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All 11 Star Wars Movies Ranked
Nahila Bonfiglio, writing for The Daily Dot, needed a story to file so she remembered there’s one of them Star Wars movies coming out in December, so I’ll just write up a thing that ranks the rest of the movies using Metacritic, IMDb, and Rotten Tomatoes.
It is boring.
The F-Word is Going the Way of Hell
John McWhorter, writing in The Atlantic, argues slurs are the real profanity and using “fuck” to describe a mass shooting sounds about right.
In an America in which a hit children’s book can have the F-word in its title, as can a hit pop song by CeeLo Green, when WTF is emblazoned on T-shirts and countless people utter the relevant phrase as virtual punctuation even in formal settings, and when someone like me can openly attest that I use it freely in circumstances where my grandfather would have said damn or hell, it becomes clear that the F-word today is spicy, but hardly evil or taboo.
Yup.
We’re All Fake Fans Now
Will Leitch, writing in New York Magazine, explains the complicated relationship between fan and athlete. His focus is on the recently retired Andrew Luck and the bevy of boos and downright ugliness of his retirement.
Even using the callous calculus of the fan-athlete relationship, this seemed to break a contract. Being upset that your team has lost its franchise quarterback is perfectly reasonable; being angry at him, to instantaneously forget all the joy he provided you, all the joy you experienced with him, for taking care of his physical well-being felt boorish … flat-out mean. Athletes often treat fans (and media, really) as a single-faced mass, a public-opinion meter that is either lovers boosting their ego too high or haters trying to take them down. It had mostly balanced out what had mostly been considered harmless and ultimately, I’d argue, a positive: Fans cheer when you are up, they jeer when you are down, but no matter what they care, and that’s what makes this whole world go ‘round. But to see, so starkly, the response to the end of nine years of dedication and hero worship be a pounding of the table and a demand for More! More! felt not just a betrayal, but even brutish, gladiatorial bloodsport. It felt legitimately ugly in a way fandom is never supposed to be ugly.
It sure makes being a fan feel toxic.
The Room Where It Happens
Seth Godin on making things happen.
The best way to be in the room where it happens is to be the person who called the meeting.
Things rarely happen on their own. Everyone is waiting for you to organize the next thing.
The Big Show Never Ends
Bryan Curtis, writing for The Ringer, looks back at the beginnings of ESPN’s SportsCenter. The interviews with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann are awesome.
Harry Potter Books Banned at Nashville School to Avoid ‘Conjuring Evil Spirits’
Want to get me pissed off? Tell me a book of fiction for young readers that extols the virtues of friends, family, and love is evil.
A Catholic school in Nashville has banned all the Harry Potter books because they contain real spells. What the actual hell?
The Reverend Dan Reehil explained is “reasoning.”
These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.
Holly Meyer, writing for Nashville Tennessean, has the whole story.
I hate this. If a school administrator had done this when my kid was in school I’d be in that person’s office immediately telling him off and telling the media what an idiot they were and demand they resign.
Parliament of Cowards
Kevin Drum, writing at Mother Jones, calls Boris Johnson and the British Parliament out.
If Boris Johnson weren’t such a blithering jackass I’d almost feel sorry for him. I mean, what does Parliament want? They refused to accept Theresa May’s Brexit deal. They refuse to exit without a deal. They refuse to call a snap election. They refuse to hold a second referendum. They’ve basically refused to do anything.
Personally, I think a majority of MPs understand by now that Brexit is just a bad deal, but too many of them are afraid to say so publicly. They’re cowed by the Murdoch-indoctrinated old guy in Manchester who’s by God tired of Poles coming over and not speaking the Queen’s English very well. You’d think a few more of them could bravely stand up against the massive 52 percent Brexit vote and just call for a new referendum, but I guess not.
How an Ex-CIA Officer Became the World’s Hottest Comic Book Writer
Melissa Leon, writing for The Daily Beast, has a tremendous profile of comic book writer Tom King. I had no idea of his past and this article really dives right in.
Love it.
On Becoming Batman
Ramin Setoodeh, writing in Variety, has a great interview with Robert Pattinson about his latest film, The Lighthouse, and, of course, becoming the new Batman.
If you are still stuck on Twilight or Harry Potter, Pattinson is more than that. I think it’s a really great casting choice.
Linda Hamilton Fled Hollywood, but Terminator Still Found Her
Kyle Buchanan, writing in The New York Times, has an incredible profile of Linda Hamilton.
This bit was super telling:
No romantic sparks had been struck between Cameron and his leading lady during the first “Terminator,” but not long after making “Terminator 2,” they moved in together and had a daughter, Josephine. “That relationship was a mystery to all of us — even Jim and myself — because we are terribly mismatched,” she said. “I used to say we fit together like a puzzle: Everywhere he’s convex, I’m concave.”
So what eventually drew the two of them closer? Hamilton pondered the question. “I think what happened there is that he really fell in love with Sarah Connor,” she said, “and I did, too.”
So did millions of other people too.
Separately
Matt Gemmell, writing on his site, describes a concert experience with his family and the estrangement of his brother. The writing is melancholy in its presentation with more than a hint of sadness behind experiencing one of the last few Mark Knopfler shows and experiencing it separately, but at the same time, as his brother.
I don’t know Matt. We’ve only ever corresponded via Twitter. I find the little insights into his family, his home, and his dog to be refreshing. I enjoy his writing and recommend his books.
Still, I feel for this man I’ve never met and hope the estrangement falls away.
Hard Work
Nicholas Bate on hard work –
1.What you seek will take hard work.
2. There is no quick fix for health, publication nor financial security.
3. Hard work-once started-feels good.
4. Hard work-once decided-is 100% under your control.
5. Hard work-once applied-is the easiest competitive advantage there is.
6. Hard work-once articulated-is powerfully compounding.
7. Hard work can start today. Now.
4 wins in 5 games squeezed into 3 days
Mark Saxon, writing in The Athletic, talks about the mental and physical demands of professional baseball. Specifically, the St. Louis Cardinals who just played five major-league games in less than 52 hours.
It’s patently ridiculous at this level. Plus, they won four of the five. That’s uncanny.
If there’s ever a real turning point in a lengthy baseball season, this feat might be one to look back on to show the resilience of this team.
Hyphens
To the horror of decent writers everywhere, The Associated Press has issued new guidance on the use of hyphens, upending the normal order of things, and precipitating the decline of Western Civilization.
I’m sure they are coming for the Oxford comma next.
Everything Else
Seth Godin on everything else:
Everyone else also thinks it’s about them.
Everyone else is in a hurry.
Everyone else is afraid.
Everyone else wonders if they’re being left behind.
Everyone else is tired.
Everyone else isn’t sure, either.
The good news is that everyone else also has unused potential and the ability to make an impact.
10 Things We Learned From 2019’s Summer Movie Season
Tim Grierson, writing in Rolling Stone, bemoans the state of the movie industry with his ten hot takes on Summer 2019 at the movies. He’s probably not wrong.
Disney dominates, sequels and remakes are all the rage, original scripted movies are far and few between, some studios are smarter than others, and nothing is going to change in the foreseeable future.
No Offense
For some reason, the internet has suddenly caught on to this hilarious video. Madilyn Bailey wrote a song only using hate comments from her YouTube channel. Brilliant.
Football Doesn’t Let You Leave
Nate Jackson, writing for Deadspin, tells his own tale of professional football—“the cycle of injury, pain and rehab.”
While Andrew Luck’s decision to retire has baffled many fans (and I include journalists here, because journalists are the biggest fans), every NFL player understands why he’s doing it. When you make it to the NFL, people tell you that you’re living the dream. They tell you how lucky you are. They tell you it’s a good thing you don’t have to get a real job like they had to, because their lives suck and yours is awesome. When people constantly tell you how great you have it, it’s hard to do anything but nod and agree, even when you feel something else entirely.
Fans only see NFL players on Sundays, and only the guys who are healthy enough to play. But there are 349 other days of the year, and there only 22 guys on the field at a time. The rest of the days and the rest of the men are caught up in what Andrew Luck referred to as, “the cycle of injury, pain and rehab.” If you play football past high school, you are familiar with it. Three of my six seasons in the NFL ended on injured reserve. Broken tibia, ruptured groin, dislocated/separated shoulders, torn hamstrings, cracked ribs, fingers, concussions, bulging discs, torn knee ligaments, etc. The glory was fleeting; the injuries were constant. And everyone I spoke to reminded me that I was living the dream.
Football is important to my family. My brother is a coach. My nephew plays. The college game affects my family directly. However, a story like this is a sobering reminder of the pain and anguish both mentally and physically players go through.
The blindness in my right eye, a direct result of playing backyard football, is also a daily reminder.
Vicious Circle
Mark Evanier, writing on his personal blog, makes a really interesting observation about Trump.
So I’m thinking Trump’s trapped in a vicious circle of his own making. Whenever he feels his stature as President/God slipping away from him, he gets nastier and more insulting and more disconnected from reality…but the reason his numbers are slipping is because people are seeing him as nastier and more insulting and more disconnected from reality. The skill at which he’s most deficient is changing his act. In Trumpworld when you’re losing, you double-down on everything…which is the reason he no longer has those casinos. It’s the mistake every losing gambler makes.
I hadn’t thought of that exactly, but it makes sense.