It’s a bit too long, a tight 90 movie here would’ve been perfect. Regardless it’s a solid weekend movie playing on tv and you watch it just because it’s on kind of film.

The second half makes up for a weaker first half. The music and visuals are stunning in a lot of respects.

52% of Gen Zers said schools should be required to teach students how to leverage AI.

49% said they believe AI will harm their critical thinking skills.

41% said AI makes them anxious, while 36% said it makes them excited.

Gen Z is still anxiously using AI: Poll

The Gen Z lifestyle subsidy isn’t entirely like its Millennial predecessor. Uber was appealing because using an app to instantly summon a car is much easier than chasing down a cab. Ride-hailing apps were destructive for the taxi business, but for most users, they were just convenient. Today’s chatbots also sell convenience by expediting essay writing and meal planning, but the technology’s impact could be even more destabilizing. College students currently signing up for free ChatGPT Plus ahead of finals season might be taking exams intended to prepare them for jobs that the very same AI companies suggest will soon evaporate.

The Gen Z Lifestyle Subsidy

“We didn’t use to have to decide if our students were human, they were all people. But now there’s this skepticism because a growing number of the people we’re teaching are not real. We’re having to have these conversations with students, like, ‘Are you real? Is your work real?’” Maag said. “It’s really complicated, the relationship between the teacher and the student in almost like a fundamental way.”

• As ‘Bot’ Students Continue to Flood In, Community Colleges Struggle to Respond

Watched on Saturday April 19, 2025.

On TikTok and YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, paranoia circulates freely because it seems easier to indulge in a smaller, more private version of reality with fellow travelers than to come to a shared consensus on why everyday life feels so awful. There is a banal truth in what conspiracy theories offer to their adherents on these platforms: They arise from the powerlessness to enact change in life on a collective or individual level, and what emerges, then, is a feverish hunt for explanations.

• T.M. Brown

A predictable result when using the new AI reality:

Perhaps the biggest takeaway, however, was that prolonged usage seemed to exacerbate problematic use across the board

Finished reading: Victorian Psycho: A Novel by Virginia Feito 📚

As large corporations and algorithms tighten their grip to a clenched fist, I think we’re long past due for a second DIY Media Renaissance. But in order for that to happen, we first need to change our habits and expectations around media consumption—starting with deprogramming this idea that media is something that should be unlimited and available at all times through a digital faucet.

• “The Digital Patrack Manifesto”

Watched on Thursday March 6, 2025.

Finished reading: Clear by Carys Davies 📚

Watched on Sunday February 16, 2025.

Watched on Wednesday February 19, 2025.

One of the best shot movies of recent memory, the stills alone are worth the price of admission.

This is the musical version of Crash. It's a French guy using any number of stereotypes and tropes in the hopes of making some kind of enlightened movie. But every single time they try to address something serious it breaks out into some of the worst musical numbers I've ever heard. The fact that Karla Sofía Gascón had really bad tweets is actually pretty fitting for this movie.

Find something that treats trans-parenthood with some respect or find a film on cartel violence done by a Mexican director with Mexican actors.

Zoe Saldaña is good in it, but even she has to undermine her part with absolutely ridiculous musical numbers.

The New Rasputins - The Atlantic

Other civilizations have experienced moments like this one. As their empire began to decline in the 16th century, the Venetians began turning to magic and looking for fast ways to get rich. Mysticism and occultism spread rapidly in the dying days of the Russian empire. Peasant sects promoted exotic beliefs and practices, including anti-materialism, self-flagellation, and self-castration. Aristocrats in Moscow and St. Petersburg turned to theosophy, a mishmash of world religions whose Russian-born inventor, Helena Blavatsky, brought her Hindu-Buddhist-Christian-Neoplatonic creed to the United States. The same feverish, emotional atmosphere that produced these movements eventually propelled Rasputin, a peasant holy man who claimed that he had magical healing powers, into the imperial palace. After convincing Empress Alexandra that he could cure her son’s hemophilia, he eventually became a political adviser to the czar.

Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier granted clemency by President Biden | MPR News

“Tribal Nations, Nobel Peace laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. Attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers, and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native American community, and the substantial length of time he has already spent in prison.”

Watched on Monday December 30, 2024.

Watched on Sunday December 29, 2024.

It’s dumb in the good Tim Burton way

Watched on Friday December 20, 2024.

Watched on Thursday December 19, 2024.

So dumb it’s kinda fun