My Ties to the Nashville School Shooting, Yellowstone NOT Canceled?! John Wick 4 a Greek Myth?, The Return of Blockbuster Video?! Can Peaky Blinders Save Star Wars?(The Five for 03/26/23)

Hey, welcome to The Five.

This publication has gone uninterrupted for over three years, with the exception of the birth of my second daughter…but fell silent for two weeks.

The reason is that I got caught in one of the many corporate layoffs sweeping the country.

I’ll have more to share about that later (along with some potentially big life changes), but for now…I wanted to get this half-finished newsletter out the door, because this one is so personal.

Let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.

[one]

There’s a lot that can be (and has) been written about the Nashville shooting nearly a week later, but here’s where I’ll start.

The woman in the Tennessee Volunteers hoodie clutching her children that has been on every major news outlet in America…is a former college classmate, and later professional colleague. I haven’t talked to Meredith in quite some time (long enough I have no idea how many kids she has), but it was gut wrenching to see the image of her clutching her daughters as she picked them up after the shooting.

One of my best friend’s mom lost a dear, dear friend, school head Katherine Koonce, who died protecting children from gunfire.

The stories kept rolling in…due to my previous work in the music industry and journalism, my network’s ties to Covenant School run deep.

Which is why the calls for further violence, and the justification for the murder of six people in cold blood as “self defense” because maybe somebody wouldn’t call the transgender shooter by her preferred name, or something.

Elsewhere, the Trans Resistance Network insisted that shooter Audrey Hale (who went by Aiden, recently) was “also a tragedy.”

Hale’s life contains tragic elements, but it was a chosen end that claimed the lives of six people she likely didn’t even know.

If you’re going to call that a “tragedy,” then I guess we lost 19 “brave militia fighters” on September 11, 2001 who expressed sincere belief in their cause (specifically, that America is Satan, and Americans should all die).

Jay Collinwood @collinwood_j

Wow.

Finally, Buzzfeed bemoaned the canceling of “Trans Day of Vengence” because…the would-be rioters didn’t feel safe.

The “Day of Vengence” was inspired by the Stonewall Riots (which you should read about here), in which a mob attempted to burn several police officers, and one reporter for The Village Voice, alive after police tried to shut down a gay bar in NYC, which was probably motivated by bigotry…but was also a health hazard:

The club lacked a fire exit, running water behind the bar to wash glasses, clean toilets that didn’t routinely overflow and palatable drinks that weren’t watered down beyond recognition. What’s more, the Mafia reportedly blackmailed the club’s wealthier patrons who wanted to keep their sexuality a secret.

Note who TRAN thinks is the victims, when referencing the Stonewall Riots… the people who attempted to carry out mass murder against those trapped in a bar.

I am at a loss as to how a part of our society can blame 9-year-olds for being shot, and feel more sorrow for rioters not getting a chance to destroy stuff, in the name of an event where a journalist nearly burned to death.

For the record, I no more think that all Trans people want to shoot up gatherings of Christians than I believe that when I drive by a Mosque, I'm in physical proximity to a crowd of suicide bombers. Most people, regardless of beliefs, orientation, nationality, age, whatever… just want to be left alone to live peace.

But we should be paying close attention to who's being celebrated, and who's being mourned here.

Because this is the first mass murder in the nation's history where a significant number of people are calling the murderer both the hero and the victim.

Hale was neither. Hale was a butcher would have butchered more elementary school children, but for the swift actions of two Nashville officers.

[two]

As for the President of the United States’s reaction…Mr. Biden stepped out and made jokes for three minutes about ice cream, before finally turning to the topic of the morning’s mass murder.

At first, I thought this had to be a deceptive edit.

Nope. Here’s the full video.

So far, neither President Biden nor his Press Secretary have used the word “Christian” when speaking about a terrorist attack on Christians.

For being Christians.

[three]

Well, I’m almost out of time…so rather than a full writeup one the incredible John Wick 4 (a movie I was thrilled to get to see in theaters), I’m just going to link to two things you should know about the film.

A. It’s heavily inspired by Greek myths.

B. It’s obsessed with referencing classic action films.

C. Nobody has written about this yet, but there are also references to Dante’s Inferno, and other classic works of literature.

It’s a shoot-em-up, sure, but a very smart one.

John Wick is now my 2nd (or 3rd) franchise of all time, behind only Lord of the Rings and maybe Indiana Jones.

[three]

Last week, a long-dead cultural icon…returned?

The Guardian reports:

A few days ago, something strange happened in a forgotten corner of the internet. The website for Blockbuster, the long-dormant obsolete VHS rental chain, twitched back into life. It doesn’t always work – there’s more than a fighting chance that you’ll be taken to an error page – but if the winds are blowing in just the right direction, you’ll see a brand new landing page, accompanied by the text “We are working on rewinding your movie”. To all intents and purposes, it seems to be a sign that the universe isn’t quite done with Blockbuster yet.

Which is fairly preposterous, of course, because the universe is absolutely done with Blockbuster and has been for some time. A world-conquering behemoth in its day, a juggernaut that crushed the necks of smaller independent video stores, Blockbuster took over the world in the 90s and early 2000s. But its glory was short-lived. Netflix came, first in its DVD-by-post guise and then as an unstoppable streamer, and custom disintegrated overnight. If Blockbuster exists in any form now it’s as a punchline, a reference to anything too bloated and arrogant to notice the looming shadow of imminent catastrophe. Which raises the question: what is this new website, exactly?

I’ve got three guesses:

A. online video rental service (similar to the way Amazon rents movies for about $4 for 24 hours of streaming).

B. Nostalgia play. They sell throwback merch and make a killing.

C. I could also see an entertainment website (a la The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, etc.) launching with the Blockbuster brand.

Whatever’s happening, the 90’s video giant aint dead.

Well, maybe only mostly dead, to quote a film you could have rented on VHS at Blockbuster…

[four]

Seems like Star Wars just can’t stop losing when it comes to movies…in addition to the latest sequels (episodes VII-IX) tanking with critics and fans alike, Disney has canceled several films in the franchise before they went to production. Even the once mega-hit The Mandalorian has slid in popularity, with season three barely moving the pop culture needle.

Now, Steven Knight of Peaky Blinders fame, is stepping in to write a film set in a galaxy far away.

It’s an odd position to hold…but at this point, Star Wars is both a cultural juggernaut (for what has happened), and a minor player, at best, in the current lexicon. I’m a passive fan (at best) of the franchise, but excited at the possibility that one creator of one of my favorite shows ever might take the Galaxy Far, Far Away into a new creative direction.

[five]

Due to time contraints…skipping the pop culture round up for a very important announcement.

Yellowstone might not be canceled???? Looks like Kevin Coster may be sticking around.

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Speaking at a Yellowstone panel on Saturday night, Keith Cox, president of development and production at Paramount Network, addressed the elephant in the room concerning star Kevin Costner’s future with the show.

“What I can say is our star, the face of our show and the executive producer, are very confident he’s going to continue with our show,” Cox told the crowd at the Dolby Theatre, in front of hundreds of fans who delivered an enthusiastic response.

In February, it was reported that the network may seek to end Yellowstone sooner rather than later due to scheduling battles with Costner, who plays patriarch John Dutton and reportedly demanded to only work for a single week on the second half of season five.

Until the next one,

-sth