Random Friday Thoughts — October 7, 2022

Halloween is just weeks away and it’s looking and feeling a little spooky and creepy out there.

Enjoy your fall weekend and thank you for checking out my random thoughts.

ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK!

I appreciate all of my friends! Your color, gender, social class, who you sleep with or don’t sleep with, and so on and so on doesn’t matter to me. You treat me with respect and I’ll do the same.

We live in a world where progress is being made each day with regards to racism, sexism, homophobia, and all of the other -isms and -phobias. Yet, with progress comes backlash and hate.

I know there are more good people than bad in this country and the world, but it’s the bad ones that make more noise.

I am who I am and I know most of you like me or love me just the way I am. I know there are those that don’t.

A lifetime ago when I got married, a friend that still keeps in touch with me basically told me she likes me, but she didn’t approve of marriage because it was to a man. Oh well!

Guess what, that’s your problem, not mine.

But, not all attacks for people like me are physical or with hateful words.

SADLY, “BROS” IS A BOX OFFICE BOMB!

Sometimes, actions speak louder than words or inflicted pain that heals over time.

“Bros”, the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio with a wide theatrical release featuring an almost entirely LGBTQ principal cast, bombed at the box office last weekend!

The $22 million dollar movie made a paltry $4.8 million opening weekend and finished in fourth place! (It’s now up to $6.4 million.)

Was it homophobia? Lack of diversity? People aren’t ready for a Billy Eichner-led movie?

Those were some of the social media reasons given for “Bros” poor opening.

I saw the movie and it’s definitely homophobia — America, sadly, still doesn’t want to see two men kiss, fall in love, have sex, and be happy!

Here are some of the opening weekend stats: 60% of the audience were men; 63% were between the ages of 25-44; Diversity demos — 61% Caucasian, 19% Latino and Hispanic, 6% Black, and 14% Asian/other.

“Bros” played well in the big cities (New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco), but performed poorly in the Midwest and the South!

The best response to the poor box office returns for the movie with a CinemaScore grade of “A” and a 90%+ rating on Rotten Tomatoes is from “Bros” star Dot-Marie Jones.

At a recent charity benefit, she told “Variety”, “There’s so much heart and so many wonderful good laughs… I don’t know if it’s because it’s, you know, LGBTQ. It’s not contagious – fuckin’ go see a movie, you know what I mean? It’s crazy.”

“BROS”

My sister, Tammy, and I saw the movie this week and it was funny as hell and I’m not a comedy movie fan. I’d much rather see a drama.

I laughed out loud several times, smiled many other times, and rooted for the abrasive Bobby (Eichner) and quiet Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) to actually fall for each other and stay together.

I loved that the movie showed an aging gay man (at 40, Good Lord) and how difficult it is to fall for someone after being alone so long, being tired of empty apps hookups, and taking a chance of falling in love and having your heart broken again.

And, heaven forbid, there were sex scenes — all sexy, awkward, and funny. Yes, sex can be sexy and awkward — gay, straight, or somewhere else on the Kinsey scale.

There were guest appearances in “Bros” and my favorite was Debra Messing! Her reaction to Bobby when her first met her was priceless!

GRADE: B

MY BIGGEST COMPLAINT

Seeing “Bros” was the first time I’ve been to a theater since early-2020, pre-pandemic.

AMC Theaters, what the heck is up with this little bag of popcorn you call a “large”? It’s nothing more than a glorified “medium”.

I want my large bucket again!

I don’t mind paying $9 for it and getting my free refill, but please on those little bags you call “large”!

“QUEEN OF COUNTRY MUSIC” DIES

Loretta Lynn, one of the original queens of country music and a Kentucky-born legend, passed away earlier this week at the age of 90.

After touring for almost sixty years, she stopped after suffering a stroke in May 2017 and breaking a hip on New Year’s Day in 2018.

I never saw Loretta in concert. However, as a kid, I heard her perform. The Purchase District Fairgrounds was located just down the road from our apartment in Mayfield, Kentucky, and I could hear her singing.

Loretta scored her first Billboard Country hit in 1960 with “I’m A Honky Tonk Girl”. It peaked at #14.

She ruled the charts in the mid-1960s through the 1970s as both a solo artist and in duets with Conway Twitty.

As a solo artist, Loretta scored 55 country hits. Of those, 39 reached the Top Ten and 11 of them reached #1.

All 12 of her duets with Conway Twitty reached the Top 10 and the first five made it to #1.

Later on, I’ll share my five favorite Loretta Lynn songs!

“QUEEN OF OUR TIMES”

Last week, I highlighted Tina Brown’s 2022 book, “The Palace Papers”. It’s great, but it equally covers Camilla, Catherine (Kate), and Meghan.

Just before Queen Elizabeth II died in early September, I checked out the 625-page new book by Robert Hardman, “Queen of Our Times”.

This is an excellent read.

A few things I learned:

Hardman is not a fan of “The Crown” and the creative liberties it takes with the Queen.

Her Majesty’s favorite presidents were likely Barack Obama, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan.

My idol, President Jimmy Carter, got one mention in the book and it wasn’t a good one: He broke protocol at the Queen’s 1977 reception for NATO leaders. William Shawcross says President Carter greeted the Queen Mother with a kiss on the lips! She later recalled, “I took a sharp step backwards. Not far enough.”

If you want to read a very well researched and written book just on the life of the longest-reigning British monarch, this is the book! However, where Brown is a little jaded toward the monarchy, Hardman sugarcoats a little too much.

TWO AWESOME QUEEN ELIZABETH II QUOTES

Queen Elizabeth II was rather witty and here are two quotes I loved from Hardman’s book:

• (Upon learning her father, King George VI, had died, while she was in Kenya, she was asked what name she would go by as Queen): “My own name, of course. What else?”

• (Once Prince Elizabeth became Her Majesty, she would to have to pay some of the Queen Mother’s bills because of her overspending habits. Queen Elizabeth II jokingly said, “I’ll be quite a wealthy woman when my mother dies”.

“SPOILER ALERT” MOVIE

A few weeks ago, I shared my random fall thoughts and the movies that excited me.

This one stars Jim Parsons, Sally Field, and new to me, sexy English actor Ben Aldridge. The trailer dropped late last week.

If you’re unfamiliar, it’s Michael Ausiello’s beautiful, funny, and heartbreaking 2017 memoir, “Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies”.

I’m reading it again NOW!

Here’s what I wrote about the book then:

“By page eight, I was ready to date and fall in love in again. By page 26, I had tears streaming down my cheeks and I was happy no one was close enough to me as I was reading and walking by Lake Decatur to see me crying!

The book is amazing. While it’s a heartbreaking story of finding love, fighting for love, and then losing that love in a painful, year-long death sentence, it’s a beautiful love story!

Many will never experience the love that Michael and Kit did.

Ausiello knew just when to drop a funny line, a pop culture reference, or a naughty memory to bring a smile to my face alongside the tears.

One of the “other four-letter words” could be my favorite word (think “F”). Another is one I absolutely love, but I can’t use it without offending someone! (I won’t even give you a hint on that one, but if you’re busy this weekend and on Monday, I’ll see you next Tuesday!)

Also, after reading this beautiful book, “olive oil” takes on a whole new meaning and I hope to get to use it one day! 

While the movie opens in limited release earlier, a wide release is set for December 16, 2022.

Sadly, after “Bros” bombed at the box office, I’m not holding high expectations for this one.

As I stated earlier, Middle America (and mainly the South) is still not ready for two men to fall in love on screen! (And, especially two white men!)

“THEY/THEM”

This Peacock original (pronounced “They Slash Them”) was much better than I expected.

The slasher film takes place at a LGBTQ conversion therapy camp for teenagers out in the woods led by a husband and wife team played Kevin Bacon and Carrie Preston (“Claws”).

It also stars Emmy-nominated actress Anna Chlumsky (“VEEP”) and non-binary actor Theo Germaine from downstate Illinois!

After a murder on a scary road in the woods at the start, the movie forgot it was a slasher film until late in the feature.

But, the psychological creepiness of Bacon and Preston’s characters offering the kids an “inclusive safe place” was there all along.

GRADE: B-

MY FIVE FAVORITE LORETTA LYNN SONGS

Loretta Lynn scored an amazing 67 Top 40 hits on the Billboard Country charts. Of those, 51 reached the Top 10, and 16 topped the chart.

She was very honest and would say whatever was on her mind. That often got her into trouble and she even courted controversy in song.

“The Pill”, in 1975, about birth control, was considered very risqué and several country stations banned the song and it stalled at #5 in the U.S. on the country chart. However, it reached #1 in Canada.

It’s my sixth favorite Loretta song. Here are my five favorites!

“YOU AIN’T WOMAN ENOUGH (TO TAKE MY MAN)” (#2, 1966)

“DON’T COME HOME A DRINKIN’ (WITH LOVIN’ ON YOUR MIND)” (#1, 1966)

“SILVER THREADS AND GOLDEN NEEDLES (WITH DOLLY PARTON & TAMMY WYNETTE)” (#68, 1993)

“ONE’S ON THE WAY” (#1, 1971)

“LOUISIANA WOMAN, MISSISSIPPI MAN (WITH CONWAY TWITTY)” (#1, 1973)

This #1 duet from 1973 is not only my favorite Loretta Lynn song, but it’s also one of my favorite songs of all-time.

In the fall of 2020, I put together a list of the 13 biggest events of the first 35 years of my life (1964-1999), along with my 101 favorite songs from that era.

And, this song, was #81.

“I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY”

The trailer for the December 21, 2022, Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” came out a couple of weeks ago.

I’m excited about it and the song is still my favorite Whitney song.

I’m posting the video to the two-week #1 hit from 1987 again to get the stench of the worst cover of the song I’ve ever heard!

WORST COVER EVER!

I’m not familiar with the new crop of country singers today.

After the sexist and ageist genre stopped playing new music from some of my favorites (Reba McEntire, Patty Loveless, Pam Tillis, Lorrie Morgan, Dolly Parton, and the late greats Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette to name a few), I decided it was time move on and quit listening to country.

Despite scoring nine Billboard Top Ten country hits over the past decade, I came across Jon Pardi’s “CMT Campfire Sessions” cover of Whitney and got excited.

It would be been a great instrumental cover, but wow, that was painful!

Your thoughts?

THAT’S IT

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

Anthony