There’s no refuge from the tide of “woke” in entertainment. You’d think the British would have better sense, but apparently that’s not the case. The newest season of the BritBox series Hope Street, which centers on a police unit in a seaside Northern Ireland town, has become drenched with it. Hope Street isn’t a glossy …
Category: entertainment
Nov 19 2024
Sequels
The news is blah – all the usual suspects doing all the usual things – so I’ll abstain from political and current events commentary for the morning. Instead, while we’re waiting for the coin toss that will mark the actual beginning of World War III – I’d elect to kick off – let’s talk …
Nov 18 2024
“Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion:” The Nadir
I’ve ranted before about how this plague has infested entertainment, especially video productions. I thought at the time that I wouldn’t be moved to say any more about it – that I’d expunged the irritation, that the case was made, and what would follow, would follow. That was before yesterday evening’s “entertainment.” The …
Oct 10 2024
Kubrick Fans: Steering AI With Personal Knowledge
When using AI, it helps to have some knowledge on any subject searched. In that way when AI seems to avoid some answers one can redirect. Even after getting better results, it can be both humorous and annoying how often it insists on including results that satisfy a Woke agenda. I will demonstrate with one …
Sep 25 2024
About That “Reality” Stuff
Two contrasting theses: Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children, Hidden excitedly, containing laughter. Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind Cannot bear very much reality. [T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets] …the bird is mistaken. A man can endure the entire weight of the universe for eighty years. …
Apr 19 2024
“Give The People What They Want!”
The title is a watchword – the supreme watchword – in the television industry. Or perhaps I should say that it was, once upon a time. Things have definitely changed. You’d think that giving the prospective consumer what he wants would be a maxim for all of commerce. How can you sell something …
Apr 08 2024
Hope And Division
This morning, Braden at Langley Outdoors Academy comments on a very interesting interview of Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson. In it, the star proclaims that in the interests of not further exciting division among those who pay attention to him, henceforth he’ll keep his politics to himself. It was an exceptional display of humility for …
Feb 23 2024
It Doesn’t Matter If It Succeeds
Just yesterday, I wrote about the egregious commercial sin of defining others’ desires and preferences as “wrong.” While it is something we’ve all done from time to time, a commercial concern can’t afford it. You cannot sell dead cats to the Board of Sanitation. Similarly, you cannot sell “diversity” to an audience that’s looking …
Dec 01 2023
Omission Statement
There are many in the right who feel we’re not making progress. Given that the political milieu hasn’t budged since the inauguration of the Usurper-in-Chief, I can understand the feeling. But in point of fact, we’re advancing “upstream,” in the battle over the culture: “Entertain first, not messages,” Iger said at something called …
Aug 28 2023
The Entertainer’s Narrow Path
“Pictures were made to entertain; if you want to send a message, call Western Union.” – Samuel Goldwyn Yesterday’s brief piece about film director Peter Weir evoked quite a bit of comment and email. Our Gentle Readers largely concurred with my sentiments. I expected that, as our readers tend to be older than …
Sep 25 2022
Against The Anti Brigades
The following video is a snippet from a 1977 BBC interview of Sylvester Stallone about why he wrote Rocky. It’s both surprising and, to those who doubted his intellect, revealing: Stallone’s diagnosis of the cultural trends is dead on – and even more important for our time. Americans wanted entertainment that would resonate …
Jul 31 2022
Entertainers and Entertainment
Forgive me, Gentle Reader. For the moment I simply can’t fulminate about politics or current events. I’m out of bile. But that doesn’t mean I have nothing for you today. *** I’ve often found myself stalled in the middle of some novel-length project. In the most dramatic case, the “stall” lasted for twelve …
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