Weekend Reads (Feb 17): “Blazing Saddles,” Blogging, Alicia Keys, Secret Societies
Recommended weekend reading for February 17, 2024.
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Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
Mel Brooks’ iconic Blazing Saddles turned 50 this month, and Matt Zoller Seitz highlights a scene — a blown take that could’ve easily ended up on the cutting room floor, in fact — that captures the film’s brilliance.
The genius of Mel Brooks is multifaceted, but if anyone asks me to sum it up, I’ll show them the blown take. Only a genius would realize that a blown take was better than a perfect one. And only a genius would realize that the energy in this moment between these two performers articulates the buried idealism of Blazing Saddles, a film built around guys who have fun messing with people who think guys like them shouldn’t be friends.
Last year, I wrote about the bizarre case of Coyote vs. Acme, a film that seemed destined to be shelved forever, but then saved by outcry and positive buzz. But now it looks like the film is gone for good, and all so Warner Brothers can save on taxes.
With Warner Bros. Discovery’s fourth quarter earnings call scheduled for Feb. 23, Coyote vs. Acme is running out of time. Many on the film’s team feel that the studio will use the ending of the quarter to get the movie off the books for good. Coyote vs. Acme is running up against something worse than a tunnel painted into the side of a mountain or a falling anvil. It will finally be silenced by a movie studio’s balance sheet.
In a truly inglorious end, a source close to the movie doesn’t believe Warner Bros. would even announce that they hadn’t found a home for the movie. They would unceremoniously delete it. Never to be seen again.
I would never encourage anyone to do anything illegal. That said, if someone were to leak a copy of Coyote vs. Acme into the wild, that person might be considered a hero.
Matt Zoller Seitz also has a few choice words concerning Amazon Prime Video’s “bait and switch” tactics.
There’s a lot of this misleading — we could say loose — labeling on Amazon. You’d think the world’s largest online marketplace wouldn’t feel the need to inflate the appearance of its Prime Video inventory, but it’s happening. The word “Prime” has turned into a way to get you to look at stuff that’s not free with Prime.
The 1981 werewolf movie The Howling is listed as a “Prime Video.” But right under that, it says it costs $5.99 to rent. So which is it? Is it an Amazon Prime video that’s free to members? Or is it a thing you can rent that has nothing to do with your Prime subscription? (The latter.) Same thing with the 1960 swords-and-sandals epic Spartacus, which is labeled a “Prime Video,” but at the time of this writing was listed as costing $1.99 to rent and $15.99 to buy. The 1933 Barbara Stanwyck movie Baby Face has a Prime Video designation, but whoops: turns out it costs $3.99 to rent and $8.99 to buy. Kill Bill Vol. 1 is listed as a Prime Video, but right underneath that, it says it’s a $3.99 rental, $12.99 to buy.
I find this frustrating and misleading, as well.
In light of Facebook’s recent 20th anniversary, A.W. Ohlheiser reflected on the platform’s history and outsized impact on society.
Along the way, the site has faced a lot of scrutiny for the way it handles everything from user data to hate speech, from its role in amplifying misinformation to how the site might impact its users’ mental health. Just last week, Zuckerberg (along with several other tech CEOs) was questioned at a Congressional hearing on child sex abuse on social media platforms, which culminated with Zuckerberg apologizing to families of sexual abuse victims who had gathered for the session.
Facebook, it’s fair to say, has given a lot of people a lot of bad days. So while thinking about this history, I asked myself a question: Of all the bad days Facebook has had, which one was the worst?
It’s a bit on the tech-y side, but this article does a good job of explaining the pros and cons of using RSS to get information.
The biggest pro of RSS is choice: I decide what blogs or sites to include in my RSS aggreator feed. There is no algorithm engineered to milk the maximum amount of interaction out of me. If I start disliking what an author is publishing, I simple unsubscribe from their feed. I am in total control of the content I consume.
Another selling point, for me, is that RSS feeds bias towards long-term content. This is usually content published to some person or organization's blog and the author has put in a good amount of time and effort into the post. They've had time to think, "Should I really write this on the Internet?" (a thought pattern I've found is sorely missing from social media).
Via TLDR Web Dev. If you’re tired of social media and want to try consuming information in a different way, then RSS — though not perfect — is a really great alternative. I use Feedly to access my RSS feeds but there are plenty of other tools out there. And in case you’re wondering, here’s the Opus feed.
Simon Reynolds sings the praises of blogging, particularly in light of social media’s dominance.
I miss the inter-blog chatter of the 2000s, but in truth, connectivity was only ever part of the appeal. I’d do this even if no one read it. Blogging, for me, is the perfect format. No restrictions when it comes to length or brevity: a post can be a considered and meticulously composed 3,000-word essay, or a spurted splat of speculation or whimsy. No rules about structure or consistency of tone. A blogpost can be half-baked and barely proved: I feel zero responsibility to “do my research” before pontificating. Purely for my own pleasure, I do often go deep. But it’s nearer the truth to say that some posts are outcomes of rambles across the archives of the internet, byproducts of the odd information trawled up and the lateral connections created.
I definitely resonate with Reynolds’ article; it ably sums up why I still love blogging on Opus after 25+ years.
The impact of artificial intelligence was a major factor in the 2023 Hollywood strikes. However, fashion industry is also wrestling with AI’s impact. Last year, Levi’s stirred up controversy for using AI-generated models in some ads to show off more diverse body types and skin colors. But others believe AI can make the fashion industry more open and less elitist.
In April last year Cyril Foiret’s generative AI studio, Maison Meta, hosted the first AI fashion week in New York, which included a competition for aspiring designers to use AI to create a fashion line. The winners were able to have their collections physically manufactured to be sold online with retailer Revolve. As in other industries, AI has come to be associated with job redundancies and critics argue creative artistry could be wiped out. But Foiret argues that there is little to fear.
“AI is such a powerful tool that is amplifying creativity. People thinking jobs are going to reduce shouldn’t think like that. We all just need to get accustomed with the tools, but if it is just a tool without a person behind it, it’s of no use,” he said.
Meanwhile, human models are not only worried that AI-generated models could replace them, but also that their own bodies could be scanned and then used — without permission or compensation — to create those AI models.
Stephen Thomas Erlewine reflects on the 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees, which include Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, Oasis, and Foreigner, and what they say about the state of rock music.
Foreigner appearing on the ballot over the host of acts from the punk or alt-rock fringes underscores how rock & roll has a diminished presence at the Rock Hall: they’ve depleted the reservoir of uninducted classic rock artists, so if they’re looking for starpower, they need to double-dip (à la Ozzy) or start to depend on such celebrities as Cher and Mariah Carey, whose genre designations are mere niceties: they’re simply superstars. There are plenty of worthy, influential — and recognizable — rock artists still waiting for induction but ones that could be called superstars are vanishingly small.
If you watched the halftime show at this year’s Super Bowl, then you probably heard Alicia Keys flub her opening just a little bit (before delivering a solid performance). However, if you watch that same moment on YouTube now, she sounds perfect.
Standing out in a glimmering red ensemble that ruffled out into an elongated cape, Keys began her performance by launching into a high soprano that briefly morphed into a croak as the cape dropped. Clips of the botched note spread like wildfire across the internet as critics flocked to dissect it while fans rushed to her defense.
In the aftermath, the NFL and Apple Music have edited the clam out of the re-uploaded Halftime show on YouTube, and the difference in Keys’ vocals is uncanny. Online, users have pointed out the polished editing with play-by-play comparisons of the live taping and the freshly re-uploaded, and pitch-corrected, show.
It seems like a minor thing. After all, the Super Bowl is one of the world’s biggest televised events, so why not try and make everything perfect? In a recent thread, though, T. Becket Adams expresses concern over editing the past: “How are we ever supposed to return to something approximating a consensual reality when even the trivial things we experience as a nation undergo stealth edits?”
Karen Swallow Prior critiques the scam that is the “biblical manhood” industry.
Stereotypes around manhood and womanhood are rooted in both nature and culture. Like all stereotypes, they emerge out of something truthful. But the calling of the Christian transcends culture. The church is the last place where cultural stereotypes should be upheld as biblical truth. The worship leader who doesn’t like football shouldn’t feel out of place in the church because of that. The sales manager who is a godly husband, father and Bible teacher shouldn’t feel less manly because he doesn’t enjoy the outdoors. The IT guy who does most of the cooking is just as masculine as the one who doesn’t.
One of the most freeing things for me as a man in the Church was realizing that many of our beliefs and assumptions of what’s “masculine” or “feminine” are derived from culture, not Scripture.
Finally, a quick overview of some of the world’s most (in)famous secret societies, including the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, and the African American Mysteries.
Most of what we know about the African American Mysteries, also known as the Order of the Men of Oppression, comes from an 1887 Detroit Tribune interview with the group’s founder, William Lambert. He was a successful Black business owner in Detroit and a tireless advocate for Black suffrage, abolitionist causes, and public education for Black children. As the co-founder of the Colored Vigilant Committee of Detroit, Lambert helped more than 1500 freedom-seeking people escape their enslavers via the Underground Railroad. But the African American Mysteries was a far more secretive operation.
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