From Z-man, talking about conspiracy theorists:
“People don’t like simple answers. If they did, Hollywood thrillers would feature no plot, just stuff exploding in between sex scenes.”
Actually, that’s about as succinct a description of modern Hollywood thrillers as I’ve ever read. Unless of course Tom Cruise, Michael Bay or Marvel Comics are involved, in which case there’s no sex at all, just a series of witty one-liners between (and often during) the explosions. And Tom Clancy must be turbo-spinning in his grave after what Hollywood has done to Jack Ryan.
I’d talk more on the topic, but I’m busy re-reading historian Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, and that takes concentration.
Was out and about recently and saw a Red Box contraption for the first time. While my wife was in the store I gave the Red Box menu board a look over and saw that at least 80% of it’s line up was seemingly for kids. Or idiots. There were only a handful of available videos for adults that know how to think. I stood there and pondered, how in the world does this place stay solvent, and on the other hand, is this what’s out there, people that watch this stuff? I had to get away from it right then and there. There seems to be more and more retardation everywhere every day.
I suspect that the Redbox is designed for parents of small children.
A)
The last time we owned a television set was sometime last century. I have zero interest in televisionprogramming.
Occasionally, I build community by chatting with chums. Occasionally, this happens at the gym in the ‘last chance before health’ lounge at the gym, featuring buenos nachos, beer, wine, and other no-no consumables.
The gym lounge has couches with a big-screen flat-screen tuned to cableprogramming. Two evenings last week as I walked past, two movieprogrammings were on featuring the insufferable Tom Cruise:
A Egypt zombie pile-o’-rubbish, and an aliens pile-o’-rubbish.
Both were unwatchable.
The week before, another Tom Cruise movieprogramming was on, featuring Tom Cruise as secret-agent super-hero ultro-cop Reacher.
Hang on a sec.
In the books, Reacher is 6’4″. A mountain.
Tom Cruise looks to be barely 5’6″.
A life-long pilot, my friends call me ‘pterodactyl’, the flying dinosaur.
I wear the compliment humbly.
And I admit to significant dumbness about modern necessities such as anybody named ‘Bruce Jenner’ or ‘Khardasian’ or O’Bama or O’Casio-Cortez. Or anybody named ‘Beto’.
Are these supposed to be comedies? I think they are hilarious.
*****
B)
re:
drone attacks on Arabian ‘refineries’
Correct me if I’m wrong, I could be way off base here… is the whole ‘Arabian’ and ‘mohammadan’ thing about returning to a thousand years ago? Existing without refinement?