aka Blog v4.0
1977 was not just the year I turned 10.
Or the year Star Wars first premiered.
Or even the year I got Baron Karza for my birthday (he was in his box on the kitchen table when I came downstairs for breakfast).
1977 was the first year that I seriously started to pay attention to baseball.
I considered myself a baseball fan since I was 4-5 years old, because on weekends we seemed to live at the ballpark, especially if there was a Sunday doubleheader. I never paid attention to the games as much as my parents and my brother did back then. I was more interested in when the next time the food vendors would come by our section (General Admission 28).
But two things happened in 1977 that changed the way I saw baseball.
The first was the premiere of “This Week In Baseball”.
Aside from the occasional Giants game, and that day in 1974 when we saw Hank Aaron break the all time-home run record, I’d never seen anything like TWiB, a weekly recap show of baseball, much like the older “NFL Game of the Week” show that would come on in the afternoon on Saturday, after cartoons.
TWiB introduced stars of the game who I was not familiar with, since we only ever saw the Giants on TV. And the dulcet tones of Mel Allen’s voice made the recaps somewhat exciting.
How about that?
The other thing that happened in 1977 was Chris Speier being traded away from the Giants to the Expos.
Speier was my favorite player on the Giants since my first exposure to baseball, which started my ‘root for the Giants player with your first name and last initial’ thing.
I don’t know if I ever rooted for Tim Foli. I simply couldn’t, because he took the place of my boyhood idol.
I think I ended up picking either Johnnie Lemaster (another shortstop) or Jack Clark or Bill Madlock or John Montefusco as my new favorite Giants player, mostly because they had cool sounding names.
Years later Speier came back to the Giants, just in time to watch them become a contender in the late 1980s. By then my ongoing love for baseball had become a permanent thing.
There was a moment during the film that I felt like I was in a Spider-Man/Mysterio comic book by Lee and Ditko. It felt THAT right.
And there was another moment that I almost stood up and screamed, “I KNEW IT!”
It was about as good as Homecoming, maybe a little better at some points.
Tom Holland continues to amaze (heh) me in his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man. This guy truly plays the part as I remember him when I was reading the comics growing up.
And it does wrap up the Infinity Saga quite well.
Two thumbs up. Recommended.
Go see it!
Dear Dad,
I finished up Designated Survivor last night, staying up way past my bedtime.
Overall, I think you would have liked it, they didn’t linger on plots for 4-5 episodes like previous seasons would do. This was probably because it was a 10-episode season, instead of 20+ episodes where they need to add filler episodes, like they did in 24.
There were some plots that were difficult to watch, like Emily and her mother’s cancer. The resolution of that was extremely painful.
And they killed off one of your favorite characters, which was a bummer, but I kinda knew it was gonna happen before it did.
But the overall final result was pretty much as expected, except for Aaron’s story, that actually surprised me how the resolved that.
As for season 4, no word yet from Netflix, though to be honest, I kinda feel that this would be a good point to stop the series, but then again I said that after season 2 ended.
I do wish you were watching with me. Miss you a lot.
The best Godzilla movie I’ve seen in 24 years.
And I frakkin’ love Godzilla vs. Destroyah (1995).
So much kaiju goodness in this one, so much more than Godzilla 2014. And hearing the original theme from Akira Ifukube really made this film that much better.
And ALL THE CALL BACKS to so many classic moments from the 30-film library of Godzilla films made me so freaking happy, my jaw dropped so many times during this film.
All they needed was the Super-X to make this one perfect. It definitely ranks up among my top 5 Godzilla films. Maybe even top 3, I’d have to think about that.
The critics talk about lack of plot. WHEN WAS PLOT EVER A HIGHLIGHT OF A GODZILLA FILM, FFS?
I give this one the highest recommendation possible, for fans of the pre-2000 Godzilla films. For casual fans, it’s a fun romp, a popcorn flick, officially starting the summer movie season.
I’m gonna see this one again, maybe even in IMAX.
Quoth the Collector: MAGNIFICENT!
Plot holes? Yeah.
But so what? It was everything I wanted in a movie marking the end of a 22-film series.
I may have teared up more than Chris Evans’ 6 times throughout the movie.
It was a helluva ride, with action, humor, drama, sadness all in the right spots. The director and creator cameos in one scene was nice to see.
And there were no post-credits scenes.
There was a sound at the end that my nephew and I both thought was [redacted].
Thank you, Kevin Feige, the Russo Brothers, Jon Favreau, the cast and crew of 22 Marvel films, the creators of all the comics characters, and Stan Lee for making this all possible.
Highest recommendation possible, especially if you’ve been following the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2008.
