Tag: X-Men ’97

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“A Spray of Stars Hit the Screen”

I stayed in on Monday (10-05-26). I didn’t feel great. Aaron stayed home also, skipping pool, due to his leg injury. I was planning on going with him if he did go, but I was fine staying home.

Tuesday (10-06-26) I needed to get out for a bit and I was hungry. I went to Starbucks and got the spinach feta wrap and stopped at the pharmacy on the way home, only the line was so long and I didn’t need to pick up the prescription that had been filled because I still had some.

Later I got the test results from my anal pap. I had been dreading the news. At my age, as a sexually active bottom, the chances were very high that I had HPV, but I had consoled myself with the knowledge that coming of age during the AIDS crisis, most of my partners had worn condoms. Additionally, most of my lovers weren’t one night stands, but relationships, some of whom likely had never been exposed to the virus (strict tops who less experienced than me) or in some cases, had been vaccinated. Aaron, who has been my central partner for nearly 15 years, was vaccinated before we met. And in that 15 year time (that’s 15 years this month), I’ve slept with 4 other men, 3 of them with Aaron. All of them have used condoms, save one, who didn’t fuck me. And I was also vaccinated several years ago as at the time, they couldn’t find anyone who would test me, and my thinking was that if they couldn’t prove that I had it, then I wanted the very expensive vaccine, which I got, paid out of pocket and have never regretted. All that to say is that while I knew I might have it, there was a good chance that I didn’t. I was told that I’d get 2 results and that the first is often a false positive, so I just waited until I had both. But both were negative. I’m HPV negative. I still can’t quite believe it. And it doesn’t make me any less angry that they didn’t allow men to get the vaccine when I asked for it in my 20s.

Wednesday (10-07-26) I had an early morning appointment at my cardiologist’s office. A hot guy (Roman) performed the test. They listened to and scanned my heart. The results all seem normal, which I suppose is good. There was one oddity, but it wasn’t marked as being an issue, but honestly I don’t really understand the test or the results so I’ll wait for the doc to let me know how I’m doing. I’ve been considerate of my heart health ever since my cousin Michael, who is one month younger than me, had a heart attack a few years ago. Scared the Hell out of me, which I told him when I saw him in the summer of 2025. Tuesday night, Aaron went to choir and I wanted to go with him to see everyone, but we had a grocery order that I needed to wait for so I played some Zelda and watched some SVU. I was a little bummed to see that I had somehow gained 7 pounds. Well, 4 really. I weighed 180 for a single day and then I was hovering around 183 or so. Then today I was 187.

Thursday (10-08-26) I woke up feeling like I wanted to work on my Marvel viewing order, unraveling a particularly continuity heavy knot (events surrounding 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War”) which took most of the day. All of it, really.

I was happy to see that I’d somehow lost 5 pounds. So I’m back to 182.8. I love eating these Veggie Tots (which are delicious treats which count as an entire serving of vegetables), but I’ve noticed they seem to linger in my body for a lot longer than I would expect – and I weigh a lot more with them inside me. The thing is, they ‘depart’ days later, so the weight gain is always short lived, but it keeps me from having them as an every day snack. Food is weird. Especially for me, since I’ve tended to avoid thinking about it most of my life.

As I was unwinding, more Marvel news started pouring in. Partially because VisionQuest (which begins on Wednesday, just 6 days from now) has been released to critics in full, and it’s getting very good reactions so far. And also (and I’m not sure why this slipped my mind) but Marvel TV had a panel at NYCC today, in which they announced and confirmed several fun things. I knew they were having something at NYCC, and I knew it was in October, but my brain had not processed that it was now October and that I should be looking for this news to pop up. lol

VisionQuest Release Strategy:

VQ S01E01 10-14-26
VQ S01E02 10-14-26
VQ S01E03 10-21-26
VQ S01E04 10-21-26
VQ S01E05 10-28-26
VQ S01E06 10-28-26
VQ S01E07 11-04-26
VQ S01E08 11-11-26

2 episodes a week until the final 2 episodes – both of which will more than an hour long. All the episodes are pretty long compared to previous shows. Nice. Again, the full series has been released to critics, and the ones I follow, one of which was NOT excited for this series, are raving about how good it is! The review embargo lifts on Monday, so I’ll have to do my best to avoid spoilers – but it is nice to have something to look forward to.

Avengers: Doomsday has a new poster, which was released last weekend. It features the Latverian Witches that were revealed at SDCC (pictured just above). New rumors seem to indicate these characters won’t actually be a big deal, but I feel like this is a misdirect. If they weren’t important, why tease them so effectively? Why tease their costumes at a fan event where they changed the costume every day with a different color? Maybe they aren’t anything at all. But I think they are. I hope they are. I feel like they’re doing a really great job of keeping spoilers at bay for this film, that, or I’m getting better at avoiding them. But when the costume was originally revealed, I really hoped that the final version would be scarlet, if you know what I mean, but instead they switched the costume to that of Doom. But the more distant witch in the poster certainly seems to be scarlet. <3

Season 2 of Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is confirmed for January 13, 2027. It will feature the Alien Costume, Daredevil (Charlie Cox), Doc Oc and Scorpion will return, and we’ll meet Spider-Gwen. I loved the first season so I’m excited for this. Also, it was strange to be working on the placement of the series for hours today, and then have news about Season 2 come pouring in! Season 3 is also in the works and I wonder how many seasons the series will run for? Also, I loved the parallels with the 616 Spider-Man in the first season and I wonder if they’ll continue to toy with that?

Marvel Zombies will return in a series of 2-part Halloween Specials, released in 2027, 2028 & 2029 – with the final special described as a culmination of the whole story (so presumably the ending). The first special, The Winter Soldier, will explain Bucky’s whereabouts in the previous saga and will reportedly be filled with revelations. The second special, The Fist of Khonshu will presumably be about Blade Knight, the badass iteration of Blade / Moon Knight introduced in Season 1 of Marvel Zombies. I have loved the Marvel Zombies since the story was introduced back in Season 1 of “What If…?” (S01E05) back in 2021, and it was my favorite episode of that series overall, so I’m thrilled that the story will continue, but I’m also slightly disappointed that we have to wait until 2029 to see how it ends.

Also, there is a mysterious SECRET live action series coming in 2028 titled “Zodiac”, which they will be casting soon (so rumors are expected) and that will film in 2027 in London. It was mentioned that there are clues in the logo, and it at least implies a connection to S.H.I.E.L.D., but in what capacity? Clark Gregg (aka as Phil Coulson) shared the post about the series. Could this imply that it is a sequel to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? What does this mean? We’ll see.

X-Men ’97 will return next year for Season 3, which we already knew, but that’s about all we know. I believe a 4th season was also already announced, so expect that in 2028.

The news was welcomed. But I was exhausted and Aaron had made plans for us this morning, so I headed to bed. I believe I fell asleep between 10 & 11. I woke up around 4. I thought I’d be able to get back to sleep but after struggling to do so for 1.5 hours I got up around 5:30, made a smoothie and wrote this. Well, I adjusted it. I had scribbled it down last night before bed, but decided at the time that I’d edit it later as I was just too tired at the time.

Today’s journal entry song quote is from “Kiss Them for Me”, by English goth rock band Siouxsie and the Banshees, which was released in 1991 as the first single from the band’s 10th studio album, “Superstition”. According to Wikipedia, upon its release, the single received enthusiastic reviews. “Kiss Them for Me” became their most successful single in the US peaking at number 23 in the Billboard Hot 100. Billboard also ranked it as the second most-played song of the year on American alternative music radio. I couldn’t have told you any of that. I bought their second singles compilation, “Twice Upon a Time – The Singles” in late 1992 because I loved the song “Face to Face” from that year’s “Batman Returns”. I was only vaguely aware of the band at all, and I didn’t really know what to make of them. I ended up loving the entire album, but not having experienced the singles as they were released, I didn’t really grasp the experience of how each song hit and / or when. That was also 2 years before I went to my first club, which is where I heard most of my music, and I was delighted to learn that they were in heavy rotation at such venues, as I’d thought of them a s niche sort of quirky band that I had discovered that nobody else seemed to like. lol The early 90s were such a different time!

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“If I Could Sleep Forever I Could Forget About Everything”

When I weighed myself this morning I had lost more weight again: I’m not 185.8 lbs. It’s strange. For a couple of weeks I hovered around 190 lbs, but now it’s going better. I’m not sure why I stayed in that range for longer – I don’t think my diet or activity levels has been changed much. It’s a mystery to me.

I did have the rest of those broccoli tots yesterday. They were yummy. I went to bed around 9:30pm and I’m getting ready to go to bed soon now.

Today I had a doctor’s appointment where I got some news that I didn’t want to hear. It’s not bad news exactly. Indeed, I’m sure some people would have celebrated the feedback, but I found it frustrating. I wanted to just take some medication and be okay. But this could portend a larger life problem, which I’m going to have to grapple with. I’m still following my doctor’s advice and I’m so grateful that I live in a place where I have access to medical care – and I hop that doesn’t go away.

I took the train to the clinic because I was running late – which was perfect, in that I arrived exactly on time. But I walked home, getting some exercise, stopping at Starbucks for my tea, and the grocery store for some more pita bread. I drank the former as I walked and that ate some of latter when I got home, with lettuce, hummus and some light Italian salad dressing, which was lovely.

I finished Season 2 of X-Men ’97. I haven’t felt like watching movies or TV lately, so it took me a few days. I enjoyed it but I found the ending a little anticlimactic. I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more if I’d binged the whole season.

I also connected more LGBTQ+ movie reviews to my index here, so they’ll be easier to access in future. The website continues to evolve and grow and that’s nice.

And I just uploaded a poem that I wrote 4 days ago.

I’m so tired. I’m sure I’ll pass out relatively soon.

Today’s journal entry song quote is from “Sleep” by American rock band The Dandy Warhols, from their third album, “Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia”, released on June 12, 2000, through record label Capitol.

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“Do What You Want and Don’t Be Shy”

On Monday, August 3, we got a lot of our new furniture sorted – including our new bed. A lot of work was done. Though there was also a lot of drama as we were running out of time. I still managed to get another walk in, which was needed, and relaxing. There are these little lizards that live all around our FL house and I spotted something like 16 of them on my walk, but a lot of very playful chipmunks. Bernard and I went to run errands that night to help with the workload, though we were tired, and when we got back there had clearly been a serious argument, possibly just before we arrived, so things were very tense. It took a long time to get to bed that night, but the new setup was very comfortable.

On Tuesday, August 4, we all got up early, all feeling better I think. We got ready and headed to the airport, making short work of security and all sat in the Sky Club; Aaron and I have our own entries and Aaron using passes for Bernard, Mark and Mary Ellen. Aaron left first as his flight was around 11:30. Mark and Mary Ellen followed soon after. While Bernard and I weren’t leaving until 2. Our flight went smoothly. We arrived early at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, and then shared an Uber, which dropped off Bernard first in the Bronx and then got me home before 7pm in Manhattan. When we landed, Aaron had texted to reveal that his transfer flight in Atlanta had been delayed. He always has the worst time at that airport!

On Wednesday, August 5, I had therapy, which went really well. I stayed in.

On Thursday, August 6, I made my way to my cardiologist’s office in Hell’s Kitchen. I hadn’t seen him in about a year, having scheduled my first visit in 2025 out of an over abundance of caution – so I wasn’t expecting anything to go poorly. But not only did it go well, but it went extremely well. I felt great. I thought I looked pretty good. And my doctor said that I was doing everything right! He was impressed by my weight loss, my increased activity and healthier diet. It put me in such a good mood to hear that. I’ve been working really hard to improve my health and I’m finally starting to see some of the benefits of that, and it’s wonderful. I did later hear from his office that he wants me to be tested for something – but I’m not sure why and I’m not overly concerned about it. He may have even mentioned it in the appointment and I just didn’t keep that in my brain, which is a problem with me and doctors in general.

Friday, August 7, I stayed in again, but this was due to warnings about heat, air quality, and later, a thunderstorm. I worked on my website. I wrote a poem. I read. I cleaned out the refrigerator. And I watched an episode of X-Men ’97 (S02E06 “Danger.exe”) before heading to bed early. Despite being tired, it took me several hours to get to sleep. When I did, I felt rested despite sleeping only 6 hours.

So far, today, I’ve just been updating my blog with all the photos (which I have to convert before I can post – which takes a lot of time) and details that I can remember. This is something I’ve been putting off and has been on my list of things I need to get done, so it feels good to knock it off that list.

I should probably eat.

Today’s journal title song quote is from “Feel Good Too” from “Mystical Magical Rhythmical Radical Ride”, which is the eighth studio album by openly bisexual American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz.

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“My Superstitious Games”

What happened this week? Well, I got outside a few times but stayed in a lot as well, mostly because we keep getting alerts that our air quality is poor and on some days there have been alerts that it could be dangerous for anyone to go outside. Nightmarish stuff.

Wednesday I watched the new X-Men ’97 episode (S02E05 “Weapon X, Lies, and DVDs”) and another of the original animated series (S03E19 “Love in Vain”) – which means I have 2 seasons left of the original show and 4 more of the current season of the newer program. Later that night I had a bit of a freakout about food. I wanted to cut for the first time in a long time, and many of the things I would normally do to ride that wave out weren’t possible. It was incredibly hot outside. Our water was being worked on so I couldn’t take a shower. And I couldn’t actually tackle food because the water line is in the kitchen, so there was a guy in there working on it, and the counters were covered with his tools. It was tricky, but I was able to communicate with Aaron, who was wonderful.

Once I’d calmed down, we started watching Season 3 of Heartstopper. I watched the initial season in a single sitting before getting Aaron into it. We binged Season 2 together the day it was released but I’ve put off watching Season 3 because I knew it had a major storyline about disordered eating – and I was worried that could be triggering (which it was) – but the film that wraps up the whole series was released today so now’s the time to watch it all.

The thing is, at a certain point, the character in question speaks to his parents about it, having written down his thoughts in advance, and asks for help. I did that too, 30 years ago, in late May of 1996. The character also says that he feels like something horrible will happen if he eats. That was jarring. That’s what happens with me. And I’ve never heard anyone else describe it that way. I told my therapist about this on Thursday and she said she’d also never heard anyone describe it like that. The reason is, the character also has OCD (which I don’t), so he has all these rules in place about how and when he can eat. But that’s where we are different. My disordered eating is the result of trauma, related to food, but the food part is essentially a symptom of my PTSD. Still, it was very similar. And hearing it outloud on a TV show I was crying. And Aaron, who has heard me all this time, he was crying. And we were also both crying because the character’s boyfriend is in a similar position to what Aaron has had to learn and struggle with due to my condition. It really resonated. Due to the ongoing story we watched the season in bursts, rather than in one go, so I could make sure that I was okay. But we finished the last episode a bit ago (On Friday, July 17, 2026) and we’ll watch the movie tomorrow. The season has been rough, but very good and I’m hoping the movie wraps the stories up nicely.

As mentioned already, I saw my therapist (in person) on Thursday. I wore a Catherine Wheel shirt. I’ve really enjoyed getting dressed up and going out lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve lost some weight? Or maybe it’s because I’ve come to the conclusion that wearing sunblock, which I’ve always hated but needed due to my vitiligo, is probably why I look so much younger than basically everyone I grew up with – so I look forward to wearing it now. My appointment went well. I had a lot to talk about with the TV story and how I’d dedicated the black iced tea to my mom the week before. She was surprised that it has been 5 years since my mother died. We’d had 2 or 3 weeks off from each other when I told her originally, and I will always remember her shock that my mother had passed, and how I was dealing with it, and all the things that came with that.

I went to bed early last night. I didn’t really sleep well though, doing my old split shift routine, where I sleep for 4 hours, get up for a few, then lay back down for another couple of hours. It’s fine. I felt rested. And I ate well today. A lot of fruit, veggies, water, smoothies, nuts and seeds. I just ordered some more varieties to try in the coming days. I’m very tired but wanting to finish this before I sleep. I did several collages for my photos section. I wrote a new poem the other day, though I’m not sure I like it. I need to start posting more poetry again soon, and movie reviews. I was doing so well at first but it’s become a bit intimidating; I don’t like trying to find where I left off – I’m so disorganized!

Today’s journal entry title music quote is from “Crank” by Catherine Wheel, from their 1993 album “Chrome”. I didn’t discover the band until 1993, but I found them by randomly picking up their first CD – and they became my favorite group. I also didn’t learn that the second album existed until 1995 when they used to play this song at City Club in Detroit. I was so associated with the song that one of my friends (Steve) came rushing to tell me that my song was being played. I’ve probably shared this song here before and likely will again. Love this band. Love this track. Love this album.

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“I’m a Lonely One”

Sunday and Monday I watched more television. I also had my teeth cleaned. The above image is of me in my dentist’s office at 827 11th Avenue in Manhattan. I slept well the night before and dreamed of Lestat, which I caught up on the day before and I’ve come to the conclusion that I love it. I also caught up on X-Men ’97, continued where I left off with X-Men: The Animated Series and watched 2 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Aaron.

Here’s what I watched:

Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E06 Booby Trap
Star Trek: The Next Generation S03E07 The Enemy

X-Men S03E08 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 1
X-Men S03E09 Savage Land, Strange Heart – Part 2
X-Men ’97 S02E03 Rise of Apocalypse – Part 1

The Vampire Lestat S01E04 The Devil’s Road
The Vampire Lestat S01E05 New York

TNG S03E06 “Booby Trap”. I had remembered this episode as a bit cringey as Geordie LaForge stumbles in love and forms an odd and nearly romantic relationship with a hologram, but I remembered nothing of the rest of the episode. Aaron said the same thing and we were entertained by the episode. It marks the first appearances of Julie Warner as Christy Henshaw and Susan Gibney as the holographic (and later real world) version of Dr. Leah Brahms; Gibney also later portrays Commander / Captain Erika Benteen in 2 episodes of DS9.

I always remember TNG S03E07 “The Enemy” as an episode that my sister Janice saw before I did, and how she spoke of it. The episode marks the first appearance of Andreas Katsulas as Tomalak, who later returns in the role at least twice, though they’re not really him, per say, if I remember correctly, one being an illusion and another being an alternate future take. Both of these episodes feature Colm Meaney as Miles O’Brien. It’s nice to see the recurring cast start to come together here and Season 3 really does feel like where the series starts to gel. And while that’s the common wisdom among fans, in retrospect, its insane that it took more than 50 episodes for the series to really get reliably good, especially since most of the series of the current era ever reach that number of episodes at all, with only Lower Decks and Discovery making 50 or more; Lower Decks ended with 50 while Discovery ended with 65.

The X-Men episodes, the “Savage Land, Strange Heart” 2-part story is unlikely to be anyone’s favorite, but I thought some of the writing was really clever (“Who died and made you Cyclops?”) and I appreciated the explanation of Sauron’s origin. I just don’t care about the Savage Land in general.

The X-Men ’97 episode continues the winning streak of this series. I’ve never X-Men stories featuring Apocalypse, so I’ve been dreading this new season, but so far I’ve loved all of it. If it were only Apocalypse, I’d probably be bored, but the thing about X-Men ’97 is that it feels like the big payoff for all the stories that came in the previous Animated Series – with fewer episodes, they don’t seem to hold anything back, and it’s all the better for it.

The Vampire Lestat episodes really knocked it out of the park for me. Things that I doubted about the season came into focus, both with the parts that were adapted from various Anne Rice novels, and others that are wholly original to this interpretation of the material. Very impressive. This season, and the series as a whole is probably best in a binge model vs. a weekly layout. I believe the Immortal Universe shows play out like this:

01 Interview with the Vampire Season 1: Part I
02 Interview with the Vampire Season 2: Part II
03 Mayfair Witches Season 1
04 Mayfair Witches Season 2
05 Mayfair Witches Season 3 ?
06 Talamasca: The Secret Order
07 Interview with the Vampire Season 3: The Vampire Lestat

The present day scenes in the first 2 seasons of Interview seem to be set over 11 days in 2022, ending shortly after the publication of the book in 2023. Season 2 of Mayfair Witches references the publication of the book and features a guest spot by a vampire introduced in Season 2 of Interview. Talamasca is set after the publication of the book with guest spots by a few characters; a later episode may feature a Lestat tune. Season 3, The Vampire Lestat seems to be set 2025.

Having said all of that, the only series I can wholeheartedly recommend is Interview / Lestat. Talamasca comes close to being very good at times but never quite arrives IMO, and from what I’ve seen of Mayfair Witches, it is a horrible adaptation of The Lives of the Mayfair Witches series (which are my favorite Anne Rice books, along with “Cry to Heaven”) and the series also features some truly dreadful “acting”. I may go back to it at some point, just so I can say I saw everything.

Today’s journal title song quote is from “All Fall Down”, theme from “The Vampire Lestat”, performed by Sam Reid as Lestat de Lioncourt.

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“I Don’t Have Nothing to Say”

I did stay home today. I played Mario Kart with Chris and Tristan and Aaron when it was time, but they had been out in the heat and I think it had made Aaron a little cranky; he didn’t have a chance to clean up in the same way that they had, and we also had far less time together than originally scheduled. I got some work done on several projects. And I tried to catch up on some of the TV I’ve fallen behind on. I watched:

X-Men ’97 S02E01 Days of Past Future
X-Men ’97 S02E02 A Force to Be Reckoned With
The Vampire Lestat S01E03 or Interview with the Vampire S03E03 Toronto

The new season of X-Men ’97 is still as good as the first, with several moments that made me cheer and / or tear up. But I cry during everything, so YMMV. Lestat continues to be a very different (and slightly less even) adaptation than Interview With the Vampire. It’s not bad but I’m not certain that some of the new framing actually works, and won’t know until I can see the completed picture. There are many changes to the source material, like the previous adaptation, but there were many lines that I knew were actually from the book, so I’m engaged with the material and curious to see where the series goes next. I do have another episode, with another airing tomorrow, but I think I’m done for the night – though I may watch them tomorrow? I also have another X-Men ’97 episode to watch, with another out this Tuesday, but I think I’m done with that as well for now. I’m enjoying both series and want them to last – only both have relatively short seasons; Season 1 of Lestat (which is how I think of it) is only 7 episodes long and will be done 2 weeks from tomorrow, while X-Men ’97 has 9 episodes this season and will be done 5 weeks from Tuesday. And I have plenty more to watch, which is nice, but is also starting to feel like work, rather than fun.

It was raining, but I think it has stopped.

This journal title song quote is brought to you from “Raining in Baltimore” by Counting Crows, from their 1993 debut studio album, “August and Everything After”, which never fails to conjure memories of that autumn when I was dating Jeff Rodriguez, but also Shawn Foreman (circa summer of 2000), who loved them. I’ve got lots of memories tied to various songs from the album as well, including this one, which I tried to mix with a spoken word piece (which tied into the lyrics of the song rather nicely) – and which likely would have worked, only I got sidetracked by another project and just never got back to it.

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