Author: Mark Alexander

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An Oldie But a Goodie

I originally heard this 2-disk set at a friends’ place back in 2002. I was housesitting for them at the time and started rummaging through their music collection—as I am wont to do when housesitting. This one caught my eye and the minute I popped it in their CD player I was transported. Over the next few years I looked into buying my own copy, but while I liked it, I didn’t like it enough to justify the $30 price tag it seemed to always have attached.

I’d all but forgotten about it until last week when I stumbled upon From Russia With Love while on my journey down the YouTube rabbit hole, and on a whim, I looked it up on Discogs. There is was…a single copy available and for only $5. Needless to say, I jumped on it.

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Shower Thoughts

Now is probably the first time in history when nobody is excited about what the future will look like in 100 years.

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Quote of the Day

The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” ~Albert Einstein

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Unf! (NSFW)


I had to do a triple-take when I saw this last guy. I thought it was someone I’d worked with at DISH, but it’s not; the ink’s all wrong and at least as of two years ago, he didn’t have a pierced septum.

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Movie Review

What do you get when you take a generous helping of The Fifth Element, a bit of Jupiter Ascending, and throw in a dash of just about every SciFi/Fantasy flick of the last twenty years? You get Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. And I don’t mean that to be derogatory in any way. For years I’ve been lamenting that Hollywood never does anything new and with Valerian it has. I was truly and completely captivated and entertained by this flick and felt it was very much worth the price of admission. How often can you really say that these days?

Certain reviews have labeled it a hot mess, and yes, it’s heavy on special effects—at times almost to the point of being overwhelming—but unlike certain other films (cough, Star Wars prequels, cough) I didn’t feel they detracted from the story. I couldn’t tell were CGI left off and practical effects began; a testament to the degree of technical expertise exhibited in the film. The aliens—as in The Fifth Element—were amazing. The actors’ performances—while not exemplary—were at least convincing, and that’s more than be said for a lot of recent films. This is really one of those movies that deserves to be seen on the big screen—as increasingly unpleasant as that experience has become.

And if nothing else it was a three hour escape from all things Trump.

The soundtrack ain’t bad either…

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Quote of the Day

Most significantly, these first six months have revealed a central weakness of our system: its dependence on leadership that honors the norms and traditions of our political institutions and understands the necessity of at least appearing to adhere to common values of decency and honesty. President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have shown no respect for any of that. It’s a harsh lesson for our country and it may get harsher still. But at least we know now who they really are and what they really believe in: nothing.” ~ Heather Digby Parton, Salon

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“Houston, Tranquility Base Here…

…the Eagle has landed.”

It’s been 48 years since those immortal words were uttered, and sadly, I doubt that humanity will put another man (or woman!) on the moon until after I’m long gone from this plane of existence…if even then. And I doubt even more that the United States will be the one to do it. As a nation, it seems we’ve lost our way; lost our will to explore and to truly lead. Nevermind the active dumbing down of the population over the last generation—something that was brought into laser-sharp focus this afternoon as I fell down the rabbit hole of YouTube videos.

I started out innocently enough with upcoming movie trailers (there’s some good stuff coming out over the next year) and then I got sucked into “You won’t believe what this woman found in her attic” clickbait, and then somehow fell into Area 51 UFO conspiracies. I finally had to step away when I stumbled upon the religious yahoos claiming that the August total eclipse is proof positive of the End Times (it’s in Revelation!) and/or not an eclipse at all, but rather the planet Nibiru finally careening in from the outer solar system, completely destroying all life on Earth…and the government has been hiding the truth from us for years! (Hey, even though we can’t see this supposedly huge object in the night sky that’s less than a month from destroying civilization, the ancient Sumarians believed in it, so it must be true!)

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Art Imitates Life

But America, too, can take issue with a woman of power. It finds ways of cutting her down. Of punishing her for her daring to be. And our girl, after a while, even she forgot there’s a queen inside. And there is no end to the cruelty of men threatened by strong women.” ~ Mr. Nancy, American Gods Season 1 Episode 8