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.
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.
My planned "brief entry worth sharing next month" grew yesterday with two major artists releasing protest songs along with my original choice, the Marsh Family. The biggest artist and most popular song is Bruce Springsteen - Streets Of Minneapolis (Official Audio).
Lyrics:
Through the winter’s ice and cold
Down Nicollet Avenue
A city aflame fought fire and ice
‘Neath an occupier’s boots
King Trump’s private army from the DHS
Guns belted to their coats
Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law
Or so their story goes
Against smoke and rubber bullets
By the dawn’s early light
Citizens stood for justice
Their voices ringing through the night
And there were bloody footprints
Where mercy should have stood
And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets
Alex Pretti and Renee Good
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Trump’s federal thugs beat up on
His face and his chest
Then we heard the gunshots
And Alex Pretti lay in the snow, dead
Their claim was self defense, sir
Just don’t believe your eyes
It’s our blood and bones
And these whistles and phones
Against Miller and Noem’s dirty lies
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Crying through the bloody mist
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
Now they say they’re here to uphold the law
But they trample on our rights
If your skin is black or brown my friend
You can be questioned or deported on sight
In chants of ICE out now
Our city’s heart and soul persists
Through broken glass and bloody tears
On the streets of Minneapolis
Oh our Minneapolis, I hear your voice
Singing through the bloody mist
Here in our home they killed and roamed
In the winter of ’26
We’ll take our stand for this land
And the stranger in our midst
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We’ll remember the names of those who died
On the streets of Minneapolis
We hope the good people of San Francisco won’t mind us adapting this iconic track (about their city in the sixties, in the midst of protests and the counterculture movement) to treat the tragedies in recent days and weeks in Minneapolis. The original song was written by John Phillips (of "The Mamas & the Papas") and first released (sung by Scott McKenzie) in 1967, reaching number one in the UK, Germany, Ireland, and New Zealand charts, though only fourth in the US. We chose it because of its link to protest, its soaring refrains, its simplicity, its earnestness, and its celebration of love and solidarity. In our arrangement we haven’t double tracked the vocals but have added harmonies and mandolin/violin lines.
We hope it serves its aim, which is to express solidarity with the courageous and valiant protesters in Minnesota (and beyond), and to memorialise Renée Good and Alex Pretti, and sing their names across the ocean: two innocent American citizens executed on the streets in appalling scenes that so obviously echo waypoints in the historical march of fascism. Taking on the guns, masks, fear, and falsehoods requires more than flowers and songs. But they are powerful nonetheless, especially if they remind folk of previous generations that navigated trauma, and that you are not alone, and others are being inspired your courage and actions in the face of the winter of our times.
Tragedy and outrage are inspiring great music, which I'll let speak for itself.
Atomic scientists set their 'Doomsday Clock' closer than ever to midnight, citing aggressive behavior by nuclear powers Russia, China and the US, fraying nuclear arms control, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East and AI worries among factors driving risks for global disaster.
Since 2012, the Doomsday Clock time has either shifted closer to midnight or stayed the same.
In 2012, the Clock was moved to 5 minutes to midnight.
In 2015, it was moved to 3 minutes.
In 2017, it was moved to 2 ½ minutes.
In 2018, it was moved to 2 minutes.
In 2020, it was moved to 100 seconds.
In 2023, it was moved to 90 seconds.
Last year, it was moved to 89 seconds.
Today, it was moved to 85 seconds to midnight.
Leading experts who study existential risks believe humanity is the closest it has ever been to global catastrophe.
In the Doomsday Clock statement, the Bulletin’s Science and Security Board (SASB) releases side bars on each of the threats the Clock reflects—nuclear risk, climate change, disruptive technologies, and biological threats.
Across the board, excerpts from the SASB’s statement reflect a world that is failing to combat the most consequential threats humanity faces.
From the acceleration of a renewed nuclear arms race to the rise of nationalistic autocracies around the world, 2025 was an exceedingly dangerous year.
But what many don’t realize is that the Doomsday Clock can turn—and has turned—backwards. Eight times, to be exact.
Whether it does so again is up to humanity’s ability to learn from the past and to dedicate our time, effort, and resources to building a future where people can live free from the danger of existential threats.
In the Clock statement, the SASB notes that “national leaders–particularly those in the United States, Russia, and China–must take the lead in finding a path away from the brink” and that “citizens must insist they do so.”
Until that happens…
IT IS 85 SECONDS TO MIDNIGHT.
Those are all the time changes since I began writing this blog in 2011. On the one hand, yay, we've survived this long! On the other, the steady movement of the hands of the clock to midnight since 2012 is depressing and alarming. It's certainly not scaring the people now in power into behaving better.
That's a wrap for today's post. Stay tuned for another brief entry worth sharing next month, which begins Sunday.
“Islands in the Stream” was written by the Bee Gees, named after an Ernest Hemingway novel, and first intended for Diana Ross … but it found its most famous home in the epic country rendition released by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton in 1983 which was Dolly’s second number one hit – knocking Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart” off the top spot!
We had planned to do a cover of it to mark Dolly’s 80th birthday earlier this week. But with the bizarre episodes engineered by Donald Trump and some of his despicable false claims about NATO and track records dominating headlines this week, we determined to create a parody reflecting on his increasingly rambling, drivelling, narcissistic, and palpably untrue speeches – including notably the one he gave at Davos as he climbed down (for now) from his bullying of Greenland (not Iceland, as in the clip).
...
*Update 12 hours after upload: thanks for helpful people adding to our fact checking, and reminding that although Trump “taunted men who served as soldiers” there were also many female service people and sadly casualties in the Afghanistan operation.
I feel you, Marsh Family, and so do many other Americans.
Stay tuned for this year's unveiling of the Doomsday Clock. How many seconds to midnight are we now?
In this moving short documentary, a journalist and a photographer set out to memorialize the bedrooms left behind by children killed in school shootings.
This is an expanded version of The Lost Class, a PSA about gun violence nominated for Outstanding Commercial at the 2022 Emmy Awards, showing all the empty chairs of students lost to gun violence who would have graduated from high school had they lived. That worked because of the sheer numbers, 3,044, but it wasn't about the individual victims; fellow Emmy nominee Teenage Dream did that for the survivors. All the Empty Rooms personalizes the issue for those who never came home.
Since the video has no description, I'm sharing the one from IMDB: "Israeli peace activists hold silent vigils in Tel Aviv, displaying photos of Gaza's young victims. Despite facing public backlash, their wordless demonstrations powerfully highlight war's human cost." This is another side of 'We Will Dance Again' leads Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary nominees at the News & Doc Emmy Awards. That was about the Israeli victims of the October 7th attack on the Nova Music Festival. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, something I didn't acknowledge until now. Being interrupted by a hostile commenter trolling the entry will do that. This is about some Israelis' reaction to their government's response.
"Before I send them in, I look in their eyes. I say to them, 'you’re safe now.'"
#TheDevilsBusy offers an intimate look inside a women’s healthcare clinic in Atlanta, where Tracii leads security to ensure safety and care amid protests and restrictions.
'Perfectly A Strangeness' by Alison McAlpine official trailer, 2026 Oscar® Nominated in the best Documentary Short Film category.
Synopsis: In the dazzling incandescence of an unknown desert, three donkeys discover an abandoned astronomical observatory and the universe. A sensorial, cinematic exploration of what a story can be.
This has the most science content of any of the nominees except for possibly The Devil Is Busy, which has some health content amongst the social commentary. Just the same, I doubt I'll recommend it to my students. Sometimes, blogging as professional development doesn't yield positive results.
As I wrote above, the nominees are in the same order in the Gold Derby odds as they are in the alphabet. What are the odds of that happening? All the Empty Rooms has the first place votes of 70.0% of experts, 66.7% of editors, and 81.0% of users. Armed Only With A Camera: The Life and Death of Brent Renaud sits in second among all three groups as the choice of 20.0% of experts, 33.3% of editors, and 12.7% of users. No experts picked either Children No More: Were and Are Gone or The Devil Is Busy, the selections of 2.6% and 2.0% of users, respectively. Instead, the remaining expert is currently voting for Perfectly a Strangeness along with 1.7% of users. The film school students might like this last one, but everyone in the Motion Picture Academy votes for the winner, and I think they'll vote for one of the top two choices. Remember, electorates matter.
Again, that's a wrap for today's awards show coverage. Stay tuned for two brief entries worth sharing next month sandwiching this year's unveiling of the Doomsday Clock on Wednesday.
Just like it did at the Critics Choice Awards, One Battle After Another leads Best Adapted Screenplay as the choice of 81.8% of experts, 66.7% of editors, and 90.3% of users. Hamnet sits in second as the selection of the remaining 18.2% of experts and 33.3% of editors plus 6.9% of users. Frankenstein follows far behind with 1.1% of users, then Train Dreams with 1.0% user support, and Bugonia last with 0.7% of users. This looks a lot like the odds for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Critics Choice Awards.
One Battle After Another still leads as the choice of every editor, 81.3% of experts, and 90.9% of users. The experts and users are moving in opposite directions. The remaining experts are now split between Hamnet and Train Dreams with 12.5% and 6.3% expert expectations of winning, respectively. Hamnet is now the pick of 6.5% of users, followed by No Other Choice, Frankenstein, Bugonia, and Train Dreams follow with 1.0%, 0.9%, 0.4%, and 0.3% of users supporting each, respectively.
The field is the same except for No Other Choice dropping out because of the field being trimmed from six to five.* Gold Derby thinks the results will be the same, too, with One Battle After Another winning. Since Critics Choice didn't upload the acceptance speech to its YouTube channel, I'm sharing the graphic from its Twitter/X account instead.
Congratulations for this award and the next one, Best Screenplay at the Golden Globes.
Here, the leading nominees for adapted and original screenplays are contending with each other and One Battle After Another is Gold Derby's choice to win over Sinners with the former in first as the choice of 72.7% of experts, 50.0% of editors, and 66.1% of users and the latter in third as the selection of 9.1% of experts, 16.7% of editors, and 9.5% of users. Second place? It Was Just an Accident, picked by 18.2% of experts, 33.3% of editors, and 17.8% of users. It's also the leading nominee for Best Non-English Film over Sentimental Value, which has user support of 3.4% for Best Film Screenplay. Hamnet and Marty Supreme trail as the choices of 2.1% and 1.0% of users.
Paul Thomas Anderson accepts the Best Screenplay – Motion Picture award at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
According to Gold Derby, Anderson should prepare to give three speeches on March 15th (Beware the Ides of March!), as he is favored to win Best Director and Best Motion Picture along with the rest of the producers as well as Best Adapted Screenplay. After 14 Oscar nominations, he's on track to finally win three, which Gold Derby thinks will be the majority of the Oscars won by One Battle After Another; the others predicted are Best Supporting Actress for Teyana Taylor and Best Editing.
Follow over the jump for the nominees for Best Original Screenplay and their odds.
The Critics Choice Association (CCA) unveiled the winners of the Tenth Annual Critics Choice Documentary Awards at a gala event in New York City. The Perfect Neighbor won the top award of the evening, Best Documentary Feature. The film also took home awards in four other categories including Best Director for Geeta Gandbhir, Best Editing for Viridiana Lieberman, Best Archival Documentary, and Best True Crime Documentary.
The only category I clearly called for The Perfect Neighbor was Best True Crime Documentary. I thought it was a co-favorite with Riefenstahl and Orwell: 2+2=5 for Best Director, so no clear call, picked Orwell: 2+2=5 to win Best Documentary and Best Archival Documentary, and made no call for Best Editing, although I'm not surprised; editing is what makes a good archival documentary. Just the same, congratulations and good luck at next year's Emmy Awards, either as Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary at the News & Doc Emmy Awards or Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special/Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking at the Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards...
The trophy for Best Political Documentary was awarded to The Alabama Solution.
While I thought The Alabama Solution could win, I also thought Orwell: 2+2=5 would win. Nope. Just the same, congratulations and good luck at the relevant Emmy Awards next year.
Neither The Perfect Neighbor nor The Alabama Solution will be nominated at either Emmy Awards because both earned nominations at the Academy Awards, disqualifying them for Emmy consideration. I'm not the least bit upset; this is exactly the kind of wrong I'd like to be. Also, congratulations to the producers and directors of both movies. I'm thrilled for them!
Now that the nominees have been announced, what are their Gold Derby odds? The Perfect Neighbor leads with every expert, 33.3% of editors, and 90.4% of users picking it to win. The Alabama Solution sits in second because it has the support of 5.4% of users and 16.7% of editors. Mr. Nobody Against Putin is actually the other top choice of editors at 33.3%, but only 2.3% of users, placing it third in the odds. Come See Me in the Good Light is currently in fourth as the selection of the remaining 16.7% of editors and 1.0% of users. Cutting Through Rocks has the remaining 0.9% of users. I have the feeling that the editors will consolidate around one or two nominees once the PGA Awards, DGA Awards, and BAFTA Awards have been presented. The Perfect Neighbor is the only Oscar-nominated documentary nominated or longlisted at all of them.
One woman. Dozens of 911 calls. And a close-knit neighborhood caught in a nightmare. What begins as one woman’s relentless harassment of children spirals into a shocking act of violence. Captured through gripping police bodycam footage, The Perfect Neighbor - Winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s Directing Award - delivers a hauntingly powerful experience that keeps you on edge from start to finish.
Yikes! This looks like a real-life version of multi-Razzie nominee Karen. That movie was about racism and harassment, and it's even uglier when it's fact instead of fiction.
Follow over the jump for the trailers of the other four nominees.
Thank you to our fearless Razzie® Voting Members who picked through a vast amount of solid sludge to extract these fine pearls of mediocrity! And giving a special callout to Travis Morrow!
Go to Razzies.com for the full list of nominees as they duke it out for the $4.97 Razzie Statuette!
HOLLYWOOD, WE NEED TO TALK!
Where is that safer, happier and more inspiring place - Disneyland? Well, even Disney bungled that!
46th Annual Golden Raspberry (Razzie®) Nominations
Among the 2026 titles competing for the $4.97 gold spray-painted Worst Picture Statuette are:
The $320 million production of a well-regarded graphic novel, that despite the highly touted talent involved, fell flat on originality, execution and heart - The Electric State
A vanity project that doesn't move fast enough towards the ending - Hurry Up Tomorrow
A slow-paced unnecessary re-imagining of a classic, filled with drawn-out musical numbers, dopey CGI dwarfs, and enough mediocrity to leave the audience in a very unhappy place - Disney's Snow White (2025)
A convoluted mess beaming its audience to a frontier that could finally bring this once inspiring franchised journey to a screeching halt - Star Trek: Section 31.
And if butchering an H.G. Wells classic by stringing together video chats, surveillance cams and FaceTime with panic attacks makes for a compelling film experience - please allow the robots to attack and get it over with! - War Of The Worlds (2025)
This is a hasty cover of Erma Franklin's 1967 belter, written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, that is one of our favourite soul tracks, and only lost out to a Grammy to her younger sister Aretha in 1969 ("Chain of Fools"). It had a resurgence in Europe in the early 90s after the end of the Cold War thanks to a Levi jeans advert, and its highest chart position for the re-release was number 5 ... in Denmark.
Our treatment pays tribute to the Danes (who suffered proportionally among the highest casualties in wars supporting the USA after its triggering the collective security clauses of NATO in places like Iraq and Afghanistan), and who are being shaken down at the moment by the likes of Trump, Vance, and Miller in their bid to bully Europe to agree to the annexation of autonomous Greenlanders. You probably don't need a link to make sense of this, as it's all over the news, but in case...
There are (again) some rude words in our parody lyrics, for which apologies, as we continue to respond to stress by swearing, which can actually be very cathartic and good for you, as long as you can stop it spreading to your kids...
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Arco (Neon)
Elio (Pixar Animation Studios)
In Your Dreams (Netflix)
KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (GKIDS)
Zootopia 2 (Walt Disney Animation Studios)
Wikipedia lists both Arco and Elio as science fiction, while the rest are fantasy with the possible exception of Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, which is just animated drama. Interestingly, IMDB also tagged KPop Demon Hunters as superhero; I never thought of Huntrix as a magical girl team, but they are.
KPop Demon Hunters is the only nominee with a second nomination for Best Song. It's also Gold Derby's choice to win this category with every editor and expert plus 89.6% of users ranking it first. Zootopia 2 follows with 7.8% of users, then Little Amélie or the Character of Rain at 1.7%, Arco with 0.6%, then Elio and In Your Dreams tied at 0.2%. This isn't science fiction's category, either.
Congratulations! Also, the Critics Choice Association knew what they were doing by selecting these two presenters (Mckenna Grace and Owen Cooper) and having them announce both awards.
KPop Demon Hunters repeated at the Golden Globes. Follow over the jump.
Investors have known Saks was struggling for years— it’s now reached its breaking point. Late payments to vendors, a failed turnaround attempt, declining sales and a missed interest payment to bondholders for its Neiman Marcus acquisition ultimately led to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the start of 2026. CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge breaks down how one of America’s most beloved department stores landed itself here. Watch the video to learn more.
Erik concentrated on the vendors and Amazon's objections to the bankruptcy, but glossed over any difficulties in securing debtor in possession financing. CNBC’s Gabrielle Fonrouge made it quite clear obtaining the line of credit was not easy, although it did happen.
Today, Sammi breaks down the unraveling of Saks Fifth Avenue — a luxury icon that survived wars, recessions, and cultural shifts, but couldn’t survive its own merger math. Through stalled vendor payments, junk-bond debt, leadership shake-ups, and a failed $2.7B Neiman Marcus merger, Saks entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy and set off a ripple effect far beyond Fifth Avenue. This isn’t a “department stores are dying” story — it’s a case study in how private equity, financial engineering, and legacy retail models collide. And why the belief that Saks was “too iconic to fail” turned out to be so wrong.
As I wrote about The Bay's failure, "If anything could kill something this venerable, private equity could" and "the owners, responding to incentives that are indifferent to the success of the business, just like they were indifferent to the cultural and historical significance of the company, were most at fault."
I'm glad I found Cohen's channel. I expect to use more of her videos in the future. I also expect to see videos about Saks Global's bankruptcy from Company Man and Bright Sun Films. When they upload them, I'll embed them. In the meantime, stay tuned for a post about the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes won by KPop Demon Hunters.
From Baltimore, Maryland
The Magnificent Marching Machine of Morgan State University performing their show at the 45th Annual Pasadena Tournament of Roses Bandfest on Monday, December 29, 2025.
The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) bands (and former MEAC bands, like North Carolina A&T, which is now a member of the Coastal Athletic Conference), have more drum corps influence than the bands in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) like Alcorn State, and someone like me can see it in their field shows, although they are still recognizably HBCU showbands.
The Magnificent Marching Machine of Morgan State University performing at the 137th Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on a very wet Thursday, January 1, 2026.
It's unusual that it rains on the Rose Parade, but it didn't dampen the performers' spirits!
#shorts Alcorn State University Marching Band in Macy's #Thanksgiving Day Parade 11/27/2025 #MacysParade #NYC https://www.twitch.tv/alldaynyc
AllDayNYC on Twitch approves and so do I!
That's a wrap for the holiday. Stay tuned for another tale of the Retail Apocalypse followed by one more post recognizing diversity among movie winners, the Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes won by KPop Demon Hunters.
A Warner Bros. Discovery release, “One Battle [After Another]” was the leading contender going into the evening with nine total nominations. It won the most too; along with best motion picture – musical or comedy, the eerily contemporary action satire won the supporting actress prize for Teyana Taylor and scored trophies for both screenplay and director for filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.
Best Supporting Female Actor – Motion Picture winner Teyana Taylor is so grateful for her win for “One Battle After Another.” She discusses her character being a collaboration between herself and Paul Thomas Anderson, how she was approached for the role, and the moment she knew the project was a "yes."
Congratulations to Taylor for her surprising win — the prognosticators at Gold Derby had her in second behind Amy Madigan — and to Paul Thomas Anderson for his more expected wins for Best Director and Best Screenplay along with the producers for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
I'm returning to the press release for the next winner I'm recognizing today: "Neon’s 'The Secret Agent,' a shaggy dog historical thriller set in the nooks and crannies of Brazil’s mid-2[0]th century dictatorship, also won two prizes: best non-English language motion picture and best actor in a motion picture – drama, for star Wagner Moura." Watch as Wagner Moura Wins Best Male Actor – Motion Picture – Drama | 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
Wagner Moura accepts the Best Male Actor – Motion Picture – Drama award at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
Congratulations to Moura for winning Best Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and to producers of The Secret Agent for winning Best Non-English Language Motion Picture. Gold Derby predicted both wins, although the latter contest was very close.
Those are the diverse acting winners at the Golden Globes. Follow over the jump for diverse acting winners at the Critics Choice Awards.
“One Battle After Another” won Best Picture, while “Frankenstein” and “Sinners” garnered the most wins in the film categories, with both films taking home four trophies each. “Frankenstein” won Best Supporting Actor for Jacob Elordi, Best Production Design for Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau, Best Costume Design for Kate Hawley, and Best Hair and Makeup for Mike Hill, Jordan Samuel and Cliona Furey. “Sinners” won Best Young Actor/Actress for Miles Caton, Best Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, Best Casting and Ensemble for Francine Maisler, and Best Score for Ludwig Göransson. In addition to Best Picture, “One Battle After Another” filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson took home trophies for both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer – Jay Kelly (Netflix)
Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie – Marty Supreme (A24)
Ryan Coogler – Sinners (Warner Bros.)
Zach Cregger – Weapons (Warner Bros.)
Eva Victor – Sorry, Baby (A24)
Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier – Sentimental Value (Neon)
Gold Derby's prognosticators think this category is one of Sinners' best chances to win a Critics Choice Award, along with Best Young Actor or Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Score, all categories where it's first on the leaderboard.
When I wrote the above, the Gold Derby odds had One Battle After Another leading Best Casting and Ensemble. By the time of the ceremony, Sinners snuck into the lead as the choice of 62.5% of experts, 44.4% of editors, and 52.7% of users, passing One Battle After Another with the votes of 37.5% of experts, 55.6% of editors, and 44.4% of users, while Sinners still led Best Cinematography ahead of Train Dreams, so Gold Derby expected Sinners to win five awards. It earned four, so not bad, both for Sinners and for Gold Derby. Speaking of whom, I reproduced Gold Derby's predictions for Best Original Screenplay.
Ryan Coogler is the choice of every expert, 88.9% of editors, and 89.8% of users. The editors and users disagree on the rest, as 11.1% of editors picked Sorry, Baby, a shift from Marty Supreme on Friday, for but only 0.6% of users, ranking it fifth by Gold Derby's algorithm. The users rank Sentimental Value, Weapons, and Marty Supreme higher with 6.1%, 2.0%, and 1.0% selecting them, respectively. Just 0.4% are behind Jay Kelly.
Gold Derby was right about this category. Congratulations to Ryan Coogler! Unfortunately, Critics Choice only uploaded Miles Caton's acceptance speech; the acceptance speeches for Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, and Best Casting and Ensemble are not on the Critics Choice YouTube channel. As consolation, I'm embedding Ryan Coogler is honored with the Directors Award for "Sinners" at the Critics Choice Celebration of Black Cinema and Television.
Congratulations to Coogler, Caton, the rest of the cast, Francine Maisler, and Ludwig Göransson for their Critics Choice Awards! May they foreshadow many nominations at the Oscars and Saturn Awards!
Sinners accepts the Best Cinematic and Box Office Achievement award at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
Congratulations to Sinners on winning and beating Avatar: Fire and Ash, Wicked: For Good, Zootopia 2, Weapons, KPop Demon Hunters, F1, and Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning, all movies I expect to see nominated at the Saturn Awards. If all of them earn nominations at the Academy Awards, I would be mildly and pleasantly surprised.
Unlike the Critics Choice Awards, the Golden Globes uploaded the videos for Best Score to its YouTube channel. That only partially makes up for the award being presented during a commercial break, so the people at home watching on CBS missed it. Hmph! That out of the way, watch as Ludwig Göransson Wins Best Score Motion Picture | 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
Ludwig Göransson accepts the Best Score Motion Picture award at the 83rd Annual Golden Globes.
On the one hand, CBS viewers didn't see this speech. On the other, it wasn't rushed because of time. I suppose that balanced out.
“Smokestack Twins” from Sinners (Original Motion Picture Score) | Music by Ludwig Göransson
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the rest of the diverse winners at the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards tomorrow as the Sunday entertainment feature as I continue to celebrate MLK Day weekend.
Previous posts about the 2025 Critics Choice Awards
There’s an 18% chance that global warming exceeds four degrees by 2100 and that’s not a small risk when the stakes are civilization-ending.
In this episode of Weathered, host Maiya May talks with civilization collapse researcher Luke Kemp and strategic climate risk expert Laurie Laybourn about why high-end warming scenarios are often dismissed as “doomerism,” even though worst-case planning is standard in most fields. We break down how uncertainty in climate sensitivity and political derailment could push warming higher than expected and how climate shocks can trigger cascading failures across food systems, financial markets, and geopolitics. Understanding the climate endgame isn’t pessimism. It’s risk management.
Before I address the science, I'm making a meta comment about what I've seen on PBS YouTube channels and PBS and NPR websites since the Corporation for Public Broadcasting was defunded; public media has become more opposed, even antagnostic, to Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump's policies since. If the authors of Project 2025 thought public media was biting the hand that fed them, they might be surprised at how much their hands are being bitten now that they're not feeding public media!
The Arctic was ice free and warm enough to host permanent forest cover across much of its extent. Iceland had a humid and subtropical climate...Dense, humid rainforests covered much of France, Switzerland, and northern Germany, while southern and central Spain were arid and contained open environments.
That's a very different world from today.
Speaking of today's world, the L.A.fires serve as an example where climate change is already causing disasters, which the current administration denies. Looking forward to the future, a possible collapse of the AMOC would be catastrophic and magnified by our economic system. Yikes!
You've probably heard the claim that there's a link between acetaminophen aka Tylenol and autism. And there are a lot of conflicting takes about what that claim means, which research is “right”, and what different studies really show. So here’s some of the major studies that are being talked about, their shortcomings, and what it means for all the pregnant and autistic people out there.
Hosted by: Savannah Geary
The study that RFK Jr. is citing and which Donald "Hoover Harding Cleveland" Trump is parroting while mispronouncing acetaminophen says yes, but the other studies Savannah Geary describes say no. In addition, Geary does a good job of summarizing the issues with both the existing research and any studies on the subject. It would definitely be unethical to run a randomized clinical trial, which relates to what I told one of my geology classes yesterday about the limits on the experimental method.* There are some hypotheses that just can't be tested using a controlled experiment; those would require the comparative method.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for a more involved post tomorrow as I begin a four-day weekend for MLKDay.
*I was scheduled to give the same lecture to my other geology class today, but the college closed because of weather. Snowday!
In December 2024, 38 scientists teamed up to issue a warning about a potential upcoming global catastrophe. The cause? Mirror bacteria. No, these aren't bacteria with tiny goatees from an evil Star Trek universe, but if scientists ever do manage to make them, we might find ourselves living in a disaster movie.
Life made with molecules of reversed chirality reminds me of a science-fiction story I read 50 years ago, Doorways in the Sand by Roger Zelazny. The novel includes a life form that looks like a gem made of molecules that have the opposite chirality of those in Earth and a machine that reverses and inverts objects and organisms down to the molecular level. Those interact with each other and the protagonist in interesting ways, but the only biological threat I remember Zelazny discussing was the ill health effects to the protagonist, who sent himself through the machine. He realizes that he would have problems metabolizing the normal chirality nutrients in his food. Fortunately, that got resolved before it could seriously harm him.
Running normal bacteria through the machine to create mirror bacteria didn't come up. That would be the subject of a different story, the one that Hank Green is telling. Just the same, the possible creation of mirror bacteria and other mirror life is another demonstration that we live in science-fiction times, or as my friend Nebris says, SciFi is Now.
That's a wrap for today's post. Stay tuned for another brief evergreen entry tomorrow.
Since its 1983 debut in Florida as a casual sports bar, Hooters grew exponentially through the 1980's and 90's, growing to become a massive brand across the world with hundreds of restaurants, tens of thousands of employees and a very controversial brand name which created a whole new segment in the industry. However despite all of this success and notoriety, the chain has struggled recently, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2025. Join me today as we find out what happened.
Jake Williams added to the story Company Man Mike told with Hooters Air and Hooters Casino, both of which failed because of issues with the brand, which didn't appeal to women, families, and upscale travelers. In addition, Millennials grew up with a poor perception of the brand. Also, Jake made a bigger deal of private equity's role in the story, noting that the same private equity firm owned both Hooters and TGI Fridays. As Jake joked, that ended well — not.
Speaking of endings, I closed my reaction to Company Man Mike's video by writing, "As for Hooters' identity crisis, I wish the chain good luck; they'll need it." That seems to be Jake's take, too.
The “Battle Hymn of the Republic” is an iconic American song, drawing on lots of roots and precursors, but pulled into its most famous shape by abolitionist Julia Ward Howe. During the American Civil War it became a signature marching song for the Union Army, linked to patriotism and faith, and has since become part of the canon of American national music. We do not attempt or treat it lightly, but our version reflects on how the first week of 2026 has already seen Trump's troops advancing his domestic and foreign policy agendas. Every marching step is another step away from the principles and traditions embedded in the song: we have seen the transgression of international law in Venezuela, the murder of unarmed Americans in Minneapolis (and its defence by the administration), the US's withdrawal from multiple international organisations, and explicit threats issued to other sovereign powers and polities, including Greenland.
The song Billy Jean was a fictional narrative about a woman who makes false claims and goes from desirable to undesirable. Released in 1983, it was the second single from the fantastic album “Thriller” and became Jackson’s best selling solo single. Lots of his lyrics address paranoia and distrust, but it was the fit of the protagonist’s name in the chorus that really clinched an idea for us to take on this classic pop-disco track.
We’ve twisted the words around the story of Marjorie Taylor Greene, and how one of the vocal “Big Beasts” of Trump’s support base has now rancorously broken with him.
*Snork* MTG as a xenomorph. Just the same, may she be the first of many rats abandoning Hoover Harding Cleveland's sinking ship.
It’s been a while since we revisited a sea shanty – you may recall, mother doesn’t approve of these – but we’ve dug deep and repurposed “Drunken Sailor” to talk about the news this week of the BBC cocking up their edit of a speech on a Panorama programme over a year ago (making it appear more vehement than it was). As a consequence of this hitting the headlines in a targeted attack on the UK’s flagship broadcaster, which has been caught up in culture wars, post-truth, and its own self-generated problems, Donald Trump has now issued a threat of legal action. Obviously this is a model he’s used to good effect (for his purposes) in the USA, having taken on ABC, CNN, and CBS and won big settlements there and elsewhere.
The first recorded description of “Drunken Sailor” is from a Pacific Ocean whaling voyage in 1839 that departed from New London, Connecticut. So very appropriate for Trump’s latest giant lumbering trans-oceanic phishing foray.
So much has gone on since this was recorded that I'd forgotten about the story.
That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for another brief evergreen entry tomorrow.
My friend from drum corps Kevin G. added the middle name on Bluesky. My response was "For the former record holder for dumbest U.S. president and also one of the most corrupt. Let's see how long it takes me to get used to the sound of Hoover Harding Cleveland." It took less than a week.
