swanpride

Considering that Spider-man: The Musical exists I can totally believe that such a musical would look that cheap - and I can see it being a success nevertheless. Who says that the in-universe show was produced by Disney anyway? Honestly, the whole thing was just fun. You could see that the performers had fun with it, too. And I would be totally in for some sort of show which manages to transport the same spirit. Especially if they manage to add some other in-universe original songs....

Well, imho what is an eyesore and what isn't is really in the eyes of the beholder. For things which are dangerous, aren't there basic rules everyone has to follow? At least that's how it works where I live...if a neighbour thinks another neighbour doesn't follow the rules, they can call the "Ordnungsamt" (literally the office for order), and they will take a look and either take action or deem that no rules are broken. Naturally in general you first simply talk with each other. Yeah, strange concept, I know. And regarding the grass cutting: I plan to simply put wild flowers on my front lawn eventually. Less work, better for the environment and I feel better looking, too. I have no idea why so many countries have copied the obsession of the English with controlling nature to such a degree, but I am hopeful that the trend will go in a different direction soon.

Frankly I have no words anymore when it comes to the topic of gun violence in the US. After parkland I had a spark of hope that something might move in the right direction, but apparently it is more important to protect the right that every crazy has easy access to a gun than to protect children. Speaking from a country in which children go to school on their own, where the schools aren't even completely fenced in never mind having weapon detectors and where the only thing which is trained is what to do in case of a fire alarm. I also don't get the concept of a giant Easter Bunny. Easter bunnies are supposed to be cute and fluffy. Home owner associations are something I just don't get. I mean, that is a reason why buying a house is preferable over buying an apartment: Because you can't be forced into paying for so called improvements by other people who just happen to have an apartment in the same house. The idea to buy a house and basically buy living under a dictatorship at the same time is just creepy to me.

Perhaps one should do a separate lists with songs which were written specifically for the MCU as opposed to songs they just decided to use?

A society is only as civilised as its prisons...

Frankly, the French ALWAYS protest that way, and because they do, French protesters setting things of fire only causes other European's to shrug. Meanwhile there are also strikes in Germany (in this case they demand higher wages to deal with inflation), but the fight here is much quieter, and we currently have "Easter peace". I have a hard time to really judge either protest, though. The only thing I know is that there is a difference between the official retirement age in France and the age at which people actually retire. Hence it is really hard to gauge if the protests are over the top or an attempt to stop reforms which might undermine the social system too much. Regarding solitary confinement: For one, they are considered torture for a reason and two, the excuse to control violent inmates are BS, considering that there are prisons all over the world in which prisoners have way more rights but way lower rates of violence in prison. Otherwise: I can understand the desire of Disney to keep control of the Mouse. But the effect those attempts have in general are devastating.

Frankly, DeSantis isn't what makes me afraid. It is that people are listening to him and that there are enough of those out there to make book banning possible. Reminds me way too much of certain book burnings.

I think the issue the MCU currently has is more that they are so busy to set up stuff which is supposed to happen later that they forget to finish the story they are currently telling. Like, I would have loved to see an exploration of the grief of a king dying TRICE but all this basically vanished under all the world building they did for later. I would have loved Doctor Strange grabbling with the decision he made, or Wanda grieving over the family she lost, but it was so much more important to shove in as many cameos as possible instead of focussing on the story at hand. Basically the MCU is currently making all the mistakes which caused the DCEU to fail so badly. All the "is it cinema" or "it is too woke" nonsense is just distracting from the actual issue. (and for the record, I don't care if it is comic accurate or not, frankly some of the best stories they offered weren't all that close to the comics anyway).

Really interesting segment. Like, I was totally unaware of companies using AIs to choose workers. Granted, I prefer to work for smaller companies, which most likely wouldn't do it in the first place, but still. And I admit, I was really relieved when he mentioned that the EU at least zeroed in on the problem and is working on some basic rules for the use of AI. I just hope that whatever rules they will come up with will work.

The whole Fox news thing...those jokes have been made over here for ages. I remember a decade or so ago Fox news did a segment about an attack in France. Basically everything in the so called news segment was wrong, from the place where it supposedly happened to the number of victims to what actually happened. It was in fact so wrong that some European newspapers felt the need to report HOW wrong it was. Needless to say that they would never get away with it in most European countries.

Where is the call out? Typical Click bait, he simply stated that some people just aren't into comic book movies.

Awful list...I pretty much disagree completely not just with the ranking but also with the explanations for them.

Watchmen might have copied the look of the comics, but it still managed to completely miss the point. There are other adaptations which are further away on the surface, but actually managed to capture the core of the story.

Ah can't watch it. I will watch it with friends as soon as we find time to meet up. We thought it would be more fun in a group setting.

The fridging of female characters is more a case of them being TOO true to the comics, though.....

Small reminder that Garfield wasn't accepted as Spiderman. Raimi fans were complaining about anything related to him and only when his version of the character made an appearance in No Way Home, there was an overall (and long overdue) recognition how well he actually played the role.

Frankly, I don't get most Thanksgiving Food...turkey is a very dry meat, even if you cook it perfectly, I prefer duck or simple chicken over it any day. I can't stomach beans as it is, but if I could, I would never turn them into a casserole. I like pumpkin well enough, but really prefer the stuff in more hearty dishes, not in pies (but who knows, perhaps American pumpkin pies are some undiscovered wonder, I never tried the original).

It's a mix of different aspects...part is protest (a lot of sport bars have decided to not show the tournament), part of it is the time (remember, in Germany Christmas starts pretty much now. The Christmas markets are open, soon there will be the first of Advent, people are meeting up there to drink their mullet wine, while the best WC is the one you can watch outside in a big group, but who in their right mind wants to stand in the cold for two hours, even if there were any of those events planned, which aren't), part of it is a measured expectation regarding the performance of the team. Plus, the First game was just...urgh?...I didn't watch it, but I was zapping through the channels and when I ended up on the game for a moment, the commentator was just saying that at least the referee was able to "set accents", which says ALL about the quality of what was shown. It's just a combination of protest and people not being in the mood. The mood might change if the team starts to win. Regarding if it changes anything: Well, some sponsors are jumping the ship others are renegotiating now.

Above all I wonder how people ever got the idea that Elon Musk is smart.... Regarding the World Cup: The kind of good news is that so far, the number of the people watching in my country is much, much lower than last time. So far. It will be interesting to see if the trend holds when our team plays or even wins. Because let's not forget here: Most of the money is made over merch sales and viewers. If the viewers are lacking, at least the Fifa will take a hit.

I have never been less excited for a World Cup (and I am German). Like, I have negative excitement. What wasn't mentioned in the show was that in order to even participate in the Fifa Bid, Katar had to have a female team...which they founded directly before the bid and never turned up in any games after. As a German host pointed out, they have been unbeaten for years now (except at home). For this stunt alone they shouldn't have even been allowed to participate in the bid...which, btw, has been won through bribery for years now. Something everyone knows.

The biggest selling point of the MCU is that it is a continuing story (unlike James Bond which at least used to have mostly stand along movies with the same character, and only some small ties within movies played by the same actor). It is a universe, not just a franchise. You could say that it is multiple franchises which make up one big universe. And no, the fans aren't really into recasting, especially not for the big roles.

Frankly, the only part where they dropped the ball is the one in which he got woken up earlier...it was never quite clear what caused that change, at least not to me.

It is less the fall itself which is interesting, but what it meant for the whole make-up of Europe. Keep in mind that Thatcher would have preferred Germany to stay split, and that was a common sentiment in Britain. Considering the German roots of Royal Family, a discussion about Britain's position in this matter would have been interesting (especially considering that the Queen visited Berlin no less than seven times, before and after the wall went down). Granted, since the Queen never voices a position, any discussion would have been entirely theoretical, but then, the whole Romanov discussion was even more fictional. There is no evidence that the Queen particularly cared about their funerals. The first seasons had more of a history background, with the prime ministers playing an important role, and important events (the Suez Crisis, the Fog in London, the debt situation of Great Britain, the dead of Kennedy, the moon landing) being addressed. But now the historical background is missing (and yes, it feels odd to talk about "history" regarding events I am old enough to remember, but that's what it is). Honestly, if not for Blair turning up, I would think that the show is still in the 1980s, it doesn't feel like anything changed.

Yeah, I have to agree, those people are boring. That's what they did better in the first two seasons, not only did they portray political events in relation to the Royal family, they also had Philip making his on-spot remarks about the situation. Granted, that was out of step with the real Philip, who was maybe even more out of touch with common people than the Queen was, but still. Aside from skipping over events which would actually be interesting to cover - the attempted kidnapping of Anne, the fall of the Berlin wall, multiple occasions in which the royal family used their influence behind the scenes aside from the stupid ship (see: Fox hunting), Sarah (not that Sarah was that much more interesting, but it was odd that she was barely a footnote, and showing how differently the coverage of her and Diana was in the media would have been worth some examination) - and making up stuff which is so obviously untrue (I don't even need the confirmation by the most expensive marriage counselor in the world, I am old enough to remember that there was never serious talk about the Queen stepping down in favor or Charles) - this feels like another season going in circles. Yeah, the Queen is dutifully running from event to event and that is apparently really hard work, yeah Margareth is still bitter about the same things, yeah, we still discuss if Charles is too weak (since when is not being able to defend yourself from the humiliation of having the most cringy sex talk ever published is a sign of strength I don't know), oh, and look, there is Andrew, but let's not linger on him for too long. It is really no accident that the strongest episodes of the show - Aberfan and this seasons episode about Mohammed Al-Fayed (though It didn't escape my notice that they glossed over what kind of business partner he had) - are the ones which take a more outsider perspective.

Apologies in a political setting usually don't happen because it opens you up for law suits from the victims. That is the sad truth. Even Germany, the country which has done more than any other to make up for past crimes, avoids clear apologies for that reason alone. Hence I would worry less about apologies and more about the question if the royal family has done anything to make it up to the victims (the answer is: Very little to nothing). Btw: I really enjoyed the "I care but I don't care" part...I felt the same. I mean, I kind of care because I know what the queen means for the Brits, who are already in a politically extremely unstable position but I don't care at the same time, because they Royals are a bunch of Rich People who somehow double as Disney Land Figures...and frankly, the Disney Land figures are more fun.