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Omnium Gatherum #90 On Being Don Quixote

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. This will definitely be a quick and dirty one. Today is my birthday. Not only am I past the half century mark, I can be assured that I have fewer days ahead of me than behind me. Barring any significant technological advances or any other miracle that extends human life beyond its current limits, that is. Perhaps that explains why I’ve been in a bit of a funk lately. Not so much about the getting older. That’s built into the human condition. But how am I spending my days, is the real question. For the most part, I am caring for elders during most of my days, and trying to squeeze writing in between and around the events of a typical day. Someone not necessarily really concerned recently asked me how my writing was going and I gave a noncommittal answer. Mostly because it was the typical question I do get asked. Also because it was being asked out of faux courtesy. But the qu
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Omnium Gatherum #89 Fear and Loathing, Xeniteia and Apoleteia On The Campaign Trail 2024: The Show Must Go On

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. What a difference even a couple of days is making in this Year of Our Lord 2024 A.D. Gregorian or Julian, 5784 Hebrew, or 1446 Islamic calendar! As of this writing,, Joseph R. Biden, the 46th president of these United States of America, has officially dropped out of the running for reelection. With Election Day a little more than 100 days from today and his approval, Vice President Kamala Harris will become the Democratic Party nominee for president. That is barring any other developments like a floor fight at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. I’ve mentioned before being a fan of President Biden as much as being a politics junkie. I find this day to be as sad as it is historic. It is a ignominious way to end his political career and life of public service but the writing was on the wall. Truthfully, to this Democrat, it had been on the wall since 2019 but to publi
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Omnium Gatherum #88: Fear and Loathing, Xeniteia and Apoleteia On The Campaign Trail 2024: Of Debates, Debacles, and Other Challenges

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. In my previous column, I wrote about how I felt about voting and politics in general in this year of Our Lord 2024 Gregorian or Julian, 5784 Hebrew, or 1446 Islamic calendar. I also wrote that I am a politics junkie and so would be watching even if I weren’t voting. In the three months since I last wrote in this space, a lot has happened. A lot that I’m pretty sure the Democratic Party apparatus, elites, and rank & file members wished hadn’t happened. Not to bury the lede, a few weeks ago, Donald J. Trump the former president and then candidate and presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and Joseph R. Biden the sitting president and leader of the Democratic Party met for the first time in four years on a debate stage.  What a difference four years has made and not for the better for the president. Last time I mentioned that I was and am a fan of Biden and voted for h
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Omnium Gatherum #87: Fear and Loathing, Xeniteia and Apoleteia On The Campaign Trail 2024

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. Back when this column was a regular feature at the Comics Waiting Room, I happened to be writing during the first campaign of then-Senator Barack Obama to become president of these United States. Being the politics junkie that I was and still am, I couldn’t help but write about the politics of that election cycle from time to time. Of course I stole my title from the late, great Hunter S. Thompson, from his book Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trial ’72, with my own artistic modifications. In the years since my fascination with politics hasn’t slackened any, even though my thoughts and feelings as a citizen of these United States did change.  But not in the how, the when, or the why anyone who had been following me on social media might think. I would honestly say my thoughts and feelings as a citizen about our current politics really began to change in 2022, as a result o
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Omnium Gatherum #86: Do Androids Dream of The True, The Good, and The Beautiful?

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. If either of the two of you readers are paying attention to these columns, you may notice there’s a jump in the recent numbering with this entry.  Where is column #85? Column #85 is a long in the works and long in length piece about Oxymandias of Watchmen fame. Being a Buddhist and being struck by the notion of compassionate violence from Tantric Buddhism, after learning about it while research my White Whale (another story for another time), I wondered about his actions, particularly as the story concludes there seemingly is no punishment on the horizon for his actions. In technical terms, the person who wins at the end of a superhero story is the hero, he’s the good guy; the villains generally win in the short term but not at the end of a particular story. Not unless it’s one of those so called imaginary stories where the bad guys win because this story is not part of the
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Omnium Gatherum #84: How to Kill The Goose That Lays The Golden Eggs Without Really Trying

Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. Or, if you’re new here, welcome to the Omnium Gatherum. Long story short and as a warm up for myself before diving into this column’s topic, the Omnium Gatherum is a column I write, started for and hosted by the late, great Comics Waiting Room website, where I ruminate and cogitate, often using big words, over various topics across pop culture and culture in general. This time around the topic came to me as I was haunted by 3 am thoughts, those sorts of odd ideas that come together when one has either stayed up all night or gotten up from a deep sleep. Starting in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe as it came to be known dominated the marketplace of pop culture and the box office. The resurgence and completed redemption arc of Robert Downey, Jr., occurred during this time, largely due to his portrayal of Tony Stark, the billionaire genius playboy philanthropist, also known as Iron Man. The stardoms of Chris Evans, Chris Hemswort
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Omnium Gatherum #83: A Mule And 40 Acres Of My Own: On Wish Fulfillment, Wakanda Forever, Woman Tragic Yet Triumphant, and Man Absent

  Howdy, folks! Welcome once again to the Omnium Gatherum. This one is going to be a blast from the past in the sense that I don’t have any kind of notes or mind map arranging how this column is going to go. For me, this is back to the old days of this column where I just wrote some hot take and let the chips fall where they may. And I resurrected the old banner title I used when I talked about issues of race in this space. I guess that means it’s time for old Papa Doc to put his Black Card on display (pay no attention to the demerits on the back of the card please!) and dive right into the latest mess happening in pop culture. Speaking of messes, look at how Marvel Studios dropped the trailer for the long awaited sequel to Black Panther during Comic-Con Weekend. All eyes were eagerly awaiting this trailer, to see how the studio and production moved on after the passing of Chadwick Boseman, the gentleman who brought T’Challa, king of Wakanda and the masked hero known as Black Panth
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