Looking back at 2024

Jesus christ, this year. Let's process it in the format of awards.

Great Wiki Award

Sarna.net - A great site. I should probably kick them a little money. Just a great resource for Battletech lore and tech when I don't need to open a book and fumble around inside of it for what I need.

Fandom.com -  This includes the Star Trek, American Dad, Cheers!, Babylon 5, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia wikis under its loathsome banner.

Wikipedia.com - The classic. A universal good I think we call take for granted. I should probably also kick them a little money.

And the winner is...Sarna.net. Apologies to Wikipedia, but I'm not kidding when I say I use Sarna, on average, every day.

The Chief Clancy Wiggum, "The Law is Powerless to Help You, not to Punish You" Award

Alito and The Supremes - Between a judge getting disciplined for speaking out about Alito's flag, Alito's flag, that secret recording of Alito, 

New York State - They put national guard on the subway and mobilized every cop in NYC for a CEO dying. If there's a clearer example of this award's title, I'm hard-pressed to think of it. They'll pull out all of the stops for a rich guy getting killed, but there's a soldier with a gun if you jump a turnstile.

Suicides and MRSA - One Boeing whistleblower, John Barnett, and one OpenAI whistleblower, Suchir Balaji, died this year apparently of suicides. Another, Boeing whistleblower, Joshua Dean, an otherwise healthy 45 year-old died suddenly of a MRSA infection. This is the kind of time where I'd like some security theater. Right here.

And the winner is...the entire United States Judicial Branch. 

Remember Donald Trump getting his bond reduced because he's a very special boy, you remember Judge Aileen Cannon giving Trump's team every accommodation and then making up a few extra accommodations for them? Remember Marcellus Williams not even getting a stay from a judge when the prosecutor, the victim's family, and maybe even the jury who convicted him wanted to reconsider DNA evidence and changes in testimony?

It's mostly the Supreme Court though. You were the last branch of government the average citizen respected. Congrats on achieving the level of arrogance necessary to completely squander that; you only had to keep your mouth shut while sitting on the most opaque court in the country, you morons. You fools.

Movie Trailers for December 2024

Mufasa: The Lion King (December 20th)

On the origins of monarchy. Do we need a prequel for everything? All that's important is that there was a monarch and then he was killed and we root for his son. 

And it's not Hamlet. Hamlet was very much about the moral repercussions of killing. Hamlet was in Claudius' court. Claudius didn't trick Hamlet into running away for the entirety of his youth. The plot of Hamlet was not 'Hamlet kills bad king and bangs Ophelia,' it's 'Hamlet isn't certain that his uncle/stepfather killed his father and his indecision dooms everyone.'

They do have one thing in common though: You don't need a prequel to tell the story of King Hamlet.

Movie Trailers for November 2024

Heretic (November 8th)

I hate an evil atheist, but we're due, I guess. I'm also living for this Hugh Grant turn into horror. I mean, despite all the stereotypes from the 90's, he's not a bad actor. Can a full-length movie live up to this trailer? I'm willing to find out. 

Deadpool & Wolverine

This has been marinating for a bit, so let's go.

The message of Deadpool & Wolverine is hard to pin down because it's not as simple, or as trite, as the first two, "people love you for who you are," and "found family." It's also not as strong as message as the first two.

"You may not be your best self, but that doesn't mean you should be your worst self."

I think every movie has a sequence of actions. It only has a story when the audience follows those actions and why they happen. I think a good story has something about it that lets Joe Schmo connect with the story about two edgy, regenerating meatsacks trying to save a planet.

We see Wade getting rejected by the Avengers. He turns to selling cars, wearing a fake hairpiece--sorry hair system. It's a life of falsehood and pretense and he's obviously not good at it. He's punishing himself because he couldn't be the best Deadpool he could be. A superhero. An Avenger. He punishes himself by being worst version of himself. This hurts the people around him.

It hurts them in a broader, yet more severe way when he learns he's not important enough to be the anchor being of this Earth.

So what does he do? He finds the Wolverine that couldn't be the best version of himself--a committed X-Man--and gave up on that by being the worst version of himself--killing a heap of humans in retaliation for that. He resigns himself to being a drunk.

Then, hey, they meet the refugees of the Foxverse (or whatever). Not the best versions of the characters they represented (Blade aside). It is a stretch to say getting one last throw down on a Universal Studios set is their version of "okay is better than the worst," but letting them fade out would have left those characters at their worst. Y'know, written off and ignored.

Even Cassandra Nova finds her better self for about five minutes. Paradox's whole deal is that he wants to be the best version of himself and destroy (the worst) any universe that isn't good enough (perfect. making money for Disney).

So over the course of about 3 setpiece battles and a slew of jokes that are hits and misses, we see Wolverine say that even if he is never gonna be the best Wolverine, he doesn't have to be the worst one. Deadpool learns that he isn't equipped to save the world, but he can be more than be a car salesman, and that the people around him want him to be more than that.

These folks can love themselves despite not being their best. And in doing that, they can be more than their worst.

It's not deep. It's not worth an Oscar. It's got 2 visual gags about big dicks. I feel more narrative "oomph" was intended in that Deadpool battle. Anti-matter does not work that way. But the story had a relatable theme wrapped around it and the bundle of cameos, swears, and 4th wall breaks under which you could hear the faint sound of all of it getting a bit tired.

Charybdis

So what's been happening?

Responsinabilities

Early voting starts Friday. I'm looking forward to having any part of this election behind me, so I'm doing that. I've already scheduled November 5th through 8th off of work. With any luck, I won't even know who won until the next Monday.

Of course, that also means I'll be trying to get everything off of my plate by end of month.

Have I mentioned I'm moving to a new office space?

 

This is my life now.

Movie Trailers for October 2024

Joker: Folie a Deux (October 4th)

I didn't even watch the first one, but making the second on a musical is a masterstroke, and not just because I really liked that episode of Scrubs.

So what if Harley Quinn is not an olympic-class gymnast and corrupted psychologist? The whole premise of this...series, I guess, is doing what DC does best: larger than life characters in 100 different versions of themselves in stories that get the fundamentals right. 

Canon is for cucks. (Can I say that without being a choad?)

Azrael (September 27th)

Please be a Batman movie, please be a Batman movie, please--

Fuck!

Movie Trailers for September 2024

Alien: Romulus

Sure. Why not?

Lee (September 27th)

Is it based on a true--ANDY SAMBERG?!