MOVIES AND PHYSICAL MEDIA RECOMMENDATIONS AND INSIGHTS
GREAT MOVIE TRAILERS OF THE DAY
Sports and Competition
AUTO AND HOME IMPROVEMENT NEWS AND INSIGHTS
INSIGHT AND NEWS YOU CAN USE
ART BOOKS AND COMIC BOOKS
News
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT : New changes to Ebay= Sellers should avoid EBay like the plague!
Ebay is great to buy on, and while for now is still the biggest market for buying and selling, it has increasingly become horrible to sell on, and very antagonistic to sellers.
Their new payment management changes for sellers includes potentially some truly onerous fine print. Perhaps the most unacceptable of which is the following passage:
Buying or selling outside of eBay
If you offer or reference your contact information or ask a buyer for their contact information in the context of buying or selling outside of eBay – opens in new window or tab, you’ll be charged a final value fee based on the total amount of the sale even if your item doesn’t sell. In this situation,
Now I get and agree that Sellers should not be actively trying to divert Ebay traffic and potential sales off Ebay, however a lot of established and reputable sellers list items on multiple sites, and the first one to sell is the first one to sell. Now with Ebay’s above stated policy, even if you end up selling the item through your own web page first, and Ebay discovers it, they will charge your checking account, as if you sold it on Ebay!!
WTF????
A seemingly punitive measure for you to sell on Ebay only. What moron thought of this?! You’re going to charge people for your site failing to be the first to sell the item??!!
Also if a Buyer opens a dispute, which unfortunately happens to the best of sellers, and the seller loses the dispute (which also happens to the best of sellers) Ebay has the following onerous policy change:
Dispute fee
If you are found responsible for a disputed amount as per eBay policies – opens in new window or tab (e.g., chargeback), we charge a $20.00 dispute fee, excluding sales tax, for each dispute.
WHAT?? No Thank you Ebay.
I stopped selling on Ebay a long time ago, even before these absurd policy changes. Now as a seller, I would never sign onto Ebay with their current seller-hostile policies.
In closing, Ebay is still a great place to Buy, but I see that changing as more and more sellers jump ship to find a less onerous company and platform to deal with.
GOLDEN GLOBES and Hollywood Foreign Press Controversy Explained Dissected
GOLDEN GLOBES and Hollywood Foreign Press Controversy Explained / Dissected
What I like about the JOHN CAMPEA SHOW, is not that I always agree with him (, or the show always agrees with my likes or dislikes, but that he believes in 1/going to the source and confirming the source before making an opinion 2/breaking down the argument and 3/ using reason to get a big picture overview.
In a world that has dismantled journalism and newspapers, and I think the world as a whole is the poorer for it, shows like the John Campea show are refreshing reminders of how to reason, which is the crux of what Journalism taught us.
There is not a better show to dissect all things Hollywood.
MATEWAN By John Sayles – A masterpiece made in 1987 that is absolutely relevant in 2020
‘You think this man is the enemy? Huh? This is a worker! Any union keeps this man out ain’t a union, it’s a goddam club! They got you fightin’ white against colored, native against foreign, hollow against hollow, when you know there ain’t but two sides in this world – them that work and them that don’t. You work, they don’t. That’s all you got to know about the enemy.’
-MATEWAN [2 syllables, pronounced MATE(as in your spouse)- WAN (as in WAND)]
Click on the above image to purchase.
People use words like masterpiece and great, and sometimes the true weight of what you may be getting across may be lost.
Let me therefore explain MATEWAN to you thusly, I just finished watching the film yesterday. And I’m watching and listening to the, newly cut 2019 Criterion interviews today. (quick aside, i really appreciate that criterion went to the expense of doing new interviews and features for this film, which is something i am critical of them not doing, in other films. These 2019 featurettes are really— stunning, and on top of the greatness of the film, make the blu-ray a must own purchase.)
This morning I watched the news of Resident Trump dressing up essentially unidentified strike breakers and thugs, and letting them loose in Portland Oregon, and calling it the law.
“If you have vacation benefits, if you have unemployment benefits, worker’s compensation— these things weren’t given to you; they were fought for by people throughout this country. And i’m passionate about the fact that people have actually made an effort to fight for other people’s rights.”
—Karen VuRanch, THEM THAT WORK (2004) Documentary/featurette on the Matewan Massacre
Watching MATEWAN, a stunningly beautiful film, referencing a caustic bit of American history, from exactly 100 years ago, gives me, and I think it will give you, one of the greatest gifts art can can give— perspective. Perspective on the mistakes we have made, and the tyranny we have allowed.
And perspective helps us deal with the present, without ignorance, and if not without fear, without hopelessness. Because we can see others have seen these days of Gethsemane, and endured it, triumphed over it.
You can go many days of your life without gaining that type of perspective, that barest hint of —- grace. Looking at the world, many people go their whole life without finding the type of perspective, that glimpse of grace— that MATEWAN hints at.
For $30 to $40, Criterion’s MATEWAN blu-ray is one of the best purchases you can make. And ultimately, what it has left me with, like the best of true art, is priceless.
” The way she poured herself into her song— it can make a doubting man religious.”
—James Earl Jones on Hazel Dickens’ song in the film
Currently Watching : Absolutely Best Video of the Day-Krasinki’s SGN
If this doesn’t make you smile, you may be dead. 🙂 Just a touching video.
Youtube and Pandemic Video of the Day, France, Revolutionary War and Captain America?
There are a couple things and a couple places that historically enrage me.
You will find injustice and stupidity everywhere, but some places seem to have more than their fair share. Some places where the rule of law and government, is put in the hands of the most venal, and these miscarriages of not just justice, but of humanity continue to proliferate and occur.
The MOVE Bombing in Philadelphia comes to mind, the LA riots, sentencing mentally disabled children as adults in Florida and locking them up with Adults.
Ah Florida.
You bring to mind a quote from Henry the Vth.
And when I think of Henry the Vth, it is not the play I read that comes to mind, or the many film adaptations, it is a very specific film and performance. It is Branagh’s HENRY THE V. And there is this scene where he has just seen the bodies of the children that France killed in a sneak attack. He says, he seethes, “I was not angry till I came to France!”
Often I have heard news dealing with Florida, and it rises in me that self same rage, and I think… “I was not angry till I heard of Florida!”
And again I am sure there are great parts to Florida, great people in Florida, however it seems rightly or wrongly, they are overshadowed by the… mad.
Though it could be argued that… considering who some people voted for in the last presidential election, that all of America is mad.
***
Perhaps one of the greatest warriors America has ever produced, perhaps he was right.
Perhaps he was right when he switched sides.
I’m talking about Benedict Arnold.
History only remembers him as traitor.
They forget that he was the one everyone looked to, Washington, Jefferson, Banneker all of them. He was the Captain America of his day. Winning battle after battle, until at some point he saw a dichotomy between a colony seeking its Freedom from England, while ever more earnest about creating its wealth through a system of petty tyrannies, fiefdoms, slavery and impoverishment.
Ah Arnold, they have roughly used you.
Perhaps he was right.
All that to say, that video… riled me.
********
Now a bit more on that Henry the Vth quote:
“I was not angry till I came to France!”
That line has always stuck with me. What was said, and how he said it, and the enormity of the villainy to prompt such words.
However I don’t want people to confuse me being moved by that line, with any problems with France.
I like France, I went through it when I was younger, on a trip from Germany to London than back down through France to Spain.
While some American media has this totally undeserved derision toward France, the truth of the matter is… there would not be an America without France. The 100 year war between France and England, actually being just a small part of a 1000 year rivalry between those Super-Powers of that age, and the battle ground of America, what we called the Revolutionary War, was simply, for those Super Powers, their Vietnam.
Britain was fighting too many wars on too many fronts, battles with Spain, and France and on their own shores, and now a treasonous colony to deal with, that was being supported by their enemies. It was too much.
America likes to think we beat Britain, that is not the case. No, more than Vietnam beat America. In both cases battles on too many fronts, at home and abroad, required that the super power relinquish their expansionist wars, to concentrate on maintaining the nation proper.
So yeah, while Henry the Vth rightfully raged against France at the Battle of Agincourt, for myself, and for I think any American who has studied even basic history, and appreciates (for all its horrendous flaws) the dream of America, well you have to thank France for there even being a nation called America. Much as Vietnam has China to thank for them not being annexed by the United States.
So historically a fan of France, though these days they are dealing, like much of Europe and the World, with the rise of a new form of colonialism and fascism, under the guise of big business supplanting the rights of the individual.
Woah, man. That post went all over the place. 🙂
Somewhere in all that rambling there is probably a point. Me, I’ll leave it there. With this last refrain…
- Travel when you can.
- Defend each other and yourselves when you must.
- Find and spread joy where you may.
These are my only laws.
Oh, and deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.
In the words of Tennessee Williams and Blance Dubois. Deliberate cruelty is not forgivable.
Be well all.
And here endeth the rant. 🙂
-HT
Book of the Day : ALEISTER & ADOLF
Like most of you reading this I have a backlog of material to get to. Being a collector I likely have more of a backlog than most. Books, comic books and graphic novels, music, cds, movies, streaming, old time radio, podcasts, youtube, and the list goes on.
So it is not unusual for Books that I get with all intention of reading, getting parked in a very long queue. For any of you with Netflix or Amazon Watchlists, you’ll understand this.
So often times books only make it to the top of that list when going out the door.
Case in point with ALEISTER & ADOLF. I have started finding new homes for books I have not had a chance to get around to, ALEISTER & ADOLF became one of those books. I was packing it up to ship to its new owner, and while I had flipped thru it never really had gotten a chance to read it. Well about to pack it up to ship off, I wanted to read a bit of it.
I opened the book, and ended up reading the whole thing, standing in one spot…. and I found it, riveting. I found it an interesting tale of the part symbols play in history, and in our concept of reality. That advertising and salesmanship, while seen as a very modern thing, is actually since time immemorial… at the heart of empires, their rise and their fall. The hearts and minds of people, is where wars and peace are won, and oligarchies sustained.
If you are a fan of writers like Alan Moore and Grant Morrison, while not told with the elegaic poetry of these writers, Douglas Rushkoff‘s writing and Michael Avon Oemings‘ art, weaves a succinct and engrossing page turner of strange fiction, based on even stranger facts.
A worthy addition to the writings, both fact and fiction, on that most pivotal and bloodiest of Wars, what Roosevelt would come to call… The Survival War.
Great read. And I see myself re-adding this to my collection in the future.
Grade: B+.
Get your copy here. You may want to hurry as they are almost out of stock.
Today’s STREAMING VOD TV Guide Roku Recommendations: Youtube Edition!
Today’s STREAMING VOD TV Guide RECOMMENDATIONS – Youtube EDITION!
YOUTUBE:
The Problem with Disney+?!!!
The above video is from a Youtuber called CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT. This Youtuber’s channel was unknown to me before stumbling over this post. However, I looked at his content and some I agree with some I don’t; but this one on Disney + seemed relatively even-handed and informative.
Take a look and decide for yourself.
My take away on his video, and you guys know I am not a Disney fan, is given the price point, and the slate of shows and movies that will be available on Disney+ when it gets into full swing, it is definitely one to sign up for… eventually.
Providing they can keep this price point for the foreseeable future. I am in no rush to join the 10 million early adopters of Disney, but I will eventually jump in.
I just am not in a rush. Would be nice for it to have something other than the MANDALORIAN, that I am interested in, currently available.
But as more original Marvel and Star Wars content starts dropping in 2020, it will be a more and more attractive service, provided the shows are good, and the price point remains low.
I hope Disney, does follow-thru with releasing these shows also on physical media/Blu-Ray, for the disc heads like myself, who maintain streaming is a good option for discovering items, but no replacement for re-watching and owning the actual disc. For watching content your way, rather than the quality of your viewing at the mercy of licensing deals, or the weather, or Disney, or your ISP, or time of day.
What are your thoughts? Feel free to leave a like and or comments.
News you can Use : Intriguing News from Around the Web!
Facebook said earlier last week that it has no issues with allowing lying ads or nazi publishers on its platform
Why anyone continues to use facebook, after repeated abuse of the public’s rights and reason, remains beyond me.
Sharp 80% rise in liver cancer deaths in UK
50 great tracks for November from Dua Lipa, Destroyer, Selena Gomez and more
ACLU sues feds to get information about facial-recognition programs
And not just the municipal/’public’ cameras. Yes your smart phone, WE, Xbox, Ring and wifi security cams, VR headset, all that stuff you are using for fun or your security, is placing all that data of your face, body, and your surroundings in huge databases, that someone that is not you, gets to sift thru and use. Welcome to MINORITY REPORT. :).
SECURITY Breaches at Network Solutions, Register.com, and Web.com
Trump Is in Denial About Getting Booed Again, This Time at a UFC Fight
Also not accepting reality? Fox & Friends.
Arrogant Stupidity and prideful ignorance, is the enemy of reason.
Heroic Times 