Tag: Andor

  • Closing Out 2022

    This will be my last real time blog post for 2022. I have some posts in the can that I have scheduled for the next couple of days, but for all intents and purposes, I am done blogging for the year. Christmas is right around the corner and I am intending to spend time with my family, reading, and napping as much as my kid will allow.

    Looking back on this blog, I will clock 255 posts, with a word count well north of 101,200, which means I was writing on average close to 500 words a post. I find this stat rather amusing as when I started writing here, way back in 2017, my original goal was to only write 250 words per blog. In five years, I have doubled my word count. Quality might still be questionable, but quantity has increased.

    Looking back at this year of creative writing, I have to admit that I did not get published, nor did I earn any money from my creative endeavors, which had been two of my goals. Was I overly ambitious? Well, obviously. But what’s the point in playing the game if you don’t swing for the fences? Yet, I did write more in this year than I ever have. Not only with the blogs, but I kept up my pace of journaling daily, and working on my fiction. I think what I accomplished this year was creating the habit of writing. I gave myself weekends off, but I was at this computer every weekday, putting something down, trying to get better at expressing myself and ideas.

    Maybe I’m looking for a silver lining, and so what if I am. I’m looking back on 2022, and I’m feeling good about it, which is a feeling I haven’t felt in sometime. Since 2018, when my mother died, I feel like I have had this feeling of sadness wrapped around me. Not depression or mourning, even though those two have stopped by and hung out with me often in the past several years, but a sadness that makes it difficult to get excited about anything. I don’t feel sad about 2022.

    And I’m looking forward to 2023. And that is important, and it means something.

    So, thanks for being a part of this, all 4 to 9 of you, who regularly stop by. But, before I go, I wanted to pass on;

    Watch ANDOR!

    Peach Pit is a new favorite band of mine.

    Call your mom, she misses you.

    See you next year.

  • Thoughts on Rogue One and Andor

    (I guess there might be spoilers here.)

    I wasn’t sure what to make of Rogue One when I saw it in the theatre. I honestly thought I was going to see the first in a series of tentpole movies in the Star Wars Universe. Such as every two years there would be another Rouge One movie, with this gang of characters going out to cause shit against the Empire. I had no idea that I was about to see a new version of The Dirty Dozen, except on this suicide mission, everyone actually does die. And it did take me awhile to come around and think of Rogue One as a good movie. I never thought it was bad, but I did go in with an expectation that wasn’t met. Mainly, the good guys live, because the good guys always survive in Star Wars. As time went on, I did come to appreciate Rouge One, and I do think it is the best of all the new Star Wars movies. And I’m not just saying that because part VII, VII, IX, were a fumbled, muddled mass of garbage.

    The one thing that I did think Rogue One nailed from the first time that I saw it, was that this movie made the Empire evil and menacing again. After having grown up with Star Wars, and watched or read just about all of its major iterations, the Empire had become “the gang that couldn’t shoot straight.” Outside of Vader and the Emperor, they were more incompetent than evil. Rogue One reminded us all that the Empire was far reaching, powerful, ruthless, and unstoppable. Then there was that Vader scene, which was cool, but also terrifying.

    Watching the latest episode of Andor last night, I was reminded of those same feelings I had watching Rogue One when it came to the Empire. That the reach and control of the Empire is so great, there is no escape or relief from it. But Andor adds an additional element to the evil of this Empire, which is to show us the mid-level people who are the ones who truly exercise the oppression on the population of the galaxy.

    I went looking online this morning to see if others are seeing it the same way as me, and I am not alone in this view. I did also notice a debate on whether Andor is holding a mirror to the current politics of America and the rise of authoritarians in the world. My opinion is that the Empire in Andor, and Star Wars as a whole, is still using Nazi Germany as its inspiration. I think inferring anything else is a bit of projection by certain viewers. BUT! I will say that Andor’s detainment, arrest, and sentencing was eerie parallel about American mass arrests and mandatory minimum sentencing. Who cares about criminals, right? They must deserve it, or they wouldn’t be there in the first place.

    I am looking forward to seeing where Andor is going. Ultimately, we know Mon Mothma leads the Rebellion, and Andor dies, so I am curious as to how the suspense and peril will be rise as this story continues. But what is coming into focus is why people would risk everything to fight the Empire.

    (And this is when I ask you to like, share, comment, or follow this blog. The numbers have been going up, so thanks in advance. Or if you are a bot… I welcome out Bot overlords!)

  • ODDS and ENDS: Times Square Casino, ANDOR, Tottenham, and UK Prime Minister

    (A Certain Point of View)

    As a New Yorker who stayed here during the Pandemic, I watched the City empty out, especially in Midtown. Though things are getting closer to being how they were before, there are still neighborhoods in Manhattan that have not economically recovered. Office buildings are sitting semi-empty, and ideas have been kicked around for the past two years about changing these spaces into apartments as there is a housing crisis in NYC. (Though I just read that landlords are warehousing 60,000 rent stabilized units that they refuse to rent.) But the idea that seems to be picking up steam is a casino in Times Square, because, clearly, there are not enough tourist there. Or the old Times Square hookers are looking to make a comeback. If this were to happen, I know two things will come true; One, no self-respecting New Yorker will be setting foot in Times Square (not that we ever did), and Two, the Disney-ifcation of Times Square is officially over.

    I have noticed that when my friends recommend a new great show, they always add the qualifier – get through the first three episodes. I have heard this more times than I care to count, and sadly Andor on Disney+ is following the same pattern. I think it is the reason they released the first three episodes when the show debuted. That having been said, I am truly enjoying Andor. This is the Star Wars for grown-ups who grew up with Star Wars, and now know that not all issues are light and dark. This is a universe that thrives in gray. Diego Luna is great as Cassian Andor, which is not surprising as Luna is an amazing actor. (Check out him in Y tu mama tambien if you haven’t already.) As the show has progressed, I have found myself more interested in the B-plot; Mon Mothma forging and leading the rebellion. It helps that Genevieve O’Reilly has the ability to play the smartest person in the room who is hiding the fact that she is the smartest person in the room. Not to mention that there is this whole subtext of the difficulty a woman faces trying to lead an ideological and physical movement. It seems the patriarchy needs to be fought all over the galaxy as well.

    Okay, I’m going to lay off the Tottenham stuff. It’s not because they lost to Man United, and Ronaldo walked out the end of the game like a little whiney bitch. No, it’s not that. The team has taken up a great deal of my mental space, and I think I need to narrow it down to a more compact form. That’s not to say that I won’t be writing about the World Cup in November, or any of the Champions League stuff… It just might be a little more truncated.

    My opinion: Ozzy for UK Prime Minister.

    (Speaking of Ozzy. The life blood of any blog is engagement. So please, make sure to like this blog, or share it, leave a comment, and if possible, follow it. And for doing that, I will remind you that Randy Rhoads was one of the greatest guitarists of all time!)