Category: Pop Culture Page 2 of 83

Any trends or popular fads may be described, whether it would be something like the hula hoop or the pet rock or simply new slang.

“Last Picture House” Movie Trivia Night: June 22, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On June 22, 2026

In Humor and Weird Wilson-isms, Local, Movies, Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture

Movie Music Trivia Night at the Last Picture House, Davenport, Iowa on June 22nd, 2026.

I journeyed over to the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, to play movie trivia tonight, but I misunderstood the extent of the task. I thought a snippet of music would be played and all I had to do was name the movie the song came from.

Wrong, Snore-Snout! This was only one of 3 things that I needed to be prepared to do. Rather than matching the music with a movie, you had to name the song, give the artist, and THEN name the movie the song was featured in.

Welllllll. This would have been 3 tasks per entry on Round One (15 points). I knew I needed daughter Stacey once it became clear that I was going to have to dredge up THREE things, rather than just one. There were 5 questions (worth 15 points) on the first round and there appeared to be 8 rounds with 5 questions each that were going to be asked of about 30 teams. Some teams had 8 people or more and many were foursomes. Seats were at a premium.

ARRIVE EARLY

Movie Trivia Night, June 22, 2026, The Last Picture House, Davenport, Iowa.

I did not get there early enough to get a seat but, thanks to Cathy and Carrie, I got a backless footstool, which was both good and bad. It was good to meet Cathy and Carrie, who let me sit with them, but the lack of a back sent me packing after I scored 9 points out of the first 15 possible in Round One. (This, to be clear, was not a “good” score, but it was also not the worst of all of the teams.)

I also had not eaten and it was getting to be close to 8 p.m., my back hurt, and, in round 2, the first song was a rap song. Yeahh…I wrote down L.L. Cool Jay, (which will date me and him), had no idea what the song might be, and had even less of an idea what movie utilized that song. (I use the term song loosely, being Old School…and just plain old).

MEA CULPE

But the biggest sign of my incompetence was knowing that Bette Midler sang this song in “Beaches” and also having once sung this song on a ship cruise (during amateur hour.) And my beautiful daughter-in-law once sang “Wind Beneath My Wings” in a beauty competition, which she won. However, did I remember the name ‘Wind Beneath My Wings?”

I did not. And that was some pretty dismal forgetting, when you think of my history with the song. (AAARRGGHHH.)

The original notice of the movie trivia event said it was to last from 7 to 8 p.m.

It was already 8 p.m. and we had not (yet) heard the results of Round 2. When you have close to 30 teams…..(finish that thought).

I had now consumed half a bag of popcorn, some Junior Mints, and a Diet Coke, but I had had no real food. You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you go to the movies and eat a bunch of movie junk food without having had a meal? It’s kind of a sick-to-your-stomach sickening feeling that requires a real meal to remedy it.

I knew that, back home, my golf-playing better half was going to be picking up Subway sandwiches, my back hurt, and my score, so far, was 9 points (of 15) which was not going to set the world on fire (or win this lengthy game)

The 100 or so participants at The Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, were doing well, and I learned a valuable lesson about going early enough to get a chair with a back—although the young folk pictured were doing just fine, seated on the floor playing Solitaire.

Ah, yes. I remember those days of floor-sitting.

Solitaire game in progress at Movie Trivia Night by floor sitters at The Last Picture Housel

As a team of one—and not one who paid much attention to the names of songs—I was at a distinct disadvantage.

Now I know I need daughter Stacey to make Team #17 have even a ghost of a chance—although I do want it on my record that, as a team of one, scoring 9 of 15 was not the worst score in the joint. But it looked like it was going to be downhill for me from then on without the assistance of daughter Stacey, who would have known every song and the name of every performer.

Next time.

“Wild Bill & the Bruisers” On Tour in Chicago on June 12, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On June 13, 2026

In Music, Pop Culture, Reviews, travel

Took in Wild Bill & the Bruisers show tonight in Chicago at the Broken Hearts Bar on Lake & Randolph. It was a fantastic high-energy, low-impact evening—except for when I nearly ripped poor Louis’s shirt off while dancing the two-step. (Something I have only done once before in my life. The dancing; not the ripping. I may have done the ripping previously a time or two. Louis is the white-haired gentleman who can be seen dancing, if YouTube will let me upload the clip, which is always dicey. Otherwise, use your imagination. Lewis is probably very happy that I am not a full-time local resident who might seek out his instruction. Also dicey.)

Louis (Lewis?) is a dance instructor somewhere nearby and a regular customer at Broken Hearts Chicago. Lewis, when asking me to dance, knew my first name. (I think Reily, who works at Broken Hearts Chicago, told Lewis my name and that I wanted to dance. I failed to get a picture of darling Reily, sadly. I may have captured Lewis in action, but, again, will YouTube let me make the video into a post? Always a question. If so,I’ll add it tomorrow and you can enjoy Lewis before I unintentionally attacked his shirt.)

I also didn’t get a picture of 25-year-old Atticus from California, who said he had an NDA that prevented him from having his picture taken. Atticus complimented me on my “great memory.” I think he was just surprised that someone as old as me could remember her own name, let alone the names of several of the bar’s patrons.

Lewis apparently thought I knew what the basic “two step” was prior to the dance invitation A: no.At one point, my little finger got caught in the snap closings of Louis’s shirt. (He was twirling me, at the time.) Not good for Louis’s shirt, and I definitely need better instructions for future two-step outings.

KATE

Kate & husband, from Wicker Park.

Kate and her husband of 10 years live in Wicker Park. She was seated near the photo booth and they were very congenial and said they had (originally) seen Wild Bill & the Bruisers in Nashville and knew they were very good. She mentioned other times that she and her husband had come out to hear Wild Bill & the Bruisers play. Wild Bill, the talented group lead, mentioned from the stage that the sound at tonight’s show (the trio has been on tour in New York, Ohio and elsewhere) was the best sound of the venues they have played while on tour.

BRIE

Brie was getting married in the morning. She looked very happy and Brandon, 23, was in town from Missouri for the wedding. I made Brandon take a turn on the dance floor, although he claimed to not know how to dance. My advice: “fake it till you make it.” So, we did, and, later he brought over a very pretty girl whom he described as the World’s Greatest Taylor Swift fan.

Also stopping by our table was the groom, Chosen, and Jason, the Best Man. Jason also sells cars in the Chicago area. He said he was planning on dancing with me, but the group then left to hit other bars in the area, so that didn’t happen. (After Lewis’s shirt incident, wise move on Jason’s part.)

The bride, Brie, on June 12, 2026, the night before her wedding,at Broken Heart Bar in Chicago. The groom, Chosen, and Best Man, Jason, smile for the camera.

Swiftie, Brie (the bride-to-be) and Brandon, at the Broken Hearts Bar in Chicago on Friday, June 26, 2026.

Wild Bill (Will) Allison of Wild Bill & the Bruisers on tour in Chicago on June 12, 2026.

Brandon Pickering, Connie Wilson, and Joshua Bailey at The Last Picture House on June 2, 2026.

“Stolen Kingdom” Doc Depicts Disney Black Market: Davenport (IA) Showing

By Connie Wilson

On June 3, 2026

In Local, Movies, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews, Texas, Uncategorized

Joshua Bailey and Brandon Pickering, appeared in Davenport, Iowa, at The Last Picture House on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, with their film about Black Market Disney merchandise, “Stolen Kingdom.”

Writer-Director Josh Bailey is 31. Producer/Cinematographer Brandon Pickering partnered with Bailey in Austin, Texas. where both have day jobs in television. They worked on “Stolen Kingdom” for 5 years. Bailey and Pickering are on a 13-city tour with the film that opened the Florida Film Festival (both are Florida natives). “Stolen Kingdom” has done well on the film festival circuit. It was also well-received by an enthusiastic crowd at this stylish boutique theater in the Quad Cities. Chicago native Shane Simmons, a fellow actor/writer/director joined the duo as moderator for the evening.

The “Stolen Kingdom” team included Joshua Bailey (Writer/Director), Producer/Cinematographer Brandon Pickering, Sam Fraser, and Fugazi drummer Brendan Canty (who wrote the score). They have created a well-paced, visually-interesting, absorbing documentary about obsessive behavior that caused one film subject to say of himself, “You look like a psychopath!”

FLORIDA ROOTS

Both Bailey and Pickering are originally from Florida (Tampa). Both worked at Disney (or Universal) theme parks as youths. Pickering mentioned Halloween Horror Night at Universal. He volunteered the information that he was fired. “We both dropped out of the same film school.” (Valencia College in Tampa, Florida). This in-depth knowledge of the Disney World was invaluable to the project. I hope it is not the only subject the two filmmakers are this dedicated to, because it demonstrated real creativity with good pacing, great photography and comedic verve. The entire project also represented a lot of time and effort. Just organizing the material must have been a Herculean task! And now they are on a 13-city tour to cities they have probably never visited, like Davenport, Iowa. (Welcome to the Quad Cities! I’ll see you in Austin.)

Some photography of shadowy figures was impressive artistically and finding Richard McGuire (AKA Southern Pirate), who throws out the batshit theory that Disney is running a “torture prison” on its abandoned island attraction, was Cinematic Gold. (Yikes!)As Bailey told interviewer Simon Thompson in a February 14, 2025 Forbes magazine interview:”I had grown up consuming this content, made by people like Adam The Woo and Leonard Kinsey, some of the previous generation of creators, so when it started up again, we were really intrigued by it.”

However, as Bailey said, “If we don’t have Patrick (Spikes), we don’t have a movie.” He also said, “We were determined to break this barrier of anonymity with Patrick. We met with him one night and gave him fake names.” (The meeting took place at a 7-Eleven behind the Customer Member Parking at the Magic Kingdom in August of 2018.) “We had thought about trying to do this ourselves as urban explorers at Disney against our better judgment, so we created all of these social accounts, and I think that gave him some kind of trust in us. I think we were the first people to meet up with him, figure out who he was, and be boots on the ground with him.

“Patrick told us, ‘I have this and that celebrity’s phone number on speed dial. I call them and say, ‘Hey, I have this prop if you want to buy it.’ So we got in his car and drove around the property. There are a bunch of public roads behind Magic Kingdom, office buildings, and other things, and we found the redhead animatronic that had recently been removed from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. He’s making calls, frantically texting people, and trying to make a deal. We don’t really know what was going on in his head. We left at about four in the morning, went home, and we were like, ‘This needs to be a documentary.'”

Brandon Pickering, Connie Wilson, and Joshua Bailey at The Last Picture House on June 2, 2026.

Patrick, himself, said, “I was the heart of the Black Market for a while.” He rattled on about being offered $75,000 for the Redhead from Pirates of the Caribbean and mentioned being offered $70,000 to steal Buzzy (which, later, he changed to $50,000, claiming he did not steal the animatronic figure). The off-the-wall scenes with the police interviewing Patrick and confiscating his phone and Patrick subsequently faking illness so he might be able to use a hospital phone: priceless black humor, The scenes are inter- woven skillfully, moving on to true tragedy as we learn of the death of Ed “Chief” Barlow, who died from malignant melanoma.

Hoot (real name – Dave Ensign) Gibson met Ed in 1986 and the two loved Disney’s parks, thinking that their jobs there would be a relief from high school bullies and teen age unhappiness. After signing on as Disney employees, however, they realized,”It’s basically high school in a different place.” Still, the two went adventuring in the abandoned attractions many times and became best friends. Dave’s grief at Ed’s passing is palpable. [The focus on these obsessed fans of abandoned sites was treated in a 2005 novel by David Morrell entitled “Creepers.” “Scavenger” in 2007 was the sequel. It’s a whole other world, Folks.] Hoot described himself as grief-stricken after Ed’s death. “I think I’m done being Hoot Gibson for a while. I just don’t care any more.”

We see Hoot scattering the Chief’s ashes at a Disney park.That is not a completely easy task for Dave. He was banned from Disney. Dave/Hoot’s take on stealing from the park is totally different from Patrick’s. Hoot/Dave spoke of stealing costumes and other expensive items as wrong; he seemed to consider it almost sacrilegious. He was genuinely touched and touching when he teared up while remembering his old friend Ed.

The film about a bizarre sub-set of people who obsess about visiting Disney and owning Disney memorabilia reminded me of another great documentary, “Secret Mall Apartment,” which was a hit at SXSW in 2024. https://www.themovieblog.com/2024/03/secret-mall-apartment-is-a-hit-sxsw-2024/

TRENDS TODAY

(L toR) Brandon Pickering, Shane Simmons and Joshua Bailey at the showing of “Stolen Kingdom” at the Last Picture House in Davenport, Iowa, on June 2, 2026.

According to Pickering, they used cameras from their day jobs in Austin television to keep cost(s) down. The film was made on a shoestring—less than $150,000. Currently, two films that are leading the box office on June 2, 2026, were also low-budget movies. “Obsession,” one of the two, rackedup $5.3 million, while the Big Budget film “Star Wars: The Mandalorian” took in only $2.2 million. Working your way up via YouTube is becoming one way for a filmmaker to make it in the industry. Another is to win big on the film festival circuit (Slamdance, Big Sky,et. al. qualify “Stolen Kingdom”). As ABC reported today, Generation Z may just save cinema; going to the movies is becoming fashionable again (along with buying at thrift stores.)

Jake Williams got a shout-out from the duo tonight and assisted some with the making of the film. He runs a YouTube channel (since age 17) that covers bankrupt and abandoned businesses. The two Florida natives —who said “we just found each other” (in Austin)— began their documentary about obsessive Disney fans (known as Pixie Dusters) in 2018, before the theft of Buzzy.

Buzzy had been sitting inside the shuttered attraction Cranium Command for eleven years before the 600-pound theme park remnant disappeared.

What happened to Buzzy?

That is a question that has other YouTube videos debating it. One of the filmmakers this night said, “It’s like the O.J. Simpson thing. There is literally no other suspect” (besides Patrick Spikes). Of course, any number of famous celebrity buyers could have purchased Buzzy via BackDoorDisney.We see Neil Patrick Harris describing a bit of Disney memorabilia that he bid on. Indirectly, Harris called out Jeff Bezos as another top bidder for a piece of Disney history. John Stamos admitted his own desire to own a piece of Disney history (his wife looked less thrilled with Stamos’ passion.)

DENOUEMENT

One famous purchaser who bought a bit of Buzzy’s clothing from Patrick was NBA basketball star Robin Lopez. Lopez was actually to be repaid $10,700 according to the 2020 court sentencing for Patrick Spike and his cousin. The duo was arrested in 2019 and the sentencing in 2020 (no contest) dictated $25,308 in restitution, including the Lopez refund and $6,703 to Disney. Patrick was also sentenced to 10 years of probation and 250 hours of community service.

The film will be rentable by August 1st and is available through Waterbox Video Store.

Bruno Mars Continues

By Connie Wilson

On May 24, 2026

In Music, News, Pop Culture

Bruno Mars’ Romantic Tour, his first since 2014, goes on the list of Top Three Live Concerts, for me—and I started my life of live concerts with the Beatles at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1965. This May 15thconcert was spectacular and lived up to the excellent Chicago Tribune review. A truly Top-Notch Experience.

Other memorable live concerts include Steel Wheels in Ames (the Rolling Stones), and I’ve seen the Rolling Stones 10 to 12 times, including in Indianapolis at the Indianapolis Speedway on the Fourth of July, in Minneapolis, Chicago, Ames and at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Saw Paul McCartney at the United Center and have seen him three times, including with Wings and solo at Wrigley. And then there were U2 concerts, including the one with the colossally large central stage and the one where Bono ran around on a heart-shaped stage, in Chicago. Bravo Bruno!

David Letterman Guests on Stephen Colbert’s “The Late Show:” May 14, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On May 15, 2026

In Editorial, Essays on Politics: Best Political Essays & Ideology, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Politics, Pop Culture, Reviews, Television

David Letterman and Stephen Colbert atop the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 14, 2026.

Tonight, May 14th, 2026, Stephen Colbert—approaching the beginning of his last week in what was David Letterman’s late night television show—had Letterman, himself, as one of his final guests. Dave showed up with the unattractive Father Christmas long white beard he has worn since leaving the air. (Lose the beard, Dave.)

It was a night of nostalgia, with Colbert paying tribute to Dave’s stewardship of The Late Show 33 years prior. Now, thanks to a president of the United States who is so thin-skinned that he cannot stand any criticism or mockery, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is going to be replaced with the late night comedians who previously followed in the wee hours (and were never that funny).

It’s a loss to late night show fans, whether you preferred Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyer or John Oliver (some might include Jon Stewart) and may signal the demise of late night shows, in general, as unscripted reality shows or late night comedians perfecting their routines is cheaper to put on the air. And we, the audience, are the losers, while DJT gets to further boost his extremely fragile narcissistic ego by killing one of the shows calling him out on his undemocratic and unpatriotic actions as president. [God help us all!]

Dave displayed photos of his new puppy, Doc, mentioned his son (who is graduating from college) and, after inquiring about the blue chair on which he sat, asked who owned the furniture. Stephen, of course, acknowledged that the chair Dave sat upon (and a duplicate blue one) were CBS property, as was Stephen’s own chair, which was an Eames. The Eames classic chair is “extraordinarly expensive” and vintage versions of the chair go for well over $10,000. “It is an expensive chair,” said the originator, who compared it to a well-worn baseball glove.

David Letterman and Stephen Colbert tossing watermelons off the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater on May 14, 2026.

Viewers got to see David Letterman and Stephen Colbert toss the two blue chairs and Stephen’s Eames classic host’s chair off the roof of the Ed Sullivan studio in New York City. They also tossed watermelons and Dave saluted Stephen, thanking him for all he was doing for the country in pointing out the gap between reality and fantasy that the current administration tries to foist on the public daily. (Remember: it’s not a war, it’s an “excursion”—which is probably a misuse of the term “incursion” by the dunderhead using it.)

LATE NIGHT WIth DAVID LETTERMAN

Many years ago I was in New York City for one of the Thrillerfest conventions. This was so long ago that Letterman was still sitting in the host’s seat. I did not have tickets purchased in advance. In fact, I had given no thought at all to attending a taping of “The Late Show,” but I wandered out of the formerly owned Trump hotel that is attached to Grand Central Station to take a walk in NYC.

At a traffic intersection I was approached by someone who wanted to know if I watched David Letterman’s The Late Show, and when I answered in the affirmative, I was told that—if I could answer a question correctly—I could attend that night’s show. The question was for me to give the name of the deli owner whom Dave frequently visited in person. Although my mind went temporarily blank regarding Rupert’s Deli, I was given so many helpful hints that I ended up queued up in the lobby entryway of the studio, being grilled on how to demonstrate appropriate enthusiasm when the host and guests appeared. This went on for a good half hour while we all patiently stood in the long queue, not much different than approaching the TSA agents at the airport.

A memento of my visit The Late Show with David Letterman (cursor pad).

My seat turned out to be about 10 rows from the left front portion of the theater–not too far from where Letterman and Colbert came to rest tonight in the audience, after 6 men removed all of the guest and host chairs to the roof. The night I attended, the guest was Eva Longoria, who tottered out on very high heels. I don’t remember much about the rest of the program, except that the studio was chilly, as has been pointed out. We were warned not to go downstairs to the women’s rest rooms that were located there, because the building was old and dipalidated and the plumbing might not be up to snuff.

From the remarks that Colbert made to Letterman while they were seated in the audience, that last bit of information is out-dated, because Stephen explained how ALL of the audience seats were replaced when he took over The Late Show in 2015. They widened the seats from nineteen inches to twenty-four inches. I would speculate that the downstairs rest rooms also received a facelift, because, as Letterman pointed out, the theater ceiling also had an extensive make-over, which Dave compared to the very ornate Bellagio ceilings.

I’m going to miss Stephen Colbert’s Late Night Show from the Ed Sullivan Theater, a venue of historic importance now being run into the ground by its owners at CBS. Courtesy of Wikipedia: “Colbert’s work as a correspondent on Comedy Central’s news-parody series The Daily Show gained him wide recognition. In 2005, he left The Daily Show to host The Colbert Report. Following The Daily Show‘s news-parody concept, The Colbert Report was a parody of personality-driven political opinion shows including The O’Reilly Factor, in which he portrayed a caricatured version of conservative political pundits, earning Colbert an invitation to perform as featured entertainer at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2006, which he did in character. This event led to the series becoming one of Comedy Central’s highest-rated series. After ending The Colbert Report, he was hired in 2015 to succeed David Letterman, who was retiring as host of the Late Show on CBS. Colbert hosted the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2017.”

David Letterman thanking and congratulating Stephen Colbert on his career helming The Late Show, which Letterman originated 33 years prior on May 14, 2026, one week before the show ends. CBS has buckled under to DJT in a clear violation of Freedom of the Press and the freedoms granted to Americans by our Constitution, which are being attacked daily by sycophantic followers of the current POTUS.

I will really miss the gentlemanly humor and intelligent repartee of Stephen Colbert. I would like to join David Letterman in thanking him for doing his best to defend our First Amendment Freedom of Speech in the face of the autocratic and bullying tactics of the MAGA crowd and Donald J. Trump. I pray that patriotic Americans will wake up to the damage being done to our Constitutional rights and freedoms by the current administration and some of them will grow a spine and stand up to the man who has, at the moment, perched the world on the edge of WWIII.

Frida Kahlo Exhibit in Houston April 24-29th, 2026

By Connie Wilson

On April 27, 2026

In Mexico, Pop Culture, travel

We took a VonLane bus to Houston to see the Freda Kahlo exhibit on Friday, April 24th. We stayed at the Hotel Zaza, which is quite near the Art Museum.

I am one of the many who thinks that Selma Hayak did a good job of portraying Frida, but Selma was far prettier than the actual artist. I will post a picture of the real Freda and the cinema Freda for you to judge for yourself. (below).

The real Frida was born in 2007 and had infantile paralysis (polio) as a child, which left her with one leg that was far shorter than the other. She also was involved in a serious bus accident in 2025 at the age of 18 when a pole pierced her body and left her with even more serious injuries, and, as a result, she had back pain and problems and had to wear metal corsets that accounted for her short leg and her painful pelvis. She often wore floor-length dresses to conceal her condition. Some of these contraptions were on display and they looked like torture instruments from the Middle Ages.Her 1940 self-portrait titled The Dream (The Bed) holds the record for the most expensive work by a female artist ever auctioned at $54.7 million.^[5]

Freda’s love life with the more well-known (at the time) painter Diego Rivera was explored and the guide headphones said that she did not want to have children with him, because he had already impregnated two previous women and left them when they bore him children. At first, when she learned she was pregnant, she tried to abort the child, but when that didn’t work, she was going to go forth with the pregnancy, except that she had a miscarriage.Kahlo’s interests in politics and art led her to join the Mexican Communist Party in 1927,^[1] through which she once again met fellow Mexican artist Diego Rivera (who had first met her when painting a mural at her school). The couple married in 1929 and spent the late 1920s and early 1930s travelling together in Mexico and the United States.

I have appended some of her work below.

Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo

“Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story” Screens at SXSW 2026

By Connie Wilson

On March 24, 2026

In Interviews, Movies, Music, Pop Culture, Reviews, Texas

“Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story” won the SXSW Jury Award for Best Documentary Feature at SXSW 2026. Directed by Ayden Mayeri, it’s the story of a quartet of childhood friends who made a record when they were junior high school age (11 to 13) and it surfaced as a hit on the website Rate Your Music 24 years later. Said Director Mayeri, “This album being discovered is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me.

The X-Cetra Story (Photo by Dessie Jackson).

”WRITER/DIRECTOR

Director Ayden Mayeri, who has 58 IMDB credits, has appeared in such films as Paul Feig’s “Jackpot!”, “Mr.Throwback,” “Cora Bora Comedy,” “Spin Me Around,” and is the Writer/Director of this award-winning documentary. After the unexpected fame of their album Et-Cetra, (made in 2000), Mayeri decided to try to get the foursome together again, twenty-four years later. Ayden admitted “I really missed hanging out with them and being carefree. She likened their reunion in Santa Rosa as “Our version of Backstreet’s Back.”

Ayden Mayeri

Ayden admitted that she wanted to recapture the unself-conscious feeling of her pre-teen years. It is captured via extensive videotaping by one of the girl’s mothers from back when the girls were 11 to 13, in 2000. Kudos to Editor Phil Rosanova and Audrey Leach, who drew the task of blending copious amounts of film and to cinematographer Barry Rothbart. The musician mother Robin O’Brien who had ties to the German music provider Akim and produced the girls’ maiden vocal efforts deserves much credit for the album existing at all, also.

Now 36, Mayeri described the era to The Daily Texan as “a journey of me trying to fit in.” She said, “It’s just me and my friends, living our childhood dream, putting our vision out in the world… It was crazy because we made this album in the year 2000 when we were 10 to 12 years old … we were immediately very embarrassed about it. We were like, “Let’s never talk about that again. We’re in junior high. Everything’s embarrassing. (We) don’t want anyone to know we did that.”

CAST

X-Cetra cast

Following “Rolling Stone’s” writing an article on their X-Cetra album of the early 2000s, the quartet of old friends gather in Santa Rosa and even write some new music. The film became a thumbnail character sketch of each of the four girls: Jessica Hall, Janet Kariuki, Mary Washburn and Ayden herself. The intervening years for each girl are related in a way that makes us care about them, especially since we’ve seen them when they were adolescents perched on the verge of high school.

EDGE OF INNOCENCE

The universal truth for all girls that comes throughis that dating and boys and being “cool” will change the relationships between these girls that formed earlier. The self-consciousness of youth will sometimes inhibit even those who are obviously talented at a young age. One of the reasons Ayden gave for making the documentary was this: “I think my greatest dream is that people feel free to be creative for no reason and to really go back and tell their younger selves that they’re great … I really wanted to show what girlhood feels like, and that’s why I’m reading from my diaries, and we’re talking about some kind of messed up stuff, because that’s girlhood”

X-Cetra cast

It was clear early on that Ayden was innately talented. But, as a lyric sung in the documentary asks, “Did I make you feel embarrassed when I’m something to be cherished?” This film allowed the four fast friends of 2000 to revisit and recapture the exuberance of their youth, via X-Cetra.

Jessica, for instance, shares that boys of their class harassed her with the nickname “titless” for a long time, while Mary—the youngest at eleven—was excluded from the group as high school approached because the other three were two years older. Brushes with parental divorce, drugs, relationships gone wrong—all are included and fill in the picture of who these four girls are and who they were in 2000 before life intervened.

DOCUMENTARY RESONATES

X-Cetra cast

The documentary struck a chord with the audience, which voted it the winner of the Audience Award at SXSW 2026. It resonated with me, as I taught junior high school students for eighteen years. I remember my own daughter’s early friendships and creativity when exactly the same age as these girls in 2000. The line, “Are you gonna’ live in that moment for the rest of your life?” was a good one, highlighting that the lives of the foursome have moved in separate directions.

Thanks to the parents who both filmed and recorded the girls at a young age, we can see the arc of their lives from 2000 to 2026. I’m sure their reunion to celebrate the unexpected success of X-Cetra the album was a great one.

This SXSW documentary was a joy for the original members of X-Cetra and it is a joy for the audience.

Ryan Gosling is Ryland Grace in “Project Hail Mary”

By Connie Wilson

On March 22, 2026

In Movies, Pop Culture, Reviews, Science and Medicine

Ryan Gosling has not had a release recently—not since “Barbie” in 2023, for which he was paid $12 and ½ million dollars (compared to the $29 million he earned for 2016’s “La La Land.”)to play Ken. “Project Hail Mary” was directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who are best known for “The Lego Movie,” “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” and the animated film “Spider Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”

PLOT SYNOPSIS

Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up alone on a spaceship light-years from Earth. As his memory returns, he discovers he is on a mission to stop a mysterious substance (an astrophage) that is killing the sun. It’s a desperate Hail Mary ploy to save Earth. An unexpected friendship with an alien dubbed Rocky ends up being crucial.

Those who read the book were among the most supportive, but also the most critical of the Drew Goddard adaptation of the Andy Weir (“The Martian”) book. I have not read the book, so I’m out of that debate.

Andy Weird book “Project Hail Mary” is the basis for the film.

THE GOOD NEWS

Anthony Whyte of “The Movie Blog” was correct in saying, “Project Hail Mary” is about learning how to understand someone completely different from you. He describes it as “a warm, funny, and genuinely heartfelt sci-fi film that reminds you why these stories work in the first place.”

If it works, that is. For me, it did not, but “Project Hail Mary” opened at $33 million domestically on Friday at 4,007 locations. If it reaches $77 million by Sunday it will be the best opening for Amazon MGM ever, eclipsing 2023’s “Creed III,” which garnered $58 million. This means that, just like my opinion of “Plantman & Blondie” at SXSW as weak, I am the one out of step with the mainstream. So be it.

TONE

Given the previous films from this directing team the humor was a given. That part works. However, for me the movie at times couldn’t seem to make up its mind if it’s a comedy or a save-the-world serious epic. With Gosling, who was so good at light humor in 2016’s “The Nice Guys” (as well as during his guest stints on “Saturday Night Live”),I went into the film fully expecting lightweight banter and wry humor. I was looking forward to that. Did the humor mix expertly with the seriousness of the save-the-world mission? That’s the question.

Films like “Crazy, Stupid Love” (2011) and “Barbie” fed into this expectation of a humorous good time. There is humor in “Project Hail Mary”—perhaps too much of it, since the entire film, like “Independence Day” or any previous Save the World movie—is all about sending a team into space to certain death, a suicide mission— to save the planet and preserve the universe. A team of three people will be launched into space to find out why astrophages are draining stars in the solar system.

What is an astrophage and why should we care?

THE SCIENCE

Ryan Gosling plays a middle school teacher with a doctorate in molecular biology who is drafted to save the world in “Project Hail Mary.”

The science is explained well as mentioned in Anthony Whyte’s The Movie Blog review. It’s easy enough to understand to the extent that we need to remember any of these sci-fi explanations. As someone who dropped out of chemistry after one day (and physics in two), it was plenty detailed enough for me. Judging from math and science scores on tests nationwide, it will be adequate for the average audience member.

As Anthony noted in his TMB review: “Visually, the film is strong across the board. The use of color and lighting stands out immediately. This isn’t the cold, sterile version of space we’re used to. There’s warmth here. There’s texture. It feels lived in. The camera work and transitions are consistently engaging, with some shots that genuinely feel like they were pulled straight out of a comic book panel.The cinematography and sound design are the real stars of the show.” Agreed. Cinematographer was Aussie Greig Fraser who is known for Dune: Part One (2021), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and 2012’s Zero Dark Thirty

SOUND

Co-star Sandra Huller as Eva Stratt has a fairly big part early on and sings “Just stop cryin’, have the time of your life. We can meet again some day, Somewhere far away from here.” The music, in general, is very good. The sound adds immeasurably in ratcheting up tension. Composer was Daniel Pemberton, who also did the music for “Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse.”

THE CAST

Basically, it’s a one-man play, as Ryan Gosling’s character is the only one of the three astronauts who survives the blast-off into space. The two supporting NASA astronauts don’t survive the trip out and we learn very little about them.

And here’s where I have to get off the fan bus.

RYAN GOSLING FILMS

Ryan Gosling.

I’ve been a fan of Gosling’s since his performance in 2001’s Sundance film “The Believer,” which won the Grand Jury award at Sundance over 25 years ago. There is not a red-blooded heterosexual woman alive who hasn’t seen “The Notebook” (2004) and loved the romance with Kate Beckinsdale. Gosling’s star continued to rise with “Half Nelson” (2006), for which he was Oscar-nominated as Best Actor in a Leading Role, followed by “Blue Valentine” (2010). “Crazy, Stupid Love” (2011) saw Gosling lifting Emma Stone in the fashion of Patrick Swayze in “Dirty Dancing” and teaching Steve Carell how to be cool.

Then came “Drive” in 2011, “The Ides of March” (2011), “The Place Beyond the Pines” (2012), “The Nice Guys” (2016) and “La La Land” in 2016, (which we all thought had won Movie of the Year for a few minutes on Oscar night, thanks to Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.) “ Blade Runner 2049”—often mentioned as Gosling’s finest film—came out in 2017 and 2023’s “Barbie” cemented Ryan Gosling’s status as a hunk whom heterosexual women want to see romancing an equally attractive female lead.

ROMANTIC LEAD?

Project Hail Mary

So, who’s the female romantic lead in this one? Answer: nobody. “Gravity” (2013) at least had Sandra Bullock and George Clooney in space together, without pursuing their romance. So, could we have that version of things in this sci-fi space movie, please? Ryan doesn’t have to get the girl, but could there BE a girl for him to potentially court? (Do people still use the term “court” in 2026? No? Okay. Their loss.)

That lack of a romantic sub-plot explains why there IS no girl, no romance, and way more emphasis on getting along with intelligent alien life forms in the universe—a trendy topic in today’s news. Give me back a leading lady that our 45-year-old hero can at least flirt with, please. And aim for “Gravity’s” length (91 minutes).

It didn’t work for me (and neither did “Plantman & Blondie” at SXSW) but different strokes for different folks.

FATAL FLAW

Ryan Gosling in “Project Hail Mary.”

THE MOVIE IS TOO LONG. WAAAY TOO LONG. This is an interstellar sci fi comedy drama based on a book by Andy Weir (“The Martian”) that is meant to be light-heartedly amusing while taking us on a space adventure. It’s not “Oppenheimer.” Much of the film involves talk of space and one highlight is Gosling’s dramatic walk in space to secure a predator that will neutralize the star-eating effect of astrophages.

But the film ran over 2 and ½ hours. While I enjoyed the friendship between James Ortiz’s alien Rocky, I would have liked the movie much more if it had a backstory involving Ryland’s love life—or lack of one. Not true to the novel? A valid defense, but I haven’t read the novel, and I wish I hadn’t spent 3 hours seeing the movie, despite my admiration for Ryan Gosling’s body of work.

Steve Carell Is “Rooster” for HBO Max: SXSW 2026 Panel

By Connie Wilson

On March 19, 2026

In Interviews, Pop Culture, Television, Texas

Steve Carell and the cast of “Rooster,” as well a producers Bill Lawrence and Matt Tarses, spoke at SXSW in Austin on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17 at the J.W. Mariott in downtown Austin. With the producers and their star were castmates Danielle Deadwyler and Charly Clive, who play Dylan Shepherd and Katie, respectively.

The series revolves around Carell’s character of author Greg Russo, who has been summoned to his daughter’s college to help solve a crisis in her life, when her philandering husband, a University professor at the fictional Ludlow College (actually the University of the Pacific in exterior shots) creates a scandal by impregnating a student. That doesn’t do much for his marriage to Carell’s daughter Katie and soon Dad is summoned to help pour oil on troubled waters.

GREG RUSSO

Steve Carell onstage at SXSW on March 17, 2026.

Carell’s character Greg Russo is a successful genre author. Think of someone like Lee Child, the pen name for former television writer Jim Grant who wrote the Jack Reacher series alone until 2020 when he began writing them with his brother Andrew Child. In this fictionalized version of things, the character in the books is Rooster and Steve Carell’s arrival on his daughter Katie’s campus begins to cause some confusion, as his fans among the faculty and students begin to ascribe characteristics of the author’s main character to the author himself, Carell’s character is going to be pressed into service as a university lecturer and other adventures will occur. Written as ten 30-minute episodes, the series had the strongest opening for a comedy series n ten years for HBO and with the recent announcement of $21 million in tax credits for the series and its warm audience reception, chances are very good that it will make the cut and go beyond one season.

CHARLY CLIVE

Steve Carell with daughter Katie (Charly Clive) in “Rooster” on HBO Max.

British actress Charly Clive plays Katie, Carell’s daughter, and her British accent was a bit of a shock to those of us who have seen the first episodes, which she plays with an American accent. Charly starred in a British television series called “Pure” and is a 2014 graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Art in New York City. This is her first big American role.

MOTIVATION

When asked about why he took the role, Carell joked, “It was mostly money, really.” He then went on to say, “It felt true. I have been experiencing a lot of these life moments with my own daughter. I like parts representative of all parts of life, just experiencing life as it comes.”

APPROACH TO THE CHARACTER

Danielle Deadwyler of “Rooster” cast onstage on March 17, 2026 at SXSW.

Carell said, “I didn’t want Greg to be a Walter Mitty type. He isn’t completely comfortable in that role. Greg didn’t strive to be famous. He just wanted to be a writer.. I think he is shy, but not an introvert. He is married to an impressive woman…I read the pilot and thought it was terrific. A lot of times, you don’t know if something feels authentic until you’re in the moment, but this was an instant feeling of ensemble.: He went on to say “It was very reminiscent of my experience on the office (for 7 years). That’s the sense I get with this.”

DANIELLE DEADWYLER

Steve Carell as Greg Russo and Danielle Deadwyler as Dylan Shepherd in HBO’s “Rooster.”

Danielle Deadwyler, who plays Dylan Shepherd in the piece said of her comic chops, “I don’t have a comedy background. I’m winging it, Baby.” While acknowledging that Carell and Deadwyler come from very different places, Carell added, “The fun is finding the common ground. We had the freedom to start looking for it. There’s so many different directions you cam tale thiss.” Credit for the expert casting was given to Allison Jones, (“Scrubs”) who selected the cast members.

BILL LAWRENCE

Steve Carell onstage at SXSW with the cast of HBO’s “Rooster.”

Producer Bill Lawrence, who has an impressive list of hit shows including “Ted Lasso,” “Scrubs,” “Bad Monkey” and “Shrinking,” referenced some advice he was given by Michael J. Fox on “Spin City,” having to do with timing. The anecdote had to do with NOT changing a scripted “People who need people” line, but milking it with expert comic timing. He and Carell described “Rooster” as “a little push of kindness is needed right now.”

EPISODES

The team replicated a New England college in Los Angeles and Production designer Cabot McMullen, who has worked with Lawrence and Tarses for 30 years, was given credit for the authenticity of the college setting. The students, largely recruited from Stockton, California, were also credited with bringing energy to the piece. (“All the students brought a fantastic energy,” said Deadwyler.)

CONCLUSION

Those who watched the first episode will remember that old pro John McGinley as College Employee Walter Manes is often shirtless and Carell said that, in episode six, “I do some nudity.”

Scott MacArthur from “Breaking Bad,” playing a hockey coach with substance abuse issues opening a beer bottle on part of a helmet worn by one of his players was singled out for his creativity. “If you can create that kind of work environment, it shows up onscreen.”

Steven Spielberg Panel Remarks of March 13, 2026, at SXSW

By Connie Wilson

On March 19, 2026

In Interviews, Movies, Pop Culture, Texas

Director Steven Spielberg in 2023.

Steven Spielberg was interviewed onstage at SXSW on Friday the 13^th, 2026, in the sixth floor ballroom of the Hilton in Austin. His appearance was the first at SXSW since 2018, when he appeared at the Paramount in support of “Ready, Player, One.” This time, we can assume that his appearance was meant to coincide with the release of “Disclosure Day” in theaters on June 12^th.

ORIGIN OF CREATIVITY

Spielberg remembered being taken to Disney films by his parents as a child. They thought taking young Steven to see “Fantasia” as a seven-year-old would be safe. He disagrees. “The least safe thing they could have done was to take me to see Fantasia when I was only about 7 years old. I had this kind of over-dose or over-abundance of imagination, so whenever I saw something I would extrapolate from that. There was this sequence called The Night on Fall Mountain and it just destroyed me. What I wanted to do with my impulse was— when something scares me— I want to create some sort of talisman to protect myself…That’s kind of how the whole thing started with me wanting to find some way to put it up somewhat to take it out of me and put it on something else.”

Since launching his career with 1975’s “Jaws” Spielberg has had 223 wins of various sorts out of 358 nominations and is synonymous with modern American cinema, whether as writer, director or producer. He and Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas are the subjects of the recent best-seller “The Last Kings of Hollywood,” which I am currently reading. In his sixty minutes onstage, Spielberg, 79, reflected on his remarkable career and on some of the films that instantly summon the American cinema experience.

“E.T.”

Spielberg defined “E.T.” as a demarcation point in his career, making him want to have kids. He said, “I didn’t have much of a home life,” which later was explained more fully in his autobiographical film “The Fabelmans” (which Spielberg described as $40 billion of therapy that Apple and Dreamworks paid for”).

Of making “E.T.” Spielberg explained , “I loved those kids. I didn’t want them to go home.” He even acknowledged that Drew Barrymore never really went home, in the metaphorical sense, after starring in the film about an alien visitor.

He explained that, although it cost $10 million to shoot the film in chronological continuity, that was done so that the young actors and actresses would be saying goodbye to “E.T.,” the alien, in the final scene of the film, rather than the normal way of shooting pieces of the film out of context. He pointed out that this compounded the sadness of separation that all of the cast were feeling as the making of the movie came to a conclusion.

ALIEN MOVIES

With his disclosure that “E.T. made me want to have kids, Spielberg gave credit to wife Kate Capshaw and their 7 children and 6 grandchildren. Of his children, he said, “They keep me relevant and current.” He also absolutely crowed about the recent Obama comment about potential intelligent life beyond human life in the universe, saying, “This is so great for ‘Disclosure Day!’. That film comes out in June. Spielberg admitted that the recent New York Times series of articles on UFOs (now known as UAPs) “rekindled my interest in this subject matter.”

HISTORY

Spielberg onstage at SXSW on March 13, 2026.

Spielberg said that, “I’m drawn like a magnet to history. I just found so much richness in stories about the past.” He praised this year’s “Train Dreams” for covering an entire life over 75 years, since, “films move so fast.” He mentioned influences such as TikTok, and Instagram, while saying he is not on Instagram because of the “missing time dilemma.”

Question: “How do you do what you do?”

Spielberg’s answer was that he storyboards if there are a lot of special effects, but also noted that there were none on “Saving Private Ryan” or “Schindler’s List”. “I know the page count I need to cover. If you cast your film right, you get a person with a deep understanding of how film works.” He shared that he and Tom Cruise were both early arrivals on the set of “Minority Report” and said, “Your instincts and intuition are your best friends. I just need the cast to trust me” and advised would-be filmmakers to “learn from your heroes from before.”

SPIELBERG’S NIGHTMARES

A poster for the 1975 American film ‘Jaws’, directed by Steven Spielberg for Universal Studios. (Photo by Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)

Spielberg said, “Even the happy ones (movies) come from my nightmares.” He said the audience is the most important barometer for a film and admitted that the “Jaws” team “didn’t know what we had until the ‘Jaws’ premiere at the Medallion Theater in Dallas,” adding, “I have previewed all my films in Texas.”

His story of an audience member leaving the theater during “Jaws” to vomit, but then returning was a great, if amusing, tribute to his storytelling ability.

HUMILITY

Saying that his worst nightmare would be “not to get to do what I do” Spielberg expressed great admiration for David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia.” He and Martin Scorsese worked together to restore parts of the film that had been removed by studio heads saying, “You will never be as good as David Lean. It keeps me humble.” He described watching the film so many times that a silver object in the sand caught his attention and is still a mystery.

The acclaimed director also remarked, “I was riding high in 1978. My next movie ‘1941’ came out and I was humbled.” He also said, “Every film is different. Every film is a birth, a life, and a death. I don’t judge my accomplishments based on one film. I always fear that if I looked back too much I’d not move forward.”

FAVORITE PERFORMERS’ SCENES IN HIS FILMS

Spielberg mentioned scenes from “Amistad and Tom Hanks crying in the crater and Daniel Day Lewis as Abrahan Lincoln. Two shots. Four minutes. One cut to David Straithorn. The scene had to do with the need to pass the 13^th amendment, which made slavery illegal. “I was in the other room crying. Daniel Day Lewis asked, ‘Where’s the skipper?’ Then he came back, put his arms around me and hugged me.”

UNDER-APPRECIATED SPIELBERG FILMS

One humorous anecdote that came from the question about his under-appreciated films was the story that, when he was single, he had a criteria for a second date. “I used to show girlfriends “A Guy Named Joe” (Spencer Tracy, Irene Dunne) or “Always”—Audrey Hepburn’s last film, Richard Dreyfuss, Holly Hunter. “It was the film I used to show girlfriends. Them and ‘Two for the Road.’ If they didn’t cray at the end, I wouldn’t go out with them again.’

MOVIES AS COMMUNITY

When asked about the community and communication that happen in a theater (“The real experience comes from gathering audiences tougher at movies or concerts.”) Spielberg remarked that “Theaters like IMAX have committed to you.” He was asked what he can do to preserve the movie-making experience as it has existed for decades, given streaming and the tremendous convenience of portable communication devices like the IPhone. His response was, “All I can do with Ambling Entertainment and my parent company is make movies that people want to see.”

He admitted that he remains current, saying, “I see it all because it’s kind of a rush to see them all. I see everything I possibly could see.” With A.I. turning 25 this year he remarked that he is still very integrated with the writing process and said “I haven’t used A.I. in any of my films. I am not for A.I. if it replaces a creative individual,” which brought a round of applause.

When asked what film of his he would suggest if aliens wanted to see a film that was about human history, Spielberg suggested “E.T.” rather than “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” He also expressed great admiration for Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life,” calling it “the kindest film I’ve ever seen” and vowed that his next film will be a Western that will “kick ass.”