Month: July 2023

Why, Yes, ‘Sound of Freedom’ Is A Qanon Movie

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about “Sound of Freedom” is the venn diagram of people who are Qanon and people who are honestly interested in the subject it deals with is just one circle. Two things can be right at the same time — the movie is popular with fucking bonkers cocksucker Qanon cult people AND it’s popular with Christians who are interested in the subject of human trafficking.

But because you can have an opinion about this without having seen the movie, the first thing that Qanon people will say is, — “Well, you haven’t seen the movie, so shut up.”

These people can suck my cock.

It is clear, given who produced the movie, what is going on — the movie is MEANT to be Qanon propaganda, even if it’s presented in a way that might obscure that fact. The only reason why I even bring this up is the movie is apparently VERY FUCKING POPULAR within Southern religious circles, to the point that when I went to see Asteroid City, there was overflow of people who wanted to see Sound of Freedom but couldn’t get in.

Anyway, I stand by my original tweet on the subject yesterday — if there is a civil war or revolution starting in 2024, Virginia is going to impolode.

Of ‘Asteroid City’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about Asteroid City is it’s beautiful to look at. But, otherwise, it can sometimes come across as shrill and overwrought. I will try not to spoil it for you, but, let’s just say it has an….interesting…framing device that is rather convoluted.

But it was interesting. In fact, I never once felt like walking out, which is something I do all the time with movies because I’ve become something of a storytelling snob of late. The more I think about it, the more the movie reminds me of weird movies of the 1990s that I used to see with my girlfriend of the time. They were weird, thought-provoking movies that lingered in your mind.

Of note — the movie was not in any way “woke.” It just told a story that was interesting and thought-provoking. That’s it. It didn’t browbeat you with some sort of overarching Leftist political message. It was not until I had had time to marinate on the movie that this just occurred to me.

Anyway, I liked Asteroid City…I guess? There were elements of it that could easily enrage someone who might not be into the art-house aesthetic. But, lulz, it was nice to see an interesting movie that was Just A Movie, not some sort of political manifesto about how we need to slay the patriarchy.

The Rise of ‘Personal Media’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though soon enough there will be no more mass media, no more shared reality. If we reached the “Her” future, then rather than any form of mass media, we’ll have media that is designed specifically for us by an AI.

When this happens, Hollywood will pretty much no longer exist as we think of it at the moment. All that will exist is producers and software programmers who tinker behind the scenes behind the with AI. All the writers, directors and actors will no longer exist in any real sense.

Hollywood will be burned to the ground and everyone will will have a very specific media to the point that the idea of everyone watching the same thing with the same plot will be seen as rather “quaint.”

I just don’t think people appricate how perilous the future of Hollywood writers are. I just don’t see the shelf life of Hollywood writers being all that long — maybe five years? And there is always the chance that a lot sooner than we might see is the eternal “now” whereby Hollywood stars just never age and they are able to churn out movie after movie after movie with long-dead actors.

What’s more, the idea of “immersive” media should be take into consideration. Immersive mult-player media is pretty much the only thing that VR will be used for. You will essentially “play” your entertainment with a crowd of people in the metaverse.

Remember, of course, that I’m always wrong and, what’s more, no one listens to me.

Is Kari Lake Having An Affair With Donald Trump? Would It Matter If She Was?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There is chatter floating around the blind item “community” that Kari Lake is banging Donald Trump. There was a point, a number of years ago, when I would have thought if this was true it would matter to Trump’s political prospects.

Sadly, this is no longer the case.

There really is nothing that Trump could do at this point — other than shuffle off this mortal coil — that would prevent him from being the 2024 Republican nominee and probably the next president of the United States. On a macro basis, it definitely seems as though the United States as just given up.

Something Bad, one way or another, is going to happen to the United States starting in late 2024, going into 2025. I can’t predict the future, so, lulz, I suppose it’s possible that we’ll manage to punt our problems down the road another four years. But we have to admit that Blue and Red are now receding from each other at an alarming rate.

As such, we’re going to either turn into an autocracy, have a civil war (Reds) or have a revolution (Blues.)

Anyway, the point is — Trump is now beyond the event horizon when it comes to something as prosaic as an affair. Pretty much, the only thing Trump hasn’t admitted to doing is eating someone.

Give him time, I suppose Trump will do that, too, soon enough.

Video: A Hot Take On ‘Sound of Freedom’

A Few Videos

‘Active Setting’ For The Third Draft

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One of the complaints of those few people who have actually been willing to give me constructive criticism of this novel is too much of the story is “in my head” and not on the page. So, with that in mind, I’m going to really give that element of the story a lot of thought for the third draft.

It’s going to be a lot — A LOT — of hard work to do this. I have to rethink how I write this novel — and all the other novels I have in my mind — on a fundimental basis. I have to think about how I can explain the world of the universe in a way that people without my background can better understand the universe I want them to live in while they’re reading the novel.

Anyway. Nobody cares what I have to say. And, usually, when they do care what I have to say, they get angry at me for this or that reason.

It will be interesting to see how close I get, in the third draft, to what I need in regards to catching the interest of literary agents. As of July 4th, I’m going to force myself to start thinking about the querying process. I hate thinking about querying because it forces me to realize I can’t be delusional anymore.

I have to accept that it may not be the novel that gets published, it may be the next or the one after that that get published. Who knows.

Keep An Eye On Millie Bobby Brown

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve already done a Twitter video on this, but lulz, here goes. The thing that getting older gives you is perspective. And I definitely can remember how strange it seemed to me in the 1990s when all these “older” women were in Playboy. But now, as someone in my early 50s, it makes total sense.

It’s a prime example of how you can get what you want after you really don’t want it anymore. I mean, if someone like Britney Spears was in Playboy, I would totally buy it. She was always rather elusive when I was younger and seeing her Playboy would be pretty hot.

Anyway, the point is — for a lot of younger people, Millie Bobby Brown is a cultural touchstone because they were going through adolescence when they first encountered her. So, the idea that Brown might let slip a little T&A (or more!) for the sake of her career would be A Big Deal for them.

I’ve seen a number of signs that she’s about to break out the nudity pretty soon. Remember, I’m saying this not as a Creepy Old Man, but as someone who knows what it’s like to be young and then get older.

I will note that young people are so fucking prudish compared to earlier generations. They have all this access to hard-core porn…and they are shocked SHOCKED by a little T&A in their mainstream movies.

Ugh. It’s so fucking annoying.

While we’re talking about such things, there is one person who would break the Internet if she did ANY form of T&A — Taylor Swift. It would be jaw dropping if she decided to change her image just a little bit and be a normal human being to the public by showing a little T&A here or there. She’s done faux nudity in a video, but, really, she’s been very chaste.

She’s managed to get away with it because her audience is mostly liberal white women. BUT there will come a point when she kind of reaches a fork in the road if she wants to EGOT. If she wants an Oscar, she’s going to have to gift us some T&A in some way. And that doesn’t even begin to address the issue of her needed / wanting to get married and have a baby or two.

Her base is growing older and doing fucking normal things like settling down, there’s going to come a point where Tay-Tay is going to have to figure out if she’s going to follow suit or not.