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Tom DeLonge Announces To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science

Tom DeLonge
Jason Tate

Leslie Kean, writing for HuffPost:

It all started with award-winning platinum recording artist and producer Tom DeLonge. […]

Fast foward to the present. Now, these early advisors have mostly receded to the background and Tom has moved on to something even bigger. He has assembled a new team of collaborators and created the To The Stars Academy of Arts and Science (TTS/AAS), for which he is President and interim CEO. The Academy includes three synergistic divisions: Science, Areospace, and Entertainment. The Public Benefit Corporation is seeking to serve the public good through exploring “the outer edges of science and the understanding of phenomena,” and making all of it public.

On Wednesday October 11, at 9:00 AM PT and 12:00 PM EST, the team will launch the new initiative at an event to be live-streamed from Seattle. Tom will introduce his colleagues and explain the intentions and purpose of the new company, and its need for public support.

The new initiative has a website.

2017 has broken my ability to be shocked by anything that hits the news. Aliens could start walking down the street tomorrow morning and I’d be like, “oh, it’s a Wednesday in 2017, whateverfuckit.”

Martin Scorsese on Rotten Tomatoes and Box Office Obsession

Film
Jason Tate

Martin Scorsese, writing at The Hollywood Reporter:

There is another change that, I believe, has no upside whatsoever. It began back in the ’80s when the “box office” started to mushroom into the obsession it is today. When I was young, box office reports were confined to industry journals like The Hollywood Reporter. Now, I’m afraid that they’ve become…everything. Box office is the undercurrent in almost all discussions of cinema, and frequently it’s more than just an undercurrent. The brutal judgmentalism that has made opening-weekend grosses into a bloodthirsty spectator sport seems to have encouraged an even more brutal approach to film reviewing. I’m talking about market research firms like Cinemascore, which started in the late ’70s, and online “aggregators” like Rotten Tomatoes, which have absolutely nothing to do with real film criticism. They rate a picture the way you’d rate a horse at the racetrack, a restaurant in a Zagat’s guide, or a household appliance in Consumer Reports. They have everything to do with the movie business and absolutely nothing to do with either the creation or the intelligent viewing of film. The filmmaker is reduced to a content manufacturer and the viewer to an unadventurous consumer.

He’s not wrong.

And as film criticism written by passionately engaged people with actual knowledge of film history has gradually faded from the scene, it seems like there are more and more voices out there engaged in pure judgmentalism, people who seem to take pleasure in seeing films and filmmakers rejected, dismissed and in some cases ripped to shreds.

Sounds a little like popular music criticism as well.

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Travis Barker and More Open Up on Fighting Addiction and Depression

Travis Barker
Jason Tate

Steve Baltin, writing for Forbes, interviews a variety of artists on fighting addiction and depression:

Travis Barker: Sobriety saved my life. My only my regret is it didn’t happen sooner. It was sad that it took a plane crash and almost dying to finally sober up. My second chance at life and my kids was enough to never touch drugs again. Being present and sober is something I wouldn’t trade for anything. Music is my drug.

And:

Anthony Green: I don’t have the answers for what we do, but I know that in Circa Survive and with my situation, the forefront with everything in the band is each other. That stuff comes before making money. From the beginning of the band we wanted it to be a family that cared about each other. So when I needed to go to rehab and I needed to have my mental health issues addressed, the band got put on hiatus and pause. I think that a lot of these guys are in situations where they’re afraid to stop the train from rolling because a lot of people depend on them financially. I think putting the idea of your mental health in front of making money is one thing you can do.

Today is World Mental Health Day and there’s some great insights from a variety of people in this piece.1

  1. I hate trying to use Forbes’ website though, so I’m sorry about that.↩

Apple and Steven Spielberg Bringing Back ‘Amazing Stories’

Apple
Jason Tate

Apple and Steven Spielberg have reportedly agreed to a content deal to bring Amazing Stories back to TV:

The new deal pulls in the director’s production company Amblin Television, along with NBCUniversal, with plans to resurrect beloved 1980s fantasy/sci-fi/horror anthology Amazing Stories. The original series only ran for two seasons in the mid-80s, but racked up a fair amount of critical acclaim and fond memories, including a dozen Emmy nominations.

Twitterrific 5.0 for Mac

Twitter
Jason Tate

Twitterrific, the long running Twitter client, has released a new Mac version today:

Twitterrific for macOS features a clean, uncluttered timeline displaying just the content you care about. There are no advertisements, promoted tweets, or “while you were away” updates getting in the way of the stuff you care about most. In addition, tweets are presented in chronological order and other people’s likes aren’t cluttering up your timeline.

It looks like a solid release. I still prefer Tweetbot, but the customization options offered here are really nice. I hope this inspires Tweetbot to keep pushing forward and improving their version.

Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers Tell Their Stories

The New Yorker
Jason Tate

Ronan Farrow, writing for The New Yorker:

In the course of a ten-month investigation, I was told by thirteen women that, between the nineteen-nineties and 2015, Weinstein sexually harassed or assaulted them, allegations that corroborate and overlap with the Times’ revelations, and also include far more serious claims. […]

Sixteen former and current executives and assistants at Weinstein’s companies told me that they witnessed or had knowledge of unwanted sexual advances and touching at events associated with Weinstein’s films and in the workplace. They and others describe a pattern of professional meetings that were little more than thin pretexts for sexual advances on young actresses and models.

Fuck this scumbag.

The Szechuan Sauce Fiasco

McDonalds
Jason Tate

Ben Kuchera, writing for Polygon:

This is a weird situation for everyone, because Adult Swim had nothing to do with the promotion, nor did anyone from the show itself get a heads up about how McDonald’s would try to take advantage of the joke. McDonald’s, for its part, didn’t seem to understand what it was tapping into when it leaned into this gag.

No one was prepared for the enthusiasm of Rick and Morty fans, who are already getting an online reputation for, believe it or not, narcissism and toxicity. And they took that toxicity out on McDonald’s employees, who had little idea of how bad their day was going to get.

We are living in the dumbest timeline.

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Shania Twain Debuts at Number One

Jason Tate

Shania Twain has the number one album in the country this week:

Of that sum, 134,000 were in traditional album sales — the third-largest sales week for a country album in 2017, and the largest for a woman in nearly two years. Now, which was released on Sept. 29 through Mercury Nashville, is Twain’s second No. 1 album and the first chart-topping country set by a female artist in over three years.

Tom Petty returns to the charts at number two:

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Greatest Hits re-enters at No. 2 with 84,000 units (up 2,231 percent) earned in the week ending Oct. 5, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 52,000 were in traditional album sales (up 3,407 percent). Greatest Hits initially peaked at No. 5 in February of 1994, following its release the previous year.

Harvey Weinstein Fired After NYT Report of Sexual Harassment

The New York Times
Jason Tate

Famous movie producer Harvey Weinsten has been fired by the studio he founded, The Weinstein Company, in the wake of a New York Times investigation uncovering decades of misconduct:

An investigation by The New York Times found previously undisclosed allegations against Mr. Weinstein stretching over nearly three decades, documented through interviews with current and former employees and film industry workers, as well as legal records, emails and internal documents from the businesses he has run, Miramax and the Weinstein Company.

People knew about this for years and it took until now for something to finally happen.

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AOL to Discontinue AIM

Jason Tate

On December 15th, AOL will be discontinuing their instant messaging service:

If you were a 90’s kid, chances are there was a point in time when AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was a huge part of your life. You likely remember the CD, your first screenname, your carefully curated away messages, and how you organized your buddy lists. Right now you might be reminiscing about how you had to compete for time on the home computer in order to chat with friends outside of school.

R.I.P. Twenty8FootFall.

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