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 shared this at my DreamWidth, where I wrote "If the National Forest Service had been hiding in the bunker, the National Park Service might have been snotty to it." I know, I worked for the National Park Service.
The “big beautiful bill” is actually the ugliest piece of anti-environmental legislation and deepest cut to Medicaid in our nation’s history. Time to call our senators!
It's too late for the "Big Brutal Bill," but it's not too late to affect theshutdown. I couldn't avoid the subject entirely!
As for who benefits from the departure of Party City from the market, in addition to the usual suspects of Amazon and Walmart, Company Man Mike mentioned Walgreens, which is having its own issues and could use the boost, and SpiritHalloween. CNBC and Company Man have videos about both chains, which I plan on using in future Retail Apocalypse posts.
In its fiscal third-quarter report, Walgreens announced its plans to close a ‘significant’ amount of stores, acknowledging only 75% of its 8,600 stores were profitable. While no specific stores were tapped for closure yet, more than 2,000 locations could face the chopping block by 2027. This just the latest sign of trouble for the struggling retail pharmacy sector as CVS and Rite Aid both announced large closures in the past year. Watch the video above to learn why U.S. pharmacy chains are fighting for survival.
I'm a diabeticandasthmatic, so I am in my local Walgreens a lot to pick up my prescriptions. I also go there to pick up other supplies, but no longer my blood glucose test strips. I found out CVS had cheaper test strips, so I bought them there until my wife found them on Amazon for even cheaper. We now have them delivered on a regular schedule — price and convenience! That makes us examples of customers shifting their front-of-store shopping to Amazon. If that's the trend with party supplies and seasonal items, then Amazon and Walmart will benefit more from the closing of Party City than Walgreens or CVS.
As I'm fond of writing, it's always a good day when I learn something new, and I learned a lot about the importance of the pharmacy to Walgreens and CVS — 76% of Walgreens in-store sales and 60% of the company's total revenue! Also, CVS is the leading Pharmacy Benefit Manager with CVS Health/Caremark having 34% market share. Since CVS also owns Aetna Insurance, it looks like they profit both coming and going. Near vertical integration, anyone?
Speaking of learning something new, while I blogged about fooddeserts when I began this blog, this is the first I've heard about pharmacy deserts. Same story, different market segment. One of the solutions is the return of mom-and-pop pharmacies. Since I support Small Business Saturday, I approve.
CNBC concentrated on Walgreens, so I'm switching to CVS with Retail Archaeology asking What Is Going On At CVS?
In this episode we take a look at two CVS Pharmacy locations.
YouTube has an AI summary of this video.
This video explores the current state of CVS Pharmacy, examining two locations and their changing role in the retail landscape. The creator discusses the decline of traditional drugstore offerings and the impact of CVS's acquisition of Aetna on its overall business.
Let's take a look at what's going on at Walgreens.
This video also has an AI summary.
This video explores the current state of Walgreens stores, examining their recent struggles and changes. The creator visits two locations, one updated and one not, highlighting issues like declining sales, high prices, and a shift towards healthcare services. They also discuss the impact of these changes on the overall shopping experience.
I'm glad Erik mentioned Target instead of Walmart. As I wrote most recently in Company Man explains 'Walmart - Why They're Hated' for Black Friday/Buy Nothing Day, "I'm one of those who call Target "Tar-zhay" and shop there regularly, helping contribute the demise of both Sears and KMart. As I wrote once on my Facebook page, 'between Walmart and KMart, I shop at Target.'"
Both CNBC and Erik of Retail Archaeology think that Walgreens is in worse shape than CVS. This contradicts the comments I've been getting on the CVS video at Dreamwidth. A new follower of mine there seems to have it in for CVS.
Near the Chesapeake Bay, farms have flourished for hundreds of years on the rich, fertile soil of coastal Maryland. But as sea levels rise, driven in part by climate change, encroaching saltwater is disrupting the livelihoods of many farmers. It's a preview of what other areas near saltwater may soon confront. William Brangham reports for our series on climate change and water, Tipping Point.
As I wrote on my DreamWidth account, "I shared and linked to videos I show my students in The Wall Street Journal explains 'Why America’s Groundwater Is Disappearing'. I don't have one about groundwater contamination, so I might show this one, too." The slide about saltwater contamination of groundwater focuses on overdrafting bringing saltwater closer to the surface and contaminating wells for drinking water, but adding the effects of climate change, rising sea levels, and agriculture contribute new dimensions and connections to the issue, ones I hadn't thought of before. Welcome to blogging as professional development.
I closed Jon Stewart's message to his viewers about the election by telling my readers "Michigan still hasn't been called for either President or U.S. Senate as I write this, so stay tuned for those results..." convictedcriminalDonald Trump won the Great Lakes State, but Elissa Slotkin won election to the U.S. Senate. Most of the rest of the results were like that, which makes me think that a lot of people voted for Trump and left the rest of the ballot blank or voted for Jill Stein and then Democrats down the ballot. I promise I'll get to that, but I'm not feeling like it today. Instead, I think my readers and I deserve some comfort via comedy, beginning with Stephen Colbert telling his audience You Are Not Alone / The World Reacts To America's Decision.
The Late Show checked in with America's allies and enemies to see how they're reacting to Donald Trump's reelection.
Stephen gauged my mood correctly. I hope he did the same for my readers.
Stephen Colbert delivers his first monologue following Donald Trump's victory over VP Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
I'm tempted to share cute animal videos, too, and it might come to that, but I'm not there yet. Just the same, I understand why Stephen is showing them and his audience appreciates them.
Seth takes a closer look at Donald Trump winning the 2024 election, making him the oldest person to take the oath of office and the first person convicted of felony charges to assume the presidency.
What upset me most about this segment was RFK Jr. being in charge of health, which he's bad at, while Trump is keeping him away from energy and the environment, which he's actually good at. It's enough to make me create a label for him, Brainworm. I expect I'll use it a lot during the next four years, although I thought the same of Doctor Pyramid for Ben Carson, who would be better for health than RFK Jr. Instead, I ended up writing "At least you were too boring to write about for the past four [years]" after Carson's service as HUD Secretary. May we be so lucky with RFK Jr.
Desi Lydic unpacks Donald Trump's big presidential election win over Kamala Harris and the subsequent fingerpointing from media pundits. Plus, The Best F**kin' News Team joins Desi to try to muster up some optimism.
We Americans could have elected the first woman as President. Instead, we elected the first convicted criminal. Ugh. The misogyny is real.
Last night we had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal and we chose the criminal, more than half of the country voted for Donald Trump, it turns out the election wasn’t rigged even though he said it was while people were in line voting, Jimmy’s kids were very upset at the news, Jimmy received a lot of texts from anxious friends and family members, President Biden watched all of the action from the White House and he called Trump today to congratulate him, Kamala Harris also called Donald Trump to concede and she gave a speech at her alma mater Howard University, the voting itself went relatively smoothly despite a number of bomb threats that were sent into heavily democratic precincts, it was a terrible night for so many in America, Jimmy offers some thoughts about how we move forward, Cousin Micki shares something positive, and we head out to Hollywood Blvd to ask people if they voted in the election today (even though it was yesterday).
I think Jimmy is right to be worried. I am, too. I would be surprised if I weren't already on some list, although it gives me cold comfort that I'm probably so far down that list that Trump and his coming administration probably won't get to me in the next four years.* Now I'm wondering if people will protect Jimmy, Stephen, Seth, and the rest of the late-night talk show hosts. If so, it would be another example of the surest way to get Americans to act is to mess with their entertainment. As I first wrote in 2011, "America is quite clear about its screwed up priorities." Tuesday night just reinforced that.
I've had three posts removed from the Crazy Eddie's Motie News Facebook page this month for "spamming." I'm not doing anything different at that page since I created that page years ago. Instead, I think a new follower is reporting me for potentially (too) popular political content. It's likely a U.S. conservative, but Marcy "Emptywheel" Wheeler reported that Russia has compiled a list of over 1,900 “anti-influencers” and I'm wondering if I got on that list. If so, yay, the right enemies, but boo, they might be causing me trouble with Facebook. Either way, it's annoying. Let's hope this stops after the election.
It ended up being five posts, four of which featured either Saturday Night Live or Colbert, before I changed the format of those posts to avoid having them removed.
"Super commuting": when your job is in one metropolitan area and you live in a completely different metro area. With the intensifying housing affordability crisis and the increase in hybrid work schedules, there are more long work trips than ever...but are they really "super"?
Ray "CityNerd" Delahanty has interesting things to say about super commuting, but that's not what prompted me to leave a comment on this video. Instead, I focused on something more personal.
The preview image looked eerily familiar, so I zoomed in the sign listing the exits and read "Yorba Linda Blvd. Weir Canyon Road" then CA 241. That's heading east on CA 91 just past the intersection with CA 90 in Anaheim Hills. Hey, I used to live within a mile of where that picture was taken! Appropriately for the video, I commuted to downtown LA from there.
I elaborated on this at my Dreamwidth, adding "That was about the background, which probably came from a drone carrying a telephoto lens, because the mountains would otherwise be much smaller. The foreground has been added from a traffic jam in Arizona." Check out the Arizona license plate and U of A sticker to see why I think so.
That's my personal reaction to the general driving update. Follow over the jump for my personal driving update.
HappyFirst Contact Day. Star Trek! Last year, I quoted the fictional holiday's description from National Day Calendar, posted a fan video of "First Contact," and noted that First Contact Day, which passes for Star Trek Day, on 4/5 is a mirror image of 5/4, StarWarsDay. That turns out to be a fortuitous coincidence, but a fun one just the same. This year, I'm going through with what I resisted last year, embedding Star Trek: First Contact Day Trailer.
Celebrate First Contact Day on April 5, an event that includes themed panels featuring the cast and creative minds from Star Trek, exciting announcements and your favorite "First Contact" episodes from the Star Trek Universe.
First Contact Day, unlike Star Wars Day, is celebrated in-universe.* Here is a clip of one such celebration from "Star Trek: Voyager," Celebrate First Contact Day from a fan account with the date of first contact, April 5, 2063.
STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS is based on the years Captain Christopher Pike manned the helm of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The series will feature fan favorites from season two of STAR TREK: DISCOVERY: Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock. The series will follow Captain Pike, Science Officer Spock and Number One in the years before Captain Kirk boarded the U.S.S. Enterprise, as they explore new worlds around the galaxy.
I embedded an earlier trailer for this series in another Dreamwidth post and quoted my comment on it, along with the remark that prompted me to respond.
Someone quipped "Must hold the record for the largest gap between pilot episode and series commission" about this trailer, referring to the first "Star Trek" pilot "The Cage." I responded "That pilot was ahead of its time. We just didn't know how far ahead of its time it was until now."
I'm looking forward to it. I've waited most of my life for it.
*The in-universe equivalent for Star Wars would be Life Day, one of the legacies of the Star Wars Holiday Special. Technically, it falls on November 17th and was originally a stand-in for Thanksgiving, but over the years, it has turned into Star Wars Christmas, so many fans celebrate it then.
Toxodon was one of the last members of a lineage that vanished 11,000 years ago after thriving in isolation for millions of years. And its fossils would inspire a revolutionary thinker to tackle a bigger mystery than Toxodon itself: evolution.
Over at my Dreamwidth journal, I embedded this video and wrote "I show enough videos to my classes...so I won't show this. It's still good."
I'm not the only blogger I follow who has written about Toxodon and its co-star in this video, Macrauchenia. Follow over the jump for what J.K. Revell wrote about both in his blog Synapsida.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, Gunda, and Mr. SOUL! lead this year’s nominations with five each.
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, James Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham for Best Director, Best Editing, Best Archival Documentary, and Best Historical/Biography Documentary. The film also received an honor for Judith Heumann for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary.
I had high hopes for "Crip Camp," as I wrote in a comment on John Michael Greer's Dreamwidth that "'Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution' is my personal favorite among Best Documentary Feature nominees..." It ended up winning no awards beyond Judith Heumann for Most Compelling Living Subject of a Documentary, which I found a bit disappointing. It could be worse; "Gunda" ended up with nothing at all. At least "Mr. SOUL!" won Best First Documentary Feature, so it didn't go away empty handed.
To see the trailer for "Crip Camp" along with more clips from the movie and an interview with the directors, watch the Factual America episode Crip Camp: Cradle of the Disability Rights Movement from Alamo Pictures.
Crip Camp was a unique summer camp for disabled teens that had an incredible impact on their lives.
...
In the 1970s Camp Jened was not just any old summer camp in the Catskills. Hippy values, the Grateful Dead, and pot-smoking shaped this utopia for teens with disabilities. Before long, a generation of a summer camp for kids with disabilities became a social movement that soon changed the world. We welcome Jim Lebrecht and Nicole Newnham, co-directors of the Netflix documentary Crip Camp, to the podcast. Jim and Nicole share their experiences making a documentary about one of the most compelling, previously untold stories of our time. In the process, we find out what it is like to work with executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama. Jim and Nicole also discuss the next items on the agenda in terms of disability rights.
“I had no mental model for imagining disability communities, and I didn’t have any mental model for thinking about wild, horny teenagers listening to Bob Dylan at a summer camp. It was just joyous.” - Nicole Newnham
This is a very political movie because it's about activists, so I'm surprised it wasn't nominated for Best Political Documentary, won by "Boys State." I plan on remedying that in my own way by shortlisting it for this year's Golden Coffee Cups for movies based on its nominations here. As for future nominations, I'm sure it will get them at the Cinema Eye Honors, various craft awards, the Independent Lens Awards, and the Emmy Awards, whether Creative Arts or News and Documentary. I'm not sure about it getting one of the five nominations for Documentary Feature at the Academy Awards for the reasons I mentioned in the comment at Greer's Dreamwidth regarding "Feels Good Man."
I would be very pleasantly surprised if it earns one of the five nominations for Documentary Feature at the Oscars. That will depend very much on the mood of the Documentary Branch of the Motion Picture Academy. They deliberately do not nominate documentaries that will earn votes from the entire academy as a whole that they don't agree is the very best. They also don't like documentaries made with archive footage. They also have political axes to grind.
"Crip Camp" might fall in the first category and definitely falls under the second. The third might work for or against it. After all, Barack and Michelle Obama produced it and their production company winning another Oscar in addition to the one for "American Factory" would send a message. I don't know if that would run afoul of another issue with the Motion Picture Academy's Documentary Branch: "The Documentary Branch normally does not [nominate] films by previous winners." So long as that applies to directors, not producers, it shouldn't stand in the way of "Crip Camp" earning a nomination. Neither Lebrecht nor Newnham have even been nominated for an Oscar, although Newnham has earned a News and Documentary Emmy Award for "Collisions." I wish them both good luck with this film.
They will need it to overcome the popular sentiment behind "My Octopus Teacher," should it be nominated. My entry about it went viral through other people sharing it on Facebook. Right now, it has 93 Facebook shares and 552 default and 557 raw page views. In addition, all the comments I've seen and received about "My Octopus Teacher" have been overwhelmingly positive in a way I almost never see. If both of those accurately reflect how the general public feel about the movie, then I think it will be a strong contender if it's nominated for an Oscar. Whether it will is another matter. As I indicated above, the Documentary Branch has issues!
That's it for the Sunday entertainment feature. Stay tuned for the final entry of the month. Should I follow tradition, it will be about Cyber Monday.
I tweeted several times about how this year's Atlantic hurricane season is outpacing the so-far record 2005 season. The two tweets that summarize the rest were "As someone else already observed, this is the 'Earliest 'S' storm in history, smashing Stan (2005) by 23 DAYS.' That year, the National Hurricane Center ran out of names and used Geek letters Alpha through Delta" and "There are only three names left this year, so I expect that will happen again. Tropical Storm Theta by the end of the season, anyone?" That was in response to the naming of Tropical Storm Sally. I'm not the only one. The Weather Channel uploaded this video late last week.
"There's a lot of similarities with the atmosphere here in 2020 that there was in 2005."
We want you to be prepared for what this hurricane season can bring. We can't emphasize enough how important it is to have a plan well before you need one.
Ah, 2020!
This morning, I saw the following image on Twitter.
The image shows Tropical Storm Teddy. In addition, Tropical Depression 21 is now Tropical Storm Vicky, which means there is only one storm name left for this season, Wilfred. That all but guarantees that tropical systems will be named using the Greek alphabet this year for only the first time since 2005. It also means these are the earliest formed Atlantic systems by storm number. Vicky formed 25 days earlier in the year than Vince in 2005. Yikes!
Speaking of which, I was wrong about the number of storms using the Greek alphabet 15 years ago. The Wikipedia article on the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season lists the last one as Zeta, not Delta. That means this season's storms could blow past Theta all the way to Lambda or Mu. Cue the Pokemon memes!
I told my readers to "Stay tuned for a bonus post about how my pins from this blog fared on Pinterest, which I didn't feel like delaying until Thursday." It turned out to be a real blast from the past as the best reports on U.S. politics and government on Pinterest came from 2012. First, CNN's The politics of Pinterest, which talks about Ann Romney's Pinterest board, which she was using to support her husband's presidential campaign, and the U.S. Army's use of the image board.
Pinterest is gaining popularity among women, the Army and political campaigns. CNN's Lisa Sylvester reports.
Pinterest is the tremendously successful social pinboard site taking the internet by storm.
It's a big enough deal that the US Army is took notice and assembled an explanatory deck on it, which we found via All Things D.
Whether you have no idea what Pinterest is and could use the explanation, or you just want to see Pinterest through the military's eyes, here it is.
There are nine slides, including the one I used to illustrate this entry.
All of the user stats in the above are seven years out of date. Digital Information World has the current ones.
[T]here was a 22% increase in million global monthly active users (MAUs) in this quarter i.e. 291 million as compared to 2018’s first quarter’s 239 million. Also a 26% growth in Global Average Revenue per User (ARPU) was observed i.e. 73 cents as compared to 58 cents generated in Q1 of 2018.
That's impressive. Here's to that growth in users continuing.
I'm also impressed. As I wrote in Statistics for the eighth year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News, "At least Pinterest is sending readers my blog's way, something I expect to continue." This month alone, the blog has seen 174 visits from Pinterest, placing it sixth among traffic sources behind Facebook, Google, Twitter, Bing, and Kunstler's blog. That makes for a good source of readers.
Follow over the jump for the most saved pins from this blog during the past year.
Happy Flashback Friday! I'm taking advantage of my planned examination of how well my posts played out on Twitter to share CNN's clip Trump stopped meeting to consult Twitter account, report says. I'm not the only one checking Twitter to see how popular my tweets are!
CNN's Brian Todd looks into President Donald Trump's reliance on Twitter for his understanding of the world and how that affects his decisions in office.
[T]he parade was formed by then-WSU law school students Francis Grunow and Joe Uhl in 2009, who wanted to create a Detroit-style take on the Mardis Gras tradition, noting how the festival took on a new meaning for New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They picked the Sunday after the vernal equinox as the date of the inaugural Marche, making it a springtime event and allowing some space on the calendar following Mardis Gras and St. Patrick's Day. Apparently plenty of other metro Detroiters wanted the same thing; the idea took off, and the event now draws a crowd of thousands, complete with elaborate floats, New Orleans-style marching bands, dancers, and more.
That's the event. What about the Nain Rouge (Red Dwarf) itself?
The legend of the Nain Rouge is said to go back to 1701, when Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Detroit. The short version of the tale is that Cadillac was attacked by the feared "Red Dwarf," who then cursed Cadillac and the city. The truth is actually a bit more complicated, outlined in a 2016 Metro Times cover story.
Both Metro Times articles discuss the folkloric origin of the Nain Rouge, a topic I covered before either in I converse with The Archdruid and his readers about Le Nain Rouge. Sorry, I can't help but claim some credit, although that really goes to the blogger at EsoterX, whose research I used.
The Detroit tradition involves some very elaborate costumes, to say the least.
The Marche du Nain Rouge always has a political component, although it's usually about local politics and government, not national politics. However, MLive captured an exception as Costumed 'Donald Trump' rides float at Marche du Nain Rouge.
That float reminds me of a giant mechanical roach. Even I wouldn't make that comparison to Trump. As for the voice in the background, that's the parade's version of the Nain Rouge haranguing the crowd. He is such a jerk. Speaking of which, watch as Nain Rouge and his press secretary antagonize the crowd.
Based on which the screenwriters have nominated for the WGA Awards as well as the Oscars, the real contenders are "Get Out," which won Best Original Screenplay at the WGA Awards and is nominated for an Oscar, "The Shape of Water," which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at both the WGA Awards and the Academy Awards, and "Logan," which was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at both the WGA Awards and the Academy Awards. If the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America follow the lead of the WGA and the Writers Branch of the Motion Picture Academy, "Get Out" would be the favorite, followed by "Logan" and "The Shape of Water."
Earlier today, The Verge reported on the Nebula Award winners, writing "Jordan Peele’s film Get Out won the Ray Bradbury Award for Outstanding Dramatic Presentation...." My prediction came true!
This news is two months old, but I'm posting it here because the 2018 Saturn Awards will be presented this coming Wednesday, June 27, and "Get Out" is nominated for Best Film Writing, but also because I stumbled across some news about the other prestigious science fiction awards, the Hugo Awards. Follow over the jump for an update involving the Retro-Hugo Awards.
Today, I finished writing about the Saturn Awards movie nominees with the "entry about the Action, Thriller, Independent, and International Film nominees" I promised yesterday. Without any further ado, here are the nominees in all four categories from File 770 along with my comments.
Best Action / Adventure Film Release:
"Baby Driver" (TriStar / Sony Pictures) "Dunkirk" (Warner Bros.) "The Fate of the Furious" (Universal) "The Greatest Showman" (20th Century Fox) "Hostiles" (Entertainment Studios) "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" (20th Century Fox)
I haven't decided yet which of these movies to vote for. The Oscar winner for Editing and Best Picture nominee is "Dunkirk." The three-time Oscar nominee is "Baby Driver." The surprise, but still with an Oscar nomination for Original Song, is "The Greatest Showman." In order, those are the entertainment establishment's nominees and mine as well. That doesn't mean that I think any of them will win, even if one of them should. Instead, I suspect "The Fate of the Furious" is likely to walk away with the Saturn statuette. I watched that movie on a flight this summer and it was pure dumb escapist fun. As I think I've mentioned in almost every entry of this series so far, "the Saturn Awards are about entertainment not art, they don't care for subtle, and they love to stick it to the experts." Voting for "The Fate of the Furious" would fit all three criteria.
As I have for the past two entries, I'm pointing out a snub in this category, "Atomic Blonde." That could have been here instead of "The Greatest Showman" or "Hostiles," but may have deserved not being nominated. I wrote as much in the comments to Midweek Cafe and Lounge, Vol. 58 at Booman Tribune.
"Atomic Blonde" had a great star, a great soundtrack, and an interesting premise, but it ended up being kind of a dud. I was expecting it to earn a nomination for Best Action / Adventure Film Release at the Saturn Awards, but it got beat out by the obscure film "Hostiles" and the musical "The Greatest Showman" in addition to all the films I expected to be nominated, "Baby Driver," "Dunkirk," "The Fate of the Furious" (in which Charlize Theron also starred), and "Kingsman: The Golden Circle." "Atomic Blonde" couldn't get any respect from the people who honor films the Hollywood professionals don't respect!
During the past week, my wife and I watched three movies nominated for Best Thriller Film Release at the Saturn Awards. While we both watched it for the entertainment, I was also evaluating which one of the three would get my vote, as I am a Saturn Awards member.
"Murder on the Orient Express" was a remake of a movie I watched with my parents in the 1970s, so I wasn't surprised at the twist; it was the same. I did enjoy the all-star cast, the settings, and the lavish production values. I was surprised it was not nominated for an Academy Award. It was obvious Oscar bait, probably too obvious.
"The Post" won Best Film about Politics and Government at the first Coffee Party Entertainment Awards for movies. It deserved it. It was indeed a thriller, although a low-key one. It also had the best ending.
"Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri" had great acting, a decent amount of action, and great performances [ETA: camera work and editing]. Unfortunately, my wife and I found its ending disappointing. I'm not voting for it, although I'm still considering voting for Frances McDormand for Best Actress in a Movie. Instead, I think I'm casting my vote in this category for "The Post."
"I, Tonya" (Neon) "LBJ" (Electric Entertainment) "Lucky" (Magnolia) "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women" (Annapurna Pictures) "Super Dark Times" (The Orchard) "Wonder" (Lionsgate) "Wonderstruck" (Amazon / Roadside Attractions)
Only one film in the field is both an Oscar winner (Supporting Actress for Allison Janney) and a nominee (Best Female Lead for Margot Robbie) and winner (Best Editing) at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, "I, Tonya." That makes it my likely choice. That doesn't make it the favorite, as this is its only nomination at the Saturn Awards. Instead, I think one of "Wonder" or "Wonderstruck," each of which has three nominations here, will likely be the winner. Of the two, "Wonder" was nominated for an Oscar for Best Hair and Make-Up, but didn't win. It was also nominated for three awards at the Makeup and Hair Stylists Guild Awards, but was shut out. I was not impressed, but the bulk of the Saturn Awards electorate might care. On the other hand, the Saturn Awards are the only awards show to have nominated "Wonderstruck" for any awards. Voting for it might be a good way to "stick it to the experts." Speaking of which, the dark horse would be "Professor Marston and the Wonder Women," which could win if all the comic book fans voted for it. I don't think that will happen, especially since I think most of them are voting for "Black Panther," not "Wonder Woman."
Given the almost complete disjunction between this field and the movies nominated at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, there are too many potential snubs to name. That written, "Call Me by Your Name," "Lady Bird," "The Big Sick," and "The Florida Project" would have been a high-quality independent field in addion to the three movies I mentioned above.
Best International Film Release:
"Baahubali 2: The Conclusion" (Arka Media Works) "Brimstone" (Momentum Pictures) "The Lodgers" (Epic Pictures Group) "The Man Who Invented Christmas" (Bleecker Street) "The Square" (Magnolia) "Wolf Warrior 2" (Well Go USA)
"The Square" is far and away the establishment choice in this field, as it not only earned an Oscar nomination, but also nominations for Best Foreign Language Film at the Critics' Choice Movie Awards and Golden Globe Awards. In fact, it's the only nominee from any of these awards in this field, which means I'm likely to vote for it. On the other hand, "The Man Who Invented Christmas," which I thought might be nominated for Best Fantasy Film, was. Remember, this is an International Film category, not a Foreign Language one, as "The Man Who Invented Christmas" is in English. I suspect that will give it a leg up with the Saturn Awards electorate. As for snubs, both "Thelma" and "Body and Soul" were both foreign language speculative fiction movies nominated at the Critics' Choice Awards and Academy Awards, respectively, but they weren't nominated here.
Follow over the jump for the other categories with nominees from these films.
Happy National Superhero Day! To celebrate, I'm sharing two shows by arch-rival university marching bands, Michigan and Ohio State, from the same month, November 2016, on the same theme, superheroes.
The Michigan Marching Band halftime performance: "Superheros" Marvel Studio Theme / Batman Theme (Elfman) X Men First Class Theme / Spider Man Superman / Ooh Child / Shoop / Sexy Sax Man Captain America March / Wonderwoman Theme / I Need a Hero
WOW! Best halftime show yet brought to you by BuckeyeTV, Channel 19. Ohio State Marching Band presents, "Superheroes" for the Halftime Show, Ohio State vs. Nebraska on November 5th, 2016.
...
Drill Design: Dr. Christopher Hoch Music Arrangers: John Brennan, Mark Reynolds Title from Avengers: Age of Ultron Caps Promise from Captain America Oscorp Tower and Main Title from The Amazing Spider-Man Theme from Man of Steel
Between the two shows, that's a pretty complete selection of movie superheroes from both DC and Marvel.
I'll have more on superhero movies next month when I plan on posting more about the SaturnAwards -- or maybe tomorrow when I post about how "Avengers: Infinity War" is doing at the box office. Either way, stay tuned.
ETA: Both in honor of 'Avengers: Infinity War' having the best opening weekend box office of 2018 so far and my using it at my Dreamwidth journal as a preview of next year's post, here's Michigan State's band making the Avengers logo. Sorry, I couldn't find a good image of the U of M band from this show other than from the preview of the video above. At least this photo was from a show at Michigan Stadium.
Nominations for the 2018 Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics’ Choice Awards have been announced. Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi romance The Shape of Water stole the show with a dominating 14 nominations [including] Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Cinematography.
Deadline lists all of them, which I've re-ordered to suit my priorities: Best Picture, Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie, Best Actress for Sally Hawkins, Best Supporting Actor for Richard Jenkins, Best Supporting Actress for Octavia Spencer, Best Director for Guillermo del Toro, Best Original Screenplay for Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, Best Cinematography for Dan Laustsen, Best Production Design for Paul Denham Austerberry, Shane Vieau, and Jeff Melvin, Best Editing for Sidney Wolinsky, Best Costume Design for Luis Sequeira, Best Hair and Makeup, Best Visual Effects, and Best Score for Alexandre Desplat. Wow! Not only do these 14 nominations lead speculative fiction films, they lead all films nominated. Four films, "Dunkirk," "Call Me By Your Name," "Lady Bird," and "The Post," are six nominations behind at eight each. I had thought either "Beauty and the Beast" or "Piratesof theCaribbean" to be the best fantasy film of 2017. No longer. I now think "The Shape of Water" will be the favorite in that category at the Saturn Awards and in Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie here in the Critics' Choice Awards.
Deadline didn't even notice "Blade Runner 2049." Instead, its article mentioned "Get Out," which has five nominations. It is going head-to-head with "The Shape of Water" in four categories, Best Picture, Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie, Best Director for Jordan Peele, and Best Original Screenplay, also for Jordan Peele. Only Daniel Kaluuya as Best Actor escapes competing with a nominee from "The Shape of Water." While I think "Get Out" is the best non-supernatural horror film of the year, which means it will be nominated for Best Thriller Film at the Saturn Awards and most likely win that category, I doubt it will win anything other than Best Original Screenplay at the Critics' Choice Awards. Even here, it's an underdog to more conventional films.
In fourth place among speculative fiction films with, appropriately enough, four nominations is "Beauty and the Beast," my pick for best fantasy film of the year until "The Shape of Water" came along. The live-action remake of a Disney animated classic earned nods for Best Production Design for Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer, Best Costume Design for Jacqueline Durran, Best Hair and Makeup, and Best Song for "Evermore." In the first three categories, it is up against either or both of "The Shape of Water" and "Blade Runner 2049" and in the last it is competing with a song from Disney/Pixar film "Coco" and a Grammy Award nominee from "Marshall." I'm ambivalent about its chances in any of those categories.
Three superhero films tie for fifth with three nominations, "Logan," "Thor: Ragnarok," and "Wonder Woman," all of which are nominated for Best Action Movie. The critics think "Logan" has better acting with Patrick Stewart nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Dafne Keen for Best Young Actor/Actress. I expect both will be nominated in the equivalent categories at the Saturn Awards. In contast, "Wonder Woman" has better technical achievement, being nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects. "Thor: Ragnarok" has both good acting and technical achievement with Chris Hemsworth earning a surprising nomination for Best Actor in a Comedy (I guess he's that funny) and the film competing with "Blade Runner 2049," "The Shape of Water," "Wonder Woman," "War for the Planet of the Apes," and "Dunkirk" for Best Visual Effects. I'm not confident about any prediction for that field! On the other hand, if I'm confident about any prediction of mine, it's that "Wonder Woman" is the favorite to win Best Action Movie. It's also among my two favorites to win Best Comic-Book-to-Film Adaptation or its equivalent at the Saturn Awards.
"War for the Planet of the Apes" earned two nominations, Best Action Film and Best Visual Effects. I think the first is misplaced (it should be the fifth nominee for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film), while the second shows the strength of screen capture and CGI to portray its ape characters. The other speculative fiction film to garner two nominations is the Disney/Pixar film "Coco" for Best Animated Film and Best Song for "Remember Me." I think it might win Best Animated Film. I'm not as confident that it will win Best Song against "Stand Up for Something" from "Marshall" by Common and Diane Warren.
Seven speculative fiction films have one nomination each. "It," my pick for best surpernatural horror film of the year, is nominated for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film. I doubt it will win at these awards, but I think it's a lock for Best Horror Film at the Saturn Awards. Hong Chau earned the one nomination for "Downsizing" as Best Supporting Actress. The other four nominees for Best Animated Feature, "The Breadwinner," "Despicable Me 3," "The LEGO Batman Movie," and "Loving Vincent," have their only nomination in this category. Finally, "Thelma," which is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, has enough fantastic elements for me to consider it speculative fiction.
Follow over the jump for all the categories that include speculative fiction nominees along with my thoughts about their chances.
That's the one in which I repeated my twenty-year-old grousing about how I wrote an adventure for Chaosium's Ringworld table-top RPG, but lost all that effort because the movie rights to the book were sold and the movie production company asserted that they had the game rights, too. To add insult to injury, there was no movie. Apparently, that will change, as SyFy announced that they will develop the book into a four-hour miniseries.
Amazon just announced a virtual land grab of genre titles that it’s putting into development: Larry Niven’s scifi classic Ringworld; Neal Stephenson’s cult classic Snow Crash; and Greg Rucka’s acclaimed comic Lazarus. In a perfect world, we could be seeing all three made into drama series.
As Deadline reports, the announcement comes as the streaming network is hoping to land a “big-scope genre drama series in the mold of Game Of Thrones and The Walking Dead.” There aren’t too many details yet, but the standout points include: the Ringworld project will likely draw not just from Niven’s 1970 original, but other books in the series; Rucka will be adapting Lazarus himself from page to screen; and Snow Crash will be co-produced by Joe Cornish, who at one time had the project on his own feature-directing slate.
I'm a lot more confident in Amazon pulling off "Ringworld" than I was about SyFy, so I'm looking forward to it. The other project I want to see is "Snow Crash." It may not be the best of Stephenson's novels, but it is the best-known and it's a lot of fun. Here's to both of them reaching the small screen before the decade is out!
Here's to getting that "Ringworld" movie I was promised 33 years ago, even if it ends up being a series streaming on Amazon!
As a homeowner and inhabitant of the planet, Stephen is really hoping Earth continues to be.
Doomer though I am, I'm with Colbert. I may repost this at Crazy Eddie's Motie News on Tuesday, after I post the worksheet for "Treasures of the Earth: Power" that I promised to post three weeks ago, the winners for Dramatic Presentation at the Hugo Awards, and the winners of the Teen Choice Awards.
Posted here as promised along with the first two on the list. The Teen Choice Award winners may take a little longer. Stay tuned.
I've been posting my saved comments other blogs to my Dreamwidth account and found three of them that are responses to the blogger or his readers about zombies. Today, I'll post the shortest, which was a reaction to James Howard Kunstler on Death to All Zombies!
“A zombie is a terrible thing to behold, but a zombie holding a bag of dog-shit is like unto the end of the world.” No, a zombie holding a bag of dog shit is funny. All that needs to make it funnier is setting the bag on fire. Of course, the zombie will still try to eat your brains, but you’ll get a good laugh out of it. Just don’t step on the burning bag once you shoot the zombie in the head.
I'll get around to posting the other two later. When? Before "Fear the Walking Dead" returns next month.
I gave a lecture on human population yesterday and showed some of the videos I included in A very late celebration of World Population Day. At the end of the lecture, one of my students asked if I did that because it was Earth Overshoot Day. I said no, I would have given that lecture that day no matter what. It turned out to be a happy coincidence. Now I'll have to remember to check for Earth Overshoot Day in the future to observe it at my main blog.
I'm not going to wait until next year. I'm posting about it today, only two days late (and four days before the anniversary of last year's Earth Overshoot Day) and the day "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" goes into wide release. Here's the description on the Earth Overshoot Day website.
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. We maintain this deficit by liquidating stocks of ecological resources and accumulating waste, primarily carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Earth Overshoot Day is hosted and calculated by Global Footprint Network, an international think tank that coordinates research, develops methodological standards and provides decision-makers with a menu of tools to help the human economy operate within Earth’s ecological limits.
To determine the date of Earth Overshoot Day for each year, Global Footprint Network calculates the number of days of that year that Earth’s biocapacity suffices to provide for humanity’s Ecological Footprint. The remainder of the year corresponds to global overshoot. Earth Overshoot Day is computed by dividing the planet’s biocapacity (the amount of ecological resources Earth is able to generate that year), by humanity’s Ecological Footprint (humanity’s demand for that year), and multiplying by 365, the number of days in 2017:
(Planet’s Biocapacity / Humanity’s Ecological Footprint) x 365 = Earth Overshoot Day
In this video, I explain our Ecological Footprint and Earth Overshoot Day with a particular focus on the #movethedate campaign to move back the day of ecological overshoot.
Much like World Population Day, this is exactly the kind of holiday I should observe here. Also like that day, it's one I didn't find out about until my seventh year of keeping this blog. It demonstrates that I still have lots to learn.
