A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
On Sunday 8 February, Bad Bunny will perform at the Super Bowl half-time show to an audience of more than 100 million people across the world.
But the NFL’s choice of the Puerto Rican star has proven controversial, because he has long been outspoken in his criticism of Donald Trump's government, including most recently at the 2026 Grammy Awards, when he called for ICE agents to be removed from the streets.
Puerto Rican cultural critic Carina del Valle Schorske, who profiled Bad Bunny for The New York Times Magazine, speaks to Asma Khalid and Tristan Redman.
She explains how the artist’s pride in his homeland is infused throughout his music, and considers how he might use the United States' biggest stage this weekend to challenge the president’s policies.
On the other hand, I expect Bad Bunny's halftime show will join Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, and others by being nominated and winning Emmy Awards. As I wrote two years ago:
Did you know that when you watch (or watched, depending on when you read this entry) today's Super Bowl, you'll probably see several Emmy nominees and probably an Emmy winner or two? You will, because you did last year and several of the years before that. That's thanks to the commercials and halftime show, which has been a repeat nominee going back as far as Beyoncé's Super Bowl XLVII halftime show, which won Outstanding Lighting Design/Lighting Direction for a Variety Special in 2013.
We'll find out about the nominations in July and the Emmy Awards in September. In the meantime, stay tuned for coverage of Best Cinematic Adaptation Film, the successor to Best Superhero Film at the SaturnAwards, tomorrow.
Warner Bros’ record-setting Oscar nomination juggernaut Sinners, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps lead all film nominees for the 53rd Saturn Awards, which recognize the year’s best movies, TV programs and home video releases in the fantasy, science fiction, horror, superhero and action-adventure genres.
...
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which snagged a record 16 Oscar nominations last week, landed 12 Saturn nominations, as did Avatar: Fire and Ash and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein followed with 11 noms, while Wicked: For Good picked up nine and Superman had eight.
Highest 2 Lowest
The Housemaid
The Long Walk
Marty Supreme
Sinners
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
As Deadline reported, Sinners earned twelve nominations at these awards, including Best Film Direction (Ryan Coogler), Best Actor in a Film (Michael B. Jordan), Best Supporting Actor in a Film (Delroy Lindo), Best Supporting Actress in a Film (Hailee Steinfeld), Best Young Actor in a Film (Miles Caton), Best Screenwriting, Best Film Music (Ludwig Göransson), Best Production Design, Best Makeup, Best Film Editing, and Best Costume Design in addition to Best Thriller Film. The rest of the nominees have just the one nomination for Best Thriller Film, so I doubt any of them will beat Sinners.
I was planning to vote for Sinners as Best Horror Film, but here it is in the thriller category. I've already voted for it here. I also voted for Michael B. Jordan as Best Actor in a Film, Ryan Coogler for both Best Film Direction and Best Film Screenwriting, Best Film Editing, Ludwig Göransson for Best Film Music, and Miles Caton for Best Younger Performer in a Film, a total of seven votes, the most of any film I voted for.
“Why You Here / Before the Sun Went Down” from Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score) | Music by Ludwig Göransson
That's a wrap for today's entry. I plan on resuming the series Monday with coverage of Best Cinematic Adaptation Film, the successor to Best Superhero Film, which wasn't presented last year. Looks like the Saturn Awards followed the lead of the Critics Choice Super Awards by including video game adaptation movies and renaming the category. That will be after a special Sunday entertainment feature about the Super Bowl. Stay tuned.
Based on the number of nominations, especially for Song of the Year, "Golden" is my pick to win Best Song Written For Visual Media. It's also Gold Derby's, where every expert, 83.3% of editors, and 86.7% of users have picked it to win...The other songs with support are "Never Too Late" from Elton John: Never Too Late with 16.7% of editors and 5.4% of users picking it, "I Lied to You" from Sinners with 6.1% of users choosing it, and "As Alive As You Need Me To Be" from TRON: Ares with the remaining 0.8% of users supporting it...Sorry, "Pale, Pale Moon" and "Sinners"; Gold Derby doesn't give either of you a chance...
That was in November. The standings changed some by February 1st, but the lead never changed. All of the editors joined all of the experts along with 93.5% of users to consolidate behind "Golden." "I Lied to You" retained 4.6% of users to pass "Never Too Late," which lost the editors choosing it in November and kept only 1.4% of users. "As Alive As You Need Me To Be" settled into a tie for last with "Pale, Pale Moon" and "Sinners" with 0.1% of users each. Therefore, it should be no surprise that GOLDEN [FROM "KPOP DEMON HUNTERS"] Wins SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA | 2026 GRAMMYs.
EJAE, PARK HONG JUN, JOONG GYU KWAK, YU HAN LEE, HEE DONG NAM, JEONG HOON SEO & MARK SONNENBLICK deliver an acceptance speech after winning the GRAMMY for SONG WRITTEN FOR VISUAL MEDIA for GOLDEN [FROM "KPOP DEMON HUNTERS"] at the 2026 GRAMMYs.
As the preview image for this entry shows, Sinners won two awards, so here are its relevant predictions.
Gold Derby thinks Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media is Wicked's best category with half the editors and 70.5% of users selecting it. KPop Demon Hunters is its closest competition with ever expert so far, one-third of the editors, and 17.6% of users choosing it. Despite having more songs nominated than either Wicked or KPop Demon Hunters, Gold Derby has Sinners in third with the support of the remaining one-sixth of editors and 9.4% of users. The rest of the users are split between A Complete Unknown with 1.7% and F1: The Movie, which I expect to see nominated for Best Action Film at the Saturn Awards, with 0.8%. Wow, a Bob Dylan biopic down that low!
The percentages changed a lot by February, but the relative standings barely budged. Wicked led the predictions with half the experts, 16.7% of editors, and 49.8% of users sticking with it. KPop Demon Hunters lost the experts but gained both editors to two-thirds and users to 37.2%. Sinners stayed in third with the support of the other half of the experts, the remaining one-sixth of editors and 11.6% of users. F1: The Movie retained its 0.8% of users, while A Complete Unknown fell to last with 0.7%. To the surprise of everyone but the half of experts, one-sixth of editors, and 11.6% of users, Sinners won. Watch as SINNERS Wins BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK | 2026 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech.
Producers deliver an acceptance speech after winning the GRAMMY for BEST COMPILATION SOUNDTRACK for SINNERS at the 2026 GRAMMYs.
I guess having more nominated songs than the other movie soundtracks paid off. Congratulations on an upset win!
Gold Derby thinks Sinners has a better chance of winning here than for Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media with every editor and expert plus 76.5% of users supporting it. Wicked sits in second with 19.7% of users, followed by 2.0% picking The Wild Robot, 1.2% choosing Severance, and 0.7% hanging on to How to Train Your Dragon.
Sinners retained every editor and expert and added users to reach 90.8% support by the time of the ceremony. That's quite a consolidation! Wicked stayed in second with 7.4% of users, while How to Train Your Dragon rose to third with only 0.8% of users, passing The Wild Robot at 0.6% and Severance with 0.4%. This time, Gold Derby called it. Watch as LUDWIG GÖRANSSON Wins BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA For 'SINNERS' | 2026 GRAMMYs.
LUDWIG GÖRANSSON delivers an acceptance speech after winning the GRAMMY for BEST SCORE SOUNDTRACK FOR VISUAL MEDIA for 'SINNERS' at the 2026 GRAMMYs.
Congratulations and may this be a good sign for winning at the Saturn Awards and Oscars!
Follow over the jump for wins by movie music in categories outside of visual media.
I begin by revisiting the prediction from last November.
Yesterday, I asked "More GRAMMY nominees, anyone?" I'm following through with the Gold Derby odds for Best Music Film. Music by John Williams leads as the choice of every expert and editor plus 65.3% of users. Raye: Live at the Royal Albert Hall sits in second as the pick of 26.5% of users, followed by Diane Warren: Relentless with 4.1% of users, Piece by Piece with 2.3%, and Devo with 1.8%.
By Sunday, Music by John Williams consolidated its lead as the choice of every expert and editor plus 70.1% of users. Raye: Live at the Royal Albert Hall retained 23.3%% of users, followed by Diane Warren: Relentless with 4.2% of users, Piece by Piece with 2.1%, and Devo with 0.3%. The experts, editors, and users who picked Music by John Williams called it. Watch as JOHN WILLIAMS Wins BEST MUSIC FILM For MUSIC BY JOHN WILLIAMS | 2026 GRAMMYs Acceptance Speech.
LAURENT BOUZEREAU delivers an acceptance speech after winning the GRAMMY for BEST MUSIC FILM at the 2026 GRAMMYs.
Steven Spielberg has officially achieved EGOT status thanks to his Best Music Film Grammy win Sunday. Spielberg produced the documentary “Music by John Williams.”
Spielberg previously won Oscars for “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” Emmys for “E.R.” and “Animaniacs,” and a Tony for “A Strange Loop.”
Spielberg had plenty of company in this win.
Laurent Bouzereau directed the doc, which is produced by Spielberg, Brian Grazer, [Ron] Howard, Darryl Frank, Justin Falvey, Sara Bernstein, Justin Wilkes, Meredith Kaulfers, [Kathleen] Kennedy, [Frank] Marshall and Bouzereau with Markus Keith and Michael Rosenberg as executive producers.
Congratulations to Spielberg for earning an EGOT, the rest of the producers for their GRAMMY, Williams, and the prognosticators at Gold Derby for correctly calling this category!
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for more awards show coverage as I blog about the GRAMMYs won by Sinners, KPop Demon Hunters, Wicked, and Tron: Ares tomorrow.
Conservatives amp up their mission to MAGA-fy America by overshadowing Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance with Turning Point USA’s own D-list halftime show, and Michael Kosta connects the dots between Trump’s call for Republicans to "nationalize" voting and the president's never-ending claim that the 2020 election was stolen. Plus, Troy Iwata explains why Trump’s pitch to cancel the midterms is peak comedy.
I've called "the president's never-ending claim that the 2020 election was stolen" the Big Lie.
Personally, I'd rather call it Trump's dangerous delusion, his fixed belief that the election was stolen from him despite allevidence, which I see as related to his vulnerabilitytoconspiracy theories, but "the Big Lie" is the established phrase used by CNBC and others, so I'm calling it that instead. It's a lie, too.
Mayer's reporting shows that Trump's delusion is not just dangerous but contagious. It's bad enough that there is one pandemic running around; we don't need another.
The delusion has continued to spread, infecting a lot of candidates in today's elections. Ugh.
And now he has an Administration dedicated to it.
I'm glad Michael Kosta and Troy Iwata can find the humor in it. I can't; I'm too scared to laugh.
Kid Rock is set to headline an unofficial Super Bowl halftime show for conservatives who don't like Bad Bunny, the mascots for the 2026 Winter Olympics have been revealed, and Chicago residents can visit http://Chicagoshovels.org to vote to name their new snow plow after Stephen Colbert.
My geology students do an exercise where they shade in the United States. I always instruct them to include Puerto Rico just to drive home the point that it's part of the U.S. If the NFL didn't disable embedding, I'd share Bad Bunny's halftime show on FlagDay. Instead, I'm looking forward to seeing how many Emmy nominations it earns this July. Bad Bunny has already earned two GRAMMYs this week. Follow over the jump for his acceptance speeches. Yes, this is now an awards show post.
Trump declares himself "absolved" by the latest release of Epstein files, while Elon Musk’s Christmas wish for a trip to the sex island is put on blast, and Jon Stewart finds himself on Epstein’s list… for documentary voiceovers. Plus, as MAGA continues to shield the president from all accountability, Jon Stewart shines a light on the double standard of sanctuary given to Trump vs. immigrants.
Yes, releasing these files in installments really does seem like Groundhog Day. Things repeat and they don't seem to change. Sigh. At least we got a funny, if puerile, image out of it and some schadenfreude out of Stewart making a cameo in the files. Hey, at least it wasn't his doing.
President Trump is referenced thousands of times and accused of hideous crimes in the latest release of documents from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, the Department of Justice failed to redact the identities and personal information of many of Epstein's victims, and the DOJ announced that there will be no investigation into any of the prominent men implicated in the files.
Like Stewart, Stephen also mentioned Elon Musk emailing Epstein on Christmas morning — top of the next year's naughty list, indeed! Too bad Todd Blanche, who I haven't mentioned here before, declared there is no one new who could be prosecuted. No one Blanche, Pam Bondi, or Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump is willing to prosecute, that is. Again, sigh.
Today is Groundhog Day, the ironically-titled Department of Justice released about half of the Epstein files, there were many disturbing accounts about a lot of famous people including Bill Gates, Steve Bannon, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk is in there too - more than a thousand times, Donald Trump’s name was mentioned 4,896 times, Trump’s Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick’s name pops up 138 times, there appears to be an email to Ghislaine Maxwell from Melania, Trump had the audacity to play the old “Jeffrey who?” card pretending they weren’t actually friends, Trump went after Jimmy in a late night Truth Social post criticizing Trevor Noah who hosted the Grammys, Trump is suing the IRS for $10 Billion, he also announced that he's closing The Trump Kennedy Center for renovations, Melania the movie made $7 million over the weekend, and journalist Don Lemon was arrested on Thursday night for covering an anti-ICE protest at a church in St. Paul.
I can understand Jimmy K's kids not believing Groundhog Day is a thing; they're growing up, like me, in southern California. Winter is not the oppressive presence there that it is here in Michigan or much of the rest of the Midwest and Northeast; in fact, it's relatively pleasant. It's not too hot and the hills are green. Only after I moved here did I understand the appeal of the day.
Thanks to Jimmy K and the Epstein files, Howard Lutnick makes an appearance in my blog for the first time. Since he's both Commerce Secretary and Epstein's former next-door neighbor, I'm sure it won't be the last.
Seth takes a closer look at Trump and his family getting a large investment from an Abu Dhabi royal for their private crypto company as he's named in the new Epstein files along with many other wealthy and powerful people.
While Melania had a record opening for a documentary, I'm sure it won't save it from a Razzie nomination or two. Being the highest grossing documentary of 2016 didn't save Hillary's America from winning four Razzies. Here's to hoping that history rhymes.
Groundhog Day forecast: Punxsutawney Phil is said to have seen his shadow Monday morning, predicting 6 more weeks of winter weather.
That was an easy call. Here in southeast Michigan, which has a similar climate to western Pennsylvania, it was clear and cold with a foot of snow on the ground, so all signs pointed to six more weeks of winter. In fact, that's what Woody, our local woodchuck in Howell, Michigan, predicted: "Michigan's official groundhog, Woody the Woodchuck, predicted six more weeks of winter." On the one hand, no surprise. On the other, brr!
The verdict from Gobbler’s Knob is official: Punxsutawney Phil spotted his shadow and called for six more weeks of winter. Join Stephanie Abrams and The Weather Channel’s own Senior Shadow Analyst, Chuck Burrows, as they break down the "game film" from this morning’s prediction.
Like the anchor, I had never heard of most of these animal forecasters before. Count this as learning something new, and it's always a good day when I learn something new. By the way, while the average accuracy of the animal auguries is 36%, Woody boasts a record of 65%. That's worth paying attention to.
That's a wrap for today's holiday. Stay tuned for more closer looks from the late night talk show hosts tomorrow.
White House Border Czar Tom Homan (Pete Davidson) meets with ICE agents (Kenan Thompson, James Austin Johnson, Mikey Day, Ben Marshall, Andrew Dismukes, Jeremy Culhane) in Minneapolis.
This is only the second time I've mentioned Tom Homan, responsible for familyseparation and caught on camera taking $50,000 in a fast-foot restaurant bag, the first being two days ago. He's certainly making a splash replacing Greg Bovino, who I've never mentioned here before and hope never to do so in another entry unless it's about any legal troubles he might face. Speaking of legal trouble, I watched the incident involving Don Lemon, who I haven't cited since 2021, and he was just doing his job; he wasn't one of the protestors. The feds arresting him is turning him into a hero of the Resistance, if he isn't already.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like the FBI investigating Trump’s false claim the 2020 election was rigged.
Donald Trump is a self-help apostle. He always has tried to create his own reality by saying what he wants to be true. Where many see failure, Trump sees only success, and expresses it out loud, again and again.
His wish might just come true. This works on the social environment, but not the physical and biological environment; it failed to work on the virus during the pandemic. He couldn't bully a virus.
But he can bully the Department of Justice, particularly with Pam Bondi in charge. This is on top of his positive thinking reinforcing the Big Lie.
Personally, I'd rather call it Trump's dangerous delusion, his fixed belief that the election was stolen from him despite allevidence, which I see as related to his vulnerabilitytoconspiracy theories, but "the Big Lie" is the established phrase used by CNBC and others, so I'm calling it that instead. It's a lie, too.
Mayer's reporting shows that Trump's delusion is not just dangerous but contagious. It's bad enough that there is one pandemic running around; we don't need another.
The delusion has continued to spread, infecting a lot of candidates in today's elections. Ugh.
And now he has an Administration dedicated to it.
The first segment mentioned the Melania documentary, which alone qualifies this entry as the Sunday entertainment feature, but Kanye West made a cameo in Luigi Mangione Won’t Face Death Penalty, cementing its status.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week’s biggest news, like Ye publishing an apology in The Wall Street Journal.
"Unless you have a pre-existing condition" would be funnier if it weren't so true.
Follow over the jump for the rest of last night's highlights.
I told my readers, "Stay tuned" as "I'm returning to awards show coverage [today], because the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films released the Saturn Awards nominations." I'm kicking the post off with Deadline Hollywood's paragraphs about the leading movie nominees.
Warner Bros’ record-setting Oscar nomination juggernaut Sinners, James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash and Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps lead all film nominees for the 53rd Saturn Awards, which recognize the year’s best movies, TV programs and home video releases in the fantasy, science fiction, horror, superhero and action-adventure genres.
...
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, which snagged a record 16 Oscar nominations last week, landed 12 Saturn nominations, as did Avatar: Fire and Ash and Fantastic Four: First Steps. Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein followed with 11 noms, while Wicked: For Good picked up nine and Superman had eight.
The second paragraph sets my agenda for the order of the movie posts. All things being equal, which they are for three most nominated films, I'll break the tie in favor of science fiction, so it's going first.
Best Science Fiction Film:
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Bugonia
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Predator: Badlands
The Running Man
Tron: Ares
In addition to Avatar: Fire and Ash leading with 12 nominations, Predator: Badlands follows with five, Tron: Ares with three, Bugonia with two, then Jurassic World: Rebirth and The Running Man with one each in this category. I usually go with the expert/professional opinion when I vote in the Saturn Awards unless I have good reason to vote otherwise. My "good reason" is that Avatar: Fire and Ash is more science fiction than Bugonia, which is more of a dark thriller/comedy until the end, when the science fiction element is shown to be true instead of a character's delusion. It's also going to win, so I'm going with the flow. My vote: Avatar: Fire and Ash.
I'm re-examining my predictions for this category before I examine the acting, directing, writing, and craft nominations. As recently as November, I predicted "a match between Lilo & Stitch and Jurassic World: Rebirth" for this award, which I would have resolved in favor of the dinosaurs. Neither part of that will happen. First, Lilo & Stitch earned its nomination for Best Fantasy film. Second, the Academy extended its eligiblity period until about the end of 2025, making more films eligible. That's good news in that it allowed for higher quality fields with better comparisons with other awards. It's bad because the films released during November and December 2024 seemed to be dropped from consideration. No nominations for Wicked in film, just Wicked: For Good, for example. Hmph! In reaction/protest, I'm transferring the votes I would have cast for Wicked to Wicked: For Good.
Follow over the jump for the movie acting, directing, writing, and craft nominations and my votes.
Democrats express their outrage over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown, with Chuck Schumer calling Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller "f**king liars" and Hakeem Jeffries on accidental mute. Plus, Desi Lydic plunges into the world of Melania ahead of her documentary debut, which was produced by Jeff Bezos, directed by disgraced filmmaker Brett Ratner, and created by a crew too ashamed to have their names in the credits.
As for the Melania documentary itself, it's pretty transparently an attempt by Jeff Bezos and Amazon to curry favor with Hoover Harding Cleveland and a cash grab plus PR opportunity for the Trump family, as Michael Kosta and Ronny Chieng point out. Just for that, I hope it fails as PR/propaganda as well as at the box office, and earns a Razzie nomination or two next year.
Seth addresses Melania Trump's documentary Melania opening worldwide and more in his monologue for Thursday, January 29, before taking a closer look at Trump spreading lies after Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall event.
Hoover Harding Cleveland telling self-serving lies and insane takes on the news? What a surprise — not! Time to remind my readers that the voices in his head are not reliable sources. This includes Pam Bondi deceiving herself about all "the creative and correctly spelled signs" being a sign of outside influence. No, she's just dealing with a well-educated population in Minnesota, along with Democrats writing better than Republicans.
We are once again staring at another government shutdown, Trump has a new celebrity friend in Nicki Minaj, she is now in possession of a Trump Gold Card which she claims she got for free, Trump had another cabinet meeting today where he ranted about windmills and extolled the virtues of coal, Trump’s FBI has been raiding the elections office in Fulton County, Georgia as part of an investigation into “voter fraud” in the 2020 election, Tulsi Gabbard showed up to watch which isn’t suspicious at all, Border Czar Tom Homan is in Minneapolis doing his best to right the ship, a smattering of Republicans have stepped forward to criticize the damaged brains behind this operation, tonight was the much hyped premiere of Melania’s documentary, she has been doing rounds of press to promote it, and we ask folks passing by a movie theater what they think of it even though they haven’t seen it yet.
Jimmy K is right; gold card visas are actually issued by the government, not Hoover Harding Cleveland himself. The man has the worst case of "L'État, c'est moi" I've ever seen. As far as he's concerned, he is the country! At least when he says "boom," he doesn't sound like Crazy Frog.
In addition to blogging about the First Lady for the first time in a while, I'm mentioning Tulsi Gabbard for the first time in months. Despite what Jimmy K said, she does have some domestic jurisdiction, overseeing the FBI Intelligence Branch (IB), Coast Guard Intelligence, Office of National Security Intelligence (Part of the Drug Enforcement Agency), and the Offices of Intelligence and Analysis for both the Department of Homeland Security and Department of the Treasury. Those authorities make her presence even more ominous.
As for the men and women on the street interviews about Melania the documentary, those were hiliarious, even though a lot of them were reading cue cards instead of giving candid reactions.
The Boss dropped a fiery anti-ICE protest song, the people of Milan don't want Trump's DHS thugs to provide security at the Winter Olympics, the president's latest MAGA fundraising email is bizarrely threatening, and no one wants to see the First Lady's movie.
It's hard to protest Amazon by buying stuff on Amazon. Sigh.
Directed by Thom Zimny
Edited by Thom Zimny and Samuel Shapiro
Production Footage: Pam Springsteen and Thom Zimny
That's a wrap for today. I'm returning to awards show coverage tomorrow, because the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Films released the Saturn Awards nominations. Stay tuned.
