Fish and Cherries Productions

Wow… 2020 was one crazy year, huh?

But let’s face it, you all knew that. We’ve all lived through the same insanity with the same ups and downs. It’s given us a lot of time to reflect and that goes for me as well. I’ve thought a lot about things going forward and I’ve come to a decision: I am retiring from my Reel Snippets.

This is not a decision I’ve made lightly, but it’s one that I feel has been a long time coming. Even before work dried up from the pandemic, I’ve been struggling with them for some time. I saw both Onward and Sonic the Hedgehog before the big lockdown, but whenever I tried to write something… nothing came. Even though the writing wouldn’t go on the page, it was already on the wall — this ride was coming to an end.

Part of it might be that I grew tired of looking at movies under a critical lens. Another part might be that life is too short and I really, REALLY don’t want to spend chunks of it on Adam f***ing Sandler movies. Either way, I can’t say that I’m truly sad about it, though. Everything in life comes in peaks, valleys, and cycles, so I’m kind of at peace with that. I don’t really know why this happened. All I know is that it’s time to move on to other projects. And believe me… I have some good projects cooking.

On a similar note, I am also going to be unlaunching my Patreon for the time being. Not only is it not fair to charge people for effectively nothing, but some of my projects are going to require that I don’t get any income on them, so I need to cover my bases. Honestly, it’s not much of a hassle. I’ve already declined payments for months at a time and taking down a Patreon page doesn’t have to be permanent.

Take care, one and all. And don’t worry… I’ll be back before you know it.

To be perfectly candid, I’m not sure if I’m disgusted, disappointed, outraged, or numb. Probably a combination. My heart breaks for my country as it devolves into violence, injustice, and hatred. Yet what can I do? Curfews are imposed on our cities, the officers that are sworn to protect us are brutalizing anyone who speaks out (especially black people, but including journalists), and the person who was “elected” to lead our country is not only cowering in a bunker but threatening to send the military into cities with protestors. I was always against this man as a leader, but now that this man has threatened armed violence against unarmed civilians, you unmistakably have a tyrant.

George Floyd should be canonized. His death was cruel and needless, but also unjust. Do you know what the crime he was accused of? Paying with fake money. In America, if you are black, you can die just for that crime. Of course, it turned out that he didn’t even commit the crime, but the fact remains that a black man’s life is worth less than $20 dollars in this country and that’s despicable. Some die for less in the most inhumane way. Is it even a wonder that people are rioting and looting, screaming to the skies that enough is enough, only to be shut down and shut up by those on high? It should have been enough after Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, and so many more, but apparently people keep needing to be woken up.

Black Lives Matter. Black Lives have always Mattered. Fish and Cherries, and by extension I, have always supported people of all races, genders, orientations, and beliefs. That has not changed. In fact, I have doubled down. Even if Trump wins, I’m not going to change my stance. Those who are different will always find a home here. I will continue to donate, march, and support the cause.

All lives won’t matter until Black Lives Matter.

Well… this sucks.

If you haven’t been living in exile for the past few months, you’re probably aware of the coronavirus that’s been going around. It’s such a serious illness that most of the country has been shut down and quarantined. This affects many businesses, which I’m sorry to say includes this one.

See, to help with social distancing, movie theaters have closed down. Without new movies, I can’t write many movie reviews. It’s not fair to string you lot along, so until further notice… well, we’re closed.

I might come out with some writings and reviews during quarantine, but it won’t be as frequent. I’m sad about this, but truth be told, I kinda needed this break. I’ve been posting less and less often and I’ve been bordering on burnout. I’ve actually had a few reviews that I haven’t even started yet and I’ve been more and more lax with my Patreon rewards (I’m also suspending my Patreon funds because it’s not fair for you to give me money for nothing).

So yeah, I need a break. I also want to work on my personal writings including my novel and a sequel to The Fire Truck Who Got Lost, since those could actually be legitimately profitable. You might see some reviews come out now and then during quarantine, but for the most part, this website is going dormant. Thank you all for sticking with me and I’ll see you when the clouds part.

Keep on fishin’.

Greetings, everyone.

Four months ago, I lost one of my best friends, Robert, to a tragic suicide. His physical health and mental exhaustion from numerous illnesses and medications had deteriorated his quality of life so badly that he could no longer stand living. It was crushing that one of the best people who ever walked the planet had to leave so soon.

There was no official service for him, so I never actually got any form of closure. I’d been thinking on it for a while and come to the conclusion that the best way to do it was through the bonding that we shared many times: gaming. This Saturday, August 24th, at noon Pacific Time, I’m going to be streaming a play through of the Bioshock series, the game that literally brought him and I together. It would mean a lot to me if you all could join me. I’ll post the link to my stream closer to the date and then maybe I’ll finally be able to lay him to rest in my mind.

Then again, Robert, I hope you always visit me when I game.

Hey all, how’s your week been? Me, it’s been pretty crazy, but it’s led to two announcements. The first and most important: I have a Patreon page.

Now I’ll no longer be doing this for free, assuming people actually subscribe and pledge. But you can. Follow the link below and subscribe to one of the wonderful tiers I have available. Tell your friends, tell your family, tell enough people to spread the word like wildfire. As I say in the pitch, onward to the Digital Age of Writers!

Fish and Cherries Patreon Page

The second annountment: I have a gaming YouTube channel.

This era of our country has been… difficult for everyone and different people have begun resisting in their own way. Well, I’ve found my own way: posting videos of me killing Nazis. At least in video game form. That’s right, the channel in the home of a new Let’s Play series called Make America Nazi Free Again and for starters, I’m playing through Wolfenstein: The New Order. Two episodes have been released so far and third one will be released on Wednesday. Follow the links below, like, comment, subscribe, and share.

Episode 1
Episode 2

No Snippet today. I have something ready, but I want to respect those who are affected by today’s legacy. Stay strong, America.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I did one of these, hasn’t it? Well, I felt I owed it to you guys to explain why I’ve been gone for the last month. The truth is that it’s a rollercoaster of things.

As some of you may know, I’ve been working full-time as a paraeducator for special education. July was basically summer school and I thought, despite the earlier wake-up time, that I’d have a lot more time and energy to focus on Fish and Cherries and my writing. Unfortunately, things got messy. At the beginning of the second week of summer school, I learned that one of my students had been shot and killed a few days prior. This knocked me for a loop something fierce and I had to grieve before I could get back into the swing of things, hence the rather cryptic message I posted a few weeks ago.

The week after that was Comic Con which, while fun, didn’t really leave me any time to watch new movies. Besides, I was busy seeing Mystery Science Theater 3000 live, stand up routines from Conan O’Brien’s writers, and a community theater production of Game of Thrones… the musical. After that, though, things took a sharp downturn. I won’t go into too many details, but several things made me realize that I was not physically safe at the site I was working at. Luckily, that situation has been rectified and I predict happier days going forward.

I hope you guys don’t think of this as an excuse. This website means a lot to me and I constantly want to do my best to see it flourish. But mental health is just as important as physical health and said mental health was in deep decline for a while. Now I’m back over the mountain and ready to catch up. I’m currently sitting on my reviews for Spider-Man: Homecoming and Atomic Blonde and I’m going to be seeing Dunkirk today or tomorrow. Until we speak again, stay well, take care of yourselves, and my the Force be with you.

It’s true… Carrie Fisher is now one with the Force.

I don’t have much energy to find the right words to send her off. It’s really painful that we’ve lost not only the third in a line of sci-fi icon deaths this year (the first two being Jerry Doyle and Ron Glass), but such an amazing woman in general. I hoped one day to meet her, but it looks like I’ll have to wait a lot longer. If you’re looking for a way to honor her, here’s something from a post going around Facebook:
– normalize mental illness and treatment
– take life a little less seriously
– destroy a fascist regime

See you, space cowgirl.

P.S.: We’ve lost the author to Watership Down and Ricky Harris from Everybody Hates Chris. I’m going to have some words with this year when I write my year-end list…

Apologies for the lack of Snippet this week. I’m trying something pretty ambitious and It’s taking a lot more effort than I thought. Next week for sure.

Ahh, Comic Con. The place I truly feel at home. I can’t even remember my first Comic Con, but I know that it’s made every July that I can remember something to look forward too. Of course, being the long-running con that it is, it’s had to change the way it’s worked to keep up with the times and the ever-growing popularity. Some changes are good, others are… yeah. With all that’s said, let’s take a look at the good and the bad from San Diego Comic Con 2016.

The Good

Badge authenticity has always been a concern for the Comic Con staff, but they have finally come up with a solution. Each of the badges now has an RFID code on it that gets scanned on entry. This was something that was implemented at Silicon Valley Comic Con and it makes the transition here without any traffic congestion. The scanners are even themed around The Walking Dead, so that’s pretty neat. On top of that, it’s structured in a way that doesn’t require a photo ID, so those who share their passes can breathe easy. But that’s illegal by Comic Con standards… and I would never tell you to break the law… noooooooooo, not me…

Then there’s the improvements to getting into the infamous Hall H, which is so popular that congoers have had to camp out overnight to get in. Well, now that have a wristband system. From what I’ve been told, if people camp out overnight, they get an electronic wristband that will let them know when their time to get into the hall is, leaving them free to explore the con until then. It certainly beats waiting in that line for 28 hours to get into the Marvel panel. Speaking of, apparently it’s so easy now that my godniece-in-law stood in line for only a half-hour before she got in and saw loads of stuff, including the Game of Thrones panel. And it was her second Comic Con ever. I still haven’t forgiven her for this.

The Bad

I’ve always had questions about how management at Comic Con worked in the past, but this year the right hand really didn’t know what the left was doing. Weapons Check was a total mess this year because of some new edict that came down that nobody, and I mean nobody else knew about. When I met to check my claws for my Wolverine cosplay, they said that I couldn’t take them into the hall, as there was a ban on Wolverine and Freddy Krueger claws and the like. That would have been nice to let people know beforehand in an email or something! Apparently they went as far as to ziptie people’s weapons to their costumes themselves, but this seemed completely arbitrary. In fact, walking the halls, I saw plenty of Wolverines and Freddy Kruegers that had their costumes intact and other weapons like that ones that got ziptied waving free. So either Weapons Check was asleep at their job or none of the other staff was aware of this edict.

Also, let’s talk about the big complaint for this year: the new design for the bags. I was initially on board with them, but as time went on I joined the masses in disliking them. The addition of a flap makes the whole thing cumbersome and if you really pack the bag full, the velcro on the flap comes loose and it just hangs there like a limp tongue. A lot of people I talked to complained that it was harder to just reach back and slip stuff into your bag, though I’ve never been able to do that in my own personal experience. Another complaint a lot of people had was that they got rid of the poster holder, which I didn’t know they had, but enough people mentioned it that I have to lament with them. Suffice to say, the bags were not a hit.

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Well, that’s all about the ups and downs of the experience. Come back next week for some previews of things to come in the world of geekdom.