The Weezer playlist.

1. My Name is Jonas
2. Buddy Holly
3. Say It Ain't So
4. Undone (The Sweater Song)
5. Across The Sea
6. Photograph
7. Hash Pipe
8. Island In The Sun
9. Beverly Hills
10. This is Such a Pity
11. We Are All On Drugs
12. Troublemaker
13. Pork and Beans
14. Turning Up The Radio
15. Back To The Shack
16. California Kids
17. L.A. Girlz

The Elliott Smith mini-playlist.

1. Let's Get Lost
2. Ballad Of Big Nothing
3. Waltz #2 (XO)
4. Pretty (Ugly Before)
5. Son of Sam (Acoustic Version)
6. Miss Misery
7. Somebody That I Used To Know

The conservative NATIONAL REVIEW on Donald Trump.

Key portion of Jim Geraghty's article:
Donald Trump didn’t suddenly change in the past few days, weeks or months. He’s the same guy he always was, the same guy that most of us in the conservative movement and GOP have been staunchly opposing for the past year. He didn’t abruptly become reckless, obnoxious, ill-informed, erratic, hot-tempered, pathologically dishonest, narcissistic, crude and catastrophically unqualified for the presidency overnight. He’s always been that guy, and you denied it and ignored it and hand-waved it away and made excuses every step of the way because you were convinced that you were so much smarter than the rest of us. You were so certain that you had received some superior wavelength giving you special insight into the Donald; only you could tell that it was all an act. Only you could grasp that his constant courting of controversy was just to get attention from the media. Only you could instinctively sense that his style would play brilliantly in the general election and win over working-class Democrats. (SPOILER ALERT: It isn’t.) You insisted that you could “coach him.” You came to those conclusions not because you’re smarter than the rest of us, but because you’re actually more foolish than the rest of us. You insisted Occam’s Razor couldn’t possibly be true– that Trump acts the way he does because this is who he is, this is the way he is all the time, and he will always be like this. You fooled yourself into believing that Trump was playing this nine-level chess that only you and a few others could perceive and understand. Only you could see the long game. There is no long game. He’s winging it.  There is no grand strategy. There is no master plan. Trump doesn’t look ahead to the next sentence, much less the next step in getting elected.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/433432/mental-utterly-stupid-trump-only-cares-about-trump

Why I'm not seeing BATMAN VS SUPERMAN

Warner Bros. and DC Comics made the conscious choice--after the mixed bag of MAN OF STEEL--to double down on the Zack Snyder jackhammer-punch approach.

In 12 minutes, I talk about DC past and recent and explain towards the end why I'm not consuming this Event kicking off the DC Expanded Universe:
http://youtu.be/VghPBAUiQx0

Hoping for better results with the upcoming SUICIDE SQUAD and WONDER WOMAN.

ALLEGIANT: what went wrong.

I didn't make it past DIVERGENT,--but, for those who did, here's a post-mortem on the drop in box office and audience satisfaction from THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/lionsgate-slash-ascendant-budget-as-877141

It's damning look at the please-Wall Street, rush-it-out, audience-satisfaction-ignored, quality-deficient reality of franchise filmmaking dictated by profit projections.

NYT's David Brooks on Donald Trump.

Here's an excerpt from resident NEW YORK TIMES conservative David Brooks' column on Donald Trump:

Donald Trump is epically unprepared to be president. He has no realistic policies, no advisers, no capacity to learn. His vast narcissism makes him a closed fortress. He doesn’t know what he doesn’t know and he’s uninterested in finding out. He insults the office Abraham Lincoln once occupied by running for it with less preparation than most of us would undertake to buy a sofa.
Trump is perhaps the most dishonest person to run for high office in our lifetimes. All politicians stretch the truth, but Trump has a steady obliviousness to accuracy.
This week, the Politico reporters Daniel Lippman, Darren Samuelsohn and Isaac Arnsdorf fact-checked 4.6 hours of Trump speeches and press conferences. They found more than five dozen untrue statements, or one every five minutes.

Link to the entire column:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/18/opinion/no-not-trump-not-ever.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

Margie Ghiz, who operated Midnight Special bookstore, has passed away.

Link to LOS ANGELES TIMES obituary:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?n=margie-l-ghiz&pid=177957699

Stupid political comment of the day from Donald Trump Jr.

Here's what a Son of The Donald said about protesters of Donald Sr.'s thankfully-canceled Chicago rally:
DONALD TRUMP JR. (via Twitter): Ha 5 students when asked why they were protesting couldn't even answer. The participation medal/micro aggression generation is pretty sad!

This is what the United States gets when a Presidential primary season is heavily influenced by bigotedremarks/boorishness/encouragement of brutality/squeamish media afraid to give up ratings dollars by reducing Trump coverage.

RIP George Martin: A 60s Liverpool playlist.

1. Love Me Do--The Beatles
2. She Loves You--The Beatles
3. It's For You--Cilla Black
4. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying--Gerry and The Pacemakers
5. Ferry Cross The Mersey--Gerry and The Pacemakers
6. Bad To Me--Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
7. You're My World--Cilla Black
8.  It's Gonna Be Alright--Gerry and The Pacemakers
9.  A Hard Day's Night--The Beatles
10. Little Children--Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas
11. Yesterday--The Beatles
12. For No One--The Beatles
13. In My Life--The Beatles
14. Strawberry Fields Forever--The Beatles
15. Penny Lane--The Beatles

Film director Alex Proyas blasts GODS OF EGYPT critics.

Alex Proyas, a filmmaker who has an eternal asterisk by his name for directing THE CROW--a film shot in a non-union state which had an accident resulting in the premature death of its star Brandon Lee, recently said this about criticism of his latest, GODS OF EGYPT on Facebook:
Now that anyone can post their opinion about anything from a movie to a pair of shoes to a hamburger, what value do they have – nothing.

The late Roger Ebert, who loved loved loved Proyas' cult film DARK CITY, gets a pass from Proyas:

Roger Ebert wasn’t bad. He was a true film lover at least, a failed film-maker, which gave him a great deal of insight. His passion for film was contagious and he shared this with his fans. He loved films and his contribution to cinema as a result was positive. Now we have a pack of diseased vultures pecking at the bones of a dying carcass.

Here's a Flickering Myth article with Proyas' entire tirade:

http://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/02/gods-of-egypt-director-alex-proyas-unleashes-tirade-against-film-critics.html

And then, there was Proyas' second round on Facebook:

SJW means "social justice warrior" and is the new hot, hip synonym for "politically correct."

Perhaps the only mitigating factor in the GODS OF EGYPT controversy--where Proyas, as with Ridley Scott's EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS, opted primarily to cast white actors as Egyptians (except for Chadwick Boseman)--was Proyas (Australian, but Egyptian-born) being willing to own up to the misstep in advance, unlike Scott:
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/movies/upcoming-movies/gods-of-egypt-director-apologies-for-lack-of-diversity-in-casting/news-story/de9c8bd87edbb10f2131817bd2701f97