Wagner's Writings

This post is aiming me summing up my couple of weeks of bereavement.  Grief takes a lot out of you, but there's also something to be taken from grief. I’ve learned a lot about losing a parent the past couple of weeks. I learned I’m taking it better than I did the loss of my brother. My brother was unexpected. With mom, we prepared. My brother had a lot of life to live at 39. My mom was content with the life she lived and was ready to go. It doesn’t erase the pain but the blow was certainly softened a little bit. It was certainly apples and oranges in the types of death a family can deal with, both of which were thrown directly at my family’s faces tenfold. But we’re a persistent group of people.  I once read that grief is “love that has nowhere to go.” I think that’s true to an extent. I gave as much love to mom as she was around as I could. I certainly don’t have any regrets. With two weeks passed now, I can appreciate the good times a little better without excessively crying...

Yeah man, it's a review for a movie called Friendship . It stars Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve loved a comedy film that’s primarily a comedy film (except a couple scenes that’re shot like a horror film but that’s beside the point.) You’re in for a great time if you like cringe comedy or especially if you dig Tim Robinson’s I Think You Should Leave. I understand the comparisons are inevitable, but it seems like it comes from the same cloth as that show. Not that I feel the film’s a “two-hour episode” of the show, but it comes from the same vein. Which is impressive because the writer and director was not involved in the show. Which leads me to believe that Tim Robinson is like a banana in a smoothie. No matter how small, miniscule piece of banana you throw in the thing, the ENTIRE thing will taste like banana. Doesn’t matter if there’s vanilla, spinach, peanut butter, berries, etc., the WHOLE fucking thing will taste like a banana; a vastly p...

My Mama died, and I’m terribly fucking sad about it. (You have to write the truth) Think I’m writing a series of these blog posts as a meditation on loss, grief, and returning back to passion and life. It’s one of the few things on my mind.  This is the first one. You write what you know, right? It’s a terrible thing to lose a parent. It feels fucking awful. It’s also apparent that “normal people” aren’t sure how to approach how to go about talking to someone who’s experienced that kind of loss. Especially if you’re still a young(er) person. These are the lines I must walk now.  Eight days ago, I lost my mom due to brain cancer. This was after being diagnosed with lung cancer in September and fought hard with it for nearly nine months before the cancer spread to her brain and passing away in the night on May 16th. It was 11:33 PM when she took her final breath. She was 65. Far too young to be losing any parent. Any age will seem too young because everyone wants their parent ...

         I was rather saddened when they announced Pope Francis had passed away. He was 88. Old, yes, but a seemingly good man and a pope I truly believed followed the ways of Jesus Christ with his kindness, empathy for the outcasts of the world, and compassion to all people. A woke pope, I’m here for it. God forbid a pope showed some compassion to all the people of the world and not just acting as a figurehead for Catholics. So, Francis dies and so a new conclave to elect the new pope must take place. I found myself strangely attentive to the process, to the candidates, to the cardinals knowing one of these men were going to be chosen as the man who will act as the Vicar of Christ here on Earth.  For some Cody backstory, I am not a Catholic in any way. Or religious for that matter. My folks didn’t raise any of their children in any church due to their less-than-pleasant experiences as Catholics in their youths. Great call, mom and dad...

It's been a hot minute, eh? Life's been catching up to me with punch after punch, and I'm not feeling great. That and trying to monetize this blog has been nothing but a nightmare for me. But those are stories for another day.      So, I desperately needed some cheering up. What better way to do that than to go to the movies? Gathered a few friends and went to go see Sinners a couple weeks ago. Yeah, not on the ball of getting this review out. Shoot me. Sinners is the recent output by director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Black Panther) with his first original, non-IP film since 2013’s Fruitvale Station . To me, Coogler is one of those MCU director’s that can have a career outside of superhero films because the guy just knows how to make a well made film, regardless of budget. Which is why Warner Brothers put their neck on the line for an original horror period piece set in the 1930’s in Mississippi that costed around $90 million to make.  Was it those the inve...