Hard Core Artists

Ah those days. Those days of before being Left or Right were already decided. I mean the right had such nice things as nice uniforms and nicely choreographed dance steps that could be called marches. While the left limped off into sympathy trips. I would go on to get my uniform, but I knew it was lie.

There is the abortion issue. So far removed from the knowledge that folks with a lot of hormones tend to group together and do things like have sex. This needs apparently needs to be hidden from mass consumption, except in every TV series and movie ever. It tends to make sex by folks way beyond the procreating age, well, profitable. But this consideration is for only old folks until cable news networks need to get involved. So explaining birth control is hidden but sex scandals are all the rage. In the end, no one can tell "kids these days" about birth control but they can preach about who should be the next president of the Untied States. The "left" according to our media input cannot explain the vagaries of sexuality let alone tell a young adult to tell their partner to put a condom on because of cultural considerations-- you see the listener might be Baptist or Muslim.

American Gun Control is a favorite frankly because of all the money around it. The money around it appeals to a lot of Americans because it's not really big money. Thanks to the Second Amendment, which is about people keeping governments from turning them into serfs, gun makers are an exploitative industry. Firearms are so available that folks can't keep their kids from participating in school shootings. And a person can't touch it because it's an Amendment to the constitution of America. Just like Slavery and the 3/5's compromise was actually written in the founding legal basis of these United States. Lord knows, we couldn't outlaw bazookas and assault rifles because they can sell for about half the paycheck of the average shop-keep. In the end, it keeps law enforcement agencies which are not allowed to do their jobs because of this amendment over-employed and looking for something to do. I guess it's all good, but we all know that it isn't.

So where the policing forces of these United States can't do much about armed oppression of minorities, they seem to have found their outlet in making sure our slums are full of suspected murderers and criminals to merit peacekeeping. This policing often leading to death sentences for people that can be accused of misdemeanors according to their State's legal code, and not providing much security for anyone living in those slums, still is the end result signifying LAW AND ORDER for people many miles away so that they can see the TV reports and proclaim that more anti-democratic laws need to be passed.To make sure the futility of reform is underscored, police will provoke riots and encourage looting.

So that leads me to the title of this post, Hard Core Artists. This not a solution to the problems that I have listed above. I use the label to indicate that we must be creative.

Eternals: Kirby was Kewl Before it was Hip

 While I had an encyclopedia of Batman since like 2nd Grade, I never bought a comic book until I came across Jack Kirby's The Eternals in the fall of 1976. I don't even think it was a first issue. As a side note, the second I bought was Kamandi which was being written by Gerry Conway and Chic Stone, not the title's original creator a certain Jacob Kurtzberg (Jack fukking Kirby). These two purchases were like mana from heaven, both delving into ideas that the two biggest movies, Chariots of the Gods and Planet of the Apes, that I had ever seen. This was the start of my love of Kirby and his works, especially the clunky 1970s stuff.

When I saw the trailer for the flik, with its less-than-Kirby looks and feel, I can't say I was overly excited. The focus seemed to be on minor characters mentioned as nods to tropes in various mythologies and then lost by the original author, until Marvel would start rewriting them using the hip and happening authors of the time. The works of these later authors were doing their best to fit the cycle into the rest of the publisher's comic book universe.

Still, the movie release this month happened at the right time. People are getting back out to movie theaters and Peryton and I could really use a dinner and movie night. So almost impulsively, I bought some tickets online mostly to find where in the heck the place was in my new hometown. I should mention there will be SPOILERS in the following text here.

Okay, as in the standard comics to film crossing there is a lot of to be outraged over. Not only was the premise of the Eternals somewhat altered, the Deviants, the essential foils to them, were generic Japanese video game space-holders in action sequences probably done before the movie's script was written. Gone were the analogies between gods and characters from fable and myth to superherodom. Then there was the gender-swapping and repurposing of many of the characters away from Kirby's yarns about them and into new roles that younger, meaning non-Cold War-raised North American males, audiences could find appealing. Can't really say much of the movie looked like it could've been designed by its author-artist. And the overall result was not a bad piece of celluloid at all.

Okay so the Eternals are ageless and nearly indestructible beings that are sent to act as the guardians of terrestrial humanity by the Celestrial, super-dooper big ass beings that kept the universe (as in the physical space) from going falling into entropy. As you'd expect, the main characters mark their time in millennia if not millions of years. Ajak, Ikarus, Thena, Makkari, snd Sersi are lumped in with supporting characters like Phastos, Druig, Kingu, Gilgamesh, and Sprite. Whoever the leader is gets to chat with the god-ish Arishem. These are the young lions that Babylon, the oldest city that the script writers think that anybody would recognize, would use to show order to early humanity. They shepherd our species here and there whenever a spindly, sinewy species that likes to resemble video game doodles of wolves or dragons with eight eyes known as the Deviants wants to eat us.
Well, it's all a sham. The Celestrials use planets of sentient beings as eggs to make omelettes that feed their young. Our characters are not here to establish peace and stability for the perfect civilization to emerge. The Eternals are the dogs which keep the foxes, as long as they're Deviants, away, until the Celestrial infant is ready for its birthday brunch. The immortal heroes die along with their foes and their charges and are rebuilt into new bodies. This iteration of Ajak sees this as wrong and works to undo this brutal ritual using the tools that she has, her compatriots. This is where the fun ensues. There is a good, if not surprising, plot twist, for once, in this movie.

The large cast is the thing I am seeing other ppl criticizing the movie for. I frankly think it works. The comic books always had too many characters and things going on; hive-minds, uniminds, and ultimate judgement being only the more notable ones. The writers, Chloe Zhao, Patrick Burleigh, with Ryan and Kaz Firpo, give each of them something to do in the tale going on around them. I frankly love how the two bigger names, Ma Dong-seok (Don Li) and Angelina Jolie are given roles where they get to phone it in when they need because of the familiarity that they have the roles that they are given.

My disappointment comes from the video game villains that the Deviants are. Okay Kirby's design for them was rather like evil muppets/goblins with a devil thrown in trying to still have an edge. But there are some rather kewl characters like Lord Tode, Kro, Reject and Karkas. The whole Thena/Kro relationship thing could've been a first movie and the events of this film an awesome sequel. I mean sheesh, Kro was voiced by Bill Skarsgard-- I suppose its chic these days to have bigger name, but not too big, name actors doing limited vocabulary (Groot, Shark, and now Kro).

The film does what it's supposed to which is work in the Eternals into Disney's rendition of the Marvel Universe. The gods of Asgard being human-like aliens already stole the science fiction take on mythology that Kirby was striving for with the series. Making them get into the deeper side of world-eaters like Galactus and world-destroyers like the Celstrails or say Annihilator. So things are getting ready for the more Jim Starling take on comic book sci-fi, that is when he wasn't forced to steal Jack Kirby's DC work (Thanos), so he can get wrapped around the axle with his take on religion before it got old and boring, Adam Warlock and the weird things that ensued from there in various comic sagas.

The movie was a Bigfoot on the scale of Smurf to Godzilla. Perhaps the following movies featuring any of the Characters presented here will be full enough of Easter Eggs from the comic books to keep them interesting, but they've kind of painted themselves into a corner story-wise.

Dune '21: New Tale with Old Eyes

 As a guy that read Dune from 6th to 7th grade in the late 70s, I have been lucky enough to have witnessed three takes on the tale. When I say lucky I actually mean it. From David Lynch's take in the 80s, then the Sy-Fy Channel's (then called Sci-Fi) production, with some Jodorowsky's audio/visual scribblings, and finally this latest take by Dennis Villeneuve; it's been great fun. I have been able to not only watch how different productions interpret the book, to watching how the takes are influenced, or not, by each other. In a world of mega-corporation scooping up all brand names, Frank Herbert's quirky little franchise still provides a little fresh air on artistic expression in speculative fiction.

At the same time, I wish I could watch the movie without ever having seen the other films or read the books just to see what I really think of the movie. 

Get over the gender-swap outrage already

 Still I have only my old eyes. Maybe it's being simple, but I have found the latest take to be the most interesting watch. Its focus on characters that are not Paul gave a lived in feel better than any of the dust or heavy-looking equipment lying around on the sets. Characters such as Baron Harkonennen, Duncan Idaho, and Liet-Kynes are given not only a bit of depth but also things to do during the movie. While their portrayals have never been shirked upon by earlier productions, in this movie they have things do and say which are not just setting up the next plot point.

A strong point for me was the pacing of the movie. While true Dune-Fans will bemoan the parts that were left out, I like that when film seemed to be dragging a little, the script moved on to the next bit of development rather than introducing voice overs of the characters' inner dialogs. The deep thoughts might've been decent world-building in the novel but has always come off as sheer exposition in the medium of screenplay. A lot of the Herbet take on his universe is not there, but I already know what is going on. I have to admit, again, that I need to find somebody that isn't familiar with the setting from the books or previous movies to get their opinions.

Most of the Dune universe looks decent in Villeneuve's work. A lot of it reminds of the used paperbacks I read in the 70s and 80s, I believe they were printed in the 60s. Though I don't like the weird-beards of the Sadukar, I found the sequence on Secondus captivating and terrifying. This flick's take on the Harkonnen was the best to date-- Raban and his savagery is given just enough space while the Baron can be viewed as a one time warrior as well as a glutton. The spaceships and whatnot were passable, they were ovals and rectangles, big meh. Thopters were okay. While the battle scenes were thought out, I found them silly, ie. impaled people fighting on after a Constitution Saving Throw because of script-armor bonuses I suppose. 

The long time reader and viewer of Dune in me wonders if the forthcoming second part of this production's two-part film cycle wonders if it is going to fill in the missing parts. At the same time, I wonder what the overall work will look like if the missing parts are just left out. Is Villeneuve making an action and adventure story set in a sphere romance and not concerned about the "deeper" meanings its fandom worries about all the time. Well, only time will tell. Who even knows if the Hollywood system and the Canadian film board will even bother helping get the next movie off the ground at this point?

Comparing the takes, I have commend all the directors by not being overly bound to first the book or then the director(s) before them, still the tale comes out in the tellings. Now this current take may grow on me, I've only watched it once. It's a Loch Ness Monster in the Smurf to Godzilla rating system.

The Deep South

 The really deep south is about being owed. Somehow folks working at convenience stores are subject to the temperamental whims of folks needing lottery tickets regardless of the labor demands for the industry-- at least in the minds of the lottery ticket buyers. But somehow, saying "Sir" or "Mam" in every sentence makes everything okay. Because those assholes are "southern" and that is because how they raised. It's about about being subservient to folks with cash willing to spend or something or another.

Now about the White Supremacist thing about the south, well it's done.  At least on a working class level, there is only distrust between Spanish-speakers and guys wearing Thor's Hammers as a necklace while hitting on 19 year-old women. No one over 24 years old likes like 19 y/o women nor their boyfriends. Wile the rest of us deal with reality.

Only Spot of Disney Marvel TV Worth Mentioning

 

I wish froggies would stop spouting stuff like "heritage" about shows the Marvel Comics Universe when they obviously haven't read enough of the comic books to know who the characters are supposed to be. Instead focusing on who they think should be skinny, white, and/or male.

Case in point, Loki. Not great, but even I, who's read four to six Thor stories in 40 years, glancing at the "female" Loki recognized Marvel's Enchantress character. To be fair, the writers of show seemed not to know it as well as voiced by the TVA around the shows protagonists. I suppose that was Disney's sloppy way, already knowing the Swoon Juicers (SJWs) wouldn't be bothered to read any of the comic books either, of checking a gender-swap box without actually changing anything in the "canon."

 

About the show overall, a big meh. Not as much as a headache as say Wanda Meanders or Captain Falcon. The outside time kitsch was too Douglas Adams/SWAT fetish. Loki too Tom Hiddleston not a compelling anti-hero. The talkiness punctuated fist-fights was too format-machine driven.

 

SPOILER:

 

 

Had the TVA been so uptight about the timeline because of say a history of conquerors waging time/multiversal wars, the last two episodes might've come off as clever. Instead what we got was a poor tribute to the Wizard of OZ with a whole slew of cliche imagery not wrapped too well together.
The Enchantress of course was going to kill the man behind the curtain, the writing had led things to that inevitable point-- the Lokis would not take over control of an institution like the TVA unless the Disney's Marvel wanted to be known for being asinine. Finding out that the man behind everything was the most successful of the TVA's most notorious time bandito-lords, Kang, would have made the finale half way interesting.

Loki as a character was written a little too as a supporting role to whomever else was in the scene. Amping up the conflicts between the characters and showing the TVA struggle with him a bit more would have spiced all those talky scenes.

 

The series overall was cute. A Robo-Monster in the Godzilla to Smurf scheme of things.

The Rise of the Neo-Moderate

My views have not changed since 1984, the politics around me has though. While I have been moving further left from the center of policy done by the Feds and growing amounts of State legislatures, what I want has not changed slightly. Okay, I want single-payer healthcare and decent National Men's Team in international soccer. On top of those two things, getting immigrants that have a job a Social Security card for paycheck legality, regardless of rather pointless immigration standards, would be nice. 

The media mainstream played by cable "news" channels, manipulated by conservative-minded corporate types and their employers, have increasingly started using words such as "feminist," "socialism," and even "bipartisanship" as red flags. Red flags to be waved in front of the listener without much analysis with the expectations of being to stab them in back as they charge at the provided target.

Yes. Yes. I have been pinko from the start. People of color should have their votes counted and unarmed residents of the USA should not have to face the death penalty without representation in courts. At the same time, I believe in the merits of people serving in our military forces and reading the constitution of our United States to base political arguments upon. So it can't be said that I am really that extreme.

So here I am. An "extreme liberal," according to right-wing trolls' definition of polity, I don't support Death-By-Cop of American civilians for a person possibly selling single cigarettes allegedly without appropriate compensation for the state outside of a thrift store in broad daylight.

Though I have had Newt Gingrich as college professor, I'd still become more and more "extreme" in the eyes of One-State GoP.

During at least three decades I've watched the political spectrum be moved by the most disingenuous actors in the process, towards basically what would be a single party system, on the Right-wing of things of course. One thing to say about the last administration, the Dumpster Fire seems to be as far anyone really wants to go.  I am sure the next time around, and still within my lifetime, some assholes will be wanting to go for a little bit more.

Since the late '80s I've watched things swing rightward. While being doled out from the official Democratic National Congress, I am told by the first institutional political party in free America that these guys get me. Funny they didn't do so back when I was "Progressive' back in 1986. They also didn't get me in 1996 when I disagreed with bombing the Serbians, where I was serving as a soldier in that Hazard Zone already. They kind of got it right in 1999 when I supported Al Gore, but by then the One Party GoP was too entrenched to be stopped.

So now, after Trump and his insults towards civility as well democracy, I am told to support the "Neo-Moderate".  Somewhere around the Neoliberal war mongers that were supposed to fix the Middle East, as promised by the right-wing; the Libertarian that promised GOVERNMENT would be out of bedroom; and the Clinton dynasty that assured that racism was dead. The neo-Moderate is going to give me my treasured social security without the over-reach by the police state. Perhaps Joe Biden has not been a opportunistic corporate-lackey. Maybe if he was, perhaps corporation-based politics are thinking that some of my worldview is the appropriate key towards doing some good. Perhaps it's just someone lying to get into a political office and I will be upset later.

I am willing to give this late success to you my "Neo-Moderate" friends. You could be a space holder for rightwing policies or we can start redefining the objectives needing to be attained. At the end, it's about accountability.

Road Song 21

Road Poem Jan '21

Crows along the roadside

Pick at something's last bad decision,

Or was it fate?

I was awake too early.

 

The sun slipped behind my head in Memphis,

No longer needing amber,

I slipped off the glasses

To watch noon-shewn felons pick up litter.

Sleep dragged my eyes towards the firs,

A place to stop and refresh,

I ate like a Mexican,

But drank like a priest in Mississippi.

Sneaky gas pumps,

Locked bathroom doors,

Pointless yelling at clerks,

Alabama always on on the wrong side.

Mother already climbing into the box
Mind all wet and spiky
As an urchin roiling in salt
Poking at our shells and fabric.

I sat around and drank all night,

Until I understood,

It was a bleeding wound,

Though self-inflicted.

Here is the key

Here is the puzzle

Everything that is cast

Did you see that there?

I went down to the seaside
To see bad paintings of the seaside.
Stumbling upon the seaside,
It was no paint-by-number but I made due.

Rain pelted me as I started cutting string

Of events leading to the box.

By Tallahassee the sun.

Reminded me I had yarn yet to spin.

Your waters were indigo, Mobile.

Now your Moon is full.

For all the loops

I am kind of in love.

Mississippi so quiet,

Silver, chill, and shadow

If not for stoplights

I'd have checked my pulse.

Pine Bluff, full of Arkansas smog,
Yet dimming sight made me stop.
It paid off in digits,
I got a hot tub.

Back to the new home.
Back to the strange.
I can stop running,
Begin to set the stars just right.