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Let me start with a disclaimer... I actually liked Rise of Skywalker, despite what the bulk of this post will discuss. It was fun, it was Star Wars, Rey's battle with Kylo on the Death Star remains was pure spectacle... Overall I think they did a fine job of telling the story they wanted to and wrapping up the Skywalker saga.  Sadly, there's a lot of room in "fine" to find fault.  More revelations/admissions/what have you... I really liked Last Jedi. It took me a couple of viewings, but I came away loving the chances they took and the changes they put in motion. My annoyance with Star Wars fandom after the blistering meltdown Last Jedi triggered knows no bounds.  So I was really frustrated by the way Rise walked back so many of the plot points from Last Jedi, despite all J. J. 's assurances to the contrary. I was even more annoyed by the way these things were handled... It wasn't sufficient to sideline those changes, but they did their best to invalidate them

(Seriously... When I posted six months ago, I had every intention of getting active again. I'd blog about movies and TV and politics and whatever else interested me.  Then 2020 happened. Politics became... Unfathomable. Movies simply stopped happening. TV is still there, but after months of binge-watching, what is there to talk about? So I'm reduced to blogging about my cat. And, oddly, pleased by that.) Years ago, I saw a documentary on cats and their behavior. It sought to explain the nuances of cat behaviour and, for those that appreciate cats, was a pretty fascinating watch. (for those that don't get cats, nothing is going to change that, and the fascinations I'm recounting will surely be lost on you.)  One of the things I learned from this documentary was that cats, when they meow, are talking to YOU. Cats do not meow at other cats. They hiss, yowl and posture. They do not meow. That interaction is limited to humans. When a cat meows at you, he is talking to you. 

It's been a long time since I posted here. Nearly 6 years, based on that last published post. But I think I need to start blogging again... I've been listening to audio books lately. Need something to occupy me on longer drives, especially when I'm driving by myself. I love listening to music, but sometimes I need something... more to keep my brain engaged.  I started with Fevre Dream ... one of my favorite vampire novels. Set on the Mississippi river, on a 19th century steamboat, it's one of the best vampire novels I've read. Written before Twilight and its ilk, it doesn't suffer from the need for a tragic vampire love triangle and instead settles for a bloody battle for supremacy between a pair of alpha vampires. A great read, and the audio book treatment was most satisfying.  Next up was It . I'd just seen the movies (part 2 this past fall) and, being one of Kings books I've never read, I figured it would be a good choice. Another excellen