Tag Archives: TV shows

Copyright, Music, My Stories, Treating Fans Like Shit

Four For Friday

A bit about this and a bit about that.

MOVIES/TV SHOWS

I watched “Oppenheimer”. I don’t recommend it.

Which is tough to say as I’m a fan of Christopher Nolan.

I’m surprised that Nolan thought it should be made into a movie, then again, creative people are inspired by things that others don’t see as inspiring. In this case it was a the 2005 biography “American Prometheus” by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwinx

The story focuses on Oppenheimer’s studies, his direction of the Manhattan Project during World War II, and his eventual fall from grace due to his 1954 security hearing.

Since the last hour was like a “Law and Order” episode, maybe a limited TV series would have been better. But a TV series doesn’t have the gross takings that a cinematic release has.

It’s approaching the $800 million mark from a $100 million budget. It will be seen as a success, but its not re-watchable.

I also finally got around to watching “Avatar: The Way Of Water” on Disney+.

I didn’t think a sequel was necessary however James Cameron has a habit of surprising people and he sure did it with this movie. It’s long run time didn’t feel that long and the story flowed.

By the end of it, I made a commitment to watch the third one in the Cinemas. And it hooked my kids as well.

“Painkiller” on Netflix is a must watch. OxyContin destroyed many families and the series does a good job of telling the story.

SHOWS MADE AND THEN CANCELLED OR REMOVED TO SAVE ON TAX

In May, Disney+ said it would cut US$1.5bn of content from its streaming platform, so the company’s value is reduced which means they pay a lot less tax.

This involves axing current programs which are or were popular like “Willow” and not releasing other big budget series’s like “Nautilus”.

Paramount+ also did the same removing “The Pink Ladies” and Jordan Peele’s “Twilight Zone”. Warner Bros also removed “Westworld” along with others.

Time will tell how subscribers will respond to the streamers removing shows when they need to save a bit of cash.

CEASE AND DESIST

There is a high chance that a fan of the artist will have a different political view to that of the artist.

And the artists are okay with this when they are taking the money from these fans because at that point in time they don’t know the political view of the fan.

Suddenly, a politician plays the music of an artist at a rally, there are fans of the artist in that rally and the artist then sends a cease and desist letter to the politician to stop.

How much say or veto rights can an artist really have in how their music is used?

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

James Hetfield wasn’t sure he wanted to go there and explore themes of vulnerability. Bob Rock insisted that he explore this path of being vulnerable and urged Hetfield to take vocal lessons.

Well that song just surpassed a billion streams on Spotify.

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Alternate Reality, movies, My Stories

Catching Up

It’s strange.

Is it right to even say I am using this free time I have at night to catch up. Everything is just strange. The new normal in a strange land.

I’ve watched movies like this, then walked away from the movie, talking about the movie and then going on to live life again. And movies like “Outbreak” and “Contagion”, it feels like we are living in the script. As Morpheus said to Neo, in a construct.

And COVID-19 is keeping me home. I have been working from home for two weeks and now it is indefinite. So has my wife and I’ve kept my kids home from school since Thursday last week.

And the rules the government is applying are confusing. One person per 4 squared metres, social distancing but school with 30 kids in a class room is still on.

And all of my sporting commitments are on hold as every sport is either postponed or suspended to a date. So I’ve done what everyone else seems to be doing. Catch up on my Netflix and Amazon Prime shows.

All Or Nothing – Brazil National Football Team
There is a quote in this movie from the coach Tite, about courage.

How you need to have the courage to try things, do something new, the courage to help a teammate in need and if you fail, the courage to rise back up and try again.

And we need courage today more than ever to survive the madness around us. Life as we know it, is changing.

Very fast.

Things that we took for granted are just not the same anymore. And it never will be.

Altered Carbon – Season 2
I really like the concept of this show. It covers a lot of technology and science concepts, plus it uses our history.

In the show, Earth humans travelled decades to occupy a new world which had extra-terrestrial lifeforms on it, but the humans didn’t tell planet Earth about it, so they went about cleansing the world of “The Elders” as the original inhabitants are known. The occupation of a lot of lands in the world happened like this by the British, French and Spanish

Then there is the concept of immortality and cloning.

Memories/life experiences are saved on stacks, which are then backed up and if the sleeve (the body) dies, a new one is “spun up”. Of course, this is if you have money. The poor don’t have this luxury. And what I mean by “spun up” is that they already have a cloned body ready, on ice, waiting to have the memories downloaded into it, and its business as usual.

And the scientist who came up with the technology saw how it could it was used for evil and decided to destroy it and became a terrorist.

Then there is the concept of AI helpers and virtual constructs.

The First Purge – Movie

The NFFA (New Founding Fathers of America), had to come up with a creative way to get their economy and unemployment back on track.

So they designed a 12 hour event, called “The Purge” where all forms of murder are legal. And they did a social experiment in a suburb full of housing projects and derelict buildings, which was also populated by dark skin residents. Of course the NFFA have only white skin in their ranks.

But when the people of the area, didn’t really start killing each other, the NFFA brought in mercenaries with machine guns and rocket launchers to increase the body count and make the night a success, so the day could become a yearly event.

All in the name to get rid of the old, the homeless, the sick and the poor. And today, we have a virus doing the exact same thing. Except this virus takes the wealthy as well.

It doesn’t discriminate.

John Wick 3 – Parabelum – Movie

I like the John Wick movies. The first one is brilliant and they haven’t topped that, but this one is cool as well.

And the concept of “living under the high table” is mentioned a lot here. We have our society and our governments and the laws which come from that.

Then you have a secret society which has its own set of rules. But it still retains a hierarchy structure and even the High Table has an Elder who sits above the table.

And the question the movie asks is; what kind of life do you want to live and be remembered by?

A life under the control of someone and doing their deeds for them or a life that you see as free to make your own choice.

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