#drone laws in virginia | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shadowspellchecker · 1 year

Text

Two “established” or tax-supported churches were conspicuous in 1775: the Anglican church and the Congregational church. A considerable segment of the population did not worship in any church; and in those colonies that maintained an “established” religion, only a minority of the people belonged to it.

The Church of England, whose members were commonly called Anglicans, became the official faith in Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, and a part of New York. Established also in England, it served in America as a major prop of kingly authority; British officials naturally made vigorous attempts to impose it on additional colonies (ran into wall of opposition). In America the Anglican Church fell distressingly short of its promise; secure and self-satisfied, like its parent in England, it clung to a faith that was less fierce and more worldly than the religion of Puritanical New England (sermons were shorter; hell less scorching; and amusements, like hunting, were less scorned). So dismal was the reputation of the Anglican clergy in seventeenth-century Virginia that the College of William and Mary was founded in 1693 to train a better class of clerics for the church

The influential Congregational Church, which had grown out of the Puritan Church, was formally established in all the New England colonies, except independent-minded Rhode Island. At first Massachusetts taxed residents to support Congregationalism but later relented and exempted members of other denominations. Presbyterianism, though closely associated, was never made official. Ministers of the gospel, from the Bible to world, grappled burning political issues; as the start revolution against the British crown could be heard, sedition flowed free from pulpits; Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and rebellion became a neo-trinity.

Many leading Anglican clergymen, aware of which side their tax-provided bread was buttered on, naturally supported their king. Anglicans in the New World were seriously handicapped by not having a resident bishop, whose presence would be convenient for the ordination of young ministers (had to travel to England to be ordained). On the eve of the Revolution there was serious talk of creating an American bishopric, but the scheme was violently opposed by many non-Anglicans, who feared a tightening of the royal reins

Religious toleration had indeed made enormous strides in America. Roman Catholics were still generally discriminated against, as in England, even in office-holding; but there were fewer Catholics in America, and hence the anti-papist laws were less severe. The anti-papist laws were also less strictly enforced; and in general, people could worship, or not worship, as they pleased

In all the colonial churches, religion was less fervid in the early eighteenth century than it had been a century earlier, in the beginning. The Puritan churches in particular sagged under the weight of two burdens: their elaborate theological doctrines and their compromising efforts to liberalize membership requirements. Churchgoers increasingly complained about the “dead dogs” who droned out tedious, overerudite sermons from Puritan pulpits. Some ministers, on the other hand, worried that many of their parishioners had gone soft and that their souls were no longer kindled by the hellfire of orthodox Calvinism; liberal ideas began to challenge the old-time religious beliefs of churchgoers. Some worshipers now proclaimed that human beings were not necessarily predestined to damnation and might save themselves by good works; even more threatening were the doctrines of the Arminians, follows of Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, who preached that individual free will determined a person’s eternal fate. Pressured by these “heresies,” a few churches grudgingly conceded that spiritual conversion was not necessary for church membership; together these twin trends toward clerical intellectualism and lay liberalism were sapping the spiritual vitality from denominations.

The stage was thus set for a rousing religious revival. Known as the Great Awakening, it exploded in the 1730s and 1740s and swept through the colonies like a fire through prairie grass. The Awakening was first ignited in Northampton, Massachusetts by an intellectual pastor, Jonathan Edwards; perhaps the deepest theological mind in America, Edwards proclaimed with burning righteousness the folly of believing in salvation through good works and affirmed need for complete dependence on God’s grace. Warming to his subject, he painted in lurid detail the landscape of hell and the eternal torments of the damned—“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” was the title of one of his most famous sermons. Edwards’s preaching style was learned and closely reasoned, but his stark doctrines sparked a warmly sympathetic reaction among his parishioners in 1734; four years later English parson George Whitefield loosed a different style of preaching on America and touched off a conflagration of religious ardor that revolutionized spiritual life. A former alehouse attendant, Whitefield was an orator of rare gifts. His magnificent voice boomed sonorously over thousands of enthralled listeners in an open field (many were envious of him). Triumphantly touring the colonies, Whitefield trumpeted his message of human helplessness of divine omnipotence; during those roaring revival meetings, many sinners professed conversion. Whitefield soon inspired American imitators (style of preaching). Orthodox clergymen, known as “old lights,” were deeply skeptical of the emotionalism and the theatrical antics of the revivalists; “new light” ministers, defended the Awakening for its role in revitalizing religion. Congregationalists and Presbyterians split over this issue, and many of the believers in religious conversion went over to the Baptists and other sects more prepared to make room for emotion in religion

6. The Awakening left many lasting effects; its emphasis on direct, emotive spirituality seriously undermined the older clergy, whose authority had derived from their education and erudition

a. The schisms it set off in many denominations greatly increased the numbers and the competitiveness of American churches

b. It encouraged a fresh wave of missionary work among the Indians and even among black slaves, many of whom had to attend revivals

c. It led to the founding of “new light” centers of higher learning such as Princeton, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth

d. Perhaps most significant, the Great Awakening was the first spontaneous mass movement of the American people; it tended to break down sectional boundaries as well as denominational lines and contributed to the growing sense that Americans had of themselves as a single people, united by a common history

I. Schools and Colleges

1. A time-honored English idea regarded education as a blessing reserved for the aristocratic few, not for the unwashed many; education should be for leadership, not citizenship, and primarily for males; only slowly and painfully did the colonists break the chains of these restrictions

2. Puritan New England, largely for religious reasons, was more zealously interested in education than any other section of the colonies

a. Dominated by the Congregational Church, it stressed the need for Bible reading by the individual worshiper; the primary goal of the clergy was to make good Christians rather than good citizens

b. Education, principally for boys, flourished almost from the outset in New England; this densely populated region boasted an impressive number of graduates from the English universities, especially Cambridge, the intellectual center of England’s Puritanism

c. New Englanders, relatively early, established primary and secondary schools, which varied widely in the quality of instruction and in the length of time that their doors remained open each year

d. Back-straining farm labor drained much of youths’ time and energy

3. Fairly adequate elementary schools were also hammering knowledge into the heads of reluctant “scholars” in the middle colonies and South

a. Some of these institutions were tax-supported; others were privately operated; the South, with its white and black population diffused over wide areas, was severely handicapped logically in attempting to establish an effective school system (wealth families had tutors)

b. The general atmosphere in the colonial schools and colleges continued grim and gloomy; most emphasis was placed on religion and on the classical languages, Latin and Greek

c. The focus was not on experiment and reason, but on doctrine and dogma; the age of one of orthodoxy, and independence of thinking was discouraged—discipline was quite severe (whipping occurred)

4. College education was regarded—at least at first in New England—as more important that instruction in the ABCs; churches would wither if a new crop of ministers was not trained to lead the spiritual flocks

5. Many well-to-do families, especially in the South, sent their boys abroad to English institutions in order to receive a college education

6. For purposes of convenience and economy, nine local colleges were established during the colonial era—Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers, and Dartmouth

a. Student enrollments were small, numbering about 200 boys; at one time, a few lads as young as eleven were admitted to Harvard

b. Instruction was poor by present-day standards and the curriculum was still heavily loaded with theology and the “dead” languages

c. A significant contribution was made by Benjamin Franklin, who played a major role in launching what became the University of Pennsylvania, the first college free from denominational control

J. A Provincial Culture

1. When it came to art and culture, colonial Americans were still in thrall to European tastes, especially British; the simplicity of pioneering life had not yet bred many homespun patrons of the arts

a. Like so many of his talented artistic contemporaries, Trumbull was forced to travel to London to pursue his ambitions

b. Charles Willson Peale best known for his portraits of George Washington, ran a museum, stuffed birds, and practiced dentistry

c. Gifted Benjamin West and John Singleton Copley succeeded in their ambition to become famous painters, but like Trumbull they had to go to England to complete their training

d. Only abroad could they find subjects who had the leisure to sit for their portraits and the money to pay handsomely for them

e. Copley was regarded as a Loyalist during the Revolutionary War, and West, a close friend of George II and official court painter, was buried in London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral following his death

2. Architecture was largely imported from the Old World and modified to meet the peculiar climatic and religious conditions of the New World

a. Even the lowly log cabin was apparently borrowed from Sweden

b. The red-bricked Georgian style, so common in the pre-Revolutionary decades, was introduced about 1720 and is best exemplified by the beauty of now-restored Williamsburg, Virginia

3. Colonial literature, like art, was generally undistinguished, and for much the same reasons; one noteworthy exception was the poet Phillis Wheatley, a slave girl in Boston at eight and never formally educated

a. Taken to England when she was twenty, she published a verse book and subsequently wrote polished poems that revealed the influence of Alexander Pope; her verse were one of the best of the period

b. The remarkable fact is that she could overcome her severely disadvantaged background and write poetry at all

4. Versatile Benjamin Franklin, often called “the first civilized American,” also shone as a literary light among other things

a. Although his autobiography is a classic, he was best known to his contemporaries for Poor Richard’s Almanack (edited 1732 to 1758)

b. This publication, containing many pithy sayings culled from the thinkers of the ages, emphasized such virtues as thrift, industry, morality, and common sense—Honesty is the best policy, plough deep while sluggards sleep, and fish and visitors stink in three days

c. Poor Richard’s was well known in Europe and was more widely read in America than anything except the Bible (teacher of old and young, Franklin had influence in shaping the American character)

5. Science, rising above the shackles of superstition, was making some progress, though lagging behind the Old World’s progress

a. A few botanists, mathematicians, and astronomers had won some repute, but Benjamin Franklin was perhaps the only first-rank scientists produced in the American colonies

b. Franklin’s spectacular but dangerous experiments, including the famous kite-flying episode proving that lightning was a form of electricity, won him numerous honors in Europe

c. But his mind also had a practical turn, and among his numerous inventions were bifocal spectacles and the highly efficient stove

d. His lightning rod, not surprisingly was condemned by some stodgy clergymen who felt it was “presuming on God” by attempting to control the “artillery of the heavens” (the lightning)

K. Pioneer Presses

1. Americans were generally too poor to buy quantities of books and too busy to read them; however a few private libraries of fair size could be found, especially among the clergy and rich families in the colonies

a. The Byrd family of Virginia enjoyed perhaps the largest collection in the colonies, consisting of about four thousand volumes

b. Bustling Benjamin Franklin established in Philadelphia the first privately supported circulating library in America; and by 1776 there were about fifty public libraries and collections available

2. Hand-operated printing presses cranked out pamphlets, leaflets, and journals; on the eve of the Revolution, there were about forty colonial newspapers, chiefly weeklies that consisted of a single large sheet

a. Columns ran heavily to somber essays, frequently signed with pseudonyms and the “news” often lagged many weekends behind the event especially in the case of oversea happenings

b. Newspapers proved to be a powerful agency for airing colonial grievances an rallying oppositions to the British crown’s control

3. A celebrated legal case, in 1734-1735, involved John Peter Zenger, a newspaper printer; significantly, the case arose in New York, reflecting the tumultuous give-and-take of politics in the middle colonies

a. Zenger’s newspaper had assailed the corrupt royal governor; charged with seditious libel, the accused was hauled to court where he was defended by a former indentured servant, Andrew Hamilton

b. Zenger argued that he had printed the truth but the royal chief justice instructed the jury not to consider the truth or falsity; the fact of printing, irrespective of the truth, was enough to convict

c. Hamilton countered that “the very liberty of both exposing and opposing arbitrary power” was at stake; swayed by his eloquence, the jurors defied the judges and returned a verdict of not guilty

4. The Zenger decision was a banner achievement for freedom of the press and for the health of democracy; it pointed the way to the kind of open public discussion required by the diverse society that colonial New York already was and that all America was to become

5. Although contrary to existing law and not immediately accepted by other judges and juries, in time it helped establish the doctrine that true statements about public officials could not be prosecuted as libel

6. Newspapers were thus eventually free to print responsible criticism of powerful officials though full freedom of press was unknown for a time

L. The Great Game of Politics

1. American colonists were making noteworthy contributions to politics

a. The thirteen colonial governments took a variety of forms; by 1775, eight colonies had royal governors, who were appointed by the king

b. Three—Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Delaware—were under proprietors who themselves chose the governors; two, Connecticut and Rhode Island, elected their governors under self-governing rule

2. Practically every colony utilized a two-house legislative body

a. The upper house, or council, was normally appointed by the crown in the royal colonies and by the proprietor in the proprietary colonies; it was chosen by the voters in the self-governing colonies

b. The lowerhouse, as the popular branch, was elected by the people—or rather by those who owned enough property to qualify as voters

c. In several of the colonies, the backcountry elements were seriously underrepresented, and they hated the ruling colonial group

d. Legislatures, in which the people enjoyed direct representation, voted such taxes as they chose for the necessary expenses of colonial government—self-taxation through representation was a precious privilege that Americans had come to cherish above others

3. Governors appointed by the king were generally able men, sometimes outstanding figures; some, unfortunately, were incompetent or corrupt—broken-down politicians badly in need of jobs

a. The worst of the group was probably impoverished Lord Cornbury, first cousin of Queen Anne, who was made governor of New York and New Jersey in 1702—he was a drunkard, a spendthrift, a grafter, an embezzler, a religious bigot, and a vain fool

b. Even the best appointees had trouble with the colonial legislatures, basically because the royal governor embodied a bothersome transatlantic authority some three thousand miles away

4. The colonial assemblies found various ways to assert their authority and independence; some of them employed the trick of withholding the governor’s salary unless he yielded to their wishes (he was normally in need of money so the power of the purse usually forced him to terms)

5. The London government, in leaving the colonial governor to the tender mercies of the legislature, was guilty of poor administration

a. In the interests of simple efficiency, the British authorities should have arranged to pay him from independent sources; as events turned out, control over the purse by the colonial legislatures led to prolonged bickering, which proved to be one of the irritants that generated a spirit of revolt (Parliament’s Townshend taxes of 1767)

b. Administration at the local level was varied; county government remained the rule of the plantation South; townmeeting government predominated in New England; and a modification of the two developed in the middle colonies—in the town meetings, with its open discussion and opening voting, direct democracy functioned

6. Yet the ballot was by no means a birthright; religious or property qualifications for voting, even stiffer qualifications for office holding, existed in all the colonies at the time in the late 18th century

a. The privileged upper classes, fearful of democratic excesses, were unwilling to grant the ballot to every person in the colony

b. Perhaps half of the adults whites males were thus disfranchised but because of the ease of acquiring land and thus satisfying property requirements, the right to vote was not beyond the reach of most

c. Yet somewhat surprisingly, eligible voters did not exercise this precious privilege and frequently acquiesced in the leadership of their betters who ran colonial affairs (able to vote people out office)

7. By 1775 America was not yet a true democracy—socially, economically, or politically; but it was far more democratic than England and the European continent; colonial institutions were giving freer rein to the democratic ideals of tolerance, educational advantages, equality of economic opportunity, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and representative government

M. Colonial Folkways

1. Everyday life in the colonies was drab and tedious; for most people the labor was heavy and constant—from “can see” to “can’t see”

2. Food was plentiful, though the diet could be coarse and monotonous; Americans probably ate more bountifully, especially of meat, than any people in the Old World—Lazy/sickly was the person that was hungry

3. Basic comforts now taken for granted were lacking; churches were not heated at all; drafty homes were poorly heated, chiefly by fireplaces

a. There was no running water in the houses, no plumbing, and probably not a single bathtub in all colonial America

b. Candles and whale-oil lamps provided faint and flickering illumination; garbage disposal was so primitive that hogs ranged the streets and buzzards, protected by law, flapped over waste

4. Amusement was eagerly pursued where time and custom permitted

a. The militia assembled periodically for “musters”, which consisted of several days of drilling, liberally interspersed with merry-making

b. On the frontier, pleasure was often combined with work at house-raising, quilting bees, husking bees, and apple parings

c. Funerals and weddings everywhere afforded opportunities for social gathering, which customarily involved the swilling of much liquor

5. Winter sports were common in the North, whereas in the South card playing, horse racing, cockfighting, dancing and fox hunting

6. Over diversions beckoned; lotteries were universally approved, even by the clergy, and were used to raise money for churches and colleges

7. Stage plays became popular in the South but were frowned upon in Quaker and Puritan colonies and in some places forbidden by law; many of the New England clergy saw playacting as time-consuming and immoral—they preferred religious lectures (spiritual satisfaction)

8. Holidays were everywhere celebrated in the American colonies, but Christmas was frowned upon in New England as an offensive reminder

9. Thanksgiving Day came to be American festival for it combined thanks to God with an opportunity for jollification, gorging, and guzzling

10. By the mid-eighteenth century, Britain’s several North American colonies, despite their differences, revealed some striking similarities

a. All were basically English in language and customs, and Protestant in religion, while the widespread presence of other peoples and faiths compelled every colony to cede at least some degree of ethnic and religious toleration (as compared to contemporary Europe)

b. They all afforded to enterprising individuals unusual opportunities for social mobility; they all possessed some measure of self-government, though by no means complete democracy

c. Communication and transportation among the colonies were improving; British North America by 1775 looked like a patchwork quilt—each part slightly different, but stitched together by common origins, common ways of life, and common beliefs in toleration, economic development and above all, were somewhat self-ruled

d. Fatefully, all the colonies were also separated from the seat of imperial authority by a vast ocean some three thousand miles wide; these simple facts of shared history, culture, and geography set the stage for the colonists’ struggle to unite as an independent people

#dark shadows (1966)#historical context

0 notes

stevecarell600 · 2 years

Text

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Market Worth USD 25.13 Billion, Exhibiting a CAGR of 12.23% Trends, Issues, Challenges, Forecasts, Competition Analysis, and by 2029

The global unmanned aerial vehicle market is expected to gain momentum from the increasing advancements in the field of drones. They are capable of analyzing millions of images for enhancing the decision-making skills of the management in a wide range of industries. This study includes brief information about key products in the global market followed by an overview of important segments and manufacturers. It also highlights the industry growth rates, different types, and application. Furthermore, it includes information about study objectives and total years considered for the complete research study.

Information Source:

Competitive Landscape:

Key Players Focus on Delivering Essentials via UAVs to Prevent Coronavirus Infection

The market is highly fragmented with the presence of a wide range of manufacturing companies all over the world. Some of them are presently focusing on delivering essentials through drones owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The others are focusing on mergers and acquisitions with other local enterprises to strengthen their positions.

Below are a couple of the latest industry developments:

June 2020: After Wing, a firm owned by Google parent Alphabet launched its new drone delivery service in Virginia, Kelly Passek became the first customer. She is a middle-school librarian who petitioned the company to deliver library books to help kids in reading and learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

September 2019: Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, a defense company based in Israel, successfully acquired Aeronautics Limited worth USD 240 million. This would help the latter to combine its expertise in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance with Rafael’s large network in the U.S. market.

This Report Answers the Following Questions:

What are the market dynamics, drivers, and obstacles?

Which company will generate the largest revenue in the near future?

How will COVID-19 impact the sales of UAVs?

Which strategies are being adopted by companies to intensify competition?

Drivers & Restraints:

Need to Avoid Physical Contact amidst COVID-19 to Skyrocket Demand

The effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the market is likely to remain moderate backed by the increasing usage of drones by the regulatory bodies worldwide to monitor public gatherings, thereby limiting direct physical contact. Antwork Inc., a China-based drone delivery company, for instance, provided medical supplies and reduced the involvement of humans by using drones. Also, in countries, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, India, China, Russia, and France, UAVs are extensively being used to spray disinfectants on government buildings, emergency hospitals, and public healthcare infrastructure. However, the strict government norms and laws regarding the usage of airspace to eliminate accidental damages may hamper the unmanned aerial vehicle market growth in the coming years.

Segment:

Commercial Segment to Grow Rapidly Backed by Investment by Companies to Develop Air Taxi

In terms of application, the market is fragmented into commercial, residential, and military. Out of these, the commercial segment generated 4.6% in terms of unmanned aerial vehicle market share in 2019. This growth is attributable to the increasing usage of UAVs in logistics, forest monitoring, crop monitoring, aerial mapping, and surveying. Besides, industry giants, such as Uber and DHL Logistics are investing hefty amounts of money to develop Air Taxi and innovating air transportation, respectively. These factors would also contribute to the growth of this segment.

Regional Analysis:

Increasing Usage of Drones in Military Applications to Spur Growth in North America

Geographically, in 2019, North America held USD 3.88 billion in terms of revenue. The region is anticipated to dominate during the forthcoming years owing to the rising usage of UAVs in several military applications. The U.S. houses a large number of renowned military UAVs manufacturers who are gaining a competitive edge by exporting their products to numerous countries worldwide.

Europe, on the other hand, is expected to grow moderately stoked by the high demand for navigation systems, avionics, software solutions, and cameras in the region. In Asia Pacific, the high demand for advanced warfare UAVs for tactical and strategic applications would affect the market growth positively in the near future. The major importers in this region are China, Pakistan, and India.

#Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Market

0 notes

ratlifflaw · 2 years

Text

Did you know? If you are a drone pilot, your drone MUST be registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)? It is true. Registration is only $5.00, but is required.

More importantly, - if you perform ANY commercial function with the drone - flyovers or video for commercial use - you are required to have a Commercial Drone Pilot's License.

Be safe Pilots!

THE RELIANCE LAW GROUP

Bristol: (276) 644-0992

Cedar Bluff: (276) 522-1220

#thereliancelawgroup #attorney #dronepilot

0 notes

usafphantom2 · 2 years

Text

New B-21 stealth bomber will be unveiled later this year, says U.S. senator

The first photo of the aircraft should be revealed soon.

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 07/24/2022 - 12:00 PM in Military

Senator Mike Rounds, a Republican from South Dakota, said that the B-21 Raider stealth bomber will finally be revealed to the public later this year, revealing an aircraft that has been shrouded in secrecy since the start of the program in 2014.

Rounds, the only authority elected on a classified visit on July 15 to the B-21 Raider production facility in Palmdale, California, said the project is also on its way to a first flight in 2023.

"Although much of the information I received on my visit is confidential, I am pleased to inform you that the B-21 is on time and on budget," Rounds said in a press release on Tuesday from his office. “The public can expect the B-21 to be unveiled later this year.”

To date, the public has seen only realistic artistic representations of the state-of-the-art stealth bomber, but a Rounds spokesman said that an image of the B-21 itself should arrive soon.

Last year, the U.S. Air Force released a rendering of the B-21, showing the long-range stealth bomber taking off from Edwards Air Base, California, where it will one day be tested before taking over operations around the world.

The Ellsworth Air Force Base, on the outskirts of Rapid City, South Dakota, was selected last summer as the first facility to receive the aircraft.

"The B-21 is one of the most advanced aircraft ever developed," Rounds said. “We are getting close to bringing this state-of-the-art platform to Ellsworth Air Base.”

The B-21 is being manufactured by Northrop Grumman, based in Virginia. Budget documents show that the production of the B-21 will cost about US$ 20 billion by 2027.

Senator John Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, spoke at the Senate plenary on Wednesday, saying he is aware that six B-21s are being developed and emphasizing the need for Congress to pass the annual defense spending law because it also includes construction projects for Ellsworth to support the aircraft's mission.

The South Dakota Republican is pushing for more resources, in general, to accommodate an influx of military personnel who will come to the area along with the new B-21.

"I worked to include in this year's NDAA an extension of an authority for the secretary of defense to adjust the rates of Basic Housing Allowance if a facility is experiencing a sudden increase in the number of service members assigned there," Thune said. "This will help ensure that families in Ellsworth and elsewhere have the necessary resources to ensure appropriate accommodation."

Thune added that “up to 250 people per year, including 100 dependents” can move to the Rapid City area to support the B-21.

Source: Military.com

Tags: Military AviationNorthrop Grumman B-21 RaiderUSAF - United States Air Force / U.S. Air Force

Previous news

Philippine Air Force seeks replacement for its S.211 jets

Next news

What is the Phoenix Ghost drone, which Ukraine will receive from the U.S. another 580 units?

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has works published in a specialized aviation magazine in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

Related news

MILITARY

The first clear image of the Chinese Navy's J-35 fighter appears

07/24/2022 - 7:00 PM

Two B-2 and two F-35s from the RAAF fly during joint exercise in Australia.

MILITARY

The beautiful images of the B-2 bombers flying in formation with the Australian F-35s

07/24/2022 - 6:00 PM

MILITARY

IMAGES: German Air Force presents impressive painting scheme in one of its Eurofighters

07/24/2022 - 4:00 PM

Illustrative photo, because it is not yet known what Phoenix Ghost really looks like.

MILITARY

What is the Phoenix Ghost drone, which Ukraine will receive from the U.S. another 580 units?

07/24/2022 - 14:00

SIAI Marchetti S.211 jet of the Philippine Air Force. (Photo: Philippine Fly Boy / Wikimedia Creative Commons)

MILITARY

Philippine Air Force seeks replacement for its S.211 jets

07/24/2022 - 10:30 AM

MILITARY

Ukraine says it needs 'fast and versatile' aircraft, not the A-10

07/23/2022 - 11:03 PM

HOME Main Page Editorials Information Events Collaborate SPECIALS Advertise About

Cavok Brasil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

Commercial

Executive

Helicopters

History

Military

Brazilian Air Force

Space

SPECIALS

Cavok Brasil - Digital Tchê Web Creation

5 notes · View notes

beardedmrbean · 3 years

Text

FALLS CHURCH, Va. -- Defense lawyers for a British national facing trial later this month for helping the Islamic State group torture and behead American hostages are seeking to block testimony from a Kurdish girl held as a slave by the group.

The girl, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, was abducted at age 15 from Kurdistan in August 2014 and held by the Islamic State. She spent several weeks in captivity with American Kayla Mueller, whose death at the hands of the Islamic State will be a key issue at trial.

The defendant, El Shafee Elsheikh, is charged with playing a key role in Mueller's abduction, ransom and eventual death, along with three other Americans: journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and aid worker Peter Kassig.

In court papers filed late Tuesday, Elsheikh's lawyers say Jane Doe was told after her abduction to forget about her family because she would be “selected for marriage” by an ISIS fighter.

Doe escaped, but she was caught the next morning and beaten with sticks, belts and hoses. It was then that she was taken to a prison, where Mueller was also held, according to the defense memo.

After a month, Doe, Mueller, and two other girls were taken into captivity by a senior ISIS leader named Abu Sayyaf, where they were locked in a bedroom other than when they were cleaning or gardening.

Doe escaped the home in October 2014 and made her way back into Kurdish custody. Information she provided helped U.S. fighters launch a raid in May 2015 that killed Abu Sayyaf and other ISIS fighters, according to the memo.

Mueller, who was killed in February 2015, was raped by the Islamic State’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, during her time in captivity, according to the indictment.

Inside the house, U.S. fighters recovered ISIS documents justifying slavery and guidelines for how it should be implemented.

Elsheikh's lawyers are seeking to keep the slavery documents from being introduced at trial, and want to severely limit Doe's testimony, restricting it only to her time in captivity with Mueller.

The evidence “is unduly inflammatory and would only cause undue prejudice against Mr. Elsheikh, confuse the issues, and mislead the jury by imputing the actions of others to Mr. Elsheikh,” defense lawyers Nina Ginsberg, Edward MacMahon and Jessica Carmichael wrote.

While Doe's testimony may not central to the case against Elsheikh, it provides a glimpse into some of the emotionally powerful evidence jurors will confront if the case indeed goes to trial at the end of the month.

Elsheikh is one of four British nationals who joined the Islamic State, dubbed “the Beatles” by their captives because of their accents. Elsheikh and a co-defendant, Alexenda Kotey, were captured in Syria in 2018 and brought to Virginia in 2020 to stand trial in federal court.

Kotey pleaded guilty last year and is awaiting sentencing. A third Beatle, Mohammed Emwazi, also known as “Jihadi John,” was killed in a 2015 drone strike. The fourth member was sentenced to prison in Turkey.

Federal prosecutors will respond to the defense memo about Jane Doe at a later date. So far, though, prosecutors have been successful in turning aside defense efforts to restrict evidence at trial. The presiding judge, T.S. Ellis III, ruled earlier this year that prosecutors can use incriminating statements Elsheikh made in interrogations and in media interviews. Defense lawyers argued unsuccessfully that the statements were coerced.

As for the slavery documents, defense lawyers argue that it would be unfair to ascribe them to Elsheikh because he did not write them. But in a 2018 interview with journalist Jenan Moussa after he was captured, Elsheikh said slavery was justified under Islamic law.

"Islamic texts have spoken about slavery and rights of a slave. There is a whole jurisprudence about slavery and the rights of slaves and the rights of slave owners,” he said in an interview.

#nunyas news #marked sensitive

11 notes · View notes

fernreads · 2 years

Text

To fully impress upon its audience the immense power of this software, Anomaly Six did what few in the world can claim to do: spied on American spies. “I like making fun of our own people,” Clark began. Pulling up a Google Maps-like satellite view, the sales rep showed the NSA’s headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, and the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia. With virtual boundary boxes drawn around both, a technique known as geofencing, A6’s software revealed an incredible intelligence bounty: 183 dots representing phones that had visited both agencies potentially belonging to American intelligence personnel, with hundreds of lines streaking outward revealing their movements, ready to track throughout the world. “So, if I’m a foreign intel officer, that’s 183 start points for me now,” Clark noted.

[...] Clicking on one of dots from the NSA allowed Clark to follow that individual’s exact movements, virtually every moment of their life, from that previous year until the present. “I mean, just think of fun things like sourcing,” Clark said. “If I’m a foreign intel officer, I don’t have access to things like the agency or the fort, I can find where those people live, I can find where they travel, I can see when they leave the country.” The demonstration then tracked the individual around the United States and abroad to a training center and airfield roughly an hour’s drive northwest of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Zarqa, Jordan, where the U.S. reportedly maintains a fleet of drones.

[...] Back stateside, the person was tracked to their own home. A6’s software includes a function called “Regularity,” a button clients can press that automatically analyzes frequently visited locations to deduce where a target lives and works, even though the GPS pinpoints sourced by A6 omit the phone owner’s name. Privacy researchers have long shown that even “anonymized” location data is trivially easy to attach to an individual based on where they frequent most, a fact borne out by A6’s own demonstration. After hitting the “Regularity” button, Clark zoomed in on a Google Street View image of their home.

In the months leading up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two obscure American startups met to discuss a potential surveillance partnership that would merge the ability to track the movements of billions of people via their phones with a constant stream of data purchased directly from Twitter. According to Brendon Clark of Anomaly Six — or “A6” — the combination of its cellphone location-tracking technology with the social media surveillance provided by Zignal Labs would permit the U.S. government to effortlessly spy on Russian forces as they amassed along the Ukrainian border, or similarly track Chinese nuclear submarines. To prove that the technology worked, Clark pointed A6’s powers inward, spying on the National Security Agency and CIA, using their own cellphones against them.

Virginia-based Anomaly Six was founded in 2018 by two ex-military intelligence officers and maintains a public presence that is scant to the point of mysterious, its website disclosing nothing about what the firm actually does. But there’s a good chance that A6 knows an immense amount about you. The company is one of many that purchases vast reams of location data, tracking hundreds of millions of people around the world by exploiting a poorly understood fact: Countless common smartphone apps are constantly harvesting your location and relaying it to advertisers, typically without your knowledge or informed consent, relying on disclosures buried in the legalese of the sprawling terms of service that the companies involved count on you never reading. Once your location is beamed to an advertiser, there is currently no law in the United States prohibiting the further sale and resale of that information to firms like Anomaly Six, which are free to sell it to their private sector and governmental clientele. For anyone interested in tracking the daily lives of others, the digital advertising industry is taking care of the grunt work day in and day out — all a third party need do is buy access.

Company materials obtained by The Intercept and Tech Inquiry provide new details of just how powerful Anomaly Six’s globe-spanning surveillance powers are, capable of providing any paying customer with abilities previously reserved for spy bureaus and militaries.

According to audiovisual recordings of an A6 presentation reviewed by The Intercept and Tech Inquiry, the firm claims that it can track roughly 3 billion devices in real time, equivalent to a fifth of the world’s population. The staggering surveillance capacity was cited during a pitch to provide A6’s phone-tracking capabilities to Zignal Labs, a social media monitoring firm that leverages its access to Twitter’s rarely granted “firehose” data stream to sift through hundreds of millions of tweets per day without restriction. With their powers combined, A6 proposed, Zignal’s corporate and governmental clients could not only surveil global social media activity, but also determine who exactly sent certain tweets, where they sent them from, who they were with, where they’d been previously, and where they went next. This enormously augmented capability would be an obvious boon to both regimes keeping tabs on their global adversaries and companies keeping tabs on their employees.

The source of the materials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect their livelihood, expressed grave concern about the legality of government contractors such as Anomaly Six and Zignal Labs “revealing social posts, usernames, and locations of Americans” to “Defense Department” users. The source also asserted that Zignal Labs had willfully deceived Twitter by withholding the broader military and corporate surveillance use cases of its firehose access. Twitter’s terms of service technically prohibit a third party from “conducting or providing surveillance or gathering intelligence” using its access to the platform, though the practice is common and enforcement of this ban is rare. Asked about these concerns, spokesperson Tom Korolsyshun told The Intercept “Zignal abides by privacy laws and guidelines set forth by our data partners.”

A6 claims that its GPS dragnet yields between 30 to 60 location pings per device per day and 2.5 trillion locational data points annually worldwide, adding up to 280 terabytes of location data per year and many petabytes in total, suggesting that the company surveils roughly 230 million devices on an average day. A6’s salesperson added that while many rival firms gather personal location data via a phone’s Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections that provide general whereabouts, Anomaly 6 harvests only GPS pinpoints, potentially accurate to within several feet. In addition to location, A6 claimed that it has built a library of over 2 billion email addresses and other personal details that people share when signing up for smartphone apps that can be used to identify who the GPS ping belongs to. All of this is powered, A6’s Clark noted during the pitch, by general ignorance of the ubiquity and invasiveness of smartphone software development kits, known as SDKs: “Everything is agreed to and sent by the user even though they probably don’t read the 60 pages in the [end user license agreement].”

The Intercept was not able to corroborate Anomaly Six’s claims about its data or capabilities, which were made in the context of a sales pitch. Privacy researcher Zach Edwards told The Intercept that he believed the claims were plausible but cautioned that firms can be prone to exaggerating the quality of their data. Mobile security researcher Will Strafach agreed, noting that A6’s data sourcing boasts “sound alarming but aren’t terribly far off from ambitious claims by others.” According to Wolfie Christl, a researcher specializing in the surveillance and privacy implications of the app data industry, even if Anomaly Six’s capabilities are exaggerated or based partly on inaccurate data, a company possessing even a fraction of these spy powers would be deeply concerning from a personal privacy standpoint.

Reached for comment, Zignal’s spokesperson provided the following statement: “While Anomaly 6 has in the past demonstrated its capabilities to Zignal Labs, Zignal Labs does not have a relationship with Anomaly 6. We have never integrated Anomaly 6’s capabilities into our platform, nor have we ever delivered Anomaly 6 to any of our customers.”

When asked about the company’s presentation and its surveillance capabilities, Anomaly Six co-founder Brendan Huff responded in an email that “Anomaly Six is a veteran-owned small business that cares about American interests, natural security, and understands the law.”

Companies like A6 are fueled by the ubiquity of SDKs, which are turnkey packages of code that software-makers can slip in their apps to easily add functionality and quickly monetize their offerings with ads. According to Clark, A6 can siphon exact GPS measurements gathered through covert partnerships with “thousands” of smartphone apps, an approach he described in his presentation as a “farm-to-table approach to data acquisition.” This data isn’t just useful for people hoping to sell you things: The largely unregulated global trade in personal data is increasingly finding customers not only at marketing agencies, but also federal agencies tracking immigrants and drone targets as well as sanctions and tax evasion. According to public records first reported by Motherboard, U.S. Special Operations Command paid Anomaly Six $590,000 in September 2020 for a year of access to the firm’s “commercial telemetry feed.”

Anomaly Six software lets its customers browse all of this data in a convenient and intuitive Google Maps-style satellite view of Earth. Users need only find a location of interest and draw a box around it, and A6 fills that boundary with dots denoting smartphones that passed through that area. Clicking a dot will provide you with lines representing the device’s — and its owner’s — movements around a neighborhood, city, or indeed the entire world.

As the Russian military continued its buildup along the country’s border with Ukraine, the A6 sales rep detailed how GPS surveillance could help turn Zignal into a sort of private spy agency capable of assisting state clientele in monitoring troop movements. Imagine, Clark explained, if the crisis zone tweets Zignal rapidly surfaces through the firehose were only a starting point. Using satellite imagery tweeted by accounts conducting increasingly popular “open-source intelligence,” or OSINT, investigations, Clark showed how A6’s GPS tracking would let Zignal clients determine not simply that the military buildup was taking place, but track the phones of Russian soldiers as they mobilized to determine exactly where they’d trained, where they were stationed, and which units they belonged to. In one case, Clark showed A6 software tracing Russian troop phones backward through time, away from the border and back to a military installation outside Yurga, and suggested that they could be traced further, all the way back to their individual homes. Previous reporting by the Wall Street Journal indicates that this phone-tracking method is already used to monitor Russian military maneuvers and that American troops are just as vulnerable.

In another A6 map demonstration, Clark zoomed in closely on the town of Molkino, in southern Russia, where the Wagner Group, an infamous Russian mercenary outfit, is reportedly headquartered. The map showed dozens of dots indicating devices at the Wagner base, along with scattered lines showing their recent movements. “So you can just start watching these devices,” Clark explained. “Any time they start leaving the area, I’m looking at potential Russian predeployment activity for their nonstandard actors, their nonuniform people. So if you see them go into Libya or Democratic Republic of the Congo or things like that, that can help you better understand potential soft power actions the Russians are doing.”

The pitch noted that this kind of mass phone surveillance could be used by Zignal to aid unspecified clients with “counter-messaging,” debunking Russian claims that such military buildups were mere training exercises and not the runup to an invasion. “When you’re looking at counter-messaging, where you guys have a huge part of the value you provide your client in the counter-messaging piece is — [Russia is] saying, ‘Oh, it’s just local, regional, um, exercises.’ Like, no. We can see from the data that they’re coming from all over Russia.”

The NSA and CIA both declined to comment.

Clicking on one of dots from the NSA allowed Clark to follow that individual’s exact movements, virtually every moment of their life, from that previous year until the present. “I mean, just think of fun things like sourcing,” Clark said. “If I’m a foreign intel officer, I don’t have access to things like the agency or the fort, I can find where those people live, I can find where they travel, I can see when they leave the country.” The demonstration then tracked the individual around the United States and abroad to a training center and airfield roughly an hour’s drive northwest of Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Zarqa, Jordan, where the U.S. reportedly maintains a fleet of drones.

“There is sure as hell a serious national security threat if a data broker can track a couple hundred intelligence officials to their homes and around the world,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a vocal critic of the personal data industry, told The Intercept in an interview. “It doesn’t take a lot of creativity to see how foreign spies can use this information for espionage, blackmail, all kinds of, as they used to say, dastardly deeds.”

Back stateside, the person was tracked to their own home. A6’s software includes a function called “Regularity,” a button clients can press that automatically analyzes frequently visited locations to deduce where a target lives and works, even though the GPS pinpoints sourced by A6 omit the phone owner’s name. Privacy researchers have long shown that even “anonymized” location data is trivially easy to attach to an individual based on where they frequent most, a fact borne out by A6’s own demonstration. After hitting the “Regularity” button, Clark zoomed in on a Google Street View image of their home.

“Industry has repeatedly claimed that collecting and selling this cellphone location data won’t violate privacy because it is tied to device ID numbers instead of people’s names. This feature proves just how facile those claims are,” said Nate Wessler, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “Of course, following a person’s movements 24 hours a day, day after day, will tell you where they live, where they work, who they spend time with, and who they are. The privacy violation is immense.”

The demo continued with a surveillance exercise tagging U.S. naval movements, using a tweeted satellite photo of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Mediterranean Sea snapped by the commercial firm Maxar Technologies. Clark broke down how a single satellite snapshot could be turned into surveillance that he claimed was even more powerful than that executed from space. Using the latitude and longitude coordinates appended to the Maxar photo along with its time stamp, A6 was able to pick up a single phone signal from the ship’s position at that moment, south of Crete. “But it only takes one,” Clark noted. “So when I look back where that one device goes: Oh, it goes back to Norfolk. And actually, on the carrier in the satellite picture — what else is on the carrier? When you look, here are all the other devices.” His screen revealed a view of the carrier docked in Virginia, teeming with thousands of colorful dots representing phone location pings gathered by A6. “Well, now I can see every time that that ship is deploying. I don’t need satellites right now. I can use this.”

Though Clark conceded that the company has far less data available on Chinese phone owners, the demo concluded with a GPS ping picked up aboard an alleged Chinese nuclear submarine. Using only unclassified satellite imagery and commercial advertising data, Anomaly Six was able to track the precise movements of the world’s most sophisticated military and intelligence forces. With tools like those sold by A6 and Zignal, even an OSINT hobbyist would have global surveillance powers previously held only by nations. “People put way too much on social media,” Clark added with a laugh.

As location data has proliferated largely unchecked by government oversight in the United States, one hand washes another, creating a private sector capable of state-level surveillance powers that can also fuel the state’s own growing appetite for surveillance without the usual judicial scrutiny. Critics say the loose trade in advertising data constitutes a loophole in the Fourth Amendment, which requires the government to make its case to a judge before obtaining location coordinates from a cellular provider. But the total commodification of phone data has made it possible for the government to skip the court order and simply buy data that’s often even more accurate than what could be provided by the likes of Verizon. Civil libertarians say this leaves a dangerous gap between the protections intended by the Constitution and the law’s grasp on the modern data trade.

“The Supreme Court has made clear that cellphone location information is protected under the Fourth Amendment because of the detailed picture of a person’s life it can reveal,” explained Wessler. “Government agencies’ purchases of access to Americans’ sensitive location data raise serious questions about whether they are engaged in an illegal end run around the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. It is time for Congress to end the legal uncertainty enabling this surveillance once and for all by moving toward passage of the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act.”

Though such legislation could restrict the government’s ability to piggyback off commercial surveillance, app-makers and data brokers would remain free to surveil phone owners. Still, Wyden, a co-sponsor of that bill, told The Intercept that he believes “this legislation sends a very strong message” to the “Wild West” of ad-based surveillance but that clamping down on the location data supply chain would be “certainly a question for the future.” Wyden suggested that protecting a device’s location trail from snooping apps and advertisers might be best handled by the Federal Trade Commission. Separate legislation previously introduced by Wyden would empower the FTC to crack down on promiscuous data sharing and broaden consumers’ ability to opt out of ad tracking.

A6 is far from the only firm engaged in privatized device-tracking surveillance. Three of Anomaly Six’s key employees previously worked at competing firm Babel Street, which named all three of them in a 2018 lawsuit first reported by the Wall Street Journal. According to the legal filing, Brendan Huff and Jeffrey Heinz co-founded Anomaly Six (and lesser-known Datalus 5) months after ending their employment at Babel Street in April 2018, with the intent of replicating Babel’s cellphone location surveillance product, “Locate X,” in a partnership with major Babel competitor Semantic AI. In July 2018, Clark followed Huff and Heinz by resigning from his position as Babel’s “primary interface to … intelligence community clients” and becoming an employee of both Anomaly Six and Semantic.

Like its rival Dataminr, Zignal touts its mundane partnerships with the likes of Levi’s and the Sacramento Kings, marketing itself publicly in vague terms that carry little indication that it uses Twitter for intelligence-gathering purposes, ostensibly in clear violation of Twitter’s anti-surveillance policy. Zignal’s ties to government run deep: Zignal’s advisory board includes a former head of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command, Charles Cleveland, as well as the CEO of the Rendon Group, John Rendon, whose bio notes that he “pioneered the use of strategic communications and real-time information management as an element of national power, serving as a consultant to the White House, U.S. National Security community, including the U.S. Department of Defense.” Further, public records state that Zignal was paid roughly $4 million to subcontract under defense staffing firm ECS Federal on Project Maven for “Publicly Available Information … Data Aggregation” and a related “Publicly Available Information enclave” in the U.S. Army’s Secure Unclassified Network.

The remarkable world-spanning capabilities of Anomaly Six are representative of the quantum leap occurring in the field of OSINT. While the term is often used to describe the internet-enabled detective work that draws on public records to, say, pinpoint the location of a war crime from a grainy video clip, “automated OSINT” systems now use software to combine enormous datasets that far outpace what a human could do on their own. Automated OSINT has also become something of a misnomer, using information that is by no means “open source” or in the public domain, like commercial GPS data that must be bought from a private broker.

While OSINT techniques are powerful, they are generally shielded from accusations of privacy violation because the “open source” nature of the underlying information means that it was already to some extent public. This is a defense that Anomaly Six, with its trove of billions of purchased data points, can’t muster. In February, the Dutch Review Committee on the Intelligence and Security Services issued a report on automated OSINT techniques and the threat to personal privacy they may represent: “The volume, nature and range of personal data in these automated OSINT tools may lead to a more serious violation of fundamental rights, in particular the right to privacy, than consulting data from publicly accessible online information sources, such as publicly accessible social media data or data retrieved using a generic search engine.” This fusion of publicly available data, privately procured personal records, and computerized analysis isn’t the future of governmental surveillance, but the present. Last year, the New York Times reported that the Defense Intelligence Agency “buys commercially available databases containing location data from smartphone apps and searches it for Americans’ past movements without a warrant,” a surveillance method now regularly practiced throughout the Pentagon, the Department of Homeland Security, the IRS, and beyond.

#article #excerpt #full article under the cut #intelligence #spyware #privacy #literally terrifying #the article is not paywalled but you do need to make an account to view it #there is also a video summary of the article at the link #also. the spy is just an example. they claim to be able to do this with 3 billion ppl around the world

2 notes · View notes

nicklloydnow · 3 years

Text

“Julian is targeted because his organization WikiLeaks released the Iraq War Logs in October 2010, which documented numerous US war crimes—including images seen in the Collateral Murder video — of gunning down two Reuters journalists and 10 other unarmed civilians.

He is targeted because he made public the killing of nearly 700 civilians that had approached too closely to US checkpoints.

He is targeted because he exposed the hacking tools used by the CIA known as Vault 7, exposing that the CIA is able to compromise cars, smart TVs, web browsers and the operating systems of most smart phones, as well as operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, macOS and Linux.

He is targeted because he exposed the more than 15,000 unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians, the torture and abuse of some 800 men and boys, aged between 14 to and 89, at Guantánamo.

He is targeted because he showed us that Hillary Clinton in 2009 ordered US diplomats to spy on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and other U.N. representatives from China, France, Russia, and the UK, spying that included obtaining DNA, iris scans, fingerprints, and personal passwords, part of the long pattern of illegal surveillance that included the eavesdropping on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

He is targeted because he exposed that Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the CIA orchestrated the June 2009 military coup in Honduras that overthrew the democratically elected president Manuel Zelaya, replacing it with a murderous and corrupt military regime. He is targeted because he released documents that revealed that the United States secretly launched missile, bomb, and drone attacks on Yemen, killing scores of civilians.

He is targeted because he made public the $657,000 paid to Hillary Clinton by Goldman Sachs to give talks and her private assurances to corporate leaders that she would do their bidding while promising the public financial regulation and reform. He is targeted because he revealed the internal campaign to discredit and destroy British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn by members of his own party.

For these truths alone he is guilty.

The Biden administration is determined to extradite Julian and charge him with 17 counts of the Espionage Act, which would send him to prison for 170 years. I sat through some of the court proceedings in London. It was a judicial farce, especially since the Spanish security firm UC Global at the Ecuadorian Embassy, where Julian had taken refuge for seven years, recorded all of Julian’s conversations with his attorneys and turned them over to the CIA. That fact alone should invalidate the trial. But there is also the bald fact that Julian never committed a crime.

Julian is not a US citizen. WikiLeaks is not a US-based publication. And yet he is charged, under the US Espionage Act, with treason. It is judicial pantomime, a show trial where the rule of law is sabotaged by barristers in horsehair wigs and grand inquisitors such as Gordon Kromberg, the Assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, who handles high profile terrorism and national security cases. Kromberg has open contempt for Muslims, Islam and anyone who defies the state. He has denounced what he calls “the Islamization of the American justice system.”

(…)

If Assange is extradited and found guilty of publishing classified material, it will set a legal precedent that will effectively end national security reporting, allowing the government to charge any reporter who possesses classified documents, and any whistleblower who leaks classified information, under the Espionage Act. The inner workings of power will be shrouded in darkness, with very ominous consequences for press freedom and democracy.”

#hedges #chris hedges #assange #julian assange

2 notes · View notes

eretzyisrael · 3 years

Link

This fits a pattern of Americans who joined Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), which is illegal pursuant to U.S. law. Other Americans to join terror groups include Adam Gadahn (killed in a U.S. drone strike while serving as a senior Al Qaeda leader), Anwar al Awlaki (killed in a U.S. drone strike while serving as a senior leader in Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula), John Georgelas (a senior Islamic State propagandist killed in Syria), and John Walker Lindh (captured while fighting alongside the Taliban).

Osama al-Zebda appears to have been the target of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) military campaignagainst leaders and commanders of militant factions in Gaza. Multiple commanders and mid-level Hamas militants were reportedly killed during the 10-day operation.

It is unclear if Osama was born in the U.S. or was a naturalized citizen. However, Jamal, was described by the IDF’s Hebrew-language site as a ‘senior member of Hamas’ research and development division,’ adding that he earned a ‘PhD in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in aerodynamics.’

A paper written by Jamal al-Zebda on aerodynamics at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1989 appears on the Aerospace Research Center’s website, suggesting Osama’s father was possibly in the United States either studying or working there. However, FDD’s Long War Journal could not independently verify if it was written by the same person.

On May 12, Palestinian social media channels began circulating pictures of Osama al-Zebda and his father Jamal al-Zebda. The social media posts described the son and father as ‘martyrs’ who were involved in a ‘targeting’ operation by Israel. A social media post from May 19, posted by someone claiming to be the wife of Osama, claimed he was an American.

#osama al-zebda #gaza #terrorist

12 notes · View notes

creepingsharia · 5 years

Text

A Month of Islam in America: November 2019

November was all about elections - and Muslims, particularly terror-linked Muslim organizations operating in the U.S. - continued using elections to establish their goal of a sharia state in America. They are ahead of schedule.

26 Muslims in 9 States Won Elections on Nov 5 According to Terror-linked CAIR

Virginia: Daughter of terror-linked Muslim wins school board seat, Muslim Brotherhood praises

Maine and Minnesota Two Somali-Muslim refugees win city council seats

They’ll use any means necessary.

Minneapolis: Muslim charged with felonies - helped at least 13 people cast fraudulent ballots in 2018

And they are ambitious:

Terror-linked CAIR exec working to get 30 Muslims in Congress, at least 2 senators, federal judges and a Muslim SCOTUS.

Click any link below for more details and link to original source.

Jihad in America

Ohio: Muslim Pleads Guilty in al Qaeda Plot to Bomb July 4th Parade in Cleveland

“We serve Allah…We fight our enemies. We destroy them and destroy those who try to oppose…” Demetrius Nathaniel Pitts, aka Abdur Raheem Rafeeq, aka Salah ad-Deen Osama Waleed, 50, pleaded guilty to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, threats against the President of the United States and threats against family members of the President of the United States.

Florida: Muslim Arrested for Plotting Jihad Bombings Against College Deans

Salman Rashid wanted the “establishment of Islamic law” and plotted to bomb deans at two of his former south Florida colleges.

New York: Brooklyn Man Arrested - Encouraged ISIS Supporters to Attack NYC Subway System

Zachary Clark aka Umar Kabir aka Umar Shishani aka Abu Talha “provided instructions for how to plan attacks on U.S. soil, encouraging ISIS supporters to attack in well-populated locations.”

Chicago: Muslim Student at DePaul Univ. Charged with Attempting to Support Islamic State (ISIS)

“In sha allah it won’t happen but if Allah wills it, I will make the jihad” ~ Thomas Osadzinski

Missouri: Bosnian Muslim Refugee Gets 8 Years for Providing Material Support to Islamic Terrorists

Ramiz Zijad Hodzic, aka Siki Ramiz Hodzic, 45, of St. Louis County, Missouri, was sentenced to 96 months in prison for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists.

Indiana: ISIS Wife Pleads Guilty to Concealing Terrorism Financing

Samantha El-hassani knowingly financed her jihadi husband’s terror and her son made jihadi videos. He’s back in the U.S. too.

Chicago: Gang leader arrested for sending money to Islamic State (ISIS)

The gang requires all new members to convert.Brown, who goes by Abdul Ja’Me, handed over $500 on three occasions this year to someone he believed would wire it to an Islamic State fighter, the complaint says.

California: Muslim Who Facilitated Travel of 2 U.S. Citizens to Join ISIS Extradited to San Diego

All the Muslims aided by Abdullahi were reportedly killed waging jihad for ISIS.

Texas: Muslim charged with conspiring to “honor kill” sister who converted to Christianity

Nadia Irsan is now accused of a more serious offense — conspiring with her father, stepmother and brother in the family-run criminal plot that ended with the two fatal shootings.

She is one of two people with open cases tied to the murders, which occurred after sister Nesreen Irsan left the family’s rural Montgomery County compound and converted from Islam to Christianity.

More Jihad in America:

New York: Muslim teen who threw eggs at Brooklyn synagogue and Jewish woman, arrested on hate crime charges

”Strict Muslim” who admitted self-proclaimed “jihad” killing spree returned to Seattle to face 3 murder charges

Milwaukee: Trial for Muslim who plotted shooting up Masonic Center to “defend Islam” is delayed

Minnesota: Muslim brothers charged with trying to export drone tech to terror group Hizbollah

Michigan: Iranian immigrant engineer stole trade secrets, sent to brother in Iran, wife

Previous monthly reports here.

Immigration Jihad also known as Hijra:

Texas: 7 Muslims Arrested as Part of Brazil-based Illegal Alien Smuggling Ring

California: 4 Afghan Refugees Arrested in Massive Int’l Stolen Cellphone Ring

Ohio: Immigrant who illegally exported goods to Iran gets just 20 months in prison

Two "U.S. Citizens” Charged in Scheme to Impersonate U.S. Officials and Defraud Iraqis

Changing America by Changing the People - from Manassas, Virginia to Missoula, Montana

New Jersey: Turns out Prospect Park mayor who complained about DHS questioning has a history of jihad support

Utah: Imam Loses Appeal of ‘Suspected Terrorist’ Watchlist Challenge

Utah: $3.2M mosque will be state’s largest, will make “a bold statement,” says imam

Rape Jihad in America:

Ohio: Authorities seek Muslim Uber driver indicted for rape

Arizona: Egyptian imam accused of sexual battery, child abuse, misappropriation of charitable funds

California: NPR-featured Muslim preacher fired after allegations of misconduct

Virginia: Pakistani doctor jailed, sterilized women, performed hysterectomies without their consent

Jihad and Sharia in American Education:

Philadelphia commission looks the other way on Muslim school kid’s “chop off their heads” song

Chicago: New Muslim College Run by Muslim from Terror-linked CAIR, ISNA

Maryland: Muslims ask for no AP testing - for anyone - on last day of Ramadan

BONUS VIDEO: Islamic Indoctrination in American Schools

Chicago History Museum shares stories of ‘American Medina’ in new Islamic exhibit

Dhimmitude and Jihad in Government

Trump Admin Approves HAMAS-linked CAIR to Train U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Officers

Why Did the U.S. Government Provide Visas to Affiliates of a Designated Foreign Terrorist Organization?

Kentucky: Dem challenger for Senate attended dinner hosted by terror-linked Muslim group CAIR

Florida: Crime Stoppers Of Miami-Dade County Has Islamic Terror Supporter on Their Board

Silicon Valley Jihad:

Two Muslim Twitter employees arrested, recruited by Saudis to spy on users

After threats from Congress, Twitter finally bans Hamas and Hezb'allah terror groups

Legal or Litigation Jihad in America:

Minnesota: Civil Rights Lawsuit Filed by Grandmother Threatened with Prosecution for Filming Mosque Violations

A big win in what appears to be a losing battle:

Judge Rules That Muslim Woman Who Left U.S. for ISIS is Not An American Citizen, No Right to Return

Please share this and other posts on your social media sites.

Previous monthly reports here.

#Islam #Jihad #Muslim #Sharia #Immigration #Legal #News #Politics #Media #Mosque #Travel #Religion #Elections #Monthly

175 notes · View notes

bestreasonstowriterecordreviews · 5 years

Photo

✰ BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019 ✰

It’s that time again: let’s feast from 2019′s Grapevine That Is Never Pruned with 21 (+ approximately 277 more) of the BEST OF THE BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2019! ✰ 7th ANNIVERSARY ✰

✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ TOP 21 ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰ ✰

✰ TAIWAN HOUSING PROJECT Sub-Language Trustees (ever/never) ✰

✰ SAMANTHA RIOTT Bloodletting download (self-released)

✰ PAULA GARCIA STONE Undercurrent cd (Linear Obsessional, UK)

✰ POSSIBLE HUMANS Everybody Split (Trouble In Mind)

✰ WILLIAM HENRY MEUNG cassette FMerror (chemical imbalance., Australia)

✰ LEILA BORDREUIL Headflush (Catch Wave Ltd)

✰ LEIGHTON CRAIG Diamond Eye (Bruit Direct Disques, France)

✰ KNITTED ABYSS Bad Lassies (Paradise Daily, Australia)

✰ WEAK SIGNAL LP1 (Mag Mag)

✰ TOM OF ENGLAND Sex Monk Blues (L.I.E.S.)

✰ DRY CLEANING Boundary Road Snacks And Drinks & Sweet Princess LP (It’s OK, UK)

✰ 75 DOLLAR BILL I Was Real double LP (Thin Wrist Recordings)

✰ DARK BLUE Victory Is Rated (12XU)

✰ KALI MALONE The Sacrificial Code 3 cd (iDEAL Recordings, Sweden)

✰ SHABAZZ MYSTIK Chant D’Lâme (Off, Belgium)

✰ LONG HOTS Give And Take 7” (Third Man)

✰ AMIRTHA KIDAMBI & LEA BERTUCCI Phase Eclipse cassette (Astral Spirits)

✰ CHRIS BROKAW End Of The Night (VDSQ)

✰ SPIRAL WAVE NOMADS Spiral Wave Nomads (Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube)

✰ HAMA Houmeissa (Sahel Sounds)

✰ YL HOOI Untitled cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia)

JEANINES Jeanines (Slumberland)

ARTEFACTOS DE DOLOR La Niña double LP (Pain Artifacts)

U-BAHN U-Bahn (Future Folklore, France)

MDOU MOCTAR Ilana: The Creator (Sahel Sounds)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN The Upcoming Flame (bruit direct disques, France)

TYSHAWN SOREY & MARILYN CRISPELL The Adornment Of Time cd (Pi Recordings)

ALE HOP Apophenia (Buh Records, Peru)

TIM PANARETOS Submergence cd-r (chemical imbalance., Australia) & Opposites End download (self-released, Australia)

KATE CARR City Of Bridges download (Longform Editions, Australia)

WRITHING SQUARES Out Of The Ether (Trouble In Mind)

MY NORTH EYE (My) North Eye (2011) cd-r (Reverb Worship, France)

PINOCCHIO Pinocchio ep (Toxic State)

BRIDGET HAYDEN Soil And Song cassette (Synchronise Witches, UK) [comes with Karen Dalton fanzine!]

The COWBOYS The Bottom Of A Rotten Flower (Feel It Records)

OLUMPUS Caucus & Surplus downloads (both stabbies, etc., New Zealand)

CHUCK CLEAVER Send Aid (Shake It!)

JOSÉ DIAS After Silence, Vol. 1. cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

KNIFE WIFE Family Party cassette (Sister Polygon)

TRAMPOLINE TEAM Trampoline Team (HoZac)

KATE CARR Heatwave cassette (self-released, UK)

SEBASTIEN STH BISET Islæd cd (Mnóad, Belgium)

PHAROAH CHROMIUM Eros + Massacre (Scum Yr Earth, France)

JOSEPH ALLRED Aspirant cassette (Garden Portal Tapes) & O, Meadowlark (Feeding Tube)

ANDREA BORGHI Tistre cassette (Dinzu Artefacts)

MOPE GROOVES Desire (See My Friends Records)

JOSHUA ABRAMS & NATURAL INFORMATION SOCIETY Mandatory Reality (Eremite)

SOFIE BIRCH Island Alchemy cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

VOYAGE DATA Voyage Data cassette (Econore, Germany)

JONNY COUCH Mystery Man (Damages Sofa)

FISCHERLE Gmatwacz cassette (Czaszka, UK)

ROCKET 808 Rocket 808 (12XU)

LINDA TRIP Sad Bangers cassette (Superdreamer)

MATTHEW J. ROLIN Matthew J. Rolin (Feeding Tube Records)

STEKKERDOOS Kalendar cassette (No Rent)

IAN HAWGOOD 光 (Home Normal, Japan)

ÀLEX REVIRIEGO • DISCORDIAN STRING ENSEMBLE Incerto For Doublebass And Strings download (Discordian, Spain)

JULIA KENT Temporal cd (The Leaf Label, UK)

NAPS Better To Give cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

TERROR OF THE DEEP The A-Team cassette (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

CLAIRE ROUSAY Friends cassette (Never Anything)

ANNA SUBIRIANA • POL PADRÓS • JOAN ANTONI PICH Brull’s Bet download (Discordian, Spain)

HAKOBUNE A Fan, Strings, and Two Guitars cassette (Patient Sounds)

LORI GOLDSTON Things Opening (Second Editions, Germany)

The RESONARS No Exit (Trouble In Mind)

MARCIA BASSETT • MANUEL MOTA • MARGARIDA GARCIA Here They Rest Immobile (Yew)

URANIUM CLUB The Cosmo Cleaners: The Higher Calling Of Business Provocateurs (Fashionable Idiots/Static Shock, UK)

THE COOL GREENHOUSE “Crap Cardboard Pet” 7” (Hidden Bay Records, France)

ROB NOYES “You Are Tired”/“Nightmare Study” 7” (Market Square Recordings, UK)

TOM LÖNNQVIST Häviävän Pieni Osa (Guggenhavn Archive, Sweden)

GOTOBEDS Debt Begins At 30 (Sub Pop)

GREG KELLEY/ROB NOYES Greg Kelley/Rob Noyes split cassette (self-released)

DEAD SEA APES The Free Territory double LP (Feeding Tube Records)

DRAGGS Draggs cassette (Slime Street, Australia)

SPRAY PAINT Into The Country (12XU)

SPF Paul’s McCartney

2 CHEVRONS No Rules In Outta Space cassette (Albert’s Basement, Australia)

DARK TEA Dark Tea (Fire Talk)

TERRINE Live At Home cassette (Econore, Germany)

The SNAKES The Snakes (Anti Fade, Australia)

LIVE SKULL Saturday Night Massacre (Bronson Recordings, Italy)

ELKHORN Sun Cycle/Elk Jam 2 LP (Feeding Tube)

MESSRS Messrs 12” (Heel Turn Records)

VIRGINIA PLAIN Strange Game (All Hands Electric)

JEN KUTLER Dismbodied (EyeVee)

MOR AIR Life Behind Glass cassette (Genot Centre, Czech Republic)

CIA DEBUTANTE The Landlord (Siltbreeze)

JOSÉ DIAS After Silence, Volume 1 cd (Celan Feed, Portugal)

LAURA LUNA CASTILLO Folksonomies cassette (Cudighi Records)

THE GIRL IN TIMES NEW VIKING The Girl In Times New Viking (The Fah-Q Catalog)

43 ODES 43 Odes cassette (Eiderdown)

OOF Vanity Plate cassette & EGO cassette (both Fuzzy Warbles cassettes)

ORGUE AGNÈS A Une Gorge (three:four, Switzerland; Standard In-Fi - 2018)

MICHAEL MORLEY Heavens Idleness Awaits 2 LP (Thin Wrist Recordings)

CHRISTINA KUBISCH Schall Und Klang cd (Fragment Factory, Germany)

HUNTED CREATURES Sleep Weed cassette (White Reeves Productions)

UNITED WATERS Coma To Coma (Drawing Room Records)

JULIUS MENARD Hr cassette (Econore, Germany)

GEE TEE Chromo-Zone download (self/released, Australia)

AARON RUSSELL Coral Music cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

9TH HOUSE Planetary EP 12” (Hot Haus, UK)

SCAN Scan 7” ep (Drugfront)

The HECKS My Star (Trouble In Mind)

ALINA PETROVA & KIRA WEINSTEIN Sad Ko cassette (Never Anything)

HIEROPHANTS Spitting Out Moonlight (Anti Fade, Australia)

NOTS 3 (Goner)

P WITS The Desire and Pursuit of The Whole cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

GOLDEN PELICANS Grinding For Gruel (12XU)

TOPDOWN DIALECTIC Vol. 2 (Peak Oil)

M. SAGE Catch A Blessing (Geographic North)

ECHO OHS Wild Weeds 12” (1:12 Records, New Zealand)

CIVIC Selling, Sucking, Blackmail Bribes 7" (Total Punk)

WENDY EISENBERG & SHANE PARRISH Nervous Systems (Verses)

KNEELING IN PISS Tour De Force cassette (The Fah-Q Catalog)

s.soo Tyman download (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

WSCHÓD Wschód cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

PREENING Gang Laughter (Digital Regress)

CLARICE JENSEN Drone Studies cassette (Geographic North)

MARBLED EYE Beat Sessions, Vol. 8 cassette (Shout Recordings)

STEVE MOORE Steve Moore 12” (L.I.E.S)

The SELVA Canícula Rosa cd (Clean Feed, Australia)

PROGRAM Show Me 12” (Anti Fade, Australia)

SLUMB PARTY Spending Money (Drunken Sailor, UK)

EUN-JUNG KIM & CHARLIE COLLINS Shining Days cd (Linear Obsessional, UK)

NEON Neon 12” (Square One Again)

CUCINA POVERA Zoom (Night School, Scotland)

PAULA SHOCRON & PABLO DÍAZ with GUILLERMO GREGORIO Díalogos cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

MY NORTH EYE / LE GOÛT ACIDE DES CONSERVATOURS MNE • L / G / A / D / C split cassette ([Equilibre Fragile], France)

The WOOLEN MEN Human To Human (Dog’s Table)

PIERCE WARNECKE & LOUIS LAURAIN

Phonotypic Plasticity cassette (Astral Spirits)

BIG QUIET Interesting Times (Unblinking Ear)

SEAN ALI • LEILA BORDREUIL • JOANNA MATTREY I Used to Sing So Lyrical cassette (Astral Spirits)

POWDER Powder In Space cd (Beats In Space)

MUKQS Jaki Crush cassette (No Rent)

DENNIS GONZALEZ & DEREK ROGERS Certain Aspects cd (Marginal Frequency)

PONT-À-MOUSSON Bye Bye Mirello! cassette (ABrecords, France)

AKI ONDA A Method To Its Messiness (Thalamos, Greece)

ALEXANDER Untitled cassette (Garden Portal)

BRANDY “Clown Pain”/“Rent Quest” 7” (Total Punk)

MAJOR STARS Roots Of Confusion, Seeds Of Joy (Drag City)

LORI GOLDSTON & JUDITH HAMANN Alloys cd (Marginal Frequency)

PAINT THINNER The Sea Of Pulp (ŌBLĒK)

JEANS BEAST Unearthly Gardens Of The New Gods cd-r (Econore, Germany) & Attrition cassette (self-releases, Germany)

SKULL PRACTITIONERS Skull Practitioners 12” (In The Red)

UROCHROMES Trope House (Wharf Cat)

LIVINGDOG & MIKE JOHNSON CRO$$ cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

HEADROOM New Heaven 12” (ever/never)

JEFF HENDERSON The Charming Clarinet download (III Records, NewZealand)

GRAHAM DUNNING & EDWARD LUCAS End Of A Cable cassette (tsss tapes, Italy)

VILDE CHAYE Demos cassette (Brainplan)

Heavy Space Records - Anthology Volumes I & II cassettes (Ikuisuus, Finland)

KYLE EYRE CLYD Eggshell cd (Yew)

NEUTRALS Kebab Disco (Emotional Response)

FREDDIE DOUGGIE Freddie Douggie: Live on Juneteenth cassette (International Anthem)

AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ • WILLIAM PARKER • SUSIE IBARRA One Night At The Joan Miró Foundation cd (Fundacja Słuchaj, Poland)

HUGO MASSIEN Dance Trax Vol. 21 (Unknown To The Unknown)

RRILL BELL Vagabond Laws cassette (Gertrude Tapes)

GAMARDAH FUNGUS Natural Storm cd (Hidden Vibes, Ukraine)

WAYNE ROGERS The Air Below (Twisted Village)

UNKNOWN SENDER Unknown Sender (Colonel Records)

BLUES LAWYER Something Different (Mt.St.Mtn)

DURA Reverberation Hymns cassette (Garden Portal)

JODIE LOWTHER The Cat Collects download (self-released)

WOLKOROTS Dan Manialogism cassette (Magma Tones, Finland)

CEREAL KILLER The Beginning And End Of Cereal Killer (Anti Fade, Australia)

COLIN WEBSTER/MARK HOLUB Nadir (Raw Tonk, UK)

The CAVEMEN Lowlife 7” EP (Slovenly)

FRANCISCA GRIFFIN The Spaces Between cd (CocoMuse, New Zealand)

ANDY HUMAN & THE REPTOIDS “Psychic Sidekick” 7” (Total Punk)

SEI A Mode Static 12” (Aus Music, U.K.)

JOHN SAINT PELVYN Improvisation 7.7.18 download (Southern Jukebox Music)

REBEL SCUM The Descent cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia - 2018)

S. ARAW TRIO XIII Activated Clown cassette (NNA Tapes)

FERRAN FAGES & VASCO TRILLA Gestell cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HUA LUN Wanderlænd + 2 cassette (Katuktu Collective)

VIRVON VARVON Mind Cancer cassette (Girlsville)

PHILIPP OTTERBACH The Rest Is Bliss (Knekelhuis, Netherlands)

EDITRIX Talk To Me download (self-released)

PAVLOV’S PUSS Comfort Food (Melted Ice Cream, New Zealand)

NATHALIE STERN Nerves And Skin cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

AKI TAKASE Hokusai cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

MOORDDROOM Deep VR Edits bandcamp DL (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

EXEK Some Beautiful Species Left (Digital Regress)

CLAIRE BIRCHALL “Dead Air” bandcamp DL (it, Australia)

JUDY & The JERKS Bone Spur cassette (Earth Girl) & Music For Donuts ep (Thrilling Living)

POWER STEERING Power Steering cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

RASMUS TIETCHENS HOBOTPAHC cd-r (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

UTINUTIN Black Cat, Anyeurism, And Simian Politics download (no label)

GUY BIRKIN Yemen Data Project cassette (New York Haunted, Netherlands)

LINUS VANDEWOLKEN Het Vlier Een Hommel Op Aarde 10”x 2 (Okraïna, Belgium)

JOHN CHANTLER Tomorrow Is Too Late (Room40, Australia)

JENNIFER VANILLA J.E.N.N.I.F.E.R. EP 12” (Beats In Space)

WOW Come La Notte (Maple Death, Italy)

KATE MOHANTY Disappear Here cassette (Friendship Tapes)

ASTRO SOCIAL CLUB & GRUMBLING FUR Plasma Splice Trifle (vhf)

SANR Kesif cd (Flaming Pines, UK)

ANDREW TASSELMYER & PATRICK SPATZ Interior Currents cassette (Constellation Tatsu)

AHMEDOU AHMED LOWLA Terrouzi cassette (Sahel Sounds)

SKRU Count Zero cassette (Bedouin, UAE)

PUGILIST Blue 06 12” (Whities, UK)

ULAAN KHOL Collapsing Hymns cassette (Worstward)

L.$.D. FUNDRAISER No Peace Without Tranquility (no label, New Zealand)

COCHONNE Cochonne (self released)

LE POUFS À CORDES Le Poufs À Cordes cd (Pagans, France)

FRET! A Vanity Spawned By Fear cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

UNWAR Other People cd-r (Magma Tones, Finland)

WOJCIECH RUSIN The Funnel (Akashic, Scotland)

SLEEPER AND SNAKE Junction And High (Aarght, Australia)

The OILIES Psychic Dog (Fruits & Flowers)

ELI KESZLER Empire 12” (Shelter Press, France)

HAIDER 10961 12” (Aus Music, UK)

FOSTER CARE El Abuso (Total Punk)

TORN HAWK Time Is A Scam 2x 12” (L.I.E.S.)

The LICE Nancy Spungen download (self-released)

DJ XNX ATX (Get Busy!, Russia)

SHITTY LIFE Vinyls Discography (Lo-Fo Lo-Life, Germany)

GONG GONG GONG 幽靈節奏 = Phantom Rhythm (Wharf Cat)

SARAH LOUISE Nighttime Birds And. Opening Stars (Thrill Jockey)

MYRIAM BLEAU Lumens & Profits (Where To Now?, UK)

TV DUST Forget (MyOwnPrivateRecords / Occult Gang, Italy)

PRIMORJE Reference Path cassette (Thalamos, Greece)

JUNE CHIKUMA Ler Archives LP + 7” (Freedom To Spend)

dMyanche Ergonomie cassette (Indian Redhead, France)

EQUIPMENT POINTED ANKH Live (Sophomore Lounge)

VIV CORRINGHAM Until I Learn The Language Of Mineral Vegetable cassette (Linear Obsessional, UK)

JACOB WICK feel (Thin Wrist)

AMATEUR HOUR Framtiden Tillhör Inte Oss (Happiest Place, Sweden)

The FICTIVE FIVE Anything Is Possible cd (Clean Feed, Portugal)

DANKETSU 9 Towards A Walk In The Sun cd (Patient Sounds (intl))

IVAN THE TOLERABLE Rations 2LP (Stolen Body, UK)

DANA Glowing Auras And Black Money (Heel Turn)

NATE YOUNG Volume 3: Dance Of The Weeping Babe 12” (Lower Floor)

SHOLTO DOBIE & MARK HARWOOD The Blue Horse cd (Penultimate Press, UK)

HEAVY METAL 4 (Statik Age Music, Germany)

WET TUNA Water Weird (Three Lobed Recordings)

CARRAGEENAN Invisible Design cassette (Czaszka, UK)

PRIVATE ANARCHY Central Planning (Round Bale Recordings)

HIDEO NAKASAKO Texture Of Days cassette (Muzan Editions, Japan)

PRANA CRAFTER Bodhi Cheetah’s Choice (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

PATRICK SHIROISHI & NOEL MEEK Break Your Eyes cassette (Sploosh)

ANDY HUMAN & The REPTOIDS Psychic Sidekick (Total Punk)

SLAG QUEENS You Can’t Go Out Like That (Rough Skies Records, Australia)

ALIAS G Natural Love 12” (Unknown To The Unknown, UK)

NIVHEK After Its Own Death / Walking In A Spiral Towards The House cd (W.25th)

GARCIA PEOPLES Natural Facts (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

MARCO SERRATO/FRANCESCO COVARINO Bestemmia cd (Raw Tonk, UK)

HOUSEWIVES Twilight Splendour (Blank Editions, UK)

CLOUDWATCHERS Cloudwatchers cd (Unexplained Sounds Group, Italy)

CATHERINE LAMB Shade/Gradient (Black Pollen Press -2018)

UNITED BIBLE STUDIES Porti Sepolti cassette (Sloow Tapes, Belgium)

ÚJ BÁLA Diacritical Marks And Angels cassette (Baba Vanga, Czech Republic)

STRENGTH N.I.A. Do Televisions, Frankie Moore ritual cassette (Stength N.I.A., UK)

DAVID LIPTAK David Lipton: Dove Songs [Tony Arnold, soprano/Allison D’Amato, piano] cd

ANNĒE ZĒRO La Coolitude (Indian Redhead, France)

MELENAS “Ya Me No Importa Si Tú Quieres”/“Si Tú Me Quieres” 7” (El Nebula Recordings, Spain)

WHIRLING HALL OF KNIVES Knukke cassette (Cruel Nature, UK)

PROTRUDERS Poison Future (Feel It)

MOTHER JUNO Commit cassette (popnihil)

LEFT HAND CUTS OFF THE RIGHT Purge cassette (Fractal Meat Cuts, UK)

CLAIRE ROUSAY t4t cassette (No Rent)

IQ+1 Conversaphone Plus (mappa, Slovenia)

BENOÎT PIOULARD & SEAN CURTIS PATRICK Avocationals (Bacon Sound)

DELPHINE DORA Dunkles Zu Sagen (self-released)

SOOT Pockmarked With...Soot! cassette (Eternal Soundcheck, Australia)

DAN MELCHIOR BAND Negative Freedom (In The Red)

TÔLE FROIDE Tôle Froide (Le Turc Mecanique, France - 2018)

AHMED AG KAEDY Alkaline Kidal (Sahel Sounds)

DUNNING & UNDERWOOD The Blow Vol. 5 cassette (Front & Follow, UK)

TAKAHIRO MUKAI Super Annoying cassette (Fort Evil Fruit, Ireland)

ANTONIO High Voltage! cassette (Altered States Tapes, Australia)

CUBE Decoy (W.25th)

The PLAINS The Plains cassette (chemical imbalance., Australia)

KA BAIRD Respires (Rvng Intl.)

GINO & The GOONS Do The Get Around (Drunken Sailor, UK)

VIVIEN LE FAY Ecolalia (Boring Machines, Italy)

DUKE Uingizaji Hewa (Nyege Nyege Tapes, Uganda)

ARIAN SHAFIEE Arabic Voice cassette (unifactor)

MOUNT TROUT Shelter Belt cassette (Rough Skies, Australia)

OCEAN FLOOR Vernalis cassette (Eiderdown)

CURRENT AFFAIRS “Buckle Up”/“World In Crisis” 7” (dotx3, Germany)

AARON SNOW Instrumentals ‘15-‘19 cassette (Surf Shop)

MELKINGS Movement Music cassette (Regional Bears, UK)

DECIMUS DECIMUS 6 (self-released)

SYLVIE COURVOISIER and MARK FELDMAN Time Gone Out cd (Intakt, Switzerland)

DANIEL HOLT Daniel Holt 12” (L.I.E.S.)

BEAT DETECTIVES NYPD Records Volume 3: Nefertiti Abstract Movie cassette (NYPD Records)

STEFAN CHRISTENSEN & FRIENDS Unknown Fortune (C/Site)

DIRE WOLVES Grow Towards The Light (Beyond Beyond Is Beyond)

FAMOUS LOGS IN HISTORY Memories Of the Space Age cassette (Fuzzy Warbles Cassettes)

HAND & LEG Lust In Peace (Black Gladiator)

DEE DEE & The FUZZ COFFINS Three Golden Hits cassette (Earth Girl Tapes)

RAZORLEGS Skip Skool cassette (Fadensonnen)

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2018

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2017

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2016

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2015

BEST REASONS TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIWS IN 2014

BEST REASON TO WRITE FUCKIN’ RECORD REVIEWS IN 2013

youtube

Neil Morris, speaking to Alan Lomax in 1959:

“Well, when I was just a small boy, Old Uncle Milt Oldfield…Billy Oldfield, the Congressman from Arkansas for so long, it is his father. He and my father are awfully close friends. And they were discussing music. They were music teachers both of them.

“And uh, and they said, dad did and Uncle Milt sanctioned what he said, that MUSIC HAD NO END. That you could learn all the other guy [or girl] learned, and after you got that done they would then, something else would crop up. That uh, that you, that was the reason why that uh, music advanced. That’s why that you would get a better music in one generation maybe that is, uh, IT WOULD FIT THE TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVED.”

[Lomax: “What about music on the grapevine?”]

“Welllll, they said that MUSIC GREW LIKE THE GRAPEVINE THAT IS NEVER PRUNED. That each year it’d…it’d put on a little bit more. That was what they said, now, about it. Any further questions?”’

38 notes · View notes

artycloudpop · 4 years

Text

1hey are u bored at home, wanna chill and netflix....... but just can’t find some thing nice to watch? here’s a list of movies for u watch

A Ghost Story (2017)

Director David Lowery (Pete's Dragon) conceived this dazzling, dreamy meditation on the afterlife during the off-hours on a Disney blockbuster, making the revelations within even more awe-inspiring. After a fatal accident, a musician (Casey Affleck) finds himself as a sheet-draped spirit, wandering the halls of his former home, haunting/longing for his widowed wife (Rooney Mara). With stylistic quirks, enough winks to resist pretension (a scene where Mara devours a pie in one five-minute, uncut take is both tragic and cheeky), and a soundscape culled from the space-time continuum, A Ghost Story connects the dots between romantic love, the places we call home, and time -- a ghost's worst enemy.

Airplane! (1980)

This is one of the funniest movie of all time. Devised by the jokesters behind The Naked Gun, this disaster movie spoof stuffs every second of runtime with a physical gag (The nun slapping a hysterical woman!), dimwitted wordplay ("Don't call me, Shirley"), an uncomfortable moment of odd behavior ("Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), or some other asinine bit. The rare comedy that demands repeat viewings, just to catch every micro-sized joke and memorize every line.

A24

American Honey (2016)

Writer/director Andrea Arnold lets you sit shotgun for the travels of a group of wayward youth in American Honey, a seductive drama about a "mag crew" selling subscriptions and falling in and out of love with each other on the road. Seen through the eyes of Star, played by Sasha Lane, life on the Midwest highway proves to be directionless, filled with a stream of partying and steamy hookups in the backs of cars and on the side of the road, especially when she starts to develop feelings for Shia LaBeouf’s rebellious Jake. It’s an honest look at a group of disenfranchised young people who are often cast aside, and it’s blazing with energy. You’ll buy what they're selling.

Anna Karenina (2012)

Adapted by renowned playwright Tom Stoppard, this take on Leo Tolstoy's classic Russian novel is anything but stuffy, historical drama. Keira Knightley, Jude Law, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander are all overflowing with passion and desire, heating up the chilly backdrop of St. Petersburg. But it's director Joe Wright's unique staging -- full of dance, lush costuming, fourth-wall-breaking antics, and other theatrical touches -- that reinvent the story for more daring audiences.

NETFLIX

Apostle (2018)

For his follow-up to his two action epics, The Raid and The Raid 2, director Gareth Evans dials back the hand-to-hand combat but still keeps a few buckets of blood handy in this grisly supernatural horror tale. Dan Stevens stars as Thomas Richardson, an early 20th century opium addict traveling to a cloudy island controlled by a secretive cult that's fallen on hard times. The religious group is led by a bearded scold named Father Malcolm (Michael Sheen) who may or may not be leading his people astray. Beyond a few bursts of kinetic violence and some crank-filled torture sequences, Evans plays this story relatively down-the-middle, allowing the performances, the lofty themes, and the windswept vistas to do the talking. It's a cult movie that earns your devotion slowly, then all at once.

Back to the Future (1985)

Buckle into Doc's DeLorean and head to the 1950s by way of 1985 with the seminal time-travel series that made Michael J. Fox a household name. It's always a joy watching Marty McFly's race against the clock way-back-when to ensure history runs its course and he can get back to the present. Netflix also has follow-up Parts II and III, which all add up to a perfect rainy afternoon marathon.

NETFLIX

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

The Coen brothers gave some big-name-director cred to Netflix by releasing their six-part Western anthology on the streaming service, and while it's not necessarily their best work, Buster Scruggs is clearly a cut above most Netflix originals. Featuring star turns from Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, Zoe Kazan, and more, the film takes advantage of Netflix's willingness to experiment by composing a sort of death fugue that unfolds across the harsh realities of life in Manifest Destiny America. Not only does it revel in the massive, sweeping landscapes of the American West, but it's a thoughtful meditation on death that will reveal layer after layer long after you finish.

Barbershop (2002)

If you've been sleeping on the merits of the Barbershop movies, the good news is it's never too late to get caught up. Revisit the 2002 installment that started Ice Cube's smack-talking franchise so you can bask in Cedric the Entertainer's hilarious wisdom, enjoy Eve's acting debut, and admire this joyful ode to community.

NETFLIX

Barry (2016)

In 1981, Barack Obama touched down in New York City to begin work at Columbia University. As Barry imagines, just days after settling into his civics class, a white classmate confronts the Barry with an argument one will find in the future president's Twitter @-mentions: "Why does everything always got to be about slavery?" Exaltation is cinematic danger, especially when bringing the life of a then-sitting president to screen. Barry avoids hagiography by staying in the moment, weighing race issues of a modern age and quieting down for the audience to draw its own conclusions. Devon Terrell is key, steadying his character as smooth-operating, socially active, contemplative fellow stuck in an interracial divide. Barry could be any half-black, half-white kid from the '80s. But in this case, he's haunted by past, present, and future.

Being John Malkovich (1999)

You can't doubt the audacity of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Anomalisa), whose first produced screenplay hinged on attracting the title actor to a script that has office drones discovering a portal into his mind. John Cusack, Catherine Keener, and Cameron Diaz combine to create an atmosphere of desperate, egomaniacal darkness, and by the end you'll feel confused and maybe a little slimy about the times you've participated in celebrity gawking.

A24

The Blackcoat's Daughter (2017)

Two young women are left behind at school during break... and all sorts of hell breaks loose. This cool, stylish thriller goes off in some strange directions (and even offers a seemingly unrelated subplot about a mysterious hitchhiker) but it all pays off in the end, thanks in large part to the three leads -- Emma Roberts, Lucy Boynton, and Kiernan Shipka -- and director Oz Perkins' artful approach to what could have been just another occult-based gore-fest.

Bloodsport (1988)

Jean-Claude Van Damme made a career out of good-not-great fluff. Universal Soldier is serviceable spectacle, Hard Target is a living cartoon, Lionheart is his half-baked take on On the Waterfront. Bloodsport, which owes everything to the legacy of Bruce Lee, edges out his Die Hard riff Sudden Death for his best effort, thanks to muscles-on-top-of-muscles-on-top-of-muscles fighting and Stan Bush's "Fight to Survive." Magic Mike has nothing on Van Damme's chiseled backside in Bloodsport, which flexes its way through a slow-motion karate-chop gauntlet. In his final face-off, Van Damme, blinded by arena dust, rage-screams his way to victory. The amount of adrenaline bursting out of Bloodsport demands a splash zone.

Blue Ruin (2013)

Before he went punk with 2016's siege thriller Green Room, director Jeremy Saulnier delivered this low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir. When Dwight Evans (Macon Blair) discovers that the man who killed his parents is being released from prison, he returns home to Virginia to claims his revenge and things quickly spin out of control. Like the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple, this wise-ass morality tale will make you squirm.

WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMEN

Burning (2018)

Some mysteries simmer; this one smolders. In his adaptation of a Haruki Murakami short story, writer and director Lee Chang-dong includes many elements of the acclaimed author's slyly mischievous style -- cats, jazz, cooking, and an alienated male writer protagonist all pop up -- but he also invests the material with his own dark humor, stray references to contemporary news, and an unyielding sense of curiosity. We follow aimless aspiring novelist Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) as he reconnects with Shin Hae-mi (Jeon Jong-seo), a young woman he grew up with, but the movie never lets you get too comfortable in one scene or setting. When Steven Yeun's Ben, a handsome rich guy with a beautiful apartment and a passion for burning down greenhouses, appears, the film shifts to an even more tremulous register. Can Ben be trusted? Yeun's performance is perfectly calibrated to entice and confuse, like he's a suave, pyromaniac version of Tyler Durden. Each frame keeps you guessing.

Cam (2018)

Unlike the Unfriended films or this summer's indie hit Searching, this web thriller from director Daniel Goldhaber and screenwriter Isa Mazzei isn't locked into the visual confines of a computer screen. Though there's plenty of online screen time, allowing for subtle bits of commentary and satire, the looser style allows the filmmakers to really explore the life and work conditions of their protagonist, rising cam girl Alice (Madeline Brewer). We meet her friends, her family, and her customers. That type of immersion in the granular details makes the scarier bits -- like an unnerving confrontation in the finale between Alice and her evil doppelganger -- pop even more.

THE ORCHARD

Creep (2014)

Patrick Brice's found-footage movie is a no-budget answer to a certain brand of horror, but saying more would give away its sinister turns. Just know that the man behind the camera answered a Craigslist ad to create a "day in the life" video diary for Josef (Mark Duplass), who really loves life. Creep proves that found footage, the indie world's no-budget genre solution, still has life, as long as you have a performer like Duplass willing to go all the way.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Armando Iannucci, the brilliant Veep creator, set his sights on Russia with this savage political satire. Based on a graphic novel, the film dramatizes the madcap, maniacal plots of the men jostling for power after their leader, Joseph Stalin, keels over. From there, backstabbing, furious insults, and general chaos unfolds. Anchored by performances from Shakespearean great Simon Russell Beale and American icon Steve Buscemi, it's a pleasure to see what the rest of the cast -- from Star Trek: Discovery's Jason Isaacs to Homeland's Rupert Friend -- do with Iannucci's eloquently brittle text.

Den of Thieves (2018)

If there's one thing you've probably heard about this often ridiculous bank robbery epic, it's that it steals shamelessly from Michael Mann's crime saga Heat. The broad plot elements are similar: There's a team of highly-efficient criminals led by a former Marine (Pablo Schreiber) and they must contend with a obsessive, possibly unhinged cop (Gerard Butler) over the movie's lengthy 140 minute runtime. A screenwriter helming a feature for the first time, director Christian Gudegast is not in the same league as Mann as a filmmaker and Butler, sporting unflattering tattoos and a barrel-like gut, is hardly Al Pacino. But everyone is really going for it here, attempting to squeeze every ounce of Muscle Milk from the bottle.

NETFLIX

Divines (2016)

Thrillers don't come much more propulsive or elegant than Houda Benyamina's Divines, a heartwarming French drama about female friendship that spirals into a pulse-pounding crime saga. Rambunctious teenager Dounia (Oulaya Amamra) and her best friend Maimouna (Déborah Lukumuena) begin the film as low-level shoplifters and thieves, but once they fall into the orbit of a slightly older, seasoned drug dealer named Rebecca (Jisca Kalvanda), they're on a Goodfellas-like trajectory. Benyamina offsets the violent, gritty genre elements with lyrical passages where Dounia watches her ballet-dancer crush rehearse his routines from afar, and kinetic scenes of the young girls goofing off on social media. It's a cautionary tale told with joy, empathy, and an eye for beauty.

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Eddie Murphy has been waiting years to get this movie about comedian and blaxploitation star Rudy Ray Moore made, and you can feel his joy in finally getting to play this role every second he's on screen. The film, directed by Hustle & Flow's Craig Brewer, charts how Moore rose from record store employee, to successful underground comedian, to making his now-cult classic feature Dolemite by sheer force of passion. It's thrilling (and hilarious) to watch Murphy adopt Moore's Dolemite persona, a swaggering pimp, but it's just as satisfying to see the former SNL star capture his character at his lowest points. He's surrounded by an ensemble that matches his infectious energy.

The Edge of Seventeen (2016)

As romanticized as adolescence can be, it’s hard being young. Following the high school experience of troubled, overdramatic Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld), The Edge of Seventeen portrays the woes of adolescence with a tender, yet appropriately cheeky tone. As if junior year isn’t hellish enough, the universe essentially bursts into flames when Nadine finds out her best friend is dating her brother; their friendship begins to dissolve, and she finds the only return on young love is embarrassment and pain. That may all sound like a miserable premise for a young-adult movie, except it’s all painfully accurate, making it endearingly hilarious -- and there’s so much to love about Steinfeld’s self-aware performance.

FOCUS FEATURES

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

Romance and love are nothing without the potential for loss and pain, but most of us would probably still consider cutting away all the worst memories of the latter. Given the option to eradicate memories of their busted relationship, Jim Carrey's Joel and Kate Winslet's Clementine go through with the procedure, only to find themselves unable to totally let go. Science fiction naturally lends itself to clockwork mechanisms, but director Michel Gondry and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman never lose the human touch as they toy with the kaleidoscope of their characters' hearts and minds.

The Evil Dead (1981)

Before Bruce Campbell's Ash was wielding his chainsaw-arm in Army of Darkness and on Starz's Ash Vs. Evil Dead, he was just a good looking guy hoping to spend a nice, quiet vacation in a cabin with some friends. Unfortunately, the book of the dead had other plans for him. With this low-budget horror classic, director Sam Raimi brings a surprising degree of technical ingenuity to bear on the splatter-film, sending his camera zooming around the woods with wonder and glee. While the sequels double-downed on laughs, the original Evil Dead still knows how to scare.

The Firm (1993)

The '90s were a golden era of sleek, movie-star-packed legal thrillers, and they don't get much better than director Sydney Pollack's The Firm. This John Grisham adaptation has a little bit of everything -- tax paperwork, sneering mobsters, and Garey Busey, for starters -- but there's one reason to watch this movie: the weirdness of Tom Cruise. He does a backflip in this movie. What else do you need to know?

A24

The Florida Project (2017)

Sean Baker's The Florida Project nuzzles into the swirling, sunny, strapped-for-cash populace of a mauve motel just within orbit of Walt Disney World. His eyes are Moonee, a 6-year-old who adventures through abandoned condos, along strip mall-encrusted highway, and across verdant fields of overgrown brush like Max in Where the Wild Things Are. But as gorgeous as the everything appears -- and The Florida Project looks stunning -- the world around here is falling apart, beginning with her mother, an ex-stripper turning to prostitution. The juxtaposition, and down-to-earth style, reconsiders modern America in the most electrifying way imaginable.

Frances Ha (2012)

Before winning hearts and Oscar nominations with her coming-of-age comedy Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig starred in the perfect companion film, about an aimless 27-year-old who hops from New York City to her hometown of Sacramento to Paris to Poughkeepsie and eventually back to New York in hopes of stumbling into the perfect job, the perfect relationship, and the perfect life. Directed by Noah Baumbach (The Meyerowitz Stories), and co-written by both, Frances Ha is a measured look at adult-ish life captured the kind of intoxicating black and white world we dream of living in.

NETFLIX

Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Everyone's favorite disaster of a festival received not one, but two streaming documentaries in the same week. Netflix's version has rightly faced some criticism over its willingness to let marketing company Fuck Jerry off the hook (Jerry Media produced the doc), but that doesn't take away from the overall picture it portrays of the festival's haphazard planning and the addiction to grift from which Fyre's founder, Billy McFarland, apparently suffers. It's schadenfreude at its best.

Gerald's Game (2017)

Like his previous low-budget Netflix-released horror release, Hush, a captivity thriller about a deaf woman fighting off a masked intruder, Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation of Gerald's Game wrings big scares from a small location. Sticking close to the grisly plot details of King's seemingly "unfilmable" novel, the movie chronicles the painstaking struggles of Jessie Burlingame (Carla Gugino) after she finds herself handcuffed to a bed in an isolated vacation home when her husband, the titular Gerald, dies from a heart attack while enacting his kinky sexual fantasies. She's trapped -- and that's it. The premise is clearly challenging to sustain for a whole movie, but Flanagan and Gugino turn the potentially one-note set-up into a forceful, thoughtful meditation on trauma, memory, and resilience in the face of near-certain doom.

A24

Good Time (2017)

In this greasy, cruel thriller from Uncut Gems directors the Safdie brothers, Robert Pattinson stars as Connie, a bank robber who races through Queens to find enough money to bail out his mentally disabled brother, who's locked up for their last botched job. Each suffocating second of Good Time, blistered by the neon backgrounds of Queens, New York and propelled by warped heartbeat of Oneothrix Point Never's synth score, finds Connie evading authorities by tripping into an even stickier situation.

Green Room (2015)

Green Room is a throaty, thrashing, spit-slinging punk tune belted through an invasion-movie microphone at max volume. It's nasty -- and near-perfect. As a band of 20-something rockstars recklessly defend against a neo-Nazi battalion equipped with machetes, shotguns, and snarling guard dogs, the movie blossoms into a savage coming-of-age tale, an Almost Famous for John Carpenter nuts. Anyone looking for similar mayhem should check out director Jeremy Saulnier's previous movie, the low-budget, darkly comic hillbilly noir, Blue Ruin, also streaming on Netflix.

The Guest (2014)

After writer-director Adam Wingard notched a semi-sleeper horror hit with 2011's You're Next, he'd earned a certain degree of goodwill among genre faithful and, apparently, with studio brass. How else to explain distribution for his atypical thriller The Guest through Time Warner subsidiary Picturehouse? Headlined by soon-to-be megastar Dan Stevens and kindred flick It Follows' lead scream queen Maika Monroe, The Guest introduces itself as a subtextual impostor drama, abruptly spins through a blender of '80s teen tropes, and ultimately reveals its true identity as an expertly self-conscious straight-to-video shoot 'em up, before finally circling back on itself with a well-earned wink. To say anymore about the hell that Stevens' "David" unleashes on a small New Mexico town would not only spoil the fun, but possibly get you killed.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

The Hateful Eight (2015)

Quentin Tarantino has something to say about race, violence, and American life, and it's going to ruffle feathers. Like Django Unchained, the writer-director reflects modern times on the Old West, but with more scalpel-sliced dialogue, profane poetry, and gore. Stewed from bits of Agatha Christie, David Mamet, and Sam Peckinpah, The Hateful Eight traps a cast of blowhards (including Samuel L. Jackson as a Civil War veteran, Kurt Russell as a bounty hunter known as "The Hangman," and Jennifer Jason Leigh as a psychopathic gang member) in a blizzard-enveloped supply station. Tarantino ups the tension by shooting his suffocating space in "glorious 70mm." Treachery and moral compromise never looked so good.

High Flying Bird (2019)

High Flying Bird is a basketball film that has little to do with the sport itself, instead focusing on the behind-the-scenes power dynamics that play out during an NBA lockout. At the center of the Steven Soderbergh movie -- shot on an iPhone, because that's what he does now -- is André Holland's Ray Burke, a sports agent trying to protect his client's interests while also disrupting a corrupt system. It's not an easy tightrope to walk, and, as you might expect, the conditions of the labor stoppage constantly change the playing field. With his iPhone mirroring the NBA's social media-heavy culture, and appearances from actual NBA stars lending the narrative heft, Soderbergh experiments with Netflix's carte blanche and produces a unique film that adds to the streaming service's growing list of original critical hits.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Hugo (2011)

Martin Scorsese hit pause on mob violence and Rolling Stones singles to deliver one of the greatest kid-centric films in eons. Following Hugo (Asa Butterfield) as he traces his own origin story through cryptic automaton clues and early 20th-century movie history, the grand vision wowed in 3-D and still packs a punch at home.

I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House (2016)

A meditative horror flick that's more unsettling than outright frightening, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House follows the demise of Lily, a live-in nurse (Ruth Wilson) who's caring for an ailing horror author. As Lily discovers the truth about the writer's fiction and home, the lines between the physical realm and the afterlife blur. The movie's slow pacing and muted escalation might frustrate viewers craving showy jump-scares, but writer-director Oz Perkins is worth keeping tabs on. He brings a beautiful eeriness to every scene, and his story will captivate patient streamers. Fans should be sure to check out his directorial debut, The Blackcoat's Daughter.

NETFLIX

I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore (2017)

In this maniacal mystery, Ruth (Melanie Lynskey), a nurse, and her rattail-sporting, weapon-obsessed neighbor Tony (Elijah Wood) hunt down a local burglar. Part Cormac McCarthy thriller, part wacky, Will Ferrell-esque comedy, I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore is a cathartic neo-noir about everyday troubles. Director Macon Blair's not the first person to find existential enlightenment at the end of an amateur detective tale, but he might be the first to piece one together from cussing octogenarians, ninja stars, Google montages, gallons of Big Red soda, upper-deckers, friendly raccoons, exploding body parts, and the idiocy of humanity.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

With a bullwhip, a leather jacket, and an "only Harrison Ford can pull this off" fedora, director Steven Spielberg invented the modern Hollywood action film by doing what he does best: looking backward. As obsessed as his movie-brat pal and collaborator George Lucas with the action movie serials of their youth, the director mined James Bond, Humphrey Bogart, Westerns, and his hatred of Nazis to create an adventure classic. To watch Raiders of the Lost Ark now is to marvel at the ingenuity of specific sequences (the boulder! The truck scene! The face-melting!) and simply groove to the self-deprecating comic tone (snakes! Karen Allen! That swordsman Indy shoots!). The past has never felt so alive.

Inside Man (2006)

Denzel Washington is at his wily, sharp, and sharply dressed best as he teams up once again with Spike Lee for this wildly entertaining heist thriller. He's an NYPD hostage negotiator who discovers a whole bunch of drama when a crew of robbers (led by Clive Owen) takes a bank hostage during a 24-hour period. Jodie Foster also appears as an interested party with uncertain motivations. You'll have to figure out what's going on several times over before the truth outs.

DRAFTHOUSE FILMS

The Invitation (2015)

This slow-burn horror-thriller preys on your social anxiety. The film's first half-hour, which finds Quarry's Logan Marshall-Green arriving at his ex-wife's house to meet her new husband, plays like a Sundance dramedy about 30-something yuppies and their relationship woes. As the minutes go by, director Karyn Kusama (Jennifer's Body) burrows deeper into the awkward dinner party, finding tension in unwelcome glances, miscommunication, and the possibility that Marshall-Green's character might be misreading a bizarre situation as a dangerous one. We won't spoil what happens, but let's just say this is a party you'll be telling your friends about.

Ip Man (2008)

There aren't many biopics that also pass for decent action movies. Somehow, Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip made Ip Man (and three sequels!) based on the life of Chinese martial arts master Yip Kai-man, who famously trained Bruce Lee. What's their trick to keeping this series fresh? Play fast and loose with the facts, up the melodrama with each film, and, when in doubt, cast Mike Tyson as an evil property developer. The fights are incredible, and Yen's portrayal of the aging master still has the power to draw a few tears from even the most grizzled tough guy.

NETFLIX

The Irishman (2019)

Opening with a tracking shot through the halls of a drab nursing home, where we meet a feeble old man telling tall tales from his wheelchair, The Irishman delights in undercutting its own grandiosity. All the pageantry a $150 million check from Netflix can buy -- the digital de-aging effects, the massive crowd scenes, the shiny rings passed between men -- is on full display. Everything looks tremendous. But, like with 2013's The Wolf of Wall Street, the characters can't escape the fundamental spiritual emptiness of their pursuits. In telling the story of Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a World War II veteran and truck driver turned mob enforcer and friend to labor leader Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Steven Zaillian construct an underworld-set counter-narrative of late 20th century American life. Even with a 209 minute runtime, every second counts.

It Comes at Night (2017)

In this post-apocalyptic nightmare-and-a-half, the horrors of humanity, the strain of chaotic emotions pent up in the name of survival, bleed out through wary eyes and weathered hands. The setup is blockbuster-sized -- reverts mankind to the days of the American frontier, every sole survivor fights to protect their families and themselves -- but the drama is mano-a-mano. Barricaded in a haunted-house-worthy cabin in the woods, Paul (Edgerton) takes in Will (Abbott) and his family, knowing full well they could threaten his family's existence. All the while, Paul's son, Trevor, battles bloody visions of (or induced by?) the contagion. Shults directs the hell out of every slow-push frame of this psychological thriller, and the less we know, the more confusion feels like a noose around our necks, the scarier his observations become.

WARNER BROS. PICTURES

Jupiter Ascending (2015)

Jupiter Ascending is one of those "bad" movies that might genuinely be quite good. Yes, Channing Tatum is a man-wolf and Mila Kunis is the princess of space and bees don't sting space royalty and Eddie Redmayne hollers his little head off about "harvesting" people -- but what makes this movie great is how all of those things make total, absolute sense in the context of the story. The world the Wachowskis (yes, the Wachowskis!) created is so vibrant and strange and exciting, you almost can't help but get drawn in, even when Redmayne vamps so hard you're afraid he's about to pull a muscle. (And if you're a ballet fan, we have some good news for you.)

Jurassic Park (1993)

Perhaps the only movie that ever truly deserved a conversion to a theme-park ride, Steven Spielberg's thrilling adaptation of the Michael Crichton novel brought long-extinct creatures back to life in more ways than one. Benevolent Netflix gives us more than just the franchise starter, too: The Lost World and JP3 sequels are also available, so you can make a marathon of it.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Brad Pitt doesn't make conventional blockbusters anymore -- even World War Z had epidemic-movie ambitions -- so it's not surprising that this crime thriller is a little out there. Set during the financial crisis and presidential election of 2008, the film follows Pitt's hitman character as he makes sense of a poker heist gone wrong, leaving a trail of bodies and one-liners along the way. Mixed in with the carnage, you get lots of musings about the economy and American exceptionalism. It's not subtle -- there's a scene where Scoot McNairy and Ben Mendelsohn do heroin while the Velvet Underground's "Heroin" plays -- but, like a blunt object to the head, it gets the job done.

Lady Bird (2017)

The dizzying, frustrating, exhilarating rite of passage that is senior year of high school is the focus of actress Greta Gerwig's first directorial effort, the story of girl named Lady Bird (her given name, in that "it’s given to me, by me") who rebels against everyday Sacramento, California life to obtain whatever it is "freedom" turns out to be. Laurie Metcalf is an understated powerhouse as Lady Bird's mother, a constant source of contention who doggedly pushes her daughter to be successful in the face of the family's dwindling economic resources. It's a tragic note in total complement to Gerwig's hysterical love letter to home, high school, and the history of ourselves.

A24

The Lobster (2016)

Greek style master Yorgos Lanthimos' dystopian allegory against romance sees Colin Farrell forced to choose a partner in 45 days or he'll be turned into an animal of his choice, which is a lobster. Stuck in a group home with similarly unlucky singles, Farrell's David decides to bust out and join other renegades in a kind of anti-love terror cell that lives in the woods. It's part comedy of manners, part futuristic thriller, and it looks absolutely beautiful -- Lanthimos handles the bizarre premise with grace and a naturalistic eye that reminds the viewer that humans remain one of the most interesting animals to exist on this planet.

Mad Max (1979)

Before Tom Hardy was grunting his way through the desert and crushing tiny two-headed reptiles as Max Rockatansky, there was Mel Gibson. George Miller's 1979 original introduces the iconic character and paints the maximum force of his dystopian mythology in a somewhat more grounded light -- Australian police factions, communities, and glimmers of hope still in existence. Badass homemade vehicles and chase scenes abound in this taut, 88-minute romp. It's aged just fine.

Magic Mike (2012)

Steven Soderbergh's story of a Tampa exotic dancer with a heart of gold (Channing Tatum) has body-rolled its way to Netflix. Sexy dance routines aside, Mike's story is just gritty enough to be subversive. Did we mention Matthew McConaughey shows up in a pair of ass-less chaps?

The Master (2012)

Loosely inspired by the life of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard -- Dianetics buffs, we strongly recommend Alex Gibney's Going Clear documentary as a companion piece -- The Master boasts one of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman’s finest performances, as the enigmatic cult leader Lancaster Dodd. Joaquin Phoenix burns just as brightly as his emotionally stunted, loose-cannon protege Freddie Quell, who has a taste for homemade liquor. Paul Thomas Anderson’s cerebral epic lends itself to many different readings; it’s a cult story, it's a love story, it's a story about post-war disillusionment and the American dream, it's a story of individualism and the desire to belong. But the auteur's popping visuals and heady thematic currents will still sweep you away, even if you’re not quite sure where the tide is taking you.

NETFLIX

The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) (2017)

When Danny (Adam Sandler), Matthew (Ben Stiller) and Jean (Elizabeth Marvel), three half-siblings from three different mothers, gather at their family brownstone in New York to tend to their ailing father (Dustin Hoffman), a lifetime of familial politics explode out of every minute of conversation. Their narcissistic sculptor dad didn't have time for Danny. Matthew was the golden child. Jean was weird… or maybe disturbed by memories no one ever knew. Expertly sketched by writer-director Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale) this memoir-like portrait of lives half-lived is the kind of bittersweet, dimensional character comedy we're now used to seeing told in three seasons of prestige television. Baumbach gives us the whole package in two hours.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)

The legendary British comedy troupe took the legend of King Arthur and offered a characteristically irreverent take on it in their second feature film. It's rare for comedy to hold up this well, but the timelessness of lines like, "I fart in your general direction!" "It's just a flesh wound," and "Run away!" makes this a movie worth watching again and again.

A24

Moonlight (2016)

Chronicling the boyhood years, teenage stretch, and muted adult life of Chiron, a black gay man making it in Miami, this triptych altarpiece is at once hyper-specific and cosmically universal. Director Barry Jenkins roots each moment in the last; Chiron's desire for a lost lover can't burn in a diner booth over a bottle of wine without his beachside identity crisis years prior, blurred and violent, or encounters from deeper in his past, when glimpses of his mother's drug addiction, or the mentoring acts of her crack supplier, felt like secrets delivered in code. Panging colors, sounds, and the delicate movements of its perfect cast like the notes of a symphony, Moonlight is the real deal, a movie that will only grow and complicate as you wrestle with it.

Mudbound (2017)

The South's post-slavery existence is, for Hollywood, mostly uncharted territory. Rees rectifies the overlooked stretch of history with this novelistic drama about two Mississippi families working a rain-drenched farm in 1941. The white McAllans settle on a muddy patch of land to realize their dreams. The Jacksons, a family of black sharecroppers working the land, have their own hopes, which their neighbors manage to nurture and curtail. To capture a multitude of perspectives, Mudbound weaves together specific scenes of daily life, vivid and memory-like, with family member reflections, recorded in whispered voice-over. The epic patchwork stretches from the Jackson family dinner table, where the youngest daughter dreams of becoming a stenographer, to the vistas of Mississippi, where incoming storms threaten an essential batch of crops, to the battlefields of World War II Germany, a harrowing scene that will affect both families. Confronting race, class, war, and the possibility of unity, Mudbound spellbinding drama reckons with the past to understand the present.

NETFLIX

My Happy Family (2017)

At 52, Manana (Ia Shughliashvili) packs a bag and walks out on her husband, son, daughter, daughter's live-in boyfriend, and elderly mother and father, all of whom live together in a single apartment. The family is cantankerous and blustery, asking everything of Manana, who spends her days teaching better-behaved teenagers about literature. But as Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß's striking character study unfolds, the motivation behind Manana's departure is a deeper strain of frustration, despite what her brother, aunts, uncles, and anyone else who can cram themselves into the situation would like us to think. Anchored by Ia Shughliashvili's stunningly internal performance, and punctured by a dark sense of humor akin to Darren Aronofsky's mother! (which would have been the perfect alternate title), My Happy Family is both delicate and brutal in its portrayal of independence, and should get under the skin of anyone with their own family drama.

The Naked Gun (1988)

The short-lived Dragnet TV spoof Police Squad! found a second life as The Naked Gun action-comedy movie franchise, and the first installment goes all in on Airplane! co-star Leslie Nielsen's brand of straight-laced dementia. Trying to explain The Naked Gun only makes the stupid sound stupider, but keen viewers will find jokes on top of jokes on top of jokes. It's the kind of movie that can crack "nice beaver," then pass a stuffed beaver through the frame and actually get away with it. Nielsen has everything to do with it; his Frank Drebin continues the grand Inspector Clouseau tradition in oh-so-'80s style.

The Notebook (2004)

"If you’re a bird, I’m a bird." It's a simple statement and a declaration of devotion that captures the staying power of this Nicholas Sparks classic. The film made Ryan Gosling a certified heartthrob, charting his working class character Noah's lovelorn romance with Rachel McAdam's wealthy character Allie. The star-crossed lovers narrative is enough to make even the most cynical among us swoon, but given that their story is told through an elderly man reading (you guessed it!) a notebook to a woman with dementia, it hits all of the tragic romance benchmarks to make you melt. Noah's commitment to following his heart -- and that passionate kiss in the rain -- make this a love story for the ages.

NETFLIX

Okja (2017)

This wild ride, part action heist, part Miyazaki-like travelogue, and part scathing satire, is fueled by fairy tale whimsy -- but the Grimm kind, where there are smiles and spilled blood. Ahn Seo-hyun plays Mija, the young keeper of a "super-pig," bred by a food manufacturer to be the next step in human-consumption evolution. When the corporate overlords come for her roly-poly pal, Mija hightails it from the farm to the big city to break him out, crossing environmental terrorists, a zany Steve Irwin-type (Gyllenhaal), and the icy psychos at the top of the food chain (including Swinton's childlike CEO) along the way. Okja won't pluck your heartstrings like E.T., but there's grandeur in its frenzy, and the film's cross-species friendship will strike up every other emotion with its empathetic, eco-friendly, and eccentric observations.

On Body and Soul (2017)

This Hungarian film earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film, and it's easy to see why. The sparse love story begins when two slaughterhouse employees discover they have the same dream at night, in which they're both deer searching the winter forest for food. Endre, a longtime executive at the slaughterhouse, has a physically damaged arm, whereas Maria is a temporary replacement who seems to be on the autism spectrum. If the setup sounds a bit on-the-nose, the moving performances and the unflinching direction save On Body and Soul from turning into a Thomas Aquinas 101 class, resulting in the kind of bleak beauty you can find in a dead winter forest.

NETFLIX

The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Don't go into Orson Welles' final film expecting it to be an easy watch. The Other Side of the Wind, which follows fictional veteran Hollywood director Jake Hannaford (tooootally not modeled after Welles himself) and his protegé (also tooootally not a surrogate for Welles' own friend and mentee Peter Bogdanovich, who also plays the character) as they attend a party in celebration of Hannaford's latest film and are beset on all sides by Hannaford's friends, enemies, and everyone in between. The film, which Welles hoped would be his big comeback to Hollywood, was left famously unfinished for decades after his death in 1985. Thanks to Bogdanovich and producer Frank Marshall, it was finally completed in 2018, and the result is a vibrant and bizarre throwback to Welles' own experimental 1970s style, made even more resonant if you know how intertwined the movie is with its own backstory. If you want to dive even deeper, Netflix also released a documentary about the restoration and completion of the film, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, which delves into Welles' own complicated and tragic relationship with Hollywood and the craft of moviemaking.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Guillermo Del Toro’s dark odyssey Pan’s Labyrinth takes a fantasy setting to mirror the horrible political realities of the human realm. Set in 1940s Falangist Spain, the film documents the hero’s journey of a young girl and stepdaughter of a ruthless Spanish army officer as she seeks an escape from her war-occupied world. When a fairy informs her that her true destiny may be as the princess of the underworld, she seizes her chance. Like Alice in Wonderland if Alice had gone to Hell instead of down the rabbit hole, the Academy Award-winning film is a wondrous, frightening fairy tale where that depicts how perilous the human-created monster of war can be.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

This documentary-style film budgeted at a mere $15,000 made millions at the box office and went on to inspire a number of sequels, all because of how well its scrappiness lent to capturing what feels like a terrifying haunted reality. Centered on a young couple who is convinced an evil spirit is lurking in their home, the two attempt to capture its activity on camera, which, obviously, only makes their supernatural matters worse. It leans on found footage horror tropes made popular by The Blair Witch Project and as it tessellates between showing the viewer what’s captured on their camcorders and the characters’ perspectives, it’s easy to get lost in this disorienting supernatural thriller.

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Poltergeist (1982)

If you saw Poltergeist growing up, chances are you’re probably equally as haunted by Heather O’Rourke as she is in the film, playing a little girl tormented by ghosts in her family home. This Steven Spielberg-penned, Tobe Hooper-directed (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) paranormal flick is a certified cult classic and one of the best horror films of all time, coming from a simple premise about a couple whose home is infested with spirits obsessed with reclaiming the space and kidnapping their daughter. Poltergeist made rearranged furniture freaky, and you may remember a particularly iconic scene with a fuzzed out vintage television set. It’s may be nearly 40 years old, but the creepiness holds up.

Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Taking Jane Austen's literary classic and tricking it out with gorgeous long takes, director Joe Wright turns this tale of manners into a visceral, luminescent portrait of passion and desire. While Succession's Matthew MacFadyen might not make you forget Colin Firth from 1995's BBC adaptation, Keira Knightley is a revelation as the tough, nervy Lizzie Bennett. With fun supporting turns from Donald Sutherland, Rosamund Pike, and Judi Dench, it's a sumptuous period romance that transports you from the couch to the ballroom of your dreams -- without changing out of sweatpants.

NETFLIX

Private Life (2018)

Over a decade since the release of her last dark comedy, The Savages, writer and director Tamara Jenkins returned with a sprawling movie in the same vein: more hyper-verbal jerks you can't help but love. Richard (Paul Giamatti) and Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) are a Manhattan-dwelling couple who have spent the last few years attempting to have a baby with little success. When we meet them, they're already in the grips of fertility mania, willing to try almost anything to secure the offspring they think they desire. With all the details about injections, side effects, and pricey medical procedures, the movie functions as a taxonomy of modern pregnancy anxieties, and Hahn brings each part of the process to glorious life.

The Ritual (2018)

The Ritual, a horror film where a group of middle-aged men embark on a hiking trip in honor of a dead friend, understands the tension between natural beauty of the outdoors and the unsettling panic of the unknown. The group's de facto leader Luke (an understated Rafe Spall) attempts to keep the adventure from spiralling out of control, but the forest has other plans. (Maybe brush up on your Scandinavian mythology before viewing.) Like a backpacking variation on Neil Marshall's 2005 cave spelunking classic The Descent, The Ritual deftly explores inter-personal dynamics while delivering jolts of other-worldly terror. It'll have you rethinking that weekend getaway on your calendar.

NETFLIX

Roma (2018)

All those billions Netflix spent paid off in the form of several Oscar nominations for Roma, including one for Best Picture and a win for Best Director. Whether experienced in the hushed reverence of a theater, watched on the glowing screen of a laptop, or, as Netflix executive Ted Sarandos has suggested, binged on the perilous surface of a phone, Alfonso Cuarón's black-and-white passion project seeks to stun. A technical craftsman of the highest order, the Children of Men and Gravity director has an aesthetic that aims to overwhelm -- with the amount of extras, the sense of despair, and the constant whir of exhilaration -- and this autobiographical portrait of kind-hearted maid Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) caring for a family in the early 1970s has been staged on a staggering, mind-boggling scale.

Schindler's List (1993)

A passion project for Steven Spielberg, who shot it back-to-back with another masterpiece, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List tells the story of Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who reportedly saved over 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust. Frank, honest, and stark in its depiction of Nazi violence, the three-hour historical drama is a haunting reminder of the world's past, every frame a relic, every lost voice channeled through Itzhak Perlman's mourning violin.

A Serious Man (2009)

This dramedy from the Coen brothers stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics professor who just can't catch a break, whether it's with his wife, his boss, or his rabbi. (Seriously, if you're having a bad day, this airy flick gives you ample time to brood and then come to the realization that your life isn't as shitty as you think.) Meditating on the spiritual and the temporal, Gopnik's improbable run of bad luck is a smart modern retelling of the Book of Job, with more irony and fewer plagues and pestilences. But not much fewer.

WELL GO USA

Shadow (2019)

In Shadow, the visually stunning action epic from Hero and House of Flying Daggers wuxia master Zhang Yimou, parasols are more than helpful sun-blockers: They can be turned into deadly weapons, shooting boomerang-like blades of steel at oncoming attackers and transforming into protective sleds for traveling through the slick streets. These devices are one of many imaginative leaps made in telling this Shakespearean saga of palace intrigue, vengeance, and secret doppelgangers set in China's Three Kingdoms period. This is a martial arts epic where the dense plotting is as tricky as the often balletic fight scenes. If the battles in Game of Thrones left you frustrated, Shadow provides a thrilling alternative.

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

Before checking out Spike Lee's Netflix original series of the same name, be sure to catch up with where it all began. Nola (Tracy Camilla Johns) juggles three men during her sexual pinnacle, and it's all working out until they discover one another. She's Gotta Have It takes some dark turns, but each revelation speaks volumes about what real romantic independence is all about.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

The late director Jonathan Demme's 1991 film is the touchstone for virtually every serial killer film and television show that came after. The iconic closeup shots of an icy, confident Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) as he and FBI newbie Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) engage in their "quid pro quo" interrogation sessions create almost unbearable tension as Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) remains on the loose, killing more victims. Hopkins delivers the more memorable lines, and Buffalo Bill's dance is the stuff of nerve-wracking anxiety nightmares, but it's Foster's nuanced performance as a scared, determined, smart-yet-hesitant agent that sets Silence of the Lambs apart from the rest of the serial killer pack.

THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, and David O. Russell’s first collaboration -- and the film that turned J-Law into a bona fide golden girl -- is a romantic comedy/dramedy/dance-flick that bounces across its tonal shifts. A love story between Pat (Cooper), a man struggling with bipolar disease and a history of violent outbursts, and Tiffany (Lawrence), a widow grappling with depression, who come together while rehearsing for an amateur dance competition, Silver Linings balances an emotionally realistic depiction of mental illness with some of the best twirls and dips this side of Step Up. Even if you're allergic to rom-coms, Lawrence and Cooper’s winning chemistry will win you over, as will this sweet little gem of a film: a feel-good, affecting love story that doesn’t feel contrived or treacly.

Sin City (2005)

Frank Miller enlisted Robert Rodriguez as co-director to translate the former's wildly popular series of the same name to the big screen, and with some added directorial work from Quentin Tarantino, the result became a watershed moment in the visual history of film. The signature black-and-white palette with splashes of color provided a grim backdrop to the sensational violence of the miniaturized plotlines -- this is perhaps the movie that feels more like a comic than any other movie you'll ever see.

Sinister (2012)

Horror-movie lesson #32: If you move into a creepy new house, do not read the dusty book, listen to the decaying cassette tapes, or watch the Super 8 reels you find in the attic -- they will inevitably lead to your demise. In Sinister, a true-crime author (played by Ethan Hawke) makes the final mistake, losing his mind to home movies haunted by the "Bughuul."

NETFLIX

Small Crimes (2017)

It's always a little discombobulating to see your favorite Game of Thrones actors in movies that don't call on them to fight dragons, swing swords, or at least wear some armor. But that shouldn't stop you from checking out Small Crimes, a carefully paced thriller starring the Kingslayer Jaime Lannister himself, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. As Joe Denton, a crooked cop turned ex-con, Coster-Waldau plays yet another character with a twisted moral compass, but here he's not part of some mythical narrative. He's just another conniving, scheming dirtbag in director E.L. Katz's Coen brothers-like moral universe. While some of the plot details are confusing -- Katz and co-writer Macon Blair skimp on the exposition so much that some of the dialogue can feel incomprehensible -- the mood of Midwestern dread and Coster-Waldau's patient, lived-in performance make this one worth checking out. Despite the lack of dragons.

Snowpiercer (2013)

Did people go overboard in praising Snowpiercer when it came out? Maybe. But it's important to remember that the movie arrived in the sweaty dog days of summer, hitting critics and sci-fi lovers like a welcome blast of icy water from a hose. The film's simple, almost video game-like plot -- get to the front of the train, or die trying -- allowed visionary South Korean director Bong Joon-ho to fill the screen with excitement, absurdity, and radical politics. Chris Evans never looked more alive, Tilda Swinton never stole more scenes, and mainstream blockbuster filmmaking never felt so tepid in comparison. Come on, ride the train!

The Social Network (2010)

After making films like Seven, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, and Zodiac, director David Fincher left behind the world of scumbags and crime for a fantastical, historical epic in 2008's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The Social Network was another swerve, but yielded his greatest film. There's no murder on screen, but Fincher treats Jesse Eisenberg's Mark Zuckerberg like a dorky, socially awkward mob boss operating on an operatic scale. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's rapid-fire, screwball-like dialogue burns with a moral indignation that Fincher's watchful, steady-handed camera chills with an icy distance. It's the rare biopic that's not begging you to smash the "like" button.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

In this shrewd twist on the superhero genre, the audience's familiarity with the origin story of your friendly neighborhood web-slinger -- the character has already starred in three different blockbuster franchises, in addition to countless comics and cartoon TV adaptations -- is used as an asset instead of a liability. The relatively straight-forward coming-of-age tale of Miles Morales (Shameik Moore), a Brooklyn teenager who takes on the powers and responsibilities of Spider-Man following the death of Peter Parker, gets a remix built around an increasingly absurd parallel dimension plotline that introduces a cast of other Spider-Heroes like Spider-Woman (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), Peni Parker (Kimiko Glen), and, most ridiculously, Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), a talking pig in a Spider-Suit. The convoluted set-up is mostly an excuse to cram the movie with rapid-fire jokes, comic book allusions, and dream-like imagery that puts the rubbery CGI of most contemporary animated films to shame.

Spotlight (2015)

Tom McCarthy stretches the drama taut as he renders Boston Globe's 2000 Catholic Church sex scandal investigation into a Hollywood vehicle. McCarthy's notable cast members crank like gears as they uncover evidence and reflect on a horrifying discovery of which they shoulder partial blame. Spotlight was the cardigan of 2015's Oscar nominees, but even cardigans look sharp when Mark Ruffalo is involved.

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

No movie captures the prolonged pain of divorce quite like Noah Baumbach's brutal Brooklyn-based comedy The Squid and the Whale. While the performances from Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as bitter writers going through a separation are top-notch, the film truly belongs to the kids, played by Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline, who you watch struggle in the face of their parents' mounting immaturity and pettiness. That Baumbach is able to wring big, cathartic laughs from such emotionally raw material is a testament to his gifts as a writer -- and an observer of human cruelty.

SONY PICTURES RELEASING

Starship Troopers (1997)

Paul Verhoeven is undoubtedly the master of the sly sci-fi satire. With RoboCop, he laid waste to the police state with wicked, trigger-happy glee. He took on evil corporations with Total Recall. And with Starship Troopers, a bouncy, bloody war picture, he skewered the chest-thumping theatrics of pro-military propaganda, offering up a pitch-perfect parody of the post-9/11 Bush presidency years before troops set foot in Iraq or Afghanistan. Come for the exploding alien guts, but stay for the winking comedy -- or stay for both! Bug guts have their charms, too.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

You might think a movie that opens with a suicidal man riding a farting corpse like a Jet Ski wears thin after the fourth or fifth flatulence gag. You would be wrong. Brimming with imagination and expression, the directorial debut of Adult Swim auteurs "The Daniels" wields sophomoric humor to speak to friendship. As Radcliffe's dead body springs back to life -- through karate-chopping, water-vomiting, and wind-breaking -- he becomes the id to Dano's struggling everyman, who is also lost in the woods. If your childhood backyard adventures took the shape of The Revenant, it would look something like Swiss Army Man, and be pure bliss.

NETFLIX

Tallulah (2016)

From Orange Is the New Black writer Sian Heder, Tallulah follows the title character (played by Ellen Page) after she inadvertently "kidnaps" a toddler from an alcoholic rich woman and passes the child off as her own to appeal to her run-out boyfriend's mother (Allison Janney). A messy knot of familial woes and wayward instincts, Heder's directorial debut achieves the same kind of balancing act as her hit Netflix series -- frank social drama with just the right amount of humorous hijinks. As Tallulah grows into a mother figure, her on-the-lam parenting course only makes her more and more of a criminal in the eyes of... just about everyone. You want to root for her, but that would be too easy.

Taxi Driver (1976)

Travis Bickle (a young Bobby De Niro) comes back from the Vietnam War and, having some trouble acclimating to daily life, slowly unravels while fending off brutal insomnia by picking up work as a... taxi driver... in New York City. Eventually he snaps, shaves his hair into a mohawk and goes on a murderous rampage while still managing to squeeze in one of the most New York lines ever captured on film ("You talkin' to me?"). It's not exactly a heartwarmer -- Jodie Foster plays a 12-year-old prostitute -- but Martin Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver is a movie in the cinematic canon that you'd be legitimately missing out on if you didn't watch it.

FOCUS FEATURES

The Theory of Everything (2014)

In his Oscar-winning performance, Eddie Redmayne portrays famed physicist Stephen Hawking -- though The Theory of Everything is less of a biopic than it is a beautiful, sweet film about his lifelong relationship with his wife, Jane (Felicity Jones). Covering his days as a young cosmology student ahead of his diagnosis of ALS at 21, through his struggle with the illness and rise as a theoretical scientist, this film illustrates the trying romance through it all. While it may be written in the cosmos, this James Marsh-directed film that weaves in and out of love will have you experience everything there is to feel.

There Will Be Blood (2007)

Paul Thomas Anderson found modern American greed in the pages of Upton Sinclair's depression-era novel, Oil!. Daniel Day-Lewis found the role of a lifetime behind the bushy mustache of Daniel Plainview, thunderous entrepreneur. Paul Dano found his milkshake drunk up. Their discoveries are our reward -- There Will Be Blood is a stark vision of tycoon terror.

Time to Hunt (2020)

Unrelenting in its pursuit of scenarios where guys point big guns at each other in sparsely lit empty hallways, the South Korean thriller Time to Hunt knows exactly what stylistic register it's playing in. A group of four friends, including Parasite and Train to Busan break-out Choi Woo-shik, knock over a gambling house, stealing a hefty bag of money and a set of even more valuable hard-drives, and then find themselves targeted by a ruthless contract killer (Park Hae-soo) who moves like the T-1000 and shoots like a henchmen in a Michael Mann movie. There are dystopian elements to the world -- protests play out in the streets, the police wage a tech-savvy war on citizens, automatic rifles are readily available to all potential buyers -- but they all serve the simmering tension and elevate the pounding set-pieces instead of feeling like unnecessary allegorical padding. Even with its long runtime, this movie moves.

STUDIOCANAL

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

If a season of 24 took place in the smoky, well-tailored underground of British intelligence crica 1973, it might look a little like this precision-made John le Carré adaptation from Let the Right One In director Tomas Alfredson. Even if you can't follow terse and tightly-woven mystery, the search for Soviet mole led by retired operative George Smiley (Gary Oldman), the ice-cold frames and stellar cast will suck you into the intrigue. It's very possible Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, John Hurt, Toby Jones, Mark Strong, and Benedict Cumberbatch are reading pages of the British phone book, but egad, it's absorbing. A movie that rewards your full concentration.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

Of all the entries in the rom-com revival, this one is heavier on the rom than the com. But even though it won't make your sides hurt, it will make your heart flutter. The plot is ripe with high school movie hijinks that arise when the love letters of Lara Jean Covey (the wonderful Lana Condor) accidentally get mailed to her crushes, namely the contractual faux relationship she starts with heartthrob Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). Like its heroine, it's big-hearted but skeptical in all the right places.

Total Recall (1990)

Skip the completely forgettable Colin Farrell remake from 2012. This Arnold Schwarzenegger-powered, action-filled sci-fi movie is the one to go with. Working from a short story by writer Philip K. Dick, director Paul Verhoeven (Robocop) uses a brain-teasing premise -- you can buy "fake" vacation memories from a mysterious company called Rekall -- to stage one of his hyper-violent, winkingly absurd cartoons. The bizarre images of life on Mars and silly one-liners from Arnold fly so fast that you'll begin to think the whole movie was designed to be implanted in your mind.

NETFLIX

Tramps (2017)

There are heists pulled off by slick gentlemen in suits, then there are heists pulled off by two wayward 20-somethings rambling along on a steamy, summer day in New York City. This dog-day crime-romance stages the latter, pairing a lanky Russian kid (Callum Tanner) who ditches his fast-food register job for a one-off thieving gig, with his driver, an aloof strip club waitress (Grace Van Patten) looking for the cash to restart her life. When a briefcase handoff goes awry, the pair head upstate to track down the missing package, where train rides and curbside walks force them to open up. With a laid-back, '70s soul, Tramps is the rare doe-eyed relationship movie where playing third-wheel is a joy.

Uncut Gems (2019)

In Uncut Gems, the immersive crime film from sibling director duo Josh and Benny Safdie, gambling is a matter of faith. Whether he's placing a bet on the Boston Celtics, attempting to rig an auction, or outrunning debt-collecting goons at his daughter's high school play, the movie's jeweler protagonist Howard Ratner (Adam Sandler) believes in his ability to beat the odds. Does that mean he always succeeds? No, that would be absurd, undercutting the character's Job-like status, which Sandler imbues with an endearing weariness that holds the story together. But every financial setback, emotional humbling, and spiritual humiliation he suffers gets interpreted by Howard as a sign that his circumstances might be turning around. After all, a big score could be right around the corner.

Velvet Buzzsaw (2018)

Nightcrawler filmmaker Dan Gilroy teams up with Jake Gyllenhaal again to create another piece of cinematic art, this time a satirical horror film about the exclusive, over-the-top LA art scene. The movie centers around a greedy group of art buyers who come into the possession of stolen paintings that, unbeknownst to them, turn out to be haunted, making their luxurious lives of wheeling and dealing overpriced paintings a living hell. Also featuring the likes of John Malkovich, Toni Collette, Billy Magnussen, and others, Velvet Buzzsaw looks like Netflix’s next great original.

COLUMBIA PICTURES

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007)

Oscar-baiting, musician biopics became so cookie-cutter by the mid-'00s that it was easy for John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, and writer-director Jake Kasdan (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle) to knot them all together for the ultimate spoof. Dewey Cox is part Johnny Cash, part Bob Dylan, part Ray Charles, part John Lennon, part anyone-you-can-think-of, rising with hit singles, rubbing shoulders with greats of many eras, stumbling with eight-too-many drug addictions, then rising once again. When it comes to relentless wisecracking, Walk Hard is like a Greatest Hits compilation -- every second is gold.

The Witch (2015)

The Witch delivers everything we don't see in horror today. The backdrop, a farm in 17th-century New England, is pure misty, macabre mood. The circumstance, a Puritanical family making it on the fringe of society because they're too religious, bubbles with terror. And the question, whether devil-worshipping is hocus pocus or true black magic, keeps each character on their toes, and begging God for answers. The Witch tests its audience with its (nearly impenetrable) old English dialogue and the (anxiety-inducing) trials of early American life, but the payoff will keep your mind racing, and your face hiding under the covers, for days.

Y Tu Mamá También (2001)

Before taking us to space with Gravity, director Alfonso Cuarón steamed up screens with this provocative, comedic drama about two teenage boys (Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal) road-trippin' it with an older woman. Like a sunbaked Jules and Jim, the movie makes nimble use of its central love triangle, setting up conflicts between the characters as they move through the complicated political and social realities of Mexican life. It's a confident, relaxed film that's got an equal amount of brains and sex appeal. Watch this one with a friend -- or two.

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Zodiac (2007)

David Fincher's period drama is for obsessives. In telling the story of the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who captured the public imagination by sending letters and puzzles to the Bay Area press, the famously meticulous director zeroes in on the cops, journalists, and amateur code-breakers who made identifying the criminal their life's work. With Jake Gyllenhaal's cartoonist-turned-gumshoe Robert Graysmith at the center, and Robert Downey Jr.'s barfly reporter Paul Avery stumbling around the margins, the film stretches across time and space, becoming a rich study of how people search for meaning in life. Zodiac is a procedural thriller that makes digging through old manilla folders feel like a cosmic quest.

13th (2016)

Selma director Ava DuVernay snuck away from the Hollywood spotlight to direct this sweeping documentary on the state of race in America. DuVernay's focus is the country's growing incarceration rates and an imbalance in the way black men and women are sentenced based on their crimes. Throughout the exploration, 13th dives into post-Emancipation migration, systemic racism that built in the early 20th century, and moments of modern political history that continue to spin a broken gear in our well-oiled national machine. You'll be blown away by what DuVernay uncovers in her interview-heavy research.

20th Century Women (2016)

If there's such thing as an epistolary movie, 20th Century Women is it. Touring 1970s Santa Barbara through a living flipbook, Mike Mills's semi-autobiographical film transcends documentation with a cast of wayward souls and Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann), an impressionable young teenager. Annette Bening plays his mother, and the matriarch of a ragtag family, who gather together for safety, dance to music when the moment strikes, and teach Jamie the important lesson of What Women Want, which ranges from feminist theory to love-making techniques. The kid soaks it up like a sponge. Through Mills's caring direction, and characters we feel extending infinitely through past and present, so do we.

for more cool stuff life this, follow my page an send me a message for suggestions and queries

6 notes · View notes