If supposed fans hate Star Wars so much why do they keep seeing the new movies?

I knew the backlash from the “Negative Nancys”, “Nerdville,” “The Big Bang Theory Crowd” and any miserable social media user with a four-year-college degree in “Bitching” about how much "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" (2017) failed to live up to their expectations despite it being the top grossing film of the holiday season regardless of the article in Forbes which laid out the doom and gloom that the franchise Disney inherited from Lucasfilm in 2012 is beginning to look like a “spent force.”

I paid ZERO attention to the reviews, negative or positive, about The Last Jedi and ignored actor Mark Hamill’s comments on his disagreements with the unexpected vision director/screenwriter Rian Johnson did with his character, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker in episode VIII. Hamill later retracted those comments saying, ““Creative differences are a common element of any project but usually remain private,” Hamill wrote on Twitter. “All I wanted was to make a good movie. I got more than that – [Johnson] made an all-time GREAT one!”

If anyone like some wannabee movie critic who thinks they know everything about films offered me their personal opinion on The Last Jedi, my comment to them was going to be the meme I subscribe to on a Facebook page called “I speak sarcasm as a 2nd language” that says, “Do you remember me asking for your opinion? Yeah. Me neither.”

My being done with everyone’s bitching about the Star Wars franchise started in December 2015 when The Force Awakens (2015) was released.

“I didn’t hate it,” said friend Patrick Keith on social media back then (though I suspect after this column he will unfriend me-like that hasn’t happened before and yet I somehow still sleep well at night despite the mild infestation of bedbugs I inherited from a laundromat!). “I just feel if you are going to spend $250 million on a film make something different.”

Keith’s less-than-glowing comments echoed much of what “Nerdville” wrote on social media back then. In short, they didn’t want a remake of "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope" (1977) showing a different Death Star and a female lead heroine (Daisy Ridley) who comes from a sand planet similar to Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine. They wanted something new.

The trouble with the Star Wars franchise is fans who grew up on Episodes IV through VI (1977-1983) when they were barely in their teens, gullibly, perhaps stupidly, thought director/creator/screenwriter George Lucas could do no wrong when he returned to the series helming episodes I-III (1999-2005). Jar Jar Binks, a boring subplot involving intergalactic politics mixed with impressively choreographed lightsaber duels, a pod race, bad acting and laughable dialogue in The Phantom Menace (1999) changed all that.

Suddenly, the idea of furry teddy bears called Ewoks taking on the Empire’s finest in "Return of the Jedi" (1983) wasn’t such a bad idea after all. When it came to the prequels, fans went from uttering the negative words of Jar Jar Binks’ “Meesa no!” in Episode I to the one word of “Noooooo!” Darth Vader uttered at the end of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Suddenly, Star Wars was just as disappointing a franchise as every other movie series spawned since the James Bond films of the 1960s. There is a difference, however. I liked a majority of installments from many franchises that had audiences searching for the barf bags. The list is endless and a majority of them end with the number “3” like "The Godfather Part III" (1990), "Halloween III: Season of the Witch" (1983), "Spider-man 3" (2007), "Superman III" (1983) and some that didn’t have the number “3” beside their title like "Batman Forever" (1995), "A View to a Kill" (1985), "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" (1989), "Quantum of Solace" (2008) and yes, the Star Wars prequels.

I liked all the Star Wars movies and last year’s standalone film, "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016). Excuse me for being entertained! I am even looking forward to "Solo: A Star Wars Story" (2018), the next standalone movie in the franchise due out next May which has had a roller coaster of behind-the-scenes drama earlier this year that started with the firing of directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("The Lego Movie" – 2014) over creative differences who were replaced by Oscar winning director Ron Howard.

The difference between the “Negative Nancys” and supposed wannabee Know-It-All movie critics who I pay ZERO attention to as their reviews are nothing more than press releases minus any ounce of an original thought is I see movies to be entertained.

The Last Jedi was not perfect by any means, but it did what movies are supposed to do. Entertain. In a world full of mass murders, terrorism, biased political nonsense and social media losers who do nothing but bitch about President Trump, if a movie manages to take me away from all the depressing garbage people talk about for a few hours, then the film did its job!

The Negative Nancy’s with a four-year-college BS degree in “Bitching” (and by BS, I am not talking about a Bachelor of Sciences) need to start putting their money (which they don’t have) where their mouth is and stop being the hypocrites who a majority of the ones representing the country in Congress are. If they have such a hatred of Star Wars, why do those same people since 2015 buy advance tickets and are the first ones at the first screening opening day to see these movies?

I wonder if it has something to do with that meme, I saw a while back where seeing a Star Wars movie is like having sex and eating pizza. “Even when it’s bad it’s still pretty good.”

©12/20/17

My first experience serving on a civil jury

I had a “Come to Jesus” meeting on Dec. 4, 2017.

After over two decades of finding successful ways to get out of jury duty either by deferring it to future dates several times or looking over the list of excuses I can check off on the jury summons (I would have chosen the option I am not of sound mind but they want medical proof of that and I don’t have the money to see a psychiatrist), that all officially ended when I was chosen to serve on a civil jury at the George L. Allen, Sr. Courts Building in downtown Dallas.

I was among the first eighty people called at 9:30 a.m. after sitting in that jury room on the first floor with the other hundred people who got summoned to report to the seventh floor of Judge Craig Smith’s courtroom of the 192nd Judicial District Court. There 36 of us were called to be a part of “voir dire.” We were questioned by the lawyers of the plaintiff and the defendant as they decide who’d be the lucky twelve to serve in what was a medical case where the defendant, a woman, hit the plaintiff; a 17-year-old kid, the morning of Valentine’s Day in 2014 as she pulled into a 7-11 parking lot. The plaintiff was asking for over $5000 to be given to pay a chiropractor the kid had seen for several weeks following the accident, in addition, to asking for $10000 for the mental anguish the accident apparently caused both him and his parents.

The plaintiff’s lawyer didn’t personally ask me any questions like he did some of the others. Given that I figured I would not get picked. That is until the defendant’s lawyer asked us some more questions. He zeroed in on me, and the woman sitting beside me asking us if we check our monthly billing statement making sure the amount owed is correct. Who doesn’t check their monthly billing statement? Of course, we both said yes.

And that most likely is what got both of us picked for what was a jury of ten men and two women two hours later.

Sitting there as “Juror 6”, with pen and pad in my hand, taking notes as the lawyers for both the plaintiff and the defendant asked witnesses questions about what happened that day three years ago, I couldn’t help but notice “Juror 5” sitting beside me doing nothing but having his arms folded and legs crossed the whole time, like as though he had already made up his mind about the case. I was not at all surprised when we deliberated hours later where he told us how he works for a company that shells out award settlements in medical lawsuits such as the case we had just heard and the reason why his company settles is to avoid going to court as the fees to fighting the case are likely to cost more than the settlement amount offered.

Juror 5’s comment to everyone in the deliberation room is when he first heard what the case was going to be about, he said to us, “Why in the hell are we even here in the first place?”

None of us in the deliberation room introduced ourselves. Then again, no one asked. We were all known to each other as “Juror 1”, “Juror 7”, “Juror 10”, etc. That doesn’t mean, however, that each juror didn’t have a trait that stuck out from the rest.

Juror 5 was the most colorful. Since only ten of us had to make a unanimous decision on how the plaintiff should be awarded, he then told all of us he was voting no across the board and told us all to decide and proceeded to work on his laptop.

Which brings me to another juror whose trait was that we all follow the rules when deliberating a case. That juror proceeded to tell Juror 5 how according to the video we watched on the first floor discussing the dos and don’ts of being a juror, we were not supposed to be using our laptops and cellphones when deliberating. Just when I thought there was going to be an entertaining pissing contest between the two, Juror 5 put his laptop away.

Then there’s the juror, an African American, who said he was willing to vote however way everyone else voted just so we can all go home by 6 p.m. as he had other things to do. And the juror who wished a better diagram of the 7-11 parking lot was given for us all to see in order to make a better decision on a monetary judgment.

As to my thoughts on the case, was the woman driver negligent when she hit the kid? Yes. Just because it was 7:30 a.m. that morning and the sun was in her eyes wasn’t a good enough excuse as to why she accidentally hit the boy. Did she use the visor to keep the sun out of her eyes as she pulled into the parking lot? And define “low speed” which the police officer who filed the accident report, said she was doing when the incident occurred. When I sneeze, I personally stop the car when I am driving on a residential street and slow down when I’m on the interstate.

It took less than ninety minutes for us to come to a decision and only award that $5000 be given to the plaintiff to pay for the chiropractor bill.

When it was over, my attitude changed about being picked on a jury. As the judge told us in the waiting room that morning, we are one of the few countries in the world where citizens are picked to serve on a jury, be it criminal or civil trials. Like voting, serving on a jury is one of the freedoms we have in this country and should be taken seriously.

“There is no better way to ensure that citizens receive a fair trial in our courts than to have other citizens without a vested interest in the dispute participate in the process,” Judge Smith wrote in a thank you letter I received from him a week later. “Maintenance of your rights to a trial by jury, due process and trials based on fairness and the rule of law, is worth working for.”

The next time I get summoned to serve on a jury, be it a civil or criminal case, I might not be so quick to postpone the date. I might actually “want” to show up that day in hopes of being chosen. Getting that $6 check for serving on a jury has nothing to do with it since that check doesn’t even cover a supersized Big Mac meal at the McDonald's down the street near the courthouse.

What serving on a jury does, for me anyway, is it beats going to work. I suspect a majority of people would prefer to be at work instead which may be why so many either opt out or postpone their summon dates.

Such is not the case with me these days, but you didn’t hear that from me.

©12/6/17

Appreciation: George A. Romero (1940-2017)

The first time I saw a flesh eating “living dead” zombie movie from director George A. Romero was not the black and white independently made horror classic, "Night of the Living Dead" (1968), but his second follow-up, "Dawn of the Dead" (1978) during the summer of 1984, about four survivors who take refuge in a shopping mall during the “zombie apocalypse”

I laughed at the way the zombies had a personality all their own. I never would have thought the undead would be funny which only made sense to have them exhibit human characteristics, since after all, they were living at one time.

Romero’s third installment, "Day of the Dead" (1985), featured a scientist (Richard Liberty) who trains an undead soldier named “Bub” how to load and shoot a handgun. When the zombies feasted on the tyrannical military captain (Joseph Pilato) near the film’s climax, “Bub” salutes him in mockery.

In "Dawn of the Dead", the zombies got excited upon hearing the mall music over the loudspeakers and fell upon each other the moment the escalators moved. One zombie sat in a water fountain picking up the many coins the living left to make wishes.

“I keep a little notebook of things that I can do with the zombies that might be silly and fun,” Romero said on the site, www.brainyquote.com.

I was too young back then to know that Night of the Living Dead (which I saw years later) and Dawn of the Dead, along with the four other installments Romero directed until 2009 each had a theme to go along with the era the films were released in.

“Each one spoke about a different decade and was stylistically different. After ‘"Land of the Dead" - 2005,’ I wanted to do something about emerging media and citizen journalism” hence…"Diary of the Dead" (2007) and "Survival of the Dead" (2009).

With the characters taking refuge in a shopping mall in "Dawn of the Dead", Romero poked fun at consumerism. I am not sure what theme "Day of the Dead" evoked as to this day I still don’t know whether to endorse or hate it because the film lacked characters worth rooting for. Something is wrong with a “living dead” movie when the viewer wants to see the zombies win. Perhaps that was Romero’s point.

“My stories are about humans and how they react, or fail to react, or react stupidly,” Romero said. “I'm pointing the finger at us, not at the zombies. I try to respect and sympathize with the zombies as much as possible. My zombies will never take over the world because I need the humans. The humans are the ones I dislike the most, and they're where the trouble really lies.”

Romero now resides with the zombies he created. The horror director died July 16 at age 77.

A post from Romero’s manager, Chris Roe, on Facebook read, that the director died while "listening to the score of "The Quiet Man", one of his all-time favorite films, with his wife, Suzanne Desrocher Romero, and daughter, Tina Romero, at his side. He died peacefully in his sleep following a brief but aggressive battle with lung cancer and leaves behind a loving family, many friends and a filmmaking legacy that has endured, and will continue to endure, the test of time."

Although Romero made several horror movies ("The Crazies" -1973, "Creepshow" - 1982, "Monkey Shines" - 1988) and an anthology television show in the tradition of "The Twilight Zone" (1959-1964) called "Tales from the Darkside" (1983-1988), it’s his flesh-eating zombie movies he’ll forever be known for.

His box office success of $30 million (which he didn’t see a dime of due to failing to secure the copyright when it was released in 1968), however, with "Night of the Living Dead" made on a budget of $114,000, joined the list of films to be preserved by the National Film Registry in 1999 and proved to future horror filmmakers such as Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" -1974), John Carpenter ("Halloween" - 1978) and Wes Craven ("A Nightmare on Elm Street" - 1984) that one does not need $50 million to make a successful horror movie. It is something that still continues to this day as proven by the success Daniel Myrick’s and Eduardo Sanchez’s The Blair Witch Project (1999), made on a budget of $60,000 and grossing $248 million, and Oren Peli’s "Paranormal Activity" (2007) with a budget of $15,000 and grossing $194 million.

It’s because of the unpredictable originality Romero gave to his zombie movies that is the reason I will not watch anything else dealing with the undead. Sure, shows like AMC’s "The Walking Dead" (2010-Present) and "Fear the Walking Dead" (2015-Present) owe everything to Romero. The problem is those shows, and other flesh-eating movies today only know how to play the notes, not the music.

Even at the time of his death, Romero was still planning another zombie follow-up called Road of the Dead, which he described as Fast and the Furious but with zombies according to moviepilot.com.

I am not sure what theme he would have had in mind other than to mock a long running car racing movie franchise but if anyone could pull it off, it would have been George A. Romero.

©7/19/17

Not the first time directors and studio heads sparred over creative differences

The cast and crew of Solo: A Star Wars Story

“I have a very bad feeling about this.”

Such is the line said by some character in every Star Wars movie when something bad is about to happen, with the exception of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" (2016), that it has become the franchise’s trademark. Up until June 20 that is when Disney/Lucasfilm fired directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller ("The Lego Movie" – 2014) from the untitled Star Wars standalone Han Solo prequel after four months of shooting. Still set for release in May 2018, Disney hired Oscar winning director Ron Howard ("A Beautiful Mind" – 2001) to finish the film. Now it seems that famous line now applies to what goes wrong during a Star Wars production.

A June 26 article in The Hollywood Reporter revealed disagreements between the directors and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy concerning the number of takes shot (Lord and Miller only used three setups versus the fifteen variations Kennedy expected). There were battles with the film’s screenwriter, Lawrence Kasdan, a Star Wars veteran whose previous screenplays included "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980), "Return of the Jedi" (1983) and The Force Awakens (2015), who demands that every actor stick to the written word on the pages he writes, and the hiring of an acting coach for the film’s leading star, Alden Ehrenreich, who plays the younger Han Solo.

A statement from Lord and Miller following their dismissal said "Unfortunately, our vision and process weren't aligned with our partners (Disney/Lucasfilm) on this project. We normally aren't fans of the phrase 'creative differences' but for once this cliche is true.”

Directors Lord and Miller are not the only ones, nor will they be the last, to be fired from a movie due to “creative differences.” Director Richard Donner and producer Alexander Salkind sparred over the budget during the filming of "Superman: The Movie" (1978).

“The biggest problem I had was really with the producers, because instead of helping me, they were hurting me,” Donner told The Hollywood Reporter. “The thing [with the Salkinds] was always about money. They’d say, “You can’t do this,” but I would have no alternative, and they wouldn’t show me the budget. They kept saying, “You’re going over budget.” And I would say, “How am I going over budget if I don’t know what the budget is?” It got to the point where I just told them: “Don’t come on to set. You’re counterproductive.” And it became us against them. They were against the quality of the movie.”

Donner planned on using the seventy percent of footage he shot for "Superman: The Movie" for the sequel (1980) with the assumption he would be again directing. As a result of his battles with the producers, however, Donner was fired and replaced with director Richard Lester who scrapped most of what was already shot.

“I had almost bought a little Chevy van,” Donner said. “I was going to ship it to England because it was big enough that I could have a desk in it and the chairs would recline. Then I get a call from my agent, who said: “I just received a telegram from the Salkinds. You are no longer needed.” That was it.”



Director David Lynch ("Blue Velvet" – 1986) has nothing but nice things to say about the people he worked with on the set of "Dune" (1984) based on author Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel despite being both a commercial and critical disaster when released. Ask him how the shooting went and that’s another story.

“I wouldn’t be fair to say it was a total nightmare, but maybe 75 percent nightmare and the reason is I didn’t have final cut,” Lynch said in an interview years later. “I had such a great time in Mexico City (where Dune was filmed), the greatest crew, cast. It was beautiful. But when you don’t have final cut, total creative freedom, you stand to die the death…and died I did.”

“It’s no one’s fault but my own,” Lynch added. “I probably shouldn’t have done that picture, but I saw tons and tons of possibilities for things I loved, and this was the structure to do them in. There was so much room to create a world. But I got strong indications from [producers] Raffaella and Dino De Laurentis of what kind of film they expected, and I knew I didn’t have final cut. So that’s the big lesson. Don’t make a film if it can’t be the film you want to make. It’s a joke and it’s a sick joke and it will kill you.”



When director Paul Schrader submitted his cut of "Exorcist: The Beginning" (2004) to Morgan Creek Productions, the producers rejected Schrader’s vision firing him saying his “psychological thriller” approach was “commercially unmarketable” and was minus “the bloody violence the backers had wanted” according to IMDB.com.

“You have a company (Morgan Creek) that’s notorious for not letting directors have the final say,” Schrader said in an interview at theexorcistonline. “A deal breaker with Morgan Creek is always final cut. The films are re-edited, and the directors are shunted off. It’s a historical pattern. So what’s the upshot of all this? Making a thirty-five million dollar film and getting final cut for a company that doesn’t give final cut, which goes into the marketplace without any financial obligations. Nobody expects it to make money.”

And make money the film did not. Despite Morgan Creek’s commissioning a new screenplay with several roles recast, new characters added and a new director in the chair, Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2" – 1990), Harlin’s version, like the studio that disowned Schrader’s before it, was rejected by audiences and critics. In an ironic twist, Morgan Creek released Schrader’s version titled, "Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist" (2005), a year later in limited release before bowing on DVD.

“What the studios want now is "risk-free" films but with any sort of art you have to take risks,” said Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola in a quote on IMDB.com, who butted heads with studio execs while working on his Vietnam war epic, "Apocalypse Now" (1979) and the gangster flop, "The Cotton Club" (1984). “Not taking risks in art is like not having sex and then expecting there to be children.”

There is probably not a single film made since the silent era where there was not some behind-the-scenes drama that went on during production. The one and only reason Miller and Lord’s dismissal made entertainment headlines is because this is a STAR WARS movie. 

Like Disney’s Marvel films and Warner Brothers DC comics superhero franchises, all eyes are on the Star Wars movies, from the powers-that-be eager to avoid bad press (the film was not mentioned at Disney’s D23 Expo earlier this month), the fans to the “Negative Nancys” who want nothing more than to see the upcoming installment fail at the box office, simply because either they personally hate themselves and want to make everyone else who looks forward to these films miserable, or they are jealous they didn’t think of the multi-million dollar franchise first.

Chicago film critic Gene Siskel always asked himself when viewing movies “Is the movie that I am watching as interesting as a documentary of the same actors having lunch together?”

In the cases of "Superman: The Movie", "Dune" and "Exorcist: The Beginning" and countless other costly troubled productions I’ve seen, these movies, yes, even the bad ones, were far more interesting than watching a documentary of the same actors having lunch together.

In the end, it won’t be what went on behind the scenes of the Han Solo production that determine whether the Millennium Falcon successfully makes the jump to light speed or if the hyperdrive system makes that familiar dying whine heard often in "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) every time Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and the gang tried to evade the Imperial fleet.

The ones who decide if the film flops will be audiences and fans.

At least I hope that is the case. So far, it seems I am the only one who isn’t uttering that familiar phrase numerous characters from that “galaxy far, far away” said in previous Star Wars movies past.

Well, me and Han Solo co-star Woody Harrelson who, when asked by The Hollywood Reporter in a July 12 interview whether the bad press will hurt the film, said, “I wouldn’t worry. The Force is still every much with it.”

©7/5/17

Obesity not as funny in real life as "Hollyweird" makes it out to be

Actor Stephen Furst (1954-2017) from Animal House (1978).

I was not surprised by what people wrote on social media referencing actor Stephen Furst’s character, Flounder, the nerdy overweight fraternity pledge in National Lampoon’s "Animal House" (1978) after learning Furst died June 16 at age 63, the result of complications from diabetes.

Social media users repeated such lines from the raunchy comedy classic the character said from “Oh boy is this great,” “May I have 10,000 marbles please?”, and “I can’t believe I threw up in front of Dean Wormer” to the words of Dean Wormer (John Vernon) telling Flounder, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son.”

Furst’s death, for me, is where the comedy stopped and it should serve as a warning not just to myself who has been battling diabetes since my first diagnosis in 2006 to everyone else battling what I call a “pain-in-the-ass” disease.

This may come as a shock but being obese and diabetic is not funny no matter how much “Hollyweird” makes it to be. Viewers who watch such shows as "The King of Queens" (1998-2007) and actor Kevin James, "Kevin Can Wait" (2016), are not laughing with them when it comes to the fat jokes. They are laughing at them! How many times can a viewer count when Al Bundy walked through the front door in "Married... with Children" (1987-1997) saying, “A fat woman walked into the shoe store today?” The shows, if nothing else, probably give viewers a lesson of what not to do to their bodies when it comes to food. Your body is your temple, right?

If being fat was so beautiful (model Ashley Graham and a few others are the only exceptions to the rule) then explain the significant weight loss transformations of such Hollywood actors and music icons have undergone like Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Jonah Hill, Melissa McCarthy and singer Marie Osmond? Can you say, “Bye bye stubborn belly fat?”

I have EVERY right to criticize those battling weight problems now because I have undergone my own weight loss transformation since 2015 going from 300 to 190-then back up to 240 and now down to 155, which fluctuates between 155 and 170 depending on my insulin intake and diet.

Today, I love the fact all my clothes are baggy and will one day when finances turn around later this year have to start investing in a new wardrobe. I like it when former classmates say at a funeral, “That jacket is too big on you” and “You’re getting skinny” and yes, I am well aware 155 may not be considered "healthy" weight loss but it sure as hell beats being 240 or 300! The only comments I am getting now from people is that of concern where I am asked, “You’re not sick are you?”

The bottom line is (and I know a couple others who weighed close to 300 if more who, like me, shed the pounds below the 200 range) if I can manage to keep my diabetes under some control and not be a glutton eating four or five giant meals instead eating five to six small meals a day, if that many (the Metformin drug I am on curbs my appetite), then why the hell can’t anyone else do it?

Today, I get sickened to the point I want to barf up my lunch when I haven’t even eaten yet seeing some 5000-pound parent wobble into Furrs with their 3000-pound kid and yell out loud so everyone in the restaurant can hear, “ROUND ONE”, when it comes to that fact that Furrs has an all you can eat buffet. It’s not just Furrs but also CiCi's Pizza, Pizza Hut and Golden Corral that join the list of small towns (population: 100 full during lunch hours) I call “Gluttonville” and “Lardville!”

Seeing some overweight person at Furrs or wherever chomping down on God knows what makes me ask myself if that person does not realize what they got inside their body is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off when it comes to their heart, cancer diagnosis and that dreaded pain-in-the-ass disease called diabetes.

Is it going to completely kill them to go walk for ten or twenty minutes, do the lawn (which takes me over 30 minutes to do once a week), do a mile at the track, or walk around the block? Or do they just make up the excuse that because they live in Texas they can’t walk because the 113-degree heat will kill them? Really??? Then explain all those people I see who mow their yards in this heat?!?!?! Or do they pull out your little cheapskate card and say, “I can’t pay $10 bucks for a fitness membership?!?!?” Ten bucks is sure as hell cheaper than weight loss surgery, or do they enjoy getting hit with that $5000 medical bill they can’t pay and file bankruptcy after getting out of the hospital following their massive heart attack? But they can pay $10 bucks for a supersize Big Mac meal at McDonald's, right?

If there’s one thing I can say about Stephen Furst, who weighed more than 300 pounds at one point, is when he got diagnosed with diabetes in 1996, he dropped more than 85 pounds and appeared in an educational video produced by the American Diabetes Association.

Furst’s son, Nathan, told CNN over the last several years his father’s diabetes was getting worse a little bit.

“Sort of the typical things that tend to happen when you have diabetes a long time,” he said.

Furst’s death is a warning to the rest of us diabetics and those who may already have it but don’t know it yet how important it is for us to stay on top of this pain-in-the-ass disease.

Age 63 is still too young to die. If that doesn’t put a scare into a person to do something about their health, nothing will!

©6/21/17

Gone Too Soon: Ed Schwille (1970-2017)

Looking at the list of students who have died in the fifty plus years Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas has been open, I have always seen our Class of 1988 as the healthiest, or perhaps the luckiest. Only one student from our class passed away and that was in 1995. If I was to count the two others from our class who didn’t graduate with us who also passed away, then that number makes it three.

On March 17, that number jumped to four when fellow alumni and friends learned on social media that fellow classmate, Ed Schwille, passed away at the all-too-young age of 47. No one I asked knows what happened except the news of his death shocked everyone.

My only response when Ed’s obit was posted on social media was, “NO!”

The only thing I could think of at the time was how I had nothing to wear at the funeral. Nothing in my closet fit anymore. Everything I owned was for someone close to the 300-pound range. The clothes I owned no longer fit for someone whose weight now ranges between 175 and 190. I had to buy a size 40 black slacks at Target the day before the service and even then, I probably should have gone with a size 38.

When I met friend and former classmate, Anne Marie Ross at the service, she remarked that the black jacket I wore was “too big” on me.

I loved the comment just as much as I enjoyed hearing her sing the memorial songs. If Ed was looking down from the heavens to see who was at his funeral, he would have had no trouble finding Anne Marie. His spirit would just follow her booming operatic voice. I then realized why she got the lead role in the play, Guys and Dolls, senior year.

I’d speculate as to what happened to Ed, but I am not going there. Instead, I’m going to recall the fond memories. No one will argue that Ed liked to make everyone laugh in high school. Such is the reason our senior class voted Ed as the “Most Humorous” according to my 87-88 high school yearbook.

He always had some funny quick-witted comment to say, and no one cared if it was on the slightly raunchy side. I found it ironic that the week of his funeral I saw an advance movie poster on the web for the upcoming Baywatch movie starring Dwayne Johnson. The poster showed two beach balls and a surfboard in the center that was an obvious reference to the male anatomy with the tagline, “Lifesaving takes a pair.” I have a feeling Ed would have liked that.

In high school Ed called me “Stumpo Joe – Action Adventurer” modeling my name after the fictional movie archeologist Indiana Jones Harrison Ford played. That name was later expanded by another friend, Kelly Reed, who turned the name into a sequel, “Stumpo Joe and the 7 Temples of Doom” with the movie tagline, “He didn’t like the first one, so they gave him seven more.”

Among the stories many classmates recalled on social media in the wake of Ed’s passing was the big party he held at his house in Richardson one weekend during junior year in which over 200 people showed up.

I didn’t go. I had better things to do like work instead of getting drunk that “lost weekend.” My alcoholic partying days didn’t start until after high school. Ed’s mother at the visitation service told former classmates' tales of partygoers playing spin the bottle and how she caught one classmate dancing around in a bedroom in just his underwear while everyone else through trash at him.

“Mrs. Schwille let us have it at the visitation,” said fellow alum Craig Vinci. “It was so funny…she remembered the whole thing!!! It was good to see her laugh!”

I only saw Ed a couple more times after we graduated in the 1990s which was at the Bookstop in Mesquite where he worked and at the Blockbuster Video on Northwest Highway in Garland where he and his parents were customers. After graduating from the University of Texas at Dallas, Ed worked as a programmer for a number of companies in Information Technology.

I didn’t catch up with Ed until March 2013 when he sent me a friend request on Facebook. I took note of him proudly displaying pictures of his children, Dorian and Rylan, and his cat and talking about how he attended bible classes at his church. At one point he was even considering joining the peace corps. The tagline he always used on social media when he wanted to get women’s attention following a raunchy comment was “Hey ladies.” I use that comment now on my page when I get my monthly Lex Luthor/Captain Picard haircut.

I found it hard for me not to get emotional at the service when the song, “Ave Maria”, was played as that is one of my favorites to hear at funerals, and it was sad to hear Ed’s mother at the reception tell everyone not to worry about Ed because she knows he is in a “better place”, but adding that she is not. Ed was her only son and there is nothing more tragic than having a parent outlive their child.

I’ve lost quite a few friends and former co-workers over the past fifteen years. I’ve attended a couple funerals, others I regrettably didn’t because I had too many of my own personal problems and was not ready to say goodbye to them.

Maybe it is true to quote what one character said in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (2008) that “We seem to have reached the age where life stops giving us things and starts taking them away.”

©4/12/17

My life does not evolve around the flat screen

When actress Mary Tyler Moore died Jan. 25 one of the topics the entertainment media brought up was the popular episode from her 1970-1977 sitcom, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show", called “Chuckles Bites the Dust” that aired in October 1975.

The episode involved a fictional character named Chuckles the Clown who, dressed up as Peter Peanut, died during a parade when an elephant tried to “shell him” or I assume eat him. As a result, the staff are hysterical over the clown’s death except Mary, who during the wake herself eventually starts laughing.

I say “assume” because to this day 42 years later, I still haven’t seen the episode. Yes, I can already see you TV fanatic’s jaws dropping equating my not seeing that particular show with that of my never having been to the Vatican or climbed Mount Everest.

It’s not just that Chuckles the Clown episode I have not seen. I still don’t know who shot oil tycoon J.R. Ewing on "Dallas" (1978-1991). I don’t know how "The A-Team" (1983-1987) finally got caught. When the final two-hour episode of "M*A*S*H" titled “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” aired on Feb. 28, 1983, I was not among the 125 million viewers who tuned in which, according to IMDB.com, was the most watched television broadcast in American history.

I wasn’t always this out of touch with what aired on “The Boob Tube.” I was there when I learned that six years of the medical drama, "St. Elsewhere" (1982-1988), was all a dream inside the mind of an autistic son.

I was there when Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer were sentenced to a year in prison away from society for being the obnoxious, selfish jerks they were to everyone since season one began on "Seinfeld" (1989-1998).

I shed a tear or two when Det. Bobby Simone (Jimmy Smits) succumbed to congestive heart failure following a heart transplant in his 2004 farewell episode of "NYPD Blue" (1993-2005) and when the King of Late Night – Johnny Carson bid America farewell on May 22, 1992, handing "The Tonight Show" (1962) over to host, Jay Leno, after almost thirty years.

Such has not been the case in almost the past two decades, perhaps more. These days, a TV series has to work to get my attention, and it has to be something I’ve not seen done before. HBO’s "Westworld" (2016), the sixth season of "American Horror Story" (2011-Present) and "The People Vs. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" (2016-Present) failed to do that. I tuned out before the first episodes were over.

The shows I do watch are not what I will hear TV fanatics talk about the next day. I watch "Air Disasters" (2011-Present) on the Smithsonian Channel which recreate various aviation crashes, and "A Haunting" (2005-Present) on Destination America where I die laughing at how the actors and actresses cast as the real people who encountered demonic entities and ghosts are so much more attractive than the real ones telling their stories on camera.

So pardon me if I don’t share your enthusiasm during your little Monday afternoon fireside chats on social media talking about the grisly ways the zombies on AMC’s "The Walking Dead" (2010) got killed again and again by some character who wields a baseball bat, discuss what were the best and worst Superbowl ads, or which “Hollyweird” starlet wore the best or worst outfit at the Oscars.

You people may think among many things that working a full-time job, taking classes, trying to figure out which bill collector is going to get their money when payday arrives and struggling to stay on top of my diabetes is not much of a life, but it is a life and, I for one am damn glad it doesn’t exist in front of my new crystal clear, 40-inch 4k flat screen!

©2/15/17

Appreciation: Richard Hatch (1945-2017)

Another beloved sci-fi icon I, and so many others grew up watching, perhaps even met in person at the many Comic-Con conventions he attended the past couple decades is gone.

Actor Richard Hatch, best known as Colonial Warrior Captain Apollo from "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-79) in what ABC considered to be Sunday night’s answer to "Star Wars" (1977) died Feb. 7 at the age of 71 surrounded by family and friends following a battle with cancer.

As a kid, I made sure every Sunday night from the show's debut in September 1978 to its untimely cancellation in April 1979 was reserved to watching Battlestar Galactica."

Everything about the show seemed to have aspects of director/writer George Lucas' vision of "a galaxy far, far away" written all over it. The villains called the Cylons, an army of slow-moving mechanical robots could well be compared to the Empire's stormtroopers in the Star Wars trilogy (1977-1983).

Shades of Harrison Ford's Han Solo could be seen in Dirk Benedict's Starbuck; the cynical colonial warrior for the Galactica who's good with a blaster, always has his mind more on gambling, enjoying a good cigar, wooing the ladies, and figuring out a way out of the colonial military service.

Add Lorne Greene to the cast as the ship's commander who along with his son, Captain Apollo (Hatch) is in charge of protecting and leading the last remnants of the human race (220 ships in all) to safety after having all their home planets destroyed by the Cylon Empire and one might think this is an outer space rendition of "Bonanza" (1959-1973). All this didn't matter to a third grader like me who the year before Galactica debuted was still flying on that "Star Wars" high from the summer of 1977.

Plot and character development meant nothing to me at the time. What I wanted to see was the weekly outer space dogfights between the Colonial Vipers and the Cylon Raiders and the countless explosions that went with them courtesy of special effects coordinator John Dykstra who also worked on Lucas' Star Wars team.

“In my case, 'Battlestar Galactica' was a milestone,” Hatch once said according to the Hollywood Reporter. “It afforded me the opportunity to live out my childhood dreams and fantasies. Hurtling through space with reckless abandon, playing the dashing hero, battling Cylons, monsters and super-villains – what more could a man want?”

To Hatch, however, who scored a Golden Globe nomination for his role in 1979, and guest starred in numerous episodes playing radical political figure, Tom Zarek, in the 2004-2009 Syfy channel’s reboot of the series that starred Edward James Olmos, playing Captain Apollo, it seemed meant something more.

“I happen to be one of those rare actors that actually loves very intelligent and well-acted science fiction,” Hatch once said according to brainyquote.com. “I am looking for a character that connects to me on some level. It has to have depth to it and it has to be about something. The story of the character and their relationship with the people and places around them appeal to me and are what I look for.”

The news of Hatch’s death on social media was no different as fans expressed the same shock and sadness they’ve done so many times before after hearing of the losses of other music icons, actors and actresses. The most touching came from friend, Commodore McLeod Chandler, who spent a few hours with the actor at a convention one year and was left with a lasting impression.

“While so many of the other "special persons" had rules and stipulations about even shaking their hand (which usually costs money), Richard (Hatch) was different: he was a person,” Chandler wrote on Facebook. “As people came to see him, he stood to meet them, engaged them directly, always asked for and used their names, was always polite, and never demanded money. But then he did what no one else ever did.”

“He sat down on the floor in front of the table so he could meet the kids. A couple around my age who were fans as kids were bringing their own kids to meet the man that brought so much into their lives. The dad even had a prop warrior flight helmet he wanted signed. Richard did so while sitting on the floor, his legs folded Indian style, with a six-year-old boy wearing the helmet as he signed it and a 3-year-old hanging on his left shoulder.”

Yes, this man who told me that he did the cons for the energy, for the fans, and for the fun of it, sat down on the floor on level with the kids who he felt were going to be the next generation of sci-fi writers, thinkers, actors, and dreamers. He was kind. He was caring. He was inspiring. And he was still human."

And now he is gone.

I am reminded of the words Greene’s Commander Adama spoke during a memorial service for a fallen warrior in one episode that seems appropriate now for Hatch especially given the original series only lasted one season except changing a few words.

“And for only a short while we gathered to honor Captain Apollo (Richard Hatch) in duty, so we must honor him in death. Let us remember him not only as a warrior but as a man who lived in pursuit of excellence. Now we return this warrior to the cradle of space.”

©2/8/17

2016 sucked but it had nothing to do with all the talent lost

I admit the day after actress Carrie Fisher died on December 27 last month I posted that meme of the Kardashian clan (i.e. Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kris – too many to list here) that featured the words below that the year 2016 still has four days left for the Grim Reaper to take one if not all of the reality TV show family.

True, the posting was nothing more than wishful thinking but it did prove just how I, and so many others, felt witnessing the losses of so much talent last year. How cruel of a world it is we live in that the Hollywood actors, actresses and music icons we grew up on are all dying and nothing bad has happened to the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus.

For me, the year 2016 was bad but not because of the talent lost. There was a host of reasons why the year sucked so much that when 2017 started at midnight on Jan. 1, the first rule of 2017 in a Facebook meme I saw was “We don’t talk about 2016.”

Last year sucked for me in the form of four stages; the same number of stages one is given when they are handed a life-threatening cancer diagnosis.

Stage one for me came with all the negative commentary I had to put up with from Negative Nancys on Facebook who’d use social media to bitch about every major subject (i.e. the presidential election, the Oscars being “too white”, the Black Lives Matter Movement among them) that I and a majority of others didn’t care to read. Those of us who wanted no part of their bitching had already heard enough of it on a daily basis on the news and talk radio.

By the time a loser upset by how the “Boys In Blue” in his pathetic sick mind target African-Americans went on a killing spree in downtown Dallas in early July cold-bloodedly murdering four Dallas police and a DART officer during a Black Lives Matter demonstration, I could not help but wonder how much more tragedy could 2016 offer given there was still barely six months left!

Stages two and three happened on a personal level as I found myself engaging in a continuing battle with diabetes, battling bill collectors, unable to balance a 40 hour work week and college classes, and bed bugs (yes – just like those talking M&Ms on those commercials, the night time pests do exist and it don’t matter how immaculate you keep your house clean!)

A few close friends I knew either battled life-threatening diagnosis or lost the battles all together. A friend I knew in high school lost her only son at age 14 and she and her husband have been coping with the loss ever since as expressed by her grief memes she posts on Facebook. Again, I can’t imagine the pain a parent goes through when it comes to burying and outliving their child.

Another one I knew in high school was diagnosed with a brain tumor and had surgery and chemo done. The problem is while he is done with chemo and surgery and has been doing well since; the surgeons were not able to get the whole tumor. Another friend from grade school lost his wife to lymphoma. And another childhood friend of mine whose parents I had known since the early 1970s lost his father in November to a stroke.

So you will understand why 2016 sucked so much! It felt like I was being pummeled.

While it is said when one is diagnosed with stage four cancer means that you are about to meet your maker soon, for me stage four actually meant hope. In November the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for 108 years. I can’t tell you how much I, and so many die-hard Cub fans needed this win given how bad the year had been going!

For a year that started out with a whimper the good news was 2016 went out with a bang. I lost over 40 pounds, though not considered “healthy” weight loss I still saw it as weight loss regardless. I loved getting comments from family members and social media during Thanksgiving who said because they hadn’t seen me in a while I was almost unrecognizable having lost so much weight. I love the fact all the extra large clothes I have now are too baggy and as soon as I got some money to burn I will have to get a whole new wardrobe.

However, if none of the other negative things occurred, I would not have been bothered too much by all the notable figures, Hollywood and music icons who died during the year.

Truth of the matter is death is a part of life. I predict the number of notables who pass away in 2017 could be more than the ones we lost in 2016.

Like it or not, every day gone is one more day closer to a date with the Grim Reaper for all of us.

If there is a lesson to be learned from losing so many icons in 2016 it is that we should all cherish the time we have with the ones who are still here and appreciate the notable figures who are still around as none of us knows how long we have.

Trouble is I believe NO one will follow such advice. They’ll instead post comments on social media how the minute they hear another idol has died they’ll post how 2017 sucks as much as 2016 did. They’ll post youtube videos recalling the songs, TV shows or movies that person did.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I again see social media users in 2017 post another meme to God asking the Almighty if they offer up the Kardashians and Miley Cyrus to the Heavens, if they can have so-so movie star or music legend back.

©1/18/17

Gone Too Soon: George Michael (1963-2016)

The minute I made a negative comment to a friend’s post on Facebook a few days after social media learned of British popstar George Michael’s death on Christmas Day last month at age 53, I dreaded getting into a pissing contest with her despite the fact I believed I was in the right.

What got me worked up was her post, which said, “Another wasted talent”, that was followed by a news article she added to her post from yahoo.com citing that Michael battled a heroin addiction and was rushed to the hospital multiple times before his passing December 25. The cause of death, despite reports saying it was heart failure, has not been made official and would take several weeks.

I saw her statement as the equivalent of dancing on someone’s grave saying, “Well maybe if George Michael had not gotten into drugs, he’d still be here.” It made me wonder if when finding out someone she knew died prematurely from diabetes, cancer or heart disease and learns that person’s medical condition could have been avoided if only he/she avoided the junk food, watched their diet and exercised, if she says to herself, “Another wasted life.”

I immediately responded to her post citing the popstar’s battles with his sexuality, depression, drug addiction and skirmishes with the law were nothing new listing previous musicians and Hollywood actors whose personal demons got the best of them.

Fans and the music industry were well familiar with the sordid stories. That wasn’t what mourners chose to remember when social media learned of Michael’s death as they laid wreaths, flowers and memorial cards outside his two residences in north London and Goring, England.

Social media users did what they had done so many times since January 2016 after learning of the deaths of music icons David Bowie, The Eagles' Glenn Frey, Prince and Leonard Cohen. They posted Michael’s lyrics to a number of his hit songs and YouTube videos on Facebook and recalled his work as an LGBT rights campaigner and his involvement with HIV/AIDS charities.

I admit George Michael’s passing didn’t hit me immediately the way I was shocked to hear of the losses of Bowie, Frey, Prince and Cohen. I saw the singer/songwriter and record producer as a one-hit wonder whose hit song I was most familiar with was 1984’s "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" Michael did along with singing partner, Andrew Ridgeley under their British rock band, Wham!

I was even less impressed with Michael’s 1987 hit, "I Want Your Sex." I equated that song as just another attempt to drum up needless controversy the way Madonna released her erotic coffee table book, "Sex", in October 1992. It’s as if Michael had nothing more to offer in terms of memorable music.

After seeing the number of hit songs he churned out since arriving on the scene in the early years of MTV back in the 80s it suddenly dawned on me the number of songs Michael did that I liked. They included another 1984 WHAM! single, "Careless Whisper", which he also co-wrote with songwriting partner, Ridgeley, both at the age of 17 which was a song he was not the most thrilled with saying in 1991, the hit “was not an integral part” of his emotional development, yet it was the lyrics that struck a chord with fans.

"I'm still a bit puzzled why it's made such an impression on people. Is it because so many people have cheated on their partners? Is that why they connect with it? I have no idea, but it's ironic that this song - which has come to define me in some way - should have been written right at the beginning of my career when I was still so young,” Michael was quoted in a 2009 interview with Bang Issue magazine.

Then there is Aretha Franklin’s 1987 Grammy Award winning song, "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)." I didn’t learn, however, until after Michael’s passing that the two did the number as a duet. Those two hits along with so many others like Michael’s slow moving 1988 ballad, "Kissing a Fool," sadly, just as it’s happened so many times before when a Hollywood legend or music icon dies, where I didn’t appreciate the person’s talent until they were gone.

If George Michael was fighting off the demons of drug addiction in his final days, those battles are over now. He is likely somewhere jamming on stage with fellow late musicians Bowie, Cohen, Frey and Prince collaborating on some new song and whatever that is, rest assured it’s not his 1988 hit, "Monkey", which reportedly detailed the singer’s battles with drug addiction.

As for that war of words I was expecting to get into with that friend of mine on Facebook regarding the subject, she posted back saying what I wrote was well said adding it breaks her heart when so much talent is lost due to an addiction.

©1/11/17

Were the untimely deaths of a popular North Texas attorney and a screen legend after losing their daughters the result of "broken heart syndrome", or a possible past medical history of stroke/heart disease?

When North Texas personal injury attorney Brian Loncar, who promoted himself as the “Strong Arm” with his series of TV commercials, was found dead Nov. 28, 2016, inside his Rolls-Royce Wraith, which was parked outside his downtown law firm, Loncar & Associates, the reported cause of death was a heart attack. The Dallas Morning News, however, at the time, say official results were still pending and would take up to two months.

Loncar, 56, died two days after burying his daughter, Grace, 16, a junior at Booker T. Washington High School who killed herself Nov. 25 and had battled depression since she was 11 years old.

When Loncar died, not once did I hear the local media say his heart attack was due to the stress of dealing with the sudden loss of his daughter in what I now know as “broken heart syndrome.”

Such was not the case Dec. 28 when screen legend, actress Debbie Reynolds, 84, died a day after her daughter, actress Carrie Fisher, 60, died following a massive heart attack she suffered on a flight from London to Los Angeles Dec. 23.

"She (Debbie Reynolds) missed her daughter (Carrie) and wanted to very much be with her," son, Todd Fisher and brother of Carrie, told Entertainment Tonight. "She had been very strong the last several days. [There was] enormous stress on her, obviously. And this morning she said those words to me and 15 minutes later she had a stroke and virtually left."

The morning after the world learned of Reynolds’ death the media brought up the subject of how she died from broken-heart syndrome.

The Mayo Clinic website describes broken heart syndrome as a temporary heart condition that’s often brought on by stressful situations such as the death of a loved one. Other situations that can often trigger broken heart syndrome include a threatening medical condition, domestic abuse, losing or winning a lot of money, strong arguments, a surprise party, performing publicly, job loss, divorce, asthma attacks, car accidents and major surgeries.

I won’t deny the stories I have heard of elderly couples dying in their 80s or 90s within hours apart, but were they truly a case where when the wife died, the husband couldn’t take the loss and as a result died of a “broken heart?” Is that what gets put on the person’s certificate as the cause of death following an autopsy if the family wishes one?

The problem I have with what reportedly killed Reynolds is I had never heard of this medical condition before, regardless of the fact it exists in the medical books and on medical websites.

What Loncar and Reynolds went through in the days/hours before they died were the same. Both suffered the loss of losing a child but under different circumstances. They are, however, not the only ones who’ve gone through the same tragedy. Many have lived through their losses.

Consider the thousands, perhaps millions of parents who have gone through the pain of burying their sons and daughters who went to fight in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars since 9/11 and never came home alive. Did any of those mothers and fathers die from broken heart syndrome days later? I bet more police officers and military soldiers die by suicide on a weekly basis because of what they’ve gone through on the job and in battles overseas than hearing of a mother or father dying from a “broken heart” as a result of a losing their kid.

I am also not denying how terrible it is for a parent to outlive their child. I can’t imagine the pain of going through that.

Reynolds suffered two strokes in 2015 and recovered according to an ABC News article.

Dr. Holly Andersen director of education for the heart institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and scientific adviser for the Women's Heart Alliance, said Reynolds succumbed to “a cardiovascular event” given the actress’ history of stroke and heart disease among women. I will not be surprised if Loncar’s official cause of death when released is also “a cardiovascular event.”

"It wouldn't be surprising that an 84-year-old woman like Debbie Reynolds had some (arterial) plaque, and with this kind of stress, became more vulnerable and had more of a garden-variety heart attack and sudden death," Andersen said.

I don’t know what Loncar’s medical history was. I do, however, believe Reynolds’ death was likely the result of her previous medical history involving the strokes she suffered than I am accepting that her death was the result of “broken heart syndrome” due to the immense stress of losing her daughter.

I believe when it came to heart disease, both were likely walking time bombs, and it was only a matter of time before they suffered a fatal heart attack or stroke even if Loncar’s daughter had not died by suicide or if Carrie Fisher had survived her massive heart attack.

Thousands, if not millions, of people go through the loss of losing a child. The one and only reason we now know of “broken heart syndrome” was because Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher were “Hollywood Royalty” and famed Texas lawyer Brian Loncar was only known to Dallas residents as the “Strong Arm.”

©1/4/17