Primary Voting

I early voted this weekend as well as did my taxes. They were still so many candidates on the ballot who had already dropped out, that I had to keep paging down to find Elizabeth Warren. About the same number of primary candidates for US Senator too, to run against Cornyn. I had to do some research about the various judicial candidates on the ballot too, so I used the League of Women Voters guide. One week out from Super Tuesday, so I hope there are good results then. I'm so sick of seeing TV ads for Bloomberg. He needs to get out of the race and stop driving up prices for other candidates that need air time!

Meanwhile, I saw Call of the Wild recently and enjoyed it. The CGI/motion capture worked for the dog, and it was good to know that a real dog didn't have to act out the beatings and dogfights, even as pretend. Animal lovers are not going to like watching gratuitous dog abuse, so they toned down the gore and violent deaths from the book. (No dogs drown in the melting ice of a lake, for example.) Harrison Ford narrates the film, and appears as John Thornton, who has a tragic backstory and is an alcoholic. Buck saves him, as expected, then goes through his own transformation due to his ancestral wildness, represented as a ghostly black wolf spirit. It's a pretty good adventure, though they happen upon a cabin and a riverful of gold a little too easily. The movie also changed the villain due to Jack London's original story being too racist and vindictive to the imaginary Native tribe. I don't mind the changes, and other film adaptations have been even looser and more unfaithful. I really liked the diverse casting for the two postal delivery workers in Alaska. I mean, to run a dogsled, why wouldn't you seek out Native expertise? I wish the movie had spent some more time with these two before moving on to John Thornton.

I also rewatched Birds of Prey again and realized that I was wrong about the timeline; it isn't messed up. I was just confusing two different nights at Sionis's nightclub. The first night, apparently a week ago, was the one where Harley wore her hair up and had rhinestones in her eyebrow. The second night, she had her hair in ponytails, and she wore the rainbow sleeves/shrug thing. It's just, the movie didn't mark the change from one night to the next with narration or a "1 week later" title onscreen, so I thought Harley injured Sionis's driver the same night that she blew up ACE chemicals. Separating the two nights makes much more sense.

Birds of Prey

Black Lightning was doing so good for a couple of episodes post-Crisis, with lots of action and Lady Eve coming back to life, but then Monday's episode killed all the momentum. Starting with Jefferson morosely drinking, listening to records, and reminiscing about Lynn to Gambi via phone, the episode was slow and over-serious, wasting so much time on conflicts at the ASA, as the loosely assembled team trained to go to Markovia, while Lynn conspired with Jace to steal Gravedigger's power for an hour, like she borrowed other powers to escape the ASA. Stretching out the pre-mission time, and having people criticize the team's ability, only calls attention to why Black Lightning doesn't call for help from the Superfriends who are in his same universe now. One call and he could get Freeland out of quarantine, let alone have assistance in Markovia. I would say only the last 20 or so minutes actually showed the rescue in Markovia, and it was such a slog to get there. So disappointed.

Meanwhile I went to see a different team up at the movies. I was initially cool on Birds of Prey because there's no Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) in it. There is a Cassandra Cain, but I'm not familiar with her comic history, and in the movie she's mostly used just to steal the MacGuffin diamond and be a damsel in need of rescue and safety. However, there is Renee Montoya, whom I loved in the animated series, so I took a risk. The movie was pretty funny and action-packed. It has some timeline issues about whether the scenes at the nightclub were last night (six hours ago) or a week ago, and Harley says the bank account numbers are in the "atomic structure" of the diamond, when they're probably just laser engraved on it like they engrave diamond serial numbers. Besides these minor nitpicks, it's fun and exciting entertainment with a cool antiheroine lead. The fight scene in the jail cells, with the sprinkler malfunction, could have been so bad with a male director and male gaze. It could have been all wet t-shirt ogling, but with a female director, the focus is on Harley's impressive moves through the water. Such a great scene, then later in the evidence room she does a cool maneuver with a baseball bat that bounces back to her. Great fight staging with funny moments.

Cassandra, as I said, is largely used as a plot device, but at one point she does get fed up and picks up a gun herself when scared by that henchman Szaz who threatens to gut her to get the diamond. Black Canary gets a lot of development and backstory about her mother who died. Huntress gets a backstory too but her current adult self doesn't have much character beyond being socially awkward and intense about her assassinations. Renee Montoya has some history with both the police captain and her ex-partner the lawyer. She understandably takes to drinking when she gets suspended, but jumps into the fray when Black Canary calls her with info on the diamond exchange. Renee also fights well for someone older, with no superpowers or assassin training. Meanwhile, Harley is still criminal and bad in the sense that that she casually murdered someone for a pet hyena, and tries to turn in Cassandra to the Black Mask, but she does partly redeem herself and becomes a temporary ally to the other women in the final battle for survival.

I only had a hard time watching the scene when Szaz sliced off people's faces and another scene when Sionis screamed at and humiliated a woman in his nightclub, just because he thought she was laughing at him. Total creep and egotistical bastard. Harley and Cass run off with the diamond, but apparently do send the bank numbers back to Huntress to fund her new Birds of Prey venture with the other women, so Harley's still slightly good again. I enjoyed seeing Renee quit the police instead of staying stuck in that shitty place (like Agent Carter staying at the S.S.R. when people stole her credit in season 1---boo!). Overall the film is a very colorful, quirky diversion. Some dark moments as I said, but not nearly as grimdark as previous DC films that are so self-important, apocalyptic, and washed out of color. Please make the upcoming Batgirl movie like this.

Ada and the Engine

Last week I went to see Lauren Gunderson's play Ada and the Engine in Fort Worth. It's about Ada Lovelace making a name for herself while living in the shadow of her famous father Lord Byron. It's very imaginative, funny, dramatic, entertaining, and even musical. I liked it, with some reservations.

In the beginning, Ada is dominated by her mother Annabella, who thinks that Ada has inherited her father's reckless and sinful passions. Apparently Ada tried to elope with her mathematics tutor in the past, and she still likes to read Lord Byron's poetry. Annabella actually rips out pages in the book while lecturing Ada not to emulate her father. Ada eventually marries the wealthy Lord Lovelace, but her heart is truly captivated by Charles Babbage's Difference Engine and Analytical Engine, proto-computers that were not fully built in his lifetime. The play casts their relationship as an unconsummated romantic love, rather than an intellectual affinity between a mentor and his protege. In fact, the whole thing becomes a love triangle when Ada's husband Lord Lovelace objects to her friendship with Babbage. He eventually relents when Ada's illness (possibly post-partum depression) is relieved by Babbage's letters, which excite her and cheer her up about technological possibilities.

SPOILERS

So, Brexit happened

Everything was all doom and gloom about the Senate impeachment trial this week, but I already expected it to be a sham. Why would anyone believe Susan Collins or Lisa Murkowski would actually vote for the good of the country? Kushner's so-called "peace plan" for Israel was shitty, as expected too. Why would I be shocked about any of that stuff? Democrats need to stop being so defeatist after every setback, like when the Mueller report came out and nothing happened for months. We still won victories, and Trump's still impeached forever.

No, the thing I was most upset about was Terry Crews being an asshole to Gabrielle Union. He talked like her complaints of racism and sexism were imaginary and not credible. So many people were begging Crews to just shut up, or at least say "let's wait for the investigation to end." He's finally backed down and apologized publicly, but it still leaves a bad taste in the mouth to see how big a hypocrite he could be. Not a true ally. It dampens my enthusiasm for Brooklyn Nine Nine's return. Hopefully the rest of the ensemble will make up for it.

At least The Good Place finale was good. It did manage to surprise me by having Tahani choosing to become an architect, and Michael become a human. I'm glad that Eleanor found a new purpose and did more good deeds after Chidi went through the door. It showed real emotional growth and maturity in her. Jason and Janet had touching goodbyes too. I only regret that so much of the last season was wasted, and Simone wasn't even used well after making her the reason for Chidi's mind wipe. The writers made things come full circle, though, crafting a satisfying, hopeful ending.