Becky's Greatest Hits Vol. II

Carolina Renaissance Festival Saturdays & Sundays September 30 - November 19 Awesome family-fun event with  food, crafts, entertainment, spirits, rides and more!

It's not easy to pull off a good ole Western these days.....people are too fascinated by the future dystopia or medieval sword play to give the American west much thought.  I think that's probably what happened with this updated version of the original 1960 movie because nobody, absolutely nobody wrote or talked about it when it was released last year.  I watched it on Hulu mainly for the mens.....cuz it's got some good ones......but I did actually think it was a good movie in the end.  There's nothing profound about it since it has the typical good versus evil you would expect.  It also brings in some historical context: how incredible it would be to see a black cowboy in the 1870's, how men were still torn up from the Civil War (and yes, it is referred to as The War of Northern Aggression) and how America was just beginning to be run by the so-called "robber baron" at the time.  Not a fantastic movie, but not a bad way to spend a Saturday night either.

"Hold me closer tiny dancer Count the headlights on the highway Lay me down in sheets of linen You had a busy day today....."

These days it seems like McDonald's is on the same footing with the late Rodney Dangerfield.....it don't get no respect!  But once upon a time, everybody loved the hamburger/fries/milkshake restaurant.  This film tells the story of how McDonald's went from a small, but busy walk-up hamburger stand in San Bernadino to the multi-city, multi-country, multi-million dollar fast-food slinger it is today.  Michael Keaton plays a sleazy salesman who pretty much robs the good-hearted McDonald brothers of their brainchild and makes you realize why good guys very rarely ever get ahead in the cold-hearted world of American capitalism.  It will also make you want one of those simple, flat McDonald cheeseburgers......grab a bag and then sit down with this film......you won't be sorry.

Warning: may contain spoilers. If you watch the very popular HBO series, Game of Thrones, you hear and see this warning all the time.  If you're a few episodes behind, you may be in danger.  If you're a full season behind, your head is on the block.  If you're reading the 1st book of the 6 book series, forget about it, your head is already on the stake. So this was me back when I decided to read the novel a few weeks ago.  After hearing all my friends constantly talking about the show online, doing a bit of online investigation myself and just being generally curious, I decided to give the first book a whirl.  And why?  Why, you ask?  Why wouldn't I just go straight to the series?  It's award-winning!  It's the most talked-about thing on the net!  It has memes about it, for Christ's sake!  Well, I'm precious.....that's all I can say.  I knew the show was violent, sexually-provocative and exploitive of women.  I also already kne

"I curse you. Until you do right by me everything you think about is gonna crumble....." 

I'll be damned if Anne Tyler isn't becoming one of my favorite writers.  In this updated retelling of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew , she once again illuminates the characters with her own brand of folksy charm and again convinces me that either she or someone she loves is on the autism spectrum or at the very least has a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder .   I love it when a tale as old as time can manage to be retold with a fresh perspective like this.  I was really rooting for Kate like all of us odd ducks would.  I also have a healthy respect for folks that are set in their ways with methods, timing and schedules.....again, it's the autism.  This was a very light-hearted and easy book for summer and perfect to calm one's mind in this busy day and time.  Now Ms. Tyler is on my list of go-to writers!

1987 was a big year for music, specifically, albums.  And I know because I was a big customer of it.  Maybe I didn't buy a lot of albums or CDs, but I did watch an s-ton of MTV and was pretty much a master of dubbing cassettes that I borrowed off friends.  It was a magical time, friends.  There are really waaaay too many to list, but here are some of the records that either were then or came to be some of my favorites as time went by or were at the very least memorable for the time. If you read this blog at all, you know I'm a big fan of U2 and particularly of this album.  Not seeing this anniversary tour was a heartbreak for me this year, but c'est la vie.  I may not have loved this record as much as I did if not for the Rattle & Hum film that was made regarding the tour of this record.  It seems kind of pretentious now, but to 12 year-old Becky, it was phenomenal.  Best cuts on the record: Bullet the Blue Sky, With or Without You, Trip Through Your Wires, and my

No matter how you feel about Unions, the minimum wage and work life in general, take a moment to be grateful to the people who built our country and who continue to build it to this very day.