Living in a Media World

Why local news matters: Down in the flood edition

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I’ve written on a variety of occasions how much local news matters – news from a local newspaper, television station, radio station; the importance of broadcasters having a local physical presence along with local ownership if at all possible.

We get lots of talk (criticism) of “the media” where people really mean the big national news outlets. But oftentimes the news we really need comes from the hardworking, low-paid local reporters, photographers and editors who work round the clock.

That was certainly the case this week in my home of Kearney, Nebraska, where we go nine inches of rain overnight (NINE INCHES!) Monday and early Tuesday. The flooding closed the main Interstate 80 interchange into town as well as hitting hard a major hotel district, commercial area, and residential areas.

At a time like this, locals and visitors alike needed to know how far the water was going to rise, where could they get food and shelter, and when could they expect for this disaster to be over.

Here’s just a sampling of some of the great news coverage we got from local media:

Kearney Hub: Yanney Park, part of Second Avenue
closed due to flooding in Kearney

The City of Kearney closed Yanney Park Tuesday because of flooding. The lake in the park has overflowed, as can be seen from Yanney Tower. Photo by Erika Pritchard, Kearney Hub

Good story with a great photo taken from the park’s observation tower.

Kearney Hub: Flooding puts 400-500 hotel rooms
out of commission in Kearney

Water nearly covered some of the vehicles in the parking lot at Kearney’s Holiday Inn Tuesday. The photo was taken by a drone hovering over the Nebraska Public Power District’s substation in south Kearney, which was de-energized during Tuesday’s flooding.

This story, by my friend Mike Konz, gets had the lasting business impact this flood may have on Kearney.

NTV (Local ABC affiliate): American Red Cross
helps those in need in Lexington

(I particularly liked this story because it gets out into the local region and talks with people from our immigrant community.)

And finally, Kearney is fortunate to have a regionally owned radio station that has local talk shows and news along with their nationally syndicated programming.

Radio KGFW: July 9, 2019 Flood Update:
Kearney & Wood River

Posted in Chapter 3, Chapter 6 | Tagged floods, Kearney Nebraska, local news | Comments Off

Travels with Putt Putt: ‘Oh thou that tellest good tidings to Zion’

Posted on July 8, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This year all my motorcycling is being done on a Suzuki DR650, AKA Putt Putt. This is part two of the story of Putt Putt’s and my trip to the canyon country of Utah.

With the end of our visit to Natural Bridges, it was time for Howard and me to head west. With Glen Canyon / Lake Powell in the way, and the ferry across Lake Powell no longer running because the lake level is so low, we had no choice but to either head north to take the bridge on the upstream end of the lake or head south to the Glen Canyon Dam end of things. Since our return trip would bring us across the northern bridge, our wheels turned south to Page, Arizona where we would be spending the night.

But for Howard and me the direct route is never the best, so we headed out to take the Moki Dugway – A section of Utah 261 that turns into three miles of mostly gravel switchbacks dropping down dramatically off the edge of Cedar Mesa and ending up near the Valley of the Gods.

The view down from Cedar Mesa. Three miles of gravel switchbacks will get you there.

You can see a little of the Moki Dugway in the top center of this photo.

Once we arrived in Page, we encountered the strangeness that is Arizona time. Most of Arizona (save the Navajo reservation) does not go on Daylight Savings Time in the summer, so its time is different from everyone else on Mountain Time. We decided to just keep living on Utah time, which meant our 6 a.m. Utah-time alarm actually had to be set for 5 a.m. Arizona time. It wasn’t that tough to deal with, but it still doesn’t feel right seeing that time you ringing alarm…

Our hoped for target for the day was Zion National Park. Unlike the parks from earlier in the trip, Zion is a popular, crowded park where there is never enough parking and many of the roads are open only to the park’s free shuttle service. Howard and I were concerned we might not be able to find parking at the park, even with our early start.

We needn’t have worried. As Handel foretold in his oratorio The Messiah, “Oh thou that tellest good tidings to Zion, there is plenty of motorcycle-specific parking.” Or something like that…

Despite our worries, there was plenty of unpublicized motorcycle specific parking at the park. (It’s attached to the oversized-RV lot, if you’re looking for it.)

We were soon in line for the shuttle to the far end of Zion where we were to go on the Riverside Walk. For us there was about a 45-minute wait.

In line for the Zion shuttle bus.

But the wait was worth it. The views along the paved Riverview Trail were spectacular. As Howard wrote in a post on Instagram, “I can’t imagine a person seeing it for the first time 400 years ago. How could you explain it to someone who’s not only never seen it, but never seen anything like it?”

At the end of the trail comes the legendary Narrows – a route into the depths of the park accomplished by wading up the river.

People in the water at the start of the Narrows

The jumping off point of the Narrows was a popular place on this warm afternoon, but we had neither the time nor the right equipment to follow it.

Despite all of the people and accompanying noise and fuss, it was still possible to have a moment of peace in this incredible park. Just listen for a moment to burbling of the Virgin River I recorded on our way back.

Next – Putt Putt starts heading back east.

Posted in Motorcycling, Travel | Tagged 2019 motorcycle trips, motorcycles, National Parks, Putt Putt, Utah | Comments Off

Travels with Putt Putt: A Visit to Abbey Country

Posted on July 6, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I don’t generally name my cars, and I don’t really set out to name my motorcycles, but it seems like over the past decade most of the motorcycles I’ve owned have somehow let me know what they wanted to be called. This year all my motorcycling is being done on a Suzuki DR650, AKA Putt Putt. This is the story of Putt Putt’s and my trip to the canyon country of Utah.

Ralph and Howard at the Needles Overlook

When I was an undergrad, my older brother gave me a copy of Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire. In it, Abbey tells the story of his three years as a seasonal park ranger at Arches National Monument (it wasn’t yet a national park) in the 1950s. In it Abbey talks about his time at a park so remote that days could pass without a visitor. He also laments the fact that the park was changing during the years he worked there, becoming more civilized, accessible, and crowded.

My wife and I live in northern Arizona back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and traveling through the canyon country of southern Utah was always a favorite. I’ve been back to Arches on several occasions since then, and I’ve always loved going there, but on this year’s trip to Utah on Putt Putt, I decided I wanted to head into some of the more remote parks, to experience, as much as possible some of Abbey’s country.

So my motorcycling companion Howard and I met up in Grand Junction, Colorado a week ago to head into the desert.

The first day of our ride goes through one of my favorite areas of the state – Utah Highway 128 that runs along the Colorado River through canyons leading up to the popular tourist town of Moab. The road is often bumpy and the unwary rider can come upon unexpected patches of gravel. It is narrow, winding, and has almost no shoulder in places. In short, it’s the perfect entrance to canyon country.

A view of the La Sal mountains in the distance from Utah 121. That’s the Colorado River off to the right.

As we rode our motorcycles past the entrance to Arches National Park, we could see the cars lining up to enter into the popular spot. And as much as a part of me wanted to join them, this trip was about trying to go where the crowds were not. So instead we kept heading north and then west out of Moab to get to the Island in the Sky unit of Canyonlands. Despite only being about 30 or 40 miles from Arches, Canyonlands had only sparse crowds, with about half a dozen or so cars in the parking lot of the visitors center. There were people present everywhere we went there, but they were never loud and overwhelming.

Looking over the Green River from the Island in the Sky unit of Canyonlands National Park.

John Wesley Powell wsa a one-armed Civil War veteran who led the first successful expedition down the entire length of the Green and Colorado rivers through the canyon country of Utah and Arizona. He’s one of my heroes. The most exciting thing about him was his Western river explorations, but his most important accomplishment was his work on Western water policy.

Lunch was at the Peace Tree Juice Cafe in Moab. Although the temperature was a 102 degrees, the humidity was a fairly comfortable 10 percent. A cool meal of pita and hummus along with plenty of ice water was just perfect.

Our final destination of the day was the Needles Overlook just north of Monticello.

This Bureau of Land Management spot is about 30 miles off the main road and truly is remote. By the time Howard and I got there, were were the sixth and seventh persons to sign into the guest registry for the day. And what a view of the Needles section of Canyonlands.

The Needles Overlook.

I’m not going to give exact directions on how to get to the overlook. It’s not hard to find, but well worth the effort. There’s also a campground not too far from the overlook that makes it easy to see the overlook at sunrise or sunset.

We finished are ride through the eastern part of Utah with a morning visit the following day to Natural Bridges National Monument. Like Canyonlands, this is a remote park with relatively few visitors. It’s a also great place to see three natural bridges which can be seen from overlooks or from more ambitious hikes. What struck me about the bridges is how well they camouflage themselves because the layers of rock on the bridges match the layers in the surrounding canyon.

Can you see the natural bridge in this photo?

Coming up next – Putt Putt travels to some busy parks.

Posted in Motorcycling, Travel | Tagged 2019 motorcycle trips, Edward Abbey, motorcycles, National Parks, Putt Putt, Utah | Comments Off

How do we remember Anthony Bourdain?

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

I’m rarely at a loss for words, as 15 years of this blog will show.

But when chef and Parts Unknown TV travel host Anthony Bourdain took his own life a year ago, I was at a total loss for words. I simply sobbed in my bedroom over the loss of one of the few celebrities I would have really liked to have had a meal with.

On the occasion of the late chef’s birthday, two of his friends who are prominent chefs, Eric Ripert and José Andrés, declared that the world should celebrate Bourdain Day with food, drink, and remembrances of Bourdain.

IMPORTANT! JUNE 25th #BOURDAINDAY Celebrating the Life, Legacy & Birthday of our Dear Friend Anthony! Wherever U are & whoever UR with, join @chefjoseandres I & share your tributes & memories using #BourdainDay & wish Anthony Peace & Happy Birthday! RT/Spread the word! CHEERS! 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/Sw28hDupfw

— Eric Ripert (@ericripert) May 30, 2019

Washington Post food writer Tim Carman had a moving tribute to Bourdain’s memory on Friday, including that with all the wonderful things Bourdain brought us, he still suffered from terrible depression. Carman went on to discuss his own struggles with depression:

I’ve tried to cover my depression with arrogance and anger. I’ve tried to cover it with alcohol, food, material things and work, lots of work. But none of this could change the fact that, ever since I could remember, I had no sense of personal value. I have carried this mental detritus around for decades, like a dead animal, the result of a childhood in which I was left to my own devices, untouched and unheard. It was an emotional vacuum that whispered to me, without a single word, what I was worth to those around me: nothing.

I’m telling you this because not telling you this is a sure road to destruction. I’m telling you this because I want to help destigmatize a condition that’s literally killing off people who make our world a better place. I’m telling you this because, if you’re a fellow sufferer, I hope you will find your way to a good therapist, as I have. I’m telling you this because I have so much left to give.

So Tony, my friend, rest in peace. Your death was not in vain, not to me.

In addition to Bourdain’s great writing, television and food legacy, Bourdain’s friends are using his death to help bring suicide prevention to the forefront when people would rather discuss just about anything else.

So on what would have been Anthony Bourdain’s 63rd birthday, let me just say thanks for all the funny, profane, delicious looking and deeply moving stories he told. And let us all try to remember that we never really know the pain others suffer.

Posted in Chapter 9, Food | Tagged Anthony Bourdain, food, Parts Unknown, suicide prevention | Comments Off

Travels with Putt Putt: Would you ride 1,500 miles for lunch?

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

So I had the Mighty KLR (which had a mighty heart if not mighty horsepower), Big Blue (my much-missed Yamaha Super Tenere, which was very blue), and now Putt Putt, my air-cooled Suzuki DR650 that has an exhaust note that goes “putt putt.” It shares that name with my eldest’s first motorcycle, an ancient Honda CL125).

Me and Putt Putt on the Idaho Backcountry Discovery Route.

After several years of riding Big Blue, I decided that the big adventure bike was too top heavy for me. I needed to get regular touring bike and limit my adventure riding to my dual-sport DR650, AKA Putt Putt. But much needed home improvements ate up the money from the sale of Big Blue, so I’m down to just one bike right now. So my stories of my motorcycle journeys this summer will be Travels With Putt Putt. Hope you come along for the ride.

There’s an old Harley rider catch phrase that says, “Live to Ride, Ride to Live.” Not a bad sentiment. But a bit general.

For members of the Iron Butt Association (which includes many Harley riders), there’s a more measurable version of the phrase which leads to a specific activity – Ride to Eat. At its core, a Ride to Eat (or RTE) is a group of long-distance motorcycle riders getting together for meal and then turning around to head home afterwards.

For example, I’ve gone a couple of times to a great annual RTE in Kansas City where people get together for a fried chicken dinner on Friday evening and then a BBQ lunch on Saturday. On my most recent pilgrimage to the KC BBQ RTE, my friend Mike and I made it to the Friday night dinner, but the weather forced us to head home early on Saturday morning.

I’ve long thought it would be fun to put together an RTE of my own, but just needed a good reason to create it. But then Sehnert’s Bakery and Cafe in McCook, Nebraska won a James Beard Classics award. The James Beard awards are essentially the Oscars of the restaurant and food business, and the classics award is for:

“Our nation’s beloved regional restaurants. Distinguished by their timeless appeal, they serve quality food that reflects the character of their communities. We anoint these locally owned restaurants with a James Beard Foundation Award and designate them as America’s Classics.”

When you think of rural western Nebraska, the first thing you think of is a James Beard award winning cafe, right?

No? Well you obviously haven’t been paying attention.

Sehnert’s was given the Classic’s award this last spring. And when a restaurant in the middle of nowhere, yet relatively near many of us, wins such honors, the only possible response is a Ride To Eat.

A bierock made with sauerkraut and cheese from Sehnert’s Bakery and Cafe.

Their specialty is the bierock, sort of a progenitor of the popular Runza fast food favorite in Nebraska. (For those of you woefully uninformed, a bierock/runza is a mixture of seasoned ground beef, cabbage (or kraut) and onions baked into a fresh roll.)

Discussion of this first came up when an online motorcycle and cooking friend from eastern Colorado mentioned that he would like to meet at the cafe for lunch. Then another motorcycle friend from the same area said he would like to come as well. So the date was set for Saturday, June 8th and the announcements went out on various online forums.

RSVPs started coming in from South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and even Texas. Most impressively, my friend Jerry was going to come in 1,500 miles from California.

Not everyone was successful in arriving. A couple of riders from eastern Colorado elected to go another direction when the forecast for them looked iffy. And Jerry had to bail when his bike suffered a breakdown 150 miles from lunch.

Jerry’s bike getting a ride to repairs.

In the end, there were seven of us who made it to Sehnert’s where we had a great lunch and a fun time visiting. So much so that several suggested this become an annual event. So if you think this sounds like fun, or you just have an urging for a good lunch, put Saturday, May 30, 2020 on your calendar.

Your author, Bill Norris, and Mike Konz (L to R)

Bierocks all around. Bill Norris, Mike Konz, Kurt Anderson and Steve Carter.

In addition to serving food, Sehnert’s also has a musicians on perform periodically. Was delighted to see talented singer/songwriter Amy Speace has been on their stage! She’s a favorite of my Dear Wife and me.

Ken Schleman and his 2018 Honda Goldwing. (Which is exactly what I would like as my next touring bike, but I rather doubt is going to happen.)

Linda Schleman and her Honda CTX 700.

Posted in Motorcycling | Tagged 2019 motorcycle trips, motorcycle, Putt Putt, Ride To Eat, RTE, Sehnert's | 6 Comments

Is the magazine industry dying? Some thoughts.

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Meredith sells Sports Illustrated intellectual property to Authentic Brands Group
Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

When Meredith Corp. bought out Time Inc. a year ago, the speculation was that the Better Homes & Gardens publisher would sell off all of the newsy magazines and just keep the lifestyle titles. Technically, Meredith will still be publishing SI. they’ve just sold off the rights to all of the magazine’s 65-years of covers, photos, swimsuit issues and the like. The publisher will then license back the rights to publish the magazine itself. ABG manages the intellectual property related to a range of athletes and other stars (Michael Jackson, Marilyn Monroe, Muhammad Ali, and Shaquille O’Neal) along with several brands including Frederick’s of Hollywood, Aéropostale and Juicy Couture.
100-year-old Motorcyclist magazine goes digital only
Earlier this week, parent company Bonnier announced that it was ceasing paper publication of the long-running Motorcyclist magazine. For many years, Motorcyclist was one of the most respected of the consumer motorcycle magazines, competing primarily with Cycle World. But in 2013, Bonnier – which also publishes Cycle World, bought out Motorcyclist. And that was likely the beginning of the end. Motorcyclist will reportedly continue on in digital form, but how much original content will be there, is a a matter of some debate. As a long-time motorcycle enthusiast, I at one point subscribed to four different magazines on the topic. Now I’m down to just Rider, which focuses on older, touring riders.

Posted in Chapter 5 | Tagged magazines, media change, motorcycles | Comments Off

Disney and other major studios getting cold feet about “Y’allywood”

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

The state of Georgia is a major location for filming big-budget movies with a government willing to hand out substantial tax credits to studios and a large movie production infrastructure (thanks in part to African American movie mogul Tyler Perry). (Georgia has embraced its Y’aalywood nickname celebrating it as a southeast movie production hub.)

But Disney, along with several other major studios has announced they are concerned about doing new projects in the state because of the state government recently approved some of the toughest anti-abortion laws in the country. It’s not clear how much the studios themselves care about the new laws, but a lot of their top talent clearly do care. Along with Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix and WarnerMedia have all expressed concerns.

Most of these studios have indicated they will keep filming in Georgia until the law actually takes effect – which due to court challenges, could several months or even years.

Posted in Chapter 14, Chapter 8 | Tagged boycotts, Georgia, movies | Comments Off

Some people really don’t like how Game of Thrones is ending

Posted on May 19, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

Dragon fire burning lots of people The HBO series Game of Thrones, based the A Song of Fire and Ice novels by George R.R. Martin, comes to an end tonight after eight seasons. Although individual episodes have been controversial, the series as a whole has been a well-received, heavily watched show telling tales of incest, murder, politics, regicide, suicide, war, sex, power, lust, greed, and just about every other sin imaginable.

But the penultimate episode of the final season has Daenerys Targaryen following in the footsteps of her late (murdered) father the Mad King and unleashing massive amounts of dragon fire on her enemies. A significant number of fans were unhappy with that episode, known as “The Bells,” with at least one million of them signing a petition to have new writers come in and redo the end of the series.

Given that the existing episodes cost several million dollars each and the fact that the show is already finished and the actors have all moved on, obviously the show is not getting rewritten at this point.

The fuss over the end of Game of Thrones echoes back to the fuss a decade ago over the end of ABC’s wonderful, mysterious series LOST. While I loved the somewhat ambiguous ending that had the characters trying to learn something about their lives from their time on the island, the series finale is legendary for the fuss it raised. Oddly enough, back in 2011 when LOST came to its conclusion, George R.R. Martin trashed LOST’s showrunner Damon Lindelof:

“We watched [Lost] every week trying to figure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper I kept saying, ‘They better have something good in mind for the end. This better pay off here.’ And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion.” Martin also cites the Lost ending as the type of mistake he fears making with his own show, saying, “I want to give them something terrific. What if I f— it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? Then they’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches.”

Of course, Martin is a legendarily slow writer, and the TV series long ago passed the book series. The most recent title, A Dance With Dragons, was published back in 2011. Since then , there has not been a new title, and the events in the series have been done in consultation with Martin, but are not based directly on his work. So the ending we get tonight is that of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, not Martin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6a1y1pc-GQ

In case any of you are curious, here are the thoughts I shared last week on Twitter about the penultimate episode. (And by the way, anyone who didn’t think the series would conclude with a showdown between Dany and Jon Snow wasn’t paying attention. What’s the book series called? A Song of Fire and Ice.)

Anyway, here are my thoughts on “The Bells.”

Shorter version – I liked it.

Longer version:

Jon Snow’s first great love told him repeatedly, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.” We have long seen that Snow is hopelessly idealistic and stupid about women, this is not new.

Arya Stark has had a long history of wanting revenge and to kill her way out of problems. But when she started her journey with Sandor Clegane, he was at the top of her list of people to kill. But in their journey she learned to appreciate him as a friend and grew to understand his pain. Arya has been slowly learning the destructiveness of vengeance and that there is more to life than revenge. She also may have reached the end of her road as an assassin when she killed the Night King.

Sandor/The Hound has gradually gained a sense of humanity by traveling with Arya. But his need for revenge on his brother has never wavered. He was always going to die fighting Gergor/The Mountain. The fact that he used his ending to save Arya from herself was a great conclusion.

So let’s talk Dany Targaryen. I have no problem she was terrible at arial combat previously and great at it in “The Bells.” She lost two dragons/children not understanding how to fight in the air. Last night she used the classic WWII technique of flying out of the sun for her attack. Nothing subtle see. All Dany’s enemies were shielding their eyes trying to look at her. And as soon as he was fired at she dove down low. She went from believing her dragons mad her all-powerful to knowing that her drawings were powerful yet vulneable.

Now as for her going all Mad King: The big constatants in Dany’s life are that she has been used an abused by those around her. Arguably the one “pure” relationship she has had is with her dragons/children. Every time Dany gets angry/frustrated, she lashes out with violence. It is her core response. She wants to set the prisoners free. She has a good heart, but at her core she has always been willing to respond with violence, starting with the crucifixion of the slavers.

Dany knows that her power comes from her dragons, and her enemies have gradually been taking them away from her. She also has just realized that Jon (her nephew!) does not love her. So Dany now knows she can only count on her dragon/child for support. The one thing the dragon can do is burn. And so Daenerys snaps, and she embraces her one great power – dragon fire.

I thought “The Bells” was a great episode, well shot and clearly motivated. It was everything I wanted “Battle of Winterfell” to be. (BoW was not a bad episode, just murky.) Could the series have benefited from an 8-episode final season? Of course. But this was still a great episode. The people who want the showrunners fired and a do over on the season are nuts.

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off

Everyone’s Gone To The Movies – Avengers Endgame Edition

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Ralph Hanson

NOTE: There are no specific details (spoilers) about the film or its ending in this blog post. But really, if you are planning on seeing the movie, see it before reading anything else about it.

Avengers Endgame makes a boatload of money, surprising no one
The Avengers finale has been in release for 14 days as I write this, and it has so far made $660 million domestically, and more than $2.3 billion total global box office. That puts it at #5 on the all-time domestic box office list, but by the time you read this, Endgame may have passed Avengers Infinity War for the #4 spot. And ok, it’s no real surprise that Endgame will beat its predecessor – but remember, it took Infinity War 20 weeks to make $678 million. Endgame did almost that much in two…
How To Remain Spoiler Free for the World’s Biggest Movie for Two Weeks
As I have mentioned on several occasions, I love seeing big movies in big theaters. So of course I had to go see Avengers Endgame at the IMAX theater in Council Bluffs, where I often see the big releases. (There are several directors who are shooting their movies either exclusively or primarily in IMAX format, including the two most recent Avengers, along with Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk.)

But given that the IMAX is about 180 miles from me, I would have to delay seeing the movie till I would drive past the theater on my way to visit my dad and attend my youngest’s grad school graduation. That meant I would have to remain spoiler free for nearly two weeks.

Short of going off social media, how was I going to do this?

My first step was to hide every post I saw about the movie on Facebook. This kept me from seeing any comments that could contain spoilers even if the original post was clean. While I can’t be sure, it seemed that that after I hid enough of these posts, Facebook got the idea and stopped trying to feature Marvel posts on my timeline. (The algorithms also probably wondered what had changed for me. Normally I would click like a trained rat on Marvel Cinematic Universe content.)

My second technique was put forward by a friend on Twitter who suggested I use Twitter’s mute function to hide any posts that included “Marvel,” “Endgame,” or “Avengers.” That didn’t keep everything at bay, but it certainly cut down on how much was showing up on my feed. (I hear that Facebook is testing a similar feature in some markets.)

Finally, I had to personally resist clicking on anything from the news sites about the movie. But I found it interesting that with those relatively simple procedures, I could maintain my Endgame innocence while still being active on social media.
Spoiling the ending after you’ve seen it
If you have already seen Endgame at least once (and, yes, I’m planning to go back to see it again at my local cinema), you may have had questions about the ending. Unlike some movies where there is a solid explanation for ambiguous ending, Vox’s explainer of the Endgame ending will clear up a few issues for you, but quite frankly will end up heightening any logical frustration you had with it. To which I say – forget about it. It’s the end to a massive superhero movie series that couldn’t possibly all make logical sense. (Patrick O’Brien, in his legendary Aubrey and Maturin novels about a British ship’s captain and a doctor/spy during the Napoleonic war era, had to create several fictional years in order to fit in all the action of his 19-novel series. And he couldn’t use the Time Stone as a possible explanation of this issue.) Accept that this has been some masterful storytelling on a grand scale that forces us to set aside logic and simply enjoy the ride.

Posted in Chapter 8 | Tagged avengers, MCU, movies, summer | Comments Off