Patty Duke (1946-2016)

Patty Duke died of sepsis at the age of 69 on March 29th.  She’s survived by her children, Sean Astin, Mackenzie Astin (the children of her marriage to Gomez Addams, aka John Astin,  in the 70s) and Kevin Pearce (son of Michael Pearce, whom she married in the 80s.)

These things always seem to happen in threes.

I’m going to miss Patty. I’ve been following her career since she starred in The Patty Duke show, as a child.

I grew up watching Patty Duke shows and movies because my Mom was a fan. She loved Valley of the Dolls, but wouldn’t let me watch that, as I was too young, so she introduced me to The Patty Duke show, and her movie The Miracle Worker, which became one of my favorite movies. It still is.

Her career has had some ups and downs and I’ve watched some truly awful and boring movies, just because she was in them, like The Swarm, during the 70s. She went through a bad patch during the 80s, with Amityville 4 being her most memorable contribution to cinema during that time for me , (yeah, I watched that too, along with Whatever Happened to Rosemary’s Baby.)

R.I.P. Patty.

 

 

 

 

The Walking Dead : East

It only appears to be a lazy Sunday morning in Alexandria as various couples celebrate their love, including Carol and Tobin and the new couple known as Sashaham. Carol is having some feels while she suffers a major crisis of conscience. Like everything else, she does it on a grandly quiet scale. She never does half measures of anything. After a last night with Tobin, she packs her bags and sets out, stealing one of the Alexandrian cars, that’s been outfitted with large sharp poles to drive away Walkers.

Almost immediately, (approximately 12 miles outside of Alexandria), she encounters a Savior patrol. She immediately goes into what I, at first, think is her helpless babe act, but have since come to believe, may not have been an act. She pleads with them, hyperventilating in terror, while fingering that rosary she stole off a Walker last episode, but it’s a strong possibility that may have been actual terror of what she was about to do, rather than what The Saviors were about to do. Also there’s the  possibility that she knew this would happen. Earlier, we saw her sewing a gun into the sleeve of her coat. Was that just a precaution or was she looking for The Saviors when she went set out? We know Carol has a tendency to be preemptive, so I’m inclined to think just that.

Daryl, hearing that Carol has set off on her own decides, once and for all, that he needs to end Dwight. I had the impression that he’s not just going after Dwight to avenge Denise but to protect Carol as well, should she encounter him.

I can accept Daryl and Carol running off because that’s what they do, but when Rick and the others hare off after them, its a bit much to understand. I get that Rick trusts the Alexandrians to hold down the fort while he’s away, but all of the town’s heaviest hitters decide to run out and chase down the two miscreants. Glenn, Rosita and Michonne run off after Daryl, and Rick and Morgan chase down Carol.

Incidentally, I like how Father Gabriel is coming along as an asset in Alexandria that Rick can depend on. That man has definitely been “Born Again Hard”, as they say. So, naturally, as the one black guy, whose willing to jump into the fray, that means he probably won’t survive. You’ve got two black guys on the show, so one of them has got to die, according to the show’s “Highlander Principle”, of only having one black guy at a time on there. On the other hand, this makes me feel pretty good about Glenn not dying, because he’s the only Asian guy on the show and would have to be  replaced with another, more random,  Asian guy, if he got killed.

On the other hand, this Principle also explains why Denise had to die. You can’t have more than two gay people on a show, and the two who are left can’t be dating each other. (If so, then one of them has to be killed.) I expect Aaron to last for quite some time as he is never even shown talking to his partner.

Morgan and Rick catch up to the aftermath of Carol’s encounter with the Saviors but see no sign of her. I had to agree with Rick about Carol being a “Force of Nature”. He ain’t lyin’. One Woman! Just One! Managed to take out an entire gang of what?  Six or seven of Negan’s men? (Then again, the people left over after the Apocalypse, aren’t necessarily the smartest ones, just the most ruthless.) Rick and Morgan head off across the landscape to find her.

Glenn and the others don’t find Daryl but they do get captured by the Saviors and I’m not surprised asit seemed to be the sole reason the writers took them out of  Alexandria. I mean they all know the Saviors are out there, and Daryl, as a general rule, is pretty good at handling his shit. He doesn’t need to be rescued by the others and their decision put his life in danger. But that ties into the theme for the evening.

Providence- fate, destiny, kismet, God’s will, divine intervention. God or nature as providing protective or spiritual care.

This is the discussion that Morgan has with Rick during their search for Carol. He confesses what happened with the Wolf after the attack on the compound. He believes everyone is entitled to a second chance and essentially argues about providence. If he hadn’t saved that Wolf, that Wolf wouldn’t have saved Denise, who would not have been there to save Carl. Of course he and Rick fail  to see that Denise probably wouldn’t have been in danger,  if Morgan hadn’t saved the Wolf’s life, since it was the Wolf who kidnapped her.

This is much  the same sentiment expressed by Glenn to Michonne, about how they were all simply thrown together, to their luck. Glenn helping Rick so many years ago, led to all the events and decisions that branched off from that.

Daryl argues that if he’d killed Dwight the first time he encountered him, Denise would still be alive. Of course, everyone running off to save Daryl from himself, puts all their lives in danger and in trying to save them, Daryl gets shot.

All of the decisions the characters have been making all season long are starting to catch up to them, from Daryl’s decision to let Dwight live, to Morgan’s decisions not to kill anyone, to Denise’s decision to step up and start hunting Walkers, in an attempt to be brave,  right up to Father Gabriel’s decision to start too.

Are these things fate? Providence? God’s Will?

 

Afterthoughts:

Carl finds a gun with a carving of Negan’s baseball bat, Lucille. This is one of the weapon’s stolen from The Saviors. Why do Negan’s people worship him like that? Or are they worshiping Lucille? Its like some kind of cult.

Maggie and Enid seemed to have bonded as Enid cuts Maggie’s hair. New beginnings, I guess. Later, Maggie appears to have some kind of stomach cramps (although according to Yvette Nicole Brown, from The Talking Dead, that could be due to  the jar of pickles that Enid gave Maggie earlier).

Morgan takes it upon himself to run off to negotiate with Negan’s crew. I understand his philosophy but its simply not one that can work in a world full of Governors and Negan’s, if you want to live. Its why Father Gabriel , Denise and Eugene decided to start fighting Walkers. Its why Glenn is willing to kill people now. A lot of people have decided to turn over new leaves,  and adopt new patterns, since the season beginning. Eugene, Denise, Carol, Father Gabriel, Glenn.

Morgan argues with Rick about providence but he doesn’t just have himself to think about now. Its one thing to have this as a personal philosophy when its only his own life at stake, but despite what happened between Denise and the Wolf, not  being willing to kill  is endangering the lives of  everyone around him.

The theme this week seems to be “To Kill or Not to Kill” on the various shows I’ve been watching, as characters debate the merits of pacifism vs. various forms of violence, and how far should people go in completion of their  goals. I don’t  disagree with people like Morgan, but then I have the luxury of living in a little bubble of the world where that is an option, and no one’s life is at stake except my own, so its very easy for me to practice. It’s a hell of a lot less easy for Morgan to practice this philosophy in a world full of people like Negan.

My vote for who will probably die next is Carol. I think its very possible that Carol’s character arc has reached its end. I get the impression, if she lives, that  the writers will have to focus on someone else’s arc or search for things for her to do. Its possible the writers have said all they have to say about who she was, who she is, and where she’s going.

 

Daredevil Season Two : Episodes 5-8

 

Kinbaku:

This episode is very  Elektra heavy, as it chronicles how the two of them met, and why she left him the first time. I tried really, really hard to like this character and finally concluded that she’s not meant to be likable. Let me be blunt here: Elektra is an asshole. She’s everything I hate in a female character and she even displayed a couple of new qualities I detested.

Anyway Matt, who evinces about as much personality as a hedgehog, in the flashback scenes, is totally smitten with her because she’s a risk taker, who loves danger. I don’t mean jaywalking, or sticking a fork in the toaster  type danger.  I’m talking about stealing cars and beating each other up as foreplay danger. The two of them have less chemistry than Matt and Karen though, no matter how much heavy breathing she and Matt  engage in. (And Elektra does that  breathless talking thing, a lot!) Don’t get me wrong, Elodi Young, as Elektra, is abso-tively gorgeous and her martial arts moves are adequate, but I hate the character. I’m not sure if its the acting, or the horrible dialogue, though. Elodi acts like she’s in a series that’s waaay sexier than the one in which she’s currently starring.

Anyway most of the episode is spent in flashback, as we see Elektra and Matt meet, fight, steal cars, make love, and then the deal-breaker for Matt, breaking into the house of the mobster, (now in hiding), who ordered the death of his father, so Matt can torture and kill him. Matt’s perfectly willing to vandalize the man’s house and beat him up, but killing is going too far, and he declines her invitation to commit murder. Elektra promptly walks out on him. No, really! She acts extremely gleeful about him killing a man, looks completely unhinged while encouraging him to do it, and when he says no to her, she just walks out of the scene.

Ah yeah, incidentally, I’m not impressed by love scenes where the characters grope each other like rabid hamsters. I think that type of acting is meant to convey how they just cant keep their hands off each other, and are in some kind of “people heat”, but I mostly find that kind of shit deeply annoying. (A better love scene would be Richonne’s first, from The Walking Dead.)

I thought, surely, there was a way they could have made Elektra look less batshit, but the writers decided not to go that route, I guess, in favor of making her seem like a version of “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”!

(Otoh: The fight scene where Elektra and Matt meet-cute is still  a thousand times better than the movie version, between Affleck and Garner.)

Back in the present day, there’s some shady business dealings she wants to hire Matt to help her with that involve the Roxxon Oil Corporation and the Yakuza. Once again, Matt has to tell her “no”, but he is willing to spy on her to find out her true reason for coming to NY. There’s some computer hacking involved, and when her business partners discover her involvement, they hire thugs to visit her apartment, where she and Matt are waiting to kick their ass. Matt is there because Elektra has been spying on him too and knowing about his nigh-time activities as Daredevil, stole his suit.

Oh, yeah. Karen and Matt go out on one of the most awkward dates ever. Awkward and gaudy. This scene hurt my eyeballs.

 

Regrets Only:

This episode is mostly about some courtroom type stuff involving Frank Castle, and Matt and Elektra breaking into a building owned by the Yakuza to steal a book. Every step of the way Matt could make different choices but doesn’t. He is seemingly unable to stay away from Elektra and her exciting world of physical danger, even though he keeps saying he wants nothing to do with her.

Karen develops a rapport wit Frank Castle as his trial begins. Reyes, the DA, wants the death penalty but Murdock and Assoc. decide they will represent Frank in court, and perhaps they can unearth exactly what’s wrong with Frank, why his family was killed and what Reyes has to do with any of it. Karen visits Frank’s home. He hasn’t visited his home since his family died.

Matt interrupts his court case to run off with Elektra and  attend a party, break into a vault and steal a book. So not only is he keeping his Daredevil life a secret from Karen, he’s keeping Elektra a secret too. This is not going to end well. Foggy is mortified at having to take on Reyes, by himself, and for the second time they fight about Matt’s extracurricular activities. This appears to be a theme this season. Apparently, Foggy has had enough of this shit.

 

Semper Fidelis:

Things come to a head when Matt reveals his night-time activities with Elektra is what’s distracting him from his court case. Foggy and Karen let him have it about his irresponsible behavior, and their relationships  become strained. As  Matt neglects his duties in The Punisher court case,  Foggy ends up having to do all the work, including the opening statements, which he hadn’t planned.

Matt and Elektra are still running around getting into fights with the Yakuza. These fight scenes were a lot of fun and definitely reminded me of scenes from the books, where Matt fights against dozens of  ninja assailants. But for some reason I couldn’t enjoy them too much because these scenes are interspersed with scenes of Foggy, hard at work, trying to save Frank Castle from life imprisonment.  I kept thinking about all the work Matt was neglecting because he prefers  beating  people up at night. Ah yeah, Elektra is in there somewhere, and she gets wounded.

Incidentally, a lot of the fight scenes are filmed in so much darkness that I have no clue about  Elektra’s fighting style.  I’m used to watching Matt fight and Charlie Cox is always spectacular, but couldn’t get a clear picture of what Elodi Young was doing and hence don’t really remember how she fights. Sadly, the most memorable thing about her is her looks.

I have no idea exactly what Elektra and Matt are trying to accomplish in their endless fighting with the Yakuza, either, as its somewhat murky. Its hard for me to really care about the fight scenes because I’m not entirely sure what all the fighting is about beyond simply fighting. What do the two of them stand for?

I also don’t like Elektra because she  is a distraction from his day to day life, and Foggy rightfully calls him on it. I also suspect she has ulterior motives beyond the reasons she states for showing up in NY and enlisting Matt’s aid. She doesn’t need Matt’s help to do any of the things they’ve been doing, and why now?

If you pay close attention, you can see that Daredevil is a distinct personality, that is mostly separate from Matt Murdock, the lawyer, but you can also see elements of Daredevil’s personality bleeding into Matt’s everyday life. Wonderful acting on Charlie Cox’s part here.

 

Guilty as Sin:

So all is revealed as Matt and Elektra are attacked by ninjas, Elektra is wounded by a poisoned sword, and then saved by Stick, Matt’s teacher and mentor. It turns out that Elektra does have ulterior motives for getting Matt into all these endless fight scenes. She works for Stick and has been assessing Matt’s preparedness to join in Stick’s ongoing war against The Hand.

 

Matt emphatically states that she and Stick are insane and he’s not joining their little war. He  and Stick argue, and Matt kicks Stick out of his home, but not before Karen has a chance to stop by and catch Elektra recuperating in Matt’s bed. Welp! I saw that coming!

Matt does agree to take Elektra back if she leaves Stick alone. Elektra goes to Stick and tells him she’s leaving him for Matt. Before they can go through with any of their plans, they’re attacked by an assassin, who is little more than a child. Matt stops just short of killing him, but Elektra, impulsively slits the boy’s  throat, while a horrified Matt watches.  The first time they had a falling out it was because Matt wouldn’t kill. Til now, he’s been in control of their relationship, and encouraging her not to kill in their many fights. This time their falling out will be because Matt won’t accept her killing people.

He really is a stickler about that sort of thing, even though it strikes me as a bit hypocritical. Beating the crap out of people, breaking their bodies, terrorizing and torturing  them for information, is all okay, but he has to draw the line at killing, because life is precious, or something.

Yeah, okay Matt. But it would be nice if he could draw the line at committing violence. This isn’t  arguing about self defense. Going out and violently inserting himself into situations is something he chooses to do, outside the law, every night. And he thinks it’s okay to do these things  because nobody’s dead by his hand.

Yet.

 

Murdock and Associates lose their court case when Frank takes the stand and purposely blows his own defense. Frank continues to be a puzzle to me. Every time Foggy and Karen try to mount a defense for him, he either deliberately blows it, or refuses to abide by it. Its like he wants to go to prison. I suppose I could see that. After all, he won’t have to look so hard to find the  bad guys and he can beat up as many as he wants.

Foggy blames Matt for their courtroom loss, and Karen ain’t too happy with him, either. Frank goes to jail, where he is led to a meeting with The Kingpin. (Its nice to see D’onofrio again being his usual excellent self.)

So, we’re a little over halfway through the season and things are moving apace. There are some parts of the narrative I really just don’t find very interesting. Or rather, they’re not as interesting as I thought they’d be. One of those plot lines is the one about The Hand. I liked the fight scenes well enough. They’re very exciting but I didn’t care very much about them because they just seem like fight scenes added to have action and with no particular meaning.

But maybe that is the point, to show Matt engaging in pointless action for action’s sake. Nothing gets resolved, no one’s  life is saved, he and Elektra aren’t fighting FOR any philosophy. His fight scenes with her are essentially meaningless, so maybe that means his  relationship with her is essentially meaningless, too. The fighting didn’t become interesting until Stick showed up (or maybe I was just excited to see Scott Glenn).

I’m bored with the Frank Castle/ DA Reyes intrigue, probably because much of it consists of Karen reading, and rustling  papers, or sitting and writing notes, although I like the dynamic that was created between her and Frank. She doesn’t let him bully her and stands her ground with him when he tries to push her away, and I like that. She’s determined to help him. She’s also dealing with the emotional aftermath of killing Wilson Fisk’s Majordomo last season, after he had her kidnapped, and I’m glad the show hasn’t forgotten what happened the previous season.

I’ve developed an amazing respect for Foggy, and Eldon Henson, the actor who plays him. Foggy is a much better lawyer than he thinks he is. I also  like that he’s pushing  Matt to make a decision about what he wants do with his life. Does Matt want to abide by the law, or be a vigilante, like Frank? Foggy’s argument is that Matt cannot serve two masters, or rather, serve one master, badly.

We’ll see how this all plays out in the last five episodes.

 

 

At BGN, ‘All the Pretty Mermaids: Racist Narratives in Entertainment for Children’ — Dark Matters

Click here to read Jahkotta Lewis’s article at Black Girl Nerds. This is stomach-turning.

via At BGN, ‘All the Pretty Mermaids: Racist Narratives in Entertainment for Children’ — Dark Matters

Sleepy Hollow: Dawn’s Early Light

Okay! Great!

This week was a bit more like old times.  Things happened on the show, plots were advanced, people made decisions, got chased by fire , had proper discussions about stuff.

Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I have to admit I’m still not completely sure about the details of the plot this week. Something about Betsy Ross’ flag being guarded by something unkillable called The Eternal Soldier, (because everyone must have a title), because it contains a roadmap to the Catacombs, the only place where The Witnesses can regenerate Pandora’s box.

While this is going on, Abbie’s and Jenny’s father decides he wants to have a closer relationship with his daughters, although Jenny keeps giving him the side-eye, as she probably should, because I’m suspicious of his motives, too. We did not get any Jenny and Joe action this time, although there was some Abbie/Daniel kissage, which is about time, I say.

On the Hidden One/Pandora front, Pandora has finally had enough of the Hidden’s  shit and decided to leave him. Yep! Called it! I knew that sooner or later that selfish git was gonna push his luck with her. At the first opportunity, after he finished torturing her for making a very human mistake, (which she then tried to rectify and make amends for), she ran away. Discovering some backbone, she then sent her astral form to him to let him know what’s what.

Good on her! I knew he wasn’t as devoted to her as he claimed.And of course, torturing your girlfriend for making a dumb mistake several thousand years ago (or a few weeks ago) is a deal-breaker in my book.

Abbie decided Daniel needed to know what shenanigans she and Crane were getting up to, but  didn’t get the chance when The Eternal Soldier chased her and Crane into his orbit, and he discovers all this crazy, Witnessy stuff, the hard way.

Pandora goes to Crane to get him to get help restoring her power, warning him that The Hidden One will be reaching peak annoyance soon. This will require that Abbie go back to the Catacombs and she’s still in recovery from having been in such profound isolation for so long. Naturally, she’s reluctant to return there, but she’ll do it to save the world.

SLEEPY HOLLOW: L-R: Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie in the “Dawn’s Early Light”

Crane figures out how to get back to the Catacombs using Betsy Ross’ flag, the song The Star Spangled Banner, (which I now can’t get out of my brain. Thanx show!), all while being chased by The Eternal Soldier, a huge, skeletal, slimy looking creature, that throws fireballs, although later, Jenny and Joe, nip that stuff with a fire extinguisher. So, it’s nice to see the band back together again.

Okay, there’s some extra stuff with Crane and Abbie having to chase down Ross’ real flag, when they find out that the one in Paul Revere’s house is a fake, which doesn’t seem to matter much to the Soldier. Chasing people down is his job and he’s gonna do it. He’s like The Terminator. With fire.

Daniel encounters The Eternal Soldier and  is more than a bit discombobulated by the whole idea that supernatural forces exist, and that Abbie, and even Foster, is involved with them.

In the last episodes of the season, the show has gotten a little more back to its roots, mixing, the occult and history, with some  mystery and humor, and that’s a good thing. Most of the latter half of the season has been pretty boring (aka. awful).

Crane is his usual cranky self, dishing on respected historical figures, while Abbie doesn’t even try and to make excuse for his statements like she used to do. She’s just given up trying to explain his weirdnesses to regular folk.

This review wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t gush about Crane’s prettiness. That said, I do not like his new, shorter hairstyle, but maybe his ponytail was a bit too metrosexual, or hipster, or something.

Oh, did I forget about to mention that Abbie/Daniel kiss? Yeah, that happened. Black love on TV is a thang, people!

Attn: White Fantasy Writers

LINK: When narrative self-centeredness is a consequence of white supremacy.

via Dear White Authors: Our Fantasy Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum — Dark Matters

I love how Olivia Cole breaks it down!

Musical Interlude

 

Sadly, I can’t eat M&Ms any more, but I can still play their new theme song over and over. That won’t raise my blood sugar too much, will it? This is by my favorite (new-ish) artist, Aloe Blacc.

The song is alright but its the imagery that brings all the feels.

 

 

 

But this is the song that mde me sit up and take notice of Aloe:

A Tribute to Nurse Kellye — Fat Heffalump

I do remember and love this character, but more importantly, I remember the episode where she ginned up enough assertiveness to call Hawkeye on how he treated her, vs. how he treated all the other nurses he regularly chased after.

This is not about whether she was sexy or if he was attracted to her. She noticed he treated her markedly different from how he treated all the other nurses, and she, rightfully, gave him what for. I loved that moment. As a full-figured woman, it really hit me emotionally, and stuck in my memory ever since.

 

 

Do you ever watch an old TV show that you thought you knew really well, and find a whole bunch of new things about it that you missed when you first watched it? Especially watching something as an adult that you watched as a kid – you notice characters that you didn’t before, story threads […]

via A Tribute to Nurse Kellye — Fat Heffalump

Geeking Out About : Preacher and Friends

I’m cautiously optimistic about this show, coming to AMC, soon.

I haven’t read the entire series but I’m familiar enough about the plot and characters to be looking forward to what AMC will do with this new graphic novel franchise, considering how well they’ve done with Into the Badlands, and The Walking Dead.

Check it out:

 

It  looks like an even grimmer Justified, and that show was pretty dark. You know this show means business, cuz it’s set in the West, and the lead character has a metal tipped collar. How cool is that? I want it.

 

 

And here’s the lowdown on Wynonna Earp. I love Weird Westerns and monsters, but I haven’t read the graphic novels this is based on, and  I never heard of it before. It looks fun though, and Wynonna and I will be hanging out with each other this  summer. With any luck, maybe our relationship could go long term.

I’m glad to see that the Siffee Channel has got back in the business of having actual shows on the network.

 

I like the trailer and definitely gonna watch the show but yet again, I’m kind of pissed that  only  the white ladies get to have adventures and be sheroes on TV. When can sistahs of color get some fucking love in the genre? You like us in books. Why can’t we be in any of the visual media? C’mon, people! Let’s get some brown girls in the ring!

 

Oh, and this nifty little gem will be coming to the Shiftee network soon, called Hunters. It looks suitably grim, and could take the place of Alphas, another show I was loving before it was canceled, in favor of making more of those damn shark movies. Yeah, thanx for those Swiffer channel!

Wanna hear about it? Here it goes:

 

Oh and that’s not all this summer. We’ve got several movies coming out. And some more TV shows, like Penny Dreadful, Outlander, and Game of Thrones, which I’ve never been a huge fan of, but I’m starting to get into it now. I’m looking forward to the new season and I think the episode Hardhome, had a lot to do with that. Also, now I’m really intrigued by the Jon Snow thing.

I’m still watching Daredevil and liking it so far. I’ll have another review up of the next four episodes soon.

I’m not watching Damien. That’s one of those shows, like Bates Motel, where you monitor the trailers,  just in case there’s some excitement later. I also stopped watching Blindspot, even though the trailers look pretty interesting. Second Chance ain’t gettin’ one. I don’t know anyone who cares about that show and I suspect  it won’t get renewed next season.

I did watch Crouching Tiger 2, but I got nothing to report about that, other than it ain’t the first movie. It’s not bad, the fight scenes are okay,  but it’s not as compelling as the first. The story isn’t as deep and the plot is kind of workmanlike. It’s not as pretty as the first film and the fight scenes seem tacked on because the story isn’t as deep or developed.

I’m much more interested in Rise of the Legend, which I just saw. I also watched The Revenant, The Assassin, and He Never Died, which I loved, because my boy  Henry Rollins is the star. I’m gonna have to talk about that this summer, if I have time, because I’m totally geeking over that one, along with It Follows, The Signal and another Mad Max:Fury Road review, from the male character’s (Nux and Max) points of view.

First Look at Negan and Lucille in The Walking Dead’s Season 6 Finale Teaser

Negan is revealed in The Walking Dead’s Season 6 Finale Promo!

Source: First Look at Negan and Lucille in The Walking Dead’s Season 6 Finale Teaser

Garry Shandling (1949-2016)

Sad news to report.

The hilarious Garry Shandling passed away at the age of 66. I know it probably seems strange that I was a fan of his but I really enjoyed his wonderful, self deprecating, humor.

I watched him as  the star of a couple of horrible films, his own evening talk show, and several sitcoms he  wrote, starred in,  or both. The last time I saw him, he was portraying a greasy politician in the Iron Man and Captain America movies. I’m going to miss his quirky humor, embarrassed smiles,  and incredible bouffant (Yes Garry, your hair looks fine.)

I’ll also never forget the Garry Shandling Show theme song, either. One of the funniest theme songs I’ve ever committed to memory, and would pop into my head at random intervals during my life:

 

 

The least I can do is pass on this song meme, so it can randomly pop up in you head, too.

Supernatural : Safe House

A Blog devoted to J2 and Friends!

Oh, I really loved the episode last night, and not just for the annual cameo by Bobby Singer. It was a win for the brothers, and we got to see some Bobby and Rufus action, which is always fun. They aren’t really a close parallel for Sam and Dean, being two of the crankiest human beings to walk the Earth, but it was a nice effort on the part of the writers.

Along the way we get some bro-love and support, a shout-out to Castiel, some soul possession, a nice bro-ment at the end of the episode, some soul eating, foreshadowing and  flash-backing, which I particularly enjoyed. The plot wasn’t really all that interesting. It had almost nothing to do with Amara, and was mostly a typical MOTW episode, but the manner in which it was filmed, brought the feels.

Sam and Dean get to finish one of Bobby’s old…

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Sleepy Hollow: Incommunicado

I know it seems like it’s been a while since I did a Sleepy Hollow review, but its only been one, (okay, maybe two), episodes. See…what happened was, I was sort of waiting for something to happen on the show. Don’t get me wrong. The show is enjoyable as far as character relations but plot-wise, its been kind of, well…boring. Its hard to write about a show when nothing in particular happened on it other than, Hey!… the characters were friendly with each other, things are moving apace.

There! I said it. The plot has  been boooorring!

This week something happened on the show. (By something, I mean somebody made some decisions, and there was some physical movement that didn’t involve Jenny and Joe kissing.)

 

The  Hidden One comes out of hiding to take care of his Witness problem once and for all and  invades Crane’s sanctuary, trapping  them both  inside. In trying to kill Ichabod, He Who Needs to Remain Hidden activated that little sigil that Abbie had been worshiping, and Crane had been investigating.

Not being the brightest penny inside the Archive, The Slightly Less Hidden One, keeps pouring his powers into it, thereby setting up an imminent explosive event. It’s up to Abbie and Pandora to set aside their differences and rescue their beloved (and only semi-beloved-getting on my damn nerves-Hidden One, on the part of Pandora).

In the meantime, a banshee has been attracted to Sleepy Hollow by Pandora’s invitational spell, and started screaming at people. Pandora claims she needs the creature alive, in order to rescue the menfolk, but Abbie doesn’t like it. Jenny doesn’t like it either because she and Joe are the ones to have to capture it.

So, once again the group gets split up as they have different tasks. Joe, Jenny, and Foster have to capture the banshee and have a good plan, but Joe  kills it, “accidentally on purpose”, when it goes after Jenny.

Pandora still needs a monster to work her spell, though. Joe, who has had his monstership, as a Wendigo, re-instated last episode, is drafted to participate in the spell. It looks painful for Joe but Jenny seems to hurt the most just watching it. I’m still not sure how I feel about their relationship. I kinda wanna be happy for them because they are cute together and have good chemistry, but aren’t they like brother and sister? Didn’t they grow up together? If someone wants to chime in and tell me what to think about the two of them, I will happily adopt your stance, cuz I got nothing.

Anyway, using Joe isn’t enough. Pandora, conveniently, needs a piece of the box that used to be a repository for her power but got destroyed in one of the last episodes. Needless to say, Abbie is not buying this bushwa, but gives the pieces to her anyway and the day is saved. The Now Yet Again Hidden One goes back into hiding.

Along the way, the Semi-Hidden One and Pandora give up some secrets, so its not like Abbie and Crane got nothing out of this event. The Post-Hidden One reveals that being a Witness involves blood-lines and that Crane had no choice about whether or not he’d be one. I thought we already knew this? Anyway, this is a major event for Crane, who evinces surprise that he is ,in fact, a special snowflake, after all.

Crane and The Contemptuous  One have arguments about the nature of god and man. Mr. Hidden is thoroughly dismissive of all human achievement. I wanted to know what he, The  One Formerly In  Hiding, had ever contributed to the world in his overlong existence, in comparison to say… The Artist Formerly known as Prince,   but the writers and directors didn’t ask me, and chickened out on asking the question themselves. And oh, yeah, the sigil is from Thura or something. Was that important?

Pandora confesses to Abbie that she was the one who got the Her Hidden Man  imprisoned in the first place, which HO conveniently overhears, because Ichabod’s sigil is capable of spying on Abbie.

SLEEPY HOLLOW: Nicole Beharie in the ÒDark MirrorÓ episode of SLEEPY HOLLOW airing Friday, March 4 (8:00-9:01 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2016 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Tina Rowden/FOX

At the end of the episode things look bleak for Pandora as HO decides he’s going to give her what for, for getting him locked up. Hopefully, this will put the final nail in the coffin of their relationship, and Pandora will team up with Abbie and Crane, to kick The Once Again Hidden One’s ass back to the Catacombs.

I kind of liked this episode. It wasn’t too bad but it wasn’t spectacular either. I liked the banter between Crane and Abbie, which is always charming, and Crane got to eat some pastries and give good speech. (I just enjoy looking at him. I know I’m shallow.)

Hopefully, this Friday, something important will happen on the show, so we can have something to talk about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Botanical Wednesday: Bloomin’

I first saw this video on Pharyngula. It’s absolutely gorgeous and I love the music.

Source: Botanical Wednesday: Bloomin’

The Big Idea: Alan Smale

Source: The Big Idea: Alan Smale