Streaming Revolutionizes Television

 I've seen a lot of technological advancements with our television viewing habits over the years, from remote controls and VCRs to the explosion of cable channels and digital video recorders. But I think streaming may be the biggest change yet. 
Not only can you watch dozens, if not hundreds, of traditional TV shows, both old and new, at whatever pace you like, but much of the best television content comes from original programs airing for the first time - sometimes dumped all at once for immediate binging or doled out slowly, one per week, just like old times. 

Here are the shows that I have watched all available episodes so far...

Stranger Things
Daredevil
Luke Cage
Jessica Jones
Iron Fist
The Defenders
Flash
The Mandalorian
Severance
Only Murders in the Building

Wednesday
Umbrella Academy
The Rings of Power
WandaVision
Loki
Falcon and the Winter Soldier
Hawkeye
The Book of Boba Fett
Obi Wan Kenobi
Moon Knight
Ms Marvel
She Hulk
Star Trek: Lower Decks
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
Reacher
Slow Horses
Outer Range
The Old Man
The Mysterious Benedict Society
Andor
Tulsa King
Willow
Dahmer
The Good Place

And streaming shows I am not finished with

His Dark Materials
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Crown
Titans
Yellowstone
Ted Lasso
The Witcher
Star Trek: Discovery
Star Trek: Picard
Better Call Saul
The Chosen
Alaska Daily
Abbott Elementary
Outlander

Older TV series I am watching

Downton Abbey
Walking Dead
Boston Legal
NCIS
Elementary
Grimm
Psych
Monk

And a few I have finished

West Wing
White Collar
Bones
Lie To Me

2022 Movies I've Seen

 It's getting harder and harder to compile this list every year. I used to be able to go to one website listing all the Hollywood Box Office stats and come up with my list. But now I have to also go to half a dozen other sites and find all the original streaming movies that I might have seen during the year. So here is my best effort at compiling my list for this year...

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness
Minions: Rise of Gru
The Batman
Thor: Love and Thunder
Elvis
Uncharted
Nope
Lightyear
The Lost City
Ticket to Paradise
Bullet Train
The Bad Guys
Turning Red
Sing 2
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore
Morbius
Death on the Nile
Don't Worry Darling
Marry Me
The King's Man
The 355
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

Spirited
Luck
The Adam Project
The Sea Beast
The Gray Man
Samaritan
Slumberland
The Princess
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Enola Holmes 2
Chip n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Hocus Pocus 2

And now the movies that I still plan to see at some point...

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Avatar: The Way of Water
Black Adam
Top Gun: Maverick
Strange World
The Fabelmans
Babylon
Banshees of Inisherin
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Menu
She Said
Triangle of Sadness
Amsterdam

Oscar Gripes

 I'm not even sure where to start with my Oscar gripes this year.
The snub of Lady Gaga for Best Actress is galling. House of Gucci was one of the few Oscar-hyped films I made a point of seeing this year - along with Being the Ricardos - and both were shut out of the Best Picture category. But I really thought Lady Gaga was a lock for another Oscar nod this year. 

Then there is the Original Song category where you could have just picked every song from Encanto and left it at that. But while Encanto is filled with wonderful songs that are tearing up the pop charts like the sensational "We Don't Talk About Bruno" and "Surface Pressure," what song does the tone-deaf Academy nominate? - the Spanish language "Dos Oruguitas," which is a wonderful song, but nowhere near the best song in the movie. 

And then there is the Best Director category where it seems we are setting up for the 12th year in a row where a non-American director will win the statue. The last American director to win an Oscar was Kathryn Bigelow in 2009 for The Hurt Locker. This year there are only two American directors nominated - Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson - while the Oscar is likely to go to New Zealand's Jane Campion.

And we also seem to have a new requirement where the Academy has to nominate a foreign language film every year for Best Picture. This is the fourth year in a row where one of the precious Best Picture slots goes to a foreign language film - in 2018 it was Roma, in 2019 it was Parasite (which even won the Oscar that year), in 2020 it was Minari, and this year it is Drive My Car.

Meanwhile, the Academy continues its long-standing policy of ignoring movies that are popular with people who actually spend money going to the movies. If a film earns more than $100 million at the domestic box office it is guaranteed to be ignored by the snooty voters of the Academy. This year it is Spider Man No Way Home that got snubbed after raking in an incredible $572 million in a Covid year! 
The whole point of expanding the Oscar nominations from 5 to 10 was to make more room for popular films like SpiderMan to get some recognition and maybe attract more viewers to watch the annual shindig. Instead, Academy voters now just fill all 10 slots with art-house cinema that few people have (or will) see. The most popular nominee this year is Dune which earned just under $100 million at the box office which seems to be the Academy's cutoff point. Any film making over $100 million is only eligible for the Best Visual Effects trophy. 

Dune is also the only nominated film that I have seen so far. I may get around to seeing a few others at some point like King Richard, Don't Look Up and Nightmare Alley. But most of the other films just aren't all that appealing. They are not "popcorn" films that you would want to see again and again. They are more like "eat your vegetables" films. You know they are good for you, but you still don't like it. I've seen a lot of Oscar-winning films that are like that - where the reaction is 'Yes, this was a very good film. Please don't make me watch it again."

Rock Hall of Fame nominees 2022

And here are the 17 nominees....

-Beck
-Pat Benatar
-Kate Bush
-DEVO
-Duran Duran
-Eminem
-Eurythmics
-Judas Priest
-Fela Kuti
-MC5
-New York Dolls
-Dolly Parton
-Rage Against The Machine
-Lionel Richie
-Carly Simon
-A Tribe Called Quest
-Dionne Warwick 

I should just accept that all of my favorite rock bands are never going to make it into the Rock Hall of Fame.

I'm sure you could make an argument that each of the 17 nominated artists this year deserve induction, but none of them would have made my personal top 5.

I bought albums by Devo and Duran Duran when I was in high school. I bought CDs by Beck and Rage Against the Machine post-college. Pat Benatar and Eurythmics were MTV staples. And Lionel Richie was everywhere when I was in college. And, of course, who doesn't love Dolly Parton? I would be happy to see any or all of them in the Hall of Fame. Even Eminem, who I came to appreciate later on.

I don't have anything against the others on the list, just indifferent. I am least familiar with the music of Kate Bush and A Tribe Called Quest. I know who Carly Simon and Dionne Warwick are, but I don't listen to their music enough to have a fair opinion of it. Same with Fela Kuti, MC5 and New York Dolls. And I was never a big metal fan so I am kind of indifferent to Judas Priest.

I would rather listen to albums by Boston, Foreigner, J. Geils Band, Los Lobos and Peter Frampton. And what about Styx, Bachman Turner Overdrive, REO Speedwagon, Kansas and B-52s? I would also like to go back further and honor some great passed-over artists like The Monkees and Paul Revere and The Raiders.

Maybe some day....

2021 Movies

Movies I have seen this year... 

 Black Widow

 Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

 F9: The Fast Saga

 Free Guy

 Jungle Cruise

 Dune

 Cruella

 The Suicide Squad

 Raya and the Last Dragon

 In the Heights

 The Croods: A New Age

 Wonder Woman 1984

 House of Gucci

 Luca

 Soul

 Red Notice

 Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street 

No Time To Die

Encanto

Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

Being the Ricardos

Coming 2 America

The Matrix Resurrections

The Mitchells vs The Machines

Spider Man No Way Home

Tom Clancy's Without Remorse

Suicide Squad

 Movies I still want to see... 

 

 Eternals

 Ghostbusters: Afterlife

 Addams Family 2

 Respect 

 The French Dispatch

 Chaos Walking

 News of the World

 King Richard

 Spencer

Belfast

Don't Look Up

Cyrano

The King's Man

Licorice Pizza

Nightmare Alley

The Power of the Dog

Respect

Ron's Gone Wrong

Sing 2

Space Jam A New Legacy

Summer of Soul

The Tender Bar

Tick Tick Boom!

The Tomorrow War

The Tragedy of Macbeth

West Side Story

Women in the Rock Hall of Fame

Inductees

Aretha Franklin
Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson (The Supremes)
LaVerne Baker
Tina Turner (Ike and Tina Turner)
Ruth Brown
Etta James
Cynthia Robinson and Rosie Stone (Sly and the Family Stone)
Janis Joplin
Rosalind Ashford, Annette Beard, Betty Kelly, Lois Reeves and Martha Reeves (Martha and the Vandellas)
Gladys Knight (Gladys Knight and the Pips)
Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane)
Shirley Alston Reeves, Addie Harris, Doris Kenner-Jackson and Beverly Lee (The Shirelles)
Maureen Tucker (The Velvet Underground)
Joni Mitchell
Christine McVie and Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac)
Cass Elliott and Michelle Phillips (The Mamas & the Papas)
Dusty Springfield
Cleotha Staples, Mavis Staples and Yvonne Staples (The Staple Singers)
Bonnie Raitt
Brenda Lee
Tina Weymouth (The Talking Heads)
Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders)
Debbie Harry (Blondie)
Estelle Bennett, Ronnie Spector and Nedra Talley (The Ronettes)
Patti Smith
Madonna
Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad (ABBA)
Darlene Love
Laura Nyro
Ann Wilson, Nancy Wilson (Heart)
Donna Summer
Linda Ronstadt
Joan Jett (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)
Joan Baez
Nina Simone
Janet Jackson
Stevie Nicks
Whitney Houston
Charlotte Caffey, Belinda Carlisle, Gina Schock, Kathy Valentine and Jane Wiedlin (The Go-Go’s)
Carole King
Tina Turner

2022 Inductees

Pat Benatar

Carly Simon

Dolly Parton

Annie Lennox (Eurythmics)

Early Influencers

Bessie Smith
Ma Rainey
Dinah Washington
Mahalia Jackson
Billie Holiday
Wanda Jackson
Sister Rosetta Tharpe

Elizabeth Cotten

Non-Performers

Carole King
Ellie Greenwich
Cynthia Well

Sylvia Robinson

Award for Musical Excellence

Pattie Scialfa (E Street Band)

Singles

The Chantels
The Shangri-Las
Irma Thomas

Nominated but not Inducted

Mary J. Blige
Kate Bush
The Chantels
Chaka Khan
The Marvelettes
Esther Phillips
Dionne Warwick
Mary Wells

2020 Movies (COVID pandemic)

I only saw two 2020 movies in the theater before everything shut down due to COVID-19:

Bad Boys for Life
Bloodshot

Since then, I have seen the following movies at home via various streaming services like Vudu, Netflix, Disney Plus, HBO Max and Amazon Prime:

Onward
Dolittle
Spies in Disguise
Sonic the Hedgehog
Trolls World Tour
Scoob
Emma
Artemis Fowl

Hamilton

The Old Guard

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

Enola Holmes

Bill and Ted Face the Music

The Current War

Roald Dahl's The Witches

TV Series

Stranger Things
The Crown
The Mandalorian 
The Umbrella Academy
His Dark Materials


Binge Watching

The West Wing
The Great British Bake Off
Grace and Frankie
Star Trek (OS)

Bones

The Good Place

2019 Movies

Seen

*Avengers: Endgame
*Toy Story 4
*Captain Marvel
*Frozen II
*Spider Man Far From Home
*Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
*Aladdin
*Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw
*How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
*Pokemon Detective Pikachu
*Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
*Shazam!
*Dumbo
*Rocketman
*Men in Black International
*Yesterday
*Wonder Park
Playing With Fire
Harriet
The Good Liar
*Missing Link
*Joker
*The LEGO Movie 2
*The Addams Family
*Knives Out
*Abominable
*Gemini Man
Parasite
*Ford vs Ferrari
*Zombieland: Double Tap
*Little Women
*Charlie's Angels
*Motherless Brooklyn
*Dark Waters
The Two Popes

Need to See

*The Lion King
*Jumanji: Next Level
*John Wick Chapter 3
*The Secret Life of Pets 2
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
*Terminator: Dark Fate
*A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
*1917
Ad Astra
Rambo: Last Blood
Uncut Gems
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
*Bombshell
*Blinded By the Light
*Apollo 11

Impeachment witnesses

List of witnesses who have testified so far in the Impeachment of Donald Trump

Gordon Sondland
William Taylor
Marie Yovanovitch
Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman
Fiona Hill
Laura Cooper
George Kent
Jeniffer Williams
David Hale
Tim Morrison
David Holmes


And a list of people who have so far refused or been blocked from testifying...

Donald Trump
Mike Pence
Mike Pompeo
Rudy Giuliani
Rick Perry
Mick Mulvaney
John Bolton
Don McGahn
Michael Atkinson
T. Ulrich Brechbuhl
Lev Parnas
Igor Fruman
Sam Kislin
Russell Vought
Mark Esper

Musical Acts I Have Seen Perform Live

General

Alabama

Janie Fricke

Cheap Trick

Night Ranger

Itzhak Perlman

Kirk Whalum

The Fifth Dimension

Brave Combo

Dixie Chicks
Tanya Tucker
TransSiberian Orchestra
Blue Man Group
Axiom Quartet
Robert Earl Keen
Kingston Trio (new)
Lyle Lovett
Weird Al Yankovic

Kerrville Folk Festival

Chuck Pyle

Tish Hinojosa

Peter Yarrow

Dar Williams

Ellis Paul

Vance Gilbert

Austin Lounge Lizards

Trout Fishing in America

Dana Cooper

Jimmy Dale Gilmore

Butch Hancock

Sara Hickman

Tom Prasado-Rao

Tom Kimmel

Jimmy LaFave

Chris Chandler

Michael McNevin

Bill Staines

Susan Werner

Cheryl Wheeler

Mike Williams

Bill and Bonnie Hearne

David Wilcox

John Gorka

Buddy Mondlock

Bernice Lewis

Mumbo Jumbo

Limpopo

Don Walser

L.J. Booth

Andrew Calhoun

Kat Eggleston

Chenille Sisters

Jack Hardy

Crow Johnson

Ani Difranco

The Crane Wives

The Honey Dewdrops

The Warren Hood Band

Jeff Black

Beat Root Revival

The Jerry Douglas Band

Houston Livestock Show

Michael Martin Murphy

Leann Rimes

Barry Manilow

Kenny Rogers

The Gatlin Brothers

Joe Diffie

Brooks and Dunn

Asleep at the Wheel

Angela Peterson

Broadway Shows

Cats

Into the Woods

Miss Saigon

Phantom of the Opera

Evita

Ragtime

Chicago

Les Miserables

Hello Dolly

The Book of Mormon

New Testament Order

One thing I have learned from studying the Bible is that there are better ways that it could be put together - especially the New Testament.
We all learned early on that the four gospels are

Matthew,
Mark,
Luke and
John.

But as it turns out, that is not the order in which they were written, according to most biblical scholars. Rather, it seems that Mark was written first and was then used as source material for both Matthew and Luke, both of which quote from Mark extensively. And John was written later.
So a more reasonable order to list them would appear to be...

Mark
Matthew
Luke
John

But then, you find out as well that Acts of the Apostles or Acts is believed to have been written by the same author as Luke, thus making it almost like a Luke Part 2. So then maybe the order should be ...

Mark
Matthew
Luke
Acts
John

And then we come to the Letters of Paul. There are 13 of them, but only seven are undisputed as having been written by Paul while there is debate about the other six with some scholars arguing that they were likely written later by followers of Paul due to sharp differences in grammar, style and content. Scholars have also dated the letters according to when they think they may have been written. But in the Bible, for reasons that are not entirely clear, they are listed in order of length with Romans being first because it is the longest and so forth.
But if we were to list them in chronological order starting with the seven undisputed letters it would look like this...

First Thessalonians
Galatians
First Corinthians
Philippians
Philemon
Second Corinthians
Romans

And we could follow that with the disputed letters ...

Colossians
Ephesians
Second Thessalonians
First Timothy
Second Timothy
Titus

Hebrews could come next. It was once attributed to Paul, but practically no one today claims it was written by Paul.

And then the rest of the letters, all of which are disputed as to their authorship...

James
First Peter
Second Peter
First John
Second John
Third John
Jude

Revelation

The author of Revelation identifies himself as John of Patmos and church tradition has long taught that this is the same John who was a disciple of Jesus and the author of John's gospel. But this is disputed by many scholars who believe John of Patmos to be an entirely different person.