Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In my day, never was longer.

Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.

We still have time to mess this up!

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Consistently wrong since 2002

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

The words do not have to be perfect.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

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Saturday Evening Open Thread: Other Topics

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Anyone want to talk about music?


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Okay… movies?

Reader Interactions

54Comments

  1. 1.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The last few times I’ve gone to the movies, you had to pick a seat on the computer when you bought your ticket. They could space people or parties out some. Not that I’m going back any time soon.

  2. 2.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I won’t go into to all the get-off-my-lawn reasons I don’t go to movies anymore (I think the last one I saw was Clooney’s The Descendants cause I drew the sibling short straw when my mom wanted to see it— google tells me that was 2011), but do movies still play to packed houses? I would imagine social distancing of six feet wouldn’t be that hard. I don’t know how many seats they have to fill to turn a profit on popcorn and buckets of carbonated corn syrup, and it not be romantic, but… get a room.

  4. 4.

    Emma

    Su Dongpo, sticking it to the man his whole career.

    I do see at least one Twitter idiot who dared to compare the great Arthur Waley to the idiot who “translated” Rumi’s poetry, and apparently thinks Google Translate can handle classical Chinese poetry better. Longing for an idiot son may have helped this guy’s parents more.

  6. 6.

    Redshift

    I’m picking up dinner, and CNN apparently is going to carry the rally of the damned. Reportedly Trump is upset that staffers being infected and Barr’s attack on the rule of law are overshadowing his glorious return.

    Best case is he dumps Barr over it, but I doubt we’re that lucky.

  7. 7.

    Emma

    @Emma: also, judging by Michael Spicer’s videos and everything else I read about the current UK cabinet ministers, there are no standards anyway. Dominic Raab, Foreign Secretary, not knowing what the deal is with taking a knee. Could be being deliberately obtuse, but also just as likely that he really has no idea.

  8. 8.

    WaterGirl

    Anne Laurie, thanks for the heads up on Perry Mason last night.

    I had known it was coming but didn’t know exactly when.  I pay for HBO through Apple TV, so I googled something related Perry Mason and discovered that even though I am still paying for it, I can no longer get HBO on Apple TV without using some separate pain-in-the-butt app.

    HBO stops participating in Apple TV Channels, users directed to HBO Max app

    Because I had the advance warning, I was able to add HBO through Comcast today so I can watch Perry Mason.  I have accepted that it’s a different Perry Mason, so I’m not gonna get hung up on the different take they are bringing to the story. I’ll just enjoy Matthew Rhys and the show.

    I hadn’t realized it’s only 8 episodes though, so I’m glad to know that going into it.  It’s always best when expectations match reality, or at least resemble it!

    So this is my big thank you for everything you do for us, Anne Laurie!

  9. 9.

    Mary G

    @Redshift: Somebody said he was not angry that six of his advance team have the virus, but that it wasn’t kept secret from the press. No link, so might be untrue, but it sounds like him. I think Parscale is toast and will be sued within an inch of his life, and the White House staffers counting on this rally to cheer him up are not going to have a good week again

    ETA: This picture!

    This is what overflow looks like at the Trump rally in Tulsa right now. Pence is scheduled to speak out here in about 10 minutes. People still streaming in but not nearly the number the campaign said they were expecting. pic.twitter.com/hbypfviOxv— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 20, 2020

  10. 10.

    Martin

    Theaters are fucked. Their business model was tied to the reality that it was impossible to distribute a movie to the public directly. They never actually adapted that business model after it became easy to distribute to the public. Now that circumstances force it, direct to public will increasingly be the norm, so the theater only make sense when the experience they provide exceeds my experience at home.

    When they do events, they deliver on that. The only worthwhile place to watch Rocky Horror is in a full theater. A Star Wars marathon in a theater full of fans and cosplayers with the whole bit is hella fun. It brings the movie experience closer to the live theater experience. But it also means movie theaters  as common as live theaters and not jammed in every  shopping center in the country.

    I think a return to the combo live/movie theater is coming. One stage/screen that can serve a wide range of purposes from community theater to a week-long run of a big movie release.

  11. 11.

    WaterGirl

    We finally got rain today – just now – which should help the gaping fissures in the lawn and the flower beds.   Even though I have been watering!

    The only reason we have rain today is that I hooked up one more hose today, and I spent pretty much the entire day moving the hose every 10 minutes.  Totally worth it!

    So thrilled to have the rain!

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    It was last month (IIRC) but still can’t get over Indiana at the time announcing movie theaters could open so long as they kept their rest rooms closed.

  13. 13.

    Mary G

    I guess even many MAGAts aren’t willing to risk the virus even for Dear Leader:

    As others are reporting, looks like attendance here in Tulsa is well below campaign’s expectations. Here’s the main floor at the arena currently pic.twitter.com/EASfSHL5nN— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) June 20, 2020

    I am chortling envisioning the hissy fit Twitler must be throwing.

    ETA: They may still be coming, stuck in traffic or something:

    I should add that the event isn't supposed to start for some time (90 mins ish). But this isn't a normal rally, there was overflow space and and a scheduled outdoor program. Even if arena fills up, those areas remain below expectations (which they heightened!)— Steadman™ (@AsteadWesley) June 20, 2020

  14. 14.

    Martin

    I’m surprised that musicians haven’t more broadly embraced Twitch. It offers paid subscriptions and subscriber only live streams as well as one-off donations. So you could combine live performances  for subscribers with other content.

    I’m thinking of CriticalRole that turned Twitch streaming D&D games into a multi-million dollar business with merchandise in retail stores, an Amazon series, and a bunch more.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    @Mary G: I assume the 19,000 seat capacity we’ve been hearing about includes the upper tier of seats? Because those are all empty in that photo…

  17. 17.

    RSA

    I live about two miles from the largest drive-in movie screen in the U.S. Thinking about it. They recently re-opened and are now showing E.T. and Back to the Future, so it would be a nostalgia trip in any case.

  20. 20.

    patrick II

    @RSA:

    so it would be a nostalgia trip in any case.

    So, are you going to be in the backseat with your date?

  23. 23.

    RSA

    @patrick II: So, are you going to be in the backseat with your date?

    LOL. True nostalgia. I wish

    ETA: The drive-in has been operating since 1956. Now I’m wondering about the percentage of the local population conceived in a specific location…

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    Per that Barro tweet…Alamo Cinema & Drafthouse already has a policy (which they tell you QUITE LOUDLY during the previews) that ‘anyone being loud will be removed – 1 warning and that’s it’.

    No reason why they couldn’t have the same policy re: mask usage, except of course trumpov.

  27. 27.

    zhena gogolia

    @RSA:

    I used to love drive-ins. I saw most movies that way. Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (neither of which I liked), and lots of others. It was so much fun. Both when I was a child with my family, and later with high-school friends. Mark of the Devil!

  29. 29.

    patrick II

    @JPL:

    We had a bragging competition about the level of fog we caused on the windows.  The winner said he put fog on the headlights.

  30. 30.

    Ken

    @Martin: Thinking some of those 300,000 signups might have been bots.

    Parscale was calling it the “biggest data haul” ever, which shows the real purpose.  So I love the idea that they have a quarter-million registrations from “[email protected]”, or perhaps “I. P. Freely of Fookoff, OK”.

  33. 33.

    NotMax

    @Ken

    As a former (very former) usher, can vouch there are limits beyond which they will not up with put.

    ;)

  34. 34.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Martin:

    Theaters are fucked.

    I don’t know what the theater landscape (multiplexes vs art houses) is like in your neck of the woods, but as a New Yorker I had the benefit of having several great art movie houses located within close proximity to me.  As someone who prefers independent films, documentaries, and foreign language films to Hollywood blockbusters I’ll truly miss these venues.  In addition to the great programming they provided, many of these theaters often included Q and A sessions with directors and producers.

  36. 36.

    RSA

    @zhena gogolia: I’m a tail-end Boomer with similarly fond memories of drive-ins. If I go, it’ll be solo, with carefully timed carry-out, to a movie I want to see.

  37. 37.

    Tom Levenson

    FTR: Arthur Waley, the translator of Su Tung-po’s poem, was a cousin of mine (my mum’s).

  40. 40.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Tom Levenson:

    Your mum was related to everyone. The Sebag Montefiore connection blew me away.

    This is probably not really your first choice of topics, but I wish you’d someday write a family history — part genealogy, part Great Ideas.

  41. 41.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Jeffro:

    I have an update on that:

     

    Alamo Drafthouse will require its guests to wear masks when the movie theater chain reopens.

    Its announcement comes as AMC, Regal and Cinemark have ignited a firestorm of controversy over their decision to stop short of mandating that guests wear masks in all of their locations. Customers will be forced to wear masks in states and jurisdictions where people are required to be masked when in public, and they will be encouraged to wear masks in other parts of the country.

     

    h/t https://variety.com/2020/film/news/alamo-drafthouse-masks-amc-theatres-movies-1234642774/

  42. 42.

    Ken

    @Wyatt Salamanca: This may be one of those cases where the insurance companies have the final word. And that word will be “You will require masks, because we’re not going to cover you for the negligence lawsuits”.

  44. 44.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    @Ken:

    I suspect you’re correct on this point.  I still have a hard time seeing how the theater chains will be able to fully bounce back from this crisis.

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

     

    @Ken:  OMG I just realized…the lawyers are going to save us!

    Them, and the insurance companies.

    2020, you’re one weird year.

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