#⋘ META. jfk. ⋙

[livesforgttnaa]

jfk tags.

⋘ MUSE. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ VISAGE. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ CRACK. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ HEADCANON. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ META. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ AES. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ ANSWERED. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ DRABBLES. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ SAVED. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ DASH COM. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ MAIN VERSE. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ GENERAL VERSE. jfk. ⋙ ⋘ JFK VERSE TBA. ⋙

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

.

[ironmaidenhead]

Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard (1950) is probably the most movie-besotted movie of all time. Start with the premise. Gloria Swanson, a silent-film star whose career was derailed by the talkies, is Norma Desmond, a silent-film star whose career was ended by the talkies. Her butler-chauffeur, Max, turns out to be a once-acclaimed silent-film director and Norma’s ex-husband. He’s creepily–and brilliantly–played by Erich von Stroheim, a once-acclaimed silent-film director who’d been reduced to playing character parts, mostly Nazis in World War II-pictures.

The most meta scene comes shortly after screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) takes up residence in Norma’s decrepit mansion, where he serves as a combination amanuensis/boy toy. He tells us that Norma throws regular movie nights, just for the two of them; Max is projectionist. The repertoire, of course, is her own films. We see a bit from one of them, a scene where the young Norma’s face is illuminated by candles.

The clip is from Queen Kelly, a 1929 film that, more than any other single factor, derailed the careers of Swanson (the star) and von Stroheim, the director. At least he was the director until producer Joseph Kennedy (Swanson’s lover and JFK’s father) fired him because the scenes he’d produced were too explicit and dark. Because von Stroheim retained the rights for what he’d shot, the film had never seen in the United States–until Sunset Boulevard. [x]

[hobgoblinns]

no i’m not suggesting doctor who has much in common with jim garrison’s investigation into the kennedy assassination lmfao. but prior to watching the film i didn’t know a whole lot about the kennedy assassination, or america’s military industrial complex. and after adding that context to ‘boom’, it really changes how you see it (unless you’re cool and already know about that stuff — this post is based on my own ignorance. in my defence, i’m not american, don’t know much about geopolitics, and in many ways naïve about the kind of evil that lurks behind a corporation’s desire to profit. but i feel the need to add a disclaimer: if you’re familiar with the military industrial complex, the JFK conspiracy, or even similar conspiracies like the danny casalaro murder, this probably won’t be new information to you.)

you watch ‘boom’, and you (i) think, ‘ok, i get it. it’s a clever bit of satire. moffat is saying that in war, we’re fighting “ourselves” (ie. common soldier of x team against common soldier of y team) while the real enemy is the military corporations profiting from the violence. when we see villengard tech killing the soldiers it’s designed to protect, it’s commentary on how corporations are the ones indirectly ‘killing’ by supplying the machinery, even when someone else pulls the trigger’. you enjoy the episode, think, classic moffat, and go on with your day.

and then you watch a film like oliver stone’s ‘JFK’. it’s a 3-hour epic based on an autobiography by new orleans district attorney jim garrison with so much going on that i can only give the most basic of summaries: garrison investigates the inconsistencies in the official court findings of the JFK assassination and ends up uncovering an elaborate conspiracy, leading him to the conclusion that kennedy was killed as part of a coup d’etat with the intention of installing LBJ as the new president in order to escalate the vietnam war and thus ensure continued profit for the defence industry.

side note here: watch the film, and if you can, read the book, too. i’m normally a very sceptical person, but considering the fact that as of 2023, more than half of the US population believe there was more than one gunman involved in the assassination, i don’t think it’s particularly controversial of me to suggest here that i was convinced. though the film is a dramatisation, you can fact check most of what’s presented to you, and once you do, it’s hard to go back to accepting the official story. so from here on in, i’m going to act on the assumption that garrison’s theory is correct — that kennedy was murdered for arms dealers’ profits. that in mind, i’ll be using the term ‘they’ a lot, because there isn’t really one name i can umbrella these corporations with. i hate to paint them as these shadowy puppet masters, but i don’t have much else to go on.

i mentioned my naïveté earlier. though i have nothing good to say about the us government or the radical branch of capitalism it operates on, it was still a tough pill to swallow. this whole ‘essay’ (used lightly — this is a self-indulgent post made on a ton of caffeine whose main purpose is to take the thoughts out of my brain and put them in words) is, in case i distracted you, about doctor who, so i’ll use it as an example. if you’re raised on that show like i was, you’re instilled with at least some kind of optimism. a belief that nowhere in the universe exists pure evil. a belief that the good and the noble will always triumph if they’re brave enough.

so it can be difficult to wrap your (my) head around the fact that there are people in the world — powerful people, at that — whose sole aim is to perpetuate war and violence. not on the grounds of self-defence, or on religious faith, like the soldiers in ‘boom’. these people don’t even particularly care who wins, or what they’re fighting over. their only interest is ensuring that peace doesn’t happen. how do you even begin to accept that that kind of evil exists?

and that’s where ‘boom’ comes into it. because then you (i) realise that you’ve got it all wrong. this isn’t a satire, perpetuating an absurdist future in which defence companies directly kill their own clients and frame it on an imagined enemy to ensure their continued success. this isn’t some kind of warning — ‘better keep an eye on those corporations! who knows what they might do?’ — and it’s certainly not an exaggeration. it’s a retelling of history. it’s a recount, not a cautionary tale.

because, accepting garrison’s theory as fact, they’ve done it before. not just killing footsoldiers, either. they killed one of the most powerful men in the world simply because he was in a position to negotiate peace. when the villengard tech begins slaughtering soldiers, it’s not a dystopia. it’s a parallel.

moffat has always been known for writing terrifying doctor who stories. he’s a master of monsters. i grew up terrified of the empty child, the weeping angels, the vashta nerada, the silence. ‘boom’ was already a masterpiece of an episode, but with the context i have now, it might also be the most terrifying to date. because there is no metaphor. just a statement of fact — those who stand to profit from war have killed, do kill, will kill, to stay at the top.

for some reason after watching boom i decided to watch oliver stone’s JFK on a whim and by complete coincidence i think i found the perfect “further reading” film

[kalisseo]

clone high season 2 episode 8

this post has been the hardest to make for me, I've made three drafts that were so messy that I'm just making a fourth one but I really wanted to talk about this

I've been meaning for months to make this post I just didn't bc idk I'm #lazy but I'm finally writing it

so yeah, this fucking episode ohmygobbbruhhhhh

// cw for sa , grooming and mentions of sex (basically everything that involves talking about this episode)

i want to start with saying that I'm not against any form of art using heavy topics like sa, not everything needs to be easy to consume, but everything needs to be treated with all due respect, something that clone high didn't

my general opinion is that this episode shouldn't exist in the first place, I can think of a few ways that it can be replaced with another plot/themes/ideas and still work out. and the fact that it was watered down a lot too, and they deleted another weird plot it's just. UGHHH, scary to think that even watered down it's so bad, the storyboards are so much worse

we all know the original show and love it, but it had many inappropriate weird jokes about the clones, and the reboot is supposed to be the modern and respectful (woke, if you will) clone high, so why make something so much worse than those jokes?

saying this about the reboot because I think it's pretty obvious that's kinda the intention, the meta comments in the sleepover ep and random stuff in the show, like the sea-men song in the same fucking episode, but whatever this is just my very personal view so idk

well it's easy just because they hate abe with a burning passion

overall, i feel like the reboot was way more explicit with the sex jokes (joan's dream about abe, the abe anxiety scene where joan and jfk are just doing it but with clothes THE EYE SEX SCENE IN SEASON 3) which is just unnecessary

"oh but teenagers have sex haha!! those are just jokes!!" jokes that are not even FUNNY, and just uncomfortable and totally unnecessary

and the blackmailing plot is just another example of this, the worst one, because this involves a heavy and delicate topic like sa

like I said, I'm not against media talking about these topics, but clone high simply shouldn't talk about it

it's a COMEDY, a PARODY, and even though these genres can deal with these topics, it's only if it's WELL EXECUTED, and with all due respect, something that clone high didn't. Also clone high never got too serious or deep about this kind of stuff, so again, it's just another uncomfortable unnecessary thing

I'd say that it's just a joke, but it doesn't even feel like it, it doesn't even feel like it's supposed to be funny (maybe one of the many failed attempts of this show at being funny) it feels like the clone high writers just think they put abe in an awkward situation, when in reality it was a traumatic event, it wasn't treated with respect, and more like something bad but not traumatic that happened to abe, saying this because it wasn't even acknowledged, just like two times, and again it felt that way

overall the whole episode is weird and sucksass (i guesss kahlopatra is the only normal thing), completely unnecessary and could've been easily replaced with other stuff

want joanfk to get back together? ok but why with sex? why is their whole chemistry just sexual chemistry? Why not make a valentine day episode instead? scudworth can make potions or serums or whatever those liquids were, why not make a love potion so they fall in love again? why not just , you knowww try to make them get back with NO sex involved

and why is abe obsessed with his virginity?

want topher to get in the way of joanabe? ok but why like that? the blackmailing plot could've even been funny if only the material was different. why not Topher took an ugly photo of abe instead? or why can't he just be there and ruin the moment for joan and abe? the whole virginity thing and convincing him to have sex with the teacher it's just unnecessary

and I get it, Topher's a freak and an asshole, and many people say this is ooc, but if it's ooc or not it's rather irrelevant. to me, the important thing is that the idea could've been executed in a different and better way if they wanted to portray topher like an asshole

the writers just wanted something to get in the way of joanabe, and topher was the most viable option, and I like the idea of him just being there ruining everything but again, using sa was completely unnecessary and weird

might make another post about this, but I want to say first that when posting about canon, I've always imagined that topher did blackmail abe, but with something like an stupid ugly photo of him picking his nose

whatever, if you hate this episode bc it's weird you're totally right and if you hate topher for this I totally understand you

this version ended up being a mess too but I don't feel like making a fifth one ❤️ might make a pt 2 who knows feel free to add your own points in the comments or reblogs

[krakkenchaos]

Based on the trailers, I'm not convinced the Clone High reboot will be as entertaining as the original, but it's smart that it's seemingly leaning into the angle of "characters from a 2003 teen drama trying to adapt to living in a 2023 teen drama." It's a meta-humor goldmine because the fandom that emerged in 2020 when JFK clips randomly went viral on tiktok is a downright fascinating specimen of how our perception of characters in pop culture has changed over the last 20 years (I feel old.)

The clearest example of this is how Joan x JFK got warped into a wholesome OTP darling of the fandom. The actual show pretty explicitly characterizes JFK as an obnoxious playboy douchebag. That's the entire archetype of his character and it's exaggerated to extreme extents for humor. There's exactly two examples of the JoanFK "romance" in the original series and both were just the punchline of jokes that wouldn't be well-received today. The first is JFK being relieved that he's not gay when the "man" he was attracted to was Joan in disguise. The second is JFK having sex with an emotionally vulnerable Joan in the literal last minute of the show as a parody of the dramatic out-of-nowhere twists in TV shows of the time. It should be strange that this ship was warped into the definitive wholesome face of the fandom. But it's not strange when you look at Abe and the modern view of characters like him.

See, Abe is the character Joan is "supposed to" end up with. He's the awkward, dorky guy chasing the hot, popular Cleopatra while oblivious to the cute alt girl at his side pining to be more than friends. It's classic "she's cheer captain and I'm on the bleachers" stuff common in the 2000s. However, that trope became hated within the last few years because it's "pitting women against each other." Even more-so, Abe's character archetype has become detested. Abe is Ross from Friends and Xander from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Today, it's unpopular to have empathy for characters like that because their passive "nice guy" misogyny is recognized as just as, if not more harmful than the blatant misogyny of a JFK-type character. Meanwhile, fandom culture has fallen in love with himbos, hence why JFK has been shoehorned into that archetype despite still being an awful person in the show. There's so much comedic potential with this contrast and the reboot seems to be at least somewhat aware of it based on the joke from the trailer where JFK is commended for being "so sex positive."

[uncomfortablecliche]

lana????? who in interviews loves to lie and fuck w them? lana who purposefully makes her lyrics follow satirical stereotypes? lana who dressed as jackie kennedy with A$AP as jfk? her lyrics are the concepts informing your actual thoughts and beliefs? that’s actually really meta

[epickiya722]

In one of your previous asks you said that if Geto and Kenjaku are in the same sentence you know things are gonna get nasty. And you're so right!!!

I have seen so many Kenjaku fans draw stitches on Geto panels. So many Kenjaku fans come and purposefully retweet and reblog Geto fant's posts with awful things and then claim that Geto fans are the ones who are bullying them!

Kenjaku fans saying that 'Kenjaku wore Geto better' as in Geto is an article of clothes.

And yes I know that Geto fans are editing out the stitches from Kenjaku's panels, but tbh I think that pales in comparison with what Kenjaku fans are doing.

I get that it's trendy and it's a fun passtime to hate on satosugu shippers and geto lovers in this fandom (I think soon people will blame the JFK assassination on satosugu shippers too) but damn I don't know maybe they are defensive because everyone is literally attacking them.

I don't blame anyone for ever getting defensive if they're always attacked.

Now neither Geto or Kenjaku are my favorite-favorite characters, but I do admire what they both bring to the story. They both did enough for me to leave an impression.

But it does get tiring to see fans of the characters argue back and forth.

The whole stitching and unstitching debacle was just chaotic to me. Like, I didn't even really find it funny. My first reaction was "wouldn't that like... misleading for newer viewers"?

Imagine being someone who just got into watching JJK and before you saw a screenshot of what you thought was Kenjaku because the person who posted it labeled it as such and the character has stitches but no, in said scene in the anime that character doesn't have stitches and it's Geto.

I don't know, I know some people do it for laughs, ha ha, good times and all that. But I think it should be clear that it's an edit. Like, doing it out of malicious intent is just... that doesn't seem fun at all.

The whole "Kenjaku wore Geto better" is like... real nasty. Like, come on. Kenjaku is fun and all, but let's not act like Kenjaku is doing any favors for Geto using his body. That is his body, dead or not, and Kenjaku is using it as a tool.

*shivers* Gave me chills thinking about it. I can't imagine someone using my body like that and then people going "omg, so and so wore it better". I'M THE ORIGINAL! No one is wearing my body better when I know my body best, excuse?!

It's even sadder because the Hasaba twins had to witness the man that raised them be used like that and all they wanted was his body back. I don't blame them for being angry, I would be pissed off, too. That was someone they loved! (Their reaction to how Geto's body was being possessed now makes me a little angry towards someone else, but I digress.)

Now, I know some Geto fans aren't saints and I don't think all Kenjaku fans are bullies.

I just feel like you really don't like or even hate a character enough if you find glee in harassing people over that character.

Like, do you really like Kenjaku enough if you're constantly going around on Geto posts and typing up bashing? Do you not feel that secure to try to "prove" a character is better?

Because when I have a favorite character (and I do), I post about them. I post what I like about that character. I post metas. Write fics, even. I don't feel the need to go and jump into someone's space and go "your favorite sucks, mines is better, na na na na 😜".

That's a waste of time, that's childish and just makes you (not you, Anon, you're cool, I know you get it) look like an ass.

[thestarlightforge]

Did Paul’s original vision-path eventually come true? Or did he fail in the end?

**DUNE BOOK SPOILERS TO FOLLOW: DISCUSSING FULL SERIES OF NOVELS**

I just got to the end of Dune: Messiah and then speed-read the Wikipedia summaries for the rest of Frank Herbert’s original novels, and I’m trying to make sense of it.

There’s a lot of plot, of course. But from what it seems like, by going into the desert blind, becoming the Preacher, and playing his parts in Alia’s death & Leto II trying & half-failing to enact his “Golden Path” (which Paul had foreseen also & avoided?), he eventually set the stage for the peace that the perfected Kwisatz Haderach—the thousands of times reborn Duncan Idaho ghola—achieves by bonding with the machine people from the original Butlerian jihad. The reawakened Paul & Chani gholas end up back on Dune, healing the planet for the Fremen; humans have found some semblance of peace with the machines; and a combination of super spice & machines are able to be used for navigation, so the universe is navigable without a melange monopoly that concentrates power & destroys native populations (i.e. the Fremen who got destroyed, except for the gholas of Stilgar, Chani & etc. eventually).

My understanding of the meta-narratives around these books were that Frank Herbert worked in Washington before he became a SFF writer, & he wanted to caution against treating political leaders (like JFK) as messianic figures. Messiah makes this pretty clear, all the way from Paul’s “I hate myself but basically I’m Space Hitler” speech in the 1st half of the novel. Eugenics (the breeding program that lead to his birth), fostering religiosity around it, are all bad ideas.

But if Paul’s original prescience did come true (in books published after Frank’s death) and/or the breeding program got restarted (even if it did have an explicit directive to avoid another Kwisatz Haderach this time)… Doesn’t that undermine the message?

OR did Paul actually escape his prescience when he wandered into the desert & went blind, thus finding himself on a different road because of the unforeseen birth of his son (only his daughter was in the visions)—and thus his paternal line being awakened in a similar way to Alia/Jessica’s maternal line awakening? Was him walking into the desert his final act of giving up, or did he actually foresee that if he adhered to Fremen ideologies that completely, that would be the way to be sure they kept following his path (which he believed to be the way to avoid the most violence) long after his death?

Basically: I don’t think I have it in me to binge all 8 of these lol, or until Paul (or almost any characters I recognize) comes back in the final 2. Where does this ending leave us, in y’all’s opinions? Was Paul a hero whose violence really was necessary to prevent something worse 5000 yrs down the line, or a fraud who sacrificed billions for nothing? Were his actions worthwhile? Did he foresee this ending? Did he break free when Leto II was born? Where do we go from here?

[jfkisonthemoon]

Hi JFK. What is orv?

im so glad you asked. im still reading it (chapter 459 so please no spoilers in the notes). omniscient reader's viewpoint (shortened to orv) is a korean webnovel about a man named kim dokja. and his life completely SUCKS. he has no friends, no family, he's abused under capitalism and is a contract worker for a shitty office job. the only thing he has in his life is a webnovel called "three ways to survive a ruined world" about a man trying to survive the apocalypse. he's been reading this novel as it updates for YEARS but it ends and he finds he isn't entirely satisfied. he looks forward to the epilogue, but on the day it is supposed to be published, the novel is instead deleted. he finds that the author has emailed him a pdf of the novel with a message saying "good luck". from then on, the events of the novel start to happen in real life, with him meeting his favorite characters and attempting to get a better ending for all of them. as the sole person who read through the entire novel, he thinks that he is best suited for steering them to the ending, but can you really know someone just from reading about them?

it's a huge meta-commentary on reading, writing, trauma, dissociation, finding out that you want to stay alive, capitalism, and stories! it basically asks the question: what if the stories and characters we loved loved us as much as we love them? if you've ever been chronically online, obsessed with a character, or suicidal i would absolutely recommend this novel. it even has time loops and vague polyamory. it has very simple prose that stands out because of how plainly it's written. since january, ive been reading at least a chapter a day and im heartbroken that the end is in sight for me. as soon as im done reading, i want to begin again <3

[faith-lehane-summers]

hello!! you can call me robin :) i use any pronouns

here is a list of topics and things you can expect on this blog

Topics

buffy. both the character and the show.

fuffy. faith x buffy. whatever you want to call it, i’m rotating them in my head, i’m insane, etc. etc.

also very fond of cordelia, willow, spike, giles, jenny, ethan, etc.

have an odd and inordinate fondness for quite a lot of the characters actually

(i also quite like spangel. toxic yuri AND yaoi here)

Things

there will probably be art! i think i’ll reblog all my buffy posts from my art blog here so that buffy enjoyers are not inunduated w/ the other posts lmao. (@hambbyong is the art blog)

I’ve got a fuffy animatic in the works!!

there will probably be (light) meta and theme analysis but in the sense of me speaking derangedly to a corkboard and connecting things w red string

i will be insane. whenever i get fic written it’ll probably go here

I occasionally edit? So maybe that.

whatever other random buffy-related thoughts I have

i love talking to people!! and im thinking abt buffy literally constantly!! my dm’s? open. asks? open.

I follow and reply from @prinzessinkaugummi :)

this is not a safe space for terfs or other general nast.

tags below :)) (ill try and update but No Promises)

faith- #faith lehane loml

buffy- #buffy <333

fuffy- #this too is fuffy

willow- #best witch!!!

giles- #giles loml (loser of my life)

ethan rayne- #e☔️

spangel- #🌟spangel🌟🏳️‍🌈

scoobies- #scoobies

angel- #👼🏻

spike- #BBB

spike and drusilla- spikeywikey and drusilla

xander- #one eye

cordelia- princess of sunnydale!

kennedy- slayer jfk

(to be updated)

(bonus points if you figure out my dumb puns)

[girldraki]

found family can be you, the living meta-aware creature of hatred targeted at you who is fucking furious that you made them exist early, some weirdo with time powers whose couch you are being forced to crash on due to the entire foundation wanting you dead, and of course the corpse of jfk

[dulcewrites]

Greek life party ideas Britney spears basically dress like a Britney like music videos one can be school girl or opps I did it again lol I've had the idea but never got around to writing it lol

Historical figures is always a fun Halloween like Anne Boleyn jfk or whatever

Yes!!! A y2k (super cute and futuristic) or early 2000s party. clarisse would def do britney or something burlesque ala lady marmalade. OOOHH or she begs Aemond to do the denim look britney and j*stin did

I had this idea that of president of the sorority clarisse is in, the person she essentially want to take the job from, going as Marie antionette. Slightly on the nose but I imagine the president not getting the correlation (she’s not a nice girlie lmao) and just liking the outfit 💀

I also the idea that the asoiaf books exist in that universe and they as characters from that, but that would way too meta and confusing. But clarisse as melisandre >>>>

[themovieblogonline]

"DEVO" Documentary Opens 55th Nashville Film Festival on 9/19/2024

On the opening night of the 55th Nashville Film Festival on September 19, 2024, "DEVO," a documentary about the 80s band directed by Chad Smith, was screened. The documentary premiered originally on January 21, 2024 at Sundance. DEVO, the band,  formed in 1973 in Akron, Ohio.  The band's formation stemmed from the political unrest at Kent State, Ohio, that led to the May 4th, 1970 deaths of 4 students (and the wounding of 30 others). The students of Kent State, including the Mothersbaugh boys, were demonstrators against the Vietnam War. Nixon had expanded the war in Vietnam without an act of Congress.  The war was killing an entire generation of United States youth via the draft in an unpopular unwinnable war. The students set fire to the ROTC headquarters and burned the building down. Nixon sent in the National Guard, which fired on the unarmed students. The chaos in the world caused band members to feel that, instead of progress, things were going backward. They used the term De-evolution, which was eventually shortened to DEVO. AHEAD OF THEIR TIME Through the years, the band worked to satirize society. They admit, “We did some absurd things.” In explaining the famous “energy hats" and the lacquered hair-dos that the band wore (based on JFK's hair, not Reagan's), the group admitted, “We like ironic humor. It was a cheap way to amuse ourselves---very Meta." The group was anti-punk rock. (“We’re the fluid in the punk enema bag.”) Over the years, DEVO saw the future of film in music and began making music videos, which were eventually shown on MTV (MTV didn’t exist when the band first formed).  This idea of merging film with music was ahead of its time, although the Monkees,  the Beatles, and the Velvet Underground inside Andy Warhol's studio were also moving in that direction. Not only was the band ahead of the curve in using music videos to promote themselves (most of which were directed by Gerard Casale), but DEVO contributed to the birth of electronic music. Jim Mothersbaugh created circuit bending before there was a name for that process. He went to a muffler shop to build a guitar that was a precursor of the Moog synthesizer. The film reminded me of the SXSW documentary “Resynator,” helmed by Alyson Tavel, recounting her father Don’s similar pioneering efforts to create the first Moog synthesizer. (Highly recommended). FAMOUS FANS After a video that the band submitted won an award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, their fortunes improved. Famous fans included David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Jack Nicholson, Mick Jagger, Dennis Hopper, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. Over the years, the band made appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” David Letterman’s “Tonight” show, daytime talk shows like Merv Griffin, “American Bandstand” and many others. Neil Young put them in a movie entitled “Human Highway” in 1977 (released in 1982) where the members of DEVO wrote their own parts and portrayed nuclear garbagemen. Q&A During the post-film conversation with three members of DEVO the trio shared some amusing details of what they term the “headache” solo.  This episode is shown in the film. The small audience of 12 people dwindled to 6 people when the band played only electronic high-pitched sounds.  As Mark Mothersbaugh said, “ The bit ran five times as long as we thought it would. It was Supreme Dada---like Andy Kaufman performance art.” CONCLUSION This documentary about a band that is best known for their #14 Billboard Hit “Whip It” contained so many film clips that assembling it must have been a gargantuan task. It is an object lesson in emphasizing the necessity of good marketing, good management, and good legal advice in the entertainment field. (The management and the legal advice seem to have been MIA). That, as much as anything else, led to the death of DEVO---(if they are really and truly dead, a debatable point.) As Mark Mothersbaugh said, “Somebody decided that DEVO should die.  We succumbed to the same reality we were satirizing.” He added, “DEVO didn’t officially end” and said, perhaps prophetically, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” DEVO, the band, has been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, 2021 and 2022. A solid opening for the 55th Nashville Film Festival on Thursday, September 19, 2024.         Read the full article

[stuartbramhall]

From Trump’s “assassination” to Biden’s disappearing act…it’s all theatre

Kit Knightly Remakes and sequels have almost killed Hollywood movie making, turning every film into a collection of meta references and nostalgia bait…‘hey remember when this happened in that other movie! That was cool right!’  Now, it seems,  they’re trying the same tactics in politics. That’s what we’ve got in the Trump “assassination attempt” –  a remake of an old classic –   the JFK…

[himynameisobed]

A North American Break.

I've spent the last couple of weeks in New York and Toronto - New York for Dan and Kara's wedding, and Toronto just to drop by home and see family and friends since it was so close. Clark picked me up from JFK and as we were driving along the highway into the city, I felt a steadily rising affection and nostalgia for North America. I love the skyscrapers, I love the grid-laid streets, I love the inexplicable and boundless sense of forward possibility. I stayed with Clark (and his girlfriend Rathna, who I happily met for the first time) in Williamsburg, which was super convenient because that's where the wedding and all the wedding events were happening (a fact I did not realize beforehand). We got pizza the first night and everyone we interacted with was so full of character, personality and energy. Williamsburg is a hip and creative part of Brooklyn, and people walked around with a kind of selfless entitlement I find difficult to properly capture in words - kind of like an obvious yet understated confidence that never veered too far into outright cockiness - like everyone knew they deserved to take up space but weren't rude about it, and understood that everyone else deserved to take up space too. I can see myself living in a place like Williamsburg after London, and my stay there has really got me considering it. It was hot the whole time so I almost exclusively wore various tank tops and pairs of shorts, and cute boys would smile at me and nice girls would compliment my outfits. The city felt joyful and alive. The wedding itself was beautiful. I was there when Dan and Kara first met, so it was incredibly touching to see how far they've come and be part of the beginning of a new stage of their lives. I love love, and the sweltering heat of the day could not take away from the tender beauty of it. I unexpectedly got to see a lot of people I didn't expect to see while I was in the city. It turns out Renee was there for the same weekend, so we went dancing the night I arrived and hung out with a bunch of her friends a bit the next day. I saw Wusky (who I haven't seen in years) for dinner and got to meet his lovely wife. And my brother was also in town visiting his girlfriend Alison, so they joined me, Clark, Rathna and a couple of our friends at Birds of a Feather for dinner the last night I was there. And then I went to Toronto, which will always always always feel like home. I got to see my friends, and hang out with my siblings, and it was nice to spend a bit of the summer there. I had ramen with Megan on Wednesday night, met up with Conor, Renee, Joff, Gemma and my sister on Thursday night (and watched Legally Blonde at Corktown Common), hung out with the Meta crew + Bram on Friday night (with a special and coincidental guest appearance by Bre at Petty Cash), went to Bre's BBQ before going out dancing with Camilla, Conor and Keyana at Beam Me Up on Saturday night, and then had my goodbye/congratulatory dinner with my family on Sunday night. I flew back on Monday, walking through a storm to St. Patrick station with all my luggage. The rain poured down harder than I remember it pouring in Toronto and I would later learn that I had walked through the beginnings of a flood. Now I'm back in London, wiling away the days until I start my new job. I'm going to make a list of things to do on weekdays that I won't be able to easily do once I start working. And maybe play a video game or two. It's strange: while I was in Toronto I realized I've missed it a lot, but I also feel happy to be back in London. I've gotten used to the energy here and my life and routine. And I think once I start my new job, I'll really start feeling more settled and attached to the city. I'm excited to get back to work.