We're currently in the midst of watching the newest season of "Cobra Kai" on Netflix. What a great show that is. Not unlike "Stranger Things", it's a huge nod to the 80's and asks you basically to let the story tell itself and to allow yourself to be entertained by it. Realism is secondary, just like shows in the 80's. I remember those days watching shows and it was all about pure fun without politicization of current events or any Woke crap. And it's almost entirely unpredictable. There'll be a theatrical cinematic movie follow-up after this season - at least I think this season. Maybe the next. It's pretty great fun if you're willing to give it a try.
What happened to WWE anyway? I've always loved pro wrestling. The theatre, the bombast, the soap opera for action fans aspect of it, the characters, good guy vs bad guy dynamic. But I stopped watching WWE when I learned Vince McMahon's wife, Linda, was going full throttle in helping get Trump re-elected for president. Even after the coup attempt and his subversion of democracy all to protect himself. Now that they're apparently divorced, I thought I might give it a shot again. Well... the big pay-for-sex scandal came to light where it's alleged by a lot of women in the company that he paid them off to have sex with him and keep it quiet. It goes deeper than that, but I'll spare the rest. So then Paul "HHH" Levesque takes over creatively while Vince resigns as CEO and his daughter Stephanie takes over. I thought I'd take a look. Being a fan of the upstart AEW promotion, I thought it'd be nice to have two different formats to watch. Well... I went and turned on WWE programming a few times and was aghast at how astray they've gone. It's unwatchable to me right now. It truly is "sports entertainment" like they call it while AEW is "pro wrestling", with far less talk and far more action. With my long lost Pop having been a big wrestling fan back in the day, I can't imagine he'd put up with the long, drawn out stuff on WWE these days. Maybe I'll try again a lot later.
Summer is over --- yes, it was hot and humid a lot. Uncomfortable, even. But I'll take that over what's to come any day. Shorter days, rainy fall weather with herky jerky temperatures, dead trees, dead leaves, dead grass; "oh but I love the colors" I'll hear all over the place. I'm not crazy about all those colors all over the lawn that demand to be raked lest there be a big pain in the ass job to do in the spring. When it's not raining, that is, because Fall is all about rain. People seem to forget that too when they wave the Summer Is Dead/Long Live Autumn flag. I don't dread Fall, I just hate that it's the bridge between the hot sunny days and the long, cold, dark winter nights. Still, I'll find things to keep me busy.
My Red Sox blew chunks this season, outside of June anyway. On paper, they looked like a solid contender when Spring came, but then the injury bug bit and just hung around pretty much the whole damn season. Shit happens. Boston is not immune to that fact. I'm wondering if Bogaerts and Devers will still be on the team come the offseason. They'd better be. I've read Aaron Judge is a free agent after this season and he won't rule out going to Boston, saying he loves their fan base. This begs the question... would Boston actually let Devers and Bogaerts go to free up funds to accommodate Judge? I'd sooner they didn't. But Judge being on Boston's roster is intriguing to think of. Anyway, let's see what the Jays do now, where they're poised for the post-season.
KISS is supposed to schedule another 100 dates for the "End of the Road" tour probably taking them to a finish next summer. This gives me hope that I'll get to see this tour. As most of my friends know, I was ripped off by Ticketmaster when I got tickets for a show in Bangor, but then covid hit, the borders closed and we couldn't go because of it. Ticketmaster refused to refund me for my three tickets, so I lost over $400. Lesson learned. But I wish Ticketmaster didn't have such a hold on the ticket industry. It's like a buddy of mine said, it's organized crime, and the governments won't even glance at it. I've contacted media outlets about what happened to me, and none of them will even acknowledge me. Here in Moncton, we used to have Ticketron, which I think is based in Quebec. Prices were pretty reasonable with them. A Bryan Adams show we saw in Moncton cost us maybe $140 for a pair of tickets. I brought my wife to a show of his for her birthday, and that ticket price doubled, because it was through Ticketmaster this time. Of course, there's the new building too, but all those "fees" attached to the ticket are all going to Ticketmaster. Anyway, I'm keeping my ear to the ground about KISS coming around these parts. I gotta see my boys one last time. That band got me through so much in life. And they're STILL HERE.
Speaking of Bryan Adams, after seeing the great show he put on supporting his new "So Happy It Hurts" record, we got those last two albums he put out that we didn't get around to getting, that one and "Shine a Light". Listening to both, SHIH sounds like an apology for SAL. SAL just is not Adams as I know him. It's him doing his damndest to appeal to the younger generation right now, and not really pulling it off. But he goes right back to basics on SHIH. In KISS terms, if SAL is Adams' "Unmasked", maybe SHIH is his "Creatures of the Night". This year I'd say my favorite new CD up to know would be Ty Tabor's "Shades". Ty being of King's X. Not a bad song on that album, and in fact some really great ones. Also got the new King's X, "Three Sides of One". Loving it so far. Can only give a fair judgement on it after a while, though. Nice to hear Jerry Gaskill get to sing more. He's kind of King's X's George Harrison, except he's a drummer. Also great hearing Doug Pinnick go so deep lyrically. Really I think the only pop star I'm curious about is Dua Lipa. I love her voice. Muscular, tight vocal cords are admirable, but more admirable is how much of a person's soul is waving from underneath. It's why listening to cover bands is often so uninvolving. It's because they aren't involved or invested in the writing. A lot of cover bands really are good too, though.
We re-watched the movie "Tenet" the other night, for the third time now. I didn't look too favorably upon this movie when it first came out, and then it bothered me after a while that I didn't like it. Clearly it's a well crafted, mega-deep movie where you can see the $$ spent on the visuals. Well, then I used the subtitles option. BOOM. Brand friggin' new movie. Now I appreciate the story, all the acting jobs in it, the direction of course, Everything. I've come to realize the more you watch this, the more you get it. And you feel smarter every single time. And, if you're reading this and you haven't seen it yet, you can choose to go in cold with the subtitles and watch the movie, or you can go to THIS LINK and read up on the movie first, although kinda blowing the movie, but you'll want to watch it again. And again. So anyway, yeah I did order the blu ray on Amazon. I believe "Tenet" is this generation's "Blade Runner", where it didn't make a huge load in its theatrical release, but gets its value appreciated year over year. I'd bet the ranch on it.
As a matter of fact, "Tenet", will make you question reality itself. I question the very nature of the future. I think it could just be an illusion. No one's any good at predicting it. What if the moving present, the here and now, is all there was? There's no past. If something happened, it's impossible to go back to it. Neither can you go forward in time further than it naturally allows. You can have film and photographs or whatever, but it still won't effectively physically bring you back there. What if our memories have been written and we didn't experience them at all? You can't prove or disprove it. Anyway, so that's what this movie does to your head.
Lastly, a PSA about PSA's... guys, especially us older ones, need to get their prostate-specific antigen tests done regularly. My beloved brother Roy caught prostate cancer in its tracks with it many years ago and is alive today because of it. Thus, with prostate cancer being in my family, I keep an eye on it, but just because it isn't in your family doesn't mean you won't get it. I had mine checked very recently, the doc said 2.5 or so is average for a guy my age, and it was 1.5. Score! Peace of mind is everything. Get it checked. It's a simple blood test and it could save your life. Ladies, get your guys checked. Doesn't hurt to have your PSA checked no matter what your age. Any guy can get prostate cancer. Vigilance is key.
Thanks for reading!
Great read as always sir, need to get together soon! Tim
ReplyDelete