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Longhornsnus

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Posts posted by Longhornsnus

  1. Win this series and the Rangers put a chokehold on the division IMO. Running through the hardest part of the second half of the schedule (CLE, TB, LAD) and going 7-2 and only giving up one game while the Astros meandered their way through cupcakes (COL, OAK, etc.) was helpful.

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  2. On 7/21/2023 at 10:51 AM, Aqua Buddha said:

    Barbenheimer off to a good start.  Anecdotal evidence, I know, but driving home last night, I drove past a theater and there were a ton of Gen Z types all wearing pink.  Same theater showing sold out all weekend.  Maybe it'll do well.

    https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/21/barbenheimer-box-office-thursday-ticket-sales.html

    Barbienheimer seems to be doing really well as some weird organic mashup that’s turned into the vibe. I read a tweet today saying last week and this weekend felt like the closest thing adults had to spirit week in terms of fun and excitement. Now studios will try to manufacture mash up weekends like this and it will be cringe and bad, but for now enjoy it.

    That said and a question more for Queen who is a writer— does the energy and success and fun of this take away from the movement? I feel like at a minimum it’s distracting and surely you don’t wish for failure, and while these successes aren’t possible without actors and writers, nobody is thinking about what could be lost in the future wearing pink tutus and drinking manhattans. But lagging indicators and all…. 

  3. 23 hours ago, aggie08 said:

    Overruling, no. But god help any kids getting all of their societal views and politics from their parents.

    With all due respect, but…what?

    For the most part, this is the ideal. Parents have brought the blessing of life into the world and it’s their duty and obligation to develop and train them up in the right ways as they see fit. I personally think it’s so weird when people outsource their children’s development and training to the government via public schools, but wouldn’t disparage anyone for it, but getting political and societal views from social media is weird to me.

    Maybe I’m wrong, but I thought it was everyone’s responsibility to raise their own children, not society at large.

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  4. Well I'll be:

    Netflix flexed its muscle in the second quarter, reporting nearly 6 million new paid subscribers and further cementing it as the pacesetter in streaming video. The addition of 5.9 million paid users beat Wall Street estimates and shows that Netflix's password-sharing crackdown didn't sour new users on signing up. It reported $8.2 billion in Q2 revenue and a better-than-expected $1.8 billion in operating income. The strong showing comes hours after Netflix cut its "Basic" $9.99 subscription for new or returning members, nudging them to a cheaper $6.99 ad-supported tier or ad-free options priced at $15.49 for "Standard" and $19.99 for "Premium."

  5. I've checked out a few of the episodes mentioned on Paramount+, thanks for the tips.

    I've always really enjoyed short form SciFi (Short stories, these 20 min vignettes like TZ, etc.), even more so than long form (Ray Bradbury, etc.)

    These stories are super creative and really able to illustrate a deeper human-centric problem, ironically enough given that they involve a lot of supernatural and non-human beings. I think having the ability to get outside of the human form (and reality as we know it form) gives us the power to investigate the really deep human condition issues, and issues around morality and philosophy and psychology.

    One of my favorite of these short forms is a very little known series that was on HBO and was a spin-off of Tales from the Crypt (another great series, using horror as the Trojan Horse to interesting, human-centric storytelling) and a modern spin, slight knock off of Twilight Zone, called Perversions of Science: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perversions_of_Science

    I remember watching it as a teen and enjoying it, this episode stuck out. Edit to add, it might be a little racier/NSFW (nipple) than I remembered, as it was on HBO, so I will spoiler it.

    Spoiler

     

     

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  6. 3 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    Fuck.  That.  I have a friend (Gen Z) that only watches youtube.  Only.  He constantly tries to draw me into it and I'm just like, dude, come on.

    It's real. And it's one of the biggest competitors (phone/social) to traditional entertainment in that we live in an attention based economy now. But yea, I am fighting the good fight against those evil short forms (Shorts/TikTok/Reels), but losing.

    I mean, I mentioned it earlier. YouTubers like Mr. Beast has triple the subscribers of Hulu, mainly from the youth (and the future). That's a lot of impressions.

  7. 1 minute ago, Biff Tannen said:

    I'm in that millennial (oregon trail god dammit) generation nostalgia.  I liked it.  But I can see why Gen Z is like, nah.

    Lucky. I can't get my family to even watch The Last Crusade with me. They'd rather watch Youtube Shorts and Memes on the 70 inch as a family then watch anything on Disney+

  8. 19 minutes ago, royiv said:

    I'm not sure what studio exec thought there was a huge audience out there dying to watch an 80 year old Indiana Jones eat soft foods and drink meals through a straw. Harrison Ford should stick to projects like Shrinking at this point in his career.

    I think it speaks to the @mdmostand others points about Hollywood simply being in the business of pumping out IP, sequels, and derivatives as well as the appetite for nostalgia that GenX/Millennials seem to crave (there was a good post on TLJ thread about that). This fits in a few of those camps and probably looked like a winner on spreadsheets and data models, but reality said "hold my beer".

  9. 15 hours ago, Texzilla58 said:

    The differences between when I entered the workforce in the late 70’s and now that is pretty found.

    The pendulum has swung a bit too far. A few years ago I was a merchant for a large international retailer and was making a presentation discussing the differences in the TV business between the US and Mexico. I made a number of references to the “Mexican” market, the demographics of our “Mexican” customers, and performance of our “Mexican” stores. A hand went up, and a young woman from marketing stated “I’m sure I’m not the only one here who would appreciate it if you would stop using a racial slur in your presentation?” Excuse me? “Mexican isn’t an acceptable term!” This girl had a degree from Princeton. Before I could gather a response that wasn’t going to be a slur about her ignorant yankee moronic ass her boss shut her down and she then left the meeting.

    Oriental is also a word that remains a good word though it’s now demonized. I wouldn’t use it for people but I also avoid general words like Asian. But the Orient simply means east. I don’t know any of my Japanese, Chinese. Thai, Vietnamese, Indian or Korean friends colleagues or family that like the term Asian, whether Americans or foreign nationals, that use the term. They identify as Japanese or Koreans or whatever and generally hate all the others.

    Your post is this vibe:

    image.jpeg.1df65716bfbd80ca98467857cd260eb3.jpeg

  10. 20 hours ago, troph said:

    Queer is an amazing example of reclaiming. The conversation to add Q to LGBT within HRC nomenclature was highly emotional precisely because queer was a slur for most of the leadership, but the young people have taken it back in less than a generation or two. It has been so successful the term is now available to allies to use as well. It can still be a slur but it’s fast becoming anything but that. Fascinating to me. 

    Growing up f*g/f****t were the insults and anything/everything that mildly annoyed you was "gay". Queer wasn't even a thing, which is why as an adult I used the word in writing and speaking, as I read the word in literature. To mean, weird and quirky and outside of the norm.

    Same thing for gay. I like to sing Streets of Laredo and talk about "once in the saddle, used to go gay" loud and watch my teens cringe. To me, it means a carefree happiness these days. 

    So I guess I've reclaimed the reclaimation of the words that once were denigrated?

  11. I wonder how the success (or failure) of the Summer popcorn movie season will influence studios to budge. 

    The jury is out on Barbieheimmer, but it looks like MI was a mild disappointment and Indiana Jones is a huge fail:

    Disney’s Indiana Jones 5 took in $300 million at the box office so far—a disaster for CEO Bob Iger and Lucasfilm

    Lucasfilm’s fifth Indiana Jones installment is shaping up to be a disaster of epic proportions for parent company Disney and its veteran CEO, Bob Iger.

    Released on June 30, Dial of Destiny earned a disappointing $60 million in its opening weekend in the domestic theaters, and interest dropped off sharply ever since. Just one week later, it surrendered the top spot at the box office, despite being one of the most expensive movies ever made, and now it has sunk to a distant fourth in the table.

    The new entrycould no longer rely on the goodwill built up by the first three films after the critical disappointment of its predecessor, Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Poor reviews and dreadful word of mouth look to now sink Lucasfilm’s first theatrical release since 2019.

    Its $302 million global take has only matched roughly the reported costs of its production budget, which suffered from expensive reshoots after test screenings indicated audiences were less than thrilled with the initial ending.

    Marketing and promotion are expected to have added easily another $100 million to that bill and Disney still has to pay the theaters their share of the receipts.

    “It looks certain to fall short of the global total for 2008’s Crystal Skull: $786.6 million,” wrote Box Office Pro on Sunday.

    The situation is far more dire, according to The Hollywood Handle. Dial Of Destiny is not expected to even cross the $400 million mark in global box office receipts—half of what the fourth installment made 15 years ago when a dollar went a lot further than today.

    This seems a safe bet given the stiff competition it now faces in the form of spy thriller Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer. In reality, the Indy sequel needed to haul in around $800 million just to break even.

  12. Elon's Cybertruck finally getting to the road in limited numbers is actually good for the broader market consumer who wants a Ford, it seems:

    Quote

     

    Who has two electric motors and a $10,000 price cut? *Slaps roof of F-150 Lightning* this guy. Yesterday, Ford reduced the starting cost of its battery-powered pickup truck from $59,995 to $49,995, saying it was because of lower material prices and greater production capabilities.

    It’s likely also because, over the weekend, Tesla rolled out its first production Cybertruck, which will directly rival the F-150 Lightning and is estimated by Kelley Blue Book to start at ~$50,000. While Ford has slashed the price tag on the Mustang Mach-E electric SUV several times to try and compete with Tesla, whose own cuts have helped it dominate 60% of the American EV market, it had been raising prices on the F-150 Lightning…until now.

    With sales of the F-150 Lightning dropping from 13,000 in the second half of 2022 to 8,800 in the first half of 2023, Ford hopes the price cut will juice sales. But there’s still an oversupply of the reduced cost Mach-E that far outpaces demand.

    Ford isn’t the only one with too much supply: The quantity of EVs available for purchase in the US has exploded by almost 350% this year, according to Cox Automotive, and demand hasn’t kept pace—leaving many unsold cars on lots.

     

     

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  13. 3 minutes ago, henrygandorf said:

     

    the feeling also is that if your seasons are only 8-10 episodes, you can attract better talent, because they can take a gig without it eating up their whole year.

    harrison ford isn't going to do 24 episodes of shrinking.  mcconaughey and harrelson aren't doing 4 seasons of true detective.  ben stiller isn't directing 22 episodes of severance.  and so forth.

    But then you lose TV sitcoms as training ground and dojos for star making (to your point about stars). You arguably wouldn't have huge Film stars that drive huge revenues without TV. You wouldn't have a George Clooney without an ER or a Jennifer Aniston without a Friends or a Woody Harrelson without Cheers, Will Ferrell without SNL, etc.

    But maybe that's the old way of thinking. 

  14. 11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

    Yet.

    We are about to have the same porn laws as Louisiana come September 1st - Texans will either have to present a government-issued ID to look at online porn, or use a VPN when looking at online porn.  Our state literally looked at Louisiana's porn laws and said "yeah, we want that!"

    Not to derail this, but I think our state looked at Louisiana and said "we want that" because free, unadulterated and lightning fast access to every form of pornography, from the basic vanilla to the most perverse, being available at the fingertip of every 5-17 year olds (or wherever the legal consent/age is) is not only passively unhealthy, but extremely and actively detrimental to the development of the brain (and emotional and mental health) of still-developing children. It's a problem, whether you want to acknowledge the studies or not. Especially our young men.

    And since when, anyways, did we as a society come to expect and feel entitled to free pornography carte blanche? I mean, up until the mid 2000's you had to pay for it and ostensibly verify ID, or worse yet, go to a seedy sex store and buy a physical copy. But Russia and Eastern Europe starts pumping out free porn and we get used to it and now it's as sacrosanct as a constitutional right for some people, it seems.

    If you make it harder to view online free porn and make it harder to buy guns, I think you can probably wipe out about 80% of the incel community overnight.

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  15. 19 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

    Why don't you ask young people with high earning potential if they are willing to take a job in Texas.  The percentage who would say "yes" is falling off the cliff.  There are plenty of good paying jobs elsewhere for such people, and some/many of the factors you listed play heavily in their decisionmaking.

    I would read this survey and find it interesting, if you had a link.

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  16. 5 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

    There's like 17 people in Fulshear.  Cool, I guess.

    Also, quite the red/blue state argument in this map that I'm pretty sure most in DT won't want to touch.

    image.png.46075a0e3ebd0e4bd4b478f140ec6b16.png

    Did you see this ^^

    That said, I know nothing about Fulshear. I guess the perception it's a small town. But that 25k population minimum is probably why the majority of the great plains/midwest is missing from the map.

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  17. 2 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


    Lmao, wealthy suburbs have low crime rates. News at 11.

    No offense to those who reside there, but I'd hardly call Keller, Colleyville and Little Elm (especially) a wealthy suburb in the grand scheme of the DFW metroplex. Maybe it's their distance from anything culturally relevant that makes them secluded from crime, though? I'd wager a guess the multifamily homes aren't many, as well?

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  18. On 7/16/2023 at 12:47 AM, ztejas said:

    I like some of his stuff but that's fucking garbage. That track Black he did off a recent album was great. (Here)

    Wondering if anyone here listens to Gunna. 

     

     

    I think our tastes in this kind of music must be complementary in that the song I like from an artist you don't like and the song you like from the same artist is one I do not like. e.g. YoungBoy

    Further complementary takes, the gunna music to me is the worst. I hate the sing-songy kind of "rap". It's why, try as I might, I don't much like Post Malone tbh.

  19. From the NYT (Link:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/17/business/media/hollywood-actors-writers-strikes.html)     Some good news for the creatives as studios seem to realize a prolonged strike will be a bad deal for everyone, themselves included:

    --

    Studios insist that they can ride out the work stoppage that has largely shut American movie and TV productions. But there’s growing fear that if it stretches beyond a little more than a month, their business could suffer badly.

    A countdown to Labor Day looms. Three studio chairs told The Times that Hollywood could sit idle until early September with no major long-term business damage. TV studios are continuing to introduce contingency plans for the fall: CBS became the latest yesterday, announcing a lineup composed of reruns of “Yellowstone” and reality and game shows.

    But a strike that goes on longer would most likely mean big delays for projects set for next year, threatening to make 2024 a ghost town for content. And TV giants can survive on lineups built largely on the likes of “Survivor” and “The Golden Bachelor” for only so long.

    The costs of a lengthy strike are becoming clearer. While media executives suggested that they could use the work stoppage to cut costs, including by ending some expensive production deals, those benefits will be short-lived. The media mogul Barry Diller recently outlined to “Face the Nation” the knock-on effects of an extended strike:

    Quote

    “You’re going to see subscriptions get pulled, which is going to reduce the revenue of all these movie companies, television companies, the result of which is that there will be no programs. And at just the time, strike is settled, that you want to get back up, there won’t be enough money. So this actually will have devastating effects, if it is not settled soon.”

    And the analyst Michael Nathanson of MoffettNathanson noted that American studios could suffer if platforms like Netflix turn to overseas content producers for new movies and shows. “It’s like if the United Auto Workers go on strike, and all of a sudden you see more cars from Japan and Germany on the road,” he told The Times.

    Diller has already proposed a solution. “As a good-faith measure, both the executives and the most-paid actors should take a 25 percent pay cut to try and narrow the difference between those who get highly paid and those that don’t,” he told “Face the Nation.” Yesterday, a group representing studios in the labor talks said that before the strike, its members had offered over $1 billion worth of concessions on pay and benefits, as well as limits on their use of artificial intelligence.

    It’s unclear whether that would be enough, however, with all sides acknowledging that battle lines are hardened.

  20. After decades of not caring about Star Wars my son has challenged me (or asked me politely) to watch the entire 9 episodes with him, as time permits.

    I just finished TLJ and came to see if there was a thread talking about how it was horrible, and you guys did not disappoint. Even my kid said it was bad and mentioned he barely finished IX because TLJ just ruined the whole thing for him.

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