Yeesh, my heart goes out to anyone today who might have seasonal affective disorder.
I’m sure it doesn’t help that the sky outside is the color of the grim reaper’s ass in a poorly lit room.
Seriously, look outside your window right now. It’s like God’s ashtray. If Crayola made a new gray color and named it “F***ing depression,” then that would be it.
The September 2016 Issue of Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine was just released, with pieces both by me and by a couple of good friends of mine. You can find my poem, “Our Room In Brooklyn,” on page 14. Be sure also to check out “Bacchus and Cheap Tobacco,” by Dennis Villelmi, as well as “Antidote,” by Scott Thomas Outlar.
You can purchase the September Issue in right here, or you can simply download a free electronic copy in PDF format here.
Enjoy.
2000.
I’m honored once again to share that another poem of mine will be published by Peeking Cat Poetry Magazine. The upcoming September 2016 issue will include “Our Room In Brooklyn.” This is a piece that I authored many years ago; it was first featured by Dagda Publishing in 2013.
Thanks to Editor Samantha Rose for allowing me to be a part of of the terrific creative community over at Peeking Cat!
I wonder if anyone ever listened to Earth, Wind & Fire while reading Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s “Wind, Sand and Stars.”
This is the cover for Dark Horse Comics’ millennial reprint, and not Comico’s original release of the series in the late 1980’s.
This is just NUTS. No, I am not quite old enough to remember this late-1960’s advertisement for “Erik” cigars — I happened along a few years later. But I was named for it.
My father told me when I was growing up that he named me after hearing the name “Eric” in a cigar commercial … I guess I was just never 100 percent sure if he was kidding or not. (My parents also came very close to naming me “Christian.”) Just a few days ago, through the magic of the Internet, I finally discovered the ad itself. (Thanks to Youtube user “blegume” for uploading the vintage commercial and solving this longstanding personal mystery.)
The ad itself is actually kind of funny. It makes smoking look entirely slick and telegenic and badass, and it underscores the point metaphorically with footage of a goddam viking ship sailing around Manhattan. (That’s the Brooklyn Bridge you see in the background.)
And, in this politically correct age, the ad manages to be at least mildly offensive to two groups: women and … Scandinavians. (Its product, it boasts, is “the most interesting idea from Scandinavia since the blonde.”)
My self-esteem would be incredibly high if people started proudly proclaiming “ERIK” in the same manner as the robust male narrator. I might try to create a wav. file of that and program my laptop to belt that out randomly like twice a day. Besides, I figure it could be worse — my father could have named me “Newport Menthols” or something. (Maybe it would be fitting; I’m slim and smooth, yet ultimately hazardous to your health.)
The Kirk Douglas lookalike you see in square-jawed profile is actually a Scandinavian named “Erik,” the video’s comments section informs me. He is none other than Norwegian Erik Silju, and his credits include episodes of both “Route 66” and “Murder, She Wrote.”
Here’s the kicker, though — I found four other guys, in the first page of the comments section alone, who were also named “Erik” after their parents saw this ad. That’s gotta be some kind of record.
Life is so weird.
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
— Juliet, in William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”
Photo: Ignacio P. Camarlench: “Una Rosa,” 1894
Oil on canvas.
They had 20 years to develop a sequel for “Independence Day: Resurgence” (2016) — 20 years after the original “Independence Day” exploded into theaters, defining the 1990’s summer blockbuster. You figure that’d be enough time to come up with a really cool script.
Maybe there was one — maybe they had a really great screenplay that was thrown out for some reason at the very last minute. (Political correctness? Copyright issues? Internal studio politics?) Then this by-the-numbers, live-action “G.I. Joe” cartoon was hastily thrust in front of the cameras. What we’ve got here is really just a lot of common tropes strung together by a thin story, performed by cliche stock characters. The charm, surprises, humor and impact of the (admittedly silly) original film are entirely absent here.
Don’t get me wrong. “Independence Day: Resurgence” isn’t quite as bad as some other reviewers might make it seem. There’s some fun to be had, especially if the kid in you still gets a kick out of gooey aliens. (The ending sequence was enjoyable.)
It’s just disappointing because it’s quite average. I’d give it a 6 out of 10, and I’d caution you to wait until you pay a dollar for it at Redbox.
Postscript: given what the movie reveals as their goal, why don’t the aliens just nuke us from orbit? Ellen Ripley is smarter than an entire alien race.
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 