My Wrist Still Hurts

My left wrist still hurts. I'm currently wearing a wrist brace per doctor's orders. I take Tylenol to help with the pain and try to do as many of my daily actions as one-handed as possible.

But my wrist still throbs and I don't know how I'm going to deal with work. Fortunately, I'm on medical leave right now but I can't stay home forever.

As for this site, well, luckily I don't need two hands to use a keyboard. However, writing checks is going to be a bit tricky. Heck, writing anything by hand is tricky nowadays. And don't get me started on how much fun it is to try opening a prescription pill container with one hand.

Look on That Ending, Ye Mighty, and Despair!: Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Now that I'm finally the last person in America -- apart from my mother and my youngest sibling -- to have seen last year's Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom:

It didn't seem all that bad. Predictable, yes, but I have seen worse -- including the third movie in this series.

It did seem to go all over the place for a dinosaur movie: here's a scene for The Purge fans, here's a scene for people who like old horror films, here's some characters for Millennials and nonwhite fans to identify with, here's a scene for disaster movie buffs...

Granted, Steven Spielberg used to do the same a-little-something-for-everybody routine in his movies but the director of this movie ain't Spielberg. (Of course, after seeing a small glimpse of Ready Player One on cable recently -- a movie I ultimately found to be unwatchable -- I'm not sure that even Spielberg is still Spielberg nowadays.)

I must admit that I would have liked to have seen more of Zia Rodriguez the Latina dinovet (played by actress Daniella Pineda). (Yay, representation!) For that matter, I would have liked to have seen Bryce Dallas Howard's "first time I saw a dinosaur" speech delivered by someone like Laura Dern or Julianne Moore. And I still rather not see Chris Pratt in anything that doesn't have Aubrey Plaza in it. (Apparently having two Latina actresses in a movie like this would have broken the universe or something.)

However, in the end, I liked what I saw better than what I didn't see -- although I must admit that I don't know what to make of the -- ahem -- pro-life ending. Seriously, was that supposed to be a happy ending? Or else the director's subtle metaphor for global climate change?

Pop Song of the Week: "Gone Daddy Gone"

It's a good thing that my friend C____ never read this blog because she would have hated this video. And as much as I like the song itself, I can't help wishing for C____'s sake that the video wasn't such a FU to epileptics.

On the plus side, I can't help agreeing with the YouTube commenter who lamented the acute shortage of xylophone solos in modern music.

Movie Song of the Week: "The Trial"

Somehow, with all this recent talk about walls, I just knew I was going to post this song sooner or later.

A Brief Philosophical Comment About Rampage

This movie's "of course the wolf flies" line will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the great philosophical quotes of our era, ranking right next to such classic quotes as Indiana Jones' "Snakes? Why does there have to be snakes?" and St. Patrick of Ireland's "I'm tired of all these motherfuckin' snakes on this motherfuckin' plain."

Of course, there are some conservative grumps who would argue that the only philosophical lesson to be learned from this movie is "When in doubt, let George do it." But they're probably just Creationists anyway.

Wondering About Professor Marston and the Wonder Women

The more biopics I see, the more I find myself wanting to classify them as "alternative history." Unfortunately, the 2017 movie Professor Marston and the Wonder Women was no exception.

Well, I liked it better than director Angela Robinson's D.E.B.S. -- which isn't saying much since D.E.B.S. was basically an one-joke comedy which proved to be surprisingly mediocre once it revealed its one big twist. Of course, compared to godawful movies like Rough Night, D.E.B.S. didn't seem that bad but that might just be nostalgia talking.

Anyway, Professor Marston... did give me some hope for the upcoming Strangers in Paradise film which is supposedly director Angela Robinson's next project. But as a movie, well...

I wanted to like it more than I did but given the fact that it basically glorified William Moulton Marston, a man who seemed to be more than a little bit of a schmuck -- and this from a guy who loved the recent Wonder Woman movie (yes, I'm aware of the irony) -- I was lucky that I liked it as much as I did. I did like the way it gave the Rebecca Hall character Elizabeth (Marston's wife) her due. Indeed, I felt more sympathy for her character than for any other character in the movie. And I was a bit amused by how much a movie about a polyamorous relationship seemed to make a better case for same-sex marriage than for polyamory.

However, the moment I was asked to take seriously sentiments like "you always hurt the one you love," it became obvious that this was never going to be my type of movie. Which is just as well since this movie obviously wasn't made for me.

I am not sure whom it was made for but I hope whomever it was enjoyed it more than me.

I did appreciate the irony of the movie showing a man who was all about submitting to strong female authority figures being confronted by -- you guessed it -- a strong female authority figure. But I can't help but wonder how much of that irony was intended.

More Words of the Future

Words that are not yet part of the English language but might someday be:

1. bully logic -- the reasoning that bullies use to justify their actions; also, the logic that is used by apologists for said bullies.
2. cradle envy -- envy directed at parents by childless adults.
3. deimocracy -- rule by terror.
4. drugstore revolutionary -- a person who talks a lot about being a revolutionary but never carries it out in practice.
5. evolutionary dictatorship -- a regime that once embraced Marxism but has gradually "evolved" in a less left-wing but not necessarily more democratic manner.
6. extreme art appreciation -- the notion that any art worth appreciating should not be all that pleasurable to experience.
7. fatwa envy -- envy certain Christians feel for demonstrations of Islamic intolerance.
8. genfem -- genetic female.
9. genmal -- genetic male.
10. global primate change -- what happens when the apes take over.
11. gotcha conservativism -- a philosophy held by conservatives who are more concerned with showing how much more enlightened they are than with actually accomplishing anything useful.
12. gotcha liberalism -- a philosophy held by liberals who are more concerned with showing how much more enlightened they are than with actually accomplishing anything useful.
13. hairshirt art -- art that is based on the theory that any artistic work that is not pleasurable to look at must be great art.
14. leucification -- the process of making someone or transforming one's self into a white person.
15. leucify -- to change one's self or another into a white.
16. notophobia -- fear of the South.
17. political southpaw -- liberal, leftist or one sympathetic to the liberal or the left's point of view.
18. vanity politics -- political beliefs that are driven more by ego than by ideals.
19. vespification -- the process of making someone or transforming one's self into a WASP.
20. vespify -- to make one's self or another into a WASP.

Liberals and Conservatives

For every person who conforms to the conventional stereotype of conservative or liberal, there are many more who fall somewhere in-between. Some people are liberal on some issues like abortion and conservative on others like gun control while others are just the other way around. Indeed, even some conventional conservatives are more complicated than they appear at first glance which might explain why the one female co-worker I knew who fought hardest against a male co-worker who was a sexist jackass was also the same woman who listened to Rush Limbaugh on a daily basis. (I'm not going to pretend that all Limbaugh fans are like her but she was definitely different than what I had expected.)

That said, liberals historically tended to be more pro-active at fighting against racism, sexism and the like while conservatives rarely participated in such fights. Granted, there were exceptions like Lincoln and Eisenhower but even these were more often than not reacting against a situation. For example, Truman took it upon himself to order the racial integration of the military while Eisenhower's decision to support the integration of Little Rock was more a reaction to events than a pro-active decision.

As for Woodrow Wilson, I would like to believe that he too was an exception since he chose to expand the limits of Jim Crow during his time in office despite his reputation as a very liberal president and not many presidents on either side of the aisle did that. Then again it was not unusual to find many Democrats -- especially in the South but also in the North as well -- who were not exactly in favor of integration.

Indeed, many of the "moderate" civil rights views that some conservatives like P.J. O'Rourke take such pride in today were once considered very radical as recently as the 1960s. For that matter, I can say the same thing about certain "moderate" views concerning feminism.

R.I.P. Don Rickles

American actor and comedian Don Rickles -- best known to my niece's generation for his part in the Toy Story movies -- closed his mouth for the last time on April 6, 2017, at age 90 .

He will be missed.

R.I.P. Richard Schickel

American film critic and journalist Richard Schickel -- best known for the many movie reviews he wrote for Time Magazine from 1965 to 2010 -- did his final editing on February 18, 2017, at age 84.

He will be missed.

Fantasy Quote of the Week

"Ye've the look of a scoundrel!" boomed the man. "And a dandysprat and a ragamuffin. Though I'll admit, for all that, ye could yet be a congressman."
--Harry Dresden meets Sir Stu in Jim Butcher's Ghost Story

Science Fiction Quote of the Week

We still do not understand what happened to Detroit.
--Murray Leinster, "Sideways in Time"

Cuento de Mi Id

"The Job Interview"

"I'm sorry, kind sir, but I would rather be a rebel than a slave," she said.

The man on the other side of the desk just sighed. "With an attitude like that, you'll never get anywhere in corporate America, Miss Pankhurst."

And Now My Left Wrist...

My left wrist has been bothering me for a couple of days now. My physical therapist recommended some pills and an ice pack but so far it has not helped. It has become increasingly difficult for me to do anything as simple as open a prescription pill container with my left hand. Fortunately, my right hand has been unaffected but then I'm left-handed. Just my luck.

I'm hoping it will ease up soon. We'll see.

What's Race Got to Do with It?

When I first saw the 1993 movie What's Love Got to Do with It?, I found it sadly amusing how much they played down the influence of racism in the life of Tina Turner as if the average moviegoer was supposed to believe that it was possible for a black woman in 1960s America to go through life without meeting one white person who was mean to her.

However, I did not realize how ridiculous that assumption was until I started adding up the number of white women I have known who have been beaten by white men (either husbands, boyfriends or whatever) -- and found that number to be depressingly high. (And I'm an introvert. Just imagine how many women in that category a more outgoing person would know.)

Yes, I realize that even the best movie in the world can't cover every pov in view in the space of two hours but there seemed to be something obscene about the way the script seemed to imply that white men -- as opposed to non-white men -- were above that type of thing. As if it somehow improves the problem of domestic violence if we can "prove" that it's their problem and not our problem.

Then again I guess I'm biased because one of those women I mentioned above was not only my best friend but a woman who later on saved my life.

It's Hard to be a Gentleman and Still Prefer Atomic Blonde

It's tempting to say that I liked the 2017 movie Atomic Blonde movie much better when it was called No Way Out but then I remember that many of the things I most hated about that 1987 movie -- the arbitrary death of a female character, the pointless twist ending, etc, -- were the same things I hated about this movie.

It did not help that I saw Salt soon after I saw this flick. As tempted as I was to quibble about various plot points in that movie, I still liked that movie better than Atomic Blonde -- and for good reason. It was the "Cold War" thriller that Atomic Blonde should have been but wasn't.

Anyway, I can see why so many critics were so disappointed in this movie. I expected more from it myself -- and now I feel foolish for doing so. Oh, well.

Charlize Theron put on a game performance but in the end, the movie didn't exactly go through new territory. When it was not borrowing from No Way Out, it was borrowing from movies like The World Was Not Enough. The most novel part of the movie was the revelation that Ms. Theron's character was bisexual. Yet it said something about this movie that as nice as the scenes between Theron and her female lover were, it did not change the fact that the rest of the movie was all too predictable. (And as other critics have noted, the fate of Theron's lover was one of those things that was all too predictable.)

I know that perhaps I should not be so quick to pass judgment on this movie -- after all, Ms. Theron did appear to be trying her best to be a convincing female James Bond -- but darn it! Salt faced many of the same problems and dealt with them in an interesting manner. Atomic Blonde did not. I could watch Salt over and over again. Atomic Blonde, by comparison, seemed hard enough to sit through once. It was not really a bad movie but in the end, it was a disappointing movie.

Quote of the Week

In each setting, toward the end of my stay and after much anxious forethought, I "came out" to a few chosen coworkers. The result was always stunningly anticlimatic, my favorite response being "Does this mean you're not going to be back on the evening shift next week?" I've wondered a lot about why there wasn't more astonishment or even indignation, and part of the answer probably lies in people's notion of "writing." Years ago, when I married my second husband, he proudly told his uncle, who was a valet parker at the time, that I was a writer. The uncle's response: "Who isn't?" Everyone literate "writes," and some of the low-wage workers I have known or met through this project write journals and poems -- even, in one case, a lengthy science fiction novel.
--Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

¡Feliz Día de Martin Luther King, Jr.!

A lot of things look easy once somebody else has done them.
--David Drake, The Military Dimension: Mark II

If that above quote doesn't sum up my view of the various attempts made by revisionists this past decade to dismiss King as a grandstander whose protests were unnecessary because an end to segregation would have eventually come anyway, I don't know what does. And it is not likely my view has changed now that we all are living in the Age of Trump.

I hope you all have a good holiday despite the existence of such foolish people.

Pop Song of the Week: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

My favorite version of a classic song from the 1930s. (Apart from Ms. Winehouse's version, of course.)

Movie Song of the Week: "Love Theme from The Godfather"

Because it's been that type of week.

Rough Night Was Rough, All Right -- Especially for the Audience

This just in: women can be rough and crude too.

At least that's the impression I got from the 2017 movie Rough Night, a gender-reversed imagining of the dark comedy Very Bad Things that managed to be more tasteless than the original but unfortunately, not all that funny. (To be fair, I didn't find Very Bad Things to be all that funny either though there are some critics who liked it better than me.) The highlight of Rough Night appeared to be Scarlett Johansson's Hilaryesque haircut though Kate McKinnon's MarySueish foreigner earned points from me for simply being one of the few characters who dared to act like a likable human being.

Of course, the main problem with the movie is that most of the actresses in Rough Night weren't playing characters; they were playing types: the fat girl, the lesbian, the lesbian of color, the foreigner, and so on. Worse yet, they were not even playing relatively entertaining types. My eyes started glazing over after the umpteenth crude joke and considering that the screenwriters managed to include almost every possible joke involving vibrators, adult diapers and fratboy humor that one could possibly put in a movie, the movie proved to be remarkably dull. Scarlett Johansson initially showed promise as a female politician based loosely upon a former Secretary of State but then she got overwhelmed by a formulaic plot that seemed to have little purpose save to make audience members my age really hate all the main characters in this movie.Even McKinnon's attempt to parody the end of Chicago did not quite work. However, the movie did succeed in making me feel sorry for Demi Moore, who had the thankless role of a bored neighbor who liked to experiment with bisexuality.

The only reason I saw this movie was because a friend wanted to see it. And I would like to think that the very fact that I went to see this flick with her says something more profound about the true nature of friendship than anything you're likely to find in this movie.

Movie Quote of the Week

That's my family, Kay, that's not me.
--Al Pacino, The Godfather (1972)

TV Quote of the Week

In my opinion, and not speaking strictly as a detective, sometimes kindness is wiser than truth.
--Peter Falk, Columbo, “Sex and the Married Detective”

Poema de Mi Id: Parte X

"I've Got No Mask"

With apologies to Robert W. Chambers and Walt Disney

I've got no mask
To hide my shame
To hide my face
Or hide my name.
I had a mask
But now I'm free.
There are no masks on me.

Bare-faced the me-ri-o
That's the only way to go.
I want the world to know
Nothing ever worries me.

I've got no mask
So I have fun
I'm not tied up to anyone.
They've got masks
But you can see
There are no masks on me.

The Muse Wears a Shoulder Holster in Detroit City

I am often haunted by the suspicion that the same older cousin who once showed me a radio script he wrote -- and thus taught me that people like me that I actually knew could write stuff worth reading -- is the same cousin doing time in the Michigan prison system for murder. I would like to believe that my memory is wrong about this. But I doubt it is.

In fact, I have several cousins who are either doing time or have done time for murder. One of them is dead; the others are still in prison as far as I know. They are all people with whom I grew up. People I considered surrogate siblings. I find it difficult to talk about this aspect of my family without sounding like Michael Corleone talking to Kay Adams about his family. Granted, I would like to think I'm a long way from being a Michael Corleone. None of my relatives are members of organized crime as far as I know and I certainly don't aspire to live the gangster lifestyle. But I do have relatives in prison and I am continually haunted by the notion that it is only by the grace of God and a few lucky breaks on my part that I never ended up there myself. I don't aspire to break the law -- though I would be a fool to deny that there were times when I was tempted. And while I consider myself smart -- well, the cousins who went to prison weren't exactly dumb either.

It would be nice to blame their sins on society but then I would have to ask myself why society did not push relatives of mine who grew up in similar circumstances to do the same thing that they did. Moreover, I don't believe that it's all that useful to society to forever use it as an alibi for the sins that one chose to commit. And I certainly don't believe that it's useful to me.

The last few times I went to the hospital, I stopped breathing while under observation. By all rights I should be dead right now but the hospital staff managed to revive me and get me breathing again. And yet despite my many health problems, I managed to outlive my younger sister and my best friend -- both people who seemed sure to outlive me. As a result, I often feel a bad case of survivor's guilt -- especially around the winter holidays.

And yet it could be worse. I could be in a prison cell. I could have blood on my hands because I took another person's life. I could feel the guilt that comes with making a very bad choice that could never be undone.

Then again guilty people don't always feel guilty. One of the cousins I mentioned above was notorious for never taking responsibility for the life he took. As far as he was concerned, she was just some lady who got in the way. Who should have minded her own business. Who did not understand that it was none of her business whether or not he took a loaded rifle over to his ex-wife's house...

I really wish I didn't have stories like that swimming around in my head. And I wish to God they weren't true. However, they are true. And they'll probably be swimming around in my head till the day I die.

R.I.P. William Goldman

Writer and screenwriter William Goldman -- best known for his novel The Princess Bride and for his screenplays for such movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid -- shut down his word processor for the last time on November 16, 2018, at age 87.

He will be missed.

R.I.P. Roy Clark

American singer Roy Clark -- best known for co-hosting the old TV series Hee-Haw with Buck Owens -- played his last note on November 15, 2018, at age 85.

He will be missed.

R.I.P. Stan Lee

Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee -- best-known for his work on The Amazing Spider-Man and other Marvel comic book titles -- signed his last autograph on November 12, 2018, at age 95.

He will be missed. 'Nuff said.

R.I.P. Sondra Locke

American actress Sondra Locke -- best known for such movies as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and The Outlaw Josey Wales -- walked off the set for the final time on November 3, 2018, at age 74.

She will be missed.

R.I.P. Bill Daily

Actor Billy Daily -- best known for playing Roger Healey on I Dream of Jeannie and Howard Borden on The Bob Newhart Show -- walked off the set for the last time on September 4, 2018, at age 91.

He will be missed.

R.I.P. Kate Wilhelm

American writer Kate Wilhelm -- best known for her 1977 Hugo-Award-winning novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang -- left to join her late husband Damon Knight on March 8, 2018, at age 89.

She will be missed.

R.I.P. Jimmy Breslin

Writer and journalist Jimmy Breslin -- most famous for writing a column for The New York Daily News and for writing such novels as The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight -- finished his final column on March 19, 2017, at age 88.

He will be missed.

Health Report

I have been seeing a physical therapist about my neck and so far her efforts have paid off. I have been back at work for over a week now and so far my neck has not bothered me like it used to. It helps that I'm doing exercises to improve my neck muscles. It helps that I am paying more attention to my posture. (Holding up your head is actually a good way to prevent future neck pain. Who knew?) And it helps that I'm getting neck rubs on a regular basis. (I used to get regular neck rubs from my mejor amiga but since she retired and is no longer with us, that is no longer an option for me.)

Of course, I'm not totally out of the woods. I recently had to change health insurance companies and as you might guess, that is causing all sorts of problems. Plus the sight of my physical therapist makes me miss my former novia and bride-to-be even though the two of them are hardly identical.

Oh, well. When I was in the hospital, I saw so many people who had worse problems...

Sueños (Dreams)

I usually don't try to read books in my dreams -- perhaps because I do enough of that while I am awake.

However, I have seen dead people in some of my dreams. No, seriously. After certain relatives and close friends have died, I had a tendency to see them in my dreams. I tried talking to them but fortunately they never talked back. Or should that be unfortunately?...

And no, I did not write all that just to win the "oddest blogger on the Internet" award.

However, I'll be sure to let you all know if I ever see Nick Andros in my dreams...

Poema de Mi Id: Parte IX

"White Trash Girl"

I want myself a white trash girl.
A chick who knows where all the pawn shops are.
A woman who looks how to use a food stamp card.
A girl whose hair smells like mayonnaise and
whose skin is the same color as cottage cheese.

I want myself a white trash girl.
A dame who hides her nakedness in Dollar Store underwear.
Who bears scars and bruises from her last boyfriend
And who continually bumps into doors when I'm not around.
A girl who still has a scar on her belly from her last child.
One who knows every last cuss word in the book -- and then some.

I want myself a white trash girl.
Of course, I could just date a girl
from the local barrio instead.
But that would be tacky.

Literary Quote I Like

Balty praised his host's admirable wall and asked if it kept out the savages.

Stuyvesant smiled. "But the wall is not for keeping out Indians. It's for keeping out English!"

"Oh," Balty said, unsure how to respond. "Has it... worked?"

Stuyvesant chortled. "It seems not. After all, here are you." He added diplomatically, "But you are welcome in New Amsterdam."

"Too kind."

"People now are saying we must have a bigger wall."

"Not on our account, I hope."

Stuyvesant shrugged. "If to this it comes, maybe I will ask your King Charles to pay for it."

"A most amusing idea. Is it not, Huncks?"

"Sartainly, his majesty would find it so."
--Christopher Buckley, The Judge Hunter

A Second Look at High Tension

Warning: Here Be Spoilers

I can think of a thousand things wrong with High Tension and I still stand by my original review but there is something about the way the ending of High Tension sticks in my mind that makes it hard to forget.



Perhaps it was the way the director took a standard image usually associated with happy endings -- in this case, a young girl eagerly turning in the direction of her current object of affection and then reaching out in that direction as if to give her a hug -- and then made it seem -- well -- creepy. The sad part is that I couldn't help sensing that Alex -- the objection of the young girl's affection -- still felt sorry for Marie -- the young girl in the mental hospital. Yet it was fairly obvious that any chance of a serious relationship between the two of them ended when Marie killed Alex's family. And that Alex had ample reason to hate Marie after everything Marie had put her through. Indeed, it could be that Alex's feeling in that final scene was not so much pity but relief that Marie was in a cell and not likely to bother her again.

Yet Marie somehow sensed that Alex was watching her even though she could not see her and turned in her direction with a facial expression that most people reserve for their deities. (Indeed, it did not seem like that much of a coincidence that the way Marie was muttering those words at the beginning of that scene made it almost sound as if Marie was praying.) Alex obviously no longer loved Marie and never did love her in the way that Marie wanted her to. But Marie still loved Alex -- and probably will continue to do so till the day she dies -- even though her violent actions have ended any realistic hope she ever had of ever being loved back.

Some people would consider that last part a happy ending and separated from the rest of the movie, one might even be fooled into thinking that it was. In context, though, it seemed far more scarier than the ending of any conventional final girl thriller.

Movie Quote of the Week

You don't vote for kings.
--Graham Chapman, Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

TV Quote of the Week

I got what the world would call a normal, boring job. I wake up in the morning, get dressed, drive myself to work, put on a nametag... take my brain out of my skull and place it in a drawer. I spend the next 9 hours smiling at people, pretending to be interested in their happiness, tolerating the company of my coworkers... staring at the clock. At the end of the day, I take my nametag off, open the drawer, reach for my brain, plop it back inside, walk to the employee parking lot, drive myself home and it's really, really... really boring. Looks like I'm going to be doing it for a long, long time.
--Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds, "No Man Is Pudding"

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Weeds: “No Man Is Pudding”

I've been wanting to avoid talking about certain episodes of the fourth season of Weeds because that was when the show started to become maddeningly uneven. Not because of the Mexican characters. In fact, when I look back at that season, I get more irritated by the white non-Hispanic characters like the one played by Albert Brooks. But I get a sense from certain online comments by fans of Weeds that the whole show started going downhill in the fourth season because the main character Nancy Botwin got involved with Mexicans and that was the fault of the Mexican characters that the show kept going downhill. I don't agree with that argument. However, I suspect that a lot of people out there do.

In any event, "No Man Is Pudding" is one of my favorite episodes of Weeds if for no other reason that it has such a surreally WTF-type ending. I have tried several times to try to think of a written description that could do it justice but perhaps the best way to describe it is to show you this.



And yes, that was Demián Bichir of A Better Life fame standing there at the end with a big cigar in his hand. For that matter, Mary-Louise Parker -- aka Nancy Botwin -- also put on a pretty good performance even though most of it in that sequence was just a reaction.

Anyway, with all this talk about building a wall on the Mexican-U.S, border, I could not help thinking of this sequence as the ultimate argument against such a project. There are obviously more idealistic reasons but I don't see President Trump paying much attention to those. "They're just going to go under it" is no doubt far from the best argument I can come up with but at least there is a small -- very small -- chance that he might listen to it. But who knows?

Then again there have already been real-life examples of that tunnel -- and yet Trump is still trying to go ahead with his Wall project. Heck, there was even one on the Canadian-U.S. border. I'm kinda surprised that we haven't heard more about that one.

And now I'm imagining a bunch of Canadians in Ontario digging a tunnel under the Detroit River and finally saying upon its completion. "Okay, hosers! We're open for business."

Hmmm.

Perhaps I'm better off thinking about that tunnel in terms of yonic symbolism. Nancy Botwin stares into a tunnel and sees -- what, exactly? Life? Death? A path to heaven? Her own -- ahem -- yoni? The mind boggles at the possibilities. I might have to write another essay about this episode very soon. We'll see.

Song Quote of the Week

But I left my soul behind me
In an old cathedral town.
--Al Dubin and Harry Warren, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

My comment: I hate it when that happens.

Contracultura and Daniel Ellsberg

When I moved to Texas I found myself attending school with kids who were taught that Vietnam War protester and folk singer Joan Baez was a Communist. Interestingly enough, that didn't prevent Baez's big hit "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" from being performed in a school play but then I doubt they necessarily associated said song with her political views. Nor do I believe they picked up on the fact that Baez's version was probably meant not so much to be a defense of Dixie as it was to be an anti-war song.

Even today, I come across some people -- including people way younger than me who practice many of the same customs as your average hippie -- who use "hippie" as an insult. Usually they say something like, "Of course so-and-so is fucked up. Her parents were hippies." But the sentiment is still there.

And, of course, back in the 1990s, it was common for people in my Catholic singles group to note that you could get away with a pro-JFK sentiment more easily in Boston than you could in Dallas.

That said, we shouldn't pretend that Daniel Ellsberg -- the journalist responsible for the the Pentagon Papers --was all that popular in his day. Much of the country's idea of political commentary back then began and ended with Merle Haggard and even moderate newsman Walter Cronkite--aka "the most trusted man in America"--was considered dangerously liberal in some quarters.

Despite attempts at evenhandedness in our high school history class, it seemed obvious to me when I was young that my teachers were biased toward the pro-establishment view of the Vietnam War and indeed, it wasn't until I ran into a fellow high school student who claimed to be a socialist that I met anyone who could explain what the fuss about the Pentagon Papers was all about.

And if you read the stuff written by people who actually lived through the period--for example, Harlan Ellison's "Glass Teat" columns--you'll note that there was as much despair over the effectiveness of the counterculture back then -- in an era which it was supposedly making much progress -- as there is today.

Quick Note: This is an excerpt from a comment I made in response to a discussion on another site several year ago in which the topic was the decline of the American contrac -- er -- counterculture. I hope it was not too eccentric.

Quote of the Week

It’s about who they believe
they is. You hardly even there.
--Anders Carlson-Wee, "How-To", The Nation, July 5, 2018

Poema de Mi Id: Parte VIII

"Lessons"

Before the new kids came,
they told you all sorts of sad stories
about them and their parents.
Then you got beat up on the first day
the new kids came to school.
And when you hit back,
you got into even more trouble.
The people who ran things refused to believe
you were only defending yourself.
Though they talked a lot about justice,
they were not really interested in defending it.
So you decided from then on
to not make waves
and to not hit back
when the new kids tried to hit you.
Instead, you learned to hit first.

Poema de Mi Id: Parte VII

"Respect"

Don't disrespect your older cousin,
his beloved father said,
not so much for your cousin's sake
but for the sake for your grandmother
who still remembers him as a young boy,
innocent and full of promise,
and who must now visit him in prison,
where he'll undoubtedly be
for the rest of his natural life.

Dueling Quotes

Here is where you'll always find me,
Always walking up and down.
--Al Dubin and Harry Warren, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.
--Job 1:7, King James Version

Pop Song of the Week: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

I was going to post the Helen Ward version of this song since that is the version I most listen to and that's obviously my favorite. But then when I was doing research on the Internet, I discovered this live cover version -- made by the one singer I would have never associated with this song. And she sings it Latin style as well -- which makes her a honorary Latina.

Sadly, the singer in question is no longer with us but then neither are a lot of people I think about nowadays. Then again it's always depressing to reflect upon the number of young celebrities that I managed to outlive.

Movie Song of the Week: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"

Yes, I posted the Ted Weems version of this song in an earlier post. Now I post the original version that was used in the 1934 movie Moulin Rouge. (Yes, Baz Luhrmann fans, that title does sound familiar.)

Why am I posting this, you ask? Well, the Helen Ward version has been in my head for the past couple of days so I thought I'd post this version as well. And it didn't hurt that this version had the most unique variation on the traditional Mexican hat dance that I've ever seen.

Contrary to what you might think, the musical numbers were not choreographed by Busby Berkeley but by an imitator named Russell Markert. And the vocalist is supposed to be Constance Bennett, an actress who did one other musical apart from this one.

Pensamientos Acerca de Televisión

Doctor Who (The Second Series): “The Sound of Drums”

If "Utopia" -- the previous episode to this episode deserved credit for having the best cliffhanger endings of the second series of Doctor Who, this episode deserved equal credit -- or rather blame -- for having one of the show's dumber endings.

It did have some clever bits -- such as using a version of the Doctor Who theme to represent the sound that was driving John Simm's Master character crazy. But for the most part, it seemed too melodramatic even for me -- and I usually like melodrama.

The plot can be best be summed by these song lyrics:

John Simm: I’m number one, you’re Doctor Who.

We’re aliens at large, but I’m at larger than you.

I’m number one, you’re Doctor Who.
I believe in equality as long as you get less than me.
I’m one, you’re Doctor Who.
You may think that you’re smarter, but I’m smarter-er than you.

I’m number one, you’re Doctor Who.
You’re lucky to be Doctor Who not Doctor She.

I can see by the look in your eye
You want to get a bigger piece of the pie.
One day you’ll get your chance
But in the meantime you’ve got to dance, doctor, dance!

David Tennant: Really?

John Simm: Do it, dance, Doctor, dance!

A-ha!

David Tennant: I’m Doctor Who, he’s number one.
I can’t believe I’m working for a Gallifreyan.
I’m Doctor Who, he’s number one.

John Simm: I’M NUMBER ONE!

David Tennant: You know life ain’t worth shit, when your boss is a twit.
I can see it’s just a matter of time
Before he’s gone and I’m at the front of the line.
It won’t be long ’til I’ll get my chance.
But in the meantime, I’ve got to dance, Doctor, dance.

John Simm: That’s it, number two! Come on, dance, Doctor, dance!
Now watch me…

John Simm: I’m number one. David Tennant: He’s number one.

John Simm: You’re Doctor Who. David Tennant: I’m Doctor Whoooooo.

John Simm: That’s it kid, there you go. Now step aside, this ain’t your show!

John Simm: I’m one. David Tennant: I’m one.

John Simm: I’m number one. David Tennant: Yes, we know.

John Simm: I’m number one.

David Tennant: He’s number one.

John Simm: That’s how it’s done.

Trailer of the Week: The Curious Creations of Christine McConnell

I normally don't post trailers for TV shows but I'm starting to wonder if I should change that policy.

In the meantime, I can't help thinking that this trailer is almost too good to be true. And yet it makes me want to renew my Netflix subscription much more than anything else I've seen from them thus far.

Movie Quote of the Week

You don't have to agree with a man in order to respect him.
--Walter Matthau, First Monday in October (1981)

TV Quote of the Week

Oh, Peggy. I'll always be in your head.
--Bridget Regan, Agent Carter, "A Little Song and Dance"

TV Song of the Week: "Whatcha Gonna Do (It's Up to You)"

Thanks to an -- shall we say -- eccentric fanfic site, I've been reliving memories of the TV show Agent Carter this past week and of course, this big musical number is one of the most memorable of them. I wish I had discovered this show before the second season. For that matter, I wish it had lasted more than two seasons. But apparently all that was not meant to be.

In the meantime, it says something about the show's influence that Ms. Peggy Carter is still stuck in my head -- even more so than her famous novio, Captain America. For that matter, Dottie Underwood is still there too but then anyone's who seen this video can probably guess that.

Most Thrillers Nowadays Actually Could Use a Grain of Salt...

If you were to mention the phrase "Russian conspiracy involving the U.S. President" today, it's a safe bet that most Americans would not think of the scenario mentioned in the 2010 movie Salt...

Nevertheless, for such a "dated" movie, it seemed surprisingly watchable. Indeed, I enjoyed the last half of this movie more than I did the last Mission: Impossible movie. (I knew I was in trouble with that one because while it wasn't really a bad movie, the plot was predictable enough that I actually started missing such sparkling dialogue like "the package is on the plane" -- which, of course, is a line from yet another Mission: Impossible movie. But I digress.)

Anyway, as tempted as I am to crack jokes about poor Angelina Jolie doing the Sydney Bristow routine and going all Alias on us, I actually liked this movie. Of course, due to my ethnic background, I could not help but find something ironic about a movie that basically asked us the audience to root for an accused woman who was actually guilty of the crime of which she was accused. Granted, she eventually redeemed herself by saving the world and proving herself to have been a good person all along -- if that is the correct terminology to use in regard to someone who showed no mercy in killing so many people -- but still...

In any event, Tom Cruise was originally supposed to play the title role in this movie and it's only after he backed out that Angelie Jolie took over. In a way, it's a good thing. The scene where she watched the villain through a glass window and tried to speak to him with her eyes and her facial expressions just wouldn't have worked with an actor like Mr. Cruise. And Ms. Jolie has played enough tough characters that she was more convincing in the role despite her size than I would have ordinarily thought possible -- even when she was being thrown around by someone who was so much bigger than she was. (Then again fights with the Great Big Guy are almost obligatory in this type of thriller.)

I suppose I should wrap up by commenting on the irony of an American action movie in which the native-born Yankees do little save sit around while a dang foreigner does all the real work involving in preventing World War III. Then again, isn't that the same premise you find in most James Bond movies? And look how popular they are with the Yanks!

¡Bienvenidos, 2019!

It's about time you got here. Which is just as well since -- as Virginia Bruce might say -- it looks like you're going to be one of those years.

Oh, well. I hope all my loyal readers have enjoyed the New Year thus far in a safe and responsible fashion.

Good luck in the days ahead!