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Some bunny to love

I did not see Space Jam , the bizarre 1996 movie in which Michael Jordan played basketball against Looney Tunes characters, including Bugs Bunny . I never had the desire to see it, and I never even considered that a sequel would be in order. But this is America, and so of course - 25 years later - we need a sequel. I have no intention of watching the sequel, either. Ironically, I have met Michael Jordan and he is a very gracious and down-to-earth human being, especially considering he has spent the majority of his life under a microscope. So what am I getting at here? The latest cries for and against cancellation have arisen from leaked imagery showing that one of the characters from the original movie, Lola Bunny (yes, the name of that stripper from the place that time, the one who really, honestly liked you – it wasn’t about the money at all), has been altered in the sequel to not look like a hooker. I realize that sounds harsh but see for yourself:  The sequel’s direc
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Haaaaaaave ya met Ted?

DISCLAIMER This post is essentially a rant. It was cathartic to write and moderately fun to read back, but if you are looking for something soulful, thought provoking and/or unique in its point of view, this ain’t it.  If, however, you feel like a trip through the junk food drive-thru, and aren’t tired of hearing from me yet (four times in a week? unheard-of!), I invite your review.  Thanks to my daughter for her advice on how and if I should proceed on this one. I don’t want to abuse the valuable place I have earned in your crowded mindspace.   *** I try not to be self-indulgent, but when two of my blog posts intersect in real life I see it as a mandate from Valhalla that I need to weigh in. Not long ago, I talked about my Mandalorian crush , Gina Carano, and how destroyed I was that her desire to be Republican outweighed her desire to be a hero to millions of young women. Not long after, I wrote about Ted Cruz, an absolute dirtball who represents passionate self-interest while being
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Growing up Springsteen

When I was in high school if someone asked, “Who’s the Boss?” the answer was not Tony Danza . (Or Judith Light , which I think was the actual sitcom implication.) It was Bruce Springsteen . Springsteen was a hero in Philadelphia before the rest of the world laid claim, a legend of the magnitude of Rocky but with the added advantage of being a real person. As an icon he achieved one-name status without ever changing his name: Sting was born Gordon Sumner, and Madonna trimmed off “Louise Ciccone,” but when you just say “ Bruce ,” everyone knows exactly who you mean. He grew up in central Jersey, which is a fictional place. I don’t mean it’s the creation of his rich, visceral storytelling – although it most certainly is – but rather that anyone who knows New Jersey knows there’s only really south Jersey, a Philadelphia suburb; and north Jersey, a New York suburb. The state capitol, Trenton, is actually right in the middle, a sort of demilitarized zone. And he cut his performing te
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Making the Rainbow connection.

When I was 17 I auditioned for my first – and only – musical theater production. Looking at that sentence, you might think it was a horrible experience (it was). And you might think that’s why it was my only musical (it wasn’t). It was kinda-sorta horrible because I had thought about auditioning throughout high school and never worked up sufficient courage until my senior year. I hung out with the music and theater kids anyway, I didn’t have a reason to be terrified; but I was. My reading went fine. I can act; ask anyone. But then it came time for the singing audition. I had selected, The Rainbow Connection , from The Muppet Movie , as my song. My very good friend Nancy was playing piano for the auditions, so empathy was an arm’s length away. She started, and I joined in with: Why are there so many songs about rainbows, and what’s on the other siiiiiiiiide? And then I stopped. Because I forget every single word thereafter. It was nightmarish. I stood there for a second while Na
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Children Tweet What They Live

It’s either feast or famine. Some days I have nothing I want to write about. Some days – like today – I see a whole bunch of things that catch my eye and give me that little tingle that says, “oooh, don’t you want to add fuel to this fire?” Today I happen to be obsessed with two stories in particular. Both have to do with judgment – poor judgment – and the fickle Fun House mirror that is life and social media in 2021. *** The first one deals with one of my favorite irrational obsessions, Claudia Conway . I know it’s not cool for a 58-year-old to obsess over a 16-year-old but I am no ordinary 58-year-old and Claudia, to be certain, is (we can only hope!) not a typical 16-year-old. Those of you who have read my blog for a while will be familiar with my earlier posts regarding lovely Claudia. If not, here, you can catch up: August, 2020 October, 2020 November, 2020 Now that we’re all on the same page, this week’s juicy story has to do with our young heroine’s quest to be a contestan
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This was the way.

Jon Favreau , whether he knew it or not at the time, gave birth to the Marvel Cinematic Universe , the MCU. Favreau directed Iron Man in 2008, starring Robert Downey, Jr . as the titular character. It’s become canon that expectations, let alone hopes, were modest. Both were exceeded, and more than a decade later the movies that followed this original narrative thread became many of the most successful feature films of all time. Because Disney can’t abide competition, they bought Marvel Entertainment . So now they own Star Wars and Marvel and everything else worth owning, and we love it. If you’ve ever been to Disney World , you are acquainted with this phenomenon: You come home from vacation with zero dollars in your pocket, completely cleaned out, and a post-orgasmic smile on your face because it was SO worth it. Such is Disney. My own personal encounter with Disney came some years ago when my wife was directing musical theater productions at our local middle school. If you ev
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Snapshat

Can you believe it’s been almost a year? I remember last year sitting in planning meetings – real meetings in a real room with a table and coasters for our coffee cups. I was perilously close to too many people, some close colleagues and others paid consultants. We were talking about business continuity basically, how to ensure continued operation in the event something bad happens. I’ve been in 20 of these in my career. I’ve learned about bird flu, remote servers, redundant systems. I’ve filled out dozens of forms mapping processes and documenting people. Then something crazy happened: an actual pandemic. In not much more than a heartbeat we went from being ahead of the curve to being on top of the curve to being under the damn curve. Now, we did fine. I mean, literally, as a company we pivoted marvelously. As Rome burned around us, our people and systems didn’t miss a beat. People went home, we stress tested a few networks, looked hard at our data security and then looked again
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