#james harkin

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight (100): T-posing as a job

Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray from 'No Such Thing as a Fish' discuss some peculiar posing.

[little-exhausted]

Is there anyone else whose entire personality is No Such Thing As a Fish and who desperately wishes there was a real fandom

where are my people

[brasskingfisher]

NSTAAF

Just listening to a recent episode of No Such Thing As A Fish (Specifically No Such Thing As A Giant Otter in H&M) and they mention Henry Cyril Paget, and his Pullman coach worked Rolls Royce (with it’s perfumed exhaust) who is INCORRECTLY in the episode referenced as the 5th Marquess of Bath. Despite the fact that he was the 5th Marquess of Anglesey.

[nstaaf-book]

Insects: An Edible Field Guide by Stefan Gates

[christian-oc-tournament]

Round One Schedule

may 27 (group 1 left side)

Joy O'Connor vs A'den

Adelle vs Adrian Alyward

Ahleri vs Aithus

Aleksander Thunderblade vs Alice Liddell

Amelia vs Amaranth

Andre Caron vs Anwedd

Anise vs Lt. Strike

Aqua vs Ariella

may 28 (group 1 right side)

Adrian Mori vs Alexander

Andris Harkin vs Ashley Bethaz

Arkyn Thornburn vs Athaliah Taveet

Aris vs Atlas Fletcher

Arryn va Azarias

Barir Stelmer vs Beck Valentine

Bela Balogh vs Betani D'Agia

Billie Way vs Black

may 29 (group 2 left side)

Betty vs Bob Guppington the 1st

Blodeuwedd vs Brat

Burr vs Caldren

Cpt. Ambivalent vs Casey Dickenson

Caroline Schaeffer vs Cedric Blackwell

Cassidia Reynolds vs Christopher

Celeste vs Cluinn

Bobbert Guppington the 2nd vs Clair

may 30 (group 2 right side)

Bobby Guppington the 3rd vs Chris Carnovo

Conas vs Crispin

Copper vs Cusick

Connell vs Cymin

Dae vs Dallow

Daniel Grace vs Daven

DeathScreen vs Derik

Doc vs Domitius

may 31 (group 3 left side)

Dr. Victor P. Henly vs Dhrake

Dorothy Gale vs Dr. Elliott Sinclair

Eabennor vs Edith Wickham

Ellie vs Edlyn

Elysia vs Elwin

Emma Gardner vs Erin

Ephesia vs Eniss

Epic Palustre vs Eriol

june 1 (group 3 right side)

Dr. Riku Honda vs Edmund

Ethylene Petra vs Eva Blythe

Faraena vs Farold

Evelyn Vordur vs Felix Rodzic

Feire vs Gail Goffrey

Gerdie vs Ferir

Ghost Lad vs Gigi

Evangelinne vs grandma Maudie

june 2 (group 4 left side)

Haru vs Heather

Henry Pebbleton vs Hibiscus

Hiromi vs Hope Espy Chase

Hugo Mallory vs Ilumi

Ilias vs James Zauberen

Ilya Severin vs Impossible

Jacer vs Jack Archer

James (Loriair) vs Isidore Kavi

june 3 (group 4 right side)

James (Eyurenia) vs Isabel

Jarryd vs Jasper

Jett vs Joden

James Bracegirdle vs Julia Cook

Kabos vs Kate Riley

Kathryn vs Keres Blake

Keyto vs Kimera

Kodi Archer vs James Mulligan

june 4 (group 5 left side)

Korosa vs Kylin

Laughing Hare vs Leeli

Kurtis vs Kyra

Len vs Licia

Leo King vs Lt. Matthew

Lina Lane vs Loch

Logis vs Lucas Greydawn

Lt. Madeline vs Logolas

june 5 (group 5 right side)

Kyr vs Laurentiu

Maddox Darling vs Luria

Kestler vs Matthew Johnson

Marin of Yuneth vs Meridian

Mathilda Talbot vs Mina

Mihalis vs Max Way

Mip vs Milton

Misty Way vs Maristella

june 6 (group 6 left side)

Miranda Hayes vs Nikki Way

Mochrar vs Myra

Mr. Guardian vs Nabikio

Naru vs Ms Hallifax

Nimble vs Nevin Imre

Orchid Finch vs Prince Adar Griffith

Nokh vs Obsidious

Onne vs Peter Pensworth

june 7 (group 6 right side)

Mr. G vs Ourem

Pandora vs Owen

Oriana vs Peg

Peter Dragonsbane vs Percy

Pietro vs Princess Torva

Peter Bethaz vs Prince Adric

Princess Rovyna vs Prometheus

Protagonist vs Naphtali

june 8 (group 7 left side)

Puddles vs Queen Alyth of Avena

Quinn vs Ragunoe

Ramona vs Rannis

Relaner vs Rhyin

Ril'siya vs Ripple Fisher

Riema vs Riser Way

Rocoroi Markus Mikko vs Rosemarie

Ryphl vs Santeri

june 9 (group 7 right side)

Saskia vs Senaka

Sh'zkai vs Shleaema

Shiido vs Skylar

Sonrisa Firiel vs Syx

Sly Bastion vs Stelemi

Spike vs Sz'nami

Tad vs Tamaki

Teasel vs Tannufia

june 10 (group 8 left side)

Tehvlar vs Thaendric

the Enemy vs the Mailman

the Poppy Queen vs the Runaway Prince

Theo Gray vs Tiger

Thomas Hargrove vs Tiny

Thessaly vs Tsuname

TJ Valentine vs Toka

Trajeda vs Val (Keepers)

june 11 (group 8 right side)

Veelia vs Trevin

Verity vs Vokku

Vellatra vs Waizu

Valentina vs Wendy

Wryden vs Yasmin

Wisteria vs Zac O'Connor

Yuro vs Zaire

Zhahara vs Ziph

[rabbitcruiser]

Jasper National Park, AB (No. 3)

In 1911, Jasper Forest Park came under the administration of the newly established Dominion Parks Branch of the Department of the Interior, under the purview of James Bernard Harkin, at which time the name was changed to simply Jasper Park. Under Harkin, Canada's national parks were to fulfill a dual mandate of wilderness protection and economic development—primarily as tourist destinations. In particular, the Parks Branch expressly forbade hunting in Jasper and the other mountain parks, deprecating First Nations' centuries-long history of subsistence hunting in the region as indiscriminate slaughter of the local game wildlife. Despite the prohibition on hunting, the park and its tourist facilities became a base of operations for wealthy Canadian and American sport hunters for hunting trips further into the Rockies, beyond the prohibitions in place in the mountain parks and the Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve.

In 1930, Jasper Forest Park officially became Jasper National Park with the passing of the National Parks Act. Section 4 of the act further underlined the park's wilderness preservation function, with Canada's National Parks "dedicated to the people of Canada for their benefit, education and enjoyment" and "maintained and made use of so as to leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations." Ironically, given the mandate its mandate to preserve natural spaces, the act also redefined Jasper Park's boundaries, removing 518 square kilometres (200 sq mi) of land from the park—including Brûlé Lake and Rock Lake—opening the excised area to coal mining and hydroelectric development.

Source: Wikipedia

[zergula]

Welcome To Lunestia

The date is 7600.

Humanity finds itself alive and well on the planet of Lunestia! With its gorgeous greens, purples, pinks, and white fields it is definitely different than Earth but almost eerily the same. After the legendary forum wars of 2025, aliens have fully become a part of society on Earth as well as Lunestia. Great advancements in not only technology but human evolution have improved life in the universe more than any being could imagine!

I fell in love with Risa's Lunestia and Meroze maps as soon as I saw them! It was really hard to choose between those two to use for this space world save but Lunestia's beautiful terrain painting and blend won me over! I highly recommend both of these worlds, absolutely gorgeous and incredible work!

INTERESTING CHARACTERS

Mae, Malie, and Una Verse keep watch over the renovated remains of the First Contact ship that brought all beings to beautiful Lunestia! Although thankful for the great honor bestowed upon them from their ancestors, these young beings just want to have some fun, sometimes!

The Goth family and Bachelor family fell into a wormhole in Sunset Valley and have found themselves farther in the future than they could even imagine!

Candy is a plantsim who is trying her very best to recreate all of the lovely plants from Earth! She lives in her underground lab and you can find her there or above ground tending to all of her lovely friends…uh plants!

Skyla Martial is a genius who has filled her home with bots that she treats like family but never stopped to wonder if she wants an actual family. Either way, the bots fill that void…for now.

Finally, you will find lots of beings from Oasis Landing and Lunar Lakes here: Amelia Loveland, Kel Gwyn, Harkin Shire, Fawn Lacey, Felix Finn, The Planesons, The James family, The Mosqueda family, The Su family, the Sekemoto Family, Eleanor Alto, the Castle family, the Star family, the Orey family, and the Landgraab Clones.

Around Town

29 Community Lots 62 Residential Lots

There's lots to do in Lunestia! Along with all EA rabbitholes, you can visit:

The Millennium Falcon Bot Emporium - A recreation of the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars by soocoolsim! It includes the bot emporium register, comics register, and a food register.

The Future Fashion Salon - - I have been experimenting with combining rabbitholes, registers, and lots on one lot and am loving the results! It saves so much room in town and I love how some of these rabbitholes/registers/lots work together! This is a salon and tattoo shop that includes the Elixir Consignment register, nectary register, consignment store register, and the Spa rabbithole.

Purple Flourite Museum - Art Gallery by Satureja13 that includes another nectary register.

Monsters Inc Stadium - a fun recreational park built by Hidehi for the Disney Magic Kingdom collaboration. The school and stadium rabbitholes are also located here.

Sapphire Ice Gym - by Satureja13 A small gym with all machines and martial arts stuff

Zephyr 47 - An old starship repurposed into Lunestia's favorite spot to watch the game, get some wings, and drink some juice with the old team! (shell by geminiagre, interior redone and converted to sportsbar by me)

Natatorium Pool - pool from Lunar Lakes

Laser Waves - A poolside club with lots of secret places to find!

Cosmic Ray's Bowling Lanes by Sandraelle is the place to be in Lunestia! A huge arcade with every game and numerous bowling lanes open at all times, all beings come here for fun and prizes, to grab some groceries, catch a movie, or have a quick meal at the diner!

Lunestia Library And Bookstore - a huge library with fun for the kids, snacks, the bookstore, and the Vault of Antiquity

Full Spectrum Fire Safety - by Waterheart197 - Even in the future, fire will still get you. Luckily, the fire safety beings here at Full Spectrum can help!

Bridgeport Acres Festival Grounds

Astro Orbiter - by soocoolsim is a fun hangout with a roller coaster, games, and snacks

Lunar Hub Casino - this is Lunestia's Live Show Venue that includes all casino games, giant performer's stage, nectary, and food register. You can find HOLODEK by Livvy1049 - a bright future lounge right next door!

Science Tech Center - bot emporium I built that includes the bot competition arena and observatory rabbitholes

Cube by Snowmoon - this dive bar is for surly beings only!

The MotherShip by Snowmoon is a little more inviting for the locals in Lunestia. The Darts Competition is weekly, see you there!

It wasn't long after Lunestia was discovered that the Space Buzz Studio by Hidehi was built! You can always see some of the actors rehearsing on stages upstairs if you stop by to tour the studio rabbithole (in the basement).

Crater Lagoon is the town fishing spot stocked with all fish and not too far from there you will find Oasis Shoreline Beach!

Don't forget to visit the crash scene wreckage! It might look like a junkyard but very important research is being done here. You can see the renovated First Contact ship from here as well!

OTHER INFO

In this download, you will find the world and 3 save files:

LunestiaCommunityLots - this save has the community lots only, no residential houses or other lots

LunestiaUnpopulated - the is the final version of the save without sims

LunestiaPopulated - this is the final version of the save with all households

This save uses Into The Future, Lunar Lakes, and all sci fi store content extensively but there is zero custom content. I have all expansions, all stuff packs, and all store content but if you do not have some of the items, the game will generate a similar item for you (but you may have to edit). The only expansion not used is PETS so I am unsure how the save will perform with Pets, but there is definitely plenty of room for them!

Because this world was just roads and trees, I ran into the same problem I had with Simarellen, which was sometimes the lots do not line up perfectly with the roads. Some of the lots may look diagonal or incorrectly placed because of that but I have playtested everything and have not found any routing issues. This world save does use the Into The Future elevators profusely so there might be an issue with some of the elevators not working as intended. To fix this, simply go into build mode on the lot, go to the ground floor of the lot, use the hand tool to pick up the elevator and then drop it, this will reset the elevators to go to the correct floors. I tried not to fill the world up with lots too much, but it was hard to choose with so many excellent options out there! You can always add more, if you like!

This took me longer than I expected, my apologies for the delay! Please tag me @zergula or #lunestia if you share any photos, etc I would love to see them. You can find my other world saves here: River Falls here: Simarellen and here: Kaodina

Happy simming and green plumbobs for all <3

SIMFILESHAREDOWNLOAD

[icedbatik]

One of these things ...

From Taylor's latest Survey Say, asking about favorite athletes:

Sidney Crosby: Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal

Marcus Pettersson: Christiano Ronaldo, Carlos Alcaraz (tennis)

Sam Poulin: Derek Jeter, Michael Jordan

Jansen Harkins: Kobe Bryant

Michael Bunting: Roger Federer

Radim Zohorna: Ronaldo, Federer, Nadal

Kris Letang: Michael Schumacher (Formula 1)

Jack St. Ivany: Kobe Bryant

Ryan Shea: Tom Brady, Rafael Nadal

Jonathan Gruden: Miguel Cabrera

Emil Bemstrom: Leo Messi

Valtteri Puustinen: Messi

Reilly Smith: Tiger Woods

Erik Karlsson: Roger Federer

John Ludvig: Steph Curry

Drew O'Connor: Eli Manning

Colin White: Tom Brady, Patty Mahomes

Rickard Rakell: Michael van Gerwen. He's a darts player, the best darts player that's ever played.

Magnus Hellberg: Zlatan Ibrahimovic (soccer)

Jake Guentzel: Tiger Woods, LeBron James. I just think what they've done is pretty remarkable. And I just look at what LeBron has done over his career, I think it's pretty unique. He reminds me of Sid. Him and Sid are kind of doing this together where they're aging like fine wine. Father Time is not really getting them. So it's pretty remarkable to watch.

Chad Ruhwedel: Kobe or Tiger

Tristan Jarry: LeBron, Michael Jordan, Kobe

Lars Eller: Hmmm ... I don't know.

Jesse Puljujarvi: Usain Bolt

Joona Koppanen: Usain Bolt

[pregnantseinfeld]

I believe that I made a post like this last year (though i can't find it because of how bad tumblr's search feature is), so here are some books I read in 2022 that I'd recommend!

Black Reconstruction in America By W.E.B. Du Bois

I started this in late 2021. It's a big thorough book but this is so it can carefully dispel every myth about the period, while also using these details to demonstrate a bigger picture: revealing just how much was gained in a short time, and how massive a squandered opportunity it's end represented. I'll have to write more about this sometime because this history is so engrossing that even seemingly minor tangents it takes somehow made me drastically rethink aspects of present day politics. (pdf)

Capital Volume 1 by Karl Marx

Another tough one I'd started the year prior, I don't want to scare anyone off but I suggest looking into some kind of supplementary material online when tackling it. There's not much I can say that others haven't of course, so I'll leave it at this, once I put in the effort and it clicked, I felt... It's as if somebody told you just now for the first time that living things are made up of cells. I hope that makes sense. (pdf)

Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano

Read this one feverishly, it never hit me until this book how little I knew about this huge portion of the world. While as a historical text it is great, it's also is an excellent teacher on subjects like resource extraction and underdevelopment by using concrete examples. It builds a foundation to understanding the ways"wealthy" countries exploit "poor" ones. (pdf)

The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow

As the fear around climate change understandably mounts there is also a growing need to combat eco-fascist rhetoric. This book takes on the misconception that the day we planted too many seeds in one place we became doomed to an unavoidable demise by offering interesting examples from our extremely long journey as a species. It's a book about how much more complicated we are, and how many unique directions we've taken. We are far from predestined for failure because of Mesopotamian farmers. (pdf)

Other Honorable Mentions!

Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti (pdf) is a quick read and offered worthwhile new insights I hadn't considered, even if I was spoiled on the coolest passages from years of them floating around tumblr. A James Connolly Reader edited by Shaun Harkin is a great collection that got me really into Irish revolutionary and socialist James Connolly who was extraordinarily insightful and is not talked about enough!!! Since I cant find the book itself here's an online collection of his writing. Lastly Shame and Endurance by H. Henrietta Stockel (internet archives) is an account of the Chiricahua Apache's 27 years of imprisonment, a too often overlooked atrocity, that uses sources from this time period to document just how obviously observably cruel this situation was.

[qutemag]

The movie guy reviews: Thunderball

by Benjamin Harkin

Only seen this one once before, and I'm a massive Bond fan. I'm reminded why I didn't like Thunderball. Connery's hurried acting screams bored with the role. The scuba fight scenes are a mess of flailing and bubbles. Thunderball as a title means nothing, it's not even a quip.

I can only list the problems. A woman visibly pisses off a turtoise by riding its shell, and there's numerous shots of sharks being killed. The second unit stuff is obviously so boring that they need to speed it all up artificially in action scenes. Lagos is the villain parodied in every Bond parody because he plays the role like an imitation of an actual Bond villain, at once too beige and too over the top, straddling that fine line of utter mediocrity. The jetpack in the opening scene serves no purpose. The femme fatale gives a painfully on the nose monologue about how "bond james bond" will never win her over, despite this being one of the few times he introduces himself to a woman as merely "james bond", missing the catchphrase opportunity. Not to mention his treatment of the female nurse is among the most menacing and misogynistic of the Connery era (the bit where he strangles a woman with her own bikini in Diamonds Are Forever notwithstanding).

The rack torture scene which was both stupid and funny. The henchman Vargas is defined as a dude who's thing is he has no hobbies. Terrifying. Bond actually fucks up and gets caught in a crevasse on an island and needs the coast guard to rescue him. This one feels like everyone involved had a contract for a Bond film and did it with no pizazz or interesting ideas, just playing out tropes covered in the last three movies. I'm glad the series moved the hell on.

I'm not one to tear the absurdities of a Bond film down but this one felt so tired and overdone and the worst elements of Connery's Bond.

(Thunderball is currently streaming on Stan and Prime Video.)

[lateralcast]

Lateral Highlight (100): A very odd tapas bar

Dan Schreiber, James Harkin, Anna Ptaszynski and Andrew Hunter Murray from 'No Such Thing as a Fish' discuss a restaurant riddle.

[biotic-major]

Female Shepard Woes

I’m not going to lie – I want to be able to play as Female Shepard but each time I go to, I’m smacked in the face with ridiculous sexism, harassment and other forms of forced sexualizing in ways that I did not agree to or want or even want to experience.

And it ONLY happens to Female Shepard. None of it happens to Male Shepard. 

Harkin in Mass Effect 1 with his ‘sit on my lap princess’ comment? Great, just great. Totally necessary addition there Bioware. 

That Batarian in Mass Effect 2 with his ‘Strippers’ comment about Shepard when she goes to sign up for the Archangel mission. You’re telling me not one woman has signed up at that post before now? Or does he say that to every single woman who comes up?

The ABSOLUTELY BULLSHIT FORCED FLIRTING that exists with Jacob and James. It’s DISGUSTING.

I actually really dislike that I feel like I have to play Male Shepard if I don’t want to get harassed in a bloody video game for being a woman. Why am I not actually shooting these people? Or punching them? I can punch a reporter for no damn good reason other than she’s upsetting me with her tabloid crap but these assholes I just have to take it from? Notice how the reporter is a woman doing it, so it’s okay because she’s annoying – but all of the guys making inappropriate comments you just have to make subtle or snide comments at best but accept it.

And you have to accept that you’re gonna just be thirsty for two of the blandest and most disrespectful and unimpressive men there are on the ship. Right.

[wanderingmind867]

My Voting Record (US Democratic Primaries: 1844-2024):

1844 Democratic Primaries: Martin Van Buren

1848 Democratic Primaries: George Dallas

1852 Democratic Primaries: William O. Butler

1856 Democratic Primaries: N/A (No candidate sounds very good)

1860 Democratic Primaries: N/A (No candidate sounds good)

1864 Democratic Primaries: N/A (No candidate sounds very good).

1868 Democratic Primaries: James E. English

1872 Democratic Primaries: N/A (Democrats supported the Liberal Republicans that year. Their primary is in my Third party primaries notes).

1876 Democratic Primaries: Samuel Tilden

1880 Democratic Primaries: N/A (None of the candidates sound very good, honestly).

1884 Democratic Primaries: Grover Cleveland

1888 Democratic Primaries: Grover Cleveland

1892 Democratic Primaries: Horace Boies

1896 democratic Primaries (Top Four):

1. William Jennings Bryan

2. Richard P. Bland

3. Horace Boies

4. Henry Teller

1900 Democratic Primaries: William Jennings Bryan

1904 Democratic Primaries (Top Two):

1. Alton B. Parker

2. Nelson A. Miles

1908 Democratic Primaries: William Jennings Bryan

1912 Democratic Primaries: Judson Harmon

1916 Democratic Primaries: N/A (although I like Woodrow Wilson's fashion sense, he's also a rascist eugenicist. I can't support him).

1920 Democratic Primaries (Top Two):

1. Thomas R. Marshall

2. Al Smith

1924 Democratic Primaries (Top Three):

1. Al Smith

2. Robert L. Owen

3. Oscar Underwood (mostly just because he hated the KKK)

1928 Democratic Primaries: Al Smith

1932 Democratic Primaries: Al Smith

1936 Democratic Primaries: Upton Sinclair (my protest vote against Roosevelt from the left. How I wish Huey Long could have ran that year…)

1940 Democratic Primaries: Franklin D. Roosevelt

1944 Democratic Primaries: Franklin D. Roosevelt

1948 Democratic Primaries: Harry Truman (although I wish Henry Wallace was one of the candidates).

1952 Democratic Primaries (Top Two Candidates):

1. G. Mennen Williams

2. Estes Kefauver

1956 Democratic Primaries: Estes Kefauver

1960 Democratic Primaries: Wayne Morse

1964 Democratic Primaries: Lyndon B. Johnson

1968 Democratic Primaries: Eugene McCarthy

1972 Democratic Primaries (Top Five Candidates):

1. George McGovern

2. Shirley Chisholm

3. Hubert Humphrey

4. Patsy Mink

5. Terry Sanford

1976 Democratic Primaries (Top Three Candidates):

1: Frank Church

2: Mo Udall

3: Fred Harris

1980 Democratic Primaries: Jimmy Carter (my beliefs might be closer to Ted Kennedy, but I hate the Kennedy Clan. Except Eunice. Eunice is fine).

1984 Democratic Primaries (My Top Three Candidates):

1. Jesse Jackson

2. George McGovern

3. Walter Mondale

1988 Democratic Primaries (my top two candidates):

1. Jesse Jackson

2. Paul Simon

1992 Democratic Primaries: Tom Harkin

1996 Democratic Primaries: Nobody (I hate Bill Clinton)

2000 Democratic Primaries: Bill Bradley

2004 Democratic Primaries (Top Three Candidates):

1. Dennis Kucinich

2. Carol Moseley Braun

3. A tie between Al Sharpton and Howard Dean

2008 Democratic Primaries: John Edwards

2012 Democratic Primaries: Barack Obama

2016 Democratic Primaries: Bernie Sanders (I'd have taken Martin O'Malley too though)

2020 Democratic Primaries (Top Four Candidates):

1. Bernie Sanders

2. Elizabeth Warren

3. Tom Steyer

4. Marianne Williamson (She is definitely weird and new agey, but Wikipedia's summary of her policies don't sound too bad)

2024 Democratic Primaries: Marianne Williamson (I don't expect her to win at all, but I appreciate the challenge to Biden from the left. Remind him the progressive wing is still alive. Also, screw RFK Jr. I hate all the Kennedys. Except Eunice. She made the special Olympics; she can stay.)

PS: I made one of these for the Republican Primaries too. I might post that later.

[nstaaf-book]

Republic or Death! Travels in Search of National Anthems by Alex Marshall

[moorheadthanyoucanhandle]

PO THINGS

Opening this weekend:

Kung Fu Panda 4--The titular mammal, Po, has been promoted from "Dragon Warrior" to the more exalted status of Spiritual Leader, and is expected to find and train a replacement for his former position. But he'd rather not; he'd like to just keep having butt-kicking adventures on his own.

This entry, set again in a fairy-tale Chinese past inhabited by talking animals, has Po capturing Zhen, a light-footed cutpurse fox. The "Furious Five" of the earlier films is away on assignment, so the imprisoned Zhen talks Po into letting her serve as a guide on a quest to the distant lair of a villainous shape-shifting lizard, The Chameleon. See where this is headed?

This Dreamworks series has been at the less exhausting, more rewarding end of the CGI animated family flick spectrum starting with the original, back in 2008, and continuing with the first two sequels. It's hard to say if it will be sustainable from now on, but this fourth film, at least, keeps the streak going. The story deals in the usual kid-movie platitudes, but the lighting-fast yet precise slapstick sequences are exciting, and rise at times to laugh-out-loud funny even for adults.  

The voice cast in this film, as in the earlier films, is unusually strong too. Jack Black is exuberant as ever as Po, and is joined again by Dustin Hoffman as the red panda master Shifu, Bryan Cranston as Po's biological father and the great James Hong as Po's adoptive father (a goose, you'll recall). Ian McShane returns from the first film as a sinister snow leopard. New cast members include Ke Huy Quan as a pangolin bandit, and the mighty and menacing Viola Davis as The Chameleon. But the showcase new role is Awkwafina as Zhen; she fits the series like a glove.

In another pretty good touch: Tenacious D rousingly covers "Hit Me Baby One More Time" over the credits.

Opening today at Harkins Shea 14:

Pitch People--Back in the late '60s I was fascinated by the Veg-o-Matic, the infamous manual vegetable chopper sold on TV by Ronco; it's one of my earliest consumerist memories. After numerous appeals to my poor Mom, she wearily ordered one, and we quickly learned that it did not significantly improve the efficiency of her kitchen. Decades later my kid, around the age of eight, insisted on ordering a Snackeez, a drinking cup with a compartment for snacks at the top likewise peddled on TV. The speed with which she lost interest in it was ineffably heart-tugging to me; I could hear "The Circle of Life" playing in my head.

This documentary, directed by Stanley Jacobs, is about the people who have sold products of all kinds, with kitchen gadgets a special favorite, by "pitching" them; demonstrating them with a performer's panache. The art goes back thousands of years, no doubt--it's described here as "the second oldest profession"--but this movie's focus is on the American and British practitioners who took it from boardwalks, notably Atlantic City, to state fairs to shopping malls to TV commercials and later, after Reagan-era deregulation, to "infomercials." 

It's a brisk, amusing, revealing chronicle. Strikingly, many of the veterans we meet here are related to each other, members of the Morris family, with connections to the Popeil family behind Ronco (the credits pointedly declare that "RON POPEIL WOULD NOT GRANT AN INTERVIEW FOR THIS FILM"). They gleefully dissect the strategies for separating audience members from their money, but they don't seem contemptuous of them, and we're told that they truly believe in their products. In any case, they show a certain guileless pride in their performing skills. It's as if the entertainment value of their pitches should offset any disappointment in what they're selling.

Along with Arnold and Lester Morris, talking heads here include Ed McMahon, an Atlantic City pitch veteran before his TV stardom, and Wally Nash, a Brit whose effortless old-school pitch of the "hand-hammered wok from the People's Republic of China" I watched countless times on late-TV in DC. Re-watching it on YouTube I was amazed at how much of I could still say along with him; I wanted to buy one every freakin' time I saw it. 

Inevitably the extended footage of performances makes up the strongest passages of Pitch People. It's also hilarious when we see behind-the-scenes footage of an infomercial rehearsal in which the presenters break several demo models of a slicer before realizing that they're using it wrong.

Alas, a number of the pitchers featured here have left us, as this movie was made in 1999. It saw play at festivals back then but was not picked up by a distributor, and actually had to be restored before it could get a proper release, a quarter of a century after it was completed. There's a delicious and stinging irony in the fact that this movie about selling failed, until now, to sell. Maybe it needed a better pitch.

[kwebtv]

Dream West - CBS - April 13 - 20, 1986

Historical Drama / Western (3 episodes)

Running Time: 337 minutes

Stars:

Richard Chamberlain as John Charles Fremont

Alice Krige as Jessie Benton Fremont

F. Murray Abraham as President Abraham Lincoln

René Enríquez as General Castro

Ben Johnson as Jim Bridger

Jerry Orbach as Capt. John Sutter

G. D. Spradlin as General Steven Watts Kearney

Rip Torn as Kit Carson

Fritz Weaver as Senator Thomas Hart Benton

Anthony Zerbe as Bill Williams

Claude Akins as Tom Fitzpatrick

John Anderson as Brig. Gen. Brooke

Lee Bergere as 'Papa Joe' Nicollet

Jeff East as Tim Donovan

Michael Ensign as Karl Preuss

Mel Ferrer as Judge Elkins

Gayle Hunnicutt as Mrs. Maria Crittenden

Noble Willingham as President James Knox Polk

Matt McCoy as Louis Freniere

Cameron Mitchell as Commander Robert Stockton

Burton Gilliam as Martineau

John Harkins as Secretary of State George Bancroft

George American Horse as Indian Chief