Songs For Saturday: The Corrs, Enya and U2

 I know it's been two days since St.Patrick's Day but I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You still has it's Irish up. So for today's Songs For Saturday.....

Our play list will feature artists from that magical emerald isle of Ireland, leading off with the The Corrs with "Breathless".

Next up is Enya with "Storms In Africa".   

And what is a play list of Irish musical acts without U2? Well, that would just be plain wrong is what that would be.   So here's U2 with "Beautiful Day".

Here's hoping you have a beautiful day.

Thanks for listening, remember to be good to one another and to always keep the music alive. 

FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday was St, Patrick's Day. Well, a day late and dollar short, today's Flashback Friday wobbles way back in time to Sunday, March 17, 2013 for the first every St. Patrick's Day post ever on I'm So Glad My Sufferings Amuses You.

It's not an especially good  St. Patrick's Day post but it was first! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Posted to my Twitter (https://twitter.com/DayWayLo) around Noon DST on March 17, 2013:

1.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: It's been St. Patrick's Day here for 12 hours & I haven't had one beer! NOT ONE BEER!

2.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: I don't have any corn beef and cabbage in the house!! (Why did I let the holiday slip up on me?)

3.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: I haven't decorated the holiday shamrock!

4.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: I haven't wrapped the St Patrick's Day presents and OMG! I'm out of green foil wrapping paper!

5.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: why are no radio stations playing Irish jigs?

6.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: Why isn't TBS running a 24 hour marathon of The Matchmaker with #JaneaneGarofalo?

7.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: you would think PBS would run Riverdance!

8.     #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: WHERE THE HELL IS THE BEER?!?!

9.       #HappyStPatricksDay but I'm stressed out: I need to dye my hair red! No, green! No, red! Green! Red! Green! Arrrgghh!

10.  #HappyStPatricksDay & I'm stressed out but I'm going to work out that stress by getting into a fight with someone. Aye, I feel better already!

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Here's hopin' you have a safe 'n' happy day o' wearin' o' the green......

 

 

 

See, Hal and Ollie have gotten into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day!

 

And speaking of "green" and "Patrick"

 

Yeah, I don't know if this is exactly what it means to "get your Irish up" but it works for me.

 

Later!

 

 

Sweet Dreams and What They Are Made Of

So Andrea and I were watching Wheel of Fortune Tuesday because we're an old married couple and that's what you do.

Anyway, the category was "Music Lyrics"  and the puzzle was just missing a few letters, clearly forming the title of that classic 1980's tune by the Eurythmics, "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)".  

What wasn't missing were any letters from that last word, "This".

So contest Chris Bryant declares, "I would like to solve the puzzle, Pat." 

And he proceeds to say, "Sweet dreams are made of these."   

I'm thinking what the fuck is up with Chris. It clearly says "THIS".

Andrea was more sympathetic, insisting she always thought the lyrics were "Sweet dreams are made of these."  

Well, I disagreed.

1) Look up the song anywhere, everywhere and it's called "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)".  

2) It sounds like to me singer Annie Lennox is saying "this".

3) The damn word on the damn board is "THIS". Even if you think the word is "THESE". the damn word on the damn board is "THIS". 

Others disagree with my assessment. 

Twitter was flooded with shocked viewers who thought Chris Bryant was right.

"Shocked viewers" is another way of saying "stupid people".  

Why?

The damn word on the damn board is "THIS". 

As Pat Sajak is always reminding people, read what's up there. Don't add shit! 

The damn word on the damn board is "THIS". 

Chris did redeem himself by winning $26,405 in cash and prizes and advancing to the bonus round.  

Let's finish off this post with the Eurythmics and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)".  I know some posters on Twitter insist it sounds like she's singing "these" but I'll be damned it sounds like "this" to me".  

But even if you hear it differently, I can't stress this enough.

The damn word on the damn board is "THIS".

The Madness of Time

This past weekend was our twice yearly episode of temporal self flagellation known as time change.

The one in the spring is the worst. 

1) We lose an hour.  

2) It takes all night to get dark.

Look, at 7 PM, it needs to be a decent purple shade of twilight and not broad frickin' daylight. 

Why do we do this to ourselves? 

We don't know! 

Some say it's to help farmers but fuck the farmers! 

It's supposed to help us save energy but really? As I write this on Tuesday evening a few minutes before 7 PM with the sun way up in the damn sky, I'm using a lap top at my kitchen table under a lamp while in the living room, the TV is watching Big Bang Theory by itself.

Here's what would be happening if it was dark outside: I'm using a lap top at my kitchen table under a lamp while in the living room, the TV is watching Big Bang Theory by itself.

So much for energy savings. 

OK, why is the TV watching Big Bang Theory by itself? I don't know.  The TV had a stressful day and didn't want to watch Law & Order by itself? 

By the way, time changes fuck with my brain and I don't need that because my brain fucks itself enough without the time changes. 

So maybe it's time for sanity to take hold and make us stop doing this shit to ourselves.

In a surprising swift and very bi-partisan action, the Senate passed legislation to stop time changes.

Of course they're getting it wrong! 

Called  “Sunshine Protection Act", this legislation would make daylight saving time permanent for the entire United States.

OK, I want time changes to stop but we need to stop it on the right side of the change. 

Stopping on the side of daylight saving time is the wrong goddam side! 

FUCK!

Sen, Marco Rubio co-sponsored the bill, citing increased heart attacks and car accidents during standard time people enjoying more sunlight at the end of the day for things like sports.

Fuck sports! 

And there might be more heart attacks and car accidents during standard time people because it's fucking cold outside and not because it gets dark at night. 

And in case I was too vague before: 

Fuck sports! 

This is not a done deal yet. The measure needs to go to the House of Representatives and then if they pass it, it would go to President Biden's desk to be signed to become a done deal. 

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said this in support of this bill:  “The clock is ticking to get the job done so we never have to switch our clocks again. So I urge my colleagues in the House to act as swiftly as the Senate. Let’s get this bill on President Biden’s desk and deliver more sunshine to Americans across the country.”

But I don't want more sunshine! 

And guess what! If it's daylight saving time all the time, some points of the year will see darkness extending in the morning to us late as 9 AM. 

Yes, we need to stop fucking with clocks! The madness needs to stop! 

But don't stop the changes when it takes all night to get dark!  

Tuesday TV Touchbase: Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Law & Order

Friday while watching Wheel of Fortune, a promo aired for Jeopardy which was coming on next with Ken Jennings chatting with Jeopardy champion Matt Glassman. 

Which was weird because when we left Jeopardy on Thursday, Maureen O'Neill was still champion.

Whazzup?

Well, some rascal at the local station ran the wrong promo because yeah, when Jeopardy came on, Maureeen was still there but not for long.  She not only lost but she was shut out of Final Jeopardy in a $3,000 hole.  I don't think I've ever seen a Jeopardy Champion wash out like that. 

So yeah, new champion for Monday and Ken Jenning's is still hosting so I'm good with that.

Friday's episode was Ken's 100th episode of hosting. Look, when you've done 100 of anything, you should just have the job already. 

Speaking of Wheel of Fortune, Pat Sajak got in hot water for being mean to a guest.  A contestant's big story was he had his big toe cut off.  The story was when he was 12 years old, he was riding his bike while wearing flip flops, he fell an accident with that cut off the tip of his big toe. Some passing paramedics got the guy to the hospital where his missing piece of toe was reattached.  Pat said that was a pointless story.  

OK, that was kind of mean but to be fair, I think we were all expecting a more dramatic tale that part of a toe got cut off but was sewn back on and it's all better now.  

_____________________

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has barreled through 8 episodes but I'm still playing catch up, only up through 4.

Season 4 picks up with Miriam dealing with the fall out of being fired as the opening act for singer Shy Baldwin after her stand up set at the Apollo threatened to out Shy as gay.  

Well, "dealing with" in that she is understandably upset over losing a high profile and high paying gig that among other things allowed Miriam to buy back her fancy big apartment in uptown Manhattan. 

But not "dealing with"  in that she's not really seeing how she put Shy Baldwin in not just a socially awkward position but in a very real and mortally dangerous one as well.  Be outed as a gay black man in American in 1960 is an invitation for all sorts of trouble.  

As much as I love this show for it's humor and rapid fire dialogue, I do have a problem that Miriam Maisel never seems to make any significant sacrifices.  She still lives, dresses and comports herself as she did when she was the young sophisticate wife of a successful man. For all the battles Miriam has to fight to gain acceptance not just in the male dominated stand up comedy in particular and in society in general, we don't see Miriam dealing with the shortfall in income and resources associated with those battles.  She still has the wherewithal to make her much beloved brisket; she's not feeding her kids Spam. 

Miriam's lesson from her being fired by Shy Baldwin's manager is that she should only do gigs where she can be completely herself and the star. Which somehow leads her to becoming the emcee at a strip club.  

Susie dodges a bullet barely, finding funds to replace Miriam's money that Susie lost gambling. Setting fire to her late mother's house gets the money she needs but only after her sister agrees to give the insurance adjustor a blow job.  The things we do for family. And money.  

Try as I might not to peak ahead at episodes 5 through 8, some details have slipped through that suggest that perhaps Miriam will have to deal with some consequences after all.  

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has been renewed for a 5th season which will wind down to a series finale.  

_____________________

The new and original Law & Order has kind of/sort of righted the ship after the disastrous shit show of the revived series' opener.   

The next two episodes have hewed closer to the beloved formula of random New Yorkers stumble on a crime scene, the detectives chase down leads, the D.A.'s office is ready to prosecute but there's a twist but dammit, the accused is guilty, looks guilty, acts guilty and probably smells guilty and the jury finds the accused guilty. 

Last Thursday, I wanted to reach through the TV and slap that smug kidnapping/murdering son of a bitch so hard! 

I still stand by my original assessment that Det. Frank Cosgrove is the absolute worst character on any television show ever in the history of all of television. 

Well, that's it for the Tuesday TV Touchbase this week. 

Next week, I'll look at the end of Season 4 for Star Trek Discovery and the start of Season 2 of Star Trek Picard.     

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. 

This (Non) Sporting Life : The Script Be Damned

Last week, I wrote this:     

There are certain times in life we expect life to follow some kind of dramatic narrative.  

We expect that the good guy will win, will find fortune, will find love. 

But life is not drama and does not always follow the script we want it to follow.

And nowhere is that more painfully real than in the world of sports. 

This past weekend, this truism continued to be true. 

Welcome to another edition of This (Non) Sporting Life, a blog post about sport from a guy who knows little about sports. 

Last week was the ACC Men's Basketball Tournament.  

Here was the expected narrative going into the tournament:

The nationally ranked Duke Blue Devils headed into the ACC tournament ranked #1 in the conference and seeded #1 for the tournament.  The expectations were that Duke would deliver one last ACC Tournament championship title for outgoing coach Mike Krzyzewski.   

The Virginia Tech Hokies had a different plan.

Which begs the question: what the hell is a "Hokie".

Apparently a "hokie" is a type of bird, possibly related to the turkey or also maybe totally made up?

Here's the thing: if I didn't have a dog in this fight because 30 years ago I decided I was a Duke fan for the most specious of reasons (dark blue is my favorite color), I would've likely been rooting for Virginia Tech. 

It's a classic underdog story. The Hokies were a #7 seed and no #7 seed has ever won the ACC Tournament and Virginia Tech has never won the tournament since joining the conference. And to win the conference tournament from such a low seed, Virginia Tech had to win 4 games over 4 days, a remarkable feat of endurance both physical and mental. 

But damn it! Mike Krzyzewski, the winningest coach in men's college basketball needs to go out with a win. He was denied a win for his last home court game at Cameron the weekend before. Now he was denied a win in his last ACC championship game. 

The dramatic narrative ace expects... no, demands he wins.

But sports as in life, the script be damned. 

The hokie bird has spoken! 

Cinema Sunday: The Batman

I'm So Glad My Suffering  Amuses You continues it's Bat-weekend with Cinema Sunday taking a look at movie that came out in this century. Last weekend even. 

Today let's talk about...  The Batman!

This past weekend, my daughter Randie and I went to see The Batman.

Andrea did not join us because 2008's The Dark Knight traumatized her too much from ever wanting to see a solo Batman movie ever again.

She probably made the right call.

The Batman is one very violent and very intense movie.

The Batman is up against the Riddler and if that makes you think about Frank Gorshin from the 1960's TV show or Jim Carrey from Batman Forever, well... no. Make that hell no.

This Riddler is angry, violent and malevolent in a way I've never seen the Riddler portrayed before in any medium. 

The Riddler is super pissed at men in positions of power and privilege who are not who they pretend to be.  

Gotham City mayor Don Mitchell Jr. with the wholesome family man image but spends a lot of time covorting with women at the Penguin's Iceberg Lounge? Dead! 

Very law & order police commissioner Pete Savage but spends a lot time with known criminals in Penguin's nightclub and on the pay roll of crime boss  Carmine Falcone? Dead!

Straight arrow anti-corruption district attorney Gil Colson but also has his pocket's lined with Carmine Falcone's cash? Dead! 

Colson's death is particularly gruesome and underscores why Andrea made a good call not to come with us.  Dude has a collar bomb locked around his neck. And the bomb does go off.

Shit! Seriously this is one intense movie.  

The Riddler in a full face leather mask screaming vocally distorted threats from a computer screen is a frightening and disturbing image. 

While Bruce Wayne is dressed as a bat to put the fear of God into the criminal element and beat the living crap out of them for good measure, Batman's detective skills are at work here as well as he pieces together of what the Riddler is up to and why. 

The Ridder is determined to violently expose the corruption of those in the upper echelons of Gotham's authority and society, corruption that touches a bit close to home, implicating even Thomas Wayne, Bruce's late and much lamented father.  

That being said, we are spared a repeat of that oft repeated scene of young Bruce watching his parents murdered in an alleyway.  

I was impressed with how much time actor Robert Pattison is suited up as Batman. A lot of times, super hero movies spend a lot of time with the hero either in their civilian ID or perpetually pulling off their mask. You can almost hear the studio complaining, "Hey, we're paying X amount of dollars for actor Y to be in this damn movie and damn it, we wanna see him!"  

In The Batman, I think we could've used a little more time with Bruce Wayne but let's face it, we paid our money to see Batman look cool and kick ass and by golly, we get that. 

Kudos to Jeffrey Wright's turn as Lt. (not quite Commissioner yet) Jim Gordon. I know that the trolls had their knives out that Gordon's not a black guy in the comics but screw that. Wright's take on Gordon may be the best I've seen from anyone on screen.   

And the trolls were out over the casting of Robert Pattison, that the pale thin teen throb emo vampire from Twilight can't possibly be Batman. Well, Pattison most definitely is Batman. Yeah, Pattison's Bruce Wayne is a bit emo but it fits the character of a mentally traumatized person.  And as Batman, Pattison carries himself with strength and gravitas it takes to walk among a bunch of cops at a crime scene like he fucking belongs there.  

We get a unique take on Alfred with Andy Serkis in a rare good guy role with a gruffer, edgier butler.  

And Colin Farrell is solid as the Penguin, portraying the crafty criminal bird sans prosthetics. It's enough of a scene stealing turn to warrant Penguin getting his own HBO Max solo series. 

And Zoe Kravitz brings Selina Kyle to life as if she stepped right out of the comic book pages. 

The movie ends with Gotham City in a catastrophic crisis as Riddler's bombs blast the seawalls along the shores of the harbor, flooding the city.  Coping with this catastrophe forces Batman away from being an avatar of vengeance but into a symbol of hope for a weary and besieged city.

Leading up to this moment, The Batman is an almost unceasingly bleak movie as Batman keeps unraveling deeper and deeper levels of corruption that appear to touch even the vaunted legacy of the Wayne family.  But this bleak vision of Batman's world is hard not to look at and be caught up in this fully realized world, filled with action, thrills and frights.   

Director and co-writer Matt Reeves gets this Batman film done right and delivers what may arguably be the best Batman movie ever.