Happy Birthday Terri Nunn

Hey!  Today is singer Terri Nunn's birthday!  That's fun.  

Saw her sing with Berlin in like 2018 or 19, and she was *amazing*.*

*amazingly hot

TLDR Super Watch: Supergirl (2026)

Watched:  06/25/2026

Format:  Regal

Viewing:  First

Director:  Craig Gillespie

It is probably worth noting that while a great IP to slap on thermoses and t-shirts, Supergirl is maybe the least consistently written mainstream character in comics.  So there is no "right way" to write Kara Zor-El.

I've read my fair share of comic books starring Supergirl over the past few decades.  I've read Silver-Age, Bronze and Copper-Era stories.  I read 90's-00's Not-Kara Supergirl by Peter David.  And was one of people who was flipping out when they brought Kara back in the mid-00's.  Aside from giving New 52 Supergirl a pass, I have pretty complete runs of pretty much everything since the 2005 reboot.  I heartily recommend the current series by Sophie Campbell as one of the best comics I've read in a while.  I own a copy of Action Comics 252.  

I've seen the 1980's Supergirl movie at least three times - including on VHS as a kid.  I watched the entire run of the CW TV show.  Am familiar with various incarnations in live action and animation.  (I have an affection for almost all of those takes.)

I am not a Supergirl PhD, but I feel pretty well oriented.  So, there's my bona fides.

Car Watch: F1 - The Movie (2025)

Watched:  06/21/2026

Format:  AppleTV

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

So, I watched F1: The Movie (2025) a year ago in the theater.  It was an enjoyable movie that was about car racing and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer - so I figured I knew what I was getting, and I was right.  And that is not a complaint.  When I go to Chili's for dinner, I do not complain when the Old Timer with Cheese is the Old Timer with Cheese.

F1: The Movie stars a hot dude who is the best at what he does, but our hero is *also* a troubled rogue.  In this way, he is Maverick from Top Gun.  And, really, this movie is a scramble of beats from Top Gun and basic movie formulas of a certain era for which middle-aged men apparently yearn.  F1: the Movie also features the bonus of being about an old gun fighter showing the new kid on the block what it's all about in order to really satisfy us aging movie-dudes.  

Marilyn at 100: Clash By Night (1952)

Watched:  06/21/2026

Format:  TCM on DVR

Viewing:  Second or Third

Director:  Fritz Lang

I'm never going to get over having seen Barton Fink too many times in my younger years.  

Plainly put, the character of Barton Fink is based loosely on the real-life play-write Clifford Odets, who went out to Hollywood to turn his plays about *the common man* into movies.  So every time I see Odets' name on a movie, I kind of know loosely that this will be about the gritty lives of the everyman, and have very particular dialog tics.  Also, I kind of wonder how full of shit this movie really is at its core - not something I generally care about.

Odets strove to capture a sense of at least emotional realism in his plays and movies, setting them not in penthouses and mansions for the New York elite attending shows, but writing plays that took place on the streets below among the working class, seeing their daily struggle as the real poetry.  And I think there's something to that.  

That this film came out of RKO in 1952 is a bit of an eyebrow raiser.  But RKO had this script and they had Fritz Lang as a director and Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Ryan on contract.  And that's a great start.

TV Watch: Widow's Bay - Season 1

Right after it debuted, JAL texted me and said to check out Widow's Bay over on Apple TV.  But it was a few weeks before I got around to it.  

As you may have heard - Widow's Bay is a sort-of comedy about the residents of a cursed island off the coast of New England, founded during the colonial era.  In the modern era, it's a fishing backwater where people kind of accept the horrific and unexplainable things that happen as a matter-of-course.  And, in fact, those born on the island know they can never leave without a deadly misfortune befalling them. 

The season follows the events as the island once again "awakens" - ie: the weird stuff escalates again.  And all during a few days just as our non-native mayor, Tom, has finally managed to get people to visit the island as tourists in an effort to bolster the dying economy of the place.

I'll do my best not to spoil - but y'all know if I'm talking about TV it's because I'm either dragging something or I'm recommending it.  Widow's Bay comes in as a solid:  recommended