Motley Kamuka

I'm watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) , and I realized it was Les Miserables for children. It was a strange realization. It's another story by Victor Hugo, and he has great themes of justice set in France. I've seen Les Mis, Mamma Mia, Avenue Q, Rent on Broadway, it's not very much.  I'm really into watching them online.  Here are my past posts about musicals: Cabaret Schmiggadoon The King and I Schitt's Creek has some Cabaret that eventually led me to seeing it twice. Favorite Musicals post West Side Story Best Musicals on Netflix right now in USA that I have seen: Tick, Tick...Boom! Matilda Les Miserables La La Land Jingle Jangle The Prom What About Dick? I haven't seen on Netflix, but I'll get to them: Eurovision The Wiz The Queen of Flow Diana : I tried this one. Rotten Tomatoes gives it 12% favorable reviews. I have resistance to the Royalty, I'm not interested, and well, Charles is a cad, I don't need more proof of that. The mus...

Culture wars are about the willingness to be disappointed in our fellow citizens. Godfrey says that in her excellent article in the Atlantic. And yet they create the very pessimism they feed off of. Here is a quote from a movie review of The Sound of Freedom from the Atlantic by ELAINE GODFREY: "Kate Cox, a retiree from McLean wearing little flower earrings, told me before the movie that she was “a pro-life Catholic” concerned about the border. “That’s exactly what this is about,” she said. “They’re taking these people and selling them into sex slavery.” Cox and her girlfriends were also worried about the fentanyl coming in from Mexico: How hard would it be to put up a wall? “And the homelessness!” added Peggy, a friend of Cox’s who declined to share her last name. “Cities are falling apart.” Cox nodded. “Say what you will about Trump, and 99 percent of it’s true,” she said, “but this didn’t happen under Trump.”" I can't help but judge these people, though if they were s...

Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition. In Israel: "Today, Israel’s parliament passed a law that increases the power of the country’s right wing, headed by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel does not have a written constitution, and the prime minister’s ruling coalition is in control of both the executive and the legislative branches of government. The only check on them was the courts, which could overturn extreme laws that did not pass a “reasonableness standard,” which means they were not made according to a basic standard of fair and just policymaking. The new law aims to take away that judicial power, and it passed by a vote of 64–0 after opponents walked out in protest. Netanyahu’s coalition has indicate...

“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ... Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow. The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism; instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.” ― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism “Before mas...

Minnelli told The Advocate editor-in-chief Judy Wieder in September 1996 "I married Peter, and he didn't tell me he was gay. Everyone knew but me. And I found out ... well, let me put it this way: I'll never surprise anybody coming home as long as I live. I call first!" ( Wikipedia ) She also had quite a substance abuse problem like her mother.  Watched a bunch of Cabaret videos, then this video comparing versions. Thinking about Babylon Berlin. I'd like to read  Goodbye to Berlin by Isherwood. I think with the rise of fascism, this story and it's many versions, is more fascinating. It game me an interest in Liza Minnelli, who is perhaps the star of the main movie and was 26 in 1971 when she shot this. Supposedly it's not a musical movie because they took out a lot of the songs, and there's some good dancing in it.   I'm embarrassed but I really liked the version of a song in Schitt's Creek, and that got me looking at it today. The central c...

Song on spotify if you haven't listened to it. Lyrics by Jason Aldean : Sucker punch somebody on a sidewalk Carjack an old lady at a red light Pull a gun on the owner of a liquor store Ya think it's cool, well, act a fool if ya like Cuss out a cop, spit in his face Stomp on the flag and light it up Yeah, ya think you're tough Well, try that in a small town See how far ya make it down the road Around here, we take care of our own You cross that line, it won't take long For you to find out, I recommend you don't Try that in a small town Got a gun that my granddad gave me They say one day they're gonna round up Well, that shit might fly in the city, good luck Try that in a small town See how far ya make it down the road Around here, we take care of our own You cross that line, it won't take long For you to find out, I recommend you don't Try that in a small town Full of good ol' boys, raised up right If you're looking for a fight Try that in a smal...

 

I love it that the corporate reward for improved work on Severance is 5 minutes of "defiant jazz" dance party.  Usually I don't like workplace dramas but someone really thought it was good sci-fi. Just finished the 9 episode first season, and wow.  Patricia Arquette is having a moment, just watched High Desert (1996) , and she's also in Severance . I notice Ben Stiller is an executive producer, and he was in Flirting With Disaster , a movie I particularly enjoyed.  John Turturro and Christopher Walken are amazing. Great acting. Reading categories on Netflix, I could say this is a slow burn, because it really builds for the last episode. It's also absurdist. I'm going to have to read up on the art category, but there's an element of absurdism to it, that really highlights for me, the current state of the world.  Supposedly there is a 2nd season planned. 

 We think the Aztecs were cruel to make sacrifices.

Star Trek is amazing, the way it's evolved since in lifetime is a fascinating indicator of how America and the world has changed.  I love the Space Opera genera. Battle Star Galactica, Star Wars, Farscape, Firefly, The Expanse, Dark Matter, The 100, Orphan Black, Resident Alien, Orville, Altered Carbon. I watched reruns of the original series as a kid. I loved Next Generation as an adolescent. I missed DS9 when it came out and really got into Voyager. I enjoyed Enterprise. I'm enjoying this next generation of shows: Discovery , Picard, Strange Worlds. I like the cartoon Lower Decks. The one I keep rewatching despite it's clunky start is DS9. DS9 ran from 1993-1999, 176 episodes over seven seasons. Deep Space Nine was the first Star Trek series to be created without the direct involvement of creator Gene Roddenberry. It was the first set on a space station rather than a traveling starship. It was the first to have an African American as its central character: Starfleet Com...

My opinions... I can't remember any meaningful engagement in MySpace. Just looked it up, it still exists. Supposedly people like music there. I like listening to new music on Spotify. I quit and restart when the ads come on or walk out of the room to do something.  I downloaded Whatsapp to communicate with someone, but I let that go. I don't like FB Messenger. People I don't know try to scam me there. They even warn you about it. I was so hoping Threads wouldn't show you people you don't follow, without asking, but yes, they do that. Bummer. So people can pay to be pushed into your consciousness. That's my biggest gripe about Twitter, you can block all the people you want, they're going to send you people who pay extra.  Twitter is my most groomed feed, I've blocked so many toxic people it runs pretty clean now. Sometimes people put pictures of the tweet instead of quoting the tweet, to get past blocks.  Supposedly 30 million people signed up for Threads...

7/1/23  Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou was a Ethiopian composer pianist and nun who passed away this year. You might recognize her music in an annoying YouTube ad for Vrbo . ( Spotify ) 7/2  Mando Dao --This Swedish group came out with their first album in 2002. ( Spotify ) I love NYCFC and one of their radio announcers was wearing a t-shirt on the pregame show that I saw, so I explored their music. 7/3  Souad Massi --Reading about Algeria because the new NYCFC striker is Algerian. She came out an album in 2002 called Raoui . ( Spotify ) She has 8 solo albums. 7/4 Nabuco by Verdi OperaVision . King Nebuchadnezzar says he's God. Verdi  (1813–1901) is the most popular opera composer.  7/5 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Britten – Royal Swedish Opera ( YouTube ) 7/6 Paul Simon has a new album: Seven Psalms . 7/7 To prepare for Today's premier of the Dutch Opera's Rusalka, Kristine Opolais sing Song to the Moon, from Rusalka, which premiers on this day at 1pm. ...

This is a dark show that I'm reluctant to watch. Slow burn with reveals along the way. Lots of padding and important small details you have to pay attention to, which sometimes I don't because I'm looking at my phone. The TV competes with the phone. Either I'm playing chess, or another game, or surfing for news about my favorite soccer team NYCFC. They're supposed to sign some new players and can register them tomorrow, but the team usually doesn't do things in a timely way, they're messy.  The first few episodes of the 10 episode first season are about the sherif and his wife, played by Rashid Jones .  Then there's like a buffer action episode where the generator almost goes kaput. Then it becomes Longmire, a woman sheriff who doesn't know the protocols and rules, and doesn't care, she just wants truth and answers.  Everyone lives in the Silo, it's huge and mysterious and you can't have relics, things from the past, that might clue you i...

Being stuck upside down in a roller coaster is perhaps the image of our times ( source ). The cynical take over of the Supreme Court, through graft, corruption and cheating rolls back the liberal progress.  Political discourse is dead, Republicans don't want to debate, they want to grasp the rings of power and do the unpopular things, they know better. "The conservative cultural movement is based on lies, misinformation, and fantasies. That’s what makes these people so odious when they crawl out from under their rocks and present themselves in the public square: They make stuff up and then demand that their delusions be given pride of place in our objective reality. (There simply is no woke, trans, race-critical monster hiding under their beds who comes out at night and jabs their children with a vaccine that makes them gay." ( Source ) Culture wars are a distraction. I think Trump was fine with misspelling Covfefe. Every time a liberal person tweets the latest outrage of...