Hall & Oates - She's Gone

How come I'm just now finding out about this? The song is a classic, but the video they did for it may be the greatest music video ever made.

Jesus' brother James on "thoughts and prayers".

James 2: 14-17--

14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?
15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food,
16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?
17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

Have any of these "Christian" assholes ever even READ this book? There's a bunch of stuff like that in there.

This is going to take a while. It SHOULD take a while.

I wish everyone would calm down. Celebrate, be happy. But don't get impatient, whatever you do.

Up until this morning, I was absolutely skeptical that anything would ever come of this. We've all had our hopes crushed so many times over so many years.

But when I read that Manafort was formally named, and then I read the indictment in full, and then out of nowhere, Manafort's helper was revealed to have made a plea arrangement weeks ago, it dawned on me that Mueller's team is not only dead serious about this, but they are only asking questions to the indicted that they absolutely already know all of the answers to. There will BE no fuckups in the case they are putting together.

All of this legal work takes time. Be patient with that. Let them do their jobs. I am confident that Mueller's team knows what they are doing.

That's an even better example.

I wish I'd thought of it.

He's looking worse every day.

And I don't mean in a figurative sense.



Within six months, this man is going to be:

A) In the ground.
B) In a hospital bed.
C) In a wheelchair in the corner of his bedroom, staring and drooling onto an old magazine on his lap that has a picture of himself on the cover.

Just hang in there, everyone. Mother Nature has your back.

So they really DO exist.

Conquistador - Procol Harum

Tower (2016) on Netflix.

If you all haven't seen this film, I recommend it.

It's a documentary about the 1966 University of Texas Tower mass shooting incident, and it's told almost ENTIRELY from the perspective of the victims, bystanders, cops and others who helped out that day. I think even the name of the gunman is only mentioned once.

It is unusual in that it mixes archival footage, rotoscoped animation, and interviews to provide a compelling picture of what it must have been really like to be there, and the extraordinary things that some of the people did to try to help the victims.

I mention this movie not because I'm encouraging wallowing in this latest absolutely horrible tragedy, but because this movie offers something that Mister Fred Rogers once told his Neighbors: When you see these terrible things on your TV, focus on all the HELPERS and what they're doing. It really helps with your perspective. I think this movie does a great job with that.

I wish they would just get it over with.

They are absolutely bound and determined that they are going to kill us. They will never, ever, ever stop with their drive to eliminate healthcare for Americans. If it's not this bill, it will be the next one, or the next one, or the one after that.

The ONLY emotion they feel is flat-out insatiable greed. They can't be reasoned with. They can't be bargained with. And they absolutely WILL NOT STOP until we are all dead or until Sarah Conner tricks them into the metal crusher and pushes the button on them.

Just get it over with, assholes. Just do it. See what happens.

War For the Planet of the Apes

I finally got to see this movie yesterday, having been too busy this summer to get out to the theater much.

I won't talk about my opinion on the film or mention any spoilers. But I do want to discuss something about this movie that ABSOLUTELY blew my away--something that just in itself moved me to tears, because you almost never see it in ANY movies anymore, let alone "summer action blockbusters".

There are several looong stretches in this movie in which characters are interacting and there is almost COMPLETE SILENCE. There is no talking (not even any gestures). There is no snappy, snarky banter. There are no explosions or gunshots or screaming or smashing of glass objects or anything. There are just two (or more) characters communicating without saying a single word, and yet somehow you know everything that is being said. That communication is all the more poignant and powerful because of it.

It got me thinking that this something that you used to see in popular films all the time. Film IS, after all a visual art form. Yet for many decades, Hollywood has not trusted the audience to have the brains or attention span to figure things out on their own, and so this kind of thing has been relegated to "indie" cinema more or less, like the movies of Gaspar Noe.

(Not that there aren't explosions, gunshots, and screaming in WFTPOTA. It is, after all, a "war" movie. But it is more like "Grand Illusion" or "Bridge on the River Kwai" than "The Longest Day". The actual fighting stuff doesn't play that large a role.)

Just before this movie was released a couple of months ago, 20th Century Fox released this poster for it, which I thought was oddly compelling--and, again, not something you're used to seeing for a "summer action blockbuster". It has sort of a retro late 1960s design:



Having seen the movie, I can see why this poster was absolutely perfect for it and why the studio chose it. This IS a scene from the movie, and there are many others in it that are similar. They are all very moving, powerful moments. They are just beautiful.