Rick’s Best from 2017

Wonder Woman

As a kid I watched the 1970’s Wonder Woman show with Lynda Carter. I also was there for 1987’s Wonder Woman comics by George Perez. I have been waiting for the third member of DC Comics’ Trinity to get her own film. She finally did. It proved that a female led superhero movie could make money. I was lucky to see it on opening day since it came out on my 49th birthday. This also was the first successful DC movie since the Dark Knight Trilogy. The studios were shy to adapt her since the 70’s worrying about the backlash if they got it wrong. The other big thing is it also showed a big tent pole movie could be directed by a woman too and be successful. This all flied into the faces of the prevailing attitudes in Hollywood.

Spencer & Locke

What do you get when to put Calvin and Hobbes in Sin City? You get this wonderful exploration into childhood trauma and coping mechanisms. Detective Spencer and his stuff panther Locke live in the mean street, dealing with criminals, child trafficking, drugs, abuse, and murder. Iy has a good deal of Noir elements in it as well. This comic book series is definitely worth the time to read. Warning, the subject matter is very adult.

American Gods (TV show)

American Gods is based on the novel by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman is one of my favorite authors, so I definitely would be interested in this. Ian McShane plays Mr. Wednesday excellently and Orlando Jones does Mr. Nancy so much justice. The concept is the old gods going to war with the new modern gods of technology, media, and etc. It has great casting and wonderful writing.

Milk Run: Smuggler’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Book One by Nathan Lowell

Nathan Lowell is another favorite author. I was introduced to his work through podiobooks. The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Universe is Space Opera done more like nautical fiction and less war and politics. The Smuggler’s Tales go into things from the side of those not part of organized space. These are independent worlds, stations, asteroids, and outposts in the Deep Dark. The previous stories dealt with charted organized worlds. It also surrounds two strong females, one unfamiliar with that part of space and the other more familiar.

Mage: Hero Denied

Matt Wagner has finally given us the final part of his Kevin Matchstick trilogy. He is the Pendragon, the latest incarnation of King Arthur. In this he fights the Umbra Witch, a new incarnation of the Umbra Sprite, and her daughters, the Gracklethorns. This time he has children and so the stakes are much higher. The third volume comes out 20 years after the second, and over 30 years after the first. Game of Thrones fans there are worse waits for new volumes of beloved series. All three volume are worth it.

Ready Player One (Novel)

I read this one in 2016, but I reread it in 2017 in anticipation of the upcoming film. This weaves cyberpunk, and 80’s pop culture into a wonderful homage. It has a lot of nerd/geek culture references including, comic books, table top roleplaying games, video games. TV, films., and music from the 80’s and before. The movie will not have all the same references due to budget and licensing. That is why you should read the book first or even after.

The Orville

Many consider Galaxy Quest a Star Trek Movie. Officially it is not, but it a very good parody and homage. The Orville in a Science Fiction Comedy from Seth McFarlane of Family Guy. In many ways it is a more faithful adaptation of Star Trek than Star Trek Discovery was. There are joke and humor, but the old morality plays are back. A race that has only one sex and gender is used to comment of gender issues. McFarlane has never hidden his Trekkie cred, and it shines in the writing here.

Baby Driver

I love Edgar Wright as a director. This is a heist film, and it is as a result of his leaving the Film Ant-Man. The movie reminds me of the heist movies of the 70’s. I would not be surprised if Michael Caine, Steve McQueen, or James Coburn showed up. It has the chases the double and triple crosses. Everything one wants and needs for a good heist film. This is not one of those con job flim flam style movies like the Ocean’s film. This is a head on Robbery movie.

Samsung Galaxy 7S Edge

I finally got a smart phone. I went with an Android, because I am not a fan of Apple’s market strategy. They finally gave people a music subscription service 10+ years after Microsoft and other companies. I love what a smart phone can do. I like the Android OS, I find it intuitive.

Shape of Water

A film by Guillermo Del Toro that hearkens back to the Creature of the Black Lagoon films of the 1950’s. Del Toro captures the pathos and emotional truth of the story. The story of a mute woman falling for an amphibian humanoid. Doug Jones and Sally Hawkins prove that you do not needs words to convey feeling and meaning. I love this film.

The Most Heinous Fallacy

Three unrelated things occurred recently that affected me profoundly. The first was a video making its rounds. Momondo released a video called DNA Journey. This video shows how we are more alike than we think that our narrow ideas about ethnic purity and identity are not necessarily true. I have known I come from a very diverse gene pool. The heritages I know I belong to are English, Ulster Scots (Scots Irish), German, French, Dutch, Swede, Norwegian, Italian, Dane, Middle Eastern Jew, European Jew. Family legends claim Chiricahua Apache, Choctaw, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Chippewa. I no longer claim North American Indigenous heritages, because there is no corroborating proof. Plus through cousins, aunts, and uncles there is Korean, Japanese, Filipino, Mexican, Welsh, and Puerto Rican. Knowing my family history there could be Irish, Spanish, Mexican, African-American, Welsh, Eastern European, and who knows what else. The video showed an Iraqi who came out to have Jewish genetic markers. A “pure” Icelander discovered he had a more diverse genetic background.  We are so much more connected than we really think. The video includes two cousins that did not know they were related discovering each other in the room.

The second event was the sad sentencing of Brock Turner, a former swimmer for Stanford University. The judge, who sentenced Turner, was an alum of Stanford University. Many think he should have recused himself. This smells of White upper class privilege. Had Turner been non-Christian, non White, of lower economic means or anything other he would have received the maximum sentence. Once again the perpetrator was given more consideration than the victim, due to his superior social status. This stinks of two separate rules out there one for those of privilege and one for the rest of us. There has been a slate of sexual assault cases involving young white men of upper middle class or higher socioeconomic standing where there is more concern over the future of the perpetrators than that of their victims.

The third was the mass shooting in Orlando of a gay nightclub on June 12, 2016. Although many want to paint this incident as a religiously motivated incident, it appears to be one of self loathing. The Shooter based on some accounts was confused about his sexuality. He came from a culture that demonized homosexuality. No matter why it was still a hate crime. The reaction to the incident by the residents of Orlando was uplifting. Everyone came out to help, including holding a blood drive. Muslims, Christians, whites, straight, gay, and many others of all walks of life tried to help in this dark time.

There is a most heinous fallacy that pervades our society. That fallacy is we are more different than similar. Genetics like the DNA Journey proves otherwise. We have never been pure anything. We all are multiracial and multicultural even if we do not know it. Those who pull our cultural strings want us divided and fighting each other. We cannot allow there to be different rules based on race, faith, gender, economics, and so on. What message are we sending? As long as you are the right race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion and so on, you can do as you wish. That is serious male bovine defecation.

I come from a multiracial, multicultural, and multi-faith background as stated earlier. I do not see denying anyone a loving partner and the legal protections everyone else enjoys with regards to marriage as the right way of doing things. Extremists want us to fight; they win by controlling the narrative. ISIL/ISIS has attacked other Muslims, because they are heretics. I saw the same kind of extremism in evangelical Christianity as a young man. They decide who is true to their faith, based on their own biases. As long as nobody is hurting another we she just except them for who they are. Like the phrase goes, “United we stand, divided we fall.” The powers that be fear Unity and cling to division. We need to go to bat for are neighbors, even if we disagree in religion, politics, or way of life. People in glass houses should not be throwing stones. We are more the same than different. We want love, and to live to our best potential. To deny others the things we all need and desire because some notice difference is absurd. This has been My No So Humble Opinion.