While I’ve blogged about various topics lately, I haven’t done a “Random Friday Thoughts” blog in some time, so here goes.
SHE’S BACK…..
Former Alaska Governor and 2008 Vice President nominee Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump.
In news that’s even more shocking, right around that announcement, her 26-year-old son, Track, was arrested after a fight with girlfriend, in which he allegedly punched and kicked her. She was also concerned he would take his own life with a rifle.
Track faces three misdemeanor charges: assault, interfering with the reporting of domestic violence, and possessing a gun while intoxicated.
Mama Palin says the anger her son displayed may be the result of PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder). While that may be true, in her twisted logic, she basically says President Obama is to blame because of the lack of respect for returning veterans.
Palin says, “That comes from our own President. Where they have to look at him and wonder, ‘Do you know what we go through? Do you know what we’re trying to do to secure America?'”
Incredible.
Even the head of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America Paul Rieckhoff disagrees with that. He says, “It’s not President Obama’s fault that Sarah Palin’s son has PTSD. PTSD is a very serious problem, a complicated mental health injury and I would be extremely reluctant to blame any one person in particular.”
ICE(LAND) ICE(LAND) BABY
Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama says that gays wanting to marry should go to Iceland and stay.
Really? Looking at this beautiful view above, how could that be a bad thing?
Burn! 😏
CELEBRITY DEATHS KEEP COMING!
We’re only three weeks into 2016 and, sadly, more and more celebrities are dying.
The actors include Alan Rickman (“Harry Potter” series), Dan Haggerty (“Grizzly Adams”) and Pat Harrington, Jr. (“One Day at a Time”). Then there’s Celine Dion’s husband and brother (within two days of each other) and music legend David Bowie.
And, earlier this week, Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey died.
While “The Heat is On” and “You Belong To The City” were bigger solo hits, this is one my favorite Frey hits.
REBA’S TRIBUTE TO HER FATHER
Last spring, Reba released her latest album, “Love Somebody” and it spent two weeks at #1 on the country album chart.
Sadly, country radio pretty much turned its back on the two singles. “Going Out Like That”, one of my ten favorite songs of 2015, only made it to #23 on the Billboard Country Airplay chart and “Until They Don’t Love You” didn’t even make it onto the chart!
I’m not holding my breath that “Just Like Them Horses” will even be released to country radio.
It was one of my favorites songs on the album and Reba just put out a video to the song in memory of her father Clark McEntire that died in October 2014.
“WORLD WAR Z 2”
The sequel to 2013’s “World War Z” with Brad Pitt is still scheduled to hit theaters June 9, 2017. However, the movie is now without a director.
J.A. Bayona (“The Impossible”) was attached to direct the zombie film, but backed out saying he was too involved with other commitments.
The movie is still scheduled to shoot this year.
If you recall, there were many setbacks in getting the first film to theaters. Typically, that means there’s trouble and it suffers at the box office. That didn’t happen to “World War Z”. It grossed $540 million.
It was also my second favorite movie of 2013.
“THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE”
If you have Amazon Prime, check out the highly acclaimed series, “The Man In the High Castle”. It’s a great show and the premise is far-fetched and thought-provoking.
It’s 1962 and it appears that America lost World War II. The western United States in under Japanese rule and the much of the rest of United States is under Germany’s control.
Between the two, there’s a “Neutral Zone”. It’s there where the story is getting interesting because there’s a resistance underway after film reels surface with news-style footage showing that the Allies did win the war and Japan and Germany lost.
Very intriguing and the three stars are beautiful!
“DIETLAND”
Since it’s an election year, I’ve moved on to reading about political figures. I started out with “It Takes a Village” by Hillary Rodham Clinton. While informative, it seemed a little too clinical, but I loved the tidbits I learned about Hillary and her early life.
I’ve now moved on to Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio will be next. By that time, I’m 100% sure that it’ll be back to Hillary and “Living History”.
But, before I got all serious, I read Sarai Walker’s “Dietland” and I highly, highly recommend it.
The book is about Plum, an overweight woman, that has failed at diets and is considering gastric bypass surgery. She then realizes she’s being followed and it leads to meeting a woman connected to her past diet failures. Also, a series of high profile murders of scummy men lead to a revolt about the exploitation of women.
Read my complete review of “Dietland” here. If you click on the link, it’ll open in a new page.
“THE WALK”
I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt and he’s intense, funny, and incredible in “The Walk” from last fall, which is now out on DVD.
He plays French high-wire artist Philipe Petit, who stunned the world in August 1974, staging the unthinkable — high-wire walking between the newly constructed World Trade Center’s Twin Towers 1,350 feet above the ground
The 45-minute aerial show kept the crowd below holding their breath and police on the roofs of both towers distressed on how to get Petit off the wires alive.
GRADE: A
“SICARIO”
This was one of my most anticipated movies that I wanted to see on DVD since I never got around to seeing it in theaters.
While it brought home the losing battle we’re fighting in the drug war in Mexico and the United States and the viciousness of the drug lords, it didn’t excite me as much watching it.
Don’t get me wrong. It is a great movie with superb acting. I just think I waited too long to see it and my expectations were too high.
One thing I did notice that stood out like a lead character was the haunting score. While I’ve never paid any attention to that category at the Academy Awards, I mentioned to Ray when we were watching the movie, “that score deserves to be nominated for an Oscar”. And, it was nominated!
You can hear the sounds that caught my attention and made the movie creepier right at the beginning of the trailer here.
GRADE: B
“FIFTY SHADES OF GREY”
I finally got around to seeing “Fifty Shades of Grey” and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.
I don’t think it deserves the “Razzie Award” nomination, but I don’t think that Dakota Johnson should have won a People’s Choice Award either!
It was more entertaining than I expected. However, there was no chemistry between Johnson and gorgeous stud Jamie Dornan, who plays billionaire Christian Grey.
I’ll definitely see the second movie when it comes to DVD and I have a casting suggestion for “Mrs. Robinson” — Gillian Anderson.
“The X-Files” and “Hannibal” star is the lead in the incredible and mind-blowing series “The Fall” with Dornan! Season three of that superb series should be out in 2016!
When I think of Dornan as Grey, it’s still “Fifty Shades of ‘Heyyyy'”!
GRADE: B
LOVE CAKE, BUT NEVER HAD IT BY THE OCEAN
DNCE, Joe Jonas’ current musical project, is scoring its first pop hit, “Cake By The Ocean”.
I latched on to this one early on and it was my #6 favorite song of 2015. If you listen to Top 40 radio, you hear it all the time now.
It’s still so much fun and it makes me think of summer during these cold months.
Okay, I could keep going. But, I’ll stop now before I go on a political rant and endorsement.
Thank you for checking out my random thoughts. Let me know what you’re thinking.
Anthony
What's Peeps Thinking About Now? It's Probably Random! 