Lugal

Tinariwen has a new album out next month: And I ended up listening to my old favorites:

Interest note about that nursery that Disney sued and forced them to paint over the Disney characters: Afterwards Universal Studios and Hanna-Barbara personally sent their animators down to that nursery where they painted their own characters for the kids.

Wow, its like a greatest hits record: the homophobic politician caught doing gay things, the rich politician comparing the poor to animals, and early 90's hip-hop. This is why I wish I could travel more. I would be really curious to see if the "leadership" of other countries holds their own citizens in such contempt. They really don't believe that people deserve anything close to basic human dignity and anything approaching a decent life. It's like they only see us as engines to drive their own profits and if we can't do that, well then, we're just not worthy of living. Oh wait, that is how they see us. As for Tucker et al, it reminds me of something someone said to me once: The ones you really have to watch out for are the cynical bastards who stir up shit just so they can make a buck off of it.

Ron DeSantis legitimately scares me, the idea of that man getting anywhere near the federal government. John didn't even get into the worst aspects of that fucking meatball. Like Danielle Pompey saying he was antagonistic to black students and would play "devil's advocate" about the Civil War. Some students even made a satirical video mocking him about it. Even worse are Mansoor Adayfi's allegations that DeSantis oversaw the torture of detainees at Guantánamo Bay. Puts the whole "thigh date" and not liking to be corrected in a whole new context. As for nicknames, I'd go with "Guantánamo Ron" On a lighter note, I'd love to see what Radiant comes up with for whatever movie John gives them.

I was in my mid-twenties when I read the books as well. I remember the phenomenon going on, and saw the first two movies and thought they were OK. I remember when my boss brought his kid's gradeschool class to the store and read from the latest book. Then a friend and my sister and a few others recommended the books and they were fun enough at the time, but not some beloved thing I would reread years afterward. I guess my unpopular opinion was that I'm indifferent to them. Oh yeah, Magic School (real creative name there) which my friends and I called Blogmorts*a completely original creation in no way inspired by a certain series of books or movies.

So James O'Keefe always wanted to be a performer, huh. Never would have guessed that by looking at the pimp costume.🙄 Huckabee's show? OK. As long as I don't have to watch it. But it is on the same network that wants to know why Julia Roberts hasn't been to East Palestine yet. The AI bit was interesting, but I'm surprised that he didn't mention about adversarial attacks (where a few alterations to a stop sign can make an AI read it as a 45 mph speed limit sign).

See Death by Newberry Medal For the record, I'm the same way which is why I'm glad I found Does the Dog Die?

I caught one once where the homeowners were upset: Homeowners: "I wanted open concept! Why am I seeing Walls?" Me: "Because you're inside a house, dumbass!"

Yeah, Hitter, Thief, Mastermind, Grifter and Hacker. I liked it, and thought it was worth seeking out. It may be a little hard to find due to geo-blocking.

I'm not a gun person, but as I understand it when they film with revolvers, because you can see the bullets, they use cartridges that the powder has been removed from. Which is what happened with Brandon Lee, but they didn't realize the primer charge was still there and the trigger was pulled at some point which pushed the bullet into the chamber. So when it was later loaded with blanks, it was in essence a live round. (Jon Eric Hexum was killed by screwing around with a gun loaded with blanks) To bring it back to Baldwin, he was handed a gun and told it was a "cold gun" and he may not have been qualified to tell the difference. So I'm divided, I don't think Baldwin as an actor should be charged, but as a producer on the film who knew there was unsafe conditions, he should face some charges (all the producers should, really).

Same here about the video. Although what Blergh said about the fineprint and data sharing is a disincentive as well. My brick wall is sort of the opposite of yours. No one knows where my 3rd great-grandfather came from. The story is he came from Connecticut and ran away from home due to a hated stepmother. He did share a surname with a large family in CT, but DNA showed that he wasn't related to them.

Meryl Streep! Definitely a step up from Amy Schumer.

This was my favorite episode so far (I say that pretty much every week, but still...) I love the perspective of seeing the team from someone else's eyes. I really liked Jenna and Keith. Despite Jenna's ambition, she didn't hesitate to do the right thing. I would definitely like see Jenna and Keith again. Sofie outright told Jenna, "We'll be watching." Personal favorite moments: Parker's YT video of how to crack a safe which is clearly the safe right in front of Jenna, and Jenna's reaction of: "huh, you really can find anything on the internet!" Breanna singing (wow!) Sofie getting shoved to the window of the food truck (and her invisible helper) Harry the LumberDuke (and Carol's stash of illegally downloaded Hallmark movies) Elliot quietly taking down all the guys before they could get close to Jenna. There was a Korean remake of the original show a few years back. I managed to track it down, and I enjoyed it (as a fan of Leverage and as a fan of K-dramas). They even name-checked the series in The Golf Job when Hurley says he just flew in from Seoul and that "Lee Tae-Joon [lead on the Korean show] and his crew are killing it over there!"

Henry Louis Gates did write about it a few years back. The original article seems to be gone, but I found this one that quotes him:

I read somewhere it was due to patterns of settlement and migration that a lot of people on the frontier in the early 1800s were more likely to meet Cherokees than most other Indian Nations. In order to be considered for tribal membership, a person has to trace their descent from an ancestor on the Dawes Rolls (Indian Census). I had a friend who looks Indian and does probably have native ancestors, but was unable to prove a definite connection. Then I have another friend who looks more like a surfer than an Indian but he did get a census number and is a member of the Creek Nation.

Family myths just kind of stick around. When family elders tell us something, I think we tend to take it on faith. There was an ancestor on my mom's side that everyone in the family insisted was a doctor (he was even listed on the family tree as Dr. So-and-so). It wasn't until I started looking into the family history that I discovered he was actually a baker. Then there's the antiquarians in the late 1800s, who shall we say "embellished" their history. There's a family in Pennsylvania that most online trees trace back to the British Peerage. But when you look deeper the dates don't match up and it sort of falls apart. In reality, the line comes from a bunch of Welsh Quakers.

It's always interesting when the mark is smart, and they have to be at their best. And I liked the return of Sarah the Newbie Lawyer. She's gained a little confidence in her time since she and Harry last crossed paths. And I love they managed to figure out the mythical stash house and gave it to Romero in the end. And the image above reminds me of Elliot protecting Romero, a la: "This isn't the guy we're looking for! He's just a line cook, but that's a very challenging job and should be respected." I am also curious what Elliot and McShane's connection is. Did they cross paths on a previous Leverage job? (He never appeared in a previous episode however) And I also got Jurassic Park vibes as well when Eliot and Romero were "eaten" by gators. Also credit to Gina, she was terrifying (and clearly having fun with the automatic weapons). Also they mentioned one of the Leverage Intl. crews is run by a clockmaker. I would totally watch that show! (I did enjoy Korean Leverage when I managed to track it down).

The Cross My Heart Job was a no tech (or rather low tech) job they did on the original series.

And be made to do wildly inappropriate or illegal actions. And once they've been snapped out of it, they can go on with life just like before with no concern that they may be a security risk or possibly still dangerous.

She was in a multi-episode arc on Warehouse 13 where she played a villain and the grin worked perfectly.

Carly (and Joss) are always true to form:

I watched this one (finally got around to it) out of morbid curiosity on how badly they would screw up color blindness. And it was about what I thought. Speaking from experience here, the vast majority colorblind people do not see the world in black and white. There is a rare fraction of the colorblind population that does see only in monochrome and that usually comes with other related conditions like extreme sensitivity to light. I can't think he would have made it that far in life without someone noticing his condition. Most colorblindness is due to faulty color receptors in the retina, usually red-green. So most of us see colors but a few ranges that are hard to distinguish, like certain middle shades of tan-green-orange and dark shades of red-brown-green. I get that filming in B&W is easier than playing around with the color balance, but they could make some effort. And it didn't help that the doctor way overstepped. And I have heard of color-enhancing/correcting lenses, I can't think that it would help with someone who doesn't see color at all. They might as well just have said they were magic glasses. I was hoping for some funny side effects, like he can now see in UV or IR. That's the real Christmas miracle!

This felt like an old school episode. My favorite part was Elliot going on about Skippy the dog: "I used to play with Skippy and they told me he went to a farm upstate..." and how everyone just watched him go on and on about Skippy. Actually, despite Jamie and Jamie, Christian Kane had some really funny moments, from his "I never drove forklift before!" to his reaction at looking right at Parker's superbright Xmas tree. And I loved the callback to Parker decorating her tree with all the jewelry she stole. Considering that Pleather is petroleum based, it probably is. My mind is divided here. While I would love to meet Nana, at the same time in my headcanon she's always played by the late, great Nichelle Nichols, so I would also be fine if we didn't meet her.

Serves her right for ruining the snake's holiday.

This is probably my favorite so far this season. The Leverage Crew takes down Bohemian Orpheus Grove (and you know those cell phones will be very useful in the future). Sophie was so much fun to watch in this one from the way she switches effortlessly from one persona to the next and still fools the mark. And of course she knows the flop, but I did like the nice touch of her in the next scene with a bag of frozen peas on her shoulder. I also loved her reactions, from her wince as the mark talked about his "time in combat" to her reaction to the Orpheus Grove rituals: "This is the weirdest thing I've ever seen!" As for Orpheus Grove, Parker summed it up. "This is not the cabal of evil I was expecting" as she watches drunk guys pissing all over the place. And of course that is what destroys them in the end. And I loved Breanna's frog hat (which I hope we see in future episodes) but "What's a flyer?" Seriously?! I feel like I'm quoting Hardison. Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Doctor Paul come back in future episodes (along with Tara, Hurley, Archie, Sarah the newbie lawyer, any of the Korean Leverage crew...) I saw Noah Wylie wrote and directed this one and he did good job, especially on Elliott's backstory.