Random Rant Thread

[K1power]

Oct 12, 2021 15:25:08 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

John Cho is like 50, right? Spike is supposed to be 28 or something, but Cho can look significantly younger than he actually is.

Keanu Reeves was trying to make the live-action version for many, many years, but it pretty much died in the Hollywood graveyard. It was just not practical to begin with, though. We never thought it would happen anyway. I think many people were relieved that it didn't happen, but now it's happening in a different town in different hands. I'm certainly curious, but, well, very nervous too.

Cho was recently 'under fire' for being too old to play Spike, but I was honestly shocked when I found out he was in his late 40s already. He can easily pass for 10+ years younger. It's those superior Asian genes!

As for Reeves I can't recall his efforts trying to get a Cowboy Bebop film off the ground, but I do remember Jean Claude Van Damme's son randomly doing an open application on social media to play Spike a few years ago.

I'm not familar enough with the source material to really speak on the subject, just hope that it won't be a huge disappointment for fans looking forward to this.

I've been on the receiving end of that with DragonBall Evolution and still haven't fully recovered. That's the worst movie I have ever seen, full stop.

But to end this post on a more encouraging note, about a year ago I saw Alita: Battle Angel and was surprised by how much I actually liked it; Hollywood can actually make manga/anime adaptations work. Just get the right people on the job and don't get in their way too much.

[miscmisc]

Keanu held onto the project forever while saying that it would be too goddamn expensive, and that he feared he would be too old to play Spike if he had to wait for too long. I don't think he made many comments on that project in public, but anyhow it ended up being one of the gazillion projects that quietly died in the desert.

The biggest problem with animation -> live-action is that the latter tends to look like, like I said, a bunch of actors cosplaying the characters, ending up looking like glorified weekend street shows in Akihabara.

[miscmisc]

The problem with the ongoing EU-UK "negotiations" is that the way they have been doing it is just not normal, and that's 80% the UK's fault. People are talking about "threats" and all that, whether "threats" work or not etc.

They are playing with fucking fire. They don't know what it does, in the long run, to the psyche of British people.

At the end of the day, the whole thing has almost nothing to do with the EU. Of course I'm exaggerating it, but most of it is about UK politics. It's a British issue. It's an internal political issue. The EU will never give Britain what the UK government says that it wants. But Europe will give the UK *something* as long as it doesn't hurt the European bottom line. The question is entirely how the UK government spins it, how it sells that to the general public.

The lates EU proposal is actually not much. How will the UK government spin it? A great step forward? An insult to Britain? Unfortunately that's all that matters, because everything has been politicized in the most regrettable way to the core. These are all serious matters that involve actual human lives, but there's nothing but PR wars, "threats," "winning," "losing," mindless nationalism. It's all a mirage, one that will have serious consequences.

[miscmisc]

From such a sensational headline you'd think Japan did something extraordinary or miraculous.

The truth is that she didn't, of course.

Back from the brink: how Japan became a surprise Covid success story
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/13/back-from-the-brink-how-japan-became-a-surprise-covid-success-story

It's just a non-remarkable story of Delta, vaccines, and perhaps seasonality. And also perhaps you could argue that it once again suggests that universal masking works to lessen the damage.

But that's about it. Japan handled it a lot more poorly than South Korea and Taiwan overall, and that was the case in 2020 as well. And we've learned nothing new from this latest Delta surge in Japan. Nothing. Not story-worthy. Clickbait is all there is.

[miscmisc]

Apparently the largest nationality on Twitter is Japanese(!), and if that surprised you, well, most of them are anonymous shitposting accounts, LOL. On average each user has more than one *active* accounts.

What a sad, mentally-ill people we are, turning every platform into a 2-chan. Thank God Japanese is a very non-universal language so that few non-Japanese people notice the pathetic tragedy.

[gols]

Oct 14, 2021 2:21:18 GMT 1 miscmisc said:

The problem with the ongoing EU-UK "negotiations" is that the way they have been doing it is just not normal, and that's 80% the UK's fault. People are talking about "threats" and all that, whether "threats" work or not etc.

They are playing with fucking fire. They don't know what it does, in the long run, to the psyche of British people.

At the end of the day, the whole thing has almost nothing to do with the EU. Of course I'm exaggerating it, but most of it is about UK politics. It's a British issue. It's an internal political issue. The EU will never give Britain what the UK government says that it wants. But Europe will give the UK *something* as long as it doesn't hurt the European bottom line. The question is entirely how the UK government spins it, how it sells that to the general public.

The lates EU proposal is actually not much. How will the UK government spin it? A great step forward? An insult to Britain? Unfortunately that's all that matters, because everything has been politicized in the most regrettable way to the core. These are all serious matters that involve actual human lives, but there's nothing but PR wars, "threats," "winning," "losing," mindless nationalism. It's all a mirage, one that will have serious consequences.

It's become normal Conservative Party modus operandi, everything is a game.

As they get absolutely no blowback from the electorate at all (well, not enough to hurt their position), they just carry on doing it.

[K1power]

Dave Chappelle sparks LGBTQ+ controversy again
www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/entertainment/dave-chappelle-netflix-controversy/index.html

Ugh... here we go again. People are offended.

Now, I fully realize that as a (more or less) middle class white straight male I'm privileged and in no position to tell anyone what they can or cannot be offended about.

However, I don't think 'being offended' should give anyone any rights. We are all way too sensitive to be eligible for any kind of power or entitlement when our feelings get hurt.

While I don't like to make comparisons of 'who suffered more?', people of color have had it way worse for way longer on a way larger scale than the LGBTQ community. And yet nobody bats an eye when Dave jokes about the hardships of black people. You know why? Because he's a fucking comedian and nobody has more love and passion for the black community than Dave does.

But now I'm reading headlines like 'Chappelle Threads The Waters of Transphobia Once More' and 'Chappelle Has Fallen For Right-Wing Machinery' and I find it hard not to cringe.

I mean, of course all those right-wing grifters on social media thrive on situations like this one and are 'in full support' of Dave who's 'fighting the good fight against the evil pink-haired woke movement', but don't get it twisted; those aren't Dave's friends. At all. They throw the BLM movement under the bus every chance they get.

Despite knowing fuck-all about politics, I guess that makes me somewhat of a centrist, even though I always considered myself very much a left-leaning person; I can't stand those those disgusting right-winged neckbeard grifters, but have a lot of issues with the woke movement as well. While I have a hard time coming to grips with whatever the fuck 'cancel culture' is, it does feel to me like the woke movement often applies bullying tactics in their activism, all under the guise of justice.

I just really hope Netflix doesn't buckle on this as I feel it would set a dangerous precedent. Also because if anything, The Closer once more proved that Chappelle is anything but a bigot. I know that probably doesn't mean much to anyone coming from me, but at this point I'm just relieved to get a bit of my grievances off my chest.

In closing: I'm happy I'm not a blogger, because the above feels very much like something I usually like to bitch about; self-important pricks sharing their hot takes with the world.

[gols]

Seems to me like a famous celebrity using their platform to repeatedly target a minority group. That sounds a lot more like bullying than asking him to stop...

Dave Chapelle might not think those right-wing grifters are his friends but he is certainly doing their job for them.

[K1power]

If all I went with were mainstream media outlets I would perhaps - on a certain level - agree. Not saying that's what you did because I don't have a clue, but from what I've seen many of the outlets are just as much trying to push their audience in a certain direction with their narrative as the grifters do.

And I'm obviously biased here because I'm a huge fan of Chappelle since forever, but I honestly disagree with the whole notion of 'targeting a minority group', because to me that implies bad intent. It also feels like a disservice to the overabundance of context Chappelle adds to his routines and the amount of olive branches he extends. It's a lot more nuanced than the cherry-picked soundbites both the grifters and mainstream media are going with.

I believe Dave's just trying to make the point that - as long as it's within proper context - a comedian should be able to joke about anything. And I agree. I hate the idea of policing comedy. Comedy in and of itself is pretty much inherently offensive, because you're always gonna joke/laugh about misfortune on some level.

[gols]

I will admit I haven't watched any of Chappelle's stuff since the original Chappelle's Show (which was great), so I can only go with quotes of his that I read online.

Can't help being reminded of the old racist comedians we had in the UK. If anyone complained they were just told "It's only comedy - can't you take a joke?". Would Dave C have stood up for their rights to tell their racist jokes on national TV? (Hey, maybe he would).

[K1power]

I'm not sure. If I had to guess I'd say it depends on the context and intent.

If a racist makes a racist joke it clearly hits a lot different than when a non-racist does. And obviously a lot of that comes down to personal interpretation, because a racist usually wouldn't admit to being one, but the signs would be there.

Also - and this should go without saying - I respect your replies. I feel this is more of an open conversation than most people seem to be able to have on touchy subjects.

[miscmisc]

Before this controversy I didn't know this latest Chappelle show. Now I do. Funny that.

OK, sorry for being a dick, and I'm not saying that Netflix and Dave Chappelle did the whole thing purely as a PR stunt. Chappelle's stance on trans and others was well known, and it's not like he shocked the world with this or anything like that.

I disagree with him on many, if not all, of these issues, and you know my stance on the kind of people who scream cancel culture all the time, particularly the ones who are not right-wingers. I straight up loathe them.

But that doesn't mean "cancel culture" isn't real. I have been nearly canceled a couple of times. I know what it's like. It's a horrible thing. And I know how hysterical and indeed Stalinist some of those social warriors can be. Trust me, I know.

But the real victims of "cancel culture" are rarely discussed. Meanwhile, the likes of Bari Weiss get richer. Do you know how much she earns through her substack now? A humongous amount. Those grifters victimize themselves upward.

Seeing those people making a fortune, many people, typically on the left, assume that "cancel culture" is just pure bullshit. That's also unfortunate because that's basically survivorship bias at work. The louder their voice is, the bigger their platform is, the better they do after they got "cancelled," fabulously better in many cases. It's a fucking goldmine. 

But there are many corpses behind and around them, the actual victims of getting "cancelled." It's wrong to deny that.

You know, I'm a bit Machiavellian on these things, things that happens in the period of social transformation. You can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs, etc. But honestly I'm noticing some pretty hideous excesses here and there, some completely ass-backwards stuff. I do think that is a problem.

But Dave Chappelle will do just fine, make a lot of money, and so will Netflix. I just cannot get worked up about that. And I don't see this controversy contribute in any way to addressing the actual issues around "cancel culture," because he cannot, by default, represent the real victims. He's simply not in such a position. I'm just being lazy here because I haven't watched the show, but I'm damn sure he made sure he offended everyone, by which I mean a lot of different peoples, because that's his style. That's his defensive move too. If you offend everyone, you actually offend no one. That's the oldest trick in comedy. That's why it's usually a waste of time to try to argue in good faith with comedians.

I assume he's not interested in representing any "group" anyway. So, I just expect him to do fine after this, and that's pretty much where my interest in the whole thing ends. Chappelle is very talented after all.

[miscmisc]

I read The Guardian, and learn that 1.546 gazillion children in Britain got Covid, and counting. I think their school policies are just wrong. You could say that it's just the result of testing a lot, but even taking that into consideration, it's an astonishing number. We really don't know what this thing can do to children in the long run, people.

They shouldn't have dropped the mask mandate at schools in the middle of the global Delta surge, should they?

You could argue that masks are less effective with kids, but whatever, mask is the only explanation that I can think of for why much, much, much, much fewer children have gotten Covid in Japan even with low adult vaccination rates (at that time, not anymore) than in Britain. I assume there were many stealth cases among Japanese children, but the school system managed to function okay. The situation in Britain sounds like a horror story for parents.

What I'm saying is, don't underestimate facial masks. The emergence of the vaccines seems to have made many people feel like they are nothing. They can always help.

[miscmisc]

The pandemic has altered our life style on multiple levels. We are not sure yet what and how exactly, but the life afterwards won't be the same. It may only be subtle ones for some, but those little things can add up too.

I can list more than several for me personally now, and one of the least significant things is the interest in football/soccer.

I did make comments on EURO in a different thread as if I was into it, but at one point I actually realized that I was forcing myself to watch the games. Deep inside I truly couldn't care less! I had to lie to myself.

And weekly club competitions? Leagues? Man, I don't give a shit anymore, even for the clubs that I supposedly support. I will barely give some shit for the World Cup, maybe.

The truth, though, is probably that I had been waiting to lose my interest in the sport, and the pandemic simply gave me the opportunity. I didn't miss it at all while it was gone, and watching several games with no spectators in a row made me realize - or reconfirmed - that the sport is fucking boring in its essence. You could call it the beauty of simplicity, of transcending the human instinct (of using the damn hands for doing things), as I used to, but count me out now. I guess I've changed. 
 
What about you? Anything you stopped caring about primarily because of the pandemic?

[miscmisc]

Zero talent.

These obnoxious generic people (Hey, racially diverse though!!) making fun of the dude for one minute nonstop. Constantly talking, explaining EVERYTHING in words. Holy shit, this is an excruciatingly bad dialogue. What the hell is this, an audiobook? Unless HBO suddenly has an extremely-friendly-to-blind-people policy or something, this screams WE SUCK ASS.

It would be a miracle if this show turned out half decent.