Rant #2,030: Many Rivers To Cross

Well, I welcome myself back here, and I welcome you back to the Ranting and Raving Blog after a well-earned couple of days off for not just me, but for you too.

My family and I had a decent Thanksgiving, and even my pre-ordered turkey held up pretty well.

No, it was not as good as a freshly cooked bird, but it was good enough, and it fit the need that we had this year.

Otherwise, there is nothing like having four consecutive days off from the drudgery of work, and that goes for whether you are in a good situation or a really bad one, like I am in.

During the four days, I personally did what I had to do to basically relax and recharge my batteries for the next five weeks of 2017 and hopefully into the early days of 2018.

My family and I didn't do anything too spectacular during these past four days, but at least we did it on our own time, and we didn't have to fit it into a workday.

After a nice Thanksgiving, Black Friday descended on us, and I did what I always do on Black Friday, or at least what I have done on Black Friday for the past few years: go to my local record store on Record Store Day and collect a couple of more goodies for my collection.

I bought both new records and old ones, and since my record store donates a percentage of the money they make that day to charity, it worked out nice all around.

And then I went home. No more shopping for me on the year's day of all shopping days.

On Saturday and Sunday, I personally didn't do much of anything, to be honest with you.

My wife and I did buy some holiday gifts, but we aren't spending like we have in the past, so we didn't get much.

Other than that, I watched several movies on TV.

We had thought that we might go to the movies--the real, honest to goodness movies--on Saturday, but we decided that nothing in the movies really thrilled us, so we stayed home.

But I have to tell you, with Chromecast attached to the bedroom TV, and with the mix of YouTube and Netflix movies, we had plenty to watch over the weekend as others shopped until they dropped.

We basically watched until we conked out.

I personally watched about four or five films. One had nothing to do with either YouTube or Netflix; it was being broadcast during the endless pledges that our local PBS station runs, and no, sorry, I did not pledge, but I watched.

I watched Ron Howard's film on the early and middle days of the Beatles, "Eight Days a Week," on Saturday night. It was a good movie, using archival and never-before-seen personal fan footage of the Fab Four pretty much before "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

This is my favorite period of the Beatles experience, so I was captivated by the film. It didn't teach me anything I didn't know about them, but it was a fun watch.

But back to Netflix ...

My wife and I watched a few films, including "Bushwick," starring Dave Bautista, the former wrestler, about the Brooklyn neighborhood, one which is the setting for America's new Civil War.

It was an interesting premise, but I don't think the movie was really that good, but it did kill a good 90 minutes or so.

Yesterday, we watched "JeruZalem," and yes, the "Z" is capitalized for "zombies."

This was an interesting Israeli film about an invasion of aliens that hits Jerusalem while two young, pretty Americans are on vacation there. Most of the film was taken from the perspective of the brunette, who was wearing Google Glasses and was seeing the city, and what was going on there, on something of a computer basis.

At first, it was kind of annoying, but after a while, the perspective given by the girl and her glasses added something new to an already overdone topic.

And no, the invaders weren't really zombies--they were some other alien species--but getting to see the holy city from a different, arresting perspective made the film one that I am glad that we watched.

On YouTube, I watched a variety of completely bizarre films, staring with "Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun," an early 1970s exploitation flick if there ever was one.

It is what I think is either the 1700s or early 1800s in a small village in Portugal, one where the church rules and every incident that goes against church teaching is marked by penalties to those who participate.

A young, very pretty girl is caught being chased by her boyfriend through the woods, and she is caught by a priest, who forces her mother to give her up for a life in the nunnery.

However, this nunnery does not worship Christ, it worships Satan, and every debauchery you can imagine happens there to this woman and the other nuns.

I won't give the rest of the film away, but yes, this is "nunsploitation" at its most brutal, and you almost stick with the film to see what happens next to this young girl.

No, this isn't "The Flying Nun" by any stretch of the imagination.

Another film I watched was "Top Sensation," another late 1960s-early 1970s exploitation film that also hits all the stops for debauchery, but in a more modern setting.

A rich woman with a yacht has a son who has problems of his own. His mother is worried about his, let's say, social development, so she hires a swinging husband and wife and a prostitute to help turn him around.

In return, she might invest in the husband and wife's dreams, and as for the prostitute, well, she will be well paid for her endeavor.

Things do go awry on the mother's plan, as the group meets and picks up a husband and wife on an island, a duo who is somewhat repressed and ends up looking for a good time, too. Their good time leads to murder, and no, the son is never cured of whatever problems he has.

This Italian film is partially dubbed into English, features a number of fairly explicit scenes for the time period it was made in, and supposedly from what I read, there is another version of the film that borders on an X rating, but the cut that I saw was definitely a hard R rated film.

The movie kept my interest, one of those movies that is so bad that it is good, much like the other film I described here.

Both films were perfect for a lazy Thanksgiving weekend.

So that is that.

This week, we have my father's 86th birthday to look forward to, but otherwise, it's back to the same old, same old ... you can't be off from work forever, you know.

And no, Cyber Monday does not thrill me as it does others.

Onward and upward, with my wallet intact.