PODCAST: "The Fly" (1986) - Episode 01 of "What is Love?" - w/ SimonUK and Ryan

Watched :  03/03/2019
Format:  DVD
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1980's

It was called @#$%ing Panchos and you losers let it go out of business the last time. Fun flags and all. Absolutely glorious. Don't @#$% it up again, Austin.



Music:
Main Title - Howard Shore, The Fly OST
Unknown Track - Howard Shore, The Fly - Opera
Help Me - Bryan Ferry, The Fly OST


"What is Love?" Playlist:

Christmas in July Watch: A Christmas Wish (2016)

Watched:  07/21/2019
Format:  Hallmark Channel's Christmas in July
Viewing: First
Decade:  2010's

I was suffering a fever and whatnot over the weekend, and that's part of why this happened.

Around July 1, The Hallmark Channel began running Christmas movies 24/7, and I guess that's the gameplan through the end of the month.  It's clearly a trial balloon to see if they should just go ahead and launch a fulltime Christmas movies channel, as in - all year it's Christmas.  Which would make Jamie snap, and, thus, I support this idea.

Noir Watch: The Tattooed Stranger (1950)

Watched:  07/18/2019
Format:  Noir Alley on TCM on DVR
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1950's

So....  I don't know that I'd want to actually recommend The Tattooed Stranger (1950) to anyone.  It's far more of a curiosity of production than it is a watchable or good movie, and in the right, riff-able hands, could be wildly entertaining.  Pre-film, Muller explained that it had been a producer of RKO's Pathe office, who wanted to try their hand at cheap narrative films, exploiting their guerrilla film making know-how from decades of documentary films  and using the wealth of actors in NYC.

Rutger Hauer Passes Through The Tannhäuser Gate

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. 

All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. 

Time to die.

This one hit us all hard and never let up.

NASA Legend Christopher Kraft Merges With The Infinite

If you ever get a chance, read up on the amazing history of NASA.  It's fascinating today to see some of the unknown stories of the agency's history come to the fore in recent years, bringing to the fore luminaries like Margaret Hamilton and Katherine Johnson.  One name we did grow up with was Christopher Kraft.

Truly, no one was more "there at the beginning" than Kraft, who had been a NACA employee before the creation of NASA, and who helped build and shape NASA from the inside up.

Kraft served as Flight Director at NASA during Mercury and Gemini and as a manager of flight operations during Apollo.  Kraft's attention to detail and leadership were key to keeping all the moving parts together before, during and after each mission, keeping people alive as they hurled through space in experimental machines strapped to ballistic missiles.

He would go on to run the Manned Spacecraft Center into the early 80's, when he retired from NASA.  In the 1990's, he participated in a review of the shuttle program and published an autobiography in 2001.

Mr. Kraft passed this week at the age of 95, having pushed humanity higher, further and farther than anyone ever dreamed.  He deserves to be remembered alongside the astronauts and heroes who, themselves, went into space and those new legends of engineering, math and science.  The role he took on wasn't the one with the personal glory (although his name did become quite well known), but without the Christopher Krafts out there, you don't get the Apollo missions, either.

A statement from NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine on Kraft's passing.

I've Been Sick, That's What

Last week I traveled for work and somewhere along the line I picked up a nasty cold.  I have my suspects who may have passed along this infernal malady, but shall name no names here in the record of my life which will be preserved and shared for generations.

I got home from work very late last Wednesday (really Thursday morning) and was doing fine.  I worked out on Thursday, ate dinner and was doing the dishes when I got the spins for a minute.  "That's odd," I said to myself.  "But it has been a while since I worked out, and that didn't go very well, either."

And then the symptoms started coming in, and I knew. 

Look, it's not dramatic.  It's a cold.  As of this writing I am now past the point of ear canals screaming at me, a sore throat and a fever.  I spent most of the weekend laying on the sofa watching TV, I think.  I don't really know.  I think I watched all of Clue last night, but I'm not sure.  But I did go to an Urgent Care Sunday not because I think they can cure the common cold, but because I have no idea what OTC meds to take when you do have a cold.  PLUS - I really did not want get a sinus infection on the other side of the cold.  And, you never know.  Day 3 of a fever is a good time to ask a pro if you're dying or not.

Anyway - I'm on the road to recovery.  Doing much better than I was and have moved into the "coughing a lot and, oh, look, it's producing phlegm" part of the program.  Some minor stuffiness.  And I'm way more lucid, which I see as beneficial to everyone. 

The poor dog, who hasn't seen a decent walk in days, just thinks I suck.

Thanks to Jamie who has been a hero through all of this and hasn't seemed to have acquired this cold, against all odds.  But, yeah, she is used to me Man-Flu'ing my way through all illness, but it is in no way fun to watch a giant, sweaty man lay on your sofa and just keep saying "I don't care" about literally everything not related to his phlegm production.  Of course she's wrestling with summer allergies, so as I recover, I hereby swear to be deeply sympathetic to her fight via Austin allergens.