"It's not the size of dog in the in the fight, it's the size of fight in the dog. "
In fact someone said that about Angus Young (Vince Neal, Mötley Crüe? Can't recall.) Dementia must be pretty scrappy because his older brother Malcolm taught Angus how to fight — and play guitar.
2021 is the year Larry McMurtry died, and I was promptly felled by a hemorrhagic stroke. I disappeared,but not without blogging first (it was "a Pandemic Year," after all).
Books
Movies
Music
Mennonites
Miscellaneous
A good friend once worked at Don's Photo. He later worked at Independent Photography which shared floorspace with the Mennonite jeweler's. He took me to the "Trophy Room" upstairs once. I saw one endangered species after the next stuffed and mounted. Apparently the Old Man introduced a young reporter to the room, figuring it would be a conversation starter. Little did he know! He simply could not understand the horrified look on her face. Another era had passed into the next, to be sure.
Links: Uncut Gems with Adam Sandler is now streaming. I recommend it.
Oh, Canada has a few of those. Edinburgh is nice and all, but geez-Louise! Do these really compete?
Cannabis — I used to water and harvest the stuff.
Today I would rather get needles to my forearm, my neck, and my face to manage the pain than take cannabis at all.
I suspect those of us who have enjoyed marijuana recreationally might fall into the exact same trap as those who have avoided cannabis their whole lives. We think we’re so cool, but rather than see the cannabis state as an alternative (and very temporary) state of being we do not see it as helpful in any way at all. My mother must be spinning.
Stay tuned! Plus: here's the Wiki for Billy Sunday, a man quite literally after my own heart.
You say you only recognize one of those names? I know Bruce Timm has been around but Mark Hammil is, in fact, an accomplished actor (and director and producer).
BTAS is family-friendly, so the bad guys never die but land on bushes or in the water. But BTAS is also grown-up entertainment. There is a lot of punching — most of it off-screen, but still. And the animation is reminiscent of WW2-era Disney or Tom and Jerry which adults will, uh, remember.
I found and ripped the Complete BTAS DVDs when the set was a screaming deal and I actually started watching the video files before I got sick and disappeared. But I started over again, and now I am almost done Season 2. I fully expect I will watch the whole show, including the two movies, which I had to get (but the movies were cheap. Maybe Blu-Ray and the current scene are different — I don't know).
Other links: over at the Roger Ebert website Matt Sigur remembers when the animated Batman was the only Batman that mattered. And I am a big fan of The LEGO Batman Movie — I shilled for Spider-Verse, I should have squawked about LEGO Batman. too. Hey, better late than never!
“I’m paying you — you’re not paying me!” BD said that and I try to live it every day.
I'm a beginner now — if my talking is bad (and it is) my guitar playing is worse. "Neuroplasticity" you say? Oh, I am all about neuroplasticity!
Jeff Beck died. I don't recall who said it, but it was somebody British. The reason why Jimi Hendrix was such a breath of fresh air on the British Isles was people were actually concerned with who was the “best guitarist.” Then Hendrix arrived, and there was no question — nobody else played guitar like that. British guitarists started breathing again.
Anyway, Jeff Beck was British and as a guitarist was the full meal deal. Music changed with Jeff Beck, and he always played LOUD. I own Truth on CD — you can, and should, do better. Your supper time assignment: start with Truth, move to Blow By Blow, then try Live at Ronnie Scott's — I will!
It actually does get funnier each time you see it! And she is being a good sport about it.
Apparently condos are finally going up where the old bookstore once stood. “The coffee chain that took over the building has finally locked the doors, but the condos will keep the bookstore facade. Isn't that good news?”
I was a mess when the Bible College got bulldozed. But the bookstore? Frankly, if neither of my kids is living there the condo-builders can go ahead and tear the place down. I don't care what gets done with it.
When I was a child we'd make fun of Sarto Beach every time we drove past. My father had learned to swim at Sarto Beach; now it had been grated into nonexistence. “Sarto Beach” was just a ditch with a sign in it. “Yeah, Dad — 'Sarto Beach' is looking kinda dry today.”
I'm told the intersection where the condos are now going up used to be a First Nation burial site. We were born to die — I'm not the first to say it and I'll hardly be the last. So it goes. Hey, I love Sarto Beach! For now I still have my dreams. I'm sure my father and the First Nations people do, too.
Back at the bookstore we had a portable stereo that quietly played CDs, four to a tray. I am only now listening to these CDs as I upload them, one at a time, to YouTube Music. So Eee-o 11: The Best Of The Rat Pack is quite a revelation, particularly Sammy Davis Jr.
When he recorded "Tossed Salads and Scrambled Eggs" I suspect Kelsey Grammer was singing along — a lot —with Sammy Davis Jr. There can only be one Sammy Davis Jr. and thank God for that — he was quite the performer. If you want to see Sammy Davis Jr. singing and dancing and playing trombone, xylophone then the drums skip straight to 10:45,
Other links: They may have been a bunch of hams but the Rat Pack ruled the world once. I like The Rat Pack movie, (looks like it is currently on YouTube Canada) but I am a sucker for anything with Ray Liotta and Don Cheadle in it (wiki). Here is "Tossed Salad and Scrambled Eggs." And here is the original (cheap!) TV ad for Eee-o 11: The Best Of The Rat Pack. I don't know what they mean by 2 CDs. If I remember right I bought a single CD at Costco for a couple of bucks during a diaper run. ("They'll never notice this!" Little did I know...) You can probably do better with a quick streaming session.
I used to play video games. And I always felt badly .
The Outer Worlds. Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 and 4 and Skyrim — I spent so much time meditating on worlds stitched together by computer engineers I actually wished I played video games MORE.
Other WP Links: I yack a bit about Horizon: Zero Dawn here, I yack about The Simpsons video game here. Virtual reality? Too much is not enough. It's been 20 years and I haven't changed my tune. That's why I'm still blogging, baby! I'm out to change THE WORLD!
Nothing/Everything, cont.
Prior to my hemorrhagic stroke I couldn't see what was so funny about Peter Sellers' performance of the titular Dr. Strangelove. I'd just laugh when the audience laughed.
After the stroke I know: the hand has a mind of its own. That doesn't explain away Strangelove's "Sieg heils." If that bothers you take it up with Stanley Kubrick. In the meantime just laugh along with the audience. Nothing will go wrong — promise.
Nothing/Everything, cont.
During my coma, man, would I dream! I dreamed I was in the Eaton Centre. When I woke up I had a bad feeling about one nurse ("I watched 2 A Half Men and realized it was all true," he said in real life) and a good feeling about another (she would do anything for this guy — the other nurses, not so much).
In real life I started listening to everything by Led Zeppelin and Jump Back by the Rolling Stones. Life is too short to bear a musical grudge and Jimmy Page and Keith Richards are too good. But I loved reading this.
I also began to pray alot ('cos what else was I gonna do with that time?) and I read Nick Cave The Red Hand Files and I watched Toyah and Robert's Sunday lunch.
This is my themesong for 2023 — and I like it here!
I'm remembering a young woman from Bible College who was struggling with MD. I recall her being quite cute, but she became a Bible College fixture. I don't mean to compare myself to a person with MD (it's a different thing) but I also do not want to become a fixture ANYWHERE. 'cept maybe blogspot — it's much too late to change the tune here.