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.

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.