Just Checking In - 30 Day Blogging Challenge, Day 8

Taking a break from posting pictures of Dez and jumping right into the juicy bits of picayune per diem.

I caught Spider-Man; Homecoming today. I've been pretty excited about this movie ever since Tom Holland's take on Peter Parker in Civil War. It was a ton of fun, and had some surprisingly tense moments that stood out from the typical super hero movie structure. The movie would have stood up fine on it's own, but the fact that it's so deeply woven into the MCU without feeling cheap or watered down was icing on the cake.

I finally saw Arrival earlier this week. I had heard good things and wasn't able to catch it when it was in theaters last year. I had heard it was a smart, quiet film about aliens who land on Earth and throughout the movie we attempt to communicate with them. I guess they weren't wrong, but I didn't think it was that great. I'm glad I saw it, but it left me feeling unsatisfied, similar to how Contact with Jodie Foster made me feel. For those of you who don't remember, Contact was about us detecting signals from aliens. After three hours of build up, the aliens turned out to be Jodie Foster's dead father. Sorry, that was a spoiler, but I just saved you the trouble. Arrival let me down too. Nobody gained anything. I'll try not to spoil it, but apparently Amy Adams' character gets a special gift, or capability, as she learns how to communicate with the aliens. That said, she was using her newfound ability since the very first scene in the movie, so it probably wasn't all that special. Watch it again and discuss it among yourselves. If you can explain away this plot hole without sounding like you are high, then I'll take it all back.

Also, I discovered Ronald Jenkees on Spotify. Check this out for some schway tunes.

One more thing that I can definitely appreciate; Marc Summers reveals what Nickelodeon slime is made out of.

Interesting Fact: In elementary school we did a project where everyone was supposed to write a letter to a celebrity. Most kids picked people like Michael Jordon or John Elway, but my celebrity of choice was Marc Summers (this was about a year before I discovered “Weird Al” Yankovic). I wrote a letter to Mr. Summers, letting him know that I wanted to be on Double Dare or What Would You Do. He sent me a signed 8×10 and wrote a letter back. Fuck yeah, Marc Summers. The kids who picked Michael Jordon didn’t get shit.