Category Archives: Nihilism

Rock n roll is supposed to be fun, Sex Pistols singer Johnny Rotten told British rock journalist Charles Shaar Murray in 1977. Youre supposed to enjoy it. Its not about taking a million fucking years to learn a million fucking chords on the guitar.

That clarion call sounded as their anti-royalist diatribe God Save The Queen was getting him razored in the streets, and the group banned from Englands airwaves and concert halls probably formed more bands than anything else the Pistols did in their brief lifespan, November 1975 to January 1978. It bears repeating that they didnt invent punk rockso much as helped refine one approach to it, and served as a popularizer. But damn, what a great, powerful band they were.

Ignore the fashion aspects of the group, or (mis-)manager Malcolm McLarens misinformation campaign via the woeful yet entertaining mockumentary The Great Rock N Roll Swindle claiming he manipulated them into existence. The Pistols were a great rock n roll band at their core. Drummer Paul Cook understood the power inherent in not getting terribly frantic with your grooves. He held them a midtempo, at the swiftest, yet with an insane amount of drive, played hard. Guitarist Steve Jones applied heavy metals huge roar to the garage six-string ethic of the Stooges and New York Dolls. Original bassist Glen Matlock was the bands composer before Sid Vicious replaced him. He infused their songs with his 60s mod/pop ethos and the swagger of the Faces (equally a Jones and Cook favorite).

But Rotten, who reverted to birth name John Lydon post-Pistols, was the bands X-factor. He brought a sinister outsider gaze to the band, brought to life in his ferocious lyrics, abrasive vocals and unnerving stage presence. Without him, the Pistols would have merely been a good rock n roll band. With him, they were something else entirely.

In 26 months, the Sex Pistols disrupted British society, rock n roll history and the music business. They were a subject of debate in the worldwide press and the Houses Of Parliament. And they inspired just as many bands as the Beatles, the Velvet Underground andRamones did, and not just punk groups. Here are 15 of those bands, alongside the most Pistols-esque highlights from their discographies.

There was an almost instantaneous rivalry between the Pistols and the Clash, the band that usurped them as Englands Top Punk Group after their 1978 breakup. But it was the Pistols who showed the way to the castoffs of attempted Dolls clones London SS and pub rockers the 101ers singer, Joe Strummer. As soon as I saw them, I knew that rhythm and blues was dead, that the future was here somehow, Strummer told Melody Makers Caroline Coon in 1976.

Every other group was riffing their way through the Black Sabbath catalog. But hearing the Pistols, I knew. I just knew. It was something you just knew without bothering to think about. A number of such early Clash anthems as Clash City Rockers had more than a little Pistols to em, and Sandy Pearlman imbued second album Give Em Enough Rope with the same huge rock production as Never Mind The Bollocks, Heres The Sex Pistols.

Bolton Institute students Howard Trafford and Peter McNeish attempted to form a Velvets-inspired band in late 1975. Reading about the Pistols in the music press, they traveled to London to see them in February 1976. Blown away by what they saw, Trafford became Howard Devoto, McNeish rechristened himself Pete Shelleyand their band transformed into Buzzcocks. They organized the Pistols Manchester debut in June 1976, where they met their future bassist (and later guitarist) Steve Diggle. There, future members of Joy Division, the Fall, the Smiths and the founders of Factory Records all found their calling. The Spiral Scratch EP, driven by Devotos nihilistic intelligence, was Buzzcocks most Pistols-ish moment. Though if you dig deep into the chainsaw pop that marked them after his exit, you can hear the Pistols beating in their hearts.

Despite their proud initial amateurism, the Slits might have been the ultimate homeland embodiment of the Pistols influence. In fact, McLaren wanted to manage them after the Pistols split. Rotten later married singer Ari Ups mother Nora Forster, becoming Ups stepfather. And if the Pistols connections dont run deep enough, Cook drummed on the Slits 2006 comeback single, Number One Enemy. His daughter, current English pop star Hollie Cook, was a latter-day Slit.

Mari Elliott saw the Pistols playing on a pier in the summer of 1976, on her 18th birthday. She then transformed into one of punks greatest frontpersons, Poly Styrene. The band she assembled, X-Ray Spex, combined a huge Jones guitar sound and dedication to big riffs with a cocktail lounge saxophone reminiscent of Roxy Music. Like all the best post-Pistols bands, X-Ray Spex took the influence and created something unique from it, likely explaining Rottens high regard for them.

When Joy Division emerged from the other side of that June 76 Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall Pistols gig, they dubbed themselves Warsaw and displayed the same dedication to heavy riffs. In fact, New Jersey ghoul-punks Misfits half-inched the chord progression from the song Warsaw for Horror Business. As singer Ian Curtis internalized his nihilism, going from fuck this to Im fucked, Joy Divisions music similarly imploded. They helped invent post-punk as they evolved, until ending with the dark, jangly beauty of the epic Love Will Tear Us Apart. The post-Curtis version of the band, New Order, wandered even farther afield from that initial Pistols blueprint.

Joan Jett displayed likely the first American evidence of the Pistols impact. While leadingthe Runaways, she arrived at a 1977 photo shoot in a homemade Pistols T-shirt, safety pins festooned in the neckline and spikes cut into her shaggy mane. Following the Runaways dissolution, Jett flew to England to record with Jones and Cook, including an early take of I Love Rock N Roll, the obscure glam B-side that eventually became her first solo chart-topper in 1982. From that point, Jetts trademark glam blasts featured the enormous Pistols guitar crunch and swagger.

D.C. hardcore innovators Bad Brains have repeatedly indicated the Pistols music was among that which transformed them from a jazz/funk outfit to fire-breathing punk rockers. Its easy enough to spot the influence on the early demo tape Black Dots. Redbone In The City is God Save The Queen with rewritten lyrics, singer HR rolling his rs like Rotten. Then you get blinding debut single Pay To Cum the following year, which sounds like a Pistols 45 played at 78 RPM. Bad Brains are a spectacular example of how taking Rotten and crews influence to an extreme yielded fresh results.

Hard to believe, but 80s British indies flagship band the Smiths are yet another outgrowth of that June 1976 Manchester Pistols gig. Morrissey, then a famed New York Dolls die-hard and prolific writer of letters to the U.K. rock weeklies, was definitely at Lesser Free Trade Hall. Did he like them? Hard to tell by what he wrote to the hapless editor of whatever rag he was thumbing through at the moment: The bumptious Pistols in jumble sale attire had those few that attended dancing in the aisles despite their discordant music and barely audible audacious lyrics, and they were called back for two encores. The Pistols nevertheless catalyzed the Smiths, the influence manifesting most audibly in the monarchy-skewing The Queen Is Dead, especially live.

Its impossible to listen to Orange County punk titans Social Distortion and not hear the Pistols lurking somewhere within. Mike Ness has acknowledged the influence many times, and its especially audible in their earliest, most punk material, as on debut LP Mommys Little Monster. But with their entire history flashing big, crashing Gibson chords, bent guitar strings and a dont fuck with me attitude, even Social Distortions most countrified material bears the mark of the Pistols.

With their breakthrough albums title sounding suspiciously reverent to Never Mind The Bollocks, at least in part, how could Nirvana deny any residual Pistols damage? Kurt Cobain expressed his gratitude in the book Dead Gods: All the hype the Sex Pistols had was totally deserved they deserved everything they got. Rotten was the one I identified with, he was the sensitive one. He also admired Bollocks production, calling it the best of any rock record Ive ever heard. It liberated the grunge royalty to fully take advantage of that major-label recording budget and allowed Butch Vig to make Nevermind sound as big, loud and clean as possible.

Rock n roll in general has sucked a big dick since the Pistols, Guns N Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin told Rolling Stone in 1988, explaining why Appetite For Destruction laid waste to 80s corporate rock. The bands raw power, chaotic energy and explosive Gibsons felt more like punk in the Pistols sense than the well-manicured, polite hum of 80s mainstream metal a la Poison. Band members Stradlin, Axl Rose and Duff McKagan all repeatedly acknowledged the influence. Jones sub-metal post-Rotten riffer Black Leather made the punk covers record The Spaghetti Incident?s tracklisting. McKagan also later rounded out Jones mid-90s all-star outfit Neurotic Outsiders, playing Black Leather in the clip below.

OK, do you really think Green Day would exist without the Pistols? Billie Joe Armstrong has addressed this: The Sex Pistols released just one albumbut it punched a huge hole in everything that was bullshit about rock music, and everything that was going wrong with the world, too. No one else has had that kind of impact with just one album. He went on to call Bollocks the root of everything that goes on at modern-rock radio. Its certainly at the root of Green Days enormous guitar sound and crash-and-burn energy, as well as the wide-screen production of records such as American Idiot.

The Jesus And Mary Chain crashed onto the sedate London indie scene with surly attitudes and unruly feedback-laden guitars, dressed in black and ready to rock. They didnt play concerts they played riots. They couldnt be bothered to entertain. All this, plus exciting records like debut album Psychocandy, garnered them all manner of new Sex Pistols notices in the press. The JAMCs Jim Reid admitted the Pistols were a starting point for them, but also daunted them: We heard the Sex Pistols and all that, and we wanted to be in a punk band, but were very confused. The punk ideal was that you shouldnt be able to play your guitars very well. He went on to explain that the Pistols fully formed chops were the source of confusion, in light of punks anyone can do it rhetoric. The Jesus And Mary Chain just got on with it.

Its hard not to listen to Bikini Kills rowdy riot grrrl anthems and not hear the Pistols at their heart. That disorderly spirit? The collision course guitar work? Kathleen Hannas ferocious commitment to tearing down the old order? Is this not the Sex Pistols in spirit, if not deed? Bikini Kill took the best parts of the Pistols ethic, changing the swaggering machismo Jones brought to the band into fierce feminism. Its most evident on their absolute classic Rebel Girl, especially the version produced by Jett, featuring her extra guitar power.

Who defined the 1970s, Oasis Noel Gallagher once asked Time Out magazine. You could say David Bowie, but if you say that, youre gonna go, Whoa, what about the Sex Pistols? What about them, Noel? Hes never made any bones about the Pistols impact on the Britpop megastars. One only has to listen to early Oasis tracks, especially Rock n Roll Star. Debut album Definitely Maybe is all beefy Les Pauls, short tempers and cocksureness. If thats not an embodiment of the Sex Pistols, what is?

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Bands influenced by the Sex Pistols | Oasis, Nirvana - Alternative Press

In the pilot episode of the Michael Schur-created sitcom The Good Place, Ted Dansons archangel Michael walks Kristen Bells newly-dead Eleanor through the afterlife. As they stroll around paradise, or the good place, Bell turns to Danson. Whos in the bad place that would shock me? she asks. Mozart, Picasso, Elvis, basically every artist ever, Danson quips in return. Its an offhand joke, but Schur has grappled with the moral obligations of art and artists throughout his highly successful career.

A television mogul who has long dominated prime timein addition to creating The Good Place, he co-created Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Parks & Recreation, and wrote on and produced The OfficeSchurs feel-good oeuvre posits that television can, and ought to be, ethical. Now that Brooklyn Nine-Nine and The Good Place are over, Schur has translated his principled vision to the page with his new book How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question.

In How to Be Perfect, Schur is an ethics TA desperate to relate, guiding his readers through centuries of philosophical texts by answering questions ranging from Do I have to Return My Shopping Cart to the Shopping Cart Rack Thingy? (Chapter 4) to Making Ethical Decisions is Hard. Can We Just.Not Make Them? (Chapter 12). The book is something of a Cliffs Notes to philosophy, written in the puerile awesome-sauce prose that has become his trademarkhes prone to phrases like thingy, gibberish sandwich, and gobbledygook. Its also a manifesto of the ethical principles hes spent his television career investigating. Schur has said that he favors television with a beating heart at its center; the thesis of much of his writing is that goodness at an individual level has the power to redeem bleak, and even malignant environments.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Parks & Rec follow coworkers-turned-family members at a police bureau and in local government. During Schurs tenure, The Office abandoned its British predecessors nihilism in favor of a more saccharine American sensibility. Indeed, hes arrived at a magic formula for sitcom success, relying on a combination of goofy ensemble casts, typically in workplace environments, where, as in How to Be Perfect, the conclusions are always neat.

Having been nominated for 19 Primetime Emmys, Schurs television programs are some of the most popular and lauded of the past two decades. His output has inspired a recent surge of similarly moralizing situational comedies: Ted Lasso, Schitts Creek, and Superstore are not Schur productions, but bear the stench of his trademark feel-good workplace mockumentary. How to Be Perfect is Schurs most potent distillation of this one-good-deed-can-change-the-world philosophy, but in his attempts to make art that is moral he fails on both accounts.

The moral universe Schur envisions is more similar to an expense report than it is a fully lived-in human world. In The Good Place, characters actions in life are assigned a series of point values that determines whether they go to heaven or hell, a conceit he returns to in his book. Imagine that you [could] call on some kind of Universe Goodness Accountant, Schur posits in How to be Perfect, to give you an omniscient, mathematical report on how well you did. Hes being facetious, but only somewhathe employs moral tabulations throughout the book. Schurs main philosophical contribution is his coinage of the phrase Moral Exhaustion to refer to his feeling of fatigue at every choice bearing ethical weight. Every day we are confronted with dozens of moral and ethical decisions, he writes.

Theres an environmentally best toothpaste we should buy, an ideal length of time we should leave the water running when we shower, a most ethical car to drive, and a better option than driving at all. Theres a more responsible way to shop for groceries, a worst social media company we definitely shouldnt use, a most reprehensible pro sports franchise owner we shouldnt support, and a most labor-friendly clothing company we should. There are expensive solar panels we should put on our roofs, low-flow toilets we should install, and media outlets we shouldnt patronize because they stiff our journalists.

If Schur intends this list to exemplify the endless ethically fraught crossroads we arrive at daily, it serves as more of a reminder of our relative impotence. In the face of growing global catastrophe, the decision to shop at Everlane over Forever 21 is meager resistance, if not moral posturing. Neoliberal economists have been telling us to vote with our dollar for the past half century; Schurs only intervention is to add that this sometimes gets tiring. This isnt to say that we should empty our recycling bins into our trash cans or skip the organic produce aisle, and Schur is correct in his diagnosis of a cultural moral exhaustion. But its not our endless choices that fatigue, its their futility.

Schurs emphasis on the individual also infects his television, set at sterile office enclosures like corporations, local government, and police headquarters. The cognitive dissonance between the power of the individual and the institution bursts when characters in Schurs moral fishbowls confront the real world. Brooklyn Nine-Nine, a zany comedy about an NYPD precinct, experienced this puncture most profoundly, when Andy Samberg in police uniform mugs, Im one of the good ones, after the murder of George Floyd made the topic of police brutality unavoidable for the show. The joke is partially on Sambergs character, who, by the episodes end, is disillusioned with the institution, but he nevertheless returns without further questioning for the remainder of the series run.

At the beginning of that same episode, the shows resident badass bisexual and audience surrogate Rosa Diaz leaves the precinct to become a private investigator because of police brutality and corruption, but continues to help out her friends as needed, in something of a liberal fever dream. Schurs creation of a nominally progressive Brooklyn police force is less grating than his insistence that the intentions of the individual police officer can correct the entire systems moral fabric.

In How to Be Perfects eighth chapter, Weve Done Some Good Deeds, and Given a Bunch of Money to Charity, and Were Generally Really Nice and Morally Upstanding People, So Can We Take Three of These Free Cheese Samples from the Free Cheese Sample Plate at the Supermarket Even Though it Clearly Says One Per Customer, Schur dedicates two pages to an internal debate over whether or not he should leave his bank because of the conduct of its CEO. He investigates CEOs at other banks and concludes that these dudes (and theyre basically all dudes) are essentially interchangeable, only to amend the chapters conclusion by noting that after the books first draft, he did ultimately switch banks to an institution whose practices he deemed more ethical. Hes armed himself with a tepid self-awareness that renders him less oblivious than Sambergs character, but his self-effacement registers more as PR than as genuine ethical inquiry. Again, no one could fault Schur for wanting to switch banks, did he not insist on receiving a good deed credit.

As Schur evaluates Kant, Bentham, Aristotle and the existentialists within the context of modern life, his mission shifts from guiding readers on how to be a good person to proving that he himself is one. How to Be Perfect is an attempt to show that Mike Schur is Good (unlike Mozart, Picasso, or Elvis, all of whom find themselves in the Bad Place). Hes assuaging some guilt: Schur reminds readers three times throughout his book that hes a well-paid TV writer, and repents for his crime of being a white dude. Under a subhead titled The Gods of Luck Demand Tribute! he walks readers through a twenty-point list describing the ways in which good fortune has propelled his career, including that he was accepted to Harvard (though through hard work, certainly), had friends from the Lampoon who helped him land a job at Saturday Night Live, and was selected for small writing staff position on The Office.

But theres no real need for him to self-flagellate for what is, by all metrics, a successful career. His attempts to signify that hes one of the good guyshe bemoans that feminist literature is so often published with pink covers and chastises ancient philosophers for relying on male pronouns in their writingonly reinforce his role as cloying moral referee, penalizing Aristotle for failing to maintain standards set by Instagram infographics.

Though Schur apparently attempts to atone for his blessed life every time he enters a grocery store, he would be the first to admit that he feels his greatest moral contribution to the world has been his television output. At a 2019 University of Notre Dame panel titled Can Television Make Us Better People? Schur answered the events titular question with an emphatic yes. If television cant make us better people, then nothing can, he said. Thats the explicit goal of [The Good Place], and if Im wrong, this whole last four years of my life has been for nothing.

Schurs astronomical Nielsen ratings dont betray any slide, but his supercilious focus on improving the moral character of his audience comes at comedic cost. The Office lost its bite once its characters gave up on despising their jobs and started to treat their colleagues at a paper supplies sales company as family. Andy Samberg is irresistibly charming in Brooklyn Nine Nine, when he isnt tasked with becoming the worlds nicest police officer.

Because Schur conflates a code of ethics with an elementary school classrooms code of conduct, this decline in humor has no correlation to actual moral improvement. Schurs quest for goodness is a narrow one, limited to the scope of a like-minded audience, who, similar to the characters that populate his shows, are largely middle managers with little reason to question the status quo. His gentle optimism and lighthearted humor are opiates for the masses desperate to have their worldviews confirmed, a feedback loop where being a good person is tantamount to watching one on TV. Filtered through his infantile sensibilities, this lack of pathos emerges most vividly in The Good Place (later revealed to be The Bad Place), where expressions of anguish are limited to holy forking shirtballs, because heaven censors swearing.

Social realism only ever infects the Schur bubble by absolute necessity, and always awkwardly, like when he refers to the politically-connected billionaire child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein as a nightmare person. His preaching, reserved for an audience with a car full of groceriesand thus a functioning carand the luxury of posing philosophical questions leaves viewers with a product roughly as thorny and as funny as an after school special.

When The Good Place aired in September 2016, two months before Trumps election, film and television producers were frothing at the mouth for bland content that reflected kindness, positivity, and something called radical empathy. Recycling, good manners, and returning your grocery cart were all part of The Resistance. Paddington 2 was declared a brave rebuke to Brexit-era xenophobia. Schurs television programs have dabbled in explicit political involvement: then-Vice President Joe Biden made not one but two appearances on Parks & Rec, the first of which Amy Poehler as Leslie Knope bumbled through, so overwhelmed was she by her sexual attraction to the militant warhawk rebranded by the media as anodyne grandpa.

In the run up to the 2020 election, Schur told SFgate that Knope wouldve done everything in her power (and that the Hatch Act allowed) to get Joe Biden elected. Under the Biden administration, with niceness in office and little change in the way of material circumstance, Schurs moral promises ring especially hollow. Maybe life during the Trump era was an Onion article, but now its a Schur-22-minute sitcom, where decorum blithely persists against a backdrop of chaos, and signaling goodness is just as good as the real deal.

In a 2018 article about The Good Place, New York Times writer Sam Anderson recalls observing to Pamela Hieronymi, a consulting philosopher on the show, that American culture was losing touch with ethics. Hieronymi disagreed, explaining, Its amazing to me how moralized and moralistic we seem to be. In this way, Schurs fastidious moral accounting echoes the culture writ large, where minute differenceswho posts what, when and how soonaccount for massive distinctions in character. Like the askew t that dangles cheekily below How to Be Perfec on the books cover, the moral challenges Schur envisions are matters of presentation. As he tells his children in the books earnest coda, Im placing a decent-size bet on the idea that understanding morality, and following its compass during decisions great and small, will make you better, and therefore safer. But in a world where our individual choices mean less and less, we delude ourselves in pretending that they mean more, and Schurs insistence on the power of simple kindness feels less brave than desperate.

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Why Do We Have to Feel Good? On Michael Schur's Cloying Moral Universe - Literary Hub

The video of a Tigrayan man being torched by men in uniform, then thrown into a smouldering pyre and literally cooked has stunned Ethiopians and shocked the world. The blackened pit shows other human remains, suggesting he could be one of a number of prisoners executed in similar fashion.

The macabre spectacle would not have been known about were it not for the ghoulish fantasy of one solitary soldier and his desire to show off his war trophy. His colleagues partake in this dark ritual while making tasteless cannibalistic jokes. His grilled flesh would be good to eat with injera, says one of them. With bread, retort the others, amid guffaws and further insults.

The barbarism and atavism of this latest atrocity speaks to the nihilism and dehumanisation that now disfigures all involved in this conflict combatants and noncombatants alike.

Implicated in the massacre are federal units supported by a motley collection of ethnic forces: the Amhara Fano militia, special forces from the Gambela, Sidama and the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region. The Fano, in particular, have been among the most vicious and prolific perpetrators of rights abuses.

The incident, which occurred in Metekel, Beni-Shangul Gumuz state, has been widely condemned. The state-funded Ethiopian Human Rights Commission termed it an act of extra-judicial killing. A senior official from the commission told the BBC that a joint security team arrested 11 men nine of them Tigrayans and seized radio communication sets, cash and weapons. The men were apparently on a covert mission, he said.

Other media reports suggested the men were from a commando unit of the Tigray Defence Forces sent to blow up the Grand Renaissance Dam. The claim is outlandish, not least because there is no overt hostility to the dam in Tigray and the president of the Tigrayan Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) Debretsion Gebremichael was actually intimately involved in the early stages of the project.

The human flesh barbecue horror is part of a long chain of documented atrocities in the 15-month conflict, with all parties to the conflict complicit. The pattern of mass killings was established barely weeks after the start of the war in November 2020.

Eritrean troops killed hundreds of civilians in the town of Axum in what Amnesty International called the single worst documented atrocity of the war.

The Ethiopian state outsourced the war to ethnic militias and turned the conflict into a violent ethnic grudge match. Incendiary rhetoric and hate speech by politicians against Tigrayans, the collapse of the professional army and its chain of command, the absence of any meaningful system of accountability, all contribute to a culture of impunity that embolden combatants to commit mass atrocities.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his inner circle feed the anti-Tigray frenzy. Mass arrests of Tigrayans, purges of Tigrayan public servants and the shutdown of Tigrayan-owned businesses is now routine across Ethiopia. Hate is sanctioned at the highest levels of the state.

In July 2021 Abiy vowed to remove the weed. His spiritual adviser, Deacon Daniel Kibret, in September 2021 told Ethiopians the TPLF should be erased and disappeared from historical records. Another senior regime supporter said the enemy does not deserve your compassion or your mercy.

The Metekel horror ought to serve as a wake-up call. The world must end its conscious denial of the gravity of the human rights crisis in Ethiopia and hold all the belligerents accountable.

This article first appeared in The Continent, the Mail & Guardians pan-African weekly newspaper designed to be read and shared on WhatsApp. Download your free copy here.

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Atrocities on the rise in Ethiopia - Mail and Guardian

When I sat down to write a piece reflecting on the second anniversary of the March 2020 lockdown, I initially thought it would be about what the past two years have taught us about law, civil liberties, and the state. Instead, Id like to talk about the thing that has occupied my mind most ever since Boriss famous press conference shortly before the lockdown was given legal effect: namely, the nihilism of modern life. This is illustrated perfectly by the way in which the interests of children were treated during the pandemic.

Nihilism has often been described with a simple phrase, supposedly uttered by Madame de Pompadour, the lover of Louis XV, on seeing his disappointment after the French defeat at Rossbach in 1757. To cheer him up, she laughed off the defeat by reassuring him: Aprs nous, le dluge (After us, the flood). What she is commonly thought to have meant by this was that any catastrophe or disaster occurring after one is dead is completely irrelevant to ones happiness. One might as well enjoy ones life, safe in the knowledge that whatever comes afterwards has no consequence.

Aprs nous, le dluge should have been the motto of the past two years. As long as one was safe and able to enjoy ones splendid isolation with ones gin, ones tonic, ones Netflix, ones Amazon Prime account and ones lockdown puppy, what consequence was it that government debt was skyrocketing to 103.7 per cent of GDP? What consequence was it that quantitative easing would inevitably lead to eye-watering levels of inflation? What consequence was it that a generation of children were not just being denied schooling, but were being inducted into a world of addiction and vice by being babysat by screens for days at a time? What consequence was it that our young people, and their children, and their childrens children, would likely have to deal with the fallout from all of this for their entire lives?

What can one say about a society which sees nothing wrong in forcing children to stay at home for months?

The blitheness with which these issues have been treated over the past two years puts one in mind of Edmund Burkes famous warning, that the possessors of a commonwealth, unmindful of what they have received from their ancestors, or of what is due to their posterity, might commit waste on the inheritance of the young. Apart from being bad in itself (passing on societys wealth to the young is one of the most important duties of adults), this would have the even worse effect of teaching the younger generations the same bad habits, to the ultimate ruination of the commonwealth itself.

Burkes warning has been ignored for decades, but the experience of lockdown confirmed its horrible predictive power it is bad enough that we spend 60 billion a year (that could be spent, for example, on education) merely on servicing debt, and that inflation will soon approach 10 per cent (meaning that savers will lose a tenth of the value of their childrens inheritance in a single year). But what is truly terrifying is that most of the adult population of the country do not seem to care, and certainly have no interest in teaching to children the message that the nations wealth is a valuable inheritance that they are to steward, and pass on to their own children in turn.

And thats just the economic side of life: what can one say about a society which sees nothing wrong in forcing children to stay at home for months, without meeting or playing with other children, and inflicting great mental harm as a result merely to make adults feel safe? It is a society shorn of loyalty to anything larger or longer-lasting than the immediate physical existence of its members; a society comprised of individuals in the truest sense, thinking only of their own health and in signalling their own virtue in purportedly protecting others.

A healthy society would have considered the wider ramifications of such a lockdown

This overriding sense of nihilism that nothing matters after ones own bare life is over, and certainly not the future of our children cannot of course be attributed to lockdowns themselves. The response to Covid is a symptom of a profound malaise.

Burke aptly described the inhabitants of his ruined commonwealth as little better than the flies of a summer leading meaningless, acultural, disconnected and atomised lives, with no interest in what came before them or what was going to follow, and no loyalty to lasting values or the notion of a culture passed down from one generation to the next. The fact that so few people saw fit to think through the consequences of all of this for future generations indicates how far along the path to fly-like lives so many of us have gone, and how difficult it will be to reverse course.

I do not claim to know what the best government response to the pandemic would have been. Reasonable people can disagree about this measure or that. But a healthy society would have considered the wider ramifications of the vast expenditure and social disruption that lockdowns and associated restrictions caused, and the impact on the young. It would have considered the consequences for our societys future, and not merely the immediate preservation of the health of adults. The fact that it didnt, and still wont (the Covid inquiry will apparently have little or nothing specific to say about the effect of lockdowns on children) speaks of a deep sickness in our social foundations and it will take a lot more to recover from that disease than will the path back to normality from Covid.

This piece first appeared in The Daily Sceptic.

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The stupidity of lockdown revealed society's nihilism | David McGrogan - The Critic

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Aries season started on March 20. For those who didnt receive it in last weeks horoscope, happy birth season!

Its Aries season! Finally, a fire sign has a prominent place in the sky again. Its perfectly timed with the weather warming back up. Dont be intimidated by this shift; not much has truly changed, and any fears will only be magnified if you let yourself be devoured by the flames of newness.

Happy birth season! Let some sunshine into your life through means of celebration. Even if youre already a party animal, you likely want to throw a bash even harder than usual due to the seasons changing. If youd rather stay in and celebrate life quietly, that is perfectly valid as well. Dont let anyone convince you that youre not worthy of having fun.

Practice independence. Your loved ones are happy to be anchors for you, but it shouldnt become an expectation for them to always uplift or soothe you. These are skills anyone can utilize on themselves, and it may prove beneficial for you to learn how to be your own hype man for those moments when others cant.

Stop jumping the gun. It takes a lot in you to hold back when youre waiting for something, but learning how to be patient and accept this waiting period can lead to more fruitful results once you are able to let loose. Dont worry about missing your opportunities; your powerful intuition wont let you miss out.

How are you enriching yourself? Your life may have fallen into a series of boring patterns lately. Ask yourself how youre staying motivated, whether your classes are pushing you enough, whether your friend group is a help or a hindrance. This introspection should at least be momentarily entertaining, and at most, inspiring.

Confront the naysayers. Despite being called the most vain or self-centered sign, you are hyper aware of when the attention you receive is in bad faith. Keep advocating for yourself, especially when its difficult. If people try to rag on decisions youve made, let them know its not their place to think for you. Because, truthfully, its not!

There is no magical fix-it spell. You have a tendency to be hard on yourself, and you likely believe youre doing things wrong. Heres a secret: nobody actually knows how to be perfect. Most of the time, people just get lucky. And what is luck but a cosmic coincidence? Find optimism in nihilism it would certainly fit your brand.

Adjust your mindset when necessary. How your stubbornness manifests is through your indecisiveness, which can make you appear difficult to work with. Dont change yourself completely because of this, but know when its time to put your foot down and be serious. Avoidance will only create problems later.

Do you set arbitrary boundaries for yourself? Perhaps you believe that once you complete so many tasks, then youll deserve a reward. Perhaps this is true; however, the way you choose to discipline yourself could be limiting your happiness. Dont avoid the pleasure of having or doing something just because you believe you shouldnt.

Dont compare yourself to others. Everyone has a different set of struggles as well as varying capabilities to carry them. Even if you think other people have it worse, you are still allowed to have it bad! Everybodys journey is different and incomparable to anyone elses. Remind yourself of this throughout the week.

Lost momentum is not equivalent to failure. Lately, you may have been putting in more effort to express yourself and reach out to others. Perhaps, though, something recently changed and those efforts feel lost. Feeling distraught that youve lost the wind in your sails means that youve experienced the wind before. Reroute and find it again.

Be ready for anything. Venus and Mars are currently in Aquarius, meaning you are more likely to feel their effects. You may feel more creative, sensual, caring, but also more intense, controlling, claustrophobic. The energy this week could be vicious, but it might not. Youll just have to be brave and find out for yourself.

Reassess your goals. While Mercury is still hanging out in your sign, take the time to think about your future. This is especially encouraged now that the astrological calendar has moved back into bright-eyed, bushy-tailed Aries territory. Are your aspirations still realistic? Rework your ambitions just in case life throws you for a loop later.

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Weekly horoscopes: March 23 - March 29 - Northern Star Online

How I Met Your Fatherhit American screens on January 18, 2022. A Hulu exclusive, the show always had a tough act to follow. How I Met Your Mother was one of the most beloved sitcoms of the noughties and early-10s. Predictably, this new spin-off was subject to high expectations and a wee bit of skepticism (despite Barney Stinsons famous assertion, new isnt always better. Certainly so when it comes to series reboots and spin-offs).

And thus, when HIMYF aired earlier in the year, reviews weremixed. Critics shrugged their shoulders ineffectually at the series, it was okay, but it pretty much retreads the ground of HIMYM. Hillary Duff and co. were likable enough, and the new gangs hijinks were chuckle-worthy. But the question remained what new material did How I Met Your Father offer the world? The answer, in many critics summation, is none.

And, in their defense, theyre right in their reviews about HIMYF. The episodes released thus far have shown a loyal faithfulness to its predecessors formula. Many quirky, mismatched characters have adventures in New York nightclubs, laughing amongst a barrage of cutaway gags and pop culture references. And also, much like its predecessor, the series maintains a steady diet of heart underneath its zaniness. Much like Ted was the emotional center of HIMYM, Duffs Ted-genderswap, Sophie plays the same role for her series. And its for the reasons mentioned that despite its downfalls, How I Met Your Fatheracts as a fitting antidote to modern-day nihilism in TV and society.

Funnily enough, despite accusations in reviews that HIMYF lacks originality, it appears incrediblydistinctive now, given the current slate of telly. From the emotional abuse of Succession to the comic-relief-turned-Greek-tragedy of Better Call Saul, modern television seemingly reflects the nihilistic hearts and minds of the Western world. Now, by no means is this is a criticism of said shows. In fact, these shows are very well-written and explore the dark side of humanity in complex and compelling ways. There is always room for shows like these.

That said, in a world bewitched by COVID-19 and country invasions and wars, there is also room for fantasy. This is where light-hearted shows likeHow I Met Your Fathercome in. HIMYF is the televised comfort food you can consume while lying on the couch. It shows us a diverse cast of different backgrounds coming together, getting along and having fun adventures, and learning hard lessons about love all the while. The cast, as mentioned above, all have their quirks and are like a family you can return to watching every week.

Indeed, the cast of How I Met Your Father is very charming. The golden spoon-fed fish-out-of-water Brit, Charlie, is pure fun, his struggle to adapt to lower-class New York life often a reliable source of comedy. Likewise, Jesse, who appears to be HIMYFs Robin, is a handsome and endearing music teacher who is a widespread internet meme after his ex-girlfriend turns down his proposal on a YouTube video. And then we have Hillary Duffs Sophie, the character who lives inside all of us a photographer searching for the one. And although Sophie has her own quirks (i.e., Trains Drops of Jupiterbeing her comfort song for all situations), she also has depth. She is the daughter of a single mother who often had to big sister her mother.

This is just the tip of HIMYFs iceberg. However, it affirms my point. The show maintains a delightfully relatable cast (who also prove a good laugh) for millennial and Gen Z viewers that light up an otherwise grim real-life.

One of the elements HIMYF borrows from its predecessor is its unrelenting optimism. While How I Met Your Mother was often compared to Friends during its initial run, it did have something its inspiration didnt. It had the series-long mystery of the titular Mothers identity. The show revolved around Teds journey to the Norman Rockefeller-picket fence dream of starting a family. Now, HIMYF does this via Sophie.

Sophies faith that she will meet the one despite her hang-ups is unshakeable. And whats more, shes blessed with the support of her friendship group. Even Jesse, who acts as the series will they-wont they love interest, shows a great deal of empathy towards Sophies plight, especially in Episode 3s coda. After all, Jesse himself has been heart-broken before and possesses the same goal love-wise. He gives Sophie the contact deets for the Vice Principal of the school where he works after realizing they hit it off. Hes a good guy deep down.

But the shows focus on young people finding love isnt the only way it challenges our everyday nihilism. The pilot itself clarifies that the show is a celebration of what makes NYC beautiful. Although admittedly cheesy, Sophies best friend, Valentina, has a deep affection for the city she calls home. So much so she is anxious to get her outsider-boyfriend Charlie to see it. More importantly, HIMYF wants us to see it. And, to some degree, it succeeds.

Alicia Keys once sang that NYC is the concrete jungle that dreams are made of. And, if anythings inevitable, then its that HIMYFagrees. And its not merely via the pilots ending bridge scene, where the citys lights shine in the background, that this is made apparent. Instead, its through every detail in the show.

In Episode 3, for example, a running gag has a strange man called Frank ask various characters to open wide. Much to Charlies detriment, he learned this isnt a wise request to indulge. Because once the unwitting subway-rider opens their mouth, Frank randomly prods their tongue and gums. And yet, as absurd as this sounds, the show plays this for laughs and depicts the seemingly-homeless Frank as one of the many vibrant and characteristic colors in New Yorks diverse color palette.

Indeed, the magic of NYC is subtly promoted via its cast alone. This is a show that has the Caucasian Jesse have an adopted Asian sister, Ellen, who is a lesbian. This is also the show with Jesses roommate and best friend, Sid, of Indian descent, who runs a bar. The message here being? No matter who you are, NYC has a place for you. Lady Liberty is seldom seen in this show, but her message is written all over Season 1. Undoubtedly, itll continue to shine in Season 2.

Now, as its reviews indicate, by no means is HIMYFa perfect show. Theres plenty to criticize. Since the show employs the same hook as its predecessor (who is the protagonists soulmate?), it feels less compelling. That is, after all, what made How I Met Your Mother unique, despite its similarity to Friends. It made the show feel like it had a purpose and direction, even despite its weekly over-the-top comedy hijinks. It proved that single-camera sitcoms could let loose the laughter while keeping things meaningful and sincere with profound meditations on love.

At this point, How I Met Your Father is still finding its voice. Its trying some new things (this time, for example, the elder protagonist, played by Kim Cattrall, is obvious, unlike future Ted from HIMYM). But ultimately, it still rests on the laurels of the original show. It is a hopeful message, and endearing characters are a welcome escape from the nihilism and despair of modern-day television and film. And, if the writers can shake things up going forward, then long may it continue.

Do you agree with the mixed reviews of HIMYF? What is your favorite character in the show?

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Why How I Met Your Father Is The Show We Need Now - The Nerd Stash

Everything Everywhere All At Once is a mess.Its a chaotic and warped film, but isnt that how life is, too? A24s latest film, starring Michelle Yeoh, is A LOT to take in. But, the meaning behind all the disorder is what makes it the most stunning and brilliant film so far this year. Just like in life, once you embrace the chaos, youll find the true beauty in the story of family, the choices we make in our lives, and embracing what we have.

Directed by The Daniels, a.k.a. Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once tells the story of Evelyn Wang (Yeoh), who is seemingly miserable with her life. She runs a failing laundromat with her kind husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) and they are in a loveless marriage. Evelyn also takes care of her ungrateful father (James Hong). And shes estranged from her daughter, Joy (Stephanie Hsu), who yearns for her family to accept her longtime girlfriend.

Evelyn comes off as unhappy, rude, and pushy. But its only because she tries to keep everything and everyone afloat. She ultimately ends up disappointing everyone, including herself. On the way to visit their IRS auditor (Jamie Lee Curtis), another universes version of Waymond takes over his consciousness. The alternate version tells Evelyn of the multiverse that exists. It is up to this version of Evelyn to defeat the evil entity known as Jobu Tobacky, who is hellbent on destroying the multiverse.

Evelyn uses an earpiece to jump the multiple subconsciousness of Evelyns from other universes. This universe hopping allows her to acquire their special skills, including martial arts, sign flipping, and culinary knife skills. But, this only happens after performing a weird act like blowing into someones nose or eating a stick of Chapstick. These different universes are not just extreme versions of Evelyn. Viewers also glimpses into her life if she had made other choices. These include never marrying Waymond or becoming blind as a child.

The pacing of the film is intentionally swift, adding more absurdities as the movie continues. But there is always a purpose. There is a rich and deep story within the ridiculousness of it all that makes one laugh, scream hysterically, cry, and question what matters most in life. Adding a Chinese American family provides some specific nuances to generational pressure and burden. However, its not necessarily the main focus. The true appeal of the story is the concept of nihilism vs stoicism. And, despite the choices weve made, how we can find meaning and purpose in them.

Yeoh is finally given a role that extends her acting past the beautiful and elegant icon shes most known for. Her performance contains so many layers from being neurotic and clueless at times to the compassionate and serious Yeoh weve seen many times. The glamorous star even gets to do some unexpected slapstick humor. Yeoh never misses a beat during the mayhem, which is necessary for the story to flow.

Quan is equally impressive as Waymond. There are so many subtexts to Quans performance that touches on perceptions of Asian actors, particularly Asian men, and their roles. He is given a fully fleshed out character who is initially perceived as meek and battered by his dominating wife, but is truly the heart of the film. The multiverse of Waymond contains a range from a quiet, kind man to a martial arts master with an exciting and mind-blowing fight scene. He also gets to look like the suave leading man in a Wong Kar-Wai film. Hsu is a star in the making with her performance as Joy. The way her character feels the brunt of her mothers disappointment and carries this guilt and burden is all too relatable.

The Daniels are known for their frenzied music videos, including the iconic Turn Down For What by DJ Snake and Lil John. Together, they utilize their skills of excessiveness to create this spectacular multiverse that feels ludicrous but makes complete sense. At times, the lunacy does feel like overkill; however, there are enough emotional pauses and moments of levity that keeps the story grounded. There is just so much metaphorical depth to the film that stays with you even after the credits roll.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is an existential story about the meaning of life and the choices we make. And, through its endless possibilities, this film reminds us that we only have this one life. The title fits the narrative perfectly and is reflective of how life really is: chaotic, complex, and cannot be fully explained, but felt.

Everything Everywhere All At Once is available in theaters nationwide on March 25, 2022.

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EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Reflects Lifes Beautiful Chaos - Nerdist

William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth," believed to be first performed around 1606, is a play about a weak-willed thane in Scotland and his ambitious wife who take advantage of a rare opportunity to commit regicide and usurp the throne. Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth are then karmically, legally, and capitally punished for their crime, realizing a deep nihilism about the world on the way down. It has been adapted to film several hundred times throughout the history of cinema, the most recent high-profile production being Joel Coen's "The Tragedy of Macbeth," released in 2021, and currently nominated for three Academy Awards, including Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Actor.

That actor is Denzel Washington, one of the finest film actors of his generation. In this new version of "Macbeth," shot in a dazzling black and white, and featuring a fraught, funeral-on-caffeine tone, Washington played the title character not like a panic-stricken cautionary tale, but a sad sack, who only realizes the weakness of his will after it's far too late. This is against type for Washington, who more typically plays characters who are resolute and often are men of action. As Macbeth, Washington took advantage of a rare opportunity to watch another director at work in order usurp some ideas of his own.

In a recent interview with Collider, Washington confessed to as much, admitting that he was tempted to put on his directors hat Washington has directed four feature films to date: "Antwone Fisher," "The Great Debaters," "Fences," and "A Journal for Jordan" and grill Coen about his thought processes as a director.

In addition to being a fan of Joel Coen, Washington reveals that he is an analytical film viewer as well. Working with Coen was essentially an interview opportunity for him, and let him not just take direction, but also discuss technique. In an interview with Collider, Washington shared that he was intrigued by Coen's creative process, eager to see what he could "steal."

Often, fans spend more time analyzing a work of art than the artist ever did, making for an amusing, eternal conflict between the creator and their audience. Judging by Washington's words, by the time shooting was taking place, Coen had already laid the creative groundwork and had permitted himself to improvise smaller details.

Washington was also impressed by the creative idea-sharing sessions that Coen would set up for the cast and crew. In order to communicate the mood and visuals and tone he wanted for the film, Coen would bring the cast and crew into a room full of photographs and art (many production designers are familiar with this process), and fill their brains with a collage of Shakespearean imagery. Washington was so intrigued and enamored of certain photographs that he had to ask Coen and others about their origin or meaning:

Washington is currently producing "The Piano Lesson," the third feature film he's been involved with that is based on a play by Tony-winning playwright August Wilson, which follows "Fences" and "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Ten of Wilson's plays are part of what is commonly called the August Wilson Century Cycle, and Washington is determined to make film versions of all ten. Audiences may want to keep an eye out for any "Tragedy of Macbeth" influences on his next directorial project.

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Denzel Washington Did More Than Act On The Tragedy Of Macbeth Set - /Film

Marking his triumphant return to horror after a decade,Ti WestsXis shocking and awing audiences out of SXSW. The film takes place in 1979 when a group of amateur filmmakers set out to make a porno in rural Texas. But, when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast soon finds themselves in a desperate fight for their lives. Dread Centrals Drew Tinnin said of the film in hisreview:

Xtakes your expectations, immediately subverts them, then delivers an explosive release of that tension. With films under his belt like the criminally underratedThe Innkeepers, Ti West is becoming one of the only directors since John Landis thats capable of crafting a true horror comedy.

West is a modern horror master, responsible for contemporary horror classics like The House of the Devil and The Sacrament. We were lucky enough to sit down withWest to talk about avoiding nihilism in X, creating a charming slasher, and more!

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X Director Ti West Talks Flipping the Slasher Script In His Return to the Genre [Watch] - Dread Central

Ke Huy Quan swung that damn fanny pack everywhere. It hung from an unusually long strap, and for weeks Quan swung it in the kitchen, he swung it while watching TV, he swung it all over the house. I broke so many things, he says, laughing. My wife was not too happy about it. But Quan was determined to master his technique because that fanny pack plays the weapon in his big action scene in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Up to that point in the story, the film has mostly been a domestic drama, and Quans character, Waymond Wang, a meek, soft-voiced husband, father, and laundromat owner. When things suddenly go haywire, he tears off the fanny pack hes been wearing and whips it around with breathtaking expertise, using it in the style of a wushu rope dart to subdue a group of IRS security goons.

Everything Everywhere turns out to be a deeply emotional, multiverse-hopping sci-fi action-fantasy about life, family, culture clashes, and the cosmos. Its the second feature directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, who work together under the moniker Daniels, and as it proceeds, Quans performance explodes into different personae, all of whom frantically circle around Waymonds wife, Evelyn (Michelle Yeoh), a harried Chinese immigrant who has just discovered she may be the only being powerful enough to prevent the forces of nihilism from destroying all of existence. Evelyn is the protagonist, but Waymond is in many ways the films heart and the first time he appears onscreen, you may realize youve seen Quan before. He looks a little older, a little wearier, but his face is seared into the brain of anyone who grew up in the 1980s: When he was 12 years old, Quan scored a lead role in one of the biggest movies of the decade, playing the wisecracking street-urchin sidekick Short Round in Steven Spielbergs Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Quan as Short Round. Photo: MARKA/Alamy Stock Photo

While the film was a huge hit in 1984, it was also controversial, criticized for its gore and its outdated, exotic-cultures-of-Asia story line. Still, kids loved Short Round. We wanted to be Short Round, the only child lead in a series we worshipped. A year later, Quan played the boy inventor and intrepid adventurer Data in another Spielberg-produced blockbuster, The Goonies. The friend group I had in middle school was obsessed with The Goonies we would watch it every week. I was the Asian kid of the group, so whenever we would go out and play pretend, the mantle of playing Data was put on my shoulders, says Kwan. And I loved it. That character is so smart and so brave and so weird. We didnt have many great role models.

But then Ke Huy Quan grew up. It didnt take long to discover that Hollywood roles for Asian men were few and far between. He did a few films in Asia. He left acting behind and went to film school, then started working behind the scenes. Decades passed. Not until Quan saw the success of Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 did he allow himself to think about performing again. I was happy working behind the camera, but this entire time something felt missing, he says. When those opportunities dried up, I spent a long time trying to convince myself that I didnt like acting anymore. I didnt want to step away with the feeling that it was because there were no opportunities. I was lying to myself.

He hired a new agent, and within just a couple of weeks he wound up with the script for Everything Everywhere. He stayed up all night reading it, waking his wife with shrieks of laughter: I had tears running down my cheeks. I said, I think this role was written for me!

It wasnt but the Daniels became taken with the idea of reviving Quans acting career. The hardest thing about finding this role was that it required a lot of different skill sets, says Kwan. He had to be able to speak Cantonese, Mandarin, English. He had to know martial arts. But he also had to be an incredibly believable sappy pushover. The directors imagined someone like Jackie Chan, who can serve as sweet comic relief one minute and perform dazzling feats of heroism the next. One day, on Twitter, I saw a picture of Ke Quan as Short Round, says Kwan. My brain was like, What is that guy doing right now?

I meet Quan, now 50, on a chilly, windswept day in Los Angeless Chinatown. Hes chatty and energetic as he shows me around this neighborhood, where his family including his mother, father, and eight siblings settled after arriving in the U.S. as refugees from Vietnam in 1979, when Ke was 8. The family, which has roots in Hong Kong and mainland China, tried to get out of Saigon twice. They succeeded by splitting up: Kes mother and three of the kids went to Malaysia. Ke, his father, and the rest of Kes siblings boarded a boat with thousands of other people; it was among the largest vessels involved in what was known as the Boat People crisis of the late 1970s and early 80s. They landed in a Hong Kong refugee camp.

It wasnt very big. We had a chain-link fence around the building, and it was just makeshift beds right next to each other, Quan says. There were guards to make sure we wouldnt get out. He pauses. I dont think Ive spoken about this stuff in 30 or 40 years. I knew that it was tough. I knew that was not my home. I knew we left a home behind. I knew I missed my brother. I missed my mom. They were stuck there for a year. He remembers the elation of getting U.S. visas and flying to L.A., where the family was reunited. It was the first and most important plane ride of Kes life.

We make our way to the historic Chinatown public school Castelar Elementary, where Spielbergs casting director, Mike Fenton, discovered Ke in 1983. The Temple of Doom team was desperate, searching all over the world Hong Kong, Singapore, London, New York to find the right child to play Short Round. But, strangely enough, they had not tried L.A. Kes younger brother David tried out for the part first. Ke had to wait while David auditioned, and he couldnt resist coaching his brother: I didnt know what the hell was going on. I was like, Hey, David, do this, do that! Fenton asked Ke if he would like to try out too; the first time he auditioned, his mother made him wear a three-piece suit with a little gold chain hanging off the pocket, he remembers, chuckling. Id never seen Star Wars. Id never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark. I walked in the room, and it was just three grown men with a beard and a mustache. They were Spielberg, George Lucas, and Harrison Ford. Three weeks later, Ke and his mother were on a plane to Sri Lanka.

A few other parts followed: The Goonies; one season of the sitcom Together We Stand, in which Ke played the adopted son of Elliott Gould and Dee Wallace; a season and a half as a transfer student on the high-school sitcom Head of the Class. Soon, though, the work dropped off. Quan remembers hanging out with other young actors at parties and feeling embarrassed hearing them talk about all the auditions they were going to. Yeah, this week I just have three auditions. I got five next week! And Im thinking, Man, the last audition I had was six months ago.

But he continued to fight literally. Quan loved Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung movies growing up, and hed been training with a Tae Kwon Do master ever since he started learning the martial art on the set of Temple of Doom. He leads me to an abandoned shopping center once called Bamboo Plaza, where we sit on some benches in an atrium surrounded by pigeons and long-shuttered businesses. He points to an empty storefront where one of his sisters used to have a travel agency. One day in 1998, he visited her while Lethal Weapon 4 was shooting in the mall. Behind the camera was his old Goonies director, Richard Donner. He also ran into Lethal Weapon 4s action director, Corey Yuen, whom hed met before. Quan was then studying film at the University of Southern California, and he told Yuen he would graduate in a year; one year later, Yuen called and asked if Quan could fly to Toronto on short notice to help with the fight sequences in a new film. It was X-Men. He taught me everything that goes into choreographing a fight sequence: how to shoot it, how to edit it, Quan says. It was one of the best times in my life.

He spent the next decade or so working on productions in the U.S., Hong Kong, and elsewhere, mostly as an assistant fight choreographer and assistant director. He learned the difference between how Hollywood and Hong Kong crews do action scenes: The former tends to plan everything in advance, while the latter choreograph as they go, making scenes look fresher, more spontaneous, and creative. As the assistant director on Wong Kar-wais 2046, he watched as Wong spent a whole day focused on one elaborate tracking shot, adding takes and tweaks long after everyone else agreed it was perfect. Quan brought the all-hands-on-deck attitude of Hong Kong shoots to his work on Everything Everywhere and some of the traditions too. Scheinert and Kwan (who compare Quan to a fun uncle who loves to party) say the actor insisted on getting a suckling pig for the first day of production; every time an actor shot a scene in which they had to die, Quan made sure they received a hongbao, a red envelope with money in it.

Quan and Michelle Yeoh as Waymond and Evelyn Wang.

For all his enthusiasm, Quan still carried the bruises from his last experiences acting in Hollywood. This was only Quans second acting gig in nearly 20 years. (The other was a 2021 Netflix film, Finding Ohana.) Even when he got the part of Waymond, he didnt tell anybody but his wife, his agent, and his entertainment attorney Jeff Cohen, who also happened to play Chunk in The Goonies because he was worried hed be fired a week into shooting. He couldnt believe he would be working alongside actors like Yeoh, whom he describes as the freaking queen of martial-arts movies. He became obsessed with getting everything right, working with a number of trainers and coaches to master Waymonds fighting skills and the vocal inflections and movements of his various iterations. If you look at the movie, theres a lot of whiplash moments where that character has to go from being like a dopey, wimpy emotional wreck to a straight-faced alpha male, Kwan explains. But we didnt have to resort to cutting or anything too overdramatic. It was all in his performance.

The picture bears the hallmarks of Quans many lives: Hong Kong action (the kind Yuen helped pioneer), melancholy lyricism (as perfected by Wong), and sci-fi fantasy that builds toward cathartic, unifying uplift (which one might call pulling a Spielberg). The film also channels something deeper, a sense of stifled potential unlocked. A few days after we speak, Quan will start shooting the new streaming series American Born Chinese alongside his Everything Everywhere co-star Yeoh, Daniel Wu, and Chin Han. Hes surprised to be a working actor again; he is relieved that he stayed the course. I dont think I could have played Waymond had this been ten or 15 years ago, Quan says. I needed all that life experience to give me the nuance and the depth to give me the different versions of him.

Want more stories like this one?Subscribe nowto support our journalism and get unlimited access to our coverage. If you prefer to read in print, you can also find this article in the March 14, 2022, issue ofNew YorkMagazine.

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Ke Huy Quan on 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' - Vulture