A long, slow, converging consensus is coming to expose Facebook, Amazon and Google
On Friday, May 15th, Facebook announced that it will be buying Giphy— the world’s most popular GIF site on the internet, social media, and messaging services. Giphy is already an integrated part of iMessage, Tinder, Slack, and Twitter, and Facebook now owns it for a reported $400 million.
Acquiring a GIF-generating site seems inconspicuous enough for Facebook, the social media conglomerate that already owns Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR, and many other subsidiaries. Nevertheless, the purchase raised some red flags in Washington, especially for Democrats like Senators Elizabeth Warren (MA) and Senator Amy Kolchubar (MN) as well as Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY) and David Cicilline (RI), all of whom have been critical of major corporate mergers throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Because of COVID-19, many small businesses are facing immense hardships. They are in a vulnerable state, desperate for money and far more likely to sell out. By contrast, major corporations not only have the funds to stay afloat, but also the continued stability to take advantage of the smaller, more jeopardized companies. Senator Warren and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez have thus proposed the “Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act” to halt all big-business mergers until the situation gets better for their small business counterparts.
Hence, Facebook’s purchase of Giphy comes at a dubious time. Giphy is no small time company, but Facebook’s ownership of it could still lead to increased exploitation down the road. Because the site is integrated into so many different apps and services already, it will provide Facebook with covert entrance’s into all of those platforms’ data.
As brought to the foreground in 2016’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook keeps an overabundance of data on each of its users. The site tracks and analogs everything we do, and that information does not remain confidential. Facebook sells it to other services, businesses, or even political assets, usually (but not always) for the sake of marketing.
With WhatsApp and Instagram already in house Giphy appears to be a bridge too far
With Giphy under the site’s control, Facebook’s data-mining efforts will overreach even farther. It will be able to access information from our Tweets, iMessages, Tinder matches, and even business correspondences via Slack. Evidently, the purchase entails a whole lot more than just the newfound ability to insert GIFs directly into our statuses.
click to see “Life After Google” and help Lynxotic and all independent bookstores.
The politicians against business mergers during the pandemic are by-and-large the same people who have been fighting Facebook for the past few years, demanding heightened security and increased regulations for big-tech across the board. Right now, the Department of Justice is planning antitrust charges for Google and many attorney generals are investigating Amazon for their monopolistic control over the market. If these cases prove successful, we might finally see some legislation passed to keep the long-unrestricted tech moguls in check.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has not yet commented directly on the Giphy acquisition, nor has he provided a public response to the “Pandemic Anti-Monopoly Act” proposition. In typical Facebook fashion, all the website has really done to help in these trying times is create a new “hug” reaction icon. It’s a nice addition, but hardly makes up for the company’s clear manipulation of the present circumstances.
If there is one shred of good news amidst the purchase so far, it is that Giphy will thankfully not be removing their library of embarrassing Mark Zuckerberg GIFs. Moreover, we can also take solace in the fact that there are many more GIF-worthy Zuck moments to come.
Banks make final approval, official form, with schedule for documentation, lays out detailed requirements
The US treasury department, along with the SBA made the highly anticipated document and details available on Friday. The application, which can be downloaded from this link and printed, or filled out online, contains the requirements needed in order for the so called Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, recipients to apply for forgiveness under the program.
This release also clarifies the process whereby the borrower must fill out the form and provide any additional accompanying documentation. Once completed the borrower must submit the form and accompanying documents to the lending institution where they received the PPP funds. The lending bank will make the final decision to approve any forgiveness.
The 11 pages included in the file consist of the forgiveness application itself and instructions on how to fill it out. The application itself has two important schedules: Schedule A and the worksheet for Schedule A.
Key is the 60-day period which has been designated as the period within which the funds must be used, in order for the expenses to be forgivable. In some cases there can be, apparently, some flexibility regarding the date an expense was incurred, such as hours worked by employees, vs. the date those incurred expenses were paid, such as the scheduled payroll payment date or pay period closing date. The applicable dates, can in some cases, be the date the expenses were incurred, not paid, in case of discrepancies.
While some may find this application and the accompanying instructions more than sufficient, such as ongoing businesses that maintained employment and lease / mortgage payments, and already have a ratio to costs between them at 75% / 25% as prescribed in the original guidelines. Others, however, may have a more difficult time deciphering what exactly they can or can’t expect forgiveness for.
Though the release is a major step toward clarification, confusion still abounds in the details of the program and forgiveness eligibility
Articles are appearing online picking apart the confusion that may be caused by this initial attempt to clarify the process and set it into motion. The SBA has indicated that more guidance will be forthcoming.
One gripe being mentioned is the lack of narrative-based guidance, basically a verbal explanation for the various cases that could potentially arise and how they should be handled.
Many businesses had to furlough or fire employees due to lack of funds and then re-hire or re-activate them to comply with the SBA program, in particular wanting to be sure to qualify for forgiveness. This was an acute need in some situations, such as restaurants or other businesses that were required to close and deemed non-essential. In many of those cases the employees were paid not to work or to do minimal work while receiving a full paycheck.
Companies in that situation, even with full forgiveness granted, face a daunting, uphill battle to regain profitability or viable revenue streams to keep them running after the 60 days of funds has run out. The lingering effects of the pandemic and the lock-down and stay-at-home orders along with the general state of fear (well founded in many cases, it appears) create a situation where former levels of business revenue and activity may take a long time to regain.
This is not taking into account the economic after-effects and general depressed state of consumption being seen in current national published data.
While the SBA has taken a large and positive step forward with the release of this application and achieved some clarification of the process, much more help for struggling businesses will be needed as we emerge, slowly, from the coronavirus / covid-19 crisis.
Summer 2020 will be one that many will have never ever experienced in their lifetime. You can even say, it will be “one for the books” (pun intended). With many stay at home orders set to extend into the summer months, picking up a new book and reading is one of the many things we can do to pass the time and can be both entertaining and ensure you are staying safe. Below is a list compiled of high reviewed and new releases that are currently available or soon to be available to enjoy.
If you want to see more details or purchase the titles have clickable links: Stay safe and happy reading.
Click to buy “All Adults Here” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Astrid’s youngest son is drifting and unfocused, making parenting mistakes of his own. Her daughter is pregnant yet struggling to give up her own adolescence. And her eldest seems to measure his adult life according to standards no one else shares.
But who gets to decide, so many years later, which long-ago lapses were the ones that mattered?
Who decides which apologies really count? It might be that only Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter and her new friend really understand the courage it takes to tell the truth to the people you love the most.
Six years after the fight that ended their friendship, Daphne Berg is shocked when Drue Cavanaugh walks back into her life, looking as lovely and successful as ever, with a massive favor to ask. Daphne hasn’t spoken one word to Drue in all this time–she doesn’t even hate-follow her ex-best friend on social media–so when Drue asks if she will be her maid-of-honor at the society wedding of the summer,
Daphne is rightfully speechless. Drue was always the one who had everything–except the ability to hold onto friends. Meanwhile, Daphne’s no longer the same self-effacing sidekick she was back in high school. She’s built a life that she loves, including a growing career as a plus-size Instagram influencer. Letting glamorous, seductive Drue back into her life is risky, but it comes with an invitation to spend a weekend in a waterfront Cape Cod mansion. When Drue begs and pleads and dangles the prospect of cute single guys, Daphne finds herself powerless as ever to resist her friend’s siren song: Click to see “Big Summer”.
Click to buy “Untamed” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Soulful and uproarious, forceful and tender, Untamed is both an intimate memoir and a galvanizing wake-up call. It is the story of how one woman learned that a responsible mother is not one who slowly dies for her children, but one who shows them how to fully live.
It is the story of navigating divorce, forming a new blended family, and discovering that the brokenness or wholeness of a family depends not on its structure but on each member’s ability to bring her full self to the table. And it is the story of how each of us can begin to trust ourselves enough to set boundaries, make peace with our bodies, honor our anger and heartbreak, and unleash our truest, wildest instincts so that we become women who can finally look at ourselves and say: There She Is. Untamed shows us how to be brave. As Glennon insists: The braver we are, the luckier we get.
The bride – The plus one – The best man – The wedding planner – The bridesmaid – The body…On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine, or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed: Click to see “The Guest List”.
Click to buy “The Vanishing Half” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities.
Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters’ storylines intersect?
The novella is a form King has returned to over and over again in the course of his amazing career, and many have been made into iconic films, including “The Body” (Stand By Me) and “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption” (Shawshank Redemption). Like Four Past Midnight, Different Seasons, and most recently Full Dark, No Stars, If It Bleeds is a uniquely satisfying collection of longer short fiction by an incomparably gifted writer: Click to see “If It Bleeds”.
Click to buy “The Dutch House” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.
Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together.
Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.
Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation–awkward but electrifying–something life changing begins. Also a Hulu original series available to stream now: Click to see “Normal People”.
Inspired by the immediate success of the podcast, Moe has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, part memoir of his own journey, part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and insights drawn from years of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds facing similar challenges.
Throughout the course of this powerful narrative, depression’s universal themes come to light, among them, struggles with identity, lack of understanding of the symptoms, the challenges of work-life, self-medicating, the fallout of the disease in the lives of our loved ones, the tragedy of suicide, and the hereditary aspects of the disease.
Seamlessly blending classic horror and a dramatic narrative with sharp social commentary, The Only Good Indians follows four American Indian men after a disturbing event from their youth puts them in a desperate struggle for their lives. Tracked by an entity bent on revenge, these childhood friends are helpless as the culture and traditions they left behind catch up to them in a violent, vengeful way: Click to see “The Only Good Indians”.
Click to buy “Parakeet” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
A novel that does justice to the hectic confusion of becoming a woman today, Parakeet asks and begins to answer the essential questions. How do our memories make, cage, and free us? How do we honor our experiences and still become our strongest, truest selves?
Who are we responsible for, what do we owe them, and how do we allow them to change? Urgent, strange, warm-hearted, and sly, Parakeet is ribboned with joy, fear, and an inextricable thread of real love. It is a startling, unforgettable, life-embracing exploration of self and connection.
Davy and Joe were drinking pals back in their Dublin youth. Davy rarely sees Joe for a pint anymore–maybe one or two when Davy comes over from England to check on his elderly father. But tonight Davy’s father is dying in the hospice, and Joe has a secret that will lead the two on a bender back to the haunts of their youth: Click to see “Love”.
Click to buy “A Burning” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Jivan is a Muslim girl from the slums, determined to move up in life, who is accused of executing a terrorist attack on a train because of a careless comment on Facebook. PT Sir is an opportunistic gym teacher who hitches his aspirations to a right-wing political party, and finds that his own ascent becomes linked to Jivan’s fall.
Lovely-an irresistible outcast whose exuberant voice and dreams of glory fill the novel with warmth and hope and humor–has the alibi that can set Jivan free, but it will cost her everything she holds dear. Taut, symphonic, propulsive, and riveting from its opening lines, A Burning has the force of an epic while being so masterfully compressed it can be read in a single sitting.
Majumdar writes with dazzling assurance at a breakneck pace on complex themes that read here as the components of a thriller: class, fate, corruption, justice, and what it feels like to face profound obstacles and yet nurture big dreams in a country spinning toward extremism. An extraordinary debut.
Groundbreaking and unvarnished look at what really transpired
A new book set for release on May 15th, 2020 comes from one of China’s most acclaimed and decorated writers and is a powerful first-person account of life in Wuhan during the peak of COVID-19 outbreak.
It is unclear if and when a physical book will be available for purchase, but for the moment, it is most It is unclear if and when a physical book will be available for purchase, but for the moment, it is becoming available in audiobook and e-book format
Synopsis from the publisher, HarperCollins :
On January 25, 2020, after the central government imposed a lockdown in Wuhan, acclaimed Chinese writer Fang Fang began publishing an online diary. The writer used a pen name rather than her birth name as she wanted to be a “witness” rather than be cast as a critic for or against the Chinese government and how the pandemic was handled.
In the days and weeks that followed, Fang Fang’s nightly postings gave voice to the fears, frustrations, anger, and hope of millions of her fellow citizens, reflecting on the psychological impact of forced isolation, the role of the internet as both community lifeline and source of misinformation, and most tragically, the lives of neighbors and friends taken by the deadly virus.
A fascinating eyewitness account of events as they unfold, “Wuhan Diary” captures the challenges of daily life and the changing moods and emotions of being quarantined without reliable information. Fang Fang finds solace in small domestic comforts and is inspired by the courage of friends, health professionals and volunteers, as well as the resilience and perseverance of Wuhan’s nine million residents. But, by claiming the writer´s duty to record she also speaks out against social injustice, abuse of power, and other problems which impeded the response to the epidemic and gets herself embroiled in online controversies because of it.
As Fang Fang documents the beginning of the global health crisis in real time, we are able to identify patterns and mistakes that many of the countries dealing with the novel coronavirus have later repeated. She reminds us that, in the face of the new virus, the plight of the citizens of Wuhan is also that of citizens everywhere. As Fang Fang writes: “The virus is the common enemy of humankind; that is a lesson for all humanity. The only way we can conquer this virus and free ourselves from its grip is for all members of humankind to work together.”
Blending the intimate and the epic, the profound and the quotidian, Wuhan Diary is a remarkable record of an extraordinary time.
Click to buy “Wuhan Diary” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman launched Quibi on April 6th. The latest project from the two well-experienced entertainment moguls, Quibi is a streaming service designed for the smallest of screens— namely, smartphones and other mobile devices. The subscription based platform’s initiative is to provide short bursts of entertainment for people on the go, keeping content between seven and ten minutes long apiece.
Quibi entered the streaming war with a lot of hype, propelled by a massive marketing campaign and a line up including several noteworthy filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Guillermo Del Toro, Steven Soderbergh, Sam Raimi, and more. Many industry insiders had high hopes for the novel platform, even after it decided to stay true to its April 6th launch date amidst the coronavirus.
Sadly, that decision might be coming back to haunt Quibi, as the service came out over a month ago and has so far severely underperformed. The service cost roughly $1.4 billion to create— most of the money coming from Hollywood studio investors and the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba— and according to the New York Times, it has garnered under 2 million active subscribers in its first month. At a price of $4.99-$7.99 per month, this is a long way from breaking even.
Despite knowing the risk of launching Quibi during COVID-19, Jeffrey Katzenberg is now attributing the site’s underperformance to the pandemic. In a New York Times video interview, he unambiguously stated, “I attribute everything that has gone wrong to coronavirus.”
The founder’s rationale is that the platform is best consumed for people with busy, mobile lives. Quibi provides content catered to people on tight schedules, with news and entertainment served in quick doses. Under the current quarantine, however, people are more sedentary than ever before. Katzenberg continued to the Times, “My hope, my belief was that there would still be many in-between moments while sheltering in place. There are still those moments, but it’s not the same. It’s out of sync.”
This makes sense, but is called into question when considering the success of other streaming sites during the lockdown. Established platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney+ have benefitted immensely from people staying at home. With theaters closed, lots of content is getting expedited to streaming and these sites are serving as the last lines of entertainment during these isolating times. Netflix has added 15.8 million subscribers in 2020, and Disney+ 4.5 million in the month of April alone.
Of course, Quibi lacks a lot of what these preexisting services have to offer. It does not possess the name brand recognition of a Netflix or Amazon, nor does it have have the vast, familiar library of Disney+. Despite its impressive rolodex of attached producers and a few reboots of popular shows, Quibi has had to build from the bottom up with original programming.
No Blockbuster (yet?) and Now A Changed Attitude Re: TV
Unfortunately, on top of all the circumstantial roadblocks facing Quibi as a company right now, its shows have not been well received either. Many critics and consumers are not buying into the concept of watching content on a phone. Even though Quibi invested lots of effort into creating “turnstyle” technology for a seamless vertical/horizontal viewing experience, the final product has been underwhelming. A review from The Vulture called the technological attempt’s outcome, “a sad cropped, vertical version of a show that looked better in widescreen.”
Now, Quibi is looking towards the future. With so much money and human capital tied up in the project, it has no choice but to keep moving forward, trying to rebound and improve upon itself.
Marketing-wise, Quibi plans to start advertising for individual shows. Up until now, the platform has marketed itself as a whole, with celebrity-endorsed commercials promoting the overall site rather than specific programs. Going forward, Quibi will create more ads centered on particular shows, much in the same vein as Netflix and Disney+.
The site will also be updating its terms of usage. For starters, Quibi users will no longer be tethered to their phone screens. Subscribers will soon be able to watch Quibi shows on their televisions. This was always something that Quibi aspired to in the longterm, but wanted to get its customers used to the small screen standard first. Given the users’ apparent aversion to mobile viewing, though, Quibi is accelerating the process.
Moreover, Quibi content will be sharable on social media going forward. At first, Katzenberg and Whitman wanted to keep all of Quibi (including screenshots) behind its subscriber paywall. Those walls are now becoming permeable, as Quibi demands more traction. Allowing users to share Quibi shows on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter will help spread its popularity and get more people talking about it.
Evidently, Quibi is undergoing some changes at the moment. Regardless of the peculiar situation, the bottom line is that Quibi has not been so successful out the gate. Things will probably get even more competitive in the coming months as NBCUniversal’s Peacock and AT&T’s HBOMax enter the streaming world. Consequentially, Quibi executives are changing their approach immediately, lest the Quibi craze be over before it even begins.
Prizes for Art and Thought Still Matter in a World Afflicted by a Pandemic
In a world marred by pandemic, awards ceremonies linked to artistic or intellectual achievements may seem like a fantasies. Nevertheless, such roadblocks have not stopped the Pulitzer committee from announcing their prestigious prize recipients for 2020.
Pulitzer Prizes are awarded every year in twenty-one categories. They are given for outstanding American achievements in journalism, literature, and music composition. Every year showcases immeasurable talent, and this year is no different. The New York Times and The New Yorker racked up the majority of newspaper and magazine awards. However, The Baltimore Sun won for local reporting and Kentucky’s The Courier-Journal won for best breaking news reporting.
Meanwhile, the general nonfiction category saw a tie between Anne Boyer’s “The Undying” and Greg Grandin’s “The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America.” Jericho Brown won the poetry prize for his collection of poems “The Tradition” and W. Caleb McDaniel won in history for “Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America.” Simultaneously, Anthony Davis won in music for his opera “The Central Park Five.”
The biggest win of the year, however, went to Colson Whitehead in the fiction category for his bestselling novel “The Nickel Boys.” At just 224 pages, “The Nickel Boys” is short but strong. A piece of historical-fiction, in chronicles the story of two boys attending a reform boarding school in Florida at the height of the Jim Crowe era. The book is a brutally honest portrait of race relations in America, and it brings to the foreground some haunting aspects of our nation’s past that many modern citizens tragically overlook.
Colson Whitehead’s win was even more momentous because the author won the Pulitzer Prize for his last book as well, 2017’s Civil War novel “The Underground Railroad.” Whitehead’s second win puts him in a very elite category of two-time Pulitzer fiction prize winners. The only other authors to have earned the honor more than once were William Faulkner, Booth Tarkington, and John Updike. However, none of these iconic writers ever won the title for two consecutive books, making Whitehead a trendsetter.
Aside from Whitestand’s groundbreaking achievement in fiction, the 2020 Pulitzers also made some noise in the drama category, giving the award to playwright Michael R. Jackson for his musical “A Strange Loop.” The play follows the story of an overweight gay blackman who aspires to greatness despite feeling constantly out of place in the world. An all-black ensemble cast accompanies him, personifying his inner conflicts throughout.
The fact that a musical won in the drama category is noteworthy in and of itself, as the Pulitzer committee rarely considers the genre. Nevertheless, it is the vital, somewhat radical content of “A Strange Loop” that truly makes it a worthy victor.
Lastly (but certainly not least), this year’s biography award went to a new Susan Sontag biography by Benjamin Moser. “Sontag: Her Life And Work” is Moser’s third book, and only his second biography. The book spares no detail in sharing the late writer’s amazing life, dissecting her unparalleled multidisciplinary contributions and her profound intellectual prowess across the twentieth century.
These picks for the Pulitzer Prize, along with all the others, are groundbreaking literary and journalistic achievements. Happily, this year’s winners offered a plethora of diverse content, with stories that celebrate different perspectives and share unsung outlooks. This bodes well for future of American letters.
Click to buy “The Nickel Boys” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Weightlessness becomes the sound stage setting for innovation or absurdity
From “Star Trek” to “Star Wars,” “Interstellar” to “2001,” outer space has been the primary setting for a wide range of science fiction and action movies over the years. Still, never has a film actually been shot in the infinite frontier. Sure we have footage from the stars (even from the moon and Mars), but no feature film has been bold enough to actually construct a full-length narrative with principal photography occurring in space.
All that is about to change, as Deadline Hollywood recently reported that actor Tom Cruise has been in conversation with tech wizard Elon Musk‘s SpaceX to shoot a movie entirely in space… the first feature to ever have its production take place outside planet Earth.
As of right now, details are quite spotty. All we know for sure is that Cruise is on board and so is Musk. The film will not be attached to any pre-existing Tom Cruise franchise and no studio has signed on to the project yet. Also, in typical Cruise fashion, the movie will likely fall into the action genre.
Because COVID-19 has more or less put the film industry on pause indefinitely, significant progress on the project will probably not begin until business is back to normal. Obviously, this movie will require an unprecedented amount of planning. Cruise will need to endure astronaut-like training to face (let alone act in) a zero gravity environment. The same goes for all of the supporting cast and crew members, none of whom have been announced yet.
The project will probably be insurmountably expensive, but with Musk, Cruise, and SpaceX (and by extension NASA) at the film’s back, they will certainly be able to raise the funds and attract major studio interest. A budget has not been estimated yet, but the film could easily end up being the most expensive production of all time. It depends on how many actors, crew members, and sets they need to prepare and transport to beyond the exosphere.
Fringe benefit or impossible to insure, an action stunt that creates headlines, if not much else
Even in his sixties, the eternally youthful Tom Cruise is a perfect pick to lead the first film shot in space. The actor still does his own extreme stunts and the past few “Mission: Impossible” movies saw him leaping from helicopters, hanging off the side of a moving airplane, and scaling the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. If any Hollywood persona has what it takes to perform in space, it is Cruise.
Meanwhile, Elon Musk—who recently had his first child, named X Æ A-12, with partner Grimes—is one of the greatest visionaries alive today. His SpaceX company is behind the electric-powered line of Tesla cars and it is currently planning a flight to the international space station with its innovative Crew Dragon capsule. Having Musk lend his expertise to the film industry will be a real treat.
Cruise is currently awaiting the release of his most recent film, “Top Gun: Maverick,” which has been pushed back from June to December due to the pandemic. The aviator-based action movie is a sequel to its 1986 predecessor, and Cruise stars alongside Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, and others. Although Cruise has done copious action adventure films throughout his career, he’s somehow never done one set in space. Given his aptitude for practical stunts, it only makes sense that his first one is filmed there for real.
Some of the best books written on human behavior and finance
The economy is in a precarious situation right now, as you are no doubt well aware, stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic. Early March the stock market met with some unprecedented hits, as the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid to consecutive record percentage drops on the 9th, 12th, and 16th. Now, with many businesses remaining closed, or struggling to re-open, most consumers still forced to stay at home, with people living in near-panic, due to a well founded fear of infection, and many Americans are struggling to stay financially afloat.
At the very least throughout all of this, we have found more time to read books, and luckily, there are a few experts who have taken the time to write valuable and approachable texts on issues facing our convoluted global economic system. Here are five books that are worth turning to in these troubling times. While they might not be able to help us magically regain the stock market losses we’ve accumulated over the past few months, they can still give us some solace and understanding, with perspectives that could prevent something like this happening again. Perhaps even reveal ways to prosper in the coming phase II, Depression, Recession or Recovery.
Click to buy “Manias, Panics, and Crashes” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises, Seventh Edition
By Robert Z Aliber and Charles P Kindleberger
Originally published in 1978, “Manias, Panics, and Crashes” has evolved a lot over the years. This most recent seventh edition has aged well with experience, witnessing and learning from some of the most significant stock market events to take place over the past forty years. Economist Robert Z Aliber, originally working with the late Charles P Kindleberger, takes a wholistic view of financial crashes, seeing them as predictable events in an unstable system. Bookshop calls the edition “an investment classic has been thoroughly revised and expanded following the latest crises to hit international markets”
Click to buy “Connectedness and Contagion” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Connectedness and Contagion: Protecting the Financial System from Panics
By Hal S Scott
In a move that seems almost prophetic given today’s situation, this 2016 book likens the financial system to a contagious disease. Partially a criticism of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, “Connectedness and Contagion” asserts that the government needs more control over Wall Street to limit creditors and prevent them from creating unethical, potentially dangerous situations. Harvard Law Professor Hal S Scott throughly researched this highly intellectual read, which Bookshop sums up as “an argument that contagion is the most significant risk facing the financial system and that Dodd¬Frank has reduced the government’s ability to respond effectively.” Sounds like prescience to us!
Click to buy “The Infinite Game” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
The Infinite Game
By Simon Sinek
A more contemporary title, “The Infinite Game” was published in October 2019, and it likens global economics to an elaborate game with ever-changing players, fluid rules, and no predetermined endpoint or objective. Motivational speaker and writer Simon Sinek offers readers ideas on how to navigate such a game, for doing so certainly breaks from conventional goal-oriented mindsets. According to Sinek, the required cognitive state for “winning” involves remaining focused, but also adaptable, to attain longterm achievements. Bookshop calls it “a bold framework for leadership in today’s ever-changing world,” and a useful text for situations far beyond the stock market.
Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds
By Charles MacKay
Originally published in 1841 by Scottish poet Charles MacKay, “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds” is a bona fide classic and a must on every economics zealot’s bookshelf. Although written at the height of Western modernity, MacKay’s book holds up to this day as a an early analysis of the intersections between economics and culture throughout history. Despite it sounding cliché, we can indeed learn lots about the present by looking to the past. Bookshop, selling a 2016 Createspace Independent Publishing Platform edition of the book, calls it “highly readable and accessible even today.”
Click to buy “Incerto (series)” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all Independent Local Bookstores
Incerto (series)
By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“Incerto” is not one book, but four— “Fooled By Randomness,” “The Black Swan,” “The Bed Of Procrustes” and “Antifragile.” All penned by statistics essayist Nassim Nicholas Taleb and respectively published in 2001, 2007, 2010 and 2012, the “Incerto” series is all about risk, error, and probability in our difficult-to-predict world. Taleb takes both contemporary and past events into account, mulling over abstract human illusion and myths as well as down-to-earth psychological, technological, and economic occurrences. As a whole, the series sheds light on many things that seem to be anomalies in our modern lives. Bookshop— which is selling the series in one, extended-edition collection— calls “Incerto” “a landmark” and a helpful map for “decision-making in a world we don’t understand.”
Moving up the major release of “Rise” a full 2 months
Break out the lightsabers and pour yourself a tall glass of blue mile, because Monday is May the 4th (be with you), a global holiday celebrating everything Star Wars. Disney is getting in on the action by bumping up the home release of “Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker” on Disney+. Releasing the ninth and final film in the Skywalker saga now comes a whopping two months earlier than its originally scheduled debut for the streaming site— a sure treat for cooped up moviegoers itching to binge more content during the quarantine.
The Star Wars fun does not stop there, though. Disney+ is also airing the final episode of “The Clone Wars” on the 4th. The acclaimed and beloved animated series has been off the air since 2014, but Disney decided to make a final season for their streaming site in 2020. Episodes have come out stagnantly since February 21st, and the conclusion arrives appropriately on May the 4th, putting Star Wars fans of the edges of their seats.
As if all that wasn’t enough, Disney+ still has one more surprise up its sleeve for the global Star Wars day. On the 4th, the site is also releasing a making-of documentary on “The Mandalorian,” the first live action Star Wars series that met immense praise at the end of 2019. “The Mandalorian” wrapped its first season in December and has already been renewed for a second and third season. It met record-breaking viewership figures and was a huge draw for Disney+ subscribers upon the service’s launch last November. Given that “The Mandalorian” sports some of the best writers, directors, and VFX people in the television game (not to mentioned executive producer John Favreau), the making-of story is bound to spark intrigue from Star Wars fans and general cinephiles alike.
Photo / Disney
Making the most of this springtime celebration of the saga to boost Disney+ awareness
Clearly, Disney is doing its best to make May the 4th a special occasion. This is the first May 4th that Disney+ has been in existence for, and it also falls at a time when audiences are stuck at home with nothing but streaming services to keep them entertained. This would not be the first time that Disney+ pleasantly surprised fans during the quarantine, though, as the site also expedited releases of “Frozen II” and Pixar’s “Onward” in light of the pandemic.
Moreover, the holiday arrives at a potentially uplifting time, as movie theaters are slowly opening up again. Perhaps a few theaters in the newly reopened Texas and Georgia will be able to host some May 4th Star Wars celebrations on the big screen.
While there are currently no new Star Wars theatrical releases on the horizon, 2020 remains an active year for the franchise. Not only is “The Mandalorian” season 2 scheduled for release in October, but the creative minds at Disney and Lucasfilm are currently working on a Ewan McGregor-starring Obi-Wan series for Disney+ as well as an enigmatic multi-media project titled “The High Republic” which launches in August. Meanwhile, the long awaited Cassian Andor series remains in development as well as an additional Star Wars show helmed by “Russian Doll” co-creator Leslye Headland.
Not only is “The Mandalorian” season 2 scheduled for release in October, but the creative minds at Disney and Lucasfilm are currently working on a Ewan McGregor-starring Obi-Wan series for Disney+
Disney’s parks—and therefore Galaxy’s Edge and Rise of the Resistance rides—sadly remain closed right now. Nevertheless, the House-of-Mouse is offering a lot for May the 4th 2020. Fans will surely have more than enough to get them through the day, lost and relishing in the plethora of new and familiar stories from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
Universal Studios and AMC theater chain at war over a potential straight to video future.
Throughout the history of the movie theater business, it has often survived desperate times, successfully adapting and staying in business during the Great Depression, two World Wars, the rise of television as competition, and, so far, even the recent streaming boom. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the entertainment industry has likely met its match, and the exhibition sector is getting hit the hardest.
For the first time since the 1918 pandemic, when theaters in San Francisco alone lost $400,000 per week while closed in what we now call a “lock-down”, theaters across the globe are being forced to barricade their doors. Adhering to social distancing precautions, government officials and theater owners alike are barring the possibility of people gathering in close proximity at the cinema.
Clearly, averting these gatherings is the responsible thing to do during the coronavirus outbreak, but several weeks into the lockdown, many theater workers were struggling to make ends meet. Now, exhibitors are even losing the cooperation of studios.
Currently quarantines are being gradually phased out, with social distancing procedures being used for “non-essential” retail, restaurants and in some cases movie theaters in the first wave of relaxation. Next would be Schools, parks and other public gatherings. Later, in a third phase, concerts and sporting events would be sanctioned, assuming that there is no second wave of cases to cause a reversal back to strict lock-down quarantines again. That is, at this point a big “if” as some states are already should surges in the number of new cases.
Just as restaurants could face financial hardship if they must maintain 50% or even 30% capacity to adhere to social distancing guidelines, a half-empty theater is an anathema in the movie business and could kill off theatrical releases altogether if required for years.
Part of the reason why theater chains have been able to persevere for so long is because major Hollywood studios see the continuing economic value of putting a movie exclusively on the big screen for at least a few weeks. The theatergoing experience allows studios to profit off of ticket sales before making their products available on the far more modestly priced home video markets. At least, this is how the process has conventionally taken place.
If congregating for any reason is too dangerous it could render Hollywood theatrical releases virtually extinct
Now, with so many theaters closed, it makes almost no sense for movies to even attempt theatrical releases during the pandemic. For a few titles (mostly the flashiest blockbuster-style movies like “Wonder Woman 1984,” “Fast 9,” or “Black Widow”) studios have pushed back release dates, knowing that they will eventually turn a profit at the box office despite delays. However, for some more modestly budgeted movies, production companies have contemplated (and in some cases executed) forgoing theatrical runs altogether and releasing the movies straight to video on-demand.
Bypassing theatrical runs has obviously been a possibility for decades, and the perspective has gained significant momentum in the past few years as direct-to-streaming titles have gained legitimacy. If the practice became widespread, however, this would be a nightmare for the theater industry. Because the pandemic is likely to prevent public gatherings for months or even longer, the shift towards this business model is rapidly becoming unavoidable.
Most notably, Universal Studios recently released “Trolls: World Tour” in theaters and on-demand at the same time. To the shock of theater owners everywhere, the film has reportedly made over $50 million on-demand, perhaps exceeding box office expectations and proving that a movie can make huge profits while eschewing the box office and going straight to this direct-to-home-video model.
Universal’s choice to take this unconventional path with “Trolls” led to the studio butting heads with AMC Theaters. AMC President Adam Aron penned a scathing open letter to Universal’s Chairman, claiming, in a threat that sounds like a bluff, that the chain would never play another Universal movie in any of its theaters. That’s a bold claim considering that Universal releases all DreamWorks, “Fast & Furious,” and “Jurassic Park” titles, all of which would bring in major numbers for AMC.
Worst case scenario, however, AMC won’t even need to worry about this, for Universal amongst other studios will see the success of the direct-to-home-video model and replicate it, significantly decreasing, perhaps even nullifying theaters’ essentialness in the release process.
Other movies that were already out when theaters started closing such as Universal’s “The Invisible Man,” Warner Brother’s “Birds Of Prey,” and Pixar’s “Onward” were expedited to on-demand. They are all now on Amazon’s Prime Cinema platform, available for rent at the theater-ticket-like-price of $19.99. The cost is definitely higher than a standard rental, but when watching with the whole family, it is cheaper to view these movies at home than each individual paying for a separate movie theater ticket.
That is, if people could even choose go to the theaters when they wanted to take the risk.
The world is changing fast and it is unlikely if things will ever go back to “normal”
Despite the success of Prime Cinema rentals and “Trolls: World Tour” on-demand, studios cannot ignore the desperation and unique extremes of the times. People are in a vacuum and home entertainment is the only kind of entertainment available to them. If consumers had the option of going to the movies, perhaps the home-video model would not prove as successful.
Essentially, the entertainment industry is undergoing a massive non-consensual experiment, but the variables are erratic and irreplicable. There is no telling how these movies might’ve done at the box office if the box office still existed.
When theaters open up their doors again, studios might realize that people still appreciate going to the cinema and that continuing theatrical releases as usual is the only financially sensible option. Of course the level of fear that people will still feel, even after governments sound the “all clear”, is also an unknown.
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AMC and Cinemark both hope to have their doors open by mid-June or July. Meanwhile, the states of Georgia and Texas will be amongst the first states to allow theaters to continue business. Returning to normalcy will not be simple, though. Just because state governments allow theaters to reopen does not mean that they have to. Plus, many theaters will probably want to take precautions with their crowds, allowing a limited number of people in at a time. The movies themselves will also probably be in limited supply, as it wouldn’t make sense for a movie to get a theatrical release if theaters are only open in a couple states.
If theaters were open today, we would currently be entering a huge summer blockbuster season with “Wonder Woman 1984,” “Fast 9,” and “Black Widow” leading the charge alongside Disney’s “Mulan,” Pixar’s “Soul,” and Warner Brothers’ Christopher Nolan directed “Tenant.” Likewise, we’d be seeing a whole lot of indie content pushed up through the festivals such as South by Southwest and Cannes— the former getting cancelled back in March and the latter pending cancellation.
God forbid the need for precautionary measures is still as extreme through the end of the year, but if the entertainment industry in still in the same situation come winter, then the closures, cancellations, and postponements will collide with the Awards Season. Already the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences has stated that a theatrical run is no longer a requirement for Oscar nominees, breaking down a barrier that has been a point of contention over the past few years. As of right now, it is unclear if this waived rule will remain in perpetuity after its adoption during this highly abnormal year.
Regardless, those who own and work in movie theaters remain on the edges of their collective seats. While nobody in the entertainment industry is currently in an ideal situation, the theaters are clearly the most vulnerable; and that threatens the survival of the most hallowed of hollywood traditions.
The photo above, taken from “Deadliest Enemy’s” cover, says it all. The image depicts a “real life” scenario showing how this potentially deadly virus can spread, for example in an airport. Of course, in real life the “droplets”, as they are now known, are not florescent yellow. Too bad. If they were at least we could clearly see how dangerous it is to be in a crowded area while this disease, which currently has no treatment or vaccine, is on the loose.
Mark Olshaker and Michael Osterholm’s bestselling book “Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs” is more relevant today than ever before. Just as in San Francisco, in 2018, we are about to enter a phase where the “all clear” will be announced, setting the stage for a potential second wave.
“Siren wails on November 21, 1918 signaled to San Franciscans that it was safe, and legal, to remove their masks. All signs indicated that the flu had abated. Schools re-opened, and theaters sought to make back the $400,000 they had lost during each of the six weeks they were closed… Barely two weeks after the celebratory removal of masks, new flu cases were reported. Five thousand new flu cases would surface in December 1918 alone.”
Years before COVID-19 was on the map author Mark Olshaker and disease epidemiologist Michael Osterholm collaborated to write a book exploring the (then hypothetical) concept of an infectious disease spreading across the modern world. The final product outlines how easily such a disease could spread in our globalized society, how governments and scientists might react to it, and what a bio-fallout would mean for cultures and individuals across the planet.
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Obviously, such a situation is no longer theoretical. Olshaker and Osterholm’s concepts are in fact quite pertinent during the coronavirus pandemic. Their illustration of geo-political and medical scrambling to fight off a never-before-seen threat is eerily astute.
Fourteen chapters make up the book, each one investigating a different infectious disease from the past three decades. It goes into detail about how the world handled (or failed to handle) acute respiratory syndrome, AIDS/HIV, Zika, Ebola, and many other outbreaks. Even while studying the past, though, the authors keep a pulse on the future, constantly thinking about how we can learn from previous situations, and consider what those situations might look like on larger, perhaps planetary scales.
Olshaker and Osterholm conclude that major diseases can fall into four different threat levels—pathogens of pandemic potential, pathogens of critical regional importance, bioterrorism, and endemics. Of course, diseases can evolve along this spectrum, but the authors offer advice on how we can respond to them on each step of the way.
They liken curing or preventing diseases to solving puzzles. There are more pieces than one might expect, and the final product is somewhat of a mystery. The solution will not come solely out of a lab; it will take cooperation on many fronts including politicians, healthcare providers, medical and pharmaceutical professionals, and of course, everyday people who are vulnerable and instrumental in the spread or containment of an illness.
“Deadliest Enemy” is part history, part current events, and part memoir. The authors, offer up their own experiences in the field—most notably Osterholm’s disturbing eye-witness account of La Crosse encephalitis—while tapping into something larger than any single person. The book met high praise upon release, and the CDC recognizes it as a significant contribution to the world of written work on diseases.
You Want It? You Got It! Bringing the Audience what it Needs Now
Despite journalistic objectivity, many news outlets have tendencies to focus on the negative. Crimes, controversies, disasters, and crises simply make more pressing stories than most good news in the world. This is all the more prevalent now as climate change, stock market crashes, and a global pandemic dominate the headlines.
With all of the doom and gloom currently dripping from the wounds of the world, people have become famished for something more up-lifting. Luckily, outlets for such good news exist, and they have been witnessing a thermal (viral?) runaway in popularity during the COVID-19 shutdowns.
Sources emphasizing good news were around long before the coronavirus rendered the world thirsty for positivity. Websites like Good Good Good and The Global Positive News Network have been active for years, but have noticed increases in traffic over the past month.
The same goes for social media accounts such as Instagram’s @TanksGoodNews, @GoodNews_Movement, and @The_Happy_Broadcast. All of these pages have seen spikes in followers since March as they continue to seek out and report optimistic content throughout the pandemic.
Perhaps the most uproarious of good news outlets to come about in the past few weeks, however, is actor John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” YouTube broadcast. From the comfort of his home, Krasinski has produced and hosted four videos where he reports all of the good going on in the world. Riddled with humor, acts of charity, guest appearances via Zoom from Robert De Niro, Brad Pitt, David Ortiz, Steve Carrel, Chance The Rapper, and Rain Wilson as well as remote performances from The Jonas Brothers and the entire “Hamilton” cast, “Some Good News” is both hilarious and heartfelt, and the videos have all received millions of views.
Once the “Human Interest” Kitten Beat, Now a Focus on Ways to Offset the Worst of Reality Reporting
Even more established newspapers, networks, and trades have tried to appease readers in search of cheerful stories. The Washington Post pumped up its weekly uplifting newsletter The Optimist into a biweekly occurrence, and started The Daily Break section to emphasize a feel-good story everyday. National Geographic also began Your Weekly Escape, a newsletter that is free of any coronavirus related content.
Clearly, these outlets have noticed the amplified demand for good news and are matching it with an increased supply. Of course, the bulk of the headlines remain somewhat gloomy nowadays, but rather than fixate on them, these good news alternatives offer positive twists. This is not to say that readers ignore world’s struggles, but rather that they want to see how people are reacting to the crises in healthy, wholesome, and genuinely helpful ways.
This embrace of good news, especially for the established publications, is an obvious spin to assuage readers. However, while spins in the media are usually traced back to politics, money, or hostility, this one is currently fueled by a desire to see kindness and generosity. Conventional “spins” are getting replaced by cartwheels or joy running up and down whatever good news stories are out there, laser-focusing on the glass half-full.
To make matters all the more soothing, many of these good news outlets are not-for-profit. While The Washington Post or National Geographic are still advertising alongside their uplifting stories, many of the Instagram accounts as well as John Krasinski’s broadcasts, are done entirely for free, making them in and of themselves, examples of good nature and good news.
Amazon’s has free kindle books available for World book day 2020
With now less than two days left to grab these 9 free e-books, the time is now, if you want to capitalize on these digital delights. They would be a great find for those that would like to get some alternative options for the moment when streaming and binge-watching just doesn’t cut it anymore:
Below we have also added some photo-links to our sister site on Bookshop.org, where you can purchase books and at the same time help Lynxotic to publish more great stories. You will also be helping all independent bookstores across the USA.
With the Coronavirus keeping us all at home many are learning to cook and even bake bread from scratch. This is a grouping of some of the best of the best if you want to learn and bake your own right now!
With small ones also at home and needing not only learning options but also entertainment that doesn’t involve a flat screen, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most popular children’s titles that can’t help solve both challenges.
Finally, for those that are on the verge of a claustrophobic episode, there’s always the possibility to use D.I.Y. therapy. This is well known as a great way to calm nerves and you just might get a spiffy sweater out of it too!
On Friday, April 17, San Diego Comic-Con organizers announced that the annual event for 2020 will be cancelled for the first time in its fifty year run.
The four-day pop-culture convention traditionally takes place every summer. It is a yearly celebration of all things comic books—from the books themselves to movies, television, novels, and other transmedia adaptations.
their payments for Comic-Con 2021. We thank our friends for your continued support, and we are exploring the possibility of an online presence that should give us all an opportunity to share in the community for which Comic-Con is famous.
While San Diego may not be the largest Comic-Con in America, it is the most prestigious and widely observed of its kind. Roughly 135,000 people attend each year including academics, professionals, and fans, many of whom cosplay as their favorite characters.
SDCC 2020 was meant to take place between July 23rd and July 26th of this year. The organization fought hard to keep the event happening throughout the coronavirus shutdowns. However, its leaders finally pulled the plug, realizing that the packed occasion would severely violate the current social distancing precautions.
The event for this year has not been postponed for any later date, but rather terminated altogether. Nevertheless, those who have already bought tickets will have the options of receiving full refunds or transferring their purchases to vouchers for SDCC 2021.
Economic Fallout hitting Across Multiple Industries
Given that COVID-19 has put the entertainment industry on hold for 2020’s foreseeable future, though, perhaps it is fitting that this year’s Comic Con has been cancelled. Comic Con’s paramount draw is the panels of creative professionals who reveal new content and information within their industry. This includes casting decisions, trailers, original ideas, and much, much more.
Because most studios have had their 2020 production and release schedules pulled out form under them in light of the pandemic, it’s unclear how much concrete new information this year’s Comic Con would have to offer. Either way, its cancellation is unprecedented, but if everything is back to normal a year from now, 2021’s convention should have a surplus of exciting news to deliver the culturally famished masses.
Starting in a Crisis but Representing the New Normal?
In the modern digital age of direct-to-streaming films, studios and production companies have long contemplated the idea of releasing movies straight to home video markets at the same time as their theatrical debuts. Over the past few years, the gap between films’ theatrical runs and their home video releases has only shrunk, and the line has further greyed with rising numbers of nontraditional release platforms, or forgone theatrical runs altogether.
By and large, though, theaters have still maintained their relevancy. However, that has changed over the past couple months. Right now, theaters are shutdown across the globe because of the coronavirus and many recent releases have been expedited to Video-On-Demand markets. The most conspicuous of these expedited releases is that of DreamWorks’ “Trolls: World Tour,” which made history as the first film to get a VOD and theatrical release on the same day.
Releasing “Trolls: World Tour” like this was a bit of a gamble. Like many other movies, “World Tour” simply could have postponed its premiere for a more stable time. Nevertheless, the VOD release it seems to have paid off. The film came out on April 10th and has already earned Universal Studios $50 million. For comparison’s sake, the movie’s 2016 predecessor—simply titled “Trolls”—earned $46.6 million for its opening weekend in the theaters and overall had a $346.9 million Box Office run.
“Trolls: World Tour” will not have an enormous Box Office success given all of the theaters closed right now. However, it will arguably make more off of its VOD rentals than it ever would during a traditional theatrical period.
Granted, this is an unusual time. “World Tour” and its home release are probably benefitting from the isolated audiences practicing social distancing. Likewise, the film costs $19.99 On-Demand, a price that emulates that of a movie ticket, but is noticeably more than that of a regular VOD rental. The movie also garnered some extra attention as the first film to execute this unconventional release platform. Lastly, it is a family comedy appropriate for kids and adults alike to watch on a common screen. All of this considered, the VOD success of “World Tour” might be an anomaly tied to beginner’s luck and the current circumstances.
Virtual “Box office” Cume is nothing to Sneeze at
Nevertheless, the entertainment experiment that is “Trolls: World Tour” has still proven fruitful, raising the question of whether or not other movies will follow in its footsteps. If “World Tour” can get $50 million in its first week On-Demand, maybe the persistent gap between theaters and home markets has become futile. Perhaps moviegoers are content to watch a new picture at home for the same price of seeing it on the big screen.
The nullification of theatrical releases would naturally be bad news for the theater companies, but it would give streaming sites and tech companies a leg up in the entertainment market. It would also completely transform the industry release pipeline that has persisted for the past century. This potential change, however, will not manifest overnight. “Trolls: World Tour” simply demonstrates that a corresponding VOD and theatrical release can be financially effective, and it may spark an evolution in the enduring movie distribution model.
“Trolls: World Tour” is a PG-rated animated comedy-musical. Walt Dohrn directs alongside David P Smith, and the voice cast includes Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake, Rachel Bloom, James Cordon, and many more. It is available on Amazon’s new Prime Cinema hub alongside other VOD expedited titles such as “The Invisible Man,” “Emma,” “The Way Back,” “Bloodshot,” “Birds Of Prey” and others.
Plenty of reasons for Pessimism but Huge Sudden Changes are where we’ll find the greatest Opportunities
The film clip above, featuring the Steven Spielberg directed film based on the sci-fi book by Ernest Clines, is built on a fairly familiar and, lately, believable premise. In the year 2045 (or sooner from the looks of things) all our human foibles and follies have devastated the world landscape, both physically and economically. Global warming has taken a toll and disasters we now know so well, such as pandemic outbreaks and economic catastrophes, are recent history and shape the reality at hand.
The story takes place in the world of young virtual reality explorers. And from there the plot is a pretty standard fantasy exploration of the potentials and drama that this backdrop produces.
This and other dystopian works of fiction are suddenly ringing true in a new way, and on different levels, since the world has been on lock-down as we battle the novel coronavirus. There is a feeling of a world on the verge of collapse, with an unknown and very uncertain future, and talk of an economic malaise with almost no historical precedent about to unfold, if you accept worst case scenarios.
Yet, using wild flights of imagination and optimism there are hidden bright spots and silver linings that might arise, not accounted for in this film or other works of dystopian art.
“Ready Player One” promo still image / Warner Bros.
An Idea so Big and Radical it is Hard to Wrap our Heads Around it no matter how hard we try
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What if the twin terrors of the covid-19 Pandemic and the possible economic collapse that may follow are actually a kind of gift to the world and humanity? What if this is the mother of all opportunities, like some wildly fantastic movie plot, where the wake up call from the cosmos comes at exactly the perfect moment to, well, wake us all up?
It’s easy to forget that, before we all became consumed in pandemic survival mode, there were already enormous changes and challenges afoot, a they were not small potatoes.
Global warming and climate related disasters were beginning to take center stage in political and social thought. Greta Thunberg was Time’s Person of the Year, and, for the first time, climate deniers (generally paid shills for the oil industry) were no longer being taken seriously.
All that now seems like a distant memory, but what has changed? A lot and also nothing. The threat of global warming and the urgency to stop carbon emissions and begin a transition to sustainable energy is no less pressing, regardless of our current preoccupation with stopping the pandemic.
Skys around the world have turned blue and clear while traffic is a fraction of the previous norm
Though many have warned the pollution and carbon burning will resume with a vengeance, once the quarantines are lifted, there is nevertheless a psychological effect of seeing and experiencing the beauty of clean air and reduced traffic that is fascinating. Eerily similar to scenes in the film 12 Monkeys, wild animals roam freely in urban centers.
Like a good omen or an invitation to positive change, the idea that nature can bounce back so quickly could be seen as a clarion call to change. Of course, a year from now we could see a world where fossil fuels are even more entrenched, due to economic desperation, where societies take great strides backwards in the ability to communicate and all the problems from the past and present accelerate into a final snowball bound for hell.
But what if something else happens?
What if the drastic measures, like the world wide lock-downs, and the economic stimulus actions attempting to stave off the potential economic catastrophe, indicate the potential for entire nations and even the entire world to work together in times of great need?
Virtual and Enhanced Communication as Tool for Crisis Adaptation
One of the interesting and unforgettable earmarks of the current crisis lifestyle is the switch in our lives from “real” lives to internet lives and virtual meetings and events. TV shows are staging networked broadcasts using FaceTime and Zoom, with the various actors and talking heads streaming from their private quarantine stations. We communicate with each other privately using the same technologies and non-contact methods.
What if this foreshadows a revolutionary change in how we use technology to improve our lives, accelerate communication, increase productivity and prevent the future from being an ecological disaster of biblical proportions?
What if all of us learning to adapt to a life with less unnecessary travel, while at the same time studying and inventing solutions for those problems is exactly what we need to be doing? What if we all need to collaborate on ways to stop the spread of disease, certainly, but also need to find ways to seamlessly transition to solving the bigger underlying pre-existing issues in order to save ourselves and our planet?
What if we were all forced to stay inside and use our computers to communicate. And what if we were forced to learn new “jobs” and ways to survive financially? And what if we could engage people around the world to work from home solving the real problems facing humanity, instead of flying and driving around, burning carbon, chasing the latest greed-driven suicide gold rush?
Ideas like universal basic income will not be optional when 50% of the world is unemployed. But if the income generated by the robots and the energy produced by solar, wind and other clean, sustainable energy sources are available and not in the hands of corrupt politicians, Bezos and Zuckerberg, and the fossil fuel companies, then why not?
These kinds of “radical” solutions will have all sorts of political and greed-driven opposition, of that you can be sure. But, as with the coronavirus, when faced with an insurmountable obstacle, like a rapidly spreading deadly virus that does not spare victims just because they have money or power, things change fast. Really fast.
I have always said, climate change deniers will stop trying to convince people it’s a hoax once Miami and New York are underwater. In a different way, we are already there. What we are living through is like a test run and a wake up call that can help us to prepare for the real and necessary changes to come.
Having the Future Thrust Upon you is not as bad If you Look Forward to Change
So why not make the most of it? Many people are. Reading books, particularly serious books for learning new ideas and thinking outside the box, are having an online sales boom. People are using the time and freedom to set their own schedule and goals, and considering career paths and constructive engagement in ways they might have never otherwise even considered.
In this scene from the original “Matrix” film the writers sub-consciously show us the horrors of the future – but instead what they show is a symbolic representation of the present and the past. Humans are imprisoned for life in “farms” and live only to produce energy – the food fed to babies locked in pods is a sticky black goop said to be the liquified remains of the dead, but is, clearly just a very familiar substance already enslaving us all: crude oil.
Perhaps, looking back from a better future made possible by this pandemic, we can see a reality where the greatest obstacles to change were the addiction to failed behaviors, failed infrastructures and suicidal greed that was considered “normal” in a dying world. If a larger force makes those things impossible or less viable then it should be welcomed with open arms.
There is an existing world infrastructure based on fossil fuels and greed that has been artificially propped up by political and economic forces for far too long. Now that entire system is collapsing on itself. The coronavirus is just a pin prick to the bubble of stupidity and greed that has been there all along.
Those of us that can see and imagine a future, not built around and based on that failed system, will have the opportunity to use our computers and virtual communication systems, primitive as they are at this stage, to communicate with one another and discuss ways to find a new beginning. That new beginning is already starting with blue skys and clean air across the world. Leaders not motivated by greed and yet wielding power like Elon Musk are putting enormous energy into solving the carbon burning dilemma and replacing it as quickly as possible with sustainable energy.
The economic upheaval to come must be seen as an opportunity to replace the old structures with new and better solutions. The recent extreme acts of the government show at least a willingness to try things never before attempted. Many will not work. Meanwhile, enormous, radical change is no longer a science fiction dream but an unavoidable reality.
Let’s embrace the dream and face the future with the wildly optimistic idea that changes for the future do not have to be dystopian. They can be Utopian. Why should we settle for anything less?
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Last November, legendary filmmaker Martin Scorsese made his debut into the world of streaming with “The Irishman.” After ViacomCBS deemed the project too costly, Paramount withdrew support from the movie and Netflix picked it up, willing to give Scorsese the creative freedom (and $159 million budget) he needed to see his vision come alive.
Click to buy “Killers of the Flower Moon” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all independent local bookstores. Also on Amazon
Now, it looks as if that recent history already about to repeat itself. Scorsese’s next big project, titled “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” has been in development under Paramount since early 2019. However, its budget has been perpetually increasing, now requiring an estimated $200 million. This is a tall price for any studio to pay for a film, but ViacomCBS in particular is already in a precarious financial situation as it struggles to keep up with conglomerate competitors like Disney, WarnerMedia, and Universal.
Furthermore, Paramount (like all other studios) is currently dealing with the COVID-19 setbacks and economic crashes. Now is not a safe time for anyone to take extravagant risks in the entertainment industry, and a $200 million Scorsese project is far from a conservative investment.
While Paramount has not officially detached itself from the film yet, Scorsese has already started eyeing other production companies, most notably his old pals at Netflix and some new faces at Apple. Last year’s “The Irishman” was one of Netflix’s biggest selling points, especially as the streaming wars started taking off in mid-November. The film set a new standard for Netflix as a company that supports creative and prestigious filmmakers. During awards season, “The Irishman” earned the streaming site an unprecedented 10 Oscar nominations. Sadly, it took home none.
Apple is the New Kid on the Block but with Very Deep Pockets
Apple, on the other hand, would be new territory for Scorsese. The tech company’s new streaming site, Apple TV+, launched just last November, and has focused more on creating quality television series than films. However, the platform recently released its first original movie—“The Banker” starring Samuel L. Jackson—and is allegedly spending big money on a Will Farrel-Ryan Reynolds musical adaptation of “A Christmas Carol” for an upcoming holiday season. Adding the new Scorsese project to the platform’s budding filmography would likely benefit Apple’s rising studio image.
Scorsese reportedly talked with executives at Universal and MGM as well, so there remains a possibility that the film will not end up on a streaming site at all.
Of course, whatever studio or website “Killers Of The Flower Moon” ends up on, the adopting company will have to go through ViacomCBS first. Paramount is not required to sell the film, and it will definitely want compensation for all of the money it has already invested. The way things are going, though, selling will probably be in Paramount’s best interest, for the film is becoming far too expensive to hold on to.
In addition to Paramount, a smaller, independent company called Imperative Entertainment is also attached to the film. Unlike Paramount, though, Imperative will likely continue its attachment, for it bares far less of the financial burden.
“Killers Of The Flower Moon” is meant to come out sometime next year, but with the coronavirus affecting schedules across the board as well as the current studio mix-ups, it very well might take longer to finish.
Book Origin is Intriguing as a Backdrop to a A-List Team Effort
The film is an adaptation of the 2017 book, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI,” by bestselling author David Grann. The book follows the federal investigation into the murders of Osage County Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma. It’s a slow burning true story that will lend itself well to Scorsese’s hardboiled, historical take on narrative film.
Scorsese veterans Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are meant to star in the movie. Di Niro starred in last year’s “The Irishman” and has appeared in nine Scorsese features since they first collaborated in 1973’s “Mean Streets.” The much younger DiCaprio last worked with Scorsese in 2013’s “The Wolf Of Wall Street” and has done a total of five movies with the auteur since 2002’s “Gangs Of New York.” He is also expected to star in a Theodore Roosevelt biopic, which Scorsese has been developing and hopes to start directing after finishing “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
This project will be the twenty-sixth feature in Martin Scorsese illustrious directorial career, which has lasted over half a century now. Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro are two of his most loyal collaborators, and their creative relationships with the director have been quite fruitful from artistic and financial perspectives. Both actors are Oscar winning leads, yet “Killers Of The Flower Moon” will be the first time they share the screen in a feature since 1996’s “Marvin’s Room.”
Regardless of where it ends up studio-wise, “Killers Of The Flower Moon” is bound to be a cinematic spectacle and a much talked about movie in the coming years. Whoever ends up getting their hands on the film will be lucky. That being said, it comes at a hefty ($200+ million) price, which is a sizable gamble even in the most normal of circumstances.
Independent Bookstores, closed and struggling due to Shelter in Place orders, see Massive Surge in Online Sales
Click to buy “Three Dog Tales” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all independent local bookstores.Also on Amazon
Bookshop.org, where our sister site Cherrybooks.org is currently housed, seeing a huge surge in sales: starting on March 27th the world appears to have run out of streaming shows to binge-watch and decided to consider reading as a serious alternative.
Some stores are reporting a 300% jump, interestingly focused on this weekend in particular. Our sister company has seen similar numbers. More interestingly the titles that people are buying are like a window into all of our thoughts, hopes, fears and desires.
It’s an encouraging sign to see that people are literally taking this serious, daunting situation to heart and rethinking their own lives and even life itself. Naturally, entertaining escape from reality fiction and romantic fantasy fills a need and there is plenty of those kind of titles in the mix.
And, particularly, in the initial surge of interest, books related to epidemiology and any previous history titles related to pandemics and viruses enjoyed a spike in interest.
It’s Amazing to See how Millions are Searching for ways to Learn and Expand Knowledge, as We Hope to Transform Crisis into Opportunity
The depth and breath of the interest appears to be swelling into a second wave of sorts. Just as we are all going through various psychological stages in our reaction to the crisis we appear to have reached a stage where we are learning to accept that the length of self-isolation or physical separation in the name of “flattening the curve” will not be a week to ten days but could stretch into April and even May.
Click to buy “Dare to Repair” and at the same time help Lynxotic and all independent local bookstores. Also on Amazon
Lots of time on your hands? Need to save money due to unemployment? Want to do something that you can do alone in quarantine? All of the above apply to these titles and all DIY and How-to books !
This reality has triggered what appears to be a healthy and even heroic response in many. When viewing the titles people are choosing, and the depth of the thought that appears to have gone into those choices, it’s as if there is a massive worldwide army of people with a tsunami of desire to solve problems. From personal, individual problems and hopes, to world wide challenges in matters of health, economics, ecology, politics and so on.
Know of somebody who is lying all the time? Is he on TV every day? Finding it hard to cope? This one’s for you. Also available on Amazon
Looking inward and toward the rear view mirror, people are researching history, particularly the 1st world war and its massive flu epidemic, along with the great depression as we ponder our financial and economic fates.
Even deeper inward philosophy, religion and all kinds of introspective longing to understand ourselves and societies and our history can be seen in the book titles. Stoicism books are selling by the dozen, as are, not surprisingly books on christianity and faith. Other religions and philosophies are represented also.
Humor is a big draw at a time we can all use a laugh and a smile. Everything can be seen and felt in the choices people are making as they search for ways to use this mandated time to reflect and regroup. How better to reach out for answers than the oldest technology for wisdom and the progression of ideas: books and solitary reading.
Below: a random smattering of titles from actual orders to illustrate this phenomenon along with our descriptions of the impulses that led to these selections:
This one is an obvious choice. Eyes tired from binge-watching for 37 hours straight? When you wake up tomorrow you can soothe them by forgoing the video version and going straight to the original. We find a surprising number of people become interested in the original book version of a title after the film or video version already hit the streets…
Want to do good? Thinking of role models sorely needed in this world of ours? Thoughts leaning toward what a person can do to help others during this time of crisis and suffering? Biographies of inspirational figures, such as Mother Teresa are very popular now, showing a trend towards introspection and the meaning of life and serving others.
How huge is poetry during self isolation? Very. This is one that has been surprising, from modern to romantic to historic classics, poetry books are flying off the shelves like there’s no tomorrow. Which we all hope is not the case. Even if it does turn out that way, what better last thought to savor than one from a great poet?
From Charles Bukowski to Rumi or Thich Nhat Hanh people are letting words flow from the pages and letting their souls devour the sweet nectar. Whatever style or epoch tickles your fancy it’s out there waiting. Take it and run with it. What have you got to lose?
Religion and Spirituality are huge, which goes without saying. The impulse to look within ourselves is growing stronger even as the world around us appears to be devolving into chaos. Perhaps it’s a feeling of wanting to reach back to our roots and traditions of our families or childhood.
Or it could just as well be a strong desire to explore what’s absolutely new and unknown to us. Either way the solitary time in this unexpected environment we find ourselves in is perfect for exploring things we may not have had an opportunity to investigate during “normal” times.
Or maybe it’s time to figure out how to solve all the world’s problems. Sure it’s great to start with epidemiology and search for a coronavirus vaccination. But what about the rest of our problems? Or how about just great ideas for better ways to live and organize society? Or political solutions and movements? With enough time on our hands to study and reflect there may not be any problem too big or too complex.
Somebody said we are all in quarantine and spending all our time eating and fighting with spouses and relatives. Why not take a break and read about how not to fight with each other. Many have apparently taken that advice to heart as some of our biggest sellers are books and how to get along with each other, and ourselves! Reading has a miraculous influence on us to give us the strength and courage to believe that we can fix anything. Even solve our own inner dilemmas and weaknesses.
Of course there is always the pleasure of exploration. Novels and guilty pleasure reads, cookbooks and food, Romance, Sex, Relationships, Children’s Entertainment, Movies and Music, the list goes on and on. The old saying “there’s an app for that was preceded many, many years earlier by a simple truism that has stood the test of time. There’s a book for that.
The reality is sinking in, slowly, that the future is truly unknowable and that big changes and even bigger challenges are looming. Twin shocks of a health emergency and a financial crisis, intertwined and yet with separate trajectories, are still to be resolved in our near future.
Click to buy “The Big Short” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
And then there’s the myriad of other challenges that were already acute, such as global warming and the “other” epidemic; corruption and greed. It’s almost too much to face up to, and no one can be blamed for wanting to just turn away.
Too much has been glossed over. After the 2008 crisis we all just wanted to put that ugly mess behind us and get on with our lives. I suppose the criminals that netted billions as a “reward” for almost destroying the entire global economy were also eager to just move on.
All that as it may be, perhaps, a way to begin the process of regaining our courage and looking into the future with some kind of hope, or at least a deeper understanding of the human dilemma and historical precedents, might be to enjoy films about small moments of triumph before great adversity. Here are a few recent options:
Barely 12 years ago, the financial collapse and ensuing “Great Recession” was a nightmare scenario. The aftermath of that debacle is also a contributor to the economic dangers we see before us in 2020. This film, likely the best based on that era, highlights how outsiders and misfits were able to prosper, even as they witnessed the corruption, failure and systemic injustice that brought the world to the brink of total economic chaos.
Starring: Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt.
Click to buy “Antrhopocene” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
For a bird’s-eye overview and scientific perspective – Athropocene is a film for those ready to think deeply on how, once beyond the immediate danger, we would want to emerge into a new era as a species. A positive reaction to the current crisis, worldwide, has been a series of ideas and proposals that show a willingness to confront the challenges from an entirely new perspective. Maybe new leadership can mean starting over and making a pledge to try a new approach to literally everything.
‘The film follows the research of an international body of scientists, the Anthropocene Working Group who, after nearly 10 years of research, argue that the Holocene Epoch gave way to the Anthropocene Epoch in the mid-twentieth century as a result of profound and lasting human changes to the Earth.”
Facing death constantly is a reality in war times. This story is a testament to resilience and survival against all odds.
Angelina Jolie directs this adaptation from Laura Hillenbrand’s popular book, “Unbroken” stars Jack O’Connell, Domhnall Gleeson, Alex Russell, Miyavi and Finn Wittrock
Cinderella Man
This Depression era feel-good story takes on new meaning as we see a “Great Depression II” potentially looming. Looking for strength and courage facing forces that threaten our survival, and coming out at the end in a better place, that’s a synopsis and blueprint we can all benefit from observing, even if it’s packaged as a Hollywood vehicle. Russel Crowe at his best. Maybe worth a second look.
Click to buy “Unbroken” and at the same time help Lynxotic and All Independent Local Bookstores. Also available on Amazon.
Streaming was Growing and Expanding before the Pandemic and now it’s in Overdrive
The last time that a pandemic gripped the planet, the film industry was in its mere infancy. Nickelodeon theaters played silent motion pictures for middle class audiences and studios were hardly the global conglomerates that they are today. Thus, the contemporary COVID-19 outbreak poses an unprecedented threat to the entertainment sphere, as theaters for the first time in history, are being forced to close their doors for the greater good.
This novel situation is causing studios to be creative in how they will persevere without theatrical releases. A number of movies have already been postponed such as MGM’s “No Time To Die,” Paramount’s “A Quiet Place Part II,” Disney’s “Black Widow,” Universal’s “F9” and many, many more.
Likewise, the coronavirus has also brought production to a halt, as work on several shows and movies are being put on pause. Among them are Warner Brothers’ “Fantastic Beasts 3” and “Matrix 4,” Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” and Amazon’s “The Lord Of The Rings” series.
Consequentially, there has been a lot of pressure for studios to release movies directly to Video-On-Demand or other home video markets. So far, the companies have been reluctant to do so, due in no small part to the theaters not wanting to sacrifice their piece of the profits. One notable exception, however, has been DreamWorks’ “Trolls World Tour,” which Universal has slated to be released directly to VOD, on the date the theatrical run would have begun.
For the most part, though, studios have responded to the situation by shortening the lapse between theatrical runs and home video releases. Disney, for example, expedited the release of “Frozen II” on Disney+ as a treat/marketing ploy for subscribers practicing safe social distancing. Meanwhile, Disney also announced that it will add the latest Pixar film, “Onward” to its streaming service in early April. “Onward” came out mere weeks ago on March 6th, just before theaters starting closing down and postponing releases became the new norm for 2020.
Additional studios have followed suit and started putting their movies (that would otherwise remain in theaters) straight to VOD. On top of “Trolls World Tour,” Universal recently made “The Invisible Man” and “The Hunt” available on home video markets. Likewise, movies that were on the tail ends of their theatrical runs such as Warner Brothers’ “Birds Of Prey” and Paramount’s “Sonic The Hedgehog” have also sped their way to the VOD market ahead of schedule.
This trend has been so popular in the past couple weeks that Amazon even started a new section of its Prime video streaming service titled “Prime Video Cinema.” The section is dedicated entirely to these new releases taken straight from theaters. Albeit, many of these direct-to-home-video releases are costlier than your average rental—running around $20 to emulate a movie-ticket price.
Other “Early Access” titles that have been added to Amazon’s pay-per-view slate include: “Emma“, “Bloodshot” and “The Way Back“.
Uncertain times for Theaters raises Specter of a Streaming-only Future
Some are still hoping that studios will forgo the theatrical process altogether and start releasing new movies straight to home video in these unconventional times. Particularly, many have solicited the Walt Disney Company to put out its newly-postponed live-action “Mulan” on Disney+. The company, however, has not complied, probably for the same reason that Universal was okay with releasing “Trolls World Tour” on VOD on Amazon and Apple’s iTunes on Friday April 10th, but not “F9.”
Namely, “Mulan” and “F9” are more-or-less guaranteed blockbusters. They will make more money in theaters, presumably, once the lock-down is over, than they ever could on streaming or On-Demand platforms. Therefore, the studios are willing to wait until things blow over to get the biggest bang for their bucks in the cinema.
Theaters already face enough strife in the modern age of ubiquitous streaming, and the current virus is certainly not helping them gain any leverage. While the entertainment industry’s setbacks might seem trivial in comparison to everything going on the world right now, movies and movie theaters in particular operate on the backs of many hardworking, vulnerable people from managers, to ushers, to ticket takers, to projectionists, and more.
While the studios themselves may have enough money and power to remain afloat through these unconventional times, lets hope that they do not lose sight of their foundational workers as they search for alternative solutions.
Both Reuters and Newsweek have debunked the viral story that has been spreading around twitter and instagram about 800 lions (and 600 tigers) that were supposedly unleashed on the residential streets of Russia to help encourage people to stay in their houses and practice “social distancing”.
Reuters attributes the post as having originated at “Break Your Own News”, a web site known for generating fake news.
Apparently, the lion in the photo, a staged photo taken in South Africa in 2016, is named Columbus, and was “cast” in the role after having been on loan from a nearby lion park.
It’s odd that when things are the most serious funny things seem to stand out even more. As gallows humor or just a stray internet meme, various truths sometimes converge in an untruth that is nevertheless less apt for the current moment.
In this case there are various hooks that encourage virality. First the photo is fantastic and would be more than just hilarious if it were real. Secondly, who doesn’t believe that Putin would do this? He’s known to have done far worse, and his macho outdoorsman persona fits perfectly.
Then there is the current wave of stories about people, in particular young people, either dying or just looking really stupid after ignoring government orders to shelter in place and maintain social distance. The meme conjures fantasies of such rule breakers being mauled by lions and tigers for their stupidity, only in Russia, of course.
Taking it to a whole other level, the tweet below imagines Donald Trump (from a parody account, of course) congratulating his good friend on the brilliant and “bold steps”, bringing to mind his “bold” comments that he would “open the country” by Easter (April 19th), irregardless of the containment or continued spread of covid-19 a.k.a. the novel coronavirus.
Very funny and crazy – parody is a release valve for stress, right? Or does it harm us all that people believe this obviously "fake" type of post? https://t.co/Cz64qj9RG1
— Madison Santel 🏊🏻♂️🌎🎭 (@santel_madison) March 25, 2020
We can just imagine that the amusement of this story could only be further enhanced by reading this highly recommended literary masterpiece: The Lion in Russia” which happens to be book 2 from the “Pussycat Death Squad Series” of kindle books. Happy self-isolating everyone. Feel free to comment and share!
We are all gradually emerging from a state of shock. Even if we have no symptoms we see people saying, irresponsibly, that “eventually” somewhere between 50% and 100% will have contracted the novel coronavirus. One the other hand some of us, the brave, such as Idris Elba, who says he is still asymptomatic, choose to use this time to reflect on even bigger issues facing our planet.
What can be bigger than this pandemic? No need to look any further than the climate crisis, which up until sometime in February, was close to the top trending issue we were all very preoccupied with.
And for good reason. While the death estimates for the coronavirus are very frightening the climate crisis has the potential not only to affect or infect the lives of 100% of the world it will end it if we do not act.
Idris Elba in a publicity still from “The Mountain Between Us”
Big Problems need Big Thinkers and Brave Ideas
Along with other big thinkers, Idris Elba is on to something. Why not take this time to find ways to survive, but also put the energy we all have at our disposal into realigning our thinking towards a better way to live as a species on this planet. If it helps to see this as a message or even and attack by the much maligned and mistreated planet earth, and if that inspires us to dig deeper and, while staring into the abyss represented by the pandemic, so be it.
So much the better. Stay at home workers might be better off never going into an office high rise again. I know the planet will choke on less carbon if millions of people stop commuting. We have known that for 50 years. Software needs to grow, our ability to communicate via networked human communication systems, a.k.a. the internet, needs to improve radically and at a mind-bending pace. Why? Because, only when we change everything we do an how, can we avoid surviving something like this worldwide disease threat and then suddenly finding ourselves facing something even worse. Let’s inspire each other to dig deep and find ways to stop that scenario from happening.
In her latest instagram post, created from her Quarantine with husband Tom Hanks in Australia, Rita Wilson calls it Quarantine Stir Crazy – which is far nicer than turning into a Homicidal Maniac… but then she’s a nice and talented lady who happens to be married to Tom Hanks. While Idris Elba is writing his own Sci-fi script, and along with all the rest of us, concurrently living it – he is also spinning out extremely thoughtful, even deep, ideas while face-timing with Oprah:
“One of the upsides of this whole drama is that we are forced to think together as a race. Our world has been taking a kicking. We have damaged our world and it’s no surprise that our world is reacting to the human race.”
“It is no surprise that a virus has been created that is going to slow us down, and ultimately make us think differently about our world and ourselves. For me, that’s a stand-out thing that is really obvious. This is almost like the world’s cry out.”
“Like: ‘Hey, hey, hey – you are kicking me and what you’re doing is not good, so we will get rid of you.’ “As any organism would do, (the world) is trying to get rid of an infection, and maybe this is it for the world.”“As any organism would do, (the world) is trying to get rid of an infection, and maybe this is it for the world.”
Idris Elba, in facetime chat with Oprah while in quarantine in London
