“No time to count what I’m worth
‘Cause I just left the planet earth
Where I go I hope there’s rum
Not to worry mon soon come” -‘Volcano’, Jimmy Buffett

We have been losing a lot of legends in 2023 so far, and there was yet another that passed away yesterday.

Jimmy Buffett has some of the greatest songs of all time, Margaritaville, Fins, Come Monday, Son of a Son of a Sailor etc. Honestly, I am not sure how many songs Jimmy Buffett has had and I do not think he has done anything new over the last many years. I know the songs that are on the greatest hits album, Songs That You Know By Heart, but I do not know many more than that.

Truthfully, there are a lot of people who are more fans of Jimmy Buffett than I am. I have a couple of friends who are much greater Buffett fans than I am, and they have even gone seen Buffett in concert multiple times. I thought of them immediately when I found out about the loss.

Much of Buffett’s music dealt with drinking, which is something that I do not do. However, just because his songs feature topics that I do not do, doesn’t mean that I can not enjoy the music. I mean… Why Don’t We Get Drunk is not a philosophy that I live my life by, but that does not stop me from belting out the lyrics any time I hear that song.

Wherever Jimmy Buffett is right now, let’s hope that he has access to an unlimited amount of rum.

RIP Jimmy Buffett.

It is that time of the year again. The poll is active and the ballot is available on the main page.

Vote here: https://embraceyourgeeknesseyg.com/

You may vote as many times as you would like.

You may vote for any nominees that you think deserve to be inducted in the 2023 Class of EYG HoF.

The poll remains open until Talk Like a Pirate Day (psst… that is September 19th, if you are a landlubber who did not know).

Nominees include:

Dungeons & Dragons (1983 animated TV program)

Barbie Doll (the toy)

G.I. Joe (the action figure)

The Armorer (a character from The Mandalorian)

John Wick (movie character)

The Witcher (streaming TV show on Netflix)

Wheel of Time (fantasy book series)

Return of the Jedi (Star Wars movie)

Smokey Bear (character)

time travel (theory)

Coelacanth (an ancient group of lobe-finned fish)

Neil de Grasse Tyson (American Astrophysicist)

Lock Ness Monster (legendary Scottish creature)

Power Rangers (characters/Team)

Frankenstein’s Monster (class monster)

Lebron James (NBA star player)

UFOs (unidentified flying objects)

Jurassic Park (movie featuring dinosaurs)

Marques Brownlee (YouTube creator)

streaming videos (digital online videos)

Kenner Star Wars toys (original Star Wars toys)

electric vehicles (new cars that run on electricity)

Dave Filoni (director, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor. Mind behind Mandalorian)

It has been awhile since I attended a RiffTrax Live show, and tonight, I was able to go to the latest film being riffed by the three gentlemen. That film is the 1986 BMX bike film, Rad.

RiffTrax includes Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett who watch the movie with an audience (this time with the actual star of the film, Bill Allen, who played Cru, was in attendance in the audience-no pressure guys) and the three comedians take turns cracking jokes about the film.

The last couple of RiffTrax events were okay, but did not reach the level of some of the classics such as Manos: The Hands of Fate, Birdemic: Shock and Terror or The Room.

Rad, however, was very funny and I found this one to be well worth the time. To be clear, the RiffTrax Live show is never bad. Just some are funnier than others. Rad presented the guys with a plethora of humor.

Plus, Rad had some “big” names in the cast including Rocky’s Talia Shore (which had one of the best riff line of the film: as she looked down on screen, ‘I was in the Godfather.’), Olympic medalist Bart Conner, and Lori Laughlin (who received a ton of riffs with the scandal about paying to get her kids into college).

I will admit that some of their jokes tend toward being out of date, but since their jokes feature allusions that fall right in to my generation, I catch more than I miss.

Fathom Events presented this night once again from a theater in Tennessee. I have always wondered if the show was truly live, but it seems as if everywhere I looked indicated that it was live and streamed across the nation.

They warmed up the audience with two short films, both featuring Gumby and Pokey animated films. Neither of the Gumby shorts were great, but it served its purpose.

I look forward to the next time they get together to riff a film.

I have been a Los Angeles Dodger fan since I have been a fan of baseball.

I remember when I became a Dodger fan. I was in fourth grade and two of my classmates asked me who I was cheering for in the World Series, the Yankees or the Dodgers. I had no idea. My parents were not sports fans so I was not exposed to baseball. I remember hearing Dodgers so I responded the Dodgers. They both said ‘Yeah!’ and ‘Alright!’ so I figured I made the right choice. From that point on, I became completely engaged in the sport and the history of it. I learned everything I could about baseball and the Dodgers.

One of my favorite players of all time is Fernando Valenzuela. I will always remember his amazing rookie season and how much I was behind him. Fernandomania was massive and created a unbelievable culture among the Mexican-American community of LA and nationwide!

Tonight in Los Angeles at Chavez Ravine, the Los Angeles Dodgers retire Fernando Valenzuela’s number 34.

The Dodgers have had a rule that the only numbers that are retired were members of the MLB Hall of Fame. The only numbers retired by LA have been Jackie Robinson’s #42, Pee Wee Reese’s #1, Tommy Lasorda’s #2, Duke Snyder’s #4, Gil Hodges’ #14, Jim Gilliam’s #19 (an exception to the rule as Gilliam was not a HoF member), Don Sutton’s #20, Walter Alston’s #24, Sandy Koufax’s #32, Roy Campanella’s #39, and Don Drysdale’s #53.

Nicknamed ‘El Toro,’ Valenzuela was a left hander who brought one of the more devastating and unusual pitches to the forefront of baseball, the screwball. Plus, during his windup, Valenzuela would look to the sky, and then close his eyes…before delivering his pitch to the batter. How difficult it had to be to be the batter and know this guy isn’t looking at you.

Fernando had a career record of 173-153, and, in his rookie season of 1981, went 13-7 (after winning his first 8 games), had 20 complete games (which is unheard of today), won the Rookie of the Year Award, the Cy Young Award and helped lead the Dodgers to the World Series victory.

Fernando is currently working as one of the Dodgers’ broadcasters on their Spanish broadcast.

He is one of my favorite players of all time and he deserves the honor that he is receiving tonight in Los Angeles. It is way overdue.

It all started at Cinemark in Davenport. Friday, July 21, 2023 at approximately 10 AM.

I went to the machine to pick up my tickets. I had purchased them online, as I always do. As a member of the Cinemark Movie Club (a Platinum member), getting them online is just too easy and convenient.

First up was Oppenheimer. It was being shown in the IMAX theater. At least, this was the theater I wanted to see it in. No sense in going to see this in a theater without the largest screen possible.

Excited to start the movie. I even had forgotten that i had my sunglasses on when I left the car. I usually leave them in the car, so here I had to hang them on my shirt.

Noovie is the opening pre-show with Maria Menounos.

Barbie is next up. It is in the XD theater.

Bought some popcorn for Barbie. I do not buy a lot of popcorn often, but it felt like a good day for a taste of the corn.

These seats would be all filled up before too long.

I had a great day at Cinemark, celebrating the event that was Barbenheimer!

Today is July 21st, and it is officially Barbenheimer day!

The release of two of the summer’s biggest films, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer are released in theaters today (technically last night) and are going head to head. For some reason, the idea of watching a double feature of these two movies has gotten me way more excited about both of them.

Honestly, at the beginning of the summer, neither of these two movies were films that I highly anticipated. I would have watched them both, but neither were appointment level for me.

Then, they started talking about the whole ‘Barbenheimer’ idea. Setting these two movies up, such polar opposites, as a perfect double feature is genius.

I mean, there have been plenty of times when two major films released on the same day. Perhaps part of the feel is that there has not been anything thins big since the COVID era. This feels different than other co-releases.

If I owned a movie theater, I would be taking advantage of the promotion of the dual films. There would be Barbenheimer specials and discounts for those who bought tickets for both in the same day.

The internet memes are certainly on fire as well. All of this has made me so excited that I am writing an EYG Blog post about it.

I am starting out watching Oppenheimer in IMAX and then I will follow that up with Barbie in XD. Big screens for a big event.

I hope this is as much fun as I think it may be.

It is May 31st. That means tomorrow begins our second annual June Swoon here at EYG.

Last year, after the end of the year-long DailyView, the June Swoon became a thing. Every day I watched a movie that I had not seen that was released in the previous year (2021). That went so well that I decided that this would be a yearly deal. So with the June Swoon 2 ready to begin, I will lay out the rules.

First, I will watch at least one movie every day for the entire month of June, from June 1st to June 30th. Next, each film will be a film that I have never seen before and must have been released in the year 2022. I will record these films on this post through the month.

2022 saw the record set for the most films reviewed in a single year at EYG, and yet I have compiled a large list of movies that qualify for the June Swoon 2.

The first couple of days of June will be tight, since school is just ending and I have started The Daily Zone, which has me watching and writing about episodes of The Twilight Zone daily as well. Once school is out, the schedule opens up dramatically. So the next two days will require some close, specific scheduling, but it should be doable.

So… I will be starting the first of the June Swoon 2 tomorrow afternoon.

Movies I missed in 2022

June Swoon 2

June 1, 2023: Brian and Charles

June 2, 2023: Facing Nolan

June 3, 2023: Grimcutty

June 4, 2023: All Eyes

June 5, 2023: Candy Land

June 6, 2023: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

June 7, 2023: Glorious

June 8, 2023: Sr.

June 9, 2023: Living

June 10, 2023: Breaking

June 11, 2023: Decision to Leave

June 12, 2023: Women Talking

June 13, 2023: Empire of Light

June 14, 2023: This Place Rules

June 15, 2023: The Son

June 16, 2023: On the Count of Three

June 17, 2023: Burial

June 18, 2023: Wildcat

June 19, 2023: To Leslie

June 20, 2023: The Justice of Bunny King

June 21, 2023: Honor Society

June 22, 2023: Significant Other

June 23, 2023: The Elephant Whisperers

June 24, 2023: Downton Abbey: A New Era

June 25, 2023: Soft & Quiet

June 26, 2023: No Exit

June 27, 2023: What Josiah Saw

June 28, 2023: Sick

June 29, 2023: The Duke

June 30, 2023: My Old School

Today, I got to see the ten Oscar-nominated shorts, five live-action and five animated (no documentary shorts though). It is always a fun day at the movies with the shorts.

I am going to give my thoughts on each of the shorts, place them in my favorite order, and tell you which one I think actually WILL win.

LIVE ACTION SHORTS

5. Night Ride. Ebba (Sigrid Husjord) was waiting for a tram to take her home one cold winter night. However, the driver wanted a break and would not let her into the tram unless he was there. So Ebba decided to take matters into her own hands and ends up, unintentionally at first, stealing the tram. This had some funny moments and had some things to say about harassment. However, I found this to be fairly mild of a short.

4. Ivalu. A young girl named Ivalu runs away from her family and her sister Pipaluk tries to find her. Pipaluk follows a raven across some of the most scenic landscapes that you’ll ever see. This short turned very dark as the film went on, but that did not take away from the epic cinematography that was on display here. Some of the reveal felt a little forced, but it was a powerful end.

3. The Red Suitcase. An Iranian woman arrived on an airplane in Luxemburg with her soon-to-be husband waiting for her. Except, of course, she was being gifted to him as a wife and arranged for marriage. She wanted no part of this and she does what she can to avoid the man waiting for her. There were some great tense moments in this film and Nawelle Ewad gives an excellent performance as the 16-year old girl in search of freedom.

2. Le Pupille. From Disney, Le Pupille (or The Pupil, in English) is about a group of young girls in a Catholic boarding house, run by strict Nuns. The short was excellent and very creative, with the girls adding songs, narrative transition and a fun and creative story. It is funny and I really liked it. This was the fourth film I saw and, while I liked the other three, this was the first one that I thought was extraordinary.

And number one…

An Irish Goodbye.

Brothers Turlough and Lorcan return to their childhood farm in Ireland with their recently deceased and cremated mother. Lorcan had Down’s Syndrome and Turlough did not believe that he could handle living on the farm on his own. When Lorcan got his hands on their mother’s last bucket list, the brothers went about trying to fulfill their mother’s wishes after she had died. This was very funny, surprisingly touching and filled with feel good moments. The brothers had sensational chemistry between them and watching them work together to complete their mother’s list was very profound.

OSCAR RESULT

Should win: An Irish Goodbye

Will Win: Le Pupille

I think the Disney name will pull out the victory on this, but I will be cheering for An Irish Goodbye. There should not be any other possible winners as these two shorts far exceeded anything else that had been nominated this year.

ANIMATED SHORTS

5. Ice Merchants. This one was my least favorite of all the shorts I saw today, animated or live-action. It made little sense to me and I did not enjoy the story. It was lovely to look at though. The end was anticlimatic.

4. The Flying Sailor. A true story. When we first see that label, you dismiss it because it is so impossible, but finding out that it actually was true, that a sailor was stuck in an explosion that sent him flying in the air for 2 miles and that he lived to tell about it, made this all the more amazing.

3. An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It. This Australian stop-motion animated film was bizarre and kind of funny. The young telemarketer finds out a strange truth as he struggled to up his sales. A talking ostrich was not the oddest part of the story.

2. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. Utterly beautifully rendered with awe-inspiring scenery. The tale of the four named characters and their attempt to find the way ‘home’ is emotionally powerful and provided a wonderful message. It did feel a little long (and I kept waiting for that fox to turn on them) but the short was astoundingly lovely. It harkened back to a kinder time in animation where the moral of the story was important.

And the number one animated short…

My Year of Dicks.

Any animated show that begins with a warning to the viewers that this is not a kid friendly film and maybe parents wanted to take them out of the theater, is okay by me. But there was more to this than sex and swear words. This was a deep look at a girl’s attempt to lose her virginity and the poor choices that she made along the way. Broken into five chapters, My Year of Dicks was provocative and unafraid to tackle plenty of topics related to sex and sexual exploration and it does it in a creative, often-times, hilarious and real way. After seeing the warning before the short, I had no idea what I was in for. What I got was a poignant story of a young girl’s quest to become a woman. The short had all kinds of animation styles involved and the coming-of-age tale was surprisingly sweet.

Should win: My Year of Dicks

Will win: My Year of Dicks

My Year of Dicks was the last short shown and, before I saw it, I was certain that The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse was going to be the winner. I could see that short take the Oscar still, but I truly think the most overall impressive animated short was My Year of Dicks.

I was watching an episode of The Top 10 Show with John Rocha and Matt Knost and they were doing a list based on Sci-Fi movies. I realized as I watched that my knowledge of Sci-Fi movies was limited to the basic films that everyone has seen. So I came up with the idea to do a limited DailyView (much like the June Swoon from last year) by doing a different unseen Sci-Fi movie every day of January.

Then, I came up with my favorite pun of the year… Genre-ary (you know like January). I was really pleased with that. If this goes well, perhaps we can do this every January, but next time maybe we do comedy or Rom Coms or Horror or Westerns etc.

However, starting with Sci-Fi, I will be keeping the list of the films on this post.

2023 Genre-ary Sci-fi DailyView

January 1, 2023: Vesper (2022)

January 2, 2023: Dark City (1998)

January 3, 2023: Akira (1988)

January 4, 2023: Attack the Block (2011)

January 5, 2023: A Trip to the Moon (1902)

January 6, 2023: Them! (1954)

January 7, 2023: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)

January 8, 2023: The Prestige (2006)

January 9, 2023: Explorers (1985)

January 10, 2023: Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001)

January 11, 2023: Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)

January 12, 2023: Stargate (1994)

January 13, 2023: The Stuff (1985)

January 14, 2023: I Think We’re Alone Now (2018)

January 15, 2023: Cloud Atlas (2012)

January 16, 2023: The Andromeda Strain (1971)

January 17, 2023: Barbarella (1968)

January 18, 2023: Prospect (2018)

January 19, 2023: Batteries Not Included (1987)

January 20, 2023: The Hidden (1987)

January 21, 2023: Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959)

………………………….. Mimic (1997)

January 22, 2023: Little Fish (2021)

January 23, 2023: Silent Running (1972)

January 24, 2023: Enemy Mine (1985)

January 25, 2023: Coherence (2013)

January 26, 2023: Fantastic Voyage (1966)

January 27, 2023: High Life (2018)

January 28, 2023: Repo Man (1984)

January 29, 2023: Brazil (1985)

…………………………… Space Cowboys (2000)

January 30, 2023: Box Room (2014)

January 31, 2023: Dark Star (1974)