snippets from the national space center
RIP, Meat Loaf
He was in his seventies but it still feels like he’s gone way too soon. I was listening to Bat Out of Hell literally yesterday, here it is for you, amazing song.
(PS. He also had a memorable cameo in Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny, a film I ACTUALLY LOVE.)
Check out this fantastic Bruno
By @lalonyx on Twitter. Hey, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” just beat “Let It Go” in downloads today I think. It deserves it. Encanto is SUCH a great movie.
The Costa Concordia
I was wondering why streaming services were suddenly offering me so many documentaries about the Costa Concordia sinking, and then I realized it’s been ten years now since it sank.
A horrible story all round, and one that’s always stuck in my mind. 34 people died overall because of the complete and utter failures of the people in charge. I do know though that in the aftermath of the sinking the survivors were taken to the small island of Giglio and the islanders immediately gathered round to help them, an extra 4200 people they barely had room for who all were desperate and traumatized. From the New York Times:
While the global attention shifted away from Giglio, residents have stayed in touch with the outside world through the people who temporarily lived there.
For months, the Rev. Lorenzo Pasquotti, who was then a pastor in Giglio, kept receiving packages: dry-cleaned slippers, sweaters and tablecloths that were given to the cold, stranded passengers in his church that night, returned via courier.
One summer, Father Pasquotti ate German cookies with a German couple who were passengers on the ship. They still remembered the hot tea and leftovers from Christmas delicacies that they were given that night.
“So many nationalities — the world was at our door all of a sudden,” he said, remembering that night. “And we naturally opened it.”
Backing up the BBC
Well, if you’re British you heard about the BBC privatization news yesterday. It is of course a distraction from Boris’s various outrages, but well, there you go. I know it’s been a right-wing mouthpiece for years now, but plenty of My Stuff is there (Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, Noughts & Crosses etc) and I want it back.
So I guess I figure, in the spirit of this blog… That if you have the ability to back up anything on the BBC that is/was helpful or useful, now might be a good time to do it. Download shows and websites and get them on a hard drive, because, you know, the BBC itself is famously bad at that.
Honestly… I’m also furious on behalf of the disabled children who watch CBeebies, which is incredibly diverse and inclusive. I don’t expect it will be spared from any chopping block that’s coming because we know how the Tories treat disabled children already.
Cobra Kai season 4
(vague spoilers ahead)
In the year between season 3 and season 4 I finally got around to watching the original three Karate Kid movies (having only ever seen the Jackie Chan/Jaden Smith remake) and they were very good. Yes, even the third one which I gather is widely disliked in some quarters. So I had a much better understanding of who Terry Silver was, for a start! Also, wow, Thomas Ian Griffith has aged staggeringly well hasn’t he?
It’s a shame to think that Daniel, the cute plucky hero from those three movies grew up to be a shitty parent but he really did. Finally he gets a harsh calling-out on it in this season when a child psychologist (played by Ralph Macchio’s actual daughter!) sits down with him and Amanda and starts asking the hard questions. She is absolutely correct in that the Larusso parents love their daughter more than their son, or at least show their daughter much more love, and this season makes it clear that Anthony turning out to be a shitty, spoiled bully is almost entirely the fault of his mum and dad.
Towards the end of this season we see Daniel finally try and discipline his son instead of just ignoring him, snapping his ipad in half with his bare hands, but it’s occurred to me this isn’t good parenting either: really all that will do is teach Anthony that violence is the fastest way to solving your problems. Not great, especially considering every single person in this show defaults to karate whenever they have the slightest issue with anyone else.
I’m looking very forward to seeing that parental relationship evolve, as well as all the other parental relationships in the show: Johnny and Miguel, Johnny and Robbie, Miguel and his biological father (who I really hope turns out to be a new character instead of someone we already know, as some people are suggesting), Sam and her parents, oh and I guess Amanda and Tory sort of almost counts as a parental relationship now too.
It was nice to see the tradition of “unexpected character pops up at the very end of the show” continue! I won’t spoil who it was, although I do admit that with all the multiverse shenanigans going on in media lately I half expected a portal to open and Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan to walk out.
One other thing about “Hawkeye”
For several episodes I was trying to work out what, exactly, Jack Duquesne and his ridiculous mustache reminded me of. Finally it dawned on me…
Though I ended up quite liking Jack by the end (I hope he joins those LARPers) no-one let him anywhere near any talking hedgehogs, I guess.
20 May
It turns out that the Tories threw another big party in May 2020, probably attended by Boris Johnson, while the rest of the UK was on strict lockdown.
I’m all out of emotions because I know nothing will come of it and no-one will be punished. That’s the country we live in now. But I do remember that around that same time a 13-year-old boy named Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab died alone in hospital of COVID, and he was buried by men in hazmat suits, and his family couldn’t give him a proper funeral.
Because they were obeying the rules.
Hawkeye
I admit it, I wasn’t really sold on Hawkeye the show at first, especially since I was…well, kinda resentful that he’d lived to get his own show while Natasha just died. But then it turned out the show was actually all about the aftermath of Natasha’s death! And finally finally she got the credit she deserved for y’know saving the entire world and all.
All that and finally Clint has been given the disability he canonically had in the comics, and finally we get to hear a (named) female character say the words “my wife” and finally Clint has to face the consequences of going on a murder spree that one time. It’s been a long time coming for some of that stuff but at last we got there. I enjoyed it very very much, I think it’s the best TV show Marvel’s done since Wandavision.
My only disappointment is with the post-credits scene! (Check it out above.) It was hilarious but I was SO EXPECTING it to suddenly cut to someone else in the audience, perhaps Loki himself (either staring in horror or wildly applauding, both of those things seem in-character) and then it didn’t! Oh and also Aaron Tveit was supposed to be playing the in-musical Steve Rogers but he didn’t in the end and I am SO MAD we were deprived of that. (It would’ve fit in great with Fra Fee being in the show as well.)
But yes, really liked the whole thing, I don’t know if there will be a season two but if there is I want a Yelena-Kate buddy movie type deal and more of Lucky the dog.
mind horses
This Twitter thread was going around the past couple of days and I am obsessed with it. Please click through to find some of the greatest GREATEST intentionally bad horse art you will ever see.
Seriously, I’ve been laughing at it for like two days now, help me