Originally, the post directly below this one was going to be the lead-in to my usual end-of-week random ten eleven post, but started to take on a life of it’s own, so that’s how I let it go out into the world.

This post, other than the oblique mention in the previous paragraph, will be politics free. The rest of the world’s still out there, doing it’s thing. Let’s revel in that.

What have I done this week otherwise? I went to a parent-teacher conference and heard some really good stories about how my kid is doing in third grade. I made some kick-ass beef strogranoff. I took my son shopping for shoes and my eldest daughter for her first experiencing driving on a highway. I dealt with the usual mundane crap at work, and came home last night and spent two hours playing the hell out of my dad’s old 60s Gibson SG Special because I’ve been missing him lately, it’s a kick-ass instrument and doing so felt really good, getting lost in the music and the memories (even if I need to have the frets dressed).

Last Friday, I went to see Doctor Strange, like pretty much every other comics geek out there, and it was pretty great. We got the cool Ditko-esque visuals, a nicely modernized but still faithful origin story* thankfully mostly free of “chosen one” crap, a charismatic cast, and was surprisingly funny, daring to include the best Chuck Mangione joke since “King of the Hill”, in a world where flugelhorn references aren’t exactly thick on the ground.

I also dug the fact that they didn’t overplay their hand in terms of big story elements. Sure, they wedged in the Dread Dormammu (and the conflict with him/it was refreshingly not about big CG thing smacking into each other, but a clever conceit, exactly the kind of thing a wizard would do), introduced magic and multiversal dimensions and all that stuff, but hey let a lot of the character stuff play out leisurely. In the comics, Mordo’s turn from ally to antagonist** takes something like three pages (good old silver-age compact storytelling!); here, he doesn’t flip until after the credits, setting up a nice, complex recurring villain for the Doc and the other magical powers in the Marvel film universe.

If you’re looking for an escape from the real world for a couple of hours, catching this movie isn’t the worst thing you could do.

This weekend, I honestly don’t have much. I’m off tomorrow for Veteran’s Day, so I’m planning on sleeping in. I might be getting together to play some music with some folks later in the afternoon. Otherwise, it’s wide open, and that’s probably okay.

Here’s today’s mix out of Pandora – the inclusion of Zappa is nice (as is the depth of catalog for all things Zappa on the service):

1. “Godzilla” – Insane Ian
2. “Don’t Stand So Close To Me” – The Police
3. “My Guitar Wants to Kill Your Mama” – Frank Zappa
4. “18 and Life” – Skid Row
5. “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” – Cutting Crew
6. “Cum on Feel the Noize” – Quiet Riot
7. “It’s So Hard” – The Donnas
8. “Livin’ On A Prayer” – Bon Jovi
9. “Under the Sun” – Diiv
10. “White Flag” – Joseph
11. “War of the Gods” – Amon Amarth

Okay, fine…Stranger Things is going full 80s with season two casting.

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* –I’d argue, given the weirdness this one’s introducing, having the audience and the protagonist learn about it at the same time was a valid choice, even if origin stories are overplayed.

** –Yeah spoilers, but for a 50 year old comic book. Also – you think a guy who’s full name (in the comics) is “Baron Karl Amadeus Mordo” and sports a widow’s peak and goatee like that was going to ever end up on the side of the angels? It’s the most telegraphed face-heel turn since Sinestro joined the Green Lantern Corps!