I am going to fight the sleepiness, write my blog, and then pound out five segments for my Best Albums of 2019 Show for Folk Music Notebook. This will require a lot of coffee. Speaking of which, I have to fit a trip to the store in there, I’ll almost out of coffee and I will be out of eggs after I make breakfast. I might require a second pot of coffee to get all this done. Sleep apnea is not fun. Going to a doctor about it is one of my New Year’s resolutions. I don’t actually make New Year’s resolutions but I’m not going to break my resolve just to be contrary.
I was a semi-good Jew yesterday; I went to the movies but did not eat Chinese food. Don’t excommunicate me. One of these days I should write about the quandary of having my Jewish identity being important to me even though I’m an atheist that thinks that tribalism is a bad thing. For now, I’ll just file that under “People are complicated.”
The film I saw was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There’s a good chance that I’d enjoy 1917 and Little Women more. I’m not even a big Star Wars fan, but I wanted to be part of the cultural conversation. I saw it at is now “my local theater,” The Magic Johnson in Harlem. It’s not that close but it’s the easiest to get to. I can get there in half an hour on the D train. I wish they kept the theater up better. There always seem to be little issues. The film was in theater 2. The problem is that the sign with the 2 in it was down and I walked right past it. I was not the only one this happened to. When I left there was a father and son who were outside it and couldn’t find it. I had to point out that those doors were not closets but entrances to the theater. The 3D glasses were not by the entrance to the auditorium but where they took your tickets. I luckily spotted them when I came in. The father and son had to go back to get theirs. Magic Johnson did such a great job running a basketball team. It was like magic. He’s one of my all-time favorite players so I won’t hold this against him.
Now it’s time for what you’ve been waiting for; what did I think of the film? I was not disappointed. That’s because I just rewatched The Last Jedi and didn’t expect much. Don’t tell me that I think about things too much. Thinking about it all was like grading tests from people that never did the homework. Can you picture falling out the bottom of a pool of quicksand and the sand not falling through the same hole you did? It’s easy to suspend my disbelief and accept that someone can will a lightsaber to fly into their hand. That’s the rules of the created world.
We see Rey jump 30 feet in the air, yet she has to struggle to climb up rocks? There’s a constant assault of things like that. The world shown has no rules. I could accept that if the characters were aware of it. There was just so much bad writing with things just thrown in to help the plot. They made up nonsense about navigation systems not working on big ships even though they work on small just to set up a battle. You have to set these kinds of things up earlier. Not to do so is lazy.
Anyone else feel the film would have been better if Rey had responded, “And I am … Iron Man?” That would make up for a host of sins. The film was fun. I appreciate being able to see a movie in 3-D with two working eyes. Why was it cheaper than the 2-D screening? I enjoyed the film, but it was in no way great or even good. It was acceptable entertainment.
There was one thing that disappointed me, the music. The original’s John Williams theme is a masterpiece. I never liked the sideways opening crawl but hearing the music does make my heart race. Every time the them played I felt good. But the rest of the score was mundane. I thought that Williams must not have written it and they were just quoting him. But he did write it? Did he just phone it in? Is he losing his magic touch? If we can’t depend on John Williams writing a rousing score, what can we count on?
When the film was over I thought of going down to Rockefeller Center to see the Christmas Tree. I thought of going down to Chinatown for dinner. Instead I walked to the subway, saw that Popeye’s was open, and ate there. All the fast food places were open. I’m pretty sure the people working were Muslims; one was wearing a head scarf, and another had an Arabic name. I don’t like the idea of Christians having to work on Christmas, but if they aren’t Christian then it hopefully means time-and-a-half and that’s a good thing.
Now to eat breakfast, drink coffee, and record another segment of my Top Album list. I’m going to get this done today.
Wise Madness 