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Day #21- Year 2 of Pandemic
Apr. 6th, 2021 05:16 pmThe day flirts with me, but my sore body after walking 3.2 miles around a Graveyard on Monday, and 2.5 miles on Sunday, could only handle a walk around the block. Also it's dry outside, the air filled with tree pollan.
Pretty though - bright blue sky, and sun filled.
I'm bored at work. So, I started listening to Renegades: Born in the USA Podcast on Spotify. For those who don't know about it? Barack Obama and his friend, Bruce Springsteen, have gotten together in Springsteen's barn this past winter to record a series of podcasts about the divide in America and how to come together. They chat about their odd friendship, their backgrounds, and what they have in common and what they don't - along with various events in our history - snatches of song and speeches.
It's part, stroke the old ego, and part insightful commentary on the various racial and class divides. ( snippets from the podcast based on my haphazard memory )
I found it insightful - about the two men and about our world. Also a nice companion to Michelle Obama's book Becoming - which I recently finished. It's insightful as well, but also aggravating in places. I like her husband's better - it's more succinct. Michelle kind of rambles around her theme a bit. But she does mention how it is important to let people in. Open up and let them in. I thought, I'm trying, Michelle, I am trying.
My mother believes I am. But I don't know. I am a tad stand-offish, I guess.
But I'm shy and retiring too in my way, I suppose. And every time I get interested in anyone and try to strike up a close friendship or romance, they leave town on me. I don't know if it's a New York thing or just a thing.
Mother: Didn't the last guy move to France?
Me: Yes, to take care of his uncle who has dementia. He left in 2018. It was king of hard to keep a long distance relationship, it's not like we dated. Also I suck at long-distance relationships.
Mother: Most people do. You're brother is the only one I've noticed that maintained it - and only for short periods of time.
Me: I can't even maintain friendship and family long-distance that well, outside of you. Ames comes and goes.
On Twitter, discovered a lengthy interview with Ray Fisher regarding what happened with Whedon et all on the set of Justice League. It's more detailed than the previous interviews, and not all that surprising. Just manages to underline my current take on Whedon and Hollywood - aptly summed up by one responder as : "Hollywood is filled with assholes." Yep.
If you are at all curious, HERE's The Article.
My take aways? Whedon was an asshole on that set. And a lot of white folks don't understand racism or aren't sensitive to it. (I picked up on this during the Barack/Springsteen conversation, along with Michelle's book, but also talking to folks in my workplace.)
Katherine Forrest, a former federal judge who conducted the WarnerMedia probe, tells THR in a statement that in interviews with more than 80 witnesses, she found "no credible support for claims of racial animus" or racial "insensitivity."
I don't know, I watched the two films and compared them - I'd say what that I found the Whedon film to be insensitive racially (and gender wise) on multiple levels. But that may be subjective on my part.
( excerpts )
From the above? Whedon pissed off some interesting folks. Patty Jenkins, Gail Gadot, Jeremy Irons, and apparently everyone in the cast. (That cast included Amy Adams, Ben Affleck, Henry Caville, Diane Lane, Joe Morton, Jeremy Irons, Jason Momoa...).
I think he'd have gotten away with it, if his version of Justice League wasn't such a bad film, and hadn't bombed at the box office. What's interesting is why HBO/Warner Brothers stuck with him after that? I'd have fired his ass. How'd he get to do the Nevers? Maybe they gave him a break due to the impossible circumstances? Or he had something on one of the execs, who finally left?
Anyhow, from what I read - I'd say the Whedon Cut was racially insensitive, and from what I saw of Whedon's cut - as compared to what Zack Snyder did? The Whedon version was racially insensitive and gender insensitive. I mean I was offended by it - when I compared the two films. You don't necessarily see it without the comparison - and I think the reason for that - is people think, oh, it's a comic book or that's just the medium. We hand-wave a lot of things. OR that's just Whedon's sense of humor. Or it's not like it's not like that in the comics or cartoon.
It's not the medium. You don't have to do it that way. That's what I think is coming out right now - that excuse, oh we have to do it this way, is just that an excuse, it's justified. There's no reason why you can't have a diverse superhero team, where all the characters have an arc and agency, not just the White Guys. It can be done. And it can be done well.
Going back to Barack and Springsteen's podcasts...I've made it through four so far, I think there are eight? Anyhow, going back to the podcasts, they make an interesting point about the cinema of my childhood, and theirs - the 1970s Westerns, where we have ingrained in us the loner hero, who has no home, no roots. No community. And this fear of being domesticated. I think that's partly the old school Hollywood writers and directors problem at the moment - they are stuck in that mindset. I know Whedon kind of is. That toxic white male loner mentality. John Wayne's misanthropic character in The Searchers. Or Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter and later The Unforgiven. It's ingrained in a portion of our society and breaking out of that mold is not easy - I don't think. But necessary. To find community and roots...which is hard for outsiders to do.
***
On the COVID front? Still being inundated with bereavement notices and requests to take the vaccine via workplace.
Sis-in-law told mother that she is going to take the second dose of the Moderna. She'll just get sick is all. She now has a two boils on her leg, but it appears to be getting better - and she'll survive. Niece apparently is lined up to get the vaccine next week.
Family is making headway. I may get to see them all again in the not too distant future.
Huzzah! Also I'm thinking of sending my niece flowers to congratulate her for getting into the London School of Economics Foreign Exchange Program (she had to apply and worked hard for it) and on her up-coming graduation.
Pretty though - bright blue sky, and sun filled.
I'm bored at work. So, I started listening to Renegades: Born in the USA Podcast on Spotify. For those who don't know about it? Barack Obama and his friend, Bruce Springsteen, have gotten together in Springsteen's barn this past winter to record a series of podcasts about the divide in America and how to come together. They chat about their odd friendship, their backgrounds, and what they have in common and what they don't - along with various events in our history - snatches of song and speeches.
It's part, stroke the old ego, and part insightful commentary on the various racial and class divides. ( snippets from the podcast based on my haphazard memory )
I found it insightful - about the two men and about our world. Also a nice companion to Michelle Obama's book Becoming - which I recently finished. It's insightful as well, but also aggravating in places. I like her husband's better - it's more succinct. Michelle kind of rambles around her theme a bit. But she does mention how it is important to let people in. Open up and let them in. I thought, I'm trying, Michelle, I am trying.
My mother believes I am. But I don't know. I am a tad stand-offish, I guess.
But I'm shy and retiring too in my way, I suppose. And every time I get interested in anyone and try to strike up a close friendship or romance, they leave town on me. I don't know if it's a New York thing or just a thing.
Mother: Didn't the last guy move to France?
Me: Yes, to take care of his uncle who has dementia. He left in 2018. It was king of hard to keep a long distance relationship, it's not like we dated. Also I suck at long-distance relationships.
Mother: Most people do. You're brother is the only one I've noticed that maintained it - and only for short periods of time.
Me: I can't even maintain friendship and family long-distance that well, outside of you. Ames comes and goes.
On Twitter, discovered a lengthy interview with Ray Fisher regarding what happened with Whedon et all on the set of Justice League. It's more detailed than the previous interviews, and not all that surprising. Just manages to underline my current take on Whedon and Hollywood - aptly summed up by one responder as : "Hollywood is filled with assholes." Yep.
If you are at all curious, HERE's The Article.
My take aways? Whedon was an asshole on that set. And a lot of white folks don't understand racism or aren't sensitive to it. (I picked up on this during the Barack/Springsteen conversation, along with Michelle's book, but also talking to folks in my workplace.)
Katherine Forrest, a former federal judge who conducted the WarnerMedia probe, tells THR in a statement that in interviews with more than 80 witnesses, she found "no credible support for claims of racial animus" or racial "insensitivity."
I don't know, I watched the two films and compared them - I'd say what that I found the Whedon film to be insensitive racially (and gender wise) on multiple levels. But that may be subjective on my part.
( excerpts )
From the above? Whedon pissed off some interesting folks. Patty Jenkins, Gail Gadot, Jeremy Irons, and apparently everyone in the cast. (That cast included Amy Adams, Ben Affleck, Henry Caville, Diane Lane, Joe Morton, Jeremy Irons, Jason Momoa...).
I think he'd have gotten away with it, if his version of Justice League wasn't such a bad film, and hadn't bombed at the box office. What's interesting is why HBO/Warner Brothers stuck with him after that? I'd have fired his ass. How'd he get to do the Nevers? Maybe they gave him a break due to the impossible circumstances? Or he had something on one of the execs, who finally left?
Anyhow, from what I read - I'd say the Whedon Cut was racially insensitive, and from what I saw of Whedon's cut - as compared to what Zack Snyder did? The Whedon version was racially insensitive and gender insensitive. I mean I was offended by it - when I compared the two films. You don't necessarily see it without the comparison - and I think the reason for that - is people think, oh, it's a comic book or that's just the medium. We hand-wave a lot of things. OR that's just Whedon's sense of humor. Or it's not like it's not like that in the comics or cartoon.
It's not the medium. You don't have to do it that way. That's what I think is coming out right now - that excuse, oh we have to do it this way, is just that an excuse, it's justified. There's no reason why you can't have a diverse superhero team, where all the characters have an arc and agency, not just the White Guys. It can be done. And it can be done well.
Going back to Barack and Springsteen's podcasts...I've made it through four so far, I think there are eight? Anyhow, going back to the podcasts, they make an interesting point about the cinema of my childhood, and theirs - the 1970s Westerns, where we have ingrained in us the loner hero, who has no home, no roots. No community. And this fear of being domesticated. I think that's partly the old school Hollywood writers and directors problem at the moment - they are stuck in that mindset. I know Whedon kind of is. That toxic white male loner mentality. John Wayne's misanthropic character in The Searchers. Or Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter and later The Unforgiven. It's ingrained in a portion of our society and breaking out of that mold is not easy - I don't think. But necessary. To find community and roots...which is hard for outsiders to do.
***
On the COVID front? Still being inundated with bereavement notices and requests to take the vaccine via workplace.
Sis-in-law told mother that she is going to take the second dose of the Moderna. She'll just get sick is all. She now has a two boils on her leg, but it appears to be getting better - and she'll survive. Niece apparently is lined up to get the vaccine next week.
Family is making headway. I may get to see them all again in the not too distant future.
Huzzah! Also I'm thinking of sending my niece flowers to congratulate her for getting into the London School of Economics Foreign Exchange Program (she had to apply and worked hard for it) and on her up-coming graduation.