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.
A ‘daytime fireball’ was caught on video in the sky over South Carolina – causing a sonic boom, according to the American Meteor Society. CNN has reached out to emergency management officials in North Carolina and Tennessee, as well as NASA for comment.
That's quite the meteor! Good thing it mostly created a natural fireworks show, maybe some property damage, and no injuries.
How did asteroid 2024 YR4 go from being the riskiest asteroid ever detected to posing no real threat? First spotted in December 2024, its impact risk initially soared to 2.8%, surpassing previous record-holder Apophis. But thanks to refined observations from our Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre and other institutions, its risk quickly dropped to just 0.001% within days. This dramatic shift follows a well-known pattern—asteroid impact probabilities often rise before plummeting as more data becomes available. Now, nearly all possible impact scenarios have been ruled out, and 2024 YR4 has been safely removed from our risk list.
“Deadpool & Wolverine” and “Thunderbolts*” lead this year’s film nominees, having earned six nominations each including Best Superhero Movie. Both Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds from “Deadpool & Wolverine” were recognized in the category of Best Actor in a Superhero Movie, while Emma Corrin and Jennifer Garner received nods for Best Actress in a Superhero Movie. Emma Corrin also is up for a second award, Best Villain in a Movie.
“Thunderbolts*” received nominations in the same categories, including nods for both David Harbour and Lewis Pullman for Best Actor in a Superhero Movie. Lewis Pullman is also up for Best Villain in a Movie, while Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Florence Pugh were both nominated for Best Actress in a Superhero Movie.
In addition to Deadpool & Wolverine and Thunderbolts* with six nominations each, the rest of the nominees for Best Superhero Movie are Captain America: Brave New World, The People’s Joker, and Venom: The Last Dance with two nominations apiece and Robot Dreams with just this one. I think the advantage goes to Deadpool & Wolverine in large part because it already has a Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy Movie. Remember, electorates matter.
Deadpool & Wolverine also already has three Saturn Awards, so I can look ahead to this year's awards without it. If the Superhero Film category returns to this year's Saturn Awards, then Thunderbolts* and Captain America: Brave New World would certainly be nominees. Even if the category doesn't return, I expect Thunderbolts* will earn a nomination for Best Action Film, which it would probably lose to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, nominated here for Best Action Movie, which I expect it will win. Other potential nominees would be Razzie nomineeKraven the Hunter along with Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps. I expect one of the latter would win if the Saturn Awards have a superhero film category. Otherwise, I wouldn't put it past the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA to nominate both of the latter for Best Science Fiction Film, just like they did Venom: The Last Dance last year.
Two nominees surprised me, Robot Dreams and The People’s Joker. I should have heard of the former, as it's an Oscar nominee, losing to The Boy and the Heron for Best Animated Feature, and is based on a comic book. The latter is a satire that earned more nominations than Razzie winner Joker: Folie à Deux, which I will cover below the jump. Neither are eligible for this year's Saturn Awards.
I want to acknowledge a snub before I move on, A Minecraft Movie. The critics must have disliked it for being dumb fun, but it's the kind of movie the People's Choice Awards would love and the Saturn Awards would nominate just to stick it to the experts.
Follow over the jump for the superhero acting categories.
The United States is closer than ever to achieving the dream it’s been chasing since 1776: an inclusive democracy that lives up to the promise of one person, one vote. But since 2020, election deniers have sought to undermine America’s collective voice with lies about the security of our elections. In the Opinion Video above, Neil Makhija — who will help oversee elections in his county in the battleground state of Pennsylvania — argues that our votes have never been safer or more secure. In fact, someone is more likely to be struck by lightning than to impersonate someone else at a polling site.
But we can’t afford to be complacent. “To protect democracy, we can’t just play defense,” Makhija cautions. “We need to go on offense to expand voting rights and voting access.”
The video is not just well done, it's inspiring. I can see how it won. Speaking of which, here's the tweet announcing its first Emmy Award for Outstanding Graphic Design – News.
The #NewsEmmys Award for Outstanding Graphic Design – News goes to You’re Being Lied To About Voter Fraud. Here’s the Truth. | The New York Times Opinion (@nytimes). pic.twitter.com/dKRDIyhQw7
Now the tweet announcing its second Emmy for Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design – Documentary.
The #DocEmmys Award for Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration / Scenic Design – Documentary goes to You’re Being Lied To About Voter Fraud. Here’s the Truth. | The New York Times Opinion (@nytimes). pic.twitter.com/I7hFYxZPfs
Apollo 13: Survival is the most nominated entry in Outstanding Art Direction / Set Decoration /
Scenic Design – Documentary, which has been separated from Outstanding Lighting Direction. It's followed by Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial from Netflix, Separated from MSNBC, and You're Being Lied To About Voter Fraud. Here's the Truth from The New York Times Opinion, each with two nominations, and Glitter and Greed: The Lisa Frank Story from Prime Video and This Is What a Nuclear Strike Would Feel Like from The New York Times Opinion, both with this one nomination. I don't have an opinion on this, so I'm holding off on making a prediction.
I never returned to this category until now. That's probably a good thing, as I avoided making a bad prediction. Just the same, congratulations to New York Times Opinion, Creative Director Neil Makhija, and Art Directors Jim Batt, Kim Boekbinder, Molly Crabapple!
I expect to cover more News & Doc Emmy Awards winners, but I plan on looking at a different awards show, the Critics Choice Super Awards, for tomorrow's Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned.
Previous posts about the 46th News & Doc Emmy Awards
FRIDA earned nominations for Direction – Documentary and Music Composition – Documentary in addition to Outstanding Graphic Design – Documentary. I might get to those before June 26th if I have time. If I don't, I will certainly cover any awards it wins, and I have a drum corps show to celebrate them. Yes, really.
Carla Gutierrez won Outstanding Direction – Documentary for FRIDA. Here's the tweet announcing the award from The Emmys.
Congratulations to Gutierrez and the crew of FRIDA! Also, congratulations to the winners in the other categories in which FRIDA earned nominations, Daniel Pemberton, who won the Emmy for Music Composition – Documentary for his score for Endurance, and the graphics team of Omnivore, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Graphic Design – Documentary.
I plan on covering more News & Doc Emmy nominees in future posts. In the meantime, follow over the jump for videos about Pacific Crest's "The Broken Column," the corps 2024 program, which honors Frida Kahlo.
America's largest department store chain has been having trouble. This video explores the company's initial rise before trying to identify five of the main reasons behind its recent struggles.
Here are Company Man Mike's five reasons for Kohl's struggles.
Kohl's inventory issues are the opposite of Joann's, which suffered from too little inventory, not too much. That's difficult to solve if the suppliers aren't there. Too much inventory? Reduce price and clear it out. That's easy, even if it results in a loss, as happened in 2022.
Poor leadership is an issue Company Man Mike has seen lots of, most recently in Rite Aid and Walgreens. Ashley Buchanan's actions during his tenure were scandalous enough that Erik of Retail Archaeology remarked on them in his video, What Is Going On At Kohl's.
Let's take a look at what is going on Kohl's.
Looks like Buchanan was thinking with the wrong head. Good riddance! Also, watching this explains why Erik made the comparison to Kohl's in his video about At Home.
Back to Company Man Mike's list. External factors include both the pandemic and tariffs, the former of which has been an ongoing issue this decade and the latter looks like one I'll keep seeing as long as Donald "Hoover Cleveland" Trump is in office. Sigh.
Both Company Man Mike and Erik noted the Sephora store-within-a-store replacing the jewelry display could be a mistake, although Company Man Mike tied it into identity issues. Alienating core customers while trying to attract new ones is something he saw in Hooters. I personally saw this in drum corps during the 1990s and early 2000s as DCI decided that high school band kids were the future, while the alumni were the past. The alumni were pissed, but DCI won that contest, a conflict I partially described in The Archdruid and I talk drum corps. This isn't the post for the rest.*
While I've often seen private equity as a cause of debt leading to failure, I've come across stock buybacks by themselves justthreetimes, and only seen both once in the case of Ruby Tuesday. Now I can say I've run across the combination twice.
At least private equity doesn't seem to be one of the reasons for Kohl's struggles.
I may have one more Retail Apocalypse post tomorrow, or I might change subjects. Stay tuned to see which I do.
*Drum corps season begins tomorrow, so I'm not surprised this comparison occurred to me.
In this episode of Retail Archaeology we check out At Home, a huge home goods and decor store that is about to file for bankruptcy.
Listening to Erik's history of the company made me think of three factors I've encountered before with troubled stores. First, Garden Ridge, At Home's previous name, filing for bankruptcy in 2004, reminded me of what I wrote most recently about Rite Aid, "Most of the chains succumbing during the Retail Apocalypse were already in trouble..." At Home is one of them. Next, "line go up" in 2020 reflected what happened to Joann and Big Lots!. "Both thrived during the pandemic because people were at home, then suffered once people returned to work." Third, I've often seen private equity as a cause of debt leading to failure, most recently in the case of Weight Watchers. Erik wasted no time pointing that out in the video title.
On the other hand, he was not as convinced about tariffs as a cause other than the final nail in the coffin, which he said as a voice over while showing Halloween decorations. I'm surprised he didn't mention Spirit Halloween as a competitor along with Walmart, Target, and Wayfair.
I've seen Erik criticize a chain's business model before, but never this relentlessly. Also, this is the first time I remember hearing him credit HGTV for a company's success, however fleeting, although I think he's onto something.
Home decor and furniture retailer, At Home, is filing for bankruptcy. The retail chain has more than 200 locations in the United States.
Two of those locations are not just in Michigan and Metro Detroit, but in Oakland County. I think the one in Troy is in an old Sears location. That's not a good omen, but no Michigan locations are on the store closing list.
Erik mentioned Kohl's in his video. They're next. Stay tuned.
Rite Aid is again seeking bankruptcy protection as the struggling drugstore chain says it will try to sell substantially all of its assets.
The company said Monday that its stores will remain open as it returns to Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
The company said it will work to ensure that customer prescriptions are transferred to other pharmacies as it goes through the sale process. The drugstore chain has lined up from some of its lenders $1.94 billion in new financing which help fund it through the sale and bankruptcy proceedings.
6abc Philadelphia reported this news on May 6, 2025, but it was no surprise. On April 25, 2025, WHTM - abc27 News in Harrisburg, York, Lancaster and Lebanon, Pennsylvania asked What is the future of Rite Aid?
Even then, Garrick Brown, the namesake editor of The Brown Book, could see what Rite Aid's future would be, liquidation. The chain would not survive a second bankruptcy and it looks like all its stores will be closed or sold. Brown also went into more detail about where drug stores get their revenue, including beauty products, which Company Man Mike didn't focus on in 2023. I can say first-hand that Ulta and Sephora have been expanding aggressively, as I mentioned an Ulta replacing a Pier 1 location in 2020, while my wife shops at Ulta and my stepdaughter/older daughter shops at Sephora. I shouldn't be surprised that those chains are eating into drug store revenues on one side of the store while dollar stores are eroding them on the other.
Brown also discussed who would benefit from Rite Aid closing and selling stores as well as the difficulties in unloading some properties. Those are the subjects of the next two videos, which are over the jump.
In today's video we discovered yet another style of Pizza that we hadn't really even heard of before - Detroit Pizza! Apparently tipped as the best pizza in the world by some, we couldn't wait to give it a taste.
Thanks to Detroit Pizza London for taking such good care of us!
I don't think they got all the history correct, but their enthusiasm is sincere.
In today's video, we were joined by Armand & Max on a break from their studies and we took them to try Detroit Pizza for the first time!
Their friends certainly enjoyed Detroit-style pizza. They also enjoyed the deep-fried lasagna, to which my reaction is "don't give Americans any ideas."
We're starting off our Detroit series with an obvious first episode, Detroit Style Pizza! In this episode we headed over to the much recommended Loui's Detroit Style Pizza to see what the hype was all about.
I'm glad they enjoyed real Detroit-style pizza. Welcome to Detroit!
Normally, I focus on the plants in rainforests, particularly those in temperate rainforests, but the challenge I set for myself and the available material led to concentrating on animals in tropical rainforests. It works.
The other nominees for Outstanding Short Documentary are Love To The Max, Motorcycle Mary, Swept, and Wings of Dust. My pick is Motorcycle Mary on two criteria. First, it has the most wins and nominations listed at IMDB, four each, while Wings of Dust has one win and Love to the Max has one nomination, none of which include those at the News & Doc Emmy Awards.* IMDB doesn't even have entries for The Dirty Business of Monkey Laundering or Swept. The second is that the only promotional image I could find touting a nomination in this category was for Motorcycle Mary.
Its team believes in it.
Follow over the jump for the other News & Doc Emmy nominees that fit today's theme.
Join us in celebrating World Giraffe Day with Africam! From their towering grace to their quirky drinking stances, giraffes are some of the most iconic animals of the African bush.
Watch as these gentle giants visit the waterhole, interact with other wildlife, and remind us why giraffe conservation matters.
In Uganda’s Murchison Falls National Park, Rothschild’s giraffes, one of the rarest giraffe subspecies, move quietly across the landscape. Classified as endangered, these giraffes are a vital part of Uganda’s natural heritage. Poaching snares, set to catch smaller animals, often trap unintended victims, including giraffes.
Despite their size, giraffes are particularly vulnerable to poaching snares and their injuries can be life-threatening if left untreated. That’s where our Elephant and Wildlife Rescue Unit steps in. Working alongside our partners at the Uganda Conservation Foundation and the Uganda Wildlife Authority, the veterinary team responds rapidly to wildlife in distress, treating their injuries and stabilizing them for safe release. In the first five months of 2025, the unit has already rescued 28 giraffes, giving each one a second chance at life in the wild.
That's giraffe conservation in the wild. Most of my readers do not live in countries where giraffes live free. Instead, they would only encounter giraffes in the flesh in zoos. Conservation goes on there, as the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo shows in last year's Happy World Giraffe Day!
Today, on the longest day of the year, we are celebrating the longest-necked animal: the giraffe!
In celebrating World Giraffe Day, we are also celebrating the almost two-year anniversary of the International Center for the Care and Conservation of Giraffe. Established in 2022, The Giraffe Center is a concentrated effort by CMZoo to consolidate resources and expand educational programs in order to improve and enrich the lives of giraffe in human care worldwide. One of the ways they achieve this is through in-person and virtual workshops. These workshops include lecture-style presentations, group discussions, role-playing and actual practice focused on giraffe nutrition, natural behaviors, hoof anatomy and care, and positive reinforcement training. Since 2022, The Giraffe Center has helped organizations in 28 different countries and has had hundreds of requests for information and assistance with giraffe care.
Learn more about the International Center for the Care and Conservation of Giraffe at cmzoo.org/giraffecenter.
Zoos play a part in conservation, too!
I am extending the streak of holidays one more day because tomorrow is WorldRainforestDay. Stay tuned to see how I combine celebrating that day with the Sunday entertainment feature, which may still be coverage of the News & Doc Emmy Awards. It can be done!
The House and Senate unanimously pass a bill to make the bald eagle the U.S. national bird. Preston Cook, co-Chair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center, joins Meet the Press NOW to discuss his push to make it happen.
Behold the power of impassioned and determined scholarship!
Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith fleeing to Mexico after surrendering is an amusing fact I'd missed in previous tellings of the story. It didn't appear in KPRC 2 Click2Houston's Celebrating Juneteenth In Galveston: Birthplace Of Freedom.
Big celebrations are underway here in Galveston, the birthplace of Juneteenth.
Former President Joe Biden, who signed the law making Juneteenth a federal holiday, coming to Galveston to celebrate, makes for an appropriate closing of the circle. That written, the story of Juneteenth continues, as MSNBC tells in 'History is being challenged': Rev. Al slams DEI attacks on Juneteenth holiday.
Thursday, June 19 marks the Juneteenth holiday, the day in 1865 when enslaved African-Americans in Galveston, Texas learned they were free. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Maura Gay discuss.
Tsunami: Race Against Time is up against very stiff competition in this category, particularly Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story with six nominations, The Grab with four including Best Documentary, and Blink with two. The rest have just this one nomination. I plan on examining this category at least three more times, so I'm holding off on handicapping the nominees until I see all of them.
I think Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story has an edge over Tsunami: Race Against Time, but that's not enough. I'll pick my favorite when I look at all the nominees.
I found the trailer for The Grab gripping, but I don't know if it's more urgent than Tsunami: Race Against Time's trailer. That doesn't put it ahead of Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story in my book. I expect I'll write a post featuring Blink, Brats, and Patrice: The Movie treating this and its news equivalent as show categories.
Blink is a documentary film distributed by National Geographic Documentary Films in partnership with The Walt Disney Studios.
The documentary follows the Pelletier family, who set out on an epic journey to see the beauty of the world when three of their four children are diagnosed with an incurable eye condition. The film follows the family over the course of a year as they traverse 24 countries, filling their visual memories with breathtaking locations and once-in-a-lifetime encounters. Their destinations included Botswana, Cambodia, Canada (Montreal and Kuujjuaq), China, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Laos, Namibia, Malawi, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Oman, South Korea, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United States (New York City), Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Blink stars Edith Lemay, Sébastien Pelletier, Mia Pelletier, Léo Pelletier, Colin Pelletier, Laurent Pelletier, François Lemay and Pauline Sirois. The film is directed by Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher and produced by Melanie Miller (p.g.a) and Diane Becker (p.g.a).
This beats Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story for being moving, and that's saying something.
In the 1980s, everybody wanted to be in the Brat Pack. Except them. Director Andrew McCarthy reunites with Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, and more for the original documentary “BRATS” streaming June 13, only on Hulu.
Oh, that's funny! It also makes me want to watch it, which means it's effective, too. Is it good enough to win? Not with this electorate. Speaking of which, I think the documentary itself would work better at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards; it looks like their kind of show. My readers and I will see if it's eligible and earns nominations next month.
‘Patrice: The Movie’ – a documentary rom-com about the next phase of marriage equality – disability. Streaming Sept 30th only on Hulu.
This is right up there with Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story for being moving, and it's about an issue that affects my family, so I care a bit more. Is it enough to beat Blink? I don't know, but this trailer has 3,153,880 views! People are watching and they care! Speaking of which, if the U.S. is "pro-family," should we support disabled Americans in marriage through maintaining their benefits the way we support able-bodied married Americans through the tax code? I say yes.
Apollo 13: Survival has the most nominations for Outstanding Editing - Documentary with four, followed by Death without Mercy, Blink, and We Will Dance Again, all with two, and Citizen Nation with just this one. It also has an editing nomination at the BAFTA Film Awards, so it definitely has a strong case to win. Besides, it's an archival documentary, so editing is going to be its strong suit.
I expect to return to this category twice before I make a call, once for We Will Dance Again and the other Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary and again for Blink and Citizen Nation when I finish this category and Outstanding Promotional Announcement - Documentary.
I can see how editing of all the survivors' videos made We Will Dance Again what it is. That written, I suspect Blink's editing might be even stronger.
Blink's editing is indeed strong and it's of original photography by the directors instead of "found footage," but I'm watching Citizen Nation (Trailer) | Retro Report before making a call.
Our new series for PBS, "Citizen Nation," is an inspiring coming-of-age story that follows teens from across the U.S. as they compete in the nation’s premier civics competition, “We the People.”
I'm getting strong Boys State, Girls State, and Science Fair vibes from this trailer. That's a good thing, but I don't know if it's enough to beat Blink, which is my choice to win this category.
Directed by Emmy-winning writer and filmmaker Nic Stacey, Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy pulls back the curtain on the world’s top brands, exposing the hidden tactics and covert strategies used to keep all of us locked in an endless cycle of buying—no matter the cost.
I've found yet another documentary I can recommend to my students. I can see applications of three of Commoner's Laws: "Everything must go somewhere (There is no away)," "There is no free lunch," and "Everything is connected to everything else." "Nature knows best?" Sorry, no. Still, welcome to blogging as professional development. That will turn out to be a major theme of today's post.
Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy is the only nominee in this category with a second nomination, in this case for Graphic Design – Documentary, and the outstanding animation and special effects are all over this trailer. Also, other outlets have been paying attention to this documentary. YouTube's recommendation algorithm is showing me videos by CNN, CBS News, WGN News, and KCAL, and that's before I search for news reports on it. The TV news people are certainly aware of this nominee, and I'm taking that as a factor in favor of it winning. Remember, electorates matter and television journalists are part of the electorate for these awards. Between that and the 2,051,802 views plus 1,695 comments on the trailer, I'm considering Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy to be the favorite.
The first nominee in alphabetical order with only one nomination for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary is Bitconned | Official Trailer | Netflix.
Ray Trapani had always wanted to be a criminal, even as a young boy. In 2017, amidst the economic frenzy of the Bitcoin boom, there was no better place for scammers than cryptocurrency. So when Ray's friend approached him with the idea of creating a debit card for crypto, Trapani jumped at the chance. There was only one problem: he had no idea how to do that. But thanks to fake LinkedIn profiles, paid celebrity endorsements, and the online community’s insatiable desire to "get rich quick," Centra Tech was soon raking in millions of dollars a day. Was it real? No. But did it work? Maybe. In this fast-paced, debaucherous documentary from director Bryan Storkel (Producer of The Legend of Cocaine Island + Director of The Pez Outlaw), Ray himself guides viewers through the ups and downs of his dramatic journey, alongside his family, former friends, and the journalist who exposed Centra Tech as the first high-profile fraud case of the crypto era.
This reminds me of McMillion$, an examination of an elaborate scam and the scammers behind it. It also shows the fine line between business and the economy on one side and crime and justice on the other. I'm not surprised the two intersected at cryptocurrency.
The story of the iconic trailblazer known by her initials DVF worldwide. Child of a Holocaust survivor, Princess by marriage, and founder of a fashion brand. Featuring interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Marc Jacobs, Hillary Rodham Clinton and more. Watch Diane von Furstenberg: Woman in Charge on Hulu!
This looks fun and inspiring and is about glamorous and famous people. Those qualities would give it a leg up at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, where the voters would look at Diane von Furstenberg and say "she's one of us." I'm not sure it will have the same effect on the journalists and documentarians here. Again, electorates matter.
A McDonald’s Happy Meal shortage. A security guard escort. Guns pulled in a Target parking lot. All of these are caused by a common factor: trading cards. In 2020, a new BOOM began. For the first time, large hedge funds, celebrities like Logan Paul and Steve Aoki, nostalgic millennials, entrepreneurs like Josh Luber, and billionaires scrambled to add sports, Pokémon, and other hot item cards to their collections and portfolios. Over the next two years, the hobby exploded — even causing card grading services to shut down due to overwhelming customer service. This documentary is a character-driven feel good deep dive into the high-stakes, eccentric world of card collecting, following buyers, sellers, card shop owners, graders, online streamers, auctioneers, and more, who all participate in the hobby in their own unique ways.
This also looks like fun, but it shows that collecting is literally serious business. It also shows that the pandemic is still having lasting effects.
#MoviePassMovieCrash goes behind the scenes to reveal the meteoric rise and stranger-than-fiction implosion of the theatrical movie subscription app. The @HBO Original Documentary premieres May 29 on @StreamOnMax.
If MoviePass were a retail company with brick-and-mortar locations, it would be a good subject for a Retail Apocalypse entry. It still makes for an engaging story of failure snatched from the jaws of success.
Liberty City, Miami, was home to one of the oldest segregated public housing projects in the U.S. Now with rising sea levels, the neighborhood’s higher ground has become something else: real estate gold. Wealthy property owners push inland to higher ground, creating a speculators’ market in the historically Black neighborhood previously ignored by developers and policy-makers alike.
Welcome to climate gentrification, which is having its strongest effect in Miami. This is another documentary I can recommend to my students for extra credit. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.
Follow over the jump to see the trailers for the nominees competing against Buy Now! The Shopping Conspiracy for Outstanding Graphic Design – Documentary, a category I haven't covered until now.
The new P+ Original documentary We Will Dance Again delves into the October 7th terror attack at the Nova Music Festival, a celebration meant for music, life and love that turned into a horrific scene of violence.
We Will Dance Again is told through the eyes of more than a dozen survivors, many of whom recorded their experiences on their cell phones as the massacre unfolded. It is a painful story of unfathomable tragedy, and also of bravery, sacrifice and heroism. Viewer Discretion Advised.
This serves as a terrifying reminder of how the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began, as a terror attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians enjoying themselves.
We Will Dance Again has two nominations for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary and Outstanding Editing - Documentary and is my pick to win this category. The remaining nominees, 64 Days: The Insurrection Playbook, Bread & Roses, Print it Black, and "A Year of War: Israelis and Palestinians" on FRONTLINE, have just this one nomination. It's time for their trailers, starting with 64 Days: The Insurrection Playbook by Saboteur Media.
JANUARY 6TH.
YOU THINK YOU KNOW THE STORY.
YOU DON'T.
FROM EMMY AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER NICK QUESTED
64 DAYS: THE INSURRECTION PLAYBOOK
...
Through never-before-seen footage, exclusive access to the proud boys, eyewitness reports, unreported emails, videos, social media posts, interviews with politicians on both sides of the aisle, and unprecedented access to the investigators supporting the January 6 Committee, 64 DAYS chronicles the most important period of our modern republic—the 64 democracy-bending days between the election and the devastating January 6th insurrection.
Four-and-one-half years ago, I wasn't completely convinced this was a coup. It didn't take me long to change my mind. Watching this should convince my readers, if they aren't already.
In the shadow of Kabul’s fall, three women fight to reclaim their lives. Bread & Roses is now streaming on Apple TV+ https://apple.co/BreadandRoses_
Bread & Roses directed by Sahra Mani and produced by Jennifer Lawrence and Malala Yousafzai, captures the spirit of Afghan women in their relentless quest for autonomy. A moving portrayal of strength amid struggle, this acclaimed Cannes Film Festival documentary shines a light on their resilience.
This trailer is very popular, with 172,905 views and 115 comments. That might count for something, but the YouTube viewers are not the award voters. As I write nearly every time I examine awards shows, electorates matter. Just the same, this is my pick to upset We Will Dance Again.
After the Robb Elementary school shooting in Texas, local Uvalde Leader-News journalists are left to report on the fallout - and on one of their staff members. Reporter Kimberly Rubio rises to national prominence as an advocate for gun reform after her ten-year-old daughter, Lexi, is killed in the shooting. Through the journalists' reporting, we witness the social fabric of this small Texas town unravel as Kimberly and other victims' families search for accountability from law enforcement and local leaders. The documentary also shines a light on the critical role of community journalism, at a time when local newspapers are folding rapidly across the country. Print It Black trailer is after the news report.
Cast: Kimberly Mata Rubio, Pete Luna, Craig Garnett, Meghann Garcia, Melissa Federspill, Julye Keeble, Norma Ybarra, Felix Rubio, Dustin Burrows, James Volz, Hal Harrell, Shelia Jackson Lee, Nicole Ogburn, Beto O'Rourke, Pete Arrendondo, John Quinones, Maria Elena Salinas, Mireye Villarreal
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt32265065/
This is about both guns and local journalism. If the TV journalists are like the entertainment professionals who vote for the Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards, who will vote for a good nominee about themselves if all else is equal, then they might vote for this. I'm not sure they're like that and that all else is equal. This trailer doesn't help; it looks homemade. I'm sure ABC News, which made the documentary, would have done a better job.
FRONTLINE documents harrowing accounts from those who experienced the Oct. 7 Hamas attack and the ongoing war in Gaza. Israelis and Palestinians directly impacted by the conflict talk about death, despair and the continuing trauma.
This journalism is made possible by viewers like you. Support your local PBS station here: https://www.pbs.org/donate/
I like closing circles and this nominee does just that, looping back to We Will Dance Again with a more balanced perspective.
I conclude with We Will Dance Again's other nomination.
Apollo 13: Survival has the most nominations for Outstanding Editing - Documentary with four, followed by Death without Mercy, Blink, and We Will Dance Again, all with two, and Citizen Nation with just this one. It also has an editing nomination at the BAFTA Film Awards, so it definitely has a strong case to win. Besides, it's an archival documentary, so editing is going to be its strong suit.
I expect to return to this category twice before I make a call, once for We Will Dance Again and the other Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary and again for Blink and Citizen Nation when I finish this category and Outstanding Promotional Announcement - Documentary.
I can see how editing of all the survivors' videos made We Will Dance Again what it is. That written, I suspect Blink's editing might be even stronger. I plan on covering the remaining nominees for this category and Outstanding Promotional Announcement - Documentary on Wednesday. In the meantime, stay tuned for my examination of Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy and the other nominees for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary tomorrow.
Previous posts about the 46th News & Doc Emmy Awards
Kylo continues to rise, reaching a record 373rd place with 869 American boys named after Leia and Han's son, Luke's nephew, and Anakin and Padme's grandson last year. On the other hand, after reaching a peak of popularity in 2023, Anakin slipped from 544th to 592nd with 482 American boys given the name in 2024, still its second most popular year ever. That's a pattern the rest of the names follow, as seen below.
Leia and Luke both dropped last year, Leia from 211th to 290th with 1,094 American girls given the name in 2024, and Luke slipping slightly from 31st to 34th last year with 7,039 American boys named after either the Star Wars character, the apostle, or a friend or relative. Luke is a very old name that has been popular for a long time.
The final name I'm tracking today is Cassian. As I wrote in Social Security's top ten U.S. baby names of 2023 for Mother's Day weekend, "I'm briefly calling attention to the fourth-fastest rising name on the boys list, Cassian. It's the given name of the protagonist of RogueOne and Andor and is thus a Star Wars name." Cassian reached a peak in 2023 at 531st, beating Anakin's 544th, but fell to 616th with 462 American boys given the name in 2024. I suspect Andor's popularity, critical success, and likely awards chances — the second season of the series has already earned three nominations at the Critics Choice Super Awards — will buoy the name this year and next, so I doubt it will fall out of the top 1000 names.
HappyFlagDay! I'm taking a break from the stateofDC statehood, the theme of the past six years, to examine the history of the U.S. flag, beginning with The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered's Old Glory.*
On September 14th, 1814, Francis Scott Key was awake in the early morning when the sun began rising, revealing clearly the still-flying American flag above Fort McHenry. It was that morning that he began writing the poem that is now so well-known throughout the United States, "The Star Spangled Banner". The story of the Flag of the United States of America is history that deserves to be remembered.
Yes, it is, and, thanks to The History Guy, I'm glad I got around to remembering it.
In honor of the 245th anniversary of the Continental Congress adopting the Stars and Stripes as the national flag, "The Commandant's Own" presents John Philips Sousa's The Stars and Stripes Forever!
I didn't know this performance existed until I searched for a live version. Wow! I think I'll be using versions of this song on future Friday the 13th entries.
On the first Friday the 13th of the year, there is a national day where people blame someone else for bad luck, hence the name. It was on this day 40 years ago in 1982 that an alarm clock failed to go off, hence creating a domino effect of bad luck events.
To tie in with 2022's first Friday the 13th, I made a special version of the 20th Century Fox logo from the movie Krabat (the storm clouds in that version of the 20th Century Fox logo might be one of the bad luck). I used the percussion of the 1997 TCF fanfare, but added something special to mark the occasion. Yep, it's a melodica cover of the 20th Century Fox fanfare, ripped straight from the Family Guy episode All About Alana.
That's a great preview image! It's also a wrap for today's sort-of holidays. Stay tuned for Flag Day.
As I promised in 'Mammals' and the remaining nominees for Best Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, I'm examining the nominees for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary, where Daughters and Death Without Mercy lead with two nominations apiece. The remaining nominees, "Name Me Lawand" on POV, "One With the Whale" on Independent Lens, and "Two American Families: 1991-2024" on FRONTLINE, all on PBS, each have just this one nomination. I'm embedding their trailers in the order above beginning with Daughters | Official Trailer | Netflix.
Four young girls prepare for a special Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers, as part of a unique fatherhood program in a Washington, D.C. jail.
After watching this trailer, I want to wish my readers a happy early Father's Day. The title is Daughters, but it's also about fatherhood.
Shifting gears to its likelihood of winning, Daughters has quite the awards track record heading into the News & Doc Emmy Awards, winning seven awards including Best New Documentary Filmmaker(s) at the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards, Documentary Award for Black Cinema & Television at the Critics Choice Awards Celebration of Cinema and Television, Best Documentary from the African-American Film Critics Association, Best Documentary from the Indiana Film Journalists Association, and three film festival awards including two at Sundance. It also has 45 nominations, including BAFTA, Directors Guild of America, NAACP Image Awards, Black Reel Awards, Cinema for Peace Awards, Cinema Eye Honors Awards, five more from the Critics' Choice Documentary Awards, the Astra Awards, and more critics associations and film festivals than I have the time and energy to list. That's much more than the next nominee, Death Without Mercy | Official Trailer from Red Carpet Trailers.
MTV Documentary Films has announced a May 3 theatrical release for Death Without Mercy (working title), a riveting account of the massive earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria a year ago this week, killing more than 50,000 people.
Like Tsunami: Race Against Time, this is a movie I can recommend to my future geology students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
IMDB lists only three nominations for Death Without Mercy, including its two nominations at the News & Doc Emmy Awards, which the site doesn't list yet for Daughters. Its director having an Oscar nomination helps it, but I don't know if that's enough to push it ahead of Daughters, which is my pick to win this category. Just the same, its an MTV Documentary Film, and I've learned not to underestimate one of those.
Lawand, deaf from birth, seeks a fresh start with his family in the UK after a traumatic year in a refugee camp. At Derby's Royal School for the Deaf, he learns sign language and discovers a way to communicate with the world. As he thrives, his family faces deportation, challenging their stability. Name Me Lawand is a love letter to the power of friendship and community.
That looks touching, inspring, and uplifting. I don't know if it's enough to win.
Hunting whales is a matter of life or death for the residents of St. Lawrence. When a shy Alaska Native teen becomes the youngest person ever to harpoon a whale for his village, his family is blindsided by thousands of keyboard activists brutally attacking him online—without full perspective on the importance of the hunt to his community's well-being.
I can recommend this documentary to my current and future environmental science students about the proper place of hunting. Again, welcome to blogging as professional development.
Filmed over 34 years, two families struggle to survive in a changing American economy. Through hard times, falling wages, and loss of manufacturing jobs, the continuation of Bill Moyers’ chronicle of perseverance as the American dream slips away.
My students would probably appreciate this documentary as well, although I don't know if I would accept it as extra credit. It does fit the blog's theme of surviving collapse and decline, so it's definitely on-topic here.
Follow over the jump for the second nominations Daughters and Death Without Mercy earned.
