Fifty Shades and Fifty Shades Darker: THE PODCAST (with AmyC!)

BEHOLD!

The Signal Watch launches a new media experiment! Join us for our inaugural podcast as AmyC and I sit down and discuss the movies Fifty Shades of Grey and Fifty Shades Darker!

FAIR WARNING:  There is a whole lot of non-Family-Friendly chatter in this podcast, so use your best discretion before tuning in.  



Runtime:  50 minutes (so get comfortable)

Regret Watch: Fifty Shades of Grey/ Fifty Shades Darker

Watched: 01/22/2018
Format: Home/ Amazon
Viewing: Second/ Second
Decade: 2010's

We re-watched the first two movies.  Blog content forthcoming.

That Took Longer and Way More Failed Attempts Than I Figured, But The Red Trunks Are Back in Action 1000

I always thought the teeth-gnashing over Superman's red trunks was a sign of some deep and unwarranted insecurities at DC Comics.  But it looks like DC has decided, at very long last, to restore Superman to trunks-status with Action Comics #1000.

Yeah, yeah... I know Superman's red trunks were inspired by pre-WWII-era America acrobats, who were more or less covering up their junk.  (Look, if you've been to the ballet... you can most absolutely see what grapes those guys are smuggling under their danskins.) 

I'll always argue that the red of the trunks balanced the outfit, allowing it to remain sleek, but keep the solid blue from a certain visual dullness between the cape and boots.  From a design and visual appeal, and at least on the comics page, red trunks just work better to balance the complete outfit.

Movies in 2017 (for me)

In 2017, at the height of my "oh, who cares?" moment, I made the decision to stop posting on every movie I'd watched.  But I've found it's sort of weird to me, personally, that I can't go back and see a list of everything I watched in a year or refresh my memory from my notes when a movie comes on.  Thus, in 2018, I'll be at least dropping the name of the movie and some info for my personal reference.  That's what you can learn from the change in format that started at the beginning of the year.

When I was writing up every movie I'd seen, I said it allowed me to spend more time with a film, and that's still true.  In 2017 I leaned into writing more of my personal experience, dropping some notes on how I engaged with the movie, and rarely got much into straight up attempts at criticism.  There's enough of that out there, and you can Google any movie and find reasonable reviews and critiques.

90's History Watch: I, Tonya (2017)

Watched:  01/07/2018
Format:  Alamo Drafthouse, South Lamar
Viewing:  First
Decade:  2010's/ (actual history:  1990's)

Sci-Fi Re-Watch: Arrival (2016)

Watched: 01-06-2018
Format: BluRay
Viewing: Second
Decade: 2010's

Lulu Watch: Beggars of Life (1928)

Watched:  01-05-2018
Format:  Austin Film Society
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1920's

Television in 2017 (for me)

Here was the thing about television in 2017:  there was so damn much of it.  

I think we're all pretty comfortable at this point just telling people "I've already got too many shows, I'm not looking for anything new."  Anything and everything is discussed as if it's must-see water-cooler discussion material, but the fact is, the audience is so splintered, and there's so much supposedly quality content on, none of it qualifies as required viewing nor are characters and storylines part of the shared cultural lexicon.

Sly Watch: Rocky (1976)

Watched:  01-02-2018
Format:  Amazon streaming
Viewing:  First
Decade:  1970's

Peggy Cummins Has Merged With The Infinite

I was unable to confirm yesterday when I saw the news, but now The Hollywood Reporter has it that actor Peggy Cummins has passed.

Cummins is in at least two fantastic movies, Curse of the Demon (1957) and, of course, one of my hands-down favorite films, Gun Crazy (1950).

You can read the linked article to get a notion of Cummins' career, which was fairly brief despite her obvious talents.  Not everyone stays in pictures, or even in Hollywood.