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 |    My primary Writing.com blog. |
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Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics). Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:  "The Soundtrackers Group"  "Invalid Item" "Blogging Circle of Friends " "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise" "JAFBG" "Take up Your Cross" Thanks for stopping by!  |
Explainer ▼ Movies  The Muppets (2011) Muppets Most Wanted Snake EyesTelevision  Barry (Seasons 2 & 3) Bosch: Legacy (Season 1) The Boys (Season 1) Ms. MarvelFor some reason, I had never gotten around to watching the two most recent Muppets movies until now. We watched them last weekend with the kids and I was shocked at how funny they were. Not just kid humor, but tons of inside jokes about show business that are meant for grown-ups. As cheesy as the movies are, they were genuinely fun and I find myself wanting to revisit a bunch of the other Muppets properties with the kids that have been created over the years. Snake Eyes, on the other hand, is yet another entry in the "nobody knows how to make a good G.I. Joe movie" genre. If you're familiar with the property, Snake Eyes is the good ninja that works for the Joes. Storm Shadow is the evil ninja that works for COBRA. And somehow, inexplicably, they made this a movie where Snake Eyes is a complete garbage person who is welcomed in by Storm Shadow, treated like a brother, and betrays him at every single step along the way. By the end of the movie, Snake Eyes has basically taken Storm Shadow's place in his own family, and when he stalks off and joins COBRA it's kind of like, "Yeah, no wonder why." Also, Henry Golding may be pretty to look at, but he's clearly terrible at stunts and fight training.  On the television front, I watched our new series Ms. Marvel that comes out in June, as well as the new Bosch: Legacy spinoff series which I love, don't get me wrong (because the original Amazon Prime series is great), but for the life of me I can't figure out why they made it. It was made for Freevee, a streaming service that used to be IMDb TV which is owned by... Amazon. So Amazon basically has a completely secondary streaming service for which they're... creating new spinoff shows based on shows Amazon Prime itself has canceled. I finally got caught up on Barry which is excellent (although Season 3 takes a real turn in a lot of ways and it's a little jarring compared to what came in the two seasons before), and I fell in love with The Boys which is an irreverent take on superheroes (specifically super teams like the Justice League) and what would happen in a world where they're complete assholes, narcissists, and have the same mental problems the rest of us have. Honestly, if you're at all a fan of superhero fare and you don't mind a darker twist on in, this is a great show that turns a lot of tropes on their head. It's delightfully dark and twisted.  TOP PICK: The Boys |
Explainer ▼ I'm really, really late posting April's watch list, but I did keep track of everything: Movies The Batman Death on the NileTelevision Barry (Season 1) Is It Cake? (DNF) Last Week Tonight (Season 9) Law & Order (Season 21)I was really looking forward to The Batman, which might have had something to do with my overall lackluster impression of it. A lot of my friends absolutely loved it and raved about it, but I found it to be generally good-but-not-great. Part of the issue was the pacing; at 176 minutes, there were a lot of gratuitous shots of brooding Bruce, rain falling, Batman's cape fluttering in the breeze, etc. They missed an opportunity for a great two hours and instead made it an okay three hours. Death on the Nile was beautifully shot but also felt a little indulgent on Kenneth Branagh's part. When you're both the director and the star, maybe don't spend so much time lingering on yourself. As far as television goes, finally getting on the Barry bandwagon and it's great. Really offbeat and quirky and fun. I'll write more about it next month now that I'm caught up and on Season 3. Law & Order is the newest revival of the venerable series with a (mostly) new cast and, for the most part, it hasn't changed a bit. Same formula, same character archetypes. If you liked the old Law & Order, there's very little to dislike about the new one (mostly because there's very little that's different). Last Week Tonight continues to be my favorite comedy news program. The deep dive they do on important, topical subjects is great, and the stunts they pull are always aimed at raising awareness of the week's issue. This season has done some really excellent explainers, including on the topics of what critical race theory really is, police interrogations, wrongful convictions, sex work, and data brokers. Is It Cake? was a fun idea for a show that I didn't need to watch more than two episodes of. It's a reality show and the idea is that expert cake decorators make cakes that look like other things (each episode has a theme, so one episode was making cake that looked like junk food, one was making cakes that looked like designer handbags, etc.), and contestants have to try and guess which one is the cake and which one is real. Like I said, it's a fun idea... but the host is absolutely obnoxious and stretches out a ten minute concept into thirty minutes with annoying banter and fake drama among the cake decorators... so this one was definitely a DNF. I don't need to see a whole season of this stuff. TOP PICK: Last Week Tonight |
I keep meticulous track of all the books, scripts, and comics I read every year. Plus the podcasts I listen to. But the one thing I don't do very often is write about the things I watch. I don't really know why I haven't until this point, but I recently noticed that a friend of mine writes up a "media consumption" post on Facebook every month and I thought I might start doing the same. To qualify for the list, it has to be something that I've watched that's new to me. It doesn't necessarily have to be a current show, it just can't be reruns of something I've already seen. So if I'm including it in this list, it means this month is the first time I've watched it. I won't list the stuff I lost interest in quickly, but I'll put "DNF" (Did Not Finish) next to anything that I stopped watching and have no immediate plans to finish. So without further ado, here's February's watch list: Movies The 355 F9 Free Guy The Kindness of Strangers Turning Red The Weekend AwayTelevision The Bad Batch Moon Knight Pieces of HerThere really wasn't anything this month that totally blew me away, but then again I didn't watch a whole lot of stuff either. Free Guy was a movie I've been meaning to watch for a long time and I'm glad I finally got around to seeing it. Same with F9, but the Fast & Furious movies have been more about laughing about how dumb they are than appreciating them on their merits. And I'm really proud of our new Marvel show that debuted this week. It's a good one.  TOP PICK: Moon Knight |
"JAFBG" | Prompt ▼ One of the most backwards-thinking and harmful concepts we've ever come up with as a society is that someone's worth is inherently tied to their productivity, and that basic human needs such as food, housing, etc. need to be earned. No, people who receive state benefits shouldn't be forced to volunteer for charity, FFS. While there is certainly a conversation to be had around setting appropriate guardrails and systems by which society can address abuses of public assistance programs, that is not the same thing as a work requirement in order to qualify for those benefits in the first place. The people who rely on public assistance are not a monolith. There are people who can't work for any of a number of reasons, including but not limited to disability, lack of skills, lack of opportunity, and existing socioeconomic biases. Are we really going to say someone, "Hey, because you're unable to work for a local charity, you don't deserve to eat? To have a roof over your head? To seek medical treatment?" Human dignity shouldn't have a cost attached to it. It's also important to keep the bigger picture in mind, and to weigh the scope of a solution against its unintended consequences. Take all these dumb "election integrity" laws (a.k.a. voter suppression) making the rounds in state legislatures these days. How widespread is the problem of election fraud, and what is the cost of eliminating it entirely? Let's look at some data from the State of Texas: Since 2004, Texas has issued 534 election-related criminal charges (which in and of itself is misleading because at least one individual was responsible for 100+ of those charges because they tampered with the ballots of disabled senior citizens on a large scale). Even if you count all 534 charges over the past 18 years, that's still less than 30 charges per year, in as state where an election typically has between 5 and 15 million votes counted. That means election fraud only applies to somewhere between 0.0002% and 0.0006% of the ballots. And yet the new voting restriction laws in Texas just resulted in 23,000 ballots (about 17% of those received) being rejected from the latest primary, which means that these measures are combating a one-in-five-thousand problem by invalidating the otherwise legitimate votes of one-in-five citizens. The solution is creating more of a problem (albeit a different one) than the original problem ever was. Some might argue that's the whole point, but that's a topic for another blog post. But consider a work requirement for public benefits in the same context. Let's say we're very concerned about the number of people who receive state benefits that are, at best, kicking back and living on free assistance. Or, at worst, are actually scamming the system. So we decide that we're going to make everybody who receives that assistance "work" to "earn" it. How many people would be kicked off those assistance programs because of their inability to work? And aren't those the people that, by definition, need the assistance the most? How many people would we be hurting to ensure the handful of bad actors didn't get away with their fraud? Don't get me wrong, the system shouldn't be wide open and allowed to go unchecked. There should be a mechanism for evaluating cases and determining fraudulent behavior and other abuses of the public trust. But the onus of that should be on the state, not the individuals receiving the assistance. If you're worried about too many freeloaders on public assistance programs, vote to raise taxes and allocate more to the enforcement of those programs rather than putting heavier burdens on those who rely on the programs. If you're worried about voter integrity, vote for candidates who advocate more resources for and improvements to the election systems rather than those who look for ways to simply make it harder for people to actually vote. If you hate abortion, vote for a better social safety net so that expectant mothers have a range of options (adoption through a well-functioning foster system, being a stay at home mom with public assistance, being a working mom with access to affordable childcare, etc.) so that abortion is no longer the only viable alternative to supporting and caring for a child - often alone and with little support - for the next eighteen years. No one should be forced to work in order to meet their basic survival needs, and the idea of requiring people to volunteer for a charity in exchange for the assistance they need to survive is a misguided concept that will create more problems than it solves. |
(566 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #10Prompt ▼ Andre got into the bar business as a matter of necessity. He acquired the Banana Bar specifically, as a matter of circumstance. In the days following that first "world" tour with The Muse ("Andre's Tour" ), Andre was just a mild-mannered monkey with a portative organ ("Andre's Instrument" ) hoping to make a name for himself with his magnum opus, a K-pop inspired Christian folk metal epic currently entitled Breakdancing My Way Through The Bible: A Folk Metal Odyssey ("Andre's Genre" ). But once he received his first royalty check for $3.28, he realized he wasn't going to be able to finance his dream project without some additional capital. As one might imagine, investing in a musical concept album at the bleeding edge of the intersection between K-pop, Christian music, and folk metal was a tough sell. Andre wasn't able to find anyone who would give him the money outright, and his attempt at a Kickstarter failed miserably. In retrospect, offering backer rewards like, "whatever's between the cushions of my couch" and "a Kraft mac-and-cheese dinner cooked for you by the visionary artist" probably didn't do him any favors. Nor did the surprisingly concerted effort by the various autocephalous archdiocese of New York in response to the unfortunate incident with a non-portative organ ("Andre's Termination" ).However, with some support (financial, not moral) from Steve Winwood ("Andre's Teacher" ) plus a surprising amount of loose change raised from street performances of a metal version of "We Don't Talk About Bruno," "Andre's Song" , Andre was able to scrape together several thousand dollars to invest in a business that would create some income to help fund his passion project. That several thousand dollars got nearly cut in half when Andre got a call in the middle of the night from The Muse ("Andre's Partner" ) who needed to be bailed out of a Micronesian prison ("Andre's Legacy" ) for unspecified crimes against a Pelew flying fox, and Andre felt like he owed him one thanks to how much The Muse had helped him with his magnum opus ("Andre's Collaboration" ).Long story short, Andre wasn't exactly able to be selective about his investment opportunities. And that's where the Banana Bar comes into the story. Andre, feeling a little discouraged at having so much of his hard-earned cash go to bailing out a friend and limiting his investment options, happened upon the Banana Bar while he was in need of a drink. He stopped in and was enjoying the best Rumchata Banana Cream Pie cocktail he'd ever had in his life ("Andre's Party" ) when he overheard the then-proprietor of the bar discussing some costly updates with a repairman she had called out. Money was tight and she had no way to pay for the needed updates. Andre, whose musical talents were rivaled only by his generosity, left the remainder of his hard-earned cash as a massive 50,000% tip on his Rumchata drink.The proprietor rushed outside to ask why he'd overpaid for an $8 drink by about $4,000. Andre just shrugged and said that he believed she'd put it to better use than he would. She invited him back for another drink, and they got to talking. Talking turned into repeat visits, and repeat visits turned into friendship. Ultimately, when the woman passed away a couple years later, she left the Banana Bar to Andre in her will. He continues to own and operate the bar in her memory, while working on his music on the side. |
(302 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #9Prompt ▼ Were The Muse and Andre a one-hit wonders in the sense that they only had one song and one tour together as an actual performing act? Technically, that's correct. But that's not to say that The Muse and Andre stopped being collaborators. After all, you can't call a concept album an "odyssey" without putting in an enormous amount of work, and Andre frequently relies on the creative efforts of The Muse as he puts his magnum opus together. In that way, they're a lot like Lin-Manuel Miranda and Alex Lacamoire. Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme. Steven Spielberg and John Williams. Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis. It's an open question (albeit among very few) whether additional collaborations between The Muse and Andre would have catapulted them into the mainstream. Both are staggeringly talented musicians, but were perhaps ahead of their time. Christian metal and folk metal hadn't really been combined before (or since), and when you throw in their mutual love and incorporation of K-pop... well, the overlap on the Venn Diagram for that one is pretty teeny tiny. Still, Andre is undeterred in his mission to bring Breakdancing My Way Through The Bible: A Folk Metal Odyssey to the public. He continues to work on it in his off hours from the Banana Bar, and frequently finds himself running ideas by The Muse. These days, the two of them mostly collaborate via a private Discord server that was set up for them by a Banana Bar patron who couldn't settle out his tab one night. They've been using it ever since, both because The Muse is currently on his South Pacific Island Nation tour, and because neither of them can figure out how to Skype or Zoom. Plus, both of them agree that the Tenor GIF keyboard is far superior to Giphy. |
(367 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #8Prompt ▼ After modest success on local radio stations, Andre and The Muse's record label decided it was time for the big leagues and set them up on a world tour. Okay, maybe not the "big leagues" (Los Angeles and New York and Chicago are expensive!), but definitely the concert world equivalent of a minor league Triple-A affiliate. Okay, maybe more like the double-A farm system. Their United States tour included stops at the finest dive bars, public amphitheaters, and empty warehouse spaces the following cities had to offer:  Calexico, CA / Mexicali, MX* Yuma, AZ Las Cruces, NM Kileen, TX Texarkana, TX Murfreesboro, TN Sandusky, OH Flint, MI Fort Dodge, IA Bismarck, ND Bozeman, MT Laramie, WY Vernal, UT Winnemucca, NV Bend, OR Redding, CAThe record label was a little tight on funds, so The Muse and Andre often had to sleep on the tour bus (which was actually the label president's rusted-out 1987 Ford Econoline 150 Camper) and found themselves having to work to earn their meals. "Corporate events with coordinators who couldn't care less" and "weddings that had lost their DJ at the last minute" were their real bread-and-butter during this tour. Sometimes quite literally, because they found themselves often subsisting on leftover table bread and pats of butter. The world tour being a "big success" was somewhat of an exaggeration on the part of the label to hype up their two biggest performing artists at the time. Still, if you consider the fact that they started the tour with zero albums sold and ended the tour with... checks notes.... fourteen albums sold, then it was quite a success. * The opening set of this show was held in the parking lot of the Jack in the Box on Rockwood Avenue between 1st and 2nd Streets, with the second set following from the dining room of "FLAUTAS Mi Nuevo Ranchito" off Calle Agustin Melgar. Some people accused the label of pulling a stunt just so they could say it was a "world tour" spanning multiple countries. (Those people were Andre and The Muse.) (They also happened to be correct.) |
(317 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #7Prompt ▼ NOTE: This song is set to something along the lines of the first song ("Siegfried's Song" - 00:00 to 02:53) Andre and The Muse's first hit song together ended up also being their first foray into Christian Folk Metal. The Muse, well known bad boy of the Christian music scene, joined forces with Andre and his folk metal roots to come up with the following song: (rasping, wailing vocals) Jeeesussss King of Kings Son of the Living God Alpha and Omega Jeeesussss Come have your way with me Help me to really see What is now and what will be Oh pretty, pretty plea(se) (rasping, wailing vocals) Jeeesussss Fountain of Living Waters True Vine Lamb of God Jeeesussss (fading out) The Way The Truth The Life The lyrics are short, of course, but intended to be repeated over and over again for nine and a half minutes straight. The success of this track is what ended up inspiring Andre to develop his Breakdancing My Way Through The Bible: A Folk Metal Odyssey in a similar fashion where, if played straight through and only once, the concept album is done in about twenty minutes. But, out of respect for his fans, and to bring resonance and gravitas to the material, the repetition of the lyrics has BMWTTB:AFMO currently at a run-time of nearly eight hours. While Andre admits that this will likely be problematic from the standpoint of booking venues and playing enough shows to offset the cost to stage everything, he has to give the source material its due, and obviously if one is to do a K-pop-inspired folk metal magnum opus on the glory of God structured in parallel with the Holy Bible, one best come prepared to wrestle with it for a while. Bathroom breaks during the show are highly discouraged, so please don't bring any beverages into the theater... for your own sake. |
(305 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #6Prompt ▼ Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. Brandy and Monica. Jay-Z and Alicia Keys. Beyonce and Lady Gaga. Everybody knows that, as a musical artist, what you can accomplish on your own can often pale in comparison to what you can accomplish with another talented performer. Since the beginning of the modern recording industry, duets and musical collaborations have become hit songs, breakthrough concept albums, and ways to create exciting new sounds for audiences to enjoy. Which is not to say that the collaboration between Andre and the mercurial artist known professionally as "The Muse" was purely about public exposure or money, even if it was mostly about those things. Andre's portative organ playing was renowned in the world of folk metal, but he had very little exposure to mainstream rock. And The Muse was looking for a new sound to supplement the guitar-bass-keyboard-drums quartet that's been so popular among rock bands for years. It all started late one night when The Muse finished a set early and decided to wander the streets in search of some late-night life. He was walking by the Banana Bar when he heard the haunting sounds of a portative organ doing a rendition of Van Halen's "Panama." He wandered into the bar and the rest, as they say, is history. The Muse invited Andre up to his hotel suite to discuss a potential collaboration. After spending the night in a booze-and-narcotics-infused creative frenzy, they awoke to a trashed hotel room, a ten thousand dollar room service bill, a basically finished song, and two-thirds of the first act of Breakdancing My Way Through The Bible sketched out. They also woke up in a completely drained jacuzzi tub wearing each other's clothes, with no memory of what led to that. And they've been working together off-and-on ever since. |
(315 words) "Invalid Item" | March Musical Monkey Madness Day #5Prompt ▼ Andre is as susceptible as anyone else to getting earworms (the songs that get stuck in your head, not those gross things that cats sometimes have to get medication for). The tune du jour changes from time to time, but the one he's currently been stuck with for the past few months has been "We Don't Talk About Bruno" from the Encanto soundtrack. Which isn't surprising, really, as that's a very popular song among kids and their parents right now. However, Andre was never one for following the status quo, and he does have a background in folk metal to consider, so he's instead opted to have a heavy metal cover of the song by Skar Productions featuring Alina Lesnick: Obviously Lin-Manuel Miranda's lyrics are genius, but for those of you who find the Disney version a little too tame, or have ever thought to yourself, "This song from a family-friendly musical would be way better with someone absolutely shredding a bass," then this might be the right choice for you. Love kids' songs but don't want to be caught dead blasting them from your car stereo at a stop sign without some sick speed drumming? Maybe consider this version of the song. This is exactly the song that Andre needs to get into the mental headspace necessary to work on his Christian K-pop folk metal passion project. Just a couple quick versions and guitar riffs are enough to get the creative juices flowing. He's even considered inviting Skar Productions (and Lin-Manuel Miranda, obvi) to collaborate on a couple of the tracks. But even if it's a no from them, he'll always have this sensational match-up to lift his spirits. Andre can't see himself replacing this song with another earworm anytime soon, although he might be tempting fate by listening to a number of different grindcore covers of Eddie Money's "Take Me Home Tonight." |
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