Various links and things..
Oct. 19th, 2020 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkat1. This sound recording by Neil Gaiman was both beautiful and hopeful.
2. Scalzi posts on voting and the election
I decided to trust the mail - mainly because I've gotten everything by mail without any issues. Also apparently you can track it. And I sent it in today.
NY has a tracker that tracks the ballot, lets you know if it has been accepted, and if not - what you can do to fix it -
NY State Ballot Tracking
Also I'm not in a battleground state. I did it this way - because I'm nervous about the situation at the polling sites with COVID. And my early voting site is a bit far - it's about four subway stops away and a YMCA.
I keep getting requests to phone bank. Hell no. I don't pester folks about doing things. Been there, done that, still have the battle scars. (I did a lot of telemarketing - volunteer and otherwise, I will NEVER do it again. My sisinlaw went door to door and put information on people's front stoops. Dragging my brother with her. While niece is doing the texting and phone banking. )
3. Got Entertainment Weekly in the mail - it has a fall movie preview and oscar forecast. Uh.
It also lists The Trial of the Chicago 7 flick directed and written by Aaron Sorkin, produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Sasha Baron Cabot (Abbie Hoffman), Eddie Redmayne (Tom Hayden), Frank Lagenella (Judge Holmes), and Michael Keaton in a cameo(Ramsey Clark). It's based on the real life trial of the Chicago 7 - who were the anti-Viet Nam activists during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1967. (I was a baby in Chicago at that time - my parents remember seeing the fires and protests. And my mother was involved in charitable endeavors to help children and families in Vietnam that were harmed. My father was involved in getting out the vote.)
I watched it on Sunday. It pissed me off. I wanted to jump through the screen and strangle the Judge. So too did everyone in the court room. It's a realistic, if somewhat pared down portrayal of real events. In reality, Tom Hayden tries to read the names of the fallen a lot earlier - and they get cut off before they make it through a third of them. Also, they had famous guest witnesses - not shown in the film - such as Allen Ginsberg, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and someone else - who all sing a protest song and get kicked out for contempt.
That said, it is amusing in its absurdity in spots, and painful in its violations. Knowing this actually happened and is still happening doesn't help. Also the Judge, while he was sanctioned and determined to be ill-equipped, went on to try cases, and died of natural causes.
The good news? The seven were released, along with all charges dropped on appeal - due to Judge Holmes violations. The Justice Department didn't opt to retry. (They tried it only to get back at the previous Attorney General, Ramsey Clark who refused to try it on the grounds that the riots had been started by the police not the defendants. So yes, it was a political trial. John Mitchell's ego was bruised by Clark not resigning immediately and following procedure. John Mitchell - as everyone knows - is a crook, who got convicted for Watergate. What's amusing about all of that - is the Chicago riots were surrounding the Democratic Convention and in protest to LBJ and Humphrey who were in favor of continuing the War in Vietnam. They helped Nixon win. )
Also, Bobby Seal who was horribly treated, and falsely accused - had all charges dropped as well. He was the eighth defendant, and separated from the case after the Judge ordered him bound and gagged in the court room. When that happened, the prosecutors requested that he be separated from the other defendants, and his case be duly announced as a mistrial.
The movie is typical Sorkin - rapid fire dialogue, with a simmering rage underneath. Sorkin's dialogue at times feels like bullets. It's brutal and confrontational. And his monologues are often rants.
I like the dialogue - it reminds me a little of Mamet (of Glencarry Glen Ross fame). But it's not for everyone. And I have to say, my blood pressure went up during it.
There's also a run-down of up coming television. The one's that have chosen to embrace the fact that there is a pandemic - are coming back sooner. Station 19, Grey's, and This is Us.
Big Sky, somehow got in there, and is coming in November by way of David E. Kelley - it's based on a bunch of private detective novels. Takes place in Montana. And focuses on two private eyes who join forces, along with one's ex-wife to find a killer.
HBO - has a lot of stuff. A dramatization/adaptation of "Between the World and I" by Tahesi-Coates (whose name I can never spell), His Dark Materials S2, The Undoing starring Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, and Donald Sutherland.
The Crown returns to Netflix, Supernatural comes back for its final season, and there's something on Masterpiece Theater entitled Roadkill (odd name for a BBC costume drama.)
2. Scalzi posts on voting and the election
I decided to trust the mail - mainly because I've gotten everything by mail without any issues. Also apparently you can track it. And I sent it in today.
NY has a tracker that tracks the ballot, lets you know if it has been accepted, and if not - what you can do to fix it -
NY State Ballot Tracking
Also I'm not in a battleground state. I did it this way - because I'm nervous about the situation at the polling sites with COVID. And my early voting site is a bit far - it's about four subway stops away and a YMCA.
I keep getting requests to phone bank. Hell no. I don't pester folks about doing things. Been there, done that, still have the battle scars. (I did a lot of telemarketing - volunteer and otherwise, I will NEVER do it again. My sisinlaw went door to door and put information on people's front stoops. Dragging my brother with her. While niece is doing the texting and phone banking. )
3. Got Entertainment Weekly in the mail - it has a fall movie preview and oscar forecast. Uh.
It also lists The Trial of the Chicago 7 flick directed and written by Aaron Sorkin, produced by Steven Spielberg, starring Sasha Baron Cabot (Abbie Hoffman), Eddie Redmayne (Tom Hayden), Frank Lagenella (Judge Holmes), and Michael Keaton in a cameo(Ramsey Clark). It's based on the real life trial of the Chicago 7 - who were the anti-Viet Nam activists during the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1967. (I was a baby in Chicago at that time - my parents remember seeing the fires and protests. And my mother was involved in charitable endeavors to help children and families in Vietnam that were harmed. My father was involved in getting out the vote.)
I watched it on Sunday. It pissed me off. I wanted to jump through the screen and strangle the Judge. So too did everyone in the court room. It's a realistic, if somewhat pared down portrayal of real events. In reality, Tom Hayden tries to read the names of the fallen a lot earlier - and they get cut off before they make it through a third of them. Also, they had famous guest witnesses - not shown in the film - such as Allen Ginsberg, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, and someone else - who all sing a protest song and get kicked out for contempt.
That said, it is amusing in its absurdity in spots, and painful in its violations. Knowing this actually happened and is still happening doesn't help. Also the Judge, while he was sanctioned and determined to be ill-equipped, went on to try cases, and died of natural causes.
The good news? The seven were released, along with all charges dropped on appeal - due to Judge Holmes violations. The Justice Department didn't opt to retry. (They tried it only to get back at the previous Attorney General, Ramsey Clark who refused to try it on the grounds that the riots had been started by the police not the defendants. So yes, it was a political trial. John Mitchell's ego was bruised by Clark not resigning immediately and following procedure. John Mitchell - as everyone knows - is a crook, who got convicted for Watergate. What's amusing about all of that - is the Chicago riots were surrounding the Democratic Convention and in protest to LBJ and Humphrey who were in favor of continuing the War in Vietnam. They helped Nixon win. )
Also, Bobby Seal who was horribly treated, and falsely accused - had all charges dropped as well. He was the eighth defendant, and separated from the case after the Judge ordered him bound and gagged in the court room. When that happened, the prosecutors requested that he be separated from the other defendants, and his case be duly announced as a mistrial.
The movie is typical Sorkin - rapid fire dialogue, with a simmering rage underneath. Sorkin's dialogue at times feels like bullets. It's brutal and confrontational. And his monologues are often rants.
I like the dialogue - it reminds me a little of Mamet (of Glencarry Glen Ross fame). But it's not for everyone. And I have to say, my blood pressure went up during it.
There's also a run-down of up coming television. The one's that have chosen to embrace the fact that there is a pandemic - are coming back sooner. Station 19, Grey's, and This is Us.
Big Sky, somehow got in there, and is coming in November by way of David E. Kelley - it's based on a bunch of private detective novels. Takes place in Montana. And focuses on two private eyes who join forces, along with one's ex-wife to find a killer.
HBO - has a lot of stuff. A dramatization/adaptation of "Between the World and I" by Tahesi-Coates (whose name I can never spell), His Dark Materials S2, The Undoing starring Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, and Donald Sutherland.
The Crown returns to Netflix, Supernatural comes back for its final season, and there's something on Masterpiece Theater entitled Roadkill (odd name for a BBC costume drama.)