John Wick Gets a Flat Tire and Runs Out of Gas

So I finally saw John Wick Chapter Four. I was very happy that Halle Berry had no part in it, but that didn't save it. Not for me. Because it was really just the same ol', same ol' all over again. And again. And again. And again. I mean how many fight scenes and over-the-top killings from start to finish can a person tolerate? I mean, talk about overkill. Literally AND figuratively. Killing, killing, and more killing. It was too much. And this is coming from a guy who wrote a book called Killer of Killers along with a sequel called Killer Eyes. (That would be me.)

So someone might ask, "Hey dude. Since you wrote a book called Killer of Killers, and it's about a dude who kills, how come you're criticizing a movie that features another dude who kills. Well, I might answer, "Because in my book, Killer of Killers, and in its sequel, Killer Eyes, there was a lot more than just non-stop scenes with non-stop killing going on. My books had plots, and a message, and morals, and love interests, which means romance, and strong friendships, and back-stories that tied everything together to forge a strong story-line, with several strong three dimensional characters.

Look. I really liked the first two John Wick movies. I was even a fan. But then, starting with Chapter 3, which they called John Wick Parabellum, and included the aforementioned Halle Berry, it was getting to be too much. Another word for it is gratuitous. Yes. Gratuitous violence, and gratuitous killing. It was just too much. It glutted the senses. It was as if it made killing to be ho hum and even boring. I already wrote that Halle Berry playing the part of a female John Wick reduced the significance of the John Wick character. He was no longer special. It was as if anyone, even a five foot two inch 110 pound, middle-aged woman could be a John Wick, which meant that ANYONE could be a John Wick. And that meant the John Wick Character was just another person that anyone could be.

In my books Killer of Killers and Killer Eyes, it was cleary demonstrated that the main character, Trent Smith, was the greatest martial artist in the world. And only one person can be the greatest something in the world. Plain and simple. And he only killed people who had already proven themselves to be murderers. In John Wick, the dude killed for "markers" and that meant he killed innocent people.

Nevertheless, I liked the first two movies. It should have ended with the third installment, without a Halle Berry role, and it should have been written in a way that satisfied the story, the premice and the characters. But they got a flat tire in the 3rd movie, and then in the 4th movie they plain ran out of gas. Oh well. It was fun, like I said, at first. But then, it wasn't anymore.

Revised Volume 10 - Rockin' the Dark Side

Now that I have a distributor to place my music on the online platforms, I decided to redo my least favorite album. Volume 10 - Rockin' the Dark Side. It was my least favorite only because I felt that my singing on that album sucked more than any other album of mine. So I decided to go ahead and try to re-sing the songs. Every single one. I had done that before for Volume 3 - Rockin' the Hard Road. It had always been one of my favorites, but I just felt I could sing it better and I did. I had also revised some of the songs, as I had noted earlier on this blog. But with Volume 10 - Rockin' the Dark Side, it was only the singing that needed redoing. And while I was at it, I also revised some of the lyrics. But once I was in front of the mic, I had to sing some of those songs up to fifty times before I got a take that sounded right. Can you imagine that? As many as fifty times before I got a take that met my satisfaction. That's a lot of singing. The same song over and over again. And ten total songs. I wouldn't quit, though, because I really believe those songs are fantastic.

And with the success of Volume 10, I can proceed to put more albums onto TuneCore for distribution. I had noted earlier that I only have Volumes 1 - 4 on there. Pretty soon I'll put up 5 - 10. I may want to re-sing Volumes 11 - 13. But it might not be possible because on some of those songs I hit notes that I can no longer hit. It's a shame. It takes a lot of effort for me to be able to sing some of my own songs. Sometimes I can do it and sometimes I can't. It remains to be seen. As for now, however, I can be content with Volume 10. It's on SounCloud and sounds great. Check it out.

My Music to be Distributed

I have noted the last couple years, that I have put my creative writing on the back burner in favor of creating original music. In fact, I had been a song writer long before I wrote novels. It's true I had written a few stories in my younger days, but not to the degree that I had been writing music. Ultimately, it was all about technology for me. When I was a young teen, I was writing music on my parents' upright piano. I had no means to record those songs, so the songs that I kept playing into adulthood were the ones I remembered. And when the technology caught up to me, I recorded some of them on a cassette tape. But then when the technology continued to catch up to me, e.g. computers and word processors, I was inspired to write novels, and I did. Five of them, with two more on hold. After that had played out, I decided to go back to writing music, because, yes, the technology continued to catch up with me. I bought more pianos, the electronic kind, which were great for writing music. And I did. I wrote 145 songs, or the equivalent of 14 albums, and they are all listed on the right margin of this blog. Those links will take you to SoundCloud where all of my music can be found. But there are so many more platforms, I've learned, other than SoundCloud. There's Spotify, and other more common ones, like You Tube, and more. But I learned you have to have a distributor to get your songs on many of those and there are plenty of distributors. I opted for TuneCore, and my first four albums are distributed now.

I've also learned that for ditribution, some of the platforms do not want volume numbers listed as part of the text on the cover artwork. SoundCloud didn't care, but since I am getting my albums on all platforms now, I went ahead and deleted the volume numbers from the titles of the albums as you can see on these images.

If anyone has any inkling to hear my music, (which is great music if you like Alternative Rock,) then you no longer will be limited to SoundCloud to hear it. You can go to any other music platform, now, and my music will be there. Within the next couple of weeks, I plan on having all fourteen of my albums live on all of the online music platforms. I hope you can enjoy the music as much as I have.

Blacklist - Suicide by Bull? WTF?

 All good things...as they say. But the end to The Blacklist was, for me, at least, disappointing. I was very happy with the writing up until the very last scene of the very last episode. Agent Ressler finds the dead body of Red Reddington in a field. He had been gored by a bull. So, yeah, like WTF?

In the show, Red had entered into a bull's corral, whether by accident or deliberately, (the writing did not make it clear.) But what was clear is that when Red faced off with the bull, he made no effort to vacate the area. He just stood there and waited for the bull to gore him. Actually, the bull seemed to be giving Red a chance to leave. But he didn't. And the last thing we saw in that scene was the bull beginning its charge. So, yeah. I've heard of suicide by cops, but this was on another level.

And, as I said, the final scene of the series is Ressler finding Red's gored and bloodied body. And very dead. A very anticlimactic ending, imo. We did have a eulogy of sorts, for Red, shortly before that, from the bed-ridden Dembe, which was fitting. However, for me, anyway, it would have been better writing if the camera never showed the dead body of Red. After the "bull" scene, I think it would have been better if Red was never seen again, alive or dead, by Ressler or anyone else. 

And if Ressler had never found the body of Red, then the audience could have fantasized that Red was living out the rest of his days somewhere with that very nice Cuban woman which the writers had established was very willing to do so. (You know, the younger sister of his former girlfriend.) Btw, about that. How was it that Red hooked up with his former girlfriend's little sister? That was never explained. Some people would call it lazy writing. But I digress.

A great character like Red Reddington, like Conan, should never be shown killed or dead. That's not to say he can't get killed. It just shouldn't be shown. It's what I didn't like about the final Daniel Craig Bond movie. Well, they really didn't show him killed, did they? (Nor did they show his dead body.) Okay, then, it is one of the major criticisms I have of the Star Trek movies because they did show Captain Kirk killed and even buried. (I hated all those movies.)

And yes, I do place the character of Red Reddington up there with my all-time favorite characters, which include Conan, James Bond, and Captain Kirk. Yes, indeed. Red belongs. 

One last comment. I never got my wish for the show to provide a definitive statement that Red was the biological father of Lizzy Keen. Although the writers were kind enough to put in the dialogue that he was the grandfather of Lizzy's daughter. I suppose that will have to do.

The Blacklist Once Again Back on Top

I know I've been all over the map with my opinions of the TV show called The Blacklist. I had praised it, I had panned it, and I had been everywhere in-between. The highest opinion I had at one point of this show was that it had supplanted Star Trek, TOS, as my all-time favorite TV show. That was after its third season, I believe. And I am glad to reveal that now, in its tenth and final season, The Blacklist has once again resumed its place on my all-time favorite TV show list.

The reason is a simple one. James Spader. The role he plays, Raymond "Red" Redington, is a great role. The world's most notorious villain. Except, he isn't really a villain. And his acting is absolutely flawless in every single episode. The supporting cast, now that Megan Boone is gone, is also stellar. And, yes, that was a knock on Megan Boone.

At one point I had thought her role in the series was necessary. And it was during its time as my favorite show. But it was largely, (although, not solely) because of her my opinion of the show began to wane. I was getting tired of this actress, or her role, and I found myself not enjoying the show as much because of her and other reasons. Those reasons I have documented often on this blog.

As for the final season now under way, we have found that the role of Elizabeth Keen was never necessary, and neither was the actress Megan Boone. James Spader was all the show ever needed. Of course, the FBI task force of Assistant Director Cooper, Agent Ressler and the new computer guy, Herbie, who has taken on the comedic role in place of the since departed Aram, is doing great and so is the new female member, Siya, who is a far preferable character than Lizzy Keen. 

But to wrap up this great show, it's great writing that takes precedence. Red knows he is dying and he is disassembling his mighty empire piece by piece, while at the same time, taking care of all the people who had worked for him. And that includes the FBI task force.

The only thorn in my side is that annoying politician who seems to be so hell bent on taking down the task force for no other reason than because the Attorney General won't fill him in on the secrecies of its mission. He has a driven mistrust of them and believes he is in the right. 

It's annoying, like I said, but I have no doubt that the great writers will pan it out to my satisfaction with the final two episodes that are left in this final season. And then, perhaps I can re-watch the entire series from the beginning, this time knowing that I don't have to be disappointed by the episodes that disappointed me before. Because I'll know it will all work out in the end. 

Oh, and before I forget, I still would like the final episode to reveal, once and for all, something we all must already know, that Red is the real father of Lizzy Keen. But even if they don't, I would like to thank James Spader for his contributions to a great show, a great role, and a great performance.

Time Travel Shows

 I have seen a lot of shows that feature the premise of time travel. Many Sci-Fi shows like Star Trek sometimes have this in its storyline. And shows sometime feature time travel as the main premise of the entire series, or the entire movie. Like a show I'm watching now. The Lazarus Project.

It's a great premise for a fictional show. Why not? But there is one catch. Time travel to the past, like in The Lazarus Project, (and The Time Tunnel from the 60s,) is not possible. Ever. Time travel to the past just cannot happen. However, time travel into the future is a different story.

I read about real life experiments that have shown that time travel into the future CAN happen. It's been proven that when an object is traveling close to the speed of light, time, for that object, is moving more slowly. But, of course, time on earth is still moving at the normal speed, ie, seconds, minutes, hours, days.

For example. It could be day one on Earth when a spaceship is launched. It goes very fast into space. And for the people inside that spaceship, time is moving more slowly compared to the time that goes by on earth. Then, say, the spaceship returns to earth on day three for the people inside the spaceship. But for the people on earth, it's day four, five, or six.

So that means the people inside the spaceship actually time traveled into the future. It's a poor example of what I'm trying to point out, but it is still proof that time travel into the future is possible.

One of the first stories ever written that had time travel as a premise was H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Wells had it right, that the main character traveled into the future. Okay, that was something possible. However, Wells wrote in the story, that the character managed to travel back to his own time after he had gone into the future. Then of course, those who have read the book know that he once again returned to the future where had a a girlfriend waiting for him and it's where he preferred to be.

So if that one part where he returned to his own time didn't happen. Wells would have nailed it on the world's first time travel book. But so what. It's fiction. Enjoy it and move on.

Revisions Went Well

 These past few months, I have been revising, revising, and revising. But not just my five books. My many songs as well. To date, I have completely revised The Vase, John Dunn, Second Chance, Killer of Killers, and I am pretty close to finishing the revisions to Killer Eyes.

Now to submit them to publishers again. They are better than ever, so I am optimistic. That doesn't really mean anything, I've learned, in the publishing world. It seems that so many people fancy themselves as authors, the field is gutted with submissions, and it's a hard-pressed industry to find the gems from the seemingly millions of submissions. Of course, my five books qualify.

I have also enjoyed revising many of my songs to the point that I am emboldened to continue revising even more of them. Mostly I revise songs because I want to improve the vocals. Since I am really not a singer, many of my songs must be re-sung. And the good news is that whenever I do re-sing a song on a recording, it does end up sounding better.

Which means the recordings are vastly improved for that reason. And a great thing about SoundCloud is that you can replace any of the files, (songs) on any of the Playlists (albums) at any time, and as many times as you want, (or need to.) So that is what I've been doing.

On Volume One, Rockin the First Steps, I've revised and replaced the files of the following songs: Tell Me When, It Was a Weight, Tale of Sorrow, I'm Laughing, The Moment, It's a Win, and One Day. And the vocals sound so much better now. That is not to say I'm a good singer now, I'm not. But at least I'm hitting the notes and I stay in key.

On Volume Two, Rockin the Millennium, I've replaced the following files: Demon Dance, Inferno, and Too Late. And ditto on the way they are better. On the song Too Late, I even rearranged  it so that it's about two minutes shorter. And it's better for that reason as well.

On Volume Three, Rockin the Hard Road, I've replaced all the files. Because I re-sang all the songs. And even rearranged some. As a result, the entire album is great. Those songs are some of my all-time favorites. And I'm very happy with that album now.

And the list goes on. As I was getting better every time I recorded, the remaining albums had less songs that needed replacing, but I will still keep on revising and keep on improving. 

That's what artists do.

Hooray! Halle Berry is NOT in John Wick 4

So maybe I'm not done with the John Wick franchise after all. And maybe I'm late with this news, but I just found out that Halle Berry is NOT reprising her role in the 4th installment of the John Wick franchise. She should not have been in the 3rd installment. 

I have said I would have had no problem with Halle Berry performing the role of a strong female character in the franchise. Just not a female version of John Wick.

I should never believe news through the grapevine. As that was what I was going by when I thought she was going to be returning. So, okay. I guess I have a movie to look forward to after all. 

Hooray.

Done With John Wick - Thanks to Halle Berry

 I had posted after watching John Wick 3 that the inclusion of Halle Berry almost ruined the franchise for me. Nothing personal against Halle Berry. If they had found a good role for her, no problem. And I would agree with a strong female character for her, as stories and real history are filled with strong female characters and female heroes.

But no. At Berry's insistence, no doubt, they gave her the role of a "female" John Wick. Meaning there she goes beating up ten, twenty male fighters all at once. So, I cannot buy into that. And I am NOT a misogynist or a chauvinist. Quite the contrary.

Like I said, I believe in strong female characters. But my criticism is that a woman, or anyone for that matter, doesn't have to prove their strength by beating people up. Or by killing them by the dozens. I mean, aren't we seeing in real life enough psychos out there killing people? The headlines are filled with stories like that. Are we supposed to believe these mass murderers are strong characters?

I say it's bullshit. Look. The story had an ex-assassin return to avenge the wrong done to him in his own way. But the LEGEND of the John Wick character (the Boogey-Man) as was his nickname to the Russians, was that he was a one-of-a-kind type of assassin.

Which is why the inclusion of Halle Berry as the female John Wick ruined it for me. Now, John Wick is no longer a one-of-a-kind assassin. Now we have a 5' 3", 110 lbs. woman who is 50+ years old as his fighting style equal. That means there's nothing special about John Wick anymore. 

Now, it's like there's nothing to see here, folks. Now, you can just round up anyone, any age, any gender, any size, and you can have another John Wick.

I was willing to let it go, if the one scene Halle Berry was in was the ONLY scene she would be in. But I have learned that is not the case. I have learned that she will indeed be back in John Wick 4, and no doubt, the equal or dare I say, the superior to our beloved hero, John Wick.

So screw this John Wick franchise. I have gone on record as to insisting that beating people up and/or killing people by the dozens is not how you prove to be a strong character. Is this what we are teaching our kids? Is this what we are teaching our sons and now our daughters?

Being a public school teacher as I have been for thirty years, I have seen more fights between teenagers than anyone should ever have to witness. And yes, far more fights than I had seen than when I myself was a teenager. IT'S UGLY. Is anyone out there listening? 

And most of these fights I've seen are between GIRLS. Sure some guys will duke it out, but it's over in a minute or two. When girls fight, they are scratching and clawing with their nails, pulling out handfuls of hair, ripping at clothes, poking, gouging, anything and everything!

IT'S UGLY. It's not the choreographed dance-like moves, that the fighting sequences in the movies portray. NOTHING like that. I never want to see another girl fight the rest of my life.

Nor do I want to see a 56 year-old Halle Berry beat up and kill dozens of grown men twice her size, and then try to believe it can really happen. Because it can't. I will not see any more John Wick movies. Halle Berry's inclusion in the franchise didn't almost ruin it, it ruined it.