Left to my own devices

A nation has invaded a neighboring country. The leader of the invading nation says they want to restore land rightfully belonging to them. No, this isn't Russia attacking Ukraine. It's Germany invading Poland in 1939. There are enough similarities, I'm not sure why I didn't see them before. In truth, in the weeks of Vladimir Putin's saber-rattling leading up to where we're at now , there was an internal pipe dream that, no, the former KGB officer was somehow bluffing. Alas, it was a hollow hope. Russian military forces have moved into Ukraine and, while news reports are all over the place currently, word is that Kyiv and Chernobyl have fallen. This article tries to lay some sort of reasonable foundation for why Russia is doing what it's doing. I'm not buying it. There is truth that "the West" probably cannot truly have an understanding of all the dynamics at play in that region. Conversely, it's pretty apparent -- on a surface level -- wh

People who know me have often heard me say that 1993 was the best year for music . That's only a half-joking statement. Subjective? Yes. Truth? Probably. Regardless, a lot of my music choices at that time came from listening to the radio, or watching MTV, VH1, or Friday Night Videos . That began to change once I graduated high school in 1994. A new world opened-up. I started attending the local community college, and began going to the local LGBT nightclub, where there was all sorts of music played across the booming speaker system. So many sub-genres of dance music. Being exposed to that every week was eye-opening. I ended up meeting a lot of different people at the club, many of whom were varied and interesting, and had eclectic tastes in music. Not all of it interested me. There was one guy I met while out one night whose apartment I visited a week or two later -- purely on a friendship level -- and whose CD collection was so humongous that it rendered me numb. It was too much t

Having been a big Leonardo DiCaprio fan since the mid-1990s, I was disappointed when he wasn't nominated for an Oscar for his role in  Titanic  (as in, I-was-about-to-riot disappointed). Thus, in early 1998, I began what was to become an annual tradition --   The Matt Awards . Perhaps one of the most egotistical things on God's green earth, every year I proceed to select the best in movie making, as a sort of consolation for the fact that very rarely do the Academy Awards align with my own yearly favorites. I used to do both nominations and then, a few weeks later, pick the winners. After awhile I just went straight to the winners circle. This year, however, with the Oscars being pushed back a bit, and having been able to see a lot of really good films, I wanted to at least acknowledge several films and filmmakers with nominations. In a few weeks (before the Oscars ceremony), I will make announce the winners of The Matt Awards . No doubt you will all be on tenterhooks waiting t