaccine shots. A lot of stores in the mall were filled with customers.
The process to get the vaccine shot was smooth, effortless and involved no waiting to get the shot.
There was, however, a very long line at the Cinnabon.
Last week's Snowpiercer delivered a major game changer. For weeks, Wilford's political machinations have poisoned the well for Andre Layton by fomenting a groundswell of distrust and dissatisfaction in Layton's leadership.
Now Wilford has moved on to mechanical manipulations that puts the train itself in danger and imperils the small patch of humanity that dwells upon it.
Wilford engineers (pun intended) a break down in Snowpiercer's key operating system and guess who has the only working part to keep Snowpiercer up and running?
Wilford saves the day and makes sure the train knows it. The episode ends with Layton in cuffs being led to the back of the train where he started two seasons ago and Wilford himself sitting in the engineer's chair at the front of Snowpiercer, a big old smug, satisfied smile on his face.
Wilford is an evil sociopathic bastard but hell, give credit where it is due, he set in a motion a plan of Machiavellian complexity to regain control of Snowpiercer and I'll be damned, it worked.
The look on Layton's face as Wilford repairs and saves Snowpiercer is the look of a man who knows he's done been beat. Layton saw it coming, he tried to control it and he tried to stop it and in the end, Wilford still defeats Layton.
We're not up to the point in the narrative where the train rushes by Melanie Cavill, leaving her stranded in the snow. But that scene does tell us that whatever wonders the people thought they would get from having Wilford in charge again will be short lived.
The two hour season finale event will tell that tale next week.
Marvel's latest Disney+ series dropped last week with Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I don't see F/WS tapping the pop culture Zeitgeist like WandaVision did. Lacking the trippy what the hell is going here sitcom motif of WandaVison, F/WS seems like it will be a more straightforward story, your basic action buddy movie Sam can fly. Bucky has a metal arm. Together, they fight crime. Sometime we don't need much more than that.
I say "seems like it will be" because by the end of the first episode, it ain't as Sam and Bucky's paths have not yet crossed.
F/WS opens with a fast paced sequence with the Falcon in high flying action and we get an intense flashback to the Winter Soldier on a deadly mission. But these happen early with rest of the episode focused on Sam trying to help his financially struggling sister and Bucky not quite grappling with his guilt for his actions as the Winter Soldier.
“Every time something gets better for one group, it gets worse for another,” Sam Wilson notes at one point, addressing life in a post-Blip world as well as the looming threat of the Flag Smashers, a movement with a lot in common with current extreme conspiracy-theory groups.
The episode ends with a game changing reveal. Sam Wilson may have forfeited the role of Captain America by donating Steve Rogers' shield to the Smithsonian. But the Department of Defense has other plans.
Andrea and I were watching Wheel of Fortune last week when this player named Scott was having an extraordinary run of luck. He headed to the bonus round with $45,000. As the puzzle board lit up, I had two premonitions.
1) Scott was going to solve the puzzle. He was too good a player not to suss out this last puzzle.
2) And he was going to win $100,000. He was too lucky to not land on the $100,000 prize.
And I'll be damned but he does. And he does!
I don't know what it is but sometimes I get a certain feeling things are going to go a contestant's way.
Scott recently said he would be donating his total winnings to a pair of charities.
Meanwhile, is Pat Sajak's job as host coming to an end? It seems that after a series of on-air slip ups, Wheel of Fortune producers are ready for Sajak to "take a break."
Pat has had moments of being snappy or even insulting to some of the contestants. I think such jibes on the show might be more forgivable if Pat Sajak was less of an asshole off the show. Pat has not been shy about expressing cringe worthy opinions in social media about how he thinks climate change is a hoax and other right wing conspiracy talking points.
It is pointed contrast to how Jeopardy's Alex Trebek was warmly embraced right up to this death while 74 year old Pat Sajak is getting the old "here's your hat, what's your hurry" routine.
I recognize that at his best, Pat Sajak has an easy going charm and deft control of the game, qualities that were sorely missed when Vanna White was called up to guest host when Pat had emergency surgery. But as nervous as she was at the beginning, White really came into her own by the 3rd week of her gig. When she hosted her last game before turning things back over to Pat, I told Andrea, "I'm really going to miss her as the host."
Over on Jeopardy, Katie Couric finished her run as guest host. She was genial and professional but I noticed that a lot of time questions were still on the board at the end of a round. Andrea observed that Katie speaks a bit slower than other hosts we've seen which I would attribute to her training as a news anchor.
Dr. Oz is coming up as host and I have no idea how this charlatan scored this gig. I'm not going to boycott the show but I'm not going out of my way to catch up any episodes I might miss.
TV News From the Future
While we still suffering the interminable "droughtlander" awaiting the debut of season 6 of Outlander, speculation still won't stop about season 7.
Until....
So great! There will be a season 7.
So why do I think that will be the final season?
Because Caitriona Balfe cannot have a bigger trailer?
My thinking is there is a long range plan to lock the cast and crew in place now to make sure everyone is in board for bringing Outlander to an end.
No speculation on Killing Eve. It's been announced there will be a season 4 AND it will be the last season.
Which is probably a good thing.
Don't get me wrong: the cat and mouse games between MI6 agent Eve Polastri and international psycho killer for hire Villanelle is a fascinating mess to behold but after 3 seasons, I can't see how many more permutations of Eve and Villanelle's will they/won't they we can go through. And when I say "will they/won't they", I mean either have sex or kill each other. Really, it could go either way.
The scene with Eve and Villanelle in the bridge at the end of season 3 was so heartbreaking.....
I'm not really sure how much more of this I can stand.
Coming up next on Tuesday TV Touchbase:
Next week, the TV show I'm NOT watching and why
The week after that, I assess the fallout from the 2nd season finale of Snowpiercer.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and keep it down, would ya? I'm tryin' to watch some TV over here!
Let us begin today's post with a reading of the sacred text.
"And so sayeth Dave-El in the holy book of My Suffering Amuseth Thou, I Am Doth So Glad Of It, that the Ted Cruz doth goeth forth into the land to lie and lie in a manner of one who doth be a bastard who shall fucketh!"
Say it with me, my children!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
A favorite strategy of Ted Cruz is..
A LYING FUCK BASTARD!
Thank you!
A favorite strategy of Ted Cruz is appeal to the fear that somebody somewhere... Who? Where? It doesn't matter but somebody somewhere is getting away with something.
Ted Cruz tried to pull this shit when the COVID relief bill was in the Senate and he tried to introduce a measure that illegal immigrants would not receive stimulus checks.
Except Ted's efforts were much ado over nothing. No specific measures were introduced in previous relief measures to keep illegal immigrants from getting stimulus checks because no such measures are needed.
You get a stimulus check if you have a social security number.
Illegal immigrants by being illegal do not have social security numbers. Ipso facto, we can draw two conclusions:
1) illegal immigrants CAN'T get stimulus checks.
2) Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
But that's Ted Cruz playing to the conservative base back home, casting himself as the savior of our tax dollars from falling into the hands of illegal immigrants!
Recently, Ted Cruz was being his Ted Cruziest while addressing the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed, conservative group that provides model legislation to state legislators.
The latest scourge of Ted's ire? Somebody somewhere might be voting who shouldn't.
There is a Democratic proposed legislative package called H.R. 1 that would impact voting in various ways. For example, the bill would...
require states to automatically register eligible voters
offer same-day registration.
limit states’ ability to purge registered voters from their rolls
restore former felons’ voting rights.
require states to offer 15 days of early voting
allow no-excuse absentee balloting.
Ted's takeaway from H.R.1 is that it “says America would be better off if more murderers were voting, America would be better off if more rapists and child molesters were voting."
While Ted Cruz is preaching that Democrats really wants that raping, child molesting murderer voting block, he is once more fighting a battle that does not need fighting.
In the United States, the federal government defines a felony as a crime punishable by death or imprisonment in excess of one year. A consequence of being convicted of a felony is disenfranchisement, being denied the right to vote.
Yes, raping, child molesting and murder are felony offenses. There are also other crimes that can be defined as felonies. Including the possession of certain types of illegal drugs for personal use.
Felons who have done their time can still find their right to vote constrained. Each state has it's own provisions for paroled felons to appeal to get their voting rights back. Some states are purely arbitrary in their decision making process.
No surprise Florida is one of them.
A couple of years back, I saw the story of an older African American man in Florida who had felony conviction from his youth for possession of illegal drugs for personal use. He appeared before an all white all Republican panel and made a heartfelt appeal of how he was trying to do right by his second chance at life and his fervent hope to regain his right to vote. The panel denied his appeal.
Rick Scott, the Republican Party's real life Lex Luthor, was on that appeals panel and explained his no vote was because he didn't feel the sincerity of the man's plea for his right to vote to be restored.
This man who made a mistake in his youth is denied the right to vote as an old man because Rick Scott didn't "feel" it.
Neither does Ted Cruz.
Ted Cruz does not give a fuck about this man or anyone like him. Hell, some old black man ain't going to vote Republican no how!
Here is what Ted does give a fuck about.
“H.R. 1′s only objective is to ensure that Democrats can never again lose another election, that they will win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and of the state legislatures for the next century."
My blessed children, it's been a minute. Let us speak the sacred mantra once more.
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Ted Cruz is a lying fuck bastard!
Amen!
Amen!
Of course Ted Cruz sees the purpose of H.R.1 is only to help the Democratic Party. Because that's how his own party has seen their efforts over the last decade to suppress voting and gerrymandering voting districts, actions taken with the express purpose for Republicans to win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and state legislatures.
Ted Cruz is not alone. There is a massive effort by Republicans in state houses across the country to push for laws to make voting harder, reducing the time for early voting, reducing hours and outlets for voting locations, restricting mail in voting.
This rush to restrict voting is fueled by the great lie perpetuated by Donald Trump that the election of 2020 was rife with fraud and his victory was stolen from him.
There is no evidence of widespread fraud in the wake of recounts, investigations and legal challenges. But the great lie persists because it is quite the helpful cheeky little lie.
As I've said before, Republicans lack faith in their own beliefs and ideology. Instead they seek victory in the repudiation of their enemies. It's easier to throw up roadblocks to Democratic voters than it is to convince more people to vote Republican.
Ted Cruz knows this. His whole strategy is based on fear and loathing of the other, whoever that other may be.
Ted Cruz hopes to hold on to power hinge on promulgating the fear that somebody somewhere is getting away with something.
