Graduation
Yesterday, the daughter's graduation. A speech by the Class Valedictorian, in which youth assures age that it's completely ready for the Challenges ahead, the much-abused metaphor of life as climbing a mountain by a breathy girl that doesn't sound like she's ever even been outdoors, let alone up a mountain...
An initiation, of sorts, but not at all, not in the least.
Other formalities, introductions, boring recommendations based on other people's "life experience", the voice of experience recommending everyone follow in it's footsteps, the band plays, then the ceremonies begin, diplomas are handed out, watching the graduates cross the stage, shake hands, photo-op, continue off the stage, the mixed applause of the student body - the hoots and hollers from the crowd indicating a social acceptance that will easily be as important as any academic achievement...
It's funny, watching this, you know none of the students yet you recognize them all, churning out of the machine, the personalities, the same as at your own graduation, the same at every graduation, the bigger the class, the bigger the range, the variety, but the people, the individuals, for all their striving to be different are the same as the ones you went to school with, the class clowns, the jocks, the pretty, the handsome, the popular, the bright, the workers and the slackers...
Intermission, the band plays, then the machine resumes coughing up it's pre-approved social product, the machinery of conformity and the indoctrination into 8 and 9 hour workdays complete, averaging not even 15 seconds per student, this is our investment, here, see, this is our reward...
Then, closing ceremony, the Principal shares his own life experience, you can tell he's watched a lot of TED talks on this topic, modeled his own speech after them, only, really, he has nothing to say, no words of enlightenment whatsoever, merely an opportunity to overshare and talk about his own struggles and dreams, drawing tenuous and nonexistent parallels with the student's lives, life will be a challenge, don't give up on your dreams, dream big, there's no TED talk or load of New-Age Chicanery he hasn't bought into and he brings to it a sincerity that even the most gullible would question, "Today is the first day of the rest of your lives..." , it's gagging me and he's not stopping, the cop, she's just standing there, there's been a hostage taking, an entire auditorium, draw your gun, do something, shut this lunatic up..., stare into space, look off at the ceiling, you want to yell at them all that it's bullshit - it's all bullshit, the world's on fire, it doesn't need any more bullshit on the fire it needs a revolution, off with their heads, all of them, start with the Valedictorian, she's "nice", they're all "nice" but it has to be done, start now, quick, before they get away, ...
Finally it ends. The same as your own graduation, only the world has never inched so closely to Armageddon, to extinction, and any starry-eyed imaginings of unmanageable wealth or illustrious career will soon be overtaken by an increasingly grim reality.
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Unboxing Stormy
Yeah, it would have been a lot better done by the sides of Kootenay Lake, with a bit of make-up and some false (or real even!) teeth, a piece of kleenex to wipe my nose and a bit of duct-tape surgery to hold up the saggy bits on my jowls and face. But this Vlogging, it could catch on...
'ResponsiveMedia' plugin by Geoff Hayward.
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The Raptors' Tooth
And the daughter's shown it to a few people, who doubt it's provenance, "how do you know it's old?" to which I suggest responding: "well, next time I'll carry bear spray...in case I run into one...no, wait, they've been extinct for 75,000,000 years..." and other bullshit from people who are completely unqualified to have any sort of opinion but nonetheless feel free to have opinions anyways. I mean, she found a dinosaur bone in an area renowned for dinosaur bones, in a place where they are so abundant that the museum leaves them "in situ" for people to see, but, really, it's impossible you could have found one. Must have been a cows' or gophers' tooth...don't feed the cows...
Smart daughter in a world of idiots, get used to it, in this world, the here and now, intelligence is a disability. I try to reassure her that after graduation, in University, she'll meet more intelligent people, more like minded people, but I know, I've been there, it's a lie...
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John Wick 3 - Parabellum - Review
Which we had been looking forward to for so long - and tonight was the night, the reviews, all fine or better - the daughter and I in the theatre, popcorn, sodas in hand...
It was disappointing. On this we agreed.
The character development - poor. Poor or worse. Not good. There could be integrity in the world of assassins, but there very apparently isn't.
The world building - more and more intricate and convoluted, ornate, embellished onto the nonsensical, less would have been more...that said -
...the action scenes are good. Great. That's why we're here. The early scene with the Chinatown assassins - great. As were some of the other scenes. Not all of them. And I know, I know, I'm not watching this for the acting, the plot, the themes, the character development - but it's the glue that holds it all together. Less world building, leave the audience with questions - that's OK. Keep the characters - that survive - intact, or change and evolve them in plausible ways, not always for the worse.
For all the anticipation and hype I would say just miss it. It will always be better in your head. And since it wasn't the worst movie ever but it was so much less than it promised and what the other two offered, I would give it 0 Stars, not that it deserves that, but - life is short, there are other films, and like sex with a beautiful woman it's too often better imagined than realized...
Miss.
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