Gillian’s blog – Page 2 – Gillian's Notebook

Worlds within Dreams

I had a stress dream about shopping for food. My (dead) sister showed up a couple of times. Usually seeing her ejects me from dreams. This time the dream continued. I was confused and thought, “This must be a dream but I’m not waking up. Is this real?”

What can you do when faced with the possibility that reality is a dream but you can’t wake up? I accepted it as reality and lived in it.

But then I did wake up. The dream hadn’t lasted too much longer but I was ready to accept it.

How can I be sure this world isn’t another dream? I can’t.

But until I wake up again I have to accept it as real.

Worlds within worlds. Each as real as the previous. Each a dream in the next.

My X-Men Movies Watch Order

I recently watched Dark Phoenix, The Wolverine, and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Afterwards, I realized I have now watched all the released movies in the Fox X-Men franchise. (New Mutants is set to be released at some point in the future(maybe?) and will be the last movie in the franchise.)

The first X-Men movie came out in 2000 near the beginning of the current era of comic book movies. After three mainline movies and one spinoff, the franchise was soft rebooted with X-Men: First Class. It was set in the ’60s as a prequel to the first movie but it also contradicted some events of the preceding movies causing most to simply declare it a full reboot. The next movie X-Men: Days of Future Past confused things further by strengthening ties to the Original Trilogy era movies but also creating an alternate timeline for future Retro Series movies whose future was portrayed by actors from the Original Trilogy movies. And then you have the DeadPool movies doing their own thing.

All in all, it can be confusing knowing where to start. You could watch them in release order but the movies weren’t planned to tell an overarching story like the MCU movies. Imagine if Endgame was released after Civil War and then followed by Ant-Man.

Watching in continuity order creates its problems. “Early” movies while technically a new continuity can not help referencing “later” movies. Also in this order, the second movie in continuity draws entire characters and actors from “future” movies. The already muddled meta-story is thrown in complete disarray.

The answer is a custom watch order. I’m not going to claim this is the only way to watch the X-Men movies but I’ve done my best to reorder the movies to support the overall X-Men story and make the overall experience enjoyable.

Click on through to read my Watch Order for the X-Men Movies.

I’m happy for my roommate, a little scared for myself

So, earlier tonight my roommate told me she has a job offer in another state and she’s going to take it. I knew she was looking for a better job but it was still a surprise. I’m happy for her to advance in her career. I’m also scared at the thought of being left alone. Ideally I need to find a new roommate because finding a new apartment is going to be much harder.

It occurred to me that over the course of my life I’ve experienced major upheavals in my living conditions roughly every ten years.

When I was nine my family moved to a different city.

I moved back for college and lived with my grandfather for a couple of years before moving in with my older sister and her kids around age twenty.I lived with them for close to ten years before I ended up left behind while she and her kids went to live with her boyfriend.

I was technically homeless(squatting in the past due apartment) for a few weeks before staying with friends and then getting my first solo apartment. It was a small three room (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom) studio apartment.

I stayed there for five months until a friend mentioned one of her friends was looking for a roommate.We met, got along, and have been roommates and friends for the past nine years.

Age 9, age 19-20, age 29-30, and now age 38. Even if I get a new roommate and stay in the same apartment it’s going to be different. That’s not a bad thing nor a good thing. It just is.

I wonder what the next ten years will bring me?

Nighttime Encounter

I had an encounter tonight.

Part of my walk home goes by a church parking lot. The sidewalk has a bit of grass on either side between the street on my right and the church parking lot on my left. As I was walking by I saw a police suv in the parking lot, which is not abnormal but this one was parked across several parking spaces.

So, I glanced at it a few times and one of those times I saw something move in the periphery of my vision. I looked down at the motion and there was a small black shadow moving around. For a second I couldn’t resolve what I was seeing then it turned and I saw a shock of white fur. It was a skunk less then five feet away with its tail up. I jogged a couple of steps diagonally away from the skunk into the grass by the street. When I glanced back the skunk was hiding under a car.

Several weeks ago I saw a skunk in a bank parking lot but from a much larger distance. Tonight’s encounter was a lot closer than I ever wanted to come to a wild skunk.

“The Umbrella Academy” Episode Ten Thoughts

I liked this episode a lot. It pulls the story threads together, has a couple of great action scenes, and ends the season off in a decent way.

As a season finale, it’s fine but if the series hadn’t been picked up for a second season and this had been the series finale it would not have been fine. In a way, I’m glad I didn’t binge through this series before the second season was announced because I would not have been happy with this ending.

But we’re getting a second season so I can abide the final five minutes of this episode knowing the story will continue.

Episode specific thoughts below the cut

Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Ten Thoughts”

“The Umbrella Academy” Episode Nine Thoughts

Second to the last episode done. We’re in the final stretch with the ending in sight.

I feel all wound up for the finale. Overall I’ve really liked the series up to this point. It’s going to take a real stinker of an ending to change my mind.

I’m kind of surprised that this episode and the finale are 45 and 47 minutes long respectively. They are the shortest ones in the season where most episodes have hovered around the hour mark. I don’t feel like this episode was too short but it wouldn’t have hurt to expound on a few things.

Spoiler thoughts under the cut. Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Nine Thoughts”

“The Umbrella Academy” Episode Eight Thoughts

I am massively late with this review but I am finishing the season soon.

Not a lot happened in this episode but some important backstory is revealed. I still really enjoyed it. The series is doing a good job of filling in a lot of the blanks the comic never did. We move closer to the apocalypse by a day. Two more episodes remain in the season.

Spoiler thoughts below the cut Continue reading ““The Umbrella Academy” Episode Eight Thoughts”

Black Mirror Season 5 Review

The longer Black Mirror goes on the less it has to say about technology. Ideas from previous seasons are being recycled more and more. The show needs to move beyond “people use technology too much and that’s bad”.

Having said that, I still found these new episodes fun to watch. The

“Striking Tigers” Rating 2.5/5

Infidelity the episode. Except for the immersive VR this is a story that could be told with WOW or Everquest or even just Facebook. The new technology doesn’t create these behaviors it just enables it. You could tell this same story in 1910 with telephones. The cross-gender element was really underexplored along with the fact that they could have been any character but just choose the same ones each time.

“Striking Tigers” is one of the weakest episodes of the series. Only its actors save the uninspired plot from being unwatchable. Anthony Mackie and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II sell their friendship and romance incredibly.

“Smithereens” Rating 4.5/5

This is my favorite episode of the season. Set in present day, it is a dramatic thriller about addictive social media, big tech company overreach, and survivor guilt. There is an undercurrent of “social media bad” but the episode is more about unintended (and intended) effects of social media rather than a simple denouncement of such.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot because while there are no major twists the story unfolds beat to beat rather nicely.

“Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too” Rating 3/5

“Virtual actors/singers and who controls the rights” to them is not a bad premise for an episode but the side plot of toy copies and the one superfan mudded the waters. I think “Waldo Moment” from season two did the premise better.

I was surprised a little bit by the episode’s plot. I was expecting the Ashley Too to malfunction and become malicious or manipulative. Unlike most other episodes with a copied consciousness, there isn’t a lot of handwringing about what to do with the copy and she is simply allowed to continue to exist.

This episode has a happy light-hearted ending and while it isn’t not my favorite episode it was the perfect way to end the season of what is normally a pretty depressing series. I’m not saying every season should end with a happy ending but it was nice to not feel soul crushed when going to sleep.

Final Thoughts

Overall season five is about average for Black Mirror. Some repeated premises, but good to excellent acting and with the exception of “Striking Vipers” solid stories.

I’ve Seen the Endgame (no spoilers)

avengers_endgame

I started today off very lazily. After drifting in and out of sleep for a couple of hours, I got up around 4 pm. (Note: I normally sleep between 6 am and 2 pm.) I put a small load of clothing to wash before heading to shower. After my shower, I set the clothes to dry and I started browsing tumblr and Facebook.

The day before I had checked online to see which showings of Endgame were sold out. Most of the early evening showings were but the later ones were still available. I didn’t want to go out to the theater so late at night and have to walk home at an even later time. I had figured that I would have to decide before 8 pm in order to have time to get to the theater and get in before I was forced into a side seat in the front.

Just before 6 pm, I received a phone call from work asking if I was okay. I replied that it was my day off, wasn’t it? Guess what, it wasn’t. I was given the option of not coming in because it was a fairly slow day and my position, jewelry counter, isn’t strictly essential. I decided to go in and recover what few hours I could. So I rushed about to change into work clothes and hurried to the bus stop. I just managed to catch the 6 pm bus.

After getting to work, I started thinking about going to see Endgame afterward. My store is in the mall which is right next to the theater. The latest showing was about an hour after we would be getting off work, giving me plenty of time to get a good seat. On the con side, I had not eaten before rushing off to work and there was nowhere besides the theater and their inflated prices to get a passable meal.

I flip-flopped several times over the course of a few hours until I committed to seeing the movie tonight. My plan was to fortify myself with a root beer and snickers bar from the break room vending machines.

As I rounded the corner of the mall I saw the theater parking was full and overflowing into nearby mall parking. I nearly walked straight home but I had committed myself to this course of action no matter how foolish (but harmless) it was. A line hugging the side of the theater again tested my resolve. Were these people in line to buy tickets? Was the line to an earlier showing this long? Once closer to the theater I saw the line was constrained by a pair of retractable queue poles and not nearly as long as I had feared.

After buying my ticket, I joined the line I had seen on my approach. Not long after the line was moved inside to the short maze next to the ticket taker station. A police officer walked from end to end informing people this was the line for the 11 pm 3D showing of Endgame. I was seeing the 11 pm 2D showing of Endgame. I inquired about the line for the 2D showing and was directed to a line that had at most twenty other people. My fears of getting a bad seat disappeared.

About thirty minutes into the movie I started to feel a headache beginning to wrap itself across my forehead. Watching a movie in a theater, in general, has a chance of triggering a headache in me but combined with not having eaten an actual meal since the day before it was almost a certainty. I used some simple relaxation and pain management skills to push the headache aside for most of the movie.

Even with a mild headache and an empty stomach, I quite enjoyed the movie. It’s not perfect but nothing could be. For better or worse the Infinity Stones Saga is over and I’m mostly content with the ending we have been given.

Rating 4/5

Us – Reaction Post

Us_(2019)_theatrical_poster

Yesterday, I went to see Us. Normally I don’t go in for horror and it’s kinda out of season but after sleeping on Get Out I knew I had to see Us in the theater.

I left the theater feeling unsettled. I walked outside and around the side of the theater into bright sunlight to record some quick thoughts. I accidentally ended up standing in front of the Us movie poster while recording. When I got back inside I was still feeling off. I didn’t really recover until the pre-roll for Shazam started an hour later. If I hadn’t gone to see Shazam, I don’t know how long it might have taken for me to recover.

Despite ending the film unsettled there were a few scenes that made me laugh. There was a tumblr post about how Jordan Peele has made the transition from comedy to horror. It pointed out that humor and horror are about building tension and the difference is how you release that tension. You can see this in many Key & Peele sketches that zig-zag between the two.

In Us, the bits of comedy never took away from the horror. The film didn’t linger in the comedy; it hit those beats and continued on. I do wonder if the comedy didn’t enhance the horror. Did those fleeting moments of mirth provide needed contrast to the near constant dread?

Some elements of the film, doppelgangers or clones, memories, personhood, are things that I often think about. I’ve touched upon them in some of my writing but not in a horror format. In a way, this film was made to scare me.

Rating 5/5

Spoiler thoughts under the cut Continue reading “Us – Reaction Post”