In packing up a lot of stuff in preparation to put our house on the market, (so we can buy a new, bigger, better house), I came to our (mostly my) collection of CDs. I rarely get to listen to my CD music nowadays. But I still have two or three dozen CDs stacked in the rack of our entertainment center.

My collection is pretty damn eclectic:

• Duran Duran – Greatest
• Enigma – MCMXC a.D.
• Bee Gees – Their Greatest Hits, The Record
• Paperstreet – Everything is Alright
• Easy Seventies
• Rick Springfield – Greatest Hits
• Waylon Jennings – 16 Biggest Hits
• Kid Rock – Devil Without a Cause
• Eddie Money – Greatest Hits Sound of Money
• Creed – Human Clay
• Glen Danzig – Black Aria
• Steely Dan – A Decade of Steely Dan
• Michael Jackson – Off the Wall
• Chicago – Greatest Hits 1982-1989
• Last of the Mohicans Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
• Alice Cooper – Welcome to my Nightmare
• Bad Company – 10 From 6
• Pure Funk

That’s a random sampling — I just pulled a bunch out without looking at what they were until typing them in here. I remember buying each one of these, but I haven’t bought any CDs in the past, oh, two or three years.

Cowgrit and the Calves bought me a Time/Life collection of easy listening songs on a dozen CDs sometime last year.

Now that I’ve got this stack of CDs here at my desk, I’m going to load them into my backpack and take them to work with me. Maybe I can listen to them at the office some time. It’s a damn shame to have all this great music but never listen to any of it anymore.

There should be a test on the Internet where you can put in a list of the CDs you own and the program will tell you something about your personality. What does the above random sampling say about me and my taste in music?

Bullgrit

Viewed: Theater

I said I wasn’t going to bother seeing this movie. But my friends all told me it was good. Really good. Even outside my circle of friends, every review and mention I’ve read or heard about this movie said it was great. Even fantastic.

So, I went to see it. I shouldn’t have. I hate it. I should have trusted my own personal gut instinct.

I’ll give props to the idea of using a time travel plot creating a paradox to explain the “reboot” of the series. That concept is a good way to avoid rehashing the series, and lets writers not worry about matching everything to the known Star Trek history of the future.

But every other plot device and piece of plot logic just utterly fails for me. I’ve mentioned in other recent reviews how plot holes and logic failings hurt my enjoyment of a movie, especially when those failings are the core drivers of the story. Well, Star Trek’s foundation is built on these kinds of not-thought-through problems.

One such core plot piece in this movie is that Kirk goes from cadet non grata to permanent captain of the Star Fleet flagship in one freakin’ day. One day! Apparently, being overly cocky gets Star Fleet cadets promoted over all other experienced officers, and awarded the prestigious flag captain’s seat above all other senior commanders.

And there’s lots of other pieces of twisted, ridiculous plot logic that the movie plot relies on. For instance, red matter is so powerful that a single drop can create a black hole, yet a small, one-man science ship carries a 5-foot diameter sphere of the stuff. A Romulan mining ship has greater firepower than a Federation warship. (Yes, the mining ship was from about 150 years in the future, but still it’s a mining ship.) A star can go supernova with no warning. A black hole close enough that you can see it huge in the sky isn’t close enough to harm you.

And what the hell is with all the bright back lights and lens flares? Damn but that got annoying.

About halfway through this movie, I considered getting up and walking out. I just couldn’t find anything to like in this show. But, unfortunately, I was sitting in the middle of the row, with 3-6 people between me and either aisle. So I continued to sit there and subject myself to further brain damage.

This is the third craptacular movie I’ve seen in the theater this year. All three franchises should have been slam dunks for Hollywood to please me, but all three have completely failed for me. But then, with all the rave reviews this new Star Trek movie has received by everyone but me, maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m far too hard to please.

But my peers have also panned Wolverine and Terminator. This is the only one of the three that I am the odd reviewer. <shrug> I now, officially, give up on modern Hollywood — the writers just don’t think their shit through.

Bullgrit

A couple of moments from this weekend:

* * *

We (me, my mom, Calfgrit4, and Calfgrit8) were on our way to Target to pick up a couple things, including some Pokemon cards (mom told them she’d get them some cards). The boys were discussing what kind of Pokemon cards they wanted to get.

Calfgrit8: “I’m going to get a deck. I want a new Pokemon deck to play against dad’s deck.”

Calfgrit4: “Yeah! I want a deck, too. That’s what I want.” <pause> To CG8: “What’s a deck, anyway?”

* * *

We were in the backyard watching the boys swing on their play set. Calfgrit8 jumped out of his swing and landed with a roll. Calfgrit4 said he wanted to try jumping out, too, but we told him not to.

Calfgrit8: “No don’t try it, you could die. I’d rather have you alive than dead. Even though you are annoying.”

Bullgrit