It's early Sunday morning and I'm watching one of the many videos leaked out of Hall H from Comic Con International that featured the official Marvel Studios announcements. I was going to post this for Bullet Sunday, but wanted to see if more videos would get officially released before posting my thoughts.

The announcements were huge, but also surprisingly reserved. Of course spoilers abound, so if you want to go in blind to the upcoming Marvel films... or want to watch the Hall H video for yourself, might want to turn back now.

• Peter! Wait... where did he go? Rob Delaney, come back!
• Wolverine & Deadpool becoming the biggest opening for an R-rated movie of all time is nice. Hopefully it shows Marvel Studios that they don't have to be 100% family-fare to be successful, because there's a lot of characters which would benefit from an R rating.
• Captain America: Brave New World should be interesting. Sam has the adamantium shield but not Cap's super-serum super-strength, and has to rely on his wings to give him an advantage. Now, whether or not Marvel too advantage of what makes the New Cap special remains to be seen. On February 15th, 2025, alas. But what I'm most excited to see is Joaquin Torres becoming the new Falcon.
• A "return to Winter Soldier" is not the worst thing to happen to the franchise. It's one of the best MCU movies of all time.
• Oh... looks like Marvel does plan on making Sam different without the super-serum! NICE!
• The Leader could be a fantastic villain. But I've seen him used so stupidly in the comics that I am reserving judgement until I see it.
• Danny Ramirez being able to give as good as he gets from Anthony Mackie is something else!
• Giancarlo Esposito is an exceptional actor. And he's playing SIDEWINDER?!? Guess that means Cap is facing off against The Serpent Society. From the trailer, it looks like they have him dressed in black, which is great, because a comic-accurate costume would be hysterical.
• Harrison Ford... AT COMIC CON?!? Well then. I was absolutely not expecting that. Good on him for jumping in despite the fact that he's probably very tired of conventions after his Star Wars fame. His shoutout to William Hurt (who originated his character) was nice.
• Thunderbolts* is a tough concept to bring to a movie, and I can't help but wonder if they've radically changed it. In the comics a new team of heroes debuted at a time when the world needed them, but then the shocking twist happened... these were not new heroes. They were old villains playing heroes. Honestly I don't care so long as they keep it fun. And here's David Harbour to make the presentation fun, so fingers crossed.
• What's the asterisk for on that? Changing the name?
• Oh... here it comes...
• ...or not.
• I keep forgetting that Hannah John-Kamen is returning as Ava in Thunderbolts. Which seems weird given how much I loved her performance in Killjoys.
• Wyatt Russell got a lot of shit for U.S. Agent in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier series and it was entirely unjustified. If anything, he was too good in the role to get people to hate him so much. I seriously hope that he has a good role in the film so people will stop pitching shit at him for a job well done.
• Black Widow was kinda a sad film. They waited until the character fucking died before she got a movie (despite her dropping in everybody else's movies)... then really put the spotlight on Florence Pugh since she was taking over the character. Plus the movie was mid. I am still livid that Scarlett Johansson was shitted on so badly by Marvel Studios. Black Widow deserved more.
• The Fantastic Four has gotten some truly shitty movies before coming to the MCU. Which is such a shame because if people would just follow the fucking comic book and pick up on what makes it so frickin' great... THEY ARE A FAMILY OF ADVENTURERS WHO JUST HAPPEN TO BE SUPER-HEROES... AKA The Imaginauts era, everything would be fine. Dang I hope that Marvel Studios nails this.
• Matt Shakman keeps getting lauded for WandaVision, a show I hated. I was not thrilled when he was brought on to Fantastic Four, but it sounds as though his work on WandaVision along with his studying 1960's New York could be an asset? I dunno. I really, really hope they knock this movie out of the park.
• The free fan looks VERY much like the movie is taking inspiration from The Incredibles which is the best news possible. That is one of the most stylistic retro-futuristic movies ever made.
• Surprise! The cast! Ebon Moss-Bachrach is a very good actor. But in his most famous role for The Bear all he does is fucking scream most of the time. I know he's capable of more, and I really hope we get too see something softer because The Thing is more about being Ben Grimm than the raw power of his super-hero persona.
• As much as I love Pedro Pascal (and boy do I), I really wanted John Krasinski and Emily Blunt to head The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Oh well. I'm sure he will be amazing in this. I'll just try to forget how he was absolute shit (though no fault of his own) in the shitty fucking Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman 1984 disaster, and I'm sure everything will be fine. I will never forgive Jenkins for following her first Wonder Woman masterpiece with one of the greatest super-hero movies of all time with that shitty, SHITTY fucking sequel. And now it looks like she's going to take a dump on Star Wars too. After WW1984 she should never work again. NOBODY who was responsible for that should ever be given money for movies again.
• For the love of God I hope they let Ebon Moss-Bachrach bring this kind of humble aesthetic to The Thing. If they go the HULK SMASH route I'll be very disappointed. Very.
• I don't know much about Jpseph Quinn except his masterful performance as Eddie in Stranger Things. That's a very good start for Johnny Storm. His character is played as a hot-head, but no so over the top that he's beyond reason and a bad caricature of a bratty asshole with super-powers. Even though the first slate of FF movies were shit, Michael B. Jordan and Chris Evans knew the assignment. Even when they were supposed to go too far with Johnny, you got the feeling that wheels were still turning. And that's critical.
• Vanessa Kirby gives off complex vibes when it comes to her roles. I think I most remember her from the Mission Impossible movies, and that's not a bad thing. Sue Storm should be of a similar mindset, which is to say she's complex, capable, and whip-smart instead of just eye candy. Scarlett Johansson was exploited as Black Widow in many respects, but at least they always came back to the fact that she was a valuable and impressive member of the team despite not having super-powers. Hopefully they don't forget that when it comes to The Invisible Woman.
• Bringing back The Russo Brothers to direct the Avengers flicks is like... MENSA-level smart. They know what to do with an ensemble film, and their takes on Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame is literally all you could want. I hope that the reason Destin Daniel Cretton is no longer involved is because he's making a Shang-Chi sequel. Which is probably a better use of his talents anyway.
• Avengers: Secret Wars is something to look forward to. The concept is vast in a way that even the comic books strive to match. Absolutely anything is possible in this movie. Anything. How Marvel Sudios chooses to take advantage of that will either make or break the film.
• The primary antagonist in Secret Wars is the all-powerful godlike Beyonder. I have said multiple times that the ideal person for the part is Alan Tudyk. But who will be Marvel's choice?
• Doctor Doom! Yeah, Hall H had no choice but to explode at that news.
• Avengers: The Kang Dynasty is now Avengers: Doomsday which is pretty much all they could do given how badly Ant-Man: Quantumania was received, how utterly mid Loki: Season 2 turned out, AND then the whole Johnathan Majors mess which made it impossible for him to return as Kang the Conquerer. Kang, one of the best, most powerful villains in the MCU was utterly trashed, so replacing him with Dr. Doom (yet another phenomenal Marvel villain) was a no-brainer.
• Welp.
• Robert Downey Jr. as Victor Von Doom is a bold choice. And while it would be very easy for this to just be a Multiverse variant of Tony Stark's Iron Man, I seriously hope they are smarter than that. The possibilities are endless, really. Maybe a villain who was defeated by Iron Man goes back in time to clone a baby Tony Stark, then raises the clone to become the ultimate villain: Doom. Or maybe it’s a shapeshifter using Stark’s face to disorient their foes. Or maybe it’s a robot looking like Tony built by the real Dr. Doom. Literally hundreds of ways This could go.
• There was nobody who could have played arrogant Tony Stark better than Robert Downey Jr, and Doom is at least 10× more arrogant. He's perfect for the part, however it comes to pass.

And now the surprising omissions which were not mentioned. Anything to do with the Disney+ series... Agatha All Along, Daredevil: Born Again, Eyes of Wakanda, and Ironheart. On the movie side, nothing to do with the long-promised Armor Wars and Blade flicks, no announcement of an expected new Spider-Man film, nothing about Shang-Chi, and... weirdly... nothing to do with X-Men either. I guess they want to save something for next year? But that's realy disappointing given the hot news we got from past Comic Cons.

And so... pretty much good news over what we actually got. Maybe the drastically-reduced slate of movies and shows happening will give us better-quality releases?

One would hope.

I'm in the middle of upgrading my closet, but it's time for a break... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• What is that? Let's start with the funniest thing I've seen all week...

This video short may be better than Revenge of the Sith!

   
• Super! Supacell is the Netflix series that Marvel Studios and Disney+ wish they had made. The only super-hero-television-show I've enjoyed more was Hawkeye. This show is exceptional. Where did they find these actors? I don't know that I've seen any of them before, and they're all so amazing. As if that wasn't enough, the show looks beautiful. Truly movie-quality gorgeous. Sure, the budget for the special effects isn't huge, but they make the most of what they had... and you're not looking at a shitty CGI wankfest every scene...

Absolutely worth your valuable time to watch.

   
• Ummmm! So... they're making a television series based on the book Bad Monkey which came out a full decade after the original Bad Monkey from Blogography...

I should sue! Yes! I should totally sue! Except I love Vince Vaughn, so I kinda want to see this show!

   
• Spider-Cat! Well this is awesome...

   
• Section 31! Normalize putting Michelle Yeoh in everything. Everything!

Seeing her in a deliciously evil role is too good to be true.

   
• Fake Ink! I wish to God that movie makeup crews knew how to apply realistic fake tattoos to actors. I am watching a sweet rom-com flick on Netflix called Find Me Falling, and Harry Connick Jr.'s rock star character has the absolute WORST fake ink on him. The lines are all perfectly crisp and the black ink is deepest black... like it was put on him last week. But it's tribal, which means it's at least two decades old...

Every time I saw it I was taken completely out of the film because it looks so fucking ridiculous. Do the people who make these fake tattoos know what an actual tattoo looks like?

   
• It's a Fucking Book! God forbid people be exposed to an alternative point of view. Families come in all shapes, sizes, and configurations...

Books. Like. This. Saves. Lives.

   
• TRON TRON TRON! I've been happy to see a lot of people sharing a meme with brilliant composer Wendy Carlos (debunking the idea that "trans people didn't exist five years ago when she transitioned in the early 70's) . Her TRON soundtrack still gives me chills when I think back to her groundbreaking work in electronic music. What people might not know about her is that after her first album Switched on Bach became a wild success, she was transitioning and terrified that her being credited as "Walter Carlos" on the album would cause problems... so she wore a wig and fake sideburns to appear more masculine at her public appearances...

Since then, all her albums were issued (or re-issued) with her properly credited as "Wendy Carlos." I find it horrific that society is sliding back to a time when trans persons were persecuted and ridiculed so viciously and openly. What has Wendy done to the world to deserve that except spread joy and feeling with her music? What has any trans person done to deserve this? They're just living their lives the best they can with the cards they were dealt. Just like we all are. Seek out Wendy's work. Some incredible stuff out there.

   
Hoping the last Sunday of July finds you well.

I may be melting from working too hard when it's too hot, but don't you fear... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• LIFE-CHANGING NEWS! I WILL NEVER BE BUYING KETCHUP AGAIN! Tonight I wanted a burger for dinner. I had used the last of my ketchup, so I went to grab a fresh bottle... and... I DON'T HAVE ANY! CANCEL MY AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP, BECAUSE HOW DO YOU RUN OUT OF KETCHUP IN THE USA? But I had tomato paste, so I Googled a recipe. There are many. All of them have vinegar and sugar, then spices. And so I decided to just roll my own and wing it on the spices until it tasted good. I just kept adding them... black pepper, garlic powder, oregano, onion powder, chili powder, mustard, celery powder, berbere, and a little cayenne. INCREDIBLE!

I COULD EAT THIS OUT OF THE BOWL! IT WAS SO GOOD ON MY BURGER THAT I AM COOKING FRIES SO I CAN SMOTHER THEM IN IT! I WILL NEVER BUY STORE KETCHUP EVER AGAIN! LOVE. LOVE LOVE LOVE. Guess running out of store-bought ketchup was a blessing in disguise.

   
• Exploding Kittens! Netflix has an animated series that takes its name from the Exploding Kittens card games which doesn't really follow the game. Instead it focuses on God and the Devil being banished to earth as... cats? They had Tom Ellis who played Lucifer for six seasons, so the fact that he's God now is clever casting...

It's pretty well done, over all. Some hilarious moments and pretty good stories. If you've got Netflix, it's worth checking out.

   
• Manny! So... The Hollywood Reporter has taken a quote completely out of context to use as a headline, and it's pretty bad. Especially given what Manny Jacinto actually had to say. My comment left on their Facebook follows...

"I understand that you have to create click-bait headlines so people will visit your site... but was it really necessary to pull this quote completely out of context so it makes him seem like a raving prima donna instead of being grateful to have the job and be a part of the movie? — 'There was this sense of where the film was going [on set], like I can see them focusing the camera more on these [other] guys and not taking so much time on our scenes. Fortunately, it still was a great experience — you get to see this huge machine at work, see how Tom Cruise works, and you get to be a small part of this huge franchise.'"

What a shitty fucking way to misrepresent what Manny was trying to say. He seems like a nice guy. I loved him in The Good Place and he's darn good in The Acolyte. But I guess you can't have an Asian guy making it in Hollywood. Gotta crush him by making him look bad to everybody and turn them against him. Just goes to show that there's an agenda in all "reporting"... even when it coes to entertainment "news."

   
• I CANNOT EVEN! Prague, one of the most beautiful cities on earth, is home to one of my favorite restaurants on the entire planet: Lehká Hlava (Clear Head). So to see the spreading of bullshit lies about Czech restaurants gaining traction out of ignorance is rage-inducing. Fortunately, Honest Guide is on the case...

It's like... come on. Can't people do the bare fucking minimum of looking into "injustices" before spreading idiotic crap like this? The answer is obviously no! because the truth isn't what's important any more. It's getting views and clicks.

   
• M3GAN! Okay... I tuned into this movie because it's got a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, but wasn't expecting much. I thought it was going to be a Chucky rip-off. BUT NOPE! This movie is nuts! In the best way, of course. SO DISTURBING!

If you've got Peacock, it's streaming there for free and is well worth your time.

   
• And Now... a Reminder! "There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" ― Isaac Asimov

And it's getting worse every fucking day.

   
• The Olds! And so the inevitable happened... President Biden pulled out of the race. As somebody who is not a fan, I shed zero tears. He's too old to be president, and it's ludicrous and cruel that he was ever being considered in the first place. Interesting to note... with Biden gone, that makes Trump the oldest person in the history of the United States to be on the ticket for president. Blergh. He's too fucking old too! He's only three years younger than Biden, for Christ's sake. And his mental abilities are decidedly worse, because he doesn't have Biden's stutter to keep distracting his brain while he's speaking. When are we going to stop with all these politicians who are too fucking old and out-of-touch to hold office?

   
And now I return you to our regular scheduled programming.

Mac users like to think that the many viruses and problems which plague Windows users doesn't effect them, but they're wrong. The fact that the world runs on Windows means that existing in the world means that Windows problems can affect you. There couldn't be a better example of this than today's "CrowdStrike" disaster.

CrowdStrike is a cyber security company whose products protect your computers from going down due to external attacks and protect your data from data breaches. Today they sent out a security update to their Windows host customers which, alas, ended up being defective. This caused all the computers which received the update to crash. Hard. A global IT outage occurred. Which means everything from airports and airlines to banking and health care were hopelessly fucked. All you saw anywhere and everywhere was the dreaded Windows Blue Screen of Death™...

So whether you are a Mac user, Linux user, or Windows user... you were hopelessly fucked by consequence. Like these people in what I'm thinking must be Berlin Brandenburg Airport (I've only flown into Berlin a handful of times... so while "Ankunft" is definitely German, I can only be positive that this is not Cologne-Bonn's airport, which I am very familiar with)...

Photo by Liesa Johannssen/Getty Images

Now, given how much travel I've done in my life, I've been in situations just like this. Mostly as a consequence of weather, but sometimes it was technical. I've definitely seen the Windows Blue Screen of Death™ in more than one airport. I do not envy these people trying to deal with the clusterfuck that's become their life. I can't even remember all the places I've been stuck over the years. But it's happened many, many times. In the beginning when I hadn't traveled so much, it was both frustrating and terrifying. But as the number of trips I took went up, my anxiety went down when problems popped up. It'll all work out, no matter what happened, I knew that I'll get to where I'm going eventually. Accommodations to my situation will be made. Which is not to say that sadness didn't occur. I missed a Christmas back when my mom and grandmother were still alive and, given how important that holiday was to them, I was understandably upset about it.

But technology happens.

In other news... after watching Jason Statham in the incredible action flick The Beekeeper, I've made it my mission in life to watch all of his films that I haven't yet seen. There's not a lot because I'm a huge fan of the kinds of films he makes. The best of the films I watched this week was Safe...

Is there anything brilliantly new to be had? No. But there were a number of interesting bits in-between the fighting. Can't ask for more than that!

Yesterday I blathered on about asshole movie studios depriving customers of what they paid for... access to movies and shows that were sold to them. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Something I cannot fathom is how studios will sit on shows they own and not release them for people to enjoy. This was something that hit me pretty hard after Stephen Dunham died in 2012. He was the star of Oh Grow Up! (from 1999), a series I loved that can't be watched anywhere. It was never released on DVD, was never offered digitally and, from what I can tell, has never been shown on any network after its original run. I have it recorded on 8mm tape somewhere, but don't know that I have a player capable of playing them even if I could find the tapes. You can tapes to be converted to digital, but companies won't do it because they're copyrighted material.

What a waste. Dunham was a good actor and his work deserves to be seen. The pilot episode is on YouTube, but not much else...

Sometimes you can get lucky. There was a show called The Palace Guard (from 1991) which I loved that was eventually released as a part of a Stephen J. Cannell DVD collection set (and I've seen it on some free-view services from time to time... it's currently playing for free on Plex). It was a fun show about a cat burglar that becomes a security expert for an international chain of hotels. But I don't know how much longer those DVDs will even work, if they haven't crapped out already (see yesterday's post)...

Other times you can get... kinda lucky. A Connie Sellecca and Greg Evigan vehicle I liked called P.S.I. Luv U (also from 1991) was never released for home video in any format... but some kind soul uploaded all episodes to YouTube nine years ago, albeit in atrocious quality, and I have watched through them all a couple times...

No idea how legal it is, but if the studio who owns it isn't going to do anything with the show, somebody has to. It's one of six series I would very much be thrilled to purchase (and there's plenty of others)...

• P.S.I. Luv U (1991)
• Strange Luck (1995)
• Cupid (1998)
• Oh Grow Up! (1999)
• Now and Again (1999)
• The American Embassy (2002)

The frustrating thing about all this is that it costs practically nothing to convert a show to digital format. It's all automated. You put the tapes in the machine and push a button. The software which encodes it and cleans it up doesn't require any technical expertise. Just a person to load/unload.

You'd think with streaming networks desperate to have content for their services which are exceedingly cheap, this would be a no-brainer. But it's not like you could accuse studio executives of having a brain.

I own a bajillion DVDs and Blu-Ray Discs. I love movies and television. I love owning my favorite shows so I can re-watch whenever I want. When digital streaming came along, I made the switch happily because I simply didn't have the space to store all that physical media. But then we all found out a sad truth... shows and movies you bought and paid for can be taken from you with absolutely no recourse. You pay for the right to stream something, and that right can be stripped from you at any time when a studio removes it from Google Play or iTunes or wherever.

So back to buying physical media, right? The studios can't break into your house and take those back!

Except they don't have to. Because physical media isn't made to last, and some studios know that... but don't give a shit. They got your money, and that's all they care about. Something this video talks about in depth, mostly focusing on the abomination that is Warner Bros., who is a fucking shitty company for many reasons, and this is a big one...

It's absolutely bonkers that those of us who do the right thing and pay for the stuff we want to own get punished for it. And yet here we are.

Buy physical media? It rots and no longer works.

Buy digital copies? Studios can strip them from you at any time.

Subscribe to a studio's streaming service directly? Studios can remove those shows even more easily.

The only option left is to buy physical media, then "back it up" by ripping it to your computer. Legally, you do have a right to have a backup so long as you continue to own the original media. Which is to say that you can't buy a DVD, rip it, then sell the DVD. Except... it's illegal to circumnavigate copy protection to actually make the backup. And of course DVDs and Blu-Rays have copy protection.

It's a total load of shit. Personally I am of the belief that once you buy a DVD or Blu-Ray or digital copy of something, you should maintain the right to view it regardless of what happens. If a DVD rots, you should have the right to purchase replacement media at cost or get a digital copy for free. And once something is sold digitally, studios don't get to take it back from you. They must provide a way for you to get what you paid for. Or else they shouldn't be allowed to sell it in the first place.

But powerful studios own our politicians, so that's expecting too much.

THEY doing illegal shit to strip you of what you bought is forgivable. YOU doing illegal shit to have access to what you paid for is not.

Typical.

Summer is in full-swing but 100º heat won't deter me... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• mini! When Sony unleashed the MiniDisc format, I was all in. I bought the home stereo deck. I bought the car player. I bought the portable. It was such a fantastic format (for the day) and the ability to have advance recording abilities made it a great way to curate your favorite music...

Of course then digital audio arrived and physical media was, understandably, dead. And don't get me wrong, there's no going back after you've had digital (except maybe vinyl, because the sound is so beautiful) but there are days I think back to the magic of MiniDisc and I really do miss it.

   
• Hero! Francisco Oliveira is a wig specialist outside of São Paulo, Brazil in the city of São José dos Campos who changes lives with his unique skills. What's remarkable about his videos is that when he's working with a child he'll put them at ease by showing that he wears a wig too...

His entire feed is filled with feel-good videos, if you need a brak from the horrors of the world.

   
• Gone Ballistic! I have never understood just why Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever was so horrendously reviewed. No, the movie's story wasn't all that good... it had a lot of inexplicable shit hanging off of it... but the stunts were fantastic and I thought Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu did a pretty good job with the material they had to work with. Now, finally, I have found this video where somebody takes a deep dive into the movie. And oh boy... strap in...

Add me to the list of people who would love to see a director's cut of Ecks vs. Sever where Kaos gets to make the movie he always intended.

   
• Movie Sunday! Beverly Hills Cop IV: Axel F was fun. A total 80's throwback that was a predictable but an entertaining watch. The Beekeeper, however, was delicious to watch. This is the best I've seen come out of Jason Statham in a minute. If you love a good revenge flick, this one ticks all the boxes...

So many movies have been so disappointing lately that I can't tell you how happy it makes me to finally have something worthwhile to watch.

   
• Christianity? While browsing through Facebook I was surprised to see a number of posts being shared which say something like "If you can afford tattoos, you can afford to buy your own food. PERIOD!" And the comments are all "AMEN!" and I'm sitting there thinking... okay then. If somebody has tattoos, they should just fuck off and starve if they suddenly have a financial crisis or lose their job or get sick? Totally tracks for today's modern "Christians." What fucking Bible are you reading where passages like this DON'T EVEN EXIST: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me." These faux "Christians" are rewriting the Bible in realtime, and I am at a total loss. I TELL YOU THE TRUTH, WHATEVER YOU DID FOR ONE OF THE LEAST OF US YOU DID FOR ME.

   
• More Kaulitz! I love the German band Tokio Hotel. I really love Heidi Klum. So Kaulitz and Kaulitz on Netflix is a perfect fit for me. It feels a lot less fake than I was expecting, and is a fun watch. It's all in German (with English subtitles available), which just ramps it up to the next level...

I'm not much of a reality TV fan, but this was interesting from the standpoint that it was just so crazy. But in a good way.

   
• Quality! It took over a half hour, but I finally managed to reconnect my Sonos SUB to my speakers again! It just randomly got lost for no reason and I had to power cycle my entire system four times and cycle my router twice to make it happen. I would have called Sonos for support, but they would have just blamed it on my router, like the always do when there's a problem. It's always your "router" and your "network." My router can easily handle streaming 4K video... but, according to Sonos, it can't handle a fucking low bit-rate audio stream EVEN WHEN NO OTHER MAJOR TRAFFIC IS ON MY NETWORK? And I'm still waiting for them to fix the skipping that happens when streaming from Apple Music. YouTube Music works fine. Apple Music does not, even though they claim to support it. Of course Apple Music streams flawlessly to every other audio device I own... it's just Sonos... but I'm sure they'll blame it on Apple, my router, my network, sunspots, Obama, and oxygen molecules in the air... absolutely ANYTHING except their equipment or software! When I think back to the years of saving pennies it took in order to put together my Sonos gear, only to have it be a steaming pile of shit... things get real depressing real fast.

   
And now? Back to weeding my yard and hoping I don't get heatstroke.

The temperature has been getting steadily hotter, but I'm not entirely melted just yet... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Hunt and Peck! This behind-the-scenes showing Post Malone using a typewriter for the first time makes me feel very old, but it's also pretty funny...

I used to have a manual typewriter that was lost when I moved stuff out of storage years ago. I also had a cheap electric which was never returned after somebody borrowed it. I really wish that I had either of them, because it seems a retro-cool way to communicate.

   
• Drained! Ha! XKCD reeeeeally has a thing for Dutch colonization and the Netherlands taking over the world!

We dump so much shit in the oceans that the junk would probably just plug the hole, if we're being honest.

   
• Health "Care." It blows my fucking mind how the IRS can put limits on individual contributions to your Health Savings Account. I should be able to contribute however much I need to in order to cover my legitimate medical expenses so I can get a tax break on those expenses. But no. I have to pay taxes on money going towards health expenses because I had big expenses this year. That is truly fucked. We should have our health care covered by our taxes instead of it being pissed away to insurance companies who leach money from the system for profit... but if we can't have that, then why the fuck can't we at least contribute whatever the hell we want whenever the hell we want to our HSA? More bullshit by our elected officials who are fucking OWNED by the insurance lobbyists...

I'm wondering for the hundredth time why American citizens haven't taken a fucking flamethrower to this country given how badly we get fucked over by our government. Absolutely everything is designed to screw over citizens while handing money and power over to greedy fucking assholes.

   
• McGamer! I love things like this! What a wild journey!

   
• Unexplainably Juicy! The new Sparkling Ice Starburst flavors are amazing. Seriously the best flavors they've ever made. Especially Orange and Strawberry...

Can't believe they're Zero Sugar, Zero Carbs, and only 5 Calories!

   
• Anakin! It really bothers me when I think back to how much I loathed Hayden Christensen for "ruining Star Wars" when it was never him. It was the shitty script and dialogue he was given. I am so happy that he's been given a chance at redemption and is nailing it...

It will be interesting to see if he gets any more Star Wars work, seeing as how they are running out of ways to shoe-horn him in the places he's popping up already.

   
And now back to our regularly-scheduled hotness.

Yesterday was a tough day. I received some terrible news very early and it kinda took the wind out of my sails. One sad fact about getting older is that bad news seems to accelerate, and once you get to the point of accepting what happened, you get hit with something else. I had planned on installing the final ceiling access panel I had built over the weekend, but couldn't pull it together.

Instead I fell down a rabbit hole over the movie A Few Good Men, because I watched it last night before bed.

This is a film that perplexes me. I always found the dialogue to be wordy and unnatural. Everything coming out of Tom Cruise's mouth feels like it's coming off a script because nobody talks that way.

But the performances!

The dialogue may be a bit weird and unnatural to me, but the way the actors deliver it is unnaturally incredible. The performances are wonderfully nuanced, and I honestly think that it's the best acting to come out of Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson throughout their entire careers... plus every other actor was top-tier amazing in every scene. It's a dream cast giving their absolute best, and you feel it while you're watching the movie.

The reason for this post is that I want to run through my favorite performance in A Few Good Men.

Yeah, yeah, that explosive Jack Nicholson monologue is a master-class of acting and takes your breath away with just how flawless he performed the scene... but it's Noah Wyle's Corporal Barnes that really stood out for me. And it's such a small role. He drives the legal team to the base when they arrive and has a funny line about putting on a jacket since you don't want to look like an officer because you might get shot at. But it's this scene in the courtroom that really made me take notice...

Just think for a minute about all the balls that Noah Wyle is having to juggle in his moment.

The entire movie hinges on a "Code Red" that results in tragedy. Wyle is the one actor who has to explain it, illustrate it, and tell the audience about how it is technically not a military authorized practice, but soldiers taking disciplinary actions into their own hands. This is not some bit part filmed for scenery or atmosphere, it is the crux of absolutely everything that follows. How Rob Reiner came to cast Noah Wyle for such a critical role is something I really wonder about.

Barnes has to come off as a country hick, but can't appear stupid. You feel that he's probably uneducated and not too bright... but he isn't ignorant either. That's a balancing act that takes some serious acting chops.

He has to be the most genuine person in the entire cast, which means Wyle's performance is far more nuanced than you'd assume at first glance. He has to emote while being a blank canvas, because his testimony can't have any hint of an alternative motive or secrecy. You have to 1000% buy that everything he says is an honest reflection of his experience so that you comprehend the events of the movie in a way that doesn't leave room for doubt.

In lesser hands, Barnes could have been played as a jarhead robot forcefully expressing his lines. But Wyle's performance plays it deferential, likable, and wholesome. He's almost gentle. This was likely because Rob Reiner wanted a stark contrast between him and the other Marines so you have more of a sense that Barnes is being personal and honest while delivering the most important information in the entire film... not just dumping Marine rhetoric on you. It's a fascinating choice, and a very, very smart one. Noah Wyle has spoken about his role, but I'd love to hear him explain his choices and what direction he received to get there.

I looked Wyle up on Wikipedia to find out if he was originally from the South. His slight Southern accent is not overwhelming and feels more authentic than the twang we usually has to suffer through. The guy was born and raised in California. Which meant he must have researched and practiced for his role.

And nailed it.

It's all too easy to get caught up in the performances by the big-name actors in a film or series while ignoring the minor roles as background noise. But there are times that this is impossible. And Noah Wyle's performance in A Few Good Men is one of them. At least for me.

One of the most compelling villains in movie history comes from a place that you likely wouldn't expect... a cartoon film.

Namely one of my favorite cartoon films, Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers.

And now, in news that both surprised and delighted me, Feathers is back in a new movie... Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl...

This pretty much made my entire day!