BLACKADDER: … We'll never get her to marry [Prince George].
BALDRICK: Why not?
BLACKADDER: Because she's met him.
Blackadder III ep. 5 (15 Oct 1987). I'll never marry the Establishment…
- So, Warner won't be relying on cinemas — potential superspreaders — this year. Naturally, many of the usual suspects are up in arms.
Leaving aside my disdain, though, I have a serious question to ask regarding cinemas: Cui bono? More to the point, who actually owns and dominates management of cinemas, whether mall multiplexes or single-screen indie houses in either central Nebraska or adjacent to Central Park? Hint: It's not a coven of Black wiccan lesbians. (Well, there might be a few, and that might make for the premise of an interesting-and-really-bad satire.) It's rather ironic that there's both a huge move for greater diversity, and corresponding pushback against it, in the film academy, but not one word concerning the distribution system (where all the money-laundering can and does take place). I haven't seen a single person of color — not even any well-known Black or Latinx filmmakers — speaking out on this issue; admittedly, I have probably missed some voices, but the pasty whiteness and maleness is notable. More to the point, nobody is asking Black and Latinx and other Other audiences what they want, especially given current public-health circumstances and the outrageous cost of attendance above and beyond the "screening fee" itself. And I make no claim to know; I'm irritated that the questions aren't even being formulated, let alone asked.
- Oh, BTW: Nashville, you're worse. And this article doesn't even begin to touch the "Establishment versus Artist versus Audience" demographic problems.
- Late-breaking news bulletin: Military aviation mishaps are largely due to fatigue and cost-cutting during training. Sheeeeit, I could have told you this in the early 1980s. In fact, my contemporaries and I did tell you this in the early 1980s when we wrote all of those course critiques complaining that we hadn't been exposed to the maintenance practices — especially the tools and materials — that we were going to be supervising. But putting the money into the tail doesn't make the teeth look shiny, does it?
And at that, the American armed forces are vastly better off than just about anyone else, because at least they have an integrated tail. Without getting into anything classified, Soviet aerial ground-attack capability was estimated to essentially self-destruct by late on the first day of any concerted offensive because the aircraft and/or aircrews would be "non-mission-capable," even without any opposition. The 1973 Yom Kippur and 1991 Arabian Gulf conflicts (one side using Soviet doctrine and methods) support that.
Heroes win individual swordfights. Rear-echelon military fellas (sorry, it's historically gender-biased, and I'm not going to use the sex-act-based "f" word due the the military's problems with that issue) win battles and wars, especially before they start. Get over it, GI Joe: The logistics guys are the real military. This is a big hint on who should be considered for senior leadership posts in the military, civilian and uniformed…
- … and won't be. I did not/do not know Gen Austin (leaving aside the nontrivial seven-years-since-retirement barrier, which I fully support). Parts of his resumé are extremely encouraging. I'm much less discouraged by his board membership at Raytheon than I am by his education — rather, the lack thereof — overlooking the Hudson River and career in so-called "combat arms."
- And for those of you who look at my pale, pale skin and say that my concern for Other is just "appropriation": Bugger off. There are legitimate concerns about "appropriation" when blithe assertions of universality follow insufficient inquiry (whether "experience" or "appropriate research"). But the "correct answers" are just as politicized as ignoring Other in the first place, especially in the arts… and the claim that "only those who share the identical experience are entitled to consider/write about/depict Perspective X" is not only arrogant, but rejects the one thing that would help IRL: Empathy.
Put another way: There are a lot of dimensions of Other. What makes yours so resistant to inquiry, or even to use as inspiration for a work of fiction? OK, no more spy novels written by people who never operated without official cover. No more military thrillers about top commanders written (or, worse yet, screenwritten or directed) by people who never suffered through the burdens of command. No more comedies about purported "scientists" and their lives controlled by people who had never cleaned a test tube. I'm lookin' at you, you arrogant H'wood SOB who despises your own characters' ambitions and values.