No, There's Not a Rittenhouse Reaction in This One. (The Five for 11/19/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
Before we begin…no Rittenhouse reaction in this one.
The Five isn’t built to be a “reaction” publication.
Instead, it’s a channel for the important stories…that don’t get enough coverage or conversation.
The Rittenhouse verdict will still be there next week. I’m going to let the dust settle before looking putting pen to paper, so to speak.
It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
Before the comic book movie craze…historical epics were among the biggest draws at the multiplex (and biggest budgets in Hollywood).
Now, the fate of the historical epic may be riding on the shoulders of Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception), as he takes over the reins of a massive wad of cash for a WWII movie, the fate of the genre could be riding on Nolan’s success or failure.
Christopher Nolan’s next movie “Oppenheimer,” a $100 million-budgeted historical drama about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb, could be considered one of an endangered species.
These days, it’s rare for traditional studios to pump nine figures into a film that isn’t inspired by popular toys, novels or comic books. Even before COVID-19 upended the moviegoing landscape, audiences had been gravitating toward superheroes and science-fiction spectacles — and not much else. That reality has made it increasingly difficult for Hollywood to justify the economics of greenlighting expensive movies that aren’t based on existing intellectual property. They’re a bigger risk, not only in recouping investments for studios, but also in generating profits, spawning sequels and leveraging consumer product riches. No matter how well people receive Nolan’s film, it’s unlikely J. Robert Oppenheimer’s face will adorn t-shirts or lunch boxes.
Oppenheimer, which releases in 2023, should (hopefully) be clear of the movie ticket post-COVID slump…but questions remain about whether or not movie fans will return to theaters now that streaming entertainment has become so elevated in wake of the lockdowns.
[two]
This week, a post went viral from a public library in Texas after removing all “offensive” books from the shelf and labeled with what a reader could be offended with.
From the Pflugerville Library Facebook page:
This is a before and after shot of what a single shelving unit in the library’s Teen Space would look like if we removed every book with content that could offend someone. Out of 159 books, there are ten left on the shelves.
We removed books that contained profanity, teen drinking, religious content, racism, magic, abuse, sexual content, and more. But in taking away those books, we also removed examples of friendship, love, courage, creativity, faith, forgiveness, reality, resilience, humor, and history.
As a public library, we seek to provide books and other materials that will interest the many people in our diverse community. We believe in giving our library guests the choice of what they check out and read. A book that one reader adores may be despised by another reader. And that’s okay. We provide the books. You get to decide which books you and your family check out.
Well, actually they posted that statement as a damned run on paragraph, and I had to split it into three paragraphs for readability.
The post gained the attention of the national media, and the library staff are refusing to give interviews. But we can infer that the post was in response to parental backlash of two books being used in school curriculum.
The first, Lawn Boy, features a passage depicting sex between fourth grade boys.
The second, Gender Queer, depicts sex between a teenage boy and an adult man.
I’m pretty absolute on free speech. If somebody wants to write books about those subjects…I support that right.
Where I draw a line is on including books in official school curriculum that depict pedophilia as a positive experience (Gender Queer) and in depecting sex acts before children reach puberty as normal (Lawn Boy).
I can’t tell you for sure that those are the books the library is “defending,” but if that’s the case…a public library and a school are not the same thing. There’s a huge difference in a library stocking a variety of books and a public school making pedophobia content a part of the curriculum.
By nature, I’m not much for conspiracy theory…but it’s a bad look to see multiple public institutions in support of sexualizing young children and promoting statutory rape the same week a college professor caused national outrage for a lecture defending pedophiles. (The professor has since been put on leave by Old Dominion University).
There’s not a lot of topics I believe leave zero room for nuance.
Attempting to sexualize children at a young age and promoting pedophlia are two of those topics.
We cannot stand for this.
There will always be controversial books, TV, movies, music.
I don’t want anything banned that isn’t already illegal (i.e. child porn).
But just because something is allowed doesn’t mean it should be forced into a classroom, in elementary school or college.
[three]
In the last week, Lebron James drew ire from a large percentage of the general public when he retweeted the video of Kyle Rittenhouse breaking down sobbing with the comment:
“what tears? I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemonheads before walking into court!
The news cycle kicked up for a bit, with pundits on both sides of the issue saying the same kind of things you would expect them to say about anything surrounding the Rittenhouse trial. Given that James frequently pushes out divisive opinions on social media, I doubt LeBron was too bothered.
This week, however, Boston Celtics center Enes Kanter delt a much more powerful blow to the Lakers superstar, tweeting out a direct challenge to James, along with details of custom Nikes Kanter wore on the court this week.
Money over Morals for the “King”
Sad & disgusting how these athletes pretend they care about social justice They really do “shut up & dribble” when Big Boss says so Did you educate yourself about the slave labor that made your shoes or is that not part of your research?
Kanter, who is Turkish, has been protesting Nike’s alleged use of slave labor with the Uyghur Muslims, ethnic Turks living in brutal conditions in Eastern China.
Previously, Kanter challenged Nike founder Phil Knight to board a plane with him on a trip to see the horrors, including alleged Uyghur slave labor used to make Nike shoes.
Observations:
A. James’ statement on Rittenhouse caused a lot of noise, but little effect, because his Rittenhouse comment was simply more of the same—whatever you think of James is probably what you think of him at this point.
B. However, Kanter’s accusations against James and Nike hit so hard, not because they’re new (these points have been raised before), because the argument is both personal (Kanter spent part of his childhood in Turkey), novel (the painted shoes are really striking) and striking (Nike’s Twitter bio contains the #StopAsianHate hashtag while their shoes are allegedly being made by enslaved Asian Muslims).
The whole thing is a fascinating case study in persuasion.
If you want people to change their minds on something, yelling the same talking points louder doesn’t do much.
Instead, look for arguments that are sound, but also novel, unexpected and interesting.
[four]
On release day of Adele’s new album 30, (more on that below), it’s worth noting that one of the most prolific creators of our time…is not on social media.
From the singer’s interview with The Face:
"I just would find myself not getting my errands done for the day," she said. "It's made to be addictive. It does a very good job of it."
"There could have been something really pressing I had to do and I wouldn't get it done because I'd be looking at someone else's life! Or looking at nail designs or interior design sites or reading hours of news that made me actually feel bad about the world."
This brings me back to where I’m often at…lamenting aspects of social media, but also needing the same tools to make a living.
Still, if you can get off, Adele is a pretty good case study in what kind of creativity you might find with your newly freed up time.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
After years (and years and years) of delays, the first trailer for HALO, the live action TV series based on the uber-popular XBOX franchise, released this week. Streaming in 2022 on Paramount+.
Adele drew nearly 10 million viewers to CBS for a special For One Night Only, where the British singer debuted four live versions of songs from her album 30, out today. Adele also sat down with Oprah (go watch that one yourself, as I hate those kind of interviews, so I’m not available to summarize), and orchestrated a moment in her live performance for a fan to propose to his girlfriend.
Last weekend, Netflix absolutely smashed Disney+ in the streaming wars, when the heist thriller Red Notice outperformed Marvel’s first step into Kung Fu, Shang Chi and the Ten Rings, as the biggest Netflix movie of all time.
The streaming giant looks to have another giant hit on their hands with Don’t Look Up, a disaster film hitting theaters December 10th before dropping on the streaming platform on Christmas Eve.
The cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant, Titanic), Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games, Silver Linings Playbook), Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street, Moneyball), Timothy Chalmet (Dune, Lady Bird), Cate Blanchet (Elizabeth, Lord of the Rings), Tyler Perry (Gone Girl, Vice), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada, The Deer Hunter), Ariana Grande (Only Murders in the Building) and Ron Pearlman (Sons of Anarchy, Hellboy).
MUSIC NEWS: Adele’s album, 30, released today, the rare moment in the streaming era when a new album breaks through to become a global event. CNN has a pretty good timeline of the hype this week, if you’re interested.
MY PICK—MUSIC: Kiely Connell hails from Hammond, IN. While never technically a place I lived, I frequented for the better part of 10 years while working in media. It’s a distinct place, a mix of old steel town grit and suburban flourish against the backdrop of stunning lake Michigan beaches and deep, dense forest.
The area is known much more for being the birthplace of Michael Jackson (Gary, IN) than for country music…but Kiely Connell is one of the strongest debuts I’ve heard this year in the Americana genre—a mix of Patty Griffin, Memphis soul and barroom fiddle.
Until the next one,
-sth