Last March, we adopted a dog from the local shelter. If you follow any of my social media, you have seen him, quite often probably. He had come in as a stray and the pound was calling him Milo, a … Continue reading Does your dog have an action figure? Because mine does.
After watching a biography on the father of strongman showmanship last week in Louis Cyr, I had a more modern meat mastodon in Paul Anderson up next. Powerlifting USA put this documentary on the Georgia native. It was most definitely low-budget and about as 90s as you can get, but some of the footage they have of Anderson was just amazing. While Cyr’s story was all that, stories, Anderson came along in the sweet spot of still being old school in nature but during an era with film, rising to fame in the 1950s. Anderson was an Olympic Gold medalist, … Continue reading The Strongest Man in Recorded History: A Documentary on the Life of Paul Anderson
I often say “If I don’t know a guy, I know a guy who knows a guy.” Well, when it comes to gothic rural noir and most things disparate and desperate, my guy is Jeff Reno. Reno use to send me books to read, knowing my own deranged taste waded in similar waters to him. So, when he mentioned The Devil All The Time recently, I was surprised it was not already in a stack on my shelf. With a Netflix film set to come out in a few weeks, I decided it was time to crank through this one, … Continue reading Book Nook: The Devil All The Time
I’m a card-carrying Sports Writer (TM), even if just on a part-time basis these days. Somethings you just are. As a Sports Writer (TM), I’m of course required by law to worship two people outside of the Sports Writer world: Bruce Springsteen and the modern-day version, Jason Isbell. Some people consider the pledged devotion part of the membership dues, but, neigh, I consider it one of the membership perks. We may all get in Twitter battles discussing Nebraska vs. Darkness vs. Born, etc., but at the end of the day, we all go home acknowledging our music God. One thing … Continue reading Let’s Get Reel: Blinded By The Light
I keep a Watch List in my to-do app. I can’t remember how Rocketeer wound up in it, but it rolled around to the top of the list today. So, I fired up Disney+ and watched this 1991 “superhero” film for the first time. I had somehow missed this when it came out. I was 12 at the time. Forgive me. I had entered my anti-Disney phase by then. See kids, in 1991, we did not have a plethora of superhero movies. This was long before Marvel figured anything, and just a couple years after the first decent Batman movie. … Continue reading Let’s Get Reel: Rocketeer
My wife is 10 years younger than me. As we get older, that difference seems less and less like a thing. It probably helps that she is still way more mature than I am. I know this. She knows this. … Continue reading A Continuing Education Series…of sorts
Star Wars Episode IV came out the year before I was born. That awful, infamous holiday special was released four days after I was born. Return of the Jedi was one of the first movies I was old enough to see in a theater. I still remember the day I discovered my mom sold my still-in-the-shrink wrap Millenium Falcon at a rummage sale. STILLINTHESHRINKWRAPMOM! All of this is to say, I’ve never lived in a non Star Wars world. So…the Saga came to an end this weekend, with the release of Episode IX. And yeah, I went opening night for … Continue reading Let’s Get Reel: The Rise Of Skywalker, and the End of a Saga.
I have a Thanksgiving tradition. Every year, I rewatch The Last Waltz, Martin Scorsese’s look at the final concert of The Band, Thanksgiving 1978. It is my favorite concert of all time. Well, I broke tradition this year, partly out of necessity and partly out of “oh look, something new and shiny”. I digitized my DVD collection a couple years ago, and don’t even have a DVD connected in my house any more. And my Macbook is still down, so I don’t have access to my movie library, because it is on a Mac-formatted external drive. Luckily, Scorcese has something … Continue reading Let’s Get Reel: The Irishman
For several years, I had what could be considered an unhealthy obsession with the movie The Crow, released in 1994, my sophomore year of high school. I was 15. It is the greatest love story ever told. Fight me on … Continue reading A Chance Find Re-Ignites An Old Fandom
The Joker character works extremely well as a comic book character. He works pretty well as a side piece to a larger story as the villain, but because he was such a bizarre character, it worked best in doses, without examination of the back story. Well, Joker, out now in theaters, is that intense, dark look at the back story. Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, the man behind the drawn-on smile. Fleck is a mentally ill man lost in a broken system who routinely gets kicked when he is down, literally on occasion, figuratively always. Going in, I expected there … Continue reading Joker Is No Joke: A Disturbing Look At Mental Illness
