These are the mad political rantings of one Matthew McNeil, Liberal/Democratic radio host in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. The postings are mine, the thoughts are mine. Mostly about politics, but I will occasionally get into raising kids, cooking, gardening, the arts and my favorite sports. Bon Appetite!
This week we lost two absolute legends, so the Link will pay tribute to them both.
Dolly Parton was a freaking Ray of Sunshine. She was one of those people who always made everyone else feel better. Her passing due to cancer was a brutal loss.
Her music was fantastic, but I want to post tonight about her acting. 9 to 5 was a great movie, and lost on most people born after 1980 is that the film acts as a time capsule. Office environments in the 1970's were not worker-friendly and hyper-misogynistic. Women were entering the workforce, but they had to work harder and get paid less, usually keeping the company afloat in the process.
The concept of women not only finding their way into the office, but changing the dynamic for what was the beginning of a worker-friendly job experience is perfectly captured in 9 to 5.
Here are two clips from the movie featuring a pitch-perfect Dolly, with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and also a wonderfully smarmy Dabney Coleman.
Here Dolly is with David Letterman doing a classic Top 10 list. She is so wonderful!
Tim Curry also passed away. The craziest fact about him was that he, Ian McKellen, and Jane Seymour were the original Broadway cast for Amadeus. Curry said it was his favorite theater performance he'd ever done.
Clue was such a good movie, and Tim Curry held that epic cast together. There are three endings they shot for the movie; this is the 3rd one.
Warning: this does explain the murders in the movie (well, at least one of the three endings), so viewers be warned!
Finally tonight, we have Tim Curry as the demon Darkness in Legend, a weird fantasy/adventure movie featuring a miscast Tom Cruise, but Tim Curry (and Mia Sara) were pitch perfect as Lord of the Rings movie characters 16 years before the first of those movies came out.
Watch the heavily makeup-ed Curry create an absolutely amazing character/villain.
That's it for this week! Have a great weekend, everyone!
Make sure to stay up to date on all of your vaccinations!
Hi all! I am up for a laugh this Friday. How about you?
I think Josh Johnson is a special comedian. There are a lot of guys out there who are funny and know how to deliver a joke, but Johnson is different. His style and delivery are so unique and enjoyable. It reminds me of the times I would see the best comedians for the first time. There is just something that clicks, and you can't stop watching and laughing. You know when you watch Josh Johnson, he's going to be one of the biggest comedians on the planet.
He's already pretty high up there. This last weekend he was in Minneapolis...AND I MISSED HIM! Damn kids needing to be taken back to college in Madison! The good news is he posts a lot of clips from his shows, and they are hilarious.
This is a long clip, 47 minutes of one of his shows at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. I highly recommend the part on Trump and the plane switcharoo! The payoff on that one is spectacular!
Also tonight is the return of Epic Rap Battles of History. When this is good, it is very funny (I highly recommend the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles vs. the Fathers of the Renaissance and the Star Wars Vs. Harry Potter).
This week, a very solid matchup between Tom Cruise and Evil Knievel! Enjoy! (Warning: some adult language!)
That's it for this Friday!
Enjoy your weekend, and please make sure to stay up to date on all of your vaccinations!
It's been a brutal week. I'm exhausted. I need a smile.
This week is all about laughs.
I've often featured ZeFrank on the Friday Link. The first time I ever saw one of his videos was at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, where they made the point that art does include comedy. This week he has a great piece on how flowers trick flies into getting their pollen.
I will warn you this is a little more adult than usual, but it's pure gold.
Also tonight is a whole bunch of Mystery Science Theater 3000! Here is a compilation, a full NINE HOURS of quality movie riffing. All of these are good, but I highly suggest the third film, Time of the Apes!
That's it for this week. Have a great weekend and make sure you stay up to date on all of your vaccinations!
Big Brother is indeed watching. A lot of people are bothered by the collection of our day-to-day activities and by them being shared with the Feds, law enforcement, and databases (and likely AI companies).
To give you a prepper course on this, here is John Oliver and Last Week Tonight's recent segment on Police surveillance.
Here is why this is becoming a HUGE problem. It doesn't matter that your local law enforcement might limit access to Federal authorities and others to the information collected on these surveillance devices. The truth is, apparently, local police and county sheriffs can get access to this content and then share it with the Feds.
I live in a city which has said it restricted access to the Flock cameras around our town, but a recent news article from the Star Tribune (https://www.startribune.com/twin-cities-suburbs-license-plate-cameras-immigration/601873543) tells that even though your community might limit access, other police agencies were accessing your town's cameras and handing that information over to ICE. Grant County, Indiana, Raleigh, North Carolina police, and the Mille Lacs, Minnesota County sheriff felt it was their job to show those weak law enforcement agencies how it's done, and spied on us, handing our information over to ICE.
If anyone wants to file a class action lawsuit, I want in.
It's no surprise that the vandalism of Flock cameras (specifically) is on the rise. Who are the people responsible? Well, here is a concerned citizen with a breakdown of how exactly the criminal element is getting away with the crime...
Darn, you horrible criminals! Darn Darn Darn! Anyhoo...
Finally tonight, Max Miller is back with Tasting History! This time he is tackling the B-rations and specific recipes involving B-rations, from WWII. The thing that is hard to understand is how it is today, Trump can't get the troops out in the Middle East a good meal when this was how they used to do it.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Incompetency does that.
That's it for this week!
Please be safe and make sure your family is vaccinated! Stay up to date on your vaccinations!
I don't want you sick, dead, or buried under a lifetime of medical debt.
