Little Red Lighter

          Arrow and The Flash are both entertaining shows in a garden-variety way, but the new crossover episode is insanely good. I was excited to see how the disparate tones of the two programs would be reconciled, and was satisfied with the outcome. Barry Allen is a bit darker; Oliver Queen is a bit funnier; and John Diggle does an interesting turn as comic relief. Of course, there's the unavoidable "who would win?" fight sequence! This blended Arrow's gritty hand-to-hand combat with The Flash's brain-breaking pseudo-pseudo-science into an eminently watchable spectacle. And as always, the little touches make good stuff great: the vocal cord vibration the Flash uses to mask his voice is used to a much scarier effect here. ("I heard you were looking for me!") Verdict: "ill af", as per my notes.
          The NASA boys went for an impromptu walk out into Boston University territory. It was late in the evening and we were stricken with cabin fever. I brought supplies for extracurricular activities, but had forgotten a key instrument (read: lighter) and first we hunted for a CVS or convenience store in order to purchase one. Once that was dealt with, we wandered through unfamiliar neighborhoods and chatted idly. We smoked as we walked, deliberately taking sprawling detours through the darkened suburbs. On the returning leg of our journey, I completed a personal first by breaking the law in the vicinity of a police officer -- call it civil disobedience. I like shady, uneven side streets the best, but I think there's a certain beauty in those big, empty avenues at night. The glare of streetlights is softened by the trees on all sides and in the median, diffusing a soft light. At a certain hour, someone traveling alone (or almost alone) can feel like it belongs to them. "The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world."