gwydion | Weekend Omnibus (Reply)

* "China NPC: Beijing to overhaul Hong Kong electoral system:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-56264117

* "Nigeria kidnapped girls: Shots fired at Zamfara reunion ceremony:" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56230525?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Binforadio%5D-%5Bheadline%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D

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* Total confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S.A for 3/5/21 are 28,882,000. The official death toll is 523,000. Fully Vaccinated: 8.4%.

* "Covid-19: U.S. Vaccination Pace Increases to 2 Million Doses a Day:" https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/04/world/covid-19-coronavirus#the-united-states-is-now-averaging-2-million-vaccine-doses-administered-per-day

* "Why the flu season this winter was virtually nonexistent :" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/why-the-flu-season-this-winter-was-virtually-nonexistent-102069317658

* I wish there were a law against public officials misappropriating funds. "Trump administration spent billions in hospital funds on Warp Speed:" https://www.statnews.com/2021/03/02/trump-administration-quietly-spent-billions-in-hospital-funds-on-operation-warp-speed/

* "DeSantis denies involvement in vaccine drive following revelation of $250,000 PAC donation from former Illinois governor:" https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/us/desantis-vaccine-ocean-reef-florida-keys/index.html

* "Three of Gov. Greg Abbott’s four coronavirus medical advisers say they weren’t directly consulted before he lifted mask mandate:" https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/03/abbott-mask-order-texas-advisers/

* "Detroit mayor declines Johnson & Johnson allotment, saying the other vaccines are better:" https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/health/detroit-mayor-johnson-and-johnson-vaccine/

* "New York Times and Wall Street Journal: Top Cuomo aides rewrote nursing home report from state health officials to hide higher death toll:" https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/05/politics/andrew-cuomo-nursing-homes-report/

* "Effort on to Vaccinate California's Enormous LGBTQ+ Population:" https://www.advocate.com/health/2021/3/04/effort-vaccinate-californias-enormous-lgbtq-population

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* "Tom Cotton Demands to Know if Merrick Garland Supports Equity:" https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/02/merrick-garland-tom-cotton.html

* "U.S. economy gains 379,000 jobs in February, in first full monthly employment report under Biden:" https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/u-s-economy-gains-379-000-jobs-february-first-full-n1259679

* Joe Manchin: Making the Bill worse for fun. Republicans: Doing everything in their power to hurt Americans by slowing things down for fun. "Senate poised to pass $1.9 trillion Covid aid bill:" https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/05/covid-aid-bill-senate-vote-amendments-473805

* "Pressure grows on Biden to end the filibuster:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-kill-the-filibuster/2021/03/05/09c0d774-7857-11eb-8115-9ad5e9c02117_story.html

* "What supporters of the filibuster get wrong about how it works:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/what-supporters-of-the-filibuster-get-wrong-about-how-it-works-102075973807

* "Chris Hayes: GOP offers no policy ideas, just obstruction and trolling:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/chris-hayes-gop-offers-no-policy-ideas-just-obstruction-and-trolling-102067781770

* Watching them drag the Republicans over this gave me life. "‘More important to them than health care’: Joy Reid says Potato Head is ‘the Republican Platform’:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/-more-important-to-them-than-health-care-joy-reid-says-potato-head-is-the-republican-platform-102066757525

* "Warnock: Raising minimum wage is both smart and morally right:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/warnock-raising-minimum-wage-is-both-smart-and-morally-right-102194245931

* "Mehdi Hasan: ‘Absurd’ for GOP to claim to be a worker’s party when ‘they have no interest in workers’:" https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/watch/mehdi-hasan-absurd-for-gop-to-claim-to-be-a-workers-party-when-they-have-no-interest-in-workers-102192197581

* "House passes expansive policing overhaul bill named in honor of George Floyd:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/george-floyd-police-reform-bill-vote/2021/03/03/5ea9ba3a-7c6c-11eb-85cd-9b7fa90c8873_story.html

* "House Democrats pass sweeping elections bill as GOP legislatures push to restrict voting:" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-elections-voting-pelosi-/2021/03/03/e434df58-7c22-11eb-a976-c028a4215c78_story.html

Want to tell your Republican Senator how important this is to you? Here are some options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* "Voting rights advocates organize against 'tsunami of anti-voter bills' from Georgia GOP:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/voting-rights-advocates-organize-against-tsunami-of-anti-voter-bills-from-georgia-gop-102199365778

* "Transphobic Voices Elevated in Media Coverage of Equality Act:" https://www.advocate.com/media/2021/3/04/transphobic-voices-elevated-media-coverage-equality-act

* "LGBTQ+ Reverend to Run Against Far-Right Rep. Madison Cawthorn:" https://www.advocate.com/politics/2021/3/04/lgbtq-reverend-run-against-far-right-rep-madison-cawthorn

* "Trump’s Strategy for Returning to Power Is Already Clear:" https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-strategy-for-returning-to-power-is-already-clear

* "Trump Administration Referred a Record Number of Leaks for Criminal Investigation:" https://theintercept.com/2021/03/02/trump-leaks-criminal-investigation/

* "Trump Appointee At VOA Parent Paid Law Firm Millions To Investigate His Own Staff:" https://www.npr.org/2021/03/04/973765185/trump-appointee-at-voa-parent-paid-law-firm-millions-to-investigate-his-own-staf

* "Rudy Giuliani tried dodging getting served with $1B Dominion Voting Systems suit: source:" https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-giuliani-dominion-lawsuit-service-20210222-6ejrl7c3rva3xbvhzqijoloe3y-story.html

* The people doing the online sleuthing are heroes. "Trump appointee arrested in connection with Capitol riot:" https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/04/trump-appointee-arrested-for-capitol-riot-473825

* "Trump appointee with ‘top-secret clearance’ arrested for role in Capitol riot:" https://www.msnbc.com/all-in/watch/trump-appointee-with-top-secret-clearance-arrested-for-role-in-capitol-riot-102194757595

* "Revealed: The Star-Spangled Trumper Filmed Attacking Cops At The Capitol:" https://www.huffpost.com/entry/robert-palmer-capitol-attack-sedition-hunters_n_604231acc5b60208555e0b6a

* "Turmoil at U.S. attorneys' office in D.C. complicates January 6 investigations:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/turmoil-at-u-s-attorneys-office-in-d-c-complicates-january-6-investigations-102200389534

* "Online sleuths, media, boost FBI effort to track down Capitol rioters:" https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/online-sleuths-media-boost-fbi-effort-to-track-down-capitol-rioters-102199877625

* "Federal investigators are examining communications between US lawmakers and Capitol rioters:" https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/04/politics/capitol-riot-investigation-lawmakers/index.html

* "Parler v. Amazon Dies. Is Reborn!:"

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

* "Tumblr's FAKEST Story: The Tale of Oppa Homeless Style:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Captain America: A Proper Movie Trilogy (Feat. Nando v Movies) | READUS 101:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Ron Johnson Forces Coronavirus Relief Bill Reading:" https://www.cc.com/video/x2ljv3/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-ron-johnson-forces-coronavirus-relief-bill-reading

* "If You Don't Know, Now You Know - First Ladies of the U.S.:" https://www.cc.com/video/byd4oc/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-if-you-don-t-know-now-you-know-first-ladies-of-the-u-s

* "Hate Monger Of The Week: Marjorie Taylor Greene:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Women, COVID, and the Myth of Having It All:"

Watch on YouTube

* "The Allegations Against Andrew Cuomo and Why We Hold Elected Officials Accountable:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Palm Beach To Trump: No Welcome Back Party:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Vaccine Game Show Cold Open - SNL:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Mirror Workout - SNL:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Murder Show - SNL:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Weekend Update: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Science - SNL:"

Watch on YouTube

* "Bachelor Party - SNL:"

Watch on YouTube

* Friday: I got my vaccine appointment! First shot is Monday! As a result do not expect postings on Monday after 9AM Pacific, as I have to go at an inconvenient time in my sleep cycle and I expect the shot to exhaust me. My plan is to pick up my library curbside after then go right home to bed and stay there

In other medical news my doctor won the second appeal over a higher dosage of a med Medicare hates paying for at all on Wednesday afternoon. It came late Thursday afternoon. There is already improvement.

In yet more medical news, I got test results back about fifteen minutes after the vaccine appointment scheduling. They are likely going to need to investigate my whole digestive system, a thing I dread as I remember what it was like when they did some of that in the 90's. I also am not even a little surprised in needs doing. Sigh. Trying set up appointments is next week's problem though.

Bonus? I lost hours of work I a hard crash and had to rewrite this amoung all the rest. Sigh.

* I watched Peninsula and I figured out what went wrong.

1. The obvious thing I guessed before I watched it, is a problem, but not the main one. Still, it needs saying: The Train to Busan is a perfect movie. It really is. The solid world building makes the thing compelling from the start. It's beautifully shot and acted. It has a strong thematic thread running through it. The timing is flawless, with action and quiet moments in a perfect balance designed to keep the viewer engaged. Most of all, it has heart. The viewer really cares what happens to the people, and those character stories are perfectly twined with the thematic thread. It's incredibly compelling and rewatchabe.

It is absolutely impossible to catch that kind of magic in a sequel. Viewers will want to feel that way again and you can't win no matter what you do. You can do the same thing again, which will be tired and derivative. you can do something different which will inevitably disappoint and/or piss off fans. It's why second albums are often a mess too. So they started this project with that against them.

2. But here is the real mistake: They picked the wrong protagonist. No really. If one hadn't watched Train to Busan this would have been a solid post apocalyptic action story with a really long boring start. Picture Escape from New York and Road warrior mashing up with a Korean Speculative Fiction Movie. It's the long boring bit that is the issue for this as a stand alone set in the same world as Train to Busan and Seoul station, and it isn't the actors' faults.

Why doesn't the first part of the movie work? Because they picked the wrong protagonist. Think about it. Where is the emotional heart of the movie? Where it always is the best of this kind of film coming out of Korea (For example: The Host, Snowpiercer, Train to Busan, Flu) with the family. It may be small (a parent and daughter) and/or broken and/or found but that's where the heart is. The family add and lose people along the way, but that heart carries the viewer through. When does Peninsula start getting interesting? When the girls turn up and you have the family that's the narrative center for most of the rest of the film.

I'm not saying it's all bad up to that point. There is that beautiful, haunting, Checkov's gun moment on the way in, for example, but mostly? It's filler.

So here's how to fix it. Just put the main narrative focus on the Mom and family. No really. It cuts most of the boring bits right out. Let me show you how.

Start with the car crash and the encounter between the two families on the road, serving as a metonymy for the experience of the abandoned family that day and setting up the plot. Now cut out the boring lead in, scenario setting, and exposition dumps. You don't need them; the bits you actually need fold in again later anyway.

Cut to the girls surveilling the team come to extract the truck. Set it up sort of like MST#K. What's the first amusing moment in the film as is? When the guys are being idiots and the girls start commenting on it. So lean the fuck into that. You can hit some of the same beats. Current protag getting out of the car and spotting Checkov's zombies. The three idiots piling out to check the second truck a little later and making a mess of it, but you have the sister commenting on it. Make them trying to work out what these idiots are doing the focus. You can weave in the essential zombie lore here for people who missed Seoul and Busan instead of having people info dump on the protagonist stuff he'd clearly already know. "Idiots! Don't they know the noise will draw them?" When the first firework goes off, something like "The 631! Every zombie in the area will see that fire and come." there's the we have to get in before sun up thing already in the script. Folding it in naturally amidst the snark is more fun and doesn't slow down the film. This approach centers the sisters' relationship once they rescue the current protagonist, he can stand in for the audience as far as explaining the current situation in the city, just like he already does.

the sequence were they introduce the mom and grandad stays the same. he had to explain his mission to them anyway and look, here it is. you don't need the bit in hong Kong at all. He admits he left them on the road. The mom gives the damning speech. when she talks about escaping you can cut to the deteriorating conditions there and still do a slightly truncated version of the part with the brother in law, but it make it side plot. There where bits like that in Busan too and it was fine.

You basically play the rest out mostly the same, but put the Mom a little more in the front because she is your actual protagonist. The four characters with arc in this film as it was made are the current protagonist, the Mom, the brother in Law, and the Granddad. Really we're switching the the focus a little and deemphasing the brother/brother in law relationship in favor of more screen time for the three female characters, way tighter editing, and a strong through line on emotional heart of the film. You still have enough of the Brother sacrificed the Mom's family for his own family for the original protagonist's arc to make sense, but you get the Mom's badassery and willingness to do anything for her kids. you still get the brother in law's moment of truth and Granddad's vindication. All you lots were the boring bits and the cabbie who I liked in her few minutes of screen time.

It still wouldn't be great art, but it could be a fun action movie.

* "Why Queer People Love WandaVision's Agatha:" https://www.advocate.com/television/2021/3/04/why-queer-people-love-wandavisions-agatha

* "Gore Vidal and Orson Welles Play Warhammer:" https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/gore-vidal-and-orson-welles-play?token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjoxNjEzMzc4LCJwb3N0X2lkIjozMzIwNjIwMywiXyI6Ikg2bGdXIiwiaWF0IjoxNjE0ODY3NDIyLCJleHAiOjE2MTQ4NzEwMjIsImlzcyI6InB1Yi01Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.CwyqPDDJvec-qCPTrpbXvO22kd98YBiGpyws7MSBMgc

* Arthur Machen and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at The Midnight Society: https://twitter.com/midnight_pals/status/1367172500879151105

*****
* Full list of Resistance and charity links has been migrated to my profile as it was getting out of hand.

The help links are at the bottom under the cut.

* Ways to help people in Texas: https://spockvarietyhour.tumblr.com/post/643435770019987456
https://omgthatdress.tumblr.com/post/643431809724628992

More Texas how to help links: https://omgthatdress.tumblr.com/post/643431809724628992

* "You Can Buy Girl Scout Cookies From Troop Of Girls In NYC Shelter System:" https://www.scarymommy.com/troop-6000-girl-scouts-nyc-shelters/

* More Girl Scout Troops in Particular Need: https://tuulikki.tumblr.com/post/643247412337639424/girl-scout-cookie-time

* Cat Rescue Fundraiser: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/642429918533304320/design-a-tea-where-tea-leaves-dream-custom

"The Midwest Immigration Bond Fund!:" https://secure.actblue.com/donate/midwestibf

* The Blackfeet are under Covid lockdown and need food pantry donations: https://www.fastblackfeet.org/campaigns/fast-blackfeet/

* What to help fight for queer people in Africa? Try the Initiative Sankofa D’Afrique de l’Ouest www.ISDAO.org

* Organizations to help trans folk: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620857152453640195/about-us

* "How to Safely and Ethically Film Police Misconduct:" https://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-film-police-safely

* Master Post for how to help organizations fighting Police violence: https://gwydionmisha.tumblr.com/post/620861026680881152/oberynmartell-list-of-black-lives-matter-and

* How to donate to Doctors Without Borders: https://donate.doctorswithoutborders.org/onetime.cfm?source=ADD200U0U00&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=googlepaid&utm_content=brand&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIz8D9kYu46QIVqh6tBh2WogxQEAAYASAAEgK4FfD_BwE

* "Covid 19 Support for Indigenous Communities:" https://bibliomancer7.tumblr.com/post/616704253038395392/covid-19-support-for-indigenous-communities

* "Navajo Nation COVID-19 Relief Fund:" http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

* "SUPPORT WORKERS IN CRISIS:" https://ofwemergencyfund.org/

* "Support Artists Impacted By the Covid-19 Pandemic:" https://daily.bandcamp.com/features/bandcamp-covid-19-fundraiser

* Register to vote: https://vote.gov/

* A list of organizations to help you run for office: http://lovingmyselfishard.tumblr.com/post/167330144634/psst-hey

* The Indivisble guide exists to help you organize effective resistance: https://indivisible.org/

* Have something you want to tell your Congress Critters? If you can't safely protest in person, here are some other options:

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to the representative of your choice.

This App phones your rep for you: http://takeastance.us/

Here is one that will send your reps a fax: https://resistbot.io/

* Help pay for cat food, litter, meds, medical copays: Paypal Lethran@gmail.com or paypal.me/Gwydion

* If you are interested in helping, right now the Cat things we need most are:
https://www.chewy.com/wellness-core-signature-selects/dp/147047

https://www.chewy.com/blue-buffalo-wilderness-flatland/dp/176663

* Birthday/Solstice master list: https://gwydion.dreamwidth.org/2108835.html

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Weekend Omnibus

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April 2025

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