Eventually, tech nerds will have to realise that a bunch of jobs (especially decent to high-paying non-executive ones) boil down to salesmanship.

Recruiters? Get paid to sell people on companies and vice versa.

Movie stars? Get paid to shift product, not acting skills.

Project Managers? Buddy...

Oh, it has nothing to do with his talents and everything to do with how shallowly people talk about film (especially animation).

When people didn't like Burton's last movie(s) and did like Coraline, it was 'obvious' he'd stolen it.

Now that the opposite is true, you don't see it much anymore.

It's funny how "Tim Burton STOLE the Nightmare Before Christmas from poor Henry Selick" was a whole trendy online thing for a while until that movie came out. lol

I try not to hold it against Brooks because he was already in his 60s(!), and of a generation when most men of his age would be dead or dying.

But man, it must suck to still be around and have that shit eclipse your genuinely incredible earlier work because boomer/Gen X nostalgia won't die.

It's very telling that their most well-loved run of movies is the one made with strong outside influences beyond the brain trust.

Obviously, there's the Brad Bird work (which is just clearly a cut above anyway).

But even nominally in-house stuff like Nemo and Up have outside screenwriters.

I recently rewatched it and, even leaving aside the writing, the choice of shots is done with so much more care.

They couldn't render anything in any shot from any angle.

So every piece of lighting, design, and moving the camera (3D's big trick) has had exponentially more thought put into it.

The funny thing about AI usage in the arts is that it's sorta revealing what being good actually takes.

2020s Pixar movies all look a thousand times more 'polished' than Toy Story 1.

But they aren't directed/designed nearly as intelligently, and certainly aren't written 1/10th as well.

For most people it was a thing you'd bring up at parades and honors, that kinda thing.

It wasn't seen as a bad thing, but harping on about it when your war was over and you were out of the army was definitely kinda pathetic.

Maybe even actively disrespectful to the currently serving.

I still remember the section in Roald Dahl*'s autobiography for kids where he's like

"we knew this teacher was an asshole because he insisted he be called captain, bringing your military life into your civilian one is obvious loser shit, even to 12 year olds".

*(Both a veteran AND a weirdo freak)

One of the funny things you realise when reading about the past is that people who made being a veteran into their identity were seen as weirdo freaks.

Especially by other veterans.

I feel like they've got 70% of the same flavors, they just don't make the same big deal out of it with the dumb EPIC brand names and stuff.

I know for a fact that in Brazil, 'Hot Honey' has been around for years. They just call it "Honey with a bit of pepper", and nobody buys it pre-made.

Not much about Shapiro as a person has really impressed me, but he's a serious presidential contender for a good reason.

It's a novelty to find a powerful Democrat who isn't going to outlaw fractions because they impose colonial notions of math understanding or whatever.

Possibly.

But then again, stuff like Pornographic BDSM Tintin was evidently in demand enough that it's basically its own sub-genre in 70s Euro indie comics.

IMO- the internet has removed the idea that people should keep some thoughts private. The perverts mingle way too much with the normies now.

Oh absolutely.

It's just that TV programming aimed at kids/families (hell, TV as a whole) was relatively rare, so it was mainly books, plays, radio, and comics that did the imprinting.

Just look at, like, Billy Budd or what have you.

Can't find it now, but I remember a skeet (or maybe tweet) you did about how liberals and leftists shouldn't overtly lie too much because the bill always comes due.

One of the oddest stereotypes (as a straight guy) is the idea that women are much more prone to bisexuality than men.

Even if you're using gender stereotype 101 logic, it doesn't add up.

A big part of being a guy is saying "of course that's not gay" when a guy confesses the gayest shit to you.

boy in retrospect, really shouldn’t have elected the worst person in the entire country president. that, it appears, was less than wise

Don't know if this is my wokest or least woke opinion:

but it's always been very obvious that queer stuff in family animation was gonna hit a hard wall when it started dipping its toe into men.

Feel bad for the people who thought it wouldn't (and queer people in general, obv).

My friend and neighbor, the towering, genius artist Bernard Greenwald of Bard College, has died. He was an amazing man. Summer nights playing driveway basketball with friends were punctuated by the sound of his klezmer band, which practiced in his converted barn-studio. I will miss him tremendously.

Emmanuel Damas in a patterned dress shirt and striped tie leaning against a metal railing on a sunny residential street with red brick rowhouses and flowering trees in the background.

Emmanuel Damas, 56, died in ICE custody on Monday.

Damas came to the U.S. from Haiti seeking asylum. After six months in ICE custody—the last four at CoreCivic's Florence Correctional Center—he died from complications from a tooth infection.

A tooth infection.

1/3

tucson.com/news/local/b...

Today should be your 38th birthday.. When you lose your son you lose more than a child you lose a piece of your heart and your joy. Life is forever altered, and nothing can ever fill that space. Yet in my soul, he remains, my precious boy, forever loved. His laughter, his smile, and his love are woven into who I am. My love for him will never fade. Yor are my pride and my joy - you've made a change that cannot be broken..

Alex's mom on his 38th birthday.

I feel so bad for the people, man.

Even ignoring Israel, every other neighboring nation fucking wants their guts.

Their leaders are insane murderous whackos. Their only government in exile is some shitty royals. And their only international allies are the ultimate backstabbers; China and Russia.

Having a gay Jewish guy as their leader is going to give the rank and file so much leeway for insane shit, too.

One of their new councillors is already being investigated for 'human slavery'.

My go-to example for how increased expectations for television's production values have hurt the medium.

The version of the show that could just shoot on a soundstage with painted backings would almost certainly be better.

If for no other reason than it wouldn't need tiny seasons and huge gaps.

I'm not the first person to suggest it, but a network procedural about heroic EPA agents stopping corporations polluting (it brings down property values!) would be a net social good.

I still think about Nathan Rabin's AV Club review of Bratz: The Movie, a decade+ on.

I can't find it now, but I remember reading about some Euro functionary in the 1800s talking about peasant anti-semitism like

"of course I don't personally like Jews, but we gotta make sure we don't turn into *these* freaks and start blaming crop failures on them".

Nothing new under the sun.

I feel like the big issue is that Trans Rights became a salient public topic around the same time as gay marriage became broadly acceptable.

And a lot of people (understandably) made the mistake of assuming that Trans Rights was also at 2015 Gay Rights popularity and not 1995 Gay Rights popularity.

Sure, I'll believe a college education has no real value anymore.

Just as soon as you stop paying hundreds of thousands to educate/bribe your children's way into the Ivy League.

The thing that gets me about AI is that rich people clearly aren't using it. But I'm expected to believe they are, so I should too.

The Hemsworths can do as many ALEXA ads as they want, but they're never gonna ditch their lawyers, or housekeepers, or trainers, or stylists, etc, so...