Tag: Marvel

  • ODDS and ENDS: Yippie Dog, The Week of Black Friday, and a Movie Marathon

    (But I wanted a torta…)

    We have a new neighbor in our building, and they moved into the “Bermuda Triangle” apartment. That’s the unit no one stays very long in, maybe six months – tops. Anyway, they moved in, and I have only seen the person once. They seemed friendly and we exchanged pleasantries. But they brought something else with them; a little yippie dog. Oh, how that little dog likes to bark its yippie little bark. Day, night, walking by their door, and sneezing too loud. Yip! Yip! Yip! At first my dog was annoyed at the yipping, but of late, she seems to have resigned herself to ignoring it. We can block it out, and it’s more of a novelty of an annoyance than an actual annoying thing. Yet, I still have to wonder what it’s like in that apartment, as that dog yips and yips and yips day and night. Yip!

    So… “Black Friday” is a week-long thing now. When did that happen? I don’t really care that there is now a week of shopping deals – whatever needs to happen to sell TVs is fine. It’s the use of “Black Friday” to represent an entire week, and in some commercials, the whole month. It feels like this is the first year of the week- and month-long Black Friday title’s use, but I can also see retailers gaslighting me, saying that it’s always been like this. And I should be shopping more. Do I need a new TV? I should get a new TV.  

    As we are closing in on Thanksgiving, and I am a huge MST3k fan, this would be the time to start thinking about watching a marathon of awful movies while on vacation. Sadly, I don’t think I can get the wife and kid on board to watch a bunch of old Joel episodes, let alone actually look for some bad movies in general. (Maybe Rob Hill over at Bad Movie Bible should put out a list of suggestion awful movies to marathon through for Thanksgiving?) No, I think if I want to make this happen, I have to actually be rather creative in my movie selection. We have done all the Star Wars movies, and Harry Potter, and even did all the Marvel movies once upon a Covid. I think I might have to sub-genera it, like all the Spiderman movies. Or, maybe all the different versions of Fantastic Four? Or all the Marvel films? How about Bill Murray movies he later regretted making? Or Gene Hackman “paycheck” movies? This could be fun, come to think of it.

  • Short Story Review: “ODE TO LOKI, OR AN ABSURD GLORIFICATION OF EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS” by Gabriela Denise Frank

    (The non-fiction short story, “ODE TO LOKI, OR AN ABSURD GLORIFICATION OF EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS” by Gabriela Denise Frank appeared in Rejection Letters on December 7th, 2022.)

    (I do SPOIL it.)

    I stated that one of my new favorite lit mags is Rejections Letters, which I subscribe to, and I got an email this morning which featured this non-fiction short story; “ODE TO LOKI, OR AN ABSURD GLORIFICATION OF EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS” by Gabriela Denise Frank. And I think you caught that this is not a fiction short story, and I will get into that in a second.

    This is a confession/love letter to the fictional Loki character from the Marvel Cinematic Universe as played by the very talented and charming Tom Hiddleston. This is a piece that is full of references, play on words, allusion to Marvel movies and television shows, and even Hiddleston’s real life. I am sure a few went by me, but the language used makes this work feel like a funhouse of tumbling discovery. I wasn’t sure where this piece was going, but I was being entertained, and felt like I was uncovering someone’s obsession that had remained internal, only now being shared to the external world.

    I enjoyed how this expressed a very creative encapsulation of a person’s obsession. But when I went back and read the piece for a second time, I saw the trajectory of the work; the inevitable path that it took. How one starts infatuated, desiring one that might not be right, overlooking their faults, then an action occurs which changes feelings, the consummation of those feelings only to know the truth – that one cannot deny who they truly are – leaving one in a cold detached place. It was a melancholy arc; though as I said inevitable but not predicable.

    And then we are left with the label of this being a non-fiction story. Did the author have a relationship with Hiddleston? Possible but unlikely. Is this a depiction of the authors infatuation/obsession with the Loki character and Hiddleston? Very possible. But I was left churning over this “non-fiction” label for this piece. I went back to the title, or the second half of it, “…AN ABSURD GLORIFICATION OF EXISTENTIAL LONELINESS.” I feel like that could be used to describe that last two COVID years. Is this piece a confession of the author’s obsession over Loki which was used, or needed, to survive their loneliness? I don’t know. Maybe I’m projection my COVID loneliness on this piece. Oh, that would be dark, wouldn’t it? I am sure there was a reason it was labeled this way, and I don’t want to know the answer; I want to ponder, and wonder about it.

    (Hey! Thanks for making down here. If I may say, you have very good taste in blogs. Now, if you would want to return the favor of appreciation for this fine free writing, please take a moment to hit the “like” button. Thanks again for stopping by.)