I skipped two movies in my July wrap-ups. It's not so much that they deserve extra attention, they just needed to be kept together.

132. (1361.) Mamma Mia! (2008)
137. (1366.) Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)

Mom wanted to see the sequel in theaters, so I watched the original in preparation. I like musicals, and I like ABBA. (It's got a beat and you can dance to it.) Unfortunately, both of these films had flaws that I can't easily forgive.

Mamma Mia! is clearly a corny, nostalgic stage musical adapted for the screen. Its characters exist just to bridge the gaps between songs. Therefore, I can't get too mad at Pierce Brosnan for his ill-advised decision to take a singing role or Amanda Seyfried's bridezilla for the way she selfishly tramples on everyone else's life then runs away. I was more dissatisfied that "Waterloo" is included in the end credits as a mere afterthought.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, however, is first and foremost a movie musical. It bends over backwards to put on a show with fancy dance staging and camera tricks. It almost works, too. The "Dancing Queen" number is a showstopper. I mean that literally. I should have walked out of the theater right then, before Meryl Streep's (bittersweet) and Cher's (unearned) cameos crashed the party and killed the mood as the movie limped to the finish line.

Also, how is it that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again takes place in 1979 yet fails to include any footage of ABBA in their heyday? Does ABBA not exist in the Mamma Mia! universe? Opportunity missed!

I hope all these problems are addressed when the inevitable third entry in the trilogy (Mamma Mia! Does It Show Again?) hits theaters in 2028.

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I have not been able to get this song out of my head for the past week. Maybe embedding it here will help.

Nope. Still in there. Anybody have any suggestions about what I can use to dislodge it? I'm thinking maybe a hammer.

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The Traveling Wilburys.

Those of you who know why know why.

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What can be said about 2016 that hasn't already been said?

As bad as things were for America, Europe isn't doing much better. In a year that saw the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences award Bob Dylan a Nobel Prize for Literature to a thousands of people involved in sexual assaults in Cologne, Germany, it's no wonder that Great Britain voluntary withdrew from the European Union.

So what does Europe have to say for itself?

We're leaving together,
but still it's farewell.

And maybe we'll come back
to earth, who can tell?

I guess there is no one to blame.
We're leaving ground.
Will things ever be the same again?

It's the final countdown.
The final countdown.

Such pessimism! If you thought 2016 was rough, it's just setting the stage for 2017. Hold onto your hats.

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The contentious 2016 Republican National Convention is finally over. When they stopped chanting for the death of their opponents and booing a call to "vote your conscience" long enough to say they want to Make America Great Again®, I had to assume they were talking about this.

Because heroin.

Should society survive the coming apocalypse, I personally hope that this is what we'll all remember about the dumbest political convention in memory. It might not be the song they want, but it's definitely the song they deserved.

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Flipping channels last night shortly before midnight, I saw that FOX had Pitbull with P-Diddy (or whatever he goes by these days), and ABC had Carrie Underwood and Jimmy Buffet. Tivo claimed that NBC would have Gwen Stafani, but all I saw was Carson Daly talking (which is pretty much all I ever saw when I would flip past him on MTV's TRL).

All those musical acts waxing poetic about life and love: it's the same old sentiment wrapped in shiny new paper. Today's artists can't hold a candle to the classics.

Looking in your eyes I see a paradise.
This world that I found is too good to be true.
Standing here beside you want so much to give you
This love in my heart that I'm feeling for you.

Let 'em say we're crazy, I don't care about that.
Put your hand in my hand, baby, don't ever look back.
Let the world around us just fall apart.
Baby, we can make it if we're heart to heart.

And we can build this dream together,
Standing strong forever.
Nothing's gonna stop us now.
And if this world runs out of lovers, we'll still have each other.
Nothing's gonna stop us, nothing's gonna stop us now.

Now that's a song about life and love. Pay attention musical acts, because you're going to have to try harder in 2016. The past has set a pretty high bar.

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I'm not a big music person. Most of my cd collection is soundtracks, and I don't really care for live music. I can count the bands I've seen in person on one hand — Pink Floyd, Drivin' N Cryin', Living Colour, and They Might Be Giants. Now I have one for the thumb: last night I went to Atlanta's Aaron's Lakewood Ampitheatre to see Pentatonix.

I've enjoyed Pentatonix since they won NBC's The Sing-Off in 2011. I can't believe that a five-member a capella group can generate so much sound. Now I've seen them in person, and I still can't believe it.

Technically, Kelly Clarkston was the headliner. It's a testament to Clarkston's talent that a big crowd turned out to see her performance despite the terrible weather. I'd like to say that her set blew me away, but I didn't stick around to hear it. As I said, I'm not really a big music person.

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Look at the present I received this week:

Of course, 96 Rock has been off the air for nearly a decade. The channel that became Project 9-6-1 is now Power 96.1, a "top 40" format. It is no longer programmed into my car radio, but it will soon appear on my car bumper again.

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In the days before the Internet, it was a rare event to find someone who carried a mental inventory of the same childhood television experiences that you did. For years I tested potential friends by their remembered knowledge of 80s cartoons like the Bionic Six or M.A.S.K.. Like going to war together, the shared cherished memory of obscure cartoons could create an instant bond that was easily built into a friendship opportunity.

For example, while working at Chili's in the mid-1990s, my relationship with one of the other waiters was based entirely on our shared appreciation for Thundarr the Barbarian, a Saturday morning cartoon that ran for only 2 seasons starting in 1980. In addition to being twice my height and weight, he was a homosexual who really enjoyed recreational cocaine and alcohol use. It was so uncommon to find other people who remembered Thundarr (and his Chewbacca-inspired pal, Ookla the Mok), that the memory of the series alone was enough to create a kinship despite our differences.

Of course, these days, Wikipedia and YouTube can provide a quick primer for these sort of things so it's no longer so rare to find someone who remembers short-lived cartoons like Rubik, the Amazing Cube or Turbo Teen. Still, such a mention in pop culture is always sure to get me to pay attention.

Last week, I was playing pinball at a friend's house. (We used to go to video arcades to play those games, but now that arcades have gone the way of automats, we buy the machines and keep them in our houses.) Between the electronic screeches, I overheard an argument between my friend and his woman over the piece of music was played by a children's toy they had found. My friend claimed it was classical music; she insisted that it was playing the theme song from the mid-80s Inspector Gadget cartoon.

Naturally, I remembered the Inspector Gadget theme and was pretty sure that it was not the music played by the toy. Twenty years ago, I probably would have jumped into that conversation with both feet, but instead I waited until I was home alone to ask Wikipedia and YouTube to settle the issue. Oh, how the times have changed! Thank you, Internet?

For the record, the piece of music played by the toy was In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg. That music inspired Inspector Gadget Theme by Shuki Levy (who also wrote the theme to M.A.S.K.!), but they aren't quite the same piece.

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Each new year is just another step on the journey of life. Take a moment today to refresh your commitment that even as that wheel in the sky keeps on turning, you'll continue to be good to yourself.

Strangers waiting, up and down the boulevard.
Their shadows searching in the night.
Streetlights people, living just to find emotion.
Hiding, somewhere in the night.

Working hard to get my fill, everybody wants a thrill.
Payin' anything to roll the dice, just one more time.
Some will win, some will lose, some were born to sing the blues.
Oh, the movie never ends.
It goes on and on and on and on.

Don't stop believin'.
Hold on to the feelin',
streetlights people.

Any way you want it, that's the way you need it in 2013.

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