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.
If you've ever had a pest problem in your home or garden, you may have come across diatomaceous earth as a bug-killing option. This white powdery pest control is made of 100% pure fossils, and we don't just use them for killing bugs! They're used in tons of things, including in nanotechnology!
I have a personal connection to diatomaceous earth, having grown up on a hill made of it. The rock, which is what it is, not a mineral (the mineral is silica), looks and acts like chalk, and the kids in my neighborhood used it accordingly in gender-stereotypical ways. The girls drew hopscotch squares on the sidewalk with it, while the boys wrote graffiti about cars, motorcycles, and surfboards. Hey, southern California in the 1960s.
I knew about diatomaceous earth's uses as a pest control agent, but I didn't realize it acted as a dessicant as well as an abrasive. That was new to me. Even more novel was its role in nanotechnology. I had no idea. As I've written before, it's always a good day when I learn something new. Even better, I already teach my students about diatomaceous earth, so I have new things to tell them. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
That concludes August's blogging. It's been an eventful month, as the blog reached and passed 100,000 page views for the very first time and kept on going. It currently has over 130,000 page views, more than 100,000 beyond the monthly page view goal. That's already about 50% more than the previous record of 87,975 set in April 2018, more than five years ago. Wow! Thank you to all my readers.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is ending his bid for the presidency, dropping out of the 2024 race after failing to qualify for the first Republican debate.
He's too moderate and pragmatic to be a good fit for the Republican primary electorate. It made him stand out, as the next graphic I took from On The Issues shows.
Suarez stood out, and not a good way for the people who he wanted to vote for him. Now that he's left the contest, only conservatives remain running for the Republican nomination.
Since Suarez didn't qualify for a debate, I'm not bothering to find a drink for him. I have enough work finding drinks for the other candidates.
Roundabouts - the circular intersections seen all over Europe and elsewhere in the world - are said to be far safer than traffic lights. Research shows they reduce crashes, clear up congestion and save cities quite a bit of money. They have a heritage in the U.S., but America has a fraction of the roundabouts that far smaller countries like France, Spain and the United Kingdom have. But there are some states that are adopting them, and one small town in particular: Carmel, Indiana. The people of Carmel love their roundabouts and the mayor credits them with helping revitalize his city. So are they all they’re cracked up to be? And if so, why hasn’t the U.S. adopted them?
This video does a great job of presenting the pros and cons of roundabouts. They save energy, improve traffic flow, save lives, reduce injuries, and save money on traffic lights. I knew all that, but I didn't know they increase collisions with bikes unless they include protected bike lanes. It's always a good day when I learn something new.
That's the big picture. Now for my personal driving update.
Pearl will pass 60,000 miles today, which will be 88 days after she passed 59,000 miles on June 1, 2023. That translates to 11.36 miles per day, 349.59 miles per standard month, and 4,147.73 miles per standard year. That's more than the exactly 10 miles per day, 305 miles per standard month, and 3650 miles per standard year I drove her between passing 58,000 miles on Tuesday, February 21, 2023 and June 1, 2023. That's not what I expected because I drove less for work this summer than this spring. Most likely it's because I drove a lot of those miles this spring on Snow Bear during bad weather and drove Pearl more while the weather was good. Let's see what the next updates of both vehicles show as the weather worsens during the fall.
Looking at my driving another way, it will have been 383 days since Pearl passed 56,000 miles on August 10, 2022 for averages of 10.44 miles per day, 318.54 miles per standard month, and 3,812.01 miles per standard year. In contrast, it took 434 days to me to drive Pearl 4,000 miles between March 24, 2022 and June 1, 2023, which becomes 9.22 miles per day and 3,364.06 miles per year. I'm definitely driving Pearl more, and my wife has resumed driving Snow Bear regularly, so I expect our total mileage will increase when I update driving on that vehicle. It will still be below the pre-pandemic peak, just like for the nation as a whole.
I promised "a short video post...as the fall semester begins" today. I surprised myself by finding another awards show to blog about, the 2023 Streamy Awards, which were presented last night. One winner stood out to me, TierZoo, the YouTube channel of Patrick Lacey. He won a Streamy for Learning and Education, beating last year's winner, Tom Scott, and the previous year's winner, Veritasium. As best as I can tell, this is Lacey's/TierZoo's first nomination and therefore first win. Congratulations!
I also surprised myself by realizing that I'd never embedded any of TierZoo's videos on this blog, even though I'm a fan of the channel and have watched every one of his videos on YouTube. I really enjoy the presentation style, as I'm both a biologist and a gamer, and find TierZoo's conceit of the world as the setting of an MMO called "Outside" amusing and insightful. I guess I never found an opportunity to do so until now. Also, I find his video descriptions lacking. I like good video descriptions on this blog.
I'm making up for not featuring TierZoo's work here before by sharing the channel's two most recent videos, beginning with one asking Are Giraffes OP?
The video description is a promotion to watch his next video on Nebula, so I'm sharing my comment on this video instead.
"First we have the cheetah...on a serious note, first, we have the leopard." Not so fast. Years ago, I watched a video of a band of three or four young male cheetahs take down a giraffe. It took all of them working together and it lasted for quite a while, but they did succeed, so it's not impossible, although I've never seen it again.
You also mentioned the camel as a possible analog to the giraffe. Aepycamelus (formerly Alticamelus) of North America actually achieved giraffe proportions during the Miocene.
The viewers roundly ignored that comment. Oh, well.
Cheetahs, particularly the extinct American species, and American lions, have cameos in this video as well. As a paleontologist, I appreciate that. Also, it never occurred to me that golden eagles were large enough to prey on pronghorns until I watched this video. As I'm fond of writing, it's a good day when I learn something new. I hope my readers think so, too, and found these videos as entertaining and informative as I did.
Stay tuned for another short video post tomorrow as I readjust to my regular teaching schedule.
I have reached the last outstanding documentary category at this year's News & Doc Emmy Awards, Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary. When the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences first announced this category exactly one month ago, it had a clear leader, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, which was also nominated for Best Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary for a total of three nominations. The rest of the nominees had only the one nomination in this category. That made for an easy choice; Roadrunner would almost certainly win Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary — that was until it was removed from all three categories. When I began writing this entry, I had no idea which nominee would win. Watch the trailers for the remaining five nominees with me to see which one stood out as the favorite, beginning with The Conductor | Official Preview | Great Performances | PBS.
Follow Marin Alsop’s journey to become the first female music director of a major American symphony despite repeated rejection by the classical music industry. Features archival footage with her mentor Leonard Bernstein and is set to a soundtrack of her performances.
That's a serviceable ad that encapsulates the story of an important person in the history of music, but it doesn't make the nominee jump out at me. The trailer also has only 3,281 views. Next!
How did one decade change American cinema - and culture - forever? Elvis Mitchell explores the history of Black representation and the cultural impact of witnessing unapologetic Blackness.
...
From celebrated writer and film historian Elvis Mitchell, IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!? is both a documentary and deeply personal essay. The film examines the craft and power of cinema from a perspective often overlooked: the African American contribution to films released from the landmark era of the 70s. It is a deep dive into the impact that point of view had on movies, as well as popular culture, and serves as a love letter to film, posing questions that have never been asked, let alone answered. Crucial artistic voices, including director Charles Burnett, Samuel L. Jackson, Whoopi Goldberg, Laurence Fishburne, Zendaya and others, offer their distinctive prism on the creators and films that dazzled and inspired. The film provides insight into the history of Black representation going back to the earliest days of cinema, and the cultural impact of witnessing unapologetic Blackness. Produced by Steven Soderbergh, David Fincher, Angus Wall and Ciara Lacy, IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!? marks Mitchell’s directorial debut.
Not only is this subject important, the trailer makes the movie look like fun. It also has 391,690 views, which counts for something. At least people are watching, which means they recognize it.
When the Westphal family learned that their 6-year-old Kyle was on the Autism spectrum, they feared they might never develop a real connection to their child. Withdrawn and constantly wrapping himself in fabric and blankets, Kyle was retreating from the world around him. Determined to find a way to connect, his parents embarked on an intense and radical journey which involved compassionately joining Kyle in his unique behaviors. Twenty years later, the entire family looks back at Kyle's journey with candor and humor. Let Me Be Me reveals what happens when a boy who used fabric as his shield to hide himself grows up to become a fashion designer, forging connections with friends and family along the way.
This trailer reminds me of a previous Arts and Culture Documentary winner, Life, Animated, which is also about how an autistic person and his family used art to connect. That's a good precedent for Let Me Be Me, but I don't know if that will be enough. This trailer has 13,523 views, so a lot fewer people have seen it than IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!?
While locked up for six years in federal prison, artist Jesse Krimes secretly creates monumental works of art—including an astonishing 40-foot mural made with prison bed sheets, hair gel, and newspaper. He smuggles out each panel piece-by-piece with the help of fellow artists, only seeing the mural in totality upon coming home. As Jesse’s work captures the art world’s attention, he struggles to adjust to life outside, living with the threat that any misstep will trigger a life sentence.
MTV Documentary Films has earned my respect over the past two years, so I had high expectations for Art & Krimes by Krimes. The trailer, at least, met them. This could also have been a Crime and Justice nominee, but this is more about the artist than his crimes. The same is true of Master of Light, but hold that thought until after the trailer for the final nominee, Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror - Official Trailer [HD] | A Shudder Original Series, which is justifiably age-restricted so can only be watched on YouTube. Click on the link.
From Executive Producers Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) and Steak House (The Mustang), Queer for Fear is a four-part documentary series about the history of the LGBTQ+ community in the horror and thriller genres. From its literary origins with queer authors Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, and Oscar Wilde to the pansy craze of the 1920s that influenced Universal Monsters and Hitchcock; from the “lavender scare” alien invasion films of the mid-20th century to the AIDS obsessed bloodletting of 80s vampire films; through genre-bending horrors from a new generation of queer creators; Queer for Fear re-examines genre stories through a queer lens, seeing them not as violent, murderous narratives, but as tales of survival that resonate thematically with queer audiences everywhere.
That looks like gory, campy fun but I think IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!? does nostalgia better even as it takes its subject just a little more seriously while still keeping it fun. Based on that, along with the trailer views being an order of magnitude higher than for the other trailers (two orders of magnitude higher than for The Conductor), IS THAT BLACK ENOUGH FOR YOU?!? is my favorite to win this category in the absence of Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. I hope the voters for this category agree. Remember, electorates matter.
Follow over the jump for a discussion of Master of Light.
In 1972, 7-year-old Steven Stayner mysteriously vanished on his way home from school. Nearly a decade later, his dramatic return to his family sparked ’80s-era “stranger danger” warnings, legal reforms, and one iconic Made-For-TV-Movie in which the family’s ordeal was transformed into a prime-time miniseries watched by 70 million Americans. When the credits rolled and the movie ended, it closed one tragic chapter of the family’s life, but opened another. This limited documentary series explores the evolution of true crime storytelling through the lens of one family’s 50-year journey and two brothers; one a hero, the other a villain. It’s about how truth becomes story and story becomes truth - on TV, in the justice system, and in our minds.
I can see why both the limited series and the trailer itself earned nominations, the series itself for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary and the trailer for Outstanding Promotional Announcement. I found the trailer gripping and its use of music engaging.
I'm examining both categories today, beginning with Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, where Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Story is the only nominee with a nomination in another category, so it's my pick to win. Follow over the jump for the other nominees.
RETROGRADE captures the final nine months of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan from multiple perspectives: one of the last U.S. Special Forces units deployed there, a young Afghan general and his corps fighting to defend their homeland against all odds, and the civilians desperately attempting to flee as the country collapses and the Taliban take over. From rarely seen operational control rooms to the frontlines of battle to the chaotic Kabul airport during the final U.S. withdrawal, Oscar-nominated and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman’s latest film offers a cinematic and historic window onto the end of America’s longest war, and the costs endured for those most intimately involved. Rated R
Retrograde joins Escape from Kabul and In Her Hands as nominated documentaries about the final days of the U.S. operations in Afghanistan. It's the most nominated of the three, earning recognitions for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, Outstanding Direction: Documentary, Outstanding Cinematography: Documentary, Outstanding Editing: Documentary, Outstanding Sound, and Outstanding Promotional Announcement. Yes, the trailer earned its own nomination and it looks like it earned it. That ties it with Good Night Oppy at these awards, although the latter has a nomination for Best Documentary here and a seventh for Outstanding Narrator at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards to break the tie.
Follow over the jump for the trailers of the other nominees for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary plus the nominees in the other five categories in which Retrograde is competing.
With unprecedented heat waves and record-breaking global temperatures, it’s hard to believe that there might be a place on earth that has actually COOLED since the industrial revolution. But, it turns out, there is such a spot. The COLD BLOB off of Greenland mystified scientists for years, but new studies have uncovered a scary reality - this cool patch might be a warning of the impending collapse of a vital earth circulation system. And the consequences would be dire.
In this episode of Weathered, we travel to the Gulf Stream with the new PBS Terra show Sharks Unknown to experience the AMOC first hand. And we ask, what is the likelihood that the AMOC will collapse, and what would the consequences be?
This is not a new concern, as Al Gore described it in "An Inconvenient Truth." I asked about it specifically in the worksheet I used in one of my classes, which I reproduced in Hot (not): a cold blast from the past along with an answer.
What is the likely effect of the melting of the Greenland ice cap on ocean circulation and global climate?
In the movie, the idea is that the release of meltwater from a large glacial lake diluted the Gulf Stream, causing the water to become less dense and unable to sink to the bottom of the ocean off Greenland, jamming up the global thermohaline circulation and sending the planet back into an ice age for another thousand years. An analogous melt of water from the Greenland icecap, which is beginning to happen, would do much the same thing, slowing ocean circulation and cooling Europe. Both of those are indeed taking place.
The movie came out seventeen years ago and I wrote the above more than ten years ago. It's not as if we weren't warned.
As I explained in the first post, I named this blog after "Crazy Eddie," a legendary character among the Moties in Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Niven and Pournelle were almost certainly inspired by a real-life story, which Company Man Mike told this June in Crazy Eddie's Crazy Fraud.
Crazy Eddie was an emerging chain electronics store in the 1980's, most known for their wild commercials, advertising their insaaaaaaaaaane prices. Sadly, what seemed to be a promising business, turned out to be a giant fraud. This video details that fraud.
I'm connected to this story beyond it appearing to be the inspiration for the character I named the blog after. Sam Antar and I follow each other on Twitter (now X, but that's another story). It's a small world.
With that, it's time to resume grading final exams and submitting grades. See you tomorrow!
Parody of “Don’t Rain On My Parade” from FUNNY GIRL, music and lyrics by Bob Merrill and Jule Styne
Parody lyrics by Randy Rainbow
Song Produced, Orchestrated, Mixed, Mastered by Michael J Moritz Jr
Vocal Arrangement - Brett Boles
Vocals: Randy Rainbow
Piano- Michael J Moritz Jr
Reeds- Ryan Saranich
Winds - Andy Snapp
Drums - Gary Seligson
Engineer - Jakob Reinhardt
This video is also timely because I needed another short video post today as I correct final exams. Lo and behold! Randy uploaded it only a few hours ago. Again, perfecttiming.
Thanks to Infidel753 for linking to me in Link round-up for 20 August 2023 at his blog and welcome to all of you who came here from that link! Also, welcome to all my Singaporean, Dutch, Iranian, German, French, Ukrainian, and other international readers. I appreciate all of you, especially my Singaporean readers, who contributed 8,500 page views this week, nearly eight times as many as my American readers! Thanks to you, August 2023 has seen more page views than any other month in the history of the blog, passing 90,000 in a month for the first time ever last week, and is on track to pass 100,000. When it does, I have something special planned to recognize my Singaporean readers.
The blog reached 100,000 page views for August 2023 yesterday between 4:00 and 4:30 P.M. EDT, so I'm showing my appreciation to my Singaporean readers by sharing Singapore: Designing a Megacity in Harmony with Nature by PBS Terra.
Who says a densely populated city can't be a green paradise? Not in Singapore! Shane Campbell-Staton visits visionary architect Pearl Chee and legendary urban planner Professor Cheong Koon Hean to find out how creators like them have woven nature into the fabric of the city. Green spaces aren't just an afterthought here - they're mandatory!
I hope my Singaporean readers appreciate what a lovely green city they live in. I also hope my students appreciate the city in this video, too. One of the lessons I teach is how cities can become more sustainable. Singapore serves as a good example of that. Consequently, I might show this video, which will then become part of a story I tell my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
Around 6,000 years ago, in the Sahel region of Africa, a lone female mosquito buzzed through the lush, green savannah. She couldn’t know it, but the planet itself was about to change in ways that would see her descendants evolve to live very different lives. A sudden ecological shift would force them to go from living in forests and feeding on a range of animals to specializing on just one single species: us.
As Michelle Barboza-Ramirez pointed out, this story is an example of everything is connected to everything else, one of Commoner's Laws. This includes us, mosquitos, and climatechange, this time caused by natural cycles instead of human pollution.
The story of Aedes aegypti aegypti may be the earliest instance of mosquitos evolving to specialize on humans, but it's not the last. PBS Eons told that story in The London underground has its own type of mosquito.
These underground mosquitos are coming for you
This is literally a textbook example of evolution, as one of the textbooks I used for my biology classes told this story. That's where I first read about it nearly 20 years ago.
Speaking of subway lines, this is where I get off. I have to grade more exams and papers to pass back to my students for the last meeting of my classes tomorrow and Tuesday. Stay tuned for another short video post tomorrow.
Honeybees get a ton of attention, but they’re not the ones who need help.
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Every year there are alarming headlines about honeybees in the US. Each one highlights some grim facts about the fate of these insects and the subsequent fallout: Colonies are collapsing, beekeepers are struggling, and farming is at risk. The stakes are high. Honeybees are estimated to pollinate up to $15 billion worth of food in the US. It’s safe to say that without them our plates and farms would look very different. Naturally, they’ve become the face of a larger movement to “save the bees,” but the truth is … they’ll be fine.
Honeybees are domesticated animals being cared for by a billion-dollar agriculture industry. They’re so ingrained into American life that it might surprise you that they’re not even from the US — they were brought here by settlers in the 1600s. We give them a ton of attention, and the species as a whole isn’t threatened or even at risk — but other species are.
There are 20,000 other species of bees in the world — over 4,000 in the United States. They’re incredibly diverse, unique, and also important for pollination. Unfortunately, hundreds of these bee species are at risk of being lost forever, but you rarely see those headlines. Watch the video above to learn more.
Vox uploaded the video on Monday the 14th, which was perfectly timed so that I could use it today. I remarked on that in a comment to Kim Mas, the producer.
Happy World Honey Bee Day to you and your viewers and readers! Did you upload the video to coincide with the week of World Honey Bee Day? If so, perfect timing! If not, then one of yesterday's special days applies, Serendipity Day!
Either way, congratulations on the well-researched video about the plight and importance of all bees, not just honeybees.
That's all I'll write about the video today, as I have exams to grade. I'll return tomorrow for WorldMosquitoDay. Like Vox did for bees, PBS Eons did for mosquitos, uploading a video this week, just in time for World Mosquito Day. Again, perfect timing. Stay tuned.
As I've writtentwice, "Based on total nominations, I'd say The Janes is Good Night Oppy's stiffest competition" for Best Documentary at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards. It's time to examine this film and its nominations, beginning with The Janes | Official Trailer | HBO.
["]We had to go underground."
#TheJanesHBO tells the revelatory story of a group of unlikely outlaws. Defying the state legislature that outlawed abortion, the Catholic Church that condemned it, and the Chicago Mob that was profiting from it, the members of “Jane” risked their personal and professional lives to support women with unwanted pregnancies in the pre-Roe v. Wade era. Premieres June 8 on HBO Max.
The timing of the premiere was uncanny, as it happened the same month that the SupremeCourtoverturned Roe v. Wade. America needed a look at the pre-Roe situation in order to understand what a post-Roe America could look like. That alone makes The Janes a valuable and moving documentary and a worthy competitor to Good Night Oppy.
Follow over the jump for the nominees against which The Janes is competing in four categories.
Escape From Kabul, an HBO original documentary featuring never-before-seen footage and exclusive interviews from Afghan citizens, U.S. Marines, and the Taliban during the 2021 withdrawal, premieres September 21 on HBOMax. #EscapeFromKabul
What a tragedy. Since today is National Nonprofit Day, I did some research on Charity Navigator to find a nonprofit that assists the evacuees. The organization I found with the most complete information is #AfghanEvac, "a coalition of organizations working with US government partners on sustained relocation and resettlement efforts to fulfill the United States’ duty to at-risk Afghans." Here is the link to their site. If my readers want to support our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, I recommend the USO. Do something useful to alleviate the horror of the situation for those who escaped and survived.
Follow over the jump for the nominees against which Escape From Kabul is competing in two categories, Outstanding Investigative Documentary and Best Documentary.
Join National Rum Day on August 16th as blended beverages and cocktails create a delicious celebration. Rum is a distilled clear alcoholic beverage which is a byproduct of sugar production. It can also be made directly from sugar cane juice. After the fermentation and distillation process, most rum ages in wooden oak barrels.
#NationalRumDay
RUM FACT: In 1764, the British Crown placed a tax on sugar, molasses and rum on the American colonies. This tax was called The Sugar Act of 1764. It was instrumental in the unrest that finally became the American Revolution.
What is National Roller Coaster Day (August 16)[?]
August 16 marks National Roller Coaster Day. It is the perfect time for thrill seekers to enjoy the excitement that amusement parks have to offer. The unofficial holiday commemorates the first vertical loop roller coaster which was patented by Edwin Prescott on this day in 1898.
This kind of holiday video is the reason I subscribed to 8SA. Too bad the woman behind the account stopped producing those shortly after making the video I embedded in The Puerto Rico Status Act returns on National Piña Colada Day 2023. She's moved on to more psychological topics since then. If I want psychological information, I'll ask my wife.
Finally, Twinlakes Park in the United Kingdom has a Rum Runner rollercoaster, which combines the themes of both days. Watch Twinlakes Park's Rum Runner Spinning Roller Coaster.
Take a spin on one of our newest rides to the park the Rum Runner, located in the Buccaneers zone of the park.
On the one hand, whee! On the other, just watching this makes me dizzy.
Stay tuned to see if I resume my awards show coverage tomorrow, or return to celebrating National Nonprofit Day, which I skipped last year.
I told my readers yesterday "I might revisit the SAG-AFTRA strike" today. I'm turning to Leeja Miller for that with her video Unions Will Save America.
Unions will save America. Or at least they might. Let's talk about the WGA SAG-AFTRA strike against the AMPTP, the history of union organizing, the history of union busting, and the current growing labor movement in America. Could it be the answer to all our problems??
Here's a script for when you call them:
"Hi! My name is ________ and I live in _____________. I am a constituent of [insert your Congressperson's name] and I am calling to discuss the Protecting the Right to Organize or PRO Act. That's H.R. 20/S.567. I want to indicate my strong support for the passage of this bill and for an increase in labor organizing protection, and I would like to know their stance on the issue.
[insert back and forth about your Congressperson's stance]
Once again I am strongly in favor of the PRO Act and I urge [insert your Congressperson's name] to vote to pass the act. Thank you."
Her link to contact your representative is broken, so here's one that works. Also, here's a link to contact your senator. I'm not worried about either my Representative (Rashida Tlaib, a founding member of The Squad) or my Senators (Gary Peters or Debbie Stabenow) voting for the PRO Act should it reach the House or Senate floor, but pressure on the members of the relevant committee would be helpful. Here's a link to the members page for the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Good luck!
Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary
Eat The Rich: The GameStop Netflix Icahn: The Restless Billionaire HBO Max Independent Lens TikTok, Boom. PBS POV The Last Out PBS Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons Hulu
This is the only nomination for each of these documentaries, so I can't handicap their odds on that basis. Instead, I'm embedding their trailers. Maybe then I can make a guess.
This humorous documentary series follows a group of millennial misfits who banded together online to rescue their beloved GameStop from the clutches of Wall Street bigwigs, in a viral David vs. Goliath story for the 21st century.
Ah, yes, GameStop, a tale of the stock market and Retail Apocalypse. This looks like the most fun documentary of the field. It's also the one I'm most connected to, as my wife got involved with Wall Street Bets and Robin Hood. That made investing fun, even if it may not have been as profitable as she and I might have liked.
The HBO original documentary #IcahnHBO offers unprecedented access to the the provocative, straight-talking billionaire financier, Carl Icahn.
Icahn the icon — I feel like I've been hearing about him most of my adult life. While the GameStop documentary looks like fun, Icahn's story is probably more important in the grand scheme of things. That written, I've only mentioned the man once before, and that was in passing. It's about time he got more scrutiny here.
I'm mixing and matching for the next nominee. First, TIKTOK, BOOM (Trailer) from ZFF Zurich Film Festival.
What does it mean to be a digital native?
TikTok, Boom. dissects the platform along myriad cross-sections—algorithmic, socio-political, economic, and cultural—to explore the impact of the history-making app. Balancing a genuine interest in the community and its innovative mechanics with a healthy skepticism, delve into the security issues, global political challenges, and racial biases behind the platform. Featuring Gen Z influencers like Feroza Aziz, Spencer X, Deja Foxx, and Merrick Hanna.
Three Cuban baseball players leave their families and risk exile to train in Central America and chase their dreams of playing in the United States. At the shadowy nexus of the migrant trail and pro sports, The Last Out chronicles their difficult journey, from multi-step immigration obstacles and learning English to the broken promises and dubious motives of agents. Official selection, 2020 Tribeca Film Festival (premiered in 2021). A co-presentation with Latino Public Broadcasting.
The Last Out made its national broadcast and streaming debut on the PBS documentary series POV and pbs.org/pov on Monday, October 3, 2022 on PBS!
On the one hand, this is probably the most moving human story of the lot, which should work in its favor. On the other, this is, by far, the least viewed trailer of any of the nominees. I'm the 168th person to watch it. It's hard for a nominee to earn votes if no one is watching it.
The story behind the brand that dominated the malls of America. Uncover Victoria’s Secret: Angels and Demons on July 14.
As I exclaimed the one and only time I mentioned Victoria's Secret before, oh my. I had no idea Jeffrey Epstein was involved with this business, too. No wonder the trailer has so many views; it's a business story about using sex to sell its product that includes a sex scandal. Whether those trailer and presumably program views result in the producers bringing home a trophy is another matter — remember, electorates matter — but at least the voters will have watched the show. That makes this the nominee I expect to win, even though it's not my personal favorite.
I will continue my awards show coverage, but I might revisit the SAG-AFTRA strike tomorrow first. Stay tuned.
Previous posts about the 2023 News & Documentary Emmy Awards
The writers union is returning to the bargaining table, agreeing to restart talks with Hollywood studios. Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Alexandra Canal joins the Live show to provide an update on the state of the Hollywood strikes and the effect that these strikes are having on major studios like Paramount (PARA) and Disney (DIS).
Yahoo Finance featured a lot more management perspectives than I usually include in these posts. I shouldn't be surprised because they cater to investors. DW News presented more of the writers' side when the service asked Writers return to negotiations: Has their strike been successful?
Writers in Hollywood are resuming negotiations with the studios today. So far, both sides have been far apart with revenue-sharing playing a central role.
The head of the Writer's Guild previously said the union wouldn't return to negotiations unless the studios were willing to discuss residual payments on streaming services -- something the studios had said was off the table.
As Dan Garza and his puppet Jeff said, these strikes are affecting everyone in Hollywood, not just the actors and writers, to the tune of $3 billion so far. Not all consequences are bad, at least in the short run, as CNBC explained in Why the WGA strike is helping studios combat financial pressure.
James Stewart, columnist at The New York Times, joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss how the ongoing writers' strike is helping studios with cost-cutting measures, the content supply pressures created by the WGA strike, and WGA's return to the negotiating table.
In the long run, the studios will need to settle with the actors and writers so that they can produce more content. Until that content runs out, the strikes are saving them money in the short run. It's going to be quite the balancing act for all parties involved.
Until then, new entertainment content will come from sports. The pros are not on strike and college sports will go on as long as there is no return of the pandemic. I might even resume watching sports in the fall. Until then, my wife and I have lots of shows to watch and video games to play when I'm not working.
The Writers Guild of America and representatives of Hollywood studios held their first negotiating session Friday since the union went on strike May 2, and while no specifics were released, the WGA told its members that studios offered a "counterproposal" to union demands.
While I still think these strikes are not ending any time soon, there is at least some progress. Stay tuned.
The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is raising awareness about the plight of African elephants, which are classified as critically endangered.
Dr. Nadine Lamberski not only described the conservation status of African elephants, which was elevated in 2021 from threatened to endangered in the case of the African bush elephant and critically endangered in the case of the African forest elephant, she mentioned Asian elephants in passing, which the IUCN also lists as endangered. In addition, she pointed out that elephants are connected to every other organism in their communities. This relates to one of Commoner's Laws, everything is connected to everything else. This includes us, as climatechange is affecting both humans and elephants. Let that be a lesson to my readers.
World Elephant Day is celebrated on August 12 on the National Day Calendar. Today we are raising about the conservation efforts and issues relating to elephant habitats. We are also celebrating elephants as one of the world’s most majestic animals to walk the earth.
#WORLD ELEPHANT DAY
World Elephant Day is a global event that occurs on August 12 each year. This global day raises awareness about elephant welfare, habitat loss, poaching, and protection of elephants. Join us as we take a journey on World Elephant Day to learn about the history of this beautiful creature, the dangers it faces, and how we can do our part to preserve the lives of elephants.
... HISTORY BEHIND WORLD ELEPHANT DAY
World Elephant Day was created in 2012 by Patricia Sims and Michael Clark in an effort to raise awareness about the issues facing African and Asian Elephants. Every year on August 12, we are joining in this global effort to show our support and bring awareness protecting elephants around the world.
I like this day better than ElephantAppreciationDay, which has to share the day with too many other observances. If I remember, I'll keep today and formally drop Elephant Appreciation Day from the holidays I observe here.
Stay tuned for either more awards show coverage or a strike update as the Sunday entertainment feature tomorrow. I haven't decided yet.
This day recognizes the humor often found and yet not so appreciated in the highest office in the land. With a nod to the blunders, take a look back at some of our presidents’ social missteps.
Which president once said, "Sock it to me!" Tell us in the comments, and if you do not know the answer, come find out right here...
I'm being a good environmentalist by recycling my response to the video.
Happy National Presidential Joke Day! Since no one else has answered your question, I will. I didn't have to click on the link, either. I'm old enough to have seen and heard Richard Nixon say "Sock it to me" on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In." Strictly speaking, he wasn't President yet when he did that in 1968, but it works.
Here's Sock It To Nixon from the "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" YouTube account. Yes, that's a real thing.
Proof Tricky Dick had a sense of humor, even though he didn't show it much.
Follow over the jump for the Emmy coverage I promised yesterday as I look at the nominees for Outstanding Talk Series, where jokes about presidents are staples of the monologues.
Lions are called the king of the jungle, even though they don’t live in the jungle.
Once again, this video includes a lot of interesting information interspersed with jokes that are too cute by half, in this case, references to The Lion King. That puts in the same league as the videos I shared about bald eagles and wombats Still, as soon as I started watching it, I knew I would use it for today.
Follow over the jump for videos about two more days being celebrated today.
HappyNationalVeepDay! Today is the anniversary of the day when Vice President Gerald Ford became President of the United States upon the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974, the culmination of the Watergate scandal. Last year was the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in, so it's no surprise that news organizations produced documentaries about it. It's also no surprise that two of these documentaries, Watergate: High Crimes In The White House and Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal, earned nominations at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards and are the subject of today's post.
The gripping documentary, "Watergate: High Crimes in the White House," premieres 50 years to the day of the infamous break-in at the Democratic headquarters located within the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. What seemed at first a mere burglary grew into an extraordinary story of crime and scandal that took down President Richard Nixon.
CNN will debut Watergate: Blueprint for a Scandal, with John Dean offering his first-hand account of the break in that brought down Richard Nixon’s presidency, on June 5.
Dean, former White House counsel for Nixon, serves as an executive producer on the project, with the debut tied to the 50th anniversary of the break in.
As John Dean is quoted as saying, "The criminal conduct of Richard Nixon and his top aides...became the blueprint for what no President of the United States should do." Unfortunately, it became the blueprint for what the former guy actually did, resulting in two impeachments and several indictments, beyond what happened to Nixon, who resigned before he could be impeached and was pardoned before he could be indicted.
I've already examined the nominees for Best Documentary and plan on looking at the entries for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary and Outstanding Editing: Documentary eventually, but today I'm closing this short entry with ROADRUNNER: A Film About Anthony Bourdain - Official Trailer from Focus Features.
It’s not where you go. It’s what you leave behind . . . Chef, writer, adventurer, provocateur: Anthony Bourdain lived his life unabashedly. Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain is an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at how an anonymous chef became a world-renowned cultural icon. From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor?), this unflinching look at Bourdain reverberates with his presence, in his own voice and in the way he indelibly impacted the world around him.
Too bad it's no longer competing. It looks like an interesting film.
Stay tuned for a post examining two nominees about Watergate for Veep Day tomorrow.
Previous posts about the 2023 News & Documentary Emmy Awards
The 75th Primetime Emmy Awards has been postponed due to the ongoing strikes by the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA. The Emmys broadcast was scheduled to take place on Sept. 18, and a new date has not been announced.
Check out more of Elaine's work at TheAnkler.com.
She also has a daily newsletter and blog at StrikeGeist.com.
This segment aired on the KTLA 5 Weekend Morning News on July 29, 2023.
Since there are no new dates for the awards broadcasts, I think I can slow the pace of my Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy posts. The earliest I expect they could take place would be November. On the other hand, the News & Documentary Emmy Awards are not affected by either strike, so they should happen on schedule with the news awards being presented on Wednesday, September 27, 2023 and the documentary awards on Thursday, September 28, 2023. I'm shifting my focus to them for at least the next couple of posts. Stay tuned.
Previous posts about the 2023 Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards
I made an aside that "My wife and I have even stopped watching those, although we did watch an episode of Queer Eye and really enjoyed it. That's for the next installment of this series" in the middle of 'Welcome to Wrexham' leads unstructured reality programs at the 2023 Emmy Awards, then concluded the entry by telling my readers "I plan on writing about Queer Eye's Emmy nominations tomorrow for the Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned." Without any further ado, here are the categories in which Queer Eye earned nominations at the 75th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards.
Outstanding Structured Reality Program Antiques Roadshow (PBS) Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives (Food Network) Love Is Blind (Netflix) Queer Eye (Netflix) Shark Tank (ABC)
Like last year, 2021, and 2020, Queer Eye leads structured reality programs with six nominations. Love Is Blind is in second with two, and Antiques Roadshow, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and Shark Tank each have only one. Based on both the total nominations and the experts at Gold Derby, Queer Eye is the favorite to repeat; every expert is picking it to win. The odds have four-time previous winnerShark Tank second, Antiques Roadshow third, Love Is Blind fourth, and Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives last. I've watched all of these shows except Love Is Blind and I agree.
The Fab Five are back and these saints are marching in... to New Orleans! Watch as they transform the lives of seven deserving heroes who are ready to show up for themselves and for each other. Grab the tissues because a little support goes a long beignet!
The episode about the makeover of both the fraternity brothers and their house was the one my wife and I watched and we found it entertaining and moving. I expect we'll resume watching the show when we finish re-watching NCIS.
Speaking of NCIS, the star of NCIS: Hawaii and her husband are the hosts of Love Is Blind. Too bad the trailer for Love Is Blind Season 4 | Official Trailer | Netflix doesn't show them, although the program description mentions them.
First comes love, then comes reality when Love is Blind Season 4 premieres on March 24th.
I think this is a great concept, but reading the comments to this video makes me wonder if the participants are sabotaging it in the vein of "people are nasty to each other and it pays."
Since the Gold Derby odds have it in second and it has no other nominations, here's the Twitter image promoting the nomination of Shark Tank.
Follow over the jump for the remaining five categories.
