Random Thoughts

Two things I've been giving a great deal of thought to over the past week are (1) the governor's race in Illinois and (2) Billy Eichner's new movie Bros which (full disclosure) I haven't seen.

So, let's start with the governor's race. Our choice in Illinois is between the current Democratic incumbent, JB Pritzker or the downstate Republican challenger, Darren Bailey. For me, the choice is obvious. There's no way I would ever vote for a pro-Trump, MAGA, pro-life farmer who wants to force his hard-core religious views on others. Bailey and his wife run a "Christian" school that uses educational materials provided by Bob Jones University. Ugh. Hard pass. I can't wait for the election to be over and done with so I don't have to keep seeing commercials with Bailey and hearing his Gomer Pyle voice. God help us if he actually wins. I don't think it'll happen, but stranger things have happened. We did have Donny T as POTUS for four years, so what do I know?

I watch a number of gay-themed movies because I write gay-themed books. Sadly, a lot of the gay movies that are out there are not great. There are some really good ones, but for every good one, there are three awful ones. Still, I'm always on the lookout for gay films. When I read about Bros and watched the trailer, I figured I'd pass. Why? Mainly because Billy Eichner isn't the kind of leading man I want to see in a gay film. I need to leads to interest me and Billy just doesn't. I enjoy the occasional Billy on the Street segment, but to watch this guy as the lead in rom-com? No. In fairness, his co-star, Luke MacFarlane, doesn't do it for me either. I felt the same way about the lead actors in the film Fire Island that came out earlier this year. I think the problem with both movies is that the leads (who also served as writers) felt that they could do double-duty. Unfortunately, a lot of the gay-themed movies I've seen over the years suffer from the same problem. Just because you wrote the script (or co-wrote it) doesn't mean you're the best person to be the lead actor in the film. It's hard enough to get a gay-themed movie out there, but you'd sure as hell better have lead actors who have the looks and the acting chops to put asses in the seats and eyeballs on the screen. Lest someone think I'm being hard only on gay movies, I feel the same way about heterosexual movies. When I looked at the lead actors and the trailer for the film Licorice Pizza, I had no desire to watch those folks in a feature film. If Hollywood is going to sell me a fantasy, they'd better bring some actors who can make me believe that fantasy.

Not the Wawa!

My sister sent me a video recently of some bad-assed kids in Philly tearing up (and stealing from) a Wawa. It broke my heart! One of the things I enjoyed about living in Philly and South Jersey was the Wawa convenience store. They had good coffee, ATMs that didn't charge a fee (at least back when I was living in the area), and tasty breakfast sandwiches. We didn't have Wawa stores in Michigan where I grew up and I became an instant Wawa fan when I moved to the East Coast. To see a Wawa vandalized by a bunch of juvenile delinquents made me sad and angry. I hope they catch every one of those kids and throw the book at them. Consequences and repercussions, folks. Do the crime, do the time. 

What is wrong with people? Ugh.

Guilty Pleasures

As I've gotten older, I've let go of the idea of reading books or watching movies that I'd be ashamed to admit to others that I actually liked (i.e. guilty pleasures). I firmly believe you should read what you want to read and like what you like. My current guilty pleasures are the low-budget Bad Ben films. I've watched three of them now (Bad Ben, the Haunted Highway, and the Mandela Effect) and every one made me laugh. The guy who made the films (named Tom Riley in the movies) is such a crackup. His accent reminds me of Philly and South Jersey where I lived for a time and the movies are so ridiculous. We all need a break from the gloom and doom that's filling the airwaves lately and my escape from all of that is stuff like Bad Ben. I fully realize I have a low-grade sense of humor. I'll laugh at just about anything. I sent the trailer for the first Bad Ben movie to someone I work with who thought it looked awful. Whatever. He's too high-brow to appreciate the genius of Bad Ben. (I also enjoy Svengoolie movies that come on Saturday night.) I like what I like and I'm not ashamed of it!

Who Has the Time?

I've been spending far too much time watching stuff on Netflix and I have some thoughts:

1. Echoes: Why did this have to be 7 episodes when 4 or 5 would have been sufficient? I only really watched to see Matt Bomer. His beard is coming in gray now. Wow! I don't know why that surprised me. He's in his 40s now. I don't know why he was in the hot mess that is Echoes, but he did the best he could with his part. Couldn't they have gotten a young man who looked a little like him to play the younger version of himself? The guy they chose looked nothing like Matt. The same goes for the actors they had playing the twins. And Michelle Monaghan looked too old to be Matt's wife. They're probably close in age in real life, but she just looked so much older that it was off-putting for me. She also wasn't cute enough to be Matt's wife. Sorry...not sorry. 

2. The Girlfriend Who Didn't Exist: While watching this documentary about Manti Te'o and the guy who catfished him, I kept wondering, Who has the time to do something like this? I have never understood how people who basically cyber-stalk others have the time to do so. Don't they have jobs? Don't they need sleep? Don't they have to run errands and do cleaning? I don't get it. 

3. Untold: Operation Fragrant Foul: After watching this documentary, I still don't understand why Tim Donaghy did what he did. He had a great job, he was respected in his job, and he was basically living a good life and he threw all of that away for (if it's to be believed) not much money. His downfall started when he kept close ties with some neighborhood hoods he'd grown up with. Those guys didn't have anything going on for themselves. They were small-time crooks and he let his relationship with one guy in particular bring him down. It's not even sad, it's pathetic. I got the feeling his so-called "friend" actually wanted to pull the rug out from under him and wasn't a friend at all. But the friend isn't to blame. He may have opened the door, but Tim walked right through it and kept on walking until his crimes caught up with him.

And last, but not least (and totally unrelated to Netflix), RIP to the Queen. I was talking to my sister and the monarch's death and how she's only Queen I ever knew. She's been Queen longer than I've been alive and I'm not 20 or 30 (or even 40) years old. She had a good run. As an American, I have never had much interest in the Royal Family. I could care less about what they do, who they do, etc. Even the whole Harry/Meghan thing doesn't interest me (and there's an American involved). But I know how it is to lose a mother and a grandmother and I'm sorry for that family and for their loss.

Bubbly...Nine Years Later

Do you remember what you were doing the night of September 29, 2013? I do! I was at a Michael Buble concert at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, NY. Now, nearly ten years later, I went to yet another Buble show last night in Roseville, IL at the Allstate Arena. Other than seeing Leslie Odom, Jr. last December in Chicago, I haven't been to a concert. Covid has held me back from major inside gatherings, but I made an exception a week or so ago when I saw a commercial about Buble's concert on TV one Sunday morning. I decided to bite the bullet and see him. I enjoyed his Brooklyn show nine years ago. He's a true entertainer and he knows how to keep the crowd engaged and put on a show that's worth the money. He didn't disappoint last night either (although I could have done without the small Elvis tribute...not a fan). His version of "Cry Me a River" brought tears to my eyes. The orchestra, the arrangement, everything was great.  He also did many of his hits ("Home," "Everything," "Sway") in addition to some new songs. We all need a break from non-stop doom and gloom and Bubbly fit the bill for me to break the cycle of darkness. I wore a mask throughout the show although most people didn't. Every time someone coughed around me, I worried that I was sitting in a Covid haze of bacteria, but there's nothing I can do about it now. 

Lost Ollie

It's been a long time since something I watched drove me to tears, but that's what happened when I watched the end of the series Last Ollie on Netflix this weekend. Lost Ollie is similar to Toy Story because it's about a kid's toy (Ollie, a rabbit) who's separated from his kid (Billy) and goes on a quest to be reunited with him. But Ollie's journey to be reunited with Billy wasn't what made me cry. I cried because of the other plot line that involved Billy's mother's illness. No spoilers, but watching Billy try to handle his mother's illness from cancer and his reliance on his little toy bunny Ollie made me cry. Having lost my own mother to cancer many years ago (although I wasn't a child when it happened) and then witnessed the characters in the series deal with this brought back a flood of emotions for me. I didn't expect to be so moved by Lost Ollie. I started watching the series because I'd read about it on NPR and knew that Jonathan Groff was voicing the character of Ollie. Being a Groff fan, I tuned in. 

In addition to being a tear-jerker, this series was also dark in a way I didn't expect. It's not really for young kids. But the overarching message of still having memories of lost loved ones is universal and can be appreciated by many people across many ages and other demographics. I was also surprised to see Ollie and his pals Zozo and Rosie board the Belle of Louisville boat during their travels. I saw that same boat when I was in Louisville a few months ago.

Pressing Problems

This has been a bad week for my blood pressure. Every day so far has seemed to be filled with one annoying thing after another. Mainly, the annoyances have come from my day job. For example, I sent a Zoom meeting notice to a number of people, and one person (let's call her Beth) sends me a note that says, "I forwarded your invite to (let's say Joe) since he needs to attend." Beth is Joe's manager. However, Joe was invited to the meeting just as Beth was. I told Beth this and sent her a screen shot of the meeting invite that showed Joe's name right next to hers on the email. She said she didn't realize he had been invited. No apology for her mistake either. She's annoying and I feel like she's the kind of person who just wants to start some shit with me. It's unfortunate because we used to be friendly, but now we barely speak. Whatever. Leave me alone, Beth! Worry about your own unhappy employees and get out of my life!

I keep getting fliers in the mail from some Realtor for the woman who used to live in my apartment. The fliers are addressed to the former resident (let's call her Beth also) Beth or to the Current Resident (me.) Okay, Beth hasn't lived here in almost four years and I'm not interested in this guy's services. The post office keeps leaving this junk mail for Beth in my box. I normally just throw it away, but I want my address removed from this guy's mailing list because I'm sick of getting his mail. His fat little face and beady little eyes are on every single piece of mail he sends and it annoys me. I've contacted his office via mail, email, and phone and asked for my address to be removed, yet the mail keeps coming. What do you have to do to stop the junk? Frustrating. I know there are more pressing problems in the world, but this is pressing to me.  

Every freaking day, there's news about someone getting robbed, stabbed, shot, run over, etc. in Chicago, yet Mayor Lori Lightfoot seems to be in denial about the problems in the city. She's lobbying for the Democrats to have their next convention here. Really? Clean up your house, Lori, before inviting others over for a visit! And when is the police chief going? He should have hit the bricks a long time ago. Lightfoot strikes me as the kind of person who won't admit that changes are needed because her pride is in the way. That's why she turns a blind eye to criticism and refuses to believe that she made a bad choice in selecting the current police chief. I don't even live in Chicago, but I work there, I go there on occasion (not much lately due to crime and the fact that I'm largely working from home), and I'd like to see the city thrive. I want people (myself included) to feel safe while visiting the city and riding public transit. Changes are needed, Lori!