Squid Flicks: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Title: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Director: John Cameron Mitchell

Original Release Date: January 2001

My Overall Rating: 5 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

John Cameron wrote, directed and starred in what I consider to be one of the most under-appreciated films around.  In my mind, I maintain a list of movies I wish more people would see.  Hedwig resides comfortably on that list.

Hedwig Robinson grew up in East Berlin, assigned male at birth.  She fell in love with Luther, an American soldier, who convinced her to get a sex change and marry him as part of a scheme to leave the country.  The operation was botched, leaving Hedwig with... unsatisfactory genitalia, thus the title of the film.

We first join the story as Hedwig, now living in Kansas, is trying to make a living as a rock musician.  Luther is long gone.  Tommy, a more recent lover, has become a star, propped up by songs we all know Hedwig co-wrote with him.  

Those are the basics of a whirlwind story.

We saw the movie at the Vermont International Film Festival's screening room.  I would be remiss if I did not point out what our child helped clarify for me: Hedwig is not a drag queen movie.  While it shares thematic material with Priscilla (last week's movie) and To Wong Foo, it is not of the same genre because Hedwig is not a drag queen.  Botched operation or not, Hedwig is a trans woman and living as such.  The wigs and the boas add to her performance. They are camp but they are not drag.

It's also better than either of those more commercially successful films.  Hedwig is adapted from Mitchell's off-Broadway musical of the same name, music by Stephen Trask.  Mitchell's on-screen performance is fearless and relentless.  The vast majority of the material - the lines, the songs, the camera shots - focuses on the one leading character, far more so than one typically sees in a movie.  The music is wonderful.  I've written about the showstopper, "Wig in a Box," before.  Hedwig was a huge hit at Sundance but disappointed in its mainstream run.  

Hedwig can be difficult to watch.  It's funny, visually dazzling and musically charming.  It's also continually heart wrenching.  What's more, Hedwig is not always a likable person, guilty of mistreating others as she has been mistreated.  Parts of the story can be uncomfortable for a cis man, that healthy kind of uncomfortable we've talked about before (here, for instance).  Lean into that discomfort and it will broaden your world concept.  

Star Trek: The Muse

Episode: "The Muse"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 21

Original Air Date: April 29, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Onaya, a beautiful and mysterious woman, arrives at the station.  She and Jake are drawn to one another instantly.  Evidently, Onaya has a thing for creative men.  She inspires them in their work, then draws on their energy like a vampire.  Meanwhile, Lwaxana Troi turns up, too, and she's pregnant.  She enlists Odo to help her escape from her current husband.  Our dear compassionate constable even goes so far as to marry his friend in order to help her out of her predicament.

This is a much-maligned episode by critics and internal creative staff alike.  I don't hate it.  Admittedly, the Onaya story is weak - though everyone praises Meg Foster for her performance in the titular role.  On the other hand, I like the Lwaxana/Odo tale.  As I have written before (here), Lwaxana is more likable with a bit of vulnerability - most people are, fictional or otherwise.  It also helps to have one in-story character who genuinely appreciates her.  We all know - Lwaxana included - that Odo's affection for her does not extend beyond platonic.  That said, his speech in her praise at the wedding is both earnest and touching.  She made his world a larger, less lonely place.  Truly, what more can any of us ask of a friend?

And even the Onaya story has its merits.  As I have for this entire run, I watched the episode with our child.  In the midst of a tender scene between Ben and Jake, they declared Ben Sisko "the best fictional dad."

"Better than Atticus Finch?" I asked.  

"Yes, in my opinion."

I'm not quite ready to make that claim myself yet but I acknowledge the strong claim.  As I've written in previous posts (such as this one), the affection between the Sisko men is unusual for men of color on American television.  I'll take it a step beyond that.  A man lovingly and reflexively kissing his adult son on the forehead is something you just don't see on screen, no matter the race of the characters involved.  In the 2020s, Ted Lasso has gotten a lot of credit for promoting healthy, non-toxic masculinity (see this article).  DS9 was setting its own fine example 30 years earlier.

In one scene, Jake is reading a Horatio Hornblower novel.  Once again, Star Trek piques my curiosity about nautical literature.

Oyana can't help but remind me of Alma Mahler.  Here's a musical tribute by the inimitable Tom Lehrer who just passed away this summer:

Acting Notes

via The Vampire Diaries Wiki

Meg Foster was born in Reading, Pennsylvania, May 10, 1948.  She trained at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of Theatre in New York.  

Her big break came when she won the role of Christine Cagney in the TV series Cagney & Lacey.  Unfortunately for Foster, the part was re-cast for the second season.  Evidently, it was a crushing blow for the actress and her career prospects.  She was still able to find guest appearances, including turns on The Cosby Show, Quantum Leap and ER.  She had a recurring role as Hera in both Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Princess Warrior.  Earlier in her career, she played Hester Prynne in a miniseries adaptation of The Scarlett Letter.  Films include Ticket to Heaven, The Osterman Weekend and They Live.

The light blue eyes one sees in "The Muse" are, in fact, natural.  Mademoiselle magazine once called Meg Foster's "the eyes of 1979."  Many producers made her wear colored contacts.  Fortunately, they were perfect for Star Trek.  

Squid Flicks: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Title: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Director: Stephan Elliott

Original Release Date: May 15, 1994

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Not long ago, our child watched To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, a 1995 Hollywood hit film about drag queens starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo. They loved it. I told them yes, that one's good but the movie you really need to see is The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, an Australian smash released the year before.

I'd watched both decades earlier, I think even before my wife and I were married.  I saw Priscilla first and was absolutely blown away.  Thanks largely to RuPaul, social acceptance of drag queens was on the rise in the mid-'90s but a major film production like Priscilla was still daring.  While it's technically a comedy, it hit the sensitive spots just hard enough to bring poignancy.  The queens' dresses were plenty fabulous.  The queens' actual lives?  Not so much.

Tick (Hugo Weaving in his international breakout role), a drag queen in Sydney, is offered a job in far away Alice Springs.  He invites transgender Bernadette (Terence Stamp, RIP) and the beautiful but obnoxious Adam (Guy Pearce).  They buy a converted bus, which Adam names Priscilla, and they hit the road.  They face hardships - mechanical difficulties, hostility, abuse and even assault (thankfully averted just in time) - but also joys.  An friendly indigenous tribe takes them under wing for an evening.  They meet their savior, the amazing Bob (Bill Hunter, who was in the midst of a string of Australian international hits).  They find love.  

And running throughout is an undercurrent love letter to the Australian Outback.  Costumes and makeup are amazing, as one would hope.  But just as stunning is the scenery.  Acting is wonderful and the writing pitch-perfect.  The soundtrack is stellar.  The ABBA show is definitely worth the wait.

One blemish costs Priscilla a star in my rating.  The character Cynthia, Bob's Filipina wife, plays on ugly Asian stereotypes.

Apart from that misstep, it's a wonderful movie, and definitely better than To Wong Foo.  Perhaps I'll cover that one another time.

State of the Blog 2025

Blogging Year 17, here we go!  

I don't have any big changes planned for the coming blogging year.  The schedule will be the same...

Tuesdays: Family Adventures

Fridays: Star Trek

Occasional book posts

For Star Trek, it's onward with both Deep Space Nine and Voyager.  I should be well into Season 5 for the former and Season 3 for the latter by this time next year.  We have a movie coming up before long, too.

Family adventures will likely continue with the same themes: travel, food, film and games, more or less in that order of priority.  No big travel plans for this year but Spain/Morocco was far from a certainty twelve months ago so who knows?  I can virtually guarantee trips to Massachusetts, DC and Pennsylvania.  Beyond that, we'll see.

I am eternally grateful to those of you who stop by to read and engage.  As always, if any of you enjoys reading The Squid half as much as I enjoy writing it, we're all doing fine.  

Squiddies 2025

The Armchair Squid turns sixteen years old today.  It's time to hand out some hardware.  The Squiddy goes to...

Biggest Surprise: Casablanca

Morocco wasn't even the point of our late-February/early-March trip.  Royal Air Maroc had the best airfares for getting to Andalusia.  Why not extend what was already a long layover in Casablanca?  We could add another country - indeed, another continent - to our life lists.  Is Casablanca even that exciting a city?  According to the guidebooks and the websites, not really.  But if we're going to go at all, let's not spend half the time trying to get somewhere else.  Let's make the most of where the plane lands.

Well, wouldn't you know it.  Casablanca knocked our socks off.  No, it's not a tourist trap and that was perfectly fine after our more conventional adventures in Spain.  It's just a city where people go about their daily lives - people who let us walk in their midst for a while, mostly ignoring us, to be honest.  My friends, it was grand.  That's what real traveling is - not gawking but simply being.  Fly on the wall rather than sightseer.  No long lines.  No tour guides.  Just life.

I'd live there for years given the chance.  It's been a long time since I've felt that way about a place.

Biggest Disappointment: Trump's Second Term

Is disappointment even the right word?  Donald Trump's narcissistic lust for tyranny is not exactly a secret.  And yet, my country voted him back into the Presidency.  I guess that is my disappointment.  I'm still amazed and deeply discouraged that so many people aren't horrified by him.  They want this.  All of the bigotry, misogyny, contempt, incompetence, recklessness, dishonesty, crassness, arrogance, pettiness, the near-daily betrayals - they aren't dealbreakers.  Folks, that says a lot more about us than it does about him.  

And the feeble response of the Democrats in Congress has been appalling.

I fear for the present and the future.  Even if we can turn this around, the mess to clean up will be huge.  Plenty of the damage can never be entirely undone.

And that is what they want.

Best Read: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

We're living in interesting times.  It can be difficult to know what to say to people.  The Right is so... programmed.  They all watch the same news shows, visit the same websites, watch the same TikTok videos, stick to the same talking points as if they are gospel.  Even imagine they are gospel.  Even when they're in clear defiance of gospel.  

I'm veering off point.

If you're looking to make solid progressive arguments, Reni Eddo-Lodge's book is a great reference.  More importantly, it's an essential read for white people to better understand the racially-framed experiences of people of color.  Systemic racism is real whether you believe in it or not.  So is privilege.  The question is what you do with truth once it's presented to you.  

Thanks to my ex-pat time in Japan, I still have several British friends.  A few of them believe racial injustice is an American problem and not a British one.  I really want them to read this book.

You should, too.

Best Comics Find: Love and Rockets by Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez

via Wikipedia

I've been aggressively exploring the comic book medium for over a decade now and practically the instant my curiosity took me beyond Marvel and DC, I started hearing about Love and Rockets.  First launched in the early '80s, L&R is considered by many to be the most important and influential indy comic in the American industry.  I'd never read it until this summer.  Now I'm hooked.

Why is L&R so good?  The characters are so real you can practically smell them.  You experience their love, their pain, their shame, their thrills, their lusts, their losses because you are sitting next to them on the couch, feeling awkward as Maggie and Hopey start making out right in front of you, forgetting you're there.  It's the same reason Scorcese films are amazing.  These aren't strangers.  They're the young squatters in the house next door with sketchy friends stopping by all the time.  They occasionally ask you to buy beer for them because they're not old enough yet.  They're the rowdy group of young men talking too loudly in the street late at night outside your front door.  Or it's even closer.  You're in the street with them, annoyed by the stuffy old geezer who keeps telling you to shut up and go home.  

This intimacy is achieved so elegantly you don't notice until after you've been absorbed.  Every storytelling experience should be like this, yet it rarely is.  Without question, L&R is a masterpiece.

Athlete of the Year: Ichiro Suzuki

via Wikipedia

The Armchair Squid began life as a sports blog but I rarely return to the subject anymore.  Of the athletes I did mention over the past twelve months, no one had a better year than Ichiro Suzuki.

In late July, Ichiro became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.  Ichiro was simultaneously the greatest contact hitter, the greatest leadoff man, the greatest outfield arm and the most internationally beloved player of his generation.  Just one unbelievable stat of many: for ten consecutive seasons, Ichiro had at least 206 hits.  Ty Cobb can't claim that, nor Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Rod Carew nor any of the other great contact hitters.  In fact, no one else has even come close.  Pete Rose also had ten seasons with 200+ but never more than three in a row.  Sports fans are forever talking about "records that will never be broken," then Alex Ovechkin surpasses Gretzky's once-unassailable career goals total.  I feel 100% safe saying that Ichiro's ten consecutive years with 206 hits or more is untouchable. 

During his career, there was discussion of whether Ichiro could truly be considered one of the all-time greats, having spent so much of his early career in Japan.  In the end, the Major League numbers alone were plenty: 3,089 hits, .311 lifetime batting average, 509 stolen bases, 10 All-Star Games, 10 Gold Gloves.  The years in Japan only pad the already sterling resume.  Without a doubt, he was one of the greatest athletes in American sports for nearly two decades.

Best Family Adventure: The Alhambra

The Alhambra in Granada, Spain was the main target for our aforementioned February/March trip.  The Alhambra, a UNESCO heritage site considered by many to be the most beautiful man-made structure in the world, has been at or near the top of my travel wish list for as long as I have known it existed, over 30 years.  With such high expectations, a let down is practically inevitable.  Even while we were there, I worried I wasn't doing enough to appreciate what I was seeing.

I needn't have worried.  The Alhambra is an experience that invades your soul.  Now, just a few months later, it feels like a dream.  Were we really there?  I remember our last day in Granada, already wistful over the fact that we had to leave.  Already thinking of how to make the most of the next visit, knowing full well it might never happen because life is like that.  

So, yeah.  I read all of that and it sure looks like I had a great year.

Apart from Trump.

Fuck Trump!

Star Trek: The Thaw

Episode: "The Thaw"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 23

Original Air Date: April 29, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Voyager happens upon what is initially presumed to be an abandoned planet.  Neelix identifies it as a former important trading colony and scans reveal evidence of an advanced civilization, but no life forms.  And then, they receive a hail.  Miraculously, a very small group survived 2.3 km below the surface in artificial hibernation.  The hail was an automated response (we've seen those before) as they are still asleep.  Our friends beam the hibernation pods to the ship in hopes of reviving the occupants.  Then the real fun begins.

In order to learn more, Kim and Torres enter the same hibernation state where the survivors have generated a shared dream scape to keep their minds active.  Unfortunately, the dream has turned to nightmare.  A tyrannical clown (Michael McKean) embodies all of the inhabitants' anxieties and he uses them to manipulate, terrorize and even kill.  Obviously, all must be rescued.

The set up is complicated for what evolves into a fairly straightforward hostage narrative.  Of course, it's Star Trek so the philosophical exploration behind it all makes the basic a lot more interesting.  Plus, Michael McKean is predictably outstanding.  It's difficult to imagine anyone else playing an evil clown so expertly.  With the zany characters, simple set and melange of striking colors, "The Thaw" has the look and feel of an original series installment.  Overall, it's strong, one of Season 2's best.

Acting Notes

via Disney Wiki

Michael McKean was born in New York City, October 17, 1947.  He holds a BFA from Carnegie Mellon and an MFA from NYU.  

McKean is one of the most recognizable television actors of his generation.  Never exactly an A-lister, he built his career as a top-notch comic character actor.  In 1976, he and his comedy partner David Lander were cast together in the Happy Days spin-off series Laverne & Shirley.  In fact, McKean and Lander had created their characters of Lenny and Squiggy while they were still in college.  Later, McKean was a company regular in several of Christopher Guest's mockumentaries, including This Is Spinal Tap, Best in Show, A Mighty Wind (for which he won a Grammy for the song of the same name) and For Your Consideration.  Over the years, he's made numerous appearances in highly regarded shows, including Better Call Saul, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep and The Good Place.  

McKean is the last surviving member of the Laverne & Shirley original principal cast.

via Wikipedia (McKean/Lenny bottom left)

On the Coffee Table: Love and Rockets

Title: Love and Rockets

- Maggie the Mechanic

- Heartbreak Soup

- The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.

Writers and Artists: Jaime Hernandez (for Maggie the Mechanic and The Girl from H.O.P.P.E.R.S.) and Gilbert Hernandez (for Heartbreak Soup)

via Amazon

In 1981, the Hernandez brothers - Gilbert, Jaime and Mario - self-published the first issue of Love and Rockets (L&R).  Many consider L&R to be not merely an independent comic but the independent comic.  Even 40+ years later, the American comic book industry is still dominated by the superheroes of the Marvel and DC universes.  Stories about "real life" are the rare exception.  Throw in the fact that L&R showcased Latinx characters in a medium that has always been white-dominated and queer characters long before they were fashionable in any medium and you have the seeds for something genuinely different.  

But of course, L&R is more than merely novel.  The quality of the work and the sophistication of the storytelling are astonishing.  This was my introduction.

L&R lives in two separate story threads (sometimes more) created independently by two different brothers.  Locas is Jaime's world.  Maggie and Hopey are friends and occasionally lovers.  They're both late-teenagers (out of high school but can't drink legally yet) in LA's punk scene.  Narrative perspective shifts freely in both worlds though, at least so far, most Locas stories follow Maggie, the saner, more relatable of the two.  There are low-grade sci-fi elements.  Maggie works occasionally as a space rocket mechanic, particularly in the beginning.  A couple of female professional wrestlers play prominent roles in some of the stories.  No, seriously.

via Amazon

Gil's characters live in Palomar, a fictional village in Central America.  While Locas is very good, Palomar is the real treat.  We follow the residents as they grow up together.  They develop deep friendships, they quarrel, they get each other pregnant, they marry and divorce, they even occasionally kill each other.  It's like a soap opera but better because the characters are fully dimensional.  You fall in love with one of them, then learn about their past sins.  You come to loathe one of them, then learn about their pain.  There's always more to the story.

via Amazon

In both threads, characters age, lose and gain weight, change hairstyles, etc.  They have believable insecurities.  In short, they're allowed plenty of room to be human.  Historically, the Hernandezes have earned a lot of praise for exhibiting a wide range of (relatively) realistic body types, especially for their female characters.  I would argue their portrayal of women is not without its shortcomings but it's still far better than what you'd see from their mainstream contemporaries.  

There's loads of nudity, violence, substance abuse, sex and so on.  So, L&R is not for little kids.  Teens and up are probably best, especially if they have a trusted adult to talk to about some of the rougher material.  While there are otherworldly elements, the power comes with the realism.  I can hardly wait for more. 

Squid Eats: Café Mamajuana

Caribbean restaurants seem to be on the rise in northwest Vermont, a welcome development by my reckoning.  The newest one for us is Café Mamajuana, a Dominican fusion place in Colchester.  We visited recently with friends and were most pleased.

I ordered the chicken and waffle empanada off the specials menu.  

As a big fan of soul food in general, fried chicken and waffles is practically an obligatory order for me when I see it.  I'm not sure how the waffles themselves factored into the dish - the description said they were in the empanada.  Wherever they were, the result was delicious.  I enthusiastically tried stuff off of other people's plates, too: my wife's La Canoa, a child's Tres Leches French Toast and salami from something.  All were good.

La Canoa

Café Mamajuana is only open 10-4, Wednesday to Saturday so the emphasis is brunch and lunch.  As for the "café," multiple coffee options and baked goods are all on offer.  We left with a couple doughnuts for the next day's breakfast, involving such exotic flavor choices as mango and guava.

Overall, it was a highly positive experience.  I'm sure we'll be back.  Sometime, I'd like to try the Poutine Dominica.

Star Trek: Shattered Mirror

Episode: "Shattered Mirror"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 20

Original Air Date: April 22, 1996

via Memory Beta

Garak episode!

Mirror Universe (MU) Jennifer comes to visit Real World (RW) Benjamin in his dimension.  RW Jake meets her for the first time and is naturally eager to get to know her.  Unfortunately, Jennifer's motives are not 100% pure.  The plan is to lure Jake back to the MU so RW Ben will follow and help the Terran rebels - now in control of Terok Nor - put the finishing touches on their own Defiant.

As previously discussed (here), I'm not a huge fan of the Mirror Universe.  The original series episode is amazing but the use of the MU in DS9 feels mostly unnecessary.  That said, following up on the "what if Jennifer had lived" angle from Jake's perspective is genuinely meaningful.  

"Shattered Mirror" also brings MU Worf into the story for the first time.  He's is a Regent for the Cardassian-Klingon Alliance and he arrives on the scene determined to take back the station.  He captures MU Garak, the only Alliance official to escape the rebellion alive.  The chemistry between the two characters is wonderful, reminding me the actors hadn't had much previous opportunity to play off of one another.  MU Worf, while clearly a bad guy, is just as obviously a happier Klingon than his RW counterpart.  No conflicted identity baggage.  Just a warrior.  It suits him.

Our child and I watched together virtually.  We were most amused by MU Dax and Bashir's '80s new wave hairstyles,

via Memory Beta

via Star Trek Expanded Universe

bringing this to mind:

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Carlos Carrasco (a Klingon officer) was born in Panama City, April 5, 1948.  He attended Canal Zone Junior College where he discovered acting.  An instructor helped him get an acting scholarship to Stephens College in Missouri where he was one of eight male students at a predominantly women's college.  

Films include Crocodile Dundee II, The Return of Superfly and Speed.  Television credits include Hunter, Angel and Parks and Recreation.  "Shattered Mirror" was his second of four Trek appearances.

Squid Mixes: Southside Cocktail

A Southside Cocktail combines lemons, sugar, mint and gin.  The recipe I found in Gary Regan's The Joy of Mixology calls for four lemon wedges muddled with the other ingredients before shaking.  In muddling full wedges, you get a lot of peel which certainly enhanced the sharp tartness of the resulting beverage.  I enjoyed the drink quite a lot.  It's certainly sour - and pulpy - but the sugar and mint bring enough to take the edge off.

Worth noting, other recipes I've seen use limes instead of lemons.  

The drink's origins are unclear.  Is it the South Side of Chicago or the South Side Sportsmen's Club in Great River, New York?  The most colorful theory supports the former, suggesting it may have been a favorite of gangster Al Capone's.

Star Trek: Hard Time

Episode: "Hard Time"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 19

Original Air Date: April 15, 1996

via Memory Alpha

During a mission to Argathra, Chief O'Brien is falsely accused of espionage.  Unfortunately, Argathri justice is swift.  Before Starfleet can intervene, 20 years of prison memories are imbedded in O'Brien's brain and Doctor Bashir is unable to remove them.  Obviously, returning to "real life" after such an experience is brutally challenging.  

Star Trek's fascination with criminal procedures on other planets continues.  The closest precedent is Voyager's "Ex Post Facto" in which Tom Paris is forced to continually relive his supposed victim's final moments.  However, while the previous story focuses mostly on proving Tom's innocence, all of that is beside the point in O'Brien's situation.  Guilty or innocent, for the Chief, the damage is done - just like in the real world.  The difference makes for a far more poignant and compelling tale.

Worth noting: this episode came out only a year-and-a-half after Shawshank Redemption, a film which delves much deeper into the question of what prolonged prison life does to the human psyche.

Acting Notes

via Elm Street Wiki

Craig Wasson played the role of Ee'char, O'Brien's ill-fated cellmate.  Wasson was born in Ontario, Oregon, March 15, 1954.  He graduated from the University of Oregon.  His films include Body Double, Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and Four Friends, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination.  Television credits include The Bob Newhart Show, M*A*S*H and Murder, She Wrote.  He's musically talented, too.  In The Boys in Company C, he wrote and performed "Here I Am (in Vietnam)" which became the movie's theme song.

On the Road: Pennsylvania and Maryland

I made my annual journey to the Tree Farm (see here) in Pennsylvania this past week.  I traveled on my own this year as both wife and child had to work.  So, it was just my parents and me in the cabin.

The Tree Farm doesn't change much from year to year but the people in the community do.  There was a new baby this year.  And, of course, there are those who have passed away since we were all last together.  The rest of us just get older.

Most of my visit was quiet and predictable but I did go on one side adventure to Camden Yards in order to see my favorite baseball team, the Baltimore Orioles.  It's a three-hour drive from the Tree Farm but still considerably closer that from home.  The Colorado Rockies were in town for a three-game series.

Those who follow Major League Baseball (MLB) already know it's been a horribly disappointing season for the O's.  With two consecutive playoff appearances and a young, talented player core, expectations were high for more of the same in 2025.  It hasn't worked out.  The injury list has defied belief and it has impacted every facet of the game.  Just one example: the O's have already used six catchers this year, tying a team record.  And we still have two months left to go.

So Sunday's tilt was a matchup between two bad teams.  As miserable as my Birds have been, the Rockies have been much worse: 30-81 as I write this on August 4th, by far the worst record in the big leagues.  Still, a game is a game.

Fortunately, the Orioles have been much improved over the past couple months and they won Sunday's game easily, 5-1.  Japanese right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano was the winning pitcher: a quality start with 8 Ks, 2 walks, 4 hits and 1 earned run over six innings.  Sugano, a highly decorated ace in Japan, has been a mixed bag in his first (and likely only) year in Baltimore but unlike nearly every other pitcher on the staff, he's stayed healthy.  So far.  It was nice to see him do well.

Sunday was a big day for Japanese baseball in general as Ichiro Suzuki became the first Japanese-born player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York,

Watching a game between two bad teams in late July, the looming trade deadline means quite a lot of the players on the field will be in different uniforms within a few days.  Sure enough, five Orioles who played in the game I saw were gone by Thursday...

Cedric Mullins, CF, traded to the Mets

Ryan O'Hearn, 1B, Padres

Ramon Laureano, PH/RF, Padres

Andrew Kittredge, RP, Cubs

Seranthony Dominguez, RP, Blue Jays

Dominguez was also traded two days later between games of a doubleheader to the team in the opposite clubhouse.  Starting pitcher Charlie Morton was traded to the Tigers.  Utility infielder extraordinaire Ramon Urias was traded to the Astros.  

Eutaw Street

A mural devoted to pre-integration baseball

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful stadiums in MLB.  For a devoted fan such as myself, it also feels a bit like a museum with statues devoted to the Orioles' undeniable pantheon of six legends from the glory days.  You scoff?  The Orioles were the American League's dominant team from 1966-83.  Go ahead, check the numbers.  These six, each enshrined in Cooperstown and each with a retired number in Baltimore, were essential to that success:

Cal Ripken, Jr., shortstop, The Iron Man, now co-owner

Frank Robinson, outfielder, probably the single best player in franchise history.  Alas, he played more of his career with the Cincinnati Reds.  He was also the first black manager in the Majors.

Brooks Robinson, third baseman, The Human Vacuum Cleaner, 16 Gold Gloves - the most by a non-pitcher, widely considered the best fielding third baseman ever.  Worth a Google.

, 

Eddie Murray, first baseman, owner of the greatest sideburns in baseball history.  When I was old enough to start paying attention, he was the man.  "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie..."

Earl Weaver, manager

Jim Palmer, starting pitcher, Jockey underwear model, still one of the color commentators for the team

Star Trek: Rules of Engagement

Episode: "Rules of Engagement"

Series: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Season 4, Episode 18

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Worf is in big trouble.  When the Defiant is attacked by Klingon Birds of Prey, Worf accidentally fires upon a civilian transport just as it decloaks, apparently killing all on board.  The Klingon wants him extradited to Qo'noS to stand trial.  The episode revolves around the extradition hearing with Sisko serving as defense counsel.

Some have been critical of plot holes but I'm always up for Worf development.  While Worf is on the witness stand, Ch'Pok torments him with the predictable "Are you truly Klingon?" taunts and just as predictably, they work in provoking our man.  The interesting, though unstated, revelation for this particular installment is that Worf, despite his outcast status within the Empire, is still symbolically important to the Klingons in power.  Obviously (to the viewer), they framed him in this particular instance.  They did so for broader strategic reasons but also because they still see Worf as a threat.

"Rules of Engagment" is a good O'Brien episode.  We learn a little bit more about his military record - 22 years of service, 235 combat encounters, decorated 15 times - and also about his regard for Worf, his longtime colleague aboard the Enterprise.

Acting Notes

via Wikipedia

Ron Canada (Ch'Pok) was born in New York City, May 3, 1949.  He graduated from Columbia University.  His path to acting was unusual.  He started in broadcast journalism, first in Baltimore, then in Washington, DC.  He won both a local Emmy and an AP award for his work in DC.  In 1985, he moved to New York to pursue a stage career.  Films include Cinderella Man, Wedding Crashers and Lone Star.  TV credits include One on One, The Shield and The West Wing.

Squid Flicks: Fantastic Planet

Title: Fantastic Planet

Director: René Laloux

Original Release Date: May 11, 1973

My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5

via Wikipedia

Humans, known as Oms, live as pets and pests for the much larger Draags on a strange planet.  In our tale, based on the novel Oms en série by Stefan Wul, Terr (based on the French word terre - translation: Earth) is young Tiwa's pet.  Tiwa dearly loves Terr but her parents insist she put a controlling collar on him.  Terr eventually manages to escape and join a band of untamed Oms.  The story that unfolds is an allegory for the relationship between the powerful and the powerless in our own world.  

Fantastic Planet was the Grand Prix jury prize winner at Cannes in 1973.  It generally does well on best animated films lists.  It's also widely considered one of the trippiest movies ever made.  With the psychedelic visuals and the invented vocabulary, it's unlikely to disappoint you if you're looking for an accompaniment to a chemically-induced experience.  Not that I condone such things...

Star Trek: Innocence

Episode: "Innocence"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 22

Original Air Date: April 8, 1996

via Memory Alpha

Tuvok and Ensign Bennett crash land a shuttlecraft on one of Drayan II's moons.  Sadly, Bennett dies.  Not long after, Tuvok encounters three Drayan children, apparent survivors of a recent crash themselves.  While awaiting his own rescue, he promises to help and protect them, for which they are grateful.

As a rule, Star Trek stories about children are terrible.  But most rules have exceptions.  "Innocence" is wonderful, drawing out extraordinary dimension for Tuvok.  Surprise surprise, the stoic Vulcan is an excellent father figure.  As ever, he professes a lack of emotion, yet the devotion he expresses regarding his own children is genuinely moving, whatever the motivations.  Highlights include a Vulcan epic lullaby and this line: "My attachment to my children cannot be described as an emotion. They are a part of my identity, and I am… incomplete without them."

Back aboard Voyager, Janeway and company must contend with the Drayan leaders.  Their society lives in isolation, eschewing contact with other worlds and their typical fascination with technology.  Trek, whose entire premise is dependent on super-tech, generally takes a patronizing view of such cultures.  And yet as I write this, the leadership of my own country is flexing hard, way too impressed with themselves.  Fear, distrust, even disgust with what the world has become are all understandable reactions.  Maybe the Drayans aren't so crazy.

Acting Notes

via Space: Above and Beyond Wiki

Marnie McPhail played the role of Alcia, First Prelate of Drayan II.  "Innocence" was the first of two canon Trek appearances for McPhail.  

McPhail was born in Columbus, Ohio.  Her professional career began on Canadian television.  At 14, she was cast in The Edison Twins.  Moving back to the States brought regular cast roles on Generations and Days of Our Lives.  Films include Star Trek: First Contact, Sugar and The Greatest Game Ever Played.

Squid Cooks: Pan-Cooked Pork Burgers

Pan-cooked because it's too damn hot to turn on the oven.  Pork because I couldn't find the ground beef in the freezer.  Once again, necessity is the mother of invention.

I've covered Mark Bittman's pan-cooked burger recipe before, including here.  I went with longer cooking times than I normally would with either beef or lamb.  I fear trichinosis.  I realize it's a relatively low risk with pork these days but it's not a zero risk

I was pleased with the result - very tasty and, following Bittman's instructions, one gets a nice sear around the outside.  That's harder to get in the oven because of temperature management - worth remembering.  

Star Trek: Deadlock

Episode: "Deadlock"

Series: Star Trek: Voyager

Season 2, Episode 21

Original Air Date: March 18, 1996

via Memory Alpha

The good news: Ensign Wildman's baby is born!  The bad news: while trying to avoid Vidiian space, mysterious proton bursts cause a space-time rift, creating split realities.  All goes horribly wrong in both, though for different reasons.  Can the two Captain Janeways find a way for at least one ship to survive?

I'm pretty sure this was the episode that once inspired my wife to ask, "How did the crew manage to survive through all of these endless disasters?"

"Deadlock" is a popular episode among fans.  The concept is certainly interesting, inspiring plenty of "What would you do?" questioning.  The scenes with the two Janeways are the highlights.  Lines like "Please don't make me call security and have you escorted off my ship, because... you know, I'll do it" carry meaningful weight.  The end twist is strong, too.  I can't help my own reflexive resistance to an alternate reality story.  Couldn't they have made a similar point with fewer bells and whistles?

Maybe not.  Maybe a glimpse of a scenario in which Voyager didn't survive is essential for appreciating the fact they did.  

Acting Notes

via Memory Alpha

Simon Billig played the role of Ensign Hogan, a former Maquis and an important recurring character in tracking the adjustment for the Maquis crew members to the Starfleet-driven life aboard Voyager.  "Deadlock" is Billig's fourth of seven appearances as Hogan.  The actor was born in Birmingham, England.

Billig also had multiple appearances on Babylon 5, Silk Stalkings and One Life to Live.  Films include Bad City Blues and The Thin Red Line.  

On the Road: A Long Overdue Statement on the Garbage State of the World

Hello America by Vincent Valdez

Our long weekend travels took us through our usual Western/Central Massachusetts stops: North Adams, Northampton and Worcester.  Our adventures helped me focus some of my thoughts about the state of the world, a subject I've been reluctant to address here - not because I'm not upset.  Indeed, I'm furious.  But I've been struggling to find the right words.  For months.  So, here goes...

"Why were we taught to fear the witches and not the people who burned them alive?"

That quote popped up on my Facebook feed a while back and it has stayed with me.  The Salem Witch Trials weren't really about religion.  That was just the excuse.  They were about power and social control.  That social control lives on in our mythology.  Mythology is social control on a trans-generational scale.  

Enter Professor James B. Haile III, Ph.D...  

In North Adams, we went to a reading by Dr. Haile at Research & Development, one of the retail stores at MASS MoCA (The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art).  He presented his new book, The Dark Delight of Being Strange, a genre-bending work combining both fiction and nonfiction elements.  Haile's philosophical charge for himself and for the reader is to challenge and reform our mythology, especially regarding people of color.  

If you control the mythology, you control everything. 

The political rhetoric coming out of Washington right now reinforces a mythology we've all been fed our whole lives.  For the MAGA crowd, the history of the United States - of "America" - is a story of white triumph.  People of color were to be conquered, subjugated and exploited.  The fact that any of them would with to be treated as human - never mind as equals - is intolerable.

The current immigration policies aren't about the law or economics as the policies are disastrous regarding both.  They're about race.  

You don't think so?  Fuck you.  

I'm not joking.  I'm tired of being nice about any of this.  If you're offended by what I'm saying, fuck off.  If you can't draw a line on this unacceptable shit, fuck off.  

If it were about the law, there would be due process.  People would not be snatched off the streets and out of their homes on suspicion alone.  Those arrested would not be hidden away in remote prisons in Florida or abroad in countries with appalling human rights records, even worse than Florida's.  

If it were about economics, there would be acknowledgement of how much even illegal immigrants contribute to our economy, never mind our society.  There would be acknowledgement of the fact that mass incarceration costs more than just leaving people the fuck alone.  But there isn't.  

It's about getting rid of brown people.

What is it MAGA fuckheads say to people they don't like?  "Go back where you came from!" or "Learn English!"  They just want people of color and their cultures to disappear.  Because if they have to see them, hear them, interact with them, share the community with them, then they have to accommodate them.  And I don't mean in the bullshit "Nanny State" sense.  The United States is only a nanny state for billionaires.  I mean they have to incorporate them into their reality, their normal.  They have to acknowledge their right to exist and that is intolerable.  

They have to incorporate them into the mythology.  As equal contributors.

There is a culture war, folks, and the good guys are taking a beating these days.  Why are people fighting so hard over what is visible in schools, libraries, sports, public spaces?  Because if you control the mythology, you control everything.  If LGBTQIA+ is presented as normal, they lose.  If the Ten Commandments are displayed in reverence, they win.  Because the mythology matters.

There's more but I need time to think it all through.  For now, I'll grant the last words to SNACKTIME, a funk/hip-hop/punk/thrash metal band we thoroughly enjoyed on Saturday night.  

They closed their show with the following message:

Fuck ICE!

Fuck Trump!

Free Palestine!