Random Notes
I’m not sure how I ended up doing this, but I signed up for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Daily Workout emails. I just sort of stumbled upon it and I’m blown away by the high-quality content inside. Inside, is straight up, easy to understand fitness and motivation tips. I highly recommend it if you want to move a bit more or need more self-compassion.
My friend Alex, FINALLY took my recommendation and started watching Ted Lasso, which he loves. He has spent days texting me about the show as he watches it and it reminded me of Welcome to Wrexham, another soccer/football show I was curious about. I started watching it and instantly fell in love with it. It inspired me to take advantage of the digital sale on FIFA 23 so that I could play as Wrexham AND have Ted Lasso as the coach!
I’m not one to follow celebrity news or even care about it for that matter, but this week Kevin Smith mentioned he’s five weeks weed-free. This is a huge deal for some old school Kevin Smith fans, since we all saw his quality of content suffer once he became a heavy drug user. It became even harder to listen to him on his podcasts, because every show was like a weed commercial. I’m really hoping his quality of life improves and he continues getting back to his roots. It sounds like he has some demons he’s working on, and I hope he can continue to battle them and make a comeback.
I really wish someone would come along and make a basic blogging platform with a good app. WordPress’ push to Jetpack has not improved the app performance and their insistence on using the block editor makes the app basically useless to me. Most of the time, I login via Safari and just edit from my phone, whenever I need to make a quick edit. I know ClassicPress exists, but that just seems like a headache to install, and I do worry about how long it’ll be around. I’m not looking to jump ship from WordPress right now, but I do wish it was better than it is. I hate having to install half a dozen plugins just to restore things to work like they did five years ago.
A few weeks ago, I was banging the drum of how much I was enjoying Night Court, now I’m about ready to give up on it. I know that most sitcoms on the air right now are not great, and I’ll deal with some shortcomings just to support the format, but Night Court has slowly begun to circle the drain. I still haven’t watched this week’s episode, but I’m not sure how much more of this I’m going to watch.
On a brighter note, The Mandalorian returned, and it was great. I was worried Andor might have ruined the more basic Star Wars TV show, but it did not. The Mandalorian is still a joy to watch, and I love that it’s retained it’s 1950’s Western feel.
I also checked out the True Lies premiere and had fun with it too. It gave me a Burn Notice vibe, just with a higher budget, and thats when I realized Matt Nix from Burn Notice made it! I’m not really sure where the show goes from the pilot, but I’ll give it a watch.
Star Trek Discovery is coming to an end. I’ve enjoyed some moments with the crew of The Discovery and it was the first Star Trek show to air after I really invested into the franchise. Sadly, the quality and storytelling have suffered over the years and I’m still slowly getting through last season. It was time to wrap it up and I hope Paramount focus on producing more Strange New Worlds and Lower Decks.
Interesting Links
Being of Sound Mind
Bix wrote an amazing follow-up to my post on Sound from the middle of the week. In this post, Bix relates to the sound threshold issues I’m seemingly having to some he’s experienced with his autism diagnosis. It’s a fascinating read and I’m thankful he took the time to read over my post and respond.
Showrunner Trey Callaway on Mercy Point, an Undeservedly Forgotten Sci-Fi Gem
Mercy Point has fascinated me for years. It was a hospital drama set in deep space that ran for seven episodes on UPN in 1998. When I ran across this description, I tried to find a DVD release and failed, but there were some horrible quality uploads on YouTube. This blogger mentioned that Mercy Point is now streaming on Crackle (which I didn’t even realize was still around) and finally I’ve been able to experience this show in a proper quality. It’s not half bad, I haven’t finished it, but I really like the concept. On a side note, I learned about Sector General, a collection of hospital sci-fi books that I’m not intrigued about reading.
The Phantom: Why Has American Ignored This Proto-Superhero?
I have this fascination with proto-superheroes/pulp heroes from the 20’s and 30’s. I’m far from knowledgeable on the subject, but I’m always dabbled in books or podcasts regarding the likes of The Shadow, The Spider, or The Phantom. I discovered this great Phantom 2040 fan site and eventually discovered the authors post on why this American made superhero is barely known in the United States. It presents a few interesting theories on the subject. Then again, almost all the proto-superheroes have been forgotten by American audiences, and that seems to have to do more with the copyright holders sitting idle and just allowing folks to license the characters without allowing any natural progression or evolution.
Soapbox: 1080 Snowboarding is The Coolest Nintendo Ever Got
I’m not sure how my brother and me ended up with 1080 Snowboarding on the Nintendo 64, but it quickly became one of our favorite games. Over the years, Nintendo has neglected the franchise and it’s even been difficult to find the game to play. Later this year, it’s getting added to the Switch’s Expansion Pack, but this is a nice retrospective on the game and it’s greatness.
When Fans Billed a Studio
Thanks to a link by Colin, I discovered Bix’s blog which I really enjoy. One of the first posts I read was this one and it surprised me when I noticed it was written about Firefly. I remember his page and the backlash the fans had when Universal started sending out the cease-and-desist letters.
It ties a bit into some of my desires as of late. I’ve been on this Superman kick, where I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to all sorts of Superman stories. I began looking around at my fandom and realized how much of it was owned my mega corporations that have no issue licensing it out for whatever might sell. I want to find more creator owned content to indulge in and participate in its fandom, but that is a struggle. So much is owned by corporations and outside of comics and books, it’s hard to find creators to support directly at creating things that I would be interested in.
Song of the Week
Raindrops by John Paesano
Book of the Week
Ghost Rider by Benjamin Percy & Cory Smith
Site News
-Updated the Now page
New Posts from Middle-Aged Fat Kids
World’s Finest
No/One
Superman (2011) by Chillingo
The Monster Squad Soundtrack
TMNT: The Mystery of the Cliffs
Another interesting collection of stuff this week.
I still haven’t caught up with Night Court. I think I will since Young Rock wrapped up it’s season. I did see the episode Train Court and it was in the spirit with the old series and made a reference to Dan eating chicken feet.
Yeah, it’s very inconsistent.