Let's Put the Kids to Bed and Live a Little

Now you know I'm not a fan of the PG-13/superhero onslaught.  One out of every two movies is made for children and the rest are made for morons, or so it would seem to any serious person.  But. . . at least for a moment. . . maybe there is hope.  From today's N.Y. Times:

Sex in mainstream movies was “pretty much gone by 2019, as Ann Hornaday, chief film critic for The Washington Post, wrote in a column that year. A few months later, Kate Hagen, writing in Playboy magazine, found that only about 1.2 percent of films released between 2010 and 2020 contained an overt sex scene, the lowest decade total since the 1960s. (It peaked in the 1990s. Coincidentally or not, that was the decade when pornography started to become available online.)

Now, some filmmakers are pushing back.

Awards season brought “Saltburn,” with its arousing-disturbing bathtub scene and Barry Keoghan’s twirling, full-frontal finale. “Poor Things” found an insatiable Emma Stone romping through a Paris brothel. Christopher Nolan filmed the first sex scenes of his 35-year career for “Oppenheimer.” (“More interested in the joys of sex than any recent season I can remember,” as Kyle Buchanan, awards columnist for The New York Times

 Now sex isn't the thing, I think, that will make films better.  But Jesus. . . this constant catering to the child's mind is pretty asinine.  Children should have entertainment, sure.  Most of it DOES need to be viewed by adults, I think, because there is some pretty vile stuff in there.  Watch the Disney Channel sometime.  When I was helping to raise a kid, I would never let him watch stuff like "Mandy and Mindy" or "All About Raven" alone.  There were others.  Disney had an agenda that I wanted to point out to him.  It wasn't just Disney.  I wanted to make sure he understood that Beavis and Butthead were morons to be laughed at, not emulated.  I didn't want him running around yelling "Fire! Fire!" without a sense of irony.  

So. . . "Barbie" vs. "Oppenheimer."  

Oh. . . but I want to make something clear.  If that author thinks that nudity and sex are the same thing, "they" are really fucked up.  People get naked without having sex, trust me.  I've done it myself.  A lot.  Especially recently.  

🤷🤷🤷🤷

Today is Derby Day.  I will watch, of course.  Horse racing is some shitty business, but those beasts are going to run their hearts out today.  Maybe literally.  Bred for speed, jacked up on steroids and methamphetamines, they sprint the mile and a quarter with wild, ferocious eyes.  Put this right in there with bullfighting, I think, as a sport.  Dog racing used to be a big business in my state until they banned it a few years ago.  I never went to a dog race.  I've been to one horse race down in Hialeah, Florida at the historic Hialeah Park that closed in 2001.  It was quite something.  I won two dollars, I think.  

But my father loved watching the Derby and I haven't missed watching one in my adult life.  I've watched it from some pretty spectacular places, too, and today, I think, I will go to a favorite small bar and stand with a drink and the crowd and watch the ponies run.  

That after I pitch the mulch.  I'm not looking forward to that, but I need to get out in a bit before the day heats up.  I tossed about a third of it yesterday in the hottest part of the day, and that was no picnic.  But I will get this done in three or four hours, take a soak in the tub, get dressed, and then go to get some frozen ice from the kid up at the nobody-knows-what-it-is store.  

Then mom's.  Then derby.  Holy smokes. . . it is a big day.  Hell, I might get dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant, too.  

Last night, I finally finished scanning all the surf negatives.  Thank goodness.  Now it is on to cooking them up.  That is going to take a significant amount of time.  Then I can start building a website, the first part.  I'm going to get all my stuff on it eventually.  Not "all," but the stuff I like.  But. . . I am going to need to buy a printer.  Hey, buddy. . . can you spare a dime?  

$ $ $ $

So. . . here's to a little adult thinking and living free of vampires, cartoon characters, and superheroes.  Here's to wine and bread and cheese and olives and cafes and the old nightcap.  Here's to a liberal and serious mind.  

Maybe I shouldn't have used that poster for today's post.  I mean. . . you know. . . it doesn't help my argument, does it?  About being serious.   

O.K.  Not that serious, then.  Maybe just some stupid he and she fun.  "They and they," I mean.  It's O.K. with me.