Jason Tate
socials
Threads
Mastodon
Bluesky
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Apple Music
Last.fm
Letterboxd
Trakt
Discogs
GoodReads
Jason Tate
This website is supported in part by readers. Please consider becoming a supporting member. Oh, and I have a weekly newsletter.
recommended
My Archive
Favorite Albums
Favorite Movies
Favorite TV Shows
Favorite Software
Miscellaneous Recommendations

The Oral History of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

Mad Max
Jason Tate

The New York Times:

Even Oscar-winning auteurs have been awed by George Miller’s operatically staged spectacle. “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho said last year that the scale of the movie brought him to tears, while Steven Soderbergh put it more bluntly: “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film,” he said in a 2017 interview, “and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.”

So how did Miller and his cast pull it off and survive to tell the tale?

Five years after “Fury Road” was released, I asked 20 of its key players what making it was like. Though its post-apocalyptic plot is deceptively simple — road warrior Max (Tom Hardy) and the fierce driver Furiosa (Charlize Theron) must race across the desert to escape the vengeful Immortan Joe and his fleet of kamikaze War Boys — filming the movie was anything but easy.

I had never read this before, but it’s fascinating.

The Science and Politics of Masks in the Covid-19 Pandemic

Science
Jason Tate

Robert Wachter, writing on Medium:

Why is masking so difficult to maintain among the public? In Asia, face masks are now seen as a normal accessory. In the U.S., they’re still seen as awkward and stigmatizing. Historically, they have been a sign of illness or danger. This aversion, plus the fact that the benefit of masks mostly accrues to others, is why we need to make mask-wearing mandatory as long as SARS-CoV-2 is active in our communities, at least in closed spaces (as San Francisco has done).

One of the most common questions is whether it is necessary to wear a mask when walking or exercising outside. Empiric and simulation studies have shown that there is practically zero risk of viral spread when one is outdoors and keeping a distance of greater than six feet from others. I personally don’t wear a mask when walking the dog (but I do keep one with me just in case I encounter someone at close range). But I always wear a mask inside, or if an encounter within six feet is likely.

Happy birthday to the love of my life @drhannahtate. I know things are tough right now with everything going on in the world, but there’s no one I’d rather go through it with than you.

Jason Tate Photo Blog

Liner Notes (June 5th, 2020)

street
Jason Tate

Some weeks feel like years. This was one of them. In this week’s newsletter, I look at music and entertainment I enjoyed last week, share a playlist of ten songs I liked, and all the other usual stuff. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

Read More “Liner Notes (June 5th, 2020)”

This article is available exclusively to supporting members of our website. Join now for as little as $3 per month and get access to exclusive content and a variety of other great perks (like removing all ads and unlocking a dark mode theme). Plus, you'll be helping an independent publisher. Learn more here.
(Current members can log in here.)

Back to 2005 (Re-Ranking the Best of Lists)

Back to 2005
Jason Tate

Last week I was able to recreate and re-add all of the AbsolutePunk.net end of the year lists into our database from 2005 onward. This hit of nostalgia was paired with me shaking my head at not only the outcome of the staff lists but trying to figure out just what I was thinking on my lists as well. For the next few weeks, I’d like to deconstruct some of these lists and add some of the context and memories I have from this era of the music scene. And this week, I’m starting with what could arguably be one of the most significant years in our little emo-pop-punk world: 2005. 2005 was absolutely stacked with albums that have gone on to be regarded as scene classics. Albums that I still listen to and albums that helped define the music scene for years to come.

Read More “Back to 2005 (Re-Ranking the Best of Lists)”

Pride Merch Available for a Limited Time

Chorus.fm Pride Merch
Jason Tate

Like last year, in celebration of Pride Month, I have put the “pride” version of the Chorus.fm merch into our store for the month of June. This year sees the addition of stickers, buttons, and magnets featuring the logo as well. I will be donating all of the proceeds from all merchandise sold in June to various charities at the end of the month.

If you’re curious about materials and sizing: this is a good starter on shirts, and this is good for fit.

Read More “Pride Merch Available for a Limited Time”

What You See Are People Pushed to the Edge

Jason Tate

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, writing at the LA Times:

Yes, protests often are used as an excuse for some to take advantage, just as when fans celebrating a hometown sports team championship burn cars and destroy storefronts. I don’t want to see stores looted or even buildings burn. But African Americans have been living in a burning building for many years, choking on the smoke as the flames burn closer and closer. Racism in America is like dust in the air. It seems invisible — even if you’re choking on it — until you let the sun in. Then you see it’s everywhere. As long as we keep shining that light, we have a chance of cleaning it wherever it lands. But we have to stay vigilant, because it’s always still in the air.

The Militarization of the Police

The Atlantic
Jason Tate

Nick Baumann on the militarization of the American police:

“You create this world where you’re not just militarizing the police — you equip the police like soldiers, you train the police like soldiers. Why are you surprised when they act like soldiers?” Rizer, a former police officer and soldier, said. “The mission of the police is to protect and serve. But the premise of the soldier is to engage the enemy in close combat and destroy them. When you blur those lines together with statements like that … It’s an absolute breakdown of civil society.”

American police officers generally believe that carrying military equipment and wearing military gear makes them feel like they can do more, and that it makes them scarier, Rizer’s research has found. Officers even acknowledge that acting and dressing like soldiers could change how the public feels about them. But “they don’t care,” he said.

Research on How to Stop Police Violence

Math
Jason Tate

From Samuel Sinyangwe, a thread about solutions to stop police violence:

More restrictive state and local policies governing police use of force are associated with significantly lower rates of police shootings/killings by police. This is backed by 30+ years of research.

Demilitarization. Police depts that get more military weapons from the federal govt kill more people. You can stop that from happening through local and state policy. Montana (Red state) has gone the furthest on this.

Police Union Contracts. Every 4-6 years your police dept’s accountability system is re-negotiated. Purging misconduct records, reinstating fired officers, dept funding- it’s in the contract. Cities with worse contracts have higher police violence rates.

Liner Notes (May 29th, 2020)

Sky
Jason Tate

This week’s newsletter has my early first impressions of Phoebe Bridgers’s new album, Punisher. You’ll also find more thoughts on all of the best of lists that hit the website this week and my plans for their future, and my usual commentary on music and entertainment I enjoyed this week. And, of course, there’s a playlist of ten songs I liked as well. This week’s supporter Q&A post can be found here.

If you’d like this newsletter delivered to your inbox each week (it’s free and available to everyone), you can sign up here.

Read More “Liner Notes (May 29th, 2020)”

This article is available exclusively to supporting members of our website. Join now for as little as $3 per month and get access to exclusive content and a variety of other great perks (like removing all ads and unlocking a dark mode theme). Plus, you'll be helping an independent publisher. Learn more here.
(Current members can log in here.)

Blast from the Past: My End of Year Lists from 2005-2015

AbsolutePunk.net Heart
Jason Tate

Yesterday, I posted about finding and recreating all of the AbsolutePunk.net best of lists from 2005-2015. In an incredible turn of events, a reader actually had saved all of my personal best of lists and sent them to me. I didn’t have anything earlier than 2011 and I thought these were lost to time.1 I am extremely happy to be able to add them back into the Chorus.fm database for posterity.

These are a nostalgia trip. I’ll have to write more about my decision making process, from what I can remember of these eras, at some point, but for now I’m just happy to have them back on our “End of the Year” page.

  1. The era before I was doing any kind of regular back-ups, let alone keeping everything I write in text files on my computer.↩

Canvas Prints Make Good Wall Decorations

Hayley Williams
Jason Tate

Over the weekend, I shared a photo of one of the walls in our home on Instagram. The photo is of the large wall in our living room area adorned with three large canvas prints of some of my favorite musicians. I first did this when I moved downtown in August of 2012, and I shared some of the photos and process back on AbsolutePunk.net and my old Tumblr (remember Tumblr?). After all of the questions and comments on the social media posts, I realized I didn’t have a good article to link people to that answered the basics any longer. Plus, phone cameras have come a long way since 2012.

Read More “Canvas Prints Make Good Wall Decorations”