Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

This week's movie rental was Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom ...

a 2018 American science fiction adventure film and the sequel to Jurassic World (2015) .... Set on the fictional Central American island of Isla Nublar, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, it follows Owen Grady and Claire Dearing as they rescue the remaining dinosaurs before a volcanic eruption destroys it. Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, B. D. Wong, and Jeff Goldblum reprise their roles from previous films in the series ...

For those who like the series, the movie will be fun, but this film got mediocre reviews - Review: ‘Jurassic World 2’ leans on nostalgia, contrivances.

I liked it, of course, but I recommend even more the books by Michael Crichton on which the movies are based ... Jurassic Park: A Novel and The Lost World: A Novel .... they are great!

Here's the trailer for the movie ...

Stairway to Heaven

Here's the song in my head tonight, guitar by the guy most people believe to be the best at his craft, Jimmy Page. I love his work on this song, in which he switches back and forth on his Gibson EDS-1275 ...



There's a lady who's sure
All that glitters is gold
And she's buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word she can get what she came for
Oh oh oh oh and she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall
But she wants to be sure
'Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook
There's a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiving

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get
When I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts I have seen
Rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who standing looking

Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon, If we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn
For those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow
Don't be alarmed now
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There's still time to change the road you're on
And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming and it won't go
In case you don't know
The piper's calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll
And she's buying the stairway to heaven

xx

Whistleblower: clergy sex abuse

On 60 Minutes tonight, an interview with the whistleblower who leaked information to the press proving that Catholic Bishop Richard Malone of Buffalo, NY has been covering up the sexual abuse of priests for years.

You can watch the segment and read more about it here: Whistleblower says bishop knew of sexual abuse allegations, but did nothing.

It is chilling to hear her describe how the church handled victims of abuse in her diocese. It's not as if this is surprising - this follows a pattern that has been the M.O. of the church in the US and around the world. The difference now is that finally the civil authorities are getting involved, and no one any longer believes the church can police itself.

More favorites

In this political climate, so depressing and scary and infuriating, one of the ways I take a mental refresher is to listen to music. It really has the power to change my mood. Here are a few more of my favorite Beatle songs from the past ...







:)

Matthew Shepard Laid To Rest

Matthew Shepard Laid To Rest At National Cathedral

On a chilly night in Wyoming 20 years ago this month, a young man named Matthew Shepard was beaten and left to die. Shepard was gay, and his killing was widely seen as a crime of hate.

Friday, his ashes will be placed in a crypt at the Washington National Cathedral.

A public service at the cathedral was led by the Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal bishop of Washington and the Right Rev. Gene Robinson, the first openly gay man elected a bishop in the Episcopal Church. It will be followed by a private interment service for the Shepard family .....

One of the most depressing things about being a Catholic has been to see how the church has affected people who are LGBT. I can only imagine how hard it must be to grow up gay, but it must be even worse to grow up Catholic and gay, with the church teaching you from the time you are born that there is something deeply wrong with you.

The gay Catholics I've come to know are almost painfully grateful for the crumbs the church tosses them (don't be overtly mean to gay people). But the church keeps on the books the teaching that LGBT people and their relationships are "intriniscally disordered" and Pope Francis has done nothing to fix this, despite his disingenuous 'who am I to judge' statement ... he *has* judged marriage equality, for instance, to be the work of the devil.

Thank God for the Episcopal church and the many other Christian denominations that have accepted LGBT people (Methodists, Presbyterians, Quakers, Lutherans, UCC, etc.).

Almost Throwback Thursday: iMac G3

Today I tried to resurrect my old iMac G3. It's been so long since I have used it that I can't remember very much about *how* to use it, but it was interesting to see all the old stuff that's on it - artwork, music, photos, stories. In the photo below you can see an old pic of me back when I was using this computer (2000) ...



I unearthed the old machine because it has a file on it that I can't find anywhere else, but I can't figure out how to get the file off of it. It won't let me put it on a disk and I can't remember how to get this computer onto the internet to try to email it to myself. Argh!

But anyway, it was/is a very nice computer. Here's a video about it ...

This weekend's chore

This weekend's chore was painting the garage doors. They are in really bad shape, with crumbling paint and rot beginning at the bottom. My sister and I scraped the old paint off on Saturday and I painted them Sunday. Not sure what to do about the rot. Here I'm halfway finished with door #2 ...



The kitties kept me company :)

I Need You

Another of my favorite Beatle songs. This one is by George and is from their second movie Help! In this scene they were shown recording the song near Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain, protected by the British army from kidnappers ...

If I Fell

Another old Beatles song, this version from their first movie, A Hard Day's Night. I was twelve when the film came out and my sister and I and our friends went to see it over and over :) ...



xx

Eight Days a Week

I still remember all the words to this song :) ...



More from The Atlantic: The Eternal Sunshine of Paul McCartney

xx

Washington National Cathedral: Matthew Shepard

'Proud And Relieved': Matthew Shepard's Remains To Be Interred At National Cathedral

The remains of Matthew Shepard, whose death became an important symbol in the fight against homophobia — and whose name is on a key U.S. hate-crime law — will be interred at Washington National Cathedral later this month.

[...]

News of Shepard's interment comes 20 years after he was tied up, savagely attacked and left for dead in October 1998. At the time, he was a 21-year-old college student in in Laramie, Wyo. His brutal murder attracted intense media coverage at the time and galvanized support for laws protecting the rights of LGBTQ Americans ...

Glad to read this. The Washington National Cathedral of the Episcopal church is a wonderful place. I've never been there in person but have visited many times via computer. You can watch the Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance for Matthew at the cathedral's website om Friday, October 26, at 10 am eastern.

Avengers: Infinity War

- Captain America

This week's movie rental was Avengers: Infinity War ...

a 2018 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team the Avengers .... [which] features an ensemble cast including Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Don Cheadle, Tom Holland, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Anthony Mackie, Sebastian Stan, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Josh Brolin, and Chris Pratt.

The movie is the culmination of what's been building through all of the Marvel movie storylines up to this point, and it includes characters beyond just the Avengers, like Doctor Strange and the Guardians of the Galaxy. The bad guy, an alien named Thanos, was introduced in the first Avengers film, and in this movie he wreaks havoc trying to acquire all the powerful infinity stones in order to use them to destroy half of all life in the universe.

Here's a trailer ...



After the last movie about the Avengers - Captain America: Civil War - the Avengers are in disarray, most of them on the lam from the law, so when they learn that Thanos is after the infinity stones, their response is splintered. Iron Man (Tony Stark) joins with Doctor Strange and Spider-Man to protect the stone Dr. Strange possesses. Here we see Doctor Strange, Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner (who's having trouble becoming the Hulk) confronting Thanos' minions who have come for Strange's infinity stone ...



Meanwhile, Captain America, the Black Widow, the Scarlet Witch, and the Vision travel to Wakanda, the home of the Black Panther, to guard the stone possessed by the Vision ...



And Thor, recently having watched Thanos kill his brother Loki, joins with Rocket of the Guardians of the Galaxy to try to destroy Thanos before he can collect all the stones. Here's a clip of Thor telling Rocket of all the personal losses he's endured ...



Though there are funny scenes, of course, the basic tenor of the film is grim, and though I don't mean to be a spoiler, the movie ended in a way I didn't expect - the Avengers were defeated.

I grew up reading Avengers comics and I love the Avengers films and the characters in them, especially Captain America. I definitely recommend the movie.

You can read a review of the film at The Chicago Sun-Times by Richard Roeper - ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ unites Stark and Star-Lord in a massive Marvel mashup

There will be no healing

Watching bits of Meet The Press. Republican senators continue their gaslighting, of course. Democrat Chris Coons was also on and when Chuck Todd asked him about possible impeachment of Kavanaugh if the Dems win in the midterms, he downplayed that and instead spoke of healing the senate and the country.

I can understand wanting to downplay impeachment .... we don't want the Republicans to have more reasons to get out their vote. But as for healing? Nope. What healing means in this context is saying "thank you" after someone has screwed you over. That kind of capitulation is soul destroying and I think I speak for most Democrats when I say hell is more likely to freeze over.

More about the anger of women and others who are too often made powerless ...

John Oliver: Kavanaugh

John Oliver shows why Kavanaugh is unfit for the Supreme Court. This bit of what he said especially struck me as true ....

I genuinely cannot see a single good reason for picking Kavanaugh over a replacement candidate, because you know deep down any judge they choose is almost certainly going to restrict abortion rights. You don't need to choose an unhinged partisan with multiple accusations of sexual misconduct hanging over him. So it feels like they're doing this just to deliver a 'f*ck you' to Democrats, and even more directly, a 'f*ck you' to women.

Because when this week began, the biggest fear for many was that the committee would not believe Christine Blasey Ford. But by the time the week ended, it seemed that something darker might have happened, because it seemed that the response was 'oh we believe you, we just don't care' ...

100 years later ...

The tv series I've been renting recently is Timeless, in which people from the present visit the past via time machine.

Tonight's episode had them visit New York City on March 4, 1919, when a speech by a suffragist convinced Woodrow Wilson to support giving women the vote.

Here's a clip showing the women activists marching (and being beaten by police) as a woman makes her impassioned call for justice ...



Here we stand today, 100 years later, with a self-confessed sexual abuser as president of the United States and with a Republican majority about to confirm a man who has been credibly accused of sexual assault as well. I can't express how angry and depressed this makes me. After all this time, women still aren't really people.

About comments

Hey guys, I've just become aware that there have been many comments to my posts that I have missed seeing. Normally Blogger sends me an email when someone makes a comment, and I always try to respond. Lately, though, I haven't been getting any notification emails and so didn't realize there were comments unless I actually saw them when checking a post. Apparently this is an ongoing problem Blogger's working to fix. Sorry if I missed your comments.

The White Album

It's been almost 50 years since the Beatles' White Album was released. I remember my parents giving this to us for Christmas. One of the songs I especially liked was While My Guitar Gently Weeps, written by George. Here's a video of George, with Eric Clapton (in the checkered jacket ;), Ringo, and some other guys at the Prince's Trust Rock Gala at London's Wembley Arena, 1987 ...

The kittens, continued

- the kittens playing with an oak ball

I mentioned earlier that Fluffy, Yoda's mom and the only female cat left to be spayed, had had two kittens. I had tried to get the vet to take them for adoption, but they couldn't because they already had two cats looking for homes. But Friday evening they called and said that one of those cats, Cookie, had been adopted and that we could bring the kittens. I was able to catch one of the kittens Saturday and we tool him in, but they decided it was best for us to keep him until we could bring them in together.

So we put kitten #1 in Yoda's old Wabbitat cage in the meantime. Poor little bug was scared and lonely. I picked him up every few hours and talked to him but he was still not a happy person. Sunday night I was able to catch kitten #2. This kitten was much more scared and I now have a hand full of scratches, but when I put him in the Wabbitat with his sibling, he calmed down a bit. Yoda spent the time growling and hissing at these intruders, as she saw them. This morning we took them both to the vet, filled out the forms, and paid a donation.

I hope I made the best decision for them. The other alternatives were to go to the SPCA where they might get euthanized if they weren't adopted, or to live here as cats number 18 and 19. There's still a chance that may happen, if the vet decides they are too wild (or if they turn out to have feline ADIS or leukemia). Meanwhile, their mom Fluffy is searching the yard for them and meowing piteously. Sometimes I really hate it here on what I call 'planet we're so effed' :(