Media Review

📺 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

🍿 American Fiction (2023)- ★★★☆☆

I’ve been looking forward to seeing this movie for a while and was rewarded with a very enjoyable experience. This is a very solid film about family and finding your identity.

I’ve been dealing with how I work with unexpected things happening in my life and how to find joy in all the chaos.

This movie gives me hope in that I can also find some mirth in all the madness.

Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.

The Movie Database

You can find a link to the American Fiction trailer on YouTube.

🍿 The Godfather (1972) - ★★★★☆

It’s a running joke amongst my friends that I know a lot of plot points for popular movies and films. What?! You haven’t seen The Godfather!? How did that happen?.

Oddly enough, I know most of the movie from watching Jane Austen’s Mafia and other parodies that have come out since the movie had come out in 1972.

It is a great film. And I’m happy to have seen it. The movie shows the characters as people and I have to say that I was emotionally invested in what happened to them. I really wish Connie had a little more agency, but I think it’s part of the time frame¹ of the source material and the plot.

I couldn’t give this movie 5 stars. I think it’s because of all the discussions and hype around it. Although, this was the first time that I’ve sat and watched this film, I’ve seen its echos and shades dozens of times. The memes, the quotes, the various characters.

Shouldn’t that give it the extra star?

I don’t know. I’ll have to think about that the next time someone asks me if I’ve seen it.

Spanning the years 1945 to 1955, a chronicle of the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. When organized crime family patriarch, Vito Corleone barely survives an attempt on his life, his youngest son, Michael steps in to take care of the would-be killers, launching a campaign of bloody revenge.

The Movie Database

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🍿 Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010) - ★★☆☆☆

Ok, the family has been watching Percy Jackson and the Olympians (2023) TV show and enjoying it. So we decided to watch this thing again.

It’s definitely a product of its time.

Movies like Harry Potter and Twilight had spurred studios to find more and more intellectual property. You get the feeling that they were trying hard to make something. The promise of a new hot franchise. There is a sequel to this and I hope that I don’t have to watch it.

I don’t know how much different this is from the book, but from I heard the original author and a lot of fans were disappointed.

I got to sit there and hear my kids repeatedly mention that the book and new series is better. I even got a “#NotMyGrover” during the 2 hour movie

In a lot of ways, we’re all better off. The original author, Rick Riordan, made sure that future adaptations of his work had higher standards.

This one isn’t a bad movie, but not really memorable for the right reasons.

Accident prone teenager, Percy discovers he’s actually a demi-God, the son of Poseidon, and he is needed when Zeus’ lightning is stolen. Percy must master his new found skills in order to prevent a war between the Gods that could devastate the entire world. The Movie Database

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🍿 The Lost City (2022) - ★★★★☆

This was a fun movie. I was bordering on a bad movie after a very long day and at the end, I was relaxed and laughing. It takes a couple of the various movie tropes and pokes fun and them and the usual formulas a movie looks this can take.

At first, I was going to give it 3 stars but just thinking about the movie now has put a little smile on my face so here’s your extra star!

Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to the ancient city’s lost treasure that featured in her latest story. Alan, determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, sets off to rescue her.

Finished reading: My Murder by Katie Williams 📚

Jason Snell had been promoting this book on one of his podcasts. Luckily it was available via Libby from my local library as an audiobook and I devoured it in a few days.

Truthfully, it has a lot of things that I have seen in other books but the way that it’s combined is done very well. I can see this being turned into some kind of tv mini series.

The only complaint is that it feels somehow too short and too long at the same time. I think it’s because it seems to drag after the first 3rd and then the conclusion seems to wrap up so neatly and quick that it kind of makes you wonder.

🍿 Good Grief (2023) - ★★★★☆

This was a very beautiful film. Dan Levy allows for some quiet moments where the viewer gets to see some delightful views of Paris. I enjoyed them but I could see where people might scoff and complain about the film not getting on with things.

I think that this is part of the point.

Grief is something you don’t “just get over”.

In the end, another reminder that we don’t know what will happen in the future. This one sweet in that we don’t have to dread and showing that we can move forward.

Description from The Movie Database

When his husband unexpectedly dies, Marc’s world shatters, sending him and his two best friends on a soul-searching trip to Paris that reveals some hard truths they each needed to face.

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Finished reading: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman 📚 - ★★★★☆

I’ve never been so relieved for being reminded that I’m going to die.In fact, there is humor found throughout the book related to this very topic.

Truth is, we don’t really know how much time we have and with this world. You only have this moment in time, make the right choice for you. If it doesn’t work out, you have to accept it and make another choice another action.

I’ll see you next week.

Maybe.