Ninety For Chill: The #Podcast with @CatBusRuss
Episode 134: "Another Earth", Another Narnia, Another Thor
”Another Earth”, Another Narnia, Another Thor
CatBusRuss is doing his best to overcome exhaustion. Fan Expo Chicago calls for exploration means there was no time for relaxation. Our host has worked himself sick, so he felt lucky to get in three movies since returning from Rosemont. And after starting the week with his Netflix DVD rental, "Another Earth", getting up the energy to watch 1979's "The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe" and 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" should be considered an accomplishment.
These three movies are all worthwhile. "Another Earth" is science fiction that challenges the genre's demand for visual effects. The adaptation of the first "Chronicle of Narnia" is an interesting attempt to sneak Christianity into schools. And while avoiding films in the franchise that are based around a new characters, Russ has enjoyed diving into Phase 4 of the MCU.
CatBusRuss is doing his best to overcome exhaustion. Fan Expo Chicago calls for exploration means there was no time for relaxation. Our host has worked himself sick, so he felt lucky to get in three movies since returning from Rosemont. And after starting the week with his Netflix DVD rental, "Another Earth", getting up the energy to watch 1979's "The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe" and 2022's "Thor: Love and Thunder" should be considered an accomplishment.
These three movies are all worthwhile. "Another Earth" is science fiction that challenges the genre's demand for visual effects. The adaptation of the first "Chronicle of Narnia" is an interesting attempt to sneak Christianity into schools. And while avoiding films in the franchise that are based around a new characters, Russ has enjoyed diving into Phase 4 of the MCU.
But all of these features present challenges to enjoy them. There is a very dour premise with the indie film. The cartoon features questionable character designs that make you wonder why they did not stick to their "Charlie Brown" style. And you can see why there are three credited editors on the Marvel movie. It is definitely going to be a one flick movie this week for the CatBus. His strength must be regained.
Allow me to get out of third-person. Happy Prof. Shurtleff of Illinois Central College? I (CatBusRuss) will try not to make so much light of violent death in this summation. This is my declaration of changing perspective.
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| Pinterest @oh_magdalena |
*Blog post started on August 20, 2023.
Sundays are my only day off from my two jobs, and I am doing my best to just recover from the past couple of weeks. Vacations never seem to be too relaxing for me.
The last one where I could have just chilled out was in August of 2021. Even then, I chose not to. There was a trip to Milwaukee to catch AEW television. It was only a couple of days on the road, but I think I may have also visited my folks as well. That may have only been a handful of days of work, but the point is, I like to make something of everyday. This concept still rings true, so a little frustrated dealing with a head cold when my little niece still has a second birthday to celebrate two hours from me.
Perhaps I should have skipped seeing RiffTrax live when I could have had an evening off. Team Shrug Emoji (or whatever it is called until Vicky is back) knew I was not going to make it because of my "need" to see Mike, Bill, and Kevin riff "Rad". Instead, getting rid of business cards was my priority.
So many were obtained at Fan Expo Chicago, and I wanted them to be easy for me to find, that they forced out three of my "Ninety For Chill" cards from my case. Thus, a couple of bars were visited after a show where I was sipping on Wild Turkey 101. That is some intense bourbon to be swigging from a flask.
Actually, a trio of bars were visited. It was only 9:15 pm when I got to Downtown Champaign, so I tried to see if I could catch my team before they left. No luck there, but the post game crew was present. Too bad I am not one to break up conversations when I arrive. If you are having a good time, why would I want to interfere just to proclaim that I am here? This attitude did not help me while I was on the road for wrestling. How can interrupting people be polite.
Needless to say, when I left The Blind Pig to see if the crew had made it to Quality (Get a fucking sign and decor.), I was a bit maudlin. Without the leader of the squad, people seem fine calling it a night after eating bar fare from Esquire.
It is fine pub fare, just disappointing because there is a greater menu at the bar next door who closes their kitchen sooner. I guess I just need to visit them next Thursday before trivia to feel more accomplished. There I go again, my quest to feel accomplished. Grabbing cheap lime vodka and chicken fries at Meijer's before they closed did not quite fulfill that.
And perhaps the feeling of failure carried over to Friday. After I got through my frustrating electronic store shift (Welcome back you, "How did you get accepted to a Big Ten school" fucks.), I got ready to face them and their lack of IDs at my liquor store job. When I arrived, all seemed normal. Then I looked at the register schedule to recall that it was my night off.
Having gotten to bed early and having enough staff at my morning job made the two-shift Saturday fairly easy. And I am currently on a 36-hour break between jobs, but I fear that I will get stir-crazy. Thankfully, Eva is looking after me. She is on my lap right now as I type, so I best accept that I am not going anywhere. But half off the menu ends tonight at Domino's.
This is what I get for trying to apply for a Walmart credit card so that I can finance my oil changes instead of deal with Mom's guilt trips. Does Eva not know I need the challenge of being snot-filled while eating pizza? It is like she was inspired by the White Witch of Narnia. I guess the Children's Television Workshop's adaptation of the first chronicle was more influential than I thought.
How is that for a transition?
Well, my intention was to put in a YouTube video about the 1979 adaptation of "The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe" here, but I guess the only ones out there are clips from the TV movie or the feature in its entirety. Since it was from the people who own "Sesame Street", I thought Max would want to keep a stronger grip on this feature. It is leading me to start to believe that may not know what they are doing at Warner Bros. Discovery. Insert my older sister laughter at the lackluster earnings of "Blue Beetle" here.
The original intent for this episode was to be a trip to "Ally's Accessories Shop on Etsy's Trash Feature Revue", but again, I am worn to the point of sickness. If I had to show up for a paycheck Monday morning, this episode would be a wash. I will give you the heads up that there will be a lot more rushed trips to the cheap DVDs. At this time last year, the A to Z(ed) journey had gone all the way to V for "VFW".
It will be tricky because I am also trying to get the most out of the remaining days of the Netflix's DVD service. I had initially thought that the service would die half-way through my next month of films, but I guess they are just planning to wipe out their inventory at the end of September. Here is to hoping that I will get 10 free movies. That will make it look like I did not wait a month and a half before opening each envelope since starting this podcast.
With that said, I may have further hindered my energy by watching "Another Earth". This was my most recent Netflix disc, and it is quite a downer to work through. It is not a sad tale, just loaded with things that society angers me about at the beginning that required a lot of patience to endure. Credit to the pacing, that is all in the first half hour. After that, I just had to deal with my own personal experiences that are very similar to our protagonist's quest to win the forgiveness of a man whose family she had killed in a drunk driving accident.
I still feel it was a rewarding sci-fi experience despite the only special effect was placing another earth that could be seen from this one in post. One must appreciate science fiction that is solely philosophical instead of the in your face presentation of things that are not really there.
This leads me to the Marvel Cinematic Tuesday viewing of "Thor: Love and Thunder". I am punching up this blog before even watching it. Hopefully, it will leave me time to play some video games on the $350 emulator box I bought at Fan Expo. If the critics are to be believed, that will be some required fun to remedy another Phase 4 disappointment.
After discovering "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" was a lot of fun, I suspect that a lot of the pushback is from #FilmTwitter followers like ThePoeticCritic who just want to see all comic book movies franchises fail, but I will note, there was not a lot of Thor cosplay at Fan Expo. Just a lot of fucking Spider-Men.
Too many Spiders. This is further pushing me to abandon Sony. I guess all nerds are contrarians I suppose.
Follow me on Twitter @catbusruss. If you want to be on the show, contact me on Twitter or send an email to russthebus07@gmail.com. All we need is a theme, movie, director, or actor and a focus on sub 100-minute material. As long as the credits start before the 1:39:59 mark on the runtime bar, the movie qualifies.
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