We’ve had some good SCOTUS rulings lately (And some bad ones), but buried detail in the earth-shattering workplace discrimination ruling is the Trojan Horse that we’ll be seeing next: religious liberty laws. This fight is far from over, but for now, we can celebrate the bit of ground we gained.
New Looney Tunes are coming to HBO Max and this is making me want to subscribe:
The PG (granted, it’s become a right-wing rag on the editorial side) has a neat interactive site about the bridges of Pittsburgh. Note this may be behind a paywall, I think it was one of my three free articles when I read it.
The Atlantic has a great piece about pandemic fatigue, how we should approach it both in ourselves and others. The article also covers the similarities between COVID and the HIV pandemic: they’re very, very similar, just on a different time scale. Be kind to yourself and others, be as smart and safe as you can.
Also in Pandemic related content, CGP Grey’s new video about it. While I will disagree, I think that for many, just surviving is enough (instead of creation of coming out ‘better’ in some way), this video has great tips about how to survive our new reality:
Artist Mary Button makes a new series of station of the cross paintings each year, and in 2012 (I believe) she created “The struggle for LGBT Equality.”
Having gone to a Catholic college (and even winning a Tony Danza Award, for Best Pacifist in a Violent Scene…in a Jesus Play), I have some exposure to the stations of the cross, but they’ve never been a huge part of my life.
However, I love Mary’s style, and really appreciate the history she put into this series, so I put it goether in a short video below.
Maundy Thursday is my favorite day of the liturgical calendar, mostly because it is so different than everything else, as well as the ‘oh shit’ ending it has (much like, say, The Empire Strikes Back or The Goblet of Fire). Our church going is now all virtual for the time being, but I at least wanted to finally bring some attention to this amazing series.
Alright, let’s see what we have. I’m going through a lot of news, and also quite an old back-log of stuff that I’ve e-mailed to myself over the years, so I’ll be adding in some older articles I think are worth taking a look at over the next week or so. But, first up, Randy Rainbow reminds us to stay at home and social distance!
This has been the talk of all my friends recently, but it was found out why Triscuits are call that, and no, it’s not what you think, it’s so much better!
And finally for today, a look at You Suck at Cooking’s best time-saving hacks:
There were so many things I loved about Mayor Pete (and of course, things I didn’t), but his representation matters so, so much. Here is just one example of it, something I would have never dreamed of seeing growing up.
Alright, catching up on a bit of a backlog in addition to some current items, but let’s see what we have today. First up, a favorite web comic/series, Surviving the World is returning with classic reposts! Here’s where he ended it. Class Dismissed.
Science news you can use: don’t drink your whiskey ‘neat’:
The United Methodist Church is splitting over gay issues. As someone who has come out of that on the other side, hey welcome, it’s a bumpy ride. Sorry you have to do this, it’s painful.
This fight (is still going on all across the country) happened in September in Arizona. Their GOP governor said they don’t need to extend non-discrimination protections to gay people, and their supreme court said businesses can deny service to gay people. The fight continues, and is seemingly never ending.
I wrote earlier about my displeasure at Marvel (and Star Wars) for LGBT erasure. The upcoming film, The Eternals, will, for the first time, feature a gay superhero (and kiss). Yes, it’s progress. Should it have taken 11 years? No.
In other movie news, the trailer for the new Wes Anderson film looks amazing:
The Catholic bishops in Texas have blasted their governor (who is Catholic)over his rule to not accept refugees. I’m highly, highly critical of the Catholic Church, so I have to give them points when it’s appropriate. Good for them.
Disney is announcing more details of their immersive Star Wars hotel for their resorts, and it looks amazing and I can’t wait to go!
Google pretty much hit it out of the park with their Superbowl ad:
We’re just a short bit into 2020, so it’s time for a quick look back at 2019 and a look ahead. I’m working on finishing up my year in review video for 2019 (as well as 2018), so those will be done soon. In the meantime, here are the two that I really enjoyed, first up from Google:
And secondly, the year in music from DJ Earworm:
As I have done the last few years, I like to make resolutions at my birthday, not the new year, but I have a few, very attainable, things I’d like to work on this year:
Purchase more music. I tend to make lists of music that I hear and like, and then never do anything about that.
Cook a wider variety of dishes for game nights. Specifically, I want to use the cookbooks that I have!
Clean at least one thing a month. By thing, I mean, a filing cabinet, a closet, a chest of drawers, etc. I have too many ‘things,’ and I need to declutter a bit, so we’ll go bit by bit!
I signed up on Goodreads for a reading challenge, but again, kept it attainable: hoping to finish 7 books this year! I have a big pile next to my bed, but just hoping to make a dent.
I’m also working on my birthday resolutions which include things like swapping out an outlet, installing a new thermostat, those kinds of things. Like I said, very attainable!
First up, the trailer for In The Heights. I saw the show, and am so excited for this movie:
As an independent, I know I don’t (currently) have a say in the democratic primary, but in the last cycle, O’Malley was my pick. And hey look, he’s still feisty!
Speaking of politics, I’ve lost a lot of enthusiasm for Mayor Pete (but, as I wrote about before, I am still really, really proud of his candidacy and his staunch defense of liberal Christianity), and just like before, I don’t think he’ll end up being the nominee. That being said though, he takes a lot of heat unnecessarily for being ‘the wrong kind of gay.’ And that is incredibly hurtful, both within the community and without. There has been some great writing (which of course, I”m missing the link for currently) about Pete and the idea of ‘the best little boy in the world,’ and I think understanding that mentality helps us better understand where he comes from and how he approaches the political realm. All in all though, I’m be voting blue, no matter who.
My friend Nate has an amazing piece about our running team and the lessons he’s learned and how we’re learning from each other (and building each other up). Give it a read.
In preparation of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker coming out this week, I rewatched all the films. I took a few notes and observations, collected here for my amusement:
Disney+, Movies Anywhere and my phone
Disney+ adds a warning for depictions of tobacco (as well a a seizure warning).
There seems to be a lot of small changes in the Disney+ streaming versions. The Star Wars movies that aren’t yet available on the service have trailers and the date they’ll be available for streaming.
God, Disney+ has a lot of bugs. It takes forever to sync with Chromecast, there’s a ton of time wasted buffering, lots of starts and stops. The content is great, but the app itself still needs some work.
Movies Anywhere is really well put together. I had a digital code for a bunch of the movies, so I finally redeemed them, and was able to easily connect my Google Play Movies account for easy streaming.
Every time R2 squealed, I thought I was getting an e-mail (as it’s my notification noise), but that’s my fault.
Episode I: The Phantom Menace
This is so bad.
Like really bad.
Jake Lloyd is really a bad actor.
I will say though, the editing in this movie is horrible, and it made Jake Lloyd look even worse than he was.
John Williams is a saving grace. This score is epic.
Anakin is so whiney.
There was a weird, and I think the only instance in the series, of first person view, with C3P0 at one point, and it was so jarring and out of place.
The city of Theed is really gorgeous.
Episode II: Attack of the Clones
I forgot how amazing of an actor Alan Lee was. I feel like he was underused, although maybe having some space from the awful dialogue in this one helped his character. Either way, he’s missed.
Another great score from Williams.
The editing is much better compared to Phantom Menace, it’s a lot tighter and that helps.
There is however, a lot of bad CGI. All the prequel trilogy suffered from an over-reliance on CGI and green screen technology and it really shows in the effects here (as well as all the acting throughout).
Boba Fett is so whiney
Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
In the opening crawl, they use the line, “There are heroes on both sides.” That has not aged well after Chartlotesville.
I kind of like General Grievous, except for his smokers cough. Respiratory afflictions seem to be a thing in this universe.
The Senate battle is still a huge highlight and it stands up.
Overall, the prequels are weird. Too much CGI, bad writing and acting and really, an overly complicated plot based around trade negotiations. I’ve always said Lucas can tell whatever stories he wants, but aside from Theed, Ewan McGregor as Obi Wan and Williams’ score, there’s not much from the prequels worth going back to see again.
The prequels do mirror and follow the original trilogy in some really neat ways. I’m not sure if that’s intentional or not, but it at least made for some good writing about the subject elsewhere on the Internet.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
L3-37 is the best character in this movie.
Holy crap, I forgot how awesome this cast is.
It got panned, but it’s a fun heist movie. Enjoy it for what it is.
That being said, the story takes a bit of an unnecessarily complicated turn to fit in some fan service and connect it to the animated shows (which I haven’t watched)
That also being said, it was also clearly set up for a sequel.
That also also being said, this movie is just a ton of fan service and in jokes.
As mentioned, I haven’t watched any of the animated shows, but at least from the “legends” (which is worth another deep dive) Dathmoir is not where I would have expected Darth Maul to go.
Wait, Ron Howard directed this?
Both this and Rogue One had so many reshoots, edits and revisions (and so much stuff from the trailers not used), I’m really concerned about Disney meddling too much.
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
K2-S0 was the best. Why is it always the droids who make the best characters?
Tarkin’s voice was just a little bit off, and it was distracting. He and Leia also had that weird “Polar Express” CGI look to them, although at least Tarkin’s scenes were dark enough to hide most of it.
Really, no Jedi? Not even Chirrut?
Also, can we talk about the relationship Chirrut and Baze have. It’s something deep, but heaven forbid Disney touch anything queer with any nuance or depth.
Visually, this is a beautiful movie. Really, really beautiful.
I’m curious about edits. This even more so than Solo. There were so many things left out from the first cut.
I’d love to see the story of the ‘many Bothans who had to die’ to get the plans for the second Death Star.
Leia looked way too young at the end, again, weird use of technology, just a bit of an uncanny valley situation.
Episode IV: A New Hope
Luke is whiney.
This has such a 70s feel. God lord this is really hokey.
The nostalgia is so strong with this movie.
But I got swept up by the Death Star attack, a testament to the storytelling
There are a lot of weird, little edits on Disney+, I wish everyone would just leave things alone.
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
This is a huge change from IV in terms of tone and feeling.
This movie still stands up as easily one of the best in the saga, and is probably the one I’ve watched the most.
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Ewoks are dumb.
Jabba the Hut is listed as playing himself in the credits.
Episode VII: The Force Awakens
This movie starts right off the bat with the action, a good choice.
This movie is also very much a rehash of the originals and an apology tour for the prequels.
Generally I’m meh about this one because so much of it is a rehash and an apology.
Kylo is the whiney one.
Yeah, Nazis. We get it, the First Order is Nazis.
You know what, it’s probably more important than ever that we remember to always punch Nazis in the face. So good on you, J.J.
I feel like we needed that deleted scene showing the republic worlds. Otherwise, the First Order destroying that system didn’t seem as consequential.
There’s a lot of politics in this, like the prequels, and it could have easily been too much.
They do a long one shot in the battle at Maz Kinata’s which is really in vogue, but it was well done and not terribly long.
That said, I disliked the last drone/crane shot. It felt like the only one in the series and out of place.
There are a lot of legit funny moments in this movie.
Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
I really like VIII, I love how different it is, and how it subverts what you think a Star Wars movie should be/should do.
And it starts with that subversion tone right off the bat.
I do wish had shown some of Leia’s training, otherwise, her saving herself is a bit unbelievable (let’s not unpack that sentence too much, shall we).
There was one porg scene too many.
I’m still sad they killed off Admiral Akbar, but I get it.
I want more Maz. Hoping she’s back for IX.
Love the knocking down of cis het white men who try to bulldoze their way through life.
Remember how they keep going back to the Force being about balance? Yeah, let’s try to keep that in mind in terms of these movies.
I liked the bits on class and wealth inequality, a good addition.
“Tear down your legends.” Yeah, see my comments about subversion and balance. Remember, it’s just some movies. Get into them, love them, discuss them, find meaning and stories in them. But don’t tear down others because things don’t fit your insurmountable expectations.
I liked the cave scene, it reminded me of the similar scene in V.
