Tag: Star Wars

As Good as TV Gets

Man, television is just killing it these days.

This morning before work I watched today’s new episode of Severance. No spoilers, but holy shit! Tonight as I was sitting up in bed I watched today’s new episode of Yellowjackets. Again, no spoilers, but holy shit!

Who would have ever thought that so much TV could be this consistently spectacular. That’s not even the best of it.

There is a Star Wars television podcast that I listen to pretty regularly. A few weeks ago they started a rewatch of the first season of Andor. Season two is kicking off in April, I think. Not too far away. I was playing along with this rewatch, I’d watch an episode, listen to the podcast, wait a week and repeat. It worked for the first three episodes and then the podcast had a delay. It was over a week before they put out their coverage of Andor episode four and frankly I just got tired of waiting and started watching ahead.

I just watched One Way Out. Season one, episode nine. I don’t think I am alone in stating that it is one of the best episodes of television I’ve ever seen. The tension in the prison, the tension in the senate, the speech Luthen gives at the end. Fuck me, it’s as close to perfect as you can get. Stellan Skarsgård, Andy Serkis, and Genevieve O’Reilly all give career defining performances. It’s just unreal how good everything is during that slightly less than one hour program. Damn!

Okay. It’s almost midnight. I really need to get some sleep. I have so much to do tomorrow and I want to get through it as fast as humanly possible so that I can have some time to work on music and, totally unrelated, so that I can go to the store and buy a new belt. Not that you asked or anything.

Go watch Andor. Then watch Severance and Yellowjackets too. Throw in The Last of Us and The Leftovers while you’re at it. If they are going to make television that is this good, the least we can do is watch it all, right?

The First Order

I can’t believe we saw the leader of The First Order in person. A brush with fame. Fascist fame, but fame none the less. Kinda like the USA in general these days, right?

151/365
DSC_3313

The alternative caption to the first photo would be, I can’t believe we saw that guy who was on that HBO show with Lena Dunham.

Photo a day number 151/365.

Galaxy’s Edge

Yeah, we just hung out with Kylo REN. We were trying to walk away but he kept blocking the road. First Order prick.

ADDENDUM

Five minutes after posting this we ran into the Mandalorian and Grogu.

Friday

It’s Friday. One week from today I am going to be writing about how I only have an eight hour work day standing between me and a full week’s vacation. I am already hyper focusing on it. Crazy.

I just watched the season two finale of Silo. It was very good. I sort of screwed things up though. The show is based on a series of books. A few weeks ago I got tired of waiting to see what was going to happen on the show so I started reading. I’m going to finish the third and final book probably this weekend. When the super confusing twist happened in today’s episode I knew what it was and I knew it was coming. I spoiled myself. I don’t care though because the books are good, the show is good, and the books and the show are just different enough that I can still feel engaged with both.

This week I also watched the season (series?) finale of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew and I am down to the second season (series?) finale of The Alienist which I am enjoying a lot even though it’s creepy as hell. Fortunately season two of Severance came out today. I’ll watch that tonight before bed, I think. Silo is over, but I still have a Friday show to watch out for. That’s nice.

Last night I watched a video on the youtubes. Five Watt World’s Short History of the Les Paul Deluxe. My first “real” guitar was a Les Paul Deluxe. I didn’t learn how to figure out the date on a Les Paul until years later so I have no idea what year it was made. I think it was very late 70’s or very early 80’s. I bought it in 1988 at Russo’s Music in Lowell, MA. All of the knobs had cracked off of it and I never replaced them. I was a kid. I didn’t have the money or even the know how of how to get replacements that would fit. It also had a nasty gash in one of the frets, and I seem to remember that one of the inlays was coming unglued. I didn’t care. I loved that guitar. I adored that guitar.

On a Sunday night/Monday morning in November or December (pretty sure it was December) of 1990 it was stolen out of my car. That was pretty much the end of the world for me. I have never really recovered from the violation of it all. I bought my Les Paul Custom a short time later and that is still my number one guitar… but some days I really find myself missing that Deluxe. I would have loved to have taken it to a good shop and had all of the negatives fixed up. It would have been epic, mini-humbuckers and all.

Watching this video made me feel all the feels. Steve Hackett, Pete Townsend, and me. All of us, Les Paul Deluxe veterans.

Okay. Time to stop farting around and get ready for work. Happy Friday, everyone. The weekend awaits.

Good News

Good news tonight. The world may be looking pretty bleak across the board, but the Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 6-2 tonight.

Also, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew ended and it was excellent! (No spoilers though)

Also, the cats watched Friends again and it’s crazy how they can’t look away.

Good news all over the place! WOOHOO!

Up to Date

Okay folks, you can talk about Star Wars: Skeleton Crew episode three now. I just finished watching it so I don’t have to avoid spoilers anymore. Go ahead and debate it to your hearts content.

He said selfishly as if no one else getting spoiled didn’t phase him, though you notice he hasn’t spoiled anything himself so maybe this post is meant to be a little silly and a lot sarcastic. Hmmmmm… what do we think?

Nothing

It’s been a quiet day. Not a lot going on. One issue at work that should have been wrapped up on Friday came back to us today (Tuesday) and was immediately taken care of. It should not have come back to us though. There was another issue that one of my staff members worked on over the last month or so. He wrapped it up nicely last week. We were talking about it yesterday and we were both a little sad that his hard work did not seem to rate a pat on the back or a thank you from the customer. It’s okay if they just move on with their lives, but this was a kind of issue where we thought a simple thank you would have been nice. Well, he got a thank you today. Thanks for the thanks, customer.

Most years at work I am part of two holiday celebrations. One is a big lunch with a yankee swap and the other is a smaller, quieter group lunch. The yankee swap happened today. The quieter group lunch happens tomorrow. Both of them take place in Foxborough, which is the office that is as far away as I am willing to go to. It could be worse. It could be Fall River. That building has been open for a decade or so and I have never been there. It’s just too far away. If I ever have the need to go there I will, but I am not going by choice and I will avoid it whenever I can. I’ve been lucky so far. Foxborough though… today and tomorrow. It’s okay. I’ll handle it. It’s only about 70 miles away. Yikes.

At the Yankee swap thing today there was a sign that said there are only 15 days left until xmas. You know… I wasn’t feeling a holiday crunch before I saw that… now? Oh yeah, I’m feeling the holiday crunch. Panic is setting in.

There is a new episode of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew coming out at 9pm tonight. Hopefully that will make me feel a little better. I’m still not 100% sold on the concept of Goonies in Space, but I am liking it so far. I’ve only seen two episodes. I am optimistic that tonight’s episode three will be good. The bad guys are Pirates. Arrrr, righty then.

What else can I write about? Nothing. I think I need to wrap this literary masterpiece and click that publish button. Okay, loyal readers… here it comes!

Spoiler Free Review

Skeleton Crew… the first two episodes came out last night. I watched episode one last night and episode two this morning. Without spoilers, what did I think?

I don’t know. It was okay. It is definitely geared toward kids. If that’s a deal breaker for you then… well, you’re probably not a Star Wars fan because pretty much everything in Star Wars is geared toward kids (except for Andor, really… which has spoiled a lot of us).

Sure, we’re only two episodes in but it is so clearly a giant homage to The Goonies. It just keeps hitting you over the head with it. There’s nothing wrong with that, it’s just what is happening.

I liked it. I liked the opening pirate scene. I liked the location in the second episode. I’m curious about who/what/how Jude Law. My one beef is that there are too many shots that are totally lifted from the first movie. Other than that… I liked it. I didn’t adore it, but I did like it.

Episode three comes out next Tuesday. I’ll have more info then. For now?

HELL YES, NEW STAR WARS!

Skeleton Crew Cat

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Skeleton Crew are out! Disney+ released them seven minutes ago.

Robin is super psyched!

I fear that this one is going to be a little too kiddie for me. Andor being grown-up focused has spoiled me a little. The Acolyte was good but I hope that even with my unfounded fears Skeleton Crew will be better.

Even if it’s trash I am still going to love it. It’s Star Wars, after all. Am I right, or am I right?

Enjoy!

Almost There

I am less than an hour away from the end of the work week. Sigh of relief.

We are coming up on what might be my favorite week of the year. Thanksgiving week. One of the kids will be coming over this weekend (and I need to clean the hell out of this house before she gets here). The other will be here on Monday. It’s going to be great. I took a vacation day on Wednesday so my favorite four day weekend is now a five day weekend. Glorious.

We are doing our family Thanksgiving on Saturday, not on the actual Thanksgiving Day on Thursday. That means Jen and I have nothing going on for the holiday. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am thinking a Super Mega Star Wars Marathon. That sounds like a plan to me! How about start with Episode Three, then watch Andor and Rogue One, then watch the original trilogy. Let’s do it! The Star Wars Holiday Special aired around Thanksgiving in 1978, so I think that makes Star Wars as a whole a Thanksgiving movie series. Logic. QED.

For now though. Finish the last half hour or so of the work week, then cook dinner, then eat dinner with the love of my life, then… sleep? Sounds like a plan to me. Book it!