OK, hi guys.
Been a long time, has it not? In fact it’s been so long that I don’t even remember where I left you last in the Life of Leigh. I know it must have been something exciting and compelling, because I am just that sorta guy. I am also a delusionist.
NGL, these last couple months leading up to the all fabled 42 (Thanks, Douglas Adams.) have been a little bit of a mix of good, bad and ugly (I’ll give you no hints as to who provided the ugly part. The girls on here are all oil paintings, if done by DaVinci, I’m more like a Picasso)
Watched some good and great movies, and I also may have discovered The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. So I’ll start with that before we get down to the doom and gloom (When things go boom, in Dexter’s Lab)
Mean Girls 2024: Loved this movie, but then I am a sucker for very beautiful women, such as Renee Rapp and Angourie Rice. I am also a sucker for a good chick-flick and a good musical. Angourie is not a natural singer, but she does well. Renee Rapp actually made me like Regina George. I’m gonna commit the cardinal sin here and say I actually prefer this musical version over the original 2004 movie.
Barbie: Holy fuck! What a movie. Just a ton of fun and conveyed the right message, not just to little girls but to everyone, IMHO. Margot and Ryan were just amazing, as was Will Ferrell, but that is not to denigrate the rest of the cast, absolutely fantastic movie, couldn’t recommend it more.
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire: So, I was born in 1982, two years before Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis decided to bless us with the phenomenon named Ghostbusters (Admit it, you’re singing the theme tune right now.). I probably didn’t get to watch this movie until the second one had been released, but I was hooked straight away. You know immediately that you’ve been hit with a nice dose of nostalgia as soon as you hear Ecto-1’s sirens blare, it is a sound as iconic as hearing the opening notes of Huey Lewis’ The Power of Love. This time, the camera is firmly set on the new version of the GB’s, Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace, but, it still has it’s eyes firmly set on the OG’s. It also introduced, IMHO, the most terrifying villain in all of Ghostbuster’s history. Shoutout to William Atherton for his portrayal of Walter Peck, he did amazingly!
I’ll get to the point of the “bad” part of this blog soon enough, but for now, let me divulge…
Finally completed Red Dead Redemption II. Video games should not make you cry but this one, alongside The Last Of Us, did exactly that. I’m not gonna spoil anything for anyone, because there may be people who have not even started RDR II yet, but Arthur Morgan might be the second greatest protagonist of all time (Joel Miller will always be first for me.) He made me laugh, he made me feel like a motherfuckin’ badass, and yes, he made me cry, a lot (Fuck you, Rockstar.). Video games are becoming more like a cinematic experience now, and RDR II is a perfect example of that, you are not just experiencing a video game, you are living a journey. Long may it continue. (Side note, colleges are doing studies in things like RDR II now, it’s insane)
Platinumed Spider-Man II. Wasn’t expecting to get that emotional again, over a video game. But somehow Insomniac Games did it. Absolutely amazing story, although not as good as Spider-Man I, IMHO. Miles Morales is surely gonna be the main focus of Spider-Man III, right?
Now, here comes the part I dread writing, because I’m gonna let you into a part of my personal life, and no jokes or humour on my part are gonna make this less difficult. I shall provide as much humour as I can, because I sure as fuck ain’t looking for sympathy, life is just life.
I am father of twin girls and they both might be on the spectrum. Now, I’m clueless at all of this spectrum stuff and even after clear explanations, I still ain’t got an idea. One of my girls is judged as being able to handle mainstream school, while the other has been judged as “special needs” and after two years of mainstream schooling, we all acknowledge that she needs special schooling. That’s fine, not a problem… I and my partner get to choose the school she goes to, right?
BIG FUCKING NOPE! The local authority (Who are as sure as fuck gonna get some fucks fired into them) have decided, without meeting my daughter, and the wonderful person she is, where the best place is for her. My partner visited the school in question and was told that a person there was not allowed to be handling scissors, for fear that he’d stab someone with them. On what planet is that a safe space for my potentially autistic daughter?
For reference, the last two years have been amazing, because the school my daughter was at, paired her with the most amazing TA I’ve ever met. She bought my little girl along so much and taught her so much. I’d even say that she developed my child into being exactly what she needs to be. Now it’s all up in the air again because she now has to move to a new school and right now, the local authority’s decision is to send her to a school that has fences high and with spiky edges, it’s almost like a fucking prison! I don’t want every little bit of good that my daughter has done to be reversed by some nameless, faceless group who have never met my daughter in person.
Fuck, I’m outta here. Next time’s update should be a bit more positive. Same Leigh time, same Leigh Channel.