The Air Quality is Nasty

For days now, my daily afternoon call to my Mom would include her asking about "the smoke" and telling me how bad it was that morning.  Given that my Mom rarely leaves her apartment and I hadn't noticed any such thing, I chalked it up to the TV news inspiring panic. 

Whoopsie.

My Mom might have jumped the gun by a week, but today proved her right. 

The air is acrid, like you just walked past the a burn pit, and the odor lingers in your nostrils.  The sky is overcast and grim, and a gray haze rests over everything like a vast fog.  It is legitimately more difficult to breathe. These pictures were taken at the height of the afternoon:

What's going on you ask, Future Reader?

Smoke from wildfires in Canada are enveloping the Midwestern US. A week or so ago they did the same to the East coast.

Smoke is better than being in the midst of dense wildfires, no argument there, and I hope for the safety of the people directly affected up there.

 But man, how rude of our northern neighbor ;)

No Hard Feelings

On Sunday, after a day spent thrift shopping, delivering books to Little Libraries,

 getting ice cream at Tastee-Twist, napping, and having dinner at Classic Slice, Lisa and I went to see No Hard Feelings at the Ridge Cinema. YaYa and her boyfriend joined us both for dinner and the flick.

No Hard Feelings is a comedy about an Uber driver, played by Jennifer Lawrence, who loses her car just as she is facing foreclosure for back property taxes. To get back on the road, and save her home, she answers a personal ad from a rich couple who want her to “date” their son, played by Andrew Barth Feldman, in exchange for a free car. That’s “date” in quotes, as in take his virginity. Unfortunately for her the socially awkward 18-year-old is no easy catch, and time is running out.

I liked the film, and there were parts where I laughed my butt off. But when you release multiple trailers (just a cursory Google search showed me 5 minutes of “official” material) you’re showing your audience 10% of your final 90 minute  product, and presumably some of the best of it. There were parts of the film that would have been hysterical, had I not seen it six or seven times before.

That’s not the film’s fault, but it definitely impacts your viewing.

A negative that was the fault of the filmmakers, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, because it’s so counterintuitive: the characters were too 3-dimensional.

This was a raunchy , laugh out loud, don’t-worry-about-the plot-holes kind of flick and what did they do? They developed rich, emotional backstories and complex motivations for the two lead characters. That’s super swell as an assignment in a screenwriting class, but was it needed here, with this material?  I think this a case where keeping the characters firmly in their lane would have better served the comedy.

Don’t mind me though, I’m a grouch. I still rate this a solid B. Go see it.

John Drilling

 

John Drilling, a legendary television anchor/reporter at WITI 6 (first a CBS, then Fox affiliate), has passed away. He was 86. 

For 30 years Drilling was a staple on the Milwaukee airwaves, anchoring the noon news for WITI from 1975 until his retirement in 1998. A man with the reputation of a no-nonsense, just the facts reporter, he did this city proud.

RIP sir. 

Renfield

In the original novel by Bram Stoker, Renfield was an institutionalized madman who happened to be Dracula's Familiar - the assistant who helps the vampire find his prey.  The version of Renfield in this film treats him a little kinder, with the only nod to psychiatry being his habitual attendance at support group meetings. 

The plot of the movie is simple: Renfield is filled with misgivings about the life he's chosen, given that he's got the blood of tens of thousands on his hands, and after intervening to save a female cop on the outs with the mob, he seeks to break with his Master. Alas, dear Dracula doesn't do breakups very well, and launches a plan to not only punish his errant Familiar, but achieve world domination too.

I had no intention of seeing this movie, as I thought the trailer seems ridiculous, but once I saw it was streaming for free on Peacock I gave it a go. The verdict?

I humbly retract my former stance. It is a fun, entertaining popcorn flick worthy of watching. There's little worth remembering here, as it is For Entertainment Purposes Only, but it does that well. And Nicholas Cage plays a wickedly good (bad?) version of the world's most popular vampire. 

It's worth a watch if you have Peacock. If you need to pay to stream it . . eh. There's probably better ways to spend your money. 

 

A Father's Day Gift

This beautiful bird bath is not the only gift I received for a Father's Day that ranks as one of the top 30 days of my life, but it *does* happen to be a belated gift from Junie that was given to me two days ago.  Thus, it came up front and center when I opened my phone gallery lol

On the Titan 5 Tragedy

 Look, I know I'm coming off as rather obsessed with the story of Titan, the submersible lost at sea, but remember, I knew of it before the accident. I followed Oceangate on social media, I watched their YouTube videos, I marveled at the pioneering 8k footage they took of the wreck of the Titanic.  This was, from a distance, personal. 

By now of course you know how it turned out. The craft was found 1600 feet from the bow of Titanic, the victim of an implosion that took the lives of all five men. 

May they rest in peace, and may perpetual light shine upon them. 

What sticks in my mind is a quote from the CEO, who died in the accident. To paraphrase, when speaking of the glass in the porthole, he told the reporter it would crack and spiderweb long before failure. If that glass was the cause of the implosion, did they have that warning? Did they notice? And because of it, did they die after minutes of panic and terror?

I hope not. 

Meanwhile, the jerks of the world continue to barrage the internet with jokes, mockery, and derision. Of the men themselves, as fools or as rich, which to the jealous is synonymous with "worthy of death," or of the craft itself. 

Let's get some things straight. Getting in that craft and descending two miles to the ocean floor, even when you are fully confident of success, is an act of bravery and fortitude that not many people are capable of pulling off. Period. They were certainly braver than the keyboard warriors who mock their deaths. 

And like I told one jerk online that hid behind the claim that "humor is a coping mechanism: it's a coping mechanism if you're actually *coping* with trauma. If you're using jokes merely to mock suffering,  then you're just an asshole. 

Of the craft itself: it was a product of innovation and imagination, not hubris, and designed by a Princeton educated engineer (Stockton Rush, the CEO who died aboard her.)  It wasn't a craft built for billionaires to use on vacation, it was funded and built by their ticket fees and a necessary evil. 

When he said, on camera, that he "broke a few rules" to build it, he wasn't saying the equivalent of "I skimped on putting brakes and seatbelts on the car I built" He was saying that he broke a few cliches of submersible design, by designing a craft capable of holding up to 5 people, and building it with carbon fiber. 

Was he wrong, in retrospect? Maybe. Unless some unknown damaged the Titan and doomed her mid-trip, the engineering failed. 

Yet it's important to note that the Titan had made up to 50 previous dives to varying depths, including successful dives to the Titanic. It would seem that material fatigue, not an overt design blunder, would be the immediate causation for the tragedy. 

[btw, there's been a million jokes about the video game controller that steered the craft. It wouldn't have been my choice, but it IS the choice, from what I've read, of the US Navy when it comes to operating periscopes on our subs. So, much ado about nothing.]

Yet, problems had arisen on prior dives, and the hodge-podge nature of the construction had raised concerns. Should every available minute between dive seasons have been spent reviewing and updating the craft? Yes, a thousand times yes. But God bless the independence, courage, and independence that spawned it in the first place. 

Would I have got on the Titan? Had I the money, yes I would have gone, although I am no daredevil.  A chance to see the Titanic, to be that close to history, how could you pass it up? 

Again, to the Titan 5: Rest in Peace

Thank Goodness for Those Experts

: shakes my head:

It's not a US newspaper,  it's British. But I assume oxygen works the same way across the pond. 

Humans Suck

People suck.

Not that you needed reminding of that. 

But I'm sick of folks- even people I follow on social media - cracking jokes about the missing submersible. 5 people are dead or are facing death in the dark 2 miles beneath the sea, and you think it's funny? You think reposting shit meme about it makes you edgy and cool?

Then sir/madam, you ARE the asshole.

Oh, I forgot.  Most of the missing are rich,  so you'll try and disguise your jealousy by framing this as some "victory" of class warfare.

Meanwhile, you'll repost, without irony,  an article about Kendall Jenners dog wearing a cast.

Next you'll complain about all the resources involved in the rescue, as if we as a society don't go all-in whenever there's a rescue operation.  Hell, we send a fire truck and two paramedics just to pick up an old man that falls.  Isn't that what we're SUPPOSED to do, do our best to help people in danger?

[Not to mention the practical experience these situations give both the people and technology involved,  making the next rescue more likely to be successful]

And then the kicker: the fact that even this unique scenario,  with a fact pattern that precludes it ever happening to all but the tiniest sliver of humanity . . . well, by golly,  it wouldn't be right for this to pass without the "me" generation doing their best to make it about themselves and their self induced "trauma."

Serenity now.  Serenity now. 

Here's where I have to keep my thoughts: with the five missing men and the people who love them. 

The jerks online? F em.

Disaster at the Titanic Site

Titan, a five person submersible carrying tourists to the wreck of the Titanic, has gone missing. Both the Canadian and US Coast Guard is involved in the rescue attempt, but the odds . . . well. Let us hope and pray for the best. 

This hits hard because of two reasons: I follow OceanGate, the private company that runs the tours, on social media and have greatly enjoyed their informative YouTube videos of the wreck. Had I the quarter million dollars to spare, I would happily have signed on to a trip about the Titan myself.

The second reason is the unintelligent comments already surfacing  online: the Titanic claims more lives, it serves them right for dishonoring a "gravesite," people need to leave well enough alone, etc. 

The older I get, the more mellow I have become, but the more I am also nauseated by the predictable narrative of your average person. Rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat. 

Anyhow, this isn't about *them* or my personal axe to grind. This is about the five souls that are currently missing two miles beneath the sea. 

May they be found soon, alive and well. 

For Free

 description in pics - LuLu

keyboard wrist protector 

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson, the fundamentalist Christian broadcaster who made a serious run for the Presidency in 1988, died today at 93. 

Robertson is credited with helping move conservative Christianity into the Republican camp, but what I remember him most for is a memory of my childhood, from when I was eight or nine: my Mom warning me never to watch Robertson's syndicated 700 Club television program. Perhaps her reasoning was political, but more likely it was about how his fundamentalist outlook clashed with our Catholicism. 

None-the-less, as a child, and without an explanation for the ban, I was left with the misguided impression that there was something inherently evil about the show, like they were encouraging open violence or devil worship. At 49, I can honestly say I have still to watch so much as a half hour of the show because of that memory LOL

RIP

Fools Crow

This crow stubbornly refused to budge from from the roadway this morning, making drivers (including me) change lanes to go around him. 

Tina Turner

 On June 29th, 1997, Lisa and I attended a concert at the Marcus Amphitheater during Summerfest, Milwaukee's lakefront music festival. We watched a very pregnant Cyndi Lauper open the night, which was a nice bit of nostalgia,  and then the great Tina Turner took the stage. 

Here's the setlist from that day: 

1. Whatever You Want
2. Do What You Do
3. River Deep, Mountain High
4. Missing You
5. In Your Wildest Dreams
6. GoldenEye
7. Private Dancer
8. We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)
9. Let's Stay Together
10. Undercover Agent for the Blues
11. I Can't Stand the Rain
12. Steamy Windows
13. Givin' It Up for Your Love
14. Better Be Good to Me
15. Addicted to Love
16. The Best
17. What's Love Got to Do With It
18. Proud Mary
19. Nutbush City Limits
20. On Silent Wings
21. Something Beautiful Remains

Cyndi Lauper setlist:

1. Ballad of Cleo & Joe
2. I Drove All Night
3. Time After Time
4. You Don't Know
5. Sisters of Avalon
6. Money Changes Everything

Tina Turner died today at age 83. There's nothing I can write about her life that hasn't been documented better elsewhere: her rise to fame, her abusive marriage, her time in the entertainment wilderness, her magnificent comeback. 

So I will merely say this:  thank you for a heckuva show. RIP. 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown, the only NFL rusher to average more than 100 yards per game for his career, and arguably the greatest player in NFL history, has died at 87.

 His playing career preceded my birth, and my memory of him is completely unrelated to his athletic life: I know him as Ruffo, the mercenary friend of Rod Taylor in the graphic 1968 action movie Dark of the Sun.  

 RIP

Dog

How To Blow Up a Pipeline (FILM)

I hope you've heard about this movie before reading this post, because I'd hate to be responsible for spreading awareness of its existence. 

There's been a lot of buzz about the movie, from praise at the Milwaukee Film Festival to warnings from construction companies to increase their vigilance in the wake of the screenings. 

I wanted to see it for myself, to know if it was just another fabricated controversy, like Ozzie Osbourne leading your children to Satanism, or if there was actual meat on the bone. 

Sadly, the movie lives up to the warnings. 

How to Blow Up a Pipeline is a film about a group of like-minded young people, who, at least on the surface, are united in their despair about global warming and ecological damage, to the point where they attempt to blow up a gas pipeline in Texas.  

I say "on the surface" because the rationale driving many of the characters is pretty threadbare. One character blames her illness on a refinery, and there's an angry Texan furious that his land was taken via eminent domain by an oil company. But the others just seem to gravitate to the project. One woman joins, despite opposing the plan, merely to appease her lover. 

At no point does the script appear to even care to explain their motivation in anything but the most cliche and superficial terms because the audience is presumed to accept their participation as a necessary and natural action. Unbelievably, in the context of the movie, we sort of do.  

The film as a whole is a propaganda piece uninterested in nuance or alternate views; when an  objection is made on screen, it is quickly and wholly dismissed as weak, cowardly, and insufficient to the matter at hand.  Terrorism, the group routinely states, is the only means of achieving the goal (though the overall goal remains strangely ambiguous - to inspire copycats, sure, but to what end?). The group proudly attaches the label of "terrorist" to themselves. After all,  so they muse, MLK and Jesus were terrorists, their violence was probably just forgotten after their success, right? 

All well and good if you agree on the problem, I guess. But there's nothing  on screen, no Grand Evil, that's *unique* to the climate crisis. I'd argue the same script could, with mild revisions, be used to present a film advocating the bombing of abortion clinics, livestock farms - or office towers in southern Manhattan. 

Now this isn't a documentary on bomb production. I'm sure you could find more information about that in 15 minutes online than you could gleam from the movie. No one is going to learn how to attack a pipeline from this, nor will it inspire a normal person to enlist in such an effort. 

Where the danger lies is this: as a movie, as a thriller, as a piece of entertainment, the film WORKS. It is well done and entertaining and most of the time you gloss over the dangerous rants because you're invested in the outcome. You walk away just a bit blase about the whole "terror" aspect. I'm not sure that's a good thing. 

SPOILER: I do think the final ten minutes of the movie, in which it devolves into a poor imitation of The Usual Suspects or Oceans 11 in an attempt to show just how much smarter the plotters are than law enforcement, nixes a lot of the goodwill the group has built with the audience. Fairy tale endings, devoid of any consequence for your actions, just don't ring true, and it drags the viewer abruptly out of the story. END SPOILER

I am a fierce defender of free speech, be it good or bad,  and not for one second do I think this shouldn't have been made or that it should be banned. 

But I do wonder at the wisdom of making it, and of the value of using art to encourage violence. 

On a Sea of Glass and There's Something Alive on the Titanic

For most of my life I've read a minimum of 52 books a year, and I often watched upwards of 150 movies a year too - and that while raising a family, working, and attending classes. 

That was then. 

Now? I recently finished reading my first book in over a year, and even that took me months to finish. I rarely watch a movie. And there have been weeks where I haven't turned on the TV. I also do not write,  ride my bike,  go regularly to Mass, or do pretty much anything I once considered routine and Danny-like. 

I'm sure it's a sign of some deep underlying depression, but if so I don't consciously feel it, and it may just be a big innocent lull. 

Time will tell. 

Anyway, that first book in over a year?  On a Sea of Glass: The Life and Loss of RMS Titanic by Tad Fitch, J Kent Layton, and Bill Wormstedt. 

It is a detailed, 930-odd page (in epub at least) history of the Titanic from conception through the discovery of the wreck. When I say "detailed," I mean there is an appendix debating what the exact time of Titanic's departure was on its maiden voyage, down to the minute; discussions dissecting the timeline of survivor's accounts, comparing it to those of other witnesses and adjusting the accuracy accordingly, etc. Generally, the book displays a love, even adoration, for the minutiae of the ship. 

Just by presenting the facts many of the myths of Titanic are destroyed: Ismay was neither a coward nor an overbearing snit; 3rd class passengers were segregated aboard ship in part because they were subject to immigration laws, not because of the snobbery shown in Cameron's epic (tho', as the era's equivalent of a passenger jet, accommodations were divided by class); the infamous coal bunker fire was routine for the day, etc. 

There were also flaws with the ship, as you'd expect on a maiden voyage. The heating in second class was problematic, making some staterooms a sauna while leaving the majority a chilly icehouse. The public rooms, even in first class, were bitter cold when the ship reached northern waters. And there were innocent mishaps too: a first class woman fell down the grand staircase and broke her arm - up to the sinking, it was apparently the talk of the ship. 

It's a great book, and worth your time. 

* * * 

On the heels of that, in an effort to keep my momentum going, I read There's Something Alive on the Titanic by Robert Serling (the brother of The Twilight Zone creator and host). It is, forgive me, an atrocious novel. Skip it. 

Vida Blue

RIP to the great Oakland pitcher, three time World Champion, Vida Blue.

Lisa and Smiley visit Tupelo Honey

Vigilance

Yesterday Smiley sent me these photos of our doggos diligently protecting our homestead.

The dangerous subject they were watching? THIS guy:

A Disturbance in the Force

A few days ago I saw a Facebook post advertising a unique event: a showing of the documentary "A Disturbance in the Force" as both the closing film of the Milwaukee Film Festival AND a celebration of May the 4th. 

I don't go out very often lately, but this was worth the effort. My friend Tre and I arrived at the Oriental, tickets in hand, to find a line that stretched down the block and around the corner. 

 

Once inside, a first: I got to sit in the balcony at the historic theater. And it is quite the beauty. 

 By the way, this was allegedly the first sell-out of the theater since Covid.

The documentary traces the creation of the infamous 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special, and the impact it had on fandom. I found the film funny, informative, and well worth the watch. 

Afterwards there was a Q &A with the director, and then Tre and I headed over to Axe Mke to catch up over a drink. 

A nice way to spend an evening!

Some Fresh Art

Kestdaddy

So Keston Hiura wasn't claimed on waivers (idiots abound) and was outrighted to Nashville March 28th. Here's what he's done since then: 

.333/10/26 with an OPS of .394 and an OPS of 1.118 - oh, and he's been Player of the Week three out of the last four weeks. 

Now the argument goes that his performance wouldn't necessarily carry over to the bigs, and I agree, at least as far as Milwaukee goes. The Brewers have s*it him up so bad that I doubt success is attainable for him here. But in a different system, if he can shake off the Brewers handling of him . . . well, I think he'd thrive. 

I hope he gets the chance. 

Gordon Lightfoot

Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian singer/songwriter who immortalized the doomed Great Lakes freighter Edmund Fitzgerald, died yesterday at age 84. 

RIP, and may the crew of the Fitzgerald guide you home. 

On God

I wish it wasn't so popular to consider people who believe in God less intelligent. Some of my closest loved ones don't believe, and I definitely don't consider them less intelligent because of it.

You believe or you don't.  I guess it just boils down to a feeling within. I feel God is real, I have felt his love in the hardest of times my entire life. I don't believe any of this was a mistake or unplanned and I believe I am more than my body and my soul will live on.

You can't choose how you feel internally about if there is a God but you CAN choose how you treat and talk about others who feel differently than you. - Lisa