Category: Blog 2019

Outside of writing, I do a lot of martial arts.  I train in a style called Kajukembo, which is a mixed martial arts off-shoot of Kempo.  It was founded in Hawai’i just after World War 2, born out of the multi-ethnic slums in that time.

I enjoy martial arts a lot, but it sometimes surprises people to learn that I don’t like most combat sports like MMA or professional boxing.  I don’t have anything against MMA per say (leagues like Bellator or the UFC), but I do actively have a problem with boxing. Continue reading “MMA and NHB”

So some time ago, Martin Scorsese said that he didn’t like ‘the Marvel movies’ and he didn’t consider the cinema.  And the film-going audiences went a little nuts.  Film fans were like ‘oh no he didn’t!’ and others were like ‘oh my gosh, he’s totally right’.  And it was a thing.  Cool, fine.

And then Scorsese penned an opinion piece (an “op-ed” if you will) expounding on this point.  He griped about how the modern film landscape was overrun with these high-budget, overly saturated colorful flights of fancy.  He complained about how the movie going public was being denied risky, arthouse ventures by a diversity and breadth of filmmaking voices.  He opined about the days of yore when movies were purer visions of artistic credibility.  Cool, fine.

And the film-going audiences went a little nuts.  Film fans were like ‘oh no he didn’t!’ and others were like ‘oh my gosh, he’s totally right’.  And that was a thing.

For my two cents, I don’t give a damn. Continue reading “Martin Scorsese and Marvel Movies”

We’re going to be okay.

The world is a scary place right now and a lot is going wrong.  It seems every time I check the news, corruption threatens freedom, life, and liberty.  Greed is single-handedly destroying the world and everything in it.  There’s nothing good left, right?

There’s plenty good left.

Continue reading “39 Years”

Listening to NPR recently, I heard a presidential candidate talking about swaying voters.  I couldn’t tell you which of the two dozen candidates it was, but he didn’t wow me.  But he hit on something that troubled me greatly.  He was asked about ‘reaching Trump voters’.  Not a bad topic to ask a candidate, I suppose.  His answer, however started with an observation about Nixon.  He remarked that (and I’m paraphrasing), ‘when Nixon left office, he had 25% support.  So I think there’s about 25% of voters you just aren’t going to reach’.  He continued to talk about reaching the remaining voters, but I feel like we’re burying the lead here. Continue reading “Bigger Problems”

I’m taking the week off.  I do that periodically – no writing, no exercising, etc.  Not exactly a vacation, but a cooling period.  Does me a world of good.  I encourage you to give it a try if you have the luxury.

See you next week…