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Identify what you want to do.
Plan a time you will do it.
Celebrate that you followed through.
Quentin Tarantino’s 40 Favorite Films
Few people love movies like Quentin Tarantino loves movies. So, it’s a lot of fun to peruse the list of his favorite 40 films put together by IndieWire and Christian Zilko.
It’s a good list, and I’ve seen several of the films included.
I was a little surprised he did not include Casablanca or Blade Runner. I was not at all surprised he included Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
The To-Do List
Will Leitch is one of the most productive people I know. In his Medium column, he outlines what he does in a typical week and how he achieves the amazing results. I’m a little in awe.
I should actually be taking notes.
“Obi-Wan” by John Williams
“Obi-Wan” by John Williams.
This is glorious.
Having John Williams come back to create this theme is just incredible. It is melancholy and hopeful at the same time and that takes tremendous skill. I love it so much.
Raging Against the Insanity of Guns in America
Writing at The Message Box, Dan Pfeiffer thinks there is a path forward after continued deaths by guns. He thinks there must be a continued push to fix our laws because NBA coaches and potential governors are making waves post-tragedy.
He is wrong.
Nothing will ever change because people voice their concerns or take to the streets. Those in power ignore that momentary outrage because the news cycle is short and attention spans are shorter. Our current political system and media environment are broken. You cannot shame these people, and Dan certainly doesn’t need me to tell him that.
The only way anything will ever change is for people to wake up enough to vote for the politicians who will make those changes. Everything else is a waste of time.
A Culture That Kills Its Children Has No Future
Elizabeth Bruenig, writing for The Atlantic, makes an excellent point about gun violence.
Then there are some who say that every terrible thing—including even this untenable thing that no civilization could endure, this demonic murder lottery of schoolchildren—simply must go on, and somehow, they are winning. After all, wasn’t the Newtown massacre like the breaking of a seal, the final entry in a national catalog of stunned loss that had begun with Columbine? It wasn’t that there would be no more losses. It was only that we could no longer be stunned. Yesterday, before the families of Uvalde had buried their children, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a televised interview that he would “much rather have law-abiding citizens armed and trained so that they can respond when something like this happens, because it’s not going to be the last time.” That is to say: It’s going to go on indefinitely. It’s not an end, exactly, but life inside a permanent postscript to one’s own history. Here is America after there was no more hope.
We are already living through this. It is hard to bear. All around us things that ought to matter shrink in proportion to things that ought not to; a sense of real agency in politics or government feels limited, distant; lives that used to seem perfectly accessible to your average young person seem impossible now, while darkly fantastical lives—like those of the mass shooters whose profiles are now too many and too common to differentiate, with their weird paramilitary bravado and meme-inflected manifestos—are growing more familiar to us. I fear they’ll become more familiar still. When we say, in despair, that “these men are by-products of a society we’ve created; how could we possibly stop them?,” we could be referring to almost anyone in the great chain of diffuse responsibility for our outrageous, inexcusable gun-violence epidemic—the lobbyists who argued for these guns to be sold like sporting equipment, the politicians who are too happy to oblige them, the shooters themselves.
Moral decline of this kind produces strange and grotesque effects as it works its way, acidlike, through a society. Resignation takes the form of anger, mistrust, hypervigilance, depression, withdrawal. Nihilism arrives not as society fading quietly to dust but as fruit flush with lurid color, ripening until it bursts. It is the fruit of a culture of death.
Howabout we, as a society, stop electing the wrong people. Let’s just start there.
Why We Keep Letting This Happen
Ross Barkan, writing for New York Magazine, echoes President Biden’s question, “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”
The answer is, of course, never.
Republicans do not care about mass shootings. They can’t be shamed by their inaction. They can’t be forced into making a rational case for their positions. They do not care.
The gun lobby money is too sweet for them to give a shit. If you honestly think Republicans are in it to serve their constituents, I have a bridge in San Francisco I’d love to sell you. They do not care.
The only way any of this stops is by getting guns out of people’s hands.
It’s never going to happen.
The Real Reason America Doesn’t Have Gun Control
Ronald Brownstein wrote a whole story about gun control for The Atlantic explaining why there’s not really any gun control in this country.
Here’s the answer: Republicans.
Oh yes, and the stupid filibuster. But really it’s just Republicans.
You want this to stop? Quit voting for Republicans.
Zander Moricz Grad Speech
This Florida High Schooler was told he couldn’t say gay in his Graduation Speech, so he found a clever workaround.
You see, he has curly hair.
Yadier Molina Pitches the Entire 9th inning for the Cardinals
The Pirates are really bad, but this was fun.
Pujols Breaks Down His Pitching Performance
Hall of Fame… Pitcher?@PujolsFive breaks down his epic performance out of the ‘pen! pic.twitter.com/lHnLTvNHZj
— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 22, 2022
Last week, St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame first baseman/designated hitter Albert Pujols took the mound for the first time. On Sunday, during a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates, he took the opportunity to break down the performance.
Yadier Molina knows what the other team is going to do, a breakdown
I could not care less about Shady Rays sunglasses, but the rest of the analysis is spot on.
In The Blink Of An Eye: A James Bond Fan Film
I can’t believe something like this exists. The George Lazenby bit was incredible.
Everyone was having a good time here.
Three Steps to Being More Productive
(And then, repeat.)
This Is Spinal Tap 2
Jordan Moreau, writing for Variety, has the scoop on the sequel to one of the greatest movies of all time, This is Spinal Tap.
A sequel is in the works to the 1984 rock mockumentary “This Is Spinal Tap,” with director Rob Reiner returning alongside stars Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer.
The movie package will launch sales at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. It will be released on March, 19 2024, tied to the 40th anniversary of the original. The sequel will be in the style of Martin Scorsese’s “The Last Waltz,” the legendary concert documentary that followed the farewell tour of the Canadian American rock group The Band. “Spinal Tap 2″ will also feature real-life musicians in the film. No names have been revealed yet, but it will likely depend on the artists’ touring schedules.
I hope they call it This Was Spinal Tap.
The Puzzle-Box Sci-Fi of Severance
Kevin Townsend, Sophie Gilbert, David Sims, and Spencer Kornhaber, writing for The Atlantic, outline what’s great about Severance.
It’s an interesting discussion, but I wish they’d talk more about the true inspiration for the show, namely The Prisoner and Lost. Although they do mention Twin Peaks and Westworld…
Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor
The future is here! Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor. ❤️❤️➕🟦 #DoctorWho
— Doctor Who (@bbcdoctorwho) May 8, 2022
Read more here ➡️ https://t.co/KoxPmoNAdL pic.twitter.com/peKsH6gCjI
I have not seen a single thing he’s been in, but I’m sure he’ll be fantastic.
Wesley Crusher, Time Lord
I kinda like the idea of Wesley Crusher as a Time Lord.
Imagine if they took the Ben Templesmith and Pia Guerra version of the 13th Doctor and copy and pasted Wesley. Obviously, no TARDIS or K9 and add a beard, but that could work.