29 Burst results for "American Hollywood"
The Aloönæ Show
A highlight from S13 E16: Oliver: Writer, Producer, and Novelist Spotlight
"Hello, welcome to The Loney Show. I'm your host, John Mayolone. In this episode, don't have regulars, because raisins, as always, unfortunately. As for our guest, he's from Portland, Oregon, currently living in Los Angeles, California, and he is a film producer. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Oliver Tutill Jr. Well, thank you, Peter. It's actually Ted Hill Jr. But thanks for having me on your show. I'm excited to be here. Anytime. So, how's life? It's good. It's really exciting. I love the film business. I've been in the business for quite a while. And it's very exciting meeting different people, talking to different producers, actors, filmmakers, editors, composers, business financing. It's all very exciting. You meet a lot of very interesting people that are very involved in their work and are very creative. Ah, very good. And have you been up to much recently? Yeah, we've been pretty busy. My company's name is Cinema Development and Writing Services. And my business partner is Tara Walker. And what we do is, when we started out, we've had our business about a year now. And anybody that's curious, they can just go to cinema wds .com. That's our website. And what we do is, we work with novelists, and we adapt their novels into screenplays. And then once we've adapted them into screenplays, we've been asked by our clients to, well, can you place this with Hollywood companies? And we said, well, yeah, we probably can, you know, we weren't doing that. We're primarily focused on writing, but we started packaging, which means that we started putting together like a deck of electronic brochure that shows the actors we thought might be good for the role, and what the director is. And then we present it to different production companies, different producers and finance companies in Los Angeles, and sometimes in New York as well. Okay, very nice. And what inspired you to start all that? Well, I think I started out in the business, and so did Tara, we were both actors. And we enjoyed that. But it's, it's very, very tough. Getting regular work as an actor, you go through good times, and then there's these long stretches where you don't have much work. And so we said, Well, how can we get more involved in business? And so we both decided, well, why don't we become producers? So Tara started her own production company years ago called Alpenfest films. And then I started, I started out making a production company called Autumn Tree Productions, where I, at that time, this was in the late 1980s, I pretty much focused on making educational films, and actually was pretty much on emotional child abuse. And I did that for 10 years, I had a lot of success. A lot of my films, educational films are used in universities and colleges and many institutions. And after doing that for 10 years, I wanted to segue over into doing commercial motion pictures and, and documentaries. So I started a company called Bluewood films. And under that name under that company, I produced quite a few films and documentaries and pleased to say that some of them are on streaming platforms now where people can can see them. I just have my newest release was just last month. It's called Crazy Horse of Life, featuring Russell Means, the late Nakoda actor who did very well. Right, then. Very good. And have you ever considered like, releasing any of your work on an international level? Yes, I mean, Crazy Horse of Life is available internationally. They can definitely time to be TV so anybody can go to to be TV and anywheres in the world basically and watch it for free. It's ad supported. And then we've got another film called the right to bear arms, which is a dramatic crime feature starring john savage. And that's available on Amazon Prime and Amazon freebie and also on to be TV. And we've got another film that's distributed internationally. It's also on to be TV. It's called the Loch Ness Monster of Seattle and it features Graham Green, the Academy Award nominated actor from Dances with Wolves. It's been doing very well. My distributor is very pleased. He just sent me a letter the other day and he said how happy is that how well it's doing. So those those three films are available now. We've got new ones that are going to be coming out later this year. We're excited about. Wow, fantastic. So where would you see yourself 20 years from now? Well, that's a good question. And 20 years is a long time. But I would say in 20 years, I'd probably see myself and Tara, my business partner, our own company now, but probably producing eight to 12 motion pictures a year. Also, I'm a composer too. So I probably, I haven't been doing my composing recently, but I've, I've scored a lot of motion pictures and documentaries. And it's a matter of fact, Crazy Horse of Life. The score I did that score and I did actually I wrote the score years ago, but it's used in this big feature now and I scored the movie right to bear arms as well. So but 20 years, I want to still be producing movies and helping actors and helping create jobs for people that work in the industry. You badly because they can't get work. Yes, of course. So I want to provide jobs for people. And also, I'm a novelist as well. And I hope to have a few more novels released. I just had my first novel released by awesome Achilles publishers, which is their home offices in London. So it's definitely an international release. And it's called when the sunlight goes down, goes dark, excuse me, when the sunlight goes dark. And it's about a young, young boxer living in Los Angeles, who has to deal with unscrupulous promoters. And one of the one of the supporting characters in the book is a man from England who who wins one of the heavyweight titles. It's also a book that it also covers worker exploitation, family dysfunction, spousal Okay, fantastic. Yeah, let me just mention, Peter, that people can look at it to go to the website for the book. It's when the sunlight goes dark .com. That's the website for the book. And it's also available on amazon .com and Barnes and Noble, Goodreads, any bookstore, you go into any reputable bookstore, and they can order it for you. All right, then very good. So in terms of your written work, besides what, besides the novels you've just written, are there any more novels you're yet to write or have released? I do have one novel. It's called primordial division. I'm searching for the right agent to rep it. It's kind of a crime horror novel. It's also set in Los Angeles in the 1970s and 1980s. And it's about a woman who has the ability to see the future. She's kind of one of these mind readers and the kid, the male protagonist is able to, he's got the power of telepathy. Very good. And it's set in the context of the entertainment industry. Oh, nice, nice. What could you give a 40 minute presentation on without any preparation? I'm sorry, say that again, Peter, a 14. What could you give a 40 minute presentation on without any preparation? Oh, a 40 minute presentation? I could give it on, definitely, I could probably give it on, I made educational films for 10 years. So I could do on an education, I could do one on the film business. They cover all the aspects of the film business from development to pre production to production to post production, exhibition and distribution. I could do that for you. I've been in the music business since I was a kid. So probably give you a one on that as well. So, okay, very good. What which recent news story have you found most interesting? That's a really great question. The recent most recent news story that I found the most interesting probably would be what's going on with our climate and what's happening to the earth in regards to the climate crisis that's happening in the world today. That's that's one of them, I guess I know it's a big topic, but it definitely stands out. I'm also fascinated by what's going on in American politics today, who's running for president and what's going on in Congress in the Senate. And I'm also very concerned with the state of our country, you know, and how divided people are and how unhappy so many people are. Yeah, absolutely. I was gonna also say to my friends who are very struggling because they have kids, and it's hard for them to get daycare for the kids. So I have one friend, she had to give up work because she, she couldn't afford to hire a babysitter or a nanny or daycare. So yeah, she had to give up her job. Oh, no, that's just sad. Very sad, very sad, the income inequality in this, in the United States. I'm not an expert in your country, but in the United States, it's very sad to see so many people that are divided by class. Wow, I thought the UK was bad. I didn't know that the US has got bigger problems given its size. Yeah, there's a lot of problems. Definitely. We've seen the erosion of the middle class here. You know, it's been kind of disappearing for years. And the income inequality that exists in this country, it's pretty bad. And as well as you know, there was a, I was watching, I was watching News Nation the other night and the big story presented by Chris Cuomo, who's an interesting newscaster, whose brother to his brother to the former governor. And he his top story was these kids that these babies, basically, the toddlers and daycare that died from fentanyl overdoses. And he's all over that. And I'm thinking, yeah, that's, that's tragic. But a lot of people don't want to address what's happening kids into this country, they have many kids suffer from abuse, and how they it's very difficult for them to thrive and survive become and constructive citizens. That that puts something into the country that helps it grow more. Yeah, absolutely. You know, I can share one thing with you, I used to be a teacher. And I taught drama at a film school and a college, as well as film production. And I had a class, this is in Seattle, Washington. And I had a class where I had a quite quite a number of kids that were African American. And I'll never forget this, Peter, because like, they would come to class, sometimes the girls would be crying and go, what's wrong? She go, Well, Joey got killed last night. He said, What are you talking about? She goes, Yeah, Joey, you know, he got on the top of he got on the roof of Dan's car and Dan shot him to death. I said, Oh, you don't read about that in the paper. And then then another day, a girl came into class, she was weeping. I said, What's the matter? And she's when my sister was killed last night. I said, Well, what happened? She said somebody shot to her living room window, and she was killed. You don't read about it in newspaper. Just people don't know about that. Exactly. Yes, indeed. It's the media these days, they only want to show what they really want to show. They don't show the important stuff that goes on like poverty, financial crisis or things that impact a lot of people in this world. Absolutely correct. Yes, you're right, Peter. They don't know it's funny, funny because Chris, it's not funny, but I found it interesting. Chris Como mentioned one night on his show on news nation, he, he mentioned that people don't want to talk about class warfare in this country, you know, what's going on between the classes between the wealthy and the poor, or the struggling lower middle class, you get an idea of it. And now with all the strikes that are going on, you get the writers Guild of America on strike. You've got the screen actors Guild that's going on strike. Now you've got the United Auto Workers going on strike, and it's getting bigger, that strikes growing. And if that strike goes all out, it's going to, it's going to play havoc on the economy here. Yeah, absolutely. What do you disagree with most frequently? What do I disagree with most frequently? Probably people that say everything's going to be great. You know, you just have to hang in there. And also, I find myself disagreeing a lot with financial advisors who say, just, you know, keep it where it is, you know, don't sell, just stay steady, keep your bonds, 40 % bonds or 60 % bonds, 40 % stock or 40 % bonds, 60 % stock. I disagree a lot with financial advisors. Not that I'm an expert in finance, but I'm fascinated by it. I read about it. Absolutely. How much time do you spend on the internet? How much time do I spend on the internet? A fair amount, because I do a lot of research on the internet. And while I'm something to do research on something particular, then then you find, wait a minute, I've got to have to research this more. Then you find yourself going to another page, finding more things to read about. And then you realize you're going to be searching even more on the internet. So and to be honest with you, I spend so much time on the internet as it is on zoom calls. I'm tired of looking at the internet. I prefer reading books. So I read a lot of books. But I've got to use the internet a lot to do research. You know, especially I work with a lot of people that I've got to find out what their background is, you know, in the film business, and the financial business. So I do spend an enormous amount of time on the internet. I imagine you, you do yourself, I'm sure. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Hours upon hours. Yeah, it's a it's a necessity. It's a necessity today without a without a cell phone or computer. It'd be very difficult to survive. I do know some folks in their 70s and 80s. They don't use computers, they don't use cell phones. I do know one young guy who doesn't use a cell phone, but that's very unusual. But it's very hard to survive. I couldn't stay in business if I couldn't use a computer and cell phone. Oh, yes. Sure. It's the same for you. Yeah, of course. The internet is such a necessity. It's part of our lives, in a way. Absolutely. Yes. It is. It's built in. And you read about these kids, you know, they get addicted to their cell phones and computers. And there's so many psychologists that predict they're gonna have trouble with their personal relationships in looking at a screen. They don't spend time in person a lot. I don't know how that'll play out, but it makes sense in a lot of ways. What a world filled with clones of you, what would a world populated by clones of you be like, a world populated by I'm sorry, what what would a world populated by clones of you be like? You mean point of view? And a world populated by clones of you? What would it be like? Oh, clones of me? Yes. Okay, what would I think it would probably be a pretty peaceful world. To be honest, I don't think there'd be any wars, I think war would end. I think children would, we'd set up some type of educational system and change some values in the government in the country so that kids don't get abused, that parents are afforded the education and the training, starting in high school. Probably actually, I take that back, starting in grammar school. How to parent, how to treat other human beings, learning about themselves, becoming self intelligent, learning emotional intelligence, understanding their emotions. And growing up to be citizens that are productive and have empathy for other people. And if this happened, we could, I believe we could end this may sound naive, but I do think we could end poverty in this country. But there's no will to do that. There's no will to help kids because children can't vote. And they're not members of political action committee. So I would, I would make sure that their political action committee is available for children. I would allow children at a certain age if they can show that they have some knowledge about the political system, to have a say in voting, to see who represents them. And I believe with education, and with treating people well, with respect and compassion, having people trained for the type of work that they want to do, that poverty could could be eliminated. And so there are a lot of clones to me, there would be no more wars. And there would be a lot less suffering in the world. Yeah, that sounds that sounds like a very good reason. Thank you. Welcome. What's Education is the key. Education is the key and law. The merging of law and education. And again, unfortunately, the people in power, the bureaucrats and politicians don't have the will or the desire to bring about the needed changes. Yeah, it's so sad. What is your favorite quote? Yes. And probably, I guess it's a quote that is on my mind a lot now, because it's a quote I used to open my novel when the sunlight goes dark about the boxing family in Los Angeles, and the quote is, Oh, pardon me, thou bleeding piece of earth, that I am so meek and gentle with these butchers. And it originally that quote is taken from William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar when Mark Anthony is standing over the dead body of Julius Caesar and Caesar has been assassinated. by members of the Senate. And he's bemoaning the fact that he's so meek and gentle with these butchers because he's kind of going along with them at the time. And it's just a quote that just stands out to me because I've used it in my book because I my books about worker exploitation in one way because a lot of these boxers are exploited. And a lot of them end up in not very good shape. Because people aren't looking out for him. So I guess for today, that's my favorite quote. I mean, I have others too. But I guess for today, that's the one that would be my favorite. All right. Very good. And I could you could use that metaphorically, too. I mean, the sense that, you know, Oh, pardon me, you know, why aren't the people that are running the government trying to help the people? Yes, that's a very good question. I'm sure you've run into very similar situations in England. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All the time. What's improved your wife quality so much? You wish you did it sooner? I'm sorry, Peter, you have to say that one more time. All right. What improved your life quality so much? You wish you did it sooner? well, Oh, I would I would say I spent a lot of time in therapy. I came from a very dysfunctional family. I suffered a lot of abuse, I was put into a private boarding school where kids got regularly beaten very badly. One of the lucky ones, really, I never suffered any permanent physical injury. But I think if I hadn't gone into therapy, and I was in therapy for decades, I'd say that probably the key to my being a functioning productive adult today, that in a book I read, called compassion and self hate, written by Theodore Isaac Rubin, that book changed my life. I never thought a book could change my life, but that one did. Yeah, of course. That and of course, if you're going to be successful, you have to you have to work hard, you have to know where to put your effort, you have to work hard and you have to think smart. I mean, that old saying about if you work hard, everything will fall into place is not necessarily true. I've known, I've had guy friends that have worked hard all their lives, and they've got nothing. Yeah, absolutely. So you got to work smart, as well as hard. Yes. But the more success you realize, it just adds to your happiness and your fulfillment. Yeah, of course. But people need the basic necessities have to be taken care of. You got to have clothes, you got to have proper shelter, you got to have decent physical health. I don't think I've ever met anyone that's happy if they haven't had good physical health. Yeah, of course. How did you spend your last birthday? Well, my last birthday, I had dinner with my business partner and my best friend, Tara Walker. We went to a really nice restaurant down on the beach, had a great dinner. And then went home and watched a really great movie. And it was a great day. And you know, I talked to a lot of friends and family too. I got a lot of calls. Okay. That's cool. It was fun. Oh, yes. It was quite a time. Yeah. You like birthdays? Yeah, I like birthdays. It's pretty cool, I guess. It's funny. I was just reading about Jimmy Carter, you know, the former President of the United States who is a president. And he's going to be turning 99 here in a couple days. And someone called him up, one of his family members said, I wanted to wish you a happy birthday. And he said, that's, that's not real good. I'm not really excited about this birthday. I didn't know you even make this far in his life. Yeah, he's going to be 99 years old. And you know, he's been in hospice for seven months. Everyone thought he was going to pass in about two or three weeks and he's still going. Madness. Amazing man. Absolutely. We could use a young Jimmy Carter today. That's for sure. Uh huh. Yeah. That'll be something. It would be. Yeah. Yeah. What's the best way to start the morning? The best way to start the morning is to eat a good breakfast. I know so many people that don't eat breakfast. They have health problems, they're overweight. And I don't mean starting breakfast, you know, eating junk food. You gotta eat something healthy for you. Eat something healthy. Write down the things you need to do today if you have to make a list. Yeah, it helps me a lot before I go to bed to write it to do this. So when I wake up in the morning, I know exactly what I got to do. And I got to feel the body first. You got to take care of the body. I have a friend of mine who's, he had a stroke and he's in the hospital now. He can't barely move. And, you know, he, he didn't have the right diet and he's still a fairly young man. It's very tragic. So feel the body and feed it well. Yeah, absolutely. I'm sure you know, because I could tell you put a lot of hours on your show. Oh yeah. It's, it's quite a process, but it's definitely worth it. Yeah, it's enjoyable. Yeah, sure is. If you could travel back in time, what would decade you want to live in? There's so many decades I would love to live in. There's so many centuries I'd love to live in. It's really hard to pick one, but if I had to pick one, I'd probably say the early 1960s. Sixties? That's pretty cool. Yeah, that's when Muhammad Ali came on the scene and that's when the Beatles came on the scene. To me, that's, I think we'll never see the likes of the Beatles or Muhammad Ali again. Yeah. So one of a kind, they always say. Yeah, but I, believe me, Peter, I'd love to live, I could go back to ancient Rome and be fascinated. Of course, your life expectancy wasn't very long. Oh yeah. Cause Sanitary wasn't up there and the advancement technologies got in the way. Yeah. Everything's like, ugh. I would love to live the life of a Plains Indian in 1840. I think that would be fascinating. It's freedom that people can barely conceive of today. And what a great, got the kids, Indian children back in those days, man, talk about having a great childhood. Yeah, absolutely. And that is all we have for this episode. It was great having you on Oliver talking about your works. You're welcome. And until next time, stay tuned for more.
![A highlight from Tim Burton - 'Wednesday' [LIVE]](https://storageaudiobursts.azureedge.net/site/images/stationIcons/22531.png)
Awards Chatter
A highlight from Tim Burton - 'Wednesday' [LIVE]
"Hi everyone and thank you for tuning in to the 507th episode of the Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter Podcast. I'm the host Scott Feinberg and my guest today is a filmmaker unlike any other. With directing credits dating back some 40 years including 1985's Pee Wee's Big Adventure, 1988's Beetlejuice, 1989's Batman, 1990's Edward Scissorhands, 1994's Ed Wood, 2003's Big Fish, 2005's Corpse Bride, 2007's Sweeney Todd, 2012's Frankenweenie, 2014's Big Eyes, and most recently in 2022, half of the eight episodes that comprise the first season of Netflix's giant hit drama series, Wednesday, for which he is personally nominated for two Emmys, Best Directing for a Comedy Series, and as one of the show's executive producers, Best Comedy Series. The New York Times has called him a visionary artist, noting, quote, he has developed a singular if not easily pinned down sensibility. His style is strongly visual, darkly comic, and morbidly fixated, but it is rooted just as much in his affection for monsters and misfits, which in his movies often turn out to be the same thing. He all but invented the vocabulary of the modern superhero movie, brought new vitality to stop motion animation, and has come to be associated, for better or worse, with anything that is ghoulish or ghastly without being inaccessible. He may be the most widely embraced loner in contemporary cinema, close quote. His most frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, who he has directed in 19 films, said that he is, quote, a filmmaker I admire, but he's much, much more than that. Without embarrassing him, he's a true artist, which is something I wasn't sure was possible in today's cinema. But he's the real thing. He's a visionary, an auteur, totally uncompromising, close quote. He's talking, of course, about Tim Burton. Over the course of a conversation in front of a large audience at the Burbank International Film Festival, including two of Burton's most celebrated and longtime collaborators, the composer Danny Elfman and the costume designer Colleen Atwood, the 65 -year -old and I discussed his complicated childhood and how it led him to pursue drawing and attracted him to characters regarded by others as freaks, how he wound up working at Disney Animation and then making his feature directorial debut with a live action film, the challenges of getting films made even with hits under his belt and what ultimately led him to TV for Wednesday, plus much more. And so, without further ado, let's go to that conversation. Hello, everyone, and Tim, thank you so much for doing this. Great to see you. I normally begin every episode of this podcast asking our guests where they were born and raised, which I think we have addressed, but I do want to get into it a little bit more because, you know, over the years, you have expressed that sort of what you just alluded to, that, you know, you were very shaped by Burbank. For better or worse, there were elements that were great, elements that were complicated. Can you talk about, but one thing that you've always said is that without Burbank and without those childhood experiences, the filmmaker we know today would not exist. So just break it down. Well, I mean, you know, I keep reading that I hate, you know, like the press has a way of sort of taking what you say and take out the nuance and subtlety and, you know, like go right to the core. But I think, you know, and when I said about whatever I said about Burbank, it had more to do with my own psychological state of mind than it did with the actual city of Burbank. You know what I mean? So and that's a bit too complicated and psychological to go into now, but in the sense that, you know, you grow up in feeling a certain way, Burbank helped shape me because, you know, there was like my first film school was the Cornell Theatre. There was this amazing theatre that was torn down, I think, in the late in the 80s. I don't know when it was, but, you know, they would for 50 cents, you could see a triple feature. Like, I saw one amazing, I saw War of the Gargantuas, Monster Zero and Destroy All Monsters in one go, you know, 50 cents. So that's where I learned my love of film and that really, so there was amazing places and it was incredible. There was like five movie theaters, Burbank at a certain time, and then they all got sort of taken away. But for me, that place, especially that theater was very, very special to me. And you've said that during your years in Burbank, which I think up until 12, you're living at, was it Evergreen Street? Is that where you were? Yeah, right down the street. Just down the street here. You can all walk over there after this. Yeah, we'll do a little. Check it out. Then you moved in with your grandmother also in Burbank, right? But as a bit of a loner, as a kid, you were kind of thinking about things, dreaming about things in everywhere from some of the cemeteries in town to... Yeah, the one right next door here, you know, I used to play around there, you know, that was, yeah. Yeah. You know, and I could look out my window, the thing that freaked me out, I looked out my window at Disney and this was like the weird, called the Bermuda Triangle of Burbank. Because I could see where I was born at St. Joseph's and then I could see the cemetery where everybody, all my family was buried. And I was, so it was like a weird Bermuda Triangle that I had to escape at a certain point because it was just too scary. Now, you've also said that as a kid, you were, you know, not only a bit of a loner, but sort of not particularly communicative, verbal with other people. You lived in your imagination, which manifested itself through drawing. Can we talk about how that entered the picture? And as was noted, I mean, to the extent that it was, you were talented enough that in Burbank, your work, anti -littering art was on the back of every garbage truck. I wanted $10, and at that time, that's probably like about a million now. Right, right, right. But drawing was an outlet for you. What kind of things were you drawing as a kid? Posters for trash trucks, I don't know, I mean, whatever. But also, I mean, the movies that you were drawn to, and I believe maybe therefore some of things the you were drawing were things that other people might find frightening or scary, but that you actually, in a way, related to, right? Like what are we talking about? Yeah, but I mean, like, you know, I didn't feel that different. It felt like, you know, I love famous monsters. I wait for that magazine to come out. I love monster movies. I live near a cemetery. You know, I mean, you use what you have, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it was good. Totally. And I think also, too, growing up in Southern California, where you don't really have seasons, I think that's why I kind of got into, you know, like things like Nightmare for Christmas or Halloween, just because it gave you a sense of occasion, a sense of season that you didn't get through the weather, you know, I mean, to experience, like holidays, you had to go like to the main, like, at Save On and look at the holiday displays to kind of experience.
Demo 1 - NaviLens
A highlight from Your-Weekly-Tech-Update-EP-132
"Hello everyone! Welcome to your weekly tech update, the show that explores the newest, coolest, and sometimes mind -boggling side of tech available on the interwebs. I am your tech therapist, Ray McNeil. I'm here to take your mind off of the current state of the world and my prescription? Technology. Coming up on the program today, Google's Tilt Brush virtual painting app is coming to the PlayStation VR. This has me so excited. Valve's first entry into the Half -Life world in 13 years is now available and it's in VR. And happening in this week's What The... We're actually going to rename the segment this week to give you just a moment of joy. That and a whole lot more coming up on today's edition of your weekly tech update, next. Hi everyone. Google's Tilt Brush painting app is conquering one of its few remaining frontiers. We're talking about consoles. The search giant has teamed up with Outerloop Games to release the 3D creative tool for the PlayStation VR. To no one's surprise, it's the same experience just in your living room. It turned your PlayStation Move controllers into virtual brushes that you can use to create pretty much any immersive masterpiece that you can dream up. And yes, Sony is aware that Move controllers aren't always easy to find. It's actually selling a $100 Tilt Brush bundle that includes two wands plus a code for Tilt Brush. That kit doesn't include the PlayStation VR headset itself, but it beats having to scrounge for controllers at other stores or even shops like Goodwill. However you complete your setup, it could be worth the expense if you need another creative tool to help you relax during a particularly stressful time. Dragon's Lair was a technological marvel when it was released way back in 1983. Instead of using conventional graphics of the day, which were not great at all, it featured real animation by ex -Disney animator Don Bluth enabled by beefy laser disc storage. It wasn't a particularly good game. Alright, it was horrible, but those stunning visuals turned it into a five -star quarter eater and inspired home versions on a variety of platforms. The original is on Steam right now if you wanted to play it, and GOG picked up the Dragon's Lair trilogy back in 2018. In 2015, Bluth and Gary Goldman launched a $550 ,000 Kickstarter project to help fund the creation of Dragon's Lair the movie. It tanked, so they cancelled and went to Indiegogo looking for $250 ,000 slightly over what was pledged on Kickstarter. At this time, they were actually successful, achieving their goal in just a couple of weeks and ultimately pulling in more than $350 ,000. And now, according to The Hollywood Reporter anyway, the project has been picked up by Netflix, with none other than Ryan Reynolds in talks to star as Dragon's Lair hero, Dirk the Daring. Bluth, Goldman, and John Pomeroy, another animator who left Disney to work with Bluth, are producing this. Netflix confirmed the report on Twitter. Dragon's Lair isn't very big on plot. Princess Daphne has been kidnapped by the Dragon Singe and is being held in the fortress of the evil wizard Marduk. And Dirk the Daring, a bold, vaguely dumbwitted knight, crashes the castle to rescue her. The game itself doesn't provide any greater depth because it's basically a series of rapid -fire quick -time events. That means the writers have the freedom to run with pretty much whatever they want. But whether that's actually a good thing, we'll have to wait and see. Hopefully it will be better than Reynolds' last collaboration with Netflix, the Michael Bay -directed cinematic fiasco Six Underground. Honestly, I can't imagine it being any worse. However, I am an action fan and I did find some mild entertainment out of that movie. Tesla is preparing to release an update to its Autopilot system that will enable it to finally automatically stop at traffic lights. And a video of the system at work has already been released. The automaker is supposed to induce more advanced driver assist features meant to help city driving, the same way Autopilot has been helping Tesla drivers for highway driving. It's part of what CEO Elon Musk calls the feature -complete version of its full self -driving capability, which Tesla was supposed to push at least to its early access owners by the end of last year. Instead, Tesla pushed what Musk called a full self -driving preview, which was the integration of stop signs and traffic lights in Tesla's Autopilot visualization. When the automaker pushed the update in December, Tesla's Autopilot system didn't act on those traffic lights. Now, it looks like Tesla has started to push an Autopilot update with the actual ability to handle intersections to its early access fleet, a group of owners who beta test new software updates from Tesla. Out of Spec Motoring on Twitter, who apparently has access to a Model 3 with early access software, released a video of the new Autopilot software in action. It shows the Model 3 detecting the red light and stopping the car on its own with some new driving visualizations. The driver assist feature for city driving is part of a promise that Tesla has made since starting to sell its full self -driving package many years ago now. It's going to be available to owners of Tesla vehicles with the latest Autopilot hardware and who paid the $7 ,000 full self -driving capable package price, which has been listing these two upcoming features, recognize and respond to traffic lights and stop, and automatic driving on city streets. The fact that the feature is in early access right now means that Tesla is closer than ever to releasing it to its broader fleet, but the timeline is not exactly clear. Sometimes Tesla only takes days between pushing a feature to its early access owners and the larger customer fleet, while at other times it can take weeks. While Tesla Autopilot will be able to automatically operate at intersections like with Autopilot on the highway, Tesla still says that drivers must keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and, of course, be ready to take control. The driver is still always responsible for driving a Tesla vehicle.
Discerning Hearts - Catholic Podcasts
A highlight from IP#501 Adam Blai The History of Exorcism, Part 1 on Inside the Pages with Kris McGregor Discerning Hearts podcasts
"Discerninghearts .com presents inside the pages insights from today's most compelling authors I'm your host Chris McGregor and I am delighted to be joined by Adam Bly who is a church decreed expert on religious demonology and exorcism for the Pittsburgh Diocese he's helped train exorcists for over 15 years and has attended hundreds of solemn exorcisms his journey started in brain wave research and psychology and is now focused on the spiritual realities of miracles angels demons and possessions he's also the author of several books including the exorcism files with Adam Bly we go inside the pages of the history of exorcism published by Sophia Institute press Adam thank you so much for joining me sure Chris it's great to be back with you I'm very grateful for the history of exorcism I think it's an important work I think it's one of those things that needs to be brought out in the light because people have a lot of different ideas about what exorcism is but also maybe not an appreciation of its role in the life not only of the church but even before that and you bring that forward so clearly so thank you so much the history is all there so I really didn't do a whole lot except try to put it together and maybe synthesize it a little bit but I found it to be a really interesting story which is why I wanted to to get it out to people in the form of a book because yeah as you said most people really have no idea where this came from they've just kind of seen the movies you know they have their ideas from there which which is really distorted obviously Hollywood doesn't know much about this so yeah I'm hoping it'll kind of demystify it a little bit and and also it had some interesting twists in the road through the history of this so it's kind of a neat story I thought and I'm not saying that about like my own book I'm saying that the history of it is just it's a neat history well I'll say it for your book it is a neat book I found it fascinating and I think context is everything isn't it so to understand something more fully you need to be able to put things into context don't you mm -hmm yeah I think you do and hopefully it'll help not only with the idea of solemn exorcism but the whole deliverance world it kind of puts the whole range of prayers in a context because it shows back when it was more of a gray area and prayer was just prayer and you know deliverance and exorcism weren't well defined in the early church in terms of where the lines were between them so I hope it'll lead people to understand why exorcism is is really a qualitatively different thing than just deliverance prayers how did you become involved in the ministry that that helps to free people from a captivity that the church wants to be able to offer them well it's a long story but it's about 15 or 16 or 17 years ago I was doing graduate work in adult clinical psychology and mainly brainwave research and I was curious whether any of these strange experiences were real or if they were an artifact of the brain or mental illness and so I started looking into it stumbled across a possessed person early on it wasn't like anything I had seen clinically or been trained for clinically the interventions that you would do in psychology for psychosis had no impact and that led to you know obviously questions and then as I got to meet specialist clergy and got drawn into this and saw full -blown cases of solemn exorcisms I started seeing things that you can't explain and so once I realized it's a real phenomenon it's a real spiritual reality I then decided to basically as long as God was willing dedicate my life to it because there was so few exorcists around at that time you know 27 well about 17 years ago the ministry really you know it had faded out it was almost gone and so we've been working you know as a community for a lot of years and now there's a lot of exorcists trained up in the United States you know a few hundred at least and there's more every year so things are really kind of rolling at this point well the really good news about that is it as you said in the past maybe 15 years or so institutes have developed the one that I'm more familiar with is the Pope Leo XIII Institute that is established by priests and also their particular teams which include practitioners as you are someone who is not only devout in his faith but somebody who has an understanding of the human person which can help them to provide their ministry and then that's an important thing isn't it yeah and it's good to mention of course I'm a lay person I'm not a priest I don't actually do exorcisms only a priest with permission from their bishop can do that but God seems to have called me into a kind of unique role of training and teaching and essentially coaching priests and particularly new exorcists so the best way to learn is kind of in the situation so I do teach at the Leo Institute and I've taught at other national conferences for years and things like that but really the at the end of the day you have to do it and kind of be mentored by other exorcists and people with experience basically and just wanted to be clear so people don't make the mistake of assuming I'm an exorcist I know from the founders of the Pope Leo XIII Institute I know Monsignor John S.
The Financial Guys
A highlight from Republican Debates, Election Predictions, and Media Criticism
"At some point we have to take the economy seriously. We can't just keep printing money and sending it overseas. Welcome to another Financial Guys podcast. I'm Mike Hayflick along with my partner, Mike Speraza. We are always excited to be here, Mike. Um, we are here after the second Bill's win. Yeah. Yeah. We will, we'll keep it at that. Every time we talk very little, things go well. So let's, let's keep it at a win and big game Sunday. Miami. What should be right. A massively popular game. I mean, when they put up 70 against Denver and we, we basically, did we shut out the three points? Three, three. Okay. We held, held Washington, the Washington commanders to only three. That should be a really, really dynamite game. So. Had to change their name due to political correctness. I know, I know. And we had some conversation about that. The people I was watching the game with were reflecting on, I guess the good old days when the, the nicknames of teams just didn't seem to matter as much, but it matters now. Now they want to take down statues. You're an Iroquois guy. They're taking that name away. The chiefs because apparently saying chiefs is very, uh, politically incorrect. I mean, a leader. You can't be called the leaders anymore. Maybe it'll be the Iroquois comrades because everyone's got to just hold hands and sing Kumbaya. Yeah. And, and you know, nobody gets a gender anymore. Nobody can dominate one or the other. Even if it's a sport, there really might not even ever be winners or losers. They might not even keep score anymore in sports. Like it's just going to be for the experience of it trophy for the trophy for the trophy. Line them all up. They're all going to look exactly the same. There'll be gender neutral trophies. When will we have a they, them team name? Like the, the Washington they, thems, like when, when, I mean, I know that sounds outrageous, but that's where we're headed. Yeah, it's true. It's going to be comrades. Friends. Yeah. The friends, the Iroquois friends, the Iroquois comrades. It literally is heading that way though. Something where you go, what is, what is this sport? Like we don't even know based on the name, what the sport is. We don't even, yeah. You won't know. Like usually you could derive some more information from things like that. Oh, no, no, not anymore. No, you're going to have to dig real deep. You're going to have to show up at these events and, uh, you know, maybe wear a nice hoodie and a pair of shorts at the events. Yeah, I agree with you. And, uh, you know, maybe right after you went through the Senate chambers to vote on something, you can head and do a game with your hoodie and shorts on. Anyway, the next one, the last thing I'll say is the next one will be the Patriots. They'll be getting their name taken because that represents Donald Trump and his movement. We got to take away the name Patriot, right? That'll be the next one. There you go. You know, I just, I can't with these people anymore. It's really getting to be absurd. Yep. Totally. So, uh, Mike, let's start with this one. A second Republican debate coming this Wednesday night, September 27th, and Dana Perino, who I've always enjoyed listening to. Um, she will be joining Stuart Varney and Ilia Calderon at the Ronald Reagan library. presidential Suitable place. I love it. Yeah. And, uh, I, we were just chatting a bit before the podcast, so let's just line this up. All right. I don't know the order, but we're going to have Pence, Christie, DeSantis, Rama, Swami, uh, Doug Burgum made it Dougie Dougie. Um, who is that? Who else? I'm I've got five Nikki Haley. Thank you. And then, uh, there should be one more. Um, I did pens from, let's write this down. One more time for everybody. Pence, Rama, Swami, right? DeSantis. How do I not remember? Tim Scott, Tim Scott. Thank you. So, so seven this time, um, not Asa Hutchinson, I think you said he, he didn't make it. Didn't qualify. So, um, of course the big elephant in the room is that Donald Trump again will not be there. Just tell me your thoughts, I guess, on this next upcoming debate. Are we going to hear anything different? Is there any going to be anything that really makes people go, Whoa, this guy's really racing to the front or female. Um, if it's Nikki Haley, anyone going to race to the front after this one? I really, I mean, I think we're kind of wasting our time here and I'm not saying it as a, as a Trump voter. I'm just saying it realistically. Right. I mean, at this point, the lead is 40 to 50 points. Nobody makes up that ground than a debate, right? Like Nikki Haley had a great debate last time. She's still polling single digits. Right. I don't agree with Nikki Haley stance on a lot of things, but she, she fared well in that debate and she really didn't grow or fall behind anymore. Right. So I think that's the tough part. When we look at these debates, the Donald Trump in the 2015, 2016 campaign years, that is your like unicorn, right? Where, where you just go up there and go bananas. And then you end up, you know, taking over the field. The difference was there was no Donald Trump in that election, right? Like you had a Jeb Bush, but he wasn't the guaranteed slam dunk candidate right now. You have Donald Trump, Mike, and he is the guaranteed slammed on Canada. The only one that we thought maybe had a chance was Ron DeSantis and he has crumbled mightily, whether you like him or hate him. It's just the facts. He's, he's in trouble. Right. I mean, so what, what are we accomplishing with these debates other than kind of a, I guess I'll say wasting our time. Yeah. And I, I just, I just think it's worth breaking this down a little bit. Like what is it that people like you and I think that these others are just inferior to a guy like a Donald Trump? Like, and I'll tell you my opinion first. Mine is I just don't think they'll win. And I just feel like more and more people need to, you got to vote and expect that the conservative Republican candidate in this case wins. And I don't think any of these other people could, could actually win. I don't think they have enough, you know, experience. They don't have the fortitude that a Donald Trump has. Well, I think that that to me is, is there's two reasons why I'm voting for Donald Trump, right? Number one was I thought he had a very good four year term other than the COVID 19 issue. And I, I'm telling you right now, I say this to people all the time. If it was Ron DeSantis, if it was Donald Trump, if it was Hillary Clinton, that, that, that whole debacle was, was a disaster and there was no way you were going to look good in that debacle. I'm just telling you. Yeah. Number one, but that was a Trump fault that I have. And if I ever talked to him, I would tell him that that I do not agree with what he did with COVID. It's easy for me to say that now, but, but at the end of the day, he had a great four year term other than that, in my personal opinion. Number two is every time they've tried to knock him down at the knees, Mike, that has made me want him back more, right? The, the every time they indict him, I want him back more, right? Every time they try and silence him with gag orders, I want him back more. This is how I think a lot of conservatives are feeling. And at this point, it's kind of like, okay, is Rhonda, here's what my other point, I don't mean to keep going on, but at the end of the day is whether it's Ron, DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, or Donald Trump, I'm going to use those three for a second. They will be treated the exact same way by the media, by the Democrat party. It doesn't matter who that candidate is. It doesn't matter. Right. People always say like, Oh, but, but Trump's hated. If DeSantis is a candidate, he's already taken crap from the leftist media, right? Like if he's the candidate, he's going to, it's going to be open up another can of worms. I don't think it matters. The reason why we got to go with Donald Trump is he's been there. He's been able to handle it. We know that whether you like him or not, he's handled the media and he's handled the Democrats well. And we need that experience. This is the election of our lifetime. And I will say that now, this is the election of our lifetime. We need to win. Dana Perino says, I believe the economy will feature prominently because we know that that is the biggest concern and preoccupation that is worrying Americans. And she says in many ways, in my opinion, the economy is the thread that runs through all of these other possible topics. For example, if you're concerned about crime, one of the issues is what kind of resources do you have and are you willing to use in order to help deal with that? I think she's spot on. I think when it comes to the economy, the economy sort of is the fuel and whether you then have a notion to, you know, actually shut down the border, improve childcare, improve education, then the, the economy obviously is the main thread that actually everything else seems to branch off of. If you have a lot of people working, for instance, you're going to have a thriving economy because supply and demand is going to balance out. You're going to have lots of products and services to offer and a lot of people can afford these things. Right. So, uh, I, I agree with her. Plus it is Fox business that's hosting the event. So might lean a little bit more toward economics. Yeah, I think it should. I agree with you. I mean, at some point we have to take the economy seriously. We can't just keep printing money and sending it overseas at some point, you know, and I say, I've said this to you, Mike before, going to get groceries now at times, like they ring all the stuff up and I'm like, Holy crap. I bought, I have a cat. I bought five cans of cat food. They're, they're the size of like a lacrosse ball, not even. And it's like $5 for five cans. I'm like this, this thing costs more than my kids at this point. This cat's going to be very thin. It's going to be out of crash diet. I mean, but seriously, how do people, Mike, that don't make money? And I say this in a sad way, like how do people that don't make money survive? Even going, you go to a local fast food restaurant for two people. My wife and I it's 30 bucks. I'm like, what the hell happened out here? I told that is what's going on. And that's scary. Yeah. When they have to make those kinds of hard choices. Right. Uh, all right. So, uh, let's move on. So speaking of Trump, we're talking about these other seven candidates that will be there Wednesday, this Wednesday night, nine to 11 PM in the second Republican debate, Donald Trump will not be there, but this came out like in a Washington post poll. Trump is now up 10%, uh, over a potential run against Biden, 10 % double digit. Now if you just pin Trump against Biden again, first your thoughts, and then we'll go a little deeper into this. Well, I'm not surprised. Um, I think, I think Americans are getting sick and tired of it. I think Americans are worried about our futures. I think the migrant crisis is hurting the Democrat party because you have liberal places like New York city that are waking up saying, Oh my God, we can't do this anymore. And there's like 10 ,000 migrants in New York city, not 10 million. Right. So like, like it's starting to click, I think with certain people, number one, number two, Mike, I think it's hard to hide Joe Biden's cognitive decline, right? The left can say whatever they want in the media. You just can't, when you fall over on things, when you do talk like that, I mean, they, it's a problem. It's a real problem and it's visible. Um, do I trust these polls? Yes and no. I think, if I think America is as smart as I think they would, the polls should be probably higher, like 30 % lead for Trump. Um, but I think the numbers that keep growing in Trump's favor, the margin of error is not that big, right? Michael, like you look at the Republican primary polls, the margin of error is not 40%, right? He's up 40%. So even if they're off by 20%, he's still up 20%. The same thing's starting to happen in these head to head polls with Biden. It started, you know, Trump down, then it was Trump even, then it was Trump three, five, now it's 10. I mean, that's a lot. Yeah. And so I want to read a little bit here. So the post ABC poll shows Biden trailing Trump by 10 percentage points at this early stage in the election cycle. This is, by the way, the Washington Post little write -up, uh, after the poll was done. Um, so this is, this is actually humorous. Although the sizable margin of Trump's lead in this survey is significantly at odds with other public polls that show the general election contest to virtual dead heat, the difference between this poll and others as well as the unusual makeup of Trump's and Biden's coalitions in the survey. So Mike, the more words, the muddier this all gets, right? It sounds like excuses coming up, right? It sounds like Kamala Harris. It really is. It's like, yeah, total word salad. Um, I just said suggested is probably an outlier, right? So, so this, this I thought was interesting. Um, Byron Byron York of the Washington examiner said the post dumped on headline news in quotes from its own poll. So basically they do a poll. They say that their poll is likely an outlier and, and he, he goes on to then say Washington Post sub heads suggests its own poll may be an outlier. That may be true, but they put no such disclaimer in headline three years ago when they published a poll of Wisconsin, right before election day in 2020, showing Biden up 17 points on Trump, 10 points more than the average of other polls at the time. That was real clear politics, president Tom Bevin. So, so funny to me, so interesting, right? Even when they try to do something where they want to take part in the polling process and inform all of us as Americans, Ooh, that's not really where we wanted to see that. That's likely an outlier folks. Yeah. Oh, Donald Trump's winning. Shit. That doesn't count. Okay. What are we going to do? Next one. Okay. These were registered voters. What are we going to do? This is 10 points. Holy shit. What are we going to say? Let's just say it's an outlier. Oh damn. That was a fake poll. Oh, those stupid polls. Yeah. I mean, and it might, I'll say this before we get onto another topic on what's, what's, you're starting to see it all come together. It's like, it's like when they see, you know, hurricanes forming in the ocean, right? We're starting to see it now. The polls are shifting to Trump. Now we have Hillary Clinton coming out saying things like, Oh yeah, who's to say Putin won't medal in the election in 2024 again, right? You have others saying like, Ooh, we got to get Trump off the ballot or people saying, let's indict Trump again for this or that let's put gag orders on him. It's all coming together. Now the new thing too, Mike is, Hmm, let's indict the Bidens and let's see if we can get, we can get a Joe Biden off the ticket. We've used him, we've abused him. Now we're getting them out of here. It's all, it's that wave in the ocean. It's that hurricane forming in the ocean. That's what's happening. And I believe that because why, why would Hillary Clinton come out and say, if you're so confident right in the 2024 election, if you're so confident and Trump's an idiot, he's never going to make it again and get rid of them. Why are you now saying, Hmm, maybe Putin will medal in the elections again. Why would you say that? Right. Right. And by the way, this is the same guy that's richer than ever because his country has been able to sell oil at a high rate since Biden's been in office. This is the same country that has had its way with the Ukraine walking in there and taking over land since Biden's been in there. Why would, why would Putin medal in the election to get in and probably in his mind, the nut job of Donald Trump back in office, it may drop a nuke on him. Why would he want Trump back in office? Ask yourself that question. Don't have to, if you have any sense at all, then you don't even have to ask that. Um, so anyway, let's see what the next number of polls start to reveal. Let's see if, let's see if polls stop coming out, Mike, right? Because once you have one that's got Trump winning by double digit, maybe they just start to say, polls are stupid. Polls are for racists. You're homophobic. If you read polls, I mean, we'll see. Or they come out with some poll from the middle of nowhere. That's like Biden up 35 points on Donald Trump. Right, right. This was from registered voters in the white house. Yes. We interviewed seven people and it was six to one, six to one. And the other one we fired, we don't even know who that was. Yeah. So, so let's go to this now. Every once in a while, Mike, I have to do this CNN, right? I go to the cnn .com site. I just got to see what they're finding note newsworthy, noteworthy, whatever you want to say. And honestly, and I've often reported this, I'm often in disbelief at what they aren't reporting. In this example though, I was like, Oh, a few stories down. Here's a story, Mike, why more women are choosing not to have kids. So right away I'm thinking, Oh my gosh, these are the most unlikable people, the most anti traditional family structure people ever. They probably don't want to have a relationship at all. They don't want to ever have true, you know, intimacy with anybody cause they just can't do it. They're just nasty. They're mostly on, you know, just awful. These lots, so many of these people. So I go on to read a little bit of this and you know, this is, this is someone named Diana Volek who, who never, who was never someone who dreamed of becoming a mother, right? And these are just some of the reasons given. They don't want the responsibility of being a parent. They fear a lack of support. They like their life as it is. They're still judged for being child free. So so even when they don't choose to have children, right? So I'm like looking at this and then suddenly I go, wait a second. This was published at midnight, uh, basically Sunday or Monday, you know, September 25th. That's that's now as we record editor's note, this story was originally published in August, 2021. Some details such as the ages of those interviewed remain the same as they were when the story first published. So you're telling me right away, I thought, is the Hollywood writers strike? Is it bleeding into CNN now? Cause there aren't enough stories. There aren't enough people to write like modern stories. There's not enough news. They had to pull a story from two years ago to talk about why many women are deciding not to have kids. Like how pathetic is that? How pathetic. This new trend too, of like, it's cool to just say, screw it. I don't want to have a family is the weirdest thing ever. And then we wonder why these people are miserable, right? I mean, again, is parenting easy? I'm a new parent. Mike, you know that you, you parented two girls for, you know, they're what? 25, 22, right? So you've had, you've had 25 years of parenting experience. I've had, you know, almost a year. It's the most enjoyable thing ever. Right? I mean you're finally, it's good not to be selfish. It's good to take care of somebody else and love somebody else. Right. And I'm not saying you don't love your spouse, but your spouse is an adult relationship. You have to have a relationship with a baby, which turns into a toddler, which turns into an adolescent, a young adult like that. There's nothing more special than that. You should want that. Instead it's like, Oh, kids are stupid. I'm going to be so rich. Really weigh me down. Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay. They're going to weigh me down. I want my independence. I don't want to be responsible to another human being. I've got myself to worry about and treat and, and you know, I don't know, a door like I get like, that's fine. I want to see the next story though be why many women are deciding that having a child is rewarding. It can become a very loving, you know, yes, you have to be responsible. Like it just was so gross to me like that. And two years ago, this isn't even news. This is like, Oh my gosh, we got to fill these headlines. What do we get out? Pull that one again. We don't like kids. We don't want anyone, you know, raising children, my God for, you know, I'll say this though, Mike and all seriousness too. Like, yes. Is, is it fun being a college degenerate and booze and all the time and having a blast? Sure it is. We all did it right. I mean, yes, of course it's a fun thing. Is it fun to not care if you can go to bed at 2am or 5am or 5pm? Sure. That's great. But at some point you have to mature as an adult, take your job seriously, take your family seriously and care about things like I always say this, Mike, and this is something I've brought up a million times. Think about being, you know, if you want it, like if you didn't want to have kids, I'm not saying people that can't have kids cause I feel for them. But if you, if you didn't want children, cause you didn't want the responsibility, what do you do in your sixties and seventies with no family? Like that breaks my heart, honestly. Right? Like I, what my relationship with my parents, my wife's with her parents, like it's, it's fun, right? It's, you're a family. You get to do things together and you get to enjoy each other. Who doesn't want that? I just don't get it. Well, there's a lot of people in Washington that actually have spouses and children and grandchildren. And clearly there is not a lot of love and support going on between all of them. Because some of these people, I mean, we know who we're talking about, the Mitch McConnell's, the Joe Biden's, they would not be in front of microphones if people actually cared about them. They would not let those loved ones go through what they go through on a daily basis, unless they have no connection, no personal connection at all. Um, all right. AOC. She's almost the last story of our day, but there's one more after this. So we got a bonus. We do a bonus story here, breaking news. So AOC wins the hypocrisy award mic for this, uh, at least this week, maybe the year on this one decade, this is hilarious. And, um, I'll just set this up for a second. So here she was on CBS's face the nation. And, um, she was discussing president Biden's plan to visit the Michigan auto workers on Tuesday. So host of CBS's face, the nation, Margaret Brennan points out a couple of interesting facts about AOC and her selection of vehicles. So let's go ahead and play that. Yup.
The Bitboy Crypto Podcast
A highlight from Bitcoin Bull Market Will Start When (THIS) Happens!
"Good morning, everybody. It's time to discover crypto. It's Tuesday, September 26. It's 11 .31am. Probably just a minute late, guys. You know what? I had to button up the top. I wanted to try a little bit professional. Actually, I'll tell you what the real deal is. I was going to wear a button -up, and I didn't have any zip -up jackets. And I said, why not just wear a jacket? Quit being a DJ and dress like a man for once. So I'm wearing the jacket today. We got Drew and Tim on the ones and twos. And then there's me in my normal hoodie. Ain't nothing wrong with the Federman gear. I rock the Federman gear, too. True. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with it, guys. We're going to talk about why we think Bitcoin bull run is going to start, when it's going to start. Kelly's going to break that down. Also, we got some big, big news. The government shutdown. We're going to break down exactly what happens if the government shuts down. What gets turned off? What doesn't get turned off? Guys, this is less than a week ago. We don't think it's going to happen, but it's good to be prepared just in case. Also, we're going to talk about NASA. Do you know the NASA story? What is the NASA story? They're going to hire blockchain and then pair them with Hollywood to create the second landing on the moon coming your way very, very soon. All right. All right. Stanley Kubrick, you know, rising up like Skeletor. All right. That ought to be a good one. Also, we're going to talk some XRP news, some Microsoft stuff with Xbox and crypto. That could be potentially gigantic and also just some world global stuff. It's going to be interesting. All right. Let's, guys, make sure you are subbed to the channel if you're not already. Hey, maybe even hit that like button on that one video. If you want to check out our other channels, please do. We're always putting out great, great content. Frankie around the blockchain, BitLab Academy, The Basement, NFT alpha, last but not least. All right. Let's look at the crypto market cap here. What is going on with the crypto prices? We're going to go ahead and refresh. I want that freshest Chainlink oracle data. Looks like we're up 0 .3%. So we're up a third of a percent. The market cap is coming in above 1 trillion. We're 1 .08 trillion for the market cap. 24 -hour volume is slightly muted at $28 billion. Bitcoin dominance coming in at 47 .1. Gas is low again. Isn't as low as 11, what we saw, I believe, on Friday, but down to 23 gwei. Pretty low right there. So if you want to get in and out of some alts, now is potentially a good time. Bitcoin is down right in line with the market. The market's down 0 .3%. Bitcoin is down 0 .3%. Ethereum down 0 .1%, down 0 .2 % just for the past hour. However, BNB moving up however slightly. Also, XRP. XRP community in the chat hit that like button. You were up 0 .6%. It's time to celebrate. Also, we have, hey, Cardano's flat when Bitcoin's down. I'm just going to take that as a victory. I'm going to go ahead pat myself on the back for that one. But we are below 25 cents. Cardano coming in at 24 .4. What is up with Cardano at this 25 -cent level? Tim, you're Mr. TA. It loves being right out of quarter. Yeah, well, and before it loved being at 30 cents and then... Hey, don't remind me. And before that, it loved being at I think 50. Before that, it loved being at a dollar. I love Cardano. It's my largest altcoin bag still, and I'm not giving up that conviction of it. Now, it's setting lower highs and lower lows. What do we call that? A bear trend. I'm going to continue to hold to the call that I've made now for over a month. I believe, oh, actually, it's been like two months now. I think we're going to be seeing an 18 -cent Cardano. I called that back even as we were pumping up to 38 cents here not too long ago. I still believed that 18 cents was coming in. And if you're looking at this bear trend, lower highs, lower lows, I think it's going to happen. All right. Speaking of lower lows, a lot of people talking about the truck and how they want to back up the truck and then just buy a lot of these cheap alts. That's what I would do. That's the positive side of this. I wouldn't do weird things with it. People hear bearish price predictions or bearish prices being talked about. And their first thought is to be like, oh, no, that's not going to happen. I can't lose the money. I was like, well, you don't lose unless you sell. And also, if it goes that far, you had an amazing opportunity to buy again. So stay positive. It's a great idea. It's it. I'm rooting for Cardano to get 18 cents and Bitcoin down to 19, 900, 700. You stop that blasphemy. That's yeah. Well, we got right the blockchain. 24 cents is the floor, guys. Just be careful because it is until it isn't. And then it will be, you know, we got that little spike off 21 cents. So I expect a little bit of pressure. And then the psychological level of 20 cents if we fall below this. But I believe we would need to see Bitcoin at 2322 for that to happen. Alright, in the rest of the alt realm here, we have Dogecoin down 1%, Solana down almost 2%. Tron moving on up. Good job, Justin Sun. We have Polkadot down 1 .4%. So nothing really is moving too hard. Even Chainlink's barely moving here. Wait a minute. Did we see some in the 3 %? Law enforcement officer? No, no, no. Why is Leo token down? Hey, you know what we're talking about here. Let's talk about the big gainers though, folks. Looks like Maker is leading the way. It's not much of a pump, folks. 4 .3%. We have FRAC shares up 3 .2%. And then after that, very, very muted. It is right at 1 % for Optimism, Avalanche, and then BNB. So we're really not seeing anything jump too much here. Do you have any of these coins in the top? You have any FRACs? What is up with FRACs? Always moving. Crazy. Avalanche is the first one on that list that I have. I don't have any BNB. I have some XRP, obviously.
History That Doesn't Suck
A highlight from 143: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive (pt.2) Breaking the Kriemhilde Line
"It's just past 6 a .m. on a cold, misty morning, October 8th, 1918. We're with the doughboys of the U .S. 82nd Division's 328th Infantry as they battle their way westward through the thick trees and rough terrain of the Argonne Forest. And I don't say battle lightly. The Germans are putting up a fierce fight. Right now, the 328th is on Hill 223, a position they managed to take last night. But before them, the triangular -shaped Eyre Valley is filled with death. German shells are dropping like yesterday's rain, while German machine guns seem to be mowing down every brown -clad Yankee in the first platoon. Good God. If these Americans are going to survive, let alone have any success, they're going to have to take out these machine gun nests. The task falls to G Company, and amid the battle's chaos, Sergeant Bernard Early is ordered to slip off on the left and flank these gunners. The sergeant gathers 16 men, 3 corporals and 13 privates, and together they stealthily move through the thick brush. The hope is that they can sneak around the German machine gun nests and capture them from behind. It seems to be working. They make it through the brush and ascend a tree -covered ridge without being noticed. Here, the 17 doughboys begin to debate their next move when they see two Germans passing through the woods. Noting their foes' Red Cross bands, the Yankees hold their fire, instead ordering them to stop. But both refuse. A doughboy then fires, after which the whole detachment pursues. The two terrified Germans get away, but as the Yanks continue down another ridge, they soon stumble upon a small cabin -like structure. It's a command post. Dozens of Germans are here. Stretcher bearers, officers, military men of all stripes. Not one of them is armed. Bernard and his men emerge from hiding, rifles drawn, ready to take the whole group captive. With little choice, the Germans yell out, Comrade! and quickly comply. But just as the Yanks have their prisoners lined up, an observant Bosch machine gun nest opens fire. Six bullets rip through Sergeant Bernard early. Two corporals and six privates go down too, as do several German POWs. The survivors, American and German alike, dash for cover. This includes the lone surviving American corporal. A fair -featured, freckled, lanky Tennessean, Corporal Alvin York. Nothing about Alvin's hiding place is intentional. He dived for safety like everyone else. But by coincidence of where he was standing when the gunners opened fire, the corporal finds himself somewhat removed from the rest of his detachment, on a hill not far from that sad looking command post. His position offers him protection, and better yet, none of those German gunners can fire on him without exposing themselves in the process. And this is when Alvin's childhood days of hunting wild turkeys in the woods of Tennessee pay off. With German machine guns still firing, Alvin lies down in the prone position, aims his rifle, and pulls the trigger. A German gunner drops dead. The Tennessean pulls back the bolt on his rifle, ejects the spent case, and again, takes aim and fires. He does this again, and again, and again, using up several clips and eventually rising to a kneeling position. He doesn't dare let up, knowing that the minute he does, a German bullet will end him. Suddenly, six bayonet -bearing Germans, perhaps 25 yards out, come running down the hill at Alvin. It's here that his hunter instincts truly kick in, leading him to fire at the most distant of his assailants first, as the Tennessean will later write in his diary, and in his own local dialect, no less. I ticked off the sixth man first, then the fifth, then the fourth, then the third, and so on. That's the way we shoot wild turkeys at home. You see, we don't want the front ones to know that we're getting the back ones, and then they keep on coming until we get them all. Of course, I hadn't time to think of that. I guess I just naturally did it. I know, too, that if the front ones wavered, or if I stopped them, the rear ones would drop down and pump a volley into me and get me. But with his five -round clip half spent before these Germans even began their charge, Alvin has no time to reload as the front few close in. Again, instinct seems to drive him. He drops his empty rifle, grabs his .45 Colt, and manages to shoot every single one of them. He then picks up his rifle and continues shooting machine gunners. One of the German POWs, a lieutenant that Alvin mistakes as a major, and who speaks excellent English thanks to his years working in Chicago before the war, calls out to the Tennessean. English? No, not English. What? American. Good lord. The officer is stunned. The Brits are known for their highly trained sharpshooters, but how is this rookie doughboy such a gifted marksman? No matter. He's deadly. Nothing else matters right now. The lieutenant calls out, If you won't shoot anymore, I will make them give up. Alvin agrees, and the German lieutenant blows a whistle. Nearly a hundred Bosch soldiers come forward dropping their guns. One decides to throw a grenade at Alvin. He misses, but Alvin doesn't. As he'll later recall, I had to tick him off. Point made. No one else tries anything or complains as Alvin makes them carry out the nine American dead and wounded. These hundred or so Germans are now his prisoners. The German lieutenant tells Alvin that the way back to the American line is down a gully. No. Alvin might not know these French woods, but he knows mountains and forests. His sense of direction tells him the man is lying. Thrusting his colt into the lieutenant's back, the Tennessean and his seven fellow healthy doughboys march off with their massive train of captive Germans. They'll pick up yet more prisoners and American escorts as they make their way back to division headquarters in the village of Chateau -Chary. After delivering his prisoners, Alvin York returns to the 328th. The regiment's commanding general greets him, explaining, Well, York, I hear you've captured the whole damn German army. The Tennessean will later recall his answer. I told him I only had 132. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. It's impossible to say how many Germans Alvin York sent to the grave in the Argonne Forest that early October morning. Some say it was 28. Conservative estimates go as low as 15. Regardless of the exact figure, Alvin's guns were the quick and the Germans were the dead. He silenced 35 Bosch machine guns and, as we know, took 132 prisoners. The Tennessean will soon receive the Medal of Honor and become a veritable celebrity back in the States. Quite a curious twist for a God -fearing man who had previously been a conscientious objector to the war. But that's the story of Alvin York. Alvin's is but one of many tales worth telling as we come to our second episode on the Meuse -Argonne Offensive. No one else is going to come across like a Hollywood action hero, but today, as we push almost but not quite to the end of this, the biggest campaign that the U .S. Army has yet fought, we'll see American forces push forward with the same Alvin York spirit and grit as they try to crack the thick, layered, and crucial German fortifications known as the Krimhilde Line. But as the Yanks make this push, their advancements, coupled with those of their allies on other battlefields, will make German leaders realize that this war is not only coming to its end, as the Bosch already know, but that they can't drag this out. It's time to come to the negotiation table. It's a winding path getting to this breaking point. On our way today, we'll again join flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in the skies, see an enormous reorganization of the American Expeditionary Force, or AEF, witness yet another shouting match between General Blackjack Pershing and Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch, visit General Douglas MacArthur at one of his hardest, most heroic, yet devastating moments in this war, and listen in as some Native American doughboys become the first code talkers. That's right, well before World War II. In the end, we'll see if the Americans can turn last episode's frustrations and failures into victories.
History That Doesn't Suck
A highlight from 143: The Meuse-Argonne Offensive (pt.2) Breaking the Kriemhilde Line
"It's just past 6 a .m. on a cold, misty morning, October 8th, 1918. We're with the doughboys of the U .S. 82nd Division's 328th Infantry as they battle their way westward through the thick trees and rough terrain of the Argonne Forest. And I don't say battle lightly. The Germans are putting up a fierce fight. Right now, the 328th is on Hill 223, a position they managed to take last night. But before them, the triangular -shaped Eyre Valley is filled with death. German shells are dropping like yesterday's rain, while German machine guns seem to be mowing down every brown -clad Yankee in the first platoon. Good God. If these Americans are going to survive, let alone have any success, they're going to have to take out these machine gun nests. The task falls to G Company, and amid the battle's chaos, Sergeant Bernard Early is ordered to slip off on the left and flank these gunners. The sergeant gathers 16 men, 3 corporals and 13 privates, and together they stealthily move through the thick brush. The hope is that they can sneak around the German machine gun nests and capture them from behind. It seems to be working. They make it through the brush and ascend a tree -covered ridge without being noticed. Here, the 17 doughboys begin to debate their next move when they see two Germans passing through the woods. Noting their foes' Red Cross bands, the Yankees hold their fire, instead ordering them to stop. But both refuse. A doughboy then fires, after which the whole detachment pursues. The two terrified Germans get away, but as the Yanks continue down another ridge, they soon stumble upon a small cabin -like structure. It's a command post. Dozens of Germans are here. Stretcher bearers, officers, military men of all stripes. Not one of them is armed. Bernard and his men emerge from hiding, rifles drawn, ready to take the whole group captive. With little choice, the Germans yell out, Comrade! and quickly comply. But just as the Yanks have their prisoners lined up, an observant Bosch machine gun nest opens fire. Six bullets rip through Sergeant Bernard early. Two corporals and six privates go down too, as do several German POWs. The survivors, American and German alike, dash for cover. This includes the lone surviving American corporal. A fair -featured, freckled, lanky Tennessean, Corporal Alvin York. Nothing about Alvin's hiding place is intentional. He dived for safety like everyone else. But by coincidence of where he was standing when the gunners opened fire, the corporal finds himself somewhat removed from the rest of his detachment, on a hill not far from that sad looking command post. His position offers him protection, and better yet, none of those German gunners can fire on him without exposing themselves in the process. And this is when Alvin's childhood days of hunting wild turkeys in the woods of Tennessee pay off. With German machine guns still firing, Alvin lies down in the prone position, aims his rifle, and pulls the trigger. A German gunner drops dead. The Tennessean pulls back the bolt on his rifle, ejects the spent case, and again, takes aim and fires. He does this again, and again, and again, using up several clips and eventually rising to a kneeling position. He doesn't dare let up, knowing that the minute he does, a German bullet will end him. Suddenly, six bayonet -bearing Germans, perhaps 25 yards out, come running down the hill at Alvin. It's here that his hunter instincts truly kick in, leading him to fire at the most distant of his assailants first, as the Tennessean will later write in his diary, and in his own local dialect, no less. I ticked off the sixth man first, then the fifth, then the fourth, then the third, and so on. That's the way we shoot wild turkeys at home. You see, we don't want the front ones to know that we're getting the back ones, and then they keep on coming until we get them all. Of course, I hadn't time to think of that. I guess I just naturally did it. I know, too, that if the front ones wavered, or if I stopped them, the rear ones would drop down and pump a volley into me and get me. But with his five -round clip half spent before these Germans even began their charge, Alvin has no time to reload as the front few close in. Again, instinct seems to drive him. He drops his empty rifle, grabs his .45 Colt, and manages to shoot every single one of them. He then picks up his rifle and continues shooting machine gunners. One of the German POWs, a lieutenant that Alvin mistakes as a major, and who speaks excellent English thanks to his years working in Chicago before the war, calls out to the Tennessean. English? No, not English. What? American. Good lord. The officer is stunned. The Brits are known for their highly trained sharpshooters, but how is this rookie doughboy such a gifted marksman? No matter. He's deadly. Nothing else matters right now. The lieutenant calls out, If you won't shoot anymore, I will make them give up. Alvin agrees, and the German lieutenant blows a whistle. Nearly a hundred Bosch soldiers come forward dropping their guns. One decides to throw a grenade at Alvin. He misses, but Alvin doesn't. As he'll later recall, I had to tick him off. Point made. No one else tries anything or complains as Alvin makes them carry out the nine American dead and wounded. These hundred or so Germans are now his prisoners. The German lieutenant tells Alvin that the way back to the American line is down a gully. No. Alvin might not know these French woods, but he knows mountains and forests. His sense of direction tells him the man is lying. Thrusting his colt into the lieutenant's back, the Tennessean and his seven fellow healthy doughboys march off with their massive train of captive Germans. They'll pick up yet more prisoners and American escorts as they make their way back to division headquarters in the village of Chateau -Chary. After delivering his prisoners, Alvin York returns to the 328th. The regiment's commanding general greets him, explaining, Well, York, I hear you've captured the whole damn German army. The Tennessean will later recall his answer. I told him I only had 132. Welcome to History That Doesn't Suck. I'm your professor, Greg Jackson, and I'd like to tell you a story. It's impossible to say how many Germans Alvin York sent to the grave in the Argonne Forest that early October morning. Some say it was 28. Conservative estimates go as low as 15. Regardless of the exact figure, Alvin's guns were the quick and the Germans were the dead. He silenced 35 Bosch machine guns and, as we know, took 132 prisoners. The Tennessean will soon receive the Medal of Honor and become a veritable celebrity back in the States. Quite a curious twist for a God -fearing man who had previously been a conscientious objector to the war. But that's the story of Alvin York. Alvin's is but one of many tales worth telling as we come to our second episode on the Meuse -Argonne Offensive. No one else is going to come across like a Hollywood action hero, but today, as we push almost but not quite to the end of this, the biggest campaign that the U .S. Army has yet fought, we'll see American forces push forward with the same Alvin York spirit and grit as they try to crack the thick, layered, and crucial German fortifications known as the Krimhilde Line. But as the Yanks make this push, their advancements, coupled with those of their allies on other battlefields, will make German leaders realize that this war is not only coming to its end, as the Bosch already know, but that they can't drag this out. It's time to come to the negotiation table. It's a winding path getting to this breaking point. On our way today, we'll again join flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker in the skies, see an enormous reorganization of the American Expeditionary Force, or AEF, witness yet another shouting match between General Blackjack Pershing and Allied Supreme Commander Ferdinand Foch, visit General Douglas MacArthur at one of his hardest, most heroic, yet devastating moments in this war, and listen in as some Native American doughboys become the first code talkers. That's right, well before World War II. In the end, we'll see if the Americans can turn last episode's frustrations and failures into victories.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 00:00 09-25-2023 00:00
"Investment advisors switch to interactive brokers for lowest cost global trading and turnkey custody solutions. No ticket charges and no conflicts of your interests at ibkr .com slash RIA. Yes, appropriately. I wore this ridiculous thing for you. That does it for this episode of Wall Street Week. I'm David Westin. This is Bloomberg. Stay with us. Today's top stories and global business headlines are coming up right now. Broadcasting 24 hours a day at Bloomberg .com and the Bloomberg Business Act. This is Bloomberg Radio. This Bloomberg is Daybreak, Middle East and Africa. Looking at our top stories, we've got Asian stocks on the way down while U .S. treasuries creep lower. More Federal Reserve officials take that higher for longer stance on interest rates. The dollar on its second longest weekly rally, would you believe it, since 1967. The European Union's chief trade negotiator says the bloc's trade relations with China are, quote, very imbalanced. Amid the EU's investigation into Chinese electric vehicle subsidies. Striking Hollywood screenwriters reaching a tentative new labor agreement with studios. It may settle one of the two walkouts that have really shut down film and TV production since May. And we've got oil prices resuming their rallies. Hedge funds bet on tightening supplies ahead. Banks are increasingly making predictions that Brent Crude will hit $100 a barrel. And it's just gone 8 a .m. across the Emirates. 7 a .m. in Saudi Arabia in Qatar noon.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 19:00 09-24-2023 19:00
"Today, ophthalmologists can get countless hours to practice their surgical skills before operating on real patients, thanks to fundamental VR and Orbis's Metaverse training platform. Learn more at meta .com slash metaverse impact. I'm getting the data. There's lots of other data, sort of the non -government data that we look at, and I guess we'd have to rely on that more. Data that's different. Yeah. Thanks very much. The next hour of Bloomberg Daybreak Asia begins right now. The big three can emerge as winners. Hollywood studios and screenwriters are close to resolving a dispute over a contract renewal. Apple may be scaling up its India production by more than five -fold over the next five years. New Biden polling on the economy is dismal. China warning military personnel about being careful with whom they associate. Russian foreign minister to visit North Korea. I'm Ed Baxter with Global News. Arsenal and Tottenham played to a draw in the North London derby. I'm Dan Schwartzman. I'll have that story and more coming up in Bloomberg Sports.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 18:00 09-24-2023 18:00
"Today, ophthalmologists can get countless hours to practice their surgical skills before operating on real patients, thanks to fundamental VR and Orbis' Metaverse training platform. Learn more at meta .com slash metaverse impact. Good morning at 5 a .m. Wall Street time for the latest on markets overseas and the news you need to start your day. I'm Tom Busby. Stay with us. Top stories and global business headlines are coming up right now. The big three can emerge as winners. Hollywood studios and screenwriters are close to resolving a dispute over a contract renewal. Apple may be scaling up its India production by more than five fold over the next five years. New Biden polling on the economy is dismal. China warning military personnel about being careful with whom they associate. Russian foreign minister to visit North Korea. I'm Ed Baxter with Global News. Arsenal and Tottenham played to a draw in the North London derby. I'm Dan Schwartzman. I'll have that story and more coming up in Bloomberg Sports. That's all straight ahead on Bloomberg Daybreak Asia. On Bloomberg 1130 New York, Bloomberg 99 .1 Washington D .C., Bloomberg 106 .1 Boston, Bloomberg 960 San Francisco, Sirius XM 119 and around the world on Bloombergradio .com and via the Bloomberg Business App. Hi everybody, good morning on this Monday morning.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 06:00 09-21-2023 06:00
"With Bloomberg, you get the story behind the story, the story behind the global birth rate, behind your EV battery's environmental impact, behind sand, yeah, sand, you get context. And context changes everything. Go to Bloomberg .com to get context. Lower open on Wall Street, up next we'll get the latest on the Fed. How do rates proceed? Plus a bit of progress, potentially, inverting government shutdown. Hour two of Bloomberg Daybreak starts right now. Broadcasting 24 hours a day at Bloomberg .com and the Bloomberg Business Act. This is Bloomberg Radio. From the Bloomberg Interactive Workers Studios, this is Bloomberg Daybreak for Thursday, September 21st, coming up today. Futures point to more losses as the Fed signals rates will be higher for longer. Jamie Dimon says the Fed should be more aggressive raising rates. Progress this morning in the riders' strike against Hollywood Studios. And Speaker McCarthy wins over some conservatives to try to avoid a government shutdown. Donald Trump's New York hush money criminal trial is going to overlap with the state's presidential primary and new allegations against former Mayor Rudy Giuliani from a former White House aide. I'm John Tucker. Those stories straight ahead. I'm John Stashauer in sports. Week three in the NFL begins tonight with the Giants at the 49ers. The Mets won the Yankees long. That's all straight ahead on Bloomberg Daybreak on Bloomberg 1130 New York, Bloomberg 99 .1 Washington, D .C., Bloomberg 106 .1 Boston, Bloomberg 960 San Francisco, Sirius XM 119 and around the world on Bloomberg Radio dot com and via the Bloomberg Business Act. Good morning. I'm Nathan Hager. And I'm Karen Moscow, U .S. stock index futures lower this morning S &P futures down half percent or twenty three points Dow futures.
Tech Path Crypto
A highlight from 1254. SEC WARS! | Gensler vs Peirce, Mila Kunis NFTs, & Star Wars
"All right, so we're going to get into the SEC and their war on the NFT market and their recent filing, of course, against Stoner Cats. We'll break all that down for you. But more importantly, we'll get into more of a depth of why these projects are where they are and really what could be done about this for the future, because there's a lot of implications here. My name is Paul Berra. Welcome back into Tech Path. Before we get started, I want to thank our sponsor, and that is iTrustCapital. If you guys want to do long -term holding of your crypto assets and you want to put it in a crypto IRA, you can do that with iTrustCapital. And there's a couple of ways you can do it. Start a new one, or you can actually transfer in one of your current IRAs. So it's very easy to do. All you have to do is sign up, and you can check the platform out just by going over to iTrustCapital and seeing what they've got to offer for your particular situation. Very easy. Use our link down below. It's going to give you a $100 funding reward to get started. All right. So let's get into it today. I want to lead off with a few clips here. We'll go into a lot of lineup here, I think, that will frame up exactly what happened during the Stutter Cats. And this is very important, because you may be a brand. You may be someone that's interested in the FT market. This is something you want to watch. You don't want to miss this one. So let's go to the first clip. We were having dinner with Gary Vee at the time, and they were talking about crypto. And I was like, this is dumb. And then as the years went on, I was like, I think I'm on the wrong side of history on this one. I think I was wrong. Okay. So interesting position. I think some people kind of look at it that way. But let's continue on telling this story, because there's a lot here that breaks out where the future is going to go with this. Listen in. Hey, babe. Yeah? What's blockchain? It's like what information is stored on. So like, it's, you know, what information is stored on? Hey, babe. Yeah? What's decentralization? Oh, there's not one person in charge of anything. So it's everybody keeps everybody else in check. Hey, babe. Yeah? What's Ethereum? So Ethereum is a general purpose blockchain. All right. We had to put that one in there. What a great, great piece that is where Mila learns a little bit more about Ethereum. Let's go over to now that she's understood what's happened and how this market is really a differentiator for pretty much everyone, she wants to do something about it. So listen in. And I'll tell you why. Like all jokes aside is because it made me nervous and I felt like it was a very masculine area. Like everybody that I knew that knew anything about it at the time was always a man and I found it to be really empowering. And so through the pandemic created a form of entertainment called stoner cats that we're releasing in a couple of weeks that is an NFT and you can buy such stoner cats. And then that is your token to then watch a five minute long piece of entertainment. It sounds like a cool idea. And I know you've had experience in animation and comedy. So we have a, I think we have a picture here of the stoner cats. This is yep. And it's really cool guys, because I'll tell you, in the very, yeah, so here's the thing on it. I was going to say cats just sit around anyway. Well guess what happens when they get stoned. The people that we got to do the voice is everybody just did it because they thought that it was different and fun and we all wanted to do it for the right reasons. And it brings ownership of content back to the artist and cuts out the middleman. And so if people like the NFTs and they buy it as tokens, then more shows will be made. Look at those eyes. I mean, come on. Come on. All right, so I want to play another clip that goes into how she integrated this into Hollywood. Listen it. So Mila was surprised by how many people she was able to recruit to take part in the new medium, including Jane Fonda. We were like, who can be Mrs. Stoner? Like we should get somebody like Jane Fonda. It would be so amazing to get somebody like Jane Fonda. And I was like, OK, let's just call Jane Fonda. I know this is an incredibly weird request. Would you ever do something like this? And they're like, I don't quite get it, so I'm going to say yes. It's just different and everybody wants ownership of content to go to the artist and this kind of allows that to happen. So again, really kind of hitting on the thread that I think everybody understands what decentralization and NFTs and in general, smart contracts really mean for the future of content and they hit it on the head. There was the OpenSea launch, of course, fully sold out and it just happened in like seconds. It was a pretty fast and very successful run. The key here is that if you look at the data, this comes back from a tweet back in 2021 when they launched this. There was the Ethereum gas fees for this, so you can see it had an immediate impact on ETH in general. And overall, the gas fees were kind of a thing and so much so that we actually had a song written about this. So listen in. This is a story of superfood, how he tried to get a stoner cat, and with a snafu in the gas limit, he lost $13 ,000 right on fire. Gas fees. Now, this is back in the era of when we weren't really seeing the advancements in blockchain that we are now, especially in smart contracts, obviously gas fees were part of this. This is, I think, has really started to be evolved over the last 12 months with just so much innovation in the space. But I think this also caught a little bit of the SEC's eye, possibly. There could be some theory behind that. But the interesting thing was is just how fast this thing sold out. Listen to this clip. Thank you so much for honestly believing in this entire crazy concept and idea and being a part of it, because it has been a whirlwind and we're so excited to continue down this journey with all of you. We're so sorry that we broke Ethereum, but also, fuck it. Sorry the gas fees were high, I tried to waive them, it clearly didn't work, I'll work better, I'll try harder. We're so excited, genuinely shocked at any and all of this, and just want to say hi and thank you and welcome to the team. We're excited for you to join the team. Thanks for being aboard. So again, this is innovation at work. It's how startups go out. And I think from a content creator standpoint there, this is the right kind of vision of what Hollywood most likely is going to be doing in the future, provided they can get past these kind of scenarios that the SEC is placing on them. Let's go to the next clip, which just shows you a trailer just how much work was put in this project. I have regrets. Run, Chuckie boy, run! Run! What Ow! in the poltergeist? Fuck! All right, so many episodes lined up on this, their friends, kind of everybody got together, had watch parties. This became a bit of a community, and I think that's again another big part of how fans work, especially when you look at content and how that gets released in Hollywood today. As for Stoner Cats, they actually released all six episodes, so you can kind of see the website here, scrolling through all the episodes, all delivered as promised. And that was really the goal, and I think that's the position of where all of this starts to stem from, especially in the position of what's happening with the SEC. If you scroll further down on the website, I thought this was cool. Website Stoner Cats content will be available in perpetuity using decentralized hosting and archiving service R -weaves. So again, they were utilizing literally from the beginning all the way through the blockchain to deliver this kind of content. These are the kind of technologies that will start to shift content creation. You often wonder why and what is driving the SEC's decisions on this. If you go over to the SEC, we'll get into the actual complaint here. So they charged creator of Stoner Cats' web series on registry offering securities. I'll read a few things from it. Raised approximately $8 million from investors to finance the animated web series called Stoner Cats. $800 each, selling out 35 minutes. Marketing campaigns highlighted specific benefits from owning, including option for owners to resell on secondary market. Marketing campaign on the Stoner Cats team emphasized its expertise, and Hollywood producers agreed, leading investors to expect profits. That's a reach. Configured the Stoner Cats NFTs to provide a Stoner Cat 2, a 2 .5 % royalty, which is happening on the aftermarket. Leading purchases to spend more than $20 million in at least 10 ,000 transactions. So you had $20 million plus the $8 million, about $28 million, almost $30 million on an animated series that was done based off of blockchain. And remember, this just as a side project, so very successful. Further into the complaint right here, cease and desist order to pay a civil penalty of $1 million. The order establishes a fair fund to return the monies that injured investors. I love how they said that. Injured investors. Paid to purchase NFTs. I also agreed to destroy all of the NFTs in its position. This is a problem because, again, this is almost anything you can imagine that would go in the secondary market. I mean, comics, collectibles, luxury goods, anything and everything could be a security. So I think this continues on its hypocrisy of where this is going. Here was a course Hester Peirce and you, Ada, coming in and saying they didn't necessarily agree. Let me zoom in on this right here. Lacks any meaningful limiting principle. Creativity would wither in the shadow of legal ambiguity. She deserves clear guidance in talking about Kunis here. The fact that money is involved does not transform into NFTs, into securities. The enforcement action involves activity that we believe constitutes a fan crown funding, which is a common phenomenon used all the time. Soner Can's NFTs are not a different from Star Wars collectibles in the 1970s. So again, big problem. Toy company Kenner sold early bird certificates, redeemable for future Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia and R2 -D2 action figures. So you had membership scenarios that played into this and the sales of those certificates helped build a diehard community around Star Wars.
The Breakdown
A highlight from Shockingly, Gary Gensler Doesn't Like Stoner Cats
"Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW. It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world. What's going on, guys? It is Thursday, September 14th, and today we are talking about stoner cats. Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying The Breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or, if you want to dive deeper into the conversation, come join us on The Breaker's Discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit .ly slash breakdown pod. Alright, friends, well, I have to tell you, at this point we really have about four archetypes of breakdown shows. There's number one, oh god, more cleanup from 2022. There's number two, hey look, a new TradFi player is getting in the game. There's number three, hey look, a judge or elected official is smacking a regulator down. And then there's number four, hey look, an unelected bureaucrat is trying to expand their power again. And today's show is indeed an example of the fourth, and the reason it matters is not just because it's another SEC enforcement action, but because I do really think that this represents and is a great example of that impulse to authority expansion. So what am I referring to? Well, of course, I am referring to the SEC bringing its second enforcement action ever against an NFT project. This time, the regulator targeted Stoner Cats, a profile picture NFT collection that was sold to finance a web series. The SEC alleged that the sale of collectible NFTs constituted the sale of unregistered securities. The production company behind the project settled the allegations without admitting to the SEC's findings. So the details. Stoner Cats sold out their collection in around 35 minutes at the height of the NFT bull market in July 2021. The project raised $8 million from the sale. Marketing highlighted materials Hollywood producers and big -name celebrities attached to the web series, and suggested that the success of the show would increase the value of the NFTs in secondary markets. The company received 2 .5 % of royalties from secondary market sales, which produced $20 million in volume. In the settlement, Stoner Cats agreed to a cease -and -desist order and a $1 million penalty. In addition, a fund will be established to refund investors and all NFTs held by the company will be destroyed. Gurbir Gural, the director of the SEC's Division of Enforcement, said in a statement, Regardless of whether your offering involves beavers, chinchillas, or animal -based NFTs, under the federal securities laws, it's the economic reality of the offering, not the label you put on it or the underlying objects, that guides the determination of what's an investment contract and therefore a security. As an aside, I wonder sometime if they find their own writing as clever as they seem to. Beavers, chinchillas, or animal -based NFTs, wah. Moving on, the statement reads, Here the SEC's order finds that Stoner Cats marketed its knowledge of crypto projects, touted that the price of their NFTs could increase, and took other steps that led investors to believe they would profit from selling the NFTs in the secondary market. It's therefore hardly surprising, as the order finds, that Stoner Cats sold its entire supply of NFTs in just 35 minutes, generating proceeds of over $8 million, most of which were then resold, not held as collectibles, in the secondary market within months. Carolyn Welschans, the associate director of the SEC's home office, added, Stoner Cats wanted all the benefits of offering and selling a security to the public, but ignored the legal responsibilities that come with doing so. Now, Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Ueda offered what has become their customary dissent against the SEC's actions. They claimed the enforcement represented a perverse extension of the SEC's jurisdiction and the borders of the Howey Test into the realm of art and collectibles. In a statement they wrote, The application of the Howey Investment Contract Analysis in this matter lacks any meaningful limiting principle. It carries implications for creators of all kinds. Were we to apply the securities laws to physical collectibles in the same way we apply them to NFTs, artists' creativity would wither in the shadow of legal ambiguity. Rather than arbitrarily bringing enforcement actions against NFT projects, we ought to lay out some clear guidelines for artists and other creators who want to experiment with NFTs as a way to support their creative efforts and build their fan communities. The Commissioners claimed the NFT project was more properly characterized as a fan crowdfunding. More broadly, they expressed concern that, through this enforcement, the SEC were attempting to exert jurisdiction over collectibles in a way they had never previously done with physical objects. The Commissioners likened stoner cats to a scheme surrounding the launch of Star Wars toys in Christmas of 1977. The toy maker sold early bird certificate packages in lieu of actual toys due to problems with production. These certificates were redeemable for toys in due course, but could also be resold for a profit in secondary markets at the time. The Commissioners asserted that, Using the analysis of today's enforcement action, the SEC should have parachuted in to save those kids from Star Wars mania. The main point of the dissent was that the SEC should not use its enforcement to stifle innovation in creative industries through the use of NFTs. The Commissioners said that, They argued that the SEC's More generally, it contributes to the legal ambiguity facing artists, writers, musicians, filmmakers, and others seeking to build a loyal, engaged following. There are a few different categories of reactions from people in the crypto community. Some honestly said that the stoner cats were not necessarily the best example to be a standard bearer for the industry. Gabriel Shapiro, General Counsel at Delphi Labs said, NFT trader, ex -lawyer, NFTs said, And the natural extension of that is any collectible that has a robust resale market — Jordans, baseball cards, comics, rare whiskey and wine, etc. — is potentially sold as a security. That is not the law, but it seems that the SEC is using essentially dicta in an order to creep its jurisdiction. Crypto criminal lawyer Carlos says injecting language like this into settlement seems to be a recurring pattern. To which ex -lawyer again responded, Obviously to us that's not true, but the SEC doesn't play fair and will take advantage of it. And indeed, this take that the SEC was overreaching here was by, in a way, the most common take. Marissa Tashman -Koppel, the Senior Counsel at Blockchain Association said, So now the SEC is in the business of regulating creatives and artists? Creating opportunities for ownership in the creative process is one way crypto and Web3 transforms how we interact online. The SEC shouldn't interrupt this process. Crypto lawyer Ujin writes, Hester Peirce emphasized in her dissent that the SEC's position limits legitimate ways for artists to make a living and she is right. Speculative sales of art are the basis for many sales of art, and that doesn't make those sales a security offering. Now still one more take was that we are seeing something of a positive pattern of dissent. Framework Ventures' Vance Spencer said, Peirce was on her own for a long time. Important to remember for something like an ETF approval, which requires three of five. Now staying on the theme of Gensler for a moment, it's like after the Senate hearing where he had to take some punches earlier this week, he had to go out and find a venue to get his own shots in. Appearing at a conference hosted by lobbyist group Better Markets on Wednesday, Gensler said, Millions of investors have been hurt in this field. It's an area that can hurt investors, but it can also hurt the broader economy because it can hurt investor confidence and finances ultimately built on trust. The conference was of course being held to mark the 15th anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, giving Gensler plenty of opportunity for histrionics about financial risk. Gensler trotted out his usual talking points, although adjusted to consider recent criticisms raised in court. Still, there was one kind of awkward and sweet moment where the host suggested that the crypto do seem to be finding some sympathetic judges recently, to which Gensler was uncharacteristically silent in response. Now, Jason Franek from Alliance Dow really sums it up. He wrote, Now, somewhat related, while presenting a speech at a conference hosted by the Practicing Law Institute, CFTC Enforcement Director Ian McGinley pressed home his agency's antipathy towards DeFi. McGinley said, McGinley presented the complete list of CFTC victories in DeFi cases, including a settlement with prediction market PolyMarket and derivatives exchange operator UkiDao. He said, All of this is to say, the CFTC has brought groundbreaking actions in the DeFi space, standing for the proposition that when offering core derivatives products based on digital assets to the public, whether in a centralized or decentralized manner, you must comply with the law. The comments came just a week after the CFTC announced settlements with DeFi trading platforms Open, 0x, and Derridex for offering quote illegal digital asset derivatives trading. The enforcement actions were widely viewed as the regulator taking on easy targets in an attempt to send a message. Indeed, the attack on DeFi was so brazen that one dissenting commissioner even openly suggested that the CFTC was quote, creating an impossible environment for those who want to comply with the law. Bankless co -host Ryan Schott Adams tweeted, The IRS is attacking crypto, FinCEN is attacking crypto, the SEC is attacking crypto, the CFTC is attacking crypto, OFAC is attacking crypto. This is what the now they fight you phase looks like. Now speaking of the fight and not going down without one, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has called for DeFi protocols to take the fight to the CFTC and defend enforcement actions in court. He said in a tweet on Wednesday, The CFTC should not be creating enforcement actions against DeFi protocols. These are not financial services business and it's highly unlikely the Commodity Exchange Act even applies to them. My hope is these DeFi protocols take these cases to court to establish precedent. The courts have proven to be very willing to uphold rule of law. The only thing this is accomplishing is to push an important industry offshore. Now following last week's enforcement action against that trio of DeFi platforms, many commented that the order was a stretch of existing law. And while their cases may have been defensible, the diminutive DeFi platforms were unlikely to have had the resources to take on the US regulator, which is of course why many believe they were targeted in the first place. Now while Brian Armstrong stopped short of offering funding, many others in the space urged collective defense. Crypto law US founder John Deaton said, The industry needs to create a legal fund of some sort to help defend these winnable cases. LEO Trades amplified that, saying, Brian, if you really want to affect policy change, you and Coinbase should help create a fund for projects facing enforcement. Let's be real. Everyone is worried about the financial burden of litigation. This would honestly be a better use of resources than vague political campaigns. Now a different take was summed up by Jamison Lop, who wrote, My hope is that DeFi protocols be so decentralized that the notion of them going to court is absurd. Lawyer Jason Gottlieb wrote a thread about this as well, saying, I agree with Brian Armstrong that DeFi protocols should challenge the CFTC and SEC in court on overreaching settlement demands. The sad reality is that the agencies first attack smaller outfits for whom it makes vastly more economic sense to settle rather than litigate. We see what happens when well -funded projects go to court to fight shaky theories of DeFi liability. Cases or causes of action are dismissed, partial liability can be dropped, the dynamics are greatly changed. But the regulators start with huge advantages. They have typically worn down projects with an expensive investigation first. Even just satisfying the overbearing demands for document production in these investigations can cost six figures easily. I've said it before, I'll say it again. Every single subpoena a regulator sends to a blockchain project is one less engineering job in America and more money for lawyers. Even the lawyers who benefit from that, hi there, think that is a terrible trade -off for America. One problem is funding. The regulators can wear projects down and then offer deals that, while expensive and onerous, are better than more years of continued litigation where even if the project wins, it has massively lost time, funding runway, and momentum. Another problem is that these are people's lives. An investigation is obtrusive enough. Litigation is personally highly disruptive. For us litigators, it's just what we do, it doesn't feel bad. But for founders, devs, people just trying to build, it can feel terrible. So I would love for more DeFi projects to take the CFTC and SEC to court. And is this attorney advertising? I'd love to be the lawyer who represents them. But it costs a lot of money and it's emotionally hard. Companies that have taken on the fight have done great work protecting the space, sometimes behind the scenes in ways people won't widely know about. We need more. But not everyone is well financed and in a fighting mood. So we need to support the smaller projects financially and otherwise. Everyone who believes in the efficiency, privacy, and self -control advantages of digital assets is in this fight together. The battle over the future of crypto is the battle over the future of all digital assets. And since more and more of our lives are digital, that's more and more of our lives. This fight is far more important than when moon antics. It is literally the battle for the future of your digital life. The legal battles over digital assets are the battles over the direction of our collective future. Here, here. I think I will let Jason have the last word on that one because I can't do any better. I appreciate all you guys listening. And until next time, be safe and take care of each other. Peace.
Thinking Crypto News & Interviews
A highlight from GARY GENSLER ATTACKS STONER CATS NFTS & RIPPLE XRP WILL FIGHT SEC, HEDERA HBAR STABLECOIN STUDIO!
"Welcome back to the Thinking Crypto Podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, please hit that subscribe button as well as the thumbs up button and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify, Apple or Google, please leave a five star rating and review. It supports the podcast and it doesn't cost you anything. Well, folks, I want to start off with the SEC versus NFTs. Stoner Cats agrees to pay a one million dollar fine to settle SEC charges. The Hollywood superstar backed Stoner Cats NFTs has neither admitted nor denied the SEC's allegation that it issued an unregistered security. So once again, folks, we see regulation by enforcement by scumbag regulator Gary Gensler. They're not putting out the clear rules of the road. And we even have two commissioners that dissented from this enforcement action. So we see even folks within the SEC don't agree. But we know Gary Gensler has been running around with a false narrative saying everything in the crypto industry is a security and that it's breaking securities laws. But of course, he's not providing any guidance. And we saw even members of Congress question him. Tell us what is it, which crypto coins and tokens are securities? Is Ethereum a security? Is XRP is a security? He can't answer. Right. So we are dealing with nonsense. And, you know, the challenging part here is that he takes these settlements here because these companies don't have the capital to fight the government, to fight the SEC. You saw Ripple. It's they spent one hundred million dollars to fight the SEC. So many of these companies don't have that type of capital. So they settle just to get the SEC off their back. But unfortunately, you know, Gary adds this to his wins list. Now, the good thing is that Stoner Cats is not some major brand, you know, well -known. The defeat that the SEC took with Grayscale and Ripple and I think soon Coinbase, those are big names and well -known. So they carry more weight when, you know, Gary takes the loss. So let me give you the details here, guys. The U .S. Securities and Exchange has charged and settled with NFT issuer Stoner Cats, too, for allegedly offering an unregistered security. Without denying or admitting to the SEC's allegations, Stoner Cats, too, has agreed to cease and desist from offering the NFTs and pay a one million dollar fine. Stoner Cats, too, also agreed to destroy all NFTs in its possession and issue a notice of order on its website and social media channels, the SEC said. Now Stoner Cats, if you're wondering who is the Hollywood backers, it was issued by actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis. They released 10 ,000 NFTs in a highly anticipated drop in July 2021. The drop raised eight million dollars. Now, folks, you see how ridiculous this is, you know? So what does that make any artwork that's put out there on the Web, right? Let's say it's not in NFT format. Let's say it's baseball cards or sports cards. This is just ridiculous. The SEC is completely overreaching here. And don't get me wrong, they have a job to do to monitor these NFT prices and crypto projects because there are bad actors. But clearly they're going after the good actors and they're leaving many bad actors to do their thing. So this really sucks. Now, SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Ueda issued a dissenting opinion Wednesday arguing the Howey test cannot be met. So clearly, clearly the SEC is divided here and we know the entire industry and even members of Congress are not on board with this nonsense. But Congress has to act. The onus is on them to get the rules in place because Gary is just going to continue his nonsense and he's trying to get that Treasury job. So he's just trying to rack up wins here to say, see, look at all the enforcement actions I took. Look at all the capital I got. And he won't give the details to say, hey, these guys were just trying to issue NFTs. He'll say, you know, they're scammers, they're hucksters, they're doing all kinds of bad activity. Right. So that's his narrative. So we got to fight, folks. And this is why we use social media to our advantage, contact your representatives and much more. Here's what Mark Ueda had to say. Analyzing investment contracts in this way carries implications for creators of all kinds. We're to apply these securities laws to physical collectibles in the same way we applied them to NFTs. Artist creativity would wither in the shadow of legal ambiguity. Mark summed it up really well there. This is really, really insane what the SEC is doing. And we got to keep fighting, folks. But scumbag regulator Gary Gensler continues. Now, interestingly enough, yesterday, some folks from Ripple were interviewed by CNBC. And here's the headline from CNBC. Ripple says it will fight the SEC lawsuit all the way through. Ripple said it plans to fight the ongoing lawsuit with the U .S. Securities Exchange Commission all the way through its president, Monica Long, told CNBC. Ripple is among the crypto companies such as Binance and Coinbase, which are being sued by the SEC for violating laws. So Ripple is going to continue fighting. You guys know there's going to be even the proper party at the end of the month of September. And I'm looking forward to that in New York City. I will be attending. I know some people are down on it because the prices are down. But look, if you have to understand the market cycles, right, what's playing out, everything's down. Bitcoin is down. Even a large, large part of the markets out there because of the macroeconomic factors of inflation, rate hikes and much more. So I'm glad to see that Ripple is going to continue fighting and I'm sure they're going to push for some sort of settlement. And we know the SEC is trying to appeal, but, you know, Ripple took the bigger slice of the pie from a victory standpoint where XRP token was intrinsically stated as not being a security. And I think the judge got it right there. It goes back to how we test the orange groves and the oranges that we get at our supermarket or orange trees in general are not securities by themselves, but rather it's the packaging. So that's the key. So the tokens themselves, not securities is just how are they being packaged? And don't get me wrong, NFTs could be, and I say could be in certain circumstances, securities, right? If they're packaged in a certain way. But we know if you just simply issue artwork and NFTs on the blockchain, that does not make them intrinsically a security. But Gary Gensler, we know he doesn't. He's trying to muddy the waters and cause confusion and just saying everything that's issued is a security. We know it's nonsense. Now, moving ahead, Flare, many of you hold the Flare tokens. If you're an XRP holder who participated in the Flare snapshot, you got a distribution of your Flare tokens. You continue to get that. I personally am doing that and I delegate my Flare tokens and I'm earning rewards. I'm doing the same thing for Songbird. You can of course invest in the Flare token if you want. Well, Flare is going to be moving to a staking model and they provided an update here saying we will soon enter phase two of three in Flare's transition to a staking model, opening new opportunities to delegate stake to validators and earn rewards. The date when staking can commence will be announced in the coming weeks. So if you're a Flare token holder, this is great news and I'm looking forward to this. If I can stake and earn more rewards, that'll be great. And you know, I'm not selling any of the earnings I get from delegation because we're in a bear market. I am just delegating, earning more tokens, and then when the bull market comes, I will be looking to take profits as the prices rise. Now speaking of prices rising and selling, a great platform to do so is on Uphold, which is a great platform. I've been using them since 2018. They're one of my go -to exchanges. They have 10 plus million users, 250 plus cryptocurrencies, and they're available in 150 countries. You can also trade precious metals and equities and 37 national currencies. So that's different Fiat currencies, and you can swap easily between precious metals, cryptocurrencies, and these different 37 national currencies. So if you'd like to learn more about Uphold, please visit the link in the description. All right, folks, we got some very big Hedera HBAR news. So recently I interviewed Leemon Beard, who's one of the co -founders of Hedera. They're doing great things. I think this is going to be one of the blockchain projects that can really come out of this speculative crypto bubble and be one of the winners, right? If you look at the speculative bubble of the dot -com boom, you had your Googles, your Ebays, your Amazons, and a few others that came out that did really well. I think Hedera is one of them. And part of their governing council includes Google, Dell, IBM, Boeing, some of the biggest names. And just recently, Hyundai and Kia started building on the Hedera network. So huge news. So they tweeted out, we're excited to announce the Hedera stablecoin studio, the all -in -one stablecoin configuration issuance and management toolkit tailored for Web3 platforms, institutional issuers, enterprises, and payment providers alike. By leveraging Hedera, the network, and in collaboration with our partners, the stablecoin studio delivers a highly performant, seamless, and end -to -end stablecoin solution with proof of reserve, dedicated custodians, and network native KYC slash AML flagging. So this is pretty big. They said with Hedera, predictable fees, high programmability, and robust network of ecosystem partners, stablecoin issuance and management have never been simpler. Everything you need to build and configure stablecoins with ease. So this is a really great feature. Obviously, stablecoins are going to be a big part of the token economy and the ability to have your blockchain utilized for tokenization, whether it be CBDCs, stablecoins, NFTs, tokenization of real -world assets, and much more is going to be key to adoption because that's the future. So Hedera is ahead of the curve in many ways. And if you haven't seen my interview with Lehman Abir, be sure to check it out because we talk about the Hyundai -Kia situation. We talk about Xinhan Bank with their stablecoin on the Hedera blockchain being used to improve cross -border payments. So it's really, really big things happening here. I'm very bullish on HBAR. Now moving ahead, Coinbase, to integrate the Bitcoin Lightning Network in a bid to drive adoption, Coinbase CEO labeled Bitcoin the most important asset Tuesday following an announcement his company would integrate Lightning. Now Coinbase is a little bit late to the game here. There have been other exchanges like OKEx that integrated the Lightning Network. But more and more, I think, platforms are going to leverage the Lightning Network to help boost Bitcoin's ability to scale. Look, I don't think the Lightning Network is even there yet. We know the folks at Lightspark are trying to do something, Jack Mahler's strike, but it's not there. Look, Bitcoin is a great store of value, great hard money, great digital goal. I view it from that standpoint. And that's why I hold it in my portfolio. It has made me money. But for payments, not great. Not great at all. Now there could be great improvements to the Lightning Network where it gets global adoption and people start using it. But we are far from that. And we'll have to see what guys like Jack Dorsey's Cash App, David Marcus's Lightspark, Jack Mahler's strike, and these guys do because they've done it in small increments and small markets. But there's no major global adoption here where people are like, I'm going to go spend some sats. Don't get me wrong, it may be happening in, once again, small scenarios in El Salvador. But what about the rest of the world? People are opting more for stablecoins. So this is something that the folks who are building the Lightning Network have to figure out how to scale this thing and make it easy for people to onboard. So Coinbase looking to make a push here and get more adoption around Bitcoin, and it certainly makes sense. Bitcoin is definitely the brand that's well known. A lot of people come into the market via the Bitcoin asset, and then they usually go to altcoins after that. Now speaking of altcoins, Vitalik Buterin was speaking at Permissionless, the crypto conference in Austin. It's actually held by Blockworks. And he talked a bit about what's in the future for Ethereum. Now, some people listening to this may be very upset at Vitalik, Joe Lubin, Bill Hinman and so forth. And that's fine. You know, I understand I'm not the biggest fans of these folks as well. I do respect Vitalik as a coder and what he has built. I think folks can't ignore that. He did build a great platform. First mover advantage, the EVM is used by many other different blockchains. And there's been a lot of building on Ethereum. You can't deny that regardless if you hate it or you don't hold it. The facts are there from DeFi to NFTs and much more. And a lot of smart contract tech is being used and built around Ethereum. And he made some interesting statements as to what Ethereum is going to target next. So he said DeFi is cool. NFTs are a new primitive, but an extension of something that has a history and using crypto for payments is good, but also familiar. These are individual pieces that are designed to fit it into an ecosystem that's otherwise the same as before, Buterin said. He said what he's excited about is decentralized social, repeatedly name dropping Faircaster, a Twitter like protocol on the OP mainnet with a companion warp cast mobile app that is currently invite only alpha release. Along with Lens developed by Aave founder Stani Kulichov and running on Polygon's proof of stake chain, Faircaster and similar social experiences are using crypto tools to complete with centralized platforms. Let's see how far we can push things in that direction, Buterin said. But where I see the longer term feature here is it really can plug into all the other stuff that we've been doing as a space. So it sounds like he's trying to build like some sort of decentralized social platform that will include the tokenization, the entities, the DeFi and so forth. That makes sense. And as we head into Web3, just as people transition from Web1 to Web2 and even earlier versions of Web2 social platforms like Myspace and Friendster to eventually Facebook, Twitter and so on, we're going to see a transition from the Web2 social platforms into Web3 social platforms, especially as they become more easy to onboard and use. And there's a layer of rewards of tokens. And if people can legitimately earn tokens and get paid for their activity and it's on the block chain, it's verifiable, it's hard to hack and things like that. They will come folks. They will come. People will come, especially as data breaches continue with social platforms mainstream and other platforms as well. So interesting statements here from Vitalik. And I think we want to watch this closely because look, like I said, Ethereum has the adoption, has a lot of developers, has a lot of capital behind a lot of resources. So if there's any token that comes with these social platforms, I'm going to be looking into that and be looking into these platforms and seeing how I can capitalize on it to make a nice return. Well, folks, that's the news. Let me know what you think. Leave your thoughts and comments below. Hit the thumbs up button. Hit the five star rating on the podcast platforms. Don't forget to check out the merchandise store. Link will be in the description where you can buy the podcast branded gear as well as fire Gary Gensler T -shirts and hats and much more. Thank you for your support. And I'll talk to you all later. Bye bye.
The Eric Metaxas Show
A highlight from Jonathan Cahn
"Welcome to the Eric Metaxas Show. They say it's a thin line between love and hate, but we're working every day to thicken that line, or at least make it a double or triple line. But now, here's your line -jumping host, Eric Metaxas! Folks, welcome to the program. Today is officially Monday, Monday, Monday. Hi, Chris. Hello. How are you? I'm doing all right. You're doing all right? Okay, I got a lot of stuff to share. Yeah, a lot of answers. This is gonna be like a blitzkrieg of information, folks. Get your pens out. If you prefer to type it, you can type it. I got a lot of stuff to say. First of all, my first guest coming up in the next segment, Jonathan Cahn. Insane, insane. He has a new book out. You can't miss this, Jonathan Cahn. In hour two, we've got more Jonathan Cahn, and then we're gonna get very political with a political insider. You're gonna see Jonathan Cahn coming up. Okay, Chris. Yes, sir. I got a lot of stuff to blither about. Number one, I'm working on a book which is a sequel to Letter to the American Church. I'm in the midst of the writing process right now. It's always painful, always painful. Folks, if you feel like praying for me, I could use the prayers. It's been very tough writing this stuff. I believe that I'm saying what God wants to say. This is like, I don't say that kind of stuff lightly. I don't take that lightly, and so I covet your prayers because it's been tough. Letter to the American Church. The first book kind of struck a nerve, right? It struck a nerve, and I know God called me to write that book. And again, if you don't believe in God, first of all, A, you're wrong. B, I don't care. So the fact is that we have, Letter to the American Church, there's a study guide because a lot of people are doing it in small groups, which I hope they will, so there's a study guide. And also, we are almost done filming the documentary film of Letter to the American Church. Folks, I'm gonna be talking about this in the weeks ahead. I believe it's gonna be a fathom event that we're gonna kick it off. We don't know, but it's a documentary film. It is made by Hollywood geniuses. This is not some quirky little project. It's incredibly well done. Letter to the American Church, the book, study guide, the film, very exciting. But I'll be talking about the details of that in the weeks ahead. Okay, I have to say, this weekend, there was some crazy stuff on Twitter. Mike Lindell's deposition, there were little bits of his deposition. I saw that, I saw that. And it was nuts. He is such a hero. I wanna say, folks, I don't care what you buy, but please go to mystore .com and mypillow .com, use the code Eric. Please tell your friends, because that's how we keep the lights on on this radio program with our sponsors. We need your help. Tell your friends to use the code Eric, whatever code they're going to use. Don't use those other codes. But go to mystore .com, go to mypillow .com. There's tons of stuff there. But I wanna support, I mean, I would wanna support Mike Lindell anyway. The man is a hero. Mystore .com, I wanna say this again.
Awards Chatter
A highlight from Wim Wenders - Anselm & Perfect Days
"Wait. Are you gaming? On a Chromebook? Yeah. It's got a high -res 120Hz display, plus this killer RGB keyboard. And I can access thousands of games anytime, anywhere. Stop playing. What? Get out of here. Huh? Yeah. I want you to stop playing and get out of here so I can game on that Chromebook. Got it. Discover the Ultimate Cloud Gaming Machine. A new kind of Chromebook. Hi, everyone, and thank you for tuning in to the 506th episode of the Hollywood Reporters Awards Chatter Podcast. I'm the host, Scott Feinberg, and my guest today is one of the most significant filmmakers of the last 50 years. His credits include classic narrative films like 1984's Paris, Texas, which won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d 'Or and brought him a Best Director BAFTA Award. And 1987's Wings of Desire, for which he won Cannes' Best Director Prize, as well as documentary films such as 1999's Buena Vista Social Club, 2011's Pina, and 2014's Salt of the Earth, each of which brought him Best Documentary Feature Oscar nominations. And now, at the age of 78, he is out with two new films, one a narrative, Neon's Perfect Days, the story of a Tokyo toilet cleaner, for which Koji Yakusho won the Best Actor Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival, and the other a 3D doc, Janice Films' Anselm, about the art of the German painter and sculptor, Anselm Kiefer. The recipient of the Berlin International Film Festival's Honorary Golden Bear in 2015 and the Telluride Film Festival's Silver Medallion Award this year, he has been described by The Guardian as one of the key figures, along with Fassbender, Herzog, and Schlondorf, of the new German cinema movement that reinvigorated West German film in the 70s, and gave the country of Marlene Dietrich, UFA, and F .W. Murnau a bona fide cinematic movement to rival the Nouvelle Vague, by The New York Times as a film visionary and a great hero of art film audiences everywhere, and by Turner Classic Movies as one of his generation's most appreciated independent filmmakers, VIM Vendors. Over the course of our conversation at the Toronto offices of Elevation Pictures, the Canadian production and distribution company, the 78 -year -old and I discussed his circuitous path to filmmaking and the challenges of forging a career as a filmmaker in Germany back when he was starting out, what led him to America for a number of years and then back to Germany, why he moves between narrative and documentary films as often as any filmmaker except perhaps Martin Scorsese, and why he is particularly committed to making 3D docs, plus much more. And so without further ado, let's go to that conversation. Mr. Vendors, thank you so much for doing this. Great to have you on the podcast. And to begin with, just for anyone who may be living under Iraq and doesn't know, can you share where you were born and raised and what your folks did for a living? So I'm Wim Vendors and I was born in Germany right after the Second World War in August 1945, in a fateful week for the Japanese people. Grew up in post -war Germany, wanted to become a painter. First studied philosophy and medicine but then really drew up the courage to go fully for painting and cocky as I was, I went to Paris thinking that's where you become a painter and instead of becoming a painter in Paris, I became a filmmaker because I discovered the Cinematheque and that you can see the entire movies of the entire world and every screening was for 25 cents, so I saw about a thousand movies in the course of a year and after that it was decided. It wasn't painting, it was movies. Right. Now just to go backwards for a moment though, you've spoken about sort of this sense of growing up in Germany after the war, there were a lot of secrets, a lot of darkness, unanswered questions and you've talked about your parents having, I guess, photos that really kind of maybe opened your mind to the world beyond where you were from. Can you talk about that? Well, when I was a little boy and I started school, the growing up world was very, very busy, reconstructing the country and looking forward to the future and it was all positive and beautiful and you realize even as a boy there's something wrong. Why isn't the past ever a subject and why does nobody look over their shoulders? And eventually you realize all that building and all that effort to rebuild the future was in order to, as fast as possible, forget about the past. And when I saw pictures from the past, also family pictures, there were all these uniforms and, I mean, my father was a doctor in the Second World War and as soon as he finished his studies, they threw him to the front and he was a surgeon and for four years he didn't do anything but put people back together.
Bloomberg Radio New York - Recording Feed
Monitor Show 15:00 09-07-2023 15:00
"So this is a bipartisan love affair with fast food that we've identified. Yeah. I mean, who doesn't like french fries? Absolutely. I'm just not sure about mixing it with cherry pie. Yeah. You know they put chocolate on them in Japan? I did not know that. Yeah. Every country has its own little McDonald's quirk. Yeah. Would you do the chocolate or the mayo in Europe? Mayo. Okay. Hold that thought. Kaylee, thank you. Bloomberg Business Week starts right now. Broadcasting 24 hours a day at Bloomberg .com and the Bloomberg Business Act. This is Bloomberg Radio. This is Bloomberg Business Week. Insight from the reporters and editors who bring you America's most trusted business magazine. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. Bloomberg Business Week with Caro Masur and Tim Stenebeck on Bloomberg Radio. All right. Good Thursday afternoon from the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. Jess Menton and Paul Sweeney sitting in for Tim Stenebeck and Caro Masur. Who's who? I'm not sure who's sitting in for who. But Jess and I are here, so we're in good shape to go for the next three hours. There's a lot coming up, Jess. There's a lot. We've kind of got the markets are kind of mixed here on this Thursday afternoon, but a lot coming up in the next few hours. The highlight for me is... Oh, I have a guess which one it is. Jeffrey Katzenberg, he's a co -founder of DreamWorks Animation. He's just a major, major player in Hollywood. Has been for decades. He's going to join us. He just recently joined the board of a cyber security firm. Aura is the name of that. So we'll talk about that. We'll talk about... I'm going to ask him about the writer's strike. And then maybe this whole streaming thing. It's just upended the whole Hollywood model. Yeah, exactly. He was at Disney. We ran their studios successfully for many years. So that's just one of the great, great guests we got coming up. And then of course...
Bloomberg Radio New York
"american hollywood" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Of the federal cases against him, telling the Justice Department to just drop it. He would still have to contend with the Georgia case. But I think what's really important about these things going to court is that it will then...there'll be a narrative presented to the public that the public can decide upon. And I think a lot of the polls and analysis of the TV ratings around these indictments that have showed waning interest, the same was true of the January 6 investigations. And once those were televised and a public narrative was laid out, it really affected people's opinion. All right, Tim, thanks so much for joining us. Tim O 'Brien, senior executive editor with Bloomberg Opinion. And June Grasso, legal analyst with Bloomberg News and the host of Bloomberg Law. Appreciate getting a couple of very smart voices there to help us kind of put some context around an evolving issue that will be with us presumably right up until the election and maybe past that. We're going to have more coming up. This is Bloomberg. Let's get some company news right now, Elise Mateo. You got it. Tesla's rolling out two lower spec versions of its less popular Model S sedan and Model X SUV in the US and Canada, and they cost $10 ,000 less. Bloomberg's Kimberly Adams has more. The cheaper versions come with less range and slightly slower acceleration than the base models. Just yesterday, Tesla cut the price of its higher spec Model Ys in China fueling concerns of a renewed price war in the hotly contested Chinese market. Shares of Tesla right down about two percent. And today, the Writers Guild of American Hollywood Studios are scheduled to meet again to hammer out details of a new proposal. Bloomberg's Steve Rappaport has more. Lisa Hollywood Studios have made a new offer to striking screenwriters. Sources tell Bloomberg the proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television ensures Producers human writers will not be replaced by artificial intelligence. It also gives them access to viewer data on streaming so they can see how popular their programs are. Netflix and Disney have been pushing for an agreement to end impasse the that started three months ago when writers dropped their pens in protest. Now, other parts of the offer include a better than 20 percent increase in residual payments made to writers when The future of Hawaiian Electric Industries, which supplies about 95 percent of the state's residents with power, is in doubt. Stocks plunged yesterday to its biggest loss on record, and it wiped out more than $1 billion from the company's value. That's all over worries that its power lines may be linked to the deadly Maui wildfires. Checking in with shares of Hawaiian Electric right now. They are down nearly 10 percent. Those are the stories company we're following this hour. I'm Lisa Mateo, and this is Bloomberg. You can catch us live. Your favorite Bloomberg radio shows, including Bloomberg Surveillance, Wall Street Week and Bloomberg Sound On are also available as podcasts. Listen today on Apple, Spotify, and anywhere else you get your podcasts. Breaking with no fees or minimums and no or draft fees, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision in the history of decisions. Kind of like choosing Derek Jeter is the pinch hitter for your baseball team. Jeter, you're in. We need a home run. I'll give it a try. I bat once or twice. That's out of here. Yep, even easier than that. With no fees or minimums and no overdraft fees, is it even a decision? That's banking reimagined. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See Capital One dot com slash BANK for details. Capital One and AIM member FDIC. Political news from the team that knows D .C. Breaking A Story Greg Stor, Bloomberg Supreme Court reporter with us. Bloomberg Washington correspondent Joe
Bloomberg Radio New York
"american hollywood" Discussed on Bloomberg Radio New York
"Cardinals for 50 years. He was 83. Shannon on Kay mx called Mark McGuire's then major league record 70th Homer back in 1998. He's done it again 70 home runs. Take a ride on that for history. Unbelievable. How can you end the season better than Big Mac is just done? Well, Shannon who retired in 2021 also won two world championships as a cards player that was in the 1960s, and 6 months after she was immortalized with a quarter Asian American Hollywood trailblazer anime Wong has received another accolade of firming her icon status. I would say it's better than being on the quarter. Yes, she's going to get her own Barbie doll. Really? I am now lobbying for ELISA abramowitz Barbie. Of course. Do you know that I did not have barbies? What did you have? You had a calculator like a test. Okay. I mean, I did play with calculators the ones that you could have put in the sun. And then you get them. Charged up. And I had just turned them over and write dirty words. Yes, we did with our counsel. So my mother was in the early childhood education field. And so we did a lot of collage making with scraps of John this explains a lot. Barbies were not really relevant. I don't know. I guess I'm not the mainstream. But this product keeps going and going and going. So what's this make for Mattel every year? What the revenues from that, I would wonder. Anyway. All right, Mattel, Barbie, MAT is a symbol for stock traders. You're listening to Bloomberg radio. From New York
The Final Furlong Podcast
"american hollywood" Discussed on The Final Furlong Podcast
"When he was training the horses under Paul Morgan's name, wrote quite a few winners from and then when he got his license into his own name, one of his first winners, and you know, he's, you know, he's a very, very, very shrewd operator, very shrewd trainer. And as we all know, he trains in the dunes, down in Wales there on the sand dunes. And for me, he's horses seem to develop a great built in foundation of stamina from climbing the sand dunes down on the beach down there and Wales. And all these horses, if you watch them throughout the last few years, seem to get out paste and seem to find. An unbelievable abundance of stamina at the end of the races. And I was delayed to see him win. He's had a very quiet year. He almost remember kitty's light was second. I'm sure it was second in the Scottish national level of a 143, got two pounds for that, and then was told in a whip bread of a 145 and was called an unlucky loser. So, you know, to be running off of America of America of one 30. And in the other day, with a trip that was right up right up his street, you would have had to give him a huge chance, you know, he was 12, 14 pound lore and Christian Williams had a very quiet season now. So the hardest kind of automatically got dropped to that. And yeah, look, it was a great train of performance. It was a great ride, the harsh doesn't jump grass. It's kind of got a funny way of jumping, he's got like, he kind of bought the bottom of the fence. So he doesn't, he never lent us for that offensive. Basically, you never gain ground ever again ground. Even if you're meeting on the correct stride, he doesn't jump through the air. He kind of just jumps the fence. So he never gains for you. And so that made it an even more terrific, right? Because one of the hardest things to do in the heat of a big chase like that is to panic when you're a good bit far back, probably even a little bit out of your ground. It's a very hard thing to not ask the horse some serious questions at some stage in the race. And Jack never asked the horse any major questions he never over faced the manager. He just kept them in that same route rhythm all the time. And he never he never made a mistake all the way up the street and one of his best jobs was at the last job at the last fence. And you could see he did jump it well, but he didn't gain ground. He just kept momentum. And you know, you'd often see more powerful big scorpius or horses. Gaining an unbelievable amount of ground the defenses, but he just doesn't do that. And so he is a terrific little artist great little boy, I think uni has 4000. Euros is very cheap. And gosh, they've had some fun with them. And he's been brilliantly campaigned brilliantly campaigned and I could see him, you know, like Barry said there, he could be, you know, he could be in the international House next year. I'm sure the Scottish nationally beyond the cards again this year. He's not going to get ten pounds for winning theater the other day, so effectively is going to be still well handicapped for the Scottish national. And probably onto the whip bread again and sat down where are the batteries at 5 that that's a race that he was very, very, very unlucky in last year, I think. And I could see him winning. I could say this house winning a not a good puff, but yeah, that's brilliantly explained about his jumping technique as well, Dennis. Thank you for that. Barry, what did you make him? Yeah, look, as Dennis said, it does make a strange shape over the fences for them. It's hard to remember our forget he's only a 7 year old. It just torn 7 out because we're only in February, but yeah, and he'd already won Ryan off my accent in the one 40s for them. I think he's a horse with a big future. How much are you going to campaign horses? I don't know over them sort of extreme distances. It's sure to take a bit of a toll on them. You know, you can't be dealing with every month or so, but you seem to have a plan. I suppose if he comes out of that race okay, the Midlands band national and maybe the Scottish man and see how he is, as I say, he has run into American Hollywood 40. So maybe the safe and sound it could be a grand national horse for next year, but his stamina is no stamina issue sport his jump may need to improve as a shape he makes over a fence and mainly to improve, which is to go for the big one for entry, but he's a classy and of sort of sports. That's only his force win in his last maybe ten or 12 stars, but he's been running in Google class races that has been second or times. It's good to see him getting his head in front on there onto the Midlands national and I suppose next year when he's an 8 year old, if he can keep him safe and sound and approve his certainly want to keep on the right side of him as I say he's already ran off max into one 40s as a 6 year old also. Yeah, I want to keep on the right side of it if they can keep him safe and sound unbelievable. It's back to back either chases for Christian Williams terrific training performance from him and the Welsh victories continued as the coral trophy went to our power and this was also very bullish about Thursday as was Mark on the show. So hopefully you followed us in, but I have to say it about the halfway point. I thought we're in trouble. Speaking of wars getting a pace, that's what it looked like to me, but he stayed on terrifically well. Barry, what was the market reaction afterwards? And what did you think of his performance? Yeah, he did.
KPRC 950 AM
"american hollywood" Discussed on KPRC 950 AM
"France lost its legendary actor Jean Paul Belmondo. American audience know Jean Paul Belmondo for his appearance and breathless the 1960 film by Jean Go Down, which kick started the French New Wave cinema, which swept through Hollywood and essentially gave birth to what would eventually be the 19 seventies films. Headlined by great masterpieces like The Godfather and the Exorcise film that we're very much more realistic than what you were used to seeing coming out of American Hollywood, especially during the 19 fifties. When all those beautiful, shiny colorful musicals were happening, and, well, you know, very similar tude. Believability wasn't a real big part of those very rare films. They were really made to be entertainment. And then gently. Goodell finds Jean Paul Belmondo and puts him in his movie with Gene Seaburg, the American actress, and they made a film that was so simple camera on the shoulder, no tripods, no dollies, swooping around Fred Astaire and amazing performers. Dancing on stage instead following two people in the street or putting the camera in the back seat and listening to them talk, sometimes improvising their dialogues and Showing film as a medium that could show life as it happens. He was a great man, and he meant a lot of to me personally, because, as a kid he had a huge influence and I'll pay homage to him at the end of the show. But I also want to mention that since we just celebrated September 11th the anniversary of the attacks on New York and Virginia by Arab terrorists want to showcase the bravery of a woman who was on one of those planes were going to do positivity here. We're going to look at these tragedies and And extrapolate from them What we can be hopeful as humanity and before we get to that. I want to mention that on Friday. I don't know if it's a coincidence if they do this because of September 11th, but Friday was World Suicide prevention Day. And that seems extremely appropriate because as we know our first responders and of course, our soldiers, but the people who protect us are often, uh, prisoners of depression. And they get sick by what they see. Uh it makes their innate depression even more powerful onto their psyche and a lot of people commit suicide. So I'm going to start by giving out the number to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It's 1 802 738255. 802 738255. That's the national suicide Prevention Lifeline. It's a 24 hour, uh, phone bank that it will answer your call. They speak Spanish. They speak English, of course, and it's an anonymous phone call. So you can just call to ask for help just to talk to someone. There's somebody's going to answer and he will listen. And he can put you in touch with someone who can help you right here in town, because, of course, making the call and asking for help is the first step when dealing with depression, which is generally the reason for suicide. It's a long road, and it's tough, and we know that those people need a lot of support. So you might be someone whose son or whose husband or wife or someone close to you in your life. Has maybe had some suicidal thoughts. Or maybe you're just worried about them? Because you know that they're very depressed. And you yourself have fears for them. You can call the national suicide prevention Lifeline to get advised. So once again, 1 802 738255. And as I mentioned, we celebrated the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Virginia. Yesterday it was the 20th anniversary of September 11th Truth 1001 Um, And there's an organization that is doing a great job honoring those first responders. And that is the Gary Sinise Foundation. If that name rings a bell, it's because it should. Gary Sinise is literally one of the most successful. And visible actors of his generation. He started his career by founding a theater actually the step in Wool theater, and it's still going strong and Chicago and so we're talking about a guy who is just a natural born leader and who is interested in connecting people. And if you know him, it's almost entirely likely that it's because of Lieutenant Dan the character he played in Forrest Gump great movie. If you haven't seen in a while, let me tell you I was really happy to see that it really holds up. It's a ton of fun and the performance Big Gary Sinese is just unforgettable. He plays a Vietnam War veteran for most of the film. Who has lost his legs and who has lost hope and gets very close to committing suicide and force Gump. His friend who had saved his life is the reason why he doesn't go down. Now this movie is a huge success. When it came out. It was directed by the great Robert Zemeckis, who also gave us back to the future and who framed Roger Rabbit. What happened after forced Gump came out? Is that people when they wrote Recognize Gary Sinise to call him? Lieutenant Dan Lieutenant Dan And that put him into contact with our armed forces. And he started working with the U. S so and flying to theaters of operation all over the world. To entertain our troops. You know, the U. S. So does that, of course, and he would eventually form the Lieutenant Dan Band and engaging some of the some great musicians. This is a really good band Their cover band, but they're really, really good. All right. These are professionals. It's not like the guys that are have been practicing for a couple of days and then play the banquet around the corner. It's not something like that. This is a real show. And they play all these free shows for veterans and first responders. They also serve meals just you need to see it to believe it. It's just a wonderful organization. Gary Sinise foundation dot org. So for obvious reasons, he put out a beautiful video on the anniversary of 9 11 and, uh, I suggest you check it out. It's on the website. And I suggest that you might want to donate to this organization because they're really good. Their their balance sheet checks out. They actually take the donations that they get, and they put them at work to fund their programs. And one of the most extraordinary programs they have is that they build houses for veterans. So, for instance, if someone was in Afghanistan And they stepped on and I e. D and improvised bomb and lost a limb or both of their limbs, and they're confined to a chair for the rest of their lives, knowing how difficult their challenges would be. The Gary Sinise Foundation realized that one way to help them Was to help build houses that were particularly adapted to their needs. So, for instance, the doorway would be wider than normal in the kitchen del Place the ovens lower to the ground so that someone who is sitting in a chair can still cook. It's things like that, and they incorporate that kind of technology into the building of the house to make their lives easier, And there's a bunch of videos where you can see the families being welcomed into their new homes. You're not going to keep it dry. It's just such a wonderful way to help And honestly, it's the best of the spirit of America. Gary Sinise foundation dot org Worthwhile organization..
The Purple Principle
"american hollywood" Discussed on The Purple Principle
"On that a little. Bit short new hampshire. We have requirements fourth graders for example have to take some instruction in civics new hampshire government and history and often firms. You'll see it. Fourth graders visit the state out. It is wonderful to see these nine. Ten year olds comfort statehouse and get tourists and run a little bit about the Actual building where legislating takes place so field trips that are wonderful in this eighth grade and also high school credit requirements again. The problem with the credit requirements is that if there's no assessments that go with those than this very uneven application of civics instruction around the state. Every school is different. Every teacher is different in all too often. My sense has been that. There's been a rack of emphasis on the actual knowledge. Fundamentals of how government works so. I wonder if you've had this experience of trying to explain. Us politics to. Let's say someone from almost any other country even a country as close as canada. They're just completely baffled at the complexity and the challenges of governing in the us. Have you had that experience. I have. I actually did a buck with a afghan american. Hollywood actor interpreter ghanistan. He somebody who had to take the civics naturalization test to become citizens so i've had conversations with people from afghanistan fahim fazli my co author to canada in last year's election. I know that is confusing to not just americans who don't understand the electoral college you know in two thousand sixteen hillary clinton get three million more votes than did donald trump but donald trump became president. So some people scratch their heads both in america and in canada and other countries. And say why. How does this work. in fact i'm i think most americans don't understand who electors are. We saw in january sex and we had the trouble in washington about you know the elect- doors and certifying the election. Are you sometimes a little bit surprised to our. Let's say disappointed with lack of civics knowledge from some of the newer. Legislators some of the younger legislators who perhaps didn't benefit from his much civic education. I think in most legislatures the newer the freshman legislators certainly have a learning curve to they need to learn about the processes but in terms of basic knowledge of government is spectrum. I think some new legislators well-versed in how government works and some are clearly not and they learn as they go in fact in the the house. Education committee hearing committee members. Pulled some questions off the test in question the naturalization test and ask those questions in committee. We kind of had some fun with that. So michael can you give us a couple of examples of some of the tougher and maybe a couple of the easier questions. That high school students presumably college students. And maybe someday your fellow legislators will have to be able to answer. Sure you can go to the internet and you can just Ask or pension hundred question naturalization citizenship test war the hundred and twenty eight question naturalization citizenship test around the two versions so some of the questions are historical some the crisis after do like multiple choice questions in some cases you know which of these persons was president united states. There are some history chronological type questions. Trying to remember rose question about eisenhower. That came up. what was his contribution you know. What was his background to become president here. Well if i remember correctly for my. Us history classes Wasn't eisenhower recorded by both parties to be a presidential candidate. Yeah generalized our was courted by the democrats and republicans. You know he was kind of a non aligned. Independent person as a general was military officer myself. And you wherever you're commander in chief says you surrender your personal sovereignty to you. Know take orders so when he came a independent citizen retired general popular democrats running. Republicans wanted him eventually. He came out as a republican and was elected in nineteen fifty to heal as you probably saw a lot of our topics in our audience are independent or unaffiliated. Voters in some states called non-partisans Certainly a high percentage of that in new hampshire. But there's not a lot of mention of independence in high school and college textbooks and in the media Generally do you think that is a problem when you have anywhere from thirty five to forty five percent of the population in a category. That's not really well addressed in the curriculum or in the media. Sure the notion of political parties. Of course if you go back seventy seven there were no political parties but inevitably factions. Involved out of the the you know the federal and the anti-federalists and but we had basically two party system essentially for a couple of centuries and Third party candidates hat do happen or do arise so the two party system. I think needs to be discussed and Analyzed and we locked into this two party system or is there room for third parties are other parties that could have significance. I listen to your podcast about alaska. And i was fascinated to learn how few people in alaska after listening to your show are affiliated was fascinated by that and Here in new hampshire. You have about thirty percent. Republican about thirty percent democrat and about forty percent unaffiliated independent so in terms of civics discussion. Civic testing civics. You know classes. The notion of focusing on independence and the roles that independence could play or do play in. Our process is very interesting to me and of course when both parties in most states are in the minority they have to reach out to these independence in that i think is a healthy thing for either both parties to after. Listen to people reach out to unaffiliated voters and bring them into the process. Get their support. Get their votes. That kind of leads to our final question. we ask all our guests to show a bit of purple. And as you're a republican legislator could you name someone from the other side of the aisle a notable democrat doesn't have to be living now but in recent memory that you particular respect for well. There are a lotta great democrats in our history. I in my opinion course. I am a republican. Obviously and so. I tend to trend a little bit more conservative but There are many democrats that i admired in the past and buyer. Now currently senator. Joe manchin of west virginia is a democrat a fairly independent thinking democrat who works with With republicans very well. I i really admire the fact that he is capable of taking a more independent course which has given him enormous power right at the moment with a fifty fifty senate suggest senator joe manchin. I really admire and from the past. Senator joe lieberman liked him a lot. He was the senator from connecticut. Very likable guy. In very reasonable i thought. Interestingly senator lieberman was taken out in the primary which you may recall by very liberal candidate and then senator lieberman win is an independent and get tremendous republicans support in some democrats support and he regained his seat as an independent and in doing so chose progress over partisanship problem solving over polarization mainstream. Over.
The Qwipster Film Review Podcast
"american hollywood" Discussed on The Qwipster Film Review Podcast
"Nation that he had reminded desouza very much of early. James bond like dr. No especially so this gave desouza his blueprint on what he might be able to achieve because he already knew they were going this direction at least in their minds and rather than rehash the games martial arts tournament. He thought you know everybody would find that trite and predictable. Everybody had seen all of the rocky films. All of the karate kid films. I mean this was just going to be another one of the same. He thought this movie should go a different direction. Be an action adventure that could capture the tongue in cheek. Flair of those early bond films any specifically thought that guile major guile could be the leader of this ragtag band of international street fighters so desouza connected the dots among the game characters and he developed it basically a two page synopsis. Just for pressmen when pressman gave his approval for this direction. This is a drafted a complete fifteen page outline that he was going to use to pitch these japanese executives when he did so through their translators the executives felt he had read their minds. Capcom had been busy heavily promoting their streetfighter. Gi joe's so this military emphasis and this action hero vibe that desouza had come up with made a lot of financial sense but one thing capcom was not as keen on in terms of what they heard from his pitch was that the susa really only plan parts for about nine of the gains multitudinous characters. Desouza argued that anything more than seven heroes and maybe two villains like bison and scott bog down the narrative and confused audiences. It would take away from the main story so to illustrate that point. He challenged the executives to name seven star wars heroes or name all seven dwarves from snow wider name all seven of the wonders of the world. They actually couldn't they conceded the point. He had to make it within a week. Capcom made an offer to pressman and desouza pressman accepted but encouraged capcom to provide one hundred percent of the funding. Instead of just half that way they can keep control of their property and ensure a christmas. Release that would maximize especially all of those merchandising opportunities. Suci modo the capcom prison. He dreamt of getting into the movie business for many many years and he agreed and he became the co producer. This is finished. Script is set in the fictional southeast. Asian country of shadow lou the shadow lou by the way in this film deficient language. Doughty is actually esperanto the dictator general bison way just this war with his united nations like military force called the allied nations. The united nations lawyers forbade the use of their name by the way bison holds several dozen of these allied nations workers as hostages for ransom of twenty billion dollars and so leading the allied nation. Special forces counterattack is united states. Colonel in this film william f. Guile gyles a headstrong fighter that bison really cannot wait. Test tested mettle. Against in hand-to-hand combat now others converge on bisons stronghold including television reporter choon lee zang in underground crime syndicate leader victor cigar and a couple of roguish soldiers a fortune named ken and review by the way. He's called you in this film. Because of so many people could not remember that he was called review in japanese. So this is just flat out said. Let's just go with ryan since that's what everybody seems to be calling him anyway. Now the original title for tongue-in-cheek adventure was streetfighter. Colon the battle foreshadow lou obviously that secondary title did not make it all the way now capcom conducted market research on all of the actors that the games fans envisioned could be a streetfighter. Fill the top choices. Were obvious sylvester stallone. Arnold schwartzenegger just said that those choices they could not afford them with the budget that they were throwing down so the best affordable option. That was on the list was john. Claude van damme van damme happened to score the highest especially among teenage fans. Even though he had done mostly r. rated films in fact all our rated films up to that point but also happened to be the top choice to play the would be main character for the good guys in the film guile so desouza still skeptical about vindamme vandamme fans. They had watched those already deflects. He didn't think that they would come out to see him. And kind of a family oriented. Pg thirteen flick. Also he had this very thick belgian french accent. It was too thick for guile this all american hero but the exact pushback. They only heard van. Dan's voice dubbed in japanese. They didn't really understand the distinction between the accents. Anyway they didn't know why it was an impediment besides their research clearly showed the games fans did not mind. They put him as their choice guile so they talked to van damme. Who was genuinely interested. Vandamme at that time had been growing tired of just being seen as the karate guy he wanted to do something more some more serious work if he could get it so he felt a high profile. Pg thirteen film like this could really break him into the mainstream of actors and he thought oh streetfighter already comes with such a huge name and with him on board. It can be so huge that his name as well as his face would be everywhere. He said even on toilet paper so he signed for salary of about eight million dollars plus some red carpet. Accommodations presidential suite and bangkok's shangrila hotel. That would be outfitted with his own. Private jim now for the supporting cast preferred acting ability over martial arts experience because he felt the games fighting styles. They weren't really real. Martial arts moves anyway so they would have to fake it so might as well get some agile good-quality thespians he picked wral julia to play. 'em bison and that was primarily to provide a formidable counterbalance van damme unfortunately by signing both vandamme. An raul julia left very little money for other name actors on board and it really scuttled the plans to fly the cast to australia in advance for fight training australia. Being one of the places they were gonna shoot the film. This is decided. Since he didn't have that advanced training for most of the cast that he would front load in the shoot dialogue. Scenes with rows julia. I and that way the actors could be on the side on location training for the fight scenes to come later however one wrench got thrown in the works rows julia when he arrived at the shoot was like half of what they were expecting. He was emaciated. He was totally got. Rows had gotten food poisoning after eating sushi in mexico while he was shooting. Hbo movie called the burning season and the severity of the food poisoning was likely made even worse by the fact that he had had surgery back in january of nineteen ninety four just a few months before four stomach cancer stomach cancer that he had been keeping private from almost everybody for about three years. He'd lost in the last couple of months. Forty five pounds but claimed that he had received a clean bill of health by dr to do the film unfortunately the bison costume that he had been measured for about three months prior was hanging way to lose the padding that they tried to stuff in there did not help at all so desouza hat to rivers his original plans by giving raul julia. Time to recover with a steady diet of bodybuilding shakes and donuts. He did his best to try to shoot some of those other dialogues with other characters and fight sequences with actors. Who had really by this point received very little training the souza for other casting choices discover. The capcom was very provincial. In the casting especially of the games. Asian characters capcom felt only japanese actors would do so after diseases top choices. Were repeatedly shot down by capcom for not being japanese. He ordered the casting directors to remove the surnames from all of the photos to publicity photos. And polit- publicity material for the asian americans who are auditioning for the roles. Desouza wanted for review kong. Born american actor byron man but sushi moto. He gravelled after finding out. That man was hong kong born and he really started pressing for this japanese actor. Call kenya wada instead. This is does english. And he's acting to limit. They were too poor to handle all of the comedic dialogue that he had planned for review and can see moated them backed off. He rationalized in mind. Elise that man was handsome enough to pass as japanese so he gave the okay but he still wanted salata in the film somewhere. He suggested maybe he could play fei long. But this is a thought that there was just something about that character. That didn't work for him. A bruce lee clone essentially that would be just too distracting at this point so he created a brand new character. Kind of a cameo really for awada called captain so lada damian chapa. He had the prior action movie experience and the comic report with byron man to play ken. Joan chengchi actually was an early very early casting for chun li but she was later replaced by. Ming no-win ming a former trained gymnasts. She convinced desouza that she actually could play very tough. Very aggressive fighter by performing some pretty impressive martial arts kicks in his office and she also became the onset champ at the arcade game he kicked. Everyone's butts preferred character was of course shenley but she also happened to kick their butts in front of the cameras. She was among all of the actors. The one who did most of her own stunt work she really thought all the other men were really wissies deep down especially the ones that were posturing as the most macho they were really the most wimpy. Universal handle the us distribution while columbia handled international because van damme had commitments to both studios. The production was limited to six months. That's roughly half. The time of a typical big budget released like this but the the budget desouza found was not going to be enough but each time he asked for more money capcom requested. Yeah maybe you could add one or two more characters so he would have to do revisions and he would inject more and more characters those characters. He didn't even want in the film. Also finance years were pressuring disuse. It cast more australian actors to try to qualify this as an ozzy production for tax shelter purposes. Just by happenstance two weeks prior to the shoot desouza needed a suitable actress to play british. Intelligence officer lieutenant cami which is another role that the japanese really wanted to get stuffed into the film forced to witness lee though on the way to australia to scout locations. He saw kylie minogue on the cover of this magazine. Called who which is like their version of people magazine the thirty most beautiful people issue with minogue on the cover so is decided he was going to screen samples of her prior acting work and after that he agreed. This was cammie. He offered minogue the role without any audition screen tests. The minogue was hesitant about doing an action flick like this but she accepted when she discovered that the game was incredibly popular among teenagers especially in america where she had only had minor success as a popstar so she rearranged recording schedule as well as her promotional tour for upcoming album kylie minogue to appear in her first american hollywood film. The shooting schedule was set for six weeks in thailand where everything was pretty inexpensive. The received a lot of kickbacks from filming in thailand as well as a lot of gorgeous vistas that were available to them for practically nothing. They were gonna follow that up with four weeks in australia. However doing pre-production in australia this became an issue. Because members of the stunt performers union stopped working over a pay dispute because in the australian film industry at least of the time actors and stunt people received higher rates to do projects that were done outside of the country and this happened to be japanese slash american production and there were several weeks filming in thailand but the producers were claiming streetfighter as an australian production. And we're trying to stiff the people who are working there from their bonus pay so this dispute ended up getting very messy. Eventually it was settled. Although there were some turbulence still along the way now mingna grand l bush was playing ball. Rod and j. vara who's playing vega they trained with karate champ. Benny the jet roquetas at his in van nuys. He put them on a high fiber diet and a lot of weight. Training and in once in thailand akitas came over and trained a lot of the other actors to at a time except for vandamme who had his own trainer and raul. Julia trained with akitas but he had do solo. Because of his condition julia. He persevered the hardship of this shoot. Even though he wasn't feeling very well out of love for his sons who he had come to find out after accepting the role they were massive fans of the game. They were beyond ecstatic. That's her dad was going to be playing and bison industry fighter film. His sons came with his wife to the location. And in addition to giuliano modeling his performance on benito mussolini primarily as well as shakespeare's richard third. Julia also consulted with his kids every day on how he was going to portray bison that day and they would give him a lot of very valuable feedback but unfortunately julia would never really know if his sons loved his performance as bison on the evening of october sixteenth nineteen ninety-four two months before the release of streetfighter. Juliet experienced severe stomach pain. He was rushed to the hospital and while there he soon suffered a stroke a few hours later that caused a brain hemorrhage that put him within a few days into a coma on october twentieth and then he died on october twenty fourth at the age of fifty four thailand's facilities proved insufficiently shoddy. They quickly fell severely behind schedule. On the shoot between the heat and humidity the dysentery. The actors lost a lot of weight rather than bulking up and with recent student protests and tensions with burma in thailand government. There was hesitant to allow all of these costume soldiers out on public streets so and they also didn't want military vehicles on public roads or any kind of helicopters flying overhead. That might be confused by the public as a some sort of military coup so they force personnel to have to move around using high speed boats in the middle of the night that left a lot of the cast and crew drenched at the end of that movement which really angered van. Damme especially in thailand. Did help out a little bit. By supplying military equipment as well as vehicles at specified locations for the. Film's us now. The extras playing soldiers consisted of thai students. As well as a lot of tourists that happened to be there. From other countries the language barrier though that incurred prolonged delays the translators had to take time to instruct all of these various nationalities on what was required before each shot so they eventually resorted to numbered cue cards to try to save time a keycard reading the numeral one that meant for the crowd to act happy to to act sad three dax scared and four to cheer and five dismissed. Getting your boat. This is sometimes founded also challenging to direct people who knew english australian actors desouza one day. He accused former heavyweight boxer. Joe bugner who plays a bison henchman the torturer in this film of having taken perhaps too many blows to the head as a as a boxer after he was slurring his words and stumbling around while they were performing for a scene. The actor retorted. Oh desouza told him. Act pissed during the scene. Now in america pissed means getting angry but in australia it means drunk to so this isn't he could no longer be upset about this. Erupted in laughter at this miscommunication. Now van damme brought a lot of publicity to street fighter. His drug binges his hedonistic pursuits soon became a major headache for desouza. Sometimes van damme would travel to hong kong. He would spend all night partying. He wouldn't even return in time he would miss his flights. He would sometimes over indulge on booze and drugs and he wouldn't feel nearly well enough to perform in the morning so the insurance company catching win to this date insisted that the production hires somebody to wrangle van. Damme away from trouble however backfired because the person he did more enabling than enforcing van vandamme was the one who is corrupting. The enforcer van damme's frequent unavailability meant inventing new scenes on the spot for all of these other actors waiting around for him to do something so without rehearsals they really can be fight scenes and that tax diseases time having a write dialogue for scenes that in the end probably weren't even going to be good enough to use and then damps distractions actually continued beyond just his drugs and partying despite being just a few months into his fourth marriage and with a child on the way van damme had an affair with kylie minogue. After he was showing her around bangkok his bangkok he was very familiar with the area. Minogue has subsequently remarked since vandamme brought this public round twenty twelve that the affair is kind of an overstatement for what happened between them and whilst fighter seemed to good career move for her at the time it now makes her cringe for many reasons. Now this is a chose to move production to australia sooner. A few sooner than he had intended because he was hoping to catch up with production by dividing filming into two separate units want to handle a lot of the dialogue scenes and the other to handle the fighting so meanwhile akitas he happened to leave the production. And he left the rest to fight. Choreographer charlie attorney number attorney once he found out what state the actors were in. He was incensed that they were so. Ill prepared akitas. He had no familiarity with the game. He didn't know that all of the characters were supposed to have completely unique fighting styles because he trained the actors identically and left fraternities scrambling to try to train. These actors indistinct signature moves right before shooting. Each scene convinced that desouza was the problem. He was over his head paternity took over directing those fight sequences completely especially the climactic battle between guile and bison paternity threatened to walk. If desouza tried to intervene with that process he eventually earned the second unit director credit for his effort to try to salvage the picture now. Despite their best effort to catch up in australia they ran out of time. Twenty pages of the script were still left on. Shot back in the united states. Desouza did what he could trying to edit everything that they had together to make some logical sense and he found that in addition to a few story gaps that the fight sequences in particular felt very lifeless they lacked all of those trademark moves that he was hoping for from the game's characters so desouza opted to do some re-shoots to try to fill those narrative gaps as well as redo the climactic showdown especially between ryu and ken versus sega and vega associates work recreated in vancouver for one week pickup. Shoot about a month later. Unfortunately all of this additional fighting that he had shot proved too intense for the mpaa rating board. They bestowed streetfighter an r. rating. Desouza had no choice. Because they have deals to sell merchandise to sell toys to kids and they weren't gonna be able to advertise to them. This was an r. rated film on television or in various publications so he had no choice but to gut a lot of the best action moments he felt especially this expensive. Re-shoot that ends with vega dying after landing on his own claw weapon. We find something happens in the film but it's not very clear. What because he had to cut so much of it to try to get it down to a pg thirteen. He kept so much by the way. Desouza claims that they gave him a g. rating. I don't think that that's accurate. He's probably miss remembering. It was more likely that they gave him a pg but he wanted a pg thirteen because he felt van. Damme's fans would not. I would definitely not want to see a pg film so he added one salty line of dialogue dubbed in from van. Damme for years of rotc for this sh- to ensure the desired pg thirteen rating. Now also hoping to promote the film was a priority records soundtrack that included a lot of original rap music featuring major acts like ice cube in l. o. Cool j nas the fireside and public enemy but the main single from the soundtrack was a a rap duet between mc hammer. Then he was just called hammer is trying to get a little more street at that time and sports star dion sanders called straight to my feet. John claude van damme also happens to appear in the music. Video is worth watching is kind of funny in. Its own way. Now sensing that this film would be. Ill received universal did not make streetfighter available to american critics for early screenings and ended up landing a very disappointing third place for that long christmas weekend. In one thousand nine hundred four behind dumb and dumber in its second week and the santa clause in its seventh week. It plummeted out of the top fifteen by week four. Earning a disappointing thirty three million dollars in the united states but luckily it turned a profit. It succeeded internationally in several markets and that pushed its worldwide. Gross two hundred million dollars off of that budget of thirty five to forty million now as far as what. I think about streetfighter. I think despite as screenwriting prowess. I mean he's obviously very talented writer and a producer and filmmaker in his own way. He just was too overwhelmed here. By all of the production problems and all of the location shooting and the personalities the egos van damme and whatnot as a director as a first time director really and that forced to many on the spot revisions too many sacrifices to try to make a worthwhile story with all of these severe time restraints and he just did not have the kind of gravitas to be able to pull this off that results in very shoddy plot very terrible characterizations and it has earned a very poor reputation among movie and came lovers alike now fans of video games resoundingly rejected this at the time. It changes so many aspects of the characters from the game. They just didn't recognize whatever this was on the screen a streetfighter inexplicably all of these characters. Even though they're from all over the world they speak english. Some of the backgrounds of change. I mean chun li is a flashy news reporter who saw that ball ragas cameraman. I mean it's kind of ridiculous if you know. The game and several of the most popular characters seemed to see time to ones that i don't think a lot of people really like also these characters in the game they're fierce they're imposing but they're big screen. Counterparts are often very silly and comical. I don't think streetfighter is worth watching unless you're a nostalgic if you watch this as a kid you probably loved it because it was streetfighter and you've probably carried that feeling of nostalgia for it for many many many years so there is an audience for this. I think is specifically for kids who watch this and maybe others who really just love very campy adventure films in general. I mean if you're not expecting anything like oscar worthy. Although many people consider wral julius performance in here and actually genuinely good highlight but it just does not live up to its title. It doesn't even give us proper street fights in this film. I think if you love the game or trashy action flicks maybe it's going to entertain you if he just resolved that. It's not going to be a good movie and have no expectations other than that. I think for most others though. It's probably more fun to play the game for ninety minutes. Just a better use of your time and money even if you were paying in bizerte dollars and that's why i can only give streetfighter. Despite that can't be quality that makes me kind of like a despite its awfulness. Two stars out of four stars on my scale means that it's lacking something vital that would keep it from being something. I can recommend most people and that which is lacking here obviously is a good screenplay even though they got a great screenwriter onboard. It just falls short and i think the problem is all of the last minute changes all of the pressure on capcom to change directions. The fact that he was not able to shoot seen studied wanted to the fight scenes that he had to move around and then of course rallies health problems that completely overwhelmed him as director and that's why ultimately despite desouza being the screenwriter has been director sank the film into becoming a two star feature. But if you have your own thoughts on streetfighter that you want to impart if you have your own take on this you can write to me. You can find my of information at my website. Quips stood on net q. w. s. t. e. r. dot net. Before i go. I do want to mention that. There is a post credits scene that was shot for this film featuring bisons arm bursting through the rubble after his headquarters was destroyed. The computer kind of brings them back to life to try for world domination again presumably in the sequel but it was removed from the after showing because it was deemed in poor taste after julia's death. Just didn't seem right to resurrect him at the end of this film but that scene is reinstated on some of newer home video releases. If you happen to have it and didn't always there. You might go ahead and watch it there. There was a street fighter. The movie tie in arcade game. That features digitized likenesses of these characters and the actors and their stunt doubles collaborated for getting their basis. Scanned and some of their moves digitized for the game. It looks a little like the mortal kombat games but with a lotta the street. Fighter moves and unrelated home. Console game streetfighter. The movie was also released. There was no theatrical sequel. That emerged despite the fact that it actually did earn money internationally anyway but there was a tv cartoon that did appear in nineteen ninety five on tv call streetfighter. The animated series and lasted for two seasons Twenty six episodes overall there were also. Some unrelated streetfighter reboot attempts. Two thousand nine streetfighter. The legend of town li that is considered perhaps even worse as a film in this one and then there was a more highly regarded twenty. Fourteen web and tv series called street fighter. Assassin's fist i guess. You could probably go there if you want to see it done with a little bit more respectability. I can't vouch for it. I haven't seen it but it does exist there but three fighter. I'm sure it will come back at some point or another and if it ties in with the films of the nineteen nineties i will cover it here onto the nineties and beyond that speaking a streetfighter tie ins. There were other films that were made based on the street fighter video games. in fact. i'm going to be talking about one on the next episode the film. I'm going to be talking about actually came out before. Streetfighter came out in theaters in nineteen ninety four. It came out in japan in august of nineteen ninety four and it did very well there streetfighter. To the animated movie it was not released officially into the united states until january of nineteen. Ninety six but i will cover it here on the next episode. It does exist on blu ray and whatnot and i think you might be able to streaming on amazon. If you're at least in the united states other countries as well streetfighter to the animated movie from nineteen ninety four on the next episode until next time. Thank you so much for taking this trip with me to the nineties and beyond..
The Erick Erickson Show
"american hollywood" Discussed on The Erick Erickson Show
"The creative classes at loggerheads with petty bureaucrats and severe rural urban inequality persists on top of that. The chinese are not producing babies. The chinese model. They'll go to point out is actually not quite the model that you would want. There's a whole lot of division is cyncially what the chinese dictator is doing is trying to keep people agitated against the west to distract for problems. That almost what dictators always do. It's like the arabs in the middle east Distracting the arabs. Took the jews. Pay no attention to your lack of rights. Look at the jews will now. It's china pay no attention to your lack of rights. Look at the americans. It does make you wonder if china is highlighting and stressing the us racial and political polarization. Are they helping funded infact. Yep the chinese At an opening had a meeting the anthony. Blinken the secretary of state and jake sullivan. The national security adviser met with the chinese director of the office of the central commission for foreign affairs and the foreign minister and they blasted racial divisions in the united states. The chinese did never mind by the way in china. Do you know if marvel does a movie. China very typically. They will photoshop out the black actors or de prioritize them because the chinese racism. Now american hollywood in the nba which is kind of hilarious Given the makeup the demographic makeup of the nba they love china. So much in china goes out of its way to de prioritize black faces or faces that don't look Chinese enough with its asian characters. There's a lot of racism in china perpetuated by the communist state but the american media is too obsessed with our own and by the way. I do have to wonder if the chinese are making such a big deal. Out of it are they. Funding black lives matters. Hi there yes. The phone number is eight. Seven seven nine seven eric. Eight seven seven nine seven three seven four to five. Should you wish to be a part of this year program charles. Coolidge has died. Now many of you know the name. Charles coolidge You should know the name charles coolidge. He was a us army technical sergeant and a recipient of the medal of honor for his actions in france during world war two he was the only surviving Medal of honor recipient from the european theater of war and the only surviving honoree to have received the medal of honor during the war. He actually died In april at ninety nine it's worth noting him and remembering him this memorial day because he was the last world war two medal of honor winner from the european theater to survive And passed away before memorial day Out in colorado. They were having a memorial day. Celebration in a drunk person ran through a stop sign and plowed into the cemetery in the middle of the ceremony. My goodness gracious folks. I have this thing. I've been using my house at delighted. They're in advertisers called eden pure. It's an air purifier. And it's filterless and it's mall you can hold it in your hand. It works so well we actually went up to the mountains and took it with us in the mountain house Thankfully because someone had been using the place this thing does it mask odors. It eliminates odors it also wipes out black mold and mildew and pollen during the rainy season and stuff..
The Erick Erickson Show
"american hollywood" Discussed on The Erick Erickson Show
"The creative classes at loggerheads with pity bureaucrats and severe rural urban inequality persists on top of that. The chinese are not producing babies. The chinese model. They'll go to point out is actually not quite the model that you would want. There's a whole lot of division is cyncially what the chinese dictator is doing is trying to keep people agitated against the west to distract for problems. That almost what dictators always do. It's like the arabs in the middle east Distracting the arabs. Took the jews. Pay no attention to your lack of rights. Look at the jews will now. It's china pay no attention to your lack of rights. Look at the americans. It does make you wonder if china is highlighting and stressing the us racial and political polarization. Are they helping funded infact yet. The chinese At an opening had a meeting the anthony. Blinken the secretary of state and jake sullivan. The national security adviser met with the chinese director of the office of the central commission for foreign affairs and the foreign minister and they blasted racial divisions in the united states. The chinese did never mind by the way in china. Do you know if marvel does a movie. China very typically. They will photoshop out the black actors or de prioritize them because the chinese racism. Now american hollywood in the nba which is kind of hilarious Given the the makeup demographic makeup of the nba love china. So much in china goes out of its way to de prioritize black faces or or faces that don't look Chinese enough with its asian characters. There's a lot of racism in china perpetuated by the communist state but the american media is too obsessed with our own and by the way. I do have to wonder if the chinese are making such a big deal. Out of it are they. Funding black lives matters. Hi there yes. The phone number is eight. Seven seven nine seven eric. Eight seven seven nine seven three seven four to five. Should you wish to be a part of this year program charles. Coolidge has died. Now many of you know the name. Charles coolidge You should know the name charles coolidge. He was a us army technical sergeant and a recipient of the medal of honor for his actions in france during world war two he was the only surviving Medal of honor recipient from the european theater of war and the only surviving honoree to have received the medal of honor during the war. He actually died In april at ninety nine it's worth noting him and remembering him this memorial day because he was the last world war two medal of honor winner from the european theater to survive And passed away before memorial day Out in colorado. They were having a memorial day. Celebration in a drunk person ran through a stop sign and plowed into the cemetery in the middle of the ceremony. My goodness gracious folks. I have this thing. I've been using my house at delighted. They're in advertisers called eden pure. It's an air purifier. And it's filterless and it's mall you can hold it in your hand. It works so well we actually went up to the mountains and took it with us in the mountain house Thankfully because someone had been using the place this thing does it mask odors. It eliminates odors it also wipes out black mold and mildew and pollen during the rainy season and stuff..
Bitches on Comics
"american hollywood" Discussed on Bitches on Comics
"Would be a fun. Sequel's just them like oscar at the age of thirteen. I kind of see it like a like a like a fargo kind of like. Oh yeah almost like a buddy cop. They can't quite figure out how to kill. People there was bleeding everywhere. Oh good. I'm not gonna let me make that movie. But that's the sequel. I was make that as the sequel that we need. I need to know how. This pre pubescent like preteen boy is going to take care of this like hundred year. Old vampire oh man could sets the only plot. We're like we need more information over. Just stop asking. I saw the american remake. Did you also you. Yes. what'd you think. yeah. I mean it's even less like the book right even less like this movie You could just watch this honestly like the two thousand eight one is what you need. I think right. Yeah i agree. You don't have to watch the remake. I think it's fine to watch at least once you know. If you're a van you wanted to keep watching this story and in different in different version of the story Of a bigger budget right with delegates. American hollywood budget absolutely and yet if you in it such a prime example of the way hollywood remakes movies because it's it does feel. It takes all the quickness out of the original which already sort of sort of was taken a little bit out of the book it is very shiny. Cgi it's very straight More moral like there seems like more of america. Morality absolutely well yes It's definitely less quiets. Even though a lot of the shots seem very like shot for shot rose like oh so you. Do you watch the other movie but just took like it's definitely like oh so you have seen the first one. I don't know why you wanted to make this again I not the worst remake. I've seen you know it and find it a feel. At least they didn't stay somewhat true to the story of the relationship between the two. Although in the new movie the remake the rename her to abbey. Which is like i thought was weird as they could have just kept the name l. e. you know or something more whatever but i don't know why they i mean i know why they changed it to abbey what it was. Yeah it was fine. It's not it's whatever is that's my review. it's whatever just fine thanks size. Don't need to watch it again. I'm reading we know i'm about to leave. Lays packing up not again. Yeah amazing. Wow what good movies. I'm so glad that..
Horror Soup
"american hollywood" Discussed on Horror Soup
"Tonight in the dad's like really do they fit on your car. Oh my god that's a good one. I hate it. I hate it so much and then You know there's one. Egon breaks to her house. he's trying to track her. And then you know there's a beautiful woman making out with a guy with giant legs and checkered booty shorts. That's pretty cool. I liked his widow peak and then he tries to fight even though seven. Two and egon. Just egos him into a pool. Yep and then. He says the lifeguard into the pool. Lifeguard blows was old he just throws him to chuck's in another entire man. And then there's tom starts playing with an actual band you know he does a little razzmatazz and You know this is where we find out that Roxie is in love with iga yup. And her dad knows it. Yeah and he's telling her he's like go for it. I understand you love her. You love him. Just you gotta break tom. The weirdest shit ever makes no sense and then the band is playing at is pretty funny because a few different times like tom. Switches out and give someone else's guitar. They play it perfectly and then he goes to dance with his girlfriend roxy and then the other band may also switch his out and we were like you just have people on retainer to play all of your songs right you can just be like here play this and then walk away and they do at it so weird because like tom is dancing with roxy and all of a sudden his bandmate who i assume is probably one of his best friend or something you would walks up. Yeah use zoom. He walks up and he starts dancing with roxy. And then tom goes to like you know grabber and then the guy gets pissed. He's like he caused seniors. Like hey jude. I'm gonna fucking beecher s. What is wrong with you. And then he's like what is wrong with you and i'm like wait so you're mad and you're all of a sudden fighting him over someone who's literally his girlfriend that's why she's there i know and we've never seen the ban may before too so it's not like they've had like this thing we're like they're fighting over her nothing else like he just shows up and then he's like hey that's my girl super weird. It's almost like they re. They probably wrote something in where they're fighting over it earlier and they just cut it out and left that part in a nie-nieto i don't even think that i think that this guy wanted his son to have a line where he says. That's my girl and then like punch a guy out because that's like the heroic american hollywood star thing to do i mean. Yeah that's a good point. That's probably what that was just..
Piecing It Together Podcast
"american hollywood" Discussed on Piecing It Together Podcast
"The greatest of all of all producers in hollywood history left the project but was the core executive producer at one point and actually was the one who gave the word king in front of kong at that point of just called kong. Yeah did themselves nichols like king kong and then was it that he was really balanced. Well what do you have your expertise. So this one's kind of interesting this one's going to be The early french film the cockatoos beauty and the beast. Sure so king kong had a really big influence in world cinema as well as american hollywood cinema. Which of course we don't hear about often but a lot of world cinema looked at hollywood. Make a beacon. I mean almost all world cinemas to clear response to hollywood because it was the real major manufacturing centre of cinema and the the french actually had a name for something which was l'amour fou which means the pardon my butchering of that word. But it means mad. Love like insane love And this was a concept that predated king kong but when king kong came out. They thought this was the greatest example of a mad love story. This is like a grill in love with a woman and this totally insane and she's terrified and his destroying things like this is the epitome of insane love so it had a huge influence and of course. The famous beauty killed the beast. Yeah and you know. So when the surrealist masterpiece the live action beauty and the beast came out. I think a lot of that relationship. The fear. a- turns into empathy. And in some instances turns into love inc was there was ground laid by king kong. Yeah yeah no definitely. I think that you know pseudo love story that you've got there. I mean it's it's so iconic and of course and the beast is so iconic as well just in its own different way from this but the thing is falling in love with a big hairy creature Is pretty close. Yeah that's our lives..