These Posters in NYC Feel WAY too Close to Nazi Germany, Gen-Z Cries Over 9-5 Job, Will High Tech Venues Destroy Live Music? Movie That Combines Oceans 11+Terminator a Hit?? (The Five for 10/27/23)
Hey, welcome to The Five, a publication about the stories that matter.
Before we dive in, I just launched a new business podcast, We Actually Built This, which will have a rotating panel of my friends in the entrepreneurial and creative world.
Still getting the infrastructure together, but you can catch the first episode on YouTube, Facebook or Twitter. Audio only coming shortly.
SPECIAL NOTE: There is a pretty explicit sketch from a jr. high comic book, being carried in many schools, in story 4. I decided to include to for people to understand what is being carried in schools these days. But if you don’t want to see it, skip segment 4.
[one]
A Gen Z’er went viral this week for sobbing on TikTok about her 9-5 job in New York, which forces her to board the train at 7:30 am and not return until 6:15 pm, because she “can’t afford to live in the city.”
The recent college grad got destroyed across social media channels for “not accepting the real world,” which I find to be ridiculous. The people who dunk on someone like this are the same ones who tell newly engaged couples “just wait 5 years, you’ll hate each other.”
If you’re miserable in a new city, working your first job with no real time for dating or making friends, separated from your family of origin and your roots…you are normal.
One psychologist youtuber I follow put it this way “if a deer was in distress because it was alone as a herd animal, you wouldn’t tell it to try harder. The same goes for people. We are adrift and miserable without community.”
I hope this young woman finds her way…to a different job, place to live, or both. There are ALWAYS options to improve your life…and seeking a new location is one of them.
Personally, I would tell her to look to the heartland. Louisville, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Des Moines and a handful of other cities offer much of the culture and lifestyle options of New York without paying half your income in rent and commuting for hours a day. And when you have some pocket cash and some free time…you can find community.
[two]
Elsewhere in New York, posters on the Upper East Side depicting kidnapped Israeli children are being vandalized with the word “Occupier.” They’re kids. Kidnapped kids.
Hmmm…where have we seen posters blaming Jews before. Oh yeah…Nazi Germany.
I detest how often Americans call each other Nazis over relatively minor political squabbles…but in this case, playing the Nazi card is warranted.
What’s happening in New York is too close to 1930’s Germany for comfort.
[three]
The biggest band in the world is playing more dates at…the biggest orb thing? in the world.
Today, U2 announced a series of 2024 dates in their series of U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere shows in Las Vegas. U2 are the first to perform at the 17,500-seat venue with this series of performances; they launched their shows with the new song “Atomic City.” The new run of show includes dates that share a city and weekend with Super Bowl LVIII next year. (The band announced the Sphere shows with a Super Bowl commercial earlier this year.) Check out U2’s full dates, including the newly announced shows below.
If you haven’t seen the external projections on the structure they’re…creepy at times. And likely terrifying to someone who comes to Vegas to imbibe illegal substances.
It’s cool. It’s gigantic. It’s buzz-worthy…and it’s very U2, who love to push the envelope of what the live experience can be. But does this enhance… or detract… from the true concert experience?
From Craig Dunham’s Second Drafts Substack:
As a U2 fan, I (along with millions of others) am no stranger to the band pushing the experiential envelope of concert-going. I’ve seen U2 live twice (Vertigo tour, May of 2005, with Megan at the United Center in Chicago; U2360 tour, June of 2011, with Megan and all four girls at Busch Stadium in St. Louis), and while the first was indoors, the second was outdoors, and the set lists were six years apart, they were both overwhelming spectacles. Regardless of whether you like the group (I always have), U2 as Sphere’s debut resident act makes all kinds of performance sense.
I just don’t know if I want it to.
I can’t remember the name of the band that was playing, but I do recall having a visceral reaction to seeing the first concert footage/photos in which the majority of the audience was viewing the show through their phones. At the time (circa 2012?), it seemed folks were just snapping pics and maybe a few short video clips; now, however, some concert-goers are watching entire shows live—even when they’re in the first five rows closest to the stage—through their phones.
This, of course, is done in the name of “capturing the moment,” and I get it (to a degree), but our cameras are nowhere near our human capacity to take in, process, and catalog the multi-sensory experience of being there (and let’s not forget the storage capacity of our brains blows away your Android or iPhone). In other words (and this is the real point), there’s something to be said for being present in the moment.
If I had to pick a “best concert of my life” experience, three come to mind. The first is the farewell tour of 90’s ska band Five Iron Frenzy, when the band closed out with “Silent Night” spontaneously, because it was December and had just started to snow.
The second was when Jason Isbell was still in Drive-By Truckers, and the band played an exhausting (even to watch) 3 hour, 45 minute set. What both of these shows had in common…was that they were far too exciting for me to look at my phone. Well, both happened before I HAD a smartphone, but you get the point.
The third was Americana rock band NEEDTOBREATHE at Schuba’s, a Chicago venue of only 125 people...and NTB played that thing like it was Madison Square Garden. They put everything they had into a two-and-a-half hour set that ended at 1:00 am. This was during the smartphone era, but I don’t remember ever being tempted to look at my screen, because what was happening in front of me would only occur once.
Perhaps the choice of venue is like music itself…highly subjective. Some people will go see a band they’re only moderately into because it’s in a cool place, and there’s a lot of social media buzz (aka they want the selfie and to tag themselves in it. Some people will no doubt be dazzled by The Edge burning through a guitar solo while projected to be the size of Godzilla.
Like many non-kid-friendly activities, I don’t get to much live music these days (I made it to see one total band in 2022, zero so far this year). But when I do, I prefer a room rather than a stadium, no more than 4,000-5,000 in attendance, and ideally…125. My best music experiences. That’s not to say I haven’t enjoyed an NFL sized show (U2 at Soldier Field was epic), but don’t leave the same impression on my memory as stepping out of a sweaty club, into the biting air of the Chicago winter.
Long live the American Legion local punk shows. Long live locally owned venues in cities across America where the only entertainment is what’s on stage…not on the screen.
[four]
WARNING: This story contains an image from a controversial jr. high comic book that’s sexual (in a very weird way) in nature. If you don’t want to see it, stop reading now.
There’s already some negative buzz around the new Hunger Games prequel, which looks to be one of the most violent PG-13 movies ever.
From Comic Book Movie:
Ahead of its release in theaters a little over a month from now, the official rating for Lionsgate's The Hunger Games prequel, The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, has been revealed (via SFFGazette.com)
The MPA (Motion Picture Association) has given the movie a PG-13 rating for "strong violent content and disturbing material." While this is the same rating as the previous four movies, it sounds like the latest instalment of the hit franchise will be even more brutal than its predecessors.
Director Francis Lawrence has promised fans a particularly violent Hunger Games sequence in The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes which is going to be a "bloodbath." It's believed the sequence in question has been spotted in the trailers showing Rachel Zegler's Lucy Gray Baird fending off attacks from tributes and robots alike.
This is worth contrasting with Let's Talk About It: The Teen's Guide to Sex, Relationships, and Being a Human (A Graphic Novel) Book by Erika Moen and Matthew Nolan, which blew up on Twitter because it’s in the jr. high section of many school libraries.
So, the reasoning goes that we can’t show jr. high students under 13 the realistic violence of children dying (when children are dying in major conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, which is thematically represented in The Hunger Games films), but it’s vital to use public education budgets to teach them about butt plugs?
That is…an interesting set of values, to be sure.
To be clear, I have a VERY strong reflex against censorship, but I see no reason why this comic, at the least, should not live at the public library rather than within the school system. School libraries are focused on curriculum, and unless we’re teaching a 7th grade course called “butt plugging,” I’m not sure how this comic pertains to the world of education.
But the Songbirds and Snakes book? Break that one back out in jr. high English. The pages look a lot like the world we’re living in today.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Here me out…Leave the World Behind looks like a more reasonable version of…Terminator. It’s unclear exactly who or what causes the cyberattack that turns everyday conveniences (like Teslas and drones) into weapons against everyday people…but dang, this looks fun. Julia Roberts (Pretty Woman, Oceans 11) is apparently returning after a break focused on child rearing, and rounding out the cast with Kevin Bacon (Footloose, Sleepers), Ethan Hawke (Training Day, Dead Poets Society) and Mahershala Ali (Green Book, Marvel’s Luke Cage) is a nice lineup.
One of Roberts’ most memorable roles was in Oceans 11, and this feels like the thrill of a heist movie mixed wit the dread of cybernetic “Ahnold” hunting you down.
Catch it in theaters in 11/22 (and this one may be well worth the visit to the local multiplex), or on Netflix 12/08.
Yet another amazing looking project with Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, 1923) attached—this time as a producer for FINESTKIND, a drama set in the high risk world of commercial fishing…and the higher risk world of drug dealing. Ben Foster (Hell or High Water, Hustle), Jenna Ortega (Netflix’s Wednesday) and Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive, Men in Black) team up here for a heist thriller on both land and sea.
On Paramount+ 12/15—really looking forward to it.
This isn’t going to appeal to everyone, but for those of us who do, Freud’s Last Session looks dang exciting. Anthony Hopkins (Silence of the Lambs, Thor) plays famous psychologist Sigmund Freud, as he is confronted with the Christianity of a young Oxford Professor, C.S. Lewis (Matthew Good of Downton Abbey, The King’s Man fame), based on a stage play of the same name.
I was able to see the live production in Chicago, and I’m ecstatic this is getting the film treatment.
NEW MUSIC
There are several new albums out today worth your time an attention making today (10/27) an unnofficial “New Music Holiday”…but due to a max word count in Substack, we’re going to have to cap it a four. After that, go skim through your streaming service of choice.
The Gaslight Anthem is my favorite band of all time, and recently re-formed after calling it quits in 2014…so I’m probably biased here. If you’ve never listened to the Jersey based quartet until now, give it a try for the Springsteen-meets-Pearl-Jam vibe, or just for the great songwriting.
I’ve been a Nappy Roots apologist since the Kentucky group burst onto the scene in 2002 with “AwwNaw” and “Poor Folks” making major waves at radio and MTV.
Two decades later, the hip hop posse sounds as fresh as ever, taking a break from running their AtlanTucky Brewery to drop a new project.
Texas Outlaw Country icon Cody Jinks is back for the first time since his 2021 album Mercy.
It’s not like Taylor Swift needs the promotion…but if you’re even a casual fan, the new songs on the 1989 re-release are worth checking out.
Until the next one,
-sth