November 2024 News and Links

 It is Finally Cooling Off 

Welcome to November of 2024. October was weirdly warm but now we're feeling a chill--after all, the month kicked off with an election that I already shared plenty of thoughts about. We will conclude November with Thanksgiving seemingly really late this year too. In the meantime, here are some pieces of news I found interesting.

News and Stuff of Interest

The movie, "Wicked," has a lot of toys that are going to tie in. Someone who isn't aware of the correct movie URL might try to just go to Wicked as a website instead of the movie one and discover that the former warns folks it is a grown-up site that wants you to clarify you're grown and okay with seeing adults doing adult stuff. No harm no foul if you mess that up. However, if Mattel were to accidentally put the wrong website on their boxes for Barbie toys, that would be quite a mistake. Somebody got in big trouble at Mattel but Wicked (the adult site) is laughing all the way to the bank as they've hit a 12-year high in traffic visiting the site. If even a small percentage of people who are now aware of this site subscribe to it that's a nice chunk of change. Ironically, the mature site has a bunch of spoofs of movies as the news will tell ya, but nothing relating to, "Wicked," itself. That's the real shame here.

In other movie news, Marvel showcased more of their upcoming, "Captain America: Brave New World," and, "Thunderbolts*," movies at their D23 Brazil event. These actually are looking pretty good and like they could draw some crowds after a chunk of Marvel projects have been received with less buzz lately (flicks with Deadpool and/or Wolverine aside).

The new, "Absolute," books DC is putting out have been extremely well-received to the surprise of some who weren't expecting much beyond alternate-universe takes on popular characters. I have read the first issues of the Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman series and they all are pretty cool. I (and many individuals I've spoken with) really was into the, "Batman," title but see some big potential in the other two as well. Between the Absolute stuff at DC and shockingly good Ultimate titles at Marvel, I guess sometimes a new take on an old classic is what a story can quite benefit from.

"Saturday Night Live," struggled a bit deciding what to say with their first episode since the Presidential election. There was one skit people seemed to either really enjoy or quite dislike that had nothing to do with politics, however. Presented as a bit of an advertisement with host Bill Burr discussing a band called, "Snake Skin," and their greatest hits album, it is glorious. Snake Skin is a fictional 80's band and I personally found the skit hilarious in how much it really did sound like a hair metal band from the 1980s singing about how much they want, "Nah-Nah," along with other raunchy absurdities. I do mean some people hated this sketch, but I was cracking up.

A gentleman playing, "Red Dead Redemption 2," on the PC modded it so that every horse and carriage moved at the speed of a missile and became extremely deadly. The results were both stupid and hilarious. I mean, we gotta do something to pass the time while we wait for, "Grand Theft Auto 6," don't we?

Lastly, everyone has been telling me how much I need to watch that, "The Penguin," show on MAX that spins out the Matt Reeves/Robert Pattinson, "Batman," movie. Colin Farrell is a great actor and person, so I plan to tune in. I just need to find the time to also watch that actual, "The Batman," movie because it is almost 3 hours long and life can be a bit too busy to sit that long. Maybe if I split it up into a few viewing sessions that could work? We'll see as I do really want to watch that, "The Batman," flick and then its Penguin spin-off show as it is getting rave reviews.