I'm a massive fan of television programs and movies. I "watch" a lot of them. And by "watch" I mean that I am doing work (or blogging!) while they run in the background. My mind is pretty good at multi-tasking, so I can fairly easily follow whatever is on my television while banging away on my laptop.

The nice thing about watching stuff this way is that I can ignore all the idiotic shit that draves me crazy when it pops up.

Take for example the Wilhelm Scream.

I fucking hate it. The sound effect is so overused and offensive that it immediately takes me out of what I'm watching...

=shudder=

And then there's the fucking "Tarzan yell" which annoys me for the same reason...

Yeah, fuck Richard Marquand and George Lucas forever for that bit of dumbassery ruining an already disastrous Return of the Jedi (the heinous followup to the amazing The Empire Strikes Back). Lord.

If I had the time, I'd edit the sound mix of every movie I enjoy to rip this dumbassery out of them so I can enjoy them without distraction.

But why stop there?

There's a lot of shows and films which need some more exstensive editing than just a sound clip.

I've been re-watching the James Bond movies and cringing at the appearances of the Sheriff J.W. Pepper character, which I loathe...

Not that this frickin' idiot is the only bad thing in a James Bond movie. Many of the films have moments that are beyond stupid and are begging to be modified or cut.

Take, for example, that incredible car jump stunt that had the misfortune of being sabotaged not just by an appearance by Seargent J.W. Pepper, but with the stupid-ass slide whistle they played over the top of this magnificent stunt, which effectively sabotages it...

Who the fuck makes a choice like that?

I feel like I'm picking on James Bond and Star Wars movies, but there's precious few movies that I wouldn't change at all. Most films have something I'd change... even if it's something very small.

Hollywood should just save themselves the trouble and consult me on the final edit.

It seems highly unlikely that any television show will eclipse Andor as my favorite of 2025. It phenomenal on every possible level, and the fact that it's a Star Wars show is neither here nor there. It's just incredible television in any genre.

But a big part of what makes Andor so special is its star, Diego Luna. I am a huge, huge fan. He is a remarkable actor, sure, but it's his humanity that makes him truly remarkable. And that was on full display in his opening monologue on his first night of guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live...

And he wasn't done. Here was his second night...

Diego has always been charming and funny in his interviews... but who knew he was this funny?

Hey, the US dollar may be in the tank, the economy is fucked, our benefits are being trashed, the government is toying with legalizing cancer-causing asbestos again, and we're now at war, but everything's just going great... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Sick Sad Escape! Where did The Ballad of Wallis Island come from? I never knew that Tim Key had this level of talent. His performance is all at once hilarious (expected) and incredibly touching and sweet...

Highest possible recommendation if you need an escape from this sad, cruel world. A lovely little film on Peacock TV.

   
• He'll Save Every One of Us! This morning while working I watched Flash Gordon for the hundredth time because a video about the film ended up on my YouTube feed. It's incredible no matter how many times I watch it. I own this original movie poster...

And here's that video, which is darn interesting...

It's always gutting to me how we never got a sequel. So few movies deserve one as bad as Flash Gordon does.

   
• Pool Shark! I don't know how she recovered. I wouldn't have been able to!

Talk about a Pool Sharknado!

   
• HIs Name is Earl! I'm not a big fan of spiders. However...

Not saying I want to become friends with one though.

   
• ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: Out of the Ashes of Comixology, a New Digital Comics Platform Rises. — So let me get this straight. You want me to buy comics from you again at "Neon Ichiban" so that you can eventually sell out to Amazon.com (again)... at which point Amazon will kill the app only to leave me with their shitty fucking Amazon Kindle app which is a steaming pile of shit that completely ruins the entire reason I bought digital comics in the first place? Nah... you can fuck right off with your bullshit. I am never buying digital comics from you again. Amazon utterly destroyed what you built... lesson learned.

   
• We All Scream! This is a converdation I'm not ashamed to have had...
"What would you do for a Klondike Bar?"
"I dunno... go to the register and pay for it? Ask me what I'd do for a HEATH Klondike Bar..."
"What would you do for a Heath Klondike Bar?"
"Straight up murder. I would murder for a Heath Klondike Bar."
"Um. Damn. That's dark."
"Have you HAD a Heath Klondike Bar tho?"

   
• Bob Reads! Jesus Christ. These people really are fucking brainwashedand clueless...

She really thought she did something with that smug attitude, but it does beg the question... why are the people guilty of assaulting children infinitely more likely to be priests, pastors, Conservatives, or Republicans than drag queens? Can she explain that?

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other's children." — President Jimmy Carter

   
Hope you're enjoying your Summer before World War III starts.

As I've mentioned more times than I can count, my most watched media source is YouTube. I watch a lot of it. So much so that I pay for the ad-free YouTube Premium, because it's easily worthwhile given the amount of time it saves me watching crap ads.

Recently I've been watching more YouTube than usual because so many of the shows I'm into are on Summer hiatus and won't return until September or so (though there are exceptions... Poker Face is running hot right now).

But anyway...

Not only do I get my entertainment from YouTube, that's also where I get the bulk of my news. There's content creators there that have very good takes on what's happening in the world, yes, but there's also major media outlets who post to YouTube as well.

Except I just had to turn off the "Breaking News" category on my home page because things are just so monumentally shitty right now that I feel as though my head might explode if I try and keep up with all the bullshit that's going on.

But anyway, again...

I've been watching a heck of a lot of old television. It's just so wild. Not because the world has changed so radically (though that's part of it) but because so many things that were said back then couldn't easily be said in today's world.

And absolutely nowhere is that more apparent than those awesome Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts. And they aired on network television! I've been watching quite a few of them and have found myself surprised more than a couple times. But the biggest surprise? Despite my love of all things Betty White, I don't think I have ever seen her roast! It's pretty epic. If you have some time, I absolutely recommend watching it...

In most ways, these roasts are quite a bit more tame than what we got on the Comedy Central Roasts (which I miss a lot, the last one having been held in 2019). But in some ways? Yikes. All I can say about it is that despite some of the charged topics, none of it seemed malicious. It was all in good fun, which really can't be said for the Comedy Central shows. They were mostly in good fun... but some had a mean streak that was very apparent.

And, on that note, I leave you with this compilation of many hilarious moments from those glorious golden years of celebrity roasting...

Have a good weekend, everybody.

Holy cow is it hot out today. I didn't even stay out as long as I did yesterday morning! But enough of my heatstroke woes... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• SAVE THE BEEEEES! I see bees around my home... sometimes honey bees, but there's been plenty of bumblebees around too (which are my favorite, because they always look so adorable being all fluffy like they are). In an effort to help them, I always let the clover overgrow my lawn where it feels like it. And now that I've got some new plants out that they seem to like, I decided to make some watering stations for them. I bought shallow trays, filled them with water and rocks so they don't drown, then placed them in some shady spaces where they will fill up when the sprinklers run. I made two different heights of rocks to see if it makes a difference...

I've heard that bees can smell water. I might set some cameras outside to see if they come visit. And, if they do, then I'll have to make some more.

   
• AI EVERYWHERE! It is darn-right scary how good AI video generators have gotten recently. I mean just look at this scary-ass nightmare of people who don't exist!

There are a lot of people who are going to be completely fooled... and it's just going to get worse.

   
• Hilarity Ensues! Oh no. Oh no no no no no... BWAH HA HA HAAA! Lying to CONGRESS?!? This is GOLD. GOLLLLLLD!!!

Unfortunately, nobody seems to give a crap when these fucking assholes lie to the American people like this.

   
• ENTERTAINMENT NEWS: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Will End With a Fifth and Final Season. Well fuck. How typical. Strange New Worlds is hands-down my favorite Star Trek and I've been loving every episode in a way that even The Original Series never took me. I guess I should be grateful that we're getting two new seasons after the upcoming one (even though the fifth is "truncated")... but, dammit, I'm still bitter. The writers have proven over and over that they get the franchise and know creative ways to keep it moving forward. — Next Generation got seven seasons. Deep Space Nine got seven seasons. Voyager got seven seasons. Then again, Enterprise only got four. But still... all those shows were getting around 26 episodes each season, and Strange New Worlds only gets TEN?!? Insanity. It's just insanity. Well, unless the Starfleet Academy blows me away, there's no reason for me to keep Paramount+ after the best Trek ever is over.

   
• Read Your Bible? "This will not be a newsflash for anyone with the capacity for critical thought..." This 16-minute burn is delicious, and just gets better as it goes on. Dan usually doesn't get this fired up.

How is it that the people who profess to live their life by The Bible... love to use The Bible as a tool to persecute people... and act like they know The Bible... actually don't know shit? Cherrypicking?!? Pot meet kettle.

   
• SPACE NEWS: NASA's Voyager Spacecraft Found A 30,000-50,000 Kelvin "Wall" At The Edge Of Our Solar System. Obviously God put this barrier there to contain our nonsense to our own solar system and not allow us to fuck up the entire galaxy with our bullshit. Humanity ain’t it. We never were. And, at this rate, we never will be.

   
• Money Well Spent! Look, I don't give a shit if the President wants to embarrass himself. I'm used to it. But I think it's fucking reprehensible to embarrass our military like what happened with his $45 million dollar vanity birthday parade. Our military isn't trained for pageantry. They're just not. So to force them into a situation they weren't prepared for is embarrassing to the country... and the men and women who serve this nation. They absolutely didn't deserve that. You know what they do deserve? The benefits that come from risking your life to fight and die for their country. You know, the benefits that keep getting cut so we can have a pathetic parade that barely any people attended...

I'm so sick of this shit I could vomit. Give our military the respect they've fucking earned. Give our country the respect it deserves.

   
And now... I'd go back out into the heat so I can work in the yard some more, but that ain't happening. Guess my Sunday is going to be a day of rest after all..

I may be broiling in the Summer heat, but I must be good to blog... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Stranger, Newer! Look, let's just get this out of the way... it is highly unlikely that ANY show is going to eclipse Andor, The Residence, and Poker Face in my #1, #2, and #3 spots for the best television of 2025. They're just too phenomenal. But if any show has a shot at it, that would be Strange New Worlds. It managed to eclipse the original series as my favorite Trek, and the third season looks like more of the awesome I've come to expect...

   
• Cricket! GAH! I've been replacing some of the outlets in my home with Eve smart outlets. This morning I was replacing the outlet for all my television devices because I want to know how much electricity I'm drawing to be sure I'm not overloading the breaker. The outlet ended up having dual black & white wires, which meant the wire nuts that came with the switch were too small. I quickly ran to the electrical kit to get bigger ones while my Uninterruptible Power Supply was beeping angrily because it had no power. As I was running through the garage, I saw a clump of dirt that must have fallen off the gardening tools I was using this morning. I kicked it under the car so I could sweep it up later. BUT THE CLUMP OF DIRT CRAWLED BACK FROM UNDER THE CAR! BECAUSE IT WASN'T A CLUMP OF DIRT, IT WAS THE LARGEST CRICKET I'VE EVER SEEN! After screaming GAAAAAH! I ran into the house for a paper cup to drop over the insect while I wired the outlet so I could get power back to my UPS. Then I slid a piece of board under the cup and took the cricket out to a nice shady spot in the rock wall behind my home. Sorry, cricket, but I don't want you chirping in my home.

   
• Dip! A friend called and asked what I'm up to. After telling her the killer cricket story, I told her I was making my grandmother's chip dip recipe... except I'm using vegan cream cheese instead of regular cream cheese, vegan mayo instead of regular mayo, tamari sauce instead of Worcestershire sauce, and nutritional yeast instead of cheese. Then I add a little ground black pepper and chili powder to help make the taste of the veggie mayo more palatable. She said "If you're changing all the ingredients, you're not really making your grandmother's recipe tho..." And I was like "Well, the lemon juice in it is still lemon juice... I just substitute vegan ingredients for the non-vegan ingredients. Which is most of them, I guess. Which is to say that I'm not actually making my grandma's recipe after all. Except... I totally am, I think.

   
• Big, Bold, and Beautiful! Well this looks wonderful. A movie that's right up my alley...

Doesn't hurt that the cast is so good.

   
• a-ha! I've never understood the one-hit-wonder status for a-ha. Their debut album and lead single Take on Me are great. Love it. Definitely a hit. But they created a lot of amazing music after. Including Holyground, a beautiful song that defies description...

Lead singer Morten Harket has announced he has Parkinson’s disease.

I flew to New York to see the band on their farewell Ending on a High Note Tour (they were only playing NYC and Los Angeles in the USA). After that they slowed down, but I was so happy they actually kept going.

   
• Pick Me! Lock company sues McNally for showing how easy their locks are to pick. They claim that he "altered" their lock. McNally orders a fresh lock and films himself retrieving the lock from an Amazon locker, opening the sealed box of the lock, cutting an aluminum can to make a pick for the lock, then picks the lock... all without the filming being interrupted. The entire video is two minutes and thirteen seconds long...

I laughed and laughed and laughed. Because this lock company just made things far, far worse for their reputation. He should pick one of their locks live during the trial, assuming the lock company is stupid enough to go through with it.

   
• VARIETY NEWS: ‘Andor’ Creator Says Disney Spent ‘$650 Million for 24 Episodes’ and ‘We Fought Hard’ for Money After Being Told in Season 2: ‘Streaming Is Dead. We Don’t Have the Money We Had Before’ — And every fucking cent is on the screen. This is budget filmmaking. Disney should be thrilled that Tony Gilroy handed them 8 feature films at a budget of only $80 million each. Because every three episodes IS the equivalent. And who makes feature films for only $80 million any more that are this fully-realized and have the talent and dazzling special effects that made them this great? Andor is easily one of the best TV series ever made. It’s the best thing to come out of Star Wars period...

Disney should be begging the guy to do more Star Wars. They should be filling a dump truck with money and backing it up into Gilroy’s driveway to get him to do more Star Wars. This series was an absolute gift to Disney, Star Wars fans, and people who relish great storytelling. Fuck the Empire.

   
And now I'm off! Off the internet Because I'm trying to free up space in my garage.

Happy Pride Month to all my LGBTQ+ friends out there! The world is better because you're in it! Soon I'll be watching a movie themed to this month's topic, but that will have to wait... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• BEES! NEWSFLASH: Millions of bees escape, start stinging after crash in Whatcom County. The first thing I did was go running to Maps to find out how far away these 250 million bees are from my house. Answer? About 3-1/2 hours, minimum. So no need to panic. Yet.

   
• Disney Be Expensive, Yo! “No we’re not going to Disneyland. We’ve got Disneyland at home!”

Absolutely classic.

   
• Sloppy! Peacock TV should just renew Poker Face for ten new seasons to be filmed twice a year. The latest episode Sloppy Joseph is phenomenal, as usual. But it leaps ahead of the pack for one reason. The child actor leads they got for this episode are amazing. AMAZING... and also, in one case, amazingly disturbing. Whomever cast them deserves a raise...

Plus it was deftly directed by ADAM ARKIN? And is that DAVID KRUMHOLTZ?!? Sweet! — I wish they could clone Natasha Lyonne so she could appear in more stuff. Then make a second clone and put her into suspended animation so we have a spare in case we lose the original two.

   
• Wes! If anybody has $400 that they're trying to get rid of... give it to The Trevor Project or Trans Lifeline. But if you have $400 more that you need to get rid of, you could always buy this for me...

Sure I already own all these movies in digital format (and more than a few on DVD and Blu-Ray), but 4K off of Blu-Ray is a considerably different experience than "4K" off of digital streaming.

   
• Linguistically Yours! I love this...

Language is ever-changing and ever-evolving. This is just the latest thing.

   
• Cursed! Sage, sage wisdom being dropped here...

I wish I could reclaim all the time I wasted trying to please people who don't care about me.

   
• Yummy! This video came up in my Facebook memories. So much more clever than Baby Shark...

CHEESE! CHEESE! CHEESE!

   
• Drag News Hour! Yet another drag queen endangering our children! Oh... wait a second... nope! Not a drag queen... color me un-shocked! NEWSFLASH: MAGA Influencer And Fox News Guest Indicted On Child Sex Abuse Charges.

   
And, on that note, it's time for me to make dinner. Until next Sunday...

If you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that's I'm a massive, massive Pee-Wee Herman fan. I fell in love with him after seeing Pee-Wee's Playhouse playing off VHS tape in the student lounge at college on repeat. It was just so brilliantly creative and fun to watch.

So of course I've paid homage to Pee-Wee numerous times on this here blog...

I was gutted when Paul Reubens died, and his passing sent me on a Pee-Wee renaissance. I watched all his old shows and movies for the hundredth time.

Then this week I watched the Pee-Wee as Himself documentary, and now I want to watch all his old shows and movies for the hundred-and-first time...

I was very much shocked that the documentary was fairly complete and didn't leave much out. His indecent exposure incident in Sarasota (which was fucking bullshit)... it was there. His "child pornography" charges (which were beyond fucking bullshit, it was outright lies)... it was there too. And I'm really grateful, because it puts the truth out there for people who may not be aware of it.

But, more importantly, the two-part documentary shines a light on Paul's incredible creativity and genius. It covers the development of the Pee-Wee show on the stage... all the way through the TV show and films... and talks about his private life along the way.

Highest possible recommendation whether you're a fan or not. You can watch it on HBO Max.

HBO... also known as "Home Box Office" to people like me who grew up with it... started as a premium channel that you could add to your cable subscription package for an additional fee. It offered movies, specials, and other stuff at a time before VHS video tapes existed. The concept was hugely successful, and so other premium channels followed... Showtime... Cinemax... The Movie Channel... and more.

Over the years HBO has kept up with the times by having a streaming on-demand channel, which was originally called "HBO Now." They also had a version of this for their cable subscribers called "HBO Go." But, in the end, no matter where you went to consume their content, it was still HBO.

But then everything got rolled together and became "HBO Max."

And then something remarkable happened.

HBO, one of the most recognized brands in existence, decided to call themselves "Max."

I have no idea what dumbfuck came up with the idea to bury such a well-known brand by dropping the actual branding from the brand... but it was one of the stupidest advertising decisions I've ever seen. Companies would kill for the brand recognition that HBO had developed over the past 50+ years. They'd kill for it.

And HBO just threw it away.

When I got back from vacation on Saturday I saw a news story which said that "Max" was going to rebrand as "HBO Max" again, because people didn't seem to know what the fuck "Max" was. Which is why I never referred to it as "Max" ever. I always called it "HBO Max" because that way people actually know what the fuck I'm talking about.

I understand better than most that sometimes difficult decisions have to be made and the people in charge have to bite the bullet and make it for better or worse. But you'd think... you'd really think... that they would at least try to educate themselves about the decisions they make to keep from having a painfully obvious fuck-up. Especially when millions of dollars are at stake. "Brand recognition" is not some abstract concept. And anybody who's in charge of making decisions for a company at such a high level as HBO branding should fucking understand that concept.

But they didn't, and HBO paid the price.

Now they're trying to roll back this laughably catastrophic decision in an attempt to salvage the brand that they tossed in the trash.

Well, good luck with that.

Fortunately for them there were people like me who were ignoring their whole "Max" fiasco and keep the brand alive on their behalf (and I'm not alone... a lot of people and media outlets continued to call it "HBO" long after it had been rebranded). The problem for HBO (or, more accurately, their owner, Warner Bros. Discovery) are people during the past two years who don't know what the fuck "HBO" is because they've ever known the service as "Max."

And don't even get me started on the fifty buckets of stupid that is the name "Warner Bros. Discovery." Jesus. Who the fuck gives a shit about Discovery? Why rename your entire company to add something that has ridiculously poor brand recognition? The channel is still "Discovery" so what the fuck does that have to do with Warner Bros.?!? God... I just... HEY, DUMBASSES, I CAN CONSULT WITH YOUR BRANDING FOR FAR LESS MONEY THAT YOU'RE LOSING WITH ALL THESE SHITTY DECISIONS! CALL ME!

I may be back from a few days vacation and mentally preparing myself to return to work, but the bullets cannot be stopped... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Andor! The first thing I did after getting home from vacation was take a nap. I had been up for 23 hours and needed sleep. The second thing I did? Watch the final three episodes of Andor...

And, yes, this is officially the best thing to ever come out of Star Wars in my humble opinion. So as not to spoil anything, I'll wait a while before breaking down my thoughts (and I do have them). Suffice to say that you should watch this. Whether you're a Star Wars fan or not.

   
• Murdery Goodness! The second thing I watched? Murderbot on AppleTV+. I was surprised that they are deviating from the excellent source material like they are... but I don't hate it. The show is just a separate thing. Not always in a bad way. Especially with the opening credits, which looks like it was made with dolls...

I can see where some diehard fans of the books will not like it, but I still think it's worth a watch.

   
• Super! The final Superman trailer has dropped...

This looks so good. I may actually end up in the theater for this one.

   
• Blast From the Past! Something that got brought to my attention... somebody has an old Blogography Bad Monkey hat for sale on eBay...

Wasn't expecting that! And $25... I think I sold them for half that?

   
• Duke's! If you think that I went all the way to Honolulu, Hawai‘i and didn't have lunch at Duke's, just like the good ol' days, you don't know me at all...

That Falafel Sandwich was ever so dreamy!

   
• Puka Dog! If you think that I went all the way to Honolulu, Hawai‘i and didn't grab a Puka Dog, just like the good ol' days, you don't know me at all...

I mean, yeah, it's called "Hula Dog" outside of Kauai now, but it's still a delicious veggie Puka Dog.

   
• Maters! When I got home, I noticed that tomatoes were starting to grow on my AeroGarden. At last...

I'm still not convinced that AeroGarden is feasible for anything but herbs, but here we are.

   
And now? Back to my post-vacation blues.