Finished reading: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson 📚

And by “Finished”, I mean I put it down after the second chapter. The title captures your imagination but it really felt like it was relying on that too much and then began complaining about what’s wrong with the world.

🍿 What’s Your Number? (2011) - ★☆☆☆☆

This movie left an aftertaste. A taste that grows worse and worse every time I think about it on the whole.

I recall the line from Ted Lasso where the bartender, Mae Green, was telling him that it’s the hope that kills you.

In this movie, it’s the hope that it will be good that kills me.

The movie has a lot going for it:

• Notable, good actors that go on to other better projects
• Chemistry between the leads
• A chance to do the something with a premise that has been done with men. I thought it was nice to see them change it up where it’s not the charming young Batchelor who decides that he wants to see where he went wrong with his philandering life style.

I looked it up and saw that the primary writers were women. I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be a bunch of guys thinking they could write from a different perspective. “Just write what a man would do and change the roles.” I hoped that it wouldn’t just be a bunch of things that women were “supposed” to do or behave.

Well, the movie does one great thing. And that is demonstrate that everything comes down to execution. And the first thing that gets executed is the character of our female protagonist. Instead of the suave, successful Batchelor, we get an unambitious, newly unemployed woman who has a thing for what the movie would define as losers.

The most egregious issue is the motivation of our protagonist is that she’s had a lot of sexual partners and doesn’t want the number to go up any more.

Big Whoop.

The movie posits that if she has too many partners, she’ll never get married and her life will be incomplete. She just needs to find the “right one” and everything else will work out.

If you feel that being single means being lonely, I hope you get a chance to rethink that. Relationships are great and it’s amazing to share that with someone, but you can get more out of it you are comfortable being and knowing who you are. If you look for that missing piece in someone else, you might never find peace within yourself.

Enough ranting from me.

Here’s the link to the official trailer on YouTube. Watch it and imagine a better movie.

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🍿 The Beekeeper (2024) - ★★★☆☆

I’m giving this 3 stars because it delivers on the premise.

No secret plot twist.

No riddle within a riddle.

Our hero hurts bad people and that’s pretty much it.

One man’s campaign for vengeance takes on national stakes after he is revealed to be a former operative of a powerful and clandestine organization known as Beekeepers.

Here is a link to the trailer on YouTube.

📺 Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023) - ★★★★☆

I really enjoyed this show. It’s pretty solid in the story telling and the pacing. I’m really glad that they took the time to make this better than the previous incarnation.

You don’t need to have seen the movie or read the books to enjoy this show. It stands alone and I came away from every episode entertained and then swizzling my head around to my kids to ask them “is this like the book?” And you know what? It doesn’t matter. This is a different medium and we have to be able to live without in order to enjoy what we have to the fullest.

I’m eager to see what the next season has in store.

Percy Jackson is on a dangerous quest. Outrunning monsters and outwitting gods, he must journey across America to return Zeus’ master bolt and stop an all-out war. With the help of his quest mates Annabeth and Grover, Percy’s journey will lead him closer to the answers he seeks: how to fit into a world where he feels out of place, and find out who he’s destined to be.

The Movie Database

Here is the link to the trailer on YouTube.

🎵 C.M.B. - Color Me Badd

This is the 1991 debut album from Color Me Badd and one of my favorites. It’s not for kids and this post might be the most risqué thing I have ever posted. But, the world is kind of crazy, so I’m hoping that this entertains at least one more person than myself.

I probably listened to this album way before I should have, but it really highlights the innocence of youth in that I had No idea what most of these songs were about. They had good beats and harmonies that kept me holding on to my father’s scratched CD long after I had something to play with it.

I was getting tired of some of the regular albums that I jam out to. I thought I would give this one try and write down how it makes me feel as an adult.

1. I Wanna Sex You Up

“The ticktock you don’t stop”. I had no idea what this song was about. What were they doing and how come they wanted to do it all night long?

Still love the harmonies of the group and I found myself getting back into the groove.

I now understand why people would want to unplug their phones so that they aren’t disturbed, but for completely different reasons.

2. All 4 Love

This one makes me think of malt shops and quartets. Probably the most “innocent” of the songs on this album and a nice balance from the first track. I don’t think I’ve ever chosen to play this song. It usually comes up because i am listening to the whole album. Not bad, and kind of cute.

3. Heartbreaker

Harmonies and a dance beat. A song about how some people will take advantage of you.

“You’re just a using girl, you’re driving me like a car”.

4. I Adore Mi Amor

Seriously one of the best songs on the album. This is the first album that I ever had with a language that wasn’t English. When I would sing along, I just mumbled in this part and waited for the last line Te quiero mucho, me amor.

This ballad is amazing.

I was thinking about making this my karaoke 🎤 song, but I only know the chorus.

5. Groove My Mind

Classic 90’s R&B song theme. Not much to note. If I hadn’t listened to this album dozens of times, I wouldn’t have remembered it. I think this was song I would listen to to make me feel that I could listen to music and do other things.

6. I Wanna Sex You Up (reprise)

My first time listening to a reprise. Countless moments of disappointment when it comes up randomly on instead of the real song.

A whole minute to contemplate skipping or finding the full song.

7. Roll The Dice

This one just gets me into the groove! I don’t have a lot of notes, because I found myself dancing in my seat.

Mostly chorus and bridge, but if you haven’t understood what this grove is about then I can’t explain it to you.

8. Slow Motion

Another song where 12-year-old me had no idea why doing anything slowly would be worth it.

“I want to love you so slow that you come before I do.”

I sang that line loud in front of my parents at 12 and thought love meant thinking fondly of the other person, and they would come over to your house.

9. Thinking’ Back

My favorite song on the album.

Also, the only track that I would skip near the end due to a scratch.

I’m glad I didn’t have access to this CD when I was going through a breakup.

It was in heavy rotation.

Listening to it now, I can feel my body tense up right around the time that the cd would skip.

10. I Adore Mi Amor (interlude)

Two teases in this album!!

45 seconds and this one is hard for me to determine if it’s the true song before it stops.

It’s more of a reminder that I need to get ready to push the button to restart the album.

11. Color Me Badd

Title track.

This is similar to Motownphilly; an introduction of what the group can do and how they can sing together.

12. Your Da One I One Love

“Love” means sex in this one.

I don’t think I need to explain.

The young version of me took it literally and knew that it was time to get another CD to play or restart this one.

In summary

Well, now I don’t feel that I can complain about modern music lacking innuendo. Most of the tracks are so thinly veiled, That it makes the emperor’s new clothes look like winter wear.

Still, I love it. I especially loved writing about it here. Let me know if you have a similar album in your life or suggest other albums.

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🍿 The Single Moms Club (2014) - ★★☆☆☆

It’s a Tyler Perry movie.

It’s well produced and well acted.

It had a joke that almost made me fall out of my chair laughing.

But, like all the other Tyler Perry movies that I’ve seen, it’s got a message that it’s trying to impart. Whether intentional or not, this movie says that all these single mothers need is a good man in their life to really remind them of what’s important and how to achieve happiness.

You got your troupes and stereotypes in there too. And a big splash of dirty jokes.

A group of single moms are brought together in the aftermath of an incident at their children’s school.

The Movie Database