Tag: Movies

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Wow, I was interested in seeing Bros… Now I wonder.

I have enjoyed Luke Macfarlane in other performances. I know nothing about Billy Eichner.

Billy Eichner has apparently tweeted his dissatisfaction about Bros opening weekend box office. It apparently wasn’t very good.

1 bros 2022

Reading what Eichner said was pretty offputting. There wasn’t any need for him to shoot his mouth off. I’d have much more respect if he’d taken the opening weekend under performance like a man and simply moved on. 

Lets face it, this movie is going to have limited appeal. That being said, the box office may have improved over the Columbus Day Holiday weekend had Eichner not sounded like such a spoiled brat.

Now, I’m thinking I’ll wait for it to be on streaming services.

It may well be funny, the trailer has some moments that look promising, but I’m not sure that I can put up with catty board room scenes with a bunch of LGBT people sitting around sniping at each other. That is something that I’ve personally had way too much of.

From the trailer, this movie appears to be steeped in elitism. Not having seen the movie itself I could be wrong. But the trailer sure had that elite feel to it.

There are other movies that are gay romantic comedies with more appeal to the average gay man.

You know, the guy who worries if he’ll be able to pay his electric bill. The guy who uses his phone with the cracked screen for a year or so, because it still works, and he doesn’t have the cash to pony up $800 for a new one.

Movies like:

In & Out
The Birdcage
If Dad Only Knew
4th Man Out
The 10 Year Plan

All of which are worth watching.  The latter two have pretty relatable characters and tell a good story. Sure they’re not mainstream but they’re nice films.

The thing is, not everyone is elite, not everyone can live in a beautiful apartment in New York, not everyone gets to sit in an office arguing over inconsequential trivialities. 

There are a lot of Gay and Bi men who do manual labor. They don’t live in high-rises sometimes not even in a single bedroom apartment. The have calluses on their hands, they’re pragmatic and don’t hang out every night in bars with a $25 cover charge.

Perhaps those same LGB people are a bit reticent to spend money at a theater to watch a bunch of elites bemoan their “horrible” lives. Maybe those Gay and Bi men are more content to buy a six pack, grab a good burger as a treat to themselves, and wait for Netflix to show the movie 6 months down the road.

Maybe, they don’t want to sit in a theater with a bunch of the LGBT community screeching and howling a a big screen. Maybe these guys have so little in common with the “normal” LGBT people that they’re uncomfortable in such a crowd.

Maybe from a personal worth perspective these guys would rather go home, shower, and sit on their couch in a clean pair of boxers with their feet up while they wonder if they’ll be able to put gas in their truck.

I can say this, after hearing Billy Eichner whine about homophobia and straight people not seeing his movie I’m less inclined to see it. That’s a pity too, because I could really use a good laugh.

Speaking of which maybe I’ll queue up If Dad Only Knew. There are some pretty funny scenes.

Mr Eichner, you really need to learn when it’s time to keep your mouth shut.

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Random Stuff

Power is off, The electric company is replacing poles and lines that were burned in the fire.

Looks like it’s going to be a long outage. On the plus side we had internet for about 12 hours! Whoo Hooo. With the power down, now we don’t.

I’ve still got 5G on the phone. That’s a serious improvement from the 1 bar of LTE that I’ve had since Saturday.

Saw an article in Apple News this morning, about a pet store in Thousand Oaks, CA where the owner has made addendum to their pet adoption policy. Part of the adoption questionnaire asks about gun ownership, gun control, membership in the NRA etc. They will refuse to allow you to adopt a pet if you don’t agree with their views on the matter.

They go so far as to say if you’re a member of the NRA and lie to us on this form we’ll prosecute you for fraud. Because we will find out…

That seems a bit improbable, but whatever.

I applaud the owner for taking a stand. I think it’s partially incorrect, especially the part about the NRA. Then again that organization has been demonized for so long, then plagued with their own scandals… I supposed it makes sense that a liberal couldn’t help but see the NRA as a boogyman.

It will be interesting to see if the owner’s stance has any impact on their business, positive or negative.

I think they may find that their traffic will drop because some folks, regardless of their gun ownership or views on gun control, will look at these rules as an infringement on their privacy. That alone may be enough to drive business away. There are a lot of shelters, and breeders to select from.

Inadvertently this pet adoption place may add to the number of pets that eventually need homes if folks go the breeder route.

Nonetheless, This business owner’s policy is clearly stated and they have the right to refuse to do business with anyone they choose. (Unless it’s a member of some specially protected group.) It’s probably a good thing they’re a pet adoption business not a baker of wedding cakes…

So I support their right. I also compliment them on putting their money where their mouth is.

The insanity over the FedEx package that’s missing continues.

Yesterday I spoke with someone who seemed to think I should go back to the store where I handed the package to a person acting as their agent, who scanned the package while I watched, and start searching the place.

Frankly this rebooted my brain. This FedEx corporate moron was suggesting that I essentially perform an illegal search of a place of business where I was not an employee, nor was I law enforcement, nor was I that business owner.

When I asked the person very specifically if that was what he was suggesting he decided to back down on that completely unreasonable request.

I’m still blown away that a FedEx corporate employee would tell a customer that, the Customer should go search the premises of one of their Agent locations.

This however is demonstrative of the lack of training on the part of FedEx and may provide insight into why FedEx has become so damn unreliable.

I wonder if that’s why there are so many private bonded carriers operating in LA, Orange County, and San Diego. I was surprised recently when some documents were delivered to me via courier instead of UPS or FedEx. It was pleasant but the first time that’s happened.

I’ve got the BMW… Perhaps I could get a nice tailored suit and become “The Transporter” What are the rules? “No Names, Never open the package,” seems pretty easy to me. Gas prices on the other hand… hmmm.

Speaking of gas prices. I paid 6.79 a gallon recently. Amazing! Not in a good way. The only reason I’m not bitching up a storm about it, is that It had been more than a month since I’d last purchased gas. I figured, ehh, if I amortize it over the time since I last filled up it’s a big deal, but not world ending.

I was tinkering with going on a road trip just to blow the cobwebs out of the car and my brain. But I’m thinking that would be excessively extravagant.

I’d still like to do a road trip. I suppose if I drove straight to the California border then filled up in another state a road trip might be more reasonable.

I caught another article on Apple News I think it was originally printed in The Wall Street Journal, (I’m not too sure about that,) that reported a record number of Californians were taking up residence in Mexico. Apparently, the real estate market south of the border is booming.

Some of the reasons cited were, lower cost of living, lower cost of real estate, lower gas prices, lower food prices, and better quality of life.

One person interviewed for the article said that his family had saved 50% per month on their living expenses from their previous living arrangements in California.

He still commutes to San Diego daily for work, but in terms of better quality of life for his family, he said it was a reasonable trade off.

I’ll admit that when I first moved to San Diego, I considered renting a place south of the border. At the time I could have gotten a 2 bedroom 1 bath condo for $800 a month. The place was 2nd floor, 4 blocks from the beach, you could even see the ocean from the lanai.

Instead I settled for a 1 bedroom 1 bath for $1500 a month in Escondido. It was a choice that was about avoiding San Diego traffic. Had I done the Mexico condo, I’d have to drive through the nightmare of downtown San Diego morning and evening. In the end, I worked a goofy schedule which would have made the Mexico option viable… But that’s another story entirely.

In a twist of unintended irony. The article mentioned that with so many Californians going south of the border. It was pricing Mexican citizens out of the housing market and contributing to rising prices in other things.

Free market capitalism can be a stone bitch! I suppose the Mexican government hasn’t gone “Woke” yet and started regulating for the greater good.

For shits and giggles, I watched Atlas Shrugged I, II, & III last night. These movies are adaptations of Ayn Rand’s book of the same title. The production quality is good. The disconnect with different actors playing the key parts is a bit disconcerting moving from one movie to the other but it’s easy to get over. I prefer Grant Bowler’s portrayal of Hank Reardon over the other two actors. Not that the other actors didn’t do good jobs with the character, I simply liked Bowler the best.

I know, there are lots of people who say that Atlas Shrugged is a Republican propaganda piece and that it has no merit in today’s world. Blah Blah Blah.

To them I’d say, “Turn off your bias, read the book or watch the movies and then tell me you don’t see some parallels between what happened in the story and what our government is becoming.”

Lots of regulation, ever expanding government, lofty idealistically admirable yet unachievable goals, do nothing committees, hearings which produce nothing and go nowhere, politicians making decisions without due consideration of the effects those decisions will have. Shaming of the wealthy for their achievements, etc. etc. etc.

I’ve read some biographical information about Ayn Rand, in some cases it’s said she was just writing fiction. In other cases it’s said she based the fiction of Atlas Shrugged on things she remembered from her childhood in Russia. Still other say she was prescient.

I don’t know which, if any of these conclusions are true. What I do see is, at best life is imitating art. At worst whatever madness led Russia to communism and all the horrors that we now know happened in soviet Russia, may well have taken hold in American politics.

Perhaps it was never a matter of IF it could happen, instead it was only a matter of When.

I know I’d like to be spirited away to “Atlantis”, by someone like John Gault.

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Have the “Woke” & Transgendered Folks killed porn?

I’d say yep!

Well, they helped for sure.

There used to be some great porn being produced. I’ve got a bit of a collection, but oddly I haven’t added to that collection in quite a while.

There’s just not much of interest these days. A lot of the venerable porn production companies are (or were) located in California.

Over the past few years, I’ve been seeing fewer movies and a lot more compilations from old films being repackaged as “New” movies.

There used to be a lot of good productions that dealt with subjects such as bondage and domination. The current crop of films isn’t nearly as entertaining. It’s like now the directors and script writers are worried about offending someone.

The beauty of porn was that it offended some people. Those who were offended had a simple choice, continue watching and be offended OR turn it off.

There have been porn movies I’ve seen that were totally not my particular cup of tea. Did I whine about it? Nope! I exercised my god given right to find something else to watch.

I’ve seen some newer movies where the female or male wasn’t what they initially appeared to be. These movies are not my cup of tea. So I found something else to watch.

There’s just something about a female who disrobes and has tits and a dick. It’s not like I’m transphobic, it’s just that I don’t find that erotic. I feel like I’ve been the victim of bait and switch and it totally kills the mood I was going for.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of the old production companies now appear to be owned by one or two conglomerates, this is having a homogenizing effect on the movies that are being produced.

There aren’t, for instance many older performers. The entire cast seems to top out at 22. In some cases this is perfectly fine, but I personally have a tough time maintaining a suspension of disbelief when a 20 something male is being called “daddy” or is supposed to be some kind of dominant macho leather stud.

I mean no disrespect to the actor, but honestly, a guy that young hasn’t lived it and it shows. His balls have barely dropped.

The females too, are so young. I have a tough time believing they’re experienced enough to know what they’re doing or actually enjoying it. In the back of my mind I’m wondering things like, “how could she be so experienced? Was she abused?” Then the mood is killed because I’m thinking about that.

In Bi or Gay porn there’s the same problem. All the dudes look like they’re boys not men and I start thinking paternally again.

I’ve also noticed that a lot of the performers I used to look for, aren’t making films with any frequency either. That could be a function of them tiring of the industry, or age, or ageism, but it’s become obvious they’re missing from the scene.

This particular phenomena caught my attention because it was so sudden. Almost like a light switch being flipped.

The porn printing industry (books and the like) also seems to be dying. I know from the warning labels on some of the books I’ve looked at, that an author now has to identify every single act.

“This book may contain Penetrative acts, bondage, forced sex, rape, torture, descriptions of prostitution, kidnapping, etc, etc, etc.”

This list is long and tedious. It’s obvious that the publishers are seemingly afraid of anything that might be uncomfortable for a percentage of the readership to read. To that end they’re creating the equivalent of trigger warning labels.

Come On! Get a grip!

The beauty of a book is that if something is too intense, you can skip ahead. Pornographic stories are NOT supposed to be taken as anything serious. It’s not like they’re an instruction manual, they’re fantasy.

Here’s a sex instruction manual I put together off the top of my head.

Step one, obtain consent.
Step two, become intimate and stimulate your partner.
Step three, remove articles of clothing as desired or needed and continue with touching or other stimulation.
Step four, oral stimulation may be applied to any part of the body, to heighten the arousal state.
Step five gently explore sensitive orifices with whatever genitalia is available if desired. Substitution of tongue, or digits is allowable.
Step six, scream, yell, grunt, as orgasm occurs
Step seven, lie in each others arms… Smoke if you’ve got ’em.
Step eight, Repeat as necessary.

Even this basic manual is skewed toward the multi-gendered so as not to offend.

The Original manual was much simpler.

Step one, Kiss kiss kiss.
Step two, lick, lick, lick.
Step three (optional) suck, suck, suck.
Step four, thrust, thrust, pump, pump.
Step five, Smoke if ya got ’em. Repeat as necessary.

A pornographic story takes these basic notions and expands on the possibilities in a safe fantasy. Most of the stuff written in pornographic stories are wild and outlandish. They’re things or situations that you’d never try in real life. But through the magic of human imagination we can experience these outlandish activities in a safe simulation space within our own heads.

Why on earth would an adult looking to purchase and read a pornographic novel need a warning label?

“Daddy’s Dungeon” as a title pretty much tells you what you’re getting into. The cover art is also a really good tell tale.

If there’s any question you can read the synopsis. Most of the time these days, you can even read a sample online. Back in the day, in an adult bookstore you’d flip to some random pages and read the action. Then you’d make a decision to buy the book or not.

As a male, I’d flip to a chunk of the story, read a bit, and decide based on the swelling in my crotch if the book was worthy of my hard earned money.

OMG! I might just have offended someone with my CIS gendered appreciation of my erectile pleasure!

That’s the problem! The majority of men that I know, enjoy and derive deep satisfaction from our erections. There are however a fractional percentage of folks that find that glorious feeling uncomfortable. These people have decided that since THEY don’t enjoy it… NO ONE should.

To that end, they’ve become a vocal minority who are mucking up one of the single best, basic, and free thing that people do.

Screw!

Then they’ve gone on to destroy even the release offered by sexual fantasy.

Here’s a thought. You do you, and I’ll take care of me.