Day: March 4, 2023

The Pride and the Passion

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For what it’s worth today’s Oscar Poker podcast (3.4, 64 minutes) was and is my personal Jeff-and-Sasha favorite so far. I felt calm, level-headed and reasonably articulate. Feel free to listen.

Branch Davidian Spirits Can Go Eff Themselves

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The deeply loathed Everything Everywhere All at Once has triumphed at the Branch Davidian Spirits, and nobody fecking cares! It won all seven of the categories in which it was nominated, including Best Feature. Seven of its eight nominees won in their categories, I meant to say. Cultists!

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HE to Didion: If You Knew

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…what I know about the mindset of Stalinist wokesters and how they’ve injected fear and intimidation into the common creative bloodstream and have thereby helped bring about the all-but-total-collapse of the mainstream Hollywood industrial entertainment complex (i.e., the industry that used to occasionally make super-cool films) and the utter superfluousness of Oscar culture…if you knew what I know about the pernicious effects of David Ehrlich-ism you would definitely be whining about the all-but-certain coronation of Everything Everywhere All At Once…trust me.

In All Seriousness

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If I was in Daniel Ellsberg’s situation, which I feel very sad and sympathetic about even though we all have to go sometime, I would find a nice friendly heroin dealer and start using a few weeks (but not too many weeks) down the road. Because what difference would it make? Plus he’d feel just like Jesus’s son.

Political columnist Stewart Alsop died of cancer in ‘74. Consider this passage from his Wiki page:

Vic Lizzy’s Ass Handed To Him On A Plate

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In a thread about “Dude Needs To Be Cancelled” (posted at 1:37 pm eastern), the excitable Vic Lizzy posted the following with a straight face: “Who’s saying it’s not okay to be white? There’s no significant groundswell of that sentiment. Calling out racism is not the same as being anti-white.”

An hour later Bobby Peru set him straight.

Peru: “Actually, there sort of is [a significant groundswell of that sentiment].

“I work for a large global firm and at least three times this week I heard the phrase ‘white male’ used in a dismissive and derogatory way. This was with respect to suggestions of antiquated leadership, exec team makeups of the past, “traditional” behaviors that need to be eradicated, etc.

“We had a work dinner this week with our CEO, who is a white woman, and she talked on and on about our recruiting efforts, and how we would not be focusing on white males. This type of discourse is considered to be politically correct, and progressive, and she is a huge advocate for diversity.

‘At this point in time there seems to be no distinction between vaulting diversity up as an important initiative and the takedown of white male leadership. A very common refrain over and over is this notion that we need to move past the ‘white male’ leaders of yesterday. Every time this is said everyone nods in agreement, even the white male leaders.”

Best Car Chase Finale Ever?

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High-speed chase scenes have been a staple of crime + action films since The French Connection, but this just-posted news-video sequence (a cop chasing a pair of teens, 14 and 15) has one of the greatest endings ever.

Has anyone ever seen a chase sequence end this way in some Gone in 60 Seconds-type film?

If William Friedkin had ended his big freeway chase sequence in To Live and Die in L.A. this way, the audience would’ve yelled “bullshit!” and thrown soft drinks at the screen.

The kids crashing through a chain-link bridge fence and then falling 20 or 25 feet to the ground is great enough, but then they get out of the car, unharmed, and run for it…amazing! They were wearing their seat belts!

The movie version would end with either (a) the kids being picked up by a friend on the road below and escaping to safety or (b) a live-free-or-die passerby stopping to see if the kids are okay, and the kids jumping into his car and telling him “hit it, man…please, just get out of here and tromp on it…we need to get outta here!…come on, man!”

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Dude Needs To Be Cancelled

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Foam-at-the-mouth wokesters** might shriek and howl about my having posted this, but putting aside the digital footprints of Scott Adams and MrsWalker613, I like the performer (whose name and Twitter/TikTok handle I’m still not sure about) and I respect his willingness to make a point that seems fair and logical.

** not Jeremy Fassler, who received his walking papers yesterday.