Happy 13th birthday Nemo!

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Steve

nemo13The only cat we’ve had since he was a kitten has “graduated” to retirement age, as if cats ever do anything to make a living. OK, they bring us joy unless they’re urinating or puking somewhere we don’t want them to!

I do want to emphasize adopting an adult cat over a kitten. These poor, overlooked creatures are more flexible than mythology purports. Mythology spread by cat haters.

Nemo was already abandoned (or he wandered away from his mother) and had just been run over by a car when Somara rescued him. We chose to keep Nemo because as I’ve mentioned time and time again, the veterinarians warned us about the strong possibility of his front-left leg needing to be amputated. Thus, we didn’t want to saddled the shelter the burden of trying to find a home for a three-legged cat.

Nemo has beaten the odds. His lucky leg/paw remains and it’s a major part of his identity. It’s one reason why I admire animals, they just get on with life when they lose a limb or major sense. I’m sure Nemo felt initial despair, pain and probably fear. Today he often demonstrates his mastery of running in a semi-sideways manner or using the lucky paw to feint them into no watching is right paw when makes a more serious blow.

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Happy birthday Anna!

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Steve

Today she makes her first step toward becoming a teenager since 13 is the probationary period. Maybe it’s more of a transition, like being on a midshipman’s cruise in Star Trek, it’s not possible to fail at being a teenager. If it were something people could do, I am confident there would be a line of parents circling the Earth requesting the paperwork to have their kids “held back” a year.

As for Anna, I’m sure she’s a joy and a firecracker at the same time for Linda and Brian. I’m basing this assumption from what I recall of Brian’s behavior when we were growing up. He’s a decent guy and he was more often the more reasonable/manageable child for our parents. Throw in normal according to the definition in the Eighties and you have him all summed up. Truth is, she’s an enigma to me which is a bummer. Her older brother (and our nephew) Nick gives me bits and pieces about Anna’s tastes. Standard answers tend to be “I don’t know.” He’s definitely related to her! I would also say he’s a Maggi too; Brian and I lost track of these matters by the time I was half way through high school.

Nick did do us a huge favor this year. He said Anna loves to read. Somara must’ve somehow gotten her DNA to skip over into her. Actually, avid reading is a Maggi and Maier trait!

  • Grandpa (Maier) loved to read Popular Mechanics and other Science-Technology publications.
  • Our old man said Grandpa Maggi would read National Geographic from cover to cover.
  • Grandma Maggi loved Sci-Fi and Fantasy. She had early US printings of The Lord of the Rings and Dune. As I’ve stated before, she left her vast paperback collection to me.
  • Grandma used to read at some point. When I knew her, she limited herself to tabloids and the local paper. I was bummed to discover how much Grandma disdained contemporary fiction before she passed away.
  • Dad devoured mysteries. One Christmas we had enough money to buy him an Agatha Chrisitie collection. Nero Wolfe was another favorite. Newspapers and magazines were another source. I do remember who he mastered catching up on things at the grocery store. If there was no rush, he’d pick a slow line to read the core stories from the stuff in the racks!
  • Mom is all over the map and I probably share her inconsistency. She reads mostly biographies and in spurts.
  • Brian is probably more well-read than I. The only thing I know he likes immensely are David Sedaris essays and James Ellroy’s novels. Hopefully, he’ll elaborate for me.
  • Outside of our immediate family? Uncle Cliff liked Stephen King books. Cousins Matthew and Julie devoured Terry Brooks’ novels in the Seventies. Again, I would like to see the cousins jump in to clarify. I don’t think they’re dumb, lazy and uninterested. I’m just ignorant of their habits.

Back to the star!

Given the nice push from Nick, I followed up about genres and authors. He responded with getting a gift certificate from Barnes & Noble. If they lived in the boonies where the big-box chains are the only choice, sure but they’re in the San Francisco area! I’ve never been there yet I’ve heard of City Lights, SF’s version of Book People! I did go with another nearby indie called Towne Center Books. A very helpful lady named Genevieve let me purchase a $50 gift certificate for Anna. We even had some small talk regarding Book People.

Can’t wait to see if Anna likes this gift, but more importantly, will she gain the enjoyment of a local store with a friendly staff. I won’t be heartbroken should it go in another direction, the world is changing toward fast and cheap alongside a generation thinking all content is or should be free; this will inevitably maim the gold-laying geese as fewer people can make a middle-class living creating. Anna has to be her own person and I remember at that age, adults can be interventionists regardless of the benevolence behind their actions. Young people need to explore and exercise their independence so they can be functionally adults.

Fingers crossed I do get to finally meet her in the next year!

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Something tied to 1990

Posted on June 1, 2015 by Steve

June is often a tough month for me. I’m always late with graduation stuff which really takes place in May with the bulk of the US (d’oh!). I thought about weighing in my last Summer as a college student but then decided, why bother, it was a mediocre time since 1989 was the toughest act to follow. Five years later, I did get the hang of living in Austin. This translates into doing more than surviving or how I spent the first five months of 1995 while I seriously considered returning North.

Instead I chose an obscure little BritCom (really Irish) starring Chris O’Dowd because it looks back on the same time period filtered through the eyes of young boy living in West Ireland. Despite it being in another country, there are common themes Americans, especially Catholics, can relate to. I also found it to be an amusing little history lesson on how the Irish saw the same events we Americans try make all about ourselves: the Berlin Wall being torn down especially. Hell, just as they settled marriage equality recently, they elected a woman as head of state (Mary Robinson) in 1989.

The premise is pretty funny. Martin Moone is the youngest child of four and the only boy. His father runs a sign company and the mother has various roles. They do alright financially given that Ireland was about on par with Greece, an EU member with a borderline third-world economy. The backdrop is a small town (by US standards) called Boyle in the West; we’d call it North but I think they prefer the other direction due to Northern Ireland still being a part of the UK. Like all small communities, one major industry/family dominates (a fishery owner played by Steve Coogan), there’s a clique of bullies who harass Martin and practically everybody knows each other. I experienced this in Beulah, ND and to a limited extent in Bloomington-Normal, IL; there’s little chance of a dumb stunt/incident going under the radar from a tattletale adult. Being Ireland, the Catholic Church has a larger presence in the people’s lives.

What keeps Moone Boy from being an Irish The Wonder Years is Chris O’Dowd’s role as Martin’s imaginary friend Sean Murphy. Firstly, the name is an inside joke to the Irish because it’s the most common name in their country like John Smith is here. The rest of the time, Sean’s advice is really what Martin is thinking at the time and the imaginary character is subject to the boy’s whims. For example, Martin got mad at Sean so Sean always appeared wearing high-heeled shoes. There was a more complicated one involving a famous soccer player.

Alas, the show concluded after three seasons. Even if Chris O’Dowd’s schedule wasn’t getting gobbled up by more lucrative appearances in US-based media (HBO’s Girls, Thor: The Dark World and St. Vincent), the Europeans usually have the sense to conclude while the show is good. They don’t let it drag out until the show is a pathetic, hollow shell of its former glory: Happy Days, Seinfeld and Married with Children. Yes, I know Absolutely Fabulous came back a couple times I think Are You Being Served? had a revival.

My only annoyance is Hulu being the exclusive distributor in the US. It was produced by Sky (aka Fox in the UK) so it doesn’t fall under the BBC umbrella and probably prevents Netflix or other streaming services from carrying it. Rumor has it O’Dowd has been asked to develop a US version. I hope this falls through. We may have a common language with the UK and Ireland; we don’t have the same sense of humor or perspectives. Either the gist fails to translate (The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, Fawlty Towers and The IT Crowd) or its so heavily modified, I’m not sure why anyone bothered (Three’s Company, Sanford and Son and All in the Family). I still recommend checking it out. Enduring Hulu’s teeth-gritting ad breaks is worth the “price.” 

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Players in Pflugerville

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Steve

I couldn’t believe I may have found a replacement location to do some writing and thinking near the house. The Starbucks up the block craps out before 10 but if unemployment is in the cards, then I will get an earlier start.

Players is a modest-sized sports bar. Well, it’s more of a large joint with a room dedicated to pool, karaoke, some kind of charity gambling machines (give me Vegas any day) and there’s sports on all the TVs. The clincher for me was the free Wi-Fi and they carried hard cider without treating me like I were an evil Hipster. I’ve made the move to it because the after effects are easier to deal with in the morning, namely the dehydrated-bloaty feeling. Players seems like a good alternative as long as I can dodge the smoking; Pflugerville allows this with bars.

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Happy 111th birthday Grandpa

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Steve

He could’ve lived this long and then some if he took better care of his symptoms earlier since I keep reading about the numerous people making it to 110-plus and I think NPR did a story about how America has tens of thousands of people over 100.

Everett or Grandpa (as he was known to my brother and me, our paternal one passed away too early for us to interact with him), was an interesting guy. He was the youngest child of a modest-sized family for the early Twentieth Century (at least five kids from what I heard discussed yet I figured there were more). He was also a fraternal twin, the older brother was named Elmer. While he was around, I knew him to be a prankster but his jokes could be mean-spirited (I didn’t inherit this); generosity was another trait (he liked to share food); lastly, education meant the world to him because he was deprived of it. Living to see Brian and me graduating from university was allegedly was the greatest joy he had. His dreams of college were dashed after a year at Notre Dame in the Twenties since the family farm had an emergency. The most elaborate explanation Mom gave me was the “old lady” (his name for his mother) didn’t want to pay for hired help and/or Elmer was homesick, didn’t like college.

Still, Everett did live through some amazing times. He was a kid during WWI and probably worried about US involvement for his older brothers could’ve been drafted to fight against distant family members. He saw the Roaring Twenties, endured the Great Depression and witnessed WWII from the sidelines as a farmer. I always thought he was too old to be drafted in 1942 (this would make him 38). Grandma said the Army drafted people up to 45 at the beginning so he was worried about this. When numerous people over 40 died in basic training from heart attacks, the Army reconsidered. He was born at the dawn of aircraft and saw the moon landings, all in 65 years! At birth, movies were finally becoming mainstream entertainment, the telephone an established technology while still expensive and radio was a military secret. Near the end, TV was ubiquitous and the modern Internet and cell phones were on the doorstep of becoming today’s 800-pound communication gorillas.

The list could go on. It’s small wonder why there’s all this jealousy over his generation and the following. He fell into the in-between group. Too young to be in the “Lost” group (Hemmingway, Fitzgerald who fought in WWI) and too old to be in the “Greatest” (mostly the WWII Vets). Not sure what nickname they had yet I don’t think they had it super easy thanks to the Great Depression.

My only regret I still have was never being able to relate to him when I became a young adult. I didn’t have the patience in my twenties and he was pretty gone age wise (90-plus). It wasn’t anything serious like dementia, I think he found my generation to be alien life form while my parents’ (the Boomers) were a pain in the ass. At least we agreed there.

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Threw in the towel today…

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Steve

…after having a futile meeting with my boss’s boss (which was expected in the opinions others and mine), I was struck by a sudden case of icouldntgiveashititis. So I called the sick line to say I’m leaving for the day. I decompressed at Pinballz while it was pretty empty around 11 AM, then handled a problem with my new debit card at the local credit union and have proceeded to nap/drink the rest of the day away, hell, I’m buzzed now. Contrary to the wisdom of Johnny Lydon (nee Rotten), anger may be an energy but it is also draining.

What did I want with the boss of the boss? I just want to change teams. My current boss remains a nice and sweet person yet I am so checked out and I had to bring up a conflict of interest concern I let fester alongside my resentment over the main situation.

Normally I avoid the details of my employment namely due to the boring nature of it all. Mix in the KGB-level of intimidation Steve Jobs instilled against his employees; Henry Ford would’ve be proud of the bullying/espionage levels the Randian CEO supervised during his reign of terror. As I stated before, I couldn’t give a shit. Last time I checked, if I’m not disclosing corporate secrets, I am a citizen of the US not an indentured servant of Apple, Inc. as per my legal protections.

Back to a key issue driving my dissatisfaction thanks to the main boss transforming into the Dabney Coleman character. Two years ago, my organization (Enterprise, an ironic name really) absorbed another (Education). I heavily participated in the interviewing, assessments and advising of which people to make offers to. I think I interviewed close to 25 of the 30 candidates in Austin. Afterwards, I was re-assigned to the one team manager who came along (Eddie). My mission shifted to assisting him and the former Education-only agents into integrating into Enterprise’s “culture.” How I busted my ass from late 2013 on to mid 2014. Here I was rewarded fiscally despite being up against the salary cap; they used a bonus to cover the difference. When it came to the next round of expansion though, I was stiffed where it mattered, a team manager assignment. I didn’t even get an interview to be a team manager for the several new teams! They gave a position to someone suspended for suspected leaking though. To add insult to injury, I was transferred to one of the team managers they brought in from outside (Retail or an Apple Store, might as well been someone off the street) and I had to repeat what I did the previous year.

Well, I’ve had enough! Sure I’ve received a couple backfill opportunities but they had petty strings attached. When I didn’t meet them back in March or April (my desk, yeah, my desk was their excuse, talk about petty bullshit), I put my foot down. I requested a transfer to another team, I also turned in my annual focal stating I want to move to another department and/or I will be working for another employer. At this point, I’m done with Apple, I’m practically on strike as per the saying, you want to make a point, do something well and then take it away. So if you want a discount, you better ask for it now otherwise you may need to bug my wife. I have been interviewing with other companies on the side and it’s not a secret to the incompetent “leadership” in my division. Well, they’re not leadership, they’re just managerial drones who drank the groupthink Kool-Aid; they know how to adjust a time card for payroll, take attendance and fill out a virtual coloring book. When it comes to taking a call or really leading, most couldn’t slap their own asses with both hands, including the one I report to.

Am I worried about losing my job? Fuck no! At this point, working for Apple is on par to when I was dating my ex-girlfriend Carrie during its final weeks. I just want it to end, the love left the relationship years ago. Ergo, I called in sick part-way through today since I wasn’t in any mood to help any co-workers or customers. Next up, I’m seriously thinking of firing my doctor. I’m enjoying the reunion with my rage, anger and the real me I’ve suppressed with generic Zoloft for several years, I stopped taking it after my last bout of the flu. The crap has mostly made me passive enough to accept getting Duggar’d in the ass for a couple years.

How will this play out? No idea really. I can guess not positively since the head of the department and his boss are ethically challenged, they’re known for dirty tricks but after the St. Reagan presidency, the people have no rights. Fear not. I have been interviewing and have another come Wednesday.

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Not bad, 10 for 12

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Steve

See if you can beat my score without cheating since this only allows three minutes to guess the characters with three-letter names. Some are a stretch on knowing their actual first names.

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Happy National Hamburger Day

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Steve

Here’s a good link from the fine folks at Mental Floss. In Austin, the best places are the smaller chains/mom-and-pop operations:

  • Mighty Fine
  • Dan’s/Fran’s
  • P Terry’s
  • Whataburger, if the above aren’t feasible, namely for time or distance

This got me thinking about other places I’ve lived that had great burgers as well.

  • Ziggy’s in Milwaukee
  • Made Rite in Springfield
  • Some place near the garage in Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas
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Central Texas Flood 2015

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Steve

srvfloodHuge swaths of the area are assessing the damage and cleaning up. Meanwhile, the GOP-heavy government has taken up yoga to practice the sudden flexibility in accepting Federal assistance to get through this mess. I guess Faux News “scientists” told them the flooding was caused by the gays, ISIS and abortions.

I had to go to work and scratch my ass doing very little thanks to the so-called leadership wanting full staffing on a Federal holiday. We had a minor tornado drill which was more like a moron fire drill. Somara was at our house which fared well. We made sure it wasn’t built on a flood plain during construction in 2001.

When I bought a car, I learned very quickly about the dangerous intersections famous for flash floods. People forget it only takes 12 inches (30 cm) of water to pick up a vehicle and wash it away. It doesn’t matter if you’re in an SUV weighing three tons.

More of the damage was out in the countryside, primarily the Red Staters who will also need to tone down their secession rhetoric while taking Federal handouts over the next few weeks. Austin is 90 percent fine. The remaining 10 is busy cleaning up the debris the water carried along.

There was an upside to the flooding and continuous rain all May. Lake Travis, our primary open water source, is over 658 feet in depth. Another 22 feet and it’s “full.” It can go much higher but I think 681 is the historical average. Our poor lake hasn’t been anywhere near such a level since 2010 due to the rather dry Winters we’ve had. I doubt what we have won’t last. Overdevelopment continues and it goes hand-in-hand with Climate Change Denial.

Thanks for your concern but we’re fun. We’re hoping to see what we can do to help friends who weren’t as lucky.

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We now own 22% of our house!

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Steve

HouseGrid22It’s always awesome to see the piechart shift the numerical value when I update the balances on our debts! For the house, I base the percentage on what we still owe Wells Fargo against what the house cost when we closed on it in 2001. If I went with the current refinancing amount, then the number would suck and look rather scary after 14 years.

The news got even better when I contacted WF via the Web portal to ask if we could take over the escrow (pay the property taxes and house insurance directly) since we no longer pay PMI (insurance to cover the bank’s ass when mortgage payers default). They said “yes” in a matter of a couple hours. The escrow balance is on its way and the representative nicely gave me the addresses of where the payments for those necessities go. Sweet! My plan is to put aside the old escrow amount into our money market. The interest it will compound with the rest of the balance is a pittance (0.2%) but every penny adds up.

Onward to 23% before the end of 2015, maybe we’ll luck out and hit 24 by New Year’s. Not bad for a so-called “tax and spend” Librul.

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Masters of the Universe

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Steve

skeletorI was a college student when Masters of the Universe came and went circa 1987. Obviously I didn’t bother to see it. There were other more interesting things to do, namely acquiring a taste for beer (aka, drinking it without make an after taste face) and ladies. Well, maybe video games, tunes and trying to perfect my radio show. The other thing I always wondered was why did this turkey happen? By 1987, He-Man toys had run their course. I think kids in the key demographic were more interested in Robotech toys which was what I saw continuously during Christmas ’86.

We can thank the fine programming people at Alamo Drafthouse for the special screening. Until then, I had never seen it and Somara hadn’t since that Summer. It may have been a stinker but it was the early work of two future TV staples of the Nineties: Courtney Cox (Friends’ Monica) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Star Trek Voyager’s Lt. Paris). Awesome niche players were present too: Meg Foster (my favorite Hester Prynne), Billy Barty (probably the most famous midget actor in history) and James Tolkan (a legendary heavy, best known for an instructor in Top Gun). Frank Langella as Skeletor is in a class all by himself. Oh, can’t forget this being Dolph Lundgren’s first big starring and good-guy role before he moved over to B-movie staples like I Come in Peace and Universal Soldier.

What I didn’t know and learned from our hosts was that Masters was the finale in a trilogy of turkeys responsible for bankrupting the primary production company The Cannon Group; first was Lifeforce (couldn’t finish, it was so lame), Superman IV and this.

Anyway, what’s the story or plot? Thankfully it was a departure from the preachy weekday afternoon cartoons. The movie begins with Skeletor and his forces winning the war for the planet Eternia. He can’t take complete control until He-Man (yeah, they kept this awful name) is captured. He-Man, Duncan and Teela are still fighting in the hills where they rescue a little creature (Billy Barty wearing the cheapest appliance I’ve seen in years) who has a teleporting device. The quartet try to use it to take back Eternia by popping into Castle Greyskull but come to modern-day Earth. You can figure out how the rest plays out in this low-rent Flash Gordon knockoff.

I did love the Skeletor makeup on Langella. He had the skull face without it being cheesy; not a helmet or lumpy appliances. Today they’d probably use CG to tweak it, make it scarier looking.

Oh, I also enjoyed the movie sans irony. Not like how I liked the recent Avengers, more along the lines of remembering the hairstyles, the reminiscing of the details, seeing favorite B-movie legends at their peak and the background music…”Living in a Box” by Living in a Box when the “teenagers” are talking in the van!

Alamo Extras: Trailer for Hercules 2 starring Lou Ferigno, She-Ra, He-Man and Thundercat‘s opening sequences, someone’s gag of using He-Man cartoons to the dance mix of 4-Non Blonde’s “What’s Up,” scenes from Dolph Lundgren’s exercise video, key parts of the Rocky v. Drago fight in Rocky IV, He-Man commercial for the Moss Man figure, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia when Charlie and Mac discuss how they could revive Dolph Lundgren’s career as an action star, an explanation about how Courtney Cox got to be the girl Springsteen invites to dance in his “Dancing in the Dark” video, Teela giving the moral lesson about singing at the end of an episode of He-Man, He-Man ad for the dinosaurs the toy line had at the end and a plug for the He-Man/She-Ra movie.

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Bartman squared! And Customer Service Joy!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Steve

bartmanlego

Friday was a great day of good things, mainly what you see in the photo. I do want to back up a little though to write about the power of manners and being nice.

The other day (Thursday, lunch hour) I was at my nearby HEB. I spotted my canned Starbucks staple being on sale ($2/can is a steal). There was the Pepsi person restocking the shelves. Since I know Starbucks is distributed through them, I asked politely if he would let me buy a couple cases from the truck so I wouldn’t have to go with the stuff on the shelves (he’d have to restock before leaving). He said, absolutely, he needed to get more products anyway and he asked which flavors. Boo-yah! Two cases.

Who did I spot at the check out on the way? My Austin’s Pizza friend Ashley! She was now working the registers at HEB. We caught up a bit and I promised to stop by more often. It was awesome to know I have one more person to be excited about at the grocery store: her, Art and Harry.

To celebrate the upcoming weekend I put on my Bartman shoes for it was a pattern day (last Friday). Then I scored three Lego Simpson blind bags (series 2). One for a fellow builder’s birthday. Another for a co-worker who got promoted. One for me, I admit to my selfishness! As you can see I scored the Bartman! Now to save up for the Kwik-E-Mart.

Was there a point to this story? I guess not, I just wanted to share some joy. The little victories in life are often what makes getting through the day worth it.

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Happy Eighth Birthday Maru!

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Steve

Japan’s most famous Internet cat star celebrates middle age and his owner has put together a greatest hits. Japanese co-workers explained to me what Maru’s name meant because the only use of maru I knew was “boat” or “ship” as per the Kobayashi Maru exercise in Star Trek lore. Although the context I learned is correct, maru is technically the word “box,” hence a great name for this feline who famous for his box obsession.

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RIP: Anne Meara

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Steve

Another legend, who helped pave the way for other funny women, passed away this weekend. Anne was more than just the mother of Ben Stiller and Jerry Stiller’s comedy partner, she was a great actress in her own right. The last thing I clearly recalled seeing her do was Boys From Brazil, she was one of the American mothers of an adopted Hitler infant.

Of course she was funny, there’s scores of clips from The Ed Sullivan Show and I remember her co-hosting duties on coming attractions for HBO in 1979-80. The most memorable comedy thing for me was Anne playing a tough-as-nails, chain-smoking, swearing nun. When demonstrated the character being an aggressive football player, I snickered loudly. Seeing nuns being “human” or “vulgar” was unthinkable as a kid in parochial school. Nasty Habits, thank you imdb.com, now I won’t be wracking my brain all evening.

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Mad Max: Fury Road Must See

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Steve

madmax4

It’s great to see this Eighties franchise return and with a vengeance. I’ve always loved Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Mad Max slow patches and all. Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome has never held up, it was a terrible preview of the first Bush presidency…a lamer, gentler post-apocalyptic world. Sure 3 has memorable, iconic moments that live on in popular culture: “Two men enter, one man leave!”, Master Blaster and Eighties musical retrospectives with the forgettable Tina Turner song. Well, with Fury (aka Mad Max 4), George Miller and the gang remember to include a key element which made the first two a success, high-speed car chases/battles. Next to Max, the weird, tricked-out, weaponized cars are the supporting stars.

For starters, I doubt Fury is a reboot, I think this is another chapter in Max’s adventures in Australia after everything hit the fan. My hypothesis doesn’t explain how the hero got his trademarked V-8 Intercepter back; it was destroyed in Warrior. Still, more time has passed as weirder new “civilizations” have become entrenched, namely the one led by Max’s nemesis Immortan Joe; played by the old fan favorite Hugh Keays-Byrne who was Toecutter in the first movie! I will always love Lord Humongous first but Joe comes close for being really gross and clever.

I’m not going to give away the key plot, you have to see what kind of mess Max is sucked into. Those who like these movies want to be surprised. Others won’t bother. I will say it was executed well. Post-Apocalyptic movies aren’t going to dwell on Shakespearean or Mamet-level dialog, civilization as we know it died, it’s amazing humans haven’t completely reverted to grunting. The level of violence is going to earn it an R rating too; resources like water, energy, bullets and food will determine who lives and dies. Sadly, an R is the kiss of death in America. Theaters have clamped down on the age-appropriate attendance rating since the Nineties and PG-13 gave Hollywood the wiggle room it lacked for previous movies which are rather tame by today’s standards (The Exorcist, The Godfather, Beverly Hills Cop, Stripes and M.A.S.H.).

Lastly, the whole feminist crap argument? I’m only give it any oxygen by saying, I didn’t see it and I didn’t care. Charlize Theron did a great job as Furiosa, a tough as nails driver-warrior. Mrs. Theron has a solid resume in the the parent Sci-Fi genre: Prometheus, Hancock, Aeon Flux and Mighty Joe Young, thus her casting by the producers/directors was absolutely perfect.

Back to the point. If you’re a fan of the past films and/or the Post-Apocalyptic genre, you will be pleased with Max’s return.

Alamo Extras: Trailers for Texas Gladiators 2020, Striker, Midnite Spares (Aussie comedy involving a car theft ring), Dead-End Drive-In (Aussie flick), 2019, Stunt Rock, Warrior of the Lost World (I’ve seen this on MST3K) and The New Barbarians; clips from an Aussie documentary about a local stunt/demolition show; Leonard Maltin discussing the appeal of the first two Mad Max films; and a clip from Never Too Young To Die which contained an incredible stunt of a convertible driving under an 18-wheeler to get cover from a pair of biker thugs.

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