EPISODE 738: HARDCORE SEASON'S GREETINGS
Here at the End of All Things
POP CULTURE SPIRIT WOW
Elon Musk, in an apparent attempt to remind us that things can always get worse, spent last week making the dumpster fire of the week before seem like a beta test. Having fired half of Twitter’s 7000-ish employees, he then fired more, and demanded that those that remain make a commitment to be “hardcore,” at which point over 1200 more quit.
As a result people spent Friday and the weekend posting farewells.
Popping in this weekend, I felt like I’m walking through the streets after an apocalypse. Much of what I’m seeing is some form of automation—ads; news; bots; and people on their standard issues. It’s like walking by Fox News the day after the lockdown. The ticker keeps running, the prejudice keeps playing, but there’s no one there.
What’s the equivalent of tagging Twitter, like kids do abandoned buildings? Or dancing through the streets like nobody’s looking? Because it’s starting to seem like nobody is.
THREE TWEETS ABOUT THE DEATH OF TWITTER
MEANWHILE, AT DISNEY
OF ANCIENT ELEPHANTS
I’ve been checking out Mastodon, which is sort of like Twitter, but decentralized. You join a Mastodon community, which doesn’t affect who you can follow, but it does mean if you want you can see the feed of everyone posting in that community.
I think? It’s still a little mysterious to me. One thing I definitely like is that you can hide content so that people have to click on something to see it. Such a great way to deal with spoilers.
It’s definitely a quieter community than Twitter. A lot of people I see migrating over also seem to be thinking of it as a chance to be less members of the commentariat. I see lots of thoughts abouts science and pets and art projects. It’s honestly kind of great. Like, what if Twitter could feel like I’m taking a walk in the woods on a pretty autumn day?
Here’s a few classic examples.
If you’re interested, I’m at @jimmcd@mastodon.social.
THIS IS YOUR WEEKLY REMINDER THAT RYAN COOGLER GETS IT
(Rihanna also gets it.)
I saw Black Panther: Wakanda Forever this weekend. Probably the most telling comment I can pass along is this one from my nephew, who hasn’t seen it yet: “I haven’t heard a single spoiler.”
I hadn’t heard one either. And I think it’s because writer/director Ryan Coogler and co-writer Joe Robert Cole continue to imagine the universe they’re working in as its own thing (and Kevin Feige continues to allow them to do so). There are no spoilers because it’s not really about the broader Marvel universe. Which is by the way super refreshing.
And at the same time, the movie absolutely does add to the Marvel universe anyway, and in major ways—new characters, new relationships, new status quo.
Obviously there are films in the Marvel line that are asked to carry water for the franchise. The new Ant-Man film, for example, seems like it’s going to involve some major choice that Ant-Man has to make that will allow new franchise Kang to become a nightmare in the broader Marvel universe. The makers might argue no, it’s about the Microverse and everything that happens to the Pym/Lang family there, but it seems pretty clear there are Implications™.
I just wonder what the MCU would look like if Disney let more films have their own little corners like this. Imagine the individual character franchises as similar to the comic source material itself, idea and character factories that are left to do their own thing and can then be mined for content in the Avengers line.
Also cool about the film: Every major character is a person of color—either Black or Latinx. And seven of them are women. It’s freaking great.
(Amazing Van Gogh & Starry Night costume by Libby Chisholm Fearnley.)
I FEEL LIKE I KNOW YOU FROM SOMEWHERE
Some shameless self-advertising: the Australian Jesuit magazine Eureka Street very kindly asked me to write something about the U.S. midterms. My main takeaway: the press (and sometimes this really means their headline and social media people) need to consider the way they frame their political analysis, because it is wrong so often they couldn’t get jobs as meteorologists.
At America, I had a piece on whether we should all start going back to the movies, which sort of surprised me. I’ve been pretty content to stay home, but then I was realizing that if I think of great experiences I’ve had at the movies, they all involve being at a theater.
I also spent a good part of last week watching episodes of The Walking Dead and thinking through its finale, which aired tonight. When I fell off the series, I fell off hard. Watching the last couple episodes seemed to suggest I’d chosen well, but then going back to some big moments that I had missed, I found the storytelling of such high quality, it reminded me why the show had been so great in the first place. (If you ever liked the show but never watched the episodes where Carl dies or Rick leaves, you really should.)
Maybe my biggest surprise was realizing that the show was truly great not when it was dissecting the problems with human society or the temptation to nihilism that lurks within us, but when it told stories about its characters struggling to survive zombies. It sounds weird, but it’s true: It’s a truly great stories about zombies.
And I took a little time to wonder what it must be like to be a bishop watching the Catholic Church melting like the polar ice. And my earth-shattering conclusion was: man it’s got to be hard. (This is why they pay me the big bucks.)
I BET IT’S GOOD THOUGH
Okay this one I actually read, but I loved it so much I had to post it. It’s three pieces of advice on how you can be a great Thanksgiving guest. I think it’s great.
WRITER’S NOTEBOOK
Everyone is in their winter gear now. We walk down the streets huddle inside ourselves, like our coats are somehow caves.
Gobble gobble. <3