Key West

First stop on the honeymoon is Key West. We were trying to hit all three National Parks in Florida but our first, The Dry Tortugas is a no go, didn't buy tickets for the ferry far enough in advance, got up early to try to get on stand by but not early enough. We got up at 5am, the couple the ended up getting the only two available slots got up at 2am, woof. But hiked over to a state park with a beach which was nice.

The park has an old fort on the grounds.

There's a lot of stuff to do in Key West but most of it is inside, the only thing we did was go to the butterfly sanctuary, which was really moving and cool actually.

We walked by the Hemingway house and Truman's "Little White House" and got a lot of great take out but overall Key West just isn't our speed, tons of tourists, and most of the people here just pretend COVID doesn't exist. Not terrible, we had a nice relaxing couple days but without the Dry Tortugas there wasn't much for us to do. Key West is an odd place, part Bourbon Street part Vegas, very crowded and noisy, probably a great fit for some but not a great place for a nature lover who's not a diver.

Powerful Medicine

Call it mojo
Call it juju

Call it medicine

Call it intuition if you must

or magic if you can

whatever you call it

it behooves you to heed

that feeling when it comes

that feeling that says "yes" or "no" or "run"

that feeling when the vibe is right

but more importantly when the vibe is wrong

because despite our modern cacophony

our fashionable skepticism and unbelief 

some old hoodoo remains

passed down from the old ones, the wise ones

gone but not lost.

Happy Holidays

Off to Florida to spend the holiday with Nicole's parents, then dove tailing the trip into our belated honeymoon. Stay safe and celebrate well!

Walgreens Pharmacy

Waiting for my COVID booster
watching the harried pharmacists

and the variety of bumbling customers

picking up their prescriptions

as the minutes tick away

where I should be working

I begin to smolder, to seethe

then suddenly

this cool comfort

drops over me

like a blanket

a profound acceptance

swaddles me

and I realize

I am content to wait here

as long as it takes

and the idea

that this could take some time

that I could be ignored or forgotten

relegated to the back of the line

some complication may arise

gives me no trouble whatsoever

I let go

I am where I am supposed to be

and it will take

as long as it takes

and that is not only OK

it is correct

it is as it should be

and I sit, waiting

liberated from my worry

as holiday stresses

flow around me.

'Being The Ricardos' A Review

 Being The Ricardos is a biopic written and directed by Aaron Sorkin about one fictitious week in the life of Lucille Ball(Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz(Javier Bardem) where Ball's communist ties are called into question, Arnaz's infidelity becomes public, and the two clash with the CBS brass on including Ball's real life pregnancy in her(their) legendary show I Love Lucy. Seems unbelievably fortuitous all these things would converge and resolve at the same time, you bet!

Bottom line Kidman and Bardem are miscast, they are wonderful actors but they are primarily wonderful dramatic actors. And they simply do not have the comedic wattage required to pull of their characters, it doesn't help the overall the tone of the movie is bizarrely dour and melodramatic. There is so much glowering, so many pensive silences, so many arguments, this juxtaposed with what we know of Ball as a person, I Love Lucy in general, and with the look of the production itself(glitzy, smooth, old Hollywood), taken together it simply doesn't work. The support cast fair much better, particularly staff writers played by Alia Shawkat and Jake Lacy who are actually allowed to be funny, but even then there's an over-seriousness about the whole thing that renders it boring. It attempts to make comments about politics, marriage, and feminism and fails across the board while at the same time not doing legendary comedian Lucille Ball much, if any, justice. Sure those are big shoes to fill but no shit. There's so much about the casting and script itself that seem not properly thought out.

It has the same overly slick look of Sorkin's 2020 directorial effort Trial Of The Chicago 7 and has the same issues, it tries to do too much(both in theme and story) and in so doing renders it's characters two dimensional, it slots famous non-US born actors in famous historical/cultural figures of the US and not that there's anything inherently wrong with that(Daniel Kaluuya was excellent as Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah) however it is certainly more complicated than simply slotting whatever A-list actor you can. This is bolstered up by the wide reported news that both Kidman and Bardem attempted to exit the movie prior to production once they discovered the massive and profound impact both Ball and Arnaz had/have on US culture. Not that they fail completely but their performances are overly studied, impressions, without that hot cord of energy that Ball and Arnaz possessed.

If there's one thing Being The Ricardos does succeed in it is creating a desire to watch I Love Lucy.

Currently in theaters and streaming on Amazon.

Don't See It.

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' A Review

 Spider-Man: No Way Home is a superhero movie, that latest in the MCU saga and the third installment for Tom Holland's Spider-Man. Following the events of Far From Home Peter Parker aka Spider-Man(Holland) grapples with the public backlash of his unmasking. As a result he, his girlfriend MJ(Zendaya) and his friend Ned(Jacob Batalon) are not accepted into MIT. In order to try to make things right Peter enlists Doctor Strange(Benedict Cumberbatch) to cast a spell of forgetfulness on the world, this goes wrong(no surprise there) and causes a collision with the multiverse.

Holland, Zendaya, and Batalon all deploy their charm and chemistry which we've become accustom to, and it's just as fun and engaging as ever but because of the big "reveal" of the movie and all that that entails the focus is much more split than in previous movies. Some of these surprise performance, which it would be a spoiler to reveal, are very good, very fun, and surprisingly resonant. There's one particularly effecting scene, one of the best of the year, where Holland's Spider-Man encourages and is encouraged by two of these mystery guests. It's surprisingly potent.

After the somewhat melancholic drudgery Far From Home this is a return to, perhaps, a more standard Spider-Man flick but certainly a more enjoyable one. It has the standard slickness that one can expect from Marvel, it looks great, it moves relatively quickly, the action sequences are engaging, and there's emotion and humor in equal measure. It is a great movie? No. But it is a classic, highly effective, extremely entertaining superhero blockbuster. Retains some of the magic the MCU seems to have lost since Endgame.

Straight, main-line fun, with the most successful deployment of nostalgia to date.

Currently in theaters coming soon to VOD.

See It.

Tis The Season

The holidays can be an odd time
an inbetween time

both a doing time and a waiting time

a running errands time

and a treading water time

a waiting for the new year time

a hoping for a change time

a happy time and a stressful time

a together time and a lonesome time

a yearning time

a grieving time

and also a joyful celebratory time

tis the season for all this and more time

smiles, but not only smiles, also cries

a happy time but a complicated time