Boeing Whistle Blower Un-Alived, Oscars Go Full Pedo, Reacher Star Returns to 2010 TV Series?, The Strange Hamilton/Nu Metal Connection, "Southern Accents Unfeminine" - Huh? (The Five for 03/15/24)
Plus, Reacher star returning to 2010 football comedy? Apple TV+ takes on Benjamin Franklin, a tragic-laden 90's film gets an uncomfortable remake
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[one]
If you haven’t been keeping track of the news lately, things are falling off Boeing jets at an awfully alarming rate (like doors and wheels). This week, the whistleblower who called out Boeing’s sloppy procedures and alleged internal pressure not to “find anything wrong” was discovered un-alived.
A news release from the Charleston County Coroner’s Office said John Barnett, 62, died on March 9, from “what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.” The city’s police department says detectives are investigating the case and “awaiting the formal cause of death, along with any additional findings that might shed further light on the circumstances surrounding the death of Mr. Barnett.”
A statement provided to CNN by his lawyers says, “John was in the midst of a deposition in his whistleblower retaliation case, which finally was nearing the end. He was in very good spirits and really looking forward to putting this phase of his life behind him and moving on. We didn’t see any indication he would take his own life. No one can believe it. We are all devasted [sic]. We need more information about what happened to John. The Charleston police need to investigate this fully and accurately and tell the public what they find out. No detail can be left unturned.”
Ever since Jeffrey Epstein’s death, the push to dismiss any evidence contrary to the ruling of suicide is strong (like, you know, the autopsy showing signs of strangulation, not hanging…reported in the fringe, conspiracy-minded websites like NEWSWEEK).
How is it that a nation with obsessed with true crime podcasts can’t comprehend the possibility that the rich, famous and very powerful might whack a guy in jail to save face, or shoot a guy in his truck to protect the margins of a $7 billion in profits last year?
Look, I have no idea what happened to whistle blower John Bartlett…but the fact that most of the corporate press is just shrugging and running headline variations of “well, shucks, guess he got real sad and ate his gun sitting in his truck” is highly suspect. Is investigative journalism completely dead? If not…can we get some of that again?
Did anybody check to see how much Boeing stock the Clintons hold?
No reason…
[two]
A beauty influencer and self proclaimed #MuslimMAGA (uhhh…wut?) online personality (who appears to have immigrated to the U.S.—buy why tho) attacked outdoor influencer Hannah Barron on a tweet that has 62 million views and counting.
The whole thing has become an odd microcosm of 2024’s “feminism vs. anti-feminism” debate.
I’m only mildly familiar with Hannah Barron, a hunting and fishing personality who occasionally pops up in my feeds, but I’ve never followed. A few clicks shows a kind, empathetic young woman who helps her dad build houses and is making (presumably) pretty good money from her outdoor content.
But the attack from the aforementioned Eurotrash personality kicked off pretty heinous remarks from the fringes on both the political left and right.
Well, the attacks came from the fringe right that Barron’s Instagram account is “pornographic,” which leads me to wonder if these people are sexually attracted to A). large catfish B). Australian shepherds, or C). freshly killed elk…because the woman in the photos is fully clothed 90% of the time., with a single photo in swimwear in her recent photos, which seems appropriate enough for fishing.
Then, a segment of…snobby urbanites insisted that if you are attracted to a woman who can hunt and fish, then you’re gay (again—uhh, wut?)
…and on the fringe left, multiple Twitter accounts offended at rural life in general hurled attacks that Barron’s boyfriend was “gay and on steroids.” How’s that tolerance, diversity and LGBT+ acceptance going for ya if gay is an insult again…not to mention the body shaming?
Barron, did not have a Twitter account at the time she started trending, posted a video to YouTube and Instagram with her response, which was full of poise and grace…oddly enough, positioning her as more classically feminine than Captain Botox who had leveled the initial attack.
But I just think it's hilarious because I grew up as the weird kid in high school who hunted and fished too much because back then it wasn't cool for women to hunt or fish or the whole country lifestyle.
And I'm so proud of all the women in the outdoors now who are making that more cool or popular. So proud of us. I think we're doing great, but I've been helping dad build houses since I was 15 when I was a senior in high school I taught kids how to wield in ag class. So I've done Manual labor when I think of manual labor, I think of what my dad does.
I'm nowhere near that I just help as much as I can and I try and it's fun and there's nothing wrong with that There's a lot of blue collar women out there who are also feminine. And so I just think that you should embrace your own individuality Individuality You should be yourself and don't worry about what anybody else said because these folks talking about me and think they're gonna offend me That ship sailed a long time ago.
I've been getting picked on my whole life. I grew up around men. Well So don't be scared to build your own box and don't try to fit in anybody else's Be your own person and you'll be happier in the long run because of that and don't worry about what anybody else has to say Hope y'all have a good one.
Slow. Clap.
[three]
As a policy, The Five doesn’t cover awards, shows, because famous people applauding one another isn’t particularly interesting, and because films like Rocky and Return of the King could never win Best Picture today.
Because what’s in at the Oscars these days is…pedophilia. Poor Things was a big winner at the awards show Sunday night, a movie I had no familiarity with…and I kinda wish it had stayed that way.
Emma Stone plays Bella Baxter, whose body has been repurposed after her death by suicide. She had been pregnant at the time of her death, leading an eccentric scientist named Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) to replace her brain with that of her unborn baby, as an experiment. Bella therefore, when first we meet her, has the morphology of a woman but the faltering language, naivety and frankness of an infant. Stone’s gait expresses that disconnect: Though Bella’s muscles are at full maturity, her brain has only recently learned to move them, so she walks with a theatrical lurch, somewhere between a toddler’s waddle and the flounce of a marionette.
So, Emma plays a TODDLER in an adult’s body…who is coerced into sex.
All of this is enormously inviting, as we follow Bella in her apprenticeship: This childwoman is eager to learn and develop, not least in terms of her nascent sexuality. Cue the arrival of Duncan Wedderburn, played with gusto by Mark Ruffalo as a ridiculous, devilishly sexy cad who spirits Bella away from Godwin and from her doe-eyed fiancé, Max (Ramy Youssef). Aboard a sprawling ocean liner, the pair indulge in their favorite pastime: namely, wild, demented banging.
Sex, which Bella calls “jumping furiously” is depicted with raucous abandon at this juncture of the film: Duncan, though he may be a conniving bastard, an idiot and a preening fop, is a gifted cocksman, and we know by now that Bella picks things up quickly. It takes a fairly serious command of tone to make a film at once so otherworldly, funny, and—well—horny, and Lanthimos and a remarkably game Stone are to be commended for their lack of shyness in that regard.
What the hell? I don’t want to be John Lithgow in Footloose here and claim there’s no room for nuance to explore complex ideas in art, but…what the hell? The movie depicts a person who is mentally a pre-schooler…being statutorily raped.
I’m pretty absolute on free speech, and I wouldn’t even want to suggest a “ban” here or anything, and I can understand why Emma Stone’s acting is being celebrated, as I’m sure this was a very difficult role to pull off.
Still…what the hell? How is this anything other than an attempt to normalize pedophilia?
[four]
If you haven’t noticed, the early 2000’s sounds of Nu Metal bands like Korn, P.O.D., Deftones, Linkin Park (who’s 2003 album Meteora is CURRENTLY on the Billboard charts) and Slipknot are back in a big way…both in streaming numbers and as major influences for a host of Gen Z artists, according to the New York Times.
Just three months ago, GQ described Nu Metal as “the hottest thing in fashion” with the Adidas/Korn collaboration selling out and fashion designer Marc Jacobs teaming up with Deftones, and getting favorable coverage in Vogue.
And with the return of the genre of my late high school/early college years…the rage of Coastal Elite music journalists who really, really hate music that originates anywhere except for places they deem cool enough to produce culture.
From the Punk Rock MBA YouTube Channel:
Most genres in rock start out as an underground movement in some place like New York, LA or London. And it’s initially only on the radar of hipsters who think it’s cool. For example, punk coming out of CBGB’s in New York or decades later, The Strokes. But Nu Metal wasn’t like that, it was from what those smug critics would call fly-over country.
Slipknot was from Iowa, Korn was from Bakersfield, which is in California, but might as well be Iowa.When you think about the typical Nu Metal fan is, it’s a blue collar kid from Youngstown, Ohio who doesn’t know or care who the Velvet Underground or Ziggy Stardust are. And as we’ve seen over the years, the one group of people it’s acceptable to socially s*** on is them…that blue collar crowd from the middle of the country.
Essentially, the coastal music writers were Big Mad that anyone dared to create culture that didn’t bow before the alter of music hipster NYC music blogs like Brooklyn Vegan (no hate, just an example…I actually really like that site).
Author Rob Henderson (who I’m friendly with on Twitter), has pointed out that Hamilton, which was $400-$1,000 a ticket in 2016, was “canceled” a few short years later…has endured a similar fate (becoming uncool/scorned) to Nu Metal…because blue collar people in the Midwest got to enjoy it.
From the Washington Post
Henderson wryly notes that, in 2015, a person acquired status by seeing “Hamilton.” By 2020, however, when the masses had made the musical contemptibly popular, former enthusiasts turned against it, saying it insufficiently reflected America’s failings. Its creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, performed the expected grovel: “All the criticisms are valid.”
According to Rob, in his (excellent new memoir Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family and Social Class, the hate for Hamilton started when the hit musical landed on Disney+, giving as much access to the mechanic in Dayton, OH to watch it as a social climber on the Upper East Side.
The timing here is pretty perfect, as the book White Rural Rage just dropped (watch an awkward interview on MSNBC to learn more), which is apparently about how people like me (farm raised, with a bevy of blue-collar close friends & family) are likely to be the next Unabomber or something.
In reality, the rage I’m seeing is from a couple of major urban centers that, GASP, the people living between New York and LA might enjoy rock music, and Broadway theater (albeit, on a streaming service).
I’m not much of a metal fan (Nu or otherwise), but I’ll never forget the feeling when Slipknot, natives of Des Moines (just a couple hours from where I grew up), really broke through on MTV circa 2000. Was it my “typical” style of music? Not at all.
But a few somebodys from about where I’m from picked up instruments and a microphone and made it…and that gave me the feeling I could make it too.
I don’t believe that feeling of empowerment takes anything from anybody else. But I guess music writers and hipsters in New York thought (and still think) otherwise, like there’s a limited amount of culture in the world, and anything that exists outside of America’s three largest cities is siphoning from a limited supply.
Apparently us blue collar Midwesterners are not allowed to partake in their culture, but we sure as heck aren’t supposed to build our own, either.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
The legacy of the 1994 film The Crow is a bit of a mixed bag, as it was both a beloved piece of 90’s pop culture that cost the life of Brandon Lee (son of the legendary Bruce Lee) to make, due to an on-set accident...and the movie was finished with special effects and body doubles.
This time around, Bill Skarsgard (It, John Wick 4) fills the title role of a dead guy (I guess?) who comes back to avenge his murdered lover (British pop singer FKA Twigs, who’s new to acting). The remake looks cool, but given the grim tone of the story mixed with the 1994 tragedy, I’m not sure how much I could enjoy watching this one…
If you want to entice me to watch a rom-com, throw in vinyl records, time travel and difficult philosophical questions.
THE GREATEST HITS looks to break pretty far outside the walls of typical genre fare here. Brief run in theaters before hitting Hulu in April.
The legendary Michael Douglas (Wall Street, The Ghost and the Darkness) as Benjamin Franklin? Dope. Streaming in April.
Huh. Well, now that Alan Ritchson is a bona fide star thanks to Prime Video’s Reacher and is rumored to be the next Batman for James Gunn’s DC reboot…his next role may be an old one? Allegedly, the Florida native is looking to reboot his character Thad Castle in a sequel series to Blue Mountain State, a comedy series that ran from 2010-2012 about a very bro-y college football team. It’s a VERY different character than the stoic Reacher, and proves Ritchson’s comedic chops. Interesting indeed.
[new music]
One of the most vivid moments of my radio career was hearing Mat Kearney’s debut single, “Undeniable” (listen here) for the first time while on air, and he’s been remarkably consistent since his freshman LP in 2004.
After a three year break from his last LP, Kearny is back in the saddle with a new single that settles comfortably into Kearney’s signature sound…which has now worked in three different decades, possibly because nobody has figured out how to copy it.
Until the next one,
-sth