Let's talk about the BEU.

And by that I mean the Berlanti Extended Universe, which is the name I have given to the DC comics shows currently airing on The CW, named for their creator and Executive Producer Greg Berlanti. Specifically, let's talk about it's aging flagship show Arrow, which uses the hero Green Arrow as its central protagonist.

To sum up the show for the uninitiated, millionaire playboy Oliver Queen returns home after being stranded on a hellish remote island for five years with a personal mission to cleanse his city of all crime and evil.  To do that he assumes the identity of vigilante Green Arrow.  Along the way (read: the five years the show has aired), he puts together a mish-mosh team of people from all walks of life to aide him.

The show has kind of gone off the rails of late.  I continue to watch because I'm a dedicated viewer and because it is a shared world with the other shows on the network (The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, and the newly-acquired from the CBS trashpile Supergirl).  Arrow has become your faltering grandpa: you love him and listen to him out of respect for his age and experience, but he's just not all with it anymore.  It has been difficult to watch the show this season because Oliver has lost much of his original core team, who were characters you cared about, and they have been replaced by a ragtag group of other Green Arrow-inspired vigilantes who really don't work so well together and there isn't much for which to cheer.  Usually in a serial show like this, there is a story arc that carries it through a season.  This year, the arc is pretty weak and there doesn't feel like any resolution is coming.  Suffice to say, I've been disappointed this season.

That said, why is no one talking about last week's episode??!  It has a little tie-in to the show, but if the writers were to have taken that out, it would have worked very well as a stand-alone episode about our current national climate.  It is titled "Spectre of the Gun" and, while its main thrust is the old debate between Second Amendment purists and those of us who believe in sensible safety laws, it touches on the idea that if we are to get out of the divided quagmire we're currently in, we must stop and listen to each other.  It feels a touch preachy, but not in an After School Special kind of way, and you still respect it afterwards.  I encourage you to watch it; forget that it's a superhero show and just watch for what it's trying to say.  None of us is all right or all wrong, no matter how much we may try to will it into being.  Peace and love.

I got nothing tonight.

I have nothing new to add to the 45 rant, so I just want to say this in reaction to a couple of minor incidents I had while at work today:

DON'T BE A DOUCHEBAG TO SOMEONE PROVIDING YOU WITH A SERVICE!!!

#Peace

I'm really excited about my children's theatrical prospects.

I know I've talked about this before, but I had it reiterated and strengthened a couple of nights ago.  I took my kids to a movie theatre to see a filmed production of the musical version of Newsies; not a screening of the original 1992 movie that didn't well, but the revitalized stage play from a couple of years ago.  This video will give you a little taste of what you'll see if you attend the final showing next Wednesday, February 22, and I REALLY recommend you do, because the production was fantastic!

Now, when I brought up seeing this to my kids, especially my son, I wasn't quite sure what reaction I would get.  In trying to explain the story to them, what a strike is, how some business owners are greedy corporate bastards who feed off their lowly employees, I didn't know if they'd understand it. But they were both anxious to go, and so we did.

My daughter bounced along to every song, trying to sing along even though she really hadn't heard them before (except maybe in passing on the radio).  My son was riveted to the screen; I kept asking him if he was understanding what was happening and he insisted he did.  Both at intermission (yes, they put one in just like a real show) and when it was over, they both said they loved it!  They want me to upload the cast recording to their music apps on their tablets.  All in all, a successful evening of "theatre!"

It wasn't much of surprise that my daughter enjoyed it (at least the music and dance; she's only five, so the story probably went over her head a bit) as she has been the one to really show performance interest.  But the fact that this helped change my son's attitude about musical theatre warms me to no end.  Not that he was thoroughly disinterested prior to this; he has enjoyed listening to some things on the radio and has even asked to listen to certain cast albums in the past, but he wasn't a first-in-line kind of person before.  I really think this helped add to his interest.  I still don't think he'll want to be a performer, but as we drove home I told him about all of the different jobs in the theatre that are needed to make a show work.  

So while I don't expect either of my children to want to pursue a career in the theatre (although I am 100% behind them if they do), I like knowing I am giving them a great base, at least, for appreciation. If they can go through life enjoying it as much as I do, then I've done my job on that front.  I encourage you all to do the same, for your children and for yourselves.  Be well-rounded.  Appreciate the beauty in everything.  And get out and see a show!

I believe the books are better than the movies.

I do not like seeing a movie adaptation before I read the book.  I have missed many cinematic releases because of this.  I enjoy creating the world in my own head from the author's words first before having images thrust upon me by a director's vision.  I'm certainly not disparaging directors or screenplay adapters; there have been many fine films adapted from books.  I just want my own chance first.

The Harry Potter series is a perfect example.  I love the book series!  However, I came to it very late. I did not start reading the series until 2007.  Once I got started, I couldn't put them down (living in New York at the time and having long subway commutes, especially while on jury duty, certainly helped, but that's beside the point).  I finished Half-Blood Prince just as Deathly Hallows was released.  I got the latter from the library and knocked it out in the three weeks one gets from them (not particularly impressive as many mega-fans stayed up and read those huge tomes in one night, I know).

Because of my insistence on reading first, I only saw the last three movies in the theatre; I had to watch the others at home.  Now, while I enjoy the films, there is still something lacking with them for me.  I am in the middle of reading the series with my son (who has become a YUGE fan), and slowly getting through the movies with him, too.  We just watched Prisoner of Azkaban tonight.  As we have watched the movies together, I think I have figured out what the problem with them is: there is SO MUCH editing that a lot of Rowling's original fun is just lost. There are so many missing fun and poignant bits from the books that the movies sometimes feel rushed.  Sometimes things got edited out and then a passing reference is made to them later and it just makes no sense.  For instance, while watching Prisoner tonight, towards the end as Lupin is *SPOILER ALERT* turning into his werewolf self, Sirius makes a comment about Lupin not taking his potion that evening which is supposed to help him from transforming; not once elsewhere in the movie do they talk about that potion or that Snape is reluctantly making it for him, losing reference and deeper character development established in the source material.

Now of course I understand it is inevitable that edits and changes have to be made for a book adaptation, especially when you're dealing with novels as long as the Potter series, or the movie could be five hours long.  A. try explaining that to an excited six- or seven-year old who wants to see a movie be exactly like what he has read; and 2. there is my point: read and imagine for yourself first before letting Hollywood dictate to you what a fictional world should be, because once you get someone else's image in your mind, it can be hard to go back to your own.

#READ

This needs to be shared everywhere.

Full disclosure: I did not write this, but I am sharing it where I can; feel free to do the same. #resist

This is where I stand. I believe that our 45th President, his Cabinet, his administration, and the majority of Republicans in Congress are a real and active threat to me, my family, our democracy, and to all the people of this nation.
Some people are saying that we should give Trump a chance, that we should "work together" because he won the election and he is "everyone's president."
This is my reasoned response:
•I will not forget how badly he and so many others treated former President Barack Obama for 8 years.
•I will not "work together" to privatize Medicare, cut Social Security and Medicaid.
•I will not "work together" to build a wall.
•I will not "work together" to persecute Muslims.
•I will not "work together" to shut out refugees from other countries.
•I will not "work together" to lower taxes on the 1% and increase taxes on the middle class and poor.
•I will not "work together" to help Trump use the Presidency to line his pockets and those of his family and cronies.
•I will not "work together" to weaken and demolish environmental protection.
•I will not "work together" to sell American lands, especially National Parks, to companies which then despoil those lands.
•I will not "work together" to enable the killing of whole species of animals just because they are predators, or inconvenient for a few, or because some people want to get their thrills killing them (including Trump's sons)
•I will not "work together" to remove any persons civil rights.
•I will not "work together" to alienate countries that have been our allies for as long as I have been alive.
•I will not "work together" to slash funding for education.
•I will not "work together" to take basic assistance from people who are at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder.
•I will not "work together" to get rid of common sense regulations on guns.
•I will not "work together" to eliminate the minimum wage.
•I will not "work together" to support so-called "Right To Work" laws, or undermine, weaken or destroy Unions in any way.
•I will not "work together" to suppress scientific research, be it on climate change, fracking, or any other issue where a majority of scientists agree that Trump and his supporters are wrong on the facts.
•I will not "work together" to criminalize abortion or restrict health care for women.
•I will not "work together" to increase the number of nations that have nuclear weapons.
•I will not "work together" to put even more "big money" into politics.
•I will not "work together" to violate the Geneva Convention.
•I will not "work together" to give the Ku Klux Klan, the Nazi Party and white supremacists a seat at the table, or to normalize their hatred.
•I will not "work together" to deny health care to people who need it.
•I will not "work together" to deny medical coverage to people on the basis of a "pre-existing condition."
•I will not "work together" to increase voter suppression.
•I will not "work together" to normalize tyranny.
•I will not "work together" to support more proliferation of guns in our society.
•I will not "work together" to eliminate or reduce ethical oversight at any level of government.
•I will not "work together" with anyone that thinks its OK to put a pipeline to transport oil on Sacred Ground for Native Americans.
•I will not "work together" with any proposed legislation that threatens marriage equality for all.
•I will not "work together" with anything or anyone that threatens the rights of LGBTQ individuals in any way.
•And I most certainly will not "work together" to cover up and ignore the scandals, criminal activity, lies, and deceit that is running wild like a deadly virus in the Trump White House.
This is my line, and I am drawing it.
•I will stand for honesty, love, respect for all living beings, and for the beating heart that is the center of Life itself.
•I will use my voice and my hands, to reach out to the uninformed, and to anyone who will LISTEN:
That "winning", "being great again", "rich" or even "beautiful" is nothing when others are sacrificed in the process.
If you agree feel free to copy and re-post (this results in larger numbers of people seeing a post).  Also, if we have left anything out, feel free to add it to this list.

Let's recap the latest, shall we?

So I've been a little out of the loop for a few days, so most of what I have is more headline than anything, so please forgive me a little ignorance.  As I understand it, here are "45's" latest failings, in no particular order:

• Meeting with PM Trudeau of Canada, he is unable to pull his dominance handshake and Trudeau flagrantly talks about the differences in ideals about immigration in a joint press conference.
• The unconstitutional and thoroughly un-American travel ban based on a religion is still being denied by courts.
• In a joint press conference with Benjamin Netanyahu, he turns a question about the rise in anti-Semitism into another chance to talk about himself and his election win, and mocks the Israeli leader when he doesn't give "45" a confident response to a statement.
• At least two of his cabinet picks have pulled out from consideration for their respective posts.
• He fired his national security adviser, under the guise of Flynn "resigning," with reports of a Senate committee investigation highly likely.
• His Russian connections are still looming over him like a not-so-subtle elephant in the room.
• Kellyanne Conway continues stepping in it, making her and Sean Spicer's jobs that much more difficult; she has been barred from "Morning Joe," of all shows.
• News outlets continue to defend themselves and their reporting, and not letting him or his staff get away with their BS.
• He essentially killed a Navy SEAL and several civilians in a botched raid.
• Republican Congress members are turning against him.

Man, I'm tired just from headlines let alone the actual meat of the stories!  The good news is piece by piece, the regime is being chipped away despite its best efforts to keep stable.  I still don't think anything major is going to happen until after the midterm elections - even with the few that have started talking, there won't be enough brave Republicans to stand against him now to turn any decisions; it will have to wait until they lose their seats late next year and the power swings back the other way.  But as President Obama was always so fond of saying, I'm trying to remember to "Choose hope" when I see the actions and strength of those who continue to fight.  The wall will topple, and I don't mean the ridiculous Mexican border idea.  Tyranny never wins. #resist

Kellyanne Conway is very good at her job.

By that, I mean her job of shielding, spinning, obfuscating, and deflecting.  Golf claps for Kellyanne! The castle is crumbling around him and she's still out there spewing sunshine and lollipops for ol' "45," just like the dutiful little yip dog she is.