Gonna have to navigate without Johni for stretch. 2-4 weeks it sounds like. That run includes:

Jan 14, 2025 vs Miss. St.
Jan 18, 2025 @ Georgia
Jan 25, 2025 vs Tennessee
Jan 29, 2025 @ LSU
Feb 1, 2025 @ Ole Miss
Feb 4, 2025 vs Oklahoma
Feb 8, 2025 vs Florida
Feb 11, 2025 @ Vanderbilt

 

We ain’t scurred. I think it will be a good thing come the end of the season, giving everyone else more touches to make plays & develop.

I'd LOVE to hear a symphonic version of either Dark Side or The Wall.

Now that Sony owns the catalogue, I expect you will be hearing a lot of that in the near future.

I've never been enamored with prog rock with the over synthesizing but agree DSOTM is a masterpiece. Count me in, it speaks to me as well at 66.

I'd say at this point - and there's a 6 in my age too - Dark Side of the Moon has transitioned from speaking to me to haunting me. 

What's the next band to examine?  Are there others that have a similar resoundingly deep impact?  Queen? AC/DC? KISS, obviously (but we can pass on that one, my treatises are already out there and well documented - indisputable, I'd say). Zeppelin? Sabbath/Ozzy?  (I will say Ozzy's later work, and one track in particular - Ordinary Man- does hit me hard). Stones? Van Halen? 

As I write that, I realize I cannot truly think of another band with the psychological resonance of Floyd. I reiterate: It's masterfully operatic and something I'd put on the same pedestal as Beethoven, Mozart, Liszt, Hayden, Brahms, etc. I'd LOVE to hear a symphonic version of either Dark Side or The Wall. 

I've never been enamored with prog rock with the over synthesizing but agree DSOTM is a masterpiece. Count me in, it speaks to me as well at 66.

Beetlejuice 2

Tim Burton’s visual style is one of those things I can only take so much of.  This is more than I can take.  It’s like Burtonfest 2024.

Lot of scenes that serve no purpose other than allowing him to revisit some of the bizarre oddities that made the first film so different and enduring. 

That film was fun, wacky, and suffused with frenetic energy, much of it supplied by Keaton, but supported by strong efforts from the rest of the cast.  This film is sorely lacking that energy. Keaton sorta sleepwalks through the role, like a cosplayer. Winona and Kevin McAllister’s mom are tired. Jenna (she’s in everything now) Ortega isn’t bad but isn’t given much to do. 

Justin Theroux is really bad.  He drags the film down.

There’s a side story about a real live Sally Skellington staple face that detracts from the film. It's so out of place and disconnected from whatever story arc there is, you actually forget is even part of the narrative until StapleFace disjointedly appears. There’s a second side story about a TV cop played by Dafoe that is even less connected. And a THIRD side story about Ortega’s boyfriend. And a FOURTH side story about Theroux and his pre occupation with Whydontcha Ryder (Ride her? I barely know her) and her career as a ghost hunter.  And a FIFTH semi side story about Ortega's piranha-eaten dad which kind of blends into a SIXTH min-side story about the demise of Ryder's dad (pedo Jeff Jones).

All the side stories - as well as the main arc - are resolved far too conveniently, essentially in one fell 15-second (stupid) swoop. 

If you enjoy being drenched  in Burton’s color palette, immersed in his twisted angles, surrounded by his trademark inhuman characters, and presented a “story” that does little more than give him the opportunity to cram as much of that into each frame as possible, maybe this is for you.  It was too much for me.

It felt like a series of barely connected scenes designed to do nothing more than pay homage to a prior success by vomiting as much of the colorful excrement left in Burtons brain at the screen. Other than seeing characters return (lazily) to roles you thought you'd probably never see; and the chance to bury yourself in the Wacky World of Burton, there's not much to recommend here.

I’ll watch the original every couple of years.  It was fresh, fun, and original.  I won’t ever watch this tired retread again.