Mark was one of the old Kung Fu brothers of mine and the cf's. I hadn't seen him in many years. We bumped into each other randomly like 20 some odd years ago, but we only had the chance to say 'hi' and weren't able to catch up. He was a handsome guy, always well groomed, drove nice sports cars, a dedicated practitioner, and is one of the KF bros that went MAGA. I read where he died of cancer this morning.

TT played at the Crow’s nest just now. My Tai Chi dog park friends said she and her husband were going. I TT is a local Garcia tribute band that I’ve not seen yet. Only an $8 cover but then the feckin crows nest charged my $20 for a shot of Red Breast. At least I finally offloaded that old $be in that didn’t have hologram strips so I couldn’t exchange it for yen when I was in Japan.

DM has been mmed free since a week before he went to Japan so it hit well. Infants crowd, many deadheads from the Cruz scene, a lot from China Cats, included a gf/manager of the band, who danced with DM with an expression of recognition. Dm has chatted with her previously but nothing memorable and he didn’t realize she was China cats royalty at the time. DM’s friend shows up in a black party dress, so different than her dog park incarnation. Her husband wasn’t into dancing so dm and her deadhead danced beside each other. It was a small crowd, maybe 2 dozen on the floor at best and most of the bales in the back seem occupied (DM hugged the rail so he never saw the back of the house) maybe 50 deadheads tops, nice old hippies- a century old hippie witch winked at DM on thedancefloor as an wild ecstatic hippie chick dancer flailed exotically,

TT was good. The lead Jim can do a serviceable Jerry and the organ goes for that church organ Hammond sound. Bass & drums are steady and they have two lovely female vocalists. One took on SotM, my wedding song which few attempt anymore. She dia delightful rendition. No song consistantly hit me like a hammer like SotM. 

Right and Miracle reminded dm of past loves and it struck him how sexy that JGB sound was. Didn’t realize it so much at the time but it figured into many of DMs relationships. Head trippin, man.

I’ll check out Tiger’s Tale again. Always grateful to hear that music played live again.

I got some Ghidorah schwag at the Godzilla store in Japan. Ghidorah has always been my favorite Kaiju. But as I started donning my Ghidorah shirt, I began to wonder about the original films. I figured I’d better check in with them again, just in case time has made them cringeworthy.

Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
This was the first Ghidorah film and upon watching it, I’m not sure I’ve seen it before. I think the film that I thought was first was actually the second one. Ghidorah is a bad ass, emerging from a meteorite egg. There’s a princess from some imaginary country that gets possessed by a Venusian after a failed assassination attempt and warns earthlings that Ghidorah will destroy earth just like it destroyed Venus. Mothra, still in caterpillar form, appears thru the mini-twins on a variety TV show, the Rodan pops out of a volcano and Godzilla comes up from the sea. It takes all three of them to defeat Ghidorah. 

It’s got some of the goofiest kaiju fights. Godzilla is clumsy and keeps falling on his back then struggling to get back up. Rodan pecks him on the head a lot. Mothra talks both of them into joining forces against Ghidorah after a long discussion in Kaiju-ese. Godzilla’s breath doesn’t affect any of the other kaiju so he throws a lot of rocks. Rodan makes a jet engine sound when he flies and doesn’t alway flap his wings, but both Rodan & Ghidorah have wings, so there’s flying fights guest feel very pro-wrasslin. Mothra just spews spider web but that really annoys the other Kaiju because Godzilla’s arms are too short to wipe it off and Rodan & Ghidorah don’t have arms; they have wings.

Ghidorah does what he does best - wreak havoc with his three epileptic heads shooting lightning bolts everywhere as he straffs Japan. 

Thr best park was there were scenes in Ueno park and Shibuya where I was when I was in Japan. Ueno was unrecognizable - it’s a big park - but Shibuya was at a distinctive intersection that I recognized for the architecture. Now that area is completely covered in neon and giant TV screens. 

I’m planning to watch more Ghidorah films chronologically if I can find them on my streamers. He appears in 11 films now with the 12th on its way this year for Godzilla Minus 0.

Adam Scott goes back to his dead wife's home town to start over with his only sun. But there is a serial killer in town who is following the pattern of another serial killer who has been in jail for 25 years. That serial killer was put away by Adam Scott's estranged father by played by Robert Deniro. When Scott's son goes missing Scott calls on Deniro to help with the case. But not in a nice, let's reconnect sort of way. 

It's a pretty good police procedural. Everyone is solid in their roles. The best scene in the film is when Deniro goes to the prison and confronts Frank the serial killer, played really well by Michael Keaton, about who the copycat killer might be.

My favorite part about the film is this subtle weirdness that happens again and again in the film. No spoilers but you'll see it. It was one of those things where the filmmakers decided not underestimate the intelligence of their audience.

Vancity Reynolds crashes in the middle of the Soviet Union while on a spy mission. Henry V rescues him. A road trip buddy adventure begins as they escape to the west. And along the way we learn the real meaning of friendship. It's been a long time since Vancity hasn't done his Deadpool stick which he does again here. It's a bit tiresome at this point although he does dial down the macho. Kenneth Brannagh isn't bad as the ex-KGB agent, but unlike old man action star Bob Odenkirk, I didn't really buy the fight scenes. They were all very slow.

On top of that, a lot of the effects are painfully bad, the worst sort of AI slop that you might see on ticktock. There is a pretty good chase seen towards the end. The getting shot down seen did have a good moment. But a lot of it was meh.

The plot was very predictable. Except for one scene in the Dacha that did make me laugh.

She was a chiropractor who volunteered for JAH Med. She was living in Santa Cruz when I first returned here. Her daughter Naomi got her acupuncture cert thru 5 Branches here but they both left before we could connect. I haven’t seen her in years, since before the pandemic, but we knew each other long before that. I just saw another mutual friend post her grief at her passing on Facebook. I posted condolences on the JAH Med fb group. I think she was younger than me and I don’t know anything about the circumstances. Just saw a lot of posts mourning her on her fb.

(06-17-2026, 06:28 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: All Wishes Come True

Lanterns is about Hal Jordan training John Stewart to take over the Green Lantern job. Or is it? The first episode introduces the troubled relationship between Mentor and Mentee until they realize there is an alien invasion possibly going on in the midwest. Ep 02 digs further into the problem of aliens in a small midwest town. Ep 03 devotes itself to how John Stewart got to be John Stewart and it's the best episode so far full of tragedy and determination and how Stewart continues to soldier on despite the roadblocks in his way.

It's a really good show. Kyle Chandler is really good as the I don't give a fuck Hal Jordan but still bent on protecting the planet. Stewart is equally good. Lots of great emotional scenes. The people all seem to be smart. If HBO had dropped all the episodes at once, I would be burning through them.

I Swear is the feel good movie about Tourette's! But not really. For most of the film, it's really depressing. John Davidson lives perfectly normal life until about age 14 when the first symptoms start to kick in. Everybody thinks he's faking including his own family. He has no control over his body and nobody wants to be with him, even his own mother treats him like a problem. Until one day that changes and he meets a mental health nurse dying of cancer. She wants John to live as normal a life as possible and challenges John to do that. It is not easy. He continues to get into trouble by encountering people who take advantage of him or attack him for his outbursts.

It does get better. There are some moments of genuine relief. But the film is harsh.

One of the greats of the golden age of Kung Fu movies. I was honored to spend the weekend with him in 2012 in Florida. That’s after when The Gallants came out, a film I still love ( https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...p?tid=2179 ) and I based my interview on that but I regret going deeper into his extensive cinematic legacy. He was such a gentleman - Kung Fu movie royalty.