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And now for something really stupid.
Nobody rocks it like Montalbán.
Star Trek Dating Issues @StarTrek #StarTrek #Khan
Category: Movies
Christmas Leftovers #StarWars #Christmas
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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s a meme appropriate to the aftermath of Christmas.
Okay, I take that back. There’s nothing “appropriate” about this meme.
A Star Trek Christmas! @StarTrek #Christmas #StarTrek
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I was raised Catholic, but I’m, let’s just say, unaffiliated at the moment. Still, if there were any reason for me to engage in holiday traditions, it would be Christmas. In fact, people like me have influenced United States Supreme Court precedent on the Establishment Clause, but that’s a story for another day.
Patrick Stewart likes to talk about Star Trek as the modern human’s mythology, and I guess that applies to me. So, here’s my means to celebrate Christmas. Sort of. It’s all the memes that hit my stream this year, some of which are new to me. This is my mythology.
Humans apparently still celebrate Christmas in 2364, as evidenced by their viewing of Christmas movies.
But seriously . . .
Worf I get, but Gowron? I had no idea that Klingons celebrated Christmas.
Happy Star Trek Day … I mean, holidays!
It’s a Jedi Christmas! @spidermalk #Christmas
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It took a while for me to recognize that Die Hard is a Christmas movie. Now I came to another conclusion . . . or at least someone else did.
Happy holidays!
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I Watched Star Wars Again @kesseljunkie #StarWars
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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s some Star Wars memes (though mixed with a tiny bit of original content). Why? Because TNT was playing the Star Wars films in in-universe chronological order, and while I was organizing myself for my upcoming move, I had the movies playing in the background. I saw the tail end of Revenge of the Sith (from the point where Anakin tells Padme he’s headed to Mustafar), all of Solo: A Star Wars Story (see tweet below), Rogue One (my favorite Star Wars movie), A New Hope (for the first time in more time than I can remember), and Empire Strikes Back. After that, I had to go to bed.
To all you Star Wars lovers, don’t give me too much shit for the negativity. That’s always for Kessel Junkie’s benefit. Besides . . .
Anyway, here are some memes presented, appropriately I think, in in-universe chronological order.
McCoy aside, I hope that quote is accurate.
Kessel Junkie and I live to give each other shit.
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A Timeless Classic @TheGornCaptain #StarTrek
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Everything’s better with the Gorn captain.
Star Trek >> every other IP.
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Shang-Chi Re-watch, CGI, and the Eternals @MarvelStudios @shangchi @TheEternals #ShangChi #MCU
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I watched Shang-Chi again Thanksgiving morning before 9 hours of football. It’s still really good. The one consistent criticism I’ve heard is that the final battle is CGI. I don’t have a problem with that at all. In fact, I think the MCU uses CGI battles in a powerful way.
Chinese mysticism is hokey nonsense, but so is Norse mysticism, Greek mysticism, etc. As an amateur student of mythology (and legacy D&D player), I may appreciate eastern mythology more than most Americans, and I can assure you that those stories are a generally untapped resource. The MCU is the perfect universe to capitalize on that resource. Shang-Chi was just the start. If you can suspend your disbelief with superheroes, you can accept giant dragons, hokey martial arts moves, and magic in general, and those things often require CGI.
Some of those stories involve creatures that simply don’t exist in the real world, and to do things as grandiose as the MCU does, CGI is a requirement. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, but you’re being a bit unfair if you claim that the CGI dominates the scene. As large as it was (spoiler alert!), the good dragon didn’t win the day. He was defeated. He was about to die. Human beings with whom we can relate, Shang-Chi and Katy, made the difference. If you want to criticize something, criticize that Katy managed an impossible shot with less than one day’s training with a longbow. Many of you have. I’m with you on that.
Side Note: I’d love it if Thor used the Bifrost to take Shang-Chi to visit Shang-Ti in later movies. We’re now dealing with celestial-level threats. We need an Odin equivalent. They should also use Black Panther to introduce Egyptian (Bast) and other African (Shango) mythology.
Tie in with the Eternals?
I had a thought. The ten rings looked remarkably similar (spoiler alert!) to what Phastos used in the climax of Eternals. Moreover, the mid-credits scene of Shang-Chi tells us that the ten rings are a lot older than 1,000 years, and the fact that the MCU has so far faced only titan-level threats, not celestial-level threats, is consistent with MCU characters having not yet dealt with that sort of energy signature. A quick search on Google reveals that my idea isn’t novel, <whining voice>but I wanted you all to know that I thought of it all on my own</whining voice>.
So when does Eternals come to Disney+? 🙂
Shang-Chi and the Eternals were fun. I have high hopes for the next few phases.
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It’s About Time @williamshatner #StarTrek
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Tomorrow morning, October 13, 2021, at 9:30 ET, William Shatner will be returning to work with his former employer. I wish him well.
I’m not as concerned for the safety of the other crew members. Nor apparently is anyone else.
You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVxTHEKKLxNjGcvVaZindlg.
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The Real Reason Pietro Died in Avengers: Age of Ultron @MarvelStudios #AoU #MCU
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Sundays now are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I’m answering an unanswered question from Avengers: Age of Ultron. Why did Joss Whedon feel it was necessary to kill off Pietro Maximoff?
Look, not all of these posts can be winners.
Why is this Evan Peters and not Aaron Taylor-Johnson?
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Vegas, 2021, Part 3 of 3: The Millennium Fandom @mortaine @Erik_Nowak @kesseljunkie #Vegas #travel
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Introduction
Every year without a new pandemic, I go to Las Vegas for blackjack. They say that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but that’s not really a problem for me. I usually don’t even drink when I’m there. This year was a little different, but still not worth hiding anything. These posts are an assortment of photos and videos from the Vegas Strip. Most of the videos are from an aquarium I visited. The images are pretty big, so if you blow them up, you should still get good resolution.
I always stay and gamble at MGM properties. My credit card doesn’t get me gas credits or airline miles; it gets me gambling comps, so everything but tips are paid for because I paid my car insurance bill, got gas, or bought food at the grocery store. The comps really add up, so I use that card for everything I possibly can. I started the trip with $1,327 in available comps ($200 added just for reserving the room, so you can get those), and that was before I sat down at a blackjack table to gamble.
In all my years of going to Vegas, I’ve been off-strip only twice before this trip. Once was to visit my cousin’s aunt, and the other was to play D&D. For the latter, I connected with my now-friend Stephanie via Facebook. She picked me up at the hotel, drove me to a gaming store, ran one of the early DDAL adventures, then took me to In-N-Out so I could see what the fuss was about (meh), and then took me to In-N-Out headquarters so that I could say I had been there and Erik never had.
The Millennium Fandom
This year, Stephanie had a free day Wednesday, so she took me on my third trip off-strip. This was the first thing I saw when I entered the bar:
After this, the owner (Alex) took us into a section of the bar that was closed that night.
Alex took another picture, but it was a bit poorly timed. However, Alex pointed out that it probably caught me at a moment I was using the Force. I think he’s right.
Next, I had to pick up a passenger. She’s why I crashed the Tie Fighter into a bunch of chairs.
After this, I toured the rest of the bar. I didn’t get some of the references, so please fill in the blanks if you can.
The Fifth Element‘s Water Stone.
Lightsabers, a helmet from The Mandalorian, a helmet from 300, the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones (top left surrounded by red light) and some big-ass sword I didn’t recognize. The bottom left look like bullets, and above that is a shield.
Well, sure, you can just look at these things, but ….
What’s that above me?
Beneath the Aluminum Falcon was this guy.
What’s that hanging above R2’s “head”?
Some Raiders of the Lost Ark stuff and stuff from video games I didn’t recognize.
The Air Stone, Pac-Man, and a mashup. I didn’t get the reference on the license plate.
Lots of masks, the Earth Stone, and a katana I don’t recognize. Is it from Highlander? Suicide Squad? Maybe it’s simply a katana.
Wall-E thinking the band would let him play that night.
I almost went back here thinking it was where the men’s room was. No reason.
Enough of this. Let’s have some more Star Trek. And what the hell? Some Hellraiser too.
Now we have the proton pack from Ghostbusters and some Nightmare Before Christmas stuff, as well as some other things I don’t recognize. It’s hard to see from this image, but in the top right corner is an archer with an eagle on its shoulder. I didn’t get the reference, but I’d love to have that in my home. It was pretty cool-looking. The reason it’s blurry is because the lighting in the room forced me to use a “night” setting on my camera phone requiring more than an instant of exposure, and the slightest movement blurred the picture.
Unless you had forgotten, you must have known that the Fire Stone had to show up. Also, we have references to Predator, Alien, Wonder Woman, and Nightmare Before Christmas (a movie, by the way, that I didn’t see until last year).
After the tour, I noticed a couple of other things around the bar itself. First, a Batman vs. Superman sign that was behind me as I entered the bar.
Remember what I said about the camera setting? In this case, the blur created a neat effect. This is a real image. These are real people, not a drawing or touched-up photo.
Okay, but what’s the crowd like? Well, the QAnon Shaman showed up!
Finally, as I was leaving for the night, I went to the men’s room and saw this hanging on the door to the bathroom stall. Brilliant. I love this movie.
As you can see, this is my kind of bar. If you’re reading this post, I’m guessing it’s your kind of bar as well. It’s worth the Lyft/Uber trip. Oh, and a self-delivered pat on my back.
If you think about it, between the mask and the shirt, I personally added to the nerd motif. Alex should put that picture of me on their website.
If you’re ever in Vegas, look them up. Their online store is here, though most of what I was looking for is sold out.
I bought a hat.
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Play What You Want 