LA Times: "Shameful to Have Kids" There Are No More Rock Bands--Economics Explains Why, The Office Reboot is Official(ly Cringe), Yellowstone Creator's Spy Show Looks Amazing (The Five for 09/20/24)
Plus, this video game worth more than the Dallas Cowboys. Joseph Gordon Levitt/Shailene Woodley "Noir" Murder/Mystery snagged by Prime Video
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
It's Friday, so let's dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
After a fight to change the name of the Washington Redskins…the family of the original mascot wants their ancestor back in the NFL.
The family of the Blackfeet chief who served as the face of the Washington Redskins for 48 years want his image back on the fields of the NFL, relatives told Fox News Digital.
The descendants of John Two Guns White Calf also want his incredible life story retold, too, to a new generation of Americans who seek unity and value multiculturalism.
The White Calf family has support in Washington, D.C. from one of their Montana senators, while the NFL franchise itself, now known as the Washington Commanders, is making new efforts to honor the team's heritage.
"The fans want him back and we want him back," Thomas White Calf, a great nephew of the celebrated early-20th-century native, said this week by phone, hours after the family met with Sen. Steve Daines, R-Montana.
Two Guns White Calf’s proud portrait adorned Redskins helmets, T-shirts, playing fields and marketing materials from 1972 until 2020.
"Our ancestor was the most famous and most photographed native in history," said White Calf, who was joined on the call by his mother, Delphine White Calf, a niece of the late Blackfeet chief.
"Two Guns was also the face on the Indian head nickel. I’m proud of him. The Blackfeet are proud of him."
It’s worth noting the push to remove White Calf’s image from the NFL was pushed heavily by the National Congress of American Indians, funded by far-leftist George Soros.
White Calf was removed in the turbulent time after the death of George Floyd. During the same period, Aunt Jemimah was removed from the grocery stores, despite being based on Nancy Green, a former slave who became quite wealthy from her cooking and demonstration skills which were showcased at the 1893 World’s fair. Green also served as a founding member of Olivet Baptist Church, which grew to more than 9,000 members.
Similarly, Uncle Ben’s Rice used Frank Brown, the head waiter at a fancy Chicago restaurant, as the face of their brand. Like Nancy Green, Frank signed off on his likeness being used because he was being portrayed in a positive light.
On the one hand, it’s not that surprising that people in 2024 find the Washington Redskins, Aunt Jemimah and Uncle Ben’s branding to be offensive. On the other, it’s a shame that three real figures were erased from pop culture history, rather than being contextualized for the fact that all three brands were all HONORING the people who were chosen to represent them.
In the end, erasing a person’s legacy is just as harmful as engaging in stereotypes…but that's apparently a concept American culture isn't ready for.
[two]
Well, The LA Times has escalated the “anti-kids” war another step.
From the LA Times:
In 2021 and 2022, I conducted a series of interviews on this topic with millennials and members of Generation Z, all of them people of color. Some grew up in low-income families and neighborhoods while others were from the middle- or upper-middle class. Some of them identify as queer, or their close family members and friends do, which shapes their sensitivity to discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people.
These interviewees have more climate change knowledge than most people do. All of them are college-educated; most of them either grew up or have lived for some time in Southern California; and most have taken environmental studies classes, either as undergrads or in graduate school.
Their experiences as members of marginalized groups have shaped their experiences with climate emotions like anxiety, fear, and trauma — as well as hope and optimism. Paying closer attention to those emotions and mental health in communities of color, including how they shape reproductive plans, will become an increasingly important component of climate justice in the United States.
Bobby, 22, considers himself an environmentalist. He recently graduated from college in Southern California with a degree in sustainability studies. His family is Guatemalan American.
Bobby is both confident that he will become a parent one day and also certain that he won’t bring his own biological kids into the world. His thoughts about the environment, the future, and parenting come into sharp relief through his current job at a restaurant, where he is unhappily employed. “There’s so much being wasted that could be returned to the earth.”
He connects these waste issues to carbon emissions and how he feels about having children. For Bobby, this is an ethical issue, a reason why he should not have biological children:
“I’m worried about what they would have to deal with growing up. I was already a young adult when I started to think about these things, but for them, at a young age they’re going to have to think about the environment and the fears that come along with pollution.
“This is why I’m leaning more toward a foster kid, and maybe eventually adopting them. Because it wasn’t my choice to have that kid, but I can help guide them to have a better life. … The environment is really the deciding factor for me.”
First off, I honor anyone who becomes a foster parent, but the primary goal of the foster system is to get those kids to return to their biological homes, not to be adopted. If you’re going into the foster system, you have to go in with the end goal in mind.
Secondly, if you don’t want to have kids—there are reasons to take that view. Actor John Cena recently explained his take on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast:
“I have a certain curiosity about life, and I also know the investment that it takes. As somebody who’s driven, many times stubborn and selfish, I try to approach the world with kindness and curiosity ... but I don’t think I’m personally ready, nor will I ever be, to invest the time [needed] to be a great parent.”
“I want to live life for all it is. I still have a lot to do.”
The difference between the decision John Cena has made and the “climate change” anti-kid people…is that Cena is making proactive choices while the people in the LA Times piece is driven by fear.
One of those paths is MUCH more likely to produce regret. If you are sure you don’t want kids—do you. But for people who may be influenced away from parenthood because the media terrified them into that view—that has to carry a high possibility of regret.
[three]
So, we’ve seen this before, right?
The Office reboot, set (and filmed) in Australia hit YouTube on Wednesday and…the jokes. are. the. exact. same.
I’ve seen some of the Steve Carrell led version of the show, although I wouldn’t call myself a fan, but I was open to the possibility that a reboot of the show might go in a direction I found compelling.
But the gags here are just carbon copies of the American show. Instead of Meredith’s cat falling through the ceiling, a worker’s pet crow gets loose. Instead of the awkwardness of Steve Carrell, we get the awkwardness of…a woman almost reading the lines from Michael Scott’s dialogue in the original.
Perhaps this would have been better marketed as an “Australian remake” instead of a “series reboot.” The Sydney Morning Herald is paywalled, but tbe
Social media comments were equally as harsh.
Perhaps the greatest irony of the Amazon-distributed show is that the real life Amazon is dealing with the same employee discontent as the Australian reboot—around making in-office mandatory five days per week.
Amazon is instructing corporate staffers to spend five days a week in the office, CEO Andy Jassy wrote in a memo on Monday.
The decision marks a significant shift from Amazon’s earlier return-to-work stance, which required corporate workers to be in the office at least three days a week. Now, the company is giving employees until Jan. 2 to start adhering to the new policy.
Corporate employees will be expected to be in the office five days a week “outside of extenuating circumstances” or unless they have been granted an exception by their organization’s S-team leader, Jassy said, referring to the close-knit group of executives that report to Amazon’s CEO.
“Before the pandemic, it was not a given that folks could work remotely two days a week, and that will also be true moving forward — our expectation is that people will be in the office outside of extenuating circumstances,” Jassy said.
Meanwhile, the original American version of The Office ranked as the 9th most watched series on streaming in January of this year….so if a reboot was going to be successful, it would have to bring some fresh 2024 jokes, relating to the world as it is now, rather than rewarmed bits from the first ideation of the show, which debuted just two years after we invaded Iraq.
I could be wrong, but this one looks like it’s DOA. Maybe a reboot, spinoff or extension of the American version, with the beloved characters returning, might fare better.
[four]
If you’re wondering why there are no more bands outside of legacy touring acts (like Foo Fighters and U2), there’s an economic reason for that.
Songwriter and producer Rick Beato breaks it down:
You started to see artists like Aerosmith that had Diane Warren writing their biggest hit they ever had. Their only number one. I don't want to miss a thing, which came out in the early 90s, and rock bands of the early 2000s, that would almost invariably have producers, songwriters, that would make their record.
And this really happened because the labels got involved, the A& R people. They were making less money because they were selling less records, and they wanted to guarantee that they had huge hit songs on every record. So they would actually hire songwriter producers or get multiple songwriters to contribute to the record.
These would be rock bands that would appear to be bands, but they'd actually be co writers or producers writing and making the records themselves and not even including the band in there. I've gone over this in past videos and this ultimately led to the demise of the bands in my view. If you're going to have someone like myself, for example, that the label is going to hire to co write with the singer of a band, And I play all the parts on it and I get a session drummer to come in, even though the band's got a drummer.
By 2010, it just made no sense to actually sign bands because it wasn't worth it. And that brings us to where we are today. If you go to the top 50 chart right now in the U S you have Sabrina Carpenter, you have Lady Gaga, Bruno Mars, you have Chapel Roan, Billie Eilish, Post Malone, Morgan Wallen, Shaboosie, Kendrick Lamar, Tommy Richman, Hosear, Zach Brian, Casey Musgraves, Benson Boone, Teddy Swims, it's just literally all solo artists.
It makes sense on paper…but it's a tragedy we're losing the magic of music created by synergy between a group of creatives.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
MOVIE NOTES: Troubled, a memoir of growing up in foster care in a working class town, by Rob Henderson, is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Henderson just announced he sold the movie rights, so it will hit your screen at some point in the future. In the meantime, I highly recommend reading it. Deadpool & Wolverine is up for digital sale and rental on October 1st. Rapper/Producer Pharrel’s music doc/biopic, Piece By Piece, told through Legos (you read that right) is earning strong reviews ahead of it’s October 11th release date. If you haven’t caught the much buzzed about Civil War yet, the movie is now on HBO/Max. The Daily Wire Mocumentary Am I Racist? was an unlikely top 5 movie last weekend, and heads into it’s second week with strong ticket sales.
The once mighty Rolling Stone doesn’t create much journalism worth reading these days, but their “best of” lists are pretty legendary. The RS 200 Best Country Songs of All Time is worth a skim if you’re a fan of the genre.
GTA VI, which will likely generate $1 billion in sales in the first week, may be delayed until 2026. The last entry in the franchise, GTA V, hit $1 billion in sales in just three days back in 2013. Developer studio Rockstar, who are known for nailing every last detail, have said they will not release the game until they are “100 percent happy” with the finished product.
The company has plenty of cash, as GTA V has generated $8.6 billion in total sales. For perspective, that means a 12-year-old video game has a worth roughly equal to the Dallas Cowboys, the total cost of the 2016 Olympics and is roughly equal to the defense budgets of Greece, Finland and Austria…combined.
Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer) and Shailene Woodley (The Fault in Our Stars, Divergent) have teamed up before, in the excellent Snowden, about the controversial leaker who let the American public know the U.S. government was spying on the communications of all Americans.
For this outing, the pair co-star in a murder/mystery alongside Richard Madden (Game of Thrones, Eternals) in KILLER HEAT, a “contemporary mystery in classic noir style,” set in idyllic Greece.
This one looks pretty big budget for going straight-to-streaming. Catch it on Prime Video next week, 09/26.
Writer/showrunner Taylor Sheridan has a LOT of good stuff out there, including Yellowstone, 1923 and Tulsa King…but Lioness is by far one of his strongest shows. The cast is just incredible, including Zoe Saldana (Avengers: Infinity War, Avatar), Nicole Kidman (Big Little Lies, Cold Mountain) and Morgan Freeman (The Dark Knight, Million Dollar Baby).
If you missed out on season 1, you have until October 27th to get caught up before season 2 drops. This is a can’t-miss for spy/action/thriller fans.
Call me uncultured if you will, but I don’t normally want to watch something that involves reading subtitles the whole time. But Uprising looks like the exception:
Set in the Joseon era, during a tumultuous time in the aftermath of war, Uprising takes viewers on a gripping journey through the lives of two childhood friends turned adversaries: an enslaved person with remarkable martial prowess who struggles to break free from an unjust servitude, and his master and scion of Joseon’s most influential military family. The film is produced and co-written by Park Chan-wook of Decision to Leave and Oldboy.
Give me stunning cinematography, swordplay and a compelling plot hook…and apparently I will read subtitles for an entire movie. On Netflix October 11th.
Woah. Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air, A Simple Favor) plays a woman on a first date with a serial killer in this thriller based on a true story.
Set in 1970’s California, the trailer is CREEPY…might be one of the bigger hits of fall. On Netflix 10/17.
[new music]
When the piano/pop rock of the 2000’s was all the rage, nobody was bigger than Snow Patrol, with their mega smash “Chasing Cars.” I had completely lost track of the Norther Irish/Scottish trio, but was pleasantly surprised to dive into The Forest is the Path, their first album in eight years…is just excellent.
[read & listen]
Fredrick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom is a LOOOT to bite off (the audiobook is a whopping 37 hours), but there’s a reason this book won the Pulitzer. But it’s a heck of a journey through the life of one of the greatest Americans to ever live, as well as a fascinating look at how Douglass’ fight against slavery (after winning his own freedom) was a result of learning to read…and then diving deep into Greek and Roman philosophy.
Apple Podcasts | YouTube Podcasts | Pocket Casts
Former Navy Seal Sean Ryan’s conversation with Tulsi Gabbard is essential listening because the two dive into just how much support The Taliban is getting from the American Taxpayer (a whopping $87M per WEEK) and how the fight to defund the Taliban has been unsuccessful in Congress.
Until the next one,
-sth