Happy Holidays

It's been very rainy in the early mornings the last few days. While I'm glad that it wasn't snow or ice, it is frequently loud and worrisome. Anyway, Christmas is done and the New Year is almost here. I wish for peace in Gaza and less Republican insanity in the US.

On Saturday, NBC aired a Night Court Christmas episode which I hadn't expected, and it was apparently without regard to continuity. Maybe the show just got pushed back due to the strikes, but NBC didn't want to waste the holiday episode, and that's why they aired it. Season 2 actually starts on January 2nd to resolve last year's story. I'll be glad to see Roz again.

Meanwhile, the Lawmen: Bass Reeves show ended somewhat disjointedly with many dropped storylines. Bass did defeat Esau aka Mr. Sundown, but there was no confrontation with the KKK at the Reeves farm. In addition, the slaveowner Rachel Reeves showed up out of nowhere to make sinister threats about reclaiming the Jennie and the kids as slaves. What was that all about? At least her dialogue wasn't as cryptic and nonsensical as Esau's; I've long since grown tired of him speaking in creepy riddles about knowing Bass "for centuries." It's disappointing. The show started out historically accurate, but the latter episodes kept fictionalizing more and more events to build up Esau as the villain haunting Bass. Screenrant has a list of historical facts omitted from Bass's life. Normally I'd be fine just having a few slices of Bass's life, but knowing we only had eight episodes, I would have preferred more real events to made up nonsense. If the show gets renewed at all, they'll move on to another lawman, not Bass Reeves, which is a pity. At least it was a happy ending, though.

Various Movies

I liked The Marvels, but I'm not really excited about end of the year movies like Wonka and Disney's Wish. I saw the soccer/football movie Next Goal Wins last month but I was disappointed. There was a nice trans character on the team, but overall the film wasn't as hilarious as Taika's previous comedies. Will Arnett has a cameo as the new boyfriend of the coach's ex-wife, but it was too little. There was a slight mystery/twist about the coach's daughter, but I didn't care that much by that point.

Meanwhile I did enjoy Godzilla Minus One recently. It's an excellent movie set in post-WWII Japan. The main character Koichi is a failed Kamikaze pilot, but he keeps encountering Godzilla attacks. He deals with war trauma and survivor's guilt while taking in a young woman and orphan baby into his home. People think that Noriko is his wife, and that he should enjoy the family that fate brought his way, but Koichi doesn't think he deserves to live or be happy. He gets a job helping to destroy sea mines off the coast of Japan, and becomes part of an amiable crew with the captain, scientist Doc, and the Kid who was too young for the recent war. When Godzilla becomes much bigger due to atomic testing, he destroys navy boats and then rampages on land in Ginza. Koichi gets to the point where he feels a personal stake in killing Godzilla and getting revenge for lost comrades and loved ones. The Japanese government (and the US) decline to solve the Godzilla problem, so a citizen-led effort of war veterans comes up with an intricate plan to trap and kill Godzilla. Koichi volunteers to be bait to lure Godzilla to the ocean trap, but he is secretly plotting to fly a true Kamikaze mission to blow up Godzilla. The movie really gets you invested in the emotional stakes while also showing off Godzilla's destructive rampages. I suppose the ending was setting up a sequel with a resurrected Godzilla. I wonder if the next sequel will continue to focus on Koichi and his family.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right

Looks like the Israeli settlers on the West Bank have been attacking Palestinians. These Palestinians have nothing to do with the war in Gaza, but the aggressive settlers want to punish them anyway. As for the Gaza war itself, Israel continues to exact its revenge on Gaza, while the US tries again to tell them not to commit war crimes.

Wonkette is continuing to have disagreements about how to cover the war in Israel. People are getting offended by others discussing Israel's apartheid, and people are claiming that we're minimizing the terror that Israelis went through on October 7th. But I'm not denying anything they suffered. Yes, they suffered immensely, and the remaining hostages continue to suffer! But Palestinians have been suffering too for a long time, and they continue to be targeted for undeserved revenge right now. Hamas are the terrorists, not the civilians. As I've said before, two wrongs don't make a right. Israel's apartheid against the Palestinians does not justify the rape, murder, and kidnapping of Israeli civilians on October 7th. But also, Hamas's crimes on October 7th do not justify Israel conducting their war so savagely and indiscriminately. They have "the right to defend themselves" of course, but they are doing much more than "defense" in any real sense; they are terrorizing civilians and trapping them in war zones. It's overkill, just as I predicted, and people can't get out of Gaza for any safety. The US government repeatedly tells Israel that it can't keep attacking civilians, but we have yet to see them punish Israel for crossing red lines. Why can't we stop funding Israel, or reduce the funding, at all? Why can't Israel punish those fucking settlers for actual crimes, instead of being complicit and supportive of them? Why the fuck couldn't Biden say "we don't know for sure who bombed that hospital; let's wait for the forensic evidence" instead of immediately taking Israel's side?

That's what's disillusioning some people from Biden. I'm disillusioned, though I'm not a young person anymore. I will still vote for Biden in the election, just as I voted for Hillary Clinton, but I don't know for sure if some of the younger people will go 3rd party or sit at home in protest. It depends on what happens in the war I guess. Centrist Democrats have to deal with their disconnect from progressives on Israel.

December Deaths

Well I'm sad that the ceasefire ended, but apparently Qatar is helping to still negotiate with Israel. I'd prefer a permanent end to the war, of course, and that all hostages be freed. There's more scandal about the intelligence failure, and I'm really hoping Netanyahu can be ousted permanently. We'll see.

I'm sad that Rosalyn Carter died recently too. I didn't know until her obituaries that she had been actively advising Jimmy Carter during his presidency. Not just a traditional First Lady tending the White House. I like marriages that are true partnerships.

Meanwhile Henry Kissinger died and George Santos finally got expelled from Congress. Good riddance. As a swing vote, Sandra Day O'Connor had some good and some bad decisions, but was at least a pioneer on the Supreme Court. I wish there were more reasonable conservatives there now, but they've only become more corrupt and extreme. Good luck enforcing the new ethics code.

I avoided shopping last week during the rush, so now I better get to buying stuff for Christmas.

After Turkey Day

Well Thanksgiving is over as well as the dumb Black Friday manufactured holiday. I got to see my family and watched some videos from their recent trips. Now to get ready for Christmas I guess.

I'm thankful that the ceasefire deal was finally made in Israel, and that hostages are being released. I hope the peace can hold longer.

I also went to a new Vietnamese movie called Đất Rừng Phương Nam. It's called Song of the South in English, but has nothing to do with the old racist Disney movie. This movie is apparently based on a famous 1957 Vietnamese book that's been adapted before, but I didn't know about it until reading reviews. It takes place in the 1930s when French colonizers were still in control, and Vietnamese rebels were struggling for freedom. The story focuses on a young boy An who is searching for his father, who turns out to be a rebel leader. An's mother gets killed in a riot, but she makes a stranger promise to take care of An. So An and the thief Ut have many adventures and get separated, but An always finds someone else to help him in his quest. I liked the drama, but there were many coincidences, and one character turned out to be alive, when I thought he was dead.

Almost Thanksgiving

Better get my grocery shopping done before holidays start. There's a new cold front in Texas so I'll have to dress warm. I'm actually working on Thursday and will celebrate with my family on the weekend.

I recently saw on Deadline that Adrienne Warren is developing a show about Black Wall Street, but she wants to set it before the 1921 massacre. So it will explore happier times for Black residents in 1915 and also look at cultural relationships with Native Americans in the area too. Maybe there'll be overlap or foreshadowing of the murders of Osage people depicted in Killers of the Flower Moon. I do like that Black historical shows include history of other people of color. The Lawmen: Bass Reeves show also touches on tribes in the West, with the encroachment of white men in their territory. I wonder if any more of these Western-type TV shows will touch on Chinese immigrants building the railroads and making Chinatowns in America too? Anyway, I hope the Dreamland show will be good. I remember Warren from the ABC TV show she starred in as Mamie Till-Mobley.

Meanwhile, Argentina elected a rightwing wacko on Sunday. I didn't even know about the election. How awful. We're still dealing with shitty fascists here. Brands are fleeing Elon Musk again and he's filed a lawsuit against Media Matters. These petty tyrants have no idea what real freedom of speech is. Fuck him and his space rockets.

More Chaos

Speaking of history, the US Army has now vacated court martials and given honorable discharges for 110 Buffalo Soldiers. The soldiers were originally executed due to 1917 Houston riots, but now the Army is making amends. Some good news at least.

Meanwhile, it seems a government shutdown will be averted if the Senate can get it passed in time for Biden to sign. They're kicking the funding down to January and February, but we'll see what happens then. The House GOP are in such chaos and disarray, and even the Senate is erupting into violence. With this Congress, how can they do anything about the wars and everything else? I know that Biden is still trying diplomacy to pressure a ceasefire, but we'll see if it actually happens.

In Hollywood, apparently there was so much uproar over Warner Brothers killing another film for tax purposes that they relented and let the filmmakers shop the Coyote film to other studios. Why the fuck didn't they do that for Batgirl? Where's my fucking Batgirl movie, you fuckers? Meanwhile Zaslav continues to be an asshole. At least Joaquin Castro is requesting an investigation into these stupid and unfair business decisions. Somebody needs to be looking at these corporate CEOs wrecking the industry. This is why these companies need to be broken up so they can't control everything and ruin it like Elon Musk.

Brutal History

I gave another chance to Christoper Huang's Unnatural Ends, after not liking the sample chapters. I was just put off by the first chapter from Alan's perspective, droning on about archaeology, history, and his father's lineage; I could not see the point of that deadly dull inner monologue. Once I got into the next chapter with Roger and got actual dialogue with Iris, I started to be more interested. Then Caroline too got to speak and react to someone rather than just passively staring at the looming house with dread. Huang should have lead with the more active chapters. So I read the entire book, disappointed that we didn't see the return of Eric Peterkin as detective, but eventually I warmed up to the three siblings investigating the murder of their cruel, domineering father. They all had traumatic childhoods and were constantly pitted against each other way beyond normal sibling rivalry. During their murder investigation, the three siblings learn family secrets about their biological mothers and the long-running eugenics experiment being played out on them. It's a compelling mystery, though I did figure out a major plot twist that the siblings and Iris didn't realize until page 200-something. So I started to get impatient for them to realize the truth, and their father did seem to be too over-the-top, all-powerful in his villainy. Like, how did this monster convince other people like lawyers and professors to be passively involved, if not actual accomplices? I do wish Huang would go back to Peterkin for another mystery.

Meanwhile I watched the premiere of the new Bass Reeves show on Paramount. Technically this is an anthology show about "lawmen" and Bass Reeves will just be the first season. The first episode covers Bass being enslaved to his master Major George Reeves during the Civil War, then later escaping slavery. He's tempted to slip away during the war itself, but he sees deserters being shot, so he carries on in the battle as the major ordered him to. Bass proves skilled with a gun, though later another enslaved man complains about him fighting for the wrong side. Bass knows that he had to follow orders, just to live. Soon Major Reeves gets them sent home from the war, and it's only 1862; the major must be one hell of a jerk to piss off his commanders that much. They return to a mostly empty plantation in Texas, though Bass gets to reunite with his love Jennie. Major Reeves unexpectedly offers to free Bass if he can win a poker game, but of course this was just sadistic manipulation; he had no intention of letting Bass go. Bass is understandably enraged at being cheated, so he beats his master badly, then steals his gun. If his master dies, he knows he's in big trouble, so he rushes to Jennie. She tells him to take a horse and never look back; she'd rather lose him than see him lynched. So Bass escapes and crosses the Red River to Oklahoma, where he meets a Seminole widow Sarah who saves him and asks him to help on her farm. There he stays for years, only learning about the end of the war and that "Lincoln won" when an ex-Confederate shows up in town. The Confederates escape violently, shooting their way out and killing the Seminole boy Curtis. The widow mourns her son and tells Bass to leave with a horse. He goes back to reunite with Jennie.

The second episode starts with Bass and Jennie living on a farm in Arkansas. The farm is failing and their family is growing, so Bass takes an offer to join a posse serving a warrant on an Indian. I didn't like this one as much since we're subjected to Sherrill Lynn constantly talking about Indians being ruthless killers. He has history from the Civil War, but Bass doesn't point out that he saw white men scalping people during the war too. Eventually Bass quits the job as not being worth the money, but later Sherrill returns to offer Bass a job as a full-fledged Deputy Marshal. I look forward to more episodes if Bass can get rid of Sherrill and find a less racist partner.

Inspector Sun

There's been lots of rain lately, and the temperatures dropped so much that there could be a freeze. I hope it will warm enough that any ice melts and we don't get snow.

I wasn't going to go out today, but then I saw that an animated film called Inspector Sun and the Curse of the Black Widow was playing. This a kids mystery film from Spain that has been dubbed into English. The characters are all insects and arachnids living in a tiny world parallel to the human world. It reminds me a little bit of The Great Mouse Detective, but mixed with Miss S Mysteries. The movie is set in 1934 Shanghai, where Inspector Sun thinks he's great, but he's actually more of a bumbling detective like Inspector Clouseau. After getting fired, he tries to take a plane to New York, but is delayed by a young girl Janey eager to be his sidekick. Sun then boards a flight to San Francisco instead, and Janey stows away. During the flight there is a murder, and they learn to work together. It's a fairly nice whodunit but sometimes gross, and I will warn any animal lovers that there's an implied death of a dog. I loved all the period details like the costuming and the Golden Gate Bridge not being finished yet. Even the credits were in an Art Deco font. It's very much inspired by Agatha Christie stories, though some people call it noir.

Elections

I got a pleasant surprise with my property taxes this year. It's almost $1,000 less than last year. In fine print on the bill it says "this is contingent on voter approval in the November 7 election." This year's elections are for Constitutional Propositions, not for any elected office. So if the tax proposition doesn't pass, the tax office will bill me later. Now, that's a real motivator to vote. It helps to get a progressive voter guide that lists all the propositions. I believe it's Proposition #4 that the tax office is referring to.

Early voting starts Oct 23 here, but I won't be able go until Thursday. There are important elections in other states this year, so I hope turnout is good. Meanwhile, chaos continues in Congress without a Speaker of the House.

Indigenous People month

Technically Indigenous People Day was just October 9th this year, but it's looking to be a whole month.

With the new Ken Burns documentary on The American Buffalo, PBS has been highlighting Native American history and culture lately. There was also an 18 minute companion film called Homecoming, showing some bison returning to a couple of lands thanks to the InterTribal Buffalo Council. The Ken Burns film is a very moving documentary about the near extinction of animal as well as the suffering of the native people; they touch briefly on boarding schools and the Wounded Knee massacre for example. There are many indigenous experts weighing in on the history, and the film points out that some white conservationists valued the bison more than the humans. Some members of the American Bison Society were racists who believed in eugenics, for example, and didn't care about the native culture being eradicated. Thankfully, today, attitudes are better and the US is now including tribes in land and ecology policy; it matters that the Secretary of the Interior is Deb Haaland. On October 24th, PBS will air season 2 of their Native America series, but you can watch season 1 now if you have PBS Passport. (You just have to pledge a minimum amount, then they email you the info to sign up for Passport. If you have a smart TV or TV dongle that streams stuff, you can see Passport content on your TV, not just on a browser.)

Meanwhile Apple has their new Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon out. The press has talked up the tragic history of the Osage Nation, but the film itself looks to be from the perspective of the white character played by Leonardo DiCaprio. That might be okay as long as it showcases real history. It might be as good as Wind River was, but at 3 hours long, I'd rather watch it on Apple TV at my leisure.

Speaking of Native Americans, I continued with book 2 of the Cash Blackbear mysteries, and was glad to finally get more info about Cash's lost family, and backstory on Sheriff Wheaton. He too was adopted into a white family, but when he came back from the Korean War, the family disowned him and gave the farmland to their "real" biological children instead. How cold.

Murmurings

I haven't really been following the war news, no more than I did news about the Ukraine War. I never understood Daily Kos's need for daily reports on troops and weapons. I'm busy enough with work; I don't need to see gruesome atrocities and/or political wrangling. I assume it's brutal and ugly. No need to participate in flamewars either.

Biden gave a speech supporting Israel and condemning Hamas, but he did point out that not all Palestinians are Hamas, and remind Israel that there are "rules of war" so that's something, I guess. Trying to discourage war crimes. I don't know how long this will last; will it be neverending like Ukraine?

I don't know about this paper, but it claims that Israelis blame Netanyahu and want him to resign. They don't want to "stay the course" with their PM for the war, as the US was urged to the "stay the course" with Bush during the Iraq War. We'll see what actually happens, because Israel has been through deadlocked elections several times. I also saw a claim on Daily Kos saying that Netanyahu had helped build up Hamas to avoid a two-state solution, but I don't know if that's true. Anything to get rid of him, but I don't know if his right-wing replacement will be worse.

Meanwhile, the EU threatened Elon Musk over the disinformation about the war, and it appears that he got scared enough to do something. But Twitter is bad enough already.

She Came to Me

I found a lovely little movie starring Peter Dinklage as Stephen, an opera composer with writer's block. It's called She Came to Me, and I'm glad to see him still get to play a romantic lead. He does get into a love triangle here, but it's not depressing like how Cyrano was. It's treated as a sort of screwball comedy, and Stephen writes an opera about his affair with a tugboat captain. The quirky movie also covers his stepson's teen romance with their maid's daughter. A lot of farcical coincidences happen, and Stephen's wife also has a storyline unrelated to the love triangle; she is reconnecting with the Catholic Church and feeling drawn to leave her current job as a therapist. The characters are great, and the movie is so charming and warm. The fake operas in the movie are fabulous too.

I love little moves like this, and I'm glad I didn't miss it. The first time I tried to watch it, I had an appointment for an iPhone repair a couple of hours before it. I had researched online that it would only take half an hour, so I thought I would have plenty of time. When I got to the store, though, the tech told me the repair would take 3 hours. I was disappointed as it meant I would have to miss the movie, because the phone had my movie ticket on it. I reluctantly agreed, as the phone definitely needed the repair. So 3 hours later I come back to get the phone, and the text messages on it say it was actually repaired in half an hour like I thought. They sent me text messages to come pick up the phone, but as I didn't have the phone, I had no idea. So I missed the movie for no reason. Later I bought a ticket for another day, and I enjoyed it immensely.

Endless War

I worked this weekend and so could not follow the news of the Hamas attack on Israel. I only knew there would be hysterical and biased reporting because nobody can discuss Palestinians without controversy. Daily Kos often has flamewars on the subject. Now I've had a chance to read on the details of what makes this attack different than previous attacks. What makes this a "war" rather than the ongoing perpetual battles that have been happening in the background for decades? Because apparently Hamas has broken through Israel's security and is now on Israeli land killing hundreds of people, wounding them, and taking hostages. I certainly sympathize with the civilians being kidnapped and killed, but I will never side with Netanyahu nor root for him to kill hundreds of Palestinian civilians in revenge. Two wrongs don't make a right.

I always find it distasteful that the US always says that Israel is our friend and ally, that our support is rock-solid. Stop speaking for me. I support the Israeli people who are not rightwing racists trying to genocide Palestinians. I do not support their evil rightwing government. That's the thing that is so hard to articulate; that people can be innocent, but that their country can do wrong in their name. Many Israeli citizens were protesting their government, and could not counteract its evil apartheid. It's much like how Democrats feel in Texas, hating the fucking awful laws and GOP leaders but unable to overcome the gerrymandered elections. Of course I don't blame the civilians. I blame the government.

Movie Blues

Now that it's October, even more horror movies are coming, on streaming or in theaters, so it's going to be hard to see any non-horror fare. I ended up watching Barbie again just to see the new post-credits scenes. They're cute and funny, and I figure it's better than me paying $30 for a DVD or other Blu-ray disc and giving Warner Bros even more money than just another ticket.

I did see Dumb Money too, but found it meh. It was hard to sympathize with the characters when we kept seeing reddit posts and memes with offensive slurs, and people treated that like it was no big deal. I suppose it was supposed to be funny in a LOLZ "I can haz cheeseburger" way, but it wasn't as charming as cat videos. Plus they used a clip with fucking Elon Musk interviewing a guy. What the fuck do you need Elon for when you could have had more clips of Colbert and other people making jokes and trying to explain GameStop? So it was hard for me to see why so many people liked Roaring Kitty and faithfully followed him for months, instead of selling their stock for money. I came into the movie liking those people not only for GameStop, but for championing AMC movie theater stock too to keep them from going bankrupt during the pandemic. But this fucking movie did not make me interested in them at all; the populist messsage was lost in their cultish devotion to this guy. I didn't enjoy their panicky reactions to every little online problem like it was a world-ending catastrophe. I didn't like the villain hedge fund guys either, but  the righteous comeuppance against them didn't feel real since we didn't see them bankrupted onscreen. And I thought I saw an ad during the trailers for the Robinhood investment app, which is ironic as their CEOs are villains in the movie. Such a weird movie.

I actually enjoyed watching Cowboys and Aliens more on Peacock, even though the aliens were kind of horror-movie gross.

Feeling Bad

In sadder news, my uncle recently died and will be cremated soon. Senator Dianne Feinstein also died suddenly, and Gavin Newsom will appoint a black woman Laphonza Butler to fill her remaining term. I'm annoyed with Newsom, though, for recently vetoing unemployment for striking workers. He makes weird decisions like this, making me doubt how progressive he really is. At least he's good on other issues.

Laurence Fox apparently has turned into a rightwing anti-woke idiot in Britain. He used to co-star in the Inspector Lewis mysteries, so it makes me very disappointed at the former Hathaway. Fuck him.

Also, COVID continues and there's a new vaccine available. I haven't had time to make an appointment yet because I've already been feeling bad. My periods have gotten much heavier lately and longer lasting. It's so bad I have to take at least a day off work. It gives me a headache and makes me weak. I had to order some chao, which is a Vietnamese congee soup that my mother always made for me when I was sick as a kid. Apparently it takes a long time to make, though, so I was waiting over an hour for it. Should have ordered something quicker, I guess. I need to get a flu shot too, but am waiting to hear if we can get a clinic at my job.

Victories

The WGA strike is over, pending the ratification of the new contract by membership, and it appears that late night talk shows will come back quickly. SAG-AFTRA are still on strike, but set to negotiate again. I hope they can get a deal soon, and if not, I hope the talk show writers will repeatedly jab the AMPTP until they give in.

Meanwhile, the government shutdown was averted with a 45-day deal on Saturday. We'll see how the crisis resolves when the government has to do this again and face more backlash about a shutdown during the holidays. I hope the Democrats can get more wins and neutralize the MAGA republicans.

I saw a production of Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap last night, and it was great. I'm only disappointed that they didn't use the famous final warning "you're an accomplice to murder," shown in See How They Run. Instead a more prosaic, "don't reveal the ending" was asked in the opening announcements. I guess that was the only annoyance. We got a lot of laughs out of the two flamboyant characters Christopher Wren and Mr. Paravacini who liked to play macabre jokes on other characters.

Next week I look forward to seeing a production of Clue in McKinney.

Officially Autumn

It's autumn now after the equinox, and it seems we could have storms that will bring the temps down. Yay for fall weather.

But I'm annoyed. The current Dallas mayor has become a Republican after years of being a Democrat. What is with all these defectors betraying the people who voted for them? Some of the other Texas politicians in the article say that Johnson was conservative leaning before, so it's not entirely a surprise to them. I wouldn't know, as I don't actually live in Dallas, nor follow their government closely. But it sure is a messed up way to falsely paint a blue city red.

Meanwhile, Barbie is out in IMAX with a new post-credits scene, but I'm not sure if I want to see it. It would be giving more money to Warner Bros after they canceled Batgirl. Is one scene worth it? I'm kind of interested in seeing Dumb Money, but it hasn't opened wide yet. I did see My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, and it was okay. There was a small immigrant plot to add some depth to the romcom, but I didn't recognize one of the auntie characters even though I rewatched the original recently. I just wanna see a movie that's not one of those endless horror/gore movies, which seem to open year-round now, instead of waiting for Halloween.

Back Too Soon

I was so disappointed that Ken Paxton got acquitted. Now he's reinstated. 😖 I guess I was right to be skeptical that they'd convict him. Still, it's a new low for Texas GOP.

Meanwhile, there's now a third Texas Democrat running against Ted Cruz. I wonder how many will end up in the primary. At least the summer temps have finally come down, and rain has come back.

I had a week's vacation. I tried to write fanfic again, but just mostly ended up revising things I already wrote. I can't move forward to something new. I did see a new play called Grand Horizons at Stage West, and it was pretty funny comedy, with some emotional moments and thoughts on relationships. I'm looking forward to next season too.

Due to backlash, many talk shows are postponing their return. Apparently, strike negotiations will continue again; who knows if they'll be any progress. But according to Deadline, there's going to be a Murder She Wrote-themed picket soon. I hope there will be cosplay!

Hypocrites and Tyrants

It's official, the UAW is on strike. I hope they succeed just like the UPS workers who won a new contract this summer. We have a local General Motors factory in Arlington TX, and I've recently heard some radio ad from GM praising its workers there. But praises don't mean anything if you don't pay your workers fairly. Don't drag this out like the Hollywood strikes! I don't understand why these greedy companies want to lose millions of dollars just to keep starving their workers. Happy, well paid workers can get stuff done and make you money.

Also, I've read a story online lately at about Bélizaire, a young slave who initially appeared in a portrait with his master's family, but who was later painted out after he was sold away. The DailyKos article also includes a YouTube video from the New York Times about the painting. Art restorers have fixed the painting now and the museum is going to try to find more information about Bélizaire. I hope they succeed. It sounds similar to how Napoleon banned Joseph Bologne's music and tried to basically erase him from history. I didn't realize how racist Napoleon was, even reinstating slavery in 1802 to pay for his wars. But after all, he betrayed the principles of the French Revolution to install himself as Emperor. So I don't feel like watching the upcoming Napoleon biopic.

Another Period Mystery

Last month I read a book called Murder on the Red River, the first in a series by Marcie R. Rendon. It's somewhat of a nontraditional mystery story; not the usual cozy mystery with a detective searching for clues and using logic to solve the crime. Cash Blackbear is a 19 year old Ojibwe woman, and she is investigating the murder of a man from the nearby Red Lake Reservation. Cash was taken from her single mom as a kid and passed around the foster care system for years, getting abused and used for free labor. The local Sheriff Wheaton helps her often and is an informal father figure to her. So she works with him on murders, even though it's not her job. Cash also has dream visions sometimes, which often point the way. Tragically, this Red Lake man left behind a widow and seven children, which makes Cash feel personally involved. The widow soon dies too, and Cash can't take the thought of the children also going through the horrible foster care system. She needs to help them somehow, and the ghost of their mother keeps urging her on in visions.

The book is set in the 1970s, in Fargo, North Dakota, and surrounding areas. There's news of the Vietnam War in the background, though Cash doesn't comment. She lives day to day, but can't help noticing the unfairness and cruelty of the white world. How the United States historically gave free homestead land to European immigrants, but forced the native tribes onto reservations. How the foster care system routinely takes Native kids away from their parents, but never takes white kids from their own abusive, drunk, and poor white families. How Cash has to regularly take racist insults like "squaw" and be told by her white lover to just "let it go" and be calm. It's a neverending cycle of injustice. There's hope for the future though, as Sheriff Wheaton helps Cash sign up for college, so she can get a better job than itinerant farmhand. I liked it overall and will probably continue the series, though I wish that Cash had asked the Sheriff about her lost family.

Speaking of historical mysteries, I also tried to read a sample of Christopher Huang's Unnatural Ends, but the language was oddly stilted and formal; I couldn't care about any of the characters either. I could not tell from the sample if his Eric Peterkin detective was continuing in the series or not, so I don't know if I'll buy it. I need a bigger sample I guess. I liked his first book A Gentleman's Murder.

Who Gets to be Normal?

I recently came across an illuminating documentary on Peacock called Every Body, about three outspoken intersex activists: Alicia Weigel, River Gallo, and Saifa Wall. We meet each of them and learn how gender is very much on a spectrum, rather than strictly male or female. Even though it sounds rare, it actually includes hundreds of thousands of people; they've just always been told to keep their true identity a secret to blend into mainstream society. No more.

Once known as "hermaphrodites", intersex individuals have always existed, and they were treated terribly by the medical community. As part of this shameful history, we learn about David Reimer, who wasn't intersex, but lost his penis in a circumcision accident; then he became part of a gender experiment by Dr. John Money. David's case became the basis of how intersex babies were treated and experimented on in hospitals; medical textbooks taught that gender was socially learned, instead of innate in the person. In their view, everything could be corrected by surgery and hormones to make the person "normal" in their definition. I remember hearing about Reimer's story before, back when he appeared on Oprah's show with his mom. Doctors convinced his parents to raise him as a girl Brenda, and Money acted like it was a total success, but it wasn't; in yearly meetings, Money was cruelly abusive to both David and his twin brother too. David finally rebelled as a teenager and learned the truth, so he became male again, undoing what Money did to him. He could have stayed hidden to keep his privacy, but instead he worked with a different doctor to expose Dr Money's failed experiment and advocate for no one else to suffer what he did.

Weigel relates scary and bizarre medical treatment in their case too; doctors seem always focused on a future heteronormative sex life for the child without ever asking the child what they want, or even just delaying treatment until a child can understand and make the decision for themself. Weigel in fact relates this to transphobia too, and protests the Texas bathroom bill aimed to force trans people to use the wrong bathrooms. I admire Weigel for fighting for others' rights and pointing out the hypocrisy of anti-trans bigots claiming that they want to protect children from surgery and "mutilation", when it's actually intersex kids that are having unnecessary surgeries too young. This is a moving and eye-opening film.

Weathering the Weather

It's so hot in Texas. We briefly had one day of "cooler" weather on Wednesday when we had 97 for the high, but then it shot back up to 107 the next day. It could always be worse, such as the wildfires in Hawaii and Canada, but climate change is making it hard for everyone on a regular basis. I just hope we get actual fall weather this fall.

There was some good news on Thursday, when a federal judge struck down part of the Texas voter suppression law. It was just parts on identification numbers on mail-in ballots, but it seems there will be a trial challenging other parts of the law in September. Hope we can get more good rulings.

I saw a cute alien movie called Jules last week, but it's already disappeared from my local theaters. The alien was played by a person in costume, not CGI, and it's really good.

Some DFW theaters are staging mysteries such as Agatha Christie's Mousetrap and an adaptation of Clue in October, so I want to try to see those if I can get days off on performance nights. Oh and then next season, Stage West is putting on a Sherlock Holmes play. I really hope this revival of mysteries will continue with actual detective stories and not just gruesome true crime, or Branagh's crappy version of Poirot.

Billionaire Barbie

The Barbie movie passed $1 billion dollars, breaking box office records. Yet it didn't clobber everything else at the theater. Other movies did relatively well, including the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. I didn't see Nolan's Oppenheimer movie, though, because I don't like nonlinear storytelling; I feel it's convoluted for no reason. PBS has a documentary movie on the atomic bomb, which I'd rather watch, to learn the real history.

I did watch Barbie again with open captions at AMC, so now I know that Ken yelled "Sublime!" when Barbie came to his Mojo Dojo Casa House pretending to be interested in being his long-distance, low-commitment girlfriend. I usually miss dialogue when I don't have captions.

Meanwhile, I've been reading some Barbie posts at the Toy Box Philosopher lately, and she even had a post on the bigger My First Barbie doll that I saw in the stores. It's supposedly "easier to dress" because it's bigger and softer, but I'm skeptical. I have owned vintage Barbies and Kens that had the rubbery "bend and click" knees, and those were extremely hard to dress, because the pants kept clinging to their legs. I hate those legs, so unless Mattel has created a better vinyl technology, I won't go for that. Anyway, so in her post the TBP thoroughly reviews the 13.5" doll, and compares it to other dolls. But be forewarned, because she then dissects the doll and strips off the vinyl skin to reveal the skeleton underneath. That's something you can't undo.

Also, my local Target had a huge sale on the Fresh Fierce dolls, so I bought Okoye. I wanted to take off her costume to see her articulation, but I found that I couldn't take off her boots, and her pants wouldn't come off since the boots were stuck on. But what I did see of her joints was similar to a Made-to-Move Barbie. The details of the clothes and armor were really intricate and wonderful.

Barbie Movie

I finally saw the Barbie movie!! There was a good Friday night crowd of women and kids dressed in pink. I was going to wear my Barbie shirt, but felt it was too heavy in the heat. I was happy that Simu Liu's Ken seemed to be the main rival to the blonde Ken played by Gosling. So he wasn't just a background guy or in one scene. Michael Cera as Allan seemed slightly more self aware of how ridiculous things were and was surprisingly skilled at fighting. There were songs and dance sequences, and they featured a couple of songs from the 90s, "Closer to Fine" and "Push," which I love. There was feminism and there was meta satire on patriarchy and Mattel. I'll probably see the movie again and try to find a showing with open captions, because I always miss dialogue. I'm glad it's doing good box office numbers.

Meanwhile, Wonkette moved to Substack, so I signed up there. I have a profile there, though I don't know if I'll actually post Notes there or not. Might be a way to post shorter thoughts that don't warrant a blog post, and it would probably be easier to post images there directly from my phone. We'll see. I'm certainly not joining Threads.

Also, the feds are finally ordering Texas to remove all that barbed wire crap from the Rio Grande river. Now if they'll just comply...

P.S. my barbie doll wearing gingham is a coincidence; I dressed her that way before I knew all about Margot Robbie's Barbie featuring gingham so much.

July Heating Up

There are now two Democrats running for Texas Senator, Colin Allred and Roland Gutierrez. I'm initially favoring Allred because he's local to DFW, but we'll see how the primary goes. Whoever wins will run against the odious Ted Cruz.

Some Georgia Democrat is becoming a Republican now. This after the North Carolina Democrat who did the same in April. What is with these party traitors, and also Kyrsten Sinema turning into the opposite of the progressive she was elected as?

Meanwhile, Barbie mania continues in the run up to the movie release next week. A lot of stores have Barbie branded merchandise, or at least hot pink clothes. It's so expensive, though, so I can't really get anything. On the weekend, I saw Joy Ride which was a fun comedy, but it apparently got overshadowed at the box office due to bigger movies.

One of the movie trailers I saw was for A Haunting in Venice, the latest Poirot starring Branagh. How on earth did he mangle Christie's Hallowe'en Party into this seance movie set in Venice rather than England? They've clearly aged up the child characters and added supernatural elements that weren't originally in the story. Well, all the more reason for me not to watch this one, despite the presence of Michelle Yeoh.

Apparently, the Emmy nominations came out yesterday and the awards are tentatively scheduled for September, with possible postponement if the Writers Strike continues, and the actors also strike. Who knows what will happen with the summer press tour too. You know,  Hollywood execs (the AMPTP), you wouldn't need to keep postponing stuff indefinitely if you'd just fucking negotiate a deal!! You're losing big marketing opportunities because you won't pay your writers and actors!

Historical mystery

Meanwhile, I read another Perveen Mistry book called The Bombay Prince, about a college girl's mysterious murder which happened while everyone was distracted by a parade for the Prince of Wales. (This is set during the 1921 royal tour of India.) Edward was meant to placate and thank officials in India for aiding Britain during the Great War, but instead his royal visit brought boycotts and protests from the Indian independence movement. Gandhi called for a strike (hartal) against the British, but unfortunately some mobs started riots in Bombay. Gandhi certainly did not support this violence, calling off the hartal and going on a hunger strike for peace. In the book, many of the people being attacked are Parsi, and so is the murder victim, so there's some question about whether the murder was part of the political unrest. Perveen herself is Parsi too, so we view the violence, fear, and mourning from the Parsi point of view. We see how her family is coping too. I do like Perveen's father supporting her career as a lawyer, even boasting that he might make her a partner in the law firm.

Also, Perveen's love interest Colin Sandringham from the previous book visits Bombay, which is awkward since her family wouldn't approve of a romance. Colin coincidentally went to school with the Prince, so he's invited to attend some royal events with him. I'm not sure I like this part of the story, but it serves to give Colin access to information relevant to solving the murder. Also, Colin comments on Edward's current love for a married woman (she's a few mistresses before Wallis Simpson) and how he relates due to his love for Perveen (who is married but estranged from her abusive husband). It's interesting to get a fictional point of view on historical events, though I don't like viewing young Edward sympathetically. This is still the guy that 15 years later will abdicate, then tour Nazi Germany with his wife, after all. On the other hand, in 1921, Edward was still generally a charming, handsome royal celebrity, so some people back then would have liked and sympathized with him.

Turn Back Time

So the Supreme Court released their final rulings of the year on Friday. The other recent decisions had lulled us into thinking they could be reasonable, but now they've killed affirmative action in colleges, allowed anti-LGBT+ discrimination as free speech, and struck down Biden's student loan relief. So awful, and on the last day of Pride Month! But apparently Biden announced a different way to provide debt relief. I hope it works. I did sign up to the plan but I didn't hear back after it was paused for the court case.

Meanwhile I saw the new Indiana Jones movie last night. It was fun and full of adventure, about a fictionalized Antikythera dial made to aid in time travel; it's like a compass pointing you to a "fissure" storm/place that you can travel through. The goddaughter Helena was an interesting character, and she brought along a streetwise kid as her sidekick. Indy does a lot of stunts, but they still address that he can be slow and achy at his age (and with his history of injuries). So the younger characters get exciting action too as they help. The movie was somewhat long, and I felt they could have cut the Tangier rickshaw & car chase shorter, as well as the underwater dive where I couldn't really see what was happening anyway. If they tightened those scenes up, it would have improved the pace and running time. I read some guy online repeatedly calling the movie "bloodless" but that's wrong. The undercover Nazis in the movie kill 3 or 4 innocent bystanders and friends in almost every location; I was appalled by how many people died, and why Indy didn't say, "We can't risk involving anybody else" after all the casual murders around them. Just because we didn't see some Nazi's face melting off doesn't make the movie bloodless.

Officially Summer

With the solstice yesterday, it's now actually summer, though it has felt like that for weeks already. My new AC is working, though sometimes the fans blow rather loudly. However I got an email from ERCOT pleading for people to use less energy due to the high June temperatures. Hey, wasn't using any AC for days, and I'm not a wasteful idiot setting the thermostat to 68 degrees in summer. In fact I'm always too cold at work, where they set AC at 72 or so. I'm always conserving energy. We'll see if the electrical grid can survive. How I wish we could get on the national grid, but Texas GOP are too stupid to do that.

Meanwhile I finished the Keyshawn Solves It podcast on PBS. It was pretty enjoyable, and I liked the focus on Juneteenth.

The writer's strike goes on and on, with the studios refusing to budge. All the networks are planning to air various reality shows this fall, to make up for lack of new scripted shows. I don't know why they can't just negotiate; nobody is on their side against the writers. Are we gonna get stuck rewatching old shows and reading books like in the pandemic? TV execs are replaceable, not the writers.

Because of all the hype, I finally watched Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ but I stopped midway through season 2. Everybody raved about how it was sunny, optimistic, and feelgood, but I didn't agree. It was only that way part of the time, and it seemed more melancholy; clearly, Ted's folksy manner was masking his sadness at being separated from his family. The comedy was very mild and overshadowed by too much drama. It got annoying how weird Ted was with the sports psychologist, and I didn't like the show wrecking the good relationship between Roy and Keely. It became basically a rollercoaster soap opera, and the reviews for season 3 talked about bloat and losing its way, so I quit while I was ahead.

Meanwhile on Disney+, I enjoyed the Muppets Mayhem focusing on the Electric Mayhem band. It took a while to get the human characters, but I did like seeing Lilly Singh work with the muppets. Her boss, Penny Waxman, was a delight. I liked that Janice had an allergy to lying, forcing Nora to come clean; it reminded me of Charlie detecting lies on Poker Face. There were fun cameos from famous musicians and good music in most episodes. We got backstories about Dr. Teeth and the other band members. I was surprised about the origin stories for Animal and even the band's van. It was a nice, fun, breezy show.

Juneteenth Weekend

I usually don't like horror movies, but I was looking for a movie so I could go to an air-conditioned theater, so I decided to try The Blackening which is advertised as a satire/comedy. It is still horror, with jump scares and violent deaths, but I got through it by covering my eyes at parts. What I did see wasn't too gory, and it was funny. The film takes place during a Juneteenth reunion at a cabin in the woods, as several black friends are forced to play a game and get stalked by a killer. I won't spoil more.

I definitely am not going to see The Flash, and am glad that it's not doing well at box office. I'm still mad at Warner Brothers for not cancelling this film and defending it as somehow great and essential for people to see. Many folks claimed that this film would do a multiverse reset or some crossover something that they needed to reboot all their superhero movies. But nope, what I hear is that it's a stupid time-travel story with stupid cameos from alternate universes. Fuck you for not punishing this actor for their controversies! Fuck you for choosing to write off Batgirl instead, when they didn't do anything wrong! I hope you lose millions of dollars on this poor decision.

Anyway, I am getting a new AC installed Monday, so I still got to get through Sunday without AC. Still relying on fans at home; will go visit my dad for Father's Day. After that I might see the Spiderverse movie, though I don't remember much of the first film.

Melting

The last few days, something's been wrong with my air conditioner. It sounds like the inside fan is going hard all day, but it doesn't get any cooler. The temperature is about 94, even though I set the thermostat to 82 or so. That means that it is literally cooler outside (in Texas heat) than it is inside my house. No use wasting all the energy to no effect, so I turned off the thermostat for now. Better to use that electricity for my ceiling fan and some box fans to cool the rooms I'm in. Still it's so hard to sleep in the heat.

I've been sweating constantly and only in the mood to eat ice cream or yogurt to cool me. The condenser/whatever unit outside the house is clearly not working, because the outdoor fan is not turning and it made no motor sound at all. Tomorrow I'll try cleaning it thoroughly, but if that still doesn't fix it, then I'll have to call in professional help. I hope I can afford it, otherwise I'll have to use my credit card.

Well at least the Supreme Court upheld the Indian Child Welfare Act. That law was created to belatedly make up for the abusive Indian Boarding Schools and other policies to steal Native kids away from their tribes. Australia had a similar policy resulting in Lost Generations given to white parents to raise. Stop trying to eradicate their culture, or undermine tribal sovereignty!

Jubilant

Lots of people are jubilant about the Trump indictment this week, but I'm excited that Chevalier is back in AMC theatres this week, so I can see it again. I've been waiting for it to appear on Disney+ but I heard it might go to Hulu for streaming instead.

Also, I found this new PBS Kids podcast called "Keyshawn Solves It" which is a mystery podcast. They call it a video, but it is all audio, like a radio play. It's about a 10-year old Black boy living in North Minneapolis. He loves detective books and decides to solve a mystery with a new friend Kiki. His family and friends also talk about an upcoming Juneteenth parade. I like it so far.

Happy Pride

So they finally got the debt ceiling raised and Biden should sign it soon. They say the deal lasts until January 2025, so hopefully the drama is done for now. Also I found out that the local May elections resulted in a run-off election; I initially assumed that the frontrunner won outright, but it looks like we have another chance. Early voting is this week and part of next week. I'll have to do it this weekend.

Also Ken Paxton got impeached! At first I wasn't excited because I thought he wouldn't get convicted in the State Senate, but I read that he's suspended without pay from his job already. Sure, Abbott just appointed another GOP lackey as interim attorney general, but it seems he's going against Paxton's lackeys. Let the GOP continue to fight amongst themselves.

Meanwhile I bought a cool pack of Sherlock Holmes playing cards. This one, there's a different illustration on each card. Too many packs online have just unique face cards, and then repeat them for each suit. The deck I got actually has a theme for each suit, and we do get different characters to be jacks, queens, kings, and aces. I like it, and it comes in a nice box with a booklet.

Anyway happy Pride month despite all the transphobic satanic panics from rightwingers lately. I look forward to Juneteenth too.

Memorial Day Weekend

I saw the new Little Mermaid last night. Halle Bailey was great, and they even gave her an extra song, a sort of inner monologue while she doesn't have a voice. I didn't really care for Prince Eric's song though, I guess 'cause I didn't like him falling in love instantly with the mystery girl who sang to him. I think I would have bought it more if he was just intrigued and grateful, that he was searching for her just because he wanted to thank her and reward her for saving his life. But I guess they were saying that her mermaid song was magical enough to make him fall in love instantly, even dazed and half conscious.

Eric's backstory is that he's a shipwreck orphan who was raised by the king and queen of the island. But we only see the queen, not the king, and there's no explanation for that, nor do we know where exactly the island is. It seems to be Caribbean though because the villagers seem to be dressed colorfully, and Eric mentions Brazil on a map. King Triton also mentions that his queen was killed by humans, but we don't have more information on that. There's a new wrinkle to Ursula's spell; she makes Ariel forget that she needs to get a kiss, even when reminded by Sebastian. So she doesn't feel any urgency to rush things, and just enjoys getting to know Eric as they explore the island and meet people. Meanwhile Eric is conflicted because he likes Ariel, but he's still pining for the mystery girl in his memory, so that's a logical reason why he wouldn't try to kiss Ariel during the romantic boat ride. I liked how Vanessa's enchantment of Eric left him confused but he still missed Ariel. Also they didn't rush into holding a wedding; they were just having an engagement party on that third day, which is all Ursula needed to delay Ariel for.

Overall, an enjoyable film with interesting touches. But the climactic sea battle with Ursula wasn't as spectacular as I hoped. It was too much dark CGI and muddled storm I guess. At the end I also wondered why Triton didn't even ask Ariel if she wanted to be human permanently; he could have discussed with her whether she wanted to be able to change back and visit him in the future, before he did the magical transformation. But they did show him visiting Ariel and Eric after they got married, so it seems she won't have to completely forsake her merfamily and friends in her new life.

Also tonight I'm going to watch a murder mystery play at my local theater. Hope it's good. I really need this holiday.

Unusual mysteries

In my search for more books with Asian lead characters, I came across a recommendation for The Three Body Problem, which is a Chinese science fiction novel that has been translated into English; it's actually part of a trilogy, and Netflix is apparently adapting it. In trying to find this book, I came across a completely different book also called The Three Body Problem, which is just a cozy period mystery by Catherine Shaw about a Victorian woman solving a murder among mathematics professors. Now some people might be annoyed by getting the "wrong" book, but I actually liked discovering Shaw's book, because I'm a mystery girl at heart and I did like astronomy and mathematics in high school; so the book was right up my alley, and I bought it.

Anyway, I did eventually find the Chinese novel and read a sample; I kind of liked the historical scenes but was confused by other aspects. I didn't buy that book after all. What I read of the plot summary on Wiki just confirms my opinion that the science fiction aspect was way too out there and way too confusing for me. I wouldn't have enjoyed it.

I had more success with a different book translated from Chinese, The Borrowed by Chan Ho-Kei. At first I balked at the high price for the book, but it's not just one story; it's several inter-connected stories set in Hong Kong over 50 years. Altogether 450 pages, but divided into 6 easy to read novellas. The Borrowed centers on a genius Hong Kong Police detective Kwan Chun-dok and his protege Sonny Lok. We meet them first in 2013, then go back in time to five more cases, so you can learn how they met, and see their developing relationship. You also see significant moments in the history of Hong Kong, and origin stories for the gangsters and criminals that they catch. Kwan becomes Sonny's sifu and surrogate father. Kwan is eccentric and his methods are unorthodox, often illegal. He's like Sherlock Holmes or Hercule Poirot, setting up a dramatic trap to catch a killer. Kwan's philosophy is not to obey the letter of the law if he can come up with a plan that will prevent bloodshed and protect citizens. We learn the origin of this philosophy and see how well Lok learns to implement this method himself. It's an excellent book that rewards re-reading. Well worth the price.

Rainy May

We've had a lot of rain this month, almost every day, and the streets were flooded last night, so I had to pull over at a parking lot to wait for the rain to stop. It was near a movie theater but I couldn't find anything I wanted to see, so I went to a restaurant instead for dinner, then finally went home.

Meanwhile, I found a new listing for palm oil free shampoos. The last time I checked online I could only find places located in Australia and New Zealand, so shipping to the US was too expensive. Anytime I saw solid bars in stores like Whole Foods, I thought they were probably made with palm oil. But it looks like now there are businesses here in the US I can buy from. I just have to decide if I want to go to solid bars or order these recyclable glass bottles of liquid, I guess. This Sustainable Jungle blog seems to argue that if we boycott all palm oil, that industries will just plant worse crops for the environment. They also list places that use the so-called "responsible" palm oil. Whatever, at least it explains each brand in detail so I can make an informed decision.

I've continued learning on Duolingo, but I'm starting to get confused between Spanish and Vietnamese. Tambien (also) looks just enough like Tạm biệt (goodbye) that my mind has to pause on them and remember which language I am in. As ever, I cannot remember any of the Vietnamese accent marks, which is annoying when "ban" can mean "table", "you", "friend", or even "sell"; you have to rely on context. Plus it's really unhelpful that the Vietnamese lessons have no grammar explanations to describe why we need various category words and when to use them. It feels like trial and error.

More dolls

Not exactly a Barbie, but I heard that Mattel made some Ariel dolls for the new live-action Little Mermaid. I guess Disney isn't mad at them anymore, and maybe they'll stop having Hasbro make those princess dolls with the horrible tiny shoulders? I went to Target to try to buy one of the mermaid dolls, but they must have been sold out. Instead I saw a bunch of new dolls I hadn't seen before. Not only were there Fresh dolls, there were now articulated Fresh Dolls, Fresh Fairies, and there were more expensive Black Panther Fresh Fierce dolls. Looks like they are successful and expanding. Plus there was some other line of black dolls that looked a little smaller, called Naturalistas. I was tempted to buy a fashion pack, but worried it wouldn't fit any of my dolls. It appears that their feet are bigger than Barbie feet, which I kind of like because the Fresh Doll feet look so small on them.

Mattel even had some larger dolls called "My First Barbie" made out of softer material and bigger so that younger kids could dress them. I hope it's not that terrible rubbery plastic they used to use for bendable knees on Ken, because those were NOT easy to dress. Anyway it's a new way for Mattel to sell more clothes and shoes that don't fit other dolls.

Overshadowed Movies

Like Chevalier, there were other small movies in theaters lately that were overlooked due to blockbusters. I enjoyed Are You There God, It's Me Margaret, which was funny and cute. It's been a while since I read the Judy Blume book, so at first I was confused about Nancy claiming that she got her period while in Washington DC, but that was a lie. She clearly got it and had a meltdown in front of Margaret at a New York dinner instead. Margaret's struggles with family and religion and peer pressure felt genuine and relevant even though they took place in the 1970s.

Then there was Sweetwater, a biopic about Nat Clifton, a Harlem Globetrotter who joined the NBA as one of the first black players. I've always been curious about who the Harlem Globetrotters were ever since I saw them guest star on Scooby Doo with other '60s, '70s pop culture stars. The whole idea of "exhibition" games of basketball as opposed to actual sports games was weird to me, because I didn't know why people liked watching the fancy tricks breaking all the rules. Also as a young kid, I had no idea yet of the history of racism in sports, forcing people to create Negro teams for athletes excluded from all-white professional leagues. So this movie, showing the early days of the Harlem Globetrotters in the 1950s, helped me see the way the team operated, going on a bus town to town to play fixed games. The team owner Abe Saperstein is Jewish and often protests when hotels discriminate against the players, and he'll sleep in the bus with them. But Nat often complains that it's unfair that Abe pays more money to the players of the losing team, especially since the Trotters are genuinely good basketball players who don't need to rig the games. Saperstein thinks he has to run the business this way, otherwise there wouldn't be enough exhibition games to sell tickets and make money at all.

Meanwhile Nat gets recruited by a coach from the New York Knicks (Knickerbockers is their real name), and the team owner tries to convince other NBA owners to integrate their teams too. It's a little distressing how their board meetings go, arguing about the novelty of the "flash" and "showy tricks" of the black athletes, likening it to a circus. Eventually, the Knicks buy Nat's contract from Saperstein, and he joins the NBA. However, the basketball referees keep ruling against Nat in the games. It's not like I understand sports rules or anything, but it's clearly due to racism, when they are harsher on him than on white players doing similar things. Eventually things get better as Nat and other new black players fundamentally change the sport, but there's still segregation and discrimination outside of basketball. Just because he worked in New York doesn't mean there weren't racists there just as bad as in the South. Overall an interesting movie about a forgotten sports pioneer. The weird thing is they never explain why Nat's mother changed his name as a kid or why Nat became a taxi driver after retiring from basketball.

I think sometimes that I might see the George Foreman movie too, but the ads say he became a Christian preacher, so I'm leery of religious overtones in that. I might watch it on streaming later so I can fastforward through parts of it.

No End in Sight

Fucking guns. And no amount of carnage and tragedy ever gets the GOP to stop defending the 2nd amendment. If anything, they just pass more laws to loosen gun control. Meanwhile all of us are at risk any time we go out in public to a mall, school, or movie theater. Heck even just going to work, or going to vote like in yesterday's election.

Fuck your thoughts and prayers. Kids are dying from guns, not from CRT, drag queens, or library books. There's an annoying anti-abortion billboard on the highway that I always pass, with a baby pic and "love all babies" message on it. If you're so pro-life, then why don't you do anything about the kids getting shot? It happens so regularly that we go numb to each massacre.

Chevalier

Anyway, I saw Chevalier recently, and it was well worth the wait. I was surprised to see Samara Weaving in it, along with Minnie Driver. The supporting cast is excellent, and I'm glad that the movie included Joseph's mother Nanon in the story to help him connect with other French Blacks, not just white society and the royal court. The movie is a great antidote to period movies that continually whitewash history.

Apparently taking on the condescending "black Mozart" label, the film opens with a violin duel between the two, and Joseph Bologne dazzles the audience to the point of a standing ovation. Then we see how he grew up, with his rich white father enrolling him in a boarding school and assuring him that "no one can keep down an excellent Frenchman" despite his race and illegitimacy. So while enduring racism from his classmates, Joseph becomes a violin virtuoso as well as an accomplished fencer. When he wins a match in front of the King and Queen, he gets knighted, becoming Chevalier de Saint-George.

SPOILERS BELOW

Strange Confluence

It seems like everything has been happening this week. Barbie announced a new Anna May Wong doll that quickly sold out, though Mattel claims they are sending more inventory out to stores. The Writer's Guild started their strike on Tuesday. In Texas, Colin Allred announced his run for Ted Cruz's Senate Seat. Then came the expected Cinco de Cuatro/Star Wars Day and Cinco De Mayo, and now King Charles's coronation in the UK. Also Texas is having municipal elections today (The early voting was last week up until May 2.) All these events packed together is a little overwhelming.

More on the Anna May Wong doll--I like the concept and the gesture for Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, but when I look at the pictures, I don't see that much resemblance to the real lady. Yes it has Wong's bang haircut, but something about the eyes and the shape of her lips is off. Her eyes should be much bigger, and again I hate the too skinny arms of the Gigi-articulated doll in general. It's creepy and almost skeletal. So I won't buy it, especially not for the high price it's going for on Ebay now. Better to leave the stock to other buyers who want the doll more. Instead I bought a DVD of two Anna May Wong movies, which just arrived last night. I'm excited to watch it.

Edited to add: Actually I love Made to Move Barbies. They have strong joints. Apparently the name for the Barbie articulation I don't like is the Gigi body, which was used on the Gigi Hadid doll. It's the elbows I hate, and the knee joints are also different from Made to Move. Here there is an example on this Barbie post from the Toy Box Philospher. Search for the comparision photo between Lena and Barbie. I don't know why, but the Gigi body is often used for collector Barbies and the arms especially are anemic and spindly.

Voting Matters

Early voting has started for the May 6th election. I'll have to do it this weekend but it's still hard to find any information on candidates in local elections. School board elections are supposed to be nonpartisan, but how do you find out who's a transphobic nutjob trying to ban books and censor history? Only a few candidates have websites, and/or answer questions for the League of Women Voters' guide, so it's hard to actually know how they will act on the school board. It seems like Patriot Mobile is the rightwing PAC funding shitty candidates, but I can't find any listing for the election I actually vote in.

I don't want to elect a rightwing lunatic to a City Council position either. At the very least, I want to vote out anybody who voted against a bus system and who proudly brings this up at every election. "If we had voted for the bus, then we wouldn't have this, and this.." It's not something to be proud of, you idiot. So we didn't get the bus then; what's stopping us from trying to get a bus deal now? Is it you, you fucking idiot?

Meanwhile a longtime election administrator in Tarrant County has resigned due to the Republican judge undermining him and alleging voter fraud. If the election system was so corrupt, then why did you accept the results of your own damn election, huh? *sigh* Texas politics is so disheartening, but we gotta keep fighting.

Edited to Add a news link that came too late for early voting, which is not helpful at all for voters.

Hypernostalgia

Movies seem to be all about nostalgia lately, whether it's for video games or music or sports of a previous era. I've never played any Mario Brothers, so I didn't want to see that movie. That didn't leave much choice among the remaining options. I used to watch the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as a kid, but never played the game, so I wasn't interested in the movie, when it was clear that the characters had no relation to the TV show. I didn't feel like getting into another blockbuster franchise either. But reviews said it was fun and that Hugh Grant was the villain, so I tried it, at least to see Rege Jean Page as the Paladin. It was all right, but mostly the characters were meh, and the movie was so long. It seemed to drag, and the quest became meandering. Hugh Grant is a bad guy, but he's not the main villain; he's a secondary villain on the way to the Big Bad, like he was in the recent Operation Fortune.

The Paladin character was supercool, like a heroic knight who could do no wrong, but he was only there for part of the quest. I liked that the main characters were friends/co-parents, rather than love interests, and there was a cool cameo of the TV show characters in one scene. But otherwise, the plot was overshadowed by the jokey tone. Overall I didn't care for it.

So then I tried the movie Air, even though I don't care about sports or Nike. I find the whole "sneaker culture" strange and crazy to spend so much on shoes. Still, Air got good reviews and had Jason Bateman in a non-douchey role as a marketing exec. The drama was interesting, but the movie was stuffed full of 1980s songs. Like every two minutes another tune would start. I love the '80s but this was too much. Annoying and distracting in fact. It's okay to sometimes end the scene on silence, or even an instrumental score, instead of a pop tune. If you want to make a jukebox movie, make one. Don't stuff it into a different movie about sports and marketing. Viola Davis was good, as expected.

It just made me more excited for Chevalier when I saw a trailer for it. Hope that will be better than this lackluster fare.

Barbie Mania

Passover has begun so apparently Easter is this weekend, and the usual "faith" movies are out. I was hoping to see Chevalier, but apparently it doesn't arrive in my area until April 20th.

Thankfully the new Barbie trailer is out, showing more shots of Barbieland as well as a glimpse of the real world. It's so pink, and Barbie has feet permanently stuck in high-heel position, just like the dolls! I was right when I guessed that there are multiple Barbies and Kens. They also released character posters, and apparently a Barbie Selfie generator so people can put in their own selfies or celebrity photos into posters. It's fun, though concerning that everything is becoming AI.

The elections in Wisconsin and Chicago were good this week, but there was bad news in North Carolina, when a Democrat suddenly switched parties. At least Trump got arraigned.

Spring has sprung

Well it's the last day of March, and March Madness should finally end soon. We've had the spring equinox with rains and I've already seen bluebonnets along the highway. I've seen some campaign signs indicating that there will be city elections in May, so I'll have to look into early voting for that.

I've recently figured out how to get AppleTV+ on my Tivo Stream device so I can watch shows on my big TV. That has been a help for me to watch new shows and movies when I didn't want to see all the basketball. There haven't been many movies I wanted to see in theaters lately, so I'll have to hope for more in April I guess.

I've continued reading books and found a new series called "Black Orchid Enterprises" about a group of college friends deciding to start a business and move into one house together in small town Texas. They also have an ABBA tribute band with a fourth friend who often visits. Pretty fun for a contemporary setting, and it's cool to see a part-Vietnamese character in a book.

The Ides of March

Yesterday was Pi day, which non-mathematicians know about now due to pizza places doing sales. But none of my coworkers got the reference when I said "beware the Ides of March." It's not exactly a holiday, I guess, but I used to take Latin in high school and of course read Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in school.

The Oscars were on Sunday, and this time I was interested due to Everything Everywhere All At Once's many nominations. So I half watched the awards while doing other stuff and was mostly pleased by the wins. (Though I still think Stephanie Hsu deserved the Oscar more than Jamie Lee Curtis. People argue that "she's young, she has time to win later" and "they're rewarding Curtis for her whole career." But I find that whole argument silly, because it creates situations like "the Oscars owe Angela Bassett for that Tina Turner movie" and new people getting overlooked for outstanding work because the Academy is rewarding other stars for things "owed" in the past. It's a terrible cycle.) Ke Huy Quan was wonderful, and the industry seemed to like the nostalgia and comeback story in rewarding Brendan Fraser in his controversial Whale movie too. Me, I was wanting to see Fraser in that Batgirl movie that was axed so cruelly.

I was also surprised by a number of Indians winning awards for RRR and a documentary called The Elephant Whisperers. They gave good speeches, and I liked the guy who sang The Carpenters. It's a good year for diversity in general. People online are arguing that Michelle Yeoh's win was not an Asian first due to Merle Oberon and different definitions of "Asian." I would argue that any mixed race winners who passed for white had an advantage over stars like Anna May Wong who were shut out of good roles due to their race being more plain to see. You can't win an Oscar, if the industry won't cast you in any worthwhile roles. Hopefully things are changing now.

I did like seeing the new trailer for The Little Mermaid, but am surprised that ABC actually made it part of the Oscars show, instead of playing it during the commercial break. That's a little weird and pushy for Disney. But corporations are for greed, not artistic integrity.

President's Day

Well I finally got vacation time from work. Got some real sleep and tried to cook some more. I recently tried the plant-based "Just Egg" substitute because a review said it scrambled well. It does not. It wouldn't curdle, and when I pushed it around, it just left a burnt film on my non-stick pan. I was using oil and it didn't help at all; after the disaster, I had to let the pan soak in soapy water for hours, and the stuff wouldn't scrape off. Almost ruined the damn pan. I'm sticking with real eggs. However, I was more successful with pan frying lumpia (a Filipino version of egg rolls) after I thawed them in the microwave.

I've also been using a learning app to learn Spanish and Vietnamese. It works okay for a free app, and I don't get confused switching back and forth. I am Vietnamese, but have forgotten most of the language, and I don't know where all the accent marks go. But I do remember more words as I listen to the speakers in the app.

Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that Turkey/Syria suffered another earthquake. Some people are calling it an aftershock. I was hoping that the worst would be over and they'd find more people alive from the last quake.

Freezing February

Well I survived another ice storm. I worried that I'd have a blackout again like in February 2021 when the power grid failed, but I didn't lose power this time. I just was stuck at home for most of the week, with a full fridge. I had enough food because I managed to get groceries on the few hours on Monday before the freezing rain started. At last the snow and ice melted with rising temperatures. Hopefully things will get back to normal now and I can get out to the movies and other errands.

Meanwhile, the Dallas Zoo has been suffering with missing and dead animals lately. I don't know why somebody keeps targeting them for break-ins lately, or if the arrested man is guilty of all the crimes or not. I guess we'll see.

People keep talking about some new zombie show called The Last of Us, because it had a touching gay romance, and the episode used Linda Ronstadt's classic Long, Long Time. I've always loved that song, so it's already in my iTunes playlist, but I'm happy that the internet is discovering it. I won't watch the show because I'm not interested in what is described as a zombie apocalypse/horror show.

I did watch the new Poker Face on Peacock. It's okay in its Columbo-like storytelling, and I did like seeing guest stars like Brandon Michael Hall. It just bothers me a little that Charlie Cale keeps setting events in motion that get the murder victim to be killed. Oh and I hate her frizzy hair. Some more midseason shows will premiere soon, so I'll try them out.

Happy New Year

The Lunar New Year has started, and this year is the year of the Cat for Vietnamese people. My Dad says this is the only animal that differs from the Chinese, for whom this is the year of the Rabbit. In any case, I managed to buy a Chinese New Year barbie doll from last year, because I liked her hair style and her dress. However, when I look at the doll in the package, she has this weird dented face. It reminds me of the original 1959 Barbie doll in the bathing suit, whose eyes are so weird. Not sure I will keep it.

Meanwhile I saw the new Missing film, which is the sequel to Searching from 2018. They even reference the previous film as something that teenager June is watching on her computer. It has a different actor playing David Kim, though, framing Margot's disappearance a real life crime, and John Cho merely being the actor who played David in a ripped from the headlines film. Kind of a meta reference.

Then June watches her mother leave for a vacation with her new boyfriend Kevin Lin, who is hinting that he's going to propose. June doesn't care, and she just spends her "emergency money" on parties with her friends while her mom is gone. Only when her mom never shows up at the airport does June begin to worry and call for help from a lawyer friend and the cops. However, given that the vacation trip is in Colombia, the FBI say they don't really have jurisdiction to investigate, so June decides to hire a local man to go the hotel to get security footage from the security cameras. The investigation spirals on from there, with many twists and turns about secrets and past aliases/identities. I liked it mostly, but felt that the movie upended things too many times. It was interesting commentary on true crime obsessions, though. I prefer my murders to be fictional, not real.

Midseason Shows

New shows have been premiering lately and I've tried them out. Will Trent's lead is somewhat interesting as a dyslexic character with a cute dog, but am not sure I can handle him, Angie, and other people all having backgrounds in foster care with horrific experience with sexual abuse. I think that Mark Paul Gosselar's Paul character was just in 2 episodes, and won't be recurring, but you never know. I haven't read the books either.

I watched the new Night Court, and the new judge seems to be trying too hard. Maybe she'll settle down once we're in a new routine. Seeing the old sets is kind of charming and nostalgic, and there were some funny jokes with the joke names on the board. I didn't remember the episode that Abby referenced with the pool ball, but I found it explained on Screenrant. So I watched the episode on Freevee where Harry quits being a judge for a while, then Dan talks to him in the pool hall. That's a fairly deep cut that a casual fan won't remember. I'm not sure how much they will reference the past, and just rely on people being able to rewatch the old show.

Rian Johnson's new mystery show Poker Face will premiere soon, but I'm not sure I like the ads for it. It doesn't seem to be a whodunit, but more like a Columbo.

Puttering Around

I'm very happy to hear that Everything Everywhere All at Once is starting to win awards, as a picture and for the cast members. I think Stephanie Hsu deserves more recognition for her great performance. I hear that she and other EEAAO cast members will be in Disney's upcoming American Born Chinese show. I hope that will be good too.

I saw red carpet photos from the Critics Choice Awards, and I think I have a similar dress to Stephanie's orange Valentino gown, but mine is purple. It's also shorter and doesn't flatter me that much. I'm trying to figure out how to alter it to make it look better on me. I found some fabric on Etsy that matches the color pretty well, but I'm not sure if I should make it longer or add a train like she has. Still figuring out my sewing machine and how to alter dresses to fit me. I found some nice patterns at Joann's but never have any time to sew.

Meanwhile, in my cooking, I've been trying to get a crispy skin on my catfish like my mom used to make, but the skin seems to peel away from the flesh instead. I am able to pull the bones out fairly easily after cooking, at least. Also trying the leftover catfish in my Canh Chua soup.

New Beginnings

I recently tried a recipe for a garlic cream sauce, starting from a roux, and I thought I was doing great. Then I added cheese and looked away for a minute. When I came back, the sauce had "broken" with the butter separating from the other ingredients and leaving an oily mess in the pan. I tried to fix it with half and half, and it came together for a little while, only to separate again. So I put it in a tupperware in the fridge for later, to see if I could fix it when I had more time. Somehow, the cold turned it back into sauce again. I just don't get why sauces are so finicky. Usually the problem I have is that the slow cooker makes sauces that are too watery and thin, and I struggle to thicken them with cornstarch. It's just too hard. I guess I'll have to stick with store-bought sauces.

Anyway, the new year is here at last. As I said, Sherlock Holmes is public domain now. Yippee! I hear there's a lot of celebration on social media about homoerotic possibilites, but boo to Moffatt trying to make another season of Sherlock. He's never gonna give you Johnlock slash; he's only gonna queerbait you, and he's a hack at writing mysteries. Fuck him.

I've officially cancelled Netflix again, and hopefully I won't have to renew again to see Knives Out 3, if they have a theatrical run, like they did for Glass Onion. Oh, Quantum Leap is back too.