Blogocentric Formulations (Book)

Blog Calendar

◄ November ► 2023
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30
Archive				RSS

About This Author

Contact Me

I am SoCalScribe. This is my InkSpot.

Blogocentric Formulations

Logocentric (adj). Regarding words and language as a fundamental expression of an external reality (especially applied as a negative term to traditional Western thought by postmodernist critics).

Sometimes I just write whatever I feel like. Other times I respond to prompts, many taken from the following places:

"The Soundtrackers Group"

"Blogging Circle of Friends "

"Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"

"JAFBG"

"Take up Your Cross"

Thanks for stopping by!

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Aiva Raine

Nov 6, 2024 at 4:49pm
In response to "October Watch List"

Grin. I loved Psych! I rewatched White Collar approx a month ago. Having issues finding good new shows so I've resorted to rewatching my favorites from old.

Currently rewatching Castle, Supernatural, and Buffy/Angel.

Enjoyed The Great and Lady Jane Grey, sad they both got cancelled. The "I made a teddy bear" episode on The Great was so funny hubby and I had to rewatch that scene 4 times before we could finally stop laughing hysterically at it.

Thanks for your recaps of shows- it's given me some new items to add to our lists.

Jeff

Nov 6, 2024 at 3:20am
In response to "October Watch List"

Aiva Raine

- I've actually watched all three! PERSON OF INTEREST was a really good show, but WHITE COLLAR and BURN NOTICE (along with another great USA Network show called PSYCH) are some of my favorite television shows of all time. I actually just started rewatching WHITE COLLAR a few weeks ago!

Aiva Raine

Nov 5, 2024 at 3:08pm
In response to "October Watch List"

Wasn't aware that there was a movie for "What we do in the shadows"- thought it was just a TV show on Hulu. Thanks for sharing that tidbit- will find the movie and add it to our watch list. The TV show is quite humorous.

I also enjoyed the Lincoln Lawyer- need to watch the newest season.

Have you ever checked out Person of Interest, White Collar, or Burn Notice? If so, did you enjoy them?

1 Like

Aiva Raine

Aug 3, 2024 at 11:10pm
In response to "Man on the Moon"

Just missed seeing the moon landing by a few years and as one of those "old people", I will admit to being depressed at our lack of space progress. Sure, we've got great new telescopes that are letting us see wonderful things way out in space, but we still haven't even put a man back on the moon again after all this time. Putting someone on Mars looked promising for a while, until Elon Musk went all nutso and can't stop mucking up everything. Yeah, he's got reusable rockets, but we aren't really progressing much beyond that.

I truly hope I can live long enough to see humans do some real space exploration. Because even though I didn't see the original moon landing in person- watching it on TV after the fact still was pretty freaking cool. Although watching the Challenger blow up from our desks at school sucked. Here's hoping we get to bring the astronauts stuck in space home soon. Maybe NASA can work with someone besides Boeing for that!

Aiva Raine

Aug 3, 2024 at 11:01pm
In response to "July 2024 Watch List"

Only seen the Fall Guy and Deadpool & Wolverine. Both fell a bit flat for me. I think because the first Deadpool was just so awesome. This last one felt a bit Disneyfied. Yes, I know- tons of gore and the occasional sex joke, but it just, meh. There wasn't any real "bite" to it.

The first one had a real plot. It made you belly laugh hard. And you cared a bit about the characters. This last one, I didn't really care at all. About anyone. I laughed, but most were the "oh wow- that's so over the top it's funny" laughs, not "that's freaking hysterical and I'm still gonna be laughing about that on the way home".

Fall guy- it was more cheesy than funny or entertaining. It wasn't that memorable at all. So not memorable that I'm trying to remember anything I hated or liked about it and well, I can't. I do remember at the end going, well, not sure that was worth the 2 or so hours it took to watch.

There really hasn't been a movie lately that's wowed me. Everything seems to be trying to follow the whole Marvel action movie formula and they just don't do it for me. There's only so many explosions, fart jokes, and over the top gore scenes all done special effecty that you can do before you've completely lost me. I quit watching Marvel or Superhero movies a while ago, but went to Deadpool because- it was Deadpool and my son asked me to go for a Mom/Son outing.

I've tried watching many of the newer shows that get all the hype and they fall flat. I've gone back to watching reruns of shows I actually enjoyed- like Leverage, or White Collar. I'm on rewatch # 3 of Supernatural, rewatch 2 of Vampire Diaries, got about half-way through rewatch 2 of Originals before I gave up.

I did enjoy "The Great" and was bummed they killed it after 3 seasons. That was funny!

I loved the Bridgerton series, but this last season left me a bit unimpressed.

I'm currently rewatching Warehouse 13 with hubby who has never seen it. We watched Eureka before then. Somehow- all these older shows are much better than 99% of the newer shows and I honestly want to know why.

Why do most of the newer shows suck? Lazy writing? AI writing? What's the story? I'm really curious?

Kåre เลียม Enga

Aug 3, 2024 at 4:46pm
In response to "July 2024 Watch List"

I don't go out or have a television. I would watch more on-line but the internet has been wonky recently.

Two Thai BLs:

"1000 Year Old Vampire"

So... uneven. Some of the premise makes sense in a supernatural way. A vampire can't die even though he's bored of living. He's old... very old... and keeps meeting the same human/alien again and again. That 'love story' has some merit. The final scene is moving.

12 episodes could've been condensed to 4 or 6 (so... 160 - 240 minutes total; even a 90 minute western movie would've been better). I could take the final words "Wave goodbye, Master Yoh" and rewrite it as a prequel, having it placed in 1940 (not necessarily in Bangkok), ending in 2000... with it being 'reborn' in 2020. I like the idea, not just how it's done.

"Love Sea"

Good acting, great chemistry, edgy at times. It tackles sex-for-pay, family abuse/neglect, criminality, and the age old "what happens when we fall in love". I love a romance when there are layers of other genres and when it takes me to a time and/or place. Episode 2 is steamy and geo-restricted but it's fitting to get past the 'sex' because that's not the story.

Both main actors are top-shelf and work well together. The niece Meena is adorable. The father is chilling (evil wrapped up in normality). It hasn't finished yet. There are 10 episodes. #9 airs August 4th.

"1000YO" gets about a 6.5 rating at MyDramaList ... and that's about right imho for PG silliness. "Love Sea" is rated 8.0 and that's a tad low. The story may be a bit too 'real' for some audiences as it's 18+ and serious.

These are the opening episodes to save time looking for them! IMHO, it's getting harder to find some things on-line.

1000YO: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8sq35e
LoveSea: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9037r4

[Visit the entry for more...]

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jul 29, 2024 at 12:01am
In response to "Hiding behind humor"

"I was just joking" can trigger my traumas and make me distrust someone. I want to respond, "I'm not laughing" ... without an apology or smile. It's too akin to bullying.

1 Like

Kåre เลียม Enga

Jul 28, 2024 at 11:55pm
In response to "Man on the Moon"

The original Star Trek was 1966-1969. And let's not forget the Jetsons. Both forecast new technologies... as people looked to the future.

The future seems more dystopian now. And since the Moon has little commercial value, money has gone elsewhere. NASA has a $25 billion budget; Pentagon ... $825 billion.

When there's a military base on the Moon... or when it's found to be made of gold instead of cheese... then it will become a priority.

Sumojo

Jul 16, 2024 at 2:16am
In response to "Memorable Places"

Hi, Jeff, I’m reviewing this interesting blog post as next in line for I Write in 24.

I’ll comment on each of your memorable places in turn.

Flathead Lake (Polson, Montana
I could feel the connection you had to this place, but also to the memories of your grandparents. I couldn’t quite envisage the boathouse though. To me a boathouse is a shelter for a boat! But obviously it wasn’t just that.
I could also feel the sadness when you returned there, even if it was just on line. It’s distressing really to see the new owners had messed with a place you held so dear.

Zuma Beach (Malibu, California)
Now here you showed your true romanticism. What a beautiful plan you devised to recreate the table setting of your wedding day. Your wife would have been so happy.

Gare du Nord (Paris, France).
I understand that feeling when you become the foreigner when you first land in a country whose language is not yours. I felt it when we were in Vietnam, even the street signs weren’t in English and finding one’s way around was daunting.
I believe though that the French people are willing to speak English if one makes at least an attempt at French.

Edmund D. Edelman Children's Courthouse (Los Angeles, California).

A different feeling and experience here. I was a little taken aback when I saw a courthouse as a place you had strong memories about until I read the rest of the post. Yes, a location can leave a person traumatised. Your experiences at that particular courthouse are mixed. The applications and endless paperwork involved in the process which allowed you to adopt your precious children would certainly have left you with mixed feelings of that location.

The Walt Disney Studios Lot (Burbank, California)

Now this location isn’t one where many people can put as their workplace. You certainly have an interesting job.I would have loved to hear more about your experiences in the movie business.

Overall I throughly enjoyed the blog post. Thank you so much for sharing.
Sue.

[Visit the entry for more...]

Wordsmitty ✍️

Jul 15, 2024 at 12:12am
In response to "Memorable Places"

A nice time capsule of your life as well. Thanks for sharing.

1 Like

November 14, 2023 at 12:17am

#1059465

Reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated

Today I'm feeling a little sullen. If you pay attention to the happenings in the entertainment industry, you might have noticed that my company's latest film, The Marvels, had the lowest opening weekend performance of any film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with only $46 million at the domestic box office. It's a misfire, for sure, and I'll admit the movie isn't one of our best (although it's also far from one of our worst). The reason I'm feeling sullen, though, isn't because of the disappointing box office. It's because the disappointing box office is coming on the heels of a series of articles and analyses predicting the demise of Marvel. There have been articles like these for months:

Crisis at Marvel

In Marvel we no longer trust

Why 'The Marvels' can't solve the Marvel Studios brand problem

Marvel's Release Delays Mean The MCU Matches DC In One Very Disappointing Way

Marvel used to reliably churn out billion-dollar hits. Now Disney has a mess on its hands

The MCU Is In Big Trouble

Second off, I can take criticism of my employer and my work... when it's warranted. The problem is, I don't really think it's warranted. Marvel Studios has presided over a record-shattering run of success in Hollywood. To date, it's released 33 films that have grossed a collective $30,000,000,000 at the box office. For context, the next highest grossing franchises are Sony's Spider-Man franchise at $10.5 billion (also a Marvel property, which isn't factored into the MCU's grosses), and the Star Wars franchise at $10.3 billion. For reference, other franchises like Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, James Bond, Batman, Jurassic Park, Transformers, and Lord of the Rings are all less than $10 billion each. Having a string of 32 consecutive profitable films is unheard of at pretty much any studio or production company in the industry in the last 75+ years at least. So it feels like maybe declaring the MCU dead and buried after a handful of less than stellar (but still profitable) films and one actual bomb feels a bit presumptuous. It's like looking at a baseball player who goes 32-for-32 with 20 home runs, 8 triples, and 5 doubles to start the season, then strikes out once and suddenly everybody throws up their hands and goes, "Wow, their season is basically over. What a failure!"

Third off, I think it's gross when people pre-judge the success of something before it comes out. When I was first starting my career in this industry, I worked on a movie called Who's Your Caddy? which is objectively not a good movie, and is currently #40 on IMDb's "Bottom 100" list of Lowest Rated Movies. Here's the thing though... and this was one of my first lessons in how social movements can shape opinion... that movie was #3 on that list a week before it was released. Voters on IMDb decided they hated the movie and gave it a bunch of one-star ratings before any of them actually had a chance to see it. And the same thing kind of happened here. All the Marvel Studios hit pieces, the rumors that this movie was going to tank... all the negative talk started weeks ago. There are flaws with The Marvels for sure. And Marvel Studios is going through a bit of a rough patch right now for sure. But it's weird how many people were so convinced this movie was going to bomb without having seen more than a trailer or a TV spot.

Fourth off and finally, and somewhat related to the point above, I think life is hard enough right now without a bunch of people rooting for things to fail. So many companies (Disney and Marvel Studios included) have just gone through rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting. There are or have been labor strikes in multiple industries. Income inequality has never been worse, and many people are having a hard time just making ends meet. It feels like a weird time to root for things to fail, knowing that failure could very well affect people's livelihoods. I know that bad news is far more engaging than good news and everybody loves to watch a train wreck, but it almost feels like we're reaching a point as a society where we're gleefully hoping to create train wrecks so we have something to entertain ourselves with. It makes me really sad, and sullen, that there are so many people out there who revel in and even celebrate others' failure.

So, yeah, I'm feeling a little sullen today.

The opening weekend of The Marvels was a disappointment, to be sure. The next project I'm working on is really frustrating me because of a few wrinkles I'm trying to iron out. But I'm also super excited for our upcoming slate of projects. Deadpool 3 is going to be amazing, and I'm really looking forward to Captain America 4 as well. Disney as a company (including Marvel) has pivoted in a lot of ways, and it feels like we're coming out of a rough season and headed into a new one with a lot of optimism and enthusiasm. I'm not sure it's sustainable to expect that we're going to continue to hit home runs every time we step up to the plate, but that's okay too. Even if there are more misfires in our future, I still love the types of movies and shows that we produce, and I love my job contributing to the process.

7 Like • Comment • View 5 comments