Sozzeach & More

Excerpts from a Reuters article at nypost.com: “… three South Korean companies and the Seoul police have had to pull ads and other content after men’s rights groups claimed that ‘small penis’ symbols were used, insulting men… Exacerbating the problem, one ad and a menu involved were also advertising sausages.”

Here are excerpts from a great article at NYP by Josh Hammer, edited by yours truly: “Visegrad Group members Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — and perhaps Austria — have emerged as an unlikely ground zero in the fight to save Western civilization from a debilitating and increasingly all-encompassing liberal decadence… leaders are unabashed about the superiority of their unique cultural and national heritages over the Brussels-based European Union siren song, publicly defensive of the Judeo-Christian code and its manifest goodness, and unapologetically sided with the United States over Russia, and Israel over Hamas terrorists.” The countries mentioned have two huge things in common — each experienced the full brunt of Nazi and Soviet terror. Maybe Western Civilization has a chance, after all.

Friday night’s movie fix courtesy of Netflix by mail was a tough watch. Based on an actual event, Centigrade (2020) is the story of a young couple traveling in Norway who make the mistake of pulling to the side of the road during an ice storm. While sleeping, snow and ice engulf their car, trapping them. The husband thinks staying inside, waiting for rescue is the right course, the pregnant wife wants to venture out despite being in the middle of nowhere. As the days mount, so does the tension. Director, co-writer Brendan Walsh captures the claustrophobia. The narrative cleaves to reality, subjecting the viewer to nasty arguments that seem genuine but are grating. It is as much a two character play about marriage as it is a tale of survival. Fortunately the running time is only 89 minutes. The pair is played by Vincent Piazza and Genesis Rodriguez, who have solid careers going. Piazza, born in Queens, played Lucky Luciano in 56 episodes of Boardwalk Empire, and Rodriguez has done a lot of TV, apparently beginning in Latino soap operas. This was Walsh’s first film. He was at the helm of several episodes of Nurse Jackie and other TV fare. Daley Nixon, a Welshman, received screenplay credit, his first full length work. 2200+ users at IMDb have rated Centigrade, forging to a woeful consensus of 4.3 on a scale of ten. I’ll go with five. The acting was good and the story uncompromising. The movie fared miserably at the box office, returning only $31,000+ on a budget estimated at $1–2 million. The good news is it has a chance to recoup the investment through DVD sales and rentals and streaming. Its appeal is probably restricted to fans of the cast and students of acting and playwriting. Here are the leads in character:

I’m not a fan of the show but I know how much its fans love it. Headline from foxnews.com: “‘Friends’ co-creators say sitcom’s lack of diversity wasn’t intentional.” Now an apology is expected for a show about whites hanging out with whites. Is the solution to add tokens?

Since rain put the kibosh on the floating book shop and may do so again tomorrow, it was a good day to get the second Pfizer shot. Having heard so many complain about the side effects, I was not looking forward to it even though the hassle was going to be history. So far, almost four hours later, I’m not feeling ill. While waiting the suggested 15 minutes in store, I noticed music playing in the background. Years ago record companies started cracking down on stores playing music, threatening legal action for copyright infringement, a ridiculous measure given that it was free publicity and that anyone who heard a song might purchase it. Anyway, CVS is using a sort of Muzak, and a couple of tracks I heard actually had some panache, especially Walking After Midnight, made famous by Patsy Cline. I was surprised it had a genuine country flavor. One of these days I may ask an employee if the company contracted with a supplier. Stop n Shop plays regular music. I expect the company pays for it.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza