Welcome to The Now

 

 The multi-talented American was 80 . 

 

 Via Jimmy Dore:

 Via Sabby Sabbs:

 Don't expect Alan Dershowitz to ever own up to his bet with Norman Finkelstein, just expect him to defend the nigh-indefensible . 

 

 While the end of the 2023 Writer's Strike is a breath of fresh air to late night talk show hosts (not to mention Drew Carey's wallet ), one of the point of contention the writers had with the owners was the use of Artificial Intelligence. Specifically the realization that Hollywood wouldn't hesitate to replace writers with a bot that could spit out scripts for way less money. Well, this should be something for both writers and actors to be concerned about, because apparently Tom Hanks and Robin Williams are being used with their (family's) consent. This question has been asked before, and it will be asked again: wouldn't it be easier to replace the CEO's with AI?

 Apparently, Bill Maher and Drew Barrymore didn't believe that the SAG strike applied to them: Now to be fair: pushback/feedback has led both to rethink their moves , but the fact remains that they were oh-so-quick to cross the picket line. 

 In this case, about the Writer's Strike:

  Five familiar names are joining forces : The biggest names in late-night television are teaming up for a new podcast. Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel and John Oliver will host “Strike Force Five,” a new limited series podcast debuting Aug. 30, on Spotify, according to a news release from the streaming service. “Late night unite! Your new favorite podcast Strike Force Five premiers tomorrow with all of our proceeds going to staff and crew affected by the ongoing writers strike,” Fallon wrote on Instagram on Aug. 29, alongside the first look. “Check it out on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.” According to this story , the proceeds from the podcast will go to people who work on each host's perspective show. 

 This music video is especially resonant considering the current climate:

Yes, it's true: the issues that impact your household, town, city or even state can and will trump federal and national issues. It's one of the main reasons people default on foreign policy; the politician and media make little to no effort to connect what's going on beyond our borders to the people outside of the occasional saber-rattling and jingoism.  But politics is also by association: meaning, that what makes the headlines is pushed as if it's a product (because in a lot of ways it is). The same reason you see more Coca-Cola and Pepsi ads than those for RC Cola is the same reason there's seems to be more reason behind the Hollywood Writer's Strike than those of Amazon, Starbucks or the railroad workers: For all practical purposes, TV shows do as much for the average American as a coffee franchise or an industry responsible for moving 28% of the country's freight around . But from the perspective of those who are connected to television , like say Seth...

I'm a fan of Diablo Cody's writing; she strikes me as a cross between Amy Heckerling and Kevin Williamson . That being said, the last movie she was a part of was a flop. So why attach her to write a remake for one of most praise cult classics around ? Maybe Sam Raimi knows something we don't. I sure hope so...

As only they can .

I'm all for it . I've always yawned at deaths in the comic world because I knew somewhere down the line another writer would just bring someone back. Personally, I've never understood why writers just didn't retire characters in some way. Death is supposed to be finite, and constant resurrection undermines that concept. Besides: we all know some day, years from now, some writer's going to get the "brilliant" idea of bring Ben Parker or Thomas Wayne back to life. So let's short-circuit those plans now.

I mean, we're talking about someone involved with the Edgar Allen Poe mystic , afterall: A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago. "I'm confused, befuddled," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. "I don't know what's going on." The tradition dates back to at least 1949, according to newspaper accounts from the era, Jerome said. Since then, an unidentified person has come every Jan. 19 to leave three roses and a half-bottle of cognac at Poe's grave in a church cemetery in downtown Baltimore . The event has become a pilgrimage for die-hard Poe fans, some of whom travel hundreds of miles. About three dozen stood huddled in blankets during the overnight cold Tuesday, peering through the churchyard's iron gates hoping ...

And I thought my writing was bad .

Fine by me ; that's always been the appeal of the comic. Besides, the ones we have gotten to know are in their 30's and that's no fun. So really, the choice is to de-age them or find another, younger crop to develop.

If this little bit of " Spider-Man 4 " news is true, than maybe I'll forgive the two atrocities* that happened in the last one. * = Making Venom such a mundane and diluted character and that whole "I'm and evil jazz guy with lame emo hair because I wear black alien goop" sequence. Josh Lucas as Electro? Ben Kinsely as the Vulture? Scarlett Johansson as Black Cat (please)?