Friday, August 30, 2019

Missy Elliott's MTV VMA Video Vanguard Award Performance

Early Oscar Hype



Marriage Story
November 6, 2019
Written and Directed by Noah Baumbach
Starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Ray Liotta




Dolemite Is My Name
October 25, 2019
Written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
Directed by Craig Brewer
Starring Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Titus Burgess, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Wesley Snipes




Parasite
Directed by Bong Joon-ho

"They thought they'd send me here to die"






















Sports Illustrated – "Welcome to Cleveland, Where the Browns Are True Contenders"
By Ben Baskin

"Beckham was heading to a restaurant in Paris when he got the call from Gettleman. He didn’t want to answer. He knew he was getting traded; he just didn’t know where. The conversation, he says, lasted seconds.

In a situation like his, Beckham says, a star player will often get a chance to discuss his preferred trade destinations. But he was never asked. In fact, he claims to know that the Giants received better offers and still chose to send him to Cleveland, out of spite, hoping to stain his career with the enduring stigma that comes with playing for the Browns. “This wasn’t no business move,” he says. “This was personal. They thought they’d send me here to die.” (The Giants declined to comment on Beckham’s exit.)"

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Mandalorian



November 12, 2019
Streaming on Disney+
Written by Jon Favreau (Iron Man)
Starring Pedro Pascal (Oberyn Martell), Gina Carano, Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Carl Weathers, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog, Taika Waititi

"The Mandalorian is an upcoming American space-opera web television series scheduled to premiere on Disney+ on November 12, 2019. Set in the Star Wars universe, the series will take place a few years after the events of Return of the Jedi and follows a lone Mandalorian gunfighter beyond the reaches of the New Republic."

Gizmodo – "In the First Mandalorian Trailer, a Lone Ranger Survives on a Galaxy's Edge"
Uproxx – "Jon Favreau Addresses Whether Or Not Boba Fett Will Pop Up In ‘The Mandalorian’"
EW – "The Mandalorian: 5 new character details revealed"
The Ringer – "The ‘Mandalorian’ Trailer Is Our First Look at a Side of ‘Star Wars’ We’ve Never Seen Before"


Sunday, August 11, 2019

Climate and Food



New York Times – "Climate Change Threatens the World’s Food Supply, United Nations Warns"


Santana's Set at Woodstock






































New York Times – "How Santana Hallucinated Through One of Woodstock’s Best Sets (His Own)"

Q: I assume that in 1969, Jerry Garcia’s mescaline was pretty potent.

A: Oh, it was. I’d been dosed by them a year before. It took me two to three days to coordinate after that one. I’d been baptized into consciousness expanding, I’ll call it, so that didn’t scare me.

We knew already they had a reputation for dosing other bands and since we were opening for them in Las Vegas, I made sure to carefully wash this Coca-Cola can I was going to drink. But what I didn’t know is, they knew how to put a syringe in the soda can. So we played our set and left, and on the way from the airport to the plane, the hall kept getting longer and longer. The colors in the carpet and in the wall started oozing like lava. I said, “Uh oh, they got me.” When I sat down on the plane, I looked out the window as we were taking off, and the Vegas lights looked like Aztec hieroglyphics. [Laughs] I said, “This is going to be intense.”

Q: When you were onstage at Woodstock, were you hallucinating?

A: Oh totally. You can tell by my body language. I’m wrestling with the guitar — not wrestling in conflict, but like a surfer, wrestling to maintain and sustain a balance. That’s the key to everything in life. Whether you’re straight or on mescaline, maintain your composure and your balance.

...

Q: Who played the best sets at Woodstock, and where does Santana rate?

A: There was only three bands I recollect that were putting it all on the line. You’re playing like Buddy Rich or Miles Davis; you’re playing for your life. Sly and the Family Stone for me is No. 1. Jimi Hendrix is No. 2. Everybody else has to fight with us for No. 3.

What we brought was basically African rhythms and melody. After Woodstock, every band all of a sudden started getting congas. Miles had congas. The Rolling Stones had congas. Because they saw that mixing congas with guitars is a win-win situation — especially with women!

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

























"Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.

Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly through a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Tolentino writes about a cultural prism: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the advent of scamming as the definitive millennial ethos; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the punitive dream of optimization, which insists that everything, including our bodies, should become more efficient and beautiful until we die. Gleaming with Tolentino’s sense of humor and capacity to elucidate the impossibly complex in an instant, and marked by her desire to treat the reader with profound honesty, Trick Mirror is an instant classic of the worst decade yet."

Tuesday, August 6, 2019

The Super Bowl






Odell Beckham Jr. to GQ:

"Who does not get into this game to be 11-and-5 or 12-and-4 every season, to win their conference, to win the championship, to go to the Super Bowl? What else would you do this for? Every year at the Giants, when they'd ask me, "What are your goals this year?" I would say to win a Super Bowl. There's no sugarcoating it. Even if you feel like your team can't do it, the goal is to win the Super Bowl. I don't understand what else I'm playing for. Playing to have a good season? No, bro. I'm trying to win the Super Bowl."

We were born to run






































GQ – "Meet Joe Holder, Creative Director of Your Better Self"

"“Human bodies are made to move. So for me, being able to run—moving my body as one unit, without pain—is the best indicator of physical proficiency. We've gotten so far from what our bodies are meant for. When you had to start running from a lion, you weren't like, ‘All right, guys, let me warm up my hammies.’ Obviously we're not worrying about predators much anymore, but you should be able to run down a cab without hurting yourself. That's what being in shape is. It's not just about body composition or how you look. It's: Can you move? That's why I believe everyone should have a base level of running. It will help you be in the world.”"

Friday, August 2, 2019

The Irishman



Q4 2019
Written by Steven Zaillian
Based on I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci

Inglewood Basketball & Entertainment Complex























Los Angeles Times – "Clippers reveal renderings for proposed 18,500-seat Inglewood arena"

Related,
The Planned Venues for the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics