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If you push down all of the racial stuff embedded in Netflix’s Iron Fist you are left with one glaring deficiency: The titular character is simply not bad ass enough. After all, 30 seconds of AMC’s Into The Badlands is enough to make you put your Tony Jaa poster away. Yeah, the combat is that good. However, it isn’t good at all in Iron Fist, and that is the real tragedy.

Iron Fist is supposed to be the baddest fighter on the planet. While Netflix and Marvel collaborated to weaken this character into someone who gets stronger through the focus of being struck in combat, he still ought to be ‘dank-ass’ enough that hitting him one time is considered a holy achievement. If I want to see a well trained and super cool fighter get knocked around I can throw on season one of daredevil. Here is feels out of place and limiting.

In many ways this is actually a show about Colleen Wing finding herself. How do I know? Shows are about a character’s growth and she is the only one with a character arc. Halfway into the season nobody else has even changed or grown. Even her fight scenes evolve to reflect her growing bad assery (yes, it is MY word).

I’m not at the end, so this isn’t a whole review. I’m getting there and so far I don’t know how to feel about what I see.

 

The odds are slim you will read this–only slightly more than you knowing it even exists. However, if you do read it, take it to heart. You are 18 yrs old now and the living, breathing engine of how most things work around here. I can only imagine how hard it is to be a girl–harder than it is to watch you grow up, I suppose, but we share the same fears. I am terrified and exhilarated by who you can become. You are in every way possibility. You are in every way unmoored and adrift. There are pressures attacking you from every possible direction, each wanting what is either what they think is your best interests or in their best interests.

‘What do you want?’ is an impossible question for an 18 yr old. The problem then with possibility is that it creates a multitude of paths that don’t offer much more than trouble, disappointment, and hard mental work from the onset. Moving forward–turning 18–is like busting out of a cocoon. You can become so overwhelmed with that freedom that the easiest and most expedient thing to do is to fly away.

But where are you going?

I’m not sure this message makes much sense. I tend to ramble when I am searching for the right words. Here is one clean takeaway though: Be mindful. Freedom is a dangerous thing, because you aren’t actually free. You’re just in a bigger game where you don’t necessarily know all the rules yet.

Just a little ways from 42 I’m wondering what is next, what I will do with this very important and golden year. It is, after all, the secret to life, the universe, and everything. Douglas Adams wrote masterpieces in his time and I have written a few stories I feel are definitely worthwhile. But what is next? Well, it is high time to fully commit to my short story collection. I am at the point where I am about to leave the city that inspired the collection, and I want to leave knowing I’ve made progress. Inspiration is so horribly rare these days that I laud every second of it that I can come by.

 

Some Thoughts:

1. The fan on my computer runs constantly, trimming my batter life to less than two hours.
2. Riverdale is a travesty of film making. I mean, come on! You made a show based on the Archie comics and turned it into a badly conceived version of 90210 with, yah, Luke Perry as the key father figure. So… that happened. Then it got renewed for a second season. No wonder it is hard to find inspiration. Everything around me is trash.
3. Emily Bett Rickards is the only reason to continue watching Arrow. She’s made the show for a while and continues to make rockstar performances as other cast members fade.

As I write, gardeners attack the weeds covering my home space. It is taking a crew of dudes most of the morning to get the yard cleared. I thought I might take on the task with the help of three kids 12 and under? I was living in a pipe dream. The price of $200, which I openly balked at, seems quite fair (if lowball) at this point. All o this serves to reflect that I don’t see or know everything. I can’t. I have a specific perspective that is based on my assumptions and my limited understanding of how things work. I can take that ‘epiphany’ a step further to apply it to some of the other things I think I can do. I think I can be an NFL GM today. I mean, I watch inside the NFL, NFL Network, SportCenter, and Ballers. I know my stuff. Heck, I’ve seen Jerry MacGuire and Draft Day.

Sounds stupid, right?

The Cherokee say, ‘don’t judge a man until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes.’ I think this philosophy is lost on so-called modern man. We create a sense of understanding and belief based upon our own media-driven interpretations of reality and of the lives of others. We don’t –even for once– try to walk a mile in their shoes, instead we think of how we’d traverse that space in our own shoes.

I am learning everyday. I am learning to be a better father, a better man, a better partner, and above all else, a better human. This serves as another lesson on my journey. Here’s something else I’ve learned: The journey itself is what matters, because the destination–the end–is a place our consciousness is not able to travel.

Some Thoughts:

1. A better word count today. I am trying to get to a place where I can find the words and the words can find me. I.e. I’m connecting to the ‘speed force’ of words.
2. I am also connecting/reconnecting with my office. It is a wrecked place, but it is a place where I can find some moment of solace. This is going to be  determining factor in my upcoming move. I think I want to find a 3 bedroom house, so I have that place to work–that or a bedroom which serves a similar purpose.
3. I feel good about today’s blog. First time in a while that I have.

So here is the deal. I do not do well without deadlines. Given that my writing group’s meeting schedule is suspect over the next few weeks and the company I’ve been writing on a contract basis for over the last two decades hasn’t paid me over the last two years, I am stuck on what to do. There is an offer out there to write something for said company. There is also the opportunity to produce something to deliver to the group once we get back int he swing of things. Now I have to decide which of these two options will make me a better writer.

I think I am going to go for the corporate option. I am actually past expecting money for the work any time soon, but the idea of a deadline is compelling to me. I know I work best when the printer is waiting. I also know that pleasing my editor is a big deal to me–no matter who that editor is. This all adds up to show me that the best option might actually be to go for the corporate option, engage with that group of writers and in the process have something to give to my group as well. Two birds kind of situation.

And it only took ten minutes to decide.

What do you get when you cross the guy who wrote Godzilla with the guy who wrote Nightcrawler and the guy who directed, well, Funny or Die? You get Kong Island. You get a film that is (pardon the pun) more than meets the eye.

The movie is written and filmed as if the makers knew their particular audience needed an extra nudge to get the base message of the film. It wasn’t hidden. In fact part of the clue to the deeper meaning of things is the fact that the film is shot in two ways. For every straight on shot you get another that is off angle enough to let you know that meaning is shaped by one’s relative position to the context.

Beyond all of that, it is a monster movie. It is a big budget film that is about a giant gorilla-like creature. It is also part of a series of monster films centered around a governmental organization (how American of us) called Monarch–yes, we are talking about Mothra.

The reviews have been all over the place. The films clear allusions to Apocalypse now and Heart of Darkness either point out the deeper intricacies of the human condition or just make for some cooly reminiscent visuals. For my two cents, it is a bit of both. Kong has a message but lets you know that you get from it what you have in you.

I had this moment when I imagined The Great Wall commercial as a Trump parody… “What are they fighting? Why did they build that wall?” I didn’t laugh out loud, but my insides were roiling. Yes–not rolling. I’ve found that expanding my use of words in strange contexts makes for fun and thought-provoking language.

It is 10:00 on a Saturday night that has been a long time coming. We kicked off the season, wiping away 6 weeks of anticipation on the way to a 31-19 win. If I’m being honest, 6 of the nineteen are on me. I have not gotten things good with my kicker yet, and sometimes he kicks some utter nonsense. One such kick landed in the arms of the opposing team’s best player and, yeah, he took it to the house. This will not happen in the rematch. So, 31-13 is really how that went down in my mind and we got ourselves a season! These boys were able to put up points and play decent defense. We also had the added bonus of watching the Rams White (my old squad) wipe the floor with the Coyotes–forcing the mercy rule two minutes into the second half with no Coyote plays going for positive yardage. That is how things ought to be.

Tomorrow is the first game of the 2017 spring season and I am nervous. We had six weeks to train up a raw group of boys and girls. Six weeks to undo a lifetime of parent coaching and parent and player ego that only serves to make a kid the star of their orbit. We had six weeks to build trust and get some plays in for them. Tomorrow a lot of that goes out the window in favor of a group of nervous kids, but the training ought to kick in before too long.

I’m nervous because a win is needed for this young group. They need to get out there, score early, and believe they can compete. I believe that they can do that and make one another very proud.

Some Thoughts:

1. Nudity is just nudity until there is some sort of social value behind it. That is largely why Kim Kardashian remains so appealing and why Naked Marine Women is a story all over the news. Sex sells.

“Straight up, late nights mixed with early days
It’ll probably be that way until the pearly gates
Stress weighing on me, they want me to nervous break
These hoes showing fake love when I prefer the hate, man
Sheesh, at least if you real then I have to respect it
Realize the energy you give is what you manifested
So understand we positive as could be
The vision is still intact, the show is fresh out of seats”

Thanks, Big Sean. I should just end the blog there. That is everything I have to say. Seriously. I’m trying to get to those last two lines. I’m trying to get back to giving 100% and knowing that, no matter the stress, I’m gonna get it every time. I’m trying to get here:

 

“Woah, I hear a little bit of me in all your favorite rappers
You know it’s true, bitch I need respect due
Now or later, either way I’mma take it
Just like it’s fuckin’ taxes
No wonder I’m on fire, I done been to hell and back bitch
Lately I been living life in detachment
I practice seven spiritual laws and cut off distractions”

Once upon a time I used to break down lyrics of rap songs and think, ‘how much of this is metaphor for where I’m trying to be?” More and more I see where I was and where I am going now. I don’t need holy keys to get there, just a sense of energized purpose, passion, and a squad in my corner. I got a taste of that last part. I got a partner who rides with me. I got a crew who keeps me on the pen. The rest is all me to realize the energy I give is what is manifested and give just a bit more.

Here is the naked truth:

I have worked for a company over the las 20 years that has undergone upheavals. My job has been as a freelance author, contributing words to some of their greatest works. I have been paid a pittance for this over the years, but it was steady publishing and made me feel good about my writing. In a way they represented a crutch that propped up my writing career. In a way they represented a barrier guarding the way to truly spectacular and original fiction. I have written many stories for this group over the past few years. I have not been paid for a single one. This is despite contracts that require them to pay me. This is despite 20 years of hard service.

This is completely disrespectful.

This is also a symptom of a much larger life issue. People will walk over others if the path to do so offers less resistance than other options. I always feel as if I set myself up to be taken advantage of. Why else would a company decide to skip out on two years of payments to me?

So, another part in this long winding transformation is to get back to the motto ‘always forward’ Something Joe Pike and Luke Cage taught me over the years. Don’t look back and dwell on that life that included those people and their lack of respect. Move on. Earn it elsewhere.