Not Again

Once again, we mourn the loss of another musical superstar this year. When I heard about George Michael's death yesterday, I was stunned. I knew he'd been ill in the past, but I thought he had recovered. As a teenager in the 1980s, I loved Wham. I had a "Choose Life" sweatshirt and several Wham records. And when George became a solo singer, I still followed him and his music. This year has been terrible for a variety of reasons (celebrity deaths included). I'm sure I'm not alone in being ready to put this year in my rear view and move on from it. Hopefully 2017 will be better, but with the governmental changes coming, I'm not so sure about that. However, I am trying to remain optimistic because, really, what else can you do? Curl up in a ball and refuse the leave the house?

In other non-celebrity-death-related news, I saw the movie Fences yesterday. I was shocked at how crowded the theater was for the movie. Did everyone decide to go to the movies on Christmas? Apparently. The first theater my sister and I went to was sold out so we drove to another theater and were able to get tickets. The movie was great (albeit a little too long) and the performances were powerful. I hadn't read the August Wilson play before seeing the movie, so I had no idea what was going to happen in the film and I'm glad I didn't know ahead of time. I went from having sympathy for Denzel Washington's character to wanting to strangle him for being such a hard-ass. My only real complaint was that the kid who played the younger son in the movie just wasn't up to par with the other actors. He couldn't hold his own against Denzel and Viola Davis and I wish a more seasoned young actor had been cast in his place. Maybe Michael B. Jordan would have done a better job with the role.

RIP, George Michael.