Barkerburgh

I’ve been waiting for this show since last fall.

As many of you know, I truly believe that Google will bring about the Singularity and activate Skynet. Seriously.

To be honest, I never saw the first movie for years after it was made, but when I finally did, I really liked it. The second one was almost as good, partly because of the twist, but the third one…

The premiere, two one hour episodes over two nights, wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be, ie on par with the BSG miniseries, or practically any episode of Earl, Gas, or 30, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was very much afraid it was going to be.

Really though, how wrong can you go with evil robots from the future, a borderline psychotic mother, and hackin’, fightin’ Jesus-boy?

I was very happy with the casting of Summer Glau and Lena Headey, and not discomfited by the rest of the casting.

I’m looking forward to more fight scenes where robots from the future throw each other through walls, unless they happen all the time.

I got this from Anneli, and as she said, ‘Fantasy Overload‘!

Wait for the ending!

Every year during the winter solstice holiday season, I celebrate my people’s ancient Sacred and Revelatory Restoration of the Crashed Operating System.

This year, as an atheist, I was planning to forgo it as outmoded and irrelevant to this, our modern world of the future.

My people’s gods are angry and petulant, capricious and heedless.  I was forced to repeat the primal, days-long ritual.

Finally, on Friday I succeeded to my gods’ satisfaction.

Again I am blessed.  For a year.

Another truth about that photo of Riverdale Park.

And you!  And you!  And you!  And who’s that behind you?  Well, Merry Christmas to him or her or them too!

And if you know anybody else, why then Merry Christmas to them too!

And your mum and your dog and your dog’s mum and your mum’s dog!

Remember how, when you were a kid, back in the old country, and you were cleaning and chopping fresh jalapenos to blanch for chili and tomato sauce, your mama would tell you (and I won’t do the accent) “Now don’t go rubbing your eyes while you’re watching TV until you’ve washed your hands really good with soap and water, okay? Okay?” Here is where mama would whack you across the back of the head or on the knuckles with her wooden spoon. “Alright? Okay!”

Well, she was right.

I’ve basically used the same password on all my accounts for years. It’s clever, idiosyncratic and medium strength, according to the analysts.

I recently went using from ****** to using *********, which is good and strong. But I haven’t remembered to change it on all my accounts yet, and I forget which ones I’ve changed and which ones I haven’t.

So I keep having to ask the system to email me my forgotten password, and then I forget which email account I used as an alternative address, or even what my secret question was. Did my mother have a dog when she still had her maiden name? Or was it the one about the angles on the head of a pin. (I get too clever for my own good sometimes, and I suspect you already know that and are just too good a friend to actually tell me.¹)

I have to resort to the absolute wrong thing to do to remember my passwords, which I can’t mention in this post, obviously, for security reasons.  I wouldn’t want my life hacked by people even more clever for my own good than I am, now would I?

Avoid the film ‘Cradle Will Rock’!

The well-known radical leftist Tim Robbins wrote and directed this sensationalistic and overblown paean to Communism, anti-Fascism and creeping Trade-Unionism. Only somewhat fictionalized, it is inspired by a particular period in 1937, when the House Committee on Un-American Activities was young, and when labour unrest was rising, the former being demonized while the latter is praised. One does not expect objectivity in films like this, from people like this, and one is never disappointed.

Set in the lead up to WWII, among the actors and artists, magnates and industrialists of New York City, populated by the rich and the poor, the wicked and the kind, the clever and the canny, the story is based around the character of Marc Blitzstein, a left-wing composer, and the production of his pro-union musical, ‘The Cradle Will Rock.’

He is played by Hank Azaria, who, curiously, only ever uses one voice – although I am certain I heard Moe Szyslak in one crowd scene.

The producers managed to reconstruct Diego Rivera’s fresco commissioned for the RCA Building at Rockefeller Center in New York. Then, appropriately, on camera, as in real life, they destroyed it as part of the movie’s action, of course, but also as a subtle warning to Communists and trade-unionists. Fictionally, the destruction was moved from 1933 to 1937, and the scenes of its destruction were intercut with scenes of the impromptu opening night of Blitzstein’s play.

I will admit the casting was quite fine, even including Susan Sarandon’s bad Italian accent. John Turturro, Vanessa Redgrave, Bill Murray, John Cusack, Cary Elwes, Emily Watson, many others, all did a fine job, while revealing their left-wing sympathies, and making sure their names go on secrets lists in Washington and under Cheyenne Mountain (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dupont Corporation.)

All in all, very enjoyable, for a left-wing, subversive, anti-establishment, hippy, yippy, People’s Republic, beatnik, Tommy Douglas in Ho Chi Minh City out on a Saturday night, kind of movie.

But don’t let it sway you.

Here’s the thing. And it’s the same thing that bogged me down last year. I spend way too much time tweaking, massaging, improving and otherwise editing what I’ve already written, rather than just writing the story, then coming back later to fix things up, and otherwise edit.

Here’s your task: keep me hoppin’. I’m a little bummed on this, so you be my Jacob Marley (and three spirits). Text, email or comment me to remind that, as in all things, time is short, life is shorter, 2006 was over a long time ago, and I’m on the downhill slide to who gets to pawn my bed-hangings and candlesticks. It’s all up to you now. And me. More me than you, really, I suppose. You’re like maybe 30%, 35 at best. But 30% of a success is certainly better than 30% of something less succcesful, isn’t it? So you hang in there. I’m counting on that 30%. Maybe 35.

(I suppose you could be my Clarence, too. But that’s a whole ‘nother life.)

And y’all keep wishing me luck, now, just like y’all have been!  If you do, I promise I’ll stick my head out the window on November 30 at midnight to shout “You there, boy, what day is this?!”

I didn’t even know this guy and I just got this email!

So who needs a new house? Whose kids need to go to university abroad? Who needs exotic surgery in foreign climes?

(Italics mine.)

“MANAGING PARTNER
GRAPEVINE & ASSOCIATES LAW FIRM
LONDON - UK.
NOTIFICATION OF BEQUEST

Hello,
On behalf of the Trustees and Executor of the estate of Late Engr.Huish Shearmur;I again try to notify you as my first letter was returned undelivered yet i tried still to reach you again by this same email address stated on the WILL.He left the sum of Seven Million One Hundred Thousand Dollars(USD$7,100.000.00 ) to you in the codicil and last testament of his WILL.
Late Engr. Huish Shearmur died on the 13th day of march, 2006 at the age of 80 years, and his WILL is now ready for execution.Please endeavor to get back to me as soon as possible at grapevinelawfirm@hotmail.co.uk to enable me conclude my job and give you more detailed information about his WILL.

yours in Service,

BARRISTER ANDREW MARTIN ESQ”

The lineup starts now.