Frankenstein; or, The Modern Poe Dameron
“I am by birth a Massassi, and my family is one of the most distinguished of that republic.” - Poe Dameron, Rebel Pilot.
If anyone is going to make a new Frankenstein movie, Guillermo del Toro seems as good a pick as any. And what a gothic masterpiece he’s given us. Frankenstein is told in two parts, Victor’s tale, and The Creature’s tale, following an opening prelude where the Danish Navy, stuck in ice at the North Pole, finds and rescues Victor Frankenstein, then fights his monster. It’s a thrilling opening and I was bought in from the start.
Frankenstein adaptations vary in quality and faithfulness to the source material, the 1818 classic novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, written by Mary Shelley. Each adaptation uses the legendary Gothic novel as a starting point to tell its own story. It’s been a minute since I read the novel, but this is a worthy addition to the adaptations that have come before it.
Del Toro seems the perfect director for this, having established an ability to visually tell beautiful gothic tales, Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth, and The Shape of Water being the best examples of his style. And he tells this story with gusto. It’s easy to say this movie looks great. Each setting, each character, the costumes, backdrops, and most special effects look gothic, timeless, dark, and interesting. Visually, the movie is a masterpiece.
Victor tells his story, starting with his harsh upbringing under the tutelage of his doctor father. We soon find out Victor is a genius with a particular skill in understanding human anatomy, and with a drive to extend life. We all know where this is going. Financed and influenced by his brother’s fiancé’s uncle, who has a desire to extend his life and believes Victor’s experiments can lead him there. Victor is smitten with Elizabeth, his future sister in law-which uhhh complicates things.
Eventually, through much trial and error and a heavy dose of power, Victor’s creation is ALIVE!
I really enjoy Oscar Isaac, and he’s excellent in this role. I’ll always see him as Poe, but he makes a good Victor here, too. All of the acting is well done.
Watching the same story told from each perspective is fascinating. The one shared thread is betrayal. Eventually Victor and the Creature confront one another after an epic final battle and settle their debts to one another.
This movie could have been a bit longer if you can believe that. I think Netflix probably reminded del Toro about modern attention spans and steered him into hugging the two-hour run time. Honestly, I could have watched a bit more, maybe seen some of the threads more clearly expanded upon. But, as told this is a fun and visually stunning adaptation of a beloved classic novel told masterfully.
Predator: Badlands: The Comic Book Adventures: The Motion Picture
I was surprised to find a nearly full theater on a Friday night for a screening of Predator. If you think about it, it’s so bizarre that this franchise is still going nearly 40 years after what very much could have been a one-off Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.
But sci-fi sells, and there’s plenty of lore to be created and told.
Predator Badlands very much exists in a post-Disney acquisition 20th Century Studios world where the Predator and Alien universes coexist. While there are no xenomorphs here, there’s plenty of The Company.
This movie is rather tricky to discuss without spoilers so there will be. Predator Badlands opens on the Yautja home planet, where young Dek is training with his brother Kwei. At first, I wasn’t too into hearing about the familial relationships of the Yautja, I liked Predator being what it was in the first movie. But whatever.
Some craziness ensues, Kwei is killed by their father, and Dek is sent on “the Death Planet.” Seriously, “the Death Planet?” Whatever again.
Upon crashing on the Genna Dek quickly finds out why it’s called the Death Planet and is saved by Thia, a damaged Weyland-Yutani Corporation synthetic who is cut in half. Ok, ok Predator Badlands…
The two get to know each other, and after Dek determines Thia is a tool, not a helper, they set off to find and kill the unkillable Kalisk. Along the way, they pick up the monkey thing from the Lost in Space movie (whatever), which bonds with Dek and mimics his moves. Cute, but I think the Predator from Predator would have killed both of these hangers-on.
Our trio heads off and we soon learn that the presence of Weyland-Yutani is far larger than we thought. We also find out the Kalisk is actually unkillable. This leads to some cool fights and some cool throwbacks to Alien lore.
Eventually, we find Thia’s evil sister, Tessa, who was also here to capture the Kalisk. Lost in Space money turns out to be the Kalisk’s kid so now the hunt becomes a rescue mission. There are some funny scenes with Thia’s two body parts, her legs walking around, kicking some ass, which is pretty funny. That’s the point, I realized we were watching a high-budget live-action comic book. All of the whatever became ok, this is fine.
Eventually, Dek saves the day, forms a new clan with Thia and Lost in Space Monkey Kalisk Jr., and cuts his dad’s head off. The trio then embarks on adventures around the galaxy, I assume—adventures I’d probably like to read.
Good Bruce Hunting
A friend of mine said while discussing the Bruce Springsteen bio, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, “I don’t understand why critics don’t appreciate character studies anymore.” It really got me thinking about the movie, character studies, and what makes a good story.
I recently watched Good Will Hunting. A film I’ve seen dozens of times, and I really love. I’ve often thought that Good Will Hunting is the closest thing we’d get to a Catcher in the Rye movie. Now, I think Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere is a based on a true story remake of Good Will Hunting.
Stay with me.
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere tells the story of a poor kid from the East Coast who experiences some trauma in his childhood and ends up being a genius, which leads to opportunities he doesn’t necessarily want to pursue. There is a man who’d rather stay true to his working-class, neighborhood roots than feed the corporate machine. His closest relationship is with a good friend, who is more like a family member than a friend. He also embarks on a complicated relationship with a woman whom he has trouble really letting into his heart. Eventually, a breakthrough via therapy allows him to confront his demons and move forward with his life. Sound familiar?
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere tells the story of the Boss by focusing on a specific sliver of his life; the period after The River tour, the writing and recording of Nebraska, and the songs that would become Born In The USA. Focusing on one specific period of Springsteen’s career allows for a three-part narrative to be told without being too sprawling and exhaustive. It assumes the viewer knows Springsteen rose to superstardom, enough to tell the story. There are also flashbacks to Bruce’s childhood that establish his upbringing and the trauma that shaped his life.
Springsteen, played here expertly by Jeremy Allan White, is a genius much like Matt Damon’s Will Hunting. Where Hunting is a whiz at math, Springsteen is a master storyteller whose medium of expression is songwriting and performing. Both characters are shown demonstrating their areas of expertise, much to the amazement of anyone who sees it. Hunting is scooped up by MIT professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) while Springsteen is signed by Columbia Records and managed by Jon Landau (Jeremy Strong).
Both Hunting and Springsteen struggle with their gifts. For Hunting, it’s almost an embarrassment or burden, something that sets him apart from his peers in an irreconcilable way. He just wants to be one of the boys from Southie. Similarly, Springsteen longs to be a simple Jersey kid but his success is already starting to pull him away from his roots, something he struggles desperately to hang on to.
As their lives began to take a turn, Springsteen began work on a new album while recuperating from a grueling tour, and Will is working with Professor Lambeau while attending court-ordered therapy with Sean Maguire (Robin Williams). They embark on romantic relationships. These relationships each start sweetly, with dates at local haunts in Boston and Jersey, respectively. These interactions in the communities ground each character as part of their neighborhoods. Quickly, Bruce and Will begin to pull back from the relationships because they begin inventing barriers to the relationships, reasons they won’t work out, and that they believe they don’t deserve. Each film includes calls made by the protagonist to their love interests from pay phones outside bars.
Both Landau and Maguire serve as friends, father figures, and therapists. They’re family to Bruce and Will, respectively. Hunting and Springsteen breeze through their work; math and music come to them as easily as breathing while struggling with the weight of expectations. Hunting is expected to use his talents in a high-paying, high-profile, high-stress corporate or government job, while Springsteen is expected to deliver a new album soon to exceed The River and produce radio hits. Expectations that both bristle against.
Springsteen eventually writes the songs that will become the monster hits of Born in the USA, but he’s stuck on more personal, darker, acoustic tunes he wrote and recorded in the bedroom of a rented house in Jersey. Ultimately, both of their mentors support their decisions, and both of their relationships have rocky endings.
Both movies climax with each character experiencing breakthroughs in therapy, which enable them to move forward, confront their demons, and face their pasts. For Will, he hits the road to reconcile with Skyler (Minnie Driver), and for Bruce, he reconciles with his pop and hits the road.
Beyond similar stories and structures, the movies themselves feature similar scenes. The aforementioned phone calls from pay phone booths. Will’s foster father and Bruce’s father are both shown ascending staircases, portending abuse of the characters as boys. Both characters receive cars they don’t think they deserve. Brooding scenes outside. Appropriate music soundtracks each scene as if selected by a divine DJ.
Good Will Hunting, a fictional tale of an imperfect genius facing his demons, and Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, a stylized biopic of an imperfect genius facing his genius, share many similarities in both tone, narrative structure, scenes, soundtrack, and feeling. Both films are excellent character studies, brilliantly told by talented filmmakers. How do you like them apples?
Mallrats at 30
If there is a custom-built filmmaker for the GenX brain, it’s Kevin Smith. Smith, a New Jersey comic book geek and film nerd, bootstrapped his first film, Clerks, by depending on friends and maxed out credit cards to tell a “day in the life story of a specific group of disaffected youths living the American Nightmare in suburban New Jersey. Following the success of his debut, Smith’s sophomore effort planned more of the same with a bigger budget, bigger laughs, and bigger stakes. Mallrats, released thirty years ago today, took the day-in-the-life story of Clerks and moved it from the Quick Stop to the mall. The themes were similar: love, loss, angst, comics, witty banter, low-stakes adventures, and lots of f-words. While the movie flopped in theaters, it found its audience in video stores across America, where the same disaffected youths in suburbs across the country were struggling with their own misadventures in young adulthood. And it hit me hard.
No One Really Talks Like That
In Smith’s world, the View Askewniverse, young adults talk fast, using witty banter, foul language, entendre, and college-level grammar to express their feelings about love, lust, angst, consumerism, and, of course, comic books. While the language seems hyperbolic and strange, it honestly wasn’t too far off from how my movie-obsessed friends spoke to one another. I felt a real, genuine connection to these characters and this world, so much so that I made a pilgrimage to Red Bank, New Jersey, and even met Jason Mewes, Jay of Jay and Silent Bob fame.
Silly Fun and Lots of Jaws References
Jaws is my favorite movie of all time, so it should come as no surprise that I was obsessed with the near-endless Jaws references contained within Mallrats. From the obvious references, the Jaws ride in Universal Studios, to the more subtle, like Willam’s outfit, Mallrats pays homage to Jaws in many ways. A theme that would continue in Smith’s next film, Chasing Amy.
An Easter Classic
Smith’s possibly arbitrary decision to set the movie around Easter, makes this movie an instant Easter classic. I often call it “the Greatest Easter Story ever told,” a joke that makes Christians go nutty. Having Jay and Silent Bob literally fight the mall’s Easter bunny, is something that I’ll never not find funny.
It’s A Love Story Baby Just Say Yes
At its heart, Mallrats, like many of Smith’s films, is a complicated love story. Smith makes personal movies that allow him to explore his emotions and work out his feelings on the biggest of canvases, the silver screen. Sure, it’s an absurdist comedy which includes bizarre side-quests to visit a three-nippled fortune teller at the dirt mall and Jay and Silent Bob’s failed quest to take down the stage being erected in the mall, but it’s also an exploration of feelings. Brodie and T.S. are heartbroken. T.S. wears it on his flannel sleeve while Brodie buries his feelings deep under piles of comics, delicious cookies, and tiny sodas. But their quest is the same: to reconcile with their true loves, find happiness, and pick up comics.
90’s Time Capsule
Mallrats is a ’90s time capsule. Malls are no longer as prevalent as they once were, and are less so a place for teens to escape, gather, and have misadventures. The soundtrack itself could be taken from any mid-’90s alt-rock radio station during any given hour. The clothes, the attitude, and the angst are all dripping with sarcasm. If you ever had to answer the question, “What were the 90s like?” An hour and a half at the Eden Prairie Mall would suffice just fine.
Fake It Flowers at Five
Five years ago, deep into the COVID-19 pandemic, we were all looking for something to take our minds off things. For many, it was binge-watching TV shows, for others, it was podcasts. And of course, music fans do what we always do and turn to the joy of music. It was at that time. A new artist came into my life and very quickly became a favorite.
beabadoobee was born Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus in the Philippines and raised in London. Both of these worlds had significant impact upon who she became as a songwriter. As a teen, her musical tastes were informed by listening to her native Original Pilipino Music and indie rock popular in the UK at the time. The result was a mix of guitar-driven Indie folk pop with both coffee shop, singer, songwriter, and rock undertones. Basically perfectly tailored for my musical tastes.
I don’t recall where I first heard Beabadoobee, probably served to me by the Apple Music algorithm, but it was a song from an earlier EP called She Plays Bass. I was pretty much hooked from go. I pre-ordered Fake It Flowers ‘ debut album. Immediately upon hearing the first single, Care I knew I was going to dig this.
The album opens with two rockers, the aforementioned Care and Worth It; both of these songs reminded me of female-fronted bands from the ‘90s that I loved. The rest of the album, in general, is lighter, more acoustic guitar-focused, as is much of our catalogue, but I love that as well. Her voice is gentle and angelic, and her melodies are infectious. On the heavier songs, she employs essentially a four-piece rock band who really know how to bring it.
This album is much more than the bedroom rock that it is associated with. It sounds like a more mature artist than she actually was at the time, the songs deal with the things that we all deal with: love, heartbreak, friendship, and heartache. She explores each of these and a way that really connects with a listener.
Fake it flowers came at a perfect time for me, and I spun them endlessly upon receipt. I loved it so much that I named it my album of the year for 2020. It would be a few years before I saw beabadoobee live, but she is just as good live as her records, bringing a heavier, more rock approach to the songs.
If you’re not a fan of this particular artist now, is your chance to check her out! Happy fifth anniversary to Fake It Flowers by beabadoobee.
Tron: NIN As Alive As We Need It To Be
Admittedly, the bulk of my hype for Tron: Ares centered around the spectacular soundtrack by industrial rock luminaries Nine Inch Nails. Not to say I wasn’t excited for another Tron movie, I totally was, but the NIN score sealed the hype.
The trilogy of movies that make up the Tron universe is all pretty weird. And that may certainly be part of the appeal. The films exist on the same server, so to speak, but they all have different vibes. The central conceit of the Tron universe is that since the advent of the computer age, there exists a parallel digital universe to our reality where programs representing data and their real-world user counterparts. Steve Jobs-esque tech CEO, certified guru-hippie Kevin Flynn, has found a way to connect to that parallel universe with haughty hopes of a digital utopia that could also inform a similar experience in reality. In general, there are defined boundaries between worlds, but each movie breaks those boundaries in specific ways to establish the central tension of the films.
Tron: Ares begins with exposition, bringing viewers up to speed on the events of the last 40 years, making direct connections to Flynn and the original story, and providing an off-ramp to largely ignore, for now, the events of the tremendously underrated Tron: Legacy. After the events of Legacy, Sam and Quorra are “off grid”. Encom is now run by the Kim sisters and rival Dillinger Enterprises is run by the grandson of Dillinger from Tron. Both companies are searching for the film macguffin, the “permanence code” which could have important consequences for earths future.
We quickly learn not much has changed from the 80s, Encom is looking for something to change the world for good, and Dillinger has far more nefarious plans, which begin and end with Ares, a security program that can exist in the real world…for 29 minutes.
Our characters begin moving between worlds with the very existence of both at stake. The movie moves at an extraordinarily brisk pace, dispensing with things like deep character development. We’re unfortunately not given much to care about. But we are given extraordinary visuals, cool ass weapons, interesting chase and fight sequences, and a throbbing, infectious soundtrack.
There’s also fun throwback sequences featuring reproductions of the original film’s then-groundbreaking computer-generated graphics.
The film also reaches for but never quite achieves its lofty, more existential aspirations - something its predecessors did a much better job at. Why are we here? Why are we? Why? and all that. Ares' awakening seems far less consequential than Quorra’s, but the film strongly hints that it is something they’d like to explore.
Tron has always been a mirror of our modern reality. Asking big questions about existence and the impact of technology on our world. Ares does an interesting job in reflecting how technology, oligarchy, and impermanence are changing our world, and has cool light cycle chases.
The movie is a mess and could have been so much more, done so much more. I walked out smiling, mostly from having Nine Inch Nails music on the loudspeakers for two hours. As a Tron movie, it’s pretty ok. As a nine inch nails delivery mechanism, it’s perfect.
Oh, and Tron isn’t even in the movie—a big miss IMHO. I’d have loved for this movie to follow up on Legacy more directly. I fear the promise of this movie to connect these two streams may not happen. And that’s a shame. Because while it’s never been perfect, Tron has always been a unique and original IP with so much promise, even if it fails to answer the big questions it asks fully.
Taylor Swift Comes Back as a Showgirl and It Totally Rules
Taylor Swift is back! Taylor Swift 12, The Life of a Showgirl, is Taylor’s first post-Eras tour era album, and on first listen, it serves…
First, Taylor is HAPPY and she shows it. If this album doesn’t make you smile, you might want to check on your cold, black heart. Her relationship with sportsballer Travis Kelce clearly is working for her.
Second, moving back to Max Martin and Shellback is a turn, but not a step backward. Rather, it’s like putting your favorite epic books (Antonoff/Desner) on the shelf and grabbing a comfort book instead. This album is a bop, shedding the folk/indie rock of the ‘ore albums and stepping back from the sprawling epicness of TTPD.
1989+Reputation (Midnights) = The Life of a Showgirl.
Taylor feels at home here, and despite this album standing firmly on its own, songs reach back and touch influences from her own albums (Elizabeth Taylor evokes the last great american dynasty, for example) and takes influences from all over the music world (George Michael on Father Figure, obviously, Weezer on Actually Romantic, Jackson 5/Mowtown on Wood, and Sabrina Carpenter on the title track).
CANCELLED! is straight up Rep vibes and makes me want those Rep vault tracks like now.
The title track is a Sabrina Carpenter song, and I will not be taking questions at this time. Taylor and Sabrina are perfect together. Their vocals and styles match so well.
Taylor’s vocals are as breathless and mature as ever, strongest on tracks like Eldest Daughter and The Fate of Ophelia. Again, while those songs fit on this record, they echo folklore and evermore. Woodvale tracks, perhaps?
I think this album slots right among Taylor’s best. Honestly, it may already be one of my favorites.
Highlights include: Actually Romantic, Wood, Eldest Daughter, and the title track. This is more than a solid album; it’s another example of Taylor Swift being one of the best songwriters of all time. Crafting songs that evoke memories and emotions, make you want to scream and dance, and burrow themselves mercilessly into your ear, brain, and heart. While haters gonna hate, the truth is there’s a Taylor Swift for almost everyone. From country to indie rock to pop she’s a multi-genre artist making some of the most memorable songs in decades.
Actually Romantic is my favorite track, a Weezer song through and through that would also feel right at home in Olivia Rodrigo’s catalogue. It’s this album’s Cruel Summer.
We definitely need something positive and happy right now, and Taylor has delivered a tour de force with Showgirl, kicking off a new era and giving us new classics to scream along to in our cars, offices, and hopefully someday soon, arenas.
Nobody's Perfect: Fight Your Fight!
I've had numerous people across multiple social media criticize me for my support of Taylor Swift, the LA Dodgers, and NPR.
First, I am not perfect. I never claim to be. I do, however, have principles & values I hold dear & I do try my best to uphold those mostly progressive principles.
I believe in fighting for what's right. I vote with my wallet and am actively engaged in politics and the community. I make decisions based on verifiable facts when possible. And if I find something different or something changes, I will absolutely adjust my approach. That said, I'm human and not infallible. Because I am so vocal about the things I’m fighting against, you know, little things like racism, fascism, bigotry, xenophobia, and misogony, the second someone sees me veer outside “my lane,” they call me out. and fair. But I’m also not going to apologize for enjoying some things that I love.
I also firmly believe you have to do what's right for you. If Target or Walmart is close to you and has the best prices, well, you gotta eat.
If you like Taylor Swift, great! Listen to Taylor Swift. Yes, she's a billionaire. Yes, she and her fiancé could absolutely use their platforms to denounce any of the numerous atrocities happening in the world. But people need joy. They need something to look forward to. And music gives that to people. Joy is resistance.
Yes, NPR was complicit in sanewashing Trump, but to what degree are we willing to allow the closest thing we have to balanced, public news? We've lost an entire half of our nation to Fox News; are we willing to lose a valuable resource in public media out of spite?
I should make it more straightforward that I do not really care about sports anymore. Millionaires playing kids' games while drunken adults froth at the mouth and throw remotes at their TVs when their team loses isn't my scene. I used to enjoy sports and occasionally watch them. The Dodgers have always been my team, and they also support the LGBTQ+ community FAR better than my local team, the Reds. That matters.
Guess what, I love Tom Cruise. He's a nut job. He's a Scientologist. It's gross. I still love and watch his movies.
The bottom line is, I fight all day, every day. It's exhausting. I boycott M@GA businesses. I attend protests. I speak out online. I support causes I believe in with financial contributions. I support and fight for marginalized communities. I'm not perfect. No one is. I will be listening to Taylor Swift, and I will speak out against genocide in Gaza. I will cheer on the Dodgers, and I will fight tooth and Nail against ICE. I will support NPR while boycotting Fox, Trump, and MAGA. And I'll see Top Gun 3. We need joy. We need hope. We need to fight. Do what you can and do all you can. Don't feel bad if one thing you don't support, everything you believe in. All we can do is our best.
I've Got My Spine, I've Got My Orange Crush: Reviewing the Orange iPhone 17 Pro Max
I’ve been an iPhone guy since day one. Literally. I was an Apple employee when the first iPhone was launched and received a phone as a gift from Steve Jobs. As an Apple fanboy and former employee, Android has never really been on my radar. I’m glad there is competition, and I know people love their Google phones, and that’s great.
Some iPhone upgrades have been massive, while others have not been so much. The annual cycle, tied to major software updates, originally encouraged fans to upgrade annually, causing a frenzy at Apple stores and carriers around the world. As phones improved, became more expensive, and lasted longer, people began to abandon annual upgrades, waiting for a compelling reason or offer to spur them to upgrade.
As an annual upgrader, sometimes I’ve been blown away, sometimes I’ve just been happy to have a cool new phone with a fresh battery. This year, it’s the former. Apple FINALLY released Pro phones in fun colors. In previous years, the Pro model phones were whatever Apple was calling black, white, and silver at the time. With the move back to aluminum from titanium, the company was able to add some colors. And what colors they added. Deep Blue and Cosmic Orange debuted alongside a silver option. No white. No black. For some, not having a neutral option was a shock, but most people entomb their phones in plastic sarcophaguses anyway. I always try to get whatever the “cool” color is that year, and this year, that’s orange. I’m not really an orange guy otherwise, but damn, I love this color. It’s bold, bright, and exciting. It stands out in a crowd. It’s…orange. And I love it.
Hands On
Seeing the phone in person, I was blown away. Pictures don’t do it justice. The Blue is sexy af too. While I KNOW that the phone is heavier, it feels lighter. It feels great in the hand, but as always, the Pro Max is HUGE. The aluminum is cool to the touch and looks incredible. All of the buttons, volume, action, and camera control are here and feel and work great.
The most significant design change, in addition to the color, is the camera plateau, which now extends all the way across the top of the phone, while the cameras are still in the left corner. The plateau and two-tone design give the phone a new and exciting look, more interesting to look at than a slab of flat glass.
Performance
As expected, the phone is incredibly fast. Apps open in a snap, everything is responsive and fun. Games and videos run smoothly, and in my experience, the phone runs cool.
Software
Apple introduced a fresh new interface to this year’s software improvements, called Liquid Glass. They think so much of this new look they jumped from iOS 16 to iOS 26. And despite rumblings that the betas were rough and it was tough to design for, I freaking love it. It looks different, cool, new, and fresh. It’s fast, fun, and fluid.
I did have some issues with crashing on my iPad Pro, but my mini and new phone run it very well.
Should I Upgrade?
If you’re on anything older than a 16, sure. It’s fast, fun, fresh, and new. The 16 series of phones is still fine, of course. If you like orange, do it now.
Am I Switching To Android? Thoughts on Apple’s September 2025 iPhone Event
If you’re not aware, I’d like to add a disclaimer to this piece: I am a long-time Apple fan and a former employee, having worked in retail and B2B sales for Apple for 14 years, from 2001 to 2015.
Each year, like clockwork, Apple holds an event, summoning the press, bloggers, and YouTubers (not me) to Cupertino to hawk its latest wares. That usually means incremental updates to iPhone, Apple Watch, and associated accessories. It used to be a much more exciting event, and nerds in the US would get caught up in the excitement to upgrade to the new phone every year. As changes have become less striking, the economy is less specific, and the competition much hotter, the excitement is muted. This year, for me in particular, was even more muted. Tim Cook’s decision to not only bend the knee to the current US administration has really soured my opinion on him and Apple.
This year, Apple continued its tradition of a live event built around pre-recorded introduction videos. A trend that started because of COVID remains, and it’s fine. It allows for fun, polished videos and no on-stage mistakes, but it loses the magic of a live event. I miss Steve.
The first announcement was AirPods Pro 3. This is exciting as AirPods are the most magical Apple product in years, and I use mine constantly. I have a problem with buying WAY too many devices to deliver music and podcasts into my ears, and I’ve already pre-ordered these.
Next up was Apple Watch, and there wasn’t a whole lot new. Apple Watch is a good device; I need to upgrade mine, but I have not yet been compelled to do so.
Finally, iPhone. The big news here is the new iPad Air and the unbelievably hot Cosmic Orange iPhone Pro. The Pros and Pro Max received updated designs and new colors, and I am smitten. I’m having trouble deciding between the blue Air and the orange Pro Max.
So, am I switching to Android?? No, of course not. But I am REALLY ENJOYING my free coffee mug from Google.
Fantastic Four Is Fantastic
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is Fantastic!
The Fantastic Four: First Steps heralds the new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, kicking off Phase 6 of the MCU. The movie drops us right into the action on Earth-828. The Fantastic Four have been around for four years. Having encountered a space anomaly that altered their DNA, giving them fantastic powers. This is not an origin story, but the film pauses long enough to give us the backstory we need. But outside this pause, the film doesn’t really let up. Within a few minutes we find out Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) and Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) are going to parents (Yay!) and that their Earth has been marked for death by Galactus (bummer).
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Fun!
Set in a retro-futuristic world, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a marvel to behold. Its retro aesthetic echoes the 60s when the Fantastic Four made their comic debut. But this isn’t our 60’s so there are also touches of futuristic technology, such as flying cars and H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot. The character designs, costumes, and ships all look cool as hell. The spectacular score adds adventure, excitement, and gravitas to the movie.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Fabulous!
Remember how Sue is pregnant and the Earth is doomed? Yea. After the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) lets them know Galactus (Ralph Ineson) is coming to eat their planet, our heroes go to negotiate with him. It…doesn’t go well.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Family!
At its core, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a family drama. Reed, Sue, baby Franklin along with brother Johnny (Joseph Quinn) and best friend Ben (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) are a family. They enjoy Sunday dinner together, and save the world together. When Galactus demands too high a price to spare Earth, the Four are forced to find a fantastic way to save the earth. While they are indeed saving earth they are saving baby Franklin. To the Fantastic Four, the scale is the same as an egg to a planet.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Far Fetched!
Sure. This is a superhero movie where a guy is a rock and a giant intergalactic super being devours planets in minutes but its most unrealistic notion is that the world comes together completely to save the world. But that’s what makes this movie special and what made me cry. This movie’s most fantastic aspect is hope. In our world, the idea of the entire planet coming together for anything even its own survival, seems far-fetched. We can’t even come together to save our own country. I loved having hope, especially in a hopeless world.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Is Fearless
After what many consider to be a shaky Phase 5, Marvel needed something bold to remind us why we go to the movies. This is a comic book movie through and through. It’s like Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s imagination is being drawn onscreen in real time, portraying their world in ways unimaginable in 1961.
This movie gives me hope. If not enough for our future, enough for the MCUs. Four out of four stars.
Happy Gilmore 2: Electric Boogaloo
Fore! Adam Sandler and his crew of misfits have teed up a sequel to their beloved 1996 sports comedy Happy Gilmore. While Saturday Night Live’s first few comedies from the 90s are quotable, endlessly rewatchable, goofball classics, he’s spent a while meandering around romcom mediocrity. Dipping into the nostalgic well makes a lot of sense.
Happy Gilmore 2 takes place in real time, 30 years after its predecessor. Happy and Virginia (Julie Bowen) are married, with five kids and seven golf championships. Life is good. Until tragedy strikes.
Gilmore’s life is unexpectedly thrown off course into a downward spiral of despair. When his daughter, an extraordinarily talented ballet dancer has the opportunity to attend a prestigious dance school in Paris, Happy has to snap out of his funk and return to golf to save the day.
This movie is impossible to discuss without spoilers. And if you plan on watching it, it’s best to go in spoiler-free and let the surprises and cameos wash over you. This isn’t Citizen Kane. It’s a big, dumb unnecessary sequel. Much like Kevin Smith’s later View Askewniverse movies, it’s specially designed to tug on your nostalgic heartstrings while providing plenty of laughs along the way. If you were a fan of the original AND you’re a GenX girl, dad, it’s a must-watch.
The movie really leans into the pro golf universe with tons of cameos from pro golfers. I am not a golf fan, so I had no idea who these people were. The first film didn’t require you to be an expert pro golf fan, whereas this one suffers a bit if you’re not.
Again, big dumb fun. Lots of surprises and cameos. Full of real-life pro golfers. Not great.
Also of note, some of the cameos are questionable, with a few figures having done/said some problematic things. There’s also an alligator scene, which makes sense in the context of the first film, but comes across a bit tasteless here.
A Wild Trip To Eddington
he only thing I knew going into Eddington was that “Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix yell at each other.” And yes, that does happen—but the film is so much more. So buckle up: pop a Xanax, throw on a tinfoil hat, slap on a mask, and prepare for a wild descent into Ari Aster’s latest fever dream.
Eddington is about America. That’s the simplest way to explain it. The film manages to touch on nearly every major issue facing the country today, including:
Social media
Mental health
Racism
COVID-19
The economy
Conspiracy theories
Artificial intelligence
Climate change
Gun violence
Political division
Cults
Abortion
Corruption
Fertility
Police brutality
Xenophobia
Interpersonal trauma
Social justice
Elections
Homelessness
Native American sovereignty
And somehow—miraculously—it’s not heavy-handed.
Set in a small rural town in New Mexico during the height of the COVID pandemic, just before and after George Floyd’s murder, Eddington follows Sheriff Phoenix and Mayor Pascal, whose opposing views on masks and mandates fuel growing tensions. Phoenix resists mandates to "protect freedoms,” while Pascal supports public health efforts to curb the virus.
From the opening scenes, I felt anxiety and PTSD bubble up. Though I weathered the pandemic in the Midwest suburbs of Ohio, Aster nails the emotional tenor of the time—just in a different setting. If that period was traumatic for you, this film is going to hit hard.
But the political clash is only part of it. Phoenix and Pascal have tangled personal histories, too—including Pascal’s ex-wife (played by Emma Stone), now married to Phoenix, and suffering severe mental health issues. Her condition is worsened by her mother’s descent into online conspiracy rabbit holes, which leads both women into a Q-like cult.
Things unravel quickly. A homeless man brings COVID into town and infects Phoenix. Meanwhile, a shady AI company lobbies to build a data center, introducing a new layer of corruption. What starts as a small-town pandemic story spirals into chaos.
By the time protests erupt in the wake of George Floyd’s death, Phoenix is battling respiratory illness and descending into madness. Emma Stone and her mother sink further into cult life. The town is collapsing—and it’s painful to watch.
There are no clear heroes here. People are trying to do the right thing, others… not so much. But the lines are blurred—like Phoenix’s feverish vision.
Eventually, the sheriff makes a series of horrendous choices that snowball out of control. He even attempts to frame a deputy for his crimes—and nearly gets away with it.
The film’s climax is a gut-punch: a violent shootout with well-funded right-wing terrorists masquerading as Antifa. It’s gruesome, shocking, and will absolutely make you squirm.
Eddington is not for the faint of heart. It’s dense, relentless, and brutal. But it’s also timely, unflinching, and worth watching—if you’re ready for it.
There aren’t enough trigger warnings in the world for this movie. But if you can brave it, Eddington offers one of the most raw cinematic snapshots of modern America ever put on screen.
Jurassic Park Unnecessary!
Jurassic Park Unleashed! marks the seventh entry in the storied, multibillion-dollar dinosaur franchise—and the second in-universe reboot. Is it necessary? Absolutely not. Is it fun? Against all odds, yes.
I won’t pretend Jurassic Park Unchained! is a great film. Honestly, it’s not even a great Jurassic Park movie. But I enjoyed myself. Time flew by, and I wasn’t mad at the end. The franchise itself is fascinating: massively popular despite most of the movies being... fine at best. The original Jurassic Park? Untouchable Spielberg perfection. The rest? Less so.
Jurassic Park Unlimited! lives in the same universe as its predecessors, but it's a full reboot. No returning characters—no Jeff Goldblum chaos theory monologues. Dr. Grant gets a passing mention. We're told that most dinosaurs have perished or relocated to a slim equatorial ring, the only remaining habitable zone for dinosaur life.
Enter the plot: An obviously evil corporate exec recruits a redemption-hungry mercenary (ScarJo, naturally) and a surprisingly attractive nerdy doctor for a mission to a previously unmentioned island—an R&D site for mutant dinosaurs. Their goal? Retrieve blood from three prehistoric beasts to synthesize a life-saving heart medication worth trillions. The whole setup has a video game vibe, making it feel modern and accessible for a younger audience.
Meanwhile, a wholesome family sails into the danger zone. You think you know what’s coming—but surprise! They survive a dino attack thanks to our mercenaries, introducing one of several "Wait, they lived?" moments.
Jurassic Park Unbelievable! is chock-full of Easter eggs, nostalgic callbacks, and dino cameos. It's refreshingly light on the franchise’s usual heavy-handedness, sparing us a Chris Pratt cameo via glitchy training footage or worse. Once on the island, director Gareth Edwards cranks up the suspense and offers some genuinely fresh scares.
The story splinters into two parallel quests: the family tries not to get eaten, and the mercs hunt for dino blood. Their paths (hopefully) converge at a central facility, where ScarJo has a contingency plan involving—of course—a mercenary helicopter.
Jurassic Park Unveiled! delivers cool set pieces (some suspiciously shaped like dino teeth or spines), slick action, and satisfying kills. But again... did this movie need to exist? Not really. It leans heavily on exposition to introduce its all-new cast, which does slow things down, especially early on.
Predictability runs high: we’re on an island full of crossbred, hybrid dinosaurs apparently created with the same tech Palpatine used to whip up Snokes. So yeah, they’re nightmarish.
In the end, Jurassic Park Unnecessary! lives up to its name—utterly superfluous, yet oddly enjoyable in a popcorn-flick kind of way.
Thoughts on PBS and NPR, Brought to You By the Letters “F” and “U”
August 1 Update: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, established in 1967 to “ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services, “ announced today that it will wind down operations after federal funding was gutted by the Trump administration. This is extraordinarily bad and is another step on the road to an authoritarian regime/white nationalist government.
My earliest memories include PBS and NPR. And if you are a Gen Xer, yours probably does as well. I vividly recall sitting in the waiting room of my dentist’s and doctor’s offices as a kid, overwhelmed with anxiety and stress, though I didn’t know those words quite yet, nor how they’d impact me in the future, in the background was the unmistakably calming sounds of my local NPR station. The dulcet tones of the announcer’s voice were familiar, calming, and soothing, though I had no idea what they were talking about. It was in stark contrast to the talk radio and baseball games usually blaring out of the speakers of my dad’s Plymouth Volare.
At home, Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Dr, Who raised me. The colorful images flickering on our ancient TV were a constant in my life until we got cable, of course. But even then, I still returned to the comfort of PBS for the psychedelic songs teaching me my ABC’s and the possibility of catching one of Spider-Man’s adventures.
There was a sensibility to public broadcasting, a kind aura that emanated from it. It was educational, fun, but also felt important somehow, even to a kid. It also felt omnipresent and permanent, and that was also soothing.
As an adult, I listened to NPR on the radio for news and music, and as a parent, my kids also knew the educational glory of Sesame Street, though entertainment television like SpongeBob dominated their childhood. Yet still, they knew who Grover, Big Bird, and Oscar were almost instinctively. It’s part of our American culture, a baked-in permanence that raised and educated our kids and, most importantly, taught them to be kind.
Somewhere along the way, of course, this meant conservatives HATED it. At first, it was economic. Conservative Reaganism was purportedly about not wasting money. But as the conservative movement rotted and became twisted by hate, suddenly it was that we were wasting money on kindness. Of course, they hide their argument behind claims of socialism, left-leaning one-sidedness, and teaching kids “progressive” values. This means kindness. This means empathy. This means acceptance. This means love. All things conservatives claim to champion but obviously despise.
Finally, this week, congressional Republicans voted to strip over $1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). A massive win for hate. The CPB is a publicly funded nonprofit organization that subsidizes more than 1,500 NPR, PBS, and local radio and television stations nationwide. Often, these stations are a vital resource for rural communities to receive news and critical alerts, in addition to Sesame Street. The mission of CPB is “to ensure universal access to non-commercial, high-quality content and telecommunications services.” Everything about CPB, PBS, and NPR is wholesome. I mean, as stated on their website, while broadcast remains the main outlet for reaching Americans, public media has expanded to include digital and mobile platforms for creating, communicating, and curating content that educates, inspires, and entertains. WHOLESOME!
The Republicans mask this as a HUGE savings for the American people, while their true intent is far more nefarious. They wish to silence what they consider to be “left-leaning” or “progressive” while also finding a way to fund their tax cuts for the ultra wealthy. It’s obvious in the language they use. Sitting President Trump’s top funder and former top advisor, Elon Musk, believes that empathy, a core tenet taught and championed by PBS, is a “weakness”. Conservatives froth at the mouth for NPR supporting democratic principles and delivering the news in a non-biased, fact-based way as “liberal”.
So, what can we do? Unfortunately, there is not much we can do. MAGA is systematically dismantling our republic while replacing the Constitution with Project 2025. There seems to be no stopping them, with Elon Musk and Peter Thiel funding them and Stephen Miller and Mike Johnson pulling the strings from the inside. Start by listening to NPR and watching PBS. Then, support your local NPR and PBS stations financially. Becoming a sustained supporter is best; give what you can. Call your reps, yes, even the Republican ones, and let them know how you feel about this. Follow NPR, PBS, CPB, and your local stations on social media. Dark times are ahead, but remember, K is for Kindness.
Look! Up in the Sky! It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a New Superman Movie
I still really don’t know what to think about James Gunn’s Superman. Did I love it? Did I hate it? I don’t know just yet. I’m afraid the hype got me, well, too hyped up.
Let’s get a few things out of the way. I grew up with the Christopher Reeve films and Superfriends. I got back into comics when they killed off Superman. I really liked Superman Returns and watched it right before I watched Superman. I hated the Snyderverse.
As for Gunn, I loved Guardians of the Galaxy, liked Peacemaker, and was fine with The Suicide Squad.
I was excited for this movie and was thrilled M@GA was triggered because Superman was “suddenly woke”. Spoiler alert: Superman has always been “woke”
Despite following the production and watching the trailers, I guess I still didn’t know what to expect.
Superman is not an origin story. In fact, it quite literally drops us right into the action after some exposition text gets us caught up on the last three decades, three years, three months, three hours, three days, three hours, and three minutes. Supes, played here by David Corenswet, has lost his first fight and needs help from his foster dog, Krypto, to get home to the Fortress of Solitude. Yes, Krypto is adorable. Yes, we will meet his owner later, hilariously. Kal El has emotionless robots that take care of him and the Fortress. They blast him with sweet, sweet radiation from Earth’s yellow sun, which makes Superman super.
After powering back up, he returns to fight the Hammer of something or the other, who is actually being controlled by Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor and his team of nerds. It’s what I imagine DOGE was. After the fight, we get to see Corenswet as Clark and meet Lois, played by Rachel Brosnahan.
I think it’s important to note that this is a Superman movie. Like, Corenswet is in the glasses for maybe 6 minutes? Thinking of Gunn’s Guardians movies, he didn’t deal with secret identities. Lois knows who Superman is, Guy Gardner, played perfectly finally by Nathan Fillion, certainly does and they talk about the power of the hypnoglasses, which I love. But most of the movie he’s in the super suit doing super things, which is also fun.
Let’s talk about the suit. It’s great! Gone are the drab colors and harshness of the Snydeverse. This is much more classic blues and reds and it looks fantastic. I think the S just stands for Superman and not hope or some shit. The other suits also look awesome—even Krypto’s cape.
The story here is that Luthor hates Superman. Like really, really hates him. And he has a convoluted plan that ends with Superman dead and Luthor the king of the country. The classic Luthor land grab scheme! I love it.
The acting here is top-notch. Everyone seems to fall fully into their characters. Hoult and Brosnahan are particularly awesome. Fillion is funny as hell as Green Lantern and the leader of the “Justice Gang.” Unfortunately, Isabela Merced seems somewhat underutilized as Hawkgirl. She screams a lot and is bad ass but doesn’t have a lot to say other than she doesn’t like the name Justice Gang.
As a Cincinnati native, it was thrilling to see our beloved Union Terminal/Cincinnati Museum Center cameo as the Hall Of Justice, but it was literally Union Terminal. Some CGI on the outside and construction cranes inside and out indicated that a transformation was happening, but that was it. Seemed weird to me, and I imagine they didn’t budget enough time or money for the Cincinnati shoot. Also, when Mr. Terrific flies off toward CGI Cleveland, standing in for Metropolis, my brain broke a bit. I’ve been to Union Terminal countless times in my life and looked lovingly at the Cincinnati skyline across from it every single time. So seeing NOT Cincinnati was too weird for my simple brain.
The post is cohesive enough. Luthor hates Superman. He’s done his research on how to fight him and convinced the government to empower him to arrest and detain him. There’s a great big threat from Luthor’s unhinged experiments. Jimmy Olsen does some journalism to unravel Luthor’s plot while being in the weirdest love triangle ever. Everything is building up to Luthor being exposed and defeated without needing a huge face-off between Luthor and Superman. I’m sure we’ll get that eventually.
I still struggle to wrap my head around how I feel about this movie, 24 hours later. I liked way more than I didn’t like. I had fun. However, I suppose I am just disappointed that I didn’t immediately love it as enthusiastically as most. I mean it’s LEAGUES better than anything from the Snyderverse. It felt more like Superman than those movies ever did. Using the classic soundtrack was great for nostalgia, but since this isn’t connected to the Donnerverse or Returns, it seemed a bit out of place. I feel like the pendulum swung too far to the lighter side from the Snyderverse. I was having a bit of whiplash trying to adjust to Gunn’s comedic style in a Superman movie.
Here’s the deal. This movie is fun. The casting and acting are fantastic. The movie looks good, despite some questionable CGI. Brosnahan and Hoult shine. Brosnahan captures what made every Lois Lane before her so good and makes the role her own. Cornenswet is very good, but some of his delivery, particularly as Clark Kent, seemed inconsistent and just a bit off somehow in a way I can’t place my finger on. He does a good job of being the most “human” Superman we’ve seen. He even does a big speech about it. I was not a big fan of how either set of parents was portrayed. The Kents seemed too over the top in, well, whatever it was Gunn was trying to make them. They seemed like a parody of a random rural couple? If the twist about his Kryptonian parents’ true intentions is true, I’m not sure about that either.
Listen, I like this movie, just not as much as you probably do, and I’m not certain why. It seemed like a puzzle that wasn’t completely finished, because some of the pieces were from another puzzle that had been mixed in with this one. Also, some of the classic Gunnisms that work so well in GotG and Peacemaker seemed out of place here. The Mr. Terrific fight scene outside the entrance to the pocket dimension, in particular, sticks out. The unnecessary Kaiju, too.
The bottom line is that I love seeing people connect with this and go to theaters to have a good time. Half of my theater clapped at the end, which makes me happy. If this is the Superman we need right now, I’ll take it.
Two Years Ago Taylor Swift Pointed At Me: Reflecting Upon The Eras Tour
It’d Been a Long Time Coming…
Two years ago Taylor Swift pointed at me.
The Story Of Us
Rewind to a different era: September 2019. Taylor Swift had just announced LoverFest, a bicoastal celebration of her new album Lover, set to take place in LA and Foxborough. It felt like the start of something magical. After 13 brutal hours on Ticketmaster (the first Great War, perhaps?), I somehow landed tickets to both California shows.
Even more amazing? The timing. LoverFest aligned perfectly with Comic-Con, Hella Mega Tour, and Summer at Disneyland. We wrapped it all into a once-in-a-lifetime family trip. Tickets bought. Hotels booked. Flights secured. That Christmas, we surprised our kids with it all—and the excitement was off the charts.
But then…
Stop Everything Now
On March 13, 2020, the United States declared a national emergency in response to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’d been hearing news stories about this new disease, a cold of sorts with extreme respiratory symptoms and sometimes deadly results. It started in China, followed by a few US cases, and then began ravaging senior living communities. Soon, it was everywhere.
Eventually, LoverFest was canceled. RIP
Begin Again
On November 1, 2022, two years after LoverFest should have happened, Taylor Swift announced The Eras Tour, calling it “a journey through the musical eras of my career.”
There was a rumor that former LoverFest ticket holders would get priority access. I don’t know if that’s true, but we somehow landed great tickets to both Cincinnati shows (June 30 & July 1, 2023)—at face value. After the dust settled from The Great War with Ticketmaster, we were also given an opportunity to purchase tickets for Nashville, and we were able to obtain great seats for Night 2 on May 6, 2023.
Things were good…
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
And then, life threw another curveball.
In March 2023, after battling some health challenges, I found out I had massive blockages in my heart. The diagnosis was serious—quadruple bypass surgery was required. The first question I asked?
“Will I still be able to take my daughter to the concert in May?”
My doctor was confident: “If everything goes as planned, yes.”
Thanks to skilled surgeons, a determined recovery, and a lot of love and support, I made it. And so did our dream.
Nashville Night 2 – Oh Boy, This is Genius
Our first show. Nashville. We’d avoided spoilers for two months—no TikTok, no Instagram. Emily even deleted social media from her phone. We wanted to walk in completely blind. We had wild theories. We had no idea what was waiting for us.
We had amazing seats—the kind that instantly validated the long wait, the surgery, and the heartache (literal and figurative) that came before.
Phoebe Bridgers, one of my favorite artists, opened with Motion Sickness, and a few songs in, she asked, “Where are my boys at?”—and out came Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker. boygenius, live, unannounced. We were losing our minds.
They performed Cool About It from their debut album and stayed for the rest of the show, along with then-rumored-boyfriend Matty Healy. During the Red era, Phoebe and Taylor performed Nothing New (From the Vault) together, and I can still feel the goosebumps.
It was, in my opinion, the most unique night of the entire tour.
Cincinnati Nights 1 & 2 – Cruel Summer
Cincinnati Night 1 brought a new surprise—we were featured in a local TV news story, and Emily found out at the show that we were sitting front row. Yes, front. row.
The show was magical. Taylor was awesome. And then it happened:
Taylor Swift pointed directly at me.
Night 2 brought a different kind of magic. Cincinnati native and longtime Swift collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National joined Taylor onstage. The crowd went wild. It was another unforgettable night.
And Then… One More Era
Taylor would later add a handful of shows to the Eras tour AND release a new album which would add a whole new era to the Eras Tour. We scored fairly inexpensive but nosebleed seats to N1 and N2 in Indianapolis, the last stop of the US Eras Tour.
I Had The Time Of My Life Fighting Dragons With You
The Eras Tour captured the imagination of the world. Swifties watched grainy live streams of every show on TikTok and haters spent all their time disregarding Taylor, the tour, and her fans. But for 3 hours every weekend for two years, we had joy.
I am so fortunate to have been able to make incredible memories with my daughter. Taylor Swift is a singular artist and the Eras tour is entertainment for the ages.
Take me back…
A Conservative Actually Spoke To Me: My Interaction with a Real Live Bernie Moreno Employee
If you know me at all, you know I am very politically engaged. I’m an aggressive, independent living as far to the left as possible. I feel it is my responsibility as a citizen of the republic to be informed, engaged, and involved. As our country has splintered along with the rise of M@GA, misinformation, media manipulation, and the acceptance of lies as truth, it’s become something of a full-time job. I’m active on social media, I call and email my reps daily, and I actively volunteered with the Harris/Walz campaign. I even wrote 100s of postcards to undecided voters (I’m disabled and at the time could not write very well at all, but thought it was incredibly important to do something) ahead of the last presidential election.
I have a particular disdain for lies and am a vocal advocate for truth. I believe in diversity, equality, and inclusion. I’m for fairness, equality, and above all, EMPATHY. I am the epitome of everything the right hates. Trust me, they tell me so ALL THE TIME.
I do have some conservative people in my sphere. I am not sure why they believe the things they do or think the way they think, but I understand the influence of media, the impact of cult mentality, and the disturbing trend of mixing white Christian nationalism with American politics. Despite what many people in my sphere believe, I’m also pretty wicked smart. It’s true. And I stay informed with facts and data, not entertainment cloaked as news.
At times, in my confusion and rage, I will ask for conservatives to engage with me. To try to explain their thoughts. This is a genuine request. I’m DYING to know why some people I know, love and consider otherwise intelligent can be so wrong, so confused, and so committed to being on the wrong side of history. No one ever takes me up on this. Which is fine, I don’t claim to be a great live real-time debater, but with access to factual data, I could carry on these conversations. But sometimes I just want to hear why in the name of Zeus’ butthole people, especially Christians, believe the bizarre things they do.
Recently Bernie Moreno, a known liar, Trump sycophant, and on-the-record racist/bigot, recently proposed potentially giving Donald Trump a goddamn Nobel Peace Prize for his unconstitutional, failed attack on Iran. This is, of course, absolutely ridiculous —a stupid distraction that does nothing more than portray Moreno as a sycophant.
I called his office at 5:03 and got voicemail. I left a message requesting Moreno reverse this idiotic proposal.
Today, a worker called me back.
Toni, a 71-year-old Christian working in Moreno’s office, called me back. She was disappointed in the tone of my voicemail, which I’m certain was exasperated and unhinged.
Anyway. Fair. This is just an employee answering phones. We do need to approach each other with a bit more due respect. Now, I do not think her boss or his boss deserves any respect whatsoever due to their evil views, but this senior citizen? Sure.
She told me she was a “believer,” which I eventually discovered meant “Christian,” and she had a tough time with finances and job loss, which had negatively impacted her life until she found this job answering phones for Moreno. Now, I didn’t get many details of her situation, but I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts her situation was directly caused by conservative policies, which I’d bet she wasn’t ready or willing to explore or admit. But it sounds like she lost a non-union job, had no access to social supports, and quickly devolved into financial distress, ALL of which are absolutely hallmarks of regressive conservative policies. But I digress.
We went on to the reason for my original call, Moreno’s bizarre, unhinged call for Trump to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. I pointed out MOUNTAINS of evidence that Trump’s strike was unconstitutional and failed. I pointed out that bombing the shit out of a country based on a whim isn’t peaceful. She pointed out she doesn’t work for Trump, and I countered, reminding her she works for someone who unabashedly supports Trump.
We discussed religion and faith, and I pointed out that Trump is very likely the anti-Christ according to the Bible. And reminded her of the horrors of bigotry and racism, which her boss supported, while the Bible offers completely diametrically opposed thoughts on immigration. It was clear her views on Christianity were not based primarily on the actual text of the Bible, not the teachings of Christ, but more so from white Christian Nationalist ideals.
The bottom line was that this was the first time a conservative Christian took up a somewhat good-faith conversation with me. She was wildly incorrect, severely misinformed, and dangerously wrong, but she listened, and we didn’t yell at each other. I challenged her to read non-Fox/Newsmaxx news sources and specific things in the Bible to disprove her views and open her mind. I have little faith she will do so but here we are. A conservative Christian talked to me, and we both survived.
Dancing Through the Expanded John Wick Universe: A Ballerina Review
Ballerina is, as advertised, a John Wick universe adventure. And as such it delivered upon its promise.
Ana de Armas is the titular protagonist here bringing a fun new energy to the role previously populated by Keanu Reeves for four flicks. As Eve, she’s thrust into the Wickiverse as a child of someone “in the biz”. Spoiler alert, dad dies and Eve begins her training in the assassin traditions of the Ruska Roma. The familiar tropes are all here as are many familiar faces. It serves to develop and expand this universe by not really doing anything new, different, or special. Which is totally fine for this franchise.
After I’d binged the 4 Wickipedia entries last year I was amused to discover that as much as the movies depend so critically on tradition, ceremony and lore, they also spend 4 movies just making up new lore and rules to cover whatever story string they want to pull. The rules begin to seem less like a hardcoded path than a loosely arranged set of superstitions much like voodoo.
After some fun fight sequences, well choreographed shoot outs, and even a brief meeting with the aforementioned Mr. Wick Eve finds a lead to the cult who killed her pops and the adventure begins.
Walking Dead guy shows up. He knows about the cult. And he’s protecting a small child from the cult mirroring Eve’s childhood experience.
From here we’re off to Europe for more gunfights, bloodshed and “as needed” lore building. The story isn’t really the point with these movies. Not that it’s bad but its we get it. Ancient, international, ritualistic assassin organizations getting revenge, being avenged, some family drama and exceptionally organized fights and gun play. There’s nothing here necessarily bigger or grander than the proper WickCU movies but its just as fun. The film moves at a brisk pace between action sequences.
Things wrap up mostly as you expect yes JW pops back in and yes it Eve ends the movie on the run.
🩰🩰🩰.🔫
The Dumbing Down of America is A Conservative Policy by Design: A Local Impact Reflects National Issues Regarding Education
Today, Cincinnati Public Schools, announed cuts to teachers and social worker positions. If you're curious as to why this is happening, conservative, religious zealots at the statehouse in Ohio have determined that finding a way to siphon off funds for public education to private, often religious, institutions is a smart use of state funds. It's classist, racist, probably unconstitutional, and incredibly dangerous. Many of the families benefitting from these vouchers can, in fact, afford private education, meaning these vouchers are simply making them richer.
Full Disclosure: My wife teaches in a public school. My children attended private school. We benefited from vouchers for two years.
This is an act designed to destabilize and destroy public education, a key tenet of the Trump administration. The redistribution of funds from public to private students leaves families who depend on public education vulnerable. It means less money for qualified, dedicated teachers. It means less funds for safe, state-of-the-art facilities and classrooms. It means shifting education accountability from a public benefit to less stringent and less regulated accountability and reporting. It means a deteriorating foundation of education, critical thinking skills, and preparation for the future for ALL public students in Ohio. Of course, the most vulnerable students in poor rural and urban districts will be most affected.
The conservative attitude toward education is absolutely crystal clear. They want and need an ignorant electorate. Less education means less questioning of the regime and less resistance. If you believe that a god to certain people and an unhinged octogenarian have the best interests of students in mind, you may need to research and reconsider this position.
The greater fear in having a less educated, more controllable working class is that the critical skills necessary to succeed in a changing economic landscape will deteriorate quickly. Add to this the disdain for social supports, and you have a HUGE problem. A brain drain that will further cripple our nation.
Some of this is, of course, driven by so-called culture wars. "Indoctornation," "DEI," and "SEL" are all boogeymen for the right that do absolutely nothing except attempting to make things more fair and equal for everyone by encouraging empathy, kindness, and equity. Of course, that may mean your child hears about a gay person. Or read about the racist foundation upon which our country is built. Or, your god forbid, they are taught to be kind. It's all smoke and mirrors to hide this transfer of wealth and distract from the brain drain epidemic in our country.
If your child lost a teacher today or your family lost access to a social worker, I am sorry. Let's focus on identifying the real issues behind this and vote accordingly.
Empty Classroom. Image Generated by AI