The Skolney Blog

1980: Wow, it's only been 40 years since the last Star Wars film that most of the fanbase didn't want to bitch about ad nauseum.  One of my favorite little bits of movie trivia is that Empire began principal photography literally the day after I was born. It had to have been the most hotly awaited sequel of all time given what a phenomenon A New Hope was.  It's the best of the original trilogy, really by far. A New Hope drags a lot, and the opening half hour of Return of the Jedi is a slog. Empire just flies. Easily the best paced of the OT, with no lulls of consequence. Great first act with the Hoth battle. Great 2nd act with Luke training with Yoda. Great 3rd act with the Luke-Vadar fight. And just iconic stuff everywhere in between. We meet Yoda, Lando and the senate. And we get a twist/cliffhanger ending that had to have blown minds in 1980. Empire works so well in part for a major reason the prequels do too. The bad guys win. It has stakes that matter. And ...

Derek Chauvin could have just put George Floyd in the squad car.once he was secured. Gauvin could have been arrested and charged THREE days ago. His 3 accomplices could have been arrested too. Gauvin could have been charged with first degree murder. Not the 3rd degree charge that will probably get plead down into something where he spends very little time in jail IF he is even convicted.  That charge is a joke, a spit in the face to everyone. Again, as I have in every blog.post about this, I will repeat that looting and burning does not solve anything.  But all the people in position to calm the populace are not taking this seriously. This is countrywide now. It's no longer just a Twin Cities story. The people of this country are fucking fed up, and they deserve to be. We have finally reached a breaking point. About everything. We are not going back to status quo without a fight.

Cop murders unarmed.black person. Choose your response: --Peacefully protest. Can't do that, cause either the cops will get violent anyway, or planted instigators will start something, or the right wing will rage that you are daring to protest at all. You can only protest when you need to get a salon re-opened. --Violently protest. Can't do that, cause the cops will just kill more people, and the corporate media will say they were justified doing so. --Burn and loot. Again, it solves nothing other than give the media the excuse to shift focus. -Do nothing and wait for justice to prevail. Riiiiiight. Cause that works. Murderous cops always get what's coming to them. 🙄🙄🙄 -Advocate. Nope, can't do that. Cause if you start #BlackLivesMatter here come the bigots with the #AllLivesMatter or the #BlueLivesMatter bullshit. --Vote out the people who let this shit happen. Can't do that, cause your vote likely won't count due to election fraud/gerrymandering/purged vote...

Fucking idiot assholes. Now that a bunch of dipshits co-opted the protests over the murder of George Floyd and looted and set fires, that will like clockwork become the only thing the media will talk about now. The cop who deliberately murdered Floyd (in one of the most cold-blooded things I have ever seen), and all his accomplices will fade into the background. Fox News will air wall to wall coverage of the dipshits. They won't even need to dig up dirt on Floyd to justify the murder. Because that will no longer be the story. How much more shit can we take in 2020? 

Trump cost us months worth of spring and summer movies. 🤞 that Tenet can still pull off a miracle and open in July. Trump cost us both the NBA and NHL playoffs, barring some heretofore unearthed salvage plan. Trump cost us Match Madness. Trump cost us MLB opening day, at minimum half the season, and any chance to go to a ballgame at Target Field in.2020. Trump cost us the WNBA season most likely, again barring a miracle plan. So no Lynx games in 2020. Trump will cost us any sort of public Vikings training camp, and almost certainly any chance to go to football games, that is if said games happen at all. And don't get me started on college football. And now the worst.kept secret in Minnesota is official, that the state fair is cancelled for the first time in over 70 years. No cookies, no mini donuts, no nothing. Trump has cost us that too.  All those things could have been saved, along of course with tens of thousands of lives, and countless other things I didn't mention that m...

Happy 20th anniversary to my favorite Britney album (a few others have held the title at times...it changes...generally it's either this, Britney or Glory). Oops hit at the apex of the TRL pop era. It remains forever my favorite era in popular music, the last before file sharing and all that decimated the business. I also think 2000 was top to bottom one of my 2 or 3 favorite years in music ever (1998 probably holds that title). By the time Oops hit Britney had already become a megastar and a monster in my own life. It was only 16 months between her first 2 albums, a time frame that's a bit more common today, but back then was unusual. And it was the first of hers where an album release itself was a huge deal. TV appearances all over the place, including her legendary first time hosting Saturday Night Live. Magazine covers of which I got many.  Nothing at all against the BOMT album, but Oops was a big step up as an overall album. It's peak early 2000s pop. The s...

Dark Crimes (2018) This is a dreadfully dull murder procedural. The only interesting thing about it is that it stars Jim Carrey as the detective. It's so effing bizarre that Carrey took this part, which is relentlessly grim and dark. I'll give him credit that he really commits to this thing, but I wish he had taken this chance on a better film.  The Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson (2020) Well, this is in poor taste. A sort of fan fiction version of the murders, theorizing that they were actually the work of a later arrested serial killer (played by a rough looking Nick Stahl). Mena Suvari plays Nicole and is fine. I just like seeing her in things. The dialogue is lame. Taryn Manning gives an embarrassing performance as Faye Resnick. This same director did a similarly reviled movie about Sharon Tate starring Hilary Duff, and I do remain kinda curious about that one.  Fatal Attraction (1987) Fatal Attraction was the first of the Michael Douglas "wronged by scary powerful wome...

Alright coronavirus, you win. You win. It's over. We are either too stupid, too weak, or both to stop the spread and save lives.  Even Tim Walz has given up. The stay at home order is ending, even as cases and deaths go up here. The "liberate" mob has gotten their way. They can go have their haircuts and pedicures now. As thousands more die.  We are so lost. The last 2 months have truly been for nothing. Oh sure, fewer infections and deaths have happened for now, but they'll just make up for lost time now. We never had a chance to truly fight this virus or stop it. Trump ignored it and let it cripple us, and has spent every day since doing nothing but lie about the severity and try to pass blame and distract with shit like "Obamagate." Every other elected or appointed Republican has done everything possible to make this all worse. And the death cultists have protested everywhere, and violently attacked anyone who tries to enforce a mask policy or social dist...

Usually the schedule release really excites me, as I can place a date to the games I will be going to and figure out which games to sell to afford season tickets in the first place.  Not this year. I remain very unsure if there will be a 2020 season at all, but even beyond that I know there is very little chance that fans will be allowed in to any games, so I won't actually be going to any of them. But, presuming that the season WILL happen, and happen with this schedule, I do have some thoughts. I don't like much about this schedule. Opening at home against the Packers is a much bigger game than you like to have right out the gate, especially with a young, retooled secondary in its first test. And with really no actual home field advantage.  Week 2 at Indy could go either way. But we did handle Philip Rivers late last season.  Week 3 back home against Tennessee should be easier. The Titans are primed for a fallback season.  Then it's back on the road to ...

The Apartment (1960) I typically have trouble getting into movies made before I was born at all, let alone something from 1960. But wow....this film is just perfect. I've seen it listed often among the all time greats. Jack Lemmon is wonderful. Young Shirley Maclaine is just a doll. It's funny but also sad but also romantic. I never use this term, but it was just enchanting. And it has one of the best endings ever. American Honey (2016) When an over 2 and a half hour movie I watch on my phone captivates me the whole way through that's impressive. How has Sasha Lane not been in EVERYTHING since this?  Lost Girls (2020) A Netflix movie where Amy Ryan investigates the disappearance of one of her daughters. Thomasin McKenzie from Jojo Rabbit is in it. I wasn't into it. Holly Slept Over (2020) A married couple invites the wife's college roommate (Nathalie Emmanuel from Game of Thrones) to visit. Then the husband tries to have a threesome. It actually has some funny stuff...