Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

We watched Cloudy With Meatballs last night and it was awesome.  Of course, it was only awesome if you like animated movies for children, which I do.  For one thing, they are movies you can watch with children, and children are fun people to watch movies with, because they don’t all think they are movie critics the way adults do.  My kids are a bit beyond the kids’ movies age, but Isabel was enthusiastic about this one, and only Sam (16) stayed in his room and refused to enjoy the silliness.

Cloudy With Meatballs, in addition to being a kids’ movie, is also a science-fiction movie, which is another genre I love.  Of course, it didn’t delve seriously into the science (water goes in this end, and then it’s converted into food, which comes out here) but, even on Star Trek, the science is mostly big words and magic.  I like those films which take the science more seriously as well  (The Martian, for example.  Also, a lot of the AI films which have come out in the last few years), but not exclusively.
I mean, it would have been interesting if they’d looked at his experiment and said, “Hey, how can we scale this down to a controllable level, mass produce them, get the sale price down, and end world hunger” but, “Let’s turn the town into a tourist trap and make a lot of money” made for a funny film, too, with the ever increasingly fat mayor.
I also liked all his other inventions that they allowed to play a part: the spray-on shoes, the flying car, the monkey translator.
Mostly, though, I think the film probably originated when a bunch of writers went on a pun binge, as writerly types tend to do, and realized that between food puns and weather puns, they could string together a whole movie, and so they did.  And it was funny.

Some things hold up over time.  Some don’t.  I remember watching an episode of Laugh-In, about 10 years or so ago, and being astounded at how bad it was.  It was hard to believe that back in 1970, that had us absolutely rolling on the floor and crying with laughter.  With the 20/20 vision of hindsight, it was downright cringeworthy.  On the other hand, people still Love Lucy, and probably always will.
I am currently rewatching Deep Space Nine, binge watching I guess is what they’re calling it, two or three episodes at a time, more days of the week than not.  It holds up pretty well.  Of course, our perspectives change according to who we are at any given point in time, and a couple of the characters I like better this time around (O’Brien, Odo), and the whole thing seems a bit less profound than it did the first time around, but I’m enjoying it just as much.
Here’s the thing about starship programs, and it’s the kind of thing that if you roll with it it’s all good, but if you’re looking for something more, it can be frustrating:  although they throw in a lot of sciencey sounding words, they tend to examine social and ethical dilemmas of OUR time, rather than exploring the ethical dilemmas we are likely to have in the future.
The episode with the Skreeaa wanting to settle on Bajor was all about refugees, because yes, this has been a big issue for that long.  Keiko and the school on the space station had to deal with the whole church v. state issue when the Kai wanted to shut her down for not teaching the Bajoran prophets.  Quark’s, of course, is the perfect locale to talk about all sorts of vice and petty crime.
I was just watching one where O’Brien was a replicant O’Brien, though, and he couldn’t figure out why everybody else was acting weird, and that was cool.  I already know how I feel about things currently happening on Earth.  I want to know how to deal with being usurped by a replicant.  That’s what will prepare us for the future.

The Ad Astra poetry readings are no longer at Ad Astra, which is kind of a shame, I rather liked the place, but so far (as of one reading) I like the new place O.K., too.
Unlike Ad Astra, the unoriginally but entirely accurately named Cafe Souterrain is in a classic, traditional, Czech brick cellar, which I think should be legally mandated for all poetry readings.

Nice space for it, just about the right amount of seating to be a little crowded.  Good stage, good sound.  The only down side is that it is a regular, happening pub and there was quite a bit of chatter bleeding in from the other rooms.  Not so much that anybody was unheard.  Well, there was the British lady, because she was speaking very softly, but I could even sort of hear her and I liked her stuff.
I was quite pleased with all three of my poems, two of which I just wrote today.  That is the main thing about poetry readings.  I can write to a deadline.  I really have a hard time writing without one.
Also, though, I talked with someone, and we’re planning an artistic collaboration which I don’t want to jinx by talking about it yet.  That was the most amazing development of the evening.

There are moments in politics, and there have been a hell of a lot of them in the past two and a half years or so, when you sit and stare at a headline and think “Fucking high heeled Jesus Christ, it’s even worse than I thought, and I already thought our government was the direct representative of Satan on Earth.”
One of those moments was during the Beck v. DNC trial, when DNC attorneys argued “We are under no obligation to run a fair primary, to not steal what was meant for one candidate and spend it on another, to respect the wishes of our rank and file members.”  Another was when Trump was first elected, and suddenly we started hearing a lot about “Deep State” which is basically a government behind the scenes, and word of its existence actually seemed a bit of a relief because, you know, Trump, but the principle, that no matter who people vote for, the government will still be the government, is shady as fuck.

Another was when we realized that the president could go ahead and hire all his worthless, incompetent relatives (Bobby Kennedy at least had his own political credentials, and Billy Carter never had a job in the White House) and have official government functions at a hotel he owns privately and charge the government for the rooms, and no one will prosecute him for that.
Another one happened a few days ago, when Nancy Pelosi said the DNC will stop doing business with and ‘firms’ who support challengers over incumbents.  “Firms?” I thought, and wondered if they were talking about the people who run the snack stands at the national convention, which struck me as a bit odd, because I would have thought they’d be neutral.  Everybody eats hot dogs, right?  Or maybe she was talking about the companies that print up their brochures, which seems a bit unfair, because they’d lose half their business either way.
But, no, she’s talking about political consultancy firms.  The very existence of such things sounds to me a lot like PACs, and lobbying, and “Think Tanks” (which are mostly just troll farms, internet banks with lots of people making minimum wage or less sitting in a room with excessive lighting, plasterboard walls and folding metal chairs, making shit up and posting it everywhere.  It’s scary as hell to think that political consultancy is actually a business.  Elections R Us.  McVote.
On the other hand, it may turn out to be a hollow threat.  Insurgent progressives can win without anybody spinning their message.  Insurgent progressives can win because they back policies that a clear majority of Americans want.  And insurgents can win because, however entrenched those firms think they are, the people of social media have them outnumbered.
We can do our own political consulting, thank you very much.

I am stuck for a blog topic.  I was thinking of writing about Justin Bieber quitting music, which I’m all in favor of, but it turns out it was just a rumor.  I considered writing about the 57-0 vote against the Green New Deal in the Senate, but a quick look showed that that, too, was deceptive.  Most Democrats voted ‘present’ which is the same as abstaining, which means they didn’t actually vote AGAINST it.  Of course, Manchin and Sinema voted with the Republicans, because they really are Republicans in all but name.  I considered writing about a meme I’ve seen to often, which says something like “everyone is a genius in their own way” but what I have to say about that can be summed up in one sentence:  It only makes sense if you totally change the meaning of the word genius.
So, I’ll just write about my day.  I finished a poem this morning, one I’ve been working on for a while and I’m quite pleased with.  So, I’ll have it ready for my poetry reading Thursday.   I was getting worried.  Then, we went to our usual Italian restaurant for lunch, which was different, I think it’s the first time I’ve eaten there that I didn’t have pizza.  Had a chicken breast stuffed with spinach covered in a cheese sauce.  It was very good, especially the sauce, which was both very cheesy and very abundant.  Came home, but, big lunch and all, a nap was required.  Ordered some of my own books from Create Space so, if anybody wants any, I’ll have them available.  Watched a couple of episodes of Deep Space Nine on Netflix, and then one episode of the OA, which is super confusing and I suspect there are plot holes galore, it’s just that there’s too much going on for anybody to figure it all out.