Time now for What's Goin' On....
Yeah, I really wanted to do that. Folks around here my age might remember the late, great Eddie Driscoll, a local Bangor TV personality that did things like host a bit called "The Great Money Movie", where viewers watched and had to look for a clue to win a prize. But it was fun just to watch Eddie! He had this very lovable, quirky personality that made everyone giggle. When the caller for TGMM got the right answer, you'd see 'ol Eddie pump his fist and go "wwwwWWWOOOO!" And the commercials he did for "WLBZ TV, Channel 2, Bangor, Maine" were delightfully offbeat. Good old Eddie is a gem that can't be replaced. Anyway... what's goin' on? I'm in bed here on a wee hours of a Friday morning with some Timely Health Care buzzing through me, so I thought why not. I want to see if I can keep my blogs relatively lighthearted anyway. Essentially they're just letters to me in the future. And if you wanna see, here I am.
It's a wicked cold night tonight. The skies are overcast with the odd snow squall, but the big deal is the temperatures... it's minus 14 C right now. It's been years since we've had it this cold in December, that usually hits around mid January.
So anyway, let's chat.
I just read that Scarlett Johansson is targeting being in "The Batman 2" after Emma Stone apparently didn't get the money she wanted. I'm not really a fan of her stuff anyway. I think she bungled the Gwen Stacy role in the "Amazing Spider Man" movies. But she gets a lot of awards. I keep getting her and Emma Watson mixed up. Anyway... SJ is looking to get a piece of the back end deal in exchange for a lower salary. And she really wants to do it. I haven't seen her do anything interesting enough for me in a while, though. She could use a pickup. imo.
Star Trek, though..... I've thrown in the towel on the current version of it. I know the JJ Abrams 'Trekverse is dead, thankfully. After the movies underdid it with the fanbase, and the TV shows starting off strong and crashing so ugly that I had to stop watching it. I get why younger folks like it. I'm an old fart longing for the old Trek universe. But Abrams was never a fan of Star Trek to begin with, and literally said he wanted to make it more like Star Wars. Then look what he went and did to Star Wars. Abrams is a great producer, but not director. Arguably. Like I say, it has its fans. But anyway... next month the newest, and presumably last, of the current TV Trekverse will air its last series opener. "Star Fleet Academy" is a nightmare for any legitimate Star Trek fan, y'all. It looks like Trek 90210. This is gonna be Paramount's "She Hulk" series. UUUUggghh, don't get me started on "She Hulk"!!! She been done wrong.
I've been reading that Marvel's upcoming "Avengers Doomsday" movie is going to have more practical effects. Well, it's about tucking fime. A lot of these movies look like the digital form of excrement, if you get me. But I mean they really stuck the landing on "Endgame" though, right?? It made me respect every movie that led up to it. Then this multiverse monstrosity hit. With RDJ coming back to the fold for Doomsday, perhaps it's appropriately titled. Ah, I'm excited about where they could be headed, though. On my wish list: There was a great Daredevil/Spiderman crossover called the Sin Eater series. The story was that both were hunting to take down a serial killer who calls himself Sin Eater. Spiderman and Daredevil actually had it out over how it should be handled. Here's the thing, though.... Spiderman had the alien costume at the time, if I remember correctly, and the comic series "Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider Man" for a time deemed him "all new, all daring", because possibly his alien simbiote, being his costume through this era, was influencing Parker's conscious decisions. It's fascinating to look back on it, really. A lot of comic book stuff is great actual art, both visually and literally. Anyway, I think Tom Holland might steer the ship in that direction, after what I think will be his Spider Man switching universes to Daredevil's. And man, am I in for that! It makes sense, right? Kingpin is in Daredevil's universe, and it just makes sense to have one of Spider Man's most enduring enemies finally cross paths. This approach is a great way for Marvel to re-start, and maybe allow for artistic directors to take a swing at things. There's a TON of great directors doing work for shows like Daredevil, Punisher, Jessica Jones, that I've seen. All three of those series knocks it out of the park for me. So it's not that I'm against Marvel. But you can't please everybody either.
We've been watching "The Orville" lately, just getting through the first of three seasons. This show is a big, wet, sloppy kiss to Star Trek TNG fans in mostly the best ways. I can not complain about this show at all because it nails everything with what must be a conservative budget. Seth MacFarlane put this show out on TV for three seasons starting in '17. I appreciated the nod to us Trek fans, which he's clearly a fan of. There are nods to TNG all over the place, kind of making me wish this is where Trek would be right now. With a whole lotta cheekiness thrown in, we're talking about Seth MF here, so expect it, right? Ah, just the clear and obvious effort by everyone on this show to want to make it work is enough to make it shine like the crazy diamond it is. God bless Seth - well, he's atheist I think, but he'll be okay - for giving us back what was taken from us: a show that hilariously and wonderfully points at everyone and laughs, knowing you look just like them. Norm MacDonald voices a digital character on the show and nails every gooey appearance he makes (NOT explaining...you'll have to watch it). Poor Norm died in the middle of the show's run, sadly. He was one of my most favorite ever comedians. Lots of familiar faces and names, onscreen and off.
So as it is, this is a lot later now as of this paragraph. Now it's the wee hours of December 16 as of this point.
"Avatar: Fire and Ash" is out in a few days. I think we'll reacquaint ourselves with the first two installments then go out and see it in IMAX. Which isn't cheap, but Cameron always gives you your money's worth. Fire and Ash is supposed to be the second part of "Way of Water", so it's supposed to feel like one big movie. Like a reeeeealllly long Kill Bill. I love long films that are worth it, but when a long movie turns into a turd, I get angry about it. So me, I'll probably take a peek at Rotten Tomatoes if it seems risky. But I trust only really a few directors.
Friday's coming down the barrel, and that's supposed to be the closest that 3 I Atlas comes to Earth. And right now, between now and Christmas or something, things are supposed to happen. Like historic things. As if we need more of that this year, right? But what if it turns out to be good? I'm going to choose to believe that justice will prevail. That can apply to a lot of things.
I imagine people I haven't talked to in a while might ask me what I think of KISS being enshrined in the Kennedy Center. My answer is, I'm displeased, but what else am I supposed to be. Does KISS want to be the band that turns such an honor away? I suspect it would get them a lot more grief if they didn't go. That doesn't mean I like it. I still wish they turned it down. Now they'll be known as that band that the pedophile president and attempted insurrectionist and adjudicated rapist inducted them in. Welcome to the wrong side of history, KISS.
I'm not done there either. Ace Frehley passed away last month before he could attend the induction. Ace was always bad for his equilibrium and balance ... I'm a member of that club. But Ace had fallen in his studio, allegedly, and suffered a head injury from which he couldn't recover. He's been sober for twenty years, because his daughter Monique asked him to take care of himself. He did. Then Gene Simmons goes and says in an interview with Monique nearby and insinuates Ace didn't get sober at all, and is dead now for it. Like, WOW. I've listened to and read Gene's stuff all my life, and this is the lowest I've heard him go. This just might be the one thing his fans might not recover from. And for the love of Pete, I wish he'd lose those monstrous sunglasses. The higher the age gets, the creepier that looks.
All that being said, I won't stop being a fan of what KISS was. As for what KISS is, that's up for debate.
So hey, here's what I watch these days. On TV even, YouTube.
There's this young podcaster named Adam Mockler that has his own podcast, and the guy is admittedly Lefty. But he's super smart, knowledgeable and is more than reasonable with his debates when he shows up on CNN. He calls himself left-center, but make no mistake, he's quite progressive. And that's fine by me. We've seen what the extreme right can do to society... now let's give the far left (like Denmark's approach) a shot.
On the wild side, sort of, is Area 52 - which, as you might guess, is UFO/UAP related. I'm choosy about what I watch when it comes to that stuff, though, and Chris Ramsay delivers a show with lots of thought and intellect involved, with credible and engaging guests. This is escapist stuff, a take it or leave it type of channel, but Ramsay's delivery deserves respect for the options he allows to be spoken about. Area 52 is one of my daily go-to favorites.
Everyone has their preference for news sources, but my choice is CBC - one of the few objective media sources out there. Some would disagree. But through the years, since CTV fired Lisa LaFlamme because she has gray hair, I explored other Canadian outlets. CBC actually feels like Canada.
Meidas News has a few places to go, and one of the great Canadian ones would be Charlie Angus, himself a former gov't house member. He does not mince words when it comes to what he thinks about MAGA or Trump's efforts to assimilate our country. And he very much dishes on Polly Ever and why he shouldn't be in his current line of work.
Another spot-on podcaster in Canuckland is the Claus Kellerman POV show he has most days. I like podcasts that are in the ten to twenty five minute range, so he usually hits the sweet spot. And the guy knows his stuff. I think he's left leaning, but he calls out liberals when they muck things up too. Seems like a great guy to have a beer with. I agree with his views most of the time, and respect the ones I disagree with.
On the paranormal end I watch Steven Greer, whose approach to the UFO/UAP subject spans a lot more area than the surface. Greer asserts that most sightings are actually man-made, and that real aliens may not be that at all, but inter-dimensional visitors. He's got a lifetime of work behind him and retired as an ER doctor to take up this matter full time. He has several documentaries out about his findings. But I actually prefer his direct online content.
Another man you need to keep your eye on is Chris Bledsoe, a very faithful Christian man with actual values. Over the last couple of decades, he's amassed quite a following, including government officials, and even was invited to the White House for dinner with President Obama. His prophecy for Easter of '26 is tantalizing. Oh... and this guy actually summons UFO's/UAP's at will. This includes orb entities that seem to follow him wherever he goes. Give his name a search in YouTube and explore what he says. He brings a LOT of hope to a time when we desperately need it.
There's a channel for an outfit called Jubilee which is fascinating, especially when it posts a show called Surrounded, where twenty or so people sit in a circle around one knowledgeable and steadfast as they take turns to debate on topics set by the one. Most times it's quite engaging. Sometimes alarming. A must-see would be Mehdi Hasan's appearance on Surrounded. It's downright frightening.
My favorite place to go to on info about the Russian war against Ukraine is Jason Jay Smart's channel, where a man who's actually an advisor to the Ukraine defense department and journalist, reports on the successes of Ukraine's efforts in pushing back against Putin and his minions. This is the biggest exposition of mainstream media you could look for. I actually hate mainstream news now. Even CBC has a lopsided view on the war in Russia's favor, but news organizations are out to sow and farm fear for business and repeat customers. Something like this punches back at that notion. And it's about time. Look for the endings of some of his videos that includes Ukraine soldiers returning home to their families. A lot of those will bring you to tears, in a nice way.
And a companion station to that might be U.S. citizen Professor Gerdes, who offers more of a good news/bad news scenario for more of a balanced look. He's pretty objective about the stats he provides and makes no bones about his backing of Ukraine. I make sure I watch videos like his and Smart's and leave 'likes' to support them in the algorithm, be as it may.
Secular Talk with Kyle Kulinski is another favorite, because he's very sharp and witty with a heavy dose of vulgarity and a splash of humor. He's basically, to me anyway, a parody of the right wing fanatics which are out there in droves, but it seems he's actually possibly winning some over. He backs up what he says and is remarkably indicting in his arguments.
Hey, let's break this list up a bit with something different.... Preppy Kitchen is a channel I subscribe to because this John Kanell guy makes a lot of stuff that a simple mind like mine can grasp onto. Pretty nice everyday kitchen buddy stuff.
Boomshaklaka..... Stefan Burns' channel is immensely entertaining and educational as he teaches about astronomical and astrological science, alerting us to abnormalities that occur here and there and what to expect when it's time to deal with it, if it does. And his earthquake and solar storm forecasts/ponders make you say 'hmm' while offering some smarts along the way. His childlike glee that comes through when he's on is contagious and fun to hitch a ride on. And the wife has a crush on him. 😋 I know I'm gonna catch hell for saying that.
That'll just about do it for my recommendations at this point. Let's put it this way... it's at the point where we told Bell that we just wanted internet and no cable, and they desperately offered us basically free TV to keep us. We literally barely watch TV anymore. We subscribe to YouTube, Prime, Netflix, Disney and we're all set. A lot of money you say! Okay. But we hardly go out. Going to a movie on the weekend with snacks with your significant other is approaching $100 now. I'll take that cash and get a yearlong subscription online instead.
SO.... this is getting done late! It is now January 11, 2026, and we have to go to the gym for back and shoulder day. The holidays were forgettable as far as we're concerned, but we're right back on track. Stylin' and High Vibin'.
What about a video blog?
Hmm...
