Bite Me, Tony

What fresh hell is this?  ( quote attributed to Dorothy Parker*)                                                                                                                       A surprise to no one, yet, nevertheless, a stinging slap in the face to women across the nation, the Supreme Court, on Friday, overturned Roe v. Wade, the longstanding federal legislation allowing women the right to have an abortion. Much reviled by religious and pro-life organizations, Roe v. Wade has had a target on its back since the Supreme Court announced its ruling back in 1973. After assuring Congressional inquisitors during confirmation hearings that they would not reconsider matters that were estab...

Today is Father's Day . It also happens to be Juneteenth . My dad, though no longer with us, would appreciate this. Despite his conservative appearance and, often, dour professional demeanor--he was, after all, a small-town school superintendent (starting out) in 1960's Oklahoma --Dad was actually very progressive and extremely well-educated, quietly championing the plight of the poor and oppressed while working within a biased educational system. In a state (and community) steeped in virulent racism and religious superstition, my dad identified with those on society's margins. One of ten children, he was five years old when his own father died in the mid-1930's. The family found themselves homeless and penniless in the epicenter of the Dust Bowl at the height of the Great Depression . After his father's more fortunate brothers loaded up the family and their few belongings in a truck, they drove them to Boise City, Oklahoma, where the uncles had selected a former c...

What do you even begin to say about Julia Ducournau 's 2021 Palm d'Or winner, Titane ? Wow? Okay, how about: it's not for everybody. In fact, it's probably not for a vast majority of moviegoers, particularly those weaned on soppy romances and superhero "event" movies. Although, to be honest, Titane 's subversive edge does include turning certain elements of Marvel Entertainment and the DC Universe on their heads. And I am really-- REALLY --onboard with that!  Titane is ostensibly a sci-fi/horror hybrid that manages to cross over into significantly deeper territory, transcending its bleak, gory plotline of savagery and transformation, and morphing into a moving meditation on the transformative power of unconditional love. However, getting from Point A to Point B is no walk in the park.  SPOILERS below: Our barely verbal anti-heroine, Alexia, has a titanium plate in her skull, the result of a near-fatal childhood car crash for which she bears much resp...

After a fun-filled, 6-day birthday celebration for Carlos that took us from the oak-filled squares and haunted corners of Old Savannah to the fog-shrouded mountains and artsy byways of amazing Asheville, we got back to Florida and soon encountered a tropical something-or-other. Not a Depression exactly, certainly not a Tropical Storm. But, whatever it was dumped 10 inches of rain on us over a day and a half, and we are just lucky that we don't live in a flood zone. There were people literally kayaking up and down their streets in some areas of the county, while toilets backed up and spilled out into homes (eek!). Local authorities advised us not to go into the flood waters because they didn't know what might be lurking there. And yet people continued plowing their cars directly into these new lochs of the American lowlands, thinking, I guess, that their expensive, new Vettes were waterproof. Yes, we actually did see the driver of a Corvette do exactly this on the Channel 10 Eve...