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shadowkatMy Aunt (mother's younger sister) advised Mother that Mackinack Island was rather touristy and crowded with tourists, reiterating what I'd learned from my attempt to get recommendations via dreamwidth. So, she's decided that maybe I should just come down to visit her in Hilton Head after all.
The logistics of traveling together seems to be an issue - well that and we can't find a place that makes sense to travel to. Before you suggest she just visit me in NYC? Been there done that multiple times over the years, and it won't work now - I don't have a fold out couch.
Work. Sigh. It's slow and kind of boring again (my work depends on other people and they aren't as efficient as I am.) But, the nice thing about advances in technology - is I have toys to keep me occupied at work now unlike the dark ages - aka the 1980s and 1990s, where I had nada. People don't realize how good they have it right now. In early 1990s, I bought magazines and read them at work to keep myself occupied. Now? I can play with my smartphone. Also the internet. And write my book, and/or play with my book on the computer. Also brought a little sketch book and colored pens. I'm all set. Usually I just drift off to sleep while meditating or reading about horror films on MicroSoft Edge (workplace browser).
I did accomplish a few things this week. Surprisingly enough. I wish I'd done the jury duty - it's been a slow week. But I couldn't risk it interfering with the knee injections, which start next week. And I'd have been anxious and irritated the whole time - worrying over it. With any luck they'll call me in August. But, I have no control over these things. I don't know why they need to put me in their pool at all. I live in a city with over 8 million people in it. It's not like they have a shortage of people. In Kansas - they never called me - because I went to law school and was automatically disqualified. Here? They don't have that rule. Which seems odd - considering NYC has more people than the whole state of Kansas does. So why could Kansas afford to be picky but not New York? (Yeah, I know Kansas has less court cases, but honestly, NY can't possibly have enough to include over 5 million qualified people.)
**
Making my way through the X-Men Animated Series (currently streaming on Disney +) - which I haven't seen since it aired on Fox (before Rupert Murdoch bought Fox and made a travesty of it, until Disney bought it from Murdoch somewhere around 2020) in the mid-1990s. And I only watched it intermittently back then. It aired between 1994-1996, right after law school and right before I moved to NYC. Hence the reason the sequel is entitled X-men '97 (it takes place one year after the original concluded).
Is it any good? Eh. It depends on what you like or what floats your boat? X-men is a superhero soap opera with insanely convoluted plots that appear to be written by folks on an acid trip. No one reads or watches the X-men comics for the plotting. They do it for the characters - it's a superhero relationship drama with a heavy thematic emphasis on human rights, and being an outsider or ostracized for being different. Mainstream comics, it's not - that's Batman and Superman and the Justice League, X-men is kind of counter-culture comics. They'd been around about thirty years before they took off briefly in the 1990s. Then disappeared again from the public eye, to resurface in a slew of movies and animated series, then went underground again.
So, is it any good? It's uneven. There are good episodes and bad episodes. It's a lot like Doctor Who and the long running soap - General Hospital (which just celebrated filming it's 30,000th episode - which airs July 1 - yes, it has 30,000 episodes. I think it has Doctor Who beat in regards to longest running scripted television series) in that regard. The arc episodes are actually better than most of the stand-a-lones, also for some reason - the animation is better when the Shiar (the alien Empire - X-men is sci-fi), show up, then in episodes dealing with the run of the mill monsters or evil mutants of the week or bigoted humans of the week. The Corsair (the leader of the X-men's estranged father who had been kidnapped by aliens and saved by pirates, and became a space pirate....yes, that's a subplot) episodes are actually pretty good from an animation and story perspective. The dialogue, sigh. It's not quite cringe? But close in places. Whoever wrote this - sucks at dialogue.
They apparently spent a lot of time watching old Dirty Harry movies, and decided Wolverine should sound like Dirty Harry. He even states at one point: "If you're lucky, I won't....., do you feel lucky? Well, do you feel lucky, bub?"
Wolverine isn't quite as bad as Beast - who quotes random bit of Shakespeare throughout the series. Often with no warning, and out of nowhere. Which is admittedly better than Rogue, who sounds like the dumb blond in the Beverly Hillbillies, and like to throw old Southern Folk Sayings out at random, along with Southern Slang, such as - you are as skittish as a mouse on skittle. And she says this with a very thick very fake Southern accent.
In contrast, Cyclops, Jean, and Jubliee aren't bad, nor are folks like Magneto and the Shiar. Which may explain why their episodes are better.
Where do they get these television writers? The comic book writers are much better at dialogue.
That said? It has its moments. The Phoenix Saga is actually a lot better than I'd remembered. They follow the books fairly closely, with just a few
segues. The first is - there's no scene in New Mexico between Scott and Phoenix - which is iconic to the books, and used repeatedly throughout them. In the comics, she removes his visor, and holds back his optic blasts with her telepathic powers, and they make love on the top of the butte. This is not in the series. Another difference is that Jean reacts when Phoenix hurts Wolverine - in the book she doesn't hurt Wolverine, and had reacted when Wyngaard slew Cyclops in the astral plain. The other two involve Dark Phoenix - she doesn't kill billions of people on an entire planet, by eating it's sun. Instead she destroys an uninhabited solar system by eating its sun - they basically fixed it. They had screwed up by going with what they thought at the time was the cool and boundary pushing image of a major character eating a sun and killing an entire planet and race of people on it (D'Bari). But the problem with doing that - is you have to kill off the character, the character can't come back from it. So they wrote the character into a corner, and struggled with it ever since.
So in the animated series - they fixed it, so yes, the Phoenix eats a planet's sun, destroying the system, but nobody dies. In the comics - Jean kills herself to prevent the Phoenix from enacting more damage, and is moondust, dead. While in the animated series - she dies but is revived by a bit of each of her friend's life forces.
The animation for the entire Phoenix Saga is page by page similar to the comics. So kudos to the animators for doing that. I just wish the writing was as good, it is in places, but the difficulty is that Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Colossus - worked better than Rogue, Gambit and Jubliee. They did keep Dazzler in there at least. Dazzler was first introduced in the Dark Phoenix arc.
So a mixed bag, but that's true of the comics too. I kind of look at the X-men comics like published fanfic? With art? It varies by writer and artist, some are really good, some...make me wonder how they ever got hired and if the person who hired them was stoned at the time? But I feel like that in my own work place.
It is a good comfort watch though. Also, it dates well. Most things that aired in the mid-to-late 1990s do, though? The cultural vibe started to change around that time, and became a little kinder and more diverse. (Thank you NAACP and the LGBTA and Women's Rights movements - it didn't do it in a vacuum, it had help.) Also to be fair? The X-men and Marvel were always a bit on the liberal progressive side of the house. (DC not quite as much?) Stan Lee was very liberal. And the X-men had a pro-outsider or ostracized minority vibe. It's why I loved them, it's also why they were very counter-culture and kind of underground or cult.
The logistics of traveling together seems to be an issue - well that and we can't find a place that makes sense to travel to. Before you suggest she just visit me in NYC? Been there done that multiple times over the years, and it won't work now - I don't have a fold out couch.
Work. Sigh. It's slow and kind of boring again (my work depends on other people and they aren't as efficient as I am.) But, the nice thing about advances in technology - is I have toys to keep me occupied at work now unlike the dark ages - aka the 1980s and 1990s, where I had nada. People don't realize how good they have it right now. In early 1990s, I bought magazines and read them at work to keep myself occupied. Now? I can play with my smartphone. Also the internet. And write my book, and/or play with my book on the computer. Also brought a little sketch book and colored pens. I'm all set. Usually I just drift off to sleep while meditating or reading about horror films on MicroSoft Edge (workplace browser).
I did accomplish a few things this week. Surprisingly enough. I wish I'd done the jury duty - it's been a slow week. But I couldn't risk it interfering with the knee injections, which start next week. And I'd have been anxious and irritated the whole time - worrying over it. With any luck they'll call me in August. But, I have no control over these things. I don't know why they need to put me in their pool at all. I live in a city with over 8 million people in it. It's not like they have a shortage of people. In Kansas - they never called me - because I went to law school and was automatically disqualified. Here? They don't have that rule. Which seems odd - considering NYC has more people than the whole state of Kansas does. So why could Kansas afford to be picky but not New York? (Yeah, I know Kansas has less court cases, but honestly, NY can't possibly have enough to include over 5 million qualified people.)
**
Making my way through the X-Men Animated Series (currently streaming on Disney +) - which I haven't seen since it aired on Fox (before Rupert Murdoch bought Fox and made a travesty of it, until Disney bought it from Murdoch somewhere around 2020) in the mid-1990s. And I only watched it intermittently back then. It aired between 1994-1996, right after law school and right before I moved to NYC. Hence the reason the sequel is entitled X-men '97 (it takes place one year after the original concluded).
Is it any good? Eh. It depends on what you like or what floats your boat? X-men is a superhero soap opera with insanely convoluted plots that appear to be written by folks on an acid trip. No one reads or watches the X-men comics for the plotting. They do it for the characters - it's a superhero relationship drama with a heavy thematic emphasis on human rights, and being an outsider or ostracized for being different. Mainstream comics, it's not - that's Batman and Superman and the Justice League, X-men is kind of counter-culture comics. They'd been around about thirty years before they took off briefly in the 1990s. Then disappeared again from the public eye, to resurface in a slew of movies and animated series, then went underground again.
So, is it any good? It's uneven. There are good episodes and bad episodes. It's a lot like Doctor Who and the long running soap - General Hospital (which just celebrated filming it's 30,000th episode - which airs July 1 - yes, it has 30,000 episodes. I think it has Doctor Who beat in regards to longest running scripted television series) in that regard. The arc episodes are actually better than most of the stand-a-lones, also for some reason - the animation is better when the Shiar (the alien Empire - X-men is sci-fi), show up, then in episodes dealing with the run of the mill monsters or evil mutants of the week or bigoted humans of the week. The Corsair (the leader of the X-men's estranged father who had been kidnapped by aliens and saved by pirates, and became a space pirate....yes, that's a subplot) episodes are actually pretty good from an animation and story perspective. The dialogue, sigh. It's not quite cringe? But close in places. Whoever wrote this - sucks at dialogue.
They apparently spent a lot of time watching old Dirty Harry movies, and decided Wolverine should sound like Dirty Harry. He even states at one point: "If you're lucky, I won't....., do you feel lucky? Well, do you feel lucky, bub?"
Wolverine isn't quite as bad as Beast - who quotes random bit of Shakespeare throughout the series. Often with no warning, and out of nowhere. Which is admittedly better than Rogue, who sounds like the dumb blond in the Beverly Hillbillies, and like to throw old Southern Folk Sayings out at random, along with Southern Slang, such as - you are as skittish as a mouse on skittle. And she says this with a very thick very fake Southern accent.
In contrast, Cyclops, Jean, and Jubliee aren't bad, nor are folks like Magneto and the Shiar. Which may explain why their episodes are better.
Where do they get these television writers? The comic book writers are much better at dialogue.
That said? It has its moments. The Phoenix Saga is actually a lot better than I'd remembered. They follow the books fairly closely, with just a few
segues. The first is - there's no scene in New Mexico between Scott and Phoenix - which is iconic to the books, and used repeatedly throughout them. In the comics, she removes his visor, and holds back his optic blasts with her telepathic powers, and they make love on the top of the butte. This is not in the series. Another difference is that Jean reacts when Phoenix hurts Wolverine - in the book she doesn't hurt Wolverine, and had reacted when Wyngaard slew Cyclops in the astral plain. The other two involve Dark Phoenix - she doesn't kill billions of people on an entire planet, by eating it's sun. Instead she destroys an uninhabited solar system by eating its sun - they basically fixed it. They had screwed up by going with what they thought at the time was the cool and boundary pushing image of a major character eating a sun and killing an entire planet and race of people on it (D'Bari). But the problem with doing that - is you have to kill off the character, the character can't come back from it. So they wrote the character into a corner, and struggled with it ever since.
So in the animated series - they fixed it, so yes, the Phoenix eats a planet's sun, destroying the system, but nobody dies. In the comics - Jean kills herself to prevent the Phoenix from enacting more damage, and is moondust, dead. While in the animated series - she dies but is revived by a bit of each of her friend's life forces.
The animation for the entire Phoenix Saga is page by page similar to the comics. So kudos to the animators for doing that. I just wish the writing was as good, it is in places, but the difficulty is that Kurt Wagner, Kitty Pryde, Colossus - worked better than Rogue, Gambit and Jubliee. They did keep Dazzler in there at least. Dazzler was first introduced in the Dark Phoenix arc.
So a mixed bag, but that's true of the comics too. I kind of look at the X-men comics like published fanfic? With art? It varies by writer and artist, some are really good, some...make me wonder how they ever got hired and if the person who hired them was stoned at the time? But I feel like that in my own work place.
It is a good comfort watch though. Also, it dates well. Most things that aired in the mid-to-late 1990s do, though? The cultural vibe started to change around that time, and became a little kinder and more diverse. (Thank you NAACP and the LGBTA and Women's Rights movements - it didn't do it in a vacuum, it had help.) Also to be fair? The X-men and Marvel were always a bit on the liberal progressive side of the house. (DC not quite as much?) Stan Lee was very liberal. And the X-men had a pro-outsider or ostracized minority vibe. It's why I loved them, it's also why they were very counter-culture and kind of underground or cult.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-05 03:06 am (UTC)You absolutely don't need to drive in New Orleans, incredible city, and flat. You take the trolley car. Bajillion things to do.
I remember that the X men was not very good.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-05 01:26 pm (UTC)I should clarify? Mom lives on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and neither of us are really "beach" folks - we like to walk the beach or look at the water, but lying on the beach or swimming in the ocean - isn't our thing. And at this stage - mother can't really walk that well on beaches - the uneven or shifting sand is hard on her hips.
Mother's been to New Orleans? And she was there in the 1980s. And she'd rather take me to Chicago - where I was born and have no memory of. LOL! She's nostalgic and loves Chicago. I'll have to go to New Orleans on my own - unfortunately. ;-) New Orleans poses similar logistical issues - lots of walking, heat, and meeting up. I'm thinking a river cruise might work best, or a cruise around the great lakes (but damn, they are on the pricey side...). I may mention it to her as a possibility though - a friend of hers went there recently on a cruise. It's a good place to visit in the Fall or Spring (not the summer).
I think she wanted to see Mackinack Island because it was a place that my parents tried to go to, and never made it to.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-05 01:38 pm (UTC)I kind of do other things during those and use them as background noise. It's a great thing to watch while doing other things because of that.
no subject
Date: 2026-06-05 08:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-06-05 01:37 pm (UTC)