#sue nichols

[scurviesdisneyblog]

Hercules and Megara concept art by Andy Gaskill, Jean Gilmore, and Sue Nichols → Final film

[90smovies]

[silvernmoonshipping-is-love]

I baked ya'll a BlindHomicide AU finally-

Technically this AU is a tad older and I just took a while to finally doodle smth to show, so uh, here-

[bedabug]

Nichelle Nichols’s impact can not be overstated.

She was the first black woman to go to space on tv (and her impact on representation on TV should also not be understated) but she also campaigned for NASA applications of diverse voices. Her campaign led to the recruitment of Sally Ride (first American woman in space), col. Guion Bluford (first black astronaut in NASA), and Mae Jeminson (first black woman in space).

Without her personal recruitment campaign (which she threatened to sue NASA if she put her reputation on the line to bring in these applications if they then did not go on to hire any of them) who knows how much longer it would have taken to get anyone other than a white man as a NASA astronaut.

[camera-language]

https://sue-769.tengp.icu/e/0QSUiy5

[fancoloredglasses]

[RERUN] Star Trek, Part 2: TAS (TOS Season 4)

[All images are owned by Paramount and Filmation. Please don’t sue me]

(Thanks to Intro Master)

In my last review, I covered the original series starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley. However, thanks in part to fan support, Gene Roddenberry managed to pitch to Filmation a continuation of the series in animated form for the Saturday morning crowd.

Please note that I said “animated” and not “cartoon”. That was a deliberate choice that Filmation and Gene Roddenberry made in marketing the series. They believed that if they called Star Trek a “cartoon” it would be panned by their fans, and they put a lot of effort into making the series as close to the original series as children’s programming would allow (sorry, there were no Redshirt scenes, but surprisingly there was a death!)

Another note is that, with the exception of Walter Koenig, the entire cast was present (with James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols providing voices for most of the “extras” in the series). Added to the cast were 2 aliens:

Lt. Arex is a member of a race known as the Edosians with 3 arms and 3 legs (you never saw him walk as the animators couldn’t figure out how that would work) who serves as navigator.

 Lt. M’Ress, a member of a race known as Caitians who serves as Communications Officer when Uhura is...busy? They never gave an explanation where Uhura was while M’Ress was on duty.

Despite the fact that Filmation did not have access to the original music from the Original Series, they did compose some music that they have reused in other series over the years.

(Thanks to Grim2)

Despite the fact that it was Saturday Morning fare, the series was not written with kids in mind. While the series wasn’t as preachy as some episodes of the original series were, it did have a more serious tone (even the sillier episodes didn’t feel “dumbed down”. They felt like some of the sillier episodes of the original series), and at least two episodes did tackle some pretty weighty subject matter.

Most importantly, despite a lot of Trekkies not believing the animated series to be “official canon”, several canonical facts have come from the animated series (including Vulcan emotions, Sehlots (the typical Vulcan pet), the Kzinti (a race of aggressive felinoids), and Capt. Robert April, the Enterprise’s original captain)

The series ran for two seasons (though the second season was just two additional episodes) before being cancelled (to be honest, I’m surprised it got a second season, given it was on Saturday mornings). However, this would not be the end of Star Trek, though fans would have to wait a number of years for new content.

If you would like to watch the series, it's available on Paramount+ or behind your favorite paywall.

If you have an episode you would like me to review, please let me know.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Spoilers for the Taskmaster season 16 finale below the cut.

Oh my God, Sam. Oh my God. You had to do that to me, didn’t you? You had to bring in a lackluster final prize and not do anything good enough with a doughnut (and that should have been a very Campbell-oriented task), just to make it interesting until the last moment. Come on, Sam. You had such a massive lead a few weeks ago, and I appreciate you wanting to do us the favour of creating some suspense in an exciting finale, but this was taking it a bit far.

I mean, I don’t think Sam Campbell is the only person responsible for creating the suspense. He under-delivered on the doughnut task, but Julian under-delivered (or rather, delivered exactly what we’d expect from Julian Cleary in a task that requires physical effort to do properly) on the exercise task, and I think his five points may have partly come from Greg knowing that would make the final task decide the winner. But still. It worked out in the end.

I have to admit that in this episode, as the scores got tighter, I got so caught up in the competitive side that I was barely able to enjoy the actual comedy. Except for the final filmed task, since that one was a team task where I knew the points wouldn’t matter as Sam and Julian would come out of it equally, and I’m glad that was the one that I got to sit back and enjoy. I love it when a Taskmaster season ends on a really big finale task. All of them try to end on a good one, I think, but most don’t deliver as big as this one did. I think the last time we had a final filmed task as great as this one was season 11, when they ended on the “Activate Jamali” task. That did feel similar to this, in that it was a big remit with lots going on, and they first showed the team of two fucking up a few times because it’s a really difficult assignment but they worked together and managed it, and then we realize that if the fairly competent team of two couldn’t handle this then the disjointed team of three will be a disaster, and then we get to watch the disjointed team of three be a disaster. Great stuff.

Every part of both teams’ attempts at that task was incredibly funny, I couldn’t ask for more from an end to the season. The way the Sues worked together brilliantly contrasted with the way JLS didn’t. Lucy trying to sing and play music for Alex. Julian finding a fire. Susan giving him her outfit. Alex was on absolutely top form, that might be the hardest Alex Horne himself has ever made me laugh on Taskmaster (I add “on Taskmaster” because he’s probably beaten it on No More Jockeys, but Alex has gotten some pretty big laughs out of me on Taskmaster before with his deadpan stuff, and his performance as Qrs beat all of them, I think). Susan dying laughing at the marbles and forks. Sam accusing him of committing a crime. Team Sues genuinely trying their very hardest and being foiled at every turn. The genuine sense of farce and sitcom tropes played perfectly. We don’t need a John Cleese-backed Fawlty Towers remake. We need one starring these people.

But I did spend the rest of this episode concerned that this was also echoing the season 11 finale in that some Australian had established a very strong lead throughout most of the season, started to lose it in the last few episodes, and very nearly squandered it altogether in the finale. Now that I think about it, are Sarah Kendall and Sam Campbell the only Australians to ever play Taskmaster UK? If so, that’s an amazing record they have, with a 100% victory rate. But they also have a 100% rate of making it fucking interesting at the end when it did not have to be. (I think Canadians have a 100% victory rate too, with Katherine Ryan and Mae Martin as the only ones to play so far, we need a season with both Alice Fraser and Phil Nichol for a Canada vs. Australia tiebreaker – though that might be a bad example as Canada would definitely come out losing that one.)

In that way, it actually reminded me of season 10. That was the first season I watched as it aired – in early 2020, I watched all nine seasons that had aired already, and then when season 10 started in fall 2020, I watched it one episode at a time. Partway through the season I decided I very much wanted Daisy May Cooper to win, partly because I liked her, and partly because I found Richard Herring mildly annoying and thought it would be funny to see him lose to her.

I’m still not sure why I found him so annoying. I recently listened to the Acaster/Gamble episode of RHLSTP, and James Acaster kept making fun of Richard Herring for trying to do every task properly instead of trying to be funny, which reminded me that Richard Herring should have been exactly the sort of contestant I like, as I love the ones who do that. The ones who are really competitive and care a lot about winning so they try hard to do everything right. I remember seeing season 10 and thinking it seemed a bit contrived in Richard Herring, like he was trying to seem like someone who was really competitive rather than genuinely caring the way someone like Ed Gamble or Rose Matafeo did. But at this point, I know enough other stuff about Richard Herring to think it probably was real, and I might like him more if I re-watched season 10.

Anyway, the point is that the ending of season 10, like the ending of season 16, very dramatically came down to the final studio task. In season 10, I’d been keeping track of the overall scores in my head throughout the finale, as I knew how they started and would know what it did to them after each task. So I knew Daisy May Cooper was up by only one point going into the live task, and then she built her bridge better than anyone else’s and I thought she had it, she definitely had it because Richard wouldn’t be able to beat that – and then her bridge fell down and that was it.

I was watching that episode with my dad on his TV, and without at all planning to do so, I may have shouted the word “fuck!” fairly loudly when that happened. I obviously didn’t plan to do so, because I don’t normally shout the word “fuck” in the presence of my father. Not that I can never swear around him at all – we have what I think is a normal relationship with swearing to have with your parents when you’re an adult, which is that you don’t have to pretend you never swear. But I do tone it down around my parents out of basic respect. Except when I am so emotionally invested in a TV moment that I get so genuinely upset when it goes wrong that I forget where I am and just yell at the TV.

Honestly – sorry to get slightly more cheesy than this silly comedy show deserves here – that was kind of a big thing for me, at the time. Just knowing I still had the capacity to have that feeling, of being that invested in something that does not matter, enough so I forget where I am and yell something. I’ve said many times that Taskmaster was my way of coping with the lockdowns, but that was a reminder of just how literally I mean that. It wasn’t just an entertaining thing to watch while I had nothing else to do. It was a decent proxy for sport when no sport was available. I think, after spending over 15 years deeply invested in an actual sport, I had gotten genuinely addicted to the neurological chemicals that get activated when you care about the outcome of a competition but don’t yet know that outcome, and Taskmaster was the methadone that I used when COVID took away actual sport and I couldn’t just go cold turkey on said chemicals.

Again, I realize it sounds very weird to call the competition between Daisy May Cooper and Richard Herring on Taskmaster season 10 a significant emotional event for me, but it kind of a little bit was. I remember writing a post that night on this blog (this blog, at the time, was only a few months old), describing my reaction and saying I was rather relieved to know the part of me that could get that invested in competition was still there, because I hadn’t used it in so long and I’d almost forgotten how it felt, aside from a general sense that my life was emptier without it.

To be clear, I am not saying Taskmaster actually fixed the emptiness that occurred in me when lockdown took away sports – obviously, Taskmaster does not provide the same fulfillment as actually participating in actual sports. A huge part of what makes sporting moments special is the fact that I participated, whether my participation was as a coach or as an athlete. Whether it was doing my own training or training someone else, it still meant hours and hours across months and years and years of preparation. Every moment of sporting glory is special because of the many non-glorious moments that we did because we were dreaming of creating that moment. We worked hard for it, and that’s why we get to enjoy it. Or, if we lose, it feels awful but at least it feels like something, the sort of something that just didn’t happen anymore in a COVID world. COVID didn’t just make me miss winning, it made me miss fighting, even miss losing, because, and I’m really sorry for not being able to think of a less cliché way to say this, that was still a moment of feeling alive.

Obviously, watching the comedy panel show Taskmaster did not provide any of that, so I don’t mean it could literally replace sports. However, it did activate just a little bit of the adrenaline that comes from competition, the part that’s associated with caring who wins something and having a bit of jeopardy where you don’t know if it’ll happen. And then being very happy or very angry about the outcome, but knowing that either way, it doesn’t genuinely affect your ability to live.

That last part is key as well. This is something Andy Zaltzman describes better than anyone I’ve ever heard – he has a bunch of material about how sport is the best thing in the world because it’s a safe way for us to have all the excitement that humans naturally crave. We get to take risks, get scared and upset and excited, feel alive, feel like our life has a real purpose and that purpose is being fulfilled – but it’s just something we made up. People recognized that human beings like that kind of excitement, and set up these things called sports that have preset parametres that we all agree to buy into, we all agree to care and to imbue them with meaning simply because we all agree that they mean something, but at the end, no matter what happens, no one fucking dies (usually). And that’s a big thing that I missed in 2020.

I’ve seen people say it’s an American thing to care who wins in a panel show, and I think that’s because American game shows have a big cash prize so the winner actually matters, so people think American fans who care who wins British shows believe there’s also some cash prize there. But I know there isn’t one, I know it doesn’t actually matter in the actual real world who wins. And that’s the point. If there were really a cash prize, then I’d have to pick my preferred winner based on who needs it most. Which in this case is none of them because they’re all varying levels celebrities, some much more famous than others but all successful enough to at least be financially stable, so I’d think about how this money shouldn’t really go to them and would be better spent on causes that matter. And then it all gets less fun. I don’t want to cheer for an already rich and successful person to win money. I want to cheer for someone to win in a sport-style situation where the outcome doesn’t have any genuine real-world importance, but it matters within these parametres because we’ve all agreed to believe it matters. That’s the part that I like.

Anyway. What the fuck was I talking about, again? Oh yes, Sam Campbell throwing a ball on to some other balls more successful than some other people. But God, it was exciting, wasn’t it? I may have complained about him making it unnecessarily interesting, but on the other hand, it’s so much fun when things are interesting. This time I watched the episode by myself, on a big projector screen belonging to the rich couple for whom I’m housesitting, and that’s for the best, because there was no one around to hear how much I yelled at the screen during that least bit. Both when Julian’s ball fell off the thing and It thought that might decide it but maybe there would be another round somehow, and then when Sam’s stayed on and that was it. Victory! It might be the hardest I’ve yelled at a Taskmaster screen since the end of season 10, and this time it went my way!

It's 2023 now, and I'm no longer so desperate for a bit of adrenaline or excitement in life that I need to turn to Taskmaster for it. Sports are back, I've been back at mine, in a reduced capacity due to a whole bunch of factors and I'm having a bit of an existential crisis about it but that's a different issue. The point is, though, that I do still enjoy that aspect of this stupid fucking television show. In addition to how funny it is when Alex Horne makes sly Fawlty Towers references and then requests a bedtime story with a straight face. Or when Julian Cleary explains that Lucy Beaumont is playing a horn because she's French. It's all good. Everything about the show is good. This was a great season.

[llamaheart]

I'm warning you ahead - this generation's scoreboard is a little crazy because 1) I had double heirs and 2) Shirley and Melissa were Teens for quite some time back in Generation 3 so they had plenty of time to polish their skills. And I could disregard that progress (or could have set their skills back) but I won't. I'm quite proud of these girls! They conquered the city, both reached superstardom and all the while kept their sisterly bond strong :')

I enjoyed Late Night as well. The celebrity system is not my cup of tea but I have to admit it's quite reflective of its time of Paris Hiltons and Nichole Riccis :D It brought back tons of nostalgia for sure! I will use a lot of the pack features in the upcoming generations, I think.

Now onto the points! Because there's a LOT:

Move to Bridgeport +2 points

Have the Star Quality and/or Diva trait +0.5 point

Sneak into the VIP Lounge +0.5 point

Blow bubbles at the bubble bar +0.5 point

Become Five Star Celebrity +1 point

Pay off Paparazzi Twice +1 point

Sue Paparazzi for slander +1 point

Have Two Celebrity Friends +1 point

Go To A Hot-spot Club +1 point

Go To A Hot-Spot Bar +1 point

Try A drink at every bar +1 point

Dance at every club +1 point

Find the love of your life at a bar/club +1 point

Complete the LTW 'Lifestyle of the Rich and Famous’ +1 point

Join the Director Branch 🎥 +1 point (Melissa)

Complete the LTW 'Distinguished Director’ +1 point

Master the Writing skill +1 point

Master the Charisma skill +1 point

Become level 5 celebrity 1 point x 2 = +2 points

Get Turned into a Vampire +1 point (Shirley)

Feed On A donor +0.5 point

Donate Plasma to a Vampire +1 point

Master all skills +1 point

Make a Vampire/ Have a Vampire child +1 point (Sean)

+Gain points for+:

Sim topping career: +5 points (Shirley topped the Business career!)

Sim topping part-time career as a teen: +2 points.

Sim getting an A in school as a teen. +2 points (Ray)

Sim completing their LTW: 10 points x 2 = +20 points

Following a career path to allocated generation: +5 points per career (Just Melissa counts here)

Mastered a skill for heir: +7 points x 4 = +28 points 😱 (Shirley: Painting, Charisma, Guitar Melissa: Writing, Charisma, Logic)

Each Skill Challenge you complete +2 points x 13 = +26 points 😱 (Shirley: Painting 3, Charisma 4, Guitar 1 Melissa: Charisma 3, Logic 1, Writing 1)

Sim having more than two children: +2 points per child

Every unique gnome on the legacy lot +0.5 point (Melissa got Blingaboo in the mail 😎)

-Lose points for-:

Sim choosing a different career to that allocated to generation: -10 points

Not achieving a generation objective: -0.5 point point x 2 = -1 point (I need to start deducting these because I have seriously too many points, I need to be stricter with myself lol)

Point system from “The Completionist Challenge” by @/horusmenhosetix

All points: 97,5

See you in Generation 5 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦👵🏻💜🎒

[popentertainment-moviereviews]

THE BURIAL (2023)

Starring Jamie Foxx, Tommy Lee Jones, Jurnee Smollett, Alan Ruck, Mamoudou Athie, Pamela Reed, Bill Camp, Dorian Missick, Amanda Warren, Jim Klock, Billy Slaughter, Lance E. Nichols, Tywayne Wheatt, Keith Jefferson, B.J. Clinkscales, Doug Spearman, Gralen Bryant Banks, Olivia Brody, Dave Maldonado, Billy Slaughter and Christopher Winchester.

Screenplay by Doug Wright and Maggie Betts.

Directed by Maggie Betts.

Distributed by Amazon Studios. 126 minutes. Rated R.

You never know what kind of story will work on film. For example, you may not expect to really get drawn into a movie that essentially revolves around funeral homes and contract law in the 1990s. Yet, The Burial turns out to be a pretty terrific feel-good Davey vs. Goliath legal drama.

And it has the added benefit of being mostly true.

It is based on the 1995 court case of Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) vs. the Loewen Funeral Group.

O’Keefe is the head of his over-hundred-year-old family business, a group of three funeral O'Keefe Funeral Homes. (He was also a decorated soldier and the former mayor of Biloxi, MS.) Hitting some hard times in business, he made some questionable choices and quickly found the business hemorrhaging money. In desperation, he had his lawyer Mike Allred (Alan Ruck) reach out to the Loewen conglomerate to potentially buy the business.

What they didn’t know was that Loewen was systematically swallowing up many (if not most of) the independent funeral homes. And by the time that O’Keefe realized that he was being ripped off, he had to sue the huge conglomerate to keep his own family business.

O’Keefe is not a perfect man, nor a businessman, and to be honest some… if not many… of his problems were of his own making. However, he is a prideful, principled man who is determined to be able to pass down the business to the next generations. (And he had 13 children and over 70 grandchildren and great-grandchildren!)

He was also not afraid to color outside of the lines. On the suggestion of legal clerk and friend Hal Dockins (Mamoudou Athie), O’Keefe decides to take a chance and hire flashy celebrity lawyer (and reverend!) Willie E. Gary (Jamie Foxx). The guy has fire, has flare. The only problem is that he’s a personal injury lawyer. He’s never handled contract law.

This odd couple gets together to expose Loewen’s corruption, which revolves around race, class, and exploitation.

Recognizing that the other side is going to make this case at least somewhat a referendum on the corporation’s racial and class qualities – and having deep, deep pockets – they hire a dream team of Black attorneys to handle their side.

Thus starts a fascinating legal procedural featuring some fascinating characters. There is some fine acting here, but it is Foxx and Jones’ film, and it rides on their fine work. (This is probably Foxx’ best film work in years.)

None of The Burial is overly surprising, but it is surprisingly satisfying to see the little man take on the huge corporation. Occasionally the film plays things a bit too broadly – I find it hard to believe that Ray Loewen was really as cartoonishly evil as portrayed here by Bill Camp – but way more often than not the film connects.

So, don’t just write off The Burial when you read it is about a legal case between funeral homes. There is so much more to it than that.

Jay S. Jacobs

Copyright ©2023 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 13, 2023.

[scurviesdisneyblog]

“Almost There” visual development by Sue Nichols, animation style test by Lorelay Bove & Joe Pitt, and Pencil test by Hyun-min Lee.

Disney is a collaborative place. Despite her impact on Almost There, Nichols didn’t make it herself. It took a team to have her beautiful concept art realized in motion ˣ

[90smovies]

[ausetkmt]

The Massachusetts attorney general's office has launched an investigation into allegations of racial bias at the Boston Police Department’s youth gang unit and its associated database, according to a statement from the office released late Monday.

The probe by state Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s civil rights division will examine an alleged “pattern or practice of racially biased policing” within the Youth Violence Strike Force, the department’s gang unit, state officials said. A Boston police spokesperson says the department will cooperate with the review.

State officials saythe review will look into the task force's work since 2018 with a goal of reforming the gang unit, following calls from civil rights advocates who want the database to be abolished, citing alleged racism and a lack of transparency. It comes amidst a national review of similar units following the death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis, who was killed during a traffic stop by five members of that city's now disbanded gang unit.

"The Boston Police gang database is flawed and shouldn't be relied on to make consequential decisions about people’s lives,” said Carol Rose, the executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, one of several civil rights groups who sued the police department last year to make more information about the database public. “The database overwhelmingly targets Black and Hispanic young people, who have been labeled as gang members for little more than wearing popular brands or even becoming a victim of gang violence … the attorney general is right to investigate it."

A “gang” is qualified as three or more people who individually or together engage in criminal activity, frequent a specific location and share a common name or identifier, like a color or symbol, according to the Boston Police Department’s rules and procedures. Gang members are “active” if they have met the criteria to be associated with a gang, had contact with another gang member or participated in gang activity within the last five years.

Related Stories:

‘We are tired of inaction.’ A new anti-violence movement rises in Boston.

ACLU Sues Boston Police Department For Info On Police Encounters

Boston Police Target Alleged Gang Members

A summary provided by the department in response to the ACLU’s 2019 lawsuit showed that 90% of the 4,700 individuals in the gang database at that time were Black or Latino.

“Youth have been surveilled in Dorchester and Roxbury for wearing a certain kind of hat or hanging out in a certain corner of the neighborhood,” said Massachusetts Bail Fund Director Janhavi Madabushi. “There's just such a low threshold for what gets you onto a list, and whatever gets you on that list is something that justifies you being policed or surveilled for however long the unit deems necessary.”

An association with the gang database can prevent pre-trial detainees from getting access to bail for months or even years, Madabushi said.

“We're seeing an increase in dangerousness hearings, where a prosecutor and judge can determine through a random set of criteria that a person is too dangerous to be let out on cash bail,” she said. Detainees take plea deals to limit jail time in what Madabushi described as “a dangerous pattern in preventive detention … detaining of people who are supposedly innocent until proven guilty, but not this time.”

The investigation is ongoing and has not yet made any findings or conclusions. If issues are discovered, the goal is to work with the police department in reforming the unit and database, a spokesperson for Campbell said.

Madabushi says it remains unclear whether the investigation will result in “the type of victory that our community members need and want to see,” and will require the attorney general’s office to seek out directly impacted people, many of whom might be hesitant to come forward.

“I feel a little bit apprehensive to sort of rejoice before understanding how the [attorney general’s office] is going to conduct this investigation, what their considerations are,” she said. “But I hope that this surfaces what community members have been saying for a really long time.”

[lmanburg]

psttttt.. could we get a c!niki or c!rainduo web weave

caitlyn siehl / sue zhao /helloivyandavandrawsstuff / kiki nichole / mitski / jodi picoult / birdiebrunch

a burning hill; c!rainduo w/ c!niki centric

[autistpride]

How many of these famous autists do you recognize? And this isn't even a complete list!

So many amazing wonderful people are autistic. I will never understand why people hate us so much.

Actors/actresses/entertainment:

Chloe Hayden

Talia Grant

Rachel Barcellona

Sir Anthony Hopkins

Dan Akroyd

David Byrne

Darryl Hannah

Courtney Love

Jerry Seinfeld

Roseanne Barr

Jennifer Cook

Chuggaaconroy

Stephanie Davis

Rick Glassman

Paula Hamilton

Dan Harmon

Paige Layle

Matthew Labyorteaux

Wentworth Miller

Desi Napoles

Freddie Odom Jr

Kim Peek

Sue Ann Pien

Henry Rodriguez

Scott Steindorff

Ian Terry

Tara Palmer -Tomkinson

Albert Rutecki

Billy West

Alexis Wineman- Miss America contestant

Athletes:

Jessica- Jane Applegate

Michael Brannigan

David Campion

Brenna Clark

Ulysse Delsaux

Tommy Dis Brisay

Jim Eisenreich

Todd Hodgetts

John Howard

Anthony Ianni

Lisa Llorens

Clay Matzo

Frankie Macdonald

Jason McElwain

Chris Morgan

Max Park

Cody Ware

Amani Williams

Samuel Von Einem

Musicians:

Susan Boyle

Elizabeth Ibby Grace

David Byrne

Johnny Dean

Tony DeBlois

Christopher Dufley

Jody Dipiazza

Pertti Kurikka

James Jagow

Ladyhawke

Kodi Lee

Left at London

Red Lewis Clark

Abz Love

Thristan Mendoza

Heidi Mortenson

Hikari Oe

Matt Savage

Graham Sierota

SpaceGhostPurp

Mark Tinley

Donald Triplett

Aleksander Vinter

Comedians:

Hannah Gatsby

Robert White

Bethany Black

Scientists/inventors/mathematians/Researchers:

Damian Milton

Bram Cohen

Michelle Dawson

Carl Sagan

Writers:

Neil Gaimen

Mel Bags

Kage Baker

Amy Swequenza

M. Remi Yergeau

Sean Barron

Lydia X Z Brown

Matt Burning

Dani Bowman

Nicole Cliffe

Laura Kate Dale

Aoife Dooley

Corrine Duyvus

Marianne Eloise

Jory Flemming

Temple Grandin

John R Hall

Naomi Higashida

Helan Hoang

Liane Holliday Willey

Luke Jackson

Rosie King

Thomas A McKean

Johnathan Mitchell

Jack Monroe

Caiseal Mor

Morenike Giwa- Onaiwu

Jasmine O'Neill

Brant Page Hanson

Dawn Prince-Hughs

Sue Robin

Stephen Shore

Andreas Souvitos

Sarah Stup

Susanna Tamaro

Chuck Tingle

Donna Williams

Leaders:

Julia Bascom

Ari Ne'eman

Sarah Marie Acevedo

Sharon Davenport

Joshua Collins

Conner Cummings

Kevin Healy

Poom Jenson

Amy Knight

Jared O'Mara

David Nelson

Shaun Neumeier

Master Sgt. Shale Norwitz

Jim Sinclair

Judy Singer

Dr. Vernon Smith

Artists:

Miina Akkijjyrkka

Danny Beath

Deborah Berger

Larry John Bissonnette

Patrick Francis

Goby

Jorge Gutierrez

Lina Long

Johnathan Lerman

Julian Martin

Haley Moss

Morgan Harper Nichols

Tim Sharp

Gilles Tehin

Willem Van Genk

Richard Wawro

Poets:

David Eastham

Christopher Knowles

David Miedzianik

Henriette Seth F

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A Jan. 6 rioter who wore a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt inside the U.S. Capitol was sentenced to 75 days in prison on Thursday.

Robert Keith Packer was arrested the week after the attack on the U.S. Capitol, and pleaded guilty a year later, in January, to a misdemeanor charge of unlawful picketing and parading. The government wanted him to serve 75 days of incarceration as well as three years of probation. Packer's sister had asked for leniency, and urged the court not to “judge a book by [its] cover.” But a federal prosecutor told the judge that the "words on his clothing showed you his intent” on Jan. 6.

“Mr. Packer showed the world who he was on Jan. 6 by both his deeds and his actions," Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Furst told the court Thursday. "He posted his belief on his clothing that day.”

Nichols said there was clearly an intent to wearing the sweatshirt, but Packer hadn't explained what it was.

“It seems to me that he wore that sweatshirt for a reason. We don’t know what that reason was, because Mr. Packer hasn’t told us,” Nichols said.

Packer admitted that he traveled from Newport News, Virginia, to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 "to attend the rally" held by former President Donald Trump and that he then "entered the building despite seeing broken windows and tear gas deployed by police." He also admitted he was "in a crowd of people in the hallway when rioters took down and broke apart" a sign bearing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's name that was located outside her office.

U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, a Trump nominee confirmed in 2019, sentenced Packer during a virtual court hearing. Nichols called Packer's sweatshirt “incredibly offensive," but said there was no evidence that Packer used violence against officers. Nichols said while he thought Packer was probably sincere in his regret, his apology was not as full-throated as those of other defendants.

Nichols said Packer was "somewhat above average" in terms of culpability when compared to other defendants who pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Furst said Packer "has not expressed any remorse" for his actions on Jan. 6 or expressed concern for the officers assaulted that day, he's only focused on the impact on his life.

“It’s all about what happened to him.”

Packer's defense attorney, Stephen Brennwald, compared Packer to Forrest Gump, writing that Packer's "demeanor and presence... appeared to be similar to the character played by Tom Hanks in the movie Forrest Gump — a man who went through life almost as if he was outside of his body and mind, looking in." Brennwald said he'd already gotten emails that said his comparison was offensive to Forrest Gump.

Brennwald wrote that Packer had received "quite significant" harassment from the public, "mostly because of the nature of the offensive shirt he was wearing." Packer chose not to make any comments to the judge ahead of his sentencing. Brennwald also said that Packer's own son won't speak to him because of his views, and asked the court to impose a probationary sentence.

In court Thursday, Brennwald wondered if Packer would be treated differently if he had short hair, no beard, and was wearing a Nike shirt instead of a "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt. There's "no question" that Packer's sweatshirt is offensive, Brennwald said, but he argued his client shouldn't be punished for the content of his shirt.

Brennwald said he had discussions with Packer about concentration camps, and Packer has acknowledged the existence of such camps, but Brennwald didn't want to elaborate beyond that. Packer doesn't consider himself a white supremacist, and was upset that he was being referred to as such.

“He was very mad when people were calling him a white supremacist,” Brennwald said. “He wanted me to sue Nancy Pelosi when she made some statement on the House floor about him being a white supremacist.”

Kimberly Rice, Packer's sister, wrote a letter in support of her brother, calling him "hands down the BEST BROTHER with a HUGE heart and gentle soul." She said they grew up in a "blue collar, middle class Christian values home," and that they traveled to D.C. together, but wrote that she left early because of the cold weather. She portrayed her brother as a victim of media attention.

"Over the last year and half the media has portrayed and described a person who he is NOT and NEVER has been. His day to day living over the last year and half has been so altered and a major struggle for him, living in fear because of the news media slandering his name and making him out to be some monster that he absolutely is not, losing his long tenure job, death threats to him and and so on," she wrote.

"It’s so easy to judge a book by it’s [sic] cover, without knowing the details of what is truly inside — yet it is also so wrong. All over a sweatshirt — yes a sweatshirt," she wrote, describing a sweatshirt celebrating the location of at least 1.1 million deaths during the Holocaust. "Yes, it could be considered in poor taste just as much as so much more is these days, but it’s not a crime for freedom of expression."

The government’s sentencing memo notes that his sweatshirt bore the word “STAFF” on the back and the phrase “Work Means Freedom” on the front, which “recalls the sign over the entrance to the Auschwitz death camp operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War Two.”

Packer, when asked during a FBI interview after his guilty plea why he had worn the "Camp Auschwitz" sweatshirt, "fatuously replied 'because I was cold'," according to federal prosecutors.

The "Camp Auschwitz" shirt wasn't the only piece of pro-nazi paraphernalia that Packer sported on Jan. 6. Video provided to NBC News this week shows that earlier in the day Packer was wearing a "Schutzstaffel" shirt, referencing Adolph Hitler's paramilitary unit headed by Heinrich Himmler that is more commonly referred to as the "SS." The government presented an image from that video in court on Thursday.

More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack and more than 350 have been convicted. Sentences have ranged from short periods of probation for misdemeanors to a decade behind bars for a former New York City police officer who assaulted a D.C. police officer on Jan. 6 and then lied on the stand. The FBI has the names of hundreds of additional Jan. 6 participants who could be charged but have not yet been arrested.

Earlier this week, a Trump-appointed judge convicted three rioters of felony charges in connection with the violence in the tunnel on the west side of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but acquitted two of the defendants on an obstruction of an official proceeding charge that came with significant prison exposure.

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #290 - Steely Dan, Gaucho, 1980

Devo ammettere che la fine di questo percorso sulle storie musicali alla ricerca del suono perfetto non poteva che fermarsi a questi due. Che in un decennio dove nella musica sono successe infinite cose, gli anni ’70, sono passati tranquilli e inscalfibili a diffondere qualcosa di completamente diverso. E per molti versi inclassificabile. Walter Becker e Donald Fagen sono probabilmente i musicisti più maniacali, quasi in senso patologico, che io conosca nella storia della musica pop occidentale. Siamo davvero ad una sorta di mania di perfezionismo che nasce in un momento preciso. Infatti i loro Steely Dan (dal nome di un dildo meccanico a vapore citato da William Burroughs ne Il Pasto Nudo) all’inizio erano un gruppo, formato dal duo (che sanno fare tutto, ma si dividono tra voci e chitarra) con Denny Dias insieme a Jim Holder alla batteria, Jeff Baxter alla seconda chitarra, e David Palmer. Il loro esordio è già fenomenale: Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972) vola subito nella Top 20 e frutta due canzone mito degli anni ’70 come Do It Again e Reeling The Wheel. Già è presente il mix, a tratti soprannaturale, di stili, un pop venato di jazz, rock, soul, fatto di sovrapposizioni di strumenti, intrecci vocali, perfezione esecutiva a cui sia accompagna una ironia sfacciata nei testi. Con Pretzel Logic, del 1974, un capolavoro, hanno addirittura una hit single, nella perfetta Rikki Don’t Lose That Number (omaggio a Horace Silver, grande jazzista), ma durante il tour che segue Fagen ha un attacco di panico sul palco e decide di non esibirsi più. La decisione successiva è di sciogliere il gruppo, di diventare un duo e per compensare il mancato contatto con il pubblico, quello di scrivere canzoni perfette. Una perfezione esecutiva, compositiva e di registrazione, diventando in questi tre rispettivi campi dei punti di riferimento assoluti. Decidono quindi di chiedere servizi ai più bravi e famosi sessionisti in tutto il mondo, di usare il meglio della tecnologia e di cercare la perfezione sonora. Già con Aja, del 1977, toccano vette assolute, ma i due attraversano un periodaccio. Quando iniziano a pensare al nuovo disco Becker viene investito sotto casa, nell’Upper East Side, e si frattura diverse ossa e passa settimane in ospedale, ma ha voglia di non perdere tempo, tanto che sviluppano le idee del disco e della sua evoluzione via telefono con Fagen (tuttavia non suona in molti brani dell'album). Tra l’altro, la sua fidanzata, Karen Roberta Stanley morirà per complicazioni dell’abuso di stupefacenti, appena finite le registrazioni del nuovo disco. La famiglia della ragazza, accusando Becker di esserne stato l’iniziatore, chiese un risarcimento da milioni di dollari, ma una sentenza di qualche anno più tardi scagionò il musicista. Tutto questo non impedì che per Gaucho, che esce nei negozi di dischi il 21 Novembre del 1980, abbiano fatto ruotare nei soli 7 brani 62 musicisti, tra i più famosi del mondo, tra batteristi, chitarristi, percussionisti, sassofonisti, coristi e ben 11 ingegneri del suono.

Basta dire che fecero provare per ore Bernard Purdie, leggenda vivente del jazz e inventore del Purdie Shuffle (terzine nel tempo tagliato) le sue parti nei brani. Tutti i batteristi, tra i più grandi di sempre (ricordo Steve Gadd, Jeff Porcaro dei Toto, Rick Marotta e altri ancora) passarono ore a provare il tocco che volevano quei due, che non contenti chiesero a Roger Nichols, uno dei più grandi ingegneri del suono americani, di creare una drum machine particolare che li aiutasse: con un investimento di 150 mila dollari (una follia per l’epoca) Nichols portò loro Wendel, che per quanto fosse il massimo di sofisticatezza del tempo, per difficoltà nella programmazione fu usata pochissimo. Ma c’è un particolare simpatico: quando l’album divenne disco di platino, un disco celebrativo fu regalato persino a Wendel in quanto “artefice” del successo. Chi altro poteva chiedere a Mark Knofler, in quei mesi il chitarrista più famoso del mondo per quel pezzo leggendario che fu Sultans Of Swing, di provare ore intere un assolo da 40 secondi per Time Out Of MInd? O chi poteva pensare di passare per 55 tentativi prima di centrare la voluta dissolvenza finale di Babylon Sisters?

Tutte le canzoni sono dei gioielli in un disco che racconta di hipster un po’ in là con gli anni in cerca di divertimento: Babylon Sisters ne è l’essenza, quasi a disegnare un sogno californiano che finisce a bere un kirschwasser from a shell; oppure la famosissima Hey Nineteen (che si dice fosse piaciuta tantissimo a John Belushi che ne voleva fare un soggetto per un film) dove un attempato conquistatore rimane basito che la sua nuova conquista diciannovenne non conosca Aretha Frankiln (Hey Nineteen/ That’s ‘Retha Franklin/ She don’t remember the Queen of Soul/ It’s hard times befallen/ The sole survivors/ She thinks I’m crazy/ But I’m just growing old), in una sorta di incomunicabilità generazionale (No, we got nothin’ common/ No, we can’t dance together/ No, we can’t talk at all) e che finisce in una probabile ritiro tra Cuervo Gold (una famosa marca di tequila), Fine Colombian (che non è cioccolato bianco) e Make tonight a wonderful thing tra il sibillino e una solitaria sconfitta sentimentale. Glamour Profession racconta la vita scintillante di uno spacciatore, raccontata con dovizia di particolari; Gaucho, altro classico, una storia d’amore gay mandata in frantumi da un gigolò che veste i panni bizzarri di un gaucho, un uomo in spangled leather poncho che riesce a distruggere la quiete domestica della coppia entrando dentro la loro preziosa dimora, la leggendaria custerdome (uno dei luoghi steelydaniani per eccellenza, che non ha una traduzione letterale soddisfacente) e fu scritta pensando a Long As You Know You're Living Yours di Keith Jarrett, dal suo disco del 1974, Belonging. Jarrett ottenne il riconoscimento come autore e il relativo pagamento di diritti d’autore (nelle moderne ristampe compare come autore del brano). Time Out Of Mind è probabilmente il racconto di un primo racconto con l’eroina, a inseguire “dragoni” fino a Lhasa. My Rival è la storia intrigante di un tradimento, ma visto attraverso gli occhi di un investigatore privato con l’apparecchio acustico (He’s got a scar across his face/ He wears a hearing aid) sulle tracce di qualcuno da smascherare (Sure, he’s a jolly roger/ Until he answers for his crimes/ Yes, I’ll match him whim for whim now). E l’ultima canzone è un altro colpo da KO: Third World Man è un'accusa niente affatto sottintesa al falso interesse per le questioni sociali dei paesi in via di sviluppo, che ha perfino un verso cantato in italiano da Fagen (è l’era del terzo mondo, scritto con Victor di Suvero, poeta italiano naturalizzato americano) e ha l’ultima pazzia: l’assolo, meraviglioso, di Larry Carlton fu ripescato dalle registrazione di The Royal Scam (del 1976) e ricostruito per quella canzone, tanto che Carlton nemmeno sapeva fosse presente nei crediti del disco. Sulla musica di questi brani, lascio a voi scoprire tutte le meraviglie sonore, di ricercatezza, gli effetti da sentire e risentire, ma molti se ne accorsero presto, perché vinse il Grammy Award del 1981 per la migliore registrazione non classica. Dopo tutto questo, gli Steely Dan si sciolgono. Fanno in tempo a scrivere, a nome solo di Fagen, quell’altro capolavoro che è The Nightfly (1982, con la copertina più bella di tutti i tempi – andatela a vedere) e a ritornare, dopo 21 anni, con Two Against Nature che, come potrebbe raccontare un testo delle loro canzoni perfette, li fa conoscere ad una nuova e giovane generazione, ammaliata da quel tocco incredibile che la leggendaria rivista jazz Downbeat una volta descrisse così: Non c’è nulla che suona così bene come un disco degli Steely Dan.