Nothing in the way of posts lately

haven't been doing much since my Dad fractured his hip and ended up in a Rehab Hospital...mostly been trotting over there most nights to see what I can do.
He is making good progress but eighty-eight is eighty eight so it's fair to say things won't be the same after this.

Am I the only person in the world who thinks that

Michael Jackson's "We are the World" is one of the most grotesquely narcissistic songs ever written?
And then there is the music video, one hundred of the music industry's best and brightest all giving themselves a nice loving rhetorical hummer right there in color on camera.
Honestly, Michael Jackson co-wrote the lyrics, so you just know the original draft was entitled "I am the World".
***
Okay chill, I KID, I kid because I love...I love to kid. Sure a lot of money got raised for famine relief but a lot of egos got buffed and polished as well...just sayin'.

Still...I forgot how Ray Charles' voice just soared over that mishaugas, gives me chills even today.

A Ghoulish moment on the Red Line

Reading the unexpurgated text of Michael Jackson's Last Will and Testament, courtesy of the Boston Metro. The will itself is about as much fun to read as a well executed Bill of Lading.

Star Trek (2009)

Kudos to J.J. Abrams for figuring out that Kirk, Spock and McCoy et al are characters in the end that can played again and again by the right cast.
And it is in the casting that the new Star Trek franchise is the strongest, Chris Pine finds Captain Kirk quite easily without recourse to any of William Shatner's iconography, Zachary Quinto's Mister Spock is a post-Nimoy revelation and I expect great things from Karl Urban's Doctor McCoy.

Too bad the script is such a paint by the numbers affair with a bloodless villain and storyline that heavily recalls "Star Trek Nemesis" (2002), the last gasp of the Next Generation's run in feature films.
in truth I begin to think that there are no more Star Trek stories left to tell the franchise has soldiered on thru FIVE television series a stack of films, thousands of awful paperbacks...Honestly is there any creative water left in the well?
As long as the writers and producers are fixated on recreating the whole space battle motif behind "The Wrath of Khan" then I suspect they'll get maybe two more sequels out of this admittedly impeccable cast before they hit another creative wall.
Then again they might get something cool going, but they have to lay off all the "Master and Commander" in outer space stuff and try boldly going somewhere new and different.
Maybe do some exploring when is the last time anyone did any of that in a Star Trek franchise?

Sean Penn has apparently dropped out of the Farrelly's Brother's proposed Three Stooges picture...

Am I the only blogger on Ghod's Green Earth who is appalled that a charmless collection of goyim are all champin' at the bit to play the fabled middle stooge??

The fact that anyone is reviving the Stooges at all is a strong indicator that the end times may be upon us.

As funny as the old Columbia two reelers were, the whole filmography was factory output.
Who the hell wants to remake factory output anyway?
Frankly, it is a mere accident of American Culture that the Stooges are such cultural icons today since their colleagues at Columbia from Sterling Holloway to Buster Keaton and the sadly forgotten Charlie Chase all did equally worthwhile work at the time.
Hell as far as I am concerned, that Curley's replacement Shemp who also had his own series of solo two-reelers did his best work alone!

Notes to a screening of "Land of the Lost" at the Tri Town Drive In

Will Ferrell is never gonna rise above being Will Ferrell, Chaplin was the Tramp, Jerry Lewis was the Kid, John Belushi was Bluto...Ferrell is ....well a the same clueless egomaniac in every film....Ron Burgundy over and over again.
And what the hell, the public loves it...I can't say much thought for opening a can of satiric whoop-ass on a minor Saturday Morning sci fi show like "Land of the Lost" constitutes some great comedic departure for all concerned...On the other hand I laughed more than I thought I would (which seems to be my half hearted refrain this summer), and the movie did look great on that big-ass outdoor screen.
Speaking of which I must report with some anger that someone tossed a rock thru the screen at some point last week leaving a small hole in the lower right hand corner.
Nothing too huge mind you, but just enough to mar what is otherwise a fresh looking screen.
Hopefully it will be fixed soon as vandalism like that should not be tolerated.
if Governor Patrick wants to be re-elected by a wide margin next year he ought to come out hard for a law making it a felony to vandalize Drive In screens...Venues like the Mendon and the Tri Town are rare and should not be subjected to this kind of abuse.

"Mine that Bird" is my pony in today's Belmont Stakes

lacking a horse as a triple crown contender, then the only game in town is jockey Calvin Borel's improbable bid to beat thirty odd steeds to the roses.
And besides, if Borel will win it'll mean something to him, he will turn somersaults in the saddle it'll be fun television at least.

Notes to a screening of "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian"

Of everything you could think of, who'd a thunk Ben Stiller would end up a family film star??
Well, I snark and I shouldn't as I laughed a whole lot more than I expected at the above movie, that is pretty damn amazing considering that the director, Shawn Levy has a long rap sheet composed of lame sequels.
Let me also single out Hank Azaria who is particularly hilarious with a real gift for redeeming mediocre material. His pouncey evil Pharaoh character neatly bookends his more heroic "Blue Rajah" routine from the unjustly overlooked "Mystery Men". I wish someone would write him some a-list material, th' man has a real talent for comedy.
Oh and forgive my Geek Bona Fides but I'd swear that Amy Adams' sexy tomboyish Amelia Earhart characterization could easily serve as a audition to play Cousin Pat Savage in a notional Doc Savage motion picture?
But the real good news is that the Tri Town Drive in out in Fitchburg has recently repaired and power-washed it's GIANT outdoor screen giving new life to this last of the almighty outdoor movie venues. If you have a big budget action comedy or fantasy film you have to see this summer, honestly it's worth the mishaugas to see it at the Tri Town...it's like they have a whole new screen....hell I'm in love all over again.

Sat next to a woman on the Red Line from Alewife this morning

who was delicately sipping her morning coffee out of what appeared to be an old fruit jar.

So from that I deduce that we haven't quite hit rock bottom in this recession.

A Proclamation:

That hereafter the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend be known henceforth as "Squalus Day" set aside as a remembrance of all those members of the United States Armed Forces who died during peacetime.

They too, paid the ultimate sacrifice and the Commonwealth is hereby encouraged to remember those soldiers and sailors in their thoughts and prayers.

Duly proclaimed under my authority as a Marshal of the Commonwealth (self anointed) on this day the 24th of May in the year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Nine.

Long Live the Republic
Long Live the Commonwealth

My new Hero(ine)

Rachel Alexandra, the filly what just won the Preakness, first time in eighty five years a girl-horse has won that race and from the post position of doom, unlucky #13.
Calvin Borel, that shameless showboat with the golden gut for picking winning long shots, rode her to glory and back, he is still playing to the crowd as I write this...Just an amazing run, man and horse.
Oh and Mine that Bird (the Derby's improbable 50 to 1 winner) came in second finishing in the money and dispelling all that "lucky fluke" snarkage quite nicely.
Great race, of course, my horse Pioneerof the Nile" ran in the opposite direction when the bell rang...but that is triple crown par for the course with me. I couldn't pick a winner if one horse was running.

If the Green Line (Inbound) from Copley to Park Street

ran any slower during afternoon rush hour, alert science minded riders could actually visually discern Heisenberg's uncertainty principle in action.
Ever since that cockamammie accident last Friday night, the T's response has been to slow down the Green Line to the point of suspended animation. Honestly what are these Morlocks thinking? One of these days service levels will decline to the point where passengers will mutiny and attempt to seize the train, trolley or bus...mark my words on this.
I've said it before and I will say it again, I rode passenger trains from Tallinn Estonia to Leningrad at the height of the stagnation days under Yuri Andropov, and you could set your watch to those sonsabitches!
For that fact, I was in NYC last week I rode the #6 train and N train and spent precious time languishing stopped in tunnels for "schedule adjustments".

50 to 1

It is always a victory for the rest of us when an obscure horse with an unknown trainer lands in the roses at the Kentucky Derby. Such is the case with "Mine that Bird" a race horse bought for $9,500.00 and taken to glory by jockey Calvin Borel who is still whooping like Geronimo and playing to the crowd even as I write this.
My horse..."Hold Me Back" (a reputed mudder)...Lived up to his name...i'm not sure he even left his stall when the horn blew.

Th

Hope Endures, Pride Detonates...

In the current issue of the Boston Phoenix,Trent Othick, producer of "A Bronx Tale", has denounced Boston Phoenix critic Carolyn Clay's review of his play calling for her replacement and bequeathing her "Our Asshole Critic Award".
It is to say the least a very very hot-headed letter to the editor.
I think we can rest assured that Ms. Clay's review was perfectly spelled, copy-edited and no doubt signed with dignity by the critic in question.

Which just goes to show, you can connect the dots to perfection and still end up getting flamed.


Z

Health note

If walking a nine mile hike on the Minuteman Bike Trail then one ought to refrain from taking any potent anti-histamines before hitting the asphalt. You'll make good time unmolested by coughing or snuffling for an hour or so, but thereafter your gait will devolve into a stagger that would do justice to a "Night of the Living Dead" audition.
The consequences of which were, everyone gave me a wide berth on the last three miles back to my car.

Heard in the Arlington Street Green Line Stop last night

A single mournful violinist bowing away at the end of that long Orwellian hallway. Beautiful music, and yet another anonymous contribution to the cause of civilization deep in the cavernous redoubts of the MBTA.
I knew not his name nor even his favored on line pseudonym but that didn't change the restful and soothing nature of his playing.
Frankly without anonymons like this, society could well board up the shop and decamp for the caves.

Watchmen (2009)

is Zack Snyder kidding or something?

I mean, he didn't so much adapt the beloved graphic novel as his simply transcribed it to the big screen, complete with casting that slavishly replicated the original character designs.
Or rather, Snyder simply paged thru the trade paperback and used to post-it notes to high-light his favorite scenes...The ones he was desperate to execute on film.
The result is a sort of peppy wax-works show with atomic explosions and such.
I will give Snyder credit though, he did try to purge Moore's original ending of it's almighty clunkiness, he didn't succeed but he did try which means he put a little more thought into the project than mere toadying reverence.
I think the problem there is, Moore probably wanted to really blow up the rather nasty civilization he'd created with a nuclear war in the end and for some reason, either he was compelled to generate a happy ending or else his nerve failed him for once. So instead we are stuck with a shopworn "Outer Limits" routine that does read or film particularly well.
Generally I liked the cast though, even if Alan Moore's dialogue sounds leaden when spoken, I guess it was meant to be read in the comic book format exclusively.
I used to think that Alan Moore's aversion to film adaptations of his own work was intolerable egomania of a kind, now I think he is justified in keeping his distance.
Otherwise the man has a touch of Hemingway to his work as it does not adapt well to film.
Well, what does it matter anyway?
Wasn't the damn thing executed on paper back in the 1980s and executed well?

Nothing says class quite like a

maroon dress fez, tassel and all. Such as the case last night at the Shriner's Auditorium in Wilmington where the Boston Roller Derby Dames went all up in a four hour extravaganza featuring the Boston Massacre versus the Philadelphia Liberty Belles in the Main Event.
The Boston Phoenix has been sporadically covering the Boston Roller Derby Dames since their inception in 2005, so at long last I decided to see what th' hoo-ha was about.
Alas and alack the Massacre got well...massacre'd by Philly, nevertheless I'm thinking women's roller derby may well become my new athletic passion if only I can suss out the sport's scoring matrix.
Some will criticize the sport's lavish use of provocative and anonymous pseudonyms for both the players and the referees (expl: Krushpuppy, Pussy Venom), but I say the audience, all seven hundred of them are anonymons as well so far as the players are concerned...so everyone is in on the conspiracy.
And all this for but $16.00 with a bar attached and lavish opportunities to meet the players if that is your groove...you don't see that kind of fan friendliness on Lansdowne Street.
And believe me, these women are real athletes, they are taking hard spills and high speed collisions all on a concrete floor....so if it is raw courage you are looking for, the Shriner's Auditorium is a good place to start.

Gave my seat up to an elderly blind woman

on the Red Line this morning. She blithely sat down, produced a flute from her bag and began playing tunes all the way to Park Street Station, which is where I got off.
For all I know she'll rehearse sans worry or woe in that subway car all the way to Braintree.
I didn't know her name, she was a complete anonymon to to me, but that of course didn't alter the general high quality of her playing.
J'es a thought for the day, thass all.

Where else but during a Transit Police sweep of

"bags-n-parcels" at Alewife Station can one enjoy the slightly loutish spectacle of three florid faced MBTA coppers pawing gingerly thru a lady's purse?