Buffa's Buffet: 5 things on my mind

A great documentary that clocks in under an hour!

If you’ve ever worked a day job, one will understand that Sunday night dread. The feeling of free time leaving and work time approaching is never an easy one, so I beat it away with the fact that 95% of the world’s occupants are sharing the same issues I am, and that our collective goals aren’t that different from the person working in the building next to us. It can be classified as motivation, but another way of feeling less alone and more active is a fine way to think of it.

Let’s not waste time on the Blues. They’re in the same position as they were Friday. Games on the east coast this week will decide if their losing streak is extending its stay or breaking off from the pack. The “it’s still early” tag applies through November.

The Houston Astros defeated the Philadelphia Phillies for the World Series, their second in five years but first without any cheating strings attached. After scoring like gangbusters for the first three and a half rounds, the Philly bats went cold and Houston took advantage. Pitching wins championships, but runs are the things that actually win the games.

Tom Brady may play until he’s 55, and that’s fine with me. There are few quarterbacks more watchable than the Tampa Bay Bucs QB, partly due to the fact that you can never count him out. Facing Captain ASSHAT Stan Kroenke’s Rams on Sunday night, Brady’s Bucs scored ten late fourth quarter points to steal the game and dignity from the puny LA Rams. Aaron Donald couldn’t stop it. Matthew Stafford couldn’t stop it. The young Rams head coach could only flex and watch. It was lovely.

What a mighty turn of events from 21 years ago. Then, St. Louis football fans wanted him to throw countless interceptions to the Rams defense. Today, I enjoy his comeback against the no-longer-in-St-Louis Rams. Sports will never lose its sense of humor.

Why was I watching football? J.J. Twigs in South Hampton has every screen stuffed with football on Sunday nights, so the choice wasn’t mine. Watching the end of a close game is more worthwhile than watching 5-6 games with the hopes that they are actually worth watching in the fourth quarter. It’s like string-less sports enjoyment.

Switching gears to movies and TV shows, let me take a moment here to send props to St. Louis filmmaker Joey Puleo. On Sunday afternoon at the Galleria 6 Cinemas, my old stomping ground, Puleo’s latest documentary, “A New Home,” was screened at the Whitaker St. Louis International Film Festival. In a packed theater (Gally’s biggest one), the audience was treated to the compelling story of the thousands of Bosnian refugees who fled from the war in Yugoslavia to the United States. STL was the city that took the most in, giving Bosnian’s jobs and housing.

The documentary spans from the early 90s when the war pushed those people out of their country and into ours, into 9/11 when a racial stigma towards Muslims or anyone who looked or sounded like Muslim was quietly (or loudly) ridiculed. A sad case of people losing their childhood homes and way of life overnight, desperately seeking a new home. That was found in St. Louis, which holds the highest Bosnian population anywhere outside of Bosnia.

The moral of the doc is to appreciate what you have here. As one grown-up Bosnian refugee puts it near the end of the film, our struggles pale in comparison to their plight and flight back when war broke everything apart. Imagine going to sleep one night with everything comfortably in its place in your world, and the next day it’s completely gone. If time has taught us anything, it’s that horrible acts and actions are easily repeated. 1945 showed what concentration camps can do to a culture of people, and the early 1990s showed it can happen again.

Puleo always keeps the focus on the people. By lasering the focus of the film on these embattled yet proudly surviving families, the spotlight rarely leaves the human subject point of view. Politics are kept to a minimum as well. He interviewed several Bosnian families, many of which moved their families out to St. Louis County. As it did in “America’s Last Little Italy,” Puleo’s new film points out how St. Louis City places itself on an island far too often. That played into the Bosnian culture developing here.

Impressive Note: Puleo has made two documentaries that come in at just above two hours combined. He could teach Michael Bay a thing or two about running time editing. His current arsenal of documentaries prove the fact that our history is fascinating when presented correctly. Find a focus and hit the points. That’s what Puleo did with “A New Home.” Look for it on Amazon Prime in the coming months.

I started Netflix’s “Inside Man,” and only got into the second episode. Stanley Tucci is a fine actor, but the four hour ask didn’t look worth it to me. “Enola Holmes 2” also lost my (admittedly tired) attention last night. The original was good, but even Millie Bobby Brown can’t make the audience not pine for Henry Cavill’s Sherlock Holmes to come back on screen.

This is where I do my due diligence and tell you to watch Hulu’s The Bear.

What else?

~Fixing other people’s messes is about as fun as going to the dentist with two surefire cavities.

~If you’re making a right turn, braking isn’t REQUIRED.

~Aaron Carter’s death is another unfortunate case of mental illness going unchecked in the dark and addiction running rampant. Talented people dying in their 30s is something that never stops.

~Everybody likes to preach about how history holds all the answers, and knowing it so deeply that others should understand it just as much. Here’s the thing about the past: The people in power who make decisions don’t take it seriously enough. There are souls living who think the Holocaust was a hoax. Building out the future has to include elements of the past but a new way of doing it as well. Mostly, preaching just sucks so I digress.

~Restaurants that serve salads with the dressing on the side, even if it’s not requested, are asking customers to do their own work. Let’s just get this straightened out. Whether it’s asking for you to fill your cup of soda or tea or pouring a tiny container of dressing over a forest of leaves in a bowl, it’s putting us to work. If I wanted to do that, cooking at home would have been the answer. As Bill Burr joked, I must have forgot that I worked here or something! Mix the salads, pour the drinks, and keep customers.

Finally, how in the world is it a week into November already? Time is moving faster than the work flow at my day job, which is pretty fucking fast if you ask me. Be well, take luck, and avoid the idiots handing out idiot lollypops.