Trumpless News Cycle

The US has been hit with a double whammy of hurricanes over the past couple weeks which, as I wrote earlier, revealed the truth depth of American quality both in dealing with the disasters and the response. There’s been yet another silver lining to the relentless clouds of Harvey and Irma – the lack of focus on our personality challenged commander in chief. I’ve written before as to my feelings about the descent of journalistic responsibility with the onset of instant media but it’s sunk to another level with our current president.

Blue Steel Goes Outside

The news cycle, pre-hurricane, seemed to revolve around what his latest and usually egregious faux pas was. I’m not saying what the US president says and does is not newsworthy, especially with this egomaniac creating his own daily crisis’s. What I am saying is that there’s a lot more going on in the world than the Donald’s latest tweet. It’s obvious the mainstream media (read producers) rightly feel attacked by the buffoon in chief and therefore never pass on the opportunity to explore in depth just how dysfunctional his presidency, outside of security affairs, has been. It took the biblical level storms of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma to finally get the focus more balanced. Hopefully they learned and return to a more sane presentation of what’s going on in the entire world. If not, more people will abandon these biased sources and be victimized by the even more unreliable “Facebook” style of news reporting.

Done

I spoke with the Keene Friend late last night after sending him all the birthday wishes he received after I posted something on Facebook. He was genuinely touched by all the well wishes and typically humble. I also finished, at least in my view, the beautification phase for my cosmetically challenged fire pit last evening. I’m going to let it cure for a week or so before I attempt my first conflagration. I felt a sense of completion as the rock pile I’d stared at for more than a year has met its final comeuppance.

Date night last night had us back at the theater last night to see Home Again. This has about as much depth as the average mud puddle but it was thoroughly entertaining. Reese Witherspoon has always been a personal favorite and she carries this woman-centric rom com with ease. She plays a 40 year old returning to her dad’s California mansion fleeing marriage to the stereotypical endless youth record producer. She “adopts” (one more than others) three young men trying to make it into the movie business. This is one of the rare movies that everyone is more or less “likable”. I was particularly impressed with Jon Rudnitsky who plays one of the young men. This is definitely told from the woman’s point of view which was refreshing as it didn’t involve Witherspoon is heartfelt pursuit of her dream “man”. So not a great message film but a perfect date movie.

The Bad Cinema project count rises to #5 out of 100 with The Amazing Transparent Man, which actually wasn’t abysmally bad, just mediocre.