August 2018 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

August rambling: Porn stars, Playmates, prayer

A Sinkhole of Sleaze

Why Fascism Has the Power to Seduce the Broken

John Oliver Confronts Fake Grassroots Movements

In 2008, America Stopped Believing in the American Dream

When That “Feel-Good” Story Really Ought To Make You Throw Up

Who Chooses Abortion?

Ken Screven – The Conscience of the Newsroom

The Scientific Case for Two Spaces After a Period

On Prepositions

Joe Biden’s LGBTQ acceptance initiative

Walter Ayres: Pope Francis and the death penalty

Vlogbrothers: How Do Adults Make Friends? and How I Made Friends

Terry Crews Made A PSA With Samantha Bee To Illustrate Why Sexual Assault Jokes Really Aren’t Funny

Treating Golfer’s Elbow And How To Prevent It

The seven original cast members of Saturday Night Live inducted into the Television Hall of Fame

Dick Cavett in the digital age

Alan Alda (and Leonard Maltin) Diagnosed With Parkinson’s

Amy Meselson, Lawyer Who Defended Young Immigrants, Dies at 46

Charlotte Rae, R.I.P.

Steve Jobs and Chrisann Brennan were 23 when their daughter, Lisa, was born

How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions

The end of Campbell’s Soup?

Embracing päntsdrunk, the Finnish way of drinking alone in your underwear

The mind-bendy weirdness of the number zero, explained

Now I Know: Who You Gonna Call? Not This Ghostbuster and The Blood*, Sweat, and Tears of English Rugby Players and Why You Can’t Visit Liberty’s Torch and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really?

Players from Sesame Street read great lines from the movies

Christopher Lee and Jane Seymour

THE SWAMP

A Sinkhole of Sleaze

Week of Corruption Scandals: A Closer Look

Why Betsy DeVos shuns the American flag on her 40-foot yacht

PORN STARS, PLAYMATES, AND PRAYER CIRCLES

Mike Pence – Holy Terror and has drastically lowered his moral standard for a President

John Oliver: the next issue of Stupid Watergate

How ICE was radicalized

How the regime misled the public on poverty

EPA is now allowing asbestos back into manufacturing

The Quislings of American Collapse

The Constitutional Con

His Foreign Policy Held Back by Struggle to Grasp Time Zones, Maps

Boston Globe Calls For A Nationwide Response To Attacks On The Press

MUSIC

The anthem of the Republic of Tyva in the Russian Federation

Ohio – John Batiste, Leon Bridges, Gary Clark Jr

Vasily Kalinnikov – Bylina, an overture

“Africa” le Toto as Gaeilge

Summer Wind- Willie Nelson

I greet my country -Ahoulaguine Akaline featuring Bombino

Feel The Love – Rudimental, featuring John Newman

In the Mood – Glenn Miller (see Sonja Henie!)

Stand By Me – Bootstraps

Fur Elise – pianist Lola Astanova

The Place Where Dreams Come True and End Credits – James Horner, scoring Field of Dreams

Coverville 1227: Cover Stories for Kate Bush and Rush and 1228: Cover Stories for Whitney Houston, A Flock of Seagulls and The Go-Go’s

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (Iron Butterfly); Cover by Sina

1-2-3 – The Electric Indian

My Dearest Ruth – Patrice Michaels (from Notorious RBG in Song)

The niece Rebecca Jade will be singing at five Sheila E shows this month, in Michigan and the Northeast

How the Beatles unravelled: Hunter Davies, the band’s official biographer, recalls the tensions that led the Fab Four to split

The Top 60 Female Artists of All Time

Not artistic. Seriously. Please believe me.

I recall that Ida Berman taking me to several New York City galleries in the winter of 1975.

drawing Arthur the AmeriNZ kid (“kid” in that he’s younger than I) mildly chastened me in a comment. “On another note, you write: ‘Les Green was VERY artistic, in many ways, and I just wasn’t, and aren’t to this day.’ Really? You DO know you blog, right? I’m sure plenty of others would join me in saying THAT is creative.”

I never said I wasn’t CREATIVE, just not artistic. In at least two marking periods in third and fourth grade I got a D in art. My father once asked my seventh-grade art teacher how I managed to get a B, and she said, “Because he worked to the best of his ability.”

Which isn’t much. You do NOT want me on your team in Pictionary, because you will never have ANY idea what I’m trying to draw. I can see it in my mind’s eye, but it simply does not translate onto the paper, or piece of clay, or whatever medium I’m using.

I remember being at staff training for work a year and a half ago playing some board game which essentially swiped from other board/card games such as Pictionary. My team was frustrated, as though I weren’t trying; I WAS, I WAS.

Now my wife is rather artistic. In fact she should take more advantage of her skills and try here, different methods of honing her skills. At her request, I’ve purchased her an easel, paints, et al., but she seldom actually uses them.

The Daughter is VERY artistic, clearly getting this from her mother. Or her paternal grandfather. It wasn’t until the end of the last semester, when she brought them home, that we learned that she had a couple drawings accepted and displayed at a city-wide even; it was old hat. She and a friend designed the inside front cover of her yearbook.

I should note that I appreciate art. I’ve attend the museums regularly for decades. I recall that Ida Berman, my great aunt Charlotte Yates’ sister, taking me to several New York City galleries in the winter of 1975. I’m involved with the Albany Public Library displaying art at one of the branches.

So I can sing a little, and write a little. But I couldn’t draw a recognizable horse, even if you offered me large sums of cash.

F is for fine, fun, fantastic Friday evening

I had never seen Rebecca Jade sing professionally except last August, when she was singing backup for Sheila E.

When I was staying with my sister Leslie in San Diego in early July, I may have started going a little stir crazy, I think. Keeping track of doctors’ appointments, nurses’ visits, specialists’ phone calls, paperwork for her employer was a tad overwhelming at times.

My sister and/or my niece suggested that I go see the niece go sing with her band, Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact on lucky Friday the 13th. I had never seen her sing professionally except last August, when she was singing backup for Sheila E.

Rebecca and her husband Rico picked me up. We went to a club called the Tin Roof in downtown San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter. Almost immediately, I started talking with this woman, mentioning that I am an uncle of Rebecca Jade; she was quite excited by that. “I always wanted to be a singer!”

One of the waitresses started bringing free ginger ales when she realized that I was part of the RJ entourage. I must admit that I appreciated the reflected glory.

Rebecca thought she and the band would do their set and then we’d leave, but no. The gig was a battle of the bands, sponsored by AARP . “The first-ever AARPROCKS Local Music Showcase! Four local bands will compete in a contest in which the winner receives $5,000! They rock – you pick – one lucky band wins!”

The participating bands:
Rebecca Jade and The Cold Fact
Casey Hensley Band
The Midnight Pine
Within

They all were pretty good. Rebecca and Casey were friendly competitors who gave each other hugs; heck, Casey gave ME a hug. Most of the Cold Fact chatted with me about their new album coming out in October, on VINYL as well as other formats.

Finally, about 20 minutes after the last band played, the winner was announced: Rebecca Jade and The Cold Fact! They even had one of those oversized checks made out to them. It was a great night!

Listen to Rebecca Jade and the Cold Fact

Gonna Be Alright

Cuts Like a Winter

For ABC Wednesday

Movie review: The LEGO Batman Movie

Ralph Fiennes is the third Academy Award-nominated British actor to play Alfred Pennyworth

While the wife and daughter were away in North Carolina, doing good deeds, I was home alone, except for the cats. I went into a movie-viewing frenzy, seeing four movies in four days, and The LEGO Batman Movie (2017) was the fourth.

A free movie on a Tuesday afternoon at the Palace Theater in Albany. What could be the downside? Well, there were well over 1000 kids and their parents, and they were LOUD, making the subtle dialogue in the beginning rather hard to hear, that “Black. All important movies start with a black screen… And music… Edgy, scary music that would make a parent or studio executive nervous… And logos…” bit. But as the movie ramped up, this became less of a problem.

I saw the first LEGO movie on my birthday in 2014, also for free. I enjoyed it. But Batman was there for comic relief, and it really didn’t delve into the character. Now the guy in the newer movie, HE was Batman.

David Sims, the reviewer for The Atlantic, nailed it: It “works precisely because it knows audiences are sick of its hero. It’s a reassessment, an intervention, an effort to try and remember what’s fun about him.” Because Batman can be a real drag, such as Ben Affleck in Justice League, and doesn’t always play well with others.

The film is filled with witty references from many phases of the character, from the Adam West TV/movie character (shark repellent) to “You want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts!” from Batman (1989 -Michael Keaton). My favorite line may have been from Alfred about Batman going through “similar phases” in 2016, 2012, 2008, 2005, 1997, 1995, 1992, 1989, and a “weird one” in 1966, a reference to every year in which a major Batman film was released.

Will Arnett was absolutely dead-on as the voice of Batman / Bruce Wayne, though that guttural snarl must have done damage to his vocal chords. Michael Cera was earnest as Robin / Dick Grayson. Rosario Dawson was great as Batgirl / Barbara Gordon. I learned Ralph Fiennes is the third Academy Award-nominated British actor to play Alfred Pennyworth, after Michael Caine and Jeremy Irons. Zach Galifianakis showed the various shadings of The Joker.

I was glad I went to The LEGO Batman Movie, though it got better as kids exited well before the end of the film.

That new Oscar awards plan is dumb; what IS “popular film”?

It’s a sloppy solution to a particular problem brought on by Hollywood losing its ability to make mass market films that are actually ‘good.’

Operation Red Sea It seems that half of the websites I read regularly have weighed in on how dumb the new Oscar awards are; see Ken Levine’s take, e.g.. As Dustbury put it, “This modifies the common complaint that “Hollywood is out of ideas”; it’s just that Hollywood is out of good ideas.

If you somehow missed it, W’s In & Out describes it: “The Motion Picture Association of America has announced plans to institute a new Oscar category for ‘Popular Film.’ The news was vague, with little insight into what it actually means, but the general thought is that it would be meant to honor big blockbuster franchise films and, theoretically, at least lure fans of those types of film into watching the broadcast.

“Never mind that the show is still one of the highest-rated broadcasts of the year and brought in 26.5 million viewers last year—the odd decision has been met with backlash, especially amongst people who view the broadcast because they love the pageantry and competition between actresses or those who, you know, consider film to be an actual art form and expect integrity from the medium’s most cherished prize. It’s a sloppy solution to a particular problem brought on by Hollywood losing its ability to make mass market films that are actually ‘good,’ and the changing landscape of live television.”

Which begs some other questions: “Popular Film” Oscars: What Movies Would Have Won Over the Past 20 Years? La La Land AND Moonlight fans both would have been happy a couple years back.

And, just out of idle curiosity, what HAVE been the most popular films in 2018? As of August 10, 2018 at noon EDT, according to Box Office Mojo, where I go for all my movie box office statistical needs (totals in millions):

1 Avengers: Infinity War (BV) $2,045.3 worldwide, $678.2 domestic (33.2%)
2 Black Panther (BV) $1,346.8 worldwide, $700.0 domestic (52.0%)
3 Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Uni.) $1,264.5 worldwide, $407.3 domestic (32.2%)
4 Incredibles 2 (BV) $1,050.9 worldwide, $585.7 domestic (55.7%)
5 Deadpool 2 (Fox) $733.1 worldwide, $318.1 domestic (43.4%)

6 Ready Player One (WB) $582.0 worldwide, $137.0 (23.5%)
7 Operation Red Sea (WGUSA) $579.2 worldwide, $1.5 domestic (0.3%)
8 Detective Chinatown 2 (WB), $544.1 worldwide, $2.0 domestic (0.4%)
9 Ant-Man and the Wasp (BV) $430.1 worldwide, $198.7 domestic 46.2%
10 Rampage (2018) (WB) $426.2 worldwide, $99.3 domestic (23.3%)

I’m fascinated about items 7 and 8. Operation Red Sea (Chinese: 红海行动) is a 2018 Chinese action war film. Detective Chinatown 2 (Chinese: 唐人街探案 2) is a 2018 Chinese comedy-mystery buddy film. For the 25th Beijing College Student Film Festival, ORS won Best Film, and DC2 snagged Students’ Choice Award for Favorite Film.

There’s no guarantee Black Panther will win, if that’s the patronizing plan. Maybe it’ll be the sixth Mission: Impossible -Fallout, which is 13th on the box office list AND has a 97% positive ranking at Rotten Tomatoes. Or Operation Red Sea, or Deadpool 2. This new Oscar awards plan has been almost universally panned and I hope it is axed.