We're Going Dark, Without Stars

     I hope everyone had a good holiday. Before you ask, mine was marginal, which is how I like it. Yes, I know this is coming to you late tonight, but I have a very good reason. I finally began watching Riverdale, and it is fantastic. If you don't know. Riverdale is a new take on Archie, the old comic book. The very big difference is that this one is very dark, and absolutely captivating. If you remember, I mentioned that Riverdale are the neighbors to Glendale, which is where the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes place. The set Riverdale in that same weird out of time era. It's the 6t0's meets modern day. I really do believe it is a style choice of the creators. The set in it's own universe in a way.

     If you ever wanted to know what happened to Luke Perry from 90210, he landed as Fred Andrew, the father of Archie Andrew in Riverdale. The characters are great, and all from the original Archie comics, with a few side characters thrown in for good measure. My favorite character is by far Jughead Jones. Still one of the coolest names ever created. In this world he isn't the bumbling goof ball of the comics, he is an investigative journalist type, that is actually narrating the story. yep, that's his voice you hear that is filling in details from the beginning.

     This first season is engulfed in the murder of a student over the summer, and the police are trying to find out who the killer is, but things aren't easy, and Betty and Jughead are tracking down leads. Well, I assume they are, I'm only 3 episodes in, and they just reopened the Blue & Gold, which is the formally defunct school news paper. Yes. it's over the top with the idea that teenagers are going to track down a killer that is eluding the police, but it's how it's down that makes it so fun.

     I think they have 3 seasons currently on Netflix, and the latest season is ongoing on the CW right now. Great thing about CW shows. When they finish a season, the season is released on Netflix 8 days later. You read that right, 8 days after the finale it is up on Netflix, not like a ton of other shows that wait until after the news season is on for a couple of weeks, and then you can try and catch up while you record the new episodes. I'm looking at you NBC and The Good Place. Yes, I did do that in order to get caught up on The Good Place. Anyway, give Riverdale a try, and see if you dislike Betty's mother as much as I do.

     That brings up something I learned in the last episode I watched. I had never put this together, and it was mind blowing, considering that I have and Aunt Betty. Turns out, Betty is the shortened version of Elizabeth. I was floored, and now I need to know what my Aunt's full name was. I never put those two together, I simply thought Betty was a name, with no longer version. Kind of like Holly or Cheryl. You learn something new every day.

     I got a video for you. It's the latest from TPR. Yep, today was release day of our latest review, and it was doing rather well when I last looked at it. Nothing groundbreaking, but well. Here is our latest review of another cheese steak place that does pizza.



     This is the first video where we have no audio problems what so ever. I finally figured it out. For now at least. This really was a terrific pizza. A different style than I have ever had, and I loved it.

     Back to Sabrina for a second. They released and extra episode which was a winter solstice special (aka christmas special). It was really good, and I do love that series. So, if you have watched it based on my recommendation, then you have a new episode to enjoy.

     Another thing that I watched on Netflix this week was Watership Down. I loved that book as a child. I loved the animated movie even more. To this day, I have never read a more violent book than that one, and I'm a huge fan of Stephen King, and if you are reading The Patchwork Knight, you know I don't shy away from my own share of violence. This little story about rabbits is still the most violent book I have ever read. The Netflix series, which is 5 episodes I think, tones down that violence. They don't show much blood, and the fighting is more paw slaps then teeth tearing out necks. That was in the book and the original animated film. It has a slew of British actors as voice talent, with my favorite going to Peter Capaldi who is voicing the seagull Kehaar. He is quite good as an over confident buffoon with competence. Yeah, I know, that is a hard sentence to write with all that contrast in it, but that is the best way to describe him, and once you watch it you will see that I'm right. You have a ton to watch now, so you better get to it.

     I hit Universal this Saturday with the camera. Elie and I are going full photographer mode at the park and hoping to get some wonderful picture of Diagon Alley and maybe a few more things. I'll keep my eyes open for photographic possibilities. I'll share a few of them here. I do have a picture of Saki to share with you. I think this is the first photo where you can really see how it looks with the new mirrors on it, so enjoy the awesomeness that is Saki.

     That's all I got for you tonight. I'm hoping that maybe Sunday I will have a picture of the skateboard mount to share with you. I have all the basic shape done, and am down to the hand sanding, which should take a couple of days in the least. After that, it will be ready for stain, and I have a plan, so look forward to that. Peace in and goodnight.