The first ten on today’s playlist:

Talk To Me.

This film was so much better than No One Will Save You. By no means perfect, but it told a cohesive, gripping story that only had a few missteps. Such a contrast to the mess that was No One. The main flaw of Talk To Me is that it either needed to be a good bit shorter or quite a bit longer. By that, I mean that there were tantalizing hints of explanation never realized that would’ve been better off cut how they were presented, or expanded upon fully.

I liked that the movie was pretty nasty. It was not a feel-good tale (spoiler alert) where the protagonist triumphed in the end. Oh, she definitely developed as a character, and was changed, but not enough; she still mostly failed and was nearly-useless when it counted the most.

Like most people, like life. Good film with a real sting.

I can’t help making fun of these clowns (reference my post below):

The name “Josh” comes from the name “Joshua” which is a transliteration of the Hebrew Yehoshua, literally “the Lord is salvation.” This author knew exactly why they named the character “Josh” and the person above is a motherfucking douchenugget.

When I am Galactic Overload, I am banning idiots.

Why do men make an extra effort to not look at (or make eye contact) with me in public?

I see a variant of this question frequently on Reddit and other places, and the answer is: this is what women have told men they want! So that’s what good men do. Sometimes it’s even contractually stipulated:

Meanwhile, the bad men don’t give a crap so those are the only ones women will have any interactions with. Women have accidentally but in a very real way created a terrible equilibrium where they’ve guaranteed they will only have negative interactions with men. Good work!

Same, same:

Meanwhile women can and do get away with all manner of creepy-ass shit like recording guys in the gym hoping they will glance at her for a picosecond. Makes no sense.

No matter what you think of Bernie Sanders, I agree with Dave Winer that this might be the best political ad of all time. Dang that’s some high-level propaganda jiu jitsu there (all political ads are propaganda, definitionally).

The below isn’t a political ad, though near that demesne — but this is my favorite ad in that realm of all all time, because it shows what we could be if we wanted to.

Even though this is written from the perspective of a girl growing up, I identity with this so much. I always had to be wary. I always had someone (even my own father) telling me I was weak and worthless. I never felt safe, especially from my peers. My own relatives shunned me in school and outside it like I was a plague. It would’ve been easier for me to conform but I did not — I decided “fuck them” and I never conceded anything — and I am very proud of myself for that.

“You were the strongest little fighter that carried me here.” Right on, sister. She and I know how it is.

Joke’s on them, though. I’m tougher than and have done better than every single one of those motherfuckers. I walked the hard path and it did not beat me. No one should have to do that but I did and here I am while many of them are in graves now and good fucking riddance to them all.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

How do you deal with being perceived as a threat all the time?

This is probably the worst part of being a man. I don’t think you ever get used to it. At least I have not.

And the terrible thing is that most women are actually really bad at perceiving which men are truly a threat — they most often get it exactly wrong. I haven’t figured out why, yet, though. Still thinking about it. I think too many women perceive confidence as not a threat, when in reality it’s the confident pricks who most likely are very dangerous.

But not sure.

What? Only $4 million to make a film like that? Insane. I figured at least $20 million if not higher. That makes me appreciate the work all the more.

God, The Witch is such a great film. It never hits a false note and maintains its tone throughout — and Anya Taylor-Joy is so very good in this. All the cast is, for that matter. That’s why The Witch is one of my favorite films of the last decade, if not my favorite. It just transports you to a different world, strands you there and says, “Here, look.”

It’s not for everyone — it does not hold your hand, it does not condescend, and it does not attempt (as nearly all modern films would) to pretend these fundamentalist Puritan characters in 17th Century New England think nor act anything like us. And that is exactly what makes the film great. It has the courage to be a real movie.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

This is regarding Covid:

However, there has been significant decoupling of hospitalization and case numbers due to population-level immunity.

Huh! I remember “experts” telling us over and over that “herd immunity is impossible” and that it was not happening and could not happen. When any fucking person who is not an idiot knew it was gonna happen. It was also cute how these experts redefined “herd immunity” to mean something it had never meant in the past and is in no textbook anywhere.

It was also really damn strange to see them do things like claiming that herd immunity didn’t mean what they said it meant four months prior. Makes you wonder exactly what they were playing at.

Self-checkout is annoying for this very reason:

I only do this kinda crap when I’m alone as I don’t like to drag anyone else into my clownery, but one time at a self-checkout some cheese wouldn’t scan and no one was available to help. I waited for five minutes and then gave up, paid for the other items.

Then I walked out the door while half-shouting, “I’m leaving! If anyone wants to stop me, now’s the time!” No one did and I got free cheese for wasting my motherfucking time. No one said or did shit. And I’d do it again. If anyone wants to lay a shoplifting charge on me for $5 of cheese, bring it. I have lots and lots of money for all the lawyers and I’m spiteful.