Originally slated for release in 2019, Craig Zobel's The Hunt came under fire on conservative media for its story of liberals kidnapping Trump supporters and hunting them for sport.

The film eventually even caught the attention of President Trump himself, who issued a condemnation of the film from his Twitter account, causing a controversy that eventually led to the film being pulled from the schedule altogether.

Now the film has finally found its way into theaters, using the controversy as its main marketing draw, and to the surprise of no one who actually watched the trailer rather than just listening to the president's unhinged rambling on social media, The Hunt is more of a satire of liberals than it is of conservatives, casting the "liberal elites" as the villains and the hunted "deplorables" as the heroes on the run.

It's not hard to see that Zobel is going for some sort of "both sides" condemnation of our polarized electorate, casting the Trump supporters as wild-eyed conspiracy theorists whose worst fears have come true, and the wealthy liberals who hunt them as privileged elitists whose disdain for other side has lead them into an insular world of fake news just as bad as what they claim to be against.

The problem is that its satire is so broad, so blunt, and so misguided that absolutely nothing works. This is a film in which a villain, tasked with posing as an American ambassador, actually carries a box labeled "bribe money," which he uses to pay off foreign military agents. Subtle and clever this film is not.

The idea is that an innocent text message exchanged among friends who run a powerful multinational corporation leak to the press, leading fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists to concoct a wild story about "liberal elites" hunting conservatives for sport at a manor house in Vermont. They call the theory "Manorgate," and it spreads like wildfire on conservative media.

After losing their jobs in order for the company to save face, the liberals actually decide to hunt conservatives at a manor overseas for revenge, getting back at those who brought them down by making the conspiracy theory come to life.

This plan backfires spectacularly when they accidentally kidnap the wrong woman, mistaking Crystal (Betty Gilpin), a special ops veteran who served in Afghanistan, for another woman of the same name who made disparaging remarks about ringleader, Athena (Hilary Swank) on Twitter. Lots of blood, guts, and gore are splattered across the screen as Crystal calmly wreaks vengeance on the people trying to kill her, determined to get back home at all costs.

Gilpin turns in a strong performance; her laid back demeanor and Mississippi drawl seemingly at odds with the over-the-top decadence around her, but the film itself is one of the worst pieces of garbage to clog up multiplexes in recent memory. Zobel's brand of satire is messy and obvious, taking a kind of "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to see what lands, and very little, if anything, actually does.

The depiction of the liberals in the film is straight out of the Fox News "latte-sipping liberal" stereotype playbook, coming across as the kind of caricature that someone who thinks "did you just assume my gender" is the height of humor would come up with. The conservatives are likewise broadly drawn, shown as racist, gay-hating, gun-toting hicks that are everything the people trying to kill them think they are. For a film that seems to be pleading for understanding, its utter condescension toward everyone in the film consistently undercuts its message.

No one wins here and everyone is terrible, and that kind of nihilism not only makes The Hunt an unpleasant watch, it also seems to suggest that everyone is just as terrible as the other side believes. It doesn't seem to actually understand where anyone in this film is coming from. One of the liberals actually refers to one of her partners as "comrade," as if a bunch of wealthy white liberals would actually co-opt the language of Marxism.

This kind of utter lack of understanding of who it's depicting and why results in a film that has no idea what it's trying to say, but it's saying it loudly and constantly - proudly ignorant, arrogantly self-assured, with nothing to back itself up; just like the people its attempting to lampoon. The Hunt is reprehensible trash, neither as edgy or as smart as it thinks it is, offering up little more than empty shock value with nothing the least but constructive or interesting to say. This one's not worth risking the spread of coronavirus stay home and avoid this film like the plague.

Matthew Lucas, a former Davidson County resident, is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and the North Carolina Film Critics Association. He now resides in Boone and has a blog where he posts regular movie reviews and commentary at http://www.fromthefrontrow.net.

Link:

Stay home and Avoid The Hunt - Lexington Dispatch

Alex is a 22-year-old social media manager for a startup. Six months ago, while standing in a crowded No. 3 express train on the way to work, he had a panic attack.

I was staring at my phone, trying to simultaneously respond to a Slack message from my boss but also scrolling through Instagram and texting a friend when I thought I was going to die, says Alex (who didnt wish to use his last name because he doesnt want to be known as the depressed guy at work). I literally thought I was being crushed under what felt like a mountain of work, overwhelmed, and messages were coming at me from everywhere, and I just wanted to die.

Its a common feeling for Becky, a 20-year-old college student. Im anxious all the time, she says. What about? Being in school. Feeling pressure to have a social life. Politics. My friend is studying abroad in Spain and I read a story on Twitter about someone who got their kidney stolen in Spain. The coronavirus. Everyone I know has cancer.

The young are more anxious than ever. Young people and for that matter, old people everyone is anxious. Everyone has too much to do. The U.S. is the most overworked nation in the world.

But the specific strains of depression, anxiety and nihilism are unique to Generation Z, the cohort born between 1996 and 2016, many of whom are now graduating college and entering the workforce for the first time. It even shows up on TikTok, that platform favored by the youth, where a new genre of videos are about making yourself feel better: I woke up depressed, heres what I did, is a popular class of content. Its used as a way to bond with others on the same medication: Yo, where my Citalopram girls at? asked juliakempner08 in one video.

Studies show that depression, anxiety and thoughts of suicide are increasingly more common in this cohort than ones before. A 2019 study showed undergraduate students of the Gen Z cohort had double the rates of those issues than others.

There is of course the argument that this generation is more likely to be open about mental health issues than others, meaning that everyones always been anxious, they just talk more about it. But it doesnt account for, argues Psychology Today, the increased suicide rates.

Greg Lukianoff is the co-author, with Jonathan Haidt of The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure. There has been a dramatic surge in anxiety, and depression among young people over the last 10 years versus the 15 before that. Because of changes in medical trends and cultural taboos, its hard to compare depression and anxiety reports from much earlier than that meaningfully. To the extent teen suicide rates are a proxy for teen distress, we do know that the suicide rates for older teens peaked in 1991, and were very near those peaks now, he says.

An exclusive, inside look at whats actually happening in the video industry, including original reporting, analysis of important stories and interviews with interesting executives and other newsmakers.

For Lukianoff (and Haidt) the big factor is tech and the preponderance of social media, which he says takes high school-style bullying into the real world and beyond. When I tell people to imagine the worst of junior high school 24 hours a day forever, it rightfully gives people a shudder.

After his panic attack, Alex the social media manager went to his mom, who took him to a therapist, and was diagnosed with depression. He was prescribed medication, and has since taken to 30 minutes of meditation a day. Hes also perhaps most importantly gone off all (personal) social media. Its ironic since my entire existence depends on it, but I had to. A whole group of us have.

Its what Lukianoff has observed as well: Social media allows people to gather together in like-minded groups, and this includes people who are more depressed or anxious finding each other. Research into real-world social groups shows that depression can spread among people in a social relationship; if much of the peer group is anxious and depressed, you are more likely to be, as well.

Plus, it creates feelings of FOMO, stress and therefore, sadness. Becky says she spends much of her time at night refreshing. I refresh and see what other people are doing. Its a way of checking in. Do I look as good? Whats she wearing? Can I afford it? How does she have friends?

Jessica, a 20-year-old student at Pace University says she hears about people counting posts. I havent posted in two months. Do people think Ive done nothing?

There are a few historical shadows under which millennials grew up that have little to no significance for Gen Z, also contributing, potentially to a different way of looking at the world. Most millennials were young children during the 9/11 terror attacks. Millennials came of age, and many entered the workforce, during a recession. They helped elect the first black president in history. Technological evolution was fast and rollicky during their adolescence and young adulthood.

For Gen Z, all of that is table stakes. Most havent known an America that isnt at war, and they unlike every generation before them, were born into, almost, a social media age.

Sunny, a 22-year-old employee in corporate finance, says it started for her in college as well, where her peer group sat around burnishing their LinkedIn profiles. Social media, she says, feels like a constant status update how high is your status?

And it continues on into the workforce as well. I would say my anxiety has changed, she says. The college anxiety was about academia. College had a blank dream of a job I was chasing. Now I want a dream career. There is a lot of pressure of constant next steps. Ive been working for like a month, but Im already thinking of what happens next. Its nonstop. Sometimes I cant breathe.

Original post:

The saddest generation: Why Gen Z is the most anxious generation ever - Digiday

The fear is looming

When the disease was in China, it felt like it was far away. Now that it is in our neighbourhood, its seeming too close for comfort. We have begun to catastrophise within the darkness of uncertainty. We are feeling helpless, clueless, and powerless. And this is driving us to nihilism. Some of us are thinking about whether

- we will succumb to this virus

- well have access to a vaccine

- well be alive to see the end of this

- our jobs are safe anymore

- stock markets will ever stabilise

What the present is looking like

Our worry is not limited to our own health. Its extended to fretting over the health of parents, grandparents and children. A lot of us dont know how to entertain our kids during this extended school break. Or what we should do with so much spare time working from home. Were stocking up more food and supplies than our houses can accommodate. Were glued to social media, and obsessed with forwarding information without assuring its legitimacy. Memes and jokes are taking up more of our time than ever before. Anxiety is rippling through the ocean of humanity. The earth is quaking with uncertainty. What might become of us after this?

A dark future?

Natural as well as man-made disasters have the propensity to generate chaos, and render human beings powerless. There are bound to be immediate consequences like sadness and apprehension over the loss of loved ones, health, jobs, money, and security in general. Those with inadequate coping defenses resort to alcohol, nicotine, cannabis and other substances of abuse to help combat angst. However, in the longer term this lengthens psychological turmoil, resulting in more permanent depression and anxiety. Lower income individuals sense more stress because social distancing impacts their jobs and daily wages notably. Were already seeing unrest and vandalism in some countries over securing food and housing supplies. An incessant fear of the unknown can convert us all into nervous, guarded, and mistrusting human beings. And those already battling anxiety and depression stand greater tendency for catastrophic panic. Prolonged stress dilutes immunity further. If we dont contain the anxiety pandemic rightly, we might see a physically weaker human race, purely attributable to our psychological shortcomings.

There is hope

Countries are realising the need to strengthen healthcare systems and replenish health budgets. Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore governments adopted stringent measures for containing the disease, people obeyed; and saw positive results. Self-quarantine in Italy drove residents to unanimously sing together every evening from windows of their apartments an orchestra of a hundred homes altogether. In many cities, people are offering free babysitting, tuition classes, art lessons online, pick up and drop services for kids where needed; as well as food delivery for vulnerable older adults.

In spite of all the darkness, history has proven that some good always comes from the bad; that humans cognise, devise and improvise with time. The biggest yet simplest lesson humanity can learn, is that prevention is better than cure. And that we can take simple steps now, and in the future, to avoid the spread of any and many diseases. That cleanliness is important every day. And kindness doesnt need a time table. That children learn from observation how to relax in times of crisis and not go into a state of frenzy. And its good to spend time at home in general, not just during a pandemic.

Read more:

Coronavirus: What will become of the world? - Free Press Journal

On March 11, a pandemic was declared. On March 13, R.E.M.'s 1987 single, "It's the End of the World as we Know It (And I Feel Fine)," returned to the charts. As the outbreak spreads, so doesthe song's renewed ubiquity. It re-entered the iTunes Top 100 chart at No. 65 and as of March 17 at 4 p.m. PT, it had climbed all the way to No. 26.

Nate Sloan, co-host of the podcast Switched on Pop, and co-author of the bookSwitched on Pop: How Popular Music Works, and Why it Matters, calls the song's return to the charts "unprecedented."

"The only other time when music from past decades re-enters the charts is Christmas," Sloan explains. "That's when all of a sudden Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatraand a 1994 Mariah Carey song pop up on the charts. Otherwise, the entire ethos of popular music is newness. This is the driving commercial engine of popular music since the late 1800s. It's sort of against the very nature of the pop machine to revive past hits, so the fact that that's happening right now absolutely shows that this is a really unique and unprecedented moment."

On March 17, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipeposted a video of himself singing the chorus from the hit song, turning the video into a coronavirus PSA with a caveat: "I'm a former pop star," Stipejokes."But don't trust social media. Go to the CDC website. Go to trusted news services for your information."

The song actually entered the iTunes Top 100 four spots above its peak 1987 position on the Billboard Hot 100, a fact that Sloan finds "fascinating" but not surprising. Sloan admits that he personally didn't care much about music charts before Switched on Pop. Co-hosting a podcast for five years about Top 40 pop has been "instructive" and he's come to appreciate the broader cultural story a chart can tell.

"I missed out on what so many people were listening to," Sloan says. "Now what I realize is that you don't have to necessarily love or hate the most popular music at any given moment. But I think we should all recognize that it can be very instructive in terms of telling us what people are feeling and thinking, and concerned and anxious and joyous about in subtle ways. Charts are always taking the temperature of people's collective consciousness."

Sloan is also not surprised that this is the retro theme song people are playing on repeat right now.

"Music is something we immediately turn to in trying times," Sloan says. "Music is something that gives us comfort and brings us together and helps us understand the world. So it makes sense to me that that's one of the first places people turn when the world is going haywire. This song provides, sort of, a mantra for people to recite in this moment when everything seems very uncertain and up in the air. What can you do when you have no control? Just throw up your hands and say, 'I feel fine.'"

Sloan loves songs that feature dark lyrics juxtaposed with a happy melody. "That is kind of its own subcategory in some ways, where the music tells you one thing and the lyrics tell you something else. I always think that kind of tension is incredibly productive and engaging," he says, laughing.

As sub-genres of rock go, "cheery nihilism" has its place in the world, and Sloan has spent some time thinking about this song, which he admits is his favourite of R.E.M.'s long discography.

"When you get that lyric ['I feel fine'], you get this really catchy melodic hook as well, something that you can sort of sing along to, something that cuts through the noise and stream-of-consciousness lyrics of the rest of the song and provides this anchoring point, a moment of simplicity and collectivity against the backdrop of the chaos of the rest of the song," Sloan says. "That maybe mirrors the overall purpose that the song can serve for people right now, the way it sort of comes together and this crystalline moment of clarity every time the titular phrase hits."

Please note: Andrea Warner appeared as a guest on Switched on Pop in 2019.

Hang out with me on Twitter: @_AndreaWarner

View post:

R.E.M.'s end-times anthem is back on the charts here's why - CBC.ca

We are in for a long haul. We, who have become accustomed to expecting things now, are going to have to wait. It could be months before our world returns to normal, if it ever does. Or if it even should. We are experiencing something unprecedented: a pandemic in the digital age.

Yet this is a unique opportunity which we should not pass up. In this moment of pause, we have the chance to reset our relationship to tech. For the last decade, tech has been running us. Now is our chance to reset that relationship.

It wasnt so long ago that we all started carrying smartphones. We gave them to our kids. These devices seemed like such cool things to have they gave us everything now: information, transportation, entertainment, food, even sex. We never liked to think about how they were changing our behavior. Making us more aggressive with each other. More judgmental, narcissistic, impatient, impulsive. More likely to treat each other as objects to consume and discard or ghost.

We surrendered our power to companies who used these devices to modify our behavior, with algorithms designed to do just that. We agreed without agreeing to become programmed something we still dont like to contemplate because the convenience of everything we were getting so quickly felt so good.

That is, until it didnt feel good any more. Until we began to feel more anxious and depressed. The companies making these devices promised that they would bring our world closer together. Yet we felt less connected, not more.

When medical professionals began to insist on social distancing as a way to curb the spread of coronavirus, people reacted with alarm. Its scary to think that we cant connect with each other. We need each other. We have evolved to need each other not only to feel good, but to survive.

Humans are difficult and complicated and messy; it was easier to have our primary relationships with our phones

And yet, if were honest about it, we began this process of social distancing years ago. About the same time we started carrying around these phones, we found ourselves having fewer in-person conversations; we visited each other less; we had fewer parties and dinner parties; we stopped going on real dates. It seemed easier to just not deal with each other. Humans are difficult and complicated and messy; it was easier to have our primary relationships with our phones. All of this served tech companies quite well. Every click, scroll, swipe provided them with more data, which translated into more money in their profit columns.

But now were in a moment when we need each other more than ever. We will need each other to provide information, comfort, solace, distraction, entertainment, jokes. We will need each other to listen. We will need to support each other, like family members do, or should; we will need to see ourselves once again as all belonging to the same family of humankind.

And we can use these devices to do just that. We can revert our relationship with tech to the utopian vision of the early days of the internet, when it was seen as something that was going to help us grow and evolve and learn new and better ways of communicating.

But in order to do that, we have to modify our own behavior behavior that has been perversely modified by the companies seeking our data, over these last few years. We cannot troll. We cannot be the snarky one with that smartass comment that gets attention at the expense of someones feelings. We cannot neglect or ignore those to whom we bear responsibility. We cannot spread negativity. We cannot spread nihilism and death, by which I mean the death of social connection.

In order to do this, we will have to use social media very consciously. We must think before we post. We must use this unprecedentedly powerful medium with the same sense of consciousness Kafka once wrote about, in a passage that seems more relevant than ever in the time of the coronavirus: We human beings ought to stand before one another as reverently, as reflectively, as lovingly, as we would before the entrance to hell.

We can start by simply asking each other: How are you?

View original post here:

Coronavirus is a chance to reset our relationship with our phones - The Guardian

Samantha Morton's character, Alpha, has lived according to the motto, "We are the end of the world," on AMC's apocalyptic zombie series, "The Walking Dead."

Currently, that motto may hit a little too close to home as people practice social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But Morton is much more positive about the state of our world, despite her character's nihilism.

"I don't feel we're at the end of the world at all," Morton told Insider when asked about any parallel between her character's outlook on life and reality.

Alpha led a cult telling a group of survivors they were the end of the world. Jace Downs/AMC

"My feelings are the world is constantly changing and we have to adapt and change with it," she continued. "If, as a society, we need to learn new habits and new behaviors to prosper whether it's to do with the environment or to do with love or respecting other cultures we just have to adapt and survive. I don't think it's the end of the world at all."

Morton's character was killed off "TWD" Sunday. In a nod to the comics, Negan infiltrated the Whisperers, gained their trust, and when the timing was right, took her out. Morton told Insider she knew exactly how she would be killed off since joining the series as the leader of the Whisperers on season nine.

Now, with Alpha out of the picture, it's looking less like the Whisperers will be able to bring their "end of the world" agenda to life.

"The Walking Dead" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. You can follow along with our "Walking Dead" coverage here.

View post:

'The Walking Dead': Samantha Morton on adapting to the coronavirus - Insider - INSIDER

Disclaimer: AlterNet does not endorse candidates but I personally support Sen. Bernie Sanders. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Monday evening saw a brief outrage cycle on social media when a clip of Joe Biden ostensibly telling MSNBCs Lawrence ODonnell that he would veto even a gradual approach to Medicare for All went viral.

Joe Biden just said he would veto Medicare-for-All because it would delay healthcare coverage.

His own healthcare plan leaves 10 million people uninsured.pic.twitter.com/mpW6Z58miB

jordan (@JordanUhl) March 10, 2020

joe biden just said even if the democrats pass a m4a proposal through the house and senate, he doesnt know if hed sign it into law citing cost

hasanabi (@hasanthehun) March 10, 2020

Others parsed Bidens answer and came up with a different interpretation.

Okay, youve seen that viral tweet about how Biden said hed veto Medicare for All. Thats clearly NOT what he said. He says what his opposition is based on, says he agrees with it in principle and goes out of his way not to say hed veto it. Watch and decide. pic.twitter.com/hcqnnsnIqy

Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 10, 2020

It is certainly not news that Joe Biden opposes Medicare for All, and, as many people pointed out, a Democratic Congress would never send a major piece of legislation to a Democratic president who would veto it. The White House coordinates with Congressional leaders throughout the legislative process.

But what made this kerfuffle especially pointless is that Democratic primary voters have narrowed a once-large field to two candidates who oppose killing the filibuster if Democrats hold the House and win control of the White House and Senate in November. Theres certainly ideological space between Sen. Bernie Sanders and Biden, but both are committed institutionalists with deeply flawed theories of how to overcome Republicans central belief that Democratic leadership is inherently illegitimate and the relentless obstruction that flows from that view.

Biden believes that he can work with moderate Democrats, which is probably true, but he also says Republicans fever will break if Donald Trump is dealt a decisive defeat. According to Biden, they will come to rue their refusal to take governing seriously and be willing to cut deals across the aisle. Hes gotten things done on a bipartisan basis in the past, and he promises that he can restore some measure of the comity that made our legislature more or less functional for much of his career.

Sanders promises that he will build a large, transpartisan movement of working people that will transcend partisanship and ideology, and bring so much pressure to bear on lawmakers that moderate Democrats and at least some Republicans will have no choice but to support his transformational agenda. (He also favors a backdoor mechanism for working around the filibuster: getting a Senate parliamentarian in place who would assent to passing complex legislation through the budget reconciliation process. This would be widely perceived as illegitimate and leave the filibuster in place for the next Republican majority to kill outright.)

Both of these theories share the same fundamental problems. We live in a heavily polarized society thats divided by culture as much as by politics, and the right has built a sprawling media network that keeps its consumers cocooned in an alternative set of facts. Geographic sorting and gerrymandering have resulted in a huge number of uncompetitive districts where Republicans rightly fear for their jobs if they wander even a small distance from conservative orthodoxy. They fear that demographic shifts will reduce them to a rump party of the South, and believe they have no other means of maintaining power other than by undermining American democracy. And rightly or wrongly, moderate Dems face deeply entrenched conventional wisdom that moving too far to the left will cost them their seat.

Most politicians first concern is being re-elected, and neither Bidens collegiality nor Sanderss mass movement is going to change that equation. Killing veto-pointsby getting rid of the filibuster and somehow addressing the Republican takeover of the federal judiciarymight.

According to NBC, the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America is putting pressure on the last two major Democratic candidates, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, to call for eliminatingthe 60-vote thresholdto pass legislation in the Senate. Perhaps one or both candidates will reconsider their position. If not, there isnt much point in debating the merits of their health care plans or proposals to combat climate change or anything else that cant be accomplished through executive action.

then let us make a small request. AlterNets journalists work tirelessly to counter the traditional corporate media narrative. Were here seven days a week, 365 days a year. And were proud to say that weve been bringing you the real, unfiltered news for 20 yearslonger than any other progressive news site on the Internet.

Its through the generosity of our supporters that were able to share with you all the underreported news you need to know. Independent journalism is increasingly imperiled; ads alone cant pay our bills. AlterNet counts on readers like you to support our coverage. Did you enjoy content from David Cay Johnston, Common Dreams, Raw Story and Robert Reich? Opinion from Salon and Jim Hightower? Analysis by The Conversation? Then join the hundreds of readers who have supported AlterNet this year.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure AlterNet remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to AlterNet, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

Read the original:

Democrats respond to Republican nihilism by narrowing their field down to two tradition-bound institutionalists - AlterNet

captionSamantha Morton played Alpha on The Walking Dead.sourceJace Downs/AMC

Samantha Mortons character, Alpha, has lived according to the motto, We are the end of the world, on AMCs apocalyptic zombie series, The Walking Dead.

Currently, that motto may hit a little too close to home as people practice social distancing amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But Morton is much more positive about the state of our world, despite her characters nihilism.

I dont feel were at the end of the world at all, Morton told Insider when asked about any parallel between her characters outlook on life and reality.

My feelings are the world is constantly changing and we have to adapt and change with it, she continued. If, as a society, we need to learn new habits and new behaviors to prosper whether its to do with the environment or to do with love or respecting other cultures we just have to adapt and survive. I dont think its the end of the world at all.

Mortons character was killed off TWD Sunday. In a nod to the comics, Negan infiltrated the Whisperers, gained their trust, and when the timing was right, took her out. Morton told Insider she knew exactly how she would be killed off since joining the series as the leader of the Whisperers on season nine.

Now, with Alpha out of the picture, its looking less like the Whisperers will be able to bring their end of the world agenda to life.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on AMC. You can follow along with our Walking Dead coverage here.

Link:

The Walking Dead star says the coronavirus pandemic isnt the end of the world. We have to adapt and survive. - Business Insider

Album:Greatest Hits (The Abbey Road Session)

Artist:Therapy?

Label:Marshall Records

Genre:Rock

In todays musical climate, any band that has endured for 30 years without a split, hiatus or implosion of any kind is a cause for celebration. Northern Irish rock trio Therapy? wanted to mark their milestone anniversary in some way, but a standard Greatest Hits compilation just wasnt cutting it. Instead, the Andy Cairns-fronted trio decided to pack up 12 of their Top 40 UK hits, take them to Abbey Road and re-record them with producer Chris Sheldon, who oversaw most of their biggest successes, including 1994s Troublegum.

Indeed, most of these songs are culled from that landmark album, and while the likes of Screamager and Trigger Inside may not encapsulate the same angry young man nihilism of yesteryear, they still bristle with energy. Teethgrinders grungy riffs still thrill and Neil Cooper is more than capable of matching original drummer Fyfe Ewings skill behind the kit.

Other tracks, such as Opal Mantra and Stories, are somewhat forgettable, but Manic Street Preachers frontman James Dean Bradfields turn on the enjoyable Die Laughing works well. Their best-known song, Nowhere, still kicks the hardest, though ably demonstrating that Therapy? can rock as hard as they ever did, three decades in.

We suggest this article for you based on what others who have read this article have also read

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Continued here:

Therapy? Greatest Hits (The Abbey Road Session) Back on their old stomping ground - The Irish Times

Underneath all of the knock-knock jokes, references to the 1997 Giants and awful puns, theres a deep streak of nihilism inside of me. Its impossible for me to shake the feeling that the universe cares about us as much as it cares about a random moth from 4,000 years ago, and once you sink into that pit, theres no bottom. Nothing matters. There are good days and bad days, medications and self-medicating. Ive always suffered from anxiety and depression, even when things are normal.

When things arent normal, it can be just a touch overwhelming.

But throughout all of it, somehow, Ive also had a deeper streak of amusement and wonder to combat the nihilism. On any given day, its usually winning. Were here, all of us, right now, because two very specific fish had sex 375 million years ago. That allowed us to exist and be capable of giggling at the mere mention of Travis Ishikawa. Its beautiful. All of this is so...

Here is the original post:

Brisbee: The world is terrifying right now and I need your help - The Athletic

We are reading the penultimate short story in Ted Chiangs collection Exhalation. Omphalos questions what it means to believe: in our world, in alternative worlds, and in ourselves. Given that beliefs are crucial to everything we do in innovation and science, I thought the theme deeply dovetailed with a lot of what TechCrunch readers care about. Im excited to talk about it more.

Tomorrow, I will post analysis on the final short story, Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom as well as some concluding thoughts now that we have cycled through all the short stories in this collection. What a journey!

Some further quick notes:

Most of the stories in Exhalation have been pieces of deep imagination, filled with worlds that, while tethered to our experience on Earth, remain quite distant to it. Omphalos feels quite different: it very much is our world, but refracted just slightly at every point.

Chiang signals this to the reader right from the beginning, noting that the narrator is traveling to Chicagou, a city that is obviously recognizable to us, but just slightly off from our expectations. And indeed, as the story progresses, we learn that everything in the sciences are just a bit different from what we presume. Scientific discoveries that have happened in our world have yet to happen in this story (the discovery of DNA, for instance), while exciting fields in our world today like astronomy are essentially complete, with no further innovation to come.

The storys central tension is between faith and science, but the tweaks that Chiang edits into this speculative world force us to observe our own world with new insight. The development of science as a human practice was highly contentious in our history, with Galileo and the fight over heliocentrism being one of many battlefields fought over the centuries.

In this story though, science isnt at war with religion, but in fact provides a path to deepening devotion to belief, undergirding the pursuit of purpose in a world of mystery. Our narrator, an archaeologist, describes why she does her work, and why the single miraculous creation of the human race is so important to belief.

I asked them to imagine what it would be like if we lived in a world where, no matter how deeply we dug, we kept finding traces of an earlier era of the world then I asked, wouldnt they feel lost, like a castaway adrift on an ocean of time? this is why I am a scientist: because I wish to discover your purpose for us, Lord.

Indeed, the Earth itself is the very creation of God, and therefore is studied with an intensity that we would find unusual, while astronomy and the exploration of the celestial world is relegated to the side.

I admit, Lord, that Ive never had much regard for astronomy; it has always struck me as the dullest of the sciences. The life sciences are seemingly limitless; every year we discover new species of plants and animals and gain a deeper appreciation of your ingenuity in creating the Earth. By contrast, the night sky is just so finite. All five thousand eight hundred and seventy-two stars were cataloged in 1745, and not another has been found since then.

Chiang has pulled a bit of a legerdemain we are more interested in the possibilities beneath our feet, rather than what floats above us in the skies.

That setup delivers the storys main thrust: an astronomer has discovered that another planet elsewhere in the galaxy is actually the stationary point of the entire universe, which means that Earths orbit around the sun demonstrates not intelligent design or a message of purpose, but rather pure nihilism. It likely serves no purpose at all.

Chiang refracts our massive historical conflict over heliocentrism, and in so doing forces us to confront the true challenges of modern life. The astronomers discovery forces our seemingly devout narrator to question her own faith not in religion, but actually in science. For if conducing scientific experiments was about finding purpose in life, why should we continue doing them when we know they dont have a purpose at all?

The title of the story, Omphalos, comes from Greek mythology and symbolizes the navel of the world, or the place where the world is centered on. The astronomers discovery dissolves what we thought was the Omphalos Earth and prods us to search for a new point to center us and our lives.

Our narrators loss of faith causes her to stop praying and live in a cabin for a few months, but she ultimately comes to the conclusion that the openness of choice around these events is actually empowering for humans, forcing us to confront our own actions and realize we have agency over them.

If we had no evidence for the miracle of creation, we might think physical law was sufficient to explain every phenomenon in the cosmos, leading us to conclude that our own minds were nothing more than natural processes. But we know that there is more to what we observe than physical law can encompass; miracles happen, and human choices are surely among them.

Chiang isnt critiquing religion or believers, but rather those rationalists who believe deeply in the thesis that we are bags of atoms pre-destined to make the choices we already have made at conception. Its a relatively oblique critique, one only really brought into relief in the storys closing paragraphs.

Earlier in the story, our narrator asks God, Let me always be inquisitive, but never be suspicious. Thats ultimately a comment about cynicism and nihilism, that the purpose to everything is nothing and useless. Even in a secular world, there is meaning in every action and reaction, and physics doesnt determine how we approach our lives. With refractive lenses, we can see that we are each our own Omphalos, architecting the meaning of what we observe.

As you read the final short story in Exhalation, here are some questions to think about:

Original post:

What is the purpose of belief in a world of innovation? - TechCrunch

Photos courtesy of Captured Tracks.

G.I.S.M, Gauze, The Stalin, Guitar Wolf; these are some of the bands responsible for exposing Japanese youth to punk music in the 80s. All of them had a familiar taste for chaos that closely aligned with hardcore punk in America hard, fast and heavy riffs formed the basis of their music. Nudity, nihilism and violence were often part of their live performance. You can see it for yourself in some of the grainy archival footage thats been uploaded to YouTube. But among those early pioneers of Japanese punk was another group, OXZ (pronounced Ox-Zed), whose legacy you might be less familiar with. Thats because they were a band of three women, who werent offered the same social capital as their male counterparts at the time.

Formed in Osaka in 1981 by Mika (vocals/bass), Hikko (guitar) and Emiko (drums), OXZ was one of the first bands to challenge the mechanics of Japanese punk and ensure it wasnt simply defined by machismo and the male gaze. Mika and Hikko went to the same high school, they met Emiko at a venue in Osaka, and soon realized they all had the same desire to play in a punk band. However, at the time it was almost unheard of for women and young girls to embrace the more aggressive style ascribed to punk. While they often played in high school cover bands, there were few allowances for women who wanted to write and perform their own original music, especially during the boomer-era. It simply wasn't acceptable to trade having a family and keeping a tidy home for the looks, lifestyle and ideals of punk rock.

In a booklet that accompanies Along Ago: 1981-1989, a new retrospective of the bands material thats being released this month by Captured Tracks, music historian Kato David Hopkins writes of the bands beginnings: there were very few women in the underground music scene at that point, and none of them dressed like punks or dyed their hair, or showed much interest in declaring complete independence from the usual rules. So in 1981 when Hikko, Mika, and Emiko first appeared together as OXZ, they were an intentional shock.

While they often played with many of the countrys leading hardcore bands, that tag is perhaps a little misleading when applied to OXZ. The trio had a more melodic, beat-driven and often shaggy sound that leaned more in the direction of bands that were big in Britain at the time X-Ray Spex, Sham 69 and The Raincoats provide clearer points of reference though they also incorporated elements of grindcore, no-wave, psychedelic rock and what would later become known as grunge. OXZ was not only one of the primordial Japanese punk bands, but they were also one of the first to transcend the genre.

Ahead of the reissue of OXZs first three EPs, a single, and several of the bands unreleased demos, we caught up with Mika, Hikko and Emiko to learn more about being in one of Japans first all-female punk bands.

Who are some of the bands that inspired you to play punk rock music?Mika: I was inspired by Siouxsie and the Banshees, Patti Smith, Johnny Rotten and by PIL. But when I began to play with OXZ, I thought we were the best.

Hikko: The Clash, Sex Pistols, The Damned and other Japanese underground bands around OXZ. I also like Mick Karn from [the band] Japan.

Emiko: For me it was Led Zeppelin. I love the drumming of John Bonham.

Can you describe how you came up with your own personal style?E: I would buy things at vintage shops and I would cut and sew them and make my own clothes. My parents had an avant-garde clothing shop, so I naturally made up my own personal style.

Who was the first punk that inspired you to dye your hair and change the way you looked? E: It was not from punk. I didnt like the discipline at school. It was forbidden to dye your hair, everybody had the same length hair and the same uniform, we had to have the same look. I grew up with parents who looked avant-garde, so I naturally started to change my hair color when I was fourteen.

How did people react in 1981 to seeing three women on stage playing punk rock? M: We were people of interest, so they looked at us with curious eyes.

E: They were either attracted to us or afraid of us.

Why were they afraid of you?E: Because my looks were very different from everybody else's. People were not coloring their hair or wearing innovative clothes.

Can you describe some of the places in Kansai where you used to perform? H: Eggplant, Studio Ahiru, Bares, Donzoko house, Kyodai Seibu Kodo were some of the places. It was different at each event, but there was often a lot of hardcore punk bands.

E: Hardcore punk style meant black leather jackets with pen drawings on the back, rivets, etc. The audience was wearing the same kind of clothes tight black jeans, chains, piercings. There were also many people in T-shirts and jeans.

What was the social climate like in Japan in the 80s. Were women expected to behave a certain way?E: The Japanese education system and the social climate had a lot of conservative values in the 80s. Some people would spit and shout dirty girl at me because of my look. In terms of womens behavior, you were expected to keep your mouth shut.

Where were you when people would spit and shout at you, and how did you respond to that? E: It happened in the streets when there was nobody around. I was just sad, without really having much of a reaction to it. But most of the time when people saw us in the subway or at supermarkets they were afraid of us.

Were there other women making punk music in Osaka in the early 80s?E: There were some girls playing the bass or the keyboard, but not in all-girl bands.

H: There was an all-girl band a few years after us, Sekiri, in the Kansai area.

What was it like playing in other parts of the country, were people as open to your music as they were in your hometown?E: Our music was a bit different to other punk bands, so it was strange music in our hometown, too. Many punk bands were playing eight beats with major chords, whereas OXZ was influenced by other kinds of music psychedelic, new wave, hard rock and the blues. We got the same reaction when we played in other parts of the country.

Shonen Knife is another well-known Osaka punk band from the early 80s. How were they different to OXZ?E: Shonen Knifes members were Mika and Hikkos school mates, but they were playing poppier songs, with cute looks. I much later realized OXZ's genre was more no-wave, the beginnings of grunge music.

Did you remain friends with Shonen Knife after you finished school?M: Shonen Knifes drummer, Atsuko, was a good friend of mine in high school, but we didnt play in the same band so we eventually got more and more distant. When I met her by chance at a venue last year we were happy to have some time to talk. I also ran into Naoko, Shonen Knifes guitarist, two years ago at an event in Japan and we talked a lot.

A big part of American and British punk culture in the 80s and 90s was creating hand drawn posters and fanzines. Were people doing a similar thing in Japan?H: I dont think there were many fanzines. There were some flyers from each venue with a written schedule, some stories, and Manga [comics]. We didnt have much money, so no computers or typewriters.

M: I remember everybody was making posters and flyers by hand, one by one. It was very interesting, each flyer had its own character.

How did you get around, did you have a tour van?E: We didnt have a tour van, we just used a standard car whenever we toured. I used to get around on my motorbike. There werent many girls that had permission to ride motorbikes.

Why did the band break up?E: Our music was getting more complicated, we were mixing with other genres of music, changing rhythms, etc. Hikko didnt want to keep going and Mika and I didnt want to keep OXZ going without her.

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OXZ were the first Japanese punk band to take on the patriarchy - i-D

Rick and Morty is the subversive, poop-jokes riddled creation of Justin Roiland that started out as aparody of Back to the Future and went on to become one of the smartest comedies on television. The show follows the adventures of Rick Sanchez, the smartest man in the multiverse, and his hapless grandson/sidekick Morty.

RELATED: 10 Schwiftiest Rick & Morty Funko Pop!s Ranked

Together the two travel the multiverse examining topics relating to everything from family and responsibility to nihilism to man's place in the world. Over three and a half seasons, the show has come up with some classic jokes that will be remembered through the ages, and some other stinkers that are best left forgotten.

Rick and Morty arrive on a planet going through a periodic purge where the inhabitants turn into serial killers. The two seek refuge with a cat person who is a writer. After inviting Morty to listen to a reading of his novel and asking for feedback, the writer immediately gets offended at Morty's mild criticism and tries to throw him and Rick out of his house.

Morty points out the unfairness of the writer's behavior while awakening his inner purger, killing his host. It is a ridiculous, dark meta-joke at the expense of storytellers who are too full of themselves to acknowledge criticism of any kind while churning out mediocre work.

The Devil himself makes an appearance on the show and is beaten at his own game by Rick. Summer, however, takes a liking to the Devil, helping him set up a new business and becoming company head. Naturally, the Devil betrays Summer and kicks her out of the company, leading to Summer and Rick building up their bodies to deliver a physical beatdown to the Devil in front of everyone.

RELATED:Rick And Morty: 10 Characters That Deserve Spin-off Shows

It is a bizarre sequence that leaves so many questions without a satisfying payoff. Why is the Devil hurt by physical force? When did Summer and Rick get the time to become so jacked? How was beating up Satan supposed to resolve the issue at hand?

Morty plays a game at a space arcade called "Game of Roy." In that virtual reality game, Morty gets to play the role of Roy, starting from his birth, to his school years, getting a job, getting married, getting treated for a deadly illness, living to a ripe old age, and dying from an accident, only to wake up and realize it had all been a dream-game.

Before Morty can process the false life he had just lived in its entirety, Rick takes over and plays as Roy, taking the character off the social grid and breaking every score that Morty had set.The wholesequence is simultaneously sad, alarming, and hilarious. It even manages to beat interdimensional cableby being earnest instead of simply zany.

Rick can be quite rude to Summer, but then he is rude to everyone. What was less acceptable was when he specifically declared that he did not go adventuring with women when Summer asked him to take her on an adventure.

At that moment, a misogynistic streak emerged in Rick's character that left a bad taste in many viewer's mouths.

This is the catchphrase that Rick utters to endear himself to the audience like a typical zany TV character. The phrase has been endlessly repeated by fans of the show and will always remain a part of Rick's legacy as a bit of hilarious gibberish. Except its not gibberish at all. In bird-person language, it translates to "I am in great pain, please help me."

RELATED: Wubba Lubba Dub Dub & 9 Other Rick and Morty-isms To Add To Your Vocabulary

Onthe surface, the joke works as a commentary on silly TV trends like giving a character a catchphrase; ona deeper level, it speaks to theprofound level of hurt and loneliness Rick feels. His proud nature rebels at the thought of actually asking for help,turning his cries for help into a joke for the audience and his loved ones. Wubba-Lubba-Dub-Dub is Rick and Morty at its morbidly funny best.

Rick and Morty has a large and passionate fan base. And anyone who knows anything about internet fandoms will know there is a large amount of fanfiction and fanart devoted to exploring intimate relations between members of the Smith family. Where things get potentially icky is that the show itself often leans into these possibilities with throwaway gags.

Like the time a dream version of Summer came on to her young brother and grandfather. Or when a version of Morty can be heard wishing aloud that incest porn had a more mainstream appeal. The general audiences for the show would have a big problem if they were to be made aware of just how much extremely graphic fanart and fanfiction those scenes have generated online.

The episode where Rick turns himself into a pickle is a genuine classic and a perfect representation ofRick's philosophy of life. Rick's worst fear is being emotionally vulnerable to those he sees as intellectually beneath him, which is everyone. In order to escape a meeting with a therapist who might actually force him to confront his feelings, Rick chooses to turn himself into a literal pickle.

RELATED: Rick And Morty: 10 Scenes That Call Rick's Genius Into Question

The rest of the episode is Rick using his genius intellect to survive the absolute helplessness of being trapped in a pickle body and to return to his regular form.

Rick and Morty is a clever show. But at its worst, the show can come across like itstalking down to the audience, and the episode where Rick and Morty have to battle a robot called Heistotron that wants to pull the perfect heist suffers from the worst of this tendency. The entire episode is one long complaint about how dumb heist movies are, and how anyone who enjoys them is an idiot.

What makes the episode particularly problematic is that, at one point, Rick is shown to be responsible for the destruction of an entire planet and all its citizens just to stop Morty from becoming a successful writer. While Rick has always been callous, that incident makes him truly evil, which does not square with what had been established about the character.

Two extra-dimensional beings attack Albert Einstein, mistaking him for Rick, to stop him from discovering the secret to time travel. The joke works on so many levels. The extra-dimensional beings are shaped like testicles, staying true to the gross humor the show revels in. Doc Brown from Back to the Future, who Rick started out as a parody of, was also based on Einstein.

The scene is also a parody of innumerable time travel movies that go to such complicated lengths to avert a disturbance in the flow of time, which in this case involves two testicle monsters beating thehell out of one of the greatest minds in history. Finally, what puts the cap on the perfectionthat is this scene is Einstein struggling back to his feet after the monsters leave and declaring he will mess with time. Because humans never learn.

Thisentire episode is a parody of the Terminatorfilms, with snakes instead of people. Problem is, the show is not nearly clever enough at making the parody stand out for any particular reason.

It also quickly becomes tiresome seeing the snakes hissing at each other while audiences guess where the story is leading. What should have been a throwaway gag became a stretched out and often uninteresting episode.

NEXT:10 Things You Never Noticed About Rick And Morty's House

Next10 Game Of Thrones Vs Lord Of The Rings Memes That Are Too Hilarious

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Rick And Morty: 5 Jokes That Are Destined To Be Timeless (& 5 That Won't Age Well) - Screen Rant

Contrary to popular definitions, Nihilism is not synonymous with cynicism or despair. Instead, Nihilism is a worldview in which one believes only in what one's observations and experiences seem to prove true, and that which can be otherwise proven true. That said, Nihilism varies according to the nature of the individual nihilist, but there are a few key ideas which are kept by nearly all of them: 1. The beginning of the universe was, within certain parameters, a basically random event, and the same holds for all events occuring since. It follows, then, that final purpose in things is false. Life, then, is an end-in-itself.2. There exists no absolute truth regarding the value of any deed over another, such as right vs. wrong. Value systems, ethical codes, etc. are thus of no use to the Nihilist, except if they serve his best interests, increase their quality of life, or if they simply fall in line with what behavior would come naturally.3. From the above it follows that responsibility, obligation, and the like are also falsehoods. Nihilists are thus inclined to ignore or sneer at societal norms and conditioned mentalities.4. The first priority of every nihilist is his own well-being, satisfaction, and survival, and every action is ultimately done in the name of these things. However, he does not consciously pursue these ends; instead, he acts upon what feels natural and makes sense to him, and these naturally result. However, the above assumes that the Nihilist is in unity with himself, and possesses an undamaged psyche. In reality, some people are self-destructive by nature, and, if they took up a Nihilistic worldview, would seem to have a death-wish as the motive behind their actions. Since self-destructive individuals are common in modern society, this is probably how Nihilism has come to be seen as another word for despair.

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Urban Dictionary: Nihilism

On its surface, Rick and Morty is a gonzo animated comedy about a mad scientist and the slightly dopey grandson he drags along on his adventures through multiple dimensions. In regard to the shows earliest episodes, thats not an unfair description. Much of season 1 is filled with pop culture hot takes, toilet humor, and even a few uncomfortable gags about sex abuse. Right from the off, though, there was something genius bubbling under the surface. Early-adopting fans could see it, and some of the first episodes for example, Lawnmower Dog (season 1, episode 2) and Meeseeks and Destroy (season 1, episode 5) managed to showcase some of the themes and ideas that would make Rick and Morty great.

Related: Is Rick & Morty On Netflix, Hulu Or Prime? Where To Watch Online

It was in season 1, episode 6, Rick Potion #9, that the show found itself. There is a caveat here: the shows seasons arent written in airing order, so there is room for debate on the quality of what comes before and after this episode. What makes it seminal, though, is that its the first episode of the show to bring all of Rick and Mortys signature elements together. It gave the show a core philosophy while developing its characters in unexpected ways. Theres also an astoundingly original twist and plenty of sex jokes.

Rick Sanchez, the scientist of the shows title, embodies nihilism. He believes that because the cosmos is endless, filled with infinite realities and inconceivable time, the life of an individual is essentially meaningless. There is no true right or wrong, and self-preservation is the only law. When the show begins, he is the only character in the shows core family his grandson, Morty; granddaughter, Summer; daughter, Beth; and son-in-law, Jerry who subscribes to this reality; as a result, Rick does some terrible things to his family,whilethey, in turn, are all thoroughly caught-up in their mundane suburban lives.

The nihilism in Rick and Morty is key to the show for two reasons. First, its contagious. At the end of Rick Potion #9, Rick and Mortys version of Earth is overtaken by mutant beings accidentally created by Rick. Rather than fix the world, they are forced to find an alternate reality where they have both died, so that the original Rick and Morty can seamlessly continue their lives with another version of their family. Not only is that a great twist, it serves as Mortys first taste of philosophical horror. His life hasnt been changed in any way, but technically, all the people around him are strangers.

Two episodes later (season 1, episode 8, Rixty Minutes"), Morty seems to have embraced nihilism. When confessing his true identity to the alternate Summer, he tells her, Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybodys going to die. Come watch TV. Morty has accepted meaninglessness, although his words say more than that.

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Nihilism does spread to other members of the Smith family throughout the show, but theres a wrinkle. Rick and Morty isnt simply touting nihilism as the one true philosophy. Its more interested in commenting on how that belief system affects individuals. In the first scene of the shows pilot, Rick is belligerently drunk and he stays that way through most of the episodes. Hes a suicidal addict who abandoned his daughter for most of her life, and hes immune to self-reflection because of his nihilism. When Morty says, Come watch TV, hes taking a totally different approach. He places value on everyday activities and his relationships precisely because they are the only things that hold meaning.

As the show progresses through its second and third seasons, some contradictions to these ideas do come up. The attention to character development, though, makes Rick and Morty even more interesting.

It would be fair to criticize Rick and Mortys earliest episodes as having one-dimensional characters. Rick is a tortured genius, Morty is a dim-witted teen, and Jerry is an aloof fool. The female characters arent much deeper: Beth wants nothing more than her fathers approval, and Summer is a sarcastic drama queen. Its to the writers credit that these shallow traits become much denser as the show goes on, as Beth and Summer become Rick and Morty'sunsung heroes.

Theres some debate as to whether Rick learns or grows as a character. While his philosophy and abrasive exterior dont change much, spending time with Morty has an effect. In the climax of the season 2 premiere (A Rickle in Time), Rick nearly sacrifices his life to save Mortys. This sets him apart from any alternate Ricks, who treat their own versions of Morty as expendable.

Related:Rick & Morty: The Best Smith Family Team-Ups

As Rick grows softer, Morty gets tougher. In season 3, episode 6 (Rest and Ricklaxation), Mortys worst characteristics are stripped away and become a sentient, toxic version of himself. Toxic Morty is almost identical to the one in the shows early episodes. He is jumpy, neurotic, and subservient. This is vastly different than the Morty who casually and skillfully defuses a neutrino bomb in the same season (season 3, episode 4, Vindicators 3: The Return of Worldender).

The other family members change, too. Each finds independence in his or her own way whether through divorce, resiliency, or pure physical strength. The dynamics of the Smith family are constantly changing in incremental ways, such as Jerry's redemption arc in season 3.

Rick and Morty doesnt take itself too seriously. For all its commentary on philosophy, society, and family, it is a genuinely funny show. There is plenty of frat boy, stoner comedy though it has wisely steered away from the misogynistic, anti-PC jokes of its early days but that isnt the only audience that can appreciate it. Ricks blunt one-liners border on shock comedy, Mortys ill-timed stutters feel improvisational, and Jerrys incompetence is almost slapstick.

Rick and Morty doesnt have a signature style because it doesnt want to. Repeating jokes about nazis in Rick and Mortyare undercut with belches and nudity. Sometimes Rick talks directly to the audience in a way that acknowledges hes nothing more than a cartoon character. The show is fun to watch because its constantly changing its approach to comedy. While its fans obsess over the nuance and depth, the show itself is refreshingly uninterested in all that.

With the recent announcement that Rick and Morty has been renewed through Season 10 (Season 4 is currently on a midseason break), there has been a lot of speculation about what will come next. That is a huge order of episodes, and for a show so irreverent, there is no telling. If the first episodes of Season 4 are any indication, Rick and Morty is ready to embrace its silly side. Its writers feel like theyre teasing the fans who dig into the weeds of its philosophy. This trend of bonkers but still clever episodes could continue, though it surely cant sustain six-and-a-half more seasons.

Justin Roiland and co-creator Dan Harmon are smart storytellers, and they know that shows have to change and evolve. Even if theyve grown bored with all the philosophizing around Rick and Morty, its characters will undoubtedly continue their satisfying arcs. As Rick reluctantly allows himself to get more attached to his relationships, Morty will continue to come of age as a smarter, more capable teenager. The context of that growth could go anywhere; the possibilities of the Rick and Morty universe are inherently limitless. If Roiland and Harmon can keep its characters on the rails, it will remain one of the most exciting shows on television.

More:Every Movie Reference In Rick & Morty's Episode Titles

Why The Dark Knight Recast Katie Holmes As Rachel Dawes

Graduate of New York University's Dramatic Writing program. Self-published novelist and podcaster. Passionate about all film, from the Halloween series (even the bad ones) to French New Wave. Enthusiastic about travel, hiking, and creating music playlists that are way too long.

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Rick & Morty: How It Evolved From A Back To The Future Riff (& Where It Might Go) - Screen Rant

Ive been thinking a lot lately about Alfonso Cuarns Children of Men. Set in a dystopian future where infertility has given the human race a literal expiration date, the movie is about what happens to a society when the future fades out of sight and people embrace nihilism.

Children, the movie seems to suggest, are theraison detreof our constant struggle to make life better. Even if you dont have kids of your own as many of my generational peers do not and will not its possible to be humbled by having kids around. Knowing that there are always more little humans on the way can inspire people to think beyond themselves and do things that benefit humanity. It can be a tonic for loneliness, depression and other afflictions that ail us.

Try to imagine a world without laughter echoing from playgrounds. I cant think of a time in my life where this soundtrack wasnt playing somewhere I cant imagine life without it.

Except now, as a resident of Boston, I have to.

A newstudyby The Boston Foundation offers a chilling vision of Bostons future, so far as kids and families are concerned. As the Boston Globe housing reporter Tim Loganwrote, Boston has grown by about 100,000 people [in the last two decades]. But it has about 10,000 fewer school age kids. Where have all the children gone? The answer, according to the study, is that families with kids are being pushed out of Boston, into less expensive (but still gentrifying)suburbs, at such a seismic rate that in the near future, children might not have a place here.

This might sound hyperbolic, but its the simple conclusion of The Boston Foundations report, and its substantiated by data.

School enrollment rates in Boston have plummeted since the mid-20th century. Roughly 20,000 students mostly from low-income households have been lost. But the total number of children living in Boston, irrespective of their school enrollment, is far more disturbing. Of the 700,000 or so people living in thecity, only 75,000 of them are between 5 and 17 years old. Thats barely 10%, and its a staggering 43% drop from the number of children living in Boston50 years ago,in 1970.

Lately, theres been so much reporting about theforcesdrivingthousands of Boston residents into the suburbs. But lets remind ourselves of the obvious: the housing werebuildingis mostly designed for well-off young professionals,publichousing and even housingvouchershave been painfully under-used in recent decades, and the decision-making class of Boston cant seem to reconcile its fealty to the markets, with the idea that cities should be more than giant business districts.

Consider the Seaport, a new neighborhood with plenty of mixology bars and co-working spaces, but not many of the things that families with children need, such as public parks, libraries or even a grocery store. As the Globes Spotlight teamremindedus in 2017, the Seaport project was a chance to create a neighborhood for all Bostonians, including children. Some $18 billion in taxpayer money was funneled into the Seaport, on the premise that the new neighborhood would be a hub for innovation and an economic development boon for all of Boston. Instead, its become home to luxury apartments and one of the wealthiest and whitest neighborhoods in the city.

There are severallocalexamples of the development and gentrification thats turning Boston into a childless city,while also hurting surrounding communities too. There's thefactthat many of the new apartments and condos built recently are either sitting empty, or being used as havens for investors.

The Boston Foundations report is not a warning. Itsreminderthat the epidemic displacement of families ...has been happening here in Boston for decades.

Lesser known are the ripple effects that the Boston housing affordability crisis is having for "gateway cities." Just one example of many: in Lynn a youth education center is being replaced by a luxury apartment complex that will boast, among other amenities, an indoor golf simulator.

Its Bostons turn to decide what we do with this report, and how we reckon with the future that it predicts.

As a millennial without any kids, paying below-average rent but living in a place that would not be remotely suitable for a family, Ive tried to offset my own impact on the housing situation by learning (andwritingabout)local activist organizations such as City Life/Viva Urbana. That organization has been fighting to protect families from evictions and to advance more equitable housing policies, such as municipal rent control and expanded tenant protections.Groups like City Life/Viva Urbana are showing our leaders what needs to be done to protect and sustain families who, against the odds, are still living here. Their voices and ideas should be amplified.The Boston Foundations report is not a warning. Itsreminderthat the epidemic displacement of families that we've seen in cities likeSan FranciscoandSeattlehas been quietly happening right here in Boston for decades.

It doesn't have to be this way. Boston is a city where structural forces like capitalism and racism have sometimes been tempered by people with a genuine commitment toward social responsibility. This is an age-old battle that's been fought in places such as the Dorchester Youth Collaborative, which camecloseto shuttering in 2017 due to funding shortfalls, or the state's Department of Conservation and Recreation, which is currently in questionby Governor Baker's latest budget.The green spaces in Boston where the public can still roam are a reminder of what's at stake.

Unless Boston aggressively confronts our housing and transportation crises head on, the playgrounds that have not yet been replaced by craft beer gardens and bocce ball courts could one day become empty and silent.

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Boston Is Losing Its Children Whats At Stake, And What Has Already Been Lost - WBUR

Lets begin with a story. Its the one where everythings going wrong: zoonosis has triggered a massive viral outbreak, and associated spike in racism; Brexit has gone into effect, emboldening further racists; democratic checks-and-balances are being denied in plain view in the U.S. political system; citizen monitoring and related forms of state control are on the rise in genocide-perpetuating China; the consequences of climate change are being felt the world over in extreme natural events and increasing refugeeism; populist presidents are still thriving through the implementation of brutal initiatives in a wide range of countries; indigenous activists are still dying in their on-the-ground attempts to help protect natural resources; our food systems are making us unhealthier; and if obesity or opioids dont kill us our loneliness epidemic will.

When I talk about humanismthat is, when I talk about the need for spiritual and secular people to put aside cosmological differences to focus on a shared interest in empowering human beings with empathy and scienceIm making a pretty darned big leap in presuming that we have any agency at all.

Because some days itreally doesnt seem like we do, does it?

We cut out single-use plastics and then read articles telling us that our substitutes might be making matters worse.

We strive to eat less-than-perfect-looking groceries, then discover that such trend cycles can create different forms of waste, when the food industry already has perfectly good uses for ugly vegetables.

We recycle our hearts out, then find out things about the recycling industry that make us doubt if its good enough.

We reduce ourmeat intake, but thentake a vacation worse than many peoples entire annual CO2 footprint, meat and all.

And are enough of us going to stop reproducing? Ever?

Is it reasonable, is it desirable, is it attainable, to be a good humanist in such a staunchly mucked-up world?

To be clear, after all: Therearealternatives to humanism, both spiritual secular. If there werent, to say one is humanist would be meaningless, on par with saying I am human. (Which Im certain most of you are.)

Theres existential nihilism, of course: the idea that life has no intrinsic meaning and nothing we create has meaning, either. For a spiritual nihilist, this looks like if you are not in favour with our god, your life is meaningless and probably forfeit. For an existential nihilist, this looks like theres no intrinsic meaning in the cosmos and no point to contriving a sense of meaning during my time alive. Do as you will until you die.

Then theres worldly detachment, Buddhist-flavoured or otherwise, in which one seeks a state of reduced investment in what the world is and isnt, aspiring simply tobe without striving for any greater insight or value in the time youve spent alive.

And then theres my personal favourite, absurdism. As in Albert Camuss famous summation of the precept, il faut imaginer sisyphe heureux (One must imagine Sisyphus happy), absurdism tells us to live with full awareness that life is meaningless without either killing ourselves or falling in with dishonest philosophy, instead being content with the struggle to hold the line between these options. Why? Because there and there alone, in ourchoice to be content with an existence we do not control, do we have any agency in the cosmos at all.

So, sure, we could be absurdists instead. (I often long to be one after certain news cycles.)

But thereis a critical difference between absurdism and humanism, and it lies in that notion of aspiring to contentment.

For an absurdist, thats it. Lifes a grand cosmic joke: revel in it!

For a humanist, though, we might ask for a broader range of responses.

We might say, that is, il faut imaginer sisyphe insatiable: insatiable for new knowledge, insatiable for new experience, insatiable for self-improvement.

Because who says he cant learn to sing while pushing that rock? Who says he cant holler at other denizens of Hades and ask them how the underworlds treating them? Who says he cant offer counsel to them in their own suffering, and share his own low spells to receive counsel and support from them in turn?

(And then, in more tragic cases, weve sometimes achieved that control by hastening that end along through war or other forms of mass suicide.)

Harder, far harder, is to invest in the struggle itself. This isnt the same as being hopeful (though youre welcome to feel hopeful, too, if youd like). This isnt about finding new and better platitudes to replace the old, and clinging to any sense that if we just try a little bit harder, a little bit longer, everything will work out in the end.

Secular humanists: Weknowit wont. The end is oblivion. Thats as much as anything ever works out in the cosmos.

So, no, this isnt about optimism, per se. This is more about recognizing when you are tired, and fed up, and cynical, and hurt, and wounded, and angryall conditions in which it seems reasonable just to stop botheringand then to make a concerted effort to keep bothering anyway.

Not because of some promised better world, spiritual or secular.

And not because we truly believe that racism, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of social persecution will be solved in our lifetimes.

But because there is a gravity to saying, Everythings mucked-up and Im sticking with it anyway. Say it to yourself. Try it (or more forceful variants) out. Theres a conviction to it, isnt there? A grounding assertion of inner will.

Its our ultimate test, my friends. Can we get over ourselves, get over our egos, get over our hurting pasts and our grinding presents, get over all the people who ever wronged us and all the things we can never fix, long enough to be able to say, Existence does not have to be happy or hopeful to be a space where meaning is made?

After all, if there were a great big red button we could press to terminate everything simultaneously, okay, finethen wed be in a situation where it would be worth haggling over how much suffering is too much.

But we dont, so we arent. Instead we have a world where were all linked to one another, and our collective suffering rises and falls with one another. Much as we might want to live with perfect detachment, then, and much as we might want to affect absurdist humour through it all, the day-to-day reality of our interactions with other people and their struggles is always going to pull us back in to the agony of meaning-creation in human society. (I mean, unless youre already living in a remote cabin somewhere, disconnected from the entire ecosystem of human struggle? In which case, why the heck are you reading this?)

And it isagony, because meaning-creation is not easy, and its not always successful. We despair, we lose, we fail. Routinely. Daily, even. But even if were not high enough in the chain to make sweeping and sustainable changes to how much other people suffer, we can strive to alleviate proximate complaints: sometimes through aid; sometimes through presence; but most of all, by learning to look at our circumstances and remind ourselves that there is as much value in this form of existence as there is in any other, rich or poor, sea-slug and moutain-lion alike:

Namely, as much as we choose to invest in its growth.

So invest well, fellow humanistsin new knowledge, new experiences, new approaches to self- and communal improvement based on the best new intelall while expecting no greater reward than this:

That you invested in your existence for as long, and as meaningfully, as you could.

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What's the Point of Being a Good Humanist in a Mucked-Up World? - Patheos

After a long and dramatic Oscar race, it looks as if Sam Mendes' World War I adventurestory1917is poised to take home the coveted golden statue as Best Picture. The film started its awards streak with a win for Best Picture - Drama at the Golden Globes, which, at the time, was considered a surprise. As awards season progressed, however,1917 no longer seemed likean upset of a choice for Academy voters, as the acclaimed feature took home the top Producers' Guild Award as well as the Directors' Guild of America Award.

However, theAcademy Awards have a longstanding reputation for recognizing war filmsin lieu of other genres of filmmaking.1917, despite its impressive technical achievements, adds little to the pantheon of Oscar-winning cinema about the horrors of war.It's an unfortunate turn of events for the other nominees, which arguably broke bolder narrative ground than a gorgeously shot but simply told World War I story. Furthermore,1917 doesn't challenge the viewers' ideas on war in the same way other films released this past year attempted to broaden audiences' horizons on morality, violence, and socio-political issues.

RELATED: Are Superheroes Too Bland to Ever Receive Oscars Love?

TakeJoker, for instance, which completely reinterpreted the limits of a comic book movie. While the narrative of1917follows familiar war movie beats,Joker seeks tomake the audience feel uncomfortable aboutpreconceived notions of the title character. While it may follow a previously established plot formula taken fromTaxi DriverandThe King of Comedy, the film argues that comic book stories don't have to be limited to blockbuster action sequences and colorful, heroic adventures. Critics of Jokerargue that the movie is too dark and cynical, completely failing to address its message in favor of reveling in nihilism. But at least director and co-writer Todd Philips attempted to challenge viewers' ideas of morality andthe corroding effects ofcapitalism, however bleak and frustratingly pointless that depiction is.1917, on the other hand, merelytips its hat to the British troops for their sacrifices.

Another entry up for the big award is Jojo Rabbit, which also works as an apt comparison to the flatness of1917.Writer and director Taika Waititi made a bold choice in looking at World War II from the perspective of the antagonistic side of the war, and received a fair share of controversy forusing the Holocaust as a backdrop for a comedy. However, his intention was to use satire to depict the sheer absurdity of hate. The fact that the film takes place on the German home front means that it can also show the multitude of German citizens living under the Nazi regime, whether they were reluctantly participating in the war or actively resisting it. Compare this to the German soldiers in 1917, who arenameless murderers with no sign of remorse or moral compass. There's a debate to be had about how responsible theexecution ofJojo Rabbit is, but it should be commended for addressing complex wartime issues.

RELATED: What Joker & Parasite's Screen Actors Guild Wins Mean For the Oscars

In fact, the influence of social pressures on the perception of morality seems to be a common trend among most of the Oscar nominees.Parasite is a fresh take on class issues thatsuggests the tensions between the haves and the have-nots are not so clearly defined. The Irishmanpresents a protagonistat a moral crossroads as he tries to find personal and financial success within his dark, criminal business. Marriage Storytakes a closer look at another type of war altogether, allowing the audience to sympathize with both sides of a gendered, interpersonal conflict in the form of divorce proceedings. All of these films push the boundaries of cinematic storytelling through their complicated characterizations and topical themes.

Sam Mendes' epic is a Hollywood blockbuster taken to stressful and bombastic heights, but it's still a Hollywood blockbuster that conforms to a specific formula. In fact, the plot almost resembles a superhero movie or Call of Duty video game in its straightforward telling of a quest to reach a specific location to deliver a message. The one-take technique allows the members of the audience to feel as if they are experiencing the horrors of war on a personal level. However, 1917 doesn't make a compelling statement other than how hellish war is, a message that countless war films in the past have meticulously covered.

To be fair,1917is a highly ambitious technical masterpiece. For all the war movies that have passed through the annals of the Academy, none has ever felt quite as immersive as this one has. Cinema is ultimately subjective, so one idea of "revolutionary filmmaking" may look different than another. Still, the ideas of1917feel oddly conventional compared to the more contemporary messages of the other Best Picture nominees. Even Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, a film that celebrates a bygone era, follows an unconventional narrative structure. In a field full of stories that passionately address current issues,1917stands out as an ode to past traditions.

NEXT: Why the Oscars Snub Disney's Blockbusters -- Repeatedly

Thor, Herald of Thunder, Proves Just How Strong He Really Is

Tags:feature,Joker (film),1917

Originally posted here:

1917 Is a Best Picture Frontrunner and That's Frustrating | CBR - CBR - Comic Book Resources

Rachel Maddow, the US TV host, has a message for her critics: Bring it. Your hatred makes me stronger. Come on. Give me more. Give me more. I love it!

That is just as well, given the way she has polarised viewers in the past few years. Maddow, 46, has presented her primetime show on MSNBC, a 24-hour cable news channel, on weeknights since 2008. If most cable news and social media is fast food, she tries to rustle up a three-course meal: sensible, sober, sometimes painfully detailed and replete with oblique references to half-forgotten politicians of yesteryear. Since Donald Trumps rise in 2016, however, The Rachel Maddow Show has become a nightly safety blanket for many progressives who identify with the resistance.

Her figure has ascended, in the liberal imagination, from beloved cable news host to a kind of oracle for the age of Trump, the New York Times Magazine noted recently, describing her show as the gathering place for a congregation of liberals hungering for an antidote to President Trumps nihilism and disregard for civic norms.

The view from the right is rather different. Maddow is demonised as an avatar of the liberal elite and Trump derangement syndrome. Even ideological fellow travellers worry that she is strident and shrill. She dedicates her new book, Blowout, which explores the pernicious influence of the global oil and gas industry, to the bots and trolls, all of you, with love.

There is, of course, much more to Maddow than her screen persona. A practising Catholic as well as the first openly gay host of a US primetime news programme, she has suffered cycles of depression all her life and enjoys fishing, shooting and reading Robert Harris historical yarns. She is also, it turns out, a lot of fun.

At a receptionists desk outside her understated office in New Yorks art deco Rockefeller Center sits a decaying lifesize waxwork of the former Republican president Dwight Eisenhower. Inside, a Russian doll bearing Vladimir Putins face rests on a bookcase. Crutches are propped up in a corner as a talisman she broke her ankle last year in a fishing accident.

With bookshelves overflowing the Mueller report, examining Russian interference in the 2016 election, lies on a crate below and ideas scribbled on whiteboards, it is the den of a promiscuous intellect. Maddow, dressed in a black jacket, turned-up jeans, camo trainers and her trademark black-rimmed specs, spots my voice recorder a vintage Tascam device that resembles a Taser and snaps a photo of it with her phone, lest it be useful to her team.

The media will be on trial in Novembers presidential election. Many observers fear a repeat of 2016, when Trumps vulgar antics gained endless air time, pundits were insufficiently critical and even serious newspapers appeared to treat baseless allegations against Hillary Clinton as if they were equivalent to Trumps financial and sexual transgressions.

The day after we speak, Maddow demonstrates another way of working and gains the biggest ratings win of her career when her interview with a key figure in Trumps Ukraine scandal pulls in 4.5 million viewers, beating all the competition. Her explosive conversation with Lev Parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, Trumps lawyer, is a timely riposte to the claims that she is too partisan, polemical and fixated with international conspiracy theories. It makes the political weather for several days.

I think part of the reason Trump got so much earned media during the 2016 campaign is that he was so transgressive, Maddow says. It was a relatively rational newsworthiness assessment to put a camera on him at all times, because there was a reasonably good chance he was going to do something shocking, wrong, transgressive or unbelievably disruptive.

Getting a show on the air is like merging on to the freeway at 80 miles an hour at night in a storm with no headlights

But that also dovetails with the question of whether or not his falsehoods and reversals and self-contradictions and professed ignorance got the critical coverage that they deserved. When nobodys expecting you to tell the truth, you telling a lie isnt news. If Barack Obama got up and said something that was proveably false or maybe not the whole truth, youd have the whole media, not just Fox News, going crazy for a month at a time. Donald Trumps mendacity has never been notable. Its just been baked in.

Trump made more than 16,000 false or misleading claims in his first three years as president, according to the Washington Post and that number is likely to accelerate as the election hots up. But he is undeniably good for ratings and clicks. Media outlets will have to choose whether or not to broadcast his campaign rallies and interview his surrogates unfettered, as well as how far to go in editing, fact-checking or simply no-platforming.

We went through our own transformation fairly early on when I realised that I couldnt put Trump administration officials on the air as guests because they did not tell the truth, says Maddow. Having to clean up after your guest is a sort of fool me once thing, like: When I told my audience that you were somebody worth listening to because you had something to contribute to our understanding of the world, I was wrong. Ive goodnighted you. I wont invite you back.

She adds: I can play the tape of the president saying something thats not true and then clean up after him but then Ive also just played the tape of him saying something not true, and maybe thats more compelling to you and more of what you remember than the part where I corrected it.

I feel like theres a responsibility level there. So were not going to give people a platform who are lying to the public. But Im assuming everybody else in the media is going through that same thing.

Observers of all political stripes have taken Maddow to task for her coverage of Trumps alleged collusion with Russia. Presidential cheerleader Sean Hannity, whose Fox News show airs in direct opposition, has called her the chief conspiracy theorist. In a critique of her handling of a 35-page dossier on the subject compiled by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele, Erik Wemple of the Washington Post wrote: She was there for the bunkings, absent for the debunkings a pattern of misleading and dishonest asymmetry.

But Maddow, whose new book was inspired by Putins motives for attacking US democracy, describes some of the criticism as dishonest and makes no apologies for being obsessive, especially since there is every prospect of Putin trying again this year. Russia interfered in the 2016 election to try to elect Donald Trump, and Donald Trump got elected and he is weirdly and irreversibly supplicant toward Russia and Putin. Like, OK, Im going to cover that, she says. I dont care what anybody says about me. I dont play requests and I dont worry about the criticism. If we get something wrong, Ill correct it, but, in the absence of that, the criticism for focusing on real news stories that bother people thats what I get paid to do.

You have to grow a thick skin, she says. Getting a show on the air, even all these years in, is like merging on to the freeway at 80 miles an hour at night in a rainstorm with no headlights and no windshield wipers and a bunch of semi-trucks coming up right behind me. Somebody telling me that they dont like the colour of my car? I am not focusing on you! Ive got a job to do here.

That freeway sounds terrifying and yet also an adrenaline rush. The Trump presidency is a liberals worst nightmare and a dream for many journalists. Jim Acosta, the chief White House correspondent at Maddows rival network CNN, has said: Im having the time of my life right now. This is the biggest story of my life. Im like a kid in a candy store. So, despite the daily horrors, is Maddow secretly enjoying this?

Civil rights arent a given. Theyre asserted and protected or assailed

I dont know if enjoy is the right word, but I do have the best job in the world, she says. I talk to a lot of people who feel strongly about whats going on in the world, whether theyre in public affairs or theyre just concerned citizens who pay attention to whats going on. People say: Dont you find it incredibly demoralising? How do you think about all this stuff all day? I feel the opposite. If youre at all engaged with whats going on in the country and in the world, you have to be concerned. But my job, what they actually pay me to do, is to read the news all day long and do original reporting and try to figure out what is and isnt reliable information. I feel like Im doing mental health work all day long.

Maddow, who grew up in a small town in California, has previously worked as a labourer, a messenger, a waitress and a bucket washer at a coffee-bean factory. I am not a planner. This definitely wasnt like the thing that I set my mind toward and then I put together all the pieces to get there. I had much more of a drunken stumble through my career than you might expect, but now that I have landed here, I value it.

She came out at Stanford University by posting an open letter inside every bathroom stall in her dormitory announcing that she was a lesbian, an incident that was reported in the student newspaper. Classy, right? I was 17. Why did we do anything? I dont know. I havent thought about it in a long time. I think that I was very full of myself and thought that this was a very important piece of news that everybody needed to have. And I also liked needling people and confronting them in ways that I thought would be both funny and self-aggrandising. I dont look back on that with particular pride.

Her conservative Catholic parents were stunned. I didnt handle it well. I wasnt very respectful and didnt have much emotional peripheral vision in terms of the way that my actions would affect others, which I think was a product both of my ego and self-regard and where I was in my own development at that time. They had a really hard time at first and we had a few rocky years.

But now my parents could not be more supportive. Im Catholic and I come from a Catholic family and the churchs teachings on this have been a factor. But, ultimately, where weve ended up is at the best possible place and I am super-blessed to have the support of my whole extended family.

Maddow has been with her partner, Susan Mikula, a photographer, for two decades. Counterintuitively for a liberal icon, their first date involving throwing tomahawks and firing guns at a Ladies Day on the Range sponsored by the National Rifle Association, of which Mikulas sister is a lifetime member.

Maddow, who does not own a gun, says cheerfully: Going to gun ranges is fun. Have you ever done it? You should go. You go and you pick which gun you want, you pay to use the time and they show you how to use it and you learn about the gun and then shoot a target. And then you leave the gun there and you go home.

Shooting sports is, I think, an interesting way to demystify guns, particularly if youre engaged in reporting on or commenting on the politics and culture around guns stuff. I dont have any problem with that at all. Its super-fun. Susan, it turns out, is a really good shot, which was a shock.

It says something about the times that Maddows ease with guns is more shocking to some than her sexuality. The CNN anchors Don Lemon and Anderson Cooper both came out almost a decade ago. Same-sex marriage was legalised in 2015. Now Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is bidding to become the first openly gay US president. Nothing, however, should be taken for granted. Under cover of myriad distractions, the Trump administration is attacking gay and transgender rights.

Maddow reflects: Civil rights and social justice issues often advance in what I describe as a sawtooth pattern of progress, where you take two steps forward, one step back. Its work that doesnt do itself. It has to be done by human beings who are working in a concerted way, in a way that is nimble and that appreciates the potential for backsliding and even backlash.

Thats the one piece of this that I feel like were learning more and more: that civil rights arent a given. Theyre asserted and protected or assailed.

Blowout by Rachel Maddow is published by Bodley Head. To order a copy for 17.60 (RRP 20), go to guardianbookshop.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK P&P over 15; online orders only. Phone orders minimum P&P of 1.99.

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Rachel Maddow on her critics: Your hatred makes me stronger. Come on! Give me more! - The Guardian

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What if happiness was not only a choice, but a side effect?

Thats the intriguing premise of Deborah Zoe Laufers play Be Here Now, which she also directs with depth and quirky humor at Everyman Theatre in a production that brightens the gloom and gray of midwinter with a joyful reminder to live in the moment even when the only positive thing you can say about your day is that you are still above ground.

Bari (Beth Hylton, equally commanding as a wretch and a radiant being) is a fortyish professor working at an Asian tchotchke distribution center in update New York. She is unable to complete her dissertation on nihilism that will allow her to keep teaching so she is gift-wrapping ersatz Buddhas and kvetching about her life.

And Bari is a world-class grump. Even at the age of five, Bari seemed to be in the clutches of existential angst. Her long-time friend Patty Cooper (a tough-as-nails and tender Katy Carkuff) recalls that she once asked the kindergartener Bari if she wanted to play, and the tot replied I dont play with cretins.

Cynicism and perpetual poop bobbing in the cereal bowlthats Bari. You may wonder why people like Patty, who terms her friends state of mind as smug gloom, and her ebullient niece Luanne (Shubhango Kuchibhotla, who is the living embodiment of a joyful exclamation mark), put up with her. On the other hand, even Oscar the Grouch has pals on Sesame Street.

Not only does Patty tolerate her friend, but shes fixing her up with a relative, Mike (Kyle Prue), a reluctant genius who makes astonishing structures out of abandoned items. Their first encounter is sweetly awkward, as two damaged people with limited social skills try to connect, but keep saying and doing the most comically wrong things.

Then theres Baris headaches that are worsening to the point where shes having seizures and hallucinating. But her seizures are transformationalin the grips of a hallucination the world vibrates with color and light and joy and every moment is a miracle.

What turns out to be a brain tumor turns Bari into her best, happiest self. Bari bathes in these strange, good feelings and never wants them to end. But she also grapples with who she truly issomeone who believes that life is meaningless like a mopey teenager or someone truly alive for the first time in her life?

Will this aura of awesomeness dissipate when the tumor is removed and Bari returns to her former role, a merchant of doom?

Be Here Now closes February 16, 2020. DCTS details and tickets

Luckily, Laufers play doesnt give us the answers we, or Bari, seek, but she teases us with possibilities as well as toying with the idea of a thin line between genius-creativity and madness. As Daniel Ettingers carousel-like set reveals the settings of Baris revelations, so does the play show us the value of mining the meaning out of every moment.

The play and the production is also thankfully free of touchy-feely, Oprah-esque maxims about finding your aura, self-care and the zen of happiness.

Be Here Now reminded me of Kay Redfield Jamisons books about moods, madness and creativity or of insider artists (like those at Baltimores American Visionary Art Museum) who created the most rapturous, ecstatic art as oddballs but when treated with psychotic drugs or brain zapped with electricity, their artistic voices were stilled.

Is it worth treating mental illness or a brain condition if it silences your genius?

The play makes you think about those touched with fire and how they handle it. Mike, played with beguiling ineptitude by Kyle Prue, retreats from society after a tragedy and devotes his life with monkish simplicity to making art out of what others throw away.

Yet Mike also quivers with the same sensitivity to what is all around him as Bari does when she has a seizure. There is this quietly revelatory scene late in the play, when Bari is slumped on a bench fretting that her golden, syrupy moments of pure happiness are transient. Mike is half-listening, his senses trembling as he sniffs the air.

Do you smell it? he asks her in wonder and at first all she detects is cat pee on an abandoned lampshade.

Spring, Mike states. And they sit quietly and sniff a new season.

Be Here Now .Written and directed by Deborah Zoe Laufer .Featuring Katy Carkuff, Beth Hylton, Shubhangi Kuchibhotla, Kyle Prue .Set Design: Daniel Ettinger. Lighting Design: Harold F. Burgeee II. Costume Design: David Burdick. Sound Design: Sarah OHalloran. Fights/Intimacy: Lewis Shaw. Stage Manager: Cat Wallis. Produced by Everyman Theatre . Reviewed by Jayne Blanchard.

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Review: Be Here Now at Everyman Theatre. Seizures, sanity and the smell of spring - DC Theatre Scene