Simon Pegg is a Genius

Quick shout out to Simon Pegg. Please make more movies. Please, for the love of God.

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Reminiscing…

My father and I shared a great love for MY FAIR LADY. It’s based on “Pygmalion” by George Bernard Shaw but Shaw was a jackass and MY FAIR LADY is much better. Plus, Audrey Hepburn is beautiful and I love Rex Harrison. Yes, you can be heterosexual and like musicals, it is indeed possible.

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My Parents’ Song

It is causing me an enormous amount of pain to post this, but it should go on the record somewhere (tears in the rain…) that this was their song. Now pardon me while I go puke again.

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Gerald and Caroline Lange, in memoriam

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Kirk’s Death Scene

Oh, yes, we did it, dad. We made a difference. Thank you.

It was…fun.

Oh my.

GWL IN MEMORIAM 1943-2023

Picard out, I will take the helm from here, Admiral.

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One More for Gerry Lange

One more for my dad. Because I wasn’t there at the end for him. I have to live with that. I had to be selfish. I was homeless. I had no choice. I wasn’t there at the end for my mother, either. Such is the irony of life; I spent decades trying to help them and impress them and then, at the end…I wasn’t there. Or was I? Was I on the screen instead of Ben Vereen, dad?

I’d like to think I was. So, one more time, Gerald, and remember: Jazz hands, okay?

P.S. Ben Vereen was an enormous talent who died far, far too early.

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She Wore Blue Velvet

The first movie my late father ever showed me was David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. I remember, he was so excited. He rented it down at the local video store, came back, and said, “Kip, this movie is supposed to be just TWISTED, this is going to be great!”

I was eleven years old when I saw Blue Velvet with my dad. If you haven’t seen it, you really should watch it; it’s arguably David Lynch’s greatest work. My father had a habit of doing this, though — shoving adult genius in my face as a child, then stepping back with a sort of, “Whatcha think of THAT, eh?” attitude.

Should you show it to a a child? I don’t know. It contains scenes of Dennis Hopper nitrous and saying to Pia Zsadora, “BABY WANTS TO F—!” and so on (“BABY WANTS BLUE VELVET!!!”) Maybe not. But my dad showed it to me and it changed my life.

So, here is the movie that I saw at a very formative age that has stuck with me allll these years, it made me who I am, thank you very much David Lynch and Gerry Lange, and goddamn that Frank is fucking fantastic!

Thanks, dad.

P.S. So the man was a Republican political consultant. Shut up. Just shut up. You don’t know what the man had to go through. Do *you* want to deliver briefcases full of $200,000 to mafia bosses who control unions in the North End of Boston in an empty warehouse? Fuck off.

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Life of a Repo Man is Always Intense

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Some Advice on Television Purchases

I recently had to move (my house burned down, for those who don’t know), and I had to purchase a new television, so I thought I’d briefly share my experience with everyone and let you know what I think the best TV on the market is.

First, go OLED. Just do it. OLEDs are much better. There’s no washout from side angles, they’re paper-thin, the colors pop like nobody’s business — go OLED. And go 4k. It makes a difference, it really does, especially if you game or you stream content as opposed to using a cable box. Also, get HDR. That makes a very big difference for gaming and for anything designed to use HDR — and that content is increasing daily.

Second — I hope I don’t get sued for this — but Consumer Reports has always been a reliable magazine, and their ratings are almost impossible to come by for free on the Internet (kudos to the people at CR for staying relevant) — but my late father subscribed to that particular magazine, and only passed away a little while ago, and before he did, he informed me that Consumer Reports had ranked the LG C2 series (their flagship model) as the best TV on the market (it’s OLED, 4k, HDR).

Thing is, to get a decent LG C2, you need to shell out a lot of money. So may I suggest one step down to what I purchased, which is the *A2* model? The only significant difference between the two is that the C2 is 120 Hz and the A2 is 60 Hz.

Okay, okay, I can hear fanboy bitching already. Blah blah the PS5 can do 120 FPS in a few games, so can the XBox, so you’re really going to miss that 120 Hz! Plus, a VERY few shows are being broadcast in 120 Hz.

The thing is, the science doesn’t support spending the money on the 120 Hz (which can broadcast 120 frames per second, as opposed to to 60 for the 60 Hz A2 models), because the human eye cannot notice a difference past 60 frames per second. 60 frames per second, when you see it on television, gives you that hyper-real “Soap Opera Effect”. Most people turn it off.

And I, personally, myself, was once incredibly psyched to get a 144 Hz monitor — and then incredibly disappointed when, no matter what I did, no matter how powerful my card, I could not, for the life of me, notice a difference past 60 FPS in gaming (and these games were not capped at 60 FPS; I was getting a steady 144 FPS).

Consider that very few things at all are broadcast in 60 FPS, and very few video games use over 60 FPS, even if the capability is there, precisely because the science says the human eye cannot tell the difference between 60 FPS and over 60 FPS. 60 FPS is the rough cap. Yes, yes, I know, it’s like lossless music; even’t if you can’t hear it, or see it, it’s still there, and for the true cinephiles and such — and if you can afford it — get the C2 model.

But if you’re on a budget, may I recommend the much cheaper A2 which has everything the C2 does (basically) except for the 120 Hz refresh rate? At around 48” to 55”. I have a 48” and it is *crystal* clear, it really is.

So, there you go. I recommend an LG A2 or C2 and I think Consumer Reports says the C2 is the best overall (both LG). Do some shopping around, look for deals. All I can tell you is that neither will disappoint you — but that my last 1080p Sony Bravia (entry level) model did, indeed, disappoint me (and it was 60”). So I did my research this time.

Good luck.

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Another Family Guy Joke Explained: Juliette Lewis Making Out With Dogs

In Season 14, Episode 16 of “Family Guy”, titled “The Heartbreak Dog”, the writers hint that Juliette Lewis makes out with dogs. Peter finds out that Bonnie has made out with Brian and blurts out, “My God! Who would do that? Does anybody know who would do that for real?” That’s followed a quick flash of a photo of Juliette Lewis with the caption, “We don’t know, but maybe?”

It all clears itself up when you see the following picture of Juliette Lewis “scratching her thigh” while taking her dog for a walk, taken by the Daily Mail of the UK:

Cheeky scratch: Juliette Lewis was caught with her hand down her trousers as she took her pet pooch for a walk around Los Angeles on Wednesday 
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