Tag: Entertainment
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Movies are more honest
Random thought. The movie and theater industries are dishonest in many ways, but both are the MOST honest forms of art in one way. Plays about making plays, and movies about making movies, have always been common. Both industries seem to enjoy displaying how the sausage is cooked. We aren’t encouraged to believe that Walt…
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Puzzling but wonderful
Adding another random thought to this theme: = = = = = START REPRINT: The teams are getting narrower and narrower and more specialized, in all fields. In pro athletics, every game or race is between two identical performers who are at the top of their range, and the difference has to be measured in…
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Today is Scouse Day!
Scouse Day is an annual festival in Liverpool. Wikipedia gives a complex list of dubious origins for the word. The one clear fact is that it was originally Lobscouse. My favorite British dictionary from 1867 says: Lobscouse, a dish made of potatoes and meat and biscuits boiled together. The dictionary doesn’t list scouse at all.…
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Elegant joke
EnidBuzz asked ‘What sounds do you enjoy hearing, other than music?’ The last one belongs to a refined category of deadpan country humor. When eating in a bad cafe, “Hey, this might be a good place to build a restaurant!” When Horace Dodge rebelled against Ford and set up his own company, “There are thousands…
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Cargo cults
Following on the unsurprising Newsweek disappointment… When dinosaurs grow big and arrogant, mammals will take over one way or another. After sensing the threat, a dinosaur will try two different responses, both of which will ultimately fail. One is suppression, and the other is fake adaptation. Fake adaptation has a cargo cult flavor. The dinosaur…
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Speaking of TIL
TIL about the only astronaut who deserves to be treated as a hero. Until now I disdained the whole space endeavor. As a nerd I was supposed to follow it eagerly, but I found it boring and purposeless. Here’s one astronaut worthy of emulation! = = = = = START QUOTE: Japan’s main TV network…
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Reaches the same conclusion
Ramesh Thakur writing for Brownstone reaches the same conclusion that I reached a couple years ago. Thakur is comparing the British Post Office mess, which was finally compensated way too late, with the “virus” holocaust, which hasn’t even decisively stopped let alone compensated. The two monstrosities are infinitely different in scale. The PO mess ruined…
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Non-opposite day
Today is Hell is Freezing Over Day and Hug an Economist Day. Unlike some recent days that were complementary, today is a tautology. (More seriously, the stated purpose of Freezing Over day is inaccurate. Supposedly this is the time when winter gets bad. In fact the end of Jan tends to mark the end of…
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Why ban silliness?
For some reason Elon decided to clamp down on Taylor Swift memes, most of which are fake pictures. Why bother? It’s just fun. Nobody is harmed, nobody is persuaded to do horrible things like “voting”. Taylor is a billionaire with her own army of lawyers. If she had wanted to halt this trend, she would…
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Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
Tesla owners find that batteries don’t work in cold weather. = = = = = START QUOTE: This week’s frigid winter conditions exposed the shortcomings of certain electric vehicles, particularly Teslas. In the Oak Brook suburb of Chicago, Illinois, where temperatures have routinely dipped way below freezing, local media reported public charging stations turning into…
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Just stop the Gusano Rojo.
Rushfield at the Ankler hits yet another home run. = = = = = START QUOTE: For the past decade, Hollywood’s greatest product has been volumes of chatter about ourselves, our problems, our shortcomings. There are important points to be made and problems to be addressed to be sure, but ideally those conversations would happen…
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Why do I defend Hollywood?
Why do I worry about the survival of Hollywood? I haven’t liked anything they produced since 1970, and very little since 1950. Everything they produce now is intentionally awful, devoid of empathy and depth. Mike Gioia writes a spirited defense of the new independent producers, emphasizing that AI will give more power to the independents…
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The only thing left
Pointed by The Ankler, this chart shows how Big Entertainment is collapsing from its own idiocy. 2022 TV RECAP: Live @NFL games accounted for 82 of the 100 most-watched TV broadcasts of 2022 Full list: https://t.co/Ff6wWI15Hg pic.twitter.com/zZm4QipheX — Sportico (@Sportico) January 6, 2023 The 100 biggest events on broadcast TV this year. 96 are sports,…
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More on short features
Related to my recent focus on SHORT features. The latest Ankler podcast includes a discussion of cadence in movies. Filmmakers haven’t yet figured out how to capture and keep audiences who aren’t trapped. For several decades people went to the theater for an entire evening, and watched whatever was on. When the audience has put…
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