Mulling A Quick Trip to #Miami

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It’s cold here in Richmond, and my 45th birthday is coming up, so I thought I would do something interesting like take a quick trip somewhere hot. After a lot of mulling over different places, I think I’ve come to the conclusion of where I want to go: Miami Beach.

V-Log: A ‘Drama Queen’ Speaks Out About Victor Cha #DPRK

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am a little upset about what’s going on with the DPRK and here are some words on the matter.

Mulling A Trip To Miami Beach Or L.A. & A Tech Problem Needing To Be Solved

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

My birthday is coming up and I am mulling different places I could go to “celebrate.” I think it’s possible I’ve come to the conclusion that what I want is a relaxing few days of sitting near a beach in my swimming trunks, watching hot chicks in string bikinis walk past. I was thinking about going to Austin for no other reason than I know someone who lives there, but after giving it some thought, I realize I probably would pretty bored. Austin, while great, is a little too much like Richmond for my tastes and I want somewhere hot, wet and exotic. L.A. is cool because it’s got great weather right now, but it’s so enormous that I don’t know how much fun it might be if I went there without someone to hang out with.

What I really want is to make new friends, eat Korean food and sing in a Korean singing room. But it seems as though that is nearly impossible. There’s just no way to meet strangers in a city without hookers getting involved. It’s a sad state of affairs when basic human interaction is so atomized that you can’t meet new people without people demanding money or something else from you.

So, as I keep suggesting, this a problem that if you could fix it with an app, you probably could make a lot of money. There is no single app that does what I want — help me make new friends. I want a location based app that if I was at a bar, I would see other people were using the app and, maybe, I could send them a video message as an ice breaker. As it stands, I’m going to fly into Miami not knowing anyone and simply sit on the beach and watch hot chicks walk by in bikinis. That’s if everything goes according to plan, and it may not.

V-Log: Mulling Seoul & The Asian Market While Writing A #Screenplay

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I lived in South Korea a few years, so I’ve decided to draw upon that as part of telling the story I want to tell with the screenplay I’m writing. I figure if I’m going to write a deep, yet “big tent” kind of movie, I might as well throw everything but the kitchen sink at the issue. I see this screenplay as similar to Blade Runner 2049 in some respects. A big budget movie that makes you think. That’s the goal, at least. But, whatever. I’m just one dude having some fun.

This is just a bucket list thing and it’s fun to see how far I get before I get fed up and move on to the next half-baked concept.

V-Log: Mulling The Process Of Writing A Screenplay

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I am now finished with one step of working towards writing a screenplay. I’ve finished a roughly fleshed out treatment. Now, at least for me, is the process of writing scene summaries. That is, writing a summary of each of the 40 to 60 scenes that will ultimately make up the screenplay. I have given myself an informal deadline of later this week. If I have finished the scene summary, I will buy Final Draft and start to actually write the screenplay. At least, that’s general goal. We’ll see what ultimately happens.

Finished A #Movie Treatment, Now To #Write A Novella Using It

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I found myself with some time today, so I finished the movie treatment I’ve been working on. Now to sit down and write a much more detailed novella using the treatment as a basis. Then, I will work on a screenplay. But I really enjoy the process of creation itself and so things, at least for the time being, are kinda humming along.

We’ll see how long it lasts.

‘Americans’ — #Lyrics To A Woke Pop Power Ballad

Sting has a great song, “Russians” about the Cold War. These lyrics are about the current political Cold Civil War going on in the United States. Or something. Something like that. I don’t have any beats, so I am simply listening to Russians as I write these lyrics. As always, this is just me venting, relaxing by telling a story in verse.

Americans
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

fake news is spread by the president every day
we’re fighting over texts about secret societie
made in jest, made in jest
why are Americans so divided now I want roar
it all festers without a cure

I just hope that Americans will unite in the end
if we don’t then the dream is over
if we don’t then the dream is over

Americans have to figure out a cure to this fever
find some way for us to have a clue
but if we don’t then it’s the end of our state
we will no longer have God’s good grace
no boo, vote I’m told by my leaders
but the poor still can’t afford heaters

I just hope that Americans will unite in the end
if we don’t then the dream is over
if we don’t then the dream is over

[bridge]
we’re just going to have to wait
until Trump is no longer chief of state
it looks like we’re doomed but I believe
we’ll make it out alive
at least I pray

now take my hand and let us unite
take the good fight to the streets
maybe things will work out
but we’ll never know if we don’t engage
our birthright is at stake I tell you

Sean Hannity’s Twitter, ‘Form Submission 1649’ & The Trump Base As Cult #Resist

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

So, the latest weird, surreal conspiracy theory is something to do with Sean Hannity’s Twitter account vanishing after tweeting something about “Form Submission 1649” three times. Apparently, this has something to about theft of government property. Or something. Though, I have to say, it Hannity may have come up with a new type of rage quitting Twitter, whereby you say something really dramatic and then quit, leaving people to focus on the last thing you tweeted.

This is mysterious to say the least, but at this point, Trump has so proven himself to be a monster — if an incompetent one — that I’m fed up with any arguments about how we should “lock her up.” Clinton lost. She’s not president and likely never will be. So, in a sense, the numbnuts of the Right have won that particular argument. And, yet, because they can’t in good faith defend the actions of their God-king Donald Trump, they bob and weave, they rhetorically shadowbox every which way in an effort to avoid directly addressing what a shit person and president Trump is.

What’s worse, sometimes instead of shadowboxing, they pull the most ridiculous argument out of their ass. In my view, that’s the most dangerous aspect of all of this. It’s like the Trump base is a cult. That’s the only word for it I can think of. It’s a cult. The Trump base is so completely detached from reality that there’s no debating anything with them. They simply refuse to admit any flaw with their God-king and they’re willing to take the entire country down with them in an effort to see their agenda implemented.

Something pretty epic is going on in American politics that we are lurching towards a Russian-style authoritarian “managed democracy” so quickly. I just don’t get it. I just don’t get what’s going on. One possible explanation is the Great Man theory of history. That all of this is a fluke caused by some extraordinary circumstances. It is very similar to what happened with Hitler, sad to say. While Trump is a strangely adept politician, he’s really shitty, really incompetent at governing. So right now that’s the only thing protecting us from a bull-bore fascist take over.

This is happening because all of the usual suspects on the Right who would otherwise scream bloody murder are completely co-opted, completely complicit. The entire system is out of whack. It’s really sad. It’s really tragic. There are no easy answers. I don’t know what happens next, honestly. Even if Mueller manages to find actual wrong-doing on the part of Trump, America is so divided that I honestly can’t see any scenario that includes Trump resigning or being impeached and convicted. So, as such, we’re fucked. We’re stuck with him at least four, if not eight years. The only question is, what will be his ultimately legacy?

Either the next president is a real leader and cleans up this mess, or the entire process is officially broken and we’re never going to have another free and fair election, at least as long as I’m alive. That seems like a very real possibility, sad to say. Remember, the Reagan Revolution lasted for 12 years and only then ended because Bill Clinton was such an expert politician that he was able to slip through using the Third Way political ideology. So, there is a real possibility that because of the quirks of the Electoral College the Trump Revolution could last at least as long as that.

Again, I just don’t know what happens next. The Trump base has some legitimate complaints, but they take what they’re willing to do to address those problems with the modern world to completely bonkers lengths. It is a very real possibility that instead of the usual ebb and flow of politics on a macro level that we’ve entered a new age where there’s no longer free and fair elections and there will be a complete disconnect between the will of the people and the government. It has already happened with the smash and grab tax cut the Republicans passed, so there is no reason to think they won’t do it with everything else they want in the future.

The Trump base is such a fetid, rancid thing on an ideological level that it was inevitable that they would gain power and fuck things up. It is up to all of us, now, to see what we can do to mitigate the damage they inflict on the nation before it’s too late.

V-log: Trump Supporters Are An American Embarrassment

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

I could go on at great length about how angry Trump supporters make me, but here’s a video that does just that. Trump is tearing this great nation of ours apart and there doesn’t seem to be anything we can do about it. It’s all very sad. Very tragic.

‘Release The Memo’ — #Lyrics To A Woke Pop-Rock Song

So, the Right has this surreal, dumb conspiracy theory on its mind AGAIN. This is meant to be an angry rock song about how the Right has no real ideas other than spewing conspiracy theories as it becomes ever more obvious that they’re completely full of shit. As usual, I don’t have a beat, so I’m listening to Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun just to set the mood if nothing else. If I could get co-writer and some new beats, this might be pretty cool.

Release The Memo
lyrics by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
please give credit if you produce or perform

talking heads do their thing
telling me what to think
I see the Righwing nutjob in a rage
explain that we need to see the memo
all I can say is sure

release the memo
you’re full of shit
release the memo
you can just suck it

Trump is destroying this nation
bringing it to its knees
dividing us so he can do as he please
wants a Fortune slapped against his rump
Stormy will do it for a fee
at least that’s what they tell me

Mueller grows closer to the truth
the dirt will be out of the ground
Trump and his cronies will be lying around
what are we going to do
when the facts are known
and the Right just shrugs

release the memo
you’re full of shit
release the memo
you can just suck it

[bridge]
I wish I had the answers
wish I could solve this quick
but our president’s a dick
he just wants to lick his face
it’s obvious to me at least

now we’re all doomed I fear
no matter what
so sure, release the memo
release the memo
release the memo
release the memo