#David Lurie

[theactioneer]

Mortal Challenge (Randy Cheveldave, 1996)

[joerdan]

Crush.jpeg 😁

[abs0luteb4stard]

W A ✝ C H I N G

Controversial movie based off the book by Nikos Kazantzakis.

It enraged Christian zealots enough that they fire bombed a movie theater in France. Other theaters refused to show it. The church bitched and moaned. The old nutty nun from EWTN called it "the most blasphemous ridicule of the Eucharist that's ever been perpetrated in this world" and "a holocaust movie that has the power to destroy souls eternally." 😂😂

And Martin Scorsese head to have bodyguards for several years after.

[davealmost]

Wild at Heart

[joe-england]

Trump is assaulting his own legitimacy - by David R. Lurie

[seanleelevin]

The Lynch-a-Thon continues!

[ulrichgebert]

Die letzte Versuchung Christi bietet uns die Gelegenheit, gleichzeitig einen weiteren ungesehenen Scorsese-Film, sowie einen karwöchentlichen Bibelschinken unterzubringen, wobei es ja ausdrücklich keine Bibelverfilmung ist, sondern die eines Romans von Nikos Kazantzakis, der vom Papst auf den Index verbotener Bücher gesetzt, und dadurch natürlich viel bekannter wurde, als er sonst geworden wäre. Herr Scorsese sucht das gleich mit einer Eröffnungswarntafel aufzufangen. Die deutsche Untertitelung für "Not according to the Gospel" lautet interessanterweise "entspricht nicht der Realität". Hat aber nichts geholfen. Der nette, aber etwas unausgeglichene Herr von N. hört Stimmen, und hegt Zweifel, ob er der Erlöser sein will, statt es sich irgendwie mit Maria Magdalena nett zu machen? Große Aufregung! Dann geht es erstmal relativ lang (wir wollen an dieser Stelle einmal Tim Rice für seine zügige Abwicklung danken) weiter wie aus dem Guterhirte-mit-Schäfchenfilm (den Evangelien? Der Realität?) gewohnt weiter (die Musik ist witziger), doch das mit der Kreuzigung will ihm (völlig zurecht, wenn Sie mich fragen) wieder nicht einleuchten, und das, obwohl er von David Bowie persönlich verurteilt wird. Er hat dann am Kreuz eine Vision von dem langen "normalen" Leben, das er hätte stattdessen führen können und sogar eine Sexszene, sieht es aber, nachdem er dort Paulus trifft, der den ganzen Unsinn so oder so erzählt, schließlich doch ein. Und Stirbt. Was dann eigentlich die ganze Aufregung nicht rechtfertigt, wenn man recht darüber nachdenkt. "Ist eine komische Religion", sagt der Tobi.

[archivequinn]

Joseph Quinn, Glass Magazine. 2019

by Alicia Poutney Photographer: Benjamin Tietge Fashion Stylist: Julia Lurie Hair Stylist: Davide Barbieri Photographic Assistant: Dominic Markes Special thanks: APIARY Studio Talent: Joseph Quinn

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Lurie at Public Notice:

For months, Trump campaign operatives have said they want their candidate to “stick to his economic policies.” Trump supporters have repeated that shibboleth even more lately as their candidate continues to shed the GOP’s typically large and reliable large polling advantage on economic issues.  Trump held a 12 point polling advantage over Biden on “the economy” in 2020 and had a lead of as high as 22 percent only months ago, but his lead over Harris on the economy may now only be five or six points and is likely still shrinking.    Contrary to the received wisdom, Trump’s problem is not that he speaks too little about his economic policies — it’s that his policies would be undeniably bad for the economy and for working Americans. And the more voters learn about what Trump is planning to do, the worse it is for him. 

This intractable problem stands to become even more serious for Trump as voters learn more about Vice President Harris’s policies, which actually speak to the concerns and needs of working people and families. Trump has been a clear and constant exponent of his economic program, which can be boiled down to three proposals. First, impose massive, and hugely inflationary, tariffs on imported goods, which will hit consumers directly in the pocketbook. Second, massively cut taxes, again, for the wealthy. And, finally, the mass round up of and deportation of immigrants, including those playing crucial roles in the growing economy. Trump never hesitates to advocate this three pronged “economic policy” during his rallies, and as he did (over and over) yesterday during a two hour “speech” before the Detroit Economic Club. The problem is that — outside of the xenophobes who constitute his hardcore base and the mega-wealthy bankrolling his super PACs — Trump’s proposals hardly resonate as a prescription for making the American economy better for most Americans.

These are not new ideas, and they have already been political failures. Trump’s sole major economic legislative “success” during his presidency was passing a historically regressive tax cut bill that increased income inequality while ballooning the deficit. To the chagrin of the GOP, which was used to reaping political benefits from tax cuts, the public smelled a rat and punished Republicans at the polls in the 2018 midterms for Trump’s giveaway to the rich. For many months of the current campaign, the politically problematic nature of Trump’s economic “program” was obscured by the focus on inflation. But as inflation has receded, Republicans increasingly have had to face the question of whether an economic policy that is substantially comprised of strategies that have failed politically before can be made into a winner by the “populist” Trump ticket. While it may have escaped the notice of the mainstream press, the weakness of Trump’s economic policy proposals was on full display during the recent vice presidential debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance. Instead of defending the actual MAGA agenda during the debate, Vance sounded more like the champion of government intervention on behalf of the disenfranchised he claimed to be before his cynical conversion to the Trump cult.

[...]

Trump wants to peddle hate, not discuss economic policy

The economic policy problem for the Trump campaign made evident by Vance’s debate performance is only becoming more obvious as we approach the final weeks of the campaign and the candidates spend more and more time in the industrial Midwest, which has been a singular focus of the Biden administration’s infrastructure and industrial development initiatives.

As Greg Sargent has detailed, Vance and Trump have been doubling down on their opposition to the hundreds of billions of dollars in tax credits, loans, and grants resulting from Biden/Harris initiatives, including the Inflation Reduction Act. Large portions of those funds are headed to the industrial Midwest, where thousands of new jobs are being created in clean energy manufacturing. Economic development of this sort is particularly crucial to the future of the Michigan-centered US automotive industry, which — as Trump himself acknowledges — is at risk of ceding electric automobile manufacturing (the undisputed future of the industry) to China. The Detroit News revealed that some people seen wearing “Auto Workers for Trump” shirts behind Vance at a recent Michigan rally were not autoworkers. That episode served as a reminder of when Trump — a staunch opponent of organized labor who has boasted during recent speeches about stiffing employees who worked for him — held an event at a non-union plant during the UAW strike before non-union workers holding signs reading “union members for Trump.”

The economy, which the Republicans have historically led on, has been chipped away at by the Harris/Walz ticket.

[neverlostmycrown]

Evanescence - Evanescence (Ev3) Deluxe Edition, 2011 - Digital Booklet

(hq via archive.org)

Amy would like to thank: I want to thank everyone at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, for letting us use your amazing place to create, and for making us feel like part of the family. Special thanks to John and Martina McBride (for running such an awesome studio, and for the BBQ!) Nathan Yarborough - the best and sweetest assistant engineer anywhere, and all the interns who gave me rides home. Also, thank you to all our friends at S.I.RNash- you’ve been such an important part of this record. From writing and pre-production to rehearsing and performing, it all happened in the big room at the end of the hall! Thank you for being so good to us. Big love to Nick Raskulinecz, the man with the plan. Thank you for believing in me, for pushing me, for making me stronger, for cracking me up, and knowing when to say HELL YEAH!! Thank you Paul Figueroa: Engineer extraordinaire, master chef, bowling champion! Thank you Terry, Tim, Will and Troy for having my back, for bringing rad, inventive ideas to the table, and most of all, for making it LOUD! Thank you so much David Campbell, Dave Eggar and all of the string players. Thank you Chris Vrenna, you rule! Thank you Will B. Hunt for the inspiration, the good times, and the very special music we made together. Thank you to John Nicholson, one of my new favorite people! Also thank you to Phyllis Sparks and Mike Simmons. Thank you Dave Fortman, for your advice, support, and friendship throughout my career. Thank you Diana Meltzer for discovering me and always supporting me! Thank you Josh, for supporting and encouraging me to be brave and remember love, above all. Thank you Mom, Dad, Carrie, Lori, and Robby for being my biggest fans and always supporting me, making me feel safe when life gets hard, and taking me to Disney World no matter how old I get! Love to all of my wonderful family- I am so blessed. Gotta give a shout out to my girl, Beth! Thanks for being someone I can always count on. I can’t wait to laugh around the world with you once more! Thank you Zach and Stacy Williams, for your friendship and your inspiration. Thank you Eddie “Muscles” Mapp (for being awesome). Thank you everyone at Wind-up records for working so hard for us and putting out this album. Thank you Andy Lurie for all your hard work and support. Thank you Chrissy Igoe and the rest of 110 Management. Thank you Gary Haber and Patty Wicker for everything you do for me! Thank you Ken Ewing, Sheryl Rowling and Steve Baron. A very special thank you to our fans, for listening to our music, for letting it take a place in your hearts, for sharing your lives with us, for making all of this possible.

[cyarskj1899]

Joe Biden's tragic presidency

He accomplished a lot — except the most important thing.

STEPHEN ROBINSON

JAN 16, 2025

330

3364Biden on Wednesday. (Mandel Ngan/Getty)

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On January 6 of this year, the Washington Post ran an op-ed from President Joe Biden, who wrote that “four years ago, our democracy was put to the test — and prevailed.” This feels like a declaration from another reality, one where Donald Trump was held accountable for his assault on democracy. Instead, he’s returning to power next week. 

Biden didn’t mention Trump by name in the Post piece. It was similar to his inauguration speech, when he alluded to the Capitol attack but didn’t personally identify its ringleader. Biden tried to ignore Trump after defeating him in 2020, which is normal behavior for a new president, but Trump was never a normal defeated president. Biden claimed he sought the presidency “to restore the soul of America,” but American voters seemingly traded that soul for the idea of cheaper eggs. 

Joe Biden's underrated presidency

DAVID R. LURIE

·

DECEMBER 15, 2023

Read full story

We can quibble over the specific policy choices that might’ve led to this dire moment, but it’s worth examining why Americans soured so completely on the Biden administration. Here at Public Notice, we observed in late 2023 that Biden had “achieved a lot — with the notable exception of popularity.” But as Glinda reminds us in Wicked, popularity is “everything that really counts.” Political success is less about aptitude than the way you’re viewed.

Unfortunately, Biden never sold voters on his admirable record, and given the grave threat Trump poses, he probably shouldn’t have gambled democracy on what in hindsight was clearly a long-shot reelection bid. But it’s worth remembering that his administration got off to a strong start.

How did it go wrong so quickly?

Biden entered the White House with the nation in almost as fractious a state as it was in 1861. (Secret Service preparations for his inauguration were the most extensive in modern history.) Yet he resolved to govern like it was 1999 by reaching across the aisle to pass bipartisan legislation that would benefit all Americans. He wanted to put Trump firmly in the past, but the former president’s coup was ongoing.

For example, many prominent Republicans initially refused to even call Biden “president” — using only his last name while reserving the title of honor for Trump. Republican leaders went as far as to outright refuse to admit Biden had legitimately won the election. (Watch GOP whip Steve Scalise dance around the issue below in a Sunday show hit from February 2021.)

Biden took the high road and still sought to work with Republicans, even those who insinuated that he’d cheated his way into office. However, in retrospect, the GOP’s election denial was about more than just appeasing Trump’s wounded pride. It was a coordinated and successful effort to diminish Biden in the public eye. 

A Monmouth University poll from September 2022 showed that 61 percent of Republicans still believed the 2020 election was stolen. If a significant segment of voters believe your presidency is illegitimate, not even the best legislation will win them over. 

Barack Obama enjoyed an approval rating above 60 percent during the first seven months of his presidency. This honeymoon period was the result of high support from Democrats, obviously, but also solid numbers from independents and even Republicans. (Obama had 29 percent approval from GOP voters in May 2009.) 

Biden, however, dropped from his high of 57 percent approval in January 2021 to a dismal 40 percent within a year. In January 2022, his approval among Republicans was just five percent, down from 11 percent when he took office, and his approval among independents was only 33 percent — just over half of what it was at the start of his term. He was also managing just 82 percent approval among his own party.

Biden carried 53 percent of the popular vote in 2020, so his underwater approval wasn’t just from diehard MAGA cultists and Fox News viewers. The numbers showed that he’d quickly lost ground with former supporters. He never really regained it.

A note from Aaron: Working with brilliant contributors like Stephen takes resources. If you aren’t already a paid subscriber, please sign up to support our work.Subscribe

So, what happened in 2021 to tank Biden’s standing? Some have blamed his sudden decline in popularity on the August 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, which was chaotic and cost 13 American soldiers their lives. That certainly played a large role, but the slide actually started before then.

Biden’s approval fell from 53 percent at the start of June to 43 percent by Labor Day. In May, Biden announced that fully vaccinated Americans no longer needed to wear masks, but the delta variant soon put the brakes on the White House’s promised “summer of joy.” The CDC quickly reversed its public guidance and recommended indoor mask wearing for everyone, including the vaccinated. 

Meanwhile, as the economy steadily recovered from the pandemic thanks in part to Biden’s American Rescue Plan, prices increased across the board and inflation surged past the Federal Reserve’s two percent target. Although Biden assured Americans that inflation was temporary, Republicans quickly blamed rising costs on Biden and Democratic policies. 

Unlike Afghanistan, these weren’t issues that faded from public consciousness with the next news cycle. In fact, they cemented the tone for the rest of the Biden administration. 

Biden had promised an end to the pandemic, and initially delivered and then some, but a return to mask mandates felt like a traumatic regression. And just as Americans were able to freely travel and gather indoors, they were hit with higher prices on basic necessities. On the legislative front, Dems had a trifecta, but Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema proved almost unmovable obstacles for major legislation that other Democrats were eager to support. (The robust 2021 child tax credit expired in December of that year, thanks to Manchin.) Worse for Biden and Democrats, benefits from the more impressive measures in the bipartisan infrastructure deal would take far too long to be felt by voters.

According to a 2024 CNN presidential exit poll, a whopping 68 percent of voters thought the economy was “not good” or “poor.” This wasn’t just Republicans refusing to acknowledge a booming economy under a Democratic president. No, a good number of Democrats and independents contributed to that devastating figure. Consumers certainly weren’t behaving like they were in a recession, and real wages had outpaced inflation for most working Americans. Unfortunately, the grim reality for Democrats is that voters are more likely to blame the government for rising prices while taking all the credit for their own wage increases. 

The term “vibecession” was coined back in 2022 to describe public discontent with the economy despite overtly positive trends. However, when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wadewith the Dobbs decision in June of that year, many Democrats thought the blow to reproductive freedom would mobilize women against Republicans and make it difficult for them to win back the presidency in 2024. This turned out not to be the case.

The fateful decision to run again

The prevailing wisdom was that Dobbsbacklash would counteract Biden’s low approval, and certainly Democratic performance during the 2022 midterms bolstered that theory. Despite the GOP’s media-enabled hopes for a “red wave,” Democrats held the Senate (even adding a seat) and avoided massive losses in the House. 

It’s clear now, however, that Democrats did so in spite of Biden, who wasn’t on the ballot. (Democrats in Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina also performed better than the presidential candidate last November.)

The other massive elephant in the room that perhaps wasn’t fully understood by Biden-supporting Democrats coming out of the midterms is Trump’s established record of turning out irregular voters. As the Democratic coalition has come to include more high-information, college-educated suburban voters, Democratic strength in off year elections has become less predictive of their performance in presidential cycles. Trump has flipped the usual script.

Nonetheless, Biden viewed the midterm results — the best for an incumbent president in decades — as a strong signal that he could win reelection, especially against Trump, who he’d already defeated and whose handpicked MAGA candidates had cost Republicans control of the Senate by bungling several winnable races. So Democrats dismissed the many calls in the media for Biden to step aside, including Michelle Goldberg at the New York Times in February 2023 (“Biden’s a Great President. He Should Not Run Again”) and David Ignatius at The Washington Post in September 2023 (“President Biden should not run again”). 

But those calls were coming from inside the house, as well: Polls consistently showed an overwhelming majority of voters didn’t want Biden to run again, including a majority of Democrats.

The idea of Biden serving two terms and being president until he’s 86 years old was always going to be a very tough sell, especially considering that questions about his mental and physical decline were already swirling by late 2022. By February 2024, a whopping 86 percent of Americans thought he was too old to serve a second term. This was obviously an issue that it was beyond Biden’s power to resolve, so Democrats simply hoped voters would overlook it given the alternative, especially given that Trump is just a few years younger.

If Biden hoped that the positive 2022 midterms result would put some wind in his sails, it quickly became clear he didn’t really have momentum after all. The loss of the House meant that his days of signing meaningful legislation were largely over, and he spent large chunks of 2023 with an approval rating below 40. (Biden’s inability to do more to stop the violence in Gaza following Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel also played a role in fracturing his 2020 coalition.)Biden’s approval rating was below 50 percent from July 2021 onward. (Gallup)

The Biden campaign insisted up until the very end that as the election grew closer, voters would realize that Trump was wholly unfit to serve as commander in chief. Biden defenders pointed to the Democratic primary he’d won decisively, although it was mostly ceremonial and he didn’t face serious challengers at the level of Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis. 

Even worse, Trump’s approval started to improve in 2023 and the public impression of his catastrophic presidency grew more favorable — an indictment of the media and perhaps of a Biden administration that a majority of Americans found wanting. As Democratic influencer Will Stancil recently put it on social media, “Biden talked about his policy wins — especially the kitchen-table, infrastructure stuff — almost incessantly. The problem was that the media system was completely poisoned against him. It seems like the policy wins may not matter at all, even — it's just the media stuff.”

Stancil’s frustration is understandable, if somewhat defeatist. Yes, the mainstream media held Biden and Kamala Harris to a higher standard than Trump, but voters who received their news through traditional sources ultimately broke for Harris. The problem is more that there was a communication vacuum, particularly in social media and the so-called “manosphere,” where Democrats disengaged from key segments of their coalition — young people in general and POC specifically. Pete Buttigieg scoring quick hits on Fox News is impressive but doesn’t move the needle where it counts. Also, Buttigieg isn’t the president, and his youthful eloquence arguably helped reinforce the GOP’s narrative that Biden was mentally diminished. 

How a right-coded media environment boosts Trump

STEPHEN ROBINSON

·

NOVEMBER 14, 2024

Read full story

The emerging new media environment was evident back in 2016, when Trump steamrolled over his Republican primary opponents with an unconventionally crude communication style and social media strategy. It was an approach that mainstream Republicans soon adopted. Biden’s decades of political experience might’ve served him well behind closed doors with the nuts and bolts of legislation, but he was ill-suited to lead the party in the messaging war that proved decisive last year. 

Democrats sneered at Trump’s often shameless self-promotion, like putting his name on covid stimulus checks, but Franklin D. Roosevelt didn’t assume his New Deal policies would speak for themselves. He leveraged the media of the day to actively sell them, and he didn’t rely on surrogates. He was his administration’s most “visible” spokesman, while simultaneously hiding his own infirmity. The Ivy League-educated FDR came from a wealthy, old money New York family, but as president during the Great Depression, he presented himself as a plain-spoken man of the people through his carefully scripted “fireside chats” — the radio version of a modern podcast. 

As vice president, Kamala Harris’s approval rating usually matched Biden’s. She’s undoubtedly a better communicator than the president, and it’s possible she could’ve done better last November had she worked harder to distance herself from her administration — her inability or refusal to articulate a policy difference with Biden on The View has gone down as one of the more memorable mistakes of the 2024 campaign. 

Had Biden stepped aside after the midterms, primary voters might have chosen a nominee who wasn’t directly tied to an unpopular administration. But once he made the fateful decision to seek a second term and the media became fixated on his age, all the ingredients were in place for Trump’s return to power — even if Harris’s ascendancy to the top of the ticket in July of last year did provide Dems with a temporary jolt.

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Beating Trump was everything

Hindsight, of course, is 20/20. But had you been told in January 2021 that over the next four years President Biden would organize an orderly vaccination rollout that brought the country out of the pandemic, preside over a historically strong jobs market and stock market, guide the economy out of post-covid inflation and into a “soft landing,” andsign a sweeping array of legislation into law, you would’ve thought for sure he cruised to a second term. And yet.

The tragic irony is that Trump is set to inherit a thriving economy, which he’ll claim he restored to its pre-2020 greatness through sheer force of will, and unfortunately, neither the mainstream media nor even his fellow Democrats are likely to spend the next four years defending Biden’s record. 

There’s an old saying that a first-term president’s most important task is to get reelected — everything else is secondary. To that end, quite bluntly, Biden came up short. And his failure is especially disastrous given that next week he’ll have to hand the White House keys back to the guy he portrayed in 2020 as an existential threat to the republic. (A portrayal Trump promptly validated with the January 6 coup attempt.)

And yet all hope isn’t lost. Biden delivered a moving farewell speech Wednesday evening, signing off by saying, “After 50 years of public service, I give you my word: I still believe in the idea for which this nation stands. A nation where the strength of our institutions and the character of our people matter. They must endure. Now it's your turn to stand guard. May you all be the keeper of the flame. May you keep the faith. I love America. You love it too.” (Watch below.)

We’re no doubt in for some tough times. But if Joe Biden taught us anything, it’s that we should never, ever, give up.

Thanks for reading Public Notice. This post is public so feel free to share it

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 12.14

Beer Birthdays

John Frederick Wiessner (1831)

Simon Fishel (1846)

Vic Kralj (1959)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Tycho Brahe; Danish astronomer (1546)

Shirley Jackson; writer (1919)

Ginger Lynn; adult actress (1962

Stan Smith; tennis player (1946)

Clark Terry; jazz trumpet player (1920)

Famous Birthdays

Morey Amsterdam; comedian, actor (1908)

Kelley Armstrong; Canadian author (1968)

DeFord Bailey; country and blues musician (1899)

Margaret Bakkes; South African author (1930)

Lester Bangs; music journalist & author (1948)

Aphra Behn; English playwright and author (1640)

Ewa Białołęcka; Polish author (1967)

Jane Birkin; English singer, actor (1946)

Capel Bond; English organist & composer (1734)

Boudewijn Büch; Dutch author, poet & tv host (1948)

T. K. Carter; actor (1956)

David A. Cherry; artist & illustrator (1949)

Anne Conway; English philosopher and author (1631)

Jane Cowl; actress and playwright (1884)

Dan Dailey; singer, dancer, actor (1913)

Ernie Davis; Syracuse RB (1939)

James Doolittle; aviator (1896)

Patty Duke; actress (1946)

Paul Éluard; French poet and author (1895)

Herbert Feigl; Austrian philosopher (1902)

Roger Fry; English painter (1866)

George Furth; actor & playwright (1932)

Cynthia Gibb; actress (1963)

Miranda Hart; English actress (1972)

Scott Hatteberg; Oakland A's 1B/C (1969)

Don Hewitt; journalist & 60 Minutes creator (1922)

Vanessa Anne Hudgens; actress (1988)

Spike Jones; bandleader, comedian (1911)

Jan Antonín Koželuh; Czech composer (1738)

Abbe Lane; singer, actress (1932)

John Lurie; actor, saxophonist, painter & director (1952)

Krissy Lynn; adult actress (1984)

Steve MacLean; Canadian physicist & astronaut (1954)

Natasha McElhone; English-Irish actress (1971)

Sophie Monk; English-Australian singer-songwriter & actress (1979)

Alexander Nelke; Estonian-American painter (1894)

Nostradamus; French astrologer, physician (1503)

Beth Orton; English singer-songwriter & guitarist (1970)

Michael Ovtiz; talent agent (1946)

Jill Pipher; mathematician (1955)

Lee Remick; actress (1935)

Gerard Reve; Dutch-Belgian author & poet (1923)

Charlie Rich; country singer (1932)

Kyle Shanahan; football coach (1979)

Xul Solar; Argentinian painter and sculptor (1887)

Jon Staggers; Green Bay Packers WR (1948)

KaDee Strickland; actress (1975)

June Taylor; dancer & choreographer (1917)

Hans von Ohain; German-American physicist & engineer (1911)

Michaela Watkins; actor & comedian (1971)

Joyce Vincent Wilson; singer (1946)

Charles Wolfe; Irish poet (1791)

Mary Tappan Wright; novelist and writer (1851)

Tata Young; Thai singer, model, actor (1980)

[maximiliano-aedo]

What could've been Animaze ..iNC during the 2010s

Talent pool (Note: any voice actor marked with * is union-only):

Steve Blum*

Mary Elizabeth McGlynn*

Crispin Freeman*

Kari Wahlgren*

Johnny Yong Bosch

Yuri Lowenthal*

Dave Wittenberg*

Roger Craig Smith*

Laura Bailey*

Travis Willingham*

Cherami Leigh

J.B. Blanc*

Sam Riegel*

Liam O'Brien*

Amy Kincaid*

Troy Baker*

Matthew Mercer

Joe Romersa*

Fleet Cooper*

Dyanne DiRosario*

Jennifer Love Hewitt*

Brian Hallisay*

Spike Spencer

Amanda Winn Lee*

Jaxon Lee*

Kyle Hebert

Ben Pronsky

Bob Buchholz

Richard Cansino

Murphy Dunne*

Carolyn Hennesy*

Jerry Gelb*

Adam Sholder

Ezra Weisz

Cristina Vee

Bryce Papenbrook

Michael Sorich

Richard Epcar

Ellyn Stern

Tony Oliver

Kirk Thornton

Lexi Ainsworth*

Aria Noelle Curzon

Grace Caroline Currey*

Michael Forest

Erik Davies

Adam Bobrow

Joshua Seth

Junie Hoang*

Kirk Baily*

Tom Fahn

Jonathan Fahn

Dorothy Elias-Fahn

Melissa Fahn

Stephen Apostolina*

René Rivera*

Deborah Sale Butler

Kevin Brief

Michael Gregory*

Riva Spier*

Cassandra Morris

Erica Mendez

Erika Harlacher

Erica Lindbeck

Marieve Herington

Kira Buckland

John Rubinstein*

Kim Matula*

Brittany Lauda

J. Grant Albrecht*

Michael McConnohie

Steve Bulen*

Dan Woren

Derek Stephen Prince

Wendee Lee

Edie Mirman

Jason C. Miller

Taliesin Jaffe*

John Snyder

Robbie Daymond

Ray Chase

Kaiji Tang

David Vincent

Christina Carlisi*

Christopher Corey Smith

Cindy Robinson

Rachel Robinson

Jessica Boone

Lauren Landa

Megan Hollingshead

Jalen K. Cassell

Doug Erholtz

Michelle Ruff

Gregory Cruz*

John Bishop*

Matt Kirkwood*

Lara Jill Miller*

Carol Stanzione

Steve Staley

Dave Mallow

Mona Marshall*

Darrel Guilbeau

Robert Martin Klein

Robert Axelrod

William Frederick Knight

Lex Lang

Sandy Fox

Joey Camen*

Randy McPherson*

Jad Mager

Richard Miro

Milton James

Anthony Pulcini

Douglas Rye

Patrick Seitz

Keith Silverstein

Jamieson Price

Skip Stellrecht*

Stoney Emshwiller*

G.K. Bowes

Alyss Henderson

Patricia Ja Lee

Peggy O'Neal

Carrie Savage

Melodee Spevack

Jennifer Alyx

Julie Ann Taylor

Sherry Lynn

Brad Venable

Christine Marie Cabanos

Greg Chun

LaGloria Scott

Steve Kramer

Melora Harte

Rebecca Forstadt*

Kyle McCarley

Mela Lee

Karen Strassman

Faye Mata

Laura Post

Kayla Carlyle*

Brina Palencia

Connor Gibbs

Brianne Siddall*

Barbara Goodson

Loy Edge

Jay Lerner

Jennie Kwan

Max Mittelman

Jessica Straus*

Alexis Tipton

Fryda Wolff

Michele Specht

J.D. Garfield

Debra Jean Rogers*

Julie Maddalena

Carrie Keranen

Tara Sands

Matthew Hustin

Cody MacKenzie

Bridget Hoffman*

Colleen O'Shaughnessey

Grant George

Jessica Gee

Jeff Nimoy*

Peter Lurie*

Brian Beacock

Paul St. Peter

Chris Jai Alex

Dan Lorge*

Ewan Chung*

Steve Cassling*

Philece Sampler

Stephanie Sheh

Sam Fontana

Ben Diskin

Juliana Donald*

Michael O'Keefe*

Christina Gallegos*

Tara Platt

Keith Anthony*

Beau Billingslea

David Lodge*

Kim Strauss

Eddie Jones*

William Bassett*

Kim Mai Guest*

Caitlin Glass

Hannah Alcorn

Ron Roggé*

Camille Chen*

Ethan Rains*

Yutaka Maseba*

Joe J. Thomas

Michael Sinterniklaas

Erin Fitzgerald

Joe Ochman

Marc Diraison

Xanthe Huynh

Brianna Knickerbocker

Dean Wein*

Michael McCarty*

[unofskylanderspages]

Listed below are the voice actors credited for their work in Skylanders: Giants:

Josh Keaton as Spyro

Daniel Hagen as Master Eon

Sumalee Montano as Cali

Patrick Warburton as Flynn

Michael Yurchak as Hugo

Richard Steven Horvitz as Kaos

Chris Cox as Glumshanks

Kevin Michael Richardson as Stump Smash, Tree Rex

Bobcat Goldthwait as Pop Fizz

E.G. Daily as Sprocket

Tara Strong as Flashwing, Seraphina

George Takei as Arkeyan Conquertron

Steven Blum as Auric, Vathek

Alex Ness as Lightning Rod, Drobot, Double Trouble, Drill-X

Fred Tatasciore as Warnado, Slam Bam, Flavius, Zook, Gigantus

Troy Baker as Sunburn, Brock

Bumper Robinson as Bouncer

Joey Camen as Terrafin, Boomer

Salli Saffioti as Whirlwind, additional voices

Tobie LaSalandra as Cynder

Jeff Bergman as Zap, additional voices

Thomas Bromhead as Drill Sergeant

Ryan Cooper as Wrecking Ball

Darin De Paul as Gill Grunt

Keythe Farley as Eruptor

John Kassir as Ghost Roaster

Yuri Lowenthal as Fright Rider, Additional voices

Lani Manella as Sonic Boom

Julie Nathanson as Chill

Peter Lurie as Prism Break

Chris Parson as Wham-Shell

André Sogliuzzo as Camo, Voodood, Sparx, additional voices

Travis Willingham as Eye-Brawl

Courtenay Taylor as Hex, additional voices

Dwight Schultz as Ignitor

Audrey Wasilewski as Stealth Elf

Dave Wittenberg as Trigger Happy, additional voices

Greg Ellis as Jet-Vac

Other Additional voices: Abraham Benrubi, Keith Silverstein, Dave Wittenberg, David Lodge, Liam O'Brien, Jen Olson, Thomas Bromhead, Cam Clarke, Kathryn Cressida, Hunter Davis, Roger Jackson, Neil Kaplan, John Kassir, Keith Szarabajka, Salli Saffioti, Lani Minella, David Markus, Bruce Lanoil, Hope Levy, Lloyd Sherr, Courtenay Taylor, Amanda Wyatt, Lloyd Sherr, Patrick Seitz, Matthew Yang King, Dave B. Mitchell, Masasa Moyo, Danny Jacobs

[csadag]

The Loung Lizards - Voice of Chunk

Az eddig is erősen érzékelhető John Lurie rajongásom szintet lépett azzal, hogy elolvastam az önéletrajzát. Ajánlom mindenkinek tele van elképesztő sztorikkal, néhány kortársának gyarlóságát eléggé kijózanítóan bemutató anekdotával (legfőképp Jim Jarmusch, de pl David Byrne is kap egy maflást), és persze idézhető bölcsességekkel.

"There is no such thing as talent, there is only cleaning the mirror."

"Somehow show business, just like the Catholic Church, was taking something magical and making it earthbound and creepy."

"People think that music is sound, but truth to be told, music is vibration."

"We are all flawed. We are all flawed. We are all flawed. In a way, that is the point of the whole thing, how we are all individually, uniquely flawed."

(És hát ott van benne a magyar szál Halász Péterékkel és a Squat Theatre-rel, még ha csak említésszerűen is, hiszen abban a pokoli kavalkádban a 70-es, 80-as évek fordulójának Lower Manhattanjében volt még bőven különös fazon rajtuk kívül.)

[disappointingyet]

Variety

Director Bette Gordon Stars Sandy McLeod, Luís Guzman, Nan Goldin USA/West Germany/UK 1983 Language English 1hr 40mins Colour 

Weird but absorbing indie noir

What kind of film is this? When it begins with a conversation between Christine (Sandy McLeod) and Nan (Nan Goldin) in a locker room, it feels like this could be an early example of the young-woman-trying-to-do-something-arty-in-NYC-and-struggling microgenre, and that would be fine. Instead, a rather weirder plot is set in play when Christine surprises her friend by saying she would take the one job that Nan knows is available: working the ticket booth at the Variety, a cinema that shows dirty movies.

Christine initially seems pleased with the job, but it seems to have some unsettling effects on her. During conversations in public places with her earnest, somewhat uptight boyfriend Mark (Will Patton), she’ll break into long monologues describing erotic scenarios. 

Then she starts following the besuited middle-aged regular at the Variety who has invited her out. It’s clear he’s involved in dodgy stuff, which might be connected with the corrupt fisherman’s union Mark is doing an investigative report about. Less clear is what Christine is up to, and whether she grasps how much danger she might be in.

Contrasting with the thriller elements are scenes in the bar where Nan works, with groups of women just talking about their lives. 

So what we’ve got is part offbeat noir, part psychological drama and part slice of life. I’m not sure all of that fully gels, and there were occasionally bits where I thought I had missed something but the film works nonetheless. 

I think the thriller elements are surprisingly effective (some other reviews seem to disagree). Like the film as a whole, they gained from being shot in the real world. We get the assorted filth-industry locations of the type so carefully recreated in the David Simon series The Deuce, but these are actual working peep shows etc. We also get the crumbling boardwalk at Asbury Park, a huge fish market and even Yankee Stadium (I was wondering if they had permission to film there or somehow snuck a camera in - not easy to do with the equipment they had in those days.)

There’s an interesting mix of folks involved, some then experiencing their moment, some whose time would come later. Writer Kathy Acker – whose work was daring or notorious, depending on your perspective – gets a script credit. I don’t generally like a sax-driven score, but this one is excellent – it’s by John Lurie, who around the same time was starring in Jim Jarmusch’s breakthrough Stranger Than Paradise, which was shot by Tom DiCillo, who (yes) was one of the cinematographers on Variety.

There are a couple of character actors making early appearances here who are still busy in the 2020s. I’ve already mentioned Will Patton – the other one is Luís Guzmán, who plays Christine’s co-worker at the cinema. I’m here to report that Guzmán arrived in the movies fully formed – to say he’s easily recognisable in Variety is an understatement.

But I’m guessing it’s Goldin’s presence that meant I could see this in a cinema in 2023. Clips from Variety appear in All The Beauty And All The Bloodshed, the recent critically beloved documentary about Goldin’s life and work. She seems to be playing herself: the character is called Nan, she’s a photographer and she works in a bar, as Goldin did at the time. (I'm assuming the bar she worked at and the one in the movie are the same place, but don't know that for sure.)

Variety had a slightly strange origin – Bette Gordon was an underground New York-based  film-maker offered a chance to make a bigger film by a German TV channel (Britain’s recently established Channel 4 contributed too). Gordon came up with idea and asked Acker to write it – but three other people get a credit for the screenplay and I think I can guess which bits are left from Acker’s draft.

It’s very much a snapshot of a moment in early 1980s New York, but it’s also an involving and fascinating movie. I like it a lot.