S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 72

Luke Cage

I finished watching all the episodes of Luke Cage last week. Luke Cage is one of the Marvel/Netflix series, after Jessica Jones and Daredevil. For some reason I went in assuming it was going to be a prequel, but it takes place after Jessica Jones and Daredevil (both of whom get mentioned, but not by name).

I really liked Luke Cage. While there was good action, the characters drive the story. And there were some very interesting characters from a corrupt politician (played by Alfre Woodard) whose cousin is a the head of a gang, to Cage himself, played by Mike Coulter, who exudes a quite calm and confidence. You immediately want to like the guy. And Rosario Dawson is back as Claire Temple, after playing that character in Jessica Jones and Daredevil.

Each episode built and built to a final climax. My biggest complaint was the last episode got a little preachy.

One thing I also enjoyed was how music was infused into nearly every episode. The action centers around a night club that has live music performances. Because I don't listen to Soul or R&B or Hip Hop, I don't know if the performers were actual famous performers, but the music was so good, I suspect they were. But it added another enjoyable dimension to the show. Here's a website that talks about the music in Luke Cage. But it doesn't seem to be complete.

The other two Marvel/Netflix series took place in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. Luke Cage takes place in Harlem (it's mentioned he moved there from Hell's Kitchen). I've never been to Harlem so I have no idea how accurate a portrayal of the area the show is. But you are dragged into it along with Luke.

Luke Cage is very good, very entertaining. If you have Netflix, I urge you to check it out. The first two episodes are a bit slow but after that, it's an amazingly good show.

The Netflix/Marvel series are in the same universe as the Avengers movies. But these series are so much better than the movies. They delve deep into the back story of the characters, and they have the time to let you get to know them well. And they tend to be a lot more serious than the movies. So please don't write them off as comic-book shows.

Washington Huskies are in the Playoffs.

Last night I checked on my DVR's program guide and saw that the CFP Rankings program on ESPN was scheduled for four hours starting at 9:00 AM PST. And I figured the CFP Committee's rankings would be put out in the last part of that fourth hour.

I was wrong. I just took a look and the rankings are out and the University of Washington Huskies are #4 and will play #1 Alabama in the Peach Bowl on New Years Eve.

(I'm sorry, the "Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl")

Which is going to be a very tough game. Hope Washington quarterback Jake Browning doesn't have another off night.

Apparently the time of and which network will broadcast the Peach Bowl aren't set, yet. I suspect it'll be on one of the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox).

What a difference a year makes. Last year the Huskies had to win the Apple Cup to win their sixth game and be bowl eligible. They did and then played in the "Heart of Dallas" Bowl in front of a half-empty stadium.

This year they are back in national prominence, they are going to the playoffs, and they are the Pac-12 Champions.

Let's just hope Chris Petersen can keep it up over the years and turn the Dawgs into a dynasty again like they were under coach Don James.

Go Dawgs!

UPDATE: The Peach Bowl will be at 12:00 PM PST (3:00 PM EST) on ESPN.

The UW Huskies are the Pac-12 Champs!

Last night the University of Washington Huskies played the University of Colorado Buffaloes for the Pac-12 Championship. And the Huskies won by a score of 41-10. And that was with Washington Quarterback Jake Browning have an off night. Thank God for the running game.

The Huskies received the opening kickoff because Colorado won the toss and deferred (which is common these days in both college and pro football). This season no team has scored on its opening drive against the Colorado defense. Until last night. The Huskies marched down the field, helped by two 15-yard penalties, and scored.

But Colorado quickly came back to tie the game, 7-7. On the Buff's next possession, their quarterback got sacked and hurt. He was out for the rest of the first half.

As I said, the Husky's quarterback, Browning, was having one of his rare off games (the last one was
our loss to USC). But the running game and the defense saved us. Miles Gaskin pretty much carried the team for the rest of the game. By the end of the first half, the score was 14-7, Huskies in the lead.

Then in the third quarter, Colorado's leading quarterback returned. And threw three interceptions in the third quarter alone, one of which was ran in for a touchdown. All in all, those interceptions turned into 13 points for the Huskies.

Colorado did manage to get a field goal in the third quarter but were denied a touchdown by the Husky defense.

When there was about five minutes left in the game, the Huskies started putting in second-string players. In a championship game. That's how bad a blow-out it was. Final score was, as I said, 41-10. That's the tenth game (out of 13) this year they've scored at least 40 points.

So now what? The CFP Committee will announce their picks for the playoff tomorrow at twelve noon Eastern Time, or 9:00 AM Pacific Time. Some pundits and fans are saying Washington doesn't belong there. But Washington is the lowest-ranked team with a 12-1 record. Will the committee really bump Washington out of the playoffs for a 10-2 or 11-2 team?

Of course, if we go to the college football playoffs, we are most likely to play #1 Alabama (12-0 so far) in the Peach Bowl. That will be a brutal game. But if Jake doesn't have an off night . . .

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with William J. Jackson and Ray Chilensky

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome writers William J. Jackson and Ray Chilensky.
William J. JacksonWilliam J. Jackson

William J. Jackson lives in yesterday and tomorrow. He has only the vaguest awareness of the present, and when he does, he writes. As fan of history, nature, comics and science fiction, Jackson merges these hobbies into the Legacy Universe, his fictitious saga of the denizens of Railroad City, Missouri. When not writing, he travels through time, stares at birds, and works and lives in historic Salem, New Jersey with his darling wife and family.

William's Books:

Down Jersey Drive-shaft (in progress at Wattpad)

An Unsubstantiated Chamber

Cerulean Rust

William's Links:

Blog
Facebook
Twitter

Ray ChilenskyRay Chilensky

Ray Chilensky lives in rural Tuscarwarus County, Ohio. He has worked briefly in law enforcement and for several years in private security. He has studied political science and history at Kent State University. Late in life he decided to pursue his passion for storytelling and combined that passion with lifelong interest in history, politics to seriously peruse a writing career. In his free time Ray’s interests include the martial arts., shooting sports, drawing and, of course reading good books.

Ray's Books:


The Fate of Nations: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha Book One

Blood and Treasure: F.I.R.E. Team Alpha Book Two

"The Engineer" (short story)

Ray's Links:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest

From Today's Show: Did Planet Nine Tip the Solar System?

Listen to today's show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT, or in archive here.

Childhood Memories

And time now for more from the 52-week blogging challenge. The next prompt is "Ten Years From Now." Well, not too long ago I did a blog on seven years from now. So I think I'll skip this one.

So the next one is "My Childhood Memories." That's pretty vague. There's good memories, there's bad memories, there's things I remember for some strange reason.

One time we packed up the Ford station wagon (it was brownish) and went to the bus station in Idaho
Like this, only brownFalls, ID to pick up my grandmother. There were lots of us, including cousins visiting from Alaska. These days, with seat belt laws, you probably couldn't fit that many adults and kids in a station wagon. Probably need a large SUV like a Suburban.

Back then the bus station in Idaho Falls was white concrete or stucco. Here's how I described it in my novel, Agent of Artifice :

"The station was a white concrete building with a hardwood floor and wooden benches.  A pinball machine sat unused in one corner."

Anyway, I remember coming out of the bus station and seeing the family car drive away. I think I was about 8 when this happened. Maybe older. No more than 10.

Yes, I was "left alone." But this was a public place.

I stood on the sidewalk, waiting for them to realize their mistake and return. But they didn't return. From what I heard, they went to my grandmother's place and took her bags in and were talking when suddenly my cousin said, "Where's Evan?" Oops. They rushed (well maybe) back to the bus station.

I have no idea how long this took. It felt like forever. Finally they returned and got me. My mother was very apologetic.

I don't remember being particularly traumatized. I knew they'd come back eventually. I remember being embarrassed to be standing there waiting. I wondered what the people around me thought. That's a problem I still sometimes have today.

Washington Back in the Playoffs

The University of Washington Husky football team is back in the CFP playoffs. They were ranked #4 by the committee yesterday. Assuming they win the Pac-12 Championship game on Friday, they should still be ranked at least #4 come "decision day" on Sunday the 2nd.

Michigan, who was #3, played Ohio State who was and still is #2. Michigan lost so they dropped to #5 Clemson moved to #3 and the Huskies moved to #4.

Of the four teams in the playoffs, the Huskies have the hardest challenge going forward. Alabama (#1) plays #15 Florida on Saturday. And Clemson (#3) plays #23 Virginia Tech also on Saturday. And Michigan plays no one, apparently, before the bowl games. Meanwhile, Washington is playing #8 Colorado on Friday night at 6:00 PM PST, on Fox.

If the Huskies are #4 come Sunday, they will play Alabama probably in the "Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl" in Atlanta. If they are #3, they will play #2 probably in the "Playstation Fiesta Bowl" in Glendale, AZ (the same stadium the Arizona Cardinals play in). Both games are on New Years Eve.

The reason it's hard to predict where they will play is the game is held in the stadium closest to the top seeded team. Since Alabama will probably be #1, they will probably play in Atlanta. Where Washington will play depends on if they are #4 or #3 and who is #2.

Other Pac-12 teams in the CFP rankings are: Colorado at #8 (as said above), USC at #11, Stanford at #18, and Utah surprising at #20.

I would prefer that the Huskies be #3 as then they would play #2 in the semifinal game. If they are #4 like they are now, they have to play Alabama who will be a very tough opponent. But the Huskies may surprise everyone. They are playing very well these days.

Ghostbusters

When I heard that Hollyweird was remaking Ghostbusters, I thought why would anyone think they could capture lightning in a bottle twice and re-do the most sublime comedy of the 1980s? Then I heard it was going to be female cast and I thought, "You know, that might work." Perhaps having a female cast would separate it enough from the original that it could stand on its own.

(Full Disclosure: The original Ghostbusters is one of my favorite movies ever.)

***Spoilers Ahead***

Then the first trailer came out on YouTube. I watched it. I hated it. I clicked dislike along with over 1 million people as of now.

Why did I hate the trailer? It wasn't funny. It was boring. It was dumb and gross. No, I didn't hate it because the women were women. I hated it because the women weren't funny. And I thought it showed that the Ghostbusters remake was going to be a dud. Probably due to bad writing, I thought, because Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy are usually pretty funny (viz: Paul  and Spy ).

But I decided to reserve judgment on the entire movie until I saw it. Which I did last Wednesday.

The movie starts out slow with a plodding pace and zero humor (unless you think a hyper-PC tour guide is funny). It got more amusing and I remember my first chuckle was when a character turned on a proton pack and the other two characters backed off (like in the original Ghostbusters in the elevator). My first real laugh came about half-way through the movie when Ozzy Osborn, pretty much playing himself, thought a ghost was a bad trip.

And the scenes that weren't funny in the trailer were more amusing in context. But they still weren't very funny.

By the end of the movie I had a few laughs. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. And it could have been so much better if the writing had been crisper. The actors did their best with the material they were given.

And there were references to the original. Bill Murray played a paranormal skeptic, Dan Aykroyd played a taxi driver who quotes from the first film. Annie Potts is a desk clerk in a hotel. Ernie Hudson is one character's uncle. And Sigourney Weaver is a scientist. And the Stay Puft Marsh Mellow Man even shows up. Oh and Slimer, too. Too bad they could lure Rick Moranis out of retirement.

One thing the movie did was on my TV screen (and probably yours) it was letterboxed (black bars at the top and bottom of the screen to make the aspect ratio different from my TV). But often special effects would go over the black bars. This was amusing the first time but then you started watching for it. If they'd done it once in the climax, it would have been much more effective.

So I'll give Ghostbusters three stars on Netflix. It was amusing and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny. But it took about half the movie to get there.

End of the Regular College Football Season

Last night was the end of the regular season for college football. Most teams play 12 games over a 13 week schedule, having a bye one week. The last game played was Rice at Stanford (which Stanford won handily).

Now the post season starts first with conference championship games that some (not all) conferences have. The one I'm most interested in is, of course, the Pac-12 Championship game on Friday at 6:00 PM PST. The University of Washington Huskies will play the South Division champions The University of Colorado Buffaloes.

The Pac-12 just started playing a championship game in 2012, when it expanded to 12 teams (before
it was the Pac-10). Then they divided the conference into the North Division and the South Division.

The North Division has been won by only three teams: Oregon, Stanford, and now Washington.

The South Division has been won by five of the six teams in the division. I think only Utah hasn't won. They were in the running this year.

The North Division champion has won the championship game all four times it's been played.

This year, Oregon is in last play in the Pac-12 North after losing to Oregon State in their rivalry game. Because I loath Oregon, this makes me happy.

The worst team in the Pac-12 is Arizona.

But what about the College Football Playoffs? Currently Washington is #5 in those rankings. If they beat Colorado next Friday, they have a chance to move to #4 or perhaps #3. Michigan lost to Ohio State this weekend so it's hard to believe they'll put a 10-2 team above an 11-1 team such as Washington. We'll find out when the new rankings come out Tuesday. And the final rankings come out on "decision day" on Sunday, December 4th.

A clue to the CFP rankings are the AP top 25 poll rankings which come out at 1:00 PM EST (11:00 AM PST). And Washington is #4 in that poll after their Apple Cup victory. That's up 2 places.

Colorado is till at #9, USC at #10. And Stanford is back in the top 25 at #17. Utah and WSU have both dropped out of the top 25.

So we'll have to see what the CFP selection committee does Tuesday.

Huskies Win the Apple Cup and More!

The University of Washington Huskies beat the Washington State University Cougars yesterday in the Apple Cup: the annual cross-state rivalry game.

I was expecting a close, hard fought game like the Arizona or Utah games the Huskies played. The game was being played in Pullman so the Cougars had home-field advantage in front of their rabid fans. Also, the Cougars were, after a slow start to the season, playing very well with a 7-1 in conference record and 8-2 over all. They Huskies had a 7-1 in conference record and 10-1 overall (after their loss to USC). Plus this game was for all the marbles. The winner would be the Pac-12 North Division Champions and go on to play the South Division Champion (that will be determined today) in the Pac-12 Championship game next Friday. So I expected a close game.

Instead, it was a 45-17 blowout of the Cougars.

The Huskies could hardly do anything wrong. They did lose a fumble, but quarterback Jake Browning was playing the best he has so far this season. John Ross (who was the player who coughed up the fumble) was amazing, as was all the Husky running backs and receivers. The Huskies appear to be peaking right at the right time.

As I said, the Pac-12 South Division Champion will be determined today. It will either be Colorado or USC. It all hinges on the Colorado-Utah game. If Colorado wins, Colorado is the Pac-12 South Division Champ. If Utah wins, USC is the champ. I'm not sure who I'd rather play next Friday, Colorado or USC. We haven't played Colorado this year but we have played USC (and lost).

The AP poll rankings will come out tomorrow. It'll be interesting to see where the Huskies land (and how far the Cougars drop). The CFP rankings come out Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what happens there. And CFP "Decision Day" is next Sunday, the 4th. That's when we'll know who is in the college football playoffs. If the Huskies win the Pac-12 championship, they have a good shot at being #4 or #3 in the CFP. And that puts them in the playoffs.

A Speculative Fiction Cantina Replay with Richard Keller and Trey Dunham

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we feature a "best of" episode featuring writers Richard Keller and Trey Dunham.
Richard KellerRichard Keller

Richard Keller is an author, speaker, talk show host, and owner of Wooden Pants Publishing. He started his life as an avid science fiction reader to the point he tried to get through Dune in one sitting while still a tween. His first writing experience was for his third grade teacher and his first short story, a terribly bad rip-off of Knight Rider was submitted when he was 12. Richard has written over two thousand pieces in newspapers, magazines, and online over the last several decades. His science fiction series, Saunders’ Savages, features an oversexed and wealthy CEO of an intergalactic corporation who moonlights as the leader of a pay-for-hire army.

Richard's books:

Coffee Cup Tales 2 – Extra Foam

Paradise Not Quite Lost

Authors, and the Zombies they Emulate

Richard's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

Trey DunhamTrey Dunham

Trey Dunham is a writer, speaker and storyteller with a proven ability to attract and motivate audiences.

He is the author of several books including: From a Gun to the Plow (New Hope Publishers, forthcoming, with Steve Finn), Strangers and Aliens: Thoughts on 1 Peter (CreateSpace, 2013), We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This: A new Look at the Gospel of Mark (CreateSpace, 2014), The Meaning of Technology: A Theology of Technique in Jacques Ellul (CreateSpace, forthcoming), and Loophole: A Novel (CreateSpace, 2015, with Jason Hostetler, movie rights optioned by JC Films). He has been blogging on spiritual, family and personal topics at TreyDunham.com since 2009 His published poetry has won awards from literary groups at Denison University.

Dunham wrote and delivered sermons regularly to as many as 3,000 people, as a teaching pastor at one of West Virginia’s largest churches. He quadrupled the size of the church’s campus ministry to over 200 students in his eight years there. He opened a popular Fair Trade coffee house as a satellite ministry near the West Virginia University campus. The café became a hub for service projects and social-justice events Dunham organized, drawing hundreds of students into volunteer projects for local charities. In 2010, he led a team to plant CityChurch in Morgantown, WV.

For four years, Dunham told the story of SustainU, a maker and marketer of recycled, natural-fiber clothing manufactured exclusively at U.S. plants. As the startup’s marketing director, he helped drive a thirteen-fold sales increase to $2 million. He used Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and press releases to generate positive coverage for SustainU in The New York Times and other metropolitan and local media.

Dunham, who holds a doctoral degree in Technology Education, has taught and spoken before a wide variety of audiences. He has travelled and lived around the world, heading a mission in the jungles of New Guinea and overseeing a hospital-construction crew in the Himalayas of Nepal. He has presented his research at two international conferences of scholars in his field. And he has led hundreds of campus Bible study groups in deeply personal discussions about faith, and finding meaning. Over the years, he has counseled dozens of singles and dating, engaged, and married couples.

Dunham lives in Morgantown, WV.

Trey's Books:

Catch for Us the Foxes

Jesus and the City

The Beams of Our House

Trey's Links:
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From Today's Show: Maybe Alien Life Runs on Cosmic Rays.
Listen to today's "best of" show at 6:00 PM ET/ 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.