I've Seen This Movie Before

I saw Joker this weekend and while it was droning on for two hours, all I could think was that I've seen this movie before and it was called The King of Comedy. Until the Joker embraced his joker-ness in the last half hour of the film, all I got was a lot of maniacal laughing, smoking, and witnessing someone mentally break down. Now if that's entertaining for you, Joker is your movie. It wasn't for me. I do think the outrage over the violence in the film was uncalled for. I've seen more people killed on TV cop shows. In fact, I saw more people killed in a trailer for the next Terminator movie than I saw killed in Joker. Let me also say that I haven't seen a Batman movie since Michael Keaton was the caped crusader so I'm not exactly the demographic for this kind of movie, but when I saw the trailer, I wanted to see the film. I just wish it had been better. (Nice shots of the Bronx though and I did enjoy Joaquin's dance sequences.)

Helping or Hurting?

I watched a man take a picture of a guy who was sleeping on the purple line of the L this morning. I assumed (as I'm sure the picture taker did) that the sleeping guy was homeless. He had his backpack and was stretched out across two seats. The guy who took the sleeping guy's picture on his phone then proceeded to text it to someone. The guy was sitting next to me so I witnessed the whole thing. I didn't see what he texted (I didn't want to be too obvious) but I assume he was making some derogatory comment about the sleeping guy. Then again, maybe he was texting a friend to say, "No one should have to sleep on the train like this! It's an outrage that there are so many homeless people on the streets!" But the cynic in me doubts this guy had any sympathy for the homeless guy.

Now I have my own issues with the homeless panhandling and stinking up the train cars and sleeping across multiple seats on the L. However, I would never take a picture of a homeless person to make fun of him/her. That's just mean and cruel. The thing that killed me about the guy taking the picture this morning was that he smelled like he'd crawled out of a bottle. Yeah, at 7:00 AM that dude smelled like he'd been drinking all night. He looked clean, ready for work, etc., but your pores don't lie! If you drink like a fish, that alcohol seeps out of you even after you've showered. I've smelled it before and I smelled it again today. Maybe the photographer had a drinking problem. Who was he to judge someone else who fell on hard times? He should try getting some help for himself and stop taking pictures of strangers on the train.

More Ridiculousness

In this week's tale of ridiculousness, California's power company PG&E decided to cut power for a huge amount of people to avoid forest fires. And what are people supposed to do instead? Light candles? Yeah, that will help to avoid fires. What a terrible business decision and this is something you know wouldn't happen in a place like New York or Los Angeles. Can you imagine power being cut in New York because Con Ed ordered it? No subways. No lights. No nothing. Yeah, I can't see it either. The powers that be wouldn't allow it to happen.

In more ridiculousness, I keep reading about people lamenting Shepard Smith's departure from Fox News. Cry me a river. This guy stayed with that network for many years and made a lot of money from Fox and its foolishness, lies, and sheer ridiculousness, yet I'm supposed to be upset that he left (or was pushed out) of his job? Please. The same goes for those blondes (Kelly and Carlson) who filed lawsuits against the company. How long did they suckle on the Fox teat before finally growing a spine? Too long. The same goes for the folks at NBC who covered up for Matt Lauer and Lauer himself. F all these folks. Don't tell me no one knew what was going on there. I'd have more respect for people who were honest and said they didn't speak up because they needed their own jobs and feared retaliation.

The Politician

I watched the first episode of Ryan Murphy's Netflix series "The Politician" over the weekend and now I'm hooked! Six more episodes to go! The main thing I'm enjoying is the relationship between Payton and River. There's so much going on there. I wish the show focused primarily on that, but I'm sure they wouldn't be able to squeeze eight episodes out of their relationship alone. (I'm not that enthusiastic about the other plot involving Infinity's illness and her crazy "Nana.") The actor playing River (David Corenswet) looks like a young Rupert Everett (way before he went crazy with the plastic surgery). He's adorable and very good with Ben Platt. Even though I can't stand watching Goop, I have enjoyed the scenes involving her and her awful twin sons on the show. Those guys are great. You get a double dose of douche!

I don't always gel with Murphy's stuff. I only made it through two seasons of American Horror Story (the first one, that I thought was the best, and the one involving the 2016 election that started good, but fizzled out). I couldn't get through the first season of "Pose" either. It just wasn't working for me. (Sorry, Billy Porter!)

Big Mouth Strikes Again

In the latest hot mess orchestrated by Donny T. and the Funky Bunch, Donny shoots off his big mouth (again) and says something he shouldn't have and wants to blame others for exposing the stupid stuff he said. The words came out of his big mouth, yet he's angry because someone told on him. This guy is such a disaster. He wants to be the Godfather of politics, I guess. It's amazing that we have a POTUS who truly doesn't understand (or care to understand) how our government works. This isn't a dictatorship. This is a democracy. Do you know what that means, Donny? Can you even spell democracy? (Probably not.) 

I saw the documentary Where's My Roy Cohn last weekend and found it very interesting. Cohn really did lay the groundwork for the behavior that we see exhibited by Donny. Deny everything. Never admit guilt. Blame someone else. Wash, rinse, repeat. Cohn was a person who hated himself and, therefore, was hateful towards others. And, when he was near death, the people he defended (including Donny) weren't there for him. They abandoned him. But you reap what you sow.