Tag Archives: humor

Apr 01 2024
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shop buddy

BQB Book To Be Turned Into Netflix Movie

Holy smokes, 3.5 readers, have I been holding my water on this one a long time.

So much so that I’m ready to pee my pants.

In the wake of the pandemic, when I became addicted to online food delivery because it was verboten to go shopping yourself, I wrote a novel based on some of the wacky hijinx I experienced as a customer. (Order a pastrami sandwich on rye and they deliver you a Velvet Elvis painting? WTF?)

Anyway, last summer, your favorite proprietor of a blog with only 3.5 readers was contacted by a representative of a website with 3.5 bazillion viewers. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Yes, that’s right. Pornhub. No, just kidding. Netflix.

Initial e-mail exchanges went like this:

NETFLIX GUY: “Hi I work for Netflix. Are you Bookshelf Q. Battler? I know you write under a pen name but I’d like to talk to you about your book, Shop Buddy. I really enjoyed it.”

ME: “Ah, so you’re the one.”

NETFLIX GUY: “Ha ha. I’d like to talk more. Can we speak on the phone?”

ME: “How do I know you’re a real Netflix guy and not some weirdo trying to steal the rights to my book?”

NETFLIX GUY: “How do I know you’re the real Bookshelf Q. Battler and not a chump posing as BQB?”

So after a long round of emails and phone calls where we sufficiently verified each other’s credentials, we were off to the races, and as scary as it was, I, as in the “man behind the curtain” of BQB very nervously identified my true self to people who gained my trust that they wouldn’t reveal my identity and discussions began.

Initial negotiations were over video conference calls and that was surreal. They were nice enough to understand I was a true novice to the industry and suggested I get an agent before things continue. That did slow things down as I had to seek out an agent and I got turned down a lot until I was savvy enough to start mentioning I have a potential Netflix deal.

Frankly I was little skeeved by the whole agent hiring process. It felt like I’d already done the work of landing the tuna in my boat but after several interviews with different potential agents, I found one I liked and as she explained (I used the tuna in the boat analogy with all of them), she was wise enough to point out that that yes, I’d landed the tuna but she would be the one to knock it out, skin it, and fry it up with lemon pepper and basil.

Mmm. Lemon pepper fish. Rich in omega 3s.

Anyway that slowed things down till January, but then the really nitty gritty stuff began. Hooray for Hollywood! Yours truly actually got on a plane and flew out to Tinsel Town. I met my agent. I met with Netflix people. I met crackheads on Hollywood Boulevard but that’s irrelevant.

To my great surprise, I did things that only a person with balls would do, so apparently I am a baller now. I said to my agent. “Should we shop around? Should we see if Hulu wants to be in the Shop Buddy bidness? What about the fine people over at HBO Max? Can I get a meeting with the good people at Amazon Prime and rub Jeff Bezos’ bald head for good luck?”

Agent agreed. We shopped. No interest from Hulu or HBO. Amazon had enough interest for a meeting but not enough to invite Jeff so I would not get to rub Jeff’s head which is a shame. I deserve to as my books have made him upwards of 17 entire cents. I made the point in the meeting that, you know, my book is hot right now because I self-published it on Amazon so if you guys let someone else snap it up, they’ll be significant egg on your faces. I worded it nicer than that but you get the drift. Frankly, I couldn’t believe I was able to say such things to such important people. They nodded graciously and saw the point but thought the whole thing was too weird. A book written by a guy with a weird pen name? Too weird.

So ultimately, that’s why I went with the Flix to the Net. They really understood my vision and the cool thing is they agreed to go along with the whole Bookshelf Q. Battler mystique. In fact, we’re in development in on a BQB’s Twisted Shorts series and we’re all in agreement that there’s more free publicity, fanfare and, well yes, cold hard cash-o-la to be made if the man behind the curtain remains a mystery for now and people are left wondering who the heck wrote all this schlock? Who is he? What’s his deal? Why so mysterious?

How would a BQB series work? We’re a little vague on that but basically someone would play me and introduce each story in the anthology with some quips and one liners. We all agreed I’m too gross and disgusting to play myself. I agreed. They were nicer about it. Various euphemisms were employed to avoid telling me I’m too gross and disgusting to do the job myself and that a handsome person must be hired to play me so I appreciate that. BTW this is all theoretical at this point so I should mention no deal on BQB’s Twisted Shorts has been made at this time though it is in the works. They liked my short stories and think they could sell with the tag line “Black Mirror meets Monty Python.” Sounds about right.

But I digress. The point is Netflix will a) give me money and b) keep my ID a secret. Personally, I’m fine with that because you know, this could all be a flash in the pan and if so, I’d just rather keep my little old life as is. What Netflix offered for the movie deal was generous, but not life changing. Perhaps in time we’ll get there but all good things come to wait.

Look at me rambling. So, back to the main point. The movie! Finn Wolfhard! Yes, Finn Wolfhard of Stranger Things fame has signed on to play Steve Anderson, the titular Shop Buddy, who, post-college, can’t find a job to save his life so has to go through the indignity of slinging grocery bags for an online shopping service. In doing so, he has to deliver a lot of strange, questionable items to a disturbing old man, all while a series of high-profile kidnappings is putting his town in the news.

I gotta tell you, the funny thing about life is, it’s weird how you think a thing will impress people and it doesn’t, but then something else will. I have only shared this info about a potential Netflix deal with a very small handful of close friends and family the past year. Having kept this info close to the vest, I assumed not too many people knew but holy crap, once it got out that the Finnster was involved, it came to my attention that the BQB friends and fam network has more leaky holes than a siv, because I am, quite literally, no word of a lie, getting damn calls like the one below every day. No one in my small social circle was impressed I had a movie deal under way, but once it came out that this famous ferret faced kid was involved, it was like I became the second coming. (It’s ok, I got permission to call him a ferret face. “We like the cut of your jib, BQB,” they said. “Do your thing,” they said. We’ll see how long that lasts.)

SIDENOTE: OK I’m sorry I called you a ferret face, Finn, but it’s this blog, so everyone gets made fun of here with me being the biggest butt of all the jokes, pun intended.

RANDOM DUDE: “BQB! Hi! This is So and So. Remember me?”

ME: Who?

Dude: So and so! You know! I sat behind you in third grade. I ate all my boogers and stole your lunch money. We were thick as thieves!

Me: WTF?

Dude: Ah, BQB you old kidder. Anyhoo, I made the mistake of mentioning I was in third grade with a guy that knows Finn Wolfhard.

ME: I don’t know him. Never met him.

Dude: Even so, my daughters wont shut up about it. Any chance you could get them a meeting? Maybe he could pose for some selfies and sign some autographs?

ME: Dude, sign my ass. :Click:

OK, I never was that rude. I let everyone down gently by reminding them, hello, I have never met this freaking kid. Yes, I’m even nice to the bullies who used to throw spitballs at the back of my head in school and now pretend like that never happened and that we were best of friends because they want me to intro their kids to Finn F’N Wolfhard.

And yes, God help me, ex-girlfriends including the literal one I thought I would marry only for her to tell me to drop dead and never contact me again, they tracked me down, found my number, call me up to ask if I can arrange a meeting between their kids and Finn.

Actually, they start high. Can I arrange a meeting between their kids, Finn and all of the freaking Stranger Things kids plus Winona Ryder and David Harbour but if that’s not possible then just Finn is ok. Oh, really? Just Finn is OK? Thanks Ex-Girlfriend Who Dumped Me Over Nonsense 20 years ago and left my life a shambles. That’s really nice of you to say that Just Finn would be ok to meet your ugly mutant offspring.

Sigh. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called her kids mutants. They’re blameless in all this. Ugly? Well, facts are facts. Oh, alright. Fine. They’re not ugly…that I know of. They could be. I mean, they share genetic material with their mother so there’s a statistical probability that…you know what? I’ll shut up.

“BQB write one of your patented, non-sensical, rambling blog posts to tell everyone about the movie,” the Netflix suits said.

Mission accomplished.

Anyway, without further ado, see below for what you’re all waiting for. Finn’s early test screenings where he reads his lines which, well, they’re my lines! I wrote them and it’s pretty cool. My agent tells me that Finn’s agent tells her that this has the potential to be a good project for Finn, that though he’s already super famous between Stranger Things and Ghostbusters, this will give him a starring vehicle where he gets a lot of screen time to be himself outside of a science-fiction role, so whodathunk a schmuck like me could make that happen?

Anyway, I have so many people to thank but the biggest thank you is owed to my 3.5 readers, you, the readers who made this happen. Thanks readers, now watch this video for a first glimpse of the film in pre-production.

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Mar 23 2024
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humor

When Did “Iconic” Become a Thing?

Boy, am I ever tired of hearing this one, 3.5 readers. In fact, I’m so tired, that’s me above, shouting into my iconic bullhorn.

Iconic! Everything is so iconic! So and so is sooooo iconic. This actor is iconic. That actress is iconic. That singer is iconic. That athlete is iconic. This person is iconic. That person is iconic. That outfit is iconic. That dog is iconic. That cat is iconic. Look at my breakfast! It is so iconic! My cornflakes are so iconic! My scrambled eggs? You better believe they’re iconic! Oh boy a few hours later I will poop it all out and those poops? Iconic!

Usually you can trace a trend like this to the source. Someone famous said it or something but its just like every nimrod got together and decided “iconic” was the new thing. It’s someone decided to make fetch happen but it actually happened. WTF? Why is iconic so iconic?

Icon defined (according to the iconic Oxford dictionary, which is very iconic) = “a person or thing regarded as a representative symbol or worthy of veneration (veneration defined as great respect or reverence.”

So, in another words, someone or something to be worshipped. Is that what we’re doing now? We got rid of God and we’re replacing him with dum-dum celebrities and stupid bricka-brack? “Oh, did you hear the latest Dua Lipa song? She’s so iconic? Mmm, these truffles are so iconic! Hold on, I have to take an iconic call on my iconic iPhone! Hello? Iconic person here. Who’s calling? Are you iconic?”

Everyone is saying that everything is iconic but no one says that someone or something is an icon because that would essentially be giving up the goose. It would be admitting that this is all blasphemous. No one says that skinny waif Ariana Grande who probably only eats three iconic almonds a year is an icon. No, that would be going too far. Then you’d be saying she’s a deity. So, people say she’s iconic. Like a deity. That’s ok. That’s fine with everyone. Jesus died for our sins but Ariana sings pop songs so you know, she’s to be worship liked Jesus.

Think I’m joking? Here’s an alternate definition of “icon” provided by the Iconic Oxford Dictionary, which is iconic:

“a painting of Jesus Christ or another holy figure, typically in a traditional style on wood, venerated and used as an aid to devotion the Byzantine and other Eastern Churches.”

That’s right. Icons are also paintings of Jesus and other holy figures – relics that are worshipped by religious people to demonstrate their piety and everybody is just throwing “iconic” around. “Oh blah blah blah, I’m an idiot and I think this spaghetti is so tasty its iconic and did you catch that TV show on Netflix? It was so iconic and OMG this new Halsey single is so freaking iconic.”

I’m not joking. Sometimes when I absolutely have to I venture out of my hermit cave and wade through the unwashed masses and I listen to the stupid millennials. It may not even be the stupid millennials anymore. Who is the generation after the stupid millennials? Whatever. They’re probably stupid too.

Anyway I listen, not that I’m eavesdropping but because they’re loud and obnoxious so you can’t help it and they’re always “iconic” this and “iconic” that. My goldish is iconic. These flaming hot cheatos are iconic. Those socks are iconic.

I hear it on the radio. I hear it in podcasts. People say it in stupid YouTube videos. It is all over social media. I can’t take the iconic saturation anymore.

People, please. Enough with the iconic already.

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Nov 26 2022
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Movies

Movie Review – A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)

A Christmas Story…Story? No way. Come on, Hollywood. You’ll shoot your collective eye out.

BQB here with a review.

Actually, it’s not so bad.

If you own a TV, then surely you have seen 1983’s A Christmas Story. TBS runs it 24 hours a day on Christmas and I can still recall laughing up a storm the first time I saw it. Even years later, having seen it a zillion times, it’s hard not to leave it on in the background while you go about your holiday merriment.

Alas, the sequels didn’t come until much later, presumably because the film didn’t really become the much beloved classic until cable TV started blasting the crap out of it over the airwaves in the 1990s. By then I can only presume all involved had moved on and unable to make a sequel. Either that or is a single ever possible for such a great film?

Ah but once the film grew a big fanbase, the sequels were attempted. 1994’s My Summer Story is largely unknown. 2012’s straight to video A Christmas Story 2 was cute but ultimately forgettable.

Thus I was surprised a new sequel was attempted this year.. It stars original Ralphie Peter Billingsley, though when I first learned that I doubted if that was enough to save it. Turns out, the answer is a resounding, “Not bad.”

The plot? in the 1970s, Middle aged Ralphie lives in Chicago with wife Sandy (Erin Hayes) and kids Mark and Julie. Ralphie has taken a year off to write an epic sci-fi novel, which seems like something Ralphie would do, given his love of pop culture and all things nerdy as a kid in the original film.

Alas, the publishing houses have all told Ralphie to eat the proverbial big one and as the end of the year draws nigh, he knows he needs to either publish or perish, to make money on a writing career or give up and take a boring old job and get a steady paycheck.

At least he has a planned Christmas visit with his parents to look forward to, but sadly, his old man, “The Old Man” passes and a loving tribute to the late Darren McGavin, who passed in 2006, is paid.

Ah, but the older we get, the more adults tend to, well I was going to say they don’t fear death but they still do, it’s just, by the time you’ve hit the elderly stage, you’ve run out of tears to cry, for you have experience so much loss already. This, Ralphie’s mom (played by Airplane comedy legend and owner of the sweetest voice ever Julie Hagerty who takes on the role as Melinda Dillon has retired from acting) urges Ralphie, Sandy and the kids to buck up and have the best Christmas ever, for this is what the Old Man would have wanted.

Comedy hijinx are mixed with somber moments. There are plenty of Easter eggs and references to the original film, while this one tries its best not to so much repeat old gags but play homage to them, or at least repeat running themes. Adult Ralphie still has a wild imagination that gets him into trouble and riddles him with anxiety as he pictures the smallest hangup leading to horrifying consequences. Bullies go to war with Ralphie’s kids who must learn to stand up for themselves. Comical injuries abound. Ralphie still wants to be an old west sheriff because what Baby Boomer didn’t?

A cavalcade of ex-child actors from the original film, now all grown up and in the middle of life, stop by, and it is surreal. Not knocking anyone but as you see adult actors reprise roles like Flick (the kid whose tongue froze to the light pole) or Schwartz (was he the kid who double dog dared him? I forget) and the once evil bully Scott Farkus (can bad kids mend their ways in adulthood?) you can’t help but think time is really a bastard. All these kids were so cute once and Hollywood was happy to capitalize on their cuteness, but sadly none of them really grew up with the looks that Hollywood wants to see in leading men. Even so, as a fan I’m happy to see them, like walking around your home town and bumping into an old friend. Even Ralphie’s little bro, an all grown up Randy drops by.

Does it all add up to something? I don’t want to give it away but if you think about how adult Ralphie yearns to be a famous writer, and author Jean Carroll leant his iconic voice to the original film but did so in the role of adult Ralphie telling the story of one wacky Christmas in his youth…OK I’ll let you figure it ou.

STATUS: Shelfworthy. If you have HBO Max, it’s free and worth your time. It won’t win awards. It won’t be something you’ll want to watch again and again. What it is is a loving tribute, a rare sequel that straddles the line between capitalizing on your love of the old flick but still remaining true to its spirit. There are sad moments, funny moments, emotional moments. If you’ve ever lost a parent, you know the pain adult Ralphie experience, the expectation of an adult to keep moving on even though a person who comprised a large part of their world has shuffled off the mortal coil. Everyone involved did well here.

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Nov 14 2022
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Movies, Uncategorized

BQB’s Classic Movie Reviews – Airplane! (1980)

Seriously, you can’t be reviewing a movie this old, BQB.

Yes, I am…and don’t call me Shirley.

A review? What is it? It’s a summary and commentary of a feature film, but that’s not important right now.

This is one of those movies that a child of the 1980s knows by heart. Growing up, even well into the 90s and early 2000s, it was on TV all the time. You’d catch bits and pieces of it and have a good laugh. It really is a silly masterpiece, the likes of which had never been seen before, and will undoubtedly ever be seen again. Many have tried, but the team of the Zucker Brothers and Jim Abrahams were a one of a kind trio. They went on to more success with Leslie Nielsen in the Naked Gun series as well as the Top Gun parody Hot Shots. Others would go on to try parody movies that would only fizzle. A number of parody flicks released in the 2000s by lesser talents were so God awful that the parody genre pretty much died out in that decade.

What is a parody? Take an established film and give it a mocking re-write. Throw in as much mocking as you can about other movies and or subjects as you can. The uninitiated may not be aware that Airplane is itself, a parody of the 1957 film Zero Hour! That film’s legit plot was about ex-WWII pilot Ted Stryker, called upon to make a split second decision that got a lot of his fellow pilots killed. Years later, he is torn apart and wracked by guilt, unable to function, often fired from several jobs. His wife, Ellen, an airline stewardess, dumps him with a note, saying she will start a new life in a new city her airline job will deliver her to. Ted buys a ticket and hops aboard, hoping to beg her for one last chance. The crew and pilots get sick from food poisoning. Ted is the only one who has flown and must land the plane. He does so while being talked down by an ex air force colleague who hates his guts over his war mistake. In the end, Ted lands the plane, is redeemed, loved by his wife and can move on to a happier life.

Airplane! is literally that same movie, except with lots of shenanigans and silliness. In fact, I believe the rights to Zero Hour! were bought just so ZAZ could make a silly re-do for Paramount.

Don’t call me Shirley. I take my coffee black like my men. Jim never orders a second cup of coffee at home. Stewardess, I speak jive. The list of hilarious jokes goes on and on. So memorable. So quotable. And yet, sitting down and watching it from beginning to end, I hadn’t done that in a long time. Even the lesser known jokes and bits are pretty hysterical. It is a laugh riot.

And it brought back memories. Sigh. Oh, as a little kid I really loved comedy and hoped maybe I’d be a comedian one day. I worshipped ZAZ, between Airplane and the Naked Gun, to the point where I tracked down a copy of their first foray, the lesser known Kentucky Fried Movie. Not their best, but they were just getting started. Basically just a series of dumb sketches tied together.

Eh, but I grew up. Went the so-called practical route. I say so-called because the practical route was supposed to be easier yet nothing in life is easy so the older I get, the more I wonder if it all just isn’t a crap shoot and if it’s hard to make a living as a ditch digger or an accountant or a bus driver or a teacher or a cop or a pharmacist or a podiatrist or what have you then you might as well do what you love and try to find a job in the silly movie game.

But that ship has long sailed. At least I have my silly blog.

Cue the obligatory, “Oh, this movie would never be made today in these woke times” rant.

Nope, it wouldn’t. First, there are naked gratuitous titties. In one scene where the passengers flip out and run around the plane going nuts, a woman runs by for a close up of her jiggly bosoms. Harvey Weinstein’s evil doings put an end to that. Harvey was a sex fiend for 30 years so now every director in Tinsel Town is afraid to ask an actress to take her top off. You’ll never see a set of nude sweater puppets on film ever again. Thanks Harvey. Jackass.

Second, there’s the funny scene when the woman flips out. Starts shouting, “I gotta get outta here!” One person slaps her. The next shakes her. Suddenly, there’s a long line of people brandishing weapons waiting for their turn to torture her. I never really saw this as a joke about abusing women. ZAZ pokes fun at movie tropes throughout this flick, and here they are mocking the movie trope where someone freaks out, so another person slaps them or shakes them and yells at them to calm down. I mean, seriously, is that really the best move? Someone is cracking under pressure, I don’t think smacking them would really help. It’s like no one who ever wrote a movie thought that if a person is flipping out, maybe you ought to put your arm around them and say, “There, there. It’ll all be OK.” But no. Every character in movie world is somehow trained to see a person suffering a panic attack and sock them in the jaw like they’re a wannabe Sugar Ray Leonard.

There’s the sick little girl who makes funny faces, near death because the stewardess playing a song to cheer her up on the guitar keeps accidentally slapping out her IV whenever she moves the guitar around. That would be seen as ableist hate speech now.

Don’t even get me started on the scene where Ted joins the peace corps, visits a tribe in Africa, hands them a basketball and the tribesmen start dribbling and dunking with the skill of the best NBA players.

Stewardess, do you have any light reading? How about this one page leaflet? Famous Jewish Sports Legends.

The Jive guys speaking Jive like it is a foreign language with subtitles.

Sigh. Jokes that would never make the cut today. I suppose we can debate whether or not that’s a good thing. As I watch the film, I get the sense that here is an airplane full of people of all different races, colors, creeds, religions, backgrounds, ages. They all came together to survive a doomed flight, and the ZAZ team made fun of everyone, not in an attempt to be mean, but maybe just maybe in the sense that if we can learn to laugh with (and not at) each other, then maybe we can learn to get along.

Gotta be honest though. When I was a kid, I just thought the pilot asking the boy if he’d ever seen gladiator movies was just a strange, silly man. Today as an adult I realize, yeah the joke is that the pilot is a sex pervert attempting to “groom” the boy. Sigh. Parents, keep your kids away from adult men who like gladiator movies.

Bonus points that the film took known Hollywood tough guys like Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen and Peter Graves and got them to basically do their same tough guy schtick, but while delivering silly lines in their tough guy style. Leslie Nielsen, long a serious actor, would go on to a longer second act as a comic actor due to this film.

Double bonus points for Julie Haggerty. She really is the perfect combination of beautiful and sweet. Maybe it’s just the character she is playing, yet deep down every man wants a wife who is beautiful yet kind. Often times in our society, the beautiful don’t have any reason to be kind. Eh, then again, there are a lot of mean ugly people too.

At any rate, there’s a scene where Ted (Robert Hayes) is in the hospital after the war and he does a spit take. Julie just sort of takes a gallon of spit to her face, shakes her hands and cringes like she expected it (not that she knew the spit was coming as an actress but that her character knew this was what Ted was like so knew the spit was coming) and just goes right on talking. Hard to explain. You just have to watch it.

BTW, I can’t count the number of times when I or another kid I knew growing up would pretend to have hard time drinking a glass of water and be like, “Ha ha! I have a drinking problem!”

STATUS: Worthy of the highest shelf! I can’t go on long enough about how great this film is and how it inspired me as a kid, even inspires me today. We will never see its like again, not just because the ZAZ team thought they could never top it, and not because of how many wannabes tried and failed, but alas, these jokes are out of style.

Surely, we can debate long and hard over whether that’s a good thing…and don’t call me Shirley.

Catch it on HBOMax.

SIDENOTE: Woke problems aside, there’s also the issue of audiences being less willing to suspend disbelief and less appreciative of good humor. So many of the jokes are just word play. The running joke is someone says something, the other says what is it, the first gives a definition but that’s not important now.

Stewardess – there’s a problem in the cockpit.

Ted – The cockpit? What is it?

Stewardess – its the little room at the front of the plane where the pilots sit, but that’s not important now.

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Aug 14 2022
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TV

TV Review – The Orville (2017- )

Space. It’s big, huge, and a never-ending source of comedic fodder.

BQB here with a review.

I have been meaning to check this show out for a long time and finally have, after noticing it was available through Disney Plus.

I’m six episodes in. My first impressions:

#1 – Critics call it a Star Trek rip-off but it’s an obvious Star Trek parody. Seth MacFarlane, the man behind the raunchy, constantly pop culture lampooning Family Guy, is obviously a big Trekkie, and relishes the chance to cosplay a spaceship captain. If you take Star Trek, then add in the ability to make crude jokes, you’d get this show.

#2 – I get why some might call it a rip-off in that it goes beyond the humor to build adventure of its own. If you stay for the funny, you’ll get plenty of serious. In my binge session thus far, I’ve seen Captain Ed Mercer (MacFarlane) and crew rescue an agrarian society living (unbeknownst to them) in an ecosystem built into a massive spaceship, a historic ship dealer who travels back in time to steal spaceships of the past and sell them to collectors of the future, and a battle to prevent a hostile alien species from getting their hands on an aging device. All of these sound like they could be straight out of Trek, so when you see the Trek like uniforms, the Trek like military organization, the Trek like set up of the ship, it’s hard to not feel like MacFarlane didn’t just hijack Trek, change a few things around, then add in plenty of dirty sex jokes.

#3 – Speaking of sex jokes, while I enjoy it, Disney Plus really isn’t the place for it. I get Fox and Disney are part of the same company now and apparently Disney Plus is breathing new life into the series by offering a sequel New Horizons, which is basically just a continuation of the show. However, young kids shouldn’t be watching it. It’s probably fine for teenagers, but if you’re one of those parents who subscribed to Disney Plus so you could park the kids in front of it while you do housework, eh, take another look.

All in all, Trek is the granddaddy of all space opera. Many would say Star Wars, but SW just changed the game by introducing badass special effects. Trek was the first who challenged us to go where no man has gone before. (There are probably others who would say Lost in Space or other 1950s offerings beat them all.)

At any rate, Trek is a 20th century view of what military style space travel would be like. The Trek ships are set up more or less like a large ocean going vessel, so one might argue that Trek doesn’t really “own” that concept. Then again, when you watch The Orville, when you see the captain, you think Kirk, the science officer, you think Spock, the engineer, you think Scotty. Then again, does Trek own the concept of a captain, a science officer, an engineer and so on?

STATUS: Shelf-worthy. Enjoyable. In the end, I don’t think this takes anything away from Trek, and if anything, it’s a humorous love-letter to Trek. Maybe if Trek had been more open minded about captains finding their wives in bed, messing around with blue goo spurting aliens, MacFarlane might have made a deal to create Funny Trek. Ultimately, he did, with just the names changed to protect the innocent. Come for the funny, but stay for the space drama.

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Aug 07 2022
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shop buddy

I’m the Funniest (Free) Writer on Amazon!

Greetings, 3.5 readers.

Yup. Yup. Yup. It’s official. I have achieved my dream of becoming a great humor writer. With the assistance of a Freebooksy promotion, I gave away 2500 free copies of my new novel, Shop Buddy, and the results are as follows:

Hmm. Alas, someone needed to poop on it with a one-star rating, but that’s ok. You can’t please everyone.

The point is, look at those rankings!

#1 in General Humor (FREE) – I have been a humor blogger since 2014 and finally, I have some recognition for my humor chops.

#2 in Teen/Young Adult e-books (FREE) – I didn’t really set out to write a young adult book. The protagonists are 23, a year out of college, unable to find work in their chosen majors so they sling grocery bags for a shopping app. Meh, I guess it counts. It was up to #1 in this category yesterday.

#10 in Mysteries (FREE) – Agatha Christie, eat your heart out!

And #38 out of all the FREE books offered at the moment on Amazon. I made the top 100 here.

Growing up, I was one of those kids who snuck downstairs to watch Saturday Night Live. I quoted lines from In Living Color, The Simpsons and Married with Children on the playground every Monday. And my Mad Magazine collection? Forget about it.

I have had other books get some decent rankings during free book promos, but humor will always hold a special place near and dear to my heart, so this is great.

BTW, it’s not too late to get your FREE copy.

Now I just need to put more work into becoming one of those writers who make it high onto the PAID charts because if I’m being honest, I like money.

SIDENOTE: What’s it about, you ask? Picture it. You work for an online shopping service. One of your customers orders all kinds of weird, dangerous stuff. Rope. Axes. Knives. Chainsaws. Power tools. Do you assume he’s just remodeling his house or do you fear something more sinister is afoot? Grab your free copy today, then use the money you saved to get some extra cheese on your taco.

Oh, and whatever you do, please don’t buy any of the other books I have on Amazon. Writers should never make money at any time. It dilutes the artistic chemistry.

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Aug 05 2022
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shop buddy

FREE BOOK!

Hey 3.5 readers.

BQB here.

You know what’s expensive? Gas.

You know what’s free? My book.

Buy my book. Entertain yourself. Use that money you saved to buy 2.99 worth of gas and take a nice drive to, I don’t know, the end of the street?

Anyway, here it is, my first novel, totally FREE:

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Mar 07 2022
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top ten lists

You Need to Know If Your Girlfriend is a Russian Spy – NOW MORE THAN EVER!

Check this out, 3.5 readers. I called it way back on March 31, 2016:

The Russians.

Oh sure, they say they want to be our friends but then as soon as we aren’t looking they kick the Ukraine in the balls and give East Europe a wedgie.

See that? Ahh, if only the head muckety mucks over at NATO HQ had bothered to read my fine blog, we could have avoided Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine and be putting our focus where it needs to be, namely, why the hell does the Academy keep nominating movies we have never seen for the Oscars?

But I digress, 3.5 comrades. In case you missed it, here are the top ten warning signs your girlfriend might be a Russian spy.

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Feb 19 2022
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Uncategorized

Shop Buddy Cover

Hey 3.5 readers. Well, it’s here. The cover for my upcoming novel, Shop Buddy. It’s about a recent college grad who can’t find the job he wants, so he gets by working for an online shopping service. One of his customers puts in strange orders – rope, chains, knives, a chainsaw and so on. He and his ex-girlfriend who also works for the service (in fact, she’s his boss) get suspicious and unravel the mystery of what said strange customer is up to.

SIDENOTE – I went grocery shopping for the first time in I can’t even remember yesterday and I have to say, I need to go do my actual shopping more because online shopping/delivery just isn’t cutting it.

My complaints about online shopping (which mostly get worked into the novel in one way or another)

A) How is it possible in today’s information age that the website says the store has something and then the shopper gets me and tells me they don’t have it? Supply chain issues aside, every item has a barcode right? So can’t some tech genius hook those barcodes up to the site and when the last one is bought, make it say OUT OF STOCK when you order it? Ah, but there’s the rub. That thing was probably the thing you wanted the most and if you knew they didn’t have it, you wouldn’t have placed the order in the first place. If they made things go out of stock on the website they’d get less orders.

B) Every so often, I get a result that makes me question my faith in humanity. In the book, the main character ruins a child’s birthday party. Charged with shopping for and delivering a birthday cake, the company’s wonky algorithm tells him to buy and deliver a box set of Oingo Boingo’s greatest hits. This becomes a running joke throughout the story i.e. customer asks for a jar of pickles, algorithm tells the shopper to buy a velvet painting of Einstein fighting a velociraptor, customer asks for cat food, algorithm tells the shopper to buy an autographed photo of Abe Vigoda.

I haven’t received anything on the level of Oingo Boingo’s greatest hits or an Abe Vigoda autograph (I’d actually like an Abe Vigoda autograph) instead of what I ordered but there have definitely been times when I ordered, say, an apple, and got something where I just put it on the counter and scrutinized it, saying to myself “How…why…what…how on earth did they see “apple” and think I wanted THAT?”

Pre pandemic, I think these delivery services worked better because the shopper would actually come into your house, put the stuff on the counter for you, and review any discrepancies to your face. Now, they just do a gangland style drive-by where they whip all the bags at your front door while NWA classic hits blare on their speakers. By the time you open the bag and realized they got you a macroni statute of Bette Midler (cue Seinfeld) instead of your tub of egg salad, they’re half way down the block. If they actually had to look you in the eye, they woudn’t make such bizarre subsitutions.

I will say this of yesterday’s in person shopping experience:

A) Often shoppers would text me and say they’re out of this they’re out of that and I’d wonder if they really are out of something or if this is just a lazy shopper. Sometimes I’d curse the inflationary times we live in when my shopper texts me, “They were all out of cookies” and I’m like, “Damn it! It’s like we lost a war!” (Fun fact we actually lost 2 major wars in ten years but that shouldn’t prevent me from getting cookies. It’s not like I’m the Secretary of Defense after all. That guy should be sans cookies for losing wars.)

B) When you’re in store, you see stuff you wouldnt think to look for on the site. Maybe this is good because you’re getting more stuff or then again maybe you are spending more then you would. Then again that extra you are spending would just go to a tip to a guy who is just going to toss the bags at your front porch in an early 1990s style Boyz in the Hood esque drive by. “Break yoself and take yo potato salad, fool!”

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Feb 15 2022
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Self Publishing

Disco Werewolf

I wrote most of a book called Disco Werewolf. I still have it. I had a cover made for it though that was back in a day when I had an addiction to ordering covers before I knew I was ready to hit the publish button.

The synopsis is it’s the 70s and by day, Mitch is a picked on nerd. By night, he lets his werewolf freak flag fly on the disco floor ( he hails from a family of werewolves who traditionally prefer to keep their lycanthropy hidden).

He has a love interest trying to become a journalist who is trying to determine Disco Werewolf’s true identity. There’s a werewolf hunter and also a demon taking the persona of a disco dancer who wants to be DW’s agent but secretly, needs his dancing skills to unlock…some sort of evil Maguffin.

This is where it gets tricky. I wrote tons of pages for this but what I’m learning is books really need to be quick and snappy. Too many villains. Too many characters. I’m trying to figure out how to consolidate it into one plot. Make it simple. He’s a werewolf. He disco dances. Who is the villain and why does he challenge him?

Many characters and plot points will have to be cut. Maybe if it’s successful they could come about in a sequel.

I really love the cover though.

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