Greetings from my Social Media Break

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, friends!

I started my social media hiatus on Friday, December 15th, which was about ten days ago. I drove up to the University of Vermont that day to pick up my eldest daughter Hannah, making it easy to leave Facebook and Twitter behind. I'd found myself getting a little too obsessed with seeing reaction to things I'd written, mostly for As For Football, over the previous months. I therefore wanted to break the habit of checking in with the world-at-large. 

Merry Christmas from Casa Cabeza!

It had gotten a little too easy to doom-scroll my way through the day, and with that had come a lot of unfiltered bullshit. Too much of what passes for opinion comes from miserable bastards looking to outsource their own unhappiness. I've missed interacting with AFF's Firstie Club, but the cold turkey approach seemed like the best thing for the moment, and here we are.

I've read quite a bit, I've listened to a few audiobooks from my local library, and I've watched a few movies. The beauty of all of this is that I've gotten to do it in the vacuum of my own space, allowing an easier place from which to form my own opinions.

Movie Review: The New Mutants

I took my kids to the Mansfield Drive-In Movie Theater last night to see the New Mutants.  A great experience overall but probably not one that we would repeat on anything like a regular basis, mostly because the theater itself was over an hour’s drive away.  Needless to say, this was my kids’ first experience with a drive-in.  We brought lawn chairs but forgot to bring a boom box and thus learned the hard way that my car’s speakers aren’t as loud as I might’ve hoped when you’re sitting outside.  Volume issues affected our enjoyment of the film, unfortunately.  It was hard to hear at times.  Still, we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit.  

I feel like she missed an opportunity...

I'm a fan of Brennah Black on Instagram, but she could've done a little more with this shot.

Quick Thoughts: Endgame and the MCU

Finally saw Avengers: Endgame over the weekend.  My kids and I felt very much like the last people on Earth to get to the movie, but I know that’s not true.  In fact, I work with a couple of guys who’ve never seen any of the Avengers movies. I mean, I know it feels like Marvel have taken over the movie world, but it’s still a specific niche, believe it or not, and there are plenty of folks who aren’t paying attention.  It’s just a very loud kind of niche.

Lots of folks have published thoughts about Endgame.  It’s unclear that the world needs mine.  I’m gonna give them to you anyway, though, mostly because I’ve not yet had any time to grill or to think overmuch about how I’m going to write about grilling.

*big-time spoilers ahead*

Some Thoughts on Titans and the New DC Universe Streaming Service

I bought our daughter Emma a subscription to the new DC Universe streaming service for her birthday.  She is a monster comic book fan and a superfan of the DCU’s Young Justice animated show, and it’s been great because we’ve been watching a ton of TV together since getting the subscription.

Source: "Why Wolfman and Perez's THE NEW TEEN TITANS Is a Must-Read"

Totally worth it from that standpoint.

5 Things on a Friday: Did I Mention That It Snowed?

Happy Friday, folks.  We’re 'bout to get our weekend started right!

Thursday turned out to be a cold day in Hell.

5 Things on a Friday: Ridin’ the Storm Out

Something happened on Wednesday.  The blog went viral in some way that hasn’t happened previously.  I think that a West Pointer somewhere--I’m guessing from a class in the mid- to late-1970s--saw my preview of the Hawai’i game on Facebook and sent it out to a bunch of his buddies in a monster email blast.  It propagated from there.  Alas, the event came without much in the way of statistics from Blogger’s traffic tracking pages, so there are a few other possibilities.  But some kind of email chain seems most likely.

Regardless, hello new readers!

Experience suggests that most of you will not stick around long, and that’s okay.  As I tell my own classmates, our friendship is not contingent on your reading my stuff.  The blog’s traffic has been growing over the years, but this isn’t a Get Rich Quick scheme.  It’s the way I entertain myself while I’m on Metro-North going back and forth from New York City.  

The blog is intentionally organized as a salad bar.  You take what you want and ignore the rest.  There is no one else on earth who also likes all the stuff that I like.  I get that.  You don’t have to like my stuff; you don’t have to like me.  It’s fine, really.  

Writing isn’t my career.  Some people build little ships in little bottles.  I write a blog.  It is what it is.

TV Review: Marvel's Cloak & Dagger

My daughter Emma and I finished Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger on Freeform last week, and we both really enjoyed it.  Truthfully, I think I enjoyed it more than she did.  Before watching the show, I’d have guessed that it was aimed squarely at the teen-girl fan-set based on its choice of cable networks.  The reality, though, is that the former ABC Family Channel has more in common with Spike TV than it does with, say, The Disney Channel or even Lifetime.  Where we were expecting something along the lines of the CW’s Arrowverse but starring younger Marvel protagonists, what we got was a decidedly gritty psychological drama that was much more in line with the tone of the original 1980s-era comics than I’d have believed possible.

5 Things on a Friday: Waiting for My Giant Seahorse

I was on vacation the first three days this week, and it still feels like it’s been a long week.  Argh!

Happy Friday, folks.

5 Things on a Friday: Return to Chaos

Happy Founder’s Day!

On March 16, 1802, Thomas Jefferson signed a document declaring "that the said Corps, when so organized, shall be stationed at West Point... and shall constitute a military academy. The Corps of today celebrated the 216th anniversary of Founders Day.

Photos by: CDT Alex Werden pic.twitter.com/TbVyf7fJgq

— US Military Academy (@WestPoint_USMA) March 2, 2018

Quick Thoughts: Justice League

Went with my buddy Ben and his son to see Justice League Saturday -- in IMAX -- while Sally and the girls and their friends went to see Wonder.  Right up front, I had two key takeaways:

1. IMAX shows a lot of Justice League.  Like, yo, that League was big, and it was LOUD.

2. Coming off Batman vs. Superman, the movie overall was exponentially better than I thought it would be.  I still don't think that the DCEU has come up to the standard of the MCU, but this one movie at least was a lot more fun than it was grim, gritty, and noir.

*Spoilers Below*

Thoughts on the Inhumans’ Trailer

Marvel came out with a trailer for their new Inhumans TV show, set to debut this coming September.  Though the show is set around an interesting concept, I confess that I didn’t necessarily love everything we saw in the trailer.  I’ll withhold any final judgments until after I’ve seen the premier episodes—available in IMAX theaters!—but at this point, the entire enterprise strikes me as something of a tough sell.

5 Things on a Friday: Trolling Tebow

Ran a little long this week.  Sorry in advance.

Wonder Woman & Spider-Man vs. the Man of Steel

I finally got to see Wonder Woman this week.  Good flick.  They did a nice job of making Diana fierce but also feminine and of making Steve Trevor both nowhere near as tough as his star but decidedly heroic and masculine nonetheless.

Wonder Woman

Spoilers ahead.

5 Things on a Friday: Fathers Day for Thanos

Happy Friday, folks!

Arrow Season 5 Finale: Where Do We Go From Here?

Just finished reading Entertainment Weekly’s recap of the season finale of Arrow, and though I enjoyed it, there were a few things about the show that I’m not sure EW’s reviewer thought all the way through.  Thus, my thoughts own thoughts on the finale are below, for whatever they’re worth.

Ahoy!  Spoilers Ahead!

5 Things on a Friday: Friday Hair Metal Returns!

Happy Friday, folks.  Let’s get to it!

I read in the Times that the kids are all really
into unicorns.  I don't really get it, but whatever...

5 Things on a Friday: A New Kind of Star Wars

It’s a lot of entertainment news this week.  I’ll do my best to keep it quick.

Strolling thru Twitter

Actually pretty excited to go back to school. SPRING BALL IS HERE!

— Jeff Ejekam (@JeffEjekam) March 19, 2017

Can't remember ever feeling like this.  Good for you, Jeff.

Thinking about Iron Fist

A lot has been said about the casting of Iron Fist.  Ultimately, I think Marvel decided to cast a white dude to play Danny Rand, so that they could make Rand dumb.  This is often the way he comes across in the comics.  But the choice appears to have frustrated most reviewers, and while I get that, I still see what Marvel was thinking.  Which is to say that if you’re Marvel, and what you really care about is the inevitable Power Man & Iron Fist Nteflix team-up show, you kind of need Danny to be dumb, and I can’t see how that works with an Asian dude playing the role.  

The dragon of Kun-Lun has symbolized the Iron Fist for
ages uncountable.

Like, “Why is this Asian dude constantly getting scolded on the ways of the street by Luke Cage?”