The night that Soft Gabe's special premiered is literally the only time I've regretted not having cable since I gave it up a few years ago. But now I see I can buy it on Amazon, yay.
So I think the argument was that science settled global warming long ago, but it didn't do a good job conveying its certainty to the public. This broad communication failure is why almost half of Americans are skeptical enough to even entertain the thoughts of that one denier dude.
The piece was talking about how scientists tend to leave global warming PR to journalists and economists and govt because it wasn't their problem, and how that's a mistake.
I think it was by Elizabeth Kolbert?
Yeah, there's some truth to this. But I think it's more that youtube & Twitter have been opening up areas of science that used to feel too fancy or elite for a lay audience (see also: Chris Hadfield).
Years ago I read something that said the only reason global warming is still being debated is because environmental science has a PR problem. In general it seems like science is getting better at PR, and that is great--not just for us, but for science. Being able to explain what you do to people outside your field shouldn't be considered stooping; it should be considered essential.
Aw, I follow Vampire Damon on twitter. Yeah, he's not that bright, but he has all these earnest causes that he seems to really care about/work hard for. He wants to save the animals! Everyone else I follow on twitter just makes weird sex jokes, so.
There was a really interesting thing at Slate last year that touches on some of what Gabe is getting at here: http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2012/09/kickstarter_s_crowdfunding_won_t_save_indie_filmmaking_.single.html#pagebreak_anchor_2
There’s this idea that Kickstarter is this magical place that gives real artists the means to circumvent Big Hollywood, but in practice that hasn’t really been the case. Some Danish academic found that Kickstarter isn’t really changing the culture so much as reproducing and reinforcing it.
That said, I don’t think it’s entirely fair for Gabe to cast the Veronica Mars Kickstarter as a movie studio asking the audience to pre-pay. My understanding is that Warner Bros. flat turned the movie idea down, and that Kristen Bell & creator Rob Thomas kept the idea alive through sheer force of will. These are clearly people who love and believe in this show they created. And the fact that fans have rallied to the cause isn't so much another case of, like, Americans only being willing to watch movies that are franchises or whatever so much as a powerful testimony to that particular show’s specialness. I can’t see how that leads to any of the horrible implications that Gabe laid out.
I think it’s okay for established people to use Kickstarter if it’s in good faith, you know? I mean, that Charlie Kaufman project seemed self-indulgent because he seems like a creator who probably benefits from a certain amount of imposed limitations. And the Bret Easton Ellis Kickstarter made me straight-up angry. But if Joss Whedon had kickstarted MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING instead of funding it himself, I would have been behind him all the way because I can see how a movie would benefit from his singular vision.
Haha, I got to see this “scandal” unfold on Facebook because I’m from Johnson City and some of the people I went to high school with were posting about it. My sympathy was mostly with the potato-licker because being a teenager in JC is very hard even before you factor in a job at KFC. Licking mashed potatoes seems to me a reasonable way to cope with that.
This post actually makes me appreciate my hometown in that this is the kind of thing that qualifies as big news there. Now I live in Chicago, where the local news really is a lot like Season 5 of The Wire. God only knows what’s happening on the mashed potatoes front.
Oh my gosh, those are Krispy Kreme's actual proposed rap names, and not just Kelly's funny haha rap names? Well color me DELIGHTED. Also, I vote Jelly Bean Jack.
I was sitting next to a child who provided running commentary through the whole movie. My favorites were when Prim's cat hissed at Katniss ("That's not what I thought Buttercup would look like!") and when he called Peeta a stalker.
Oh, I don’t know. I’ll grant you that the tone of that interview was gross and condescending. (“Congratulations!”) But I’m less convinced that the yucky energy superiority thing is what was really behind the review going viral. To me, the Marilyn Hagerty story was charming in a way that’s similar to that video of the old person eating the pop rocks. Which is still condescension, I guess, but at least it’s not mean-spirited and awful.
That said, this opinion is coming from someone who legit loves the Olive Garden. That salad dressing is salty as the sea!
Last week RG wrote a totally amazing guest column in Entertainment Weekly where he defended all his worst jokes from last year’s Golden Globes. It involved two pages worth of lengthy explanations explaining how his lamest, laziest, most obvious “jokes” were actually scathing societal critiques that his detractors are too stupid to understand. Turns out his jokes about Robert Downey Jr. being a recovering addict and how the airbrush artist for the Sex and the City 2 poster should be up for a special effects award were, in fact, critiques of how we as a society are reluctant to have an honest dialogue about addiction and to promote movies with photographs of aging women, respectively.
Before I read that, I might have agreed with Gabe here that Ricky Gervais doesn’t understand the difference between “offensive” and “not even remotely funny.” But now I realize that the reason I don’t like Ricky Gervais is probably just a product of the way our society discriminates against fat people.
Thanks for clearing that up for me, Ricky Gervais, you big fat condescending fuck! The more you know.
It seems pretty clear to me that Upchuck should be a guest judge on The Marriage Ref. Or maybe Seinfeld should be Bone Lord at the Gathering? I don't know, they're basically the same person.
Whew, I'm glad to hear that other people couldn't understand what they were saying, either. I actually found it helpful (if frustrating) that most of the characters were one-dimensional because it helped me follow the plot. (Wow, that sentence just made me really sad for me!) Actually, I think that pilots, by their very nature, have to be more or less for dummies so you know what everyone's about.
Of course, then Lester Freamon put on his Native American drag queen outfit and I was like, wait, I don't know shit.
Yay for live band karaoke! I have witnessed it only once (backed by what I assume was a wedding band) at a pizza place here in Chicago. My friend sang Bon Jovi and it was wizard magic. I have this theory called the shame-loss phenomenon that dictates you lose your capacity for shame as you age. This theory (a) explains why I'm singing Rihanna into these comments right now like it's my job, and (b) why I will probably front Mr. Leo's live karaoke band in just about, oh, one year (generous).
Gross me out. While I'm sure this ripped from the headlines: YouTube edition episode was just a last-ditch effort for South Park to stay relevant, I suggest they stop making fun of disgruntled, suicidal children and move on to the next thing.
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