- This morning, while I was driving back to the house, the title “The Wights of Their Eyes” popped into my head. I have no idea where that came from or where it will take me, but it goes in the ever-growing file of things to write about.
- Following the family tradition of “Boo got sick last week, so Dad gets sick this week”, I’m sick.
- Luckily, it’s not flu. This particular brand of not-flu includes headaches, fever and chills, body aches, listlessness, and a smart mouth.
- The doctor said that the smart mouth might be congenital.
- NyQuil fever dreams are enhanced when you fall asleep watching a docudrama about a nuclear power disaster.
- Nothing says “hectic couple of months” like finding two claim tickets from last year and saying “Oh, yeah, I need to call my gunsmith.”
- I’ve been listening to biographies of mafia figures lately.
- Some authors become too close to their subjects, sometimes literally. It seems to cause some kind of Stockholm Syndrome in which the author writes the life of a worthless, conniving, manipulative scumbag as if he were some modern-day Robin Hood.
- In this version, however, Robin Hood puts two behind Little John’s ear because the Sheriff of Nottingham is getting too close.
All posts for the month January, 2020
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on January 28, 2020
https://daddybearsden.com/2020/01/28/musings-337/
Thought for the Day
Good night, stars
Good night, moon
Good night, howling voice of doom
Time to sleep in my bed
Time to let my pillow meet my head
Time to pray against the walking dead
Tomorrow brings another day
The sun’s bright rays will light the way
While I keep the hordes at bay
So, good night, stars
Good night, moon
Hope I don’t meet my fate too soon
Posted by daddybear71 on January 13, 2020
https://daddybearsden.com/2020/01/13/thought-for-the-day-246/
Musings
- Going back to work after a little over a week off was just as much fun as it sounds.
- For some reason, I got a hankering to watch a police procedural. I ended up purchasing the first two seasons of Law and Order.
- I’m 10 episodes into the first season. There are 22 episodes in the first season alone. It’s hard to remember when a TV series had more than 10 or 12 episodes to a season.
- I’d forgotten just what a shit-hole pre-Giuliani New York was. Looking back, it was almost as bad as large cities in California are now.
- I’d also forgotten about the clothes and hair from that time. Some of it made me cringe, some of it made me wish it hadn’t gone away.
- The acting is as good as I remember it. I’m especially liking Michael Moriarty’s role as Benjamin Stone. To be honest, I don’t plan to continue to watch the series much after that character leaves.
- It’s interesting that many of the issues discussed in this 30 year old television program are still with us.
- Drugs – The focus is on cocaine and the crack epidemic. Now, we’re worried about meth and heroin.
- Guns – This comes up several times in the first few episodes. There’s a serious bias against civilian ownership and use of firearms, especially handguns, in the plots of these episodes. After 30 years of progress in gun rights ebbing and flowing, I wonder how these same sequences would be written.
- Race Relations – Honestly, the friction I see between white and black characters from 30 years ago could be lifted, updated with new fashions, and reshot almost word for word.
- One subject that appears several times is AIDS. It’s easy to forget that HIV and AIDS were a death sentence back then.
- The search for a new house is starting to ramp up. Irish Woman and I have discussed our must-haves, wants, and can’t-haves.
- Since putting Boo through private high school in a few years will cost more than it would to send him to college, we’ve decided to move somewhere the public schools are better than the holding pens Louisville calls their schools.
- So far, our biggest points of disagreement are subdivisions (me no likee), the amount of land we want (I want more), and the existence of a pool on any new property (me also no likee).
- She wants a nice house in a nice neighborhood with lots of nice kids so that Boo can make nice friends and have someone nice to play nice with.
- I want a few acres of mixed woods and open fields, with a creek running through it, and clear fields of fire out to the main road.
- I keep pulling up listings for North Dakota, Arizona, and Texas, but She Who Shall Not Be Named is not interested.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 5, 2020
https://daddybearsden.com/2020/01/05/musings-336/
Movie Review – Jumanji: The Next Level
Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!
Following up on 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart return in Jumanji: The Next Level. They are joined by Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, and Awkwafina to round out the cast of this enjoyable romp.
If you’re looking for high cinematic art, look elsewhere. If you’re looking for a great couple of hours eating popcorn and laughing until it hurts, this one is for you.
Just as in the last movie, a group of friends are pulled into a video game world and have to defeat the game in order to go home. A twist on the theme happens when one of their grandfathers and his elderly friend come along for the ride. There is a ton of slapstick comedy and a lot of heart-warming sequences slathered on the storyline like melted butter on a $10 bucket of popcorn, but it works.
The plot moves along pretty quickly, with a few slower parts to allow the characters some interaction that didn’t include screaming or running. I certainly didn’t notice the 123 minute runtime.
If you saw Welcome to the Jungle, you know what the acting is like. Dwayne Johnson and the rest of the cast seemed to enjoy themselves in this one. The part of Ruby Roundhouse, played by Karen Gillan, gets more screen-time than in the first installment, so we see her character develop a bit more.
The visual effects were about par for the course for a modern movie. The animals and settings they portrayed were realistic enough, but also cartoonish enough to remind you that the movie is set inside a video game.
While there is a bit of rough language in the dialogue, I wasn’t uncomfortable with it. It did seem to be more prevalent than in the 2017 movie. Both movies are rated PG-13.
Overall, I’d recommend The Next Level for families with older children or teenagers. It made for a great mid-winter evening getaway.
Posted by daddybear71 on January 5, 2020
https://daddybearsden.com/2020/01/05/movie-review-jumanji-the-next-level/
DaddyBear
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