31 posts were split to a new topic: Framed (name that movie)
My kid and I went on a college-tour roadtrip and watched a bad movie every night so we could listen to the How Did This Get Made episode in the car the next day. We saw:
The Lake House - Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock in a mess of a movie. More boring-bad than fun-bad, but fun enough to be worth watching if you want to listen to the podcast.
After Earth - In honor of The Slap (movie stars Will and Jaden Smith). I would avoid this one, it’s just a bad movie.
Monkey Shines - 1980s George Romero horror-adjacent thriller about a guy who gets paralyzed and is gifted a trained monkey by his friend to help him out. I’m not even sure how bad this movie is , but it is absolutely bonkers. Features a young Stanley Tucci and a young Stephen Root. I think I’d recommend watching it even if you’re not going to listen to the podcast, if you’re into crazy shit.
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I haven’t listened to that podcast forever, but I used to religiously and always loved it. Going to have to get back in.
I thought The Lake House was decent.
Like many other horror movies of the time, Monkey Shines had cool VHS box art. Not a terrible movie if you’re in the mood for a “late night feature” kind of flick.
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Good article on aphasia. From reading it, sounds like my grandmother had a form of it after her first stroke. Among other issues, she forgot how to speak. She relearned pretty well and much faster than I thought she would, but still sometimes had problems finding the right words, which was really frustrating for her.
It seems pretty clear that Bruce has advanced dementia and “aphasia” is a euphemism they’re going with.
Monkey Shines wins the award for movie cover art at Blockbuster that gave me the most nightmares as a kid
I’m barely following this at all, but this seems likely to be correct.
If it’s advanced it has progressed rather quickly (unless he had a stroke or head injury no one was aware of), since in 2018 his family participated in his Comedy Central roast, which they wouldn’t have done if he was already struggling.
I guess “advanced dementia” was probably a bit more than I’m speculating. Let’s change Trolly’s guess to noticeable dementia.
Whatever it is it seems much more than just trouble communicating, from that article Bruce seems to be confused and totally out of it when he’s on set.
Four years ago my uncle still remembered my name and could at least tell a few jokes and try to hold down a conversation. Now he’s in a home where he has no idea what’s going on and can’t walk.
He has some kind of swift-acting dementia. I think it was only 5-6 years ago that his family had to have an intervention to stop him from going into the CPA firm he owned, where he would pester the workers asking the same questions over and over.
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Dementia can be weird like that. People can be in the early and middle stages for years and then blow through severe dementia to death in a matter of weeks. Others will rapidly lose most of their cognitive capacity and then stay that way for a decade. Time frames and symptoms can vary widely.
My Dad didn’t recognize me two days after his stroke. Couldn’t ready or write. Could do more than simple addition few few days. A week later he was pretty sharp. I agree what Bruce is having is not ever getting better. His dementia is maybe primarily language focused so aphasia is the right term for now.
From my little understanding, aphasia without underlying dementia is pretty horrible. They put Dad on anti anxiety/despression meds the first month or so. To be able to think something and not be able to communicate it. Yuck.
I’d look pretty confused as well if it seemed like everyone around me on set was speaking gibberish.
Yeah, sort of a real I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
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This happened to my other uncle a couple of times when he had mini-strokes. He had to go to a memory care home. But by the time I visited him he was basically himself.
He had made a bunch of friends on the home and was always wheeling and dealing to get them stuff they wanted. When I visited I couldn’t help but think of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. He even has a pretty similar personality to Jack Nicholson’s character.
He finally had the big stroke a few weeks ago and is no longer with us.
Another 2 uncles (one on each side) and both grandfathers also died of heart/attack stroke in their early 60s. A fourth uncle got Parkinson’s right at retirement age.
My Dad is the only close male relative to make it to 80 in one piece. Although my dad does have the advantage of not being an alcoholic like 3 of the uncles and one grandfather. The uncle in memory care was not, but he didn’t get a lot of exercise or eat very well.
The uncle who got diabetes then Parkinson’s was pretty active as a general contractor. His only sin was eating a lot of sweets. He’s the one that bothers me the most. He worked so hard his whole life, and then right at 64 or so he gets these conditions. He wasn’t fat, just normal pudgy. So unfair.
This is the main reason I plan to exit the full time workforce and start seeing the world now rather than later.
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Well if you’ve got to pick one, I’d assume that’s the one single male relative whose longevity is most highly correlated with yours. So maybe don’t plan on dying in your 60s. But I still think you should quit full-time work and travel. I’d recommend that even if the suzzer family tree were full of 100-year-olds.
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