Friday, January 27, 2017

Online Collage

It was cloudy and blah when I awoke late this morning. I needed some serious cartoon therapy. Bugs Bunny's Cupid Capers is one of the holiday specials Warners did between the late 70's and the late 80's that was basically a collection of bits of shorts revolving around a thin story. In this case, we have an Elmer Fudd-like Cupid spreading love among the Tunes. Bugs thinks he's meddling, until he gets hit and sees how some of the other characters react.

My big project for today was reorganizing my Pinterest pages and adding a few new ones. The Star Wars folder had gotten too big. That one page became five. The original page now features photos from the Original Trilogy, Rogue One (which is set directly before the Original Trilogy), and anything that crosses movies or pertains to the series or Star Wars fandom in general. One page is devoted to the sequels, another to the prequels and the cartoon series Clone Wars and Rebels. There's a page for Han & Leia and Carrie Fisher & Harrison Ford, and another for Luke & Leia (and non-Star Wars shots of Mark Hamill). I also added more to other pages and attempted to make a page for Remember WENN, but there just isn't much there.

At any rate, here are the reorganized Star Wars pages:

Star Wars - Originals, Rogue One, and General Saga
Star Wars - Prequels and Cartoons
Star Wars - Sequels
Han & Leia/Carrie & Harrison
Luke & Leia - The Skywalker Twins (plus Mark Hamill)

I got so involved and had so many photos, I didn't break until past 2:30! Ran a quick episode of Max & Ruby while I got organized. "Ruby's Figure Eight" is something she's never tried before. While she and Louise work on their skating, she gives Max a chair so he can work on his. Max just wants to play hockey with the big boys. Ruby tries to practice while keeping her brother from ending up underfoot.

To my surprise, the Acme wasn't busy at all when I arrived. The big "Open House" was a big disappointment. Evidently, there had been a ribbon-cutting earlier in the morning and some raffles, but there was nothing going on in the afternoon. Thankfully, the one sample table had delicious eggplant Parmesan and this amazing spinach/mushroom/sauce concoction that somewhat made up for me not having gotten around to lunch. There being food in the back room - bagels, cream cheese, butter, fruit and vegetable trays, two large sheet cakes - helped too.

My schedule is a bit more normal than last week's. I'm back to short shifts with two days, Wednesday and next Friday, off. Short and early - I work at 9 on Sunday and Thursday. (I suspected I only had the long hours I did this week because of the cleaning.)

I didn't have a huge grocery order at any rate. Bananas and eggs were on good sales, and I needed them anyway. The fresh cranberries are gone - I replaced them with apples. Restocked onions, mushrooms, skim milk, canned coconut milk and apricots, and honey. Treated myself to a can of Toasted Coconut Blue Diamond Almonds as a treat for getting through all that cleaning.

(And...yeah, they weren't busy all day, according to the cashier I went through. All that fussing, and they apparently didn't really advertise or spread the word around until two weeks ago.)

Fiddled with Pinterest a bit more after I got in, then put on a Bowery Boys movie while having chicken soup for dinner. It's No Holds Barred when Slip discovers Sach's unusually thick skull can be used in the wrestling ring to take down opponents. Trouble is, the "traveling muscles" keep moving to different parts of his body...and a group of gangsters in charge of a wrestling racket want to know how he keeps winning.

Finished the night with Captain America: Civil War. Lord, did this one get complicated. After a mission gets out of hand, the government creates a company to regulate the movements of superheroes. Still remorseful. over what his creation did in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is fine with this. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), who doesn't want any other superheroes to become pawns the way his friend Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), The Winter Soldier, did, is not. Their feud becomes a rift that separates the entire Avengers squad, including newcomers Ant-Man (Scott Rudd), T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman), and Spider Man (Tom Holland). But it turns out that there's someone manipulating events behind the scenes...someone who doesn't want the Avengers working together...

You absolutely cannot come into this one with no prior knowledge of at least the previous Avengers and Captain America movies. I was confused, and I've seen all of the Marvel Universe films but the still-in-theaters Doctor Strange. There were too many characters with too many motivations and way too much going on! All the bickering just got annoying after a while.

That said, some of the new characters were fun. I especially liked the super-cute Spider Man (who behaves like a more realistic teen than he ever did in previous film incarnations) and Boseman's noble Black Panther. The villain was interesting, too, with far more motivation than most villains who turn up in super hero movies. There were a lot of nice action setpieces, too.

If you're a fan of the Marvel Universe, this is a must-see. If  you're not, back up and see either the Avengers films or the Captain America films before coming anywhere near here.

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