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Finally took the opportunity to see this film recently. Basically it reminds me of Wall Street with Gordon Gecko essentially mentoring a young stock broker only to see them both on the radar of the federal government for insider trading.

Lately I seem to be watching movies that prove to be somewhat depressing. For example I saw the biopic Black Mass of gangster Whitey Bulger - thank goodness he's off the streets although he's still a senior citizen at this point. Another time I saw Sicario which I recently wrote about. Those films involved criminal figures and the things they do to maintain their criminal activities.

On this occasion, we see a film that easily was set during the course of the housing crisis earlier in this decade. Unfortunately someone has to put people out of their homes because of their inability to pay their mortgage or any loans borrowed against their homes. And of course someone is profiting from this and this could make people angry.

One tagline from this film is "don't get emotional about real estate". So we see a guy named Nash (Andrew Garfield) struggling to make ends meet and keep the family home for his mother and son. Ultimately Carver (Michael Shannon) kicks them out only to give Nash a job later and besides he's down on this luck anyway.

Suddenly Nash goes from the go to handyman to doing various jobs which also includes kicking people out of their homes in addition to essentially sabotaging homes so they won't attract interest from rival real estate agents. While Nash finally gets into the groove of his new found career he hasn't lost his conscious and it shows at the end of the movie.

Carver well somehow I like him while also recognizing him as a snake. Another tagline he utters during the film is "America doesn't bail out losers, America bails out winners". He proves a point about how his father worked hard and had very little to show of it other than a major injury which he was unable to get treated because insurance wouldn't cover it. And then noting how Nash worked very hard and lost his family home.

Carver is insensitive, greedy, and definitely unethical but somehow I could connect with him. Just as easily as I could connect with Nash. However, this film is a reminder not only to not get emotional about real estate but to also take care of our financial houses before we see someone like Carver serving us eviction notices.

The need to restore order according to "Sicario"

Saw the movie Sicario on Thursday. It both spooked and depressed me. It wasn't about the body count as much as it was the methods used by law enforcement or the criminal side to combat each other.

An FBI agent (portrayed by Emily Blunt) was assigned to essentially independent contractors to fight a Mexican drug cartel. She had been spooked and depressed by some of their methods. Basically these independent contractors seeks to reassert some form of order to the drug trade that hadn't existed in years.

Then I thought about Chicago with the issues of gun violence. I understand that violence in Mexico makes our violence seem like childsplay. But all the same our city streets are plagued by those who aren't much different than those cartel enforcers.

A few years ago, I attended a neighborhood meeting with a featured guest Chicago police chief Garry McCarthy and one of the questions came up involving these gang's hierarchy. If each of them has a top guy to maintain some type of order would we see the violence we've been seeing in Chicago these days.

McCarthy didn't want to hear that considering that in the past the number of murders in Chicago approached almost 1000/year. So he questioned having a leader like Larry Hoover would truly calm the violence in some parts of Chicago.

In watching Sicario this aspect of city violence came to mind. Do we need people just like those in these criminal groups to restore some form of law & order in the world?

Go Cubs Go

So I hear the Cubs are headed to the playoffs for the first time since 2008. They're going but will they have a wild card spot or could they win the NL center? Time will tell but we're about a week or so away from the end of the baseball season.

On Saturday they lost their game against Pittsburgh but they still had a celebration at their clubhouse at Wrigley Field.

Just think as of this season it will have been 70 years since the Cubs have even won the pennant. I'm hoping for great success in the playoffs this year. Looking forward to following them in the playoffs.

Hulk Hogan

It was in the news in July that Hulk Hogan the wrestling superstar had been recorded using racial slurs. Hogan had been employed by the WWF in recent years however they cut ties to the legend they helped create after this recording had been revealed.

This morning Hogan was interviewed on ABC's Good Morning America pleading for forgiveness. Admitting not only that in his youth the n-word was thrown around like it was nothing, he also noted that this came during a time of great weakness. That is a very low point in his life.

While I don't consider myself a Hogan fan now - although I once was at one point - it's a good thing that now he's attempting to put out his side of the story. He claims to not be a racist and even his daughter has come to his defense. BTW, Hogan directed his comments to a boyfriend of his daughter.

I hate that the WWF (or actually WWE) has effectively removed any reference to Hogan in their history or even their Hall of Fame. That's a shame, although I understand why they did it here's hoping that they can get together in the future and Hogan can take his rightful place as a legend in the WWE universe.

BTW, I still refer to the WWE as the WWF which is the initials I have known from my youth. However the WWF universe doesn't quite have the same right as the WWE universe...or does it???

Personal tech purcahases

Millenium Park, Chicago, IL

It was the question of the day Wednesday at Capitol Fax, and my answer at the end of the night was these lenses I bought for my phone. More specifically olloclip 4 in 1 lens for the iPhone 6. I've been using since purchasing them and they have worked nothing but wonders for me.

Even snapped some shots to my own ig and the ig for The Sixth Ward. What you see above is a shot of a sculpture taken in Millenium Park through a fisheye lens. I only wish I took several shots with the wide-eye lens and then one without any lenses at all.

More recently, I bought a case for the phone that will allow me to fit the lens onto the phone. It's something I hope to carry with me for the foreseeable future until I find a different case that can accommodate the lens.

Vine

How many of you know that I have a Vine account? So far it has been utilized infrequently although there are some interesting 6 second videos seen on there. Especially the last two. All you have to do is upload the app to your phone - it is mostly on iPhone and Android phones. Many have Vine accounts but so far has only either shared other "vines" or never uploaded anything. I may share a widget here in the future although like I saw it has been used infrequently.

"Body Slam" #RIPRoddyPiper

Roddy Piper

One day I had been driving myself crazy thinking about the name of this movie. Body Slam starred "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, Sam Fatu and Dirk Benedict who was on the TV series The A-Team. The first two are actual pro wrestlers in fact Piper - who died Friday aged 61 - is a legend in his own right who had been inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame.

One time I had been thinking about wrestling movies and thought of Ready to Rumble and I had even forgotten about the more recent film The Wrestler. Also there had been this film starring Hulk Hogan called No Holds Barred. Most of those films other than Wrestler I'm sure no one takes seriously. No Holds was a bad movie and there are those who might consider the storylines to promote Rumble helped cause the untimely demise of World Championship Wrestling (WCW).

Regardless the death of the "Hot Rod" as Piper was also called during his legendary career forced me to look up this film. It was something I saw in the early 1990s on one of those cable movie channels either HBO or Showtime. It was something to watch and when you think about it quite cool to see other wrestling legends other than Piper. Nature Boy Ric Flair & Classy Freddie Blassie was also shown in the film even if in cameos.

Well, as a wrestling fan anyway this was certainly a movie to consider watching. It probably told a story about wrestling as they probably only could have in the late 1980s. Wrestler told a much different story about pro wrestling having been released in 2008.

Since it has been years since I have seen that film, it's time to be on the lookout and check it out. It's a great way to remember the legendary Roddy Piper as surely many of his fans are reminiscing about his time in the public spotlight. He wasn't just a wrestling who fans either loved or loved to hate, he was also an actor who made other movies in addition to Body Slam.

When you think about it, it's hard for me to think of any classic matches he had. Probably because I missed them for the most part. He had an angle fighting Hogan's nWo in the 1990s and I vaguely remember his return to the WWE universe not long after Vince McMahon purchased WCW. Perhaps it's also time for me to find some of Piper's greatest moments as a pro wrestler.

May the Hot Rod rest in peace!