Re-watching STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE

The work of ta progeny: 

Links: other work done by Luce here, here and here, for starters. 

More JAMES MCMURTRY

WILL & GRACE

I’m thinking a lot about Jack’s farewell: “See ya. Wouldn’t wanna bee ya.”

FAWLTY TOWERS

 John Cleese's true métier. To understand me, you have to watch Fawlty Towers.  

“You’ll have to forgive Manuel

– he’s from Barcelona!”

The theory among staff at Britnell’s was that John Cleese did his best work when he was married to Connie Booth. Whatever — I was just happy to be seeing him again.  

DISENCHANTMENT

I should have written something. But c'mon: Matt Groening, a cartoon queen in a dominatrix costume and a black demon who answers to "Lucie"? I ate it up like candy! (the only thing missing was a white demon who answered to "Maddi.")

I even started saying, “bum-bum” (“Noice!”) Surely there’s some kind of award for all that.

PMA & the hemorrhagic stroke

Prior to the hemorrhagic stroke I was a cynical bastatard and listened to a lot of James McMurtry. But a person never knows how the hemorrhagic stroke might affect the attitude. 

I like to think I'm still pretty cynical. And I still listen to a lot of James McMurtry -- with, or without, The Heartless Bastards. 

TRUTHLESS HEROES by Project 86

My most-listened-to CD was Truthless Heroes by Project 86. I bought it at David Miller Books — a Christian outfit — and it got me through two Republican Presidents (even though Canuckle-heads have typically fared better with Republicans in Office), including the last one. Only Andrew Schwab can scream, “You can’t tell me who I am!” and make the words sound like a cry of defiance and despair. 

Apparently the A&R guy made the making of Truthless Heroes a hellish experience. That’s too bad, because it’s the best thing Project 86 have done. 

Links: John DiBiase, “Jesus Freak,” review here. Andrew Schwab interview here. WP flashback: The Book Beneath The Bed here (another David Miller purchase). 

Re-watching TRON (1982)

A different Met memory — watching Tron with my younger brother. We both merrily flunked our typing classes (different teachers). “It’s safe to say I ll never use that skill again!” — little did we know that computers (and phones!) would take over the world and typing was the only high school skill we’d use. 

The Tron video game was one of the few in a cabinet at Mother Truckers in downtown Winnipeg. It featured a showdown with Light-Discs. I spent a lot of quarters on it. In hindsight it was easy-peasy, but it sure didn’t feel like it at the time. Today Linux computers can quickly download the Light-Cycle game. 

Wow, the movie is boring — even with Jeff Bridges!

Re-watching THE BLACK HOLE (1979)

I originally saw The Black Hole with my motorcycle ridin’ buddy on a snowy night. His brother-in-law drove us to the Met in the family Duster and was listening to Led Zeppelin. I still associate their music with The Black Hole. Shreddies boxes were advertising for The Black Hole. Breakfast, nightfall — I couldn’t get away from it. 

Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em! I might have pleasant memories, but that doesn’t mean I recommend The Black Hole — not at all. The Black Hole is a terrible movie. A retelling of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea with cute robots and more WOWIE-ZOWIE! special effects — please don’t watch it. And the ending is kinda weird (that link is only for people with NoScripts, though).  

BIG TURK chocolate bars

 “It is a lovely place, my house,” said the Queen. “I am sure you would like it. There are whole rooms full of Turkish Delight, and what’s more, I have no children of my own. I want a nice boy whom I could bring up as a Prince and who would be King of Narnia when I am gone. While he was Prince he would wear a gold crown and eat Turkish Delight all day long; and you are much the cleverest and handsomest young man I’ve ever met. I think I would like to make you the Prince — some day, when you bring the others to visit me.”

“Why not now?” said Edmund. His face had become very red and his mouth and fingers were sticky. He did not look either clever or handsome whatever the Queen might say. 

The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe

by CS Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis might have made Turkish Delight sound like it tasted good, but Big Turk chocolate bars did not. They were waxy and bland.   

Pretty much as pictured.

I don’t miss 'em — and that’s saying something.

Re-watching PUMPING IRON (1977)

“Um, do you know where I parked a $100 million fighter-jet?”

Link. 

Re-watching THE WOLF OF WALL ST.

“Sell me this pen.” Jordan Belfort is a piece of work. And so is actor Leonardo DiCaprio. And so is director Martin Scorsese. 

Re-watching PAIN & GAIN

Because Dwayne Johnson is pretty cool. So is Mark Wahlberg. And so is Michael Bay!

Watching THE CROWN

TBH I'm not at all sure I'll be bothering with those seasons that don't involve Claire Foy and John Liithgow. 

Re-watching THE PUNISHER: WAR ZONE

Actor Thomas Jane famously groused about all the working-out in the previous Punisher movie. Meanwhile, War Zone director Lexi Alexander replaced Jane with Ray Stevenson, otherwise but had her own demons to slay. I left The Punisher: War Zone DVD  (hooray!) with my lovely assistant, and it cannot get ripped. But it is available to be streamed from multiple sources (hooray! again). 

Watching NIMONA

Know what you need to wash down The Spy? Nimona!

Watching THE SPY

I like Sacha Baron Cohen. 

Re-watching THE INCREDIBLES 2

I didn't really see it the first time. I had to take a telephone call. 

Watching NOBODY

Hooray, Bob Odenkirk! (And hooray Louis Prima!)

ATLANTA and stats

I've been watching Atlanta on Disney+. Atlanta, Georgia is its own thing, but I figure America doesn't have "a black problem," America has a cop problem, and these are my statistics for saying so. But you know what PM Benjamin Disraeli said about statistics. But watch Atlanta and make up your own damn mind. 

Re-watching THE HURT LOCKER

I'm also a sucker for the films  of Kathryn Bigelow (and have been since Blue Steel -- I remember seeing the original Point Break in a Toronto theatre, back in the day). 

Re-watching AMERICAN SNIPER

The Vice interview with Michael Moore here. 

Re-watching ZERO DARK THIRTY

Have I said this already? I'll watch anything with Jessica Chastain in it: 

Again with the blogging

(Blog post inspired by this one.)

I’ve been at for a while now (19 years!) and I just about died (several times!). So repetition is given. 

Still, I blog. I’ve told others it’s a Festschrift – my kids already ignore it, and Google doesn’t care – I figure, why not? If you’ve got a better idea, I’m receptive – you know how to find “Comments.” In the meantime... 

Matches

My co-o-worker -- a smoker -- requested a book of matches from NYC. My last night there, I left the Westside Y, ordered my first Guinness in a bottle and Quesadilla and got her those stinking matches. 

Because "Matches" sounds like "Badges." So there!

In a bottle, or from a can or (preferably) tap today's Guinness is much tastier. 

Back in Winnipeg

I got back to Winnipeg. The Canadian Customs Agent at the airport there opened my knapsack and used a pair of chopsticks to flip over my dirty gitch. She charged me for the Scrooge McDuck book, but that was all. 

I was back!

And really, what's not to trust? 

The Staten Island Ferry

I took the Staten Island Ferry and a lot of pictures of the World Trade Center (in my defense, the sun was finally breaking out from the clouds and I thought its light was hitting those buildings just right). 

I left my hat on a ferry bench and attempted to get a couple of German tourists to watch it for me. I even tried to impress them with my pidgin German, but they just ignored me. Or maybe it was my Bugs Bunny pin. Either way, I thought that was rude of them. 

Be honest: would you walk past this?

CATS! on Broadway

In Manhattan at the time one block was pristine while the next was grotty. 

New York on $50 a Day suggested I go to Broadway and pick up refund tickets to a show. Christopher Plummer was in Macbeth, right across the street from the theatre, but this was New York City  — I had even been swept at! — and I figured the poetry of TS Elliott was exactly right. I chose to see Cats! instead. 

It was exactly as advertised — a bunch of singing and dancing cats. 

"Jesus Christ, what a city!"

TS Elliott might have been name-checked in the showbill but any resemblance the flamboyant and loud show bore to his austere poetry was purely accidental. I’d been had, but I figured I got my money’s worth – I stayed. 

Times Square, 1987

I got off the subway train but I didn’t know the station. It was very dank and somebody was playing the electric violin. 

In one corner at the bottom of the stairway stood a black kid in white terrycloth tights, doing Karate Kid moves and singing “The Battle Hymn Of The Republic (Mine Eyes Have Seen The Glory)” in an awful falsetto. He was staring straight at a Catholic nun while doing this — she was also black. She perched on her suitcase, smiling back at him. An older Jewish man tried to scoot by, loudly humming, “Hello, Dolly!” The kid whirled around and hoofed him in the bum. As we took the stairs the Jewish fellow turned to me and said,“Jesus Christ, what a city!”

I got to the top of the stairs and stood, blinking back the sunlight. 

I had arrived at Times Square.

The current view. 

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” Day 2, continued

I went to the Museum of Radio and Television. A person could sit in front of a television in a kiosk there and request video tapes of old shows there. My neighbor in the kiosk beside me leaned over and said, ”Whatcha watching?” The Man From U.N.C.L.E., naturally. “That’s pretty cool! I’ll have to watch that next time!” His school insisted he watch a documentary on the Civil Rights movement. I thought he was watching the better show. 

The New York Museum of Radio and Television also showed the work of Donald Bevan. This was the first time I’d seen anything by him, and I was suitably impressed. 

Central Park

 The West End Y was located near the northeast corner of Central Park. Once I had a room secured I mseyed over and saw a punk band performing in a concrete dome. 

The lead singer was dressed in a black raincoat (which he’d done up) and rolled-up Wellies. He lurched punkishly around the stage. 

I also took 35mm photos of the cherry blossoms. 

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” 2

 Back in Winnipeg the owner of a comicbook store asked me to get some Cherry Poptart comics (go ahead and look it up, but don’t say you weren’t warned!). Since I did business with him I devoted some attention to the matter but thought the fellows looked incredibly mean. I bought a copy of Maus and a huge book of Scrooge McDuck comics instead. 

I remember taking the subway and buses a lot. At one busstop a bunch of kids in yellow rain jackets came on and started chatting happily. I thought I was witnessing the denizens of a private school, but I didn’t know. 

I took the bus to the Guggenheim Museum.

It looks something like this.

 The Guggenheim was designed for the patron to take the elevator up and clomp down the spiraling ramp,stopping to goggle at artwork. I did this, and stopped at  Picasso’s Girl With Golden Hair. I stood for a very long time and admired Picasso's brushwork. That was the first time I ever “saw” a painting.

Manhattan! A city of “firsts” day 1

In the spring of 1987 our father transferred an airline ticket to fly anywhere in continental USA. I read a bunch of books and settled on NYC, NY. 

George HW Bush was POTUS at the time, and I remember staring at his portrait as a couple of US Customs Agents asked me a bunch of questions in the Winnipeg airport. They eventually let me go, even though I was a scruffy-looking guy in a U2 T-shirt and faded denims. 

I landed at La Guardia. I used a payphone to call some hotels, but was repeatedly told there was no room at the inn. I wasn't sweating it. I figured if I absolutely had to I could spend three days at the airport. 

I finally called the West Side YMCA. The young woman who answered the phone said, ”All of our bunk beds are taken right now. But if you come down here and stand in line maybe you’ll get a spot.”

I came down, alright – I took a bus, and saw my first Brownstone – but for $30 a night I booked a private room. 

The room had a twin bed,a small wood desk, a colour TV (on which I watched Al Goldstein’s sex tapes) and a window looking out on a roof. 

I went to a kiosk beside Central Park and bought some Calvin Klein conditioner I had seen in GQ Magazine I also walked over to a Pizza Hut and purchased and consumed a small pizza. 

Lincoln Center was close by – that first night at the Westside Y an Orchestra was practicing. I went up to my room, cracked open my copy of A Bonfire of the Vanities, and starrted reading. I felt like I was in the middle of the Orchestra Pit, and it was glorious!

More intact than my copy ever was.

Ken Wilber & Bruce Wagner

Two very different writers I haven't read much of but have thought a lot about. Mark Manson on The Rise &Fall of Ken Wilber (link) and Elizabeth Ellen interviewing Bruce Wagner (link).

Who's got the handsomer specs: 

Ken Wilber? Or... 

... Bruce Wagner?

Jimmy Buffet, 1946-2023

RIP. 

Jimmy Buffet & friend

I should be more broken up about it than I am. But that's just the way it goes sometimes. For a musician he lived a long and very lucrative life. 

RIP Steve Harwell

1967-2023: 

The gods are bowling in my lane, I tell ya!

Whisky Prajer, corporate shill

 An elephant never forgets, and neither do I! I love the trombone in this LG TV ad:

Give Canadian drummer Domino Santantonio the part

 Canuckle-head drummer Domino Santantonio hears "Steambreather" by the 'Don for the first time and crushes her part (or plays it much better than I would). 

Barack Obama kicking door

We've all had days like this, Mr. President:

"Exorswift"

Huh. 

And, just for laughs,here is the original audience for William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist (again):