Not going to chat about news, political, or world events this is my 2021 and how it went.

First off and best I did not lose anymore dear friends to this thrice curse plague. Nearlyeveryone I know has been vaccinated and that is quite important to me.

Thanks to the fantastic scientific advancements of the last few decades and my day-job within the health care industry I received my vaccinations and boosters quickly and while I have not yet fully relaxed public gatherings, I have returned to seeing film in the cinema.

Since mid-May, when I treated myself on my birthday, I have seen 20 feature films in theaters and with one more today that will bring my 2021 total to 21. (updated the count as I had forgotten the 1 film I had not watched at an AMC Theater)

I completed my first murder mystery novel. It is of course science-fiction set aboard a generations starship which after 200 years of utopian coexistence faces its first murder. That novel is out on submission and here’s hoping 2022 brings a bit of good fortune on that front.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe shows began streaming on Disney+ and while I have not loved all of them nor have I hated any of them. WandaVision remains the one I enjoyed the most and the one I respect for taking the biggest of swings at doing something different while The Falcon and The Winter Soldier stuck me as the most standard approach of the attempts.

June witnessed another milestone in in aging as I had cataracts removed from both eyes. I am now seeing far better than I have in decades and the experience was quite interesting. Overall, my health was stable and fair during 2021 with all my chronic conditions well managed.

2021 was not the year of liberation that I or many of us had hoped for and its tragic and stupid that this nation saw more deaths from the pandemic after the introduction of the vaccines than before it but personally I and my friends thrived.

Since mid-October when the annual period for Medicare Advantage plans opens for the next year’s enrollment opens up I have been working quite a bit of overtime. This is good when it comes to the paycheck and helping out my teammates as we bury ourselves in the mountain of work that comes at us but this week it seems I hit a wall and have throttled back by overtime hours. I could feel that I was perilously closed to igniting a chain of migraines and that would be no good for me or my work. Now, getting back to a normal schedule I can resume some of the activities I have placed on hold such as more writing, I never fully stopped but drastically reduced the hours, attend writer group meetings (virtually of course), and perhaps even relax a little.

This is a good day to initiate this transition. Today is my sweetie-wife’s birthday and our 14th wedding anniversary. Definitely not a day for overtime and rising out of a warm bed at 5:30 am.

Just a few random quick thoughts before I head out to my day-job.

Katla ended well. While one of the characters provided a scientific sounding explanation for the strange events and doppelgangers a few selected shots and sequences I think refute his theory. In my opinion the entire Netflix series is well worth watching.

The Republican Party continues its drift towards authoritarianism. I say drift because I believe that most elected pols are not choosing their direction but rather utterly terrified of their base and loses their positions are pushed by the currents that are generated by the most devoted bad actors. At this time nearly the entire party is comprised of invertebrates.

Next month is the Horrible Imaginings Film Festival which last year was entirely virtual and this year attendees can choose to be in person or online. I have my tickets and plan to be in person at the Frida Theater in Santa Ana California.

People who have heard me talk about story construction know the importance I place on endings. The end of the tale is where theme, plot, and story unify into a meaningful and satisfying whole. It is also where David Lowery’s The Green Knight fails in its quest to be great cinema.

The Green Knight a cinematic adaptation of the Arthurian legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, starring Dev Patel as Gawain, nephew of the king, who I the script is never named, who longs for the honor and respect of a knight but who spends more time in brothers than at mass. During Christmas celebrations the mysterious Green Knight, played in perfect casting by Ralph Ineson, offers up a game to the king and his Round Table Knights. He shall let one of them strike any blow they wish and claim his war axe as their prize but in one year’s time they must seek him out and receive a blow from him equal to the one they delivered. Gawain, desperate for a tale worthy of retelling, steps forward and delivers what should have been a mortal blow but magic is at work and the Green Knight is not killed. Gifting the prize to Gawain the Green Knight departs leaving the young man with the quest to seek him out at the next Christmas and receive his mortal strike. The years passes quickly and at the next Yule Gawain departs to find his destiny with the majority of the film’s two hour run time devoted to his travels, encounters, and adventures under the growing shadow of his doom.

The Green Knight is a lyrical, symbolic, and metaphorical piece of cinema. The cinematography is lush, colorful, and mysterious with every frame a lovely painting of light, hue, and shadow. This is not a film shot to be clear but to be beautiful and in that goal is succeeds beyond measure. The performances, save Patel’s, are not meant as realistic human portrayals but rather expressions of the mythic folklore presented on the screen leaving on Gawain’s as the emotive naturalistic performance. The film takes place in a world of magic, monsters, and mystery but while special effects are utilized in the telling of the tale, they are not the drivers of the experience. The overall mood of the film is contemplative, and it seeks to burrow into the ultimate human condition, knowledge of our mortality, rather than distract with spectacle.

Where The Green Knight falls is in a rewriting not merely a reinterpretation of the legend’s conclusion and in doing so stripped away the myth’s meaning ending on a confusing, ambiguous conclusion that failed to satisfy. The more familiar you are with the original myth the more likely the ending is going to anger you. Subtle establishment of silent characters would lead someone familiar with the tale to expect the traditional end only to have it stripped away.

I enjoyed The Green Knight, but the altered ending spoiled what might have been a masterpiece of mythological cinema.

The Green Knight, released from A24 pictures, is currently playing in theaters.

The Collapsed Condos: I think we’ll find that in addition of a cocktail of events and conditions that some form of corruption was involved. Cursed with a vivid imagination it’s all too easy for me to visualize being jolted awake as my room fell and then being crushed to death. Horrifying

Cosby: The turn on details and it certainly looks like the DA missed/ignored a detail that unraveled the entire prosecution. I have no doubts about his guilt.

The Former Guy: The Manhattan DA has arrested the CFO of the Former Guy’s organization and the financial crimes appears to go back decades and decades. Here’s where the Former Guy is not a cause but a symptom. The lax enforcement of laws against the wealthy has thoroughly corrupted our system. A robust and fair enforcement regime would have not only prosecuted the crimes much earlier for the former guy and others it would have prevented the travesty that was his election.

I woke up with a headache, going to work, but no real thoughts today.

I have been suffering eye strain headaches so the posting here might be a little sporadic this week. So here are just some random thoughts.

• The Netflix movie Stowaway is not good science and not engaging fiction. Just streaming something else.
• Game of Death, a horror movie about seven young adults playing a boardgame that compels them to kill people or die themselves, is even worse and I did not finish it. More than 10 percent of the movie’s running time is wasted up front and watching the characters party but without performing any establishment of character development.
• The GOP doesn’t care if you die. Remember that in the voting booth.
• 20 years on The Wire is still spectacularly good television.
• WorldCon this year has been moved to December and I have no intent of experiencing Washington DC in winter. This makes me sad.