Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Fight them, without becoming them!

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

ha ha ha! Nice try weird people.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

Republicans don’t trust women.

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Trump’s legal defense is going to be a dumpster fire inside a clown car on a derailing train.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Don’t expect peaches from an apple tree.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

You come for women, you’re gonna get your ass kicked.

This really is a full service blog.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

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Medium Cool – from Worst to First to Best (of Everything)

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight we’ll conclude our 3-part series:   The Worst of Everything, the First of Everything, and now the Best of Everything.

Tonight let’s talk about the best of everything.

Best movies your have sent?

The actual top best movie you have ever seen, if you had to pick THE BEST?

What’s the best kids’ TV show you remember?

The best grown-up TV show you remember seeing as a kid?

Best book you remember reading not for school?  We might have to do this one by decades.

Best mystery series you read?

Best fireworks?

Best ballet?

Best play?

Best musical?

Best play or musical you were in?

Best book you remember reading in school?

Best teacher?

Best concert you attended?

Best concert you attended with friends?

Best holiday dinner ever?

Best food craze you remember?

Best food craze you got caught up in?

Best record you bought?

Best album you bought?

Best librarian or teacher?

The best of everything!   Have at it!

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Medium Cool – Star Spotting!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

I can’t recall who it was, but *someone suggested this as a possible future topic—movies or TV shows where you spotted an actor in an early role before they were famous, like an early Perry Mason where Leonard Nimoy was the killer.

CliosFanBoy!

Medium Cool – Star Spotting!

I would have liked to have seen that one!  Maybe Steeplejack (Perry Mason watcher extraordinaries) can let us know when that one will be showing next?

What are some of the other shows where you could frequently see future stars when they were still young pups?  Seems to me that along with Perry Mason, Rockford Files and Law & Order were frequent starter roles for aspiring actors were .  Or maybe the shows that had a lot of the young pups were just really great at spotting talent early?

Speaking of the Rockford Files, was Angel the antecedent of “Mozzie” on White Collar?

Anyway, anything that’s even remotely within throwing distance of this topic is fair game.  Just looking for something simple to start off the conversation this evening.

*out yourself in the comments if you are the someone who recommended this topic!

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Diversionary Open Thread: Do You Like Gladiator Movies, Timmy?…

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(Lowkey Robinson’s impression here is damned good!)

I am not, generally, much of a Swords & Sandals fan, but I have a great weakness for Denzel Washington, so I’m looking forward to GLADIATOR II. Which I’ll probably end up streaming, because the Spousal Unit is already huffing about ‘gross historical inaccuracy’…

A sensible person does not demand authenticity from a wide-screen epi twenty years in the making, and yet the arguments are already generating publicity for Ridley Scott…

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Medium Cool – Movies & TV Shows That Have Not Aged Well, And Ones That Have!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

Tonight let’s talk about movies and TV shows that have not aged well – but that you still enjoy!  For example, Cliosfanboy, who had the idea for this part of the post, still loves the TV mystery Banacek.

The casual sexism of the series is vintage early 1970s, but I still think the mysteries are really clever and I enjoy watching the main character solve them.

Suave is definitely the name of the game for Banacek, at least that’s how I remember it.

Let’s also talk about older shows that have aged well.  I haven’t watched The Rockford Files in a million years, but I like to think that one has aged well, if only because of the basic decency of both the actor and the character he played.  I’ll bet that some of you have watched it more recently (paging Steeplejack?)  Am I wrong about that?

There was some detective show with a female character named Honey, she may have been a private eye?  I bet that at least one of you guys will know what show that was, and how well it aged.

Let’s go!

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Medium Cool – I Want to Meet Chief Inspector Gamache

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

I am watching Three Pines, and every time Chief Inspector Gamache interviews someone I am struck by the kindness in his voice and the fact that he is asking the questions as if it’s not an interrogation at all.  It feels like a conversation, not an accusation, and he really seems interested in the answers.  He is truly interested in the person.

Such a thoughtful show; such a thoughtful character.  I am on the last episode, and I’m feeling quite melancholy about this being the last one.  Another great show, canceled.  Bastards!

In any case, as I was watching today I realized that I am going to miss Inspector Gamache, and it came to me that he is someone I would very much like to meet, if only he were real.

What character from a film, a show, or a play would you like to meet in person, if only you could? (Let’s save characters from books for another time.)

Please tell us not just the who, but also the WHY.  That is one piece of feedback I consistently get about Medium Cool – that it’s most interesting when people talk about the why instead of just list a thing that they like.

Update:  I wrote this post last week, when I thought I was at the end of the last of the 6 episodes of Three Pines.  Then I found out there were 8 episodes, not 6, so I watched the other two this week.  Color me officially cranky about the ending.  Bastards!

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Naps, TV Notes & Pink Birds (Open Thread)

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I’m not much of a napper but have been advised to give it a try. I’m bad at it so far. If I sleep during the day, I end up spending most of the the overnight hours either on the sofa watching TV between two snoring dogs or on the porch, listening to the swamp symphony. Here’s what that sounds like.

This weekend, I watched the latest episode of “Hacks,” (HBO Max) featuring the wonderful Jean Smart as aging Boomer comedian Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels, Deborah’s writer-collaborator and Gen Z foil.

This week’s episode centered on “cancel culture,” and damned if “Hacks” didn’t pull off a show on that thorny topic that managed to examine the issue thoughtfully while mostly avoiding self-righteousness or dismissiveness.

“Hacks” made the too-often overlooked point that celebrities with giant megaphones who get “canceled” might lose a gig in a worst-case scenario, but they’re never really silenced and go right on being rich, famous and influential.

“Hacks” portrayed at least some of the folks who took offense in the context of the show as sincere people who want a culture that does better by all its constituent parts rather than as a ravening mob gleefully out to ruin someone.

The lesson was that a hack is someone who refuses to learn and grow. Impressively nuanced, and Bill Maher, Jerry Seinfeld and the other cancel culture whiners should take note.

A new season of “The Great American Baking Show” has dropped on the free Roku channel. Haven’t watched it yet, but the British version got me through some tough times, particularly after the 2016 election.

I’ve also learned a few things about baking from watching that show. Baking has never been a strength for me. I’m a home cook who likes to improvise; I tend to struggle with discipline and precise instructions. (Probably a life metaphor in there somewhere).

Bill is watching “Outer Range” on Prime, which features Barbra Streisand’s stepson Josh Brolin as a rancher with a supernatural pasture. The concept is intriguing (big hole in a pasture that facilitates time travel when people, animals, etc., jump or fall in), but there doesn’t seem to a cohesive plot, just a series of loosely connected vignettes.

So when I try to watch that, I usually end up wandering off to listen to the frogs sing and the owls hoot and the insects trill. It makes more sense.

Open thread!

PS: Here’s a gift link to a WaPo story about flamingos’ triumphant return to Florida. Last year after Hurricane Idalia, we talked a bit here about flamingo sightings in the state. I couldn’t be happier about the prospect that flamingos are repopulating the area — God knows we need their vivid goofiness now more than ever!

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: Entertainment Notes

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The world has indeed changed, because I can remember a Cannes Festival era when the phrase “a tribute to George Lucas” would’ve caused actual physical violence to break out amongst the judges…

The 77th Cannes Film Festival draws to a close Saturday with the presentation of its top award, the Palme d’Or, along with an honorary tribute for George Lucas.

The closing ceremony is set to begin at 6:45 p.m. local time, 12:45 p.m. U.S. Eastern time. It will be streamed live on Brut internationally and air on France 2 within France…

During the brief awards ceremony, Lucas will be given an honorary Palme d’Or. During the festival, Cannes gave the same tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime factory Studio Ghibli.

Me, I’d give an award to Xin, just on general principles…

… Swiss comedy “Dog on Trial” premiered in the Un Certain Regard section, directed by and starring Laetitia Dosch. Based on a real case, the French-language film tells the story of a defense lawyer who takes on Cosmos, an aggressive dog facing legal action, as a client.

The titular dog is played by Kodi, a griffon, who Dosch says is really the star of the movie. It was important to her that Kodi had his name on the credits and the film poster and would be by her side in Cannes. A comedy-drama with a feminist outlook, “Dog on Trial” is about exploitation, Dosch says — and she has an offbeat theory as to what women and dogs have in common.

“Dogs come from wolves and we have been sculpting dogs for 40,000 years to become our perfect friends full of love,” she explains in an interview. “We castrate them also, so they can be peaceful all of the time, so we manipulate them to fit and to be exactly what we need. So, if I replace the word ‘dog’ by ‘women’ and I say the same sentence, it also makes sense.”

Kodi, however, did not get the memo. He spent the interview humping Dosch’s leg and licking her face, sending her earring cascading through the slatted flooring and earning him an eviction from the interview. He was kept away from subsequent red carpet appearances…

Also competing in Un Certain Regard — which curates a lineup of original and daring films — is another dog-centered drama, “Gou Zhen” (“Black Dog”) from the Chinese director Guan Hu. In it, Taiwanese superstar Eddie Peng plays Lang, who’s charged with removing stray dogs from his hometown on government orders ahead of the Olympic Games. One particular dog has a profound impact on Lang — and, as it turns out, on the actor himself.

Peng built up such a bond with his canine co-star Xin, a Jack Russell-greyhound cross, that he adopted her after filming ended and credits her for changing his outlook on life.

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