Lucky Moran: RIP The Queen
Otis Redwing: RIP The Queen
Lucky: Tina Turner, man - what a voice! What a story!
Otis: So true, so true
Lucky: Now she's in Heaven, a private dancer for Jesus!
Otis: That ... probably sounded a lot better in your heard.
Lucky: Yeah. Yeah, it did.
Otis: Probably should have stayed there, too.
Lucky: Probably.
So a friend and I were talking about using poetry as a means of monetary exchange, and I recall having written a draft proposal for that a few years ago. After rummaging around the half-crumpled pages in my scattered brain, and finding nothing, I've decided to re-write it again, here:
Proposal for Use of Poetic Forms as a Means of Monetary Exchange!
A Couplet for a loaf of bread or a cup of coffee
A Haiku for a few bags of groceries
A Limerick for a utility bill
A Villanelle for a medical procedure
A Sonnet to buy a car
An Epic in lieu of a mortgage
In short (as the stories are short) this IS a good read.
Flash Fiction, to be truly effective, depends on the twist, the turn, and the economy of word usage actually makes that more challenging than it may seem, and this writer has a fantastic hold on the form. Her stories have dark twists, thought-provoking twists, romantic twists. And each one leaves the reader with a smile, or a tiny shock, or simply saying, "whoaaaa!"
It is obvious that these stories were originally posted on Twitter. The hashtags have also been left in, which, for a reader unfamiliar with Twitter (if there are any) will find the hashtag a bit confusing, which detracts from the story. What would make this a five-star book would be a reworking of the stories for a book format: allow the writer to re-write the stories (as needed) beyond the Tweet character limit, reformat the pages, possibly even add titles, so that the eye doesn't run the stories together (one's brain may try to read them as a long thread instead of individual stories)
Again, these stories are delightful, and yes, they need to be read by many more people. This reader looks forward to a future edition of this tome where these wonderful tales are allowed a little more room to breathe, stretch, and become the best versions of themselves.
I am giving my wife the thing she most wants for Mother's Day.
What's that?
My absence.
The Guilty (2021)
This was a pleasant surprise.
Also, I shouldn't read Rotten Tomatoes reviews, because this one time, I saw that the audience either loved this movie or hated it - no middle ground. And the disparity lies wholly in the setting: the setting of the entire movie is a 911 call center and most every camera angle is focused on Jake Gyllenhall's face.
So, as you may surmise, the people who didn't like it call it "boring! Fake! hates the police!" when really what they want to see is Speed, Rush, Ambulance, Fast and Furious 154, or John Wick 75.
But this is NOT "My Dinner with Andre"
This is indeed an action flick. The action simply takes place in the voices and the words and the inscrutability of Jake Gyllenhall's expression.
In short: Gyllenhall is a beat cop who, for some unknown reason, is stationed at a 911 call center and this is definitely NOT his forté. People skills - ZERO. Empathy and this character have never seemingly been in the same vicinity.plo
Then, he gets a call from a woman claiming to be abducted and is in a truck. Then there are increasingly intense twists and turns that eventually turn the story on its head.
No this is not a visual movie. Nothing is handed to you, as it is in, say, a Transformers movie. You do have to put part of yourself into the action to visualize what is going on ... on that level, this movie almost has a feel of what pre-TV Radio programs must have felt like, and when you can visualize the action through the voices and the dialogue, what plays out in your mind is most likely more more intimate and intense than anything they could have shown you onscreen.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/jordan-neely-marines-nyc-subway-chokehold-video-b2333006.html
https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/nyc-subway-chokehold-death-ruled-a-homicide-as-groups-demand-justice/4301660/
https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/04/us/new-york-subway-chokehold-death/index.html
For Jordan Neely
On the Northbound F,
he often dressed
like Michael Jackson -
moved like him too,
danced like a madman
escaped from a zoo,
and he entertained the people
and he scared some too,
cuz you never really knew
what he might do,
but one day he came on screaming,
didn't know
at what
or at who,
but a couple of guys
restrained him -
a big Marine, too,
put his arm around his neck
and held him down
held him tight,
held him until he
stopped screamin'
until he stopped
breathin'
until he
stopped
dancin'
MR
2023-0504
America - 1971 <= the best acoustic album
Homecoming - 1972 <= wonderful
Hat Trick -1973 <= a little uneven, but charming
Holiday - 1974 <= as good as Homecoming, perhaps even better
Hearts - 1975 <= some great stuff, better than Hat Trick
Hideaway - 1976 <= some interesting song, but along the lines of Hat Trick
