For the life of me, I cannot wrap my head around the Bad Bunny hate that's ongoing.

I've been a fan of his music since I first heard Yo Hago Lo Que Me Da La Gana (YHLQMDLG), which was the album of 2020 during the pandemic. But I've been a fan of Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio since his appearance in Bullet Train where he was fantastic. They wrote his character a good backstory and gave him an awesome fight scene.

He appeared on Carpool Karaaoke which was fun. Just look at James Cordon having a blast here...

And he hosted SNL twice where he was charming and funny from beginning to end...

His Jeopardy sketch was so good...

But I think my favorite sketch of his was this one...

Or maybe this one...

But when it comes to the Superb Owl halftime show... what more could you fucking want? He's from Puerto Rico, which makes him all-American. He's a multi-platinum artist whose music is popular around the world. He's a phenomenally talented performer, in any language. And he has good videos for his songs...

I thought his halftime set was amazing. He put on a fantastic show. And it was nice to have something different. On top of all that, if anybody would take two minutes to Google it, he told a story which is special to him.

But he sings in Spanish, so everybody unloads, like this xenophobic racist piece of shit...

And, as usual, it's Jon Stewart who had the perfect perspective on it all...

The United States of America is a MELTING POT. We are a mix of cultures and faiths and backgrounds and beliefs and languages which make us stronger together. Bad Bunny's show was an opportunity to let loose and have fun with a guy giving it his all to entertain us. You didn't need to understand the lyrics, everybody could just enjoy the vibe. Join in and celebrate what was handed to us. But oh no. If it's not somebody singing about beer, pickup trucks, and shooting guns, it's "UnAmerican."

How fucking sad.

Could somebody refresh my memory... was there this kind of faux-outrage when the Macarena by Los Del Río was topping the music charts? This has to be the stupidest manufactured outrage I've ever seen. There's serious shit going on, but let's all be distracted by the music at a fucking football game. Okay.

Jesus.

Fortunately the voice of reason came from fucking Elmo, of all people... errr... Muppets...

Amen to that, little monster.

I don't know that I'm necessarily a "Swiftie," but I do like some of Taylor Swift's music. But where my appreciation really lives is her tour movies and her videos.

She really knows how to present her music in entertaining ways.

And here's me... in that moment half-way through the brand new video for Taylor's Opalite where I figured out exactly what's going on. And it's so good.

And if you watch to the very end, they tell you what's going on if you hadn't figured it out. In order to watch it, you have to see it on iTunes or Spotify. It will end up on YouTube this Sunday, but you can see a tiny piece of it on Taylor's YouTube video shorts right now UPDATE: And here you go...

It's pretty amazing how Tay-Tay's videos have become so brilliant after she started writing and directing them. And this one is no exception. Not necessarily for what's in it... but for the reason why what's in it is actually in it.

What blows my mind is how business-savvy she is about it all.

She's waited a very long time after releasing the first video from the album The Life of a Showgirl for the lead single Life of Ophelia. And it's because that video had such legs to it. There was no point putting out the second video until the first one started winding down. And I honestly don't know that it has, because people are still doing the "Ophelia Dance" on TikTok and the song is still on the charts. Though some people are coming up with their own dance...

But time marches on and she probably wants to get these videos out before her next album drops, which is likely just months away given how frequently she releases them. For heaven's sake, she made The Life of a Showgirl in the middle of her Eras Tour!

I used to pride myself on keeping up with current events around the world. But lately I just don't have the mental fortitude to see what new horrific shit is going on. It seems to get worse by the day, and the added anxiety would probably push me over the edge.

I slept horribly last night. Tossed and turned and didn't fall asleep until well after midnight. Jenny woke me up a little after 6:00am, and I ended up petting her until it was her breakfast time at 7:00am. After that I went back to bed so I could read some documentation for work and... somehow dropped off to sleep again, and didn't wake up until nearly 10:00am?? That's something that just doesn't happen to me. When I wake up, that's it. I'm awake for the duration. But not this morning...

Nearly eight hours sleep? That's very rare. Any more I feel lucky if I can get five or six!

Then I somehow ended up falling down a rabbit hole of shelter dog adoption videos. Like this one...

And this one...

And this one...

And then I listened to Martin Luther King Jr. speak, amazed as always how his words are more relevant than ever, then got back to work while listening to a podcast called Why this song? which talks to the artists behind popular songs. It started with Hold Me Now by the Thompson Twins, which is one of my favorite tracks of all time. Good stuff.

I'm going to be stockpiling my posts for a couple weeks because I've got a trip coming up but, no worries, I'm stockpiling bullets too... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Shoresy! YES! The new season of Shoresy is dropping for Christmas! IT'S THE MIRACLE WE NEED RIGHT NOW! I've grown to love this show almost as much as Ted Lasso...

I seriously hope that they find a way to continue keeping this show alive.

   
• Boosted Again! Because I am totally fucked if I ever get COVID with my screwed up lungs, I got my tenth booster yesterday. It only seems prudent since I'm going to be traveling and hanging out with loads of people in crowded spaces. So... can somebody please remind me when I'm dying again? I was told I'd be dead within three to six months the first time I got vaccinated. Then I was told I was definitely going to die with each new booster I got. But... nothing. Even worse though, I am still not a lizard person or a 5G relay, as promised by all the conspiracy theorists.

   
• Rolled! There's epic. Then there's this...

Rick Astley is still making music, and released a new album two years ago. He's still got it.

   
• Justice? Every fucking day it seems as though Trump is pardoning another criminal who totally deserves to be serving time for their crimes. Why? And, more importantly, why isn't his base calling him on it? I thought this was supposed to be the "tough on crime" movement. But, alas, that's apparently not the case.

   
• More Krypto! I was going to pass on the James Gunn Superman movie art book because it's only 176 pages, and the Marvel books run 350+ pages... so I thought it would be lacking. But I love the film, Geeks of Doom gave it a great review, and it was on sale, so I bought it. A really gorgeous book, and I'm glad to have it...

Needs more Krypto though! Heck, it could have all been Krypto! Where's that book?

   
• Blame Game! This is a terrific video. Why can't we all just be happy for consensual adults finding each other and making each other happy? Why are we always looking for somebody to blame for absolutely everything? And why are our LGBTQ+ brothers, sisters, and others so often where the blame gets placed? I wouldn't trade my LGBTQ+ friends for anything. Any one of them means more to me than any fifty bigots who would try to tear them down. Any hundred. Any thousand.

Just let people play the hand they're dealt the best they can and find their bliss... just as we're all doing.

   
And now to pack my suitcase...

I saw the same lineup 34 years ago. Two bands that I love playing back-to-back.

And last night I relived it now in 2025, starting with Cheap Trick...

And then on to Ann & Nancy Wilson and Heart...

Even when belting out the hits while seated, Ann Wilson can still blow the doors off the stadium.

One of the biggest surprises of the night to me was when they did a mash-up which included Straight On and David Bowie's Let's Dance. This video isn't from the show I went to, but it's the same mix...

Great show. So happy I got to see them again.

On Facebook I learned that Morrissey had canceled the remainder of his US tour, including Salt Lake City and Seattle (on October 7th). It seems a perfect time to revisit my only time seeing him live, which was my third attempt (the first time I couldn't make it, the second time Morrissey canceled). But anyway...

As a massive fan of The Smiths, I had long wanted to see Morrissey in concert because it's the closest I was going to get to seeing the band play live. After the cancellation of the second concert I tried to see, I had given up because he always seemed to be canceling, and it's too expensive to book airfare, hotel, and tickets when he does.

But finally in 2014 I said "fuck it" and flew all the way across the country from Seattle, WA to St. Petersburg, FL and hoped for the best.

He actually showed up.

HOWEVER... After being disappointed in the crowd for not responding enthusiastically enough to his political rants, Morrissey declared the show "dead" and left the stage with only three songs left to go on his setlist. Ten days later Morrissey canceled all remaining dates in the tour due to illness (shocker). Apparently he caught a respiratory infection in Miami the day after the concert I attended.

The tour itself was wild. And although I'm disappointed I got shorted three songs (one of which is my very favorite: Everyday is Like Sunday)... I wouldn't trade the experience for the world, because now I have my own Morrissey story. And for that I'm grateful, because he's always been a bit of an ass, and he just gets worse as time goes on. I would never pay money to see the turd now.

Not that I could... he canceled Seattle, after all.

Instead of going outside in the cool Fall air to get things done in my yard, I'm inside on the couch because my tummy hurty. But I'm not entirely dying, just partly dying... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• A Hero in the Stands! I fell down a hockey rabbit hole while watching Shoresy for the hundredth time today. And came across this story that I hadn't heard before. And it's a good one...

The fact that she was wearing a Tanev jersey already made her a hero to me. I remain gutted that he was traded from Seattle.

   
• dO yoUr OwN ResUrCh! Lord. This. All this...

On a daily basis I wonder how the fuck we ended up in this anti-science bullshit era after science has given us so much.

   
• Twenty? BWAH HA HA HAAAA!

In all honesty, I hope Jared Leto is planning on a Thirty Seconds To Mars followup album to It's the End of the World but It's a Beautiful Day. I loved it, and still listen to Seasons almost every day. One of my favorite songs of all time.

   
• Wood! When your girlfriend, one of the most famous musicians on earth, writes a song about your dick... well, you're going to be asked questions. But when it's your brother doing the asking?

Oh, Trav. Don't ever change.

   
• Scallop Festival! The longer this goes on, the better it gets...

I wouldn't have thought that otters were potty trainable, which is good because I'd probably have looked into that. Now I have my mom's cats, so I guess it's too late.

   
• Academy? Yikes does the new Star Trek series look like crap. And not just because there's a Tilly cameo in it...

If not for the fact that Holly Hunter and Tig Notaro are in it, I'd be taking a huge pass. But they are, so I'm willing to give it a shot for a few episodes and see if it's worth my valuable time.

   
• NEWSFLASH: Spokane's notorious 'South Hill rapist' Kevin Coe released, now living in Auburn. — RELEASED? How the fuck did this happen? I remember very well when his reign of terror was happening. Very well. These were violent, horrific assaults above and beyond an already horrific assault. How is releasing him in any way justice? This is absurd. His health is "bad?" WHAT ABOUT HIS VICTIMS?!? Let him die in prison. He should have never, ever been able to breathe free ever again. "State officials" can fuck right the fuck off. What message is this sending to women who have survived assault? If the person who assaulted you has a health issue, they'll be released? Get fucked. Who are these "state officials?" Why are they officiating ANYTHING if this is what they think is best for our communities? Where is Patty Murray? Where is Maria Cantwell? Any statement at all? This is how you're "protecting women?" It doesn't fucking matter that he's physically unable to assault anybody again. What matters is that women know that the people convicted of preying on them WILL GO AWAY FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES AND THE PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME. But nope. Survivors have to live with his actions for the rest of their lives... but Kevin Coe doesn't. Sounds about right.

   
Now off to an early bedtime in the hopes I'm feeling better tomorrow.

Insomnia got you down like it's got me down? Maybe reading something boring will help you to fall asleep. You're lucky I have the perfect solution... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Ophelia! Taylor Swift released the video for The Fate of Ophelia (one of my favorite tracks off of The Life of a Showgirl), and it's beautiful. And probably very, very expensive...

What's remarkable is that Taylor both wrote and directed it. Which is to say she might have the chops to do that if she ever gets tired of making music.

   
• What Are You Doing Here?! In a day and age where every moment brings new horrors... I love moments like this (language NSFW)...

I have so many friends around the globe. I'd love to drop in and surprise them like this.

   
• Rollercoaster! And now I want a rollercoaster in my back yard too...

I wonder if my HOA would allow it?

   
• Great American Cities! My list... which includes my priorities of art, culture, American public consciousness, world consciousness, and food: #1 is New York. #2 is Los Angelas. #3 is Chicago. #4 is Boston. #5 is San Francisco. #6 is New Orleans. #7 is Seattle. #8 is Atlanta. #9 is Miami. #10 is Las Vegas.

Now, this list is always going to be subjective, but the fact that New Orleans wasn't even considered at any metric feels insane to me. It's my favorite American city, so maybe I'm biased, but WTF? And, my God, Las Vegas wasn't considered? To many people in the world, it is the metric from which American excess is pinpointed. The omission that I'm going to catch heat for is Washington D.C., which would have made my list easy... except the art and culture is being gutted now, so I'd prefer to leave that option to the past. Hopefully it can return one day. There's other cities which seem somehow wrong to omit from my list. Minneapolis. Honolulu. San Diego. Nashville. Memphis. Philadelphia. San Antonio. Santa Fe. Portland (both of them). St. Louis. Savannah. The list goes on and on. There's a lot to love about so many American cities which could make them contenders when you consider the metric which makes them special.

   
• Drone... um... Strike? A drone show goes terribly, terribly wrong in China...

I can't for the life of me figure out what happened here. If I had to guess, the combination of a drone show with a fireworks show wasn't timed properly the fireworks took out the drones? This is awful.

   
• Science, Bitch! A critical video that everybody needs to watch. Especially if you're buying into the anti-science bullshit that's fucking us over and killing people...

I am beginning to think that humans going extinct out of fucking stupidity is the best-case scenario for the planet.

   
• Follow the Money! Sooooo... states that put more dollars into the government than out are getting their funding cut? This is repugnant. I can't recall any other administration so intent on fucking over people who didn't vote for them like this. Presidents Biden, Obama, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, Carter, etc. tried to be a president to everybody, even people who didn't support them. They were presidents for the entire country instead of just the Americans they like...

Maybe these states should start withholding their money from the fucking government and let everybody else sort out their own shit. This is beyond fucked up. Especially since that $8 billion is probably going to all his wealthy owners and in his own pocket.

   
And now I'm going to bed early. Though I don't know why because I can never seem to sleep.

I wake up every morning and look out the window to see what kind of day I'm going to have. If I can see the surrounding hills, it's probably going to be a fairly good day (at least to start... who knows where the wind will take us). If I can't see the surrounding hills, I'm pretty much guaranteed a day of misery from the minute I walk out the door. And today was one of those days. We were socked in and I could smell smoke on Jake when he walked in, which means he was out in the catio.

But, as I lay here now at night? I can see a star.

Sure it's just one, but it gives me hope for tomorrow. It would be nice to be able to go outside instead of hiding in my house all weekend.

And now... for all the Swifties out there, today was the day...

The album that changed my mind about Taylor Swift was 1989. It was pop perfection and had the lyrical masterpiece that is New Romantics. Then she followed it up with Reputation and Lover and I was convinced that she was going to be on my "Best Of" list until I was dust.

But then she took a turn with Folklore and Evermore which lost me. Fortunately Midnights was a return to the Taylor I enjoy listening to, and I thought maybe... but then The Tortured Poets Department had only one song I truly liked (along with a smattering on the first part that were okay) and I thought "Well, it was fun while it lasted."

And now we get The Life of a Showgirl.

It runs the gamut, going from pop optimism and clever musical turns to a dis track on (assumably) Charli XCX and a bouncy song about her fiancée Travis Kelce's dick being as big as a redwood that opened her thighs.

In the end, this album is a partial u-turn back towards the 1989 era. Though it does get dragged down by a few tracks that won't be added to my playlists any time soon.

As for the others? Thank you, Taylor! I'm enjoying them.

I may not have a three day weekend like some people in the USA, but don't you fear about me making time for bullets... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Small, Small World! The Disfarers YouTube channel has been interesting, and I've been going back through them to see what I missed. This one from three months ago is hands-down one of the most fascinating Disney Parks video I've ever seen. It's not just about It's a Small World, it's about the fascinating process of Imagineering which has a lot of cameos by a lot of rides...

While not a fan of the ride so much, I'm a massive fan of Mary Blair, and have always appreciated the artistry of the ride. And now I appreciate it even more.

   
• Wedneday Murder Club? Why. Why would Netflix make a major change to The Thursday Murder Club when they KNOW that this has screwed up faithfully adapting the future books? Insanity. Just insanity. I know the book was much deeper and some things (like back-story) would be lost when translated to a 2-hour movie (requiring some things to change), but this? THIS?!? What possible reason? My opinion of Chris Columbus as a director just dropped several stories. And the pacing is awful. Slow at the start where things could have been cut, then rushes to the botched ending where the time should have been spent. Character personalities are changed to bad effect. A good director would understand the books well enough to realize that this change wasn't a good one, and had the writers re-think things. Jeez what a disappointment. If you buy the rights to the book to turn it into the movie... ADAPT THE FUCKING BOOK! Two out of five stars because I'm mad a book series I love with actors I love was mostly good... until it wasn't.

   
• Atom Man vs. Superman! YouTube has a lot of cool restoration videos. The ones I'm enjoying now are the paper poster videos, because it always amazes me how they can just dump water on everything in order to flatten it (something I've tried after watching it, and it works... if you're careful). This last one I saw is very cool because it's so big...

I cannot imagine how much this kind of restoration would cost.

   
• Peaches! In my news feed, there was an article about Thomas Rhett's wife being pregnant with their fifth child. And I didn't know who that was. So I Googled him and some images popped up. Didn't recognize him, but he's obviously a famous country singer. then I see him in a Boston Red Sox jersey and am like... okay... I like him already. Then I see how famous he is, and I'm like... oh... I'm sure I've heard his stuff then. I click on the Boston photo and it's from his Instagram. I click though to that. He's got a beautiful family. And then I see gem...

Legendary dad material.

   
• Cracker! I didn't think that the new Cracker Barrel logo was terrible (for the minute it was used). But it was beyond terrible FOR Cracker Barrel. The thing about branding is that people can get incredibly attached to stuff that they form a relationship with. If you're changing something, for better or worse, they're going to react. So you had better have a very good reason to do it. And you need to be very smart about how you do it. This was a massive misstep from the jump, all because whomever was in charge of this mess committed the First Sin of Branding... they did not know their own audience. Because to say that this was a glaringly obvious disaster is not an understatement...

I don't even have Cracker Barrel where I live (the nearest one is in Vegas) but I reacted with a wince to the rebrand because I knew immediately how it would be received. Because I've been to one of them once. A decade ago. What's ironic is that they probably did it hoping it would be more appealing to society at large because sales were sliding. Now they're in the dumpster having to try and crawl their way out.

   
• Negative Four-And-A-Half Stars! Maybe I was too quick condemning Paramount+ for canceling Strange New Worlds after an upcoming abbreviated fifth season. Because Four and a Half Vulcans has got to be one of the shittiest episodes of ANY Star Trek I've ever seen. Good Lord. Somebody watched this dumpster fire and thought it should air? How did it get past script stage in the first place? It would have been better to cut it completely and come up an episode short this season than to air something this horrendously bad...

Apparently when you take the Vulcanizing serum, it changes your hairstyle!

The stupid... it still lingers.

   
• Insecticide! And lastly, allow me to once again comment on a botched adaptation. Butterfly, the comic book series, was a brisk four issues. It was breakneck storytelling and an interesting read. So when I found out that Prime Video adapted the comics with a leisurely six episodes, I was excited. Watching it, I didn't think it was as good as the source material because it got repetitive in ways that weren't interesting... but I liked the cast and thought "Well, this will be a nice diversion!"

AND THEN I GOT TO THE END WHERE THEY CREATED A STUPID FUCKING CLIFFHANGER AND A NONSENSICAL FUCKING TWIST TO SET UP A SECOND SEASON THAT I WILL NEVER... NEVER EVER... WATCH. What a lazy-ass pile of shit. Why is it that nobody can just complete a series any more? It always, always has to have a stupid-ass cliffhanger for a next season that may never come. Lazy fucking writers. Just tie everything up with an ending in case this is all we get! Then, if you get a second season, you can find a new and exciting angle to begin again. But NOPE! Easier to just fuck over the audience. And "easy" is all these talentless hacks have to offer. My God. It's getting to where I don't want to watch TV series any more. Though movies are doing it too. Netflix made a shitty The Old Guard sequel, which I hated, then ended that MOVIE on a cliffhanger which probably won't be resolved. I need to create a new website explicitly where people can share whether or not a show ends on yet another lazy-ass fucking cliffhanger so people can decide whether or not they want to invest time in something THAT MAY NEVER BE FINISHED. At least The Thursday Murder Club was smartly written enough to have a satisfying conclusion (well, if you haven't read the books).

   
If you're an American who's off work tomorrow, enjoy your day off from labor. If you're an American who's not off work tomorrow (like me) try and enjoy your Monday.