Post-Thanksgiving Greetings

During the long (extra long for me since I took last Wednesday off from my day job) Thanksgiving weekend, I had free HBO, Showtime, and other premium cable channels, so I binge watched a lot of stuff including the second season of The White Lotus. What a hot mess that show is (and I'm here for it)! I enjoyed the first season, particularly Murray Bartlett who (rightly) won an Emmy for his performance as the hotel manager, Armond. 

The second season of The White Lotus has whole lot of messiness: hookers, married couples who are supposedly friends but really seem to hate each other, a sour wife, a sleazy husband, a suspected rent boy, a questionable "uncle and nephew" (insert laughter here) relationship, a frustrated lesbian, bad lounge singers...the list goes on. Unfortunately, my free HBO cut off after Monday, so I won't be able to see the final two (?) episodes unless my cable provider gives me another free weekend soon. (Maybe I'll get lucky over Christmas.) I can watch stuff like this all day long. So entertaining. Say what you want about Mike White, but he knows how to provide interesting dramas for TV. 

SMH

I'm shaking my head once again over the actions on a nut job who shot and killed innocent people. This time the tragedy happened in Colorado at Club Q, a hotspot for the LGBTQ+ community. Folks are out trying to live their lives and have a good time and some psycho comes in with a gun and shuts everything down. People are killed, people are injured, lives are destroyed. And for what? Because some guy is depressed or angry at the world or with his family? Give me a break. Better yet, lock him up! I've said it before and I'll say it again: some folks can't be saved. Lock them up and throw away the key. I'm all about rehabilitation and I understand that mental illness is real. However, I also understand that we can't coddle murderers. Do the crime, do the time. People need to reach out for help, not for a gun. These psychopaths need to stop taking their distress and unhappiness out on innocent people. 

With the Thanksgiving holiday quickly approaching, we all should be thankful for the things we have in life, for the people we love, and for living another day in this world because, sometimes, with all of the bad news around us, that's hard to do.

Step Aside!

My post last week encouraged folks to vote and it seems that they did! The expected red wave didn't happen, but Republicans will control the House of Representatives next year and the Democratic control of the Senate is razor thin, so the Dems shouldn't be celebrating either. 

Nancy Pelosi will finally be stepping down as Speaker of the House. She should have stepped down some time ago, in my opinion. I hope Hakeem Jeffries replaces her as Minority Speaker next year. I don't think Pelosi did a bad job as speaker, but she stayed in the job too long. Like a lot of folks in government across both parties (McConnell, Graham, Feinstein, Schumer, Durbin, etc.), these people need to retire already and let someone else have the job. They've stayed in government too long. I know they keep getting elected and that's the fault of the people in their districts, but they also don't seem to know when to step aside. Their egos and selfishness have caused a lot of the gridlock we see in government. Sadly, many of these folks are too concerned with holding onto whatever power they have instead of serving the people of their districts. 

Vote!

Tomorrow is election day, so get out and vote (if you haven't already). I voted last week since we have early voting in my state. God help us if the Republican candidate wins for governor here. Darren Bailey (aka Gomer Pyle) would sink Illinois if he won. I'd seriously have to consider moving and I really don't want to move again right now. So many nutjobs are on the ballot around the country. I'm worried about my former home state of Pennsylvania with the whole Fetterman/Oz situation. (Fun Fact: I actually was in the audience for an episode of Dr. Oz's show years ago when I worked in NY. Two friends and I got tickets. I never even saw the actual show when/if it aired. I don't even remember what the topic was. Weight loss, I believe. But I digress.) The Keystone state (the Philly area in particular) needs to come out strong for Fetterman. Does Oz even actually live in Pennsylvania, or does he just own a house there? Ugh. 

I just read today that Nikki Haley said Raphael Warnock (who's running against concussed Herschel Walker) said Warnock needs to be "deported." Girl, bye. Hey, Nikki/Nimrata/Whatever, how about you self-deport and save us all from hearing her mouth. Warnock was born and raised in the US and his family probably stretches back for many years in this country, unlike hers. And, lo and behold, Warnock uses his real name and doesn't try to present himself as someone of a different race, unlike phony-baloney Nikki/Nimrata/Whatever. The nerve of that woman. South Carolina rears its ugly head again. I can't believe I wasted 9 months of my life there in the 90s. Ugh again. 

But I say all of this with the hopes that everyone who can vote gets out their and votes. Have your voice heard! Democracy is at stake in this country. No matter how things shake out, at least after tomorrow the never-ending political ads will stop (at least until the next election cycle). 

Post-Vacation Greetings

My week-long vacation ended a week ago today and I'm still mourning the loss of sleeping until I felt like getting up, walking on the beach, putting my feet in the warm Gulf water, and thinking/worrying about things other than my day job, COVID, the world! I had a great time in Gulf Shores, Alabama and look forward to going back again next October for my time share week. It was very relaxing and a much-needed break from everything.

This week has been filled with a lot of noise but some good stuff too:

1. 2010: This was the year I did two things: I deleted my Facebook page and got off of Twitter. (I was only on Twitter for about 3 days, but I dumped it anyway.) With Facebook/Meta tanking and Elon Musk taking over Twitter, I think I made the right decision twelve years ago. There were times when I considered going back to Twitter (not Facebook because Zuckerberg is the devil), but I never did and now, with Musk owning it, I know I won't. Some years ago, I watched a movie called Beauty about a crazy South African guy. I think about that movie whenever I read about Musk. I see similarities between the psycho main character and the Tesla/Twitter guy. Ugh. 

2. Voting: I did early voting this week and I'm glad I did. (Too bad these annoying political commercials will be sticking around for another couple of weeks.) I've done my part to try and stop these nutjobs from taking over women's reproductive rights and a whole host of other issues in my state. If the hammer comes down, don't come crying to me if you didn't vote and didn't do your part. This is what democracy looks like, folks. Get out and vote! Have your voice heard!

3. Chris Pine: While I was on vacation last week, actor Chris Pine was on my mind a lot and I watched a lot of You Tube videos with him. He's quite funny. This week, I watched two movies he starred in: Hell or High Water (on Netflix) and All the Old Knives (on Prime). Both movies were good, but Hell or High Water really excelled. So much testosterone! Chris Pine with a Texas accent, looking sleazy and trashy, yet sexy at the same time. I loved it! Plus, Jeff Bridges! Chris and actor Ben Foster had such great chemistry as bank-robbing brothers. I really enjoyed this one and highly recommend it. 

One more shot to remember the beach...

Needed Break!

I'm taking a much-needed vacation break this week to do some writing, reading, and relaxing. My day job has been killing me lately, so I'm glad to be away from that hot mess for a few days. I've been trying to write and work on something new involving some characters I've written about previously. I want to write a stalker story, but I can't seem to get it together. I'm trying once again to make that happen. Hopefully, the beach will help to give me some inspiration.

Out of Touch

I've been reading a lot lately about the poor box office numbers for the gay rom-com Bros (and I wrote about this movie in my last post), but I've got more to add on the subject. The marketing campaign for this movie has been a master class of what NOT to do to convince people to see your film and that alone has been amazing to watch (for me anyway). You don't put out a trailer for a movie that insults the very audience you want to attract. The geniuses behind Bros put out a trailer where a bunch of the movie characters are sitting around laughing and agreeing with a character who says something to the effect of straight people being over ("they had a good run"). Then Eichner gets angry and blames straight people for not showing up to see his film. If someone basically insults me in the trailer of the movie, then why would I spend my money to see that movie? The trailer is supposed to make people want to see a film, not alienate them from it. I can take a joke, but maybe don't put that insulting sentence in the trailer when you're trying to bring straight people into the theaters to see it. Every thing is not for everyone, but why come out of the gate with insults? And Eicher's general meltdown when the film didn't meet its financial expectations didn't help matters either. I said it before, but it bears saying again. Eichner contributed largely to the failure of this movie. He did. Sorry...not sorry. Come at me, BRO! I doubt I'll even watch it when it's available on streaming because he's so off-putting. He's out of touch with what's going on in the world (Covid is still around, folks) and he's delusional about his appeal to the masses. 

Moving on. I consider myself to be someone who's also out of touch with some things going on in the world. Case in point: Harry Styles is in Chicago for a number of concerts this weekend and I was watching groups of fans camped out for tickets earlier this week. First, I didn't realize people still camped out for tickets. I thought everything was done online these days. Second, the Styles fan base is serious. I knew the guy had a huge following from whatever boy band he used to be in, but his solo career has certainly reached new heights. I don't get it, but I'm not meant to get it. I'm not that demographic and that's okay. Again, every thing is not for everyone.