Goodbye, James Earl Jones
The world is lessened with you not in it.
Category: reviews
Just for one day
Hey, bestie?
Do you remember seeing Spoon at the Crystal Ballroom a few years ago?
Hi. Barely.
You, me, K., T.
Sorta.
Do you remember the opening act?
Bad memory, sorry.
Name it, pls.
Nope
A brunette.
Totally my type LOL
Tracy adds a heart to “Totally my type LOL”
I got a poster signed by her
Anywho
I’m slowly getting to the point
Tracy adds a heart to “I got a poster signed by her”
I remember that happening!
So I still listen to her
And she did a cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” with Postmodern Jukebox that brings tears to my eyes
Your memory amazes me
And it came up on my drive home from work
Can’t listen now, but will later
And I was singing along
Belting it out
Oh shit are you in the middle of something?
Sorry sorry
Watching videos with C.
All good
I’m getting close to the point I promise
Tracy adds a laugh to “I’m getting close to the point I promise”
Anywho I thought to myself, self, this would be AMAZEBALLS in karaoke
Tracy adds an exclamation mark to “Anywho I thought to myself, self, this would be AMAZEBALLS in karaoke”
But there’s no way any karaoke place would have THIS SPECIFIC VERSION of this song
Well bestie
Guess the fuck what?!?!?
VOICEBOX HAS IT
Wow
🎶 I, I will be king 🎶
🎶 And you, you will be queen 🎶
Anywho
Now singing real loud
Haha! Enjoy! Happy Friday Night!
There might be beer involved
I would hope so!
Cheers!
Do you have soul? Well, that depends.
Walked downstairs last night to take my dirty dishes to the dishwasher and dad was on the couch watching a very young John Cusack and an even younger Jack Black.
I gasped. . “Is that High Fidelity?”
Dad grunted. “No, hang on,” he fumbled for the remote and paused it, “it’s… oh, yeah. High Fidelity.”
“That is literally a Top 5 movie for me.” That was a reference. “I love that movie. I didn’t realize it was streaming.”
“Yeah. It’s alright, I guess.”
I gasped again. “You’ve never seen it?”
“No.” His tone of voice gave away that he was surprised I liked it, and that I was reacting so strongly. I got the impression he was just looking for something to watch.
“Well, I would love to hear your thoughts about it when you’re done.” I put the dishes away and went back upstairs, and soon to bed.
In the morning, I went downstairs after showering and dressing, and dad was making coffee. I got my vitamins, waited for the coffee, nonchalant.
“So. What did you think of High Fidelity?”
“It was OK I guess.”
“You didn’t like it?”
“It was a little silly.”
Silly? I didn’t say it out loud, only thought it.
He continued. “But I guess rom-coms often are.”
OK dad, fine, keep your secrets then.
The best sandwich I’ve had all week
Today I made a sandwich that had so many vegetables on it. It was an epic pastrami and pepper jack cheese sandwich on medium-toasted whole grain Franz bread. In addition to probably an inch thick pile of thick-sliced pastrami and a slab of that awesome deli pepper jack cheese, it had plenty of 50/50 mix salad greens (arugula and spinach leaves), slices of delicious Roma tomatoes, white onion, pickles, and pepperoncinis. Plus catsup, spicy broun mustard, salt and black pepper. It was so good.
I took my time making it, more time than it took to eat it; maybe 10 or 15 minutes from start to finish. I had to get out all the ingredients. I’m very methodical when I make a sandwich. I start with putting the bread in the toaster, and then start pulling the rest of the ingredients out of the fridge. Sliced a whole Roma tomato just to use two thick slices. The tomatoes I got from the store yesterday were very big examples of the type; I put the rest of the tomato in a container to use them for another sandwich in the future.
The white onion was already sliced and in a ziplock bag; I just cut off what I needed and put the rest in the bag. The pickles and pepperoncinis came in a jar. I store the cheese in a plastic bag. I buy the salad greens in a large-ish plastic tub. I like buying the greens that way because they keep for a while and I don’t have to worry about cutting them up.
The pastrami was in a brand-new package; when I cut it open I put the rest back in another ziplock bag for later. I make this sandwich a lot. Can you tell?
Eating it was a challenge; it was so tall that the top layers were sliding off. I had to carefully scoop up the sandwich halves (I cut it on the diagonal which is the best way for me to cut, and by best way I mean my preferred way to cut a sandwich, do what you want I’m not the boss of you) carefully, and hold the whole thing with both hands.
Biting in to this sandwich brought delightful sensations of texture, smell, and taste. The textures were the tough and rough texture of the toasted bread, the juicy flesh of the tomatoes, the crisp snap of the pickles and onion slices, the dense spinach leaves and the delicate arugula leaves, all before the soft cheese and feeling the fall-apart stack of pastrami beef. All coated liberally in the sauce of catsup and the seed-y mustard. Top to bottom, inside to outside, a crescendo of mouth feel.
The smells were a wonderful mix of the toasted bread, the fresh lettuce and tomato, the vinegar and salt of the pickles, and the hit of spice from the banana peppers and mustard, plus the sugary catsup, more salt from the beef, and the wine-like smell of the cheese, flecked with more bits of peppers.
And the tastes mirror the scent; spicy and fresh and vinegar and toasty grains and salty meat and tangy sauces. It was the best sandwich I’ve eaten all week.
April’s Travel App Roundup
My niece, April, has a blog that’s focused on travel. She just posted a roundup of useful travel-focused apps that I think you should check out!
Travel apps can be tremendously valuable when planning your vacations! They can aid in finding deals on places to stay, and navigation while in a new place. There are many travel apps out there to help you on your journey. I’m here to share the ones that I currently use most often. They are all free to download and use!
Free Travel Apps – April Taking Off, 5 July 2024
I have won the week
My 85+ year old dad, who has been staying with me while his apartment gets asbestos remediation, watches a lot of TV. In the nearly three months he’s been here (insurance has been dragging their feet, don’t ask) he’s probably watched more TV and movies than I have in the prior five years I’ve lived here alone.
His tastes tend to run to action thrillers, spies and snipers and bounty hunters and cops and firefighters, although sometimes he branches out to simple comedies or family drama. He absolutely does not like sci-fi, fantasy, or superheroes, though, despite them being action-y spectacles. He’ll watch them if I put one on, but it’s not his favorite.
Because our tastes don’t always align, I don’t often make recommendations for him. Probably my biggest win in that area was putting him on to Hacks, on HBO Max, with Jean Smart. He loved it and is now recommending it to other people, too. If you like old cranky people and young smart-asses, you’ll love it, too. And that’s the biggest reason I thought my dad would love it, which he did.
Tonight, I went downstairs and he was doing the scroll-to-find-something-new and he had stopped on a comedy.
“Are you looking for a comedy to watch, dad?”
“Yeah, I thought I was in the mood for something funny.”
He was on Hulu. I laughed. “What do you think about… vampires?”
“Oh, I don’t like those horror things, blood and guts don’t do anything for me.”
I laughed again, leaned in close, put my hand on his shoulder. “What do you think about… funny vampires?”
He arched his eyebrow. “Oh?”
“Funny, sexy vampires, in fact.” I motioned for the remote, and scrolled through to the search, typed in “what we do…” and clicked the top result. “Oh, and it’s kinda-sorta British humor. Well, New Zealand, which is close.”
“What We Do In The Shadows?” dad asked.
“Yes. Just give it one episode. Watch the pilot, and if it’s not your cup of tea, you can go looking for something else, no strings attached.” I hit Play. “One episode, that’s all I ask.” I watched as Guillermo introduced himself to the camera and chuckled, then went back upstairs.
It is very much not like what dad normally watches. It’s weird. But it’s raunchy, and funny, and it’s one of the most amazing TV shows out there. It’s a Top 10 show for me, clearly.
Upstairs I texted my sister to give her the update. She loves this show, too. Her immediate response: “Keep me in this loop please!”
Just about a half hour later, i went back downstairs. On screen, Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja were floating in the air outside a window, where inside some cosplayers were arguing. Guillermo said something, and Nandor hissed at him. “Please, Guillermo, you’ll frighten the virgins!”
Dad chuckled.
“Well you made it to episode two!” I said.
“Yeah, it’s OK,” dad said.
He was hooked. Nothing could have made me happier.
The Acolyte E1 “Revenge/Justice” and E2 “Lost/Found”
The Acolyte is a new Star War, and based on the first two episodes, I like what I’m seeing so far. Here are some non-spoiler thoughts about the setting, characters, and story. The show is set in the time period called The High Republic: 100 years before the prequel movies, during a golden age of peace for the Old Republic. Jedi have established themselves as galactic diplomats and protectors but there are rumblings among the underclass that the peace is built on a lie. In the opening crawl, we learn that there are emerging Force-users that are not Jedi, something we’ve seen a lot already but is presented here as a new idea.
I like this setting. It’s one I’m not that familiar with, not having read any of the novels or comics that have been released to date, so this show is my first exposure to it. The reason that’s built in to the lore as to why Galactic citizens would think only Jedi can use The Force is the ethically-dubious practice of Jedi taking anyone who shows Force sensitivity in to their temple, taking them away from their families and friends. Legalized kidnapping has got to produce a lot of resentment, boiling out there in the billion-billion stars of that Galaxy Far, Far Away (GFFA).
We get to see a mix of Jedi and a handful of regular citizens. The Jedi are space cops, and they’re being led by a politician: Master Venestra, played by Rebecca Henderson, spends a lot of her time on screen shutting down discussion, diverting investigation, and shielding the Jedi from political scrutiny for their role in a crime spree. Luckily for the plot, a rough and clearly emotionally-compromised Jedi by the name of Master Sol (played by international star Jung-Jae Lee) feels motivated to dig deeper, out of guilt and a remorse that is only hinted at in these two episodes.
Backing up Master Sol is Knight Yond (Charlie Barnett) who’s a stiff, by the rules type, but somehow likeable for it, at least to me. His strictness is a weakness but his honesty is a strength. And Yord steams his robes, an act that TikToker Written In The Star Wars has pointed out just leads to a new question about every Jedi: do they steam their robes, or not? Master Venestra would definitely order an underling to steam her robes; Master Sol could not even bring himself to care.
Rounding out the investigative team is Padawan Jecki (Daphne Keen) is curious, competent, and eager; she’s a great help to Sol, Yond, and, eventually, Osha. Jecki might steam her robes for specific purposes.
Sol’s remorse concerns Osha (Amandla Stenberg), a former Jedi student who now takes on dangerous repair work as a meknek for the Trade Federation out in the Corporate Sector. If it’s unusual for anyone with Force sensitivity to escape being taken to the Temple on Coruscant, how more unusual is it for someone to leave the Temple untrained? And did it involve steaming or not steaming her robes? She definitely doesn’t steam her work outfits now.
Her departure from the Jedi Order is where the central mystery lies and I am intrigued. My own thoughts about the Jedi and their place in the history of that GFFA have certainly evolved over time; when I was a kid they were kick-ass religious fighters, but eventually, seeing how the Jedi actual acted in the prequels and main stories, I’ve seen that they were arrogant, stubborn, and duplicitous, preferring to run away and hide than deal with the consequences of their decisions. The Acolyte, so far, looks ready to peel back those layers and show how that Jedi arrogance got its start.
The show looks great, especially the action sequences. As should be expected, the fights and escapes are well-shot, easy to follow, and high-energy. These are trained Jedi at the height of their powers so they fight like the professionals we expect.
I’m looking forward to more, and if you have an interest in a story that’s equal parts action and politics set in a well-developed fantasy setting, you should give it a try, too. It’s streaming on Disney+; new episodes drop every Wednesday in the US.
Let’s Go There
I’ve had a song stuck in my head for the past couple of days. And I think when you know what the song is, and I tell you the parts that are lingering in my mind, it will probably explain a lot about how my life is going now.
The song is grunge, 90s, rock, with a cruncy guitar and a deep-voiced male vocalist and the hook catches my attention right away. I am the kind of person who absolutely listens to, and tries to contextualize, the lyrics, and the opening stanzas are about not wanting to wake up from a beautiful dream. Hiding from the painful, hate-filled, stressful, disconnected real world; that is a yearning I share, more and more every day. I’m dragging my ass through the day-to-day, trying to make sure that every day I’m doing everything I can to try to get the income and resources that will let me keep a roof over my head. It’s bad, and feels like it’s getting worse.
The ones we have elected to lead us are absolutely not on the same page as the majority of us. They diminish and dismiss — or worse, oppose — our protests. We stand together and say “not in our name” and they claim we’re on the side of the enemy, an enemy they’ve demonized and dehumanized. The people our leaders listen to just want to collect as much profit as possible, stockpiling away billions that are generated by the labor we are all forced, under pain of death, to generate.
It’s obscene. I know no other way to describe it.
My dreams can be so much better than the real world. In part because sometimes, rarely, I can dream lucidly. If you’re not aware of what lucid dreaming is, it’s the ability to regain control and consiciousness while still in a dreaming state. When that happens, it feels like I can actually do magic; anything I can imagine becomes possible, at least as long as I stay asleep.
I’m not sure the vocalist for this song is singing about lucid dreaming but it’s clear that when they are sleeping, they see a perfect, love-filled, beautiful world. In the second verse, they even admit that the dreams help them see how imperfect the world, the real world, is. And finally they sing about making their dreams and the world the same.
“Let’s ask; can we stay?” is the line that nearly brings me to tears. Who’s permission do I need to stay in a perfect world? What sacrifice do I need to make in order to make the earth and my dreams the same? My aching heart, my tired soul, my punished mind and aging body, would give almost anything for a real world that is even slightly better for us, all of us, the ones whose blood make things work but do not get to retain the rewards of our efforts.
The final refrains of the song are where my hope does not feel able to meet the vocalists’ hope. The music swells, the vocalists’ voice lifts and roars, the guitars crunch… and my own spirits fall. I replay the song, hoping this time my shriveled heart will be able to keep going.
With him up up, I’m not strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine.
But maybe you are. Can you take me higher?
The Devil and Bean Dad
In the car with dad, me driving, him riding shotgun. I was driving carefully through busy freeway traffic, navigating west on the Banfield on our way to a doctor’s appointment for him.
My Happy playlist was on shuffle, volume low, but I caught the opening chords of a driving buzzing guitar riff, and John Roderick’s warm, dynamic, resonant voice sang
“American schools called you Starlight
in fourteen point type
Ten times ten, and then
your most brutal-ful smile”
and I couldn’t help but turn the volume up and try to sing along. My voice, ravaged by a persistent cough and allergies, couldn’t keep up even at my best, but I did nod my head along to the beat.
Dad, his neck artificially stiffened with the metal rods the surgeons used to repair his broken spine, looked over at me from the corner of his eye, his head turning like Batman, from the shoulders. Dad’s mouth turned into a little smile.
“I,” I said, “have such… complicated feelings about this song.”
Dad’s eyebrow crooked a question at me that I could feel even though my eyes were fixed forward out the windshield. The wipers intermittently wiped away droplets of rain, squeaking just over the music.
“I don’t imagine you’ve ever heard of The Long Winters, but they are basically John Roderick. I’m pretty sure this whole album was written and performed by him, maybe with some session players from Seattle. I first heard him play as an opening act for another band I love.”
Long pause as the memories of standing at the edge of the stage of the Aladdin Theater, next to the speakers, listening to John Roderick and Sean Nelson from Harvey Danger, performing together. And at my side, she leaned into me, softly singing along. I felt her tiny but strong body fit perfectly against mine, my arm around her lower back.
“It was an early date with… Deb.” Or as my friends at the time called her, Devil. I scoured my memory. I don’t think Deb ever met any of my family. That had actually been a red flag. “You never met her, but Deb and I had one of those hot-and-cold relationships. We were either madly in love, or hated each others’ guts. And since we discovered The Long Winters together, when he sings about the New Girl, I can only think of Deb.”
“You erased so many mistakes
By sitting up and smiling
Your solo show
I hope it never closes
It was the ride of my life
Twice, you burned your life’s work
Once to start a new life
And once just to start a fire”
I laughed, loudly, suddenly, in the car. I gestured with a free hand, palm down, showing one level, then moving my hand up to cut a higher level. “And then, on top of all of that, there’s the whole Bean Dad thing.” I laughed again, feeling dad’s confusion at the reference.
“I don’t know what that means,” he said, finally.
“I know, I know! Sorry. So several years ago, John Roderick got canceled on Twitter for making a dumb joke about making his daughter cook some beans. He was trying to be funny, to play a character, the mean dad who makes his child do something hard to teach her a lesson, and it did not go over well. He got pushback, and instead of just saying he was exagerating, he doubled down and pushed back even harder. Eventually he deleted his Twitter account, stopped making his podcasts, and the Kids Online called him Bean Dad. It was silly and stupid.”
“If my nephew or neice were in the car right now and this song came on, they would have their own reaction to this, probably a very negative reaction. But damn, if I don’t love their music.”
So many complicated feelings in one song. And despite my attempt at explanation, I was quite certain dad had not even the slightest idea what I was talking about.
We drove over the ramp from the Banfield onto I-205 South, in the gray Friday rain.
A Celebration Based on a Pun
I’ve objected before to the now common celebration of Star Wars Day on the fourth day of May. It’s a silly pun based on a mispronounciation. We should be celebrating it three weeks later, on the 25th day of May, which is the anniversary of the first theatrical release of Star Wars (1977), but language and society is based on majority behavior, so, here we are. I surrender. May the Fourth be with you all.
And, yes, that first movie that came out will always and forever be “Star Wars” in my mind. I know that at some point after the sequel came out in 1980, the first movie got retconned into Episode IV, A New Hope, but I was there when the deep lore was written, child. It lives on, unnumbered, in my head.
I might have copies of the Original Trilogy that have been painstakingly restored by fans to their original theatrical versions on a hard drive somewhere, so that I can watch them as I remember them from my childhood. I won’t get into whether or not George Lucas is right or wrong to updating and revising them over the years. My understanding is that that started in earnest as a way to cheat his ex-wife Marcia out of royalties during a nasty divorce, which does sound very petty. But, as mentioned above, the revisionism started very very early on by tweaking the name of the original film. Mr. Lucas always had that urge in him, from the start.
So for this Star Wars Day, I wanted to go back through past posts and find the time I talked about the first time I ever saw Star Wars. I was certain I had written it all out at some point. If so, however, I can’t find it except in passing.
Here is a roundup of selected past posts from me about Star Wars and the impact it’s had on my life.
Lost in Space
A tale that mentions the summer of 1977 in passing, on its way to a scene from the summer of 1981, and the crush I had that was squashed in a movie theater one night.
Old Jedis never die, they just fade away
Reminiscence that links Memorial Day, military service, war, and movies.
Adrift in time
Junior High friendships and Star Wars.
A long time ago, and might as well be in a galaxy far, far away
The very first time I met Boba Fett — or at least a guy cosplaying as him — the summer of 1980.
…They Just Fade Away
Preparing to cosplay as my hero for the last Skywalker Saga movie premiere.