Watching a loved one die is difficult, confusing, terrifying and heartbreaking. They transform before our eyes, unrecognizably. In turn, our faces are no longer familiar to them. The entire experience can leave us feeling powerless to help.
Hospice workers provide an incredible service to humanity by making this process less painful. And they do it with great kindness and compassion.
Julie is a hospice nurse in California. In her five years doing this, she has helped a lot of patients maintain a quality life in their final weeks and months before having a peaceful death. She’s also educated a lot of families about what to expect during the transition, in an attempt to make it a little less daunting. According to Julie, that’s the best part of the job.
Julie decided to share her expertise on TikTok, where her insights could reach a wider audience.
“I knew I had a lot of interesting information about death and dying that most people don’t know about. I want to normalize death by educating people about it. I went home to visit my family, and my tween nieces were on TikTok making dance videos. I later went on TikTok to see their dances. This gave me the idea of starting my own TikTok about death and dying,” she told The Sun.
The idea caught on quickly. Julie soon racked up more than 400,000 followers, with millions of views for multiple videos. Clearly she had some valuable knowledge.
In one of her videos, she explains how many of the death processes we find morbid, are actually quite normal. Changes in breathing, skin color, fevers … all normal. Messy, but normal. Even the “death rattle,” despite its scary name, is very natural, as the brain is no longer able to tell the throat to swallow saliva. “Terminal secretions,” she calls it.
Julie also discusses the “rallying” phenomenon, where a terminal person seems to make a swift recovery—even regaining an appetite and bouncing back to a personality—before ultimately passing within a few days, or sooner. She explains that, where no one knows exactly why this happens, she always informs her patients and families so they’re not caught off guard. I cannot imagine the anguish people go through who do not know this.
One person asked, “Does knowing all of this in depth make death less scary for you?” To which Julie simply replied “Yes–I’m not scared at all.”
Natural death, Julie says, is not uncomfortable. Because many people die from accidents or diseases, we tend to equate death with suffering, but that does not have to be the case. In fact, Julie shares about people seeing angels, even loved ones who have passed. Often they manage to say “I love you” right before death.
Hospice care is undervalued, at best. And at worst, it can be demonized, as many buy into the myth that hospice companies make money off of killing patients (another notion Julie politely debunks). This is what makes her channel truly special. Julie makes death—the ultimate unknown—a little less frightening with the power of education and empathy. It’s something she does on a day-to-day basis. But now we all can benefit.
You can check out even more of Julie’s videos on TikTok, under her handle @hospicenursejuile
The RX is Uproxx Music’s stamp of approval for the best albums, songs, and music stories throughout the year. Inclusion in this category is the highest distinction we can bestow, and signals the most important music being released throughout the year. The RX is the music you need, right now.
When Dijon first announced the release of his debut LP, Absolutely, it came alongside a performance video of a mysteriously untitled song. In the clip, Dijon is in an antique living room that’s been converted into a makeshift studio space, littered with instruments, samplers, mixing boards, speakers, and a stable of other musicians around the room. Dijon sings empathetically, furiously coursing through the space to show each element of the song coming together. He looks to be on the edge of becoming unhinged, but somehow in total control as he weaves with rhythmic spontaneity through it all, as if he’s feeling every inch of sound being played from a guitar (played by Mk. Gee’s Mike Gordon), drums, piano, bass, and a slide guitar.
At seven minutes long, the improvisational performance (of what was later revealed to be album opener “Big Mike’s”) is nothing like the brief cuts on Absolutely, many of which clock in at under two minutes. But it’s a vast open window into the process of how the album’s songs were created: Off the cuff, in the moment, with a number of collaborators, and nothing like we’d seen from the Los Angeles-based artist in the past.
Before he went solo, Dijon was part of the neo-R&B duo Abhi//Dijon that he formed with producer Abhi Raju while the pair were at the University of Maryland. The group’s wavy beats were more akin to the traditional sense of the British neo-soul movement. Acts like Quadron and Nao come to mind in their structure, but it was that very structure that Dijon needed to break free from artistically. Listening to those tunes from 2015 and 2016, there’s no way to predict that the singer on those quasi chill-hop grooves would unfurl into the man behind the songs of Absolutely.
Even his early solo releases — which included the excellent 2018 one-off track “Skin” and the How Do You Feel About Getting Married? EP in 2020 — don’t exhibit the freedom to lose control that defines Absolutely. Oftentimes, it feels like a sleeping lion was living inside of him and only now has it finally become unleashed. You hear it purr colorfully on “Big Mike’s,” but then it roars emphatically to a peak on “Many Times,” with Dijon’s same physically exerting delivery we see in that first video palpably coming through at different wavelengths throughout the album.
“I think this is the first time you can hear me trying to make music for everybody without it being a concession,” Dijon told NME. Which is a telling assertion and a statement worth pondering, just as much as a number of moments on the album. “Talk Down” opens with Gregory Coleman’s classic amen drum break as Dijon sings “Listening to Gillian Welch. Ooh, I can’t help myself / Look at me, so idle. That ain’t how you smile / Ooh, I like it when you, talk down, turn the radio down.” The track’s repetitive nature is enveloping, but it rings true to the intent of making music based on feel and it’s refreshing.
“Talk Down” and “Many Times” combine for less than five total minutes of music, a pattern that’s common on the album. The vocally-masterful display on “Did You See It?” runs parallel to a slide guitar, handsome keys, and clocks in at less than 75 seconds. But the short length of these tracks makes it seem like these were golden takes that just couldn’t be replicated and had to live that way.
Dijon also told NME that the resulting recordings “came from removing myself from isolation and being willing to ask for help for the first time.” And the spirit of collaboration is strong on Absolutely, with Mk. Gee’s Mike Gordon acting as nothing short of his right-hand man. His guitar is an essential piece to the album and manages to hold Dijon up at both solemn moments like “Rodeo Clown,” and triumphant ones like “Big Mike’s.” On “Noah’s Highlight Reel,” Noah Le Gros delivers a countryside yarn backed by Gordon, with Dijon closing the loop on the experimental vocals delivered by his friend from Wyoming. Guitar effects sound like woodwinds that fade out before “The Dress” mixes in and Dijon smoothly morphs into a yacht rock crooner that might appear on a Drake album. It’s a dynamic and unpredictable display of an artist just letting go.
Absolutely’s falling action comes across a bit disjointed, with the aptly-titled “End Of The Record” and “Credits!” closing it out. But it’s best when perceived as the bones of what you’ve just heard for the past half hour; like walking through a museum’s exhibit and then venturing into smaller rooms to see the charcoal study sketches that inspired the artist’s masterwork on canvas. But in this case, the studies often became the masterworks. What we hear on Absolutely were captured moments in time. And the promise of more on the horizon is in knowing that Dijon is an artist who is now “willing to ask for help” and has ultimately morphed into a newly-spirited creative being. The best might very well be yet to come.
Dijon is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
The streaming services can’t help themselves. Everyone wants to make the next Game of Thrones, and that includes HBO, which is bringing the House of the Dragon prequel series to air in 2022. Depending on how you felt about that eighth season, you may or may not be into the idea of another GoT, but it will likely materialize, sooner or later. Perhaps we won’t witness that successor as a weekly “event” series (since binging is here to stay), but the TV powers that will keep trying their damndest. Netflix has given the feat a shot a few times already, first with puppets in The Dark Crystal, a stunning show that proved too expensive and labor-intensive to continue producing. Then came The Witcher, which already existed as a franchise before the first Netflix season and could eventually eclipse Thrones in popularity and longevity, along with the speed at which prequels and movies keep spinning into action.
Now here’s this: The Wheel Of Time stars Rosamund Pike in a sweeping, complex adaptation of Robert Jordan’s fantasy book series. Is it Thronesy enough? The show won’t match that title for everyone, but it might for you.
Actually, Amazon Prime currently boasts two contenders for “must-see epic fantasy series” on the way. One of them, Lord of the Rings, is due in fall 2022, but consider this: founder Jeff Bezos (who, yes, is not the most stellar human being, but many billionaires are not) reportedly straight-up declared that he wanted to knock everyone’s socks off with a new Thrones. The first candidate arrives this week, and The Wheel Of Time is every bit the sprawling story that successful fantasy epics should be made of. There’s even a “you know nothing” dropped into Episode 3 to make you think of Jon Snow’s chronic grumpy face. Yet there’s this consideration, too: The Wheel Of Time desperately wants to conjure up Westeros, and it cannot hide that intent.
Now, let’s talk about why — if you are looking for your new Thrones — you should give this series a whirl, while being a little more chill than the show’s own dreams.
Amazon Prime
– The source material already exists and will last for eons: If you aren’t yet familiar with the story, then you can at least rest assured that there’s no George R.R. Martin-type scenario where the source material’s author keeps promising to finish another book, and then the show decides to stop waiting and blows past author intent in a way that many found to be (to put this kindly) unsatisfying. That sort of thing hurts when you’re so invested and loved a show so much, and then it careens into an ash-filled city and some unassuming fellow in the corner wins the game, despite all the maneuvering. Opening yourself up to yet a similar epic saga takes some trust. I get it.
Here, Robert Jordan’s popular fantasy book series includes over a dozen novels with hundreds of characters, and fans of these characters have wanted to see the story’s settings spring to life from the printed page for decades (the first book published in 1990). That’s enough for Amazon to have already greenlit a second season, and it’s likely that the existing fanbase should keep this thing afloat for the show to lay extensive groundwork and move past the “worldbuilding” stage of the initial episodes. There’s an abundance of content potential, which showrunner Rafe Judkins would like to mine for eight seasons (*cough* like Thrones).
– The epic nature of the story is undeniable: Anything that I write here would not adequately speak to the sheer volume of what this show’s sorting out, and I’ve seen six episodes that barely scratch the story’s surface. This first season follows Rosamund Pike’s quest as Moiraine, a member of the Aes Sedai, a group of ladies (and only ladies) who possess immense magical powers. This is a story where reincarnation is the sh*t — hence The Wheel Of Time title, which isn’t exactly a “time is a flat circle” thing — and that includes Moiraine’s assertion that the Dragon Reborn, who will be the key to humanity’s fate is among a group of young adults. That person, whoever it might be, has quite a job ahead of them against evil forces. There are battles and showdowns and a quest, and yes, all epic and rendered against beautifully vast landscapes with plenty of adult themes and graphic violence to shake your home theater system.
– Rosamund Pike: That’s a big enough point here to stand on its own. She’s the biggest name, and granted, she’s not playing a sociopath here. Yes, that’s unfortunate because “deranged” is what she does best, but it’s nice to see her stretch her wings. She’s much more restrained than usual in this role, but it’s swell to have her around as an anchoring presence amid a cast of largely unknowns (shoutout to Daniel Henney, who holds down the Lan Mandragora role, which bears some passing similarities to Jorah Mormont). I do, however, wonder why producers somehow did not slide Sean Bean into this show. That would make for some nice crossover potential.
– It’s all about finding your new Thrones: Sometimes it’s easy to forget, especially when a show was such a cultural juggernaut, that the way Thrones hit was highly specific to individual taste, and different aspects of the show landed differently with different people. What I’m saying is this: Thrones managed to appeal for a myriad of reasons, including the colorful characters, morphing motives, magical storylines, the tantalizing (although sometimes disappointing) reveal of villains, the maneuverings of power, and the game itself, and so on. That leads me to believe that the search for the next Game of Thrones is a search in vain. This should be more about viewers’ search for their own next Thrones. And for a decent amount of people, The Wheel Of Time will fit that bill. Some people will still prefer The Witcher or wait for Lord of the Rings or some other streaming show to come in the future.
– Don’t overthink it, man: It’s easy to get tripped up during the first few The Wheel Of Time episodes while attempting to make sense of dozens of characters. And it’s easy to not care too much about the out-of-the-gate battle scenes without having established emotional stakes in these characters, but the tapestry does begin to fall into place. So, if you’re looking for another Thrones, keeping an open mind (even if you haven’t read a show’s source material, and there’s a huge time investment if you actually want to read Jordan’s books now) is key. You’ll hopefully find what you’re looking for, but first, you’ll have to give it a shot.
Amazon Prime’s ‘The Wheel Of Time’ debuts on Friday, Nov. 19.
Robin Pecknold has proven himself to be one of indie’s best songwriters, as evidenced by the tremendous body of work he’s built up with Fleet Foxes over the years. Now, he’s getting ready to share his wisdom with a new songwriting workshop.
The workshop will take place on four consecutive Sundays — January 16, 23, 30, and February, with two one-hour lecture sessions on each day, at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. PT, to accommodate different time zones. Pecknold is teaching the workshop through School Of Song, and they detail the four topics the course will cover:
“Process & Manifestos: In this class, we’re going to take a look at the full life-cycle of a song’s creation: how to come up with musical and lyrical ideas, achieving consistency by establishing a musical vision early on, and understanding the many different hats we have to wear as songwriters.
Melody & Lyrics: Stravinsky once said that melody is the only aspect of music that can’t be taught, but in this class we’ll give it our best shot, looking at various means of melodic development, the importance of rhythm to memorability, interval relationships, utilizing extensions and common tones, and techniques for writing melodies that accommodate harmonization. We will also explore the relationship between melody and lyrics.
Utilizing musical ‘technologies’ for defamiliarization: A song can (and should) start from anything, be it an unfamiliar instrument, a new plug-in or app, a strange tuning or harmonic mode, a YouTube video, a sample, or any number of things. In this class we’ll discuss the difference between songcraft and the employment of these novel technologies, and the importance of both to the creative process.
Attention & Novelty: How can we best rise to the occasion of maintaining a listener’s attention? We’ll discuss this question at many timescales: over the course of a song, throughout an album, & over an entire career. We’ll talk about solving the problem of managing expectations and surprise. We’ll also explore the closely related topic of novelty (both to ourselves as creators and others as listeners).”
The course costs $120, so learn more about it here.
Remember the days when we all thought “cutting the cable” would ultimately save us money? Well, it’s starting to look like if the sheer number of services you have to subscribe to to keep up with all the latest and greatest shows doesn’t get you, good ol’ fashioned price raises will. Hulu has announced it is increasing the price of its live TV subscriptions by $5 a month, bringing the monthly fee to $69.99 for the ad-supported version and $75.99 for ad-free (via The Hollywood Reporter). However, it’s not all bad news. Along with the $5 price increase, Hulu is adding two fantastic values to its live TV package: Disney+ and ESPN+.
Starting on December 21, all Hulu live TV subscribers will gain full access to both Disney and ESPN’s streaming services, both of which were previously offered albeit at a higher price. For those who were already subscribed to these packages, you can expect a small but surely welcome $3 price dip. However, unfortunately for those with no interest in Disney and ESPN, there is no option to opt out of the additions.
While the ever-secretive Disney has not revealed how many people subscribe to their service via Hulu, earlier this month Hulu reported it now has a staggering 43.8 million subscribers, 4 million of which are signed up for its live TV package. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Hulu + Live TV remains the “the strongest when it comes to average revenue per user, averaging $84.89 per user while the standard Hulu subscription averages $12.75 per user.” Suffice to say, we can’t anticipate this price increase will have a negative impact on the streaming service, and could even help Disney+ out of their slump.
Kaytranada has been steady grinding all year. The Canadian producer has dropped a collaboration track Mick Jenkins, the Black History Month-focused “Caution,” and has announced festival headlining slots at both Phoneix’s non-profit M3F Fest and California’s lakeside Lightning In A Bottle. But he’s saved his 2021 piece de resistance for last…
Released today, the Intimidated EP is just three tracks long, but they’re each equally brilliant and you’re going to want to press repeat again and again on these cuts. “Intimidated” featuring HER taps into the same magic that garnered Kaytra his Grammy Award for 10% with Kali Uchis. “Be Careful” features Thundercat and stands tall just as much on the producer’s signature drums as it does on ‘cat’s silky vocals. Finally, “$payforhaiti” sees Griselda rapper Mach-Hommy rapping in Creole on a track whose message of Haitian freedom is illustrated on the album cover. It’s all pure heat from Kaytranada; of course.
Listen to the title track featuring HER above. Check out the album artwork and track list below, along with Kaytranada’s upcoming tour and festival dates.
12/03/21 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Wallercreek Amphitheater
12/04/21 – Austin, TX @ Stubb’s Wallercreek Amphitheater
12/08/21 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
12/09/21 – Boston, MA @ House of Blues
12/29/21 – Toronto, ON @ History
12/30/21 – Toronto, ON @ History
12/31/21 – Chicago, IL @ Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
03/04/21 – 3/5/21 – Phoenix, AZ @ M3F Music Festival
03/18/21 – 3/20/21 – Buenos Aires, Argentina @ Lollapalooza Argentina
03/25/21 – 3/27/21 – Sao Paulo, SP @ Lollapalooza Brasil
05/19/21 – Montreal, QC @ Piknic Electronik
05/20/21 – Montreal, QC @ Piknic Electronik
05/25/21 – 5/30/21 – Bakersfield, CA @ Lightning In A Bottle
05/27/21 – 5/30/21 – New Orleans, LA @ Noir Fever
Jason Reitman has been on, what seems like, a never-ending press tour to promote his new movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife. What you’re about to read is an interview that took place Thursday of this week, near the end of this tour. And, yes, Reitman is exhausted and, frankly, seems very interested in talking about anything that’s not something he’s been asked multiple times over the last couple of months. (At one point, after talking at length about the Sylvester Stallone arm-wrestling movie Over the Top, Reitman joked, “Don’t you want to know what it was like for me to work with my dad?”)
About eight years ago I first interviewed Reitman and, strangely, 1987’s The Garbage Pail Kids Moviewas brought up and, since then, it’s been a recurring joke. Reitman would talk about specific scenes (he saw it in a theater) and my contribution was usually, “I saw it when I was 13 and don’t remember it very well.” Well, for the special occasion of Reitman’s press tour finally coming to an end, I hunted down The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (which is hard to find, I had to buy the DVD) so I could, finally, engage with Reitman on this important topic. (I might, now, be in the top 10 of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie experts; for the record: it’s an unpleasant movie.) Though, it’s interesting, even with a movie like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, Reitman can’t help but reflect that making movies is hard and, even a movie like that, a lot of people tried their best to make something worth watching. (I will concede, it is a big swing.)
So, ahead, Reitman does his best to talk about anything that’s not about Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which we did for just under an hour. Though, I did manage to get a couple of plot questions in that I was curious about. (And, of course, I picked one of them he can’t answer because they plan on addressing it in a future project.)
Over the last eight years of our interview series, every time, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie gets brought up…
Yes. That’s our thing.
My contribution every time is usually, “well, I haven’t seen it since I was 13.” First of all, this movie’s very hard to find.
Garbage Pail Kids?
It’s not streaming anywhere. The Blu-ray is like 100 dollars.
Wait. They made a Blu-ray of The Garbage Pail Kids Movie?
I think it was Shout Factory. It’s now out of print.
Okay. Just so you know, what I just learned is that there is no Blu-ray for Thank You For Smoking, but there is a Blu-ray for The Garbage Pail Kids Movie. That is my walkaway information from this phone call.
There’s no Blu-ray for Thank You For Smoking?
Nope.
How is that possible?
Well, I mean, what is more astonishing is that there is a Blu-ray for The Garbage Pail Kids. The fidelity of those puppets will never go lost.
I did not buy the Blu-ray, but I bought the DVD and I watched it this morning. It’s unpleasant.
I have not seen that movie since it was in theaters. How different was it from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie?
Oh, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles would win a Nobel Peace Prize compared to this movie. The plot is very confusing. The Garbage Pail Kids are from outer space, but that’s never mentioned again. And one of them just pees his pants the whole time. Another one throws up all the time. Another one farts all the time. And McKenzie Aston is the main character and he likes this girl who is trying to get into fashion, so he decides to enlist the Garbage Pail Kids to help him make a clothing line so she’ll like him.
This tracks. Look, making a movie is so hard. I really don’t want to shit on anyone.
Here’s the other interesting thing about this movie. The guy who directed it, if he were still alive today, he’d almost be 100.
Wow. He was born before the sound era. That’s fascinating. You’re expanding my brain right now. It’s so hard to make movies. And it’s so hard to make anything that I really admire anyone who attempts to tell a story of any kind. And that actually also goes for The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, as misguided as it is.
It’s a big swing. He wrote it, produced it, and directed it. The other thing I found interesting was The Garbage Pail Kids as a group were nominated for a Razzie, and they lost.
Who did they lose to?
They lost to the kid in the Sylvester Stallone movie Over the Top.
I actually really love that movie. I found that movie to be strangely moving. I remember as a kid really liking that movie. Does it not hold up or something?
Over the Top is awesome. It is about Sly who is an arm wrestler who is also a truck driver and him trying to reconnect with his kid.
Yeah, I remember the father-son story being really moving in Over the Top. Where do you think, in the process of developing Over the Top, did they say, “Okay, I just watched The Karate Kid. It’s really good. We need our crane kick. What is it going to be?” And they’re like, “What if we just adjusted his four fingers, but like with music?” It’s like, why is this a move that no one else can do?
I mean, there’s only a limited amount of things you can do in arm-wrestling.
And this was an actual thing, right? An actual competition. People were actually competing in arm-wrestling at the time?
I think they still do.
Maybe that’s what you and I need to go do. I think we need to go visit one of these.
This is what this press tour has done to you? Do you want to give it all up and join an arm-wrestling league?
Oh, no. I’m not going to compete in an arm-wrestling league.
Oh, I see. You just want to go.
I would love to. I mean, come on. If there was an arm-wrestling tournament happening tonight, and I said, “Hey man, I have tickets.” You’re there, right?
If you’re inviting me, yes, I’m going to go. You’re a famous director. If someone I don’t like very much invites me, then I don’t know. That’s probably my answer. I wouldn’t go by myself.
Oh. I 1000 percent would go by myself. It’s funny, I have a movie night at my house, and we traditionally watch art films that I missed out on by not going to film school. I think I’m going to have to make Over the Top our next movie night.
You won’t be disappointed. Sly is not just fighting the evil arm wrestlers. He’s also fighting his father-in-law who doesn’t want him with his son.
Wait a second. The father-in-law is the antagonist in the arm wrestling as well?
No, no, he’s a separate plot point. Because what happens is the kid’s mom is dying…
Oh my God.
And Robert Loggia plays the father-in-law and offers Sly money to stay out of his grandson’s life.
And Robert Loggia is very wealthy in this movie?
Yes. Because his kid goes to an expensive military school.
Oh, I remember the military school part of it. God, they really nailed it with that. What I remember is a lot of smoke, a lot of sweat, and I remember the hat. I remember him rotating the hat.
Yeah, he does. And the prize for winning the tournament is a new big rig.
That tracks because it’s also his home, right? He lives in the back of it? Karl Malone used to drive a big rig. Karl Malone, the basketball player.
The Mailman drove a truck?
The Mailman would drive a big rig in the off-season. I always really admired that. I’m a Winnebago guy, and I daydream. On my roughest nights of filmmaking, when I can’t imagine anything working out, that’s what I fantasize. I fantasize about long-haul driving. How much of a fan base do you think there still is for The Garbage Pail Kids Movie?
I think they are all on this call.
It’s you and me? Wait, do you think that the Garbage Pail Kid puppets are somewhere still and available? Like, will they come up for auction? Who has one?
Would you want one? They’re gross.
I mean, yeah. I think in my own version of building one of those Guillermo del Toro prop museums in my home is having a horrific Garbage Pail Kid puppet. Okay, so, again, you pull up to the Academy Museum and they’re having a show and you can either see all the original puppets from The Secret of NIMH or all the original puppets from The Garbage Pail Kids…
Well, The Secret of NIMH is a cartoon…
Sorry, not Secret of NIMH. Dark Crystal. Or Labyrinth. Okay, they have everything from Labyrinth in one room, everything from Garbage Pail Kids in another room. Which one are you going in?
Well, today I’m going in the Garbage Pail Kids room because I just watched that movie. I am probably the wrong person to ask because I probably watched this movie more recently than anyone on earth right now.
Not to be too heady, but what happens to these things that we work so hard on? Have you ever listened to Patton Oswalt’s routine about Death Bed: The Movie? It’s just a shit show of a film, apparently. Patton’s routine, though, is about all the people who worked on this film and how hard they worked, because they worked just as hard as anyone who worked on any other movie that was ever made. But it speaks to a general truth, which is that anyone who ever sits down to make a movie, it’s an extraordinary thing to decide. If you think about how much planning you put into anything – Christmas presents, a surprise party for somebody – it doesn’t even come close to the years that are put into trying to make a two-hour film experience palatable and enjoyable and maybe something that’ll stay with you. And that went into this Garbage Pail Kids movie.
Sure, but you know as well as I do that there are people that sometimes take movies for paychecks and they’re not into it and they don’t really care what happens to the movie. I don’t believe that’s what happened with Garbage Pail Kids.
But they’re still waking up at the crack of dawn and not kissing their kid on their forehead on the way out because their kid’s still sleeping. They’re all still making crazy human sacrifice to make these things. And there’s a question of what happens to these movies, and particularly we hold onto them in the digital realm and you don’t even have a physical copy of it anymore, you wonder what happens to something like The Garbage Pail Kids Movie or anything like it.
Well, it’s gone because it’s not on streaming anywhere. You can’t even rent it. Since the pandemic started, I have found a lot more movies than you think are nowhere to be found on streaming. Cocoon is impossible to find.
Is that true? Cocoon is not on iTunes?
Disney owns Cocoon now and they told me it’s something to do with music rights.
That’s insane. Do you know the joke about Wilford Brimley in Cocoon?
That a few years ago Tom Cruise was the same age as Wilford Brimley in Cocoon?
Yes. Wilford Brimley was 50 years old when he made Cocoon.
I started that. I tweeted that in 2011. It went viral, back when you had to manually retweet people.
Is that yours? Oh my God.
I don’t get credit for it anymore. There’s a whole Brimley Line Twitter account I have nothing to do with.
Well, aren’t you happy it just came up? You can now put in this article you’re about to write the fact that we talked about it and give yourself the credit you deserve.
It has been taken from me and now the world owns it.
What is this article? What is this conversation going to be about on paper?
I don’t know. But you ask that every time.
Does anybody read these?
Probably not. I actually do have two Ghostbusters questions.
Let me guess. Is one about what is it like to work with my father?
Jason, what is it like working with your father?
I have plenty of canned answers for your canned questions.
I actually do want to know, at what point before the events of this movie, when Egon’s living in Oklahoma, did he look at the Ecto-1 and decided he needed to remove the Ghostbusters II logo with the ghost holding the two up and go back to the original logo?
I wish I could talk to you about that.
That’s actually a secret?
Well, I’m just saying that’s a plot that is not in this film and we have ideas moving forward.
I see.
And Ghostbusters II is canon.
People keep wondering if it is or not.
No, Ghostbusters II, definitely canon. There are references to Ghostbusters II in Afterlife. We meet Ray working at Ray’s Occult. The toaster from Ghostbusters II is in the kitchen in the farmhouse. There’s actually lots of lost of Ghostbusters II details but nobody knows Ghostbusters II outside of Vigo the Carpathian and the Ghostbusters II logo. So there’s this assumption that it is not canon but it is definitely canon.
The second plot question, when we see the pictures of young Carrie Coon they are from the late 1980s. So Egon has a kid in Ghostbusters II?
Oh, yeah.
Okay. We just don’t know that at the time when we’re watching Ghostbusters II.
Correct.
And what is it like working with your father, if no one’s asked that yet?
Well, let me give you the scoop.
Yeah, give me the scoop.
The scoop is it was wonderful making a film sitting next to my storytelling hero and the world’s foremost Ghostbusters expert. That is something I haven’t said to anybody. You’re the first person to hear that.
That answer is going to get its own separate article because this is such an important quote.
You brought Disney now owning Cocoon earlier, and all my recent letters that I’ve gotten about Juno and Thank You for Smoking have had Mickey Mouse on them, and that’s bizarre.
Predator is a Disney movie now.
You’re right. That’s insane.
John McTiernan is getting Predator letters with Mickey Mouse on it.
Where is John McTiernan now?
I think he’s around? Martin Brest is the one who is really hard to find.
No kidding? Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Scent of a Woman. That’s a strong three in a row. Wait, hold on. In 2021 he appeared as a featured guest at a screening of Beverly Hills Cop and Midnight Run and he was interviewed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is actually interesting sometimes as a director to look at that and be like, okay, what’s the career? What are the movies? How many are there? And it’s like, that’s it. Three greats. That’s fucking solid.
What’s the best three-movie run by any director? I go Coppola with the two Godfather movies and right smack in the middle The Conversation, that’s hard to beat.
I mean, there’s a bit of personal preference here. I love Alexander Payne, so Election, About Schmidt, Sideways run is kind of insane to me. And the Rob Reiner run…
Rob Reiner has, sneakily, one of the best runs of any director who has ever lived.
So Reiner, it’s a five-movie run. That’s the crazy part. Stand By Me, Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men.
And then soon after that is The American President.
And if you take out The Sure Thing, it goes Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, Princess Bride, Harry Met Sally, Misery, A Few Good Men. Any one of those movies gets you into the hall. And if all you ever did in your life was direct Stand By Me, you have my heart. It’s just a work of genius. Any time I watch that movie, River Phoenix dissolves and I’m gone, I’m crying, I’m done.
I’m trying to do your dad’s best three in a row. I think it’s Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters.
Yeah, it has to be Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters…
Because right after that is Legal Eagles before Twins. We just rewatched Legal Eagles a year ago and it’s fun but also strangely confusing. But after that he does Twins, Ghostbusters II, Kindergarten Cop…
And Dave. I think you have the Meatballs, Stripes, Ghostbusters run and then the Twins, Ghostbusters 2, Kindergarten Cop, Dave run and both of them are exceptional. And Dave in particular is a killer. Who else has runs like that? Hold on, I want to look up Andrea Arnold for a second. I think she would fall in this category for me. Yeah. I love Red Road, Fish Tank. I love American Honey. American Honey is genius. Or, you know who? Sean Baker.
I just saw Red Rocket yesterday.
Oh my God, how is it? I need to see this.
Oh, it’s fantastic.
So, if you put him on it, it’s Starlet, Tangerine, Florida Project, Red Rocket. That’s also an insane run…So, with that said, I unfortunately have to go.
Look, I tried wrapping this up like 15 minutes ago and then we keep getting on tangents.
I hope you get something out of this conversation. This does not seem like something easy to write.
I know you’ve had a long press tour so I hope you found some enjoyment answering questions about Over the Top and The Garbage Pail Kids Movie.
Yeah, I need to go watch that movie. I will find it. I’m going to be the one who buys that stupid expensive Blu-ray.
It’s on eBay if you want it.
Just don’t try to outbid me.
‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ opens nationwide this weekend. You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.
However, the Houston rapper has at least one supporter in his corner: Public Enemy founder and hip-hop pioneer Chuck D, who writes in an open letter published today in Rolling Stone that the blame should rest squarely on the event’s promoter Live Nation (which has since launched a fund for injured festival attendees). “I’m tired of these corporations shucking their most crucial responsibility,” he writes, These folks simply say Rest in Peace and move on. This negligence can’t continue. Folks want answers. I’m not buying the Young Black Man did it.”
Instead, he calls on Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino and Live Nation partner ScoreMore to not only accept responsibility for the disaster at the recent concert but also for hooking up with Travis in the first place, despite his history of inciting irresponsible behavior at his shows. In Chuck’s view, “Concert promoters have all the power to make the changes to keep everyone safe and alive.” And you have to admit… he has a point.
You can read the full letter below.
I cannot believe we’re at the point where !gotta say this out loud: Travis Scott is a performer, an act, not a concert promoter. He doesn’t run the sound or venues or festivals or their staff. He doesn’t build stages or coordinate logistics, he’s not an expert in crowd control or security or emergency medical services. But he does trust Live Nation and all the other concert promoters who are supposed to do all of this. And yet here we are, 10 deaths and counting. 10 broken families.
The world is mourning.
I’m tired of these corporations shucking their most crucial responsibility. These folks simply say Rest In Peace and move on. This negligence can’t continue. Folks want answers. I’m not buying “the young Black Man did it.” He’s being blamed for a crime while the old white men running the corps that Travis and his fans trusted with their lives stay quiet in the shadows, counting their money and watching their stock prices go up and up. The excuse of Scott’s irresponsible actions don’t wash – if his act had a history of that behavior why promote him to bigger venues, why partner with him in the first place and let him headline a bigger audience? Live Nation controlled this show. They control almost all of the concert venues. Artists ain’t speaking out because these same cats are already bought by these corporations. No one can say a word against them unless they want to be Blacklisted and hurt their careers.
So I am calling on Michael Rapino’s entire team at Live Nation and a consortium of all the major concert promoters out there to do the right thing. To step up and step out of the shadows to fix these situations and save lives. To stop letting one Young Black Man take the blame, the hate, the fall. We don’t know everything that happened or exactly what failed. But concert promoters have all the power to make the changes to keep everyone safe and alive.
Live Nation, your stock is up. The White Corporate Music Biz keeps cashing in on Black Pain, Trauma, and Death. This has to stop yesterday. You’re part of the problem. Grow the f*ck up, fix this and let us all LIVE in PEACE.
Earlier in the month, Marvel Studios announced that Black Panther: Wakanda Forever would take a production break while Letitia Wright continues to recover from an injury that she suffered during a stunt accident in late August. At the time, Marvel revealed that director Ryan Coogler had already been filming around Wright’s scenes and completed as much of the sequel as he could while she’s still in London. However, considering Wright plays the key role of Shuri, who is the sister to the late Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa and a potential heir to the Black Panther mantle, there’s only so much that Coogler can do without Wright.
Compounding the problem is the fact that Wright apparently suffered more severe injuries than what was previously reported. In a new letter to the cast and crew of Wakanda Forever, Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige revealed the status of Wright’s recovery, but also confirmed that she will remain a key part of the sequel. Via Deadline:
What we had initially thought were minor injuries turned out to be much more serious with Letitia suffering a critical shoulder fracture, and a concussion with severe side effects. It has been a painful process and Letitia has been home recovering with her doctors and the support of family.
We’ve adjusted our production schedule so she has the time she needs to heal, but there’s only so much we can do without Shuri! We also want to thank Letitia for everything she’s doing to get back to the set – we know how much she loves this role, how tough it’s been for her to be away, and how hard she’s working to recover as quickly as she safely can. We are eagerly awaiting her return and we know we will all come back stronger together.
This new revelation that Wright’s injuries are more serious arrives on the heels of reports that the actress, who is allegedly unvaccinated, may not be able to return to the United States due to new travel restrictions. While Feige’s letter shows no signs of that being an issue, the speculation about her Marvel situation is probably not going away anytime soon.
In the Netflix film, Cumberbatch plays Phil Burbank, a cruel rancher who torments his brother’s wife, Rose (Dunst). “I didn’t want to be really mean to Kirsten, but I needed to stay in character,” he told NME. “So I didn’t speak to her on-set. She was the same. We were the negative to each other’s positive. [We were] repelled by each other.”
Method acting isn’t for everyone, but it worked for Cumberbatch (who gave himself nicotine poisoning three times) and Dunst: The Power of the Dog has a near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score (94 percent “Fresh” rating) and has been called one of the best movies of the year by multiple publications, including Slate and IndieWire.
Here’s the official plot summary:
A domineering but charismatic rancher wages a war of intimidation on his brother’s new wife and her teen son — until long-hidden secrets come to light.
The Power of the Dog, which also stars Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Thomasin McKenzie, Genevieve Lemon, Keith Carradine, and Frances Conroy, is out in theaters now and hits Netflix on December 1. You can watch the trailer below.
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