RIP Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton has had serious health problems recently, so the news is not totally surprising. We just don't like to hear it. She was eighty years old.  

My mom listened to a country music radio station while we grew up. So I had exposure to country music while growing up in New York City. I like various country music singers. 

I like Dolly Parton. Erik Loomis provides a largely positive obituary here, including honoring her talent and business savvy. He references a 1960s song about a pregnant woman committing suicide after being abandoned. 

She was a feminist. One thing he notes is that she did not speak out against her state's anti-trans legislation.

Parton is regularly cited as an LGBTQ ally. She was careful not to bluntly oppose certain laws. But people knew where she stood. In the 1980s, she said this:

“I got a huge gay following and some really macho-looking women,” Parton told Andy Warhol in a conversation for a 1984 Interview cover story. “To me, people are people. … Many of my friends are gay, male and female. I don’t judge people. I don’t care what people do in their bedrooms and people shouldn’t care what I do in mine.”

The anti-LGBTQ movement is based on hate, lack of empathy, and scare tactics. People, however, overall found same sex marriage not a big deal. Parton was accepting, loving, and knew it was not a big scary thing. 

When asked, early on, she made jokes about gays now having the same problems as straights. [I heard a form of this on today's Gay USA episode.] 

Of course, she didn't really think marriage was bad. She was married for almost sixty years. 

[ETA: A Wikipedia page is available.]

Dolly was pro-labor, including all those people required to produce her music. Not just for one film.

She was loving, funny, and honored by people she worked with. As the actress Daryl Hannah noted on Bluesky:

I could tell you stories & you would love ‘em, but they wouldn’t make you love her more than you already do. We will always love her.

Her reading charity is well-cited. Her family recommended people donate to it instead of flowers. 

She also was pro-vaccine:

When the COVID-19 pandemic upended lives around the world, country music legend Dolly Parton found her own way to lead in a crisis.

Her $1 million donation to Vanderbilt University Medical Center to help expedite development of the Moderna vaccine gained international recognition. A Guardian correspondent even suggested naming the shot, "The Dolly."

Parton didn't stop there. Photographers captured her on March 2, 2021, donning a face mask and getting the vaccine in a public show of trust. During a scary and confusing crisis, she was a voice of calm, singing improvised lyrics of "Vaccine" to the tune of her megahit "Jolene."

Trump offerred her a Medal of Freedom. She begged off, concerned about traveling during COVID and other reasons. Later, Dolly was wary about Biden giving her one. It might be seen as "political" if she accepted. She had red and blue fans. 

He announced flags will be flown at half-mast in her honor. 

The actor Tim Curry also died. Many honor his many roles, especially his gender bending role in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He was gloriously "weird." 

Dolly Parton was pretty outrageous too. Let us allow their spirit to live on, even as we wish "another 80-year-old died." Anyway, I don't think Dolly would have liked people saying that. 

Super Bowl: Midway

The Pats got here with a 10-7 game. It's 9-0 (Seattle) at halftime. Hopefully, Seattle will do one of their patented second-half scoring streaks. The Bad Bunny halftime looked good. It was largely in Spanish (Lady Gaga sang in English). Why not use subtitles? 

ETA: To emphasize the ethnic feel. They scored a bunch in the 4Q.

WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour

 

This is a kid's episode of a folk music program that airs on an arts channel. Those educational channels have some good stuff. 

Film and A Couple Books

I watched various movies from works of Nick Hornby, including his adaptation of another work (Wild).  I saw Juliet, Naked a few years ago and enjoyed it again a second time.  

Even if the Roger Ebert website only gave it two stars.  Rose Byrne is charming, and Ethan Hawke is good as a long-ago rocker who her boyfriend is obsessed with and (sure) she in fact winds up hooking up with.  I can see how it can be labeled "rambling," but it works for me.  That's the sign of a good three-star movie, I guess. 

==

I saw the book The Cabinet about the creation of the in the past, but just wound up reading it.  The book is somewhat comparable -- it's an easy read. The author provides an extended prelude, arguing Washington prepared for it by his wartime service.  

The book then is basically early U.S. history stuff that is familiar such as the Whiskey Rebellion. But, it provides some good stuff on the various principles he followed and so on.  

And, as usual in such familiar books, there are a few more tidbits, like a bit on the second Attorney General and details on how Edmund Randolph had a fall from grace.  

==

I also found a book on the free rack at the library based on a podcast about serial killers.  This is like the second book on such a subject, the other based on a podcast of two British women.  This one is apparently a bit light, since mixed in are jokes.  

The book: The Last Book On The Left: Stories of Murder and Mayhem from History's Most Notorious Serial Killers.  I actually read it while waiting to be called for jury duty, which is fitting, perhaps.  The book seems to be a takeoff of a movie title that wasn't really about serial killers.  

Fairly interesting; one chapter was about a Soviet murderer that was the basis for an HBO movie (that apparently changes things around a bit since the book doesn't highlight a single detective as in the film).  I finished it and was picked for a case the next day.

Some Quickie Reviews

I saw a nice picture of the singer Orianthi [Orianthi Penny Panagaris] on Twitter.  She tweets from time to time.  I checked out a couple CDs and it turns out that I heard her already.  She sounds like she was on the soundtrack of some film or television program.  I like her voice.

I saw the film The Children's Hour (Audrey Hepburn, Shirley MacLaine, James Garner) based on a play.  It is about the power of a lie (a hint of lesbianism).  The acting is good though the film starts to go in a somewhat melodramatic direction.  

The 1930s version sometimes gets better reviews and one of the stars plays the selfish aunt here.  I checked out These Three, and it was well-acted, especially by the two friends (lesbianism is not covered here) with the guy a bit more frivolous.  It amuses me that the girl telling the lie later played Nancy Drew.  I shut it off before it got to the depressing stuff.  

Bonita Granville (Nancy Drew in a few films) also starred in Hitler's Children, which the library had. First, I also got out Grand Hotel, but it started off dull, so I didn't try watching two hours of it.  I have less patience these days. I have watched a few 1930s films. I recall liking Dinner at Eight years ago.  

The Hitler film was in 1943 and started with a striking bit of true believers.  I lost interest, perhaps given the boring nice guy American professor has the role of the innocent abroad.  Granville plays a German-born American citizen caught up in Nazism.  She is taken away and we are stuck with boring guy realizing 1938/9 German is that bad.  If I stayed with it, it would shift to the Germans.  It does not end well for our heroine.    

I also came upon The Princess of Montpensier, a modern-day French film starring Mélanie Thierry.  I actually found it enjoyable but after about an hour and a half, the story was boring me.  There was a basic simplicity of the plot that didn't warrant so much time though it was all put together and acted rather well. I checked online to see what happened.  A lot of depressing stuff.  

[The film is French so it does have some sex, including a portrayal of her wedding night that -- if slightly away from the action -- a rather crowded cast involved.  Things are not that explicit in the scenes I saw though we see the actress' impressive breasts more than once.]

I will check out the actress in two more films.  I also saw the fifth episode of The Way Home.  It was pretty good -- the mom did not tell her daughter yet that she also went back in time. And, though hinted at, the attempt to try to save the young boy (her sister) that was lost was not covered yet.  One more possible time-related matter also was avoided. 

===

Anyway, while checking out the books of Elaine Pagels (who I saw give a lecture years ago and wrote notes about), I saw that she wrote an introduction to Secrets of Mary Magdalene.  The editors are not historians or anything. And, there are some mumbo jumbo b.s. mixed in.  But, there is a lot of stuff from reliable scholars (including Pagels).

Pagels introduction is a few pages and for some reason basically skips the John scene.  Not sure why.  A few reference the Gnostic Gospels while somewhat skimming over how LATE they are.  

One entry makes up for it by overdoing it -- the Gospel of Mary being written "over two hundred years after her death" is dating it rather late (and her death a tad early).  And, one person for some reason writes with an assurance that Jesus for years -- again curiously dating it early [around 26] -- lived in Capernaum.  

The book is over three hundred pages and I still do not get a full sense of her all the same.  One thing that is not really covered is Mary as a woman of her era and region.  We have some colored pictures of art that portray her over the years. There is but one regional representation that (if in a somewhat primitive form) shows her something like she would have looked. The art is as expected modeled after European women.

I realize that the little we know of Mary leads to a lot of reactions to an understanding of her that puts on her stuff not her own.  But, such happens regularly in the Bible.  The Book of Daniel speaks of events written hundreds of years before it was likely written.  The "books of Moses" portrays events of a different age in ways that mix in anachronisms that only experts are likely to pick up. But, they are surely there.  

The theology of John (written sixty or so years after Jesus died at the very least) is in various ways as loyal to his actual teachings as gnostic material.  Which expressed some stuff that we can get a taste of already in the New Testament.  There is talk of "powers" and such in there.  And, the Gospel of Thomas might have been finished sometime in the second century but has material probably earlier.  And, anyway, it isn't the only NT book that was completed in the second century.  

So, it is not really too different in some ways that gnostic materials and even later Mary material change "actual history."  Still, a book of this sort should have a bit more on the actual Mary.  If we are going to be upset that the desire for a complete story (plus usual "sex sells" etc.) resulted in a composite Mary that made her into a former prostitute [and even the person she is combined with is deemed a "sinner" -- we don't know if she is actually a whore], we should try to get a sense of the real Mary.

There is a way to do that in some sense.  An essay on how a somewhat successful (though what Luke meant by saying she and other women helped pay Jesus' way is far from clear) woman of that day lived would have been nice.  I was annoyed that Bart Ehrman's book that covers Peter, Paul, and Mary [Magdalene] did not go more into the exorcism, which is a real practice, with or without the presence of actual demons. 

Anyway, the book has enough material to make it not upsetting to me that I bought it for around $5 on eBay.  

RIP Loretta Lynn

Erik Loomis is a college professor, who specializes in labor and environmental history issues. He blogs at the blog I check regularly to read about the latest news and have a chance to give my .02. 

It also has weekly threads for NFL games and other things. Erik Loomis, for instance, has over a 1000 "grave entries" where he visits graves of historical characters as well as weekly music coverage. Music is one of his interests, making Loretta Lynn's death (she was over 90) of note for him.

My mom favored country music as I grew up, so a country music radio station was usually on. I enjoy country music as a whole too. Loretta Lynn is not of special interest to me personally. She's clearly a music pioneer, including among women country music singers. She also had some troubling right wing beliefs, including being a Trumpie. 

Since it's something he cares about, Loomis is suddenly "she's not just a right wing hack" about her. As noted in comments, he is not exactly consistent there, but he is not alone. We can honor her talent as well as flagging how she used her celebrity to promote bad ideas. And, it helps show that people are complex, and bad things are not just promoted pure.

Anyway, including with a song about the birth control pill, Loretta Lynn had quite a life.  I am listening to her music now.  Again, I like her, but she did not influence my cultural sense of things as much as some others. She was also one of those "oh, she is still alive? she is HOW old?" celebrity types.  Likewise, we can add "and Henry Kissinger is still alive" here.

I also checked out the movie version of her first autobiography, Coal Miner's Daughter.  The DVD has some interesting extras, including interviews the director had with Tommy Lee Jones (who plays her husband) and Loretta Lynn herself.  The DVD also has a commentary track with the director and Sissy Spacek (who Lynn herself chose to play her).  I only listened to around twenty or so minutes, but the commentary track seems pretty good.  The director is British and sounds rather posh.  

The movie has received a lot of praise. From what I can tell, it is well made and acted.  I was not overly excited about watching it, but that is not really a good sign.  I have noted that in recent years, movie watching is not really one of my things.  I do not have the patience to watch two hours of a classic biography of this nature or any such thing.  My recent watching of Brian's Song was more painless since it was only a little over an hour long.

Christmas In My Heart

Stephen Colbert recently took a shot at Hallmark Channel movies being very white. And, yeah, they tend to have white leads with some person of color tossed in as a colleague or friend. Maybe, the channel started to get the memo because they seem to be starting to include some more "color" in their movies. This includes multiple biracial romances.

This one has a familiar male lead (twelve Hallmark movies!). I agree with the person there that this has a different feel than usual and "impeccably written that the discussions about race flowed naturally" also is on point ("impeccably" is a bit strong, but it has a good script). Tossing in the Judaism is a bit much! The film takes time to tell the stories of each, the romance often not being the focus. But, that's fine. Don't let this one get lost in the bunch.

The other two linked are less race conscious, but both were pretty good too (like the sweet pecan one better, but yeah, on the "lazy" part.).

Odds and Ends

Book: Years back, I read the book and saw the film (at least one; I recall the leads of the film and a couple scenes of the story) version of Monsignor Quixote. A later work of Graham Greene, it is an amusing and somewhat bittersweet homage to the classical work. I enjoyed the re-reading (I recall the cover too; believe I once had the book).

Champ Biden: The older German Shephard of President Biden, obtained as a sort of victory when he became vice president, Champ Biden has died at thirteen. The President had a touching tweet about it, including a bit about who he will miss him. The leader of Taiwan and many other dog lovers gave their condolences.

Also: Alicia Witt has a good new music video. She has some good ones. When doing certain announcements, Jen Psaki is the "White House Spokesperson" and not the "Press Secretary." Didn't get into this week's Svengoolie. And, a preview: yes, let's not speak of this SCOTUS term as TOO satisfactory. A sort of chill wind blows.

Hamilton etc.

There is limited holiday related content among the history and book related content on C-SPAN this weekend.  It is a timely time to drop Hamilton though Disney Plus recently stopped having a free trial.  I have listened to the soundtrack, but do not want to pay to watch it on my computer screen.  There have been a lot of commentary, both supportive and not, and here are some links with a historian point of view. One view is that the use of POC as cast members colors, shall we say, our views of the subject, including how some people can rebel.  Note also this discussion of the often quoted "sleep under bridges" metaphor even by conservatives who seem not to consistently apply its principles.

In general, its helpful to get some background to understand the context of the holiday and the Declaration of Independence, which is specifically what happened today.  Independence itself was declared a couple days before.  I'm re-reading Carl Becker's classical book on the philosophy of the document. There is a lot of complexity in a few paragraphs, including to me a bit near the end of what independent nations "may of right do."  Not everything as I argued in the Bush torture days.  You can check out here to get more information on the charges against the king and a bit here on one not included.

RIP: John Pine, Sanders' campaign & Wisconsin Electoral Legitimacy

Stephen Colbert, who had a great interview with Conan last night in part bonding over their scientist fathers, recently wished this singer well as he was reportedly put on a ventilator.  Unfortunately, he has died.  I was not familiar with his work, but can see why he received so much respect.

==

(The young photographer had a moment of fame.) 

The main blame for the election f-up in Wisconsin yesterday ultimately is in the hands of the Wisconsin legislature, who had a chance to work with the governor to address the situation, particularly by agreeing to postpone. The U.S. Supreme Court and probably to a lesser extent the state supreme court worsened the situation, but they were dealing with an imperfect means to address the problem that the legislature created and aggravated.  This should be remembered in November and as more is done on the federal level to help address and prepare for the problems that in some fashion will arise  in the November elections. This was bad.  A major FU to democracy and basic decency.

===

Sanders suspended his campaign today, perhaps pushed by talk that Biden is vetting vice presidents and the clusterfuck of Wisconsin.  Listened to his statement, followed by a nice statement from Biden. 

He spent most of the time promoting his message and saying it has had success in the polls among younger voters. Then, he dealt with the reality of him not having a realistic chance of winning & suspending his campaign.  He did note he will stay on the ballot (and the rules as I understand it require that if he already registered though someone told me Warren sued to remove her name in one state) and that collecting delegates is important to have a voice.

This last part rubbed me the wrong way since it encourages bad mouthing of Biden and risky trips to the polls by some of his supporters.  Anyway, thanks Sen. Sanders and hope you and your supporters will, as you say, deal with the threat of Trump and help Biden and other Democrats win in November.  We need to focus on Biden winning and stop whining about how we are upset he is the nominee (I get it) and his problems.  OTOH, I do kinda still want to vote for Warren in June.  Give me that. 

===

A small reminder of just what is at stake is the new press secretary (though not sure what they do now -- the last one had not a single press conference; guess was mostly crafting troll press releases) and baseball wife (Sean Gilmartin used to be a Mets AAAA reliever).  A taste from that article:

For instance, in a video of Ms. McEnany on the Fox Business show “Trish Regan Primetime” from Feb. 25, circulated by Andrew Kaczynski of CNN, the new press secretary said, “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here, we will not see terrorism come here, and isn’t that refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama?”

Since Ms. McEnany made that statement, about 400,000 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus.

She has at times trafficked in the type of “othering” of President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump once did by promoting a lie that the first black president, whose father was Kenyan, was not born in the United States. “How I Met Your Brother — Never mind, forgot he’s still in that hut in Kenya. #ObamaTVShows,” Ms. McEnany tweeted in 2012.

The old "press" secretary will now work with Melania Trump.

Big V Update

The picture is of the President of Slovakia (Melania Trump is from Slovenia) showing, with some style (like Muslim women wearing colorful at times a bit form fitting coverings that are sometimes a bit counterproductive) how to be responsible in these times.  Joe Biden also said he will follow CDC (and my own local mayor's) advice and wear a mask in public.  Trump has said he thinks he will not, sending a different message.

I myself have only went out a bit (mostly to the bakery around the corner and nearby stores to pick up a few food items) and will admit to not wearing a mask.  The corner discount store recently started to sell them and did purchase one today ($2.50).  Figure they should find a means to distribute non-medical masks for free.  Blue side out.  Take off using the string, not touching the mask.  A majority of people I see around seem to be wearing them, especially when I went to the supermarket.  Only the side door is open now and there is a blue line to wait behind at the counter.  The bakery now has a sign on it that only three customers should be inside at once.  More signs of the time, literally and otherwise.

The Washington Post has an article that is damning as to the U.S. response to the Big V as shown by the headline: "The U.S. was beset by denial and dysfunction as the coronavirus raged: From the Oval Office to the CDC, political and institutional failures cascaded through the system and opportunities to mitigate the pandemic were lost."  No matter who is in power here, it would have be problematic.  New York made questionable moves and as noted my represenatives passionately denounced some aspects of the budget that they argue will cause suffering in ways directly connected to this pandemic. But, Trump being in power signficanlty worsened the situation.  We knew this in principle in 2016.

The article provides a damning look at the first ninety or so days and it is not just you know all the asshole's fault.  China didn't help, for one thing.  The perils of a closed society heightened the situation.  But, even within the range of danger there, Trump and his team worsened the situation, again things flagged in the past coming out again. For instance, Trump's continual praise of dictators:

There is no indication that officials sought to escalate the matter or enlist Trump to intervene. In fact, Trump has consistently praised Chinese President Xi Jinping despite warnings from U.S. intelligence and health officials that Beijing was concealing the true scale of the outbreak and impeding cooperation on key fronts.

Trump continuously downgraded the importance of the whole thing. The HHS Secretary would seem to be an important player here?  Not so much. When he brought the problems of the virus to Trump's attention, Trump was more concerned with vaping.  Eventually, Azar (who leaves something to be desired, but has shades of a credible Cabinet member) was pushed aside for the likes of Pence and Jared "Ken Doll" Kushner.  To pull together various things referened in the article (without ellipses):

But even as Fauci, Azar and others sought to assert themselves, Trump was behind the scenes turning to others with no credentials, experience or discernible insight in navigating a pandemic.

Foremost among them was his adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner. A team reporting to Kushner commandeered space on the seventh floor of the HHS building to pursue a series of inchoate initiatives.

So far, the plans have failed to come close to delivering on the promises made when they were touted in White House news conferences. The Kushner initiatives have, however, often interrupted the work of those under immense pressure to manage the U.S. response.

Current and former officials said that Kadlec, Fauci, Redfield and others have repeatedly had to divert their attentions from core operations to contend with ill-conceived requests from the White House they don’t believe they can ignore. And Azar, who once ran the response, has since been sidelined, with his agency disempowered in decision-making and his performance pilloried by a range of White House officials, including Kushner.

Weeks were "squandered."  Responses were limited, following standard scripts such as:

“The genesis of this group was around border control and repatriation,” said a senior official involved in the meetings. “It wasn’t a comprehensive, whole-of-government group to run everything.”

So far there have been an on record in the U.S. (and lack of tests suggest this is woefully an undercount) eight thousand deaths, over three hundred thousand confirmed cases and  we probably have a ways to go.  Loads of people probably have or had (unclear if one is safe once you had it) the virus without being counted. Many do not have symptoms or they are minor.  These people can still be carriers, spreading the disease.  Thus, even though the numbers might suggest this is off, it has a ring of truth:

It may never be known how many thousands of deaths, or millions of infections, might have been prevented with a response that was more coherent, urgent and effective. But even now, there are many indications that the administration’s handling of the crisis had potentially devastating consequences.

Millions.  Some fraction of that is the statistical result of an incompetent criminal being in power.  We need to be clear about what the upcoming elections need to do.  And, we need not simply go back to old normal, if with somewhat less people around.  We need to learn, adapt and do better.

===

There have been a wide range of responses to dealing with the new normal from late night hosts (and John Oliver) doing shows from home, teachers with remote learning, the charming use of Skype type platforms so that we see video of people who usually only stop by or call in talk shows like Stephanie Miller and so on.  The times allow more of this sort of thing than even would have been the case ten/twenty years back. 

One thing that I used yesterday was Stage It, a means for various performers to give mini-live concerts for a low price (at least $5 though you can "hitch a ride" with someone if they pick you), Alicia Witt performing.  One thing that seems to be a key thing when celebrities come remotely is that they are causal. She said that she had makeup on though it was a bit hard to tell.  She is so pale normally.  Witt is charming, usually chipper though her music can be rather somber at times. 

Dixie Crush Singer Lindsey Lagestee Dies at 25

Not familiar with Dixie Crush but yes she died young. RIP.

Heart Beats Loud

Charming indie about a dad and teen daughter (itself a novel thing) etc. with a great supporting cast in small roles (like Ted Danson). Good music and commentary track too.

Alicia Witt at City Winery

After seeing her earlier this year, we brought a third to see Alicia Witt at City Winery in honor of the release of her new album (15000 Days, in honor of the days of her life). The food and wine prices the usual excessive amount but a beer was fairly average ($7) and good Arugula salad. Pen to sign bill exploded on my hand, but nice bathroom. Base price was around $20 (another venue was even cheaper; good deal). Good concert, lot of songs but could have done without the drummer. She's good and comes off as nice/goofball. For some reason the M42 didn't come on way back, but hanging out with drunks was fun. NYC experiences.

Guns and Song

At first, was not aware when I saw this on Showtime what it actually is: it's a fun Mamma Mia! type musical using 1980s songs in a story about a woman finding out her sister is marrying the "guy that got away." On the book front, Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair With Lethal Self-Defense is only about two hundred pages, so is not a complete story (e.g., the history of armed blacks starts basically in the post-WWII era), but it is overall worthwhile including the argument SYG is selectively applied in practice.

Books

I read a handful of short books and put two -- a good YA book on marijuana and a children's story about an ancient artist and his cat -- on the side panel. The Landmark Cases (Season 2) book is okay enough but a bit thin. Found an enjoyable old paperback thriller at a used book store from the 1960s. Just a nod to the genre. A book of poetry wasn't quite to my liking.

ETA: I watched Alicia Witt -- better known for her television work -- at a nice venue (different performance there) for a reasonable price ($10 + two drinks) and she came out afterwards to meet people and sell her CDs. Talented and pleasant personality.

Band Aid: Good concept & film

Flipping thru the channels, saw this listed and then the lead actress (among other things!) referenced it during her appearance on Colbert. Free on demand; it was good, including her songs with a serious edge. BTW, a key moment was a big fight in the bedroom and she was topless. It was suitable for the scene; nudity sometimes is though so is male nudity!

ETA: I also read Gigi, Julie de Carneilhan, and Chance Acquaintances (my copy had all three) by Colette after Gigi was again on t.v. The first is like a condensed version of the musical and kinda a pleasant trifle told from various points of view. The middle is longer and in one p.o.v. and was tedious after a while. The last was something of a trifle and felt it could be half as long but it was pleasant enough (first person narrator based on author).

And More: Didn't watch the Oscars & not really into the stuff getting the most attention.

Reviews

There was already a Loving movie out when What Comes Naturally about the history of interracial marriage came out right before the author died. Forty Autumns, about a family on both sides of the Iron Curtain, has movie potential. Very readable but perhaps a bit too brisk at times. Then, we did have three generations and forty years to handle. Battle of the Sexes was well acted but got bored half-way thru, especially since even the first match didn't occur yet by then. Not my "favorite band," but Mountain Goats are pretty good. Not a big Beatles fan, but Yellow Submarine was an impressive movie. Reminds me of Monty Python.

Yeah, that really happened, not a bad dream

As the stages of grief pass, "acceptance" should involve accepting ... no seriously ... there will be a President Trump, but not being complacent about it. Also, it won't be just horrible. Few things are. No "told ya soes" though as if people figured Trump just means the end of life as we know it or something. Yet again proof 'live in interesting times' is something of a curse. Meanwhile, don't understand language, but liked this CD.

Update: Various critics now saying we should hope for the best, hope he succeeds etc. Eh. He has to earn respect. Sniping at protestors on Twitter after being elected? Not helping.

OMG!

The movie was better than the book and some liked the musical better than the movie. Both have charms though play Emmett is a deeper character. Has to be -- not played by super bland Luke Wilson. Sorry Luke; kinda boring. Soundtrack is fun and well performed.

And Also: Saw it on YouTube via MTV. Fun. Couple high school versions online too.