2024 movies

It's that time of the year!!



Here are a list of the movies I watched this year, with some thoughts (and possible spoilers, although for the most part I keep things vague, or try to.)

Movies seen in 2024.


Barbie - I liked this a lot, but, weirdly, I don’t really have a lot to say about it. It was very enjoyable.


Corner Office - Adapted from the short novel (“The Room”) that I read a few years back. It stays pretty faithful to the book - as far as I can remember, anyway. Jon Hamm plays Orson (Bjorn in the novella), who is a bit of a judgemental jackass. (Same as in the book). Danny Pudi is in this too, so that was another treat. Anyway, Orson starts a job at some company, and clashes with his co-workers. Then he discovers an unused office, which he begins to utilize when he needs to take breaks from working. Except, the office doesn’t actually exist. Whenever Orson goes there, his coworkers see him simply standing in the hallway. Decent adaptation of a decent short book, but not really anything to be completely wow-ed by.


Deadstream - Shawn Ruddy is a youtuber who does jackass style stunts for the views. At some point, he crosses a line, and gets himself demonetized. After an apology video and six month’s probation, he’s back up, and his stunt this time is to spend the night alone in a haunted house, with the caveat that he HAS TO CHECK OUT anything that seems suspicious. Shawn is an extremely obnoxious personality that certainly takes some getting past, but this is a brisk 88 minute long film, so even if you hate him, you’re not spending TOO much time with him. The scares are …decent, and there were a couple lines that were amusing enough that I kept going through this whole thing. Certainly wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.


Evil Dead Rise - I like (but don’t fanishly love) the Evil Dead franchise (I did enjoy the Ash vs. Evil Dead series quite a bit, probably more than the movies, honestly). Anyway, this is the latest installment in those - no Bruce Campbell in this one. And very very little humor, either. A LOT of tension and a LOT of blood and gore. This one focuses on two sisters - Ellie and Beth - who haven’t seen each other in a while due to Beth being on the road with a rock band. Ellie is a mother of three children - Bridget, Danny, and Kassie, the youngest. Beth comes back to visit Ellie and her nieces and nephew, only to discover that the apartment they’re staying in is being condemned in a month, and Ellie’s husband has left the family. So, there’s family drama going on. An earthquake opens up an undiscovered section of the building, and it contains a Book of the Dead. Hijinks ensue. This was a solid movie.


Dogma - rewatch…This wasn’t really that funny back when it first came out. Mildly amusing? Pretty much felt the same way this time around, too. I think I liked the idea of it more than the actual execution. It really is too busy for its own good. I suspect that if it had been a series, it might have had time to let things breathe.


Saw X - Decent installment in the never-dying Saw franchise. It was a LITTLE too long, but overall, probably the best they’ve done in a while. Having ACTUAL John Kramer back as the focus helped a ton.


Puppet Master - I’m sure I had seen this as a kid/teen (or, at least PARTS of it?) but figured it was time for a rewatch. It’s a lot better in THEORY than it is in execution. There was a dude who was able to give life to puppets. His secret power is discovered by Nazis, who are going to torture him to get the answers. He kills himself before they can get it. 50 years later, a dude named Noel Gallagher dies. He was a psychic, who hung out with a bunch of other psy-powered folks. His friends gather at his place of death, wondering why none of them felt his passing… While there, the puppets begin to murder them one by one. Neat enough idea, if a LITTLE over-complicated, but, whoo, boy, anytime the puppets aren’t on screen, this thing is SLOW as shit.
But evidently, the idea is one that people really liked, as there are something like 11 other sequels/spinoffs of this. I…don’t have the patience or interest to delve into them all, though.


Skinamarink - oooof. WAY too “art film” for my liking. Two young kids - Kaylee and Kevin - wake up (after we’re told that Kevin had taken a fall down the stairs) to find that they can’t locate their father, and that the windows and doors in the house are no longer there. This COULD have been a very effective very disturbing 10 minute short. Instead, it’s a tedious hour and forty minutes. It’s filmed in low light, and uses grainy video and audio distortions to fuck with your head. Others online have described it as an accurate depiction of a child’s nightmare. And, yeah, I get that. Dreams - and nightmares particularly - provide an aura of unease and are absurd and hard to make sense of. But… they’re also…kind of dull? LIke, really, the truism about dreams not being interesting unless you’re in them is…kind of true. And holds here as well. The long shots of lego bricks or clicking flashlights can only hold one’s interest for so long. And if you want payoff or answers of some sort, well… look somewhere else, bucko. This is ambiguous and “spooky”, and providing logic or making sense of anything would ruin the illusion. Anyway, hard pass on recommending this.


The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - STILL don’t think that this needed to be a freaking trilogy. And with each one 2.5 hours… But, it is what it is. And I mean, it’s enjoyable enough. We’ll see how I’m feeling after the other two, I guess. For now, revisiting MIddle Earth for a bit hasn’t been too bad.


The Creator - Sigh. I so badly WANTED to like this. And visually, sure, it was impressive. And the concept of the world seems like it was there. But, my god. The story and the characters were so freaking lifeless and boring. In a nutshell - in an alternate timeline, AI was developed much earlier than ours, and so by 2065 robots that think and act like humans coexist with us. Then, the AI nuke LA - for …reasons - causing the US to ban all AI and go to war with them. The world also has turned their backs on AI, except for “New Asia”. So, the robots basically live just there. The US is hunting them down and genociding them all. They have one massive weapon that they’re planning on using to take them ALL out, but the AI have created a counter-weapon. Which turns out to be in the form of a little robot child. Anyway, this started off somewhat intriguing, but it’s far too long and as said, there’s nothing to really take from this other than the neat visuals.


Escape From the Planet of the Apes - I’d seen this before, but it had been a LONG time, and I wanted to rewatch it. Since the previous iteration ended with the earth being destroyed by nuclear weapons, how could a sequel be possible?? Well, you introduce time travel, of course. Zira and Cornelius manage to time travel back to 1973, long before apes could talk. Hijinks ensue. Seriously, it’s amusing how much of this is played up as fish out of water humor…until a scientist starts seeing the apes - and the future they came from - as a threat to humanity. This was an EXTREMELY 70s movie, but probably my favorite of the original Planet of the Apes pentalogy.


Escape From Pretoria - based on the true story of Tim Jenkins a prisoner in South Africa who protested Apartheid and was arrested and sent to a prison in 1979. He and a few other inmates plan a prison break, using wooden keys (!!) and other ingenious methods of getting out. Daniel Radcliffe is the leading role. Really well done film, especially considering how little actually happens.


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug - someone out there has to have cut the Hobbit trilogy down to an acceptable length, right? There is NO NEED for this story to take 7.5 hours. Also… ending your movie at the point they ended this movie is akin to ending a novel midsentence.


The Freedom Writers - sure, a lot of this is familiar tropes - white teacher comes in and helps a group of inner city kids realize their potential - but this one just hit different, somehow. I even cried a few times. I think it’s just… having someone care enough to actually SEE and HEAR you can be pretty powerful. It can’t change everything. It can’t change everyone, but the people it DOES change can have an amazing impact. Hilary Swank was the lead role, and Imalda Staunton (Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter movies) was one of the antagonists, which was amusing to me, once I realized where I recognized her from. Anyway, good movie, would recommend.


Fargo - rewatch. God, what a great movie. The characters are all so… real. Fucking terrifying in some instances (Steve Buscemi’s and ESPECIALLY Peter Stormare’s characters)- and pure fucking awesome in others (Frances McDormand’s Margie). While it felt like maybe the accent angle was being played for laughs (and perhaps it is), it didn’t really work in that regard for me this time around. I remember being amused by all the ‘yah’s and ‘heckdoyoumean?’s on this watch, and instead just focused on the film, which, as stated, is just really really good.


Star Wars: A New Hope


Fall - Becky and Hunter, two athletic twenty-something friends, decide to climb a 2000 foot tall abandoned television tower. All good, until they get stuck up there. Then they have to face the elements, lack of food, and (sigh) secrets. This was by no means a GOOD movie, but it kept me entertained throughout, and there were a few (unintentional?) laughs along the way, so can’t complain. And I had read that when it was screening in theaters that people were experiencing vertigo. I can believe it. There were scenes that caused some panic in me, and I was watching it on a small screen.


Star Wars: The Phantom Menace - so… yeah.


The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies - I fell asleep during bits of this.But, got the overall gist. I think I was just hobbitted out by the end. (And, as I've stated with each of these, it really was overkill having the ONE story turned into a trilogy.)


Final Destination - I’ve somehow never actually watched the Final Destination movies, so, figured might as well. I do love me some cheesy goodness (and badness). And this certainly provides it. Overall not horrible. It’s entertaining enough to watch death play with its rube goldberg machines. Wish the characters were a little more fleshed out, but, whatcha gonna do?


Final Destination 2 - one of those really rare situations where the sequel…might just be better than the first. Or, at least equally as good. A lot of it works BECAUSE it builds off the first one. The concept is pretty fun - having someone who is having premonitions of a massive horrible accident, people avoid it because of that vision, and then the survivors start getting killed in creative and ludicrous ways… It’s pure popcorn flick, but sometimes that’s what you need.


The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring -


Donnie Darko - Rewatch. I mostly felt sad this time through. None of the comedy really worked (and, yeah, the comedy was always dark, but still… the tragicness of this story just overshadowed everything for me this time around.) As for the time travel elements - meh. It …was there. Did it make perfect sense? Probably mostly not, but enough that it didn’t bother me. Anyway, plot: Donnie is a teen with emotional problems living in suburban america in 1988. One night, Donnie sleepwalks out of his room, and while he’s out, an engine falls off an airplane and crushes his bedroom. Shortly after this, Donnie begins hallucinating an evil 6 foot tall rabbit named Frank who tells him that in 28 days, the world is going to end.


Final Destination 3 - Hmm. The franchise is starting to wear out its welcome. Or maybe it’s just that the characters this time around weren’t as enthralling. (NOt that the kids in 1 and 2 were fabulous people or anything, but there was just hardly ANY likeable characters in this insallment.) The roller coaster accident set piece was pretty great, though.


Talk to Me - fucking good. Oh, man. Mia lost her mom two years back, and has since been spending most of her time with her best friend, Jade, Jade’s Mum, and her younger brother Riley. At a party, a ceramic hand is brought out, which, if you do the correct ritual, will allow a person to contact the spirit world. The only caveat is to break connection before 90 seconds so that the ghosts can’t stay in our world longer. Mia (and all the teens) become addicted to doing this, but, man…don’t mess with the dead for fun. It does NOT end well. This felt a lot like Hereditary - another movie that was superb with it’s ability to make you feel dread. Both films contained a nice balance of supernatural horror (and, dude, it really really is horrific) and emotional drama (all of the relationships Mia had with everyone else felt so authentic, that when bad things started happening to them all, it was, in many ways, worse than what the ghosts were doing.) This was easily the best horror movie i’ve seen in a while, and probably the best movie I’ve seen all year so far.


Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker - didn’t hate it AS much this time around. It’s still not a great movie, and is certainly the worst of the sequel trilogy, but it wasn’t as awful as I remember it being. (Or maybe I just am not as emotionally invested in Star Wars as I used to be, and so watching a mediocre action movie isnt such a big deal anymore.)


The Final Destination - they really should have just called this Final Destination 4, but whatever. This was certainly the weakest of the series so far. The 3-D effects look cheesy and stupid (but that’s almost always the case) and the storyline being the same every time is starting to truly wear thin. Some of the deaths were decent, but not nearly as exciting as the previous films.


Final Destination 5 - Okay, got some life pumped back into the series! (heh) And now I’ve seen all of the franchise (to date - apparently a 6th installment (possibly a reboot?) is coming out later this year). But, yeah, same plot and story beats as all the others, but after the dip in quality from 3 and (especially) 4, it was cool to have it rebound some and become a bit more enjoyable. Having more Tony Todd in your film certainly helps matters. I also appreciate that EVERY Final Destination movie was kept around 1 hour 30 minutes. No need to drag your crap out. This one also had (slightly) fewer assholes in it than most of them, so that was nice.


The Flight of the Navigator - rewatch. Holds up decently well. Before it gets all wacky and kid friendly,(Oh, and, yeah, Paul Reubens being the voice of Max… I can 100% guarantee that I mimicked the crap out of that and I know that “Compliance” entered my vernacular for a while as a kid too.) it’s got some surprisingly nightmarish situations - David is transported 8 years into the future but from his point of view (and ours!) he’s only been gone/knocked out for maybe a few hours. Imagine being 12, coming back to your house, and discovering some random strangers living there. And then eventually being reunited with your family, and all of them are eight years older than they should be. That’s some scary crap to contemplate! And the movie actually stays with it for a while. There were bits that haven’t aged well - a kid uses the “r” word, there’s a couple totally unnecessary fat related jokes, the slight flirting of Sarah Jessica Parker toward a twelve year old… but overall, this held up pretty well, for being almost 40 years old… I don’t want them to reboot it (I saw an article from like 4 years ago saying that a reboot was in the works, but, since that hasn’t actually come to fruition, maybe wiser heads have prevailed), but I wouldn’t mind seeing a darker take on the IDEAS that were presented in this story play out somehow.


41 - low budget scifi flick about a young man who discovers in the corner of a motel room a wormhole that allows him to go back in time 12 hours. After his ex-girlfriend winds up killed in a car crash, he decides to try fucking with the timeline a bit. Nothing about this was really that unpredictable or novel, and the acting and dialog really aren’t that spectacular either. And yet… I sorta liked it? It was like comfort food, sort of?


Freaks - Gooble gobble, we accept her, one of us!


Freaks - 2018 mid-budget flick about society hunting down ‘abnormals’ (folks who have super powers). Chloe is 7, she lives with her father, Henry, who keeps them living on the downlow, trying to teach Chloe how to blend in with everyone else. Mostly by keeping her isolated. When she ends up engaging with the outside world, she meets her grandfather, who lets her know that her father hasn’t been entirely honest with her about …well, anything. This took a little bit of time to get its bearing, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Pretty different take on a worn-out trope of us vs them. And seeing Chloe grow into her powers was terrifying and also engaging as hell. I would absolutely watch another movie set in this world. It was like the Marvel universe, but way more realistic and low-key.


Kiki’s Delivery Service - a young witch moves to a big city, makes friends along the way. This is a Studio Ghibli film that I’d seen before. It’s charming.


From Dusk till Dawn - rewatch. Tarantino is still slime. But this is pretty fun. And I do appreciate movies that are able to switch genres midway like this one does.


Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3 - i was distracted while this was playing, so maybe that’s why I wasn’t super into it. Or, maybe, as I’ve said before, I’m just over Marvel flicks. It was decent, it just didn’t TRULY connect with me. I could tell it was tugging at heart strings, and going for laughs, and wanting to wow with action… but for the most part this was just a collection of pictures and sound that I let wash over me. I enjoyed it, but didn’t ENJOY it, if that makes sense.


The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - rewatch; I fell asleep during some of the human bits, because, let’s face it, they’re kinda boring. Gollum is still simultaneously sympathetic and horrifying (and…maybe more leaning toward sympathetic? It’s truly not his fault that the Ring did what it did to him. His fate could just as easily have been Frodo’s. Or Bilbo’s.). And Gollum’s effects still hold up even 22 years later. (Wait, what??) When we watch Return of the King, I’ll do my best to remain awake throughout.


The Dead Zone - kind of one of King’s lesser works; and kind of one of the lesser adaptations. Christopher Walken makes Johnny Smith just on the edge of creepy - you know, because he’s…Christoper Walken - which …I don’t really remember if that was a trait the character had in the book or not. But, regardless, he’s still pretty compelling. Just …maybe not someone I’d choose to hang out with? Anyway. Martin Sheen as Greg Stillson was fantastic. And the story itself isn’t a bad one, overall. Dude gets into a car accident, goes into a 5 year coma, wakes up, and discovers he can get the occasional psychic flash. Tries to live his life despite this unasked for power, but …fate’s got other plans, apparently. And when he sees the future that a politician has in store, well… some things you just can’t let happen.


The Gate - I know I’d seen this as a kid, but had forgotten the majority of it. Because holy shit, this movie was boring as hell. How do you make opening a gate to hell and releasing demons dull? This movie found a way. Did I like this as a kid? …I honestly don’t remember. I sure as hell hope not. The cover art is absolutely the best thing this movie has going for it.


Galaxy Quest - rewatch. This is SUCH a good movie. The cast of a tv show about a crew of space explorers get mistaken as ACTUAL space explorers by an alien civilization being killed/threatened by an evil conqueror. So, essentially, Three Amigos, but with Star Trek. Which, if that doesn’t sell you on the movie, I don’t know what to tell ya.


Glorious - After his relationship with his girlfriend Brenda comes to an end, Wes gets incredibly drunk. He finds himself hung over and throwing up in a bathroom at a reststop in the middle of nowhere. A voice coming from the next stall over (J.K. Simmons!) engages him in conversation. And things get WEIRD. This was definitely a unique story, and I give them credit for keeping it nice and short. It almost felt like they could have done MORE with it - and, in fact, how things end with Wes is probably my only minor criticism. But more movies in this vein would not be a bad thing.


Dreamscape - I had seen this as a kid, but iddn’t remember much about it other than the Snake man (because as, like, a 10 year old, that shit was terrifying). Dennis QUaid stars as a psychic who gets roped into a government program that allows people to enter another person’s dreams. When it’s discovered that killing someone inside the dream results in their death in the real world, Quaid realizes that the implications of this power are pretty earth shattering, and he decides to stop it. This movie wasn’t half bad, considering it is a forgotten 80s sci-fi thriller. It was kind of the proto-Inception. (Although, I think that this was, in a lot of ways, better than that movie. Dreams should be weird - and nightmares scary - and this film understood that.) I’d ALMOST like to see a remake of this, with the types of effects that could be applied to it now.


Totally Killer - horror comedy that was essentially “Back to the Future” meets… Scream, I guess. Jamie’s parents survived the “Sweet 16” killer back in 1987, although he was never caught. When Jamie’s mom is attacked by the killer in 2023, Jamie goes back in time (just roll with it) in order to prevent the original murders from happening, and also figure out who the killer is. This was fun. It was dumb, but fun.


Pearl - the prequel to “X” which I thought was okay, but not as awesome as the hype surrounding it led me to believe it would be. This definitely helped make X a better movie, weirdly. Mia Goth made me feel extremely bad for a murderous young woman, who just wants to be loved. We see how Pearl is trapped on her family’s farm with her overbearing mother, and infirmed father. She wants desperately to escape from this life, but being a woman in 1918 with no education and no money, her options are limited. This, coupled with her emerging mental illness, result in some rather horrific consequences for people around her.


Morbius - i wasn’t really paying attention while this played in the background. I’m actually somewhat annoyed that “It’s Morbin Time” is not actually said. The movie itself was… I don’t know, there, I guess. I doubt if i’d devoted my entire attention to it that I’d have enjoyed it any more.


Clerks - well, this certainly didn’t hold up. Back in 94 I thought this was hilarious. Rewatching it now…er. No. It does have some decent lines - “This job would be great if it weren’t for the fucking customers” and “I’m not even supposed to be here!” and even some of the “37” jokes are amusing - but overall, this was just…really dated, I guess?


Clerks II - hadn’t seen this before, but I wasn’t missing much. The clerks all being in their 30s… Randall’s just a piece of shit, and Dante would be better off without him (I mean, Dante is no great dude, either.). Jay’s shtick got old VERY fast, and it was just …kind of a chore to get thru this. There’s one more, and, I will watch it, but my hopes are SEVERELY limited.


Clerks III - crappy movie trilogy concludes…with maybe the best of the bunch? It didn’t make me laugh, but I did get a few small smirks out of some of the meta-ness (it’s been about 24 hours since I’ve watched it, and I’m having a hard time recalling any of the jokes/lines that caused a reaction, but I know I did think a couple of times, “Okay, that’s semi-decent.”). Watching them all be in their FIFTIES now (or near it, anyway) was nice and mid-life-crisis-alarming, but it didn’t really make any of them different characters or any better people or anything.


Abigail - group of criminals kidnap a 12 year old girl to get the ransom from her very rich father. Except she’s not a 12 year old girl, but a centuries old vampire. It doesn’t go well for the criminals. This was fun. Gory, action-filled, actually funny… I do wish that the trailers hadn’t given away the reveal about Abigail’s nature, because, man, having that be a twist would have been EPIC. But, even so, it was an entertaining movie.


Graveyard Shift - When this started, I was like, “This is SUCH an 80s movie.” It was made in 1990. So, that was a little weird. It totally had an 83-85-ish vibe going on. But, whatever. It was not great. Brad Dourif is in it, but even he can’t really elevate it. It’s based on a STephen King short story, which I’m sure I’ve read, but…I really don’t remember. Anyway, gist is -giant rat lives under a textile mill. Crew gets picked off one by one. Yawn. This isn’t even good in a B-movie sort of way. Just …meh.


Disturbing Behavior - This had major “The Faculty” vibes, and even though this came out a year before that movie, The Faculty was just MUCH better. But, yeah, James Marsden moves to a new town, uncovers a conspiracy in his high school wherein students are being brainwashed into becoming perfect kids. Katie Holmes was in this too.


Destroy All Neighbors - horror comedy that didn’t really work for me. Will is a prog rock musician who lives in a crappy apartment with his girlfriend, Emily. A new neighbor, Vlad, moves in, and Will takes an instant dislike to him. An argument with the guy results in Vlad accidentally being killed, but Vlad’s corpse continues to harass him while Will tries to cover up his manslaughter. This wasn’t horrible, it just wasn’t nearly as funny as it thought it was.


The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - I cried again during the end scene (“My friends… you bow to no one.”) But, good LORD the non-hobbit parts are truly dull.


Grave of the Fireflies - hi. I’m an unfeeling monster, apparently. Everyone on the planet talks about how this is the saddest animated movie of all time. But…. I mean, it was sad, sure. But… I didn’t cry. I didn’t even tear up. Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are orphans after their city is firebombed, and war is hell…but, I just …didn’t FEEL anything when watching this. Am I broken? Or is this movie just overhyped on exactly how sad it is? I think probably a little from column A, a little from column B.


Dream Scenario - Nic Cage plays Paul Matthews, a completely boring average middleaged college professor. Two kids, a not great relationship with his wife, he wants to write a book, but can’t find an agent (and also, hasn’t actually WRITTEN anything yet). He’s a bit of a loser, but not a horrible person… he’s just one of those everyday people. Until. He starts showing up in people’s dreams. Not …doing anything in them, exactly, but just …there. It starts with people who know him, but soon begins to spread to the larger population. Once it becomes common knowledge, Paul becomes world-wide famous. Fame, however, has its downside. And once the dreams start to turn nightmarish, the real life consequences for Paul and his family do as well. I enjoyed this a lot. It did seem to flounder a bit in the 3rd act, but overall this was a visually unique story that I’d recommend to anyone looking for something a little offbeat.


Enemy Mine - rewatch. Liked this quite a bit as a 10 or 11 year old. Watching it now, I found “Jerry”’s makeup distracting (the head looks good, but the area around the lips? Seriously??). Also, I thought Jerry was in this much longer than he actually is. Huh.


Hatching - Finnish horror movie about 12 year old Tinja who finds a strange egg in the forest, which hatches into some sort of horrible bird-like creature she names Alli that bonds with her. This bonding does not go well for people who hurt or criticize Tinja. Like her bratty younger brother, or her mother who is forcing Tinja to do competitive gymnastics. This was largely predictable, and was really only worth watching for the Alli effects/puppetry.


Hard Candy - Ellen Page plays a 14 year old named Hayley who catfishes a 30-something dude named Jeff. When Jeff takes Hayley back to his apartment and offers her drinks… the evening does NOT go how Jeff had planned on it going. Because Hayley is VERY smart, knows a LOT about Jeff, and…let’s just say she doesn’t approve of his past behavior. Watching a teen torture and humiliate a suspected pedophile is …I don’t know. It appealed to a lizard part of my brain, and the acting is top notch, but I don’t know if this was a GOOD movie or not.


Electric Dreams - rewatch. A flick from back in like 1984 about a home computer that becomes sentient after the owner - Miles - spills champagne on it. LOL. This has got elements of Cyrano in it - the computer and Miles are both pining for the same woman, Madeline, and she is entranced by the computer’s music playing. However… it’s…not very good? Or just really REALLY dated, maybe. A LOT of the movie’s screentime is eaten up with computer graphics that are just supremely embarrassing looking. (I mean, yeah, they’re 40 years old at this point, but …yeesh.) I don’t know, maybe I’m being too harsh on it. I did seek it out to rewatch it after all these years, so, I guess it made SOME sort of impact on younger-me. I just think that I probably didn’t need to do a rewatch after all…


Cloak & Dagger - another rewatch. And another flick from 1984. That also had computers in it pretty heavily. Huh. But, this was one I definitely (mostly) remembered, and was looking forward to. All about Davey, a 10 year old who has a very active imagination. He enjoys playing D&D type games involving his hero, Jack Flack, who is the typical 007-spy type. He does this a lot because his absentee father is …well, not there for him. (Both his dad and Jack Flack are played by Dabney Coleman) Things get EXTREMELY serious for Davey when he receives a game cartridge of Cloak & Dagger that contains top secret military info on it, and actual spies are trying to kill him to retrieve it. It’s kinda insane how much death there was in this “kids” movie, but, the 80s were different. Anyway, I felt like this movie definitely holds up.


Brats - documentary made by Andrew McCarthy about the “brat pack” - the group of young adult actors from the early to mid 80s who were in some movies together: Andrew McCarthy, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Emilio Estevez… a few others who were grouped in there. This was extremely navel-gazey, but also hit a lot of nostalgia buttons, so we ended up watching the whole thing, despite at various points feeling it was MUCH too whiny. It was sort of interesting, though, seeing how people deal with life in different ways. Like, McCarthy definitely held on to the trauma of being labeled a “brat” much more deeply than I would expect a person to, and others embraced it, or just moved on. A lot of this felt like an extended therapy session for 50-60 year olds for events that occurred nearly 40 years earlier. The main thing I took from it was that trauma only has the amount of power that we give to it.


The Hidden - dude! This was a fantastic ride. I mean, it was made in 87, and it was just a mid-budget flick, but it held up pretty well. And I’d never even heard of this before! (I don’t remember how I discovered it, exactly, but I’m glad I did.) It’s a sci-fi thriller where the cops are tracking down a brutal killer/bank robber who the week before was just a normal average guy. The FBI sends an agent - Kyle MacLachlan - in and he gets paired up with the lead cop on the case. Eventually we find out that the killer is actually an alien parasite that the FBI agent has been hunting for a while. A lot of the plot beats were predictable (probably from plenty of other stories having similar tropes), but the overall ride was definitely enjoyable and worth it. I’m just really amazed that this isn’t more widely known.


Heat - rewatch. It’s nearly 3 hours long, but, my word, this 1995 crime drama with Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro playing cat and mouse with each other is SO good. I think it’s just watching two characters who are both superbly good at what they do - one a master thief and career criminal, the other a homicide detective - battle wits against each other. The fact that they are both awful with their personal relationships makes them both …not necessarily more sympathetic…but they do feel more realzied as people that way, I guess. It is interesting that I felt that it was a tragedy that DeNiro’s downfall was due to his pride, and if he’d just listened to his mentor’s advice, he would have had a happy ending. Pity.


Heavy Metal - I’m fairly certain teenage (or maybe tweenage?) me caught bits and pieces of this when younger. It felt like the movie equivalent of looking at Playboys. Part of that, no doubt, is because of the amount of boobs in this. Anyway - animated movie that was a collection of vignettes about a mystical green orb that is “evil incarnate” taht moves thru time and space, corrupting people, and largely melting them like Nazis looking at an Ark. The animation largely…sucks. The stories are all rather crappy, too. And, the aforementioned excessive (female) nudity is just …monotonous. Some of the tunes are good. Devo’s “Through Being Cool” is in here, for example. But overall, this was just …not great.


Hellboy - rewatch…ish. I’ve seen this before, I’m sure, but both times i watched it, I found my attnetion not completely focused on the film. Which is weird. Because I like Del Toro. I like Ron Perlman. I like comic-y/action-y/comedy type movies… but Hellboy (2004) doesn’t work for me as a whole. We’ll see how 2 and the 2019 reboot shape up when I watch those.


Hellboy II: The Golden Army - This one, despite - or maybe because of? - it going FULL weird and insane, held my interest more than the original. I liked the villain more in this - he felt more sympathetic and also, more threatening. Bringing Hellboy into the public’s knowledge was interesting move, and opened up a lot of potential story ideas. The Manilow bit was hilarious (and touching!?). I just overall liked this better than the first. I …kinda want a 3rd one? But I guess that’s unlikely since they rebooted it with David Harbour in 2019. Which is up next for me. (Edit - I got about 20 minutes into the reboot and turned it off. It was just too freaking dull.)


Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - prequel to Fury Road, which I loved. This was …okay? Hard to live up to the high bar that Fury Road set, so not super disappointed that it doesn’t quite do that. The action was still great. Furiosa is a fantastic character, and all the actresses who played her were wonderful. I read an opinion that the better movie would have been focusing on making it a sequel to Fury Road - have Dementus (also a fun character, although Chris Hemsworth did cross the line into hammy-ness a few times) as the main villain attempting to disrupt her newfound security… and I think taht honestly, I probably would have loved that more. But, then we wouldn’t have gotten Anna Taylor-Joy, and that would’ve been a pity. Anyway. Top notch action, decent story, good characters… overall, can’t complain. I’ve seen a WHOLE lot worse…


Howard the Duck - rewatch… I watched this SO many times as a kid. The first half of it, upon rewatching, has so much adult stuff that (mostly) flew over my head back then. (Obviously, the duck breasts were impossible to miss - and how freaking WEIRD is that?? They’re DUCKS. Why would they have mammary glands?? And the scene with Beverly and Howard in bed certainly kickstarted my puberty. But the condom? And the jock itch commercial? And the job Howard gets in the adult theater? And the attempted sexual assault in the alleyway? ALL of that stuff were things I hadn’t noticed/understood when watching it 30+ years ago.) ANYWAY. Does it hold up? Um. Well, no. It’s not a good movie at all. I really liked it as a young one, and so it’s got some of that going for it, but, that’s about ALL it has. (Although I will say the bit with Philsie and Howard trying to get him out of the cop car - “Window?” “Let me check the door first.” - DID make me chuckle.) But, yeah, this has a reputation as being one of the worst movies ever made, and while I wouldn’t go THAT far, I also wouldn’t really fight that too hard either.


Late Night with the Devil - set in 1977 on a fictional late night talk show, this “found footage” of Jack Delroy’s final broadcast (wherein he has on a psychic, a skeptic, and a woman who rescued a young girl from a satanic cult) was a little bit of a mixed bag. It LOOKS fantastic, and for a large part of it, had the authenticity of an actual talk show from that era. But it went on for a little too long, and while the climax was some “holy shit!” (heh), it took a little too long to get there, and then had a confusing denouement that didn’t gel with the rest of the film. Huge props for attempting to pull off a unique story, just too bad that it wasn’t a bit tighter and didn’t quite stick the landing.


Hulk - rewatch…ish? I’d seen bits of this before, I think, but never all the way through. To be honest, I didn’t really watch ALL of this this time either. It’s just far too long and meandering. The action scenes are a combination of “okay, cool” and utter cringe - the Hulk dogs, for example, were just BAD. But the escape from the facility and the desert tanks/helicopters fight was engaging enough. It’s just that it took FOREVER to get there. A lot of the nearly hour and a half (!!) to get to where Bruce finally REALLY becomes the Hulk was just mind numbingly boring. I guess this can kinda be considered the training wheels of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It wobbled so that the later movies could run.


The Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - this was good - like the series has been - but …not as special as the first. And this probably could have been tightened up a bit. I don’t think it needed to be 2.5 hrs long. Still, a good overall series, and this was an enjoyable, although somewhat predictable entry.


Hunter Hunter - a family (Joseph, Anne, teenage daughter Renee, and dog Tova) living out in the wild have their lives interrupted by a wolf getting closer to their cabin, stealing their food, and avoiding the traps they’ve set up. While hunting for the wolf, Joseph discovers that there may be a more dangerous animal out there, too. There is, of course. I thought this was decent, with a bit near the final 20-30 minutes that were quite intense. Followed by a ridiculously bleak and stupid finale that felt like a writer that wanted shock value, rather than being able to tie things together in a better fashion.


I.S.S. - This was basically "Among Us: The Movie". Six astronauts - 3 Americans, 3 Russians - on board the International Space Station are working together, then nukes get dropped on earth and both countries send orders to “take control”. Paranoia ensues. This was pretty damn good for the first 2/3rds or so. The final act - and the ambiguous (by necessity, i’m sure) ending didn’t do it any favors. But when you don’t know who to exactly trust, or what information people have or are lying about… that was some good stuff. Especially since all of the characters are confined to such a small space, and dealing with zero g on top of it. Once actual murders started taking place, it became less believable and less engaging.


The Incredible Hulk - a sort of sequel/reboot from the Hulk movie that I watched earlier. This was… mostly forgettable? I mean, it ties in to the MCU - Tony Stark makes an appearance at the end, but even Marvel seems to have decided that this wasn’t actually worth keeping as canon, since Banner and the Hulk were both recast (and the storyline essentially rebooted again) with Avengers. Edward Norton is okay, I guess, but I am ultimately glad that was the decision they made.


Practical Magic - watched this just before the “Free With Ads” podcast covered it. Wasn’t bad! I mean, it wasn’t anything that I’ll likely remember a month from now, but it was charming enough. And the ending (probably in part due to the music) did give me the warm fuzzies. So, yeah. Glad I got to view it.


The Incredible Shrinking Man - a little lackluster ending, but a good ride up until then. The effects, amazingly, hold up pretty well! Crazy how there’s a good chunk of this movie with no dialouge.


The Incredible Shrinking Woman - rewatch. There’s some extremely 80s stuff in this (the housekeeper is maximum cringe, and the kids sneaking out to listen to their parents have sex is just…weird) but overall, this was still pretty fun. Lots of interesting jabs at consumerism that flew over my head as a kid.


12 Angry Men - i had somehow never seen this before. I’m glad that I remedied that. For a movie that is like 70 years old now, this holds up quite well. Heck of a lot of smoking in it, though. ;)


Holes - adaptation of the YA novel. This was enjoyable, just like the book. Can’t really analyze/think of more to say about it, as I watched it the day after the election, and my mind is sort of still fuzzy. It was a decent movie.


Innerspace - rewatch. Dennis Quaid is an alcoholic womanizer who signs up to be a pilot in a miniaturization experiment. When a rival group breaks in to the lab, Quaid ends up injected into Martin SHort. Hijinks ensue.Ebert said in his review of this that the film can’t quite decide if it wants to be a comedy or a thriller. Fair. I’d say that, for the most part, the comedy is …eh. Not as horrible/dated as I thought/expected it to be, but just …not laugh out loud funny, either. The thriller/suspense/sci-fi aspects were actually more intriguing to me. Either way, I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, although I’d still say that it’s not anything I’d rank as a fantastic movie.


Deadpool & Wolverine - by far the most enjoyable Deadpool movie. The jokes worked for me, the action worked for me, the raunchiness (the aspect of Deadpool that I find the most eyerolly) was at a level that worked for me. I’m no comics NERD, so a lot of the references/metaness flew over my head, but I didn’t care. My friends, at the end, I *cried*. How can a DEADPOOL movie work my emotions hard enough to cause actual tears? Am I truly that manipulatable? Or was it just a particular moment that worked particularly well? Well, whatever. I had a good time for 2 hours, and with the hellscape we find ourselves in, that’s more than enough for a movie to provide, as far as I’m concerned.


In a Violent Nature - I had higher hopes for this than what I got. A slasher that focuses on the killer’s POV for the majority of the flick with no music? Sure. I’m on board with that idea. Turns out, that just means a lot of walking thru the woods. A LOT of walking thru the woods. So, yeah. Our killer - Johnny instead of Jason - does have a purpose for killing his victims - his mother’s locket gets taken from off his burial site, and he’s just hunting down and killing anyone that might possibly have it. Which, again, SOUNDS like it could be an intriguing idea, and at least makes it so that the killer has a little bit of empathy. But, oof. This was just not my cup of tea. If you took out all the walking shots, you’d go down from a 90 minute movie to probably 20ish minutes. And those would not be great 20 minutes either. None of the characters are particularly likeable or well developed, and teh dialog is garbage (as is the acting). Even the kills, something that, obstensibly, is what gore hounds are there for are nothing worth writing home about. There is one that is probably Terrifer-ish in its over the topness, but all the others are …relatively mild? Heck the first is off screen! Point is that this movie was a disappointment in all sorts of ways.


It’s a Wonderful Knife - Winnie lives in a small town with her family. The mayor of the town is awful, and on Christmas Eve of one year, he murders 4 people before being killed by Winnie. A year later, and most everyone has moved on, but Winnie is still grieving (understandably so!!) She makes a wish that she’d never been born, and finds herself living in a parallel universe where that’s the case. As a result, the mayor has killed a lot of people, and is still alive. It’s now up to her to figure out a way to stop him and get back to her real timeline. Neat concept, and this was charming enough. It didn’t really do anything that I wasn’t expecting it to, but it felt…comfortable.


The Great Dictator - Charlie Chaplin’s first “talkie”. He plays dual roles - a nameless barber with amnesia, and a Tomanian dictator, Adenoid Hynkel. THe mockery of another dictator with the initials AH is obvious. The ending speech didn’t quite make me cry, but it came close. This was only the 2nd Chaplin film I’ve seen, but I’m into seeing more of them.


Alien: Romulus - a sort of blended remix of all the previous Alien flicks. Andy was, without doubt, the best character (funny how often the androids become the character we care the most about in this series…). Overall this was a pretty solid installment. Don’t know that it was super memorable or anything I’d want to watch again (even the first 4 Alien movies (yes, even Resurrection) are ones I am able to view multiple times) but, who knows, maybe 10 years from now I’ll rewatch it and appreciate it more.


Blink Twice - ehhh. Frida and her friend Jess wind up on an exotic island with a billionaire and his buddies. Lavish parties and lots of wine and drugs happen, everyone’s happy, right? Except things …seem off for some reason. The women begin to question what exactly is going on, eventually discovering the horrific truth. (Spoiler - it’s a rape island where the woman are all being roofied into forgetting their assaults each night.) I’d say that this was just serviceable. Nothing that I’d recommend, and I’m sure i’ll forget most of it in a month or so. (Oddly, a few days after typing that initial response, the movie's stuck in my mind a little bit longer than I thought it would. I still don't know that I liked it - I really do think that a lot of it was ...hm. On the nose? I guess, might be the phrase I'm looking for? Like the speeches the girls were giving each other while they were figuring stuff out was just...cringy, sorta? Like I GET what they were saying, but...it felt ...unnatural? Or like scriptwriting. Or an internet screed. And then when the woman started getting revenge on the men, it ..felt like a movie, and not in a good way. Eh. Whatever.)

86. JCVD - Jean-Claude Van Damme is not someone whose work I've ever ...seeked out. I saw TimeCop, and ...possibly parts of Bloodsport? Otherwise... [shrug]. But, he does give an AMAZING performance here. He plays himself - or a fictionalized style of himself, perhaps. He's back in Brussels, his hometown, where he is aging, struggling to be taken seriously as an actor, nearly broke, and going through a custody battle in a bitter divorce. What's a guy to do? Well, his day's about to get a WHOLE lot worse, when he happens to go into a post office that is in the middle of being robbed. This non-linear meta-filled parody/homage of action movies was truly a unique movie. I'm glad I saw it.

87. Smile 2 - Started off amazingly strong. About 20-ish minutes in I predicted how it was going to end, and was hoping I was wrong. As the movie progressed, it seemed that my prediction WAS wrong, and it was going to go in some very VERY different direction. And then it decided to end with a "twist" ending that pissed. me. off. AND ended up making my prediction be true. UGH. Severely disappointed that they went that way, and especially after laying the groundwork for a much more interesting story. (Or at least a happier one. This went on so long it began to feel like watching someone bully a defenseless bug or something.) Anyway, less vagueish: Smile 2 continues to tell the story set up in Smile - a demon/entity "infects" someone who saw somebody kill themselves - usually in a very gory fashion. The demon causes the infected to see horrific events, causing them to go insane, until they finally lose their mind, at which point the demon takes over that person's body, kills themselves in a gory way in front of a witness, who is now infected with seeing the demon. Watching someone slowly lose their mind is varying degrees of entertaining, and I felt like this movie WAS better than the original (marginally) until the crap ass "we have to have a sequel" ending.

Down to This - Soul Coughing

Today is December 31st, 2024. The song of the day is "Down to This" by Soul Coughing.

Turn a Square - The Shins

Today is December 30th, 2024. The song of the day is "Turn a Square" by The Shins.

Untouchable - The Murmurs

Today is December 29th, 2024. The song of the day is "Untouchable" by The Murmurs.

Hello - Lionel Richie

Today is December 28th, 2024. The song of the day is "Hello" by Lionel Richie.

March Into the Sea - Modest Mouse

Today is December 27th, 2024. The song of the day is "March Into the Sea" by Modest Mouse.

All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow

Today is December 26th, 2024. The song of the day is "All I Wanna Do" by Sheryl Crow.

It's All About The Pentiums - Weird Al Yankovic

Today is December 25th, 2024. The song of the day is "It's All About the Pentiums" by Weird Al Yankovic.

My Best Friend's Girl - The Cars

And the bonus song of the day is "My Best Friend's Girl" by The Cars.

This Used To Be My Playground - Madonna

Today is December 24th, 2024. The song of the day is "This Used to be My Playground" by Madonna.

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) - The New Seekers

Today is December 23rd, 2024. The song of the day is "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" by The New Seekers.

How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?) - Spin Doctors

Today is December 22nd, 2024. The song of the day is "How Could You Want Him (When You Know You Could Have Me?)" by the Spin Doctors.

Sixteen Saltines - Jack White

Today is December 21st, 2024. The song of the day is "Sixteen Saltines" by Jack White. Dude's so cool he can make plain crackers sound amazing...

High of 75 - Relient K

Today is December 20th, 2024. The song of the day is "High of 75" by Relient K.

Nowhere Man - The Beatles

Today is December 19th, 2024. The song of the day is "Nowhere Man" by The Beatles. (Go get a Pepsi!!)

Social Suicide - Bad Religion

Today is December 18th, 2024. The song of the day is "Social Suicide" by Bad Religion.

Macho Man - The Village People

Today is December 17th, 2024. The song of the day is "Macho Man" by The Village People.

If You Could Only See - Tonic

Today is December 16th, 2024. The song of the day is "If You Could Only See" by Tonic.

99 Revolutions - Green Day

Today is December 15th, 2024. The song of the day is "99 Revolutions" by Green Day.

HandClap - Fitz and the Tantrums

Today is December 14th, 2024. The song of the day is "HandClap" by Fitz and the Tantrums.

The Sound of Winter - Bush

Today is December 13th, 2024. The song of the day is "The Sound of Winter" by Bush.

Under Pressure - Queen

And the bonus song of the day is "Under Pressure" by Queen.

You Can Stay But You Gotta Go - Quasi

Today is December 12th, 2024. The song of the day is "You Can Stay But You Gotta Go" by Quasi.

Drink! - They Might Be Giants

Today is December 11th, 2024. The song of the day is "Drink!" by They Might Be Giants.

X.Y.U. - The Smashing Pumpkins

Today is December 10th, 2024. The song of the day is "X.Y.U." by The Smashing Pumpkins.

(And in the eyes of the jackal, I say Ka-BOOOOOM!! Fuck yeah!!)

Dr. Feelgood - Mötley Crüe

Today is December 9th, 2024. The song of the day is "Dr. Feelgood" by Mötley Crüe.

Polka Power! - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Today is December 8th, 2024. The song of the day is "Polka Power!" by Weird Al Yankovic.

Head Over Heels - Tears For Fears

Today is Decmber 7th, 2024. The song of the day is "Head Over Heels" by Tears For Fears.

Thoughts and Prayers - grandson

Today is December 6th, 2024. The song of the day is "Thoughts and Prayers" by grandson.

I'm So Excited - The Pointer Sisters

Today is December 5th, 2024. The song of the day is "I'm So Excited" by The Pointer Sisters.

Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Today is December 4th, 2024. The song of the day is "Californication" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Nobody But Me - The Human Beinz

Today is December 3rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Nobody But Me" by The Human Beinz.

Stompa - Serena Ryder

Today is December 2nd, 2024. The song of the day is "Stompa" by Serena Ryder.

Love Plus One - Haircut 100

Today is December 1st, 2024. The song of the day is "Love Plus One" by Haircut 100.

November 2024 1 Sec Every day

 We've just got December to go for this year. Crazy.

1 - me in my office on a Friday.

2 - Walking on a nice Saturday.

3 - hey, the Taco Bell down the street finally opened! We had dinner there. (It's.... small. They did NOT design it with large crowds in mind. The food at least was decent. For, you know, Taco Bell.)

4 - Mopping at Domino's.

5 - I had already early voted, but it was election day, and so I filmed the voting location that I would have gone to if I hadn't already.

6 - always applicable.

7 -When out of ideas, film the dog.

8 - Or Ezra.

9 - Picking up groceries from Click List.

10 - Went and got some slurpees.

11 - It finally got chilly enough that Ori needs her jacket on our walks.

12 - driving in to Dominos.

13 - Tacos for dinner.

14 - Restarting the computer.

15 - It was an 'in-office' day, and Rich bought me a Pepsi. :)

16 - leaving Target.

17 - me and Abed hanging out on the couch.

18 - while out delivering pizzas, saw this house all decked out, and thought, "sure. That's today's video."

19 - Hey Ezra.

20 - walking at night. I believe this was out at the library.

21 - walking in the morning. This was in our neighborhood.

22 - cooking my lunch at work.

23 - Mario Party Jamboree. We've played it a few times, and it usually generates some good laughs. "Bowjer Zunior". Heh.

24 - Ori had a bath. Poor doggy.

25 - Taking a short nap before going to my Domino's shift.

26 - Ominous storm clouds!! (Nothing came of them.)

27 - Fire department at our house because of a suspected gas leak. (It wasn't, but bloody hell that was a stressful night.)

28 - Thanksgiving dinner at Steph's dad's house. (Yummy!!)

29 - Abed sleeping.

30 - Cleared 3000 levels on the Endless Challenge of Mario Maker 2 (Easy levels)

Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Today is November 30th, 2024. The song of the day is "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Brighter Than The Sun - Brick + Mortar

Today is November 29th, 2024. The song of the day is "Brighter Than the Sun" by Brick + Mortar.

Alice's Restaurant Massacree - Arlo Guthrie

Today is November 28th, 2024. The song of the day is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" by Arlo Guthrie.

Misery Business - Paramore

Today is November 27th, 2024. The song of the day is "Misery Business" by Paramore.

Patience - Guns N' Roses

Today is November 26th, 2024. The song of the day is "Patience" by Guns N' Roses.

(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones

Today is November 25th, 2024. The song of the day is "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" by The Rolling Stones.

America's Sweetheart - Elle King

And the bonus song of the day is "America's Sweetheart" by Elle King.

Burn - New Politics

Today is November 24th, 2024. The song of the day is "Burn" by New Politics.

Narcolepsy - Ben Folds Five

Today is November 23rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Narcolepsy" by Ben Folds Five.

I Will Survive - Cake

Today is November 22nd, 2024. The song of the day is "I Will Survive" by Cake.

Venus - Shocking Blue

Today is November 21st, 2024. The song of the day is "Venus" by Shocking Blue.

I'm Not In Love - 10cc

Today is November 20th, 2024. The song of the day is "I'm Not in Love" by 10cc.

Say Something - James

Today is November 19th, 2024. The song of the day is "Say Something" by James.

Right Down the Line - Gerry Rafferty

Today is November 18th, 2024. The song of the day is "Right Down the Line" by Gerry Rafferty.

Friends Of P. - The Rentals

Today is November 17th, 2024. The song of the day is "Friends of P." by The Rentals.

Love Today - Mika

Today is November 16th, 2024. The song of the day is "Love Today" by Mika.

Elenore - The Turtles

Today is November 15th, 2024. The song of the day is "Elenore" by The Turtles.

Shady Lane - Pavement

Today is November 14th, 2024. The song of the day is "Shady Lane" by Pavement.

You Learn - Alanis Morissette

Today is November 13th, 2024. The song of the day is "You Learn" by Alanis Morissette.

Makes No Sense at All - Hüsker Dü

Today is November 12th, 2024. The song of the day is "Makes No Sense at All" by Hüsker Dü.

Life is Shit - The Dead Milkmen

And the bonus song of the day is "Life is Shit" by The Dead Milkmen.

Liar - Rollins Band

Today is November 11th, 2024. The song of the day is "Liar" by the Rollins Band.

Idiots Rule - Jane's Addiction

Today is November 10th, 2024. The song of the day is "Idiots Rule" by Jane's Addiction.

King Of Pain - The Police

Today is November 9th, 2024. The song of the day is "King of Pain" by The Police.

Two Tribes - Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Today is November 8th, 2024. The song of the day is "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

God Is Dead? - Black Sabbath

Today is November 7th, 2024. The song of the day is "God is Dead?" by Black Sabbath.

No! - They Might Be Giants

Today is November 6th, 2024. The song of the day is "No!" by They Might Be Giants.

Thanks, Obama

 So, this past Sunday, Silas and I decided to play All the Presidents Toast Crunch again, to determine (again) how the presidential election will play out.

Since it had been 4 years since the last time we played, we were a little rusty on how the game was supposed to truly be set up and executed (and, you know, the fact that this playtest was essentially only the 3rd time we'd run thru it all), but, after re-reading the original blog post, and just kind of looking at the board and pieces, I was able to more or less figure it out.

I wasn't sure if Si wanted to actually play it, as when I had brought up the idea on Friday, his response had been, "I dunno about that". And when I first brought the game down and started setting it up, he did seem ...teenagey-dismissive of it. 

But, once we both got into playing, we had a good time.

We actually played it twice, because the first play had Trump absolutely demolish us. We went maybe 3 turns total before he had completely wiped out all 4 starting presidents. (I ...don't remember who they were. Washington was on the yellow team...and that's about all I recall.) 

But, after having the first play thru be so demoralizing, and talking with Silas about some of the ways to tweak the game, I wanted to give it another go. 

So we reset up the board, and opted to ignore the color spaces on the board. (One of the key takeaways from the playing was how absolutely UNbalanced the game is overall. Trump being able to attack so many of the spaces on the board is simply too "OP") We also changed a rule so that presidents can summon backup members using an attack die, rather than having to move to the summoning space. 

Both of those changes made the game MUCH fairer. (Still not a completely balanced match-up, but at least with those tweaks, the game lasted longer than a few rounds.) 

What really helped the game along though, was the fact that Obama got summoned  pretty early on. His 'super power' is that whenever doubles are rolled, it does 10 points of damage to Trump. The dice were pretty much on board with that, as I think at least three different times doubles were rolled, which helped bring Trump's health meter down quite quickly. 

Of course, the Trump/Obama feud is well known, and it extended to the game as well. On one attack that Silas did for Trump, he pulled out BOTH pink dice, which essentially nuked Obama. Fortunately, we had ...er... Zachary Taylor? I forget if that's who it was (just looked it up - it was Millard Fillmore) on the board, and HIS power is the ability to revive any president who has died (while taking a 3 point hit on his health). He revived Obama, who ...other than a few more digs at Trump and some amendment collecting, didn't really do TOO much more. But it felt good having him back in the game.

Carter was the only other living president to make the roster, and, just like last time, he kicked some major ass. His movement factor being so high made him the perfect prez to run around the board collecting the majority of the amendments for us.

We were able to obtain all 10 amendments, and - with another tweak that we decided we didn't have to move to the 'amendment space' on the board to trade them in, but rather that it could be done instantly, we used them to remove ...a green die from the box. Even though, at the time, there were NO green presidents on the board.  (Trump had wiped out Grover Cleveland early on) 

At some point, we decided that summoning in a good handful of "backup" presidents was a good strategy, and we ultimately ended up with 6 Commanders-in-Chief (Commander-in-Chiefs?) on the board taking shots at the Orange One. 

About halfway through, we commented on the weird fact that the MAGA counter die hadn't been pulled during any of Trump's attacks. It was then that we noticed that ...it wasn't in the box. It had at some point (probably during the first play) fallen off the table and onto the ground and we hadn't noticed it. OOps. 

I joked that Trump would claim that the game was rigged, and, I mean, it SORTA was, as that die not being in the box IS a slightly bigger disadvantage to him. But. We put the die back in the box (it came up 1 other time after that, so...) and we moved the MAGA counter up by 10 to make up for it.

We continued to move people around, collecting the amendments again (we summoned ...I think Harding? ...who had a superpower of "starting with 4 amendments", which was a HUGE plus for us) and eventually collected enough to remove another die (a blue one this time). And we continued to chip away at Trump's health. Lincoln's power played a pivotal role as well, since it can essentially double the damage inflicted on him in a round (although doing so damages ol' Abe as well. We used his power a few times, and he ultimately sacrificed himself to help bring Trump down to a more manageable threat level.) Eventually, Trump's health was brought down to the single digits. We had Obama do another attack, thinking that might be the final blow, but he fell JUST short, leaving Trump at just 1 health.

Both Silas and I decided that the best outcome of the game would be to have Trump use the black die to inflict the final damage point on himself. So...we kind of just had the other presidents wander the board for a few additional turns longer than we needed to, just to make it so that we would eventually draw the black die out of the box, and Trump would, in deed, be his own demise.

So... all in all, the game is FAR from perfect. The board - and most likely, the presidents themselves (heh, we even commented on the fact that there is no Biden piece, since when I made the game, he wasn't president...we said that this time he was off taking a nap.) need to both be re-worked to be more balanced and fair. But there's a kernel of a good game in this, I think, and if nothing else, this serves as a sort of interesting time capsule of 2020.

As for whether it was a predictor of tonight's election results? Who the hell knows. I certainly hope so. As fun as the game is, I don't really want to have to play it again in 2028 to find out if we're going to defeat him AGAIN.

Ultimately, the game provided me and my son with a fun Sunday afternoon, so in that regard, I'm totally the winner.

I Don't Give A... - MISSIO

Today is November 5th, 2024. The song of the day is "I Don't Give A..." by MISSIO. Heh. I mean, I really DO, but it's just funny that this came up on the wheel...

Oh Lord One More Day - The Supervillains

Today is November 4th, 2024. The song of the day is "Oh Lord One More Day" by The Supervillains. (god, PLEASE let us not fuck tomorrow up)

Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car - Billy Ocean

Today is November 3rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Get Outta My Dreams, Get Into My Car" by Billy Ocean.

My Name Is Jonas - Weezer

Today is November 2nd, 2024. The song of the day is "My Name is Jonas" by Weezer.

Intro / Bombs Away - Foxy Shazam

Today is November 1st, 2024. The song of the day is "Intro/Bombs Away" by Foxy Shazam.

October's vid

 oops, didn't get October posted...

 

here it is:

1 - Rabbits

2 - driving home from work that day

3 - Ori

4 - Mmmm...Pepsi.

5  - snake at a petco

6 - halloween decorations inside target

7 - halloween decorations at some house (get used to that description)

8 - halloween decorations at some house

9 - the night they imploded the Tropicana Hotel

10 - Ezra

11 - um...just being in the car

12 - Ori

13 - mmmm....Pepsi

14 - halloween decorations at some house (ours, specifically)

15 - halloween decorations at some house

16 - our little glowy grim reaper dude. (He's so cute!)

17 - big ol' moon (better in person than in video)

18 - high winds knocked down a tree outside work. here they are cleaning it up.

19 - early voted!!

20 - car wash

21 - Kaeli's last day at Dominos. :(

22 - halloween decorations at some house

23 - aww, poor Abed. (Took him to the vet for his arthritis)

24 - hey, that Taco Bell down the street is open now! (it's super small.)

25 - my office

26 - Ori

27 - USwirl

28 - halloween decorations at some house

29 - mileage milestone (102000)

30- just me in the car

31 - candy

Feel the Pain - Dinosaur Jr.

Today is October 31st, 2024. The song of the day is "Feel the Pain" by Dinosaur Jr.

Spirits - The Strumbellas

Today is October 30th, 2024. The song of the day is "Spirits" by The Strumbellas. (Happy almost Halloween!)

Hopelessly Devoted To You - Olivia Newton-John

Today is October 29th, 2024. The song of the day is "Hopelessly Devoted to You" by Olivia Newton-John.

Golden Years - David Bowie

Today is October 28th, 2024. The song of the day is "Golden Years" by David Bowie.

Another Postcard - Barenaked Ladies

Today is October 27th, 2024. The song of the day is "Another Postcard" by the Barenaked Ladies.

So Into You - Atlanta Rhythm Section

Today is October26th, 2024. The song of the day is "So Into You" by Atlanta Rhythm Section.

Do It Anyway - Ben Folds Five

Today is October 25th, 2024. The song of the day is "Do It Anyway" by Ben Folds Five.

AM Radio - Everclear

And the bonus song of the day is "AM Radio" by Everclear.

Peaches - The Presidents of the United States of America

Today is October 24th, 2024. The song of the day is "Peaches" by The Presidents of the United States of America.

Institutionalized - Suicidal Tendencies

Today is October 23rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Institutionalized" by Suicidal Tendencies.

Hypnotize - System Of A Down

Today is October 22nd, 2024. The song of the day is "Hypnotize" by System of a Down.

Mr. E's Beautiful Blues - eels

Today is October 21st, 2024. The song of the day is "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" by the eels.

Under The Milky Way - The Church

Today is October 20th, 2024. The song of the day is "Under the Milky Way" by The Church.

Like A Boss - The Lonely Island

Today is October 19th, 2024. The song of the day is "Like a Boss" by The Lonely Island.

Frankenstein - The Edgar Winter Group

Today is October 18th, 2024. The song of the day is "Frankenstein" by The Edgar Winter Group.

Produce - Zach Sherwin

Today is October 17th, 2024. The song of the day is "Produce" by Zach Sherwin.

Crush with Eyeliner - R.E.M.

Today is October 16th, 2024. The song of the day is "Crush with Eyeliner" by R.E.M.

American Jesus - Bad Religion

Today is October 15th, 2024. The song of the day is "American Jesus" by Bad Religion.

Devils Haircut - Beck

Today is October 14th, 2024. The song of the day is "Devils Haircut" by Beck.

Carry That Weight - The Beatles

Today is October 13th, 2024. The song of the day is "Carry That Weight" by The Beatles. (Go get a Pepsi!)

Can't Stand Losing You - The Police

Today is October 12th, 2024. The song of the day is "Can't Stand Losing You" by The Police.

Lay All Your Love On Me - ABBA

Today is October 11th, 2024. The song of the day is "Lay All Your Love On Me" by ABBA.

The Hardest Button To Button - The White Stripes

And the bonus song of the day is "The Hardest Button to Button" by The White Stripes.

Rock Me Amadeus - Falco

Today is October 10th, 2024. The song of the day is "Rock Me Amadeus" by Falco.

Blister In The Sun - Violent Femmes

Today is October 9th, 2024. The song of the day is "Blister in the Sun" by the Violent Femmes.

Some Might Say - Oasis

Today is October 8th, 2024. The song of the day is "Some Might Say" by Oasis.

Eleanor Rigby - The Beatles

Today is October 7th, 2024. The song of the day is "Eleanor Rigby" by The Beatles. Possibly my favorite Beatles song. Go get a Pepsi!

Elevation - U2

Today is October 6th, 2024. The song of the day is "Elevation" by U2.

Stop! - Jane's Addiction

Today is October 5th, 2024. The song of the day is "Stop!" by Jane's Addiction.

The Joker - Steve Miller Band

Today is October 4th, 2024. The song of the day is "The Joker" by the Steve Miller Band.

More Than A Woman - Bee Gees

Today is October 3rd, 2024. The song of the day is "More Than a Woman" by the Bee Gees.

Soak Up The Sun - Sheryl Crow

Today is October 2nd, 2024. The song of the day is "Soak Up the Sun" by Sheryl Crow.

The Perfect Drug - Nine Inch Nails

Today is October 1st, 2024. The song of the day is "The Perfect Drug" by Nine Inch Nails. 

(Without you... without you everything falls apart. Without you, it's not as much fun to pick up the pizza.)

Sept 1se video

 Well, September's over now... which means 2024 is about to go into fast forward mode...
here's how 9/2024 went down...

1 -  ceiling fan - it was hot. (Ironically, it's hot today, at the end of the month, too...)

2 - dough being thrown away at Domino's (food waste is INSANE in this country)

3 - Halloween decorations up in people's yards. On September 3rd!! Dude, you aren't Target.

4 - Bees in a bunch of purple flowers

5 - Ori, rubbing her face

6 - Heh. Closed Caption testing, apparently. Either that, or Advil commercials have gotten VERY strange.

7 - MILESTONE!! 99999 to 100000!!!

8 - making myslef a cheese quesadilla for lunch. yum!

9 - early morning 7-11 parking lot

10 - late night Domino's run.

11  - smoky skies = red sun in the morning. It looked cooler in person than on video

12 - had Taco Bell for dinner, this was just me filming the kiosk while I ordered

13 - Heading out one of the employee exits at work

14 - Mayor the ...iguana (? I'm not sure what type of lizard he was, just saw him out in the world, and filmed him. Dude who owned him said his name was "Mayor". Heh.)

15 - Dime that I found! You'll see it again (heh) at the end of the year

16 - a moderate amount of dishes to be done at Dominos that day.

17 - There was a partial lunar eclipse that night... it looked much cooler in person than what my phone was able to pick up.

18 - Survivor 47 premiere! I'm predicting a Gabe win at this point. (but HOPING for a Kyle win)

19 - walking into the office.

20 - dinner at Farmer Boys

21 - car wash

22 - Stratego ...I still haven't won.

23 - Filling up the gas tank

24 - Turtle peep munch on some lettuce

25 - Dominos was dinner. (And it was free!! Nice!!)

26 - Song of the day was by Ringo Starr (It Don't Come Easy), so got myself a Pepsi

27 - newest Zelda game (play as ZELDA!!). Steph and Si both dig it.

28 - I was TRYING to film both cats, but Ori chased Abed up the stairs. Sigh.

29 - Heh. We had Taco Bell for dinner again. (Lots of eating out this month) I filmed part of my waiting.

30 - And we wrapped hte month up with lunch at In-N-Out. hooray!

Let's Dance - David Bowie

Today is September 30th, 2024. The song of the day is "Let's Dance" by David Bowie.

Dog New Tricks - Garbage

Today is September 29th, 2024. The song of the day is "Dog New Tricks" by Garbage.

Dashboard - Modest Mouse

Today is September 28th, 2024. The song of the day is "Dashboard" by Modest Mouse.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart - Elton John

Today is September 27th, 2024. The song of the day is "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" by Elton John (with Kiki Dee).

It Don't Come Easy - Ringo Starr

Today is September 26th, 2024. The song of the day is "It Don't Come Easy" by Ringo Starr. (Yay, go get a Pepsi!!)

Foxy Shazam - Burn

Today is September 25th, 2024. The song of the day is "Burn" by Foxy Shazam. 

Working Man - Rush

And the bonus song of the day is "Working Man" by Rush.

Bad Days - The Flaming Lips

Today is September 24th, 2024. The song of the day is "Bad Days" by The Flaming Lips.

Technologiya - Bonaparte

Today is September 23rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Technologiya" by Bonaparte.

Broken Things - David Byrne

Today is September 22nd, 2024. The song of the day is "Broken Things" by David Byrne.

Life During Wartime - Talking Heads

Today is September 21st, 2024. The song of the day is "Life During Wartime" by Talking Heads.

I Don't Care (So There) - The Donnas

Today is September 20th, 2024. The song of the day is "I Don't Care (So There)" by The Donnas.

Juke Joint Jezebel - KMFDM

Today is September 19th, 2024. The song of the day is "Juke Joint Jezebel" by KMFDM.

I Wanna Be A Cowboy - Boys Don't Cry

Today is September 18th, 2024. The song of the day is "I Wanna Be a Cowboy" by Boys Don't Cry.

Amish Paradise - "Weird" Al Yankovic

Today is September 17th, 2024. The song of the day is "Amish Paradise" by "Weird" Al Yankovic.

Riders on the Storm - The Doors

Today is September 16th, 2024. The song of the day is "Riders on the Storm" by The Doors.

Crowing - Toad the Wet Sprocket

Today is September 15th, 2024. The song of the day is "Crowing" by Toad the Wet Sprocket.

I'm Impressed - They Might Be Giants

Today is September 14th, 2024. The song of the day is "I'm Impressed" by They Might Be Giants.

Susan's House - eels

Today is September 13th, 2024. The song of the day is "Susan's House" by the eels.

Can't Knock The Hustle - Weezer

Today is September 12th, 2024. The song of the day is "Can't Knock the Hustle" by Weezer.

The Temporary Blues - The Features

Today is September 11th, 2024. The song of the day is "The Temporary Blues" by The Features.

Fools in Love - Inara George

Today is September 10th, 2024. The song of the day is "Fools in Love" by Inara George.

We Care a Lot - Faith No More

And the bonus song of the day is "We Care a Lot" by Faith No More.

Wonderful Christmastime - Paul McCartney

Today is September 9th, 2024. The song of the day is "Wonderful Christmastime" by Paul McCartney. 

(1 - go get a pepsi. 2 - I often see that people despise this song. I don't understand that viewpoint. This is one of the only xmas songs that I DON'T hate.)

California Dreamin' - The Mamas & The Papas

Today is September 8th, 2024. The song of the day is "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas.

Good Morning - Grouplove

Today is September 7th, 2024. The song of the day is "Good Morning" by Grouplove.

Batdance - Prince

Today is September 6th, 2024. The song of the day is "Batdance" by Prince.

No One Lives Forever - Oingo Boingo

Today is September 5th, 2024. The song of the day is "No One Lives Forever" by Oingo Boingo.

The King Is Half-Undressed - Jellyfish

Today is September 4th, 2024. The song of the day is "The King is Half-Undressed" by Jellyfish.

Modern Jesus - Portugal. The Man

Today is September 3rd, 2024. The song of the day is "Modern Jesus" by Portugal. The Man.

Knowing Me, Knowing You - ABBA

Today is September 2nd, 2024. The song of the day is "Knowing Me, Knowing You" by ABBA.

Testify - Rage Against The Machine

Today is September 1st, 2024. The song of the day is "Testify" by Rage Against the Machine.

August 1sec

 End of August... crazy. Here's the 1 sec every day video for this month:

ANd here's what each day was:

1 & 2 - just me looking at the camera. [shrug] 

3 - Look at how different the coloring is on the pictures of those chewy bars! So weird. Only thing I can think is that they were using different ink on the packages.

4 - EZRA!

5 - Ori on her walk.

6 - grocery shopping

7 - video of a video of a bat that was outside our door.

8 - Yay, Saren!! They've finally returned from their trip to Japan, and were visiting for a week before heading back to Colorado.

9 - Saren feeding the turtle peep.

10 - We went bowling at Round One this day. It was loud. And expensive. But it was still a pretty good time.

11 - collection of Japanese candies and goodies that Saren brought home for us.

12 - Saren on the couch, Steph on the chair. Just lounging.

13 - This was right after Saren had a zoom-call interview with their old job, to get re-hired. (They did!)

14 - Final day that Saren was here.

15 - Ezra, sleeping.

16 - Oh, work.

17 - Spaghetti dinner.

18 - Abed is a strange cat.

19 - Early morning sunrise.

20 - Extremely early morning (like 1:00am) full moon.

21 - Ori on her walk

22 - Final night of the DNC, and our next president.

23 - Paul Powell (a local lawyer) updated his commercials for the first time in 5 years. He USED to be a baby-faced man, now he's got a beard and hippie hair!

24 - Pigeons out on Ori's walk.

25 - Getting new tires at Firestone.

26 - shopping at Target

27 - eating my dinner during my domino's shift...in the car.

28 - getting my yearly physical

29 - Ezra

30 - Getting a pepsi at work.

31 - woke up to discover that one of the new tires from Firestone is flat. It's 9am now, so as soon as post this, I need to go put on the spare and drive back down to get a replacmeent. What a fun Saturday!

Unskinny Bop - Poison

Today is August 31st, 2024. The song of the day is "Unskinny Bop" by Poison.

The Man - The Killers

Today is August 30th, 2024. The song of the day is "The Man" by The Killers.

Don't Call Us, We'll Call You - Sugarloaf

Today is August 29th, 2024. The song of the day is "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You" by Sugarloaf.

I Like It - Foxy Shazam

Today is August 28th, 2024. The song of the day is "I Like It" by Foxy Shazam.

Chlorine - Twenty One Pilots

Today is August 27th, 2024. The song of the day is "Chlorine" by Twenty One Pilots.

In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) - Zager and Evans

Today is August 26th, 2024. The song of the day is "In the Year 2525 (Exordium & Terminus) by Zager and Evans.

Hey! - Boingo

Today is August 25th, 2024. The song of the day is "Hey!" by Boingo.

Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys

And the bonus song of the day is "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys.

You Will Never Take Me Alive - The Paper Chase

Today is August 24th, 2024. The song of the day is "You Will Never Take Me Alive" by The Paper Chase.

The Western World - Pennywise

Today is August 23rd, 2024. The song of the day is "The Western World" by Pennywise.

KDV - MISSIO

Today is August 22nd, 2024. The song of the day is "KDV" by MISSIO.

Screen - Twenty One Pilots

Today is August 21st, 2024. The song of the day is "Screen" by Twenty One Pilots.

Goodbye to You - Michelle Branch

Today is August 20th, 2024. The song of the day is "Goodbye to You" by Michelle Branch.

Golden Slumbers - The Beatles

Today is August 19th, 2024. The song of the day is "Golden Slumbers" by The Beatles.

Bad Guy - The Interrupters

Today is August 18th, 2024. The song of the day is "Bad Guy" by The Interrupters.

Fortunate Son - Creedence Clearwater Revival

Today is August 17th, 2024. The song of the day is "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Sweet Jane - Cowboy Junkies

Today is August 16th, 2024. The song of the day is "Sweet Jane" by the Cowboy Junkies.