Month: July 2019

  • What I Noticed at the Debate

    I watched the debates as I am a political junkie, and I also think being a pundit is the easiest and at the same time, dumbest job around. (“I want to make predictions not based on fact, but sound like they are based on facts, but in reality, it’s just my opinion, though I will try to make you think it’s a fact.” Pundit!)

    Here is my punditry!

    Mayor Pete was the only person who said anything last night that resonated with me. He said, “It’s time to stop worrying about what the Republicans will say. Look, if it’s true that if we embrace a far-left agenda, they’re going to say we’re a bunch of crazy socialists. If we embrace a conservative agenda, you know what they’re going to do? They’re going to say that we’re a bunch of crazy socialists.”

    It also reminds me of a General Grant saying. Now, I am paraphrasing, but the context was that when he arrived out east to fight General Lee and was making his battle plans, Grant’s staff keep warning what Lee’s response might be. Grant grew frustrated and said to, stop worrying about what Lee will do to you, and start planning on what you will do to Lee.

    This is what I think the difference between the moderates and progressives in the Democratic Party comes down to; reaction and action. One group is more worried about the reaction, and the other is planning the action. I don’t think the progressives are right on most issues, but they are way more inspiring than the worriers.

  • Day Off, Yesterday

    We moved again, to a bigger apartment this time. The extra space we have gained has come in the form of guest bedroom, that will also be used as an office. I had the day off from work yesterday, and I choose to take the day to set it up. I put all of my journals out, and pulled some books from one of the many box of books we have. In the roughest sense, I am ready to go. To go and start creating. I was ready…

    And then I took a lunch break, and never really got back to it.

    Part of what got me wrapped up was all the Trump/Squad racist garbage that couldn’t seem to ignore or get away from. It was all over the TV, and the internet, and all of my friends were up in arms on social media about the vile racist Trump is. And we all should be upset by the crap that man says as he is trying to be reelected by dividing and hating.

    And through all of this, I have this awful feeling that Trump will be reelected. Then I saw this in the Times this morning, and it didn’t make me feel better.

    That is the awfulness of Trump, and how effective he is at getting under everyone’s skin, and sucking the air out of every room. I had my own work to do yesterday, and I just got side tracked into thinking about how deeply racist this country is. Clearly, we as American’s need to keep working at the state of race relations, and inequality in this country. But, it won’t get better if Trump wins another term.

    And yet here we are…

  • Tales from the Video Store: Rocktober Blood (1984)

    I once worked in a video store in the 90’s. Let’s be clear, it was a bad job; low pay, awful hours, unscrupulous owners… but if you were a movie fan, nothing could be better. The video store gave me the opportunity to watch great movies, and it also gave me to chance to watch some of the worst. And I love watching schlocky bad movies. At the bottom shelf in the “Horror” section, I came to discover the slasher music extravaganza that is Rocktober Blood.

    (I’m just going to call SPOILERS right now. Not that any of us care, just outta respect)

    Lucky for all of us, I was able to find the movie on YouTube. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIvojCCVvSY) The print might not be the best, but to be honest, the movie is awful, so the bad quality might help add to the kitsch.

    The movie was released in 1984, and lordy, do we get a documentation of the Los Angles metal scene of that time. It was awesome seeing the hi-top sneakers, sleeveless shirts, teased out hair, and the style I liked most was all the rising sun Japanese stuff, which I had forgotten about.

    So… Plot… We actually start in 1982 as Billy is in the recording studio cutting his latest track “I’m Back” We get to meet Lynn, Billy’s backup singer, and I guess girlfriend, or was… It’s not real clear. Billy and the rest of the band head out of the studio, leaving Lynn, Kevin the engineer, and Mary who is Kevin’s assistant to finish work on the record. Lynn and Kevin try to record some backing vocals for the song “Rainbow Eyes.” It doesn’t go well, and Lynn decides to go to the jacuzzi upstairs because the target demographic for this movie was teenage boys.

    But wait, Billy returns and slits Kevin’s throat, and then kills Mary by impaling her on a mounted wall peg. Then Lynn comes downstairs, having not heard a thing because jacuzzi’s used to be really loud, and she finds Billy smoking “drugs” at the console while listening to “I’m Back” backwards. Now, like I said, this was 1984, and we were all not supposed to do drugs, thanks Nancy Regan, and not listen to our music backwards, because that’s where all of Satan’s messages were. Billy attacks Lynn, and while holding her at knife point, a security guard walks in. How does the guard save Lynn? Well, like all good heroes, he RUNS. THE FUCK. AWAY. To which Billy chases after him, thus saving Lynn. And… that’s it…

    We immediately jump cut to two years later, at a party where it’s announced that Billy’s old band is getting back together, with Lynn as the lead singer, and they are about to go on tour playing Billy’s songs, and by the way, Billy was found guilty of murder, executed, though he claimed he was innocent. Who knew the justice system worked so fast in 1984?

    There is some amazing stuff happening in this party scene. For me, the most impressive is that at the party there is a dude in a monster mask who is dancing, then starts doing some mime work, and ends with breakdancing. I had forgotten, as I am sure you had too, that breakdancing mimes were all the rage in the 80’s. It was Morning in America for spinning on your back.

    All is not well at the party, because when Lynn goes looking for her manager, Chris, she ends up in a very dimly lit attic where she is surprised by no other than Billy! Lynn gets away, and Chris, being the responsible type, sends her and her friends to a mountain cabin to relax before the big show.

    As I am sure you guessed, Billy follows them to the cabin, kills one friend in the jacuzzi, and then terrorizes Lynn as she gets out of the bath. Again, this was made of teenage boys.

    Enough of that, Chris sends everyone back to LA to get ready for the concert. Lynn can’t let go about Billy for some strange reason, and proceeds to dig up Billy’s grave to only find a very last minute cartoonish prop of a skeleton in the coffin. I’m sorry, I mean Billy’s body. Problem solved, right? Billy is dead and Lynn’s crazy! Let go play that concert of Billy’s songs!

    Not so fast! Billy is ready for Lynn, because what else does he have to do that week. Billy kidnaps Lynn before the show, and he launches into a monologue where we find out that Billy is actually Johnny; Billy’s homicidal twin brother!

    This sets up one very bizarre climax. Billy/Johnny goes on stage in a mask and sings his old songs, which the band all seems fine with. Especially when Billy/Johnny starts killing the Go-Go dancers on stage. Billy/Johnny pulls out Lynn to sing “Rainbow Eyes,” and at the conclusion of the song, Billy/Johnny is unmasked to everyone’s shock and horror. Except for the drummer, who is like, “Fuck it, play the next song.” And everyone complies.

    I don’t want to ruin the true ending of the movie, but it does leave you with the question of; Does Billy/Johnny die, or does he survive? (May the debate begin…)

    As horror movies go, this one is pretty poor. Acting isn’t great, plot has a bunch of holes, and there are lots of lens flares. More than Star Trek. Now, I do recommend this movie because the songs in it are actually fun. I didn’t say good, I said fun. You’ll be asking yourself, “Do I have rainbow eyes?” and “Is there a killer on the loose?” The songs were written by the band Sorcery, whose members play the band in the movie. So, there actually a slight bit of LA music scene connection to this flick.

    Over all, Rocktober Blood touches on all the right beats of slasher movies from the early 80’s and for my money, is 100% video store gold. It would be best enjoyed with a two liter of Pepsi and some stovetop popcorn while sitting on the couch with the living room’s lights off.

    Enjoy!

  • Cleaning Up Email

    What a pointless task, yet one that I find very rewarding. Not only at work, but at home as well. Getting that empty Inbox, or only having read emails in it that I will take care of later. The work email is worse. I get too many in that account, and it fills up quickly.

    But the personal one really isn’t that personal.

    I used to communicate with friends and family through email, but looking through my personal Inbox, I see that I really haven’t used email for catching up with friends in years. There are some family emails, but that clearly is losing its power.

    It is a text messaging word now.

    This really isn’t news to anyone under the age of 40.

    For me it is like I just received confirmation again that the way people communicate has changed once again. There were physical letters, then the phone, then email, and now text messaging. (Skype, Facetime and video messaging in my mind really doesn’t have the same impact.) I don’t think this really has an impact on society, it’s just an observation.

    I say no impact because I think that humans have been trying to make communication between each other as direct and casual as possible. Formal language is a sham, and I think it was used to create a line of educated and uneducated. There are no rules in communication as long as the listener was able to clearly understand the direction and intent.

    I would have this debate with people in college all the time; about what were the rules to the English language. They held there were rules, and my position was always, the language never had rules, and what we perceive that the rules are today, will change in 100 years.

    Don’t believe me, then look at the letters written 100 years ago. Not letters from well educated world leaders, but the letters of the people who lived, and worked in your town. That language and today’s language are noticeable different, but it still communicates intent to our modern ears.

    Language evolves just like everything else.

    There are no rules.

  • The Chef Show (Sort’a Review)

    I don’t actually like writing reviews of show. (Though I did it for Trotsky on Netflix, and somehow got a bumper crop of readers.) I never feel that I get down to the real reason why I like a particular show, but when I have a dialogue or conversation, I feel like I do much better. Either way, I don’t do it often, but here we go again.

    I started watching The Chef Show with Jon Favreau and Roy Choi, and it is presented like a companion piece to the movie Chef that came out in 2014. Though the movie was a little weak on plot, it sure made up for it with the passion its characters had for the food they made. It reminded me of Big Night, and Jiro Dreams of Sushi, as both of those movies were infused with an infectious love of not just food, but the joy of preparing food.

    Which gets us to The Chef Show, which isn’t like a normal cooking show. What is being presented isn’t for me to learn how to cook anything. It’s more like I’m being shown the joy of preparation and being around other chefs. The one detraction I have is that it does have a Food Network/reality show feel to it, like “would you believe that we happen to run into…” ya-da, ya-da. (Like Jeffery just “happens” to be walking by Ina’s kitchen when she is finishing making a meal.) We all know it’s staged.

    The best parts are just Favreau and Choi working together in the kitchen. There is a feeling of friendship between the two of them, and also a teacher/student relationship. Which is fun to watch because Favreau is an A-Lister in Hollywood and has more money than all of us, and doesn’t have to do anything he doesn’t want to, and there he is being politely yet firmly being chided by Choi on his knife skills, and Favreau takes it with a smile. It’s fun to watch, but more than that, it is enjoyable to see the joy in the hard work of preparing food.