Quill & Claw/Pen & Paw

I listen to NPR. I suppose that's a given. I spend a good deal, a sizable chunk of my day, within the confines of my car, going from worksite to worksite. No complaints, but commercial radio, as we know, is bunk. In fact, I was forced to listen to it when given a new work car and I heard only two songs in over 45 minutes. Audiobooks are incredible, but I like the immediacy of podcasts and PopCulture Happy Hour is one of my favorites. Recently, they were talking about how, by the casting of Tom Hanks in the film "Captain Philip," half the work was done, since his 'starlight' already informed the film's audiences with what to expect. The comment bothered me, for some reason, the failings of the show's hosts falling into the same pit I've fallen into many times. As critics, we tend to play fast and loose with the seriousness of so much art and that was a bit of a flippant comment, even for my sensibilities. But, well, the host did have a point. The ...

You know that moment, when you're cleaning out your pockets before you do the laundry and you stumble across a crumbly twenty dollar bill? One that you don't recall putting in there but, somehow, as if by magic, it appeared, as if you make your day? Yeah, keep that feeling in mind. I've not wrapped my head around the movie Captain America: Civil War  just yet, but that's not the point. I have to strike while the iron is pretty hot. This is a nice find, as if out of the blue. Disney has pretty much given up on advertising, when you think about it. They have so many shitty little bloggers (ahem, see recent post) out there they don't have to pay for a single commercial if they don't wan to. The trolls devour all of their tidbits that it saves cash and let's Disney/Marvel actually do stuff. Heck, even this blog post is a bit of an advert. This movie, I don't recall, really had an advertising push, not unlike the recent Batman v. Superman, so whe...

We had to put my cat down yesterday. Surely, since we just put down my dog just two months ago, for pretty much the same reasons, that was why the tears, when they arrived, weren't as profound or powerful. But they were there. I suppose emotions, like so many other things, cannot be measured on any kind of a scale. Cause, for some reason, when my dog was put down, I was able to function on some level. I can't move today. Everything aches. I'd long heard of depression. And I think I'm there. Let me start from the beginning. I had been talking to this guy for, like MONTHS, almost a full year. We had been trying to meet up for eons, but this was in the space before instant mobile closed gaps in seconds. He lived in Sioux Falls and I was miserable in Colorado Springs. Eighteen hours of driving, if I was in the mood. And I still had to pay by phone call with long distance, even had a special credit card. Well? It happened. I have to say, I was happier dat...