a-f-waddell

[a-f-waddell]

A sensitive Robert DeNiro in "The Intern". An underrated flick!

[a-f-waddell]

Birth of The Living Dead

"The death of George Romero brought a flood of tributes and memories from horror writers, actors, filmmakers, and people who just love a good scare ... ” I recently re-watched “Birth of the Living Dead”! I love horror. I love docus. I thought that Birth of the Living Dead was excellent. Talk about guerrilla filmmaking! Note: there is a lot to get from this film. George Romero was not only an interesting filmmaker, but a funny, wise sweetheart of a person. Also, a terribly sad commentary here: did you realize that his copyright was accidentally dropped from the film, making it public domain? He never saw a dime. As he brings this up in the docu, he's very mellow. I'd be weeping... Consider that the late, fine actor Duane Jones' ethnicity was never alluded to in the film. I enjoyed that he was simply a good actor doing his job - and I was fascinated by the character interaction. Consider the human reality backdrop in the time-frame of this film’s release: indeed horrific, 1968. The images in the film were no doubt chilling - especially Ben’s demise and a character’s cold comment: “That’s another one for the fire, boys.” Chilling indeed. – A. F. Waddell

[a-f-waddell]

OMG. It is indeed mind-blowing how the planet is being poisoned by corporations from hell, who seem to be operating under the radar.

Trump's latest senior science nominees are a talk-radio ignoramus and a career poisoner

The Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist oversees more than 1,000 scientists in 100 research facilities: Trump’s pick to run the agency is Sam Clovis, a climate-denying talk-radio host who not only lacks any kind of scientific degrees – he didn’t take a single science course at university.

Meanwhile, Trump has nominated Michael Dourson to head the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention; Dourson’s last job was at the helm of Toxicology Excellence for Risk Assessment, the company that DuPont picked when it needed experts who would claim that its toxic waste wasn’t so bad for the people who were imbibing it.

Here’s a little taste of Sam Clovis, the talk radio host Trump picked to run the department that keeps us all from starving to death: “After the interviewer highlighted the widespread acceptance of climate change within the scientific community, Clovis responded by saying, in effect, that scientists were trying to fool him. ‘I have looked at the science, and I have enough of a science background to know when I’m being boofed,’ he said. (Pro Publica checked and found that Clovis had never even taken an undergraduate level course in any science.).”

And here’s some on Dourson, who Trump says will keep us all from being poisoned every time we draw breath or turn on our taps: “In 2002, the company helped West Virginia set a safety threshold of 150 parts per billion (ppb) — a number that stayed in place from 2002 to 2006, and determined whom DuPont was obligated to provide with clean water during this period. That number was 150 times higher than the maximum safety level DuPont’s own scientists had determined in 1988 — 1 pbb — based on internal company research showing that PFOA was toxic to both workers and lab animals.”

It was a good run when it lasted. See you in the Medicare hospital.

(Oh, shit.)

https://boingboing.net/2017/07/21/we-are-fucked.html

[a-f-waddell]

A fantastic and amazing person!

Spotlight on Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler was a visionary storyteller who upended science fiction, built stunning worlds throughout her work, and explored dilemmas that keep us awake at night.

Born in 1947, Octavia Butler grew up shy and introvertedin Pasadena, California. She dreamt up stories from an early age, and was soon scribbling these scenarios on paper. At twelve, she begged her mother for a typewriter after enduring a campy science fiction film called Devil Girl From Mars. Unimpressed with what she saw, Butler knew she could tell a better story.

Much science fiction features white male heroes who blast aliens or become saviors of brown people. Butler wanted to write diverse characters for diverse audiences. She brought nuance and depth to the representation of their experiences.  

For Butler, imagination was not only for planting the seeds of science fiction - but also a strategy for surviving an unjust world on one’s own terms. Her work often takes troubling features of the world such as discrimination on the basis of race, gender, class, or ability, and invites the reader to contemplate them in new contexts.

One of her most beloved novels, the Parable of the Sower, follows this pattern. It tells the story of Lauren Oya Olamina as she makes her way through a near future California ruined by corporate greed, inequality, and environmental destruction. As she struggles with hyperempathy, or a condition in the novel that causes her to feel others’ pain and less often their pleasure, Lauren embarks on a quest with a group of refugees to find a place to thrive. 

Lauren’s quest had roots in a real life event – California Prop 187, which attempted to deny undocumented immigrants fundamental human rights, before it was deemed unconstitutional. Butler frequently incorporated contemporary news into her writing. In her 1998 sequel to The Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, she wrote of a presidential candidate who controls Americans with virtual reality and “shock collars.” His slogan? “Make America great again.”

While people have noted her prescience, Butler was also interested in re-examining history. For instance, Kindred tells the story of a woman who is repeatedly pulled back in time to the Maryland plantation of her ancestors. Early on, she learns that her mission is to save the life of the white man who will rape her great grandmother. If she doesn’t save him, she herself will cease to exist. This grim dilemma forces Dana to confront the ongoing trauma of slavery and sexual violence against Black women.

With her stories of women founding new societies, time travelers overcoming historical strife, and interspecies bonding, Butler had a profound influence on the growing popularity of Afrofuturism. That’s a cultural movement where Black writers and artists who are inspired by the past, present, and future produce works that incorporate magic, history, technology and much more.

And today, Butler’s work remains a powerful reminder that imagination can be a tool for real change – as well as a rallying call for those who seek other ways to live in the world.

This month, TED-Ed is celebrating Black History Month, or National African American History Month, an annual celebration of achievements by black Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history.

From the TED-Ed Lesson Why should you read sci-fi superstar Octavia E. Butler? - Ayana Jamieson and Moya Bailey

Animation by Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat

[a-f-waddell]

Great post. Thanks for sharing!

[a-f-waddell]

The McCandless story - excellent, gorgeous, smart, sad film. Makes me crave the American West! Check it out.

[a-f-waddell]

Great flick! Highly recommended. Gonna GET me a copy...

[a-f-waddell]

Here I go, watching Broadchurch - yet again. Highly recommended! I was dying for a David Tennant fix anyway. I need to buy serious quantities of Doctor Who. The fabulous cast is highlighted by Tennant as I've never seen him - and by the awesome Olivia Colman. Let's not forget Jody Whittaker! WOW. A great cast all round! I don't think that subsequent seasons can however live up to season one... See it, or see it again!

[a-f-waddell]

Barton Fink

Be in the mood for it...

[a-f-waddell]

LOVE this. I could live HERE!

[a-f-waddell]

Right-wing media have manufactured a scandal this week about Democrats supporting bills that supposedly allow abortions up to moment of birth — and beyond. Here are some of the anti-choice myths being pushed by right-wing media and the facts about laws protecting or expanding reproductive rights and access to abortion at the state level.

[a-f-waddell]

In the comedy/horror film based upon the Italian comic strip, Francesco Dellamorte (Rupert Everett) is the guardian of Buffalora cemetery and is responsible for disposing of “The Returners”, those pesky dead who return after being buried. Francesco is a busy man; I’d love to read his Day Planner (or Night Planner as it were). The film is mostly artistically shot: wickedly funny, satirical, full of visual puns; erotic, violent and graphic. Not for all tastes.

[a-f-waddell]

Network! Bryan Cranston playing the Howard Beale role. Wow would I like to see THAT!

[a-f-waddell]

I Like To (Re) Watch. Costa-Gavras. Awesome film. See it or see it again!

[a-f-waddell]

Excellent!

[a-f-waddell]

So, it's a case about a man who is a caregiver, who files for a tax deduction ... and is denied the tax deduction because he is a never-married man. And in those days the law read that only a woman is in the home, and only a widower can receive this tax deduction. So they used this man, Charles Moritz, to argue gender discrimination, and they won this tax case, and what it did was it overturned 178 different laws that discriminated on the basis of sex and were found unconstitutional