I listened to this podcast episode on Irene Adler from a female Sherlockian Toni Sutherland, and it enraged me. To be clear, Irene is only the focus of this one episode; I think the podcast in general is about Sherlockian "conspiracy theories" and discussing TV show episodes as far as I can tell. There is one supportive guy on the episode, citing a Sherlockian book to add to Toni's point about a conspiracy to belittle Irene Adler.
Well, spring is in full swing with flowers on the roadsides and thunderstorms. Plus a lot of road construction trying to deal with potholes I guess.
There are important elections soon in Wisconsin and Florida, and in Texas there will be elections in May. We're already seeing political signs on local streets, but I haven't heard any radio ads yet.
I'm disheartened that Amber Ruffin won't be hosting the White House Correspondents' Dinner after all. Such cowards. I wonder if she will respond on Seth Meyer's show and/or her CNN panel show Have I Got News For You. I don't watch that, since I don't have cable. I started to do my taxes this year, but it looks like I owe money. Just my luck. At least I'll get a raise at work.
I went out to watch a new movie called The Penguin Lessons starring Steve Coogan. This a charming, funny movie about a British schoolteacher working in 1970s Argentina and rescuing a penguin from an oil slick. He cleaned up the penguin to impress his kindhearted date, then got stuck with the bird when it wouldn't return to the sea. Michell hides the bird in his campus apartment and also uses it to motivate his students during English lessons. At first you think the movie will be all about the penguin and the grumpy Michell learning to love life, but then one of his new friends is "disappeared" by the fascist government regime. Scary, especially as the US has recently started disappearing people too. Michell eventually finds some bravery and even makes his poetry lessons more politically/intellectually challenging. The movie is based on a true story, but I don't know how loose an adaptation of the memoir it is. I enjoyed it, though. If you don't find hope in the world, you give up the will to fight.
I'm listening to the Sherlock & Co podcasts again, reluctantly. I've said before that I dislike these podcasts, but I keep listening to them, hoping they'll eventually get to "Speckled Band" or do something remarkable/original in their modern updates on the Canon. But it's a really hard slog because they make Watson into such a bumbling, rambling comic relief, and they bloat the episodes with so much filler content that they think is humorous. It got really egregious in The Red Circle, where the story was simply a mafia story, that had no relation to the Canon story. They didn't even make use of the story's clever ruse where this man rented a room, then sneaked his wife in there, forever in hiding from the landlady, while he tried to fight their enemies. Despite using character names from the Red Circle, they used nothing else; it's like when they totally skipped the case from Study in Scarlet. So yeah, that's two Canon stories you've failed to do, you lying podcasters!
So Israel broke the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as I knew they would. It's not like the US has ever held them accountable, and now it's even worse with Trump blathering about deporting all Palestinians so he can do his obscene resort idea. I expect Russia will do the same in Ukraine, so I hope the EU's forces will be able to mobilize in time. Canada probably will align with Europe to to counteract the chaos in America
Meanwhile, Unilever fired Ben & Jerry's CEO, which is the latest blow in their many disputes over Ben & Jerry's pro-Palestinian stance. I hadn't eaten Ben & Jerry's ice cream since their brand was bought out, but this is just blatantly politically motivated interference. So I'll be boycotting more of Unilever's brands. I've already been avoiding lots of corporate brands in my search for palm-oil free products, so this will just involve me being more careful to check for the Unilever logo on the back of things in the grocery store. Thankfully I found new alternatives for bar soap since Ethique discontinued some of their products.
I hope more protests and boycotts will make Trump and Musk back down on things. It's disgusting how they're targeting trans folks and immigrants. My family are immigrants too, and things are getting ugly and dangerous.
I went to see Penelope at Stage West. It's like a play/musical, where Penelope tells the audience about her life waiting for Odysseus to return from the Trojan War, but often she breaks into song, while the band plays and acts as a Greek chorus. The website describes it as a "solo cabaret" and the audience seating was arranged to feel like you were at a bar or nightclub. I saw a show with the understudy Rowan Gilvie, and they were wonderful.
Meanwhile I look forward to the next production, the 2nd Sherlock Holmes play in David MacGregor's trilogy. I hope it will be as funny as last season's Elusive Ear production. If you can't see any of these plays near you, apparently you can buy the trilogy in book form too.
There seems to be a comedy Moriarty play in Allen, currently, but I don't think I want to drive that far to see it. The description of an international mystery with spies also turns me off. But good luck to them.
This R.E.M. song was featured in the new Looney Tunes movie The Day the Earth Blew Up, so it's been stuck in my head. It's appropriate for the times too. I would have avoided the movie because I hate Warner Brothers lately, but articles say that WB didn't want to release the movie. Instead they allowed an independent distributor to buy it, so watching the movie can be an act of protest against WB, even if it's not the same as getting the Batgirl movie or the Coyote Vs Acme movies that they shelved. The movie itself is a zany comedy and I liked what they did with Petunia Pig and Farmer Jim. But still, fuck Zaslav.
Anyway, the Ides of March came and went without the government shutdown after all. Schumer claimed that keeping the government open was important for the court cases to continue, but does that matter if Trump's just going to defy court orders? Any power we have to stop the lawlessness needs to be exercised. At least the Tesla protests are working.
But speaking of movies, after the Amazon boycott ended, I went on Prime to watch the Murder She Wrote TV movies, which I haven't seen before. I've only had time for 3 out of 4 so far, so I'll finish tonight. I enjoyed seeing these additional mysteries with Jessica. The first film on the train reminded me a little of Murder on the Orient Express, but had interesting twists too. I did guess that the Macguffin would be in the Gameboy, though. The second film is set at a high-end speaker's conference, with an ex-KGB head getting killed; I never really liked espionage plots on the TV show, but this one at least had some good clues. Some characters even suggested that Jessica solved murders as publicity stunts for her books. The third film The Last Free Man tells a cold case story set during slavery in the South. Angela Lansbury plays Jessica's ancestor Sarah McCullough in the 1860 scenes as Sarah investigates when her slave Samuel Pinckney is framed for a murder. I was surprised to recognize Taraji P. Henson in a minor role, before she got famous. I liked that Sarah knew that solving the murder should be set aside for Sam's more urgent need to escape the lynchmob. I hope the new rumored Murder She Wrote reboot movie will be good, with whichever actress they cast to play Jessica. I miss my JB Fletcher.
