43 Years Ago Today: The Murder of John Lennon

 

 

Crazy it's been so long. I still remember when this happened. Can't even remember which crappy office job I was working at the time, but I called in sick the next day. I drove all over trying to find newspapers but they were all sold out.

My Mom saw the Beatles in concert at the Hollywood Bowl and Dodger Stadium back in the day. She had programs from those concerts but back in the 80's they disappeared thanks to my druggie sister, who snicked them for drugs or drug money (and not the only things she stole). 

 

A couple decades after my Mom saw the Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, I saw Monty Python there. Full circle.

September Words of Wisdom

Slow month...

 

There is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness. --Edgar Allan Poe

 

Everybody has these grandiose dreams and these daydreams about success and fame and power, and I always say winning never visits you in your daydreams. It sees you in your nightmares. --Unknown

 

And finally...

Personally, I dig this shit...Noir is the most scrutinized offshoot of the hard-boiled school of fiction. It's the long drop off the short pier, and the wrong man and the wrong woman in perfect misalliance. It's the nightmare of flawed souls with big dreams, and the precise how and why of the all-time sure thing that goes bad. Noir is opportunity, it's fatality, social justice as a sanctified shuck, and sexual love as a one-way ticket to hell. --James Ellroy Note: I'm currently taking a film noir class, and check out this (which is where this quote came from): LA Film Noir: The Capital of Hollywood's Most Pessimistic Era.

Showbiz roundup

In no particular order:

 

Dear Harry and Meghan: It's not an Emmy "snub" if your program was trash, a chunk of the viewership only subjected themselves to it to rip it in YouTube videos, and you're going broke because you really have nothing to offer to the world other than an accident of birth and shameless (albeit admittedly impressive) gold-digging/social climbing skills. The podcast sucked too, oh, and the word you were looking for was stereotypes, not archetypes. Maybe you shouldn't have tried to make a career out of trashing your families. Neither of you are special. Now go away. Also, future Queen Catherine is a goddess.

 

How to not read the room: After losing hundreds of millions of dollars and millions of viewers on woke flicks like Lightyear, Elemental, The Little Mermaid, and Indiana Jones 5 you would think Disney might have learned something about what audiences want and even more importantly, don't want. Nope! YellowFlash 2 on YouTube breaks it down.

As seen on DailyMail.com:

Snow Something.

1 Dwarf and 6 Somethings.

"The Multi-ethnic Portland Hipsters" (at 1:15). 🤣

The actors are on strike too!!! Where oh where will we get our crappy reboots/reimaginings? I'm not saying the studios aren't making ridiculous amounts of money off writers and actors and I'm also not saying that as co-creators they (especially writers) don't deserve a significant piece of that pie. In fact, even with its huge box office losses, Disney has extended Bob Iger's tenure as CEO (WHY???), so studios clearly have money to burn. But these things never seem to go well for the people put out of work for an extended period of time. I guess we'll see, but I think this is just going to be really ugly.
 

How about some good news for a change? It appears Oppenheimer, which opens July 21, is every bit as great as I was hoping. I've been eagerly awaiting this film since the first trailer dropped. To get an idea of just what amazing filmmaking this is, check out this video, which explains not only some of the technical aspects, but also the one hundred day theatrical window that director Christopher Nolan demanded - and got - from Universal. I hadn't heard about this and think it's fantastic. Things need to change in Hollywood and hopefully this will be the start of it.

May Words of Wisdom

No day in life is a dress rehearsal, so every day is worthy of our best china. --Rachel Ashwell

Being challenged in life is inevitable, being defeated is optional. --Roger Crawford

 

People try to do all sorts of clever and difficult things to improve life instead of doing the simplest, easiest thing - refusing to participate in activities that make life bad. --Leo Tolstoy

 

There is absolutely no reason for being rushed along with the rush. Everybody should be free to go slow. --Robert Frost

All your life long you are slowly turning into a heavenly creature or a hellish creature: Each of us at each moment is progressing to the one state or the other. --C.S. Lewis

 

The reason we feel alienated is because the society is infantile, trivial, and stupid. So the cost of this society is a certain level of alienation. --Terence McKenna 

 

Don't tell me to ride a bus and turn down my thermostat, when you're all running around in jets and Cadillacs. --Hank Williams, Jr.

And now, a couple of palate cleansers:

My grandkids always beat me at Rock Band. And I say, "Listen, you may beat me at Rock Band, but I made the original records, so shut up." --Paul McCartney

 

If Lizzo is so beautiful, why do women get mad any time I tell them, "You look like Lizzo."? --Jeff Dye

 

April Words of Wisdom

Agriculture is the first and most important of all the arts and the tiller of the soil still represents the natural order of things willed by God. --Pope Pius XII

 

There's more beauty in the truth, even if it is a dreadful beauty. --John Steinbeck

I would rather stand and have everybody my enemy than to go along with the crowd to destruction. --A.W. Tozer

 

And this I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. --John Steinbeck

 

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. --George Orwell

More of your conversation would infect my brain. --William Shakespeare (Coriolanus)

Ladies and gentleman, the leader of the free world. If by free world, you mean clown world.

No joke. This is the text of Joe Biden's remarks on the school shooting in Nashville. I transcribed it myself, but you can see it here via ABC News starting at the 6:45 mark. It was like watching the guy warming up an audience for the headliner. How someone could joke and laugh at a time like this is inexplicable to me. Just sickening.

Applause. Biden at podium, smiling.

 

BIDEN: My name is Joe Biden.

 

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

 

BIDEN: I'm Dr. Jill Biden's husband

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: And I eat Jeni's ice cream, chocolate chip.

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream.

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. 

AUDIENCE: Laughter

BIDEN (Grinning): You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Ben, how are you pal? One of the best guys in the United States Congress, Ben Cardin.

 

AUDIENCE: Whoops and applause.

BIDEN: Folks, uh, welcome to the White House. It's a delight to have you all here. And who are those cool looking kids back there? 

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: They're your kids, all four of 'em? Well stand up, guys.

KIDS STAND.

AUDIENCE: Applause.

 

BIDEN: Well, I want you to know, like you, I had two brothers, there were three in our family, three brothers, and one sister. My sister is smarter than all of us. 

 

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

 

BIDEN: Not a joke, she used to be three years younger than me, now she's twenty-three years younger than me.  

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: Yeah, she managed every one of my campaigns for office, even back when I was in high school. We went to the same university two years apart, she graduated with honors, I graduated.

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: And we had a simple rule in the family: listen to Val. 

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: My sister Valerie's incredible, so guys, be nice to your sister, your gonna need her. You're gonna need her, I promise. It's the same lineup. (POINTS) You're the oldest? Who's number two? (KID RAISES HAND) Number two? Who's number three? (KID RAISES HAND). You're twins, are you guys twins? (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Okay, alright, this is how it was in our outfit. Well, I'm so glad to see you all, thanks for coming with mom, okay? Gotta take care of your mom. Dad's are much harder to raise, but you know...

AUDIENCE: Laughter.

BIDEN: Before I begin to speak, the reason I spent a little time with the kids, I just wanted to speak very briefly about the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee...

Yes, two minutes and twenty seconds into his Comedy Store audition, he finally wants to speak very briefly about the school shooting. What a leader. And no, I don't care what was already scheduled, if you're the president, you don't joke around when something terrible has happened. I just don't know how someone can yuck it up when they're about to discuss something so awful. I came down here because chocolate chip ice cream. Jesus Christ.

Also, notice they turned off comments on the Biden video? Guessing I wasn't the only person appalled and offended by the jokester approach to a national tragedy.

We deserve better.

In a nutshell

Present day journalism summed up in one simple little illustration:

Via thenewcounterculture on IG.

February Words of Wisdom

Orson Welles lists Citizen Kane as his best film, Alfred Hitchcock opts for Shadow of a Doubt, and Sir Carol Reed chose The Third Man - and I'm in all of them. --Joseph Cotten

 

Trust your wings. --Saul Kissing 

 

Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy. --Mary Berry

Of course, she must be sleeping, sleeping deeply, wrapped in the darkness of that strange little world of hers. --Haruki Murakami

Write the best story you can and write it as straight as you can. --Ernest Hemingway

 

The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for. --Oscar Wilde

 

When you're clear about your purpose and your priorities, you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, whether it's clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. --Victoria Moran 

Being pure in heart may mean breaking some habits and peeling off our masks. --Chuck Swindoll

 

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself. --Thomas Edison

Sometimes it is the quiet observer who sees the most. -Kathryn L. Nelson

 

We are our choices. --Jean Paul Sartre

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; truth isn't. --Mark Twain

 

He who dares not offend cannot be honest. --Thomas Paine

 

Karma comes after everyone eventually. You can't get away with screwing people over your whole life, I don't care who you are. What goes around comes around. That's how it works. Sooner or later the universe will serve you the revenge that you deserve. --Jessica Brody

January Words of Wisdom

Quite the range this month. --Me 

I'll read my books and I'll drink coffee and I'll listen to music, and I'll bolt the door. --J.D. Salinger

Some people don't understand that sitting in your own house alone in peace, eating snacks and minding your business is priceless. --Tom Hardy

 

Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist. --Pablo Picasso

 

Beauty is quietly woven through our ordinary days. Everywhere there is tenderness, care, and kindness there is beauty. --John O'Donohue

Nobody can tell you if what you're doing is good, meaningful, or worthwhile. The more compelling the path, the more lonely it is. --Hugh MacLeod

 

I do my best thinking at night when everyone else is sleeping. No interruptions. No noise. I like the feeling of being awake when no one else is. --Jennifer Niven

 

Life without a design is erratic. --Seneca

 

In Greek tragedy, they fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb. --Dennis Lahane

 

Don't be upset by the result you didn't get by the work you didn't do. --Unknown

 

Procrastination is like a credit card. It's a lot of fun until you get the bill. --Christopher Parker

 

You become what you give your attention to...If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest. --Epictetus

I think it's very important that you make your own decision about what you are. Therefore, you're responsible for your actions, so you don't blame other people. --William, Prince of Wales

Jealousy is the tribute mediocrity pays to genius. --Fulton J. Sheen

Toxic people project their own character defects onto their victims. They do this by accusing the victim of the exact actions they themselves do but deny. --Shannon Thomas

 

 

 

The gift that keeps on taking

The stock market is plummeting, grocery prices are skyrocketing, 401k's are getting murdered and gas prices are still way high. I made two trips to the gas station in November and spent over $140 ($142.46 to be exact). This to put gas in a car that used to be filled from near-empty for around $50. 

Merry Christmas?

Moral Priorities of the Rich and Famous

These days most people have twigged to the fact that The Babylon Bee is a parody site, but that hasn't slowed them down. 

 

 

Because that would do it. According to our elites, conservatism bad, child porn references A-OK! I wonder if any stores have indignantly decided to stop carrying Balenciaga yet. Probably not.

It took Kim Kardashian, who has a deal with Balenciaga, days to even make a statement expressing concern. Not run from them screaming while cutting all ties, but just express concern. It made me wonder why she didn't just blow them off if for no other reason than public perception, seeing as she has made millions if not billions from a freaking piss tape! She can't possibly need the money. On the other hand, I think I just answered my own question. If getting famous for being urinated on and then the world seeing footage of it doesn't make you hide from said world out of extreme unbearable shame, then this photo shoot probably doesn't bother you...even though you have freaking children of your own!

 

Whether you buy into the child porn imagery, there's the fact that there's nothing really appealing about these photos, but someone still thought this was the best way to promote their product. They were perfectly happy to go with that until people started complaining.

Balenciaga had just survived a small scandal involving another controversial ad campaign that featured children alongside bondage materials, but the MyPillow scandal is threatening to sink the fashion company once and for all.

"Child abuse is one thing," said progressive activist Asher Carroll. "But being open to conservative viewpoints and buying a pillow from someone who supports the January 6 rioters, that is truly unforgivable."

Gotta love The Babylon Bee.

God rest her soul

"Those who serve will be loved and remembered when those who cling to power and privileges are long forgotten."

Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

 

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been laid to rest at Windsor Castle with her beloved husband Prince Philip, and along with the rest of her family: her parents King George and Queen Elizabeth (The Queen Mum) and her sister Princess Margaret.

The BBC's closing monologue to their coverage of the Queen's funeral (and also their non-stop coverage since having to announce her death on September 8) delivered beautifully by Kirsty Young:

What a momentous day it's been, from the might of the military parades and the splendor of Westminster Abbey, to that hushed intimacy of St. George's Chapel in Windsor. It's often felt in recent days that a veil of sorrow has covered the nation, but the Queen's funeral has surely exemplified her reign. She unified us in one final act of togetherness, unifying the United Kingdom and indeed the world beyond in respect, ceremony, and significance.

As a very young woman she famously said her whole life, whether it be long or short, would be devoted to our service; well, never was a person truer to their word and today we have come together, many of us with tears in our eyes, but all of us with an abiding warmth in our hearts for all that she gave.

Just over three months ago the world - and a certain little bear - said, "Thank you for everything," and the Queen looked as though she thoroughly enjoyed the occasion. We will surely be ever grateful to have had that final opportunity to celebrate with Her Majesty her remarkable long reign. If, as she once said, "Grief is the price we pay for love," then the weight of our collective sorrow is testament to the depth of affection in which she is held.  

She made history, she was history. Queen Elizabeth II is gone, but she will surely never be forgotten.

You can watch it on this thread on Twitter.

 

 

Flights of Angels

The BBC has had a live feed of the Queen's Lying-in-State since Thursday, after her family accompanied her coffin to Westminster Hall and the public, which had been queuing up for miles, was finally let in to pay their respects. And I've been watching it obsessively ever since. Witnessing the mass of British subjects, many of whom had been in line for ten hours or more, pay their respects to the only monarch most of them had ever known, was a riveting, moving, and addicting viewing experience. I'm going to miss them when the lying-in-state ends and the feed goes dark.

To the British people, thank you for sharing this amazing part of your tradition during what must have been a devastating time for you. I'm going to miss seeing you all.

Note: All images are screenshots taken from the BBC's Live Feed.

Updated 8:12pm (PDT) - The lines are thinning out:

Updated 10:35pm (PDT) - It's over.

 

The final mourner.

 

Rest in peace, Your Majesty.

Truly the end of an era

RIP Queen Elizabeth II, who died peacefully Thursday at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. She was the longest serving monarch in British history, and the second-longest in the history of the world (only a French king served longer and she was only a couple years behind him).

 

One of the saddest sights (of many) of the COVID era was the sight of her sitting alone at the funeral of her beloved husband Prince Philip. I wished someone could have just gone over and sat down next to her so she didn't have to go through that alone. I hope they are now spending a glorious eternity together.

This double-rainbow appeared over Buckingham Palace just before the Queen's death was officially announced.

At the age of 21 the then-Princess Elizabeth made this pledge to her people:

“I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong. But I shall not have the strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.”

 

She was a woman of her word - just two days before her passing, she cheerfully and graciously received the new Prime Minister.

God knows the woman has earned her eternal rest, but the world is a poorer place without her.

 

 

 

 

More words of wisdom from a very wise and eloquent woman:

 

"Each day is a new beginning, I know that the only way to live my life is to try to do what is right, to take the long view, to give of my best in all that the day brings, and to put my trust in God."

 

On her husband, Prince Philip: "He is someone who doesn't take easily to compliments. But he has quite simply been my strength and stay all these years. And I, and his whole family, and this and many other countries, owe him a debt greater than he would ever claim, or we shall ever know.

 

"I pray God will never let me know the last time I ride a horse."

 

 

If you like, you can leave a message of condolence at the Royal Family's official website.

 

 

 

That's Her Majesty Queen Badass to you.

Images snicked from the internets. Let me know if any are yours so I can give credit where credit is due.