NYT Says Drug Cartels Bring...Avacados, Chicago Serial Killer's Story a Movie, This Ruins the Oscars Forever?!, Actor to Play Marvel Superhero Until...Age 65?! (The Five for 01/24/25)
Plus, the "Millennial Elton John" re-unites his band. Can Instagram destroy TikTok?
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It’s Friday, so let’s dive into Culture & Commentary.
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[one]
The Academy Award nominees were released this week. If you care about awards shows, skip to story #2, because I’m about to ruin them.
Winning an Oscar is not about a great performance…it’s more akin to running for political office:
A report in Bloomberg had estimated that a studio spends north of $25 million just for lobbying Oscar voters. And this amount even goes higher if yours is an independent film with zero buzz around it.
A number of filmmakers and actors have time and again opened up about this practice and have clearly stated that they aren’t a fan of it.
In 2022, James McAvoy revealed that since he refused to campaign for an Oscar win, he wasn’t even nominated for his 2007 film Atonement.
He wasn’t a fan of the way actors were supposed to cosy up to Academy voters to get a vote to win. He stated, “[With The Last King of Scotland campaign], it was made clear to me that I was doing it for the benefit of other people. And I was totally down with that. But by the time Atonement came along, I was 26 or 27, and I was just like, I can't do it, I'm not doing it, I don't wanna do it. I didn't want to play that part. I'll push the film, I'll try and get bums on seats. But the campaign, I felt ... I felt cheap.”
So yeah, maybe just watch movies, rather than watching famous people congratulate each other on how much they spent to win awards for movies most people don’t watch anyway.
[two]
All you have to do in modern politics to win…is not be crazy. Somehow, at least one, at times both, American political parties are unable to stick to this one simple rule.
Originally, this story was going to be about how President Trump can only go down in approvals from here, because he’s riding sky high, particularly with Gen Z. After you win, you have to govern. And when you govern, you start losing. American politics is a cycle of one party getting to the top, screwing up, and falling again.
But apparently the New York Times is hellbent to out-crazy anything Trump could cook up that might be unpopular, because they’re out here defending [checks notes] murderous drug cartels.
The executive order, which Mr. Trump signed on Monday, is intended to apply maximum pressure on Mexico to rein in its dangerous drug trade. The designation, more generally, also gives his administration more power to impose economic penalties and travel restrictions, and potentially even to take military action in foreign countries.
Yet, disentangling cartel operations from U.S. interests in Mexico could be immensely complicated. Mexico is the United States’ largest trade partner of goods, and many American companies have manufacturing operations there.
Even more complicated, these criminal networks have extended their operations far beyond drug trafficking and human smuggling. They are now embedded in a wide swath of the legal economy, from avocado farming to the country’s billion-dollar tourism industry, making it hard to be absolutely sure that American companies are isolated from cartel activities.
Oh, so we have to allow the human trafficking, including children being forced into prostitution…and the 60,000 we’re losing to Fentanyl overdoses a year…because the people smuggling drugs and abusing women and children also put Avocados in the grocery store?
But we’re not done yet, because an Episcopal Bishop had to elbow in to make sure the NY Times wasn’t the dumbest take of inauguration week.
From the Presidential Interfaith Prayer Service:
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and Independent families, some who fear for their lives.
The people who pick our crops and clean our office buildings; who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants; who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals. They…may not be citizens or have the proper documentation. But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.
They pay taxes and are good neighbors. They are faithful members of our churches and mosques, synagogues, gurudwaras and temples. I ask you to have mercy, Mr. President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away.
And let’s break that down.
A). Members of “Synagogues and Gurudas,” that would be the houses of worship for Jews and Sikhs. There is no data that there are virtually any illegal Jews or Sikhs in the U.S.
B). LGBT children from “Republican, Democrat and Independent families" fearing for their lives? I mean…maybe if their on TikTok too much and are whipped into hysteria.
I could also have a paralyzing fear of my boat being capsized by a giant squid. But the reality is, I’m not an ocean commercial fisherman, but a white collar worker in the Midwest…so I might feel the fear, but the squid aint gonna get me.
There are places where should be terrified to be gay…and those are also places the Fringe Left (like this Bishop) tend to be sympathetic to…like Iran and Palestine, where they will hang you from a crane if you’re LGBT. In America, gay people are just as likely to live in small towns as big cities, which pretty quickly dispels the myth of massive homophobia on the right. And whatever you think of him, President Trump was the first incoming POTUS to support gay marriage (Clinton, W. and Obama had all opposed it).
This Bishop was not speaking to the President and trying to change his policies, she was aiming squarely for the comments section, trying to go viral. If she cared about the people she says she does, she would have made more reasonable comments, meant to persuade, rather than offend.
With both these stories, the American public can spot the B.S. pretty quickly, and all the overblown handwringing and doomsaying does generate sympathy for Trump, who’s being accused of things that are never going to happen, like throwing Jews out of the country.
In politics, all you have to do is not be crazy for 5 minutes…and the NYT and this Bishop just made in-kind contributions to Vance 2028.
[three]
With TikTok in limbo, Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) is taking a big swing to Dethrone the Communist-owned social media giant.
The tech giant Meta has launched a slew of updates to its Reels shortform video platform — and is offering sizable cash bonuses — in an effort to lure TikTok creators to its platform while the ByteDance-owned app remains in a stare of limbo.
For starters, Meta is launching what it calling the “Breakthrough Bonus,” which will award TikTok creators up to $5,000 for posting new videos to Facebook and Instagram Reels. And the company plans to “offer some TikTok creators content deals to help grow their communities on Instagram and Facebook,” potentially delivering more cash into creators pockets.
It is also offering free one-year subscriptions to Meta Verified to select creators.
The company has also launched a new app called Edits that is meant to enable users to easily edit videos that can be uploaded to Reels.
And it updated Reels to make it more appealing to a wider range of creators, like expanding the length of Reels videos to three minutes, and the company plans to make Reels more prominent in Instagram and Facebook feeds.
Before you start cheering for Zuck and Co. as the defenders of free America who will defeat Communism, remember that Instagram also has a very dark, and very recent, past.
In 2021, according to the document, an Instagram employee ran an internal investigation on eating disorders by opening a false account as a 13-year-old girl looking for diet tips. She was led to graphic content and recommendations to follow accounts titled "skinny binge" and "apple core anorexic."
Other internal memos show Facebook employees raising concerns about company research that revealed Instagram made 1-in-3 teen girls feel worse about their bodies, and that teens who used the app felt higher rates of anxiety and depression.
It’s tough to determine exactly who to root for in the tech world…there don’t seem to be many good guys, just a weird mix of Commies and people who are fine with profiting off the pain of children.
It’s not just META that’s trying to take a huge bite out of TikTok. Twitter/X announced it’s launching a video-only tab within the app that’s a complete ripoff of TikTok as well.
[four]
Believe it or not, with the exception to streaming prices creeping up (more on that below) entertainment actually HAS NOT suffered rampant inflation like houses, food, etc. have. That may be changing.
There is “hope” among some within the video game industry that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be priced between $80 and $100, one analyst has said.
In a wide-ranging presentation on the state of gaming in 2025, Epyllion CEO Matthew Ball said Rockstar’s guaranteed mega-hit “could re-establish packed video game prices after decades of deflation despite rampant cost growth.”
GTA 6, due out fall 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, is the long-awaited follow-up to 2013’s record-breaking GTA 5. Analysts have projected it will make an eye-watering $3 billion in its first year on sale, with $1 billion in pre-orders before it even launches. It seems likely that GTA 6 will be the biggest entertainment launch in history, with revenue ahead of any film.
But how much will GTA 6 cost the gamer? Most triple-A video games cost $70 as standard after a $10 price hike that kicked in with the current generation of consoles in 2020. Could Rockstar and its parent company Take-Two use GTA 6 as an opportunity to go higher five years later?
In his report, Ball reported that “some gamemakers hope GTA 6 will be priced at $80 to $100, breaking the $70 barrier and helping $50 titles to move up to $60, $60 to do $70, $70 to $80 etc.”
While this price hike would certainly raise eyebrows with the video game audience, Ball argued that a $70 GTA 6 would be the “cheapest” GTA game ever released, in real terms. That is, when taking inflation into account. In real terms, $91 would be average, Ball said.
“Packaged game prices have never been lower in real terms than they are today — even though budgets are at all-time highs and player growth is stalled,” Ball said in the report. “GTA 6 could re-establish packed video game prices after decades of deflation despite rampant cost growth.”
This ONE TIME, I’m going to root for higher prices. The people who pay full price for GTA VI are the ones who want to play it FIRST, as prices on video games drop over time.
Entertainment options in modern society are nearly endless. Older video games have been automatically upgraded with modern systems. There are more great games to play, more great shows and movies to watch, more excellent albums to check out…than you will ever get to. On a budget? Just find something else with your free time, until the price adjusts to the market.
If we want great art…there’s a cost to it. If you don’t want to pay full price, just wait a minute, and things will come down.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup.
MOVIES: Welcome back, Cameron Diaz. The suburbanites-return-to-espionage streamer Back in Action is the biggest movie opening for Netflix in three years. I haven’t seen it yet, but Diaz and Jamie Foxx seem like a good pairing for an action/thriller/comedy. Speaking of Netflix—they’re raising prices $2/month, FYI. || Allegedly, Hugh Jackman (age 56) is going to play Wolverine in the MCU for the next TEN YEARS, which means it’s a job he might…quite literally retire from, at 65. || Can Ryan Gosling save Star Wars? Rumor has it that the A-Lister will team up with director Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine). || Devil in the White City, a fantastic book about serial killer H.H. Holmes during the Chicago World’s Fair, has been in development limbo seemingly forever, with Leonardo DiCaprio acquiring the rights to the book in 2010. The first shot at a movie failed, and Hulu tried to turn the book into a TV show, with Keanu Reeves. That also failed, and now Leo and Martin Scorsese are trying to bring it to the big screen once again…
SHOWS: Duck Dynasty is getting a revival of at least two seasons. || Amazon Prime Video is taking a shot at the next Game of Thrones/Wheel of Time/Witcher/Rings of Power fantasy hit with Rise of the Empress, a show that you’ll probably like if you like that genre.
MUSIC: Rapper-turned-country-music-powerhouse Post Malone will serve as the 2025 ambassador for Record Store Day, a special day in April when local record stores get exclusive one-day-only releases. || Carrie Underwood grabbed headlines for her impromptu acapella performance of “America the Beautiful” at the Inauguration, and then went viral on social media this week for…her drum solos. Turns out, the American Idol alum is a top shelf drummer (see the video).
Robert De Nero as an ex-POTUS falsely accused of planning a massive cyber attack? And Jesse Plemmons (Civil War, Friday Night Lights), Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, Beauty and the Beast), Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights, Nashville) and Angela Bassett (Avengers: Endgame, What’s Love Got to Do with It?) rounding out the cast?
Netflix just earned their stupid $2 price hike, which just hit (ugh). Stream in 02/20…calling this one of my most anticipated films of the year.
And speaking of techno-thrillers…drop follows Megan Donahay (White Lotus, The Perfect Couple) as a widowed mom on a first date with Brandon Skelner (Midway, It Ends with Us—not a big name, but you’ll recognize the face) and she receives a series of Apple Aidrops to her phone, with the instructions to murder her date…or her son dies.
It’s kinda-sorta the same plot as Netflix’s Christmas hit Carry On…and I’m down for that. In theaters 04/11. Rom-com/horror/thriller is a heck of a combo, and it seems fun.
Legal drama Suits is getting a reboot thanks to the original series blowing up on Netflix years after being cancelled…and now we’re getting the first look at Suits LA. I’ve never seen the original, but if this is your thing, catch it 02/23 on NBC/Peacock.
[music]
Andrew McMahon dominated the 00’s and 10’s music charts fronting a pair of piano pop/alt-rock outfits, Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin, the latter has been dormant since releasing their final album in 2011 but have just been announced as a headliner for the influential SXSW Festival in Austin, TX this March.
If you missed Jack’s Mannequin the first time around, the Orange County outfit’s sophomore album, The Glass Passenger, is worth your time. The album was written and recorded shortly after McMahon’s uncle had died of cancer, and while Andrew was battling Leukemia himself. While his peers were singing about immature 20something breakups, The Glass Passenger dives much deeper into themes around the fragility of life, will to carry on, and what matters during our limited time on this earth.
There’s a good bit of Ben Folds, as well as a notable Elton John influence in JW’s piano-centric pop/alt-rock. Oh, and this is weird...but Tommy Lee of Motley Crue plays drums much of the Jack’s Mannequin material, and Matt Thiessen of Relient K was a frequent co-writer with McMahon.
[read & learn]
Devil in the White City, a fantastic book about serial killer H.H. Holmes during the Chicago World’s Fair, has been in development limbo seemingly forever, with Leonardo DiCaprio acquiring the rights to the book in 2010. The first shot at a movie failed, and Hulu tried to turn the book into a TV show, with Keanu Reeves. That also failed, and now Leo and Martin Scorsese are trying to bring it to the big screen once again…
Before you see it the in the theater, I can’t recommend the book highly enough.
Until the next one,
-sth