Rittenhouse Trial--CNN vs. Judge, Elijah Wood Accidentally Buys Racist Art (Then Does Something Stupid), The Rock Says "No More Guns on Set, Ever." (The Five for 11/05/21)
Rittenhouse Trial--CNN vs. Judge, Elijah Wood Accidentally Buys Racist Art (Then Does Something Stupid), The Rock Says "No More Guns on Set, Ever." (The Five for 11/05/21)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
It’s Friday, so lets dive into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
The Kyle Rittenhouse trial has devolved into an argument between the judge, prosecuting and defense attorneys who appear to be watching coverage of the trial and bringing their opinions into the courtroom.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder began his unusual soliloquy by referencing a recent media report that called the case “the most divisive trial in the country.” Schroeder, the longest-serving circuit judge in Wisconsin, has frequently criticized the media during the case, but he rarely acknowledges the trial’s larger significance.
“Anything that undermines public confidence in what happens here is very important,” Schroeder said. “It’s important for this town. It’s important for this country to have people have confidence in the result of this trial. Whatever it is — and I don’t care what it is — but people have to be confident.”
Schroeder made the comments outside the jury’s presence after the defense and prosecutors clashed over video of the August 2020 unrest being played for the jury. As the two sides sparred, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger referenced Schroeder’s pretrial ruling allowing Rittenhouse’s team to present evidence suggesting the men Rittenhouse shot participated in looting, rioting or arson that night.
The mention seemed to upset Schroeder, who began talking about media coverage of that decision. The judge made national headlines regarding that ruling and another that barred the men Rittenhouse shot from being called “victims.” The judge received dozens of angry emails about the decisions, according to court records.
“There are people in the media, on reputable sites, that are saying things that are totally bizarre,” Schroeder said.
The judge specifically referenced a CNN report in which two legal analysts questioned the ruling, including one who described it as “incomprehensible.” According to CNN.com, legal analyst Areva Martin made the comment. Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin — whom Schroeder specifically singled out — called it a “really unnecessary and unfortunate beginning to this really important case.”
“That’s our rule,” Schroeder said. “It’s the law.”
As with other high profile trials (such as Derek Chauvin, who was convicted of murder in the George Floyd case) and the upcoming Ahmad Aubery case (which begins today), The Five is not an outlet with the capacity for extensive trial coverage (there are already more than 20 hours of live proceedings you can watch on YouTube of the Rittenhouse case), so I’m going to defer to other outlets offering in-depth expert analysis.
In a live Q&A video, practicing attorney/YouTuber Peter Tragos (who currently thinks the defense is winning), shared his opinion that that judge addressing the media, in a roundabout way (even though the jury wasn’t present)…is troubling.
This, paired with the dismissal of two jurors (one for an inappropriate joke about Jacob Blake, another for pain/discomfort due to pregnancy).
No matter what the verdict is here…the blunders, jury issues and media circus feel like Kenosha could be headed towards another round of unrest.
My guess is that the media (CNN and MSNBC, in particular, I suspect) will become even more frantic in their coverage of the Rittenhouse trial and Judge Schroeder. Which may be understandable…but they won’t have to deal with the situation of the ground if Kenosha Riots 2.0 start up.
My former neighbors in Kenosha will.
[two]
A-List action Star Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson says he will no longer work with real guns on movie sets after the accidental death of Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie Rust.
Johnson, who has to handle firearms in “Red Notice,” says he will only use rubber guns on his sets, and will enforce that rule with any studio he is working with.
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all,” Johnson said to Variety.
“We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post,” he said. “We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs.”
Johnson recalled that after news broke confirming that Hutchins had died on the “Rust” set, he was on the phone with his team within a couple of hours to discuss what changes his company needed to make to ensure complete safety moving forward.
“I love the movie business,” Johnson said. “There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, [that is] this heartbreaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together.”
This issue has become a “political football,” with gun control advocates calling for more gun control for the general public (a bit confusing, given what happened here) and right-of-center pundits using the opportunity to dunk on Baldwin, who has a (rather loud, abrasive) history of offering up left-of-center political commentary in interviews, at awards shows and on social media.
When I first saw Johnson’s stance, two memories hit me at the same time.
The first was of taking some co-workers trap shooting (target clay pigeons shot from the air with shotguns). Despite my extensive intro on safety, one coworker busted her first clay, then spun around to talk to me, unknowingly pointing a loaded shotgun at my chest.
I dove to the ground.
The second memory was of a Canadian woman, raised in a city, who visited my family’s farm and pointed a pellet rifle at me in jest. I wasn’t in danger of death, but certainly could have sustained an eye injury.
Both these moments illustrate the difference in attitude of (some) people who don’t have firearms experience…and those of us who do.
I’ve hunted most of my life and have spent a substantial amount of time gun ranges, gun shows, gun stores. I’ve held a concealed handgun license in multiple states, and never experienced anything like the aforementioned incidents from other hunters or recreational shooters.
Which leads me to believe Johnson’s demand to remove guns from sets is…reasonable. Of the millions of blanks fired during movie filming incidents in my lifetime, there have only been two mistakes—the first being Brandon Lee’s death while filming The Crow in 1993 (the son of famed actor and martial artist Bruce Lee), and the second being Hutchins death on Rust.
That’s still too many accidents. I assume that millions of live rounds are fired at gun ranges every month, with zero deaths.
Either the majority of Hollywood actors and set professionals need to quickly learn about proper gun handling and safety protocols, or we need to try another method.
If Dwayne Johnson is correct, and special effects can put “real guns” into scenes in post production…I would trust that a lot more than I would trust people without adequate training handling real guns day after day.
UPDATE: After I wrote this story, the armorer on Rust released a statement saying the set may have been “sabotaged” with a real bullet put into a box of blanks. Whether or not this proves to be true, the issue of proper firearm handling…isn’t something Hollywood understands. More knowledge about guns and safety, or a move to more special effects remain the only two options.
[three]
Well, this is a weird one…strap in.
Actor Elijah Wood (most famous for portraying Frodo in the Lord of the Rings saga) is an avid collector of NFT’s (digital art—there’s more to it than that, but for the purpose of this story, go with it).
When Wood debuted his most recent purchase on Twitter (a Roman style bust of a zombie), fans were quick to point out that Wood had purchased a piece from George Trosley, a 74-year-old artist who has some really disgusting racist work in his past (I’m not going to add images of Trosley’s racist cartoons, but you can see a few here, for context, but be warned they are disgusting).
Wood quickly announced that he had sold 6 Trosley NFT’s and donated the money to Black Lives Matter and Legal Defense Fund.
Hundreds of other collectors followed suit, with 3,200 (1 in 3) Trosely NFT’s selling off.
The only problem here?
Most creators make money each time their NFT is sold, including re-selling.
So, Wood likely put money into the pocket of the artist who has drawn some abhorrent racist cartoons.
It’s tough to say whether Wood was simply virtue signaling here, or trying to right a wrong (err, blunder, anyway)…but intent and reality don’t always line up.
Wood may have donated money to charity, but he also kicked off a “fire sale” of Trosley NFT’s across the internet…assuming Trosley got a cut of every sale, Elijah Wood may have put more money into the bank account of an artist with a racist past than he donated to Black Lives Matter and Legal Defense Fund.
Two lessons here.
A. Life is easier when you take the time to understand how a system works (in this case, NFT payments, but the rule applies to any system).
B. With any decision, there are always unintended consequences. This unintended consequence did the opposite of what Wood hoped to accomplish. He helped fund the very artist he was trying to renounce.
[four]
If you ever mocked the people featured on the NatGeo show Doomsday Preppers (streaming on Disney+ if you want to catch up), the preppers may be having the last laugh right about now, as a shortage of truckers may result in even more empty shelves at the local grocery store.
“The trucking industry is not anti-vaccination, we are anti-supply chain inefficiency,” Samson told lawmakers at Wednesday’s committee hearing. “A lot of larger truck lines have drivers with vaccine hesitancy.”
The Biden administration published its vaccination mandate for businesses Thursday, setting a Jan. 4 deadline for companies to comply. It is expected to cover 84 million people.
Samson said there were 80,000 open truck driver jobs in the U.S., warning that larger trucking firms fear they could lose a significant portion of their workforce in part because some drivers may leave larger trucking companies for smaller ones or leave the industry entirely.
One area the truck driver shortage could contribute to supply chain issues is the distribution of agricultural products, which lawmakers on the committee warned could eventually result in food not making its way to store shelves should the shortage continue.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman David Scott (D-Ga.) called the driver shortage “a tremendous challenge” to the agricultural product supply chain.
“They hold the key as to whether or not we will have a food supply shortage,” Scott said. “We don’t have a food shortage, but the supply is in the hands of our truck drivers.”
Since I grew up in rural America, I’ve had a lifelong understanding that your next meal isn’t always a five minute trip to the grocery store (and/or fast food drive thru) away.
One factor that some experts believe is at play is how high schools have essentially demonized the trades for the last two decades, measuring school performance on admissions to four year colleges.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Star Wars began as one of the biggest movie franchises of the 1970’s/1980’s (and also, ever), but now thrives on the small screen, as the last trilogy was panned by fans and critics alike. The franchise first entry into a full blown live action TV series, The Mandalorian, is on a bit of hiatus due to scheduling issues, so Disney+ is releasing the spinoff series The Book of Boba Fett, releasing weekly rather than as a full season (starting December 29). See the first trailer here.
You may not have heard of Morbius, but the comic book vampire anti-hero is a big deal, for a reason beyond the film itself. Before the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which now spans 20+ movies, was huge, Marvel sold sold the rights to characters in the Spider-Man franchise to Sony. Technically, Spider-Man is “on loan” when appearing in the MCU, and Sony is creating it’s own movie universe with additional Spider-Man characters, like the Tom Holland led series Venom. The next character entry in the Sony franchise, Morbius (played by Jared Leto—Dallas Buyer’s Club, Fight Club) makes multiple references to movie characters “owned” by both Sony and the Marvel Cinematic Universe finally combining with the first trailer, released this week. If that’s a little confusing, this article from Men’s Health will probably help. Even if you don’t care about comic book movies/blockbusters, this is big news in the world of entertainment, and could impact how intellectual property is handled in the future.
And so it begins. Entertainment Weekly has a complete timeline for the 143 original Christmas movies releasing on Lifetime, Netflix, Hallmark Channel and more. You’ll have seven score (to borrow from the Gettysburg Address) to see the high powered, happy, single career girl leave NYC/LA/Chicago and return to her small town in Vermont/Oklahoma/Alaska/wherever and fall for the High School Gym Teacher/Cowboy/Motorcycle Mechanic/Hunky Hardware Store Owner who either broke her heart or she completely ignored in high school.
Real life couple Tim McGraw and Faith Hill are set to pick up the Yellowstone anthology with Yellowstone 1883, the story of a rancher family who leaves Texas for (then) unmapped Montana Territory. A prequel to the Kevin Costner led hit western, 1883 will debut on Paramount+ on December 19…where you can see more of McGraw’s beard, which is so thick I assumed it was a COVID mask at first.
MOVIE PICK: This is the only time I’m making something “my pick,” without seeing it, but I’ll say I’m crazy excited to watch The Harder They Fall, which hit Netflix on Tuesday after a brief run in theaters (to make it more eligible/attractive for awards). Westerns have traditionally been dominated by overwhelming Caucasian casting, which stands at odds to the actual history of the American West, where 1 in 4 cowboys were black (mostly former slaves looking for a new and better life). The Harder They Fall is the first big budget Western to tell the tale of renowned (but little known, in pop culture) Cowboys of color, including Idris Elba (Thor: Ragnarok, The Suicide Squad) portraying Nat Love (below). Born into plantation slavery, Love headed west as a teen after the Civil War and gained fame in rodeos, before being kidnapped by a band of Pima Indians. Trailer here.
MUSIC PICK: One of the best debut albums I’ve heard in years, Reckless showcases Morgan Wade’s ability to plant one foot in traditional Americana and the other in 90’s alternative/grunge sounds.
MUSIC NEWS: Country music is the last music genre where radio arguably has more influence that streaming, which is sad, because most of my favorite artists fall into the non-radio country and Americana bucket. However, independent Texas country artist Cody Jinks is making waves on country radio with out a label, as is outlaw country outsider Morgan Wade (see below). || Pop star Ed Sheeran claims he had to rush to finish his latest album, because he wanted a vinyl pressing…and Adele had booked out every major vinyl pressing plant for her new album out 11/19).
Side note—a record label guy who’s name I can’t remember, told me back in 2009 that “vinyl would never be a thing” again and “the audience probably turns your show off” because I mentioned an artist we played who had pressed music to vinyl when the format was making a comeback. Anyway, it took more than a decade, but Adele won that argument on my behalf.
NEW MUSIC: Bleachers (fronted by frequent Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff) release Live at Electric Lady. Americana/Soul outfit Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats return with their first new album in six years, The Future.
Until the next one,
-sth