Culture Check: 12/29/25

Winter in Pennsylvania vs Winter in the Desert Southwest... This is a No-Brainer.

It'll be difficult to begin today's briefing since I'm shedding what's left of this virus - probably covid, but I haven't checked yet - out my ass more often than I care to dwell upon. ITEM 1: TRAVEL VS HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS For the last, I don't know, three years, we've bailed on the northeast during the cold and flu (and covid) season and I can't say I've missed feeling like every muscle in my torso has been pulled by forceful, incessant coughing, shitting or vomiting. During the last World Cup we were in the Pacific Coast Mexican state of Niyarit in a pueblo called La Penita where we met Dan Shields, a Canadian ex-pat who ran "La Parilla" and put on every world cup game for us. We sauced ourselves on perfectly vacant beaches and made friends with the children (Hola, Sofia y Ruiel!) doing their homework at the open air bar. That was nice. Two years ago, we towed our RV half-way down Baja. Notwistanding we were robbed by the police in the border town of Tecate - It's a thing that is done. You feel much safer being robbed by the policia. Consider it a Gringo tax. And we got to La Buffadora - where there is no cell service at all - after a 13 hour drive through desert and flood. And we made our signature powerful margaritas for everyone visiting at a delightful party there watching the big waves crash into the shore and hearing whales migrating south on Christmas Eve. Next day, the crazy Gringo lady who ran the place tried to charge us a second time for our stay and so we left. There at La Buffadora you don't put your toilet paper in the toilet. Rather, you fold it up and put it in the adjacent waste-paper basket. Eww. Even THAT was preferable to what I've endured this week. I feel like my old Third Ward bully, Billy McCracken, has punched me in the gut way too many times. On the plus side, I'm down ten pounds! Last year, it was a lovely tour of the desert southwest, which has some of the sweetest camping spots anywhere. One night, just outside the camper, a coyote was baying at a full moon in a postcard type sky. We chose to leave the Northeast to enjoy its flu and cold season without us and, you know, we didn't spend one sick day in the last three years of winters. Ah! Pennsylvania. UPSHOT: Travel to the desert southwest is preferable if you can afford it, but beware, you might be wandering into a measles outbreak. Stay vaccinated, people! ITEM 2: CONVERSION OF THE MAGA FAITHFUL

Let's see, OUR SECOND item on the roll-call board is for all units to BOLO any defecting members of the MAGA crowd as their reality runs into the brick wall of Trump's greed and stupidity. It seems to be turning out that their saviour is doing a really bad job of convincing them he's not a pedophile. But I've been reading on the difficulties of the other side. HERE is a fascinating deep dive by the N.Y. Times on the conversion of MAGA flamethrower Marjorie Taylor Green, who, until receiving death threats from her own MAGA faithful lately, has never deigned to interview with THAT kind of media outlet. The portrait is full of revealing insights and it's a gift article from the Times today that is well worth your time. We also need to keep our eyes peeled for any MAGA Christians practicing a thing called "Vertical Morality." HERE is an interesting article I knew nothing about that has our converted MAGA-types explaining the way this evangelical bent allows Christians to do pretty damned un-Christian things. Something all of us lefties have always wondered about. But here it is - straight from those who've escaped the cult. ITEM 3: HOLIDAY (or not so holiday) MOVIES OF NOTE Not gonna waste your time with BS here, so to the chase, BUGONIA, which I missed in Theaters but caught last night on Peacock is fantastic. It's Yorgos Lanthimos's bleak look at humanity through the eyes of two conspiracy theory nuts who kidnap a medical company CEO (Emma Stone) because they think she's an alien. Funny + Dark = Up My Alley. Guillermo del Toro's FRANKENSTEIN is already on my short list for Best Film at the Academy Awards. Never has there been a more beautiful take on a story that has shaped the way the world views horror.

EDDINGTON drags us kicking and screaming back to covid times in my beloved desert southwest to the eponymous town of Eddington. Here, the local Sherriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and conspiracy nut is pitted against the local Mayor (Pedro Pascal). The film runs riot through every issue that will trigger you and, honestly, make you examine your own feelings. Oh. And Emma Stone is in this one too. I think she's got a thing for conspiracy theory movies. RENTAL FAMILY is a below the radar can't miss film starring Brendan Fraser (Gods and Monsters, people. If you don't know, you're missing something) as a "token white guy" at a Japanese talent company that hires actors to fulfill roles in people's lives. It starts out a curiosity but before you know it, you're socks are being charmed right off your feet. A lovely film with heart. And I suppose I'll close with either Sisu movie. The first one: SISU or the new one SISU: Road To Revenge both star Jorma Tommila as a kind of Finnish cross between Clint Eastwood's silent stranger and the Looney Tunes' Wile-E-Coyote. He's got a very faithful Bedlington Terrier and the action amps up like a Mad Max movie and is comically unrelenting as Tommila has struck the mother load of gold and the nearest bank north of the Arctic Circle in 1944 is a Nazi infested 563 miles away. Road to Revenge takes place in 1946 when the Russians discover the legendary soldier Atami Korpi (Tommila) lives and they set out to exact revenge. So whether it's Nazis or Russians you prefer in your blender, there's a lot of action and fun. There are many others but I'll just leave you with the good ones. Because life is too short for bad movies. ITEM 4: WHAT DOESN'T BEZOS OWN? I realized unhappily today that Jeff Fuckin' Bezos has gone and bought the Internet Movie Database site. Son-of-a-bitch! So I'm clicking over there today to check on a few salient movie facts and I get this "sign in with your Amazon account" B.S. I was non-plussed. There was a link saying sign in with your Amazon account. I figured, wrongly, it turns out, that Bezos already had my DNA, let alone my address and stuff. But, happily and to my surprise, Amazon told me it did not have any account by that email address. I became strangely happy. First off, I might be the last living person without an Amazon account. And second off, I'm not sending them my personal information to use what has always been a pretty useful film site but is now being removed from my favorites. So... Be On The LookOut for rogue billionaires buying up shit they really don't need. If you see one, hurl insults at them... or, you know, rocks or something, because these fuckers are only interested in helping themselves and they're not making our society one stitch better. Okay. That's all for this morning's briefing. And until next time, Let's all be safe out there.