Random Friday Thoughts — August 13, 2021

Happy Friday the 13th! If you’re superstitious, beware!

Oh, boo! Forget you, Jason Voohres!

Michael Myers is the man and Halloween is just around the corner!

“HALLOWEEN KILLS”

After being pushed back a year last fall because of COVID-19 closing down movie theaters, Jamie Lee Curtis is ready to go up against Michael again — for the last time?

2018’s Halloween was very successful (it made $255.6 million with a $15 million budget).

The trailer for “Halloween Kills” is out and it’s incredible.

From the title and the trailer, the body count is going to be very high!

“Halloween Kills” is in theaters October 15, 2021.

I’m so ready for my large plain popcorn and large Coke Zero (and my free refills)! The last movie I saw in theaters was “Bombshell” in early 2020 about Megyn Kelly and Fox News!

TRAVEL REBOUND?

Once the COVID-19 vaccinations became available this spring and the number of cases and deaths dropped drastically earlier this summer, did you start planning any big trips?

I did!

Now, I’m very dismayed with the resurgence of cases and deaths from the “delta variant” and the unvaccinated overwhelming hospitals!

I’m going to be optimistic!

With more businesses mandating a vaccination (or weekly negative COVID tests) for employment, I hope the U.S. and the world will beat down the “delta variant” and we’ll see the number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths drop again!

“GRACE AND FRANKIE”

Earlier this year, I started watching “Schitt’$ Creek” and “Grace and Frankie” at the same time. I’d watch one series during dinner one day and the other the next day.

By the time I got into the third season of “Grace and Frankie”, I started bingeing “Schitt’$ Creek” exclusively and put “Grace & Frankie” on hold.

After I finished “Creek”, I watched season four of “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a few movies, and then caught up on the new “American Horror Stories”.

As you can see, I was avoiding getting back to the Jane Fonda-Lily Tomlin series. Once I returned, I don’t know if it was because of the break or the writing or the flow changed, but seasons four, five, and six were much better!

I love Grace (Fonda), Robert (Martin Sheen), and Joan-Margaret (Millicent Martin), but Brianna (June Diane Raphael) is my favorite.

When the series returns to Netflix for the seventh and final season, I really want them to kill off Sol early in season. Okay, that may be a little harsh.

Just send him away for some reason! While I like Sam Waterston, who plays Sol, I can’t stand the character and I can’t believe that Robert wants to be with him!

Here are a couple more highlights…

The final season is being filmed now, so there’s no release date yet.

“THE MAURITANIAN”

This incredible 2021 movie is based on the true story of a man detailed at Guantanamo Bay for more than a decade without ever being charged with a crime.

While the movie was overlooked by the Academy Awards this year, it earned Jodie Foster a Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture and a Best Actor nomination for Tahar Rahim in the Best Actor in a Motion Picture-Drama category.

Foster plays an Albuquerque, New Mexico lawyer who takes up the case of Mohamedou Ould Slahi, a man from the African country of Mauritania in 2001.

Shailene Woodley and Benedict Cumberbatch co-star and were great, too.

GRADE: A

“AMERICA IN SEARCH OF ITSELF”

This 1982 book by Theodore H. White is subtitled, “The Making of the President 1956-1980”, and is a very interesting read.

Here are a couple of oily things I learned:

The first year that the United States imported more oil than it exported was in 1948. After that, we were dependent on the Middle East!

White added that during the oil shortages of the 1970s, the price for a barrel of oil from OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries — originally, in 1960, four Middle Eastern countries and Venezuela) at the start of 1973 was $3.41 and jumped to $41.00 in 1980!

By that year, in the U.S. “it required an uninterrupted eight million barrels every day from overseas to maintain an entire way of life.”

“A QUIET PLACE, PART TWO”

The 2018 original was my #9 movie of the year and I gave it an “A” when I reviewed it.

Here’s what I said then: “The movie ended perfectly for a sequel and one is on the way. Does it need one?  No.  It’s a perfect stand alone movie.”   

So, even then, I had a feeling that I’d be disappointed with the follow-up and I was!

The positives: We saw director John Krasinski again and Emily Blunt is great, but under-utilized.

Millicent Simmonds, who played Blunt and Krasinski’s daughter, is magnificent in this movie, just as she was in the original.

This one felt like it was made just because it’d bring in a lot of money like the original.

The first one made $350.3 million and this one brought in $294 million, which is great for a sequel and in the new COVID-19 landscape with theaters just opening back up.

GRADE: B-

FINAL THOUGHTS

“THE HANDMAID’S TALE”: Since I mentioned season four earlier, I loved this season. The change of pace and scenery was great.

But, I seriously hope the series in with season five!

“AMERICAN HORROR STORIES”: Not to be confused with Ryan Murphy’s other series “American Horry Story”, this is a new weekly series that features of a horror of the week instead of a storyline for the entire season.

It’s like “The X-Files” when it featured a different monster or case of the week!

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

Random Friday Thoughts — July 13, 2018

The weekend is almost here and it’s Friday the 13th again!

Thank you for taking time to check out my random thoughts.

BREAKING NEWS — I’M HAPPY! 🙂

“Pose” on FX was renewed for a second season!

HOLLYWOOD MATINEE IDOL DIES

1950s and 1960s matinee idol and LGBT pioneer Tab Hunter died earlier this week, three days shy of his 87th birthday.

Just four weeks ago, I wrote about him and his book “Confidential”.  It was about his life as a gay man being marketed as a lady’s man in Hollywood.

While publicly dating beautiful ingenues like Natalie Wood, one of his most intense love affairs was with the man I was named for — “Pyscho” star Anthony Perkins.

“NEVER AGAIN”

This should never be the only choice!

FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF, EVEN UNIQUE!

I get daily numbers on how many times my blog is viewed, what entries are being looked at, and from what country.

A few weeks ago, I noticed a June 3, 2016 blog getting a lot of views, so I clicked on it to see what my “Random Friday Thoughts” were that week.

And, this was in there and I loved it that day as much as the first time I saw it.

At the time, I posted it on Facebook and it got a lot of love.  On Twitter, while loved, it also got this response.

As I blogged that day, “I’m the kind of person that tries to respond to all comments (good or bad), but I’ll not carry on a lengthy debate and waste my time with someone who’s main objective is just to argue just for the sake of it.

Trust me, most of the posts on this person’s Twitter page proves he/she just trolls the internet and social media to make negative comments.

Move on and troll elsewhere!”

Well, here’s an update on that account.

I may not be unique, but my blog is still going after six years and my Twitter account is still active!

“CLAWS”

On TNT’s “Claws”, Desna (the amazing and incredibly sexy Niecy Nash) and her girls at the Nail Artisans in Palmetto, Florida, are still making nails that look flawless.

But, after laundering money for the Dixie Mafia in season one with the pain clinic acting as a front for drug trade, they now have a bigger, international problem to deal with.

Zlata Ostrousky and her Russian goons have Desna under a beautifully manicured thumb.

Ironically, as the ladies at the salon were making the business more Russian-ized for their new boss, they placed a photo of 45 and his boss daddy, Vladimir Putin, on the wall. 🙂

Wait!

Don’t the Russians have enough to do with interfering in American presidential elections (allegedly), buying the right to host the World Cup soccer tournament, condemning and making the lives of the LGBTQ community miserable, and poisoning people with substandard street alcohol to be running a drug cartel in Florida?

I love the additon of Zlata (Franka Potente), the head of the Russian mob family.

In the last episode, there was a classic exchange when Desna wanted to let Zlata in on an assassination attempt on her life from Clay and the Dixie Mafia.

Desna says that she heard a rumor and Zlata replies, “Is true.  I feed raw hamburger to President at sex party at Mar-a-Lago!”

Just last week, TNT renewed “Claws” for a third season for 2019! 🙂

COMPARING APPLES TO ORANGES

There may never be another Madonna, Michael Jackson, or the Beatles — the chart dominance they accomplished will be legendary.

However, if you just look at the headlines and Billboard chart numbers, they’ve already been replaced!

Here’s a headline this week:

Okay, so technically, Drake breaks the Beatles records.

And, with five new songs in the Top Ten on the Hot 100, he surpasses Michael Jackson with the most solo male Top Ten hits.

But, this is like comparing apples to oranges.

The Billboard Hot 100 chart rules have changed many times since its inception in 1958.

When you see how many hits Madonna, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson scored on the Hot 100, it was because those were bonafide hits that radio was playing and you could buy as a single.

Album tracks could not chart on the Hot 100 if there’s wasn’t a physical single.

That’s changed now, so it’s MUCH MUCH easier for “songs” from albums to chart on the Hot 100 instead of “singles”.

So, if this was a commonplace rule from the 1950s-1990s, then Drake’s accomplishment would likely pale in comparison.

When the Beatles had the top five songs on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 4, 1964, it was because they were popular on radio and in stores!

Here’s a couple more interesting tidbits for you.  The old rules kept some of the biggest songs in music from charting on the Billboard Hot 100 like No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” from 1996 (16 weeks at #1 on the “Hot 100 Airplay” chart) and Madonna’s 1985 megahit, “Into The Groove”.

While that song hit #1 on the Billboard Dance Chart and Billboard honored it as the “Dance Single of the Decade”, it never hit the Hot 100 because it was the B-side to the 12″ dance single “Angel”.

Overall, Madonna still leads all artists with the most Top Ten hits on the Billboard Hot 100 with 38.

Elvis would be second with 36 (if you count his Hot 100 hits and Pre-Hot 100 hits), The Beatles are third with 34 and Drake and Rihanna are tied for fourth with 31.

I STILL “LOVE, SIMON”

Have you seen this stellar coming-of-age movie yet?  I saw it back in March when it first came out.  You can now rent it at Redbox.

I think it’s a must see for every one with a child or teenager dealing with today’s fast changing world!

And, Nick Robinson is absolutely adorable as Simon (Josh Duhamel, as his dad, ain’t too bad either!) 🙂

And, since I talked about Whitney Houston last week and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” is my favorite Whitney song, I’ll feature this short video from the movie.

And, how could you forget Damon’s dance audition on “Pose”?

Oh wait, if people were actually watching this beautiful, touching FX show, you wouldn’t forget it!

90s NOSTALGIA

Since moving to Duluth, Minnesota, this month, I’ve been a little nostalgic about my previous times living in the Midwest and Great Lakes back in the 1990s.

Let’s take a country route this week with a voice that still melts me today to hear. 🙂

Canadian Paul Brandt broke out in 1996 just as I was heading to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, for my first real television job.

“My Heart Has A History” reached #5 on the Billboard Country chart here in the U.S., and the follow-up, “I Do”, became his biggest U.S. hit peaking at #2.  It also became a “wedding song of the year”.

Sadly, Paul only scored three more moderate hits here in America — peaking at #39, #38, and #38.

However, in Canada, his first five singles, including the two I previously mentioned, all topped the chart.

He’s still popular in Canada.  Overall, he’s had 26 hits on the Canadian Country chart with 20 of them making the Top Ten, and 6 hitting #1.

THAT’S IT

With all the craziness in the world, make it the best in your little part of it!

Anthony

A Weekend To Warm Hearts

Valentine’s Day weekend is here and this year it comes after a Friday the 13th!

Let’s hope that Jason isn’t your partner because you’re likely not going to get roses or champagne by the crackling fire!

But, you never know, they may have cut those scenes from the “Friday the 13th” movies!

While temperatures are going to be bitterly cold in the Quad Cities this weekend, that won’t keep people away from the movie theaters for a date with Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele.

This weekend, to celebrate our sixth Valentine’s Day together, Ray is going to make his famous lasagna.  Okay, while it may not be famous, it should be because it’s delicious!

As for gifts, we have something for Gretel, our 13-year-old daughter.  As for us, we know how we feel for each other and we don’t need a gift to express that.  However, we may still pick up a box of chocolates Sunday for half price just to blow the healthy eating for a day or two!

On the other hand, I would definitely settle for a bag of the new “limited edition” Red Velvet Oreos!  Have you tried them yet?  Are they tasty?

And, how would this be to top off a weekend of love, Mercer’s Wine Ice Cream?

Yes, ice cream with actual wine.  It comes in eight incredible flavors:  Peach White Zinfandel, Strawberry Sparkling, Red Raspberry Chardonnay, Riesling, Port, Spice, Cherry Merlot, and Chocolate Cabaret.

The closest stores that carry it to the Quad Cities are Hy-Vee locations in Iowa City, Iowa, and Sycamore and Springfield, Illinois.

Since I won’t be driving there on this bitterly cold weekend and we do have the bottles of chocolate red wine, maybe we could mix that with ice cream and make our wine milk shakes!

Otherwise, our romantic weekend will consist of some fun adult beverages, watching movies and television, a crackling fire, and a nice family weekend.

Happy Valentine’s Day to your and yours.

If you’re single, Happy Valentine’s Day to you!  I had many of those and I didn’t mind since I could eat all of the chocolates myself — except what I shared with ABBA, my golden retriever.  Yes, I know you’re not “supposed” to give dogs chocolate, but it was in moderation!

Anthony