They built and labored and created alongside dozens of tribes and cultures, and they certainly weren’t the only ones who suffered grievously as this country gradually developed and bloomed and grew into itself…a nation of primarily European-descended immigrants (even today) and a conflicted multicultural stew.

Two and a half years ago (7.30.20) I posted a loose-shoe retort to the 1619 Project, which attempted to (a) define the U.S. of A. as an empire built upon slavery and (b) to define 1619 (when the first slaves arrived in Virginia) as this country’s primal defining event rather than the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776.

In the wake of Disney’s The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, which at least partly seeks to indoctrinate 5 to 7 year-olds into the theology of anti-white racism and the basically racist idea that whites are inherently evil, and with the understanding that anti-racism essentially advocates for the furtherance of more racism (i.e., defining ourselves primarily by race and the huddling of separate tribes, pride within those tribes, white against black, etc.) and with the Proud Family chant of “slaves built this country,” I’m reposting “What’s Your 1619 Beef?”

“Slavery has always been an ignominious chapter in the first 245 years of US history (1619 to 1865) and racism has stained aspects of the culture ever since, but to assert that slavery and racism (which other cultures have shamefully allowed over the centuries) are THE central and fundamental definers of the immense American experience strikes many of us as a bridge too far.

“Many factors drove the expansion and gradual strengthening and shaping of this country, and particularly the spirit and character of it…here are 40 for starters, posted in groups of 10:

1. Immigration. 2. The industrial revolution and the cruel exploitations of sweat-shop workers by wealthy elites; 3. The delusion of religion; 4. Anti-Native American racism and genocide; 5. the American Revolutionary War against the British; 6. The mid 19th Century influence of Abraham Lincoln, Frederick C. Douglas, John Brown and Harriet Beecher Stowe; 6. The vast networks of railroads; 7. Selfishness & self-interest; 8. Factories and construction; 9. The two world wars of the 20th Century; 10. Scientific innovation.

11. Native musical forms including jazz, blues (obviously African-American art forms) folk and rock; 12. American literature; 13. The influence of New York theatre and Hollywood movies; 14. 20th and 19th Century urban architecture; 15. The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry; 16. Major-league baseball (Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Roger Maris); 17. Family-based communities and the Protestant work ethic; 18. Fashion and the garment industry; 19. Midwestern farming and individual gardening; 20. Native cuisine and the influences of European, Mexican, Asian and African cultures, not to mention hot dogs with mustard.

21. The shipping industry; 22. Hard work and innovation in all industries great and small; 23. John Steinbeck, George Gershwin, Paul Robeson, Louis Armstrong, JFK, MLK, Stanley Kubrick, Chet Baker, John Coltrane, Marilyn Monroe, Amelia Earhart, Malcom X, Taylor Swift, Charlie Parker, Elizabeth Warren, Woody Guthrie, Katharine Hepburn, Aretha Franklin, Jean Arthur, Eleanor Roosevelt, Carol Lombard, Shirley Chisholm, Marlon Brando, Woody Allen; 24. Barber shops; 25. Manual lawnmowers; 26. The auto industry; 27. Prohibition & gangsters; 28. The Great Depression and the anti-Communism and anti-Socialism that eventually sprang from that; 29. Status-quo-challenging comedians like Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce and Steve Allen (“schmock schmock!”), 30. Popular music of the ’50s, ’60s and ‘70s (Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Beatles and Rolling Stones, Queen).

31. Television, cable and streaming; 32. Great American universities; 33. Great historians; 34. Great journalism (including the National Lampoon and Spy magazine); 35. Great poetry; 36. Beats, hippies and post-Stonewall gay culture; 37. The anti-Vietnam War movement; 38. Pot and psychedelia, cocaine, quaaludes; 39. The late ’70s splendor of Studio 54; 40. 20th & 21st Century tech innovations (Steve Jobs).

This is called “barely scratching the surface.”

I’m posting this to remind HE’s The Last Of Us fans that there are many, many “meh” responders like me out there, and that a good percentage of us regard the idea of watching a 50ish bear get an offscreen blowjob from a slender, gray-haired 50ish bear with acute discomfort, to put it mildly.

Response to “Sylvain BL”: You’ve said that judging a limited series after watching three episodes is like judging a feature film after watching just 15 minutes’ worth. Well, let me tell you something: If a film is working and grooving and doing it right, I don’t need 15 minutes to comprehend this. I can tell this almost immediately, and certainly within 5 minutes.

Ask anyone who’s done script-reading for an agency or production company — a smart reader can spot a stinker within three or four pages. And if a script is going to be good, you’ll also know it almost immediately. It’s also known, of course, that well-written scripts can go off the rails in the second or third acts, which is why script-readers are unfortunately obliged to read scripts all the way through. But 98% or 99% of the time, if a script blows during the first five pages, it’ll never recover. And if a limited series doesn’t seem to be doing it quite right during the first three episodes, the odds of the series pulling a rabbit out of a hat starting with episode #4 or #5 are very low.

Inner Affleck to himself: “I hate this but I have to do it…Jesus, man up! Pretend that you’re having a half-decent time. Do you want to become the latest misery meme? Remember that Simon & Garfunkel thing?”

Everyone else: “That‘s pretending? You’re telling the whole world what you’re going through, bruh. You look miserable.”

@gabriellemassari #benafflecks pained facial expressions at #thegrammys ♬ Funny Song – Cavendish Music

Profuse apologies for my not posting our latest Substack chat earlier today, but don’t let that stop you.

George Roy Hill‘s Slap Shot (’77) has gotten better with each successive re-viewing. Nancy Dowd‘s screenplay is based on her brother Ned’s rough-and-tumble experience with the Johnstown Jets, a minor-league Pennsylvania hockey team. And yes, in the early to mid ’70s violence was a serious selling point with the low-rent fans.

But the film doesn’t feel “realistic”…not really or fully. It may take a while during your first viewing, but it gradually hits you that Slap Shot is a brilliantly sustained farce — partly a satire of crude, working-class lifestyles and sensibilities, and partly a kind of valentine to same.

Assembled and finessed to a fare-thee-well (dp Victor Kemper and editor Dede Allen are a dynamic duo), it’s a blend of grim blue-collar realism and coarse slapstick. The characters are all trapped in a kind of blue-collar, no-exit hellscape, but only a couple of them (the married malcontents played by Michael Ontkean and Lindsay Crouse) succumb to anything close to lethargy. Everyone else is indefatigable.

And the violence is hilarious. Damn near every line is about making fun of these yokels, and yet Hill and Dowd clearly love them. It’s almost spooky how intoxicating it all is. Except, that is, for the climactic striptease-on-the-ice scene, which I’ve never believed.

Above The Line‘s Jeff Sneider and Perri Nemiroff clash over Women Talking starting around the 53:00 mark. Sneider: “It’s number 10! It will win if every woman in the Academy votes for it. It won’t win because no men in the Academy will be voting for it. This is a bad movie…simple as that.” It gets even better at 56:30: Sneider: “It belongs nowhere near this [Best Picture] race…what a fucking boring waste of time!”

HE to Sneider, Nemiroff: Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans has no chance to win…nobody hates it but nobody really thinks it’s all that great…it’s a semi-agreeable, very broadly acted family film (especially on Michelle Williams‘ part) which contains very little compelling material except for that concluding scene with John Ford / David Lynch. If it weren’t for the kneejerk Spielberg kowtow factor, it wouldn’t even be in the conversation.

HE to readership, Movie Godz, everyone within the sound of my voice: “Watch the skies…no. For the love of God and the betterment of civilization, stop Everything Everywhere All At Once…a grueling, agonizing, interminable piece of medieval torture …a harbinger of cultural ruin and a cinematic apocalypse if I ever saw one…all hail the GenXers and boomers who despise it with every fibre of their being, and there are many who feel this way.”