I tune in to Gender Rebels. They don’t post episodes frequently, but they’re a fine hang.

The Dark Tower (2017, dir Nikolaj Arcel)

• https://distiller.com/lists/our-favorite-whiskeys-from-the-rocky-mountain-state
• https://distiller.com/lists/our-favorite-washington-state-whiskeys
• https://distiller.com/lists/the-top-whiskeys-from-oregon

Director of Longlegs, The Monkey and Gretel & Hansel. Son of Oscar-nominated actor Anthony Perkns (the original Norman Bates).

https://www.themoviedb.org/person/90609-osgood-perkins

Raising awareness. There’s nothing else she can do…

She can do more.

She can be functionally disruptive during Senate proceedings and votes to slow down this administration’s actions to a halt (like Republicans did when Democrats were in charge). She didn’t attend the joint session of Congress the other day, which was a missed opportunity to be a visible example of someone demonstrating actual leadership.

Senators and Congressfolk are used to “leading” by performing the drudgery of lawmaking; crafting bills, participating in committees, etc. We are in unprecedented times. Like it or not, women and minorities are shock troops positioned to bare the brunt of the hell that’s coming.

I need Senator Murray to start acting like this is a reality rather than a possibility.

Also note: every authoritarian regime has use for a struggle-bus opposition party. A group able to amicably perform the part of a political counterpoint, but at the same time be pathetically bumbling and inept, always falling just short of being able to win back power. They exist to sap attention and political will from individuals who DO want to win and properly unfuck things (outlaw Citizens United, enforce public financing of campaigns, implement single-payer health care, broaden options for voting, tax the rich, followed by addressing the million more micro-miseries that erode our eponymous pursuit of Happiness). This can be very enticing for someone with little moral fortitude who is only interested in punching a clock as democracy circles the drain. Apropos of nothing, of course.

I’m going to keep coming back with this until some-habs takes me up on it.

Furries, now is your time to shine.

It all depends on how you define and categorize morality.

The Tolkien dilemma reasoned that since orcs could talk and demonstratively discuss the ideas of right and wrong, then they have some sense of morality. If they have reason and morals, could they at some point decide to stop being evil? And if so, is it moral to eradicate them entirely?

I haven’t read the Frieren manga, but the show referred to its world’s demons as not actually speaking, but having learned to make human-like noises to elicit desired responses. I’m not sure if I buy that explanation (given how the characters behave and converse) but if you do, it’s a functional hedge against feeling bad about our beloved protagonist doing a genocide.

Again, the manga might get into this more. Also this could be a potential character arc for Frieren; whoop lol maybe I shouldn’t do a genocide after all. I do hope it goes this way, but I doubt it will.

I wouldn’t normally post something like this, but the trailer itself seemed unique enough to share. All the indulgent slow-motion shots of people eating take me back to the functional purpose of montage. What does this kind of media say about us?

Panel 3 - the raccoon character implies that the transgender women in Bee’s friend group is an exception to the “more girls” description of the group, insinuating that transgender women are not women.

Panel 4 - the skunk character corrects them, because transgender women are women, transgender men are men, and bigots are bigots.

I wonder if that includes actually staffing police stations. Here’s the sign that hangs inside the door of every Seattle police precinct, which remains locked all day, every day:

• Amour (2012)
• La Belle et la Bête (1946)
• Kirikou and the Sorceress (1998)
• Abre los ojos (1997)
• Everybody Hates Johan (2022)
• Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In) (2008)
• Last and First Men (2020)
• Louise by the Shore (2016)
• La tortue rouge (The Red Turtle) (2016)
• L’argent (1983)
• Little Otik (2000)
• Réalité (2015, dir Quentin Dupieux)
• Run Lola Run (1999)
• The Wages of Fear (1953)
• Vi ar bast (2023)

Here’s a non-paywalled article about this story not from a piece of shit news source:

https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-san-francisco-water-pollution-6874dc505a394d9181b17a0aef41406f

As a gigantic fan of animation as an artform, I don’t think I would have picked Flow as the best animated feature. The film’s third act never really congeals and the movie just ends abruptly. I’m not the kind of narrative purist that insists on bulletproof storytelling, but when a film is in the running against multiple strong contenders that tell a solid story (Memoir of a Snail was my favorite this year), it’s hard to justify the win.

But I think I know what the Academy is doing. They’re eager to put this award into the hands of ANYBODY churning out animated fare that’s different from the same old Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks products year after year.

The potatoes…!

All the protests and boycotts so far this year haven’t had the wide publicity necessary to break through

That’s precisely my point. All the protests and boycotts so far have come from random social media posts and not marshaled, amplified or organized by people who are actually in roles of leadership… like Bernie, or AOC, or the Human Rights Campaign, or the ACLU.

People are pissed and ready for action, and our leaders aren’t offering specific guidance. It’s so frustrating.

As Americans, we cannot stay quiet as Trump abandons centuries of our commitment to democracy. Together, we must fight for our long-held values and work with people around the world who share them.

Omg finally, a call to action. I’m ready! Let’s fucking go! What are we doing, Bernie? Economic boycott? General strike? What’s the plan?

eof

God damn it.

One of the fundamental goals of the [email protected] community is explicitly to help surface small to medium budget films that don’t get the benefit of distribution marketing budgets.

The Red Letter Media guys just gave a glowing review to another one of these, The King Tide, whose trailer I remember posting and thinking “ok, this looks great”.

Quality, intriguing, memorable films are still being made. If you want to see them, you have to put in the work to find them.

One thing that shows up in this list over and over again is voluntary withdrawl from the Human Rights Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index. It’s high time the HRC itself takes a lead on reporting which businesses are running away from it, but something tells me they won’t. They exist on corporate donors, and if they start throwing corporations under the bus, they will likely see continued financial extraction.

Also, the 15 companies listed are:

• Google
• Aldi’s
• Target
• Amazon
• Meta
• McDonald’s
• Walmart
• Molson Coors
• Ford
• John Deere
• Lowes
• Harley-Davidson
• Brown-Forman
• Tractor Supply Co
• Toyota

I worked with the Missouri Historical Society years ago to archive some footage I’d shot of the St Louis city streetscape. It was all on digital video, but the archivists insisted on converting it to an analog medium (u-matic video tapes). Their reasoning was that all media degrades, but that analog at least degrades gracefully. Magnetic tape has the capability of sitting in storage, untouched and un-cared-for, and still be quite viewable with minimal degradation. Digital media becomes corrupted very easily, and requires constant replication and backups, which can be very expensive for massive archives. For media that may or may not ever be touched again, why not pick a medium that requires the least amount of maintenance?

Dear hiring managers: this scenario would probably make an intriguing interview question.

Soooo… when’s the auto auction?