Landry’s holding a press conference right now; the thrust of his
excuses are as follows: because Sterling was resisting arrest, the cop
experienced subjective fear, and someone said there might be a gun, it
was ok to “incapacitate Mr. Sterling” by shooting him in the back while
pinned on the ground. (Video later proved that Sterling didn’t reach for the concealed gun he owned)
Key facts:
• If they’re afraid, they can kill you.
• If you resist arrest, they can kill you.
• If someone says there’s a gun, they can kill you.
Muppeteers with some of their characters. Last image: Frank Oz, Jim Henson (1936-1990), Richard Hunt (1951-1992), Jerry Nelson (1934-2012), and Dave Goelz.
A brief selection: Jim played Kermit, Rowlf, Ernie, the Swedish Chef, Waldorf; Frank played Miss Piggy, Fozzie, Bert, Cookie Monster, Animal; Jerry Nelson was responsible for Floyd Pepper, Gobo Fraggle, Count von Count, Robin; Richard Hunt played Scooter, Janice, Beaker, Statler, Sweetums; Dave Goelz did Gonzo, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, Uncle Travelling Matt, Zoot, Beauregard.
‘I came into this and called Joe and Anthony and said, “Look, don’t write me the old Thor, we’ve got a new Thor now,”’ Chris said.
He was referencing the highly acclaimed shift towards a comedic, self-referential tone he and Taika made with Ragnarok.
But instead of observing his request to keep the character’s newfound mojo alive, the Russo brothers reportedly told him they’d ‘reinvented’ the character once again.
Chris recalled his response: ‘I was like “no, no, no” and I was really protective of what I’d created with Taika.’
They explained that the new direction was in line with the higher-stakes of the Avengers film, and to ensure the character worked well in an ensemble cast.
Fuck the Russo brothers
this is from the fucking daily mail
I bit the bullet and clicked the Daily Mail link (with adblocker on). They’ve essentially reposted an article from the Telegraph, except subtly changed things here and then.
The key takeaway from the original article:
The Russo brothers told him they had reinvented the character of Thor
all over again, something that took Hemsworth a while to embrace.
“I was like ‘no, no, no’ and I was really protective of what I’d created with Taika,” Hemsworth said.
“They
then said, ‘No this is a whole different thing; Thor’s never faced
something like this, never been a part of this large and ensemble.’
“I think for our characters it was difficult but for me a hugely exciting adventure.”
So Hemsworth had a couple of doubts which were soon more or less put to rest. Compare that with what the Mail has to say about it:
‘I came into this and called Joe and
Anthony and said, “Look, don’t write me the old Thor, we’ve got a new
Thor now,”’ Chris said.
He was referencing the highly acclaimed shift towards a comedic, self-referential tone he and Taika made with Ragnarok.
But
instead of observing his request to keep the character’s newfound mojo
alive, the Russo brothers reportedly told him they’d ‘reinvented’ the
character once again.
[…]
Thor’s… knife? According to a report published Saturday, Infinity War writers (Joe and Anthony Russo) ignored Chris’ requests for them to observe the dramatic changes made to the character in Ragnarok
[…]
This means (infinity) war! Chris recalled his response: ‘I was like “no,
no, no” and I was really protective of what I’d created with Taika’
Check out that emotive language! This wasn’t a chat between collaborators, it was an argument, they ignored him, it meant WAR! The Mail is not subtle about who it wants you to sympathize with here. Check out the headlines even, the original article from the Telegraph:
Chris Hemsworth’s big worry with new ‘Avengers’ movie
Verus the Mail:
‘I felt stuck’: Chris Hemsworth argued with Avengers Infinity War writers after they ‘reinvented’ Thor against his will for the upcoming sequel
Does the quote “I felt stuck” appear anywhere in the article, apart from in the dramatic clickbaity headline and one of the photo captions? It does not.
Because, if you click if the original Telegraph interview, you will see that he is not talking about “feeling stuck” in regards to the Infinity War script, but rather in regards to the first two Avengers movies:
Hemsworth felt he hadn’t given his best performances in the past two Avengers movies, but his experience on Ragnarok gave him the self-assurance to make his voice heard.
“I
felt stuck about what I was giving there and felt like I probably
wasn’t bringing my portion to it as much as I could have,” Hemsworth
said.
So the Mail are outright misrepresenting what he said in order to get you to click. And it worked!
…
Okay. This is a tiny thing. Fundamentally, it does not really matter that Thor, a fairly standard white male superhero, might be written ever so slightly differently (but still as a superhero!) in a film that has 20+ characters vying for attention. But why am I bothering to write all this then?
Because this is how the Daily Mail operates. This is, in the bluntest possible terms, how they’ve managed to keep their hate-spewing empire running for so long. They adjust the facts just enough to get you angry, angry enough to click and read and pass the article along. How dare those writers disrespect my favourite actor, fuck the Russo brothers, and so on! They thrive on your outrage and weaponise it. Click, click, click. More ads, more money.
The Daily Mail is not a legitimate news source, and it’s to the extreme detriment of everyone that people seem to think they are. If you haven’t heard the story of what they did to Lucy Meadows and her wife, I urge you to drop by and read it now. [tw transphobia, suicide] If you haven’t heard how the Mail tried to needle Lilly Wachowski when she came out, insisting how someone was obviously gonna out her so it might as well be them, read that too. The story of how one of their columnists used the death of a gay pop star to fuel homophobia? It happened a while ago, but it’s also a good look at how they operate – of course their story is the right one, can’t they be trusted over the words of those trained medical professionals who’re “spinning” a different story? When in doubt, misrepresent.
Guys, what I’m basically saying is… in the world we live in today (we all know what’s been going on around here recently) we’ve gotta be so careful with these things. Obviously a huge amount of the people round here don’t know what the Daily Mail actually is, don’t live in the same country even, I’m not really blaming anyone. It’s just, you know – that’s how they get you. “Well, I was angry about the writers for a upcoming superhero movie, and the Mail validated that anger by making them seem like arrogant villains. What else’ve they got?” Click, click, click. Outrage, outrage, outrage. Most popular English-language news website in the world.
I’m sure Infinity War will be just fine.
Read the above post, please.
Holy shit, people actually read this? I wanna drop another link in then – Stop Funding Hate. They’re trying to get advertisers to abandon the Mail and its ilk, and so far it seems to be working at least to some extent.
Being rich might not buy you happiness, but it can get you out of
prison pretty damn fast, even if you kill four people. In the
holy-shit-what’s-gonna-kill-us-today fast-paced world that we live in,
it’s easy to forget about a Grey Poupon stain like Ethan Couch. Here’s
his thing, point by point:
Back in 2013, the then 16-year old
stole booze from a Walmart (classy!) and proceeded to drink. When he
was later captured by the police, his BAC was three times the legal
limit. Couch also had Valium in his system that day, making for a pretty
powerful cocktail. Intoxicated, Couch slammed into a car with his
pickup truck, at top speed. All four people in the car were killed.
Couch’s
high-falootin’ rich dude lawyer managed to get him off with 10 years of
probation. The lawyer cited the fact that the lad’s family was so
loaded that he’d grown up rich enough to be shielded from having to
learn about right and wrong.
Apparently, he was also too rich to
be able to stand the horrors of probation in all the luxury that money
can afford. He and his mother, Tonya, took off to Mexico in an attempt
to keep him from having to serve the rest of his “sentence.”
The
Feds came to Mexico, gathered up the pair, and brought them back to the
United States. Fun Fact: Tonya Couch didn’t go to jail for helping her
son flee his probation. Money’s AMAZING!
Dylan was finally
sentenced to jail. The Justice system works! Wait, he only got sentenced
to 720 days for killing four people and then fleeing his probation what
the fu–
OK, we’re up to speed, save one thing: According to Newsweek,
he’s gonna be getting out of jail this month. Just in time for his 21st
birthday, as a matter of fact. He’ll legally be allowed to buy and
drink booze. I went digging to see what else I could find on the story.
The Internet is awash with stories of how his time inside has made him
into a changed man and that the friends of the people he killed have forgiven him. It’s such a transformation!
It’s also very likely the best damage control and PR that the family’s
money could buy. I’m not saying that time served incarcerated won’t
change you. But I’m yelling from the rooftops that the number of stories
about how this troubled young white man – because that’s what you are
when you do shit like Couch did, but come from the right family – has
been redeemed are truly beyond the pale.
Last month, I plopped a post on the site about a fella named Herman Wallace.
He was a well-educated black man who was forced to serve a life
sentence, in solitary confinement, for a murder that he didn’t commit.
Couch got 120 days for each person he killed. I just don’t know what to
tell ya.
So if my students finish a quiz/test early, I ask them to draw me stuff on the back (partly so those who need more time are less self-conscious about still having the test out, partly because fuck yeah, pictures), and it may be the single best decision of my career.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve told these kids that (a) the Romans believed there were demons in their public toilets and (b) the word for “janitor” comes from “ianitor”, which means “(door) guard”.
So now I’m getting drawings of superhero janitors taking on toilet demons, and it’s so beautiful.
Aaaaand today a student showed me a video of himself lighting a fire in his toilet while chanting the conjugation of the word “to be”.
He said he wanted to recreate the ancient toilet demons, and I have concerns.
K… but why conjugations of to be?
My students kept forgetting how to conjugate esse, so I turned it into a rhythmic chant that I had them say over and over. The problem is that when you chant ANYTHING in Latin it sounds like you’re summoning a demon, which they decided was awesome, so uh. Now I’ll just be randomly walking through the hallway and hear voices chanting, “sum es est! sumus estis sunt!”
I’m 99% sure my colleagues think I’ve started a cult.
Keep doing what you’re doing. I’m sure everyone will turn out all the better for it.
“Listen, Cap and I have our differences but I have enough respect for him to put that aside and mark down his exact time of death.”
“Oh my god.”
“All I’m saying is Hydra’s been trying since the forties but Captain America was murdered in cold blood right here right now by a high schooler.”
“Tony—“
“The ice couldn’t even do it but that’s because no amount of arctic ice in the world could measure up to the iconic freezer burn my kid just gave him.”
