First tax refund in years

Posted on April 15, 2019 by Steve

Hell, I cannot remember the last time got any money back from the IRS since we’ve been on the owing side for a few years in a row. One time it was a painful amount too, in the neighborhood of several thousand bucks. Even so, it’s the price of civilization and sadly there’s an orange shitgibbon pushing buttons to bring about the six extinction event in my lifetime. I highly doubt his tax cut for the One Percent made any difference on us receiving this refund. I feel more of the credit is owed to our long bouts of illness and not getting paid. When your income is lower, there’s less to tax. Course, I would’ve preferred to have the money.

What shall we do with our collective windfall? Putting it toward our vacation fund.

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Today’s modern idiocy, Sunday 4/14/19 edition

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Steve

I have yet to write about the cool go-karts at Pinballz Lake Creek but today I experienced one of the new wrinkles smart phones have given us. This one teenager was so busy futzing with the tunes on his phone while trying to drive his go-kart, he dropped it on the track, probably while going through a challenging turn.

Fortunately for him, I managed to not run over his phone but I slowed down and started scanning my pockets, fearing it was mine.

He was a lucky teenager and the employees running the track only gave him a warning of, don’t do this again.

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Stars 2018-19 season ends with a whimper

Posted on April 14, 2019 by Steve

My team’s tenth season ended without a playoff appearance which is pretty frustrating since we made it all the way to the Calder Cup Championship…only to lose to the Marlies. As per the sources I like to check online, the Stars already knew it was over going into the third period because the Admirals won to sew up the fourth spot. Despite having a season over .500 and being in the correct division (no more getting penalized for the California franchises’ wimpy needs), the Stars had a mediocre year. They lacked consistency and I knew the coach didn’t care much in the last few games as he put the college tryout players into the lines. Losing to the Rampage in the end stung too. They were nowhere close to going to the playoffs which is normal for them regardless of who they’re an affiliate for, they were just spoilers and my Stars let it happen.

Well, as the cliche goes, there’s next season. It will be our first without Travis Morin, the last veteran from our fantastic debut. How many teams go to the championship in their first season‽ Las Vegas doing the same last Summer in the NHL made the Stanley Cup more interesting, especially in light of the Crapitals finally winning.

They better retire #23 and hoist it up to the rafters to honor Travis. He had a tremendous career with the Stars and vice versa.

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Nixon’s head’s favorite candy!

Posted on April 13, 2019 by Steve

I had to buy this when I spotted it at Terra Toys and gave it to a co-worker who I share an inside joke with, imitating Billy West imitating Tricky Dick. Saying this candy’s name exaggerates the fifth-worst president’s jowly manner of speaking. See below…

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Captain Marvel (Marvel): Worth Seeing

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Steve

MCU gambles on an obscure character again but doubles down on setting the story in the recent past, probably to match the soundtrack filled with overplayed crap better. Cynical jab aside, Marvel succeeded again in making an excellent film centered around a lesser-known superhero while interweaving her into the growing, larger story arc we’ll see in the upcoming Avengers: Endgame.

Marvel rewinds the clock back to those salad days called the mid Nineties. Nick Fury had two eyes, superheroes on Earth operated in the shadows (Ant-Man, Black Panther) and the Kree Empire was at war with the shape-changing Skrull. Enter Kree soldier Vers, an anxious warrior with a memory gap. Before there’s much exploration on this, she is assigned a mission to defeat some pesky Skrulls hiding out on a backwater planet. Obviously things goes badly and it leads to Vers getting stranded on Earth in a rather Nineties manner (crashing out of the sky into a Blockbuster Video). However, the Skrulls’ starship suffered the same fate (but into the Pacific Ocean) so while she is awaiting rescue, she decides to hunt down the survivors hiding out amongst the Terrans. Earth isn’t completely oblivious as SHIELD is dispatched to investigate. Within several days, Vers and Fury discover how their past assumptions are wrong and it’s up to them to save the day, the world and everything else. Stay to the very end of course.

For starters, Marvel‘s opening brought tears to my eyes as they modified their logo montage to show nothing but Stan Lee’s cameos, thanking him for all he did. I’m glad Somara and I got to meet him briefly as a wedding gift to ourselves. I may be a bigger DC fan with the print comics yet I will always be grateful to what he contributed, raising the bar on storytelling. And before my artist friends pounce on me, I know Stan didn’t do it alone. Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita and others had immense involvement because comic books are worthless without great art. By the way, not everyone will get the inside joke for Stan’s cameo plus it won’t be his last, Endgame‘s principle shooting was done before he passed away.

Another thing I was pleased about was the movie not bludgeoning me over the head about the Nineties as others do with the Seventies or Eighties. A few elements couldn’t help in their obviousness: Internet cafes, Blockbuster Video and “slow” computers; they were ubiquitous then. It may be a matter of opinion but for me, anything more subtle than the overrated The Wedding Singer and I’m good. There are additional nods to other characters from previous films you need to pay attention to. The writers did an impressive job working in all the different incarnations of Captain Marvel over the last 40 years.

Last point I do want to make. Allegedly, numerous Incels got their tighty whiteys in knots from day one with Marvel (I use the qualifier “allegedly” due to me having a life and nothing bothering with diehard troll hangouts: reedit namely). I really liked Wonder Woman, I buy comics with female stars (Shade the Changing Woman, Spider-Gwen, Rat Queens and Star Wars: Doctor Aphra) and I don’t feel threatened by “women” shows (Pen15, Disenchantment, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (90s)). I may roll my eyes at overused tropes (attractive computer hackers, lesbian/bi-sexual/LUG whatevers and manic pixie dream girls) but it doesn’t mean I’m against women characters being the focus. Brie Larson did very well as the stoic, focused warrior. Her Oscar® doesn’t matter to me, sometimes the award can be the kiss of death (Mira Sorvino, F Murray Abraham) and at my age, I’ve learned to state “no opinion” if I’m not familiar with the person’s past work, or in Larson’s case, I wasn’t paying attention (Scott Pilgrim) or I forgot (Kong: Skull Island). I did run into an Incel before the release and my polite rebuttal to him was “vote with your money.” After he mentioned how date rapist Kavanaugh was railroaded, I had to flee to avoid his toxicity stained my clothes.

Soapbox over.

To repeat. Captain Marvel (Marvel), really great, a worthy addition to the MCU and I can’t wait to see what her role will be in the upcoming Avengers.

(New) Alamo Extras: Infomercial for Saturday Morning Greatest Hits, Trailers for Supergirl, Toy Story and Pulp Fiction; Ads for Blockbuster, Capri Sun and pagers; Plugs for TV shows: Friends, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Rugrats and Fresh Prince; a Nirvana video; a history/explanation about the DC and Marvel Captain Marvel characters (not completely accurate); Brie Larson’s past work: her music videos from the Aughts (I want to get her record now, she was better than most training-bra music of her time), being in a Jenny Lewis video, United States of Tara and the evil ex-girlfriend dubbed over by Metric in Scott Pilgrim.

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84% Gym Attendance!

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Steve

Today is Day 100 of 2019 and my “score” is 84% or in English, I have been to the gym and closed the rings on my Apple Watch 84 times out of 100. So back when I was going to grade school in the parochial system, I earned a C while this would be a solid B in public high school and university. I’ll go with the latter scoring.

On to raise my percentage to something better, something closer to an A in either system.

Oh, my weight? It’s improving but it could always be better. Not to make excuses, I’m trying to bring it down steadily and gradually, say a pound every week to 10 days. As much as I would love to drop more, faster, your body has a strong chance of taking the weight back on just as quickly. I know it did to me when I recovered from my long run of no appetite. Those 20 pounds evaporated suddenly while I rediscovered how good food tasted.

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A shirt to go with the Netflix show

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Steve

Thanks to Netflix picking up this show being made by the same production company behind the CW’s DC Comic Book Sows and Riverdale, Hot Topic got my money because I’ve often been a fan of Archie‘s secondary characters: Sabrina and Josie & the Pussycats. However, the cool and helpful staff at Rogues Gallery got me into the comic book years before the Netflix hit (still have to watch it). The same team behind Afterlife with Archie reinvigorated Sabrina by setting the story in the early Sixties and fusing in elements from Rosemary’s Baby. Maybe they’ll give the Nineties Sabrina, Melissa Joan Hart, a cameo.

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1959: NASA introduces America’s first astronauts

Posted on April 9, 2019 by Steve

Even if not everything in the movie or book, The Right Stuff, is completely true, I think most Americans know the story about the Mercury Seven. Back when the US was trying to catch up to the Soviet Union, military test pilots were the first astronauts because they were used to danger plus many were veterans from WWII and/or the Korean War. Today our astronauts come from all walks of life but most have be engineers or scientists capable of juggling multiple jobs. Can’t specialize in one thing when there isn’t any room for error on a rocket or orbiting around in the ISS.

NASA and America did a pretty good job in the end. From just selecting seven men to be launched into space to landing on the moon successfully in a mere decade.

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Adam Ruins Everything

Posted on April 8, 2019 by Steve

Glad to see TruTV, formerly the insipid “reality” Court TV, with a hit show on Netflix (first season only). Adam is part Snopes.com, part Mythbusters and mostly what journalism is supposed to be, rolled into one 20-minute debunking of everyday issues: Airport Security, Car Shopping, Sex, The Internet, Immigration, etc. A typical episode will have a guest or recurring character spout off a common assumption your MAGA-hat uncle repeats at Thanksgiving, the lazy media reports or collective lie the public has swallowed. Adam jumps in and as he says, drops some truth bombs. While Adam states the facts, the program’s sources are shown in the upper corners of the screen (the majority are legitmate, aka, no right-wing bullshit magazines) or a subject expert appears, tells the audience the reality regarding the topic (or related subtopic). What Adam chooses to tackle aren’t exclusively the more common right-wing myths, a couple things close to the Left’s heart were brought up: “Going Green” and “Nutrition.”

Outside the expert guests, I was bummed to learn that the recurring characters Adam torments with this facts (Emily, Murphy and Rhea) are fellow comedians/writers, not people who were remotely teachers, lawyers, siblings, so on. I did love how the “Christmas” show ended with a special cameo exposing Adam‘s ancestry.

I plan to watch the first season over, see if there’s anything I missed. Despite some topics being pretty heavy, Adam always does his best to balance out how the truth hurts with some optimistic news.

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1939: Italy invades Albania

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Steve

I always thought Mussolini pulled this dumb stunt after WWII started but as you can see by the link, I was wrong. Admitting to being wrong of course is one of us Liberals’ weaknesses as Conservatives go full on no matter how off they are.

Anyway, it’s not a surprise that the stronger European powers and America did nothing, again, to stop Fascist/Nazi aggression until Poland. Even then, I’m not sure why Poland was the final straw neither country had oil or any resources the West would die over.

I also wonder if Italy ever apologized for the invasion. Probably not. Apologizing today means you have to cut a big check and given the chaos, racism and nationalism plaguing Italy, it’s the last thing they would want to deal with.

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LEGO 2: Must See (Great Sequel too)

Posted on April 7, 2019 by Steve

The long-awaited sequel to The LEGO Movie finally arrived, we saw it on the opening weekend and it sadly tanked. It’s not why my review is way, way overdue…it’s playing at the discount theater and I think you buy LEGO 2 on DVD now; I remain digging out from a very stacked “inbox.” I couldn’t let my two cents slide and maybe what I have to blather will positively influence friends with small kids and/or those who are fellow adult LEGO fans to give the film a chance. It was great and why it didn’t have a strong opening is beyond me. I’m guessing post Super Bowl hangovers, more likely Warner Brothers waited too long.

LEGO 2 picks up immediately after the original ends and then zooms ahead for what may be a few years. Emmett, Lucy and the residents of Bricksburg now reside in a Post-Apocalyptic world, complete with the Statue of Liberty at the center (nice nod to Planet of the Apes). Everyone but Emmett have embraced their new Mad Max fashions and attitudes (Batman remains funny). As per the trailers, a mysterious attacker resembling a figure from the Friends line begins bombarding the city and kidnaps the primary characters to the Sista’ Star System. It’s up to Emmett to be the hero but this time he’s not reluctant to take up this quest. Along the way he teams up with a composite parody of all the recent roles Chris Pratt has played in movies between the franchise’s installments. You have to see LEGO 2 to find out what happens next. The only “spoiler” I will reveal is the directors choosing a new, original plot and resolution. Plus you discover the origin of the last movie’s ongoing jokes.

Again, I love how they took the trouble to not repeat LEGO, a common complaint I have with most sequels: Dumb and Dumber(er), Star Trek V, The Force Awakens and The Predator. There are new songs and yes, they are nasty, nasty, ear worms in the same vein as “Everything is Awesome.” They also pull off another element I hate with sequels, they don’t introduce a small army of additional characters on top of the previous ones we know, actually, I think there’s fewer or maybe the same number. Lastly, the humor continues to be on par with LEGO in there are jokes which will fly over kids’ heads, namely the self-aware or referential ones.

Just go see this! You will laugh, smile and enjoy LEGO 2 as much as LEGO. Brace yourself again for a sudden urge to go shopping to get the hilarious sets and the upcoming Star Wars/LEGO packages, celebrating 20 years. We’re now getting prepped for Brick Fiesta’s return to Austin this June. Enjoy our avatars who were psyched to see LEGO 2.

Alamo Extras: Music videos for Strumbellas’ “Salvation” and the overplayed Beastie Boys’ “Intergalactic”; scene from Valley of Gwangi, cowboys trying to lasso a dinosaur; LEGO The Force Awakens Olympics; Turkish Airlines’ safety video with Lucy, Emmett, Batman, Garmadan and others; drive-in plug for coffee; Adventure Time‘s opening in LEGO; a feature about an artist who does LEGO sculptures with plain bricks; and a synopsis of what has happened before in LEGO, LEGO Batman and Ninjago. All else were repeats from previous movies.

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Five thousand posts!

Posted on April 6, 2019 by Steve

Well that kind of snuck up on me. I wish I could’ve timed it better to coincide with a better life event such as my 20th anniversary as an official Apple employee (next week) or something more worthy (wedding, birthday).

Still I’m thrilled, proud and inspired to pull it off. I only wish this tech were around 25 years earlier to document my time in Austin, plus other concerts, movies and people. It would’ve helped me pass the time more creatively than the days I instead wasted playing Spaceward Ho! on my PowerBook 140.

Picayune has evolved over its 13-14 years too. Not just how and where it was hosted, the Categories on the side have changed. They’re due for an adjustment as our culture of streaming TV/Film dominates and a couple other areas haven’t had anything new in years; I miss Somara’s Cakes but she has lost interest in decorating. The latter I’m thinking about relegating to an Archive section with what they used to cover being sub-categories.

If you’ve stuck by me reading this and commenting, thanks a bunch. Picayune frequently feels like I’m throwing dozens of messages in a bottle, hoping someone reads them. Sometimes it happened! Back when the site was more wide open to comments, a very nice stranger threw in their two cents about Crowded House! Maybe I will get more in the near future as my friends retire. Yeah, right. Who will have time then? We’ll probably be pre-occupied with fleeing to and fighting over the world’s scarce resources thanks to Trumpkins, Republicans and NeoLiberals. I for one prefer to welcome our alien overlords Kang and Kodos to solve the problems.

On to six and ten thousand!

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1994: Kurt Cobain commits suicide

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Steve

I remember seeing the main news story on MTV in the University Towers’ cafeteria as Kurt  Loder followed up with the PSA-esque pleas telling other people to seek help if they felt like killing themselves. Despite my life-long bouts of anxiety, I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes over anyone wanting to imitate Kurt or thinking they’d get to join him in some mythical after life. We all know he’s too busy playing air hockey with Jimi Hendrix.

In the short run, it was a damned shame because Kurt was only 27 (a year older than me) and Nirvana appeared to be rebounding via their Unplugged record. Even as Grunge was wearing out its welcome, he could’ve reinvented Nirvana into something else since this is the natural evolution of long-term acts…except U2, they’ve been insufferable in every incarnation.

Drugs contributed heavily to his decision yet after 25 years, an early death has often been a good career move. Do you think Hendrix, Morrison and Joplin would draw crowds today if they were old, bloated and flogging a dead horse like their contemporaries? There’s also a chance they could’ve survived and continued to swindle millions with stadium crap shows like the Rolling Stones, Inc. or Paul McCartney, LLC in which the tour makes way more than every pathetic new album. One last observation, do you think Stevie Ray Vaughn would receive as much airplay had he lived another 30 years?

Personally, I am in the cynical camp regarding “death as a career move.” Nirvana’s follow-up In Utero sucked and having to eke out a hit by covering David Bowie told me Cobain had nothing left in the tank creatively. Nevermind is a great album, when its singles aren’t be playing ad nauseam via streaming services and the dying FM industry. Its greatness isn’t exclusively due to Kurt. Dave Grohl and Butch Vig’s contributions are what got Nirvana to break through. Dave leaving to form the Foo Fighters was inevitable because he proved to be the real talent in the trio.

When push comes to shove though, I would’ve preferred it if Kurt chose to live, get over his addictions and divorce Courtney Love (a real life succubus). Maybe with his newfound clarity, he could’ve worked on his second act career like Ministry or Underworld. Suicide is best reserved for the most contemptuous of people…and no, not Hitler, he should’ve been captured and put on trial before the world.

Below is a bit by Bruce McCullough of Kids in the Hall fame who sums up Kurt’s death with this track called “Vigil.”

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Cats “know” their name

Posted on April 4, 2019 by Steve

There are more details of the study through this link but the short version is that cats probably don’t “know” the sounds coming from our mouths are their name, it’s an association they’re making of us wanting their attention. Dogs may “know” their names because they’re obedient, pack creatures.

In the case of our three current cats (and probably the other three who crossed the Rainbow Bridge), if they “knew” their names, they would probably know them as Dammit! (Nemo), Stopthat! (Isis) and Ughbuttinmyface! (Kuroneko).

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Extra perk from Arby’s!

Posted on April 2, 2019 by Steve

After a long day of getting back into the groove of work (thank you vaccines! I’ll take your side effects over the ignorance morons are causing from withholding), I chose to get a treat from Arby’s. It may be the fast food chain everybody craps on (The Simpsons, The Daily Show, stand-up comedians) but in their defense, their shake machines work! Try getting a shake at McDonald’s without being told it’s “broken.”

I went with the mint chocolate and the nice lady waiting on me threw in this little touch to make my night even better as I passed out watching Netflix.

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