Modern Culture: All Filler No Killer

Actually, the title of this blog is wrong (as it often is) because we're kicking off with a proper killer, with no filler... the third season of Barry, the Bill Hader led contract killer black comedy drama which has gone from a very dark but funny show that now finds itself in the lap of absolute madness. This is the blackest of black comedies and for every laugh out loud moment it's balanced with something so grim and bleak that you almost feel ashamed of laughing at it moments earlier.

Season 3 pretty much plays out over the space of what appears to be a week (we watched it in one night). Fuchs is still the primary psychopath in this series, but it's clear that just about every person in this show is batshit crazy and you wonder how the events in the first two episodes can possible allow there to be six more, but they do and because they do things start to fall apart, very quickly, for all the main characters. Apparently there will be a fourth season, this will be interesting given the way season 3 ended. 

***

I truly want to say that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power is the best thing I've ever seen on a small screen, but regardless of the spectacle it presents, it's just really fucking boring and dull. I mean, if we want to be honest about it, once The Lord of the Rings was made into a ten hour+ film split into three sections about 20 years ago by Peter Jackson, I think the passion and thirst for something Middle Earth on screen died, along with any cares about any of the characters, especially elves, who live forever and shit gold (but are sacrificed in a way that makes the ending of The Return of the King now basically really tragic, sad and unhappy - yes, spoiler warning: all the surviving characters went to heaven - end of, whether they'd died or not). 

No one cares about made up stuff that happened thousands of years before the events we all know. It's a bit like the Game of Thrones prequel - yeah it's 'quality' TV but does anyone really want it? They might think we want it but it needs more than just being a brand. If Cadbury's brought out a chocolate bar that tasted of shit, I doubt even idiots would buy it, for long.

That said, episode three felt like there was an actual story brewing and the mysterious stranger helping the Harfoots could be a young(er) Gandalf. With the fourth episode things started to fall into place as far as signs and portents were concerned, but in general, it kind of feels like Willow from the 1980s but remade with special effects and someone else's story...

***

Speaking of House of the Dragon, I can almost feel myself warming to it. However, I think that might be down to the fact that it's simply more interesting than its illustrious cousin featuring on Amazon Prime. I might have thought a new GOT series wasn't really needed, but compared to the LOTR nonsense, I'm all over this like Valerian greyscale. 

I think one of the reasons I've changed my mind a little is it isn't going in the direction I expected and it's already had a couple of red herrings/rug pulling exercises that make me think there might be some serious writers working on this, rather than the ham-fisted morons wot did GOT series seven.

I still don't care about the characters, but the young heir is growing on me because she's a proper underdog (despite being a princess) in this chauvinistic world order and while I personally can't see anyone but Doctor Who in a blond wig whenever Matt Smith is on screen, I get the impression that he's not the star of this show for nothing.

I also like the lurches in time in the opening episodes; like we're getting specific snapshots of an unfolding story rather than the sometimes plodding plotting used in GOT. Episode four however brought sex back into the show, but in a very discreet way and didn't appear to move the story along very far, apart from the suggest that Matt Smith and his cousin might be making the beast with the two backs before long - incest is after all a game for all the family in Game of Thrones land...

***

Brassic is back and for all of its problems it is still jaw-droppingly one of the crudest things on TV with added strangeness. Joe Gilgun is still brilliant, but the rather maudlin story line about relationships with Michele Keegan and the marginalisation of his supporting cast overpowers it a little.

It's a strange show but almost every series - now in its 4th - has me wondering why I watch it and then something unexpected happens or Dominic West turns up and steals the entire show and I fall back in like with it. Another problem I have is that it is starting to feel like it's set in a bygone era despite it being as contemporary as they come. It just feels like it might be better if it was actually set in the 1990s, rather than just having a bunch of characters who look like they've just walked out of said era.

***

She-Hulk now looks like it's going to be a guest star of the week affair. Two weeks of the Hulk, followed by two weeks of Wong, a week off and then Daredevil waiting in the wings for Charlie Cox to re-relaunch his MCU career (I say re-relaunch because he appeared in that woeful 3rd Spider-Man film catching a brick) and I expect someone else will follow him... It's like they didn't think it could work without 'spicing' it up with a few iconic guest stars.

As for the series... well, after a very promising start it's all a bit deflated balloon as we hit the middle section of the 13-part series. It still feels a little like Ms Marvel in that there seems to be a lot of characters appearing, either related or unrelated to Jen, that we don't really have a back story for, they're just there and it seems taken for granted that the viewer will understand the relevance.

Some of my friends baulked at the Megan Thee Stallion appearance, as I had absolutely no idea who or what she was it kind of washed over me, plus the Titania law suit episode - weighing in at 24½ minutes - was TV at its most disposable. 

***

We watched Peter Jackson's 1996 comedy horror film The Frighteners the other night after we'd spent a week watching his remake of King Kong and the first thing that dawned on me was I remembered it far more fondly than it deserved and the second thing is that Jackson, up to the LotR films had made nothing but lo-quality B movies, in fact this Michael J Fox vehicle - made 5 years after his Parkinson's diagnosis and the first time he started to look a little less like everyone's favourite kidult - despite a good rating on IMDB, is actually really awful, with so many contrived moments and poorly scripted scenes I'm surprised it didn't finish off both Fox and Jackson's careers.

***

I'm a big fan of Jeremy Allen White. Not only was he the best thing in the almost faultless Shameless (US), he could play Robert Mitchum in a biopic with very little effort. He is a quite extraordinary actor and his new series The Bear (I have no idea apart from it might be his nickname) is more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than anything else. JAW plays Carmine, one of the country's TOP chefs, regarded by anyone who knows him as up there with your Michelin starred jobbies. The thing is he has turned his back on NYC and stardom to run his late brother's sandwich shop in downtown Chicago and that business is up to its shutters in debt.

So far it's just been a cacophony of noise, blurry camera work and more shouting, but there's the beginnings of a story emerging that is playing out subtly and not like many TV series where it's almost beaten into the viewer. There are some great guest stars, interesting ideas and a spotlight on the fact he can turn fantastic street food into something even better. This doesn't seem to be the kind of thing I would normally watch, but so far so good.

***

A different kind of Beast is a rampaging man-eating lion in Idris Elba's latest eponymous B movie. This shouldn't be as much 'fun' as it is and despite lots of clichés, there's lots of red herring clichés thrown in to make you think there's more to it than four people being hunted by a very angry lion.

It offers up cod philosophy about nature turning on man and has, with the exception of Sharlto Copley's game warden buddy, some pretty dislikeable characters and dodgy dialogue, but it's 85 minutes of roaring action and wholesale butchery. It's more fun than a lot of things I review. 

***

Next time - as I appear to be writing these more frequently than usual, probably I'll be talking about all the things from the last blog's next time thing. Some things will be concluding, new things will have started, it will have gotten colder.

An MCU Review: Thor - Love & Thunder

There's a lot wrong with this film but it wasn't the car crash I was led to believe nor was it very long. It weighs in at under 2 hours and if anything it could have done with being longer...

Observations:

I forecast a couple of months ago that the trailers for this wouldn't reflect the film in the slightest and that some scenes wouldn't even be in the film and I was spot on about that. The thing is, some of those scenes in the trailers should have been in the film.

Was the decision to team Thor up with the Guardians of the Galaxy a mistake sorted out in the opening 25 minutes of this film? Why were they even there? It seems to me that 'Marvel' has ideas but soon realises that these ideas might not necessarily work.

I know this follow themes in the comic that I've not read but Jane Foster's [ambiguous] cancer and the really [ACK!!!] corny way in which she becomes Thor all seemed conveniently manufactured and leaves me with the question as to why didn't Steve Rogers turn into Captain AmericThor? Why has there never been a casual comment about the possible sentience of Thor's weapons? Oo-er, missus. 

There's a remarkable amount of standing around talking, exposition and explanation and I'm sure a bunch of Easter Eggs - such as the Celestials appearance, Eternity and Hercules, but surely the most misguided decision was OmniCity and the inclusion of all those gods - great and small, all looking up to the massive cockwomble called Zeus. No wonder Asgardians act differently, because most of the other gods of the universe are a bit naff.

It doesn't feel like a complete film; it jumps about a lot and moves the Asgard story forward without really moving it forward at all and some of the early set pieces/scene setting looks fantastic and had no reason for being there and Gorr, while getting a fair bit of screen time, seems a wee bit superficial and rough-edged, like the best of him ended up on the cutting room floor or in the trailers that weren't used in the film. He definitely isn't Marvel's best supervillain; he's just a bitter and twisted zealot who has seen the errors of his ways and his denouement is just... a bit wrong.

The finale wasn't bad, I just felt that empowering all the kidnapped children with the power of Thor seemed a little more Deus Ex Machina than normal and pay-off felt, like much of the film, rushed and in need to be done quick enough so you don't spend time analysing it*.

It's not the worst Thor film, but it would fight Dark World to the death without a real winner if they were both boxers. However, whereas Dark World still feels largely like [enjoyable] filler - a non-plot episode in the season of MCU films - Love & Thunder feels almost more like a set up for other films that are coming.

It is sad, stupid and quite funny - not as funny as Ragnarok - but feels forced and like it desperately needs to go at a million miles an hour. There's a half decent film bookended between the opening 25 minutes which appears to be nothing more than an intro to Gorr and a recap of what's been happening since the end of Endgame. The closing scene, with Thor now the 'god' parent of Gorr's celestially reborn (with powers) daughter, felt as forced and tacked on as the final scene in the recent Dr Strange film - like an invitation to miss the next thrilling instalment. 

In conclusion: I don't know if I enjoyed this more than almost every other MCU film since 2019 because of the familiarity with this sub-franchise or because it's the best of a generally bad lot of films. It does have two polar opposite end credits scenes. The first is a bit of a face palm moment because if one thing was clear about this film, Zeus is a twat (as are most Gods) and he should have been forgotten about, as quickly as possible and the final end credit scene was sort of lovely, fitting and nice.

This film missed Loki like a Star Trek film would miss Jim Kirk; despite Hemsworth's charms (and physique), Hiddlestone steals all the Thor films because his character, generally, is so good. This film could also have done with missing Korg...

* We watched the only older (pre 2020) MCU film we hadn't seen more than once the other day - Ant-Man & The Wasp - and pretty much realised that it feels like a movie script written by AI. It was like there was a check list of topics that needed to either be mentioned or explained that felt almost shoehorned into the story to give the impression of a flowing narrative and as an exercise in tying the film together, they would have done better using SuperGlue. Everything from Larry Fishbourne lecturing about the exact thing the film was dealing with to the heavy-handedness of the FBI. It's most definitely an MCU film, it's just not very good, possibly one of the worst in the entire franchise (although the beginning is ace).

Modern Culture: Green with Envy

... And so it came to pass that with the addition of She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, Marvel introduced us to a world where Deadpool can exist (although part of me expects Deadpool's next film to have Multiverse writ LARGE all over it). However, what I really should have started with was, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law could be the show that cracks it for Marvel/Disney+ especially if the first episode is anything to go by.

This is IN YOUR FACE TV, exactly what we want from Marvel. This is one of the big-hitters involved in something 'proper Marvel Universe' and it's fun; there are funny moments, it's well-scripted and best of all it knows it with the excellent breaking the fourth wall moments, which, incidentally, is a direct swipe of John Byrne's She Hulk revamp in the 1990s. 

The odd things about it are clear; there's a substandard feel to the SFX, but that might be deliberate, this is, after all, a comedy and it essentially gives you Jennifer Walters life story in a 30 second recap, ties her link to Bruce Banner, without explaining how (and not needing to) and sets you up with everything you need to know by the time you enter the 4th minute of the show, which is pretty much constant in it's action and set-ups. 

Episode two however weighs in at just under 21 minutes of actual screen time and this is an issue Marvel needs to address with its TV; it's either too long or not long enough, they don't seem to get the balance right and even when they're in the ballpark they miss the trick... Anyhow, the second episode quickly sets up Jen's new job and returns Emile Blonsky - the Abomination - to the centre of the MCU and despatches cousin Bruce, in what looks like a return to the planet he was on in Thor: Ragnarok, in a subplot that obviously won't be explored in this series and we're unlikely to see Mark Ruffalo again in this either. There's also a very funny scene round Jen's family home, mainly to do with Hawkeye retrieving his used arrows.

With episode three it becomes a law show, albeit one with a certain twist and while the action is ramped down the humour remains solid. I think one thing is clear, while this is very irreverent it still sits firmly within the MCU and will probably not be the last we see of She-Hulk. It was also closer to 30 minutes than 20, so that was an improvement.

At the moment, I'd highly recommend it - running time considered.

***

I'm such a fool... Last time out I was moaning about the piss poor season finale of Motherland: Fort Salem and how they just seemed to set everything up for a season 4 we're not sure is being made and it only turned out to be the penultimate episode of the series... D'oh.

The finale was... odd. All credit to the writer - Eliot Laurence - for the direction the series took and the eventual conclusion it arrived at, which was more MCU - Mycological Character Universe than you can imagine. One thing I will always say about this series was where it struggled with the acting, the overwrought scripts and the dialogue straight out of 6th form dramas, it had some wild and wacky ideas that it followed through until the end.

There was death, but only the one and that almost seemed like tokenism, especially as it was a little telegraphed by the character's big huggy farewell to her trainees now all grown up and about to end the world as we know it. There was also a few loose plot lines, which I think might have been brushed over more for the problems they caused than anything else. The baddies were comprehensively beaten by the B team, leaving the A team and their mates to sing us to a brave new world order.

I meant what I said last time around; I won't watch this again, but I don't think I have anything to fear there. This was about as conclusive an ending as you could devise, leaving our three heroes in charge of the world (with a wink and a nod to Buffy season 7) with a lot of building to do. It was a satisfying ending to a mildly enjoyable series. I just wish I wasn't harping on about how poor quality many of the actors in it were.

***

We started watching Barry. I'd been hearing things without really knowing anything about it, if you know what I mean? It wasn't until I actually looked at the IMDB entry that I even knew it was a 'comedy' - a very dark, very black comedy. It's essentially a show about a cold blooded contract killer who has grown disillusioned with killing bad guys and wants to become an actor after being inspired by one of his contracts.

Bill Hader plays Barry in a very cold fish out of water kind of way; Sarah Goldberg is his 'love' interest and Henry Winkler is essentially playing a 60-something Arthur Fonzarelli reinvented as an acting coach. It has laugh out loud moments, is extremely well put together and I totally get why it's this huge sleeper hit for HBO. 

Series one does a great job of setting the scene, introducing us to the characters and making us realise that while there are some genuinely funny moments, this is as black as the blackest black hole.

Season two, which we have just finished, pretty much carries on from the first series but a little later. There's a continuity issue that I hope will be cleared up - how Janice's partner managed to suspect Barry of killing his partner when she didn't even suss Barry out - accidentally - until the final couple of minutes of the season one finale. However there is also possibly one of the funniest and surreal half hours you will ever watch as Barry (and Fuchs) have to kill an Olympic Taekwondo champion, with a feral, superhuman daughter, to get the LAPD off their backs. It sounds weird enough on paper, it's actually a bit like an entire episode of Peter Griffin fighting the giant chicken on Family Guy... 

Plus NoHo Hank. That's all. 

***

Nope certainly gets a thumbs down from me and a big 'nope' to back it up. 

I don't want to give anything away so trying to explain what went on is difficult enough without me having fallen asleep several times during the viewing with the wife prodding me and reminding me I wanted to watch this. 

It's more like a M. Night Shyamalan film in both obliqueness and having an ending that the previous two hours wasn't even hinting at. There's lots of theatrical in-jokes, justification of situations and Daniel Kaluuya mumbling, grumbling and acting like Forrest Whitaker in a caveman play - although the character is depicted as a slightly on-the-spectrum social misfit. He does say 'nope' quite a bit, either as a subliminal advert for the film or simply as a commentary on the absurd nature of the film.

The thing is I wanted to like it, when the film ended all I could think about was how I should have enjoyed it more than I did because the concept was fantastic, it's simply just a really dull film with a lot of blind alleys to pump up the running time. Jordon Peele doesn't appear to be the saviour of horror and mystery at all, a little like M Night mentioned earlier...

***

Okay, despite claiming we weren't going to watch it, we've started watching House of the Dragon and it's basically Game of Thrones set 200 years earlier with grubbier sets, more violence, less nudity and a bunch of people you really don't give a toss about. Plus, we kind of know what will happen if we read the original books of the unfinished tome, because the Targaryen time line is there to see if you look for it, therefore, as with all prequels, nothing should be as awesome as the original and probably won't feel as important otherwise why do the book adaptations when you could just make shit up?

Episode two did nothing to make me change my mind; it's just a re-tread of GOT with Crab men rather than White Walkers. 

***

The Sandman returned less than three weeks after the series concluded. This unusual addition to the first season could easily have been placed in the middle of the actual series, but came as a very welcome extra to an excellent show. 

Split into two parts - the first third is an animated version of the Sandman story The Dream of a Thousand Cats, while the second part - Calliope - is about a muse and former lover of Morpheus who finds herself prisoner to some brutal men who abuse her for success and how the Robert Smith look-a-like gains revenge for her. Apparently some people are angry that this instalment didn't go far enough with the revenge element or that it allowed an evil person to be depicted as a desperate man who needs to do anything to be successful.

Arthur Darville plays the writer who first welcomes his new muse with friendship and promises before - off camera - treating her much like her former 'owner' to get the best out of himself. It's the actor's best role since Dr Who and he wasn't that good in that, but in this he shows all the vulnerability and desperation he needs. Another cracking episode and it makes you wonder if we're going to see other 'specials' appear over the next year as we await the second season?

***

Just a quick mention about Resident Alien which really has jumped the shark with a time paradox story to add to the already plethora of plots, subplots and lord knows what else in this mess of a show. It does seem to have rediscovered its ability to make you laugh, but only by returning the sheriff to the bizarro dude he was originally and having Harry insult people. As dramadies go though this is rapidly turning into a load of shite.

***

Next time: We'll be about half way through She-Hulk, the dreadful thing mentioned just above will have finished (hopefully for good) and we'll be zeroing in on the finale of the GOT prequel. I'm going in with the LOTR prequel and before that will be a review of the latest MCU offering, which streams next week... 

In the meantime, ponder this: if the cost of living crisis becomes as bad as everyone is warning (usually a sign it will be worse) how will all the streaming services continue to produce astounding television - whether good or bad - if their customer base begins to shrink because of poverty? It doesn't matter what right wing leaning people think about the poor, I'm fairly sure Netflix is less important than feeding their children.

Stuff

I haven't done something like this for ages.

Some thoughts...

When you buy 'complete dog food' does this mean you can also buy incomplete dog food?

Do you think Lorraine gets fed up with all the songs about her?

Why do sultry late summer days always make you nostalgic?

Is it something to do with the knowledge that (despite the dire financial threats) these are the last days of a period where, by and large, clothes are optional, you're not encumbered by layers of clothes and while this obviously doesn't apply to the freaks (the wife included) who look forward to the cold and dark that November through to late February brings, I think most people get melancholy about the end of another summer. 

The swallows are roosting and sunning themselves on the roof of the BT building over the road from my office, I only said yesterday that when they start doing that you know in a few weeks they'll be heading south for Africa for the winter. It's like they're charging themselves up for the long flight - solar-powered birds!

Anyhow, part of me is hoping today isn't the last day of summer. The forecast looks very wet and cooler and I fear the shorts, which haven't been worn as much as usual this year, will get packed away for another 8 months, at least...

***

I find myself unemployed again. While there was some friction about the newspaper I created for the town, the main reason was I'd achieved what I was employed to do, which was revamp the charity, give it a new, brighter, user-friendly image and get the ball rolling again because they'd stalled.

I was needed to try and increase revenue, but of course I cost money. When it became clear that the cost of living crisis was going to add, at the very least, my wages to the annual fuel bills and being a company with a building that houses other businesses it needs to be heated, all the time and lights and computers, etc. It was time for me to go. I'm still available if they need me, but I kind of fear that even with my help the current crisis might be a leap to far for them unless they strip back even further, which in a way defeats the reasons it was established in the first place.

Just another story people don't hear about in a landscape of despair that's emerging from the entire country - people's backs are against the wall already and instead of light at the end of the tunnel many are seeing a massive cave in with no way out. Fancy that in 2022?

***

With Alba, the latest addition to the long line of fine hounds we have had the pleasure of sharing their lives with, we came to the conclusion that we're too old for puppies now, especially ones that are as batshit crazy as this one. 

In the car, on the way back from the farm on the Rhins of Galloway where we got her, not five minutes ours, I said to the wife, 'look at those eyes. She's a feral psychopath.' and she's coming up for six months now and she's a feral psychopath. She is the wiggliest, daftest and softest puppy in the world when she sees someone she likes, she's a hackles raised, shouty bitch if she sees anyone else within 50 yards of her she doesn't know. I kind of think she's short-sighted as well as possibly the world's only stupid border collie. However, apart from her frenetic nature, psychopathic outrages at her brother, Neep (still the greatest dog who ever lived), who passes them off the way a large rock ignores a bothersome wasp, she's actually a fantastic dog who makes me laugh, especially in and around water, and will probably grow up to rule the world.

We're sticking with three, especially as we think Doug's nose has been put out by the arrival of a new girl. It's a strange situation, not a lot different from Marley's relationship with Ness - we share the same space, deal with it, except Doug really quite loves her, he just doesn't know how to play with her and acts like a stupid twat - which of course he is. The dynamic is good, especially when we're out for a walk and because Neep is basically a 10-year-old boy inside a small black dog's body, the other two pretty much follow him anywhere and his recall skills are 100%. 

***

We have cows (or coos) over the road at the moment; young heifers by the looks of things. It's not like we know they are there, because they're not noisy you wouldn't know unless you look out to the field. However you know they're there because of the flies. 

We know the cows are nearby because at least three times every spring/summer the fly population increases exponentially. Where there's cows, there's flies and where there's cow shit there's even more flies. They eat it; they lay eggs in it, it's the perfect breeding ground for disaster and it's taking place above 100 feet from my office window...

***

I don't really want to broach politics here but the thought did occur to me recently that has anyone else noticed that our journalists don't appear to be asking the right questions of our politicians? 

I haven't heard anyone ask anyone of note questions like: How is it morally okay for big energy businesses to make huge profits for shareholders while energy prices spiral out of the average persons control? Or, If the UK only uses 4% of Russian gas, how come UK energy prices are the highest in Europe; how is this the fault of the Ukraine War? Or, Why are the people going on strike always portrayed as the enemy? Why should these people earn less, pay more and give away hard fought workers rights to ensure shareholders make more profit? Why are they not portrayed as the victims of greed?

It would also be nice for a Tory - any one of them - to sound as though they're aware that we're facing a crisis, but they're on holiday, while arguing about the next fall guy and the rest of us have simply been ignored.

I'm really quite scared about the coming months, for many reasons, but probably most of all because every penny of our savings now has to be earmarked for energy bills. It could spell the end of my wish to upgrade my kitchen to something akin the 21st century or getting the conservatory roof fixed. The desire to spend money on vital upgrades has evaporated in the face of bills rising every single week.

I do the food shopping; have done all my adult life. I've seen things increase in price from £1 in March to £1.50 in August. Back in the 70s when we had rampant inflation problems it saw things like potatoes go from 2p a lb to 5p a lb - what's that? 150% rise? Today, things increase in price by 25p every time, sometimes by 50p, other things double in price over the space of a year. I don't know where the media gets the inflation figures from, but I think the people who do it might have a duff calculator.

***

For the first time in many many years, my annual pilgrimage to the paean of mycology hasn't really materialised. Every year since I got into mushrooms - about 1990ish - between the first sightings and the end of October my eyes are usually firmly on the ground. But this year it just hasn't ignited, despite finding a fine flourish of chanterelles back at the start of July. Part of the reason has been how dry it's been. I might be courting controversy here somewhat, but I don't think 2022 has been a brilliant year for this part of Galloway. Sometimes our microclimate works against us, but despite having a number of really gorgeous days - today included in that - it has largely been a mild summer, with a lot of cloud and not enough lazy days where you can just in the garden reading a book. It literally has either been just too cool or too hot.

So the usual rich pickings of August dwindled to a big fat not much at all. Ceps have been a rare find and there's been less of everything, especially the boletes and the amanitas. Usually long dry periods followed by a bit of late summer rain is all we need, but while it hasn't been bone dry in terms of precipitation, there hasn't really been enough to saturate the ground and stimulate much below the surface. Plus, as I said, it's been mild, especially at night and as a result of that and the dimple fact we haven't been driving to the woods with the dogs much, nothing has ignited.

Plus, I still have seven jars of last year's bumper harvest in the cupboards and I expect we'll have something of a flourish next week after the hills get a proper drenching this weekend.

***

Right, I have runner beans to pick, a shed roof to temporarily repair until I get the right equipment to do it properly and I have the last day of summer to enjoy...