Black Lightning finale

The series finale was mostly satisfying. I watched the last two episodes together so that I wouldn't be stuck on a cliffhanger in between. The show surprised me when it revealed that JJ was not actually Jennifer Pierce but an alien entity from the ionosphere who took her place, fooling her family for several weeks. The real Jennifer returned and fought until she killed JJ, or at least made her disappear. No wonder the show runners never put out an announcement that they "recast" Jennifer with the new actress; they were keeping the plot twist under wraps. I also like that the finale did full circle moments with Jefferson going back to the house his father was murdered in, and Lala coming back to life after he broke out of the cement wall.

Kate Warne's Obituary

I'm trying to find a copy of the 2nd Kate Warne spy novel "The Great Show" by Peg A. Lamphier, but instead I found this article from 2019 on Kate. This Washington Post "Retropolis" article covers the same ground of her Pinkerton history, but the author quotes from reports that Kate wrote herself under her alias Mrs. Barley. Where are these reports? I thought everything burned in the Chicago fire? But wow, she cites a newspaper article with Kate Warne's obituary from March 19, 1868!

By the way, as I find that some books I want are not available as ebooks, I have to buy physical copies, so I need a physical bookmark to keep my place in them. So when I tried to buy bookmarks, I don't see the abundance of choices that I used to see 20 years ago. Now everything is "magnetic bookmarks" I guess. When did that happen? Why would you need a bookmark to be magnetic? Do they go on your fridge when you're not using them?

Meanwhile I've been trying some new recipes for Chinese stir fry and I came upon a new meat alternative--taro root. Now normally, taro is used like potatoes in recipes, but I found it sold as vegetarian chunks at my Asian grocery store. When I cooked it in place of chicken, it actually cooked well. It was chewy yet more dense than tofu, and it absorbed the flavors from the sauce. So this seems like a good natural product, not like these newly engineered "impossible" meat alternatives that are expensive. I can see myself using taro more regularly to have more meatless days. I'm not sure I can go totally vegetarian yet, but I can try to be more omnivore than carnivore.

Movies and Barbie

I tried to watch the new movie Dream Horse yesterday, based on the true story about Dream Alliance, the racehorse owned by a syndicate of working class people. It was pretty good and I was surprised to see Damian Lewis in it, along with a cameo role by Peter Davison of Doctor Who fame. All the advertising I had seen focused on Toni Colette, so I expected all the other roles would be Welsh character actors for the Wales-set story. Apparently Damian Lewis has Welsh grandparents, and I just wasn't aware because I think of him for his roles in British and/or PBS shows, while many Americans associate him with his role on Showtime's Homeland, in contrast. Lewis must have decided that he wanted to be in the story out of Welsh pride, and it's interesting to see him speak Welsh rather than posh British English or whatever it's called. Peter Davison's role is pretty small, as Lord Avery, a wealthy horse owner who is at first skeptical of Dream Alliance, then later tries to buy the horse once it proves its worth.

As I said, I tried to watch it, but unfortunately my theater had people talking loudly during parts of the film; that is so not what I miss about going out to the movies. Plus, I already had enough trouble with Welsh accents and no subtitles, so I could not understand a lot of dialogue, especially the songs. And my, there were so many songs. It's not exactly a musical, but the film makes room for many scenes of the group singing on the bus or singing in pubs to celebrate their wins. They also sing along to what I suppose is an anthem during the Welsh Grand National race, and the movie concludes with another song at the final credits. I'll see if I can find time to catch another showing, or maybe I'll wait until it's streaming so I can watch it with subtitles.

Meanwhile there has been a lot of casting news for Knives Out 2, but no plot details yet, so we can only guess that it's something taking place in Greece. I hope Johnson makes better use of his black actors this time, because I really did think that LaKeith Stanfield's role as the police detective was overshadowed too much by the more showy role of Benoit Blanc. I hope the whodunit plot will be good, and that he keeps the light comic tone. I hate the grim, bloodthirsty tone of so many true crime/serial killer shows; it's the reason why I stopped watching CSI and other police procedural shows. I hate so much that those crime movies/shows keep getting categorized as "mysteries" when they are not at all the same as detective whodunits!

In other news, I heard that Mattel started a toy recycling program for their Barbies and other toys. Maybe I should start clearing out some of my dolls? They also recently released a new Helen Keller doll. I kind of crave the Victorian clothes--at least the blouse--but I don't like that they use the thin figure on these dolls. And they keep making the faces too conventionally pretty instead of trying to resemble the historical figure. I don't mind wrinkles, you know? Inspiring women shouldn't need to be attractive to be role models.

Ceasefire

Given the news blackout among most American political websites, I was stunned when I got home from work and read about Joe Biden announcing a ceasefire in Israel. I was going to give him credit for the diplomacy, but the Guardian article says this deal was actually brokered by Egypt. They probably have more credibility than the US does at this point. Plus, Joe continued to "both sides" it: "I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely, and enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity, and democracy." And he praised Netanyahu and supports continuing to fund Israel's defenses.

There will never be peace as long as Israel is evicting Palestinians and pushing Jewish settlements into disputed land. They are actively provoking anger and refusing to let Palestinians live in peace. It's fucking apartheid and continues to be, even down to issues like providing COVID vaccines. You'd think, in Israel's own self-interest, that it would make sure that Palestinians who live and work close by, would also be vaccinated to help herd immunity, but no, they'd rather selfishly withhold vaccines and gaslight the world into believing they're somehow a super successful and awesome model for vaccination. Fuck!

Anyway, I do hope the ceasefire holds, but how I wish we could make some progress beyond that. Juan Cole says that it's good this only took 11 days, so I guess he's feeling hopeful. Biden, if you're really sincere about peace and human rights, how about moving the embassy back to Tel Aviv? How about reversing more Trump policies that's in your power, even if you can't get Israel to budge? And please fucking cancel/withdraw your approval for that $735 million arms deal to Israel.

Junk News

I've been disappointed by so called leftist blogs like DailyKos and Wonkette seriously under reporting about Israel, and not talking about Palestinian perspectives. I did see one personal diary talking about BDS, but so often the comment sections get filled with virulent Zionists and apologists for Israel's war crimes. Meanwhile the "news" that gets officially published are repetitive rehashes of low-hanging fruit such as Liz Cheney, Matt Gaetz, and Joe Manchin.

If it weren't for Juan Cole, I wouldn't be informed about the protests at the Ford plant in Dearborn. Other political sites only just talked about Biden driving the electric truck, turning it into a fluff piece. Biden's administration specifically said they wanted to focus on human rights issues, but instead they let Palestinian rights take a back seat to climate change, and block another UN resolution against Israel. And now they fucking approve an arms sale to Israel at a time like this! Where's your fucking human rights policy, Biden?

I'm even angrier that Netanyahu is using this horrific violence to prevent being ousted as PM. The most recent election still remains unresolved until someone can form a new government, so he wants to trash any possible alliances that could oust him. It's fucking sick that he'll order airstrikes just to save himself his job, and he knows he'll never be punished by the US for it.

TV Wasteland

The latest episode of Batwoman tackled police racism and brutality in a much more hamfisted way than Kung Fu did, and then they had the nerve to end on a cliffhanger about Luke. Fuck! So now we gotta endure a hiatus and look forward to yet another episode about Crows violence. Thanks a lot! About the only good stuff was Mary confronting her dad about the Snakebite, and Sophie quitting the Crows. I was greatly displeased with Ocean killing Enigma and arguing about how Kate failed Alice. How fucking selfish is he that he doesn't see something wrong with the mere concept of Kate losing her identity, let alone being brainwashed to become the daughter of a psychotic criminal? You don't fucking care about consent and brainwashing after your own coerced mindwipe? Fuck you, Ocean, and your stupid-ass name. I hope you go back to Coryana and die a horrible death offscreen because I don't like any of you selfish islanders.

Meanwhile TV networks have been cancelling and renewing shows in preparation for the TV Upfronts. I'm glad Bob Hearts Abishola, Kung Fu, The Equalizer, and Home Economics got renewed. I'm mildly interested in a couple of pilots I hear about it, but the premises start to sound all the same after a while. Why all these strange high-concept shows and reboots? Why not a a simple mystery show with no psychics or ghosts or time-travel or aliens? I guess only Canada is making shows like the Frankie Drake Mysteries. The closest thing we have to light mysteries are the Psych movies every few years.