DearEvette

Yeah, Pee Wee's Big Adventure was one of those movies that when it first came out you thought was gonna be bad in a low budget 'how did this get made?' way, but turned out to be really quite good, both from a storyline and writing perspective.

Paul Rubens, aka Pee Wee Herman has died after a long battle with Cancer. https://tvline.com/news/paul-reubens-dead-cause-of-death-pee-wee-herman-obituary-1235021343/

Right? The number of grown ass men with full ass beards who were pressed about Halle would have been funny if it weren't sad. They knew they didn't care about a Disney mermaid.

Ashley Nicole Black (who wrote for A Black Lady Sketch show and Ted Lasso) had a funny 'pitch'

I liked this. No it isn't the original Justified but that is ok. It would be weird to have Boyd and Tim just roll up to Detroit just to see them again. I like that the motivations we saw from the two main criminals -- the guy who was trying to kill the judge and the guy who actually killed the judge -- is that they are just garden variety criminals. One of a bit of a doof but he was mad at the judge for sleeping with his ma. The other one -- the main villain -- was more sinister and obviously a career criminal, but he was just an asshole with impulse control issues. I like that they don't fall into the tv trap of being these super clever, super rich,Moriarty types that have a Dr. Evil plan and a lot disposable minions they send out to do their bidding . I gather we can thank Elmore Leonard for that. Who in wardrobe hates Aunjanue Ellis? She is an attractive woman and a year younger that Timothy Olyphant and yet that hair and outfit in court were not flattering and made her look older. She did look better when she was hanging in the bar and in the 2nd episode in her office, but her outfits were still kinda mumsy. As far as Willa goes, I have two problems: The character of Willa. I have a hard time believe that the daughter of Raylan Givens would not have been taught to have a better danger Spidey sense. Also there is the teenager who does regular teenager dumb things and then there is a teenager who sits in a courtroom and laughs out loud at cat videos, disrupting the proceedings. My SIL works for a Federal Judge and took my son when he was 10yo to work with her one day and he got to sit in the courtroom. Even at 10 he knew then how to act right and respectful in a courtroom. And then there is the actress. Man she is giving nothing. If she had auditioned for the part and her last name wasn't Olyphant, I do not believe she would have been cast. She is just a block, imo. Also, she doesn't have a good performer voice. There is a reason some silent movie era actors couldn't transition to talkies. She was giving Lina Lamont (ref: Singing in the Rain). But that said, I like the whole vibe and Timothy Olyphant has slid back into Raylan's skin effortlessly. And, weirdly, even though I think the main bad guy is an asshole and won't be sorry if he dies in a hail of bullets in the end, the actor plays him well with a kind of oozy charm that I can't get too mad at.

Even without a big apology Sinead has been vindicated 1000x over. And anybody who participated in shaming her knows it even if they don't want to admit it. It is sad that she was never able to professionally recover in the manner she should have, but that is more on a puritanical and hypocritical industry than it is on her. So, go on with your bad self, Sinead! RIP.

All the think pieces. So many think pieces....

re: Pickled eggs in beet juice. The first time I had them was also with my then boyfriend, now husband's family. His mom is also from Pennsylvania and of German descent. Unfortunately they never grew on me. But they are still a staple at holiday meals esp. Easter. It is kind of a running joke in the family that none of the in-laws (me or my brothers-in-laws who are married to my husband's sisters really like them). My mother-In Law brings out this big pickle jar with the eggs in the beet juice and her kids (my husband and his sisters )are all yay! Meanwhile us in laws --are all 'Um, yay?' I am African American, one Bro-in-Law is Northern Italian and the other is French-Canadian so they were completely new to us until we married into the family.

One of my favorite and imo one of the better tv episodes re: colorism is the Season 1 episode in Dear White People that focused on CoCo. In the original movie, Coco was presented as this blonde weave, fake blue eyed dark-skinned girl who was not really given any context (she was played by Teyonah Parris). Whereas the light skinned biracial Sam (played by Tessa Thompson) was centered in the movie and her embracing of her blackness is given all the nuance you could want. ironically, of course, this set up is textbook colorism with the light skinned woman given all this agency and centering, and the dark skinned woman is kinda reduced to a self-hating one-dimensional character. In the tv show, that gets redressed fabulously. For one, the tv show version of CoCo (played by Antoinette Robertson) is soooo complex and brilliantly conceived. IMO, she got the best character development and writing. And her episode (all the characters got their own character centered episode in season one) was about how colorism affected her. But also it puts into perspective how colorism has benefited Sam (played by Logan Browning) in ways that Sam never realized. It is a nice bit of writing because CoCo is 100% aware of what is going on but Sam's light skinned privilege blinds her.

Not just real estate. There are so many places affected with the kibosh on promotion -- venues, food workers, florists. Even the fashion industry since big stars can't wear your pretty clothes on the non-existent red carpets. Award shows. I'd be flabbergasted if this went on through the end of the year, but if it does... Award season gets into full swing starting Jan-Feb. It will already potentially affect the Emmys since that one is coming up. And then as @Spartan Girl posted above, we get to delaying releases. How many films are in the can ready to go? How long can they delay releases? Theaters were hard hit by Covid and are just now starting to see some returns, this would definitely hurt them. One thing I think is cool that I am hearing is about Comic-Con. I mean yeah some people are kinda bummed they won't be seeing the big stars in Hall H. But a LOT of what I am hearing is that people are not fussed and that the lack of stars makes it feel more what it used to be -- an actual convention for comic book nerds.

Agreed. If I hadn't known that was Ai, I would have thought the person was a trolling. It is giving "tell me you don't really watch the show.' It 100% reads like an essay prompt. The writing is too formal for a colloquial chat forum. Something about it is just a little off and doesn't quite pass the smell test. Even the given examples are too broad and doesn't make me feel like the 'person' actually watched the show. They honestly read like the person cribbed something from a character bio. But the biggest tell of all it the lack of 'I feel' throughout the post. Look on any message board or forum especially when the subject skews toward the negative opinion and you'll see a lot of 'I' in there. That is because to post on something you like, or especially something you dislike, requires a level of personal engagement and passion. Also in human nature, especially on public forums and social media, people feel they have to justify why they dislike something so the receipts would be littered all throughout.

I made grilled barbecue chicken paninis. Wegman's Tuscan garlic bread, shredded slow cooked chicken in my own barbecue sauce, provolone cheese, baby spinach, and caramelized onions. Side of sweet potato fries served with hot honey dipping sauce.

If nothing else, the strike is an educating me on a lot of things. So many actors are pulling back the curtain, so to speak, on the economics of being a working actor. And I am not talking about the Tom Cruises and Julia Robertses and not even the newbie or background actor. But the regulars on tv shows that have nice runs or supporting in fairly well known movies. They aren't getting headline articles written about them or are even top five on the call sheet sometimes and you may not even be able to quickly recall their names, but they are the 'Hey It's That Guy!' type actor that you see in movies or tv shows all the time. DB Woodside has a nice series of tweets where he talks about the economics of living in LA but working in Canada and how little assistance actors get to find a living situation. Michelle Hurd has a nice interview video about how the industry has changed wrt to the concept of an actor's quote. Or the fact that acting is the one of the few jobs where years or seniority in the field don't translate to a higher basic quote. Honestly this brings that whole Geoffrey Owens (from the Cosby show) working at Trader Joe's (where he qualified for health insurance) into perspective. Others have also talked about shady Hollywood accounting practices where part of the actor's salary comes from profit of the film, but they don't see that part of the money because the studios claim that the films actually lose money year over year, so there is never a profit. John Cusak has tweeted about this. Also how actors have had to sue to get their share. Going back to Jame Garner and the Rockford Files. Also the entire cast of My Big Fat Greek Wedding (minus Nia Vardalos) had to sue because the studio said the film did not turn a profit (it was made for less than $6 million but made over $350 million, mind you). And finally, I learned about Tree Law. Which has been a fun rabbit hole to go down. Apparently Universal brutally trimmed back a bunch of ficus trees (honestly those trees look like someone took a hacksaw to them) where SAG/WGA was striking to lessen the shade cover. That opened a can of worms because there are laws about who, what, and when trees owned by the city can be trimmed.

The one I always wonder about is when the couple are so hot for each other that they are kissing and groping madly even as they are opening the front door. And as they get inside they are still kissing and groping and ripping off their clothes and they careen off the furniture so that lamps, vases, flowers -- basically anything on a surface -- goes crashing to the floor as they make their destructive way through the house, breaking and upending shit. They may or may not make it to the bedroom, if they don't they'll arm swipe all the stuff off a desk or table to get it on on the table.

I think the more alarming part isn't AI but the 'in perpetuity thing.' It is one thing to be given rights within a specific body of work to manipulate an actor's likeness and voice. Copyright has its own set of very specific laws that some of that is likely governed under wrt to that specific piece of work. But 'owning' the likeness and voice of an actor to put them in anything ever that you want where they can't object is a dystopian. What is to stop them from putting them in something incredibly explicit or have them endorsing a product or candidate that is personally repugnant to the actor? At any rate, as I mentioned above contract language is very specific. For instance, to a layman special effects can mean anything 'artificial' but technology wise, VFX and CGI are two different things. And if you stipulate one thing in writing you need to be aware of what it is you are stipulating. And AI is still an emergent technology with capabilities we may not yet be aware of. One of the reasons some early broadcast or cable shows are not available for streaming or even available in DVD format because of the contracts for music rights were written before the advent of DVDs and streaming so the language doesn't cover those media. And now in order to do that they have to either remove the music or renegotiate. And decide which one is more expensive to so. And one of the reasons WGA is striking again is because of what streaming has evolved into and in ways they could not predict back when they struck in 2007 which is now to their detriment. It also just sounds like based on what both WGA and SAG are saying is that the AMPTP are just not willing to even negotiate at all. According to several sources apparently, certain studio heads have what amounts to a siege mentality where they were actually willing to sit, do nothing and hope the lack of pay/loss of income would result in the writers losing their homes etc. so they'd come crawling back. All that seems to have done is mage them angrier and more resolute. re: Background actors. I do not believe that day players and extras need to be in SAG to work as extras, but quite a few might be. And I think if your plan is to be a working actor then you will need to eventually be in SAG.

So did you all see what the AMPTP were proposing for AI? According to SAG, the AMPTP came to the table and their proposal for AI was for it to be codified that background actors could come in for one day's work (be paid for one day) and have their likenesses scanned. That likeness would then be owned by the company and could be used by the company in any project, any capacity, in perpetuity without any additional consent or compensation. They would further be able to feed all collected acting images into generative AI so it could learn and they could use these generated AI actors in whatever they want. Sounds creepy as hell.

Yeah, I have been listening to the press conference. Fran's presser speech was very good. She sounded mad and hurt and righteous at the same time. I was ready to go walk the lines and I am not even in the industry! LOL.

I think it depends on how contracts are written and what rights have been granted and whether or not unknown future technologies are covered and even so far as 'Likeness' and what that means. Contract language is very specific and technology can outpace what is known vs. what is meant. Reminds me of the big sea change that happened when ebooks came around. A lot of old publishing contracts where had rights that were based on "print books" or to publishing houses to “print, publish and sell in book form.” At the time this was to distinguish between print and audio where audiobooks often had a different publisher and different rights and a different revenue stream for the authors. But nobody had thought of ebooks. So when ebooks took off, there were cases where authors were attempting to contract for ebook rights with different companies and were getting sued by their publishers or publishers selling ebooks and not having to compensate authors because of the 'print book' wording. I think since in this case it is WGA and SGA-AFTRA -- both are unions. So as a union they are trying to formalize language plus base compensation and a set of legal rules for everyone and not have it so bigger names with lots of money can negotiate better terms for themselves while the lesser or newer actors and writers can be taken advantage of.

Yeah, this tells me people don't know what personal boundaries are. You don't fence in your neighbor's yard, you fence in your own. It is something you place on yourself and acts as a line you won't cross. 'I will not have this type of relationship or I won't be around this type of person" is a personal boundary. "You can no longer do this thing, so stop it." Is coercive control. Between him and Keke Palmer's boyfriend, we got a 1-2 punch of men deciding to show their asses on twitter and attempt to shame and control the women in their lives for what they choose to wear. Wild.

My husband and I went out to eat with his sister and her husband. We went to an actual sit down restaurant with a waiter and everything. We realized with some shock how much we had gotten out of the habit of eating out. Pre-Covid we'd go out a couple times a months. But post we only go so far as getting take out. Anyway we went to a favorite Italian place. We had Carpaccio for the table -- the beef slivers were sliced so thin they were practically transparent and melt in your mouth silky good. It was drizzled with this dijon mustard sauce. I had Lobster ravioli in a creamy wine sauce with toasted bread crumbs. My ravioli was pretty, it was tricolor striped (Italian flag). My husband had this super flavorful, gorgeous Cioppino. And we had tiramisu for desert. Lovely evening, fantastic meal.

Ha! I see what you did there.

I think that the basic premise of some of them absolutely could not be made today, such as Soul Man where the entire premise of fucked up. I mean even back in 1986 we were side-eyeing this movie. But quite a few on the list, the movies themselves are not an issue they just have some problematic scenes or elements that could be excised completely and still keep the plot and theme of the film intact. I mean, yeah if we kept them exactly as is they wouldn't be greenlit, but the way the article is written they seem to suggest that the whole movie is problematic. I am think of Sixteen Candles which at is at its' core simply a girl whose 16th birthday has been hijacked by a lot of different chaotic elements. That could still 100% work just get rid of the problematic parts. Driving Miss Daisy could definitely still be made. I think it it less the subject matter/plot and more whether they think investing in more movies like that. It is 100% Oscar bait so maybe. Also, Austin Powers -- huh? Their reasoning for including that is flawed. It is a parody of the James Bond movies. It does what parodies are supposed to do which is exaggerate and sends up the identifiable elements of the entity it is parodying. Of course there will be inappropriate womanizing. That is what James Bond does. Of course it could still get made today.

Oh, I love my job. I have worked in Higher Ed for almost my entire professional life both in the corporate sector (for a major education software vendor) and in the education sector for different colleges and universities. My current job I've been in the longest and worked my way up to an assistant directorship, have a lot of autonomy and seniority, and have earned (based on what my boss tells me) the respect of a lot of my colleagues. Speaking of... my boss texted me today to tell me that one of my least favorite people ( a particularly snotty professor that I had a rather public falling out with about 10 years ago because I knew something better than he did and he didn't like it so he decided to show his ass) was put on administrative leave, access to his university email and other systems have been removed. I am dying to know the hell happened. The amount of fucked up you have to do for a tenured professor and dept. chair to get this level rebuke is major!

Yeah the shipping discourse between Carmy and Sydney on The Bear is interesting. I don't know if any of The Bear creatives have weighed in (they'd be smart NOT to) but the whole thing has a 'been there, done that quality with some people saying 'There is no chemistry' and 'Why can't people just be friends' and 'They are giving sibling energy' in response to people shipping the couple. Now, to be fair I am not shipping Syd and Carmy per se I can see an argument for them being this great friend-partnership only, but the shippers are not pulling stuff out of their asses. I don't know if it is the writing, the directing, the acting choices or just the actor chemistry, but Syd and Carmy have scenes that objectively read as UST. Which brings me to the race portion of all this because usually these kickbacks to 'can't people just be friends" and 'they are giving sibling" vibes tend to be loudest when one pair of the shipping couple is a black female. Which brings us to Iscove and yeah, he needs to just sit there and eat his food. He has no credibility here. Given how they fumbled the bag with their own couple, I would only trust them to tell me how NOT to have nice things.