‘Twas the day after X-mas… no scratch that. “Twas” would imply past tense, as though we were speaking of the day after X-mas, on a day after the day after X-mas. Since we are speaking of it in the present tense it should be – “‘Tis the day after X-mas.” Of course this only applies if you are reading this on the actual date of publication 12/26/2019. Any time after that “‘twas” would the proper past tense term to use. But also, too, we have to take into consideration that this is actually being written five days before the day after X-mas. Sadly there isn’t a readily available future tense of “‘Twas.” “Twere” going to be the day after X-mas??? And perhaps ‘tis or ‘twas even more twaser twhen you’re reading it? Twhere the hell are we going with this?

Tricks have been treated, thanks have been given and…a lot of X-mas stuff happened. Congratulations you have survived the hell-i-day trinity gauntlet. Now all that’s left to do is sit back, relax and usher in the New Year. A new year that is destined by name to give a clear vision into the future. Did anyone else notice that? It is 20 20….like an eyesight gag…never-mind. At least it hopefully won’t be as disappointing as past years filled with broken promises.

We weren’t time traveling into the past or Back to the Future in 1985. 12 Monkeys didn’t wipe out most of the human race in 1996. In 1997 we couldn’t Escape from New York because Manhattan Island hadn’t become a nationwide maximum security prison. No Vendetta with a V for it achieved in 1998. We couldn’t party like it was 1999 because (sorry Prince) the party wasn’t over in two thousand zero zero. 2000 came and went with no globally televised Death Race. There was no Space Odyssey in 2001. There weren’t cannibal human zombies 28 Days Later in 2002. The Matrix was not Reloaded in 2003. Timecops weren’t enforcing the law in 2004. We missed out on a War of The Worlds in 2005. We weren’t forced to go on The Road in 2006, for unknown apocalyptic reasons. It’s well beyond 2007 and we’ve still no cannibal human zombies 28 Weeks Later. Jason (X) Voorhees was not captured by the US Government in 2008. He’s still at that damned camp place.

We weren’t traveling back in time in 2009 to Freejack human organs… (No matter how you say it that sounds wrong). 2010 was not The Year We Make Contact. There was no Rise of the Apes taking over the Planet as of 2011. Neither the world nor John Cusack ended in 2012 due to the earth’s crust becoming unstable.

In 2013 we didn’t Escape from L.A. which didn’t become an island in 2000. Godzilla didn’t destroy San Francisco in 2014. 2015 came and never went Back to the Future with flying cars or hoverboards. We could not be entertained by Zombie Strippers in 2016. 2017 has passed and still no Terminator…Judgment, Genisys or anything. Wasn’t anybody playing Rollerball in 2018? In 2019 vampires did not become Daybreakers and/or the dominant species.

Have you ever noticed that when it comes to cinematic visions of the future it always seems really bleak? Most incorporate an apocalyptic event, time travel or zombies. Which makes you wonder, why hasn’t there been a time-traveling zombie that causes an apocalypse movie? It also lets you know that, even at our creative best, the future sucks.

Why the negativity? Let’s be honest, for the sake of entertainment value nobody wants to see a film where everything is fine. “Hey I just got back from the future and…nothing happened! Nobody died or got lost to the time steam and the future is great!” Yeah, nobody’s watching that!

But off-screen, in the real world, how do we unsuck the future? We make today better, so when its tomorrow, we can look back to it for reference material and make today better tomorrow. Do that for a week and next week will be great! Now do that next month 12 times and next year will be awesome! What about this year? Meh it’s almost over and we’ve still got 5 tomorrows left to figure it out… pending your ‘tis or ‘twas situation.

I welcome almost all questions and comments via the Focus, or E-mail me directly at – [email protected]. Hope to hear from you, until then try and stay focused. See ya!