Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 9--Change is Everything

Last night was the final football game for Jay's Senior Year. The band visited Dublin Scioto High School and it was a nice moment of symmetry. Four years ago (almost to the day), Eighth Grade Jay visited Dublin Scioto to perform the "Wild" show.

So, last night, you might say that their band experience came . . . "Full Circle" (an old head WNMB joke there).

It was an unexpected thing to notice as I pulled drum major podiums into the football stadium to walk past some very familiar red, wooden rectangular platforms. I immediately thought that these props looked like the red props that the Bluecoats used in their 2024 DCI Championship "Change is Everything" show. And sure enough, after asking a Bluecoat alumni who works on staff, it was confirmed.

(The Bluecoats--like other drum corps, probably--sell props and uniforms at the end of each season to boost income for the upcoming year.)

So, Lynda and I looked up the Dublin Scioto band show for 2025 on YouTube and discovered that it was called "The Knockout." (No . . . not that "The Knockout," but perhaps a close second.)

Here is a photo of last night's Scioto show from the sideline, showing the props in action.

 After the game was done and I was pulling the drum major podium back to the equipment trailers, I got some help from my pit crew friend Mark and we both got photos of each of us geeking out on some authentic DCI props.

And this, brings my band experience into a Full Circle moment as well.

I know that there are two more weeks of competitions before it is fully over. And I'll be helping with Bingo events into the future to help provide needed funding for the band program. But my high school band geek self met my adult band dad self last night, connected by a decades long love of the marching arts and DCI excellence.

It's been quite a ride the last decade with my kids and the adults and staff that make this band go forward each and every year. I've loved it!

But . . . remember. Today--if you watch college football (which you shouldn't!) the best and only thing to pay attention to are the marching bands. And, unfortunately, you're not going to see them on TV. So you might as well find something else to do.

I bet you need to vacuum your house. So do that!

Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 7--Comparisons

Last week was the first Saturday off that I've had since the marching band season started in earnest. So I took advantage of it and didn't do much.

Unfortunately, part of that not doing much was NOT writing a Football Counter-Programming effort. (Though, I did write a tangential call to action post on Facebook encouraging people to think about the value of well-funded schools.)

More on THAT upcoming election issue in a separate post that I need to sit down and devote serious time and thought to, to make sure that it is written well. Not dashed off in the moment. Because it is important. And I want it to be meaningful.

But that is not what this is.

This is largely meaningless. And so is college football. 

(Sure, people are employed by it and all of that. But so is the tobacco industry. And both segments of industry have been given too much centrality and influence is the point I'm trying to make here. . . . each and every post.)

So . . . for the love of everything . . . if you smoke . . . STOP. Put your earned income to better things. (Like funding the community schools that actually try to do good in your world and make each one of us better, more informed, more connected citizens of the places where we live and work and love one another.)

And if you watch college football . . . STOP. It won't miss your attention. At least not until enough of us deprive it of our attention.

So, let's start this week.

Football Counter-Programming 2025--Week 5: Rest in Peace

Recently, Robert Redford died. 

I don't have a very strong connection to Redford. As a child, I remember him in Out of Africa and The Natural. I've seen his version of Jay Gatsby. I certainly know him as S.H.I.E.L.D. director Alexander Pierce. But he hasn't been a huge acting presence in my life.

I know that so many people revere him, however. And when anyone of notoriety dies, the social media posts light up with praise and remembrances.

I want to highlight an observation that I liked from one such remembrance--via The Ringer. It posits that Redford shaped a new late 1960s & 1970s version of the male archetype as an in between space transitioning from the midcentury male who "bends but never breaks" [I'll suggest Captain Steve (America) Rogers, who can get up, dust himself off, and do this all day.] and the 1980s muscle-head who never stops inflicting himself and his pain on his target. [Here I'll point to Tony "Iron Man" Stark, who is a thinking version of Rambo--someone who always has whatever he needs to inflict him action on the enemy.]

Redford never came off as someone who would happily take a punch. He was too pretty for that. And he wasn't the angriest man in the room either.

I'm not a fighter. So, I could never pattern myself after a tough guy--either one of the Greatest Generation or of the Last Action Hero genre. But we need different versions of male attitude and action these days. If I have to pick, I'll pick Redford I suppose.

But, whomever you pick, don't pick College Football on a Saturday.

Thanks and see you next week.

Football Counter-Programming 2025--Week 4: A Blast from the (Recent) Past

Now is the week where I play catch up and get retroactively upset about something that either

a. you didn't even know happened--and maybe don't care (until I try to convince you otherwise), or 

b. you did know that it happened, but you don't care because . . . well, it happened a while ago. 

Ed. note: It occurs to me as I create this justification structure that it is very similar to the whole counter-programming effort. Here I am trying to convince you not to do something that you are already committed to. And the only shot I have to make you care is to pull out all of the rhetorical flourishes and engagements that I can come up with to swerve you into my direction. Unfortunately, since I set aside time to write these diatribes in a very narrow window that usually buts up against the start of the Saturday noon kickoff . . . my skill level and my creativity are often not up to the task I put before myself.

Andbutso . . . what is this past moment that got my retroactively upset?

Take a look at the accompanying image for this post.

Is it helping?

Sure, Sam Neill played a paleontologist in the past. But that is not the past that I am referring to. Or it is only part of that past. Paleontologists study the far distant past, using the fossilized remains of dinosaurs (and other flora and fauna) to help us understand the complexities of evolution and the historical development of our world.

But again, I'm also more upset about the recent past.

Because . . . last weekend I watched a past episode of Netflix's Everybody's Live with John Mulaney. (Specifically the April 2025 Dinosaur episode.) 

And when I watch it, I got PISSED.

Mulaney's tongue-in-cheek premise was (paraphrased) . . . are we sure about dinosaurs?

Meaning . . . do we have the whole story of dinosaurs right? Because he made some jokes about how scientists think they evolved into birds now. And that some dinosaurs had feathers then. And just how accurate can those museum skeletons be anyway? Those types of jokes.

Funny enough. And I'm not here to get crotchety and demand that John do a better job of explaining the scientific method and how uncertainty and the willingness to be wrong is baked into good science. And to get also not get into the history of how generations of paleontologists did in fact, very much so, get dinosaurs wrong at first. And then science did its thing and fossil records were better analyzed. And then science itself got better at pretty much everything. So today's dinosaurs are probably (in my opinion) on pretty solid ground, theory wise.

Those sorts of Neil DeGrasse Tyson attitudes just get in the way of the funny jokes. I get that.

This is not what upset me.

Because, after the monologue, John as well as his first guests Conan O'Brien and Ayo Adebiri, took some live phone calls from the live April 2025 airing. And the SECOND caller was non other than Dr. Jack Horner, himself. Noted paleontologist and the inspiration of Sam Neill's Jurassic Park character pictured above.

The problem was the Mulaney and his guests DID NOT recognize Dr. Horner for who he was and though he was just some yokel Ph.D. paleontologist from Rock State University or something. Maybe they don't care and I'm sure they don't. But hell, they live and film in Hollywood. Couldn't SOMEONE on the staff have enough knowledge of recent film blockbusters to know who was calling and swerve the conversation into some joke trajectory that made sense? Rather than simply treating like any other scientist that they don't know.

Maybe it couldn't have happened in the moment of the phone conversation--which was pretty short and silly. So I get then why a off-stage production assistant couldn't talk to Mulaney's earpiece (?) and correct him. But the episode continued for anther 40ish minutes after the initial phone call and NO ONE figured out what had happened and didn't think to write up a cue card to get Mulaney to throw back to the earlier phone call with a bit more context?

Just a huge missed opportunity.

I'm still kind of upset about it.

But not as upset as YOU will be if you spend several hours of your Saturday watching college football.

Read a Michael Crichton book instead, why don't you?

And remember, your land-grant alma mater is desperately looking for enough funds to pay hard working scientists to keep doing quality research. The athletic department doesn't need any more of your help.

Until next week . . . remember also . . . that life finds a way.

Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 3--Best of this quarter century

I apologize to myself and probably to a few of you for not putting the Lord of the Rings movies on this list. Just know that I am kind of uncomfortable with this choice and that Smeagol is truly disappointed in me. So, I've put his scowling face here as something of an apology.

It's 2025 and a while back lots of media outlets started compiling their Best of the Quarter Century listicles. So, who am I to miss out on an idea and flip it into a content mine for FC-P?

So, without further preamble, here are my best TV shows, movies, and books of the past 25 years. And thought I might should have split these into three separate lists and thus guaranteed ideas for FC-P into the middle of the season . . . well, I've decided instead to just throw my thoughts out there in a big 'ol pile of thoughts. 

If you are one of the few people who have been semi-regular readers of WWYG?! during it's (kinda sort) two decades of irrelevance, you most likely will be very unsurprised and non-plussed by all that follows.

I'm nothing if not predictable, is what I'm saying.

BEST OF THE QUARTER CENTURY!

10. Yesterday [movie; debuted in 2019] I just love this movie. If we watched TV like we did when I was a kid, and I was flipping channels and this appeared . . . I'd drop everything to watch the rest from that point on. Just fun and heartwarming and full of good music.

9. The Vlogbrothers YouTube series; debuted in 2007] The Brotherhood 2.0 webseries debuted in 2007 and morphed into the standard Vlogbrothers format in 2008. Nothing on this list has likely had a longer term impact on me. I think about the Green brothers  regularly and watch every single one of their videos each and every week. I admire what they do. Full stop.

8. Severance [TV show; debuted in 2022] Such a recent entry! But such a stylish and interesting show. It's been extensively covered in every which way. And I have no idea what is happening next. But I really enjoy watching the show and look forward to whatever they come up with next.

7. Kidding [TV show; debuted in 2018] It was something of a tie between Kidding, which I love, and Shrinking, which I also . . . um, love. But I'm going to give this spot to Kidding because I think fewer people know about it. (Don't know if that is true, but it feels that way to me.) And a bonus because I blogged about it once before! 

6. Captain America: The Winter Soldier [movie; debuted in 2014] My favorite, basic bitch Avenger. And my favorite Cap movie. Come for the opening scene where Cap and Black Widow take down a ship at sea. Stay for the spy thriller vibes and for Steve Rogers best looking Cap suit.

5. Andor [TV show; debuted in 2022] I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because much of the internet has already covered it. Simply the best Star Wars story told in the most intricate and beautiful way.

4. Chuck [TV show; debuted in 2007] Some . . . well, more than I care to admit . . . doesn't fit well in a post #MeToo world. The male gaze is all over this show. But a lot of it is very nerdy and fun. And I was super into spy shows at the time. It's another foundational entertainment experience for my family. And a top contender for the subject of tattoo #2, when that time comes around.

3. Avatar: The Last Airbender [TV show; debuted in 2005] A touchstone for all of my kids and myself growing up. A richly imagined story that matured from silly kids stuff in the first half of season 1 into something worthwhile and captivating. And very funny as well.

2. House of Leaves [book; published in 2000] I'm lucky that it was published in 2000 and therefore I can justify adding my most mind-blowing reading experience to this list. As with my number 1 choice, once I fell into it, I tried to get others to read it . . . if they dared. It's not an easy read, but the experience makes the story come to life in ways no other book has done. And I've tried other Danielewski books and (unfortunately for me) they haven't lived up to this.

1. LOST [TV show; debuted in 2003] A TV sensation. I was a super fan from the start and did my best to proselytize for anyone who would listen. And, hey . . . it's the subject of my first (and so far, only) tattoo. So it gets the number 1 spot because I loved it unabashedly from the start and never really lost faith in whatever it wanted to do.

So . . . here are SO MANY things that you can experience today (and in the following Saturdays as much MUCH better uses of your time than watching college football. 

Please consider any or all of these as something better to do.

And thank you!

Football Counter-Programming 2025: Week 2--Wristwatch

It's been around six or seven years since Dad seemed something like himself. (Which was always a changing perception as he aged . . . which is--of course--true for all of us.)

It's been about four years since Dad gave me his Seiko wristwatch featuring the Pioneer company logo on the black watch face. I knew at the time that he was starting to give things away and begin the slow, symbolic process of saying goodbye.

It's been a little under three years since Dad entered a full time care facility and began slipping away.

It's been almost one year since Dad died. 

It's only been a couple of days since I looked at that the watch on my left arm and realized that I am now definitely past the age that I remember him wearing it every day.

That shocked me. 

We all age and I know when I look in the mirror that I'm no where at all who I was even five years ago, much less fifteen years ago. But to come to the realization that I'm now older than Dad was in my memory . . . when he seemed fully grown and adult and in charge. And I was just a young kid, starting to edge into college and couldn't even see where my life might someday go.

Sure . . . its very logical, since I've already got two adult kids of my own and the third is right on that edge of college where I was in my memory. But it still seems shocking. Because Dad (even when he was younger and especially when he was older and growing to be "less") . . . he was still . . . Dad.

My inner monologue just doesn't see myself as Dad. Even though I've been one for approaching thirty years now.

It just goes to show you that we are all masters at lying to ourselves.

So, don't lie to yourself this Saturday. 

Your participation in today's college football smorgasbord--whether in person or through television--matters not at all. You cannot affect the outcome and your presence in person or in spirit will not be registered by the teams at play.

So do not give it your time.

Do something today where you can tangible affect change.

Football Counter-Programming 2025: What Does Anything Mean?

Over the years, I've spent weekends trying to distract you from the hegemony of college football. And (so I'm told) one of the biggest games of the year is happening on week one.

So . . . what can I do against all of that?

Maybe nothing.

Maybe I join the hive mind and become part of the college football culture.

Maybe I give up the fight?

Or . . .

maybe . . .

not?

So, (sources say) that the "important game" this week is Texas versus Ohio State. And I happen to be near Ohio State, so maybe I can offer some relevant perspective? (But likely not.)

Maybe I'll lean somewhat into the mess and fight college football fire with randomly connected (?) facts?

For instance, did you know that the Texas starting quarterback is someone named Arch Manning? And were you further aware that he is the nephew/grandson of many famous Manning quarterbacks? Does that mean anything?

Did you know that he wears number 16 on his jersey?

What does that mean?

Well, like--I'm sure you do as well--when I hear the number 16 I immediately think of Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth president of the United States. And he was born in Kentucky and famously lived in Ohio. So I guess Abraham Lincoln (a good midwesterner) would be a supporter of Ohio State against Texas--a known member of the Confederate States of America.

So, I guess, if you are going to root for college football today, you should do what Abe would do and root for the Ohio State Buckeyes. Maybe the fate of the nation truly depends on it?

But, in the end, remember that it doesn't matter who wins or loses today. And your alma mater only cares that you should know who the 16th American president was. So, give a healthy financial donation to your local college history department and support quality social studies education. Because that is something that the fate of this country may actually depend upon.

Go pick some apples and make apple cider or something. It might be a pretty day where you are!

Maarva's Posthumous Speech: Andor Season 1

. . . I always wanted to be lifted. I was always eager, always waiting to be inspired. 

I remember every time it happened, every time the dead lifted me . . . with their truth. And now I'm dead, and I yearn to lift you. Not because i want to shine or even be remembered. It's because i want you to go on. I want Ferrix to continue. 

In my waning hours, that's what comforts me most.

But I fear for you. 

We've been sleeping. 

We've had each other, and Ferrix. Our work, our days. 

We had each other and they left us alone. 

We kept the trade lanes open, and they left us alone. 

We took their money and ignored them. We kept their engine churning, and the moment they pulled away. we forgot them. 

Because we had each other. 

We had Ferrix. 

But we were sleeping. I've been sleeping. And I've been turning away from the truth I wanted not to face.

There is a wound that won't heal at the center of the galaxy. There is a darkness reaching like rust into everything around us. 

We let it grow, and now it's here. It's here and it's not visiting anymore. 

It wants to stay.

The Empire is a disease that thrives in darkness.

It is never more alive than when we asleep. 

It's easy for the dead to tell you to fight, and maybe it's true . . . maybe fighting is useless. Perhaps it's too late. 

But I'll tell you this . . . if I could do it again, I'd wake up early and be fighting those bastards from the start! 

Fight the Empire!

Luthen's Monologue: Andor Season 1

When asked by Lonni . . . What do you sacrifice?

Calm. 

Kindness. 

Kinship. 

Love. 

I’ve given up all chance at inner peace. I’ve made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. 

I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there’s only one conclusion, I’m damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they’ve set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet.

What is my sacrifice?

I’m condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. 

I burn my decency for someone else’s future. 

I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I’ll never see. 

And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude.

So what do I sacrifice?

Everything!

Nemik's Manifesto: Andor, Season 1

 

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this.

Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. 

Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they’ve already enlisted in the cause. Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward.

And then remember this.

The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. 

Remember that. 

And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire’s authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing that will break the siege.

Remember this.

Try.

Q: Notwithstanding his association with the "Prince of Persia" flick, what's your beef with Jake Gyllenhaal? And, if I may, do you dislike Maggie Gyllenhaal?

Ed. note: Years ago, I experimented with the Formspring webpage as a way of collecting questions and providing answers. (Sort of a protoReddit AMA . . . not that I've ever gotten into Reddit.) Here is an old one from late May 2010 that brings back fond memories and, to be frank, I like the way I constructed my answer.

A: I'm jumping out of order on this one . . . AND I'm answering more than one in a day. (My "Blogging for Success" book says you have to develop a relationship with your readers . . . so I am accommodating YOU, trustworthy questioner!)

So . . . what is my beef with Mr. Gyllenhaal? Well, mostly it stems from his constant comparisons to Tobey Maguire back ten years ago. At the time they were both up-and-coming young actors. Both has large doe-y eyes. And they both a.) were supposedly in the running for Spiderman and b.) dating Kristen Dunst.

(So much so that when Maguire was rumored to be out of the Peter Parker role for Spiderman 2, there was strong opinions that Gyllenhaal would step right in.)

Andbutso, the point is, I've always thought Maguire was the better actor. I first loved him in Pleasantville, and really, really loved Spiderman and especially Spiderman 2. And I liked The Ice Storm and thought he did a fine job in Seabuscuit. Meanwhile, Gyllenhaal was in stuff like The Day After Tomorrow, etc. (Though I really did enjoy Donnie Darko.)

And there were always these persistent rumors that Maguire was a bit pretentious and a bit Too Much. But at least he never had The Bubble Boy on his resume.

So, while I was in the throes of my love for Spiderman and Spiderman 2, I became (willingly) associated around my office friends as a lover of all things Tobey. And to help bolster that definition, I sort of adopted a (kind of irrational) dislike of all things Gyllenhaal. And it helped that another of my work friends was willing to play along and support Gyllenhaal in opposition to me.

But that has mostly died off at this point. If pressed, I'd say that Tobey deserves an Academy Award before Gyllenhaal's pecs get nominated for one. But I'm willing to live and let live as I get older.

*****

As to Maggie, I don't dislike her at all. I enjoyed her just fine in The Dark Knight, squirmed my way through two-thirds of Secretary, didn't realize she was in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, need to watch Donnie Darko again, and keep getting her mixed up in my head with Zooey Deschanel.

But, no. I have no beef whatsoever with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

So, there's my answer.

Thanks for asking.

Book Review--"There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension" by Hanif Abdurraqib

 At Christmas, I was gifted There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension by Hanif Abdurraqib. And I finally finished my slow perusal of it over the weekend. I sat on the porch, taking advantage of sunny days, no rain (for once in this last month of time!), and pleasant temperatures, to get focused and finish. 

And I'm glad that I did.

I've heard of Abdurraqib and was aware that he lived in Columbus (hence the image) and wrote about Columbus. So, being home-proud, I wanted to try him out. I haven't read his poetry yet but this prose work definitely worked for me.

It weaves two stories into a strong braid: his own life growing up Black in Columbus--loving the city, playing basketball on neighborhood courts, celebrating local basketball talent. It doesn't flinch from the hardships he saw, he experienced, he overcame. He sympathizes with the desire of many of his friends and neighbors to leave Columbus--to get away from its racial challenges and to hope for some better opportunity elsewhere. But he also embraces his own love for Columbus and the pull it has on him--flaws and all. Can he overcome his personal challenges to find a strong foundation in his hometown?

The second story strand observes Lebron James Ohio basketball story. From his foretold greatness playing prep school basketball in northeast Ohio, to the Cleveland Cavaliers fortune to grab James in the draft. From his initial NBA rise in Cleveland, to The Decision, to his hoped for (and realized) return to Cleveland, culminating in the 2016 NBA championship.

The rise and fall and rise of both Abdurraqib and James' Ohio experiences are presented in parallel, stitched together with love and skill. A frequent theme of flight and Ohio aviators in injected throughout the book, providing brief examinations of true aviators and astronauts from Ohio, alongside Abdurraqib's friends and family who died too soon and metaphorically flew from him.

Abdurraqib's strength of language and his emotional honesty make this a powerful book. It celebrates people who love strongly and sings a lovesong to Columbus as well.

The MCU Ranked: An Ongoing List

Grace, Jay, and I are big fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It's been many years in the making and over 30 films deep. I'm updating on WWYG?! the MCU rankings that we have compiled as we have watched the movies together.

And yes . . . you'll notice that we decided to include non-Marvel movies in our rankings. I regret nothing about this.

KEY:

Infinity Saga

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Multiverse Saga

Phase 4

Phase 5

Phase 6 

(This list is always being updated, as new movies come out.) 

1. Spider-Man: Homecoming 

[n/r] Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse

2. Iron Man 3 

3. Spider-Man: No Way Home 

4. Spider-Man: Far From Home 

5. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings 

6. Avengers: Infinity War 

[n/r] Spider-Man Into the Spiderverse 

7. Black Panther 

8. Captain America: The Winter Soldier 

9. Guardians of the Galaxy 

[n/r] Deadpool 

10. Captain America: The First Avenger 

11. Thunderbolts*

12. Fantastic Four: First Steps

13. Thor: Ragnarok 

14. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

15. Black Widow 

16. Avengers: Endgame 

17. Ant-Man 

18. Ant-Man and the Wasp 

19. Captain America: Civil War 

20. Iron Man 

21. Deadpool & Wolverine

[n/r] Deadpool 2

22. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

23. Thor 

24. Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 

25. The Avengers 

26. The Marvels

27. Eternals 

28. Captain Marvel 

29. Iron Man 2 

30. Avengers: Age of Ultron 

31. Thor: Love and Thunder

32. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness 

33. Doctor Strange

[n/a] Shazam!

34. Captain America: Brave New World 

35. Thor: The Dark World 

36. The Incredible Hulk (Ed Norton edition) 

37. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

Don't like our rankings? That's fine. I know there are others out there that will suit you better. Here is another web writers thoughts on the MCU phenomenon.

And what about the MCU TVverse?

I can't really scale them in the same list as the cinematic stories, so I'm creating a separate list here. (This includes the original ABC TV shows, the original Netflix shows, and the Disney+ series.)

1. Daredevil

2. Jessica Jones

3. Loki

4. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law

5. Agatha All Along

[special] Werewolf by Night

6. Daredevil: Born Again (only inclusive of s1 . . . so far?)

7. What If . . . ? (all of the current seasons)

8. Agent Carter

9. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

10. WandaVision

11. Hawkeye

12. Ms. Marvel

13. The Punisher

14. Luke Cage

15. The Defenders

[special] The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special

16. Echo

17. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

18. Ironheart

19. Iron Fist

20. Cloak & Dagger

21. Moon Knight

22. Runaways

23. Inhumans

24. Secret Invasion

Perfect: The Enemy of the Good

(Nobody asked . . . but . . . )

One of my favorite phrases is "Don't let perfect be the enemy of the good."

I see this as a acknowledgement of the complex reality that we live in. We are not alone and we are not able to dictate and control all aspects of the world around us. People are complex and unpredictable and have intricate inner lives that they do or do not share freely. Motivations and beliefs and actions (both our own and those of others) are opaque. 

We see through a glass darkly.

We move through a world of others and they move through that same world. We try to be accountable to each other, but many act as if they don't owe anyone anything.

So many variables. So many uncertainties. 

How can we then expect perfection?

Believers know that we live in a fallen world. Perfection was lost and all we can do now is try to clear our way through the mud and mess that we have. Cane we do it with grace and with compassion? Will  we choose to do it selfishly and with disregard for anyone else?

Perfection is not achievable.

So . . . don't hold up actions in the vain belief for that perfection.

Don't create a utopia that you can't achieve when you can be trying to do something here and now. Knowing that mistakes will occur. But acting with knowledge and in good faith to protect and serve as many people as you can.

There are many enemies in this world.

Don't let perfection be the enemy of the good.

Getting into some high brow culture

(Full disclosure--I toyed with using a vulgar or course title using swear words or curse abbreviations for this post. You know, as a way of creating a clever dissonance with the content to come. But then I didn't. But that didn't stop me from taking even more time to type this out and explain it to you, so that you can pat me on the back for the joke I didn't make. I guess that is why people hate bloggers.)

Last Saturday, Lynda and I attended the Columbus Symphony Orchestra's performance at the Ohio Theater downtown.

You would be justified to think at this point Most of those words have never been presented in that particular order about something YOU did. 

But I did it because of the particular music they began the performance with: Aaron Copeland's Appalachian Spring. (I didn't know that the second piece would be based on letters written by Abraham Lincoln, but that was a nice bonus as well.) You can click this link to see some of the details of the show.

Copeland has been my favorite American composer since I was in high school. This was because of a set of circumstances that combine pop culture and marching band--so of course, it had to happen to me.

If you are of a certain age, you likely remember the "Beef. It's What's for Dinner" commercials that ran frequently on television during the Reagan Eighties. The jaunty upbeat symphonic music that linked cattle on the range to your Saturday night dinner table was courtesy of Aaron Copeland. (It is from the Rodeo suite, to be specific. The fourth movement is named "Hoedown.") Copeland became an even more mainstream name because of this bump in his musical exposure and brought awareness deep into South Georgia to me. 

I was further locked into Copeland soon after when my high school marching band capitalized on this popular awareness by incorporating the beats and some musical elements of "Hoedown" into the percussion feature of a halftime show one year. 

But that only linked me to Copeland himself. It didn't take very long for me to hear Appalachian Spring for the first time. And that was courtesy of the (Garfield) Cadets (of Bergen County) drum corps show of 1987.

(The final two minutes of this show . . . from the enormous musical hit of "Simple Gifts" through the scatter drill break and resolve into the march off of the field remains in my top three most impactful drum corps moments over 40 years after seeing it for the first time. Just chills-inducing.)

It was all over for me at that point.

I listened to a cassette recording of Appalachian Spring MANY times in the intervening high school years. In my bedroom at night, in the dark, with the volume down. Sometimes riding my bike around town via my Walkman. (When I wasn't otherwise listening to XTC's "Oranges & Lemons" or R.E.M.*)

But--to bounce back to the present.

It was a great thrill to enjoy such stellar music live. Copeland especially, but the entire program was great and we had such a good time. We are lucky to have the arts available to us here and I'm very happy we had the chance to be there and listen.

*More on this in an upcoming post.

George Orwell's "1984"--Chapter One excerpt

Before the Hate had proceeded for thirty seconds, uncontrollable exclamations of rage were breaking out from half the people in the room. The self-satisfied sheep-like face on the screen, and the terrifying power of the Eurasian army behind it, were too much to be borne: besides, the sight or even the thought of Goldstein produced fear and anger automatically. He was an object of hatred more constant than either Eurasia or Eastasia, since when Oceania was at war with one of these Powers it was generally at peace with the other. But what was strange was that although Goldstein was hated and despised by everybody, although every day and a thousand times a day, on platforms, on the telescreen, in newspapers, in books, his theories were refuted, smashed, ridiculed, held up to the general gaze for the pitiful rubbish that they were--in spite of all this, his influence never seemed to grow less. Always there were fresh dupes waiting to be seduced by him. A day never passed when spies and saboteurs acting under his directions were not unmasked by the Thought Police. He was the commander of a vast shadowy army, an underground network of conspirators dedicated to the overthrow of the State. The Brotherhood, its name was supposed to be. . . . 

In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out 'Swine! Swine! Swine!' and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. It struck Goldstein's nose and bounced off; the voice continued inexorably. In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in. Within thirty seconds any pretence was always unnecessary. A hideous ecstasy of fear and vindictiveness, a desire to kill, to torture, to smash faces in with a sledge-hammer, seemed to flow through the whole group of people like an electric current, turning one even against one's will into a grimacing, screaming lunatic. And yet the rage that one felt was an abstract, undirected emotion which could be switched from one object to another like the flame of a blowlamp. Thus, at one moment Winston's hatred was not turned against Goldstein at all, but, on the contrary, against Big Brother, the Party, and the Thought Police; and at such moments his heart went out to the lonely, derided heretic on the screen, sole guardian of truth and sanity in a world of lies. And yet the very next instant he was at one with the people about him, and all that was said of Goldstein seemed to him to be true. . . . 

The Hate rose to its climax. . . . [Then] the hostile figure melted into the face of Big Brother, black-haired, black-moustachio'd, full of power and mysterious calm, and so vast that it almost filled up the screen. Nobody heard what Big Brother was saying. It was merely a few words of encouragement, the sort of words that are uttered in the din of battle, not distinguishable individually but restoring confidence by the fact of being spoken. Then the face of Big Brother faded away again, and instead the three slogans of the Party stood out in bold capitals: 

WAR IS PEACE 

FREEDOM IS SLAVERY 

IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH 

But the face of Big Brother seemed to persist for several seconds on the screen, as though the impact that it had made on everyone's eyeballs was too vivid to wear off immediately. The little sandy-haired woman had flung herself forward over the back of the chair in front of her. With a tremulous murmur that sounded like 'My Saviour!' she extended her arms towards the screen. Then she buried her face in her hands. It was apparent that she was uttering a prayer. 

At this moment the entire group of people broke into a deep, slow, rhythmical chant of 'B-B!...B-B!'--over and over again, very slowly, with a long pause between the first 'B' and the second--a heavy, murmurous sound, somehow curiously savage, in the background of which one seemed to hear the stamp of naked feet and the throbbing of tom-toms. For perhaps as much as thirty seconds they kept it up. It was a refrain that was often heard in moments of overwhelming emotion. Partly it was a sort of hymn to the wisdom and majesty of Big Brother, but still more it was an act of self-hypnosis, a deliberate drowning of consciousness by means of rhythmic noise. . . .

[Source: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt]

Ft. Bragg and Dog Whistling in the Dark

Today, the nation's Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth (nee National Guard veteran and Fox News media persona) renamed the military base Fort Liberty and restored implemented the old new name of Fort Bragg.

(You can read about it in explanatory detail here: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/politics/hegseth-fort-bragg/index.html)

You might--as I initially did--think that this is another MAGA example of reclaiming America and striking down Woke overreach. And it is that. But not (?) in the direction that is at first obvious. 

The Bragg being honored here is not the original Bragg who was indeed a Civil War general and thus was the target for renaming initially by the well-meaning politicians and people who wanted to avoid honoring people in active rebellion against the United States. Rather, as Hegseth explained, this Bragg is a World War II private who won a Silver Star and a Purple Heart.

So . . . that is progress in a sense. At least we aren't returning to the Bragg that was considered "one of the worst generals of the Civil War" and someone who was "widely disliked . . ."

And still . . . why waste even a few minutes of the government's time? What was wrong with promoting the concept of (Fort) Liberty? 

And even the most important part of this act (in my opinion) . . . is the calculated way that Hegseth has his cake and eats it too. To most people who see the headline and scroll along with their day, they will think that an actual restoration to the Confederate Bragg was achieved. And those people to whom that matters will feel a frisson of excitement that the libs were owned again. Woke was weakened and MAGA rose again.

Was that Hegseth's intent? Did he want the easy headline, assuming that a deeper investigation would not really occur. And if it did, he would have coverage by pivoting to the matching name but for a better person?

I don't know. But the part of me that is daily angry about the performative nature of politicians feels that this is just another example of superficial crap that shows how shallow people in power truly are and how much time and energy is wasted on stuff that doesn't actually end up helping anyone.

(And yeah, I wasted 10 to 15 minutes writing out this to be read by no one.)

Elon Musk, the Treasury Department, and partisanship

Over the weekend, there were many credible news reports that Elon Musk--Tesla owner and President Donald Trump friend--initiated access into the U.S. Treasury Department's computer system. The people acting on Musk's behalf are reported to be members of the Department of Government Efficiency "group" that has no actual legal basis--as it has not been created by or voted upon by the U.S. Congress.

These six young men who have gained access to the Treasury Department are not government officials. They have not been vetted by our elected representatives. They are therefore operating outside of law and government authorization. It would be no different than if I showed up to the Treasury Department and gained access to these systems myself. I have no authority to do it and I would be caught and prosecuted for doing so.

Elon Musk is also NOT an elected official. He does not represent in any legal way the United States of America. He has not had public hearings in front of the U.S. Senate. He has not been subject to questions by our political leaders. He is operating under some very vague "permission" given by the president but there is no legal scaffold surrounding anything Musk is doing right now.

The information that Musk's men have access to is personal identification and financial information for federal employees, taxpayers, and so many others. The U.S. Treasury department is the agency responsible for paying out government money to wherever it goes. That includes all of the American taxpayers that get refunds. And even if you don't get a refund, you might get Medicare or Medicaid payments or you might get monthly Social Security payments. The government has stored that information in these computer networks to send out all of these payments. This sort of private information can be used to track individuals throughout their personal and financial lives. When misused, it can wreck families, finances, and lives. And--again--the people who have now forced themselves into possession of it have NO LEGAL BASIS for doing this.

For those of you who voted for Donald Trump in the November 2024 elections . . . is this what you envisioned? 

I'm confident that you disliked Democrats and what the Democratic Party supported. You thought Joe Biden was ineffectual and that you wanted a strong personality in the White House. You may have been uneasy with what you believe are changing social and moral norms in the country today.

But did you want laws ignored?

Did you want people with no oversight or legal guardrails gaining access to sensitive private information, including your finances?

This type of ungovernable, illegal activity is very dangerous and needs to be taken seriously.

These are violations of law and they are high crimes and misdemeanors that qualify for yet another impeachment process for President Trump's administration. Will the members of the House of Representatives stand up to their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution of the United States? Will the people we elected represent us and defend the law that they claim to revere?

George W. Bush's thoughts (at one moment in time) on immigration enforcement

I know intellectually that if you read any politician's speeches in any sort of depth, you will find contradictions. So cherry-picking a speech given on a particular day, on a specific subject, and further narrowing your excerpt to an isolated paragraph is . . . not on solid rhetorical ground.

BUT! 

I'm trying to refute POTUS 47, Donald J. Trump, who has no rhetorical center at all and so, I guess it's fair game to fight fire with fire? I'd say his political opinions spin like a weather vane, but Trump's particular brand of hate-filled politics is depressingly consistent in the fact that it must:

a. benefit him above all

b. help him retain power, influence, and punish his enemies (see a.), and 

c. attack the weak and those who aren't in his camp.

ANYWAY . . .

here is something President George W. Bush said in a May 15, 2006 speech about the need for immigration reform:

America needs to conduct this debate on immigration in a reasoned and respectful tone. Feelings run deep on this issue, and as we work it out, all of us need to keep some things in mind. We cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger, or playing on anyone's fears, or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain. We must always remember that real lives will be affected by our debates and decisions, and that every human being has dignity and value no matter what their citizenship papers say.

I've never been a fan of the 43rd president. But he is so much more of a reasonable human being and political opponent than Donald Trump is. I've never voted Republican in my life and I'm not about to start now. But the way that Trump has captured and reshaped the GOP in his own fun-house way is disgusting. 

Quotes for My Time

Passages that caught my eye while reading Erik Larson's The Demon of Unrest--a book describing the political and personal turmoil leading up to the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861 (the precursor of the American Civil War.)

"There was a growing fear that maybe South Carolina's best days were behind her. Planters had once constituted the richest class in America, wrote Dennis Hart Mahan, a New York-born, Virginia-raised professor at West Point in a November 1860 letter to a friend. 'But when commerce, manufacturers, the mechanical arts disturbed this condition of things, and amassed wealth that could pretend to more lavish luxury than planting, then came in, I fear, this demon of unrest which has been the utmost sole disturber of the last for years past.' Mahan, whose son Alfred would grow up to become a prominent naval historian, argued that rather than join the rush to modernity, South Carolina--'this arrogant little state'--had grown even more insular." 

"Lincoln's concern lay elsewhere. . . . 'Our adversaries have us more clearly at disadvantage, on the second Wednesday of February, when the votes should be officially counted.' Here he referred to the constitutionally mandated final count and certification of the electoral vote, to be conducted in the House on February 13, 1861, by Buchanan's vice president. Ordinarily this would be the most routine of events, a celebration of the constitution and of peaceful succession, but the tensions of the times raised all manner of concern, especially given the fact that the vice president, the man who would count and certify the electoral votes, was Southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge of Kentucky, who not only sympathized with the South but had been Lincoln's leading opponent in the presidential election. 'If the two Houses refuse to meet at all, or meet without a quorum of each, where shall we be?' Lincoln wrote."

"Even as he said this, however, concern in Washington mounted that the electoral count might be disrupted. That day crowds of irate Southerners had gathered in Washington and converged on the Capitol clamoring to get inside. General Scott, however, was well prepared. Soldiers manned the entrances and demanded to see passes before letting anyone in. Scott had positioned caches of arms through the building. A regiment of troops in plain clothes circulated among the crowd to stop any trouble before it started. The throng outside grew annoyed at being barred from entry and began firing off obscenities like grapeshot. If words would kill, one observer wrote, 'the amount of profanity launched forth against the guards would have completely annihilated them.'"

"Russell understood, however, that the true cause of the conflict, no matter how hard anyone tried to disguise it, was slavery. He called it a 'curse' and likened it to a cancer whose inner damage was masked by the victim's outward appearance of health. he marveled that the South seemed intent on staking its destiny on ground that the rest of the world had abandoned. 'Never,' he wrote, 'did a people enter a war so utterly destitute of any reason for waging it.'"

"Alexis de Tocqueville had observed this [expectation of mastery and command] aspect of the planter class two decades earlier in his Democracy in America and attributed it to slavery. 'The citizens of the Southern states becomes a sort of domestic dictator from infancy,' he wrote. 'The first notion he acquires in life is, that he was born to command, and the first habitat he contracts is that of ruling without resistance. His education tends, then, to give him the character of a haughty and hasty man,--irascible, violent, ardent in his desires, impatient of obstacles but easily discouraged if he cannot succeed upon his first attempt.'"

Football Counter-Programming 2025: Championship Game Edition

No doubt about it. I've got my work cut out for me this week.

How do I successfully counter-program against the college football championship game? Especially when I'm living smack dab in the middle of ground zero for one of the teams participating in said game?

The best way that I can think?

Let's talk about God.

What other person/concept/animus/motivational force/cultural sports trope can impact as many (more, I would suggest) people as a college football fanbase?

Here is a clip from tOSU's last minute touchdown that sealed the University of Texas's loss. (Sorry that I could not embed the video into this blog post as I originally wished. Take it up with Meta.) 

If you paid any attention to college football in the wake of last week's semi-final game, you have seen this clip. But you might not have seen it from this angle. At the end, you see a Buckeye player get down on his knees in the endzone and (I presume) briefly thank God while he watches the play unfold down the field in front of him.

Here is a properly embedded YouTube video of a segment of the High School football movie Friday Night Lights.

To state the obvious . . . this clip shows both teams in their respective locker rooms praying the Lord's Prayer as they prepare for the second half of their football game.

What are we to make of these things?

Anything at all?

God and religion are regularly invoked for many American sporting contests every week. He/She/It will definitely be called upon before, during, and after the Championship game this Monday.

I'm not here to tell you if you are right or wrong to do this.

Personally, I don't think that God spends much time at all considering the outcome of sporting contests. 

But since I DO happen to believe God is omniscient and all-powerful, He/She/It most certainly can get involved. 

(Yet . . . if that were true, then why did the Atlanta Braves lose so many World Series in the 1990s?)

Religion and football have a strong connection with both of the teams playing in this year's College Football Championship. One--more obvious than the other, perhaps? But let's begin with my hometown team--of which I am an incomplete alumnus. (But I know that my participation in their games matters not to the outcome.)

ANYWAY . . . the Ohio State University is one of the most well-funded and most successful and most talented (which attribute matters most?) football teams in forever. But beyond the on-field exploits, THE knows how to galvanize and incentivize the fan base. And they will use what they have at hand. 

And what do they have at hand?

• Lots of Midwestern values
• Lots of committed people with camera phones, and 
• A handy-dandy multistory religious icon in for form of the Solid Rock Church's "Touchdown Jesus."

Please tell me that you've heard of Touchdown Jesus. A massive effigy of a resurrecting Jesus coming out of the earth that towered over the highways north of Cincinnati, Ohio. (It's gone now--spectacularly destroyed by a lightning strike. It's eventual replacement didn't nearly have the in your God-fearing face as the original.)

What made Touchdown Jesus so great for Ohio State is that Our Lord Savior's pose of glory fit so well with one of tOSU best meme's: the O-H-I-O camera pose with your favorite football friends. Just get of your friends--obviously the H to take over camera duty. And bam . . . you've got the Son of God weighing in with his sacred approval of the Buckeyes!

But wait . . . who are the Buckeye's playing in this game?

checks notes

Oh!

Notre Dame, you say?

The most Catholic and religious school in the history of college football?

Yikes! How are the Buckeyes gonna defeat that? But let's not jump to immediate conclusions. What attributes does Notre Dame have?

• Lots of Midwestern values
• Lots of committed people with camera phones, and 
• A handy-dandy multistory religious icon in the form of the original? "Touchdown Jesus."

Um . . . hmm. Well . . . shoot.

Who wins?

Football loving Christians?

Who loses?

Satan and people who don't care about sports?

In football terms it might be a coin toss needed to decide the winner. But I happen to think that the O-H-I-O camera pose is a better visual than ND's TD Jesus mural. You can't get the people as clearly involved in the Notre Dame version.

You can pray to whomever you want on Monday. And maybe He/She/It will take pity on your prayer. But I'm here also. And I'm praying my own prayer. That you will listen to me just this one more time for this season and maybe NOT watch the game.

Read a book. Take a walk. Chop some wood for your fireplace. Give a David Lynch movie a try. Or just go into a small room and sit quietly for a few hours. 

Call it meditation. 

Call it prayer. 

Call it whatever you want. 

Because no matter what you choose to do, you can't affect the outcome of the game itself.

Thanks for hanging in there with me for another season of FC-P. Get a new hobby until it all comes back around again next year.