Call It Grift Drift

The one thing I wish she'd mentioned is the probability that the bots are programmed to pick up on anything that promotes division or chaos, or the kind of content that can be refined into pro-plutocracy propaganda.

I think what we're seeing online is a phenomenon of popular inertia - The Bandwagon Effect - or something along those lines.

People see the "great response" to whatever pops up on their social media feed, and they assume it must be good because, holy crap - just look at how much traffic this guy's getting. And cynical manipulators are quick to exploit it.

I got my first inkling of this years ago when talking with my late ex-mother-in-law. I asked her who she'd be voting for, and she told me, "I don't know - I don't know who all my friends are going to vote for yet."

Remember the Ford Pinto!

Awards Season Is Upon Us

I've dropped all of my streaming subscriptions - except hulu, which is included in my cell phone package. I rarely go out to movies, and there's nothing much on "regular" TV but some old sitcoms and the occasional sportsball game.

I've kinda isolated myself from a big part of the culture.

So when the (eg) Golden Globes come out, I have a vague sense of disconnect because while I have some passing familiarity with most of the shows, I don't think I've actually seen any of them. 

And that can be a problem, because there have been plenty of movies and shows over the years that I've really liked that could never be thought of as "mainstream". I guess I should be looking for a way to tap into the lesser known works, to keep myself better apprised of what's going on so I don't "miss out" on something that could be important (?)

Sorry - I'm just randomly rambling. Trying to figure out if I should make more of an effort, or just let it go. It is a puzzlement.

The complete list of Golden Globes winners in 2024

Best motion picture, drama

“Oppenheimer”

Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, drama

Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Best motion picture, musical or comedy

“Poor Things”

Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Paul Giamatti, “The Holdovers”

Best television series, drama

“Succession”

Best performance by a female actor in a television series, drama

Sarah Snook, “Succession”

Best television series, musical or comedy

“The Bear”

Best television limited series, anthology series, or motion picture made for television

“Beef”

Cinematic and box office achievement

“Barbie”

Best original song, motion picture

“What Was I Made For?” by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell.

Best original score, motion picture

Ludwig Göransson, “Oppenheimer”

Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, drama

Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy

Emma Stone, “Poor Things”

Best director, motion picture

Christopher Nolan, “Oppenheimer”

Best motion picture, animated

“The Boy and the Heron”

Best performance by a male actor in a television series, drama

Kieran Culkin, “Succession”

Best performance by a female actor in a television series, musical or comedy

Ayo Edebiri, “The Bear”

Best motion picture, non-English language

“Anatomy of a Fall”

Best performance in stand-up comedy on television

Ricky Gervais, “Ricky Gervais: Armageddon”

Best performance by a male actor in a television series, musical or comedy

Jeremy Allen White, “The Bear”

Best screenplay, motion picture

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, “Anatomy of a Fall”

Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role on television

Matthew Macfadyen, “Succession”

Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role on television

Elizabeth Debicki, “The Crown”

Best performance by a male actor in a limited series, anthology series or a motion picture made for television

Steven Yeun, “Beef”

Best performance by a female actor in a limited series, anthology series, or a motion picture made for television

Ali Wong, “Beef”

Best performance by a male actor in a supporting role in any motion picture

Robert Downey Jr., “Oppenheimer”

Best performance by a female actor in a supporting role in any motion picture

Da’Vine Joy Randolph, “The Holdovers”

They Can't Stand It

They're afraid. If someone really really really popular comes out in opposition of the assumed predominant populist appeal - well - let the freak out and losing of shit begin.

Very very afraid.

GoT Breakdown

YouTuber Eric Voss - New Rockstars

"Breaking the wheel" is a notion that carries an appeal that's almost universally popular - thus its political enshrinement as Populism - but in the end, it's almost as universally false.

Revolutionaries ride in promising some variation on "peace bread freedom and justice", but they deliver struggle and pain and sorrow and privation.

For as long as there's been any kind of political structure, people have been out to conquer the world. The world is bruised and bloodied, but it remains undefeated.

When will we ever learn?

Crammin' For The Final

The last season of Game Of Thrones is coming. Time to brush up.

Kara Swisher

On Real Time with Bill Maher:

"...(social media) wasn't hacked by the Russians. They just walked right in and used them exactly the way they were intended to be used."

"...move fast and break things...well you've broken a lot of things, now what're you going to fix?"

I think I've got me a new crush.

Bye, Larry

Things change because they have to change, but we've lost a strong clear voice.

I only hope the suits will eventually come to understand that the revenue they seem to prize more than life itself means practically nothing compared with what a guy like Larry Wilmore's been trying to do.  And if they had anything on the ball that's anywhere near what they think they have on the ball, they'd have figured out a way to make it work.  As it is, all they're left with is a copyright on some content that they think is valuable enough to hoard while making sure nobody ever gets to see it again.

Seriously - sometimes the "smart guys" are the dumbest fuckin' people.  More Larry - less MBA Spreadsheet bullshit.

Today's Philosophizing

Game Of Thrones is ridiculously popular - partly because a large portion of the audience is willing to embrace the idea of basing an entire government on the awesome image of a small odd-looking naked woman emerging from a house fire of suspicious origins.

And really - if you've been following this election cycle on American TV, you're prob'ly not all that surprised.

About Last Nite

SNL may finally be all the way back in the game.

Teach The World To Sing

The Message Manipulators seem to be bent on stripping away the soul from all of us by reducing everything to a transaction and creating a world of de-humanizing commercialism.

I've been part of that.  I was with them for a long time.  No more.  And never again.

But there are times when my eternally insistent skepticism (which always teeters on the brink of The Cynical Abyss) is tested.  

Wouldn't it be nice if this was more than just another attempt to co-opt something that should be a lot more meaningful than making us smell less like humans. (not that there's anything wrong with smelling better - just sayin')

hat tip = Facebook friend MH

The Price of Things

Way back when Star Wars first became the biggest thing ever, we wondered how it blew up so big so fast.  I mean, how do you make half a billion dollars in a coupla months in 1977 selling movie tickets at $2.75 a piece, and action figures and masks and posters and bed sheets and various other low-end shit like that?

Wanna make the large dollars?  Develop the cross marketing tie-ins with the guys with the really deep pockets - the health insurance companies, the docs, and their buddies in the medical supplies industry.

Just kidding, ya weenies (it had me goin' for a while tho).  These are from a master joker extraordinaire named Richard Littler who blogs deliciously viciously at scarfolk.blogspot.com

A Culture Of Mediocre

Rap. Gangsta Rap. Hip Hop. Swag Rap. Grime. Pick a Sub-Genre.

We were afraid.  The youngsters were outa control, listening to the horribly horrible-est noise ever to emerge from the pits of hell; nobody'd ever come up with anything so evil ... and ... yeah - prob'ly not so much.  At least not considering that everybody's said exactly the same thing about every shift from one pop music era to the next, going back thru Rock-n-Roll and Swing and Jazz and all the way back to the fucking Waltz and beyond.

Insert standard rant(s) about American Pop Culture Is Bullshit - or - Stupid Corporate Bastards Are Killing The Vibe - or - what-the-fuck-ever, man.

Evolution, motherfucker - it gets shit done. 

hat tip = tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors

A More Powerful Vocabulary

hat tip = FB buddy BD

The Vaxxer Thing

There's no "other side" of the vaccination thing.  

It's kinda like: "eating pancakes doesn't make you gay".  Nobody is on the other side of that one either.  Cuz there's no other side to be on.

Todays' Ad

Ya wanna fuck up your own car and/or your own life, OK.  But it's not just you.  How come the rest of us have to risk our lives and our property and pay more for our insurance just because you can't figure out that you're not entitled to do whatever the fuck you want while everybody else gets to accommodate your spoiled little 1st world princeling ass?

If Google Was A Guy #3

A Different Kinda Challenge

Variation on a theme is almost always a good thing.



I've resisted the ice bucket challenge mightily.  Not because I'm a curmudgeonly old poopy head - OK, not just because I'm a curmudgeonly old poopy head - I care about ALS and I care about the people who have to suffer and die because of it.

I resist because the ice bucket thing has become so popular and so cool and so Cause Celebre, that it's not about the good works any more.  It's about participating in a fad.  Not that it's always and only a bad thing to go along with the crowd, especially when it's in service of a great benefit to the community.  The point is that this ends up detracting from bunches of other great ideas that need our support simply because a marketing department somewhere came up with an idea that's cut thru the clutter and gone viral (the holy grail of Digital Age Marketing), and because it lets us rationalize not doing much of anything else about much of anything else.

And BTW - the ice bucket thing did not originate as an ALS thing.
Today Show
Josh Levin - Slate (who can resist a really good creation myth?)

But more to the point, here's what Will Oremus at Slate Magazine suggests as a possible alternative to spending more on the ice and the water (plus your time) than you do on the contribution itself:

1. Do not fetch a bucket, fill it with ice, or dump it on your head.
2. Do not film yourself or post anything on social media.
3. Just donate the damn money, whether to the ALS Association or to some other charity of your choice. And if it’s an organization you really believe in, feel free to politely encourage your friends and family to do the same.

The curmudgeonly old poopy head has spoken.  So let it be written; so let it be done.

The Ammosexuals

And if I stop for just short bit (to listen again to the part where Bill says it straight out), I begin to understand that Da Gubmint isn't going to do anything about our gun problem because they can't - we'll have to leave it all up to the ones who hold the real power in this country - The Corporations.

Today's Reality

I don't watch "reality TV" because it's anything but reality.  I guess I should say I don't watch much of it.  I do feel the need to check in on it once in a while - partly because I have teenagers who watch way too much of that shit, and partly because ya gotta take a peek at whatever passes for "the popular culture" once in a while.

So anyway, the Kardashians and the Robertsons and all these other over-privileged addicted-to-themselves attention whores have absolutely nothing to say and nothing to do unless they first go as far outa their way as possible to find something to piss and moan about; and once they find something to get bitchy about, they go even farther outa their way to make sure their friends and family members are the ones they scuffle with over it.  BTW: they keep it "in the family" because the writers and the producers (and most importantly, the marketeers) have told them that's what the rubes viewing public want to see.  Nobody's that dysfunctional without being Deliberately and Purposefully Dysfunctional.  So that's pretty fucked up right there, but knowing it's what we asked for is even more fucked up.

Anyway - take all that and go one tiny step farther, by overlaying it onto what we see in politics practically every day.

Why does Walt Putin need to fuck with Crimea?  And why do Huckleberry Fauxbutch and Grampy McDumfuck then have to work so hard trying to figure out how to take the caricature of Obama as the feckless dictator who rules by Executive Order whenever he calls the GOP on obstructionism, and turn him into a dithering stumblebum who couldn't lead ants to a sugar bowl because he won't immediately launch all the nukes when Putin decides to wiggle his dick at somebody in western Asia?

There's plenty that's both real and wrong about what's happening in and around Ukraine.  I just wanna see a lot less of the fake shit.  Show me more of John Kerry stepping on his dick with a track shoe scolding the Russians about not invading countries for bullshit reasons - that was real and fun - and really funny.

Today's Rant

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American consumer.