Saw #ThePost on Friday

[VIDEO] It allowed me to come to some conclusions especially with the term "fake news" flying around since Trump ran for President in 2016 and during the administration of President Trump currently. It depicts a battle - mainly legal battle - between the press and the government.

Basically some documents were smuggled from the Pentagon analyzing the war in Vietnam and those papers which have been publicly released shows a history of deception by the government as far as their Vietnam policy. The papers apparently start well before America became involved with the Vietnam War and it's escalation. There was a court case NY Times vs. U.S. which allowed the Times and the Washington Post to publish government documents without an reprisal by the government. In other words, the gov't can't censor you because they don't like the fact that you published some documents they didn't want you to see!

Allow me to share the big picture of the movie. We have a free press in this country, and resultantly free speech. With that said and I tweeted this out during the course of the movie - not during the movie of course.

#ThePost it’s fine with me if @realDonaldTrump takes on #FakeNews and it’s also fine w/ me if the press takes on the President #fb

— Levois J (@levois) January 5, 2018

There is no issue with me if President Trump pushed back against the press - or least the press he refers to as Fake News. Among conservatives I've seen that they believe the press has a bias against them. They believe the press or mainstream media trends liberal and in their coverage of Republicans or conservatives is colored with a liberal slant. Thus perhaps for many on the right - or perhaps "alt-right" - it's refreshing that the President isn't going along with that and is effectively punching back.

Our nation is supposed to have checks and balances between the President, Congress and judiciary. Who checks the press? We do need a strong press to check the government and it's three branches. A strong press is worthless if it's unwilling to check the government. As addressed in the movie, there were occasions - and perhaps they still ocurr - that newspaper publishers & editors or producers, reporters, journalists, etc. can be chummy with politicians on occasion. Thus it's possible to think that perhaps the press would cover for the politicians that they are chummy with when things are found out about them.

With that said when Trump takes on CNN or MSNBC or the NY Times it's entirely OK with me if her refers to those outlets as "fake news". We should consume news or information, we need not think that everything they say doesn't have a bias. We need not believe they don't have an agenda and perhaps it doesn't always benefit the people who consume the news & information they publish.

So it's OK with me if Trump calls the mainstream media "fake news". It's also OK with me if the media pushes back against Trump. What we're seeing is healthy. Who says the politicians shouldn't challenge the press - of course without suppressing them legally? Also who says the press shouldn't challenge the politicians?

BTW, if you check hashtag #ThePost on twitter you may see mostly negative views of The Post. Many have opted not to even watch the movie thanks to the liberal politics of Tom Hanks and Merryl Streep. Indeed another tweet I saw connected this movie with the Harvey Weinstein scandal. And I've learned that the film has only earned a half-million dollars when it was released New Year's weekend. Although when I saw the movie it was almost a full-house in my theater.

It's still a great movie and yes I can separate the politics or even complicity in some social context i.e. Weinstein from the work of art. Then again that's the beauty of America, we have the right to support or not support whatever we want for whatever reasons we have. Besides, I gave that dreadful Al Gore global warming sequel a chance even though I'm not likely to ever want to see it again!

Birthday special

As I reflect on another birthday for me, I reflect on the train rides. I like riding the trains especially on a vacation. To reflect on the number of places I've arrived on trains allow me to offer some destinations.

By Amtrak, I've been to Washington, Memphis, Detroit, Dallas, & Los Angeles. With the exception of Detroit all of those have been multiple trips and often to visit family in all of those places. Without a doubt Los Angeles have been the most interesting of these trips as I don't go out west often enough. And sometimes I wonder why with the issues they seem to have out there with immigration and wildfires.

All the same it's exciting to see the parts of America that I don't always see. It's cool to go out east and see those sites that I normally won't see. Which reminds me, I would like to go back to DC in the future. It's such a great place to see historical sites of great political importance. I'm not done with that town yet!

Also it's cool to head out west and see the landscape of this country go from midwestern farmlands, to grazing lands, to mountains, and deserts. To look at dry riverbeds, buttes, sands, bushes, etc. Doesn't matter where my train passes through it's a treat to see some of these small towns and stop in them to see how much simpler it can be outside of our major metropolitan areas.

As you probably can tell of all the years I've taken the train the highlights of them have been going out west to Los Angeles. I've only done so twice in the first two decades of this century and had been waiting to do so for years. And at that one time doing so with a sleeper car berth which is recommended by me if you do at least two overnights on a train.

This comes to mind because I've been watching a lot of train videos lately. Especially those that involve the Southwest Chief. Look forward to a few more train rides as long as I remain in good health and finding places to go in the meanwhile.

As an extra treat, here's one my favorite pics from my trip in 2016 taken in Mendota, IL from the train. Had a nice rainstorm as we were leaving the state on the way to the Mississippi River to cross into Iowa.

Mendota, Illinois

Also, this is the shortest and best video I could find about taking the Southwest Chief. It's under 10 mins although find any video you want about any train. These are only for if you want to educate yourself. [VIDEO]

Tarantino "Trek"

Quentin Tarantino wants to do a Star Trek movie and at that it will be rated R. And how often is it that you will see this blog link to TrekMovie.com?

Man this movie might actually get me excited although the idea of an rated R Trek is an odd one. I can only imagine the violence, language or nudity. Although I hate to bring up Tarantino's foot fetish, it has come up in a few of his movies.

To me Tarantino has a strong affinity for those old style 1970s motif (I hope I used that correctly). Pulp Fiction was full of that 1970s style with hatchbacks. Often he also seems to go for those old school "blaxploitation" style which we may see in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown or even Django Unchained. Also think about the Kill Bill movies which I certainly loved especially the first one, he seems to be a fan of B-movie action and portrays them very violently.

And now Star Trek. Will he give Star Trek a retro feel? Would this new Trek be far more violent than most Trekkies are used too? Will the sex be turned up on high in a new movie?

BTW, I didn't know this Star Trek Beyond didn't make money last year. The 50th anniversary movie lost money and to be fair I liked it but was it a great memorable movie not as much as the 2009 Stark Trek. Which reminds me...

[VIDEO] John Campea was debating a Tarantino Trek. Perhaps Paramount who owns this franchise might want to shake things up and find a new direction. Think prior to 2009 it was considered unthinkable not only to recast the original characters with new actors as they had in the JJ Abrams Trek. It was also unthinkable to even tweak the design of the original USS Enterprise.

It would be quite interesting to see Tarantino's take on Gene Roddenberry's universe. Will it be faithful? Or will it simply be a Tarantino story set in Roddenberry's universe telling his own story? All we can do now is wait...

I also want to note the new Trek series Discovery. My initial take on it is that the show started off interesting with the pilot that aired on CBS. It ended with the Captain asserting her authority against her first officer who essentially wanted to contradict her C/O in handling the newly revamped Klingons. I have no idea about this f-bomb Campea said occurred in the series and he also claims Trekkies took issue with the insertion of that.

Saw #JusticeLeague this evening

[VIDEO] I'm going to let John Campea do more talking about this movie. If I had seen the above video before seeing the 6 PM show I'd know what he was mostly talking about.

Since the start of the DC extended universe in 2013 with Man of Steel it seems the new series of films had starts in fits and starts. Man of Steel was OK there were some parts of the movie that threw me and basically they killed off Zod from Kryton so early.

Now I liked Batman vs. Superman though the whole film wasn't that good. Batman to me stole the show though in reading other reviews many had a serious issue with Batman as a cold killer. The Dark Knight or Caped Crusader showed he was a bad man in facing down the hoodlums of Gotham and Superman. It was a bit goofy how using Martha - the name of both Clark's mother & Bruce Wayne's - stopped the epic fight between DC Comics two most iconic superheroes.

I also liked Suicide Squad also problem is they threw in the Joker. I recognize that they threw in the Joker because Harley Quinn was in it - because she's been introduced to the main DC universe and is no longer exclusive to the DC animated universe. The first part seemed to have been humming along, the second half well I didn't get it. And again we get a glimpse of Batman & The Flash with a special appearance by Bruce Wayne near the end seeking to provide Amanda Waller cover.

The next movie changed the direction of the DC extended universe, Wonder Woman. Using the Great War (The first World War) was a nice touch that worked and contrasted with the canonical second World War origins of the superheroine. She fought the German Empire as easily as she fought the Nazi's Third Reich. It was quite an introduction especially if her introduction into Batman v. Superman wasn't as satisfying.

Finally we have the long awaited Justice League. Ah the Easter eggs I want to talk about we seem some hints of other DC super heroes in this one though nothing from them yet - and yes there will be other movies about these other characters. It was great to see Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg interact with each other. At first there was some hostility, then eventually they came together to fight a common antagonist. We even see a certain superhero who died in Batman vs. Superman return to finish the fight.Yeah I know a bit of a spoiler but if you've been paying attention to the trailers you already know Superman is coming back.

Just like Wonder Woman, the audience applauded and I missed the scene after the credits. There was a mid-credits scene that I saw, however, since I was at the movies far later than usual it was time for me to go. I may go see this film one more time to see this final scene. Although they could've ended this with the mid-credits scene which was very satisfying...and the audience also applauded that!

BTW, DC extended universe films aren't known for these end credits scene are they stealing a trick out of the page of the Marvel Cinematic Universe? I could like without it though only provided if they advance the story of the DC universe.

Also, I've never caught a midnight show, however, I've noticed over the years that they have slowly fallen out of favor. Basically if a blockbuster is expected to come out on Friday - in general - you can be amongst the first to catch it starting at 6 PM on Thursday. Of course this depends upon the venue where you seek to watch the movie. All the same I enjoyed this experience although a long way from saying this is something to do again. Perhaps for the right movie - the right geeky movie!

Go see Justice League, it gets a thumbs up from me!

#JusticeLeague is a winner not bad for watching the first showings of this film. Excellent! 👍🏾 pic.twitter.com/4RECjsI3wb

— Levois J (@levois) November 17, 2017

#Bitcoin

[VIDEO] I've been keenly interesting in learning more about bitcoin. Bitcoin is a crytpocurrency created in 2009 by "Satoshi Nakamoto" - the name is placed in quotes because the world doesn't know the identity of this person or persons. All we know is that there was a paper in their name, a computer program for bitcoins, and several forum posts and then a few years after developing botcoin this alias vanished. That's the story you see above from CNBC.

Back in 2009 I was on the verge of graduating from Morehouse College. Upon achieving my degree it was time to look for job which would happen by that fall. It was also safe to say, my finances were in the red with not a lot of income back then and student loans. Perhaps I was a long way from being able to take advantages of bitcoin with the low prices back in the early part of this decade. A small investment back then would provide nothing but significant returns now. You can check current bitcoin prices here.

While it seems one could make money from bitcoin, I have been advised that it's still considered make believe money. Since it mainly exists in cyberspace it's not real thus it's better to invest in something that exists in the real world such as a precious metal. And also the possibility that if something goes wrong with hardware or software the crytocurrenty can go up in smoke.

On the other hand, one good use for bitcoin I have seen is that if you need to sent money somewhere for example sending money to relatives in an unfriendly nation. No need for banks or a Western Union to be the middle man. Use the peer-to-peer network to send the bitcoins to where they need to go and those on the receiving end will get their cold hard cash from the crytocurrency.

You can read more about advantages & disadvantages here. Meanwhile through a variety of sources online and offline my goal is to continue gaining more knowledge of this.

Saw Spider Man Homecoming....twice

[VIDEO] Spider Man Homecoming is a movie I enjoyed seeing twice. The iconic Marvel Comics superhero is essentially part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Tony Stark featuring heavily as something of a mentor to this young teenage meta-human. And yes for the most part comic book fans already know his origin.

When you think about it, this isn't an origin film. Basically the movie starts after Spider Man's cameo appearance in Capt. America: Civil War facing off against needless to say Capt. America and his allies. Then back to NYC where Peter Parker is juggling adolescence, superhero business, school, etc.

Even weirder Spider Man's suit is the coolest suit ever seen and near the end he had it taken away from him. Parker had to rely only on his meta-human abilities and identity essentially concealed by a homemade customer consisting of sweatpants and a hoodie. The suit is made by Tony Stark and has all types of cool bells and whistles which for a brief time was also taken away from him.

BTW, this movie's version of Aunt Mae, I'd be trying to gain favor from her also. The youngest and most prettiest incarnation of her ever. Although for most of her portrayals she had little clue of Parker's double-life. Time may tell if future movies go with this, but it looks like now she knows!

How this film was portrayed? Well you're reading the blog of a man who used to be a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I wanted to know martial arts like they did and wanted to be a hero. A kid likes to think about heroes and probably wishes they could be like Peter Parker with heart and the ability to beat bad guys.

I feel as if I gave away some plot points, but before that film leaves theaters near you go see it. Spider Man Homecoming essentially is the third superhero move of the summer. I was glad to see almost two months after a June release Wonder Woman is still going strong and having seen Guardians of the Galaxy which was also a good movie to see.

And I almost forgot about Logan which is a movie that rubbed me the wrong way. Main thing about that movie was that it ended on a depressing note and it was mostly a very dark feature. Although to be fair perhaps a fitting note to end Hugh Jackman's time as Logan/Wolverine.

Dunkirk

As briefly written at E.M. this film was my Saturday movie and one that was very heavily promoted in movie trailers for the last couple of months. Dunkirk is a French town near the Belgian border where allied forces of Britain and France were surrounded by forces of Nazi Germany. That situation and the Hollywood depiction of this battle were without a doubt bleak.

Knowing history you already know the conclusion of this story, however, just remember that in 1940 when these events took place the second World War wasn't looking very good. The armies of fascism and militarism had been expanding in Europe and the Pacific. With the collapse of France and Britain all alone with the United States staying out of the war yeah it was hard to say the Allies was going to win the war in 1945.

It became clear why it was very important for Britain to get their army back from Nazi occupied France, English military leaders recognize that they're next. The air Battle of Britain was coming after this and if the British couldn't hold their airspace soon Great Britain could be the next nation occupied by Nazi Germany. If you remember history, you also would know how that turned out!

The story was broken out in three parts to start the story began with the infantryman perspective, then we saw the airmen who tried to protect the ground troops from the air - and just think the troops on a beach waiting for evacuation were being harassed by German planes with bombs and bullets, and finally we see the story of one civilian mariner who set off for Dunkirk to do their part for Britain to help evacuate Allied troops from a bleak situation.

It seems many of Christopher Nolan's film masterpieces are known for being long at least over two hours. To my surprise Nolan kept this historic movie short at least slightly under two hours. It told the story it needed to tell and certainly it was wonderfully shot. The story was simple if the Allied forces fighting against the Nazis were to survive they needed to get out of France which had already fallen.

I would recommend this war movie if you will. Hopefully you'll go out and see it while it's out at a theater near you. Perhaps you should look up anything on Dunkirk before you purchase that movie ticket.