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So what’s today?
No, that’s not quite it.
So there’s more than one name for it?
Let’s end on a positive note.
That said, please note that accidents can and do happen.
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Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, it’s a mash up of music and nerdity.
Well, they’re no No Kill I.
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Wut?
The New York Times, among many others, reports that a piece of (for lack of a better term) static art that exists only digitally was sold for $69,000,000. The article dares to mention the artist responsible for my favorite painting in comparison. By clicking through to the Christie’s site, you can view the art, and thereby take ownership of it for no charge.
Wut?
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Recently, I’ve been posting some angry comments on Facebook about child abuse, which were in turn exacerbated by my viewing of Allen vs. Farrow on HBO. I’m not going to discuss any of that on a goofy blog like this. This shouldn’t be where you come for that sort of heavy conversation. (I won’t even discuss sports on this blog.) However, a Facebook friend made a related comment on a topic that’s very much a subject of this blog:
Stop celebrating MCU Yondu as an model father, he was a child abuser.
First, I don’t know of anyone that has celebrated him as a model father. Everyone whose comments I’ve heard or read is more than willing to acknowledge his faults, so that comment isn’t fair to any of us that discuss Yondu. However, it’s not even fair to the character of Yondu.
I’ve discussed in the context of Nebula why this is (sort of) an unfair criticism. TL;DR, in the real world, Nebula’s crimes shouldn’t and wouldn’t be swept away because she suddenly realized that she loved her sister. But this isn’t the real world; this is cinema. In cinema, sometimes the only way to get a story of redemption across to the average viewer is to do so through a kind of hyperbole. It won’t have the emotional impact intended unless you go from one extreme or the other. Tony Stark committed all sorts of computer crimes while testifying before Congress in Iron Man 2, and we all laughed about it because the corporate villain of the story was made to look like a fool. Darth Vader — the same guy that murdered younglings — was forgiven because he suddenly prioritized his repressed love for his son. Ryan Reynolds plays a pretty bad guy in Deadpool, but it’s okay because he’s funny and loves his wife. Loki tried to violently take over the Earth, then, against all odds, valiantly sacrificed his life to try to stop Thanos. There are countless examples of this, and not just in the fantasy genre, though I’m having trouble coming up with more meaningful, heartwarming stories of redemption than Vader, Yondu, and of course the best perhaps in cinematic history, Nebula. That’s probably because the fantasy genre allows you to go beyond the limits of logic with the horror and wonder it provides as the vehicle for that redemption.
Now, because we live in the real world, it’s certainly fair to use art to address these issues. I encourage it, especially with a topic like this that might otherwise be difficult to discuss (e.g., child abuse). Art is great for that sort of thing whether the filmmaker agrees with your point of view or not. Art is in the eye of the beholder.
My point is simply that context matters. The MCU is a fantasy world presented on film. The swing from villain to hero requires extreme circumstances in order for the audience to appreciate the redemption arc. That’s the context, and within that context, we can see that Yondu actually loved Peter and, in his own twisted way, tried to do right by him. We never saw him cause Peter physical harm, and in the end, he literally saved him from his irredeemable, biological father. So, maybe cut Yondu some slack. The real world needs more people that can shed their cognitive dissonance and admit when they’ve screwed up. In that (narrow) sense, Yondu is a role model.
Just don’t try this at home, parents.
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So, who was a better chief of security: Worf or Tasha Yar?
The opening salvo has been fired!
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Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I provide proof that there’s intelligent life somewhere in the universe.
When they find intelligent life on Earth, I’ll provide a link here.
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Today, I had my first car check up at 6,000 miles. Sounds boring, right? Well, . . . it is, but I have nothing else to write about today. I’ll keep it short.
I love my car, and Kia has been great the whole way through. Today was no different. All I needed was an oil change, tire rotation, and a few other small things. When I got there, they told me it’d be 1 hour and 45 minutes. That was quite a shock, so I requested a loaner so I could spend that time at the gym, and they managed to scrape one up for me.
They gave me a Kia Soul, and it was weird. First, it has a key. I already forgot car keys existed. I just push a button on my K-5, and vrooommmm!!! Then as I was driving, I noticed that . . . I was driving. “Why the hell is this car steering for me? Why isn’t it warning me that there are cars around me?” It’s a miracle that no one died, neither I nor anyone else near me. People can’t drive.
Figuring out how to work that radio was right out.
But hey, I really appreciated that they lent me a car. It allowed me to avoid almost two hours fiddling around with social media. And here’s my bill:
My next car will almost certainly be a Kia too.
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A new docuseries just dropped on Netflix this past week, and I watched all six, 45-minute (or so) episodes on Saturday. Age of Samurai: Battle for Japan discusses the quest for power in 1500s Japan. It’s presented through recreations narrated by historians. As you should expect, those from the 16th century seeking to rule a nation were often cruel and selfish. Some were arguably insane. All of them, however, were master tacticians, and some of their techniques have earned the respect of modern militaries.
I read a thread on Reddit in which several people stated that they didn’t like how the show was presented. For example, when the show cuts away to the historians, “who where paid to speak like stupid 9th graders,” the video goes to black and white for dramatic effect. Another stated he “had to turn it off with all this pandering.” I find all of this criticism to be at best inaccurate and at worst dishonest. Yes, the historians made sure to present the material as dramatically as possible, but they didn’t sound like they were in high school. The black and white shots provided a clear contrast between reenactment and dialogue. It’s a nice effect. Finally, I don’t see how there was any “pandering.” Japanese honor is often romanticized, and this show doesn’t do that at all. It clearly shows how cruel, deceitful, and selfish these leaders were.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the audience approval sits at 57%. Technically, I’m in the majority, but that’s considered a bad score. But none of the commenters disputed the truth of what was presented, and that’s what matters to me. Unless you’re a true student of history (I’m not), there are a lot of interesting, significant events in history of which you’ll never scratch the surface. This series helps in that regard.
As always, YMMV.
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Going forward, Sundays are lazy days for me. I either post something silly or other people’s work. Usually both. Today, I provide a helpful statement you may want to use as a response to the drivel often posted nowadays.
To make this easier, I’ve copied the text below so that you can simply copy and paste it. I changed the text a bit to express the idea using the least similar text possible. Can’t help it.
The Amazon River is 3,977 miles long, running through barely explored areas of the rain forest, and leaking its water through the porous limestone. The water flows into the depths of the earth, forming underground pools almost a mile below the surface. Evolution has resulted in the development of small, blind fish that have never seen the sky, sun, or surface of the earth, and thus isolated from human interaction.
These fish care more about this than I do.
Or don’t use it. I don’t care.
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Per the hard-hitting news source, Babylon Bee, there are ways to determine whether your cat is worshiping Satan.
Cats >> dogs.
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