Streaming Services

 For starters I should mention that I don't believe I have ever subscribed to cable tv, though I had some roommates who have had it already when I moved in.  Because of this, I don't think I am one of those people they are talking about when they mention the whole unbundling of cable and whatnot. I also have to wonder if the metrics that Wall Street seeks actually feed into the metrics of any given service.  For example, I have had, and cancelled, Netflix.  I cancelled it not because it was bad, but rather because it was too unwieldy to find anything on. I don't normally want to binge a season of anything, at most I will watch 2-3 episodes of a half-hour show in a row, before deciding to switch to something else, then come back a week or two later and watch another few episodes. Wall Street only cares that I subscribe, and I don't know if Netflix actually processed my viewing habits, because I may not have been their ideal customer.  Anyway, aside from Netflix, I also just cancelled Paramount+ and Showtime, which I had as a bundle, and that was because I wasn't watching enough.  So far, even though all the news services decry the lack of content, I have enjoyed Apple TV+, which I am not cancelling, even when my free time expires (a new season of Snoopy just dropped, and Ted Lasso will be back soon as well). The Disney+ bundle with Hulu and ESPN is also something I pay for, and I think I spend more time in the Hulu part of the bundle, but don't see any reason to change things there.  Finally, I use BritBox, as I enjoy all sorts of content there, even the lit up holiday train.

Overall, it is kind of funny, my neighbor told me his cable package was $270 or something stupid, and he has Netflix on top of that, even counting my internet bill on a monthly basis, I don't pay half that, and I have more than enough on TV to keep my attention. I know those businesses need to figure out how to keep people subscribing, but I also think they need to remember not every subscriber wants the exact same thing from their streaming services, while variety is nice, it is also nice to have something small with a limited selection that someone may have actually cared about when they chose the shows, rather than just doing a hope and prayer that it would hit some algorithmic section of the audience enough to keep it from being cancelled after one season.

Australia, finally free from Facebook

 While I am not in Australia, I love the fact that Mr. Zuckerberg has gotten himself into a snit and decided the best result was to no longer allow Australians the ability to link and share local news. With no need to visit Facebook for news stories, they no longer have to wonder if what they see on Facebook is news or QAnon fodder. Now they have the luxury of knowing everything aside from vacation pictures and family trip updates will be either advertising or stories pretending to be news, but not necessarily true.

While I still use Instagram, basically for photo sharing, I do not miss Facebook.  I do not miss someone illegally harvesting data and the response basically being, "Oops, they shouldn't do that because it is against the terms of service." Anyone can pretty much do anything they want with a Facebook property as long as it does not hurt Zuckerberg's bottom line, he pretty much won't care. The Right might complain about social media censoring them, but I see most social media as being right-wing friendly, because the right-wing drives page views and page views drive revenues.

While purportedly only 4% of the linked stories on Facebook, if I read those articles correctly, it doesn't really show how much time is spent on that 4% compared to the other 96%. If the various social media companies really want to keep your eyes tied to their websites so that you will see the advertising they dish up, rather than the advertising dished up by a story's original publisher, by refusing to allow local news links, Facebook has also pushed out users from the info silos those users have also created for themselves, and now they will need to actually view the website of their local newspaper or tv news. 

I dropped the Facebook echo chamber, and given time, those in Australia will find something outside of Facebook for their news source. The worst thing about aggregators like Facebook is that they dumb down the internet for its users.  Now that Facebook doesn't have news in Australia, Australians are going to need to relearn how to surf the internet, since just logging into Facebook will no longer bring joy.

Last Summer (2013 film)

Sometimes I think I am acquiring films faster than I can watch them, so I figure that maybe I could share some of my thoughts on them.  

First up is Last Summer, which is a lovely bit of gay themed cinema from 2013, directed by Mark Theideman. The plot, such as it is, is very thin, but as a meditation on young love and that summer between high school and college, when you both want to spend all your time with your partner, don't want to think about leaving, but know at some point one of you will be going to college. Movies tend to move at their own pace, and this was not a quick paced movie, though I think the languorous speed was as much to echo the Arkansas summer when this was taking place, as well as that thought amongst those of a certain age, that you have all the time in the world.

I would recommend it if you are willing to devote the time and not expecting an action flick or a melodrama. The actors do a good job, and they look like they could be teenagers, which is always a nice change. 

I was going to add more, but it began to sound a bit pretentious, and that really was not my purpose. Enjoy the movie if you are looking to see something a bit on the gay-themed art house side of things.

Ignoring Oaths and Obligations (and Amazon prices)

For the most part, I have to say the year has been a disappointment, but "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai! Across the 8th Dimension" is still pleasantly as bizarre as ever.

While I doubt Ms Collins or Ms Murkowski will do anything to budge #MoscowMitch into, at minimum, giving the appearance of a fair impeachment trial, it is nice that they are willing to pretend to care about impartiality, and maybe they mean it, but both tend to kiss the ring of Trump more than not, so I think it is just noise.  You can argue whether or not there was an impartial investigation, but during the public aspects of it, the Republicans were just complaining about the whole thing, rather than asking questions that might have provided some sort of defense to Trump. It seems they want a reality show and don't want to face the reality that it appears that Trump has involved or attempted to involve foreign governments in US national elections.

While I don't intend to harp on the subject, please beware of Amazon pricing.  Twilight Time Movies has issued a Blu-ray of an earlier cut than is on most public domain prints of "Beat the Devil."  While I appreciate that there was a handy dandy website that gave me that information (It came from the bottom shelf!), the proprietor of the website has a linking deal with Amazon, the movie in question was listed as $42 or so on Amazon and $20 or so at Twilight Time Movies.  True, it was on sale at the latter, but the normal price was only $30, so someone did some major mark-up, and that third party vendor was using Amazon, giving the appearance that Amazon is jacking up prices. I was going to leave a note for him there, but I figure he already knows what I am talking about.  In general though, Amazon is comparable to other movies sites for DVD/Blu-ray, though they aren't always willing to get them, as I do recall ordering directly from Criterion when Amazon advised me they were unable to get the disc, with my guess at the time being that they could not get the disc at a price favorable to them.

The Good News

While I am sure I do not agree with all the former editor's beliefs, I will give him kudos for standing up for what he believes, especially when others are so willing to ignore Christ's teachings while claiming to follow them. The biggest bit of hypocrisy they spout is how it is only illegal immigrants they dislike, but legal ones are fine--as if the Holy Family would have waited for the proper paperwork to legally flee once they learned Herod had issued an extermination order for those under two years old.  As the two thousand year history of the church has revealed over and over again, nit-picking is fun, and even though Jesus encouraged his followers to Love Thy Neighbor, those same followers will continue to find reasons to ignore that particular teaching.

I do hope in the future that those who speak for the religious, speak for following the teaching of their religion in practice, rather than the "do as I say, not as I do" sort of thing that seems to be going on now.  I am not sure which part of Christ's work Trump is doing, but with many evangelicals Trump walks on water, just like Jesus did.  We all know Trump loves his prostitutes, just like Jesus did, with the exception being that Trump pays for their services rather than absolving their sins. Hush many after the fact is exactly the same as paying for their services, the only difference is the fee isn't negotiated prior to the act.

Amazon and other stuff

It is always odd when you see things on Amazon that don't make sense, like an adult romance novel being listed as a children's book, but I couldn't understand what happened in the case above, as it looks like the UP Faith & Family trial version is priced like that to inspire you to subscribe, even though it is cheaper to rent than the other version.  I doubt there is anything different about the movie, it does make one wonder just how connected the various parts of Amazon are.  Regarding the movie, it is a guilty pleasure of mine, as it is a feel good movie, and while there are some religious overtones, it isn't quite as onerously preachy as others.

In other news, the impeachment is proceeding, though I have to honestly wish the republicans would actually take it seriously and present something concrete that mitigates or contradicts what looks like an abuse of power, but so far they have done nothing to argue a defense, preferring instead to attempt to turn the proceedings into a reality show circus that Trump will appreciate, though not too much if it gets good ratings.

Tuesday, a twelfth

Yes, a very Hello Kitty sort of Pez dispenser it is, and it was a gift.  I am not sure the Kelly's Heroes is the best sort of movie to watch while trying to compose a blog entry, but everyone likes to brag about their multi-tasking abilities.  It has been a laundry and housework sort of day, though since my oven decided to stop working properly, I opted for leftover chili, from the freezer to the crock pot.  Part of the reason for the puttering around the apartment is that I am waiting for a package of some sort to arrive, as it seems I was sleeping yesterday when they attempted delivery.  It was a driver from Amazon (not UPS or FedEx), so I can only hope they actually buzzed my apartment, even if I didn't hear it.  I know of other delivery attempts they have claimed to make when I was at home and awake, and I know there was no door buzzer request, so the driver was just being lazy.

What's with the sweet tea, Celestial Seasonings?

I am not quite sure when Celestial Seasonings started pre-sweetening their tea blends with stevia, but Cranberry Vanilla Wonderland is so sweetened. I drank what I made, but couldn't figure out the sweetness until looking at the ingredient list. For me, however much they used was too much, as it tasted a bit cloying to me, and that was with nothing additional added. I can't see any reason to try and finish this, as the Gingerbread flavor I bought doesn't have any stevia in it, so hopefully won't taste too sweet.  

Other than discovering my tea was pre-sweetened and doing laundry, there hasn't been that much going on today, though I have the original Casino Royale (with David Niven) playing.

Next week they are supposed to start open impeachment hearings. Is it too much to hope that the Republicans won't try to turn them into a circus? They have been like a child screaming "na, na, na, I can't hear you" as information has been made known. They complained about the private hearings, though there were Republicans there and by being private, there was no concern about state secrets, so those testifying could speak openly. Now with the public hearings it will likely be more grandstanding, and minimal useful new information. I am not looking forward to the farce Republicans will like make of it.

Lazy Day thoughts

My reading pile doesn't ever seem to get smaller, though I did move the Tom Bianchi picture books to the shelf, so they aren't here making things look worse.  Because this blog is proof that I haven't totally forsaken social media, I can say that I am happy about having, at least for the time being, given up Twitter, and Facebook has been gone for a long time. It isn't that I have found marvelous new ways to occupy myself, though I did make double chocolate chip cookies last week, but I think with only checking the news a few times daily, like morning and afternoon papers, then the evening news in the past, it keeps me current enough for all intents and purposes and I also don't overreact about anything, or even issue tweets that I may regret down the line. This is where I insert my opinion about too many cable news channels running 24/7 so they need to overanalyze Donald Trump's farts just to fill air time. The impeachment inquiry moves forward, and it doesn't look any better now that everything is "public" than it did when things were behind closed doors. Republicans really do need to put party aside and view these actions from a Constitutional perspective, and once they do that, then they need to pass legislation that allows the President to be investigated and charged with criminal acts while in office, as I doubt Jefferson, Hamilton, or any of their peers would think the current AG office is doing right by the American people.

Books with Polaroids

I recently acquired the two Tom Bianchi Polaroid photos books, Fire Island Pines & 63 E 9th Street. While I know these collections have been culled from a larger trove of pictures (but tell me whose camera or digital film roll doesn't have more lackluster than interesting photos), they are fun to look at, and the glimpse into pre-AIDS gay life is also really pretty cool.