#david code weiss

[smbhax]

From DC Graphic Novel #1: Star Raiders, 1983. Art by José Luis García-López, script by Elliott Maggin, letters by David Cody Weiss.

Based on the Atari 800 video game.

[nitewrighter]

How much does the fact that Moore himself considers "The Killing Joke" one of his greatest writing regrets factor into your thoughts on it?

I mean, I can see why he would have a lot of regrets about it because of the climate of the time and the infamous "cripple the bitch" exchange, and, obviously, because it steered the Joker as a character into the much darker and edgier version we know today and set a lot of nasty precedents in comics with a proliferation of violence against women as shock value. It basically created this situation where everyone wanted their writing to have the impact of Alan Moore, but unfortunately, they weren't Alan Moore and were in fact just kind of sexist dickbags for whom the actual horror and emotional impact of the dark content of the stories is transformed into the cheap and exploitative--I guess the TL;DR version of it is, Alan Moore is George R. R. Martin, but if GRRM realized his writing spawned 800 David Benioffs and D.B Weisses who would go on to define the fantasy genre for the next three decades. I'd be full of regret, too.

I think for me, not to like, disparage Moore or anything, but I do feel like the Comics Code created the atmosphere that was primed for him to have this massive splash on comics: Readers were hungry for stories with drama, lasting impact on characters, confrontation with uncomfortable questions that had long been more or less brushed off by virtue of the temporariness of the medium and the suffocating rules of the comics code. And Moore's content fit the bill.

If it wasn't Moore, it would have been someone else, but I'm honestly kind of glad it was Moore. It's even kind of funny in a morbid way, considering Moore was more or less over superheroes as a genre to begin with--but as I've talked about with my posts with early superman, the edges of superheroes as a genre is porous. I've talked about Superman being a Screwball romantic comedy in a sci-fi setting, so it's not unthinkable that Moore would end up dragging the conventions of the superhero genre to darker places by incorporating more elements of horror, pulp, crime noir, and even some Lynchian soap opera/gothic elements. I mean, it's equal parts fascinating and painful, because even though it sent comics down this dark copycat path, it really should have revealed how remarkable it is you can plug other genres' storytelling conventions into the superhero genre. Moore's stories slap not because they're Superhero stories, but because he's plugging superheroes into his stylistic/genre comfort zone.

But also the thing is, I'm one of those people who prefers Barbara Gordon as Oracle rather than Batgirl, and I do feel like the core of the Killing Joke is really more about the folie a deux of Batman and the Joker and I genuinely really like that. I also think that as we (rightfully) get caught up in the horror of the position Barbara is put in, we completely brush over the fact that Commissioner Gordon was literally being lead around naked on a leash. All the outrage I ever heard about the Killing Joke was Barbara getting crippled and the photos, literally no one mentioned Jim Gordon being lead around naked on a leash and kept in a circus cage! Like, is that not also a shocking violation of his personhood? I think both Gordons were meant to be seen as a unit, they were both humiliated and dehumanized, and they both represent two sides of Batman--Barbara representing that childish, powerful emotional core, the kid in a Halloween costume who hopes if they punch enough faces they can bring daddy back, and Jim representing Batman having to be an adult, having to recognize the boundaries of the law, and having to act as a guardian. Like, yes, Barbara and Jim, are obviously, to their credit, brilliant detectives, but they're also placed in these relationships to Batman of 'mentee' and 'Mentor/Partner.' For the Joker, it wasn't about using Barbara to hurt Batman and Jim, so much as it was about using *Barbara and Jim* to harm Batman. But that's also why ultimately the Joker's focus fell on Jim in relation to Batman--Jim Gordon represents these adult, institutional realities, the idea that ultimately you have to work to protect a society, and Joker wanted to use the adult who represents accountability to that society to prove his whole "One bad day" philosophy. the Joker basically goes through his most famous version of his whole "One Bad Day/Society is a Joke" spiel in that comic. I was going somewhere with this. This was going to link back to Moore somehow--Ah well. See above point of, "Genre-impact wise, I can see why he would have regret about it. But also I think those genre impacts were due in large part to people only valuing the story for its shock value and you can try to make yourself as simultaneously clear and representative of your personal style as possible, but that's not going to stop The Point from flying right over people's heads." Something something "Wow cool robot!" comic.

There is so goddamn much to unpack in The Killing Joke, both in its textual relations to the characters and the potential inspirations Moore was working from, and in its impact on comics. I feel like I'm gnawing on a big mutton bone.

[arwainian]

Reading This Week 2024 #43

hello hello it has been a bit of a weird week of ups and downs. really excellent movie times with friends, good food, and halloween crossdressing, but also a long approaching break up finally got made official today. my reading has not slowed down in the slightest though so let's talk about it!

Finished:

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallet, narrated by Thomas Judd I think this book is really one that should best be enjoyed in audiobook format. Like yeah okay there's some reasons you'd want the text version if you're a person who likes to try to solve the mysteries in mystery novels and want to highlight or take note of certain parts, but the conceit is that these are transcripts of audio messages left by a severely dyslexic man who uses them for notetaking/journaling while trying to uncover a mystery. as I said last week I got really attached to our main character Steve

Frieren: Beyond Journey's End, Vol. 5 written by Kaneshiro Yamada, art by Tsukasa Abe, translated by Misa 'Japanese Ammo' I am not particularly interested in this first-class mage exam arc that Frieren and co have been on for this volume. Idk i just find it much less charming than the sort of adventure of the week style that had been the previous pacing. I'll take a break reading this for a bit and see if it has its charm for me again after a little away. The anime is definitely on my to-watch list now

"Male Sexual Victimization: Examining Men's Experiences of Rape and Sexual Assault" by Karen G. Weiss glad i read this for myself after seeing it cited in another work

click by hornyonside (birdlord5000) on ao3 tender sky/fourteen fifteen smut that's a good time

Whitewater Foxholes by Aterikakaal (Biorenewologist) on ao3 Phyrgian has a disappointing hookup with Corrasion bc they are home sick for other branched :,(

to remake ourselves by evilmageclub on ao3 read for shapeshifting samsam smut

when the moon has gone to bed by blacksatinpointeshoes on ao3 if you would like to cry over a Fero/Samol modern au, might i recommend this fic? go forth and witness Fero as just some guy you meet in Boston

"The Third Sex" by Talia Bhatt on substack

"Degendering and Regendering" by Talia Bhatt on substack read some of Talia Bhatt's transfeminist essays this week. highly HIGHLY recommend reading "The Third Sex" if you have ever heard of hijra being described as "India's religiously venerated third gender" because Bhatt does some vital recontextualization with that

Longbourn by Jo Baker, narrated by Emma Fielding A great supplementary read to Pride and Prejudice, spinning up a dramatic story for the servants of Longbourn that only mildly intersects with the trials and tribulations of the Bennets. Since it was written in 2013 is reckons a little bit more with racial and class politics for regency England in a way that Austen's work did not explicitly. not perfectly but in a way that made me sit up in my seat reading it. the romances in this makes my heart ache like crazy

blind item by blacksatinpointeshoes on ao3 tabloid fic of clementine kesh's school years

Magic's Promise by Mercedes Lackey, narrated by Gregory St. John I need to incorporate the ways this book handles sexual coercion and violence towards minors as well as incest into my thesis somewhere, at the very least to point at it as a thing the fantasy genre deals with. it is fascinatingly frank

The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels by Janice Hallet, read by Annie Aldington, Nneka Okoye, Gareth Armstrong, Sid Sagar, and Kristin Atherton I guess having key characters make up fake people that seem as real as the rest in the epistolary format is Hallet's signature

Started/Ongoing:

John Dies at the End by David Wong (Jason Pargin's psuedonym) reading for SFF book club. I am finding it incredibly abrasive tonally....

The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall oh poor Stephen.... so my copy is like subtitled as a classic work of lesbian literature, but to be clear, it is also very easy to interpret it through a transgender lens

[cksmart-world]

SMART BOMB

The Completely Unnecessary News Analysis

By Christopher Smart

Sept. 26, 2023

AN INSIDE GUIDE TO MORMON-SPEAK

Praise the Lord, The Salt Lake Tribune has published a holy glossary for heathens so folks like Wilson and the band can better translate what Mormons are saying. For example: “Celestial Kingdom — When members speak of heaven, they usually mean the Celestial Kingdom.” It's a public service for people like those moving here from Austin, Texas. To help, the staff here at Smart Bomb added more info to this new Deseret Dictionary:

Flip — The Mormon term for another F-word. e.g., “What the flip.”

Garbage — The LDS word for excrement, e.g., “Can you believe that garbage.”

Gentile — Heathens who are targets of Mormon missionaries who must be saved by dunking them in water.

Jack Mormon — A lost soul who has strayed from righteousness and needs help to quit their sinning ways.

Apostate — A Jack Mormon who is beyond saving and must be kept away from women and children.

Baptism of the dead — Mormons can baptize anyone and meet them in the Celestial Kingdom. That way, everyone gets to heaven, including Adolf Hitler and Anne Frank. For real.

Word of Wisdom — Always take two Mormons fishing — that way they won't drink the beer.

A NATION OF SLOBS

America owes Fonzi a big wet kiss — or does it. T shirts and jeans are now the uniform of… just about everyone. And this country's big dress-down has spread like Covid from Italy to Argentina and from Russia to Morocco. John Fetterman, the recently elected U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, is famous for the hoodies and shorts he sports around the Capital. Last week, Majority Leader Chuck Shumer relaxed the official Senate dress code, setting the stage for god-knows-what. Hold on Wilson, the band might think that's cool but have you ever returned to this country and landed at JFK or LAX. You can tell you're back in the states because people in the airport are wearing bad looking T shirts, flip-flops and basketball shorts exposing rear cleavage. Yecht. Land of the free, home of the slobs. Sure, Marlon Brando looked good in a T shirt and denims in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” but the middle-aged guy at the airport Starbucks in the saggy jeans and gut hanging out of his Raiders tee doesn't recall the Fonz. It's gotten so bad that gangsters don't even dress up any more. Rich people dress down, too, but their jeans cost $600, the sneakers $300 and the tees — who knows. At least their but-crack isn't showing. Call it “slob chic.” If you're a real slob, this could be a good year for you. But pull up your shorts — please.

THE CHAOS CAUCUS AND THE GRAND INQUISITION

Feeling dysfunctional? Cheer up. Compared to the U.S. House of Representatives — or should we say Clown House — you're practically normal. Even Wilson and the band look upstanding compared to this lot. Ohio Republican Jim Jordan did his impression of Grand Inquisitor looking to torch Hunter Biden, who was in scurrilous cahoots with then V.P. Joe Biden plotting heresy and kickbacks. In the committee's dock, Attorney General Merrick Garland was roughed up by inquisitors, snarling that he dished Hunter — and therefore his father — special treatment while going after conservatives like Queen Isabella beheading Moors in the Spanish Inquisition. Why, the Grand Inquisitor demanded, did then-president Donald Trump appoint U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss to investigate Hunter. “The fix was in.” Huh? What? Beyond the buffoonish prelude to the impeachment of President Biden, Republicans dueled in House corridors with a cadre of far-right saboteurs who were playing government-shutdown-chicken with hapless Speaker Kevin McCarthy — window dressing for their real agenda of scaling back Ukraine aid and imposing social policy dictates on abortion and gender. Oh, and one more thing — they want Kevin McCarthy's head on a spike. Call it Making America Great Again.

Post script — That's a wrap for another spacey week here at Smart Bomb where we keep track of asteroids so you don't have to. Get this Wilson, seven years ago, NASA launched an unmanned spacecraft called OSIRIS-REx to collect a sample of the 4 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu that's only one-third of a mile wide. Hovering over the asteroid, the spacecraft's robotic arm scooped up eight ounces of space dirt and returned to Earth's orbit, dropping the stuff off in a capsule that landed in the west desert bombing range at Dugway Proving Ground here in Utah. The molecular material of the sample could provide clues to our planet's origins. Then OSIRIS-REx flew off to it's next stop — the asteroid Apophis with a scheduled encounter in 2029. Simply amazing. Of course, we can't pass a budget or convince conservatives that Earth is imperiled by climate change due to burning of fossil fuels. But people love science. Well, some people, anyway. Others watch TV, talk on cell phones and drive cars but don't believe in science. Vaccination — nah. Funny, isn't it, Wilson. Did a man walk on the moon or was it just a sophisticated hoax, like 9-11. There are so many hoaxes anymore. With Donald Trump alone, there are dozens and dozens. Maybe we didn't go to Bennu after all.

OK Wilson, to say the Republican party is all flipped up would be an understatement. They've got the entire country sittin' in limbo. What's a mother to do. We shouldn't worry about what we can't control but there's this existential doom hanging over us and it's not an asteroid. Well, flip it. Tell the band to crack open the beers and get us on outa here:

Sitting here in limbo But I know it won't be long Sitting here in limbo Like a bird without a song Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on Sitting here in limbo Waiting for the dice to roll Yeah, now, sitting here in limbo Got some time to search my soul Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on Sitting here in limbo Waiting for the tide to flow

Sitting here in limbo Knowing that I have to go Well, they're putting up a resistance But I know that my faith will lead me on I don't know where life will take me But I know where I have been I don't know what life will show me But I know what I have seen Tried my hand at love and friendship That is past and gone And now it's time to move along Sitting in limbo, sitting in limbo Limbo limbo, sitting in limbo

(Sitting in Limbo — Jimmy Cliff)

[gusty-wind]

FBI Lies About ‘Highly Credible’ Source Claims Were Leaked To NYT And Spoonfed To Weiss

The emails confirm David Weiss and his top deputies were fed the false New York Times story --- which raises the question: Which FBI agent fed the Times the lies?

Emails obtained by the Heritage Foundation following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, and shared exclusively with The Federalist, reveal that lies leaked to The New York Times about the origins of damning evidence implicating Hunter and Joe Biden in a bribery scandal were fed to Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.

As I previously detailed, The New York Times reported those lies in its Dec. 11, 2020, article, “Material from Giuliani Spurred a Separate Justice Depart. Pursuit of Hunter Biden” --- just a week after Americans first learned of the investigation of the now-president’s son. The Times’ reporting was “replete with falsehoods and deceptive narratives,” but “Americans just didn’t know it at the time.”

However, earlier this year, thanks to “whistleblower revelations and statements by former Attorney General William Barr,” the country learned that the Times’ claims --- that evidence implicating the Bidens was derived from Giuliani — were false. Rather, a separate investigation had uncovered reporting from a “highly credible” FBI confidential human source (CHS) implicating Hunter and Joe Biden in a bribery scandal.

Now the FOIA-produced emails reveal even more: The FBI lies, laundered through The New York Times, were fed directly to Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.

The Emails

The never-before-seen emails provided late last week by the Department of Justice to the Heritage Foundation and its Oversight Project director, Mike Howell, in response to a court order, included an email thread revealing how the Times story landed in Weiss’s lap.

“Ladies, here you have attached the NYT’s story ‘Material from Giuliani Spurred a Separate Justice Depart. Pursuit of Hunter Biden’ which posted a bit ago. Link here,” a Dec. 11, 2020, 6:44 p.m. email from the FBI Office of Public Affairs’ National Press Office read.

The names of the two email recipients were redacted. But the “(PG) (FBI)” and “(BA) (FBI)” coding suggests the National Press Office had forwarded the Times’ article, which spun evidence obtained by the Pittsburgh office as originating from Giuliani disinformation, to the Pittsburgh FBI office and the Baltimore FBI office --- which provided support for the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office.

Within two hours of the FBI’s National Press Office sharing the false narrative about evidence of Biden family corruption, the link had been forwarded to a variety of Baltimore FBI agents, from there to Weiss’s top deputies Lesley Wolf and Shawn Weede, and further on by Weede to fellow Assistant U.S. Attorney Shannon Hanson and Weiss. Weiss himself then forwarded the Times article to another member of the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office, whose name was redacted in the FOIA-provided documents.

Given the sweetheart deal Weiss’s top Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf later tried to gift to Hunter Biden, this latest revelation raises the question of whether (and, if so, when) Weiss’s staff informed him of the CHS’s reporting that Burisma paid $5 million each in bribes to both Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.

These questions are now more important than ever because the just-released emails show Weiss’s staff sharing with him The New York Times’ false reporting that portrayed evidence coming from the Pittsburgh FBI office as sourced solely to Rudy Giuliani. But that’s not true --- not by a long shot. At a minimum, Wolf and others in the Delaware office knew that — but Weiss might not have.

[chrancecriber]

Antenne Vorarlberg Chillout Lounge (August 11, 2023)

23:54 Framewerk - Electric Religion 23:48 Christopher Von Deylen - Free 23:45 Dj Antoine Feat. Craig Smart - Good Vibes (Good Feeling) (Dj Antoine Vs Mad Mark 2k19 Mix) 23:39 Bliss - End Titles 23:37 Reece Lemonius, Munich Monstrs - Miss You 23:32 Boozoo Bajou Feat. Wayne Martin - Moanin' 23:30 R3hab X Lukas Graham - Most People 23:27 Melonia - Sweet Child O' Mine 23:18 Schiller - Empire Of Light 23:14 Tycho - Horizon 23:10 Fritz Kalkbrenner - Good Things 23:05 Fous De La Mer - Conmigo 23:02 Mousse T. - Boyfriend (Alle Farben Remix) 22:56 Anrey - We Are The Mirrors (Extended Mix) 22:53 Tom Walker - Just You And I 22:49 Nora En Pure - Life On Hold 22:43 Twocolors - Together 22:37 Noraj Cue - Story At The Campfire 22:32 Schiller & Tricia Mcteague - Guardian Angel 22:29 Nightmares On Wax - You Wish 22:23 Beyhude - Rüzgar 22:19 Lstn - Undecided 22:12 Nova June - More 22:08 Robert Manos - Silver 22:05 Magnofield - Lupino 22:00 Moby - Everything That Rises 21:57 Kygo, Paul Mccartney & Michael Jackson - Say Say Say 21:54 Armin Van Buuren Feat. Angel Taylor - Make It Right (Trinix Remix) 21:50 Mikael Delta - The Last Storm Of Words 21:46 Sound Nomaden - The Morning After 21:42 Nora En Pure - Enchantment 21:38 Kygo Feat. Valerie Broussard - Think About You 21:35 Shaun Frank & Takis Feat. Shells - Don't Say I Love You 21:33 Felix Jaehn Feat. Polina - Book Of Love (Chris Meid Piano Version) 21:28 Lazy Hammbock - Surround Me 21:24 Elderbrook & Bob Moses - Inner Light 21:20 Guardner - All Right 21:16 Lstn - Sky & Sand 21:13 Nora Van Elken - I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me) 21:10 The Alan Parsons Project - Mammagamma (Instrumental) 21:07 Bolier - Another Blue 21:02 Mike Candys & Jack Holiday - La Serenissima 20:56 Thievery Corporation - The Glass Bead Game 20:52 Schiller - Summer In Berlin 20:44 David Hohme - Fear Less (Hraach Remix) 20:39 Bush - Letting The Cables Sleep (The N.o.w. Remix) 20:36 Mike Candys, Sb Mont & Salvo - Turned To Dust 20:29 Tycho - Epoch (Luttrell Remix) 20:26 Dj Antoine & Dead-line - Shout 20:20 Colyn - Lightyears 20:14 Gotan Project - Last Tango In Paris 20:08 Christopher Von Deylen - Euphoria 20:03 Röyksopp Feat. Astrid S - 02 Let's Get It Right 20:00 Kayu Feat. Gabs - Waterfalls 19:57 Nora Van Elken - Interstellar 19:53 Robin Schulz & David Guetta - On Repeat 19:50 Adara, Egzod, Sinego - Free 19:47 Hugel - Can't Love Myself (Feat. Mishaal& Lpw) 19:45 Shapov & Avian Grays Feat. Kifi - Light Up The World 19:37 Tapesh And Dayne S - How I Do (Original Mix) 19:34 Tiësto - The Motto 19:30 Loopaland - Born To Be Alive 19:27 Neptunica & Lunax - We Don't Even Talk Anymore 19:24 Dize Feat. Aurii - Wenn Ich Nicht Mehr Weiss 19:21 Max Johann Feat. Pearl Andersson - Bette Davis Eyes 19:15 Blank & Jones - Coh 19:10 Mandala Dreams - Mirror Lake 19:06 Espresso Del Lago - Come On 19:02 Basixx - Stay In Your Sunlight 18:58 Cats On Bricks Feat. Zach Alwin - Planes Over Ushuaia 18:54 Teri Richardson - Shadows Of My Love 18:51 Amely & Lvndscape - Losing My Mind 18:48 Robin Schulz Feat. Alida - In Your Eyes 18:44 Sono - Twist In My Sobriety (Sans Souci Remix Edit) 18:40 David Guetta, Robin Schulz, Cheat Codes - Shed A Light (Blank & Jones Remix) 18:35 Schiller - Mittelerde 18:32 Undressd - Forever Young 18:29 Buchs Feat. Nokyo - Cheverolet 18:25 Trentemoller - Miss You 18:22 Kush Kush & Sickmellow Feat. Kazhi - Blacklight 18:19 Mike Candys & Jack Holiday - Saltwater (Rework) 18:12 Blüchel & Von Deylen - Etoile Polaire 18:08 Milkwish - From The Earth To The Moon 18:05 Wave Wave Feat. Evie - Real 18:00 Steen Thottrup - El Alba 17:55 Sum Wave - Beach Memories 17:52 Nora En Pure & Lika Morgan - In The Air Tonight (Sons Of Maria Remix) 17:46 Finnebassen - If You Only Knew 17:44 Srtw & Mave Feat. Sønlille - Last Train Home 17:39 Waldeck - Defenceless (Mushroom Dive ) 17:37 Trinix & Ian Urbina - Bad Things 17:32 Schiller - Free The Dragon 17:25 Menachem 26 - Hal (Anatolian Sessions Remix) 17:22 Morgan Page Feat. Lissie - Firewalk 17:18 Tonenation - Hijo De La Luna 17:13 Lux - Secret Fish 17:07 Dale Anderson Feat. Anil Chawla - Pimento Grove 16:59 Hraach Feat. Iveta Mukuchyan - Sarer Jan 16:55 Kaskade - Maybe 16:52 Avian Grays & Azteck - Endlessly 16:49 Blank & Jones - Swept Away 16:44 Mari Boine - Gula Gula (Chilluminati Mix) 16:42 Nathan Evans - Wellerman (220 Kid X Billen Ted Remix) 16:39 Chubbanak Club - Candysnow 16:36 Lunax - I Like 16:32 Bolier & Leandro Da Silva - Floripa (Extended) 16:27 Schiller - Tiefblau 16:24 Shouse - Won't Forget You 16:20 Shallour & Riah - Lie 16:16 Armin Van Buuren, System F - Exhale (Tim Besamusca's Lounge Mix) 16:14 Rita Ora - You Only Love Me 16:10 Olga Scheps - How Much Is The Fish? 16:02 Chris Coco & Captain Bliss - Harmonica Track (Deep Mix) 15:58 Moli - Cloud No9 (Montmartre Remix) 15:56 Loud Luxury And Frank Walker Feat. Stephen Puth - Like Gold 15:53 Regard - Ride It 15:45 Jan Blomqvist - Empty Floor 15:36 After Sunrise - Deep Breath (Extended Mix) 15:33 Le Shuuk Feat. Xilions - Goodbye 15:30 Hallmann - Always Be 15:25 Schiller Feat. Eva Mali - Ein Schöner Tag (Live) 15:19 Goa Foundation - (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight 15:15 Scotty & Wilcox - Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (Wilcox Extended) 15:10 Guy Mantzur - The Invisible Man 15:07 Fedde Le Grand Feat. Vince Freeman - Devils 15:04 Zaz - Demain C'est Toi 15:00 Ambala Feat. Laid Back - Walk With The Dreamers 14:56 Armin Van Buuren Feat. Jake Reese - Need You Now 14:53 Robin Schulz & Alle Farben & Israel Kamakawiwo'ole - Somewhere Over The Rainbow / What A Wonderful World 14:49 Aural Float - Be As You Are 14:45 The Ocean Piano - Piano Mi Camino (Blue Wave Mix) 14:38 Fc Kahuna - Hayling 14:34 Sons Of Maria - Elevate 14:31 Iossa, Ken Holland - The Seed Feat. Iossa (Original Mix) 14:27 Simioli, Provenzano, Scarlet - Ain't No Sunshine 14:22 Schiller Feat. Jael - Tired (Live) 14:19 Avaion, Paulwetz, Nu Aspect Feat. Yuma - Sleepless 14:11 Hraach - Paseo De Los Tristes 14:03 Miyagi, Sascha Braemer, Dan Caster, Jan Blomqvist - Woodpeckers Love Affair 14:00 Paratone - Time After Time 13:56 Melloton - See You Again (Extended Mix) 13:53 Vievie - Sea Roses 13:48 Thomas Lemmer & Andreas Bach - Embracing Love 13:44 Moby - Lie Down In Darkness 13:39 Lyke - Stay With Me 13:36 Faithless - Insomnia 13:32 Edx - Vommuli 13:25 Beyhude - Terso 13:17 Trinidad - L'oiseau (Original Mix) 13:11 Anrey - Lost Lands (Extended Mix) 13:07 Cecilia Krull - Agnus Dei (Benny Benassi & Bb Team Remix) 13:02 Croquet Club - Awake 12:56 Hraach & Armen Miran - Nowhere 12:53 Gamper & Dadoni Feat. Joe Jury - Satellites 12:50 Dragonette, Mike Mago - Outlines (Original Mix) 12:47 Sans Souci - Fenton 12:44 Dj Antoine & Deep Vice - When You Want Some Love (Dj Antoine Vs Mad Mark 2k21 Mix) 12:38 Tosca - Gute Laune 12:35 Chicane - Capricorn (Back Pedal Brakes Remix) 12:31 Lexy & K-paul Feat. Enda Gallery - Peilschnarte 12:28 Lucy Neville - Shameless 12:24 R3hab, Timmy Trumpet, W&w - Distant Memory 12:18 Fous De La Mer - Waiting For The Sun 12:15 Armin Van Buuren & Avira - Illusion (Mixed) 12:11 Ec Twins, Oda Loves You - Wonderful Life 12:06 Mahoroba - Chimes In Motion (Passion Cut) 12:02 Lstn - Thoughts 11:57 Blank & Jones - Twilight Moon 11:54 Sixth Finger - If I Can't Have You 11:48 Consolidation Feat. Moguai - Ode To Joy 11:45 Sam Feldt & Sam Fischer - Pick Me Up (Vavo Remix) 11:41 Rìfìs - Like An Animal 11:37 Blank & Jones Feat. Zoe Durrant - One Evening (Lofi Selection) 11:31 Tosca - No More Olives 11:24 Rìfìs Du Sol - On My Knees (Oliver Schories Remix) 11:20 Nora En Pure - World Of Rules 11:13 Plus Minus - Meeting Of The Worlds 11:06 Julian Wassermann - People 11:03 Nora Van Elken - Okinawa 10:57 La Vita - Saxual Seduction 10:51 Rodriguez Jr. Feat. Liset Alea - What Is Real 10:46 Worakls - Caprice 10:43 Blank & Jones - Flaming June 10:40 Vievie - Blue Island 10:37 The Holy Santa Barbara Feat. Madugo - The Sailor Song 10:34 Adele - Skyfall 10:31 Bernward Koch - Lonely Dream (Solo Piano) 10:27 Armin Van Buuren Feat. Josh Cumbee - Sunny Days (Original Mix) 10:25 Edx - Neptune 10:20 Paul Oakenfold, Bolier, Luis Fonsi - The World Can Wait (Bolier Remix) 10:16 Dalibor Dadoff, Nacho Lezcano, Grabo Bakos - Sounds Like A Melody 10:13 Jeremy Loops - Til I Found You 10:08 Lamb - Wonder 10:04 Felix Jaehn Feat. Lost Frequencies & Linying - Eagle Eyes 10:02 Ofenbach & Ella Henderson - Hurricane 09:59 Dizkodude & Dj Antoine - Your Eyes (Dj Antoine Vs Mad Mark 2k21 Summer Mix) 09:55 Maomakmaa - Unicorn (Remix By Jasmon) 09:52 Emily Burns - Im So Happy 09:47 Enui - Adieu (Arielle Lb Remix) 09:43 Blank & Jones - Nuits Blanches 09:40 Vize & Leony - Dolly Song (Devil's Cup) 09:36 Armin Van Buuren & Garibay Feat. Olaf Blackwood - I Need You 09:33 Kungs Feat. Jhart - Dopamine 09:21 Monkey Safari - Hi Life (Cheeky Bold Cover) 09:18 Patchy - Friend (Original Mix) 09:16 Dj Antoine & Flip Capella Feat. Evelyn - Dark Love 09:10 Rodg - Heights 09:04 Cell - Under Your Mind (Live Version) 09:00 Eelke Kleijn - Midnight Affair (Samaha Slow Edit) 08:52 Boral Kibil - Never Again (Bobby Deep Mix) 08:45 Faithless - Crazy English Summer (Brothers On High Remix) 08:37 Garlington - Falling To Pieces (Extended Mix) 08:30 Bay Area - Dolphin Rider (Pianodreamsession) 08:24 Spooky - Shelter 08:16 Blank & Jones - California Sunset 08:11 2raumwohnung - 2 Von Millionen Von Sternen 08:09 Gamper & Dadoni - My Lovin' 08:03 Thomas Lemmer & Andreas Bach - Deep Ocean 07:57 Deep-dive-corp. - Lucsus 07:53 Pascal Letoublon - Feelings Undercover 07:47 Deep Dive Corp. & Setsuna - Transatlantic 07:44 Alle Farben Feat. Jordan Powers - Different For Us 07:40 Passenger 10 - Voices In Her Head 07:38 Nora Van Elken - Heaven Is A Place On Earth 07:35 Iberis Eguana - Sand Of Time 07:32 Brando - Don't Call Me (Galantis Remix) 07:28 Klingande, Wrabel - Big Love 07:25 James Newton Howard Feat. Jennifer Lawrence - The Hanging Tree 07:22 Sans Souci - Take My Breath Away (Original Mix) 07:18 Blank & Jones - Wyb (Deeper) 07:15 Daniel Steidtmann - Pigeon Lake 07:10 Nihoni - After Sun 07:03 Watermat - Bullit (Original Mix) 07:00 Topic Feat. Nico Santos) - Home (Alle Farben Remix) 06:57 Nora En Pure - Branches 06:52 Eli Kazah - Return Home 06:47 Eelke Kleijn Feat. Diana Miro - You (Frankey & Sandrino Remix) 06:44 Fritz Kalkbrenner - Kings & Queens 06:38 Danijel Kostic - Vinternatt (Club Mix) 06:35 Hagen Feetly - Cry 06:32 Goldfish Feat. Nate Highfield & Dan Silver - Forever Free 06:26 Schiller Mit Moya Brennan - Falling 06:23 Brendon Moeller - Emerging 06:14 Worakls - Nocturne 06:08 Deep Dive Corp. Feat. Dennis Le Gree - Water 06:04 Tom Novy & Dan Le Blonde - Let's Dance (Tom Novy Remix) 05:59 Blank & Jones - 10.000 Emerald Pools 05:56 Mount & Illian - Fool 05:49 Armin Van Buuren & Avira Feat. Sam Martin - Mask 05:45 Sting - Fragile 05:42 Moguai, Vize, Anna Grey - You're Not Alone 05:40 Nora En Pure - Wetlands 05:36 Karsten Kiessling Feat. Zach Alwin - Live It Up (Peace, Live And Love Mix ) 05:33 Lost Frequencies, Zonderling & Kelvin Jones - Love To Go 05:30 Karsten Kiessling Feat. Helin - Fight Like A Lion 05:27 Alle Farben - Bad Ideas 05:24 Alok & James Arthur - Work With My Love 05:23 Sylvering - Is There Anybody Out There 05:20 Tiscore - Fire To Smoke 05:16 Klangperlenspiel - Fraction Of Your Love 05:11 Marc Puig - To Start Anew 05:09 Felix Jaehn & The Stickmen Project Feat. Calum Scott - Rain In Ibiza 05:06 Sam Feldt Feat. Lateshift - The Riddle 05:03 Alok, Bruno Martini, Featuring Zeeba - Hear Me Now 04:59 Dvine - Unknown Reality 04:56 Twopilots - Take My Breath Away 04:52 Minnie Riperton - Lovin' You 04:48 Nora En Pure - Tantrum 04:46 Ten Tonne Skeleton - Feel So Bad 04:42 Sagi Rei - Rhythm Is A Dancer 04:38 Jan Blomqvist & Bloom Twins - High On Beat (Sofi Tukker Remix) 04:33 Diamans - Perception 04:28 Sans Souci - Venice 04:20 Monolink - Don't Hold Back 04:12 Troels Hammer - Trans/ For/ Mation 04:08 Joachim Pastor Feat. Nathan Nicholson - Saint Louis 04:01 Beyhude - Akasha 03:56 Nora En Pure Feat. Ashibah - We Found Love 03:53 Kidsø - Finja 03:48 Rodriguez Jr. & Liset Alea - Amplify 03:45 State Of Sound - Wake Up Where You Are 03:36 Blond:ish Feat. Bahramji - Omnipresent 03:32 Bronson Feat. Lau.ra - Heart Attack 03:29 Nora En Pure - Roots 03:23 Exstra - Comet (Extended Mix) 03:18 Amirali - My Way 03:14 Lstn, Arya Noble - Desert Walk 03:07 Jean-michel Jarre - Equinoxe, Pt. 4 03:01 Mads Arp Featuring Julie Harrington - Alive 02:55 Monolink - Otherside (Club Mix) 02:53 Christopher Von Deylen - She Never Told Him Her Name 02:47 Massive Attack - Spying Glass 02:45 Mahalo - High Life 02:39 Airstream - Your Tears (Del Mar Mix) 02:36 Jubel - On The Beach 02:29 Edx - Conundrum 02:26 Schiller - Once Upon A Time (Cahill Remix) 02:22 Blank & Jones - Breezin' 02:18 Nora En Pure - Epiphany 02:12 Aurosonic, Katty Heath, Frainbreeze - All I Need (Chill Out Mix) 02:08 Thomas Lemmer & Andreas Bach - Sweet Lullaby 02:03 Faithless Feat. Nathan Ball & Caleb Femi - I Need Someone 01:59 Jp Juice - Cette Planete 01:57 Kamrad - Feel Alive 01:53 Dvine - Ever After 01:49 James Blunt - Cold 01:46 Younotus Feat. Chris Gelbuda - When I Think About You 01:42 Robin Schulz - Moonlit Sky (With The Void Pacific Choir) 01:34 Andre Rizo - Hang 01:31 Kygo With Avicii & Sandro Cavazza - Forever Yours (Tribute) 01:28 Loud Luxury Feat. Morgan St. Jean - Aftertaste 01:24 Five Seasons - In Your Town 01:21 James Carter & Ofenbach Feat. James Blunt - Can't Forget You 01:15 Nora En Pure - Don't Look Back (Extended Mix) 01:12 Sono - Trusting You 01:09 Gesaffelstein & The Weeknd - Lost In The Fire 01:04 Frank Borell - Epic Dreams (Fifty Shades Of Dreams Mix) 01:01 Alok, Zeeba And Iro - Ocean 00:57 Kyla La Grange - Cut Your Teeth 00:54 Kygo & Imagine Dragons - Born To Be Yours 00:51 Nto (Fr) Feat. Sofiane Pamart - Invisible (Piano Version) 00:48 Matoma Feat. Jonah Kagen - Summer Feeling 00:43 Zero 7 - In The Waiting Line 00:41 Thrdl!fe & Sleepwalkrs - Outta My Head 00:34 The Last Atlant - Twin Of The Sun 00:27 Aural Float - Still Here 00:23 Above & Beyond Feat. Zoe Johnston - We're All We Need 00:20 M22 - Good To Be Loved 00:18 Edx - Ecletric (Mixed) 00:15 Nora En Pure - Fibonacci 00:11 Bossasonic - Wicked Game 00:09 Alok Feat. Alida - Love Again 00:05 P. Lion - Happy Children (Special Remastered) 00:00 Riccardo Eberspacher - Sunetul De Seara

[aion-rsa]

The Public Enemy Solidified Gang Rule Under James Cagney for 90 Years

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William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) turns 90 this weekend. When the film first came out, a theater in Times Square showed it nonstop, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The movie marks the true beginning of gangster movies as a genre. Mervyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar may have hit theaters first, but The Public Enemy set the pattern, and James Cagney nailed the patter. Not just the street talk either; he also understood its machine gun delivery. His Tommy Powers is just a hoodlum, never a boss. He is a button man at best, even if he insisted his suits have six buttons.

The Public Enemy character wasn’t even as high up the ladder as Paul Sorvino’s caporegime Paul Cicero in Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas. But Cagney secured the turf Edward G. Robinson’s Rico Bandello took a bullet to claim in Little Caesar, and for the rest of his career Cagney never let it go.

Some would argue genre films began in 1931. Besides mob movies, the year introduced the newspaper picture with Lewis Milestone’s The Front Page and John Cromwell’s Scandal Sheet; Universal Pictures began an unholy run of horror classics via Tod Browning’s Dracula and James Whale’s Frankenstein, with the two turning Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff into household names; and Howard Hawks’ Scarface would land the knockout for the gangster genre, even if it didn’t get released until 1932.

Sadly, the classic “Gangster Film” run only lasted one production season, from 1930 to 1931, and less than 30 films were made during it. Archie Mayo’s The Doorway to Hell started the ball rolling in 1930, when it became a surprise box office hit. It stars Lew Ayres as the top mug, with Cagney as his sidekick. For fans of pre-Code Hollywood, it is highly recommended. It includes a kidnapping scene which results in the death of a kid on the street. Without a speck of blood or any onscreen evidence, it is cinematically shocking in its impact.

Both Little Caesar and The Public Enemy earned their street cred, defying the then-toothless 1930 Motion Picture Production Code, which preceded the Hays Code. After New York censors cut six scenes from The Public Enemy to clear it for release, the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) set further guidelines for the proper cinematic depiction of crime.

Public Enemy director Wellman was an expert in multiple genres. He spit out biting satires like Nothing Sacred (1937) and Roxie Hart (1942), and captured gritty, dark realities in The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He won his only Oscar for A Star Is Born (1937). The Public Enemy is the first example of what would be his trademark: stylish cinematography and clever camera-work. The dark suspense he captures is completely different from the look of German expressionism. It captured the overcast shadows of urban reality and would influence the look of later noir films. His main character would inspire generations of actors.

“That’s just like you, Tom Powers. You’re the meanest boy in town.”

Orson Welles lauded James Cagney as “maybe the greatest actor who ever appeared in front of a camera.” Will Rogers said watching Cagney perform was “like a bunch of firecrackers going off all at once.” The New York City born performer explodes in this movie. Even in black and white, Cagney’s red hair flares through the air like sulfur on a match. It turns out to be a slow burn, which will reach its ultimate climax in 1949’s White Heat. The Public Enemy is loaded with top talent, but you can’t take your eyes off Cagney. Not even for a second. You might miss some tiny detail, like the flash of a grin, a wink, or a barely perceptible glare.

Cagney had a simple rule to acting: All you had to do was to look the other person straight in the eyes and say your lines. “But mean them.” In The Public Enemy, the characters communicate without lines. When Tom and Matt Doyle (Edward Woods) sneak a peek into Larry the Limp’s casket, we understand this is the first time the two young thugs lost someone their own age. The scene barely implies how fortunate they are not to be in that box, but their curiosity is as palpable as the loss of their last shred of innocence.

Cagney was originally cast as Matt, and scenes were shot with him in the role. The parts were switched mid-production, but they didn’t reshoot the flashback scenes, making it look like the pair swapped bodies between 1909 and 1915. It’s a shame because Frankie Darro, who plays the young Matt, made a career out of playing baby face Cagney, and later joined the East Side Kids franchise.

Former “Our Gang” actor Frank Coghlan Jr. took on the role of young Tom. He takes the lashes from his cop father’s belt, backtalking him the whole time. Tom Powers is reprehensible. He never says thank you and doesn’t shake hands. He delights in the violence and sadism. Powers doesn’t go into crime because of poverty; he just can’t be contained. Cagney’s mobster mangles, manhandles, maims and murders, and still needs more room in his inseam. 

Dames, Molls, and Grapefruits

Besides defying the ban on romanticizing criminals, both The Public Enemy and Little Caesar broke sexual codes. There are explicit signs that Rico Bandello represses his sexuality in Caesar. Scenes between him and his friend Joe, and his gunman Otera, thinly veil homoerotic overtones. Public Enemy’s Powers, by contrast, subtly encourages the gay tailor who is openly hitting on him.

There are strong indications Putty Nose (Murray Kinnell) is grooming Tommy and Matt for more than just fenced goods. Look at the way Putty sticks his ass in Powers’ face while he is shooting pool. Putty Nose’s execution at the piano is creepily informed by the unspoken sins between the men. Tommy relishes the kill.

However, Tommy doesn’t relish being manhandled when he’s too drunk to notice. While the gang goes to the mattresses in the movie’s gang war, Tommy is raped by Jane (Mia Marvin), his boss Paddy’s girl. Powers protests the best he can, but the camera angles leave no doubt. Tommy wakes up hungover, horrified, and feeling impotent. Matt, however, has no trouble getting “busy” with his girlfriend Mamie, played by Joan Blondell, in one of the scenes trimmed by the censors.  Blondell, Jean Harlow, and Mae Clarke, who plays Tommy’s girlfriend Kitty, represent a glitzy cross-section of white Roaring Twenties glamour. In the opening credits, when Harlow and Blondell smile at the camera, male audience members of the time blushed.

Harlow was Hollywood’s original “Blonde Bombshell,” starring in the movie that coined the term. Her earthy comic performances would make her a major star at MGM, but she was a dud to critics of The Public Enemy. Hers was the only part which was criticized, and the reviewers were brutal, declaring her voice untrained and her presence boring.

Harlow’s greatest asset had to be contained within the Pre-Code era. Straddled with a wordy part as a slumming society dame, she is directed to slow her lines to counter the quick patter of the rest of the cast. Yet Harlow uses that to her benefit in the film’s best moment of sexual innuendo. While telling Tommy about “the men I’ve known,” she pauses, and appears to be calculating them in her head before she says, “And I’ve known dozens of them.” When an evening alone with Tommy is cut short, Gwen’s exasperation over the coitus interruptus is palpable. Members of the Catholic Legion of Decency probably had to go to confession after viewing the film for slicing.

Most people know The Public Enemy for the famous grapefruit scene where Powers pushes a grapefruit into his girlfriend’s face. “I wish you was a wishing well,” he warns, “so that I could tie a bucket to you and sink ya.” Tommy treats women like property. They are status symbols, the same as clothes or cars. Kitty’s passive-aggressive hints at commitment get on Tom’s nerves. He can only express himself through violence. There are rumors Cagney, who would go on to rough up Virginia Mayo in White Heat and brutalize Doris Day in Love Me or Leave Me, didn’t warn Clarke he was going to use her face as a juicer. According to the autobiography Cagney by Cagney, Clarke’s ex-husband Lew Brice loved the scene so much he watched it a few times a day, timing his entrance into the theater to catch it and leave.

Both actors have said it was staged as a practical joke to see how the film crew would react. It wasn’t meant to make the final cut. Wellman told TCM he added it because he always wanted to do that to his wife. The writer reportedly wrote the scene as a kind of wish-fulfilling fantasy.

The screenplay was written by Harvey F. Thew. It was based on Beer and Blood by John Bright and Kubec Glasmon. The unpublished novel fleshed out press accounts of the bootlegging Northside gang leaders, Charles Dion “Deanie” O’Banion, Earl “Hymie” Weiss, and Louis “Two-Gun” Alterie. Cagney based his Tommy Powers character on O’Banion and Altiere. Edward Woods was doing his take on Weiss. The book reflected the headlines in the Chicago papers, which reported Weiss smashed an omelet into his girlfriend’s face.

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The Public Enemy borrowed from the day’s headlines in other ways too. Hymie Weiss was assassinated in October 1926. It was the first reported “machine-gun nest” murder. It is recreated in the killing of Matt Doyle. While shooting the sequence, Cagney ducked real machine gun fire to bring authenticity to the scene. Also taken from real life is the fact that after O’Banion was killed in ‘24, Alterie’s first reaction was to do public battle with the killers. This is similar to Tommy’s final shootout at Schemer Burns’ nightclub headquarters.

Leslie Fenton’s dashing mob captain Nails Nathan (“born Samuel”) flashes the greatest grin in mob movie history. He is based on Samuel “Nails” Morton, a member of O’Banion’s mob. Both “Nails” were driven to their coffins the way it is depicted in The Public Enemy. The real Morton died in a riding accident in 1923, and “Two-Gun” Alterie and some of the other gang members went back to the stables, rented the horse which kicked Nails in the head, and shot the animal. Mario Puzo may have been inspired by this scene when he wrote The Godfather. It is not only tie to the Francis Ford Coppola movie. Oranges have as much vitamin C as grapefruits. Another similarity between the two films is the threat of being kidnapped from the hospital by a rival gang.

The Powers brothers’ relationship vaguely echoes the one between war hero Michael and Sonny Corleone, who believes, as his father does, soldiers were “saps” to risk their lives for strangers. Donald Cook, who played Mike Powers, didn’t pull any punches on the set. In the scene where he knocks Tom into the table before going off to war, he really connects. Wellman told Cook to do it without warning so he could get that look of surprise. Cook broke one of Cagney’s teeth, but Cagney stayed in character and finished the scene.

“It is a wicked business.”

After the stock market crash, get-rich-quick schemes seemed the only way through the Great Depression. The gangster was an acceptable headline hero during Prohibition because the law was unpopular with the press. But after 1929, the gangster became the scapegoat villain. The Public Enemy was the ninth highest grossing film of 1931. But the genre lost its appeal after April of that year, as studios pumped out pale imitations and audiences got tired of the saturation, according to the book Violence and American Cinema, edited by J. David Slocum. Religious and civic groups accused Hollywood of romanticizing crime and glamorizing gangsters.

The Public Enemy opens with a dire warning: Don’t be a gangster. Hoodlums and terrorists of the underworld should not be glamorized. The only MPAA rule the film didn’t break was portraying an alliance between organized crime and politics. The studios passed the films off as cautionary tales which were meant to deflate the gangster’s appeal by ridiculing their false heroism.

Through this hand-wringing, however, Cagney turns false heroics on its head with the comic brilliance of a Mack Sennett short. Stuck without a gun, he robs a gun store armed with nothing but moxie. Powers never rises in the organization. He takes orders and whatever the boss says is a good cut, only asking for more money once from Putty Nose. Unlike Rico, who rose to be boss among bosses, Powers has no power to lose. This is just the first gig he landed since he was a regular “ding ding” driving a streetcar, and it connected with audiences like a sock on the button. They identified with the scrappy killer, and it surprised them.

Even Gwen notices Tommy is “very different, and it isn’t only a difference in manner and outward appearances. It’s a difference in basic character.” Strict Freudians might lay this on his mother (Beryl Mercer), the greatest enabler Cagney will see until White Heat. Ma Powers’ little boy is a budding psychopath knocking off half the North Side, but look at the head on his beer. For audiences at the time, Tom was the smiling, fresh-scrubbed face of evil. He is consistently unsympathetic but likable from the moment he hits the opening credits.

Like Malcom McDowell’s Alex in A Clockwork Orange, he is the fiend’s best friend. Even if it is Tommy’s fault his best pal Matt gets killed. While Cagney spent his career ducking his “you dirty, double-crossing, rat” line from Taxi, the actor wasn’t afraid to play one in Powers. He’s not a rat in the sense he’d snitch on anyone. He’s the last of the pack who sticks it out for his pals when his back is up against the wall.

A Hail of Bullets

Tommy Powers goes by this credo: live fast, die young, and leave a corpse so riddled with bullets, not even his mother can look at his body when he’s done. But then, no one can end a film like Cagney. He’s danced down the White House stairs in Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), been rolled across the concrete steps of a city church in The Roaring Twenties (1939), and was blown to kingdom come in White Heat. He gets two death scenes in The Public Enemy, a rain-soaked climax, and a denouement as scary as The Mummy. Tommy only brings one gun to the gang fight, and by the time he hits the pavement, he’s got more holes in him than the city sewage system.

“I ain’t so tough,” Tommy says on his final roll into the gutter. Cagney’s first professional job was in a musical drag act on the Vaudeville circuit, and he called himself a “song and dance man” long after retirement. For The Public Enemy, conductor David Mendoza led the Vitaphone Orchestra through such period hits as “Toot Toot Tootsie (Goodbye),” “Smiles,” and “I Surrender Dear.” But the song “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” is the one which lingers in the memory. Martin Scorsese has cited it as a reason his films are so filled with recognizable music.

Street violence comes with a natural soundtrack. Transistor radios accompany takedowns. Boom boxes blast during shakedowns. Car stereos boost the bass during drive-by shootings. In The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight, mobsters feed quarters into a jukebox to cover up sounds of a beating.

In The Godfather, Part II, a street band plays traditional Italian songs while Vito Corleone puts bullets in the neighborhood Black Hand, Don Fanucci. The last thing we hear in the abrupt close to the mob series The Sopranos is a Journey song. The first thing Tommy’s mother does when she hears her boy is coming home from the hospital is drop a needle on a record.

The ending leaves us with two questions: Who killed Tommy, and what’s his brother going to do about it? We figure whoever did the job on Powers was probably a low-level button man from Schemer’s rival outfit. Probably even lower down the ladder than Tommy, and on his way up, until another Tommy comes along. Crime only pays in the movies, Edward G. Robinson often joked.

Mike’s reaction to the bandaged corpse is ambiguous. He’s already shown outward signs of the trauma following the horrors of war. Is he clenching his fists in anguish or anger? Is he broken by the battlefield or marching off in vengeance, a soldier on one last duty? Cook’s exit can go either way.

After 90 years, The Public Enemy is still fresh. It’s aged better than Little Caesar or Scarface. Cagney wouldn’t play a gangster again until 1938, but the image is etched so deeply in the persona, audiences forget the vagaries of villainy Hollywood could spin, and the range of characters Cagney could play. He and the film continue to influence filmmakers, inform culture, and surprise audiences. Tommy Powers was just a mug, but those streets are still his.

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The post The Public Enemy Solidified Gang Rule Under James Cagney for 90 Years appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3xnjfs7

[owletarc]

OK when RWBY was first made, was it meant to be the poster child for lgbtq lesbians, because when I first started watching it, seeing these group of girls kicking ass and being friends, not once did I think, yep this is definitely a show about lesbians, like was I just seeing it wrong or was this the plan from the start.

iirc crwby said from the beginning that there would be lgbt characters but they wanted to do the story naturally. however as a bi woman i will say that the main girls were written as straight girls ; crwby can say what they want now but there has been no inkling of same sex interest from any of them and the only interest 3 / 4 girls in rwby had was towards men. that might change now but people who say certain ships or sexualities were planned from the start are talking out of their ass and seeing things that aren’t there. rwby were written as straight girls with only male aligned interest. the only reason bi blake came about was because arryn said she wanted her to be bi (bc arryn herself is bi) and that was it. any moments that’re ��queer coded” can easily be read as platonic ; unlike the blacksun flirting, weiss thirsting hard after neptune or yang’s perving after the boys.

i would love for any of the girls to be wlw but / shrugs. it would’ve been so easy to do it from the start, crwby just didn’t.

but also the shows handling of lgbt peeps is just ... not great. we didnt have a confirmed in universe lgbt character until volume 5, in ilia. and every lgbt character after her has been put on a bus and / or confirmed in outside media / sources.

coco adel : introduced in v2 / 2014, but not confirmed until she’s used as a marketing ploy to hook people into buying after the fall in 2019. no longer in the show.

scarlet david : introduced in v3 / 2015, but not confirmed until the manga anthology until 2018. confirmed by the mangaka but not by miles himself. no longer in the show.

team ndgo : introduced in v3 / 2015, said to be asexual by their voice actresses but not confirmed by the writers. no longer in the show.

matte skye : introduced in v4 / 2016, said to be nonbinary by their voice actor but not confirmed by the writers. no longer in the show.

ilia amitola : introduced in v4 / 2016 and confirmed to be a lesbian in v5 / 2017. no longer in the show.

saphron & terra cotta arc : introduced in v6 / 2018, confirmed in the show to be unspecified wlw. no longer in the show.

may marigold : introduced in v7 / 2019, said to be trans by her voice actress but not confirmed by the writers iirc. currently in the show.

i’m not saying that rt isnt trying with their rep, but when all of it is either gone or minor characters that’re so minor one doesn’t even have their own wiki page and the thing most memorized about them is their sexuality ... it’s not good. you don’t get to claim you’re such a woke lgbt show and then do this with your lgbt characters.

[snapdraqons]

Ok real talk I think its really important to say that while i am sad about clover’s death and personally would not have killed him off, it definitely wasn’t queerbaiting.

tdlr: FairGame isn’t queerbaiting but people’s (especially mlms’) anger is still understandable.

Queerbaiting is when a show (or other piece of media) hypes up or constantly hints towards lgbt representation and relationships, usually to attract more viewers and discussion surrounding it, only to not carry through with it or have it be negative representation, like just making them the butt of the joke or pulling a ‘bury your gays’. Essentially, it’s a promise of representation that intentionally falls short.

I can see why mlm are upset about Clover’s death- RWBY’s only confirmed mlm character so far was a side character that was announced as gay in the manga, Scarlet David (which, while canon, is not something that all fans- especially casual fans- reads or necessarily knows about). Qrow and Clover’s potential relationship not only made sense with the dynamic they have, but would also be a big step forward in terms of RWBY’s lgbt representation. It would also add two more characters to RWBY’s pretty short list of explicit in-show representation (Coco, Scarlet and May are never explicitly stated as lgbt in the show itself, leaving us with Ilia and the Cotta-Arcs) plus many LGBT fans can relate to some of Qrow’s experiences with mental illness and addiction.

I’m not saying that FairGame wasn’t a good ship or didn’t have canon potential. Personally I really like it. I’m just saying it was not queer-baiting.

I will, however, say that some members of crwby should be criticized (not hated or  sent cruel messages or fucking death threats) for actively creating hype for a mlm relationship that they knew ended in death- and I’m pretty sure that this is what people are referring to when they say that FairGame was queerbaiting. However, most of what I saw (often on twitter) was made in response to fan content and theories- what I think is almost definitely just appreciation for fans of the show. This isn’t what queerbaiting is. If FairGame were queerbaited, there would have been more promises from CRWBY of a canon ship, more mentions of it from senior members of the team. If FairGame were queerbaited, we would’ve had more content of it in official promotional material. If FairGame were queerbaited we likely would’ve had far more explicitly romantic and/or sexual tension between the two characters in-show to make the potential for their relationship more clear because queerbaiting is intentional. Coding is often unintentional (though sometimes looks similar to baiting) and I think this is what people mean to say when they call FairGame queerbaiting.

It’s also worth mentioning that CRWBY seems to have a pretty good track record and attitude towards LGBT characters. We have three canon, healthy representations of lgbt in the main show as well as three canon healthy representations elsewhere in RWBY. Bumblby is- at this point- extremely likely, what with Nora stating she thinks Blake and Yang are more than friends and the ship being used in official promotional material for the show + rooster teeth (if they weren’t to come through with Bumblby at this point THAT WOULD BE QUEERBAITING). Plus it’s worth mentioning that initially the pilot that helped Weiss escape from the Schnee manor was originally supposed to be gay, but that idea was scrapped bc CRWBY felt it was too ‘bury your gays’-ish.

I’ll also say now that almost every video and article I’ve seen on this have specifically spun the story in a way that makes anyone mildly upset about FairGame into a ‘triggered sjw!!1!!!1′ which is also. Not Good. From what I’ve seen most ppl annoyed about this are younger mlm who just wanted some representation. Maybe don’t demonise them mr-straight-dudebro-rwby-youtuber.

ok ok im done. yes i still ship fair game before u ask.

[sleemo]

The Rise of Skywalker coverage from the Summer 2019 issue of Empire. I highlighted direct quotes from J.J. Abrams in my transcript below:

Is the Emperor really still alive?

And five other burning questions about Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker.

AFTER WHAT FELT like an eternity of silence, director J.J. Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy finally unveiled Episode IX last month, revealing title and trailer at Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, and Empire was on hand to witness it. As you might expect with Abrams, every answer prompted a dozen more questions. Here are the most pressing...

1. IS THE EMPEROR REALLY STILL ALIVE?

“No-one’s ever really gone,” intones Luke, before a final, familiar cackle heralds the end of the trailer. After all these years, could Darth Sidious be back to finish what he started?

“It’s amazing that he got to walk out here today and no one knew,” Abrams told Empire after the panel. “The reaction that people had to him only made me grateful that all [those] who could have told and tweeted and posted didn’t. It was as much fun to watch as it was to work with him.”

Last seen plummeting down a Death Star shaft and apparently perishing in a blast of Force energy, it’s hard to imagine Palpatine survived Episode VI but then, the Death Star seemingly exploded into atoms and yet its domed carcass still appears in the new trailer so anything’s possible. Is he alive?

A Force ghost? A clone? A recording in a Sith holocron?

2. WHAT DOES THE TITLE MEAN?

Given Luke’s death in The Last Jedi it’s hard to imagine there’s much scope for rising Skywalkers in Episode IX, but Abrams insists the title is not misleading. “In coming up with the title we just looked at the film and asked ourselves, ’What are we saying?’ It feels very much like the title of this film.” The only Skywalker left (that we know of) is Kylo Ren, but could the answer be more abstract? Could ‘Skywalker’ become a more general term for future adherents to the Jedi code?

3. IS REY A FULLY FLEDGE JEDI NOW?

With the Jedi texts in her possession, Rey is now the keeper of all Jedi knowledge and has successfully repaired Anakin’s lightsaber — last seen bursting like the galaxy’s most expensive cracker in Episode VIII. But does that now make Rey a true Jedi? “There are some extraordinary things that the character and Daisy [Ridley] did in this movie,” Abrams deflected. “There are some new things you’ll see.”

4. HOW MUCH HAS CARRIE FISHER SHAPED THE STORY?

Having already ruled out a CG stand-in à la Rogue One, Abrams has already confirmed that Carrie Fisher’s presence in IX will be via unused Force Awakens footage. Rather than shoehorn it into the existing story, though, Abrams revealed that Leia’s scenes were written entirely around the available footage, shaping the film — and presumably the character’s arc — with the material they had.

5. WHEN DOES THE FILM TAKE PLACE?

While Episode VIII picked up seconds after VII ended, there’s a more protracted break before we rejoin the action in IX. Abrams wouldn’t be drawn into how long exactly, confirming only that the core cast will still be together when we catch up with them again and that they’ll stay together — joined by new droid D-O and at least one other addition — for much of the film. Daisy Ridley did suggest that there’s a long enough gap between films for Rey to have made some serious headway with her trove of pilfered Jedi tomes.

6. WHAT’S NEXT?

The Rise Of Skywalker signifies the end of a nine-film series that began in 1977, but what happens next? “We’re going to use this time as an opportunity to see where we’re going, now that we’re leaving the Skywalker saga behind,” said Kennedy. New movie series are in the works from VIII director Rian Johnson and Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, but before that we’ll see a closer focus on the small screen with The Mandalorian and a Cassian Andor series coming to streaming service Disney+. 

— JAMES DYER

[obplayhouse-blog]

OB Playhouse & Theatre Co. presents: The Rocky Horror Show

OB Playhouse & Theatre Company presents…

The Rocky Horror Show

Music, Lyrics and Book by: Richard O'Brien and Richard Hartley

Directed and Choreographed by: Michael Mizerany

Music Direction by: Kirk Valles

Produced by: OB Theatre Company

The outrageous musical comedy featuring a Transylvanian transvestite, a cryogenically preserved zombie motor biker, and Frankenstein's monster in Greek god form returns to OB Playhouse with a new look, new(ish) cast, and same high-energy staging and choreography by Michael Mizerany. This sexual parody of horror and science fiction films premiered onstage in London in 1973, becoming the popular cult classic film The Rocky Horror Picture Show in 1975.

Rated M for mature content including but not limited to, sexual innuendo, brief nudity, vulgar language and choreography, etc.

Runtime: 2 hours

DATES & TIMES

January 17 – March 1, 2020

Thursday – Saturday at 8 pm

Sunday at 6 pm

**There is one industry night on Monday, January 27th at 8 pm.

CAST

Frank N. Furter: Joey Kirkpatrick

Rocky: Jake Bevill

Janet Weiss: Kylie Young

Brad Majors: Hunter Brown

Columbia: Olivia Lucci

Riff Raff: SeeJay Lewis

Magenta: Kaitlyn Summers

Eddie/Dr. Everett V. Scott: Amanda Blair

The Narrator: David Janisch

Phantom: Roxie Peters

Phantom: Jake Strohl

Phantom: Andrew Aguilar

 PRICING:

Friday & Saturday: GA: $36, VIP $49 Thursday & Sunday: GA $32, VIP $46

**Special Industry Night 1/27/2019: GA $15

THURSDAYS: Buy-One-Get-One-Free Tickets EVERY Thursday with code “2for1”

SUNDAYS: Save $8 EVERY Sunday with code “SundayFunday”

OTHER INFO:

Lobby opens one hour before showtime. House opens 15-20 minutes before showtime. Seating is first- come, first-served. No seating for late arrivals 15 minutes after showtime.

Advisory Warning: The Rocky Horror Show contains adult content, mature themes, and strong language. Recommended for audiences 14 years of age and older.

Event Site: https://www.obtheatrecompany.com/the-rocky-horror-show.html

Ticketing Site: https://app.arts-people.com/index.php?show=108123

[bluebuzzmusic]

EDC Las Vegas 2020 Lineup – Or Most Of It, At Least

What a crazy 45 minutes! Those tracks absolutely flew by on Night Owl Radio with Pasquale Rotella, and Shazam wasn’t doing us any favors, either. Still, we managed to catch a bunch of names who could be playing EDC Vegas in 2020– we’re curious if your picks match ours.

MAJOR DISCLAIMER: our list derived from the Night Owl broadcast might not be 100% correct, and it does NOT contain all names playing the festival. It’s more than likely we missed some, or some show up on more than one stage. It does not account for b2b sets or special alias sets.

Check out who we heard on the radio show below, and check back tomorrow for the full lineup released in standard fashion!

We just found out that Love Regenerator, the new project from Calvin Harris, appears to be playing EDC 2020 as well!

bassPOD

LSDREAM

Herobust

Wooli

Peekaboo

Black Tiger Sex Machine

Spag Heddy

Andy C

Dimension

Pendulum

Zeds Dead

Space Jesus

The Prototypes

Muzz

Maduk

Dillinja

wasteLAND

Code Black

Da Tweekaz

Wildstylez

Sound Rush

TNT (Technoboy & Tuneboy)

Adrenalize

Wasted Penguinz

Coone

Radical Redemption

SAYMYNAME

Warface

Mrotek

Darren Styles

Ben Nicky

Gammer

Tweekacore

DJ Mad Dog

Deadly Guns

quantumVALLEY

Stan Kolev

Ilan Bluestone

Jason Ross

Andrew Bayer

Markus Schulz

Abraxis (Seven Lions + Dimibo)

Vini Vici

Ahmed Romel

Alessandra Roncone

Aly & Fila

Paul van Dyk

Kai Tracid

Gouryella

Pathfinders

Billy Gillies

Giuseppe Ottaviani

Key4050

circuitGROUNDS

SNAKEHIPS

Rezz

Droeloe

Jauz

Oliver Heldens

CamelPhat

i_o

Martin Garrix

NWYR

Borgore

Yellow Claw

Kayzo

Blanke

Excision

Sikdope

stereoBLOOM

Redlight

Eli Brown

Omnom

Wongo

Westend

Volac

Golf Clap

DUSTYCLOUD

Sonny Fodera

Moon Boots

J. Worra

Eliminate

ATLiens

ZIA

FRQ NCY

Dr Fresch

neonGARDEN

Ilario Alicante

Reinier Zonneveld

Len Faki

Boris Brejcha

Patrick Topping

Ann Clue

Maceo PLex

Denis Sulta

Gonima

DJ Seinfeld

Richie Hawtin

Sven Vath

Joseph Capriati

ANNA

skyLAB

Franky Wah

Danny Tenaglia

Weiss

Illyus

Max Chapman

Bontan

Solardo

Kidnap

Latmun

Friend Within

Sosa UK

Paul Woolford

Detlef

Lee Foss

cosmicMEADOW

GG Magree

Gryffin

Madeon

Louis The Child

Whethan

Major Lazer

Boys Noize

Born Dirty

Knife Party

Walker & Royce

Dombresky

Jauz

Throttle

Yolanda Be Cool

Fisher

Wax Motif

HI-LO

1788-L

Anna Lunoe

Yung Bae

Said The Sky

Gammer

JVNA

Zedd

Graves

kineticFIELD

Elephante

The Chainsmokers

Galantis

Gryffin

Lost Kings

Loud Luxury

Alesso

Don Diablo

CID

Tiesto

KSHMR

ARTY

Nicky Romero

Alan Walker

R3hab

Vini Vici

W&W

David Guetta

  Photo via Rukes.com

This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: EDC Las Vegas 2020 Lineup – Or Most Of It, At Least

source https://www.youredm.com/2020/02/20/edc-las-vegas-2020-lineup-or-most-of-it-at-least/

[themusechronicles]

Complete Muse List

* notes Original Characters

Abraham “Bram” Greenfeld - Keiynan Lonsdale       Bluegreen118 || Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (aka: Love, Simon)

Alexander “Alec” Lightwood - Matthew Daddario       Silver is a rarer metal than gold || Shadowhunter Chronicles

*Alizair “Zair” Hollis - Dominic Sherwood       The human side of wild || Original Muse

Allison Argent - Crystal Reed       Silver arrow of redemption || Teen Wolf

*Anabel “Ana” Lightwood-Bane - Arden Cho       Warlock Angel || Shadowhunter Chronicles OC

*Andrei Cruz - Jeremy Renner       One part saint and two part sinner || Original Muse

Anthony “Tony” Stark - Robert Downey Jr.       I love you 3000 || Marvel

Artemis Crescent - Kwon Jiyong       Advisor to the moon || Sailor Moon

Asmodeus - ???       A father’s love knows no bounds || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Aziraphale - Michael Sheen       Why are we talking about this good and evil? || Good Omens

Ben Solo - Adam Driver       I will finish what you started || Star Wars

Bruce Banner - Mark Ruffalo       That’s my secret. I’m always angry || Marvel

Caleb Danvers - Steven Strait       Golden boy of Ipswitch || Covenant

*Cassandra “Cassie” Rogers - Chloe Moretz       Daughter of the Captain || Marvel OC

Christopher “Chris” Argent - JR Bourne       We follow the code || Teen Wolf

Clarissa “Clary” Fairchild - Katherine Mcnamara       Creator of runes || Shadowhunter Chronicles

*Claudia Hale - Lyndsy Fonseca       Blue eyed bookworm || Teen Wolf OC

Clinton “Clint” Barton - Jeremy Renner       I see better from a distance || Marvel

Derek Hale - Tyler Hoechlin       I’m a predator not a killer || Teen Wolf

*Dokuno “Doku” Kokoro - Uruha [GazettE       My bite is worse than my bark || Original Muse

Elijah Mikaelson - Daniel Gillies       I made a vow. Always and forever || The Originals/Vampire Diaries

*Elijah “Eli” Roanoke - Stephen Amell       Complicated kind of lover || Original Muse

*Elliot “Elli” Erso - Joseph Morgan       Survivor of the dark || Original Muse

Evelyn “Evie” Queen - Sofia Carson       Magic mirror in my hand || Descendants

Finn Storm - John Boyega       The trooper who saw the light || Star Wars

Harry Hook - Thomas Doherty       Never learned how to count cuz I’m number one || Descendants

*Heather DeRoya - Emily Vancamp       I’m a special kind of demon || Original Muse

Isabelle “Izzy” Lightwood - Emeraude Toubia       I’m pure at heart. It repels the dirt || Shadowhunter Chronicles

James “Bucky” Barnes - Sebastian Stan       I remember all of them || Marvel

Jasper Hale - Jackson Rathbone       I didn’t have quite the same upbringing as my siblings || Twilight Saga

*Jessica “Jessi” Hawkblue - Claudia Kim       A fairytale life can be oh so overrated || Original Muse

Jonathan “Jace” Herondale - Dominic Sherwood       All the legends are true || Shadowhunter Chronicles

*Jordan Greer       My life is in the eyes of a little girl || Original Muse

Jordan Kyle - Katherine Mcnamara       Beati Bellicosi || Shadowhunter Chronicles

*Kataigida “Kat” Parthenopaeus - Tom Ellis [Dylan O’Brien]       Crown Prince of the afterlife || Original Muse

*Kevin Hawkblue - Ruki [GazettE]       Am I too broken to be who I was? || Original Muse

Kyo Sohma - ???       I’m gonna be a true member of this family || Fruits Basket

*Kyosuke “Kyo” Ryuu - TBD       A dragon’s ink is more than its blood || Original Muse

Loki Laufeyson - Tom Hiddleston       The sun will shine again || Marvel

Lucille “Lucy” Quinnzel - Ashely Benson       Princess of diamonds and laughter || DC

Luke Garroway - Isaiah Mustafa       I’ve walked both sides of the shadow world || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Lydia Branwell - Stephanie Bennett       Love the job itself || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Magnus Bane - Harry Shum Jr.       High Warlock of Brooklyn || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Maia Roberts - Alisha Wainwright       This is what love got me || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Malia Hale - Shelley Hennig       I used to have a fur coat || Teen Wolf

*Malika Udinov - Claire Holt       Power in a pretty face || Original Muse

Margaret “Maggie” Leigh - Jakhara Smith       My tiles are never wrong || NOS4A2

*Matthew “Matt” Bennett - Jake Abel       I chose drugs over my family & I’m paying the price || Original Muse

Mieczyslaw “Stiles” Stilinski - Dylan O’Brien       Some of us are human || Teen Wolf

Momiji Sohma - ???       Who’s in the forest strolling? || Fruits Basket

Natasha “Nat” Romanov - Scarlett Johannsen       I’ve got red in my ledger || Marvel

*Nevinovat “Nevi” Fata - Crystal Reed       Handmaiden to a demigoddess || Original Muse

Nikalus “Klaus” Mikaelson - Joseph Morgan       The original hybrid || The Originals/Vampire Diaries

Padme Amidala - Kiera Knightly       Senator and Queen || Star Wars

Peter Hale - Ian Bohen       We live in shades of grey || Teen Wolf

Peter Parker - Andrew Garfield [Tom Holland]       Friendly neighborhood Spiderman || Marvel

Rebecca “Becky” Daniels - Holland Roden       Not a victim any longer || Criminal Minds

Reno Akujin - ???       Turk Second in Command || Final Fantasy VII

Sebastian “Jonathan” Morgenstern - Will Tudor       Dark side of the bloodline || Shadowhunter Chronicles

Steven “Steve” Rogers - Chris Evans       Just a kid from Brooklyn || Marvel

Sun Wukong - ???       I’m a great stowaway || RWBY

*Tarael “Tara” Lightwood-Bane - Brant Daugherty       Angelic Warlock || Shadohunter Chronicles OC

*Terra Riley - Nina Dobrev       Heavenly hybrid alpha || Teen Wolf OC

Thor Odinson - Chris Hemsworth       I am alive because fate wills it so || Marvel

*Tristan “Tris” Royans - Nick Bateman       Soul forged of fire || Original Muse

*Valerie “Val” Wilson - Shay Mitchell       I follow a path all my own || Original Muse

Wanda Maximoff - Elizabeth Olsen       I can’t control my fear. Only my own || Marvel

Weiss Schnee - ????       Burdened by a royal test || RWBY

*Xavier Rybolt - David Castro       Demon made from a witch’s vow || Original Muse

[schraubd]

Americn Shonda Tournament (Updated!)

UPDATE: Now with three more play-in games and a link to the voting thread.

March Madness is over, but my thirst for bracketology remains unquenched. So -- after the rousing success of the democratically-elected dictator tournament -- I propose a new tournament: American Shonda. Which American Jewish public figure is the greatest disgrace to the tribe?

The match-ups will be posted as Twitter polls on this thread. Here are the seeds (14 11 to 16 are getting play-in games):

Jared Kushner

Stephen Miller

Sheldon Adelson

Glenn Greenwald

Mort Klein

Roseanne Barr

Rebecca Vilkomerson

Ivanka Trump

Lee Zeldin

Dov Hikind

Ariel Gold/Max Blumenthal

Matt Brooks/Ben Shapiro

Bernie Madoff/Dennis Prager

David Horowitz/Shmuley Boteach

Philip Weiss/Liel Leibovitz

Jill Stein/Adam Milstein

Note that the judging criteria is who brings the greatest shame to the Jewish people as a whole -- not to your particular sub-branch (so tamp down on "as a leftist, I'm more embarrassed by fellow leftists" logic).

The opening round will be posted onto Twitter shortly. In the meantime, let's do a quick rundown of the play-in matches:

14. "Inside every progressive is a totalitarian screaming to get out." Few people have ever so fully lived out a life motto as former communist-turned-fascist David Horowitz. He goes up against "America's Roseanne's Rabbi" Shmuley Boteach, who periodically tries to arrest his fade into irrelevancy with full-page New York Times ads demonstrating why nobody cares what he thinks anymore.

15. Philip Weiss is the progenitor of Mondoweiss, an anti-Zionist Jewish website so on the nose it is literally funded by a White supremacist. He faces fellow "writer" Liel Leibovitz, who regularly vomits out gibberish disguised as erudition in a "toxic" contribution to the Jewish press.

16. Why vote for the lesser of two evils when you can vote for the middle of three? That was Jill Stein's 2016 campaign slogan (paraphrased), and it paid off -- for her and her grift, if not the country. Adam Milstein has historically been a much quieter billionaire than 3 seed Sheldon Adelson, but he's been making moves of late by insisting that Ilhan Omar is an actual terrorist. It takes a lot to have to withdraw from AIPAC 2019 for being too embarrassing, but it's enough for this bubble team to squeak his way onto the final bracket slot.

Update: Yes, there are always going to be some bubble times that don't make the cut. But I've been alerted to some truly inexcusable omissions. We can't have a Shonda bracket where Ben Shapiro isn't in the field. And so I feel like I have no choice but to expand the play-in brackets.

11. When she isn't shilling for Iran, Code Pink big wig Ariel Gold is gleefully photographing Neturei Karta activists in Rashida Tlaib's office. Gold's never met a dictatorship she doesn't like (save Saudi Arabia -- Iranian patronage comes with strings). But Max Blumenthal hasn't met a conspiracy theory he doesn't like. The man you call when James O'Keefe is in prison presents a formidable challenge and a marquee play-in game match-up.

12. Can a spineless weasel be your spirit animal? Matt Brooks and the RJC want to find out! Though I suppose it takes guts, in a sense, to spend an entire conference raking Ilhan Omar over alleged "dual loyalty" insinuations and then shrug and smile when President Trump tells a roomful of American Jews that Netanyahu is "your Prime Minister." He'll face leading, ahem, conservative "intellectual" Ben Shapiro. Shapiro is a very different animal from the alt-right, in that (a) the alt-right hates Shapiro, whereas Shapiro loves himself, and (b) there are no other material differences between Ben Shapiro and the alt-right.

13. Speaking of "intellectuals", Dennis Prager's "PragerU" is where you go if you want such academic gems like "the southern strategy doesn't exist" and "maybe Hitler would've been okay if he'd stayed in Germany." He was almost disqualified because he clearly would rather be Christian. His opponent is Bernie Madoff, who also almost didn't make the cut because arguably a "public figure" can't be in prison. Madoff -- the living embodiment of a deadly antisemitic stereotype -- certainly qualifies as an embarrassment, but has he spent too long out of the public eye to compete?

[theamericans2013]

after seasons and seasons of bullshit it is incredible how many critics still assume d&d are operating under good faith, are trying to tell the story as they see best artistically (and not because they’re rushing to wrap up before moving onto bigger projects) and are not misogynists and racists whose personal prejudices have seeped heavily into the show, but are actually trying to criticize misogyny and racism. when i say critics give game of thrones a pass they wouldn’t give to other shows, i mean stuff like this:

In fact, there’s a Season 3 scene that largely sat differently with book readers than it did with show watchers. In the finale “Mhysa,” Daenerys is hoisted aloft by a crowd of people grateful for their liberation. Some critics, already legitimately concerned with the lack of racial representation on Game of Thrones, worried that a white woman like Daenerys was being depicted as the savior of the brown people of Essos. But those who had already read deeper into Daenerys’s journey, and knew the trouble she was about to face as a ruler in Meereen, knew that this scene was supposed to be problematic. We are supposed to be concerned with how high Daenerys gets on her own supply here. 

literally WHAT. the scene is literally portrayed as an uncritical, unequivocal triumph. the show never once delves into the minds of the non-white meereenese to undercut the idea of dany as a white saviour because the SHOW NEVER GAVE A SHIT ABOUT THEM and devotes absolutely zero time to developing or complicating their perspective. the scene isn’t foreshadowing dany going psycho because she’s sold on the idea of herself as a white, liberating saviour, it’s just depicting her as a white, liberatory saviour of nameless, personality-less brown people who exist solely to build up an uncritical saviour narrative. how can you possibly watch this entire show, where every single non-white character is either undeveloped and exists solely to further the plot or gets murdered brutally to further someone else’s narrative, and still think that the game of thrones men care about racism or critiquing whiteness

[...] the women of GoT have become the most powerful and storied characters in Westeros—rivaled, at this point, only by the noble but witless Jon Snow. Cocks may, as Varys (RIP) remarked, be as important to ruling as ever, but the show is full of literally and figuratively castrated men—witless Jon, robotic Bran, foolish Tyrion—while women prompt the action: Their wills, their plans, even their deaths are driving the whole series.

this presumes that the showrunners are acting in good faith and intentionally depicting the male characters as stupid to build up the women and not, as all evidence suggests, lazily shoehorning in plot twists that require the vast majority of characters (who are mostly men) to behave stupidly because if the characters had a shred of intelligence left, they would have been able to avoid putting themselves into obviously bad scenarios, like rhaegal dying. and that’s also an example where the women are also depicted as just as stupid as the men, but much more irrational and too emotional to be trusted.

Despite being set in some imagined, backward, medieval past, Game of Thrones is way ahead of us in having women in positions of actual authority

“hillary clinton didn’t become president so that means game of thrones is actually SUPER progressive”

and this straight up relies on amnesis to give d&d a pass:

And in fairness to the showrunners (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) and writers, there have been plenty of indications throughout the show’s run that she wouldn’t respond well.

From the beginning, Daenerys has been merciless with enemies like the witch Mirri Maz Duur, the Essos slave masters, the Lannister army and the Tarlys. Back in Qarth she promised to “lay waste to armies and burn cities to the ground.” (Done and done.) As I wrote before this season began, messianic streaks as profound as hers can, like Targaryens, go either way.

[...]

“Game of Thrones” has been broadly about the futility of the cycles of revenge and violence, ultimately functioning as a critique of political structures based on raw power and entitlement. (Which perhaps describes most political structures; leave your broadsides in the comments if you must.)

it’s NEVER been about the futility of violence because the show has constantly portrayed certain acts of violence as justified and useful.  in the first few seasons, dany, like ned, like jon, like so many of the other characters, operates on a moral code that holds that violence needs to be reserved to punish people who have done great wrongs. that’s what all of the above suggests. when jon brutally beats ramsay, people accept that it’s not signs of madness but justified violence because ramsay was such a brutal villain, and that’s the same logic that dany killing mirri maz duur operated on. what season 8 is asking viewers to do is to forget about all of that and pretend that dany’s previous acts of violence, which were in line with acts of violence committed by practically every other “good” character on the show, were evidence she would turn into a crazy war criminal who slaughters innocents. the only way you can write the above paragraphs is if you ignore everything that has come before. 

[gloriousgwendolinechristie]

Press: The end of Game of Thrones: An exclusive report on the epic final season

EW – OCTOBER 2017: THE TABLE READ

When Kit Harington entered the conference room, he had no idea what to expect.

The final season’s scripts had been emailed just a couple of days earlier, sending the Game of Thrones cast into a reading frenzy. Like millions of fans around the world, the actors had been waiting nearly a decade to learn their characters’ fates. The entire six-episode season arrived at once, protected by layers of password security.

Sophie Turner flew through her copies in record time, quickly messaging the producers her reaction. “It was completely overwhelming,” says the actress, who plays Sansa Stark. “Afterwards I felt numb, and I had to take a walk for hours.” Others, like Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen), first had to hurry home to get some privacy. “I turned to my best mate and was like, ‘Oh my God! I gotta go! I gotta go!’” she recalls. “And I completely flipped out.” She then settled in for a reading session with a cup of tea. “Genuinely the effect it had on me was profound,” Clarke adds. “That sounds insanely pretentious, but I’m an actor, so I’m allowed one pretentious adjective per season.” Peter Dinklage, meanwhile, broke his years-long habit of checking immediately to see if Tyrion Lannister survives. “This was the first time ever that I didn’t skip to the end,” he says.

Even showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss were uncharacteristically anxious, wondering how the actors would react to the climactic twists. “We knew exactly when our script coordinator sent them out, we knew what minute they sent them, and then you’re just waiting for the emails,” Benioff said.

The cast then journeyed to Belfast to gather in a production office for the formal read-through. By then, everybody knew the tale that was about to unfold, with two notable exceptions: Davos Seaworth actor Liam Cunningham (“The f—ing scripts wouldn’t open, the double extra security!” he grouses) and Harington, who outright refused to read anything in advance.

“I walked in saying, ‘Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know,’” Harington says. “What’s the point of reading it to myself in my own head when I can listen to people do it and find out with my friends?” So, yes: Jon Snow, quite literally, knew nothing.

Benioff and Weiss opened the proceedings by asking the cast to refrain from doing anything during filming or afterward that might reveal even the tiniest spoiler (“Don’t even take a photo of your boots on the ground of the set,” one actor recalls being told). And then, seated around a long table scattered with a few prop skulls, the cast read aloud the final season of Game of Thrones.

At one point, Harington wept.

Later, he cried a second time.

SEPTEMBER 2012: IT’S IMPOSSIBLE

After the table read, the Game of Thrones cast spent 10 months filming just six episodes of television. But the season actually took far longer to pull off. GoT’s final chapters have been in the works for years. To better understand what’s ahead, let’s first go back to EW’s season 3 set visit and this never-before-revealed conversation with Benioff and Weiss…

The production camper was like many others on the set — barren, cramped, cold, utilitarian, with dirt on the floors from muddy boots tramping in and out all day. The showrunners sat on the same side of a tiny dinette booth while the wind coming off the Northern Ireland bay howled outside. They were already thinking about their final season, and it worried them.

During its second season, the fantasy drama averaged 10.3 million viewers across all platforms. That was enough to ensure they were eventually going to finish the series, yet that inevitability was also the problem. Because when they first pitched Thrones to HBO, they hadn’t exactly been honest. And now they were working every day toward a finale that was impossible to make.

“The lie we told is the show is contained and it’s about the characters,” Benioff said, which was at best half true. The epic fantasy was very much about its ensemble cast, but it’s also the least “contained” series ever made. “The worlds get so big, the battles get so massive.”

Author George R.R. Martin, whose series of novels forms the basis for Thrones, had revealed to the duo the broad strokes of how his Song of Ice and Fire saga secretly ends, including a description of an epic final battle that’s been teased from the show’s very first scene. But this climactic confrontation was miles out of reach for a series that cost about $5 million per episode. “We have a very generous budget from HBO, but we know what’s coming down the line and, ultimately, it’s not generous enough,” Benioff said.

So the producers had an idea: The final season could be six hours long and released as three movies in theaters — just like Martin’s best-known influence, The Lord of the Rings. It’s not that the duo wanted to make movies per se, but it seemed like the only way to get the time and money needed to pull off their finale. “It’s what we’re working towards in a perfect world,” Weiss said. “We end up with an epic fantasy story but with the level of familiarity and investment in the characters that are normally impossible in a two-hour movie.”

The flaw in this plan was that HBO is about serving its subscribers, not taking gambles at the box office. Behind the scenes, the network brass gently shot down the movie idea. But executives assured Benioff and Weiss that they would eventually have everything they needed to make a final season that was “a summer tentpole-size spectacle.”

Years later, the producers would strike a deal with the network to spend two years on a shortened season 8 that would cost more than $15 million an episode. You could say HBO made good on that promise from 2012, and the showrunners will happily give the network full credit. “They put their money where their mouths are — literally stuffed their mouth full of million-dollar bills, which don’t exist anymore,” Weiss quips.

But it’s probably more accurate to say that since season 3, Benioff and Weiss willed their ambitious final season into reality the hard way: by growing Game of Thrones into the biggest show in the world, a hugely profitable pop culture and merchandising sensation with more than 30 million viewers an episode and a record number of Emmys. Only with that kind of leverage do your towering ambitions begin to look like reasonable requests.

In fact, the GoT team was so successful that the biggest sticking point in the agreement was persuading HBO to halt the series. “We want to stop where we — the people working on it, and the people watching it — both wish it went a little bit longer,” Benioff says. “There’s the old adage of ‘Always leave them wanting more,’ but also things start to fall apart when you stop wanting to be there. You don’t want to f— it up.”

That concern — a constant desire to conclude the show on the strongest possible note — is something we heard over and over from the cast and crew when we visited the GoT set for the last time.

  MARCH 2018: THE FINAL SEASON

Arriving at the studio gate, I’m halted by a guard and asked to scan my badge, a security upgrade from past years. Then I’m asked for my phone, and the guard covers its cameras with stickers — that’s new too. Along with an HBO escort, I walk inside an enormous hangar that’s so large it’s where the RMS Titanic was painted.

What’s being filmed here is episode 6, the series finale. Like Harington going into the table read, I don’t know anything about the final season’s storyline. I look around at a meticulously constructed set that I’ve never seen on the show before. Several actors are performing, and I’m stunned: There are characters in the finale that I did not expect. I gradually begin to piece together what has happened in Westeros over the previous five episodes and try not to look like I’m freaking out.

There is absolutely nothing more that can be said about that scene at this time.

A word about spoilers: The cast is used to keeping story secrets, yet they’ve never sounded so anxious about it. “There are moments where you don’t trust yourself to have this in your brain,” says Joe Dempsie, who plays Gendry. “You’re in possession of something millions of people want to know. It’s such a bizarre feeling. And between now and when it comes out, I’m gonna be drunk at some point.”

So far, at least, the team has done a far better job than in previous years at keeping the story under wraps, even while drunk. Theories abound online, but they are guesses. A purported script leaked to Reddit, but here’s a way to spot a fake — real Game of Thrones scripts don’t say “Game of Thrones” on them. “Drone killer” guns were used to guard against any peeping robots attempting to fly over the set. Production documents stating which actors were required to be where and when used code names (Clarke, for example, was “Eldiss”). “It gets highly confusing when you need to remember who is who,” Turner says.

Benioff and Weiss’ next gig is writing a new Star Wars film, and they received some final-season secrecy tips from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson and producer Kathleen Kennedy. “They’ve given us a lot of hints about how to lock things down, things we never would have thought of or didn’t know were possible,” Weiss says.

At some point HBO will release a proper final-season trailer revealing more. Until then, here’s some basic setup we can tell you: Season 8 opens at Winterfell with an episode that contains plenty of callbacks to the show’s pilot. Instead of King Robert’s procession arriving, it’s Daenerys and her army. What follows is a thrilling and tense intermingling of characters — some of whom have never previously met, many who have messy histories — as they all prepare to face the inevitable invasion of the Army of the Dead.

“It’s about all of these disparate characters coming together to face a common enemy, dealing with their own past, and defining the person they want to be in the face of certain death,” co-executive producer Bryan Cogman says. “It’s an incredibly emotional, haunting, bittersweet final season, and I think it honors very much what George set out to do — which is flipping this kind of story on its head.”

How these fan favorites get along drives much of the drama this season (okay, here’s one specific tease from the premiere — Sansa isn’t thrilled that Jon bent the knee to his fancy new Targaryen girlfriend, at least not at first).

The drama builds to a confrontation with the Army of the Dead that’s expected to be the most sustained action sequence ever made for television or film. One episode — the same that Benioff and Weiss were concerned about pulling off so many years ago — is wall-to-wall action, courtesy of “Battle of the Bastards” director Miguel Sapochnik.

Last April a crew member revealed that Game of Thrones had wrapped 55 night shoots while filming a battle. Media outlets around the world ran stories saying the final season’s battle took twice as long as the 25-day shoot for season 6’s climactic Battle of the Bastards. This wildly understated what really happened. The 55 nights were only for the battle’s outdoor scenes at the Winterfell set. Filming then moved into the studio, where Sapochnik continued shooting the same battle for weeks after that.

“It’s brutal,” Dinklage says. “It makes the Battle of the Bastards look like a theme park.”

The battle doesn’t have just one focus, either, but rather intercuts between multiple characters involved in their own survival storylines that each feels like its own genre. “Having the largest battle doesn’t sound very exciting — it actually sounds pretty boring,” Benioff says. “Part of our challenge, and really, Miguel’s challenge, is how to keep that compelling… we’ve been building toward this since the very beginning, it’s the living against the dead, and you can’t do that in a 12-minute sequence.”

To help pull it off, the production hugely expanded its set for the Stark ancestral home of Winterfell, adding a towering castle exterior, a larger courtyard, and more interconnected rooms and ramparts. Strolling around the new Winterfell is like wandering a sprawling, immersive medieval resort compared with its previous Days Inn-like scale. The ground is covered with snow and blood. The air is thick with smoke from the fire pits. You can turn any direction and only see more Winterfell. It’s easy to feel like you’ve somehow wandered into Westeros.

The Winterfell expansion is just a small example of how every element of the production was heightened this year in an effort to “not f— it up.” Scenes that normally might take a day to film now took several. “[Camera] checks take longer, costumes are a bit better, hair and makeup a bit sharper — every choice, every conversation, every attitude has this air of ‘This is it,’” Clarke says. “Everything feels more intense. I had a scene with someone and I turned to him and said, ‘Oh my God, I’m not going to do this ever again,’ and that brings tears to my eyes.”

Lena Headey, who plays Cersei Lannister, agrees: “There was a great sense of grief. It’s a huge sense of loss, like we’ll never have anything like this again.”

More tears, like during the table read.

You know, Harington will actually reveal why he cried that second time.

“The second time was the very end,” Harington says. He’s referring to when the cast reached the last page of episode 6, and what the showrunners wrote there at the bottom.

“Every season, you read at the end of the last script ‘End of Season 1,’ or ‘End of Season 2,’” Harington says. “This read ‘End of Game of Thrones.’”



Press: The end of Game of Thrones: An exclusive report on the epic final season was originally published on Glorious Gwendoline | Gwendoline Christie Fansite