Well, I went to see Rise of Skywalker because I kept seeing headlines about Rose Tico that made me think they were going to kill her off like they killed off her sister. She's actually alive and well; she just gets little screen time and stays behind at the Resistance base with Leia, Maz Kanata, and others whose names I don't know. Well, at least Rose does come out for the starship battle that apparently took place in a planet's atmosphere, rather than in space, so that nobody needed astronaut suits. It was kind of freaky and yet awesome seeing the people ride horses across the surface of the Star Destroyers. I mean, it's still bad that Rose didn't get to do much, but at least she wasn't pointlessly killed like Captain Phasma, who was hyped so much because of her fancy armor. Being alive, Rose can appear elsewhere I guess.
SPOILERS BELOW
Sunday, December 29, 2019
Friday, December 20, 2019
Impeachmas and more
Well, he's officially impeached now, but there's still drama about the upcoming Senate trial. Pelosi is withholding the articles for now, and we know that Moscow Mitch is gonna want to rush it through after the holiday break. We can always hope for something to happen to break the impasse. Are any Republican senators worried about a backlash due to the public popularity of impeachment? Will they vote for witnesses? Even if it's just a sham trial, it will have been worth it to finally take a stand. That's all for next year, anyway. Celebrate the victory we have now, or we'll all be burnt out too soon.
I didn't feel up to watching the Democratic debate last night. I just want the field to narrow, and Tulsi needs to fucking get out of the race after her pathetic "present" vote.
The final Star Wars movie is out this weekend, but I'll probably avoid the crowds for a couple of weeks. Not sure how they'll include Leia one last time, and I hope that Rose Tico will show up, though the reviews have only talked up Rey, Finn, and Poe.
For now, I watched Frozen 2, and it was all right, but I didn't like most of the songs. "Into the Unknown" was good, but "The Next Right Thing" was too long. And did we really need to watch Kristoff do a cheesy music video about being "Lost in the Woods", doubting his love, when it was merely a misunderstanding not an actual argument between him and Anna? I mean, good on the writers trying to get more diverse with the native Enchanted Forest characters based on the Sambi people, but the cross-culture story still felt generic. The Honeymaren scenes were minuscule, barely qualifying her as a new friend, let alone a love interest. They're more acquaintances I guess.
I kept wondering who was the singing voice that Elsa heard. So the voice was the ice river itself, or Elsa's mother, or who? Unclear. And the whole thing about her being the 5th element makes no bloody sense. I hate that "water has a memory" stuff because even though it made for cool ice sculpture moments frozen in time, it reeks of that homeopathic crap about water retaining a memory of the healing stuff that they vastly dilute. I'm grumpy and disappointed.
I didn't feel up to watching the Democratic debate last night. I just want the field to narrow, and Tulsi needs to fucking get out of the race after her pathetic "present" vote.
The final Star Wars movie is out this weekend, but I'll probably avoid the crowds for a couple of weeks. Not sure how they'll include Leia one last time, and I hope that Rose Tico will show up, though the reviews have only talked up Rey, Finn, and Poe.
For now, I watched Frozen 2, and it was all right, but I didn't like most of the songs. "Into the Unknown" was good, but "The Next Right Thing" was too long. And did we really need to watch Kristoff do a cheesy music video about being "Lost in the Woods", doubting his love, when it was merely a misunderstanding not an actual argument between him and Anna? I mean, good on the writers trying to get more diverse with the native Enchanted Forest characters based on the Sambi people, but the cross-culture story still felt generic. The Honeymaren scenes were minuscule, barely qualifying her as a new friend, let alone a love interest. They're more acquaintances I guess.
I kept wondering who was the singing voice that Elsa heard. So the voice was the ice river itself, or Elsa's mother, or who? Unclear. And the whole thing about her being the 5th element makes no bloody sense. I hate that "water has a memory" stuff because even though it made for cool ice sculpture moments frozen in time, it reeks of that homeopathic crap about water retaining a memory of the healing stuff that they vastly dilute. I'm grumpy and disappointed.
Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Midlife Crisis
Well that's the Crisis cliffhanger until the next two episodes in January. It's been underwhelming so far. They claim that the Crisis is urgent and important, yet the heroes split off into mini-groups to do stupid side quests like trying to revive Oliver. They have plenty of time to kill and don't seem in any hurry at all. It's so meandering, slow, and unfocused. The third episode is possibly the best of the lot, but it's still full of people wandering around the ship pursuing their own private agendas, or trekking to Purgatory. Why is the Monitor spending so much time gathering Paragons, or rather delegating the search to some of the heroes, but not all of them? Why didn't he come prepared with all the Paragons before the Crisis started? Why allow heroes to waste time on reviving Oliver? Why not explicitly forbid it and punish them for their selfishness and inability to let go of one man who willingly sacrificed himself? He's apparently been preparing to die his whole last season, and yet they want to drag out his death even more with a futile rebirth? Way to cheapen his death, guys.
Plus all they keep talking about is each Earth dying, but what about other fucking planets like Krypton, Mars, etc? It's supposed to be entire fucking universes dying, not one damn planet! Stupid damn crossovers with too many characters and too little actual work to do. Stop doing these pointless things. Why can't this be over already?
Plus all they keep talking about is each Earth dying, but what about other fucking planets like Krypton, Mars, etc? It's supposed to be entire fucking universes dying, not one damn planet! Stupid damn crossovers with too many characters and too little actual work to do. Stop doing these pointless things. Why can't this be over already?
Friday, December 6, 2019
Merry Impeachment
Anyway, it's full steam ahead on impeachment, which is a great Christmas present to America. Some Trumpists are too far gone to change their mind, and yet sometimes they surprise you, like Lindsey Graham not buying the Ukraine conspiracy theories about 2016. If only he would stop bashing the impeachment too. Well, whatever the Senate does afterward, we need to take action now. Elections are coming up next year.
I'm sad that Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, as she was my favorite, tied with Elizabeth Warren. But she had a great response to Trump, saying she'd see him at the trial. Plus I'm sure whoever wins will consider Kamala for VP or Attorney General. But fuck off to the billionaires just now buying into the race. We're trying to cut down the field, not add to it, and nobody needs your centrist, big-business policies. Spend your billions on defeating gerrymandering or something like that.
Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke finally made himself useful in pushing to flip the Texas House seats so that we can be in control of redistricting. People keep wanting him to run for Senate, but we've already got MJ Hegar running for that, so it's good that Beto is helping out Texas as a whole, rather than checking out entirely of the 2020 elections. Let the Texodus of Republicans continue!
I'm sad that Kamala Harris dropped out of the race, as she was my favorite, tied with Elizabeth Warren. But she had a great response to Trump, saying she'd see him at the trial. Plus I'm sure whoever wins will consider Kamala for VP or Attorney General. But fuck off to the billionaires just now buying into the race. We're trying to cut down the field, not add to it, and nobody needs your centrist, big-business policies. Spend your billions on defeating gerrymandering or something like that.
Meanwhile Beto O'Rourke finally made himself useful in pushing to flip the Texas House seats so that we can be in control of redistricting. People keep wanting him to run for Senate, but we've already got MJ Hegar running for that, so it's good that Beto is helping out Texas as a whole, rather than checking out entirely of the 2020 elections. Let the Texodus of Republicans continue!
Movie business and TV
I found out that AMC theaters doesn't pay its hourly workers overtime pay or holiday pay. There's apparently some legal loophole that entertainment is exempt from federal labor laws. That's horrible, and there's a petition to change that.
Meanwhile, the new Mulan trailer is out, and the discussion of phoenixes makes me crave seeing it all the more. After the black phoenix in Maleficent 2, I'd like to see a proper flame-colored phoenix. The Hong Kong protests resulted in great election results for them, so I don't feel as bad about not boycotting the movie. Maybe I'll feel differently by March.
On TV, Black Lightning finally got a win. The occupation storyline in Freeland has been very frustrating and slow, though I did like Tobias Whale having to argue with Odell and Dr Stewart instead of berating underlings again. The mind-wiped Khalil did horrible stuff, but at least he wasn't stuck in a repetitive story with Tobias again. I'm not sure how the crossover will fit in next week, but we'll see. It's dumb to break up the five nights between December and January. So dumb.
Nancy Drew also took a turn when the writers apparently decided the sheriff should not be an adversary but a partner who is an expert on spirits as well, with a whole trunk of Native gear in his office. Nancy also confronted her father who gave her some story about covering up Lucy's murder out of fear, and then moving to Europe for "the first year of your life" which contradicts prior flashbacks showing Nancy as a toddler, not a baby, witnessing her parents with the trunk containing the bloody dress. It also contradicts what Nick said about the payment being sent through a shell company and not sent the usual way that the Hudsons paid Carson Drew for non-murder lawyering. I like the Scooby gang, but I'm getting frustrated with the show always leaning on supernatural detours instead of proper mysteries. Maybe I'll drop the show.
Meanwhile, the new Mulan trailer is out, and the discussion of phoenixes makes me crave seeing it all the more. After the black phoenix in Maleficent 2, I'd like to see a proper flame-colored phoenix. The Hong Kong protests resulted in great election results for them, so I don't feel as bad about not boycotting the movie. Maybe I'll feel differently by March.
On TV, Black Lightning finally got a win. The occupation storyline in Freeland has been very frustrating and slow, though I did like Tobias Whale having to argue with Odell and Dr Stewart instead of berating underlings again. The mind-wiped Khalil did horrible stuff, but at least he wasn't stuck in a repetitive story with Tobias again. I'm not sure how the crossover will fit in next week, but we'll see. It's dumb to break up the five nights between December and January. So dumb.
Nancy Drew also took a turn when the writers apparently decided the sheriff should not be an adversary but a partner who is an expert on spirits as well, with a whole trunk of Native gear in his office. Nancy also confronted her father who gave her some story about covering up Lucy's murder out of fear, and then moving to Europe for "the first year of your life" which contradicts prior flashbacks showing Nancy as a toddler, not a baby, witnessing her parents with the trunk containing the bloody dress. It also contradicts what Nick said about the payment being sent through a shell company and not sent the usual way that the Hudsons paid Carson Drew for non-murder lawyering. I like the Scooby gang, but I'm getting frustrated with the show always leaning on supernatural detours instead of proper mysteries. Maybe I'll drop the show.
Monday, December 2, 2019
Rewatches
Well, it's officially December now, and time to rewatch that It's a Wonderful Life to get in a Christmassy mood. There's so much detail packed into every scene, though some parts feel annoying and outdated like the black maid Annie speaking in such a stereotypical way; I suppose it was better than Capra portraying the town as all white, but young Harry spanking Annie feels disrespectful and sexist rather than playful. After the school dance, when Mary loses her robe, I'm annoyed that George spent so long talking about the "very interesting situation" and even saying that he ought to sell tickets. He was kidding, but still, she was upset and didn't appreciate his joke. He gives her back her robe when his Uncle Billy tells him about his father's stroke, though, and Mary forgives George enough that she fondly remembers the night as romantic; four years later she's made a cross-stitch of him lassoing the moon. I suppose, like Disney's disclaimer on its old movies, we should keep the classics intact and use the bad parts as teachable moments.
Starting with his father's death, George gives up so much, never going to college or his honeymoon. He even lets his brother Harry take another job, even though there was no true crisis at that moment, so maybe it could be argued that George subconsciously wants to be a martyr making sacrifices for people or is actually scared that traveling the world and trying to find another job would actually be a disaster. On the other hand, George Bailey is such a saint that, even in the midst of a tense emotional moment with Mary while on the phone, George has the presence of mind to insist that Sam Wainwright open his new plastics factory in Bedford Falls instead of Rochester.
Seeing It's a Wonderful Life again reminded me of when I was in high school, a teacher brought up the movie and explained the scene with the run on the bank. I hadn't ever understood before how the Bailey Building & Loan was different than Potter's bank. I just assumed it was down to Potter's villainy and the Great Depression, but it's also a difference in the financial institutions themselves. I found a couple of articles about this economic aspect, explaining how banking laws have changed since the 1940s, making smaller banks vulnerable to getting bought up and how Potter totally got away with keeping the $8000 that Billy accidentally handed to him. George Bailey runs his Building & Loan almost as a not-for-profit, making very little to build those Bailey Park houses.
Starting with his father's death, George gives up so much, never going to college or his honeymoon. He even lets his brother Harry take another job, even though there was no true crisis at that moment, so maybe it could be argued that George subconsciously wants to be a martyr making sacrifices for people or is actually scared that traveling the world and trying to find another job would actually be a disaster. On the other hand, George Bailey is such a saint that, even in the midst of a tense emotional moment with Mary while on the phone, George has the presence of mind to insist that Sam Wainwright open his new plastics factory in Bedford Falls instead of Rochester.
Seeing It's a Wonderful Life again reminded me of when I was in high school, a teacher brought up the movie and explained the scene with the run on the bank. I hadn't ever understood before how the Bailey Building & Loan was different than Potter's bank. I just assumed it was down to Potter's villainy and the Great Depression, but it's also a difference in the financial institutions themselves. I found a couple of articles about this economic aspect, explaining how banking laws have changed since the 1940s, making smaller banks vulnerable to getting bought up and how Potter totally got away with keeping the $8000 that Billy accidentally handed to him. George Bailey runs his Building & Loan almost as a not-for-profit, making very little to build those Bailey Park houses.
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