#bob mueller

[bitter69uk]

“Why does everybody think I’m so wild? I’m not wild. I happen to stumble onto wildness. It gets in my path.” Cookie Mueller

"Cookie looked like Janis Joplin-meets-Jayne Mansfield, a redneck hippie with a little bit of glamour drag thrown in. She never led a safe life, unsafe was her middle name. She lived on the edge, always." John Waters

Born on this day 75 years ago: vivacious bad girl, writer, go-go dancer, advice columnist, art critic, drug dealer, globe-trotter and avant-garde New York scene-maker Cookie Mueller (née Dorothy Karen Mueller, 2 March 1949 – 10 November 1989). She’s a fiercely charismatic presence in early John Waters "gutter films" like Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Her close confidante, photographer Nan Goldin would describe Mueller as “the most fabulous woman I’d ever seen ... She was the starlet of the Lower East Side: a poetess, a short-story writer, she starred in John Waters’ early movies. She was sort of the queen of the whole downtown social scene.” (Unsurprisingly, Goldin has an eye for vivid detail. In the wrenching 2022 documentary All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, she recalls that the first time she met Cookie in Provincetown in the 1970s, Mueller was wearing vintage Springolator heels held together with safety pins!). I highly recommend investigating Mueller’s wry and elegant autobiographical musings like Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black or Garden of Ashes (recently reissued) – or Chloe Griffin’s excellent 2014 biography Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller. Pictured: portrait of Mueller by Bob Berg.

[never-was-has-been]

[neomachine]

bible silver corner - rodan

[thewaltcrew]

Behind-the-scenes footage of the reshoot of the squid sequence in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

A soundstage with a tank was built specifically for the movie. It was used for underwater miniature shots, but most importantly, this was where the famous squid sequence of the movie was filmed. Building the soundstage alone cost $300,000, but costs would continue to climb once the studio realized it would need to shoot the sequence all over again.

The screenwriter Earl Felton originally described the scene as such in his script: "THE NAUTILUS breaks the surface in the red after-glow of sunset, the ugly body of the squid silhouetted against the horizon, its long tentacles writhing."

Peter Ellenshaw, matte artist: I reckoned it would be very dramatic if--and I was doing sketches on the film quite a lot--that if we did a red, deep red sky, and the squid comes out of the water, it would be a wonderful effect. Well they tried it. They put on that kind of wishy washy sky, and it looked ridiculous.

Richard Fleischer, director: [The first squid] had all the tentacles, but the tentacles were held up by very heavy cables, which you couldn't avoid seeing... The cables would break, or great hunks of the material would come apart, come off. And the inside was stuffed with kapok, and it was absorbing the water, so it's getting heavier and heavier and getting less and less mobile, and it was just impossible. So I'm trying to shoot this thing, and I'm sick to my stomach looking at it because I know it's not working.

After seeing the dailies of the squid sequence, Walt talked with director Richard Fleischer, and they both agreed that it looked comical. Thus, Walt halted production while they thought of an alternate solution.

Fleischer: [Walt] said, "Start a dramatic sequence, and leave the squid sequence alone." He said, "I'll get together with my geniuses at Disneyland, and we'll come up with a squid that will do something for you. It'll be much better than this." ...My writer Earl Felton had seen the dailies too. And I said, "You know, Earl, what are we going to do with this thing? It doesn't work, even if we get a good squid." He said, "Well, look: everything's wrong with this sequence. This should be a sequence that takes place at night in a violent storm with lightning and thunder and wind, tremendous wind, waves smashing everything, so that it becomes not just a fight against the squid, but a fight against nature as well. You'll only see the squid really in flashes of lightning, and you won't see any flaws it may have." So I kissed his hand and ran out to find Walt, and I ran right into Walt on the studio street, and I said, "Walt, this is the new concept for the squid fight." And he listened, and he said, "You're absolutely right." He didn't hesitate a minute. "That's the way we'll do it, and you tell Earl to write that sequence."

The new squid was redesigned and remodeled by sculptor Chris Mueller (who sculpted a majority of the animals on Jungle Cruise). In his redesign, he tapered out the ends of the tentacles to allow them to stretch out to twice their length. He added a brow ridge to the squid to give it a more menacing look and rounded out + shortened the head.

The new mechanics were concepted and created by technical effects expert Bob Mattey (who made the animals on Jungle Cruise move and eventually would become well-known for creating the three animatronic sharks in the film Jaws). He created a spring device that made the tentacles light in weight and fluid in movement. It required 28 men to operate the squid, and they would use vacuum hoses to make the tentacles writhe, inflating them to make them curl and deflating them to uncurl them.

With the new stormy setting, it also required the addition of wind machines, dump tanks, wave makers, and reengineering the Nautilus so that it could lean during the storm.

Most of this reshoot was shot by second unit director Jim Havens (pictured in the first and eighth gifs; James Curtis Havens on IMDb), who already had previous experience shooting action sequences, including the underwater scenes in Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Needless to say, the reshoot practically flooded the soundstage. You can see in the last gif that the water spilled outside the soundstage as Walt, with rubber boots on, walks into the building.

The reshoot cost an additional $250,000, but with only half of the principal photography having been shot, the production was in danger of being shut down. The film had to start taking from funds intended for Disneyland.

Fleischer: They had to get in the bankers... They asked them to supply money to finish the picture, and the bankers wanted to see what had been shot up to date. And that was a big day for us. I was working on the set, waiting to hear word whether we're going to come back to work the next day or shut down that night. It was really that close. Word got back to me. They loved it. And they're giving him a million and a half dollars to finish the picture. That's our squid story. It was a real hair-raiser. A movie in itself.

quotes and footage from “The Making of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” featurette additional sources [x][x][x]

for anonymous

[angeldcgs]

i wanna get some new things started so like this for a realistic smut starter from one of the muses below the cut!! and by "realistic smut" i mean stuff like finishing too soon, not being able to finish at all, getting the giggles mid-stroke, accidentally elbowing your partner in the ribs, etc.

griffyn aimes (j.acob e.lordi fc)- he/him, 26, pansexual, switch, baker

bobbie childs (c.ailee s.paeny fc)- she/her, 23, bisexual, submissive, diner waitress

fern caruso (k.rysten r.itter fc)- she/her, 40, queer, dominant, therapist/dominatrix (verse dependent)

rory gifford (d.ominic s.essa fc)- he/him, 21, bisexual, submissive, hacker

marnie babbitt (t.aylor r.ussell fc)- she/they, 27, queer, submissive, nomad/doppelganger

esme cortez (a.lexa d.emie fc)- she/her, 28, bisexual, switch, exotic dancer/nail tech

buffy bloom (m.ia g.oth fc)- she/her, 26, bisexual, switch (dominant preference), exotic dancer/adult film star

leon ebert (b.ill s.karsgard fc)- he/him, 31, heterosexual, switch, jazz pianist

charlie gomez (r.uby c.ruz fc)- they/them, 24, lesbian, submissive, movie theater concessions clerk/projectionist

ari olsson (a.lexander s.karsgard fc)- he/him, 44, heterosexual, submissive, ceo

fiona rousseau (j.az s.inclair fc)- she/her, 27, queer, switch, vampire hunter/bounty hunter (verse dependent)

gwen michalchuk (m.addie p.hillips fc)- she/her, 28, pansexual, switch, witch/super human mutant (clairvoyance, telepathy, compulsion, power absorption, conjuring/spell-casting abilities)

romy chung (l.ondon t.hor fc)- they/she, 28, lesbian, dominant, personal assistant

keanu zhao (d.erek l.uh fc)- he/him, 28, bisexual, dominant, trust fund brat

gael campbell (a.sa g.ermann fc)- he/him, 24, bisexual, submissive, amusement park employee/super human mutant (strength, necromancy, advanced healing)

dominic "nickie" hagen (b.ill s.karsgard fc)- he/him, 27, bisexual, submissive, thief

winifred "winnie" perkins (m.ia g.oth fc)- she/her, 26, bisexual (closeted), submissive, farmer's daughter

priscilla mosyakov (k.aia g.erber fc)- she/her, 22, bisexual, switch, fashion blogger/nepo baby

josefine "jo" obasi (a.yo e.debiri fc)- she/her, 26, bisexual, switch, television writer

frenchie horowitz (r.achel s.ennott fc)- she/her, 25, pansexual, switch, escort/podcast host

lemon doyle (n.iamh m.ccormack fc)- she/her, 22, bisexual, switch, fashion magazine intern

bronte ferguson (m.argaret q.ualley fc)- she/her, 27, queer, switch, cult leader

jonah darke (b.ill s.karsgard fc)- he/him, 25, heterosexual, dominant, guitarist/lead singer/grafitti artist

august "gus" mueller (j.eremy a.llen white fc)- he/him, 31, heterosexual, dominant, landscaper/painter

julian "jules" hicks (t.imothee c.halamet fc)- he/him, 25, bisexual, switch, bassist/record shop employee

juliette feng (h.avana r.ose l.iu fc)- she/her, 26, pansexual, submissive, costume designer

envy adams (m.ia g.oth fc, m.addie p.hillips alt)- she/her, 27, bisexual, switch, lead singer of the clash at demonhead

gideon graves (b.ill s.karsgard fc)- he/him, 33, heterosexual, dominant, ceo/inventor/music executive

scott pilgrim (j.oe k.eery fc)- he/him, 27, bisexual, submissive, bassist for sex bob-omb

roxie richter (r.uby c.ruz fc)- she/her, 25, lesbian, switch, artist

[daggerzine]

Throwback Thursday #70!- Soul Asylum- Made To Be  Broken (1986- Twin Tone/ 2016- Omnivore)

This Minneapolis band's 1984 debut, Say What You Will, was definitely a solid outing, but not great by any means as it showed a band trying to break out of its hard-core roots.

Well, less than two years later, the band certainly did just that with this brilliant second album. The record was produced by Bob Mould, who did a great job on it. Dave Pirner on vocals/guitar, Dan Murphy on guitar/vocals, Karl Mueller on bass, and Grant Young on drums really came together with a ton of energy, charisma, and a batch of fantastic songs.

The twin guitar attack has a ton of muscle and the rhythm section, especially with new drummer Young, is better than on the debut.

And oh man…..did I mention the songs?! Holy moly.

The first three songs, "Tied To the Tracks," "Ship of Fools," and "Can't Go Back" really hit the trifecta, but keep listening otherwise, you’ll miss brilliant cuts, like the charging “Whoa!," the folksy “Never Really Been,” and the soaring, galloping ”New Feelings.”

The re-issue from Omnivore in 2016 added a whole other disc full of rarities so that’s the one to get. But yeah, 40 years on this one still sounds great so yeah, discover now (or rediscover).

www.soulasylum.com

www.omnivorerecordings.com

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Elie Mystal at The Nation:

There has probably never been a president who was more ignorant of the government, the Constitution, and the laws of this country than Donald Trump was in 2017. The man came to power with a child’s understanding of civics and a mob boss’s understanding of power. Instead of using the power of government to effectuate his agenda, he thought he could simply bend the law to his will. Trump was wrong, and the Department of Justice showed him why. Trump fired FBI director James Comey (whose decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails happened to be one of the proximate causes of his election in the first place) for his lack of loyalty. That led the DOJ to investigate Trump’s abuse of power. Trump likely assumed that his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, a longtime senator and an early supporter of Trump’s vile candidacy, would put a stop to the inquiry. But to Trump’s surprise, Sessions followed department rules and norms and recused himself from the case, leaving Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to handle the investigation. Rosenstein eventually appointed former FBI director Bob Mueller as a special counsel, and while Trump was never held accountable for this crime, he learned that the Justice Department could be a threat to his lawless abuse of power.

It’s a lesson he will not have forgotten if he wins or steals a second term. Mandate for Leadership, the Project 2025 blueprint for an eventual authoritarian takeover of the federal government, contains a lot of dangerous proposals for how Trump and his ruling conservatives can remake the executive branch. The authors’ ideas for the Department of Justice reflect not only their lust for unchallenged power, but also a deep fear of the DOJ’s independence—and, more particularly, the way that independence might be used against them if the DOJ is not brought to heel. Put simply: The conservatives hope to use the DOJ to make their darkest desires legal, while at the same time taking away the best legal means to stop them. As a first step, the Project 2025 Mandate recommends hollowing out the FBI. Why the FBI? Think of it this way: If Project 2025 is basically a conservative heist plot, then the chapter on the DOJ is the part where the plotters explain how they plan to take out the security cameras and floodlights so they can proceed under the cover of darkness.

The chapter begins like the Seinfeld holiday of Festivus: with an airing of grievances that the conservatives have against the FBI, including its alleged attempts to “convince social media companies and the media generally that the story about the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop was the result of a Russian misinformation campaign.” There are also entire paragraphs dedicated to railing against the FBI and the DOJ for trying to halt the spread of lies about the 2020 election—and, again, if you understand who these people are, you can see why stopping the government from policing their lies is a key goal. In order to accomplish this, Project 2025 proposes pushing Congress to demote the FBI, and its director, to a lower rung on the DOJ’s organizational chart and make the director report to a political functionary. It also wants Congress to eliminate the 10-year term of the FBI director to make it easier for the president to replace the director at will, like most other political appointees. Again, Trump got burned for firing Comey, and this proposal would make sure any future FBI director is sufficiently loyal.

If the conservatives simply wanted to destroy the FBI, I might agree with them. Even a cursory knowledge of the bureau’s history shows that the FBI is problematic: a dangerous tool of the surveillance state that, more often than not, has been deployed against civil liberties, civil rights, and social progress.

The problem with Project 2025 is that it doesn’t actually want to destroy the FBI; it wants to get rid of its independence—while keeping all of the FBI’s jackbooted thuggery so that it can hurt the “right” people. The Project 2025 Mandate calls for renewing the bureau’s focus on “violent” crime—and that word choice is important, because it leaves out nonviolent crimes like bank fraud, tax evasion, bribery, and document theft—you know, all the things that Trump or his business or donor-class friends are accused of doing. The document further suggests stripping the FBI of its legal workforce—the 300 or so attorneys employed by the bureau—which would turn the FBI into an even blunter weapon than it already is, completely untethered from the Constitution or civil rights. In line with the mission of hurting the “right” people, Mandate’s chapter on the DOJ details big plans for resuming Trump’s campaign against immigrants. Those plans include deploying the power of the Justice Department against Democrats who govern in “sanctuary cities.” Indeed, there’s a whole paragraph devoted to the wild idea of using the DOJ to sue district attorneys who use their discretion in ways that the conservatives don’t like—including, though hardly limited to, refusing to help deport immigrants.

[...] Toward that end, this chapter proposes transforming the Civil Rights Division of the DOJ into a tool to fight for white supremacy instead of against it. It aims to do this by using the division to prosecute institutions and organizations that promote diversity as violating the civil rights and equal protection of whites, and it’s the logical conclusion of the conservative assault on affirmative action and DEI programs. [...]

Using the DOJ to sue companies that hire people of color or women is meant to dissuade companies from hiring people of color or women, because according to conservative whites, anytime a person of color or a woman is hired for anything, it is because of affirmative action or DEI. This section is an attempt to whitewash America through force of law, since “the market” has rejected white supremacy (at least superficially) as a sound business practice.

When you break down what Project 2025 wants to do with the Justice Department, it’s chilling and terrifying, and yet I’m also struck by how petty and mean-spirited the tone of the document is. These people are consumed by their personal grievances (against Black people, against the media, against Hunter Biden and his laptop). There are multiple passages devoted to complaining that the DOJ has prosecuted people who threaten abortion clinics and parents who threaten school boards, as if being vile and hateful toward pregnant people and schoolteachers is their most precious “freedom.” Giving these people the DOJ is like giving a chimpanzee a gun: It’s inherently dangerous even when the chimp wields it like a crooked club.

Next time, Trump will not be handing the DOJ to people like Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr—people who wanted to use the department to further the MAGA agenda but felt bound by the rule of law. Next time, Trump will let someone like Stephen Miller, a ghoul who wants the law to promote bigotry instead of eradicating it, run the Justice Department. He’ll hand it to a devout loyalist and unreconstructed racist who wants to weaken the DOJ so it can’t hurt Trump, while weaponizing it against Trump’s enemies and the vulnerable communities he has decided to harass and terrorize. Project 2025 is telling us exactly how the conservatives plan to take away the rights of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. I beg the American people to believe them. This dystopian future isn’t a threat, it’s a certainty, should we give these people power again.

Elie Mystal wrote in The Nation that the DOJ under a 2nd Trump term would be the legal wing of the MAGA movement. The extreme MAGA movement must be crushed at all costs.

See Also:

The Nation: June 2024 Issue

[sixcostumerefs]

Performance Stats: 2022 (mainland edition)

Alright, it’s (no longer) that time of year again! Summary of all 2022 calendar year performances stats!! - This was a CRAZY year full of cross-production covers + emergency cover chaos so very fun to write up. It also made it a bit of a challenge with organization. If an actor was primarily with one production but served as an emergency cover for another, I listed them with their primary or initial production. - Yearly disclaimer that some errors and/or disparities could exist. - And as always, if you repost/use these stats anywhere, please credit me @sixcostumerefs (or six.costume.refs on Insta) And as always....a shoutout to Dionne Ward-Anderson, who featured in the largest number of performances this year, at a whopping 353 shows! Runner up is Andrea Macasaet at 327 shows, with Brittney Mack a very close third with 322! Most performing Aragon was Phoenix Jackson Mendoza (270), Seymour was Claudia Kariuki (293), Howard was Samantha Pauly (314.5), and Parr was Meesha Turner (267.5, but Alana Robinson was at 267). 2021-22 West End Amy di Bartolomeo: 242 performances Amanda Lindgren 255 performances Tsemaye Bob-Egbe: 233 performances Meesha Turner: 267.5 performances Paisley Billings: 114.5 performances (55 A, 44.5 C, 14 P) 2022-23 West End Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky: 81 performances Baylie Carson: 78 performances Koko Basigara: 65 performances Monique Ashe-Palmer: 14 performances (7 A, 1 B, 6 C) Leah Vassell: 40 performances (20 S, 1 C, 19 P) 2021-22 UK Tour Lauren Drew: 71 performances Maddison Bulleyment: 62 performances Caitlin Tipping: 68 performances Shekinah McFarlane: 60 performances Vicki Manser: 63 performances Elena Gyasi: 66 performances (61 regular prior to cast change + 5 emergency cover post-CC) Cassy Lee: 22 performances (8 A, 14 C) Cherelle Jay: 7 performances (1 B, 1 S, 2 C, 3 P) 2022-23 UK Tour Chloe Hart: 269 performances Casey Al-Shaqsy: 252 performances total (249 on UKT + 3 as E/C for WE) Aiesha Pease: 7 performances Jessica Niles: 237-245 performances total (19-27 performances with Breakaway 2.0, 218 performances with UKT) Jaina Brock-Patel: 110 performances Rebecca Wickes: 72 performances Alana M Robinson: 267 performances Harriet Caplan-Dean: 72 performances (10 A, 9 B, 13 S, 7 C, 18 H, 15 P) Grace Melville: 153 performances total w/ 151 performances on UKT (55 A, 4 B, 91 C with 60 of those performances as T/R, 1 P) + 2 as E/C for WE (2 C) Leesa Tulley: 186 performances (1 A, 35 B, 11 S, 137 H with 57 of those performances as T/R, 2 P) 2021-22 Broadway (+ Aug replacements) Adrianna Hicks: 202 performances Bre Jackson: 123 performances (two of these were half shows) Andrea Macasaet: 327 performances Abby Mueller: 117 performances Keri Rene Fuller: 183 performances (59 as T/R, 1 as early debut, the rest as principal) Brittney Mack: 322 performances Samantha Pauly: 314.5 performances Anna Uzele: 97 performances Joy Woods: 146 performances Brennyn Lark: 85 performances Mallory Maedke: 67.5 performances (16.5 A, 47 S, 4 H) Nicole Kyoung-Mi Lambert: 95 performances (39 A, 26 B, 30 C; two A were half-shows) Courtney Mack: 99.5 performances (25 B, 57.5 H, 17 P) Keirsten Hodgens: 107 performances total. 104 on Bway + 3 as emergency cover for Aragon Tour (Bway was 33 S, 25 C, 46 P; Tour was 3 C). Ayla Ciccone-Burton: 20 performances total. 12 pre-CC + 8 post-CC (pre-CC was 2 B, 3 C, 7 P; post-CC was 2 B, 3 C, 3 P) Holli’ Conway: 18 performances total. 9 pre-CC + 9 post-CC (pre-CC 3 C, 6 H; post-CC 5 A, 4 H) Hana Stewart: 2 performances (1 A, 1 P) 2022-23 Broadway Hailee Kaleem Wright: 27 performances Leandra Ellis-Gaston: 30 performances Bella Coppola: 30 performances Nasia Thomas: 29 performances Zoe Jensen: 19 performances Taylor Iman Jones: 29 performances Kristina Leopold: 2 performances (all as S) Aubrey Matalon: 9 performances (all as H) Aragon Tour Khaila Wilcoxon: 258 performances Storm Lever: 267 performances Jasmine Forsberg: 267 performances Olivia Donalson: 263 performances Didi Romero: 261 performances Gabriela Francesca Carrillo: 257 performances Cassie Silva: 41 performances total. 4 with Broadway + 37 with Aragon Tour (Broadway 3 B, 1 H; Aragon Tour 10 B, 13 C, 14 H) Kelly Denice Taylor: 29 performances total. 3 with Boy + 26 with Aragon Tour (Bway 3 S; Aragon Tour was 12 A, 7 S, 7 C) Kelsey Kimmel: 43 performances (16 A, 12 S, 15 P) Erin Ramirez: 34 performances (9 B, 11 H, 14 P) Boleyn Tour Gerianne Perez: 95 performances Zan Berube: 96 performances Amina Faye: 89 performances Terica Marie: 93 performances Aline Mayagoitia: 91 performances Sydney Parra: 96 performances Cecilia Snow: 18 performances (4 A, 11 S, 3 C) Tay Pearlstein: 13 performances (5 B, 7 H, 1 P) Jana Larell Glover: 20 performances (5 A, 8 C, 7 P) Aryn Bohannon: 13 performances (3 B, 4 S, 6 H) Australia Tour Phoenix Jackson Mendoza: 270 performances Kala Gare: 283 performances Loren Hunter: 291 performances Kiana Daniele: 269 performances Chelsea Dawson: 267 performances Video Makan: 254.5 performances Karis Oka: 137 performances (13 A, 28 B, 1 S, 26 C, 38 H, 31 P) Shannen Alyce Quan: 86 performances (9 A, 14 B, 30 S, 2 C, 6 H, 25 P) Chiara Assetta: 93 performances (29.5 A, 3 B, 3 S, 32 C, 18 H, 6.5 P) Cristina D’Agostino: 7 performances (all as P) Madeline Fansler: performances (with Breakaway 3.0: . 16 with Aus Tour: 7 A, 4 S, 5 P) Actors who primarily continued with their initial productions: Claudia Kariuki: 293 performances - 231 pre-CC - 62 post-CC Dionne Ward-Anderson: 353 performances - 269 pre-CC - 84 post-CC Roxanne Couch: 178 performances - Totalling 1 A, 5 B, 61 S, 13 H, 98 P - 122 pre-CC (1 A, 5 B, 61 S, 13 H, 42 P; two of the P were half performances) - 56 post-CC as principal Parr Rachel Rawlinson: 166 performances - Totalling 44 A, 13 B, 51 S, 29 C, 16 H, 13 P - 142 pre-CC (40 A, 12 B, 37 S, 29 C, 13 H, 11 P; 1 C + 1 S were mid-show swing-ons) - 24 post-CC (4 A, 1 B, 14 S, 3 H, 2 P) Esme Rothero: 153 performances - Totalling 19 A, 32 B, 19 S, 16 C, 27 H, 40 P - 129 pre-CC (17 A, 31 B, 19 S, 16 C, 19 H, 27 P) - 24 post-CC (2 A, 1 B, 8 H, 13 P) Danielle Rose: 192 performances - 152 pre-CC (6 A, 51 B, 4 S, 3 C, 87 H, 1 P) - 40 post-CC (15 B, 21 H, 4 P) Jennifer Caldwell: 289 performances total - Totalling 296 as B, 11 H, 3 P - 21 pre-CC as alt (7 B, 11 H, 3 P) - 287 post-CC as principal Boleyn - 2 as E/C Boleyn for West End Natalie Pilkington: 142 performances total - Totalling 8 A, 3 B, 65 S, 12 C, 2 H, 52 P - 130 performances with 22-23 UKT (2 A, 3 B, 64 S, 12 C, 1 H, 48 P) - 3 performances w 21-22 UKT (1 A, 1 H, 1 P) - 9 performances as E/C for WE (5 A, 1 S, 3 P) Standby swings: Harriet Watson: 78 performances total - Totalling 2 A, 19 B, 21 S, 14 C, 6 H, 14 P - 42 performances as alt for the 21-22 UKT (10 B, 11 S, 4 C, 5 H, 12 P) - 3 performances as E/C on the UKT (3 C) - 17 performances as E/C for the WE (6 B, 6 S, 2 C, 1 P) - 6 performances as standby swing for 21-22 WE (2 B, 3 S, 1 H) - 10 performances as standby swing for 22-23 WE (2 A, 1 B, 1 S, 5 C, 1 P) Marilyn Caserta: 5-7 performances total - all as Aragon - 2-4 Bliss 3.0 (all as A) - 3 Bway (all E/C as A) Emergency Covers Courtney Bowman: 1 performance (WE)

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 12.17

Beer Birthdays

Thomas Cooper (1826)

George Frey (1826)

Balthas Jetter (1851)

Michael Ash (1927)

Yuri Katunin

Five Favorite Birthdays

Milla Jovovich; Russian model, actor (1975)

Mike Mills; rock bassist (1958)

William Safire; writer (1929)

John Kennedy Toole; writer (1937)

John Greenleaf Whittier; poet, writer (1807)

Famous Birthdays

Burt Baskin; ice cream maker (1913)

Paul Butterfield; blues musician (1942)

Paul Cadmus; artist (1904)

Erskine Caldwell; writer (1903)

Domenico Cimarosa; composer (1749)

Sarah Dallin; pop singer (1961)

Humphrey Davy; English chemist (1778)

Earl Dotson; Green Bay Packers T (1970)

Peter Farrelly; film director, writer (1956)

Arthur Fiedler; conductor (1894)

William Floyd; signer of the Declaration of Independence (1734)

Ford Madox Ford; English writer (1873)

Duff Goldman; pastry chef (1974)

Bob Guccione; magazine publisher (1930)

Thomas C. Haliburton; Canadian writer (1796)

Joseph Henry; scientist, inventor (1797)

Bernard Hill; actor (1944)

Ernie Hudson; actor (1945)

Eugene Levy; writer, actor, comedian (1946)

Willard Libby; atomic scientist (1908)

George Lindsey; comedian, actor (1928)

Armin Mueller-Stahl; German actor (1930)

Art Neville; R&B musician (1937)

Sy Oliver; trumpet player, bandleader (1910)

Sarah Paulson; actor (1974)

Bill Pullman; actor (1953)

Giovanni Ribisi; actor (1974)

Paul Rodgers; rock singer, pianist (1949)

Tommy Steele; pop singer (1936)

[bitter69uk]

“I was always leaving. Every time I left, I had a different hair colour, and I would be standing on the porch saying goodbye to the older couple in the living room. I didn’t have anything in common with them except that we shared a few inherited chromosomes, the identical last night name and the same bathroom … at this point it would dawn on me there was another problem. Not only was I an alien to my parents, but I was an alien to my friends.” From the book Garden of Ashes (1990) by Cookie Mueller

“Cookie looked like Janis Joplin-meets-Jayne Mansfield, a redneck hippie with a little bit of glamour drag thrown in. She never led a safe life, unsafe was her middle name. She lived on the edge, always.” John Waters on Cookie Mueller.

“Cookie Mueller was a punk when it still meant someone who was raped in prison.” John Waters on Cookie Mueller

Died on this day thirty-five years ago: definitive Baltimore bad girl Cookie Mueller (2 March 1949 – 10 November 1989). The smoky-eyed and vivacious underground actress (she’s a charismatic presence in early John Waters films like Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974)), go-go dancer, globe-trotter, advice columnist, art critic, drug dealer, New York scene-maker, eyeliner role model, muse to photographer Nan Goldin (who described Mueller as “the most fabulous woman I’d ever seen”) and authoress of autobiographical volumes like Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black and Garden of Ashes died of AIDS-related complications aged just 40. (As well as Mueller’s own musings, I’d recommend Chloe Griffin’s excellent 2014 biography Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller). Portrait by Bob Berg.

[down-the-rabbith0le]

2023 Good Reads

Jake Tapper - This Is Not Justice

Erica Hellerstein - Cowboy Bob, Black Magic, And The Courtroom Of Death

Maura Judkis - The return of the going-out top

Michael Hall - The Murders at the Lake

David Grann - Trial By Fire

Anne Helen Peterson - Thirteen Years and Three Months of Trying to Make Armie Hammer Happen

Sophiline Cheam-Shapiro - Met Museum Kicked Me Out for Praying to My Ancestral Gods

Monique Judge - Sarah Jane Comrie is A 2023 Version of Carolyn Bryant

Skip Hollandsworth - A Shooting on Spring Grove Avenue

Andy Mannix - What Happened to Heather Mayer?

Megan Shutzer and Rachel Lauren Mueller - Abuse, Chaos and Cruelty in Louisiana Juvenile Detention

[tomorrowusa]

Obstructing justice includes tampering with or destroying evidence. Guess what Donald Trump has been up to. It's almost comical how Trump keeps digging a bigger legal hole for himself.

In the middle of the linked vid, Anderson Cooper talks with George Conway. In addition to being a columnist, Conway is an attorney who understands the deep legal shit Trump continues to envelop himself in. Conway seems genuinely astonished and comes up with some great lines. (emphasis added).

I mean, everything stands out to me. They have him dead to rights -- they had him dead to rights back when they executed the search warrant and they came up with those documents. I mean, there is literally a smoking arsenal here. I mean, people are making a big deal about what we saw in the superseding indictment yesterday, but the fact of the matter is, it's just icing on a very, very large cake of mind bogglingly inculpatory evidence against Donald Trump. I mean, he's like a never ending bottomless pit of illegality. Here, he is basically, by asking his workers to destroy the videotape, I mean, he was obstructing justice, but maybe he wasn't just obstructing justice, he was obstructing justice about his prior efforts to obstruct justice, because those videotapes showed how he and Walt Nauta were moving these boxes around and it was just like in the Mueller report. The Mueller report explains how Trump tried to get his White House counsel to get the special counsel, then Bob Mueller, to resign. And then when it hits the newspapers that he did that, then Trump asked the White House counsel to write a false memo saying that it didn't happen. And again, he's obstructing justice about obstructing justice. He's like, a Matryushka -- a Matryoshka doll of criminality, this man. And it's just -- he's not making it -- he's not making it any easier for himself. If anything, it's sort of being unfair to himself because he's making it so easy for prosecutors. One-tenth of the evidence that they have could put him away for the rest of his life.

Trump's growing legal problems aren't stopping him from telling Republicans what they want to hear.

Trump tells crowd he is the only Republican who can win 2024 election

Trump also said "I alone can fix it" in 2016 at the GOP convention.

Fool me once...

[abellinthecupboard]

Moon Fishing

When the moon was full they came to the water. some with pitchforks, some with rakes, some with sieves and ladles, and one with a silver cup. And they fished til a traveler passed them and said, "Fools, to catch the moon you must let your women spread their hair on the water -- even the wily moon will leap to that bobbing net of shimmering threads, gasp and flop till its silver scales lie black and still at your feet." And they fished with the hair of their women till a traveler passed them and said, "Fools, do you think the moon is caught lightly, with glitter and silk threads? You must cut out your hearts and bait your hooks with those dark animals; what matter you lose your hearts to reel in your dream?" And they fished with their tight, hot hearts till a traveler passed them and said, "Fools, what good is the moon to a heartless man? Put back your hearts and get on your knees and drink as you never have, until your throats are coated with silver and your voices ring like bells." And they fished with their lips and tongues until the water was gone and the moon had slipped away in the soft, bottomless mud.

— Lisel Mueller

[darkmaga-returns]

Trump Cabinet picks. CNN 'will axe top stars. Biden to ask for more money for Kiev. Pezeshkian: Tehran has to deal with Washington. Houthis Target US Aircraft Carrier. Large explosion in Louisville KY

Lioness of Judah Ministry

Nov 13, 2024

Trump Cabinet picks: Here’s who’s on the list to carry out his agenda

President-elect Trump is assembling his Cabinet and senior staff for his second term in the White House before taking office in January.

Trump must nominate leaders for 15 government agencies and other top administration jobs that require Senate confirmation, along with appointing senior staff. Here’s a look at who has been tapped to serve so far…

BREAKING: President Trump Nominates Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense in Shock Move

President Trump has his Secretary of Defense and it is a name no one saw coming.

Just a short time ago, Trump announced he had selected Fox News’s own Pete Hegseth to lead the Department of Defense (DOD). He cited Hegseth’s stellar America First credentials and decorated service on as an army combat veteran. He also cited Hegseth’s book “The War on Warriors,” which analyzed the left’s betrayal of those who have risked their lives to serve our nation.

BREAKING: Trump Announces Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will Head Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”)

President Trump on Tuesday announced Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will head the Department of Government Efficiency.

“I am pleased to announced that the Great Elon Musk, working in conjunction with American Patriot Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead the Department of Government Efficiency (“DOGE”). Together, these two wonderful Americans will pave the way for my Administration to dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies – Essential to the “Save America” Movement,” Trump said in a statement.

Dark Horse for Attorney General Is a DEI-Peddling Lawyer Who Refused to Defend Trump Against Mueller

President-elect Donald J. Trump is said to be considering New York lawyer Robert (Bob) Giuffra, co-chair of Sullivan & Cromwell, for his U.S. Attorney General pick.

While Giuffra has much legal experience, many Trump supporters see him as having questionable loyalty and lacking the fortitude needed to take on the level of partisan entrenchment at the Department of Justice (DOJ). Giuffra’s political donations include gifts to ‘Team DeSantis 2024,’ the McConnell Senate Committee, and Ted Cruz’s campaign against Donald Trump in 2016. As Trump took the lead in late summer, Giuffra donated to the Trump Victory Committee.

CNN 'will axe top stars in layoffs that'll see hundreds fired as ratings continue to tank'

CNN is planning to wield the axe on some of its high-paid staff after dismal election ratings that cap off a disastrous period for the cable news network. 

According to an explosive new report from Puck, network executives will unleash sweeping lay-offs in a bid to save the network's flailing reputation. It comes after the departure of stalwart Chris Wallace, and amid reports senior stars like Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper have both been denied raises. 

[ear-worthy]

Bad Movies Rule Podcast: When Bad Films Produce A Good Podcast

Here's the irony surrounding podcasts about movies: 125 major films are released every year, a number that has decreased over the decades. Yet, there are tens of thousands of movie podcasts. The attraction of doing a movie podcast is easy to understand. Recording and releasing a movie podcast doesn't require a degree, certification, or even extensive knowledge of films.

The setup that has dominated this genre for years goes as such: three dudes in their 20s who were in a fraternity get together over some IPAs and try to be funny while discussing movies. Fart and tit jokes fly, and movie criticism is perhaps secondary to having a good time.

A few of the best movie podcasts include Filmspotting, hosted by Adam Kempenaar and Josh Larsen, which has produced shows since 2005, Verbal Diorama by Em, and Every Single Sci-Fi Film Ever by Ayesha Khan.

Every once in a while, however, a podcast crashes through its own trope and succeeds where others have failed. That movie podcast is Bad Movies Rule.

This excellent movie podcast began in September 2021 and has 170 episodes in the can. The show's premise - unique because it focuses on bad movies like The Razzies - foes as such: "We're a bunch of blue-collar folks that talk about all the movies that don't get enough love. We give out awards to each film and try to determine whether they are actually bad, good-bad, or straight-up good! We hope you will enjoy being part of our group and hanging out with us." This twist on a familiar trope usually separates a podcast from the crowded podverse. Bad Movies Rule is a solid example that found a unique premise and executed its essence with superb discipline. The podcasting team of Bad Movies Rule continues: "We are a group of friends and filmmakers who started a sketch comedy group back in 2005 in Chicago. "That eventually turned into a string of independent movies from 2006 to 2010. We approach talking about films from the standpoint of having made them (on a much smaller scale), and can commiserate with some of the challenges. Bottom line - we love movies, and many of the movies we love wouldn't be called good by the common arbiters of quality (critics/award shows). "We've all gone on and started families, but this podcast became a way to get the band back together and bring in some new friends as well." Understanding who's talking during an episode is a problem except for the most faithful. I listened to ten episodes and was still a bit fuzzy on the shifting lineup. Apparently, the podcast has James Hauser, Joe Goratowski, TWO Ryans - Mattila and Mueller, somebody named Bob, and the lone female named Jen.

Despite the musical chairs hosting situation, the group mesh well together with minimal talking over one another, and each person is free to display their comedy chops, film analysis acumen, and social commentary.   Let's face it. Dissecting any form of art that's bad is much more fun than, say, trying to define the genius of the Mona Lisa or a great film like Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. The format of the show is simple yet effective. The team's chosen bad movie is dissected scene by scene, with plenty of comedic interludes and caustic comments throughout the scene-by-scene review of the film. At the end of the episode, the team gives out awards for overacting, bad acting, and underrated performances with names for actors that exemplify that skill. For example, the bad acting award is named for Steven Seagal, who, I agree, maybe one of the worst actors of all time. Can we also add Chuck Norris to that list? Some of my favorite episodes include the January 2, 2024, show about Jaws 2. In the episode, the co-hosts imagine what the film would be like if Arnold Schwarzenegger played one of the teens trapped in the raft and in danger of becoming a shark snack. With their talents on full display, all the co-hosts break out their "Arn-old" impersonations, and, as TV Guide used to write, hilarity ensued. In the Tremors 3 episode on December 22, 2023, the co-hosts ridicule the silly six million-dollar budget, which the producers seemingly wasted on a few special effects, as the co-hosts poke copious holes in the ludicrous plot and reuse of the footage from earlier films in the franchise to save money.    The episode from March 2023 on the 1986 film Cobra with Sylvester Stallone is a can't-miss. It's Stallone with a matchstick in his mouth, which doesn't help his muddled diction and sunglasses that he wears day and night. In a welcome departure in January 2024, the show actually reviewed an excellent movie—Predator —which was a special preview of the first episode of their Patreon-exclusive show, Good Movies Rule, which originally aired on June 1st, 2023. What I like about this movie podcast include:

The co-hosts have a genuine affection for one another

Unlike some movie podcasts, the co-hosts raise the level of wit and humor above that of the middle-school level.3. The co-hosts invest their time in studying and assessing these bad films and explaining why they are so bad. 

The show had a "good nose" for bad films that were ripe for the peeling.

The awards they give out for acting in these flicks are both silly and well-scrutinized. Plus, making fun of Putin's buddy, Seagal, the actor, is deliciously satisfying. What I also like about the show is that the hosts do not take themselves too seriously. This comment is on their website." From the beginning, we've been very honest about the quality of our show. You can listen….but it's not good"   Check out Bad Movies Rule. The movies are often so bad, and the podcast is so good.

[procurement-insights]

Who Really Cares About An SAP Senior Executive Departure?

Why would anyone care if an SAP executive left the company?

We highlight on Supply Chain Matters yesterday’s sudden announcement of another SAP senior executive departure, that being Chief Technology Officer and Executive Board Member Juergen Mueller. https://lnkd.in/gcCtx4_m – Bob Ferrari LinkedIn post (September 5, 2024) The first thought that comes to my mind is this: Bob Ferrari: How does this benefit the end customer? How does this help the…