As Heaven Is Wide - Garbage

Today's song of the day is "As Heaven is Wide" by Garbage

Every Breath You Take - The Police

Today's song of the day is "Every Breath You Take" by The Police

When Did Your Heart Go Missing? - Rooney

Today's song of the day is "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?" by Rooney.

You're One of Them Aren't You? - The Paper Chase

Today's song of the day is "You're One of Them Aren't You?" by The Paper Chase

Out of Reach - Bananagun

Today's song of the day is "Out of Reach" by Bananagun. Groovy!

Like Gold - Vance Joy

Today's song of the day is "Like Gold" by Vance Joy.

For Once In My Life - Stevie Wonder

Today's song of the day is "For Once in My Life" by Stevie Wonder.

From God's Perspective - Bo Burnham

Today's song of the day is "From God's Perspective" by Bo Burnham.

Pork And Beans - Weezer

And the bonus song of the day is "Pork and Beans" by Weezer.

                                              Meme-alicious!

Perfect Stranger - Patti Rothberg

Today is January 21st, 2021, and the song of the day is "Perfect Stranger" by Patti Rothberg.

Aberdeen - Cage the Elephant

Today's song of the day is "Aberdeen" by Cage the Elephant.

City of Delusion - Muse

Today's song of the day is "City of Delusion" by Muse.

Don't Stop Me Now - Queen

Today's song of the day is "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

Bad Religion - Struck A Nerve

Today's song of the day is "Struck a Nerve" by Bad Religion.

The Best - Tina Turner

Today's song of the day is "The Best" by Tina Turner.

 

Tina Turner + Horse + Sax solo = The Best.

When Smokey Sings - ABC

Today's song of the day is "When Smokey Sings" by ABC

Upside Down - Jack Johnson

Today's song of the day is "Upside Down" by Jack Johnson.

6th Avenue Heartache - The Wallflowers

Burn It Down - AWOLNATION

Today's song of the day is "Burn It Down" by AWOLNATION

Send Me An Angel - Real Life

Today's song of the day is "Send Me an Angel" by Real Life

Escapade - Janet Jackson

Today's song of the day is "Escapade" by Janet Jackson.

California - Phantom Planet

Today's song of the day is "California" by Phantom Planet.

Elvis is Everywhere - Mojo Nixon

Today's song of the day is "Elvis is Everywhere" by Mojo Nixon.

The Guillotine - The Coup

Today's song of the day is "The Guillotine" by The Coup.

I Love It - Icona Pop (feat. Charli XCX)

Today's song of the day is "I Love It" by Icona Pop.

The Beast and Dragon, Adored - Spoon

Today's song of the day is "The Beast and Dragon, Adored" by Spoon.

Guarded by Monkeys - Cracker

Sour Girl - Stone Temple Pilots

Today's song of the day is "Sour Girl" by Stone Temple Pilots.

Tempted - Squeeze

Today's song of the day is "Tempted" by Squeeze.

2021 in a nutshell

Today isn't over yet, but it's had a lot of good things so far.

I weighed myself (162.)

Played Ring Fit (and nearly died as a result. Holy moly, I am *so* out of shape)

Bought John Mull's Road Kill Grill for lunch (and most likely dinner, too. Very large servings, yo.)

Destroyed the gingerbread house with Silas. (Video is up in YouTube)

Started my week 1 book for the across the year challenge.

Had a very short nap. (Any nap is a good nap)

Played some Super Mario 35 (managed to get 5 out of 35. My best ranking yet...)

I haven't started writing this months short story yet, but I do finally have an idea for it, so I'll focus on that tomorrow, I think.

All in all, today's been the best day of the year.

1921 - The Who

Happy New Year, everyone! Today's song of the day is "1921" by The Who.

Books read in 2020

 This was the second year I've done the "Across the Year" challenge that is offered up at Goodreads.com. And this time around, I completed it! Woo hoo!

I still jumped around for some of the weeks, especially later in the year, but doesn't matter. I did it. 

As always, after my thoughts on the book, I put the book's final sentence in parenthesis. I spoiler tag the sentence, except for the final word. And if the last sentence of the book *is* just a single word, then that will be completely spoiler-tagged. 

All right, let's get to it...

Movies seen in 2020

 It's that time of the year again. 

Here are all the films I watched over the past 365 million days.

I ended up seeing just shy of 100 movies, so, it's - as usual - a bit of a lengthy post. Also, there may be the occasional spoiler here or there, so, you know, be warned if that sort of thing bothers you. (Although I think for the most part I keep my thoughts about movies spoiler-free.) 

So, with that out of the way...

Impossible Year - Panic! At The Disco

The song of the day for the final day of 2020 is "Impossible Year" by Panic! At the Disco.

This Year - The Mountain Goats

Today's song of the day is "This Year" by The Mountain Goats.

Bomb. Repeat. Bomb. - Ted Leo & The Pharmacists

Today's song of the day is "Bomb. Repeat. Bomb." by Ted Leo & The Pharmacists.

You say you wanna resolution

 (I'm a wee bit UTP@, so apologies if this is rambly or incoherent or only funny to me. Although none of those things would be any different, really, than any other time I'm blogging, so I don't know what I'm doing other than stalling the inevitable getting on with the post...)

So. Yeah. Resolutions or Goals or Gimmicks or Plans or Here's What I'm Gonna Attempts. Whatever you want to call them, I've got some for the upcoming year.

Figured I'd share.

Let's get to it...

If I Can't Change Your Mind - Sugar

Today's song of the day is "If I Can't Change Your Mind" by Sugar.

American graffiti

When I'm out and about now, if I come across interesting/funny/unique graffiti, and I remember to, I'll snap a picture of it to share with ya'll.

Here are some to get us started:

Some sort of animal horse thing. I dunno, it's cute.

"Be Happy" and "Be a decent human being". Yes. Words to live by.

And sometimes simplicity is best. This one just sums up the year.

Hand Me Down World - The Guess Who

Today's song of the day is "Hand Me Down World" by The Guess Who.

I Burned The Bed - Marcy Playground

Today's song of the day is "I Burned the Bed" by Marcy Playground.

and so this is Christmas

Hasn't been a great one, that's for sure. Fuck 2020, man. Just fuck it to hell and back.

Hope everyone is having as good a day as possible, what with... well. Everything.

And, truly, from the bottom of my heart:

Merry Humbug!

and

God damn us, everyone!!

Rebirth Of Slick (Cool Like Dat) - Digable Planets

Today's song of the day is "Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)" by Digable Planets.

I Try - Macy Gray

Today's song of the day is "I Try" by Macy Gray.

Sugar Free Jazz - Soul Coughing

Today's song of the day is "Sugar Free Jazz" by Soul Coughing.

Play That Funky Music - Wild Cherry

Today's song of the day is "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry.

A Long December - Counting Crows

Happy Winter Solstice! Today's song of the day is "A Long December" by Counting Crows.

Jealous - Gene Loves Jezebel

Today's song of the day is "Jealous" by Gene Loves Jezebel.

Hands - Jewel

Today's song of the day is "Hands" by Jewel.

Get Down, Make Love - Nine Inch Nails

Today's song of the day is "Get Down, Make Love" by Nine Inch Nails.

(Don't Fear) The Reaper - Blue Oyster Cult

Today's song of the day is "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult

.

Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Today's song of the day is "Maps" by Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

That's Not My Name - The Ting Tings

Today's song of the day is "That's Not My Name" by The Ting Tings.

Li'l Red Riding Hood - Sam The Sham & The Pharaohs -

Today's song of the day is "Li'l Red Riding Hood" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight - Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart

Today's song of the day is "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

Hey I Don't Know - KONGOS

Today's song of the day is "Hey I Don't Know" by KONGOS.

Song Sung Blue - Neil Diamond

Today's song of the day is "Song Sung Blue" by Neil Diamond.

Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground -The White Stripes

Today's song of the day is "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" by The White Stripes

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Elton John

Today's song of the day is "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" by Elton John.

Lemon Tree - Fools Garden

Today's song of the day is "Lemon Tree" by Fools Garden.

Supersonic - J.J. Fad

Today's song of the day is "Supersonic" by J.J. Fad.

Fly Me To The Moon - Frank Sinatra

Today's song of the day is "Fly Me to the Moon" by Frank Sinatra.

Joy To The World - Three Dog Night

Today's song of the day is "Joy to the World" by Three Dog Night

Unstoppable - Foxy Shazam

Today's song of the day is "Unstoppable" by Foxy Shazam.

5 Years Time - Noah and the Whale

Today's song of the day is "5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale.

Reboot ideas for 2020

Reboots are all the rage, right? 

And bashing on 2020 is still a thing, right?

I figure... why not combine the two. Here are my pitches for some shows to reboot, but with a 2020-style twist to them.

The Scientist - Coldplay

Today's song of the day is "The Scientist" by Coldplay.

December - Collective Soul (Official Video)

Today's song of the day is, fittingly enough, "December" by Collective Soul.

Firestarter - The Prodigy

Today's song of the day is "Firestarter" by The Prodigy.

The Rose - Bette Midler

Today's song of the day is "The Rose" by Bette Midler.

Written In The Water - Gin Wigmore

Today's song of the day is "Written in the Water" by Gin Wigmore

Physical - Olivia Newton-John

Today's song of the day is "Physcial" by Olivia Newton-John.

Raise Hell - Dorothy

Today's song of the day is "Raise Hell" by Dorothy. Happy Thanksgiving!

Slow - Grouplove

Today's song is "Slow" by Grouplove.

Big Time - Peter Gabriel

Hi there! Today's video of the day is "Big Time" by Peter Gabriel.

Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of - U2

Today's song of the day is "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" by U2

The Day John Kennedy Died - Lou Reed

Song of the day for November 22nd, 2020 is "The Day John Kennedy Died" by Lou Reed.

A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free - Elliott Smith

Today's song of the day - "A Distorted Reality Is Now a Necessity to Be Free" by Elliott Smith.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want - The Rolling Stones

Today's song of the day: "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by The Rolling Stones.

Heavydirtysoul - Twenty One Pilots

Today's song of the day is "Heavydirtysoul" by Twenty One Pilots.

Fun - Sir Sly

Today's song of the day is "Fun" by Sir Sly.

The Love Song - Marilyn Manson

Today's song of the day is "The Love Song" by Marilyn Manson.

 

Modern Way - Kaiser Chiefs

The song of the day for today is "Modern Way" by Kaiser Chiefs. 

Daft Punk Is Playing at My House - LCD Soundsystem

The song of the day today is "Daft Punk is Playing at My House" by LCD Soundsystem:

Give A Little Bit - Supertramp

Today's song of the day: "Give a Little Bit" by Supertramp.

Quarantine - Bonaparte

Going to start posting a random song of the day. 

Sometimes it'll be a song you've heard plenty of times before, sometimes it will be something you've not heard in a long time, sometimes it might be something you've never heard of. 

Some songs may have some significance on the day I post it (like today's) , but most often it will simply be a randomly picked song that I feel like sharing.

Today's song is "Quarantine" by Bonaparte. (Today happens to be exactly 8 months since I started working from home)

 

Enjoy!

Trump Loses!

 It was WAY too close for comfort, but ultimately, he was defeated. 

Buckle in kids, this is gonna be a long post explaining all the work that went into taking down the Orange Menace.

and the vision planted in my brain

 if it had been up to me, when the crowd started booing during what was supposed to have been a moment of silence, I would have reset the clock. 

Each time.

Until they shut the hell up for the minimum amount of time required to pay some freaking respect.  I wouldn't have thought 20 seconds would be too much to ask, but, I guess this is America.

And, yeah, having them actually *be* silent for the moment of silence wouldn't have changed their viewpoint at all - they'd still be ignorant dbags, of course - but it would have made me feel better.

It would be an interesting experiment if nothing else. To see how long they'd go on voicing their oh so important opinions about their displeasure of.. common decency? Sigh. 

I don't know. I'm just tired of people being fuckwads. (Which pretty much sums up 2020.)

just testing

 Do I remember how to do this? Sort of, sure. Real blog post coming...soon? Maybe? Who knows!

or give me death

I think we can all agree that Liberty Mutual has the dumbest jingle in the history of jingles.

(It's catchy though, gotta give them that.)

We can all use some good news for a change.

Fortunately, I have a piece of really EXCELLENT news!

A new Paper Mario game comes out on July 17th!

look before you

Kinda crazy that we've got another Leap Day upon us tomorrow. And that means it  was EIGHT years ago that we were in the accident with the dude that backed his truck into our van (because he missed his turn, and throwing your truck into reverse while on a busy road makes TOTAL SENSE. Sigh.)

I was thinking that it would be kind of neat if we didn't have Leap Days, just to see how long it would take for the seasons to be out of "alignment" with the calendar. (I mean, eventually they would line up again, right? So... really, what's the big deal? And, if Christmas happened to fall in the middle of 130 degree weather... would that really be such a bad thing?) Oh well.

and I approve this message

Thoughts on the barrage of political ads. Based solely on how inept they've been and/or how much of a headache they've caused me at work.

not really (but kinda?)

It feels like it's been January all year long.

I of course, had to get my obligatory saying of that out of the way, but, honestly, January has sort of flown by this time around, rather than dragging it's feet.
February is going to zip by, too, I guarantee it, even with it's extra day.
Time is all sorts of jacked up lately, is my point. And I don't see it getting straightened out anytime (heh) soon.

the 2020 reading challenge

As stated a few posts ago (last year, ha ha), I'm partaking in the Goodreads Across The Year challenge this year, in order to help me read a wider variety of books.

Here's the prompt list:

Movies seen in 2019

And now it's time for the movie part. Ah, traditions.

Books read in 2019

Well.
Here it is, the end (almost!) of the year, and that means it's time for me to transfer over my Google Docs that were keeping track of my media consumption over the course of the past 365 days.
This year I joined a group on Goodreads.com - the Across The Year Challenge board/group...thing. They post 52 book challenges - so that you have a themed book to read for each 52 weeks of the year. I ended up completing all but 14 of the weeks (I skipped around a bit, starting around week 12 or so). But I still ended up reading more than 52 books, so win-win. Also, I had the additional element of making sure that each of the books I chose for the challenge were female authors.
It was a fun challenge, and it certainly got me to pick up a lot of books I wouldn't have otherwise, so I'll try it again in 2020.

That being said...here's the book list from good ol' 19:

88 lines about my 44th birthday

Woke up early, plain to see, I was no longer 43

Yeah, not gonna rhyme this whole thing, despite *really* wanting to. I just don't have the creative juices right now. If I had conceived of the idea like a week ago, to give myself some time to come up with stuff, maybe. But, eh. This is the timeline we're stuck in. Whatchya gonna do?

So, yeah. Birthday.

I woke up at like 4, because I'm old, and because I'm relatively unhealthy, and because my sleep patterns are all jacked up. (On the bright side, it's almost been a month since I checked my work email at home! Having given up that habit has been a VAST improvement for my mental well being. So, see, things CAN get better!)

Anyway. Woke up around 4, and tried to get back to sleep for another hour. Finally got up and made my way into the day's routine.

I put on some of Rhett's beard oil - I dont really know that it does anything for my beard, but I do like the smell. And I went to work.

Work was actually ...good today! Fridays are historically extremely busy and stressful. But today was... not so much. I was able to leave the office to go to lunch (!!) AND took time out of my day to be sung to by everyone (in addition to me, another coworker has his birthday today, and another one had his yesterday, so a huge cake was bought for the 3 of us, and a gaggle of coworkers crooned Happy Birthday to us). And I recieved cupcakes, and Mtn Dew. Oh, and a gift card to Olive Garden.

I got texts wishing me happy birthday from 4 different people, and the weather was not unbearably hot out when I left work. (There was even a 25% chance of thunderstorms this afternoon/evening, but, as per usual, that's fizzled out)

When I got home, I received cards and hugs from the younger kids, and Steph showed me that I've got tickets to go see Rhett & Link next Friday. Hooray!!

I fed the turtlepeep, and made my 315th OWN episode, and had chicken fajitas for dinner and will probably watch some season 3 Survivor in about ten minutes. All in all, not a bad birthday.

(I didn't count, and I know it totally isn't, but wouldn't it be awesome/hilarious/weird if this really IS 88 lines??)

hey 19

I wonder if I'll ever NOT marvel at how quickly time goes by. I find it hard to believe that we're already (almost) three months into this year.

I also wonder if my creative side is ever going to re-emerge. It certainly seems to have gone pretty deep into hibernation.

Doing a reading challenge this year - it's on Goodreads, part of the "Across The Year" challenge, where 52 different themes are provided - a different theme for each week of the year. On top of that, I've given myself the additional challenge of having each author be female. While I haven't found anything that has totally wowed me yet, I *am* reading books I most likely wouldn't have stumbled upon had I not been doing the challenge to begin with.

I've found that I've watched a lot fewer movies so far this year. Probably because so much of my freetime has been taken up with novel-reading. (Also because finding movies I want to watch seems to be increasingly difficult, even as the choices out there multiply exponentially. SO MUCH STREAMING out there. And yet, I think I've seen maybe 5 movies so far this year. And none of them super-awesome. Year's still young, though, so we'll see.

It snowed here a few days ago, and there is actually more snow forecasted for this week. The snow that we had didn't stick for very long (other parts of the city got like an inch or two, based on all their social media gloating) but, it was kind of neat to get any of the white stuff at all. I could do without the extended cold snap that is accompanying it, but I'll take 30s and 40s over 120s any day, so I'm not complaining.

That's gonna do it for this particular entry. I didn't have anything specific I wanted to say, just to blog and give a brief update, I guess, and now that that's done...

2018 movies

And it's also THAT time of the year, when I post a recap of all the movies I've watched over the past 365 days.
71 this year, which is about normal.  Enjoy!




Movies seen in 2018:

1. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – it’s a good thing Ron’s wand broke, eh? Also, Voldemort has a habit of using people against their wills. Interesting. Also also, for a giant creature that can kill people simply by looking at them, the basilisk is pretty crap at killing people.

2. Wonder Woman - cool.

3. Jeepers Creepers 3 – this was pretty dumb. Not that the first two were masterpieces or anything, but this just felt amateurish and stupid.

4. 77 Minutes – a documentary about a mass shooting that took place in 1984 in San Ysidor, California. This focused on the victims and aftermath, the filmmaker didn’t name the shooter and really went in depth on how this tragedy affected those who had to go through the ordeal. The actual crime scene video was really rough to watch. This was the worst mass shooting at the time, it’s now ranked the 7th. (The film is only two years old, and it had a slate that read that it was the 5th. I’m writing this pretty early in 2018, I sadly wouldn’t be surprised if it gets moved down again by the time I post it at year’s end.)

5. Star Wars episode IV A New Hope – charming.

6. Star Wars episode V The Empire Strikes Back – Trickster Yoda is still one of the best things about this series.

7. Star Wars episode VI Return of the Jedi – “From a certain point of view” MWAHAHAHA oh, Ben, you lying bastard.

8. Star Wars episode VIII The Last Jedi – awesome, if a little bit long. Absolutely a great passing of the torch. Bring on episode 9!

9. Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark – this…hasn’t aged all that well, sadly. I know it’s meant to be a mindless actiony fun movie, and there are bits of it that still work, but the whole thing looked a lot like the Jungle Cruise from Disneyland. Even the bits that were ‘cool’ when I watched as a young’un were …less so now. The boulder scene, the shooting of the sword fighter, the iconic shot at the end …all seemed …larger than life back in the day. This viewing had a lot of the tarnish rubbed off. Even the music, as great as it is, felt subdued somehow. As averse as I am to remakes, perhaps this series needs one.

10. Kingsmen The Golden Circle – slightly more over the top than the original, slightly less entertaining overall (but just slightly). It felt a little bit bloated, like they had to squeeze EVERYTHING in. Still fun

11. Despicable Me 3 – for the most part completely mediocre and forgettable. There was a bit that pissed me off, though. The mom (I forget the character’s name now; Judy, maybe?) forcing the girl (Margo?) to have a date with the boy. Totally totally uncool. Margo repeatedly said she wasn’t interested, and didn’t want to have anything to do with the French kid, and she FORCES her to go and “bite his cheese”?!? What the hell?? Sorely disappointed that was a) written and b) left in.

12. Happy Death Day – Tree, a rather unlikable young woman in college, wakes up hungover on her birthday, and ends the day getting murdered by a stranger in a mask. After her murder, she wakes up hungover on her birthday, and ends the day getting murdered by a stranger in a mask. … this was mildly entertaining, but felt like it could have (and should have) been so much better than it turned out. I blame the PG13 rating, honestly. But, I’ve got a soft spot for “loop” movies, so I'm glad I watched this.

13. Jigsaw – a semi-reboot of the Saw series, it was far better than Saw 7 (although, admittedly, that’s a low bar to clear), but, really, the amount of planning and coincidence-ing these people pull off is unfreaking believable.

14. It – a new adaptation of Stephen King’s epic novel. Just like the novel, the movie felt like things could have been cut or trimmed somewhat. But, just like the novel, overall it was rather impressive. The life in Derry was in many ways, more terrifying than Pennywise (which is intentional, I’m sure). I’m curious how the adult story will play out, especially since they’ve updated the timeline from 50s/80s to 80s/2010s.

15. Sing – the music clearance budget must have been huge for this, as they played about 840 different songs from the 60s on up, and visually, the animation was wonderful (although that’s to be expected in this day and age). I had a big problem with a lot of the characters, though. Buster, Mike, Ash’s boyfriend, Meena’s grandfather, Johnathan’s dad, and Rosita’s husband were all problematic in their own ways. (Hmm. They’re also all men. In fact… I don’t know if there was a male main character that was worthwhile…)

16. Back to the Future – damn near perfect. There are some things that bug (why did George and Lorraine wait til their 3rd kid to use the name Marty? And why’d it take George 30 years to get his first novel published? And where’s the Marty that grew up in the new timeline? And the ‘joke’ that Marty invented rock n’ roll is problematic, as is the subtle (not so subtle??) sexism that Marty displays, but again, for the most part this is still a fantastic fun ride, and I’m happy to have watched it again, and also introduced it to my two youngest.

17. Never Let Me Go – sci fi drama about an alternative universe where humans are regularly cloned in order to be harvested for their organs. The story focuses on three of these cattle who were growing up. Their love story is rather blah; the world that its set in is intriguing, but was not really given enough spotlight, in my opinion.

18. The Cloverfield Paradox – “what are you talking about, arm!?!”

19. Gerald’s Game – nice adaptation of the Stephen King novel. This wasn’t one of my favorite novels of his, but I thought the movie version complimented it well, and actually made me appreciate it more. I may reread the book later, just to see how they compare. This movie was very well done, though, with Jessie (Carla Gugino) being amazingly impressive.

20. The Girl With All the Gifts – this book was amazing. The movie was too. The actress playing Melanie was phenomenal. There were some things that I think I would have been unclear on if I hadn’t read the book, but that’s just further proof that everyone should read the book. This is a zombie movie for people who don’t really love zombie movies. And also for people who do.

21. Sleepwalkers – a rewatch of the Stephen King flick from the early 90s that is, for better or worse, pretty damn cheesy at points. There are some things that are great (Clovis steals the show, somehow, and the fact that Tanya’s parents are Ferris Bueller’s parents just makes me smile for some reason) but the constant one-liners after every death, and just the overall cheesiness don’t allow for this to get into greatness.

22. Eraserhead – so….that happened.

23. My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea – independent animated film about, well, a high school that begins sinking into the ocean, and the students’ inside struggle to survive. Sort of cute, had a few chuckles, and it was pretty brief. It was okay, but not ultimately anything worth recommending.

24. Thor: Ragnarok – A lot of fun. Not all the jokes landed, but there were a lot of real laugh out loud moments. And the battle scenes were pretty great, too. Great addition to the Marvel Universe.

25. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle – I’ve never seen the original Jumanji, but I don’t think I needed to in order to enjoy this. There were problems with this (the “teaching Ruby how to be sexy” scene went on WAY too long, and probably wasn’t necessary to begin with, for example), but overall this was much better than I thought it would be and was mostly a lot of fun.

26. I, Tonya – holy crap, that was a lot of abuse. And, jesus. Her whole life, she’s just been shit on and had bad hand after bad hand after bad hand dealt to her. I mean, she made it to the freaking OLYMPICS, and then, because of her crappy husband’s bad decision… boom. Taken from her. I mean, yeah, who knows how accurate the movie actually was, but the fact remains that those sorts of relationships/abuse happen everyday, and it’s just heartbreaking. On a much happier note, the budget for the music rights for this film must have been extravagant. They played like EVERY song from the 70s and 80s ever made. And this film, while very dark, was also filled with a lot of humor. And the acting. Oh, man. Margot Robbie (Tonya) and Allison Janey (Tonya’s mother, LaVona) were freaking TOP NOTCH. Outstanding job from both.

27. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Not a fan of the new Dumbledore. Snape was underutilized (it’s been a while since I’ve read the books, was he sidelined there too?). Harry and Hermione are growing as actors. Ron’s got awesome comedic timing. Cedric’s death (and in particular, “That’s my boy!”) always gets me.

28. Mom and Dad – Selma Blair and Nicolas Cage are the titular Mom and Dad – just an average suburbuan American family with a teenage daughter and preteen son. An unexplained …event takes place that causes parents to want to violently murder their children. …and that set up is pretty much all there is to the movie. Nobody grows or changes or learns anything. There is no explanation or ending or point to this. Sigh.

29. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – it was like a writing exercise in conflict, each scene had characters interacting with one another that were in conflict. The acting was okay, and the writing was… okay (there were one or two moments that actually make made laugh) but man, this was bleak. There is no redemption, nobody learns the lesson they should learn. It’s just a lot of loss and pain and grief and anger. So, good times.

30. Justice League – it was as though they had a checklist of things that Avengers had done and they were trying to mimic them (without looking like they were copying them outright). Introduce lots of new characters? Check. CGI generic super villain wants to destroy things? Check. “Witty” banter? Check…ish. (99% of it fell flat, honestly. I think I laughed at maybe two of the ‘jokes’ that were delivered – Aquaman sitting on the lasso, and Flash’s “show our bellies” line – everything else was trying WAY too hard to be funny). Wonder Woman/Gal Gadot is still amazing, and I do like Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, but overall the DCU is just… not good?

31. Back to the Future II – when I was young, this was absolutely my favorite out of the trilogy. I thought that the future, the alternate 1985, and the re-visit to 1955/the original movie were all super amazing and really well done. Rewatching it… it’s still very fun, but, man, there was a lot of exposition that was super clunky, the gimmick of having Michael J Fox play his kids was just… dumb. I mean, his son, sure. But why his daughter as well? Just to put him in drag? And there were several ‘male gaze’ problems that were super evident (flew over my head as a kid, but they stuck out like sore thumbs now.)

32. Cell – a lowish quality adaptation of a lowish quality Stephen King book. (Cell wasn’t a bad novel, but it was really just The Stand-Lite, and the ambiguous ending felt …I don’t know. Cheap, somehow. – the movie changes that somewhat, actually, which I have to give props for. I may not have liked the ending of the movie, but it takes guts to actually go the route they did) And this movie wasn’t bad, exactly, either, but it felt like a lot of corners were cut? Like the effects in a lot of instances were not stellar, and some of the writing felt like… if I hadn’t read the novel, I might not be following this as closely as I was. [shrug] I dunno. It was …there. Nothing superb, I’ll probably forget about it in a week or so.

33. Black Panther – Damn it. Superhero movies aren’t supposed to make you THINK. (Kidding! More of this type of stuff, please.)

34. The Commuter – bland thriller with Liam Neeson on a train with a conspiracy unfolding.

35. Kidnap – true fact – if you remove all the times Halle Berry says, “Oh god”, “Frankie”, or “My son” and all the overhead shots of her SUV… the runtime of this movie becomes just under 7 minutes.

36. The Hitman’s Bodyguard – Ryan Reynolds plays a bodyguard (triple A rating!) and Samuel L. Jackson plays the hitman. Reynolds needs to get Jackson to a court to testify against a dictator (Gary Oldman, hamming it up like a boss). It’s extremely violent, extremely nonsensical and extremely funny. Very good popcorn flick that worked pretty much due to the chemistry between Reynolds and Jackson.

37. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – this might be the worst movie in the series. Umbridge, Fred & George, and Luna are all great, and the duel between Voldemort & Dumbledore was epic, but otherwise this was just a really …not great movie.

38. My Friend Dahmer – this was good and creepy and sad. A glimpse into notorious serial killer Jeffery Dahmer’s high school years, and the group of friends he hung with. The film does a good job of humanizing Dahmer, and making you feel sympathy and regret at the life he has, while also having an increasing sense of dread and doom (since we know how he’s going to turn out).

39. Slaughterhouse-Five – the novel is SO much better than this. Partly due to the fact that this was a movie made in the 70s, and it absolutely looks like a 70s movie. But, actually, considering that, it was not horrible. But honestly I would not be unopposed to a remake of this.

40. Incredibles 2 – very enjoyable. I’m normally opposed to Pixar doing sequels (they just don’t feel necessary, for the most part, and recapturing the magic usually doesn’t quite work), but this was a good ‘un. And I’d even be down for an Incredibles 3, if they wanted to expand the universe one more time.

41. Death Wish – 2018 remake of the 1974 revenge flick. I’ve never seen the original Death Wish (or any of the 4 (!!!) sequels), although I think I’ve seen bits of them before. Anyway, this was… okay? Bruce Willis is a doctor who is a pretty good person. After his wife (Elisabeth Shue) and college-aged daughter are attacked in a burglary, and the cops don’t produce any results, he starts to go vigilante. Hank from Breaking Bad is the main detective here. And Vincent D’Onofrio is here as Bruce Willis’s brother-in-law …whom I kept thinking was involved in the crime somehow, even though he totally isn’t. That was really distracting. Anyway, not a great movie by any stretch, but I’ve certainly seen worse.

42. How It Ends – sigh. This was a Netflix original movie. It has Forrest Whittaker in it, who I enjoy, and the acting is fine. But, so so SO frustrating. An “event” happens, where power is lost on the west coast after a massive earthquake… the military starts taking control, but nobody knows what is going on (writers included). Anyway, main character Will is having dinner with his father in law, Tom. They have a …frosty relationship, to say the least. Then, the event happens, and Tom & Will decide to road trip from Chicago to Seattle to make sure that daughter/wife Sam is okay. Along the way they encounter thugs and hillbillies and military roadblocks (that are easily circumvented through asking politely, I guess) and lightning storms and weird compass spins… which are all mostly compelling enough, I guess, but there is NO PAY OFF. At the end of the almost 2 hours, you’re left going, “That’s it??” Such a waste of time. Easily in the running for worst movie I’ve seen this year.

43. Pacific Rim Uprising – giant monsters. Giant robots. They fight. (Interspersed with a smidge too much blah blahing, but what ya gonna do?)

44. Captain Fantastic – This was really good – up to a point. Viggo Mortensen plays a father of six, who is raising his kids in the Oregon wilderness with a regiment of extreme physical and intellectual education. His kids hunt and cook and kill all their own food (the movie opens with his oldest son killing a deer with a knife!) and they read Noam Chomsky and Lolita and play instruments and speak multiple languages. It’s highly impressive, and somewhat scary. After the kids’ mother commits suicide (we find out later on that she was mentally ill), he takes them into the city to attend the funeral, and clashes with his father-in-law, who wants his grandchildren to have a “normal” life. All of this was fabulous and dramatic and engrossing and well worth watching. …And then there was the denouement. It felt like the writers decided to throw the realism (such as it was) of the first 4/5ths of the movie out the window in order to have a “happy” ending, which, while nice, also felt sort of cheap and unearned. I don’t know that a downer ending would have been better, but I might have respected them more if they’d done so. Still, though, this was an amazing movie, and I’m very glad to have seen it.

45. You Were Never Really Here – pretentious crap. Joaquin Phoenix gives a pretty great performance, but the movie was just muddled and confusing and, ultimately, pointless (I simply didn’t care at the end whether certain people lived or died because I wasn’t given enough reason to care about them). Sad, because there were definitely blocks of potential that could have been a really great movie, if it had been laid out in a better fashion.

46. Detention – If someone put Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Scream, Freaky Friday, Donnie Darko, The Breakfast Club, Scott Pilgrim vs the World, and Saw into a blender, it would probably result in Detention. This was not particularly *funny* (which it was aiming for, I think. And there were a few chuckles here and there), but it was certainly bizarre, and I gotta give it credit for that.

47. The Room – oh, hi Mark! Yes, this is as horrible as everyone says it is. The acting. Or I should say the “acting”. The incomprehensible “storylines”. The horrid sex scenes (each with it’s own lite-jazz/soft rock/I don’t even know what background song). The dialog. Oh, dear freaking lord in heaven, the dialog. “I don’t want to talk about it.” “Oh, hi, [name]”. “YOU’RE TEARING ME APART LISA.” “Do you understand life?” … oh, this whole thing was like some horrible trainwreck of a movie. I didn’t want to keep watching, and yet…

48. Isle of Dogs – I …wanted to like this, and some of it made me laugh/chuckle, but ….mostly it was …off somehow.

49. A Quiet Place – sure, there are tons of things that don’t quite add up (WHY would you have a baby?? Why not live next to the river? Nobody discovered the weakness of the creatures before then?, etc. ) but, just turn that part of your brain off and enjoy this for what it is – a tense, unique little horror flick.

50. Okja – kind of tonally crazy; felt like a kid friendly family flick got mashed up with a very dark documentary on factory farming. Okja, a genetically designed ‘super pig’ goes to live with a little girl, Mija, and her grandfather, out in Korea. 10 years later, the corporation that created Okja comes a’callin’.

51. The Princess Bride – such a great movie.

52. Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond – Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton – so, I’ve never seen Man On the Moon – the biopic about Andy Kaufman that came out back in 1999, so this documentary on the making of that film felt a little bit …fuzzy? I don’t know. It was interesting, but also felt a little bit navel-gazey? It made me want to look more into the life of Andy Kaufman. It seems like Andy was an interesting/annoying person, and Jim Carrey is also an interesting/annoying person, and to find out that Jim went and BECAME Andy during his filming of the movie was kind of amazing. I think, maybe, what would have made the film better is if we had gotten more viewpoints. The filmmakers talk to Jim the entire time, and we get glimpses of what other people thought, but I think interviewing others would have helped it.

53. Hereditary – fuuuuuck. Holy crap, man. This one got to me bad. It’s one of those movies where after you’ve seen it, you want to watch it again, to see all the clues/hints that you missed the first time around, but there is NO WAY I want to watch it again, because it was so freaking disturbing/emotionally draining… Toni Collette is a force of nature. This movie mixed mental illness and supernatural horror beautifully. The beginning was a bit of a slow burn, but as it picks up steam, it just does not relent. Highly recommended, at least once.

54. Avengers Infinity War – Easily the best “Avengers” movie. That ending. I seriously thought it was going to be reversed – and I’m sure it WILL be – but then it just went to black and I sat there and said, “What??” But, yes, this movie was a great superhero movie – funny, action-filled, and had several crowning moments of awesome. I guess it will really depend on HOW things are resolved/fixed to help determine where this sits in the pantheon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe ultimately, but, as it stands now, it’s pretty high up there in my opinion.

55. Deadpool 2 – I think more of the jokes worked in this one than in the first – there were multiple times I laughed out loud. Domino needs her own standalone movie. Even if luck isn’t a superpower. (Yes, it is.)

56. Rampage – well, that was a movie. Based on the video game. Loosely.

57. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – the first good Jurassic Park sequel. Granted, the “turn off your brain” factor was cranked to 11, and it was like 45 minutes too long, but, hey, dinosaurs hunting and mauling people who mostly deserve it? Sounds good to me.

58. The First Purge – ridiculous, but marginally entertaining. Actually, this just left me feeling empty. Partly because it was a prequel, so, duh, we know how it’s gonna end up, and mostly because of real life trying its best to imitate ‘art’. (and because it felt like it was trying to imitate real life, but with no real…message? Like, it was just “hey remember that horrible thing that happened in real life three months back? Here’s a reference to that.”) Also, because it just wasn’t a very good movie.

59. Antibirth – This was garbage. I knew it was garbage about six or seven minutes in, and I still watched the whole thing. Sigh. Anyway, body-horror shlock about a junkie loser who gets impregnated with some…thing. The plot was crap, the directing was crap, the payoff was crap. I’m mostly angry with myself for wasting the time on it.

60. The Fly – rewatch. Still a classic. Although there’s no real conclusion. Poor Brundlefly meets his doom, and …fade to credits. Which brings us to…

61. The Fly II – also a rewatch, and still nowhere near as good as the original. AND this one doesn’t have a conclusion, either! Both of these movies left me wanting to see what happened AFTER. (The Fly way moreso than Fly II, of course.)

62. Starry Eyes – a lowish budget horror flick that doesn’t really bring anything new to the table, but it was not horrible. The strength is really in the performance of the lead, Alexandra Essoe. She’s Sarah Walker, an aspiring actress, who goes on an audition for a role in a horror movie that leads to, well, some not pleasant things.

63. Skyscraper – this was a generic popcorn flick, with the Rock trying to rescue his family from a Towering Inferno and trying not to Die Hard. It wasn’t great, but it certainly wasn’t memorable.

64. Eighth Grade – Bo Burnham’s directorial debut. Focused on Kayla’s last few weeks of being in eighth grade. It felt pretty realistic about what kids today have to go through, but also realistic in that a lot of what felt important and dramatic to a 13 year old is …actually kind of dull? Still, a really decent movie, and I hope that Bo keeps producing art, no matter what it is.

65. Ant-Man and the Wasp – the lower-stakes Marvel movies are oftentimes the best ones.

66. The Dark Tower – “based on” the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, this was … well, it wasn’t really the Dark Tower series put to film. It was more like someone took the Stephen King books, put them in a blender, and poured the slop that resulted out. Would it taste like Stephen King still? Well, a little. Would it still *be* the Dark Tower? …I guess. Kinda. I mean, the cast is decent enough, but Jake Chambers being one of the main Breakers? And having a mom and dead-dad issues and a stepfather and beating kids up in school and being the protagonist??? Well… it *sorta* works, but not exactly, really. Because it’s not the Dark Tower that we want. Or deserve. I had reservations about Elba being cast as Roland at first – but he pulled it off, I felt. Same with McConaughey being the Man in Black. And, yes, books and films are different, so of course, there are going to be altercations in adaptations. I’m mostly okay with that. it just felt like… it wasn’t epic enough, somehow. And, really, how do you start ANY adaptation of The Dark Tower without starting with THE sentence?? Yes, it was said later in the film, but really, it’s kind of a no-brainer that to get things started properly, you go with what King provided. Anyway, apparently this flopped pretty hard, so any sequels are unlikely, which I’m both fine with and upset by. Because I feel like it *could* grow into the series, if given enough time (and maybe better screenwriters? There were some really fine moments in the film, after all) Oh well. Perhaps on some other level of the Tower.

67. It’s a Wonderful Life

68. BlacKkKlansman – hugely entertaining, but, like so many things relating to current world events, somewhat disheartening. Especially the end real life footage that took up the final two or three minutes. But this Spike Lee Joint about an undercover black cop in Colorado who manages to infiltrate the KKK was compelling as hell.

69. The Happytime Murders – meh. In a world where puppets are sentient, but considered lowerclass citizens, a puppet ex-cop has to team up with his partner (Melissa McCarthy) when a bunch of puppet murders start occurring. Could have been good, but the “comedy” was all derived from the unfunny setup that raunchy puppets are funny.

70. Searching – mediocre thriller with a gimmick that mostly works – the entire thing is told thru computer screens: facetime calls, YouTube videos, CCTV footage, emails… that type of stuff. John Cho plays a newly widowed father who is searching for his missing teenage daughter. Debra Messing plays the detective that helps him look. Not a great movie, but not horrible, either.

71. Assassination Nation - When someone starts hacking phones and leaking the texts, members of the town of Salem start turning against one and another. Lily, a local teenager, guides the viewer through how a town could lose its mind and turn murderous in a short period of time. Extremely dark, and surprisingly tense, this black comedy is mostly light on the ‘comedy’, but was still insanely watchable. While it was, of course, completely over the top, in the bizarre-ass world we find ourselves in in 2018… it also felt very real.