Musings & Thoughts for Saturday, January 15, 2022, or: A Quick Weekend Update from Florida

Hi there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in Lithia, Florida, on Saturday, January 15, 2022. It is a mildly cool winter day in the subtropical South. Currently, the temperature is 73˚F (23˚C) under sunny skies. With humidity at 49% and the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 6 MPH (10 KM/H), the feels-like temperature is 73˚F (23˚C). Today’s forecast calls for partly sunny skies and a high of 78˚F (25˚C). Tonight, we can expect scattered rain showers, some breeze, and a low of 64˚F (18˚C).

My order of La-La Land Records’ Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – Limited Edition 2-CD set arrived yesterday a little after 2 PM. Two days after the U.S. Post Office’s estimate of Wednesday the 12^th, but at least it arrived. La-La Land – which is based in Burbank, California – did a nice job of sending it in a cushioned “media mailer” envelope, so the jewel box case is free of cracks, and the art design of the album is superb. It’s a more nice-looking package than that of Atlantic Records’ original 1982 album, which just features a “hero” shot of the USS Enterprise at warp speed and a multi-hued version of the movie logo.

That having been said, I have not yet listened to the CDs  or read the booklet with the liner notes. I did look at CD 1 – the one with the complete score – and noticed it has a nice publicity photo of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy in their Starfleet maroon officers’ uniforms as Admiral James T. Kirk and Captain Spock. I tried to remove the disc so I could play it on the Blu-ray player that’s connected to the good home theater system, but it’s so securely placed in its tray that I could not gently pull it out.

I attempted to extract the CD two, maybe three times, but I don’t have the dexterity to do it without damaging either the disc or the case. I’ll ask the Caregiver to remove the disc so I can try it – maybe later tonight or tomorrow.

Oh, and today I found out through my daily meanderings in Blu-ray.com that 20^th Century Studios (the former 20^th Century Fox) will release Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story on 4K UHD/1080p Blu-ray on March 15. The Walt Disney Company will make the 2021 adaptation (the second since MGM-United Artists’ 1961 version co-directed by Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise) of the 1957 stage musical available for pre-order on February 1.

Since I have not seen Spielberg’s version of West Side Story in theaters, I will definitely be pre-ordering this home media release. I mean, I would have ordered it even if COVID-19 and other factors had not prevented me from going to see WSS at the movies, but they did, so…yeah. On February 1, I’ll click on the pre-order button on Amazon come hell or high water.

Aside from that, there’s not much to report. I’m annoyed with Trump fans’ insistence that their false messiah won the 2020 elections, and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate President. That Big Lie – which Trump himself continues to push, not just personally but through unhinged supporters such as Mike “MyPillow” Lindell, Sidney Powell,  and others – is now becoming the go-to strategy for GOP candidates when they lose elections.

Here in Florida, for instance, a Republican candidate in a special election for the Congressional seat vacated by the death of Representative Alcee Hastings, a guy named Jason Mariner, now claims that he lost the election in a heavily Democratic district due to – yep, you guessed it – election fraud.

Here’s a quick, informative, and darkly amusing video about this story by Florida podcaster Farron Cousins:

Well, like I said, I don’t have anything else to tell you, so I’ll just close this post here. Until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.