A Blogger's Life for...me?

Ten years ago I posted to my Live Journal account for the last time. I did not delete my account, and have made comments on other people's posts but there has been no original content posted by me since then.

It was a site where there were no character limits, where people posted the minutia of their days along with some rather spectacular writing - fiction or not. There was also a lot of drama, but there's no need to rehash that now.

For the most part, linking to tweets non-withstanding, it was a place that avoided the pithiness of today's social media sites. There was a sense of permanence to Live Journal posts that does not really adhere to Facebook or Twitter, and certainly not Snapchat. Even with the drama, it did not feel as cruel as a Twitter mob.

After the Russians bought the site, the demise really happened. Some people deleted their accounts, others (like me) simply abandoned them on the bleak landscape of the internet. Many people simply left with no explanation so you do not know what happened to them. Others (like me) left a forwarding address.

This platform, while useful, does not have the interaction that LJ had, and lacks the immediacy of Facebook or Twitter. It does, however, have the permanence. I can go back and look at posts from 5-10 years ago rather easily and see the demise of my writing and reading. It's not a shock, but a sad reality as I got into the time suck of those other two sites.

Thus I remain here, stubbornly, as well. Trying to find some sense in all of it amid the quick postings of dead musicians, with few pictures and for the most part - even less substance.

On screen 2017

Just about all the films I watched this year. I can also include 13 episodes of MST3K The Return, but you can look those up. Still enjoying TCM, and the occasional live tweeting on #TCMparty. Still trying to watch one film a week, but scheduling and all the TV series' on Netflix make that difficult. As always, would like to get to the theater more but streaming makes things too easy.

1) Sour Grapes
2) Sing Street
3) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4) Miss Sharon Jones!
5) The Birds
6) Blazing Saddles
7) Casablanca
8) Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
9) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)
10) Get Out
11) The Golden Vision
12) Vacation From Marriage
13) Crossfire Hurricane
14) The Quiet Man
15) The Commitments
16) The Sidehackers (MST3K)
17) The Giant Gila Monster (MST3K)
18) Trainspotting 2
19) Double Indemnity
20) Young Frankenstein
21) Turnabout
22) Palm Beach Story
23) Lilies in the Field
24) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
25) Obit
26) Breakfast at Tiffany’s
27) Mali Blues
28) Moana
29) Yankee Doodle Dandy
30) Spiderman: Homecoming
31) Baby Driver
32) Raiders of the Lost Ark
33) Marnie
34) Singing in the Rain
35) Sharknado 5
36) The Philadelphia Story
37) Holiday
38) The Animal Kingdom (1932)
39) For Pete’s Sake
40) Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story
41) Kingsman: The Golden Circle
42) A Star is Born (1937)
43) Star Wars (with Columbus Symphony)
44) The Big Sleep
45) Lion
46) Madame Satan
47) Casablanca
48) Wee Geordie
49) The Last Jedi
50) In the Good Ol’ Summertime
51) Madame X
52) Eegah! (MST3K Live)

You're all just hangers on!

On a day in which I witness brand theft, when critiques of a poetry slam go passive/aggressive on Twitter, when imaginary FEMA camps for bad people are still a thing and I call out a local website for being mainstream and no longer underground this song comes to mind.

Defending the Cause

Once in awhile I have to become an ambassador for spoken word, whether or not it's calling out someone calling participants in the Women of the World Poetry Slam "Fake Feminists" or someone saying that watching videos on youtube of people popping zits was preferable to watching spoken word videos.

The latter happened last night, I asked the person what videos he was watching. He replied bad ones, but asked if I could recommend good ones. I mean, he could have been watching some bad spoken word on youtube, it's certainly out there. But, I had to see what I can do to try and change his outlook.

I sent him links to two. Jamilla Woods' "Pigeon Man."



And Jack McCarthy's "Careful What You Ask For."



Got a replay this morning that these examples were "much better."

I still wonder what he was watching.

Speed like Wind

Yesterday there was a rather fierce storm in Scotland. Winds exceeded 160 mph at one point. When I first heard about the storm, it was simply called a storm, a weather bomb.

But then, something interesting happened.

It was around 8AM my time that the hashtag #hurricanebawbag began making its way into the consciousness of Twitter.

A bawbag is a Scottish derogatory term for a part of the male anatomy. Its American equivalent would be Al Roker calling a storm Hurricane Dickhead, or Nut Sack.

Meanwhile the storm was happening, Hurricane Bawbag was trending and the Scots were posting some amusing things.



The Edinburgh Zoo just received two pandas.

Soon after that video started coming in. The Clyde River in Glasgow was close to overflowing due to the storm surge. Then a young man named Conor Guicham posted this on Facebook, which moved to Youtube and became a viral hit.



OMG! Trampoline then received a musical soundtrack.



All of this was happening in less than three hours from the start of Hurricane Bawbag. Enterprising companies began selling T-Shirts! The storm even received a Wikipedia entry.

It was amazing how fast it was all happening, and more than a few of the comments on Twitter were very funny. Luckily, there were few injuries reported and the storm damage was minimal. I could picture my Father-in-Law in his living room, observing the fair breeze blowing in Duntocher.

By the end of the day, Hurricane Bawbag had its own song.



My wife was giggling most of the day, like a thirteen year old boy, and she asked to see this clip again.



I'm still not sure who coined the term "Hurricane Bawbag" yesterday morning, but I'm sure that will be revealed in the fullness of time. I salute this person, and Scotland, for sitting in their homes, staying put and taking the piss out of the storm instead of cowering in fear. Well played!

My Week of Tweets

Last night I deleted my twitter account. From the people I knew, for the most part, all I saw were people tweeting the same thing as their Facebook status report. What's the point of repetition?

I will say that Roger Ebert's twittering is quite profound, and Steve Martin is a very funny man. As for as following celebrities on twitter, I was underwhelmed.

If I was a small business owner though, I'd be all over this. I'd tweet products that have just been brought into my shop like there's no tomorrow, especially if the product had a short shelf life or were only available in limited quantities.

I've been pretty critical and mean to the tweeters, I may slow that up a little since going through the experience. It's not all bad, and you can fall into rabbit holes, but overall, it's not for me.

Still pretty happy here in the land of Blogger. Hits and page reads are slowly increasing, people are reading this who are not also spammers from Brazil. So thanks for stopping by. Comments are always welcome.