Doll woes

In Barbie news, I tried again to remove the legs from my Aztec princess Barbie, but failed. I realized that it's not just a hip joint I'm fighting. It's an armature going down the whole leg. Mattel used this skeleton-like structure for their "bend and snap" knees.

 

 

This screenshot is from a Youtube video on the history of these bendable knees. It goes from the 1960s Mattel through different types of articulation like pivotal bodies and Made to Move bodies.

So it appears that I must do an amputation to cut the armature and remove the leg. Then I'd have to recut the hip joint somehow to be compatible with the other "beach feet" legs I have. Why couldn't they have made the Aztec princess Barbie with flat feet to begin with? Or made actual high heel shoes if they were going to insist in high heel feet? Ugh.

Hopeful moves

Israel has finally started letting a few aid trucks into Gaza, but it's a pitiful amount and at the same time they want to launch another devastating war offensive. At least the UK is suspending trade talks with Israel and calling out the intolerable humanitaran crisis. The UK also recently made a deal with the EU. Can the both of them force Israel to end the war? Just cut out the US, which has not helped at all and has backed Israel too many times. Sounds like Canada is joining with Europe to criticize Israel's actions too. I hope there can be both peace and justice, but peace would be a good start.

Meanwhile Netflix made a deal with PBS to save Sesame Street. So many people complained that the show wouldn't be available free anymore, ignoring the fact that PBS would continue airing the show, and even get new episodes on the same day as Netflix. This is much better than the HBO deal. It's sad that Sesame Workshop need corporate money at all, but this way at least the show continues, and past seasons are available. I think I heard that Sesame Workshop unionized too.

I boycotted Netflix over Dave Chappelle and other anti-trans content, but this is a good thing for Netflix to do. So when Knives Out 3 comes out this year (if it doesn't show in movie theaters) I will sign up at that time to watch that movie, the Black Barbie documentary, and anything else on my list that people have raved about on Netflix, like that White House whodunit show. If Netflix doesn't piss me off again, I may keep my subscription going a month or so. But I have to be careful of my budget and too many monthly subscriptions.

For now I watched some more episodes of Poker Face, and the alligator one was an annoying farce. So weird, then Peacock sneakily switched me to another show called Long Bright River which I watched for far too long before realizing it wasn't Poker Face. I hope other episodes this season will be better. I think they are building to some kind of plot twist on the "Good Buddy" guy on the radio. We'll see if it's any better than previous mob plots.

 

Ghouls

The news media kept dredging up Biden's age and claiming somehow that it's a "litmus test" for who Democrats will nominate for President next. Excuse me, but who did you ask about this?! My litmus test is who will fucking fight the GOP. I'm not re-litigating Kamala's campaign and the debate that tanked Biden. Fucking ghouls!! And now Biden has cancer. :( I hope the stupid media are happy. Good luck to Joe.

I'm just trying to get through day to day. My fridge, which is only 6 months old, keeps frosting over in the freezer. I thought it was a fluke at first, or I needed to make more ice, but it keeps coming back. So I gotta have it serviced and I guess empty it out again. It's still under warranty at least. I can't afford another costly repair.

I've already spent a bunch of money to install a new roof that will hopefully not leak anymore. I so wanted to take a vacation this year, but I'm afraid of flying nowadays and afraid of going out of the country and not being let back in. So I guess it'll be a staycation.

Movies and music

Recently I saw Shadow Force and Juliet & Romeo in theaters, and I liked them both.

Shadow Force is an action adventure starring Omar Sy and Kerry Washington as two assassins trying to protect their 5-year old son Ky. Their ex-boss has a vendetta and is hiring their former Shadow Force colleagues to kill the whole family, who have been separated and in hiding for years. I didn't follow the whole plot with Mark Strong's villain facing scandal and investigation; I just waved it off as similar to Valentina getting impeached in Marvel's Thunderbolts* and wanting to destroy evidence of her crimes. Omar Sy is as charming and French as ever; I really love him as a leading man and want him to star in more stuff. Kerry Washington is good as the mother, and they also have friends Auntie and Unc played by Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Method Man. Amid all the danger and gunfire, there are very cute scenes with the son Ky connecting with his parents and singing Lionel Richie songs. There's also Chekov's song where they use "Truly" so much that you know it's going to become the soundtrack to a fight scene. When it happens, it's great. Very fun film.

Meanwhile Juliet & Romeo is a pop-song adaptation of the old story. It doesn't follow Shakespeare's play or dialogue, but rather it imagines the history that Shakespeare based his story on centuries later. It plays with the difference between legend and what may have really happened. We see Verona in 1301 during some kind of dispute between Rome and the apparently evil Pope, where both sides are trying to take over Verona. So the Capulets and Montagues are fighting over who will ally with the Prince. The cast list is impressive, including Derek Jacobi as the Friar, Rupert Graves as Prince Escalus, and Rebel Wilson as Lady Capulet. I also like the colorblind casting, showing that medieval history is diverse, especially in cosmopolitan cities. They also add some other characters such as Rosaline being Juliet's friend, and Mercutio having a girlfriend; he's also been adopted by Lord Montague after his parents died, so that he and Romeo can be more "brothers" of a sort. Anyway, the apothecary is secretly Jewish and makes his potions to help smuggle his Jewish compatriots out of Verona away from religious persecution. I liked all these touches, and the songs and dances were nicely choreographed, though I couldn't make out all the lyrics. I did get confused between some of the male Montague characters whose names I didn't know, though.

TV News

Networks are starting to cancel shows again, in preparation for new fall schedules. I'm sad to lose The Irrational and Night Court because they were charming. I sometimes watched Found too, but the melodrama was too soap opera-ish. They took most of the season to reveal that Jamie was not an impostor, for example, when they should have just done a DNA test.

Meanwhile, Poker Face season 2 has started, but I found the first episode with the quintuplets to be farcical and somewhat offputting. I know it's a pun on "the game is afoot" but it looks like she technically lost a lower leg, not just a foot, presumably in the car crash that killed her father. Maybe I'm not in the mood for the absurd farce, like I didn't enjoy Elsbeth's musical season finale.

I was sad to lose Shinwell on CBS's Watson, and I worry how the Moriarty plot will end in the finale. I have always found the twins gimmicky, though, so I wouldn't mind losing one of their characters. On Sherlock & Daughter, Moriarty turns out to not be in the Red Thread. It seems they are trying to overtake his criminal empire. Moriarty secretly runs the prison and enjoys luxuries like Dale the Whale does in Monk. He also has a lost son Dan, and wants Holmes to find him. I think Dan is the guy following Amelia, but we'll have to see what happens there. I think there are only 8 episodes total, so hopefully we'll get answers soon.

Edited to add: Oh I guess Shinwell survived on Watson after all. Strange ending on the finale, with the whole team agreeing to Watson's plan to kill Moriarty (even though John had just lectured Ingrid that they shouldn't fake promise a cure to Hannah's daughter). And the "2 weeks later" scene didn't reveal anything important about if Ingrid truly left the clinic for good and they hired that new recruit from a few episodes ago. Really puzzling and strange choices, but possibly the writers felt they needed to move on from Moriarty and do something new next season. We'll see, I guess.

Elections matter

Even local elections for school board and mayor matter. There are encouraging results from Texas's May elections. I'm glad that Deborah Peoples also won her race for city council.

Meanwhile a new pope was elected. I don't care that much, but rightwingers are calling him woke and Marxist. Fuck their feelings.

I'm so relieved that the Tufts student and the Newark mayor were released. I hope everyone who was kidnapped and detained gets released. Lately in Texas we keep getting ads with Kristi Noem claiming that everyone arrested were dangerous criminals and they're all going to be deported. It's disgusting. Yet Noem claims that if immigrants use the CBP app to register and leave voluntarily, then they might come back somehow someday. Isn't this the app that Biden administration used to help immigrants, and weren't Trumpists complaining about it before? I'm so confused by all their chaos and reversals. Lawlessness and cruelty.

May the 4th

So fandoms associate today with Star Wars and also Arrested Development's Cinco de Cuarto fake holiday, but I didn't realize that people on Bluesky would also note today as the date of Holmes's presumed death at Reichenbach Falls. I mean, I've been a Sherlock Holmes fan for decades, since middle school, but this date in "Final Problem" never really stood out to me; plus the idea to celebrate a death date, let alone a fake death date, is weird to me. I'd rather celebrate when Holmes returned in "Empty House." Now that I think about it, I did write one Holmes/Watson story where he calls May 4th "our unhappy anniversary" as he's trying to apologize for deceiving Watson. But other than that, I didn't hold onto May 4th in the context of Holmes. But happy May 4th, whichever fandoms apply to you. I'm sure non-geeks were celebrating Cinco de Mayo early this weekend.

Hooray for the great election results in Canada and Australia! I was also glad for the May Day protests everywhere. Has Elon Musk left DOGE yet? He said he was leaving in May. Meanwhile, Trump is claiming he can defund NPR and PBS with an executive order. Republicans have been after PBS forever. I hope they don't succeed.

The past few days I had vivid dreams that I suddenly had a perfect plot point for a story and was trying to write it down, only to wake up. So yeah, I don't think I'll be able to write fic any time soon. I am sad about Jill Sobule's recent death. I knew her from her song Too Cool to Fall In Love playing on the radio, and then I got her album and liked those songs too. I hope she didn't suffer too much in the fire. Maybe the smoke got her before the fire itself?