Shazam!

Normally I’d post on Friday, December 27, but I was in the hospital for a tongue swelling, only released the next day, the second time since summer with the same problem.  As it was the following weekend I finally finished watching the Shazam! TV series which dates from 1974-76 on Saturday morning TV.   That finishes the trio:  “Shazam!” (movie which came out), the 1940s serial, and the 70s version.

Growing up in Montgomery Village, Gaithersburg, Maryland in the mid 1970s, I’d watch these, though no specific episode strikes me specific recollection.   I also had a large compendium of the original comics.  Recently I caught the movie version.

1940s.  A true serial, back to back episodes, though the final didn’t make any sense.  Special effects about what you’d expect for that that era.  Obviously I’m too young to remember this firsthand, nor did I read any of the Whiz! Paperback comics for the source material.  Watch it once and that’s it.  

1970s.  Three discs, 1974-76.  Billy Batson (Michael Gray) and The Mentor (Les Tremayne) drive around the L.A. area in a camper lecturing local youths about how to behave.  Captain Marvel is magically summoned by Billy Batson simply saying “Shazam!”, played initially by Jackson Bostwick, then by John Davey, not exactly a twin.   It turns out Bostwick was injured while filming, his doctor advised him to take a few days off, and the producers accused him of holding out for more money, fired him, and replaced him with Davey, cynically arguing – incorrectly – that the audience wouldn’t notice.  Bostwick argued otherwise and was proven right, even won the remainder of his payroll.  So much for teaching morals and ethics.

I grew up watching these as a kid.  They were teamed up with the “ISIS” show, back when Egyptian mythology was big.  As an adult I find the dialogue extremely limited in entertainment, as with the special effects.   To the extent we all grew up watching shows filmed in L.A. in the 70s we kind of grew up there without ever actually visiting there.  And somehow we survived the insipid dialogue. 

Movie.   Put out by the DC Comics people.   Apparently someone realized that Deadpool (Marvel) was getting all the laughs and the DC crowd needed someone willing to make a joke, so they co-opted Captain Marvel and voila!   Actually they did a fairly good job of it.   Zachary Levi plays Captain Marvel himself, whereas Mark Strong plays Dr. Sivana, the traditional evil mad scientist villain nemesis for Captain Marvel. 

Natural High

I had occasion to drive to Winchester, Virginia, for a divorce case in Frederick County, Virginia, only my second occasion to practice in this neck of the woods.  The drive took 90 minutes from Falls Church, and went through some extremely aesthetically pleasing parts of the Virginia countryside.   Thankfully this was during the day and sunshine; a nighttime or cloudy journey wouldn’t have been nearly as enjoyable.

Circa 2019, cannabis has expanded in legality throughout our country, with many states legalizing its use medically, if not recreationally.  Virginia remains one of the few to refuse to even decriminalize it, though the recent victory of the Democrats in taking control over our General Assembly (Virginia state legislature) in Richmond might finally overcome the forces of Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds in at least decriminalizing the use of marijuana, which remains a misdemeanor with jail time on the table for simple possession.  

That being the case, not everyone in the Commonwealth has the luxury of indulging in the enjoyment of marijuana.  Thus we’re induced to seek other sources of euphoria, a “natural high”.  

Note: it is not my intention herein to either encourage or promote, or to discourage or disparage, marijuana use.  Some reasons for not doing so:

1.         It’s illegal in my state (e.g. Virginia)

2.         I don’t know anyone selling it

3.         My job drug tests

4.         I have a spouse and minor children in my household

5.         I have respiratory issues, e.g. asthma

6.         Not my scene, man.

Any of these are fine.   Each of us has to make our own decision, taking into account our lifestyles and the relevant laws of our jurisdiction.   When in doubt, ask the prosecutor charging you with possession with intent to distribute. 

As noted, idyllic countrysides certainly do it for me.   Here are some other examples.

1.         Winning a court case, or at least leaving the courtroom with a satisfactory outcome.

2.         Settling a case on favorable terms.

3.         Receiving a package in the mail.

4.         Receiving a letter from my comrade on Long Island.  Yes, some of us still write letters, though by now it’s on word processors and not by hand.

5.         Opening presents on Christmas morning or on my birthday.

6.         Seeing my Minnesota Vikings defeat another team, ideally the Packers, Lions or Bears.

7.         Enjoying a steak & cheese sub, Domino’s or Vocelli’s pizza, tacos at Chipotle, or other delight.

8.         Enjoying a good movie or TV show

9.         Enjoying a good concert, or music at home/car/treadmill

10.        Sleeping late during the weekend – waking up when I normally would on a weekday, and turning back to sleep as long as I want (probably an hour or two more)

11.        Blasting away at targets at the range, in the following calibers:  9mm, 8mm Mauser, .30-06, .223/5.56mm, 7.62x39, and 7.62x54R.   Still working on getting an FN FAL to shoot 7.62x51.

12.        Hanging out with my brother, my relatives, and my friends.   I’m happy to say our family doesn’t seem to have any black sheep with whom we don’t get along – to my knowledge.

13.        Playing guitar.   Usually a Gibson, but sometimes a Stratocaster.   My preference is for the warm, thick, smooth distortion of a Marshall tube amp, but Marshall does not have a monopoly on aurally pleasant tones:  Mesa Boogie, Orange, Fender, Hiwatt, and other amp companies have also managed to give us such beauty for our ears.

14.        Going through my old neighborhood where I grew up as a kid – Montgomery Village, near Gaithersburg, Maryland.  Driving up and down Rockville Pike, aka Route 355.

And last but not least….

15.        Intimacy.   I think we all know what that means.

MJ advocates might well argue that all the forgoing are made more enjoyable with the assistance of cannabis, though some – such as concerts – are more amenable to such improvement than others, e.g. court appearances.   Most likely true.  But even if you were able to toke, you couldn’t do so 24/7.   I can imagine some might try, but at some point you’ll have to derive some form of pleasure from something other than marijuana.  Which puts you with the rest of us seeking some pleasure from non-THC sources.  Let our lives be a optimal aggregate of maximum pleasure from whatever sources we can find, and not at anyone else’s expense.   AMEN.

Babylon Berlin

Friday the Thirteenth!  Well, I don’t care for horror movies, including that one.  Sorry, Jason.

This TV series, two 8 episode seasons, is on Netflix, in German with English subtitles. 

Ok, now my all-too-patient readers are sensing MORE NAZI CRAP on the way, but rest assured, not quite.

This takes place in – drum roll, please – BERLIN, Germany, but during 1929, before the Crash in October.   Nazis do appear briefly, as a bunch of SA stormtroopers on a train platform in a later episode, but otherwise not mentioned or important.  The party really didn’t get in high gear until after the crash occurred and a third of German workers were unemployed, seeking answers from either the NSDAP or their major competitor, Kommunist Partei Deutschland (KPD).  So as yet the Nazis are NOT a factor here.   The Soviets are, and the embassy has some cool Stalin stuff, the NKVD, Cheka, or whatever they had at that time being very active – as are the Trotskyists, who remained active up until the man’s own demise in 1940. 

Among the Berlin police are a few interesting people who are wrapped up in crimes going on for 16 episodes.

The main guy is Inspector Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), originally from Cologne.   Like most adult males in Germany, he served in the trenches in WWI and still has nasty flashbacks, which we’d describe as PTSD.   He takes morphine, because apparently killer weed was not available in Germany at the time. 

His partner is Detective Chief Inspector Bruno Wolfer (Peter Kurth), a chubby, highly cynical guy who is easy to hate but not impossible to like.  He’s one of the more corrupt police officers on the force and we eventually see how bad he is later. 

The third is cute flapper Charlotte Ritter (Liv Lisa Fries), who works as a police clerk pending her attempts to break through the glass ceiling and become an actual police inspector.  She moonlights as a “compensated female companion” at the Moka Efti cabaret – which proves inconvenient when her boss Wolfer shows up expecting to actually patronize the establishment.  Oops. 

There are many, many others, including the charismatic crime lord known as the Armenian.  Believe me, lots of stuff going on, you’ll love it, unbelievable, it'll make your head spin, trust me, etc.   Apparently Berlin back then was fairly swinging and exciting, an image the show is trying hard to promote.  How that translates to tourism 90 years later in 2019, I don’t know.  Thank God for the subtitles because as Germanophile as I am with a year of high school German and two semesters of college GERM classes, it’s not nearly enough to catch the dialogue. 

Oh, and there’s a third season on its way, so maybe we’ll see what happens when the market crashes….   

Geezin'

I’m getting older, as we all are.  In my case, it’s 50 (born in 1969).   Here are a few things I’ve noticed.  Those of you in my age bracket may relate, and those of you who are younger, here’s what you can expect.   As a male, I can’t comment on menopause, so I’ll stick with what I know.

Metabolism.   This has gone down, so I’m up at 225 lb from 200.   Moreover, exercise no longer succeeds at keeping weight down or losing it the way it used to.  The most effective way was the treadmill, but whereas I could run at up 7 mph in the past, anything past 5 mph these days causes Mr. Ankle and Mr. Knee to stridently complain.   So I’ve had to change over to bicycle and elliptical, and keeping treadmill time down to 4 to 4.5 mph, a brisk walk and not a full run.   Absent some disease eating me from the inside out, I don’t think I’ll be seeing 200 lb again in my lifetime. 

To assist in this, I’m switching out steak for chicken (e.g. Chipotle), diet drinks and green tea for full on Coke Classic, and dark chocolate for milk chocolate.  An obnoxious smoothie – apple, banana, broccoli, avocado, carrots, cabbage, celery, spinach, and kale all go into the mixer and produce something best washed down immediately with a delicious zero calorie Ice drink, preferably in black cherry flavor.  I suppose every little bit helps.

Injuries.   These are fortunately few and far between, but when they do occur they take longer to heal.  Just have to be more careful.

TMI Department, aka Mr. Happy.   He seems remarkably robust for his age, though his output is less and he’s less insistent on attention.  For the former, the urologist told me that’s normal.  For the latter, once a day is perfectly fine for him, whereas as a teenager he might be up for two or three sessions.

I read that President John Tyler, who took over from William Henry Harrison (who died in 1840) still has living grandchildren TODAY.   That was because he remained virile and fertile into his old age, as did his sons.  Biologically, men are capable of conceiving children up until they fall dead at 100.  

Memories.   I’m finding that while I can still tell you what all the Beatles, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin albums are, tell you what songs are on each albums, and recite lyrics almost verbatim, telling you what songs are on No Comfort, the newest Monolord album – which I’ve listened to several times - is a bit of a challenge.  It looks like my brain has reached its capacity and any new memories are at the expense of old ones. 

Here’s where it gets depressing.  Say, for the sake of argument, we manage to extend our life expectancy from 100 (using a round number) to 200.   All well and fine, but if we don’t extend our memory capacity past 50 years, we can only remember 50 of those years.   Which 50 will they be?  And as we extend that life expectancy further without increasing memory capacity past 50 years, we’ll be left remembering a smaller and smaller proportion of that longer life. 

I recall some Greek myth in which Eos, goddess of the dawn, fell in love with a handsome mortal, Tithonus.  Sadly, she would live forever but he would eventually grow old and die.   So, on his behalf, she wished he could have eternal LIFE, but forgot that what she really wanted for him was eternal YOUTH.   So he kept getting older and older without dying, to the point where he shriveled up into a grasshopper.  Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it.

Predicting Lines.   A special power I seemed to have gained in my old age (such as it is) seems to be the newfound ability to predict lines in TV shows and movies – and no, I don’t mean ones I’ve seen before, or frequent catchphrases (“make it so”, “Make my day”, etc.).   It’s reached the point where I’ve been able to predict lines verbatim.  In “Two Mules for Sister Sara”, Clint Eastwood’s character escorts a nun (Shirley MacLaine) to Mexico City in the late 1860s, back when the French puppet Maximillian is on the throne – making this a rare occasion where the French are actually the bad guys.   At some point in the film, his character remarks, “I’ll bet you do” – which I predicted seconds before, word for word.  Again, this was a movie I’d never seen before.   And I’m finding that more and more often.  Not sure it’s of practical usefulness, but still interesting.

Wasting Time.  While I think of 100 as life expectancy, for me, 75 is probably a more accurate prediction given the absence of any especially long-lived uncles in my family and the age my father died at.  That means I’m already 66% through my life as it is.

I’ll save any speculation about What Comes Next for another blog.   For now I’ll bitch about wasting time.  With a third of my life left, wasting that remainder is more of a concern than it was when I was younger.  Working, sleeping, sitting on the toilet, are things I’m going to have to do anyway, so that leaves my leisure time.   I don’t think I’ll plow through “Game of Thrones” or “Breaking Bad” a second time, and I’ll hold off on starting many new TV shows, instead finishing the shows I’ve already been watching.  Beyond that I’d say I’m OK in terms of finding things to do with my spare time that I doubt I’ll regret later.

Inanimate Objects.   If there’s one area where I’m devolving into Crazy Old Man is a strange antipathy when ordinary objects suspiciously behave as though some conscious, sentient force was moving them.  A door that closes a bit too quickly; a six pack of beer in the back seat of the car which tumbles over no matter how carefully I secure it before driving home; flavored water bottles which work their way out of the shopping bag and under the car seats, apparently hiding from me.  I know none of these are likely to be caused by some unseen, intelligent force, but that doesn’t stop me from getting upset about it.  

The Man in the High Castle

Or as I sometimes like to call it, “High in the Man Castle”.   Season 4, its final season, ended recently on Amazon Prime, and I wondered if I’d actually reviewed it in my blogs.  Answer: yes – the Phillip K. Dick novel, written in 1962, which I addressed briefly in blogs on Dick himself (11/12/2010) and alternate history novels in which Germany won WWII (5/27/2010).  The Amazon series debuted in January 2015, well after these blogs were written.  Moreover, even when it did premiere, it was by no means obvious that there would be more than one season.  It was expensive, with high production values, Amazon’s first shot at producing its own material, so there was no guarantee they’d continue it.   In fact, season 1 itself corresponds to the novel, meaning that to produce subsequent seasons, they would have to write new material.   Fortunately for us, they did, and I’ll comment on that below.

Making History.  Here is another one, written by actor Stephen Fry, which I hadn’t reviewed earlier – probably because I hadn’t read it.  

An obvious question anyone would have is:  HOW did the Nazis win WWII in “Man in the High Castle”?   The narrative shows that somehow the Nazis managed to develop nuclear weapons and destroy Washington, DC.   So why didn’t they do that in real life?

Well, because the top nuclear physicists at the time were Jewish, and the Nazis had a problem (!) with Jews.   The Final Solution – the deliberate policy of murdering Europe’s Jews in extermination camps in Poland – only started in 1942, well after the war was underway.  Before that, and in the years leading up to September 1, 1939 when the Nazis invaded Poland, Jews were free to leave Germany, ostensibly with the Nazis’ blessing.  In particular, the US was happy to welcome any particularly smart Jews like Einstein.  Bottom line was that we had all the scientists who knew how to develop nukes, and the Nazis didn’t.

In this story, Hitler’s hometown well was dosed with birth control pills and he was never born, so another German, a particularly shrewd officer, developed the Nazi Party and became the Fuhrer.  This man, Rudolf Gloder, was smart enough to keep his anti-Semitism a secret, so Germany’s Jews helped the Nazis win WWII.   Then, having successfully defeated everyone, Gloder proceeded to wipe out the Jews in Yugoslavia with no interference from the Allies or Russians.

None of that happened in “Man in the High Castle”, so Dick never quite managed to explain how the Nazis succeeded at developing nuclear weapons.

As noted, season 1 corresponds to the Dick novel.   Seasons 2, 3, and 4 plunge forward into uncharted territory, and the show ends with Episode 10 of season 4.  I don’t have the patience or the inclination to exhaustively map out all four seasons.   I actually watched E10 of S1, 2, and 3 to refresh what happened in those seasons, as season 4 is still fresh in my mind.

Situation.    The US is divided into three sections.   The East Coast, as far west as the Midwest, is under Nazi control.  Washington, DC is a nuclear wasteland, and the country’s capital is in New York City.  The Japanese control the West Coast, with San Francisco being its capital.   The area of the Rockies is a neutral territory evidently under no one’s control, home to a modest population of hipsters.

Major Characters.

Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith (Rufus Sewell).   A former US Army officer who fought in the Pacific, Smith is the head of Nazi Germany’s American sector.  In Season 4 we see how, upon the Nazis’ victory, former US officers were offered the chance to join the Nazis – the alternative being imprisonment or death.   For much of the series he’s actually somewhat enthusiastic, but as the series wears on he’s less so, as is his wife, Helen.   He actually manages to switch over into the “US won” dimension and see his alternate wife and son – and the latter volunteers for service in Vietnam.   To make matters even stranger, his alternate family lives in “Bailey’s Crossroads, Virginia” – literally exactly where I live.  Of course, in that dimension, Washington DC is alive and well, as are its suburbs like Northern Virginia.

As a former US officer, Smith’s loyalty frequently comes into question by Germans, particularly Reinhard Heydrich and Heinrich Himmler, though Adolf Hitler himself – aging with grey hair – still trusts him. 

By the way;  Mengele shows up as a scientist at the Nazis’ dimension portal.  J. Edgar Hoover is here to make sure Americans remain loyal to the Reich.   

Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente).   The ruthless inspector from the Kempetai, Japan’s version of Nazi Germany’s Gestapo.   Based in San Francisco, he travels around considerably, and even meets Smith – ostensibly they were enemies in the war though they didn’t actually meet face to face in combat.  The show gives him a remarkable degree of sympathy for a character who would otherwise be a villain.

Trade Minister Nagomi (Cary-Hiruyoki Tagawa).  The true hero on the Japanese side.  He also discovers the alternate dimension – the finale of S1 finds him in a San Francisco with ads by Ronald Reagan and news reports of President Kennedy.   In the alternate dimension his personal life turns out considerably different. 

Robert Childan (Brennan Brown).   An antiques dealer in San Francisco, he speaks fluent Japanese, and is somewhat of a collaborator.  Somehow he manages to keep himself in one piece, through means he himself might admit are questionable. 

Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos).   Competing with Smith as the lead character in the series.  She starts out in San Francisco but travels all around – and is one of the few characters capable of switching dimensions without the Nazis’ complex machine in a former mine shaft in Lackawanna, Pennsylvania. 

Hawthorne Abendsen (Stephen Root).  The Man in the High Castle himself.   He has these films of Allied victory which Crain and others recognize are not forgeries, but actual footage of the alternative dimensions.  By season 4 he’s captured by the Nazis and forced to shill for them – though even then he hides messages in his propaganda.   It turns out that his wife, Caroline, only hooks up with him in this timeline, in all the others they never meet.  He has an intriguing conversation with Smith in S3/E10.

Frank Frink (Rupert Evans).   A major character in S1 (and the book) who becomes less significant as the series wears on, he’s nominally Juliana’s boyfriend.    He’s a craftsman who creates “relics” for Childan to sell to Japanese customers looking for obscure and arcane Americana, but he’s also involved in the resistance against the Japanese, which puts him at odds with Kido. 

Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank).   Vying with Frank for Juliana’s affections, we learn where Joe came from originally.   He varies from being a strong character in his own right to being a mere pawn. 

The Resistance.   Naturally not everyone drinks the Nazi Kool-Aid.   There’s a considerable resistance in Japanese territory and in the Greater Reich, supposedly using the neutral territory as an effective sanctuary. 

By Season 4 we see a Black Communist Rebellion using AK47s, supplied by the Chinese and Soviets.  Which is odd, though, as China is controlled by Japan and Soviet Russia was defeated by the Nazis.   To explain this, some Japanese characters refer to rebellions in China and elsewhere in the Japanese empire which induce the Japanese to scale back.  Likewise, presumably the Germans lack the resources or manpower to control all of Russia, so the vast expanses of territory between the Urals and Manchuria provide ample hiding places for a combined Russian-Chinese communist rebellion.  In real life, Stalin moved much of the USSR’s factories east of the Urals, and the Nazis never intended to control Russia in its entirety even if they managed to take Moscow and defeat Stalin.  And militarily, while nuclear weapons are highly effective against sovereign nations with major metropolitan areas, they would be useless against a guerilla army which melts into the countryside across the country.  So this element of the narrative isn’t entirely implausible.

Alternate Timelines.  Dick never quite explained that part of it, at least not to my satisfaction.  For their part, the Nazis discover this, but it remains a closely held secret among the characters.  Once the Nazis do discover it, they develop a portal, with the ultimate goal of stealing as much technology they can from other timelines and then using that to invade and conquer those in which they didn't win WWII.  Not an optimal outcome, and the Resistance, by the end of Season 4, sets upon the task of destroying the portal.  Stay tuned.  

As you might imagine, the most notable achievements of the series was continuing the narrative past season 1, past the original story.   That took considerable imagination and a truly inspired writing staff.  I’m aware that not everyone is impressed with how it ended, but given how far they took it from Dick’s source material, they did well to give us three seasons more, so I’m inclined to cut them slack on that.  It had to end sometime, and it was going to be an ending which Dick didn’t provide them.   

Nazi America.   The other major achievement was portraying the US under Nazi control.   A US flag with a white swastika in the upper left quadrant where the 50 states’ stars would be.   Armbands with red and white stripes.   Propaganda cleverly mixing US culture with Nazi ideology.   Even “Reichgiving”, combining our Thanksgiving holiday with Nazi ideology.   Amazing.   [Credit Hugo Boss with the uniforms, by the way.]

Nazis in 1962.   Finally, they also extend things into the 60s.   The German combat uniforms have a splinter pattern closer to the East German army (NVA), although the helmets remain the 1935 pattern.  German soldiers carry H&K assault rifles similar to the Bundeswehr.   Ceremonial guards in Berlin still have the famous black SS uniforms.  SS insignia is not merely ubiquitous but also authentic: they got all the various rank patches right, from privates, NCOs, junior officers, up to Himmler himself.  Berlin is the metropolis Hitler always wanted.  Joe Blake visits Berlin and is invited to a party of hipster artists who introduce him to LSD - imagine hits of acid with swastikas on them.  

The Nazis are an evil, totalitarian dictatorship and ideology at its most seductive and irresistible.  The Swastika is simple yet dramatic, and can be incorporated in all sorts of ways, as the show illustrates, even into traditional American imagery.   The Man in the High Castle gives us the ultimate depiction of Nazi America.    

Four Bands in Two Weeks

This was a rare occasion when I had four concerts to attend in two weeks.

Black Mountain.  Wednesday, November 13 at the Black Cat in Washington, DC.  This club is on Fourteenth Street just south of U Street, thus southeast of Adams Morgan.  It has a very small back room on the ground floor (I think I saw Nebula there a few eons ago) but also a large ballroom up on the second floor, where I saw this band several years earlier, plus Blue Cheer in one of Dickie Peterson’s last performances. 

Black Mountain are another one of these stoner rock bands which doesn’t take Black Sabbath as its starting point, but rather goes hard, soft, and somewhere in between with a refreshing change of pace from song to song which avoids getting boring or repetitive.  They’re from Vancouver, Canada.     

Lineup:  Stephen McBean (guitar & vocals), Rachel Fannan (keyboards), Adam Bulgasm (drums), Arjan Miranda (bass), and Jeremy Schmidt (keyboards).

Albums: Black Mountain (S/T), In the Future, Wilderness Heart, IV, and Destroyer.  I had seen the tour for IV a few years back, also at the Black Cat – the night before seeing Sleep at the new 9:30 Club. 

Setlist:  Mothers of the Sun; Future Shade; Wucan; Rollercoaster; Tyrants; Florian Saucer Attack; Stormy High; Fd'72; Horns Arising; High Rise; Old Fangs; Space to Bakersfield; Druganaut

Loot.  I picked up an olive drab shirt with the band name (no tour dates on the back) and some nice socks.

Monolord.  Friday, November 15, at the Metro Gallery in Baltimore.  This is a small club up in the Wire district (run-down area) with just a main room with a stage, oddly positioned near the exit.  I actually saw King Buffalo here the year before.  My GPS directions generally say take 295 North up from DC, get off on Martin Luther King Blvd, then follow that to Howard Street and go up about 10 blocks.

This is a three piece from Sweden, of all places.  Thomas Jager (guitar/vocals), Mika Hakki (bass), and Esben Willems (drums).  Esben is taking pictures of the audience and posting these.  I generally stand on TJ’s side of the stage.  He plays a Greco (Gibson copy) Flying V through an Orange stack.  I had actually seen them open for Red Fang in DC at the RNR Hotel, then on the bill in Brooklyn for the Desert Fest in April of this year.  Here was my first chance to see them as a headlining band. 

Empress Rising, Vaenir, Lord of Suffering (EP), Rust, and No Comfort.  It’s slow, doomy stuff all tuned down to C#, to the point where TJ has to retune his guitar between songs.   The opening acts were ALMS (OK), and Blackwater Holylight, an all female stoner rock band from Portland, Oregon.  While they’re all pretty cute, the drummer was especially cute and came down to headbang with us for “Empress Rising”, the last song of Monolord’s set.  I also met up with Facebook buddy Bob Maze and his friend.  Good times for all.

Setlist: Where Death Meets the Sea; Lord of Suffering; Audhumbla; The Bastard Son; Rust; Larvae; The Last Leaf; Empress Rising

Loot:  I picked up a t-shirt (seen on my Facebook page with the Black Cherry Wishniak 20 oz bottle).  I already have a black shirt with the gothic logo and cat, and a patch of the same.

    

Electric Wizard.  Monday, November 18, at the Fillmore Silver Spring in Maryland.  This is a large ballroom with a big stage.  I’ve seen Opeth and Ghost here in the recent past. 

Lineup.  Jus Osborn (only consistent member) (Gibson SG and vocals), Liz Buckingham (Gibson SG), Haz Wheaton (bass), and Simon Poole (drums).  I have to confess somewhat of a crush on LB, who stands there impressive with her SG and long, blonde hair, occasionally hitting a solo but otherwise complimenting the screen footage to make what would otherwise be somewhat tedious into an enjoyable experience.  Both Osborn and Buckingham play through standard Marshall JCM800s with 1960A/B stacks.   The band is from England, of all places. 

Electric Wizard, Come My Fanatics, Dopethrone, Let Us Prey, We Live, Witchcult Today, Black Masses, Time to Die, Wizard Bloody Wizard.  I’d seen them back in 2000 at Zaxx in VA, part of a noxious black metal festival.  Here they were headlining with a huge screen up behind them, mainly showing horror movies about Satanic masses.  As I suspected, Anton LaVey got some brief screen time. 

Like Monolord, they play Sabbath type material very slow, doomy and tuned down, to the point where all the songs sound exactly the same.  Was this on Dopethrone or Wizard Bloody Wizard?  Could only tell you if I listened to the album recently.  Oh, Jus did make a callout to LSD!  Thank you.

Setlist: Witchcult Today; Black Mass; Return Trip; See You In Hell; Hear the Sirens Scream; Incense for the Damned; Satanic Rites of Drugula; The Chosen Few; Funeralopolis

Loot.  Although some of the t-shirts had their provocative slogan LEGALIZE DRUGS & MURDER, I wasn’t impressed with the design and stuck with a large patch.  By now I’ve accumulated a few of these from various bands but haven’t yet set up a jacket or battle vest.  I suppose I could teach myself to sew.

King Buffalo.   Thursday, November 21, at DC9 in Washington, DC.  This is a small club on Ninth Street just off of Florida Ave., just a few blocks away from the new 9:30 Club – so I park on the street where I’d normally park for a 9:30 Club show and just walk two more blocks.  It’s very small, but that gave me the option of going up close and talking to McVay.

Lineup.  Sean McVay (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Dan Reynolds (bass), Scott Donaldson (drums).  Dan was wearing an All Them Witches long sleeved t-shirt.  They’re from Rochester, New York.

Albums.  Repeater (EP), Orion, and Longing to Be the Mountain. 

Like Black Mountain, they do this soft >> hard deal which changes up consistently but keeps fresh, although I will say their songs tend to sound the same.  Even so, the impact and heaviness are awesome.  McVay plays a Hagstrom through a Fender Twin Reverb amp and really knows how to get those wailing, reverb-y solos. 

Setlist: Sun Shivers; Longing to Be the Mountain; Drinking From the River Rising; Quickening; Repeater; Centurion; Goliath; Eye of the Storm

Loot.  I already had the only shirt I really like, and a wooden dugout/one-hitter.  They have stickers set up like Genesee Beer, sadly nothing on a t-shirt or patch.   Note, they’ve been recording some of their shows live and making them available for free as a downloaded MP3 of the whole show.  McVay said there might be some technical issues with releasing the DC show, and none of the 2019 shows are yet available.  I downloaded the Indianapolis show from 2018 because the setlist was identical to the Baltimore show I saw.

TOOL.   Tool is coming up on Monday, 11/25 at the Capital One Arena in DC.   This band is obviously different and playing to a larger venue, probably sold out.   Having addressed them fairly recently (along with the Grateful Dead) I can pare off the discussion and hand in my assignment on time this Friday.

Bottom line:  if you still love Sabbath and think “Into the Void” is their best song, by all means check out Monolord and Electric Wizard – especially if you have high tolerance for slow, doomy, detuned music.  By now I can take it in limited doses.   If you prefer your stoner rock a bit more mixed up and difficult to describe, delve into Black Mountain and King Buffalo – and add All Them Witches and Dead Meadow into the mix as well.  I’m happy to see the scene veer off into different tangents, though Black Sabbath will always be our home.

Han Shot First

There’s been some controversy about a famous scene in the original “Star Wars” film (Episode IV: A New Hope) in which Han Solo and Greedo meet up in the cantina in Mos Eisley.   Soon after arranging transport for Luke, Obi-Wan, and the droids to Alderaan, Han is accosted by Greedo, an alien bounty hunter working on behalf of Jabba the Hutt, the huge, ugly sluglike creature we all love to hate.

Initially the scene plays out with Han and Greedo shooting each other at the table, with Han obviously winning the encounter.   He did so by shooting first.  Supposedly this made Han a cold-blooded killer, so Lucas redid the scene so the two characters fire almost simultaneously.

One argument I haven’t heard, and which I’ll make here, is that Han DID fire first, but that doesn’t make him a cold-blooded killer.

He owes Jabba the Hutt money.  He’s just made a deal which should give him enough to pay off Jabba, though he’ll have to travel to Alderaan first to pick up the money.   In the meantime, Greedo is trying to capture him – or shoot him – to take him to Jabba and collect the bounty.   Naturally, Han doesn’t want that to happen.  [Apparently bankruptcy is not an option.   In addition to this, in a distant galaxy in which hyperdrive travel between star systems is possible, they don’t have banks or checks.  Finally, in all these films, I’ve yet to see a single lawyer.  Science fiction indeed.]

Oh, by the way:  wanted, dead or alive.   In “Django Unchained”, Christoph Waltz plays a bounty hunter in the Wild West.  Back then then bounty is the same, dead or alive, so he kills his target, reasoning that (A) the bounty is the same either way and (B) a corpse is less likely to cause problems or escape.   In “The Empire Strikes Back”, when setting up the carbon freeze for Solo and then Luke, bounty hunter Boba Fett warns Darth Vader that “he’s worth nothing to me dead”, referring to Solo.   So presumably Greedo would have simply rendered Solo unconscious but would still deliver him to Jabba.

Anyhow, when Han is finally delivered to Jabba, he starts off as a decoration on Jabba’s wall – in carbon frozen state – and is later brought to the sarlaac (pit monster) to be “slowly digested over a thousand years” (as per C3PO) – along with Luke.  Neither scenario is optimal for Han.   So why isn’t he justified in shooting Greedo first anyway?  That doesn’t make him a cold-blooded killer, just sensible.  Enough already.

Guido?   Greedo was originally called Guido and spoke with an affected Italian accent.  “I’m-a gonna take you to Jabba!”  But this tested poorly with test audiences, so Lucas changed this to Greedo (signifying an inherently greedy character motivated by greed, not working for the public good) and gave us yet more of this peculiar Star Wars affectation whereby the parties to a conversation are speaking different languages (R2D2, Greedo, Chewbacca, Jabba the Hutt, etc.  Of course, we never see a conversation between two characters whose language isn’t English….).   (True story.)

Pirates.   By the way, Han is paid by the Alliance at the end of “Star Wars”, yet in “The Empire Strikes Back” he’s still pursued by Boba Fett.   So why didn’t he pay Jabba with the money?  Apparently, tucked away in the Star Wars multiverse, there’s a story taking place in the three years which divide the events of the two movies:  Han and Chewie are robbed by pirates, who took the money Han would otherwise have paid to Jabba.  For some reason this didn’t make it into “The Empire Strikes Back” or was simply added later to explain the discrepancy. 

Anyhow….

JoJo Signal

I was originally planning on discussing not merely the WWII German propaganda magazine, Signal, but also Soviet Military Review.  Upon scanning through three volumes of hardbound Signal compilations and seeing “JoJo Rabbit” in the movie theaters, I realized that the latter was a more appropriate complement to Signal and I’ll deal with SMR in a later blog.  Sorry, comrades.

JoJo Rabbit.  Johannes “Jojo” Betzler (Roman Griffin Davis) is a 10 year old boy in Nazi Germany late in the war.  Of course he’s in the Hitler Youth, Nazi Germany’s equivalent of the Boy Scouts.  The “leader”, a disgraced and blithely cynical Wehrmacht hauptmann (captain) (Sam Rockwell) and his NCO subordinate (Alfie Allen, probably best known as Theon Greyjoy in “Game of Thrones”) gives a somewhat halfhearted sermon to the boys and girls at the camp.  Jojo himself is ridiculed heavily when, upon given a live rabbit to kill, naturally balks at summarily executing an innocent animal.

His mother Rose (the ever-babacious Scarlett Johansson) looks after him and a Jewish girl, Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie) hidden in their house in Falkenheim, somewhere in central Germany (actually filmed in the Czech Republic).  Jojo himself has an imaginary friend, none other than the Fuhrer himself, Adolf Hitler (Taika Waititi), very much a comic character rather than a serious dictator.  His father, if the jacket Rose wears in the film is his, seems to be a private in the German Army, described as “missing in action”.  This could mean “killed on the Eastern Front like so many other German soldiers” or “eagerly surrendered to the Amis, to spend the rest of the war in peace and safety in a POW camp somewhere in the US”; the camp leaders treat Jojo as if they assume it’s the latter and they’ll hold him personally responsible for his father’s apparent cowardice.

By the end of the film, the town becomes a battlefield which Jojo manages to survive.  Then German soldiers, Volksturm warriors, and terrified children like Jojo and his friend, are replaced by triumphant GI’s – and also some fairly ruthless and less friendly Red Army soldiers.  This was my favorite part of the film.

Rebel Wilson is even in here as a BDM (girls’ equivalent of the Hitler Youth) leader.  She throws some propaganda materials at Jojo, which somehow don’t include Signal.   Which leads me to my next topic.

SIGNAL was the flashy, full color, slick propaganda magazine of Nazi Germany, produced by Goebbels’ propaganda ministry, under the auspices of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces).   Lots of impressive photos of German soldiers, tanks, pilots, etc.  If you see a WWII photo of a German soldier and it’s in color, chances are it was taken for Signal and originally appeared in that magazine.  The writing was propaganda, of course, in flawless – a little too flawless – English.  I zoned out on that and simply enjoyed the scenery.   While there is fair amount of claiming that the Nazis only had Europe’s best interests at heart, since the magazine was for worldwide consumption there was no mention of the Final Solution, Einsatzgruppen, or any of less palatable elements of Germany’s war efforts.  I see a few Waffen SS soldiers but nothing about Dachau or Auschwitz. 

Actually, this whole business of publishing in English is a bit strange.  The magazine started in April 1940, at which time Germany was at war with the #1 English speaking country, the United Kingdom, and this also included Canada, Australia and New Zealand.  That left Ireland and the US as remaining targets.   In December 1941 the US and Germany were at war, which ended any circulation of Signal in the US, and logistics made delivery to otherwise neutral Ireland difficult.  So where did that leave?

The Channel Islands!  These small islands off the coast of Normandy, mainly Jersey (Old) and Guernsey, wound up being the #1 target audience of the English speaking version of Signal.   Why the Nazis should bother with the inhabitants of these islands, I don’t know.  Another strange thing is that these islands remained under German control when the surrender occurred in May 1945, although the Germans had been cleared out of France by September 1944.  I can understand leaving China, Vietnam and Korea in Japanese hands while you island hop up to Iwo Jima and Okinawa, but the Channel Islands couldn’t have been heavily defended.

One issue has Grant on the cover, and the article on the US Civil War (“The Anaconda System”) covers Sherman’s March to the Sea in which he deliberately obliterated Atlanta and much of Georgia and South Carolina to make the war as unpleasant as possible, destroying as much Confederate infrastructure as possible, though summary executions of Southern civilians wasn’t part of this, and plunder was forbidden.  Somehow the Channel Island inhabitants were supposed to believe that the US Army would do the same to western Europe.   Uh, yeah…  Ironically the article fails to mention that the main US battle tank of WWII was named after Sherman.

The magazine has lots of ads for fountain pens and Agfa, but no Pervitin ads.  Too bad.  As noted, it was obviously a propaganda magazine and taken as such, but aesthetically there was certainly some impressive imagery.   I have three hardbound volumes: a general first volume, Years of Triumph (1940-42), and Years of Retreat (1943-44).  No idea if the three together are the entire collection, but they certainly give us alot to read and see.  Nazi Germany at its most persuasive, for those of us who read English best.  

Nats WIN!

In June 2018 the Capitals won the Stanley Cup over the Las Vegas Golden Knights.  I wrote a blog on the issue almost immediately, and about 3 weeks later had completely erased all memory of this occasion from my brain.  When the Nats recent World Series victory over the Houston Astros had people also bringing up the Caps’ win, I had to look it up again.  Oh, 2018.  No wonder.

Anyhow.

My brother became a Nationals fan in recent years.  I live at Bailey’s Crossroads, in Northern Virginia.  This is very close to Washington, DC, and on many trips, either to New Jersey or to Prince George’s County, Maryland, I take the major highway 395 into DC, a route which takes me past Nationals Park.

On two prior occasions, not during this season, my brother has brought me to Nationals games.  These were regular season games and losses, sparsely attended with a minimum of excitement – especially by the fans who were present and not too thrilled to see their team lose yet again – least of all to the Phillies, who the Nationals do not seem to like.

This time around the Nationals made the playoffs.   I tracked their progress through the bracket, starting with their wildcard win over the Milwaukee Brewers and their ultimate faceoff against the Houston Astros. 

I did NOT attend any of the local games, and of course did not go to Houston to attend any away games.  Some games I watched on TV, some games I followed over the Internet, and Game 6 (10/29) I watched at Nationals Park with my brother and many very enthusiastic Nats fans who watched the team conclusively defeat the Astros and keep their hopes alive to force a Game 7 the following evening.  I found that experience highly enjoyable, especially since the Nats won.  Although the game itself was not occurring there, simply being shown on literally every flat screen TV in the venue, the presence of so many fans, even in the stands – with the game televised on the huge main monitor – it was almost like being at the game itself.   Oh, and they also gave us free small red towels, though they look too small to be of much use for anything other than cleaning your kitchen or bathroom.  I’d welcome an explanation as to their purpose, though I appreciate the gift. 

As a member of the Virginia Bar, I have continuing legal education (CLE) requirements which culminated on October 31, 2019.  I had to watch some of these on the night of October 30, so on that evening I was watching online legal seminars while keeping track of Game 7 – NATS WON!  WOOHOO!

I mentioned baseball earlier but I’ll mention it again here in more detail.

Best of 7.   Part of what turns me off about baseball, basketball and hockey is that the playoffs and finals are best of 7 rather than a single Super Bowl.   Either there’s a 4 game sweep – 19 World Series – a 7 game series – 35 World Series – or something in between.   That taxes my patience  unless I have some particular connection, as I did with the Nationals this year.  With the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA Playoffs, and the World Series playoffs I’ve been printing out the playoff bracket and keeping track of the eliminations, but not watching any actual games.  Here I didn’t actually start watching games until the Nats finally wound up in the final series against the Astros. 

Nats Fan?   Actually, only in the loosest sense.   I had zero reason to support the Astros, and as a Maryland native and UMCP graduate I should be an Orioles fan.   But I’ve never had a chance to see a game at Camden Yards, despite passing it frequently as the main street feeds off I-95 into downtown Baltimore.  Likewise, my sole visit to M&T Bank Stadium, almost next door, was not for a Ravens game but for a Metallica concert in May 2017.  Either way, I don’t think I can truly call myself a Nats fan, especially since the existing fans may resent my bandwagon deal with the World Series win.  But I’m happy to cheer the team and share their excitement, joy, and pride at this victory.

 

Score on Defense.   One thing that highly bugs me about baseball is that you can’t score on defense.  The prior weekend I briefly saw a college football game, in which a defensive player intercepted a pass in his team’s endzone, burst through the opposing players, and run the ball all the way back to the opposite endzone for a touchdown.   Awesome, huh?  But in baseball your best case scenario when your team is on the field is strikeouts, fly balls, or ground outs.

Mostly I catch and understand baseball.  Back when we played Intellivision, the MLB baseball game was one of our favorite games, especially with its crude umpire voice.  “YER OUT!”  Sadly, a game with no runs by either team is dull, UNTIL players actually get on base and then a player hits a home run.   This tedious business of ball…ball…strike…ball…FOUL (effectively unlimited foul balls because they don’t count as a third strike)….whoa! is that a home run??  Oh, dang, too far to the left or right, just a big foul ball…etc. wears me down and puts me to sleep.  Then there’s a ground out or a fly ball – OUT!  Do home runs offset runless innings?  Not sure.  I suppose the bottom line is that I’m probably not going to be interested enough in watching a game unless I care for one of the teams playing, e.g. the Nationals. 

Yankees.  The only other stadium I’ve been to is Yankee Stadium, the current version, seeing them crush the Oreos with my buddy Dave.  He described the PA system as being a bit on the loud side, “Abu Gharib” as he put it.  I picked Aaron Judge as my favorite Yankee player.   

Rendon.  If I had to pick a favorite National, it’s Anthony Rendon, the third baseman.  He hit key home runs in games 6 and 7, and caught some left field line drives and zipped them over to Zimmerman to knock out the runner on his way to first base.   The funny thing is he’s originally from Houston, Texas, and those two games were in Houston.  D’oh!     

Anyhow – I found this World Series exciting and enjoyable, and here’s hoping either the Nats or the Oreos wind up in next year’s series.