I was working outside, decided it was way too hot, then decided it was a great excuse to come knock out some bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• New Marriott! New James Marriott is here! Weird video, as usual, but the song is one of my favorites he's ever done. It's always a pleasant surprise when musical artists keep pushing forward like this...
His previous release was darn good too...
His new album, Don't Tell the Dog, will be released on June 13th.
• Holiday Road! Even if Rogue One sucked (spoiler alert, it most definitely does not suck), we'd still have one of the most terrifying scenes to come out of Star Wars. And it loses none of its impact no matter what you do to it...
That's Darth Vader unleashed as you'd always imagine him. And, hey, isn't Holidy Road a great song? Makes me want to rewatch Christmas Vacation for the hundredth time. But here's an interesting factoid... Holiday Road was played in all the National Lampoon's Vacation movies EXCEPT Christmas Vacation. And, here's another one for you... did you know that Kesha covered the song last year?
I always love it when somebody decides to make a cover song their own by putting some kind of spin on it that's different from the original.
• Justice for Luko! Mickey 17 came to HBO Max and it's surprisingly good, which I wasn't expecting given how it failed hard at the box office, not even making back the money it cost before marketing. I didn't know much about it other than I wanted to see it because Bong Jo Hoon is a genius...
It's a great story that's expertly told (which I did expect). It's also got something to say. Worth a look if you're into thoughtful sci-fi.
• 5+5=10!
Well this is interesting...
"That'll be five dollars, mate.'
"Do you have change for a tenner?"
"I do not."
"No worries, mate!"
RIIIIIIP!
You really do learn something new every day.
• New Fraser? I kinda lost track of Man Can Cook because while it was fun at first, it ended up being always the same thing... a guy cooking while his dog (Fraser!) sat there. But the other day Facebook had this video in my feed...
Dan is likely not planning on trading in Fraser permanently, but it's nice that he realizes he needs to try different things from time to time.
• Young Hotness! Nothing quite like running across an old driver's license to make you realize how old you've gotten!
Dang. so hot back then. No idea what happened. I'm talking about my signature, of course. I'm just as hot as I've always been! My signature is a complete mess now.
• Feed. Hungry. Kids! I'm going to put this riiiiight here...
The fact that lunch programs in schools aren't free to any child, regardless of money or paperwork, is abhorrent. The fact that there are people who are perfectly happy to let children starve says all you need to know about where humanity is at right now. These kids have absolutely no control over their circumstances, and people need to stop acting as if they've somehow done something wrong just by existing.
And now back to our regularly-scheduled nonsense.
I'm in the middle of cleaning my filthy house, but rushing through a few things I saw this week seems inevitable... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• New Old! The Old Guard (on Netflix) is one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. I was thrilled we were getting a sequel. Though I was really hoping to get back-to-back sequels, darnit...
Now if only we could get a sequel to Atomic Blonde.
• 97%! Has anybody seen the 2023 Hulu movie BlackBerry? It's insane. It's just insane! I knew quite a bit about the rise and fall of BlackBerry, but seeing it told like this is nuts. This movie has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97%... NINETY-SEVEN-PERCENT... and I've never even heard of it!
First of all, Glenn Howerton is remarkable. Frickin' DENNIS from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is remarkable. I had no idea he was even capable of this kind of performance. Just watch it and marvel at a good story told exceptionally well.
• Shoot the Moon! I recently saw this image of the true distance from earth to the moon, as taken by the OSIRIS-REx probe at around 3,181,420 miles away from Earth...
This is very cool, because most people think that the moon is quite close to the earth. Good thing for us it isn't, or we'd be in a serious gravity-related nightmare.
• First Love! Wait. I've watched this video for a song I love by Father Tiger dozens of times. And I am just now noticing... IS THAT NOAH CENTINEO?!? (not in the thumbnail, in the video). Pretty sure it is...
I remain pissed that The Recruit was canceled. Centineo was exceptional in it.
• Money! If the government was actually interested in saving American taxpayer dollars instead of padding the wallet of its biggest doner...
@nytopinion Part 1 of 4: Within days of taking office, President Trump fired 16 inspectors general from across the federal government. We spoke to seven of them about the abuses they uncovered, what they really think about DOGE and what all this means for the future of American democracy. Tap the playlist in our profile to view all four parts. #nytopinion ♬ original sound - New York Times Opinion
We keep being told about all the billions of dollars that's being saved. So where is it? Where has that money gone? Anyone? Anyone?
• Science! Just in case, you know, the God-given miracle of mRNA vaccines is not yet understood, here you go.
• Renaissance! The only season of The White Lotus that I enjoyed was the first one. Everything since has just been a boring slog that doesn't have a worthwhile payoff. That being said, the opening credits and theme song are pretty great. This rendition of Renaissance is pretty great...
That vocalist just went for it, and it was a joy to watch.
Back to cleaning my home. Dangit.
Every once in a while I run across a really cool question that makes me long for the good ol' days when blogging was still popular and memes were a Big Deal.
This time is was on BlueSky where somebody was asking a music question which, let's face it, is a darn good question because I had to really think about it...
I came up with...
Jester came up with...
Marty (from Banal Leakage) came up with...
The biggest shock to me was Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. All these albums I love by the band were released THIRTY YEARS after their first album? How often does that happen?
This may be the 900th installment of Bullet Sunday, but the bullets are as fresh as ever... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• The Devil of Hell's Kitchen! I've been ridiculously busy and didn't manage to get past Episode 02 of Daredevil: Born Again until today. When I binged the entire rest of the series. It was better than I had even hoped. Came very close to eclipsing Hawkeye as my favorite Marvel Studios television series. What's surprising is how they managed to keep it as dark and edgy and its Netflix beginnings while toning it down just enough to fit under the Disney+ banner. I thought they would ruin what they had, but they pulled it off...
Highest possible recommendation. Like Hawkeye, they were beautifully source-material accurate. And between Charlie Cox's pained portrayal of Matt Murdock and Vincent D'Onofrio's intense take on Wilson Fisk, the series couldn't help but be good (and lest we forget Ayelet Zurer's deliciously cold and ruthless turn as Vanessa Fisk!). The great story just sealed the deal. I'm betting the second half in the second season (currently in production) will tie things up with a heck of a bang. Here's hoping that Disney has a plan for the Devil of Hell's Kitchen after that.
• Papal! Just throwing this out there...
I was baptized in the Catholic Church. And I am a man. Apparently that's all the qualification I need...
One thing's for certain. If I were Pope, priests and nuns who assault people, particularly children, would have no place to hide.
• Niamos! The Official Star Wars YouTube Channel has officially released a one hour video of Mon Mothma dancing to that absolute banger of a track from the end of Andor Season 02E03...
Now... if you haven't seen the episode, you have no idea what's happening, why she's dancing, or just how brilliant this series is. What happened just before the dance started will haunt me for a very long time. If you're not watching Andor, you are missing one of the best TV shows of all time... Star Wars or no Star Wars.
• Worth Fighting For! It's one thing to have read the infamous NSFW South Park letter. It's quite another to have the incomparable Matt Berry read it live...
I will never be able to see Matt Berry and not be mad that What We Do In The Shadows was canceled.
• Industry! Earlier this week Variety, whose bread and butter is covering the entertainment industry, had a headline of this: "Sinners" has amassed $61 million in its global debut. It's a great result for an original, R-rated horror film, yet the Warner Bros. release has a $90 million price tag before global marketing expenses, so profitability remains a ways away. This headline this early is blatantly manipulative and an obvious attempt to define a narrative which supports big budgets exclusively for IP-based films. Fortunately, Variety was immediately and rightfully called out on it. And one particular source caught my eye...
In what universe does a 60 million dollar opening for an original studio movie warrant this headline? https://t.co/rkFQxQNwMp
— Ben Stiller (@BenStiller) April 21, 2025
Bravo. And, just an FYI, as of this writing Sinners has a global box office of $121,726,427. With stellar reviews, great press, Ryan Coogler's fan following, and some serious momentum, The movie will, at the very least, break even at the box office. Then any home-video sales and streaming rights will be gravy. This movie will very obviously hit profitability, and the fact that Variety's shitty headline didn't bother to wait before questioning it's ability to get there is very, very telling. They aren't covering the entertainment industry... they're attempting to influence the entertainment industry. The question becomes why? Conclusions are pretty easy to draw, but the important take-away from all this is that no media is safe from having an agenda. Never have been. The difference is that now they're blatantly obvious about it.
• DOOM! Just an FYI... Avengers: Doomsday starts filming tomorrow.
See you at Bullet Sunday No. 901.
Ooh! Spring is finally here! But am I going outside to enjoy it? No... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Stuck on You! Betty White's social media advertised that the US Postal Service tribute stamp to her was finally released. As my favorite celebrity of all time, of course I wasted no time heading to the USPS website to buy a sheet and also get the cancelation release...
Note the paw print earring. I also picked up some of the Keith Harring "Love" stamps which I had no idea existed.
• Close to You! Okay. First of all... how could you have never heard Karen Carpenter before? Second of all... I wish I could erase my memories of Karen Carpenter's phenomenal voice so I was able to hear her for the first time again...
What's interesting is searching YouTube for this topic. There are a LOT of reaction videos. And all of them go about how you think they would. If you've never heard Karen Carpenter with the music stripped away... you need to do that.
• Tariffs, Anyone? Aerogarden is shutting down, so their hydroponic systems are on sale for half price in a variety of places. I had one at my old place and loved being able to have fresh herbs available... but it broke when I moved.
So I just bought two of them (they only seem to have the small 6-pod units left @ $60, though I'm told they can be had for $50)...
I also bought a boat-load of seed pods (third party, because the Aerogarden has always been crazy expensive). Given how groceries aren't going to get cheaper any time soon... or ever, given how much of our food is grown in Mexico or harvested in the US by migrant workers who are getting deported... I need to do what I can to afford to make meals I love more affordable. Cilantro, which I eat a ton of, has reached $1.70 a bunch. Parsley $2 a bunch. Basil $3 a package. Thyme $3 a package. Jalapeños are 50¢ each. Butter lettuce is $4 a head. It goes on and on.
My $120 Aerogarden investment plus cheap seed pods will end up paying for itself in under a year. Now I'm considering growing my own tomatoes, tomatillos, cucumbers, and peppers outside to save money. The problem is that I work so much I won't be able to tend to them as they need. I dunno. I should try and find a way, because holy shit is eating expensive.
• Nice Beaver! Yeah, baby beavers are about as cute as it gets. Around the 90-second mark you can really hear them crying and squeaking. My heart. The total video is 10-1/2 minutes long, and the babies are just in the first two minutes, but you'll want to watch it all...
Half the video was a beaver eating avocado and beaver chow. I couldn't stop watching.
• License to Kill... A Studio! So I don't get accused of misogyny by hammering away at another incompetent female movie exec (the first being LucasFilm's Kathleen Kennedy) I'm going to let a woman do it in this video (oh man how I love Nerd Cookies!)...
But I am going to chime in and say "Amazon Prime Video... WHAT. THE. FUCK. TOOK. YOU. SO. LONG?!?" Jennifer Salke made so many moronic and expensive mistakes that it's beyond shocking she lasted this long. Usually you have to be a straight white man to get a pass on being this bad at your job. Hopefully Amazon will get their shit together and hire somebody who knows what the fuck they're doing and take advantage of their many amazing IPs. Because MGM deserves better.
• M'Baku to the Future! The Avengers: Doomsday cast announcement video was fun, I guess. But the only addition that truly made me want to happy-dance was Winston Duke as M'Baku. Don't care about the X-Men, but I've wanted a Disney+ M'Baku series since we've had Disney+, and it boggles my mind we haven't gotten one yet...
No Daredevil. No Moon Knight. No Blade. No Eternals. No Marvels. No Spider-Man?!? Strange. Oh... and no Doctor Strange?!?
• U-S-A! U-S-A! Thank heavens anti-vaxers and RFK are intent on bringing back preventable diseases by presenting misinformation about vaccines! The companies who makes iron lungs could use the business after the polio vaccine was developed and wiped out a need for their product. To get a look at what future generations of Americans may be in for, here's an interesting (but sad) look...
I remain absolutely floored at how anti-science rhetoric and "alternate facts" are fucking up this country. And I'm mortified that kids who have no say in getting vaccinated are going to pay the price for it.
And, on that happy note, I'm going to go enjoy this fine (albeit a bit overcast) Spring day... by cleaning my house.
I was very sad to hear that Roberta Flack died.
She was a phenomenal talent, and her impressive number of beloved hits backs that up. And while people may think of tracks like Feel Like Makin' Love and Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow and Killing Me Softly With His Song... my favorite songs of hers are the duets. Set the Night to Music (from Starship) and Back Together Again are at the top of that list. They hit you in all the right ways...
She had other duets that are great too (Where is the Love and Tonight I Celebrate My Love and The Closer I Get to You come to mind). She just had the ability to mesh with other artists in a way that made her a queen.
Don't look now but the world isn't ending after all... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• AMNK! Oh look. This is my life right here...
And here's Part One...
Yeah. Just like that.
• This Moment! Well this was unanticipated. I had no idea that Able Heart had beautiful feel good tracks like this until it popped up in my feed...
Another artist I need to keep an eye on, it would seem.
• Viral! NEWSFLASH: Crucial Firefighting Plane Grounded In LA Because Of Idiot Drone Operator. Who gives a crap that homes are burning... I want footage to go viral on TikTok!
• SPACE! ELEVATOR! I loathe the AppleTV adaptation of Foundation, but keep coming back to this awesome scene every time I see anything about building a space elevator. It's incredibly well-done...
The trail of destruction as the cable for the space elevator falls acrss the earth is epic.
• Baked! Have I mentioned that I still loathe my new Whirlpool oven? After finally fixing it so it will actually work (the element was not fully seated or something), I run into new things to loathe always. In addition to the control panel layout being shit, my latest consistent source of hate is that YOU CAN'T KEEP THE DOOR OPEN WHEN BROILING! WHO THE FUCK DESIGNS AN OVEN LIKE THIS? You can't look through the window to keep watch, it isn't tall enough. You have to constantly open and close the door to look. This is fucking madness. In all my years of using an oven, including my previous Whirlpool, you could leave the door open to broil. I will never buy another shitty fucking Whirlpool appliance again. What a waste of money for something so frustrating. — Seriously thinking of welding the fucking door sensor permanently shut. But then I'd void my warranty? Lord.
• Spring Break! NEWSFLASH: 2 bodies found in the wheel well of a JetBlue plane in Fort Lauderdale, airline says. WTF? So... let's think this through. You stow away in a wheel well where the landing gear goes after takeoff. Assuming you can avoid getting crushed by it, you'll then reach a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet where it's freezing cold and you can't get oxygen?!? I just... what could the motivation be for something like this? "Screw New York weather, I'm going to Ft. Lauderdale!" or something? I dunno. Maybe if they didn't have someplace warm to ride out the winter this would seem like a good idea... but if this "keeps happening" it seems as though there should be some kind of sensor to tell the cockpit if there is a presence in the wheel well.
Until next Sunday, assuming the earth is still here.
I'm going to be brutally honest here... 2024 did not hold a lot of music that I absolutely loved. Sure there were songs and albums I listened to quite a lot (you'll find a lot of them below), but it wasn't as it's been in past years where I'm just awash with music that makes it incredibly difficult to choose which I'm going to feature on my end-of-year recap. I don't know why that is. Maybe I spent too much time listening to old favorites instead of exploring something new? Possibly!
#1 Nonetheless - Pet Shop Boys
Well that's a new one... second year in a row that Pet Shop Boys have landed in the top spot. To be honest, this album ranks way below their best, but is still a good listen that tries to look back to their more classic stuff. The fault that this album couldn't overcome for me was yet another fucking song featuring "bohemia." Please. For the love of God. Just stop.
#2 Sincere — Khalid
Gotta say, Khalid really pulled it all together this time, crafting a beautiful album which has a little variety where it counts. Often times when I didn't know what I wanted to listen to, I'd just push play on this one from August onward.
STRFKR — Parallel Realms
This is a very late entry on my list, given that I only found out about it when Kapgar had it on his list two days ago. But I love the band, and a few listens later it was an easy #3. Not that this is new. I often find out about their releases months after it gets released because it's not mainstream enough to land anywhere I'm at. Which is a shame, because they really know how to craft some catchy pop music.
#4 eternal sunshine — Ariana Grande
Miss Grande has always been phenomenally talented outside of music, with her appearances on Saturday Night Live being the stuff of legends (not to mention a little film called Wicked which you may have heard of). But it's music where she shines brightest, and this is probably my favorite album of hers yet.
#5 Tortured Poets Department — Taylor Swift
While I'm thrilled that TayTay escaped from her Folklore/Evermore bubble with Midnights, this feels like a backslide given that the back half goes right back into acoustically-flavored tracks that I just don't care for. My favorite Swift album is 1989, and the further she gets away from it, the more she loses me. Even so, the first half of TPD has enough material to make my list.
#6 Short n' Sweet — Sabrina Carpenter
I was able to safely ignore Sabrina until her single Espresso dropped. It was very catchy, got played way too much, and I finally went back to take a listen to the album it came from. Very nice mix of well-crafted tracks.
#7 Adult Contemporary — Chromeo
It boggles my mind that Chromeo never seems to get the recognition they should. Sure there was a single that gets some play here and there, but their music is consistently excellent and deserves better. This album is yet another example why.
#8 Ask That God — Empire of the Sun
Visually-driven Empire of the Sun always seems to have a single stuffed somewhere in my playlists, and I look forward to when they manage to get together to record something new. This album drop was a complete surprise, and I happened across it completely by accident.
#9 Radical Optimism — Dua Lipa
For the life of me I still don't understand where Dua Lipa came from. One minute I hear her on the radio with Elton John singing Cold Heart and the next thing I know she's everywhere. Including the Barbie movie and Argylle. This is the first album of hers that I've gotten in on from the ground floor, and it's quite a good one.
#10 F-1 Trillion — Post Malone
Posty does Country! And even though I only like half the tracks on this album, those are enough to make my list because they're really good songs.
#11 Hit Me Hard and Soft — Billie Eilish
It seems that there's never enough material I love on a Billie album to propel it onto my list. Until now. Her style is still not one that I latch onto easily, but she's had some songs that are so remarkable that I guess I can call myself a fan. The song that pushed this album over the top for me was this one, which is sublimely beautiful...
As a bit of a bonus, I'm including the "story behind the song" because whenever Finneas and Billie do these I am absolutely captivated by how they create...
#12 Deeper Well — Kasey Muskgraves
Kasey came out of nowhere with Golden Hour back in 2018, and I loved it so much it hit #2 on my list that year. It had a wonderful variety of beautiful songs that each had a different feeling, which is something I really appreciate. This time her songs all sound pretty much the same, which I don't like at all. But they are still beautifully crafted, so Deeper Well just made the cut.
And here are some singles that I ended up really enjoying in 2024...
Don't go thinking that living on a fucking pancake excuses you from the bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Anscestry! Can confirm. This is how I'm treated everywhere I go in the world where I can loudly announce that I am an American whose family was "originally from here"...
Accurate.
• Conspiracytime! Leave it to Big Tugg to crap all over some of the wackiest conspiracies running...
Don't even ask me how we got here.
• Flerfy Flerf! And speaking of wacky conspiracy bullshit, a bunch of flat earthers were invited to Antarctica to personally verify that the sun doesn't set in December because we're, in fact, on a fucking globe. Having been to Antarctica in the month of December, I can indeed verify that the sun does not set. BECAUSE WE'RE ON A FUCKING GLOBE. The flerfers fell over themselves to reject the invitation, but three of them actually went. You can track them and watch the videos right now! — As amusing as it is to ship dipshit flerfers to Antarctica, you could have saved the money had just had them replicate this experiment, which took a whole minute to perform... and is just as hilarious to watch...
Unreal how we had all this shit figured out before the birth of Christ, but here we are going backwards.
• Dooooon! Yikes. HBO Max... WTF happened? Dune Prophecy was going SO well, but last week we got a turd in the punchbowl? Nothing happened! Everything that was set up gets negated by Desmond pulling a Professor X in the most boring way possible. This episode could have been 10 minutes long! Could the characters BE any less compelling this week? Even Mother Superior was a snooze! =yawn= I made this graphic, but didn't post it because I thought we might be going through a calm-before-the-storm kinda situation...
But NOPE! This week's episode was also boring as fuck, providing a reveal as to the identity of Desmond Hart that was about the least-shocking "twist" in a show that I've ever seen. Who he was got telegraphed way in advance, and I cannot imagine anybody not seeing this coming from a mile away. Which is to say that even if to say they totally stick the landing, the show is going to be pretty meh to me.
• HIM! Honest to God I don't understand how A Flock Of Seagulls was relegated to one-hit-wonder status. Some of my favorite tracks came long after I Ran was released. And here they are, still killing it. This is a great throwback track...
Sure it's repetitive, but it's darn snappy.
• We Care! NEWSFLASH: Diabetic groom-to-be dies after taking cheaper insulin to pay for wedding — Fuck this fucking country's fucking inability to understand how our "health care" system doesn't care about anything but making insurance executives wealthy. We're literally killing ourselves rather than taking insurance out of the equation and just letting our money go towards care directly.
• Real Men Don't Eat the Shit! I don't have dairy in my house any more because I try to eat vegan at home and save dairy as a treat when I'm out, but this morning I had to bake a quiche, so I bought some eggs and milk on Friday (to go with the cheese I got on Thursday). While I went into the office I had a panic attack because I left my $7 carton of eggs on the front seat. Eggs seems like something that people would break into my car and steal! On the plus-side, the lady at the market opened the carton to check them all, then put a rubber band on them for safety ("They tend to hop out of the carton now that they're $7.00!")...
Fortunately... the eggs were still there when I got off work!
And now back to living on our globe earth, already in progress.
The videos have been good again this week... because a Very Special all new, all video Bullet Sunday starts... now...
• Infinitly Watchable! Looking for your next watch? Black Doves on Netflix. Two episodes in and I didn't want it to end. If you like crazy spy thrillers, this is the one...
Ben Wishaw is genius in everything. Sarah Lancashire is good in everything. And Keira Knightley... here she is a revelation. She doesn't often get roles like this, but she should. This is contender for my favorite shows of 2024. UPDATE: I should mention that if you are playing "The Little Drummer Boy Challenge," you will lose if you watch the beginning of
• New Skeletons! Star Wars doesn't have to be just one thing. They can tell lots of kinds of stories within that universe. So if you don't like the latest series, Skeleton Crew, fine. If you can't accept that they are making "Goonies in Space," fine. If it's not "Real Star Wars" without Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to you, fine. But for the love of God... can people stop shitting all over those who ARE enjoying it for what it is? Hate away if that's what you want, but other opinions exist. And I'm happy to see that the tide is turning on Skeleton Crew now that more and more people have seen the debut episodes and loved them. This is a darn good show and really good Star Wars to boot...
Usually I hate shows with kids because they're written to be whiny, annoying, and unwatchable. This series is different. Great characters that just happen to be kids. Worth a look if you've got Disney+!
• All My Love! At 99, Dick Van Dyke is in amazingly good health. Just look at this...
He's also got more marbles rattling around in his head than I do. Incredible.
• Woodworking! I loathe ASMR videos (but you do you, if that's your jam). This wonderful demonstration of craftsmanship is what I consider to be the ultimate destress stimulation...
And that's not the end!
Wonderful. I wish I'd happen upon several million dollars so I can retire and do stuff like this all day long.
• SQUEEEEEEE! Michelle Yeoh is delicious in this role. I love the movie already.
Of course, she's delicious in every role, so there's that.
• Smarty-Bird! Holy shit. Meanwhile, humans are eating paste, thinking the world is flat, and becoming anti-vaxers...
I, for one, welcome our new crow overlords.
• Business Partners! Your Sunday dose of happy...
That there are still people who think this is any less valid a love story than any other is kinda sad.
Until next week's bullets then...
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