unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

Not once. I've seen videos of other events, but none of it beats the sheer spectacle of 20 Japanese pitilessly climbing over each other to ascend a slime-drenched staircase while you're trapped in a hotel room with a rattling air conditioner.

e: oddly since it was brought up, I have been to one or two highland games. the men there should really consider underpants. kilts are gross.

Last edited by unnamednewbie13 (2022-02-23 06:01:38)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720
"The Academy Awards is taking the unprecedented step of demoting eight categories — including film editing and original score — from its upcoming live ABC telecast on March 27 in what appears to be an attempt to reverse the show’s plummeting ratings, which hit an all-time low last year."

Interesting that both the Olympics and Oscars are flailing. Brietbart blames "woke celebrities and athletes blah blah". Not 100% wrong. About 90%. The reason why people don't watch the Oscar is because nobody watches the movies that get nominated. Of course if we used Box Office as a measure of quality, the Oscars would be a battle of Marvel vs Capcom various franchises. But at least people will watch the Oscars.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
interest has dropped in the oscars because cinema attendance has plummeted. people are no longer seeing movies due to the pandemic. big marquee titles have had cautious and tepid releases. i feel like there's only been a handful of movies in the last few years that have made a big enough splash at the box office to warrant any pop-culture attention (bond, spiderman, etc.). for the rest of the time the vast majority of movies and their reception has reflected the general mood: glum, cautious, unimportant in the circumstances.

the idea that the oscars will fail because they're starting to recognise non-mainstream voices, or foreign films, is so laughable. it's a good fucking job they do considering the parlous state of most major studio productions thesedays. we're a long way from scorsese greats and de niro grandstanding over native americans.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720
I think the collapse in theater going is a big part of it. Steaming too. I wanted to see the Duel but wasn't going to hike to the theaters to see it. The movie bombed and it came out on streaming much quicker than things would come to VHS back in the day. I wasn't interested in seeing it anymore by the time it came to streaming.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
pandemic does lend itself to tv series binging. the sopranos had a huge resurgence in the first year, i recall. succession and other recent shows have caught a big wave too, i think, because of a large captive audience who prefer the stay-at-home binging model.

i purposefully subscribed to a few online streaming movie services, as it occurred to me that i literally hadn't seen a new movie in like 1.5 years. who could possibly want to seek out a new blockbuster movie when they're likely seeing it at home on their laptop or living-room TV?

i recall a few people talking about missing Dune because they couldn't/didn't want to go to the cinema to see it. not really much to see on a laptop.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720
Watching things at home also leads people to not finishing something. I stopped watching Dune like 20 minutes in. If I was in a theater and with a guest I would have stuck it out. Maybe film makers need to adapt to the new way people watch movies.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
i like watching my ‘boring’ art house dramas at home. works well on a laptop or tv, in bed with the gf. they scale well.

too bad if you like marvel schlock and can’t go to the cinema because it’s full of snotty virus-bearing schoolchildren.

Last edited by uziq (2022-02-23 10:30:09)

RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,736|6737|Oxferd Ohire
The only movie I haven't finished watching at home was the 2016 ghostbusters.

I've watched tons of worse movies but that's the only one I've turned off.
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
DesertFox-
The very model of a modern major general
+794|6685|United States of America
Jeez, Dune is the only best picture nominee I've even heard of this year. Parasite is still on my to-watch list but other besides that I have to go back to 2013 and Twelve Years a Slave for a winner I've actually seen.
RTHKI
mmmf mmmf mmmf
+1,736|6737|Oxferd Ohire
mac doesnt like all the tropes it predates
https://i.imgur.com/tMvdWFG.png
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

SuperJail Warden wrote:

Watching things at home also leads people to not finishing something. I stopped watching Dune like 20 minutes in. If I was in a theater and with a guest I would have stuck it out. Maybe film makers need to adapt to the new way people watch movies.
"This is at least the second time you've mentioned not finishing Dune here on these forums, GOLLY!"

Anyway, it was fine. I don't get what the deal is with "laptop underwhelming." At close range, my old laptop takes up about as much space in my field of vision as a TV across the living room, maybe more, and about the same as a movie screen across a theater. Probably about matches the dolby size:distance ratio.
uziq
Member
+492|3452
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FMd-4uOXoAQHunf?format=jpg&name=900x900

LMAO. this self-pitying sad sack man child literally had a cameo in an iron man movie.

some of the tweet replies to this are priceless.

“ The most successful film franchise of all time is about a genius playboy CEO who invents Raytheon and then saves the universe from a purple man.”

“ if i wrote a comic in which a character was the heir to an apartheid emerald mine my editor would cross it out as too cartoonishly malevolent.”
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

Musk really tweeted that? Intentionally clueless.

It isn't just Iron Man. Movies and TV shows are up to their ears in wealthy heroes and super beings sometimes enormously wealthy beyond anything we currently have, or at the very least completely liberated from all possible material want. What's a car or an apartment when you could just eyeball precious metals out of the asteroid belt whenever you want.

The Justice League has its own personal space station and fleet. The world's most expensive yacht club.

Forbes has written about net worth of the likes of Scrooge McDuck and the Monopoly Man. Just stop, Musk, or at least become a hero. You've been at the prologue stage for years now without having your Iron Man epiphany.
uziq
Member
+492|3452
billionaires feeling sorry for themselves and pleading persecution ... amazing expression of late-capitalist decadence and decline, right there.

hilarious when you consider the root of his animus is that he has to pay tax ... at a much lower rate than your average working stiff.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

Musk could be taxed like 99% and still dry his tears with disposable wads of cash.
uziq
Member
+492|3452
just paying the equivalent rate to your average amazon warehouse worker or tesla factory drone would be a nice fucking start.
KEN-JENNINGS
I am all that is MOD!
+2,973|6632|949

Lots of propaganda floating around these days.

I would like to hear the various members' takes on the current conflict. Please limit it to 5 sentences if possible.
SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720
It is a shame that so many innocent people are going to die. This is a major historical event. The collapse of the Russian economy is going to have far wider negative impacts than anticipated. The COVID pandemic is over at least as a new item. There is going to be far reaching effects on civil rights, defense spending, etc. in the U.S. and allies for a bit.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
world war 3 started in 2014, we just didn't realize it then. we will in time come to recognise crimea/donbas as a tentative first step in the same vein as hitler's annexation of the sudetenland or the anschluss. we will, in retrospect, be seen to have been alternatively naive, negligent, or even complicit in our treating with putin/putinism in this time, much like the established order of the early/mid-1930s had their flirtations and accommodations with nazism. merkel and other world leaders of stature will be questioned for their strategies of appeasement, much like neville chamberlain was.

Last edited by uziq (2022-03-02 13:16:00)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720

uziq wrote:

world war 3 started in 2014, we just didn't realize it then. we will in time come to recognise crimea/donbas as a tentative first step in the same vein as hitler's annexation of the sudetenland or the anschluss. we will, in retrospect, be seen to have been alternatively naive, negligent, or even complicit in our treating with putin/putinism in this time, much like the established order of the early/mid-1930s had their flirtations and accommodations with nazism. merkel and other world leaders of stature will be questioned for their strategies of appeasement, much like neville chamberlain was.
I don't think this is the start of World War 3. I think 2014 was the start of Russia's slow avoidable collapse. Russia never economically recovered from 2014. They will take a further hit from the surprisingly dramatic cutting off of their economy. I don't think it is too wishful to think this could be the end of Putin's time in power.

Merkel's reputation took a hit overnight once the literal socialist in Germany decided to rearm. The American right is muted and not sure what to say at this moment. I am interested to see how the public ultimately reacts to Biden's performance.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
ww1 was the final stage in many european empires' collapse.

ww2 was the final stage in imperial germany's collapse (may as well say it finished off the remaining european imperial powers too).

etc.

i am only being facetious, anyway. i don't think china or india will swing behind russia and kick off a global conflagration. i do think, however, that the only way out of this bloodbath is for putin to go. and i also think that there is nothing that anyone outside of russia can do, ultimately, to effect or compel this change. the bloodbath will continue until something gives within the internal dynamics of their political system/society.

the ability for us to depose the leader of a nuclear-armed state from without is basically nil. we haven't even considered it with the kim dynasty in north korea, with their handful of nukes and their economy on a permanent state of life support. we stand zero chance against a foe like putin who is ideologically committed to their position.

crises like this make it perfectly clear, if it wasn’t already, why rogue states like iran or north korea so ardently pursue nukes. they really are the last redoubt in terms of self-preservation and self-determination. the UN/NATO is totally feeble in how it counter-acts russia because of this.

Last edited by uziq (2022-03-02 13:39:16)

SuperJail Warden
Gone Forever
+635|3720
The Soviet Union was a more dysfunctional and ideologically committed state. It collapsed mostly peacefully. Attempted coups and all. I do agree that there is not much we can do to get us closer to that than continuing to isolate Russia economically.

I wonder what lessons Xi is learning from this.
https://i.imgur.com/xsoGn9X.jpg
uziq
Member
+492|3452
the soviet union had a politburo. there was a circle of higher-ups who could stage coups/soft coups or call the show. modern russia is a one-man-show.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

One of the conservative boomers often tells me in glowing recollection of the one time Reagan at a press conference once called the press the "politburo," and that the people there chuckled, because 'they knew!'

"Did I ever mention …" usually answerable by a yes. I don't have the clip on hand.

I would like to hear the various members' takes on the current conflict. Please limit it to 5 sentences if possible.
The war is taking over my feeds and conversations, now it's taking over ee chat too. Putin needs to stop, though I would be surprised if he did. Ukraine needs to be less creepy with the POW video stuff: looming over a frightened, common soldier in bed with broken legs or something and questioning them like that makes for very disturbing clips that really undermine Ukraine's Good Guy routine. I have reservations about glorifying Ukraine and its leaders as a matter of fact, being a part of any propaganda machine. I don't think wiping out Russia economically is a very good plan: the resentment and misery it will foster (driving more Russians into the arms of Putin as I warned before) and the economic fallout that will more than just Russia - cooler heads need to present/prevail.
unnamednewbie13
Moderator
+2,053|6772|PNW

cringe

https://i.imgur.com/HRw0x6j.jpg

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