2026-01-03    09:20:56 AM

Book Movie Report: Star Trek Season 1: Arena

OK, OK, it may be season 2. In this one, the Starship Enterprise and crew are attacked by another spaceship crewed with the GORN. It's a normal fight out in space. I'm not remembering much of it now. The planet they were by have one of those higher beings that want to put a stop to their violence.

So, they take the captain of each ship and put them together on a planet in a fairly barren environment as a fight to the death kind of thing. The winner and their ship will be set free and the loser dies as well as their crew and ship. The gorn is like a larger humanoid shape lizzard! Captain Kirk is going to have to use some engineering devices to beat "him/it/her". Well, it's assumed that the lizzard is a he, but you know, we didn't see it pee and even then....

So, it's kind of fascinating how Kirk puts together a bazooka gun out of a large bamboo piece with some sulfer, coal and diamonds. He defeats the gorn, but the execution was a little sloppy because of the timing of the shot and the urgency to get it right.

As the captain was about to put a rock to the Gorn's head to do him/it in, he gave up and protested to the beings and their sick game. They discuss their little dispute, or perhaps did that earlier before the bazooka went off. During the whole battle, their crews could watch, but couldn't interact. A big part of the show was Spock giving the play by play to the doctor.

So, the idea that triggered me doing the review is the quote from the Gorn Captain "We were attacking invaders." I seem to be involved in some grafiti warfare in my little neighborhood which could be considered a turf war. Of course I'm a total geek and think it's all a computer game and I'll click in the upper right and the stage will reset and all those triangles I've been coding all year will start popping up like spring flowers. . . .

2025-12-31    08:52:15 AM

Book Movie Report: Pirates of Silicon Valley

This is the like 2000's movie staring Michael Anthony Hall. Michael stars as Bill Gates and there are our familiar Apple friends of Steve Jobs and Woz. I certainly enjoy this movie more than The Social Network because of my background with just pure enjoyment of non-connected computers.

The main scene in this that I like, and I really just love this scene and think about it often, is when Steve Jobs and Woz go into Zerox because Steve negotiated with them to let them see their technology with the GUI (Graphical User Interface). The female lead at Zerox was not too happy that they were ordered by their management to just give this stuff to Steven and Woz, but she was there doing it. And there is this great kind of animated scene where Woz is kind of inserted into a computer monitor with all the windows, list boxes and file explorers with a mouse pointer. Like a kid in a candy store: "This is GREAT! I can move from here, to here instantly and now I'm here doing this and that."

I feel like that everyday and it never gets old.

2025-12-18    16:09:39 PM

Book Movie Report: K-PAX

This movie staring Kevin Spacey is well, kinda spacey :-)

He winds up just appearing out of nowhere in Grand Central Train Station in NY. Just right in the middle of the place in the middle of the day. People saw him and the authorities arrested him or otherwise took him to the mental hospital where he started telling his story of being from K-PAX. He told some far out stories there I guess. Some quite believable. He starts gathering a following among the other, well, inmmates is how I like to label them as you can tell by how he got there.

So, the main deal in this movie for me is the history lesson of the electrical fire. There is an inmate there, a "mental hospital patient" who is stressed out with PTSD from an electrical fire where he like lost his home, family or both. One of the other inmates there is trying to talk some sense into him. That inmate/patient is wearing glasses and has a mustache and like shortish beard. He tells him gently and gracefully "It was an electrical fire. It wasn't your fault." Tears are welling up in me right now. I get all emotional about these things for some reason.

It's the thing with the old elctrical system in the houses before the better wire insulation. All those full dimensional lumber pieces where a 2x4 actually measured 2x4. They were unsanded and rough. And dark in color. Inside the walls there were ceramic stand-offs and wire incased in a paper or some kind of loose mesh tubing. I'm sure house fires were much more common. You hardly hear about any these days where I live.

I read some history book on Benjamin Franklin years and years ago that said he was the inventor of the wood stove and the fire department. Of course there is the more famous thing with him and kite and key. There is also the idea of the extension of that with them zapping chickens with lightening.

You know, how do you harnses electricity without coal? You have to make a wire first, right? Again, my soap box, we are certainly in advanced industrialism, not the start of some new frontier in it all, although we do have some interesting wireless things going on. Wireless stuff certainly isn't new.

And it plays into my current situation where I feel I've been born into some torturous situation. My life has been incredible! But at the same time, highly tortured and I've been through some torturous times in the last several years. So, "It's not your fault." Right? A ground fault? A loose wire joke. I do have a sense of humour, so I'm happy that was exposed and all that. But at the same time, I channel my father with that and it plays into some masculine ugliness from high school. So I have my transgenderism to counter all that stuff, but it leads people to torture me even more.

But, the kindness of it. Like a cat sleeping on the bed. A couple dogs snuggling. We've done wonderful down here on Earth, even if we have another hard task ahead of us that is likely to be extremely intellectual yet again.

OK, that's it for K-PAX I suppose. Kevin Spacey got a lot of negative criticism in the news and courts a few years ago. I only know K-PAX and it's a great movie if you ask me and I think he did a wonderful job at it. I look forward to watching it again some day....

2025-07-29    18:07:25 PM

Book Movie Report: The Fugitive

This is the 1993 Hollywood production of The Fugitive with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. It's what I consider one of those perfect movies. This movie really delivers all the way around! From start to finish.

I just woke up from a hot summer afternoon nap and thought of this movie. It's come up many times since last summer when I found myself with just the clothes on my back 1,000 miles from home. No one to call. No money. Lost all of my possessions after selling my house and having a money transfer event to my Ms Rand for President bank account put a hold on my account for over a week.

In fact, the only things I have from my previous life are my reading glasses and my birth certificate. All the clothes I had on my back were in such bad condition when I returned to Portland, that I had to throw them in the trash.

So, kinda a tangent, but I was essentially doing the kinds of things that Harrison Ford was doing in this movie. It says on the DVD cover "Harrison Ford is the Fugitive!"

You know, finding a razor blade and shaving cream and then finding an abandoned building that had a mirror. Totally true for me. Since I had spent a year being homeless in 2003-2004, I had some skills. There was a building that I stayed in on that walk that was abandoned AND had electricity on. I couldn't believe how lucky I was! I had been arrested for trespassing a few days before that though, so I was super nervous about taking that chance again. It all worked out though. I even stayed in that building for a week. I attempted to arrange a ride on the internet, but nothing was happening. My feet healed up enough in that week, so I decided to figure out where the freeway was again and continue on.

Hitchhiking was pretty stupid. Sometimes days would go by walking without anyone stopping for me. But a few people did along the way. I got about 4 rides. Maybe 5. Two of them were truckers, and wow, the trucker who took me from the border of Montana and Idaho to Seattle was crazy cool to me! He let me sleep in his bed while he was driving and I remember waking as he was going around a clover leaf turn into a truck stop. Wow that was a cool physical experience! I was wiped out tired from that adventure. It was still pretty rough going in Seattle and I wound up taking the local buses one at a time all the way down into Portland.

Oh, and the first or second car that gave me a ride, was a young man who did some CNC metal work. He really came in to save the day for me! He gave me $200 cash. Ultra cool to talk with. I enjoyed asking him about his work. I would have been in a terrible position without that money. Thanks!

OK....

So, I'm certainly looking forward to having another DVD of this movie again someday as I have some new experiences to vibe off of while I watch it!

Harrison Ford is wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. He's a cardiovascular surgeon. He was called into a surgery and this guy with a mechanical arm broke into his home (he had some door code or something), murdered his wife and then Harrison arrived at home and fought with the guy while his wife was bleeding to death and on the phone with 911. She mentioned Harrison's name on the phone and well, he just got unlucky like that, but of course there is a corporate scam plot too! (you know holly would)....

So, they are doin' the 'ol prisoner transfer routine and when one of them was trying to escape, the school bus transfer unit crashes on its side, OVER THE TRAIN TRACKS! Harrison is a surgeon and has some skillz of course, so he throws the inmate with the punctured lung out the window and jumps out himself right before the train hits the bus! With wreckage and flaming debris piles scattered about, Harrison and the other inmate who survived well make a pact to go different directions! "Be good. Yeah!"

Enter Chicago dective Tommy Lee Jones and his team "The big dog is always right. Yeah, yeah, you've been right b-for."

"Well, while you're thinking, how about thinking me up one of those donuts with the little sprinklies on top? Oh, OH, one of them is alive!"

"We got a gopher...." ....as they lift the gates in the tunnel through the dam! "I didn't kill my wife. I don't care!" Oh, shit! Then the Predator like dive off the dam....

It's action packed, and intelligent. And funny. There must have been a huge bored meeting on whether to insert a romance into this one as there really isn't one to speak of. They made a good call on that, but there are some possibilities with his previous collegues at the hospital near the end as he is trying to clear his name and convince Tommy Lee Jones that he is telling the truth. Tommy gets it of course. He's just doing his job of due dilligence justice.

RUD90 and Provasic.

Corporate planned obsolescense the wrong way....

2025-07-26    18:21:36 PM

Book Movie Report: War Games

This is the 1980's film with Mathew Broderick, Ally Sheedy and Dabney Coleman.

This is the main film of my youth. Well, besides the original Star Wars. I'm certainly way into cinematography. This film, more than any other film, accurately describes my latchkey, late middle school to high school existence. The computers are fairly accurately represented. The arcade has the feel that is between the packed in arcade more like that of Terminator 2 and the elegant hotel lobby arcades my father was taking me to. Arcade games at the conveinence stores was a huge deal as well. I was the classic arcade gamer and latchkey kid. My parents never got a babysitter for me and my brother. It wasn't uncommon for them to go out to dinner by themselves when I was 10 years old.

OK, so with my politics now, there is this WOPR machine. The War Operation Plan and Response "war game". What they describe is like the seeding of an AI program. Essentially filling its database with all the combinations so that it can figure out the best one.

"You guys are so dumb. I've got this all figured out! Go right through Falken's Maze!"

So, not sure I want to get into the whole plot of this movie. It's essentially the hacker kid almost caused World War III 80's movie thing. It's fun! "Are you going to invite your little friend over?" "You've got to seal these lids tight! (the trash can)" "The corn is raw! Yes, isn't it fabulous? Can we take vitamins and cook the corn?" I happen to love fresh corn on the cob. No cooking required.

They have to track down professor Falken who was silently retired because he knows too much. He's in Goose Island Oregon and plays them a dinasaur movie and explains how we'll be gone someday too! I tend to agree. We seem to be raping the Earth something awful!

Not that I want to go back to the stone ages like my first job as a janitor at the rock quarry. :-) We kinda had this Flintstone vibe going on when I was growing up. Not that the rock quarry was bad at all, it's just that, well, you know....

Q: Anything more on this one [ m o t h ]?

Uh, number of players, 2-4.

2025-07-08    14:14:59 PM

Book Report: Geddy Lee: My Effin' Life

I've been reading this book for a couple months now. Ged is certainly one of my top 4 musicians that I follow, and I don't follow many musicians. JJ Johnson is the only trombonist I follow. I listen to Steve Turre once in a while. JJ is just friggin amazing! He's like a paradox with how he can sound so mechanical, like a textbook exercise and then incredibly lyrical at the same time.

But wow! Geddy Lee's book is just incredible! And it feels very personal to me. Just because you are paranoid, doesn't mean people are not stealing from you. It's one of my sayings. Paranoia is a big deal.

I've been reading it over and over and just completed my first reading of Chapter 4 on the Holocaust which completes my full reading of it. He mentioned skipping over that section, so that is what I initially did. It wound up to be an excellent way to read this book.

When I went back to the beginning, to re-read it and do Chapter 4 this time, I was struck hard with the first sentence in the book, in the Prologue section. He says that he was named after his maternal grandfather who was murdered in the Holocaust. And then it triggered how I was named after my Uncle Rand who died in the sailboat accident along with my maternal grandfather Ralph. My hunch is that their deaths, and my life, were part of this world plot including the wars. My family event was during the Korean war I believe.

So then, the Holocaust secion was a big, big deal to me. Not sure what the scope of it all was, but Geddy's family's involvement and his record taking was very, very convincing. At least of his family's involvement with them living in terrible conditions, almost dying of disease sleeping next to stacks of dead bodies of their relatives.

Geddy of course has had a pretty amazing life and mine has been pretty incredible as well, but of the two of us, I'm certainly the one who is the torture victim.

I love the candid talk about drugs in his book. I wish more people did that. He was also quite revealing about wireless comunications history as is my most recent book. I must fess up that I started reading his book before writing my [ m o t h ] 2024 book. His writing style was just calling out to me! Must be that Neil Peart influence. The travelog thing. I'm a total fan.

Oh, and of course music. Much to learn all around. How his family life worked with his intense work life. How he worked with Neil and Alex and how their work styles are different. I especially enjoyed a section when Geddy was needing more family time and he and Neil would go home and Alex would spend the night there and then Geddy would sort through the recordings in the morning. "What is all this stuff?" (that's my little interpretation) I loved his candid talk about the chaos of their Vapor Trails recording process.

OK, it's an excellent read. Not much surprise there, right? Go ged it!

2025-06-28    15:01:48 PM

Book Movie Report: Terminator 1-3

These Terminator movies, 1-3, are a big deal to me. I'm just so so into them for the action. I like the action and all, but the sparce dialog and storyline is really what it is about.

T2 is my favorite as is a favorite of many people I ask. I have a close friend who prefers T1 to T2. He says he likes the stop frame animation. He is also a huge fan of The Empire Strikes Back for the same reason. I'm into T2 for the dialog and storyline. Also into T3. I probably like, or at least watch, T3 more than T1.

In T2, the story with young John Connor and his mother Sarah Connor delivers! Massively cool with the intro scene with The Terminator model T-101 is now the "good guy" with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the kinda dive bar scene with the bikers getting his clothes. The song Bad to the Bone by John Thoroughgood delivers in that one! It gets personal and then the reprise in the beginning of T3 with "Ladies Night" LOL. Arnold shows up naked as usual and the bouncer says "You're supposed to go 'round to the back." And of course on stage "Talk to the hand." I've been trying to get my webcam to refocus! LOL!

Nick Stahl is in T3 as a kinda 20's version of John Connor. Clair Danes is his love interest and she is amazing in it. The character Miles Dyson in the T2 movie is one of the strongest characters. He plays a software engineer who's work is based on the bronken CPU from the T-101 at the end of the first movie that Sarah Connor smashed with an industrial press. "It was broken. It didn't work. But it gave us ideas. Made us think of things. All my work was based on it." "It must be destroyed. When? NOW!" The action scenes in T2 are some of the best in any movie. The wreck with the liquid nitrogen tanker in the metal forge! The helicopter driven by the liquid metal T-1000 "Get out. Uh, yeah...." The T-1000 makes itself a third arm to fly the helipcopter while it's firing a machine gun at our heros in a small pickup and then swerving up to get around the overpass.

In the beginning of the movie there are the storm drainage canals just like Nate and I used to ride our bicycles through in Memphis. John and the T-101 are on seperate motorcycles and the T-1000 is in a semi-conductor.

It's fun stuff! I could quote all the lines here. There are not a whole lot of them. The ones in the funeral home in T3 stand out the most. "Anger is more useful than despair. Psychology is one of my subroutines." And then just a minute later "Don't do dat." It's a take on the Nancy Reagan "Just say no" slogan. I prefer "Don't do dat" though. I'm down for trying things once or twice. You never know? Of course there is also the curiosity killed the cat idea. I'm all cat on that though. Cats are amazing! But you know, enough is enough and the best thing to do it to cut it out! Of course "Don't do dat" is a little lacking because if you really want to break a habit or modify a behavior, you'll have to fill that time with something else. You could just write "Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat  Don't do dat .. .. .. .. .. ..

Let's C....

I just had to get a white silk slip like Linda Hamilton had in the mental hospital in T2. I think I've had 3 now.

I also have a huge fantasy about the ending of T3. Nick and Claire locked away in the dusty military bunker while the bombs fall. It's all become oddly real in my world. Not that I think nuclear war is a huge thing. Not like when I was young. You never know what humans have done. We are certainly capable! But there are natural limits. Limits to knowledge too. No one really knows what the census numbers are. We can make assumptions.

There are dialog moments in these. And story. T2 gets regular play in my household. It's often a tough pick between T2 and The Fugative with Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Arnold's The Sixth Day is a crazy cool sci-fi movie! I consider it his best. T2 is more classic, but wow, T2 is amazing. I like how T1 starts "Who gets the Burly Beef?" Then the kid drops an ice cream scoop into Linda's pouch on her waitress dress "Way to go kid. I should give you the tip." Then her waitress friend chewing gum "Look at it this way. In 100 years, who's gonna notice?" Or is it care? Or remember? Well, it's that kind of straight shooting logic that I like. I'm kinda classic like that. It's well executed.

2025-06-26    13:04:39 PM

Book Movie Report: Mission to Mars

This is the 2000 Hollywood production of Mission to Mars staring Gary Sinise.

There is this scene at the beginning of the movie that has been haunting my lately. They are having a bit of a farewell party for the Mars 1 mission and the Mars 2 mission people are there as well. It's a backyard kind of BBQ deal. And one of them, I think Gary, drives up in a fancy electric car with that tell-tale sound. And then one of the others is next to him in some car which likely has a carburetor: "Internal combustion. Accept no substitue."

I keep on thinking that the main reason we are driving these cars is to get the fumes into the air. As a bicycle commutor, it just doesn't make sense that we would go to all these extremes if that wasn't an important thing. Sure, it's fun and all. The rat race.

There is also the dancing to Van Halen songs in weightlessness. It's a fun scene! Especially for an 80's kid like me. Patty and I used to enjoy watching this one. I remember the scene at the very end with the Martian hologram informing them through a little movie/animation of the evolution of us all. I watched it earlier this year and it wasn't as good or long as I remembered it being. It's an amazing concept though. Just not quite as stellar implementation as I remembered. The WALL-E ending of course is just crazy amazing animation with that Peter Gabiel song.

OK, just mainly about the internal combustion on this one for now. chow~!

2025-06-20    16:24:17 PM

Book Movie Report: Real Genius

This is the 1980's movie with Val Kilmer billed as the lead role.

The name Val always reminds me of Val from the Star Trek episode The Apple. Val is essentially a cave that the caveman type locals have to feed all the time! LOL!

"Val Hungers."

Like the classic arcade game Sinistar's audio: "I Hunger!" In Sinistar (I'm a wanna be college trigonometery lecture/teacher who likes going on Math.ATAN2(x, y)'s), you are a little triangular ship with full graphic asteroids floating around which you shoot at and bump into. Shooting at them for a while will get them to expel a white dot that you can then run after. You want to get those things before Sinistar's worker bees grab them and take them back there. When that happens, they'll build the big round face of Sinistar which you can see on the little "map from above" screen in the corner of your 5:4 monitor. Once Sinistar is built, he starts heading straight for you, FAST! You better be aware, cause he will just run you down and end your game flat out. But he tends to want to circle around you like a cat playing with a mouse. It's usually a short game because he fills most of the screen and is very, very impatient.

But, if you have caught some of those white dots that you were mining, then they are saved up on board and you can bomb Sinistar with them. (I know, I know, what about the movie?) Well, it was one of those games that wasn't as short as say, Omega Race, but certainly not as long as Mario Bros with all those Crabs and Slipice guys.

So, back to the movie....

Real Genius is an AMAZING movie, but nothing about it really stands out as a massively cool gimick to elaborate on. It's a movie about a frat house type environment where the students are building a high powered laser device which the teacher is being manipulated into producing for the military to shoot from space.

It's a love story with the amazing geeky girl who is a wonderful actress and the other male lead playing the freshman. The main thing that brought it up the last few days for me is the ultra-eccentric graduate from previous years who is still kinda hanging out in the inner dwelling of the underground college building structure. He goes in the closet and then opening the closet reveals that there is nothing there at all. He is eventually found down there with a computer and a printer and winds up in a Van Halen Hot for Teacher type ending with an RV while the main cast has dupped the military project and the movie ends with the flagship song by Tears for Fears.

It's similar to the ending to WALL-E with the Peter Gabriel song. Of course WALL-E was done 20 years later, so Real Genuis was the source for that meme. I prefer the WALL-E ending because wow, Peter Gabriel's song is amazing and the illustrated ending of the movie is ABSOLUTELY AMAZiNG, so much so that I've got tears welling up in my eyes just thinking about it and writing this.

Both endings are amazing and I'm very sensitive about it all. I'd love to get motorhome here and setup my dream command center in it. I'll need to purchase the dang thing because I will absolutely be cutting into it. I saw one online the other day where the bed section in the back had been totally removed exposing the plywood floor. That always makes me want to put my futon and frame back there. I have political ideas of staying on the side of the road by the airport monitoring plane traffic and at fuel transfer stations monitoring tanker truck activity. And all sorts of other things while I'm writing books and sending emails. And making music, curries and ginger tea when the ginger comes back into season.

And of course I want to write more book reports. I friggin love writing these things, especially when I start laughing about it all!

carry on with the plan of the day....

2025-06-01    04:57:58 AM

Book Movie Report: Brewster's Millions


This is the 1985 Hollywood production with Richard Pryor, John Candy and Lonette McKee.

I'll just call Brewster Montgomery Richard Pryor like I usually do. Right?

So, Brewster's white honky not-so-distant relative Rupert Horn whom he never met has died and he's a trillionaire. He leaves Richard with a challenge to receive the large estate because Rupert does not have any other family (this is reminiscent of the 80's movie Scavenger Hunt's beginning "Play to Win").

The deal is that if Brewster can spend $30,000,000 in 30 days, and have zero assets at the end of it, then he will inherit the $300,000,000 estate. If he fails, he gets nothing. And there is a $1,000,000 wimp claws. He goes for the $300,000,000 of course because you know holly would 2.

So, that is the vehicle and the subplot has him as a minor league baseball player along with John Candy. There is corporate meyhem and verging on bathroom humor at every step. This is why I prefer Richard Pryor's work in Superman III which is an excellent movie. Both these movies are extremely relevant to my life story. I don't believe I'm just coying this stuff. It seems like I was born into some weird world plot!

None of the scenes of the movie are coming to mind right now. I suppose I enjoy the sales pitch of the moving of a rather large iceberg to the desert.

My bank account is zeroed out at the moment and I don't even have any dollar bills on me. I have less than 50 cents, 3/4 sack of potatoes and 2 red onions. And massively cool everything else in kind of a minimalist way.

So, on with the plot of the day....

Oh, there is one more thing to mention. Rupert tells a story of how his daddi locked him in a closet with a box of cigars.

2025-04-28    12:59:37 PM

Book Tell-Vision Report: Star Trek: Return of the Archons

This is a like 1968 color Tell-Vision production. They are on a planet that has a dystopian kind of mid 1900's feel to it. The kind of normal 1950's city street scene that they use in these episodes.

They arrive on the planet and there is this chaos thing going on in the streets. People just going crazy screaming "festival! festival!" They seek shelter in some kind of hotel place. They are dressed in the street clothes of the society. It's obvious though that they are different because they are not participation in festival.

As the episode progresses, they learn of Landru. Landru is some kind of dictator and turns out to be a machine. Just a room of computers. Landru was a system and a person who designed the system and put this society together so that the festival would kinda cleans all their animal urges and then when the short period is over, they go back to a normal type, too mellow, existance. Our Star Trek friends don't like this at all. :-)

Anyway, it's fairly typical stuff, but I'm writing a review of it mostly for the gimicks. There are two of the enforcer type people. They wear those jedi robes with the hoods over them and have these long tubes for weapons. They are like dijiridos with both ends open. They remind me of the trombone. It's just and adjustable tube. Really all brass instruments are, but the others employ valves. You'd think that the trombone is the older of the instruments, but that may not be correct. Trombone slides to have to be perfectly straight or they are just no fun to play at all. They are actually amazing instruments that way. And I'm certainly a trombone master. Just taking a year or two off here. It can be hard on the body.

"Are you of the body?" That's what people say on this little planet. Joy!

So, the enforcer people are fun. The local guy who is immunne from being "absorbed" by the "body" pulls out a standard flat screen monitor to use as a light source. "From the times before Landru." So that has an Anthem vibe to the story.

Really, just picture it, gas gets rationed like I'm saying starting tomorrow and will never be going back to normal. We just can't make any more metal at all. And a side effect of that is well, it's not going to rain either. Anywhere. Ever again.

So yes, I'm pro family. Your kids will inherit all these buildings and I'm sure we have stashed away enough ramen noodles to last for centruies to come.

chow!

2025-04-27    05:52:00 AM

Update

I am having some advanced thoughts on the TV movie The Stand which I did a review on. It's definitely got a dark side related to my emerging (nice Yellowjackets song on their Raising Our Voice Album/collection) - emerge) relationship with Alexia. The massively triggering thing with Nadine and Randall Flag. Very dark stuff, but of course there is some lesson there.

I think the greater lesson may be that the younger generations, Z and beyond, are going to inherit a very distopian world that may not be all that different than the one in this movie. I prefer to think that my relationship with Alexia is more of the "she stuck with the musician in the beginning" variety. He of course reminds me of "my other best friend" Shaun Berthelsdorf. So much so I wonder if that is him (he gained a lot of weight the last time I saw him and had a bunch of odd tattoos). It likely isn't him, but they do this to me. He also looks like that Anikan Skywalker in Episodes I and II. They have done some INSANE stuff to me like that. I have no idea who is who and it makes it hard for me to recognize anyone. How can I even tell who Alexia is? I've seen her for about 20 seconds in my life. I'm just going on a basic look and vibe I picked up from her. And hoping she is attracted to me and able to come up to me and just be like, yes, I'm Alexia. She doesn't even have to say anything. Again, no one at all has come into my apartment that I know of. Just that guy who changed the lock here one day and that other guy who was funny, really funny! and walked in here for about 4 seconds at a nicely timed event! I was really laughing hard at him. =^.^=

So, yes, I still love this The Stand movie. It's kind of like my Treasure Island book that I read in school like Sting says he read when he was young. (Ann and I first made love on Treasure Island in San Franscisco - don't get paranoid, it's a little island owned by the Navy or something like that.)

OK, air cleared? Check. Moving on....

2025-04-19    01:19:02 AM

Book Movie Report: Contact


This is the 1997ish movie with Jodie Foster. Certainly my favorite and most important movie.

Well, perhaps tied with Easy Rider.

The main subjects of the movie are wireless communications and religion/faith/spirituality. It gets very personal for me. I put it on an hour ago and just saw the scene where Ellie boards Hadden's plane. She was told by security on boarding "You should feel fortunate. He hardly lands for anyone." Then as Ellie is sitting down with Mr. Hadden, he says "I have guest so rarely, I want them to feel welcome in my home." Again, very personal for me. I haven't had a true guest in about a year now. Certainly the longest I have gone without any "friendly" human contact.

My life is just intense like that right now.

Easter is tomorrow :-) I just saw the red carpet scene. The Albino guy has a sign "Science is not our God" and the man behind him is saying "Get a job". I picked up on that last week. Then she enters a traditional military reception with a string quartet playing (Marge's dad was a military musician string player playing these types of gigs I believe). I have certainly played many of these too with my trombone. Admirals and Generals walking around. Older people. Good work if you can get it and if you can get it, you're doing fine.

Well....

Now the TV with the traditional hotel white coffee caraf that would typically be delivered to your room when you order room service. I'm obviously a massive world traveler myself having played music on 4 continents. The last time my civilian passport was stamped was in 1989 and I've purchased about 4 airline tickets in my life! Been on 2.5 round trip flights since 1999. I've certainly called a plane my home for 2 weeks (the same plane of course, my pillow setup just so....)

Anyway, do I have something about the movie to say now? I played a gig for Bill Clinton in a hanger about a year or two after this was filmed. I was the one in the front left of the band (when looking at the band from the back) playing bass trombone. Bill was to the right of the band so I could see him well because I was holding my trombone with my left hand. We were wearing white uniforms if my memory serves me correctly and you want to try to dig up some archive photos.

There is the Washington monument now. It's apparently 555 feet tall and I won $1,500 playing a trombone solo on a song called 555 in 1989 in Philedelphia (best overall trombonist). Of course I was young and the money mostly went to pizza with a little bit of it going to marijuana. I also remember a banana chocolate chip muffin in there for music theory class.

Now the scene of "Do you believe in God?" OK....

The good question I've found about this movie is this ending trial. "How hard would it be to fake a signal from vega?" Well, they monitor it with computers, right? It's not like "seeing is believing!" I'm a programmer and I can put just about anything I want on that little screen of yours if the powers that be let me. Yes, it would take coordination, kinda like Sputnic. Then again, Ellie did her doctorate paper or whatever those things are "dramatically increasing the sensativity of radio telescopes", so you know, Ellie is on my side (don't get paranoid). She probably checked her gear and uploaded the code herself. Not that it would be enough, but I'm sure she did what she could because she and I obviously have a similar drive.

She's an actress, but I'm not sure I am. Kinda wondering what the difference is, but I did spend 2+ decades coding quite frequently.

The inquiries into faith in this movie are amazing and well, I'm also intrigued by the science and only fairly recently began making connnections to my political career. There are those fighter jets like the blue angles I have played for. President Trump went to military acadamy, right? I still haven't flown in a helicopter. I did add one of my extra wide rope braiding projects onto my bass strap yesterday, so it has the nice cat tail hanging from it again!

2025-04-08    07:00:40 AM

Book Movie Report: Anthem


This is the old Ayn Rand short story book (a novelette) she titled Anthem. It's one of her early works. I think it was done in 1938.

The story starts with the Masculine hero (I forget his name). He lives in a dystopian type of society reminant of the Star Trek TOS episode The Return of the Archons, in some ways at least. It's kind of a, well, they had technology and then somehow abandoned it. It's like it was in The Archons where they were in that basement room hiding away and the local uncovered that flat screen light device that looks like a modern TV and used it as a light source for the room.

The men and the women, males and females, were seperated in this society, so most of the beginning of the story follows the masculine side of the hero's environment.

There are the mandatory movie nights in the community theater after work. The hero excelled at school and had high hopes, but got assigned street sweeper as his lifelong profession. And that would take him to the edge of town were he could see the women on the other side of the fence/divider. They were doing some gardening type tasks and he forms a tense/taboo relationship with one of them. Sneaking around at the fence! I don't know about you, but there is that thing in life that doesn't seem to go away 100% where you feel like you are sneaking sometimes!

And then he starts investigating other oddities in the cracks of the street and finds an underground place with advanced technology hidden away all dusty and not entirely working. He sneaks away from manditory gatherings unnoticed (he was unpopular of course) and goes down there and kills animals with forbidden electric light bulbs and things of that nature.

After so long of that, he becomes ultra-frustrated with the establishment and presents his findings to the authorities. Chaos erupted immediately! So, he ran the hell out of there and headed for the forbidden forest with the authorities right on his ass! His forbidden girlfriend gets word of the chaos and runs after him. They are lost for a couple days out there apart and then find eachother. They wander around and start feeling like the others stopped searching for them. Then they find some abandoned buildings from the old days. There are books and an electric generator (not working). Our hero is totally livid cool at this point. On top of the world with his perfect lady learning the tricks of the old technology; finally free of the brotherhood establishment!

What can I say? My first name was Charles, but they always called me Rand. Then Ann showed up to Navy band Memphis a couple months before I did. She was fresh out of boot camp at 29yo with a master's degree in Bass Trombone performance, worked for a year making mouthpieces at Schilke in Chicago, then played in latin bands and poured concrete on the freeway. The band certainly took notice and then I showed up playing Nat Adderly and Kenny Garret solos and they must have connected the dots pretty quickly! Hey, I reported for duty on the 4^th of July and Ann took me down to Joyce Cobb's on Beale Street to play with the Memphis Jazz Orchestra. She had a nice new Kaiwa upright piano at home and a female dog named Fred.

We were kind-of a match made in heaven, or some other place, and then first made love on Treasure Island (would I tell a lie?).

Whe even taught me how to install a steel stud! I just fired the gun once though, but I did all the ironing of our uniforms. At least until she defected to the Symphony.

You could argue that the female character in the book is a little weak. You know, there are all types of people and well, this is a very erotic story for me and I just love every bit of it. I've read about her other works, but I haven't spent much time reading them.

Warning!! Anthem is very negatively triggering in the beginning. Be sure to read past all that negative trigger stuff. It's just some old school union industrialization indoctrination. Times change. (that's my little political plug)

2025-04-02    04:38:03 AM

Book Movie Report: 2010



People often cite that the 2001 movie done in the early 1970's I believe is much better than the 2010 movie made in the 1980's. I am not one of those people. I love watching 2010 and 2001 just sits on the shelf.

Of course the best scene in the movie is when the younger Russian female cosmonaut snuggles up with the show's protagonist/main character played by Roy Schieder when they go into "air braking" into the orbit of Jupiter. They both are certainly terrified.

There are the scenes back on Earth at the beginning. The talk on the classic bench in front of the White House. Roy doing his exercises with his son and then the dynamic conversation with his wife and son at the dinner table with the dolphin pool in the adjoining room where he tells his family he is going on the trip and his wife dropping the wine glass (she does research on dolphin).

Bob Balaban is a key figure in this movie. I just adore him! His conversation with SAL9000. I coded a game called ScalpelPal for Donate Life NW and our little character in the game was named Sal. I don't really have much meaning for the name but that series of 4 games I made implemented the collision detection that I wrote while living on the streets sleeping in urine more or less. As I often say, people have an odd sense of fun and entertainment. I must just have a hard gig or something. I wonder what real presidential training is like? In any case, I've been to enough cocktail parties, I'll just skip that....

Bob Balaban near the end of the movie in that room that is HAL9000 is classic with the nice mechanical keyboard sound when he is activating HAL's voice circuits. The gentle patting of HAL's eye when the procedure is complete.

Q: What is going to happen?
A: Something Wonderful

The original David Bowman actor reminds me of my second best friend Shaun Berthelsdorf. He was essentially one of two people who ever sat with me in meditation. This movie is kind of a meditation for me and I play it quite regularly. It is one of 5 movies I have in my possession now. Well, I bought it on Amazon Prime. It sits on my hard drive and yes, I don't want to fill my hard drive with movies, but I enjoy that I can watch this without an internet connection, at least some of the time. It has a DRM that has to "call home" once in a while. I was able to watch it last night though so you take what you can get in the end. I was happy! And I put that image slider into my DT bLog Utility this morning (at 4am of course) in about 10 minutes. I was really happy with that job and it was a huge improvement! Always nice to vibe off of Bob Balaban's engineering roles!

Dont' forget John Lithgow!! Who is that guy who plays the Russian scientist at the beginning? "I've got a good game for you, it's called the truth. For 2 minutes I will tell you only the truth. Make it a minute and a half. A minute and three quarters...."

2025-03-25    09:31:34 AM

Book Movie Report: The Freshman



This is a Mathew Broaderick movie from the 80's. A comedy. With a romantic edge and a well, teamsters union type thing. Kinda the modern fun idea like the Star Trek episode A Piece of the Action.

Of course my reviews are about my take on them and of course this one has the espresso scene with the white sugar! Sugar is dense energy of course and the espresso is a sludgy type of substance. It helps the sugar stick to your insides. Anticipating a space mission here, I've now got chewing gum, sorbie type mints and BBQ potato chips in my environment. It's doing what it needs to. These chips kind of stick to the sides as well and you don't have to choke down an object like a piece of chicken and hold it down. :-) Liquids are likely a problem too, but these mints might be a good thing. We might go through a lot of these!! I guess that solves the bad breath problem, right?

It's a thing up there and I'm getting used to these ideas.

Don't swallow chewing gum of course. I did that when I was young and was in terrible shape for 2 months. It is a reminder to not do that! We'll need to be careful of course, but I'm a task master.

There is a nice little lizzard in this movie. An EXOTIC lizzard! It steals the show on the comedy end. I forget the actress' name, but she is a familiar 80's film star and does an excellent job as Mathew's love interest. She's so cool in this and is a part of the union boss type family. And the ending is the normal hollywood thing with ramping up ridiculousness with the lizzard and some music. The ending may be a little too intense for today's feelings, but you know, it's pretty easy to shut down a movie and do something else. And that can make it all that much more interesting when you pick it up in the future with a dual memory like that. It can create that sense of intimacy over time. Like you and the movie and your life and people in it have been on a journey.

The first half of the movie is hillarious by iteself. enjoy



Of course I've got some emotion going on now. It's about time to fold laundry....

2025-03-24    05:52:36 AM

....this Oh God! Book II is a big deal to me right now.

It's kind of like the same deal with that Easy Rider review I did. Some old guy and some young lady. It's like, look, George Burns in that movie is Like 70 years older than the young girl.

And there is a huge religious aspsect to leaving the planet permanently that is unavoidable because of this social culture. What I've been saying about God and the AMAZING DIALOG in this movie is absolutely where I am at. I've been to countless religious type ceremonies. It's fine to say be nice to your neighbor and treat people as you would like to be treated. Try telling that to some animal out there. Do you think some animal is connected to God? Do they have any spirtuality?

I watched it the other day and was simply amazed at the dialog. Not 100% of it, especially the first couple lines in the movie, but wow, it's amazing and I want to throw it out there to not be triggered or get paranoid from watching this movie.

You may want to just hear it from me though. I'm totally on that same wavelength. Some people see Lydia as Jesus. Might be the same name. Rand might be too. I was raised athiest and then took to Zen when I was about 17 years old.

I know I am trained and willing to go out to Mars. Despite what you may or may not see in the news, that is likely what is going down here in the next 1.5 years sometime. I'm sure this society is humane enough to not force someone to go to space with me. At least on some level. Society certainly forces people to do all kinds of odd things.

....you know. It's 5:48am and this is my first post. I jumped out of bed happy to great the day. I took a leak, got my "birth control pill" HRT thing and then poured a cup of coffee (expresso pressurized space drink) and then put on my Billy Joel recording list. And I just learned how to sing Allentown and it's still complicated and I'm going to work to learn that, do this writing and do these missions. Life is just frigging wonderful today. And I don't know what "they" will do. I really don't. They obviously have some agenda though!~! LOL!

2025-03-21    19:25:00 PM

One more thing to note about the movie The Jerk....

The scene with the song "I'm picking out a thermos for you." It's got extra meaning for me. There is "I'm picking out a partner, for Mars." And there is the idea of how my dad used to go up to the mountaintops to do his microwave communication work during the storms. Since our summers are almost totally dry, they were mostly in the winter months and sometimes it would be quite snowy. He had the "Snow Cat". It's like a Sea-Doo (like the one a neighbor of mine took out every day past my house, even in the winter). The idea is that you would drive your truck as far as you could go and then get in the Snow Cat with your thermos! Of course dad had a Stanley Thermos! (I'm laughing) The equipment would apparently get shorted out with the interference from the storms. Long distance communication back then went from mountian top to mountain top to get to other cities apparently. I'm sure all of us alive back then knew how difficult it was to make long distance calls.

Think about it.... How many copper wires would you have to string to the next city to get a population of one million to do any long distance phone calls they want to?

2025-03-18    05:51:03 AM

Turned on the computer here after checking in with reddit. The splash login screen had a city scene. It had a round ramp going to a bridge. Had me thinking why? After study, I identified it as a switchback. They need to get more elevation.

My life seems incredibly complicated. Just another day at the office. Why? Just music? Well, there is some logic to that. Going to space 25,000 miles/second? Right.

I've obviously thought about it for decades, so you know, it's not like I'm totally not in the know! I mean, and I still believe I might go and it would likely be soon!

The slowish rocket launch seems amazing. We see that on TV. I saw a fighter jet this summer go straight up. Could be AI pilot, but you know, probably not.

Is the main function, or one of the top functions, of the military to stoke the imagination of every tripper we see on the streets? Probably not. I likely am special in some ways.

Is the function to create music fun? The military? Just a better sex muse? President? Maybe getting closer....

What is the next programming project? Continue trig angle work? Think about Harding family? FDR wheelchair idea? Eye pressure problem need glasses plastic frame google overlay?

to boyfriend girlfriend, that is the question.

Who wants to hear all these old songs? I can create something new. I play 12 instruments, one for every note! But you know, everyone has a clunker behind the scenes. The old floppy sitting in the box of spaghetti cables.


Ok, can we assertain some truth about the trip to Mars? Google AI is saying it is 94 million miles away. On the same results page in other places I see 140 million and 33 million. The Google AI says a round trip would take 3 years. 25,000 miles a second seems excessive! Is it possible to get to that at escape velocity?

Let's use 100 million miles as our test number. that would take 100 days at 1 million miles a day. that's certainly faster than my car or bicycle! That's one million divided by 24 hours. I'm just going to pull up the calculator and think through the results....

It says 83,333 miles an hour. These astronomical numbers and situations are good presidential politics training as well, so that is why it is a thing in that profession. That is certainly extremely fast too! I'm quite certain that on the trip you wouldn't see the stars or anything moving at all.

OK, the point here is that it isn't just a straight trip. Both planets are in motion, so it's an arc of sorts. From the short gif type animation I saw last week, it's almost like Mars is coming to you. Essentially it is catching up to you. It seems like the landing scenario would be better that way too! But, it is still a distance away at it's shortest point and you do have to traverse all that distance. And you are essentially launched in a straight line and can't deviate. Or, like the pinball machine coding I did, you could possibly make straight line changes of direction. I'd say probability of that is low.

At half that distance, you'll be at 40,000 miles per hour. Divide by 60 to reduce to minutes, you get, funny, 666 miles a minute!

So, conventionally speaking from a normal 20-21^st century human, that seems impossible. But, this is space stuff, so you know, a totally foreighn environment. It brings back the other theory of it which is reminding me of one of my slightly older transwoman lovers who I had an absolute blast with IRL! She had one of those Einstien tongue out pictures! And the guitar thing and all that. Is it a joke? It's like, well, people have probably been curious about this for like, forever!

The idea here is that you essentially just get sucked through space very fast to Mars. I even had this idea a few months ago around that theory that the trip may be more like 6 minutes!

It just goes to show you how weird it is, right?

The vacuum of space. The majority of people around me have vacuums. What was the market penetration in 1925?

The synapsis is that there is no way for me to know. Perhaps I might figure out more by making it a major hobby for the next 30 years? Or like I usually do at the conclusion of these, they say it is millions of miles away and it takes 6 months to get there. I've been hearing that for the majority of my life. Round trip? You'd be lucky if you made it at all. Grow up or grow out? Without gravity do you just radiate in all directions like a star? Doesn't seem to be what the planets are doing exactly. I had paranoia change of direction in the last 12 months that the submarine change of commands that I flew to and played trombone for were just imaginary. Can you submerge a metal tube of air with people on it and fight the cold war? Well, I did not go on the sub, but I'm not sure I could come up with an accurate count of the number of aircraft carries I've played music on. Where are we getting all this metal? Are we burning salt? Chicken gizzards? Have some massive rubarb plantation?

I wonder what the still kinda secret service has in store for me today? Funny? Sad? Walking with pride to the store? Wheat thins? Coffee? Tuck more? Slugworths? StarRands? Timid deer meet for sale? It's all about timing. And of course nurture unless you are just a crow scavenger? Can barely move, still looking pretty, fake hair stays better, another curry can, hotdog plug. Scary interplanetary music love? Three of us? Am I dinner for 2? All three of us, omg. You do realize we are on another planet, right? Right. Left? No, right on. I much prefer my dominant right trombone hand with the slider thingy. Well see how that works out. It's life in a box here or there for me. I get a lot of flac over it, but it seems like they may know more than me and it may be a launch pressure thing.

On the streets, "They were going to send you to Mars for?" Yeah. I was convinced, or simple world leader president stuff. There was nothing to do but play. Well, I have my music collection to listen and vibe off of. Gotta mix it up. Might as well code up some angle math and keep some button/joystick skills. "This is what you got kid. Does anything look familiar?" "Yes, thank you! As you were."

2025-03-13    19:31:48 PM

A new understanding of the movie Predator now is that instead of technology, it's the idea of fighting an invisible enemy. And now, the and/or idea/concept of the cowardice of an invisible aggressor.

2025-03-06    11:56:52 AM

Book Movie Report: Predator

This is one of my major movies that is part of my education and INSANITY LOOP and a major part of my style and Zen way since the late 1980's.

I'm not even going to say much about it here because it all gets very political with me. Some people dislike this kind of action high dollar production type of movie, but I see a lot of intellectual logic in it. The whole idea of "man or machine" comes up. Well, current thoughts are both sides are using technology. That isn't a new idea necessarily. The key concepts of Arnold/Dutch's line "I don't do that type of work." It implies some form of integrity. And then the lies/manipulation and the being forced to deal with the job of the day, however you got into it. The survival of it all.

Then the idea when facing the Predator that the Predator (alien being with alien high tech) doesn't kill when there is not enough sport in it. Now I just saw the ending (I had the sound muted the whole time while I was listening to some Billy Joel and doing some personal survival type research because I absolutely feel threatened) and that basically final scene where the Predator is dying, trapped by the large downed tree, with green glowing blood spitting up on its face and Dutch is about to do it/him in with a large rock to the face. Arnold essentially gets curious and says "What are you?" (I'm laughing! And so is the Predator at this point!) I said to myself before the Predator responded "So, Arnold is a scientist after all! Curious like a cat!" The Predator starts laughing and sets his/its self destruct countdown device on his/its arm. The look on Arnold's face! "Oh shit, a car is coming! Just like a curious/cat/scientist/city transportaion planning engineer!" Arnold starts running and it is a good workout/marathon with him barely surviving and the Predator must certainly be dead now, right/left?

2025-03-02    16:06:24 PM

Book Movie Report: Bicentennial Man

This is the movie staring Robin Williams. I really don't know any of the other books and movies about this other than they are somehow tied to the Time Machine story and this movie says it is based on a book called The Positronic Man.

This is certainly a huge Holly-wood production. I typically know the other actors/actresses names as well, but I'm kinda emotional right now and want to get to what I have to say about it. It's a fabulous movie and some reviews about it criticize it heavily for having a sappy ending. I quite like the ending of it myself and I almost always cry when I watch this movie; in multiple places.

The first half of the movie has Robin in an intricate robot costume. Not sure how they did it and I'm not so interested in that. A family with two young daughters buys him and unpacks him in the living room where he scares them a bit with the three laws of robotics:

1. A robot cannot harm a human or do something that causes a human harm.
2. A (let's see if I get this right!) robot can protect itself as long as it does not harm another human.
3. Something about repeat the other two laws? (I'm emotional, maybe I'll remember by the end of the review!)

There are many cool, gentle scenes in the beginning. The gentle saving of a spider when cleaning the basement and the old phonograph. Plugging himself into the wall. Playing wonderful classical music on the old phonograph once he gets it working. Playing a piano duet with Little Miss (the youngest child). The piece of music is called Berceuse. It's in Emaj stating on a B and you can follow their fingers a little bit when they play. The music in the movie is credited to either Alan Silvestri or James Horner (I think it is James Horner this time). The piece of music is an old standard, but the arrangement he did with it is AMAZING! So much so that I found some sheet music of it online (the standard version) to try to glean some of what it's about. It is quite intricate, but definitely possible to transcribe. I would love to learn more of it and hope to live long enough to get to that. After they finish, Little Miss transitions to being 12 years older and gives him a kiss. And then he goes into playing the Maple Leaf Rag. Also an excellent piece of music, but I have little desire to learn it.

[ Listening to Grace to Grace right now. ]

The haunting thing for me right now about this movie is how Andrew becomes frustrated after "gaining his freedom" (or was it right before, no I think it is right afterward). He goes on a road trip with his android backback that looks very similar to the kinda unique backpack that I currently keep my incredible, mini PC computer gear in. The label on my bag says (TARGUS), which to me is a reference to Superman III.

So, Andrew goes all around the nation and possibly world (I believe San Francisco is home for him, he built a house for himself right on the beach). He could not find any robot like him. They are all very mechanical, without style, and many in a very broken condition. One of the working ones was simply laying down white lines on a baseball field.

He gets back to San Francisco and finds Rupert Burns who has a hobby of fixing up androids like Andrew. And he has a wonderful female robot just like him named Galatia. She is lovely and likes to sing and dance. Andrew quickly finds out that she has her "personality chip" turned on and then he bacame disgusted/annoyed with her. (Andrew thinks he is unique and all he really wants is to be human)

Rupert is fascinated with Andrew of course and they go on to give him many enhancements and upgrades. So much so over the years, that they essentially make him as human as a robot can bee, shedding his metal exterior and inserting a circulatory system that will degrade him making him effectively mortal. He winds up becoming partners with Little Miss' grandaughter Portia. Portia, during their courting, advises him to "do the wrong thing". So that inserted a litte more humor into the story until it becomes a more normal, late 20^th century reality of an old age death of a lovely couple playing chess and watching the months fly by.

I happen to love the ending. At this point, I don't know what is a better death. Going out in a crazy death of kind of a sex/mosh pit or simply withering away like how Patty died in my arms.

Which brings up the difference between cat and dog stereotypes. (I'm kinda going crazy on the animals right now, but you know, I'm not so into cleaning up after them, or really feeding them, it's hard enough to feed myself right now!)

Q: Would you rather have a cat or a dog build you a basic house?

Q: Would you rather have a cat or a dog build you a skyscraper or bridge?

I tend to side that cats have some intellectual/engineering edge over dogs even though those wolf dogs most certainly would win a battle with almost any cat. You know, dog training is much more common than cat training! Cat's are just like "I've got this engineering thing down, we're all good."

I've always put more importance on my Zen practice than my music practice. Of course sometimes it seems like all I do is practice music and will go on and on for 10+ hours, but you know, I have a scense of freedom like a cat and do as I do. This movie is a little haunting now and my life is certainly intense and I'm loving every minute of it because it's what is here. The idea of beginner's mind. Taking a breath and just not attaching any words to what I see and then do my best to be detacted and describe what I see without any of those preconcieved/old labels. Some people say you need to have a new song, but I tend to just do that technique with old songs to find some deeper meaning so I can perhaps get to my fantasy career of being like Alan Silvestri or Danny Elffman.

Sam Neil plays the father figure and Rupert is played by.. uh.. I actually am quite interested in him and look him up often.

I don't know how obvious it is, but I hang on to my transgenderism like Andrew is trying to become human. Just to make clear my conflict with others and the weird times we live in.

2025-02-25    11:40:43 AM

Oh, made a mistake. it's Reelo of course, not Kylo....

2025-02-25    11:03:44 AM

Book TV/Movie Report: The Stand

This is a/my/moth review of the made for TV, two part movie adaptation of The Stand staring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald. I became aware of this in the 2010's sometime and of course bought it on DVD because I watch stuff like this over and over as part of my "slice of history" education/store of material/ideas. It brings up my reading of it in high school for a book report for Mr. Ladd (my English teacher). I kinda took his class for granted back in high school as not much went on there besides doing book reports. I think I had him for 2 years. These writings are certainly heavily based on those experiences and it's interesting how we have "Ladd's Addition" in the neighborhood and so many other names around town of people I went to high school with. And other places I've worked at throughout the country....

This one is pure dystopian with the "flu buddy" thing that kills 99.9% of the population. The anarchist dream I suppose of wanding around our cities with all the food and things just sitting around.

Not sure I want to go into the details on this one. There is story here. Lots of story. And nice acting and all that wonderful stuff. I watch it fairly often and always look forward to seeing it again. I suppose the main line in the movie is from our old Fast Times at Ridgemont High teacher Mr. Hand: "Scurring around on your little roach errands. That's a wrap on the roach!" This actor who plays Randall Flag is a little freaky looking and it's not just the make-up! Kinda reminds me of my first job as a janitor in a rock quarry and my Edgar Winter type supervisor/parnter who looks like The Trainman in the second Matrix movie (it very well could be him). He's an interesting fellow and I saw him by the bus stop between my apartment on stilts and the church a few years ago. He pops up once in a while. Same kind of unique look, ya know?

Is there anything else about this movie? "The rats are his...." Gotta have a funky other-than-human life form to give it some character! It's really kind of weird to see other creatures in real life. For the first time in my life, I've been wondering lately whether some of them, like the hummingbird or elephant, are really just robots with a fancy shell. The humminbird seems exceptionally excited about something. Perhaps like me. I swear my cat Yoda ate one one day and became insane cat with skills. She hid under the bed for the first month and I had to pull her out to kinda socialize her. Then Sam came over and played his sax and well, her eyes picked up big time! I guess there is something about him. Rain kept on biting my hand while I was playing piano (was it the high pitches or my lines?). Perhaps it's all a microwave jedi mind trick? Gotta have something to do in this dystopian world! "It could be worse." - Kylo

2025-02-25    08:58:50 AM

Book Movie Report: Star Wars episodes I-III (prequels)

I've been standing up for JarJar Binks and the idea that these prequels, and Star Wars in general, is not racist. Really, I don't even have much of a definition for racism. It seems like just some kind of hate trigger mechanism the word and even concept. But there certainly are biological differences in our species that were likely due to lack of transportation in the past which certainly brings up the concept of evolution. As far as one species or cultural subdivision of our humanity goes with regard to superiority, who Knows? I think we all have race strengths and weaknesses and we work together in some way.

JarJar is certainly provides the comedy of the bunch. I like the he is kind of a loner or outcast (Jedi Outcast is by far my favorite 3d video game).

We've got the greedy trade federation people kinda getting associated with Chinese people I suppose. I kinda like their thing. I think first three movies of Star Wars put the Jedi in some kind of too glorified position, so I kind of see this, especially as time goes by, to see the Jedi as on level with all the other character stereotypes in the prequels. They can kind of be narrow minded meThinks. Of course I associate with them though with my Zen guru technical skills. What can you do?

I'm a total geek of course and love the new droids and the Peeps like replication of them. There is something about stacks of almost anything identical all lined up. And about the only behind the scenes footage from the prequels I remember/latch onto is the George Lucas Steven Speilberg interaction on the new droids.

The opening scene with Obi-Wan and Quigon is amazing of course. On a nice metal ship, all clean in their robes with perfect green and blue slashing down droids. The shiney protocal droid bringing them drinks. The trade federation fellows with "Now there are two of them! This is getting out of hand!" Hehe. The gunkan army "Wesaw ready to do our part." "Sand gets everywhere. Space is cold." I tend to not watch Episode II much, but there is something about it with the cloners and the bug ending.

Essentially the only "TV" I watched from 2000-2006 was Episodes I and II on my Pentium 800mHz computer in between work sessions in 2005 and 2006. I've got a scar on my left wrist from one of my "underappreciation" life events. I had cut my wrist with a hand saw on the back deck. It was insane with the church next door and all kinds of whacky intellectual events that were no doubt forced on me for some reason by my musical family. I was on the back deck which was up on stilts. Choosing what to cut! Total insanity. The left thumb? The bottom or top of the wrist? I was so careful in my selection! The idea of a prostetic hand trombone player. Some fancy electronic left hand? I chose the top of the left wrist and put a good gash there and learned some medical stuff from it. I learned that Episode III: Revenge of the Sith came out two weeks later. I didn't know anything of it, but right before the event, I had some late night talk show on my computer somehow. Like Jay Leno.

In any CASE and TARS! I was excited to get my hands on Episode III and was not disappointed. These movies can be high action and then there are the quiet parts too. The mediation of it of course is my main draw to it as is the used universe concept (it's not too realistic though, it's hard to make a cooking oil grease spot on your shirt look good). Gernal Grievous of course is amazing and I have a fantasy of, in late retirement, forming some porcelain parts to fuse with metal and make a huge thing like him in the front yard. Similar to some mushroom tree stumps in the old neighborhood. Likely will never happen due to just overall complexity of materials, but fun to think about!

And of course Darth Sidious is a huge draw for me. He's amazing in these movies and reminds me of one of my partners who did not have teeth. Actually, two of my 60+ year old partners without teeth! It's just totally amazing like that and perhaps I'll end up the same way: without teeth looking like Darth Sidious!

That's about it for these. There are a lot of moments I like in them, but really just like a few scenes in Episode III now. Once in a while a revist to Episode II. I wore Episode I out completely. Used to love it. Hey, I was 6 years old when Star Wars came out!

2025-02-22    05:21:30 AM

Book Movie Report: Easy Rider

This one is a little scary for me to write about.

I tend to get character's names wrong and focus on actors/actresses. We have Jack Nicholson, Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper on this. It's a late 60's kinda drug movie. The subtitle that I saw a couple years ago was "We went searching for America and couldn't find it anywhere." I won't get into all the gritty details I guess. These are the majors scenes and all of them have Peter and Dennis on chopper motorcycles between cities going across like I-40 from West to East.

1. The drug deal in Baja that sets it all up.

2. The dug deal handoff to the European English/Russians at an airport in LA or someplace. The Russian guard guy or you know, partner, is fun. The English guy is kinda fun too.

3. The fix the flat on the motorcycle scene with the kinda old geezer white guy and his mexican Catholic wife and many children at the dinner table on the covered porch on the ranch in a kind mellow and not exactly barren land. "Do you mind if I fix my flat? No, I don't mind. Turn that thing off, you're making my horse skittish." The work scene with the flat in the barn and the guy and his other guy doing the same with a horse shoe thing. Then the dinner. The guy says a prayer, they have a little conversation. Peter says "It's not everyone who can live off the land. You should be proud." The the guy saying "My wife is Catholic you know. Honey, would you get us some more coffee?" And then the major moment of the movie for me. This actess is AMAZING! The gently look on her face as she happily nods, licks her finger and heads to the kitchen. Really, just watching her is what the whole movie is about for me. It's totally not about following orders, religion or anything. I think about it a lot and I'm understanding my feelings on it is that well, they have likely been together a while and she likes her little scene there and they are kinda beyond words. It really doesn't take all that long in a good relationship to get to that point.

4. The commune scene. The thing that is striking about this to me now is the entrance. They had picked up the hitchhiker (perhaps he is the guy who I went surfbiking with?). They get to their kinda adobe like buildings. They have a bowl of water at the entrance. The guy washes his face in it and all, and then Peter declines. Not sure if there is any more to read into it. If I were doing that, it would be a judgement call in the moment "Is it worth it?" Peter just seems to have some good sensibilities about him overall, but you know, we all make some mistakes. The other community weirdness there is kinda well, it is a little entertaining. It's kinda high drama and you wonder how they survive and Dennis voices his concerns.

5. The Texas/Southern city scene. They latch onto a parade and get arrested. Kinda like how Nate and I did it at Mardi Gras on our bicylces one year. Dennis: "Weirdo hicks." I think with both scenes, well, we have cities and we have farms. And drug deals. Let's move on....

6. The brothel in New Orleans and the acid trip. It's kinda like an acid trip and kinda not. They can go that way, but that one was kinda over the top emotional instead of the colorful communion with the white dragon.

7. The ending where they meet the typical end of people on two wheels. There is this thing about politics being a full contact sport and "you lose" or whatever. Full conttact for a two wheeler is not a typical game with a human opponent. It's just you and the ground. So when I sing the WALL-E song now, that's what I think. Inevitable, but you know, life is about avoiding that AND the journey. And of course that goes back to the farm, the flat and all of that.

Trying to figure out if I have anything more to say about it. It's a big deal to me for some reason. I deteled a sentance about farming. And now I'm bringing up hair. The idea came up that we use it for roofing felt. In space, it's likely easy to capture a long hair than a short hair. Short hairs are likely dangerous. Modern shaving cream does a good job at capturing it and keeping it on the razor. Hair is some kind of vitality too. Perhaps my minor roof leaking wasnt' a big deal. It likely wouldn't have been a major problem for the rest of my life. It all does get complicated though. A simple idea. Disaster planning. Would a spacecraft be attracted to the biggest object in the sky? New idea last night. I'm leaning towards NO as my answer, but it is a thing too.

2025-02-17    16:29:35 PM

Book Movie Report: The Jerk

This movie is totally haunting for me right now. It's beautiful on so many levels and has intense intellectualism about it. The only other Steve Martin movie that I do is Parenthood.

Ending and begining with the black family on the run down porch, the movie blends through many different scenes with obvious AA influences. Most notible are the gas station events. The guys in the car and Steve asking them what kind of cigarette they have: "Joint. They don't make them too good!" Of course that scene is totally silly and comes to mind quicker than any Cheech and Chong scene I know (I do know 3 or 4). Of course there are the love parts of the story with the coronet and the big point of the movie is rags to riches to rags, similar to Harmony Road which is essentially the story of everyone's life. No matter how rich you are born or die, it's still nothing on both ends.

But it's the ending. "It's the stuff." (you can't take it with you) OK, OK, this movie is a comedy and I'm not so comedic at the moment because, wow, this movie is intense for me right now. (I'm in political mode obviously) The idea here is that there is a difference between GEAR and STUFF. And also, perhaps even more importantly, a difference between work gear and barter gear (not sure about spelling, you know, intent). And perhaps this pulls into a gender thing. I can sell my services, or offer them, or bid them. I can sell my products and advertise or push them. Or, as I am experimenting with now, I have my services and my products, but my services are not for sale anymore. I need something more real in trade for my services. And of course I won't sell my products. Or rather, can't. It's not simply that I'm not good at it. It may be a gender thing.

I'll try to pull this back into comedy :-)

After leaving the mansion alone, steve is carrying all he can hold onto and dropping it along the way. And he ends up with a bottle in the classic tattered clothing with the camera coming up to him "What? You want to know my story?" This reminds me of the parodie that someone did of my 4 hour website eductional video in 2014 when I started my testing the waters for a presidential run (obviously not ready in 2014 but was ready in 2024).

....and now, with the Losing It Part 2 going on with me limping to the bedroom from another da agony of da feet episode (notice the date), I'm in the position with my comedy book and gear. Wild almost-homeless-again Zen guru, totally helpless, human stray cat + moth, plotting little scenes around town with expensive and life saving gear. My fear is that it is either that or end up like Steve! The whole "you can run but you cannot hide" cums up. But to keep it down, you need this black coffee sludge (acid reflux reminder, thanks Tom!). They have been saying for years to preserve water. When I cook my curries and rice, all the water is locked in except for the little bit of escaping steam (it does need some motion). It's the cleaning with water that is the problem and I'm dealing with electric vs gas vs which kind of pots to use. I'm obviously incompatible on the electric and it's a problem connected to my health/life. Yes, Steve needed that bottle. I need some things too and my way is fairly exotic. What can I do? I'm a friggin' Zen guru connected heavily to a Korean who I have help put braces on his legs several times. I bet he needs some gear too! (it doesn't work well (legs), it's always a showy thing). Which brings up the sleeping white dragon (just in case reboot) and a pleatora of other objects so dear to my heart, career, and most importantly, my INSANTIY LOOP without which I would be off the rails and in the ditch on my way to you know where....

2025-02-13    01:33:49 AM

Book Movie Report: The In-Laws

My family was odd. (this banana boat theme just keeps on coming up)

TV was big in the 1970's and 1980's. My parents went to work and I walked to grade school, came home and got the key under the mat, went to the kitchen and made two trays of saltine crackers with peanut butter and jelly and watched things like The Flintstones, Little House on the Prairy, The Brady Bunch and Far Out Space Nuts! After, and during, dinner the family watched M*A*S*H, Jeopardy and Wheel of For-tune. My dad was a fan of Peter Faulk and the only two movies I know that my dad liked was Going in Style and The In-Laws. The In-Laws stars Peter Faulk and Alan Arkan (the protagonist's side kick kinda antagonist character).

It's a movie about ridiculousness as all Peter Faulk works are. Peter works for the CIA supposedly and Alan works as a dentist and their children are getting married. It starts with an armored car heist of money engraving plates which get stashed in Alan's basement in the HVAC ductwork. The plane trips to Central America enter with loopy car chases with banana trucks spilling all over the road and eventually, off the freeway, they somehow are kinda outside, on top of the moving car with the shoddy booths of bananas being crashed into. They get to a nice hotel room, but certainly the corrupt local government is on to them. And it ends with a normal<>ish resolution of them showering money down from a helicopter back at the wedding.

Peter Faulk is hilarious of course. It's so much to be expected that he is a tiny bit of a let down (I hope I'm kinda this way too, cause I know there can be a lot of hype/expectations). But it really is about Alan Arkan on some level. Dad made such an impression on me with this movie, that I certainly know his name and look out for him in the media and my research. He's quite good in this movie.

Book Movie Report: Going in Style

[[ This is what people call me "weak" for. ]] This movie is lame on so many levels, but I absolutely love it! This is the 1970's movie of course. About the time Star Wars came out which I saw in the HUGE Westgate theater 3 times that year and over and over throughout the 1980's as they would not stop playing it. Predator and Robocop were also excellent movies to see there. Every summer I end up making popcorn and plugging Predator in on the hottest day of the year to relive that experience here in the PNW with our Douglas Fir tree forests that are similar to the forest scenes in that and Return of the Jedi. My love of mountain biking is certainly based on trees and that movie.

So....

I'll make this brief. Not that you will really want to watch this movie, but if you do, you may know something about me. The scene with the three old guys collecting social security in their kitchen with the old style laminent table and their simple coffee and the spoon. "A little more water. Thanks." And the gentle spooning of the coffee with, well, did he even put the canned milk in it? The fellows go back to the 50's or earlier and have a connection with The Flintstones.

A few scenes later, they are back at the table sorting bullets for their revolvers to rob a bank (the connection to The In-Laws).

The backstory to the movie appears to be Lee Strasburg and his "method acting" school. Many actors/actresses seem to claim to be method schooled including Teri Garr. Lee is a total geek in this movie and I've never seen him do any other acting, so well, it's interesting "proof" of something. There is the scene with him and the hot dog. "Onions? No, better not. Come on, live it up! OK! Onions." It's almost the next scene (I'm cracking up), he dies on the park bench of a heart attack. I of course have been eating onions, like 2-3/day for decades and swear by them. But.... Something has chenged in me, in the middle of my body (mathematically), and well, onions are now producing some undesirable effect, so onions, and potatoes, are now out (better eat your root food).

Top theories are there are a few ways (methods):

1. Beer (yuck!)
2. Smoking stuff (well, it's nice once in a while, but I'm not a druggie!) I work. (sometimes for a living even)
3. Wine (well, if I have to....)
4. Soda pop (They likely have some stashes of this around. Then again, no one tells me anything!)

Back to the lovely "old timers" movie....

Lee also has the tender moment in the middle of the night about messing up his relationship with his son (his main life regret). He was talking with Art Carney and Art is an interesting actor as well. He made a movie called Harry and Tonto which essentially has him traveling across the country on a bus with a cat. At the end of the movie, his cat dies and there is that sadness and then they sneak in a short last scene of him in a room with a whole bunch of cats which brings up the end of the Straight No Chaser movie which is also a favorite of mine.

And then the final scene: "Inside or out, I'm a prisoner either way." Yep, no real escape from the capture of our bodies. Nothing more random than our birth. Nothing more concrete than the passage of time stacking up in the piles of art work and business forms.

2025-02-13    00:41:50 AM

Book Movie Report: WALL-E

This is one of 3 or 4 movies I've seen in the theater in the last 35 years. I saw it with my second wife and was fairly disappointed/not impressed with it.

But I certainly had a different opinion when I bought a DVD of it. It starts of with the cute yellow box shaped WALL-E on an abandoned dystopian Earth. He compacts (within "his" body) trash cubes and then stacks them into, well, just stacks as tall as buildings. Along the way, there is the AMAZING commentary about things. The Zippo lighter. The paddle with the string and ball attached to it. And the scene with the plastic spork where there was the non-binary decision point between the fork and the spoon.

The spunky "new" robot Eva ("she" but kinda in a cooler non-binary than WALL-E), arrives and immediately becomes WALL-E's love interest. So this is a love story as much as a Zen trash sorting story (reminds me of coding Barge Waste Recycling in 2008, around the time I saw this movie (just made that connection now!)).

The romance in it is quite sappy and I am a romantic musician and the scene out in space is amazing. The drama on the space shit is messed up, but you know Holly Would! Then the movie ends....

....and I continue to put it in to watch the credits and sing that song almost every day because the melody is extremely catchy and I practice hard to forget about the content of the lyrics even though there is some content to that as well. This movie is a movie that keeps on giving like that. I really just skip right to the credits now because they are that good.

2025-02-01    23:56:17 PM

Book Tell-Vision Report: Star Trek The Next Generation: Cause and Effect

Although I was aware that my main high school girlfriend was a huge fan of this series when it first came on tell=vision, I didn't start watching it until 2015.

I've watched the whole series several times now, and this is one of two episodes (both in Season 5) that I keep coming back to. They are in the ship and are caught in a, what do they call it? A temporal loop? It starts with them hitting another ship and getting destroyed (that one does have Kelsey Grammer as the captain). Then it goes immediately to 4 of the main cast playing a game of cards. Or is it 5 of them? This reminds me of how my girlfriend and I used to play double deck pinnocle with my folks. I don't want to ruin this episode for you, but I can't really write a review and not talk about the thing about it. Essentially, the number 3 keeps coming up and the ending is a real cliff hanger!

Kinda like how the number 4 keeps on coming up in my life. Sure, there are only 10 base, base 10 numbers. And only 26 letters. 36 combined. The whole thing with "number one" playing trombone and Picard playing the pennywhistle. Waking up at 4am for 40 years. Winding up on the streets on 7-4-2003 and getting off the streets on 7-4-2004 (hey, I was working on making a video pinball machine, I mean, slinky!). You know "we couldn't have planned this better."

This last year though, it seems like when I say some absolute like "I've been getting up at 4am for 40 years", it's like people are out to prove me incorrect and grab some videos of me to prove it! I guess people are getting tired of playing Space Invaders! Like it negates 40 years of routine/history.

2025-02-01    07:37:36 AM

Book Movie Report: OH God! Book II

This movie, from the 1980's again, has been the main movie on my mind lately. The main character is Tracie, a 10 year old girl. She is an only child and goes out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant with her parents. At dinner, her parents are arguing. I think they are even divorced, which was a typical theme in the movies back then. So Tracie escuses herself and goes to the lobby by the restrooms, it's actually a bedroom sized coat room. She has a conversation with God there while she was alone, but she could not see him (seeing is believing, not hearing!). It's the same deal as in the previous movie. In this one, she and her friend, is his name Kato? I remember him playing basketball in his driveway with Tracie talking with him. They end up doing advertising all over town with the main slogan being "Think God". Her dad is in the advertising business I believe.

It gets all crazy of course. More and more stressful and having run for federal political office for a decade, I can relate to all of this, on all angles. At the end of the movie, her parents are "concerned" about her mental health as are her teachers who are even more concerned and getting the authorities involved. It winds up in a trial in a kind of large board room that could have her locked away for good. God makes an in person (seeing is believing) appearance, or was he invisible the whole time this time?

The actress who plays Tracie did an excellent job. I mean really, WOW! I'm very moved by the whole thing more than 40 years later. I wonder what kind of effect doing that movie had on her life? I looked her up for the first time the other day and it looks like we are almost exactly the same age.

[ I swear that I heard just now, or was it just imagination, "you lose". It's been common lately. With my religion/spirituality, losing and winning is simply a trajectory. ]

2025-01-29    10:29:37 AM

Book Movie Report: Pulp Fiction

Well, what can I say? There is this moment in this movie Where Bruce Butch was talking with his lady and she mentions that she would "like a little pot". Then she goes on to describe perfect/normal legs, arms but with a little pot "belly". That is essentially where my perfectly crafted pot belly came from. And of course there is Christopher Walken from Flatliners.

2025-01-29    09:40:29 AM

Book Tell vision Report: The Enemy Within

Listening to the Rush song The Enemy Within this morning and this brings up the Star Trek episode The Enemy Within.

This one starts on the surface of a cold planet where they encounter a yellow powder and get it all over their lovely blue uniforms (that actor reminds me of Kevin from Degenerate Art Ensemble). When beaming up, there is some transporter malfunction. Scotty does some tests and then beams up Kirk. All goes well, but Kirk is a little stunned and mentions the transporter malfunction. The leave the room and then "evil" kirk beams aboard.

So then all the action drama starts. The big point of this lovely story is about the unicorn dog. The evil one is just so cute with its yapping. Mellow one is kind of a fluffy blob. Of course they keep the "evil" one in a cage and "evil" Kirk winds up in cell too. What can you do? Some beings are just beasts!

The duplicating coffee on the surface is worth a mention too. Is it just green "extra virgin" rice/wheat grains now? I keep a bottle of the stuff on the top shelf and will put in on pasta once a year. It had been about a decade, so it was a good treat, but this whole bottle just sits in the back while I put the oil on thick wiht the Spectrum stuff.

2025-01-07    13:01:18 PM

Book Movie Report: Mr. Mom

This film from the 1980's staring Michael Keaton, Teri Garr and Richard Mull (I think I'm getting his name correct), and others who I have yet to research but likely will, is about a traditional family of 4 (two boys) who's father, who worked as an auto design engineer in Detroit or somewhere near there, got laid off along with others in his department. Soon, after unemployment sets in and the family is concerned about money and next steps, Teri (the female/wife/mother) "puts out the word too", to utilize her degree in advertising to become the family's only/main source of income. This puts Michael (the male/husband/father) in the position of running the household.

Perhaps I'm shallow, or whatever people want to say about me, but I like movies for the objects/situations more than the social dynamics/commentary. I pick up on the absurdness of grocery shopping. The whole thing with a long list of deli cheese to choose from a lady behind the counter who is getting a little frustrated. I'm sure it is frustrating on both ends! How did we get born into this insane alien world?

The school drop off point, in a car of course ( car, I assume, is short for carriage ). The somewhat dated rolling up of a car window (My first car didn't have a power window. I was gifted a car in 2002 with my first power window. I haven't had a roll up window car since.), fits well with the story of the laid-off auto engineer.

The middle of the movie (act 2) has the father experiencing a heavy conflict with his new way of life resulting in a depression. There is the scene with the "wobby" which was the youngest child's blanket which was getting a little ragged and the getting-more-depressed engineer's solution was to staple it quickly while trying to get back to watching the "soap opera" (does this have anything to do with Asyncronous Javascript and Extendable Mark-up Language?) on TV. Following closely is the ironing of a cold grilled cheese sandwich on white bread and the expression on the child's face!

Of course there are classic scenes that people of the 1800's may not have even considered with the vacuum cleaner known as "JAWS". And the washing machine inproper use.

The wifee was living it up in smokey board room meetings discussing tuna marketing strategy where her ideas were acted upon and escalated into corporate mayhem and business hotel trips concluding with the "big boss" considering the absurdity of it all and then breaking down in laughter accepting the only reasonable choice, SOMETHING ABSURD!

I had spent most of 2020 and 2021 spending time on the internet researching and thinking about "absurdism" and other related philosophies because my work situation had become completely absurd. It had gotten to the point in 2021 (at 50 years old), that I could no longer ignore how absurd it all is and apparently I am not the only one in the world, this mechnized post Charlie Chaplin society, who feels this way. Similar to the final scenes in this movie with the escalating energy of absurdness coming to a conclusion, or at least the ending so people can deposit their remaining popcorn and large soda-pop with tight fitting lid that helps to contain the remaining beverage on its way from the theater trash receptical in the heft "black" trash bag on it's way to the dumpster and other destinations, I had found joy in persisting through the madness to a new, and higher paying job, with more satisfaction. What I found though is that the feeling is fleeting the older you get (most likely an age thing) because there is a level of absurdity to everything in this society. Or perhaps I was just studying to be a comic like the professionals that spent time composing and recording this work of art?