Quarantine entry #100 - June 29

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but at least Disney/Disney+ will be releasing both ‘Mulan-2020’, and ‘The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’, into public access by august 2020, so some bright news are ahead after all. What next?

Well, today I wanted to talk about the peregrine falcon, which is the bird when it comes to falconry, but first – DC had released the trailer for ‘Superman: The Man of Tomorrow’ that is coming later this year, (or next year, whichever date will be better), so let’s mention it first.

What is S: TMT? It is DC’s reboot of its animated videos’ franchise, especially of the titular Superman. So far, he looks very much like his initial model, (from the 1990s’ animated series’ onwards), whereas Luis Lane looks less pin-upy as she did before.

…Judging by the trailer, Superman will be dealing with Lobo and the Parasite; there is also a scene of him interacting with Lex Luthor, but it is quite brief, and so there is no certainty as to how specifically the interactions between those two will go. True, it probably will not be good – there is no incarnation in which Clark and Lex ever remained friends, even if they were friends to begin with – but the details are not available yet.

Lex aside, it was also revealed that Superman would be facing off with Lobo and the Parasite. Lobo appears to be largely like his 1990s cartoon version as well, though he seems to have trouble standing up to Superman now – in the 1990s version onwards he actually could, through sheer physical badassery. In this trailer, however, he seems to have a green kryptonite ring…either that or a Green Lantern ring, but the latter version seems to be too far out – Lobo just is not a real Green Corps’ material, you know? …In any case, we see the Martian Manhunter come to help the Man of Steel out, the two aliens bond, and the rest of the trailer is dedicated to the Parasite, who is a Superman villain who had fallen out of fashion since the 1990s, and who got a feral new look, rather reminiscent of the White Martians from the ‘Supergirl’ TV show at their worst. Since unlike Lobo and the Man of Steel himself, the Parasite used to be an ordinary human who acquired his powers by accident, it will be interesting to see if Lex Luthor is behind it, say – but for now, this is it. Now about the peregrine falcon?

…Here is the punchline – while the Man of Steel is faster than a speeding bullet is, the peregrine falcon is the fastest of modern birds, and probably the fastest of modern animals, period. All falcons are built for speed, but the peregrine – especially so; its’ primary trick is to get high above its’ prey and then swoop down upon it; each of its’ feet has a specialized, extra-large talon, so if the peregrine scores a direct hit, a bird the size of a hooded, or an American, crow, can be sliced almost in two.

But that is the peregrine. It is one of the bigger falcons, (the biggest modern falcon is the gyrfalcon, which lives in Arctic and is not as known, especially in the New World, as the peregrine is). Smaller falcons, like the merlin, have their own tricks – in particular, hovering, meaning that they channel their inner helicopter, (rather than airplane), and stay in one spot in midair, trying to zoom-in on their prey, usually something like a mouse or a large insect, (small falcons, remember?). But normally, falcons prefer to eat other birds.

More precisely, while hawks hunt among trees and eat primarily both birds and arboreal mammals such as tree squirrels, and eagles often prefer to hunt various mammals, period, (but we’ll talk about the eagles at a different date), the falcons are bird specialists…unless they’re like the crested caracara, of which we have talked yesterday. The ecology of modern birds is a complex bag, and we will be talking more about it later.

…For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Superman: Red Son - Feb 26

Obligatory disclaimer: real life still sucks for all sorts of reasons. For a more specific explanation, see the previous entry. Now, about the latest animated Superman movie – the Red Son, (as opposed to the Red Sun and the Rad Son labels that I have seen on YouTube since yesterday).

…Ok, what about it?

It is one of the more depressing Superman and DC stories ever, one where Superman grows up in the U.S.S.R., (as opposed to the U.K. or in the darkest Africa, which are also DC comic stories, incidentally), has interactions with Bizarro, a variant Barman, Wonder Woman, a Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and so on, and mows down the opposition, no sweat. Pause?

Yeah, the live action Justice League movie had something similar, only it was so bad, that it was actually funny, (when it was not being so lackluster that it was insipid instead. Cough Infinity War rip-off cough). SRS, on the other hand, is none of those things, it is actually well put together, and it is somewhat sad. Violent too, for an animated movie, even more so than the actual comic was.

True, I am not the biggest fan of DC and it has been a long time since I have read the SRS comic, but there are some differences between it and the movie. More importantly, reading the comic is not important to watching the movie, and the movie is…depressing, straightforward, simple and well made, from the technical side of things. And-?

And it is the simplicity that is the defining point of SRS – usually DC can do convoluted about as well as Marvel does, Disney baking or not. Here, conversely, everything is going from point A to point B, which concludes with Superman apparently finding a possible ‘redemption’ after his stunt as the flagman of communism. What?

…Here is the thing. SRS is not exactly a propaganda piece, because for any propaganda piece to work, the state/country in which it is released needs consistency, and right now, the US is in the state of flux, because of the upcoming elections. Nobody knows as to who will win, but the safe bet is the Donald, in no small part because the Democrats, a), can’t get their shit together, and b), now that it is coming together, the forerunner will be either Bloomberg, a variant of the Donald, or Sanders, a social-democrat, and neither man is very popular with the rest of the Democratic party’s leaders. Will they opt to instead give the U.S. to the Donald for another 4 years while they try to find someone better? Odds are very good on this one too. Will they continue to bitch about the Donald, even though they aren’t all that better than he is, (as surprising as that sounds)? Yes. Did I mention that real life sucks? Do bears shit in the woods?

Getting back to SRS, again, it isn’t intended to be propaganda, but you have to admit that its’ timing isn’t very good, and given that we’re talking about the Western society here, at least someone there will think so and act accordingly with unpredictable results – but for the majority, SRS will be just another DC animated movie and as such it will fade into obscurity, either becoming a classic or not. Go, team DC! Another solid hit for you, really. Anything else?

Sadly, no, not this time. See you all soon instead!

Harley Quinn and the prodigal son - Feb 25

Obligatory disclaimer… no, wait. Secondly, the ‘Harley Quinn’ cartoon TV show’s great, no doubt about it. Firstly – real life sucks. No matter what you try, no matter what you try to figure something out, real life will derail you, and then-

Pause. Let us talk about the Biblical parable of the prodigal son. No, we will not talk about the TV series of the same name, because I found it to be forgettable and meh; we are talking about the actual article. In it, the titular character lives his loving but traditional family, screws his life completely, returns home with tail between his legs, (metaphorically speaking), and is celebrated with a fattened calf, because, as both the narrator, (the Savior?), and the father of the family tell the audience and the other son, who dutifully worked at the family business all the time while his bro wasted his chance, Heavens are happier at one repented sinner than over many more people who neither sinned nor repented to begin with.

…You know, who sinned and then repented? Judas. Yes, that guy. Does it mean that he also ended up in Heaven and not, you know, in Hell, according to Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’? Just asking, but the truth is that in the ‘Prodigal Son’ parable everyone is an asshole.

Let us elaborate. The titular character is an asshole because he had wasted all of his potential, literally and otherwise, and ended up being good for nothing but to herd pigs. When Jacob the patriarch, (son of Isaac, father of Joseph), ended up being a shepherd, he ended up making a fortune and married to Leah and Rebecca, (and not to mention a couple of concubines on top of them). The prodigal son? He did jack squat, other than bitch and moan about his fate & come crawling back to his family, as the parable intended to. Man, the Savior sometimes could be a jerk storyteller!

However, the rest of the family is not much different from the titular character…only they are. While he was doing nothing, they were doing the same thing repeatedly – running the family farm, (because of the fattened calf reference, because otherwise we got nothing to go on here). Yes, that is often hard, repetitive and boring, which is why the prodigal son ran away. And then he just partied hard and this is it, possibly because that is the only thing he had ever done? With his father if not outright enabling him, then certainly babying him, because he is the baby of the family, maybe? Pause.

Yes, something similar happened to Joseph back in the Old Testament, only our man Joseph did become the viceroy of Egypt or something similar, and revealed himself to be a bad ass. The titular character is an uninitiative waste of space and his father is okay with it, he is that forgiving. At least this time he gave his other some cock and bull excuse, dimly aware that this time he might have gone over the line.

…This isn’t the point of the parable? See above, cough Judas cough. St. Augustine supposedly once said that he believes in Christ and Christianity, because it is absurd, (or that absurd?). Fair enough, but proportionally, St. Augustine was closer to the time when the Gospels actually got written, (following the Word of God) than to our time in this time and space continuum, and it tells.

…So what does that have to do with me? Nothing, save that I am doing my best to find a regular job, (I may be no Old Testament Joseph, but still), and am having zero luck. My family, on the other hand, seems to be shoehorning me into the position of the parable’s older son, who works almost for nothing save for room and board. Did I tell you that I hate my life? Because I do. Arthur Fleck (cough Phoenix cough) was a genius if he was able to rework his life from a tragedy into a comedy, because I certainly cannot.

…Yes, I know that Joker in all of his incarnations is anti-hero at best and a villain at worse, as he was, or rather is, in the ‘Harley Quinn’ cartoon, which is doing all the same things that the ‘fantabulous emancipation’ film has done, but at a slower pace. Then again, it is a cartoon series, not a single-shot film, so it can afford to be prolonged.

One aspect that is affected by this is the Harley-Ivy relationship: the S1 finale ended with Ivy being dead, and/or resurrected, I am not sure. I.e., whatever relationship Harley and Ivy will have, this will be taken slowly, I suspect. Then again, DC is not Marvel, it doesn’t have Disney backing it up, (yet), so it’s not surprising that Ivy and Harley may be going the ‘Elsa met Honeymaren’ routine. Hell, Joker is outright absent in the ‘Superman: Red Son’ movie, and it is still a good one. (It just came out this February).

…Yes, SRS is focusing more on the Superman’s corner of DC’s Elseworlds than Batman’s, (cough spoilers cough), but still, the laughing prince of crime tends to pop up in unexpected places, but we digress. (SRS is not a bad animated movie either, incidentally). The point is that my life lately sucks more than it usually does, more family sucks more than it usually does, and I see no way out, period. I do not intend to be either the good or the prodigal son, while we are on the subject. For better or for worse, I am just trying to be myself, regardless as to what this entails, down to the end - now if only all my ads on LinkedIn, and Glassdoor, and Indeed, and Monster, and so on would come to a fruition. (Sad face emoji).

…This is it for now, see you all soon.