#Rashaad Thomas

[buttercupkg66]

Phoenix restaurant says this is a photo of coal miners. But I see offensive blackface - Rashaad Thomas

[xtruss]

The Death of School 10! How Declining Enrollment Is Threatening The Future of American Public Education.

— By Alec MacGillis | August 26, 2024

The building that housed Rochester’s now shuttered School 10. Such closures “rend the community,” a professor of education said.Photographs by Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New Yorker

In The Nineteen-Nineties, when Liberia descended into civil war, the Kpor family fled to Ivory Coast. A few years later, in 1999, they were approved for resettlement in the United States, and ended up in Rochester, New York. Janice Kpor, who was eleven at the time, jokingly wonders whether her elders were under the impression that they were moving to New York City. What she remembers most about their arrival is the trees: it was May, yet many were only just starting to bud. “It was, like, ‘Where are we?’ ” she said. “It was completely different.”

But the Kpors adapted and flourished. Janice lived with her father in an affordable-housing complex close to other family members, and she attended the city’s public schools before enrolling in St. John Fisher University, just outside the city, where she got a bachelor’s degree in sociology and African American studies. She found work as a social-service case manager and eventually started running a group home for disabled adults.

She also became highly involved in the schooling of her three children, whom she was raising with her partner, the father of the younger two, a truck driver from Ghana. Education had always been highly valued in her family: one of her grandmothers had been a principal in Liberia, and her mother, who remained there, is a teacher. Last fall, when school started, Kpor was the president of the parent-teacher organization at School 10, the Dr. Walter Cooper Academy, where her youngest child, Thomasena, was in kindergarten. Her middle child had also attended the school.

Kpor took pleasure in dropping by the school, a handsome two-story structure that was built in 1916 and underwent a full renovation and expansion several years ago. The school was in the Nineteenth Ward, in southwest Rochester, a predominantly Black, working- and middle-class neighborhood of century-old homes. The principal, Eva Thomas, oversaw a staff that prided itself on maintaining a warm environment for two hundred and ninety-nine students, from kindergarten through sixth grade, more than ninety per cent of whom were Black or Latino. Student art work filled the hallways, and parent participation was encouraged. School 10 dated only to 2009—the building had housed different programs before that—but it had strong ties to the neighborhood, owing partly to its namesake, a pioneering Black research scientist who, at the age of ninety-five, still made frequent visits to speak to students. “When parents chose to go to this particular school, it was because of the community that they have within our school, the culture that they have,” Kpor told me.

Because she was also engaged in citywide advocacy, through a group called the Parent Leadership Advisory Council, Kpor knew that the Rochester City School District faced major challenges. Enrollment had declined from nearly thirty-four thousand in 2003 to less than twenty-three thousand last year, the result of flight to the suburbs, falling birth rates, and the expansion of local charter schools, whose student population had grown from less than two thousand to nearly eight thousand during that time. Between 2020 and 2022, the district’s enrollment had dropped by more than ten per cent.

The situation in Rochester was a particularly acute example of a nationwide trend. Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, public-school enrollment has declined by about a million students, and researchers attribute the drop to families switching to private schools—aided by an expansion of voucher programs in many red and purple states—and to homeschooling, which has seen especially strong growth. In addition, as of last year, an estimated fifty thousand students are unaccounted for—many of them are simply not in school.

During the pandemic, Rochester kept its schools closed to in-person instruction longer than any other district in New York besides Buffalo, and throughout the country some of the largest enrollment declines have come in districts that embraced remote learning. Some parents pulled their children out of public schools because they worried about the inadequacy of virtual learning; others did so, after the eventual return to school, because classroom behavior had deteriorated following the hiatus. In these places, a stark reality now looms: schools have far more space than they need, with higher costs for heating and cooling, building upkeep, and staffing than their enrollment justifies. During the pandemic, the federal government gave a hundred and ninety billion dollars to school districts, but that money is about to run dry. Even some relatively prosperous communities face large drops in enrollment: in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where enrollment has fallen by more than a thousand students since the fall of 2019, the city is planning to lay off some ninety teachers; Santa Clara, which is part of Silicon Valley, has seen a decrease of fourteen per cent in a decade.

On September 12, 2023, less than a week after the school year started, Rochester’s school board held what appeared to be a routine subcommittee meeting. The room was mostly empty as the district’s superintendent, Carmine Peluso, presented what the district called a “reconfiguration plan.”

A decade earlier, twenty-six hundred kindergarten students had enrolled in Rochester’s schools—roughly three-quarters of the children born in the city five years before. But in recent years, Peluso said, that proportion had sunk to about half.

Within ten years, Peluso said, “if we continue on this trend and we don’t address this, we’re going to be at a district of under fourteen thousand students.” The fourth-largest city in New York, with a relatively stable population of about two hundred and ten thousand, was projecting that its school system would soon enroll only about a third of the city’s current school-age population.

Peluso then recommended that the Rochester school district close eleven of its forty-five schools at the end of the school year. Kpor, who was watching the meeting online, was taken aback. Five buildings would be shuttered altogether; the other six would be put to use by other schools in the district.

School 10 was among the second group. The school would cease to exist, and its building, with its new gymnasium-auditorium and its light-filled two-story atrium, would be turned over to a public Montessori school for pre-K through sixth grade, which had been sharing space with another school.

Kpor was stunned. The building was newly renovated. She had heard at a recent PTA meeting that its students’ over-all performance was improving. And now it was being shut down? “I was in disbelief,” she said. “It was a stab in the back.”

School Closures Are a Fact of Life in a country as dynamic as the United States. Cities boom, then bust or stagnate, leaving public infrastructure that is incommensurate with present needs. The brick elementary school where I attended kindergarten and first grade, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, was closed in the early eighties, as the city’s population declined, and then was razed to make way for a shopping plaza.

Still, there is a pathos to a closed school that doesn’t apply to a shuttered courthouse or post office. The abandonment of a building once full of young voices is an indelible sign of the action having moved elsewhere. There is a tangible cost, too. Researchers have found that students whose schools have been closed often experience declines in attendance and achievement, and that they tend to be less likely to graduate from college or find employment. Closures tend to fall disproportionately on majority-Black schools, even beyond what would be expected on the basis of enrollment and performance data. In some cities, efforts to close underpopulated schools have become major political issues. In 2013, Chicago, facing a billion-dollar budget deficit and falling enrollment, closed forty-nine schools, the largest mass closure in the country’s history. After months of marches and protests, twelve thousand students and eleven hundred staff members were displaced.

Now, as a result of the nationwide decline in enrollment, many cities will have to engage in disruption at a previously unseen scale. “School closures are difficult events that rend the community, the fabric of the community,” Thomas Dee, a professor of education at Stanford, said. He has been collecting data on declining enrollment in partnership with the Associated Press. “The concern I have is that it’s going to be yet another layer of the educational harm of the pandemic.”

Janice Kpor knew that her family was, in a sense, part of the problem. Her oldest child, Virginia, had flourished in the early grades, so her school put her on an accelerated track, but it declined to move her up a grade, as Kpor had desired. Wanting her daughter to be sufficiently challenged, Kpor opted for the area’s Urban-Suburban program, in which students can apply to transfer to one of the many smaller school districts that surround Rochester; if a district is interested in a student, it offers the family a slot. The program began in 1965, and there are now about a thousand children enrolled. Virginia began attending school in Brockport, where she had access to more extracurricular activities.

Supporters call Urban-Suburban a step toward integration in a region where city schools are eighty-five per cent Black and Latino and suburban districts are heavily white. But critics see it as a way for suburban districts to draw some of the most engaged families out of the city’s schools; the selectiveness of the suburban districts helps explain why close to a quarter of the students remaining in the city system qualify for special-education services. (The local charter schools are also selective.) One suburban district, Rush-Henrietta, assured residents that it would weed out participants who brought “city issues” with them, as Justin Murphy, a reporter for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, wrote in his book, “Your Children Are Very Greatly in Danger,” a history of segregation in the city’s schools.

Kpor understood these concerns even as she watched Virginia thrive in the suburbs, then go on to attend the Rochester Institute of Technology. As Kpor saw it, each child’s situation was unique, and she tried to make decisions accordingly. “It’s where they’re at,” she said. “It’s not all or nothing for me.”

She enrolled her middle child, Steven, in School 10 for kindergarten and immediately liked the school, but stability was elusive. First, the school moved to temporary quarters for the renovation. Then came disagreements with a teacher who thought that her son’s behavioral issues stemmed from A.D.H.D. Then the pandemic arrived, and her son spent the final months of second grade and most of third on Zoom. For fourth grade, she decided to try Urban-Suburban again. He was accepted by Brockport, which sent a bus to pick him up every morning.

Other parents shared similar accounts with me of the aftermath of the pandemic closures. Ruthy Brown said that, after the reopening, her children’s school was rowdier than before, with more frequent fights and disturbances in the classroom; a charter school with uniforms suddenly seemed appealing. Isabel Rosa, too, moved her son to a charter school, because his classmates were “going bonkers” when they finally returned to in-person instruction. (She changed her mind after he was bullied by a charter-school security guard.) Carmen Torres, who works at a local advocacy organization, the Children’s Agenda, watched one of her client families get so frustrated by virtual instruction that they switched to homeschooling. “Enough is enough,” Torres recalled the mother saying. “My kids need to learn how to read.”

But, when it came time to enroll Thomasena, Kpor resolved to stick with the district, and she was so hopeful about her daughter’s future at School 10 that she took the prospect of its closure with great umbrage. She and other parents struggled to understand the decision. One of the reasons School 10 was chosen to close was that it was in receivership—a designation for public schools rated in the bottom five per cent in the state, among Peluso’s criteria for closure—but Kpor knew that the receivership was due not only to low test scores but also to the school’s high rate of absenteeism, which was, she believed, because the school roster was outdated, filled with students who were no longer there. According to a board member, the state had also placed School 10 on a list of dangerous schools, partly owing to an incident in which a student had been found with a pocketknife.

Making matters worse, for Kpor, was that the building was going to be turned over to another program, School 53, the Montessori school. It would be one thing for School 10 to be shut down because the district needed to cut costs. But the building had just been renovated at great expense, an investment intended for School 10, and now those students and teachers were being evicted to make room for others. “It was more of an insult,” Kpor said, “because now you have this place and all these kids and a whole bunch of new kids in the same building, so what is the logic of, quote-unquote, closing the school?”

The awkwardness of this was not lost on the parents of School 53. The school had a slightly higher proportion of white families and a lower one of economically disadvantaged students than School 10, and it was expected to draw additional white families once it moved to its new building. “The perception is that you’ve got the kids at this protected, special school—you can see the difference between what they get and what we get,” Robert Rodgers, a parent at School 53, told me. “If I was a parent at School 10, I would be livid.”

After Peluso announced the plan, the district held two public forums, followed by sessions at the targeted schools. The School 10 auditorium was packed for its session, and Kpor lined up at the microphone to speak. She asked Peluso if Thomasena and her classmates would get priority for placement in School 53, so that they could stay in the building. “I do not want her to go to any other school,” she said. “Every time we think we’re doing something right for our kids, someone comes in and dictates to us that our choices are not valid.” Kpor was encouraged to hear Peluso say that School 10 kids would get priority.

Janice Kpor, whose youngest child had just started at School 10 when the city announced its closure.

On October 19th, five weeks after the announcement, the school board met to vote on the closures. During the public-comment period, a teacher from School 2 pleaded with the board to let its students enroll at the school that would be replacing it. A teacher from School 106 asked that the vote be delayed until after board members visited every school, including hers, which was engaged in a yearlong special project geared toward the coming total solar eclipse, so that they could get a more visceral sense of the school’s value. The principal of School 29, Joseph Baldino, asked that the school’s many students with autism-spectrum disorder be kept together, along with their teachers, during the reassignment. “They’re unique, they’re beautiful, and they don’t do real well with change,” he said. Chrissy Miller, a parent at the school, said of her son, “He loves his staff . . . he loves his teachers, and he wants everybody to stay together as one.”

In the end, the closures passed, five to two.

In September, 2020, as many public schools in Democratic-leaning states started the new academic year with remote learning, I asked Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, whether she worried about the long-term effects on public education. What if too many families left the system in favor of homeschooling or private schools—many of which had reopened—and didn’t come back? She wasn’t concerned about such hypotheticals. “At the end of the day, kids need to be together in community,” she said.

The news from a growing number of districts suggests that the institution of public schooling has indeed suffered a lasting blow, even in cities that are better funded than Rochester. In Seattle, parents anticipate the closure of twenty elementary schools. The state of Ohio has witnessed a major expansion of private-school vouchers; in Columbus, a task force is recommending the closure of nine schools.

In Rochester, the continuing effects of the pandemic weighed heavily on some. Camille Simmons, who joined the school board in 2021, told me, “A lot of children felt the result of those decisions.” She went on, “There were a lot of entities at play, there were so many conversations going on. I think we should have brought children back much sooner.”

Adam Urbanski, the longtime president of the Rochester teachers’ union, said that the union had believed schools should not reopen until the district could guarantee high air quality, and it had not been able to. “When I reflect back on it, I know that I erred on the side of safety, and I do not regret the position that we took,” he said.

But Rebecca Hetherington, the owner of a small embroidery company and the former head of the Parent Leadership Advisory Council, the group Kpor was part of, feared that the district would soon lack the critical mass to remain viable. “I am concerned there is a tipping point and we’re past it,” she said. Rachel Barnhart, a former TV news reporter who attended city schools and now serves in the county legislature, agreed. “It’s like you’re watching institutions decline in real time,” she told me. “Anchors of the community are disappearing.” School districts have long aspired to imbue their communities with certain shared values and learning standards, but such commonality now seemed inconceivable.

By the spring of 2024, parents at the eleven targeted schools were too busy trying to figure out where their children would be going in the fall to worry about the long term. A mother at School 39, Rachel Dixon, who lived so close to the school that she could carry her kindergartner there, was on the wait list for School 52 but had been assigned to School 50. She wasn’t even sure where that was. Chrissy Miller was upset that School 29’s students with autism were being more broadly dispersed than promised; she worried that her son’s assigned school wasn’t equipped for students with special needs. Many of her fellow School 29 parents were now considering homeschooling or moving, she said, and added, “We don’t have trust in the district at all.” It was easy to envision how the closures could compound the problem, leading to even fewer students and even more closures.

Thomasena had been assigned to School 45, which was close to her family’s home but less convenient for Kpor than School 10, which was closer to her work. Kpor wondered how many other families were in similar situations, with assignments that didn’t take into account the specific context of their lives. “All of this plays into why kids are not going to school,” she said. “You’re placing kids in locations that don’t meet the families’ needs.”

She had taken Peluso’s word that students from School 10 would be given priority at the Montessori school taking its place, and she was disappointed to learn that Thomasena was thirtieth on the wait list there. It was also unclear to her which branch of the central office was handling placement appeals. “It’s all a jumble, and no one really knows how things work,” she said.

On March 26th, as families were dealing with the overhaul, Peluso announced that he was leaving the district to become the superintendent of the Churchville-Chili district, in the suburbs. The district was far smaller than Rochester, with some thirty-eight hundred students, more than seventy per cent of them white, but the job paid nearly as much. “It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve had,” Peluso said at a news conference. “There’s a lot of commitment I’ve had to this district.” Rodgers, the School 53 parent, told me, “This hurts. It’s another situation where the suburbs are taking something from the city.”

Parents and district staff tried to make sense of Peluso’s departure. Some people speculated that he had grown tired of the treatment he was receiving from certain board members. Other people wondered if he simply wanted a less challenging district. Peluso told me, “It was the best decision for me and my family.”

In Late June, I returned to Rochester for the final days of the school year. I stayed at School 31 Lofts, a hotel in a former schoolhouse that was built in 1919. (The Web site advertises “WhimsyHistorySerenity.”) An empty hallway was still marked with a “Fallout Shelter” sign. I stayed in a room that, judging from its size and location, might have been a faculty lounge.

One afternoon, I met with Demario Strickland, a deputy superintendent who’d been named interim superintendent while the school board searched for a permanent replacement for Peluso. Strickland, a genial thirty-nine-year-old Buffalo native who moved to Rochester last year, was the seventh superintendent of the district since 2016. He told me that he was not surprised the closures had prompted such protests. “School closures are traumatic in itself,” he said.

But he defended the district against several of the criticisms I had heard from parents. School 10 had been improving, he said, but still fell short on some metrics. “Even though they met demonstrable progress, we still had to look at proficiency, and we still had to look at receivership,” he said. And, he added, School 53 had limited slots available, so the district had made no promises to parents of School 10 about having priority.

Still, he said, the district could perhaps have been more empathetic in its approach. “This process has taught me that, in a sense, people don’t care about the money,” he said. “When you make these decisions, you really have to think about the heart. That’s something we could have done a little more. It makes sense—we’re wasting money, throwing money away, we have all these vacancies, that makes sense to us. But our families don’t care about that. Our families want their school to stay open—they don’t want to do away with it.”

At the end of the academic year, Rochester closed eleven of its forty-five schools, including School 39.

I asked him whether he worried that the district’s enrollment decline might continue until the system could no longer sustain itself, as Hetherington and Barnhart feared. “I try not to get scared about the future,” he said.

On the second-to-last day of the school year, I went to School 10 to join Kpor at the end-of-year ceremony for Thomasena’s kindergarten class. She and her fourteen classmates sang songs, demonstrated spelling on the whiteboard, and rose one by one to say what they had liked best about kindergarten. “Education and learning,” Thomasena, a tall girl with her front teeth just coming in, said. “When it’s the weekend,” one boy said, to the laughter of parents.

It was not hard to see why Kpor and other parents were sorry to leave the school, with its gleaming new tile work and hardwood-composite hallway floorboards. A few weeks earlier, the latest assessment results had shown improvement for School 10, putting it close to citywide averages. “All of us are going to be going to different places, but I hope one day that I get to see you again,” the class’s teacher, Karen Lewis, said.

Kpor was still waiting to find out if she had moved up on the list for School 53. I asked if she might have Thomasena apply for Urban-Suburban, like her siblings, and she said she was hoping it would work out in the district. “I still have faith,” she said. Outside, I met a parent who was worried about how her daughter would fare at her new school after having been at School 10 with the same special-needs classmates and teacher for the past three years. “The school has been amazing,” she said.

The Next Day, I attended a school-wide Rites of Achievement ceremony in the gym. Parents cheered as students received awards for Dr. Walter Cooper Character Traits—Responsibility, Integrity, Compassion, Leadership, Perseverance, and Courage. (Thomasena won for Courage.) Thomas, the principal, called up the school’s entire staff, name by name. The shrieks from the assembled children for their favorite teachers and aides indicated the hold that even a school officially deemed subpar can have on its students and families: this had been their home, a hundred and eighty days a year, for as long as seven years.

Walter Cooper himself was there, watching from a thronelike chair with gilt edges. Eventually, he addressed the children for the last time, recounting his upbringing with a father who had received no formal schooling, a mother who preached the value of education, and six siblings, all but one of whom had gone to college. “The rule was we had to have a library card at seven. We didn’t have a lot in this community, but we had books,” he said. “There are always things in the street for you, but there is much more in books. . . . The guiding thesis is: books will set you free.”

The children sang a final song: “I am a Cooper kid, a Dr. Walter Cooper kid, I am, I am / I stand up for what’s right, even when the world is wrong.” Sylvia Cooksey, a retired administrator who is also a pastor, gave the final speech. “No matter where you go, where you end up, you are taking part of this school with you,” she said. “You are taking Dr. Walter Cooper with you. We’re going to hear all over Rochester, ‘That child is from School 10.’ ”

After the assembly, I asked Cooper what he made of the closure. “It’s tragic,” he said. “It points to the fundamental instability in the future of the schools. Children need stability, and they aren’t getting it in terms of the educational process.”

Wanda Zawadzki, a physical-education teacher who had worked at the school for eight years and received some of the loudest shrieks from the kids, stood looking forlorn. She recalled the time a class had persuaded the city to tear down an abandoned house across the street, and the time a boy had brought her smartphone to her after she dropped it outside. “My other school, that phone would have been gone,” she said. “It’s the integrity here.” Like many teachers at the targeted schools, she was still waiting for her transfer assignment. “This was supposed to be my last home,” she said.

And then it was dismissal time. It was school tradition to have the staff come out at the end of every school year and wave at the departing buses as they did two ceremonial loops around the block. Speakers blared music from the back of a pickup, and the teachers danced and waved. “We love you,” Principal Thomas called out.

It was quieter over at School 29, the school with many special-needs kids. The children were gone, and one teacher, Latoya Crockton-Brown, walked alone to her car. She had spent nineteen years at the school, which will be closing completely. “We’re not doing well at all,” she said, of herself and her colleagues. “This was a family school. It’s very disheartening. Even the children cried today.”

She was wearing a T-shirt that read “Forever School 29 / 1965 to Now.” The school had done a lot in recent days to aid the transition—bringing in a snow-cone truck and a cotton-candy machine, hosting a school dance. “One girl said she feels like she’s never going to make friends like she had here,” Crockton-Brown said. “But we have to move on. We have no other choice.” ♦

— This Article is a Collaboration Between The New Yorker and ProPublica. ProPublica is a Nonprofit Newsroom that Investigates Abuses of Power. Published in the Print Edition of the September 2, 2024, Issue, with the Headline “The Last Day.”

[leagueofleaguesff]

Seattle Seahawks

Geno and the Seahawks were the "out of nowhere" team with a chip on thier shoulders. Geno became a top 15 QB with Russell Wilson exit. Pete Carroll has the same motto...run the ball down your throat and pop off on occasional down field play. The defense is a middle of the road but not pushover unit. The question on this team is 1. Can they build or match the success they had last year? 2. RB wise, is the rookie Charbonnet gonna be a thing once the inevitable Kenneth Walker injury comes around. Answering number 1, Lockett & DK still are low end WR 2 options. The issue is how consistent. For number 2, Ken Walker is already dealing with nagging injuries (go figure). The one absolutely constant in a sea of variables is Pete Caroll WILL run the ball heavy and often. By the way, the Hawks can still factor in this division with 49ers a clear 1st but the wildcard potential is intriguing.

Washington Commanders

Gotta update this logo. The commanders draft Howell. The defense you would think should have taken strides forward but as a whole, Chase Young and company have been largely average. TE Logan Thomas is back from injury and McLaurin is dealing with a toe issue. Unfortunately for him, if it's turf toe - it will effect him all season long. Jahan Dotson is the sneaky play on this offense but remember a rookie is at the helm. A plus is Eric Beinemy is a more than competent offensive coordinator that should get some juice out of this vanilla offense. Defensive head coach Ron Rivera now has a prodigy at the helm of scoring points. Results may come but slowly depending if Howell is the answer at QB.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Trevor Lawrence and the crew now have Calvin Ridley. A true number 1 WR to build upon a Cinderella type season with Kirk serving as #1. Kirk should still be considered but Calvin will eat trust. Etienne is the guy. Though Tank Bisby may have more of share as the season progresses. I anticipate Jags to be a playoff team despite the defense plateau. Doug Pederson should have this team rolling. Evan at TE and Zay Jones as WR3 on this team will be the roster depth you will count on once injuries and bye weeks come into play.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Bucs have fell into obscurity but don't tell them that. Brady retired is a void but the team, as a whole, is largely intact. Godwin and Evans as a WR duo are still viable. Issue will be Bakers consistency play or lack thereof. May-Bay has more options than he has ever had in two tiered WRs at his disposal. What he can do with it is up to him. Cade Otton is the clear #1 TE and Rashaad White has his chance to prove if he deserves a starting role at RB. Todd Bowles has this defense coming back to prominence- just need them healthy to keep the ship in route. Godwin is more of a route WR that Baker is accustomed to but with Evans jump ball ability (in the redzone or sideline) can be utilized if Baker can hone in. Bucs could be in the thick of the NFC South race IF they build upon thier week 1 victory.

Philadelphia Eagles

Eagles should be the class of the NFC given how weak it is as a conference compared to the swath in AFC. Besides 49ers and Eagles, there aren't much more true contenders for the Superbowl (unless Lions show out). The defense even added players smh. The addition of Swift didn't show in week 1 but as of this writing the beginning of Week 2 blew that out the water in his hometown debut for the team. Penny wasn't a factor. Gainwell injury won't matter as much because of their depth. AJ Brown is the alpha but Devonte may squash that narrative. His week 2 explosion is threatening AJs alpha status. Goedert is finally on the board after a week 1 goose egg. Slow and steady he goes. Elliot missed a kick which is rare but still a decent option at Kicker. It will take a few weeks for this team dynamics to show its hand on the RB front. Cowboys may come for the division but Philly is looking beyond because even at a wildcard, Hurts and crew will win despite thier own errors.

San Francisco 49ers

Another superbowl pick on the NFC side, they never admitted their draft mistake In Trey Lance, but thier backing of Mr Irrelevant Brock Purdy is similar a Tom Brady come up. He is backed 💯 Kittle ✔️ Aiyuk ✔️ Deebo ✔️ CMC ✔️ Defense ✔️ Head coach ✔️ Kicker (Moody)✔️ The whole dam team ✅️

Minnesota Vikings

Cousins again is pouring 🫗 points .... probably as the biggest bench warmer in shallow league ls who decided not to play him. Even in losing efforts, Kirk is throwing massive yards and TDs. The vikings D is gonna go thru growing pains as Flores implements his scheme in his coordinator debut for the. Thus, the offense will have pressure to win games. Cook out to the Jets left Mattison in play as the lead. He lead nowhere unfortunately. He is a flex play at best. Jefferson is gonna feast as he usually does. Addison is the great pick up for whoever has him. The rookie paired with Jefferson may be one of the few duos that could both be number ones on their team fantasy wise. Hockenson is garnering even more so in terms of looks. The passing game is where it's at cuz of the air yards distribution. I wouldn't bet on them for division. I put more stock in Jordan love and such because of coaching even with Vikes having better talent offensively. That's because Packers at least have Defense in the back pocket.

Green Bay Packers

Speaking of Packers. The Defense I alluded to in the Vikings recap is what separates then in the division. Only the Lions have a shot to outmatch. An era is gone now A Rod out of town. Love like Rodgers and Farve before him sat behind the starter to learn. Can GB make it a trifecta? Aaron Jones killed as per usual but is on the injury block. AJ Dillon is is I guess for week 2. Cobb and Lazard left leaving Doubs & Watson. That would be okay but Watson may be dealing with an injury that might plague him a good chuck of the season. Rookie TE Luke and a new kicker are pieces we have to see will work out (no more Crosby...was there so long). Expect LaFleur having this team in thick of things.

Kansas City Chiefs

It's the Chiefs. The only concern is Sky Moore, Toney and Rache and what thier roles are in this offense after Kelce. Pacheco is an afterthought but still the lead. Hey it's something. Mahomes should get his and now with Chris Jones signing back with the team, the defense can be viable as a bye week add. Butker if anything is a choice for kicker as well given the teams offensive output. Will they defend thier Lombardi?

Denver Broncos

Hackett out and HOF Sean Payton is in. Can he fix Russell? Can the injuries stop piling up? Will Juedy live up to expectations? Is Sutton a real deal or a sham? Will the defense come to form against offensive powerhouses in thier division? Is Trautman going to overtake the TE position with Greg D out? Loads of questions 🤔 This is a wait n see team.

Check below for the next NFL recaps

[gettothedancing]

At this point, the molten “hot takes” designed to exploit cultural and political divisions clogging up the websites of ostensibly serious news outlets have thoroughly undermined any belief readers might have had that the front-page news stories were somehow handled much more judiciously. The journalism industry as we know it may have bleak prospects, but if it seems like late-stage journalism is yelling into the abyss, we should probably listen when the abyss yells “Fake news!” back.

If nothing else, someone should recognize this for the business opportunity that it is. People will gravitate to publications that have real news, less bias, and, to the extent it dabbles in opinion, judiciously selected and carefully edited commentary. Or at least that’s what they taught me in journalism school 25 years ago.

However, it seems like every time I fire up my web browser, or God forbid open an actual newspaper, I see a deluge of stories and columns that are by turns horrifying, fascinating, perversely entertaining, and above all, polarizing. You can call these articles a lot of things, but they sure aren’t journalism.

[crown-queen-bambee]

Nahri x Rashaad - Castle Playdate

Our good friend Q (He is Rahim’s dance teacher) was busy today and had no one to watch Rashaad. I was like bring him to the castle to play with Nahri. They both had fun in the playground at the castle. Rashaad is such a sweet boy, trying not to play rough (He is older). But my Nahri is a tough cookie 💕.

[therumpus]

White institutions police and kill Black art like America polices and kills Black bodies. White institutions strip Black art of its social and economic capital, and leave Black souls murdered at the bottom of white supremacy’s hierarchy. Naked Black canvases are forced onto white gallery auction blocks, analyzed as objects, and commodified to neutralize their humanity. White men examine teeth to determine overall health. Touch and squeeze breasts. He moves Black genitals around to ensure they have the ability to propagate lustful art that will continue to increase the wealth of the white institution. Pound their bones and squeeze their muscles. Bend them over to look inside their bowels. Today, Black art, like enslaved Black Africans, is policed, objectified, and demonized to control its power. Why is white America so afraid of Black art’s power?

MULTITUDES #3: Policing Black Art by Rashaad Thomas

[fantasy-football-draft-chxc]

fantasy football draft cheat sheet 2022 mod menu 6MY+

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 Fantasy Football Draft Rankings, Consensus Draft Rankings, Overall Cheat Sheets | FantasyPros. RK, Player Name, POS, BYE, SOS. Here's a collection of downloadable, printable cheat sheets for the fantasy football season, including PPR, non-PPR and dynasty/keeper. Fantasy Rankings Top cheat sheet for standard fantasy football drafts ; 10, Ja'Marr Chase, Bengals, WR ; 11, Alvin Kamara, Saints, RB. PFN's fantasy football cheat sheet is here to help you with your tough Week 4 decisions and also to provide you with Underdog Pick'em advice. NFL Fantasy Football Draft cheat sheet for standard scoring format · 1. Justin Jefferson · 2. Cooper Kupp · 3. Ja'Marr Chase · 4. Tyreek Hill. Up to date Fantasy cheat sheet for standard scoring. No need to prepare your Draft, whether you're a beginner or experienced player, just use this list and you'll be set. In Standard Scoring Leagues you don't get points for receptions, so you will have to prioritize touchdown-heavy players. In this format, running backs are going to be a priority, so they have a slight edge over wide receiver. However, a receiving running back is also important because you have double the chance to score. If your league allows it, I would start three RBs every week. These will get you the most touchdowns besides a quarterback. So, remember to do after those red zone threats. In the end, they will make the difference when it comes to Standard Scoring formats. Josh Allen 2. Patrick Mahomes 3. Justin Herbert 4. Joe Burrow 5. Lamar Jackson 6. Jalen Hurts 7. Matthew Stafford 8. Kyler Murray 9. Russell Wilson Dak Prescott Derek Carr Tom Brady Aaron Rodgers Trey Lance Kirk Cousins Tua Tagovailoa Trevor Lawrence Jameis Winston Matt Ryan Ryan Tannehill Deshaun Watson Jared Goff Zach Wilson Daniel Jones Carson Wentz Justin Fields Baker Mayfield Marcus Mariota Mac Jones Mitch Trubisky Jimmy Garoppolo Drew Lock Davis Mills Kenny Pickett Sam Darnold Desmond Ridder Jacoby Brissett Gardner Minshew Teddy Bridgewater Andy Dalton. Jonathan Taylor 2. Najee Harris 3. Joe Mixon 4. Derrick Henry 5. Austin Ekeler 6. Christian McCaffrey 7. Dalvin Cook 8. Javonte Williams 9. Nick Chubb Cam Akers D'Andre Swift Alvin Kamara Aaron Jones Saquon Barkley Josh Jacobs Ezekiel Elliott Elijah Mitchell Breece Hall James Conner Leonard Fournette David Montgomery Damien Harris Dobbins AJ Dillon Miles Sanders Antonio Gibson Devin Singletary Travis Etienne Kareem Hunt James Cook Chase Edmonds Clyde Edwards-Helaire Ken Walker James Robinson Dameon Pierce Melvin Gordon Tony Pollard Raheem Mostert Rhamondre Stevenson Ronald Jones Isaiah Spiller Michael Carter Rashaad Penny Alexander Mattison Jamaal Williams Marlon Mack Chuba Hubbard Cordarrelle Patterson D'Onta Foreman Damien Williams Tyler Allgeier Kenyan Drake McKissic Nyheim Hines Darrell Henderson Tyrion Davis-Price Rachaad White Gus Edwards Khalil Herbert Keaontay Ingram Zamir White Mark Ingram Sony Michel Hassan Haskins Samaje Perine Zack Moss Kenneth Gainwell Pierre Strong Giovani Bernard Duke Johnson Boston Scott Kene Nwangwu Myles Gaskin Benny Snell D'Ernest Johnson Jeff Wilson Kyren Williams Rex Burkhead Ke'Shawn Vaughn Matt Breida Joshua Kelley Eno Benjamin Jaret Patterson Snoop Conner Tevin Coleman Anthony McFarland Ryquell Armstead Craig Reynolds Darrynton Evans Mike Boone Dontrell Hilliard Tony Jones DeeJay Dallas Jermar Jefferson Trey Sermon Chris Evans Jerome Ford Justin Jefferson 2. Cooper Kupp 3. Ja'Marr Chase 4. Tyreek Hill 5. Davante Adams 6. Deebo Samuel 7. Stefon Diggs 8. Terry McLaurin 9. Mike Evans CeeDee Lamb Brown Keenan Allen Michael Pittman Courtland Sutton Mike Williams DK Metcalf DJ Moore Amari Cooper Diontae Johnson Tee Higgins Brandin Cooks JuJu Smith-Schuster Michael Thomas Chris Godwin Allen Robinson Amon-Ra St. Jerry Jeudy Chase Claypool Brandon Aiyuk Gabriel Davis Adam Thielen Mecole Hardman Jaylen Waddle DeAndre Hopkins Kenny Golladay Darnell Mooney DeVonta Smith Treylon Burks Allen Lazard Rashod Bateman Marquise Brown Jarvis Landry Christian Kirk Drake London Tyler Lockett Elijah Moore Michael Gallup Chris Olave Robert Woods Hunter Renfrow Christian Watson DeVante Parker Tyler Boyd Skyy Moore DJ Chark Corey Davis Alec Pierce Marvin Jones Marquez Valdes-Scantling Garrett Wilson Green Terrace Marshall Randall Cobb Jameson Williams Robbie Anderson Jamison Crowder Jakobi Meyers Jahan Dotson David Bell Kadarius Toney Nico Collins Russell Gage Sammy Watkins Van Jefferson Byron Pringle Bryan Edwards Zay Jones Odell Beckham Jr. Parris Campbell Jalen Tolbert Kendrick Bourne Rondale Moore Joshua Palmer Devon Allen Sterling Shepard Donovan Peoples-Jones Julio Jones Curtis Samuel John Metchie George Pickens Marquez Callaway Cedrick Wilson Darius Slayton Nelson Agholor James Washington Romeo Doubs Tyquan Thornton Josh Reynolds Tre'Quan Smith. Travis Kelce 2. Mark Andrews 3. Kyle Pitts 4. George Kittle 5. Darren Waller 6. Zack Ertz 7. Dallas Goedert 8. Dalton Schultz 9. Hunter Henry Hockenson Pat Freiermuth Mike Gesicki Dawson Knox Gerald Everett Albert Okwuegbunam Noah Fant Logan Thomas Cole Kmet Austin Hooper David Njoku Robert Tonyan Tyler Higbee Evan Engram Cameron Brate Mo Alie-Cox Uzomah Jelani Woods Irv Smith Hayden Hurst Adam Trautman Howard Jonnu Smith Harrison Bryant Ricky Seals-Jones Donald Parham Trey McBride Will Dissly Dan Arnold Tommy Tremble Tyler Conklin Brevin Jordan Foster Moreau Blake Bell Isaiah Likely Drew Sample John Bates Greg Dulcich. Justin Tucker 2. Daniel Carlson 3. Matt Gay 4. Harrison Butker 5. Tyler Bass 6. Evan McPherson 7. Younghoe Koo 8. Ryan Succop 9. Matt Prater Brandon McManus Rodrigo Blankenship Jason Sanders Dustin Hopkins Greg Zuerlein Robbie Gould Jake Elliott. Buffalo Bills 2. San Francisco 49ers 3. Indianapolis Colts 4. New England Patriots 5. Tampa Bay Buccaneers 6. Los Angeles Rams 7. Denver Broncos 8. New Orleans Saints 9. Miami Dolphins Kansas City Chiefs Los Angeles Chargers Dallas Cowboys Cleveland Browns Green Bay Packers Pittsburgh Steelers Baltimore Ravens. Fantasy Football.

[transienturl]

Q: How much do I know about sports off the top of my head? I’m bored, so let’s find out.

NFL:

NFC West (one of the strongest divisions ever):

Seattle Seahawks. Key (and less-key) players: Russell Wilson (QB), DK Metcalf (WR), Tyler Lockett (WR), Freddie Swain (WR), Greg Olsen (TE), Colby Parkinson (TE), Damien Lewis (G), Duane Brown (T), Ethan Pocic (C, I think?), Chris Carson (RB), Rashaad Penny (RB), Travis Homer (RB), Michael Dickson (P), help what’s the kicker’s name, Jamal Adams (S), Quandre Diggs (S), Bobby Wagner (LB), KJ Wright (LB), Jordyn Brooks (LB), Poona Ford (DI), Jarran Reed (defensive... line somewhere), Shaquill Griffon (CB), Quinton Jefferson (CB), Tre Flowers (CB), Benson Mayowa (DE), Carlos Dunlap (DE), Alton Robinson (DE), Shaquem Griffon (DE), god I can’t remember the new slot corner but he’s pretty good I think. Coach: Pete Carroll. OC: Brian Schottenheimer. DC: Ken Norton, Jr. GM: John Schneider. Owner: Jody Allen. Notes: Every game is close. Used to always run, but this year always throws. Quarterback is basically magic. Defense is severely lacking. My home team, obviously.

San Francisco 49ers. Key players: Jimmy Garoppolo (QB), George Kittle (TE), many fast running backs, Raheem Mostert is one of them, Trent Williams (T), Richard Sherman (CB), Nick Bosa (DE). Coach: Kyle Shanahan. Notes: Running game scheme is a work of staggering genius. Best player is a tight end for some reason. Went to the Super Bowl last year.

Arizona Cardinals. Key players: Kyler Murray (QB), Larry Fitzgerald (WR), DeAndre Hopkins (WR), Christian Kirk (WR), Budda Baker (S), Patrick Peterson (CB). Coach: Kliff Kingsbury. Notes: Runs many wide receivers, in scheme Kingsbury got from coaching college. Used to be bad, but getting better each year. Kyler is very small.

Los Angeles Rams. Key players: Jared Goff (QB), Cooper Kupp (WR), Andrew Whitworth (T), Darrell Henderson (RB), Aaron Donald (DI), Johnny Hekker (P). Coach: Sean McVay. DC: Used to be Wade Phillips, but not anymore. Notes: Runs a lot of plays from the same formation. Coach is very smart. Made the Super Bowl two years ago. Best player is a defensive tackle, for some reason.

NFC East (the worst division in NFL history):

New York Giants. Key players: Daniel Jones (QB), Saquon Barkley (RB). Coach: Joe, uh... Douglas. GM: Dave Gettleman. Notes: Spent a huge amount of draft capital on players the numbers said weren’t worth it. Seems accurate.

Philadelphia Eagles. Key players: Carson Wentz (QB), Jalen Hurts (backup QB), literally everyone else is injured. Oh, Jason Peters (T). Coach: Doug Peterson. GM: Howie Roseman. Notes: Everyone is injured. Everyone. Went to the Super Bowl 3 years ago and won with their backup QB.

Dallas Cowboys. Key players: Dak Prescott (QB, injured), Andy Dalton (backup QB, injured), No one of note (third-string QB), Amari Cooper (WR), CeeDee Lamb (WR), Ezekiel Elliott (RB), Leighton Vander Esch (LB), Greg Zuerlein (K), I could probably name more if I tried hard enough. Coach: Mike McCarthy. GM: Jerry Jones. Owner: Also Jerry Jones. Notes: Every year they have good players and lose anyway. Paid their running back instead of their quarterback. Also, now they have no healthy quarterback.

Washington [used to have a racist name]. Key players: Dwayne Haskins (benched QB), Alex Smith (QB... whose leg does not work), Kyle Allen (QB), Terry McLaurin (WR), Chase Young (DE), Montez Sweat (DE). Coach: Ron Rivera. Owner: Dan Snyder, who is the worst human being in the NFL, and that is saying a lot. Notes: No one cares about the football, Dan Snyder should be in jail. Also, Ron Rivera has cancer and Alex Smith’s leg injury almost killed him, so those guys deserve better.

NFC North:

Detroit Lions. Key Players: Matthew Stafford (QB), um, I should remember some more. Jeff Okudah (CB). Coach: Matt Patricia. Notes: Stafford deserves better. Patricia keeps signing ex-Patriots players, and it doesn’t work, presumably because the good ones are current-Patriots-players.

Minnesota Vikings. Key players: Kirk Cousins (QB), Adam Thielen (WR), Justin Jefferson (WR), Dalvin Cook (RB), many good defensive players whose names I don’t know. Coach: Mike Zimmer. Notes: Historically a good defense and just missing a competent QB. Paid a lot for an average QB; defense sucks now for some reason. Also, runs a lot.

Chicago Bears. Key Players: Mitchell Trubisky (QB), Nick Foles (QB), Allen Robinson (WR), Khalil Mack (DE). Coach: Matt Nagy. Notes: Has been wasting great defensive performances with poor to average quarterback play since World War II.

Green Bay Packers. Key Players: Aaron Rodgers (QB), Davante Adams (WR), Allan Lazard (WR), Aaron Jones (RB), Jamaal Williams (RB), Robert Tonyan (TE), David Bakhtiari (T), Za’Darius Smith (DE), Preston Smith (DE). Coach: Matt LaFleur. GM: Brian Gutekunst. Owner: “The fans.” Notes: Has started a hall-of-famer at quarterback every season since before you were born. Winning big but the analytics say they’re getting a bit lucky lately.

NFC South:

Atlanta Falcons. Key players: Matt Ryan (QB), Julio Jones (WR), I forgot the new WR’s name but he looks legit, Todd Gurley (RB). Coach that was recently fired: Dan Quinn. Notes: Have become known for inexplicably blowing enormous leads late in games. It’s quite funny, at this point.

New Orleans Saints. Key players: Drew Brees (QB), Michael Thomas (WR), Alvin Kamara (RB), Taysom Hill (listed as backup QB but just kinda does weird shit on offense), Jameis Winston (backup QB), Cam Jordan (DE), I should remember the cornerback’s name. Coach: Sean Payton. Notes: Known for having tons of talent every year, salary cap be damned, and then losing in heartbreaking fashion in the playoffs. Brees is getting old.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Key players: Tom Brady (QB), Mike Evans (WR), Chris Godwin (WR), this one WR who can go eat shit, Rob Gronkowski (TE), Antoine Winfield Jr (S), Vita Vea (DI). Coach: Bruce Arians. Notes: Signed Tom Brady. It’s working pretty well. Defense is top-tier. The most balanced team.

god, who is the other NFC south team, uh...  hold on, lemme get back to you.

AFC North:

Baltimore Ravens

Pittsburgh Steelers

Cleveland Browns

um... Cincinnati Bengals? Maybe?

AFC East:

New York Jets

New England Patriots

Miami Dolphins

Buffalo Bills

AFC South:

Houston Texans

Jacksonville Jaguars

Tennessee Titans

uhh... Indianapolis Colts.

AFC West:

Denver Broncos

Kansas City (I think this name should be changed too, honestly)

Las Vegas Raiders

I guess this must be the Los Angeles Chargers?

Oh, so the other NFC South team is the Carolina Panthers. Of course. Key players: Teddy Bridgewater (QB), Christian McCaffrey (RB and also arguably their best receiver), Yetur Gross-Matos (DE). Coach: Matt Rhule. Notes: Rebuilding their team this year, but quietly doing pretty well, considering.

Alright, I’m gonna stop there. Didn’t even get to the other half of the NFL, let alone started to try and list NBA/MLB/NHL teams, which would have gone extremely poorly. Story for another day.

Also, uh, yeah, this is a normal amount to know about football as someone who doesn’t watch football, oooobviously...

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior February 21, 2020 – CALL OF THE WILD, BRAHMS: THE BOY II, THE IMPRACTICAL JOKERS MOVIE, EMMA and more!

After overestimating Birds of Prey… I mean, Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey… it looks like I underestimated Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog… I mean Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnik… with Sonic. It truly spanked my lowball prediction in the mid-$40 millions, but I wasn’t alone there at least. Hey, it’s a fun movie and my positive review wasn’t off-base with the critical world at large, so there’s that, too.  (Apparently, I liked both Downhill and Fantasy Island more than most people, including CinemaScore voters who gave the movies a “D” and “C-“ respectively… ouch!)

This is likely to be another down week as neither of the two new movies are particularly strong, which gives me a chance to focus instead on this week’s FEATURED MOVIES! And we have four of ‘em this week, no less!

That’s right. I think it’s time I go back to my previous desire to use this column to focus on smaller movies that you may have missed since very few of the bigger outlets bother to cover them, and there’s a few worth pointing out this week. I’m gonna start with the two foreign films, because hopefully, you’ve listened to Bong Joon-ho and his translator and are not as fearful of subtitles…

First up, opening on Wednesday at New York’s Film Forumis Jan Komasa’s CORPUS CHRISTI (Film Movement), Poland’s selection for the Oscar International Feature category, which was actually nominated for an Oscar in the category in which everyone already knew Parasite was always gonna win! It’s a shame, cause this is a really amazing film with Bartosz Bielenia playing Daniel, a troubled youth just out of juvenile hall who steals the trappings and identity of the youth prison’s pastor and is therefore mistaken as an actual priest when he arrives at a small community village that has suffered a tragic loss. It’s an amazing film about faith and forgiveness and redemption, and how the script came to Komasa from screenwriter Mateusz Pacewic is an equally amazing story. Seriously, if you get a chance, definitely check this powerful drama out, since it’s another fantastic film from a country that has continually been delivering the goods in terms of original storytelling.

I was just going to do three featured movies this week, but a really good German thriller is finally hitting the States, opening at the Quad in New York Friday then in L.A. on March 13 before a nationwide rollout. Michael Bully Herbig’s incredibly suspenseful German thriller BALLOON (Distrib Films USA) is about two families from the GDR (aka East Germany) who try to cross over into West Germany in 1979 using a hot air balloon, over a decade before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Based on the actual events, their story previously was adapted into the Disney movie Night Crossing (which oddly, isn’t on Disney+ yet-- I checked­, but it’s on Amazon Prime if you wanna compare the two movies). The movie doesn’t spend nearly as much time in the balloon as something like The Aeronauts, as the family’s first attempt fails miserably, so much of the film involves them working towards a second attempt, while trying not to be caught.

Balloon is a pretty heavy film (irony?), sometimes a little overwrought with drama but it keeps you on the edge of your seat as it cuts between the families trying to figure out their escape plan and the authorities trying to put together the clues to find these defectors. There’s a particularly amusing man in charge of the investigation, played by the always-amazing Thomas Kretschmann (The Pianist), who is constantly berating his men, something that helps lighten the otherwise heavy tone that permeates the film. This is another fairly low-key foreign film that’s worth seeking out.

Another movie people should make an effort to seek out is Rashaad Ernesto Green’s PREMATURE (IFC Films), an amazing film that follows the relationship between two young people in Harlem over the course of a summer. We first meet Zora Howard’s Ayanna as she’s hanging with her friends kibitzing about boys, as they begin their last summer before Ayanna heads to college. Shortly after, she meets Josh Boone’s Isaiah, and the two hit it off. The rest of the film follows the ups and downs of their relationship including incredibly intimate moments that lead up to Ayanna getting pregnant.

I won’t go through the plot play-by-play style, because it’s interesting to discover the twist and turns in their relationship in a similar way as we do our own relationships. Needless to say Green has a pretty amazing partner and lead in Howard, who co-wrote the screenplay, which is probably why it feels so authentic and real. Sure, there are a few scenes between Howard and Boone, both fantastic actors, that feel a bit too showy dramatically but otherwise, it’s a fantastic second feature from Green who has mainly been directing TV since his earlier film Gun Hill Road. I’ll definitely be very curious to see what Green and Howard get up to next either alone or working together.

Opening in New York and L.A. this Friday but in theaters nationwide on March 6 is the latest incarnation of Jane Austen’s novel EMMA. (Focus Features), this time starring the wonderful Anya Taylor-Joy (from The VVitchand Split/Glass) as the title character, Emma Woodhouse, a 28-year-old matchmaker who prides herself on the relationships she’s put together even while unable to find her own mate.  The film follows as the latter starts coming in the way of the former as she infiltrates herself into things as an “expert on love” who can’t find it herself.

Maybe it’s not surprising that I haven’t read much of Austen’s work and have missed this one altogether, never having seen any of the other iterations, but it’s a fairly wild and witty ride. Much of that is due to the amazing and wonderful cast around the young actor, the most surprising behind Mia Goth, who is in fact three years older than Taylor-Joy, but plays the younger wide-eyed Harriet who looks up to Emma and elicits her advice. Emma basically steers Harriet from the farmer she likes to Josh O’Connor’s Mr. Elton, the wealthy local vicar who is more than a little bit of a dark. This leads to a bit of a revolving door of who is interested in whom, etc especially when Emma’s nemesis Jane Fairfax (Amber Anderson) returns to Hartfield.

Some of the other men in the mix are Johnny Flynn’s dashing George Knightley – the brother-in-law to Emma’s sister – and Callum Turner’s wealthy Frank Churchill, whose attentions lead to more misunderstandings. Both were great but I was more impressed with O’Connor who transforms into a completely other person when Emma spurns his affections and seems like a different person from the way first-time features director (and photographer) Autumn de Wilde shoots him. Of course, Bill Nighy is as great as always as Emma’s father, always feeling a slight draft, but even more impressive is the wonderfully hilarious Miranda Hart (from Spy) as Miss Bates, a woman who gabs at length about how wonderful Jane Fairfax is, much to Emma’s annoyance. As much as Emma. is Anya Taylor-Joy’s show, it’s the ensemble cast around her that makes the movie so infinitely enjoyable, getting better as it goes along.

This is a very good first feature from de Wilde, who has directed quite a number of music videos for Beck, and Emma. seems very different from the movies we normally get from video directors, much of that to do with Austen’s source material and the cast. Either way, how things develop over the course of the film makes it more enjoyable as it goes along. (Although I have never read the book, the film seems fairly faithful to the book’s Wikipedia page, so Austen fans should enjoy it, too.)

I guess we can now get to the wide and semi-wide releases and the rest of the movies – merging my two columns into one means you get more 5,000-word columns, you lucky ducks!

The higher-profile of the two new wide releases is probably CALL OF THE WILD (20thCentury Studios), a PG adaptation of Jack London’s classic novel starring Harrison Ford and the most adorable CG dog (i.e. not real, so back off PETA!) you’ve ever met named Buck! Sure, dog lovers might say, “Why would we want to watch a movie with a CG dog when clearly, a movie with actors in green suits turned into dogs using CG would suffice?” But no, it’s actually a very heavily CG movie directed by Chris Sanders, who directed Lilo & Sitch, the first How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods before giving a go at live action. (Sanders also provided quite a few voices in earlier animated films like Disney’s Mulan and Tarzan.)

A film that already was well into production when Disney bought Fox (now 20thCentury Studios), Call of the Wild also stars Omar Sy (returning for next year’s “Jurassic World” finale), Karen Gillan, Dan Stevens, Bradley Whitford but the real star of the movie is the dog Buck, which is performed by the immensely talented Terry Notary, who you’ll know for his work on the “Apes” movies with Andy Serkis, Kong: Skull Island and some of the characters in the last couple “Avengers” movies.

Of course, opening the weekend after Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog, which has turned out to be a bigger hit than anyone imagined, certainly won’t help The Call of the Wild.

In many ways, this reminds me of the 2002 Disney movie Snow Dogs, which opened with $17.8 million over the 4-day MLK weekend. The combination of Ford (who appears in very few movies) and the adorable dog antics might be enough for the movie to make $15 to 17 million this weekend, maybe a little more, although it only has two weeks to do business before Disney’s next Pixar movie, Onward, takes over, not giving it much time to make bank.

Mini-Review: It’s pretty evident that this exceedingly faithful take on Jack London’s book will not be for everyone. While I personally was mixed, I expect this to be one of the rare positive reviews just ‘cause. Surprisingly, it’s also the most “Disneyfied” movie that could possibly come from the newly-renamed 21stCentury Studios as it’s a movie clearly made for kids and animal lovers even if never the ‘twain shall meet, in some cases.

The story follows a large St. Bernard named Buck (portrayed by Terry Notary – but we’ll get back to that), who begins his life as the spoiled and pampered pet of a wealthy judge in California but is sold to a man who trains Buck with his club sending the dog on a wild journey across the Yukon as part of a dog sled for a pair of Canadian postal workers (played by Omar Sy and Cara Gee from “The Expanse”). Eventually, he’s paired with an alcoholic frontiersman (Harrison Ford) and he finds true love, as the two of them go off looking (and finding) gold.

Some might be surprised that director Chris Sanders (who has an extensive animation background) decided to go for straight-up CG when depicting the animals and some of the environments in Call of the Wild. In fact, it feels almost necessary to make Buck as expressive as he needs to be to carry this film, and that’s where Terry Notary (Andy Serkis’ partner-in-performance-capture from the “Apes” movies) and the CG team comes in handy. Buck is already lovable but being able to make him so expressive doesn’t hurt, and the scenes where he’s interacting with other animals are pretty amazing.

We do have to discuss the negatives, and one of them is the episodic nature of Buck’s story that means that Harrison Ford, other than the narration and a brief appearance, doesn’t play a large part in Buck’s story until about the 45-minute mark. I didn’t think much of the performances by Sy and Gee or Dan Steven and Karen Gillan as the spoiled rich people who buy Buck to drive their dog sled off to find gold. Buck’s experiences as part of the first dog sled is far more positive even though it’s rigorous and it puts him at odd with the dog pack leader. The problem is that most of the human actors don’t come close to delivering what Notary does as Buck, the exception being Ford, but it’s still one of those odd CG-live action amalgations that doesn’t always work.

If you’re fond of Jack London’s Arctic adventures (as I generally am), Call of the Wild offers as much good as it does bad, but it’s worthwhile more for the amazing vistas and terrific use of CG (and Terry Notary’s performance as Buck) than anything else.

Rating: 6.5/10

I won’t have a chance to see the horror sequel BRAHMS: THE BOY II (STXfilms), but I never got around to seeing the first movie either, although this one, starring Katie Holmes, does look kind of fun. 2020 has not been a great year for horror so far with almost a new horror every weekend and few doing particularly well – The Grudge tops the heap with just $21 million and that opened almost two months ago!

I really don’t have a lot to say about this other than the fact that the original The Boy(not to be confused with The Boy, The Boy or The Boy, which are also movies about a different “Boy”), also directed by William Brent Bell, opened in January 2016 to $10.8 million on its way to $35.8 million domestic but it also opened at a time when there were no strong horror films in theaters. Some could argue that there are still no strong horror films in theaters, especially since so many of them quickly lost theaters after bombing. Still, there have been a lot this year already and the most recent one, Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island underperformed this past weekend, so why would anyone want more?

STXfilms’ marketing has been solid even as this moved from its December release to now, but I still think it will be tough for this to make more than $10 million this weekend and probably will end up closer to $8 million or less.

Opening in limited release but also sure to be exciting to the fans of the TruTV hidden camera prank show is IMPRACTICAL JOKERS: THE MOVIE, which brings the hilarious Tenderloins comedy troop – Q, Murr, Sal and Joe -- to the big screen as they go off on a cross-country adventure to attend a party in Florida, playing their usual prank-filled games to see which three get to attend. At this writing, I have no idea how many theaters it’s opening – I’m assuming 150 to 200 maybe? – so no idea how it might do although there are already some sold out showings in my general area (NYC) where the guys are from.

Mini-Review: It feels like there need to be two reviews for this movie – one for those who already know and love the show and find the Tenderloins hysterical (this includes me) —and then one for everyone else.  The former can probably skip the next paragraph.

The Tenderloins are a group of four Staten Island friends (names above) whose antics led to a successful TruTV hidden camera show where they pull pranks and challenge each other to say and do whatever they’re told. The show has run eight seasons, and it’s made the Tenderloins such big stars they regularly sell out enormous venues (like Radio City Music Hall) to perform live for their fans. Considering the success Johnny Knoxville’s “Jackass” show has had in movie theaters where it can take advantage of an R-rating, there’s little reason why the “Impractical Jokers” shouldn’t be able to do the same. (For some context, I watched this movie with a theater full of the group’s friends, crew as well as Q’s firehouse buddies, in other words, 75% of Staten Island.)

The movie, directed by Chris Henchy, long time McKay and Ferrell collaborator – the film is presented by their “Funny or Die” brand –opens with one of a number of scripted/staged scenes to frame the road trip the Tenderloins to attend a party in Miami being held by Paula Abdul. Since they only have three passes, they need to compete in their usual challenges to determine who misses out.

If you are a fan of the show, I’m not going to spoil any of the challenges or pranks they plan on each other, but they generally get better and funnier as the movie goes along, to the point that when it returns to the “story” and the scripted stuff, the movie does falter a little. Although the Tenderloins aren’t the greatest actors, they are great improvisers and you can tell when they’re coming up with lines by the seat of their pants.

The majority of the movie is basically what we see on the show without all of the commercial breaks cutting in just as things start to get outrageous, and as someone who watches more of the show than I probably should admit, I find it hard to believe no one watching the movie will at least get one good snicker out of the movie. There are a few recurring gags throughout the movie as well as a follow-up to a memorable punishment from an earlier season. (Like with the show, you’re likely to feel bad for Murr and Sal, the nicer half of the group who always get the most abuse because of it.)

If you’re already a fan of the Impractical Jokers, you’ll probably like the movie, but if not, you might not get it and there’s just no real use trying. In other words, not a great intro to the “Impractical Jokers” but a fine bit of fun for the already-converted.

Rating: 6.5/10

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Sonic the Hedgehog  (Paramount) - $29 million -50% (up $1.5 million)**

2. Call of the Wild (20th Century) - $17 million N/A (up .3 million)** 3. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey  (Warner Bros) - $9 million -48%

4. Brahms: The Boy II (STXfilms) - $7 million N/A (down .6 million)**

5. Bad Boys for Life (Sony) - $6 million -48% (down .1 million)**

6. The Photograph (Universal) – $5.5 million -55% (down .6 million)**

7. Blumhouse’s Fantasy Island (Sony) - $5.3 million -57%

8. 1917 (Universal) - $5 million -38%

9. Parasite (NEON) - $3.6 million -35%

10. Jumanji: The Next Level ��(Sony) - $3.3 million -42%

-- The Impractical Jokers Movie (TruTV) - $1.8 million*

-- Las Pildoras de mi Novio (Pantelion/Lionsgate) - $1.3 million*

* These last two projections are made without much info on either movie, including theater counts for the former.

**A few minor tweaks as we go into weekends with actual theater counts, although this weekend will still mostly be about Sonic the Hedgehog. I still don’t have any theater counts for Impractical Jokers on Thursday night so I guess we’ll just have to see if the theaters playing it report to Rentrak and it gets some sort of placement, presumably outside the top 10, on Sunday. 

LIMITED RELEASES

There are lots of other new limited releases this weekend beyond the ones I mentioned above.

On Wednesday night, Fathom Events is releasing Masaaki Yuasa’s new movie RIDE YOUR WAVE (GKIDS) across the nation for one night only in some places, although it will get a limited release on Friday at New York’s Village East and maybe other places, as well. If you’ve seen any of Yuasa’s other films like 2017’s The Night is Short, Walk on Girl or Lu Over the Wall or Mind Game, then you can probably expect this to be another wild ride, except this time it’s on a surfboard. It follows the story of a surfer and a firefighter who fall in love. You can learn more about how to get tickets here.

Like Portrait of a Lady on Fire last week, Una director Benedict Andrews’ SEBERG (Amazon) received a one-week release in 2019 but it’s getting a legit limited release this Friday. It stars Kristen Stewart as French New Wave icon Jean Seberg who came to the States in the late ‘60s and began a relationship with civil rights leader Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), putting her in the sights of the FBI who were hoping to use her to bust the Black Panthers. The film also stars Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, Vince Vaughn, and Stephen Root, and it’s a pretty solid historical drama, although I haven’t seen it so long I’m not sure I can say much more about that.

I was never a huge fan of Bob Dylan or the Band but I found Daniel Roher’s doc ONCE WERE BROTHERS: ROBBIE ROBERTSON AND THE BAND (Magnolia) (about the latter) to be quite compelling as the story is told by various people who were there, including the film’s exec. producer Martin Scorsese who directed the band’s legendary concert film The Last Waltz. This is also produced by Ron Howard and Brian SGrazer of Imagine, so you know it’s gonna be a quality music doc, and it certainly is, although I’m not sure it will be of that much interest to people who aren’t already fans of The Band.

Opening in roughly 350 theaters this weekend is LAS PILDORAS DE MI NOVIO (Pantelion), translated as “My Boyfriend’s Meds,” a comedy about a woman (Sandra Echeverria) who falls for a mattress store owner who suffers from multiple personality disorder and when they go on vacation… he forgets to bring along his meds! Humor abounds. As usual, this won’t screen in advance for critics.

Tye Sheridan stars with Knives Out’s Ana De Armas in Michael Cristofer’s thriller The Night Clerk (Saban Films), Sheridan plays a hotel clerk with Asperger’s Syndrome who witnesses a murder in one of the rooms but ends up as the main suspect by the lead detective, played by John Leguizamo. The film also stars Helen Hunt and it will be released in select theaters (including New York’s Cinema Village), on demand and digitally this Friday. Just couldn’t into this one, having at least one good friend with Asperger’s, due to the way Sheridan played this often-debilitating disease. (Think Rain Man without the talent of Dustin Hoffman.)

Opening exclusively at theMetrographFriday with an expansion on March 3 is Portugese filmmaker Bruno de Almeida’s Cabaret Maxime (Giant Pictures), starring Michael Imperioli as Bennie Gaza, the owner and manager of the title nightclub specializing in a mix of burlesque, striptease, music and comedy. Bennie is fairly old-fashioned so when a modern day (translation: trashy and demeaning to women) strip club opens across the way, Bennie finds himself pressure to make changes to stay in line as he starts getting pressure from his mobster financer to change. I was kinda mixed on this movie, which delivers another typically great performance from Imperioli but the way it cuts between various acts and disparate scenes that do very little to move the story forward (including the far-more-interesting subplot about Bennie’s wife Stella, a performer suffering from depression, as played by the amazing Ana Padrão). I think one of the reasons I just couldn’t get into the movie is cause a friend of mine attempted a similar film based out of a nightclub and the film never got much traction. De Almeida should have paid more attention developing the storytelling than showing off his talented musical singing/dancing friends.

A second Portugese filmmaker, Pedro Costa, also releases a new film this week.  Vitalina Varela (Grasshopper Film) will open at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center on Friday. The title of the film is also the name of the non-actor who returns from Costa’s Horse Moneyto play a woman from Cape Verdean who comes to Fontainhas for her estranged husband’s funeral and sets up a new life there.

Also opening at the Quad Friday is the latest from the Dardenne Brothers, Young Ahmed (Kino Lorber) about a 13-year-old (Idir ben Addi) who has come under the grips of radical jihadism in his Belgian town, putting him at odds with various factions. When he carries out an act of violence, he ends up in a juvenile detention facility. The Dardennes won the Best Director award at last year’s Cannes Film Festival, where their films have been honored with the Palme d’Or twice. I’ve never been much of a fan but what do I know?

Opening at the IFC Center Wednesday is Nicolas Champeaux, Gilles Porte’s documentary The State Against Mandela and the Others, which is built around recently recovered audio recordings of the 1963-4 Rivona trial in which Nelson Mandela and eight others faced death sentences for challenging Apartheid. The film mixes animation showing the trails with contemporary interviews with the survivors including Winnie Mandela, about their fight against the country’s corrupt system.

Another doc I know little about is Andrew Goldberg’s Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations, which will open at the Village East Friday but it includes the likes of Julianna Margulies, Tony Blair and Bill Clinton as anti-semitism rears its ugly head over 70 years after the end of World War II and the Holocaust.

Also opening at Cinema Village is Matt Ratner’s Standing Up, Falling Down (Shout! Studios) starring Billy Crystal and Ben Schwartz (the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog!), the latter playing a stand-up comic whose L.A. dreams have crashed and burned leaving him with little money, forcing him to return to Long Island. Once there, he pines over his ex (Eloise Mumford) and becomes friends with an eccentric dermatologist (Crystal) as they help each other deal with their respective failures.

Playing at the Roxy for a one-week run starting Friday is Sam De Jong’s Goldie (Film Movement), starring actress/model Slick Woods as the title character, a teenager in a family shelter pursuing her dreams of being a dancer while trying to keep her sisters together. This premiered at the Tribeca Film Festivallast year.

Oscilloscope (the distributor that brought you the cat doc Kedi) is doing something called “Cat Video Fest 2020,” which will take place at the Alamo in Brooklyn (although the Saturday screening is sold out there) and the Village East Cinema. This screening of pre-selected cat videos is also taking place at other cities throughout the country, and you can find out where right here.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

This Friday, the Metrograph will debut its newest series “Climate Crisis Parabels,” a series of varied future shock films, this weekend with Robert Bresson’s The Devil, Probably (1977), Steven Spielberg’s 2001 film A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke (1999) (hosted by Naomi Klein Sunday afternoon, but also playing as part of the Playtime Family Matinees”) and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Final Cu ton Sunday night. “To Hong Kong with Love” also continues with screenings of Stanley Kwan’s Rouge (1987) and the 2016 film Raise the Umbrellas. The ongoing Welcome To Metrograph: Redux also continues with HarunFarocki’sdocumentary Before Your Eyes: Vietnam (1981).  This week’s Late Nites at Metrograph is another Japanese thriller, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1966 thriller The Face of Another, and the Metrograph’s Japanese love continues as Playtime: Family Matinees will also show Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke from 1999.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday” is Ken Russell’s 1987 film Gothic, and this week’s “Kids Camp” offering is the 2006 animated Curious George with a special “pick your own price.” In preparation for the release of Emma. On Friday, the Alamo is doing a “Champagne Cinema” screening of the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley, which unfortunately, is sold out already. (Waugh Waugh) Monday’s “Out of Tune” is the Prince film Under the Cherry Moon from 1986, which is also sold out. (Hey, Jeremy Wein, why don’t you tell me these things are going on sale so I can go!?!) Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the horror classic Candyman (1992), which is ALSO almost sold out and then we’re back to “Weird Wednesday” with next week’s offering, 1985’s soft-core actioneer Gwendoline.

If you’re one of those poor souls living in L.A., you can also go to see Don Coscarelli’s 2002 film Bubba Ho-Tep, starring Bruce Campbell, on Wednesday night or the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors on Thursday at the grand, new(ish) Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles. Saturday afternoon is a matinee of Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight (1998), starring George Clooney and J-Lo and Saturday night, you can see Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), starring Seymour Cassel and Gena Rowlands. Monday night is Juliet Bashore’s 1986 Kamikaze Hearts, which looked into the X-rated SF underground of the ‘80s. The West Coast “Terror Tuesday” is Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 film Bram Stoker’s Dracula, starring Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman and Winona Rider!

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Wednesday’s afternoon matinee is the classical musical The Sound of Music (1965) and then Weds and Thurs night’s double feature is Robert Redford’sThe Hot Rock (1972) and Cops and Robber (1973). Friday’s matinee is the late Tony Scott’s The Hunger (1983) and then the Tarantino-pennedTrue Romance (1993, also directed by Scott), will play Friday midnight and Saturday’s midnight movie is the 1967 film Carmen, Baby. This weekend’s Kiddee Mattine is Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005). Monday’s matinee is Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973) and the Monday night double feature is A Man for All Seasons(1966) and The Mission  (1986). Tuesday’s Grindhouse double feature is 1980’s Super Fuzz and 1977’s Death Promise, both in 35mm, of course.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Weds’ “Black Voices” movie is William Greaves’ 1968 film Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, and then on Friday night in the Spielberg Theater, you can see the 1913 film Traffic in Souls with live music as well as a couple shorts. The Japanese horror film Kwaidan(1965) will play in the normal theater. On Saturday, the Egyptian is presenting “Leigh Whannell’s Thrill-A-thon” a series of four films that helped to inspire Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, which comes out next week with some great options worth seeing, including 1987’s Fatal Attraction, David Fincher’s 2014 film Gone Girl, Rob Reiner’s Stephen King adaptation Misery(1990) and the classic Aussie thriller Dead Calm(1989) starring Nicole Kidman … all for just 15 bucks!

AERO  (LA):

The AERO’s “Black Voices” film for Weds. is the great Stir Crazy, starring Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, and then on Thursday afternoon, you can see Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classicDr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb for $8 (free to Cinemateque members!) New restoration of the Russian film Come and See (also opening at the Film Forum in New York) will play on Saturday evening as part of the “Antiwar Cinema” series. Sunday’s double feature in that series is Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957) and the Russian film The Ascent (1977). Tuesday’s “Black Voices” matinee is Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust  (1991) and then Greg Proops will screen the 1996 film Ridicule as part of his Film Club podcast which precedes the film.

MOMA  (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmon continues through the end of the month with Mister Roberts (1955) on Weds., Billly Wilder’s Avanti (1972) and the classic (and one of my all-time faves) Some Like it Hot (1959) on Friday. This weekend also sees movies in the continuing “Theater of Operations” series, which will include Kathryn Bigelow’s Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker (2009) on Saturday afternoon and a bunch of docs including Werner Herzog’s 1992 film Lessons of Darkness on Sunday. Weds also kicks off “Television Movies: Big Pictures on the Small Screen” – pretty self-explanatory, I think – with 1953’s The Trip to Bountiful and 1955’s Tosca on Weds. and Sunday, 1967’s Present Laughter Thursday and Tuesday and more. (Click on the link for full schedule!) Following Film Forum’s focus on black actresses (for February, Black History Month, get it?) MOMA begins a  “It’s All in Me: Black Heroines” series with All By Myself: The Eartha Kitt Story and Julie Dash’s Illusions, both from 1982, on Thursday and many more running through March 5.

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NYC):

The Anthology still has a few more films in its “Devil Probably: A Century of Satanic Panic” including Eric Weston’s Evilspeak (1981) tonight in 35mm, but also David Van Taylor will be at tonight’s screening of his 1991 film Dream Deceivers. I’ve never seen either of these, by the way. Robert Eggers’ The VVitch and Alan Parker’s Angel Heart screen one more time on Thursday night, as well. This weekend also begins a new series, “Dream Dance: The Films of Ed Emshwiller” but since I have no idea who that is, I have nothing further to add. (Sorry!)

NITEHAWK CINEMA  (NYC):

Williamsburgis showing David Lynch’s 1990 film Wild at Heart as part of its “Uncaged” series on Friday just after midnight and John Singleton’s Poetic Justice on Saturday morning as part of “California Love.” They’re also showing Rob Reiner’s The Princess Bride on Saturday morning for an “All-Ages Brunch Movie.”

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Elem Klimov’s 1985 Russian drama Come and See (Janus) will have a DCP restoration premiere at the Forum and Sunday afternoon will be a screening of the 1953 Mexican film El Corazon y La Espada in 3D. This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is the 1953 pseudo-doc Little Fugitive.  Monday night is a screening of David Rich’s Madame X  (1966) introduced by actor/playwright Charles Busch.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

This weekend’s Weekend Classics: Luis Buñuel is the Mexican film The Exterminating Angel (1962), while Waverly Midnights: Hindsight is 2020s will screen Keanu Reeves’ Johnny Mnemonic and Late Night Favorites: Winter 2020is taking a surprising weekend off.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Still waiting to see if Pandora and the Flying Dutchman continues through the weekend, as at this time (Monday), there is nothing repertory listed.

BAM CINEMATEK(NYC):

Horace Jenkins’ Cane River continues through Friday. Saturday night’s “Beyond the Canon” is a double feature of Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker(1953) and Malick’s Badlands (1973).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

This weekend’s “See It Big! Outer Space” offerings include1974’s Space is the Placeon Friday and 1924’s Aelita, Queen of Mars and the 1980 Flash Gordonscreening on Saturday and Sunday. As usual, 2001: A Space Odysseywill screen on Saturday afternoon as part of the ongoing exhibition.

ROXY CINEMA(NYC)

Weds’ Nicolas Cage movie is Martin Scorsese’s Bringing Out the Dead (1999) and then Thursday is a 35mm screening of Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)!

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday’s midnight movie is Who Killed Roger Rabbit (1988).

STREAMING AND CABLE

Let’s see what’s going on in the world of streaming this week, shall we?

Netflix is debuting Dee (Mudbound) Rees’ new movie THE LAST THING HE WANTED on the streaming service Friday, even though apparently, it opened in select cities last week, including New York’s Paris Theater, although it got such terrible reviewsout of Sundance, maybe Netflix didn’t want any more bad reviews before it begins streaming. Regardless, it stars Anne Hathaway, Willem Dafoe, Ben Affleck and Rosie Perez, and it’s based on Joan Didion’s novel about a D.C. journalist named Elena (Hathaway) who abandons her work on the 1984 campaign trail to run an errand for her father (Dafoe). I guess I’ll watch it when it’s on Netflix just like everyone else but my expectations have been suitably lowered.

The Jordan Peele-produced series “Hunters,” starring Al Pacino, which is about a group of Nazi hunters will hit Amazon Prime this Friday as well, and a new season of the popular series“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” will debut on Friday on Disney+, adding to the amazing amount of content already available on that network.

Next week, Saw and Insidious co-creator Leigh Whannell revamps The Invisible Man for Universal with Elisabeth Moss, and there’s also (supposedly) a movie call The Ride, which I know nothing about. You can guess which movie I’ll be focusing on.

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

[superstitionrev]

#ArtLitPhx: Phoenix Poetry Series ft. Rashaad Thomas & Joel Salcido

#ArtLitPhx: Phoenix Poetry Series ft. Rashaad Thomas & Joel Salcido

The Phoenix Poetry Series showcases some of the best poets in our community. The newest installment of the series will spotlight Rashaad Thomas and Joel Salcido at Fillmore Coffee Co. (600 North 4th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85004) on Friday, October 27. The event begins at 6pm, and the reading will begin promptly at 6:30pm.

Rashaad Thomas and Joel Salcido make up two thirds of the Gutta’…

[unclescurvy]

2019 Fantasy Football Cheat Sheet

QB

12 Patrick Mahomes (KC)

- 

7 Ben Roethlisberger (PIT)

10 Deshawn Watson (HOU)

11 Aaron Rodgers (GB)

9 Matt Ryan (ATL)

9 Jared Goff (LAR)

7 Cam Newton (CAR)

9 Drew Brees (NO)

6 Andrew Luck (IND-INJ)

 -

10 Carson Wentz (PHI)

11 Russell Wilson (SEA)

12 Philip Rivers (LAC)

6 Mitch Trubisky (CHI)

7 Jameis Winston (TB)

7 Baker Mayfield (CLE)

12 Kirk Cousins (MIN)

10 Tom Brady (NE)

6 Josh Allen (BUF)

4 Sam Darnold (NYJ)

8 Dak Prescott (DAL)

9 Andy Dalton (CIN)

10 Nick Foles (JAX)

4 Jimmy Garoppolo (SF)

10 Joe Flacco (DEN)

11 Eli Manning (NYG)

6 Derek Carr (OAK)

5 Matt Stafford (DET)

 -

8 Lamar Jackson (BAL)

11 Marcus Mariota (TEN)

12 Kyler Murray (ARZ)

5 Ryan Fitzpatrick (MIA)

10 Case Keenum (WAS)

 -

10 Dwayne Haskins (WAS)

5 Josh Rosen (MIA)

6 Jacoby Brissett (IND)

11 Ryan Tannehill (TEN)

9 Taysom Hill (NO)

4 Nick Mullens (SF)

-

RB

11 Saquon Barkley (NYG)

7 Christian McCaffrey (CAR)

9 Alvin Kamara (NO)

 -

7 James Conner (PIT)

4 Le’Veon Bell (NYJ)

 -

10 Leonard Fournette (JAX)

7 Nick Chubb (CLE)

 -

11 Derrick Henry (TEN)

12 David Johnson (ARZ)

9 Todd Gurley (LAR-INJ?)

9 Devonta Freeman (ATL)

8 Ezekiel Elliott (DAL-HOLDOUT?)

9 Joe Mixon (CIN)

10 Phillip Lindsay (DEN)

10 Sony Michel (NE)

12 Melvin Gordon (LAC-HOLDOUT?)

 -

8 Mark Ingram (BAL)

11 Chris Carson (SEA)

12 Dalvin Cook (MIN)

6 David Montgomery (CHI)

5 Kerryon Johnson (DET)

6 Marlon Mack (IND)

12 Damien Williams (KC)

6 Josh Jacobs (OAK)

11 Aaron Jones (GB)

6 Tarik Cohen (CHI)

10 Lamar Miller (HOU)

 -

6 LeSean McCoy (BUF)

10 Derrius Guice (WAS-INJ?)

7 Ronald Jones (TB)

10 Miles Sanders (PHI)

10 Duke Johnson (HOU)

5 Kalen Ballage (MIA)

12 Austin Ekeler (LAC)

5 Kenyan Drake (MIA-INJ)

 -

10 James White (NE)

4 Tevin Coleman (SF)

10 Jordan Howard (PHI)

10 Adrian Peterson (WAS)

4 Jerick McKinnon (SF-INJ)

11 Rashaad Penny (SEA)

10 Chris Thompson (WAS)

7 Kareem Hunt (CLE-SUS 8)

4 Matt Brieda (SF)

6 Mike Davis (CHI)

7 Peyton Barber (TB)

9 Giovani Bernard (CIN)

6 Nyheim Hines (IND)

11 Dion Lewis (TEN)

9 Latavius Murray (NO)

9 Darrell Henderson (LAR)

8 Tony Pollard (DAL)

7 Jaylen Samuels (PIT)

4 Ty Montgomery (NYJ)

12 Justin Jackson (LAC)

12 Carlos Hyde (KC)

10 Royce Freeman (DEN)

11 Jamaal Williams (GB-INJ?)

6 Frank Gore (BUF)

8 Gus Edwards (BAL)

10 Devontae Booker (DEN)

9 Ito Smith (ATL)

12 Ameer Abdullah (MIN)

6 Jalen Richard (OAK)

9 Malcolm Brown (LAR)

-

WR

10 DeAndre Hopkins (HOU)

11 Davante Adams (GB)

9 Julio Jones (ATL)

9 Michael Thomas (NO)

7 Mike Adams (TB)

 -

7 Odell Beckham, Jr. (CLE)

7 JuJu Smith-Schuster (PIT)

6 T.Y. Hilton (IND)

12 Keenan Allen (LAC-INJ)

12 Tyreek Hill (KC – SUS? TRADE?)

6 Antonio Brown (OAK-INJ)

12 Adam Theilen (MIN)

9 Cooper Kupp (LAR)

 -

10 Julian Edelman (NE-INJ?)

9 Brandin Cooks (LAR)

12 Stefon Diggs (MIN)

5 Kenny Golladay (DET)

9 A.J. Green (CIN-INJ 3)

7 Chris Godwin (TB)

12 Mike Williams (LAC)

9 Tyler Boyd (CIN)

8 Amari Cooper (DAL)

9 Robert Woods (LAR)

 -

10 Will Fuller (HOU)

7 D.J. Moore (CAR)

9 Calvin Ridley (ATL)

6 Allen Robinson (CHI)

7 Jarvis Landry (CLE)

11 Tyler Lockett (SEA)

10 Alshon Jeffery (PHI)

10 Courtland Sutton (DEN)

5 Marvin Jones (DET)

11 Sterling Shepard (NYG-INJ)

10 Emmanuel Sanders (DEN-INJ)

12 Sammy Watkins (KC)

 -

11 Marquez Valdes-Scantling (GB)

10 Desean Jackson (PHI)

4 Robby Anderson (NYJ)

12 Christian Kirk (ARZ)

7 Curtis Samuel (CAR)

10 Nelson Agholor (PHI)

4 Jamison Crowder (NYJ)

4 Dante Pettis (SF)

6 Devin Funchess (IND)

10 Dede Westbrook (JAX)

10 Keke Coutee (HOU-INJ)

10 Josh Gordon (NE-SUS)

6 Tyrell Williams (OAK)

8 Randall Cobb (DAL)

10 Chris Conley (JAX)

6 John Brown (BUF)

5 DeVante Parker (MIA)

12 Larry Fitzgerald (ARZ)

10 Trey Quinn (WAS)

11 Golden Tate (NYG-SUS 4)

4 Deebo Samuel (SF)

8 Michael Gallup (DAL)

9 Tre’Quan Smith (NO)

6 Anthony Miller (CHI)

11 Corey Davis (TEN)

7 James Washington (PIT)

11 D.K. Metcalf (SEA)

7 Donte Moncrief (PIT)

4 Quincy Enunwa (NYJ)

9 Mohammed Sanu (ATL)

7 Breshad Perriman (TB)

5 Kenny Stills (MIA)

12 Demarcus Robinson (KC)

8 Marquise Brown (BAL-INJ?)

10 Paul Richardson (WAS)

11 Adam Humphries (TEN)

-

TE

12 Travis Kelce (KC)

10 Zach Ertz (PHI)

4 George Kittle (SF)

 6 Eric Ebron (IND)

9 Jared Cook (NO)

7 O.J. Howard (TB)

11 Evan Engram (NYG)

 7 Vance McDonald (PIT)

12 Hunter Henry (LAC)

10 Jordan Reed (WAS)

11 Delanie Walker (TEN)

11 Jimmy Graham (GB)

 8 Mark Andrews (BAL)

7 Greg Olsen (CAR)

11 Will Dissly (SEA)

6 Trey Burton (CHI)

12 Kyle Rudolph (MIN)

8 Jason Witten (DAL)

10 Dallas Goedert (PHI)

9 Austin Hooper (ATL)

7 David Njoku (CLE)

-

7 Cameron Brate (TB)

6 Darren Waller (OAK)

9 Tyler Eifert (CIN)

10 Noah Fant (DEN)

5 T.J. Hockenson (DET)

6 Mo Alie-Cox (IND)

10 Matt LaCosse (NE)

5 Mike Gesicki (MIA)

-

K

8 Justin Tucker (BAL)

9 Greg Zuerlein (LAR)

9 Will Lutz (NO)

10 Stephen Gostkowski (NE)

 -

10 Ka’imi Fairbairn (HOU)

12 Harrison Butker (KC)

12 Kaare Vedvick (MIN)

11 Aldrick Rosas (NYG)

11 Mason Crosby (GB)

8 Brett Maher (DAL)

11 Jason Myers (SEA)

9 Giorgio Tavecchio (ATL)

12 Michael Badgley (LAC)

 -

12 Zane Gonzalez (ARZ)

6 Stephen Hauschka (BUF)

7 Graham Gano (CAR)

6 Eddy Piniero (CHI)

9 Randy Bullock (CIN)

7 Austin Seibert (CLE)

10 Brandon McManus (DEN)

5 Matt Prater (DET)

6 Adam Vinitieri (IND)

10 Josh Lambo (JAX)

12 Ty Long (LAC)

5 Jason Sanders (MIA)

6 Daniel Carlson (OAK)

10 Jake Elliott (PHI)

7 Chris Boswell (PIT)

7 Matthew McCrane (PIT)

4 Robbie Gould (SF)

4 Jon Brown (SF)

7 Cairo Santos (TB)

7 Matt Gay (TB)

11 Ryan Succop (TEN)

10 Dustin Hopkins (WAS)

4 Taylor Bertolet (NYJ)

-

DEF

6 Chicago

 -

9 LA Rams

7 Cleveland

10 Jacksonville

12 LA Chargers

10 Houston

12 Kansas City

 -

5 Miami

10 Denver

4 NY Jets

12 Minnesota

11 Seattle

7 Pittsburgh

10 New England

10 Washington

9 New Orleans

8 Baltimore

9 Cincinnati

[thedenfantasyleague]

The Den Fantasy League Recap: Championship and Year End

Gentlemen, 

We’ve made it to the end of the road. The finals and the final recap of the year. Let’s get to it.

The Perfect Ten v. Debbie Rowe

The last two teams to make the playoffs found themselves facing off in the championship game. This game, like our whole season, was riveting. Ian took the early lead throughout the day with massive games from guys like Watson, Hopkins, and Ertz. E found himself in a comfortable spot to be in, only looking at SNF guys on Jane’s team to step up; and boy did they. Sure, Jake had good games from Matty Ice, Michael Thomas, and Falcons D, but two guys kept him in it: Damian Williams and Douggy Baldwin. It was a shootout that Jake desperately needed but the clock struck midnight when Doug Baldwin caught a BOMB, only to be tackled right after the reception at the one-yard line. THE ONE-YARD LINE. Jake was 36 inches away from stealing this victory. Unfortunately for Jake, the reverse jinx didn’t work this time as E was crowned champion for the second time in three years. 

The Biggest Winner

We welcome back a familiar face but this time on the other side of victory. The champion: E Birch.

Final Recaps

Like last year, I’ll now take this time to look at each team: drafting, how they performed, etc.

The Perfect Ten 

E capped off an incredible comeback after losing seven consecutive. He was able to sneak into the playoffs after Vinny came up just short. That’s all the space he needed. E was led by the trio of his running backs with big games from his WRs and TE when he needed it most. After sticking with Mitch to start the year, the change to Deshaun was all he needed to capture his title. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Amari Cooper, 3rd Round // Adrian Peterson, 10th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Chris Thompson, 8th Round // Tyler Eifert, 9th Round

Debbie Rowe

Jake found himself in the middle of the pack all season. He was led by his RB who will not be named and left him in a bind. He was able to claw his way back to an untimely loss in the championship game. 

Best Draft Pick(s): George Kittle, 14th Round

Worst Draft Pick(s): Rounds 4-8 (Royce Freeman, Corey Davis, Devin Funchess, Rashaad Penny, Ty Montgomery)

Kalabar’s Revenge

G put his hope in his trio of Pats but the lack of success of Gronk left him shy. The King of Kurses saw his take place at the most opportune time but saw himself not make the championship. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Ty Hilton, 3rd Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Rob Gronkowski, 2nd Round

Virginia Kuppcakes

The newcomer found himself with an interesting team. Early on, I’ll admit there were doubts. He was able to make his way into the playoffs with a good team but lost to the eventual runner-up. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Aaron Jones, 14th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Devonta Freeman, 2nd Round

Mr. Magorium

What a disappointing end to a promising season. Gabe made a splash early on by make a deal to get Gurley in a blockbuster deal. Gabe was at the top all season long but, in a twisted turn of events, received the unwanted #1 seed. Gabe found his season crash in a first-round exit. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Saquon Barkley, 1st Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Jordan Reed, 8th Round

Mixon It Up

Like Gabe, Robbie wasn’t able to continue his regular season success into the playoffs. We all knew it was too good to be true. Rob found great success but came up short. 

Best Draft Pick(s): James White, 10th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Chris Hogan, 5th Round

Team Timshel

Mike, like most teams, stayed in the middle of the pack. He was up and down all year but untimely injuries let him down in the end. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Ravens D/ST, 15th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Le’Veon Bell, 1st Round

A Team Has No Name

Another middle of the road team, every week was a frustrating bout for me. DJ was definitely the wrong choice but there was always hope. I found my way into the 6 seed but that didn’t matter. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Travis Kelce, 2nd Round // Adam Thielen, 3rd Round Worst Draft Pick(s): David Johnson, 1st Round // Matthew Stafford, 9th Round

VP

Just missing the playoffs, Vinny was on the other end of the blockbuster trade. He let go of Gurley early only to receive Diggs and Mahomes (we won’t count Ajayi). Vinny fought towards the end but was the best loser. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Gurley, 1st Round (Yes, I know he didn’t end up with him but he was able to leverage it and avoid the end of year Gurley Kurse) Worst Draft Pick(s): Jerick McKinnon, 3rd Round

Hank Mardukas

Someone who we all thought had the potential of the Cabana Boy was able to sneak by. Scott’s team was a rough one but after he beat JP in the head-to-head battle he delivered the blow that would send JP to the Cabana. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Kenny Golladay, 9th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Marvin Jones, 4th Round

2-2-1 (0.500) PVO

Dylan, another leader in the shot for Cabana Boy, had all but accepted his fate. Struggling all season, he found himself working on drink menus and picking out banana hammocks only to (not-really) shock the world by beating Rob in the final week of the season. 

Best Draft Pick(s): Jared Goff, 12th Round Worst Draft Pick(s): Christian McCaffrey, 2nd Round (Only because he later got rid of him before he hit his stride)

Wilmore Cinderella 

Jarrod went from the ultimate high to the ultimate low. After being champ last year, he found the weight was lifted off E and onto his shoulders. The breaking point was when Gabe beat him and Saquon scored that two-point conversion on MNF. He was never the same and spiraled into our inaugural Cabana Boy.

Best Draft Pick(s): Dak Prescott, 16th Round (only because he turned into a viable QB although JP didn’t keep him) Worst Draft Pick(s): Dalvin Cook, 1st Round & everyone else that got good after JP traded them

I’m honored to have shared the season with you all and I look forward to continued success in 2019.

Your beloved Commssioner,  Jared R. Mosqueda

[moviesandmania]

Beast of the Water - USA, 2017

Beast of the Water – USA, 2017

‘Nature’s law knows no mercy’

Beast of the Water is a 2017 American action horror feature film directed by Rashaad Santiago from a screenplay by Rick Prince, with additional dialogue by Thomas Horton and Lee Bateman. The Ghost Horse production stars Gigi Edgley, Steve Cardenas, Santiago Cirilo and Jason Faunt.

Plot:

A research group makes a curious discovery that may lead to the fountain of…

[crown-queen-bambee]

Q and Rashaad’s House

I redecorated a small home in my game for Q and his baby boy Rashaad. I introduced them in my RP. Q is a chorographer that owns a dance studio and is Rahim’s dance teacher. I wanted to give them a nice home because Q is such a good daddy plus Rashaad deserves a nice home. I used little to no CC :)

[newsfact]

Fantasy Injury Updates: Latest news on Russell Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Carson, more affecting Week 10 rankings

Russell Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Carson, Antonio Brown, and Logan Thomas were all on bye last week, but they likely wouldn’t have played anyway, as all have been battling injuries. Heading into Week 10, it’s unclear how many will suit up. All are heavy hitters at their respective positions, so the latest injury updates will have a big effect on Week 10 fantasy rankings.

For injury updates on Damien Harris, Rhamondre Stevenson, Zack Moss, and Chase Edmonds, go here. For all the latest fantasy news, follow us on Twitter @SN_Fantasy.

WEEK 10 WAIVER WIRE: Top pickups

Russell Wilson injury update

UPDATE: Wilson has been cleared to play in Week 10 and has implied he’ll be back for Sunday’s game against the Packers.

Wilson (finger) could return from IR as soon as this week against Green Bay, so his fantasy owners will be watching his status closely heading into the weekend. There haven’t been many reports on his recovery since he originially suffered the injury, but we’ll update this post as news comes in. Even with injury concerns, Wilson would be right in the mix as a QB1 if he does play.

If he’s out, Geno Smith will be our QB27 this week. Green Bay suddenly looks strong on defense and is a top-10 unit against fantasy quarterbacks.

WEEK 10 PPR RANKINGS: Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker

Rob Gronkowski injury update

Gronkowski (back) briefly returned to action in Week 8 against the Saints but was ultimately ruled out early in the game after limited action. Since the Bucs were on a bye, there haven’t been updates on his status, but perhaps the bye week was enough time for him to get healthy. As with all of these guys coming off a bye, we’ll be at the mercy of future injury reports this week.

Tampa plays Washington in Week 10, and while they’re a middle-of-the-pack unit against TEs statistically, they’ve had one of the easier schedules and have largely avoided a ton of studs. That said, we like Gronk as our TE7 in PPR leagues and TE5 in standard leagues.

WEEK 10 STANDARD RANKINGS: Quarterback | Running back | Wide receiver | Tight end | D/ST | Kicker

Chris Carson injury update

UPDATE: Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday that Carson will be “on the field” on Wednesday, but he also cautioned that they’re taking it “one day at a time” with Carson.

Carson (neck) would practice this week if it were up to him, but it’s unclear whether he’ll get his wish at this point in the week. There was originally no timetable for his return, and there have been concerning reports about his injury status, so we think it’s unlikely he’s back against Green Bay. If he is expected to play, we’ll update his status and our Week 10 RB rankings.

However, this figures to be Alex Collins’ backfield while Carson remains out, but Rashaad Penny may eat into his touches more. Overall, it’s a tough backfield to trust, and we rank Collins as the RB25 in standard and RB24 in PPR. Even if Collins is the workhorse, it’s tough to think he’ll have a lot of success if Geno Smith remains the starter. Quarterback success often leads to running back success.

Antonio Brown injury update

UPDATE: Brown was still in a walking boot on Monday.

Brown (ankle) is expected to return in Week 10 against Washington, so those who got him at a great price in preseason drafts will reap the benefits once again.

With Washington being the third-worst defense against fantasy WRs, we rank Brown as the WR14 in PPR leagues and WR12 in standard. Truth be told, his upside is the No. 1 overall WR in fantasy, but his floor could be ultra-low coming off an injury in a crowded WR room. All that said, he’s obviously a must-start.

Logan Thomas injury update

Thomas (hamstring) has been out since Week 3, but he’ll reportedly return to practice this week, and figures to play in Week 10 against Tampa Bay. He’s currently found on nearly half of all Yahoo league waiver wires, and you should roster him a soon as you read this. It’s not common for a player with top-five upside at their position to be available in Week 10, so now is your chance to get a difference-maker at tight end if you don’t have one.

Tampa is the 11th-worst defense against fantasy tight ends, so we rank Thomas as our TE6 in PPR leagues and TE7 in standard leagues.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)}; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', 235247967118144); fbq('track', 'PageView'); Source link

The post Fantasy Injury Updates: Latest news on Russell Wilson, Rob Gronkowski, Chris Carson, more affecting Week 10 rankings first appeared on NEWSFACT.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3o8K13T via IFTTT

[leeyunceo]

Hank Willis Thomas / Odili Donald Odita / Paul Anthony Smith / Radcliffe Bailey / Rashaad Newsome / Satch Hoyt  · ⟪Today And Tomorroow⟫

@ganaart

02.Jul.2021 - 01.Aug.2021

"All art is political.”