Maybe I would care more about Twitter suspending me over a tweet about fictional characters if other social media platforms didn’t exist. But they do and honestly I’m on pretty much all of them. I’ll miss getting followed by The Last Drive In crew and Sam Neil, yet the former are heavily on Instagram anyways. This also comes at a time when I’m trying to dodge Spider-Man movie spoilers and Twitter is rifled with those.
Also they fail to crack down on bots, obvious trolls and people who definitely give off the alt right Nazi vibe. Facebook sucks at that also and they’ve suspended me a couple times for jokes about white people. Hello, I’m white. Whatever. Sure I’ve filed multiple appeals that didn’t work and even had some crypto person tell me they could restore my account for a fee (um no I’m good). I did keep the backup account which Twitter forgot about even though it has my real name as my username for that one haha.
Maybe I’ll restart again but I spent 10 years on that site and didn’t even get past more than 1500 or 1600 followers. That’s pretty pathetic. Sorry to those who relied on me for likes and comments, yet I’m sure they’ll be fine. Anyways they can find me on five other apps so I think it’ll work out alright. Plus maybe I’ll actually use the time I would waste tweeting to focus on that giant movie backlog of mine. Which I’ll probably Instagram about.
Someone on Twitter one day made a good point about how Doctor Who fans keep saying that the current show runner is killing the show. Rick and Morty has fans who idolize Rick even though he’s the last person anyone should admire. Watchmen has fans that think Rorschach is a role model (bloody yikes even if it is a movie although there is a show), and Breaking Bad has the same thing with people thinking Walter White is not a villain (super yikes). Also Community suffered from people who loved Jeff too much even though he sucked as a human being for most of the show. This is a trend that makes me wonder if people actually pay attention to what they watch, or if people love to complain.
I’m well aware I’m complaining about their complaining, and every fanbase does have their share of crazy or misguided people. Anytime a show changes things or dares to attempt something different, people freak out. I think humans like that their shows don’t change, even though sometimes that change works out or is good for the show. I remember a lot of fans being mad that The X-Files had new main characters, even though the previous lead actors didn’t want to do the show as much or at all anymore. So to keep things going new people who were perfectly fine were introduced. At least I didn’t mind the change although I’ll admit I had to warm up to both of them.
Anyways I would prefer my favorite shows be allowed to last long enough to achieve their goals. I’m reminded of Timeless and Firefly, two great TV shows that were sniffed out before they were allowed to last long enough to make a proper impact. If your favorite show makes some changes it is probably trying to survive in a hostile and increasingly shrinking TV market carved up by streaming and people having shorter attention spans. Take what you can get. Or just find another show, there’s a million of them out there.
Lately I’ve been trying to do different things in life. I got rid of my CD collection, eliminated other clutter and I have an actual list of stuff I need to focus on (working out is on there. Again). However I also was forced to start over on Twitter, as my previous account was suspended. No idea why, they won’t tell me, etc. It sucks but I moved on and created a new account because I am stubborn and not so easily defeated.
Oh and I am even thinking of moving on from my job, mostly because they have moved several people to other stores and one employee is moving down to part time. I am not sure if I will even have a job down the road, so it is time to fire up the resume. Sometimes you make changes, sometimes changes are thrust upon you. That’s life, I guess.
At this point I don’t think the Orange Idiot pretending to run this country from his golf course is attempting to distract from anything currently, as his so called administration has numerous scandals going on. In fact the obvious to about anyone else racist tweets he sends out on an almost regular basis are a feature of his “Presidency,” not a bug. I want to blame Stephen Miller for all of them yet I don’t think that ghoulish excuse for a human being needs to force Orange Man to unleash his so called thoughts upon the populace. Also forget keeping tabs on him, blocking him on Twitter was the smartest thing I have done all year, even though way too many people I follow insist on responding to his nonsense. Let it go, folks-he wants your attention, doesn’t care how he gets it, and following him and or responding to his childish outbursts only feeds the troll.
Of course I’m not naive enough to think that is a final solution, yet it sounds like a pretty good one: Trump only cares about if you are looking at his nonsense, and he goes crazy when people focus on someone or something else. The only danger in this is that he starts a major war, although that will probably happen sooner rather than later anyways. Remember folks: if the Democrats screw up 2020 it is four more years of racism, temper tantrums, meltdowns and the continuing decline of America. Oh and it’s funny how every time he does bash a city or country he never offers any solutions, because that requires time and effort-two things he has never believed in.
Look I get that people have to make a living, yet there are better ways than writing obvious click bait articles. Especially since most of them have awful headlines that literally scream “PLEASE CLICK ON ME!!!!” and cause most of us to roll our eyes. What is even worse is that to avoid being called out on not reading the article, all too many read the article only to discover that it does not tell them anything they could not have inferred from the headline alone. Political articles sense people often find them boring do this a lot, but the worst offenders are entertainment sites and social media feeds desperate to satisfy their advertisers. Eyeballs=dollars, yet do we have to all engage in such behavior to get someone to read what we right?
Am I doing this right now? I threw up that crappy headline just to see if anyone would bother reading this lame rant, so I guess I am an equal opportunity offender. “Equal Opportunity Offender” would make for a great band name, by the way. Hey read this article about my new band, Equal Opportunity Offender! Playing soon in, well, I somewhere, and featuring music that sounds like, well, ska? Jazz rock R&B fusion? I have no idea, so stay tuned! For the next article that grabs your eyeballs and forces them to suffer through another bullshit article penned by a person who needs to pay rent in two days. Perhaps it has always been this way and I just prefer to ignore that, as does most Internet users. Looking at you, BuzzFeed…
Those poor kids today have no idea what it was like to have to use cable and local TV to see many cult films that never came to their area. Or enjoy drive in’s, something I have never been fortunate to expirence. Well for us who were around for the 1990s Joe Bob Briggs was the guide to numerous low budget cult classics every week on TNT’s MonsterVision. Even though there were commercials and some questionable footage had to be cut (often for time) there were also Drive-In totals, great trivia bits, and Briggs’ snappy commentary.
So when years after TNT axed MonsterVision, all of us fans were excited to hear that the streaming service Shudder had convinced Briggs to do one last (hopefully not) Drive In marathon show. Fittingly called The Last Drive-In, this was to be a 24 hour marathon hosted on Shudder from Friday night to Saturday night. This was a great idea, one that would allow us fans to also comment on Twitter during the marathon. In fact, I wrote this while enjoying one of the films shown, the freaky 1987 classic Hellraiser. Plus getting retweeted by Briggs on Twitter in real time is cool, a nice byproduct of social media.
Despite some issues with my Roku player and the Shudder app (something everyone else experienced) this was a success. Clearly the fans of Briggs still heavily exist, and the “Hey we broke Shudder” jokes were amusing despite having to deal with streaming issues. However it was all worth it, just to see Joe Bob Briggs on TV doing his thing all over again. I am glad that Ted Turner and overworked servers could not stop JBB from doing what he does best: introduce us to fun and interesting cinema. Joe Bob Briggs forever, indeed.
This is overdue, but I am posting about it, anyways. Months ago, Rotten Tomatoes decided, just like IMDB.com did, to kill off their message boards. However unlike IMDB, RT decided not to warn the users, and closed the boards for good, making it impossible for users to recover anything they wanted to save. I keep forgetting to make backups of certain things I want to save or preserve, and every time I regret doing so. This is not why I am angry, though-no, I am upset that after years of giving the site eyeball traffic along with others, RT decided to can a feature that is responsible for them existing in the first place. Too bad, since I think the forums were experiencing sort of a resurgence, and people still posted there, although I will admit things were never the same after 2011 or 2012, I guess. Maybe it was time. I have been a member of numerous sites, and I always departed before they went under, although there were a few that I hung around at long after someone turned off the lights. No apology has been posted, and I feel worse for the user mods, several of whom I am friends with on Facebook. They should have at least received something for their troubles, or some kind of heads up, but the RT higher ups, probably embarrassed by some high profile incidents (thanks insane DC fanboys for making things worse, not better-and yes I blame you, too) that occurred on the site, although those were not related to the actual forums themselves, decided to call it quits. There were some good jokes made in OT that the forums were the dark side of the site, chained up in the basement, hidden from view, which was not wrong considering that RT made it hard to find the forum link around 2008, or 2009.
Goodbye, RT OT. The political and sports talk were always fun, and I have good memories of posting during election time, when things were at their most heated and active. Goodbye, both RT chats, although the OT one was held off site and is still around, while GD’s was at its height when Yahoo hosted it until late 2007, or 2008-I do not recall. I managed to get booted from the OT one a bunch of times, for various reasons or another, heh. The Yahoo one had live cams, which was really cool, and ended up pulling users from different groups. Farewell, GD: Oscar season when Crash won is one of the site’s highlights, a real moment in time. I still have not seen that movie, and I probably never will. All of the neat thread groups departed to different sites, all which I post on, and maybe this is just another downside to the Internet: the fragmenting of people, divided up into sections and groups. There are different streaming services, different social media (Facebook and Twitter have literally killed the message boards, for better, or for worse), multiple entertainment options. A lot of memories, all gone forever, lost in time, quote that overused classic Blade Runner line, or the Children of Men one about the last one left turning out the light, auf wiedersehen even though I will never seen the site again.
I wish I could be really petty, yet I still follow RT on their twitter feed, mostly to lob meaningless “Bring back the forums” posts at them, a David throwing Internet stones at a Goliath that never cared in the first place. 20,000 some posts, well almost 21k, never to be recovered, along with everything else. Perhaps that is for the best, and there have been jokes about how now that RT’s forums are gone (the site still lives, of course, not that I care too much) they can run for office now, although I doubt anyone worried about that sort of thing. Thus ends a journey that began in 2003, and I imagine that my old posts were really awful, so hooray for them no longer existing, although knowing the Internet nothing is ever really gone, a fact that Donald Trump and others keep forgetting. On to the next phase, whatever that is; I myself hope for virtual reality, or space travel. Both would be nice. MadMan_731/MadMan (the site let me drop the numbers later on)/MadMan_7 and TheOmegaMan71 (aliases), signing out, for good.
Also this essay is a work in progress and was penned while drinking at my favorite local bar after I saw the movie months ago:
From the very beginning when a black man is afraid to walk the suburbs to the gory and exciting last act, Jordan Peele’s Get Out is an exercise in pure fear. Every once in a while there is a horror film that scares the crap out of me, and 2017 delivers one that should be seen on the big screen. I laughed and then got quiet as a poor black man was knocked out and stuffed into the back of a trunk, while weird southern music played in the background. Cue opening credits. Thanks to Halloween (both versions) and Scream I am terrified of the suburbs. Only this time it’s not one psychopath wearing a mask.
Also don’t forget the liberal racism of white people, although I doubt most of the guests at the dinner party Rose’s creepy white parents throw during the weekend that Chris, her boyfriend, and her decide to visit fit leftist ideals. Upon arriving we get two black servants and a house straight out of any upstanding horror film. This movie has so many references I lost track, although several came to mind: Rosemary’s Baby, The Shining, Burnt Offerings and even Funny Games and You’re Next. I think there may even be a little Texas Chainsaw Massacre in that instead of poor redneck cannibals it’s a rich family using black people to keep on living forever, obtaining their strengths. One thing I got out of the dinner party is how secretly cruel and awful elderly people set in racism can be, and that even the one who isn’t apparently racist is in fact just as bad as the rest of them.
Oh and Chris’ buddy, Rod is hilarous yet also makes sense through out the entire film. When he goes to the police it doesn’t matter that they’re minorities, either: his story is dismissed, partly for being crazy but also because cops are worthless in any horror movie. They never believe what is happening, even if presented with evidence. When Chris gets carded by the police and responds with a tired expected compliance, it’s very telling. As is when a cop car pops up later and Chris assumes the hands up position that I’m sure all too many people of color know quite well.
Peele couldn’t have picked a better pair of people to play Rose’s parents. Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener are a perfect embodiment of white privilege and attempts to convince people they aren’t racist. Although I wonder if they would take anyone who fits their ideal of strength and proper genetics, according to them anyways. Get Out also features their kids carrying on their parent’s heritage of racism, this proving that hoping the younger generation overcomes their parents brand of hate is a foolish notion. If anything the film almost suggests that eliminating white racists is the answer, although I don’t want to read too much into a movie where a man kills someone with deer antlers.
I love the little details in this movie. Someone on Twitter pointed out how Rose refuses to mix her colored cereal with her milk. Her brother sits and pulls a Deliverance, playing some type of guitar while Rose and Chris reenter the mansion shortly before things completely explode. If there is critiques of this movie then it is that I saw the twists coming, although they are fairly telegraphed in the film. I really hope that Jordan Peele makes another film and has a successful career as a director. He has style, ideas and has given the world another great film, not just a horror film but a movie. Might as well cut back on the titles anyways.
I’m glad that people are protesting President Trump’s Muslim ban. It’s an unconstitutional, wrong act that should be overturned. Unfortunately the people are just having to get started, as this is the beginning. I love that people recognize history being repeated. Again. Oh and the Trump administration’s refusal mention the Jewish people killed in the Holocaust is very telling.
This is all for nothing if people don’t show up for midterms and vote for people who would never back a Muslim ban. Also I already took to Twitter to find out which representatives of my state and local area have issued statements about the ban. Only Dave Loebsack, who used to represent my district before redistricting, spoke out against the Muslim ban. Time to all means necessary to push Congress to stand up to Trump. And those who don’t, we need to vote out.
The time is now. I need to go find a protest. Remaining quiet doesn’t help anyone. Oh and I need to donate to the ACLU, too. They’re part of the resistance. Fight the power. Debate Trump supporters. Punch a Nazi or label alt right facists as such. Do what you have to do. History doesn’t look kindly on cowards and the intolerant.
Unfortunately for us all the modern world has dictated that we all need to be connected to the Internet at one point or another. Many, if not most, jobs have online applications instead of paper ones these days, or at least encourage people to apply via a computer instead of filling out paper apps with poor hand writing. Social media, fantasy sports, the need to know more and be kept up to date about current events, all require Internet. So having wi-fi is important, since it enables us to not have to use expensive mobile data to post something we find pithy on Twitter, or upload pictures to Instagram. Young people are more likely to abuse mobile data due to Snapchat and listening to music on YouTube, so wi-fi is critical to have. Yet it seems that many places do not have wi-fi, or they require you to obtain a password just to log into their often crappy guest wi-fi. The struggle is real, that is if you are focused on first world problems. I’m sure there are people without drinking water or food, and yet here I am complaining about not having Internet. Our priorities are out of wack.
Still being able to sit on my phone when faced with boring people at a bar where I cannot get drunk at because I’m the designated driver is useful. I’m sorry but I’m often anti-social due to either annoying people or people who have less interesting things to say than I do on a regular basis. Also I have no shame in asking for the wi-fi password wherever I go, and then give it to those who think that they are bad people for requesting something that they need. The people who have unlimited data are lucky people, but for the rest of us we need that wi-fi, and we need it yesterday or an hour ago. Oh and we do sometimes use the Internet for good things, such as finding out the name of a song or checking our banking to make sure we can afford the pricey beverages and food at that overrated bar and grill friends dragged us to because they make more than we do. Things could be worse, I suppose…
Down The Rabbit Hole 
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