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(11/02/17 2:38pm)
Some documentaries are propelled by their subject matter, relying on the intrigue and drama of their subject to propel the film forward and to keep the audience’s interest. Other documentaries are driven by the filmmaking artistry of the director. Davis Schumacher’s The New Fire, which had its world premiere at Heartland Film Festival 2017, is a prime example of the latter.
(10/27/17 8:28pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
The latest entry into South Park’s newest season is all about the opioid crisis. However, it isn’t predominantly poor and middle class white people who are the primary subjects of the new opioid crisis but instead costumed mascot performers.
The drugs have to be coming from somewhere, and South Park has their answer: the old folks home. Rap music starts playing as a montage of the senior living facility is shown. This seems slightly amusing at first and there is some decent social commentary about how people use assisted living facilities to get rid of elderly relatives. However, the joke never takes off; this is the first of a long line of jokes that fail to hit their mark.
The old lady in charge collects small German statuettes reminiscent of Precious Moments figures here in South Park called Hummels. The role for the seniors is simple: supply old Ms. McGullicutty with enough quality Hummels from mascots and all of the pain medication prescribed to each resident and she won’t use her influence to make life harder than it has to be. How does she exude power? Farting old lady farts. The jokes were probably written by the same folks who thought Memberberries, the malevolent old berries from the universally disliked season 20, would make for interesting villains.
Martin, the boy who loved Chuck E. Cheese, goes on a crusade against the opioid crisis that is killing all the costumed entertainers. There is nothing entertaining about this new character. He is there to pad the run-time of this episode and he does so in the least amusing way possible. The kids devise a plan to stop the flow of drugs from the nursing home which leads to a boring, uninspired musical number. In the end nothing remarkable happens. The final shot of the episode lacks any sort of comedic or dramatic tension.
As a whole, it is telling that the most heavily relied-upon jokes are the ones that feature farts. This whole episode sounds like a halfway decent idea that got pushed out before anyone had anything meaningful to say. The message sent about the opioid crisis is tired and dull. The message about nursing homes is fine but it never breaks new ground either as a joke or as a moral message.
Featured image from South Park Archives
(10/26/17 10:29pm)
by Zachary Siddiq
The voice acting union SAG-AFTRA has announced this week that they have voted to potentially end their strike on video game publishers such as Electronic Arts, Activision and Take 2.
Under the deal proposed, voice actors would receive extra compensation for each voice session worked ($75 for first, reaching $2,100 for tenth). In addition, transparency would be given for upcoming projects (such as detailing genre of game, profanity and violent/sexual content), and a guarantee from publishers that the issue of vocal stress in actors would be addressed later.
Absent from the list are developer demands that late or distracted performers be fined, and that smaller, “atmospheric” roles could be used without membership in SAG-AFTRA.
Internal opinions about the deal are positive. One member leaving an internal meeting said, “It seems like they’re going to ratify it… It’s a pretty good deal.”
SAG-AFTRA has been on strike with the video game industry since October 21st of last year. Citing a need for an “interactive contract for the 21st century”, members of the union have refused to do voice work for a number of large video game publishers.
SAG-AFTRA will count votes from its members on November 7 to accept or deny the proposal.
Sources: Deadline, SAG-AFTRA
Image: TechRaptor
(10/21/17 5:00pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
South Park returned this week to deliver a prequel for their upcoming video game South Park: The Fractured But Whole. The episode follows Cartman and the gang as they try to agree on a strategy to launch their over-complicated superhero franchise. Even before any filming starts, the group’s arch-enemy Professor Chaos and his alter ego Butters Stotch are hard at work sowing chaos into the world and stopping Coon and Friends.
Coon and Friends have their initial Netflix endeavor cut short when they find that someone has been spreading fake news about them over Facebook. Hearing about the behavior of some masked kids around town, the residents of South Park invite Mark Zuckerberg to help them protect themselves from these kids and the flood of fake news pouring into everyone’s Facebook feeds. However, Mark Zuckerberg turns out to be a weirdo who doesn’t take responsibility for his actions and is obsessed with people “blocking” his “stoil” (style). He also dubs his voice and has delusions of being an all powerful…something.
It turns out that Butters has been recruiting minions to write fake news on Facebook. The explanation given about how Facebook incentivizes fake news isn’t as blatant and preachy as when the show tackled the economics of free-to-play mobile games, so it gets the job done. Professor Chaos has been working with Mark Zuckerberg to sow chaos all over the world. With Coon and Friends unable to start their franchise until their fake news is taken care of, they make a plan to take out Zuckerberg the only way they know how.
Overall, “Franchise Prequel” delivers some quality jokes with a sprinkling of social commentary and a dash of celebrity mockery; it’s a typical South Park episode. None of the jokes were bombshells, but none of them really landed flat. The episode seems more interested in setting up the new video game instead of packing the season with hit episodes.
Featured image from South Park Archives
(10/20/17 1:30am)
Film festivals like Heartland are perfect places for careers to be launched and for new stories to be heard. Wade Gardner is experiencing this firsthand with the US premiere of his breakout film, Marvin Booker Was Murdered. Though Gardner is making his voice heard for the first time, the story he tells is tragically common and increasingly relevant.
(10/20/17 12:01am)
by Jeremy Rogers
Film festivals like Heartland are perfect places for careers to be launched and for new stories to be heard. Wade Gardner is experiencing this firsthand with the US premiere of his breakout film, Marvin Booker Was Murdered. Though Gardner is making his voice heard for the first time, the story he tells is tragically common and increasingly relevant.
On July 9, 2010, at a little past 3:30 a.m., an unarmed, homeless pastor was killed inside a Denver prison after five guards restrained him, electrocuted him for 20 seconds with a stun gun, then denied the man life-saving first aid. The city of Denver thought that Marvin Louis Booker was a nobody, that his life would matter to others as much as it had mattered to them.
They could not have been more wrong.
Marvin came from a family of African American pastors and ministers who were active participants in the Civil Rights movement. Marvin marched with Dr. King when he was just 14 years old in 1968. Marvin Booker Was Murdered is the living tale of how Marvin’s family revived that protestor spirit to get justice for their fallen son and brother.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BE0m7sQRTg[/embed]
Marvin Booker Was Murdered makes heavy usage of interviews with the family and acquaintances of Marvin as well as his family’s attorney. Most of the interviews are not undercut by any music. This choice is effective in underscoring the emptiness that the family feels in the face of their loss and of the city of Denver’s lack of concern with the life and death of Marvin Louis Booker.
The narrative weaved through the recounting of events by Marvin’s family highlights the struggle against the city of Denver. The lengths that the city went to in order to discourage the family is astounding. For instance, the city withheld the footage from inside the jail for weeks which turned into months. When the family finally received word from Denver that they and their attorneys would be able to see the jail footage, they were dismayed to learn that the city had chosen the day after Mother’s Day to show Marvin Booker’s mother the recording of her son’s murder.
Remarkably, the Booker family is not the only side given a voice in this documentary; the city of Denver’s lawyer has interview segments interspersed throughout the film. The director revealed that all the lawyer knew was that he was being filmed for a documentary, but he never bothered to even ask the title of the film. If he had, he probably never would have given the line, “This man’s heart was waiting to give out.” Needless to say, this man provided an arrogant villain that is usually uncommon in documentaries yet tragically common for families in the Bookers’ position.
The apex of the film both artistically and emotionally is when the footage from inside of the correctional facility is shown from the time Marvin was called from his seat to the moment the five correctional officers left the holding cell where Marvin lay dead. The entire sequence takes about five-and-a-half minutes, and throughout each drawn-out second, a medley of spirituals sung by a choir. The religious themes serve to highlight Booker’s ministerial background. The lyrics of Swing Low Sweet Chariot never seemed so appropriately rendered as when they played over police killing an unarmed, homeless minister and bearing his lifeless body into a holding cell. “Comin’ for to carry me home,” indeed.
Despite the gripping legal narrative, the moving accounts from the Booker family and the skillful use of archival footage of mass protests that rocked Denver, there are a few filmmaking missteps. At a few points during the interviews, it seems that the tripod on which the camera was mounted got jostled, immediately reminding the audience that they were in a theater. Toward the end one of the interview segments features an interviewee with a mic that’s sensitivity is much too high. The subject can be heard swallowing between each emotion-filled phrase. These mistakes are incredibly few, but they do stick out as pock marks on an otherwise spectacular film.
Overall, the camerawork doesn’t go out of its way to call attention to itself; the subject of the film does not belong to director Wade Gardner. It is a heartfelt product of a family still struggling to find justice. At the Q&A session after the film, Marvin’s younger brother, a minister hard at work on his PhD, revealed that the city’s new DA has recently impaneled a grand jury to consider charges of obstruction of justice relating to the incidents relating to Marvin Booker's death.
Like Marvin’s childhood hero said:
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8slzROAs5qM&t=1s[/embed]
“There can be no great social gain without individual pain. And before the victory for brotherhood is won, some will have to get scarred up a bit. Before the victory is won, some more will be thrown into jail. Before the victory is won, some, like Medgar Evers, may have to face physical death. But if physical death is the price that some must pay to free their children and their white brothers from an eternal psychological death, then nothing can be more redemptive.”
Oddly prophetic and sadly true.
(10/04/17 8:42pm)
Warning: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Rick and Morty.
(10/04/17 3:37pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
Warning: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Rick and Morty.
After the plot of the season started picking up in episode 7 and the seasonal improv episode following after, “The ABCs of Beth” seems to have halted the momentum that had been built in “The Ricklantis Mixup”. As far as descriptive titles go, “The ABCs of Beth” gets the whole message across: this week’s installment focuses on the matriarch of the Smith family.
Beth realizes that she left her childhood friend Tommy in the childhood playland that Rick made for her. As Beth and Rick go back to Froopyland in search of Tommy, Beth is angry at how much work Rick put into Froopyland instead of their relationship, but Rick highlights how much effort he put into making Beth’s playland a completely safe place. This conversation is cut short by a monstrous pterodactyl-like Froopy Creature that attempts to feed Rick to her chicks.
Immediately Beth and Rick jump to the conclusion that Tommy must have survived by making children with the Froopy creatures and eating the babies, making himself the ruler over his inbred children. This suspicion is seemingly confirmed when they are captured and taken as hostages to meet the king of Froopyland. This intro seems somewhat promising, but the focus on the dynamic between Rick and Beth undercuts the tension of their situation.
Meanwhile Morty and Summer visit their father for the weekend as a part of the custody battle. The kids arrive to find that Jerry has cleaned up his act and is no longer living in depressing shambles. They also find out that he is dating Kiara, a telekinetic alien huntress on a mission to kill another alien species that is hiding out on Earth. Morty and Summer are unimpressed with their father, since he is still on the rebound from their mother. This plotline is classic Jerry: thinking that he has everything in control but woefully unequipped to deal with the situation at hand. Jerry denies a spot-on accusation from his kids, that he is dating a badass warrior priestess to make his ex-wife notice him.
Rick and Beth come face to face with the king of Froopyland. After Tommy tries and fails to make a dramatic reveal, he explains how he became the king of Froopyland through an expository play which alleges that Beth trapped him in her playland, because she was jealous of his family that actually liked him. Rick decides he’s had enough after Tommy decides to eat a baby, so he takes Beth back home where they have a heart to heart about how Beth was an unhappy, slightly psychotic child.
Rick reveals that it was easier to send Beth to Froopyland than to clean up her messes when she murdered children or small animals. Rick also reveals some of the twisted things she had him make for her when Beth was younger. This sequence showing off the weapons is probably the most humorous part of the show, because it is the only part of the episode that gives the audience any new insights into the world. Beth then takes a few weapons and tries to bring a reluctant Tommy back into the real world, intent on solving a problem she caused by herself if she must.
Jerry breaks up with Kiara, so now she wants to murder Morty and Summer. As Kiara uses her telekinetic powers to try to kill Jerry’s kids, they make Jerry admit that he used them as scapegoats so he wouldn’t have to take responsibility for hurting Kiara. After the kids almost die, they convince Jerry to truly break it off with Kiara. Afterwards they find out that she was only into Jerry to catch the eye of a male alien hunter who was on Earth. With Kiara and her former lover arguing, the kids drag Jerry to safety.
Beth returns covered in blood, having come to the realization that she is very much like the father she has a love-hate relationship with. Rick says she is smart and that the only way for her to be happy is to make her own way in the universe, whether that is as a mother or as anything. Rick offers to make a clone of her that will take her place in the domestic sphere if she wants to leave. Beth wrestles with this newfound freedom, looks at pictures of her kids on the fridge, and says, “Okay. I know what I want to do.”
As Summer and Morty return home, what we can assume to be Beth offers to get pizza for dinner, resuming her life as a mother, supposedly happy to have chosen a path in the universe. Either that or it’s a clone created by Rick.
Overall, “The ABCs of Beth” was a lackluster episode that tried too hard to make the narrative about the interpersonal relationships of the characters without giving enough thought to the adventures that the characters were going on together to foster those relationships. Saving Tommy never really felt like a journey that Beth needed to go on to facilitate character growth; it just feels like Froopyland was a fun joke in the writing room that only ever got as refined as Tommy’s playwriting.
Featured image from Rickipedia
(10/03/17 9:36pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
When thinking about how music festivals - even smaller ones - help the communities where they are held, many people would assume that tourism would be the biggest player. People coming into a community to hear music usually go around to the area shops and restaurants, thereby helping prop up the local economy. Beyond the food trucks, local eateries, boutique shops, and artist displays, what about when music festivals do something more for the communities they are hosted in?
Enter Fountain Square Music Festival. It began as a small operation started by a few passionate residents in the Fountain Square area. The annual event aims to showcase the brilliant aesthetic of the Fountain Square area and the artists living there. While music is the festival’s driving force, it also aims to promote Fountain Square’s local businesses and energy to attendees.
"Although live music remains the driving spirit of FSMF, the visual energy emanating from the neighborhood during the festival will thrill not only fans of live music, but also to enthusiasts of modern experience, technology, and culinary arts. FSMF presents a highly-engaging, eclectic music and visual world that vividly showcases the vibrant creative culture of Fountain Square and its artists."
[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="750"] Image from Fountain Square Music Festival[/caption]
But once the music stops playing and the Nucleus Stage is empty, where does the money go? One would think that a portion of the money would go toward planning next year’s festival, and that would be right. However, a portion of the money will also go to the non-profit behind the festival: Southeast Neighborhood Development Inc.
SEND is a non-profit group that officially formed in 1991 to help the southeast neighborhood of Indianapolis after the urban area was greatly impacted by the building of Interstate 65. This highway cut through the once vibrant community, destroying hundreds of homes and businesses in the process. In addition to helping renovate dilapidated and abandoned houses, leasing out residences at a reasonable cost for residents, and helping local businesses through development services, one of the most visible ways that SEND have endeavored to help their community is through the Fountain Square Music Festival.
In addition to the Fountain Square Music Festival, SEND has invested over $35 million into the near southeast neighborhoods of Indianapolis. They also frequently work on neighborhood beautification projects with other non-profit groups in the Indianapolis area such as the Hoosier Environmental Council, South Indy Quality of Life Plan, and Reconnecting to our Waterways.
Though a portion of the proceeds will be going to SEND, here is what the price of admission gives you access to as an attendee. Some Ball State students share other reasons why they are going to Fountain Square Music Festival.
Brandon Gick, a senior Telecommunications Sales & Promotions major from Lafayette, is a campus advocate and Fan Army member at Ball State. He's helped spread the word and get students excited about FSMF on and around campus. When discussing the festival he said:
“Ball State students should take interest in FSMF because this is going to be a music festival like no other. FSMF will allow students to explore Indianapolis' growing music scene and immerse themselves in an intimate experiential lighting show on the festival's main stage. It's an event filled with great art, restaurants and local music to enjoy right here in our state's capital."
Still not convinced to attend yourself? Claire Catton, a junior Psychology major from Carmel, is dating a member of one of the local bands playing the festival called Dream Chief, an electro pop duo from Indianapolis who works closely with festival organizers Absorb and MOKB Presents.
"Ball State students should be encouraged and excited to attend FSMF. Not only can they explore the heart of Indianapolis at the festival, but it will broaden their horizons to a variety of music. This festival is unique because it consists of hometown Indiana artists, national acts like Phantogram and artists who are just starting to bloom."
For a listing of bands playing at the festival, be sure to check out our article on who to look out for at the event! You can also follow Fountain Square Music Festival on Twitter and Facebook.
Sources: SEND, FSMF, Wish TV, Byte
Image(s): Fountain Square Music Festival
(10/03/17 9:26pm)
When thinking about how music festivals - even smaller ones - help the communities where they are held, many people would assume that tourism would be the biggest player. People coming into a community to hear music usually go around to the area shops and restaurants, thereby helping prop up the local economy. Beyond the food trucks, local eateries, boutique shops, and artist displays, what about when music festivals do something more for the communities they are hosted in?
(10/03/17 5:47pm)
In this episode of Input 2, we discuss one of the newest horror movies to be released this fall, Friend Request, and try to decipher exactly what the creative minds behind the films were trying to say. We talk about the use of social media and suicide in both this movie and 2015's Unfriended, and what the fear of social media entails. Will social media continued to be used in horror movies? What do this films do to add to the conversation about suicide and mental illness. All this and more on Input 2!
(10/01/17 12:00pm)
The initial reveal trailer for Netflix’s American Vandal showed great production value along with cooperation from Cracked and Funny or Die contributors. It had the potential to be amazing or a gigantic dumpster fire of massive proportions. Could this satirical mockumentary spin a cohesive story while also finding interesting ways to make jokes about penises?
(09/29/17 6:57pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
The initial reveal trailer for Netflix’s American Vandal showed great production value along with cooperation from Cracked and Funny or Die contributors. It had the potential to be amazing or a gigantic dumpster fire of massive proportions. Could this satirical mockumentary spin a cohesive story while also finding interesting ways to make jokes about penises?
The long and short of it
The cars of 27 teachers and faculty members at Hanover High School in Oceanside, California were defaced with spray-painted depictions of male genitalia, and the security footage of the parking lot was deleted during the time of the offense. The administration’s prime suspect is senior Dylan Maxwell, a well-known prankster and illustrator of obscene male anatomy. The school board has provided a motive, a way of accessing the security footage, and a witness placing Dylan at the scene of the crime. Their main problem? Peter Maldonado, an amateur student filmmaker insistent on getting to the bottom of Dylan’s predicament and finding out who definitively defaced the vehicles.
During his investigation Peter and his friends Sam Ecklund and Gabi Granger all work together to get to the bottom of the vandalism, but the deeper into the mystery they go, the more questions they unearth. As things come to a head, friendships are put in jeopardy, laws are broken, and plenty of penises are drawn.
I watched for the story; I swear!
A mystery show, even one about defacement of this nature, is only as good as its central mystery. There is a bit of reality that needs to be eschewed to suspend disbelief, such as California’s two-party consent law (which mandates that the recorder and the person being recorded both have to consent to being filmed), but ultimately there is little needed to get engrossed into the mystery of who drew on the teacher’s cars. However, even though the show does a great job of setting up the mystery, it struggles to keep the consistency up towards the end. The actual mystery part of the show kind of just fizzles out by not providing a satisfying ending.
Another factor that hinders the show is the logic of American Vandal. As the show comes to a close there are a few too many instances of logical leaps that are left unexplained. One repeated claim is that the school board’s case against Dylan in court is all based on circumstantial evidence, but they simultaneously state that the case against Dylan is strong. Other assumptions are made towards the end of the show that feel rushed and a bit too convenient. It is never enough to ruin the show, as the assumptions made are all reasonable; it just rankles that the alternative assumptions that audience members may have are never dismissed in a satisfactory fashion.
The members of the show
What is a true crime/detective story without interesting, engaging characters? (Apparently, L.A. Noire.) Without a cast of sympathetic characters, detective stories would fall flat. Luckily American Vandal brings several great actors on to portray the characters. Jimmy Tatro does an amazing job portraying the prank master himself, Dylan Maxwell. The mannerisms of a dumb stoner who doesn’t take school seriously are brought to life in a sympathetic way that never feels like the portrayal strays too far into parody. Tyler Alvarez makes another great performance as documentarian Peter Maldonado. One scene that stood out was in an interview with Dylan’s girlfriend Mackenzie Wagner. As her character is pushed to her limit in a tense interview, actress Camille Ramsey seamlessly transitions from anger to tearful despair. It’s not often that such young actors are able to pull off crying on demand while making a convincing performance.
Not all the characters feel natural though. Most of the time this comes from overacting, actors trying a bit too hard to insert character into their portrayals. This makes characters like assistant documentarian Sam Ecklund, History teacher Mr. Kraz, and Spanish teacher Mrs. Shapiro all come off as less-than believable. There are no bad performances in the show, but there are characters who constantly remind the viewer that they are watching a satire with overblown stereotypes.
It’s not the variety of jokes; it’s how you use them.
Seeing the trailer, it is easy to think that the show would be nothing but middle school humor, and largely that assumption rings true when Dylan and his friends’ idiocy isn’t being played for laughs. While the humor is often somewhat juvenile in nature, it never feels unnatural or that the script was changed to force in more jokes. Everything feels relatively natural.
Feature image from American Vandal
(09/28/17 5:07pm)
We’re back witches! This week, we call in our two resident South Park experts to talk about one of the most popular adult cartoons on the air. We delve into why South Park is purposefully offensive and outrageous, take a look at some of the actually serious issues in our society that the show addresses, and look towards the current season. All this and more on The Coven.
(09/24/17 9:00am)
by Ryan Fine
Charles Bradley, one of the premiere old-time soul/R&B artists of the modern day, passed away yesterday after first being diagnosed with cancer about a year ago. Bradley went through treatment and was cleared to head back on tour this year, but earlier this month he was forced to cancel the remainder of his upcoming dates.
At the time, Bradley made a statement to his fans, saying, “When I come back, I’ll come back strong, with God’s love. With God’s will, I’ll be back soon.” Unfortunately, the cancer soon spread from his stomach to his liver and became much more difficult to treat.
A Facebook post from his reps announced his passing and stated, “Mr. Bradley was truly grateful for all the love he’s received from his fans and we hope his message of love is remembered and carried on.” They thanked his fans for their support and encouraged them to donate to the All-Stars Project and Music Unites.
Bradley was not only the frontman of Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires, but also worked with The Budos Band and Menahan Street Band. He started his career as a professional James Brown impersonator performing in clubs under the name Black Velvet before being discovered by Bosco Mann and signed to Daptone Records.
Bradley’s work, both solo and with Menahan Street Band, has been sampled by countless hip-hop artists including Jay-Z and Q-Tip. In 2012, the documentary Soul of America detailed his life from his Florida youth to his current solo career, following him to various festivals across the world.
Charles Bradley died in Brooklyn at 68 in the company of his family and friends.
Sources: Rolling Stone, Billboard, Facebook
Image: Wikimedia Commons
(09/20/17 3:52pm)
Not that anyone would have experienced this phenomenon, on account of the Pirate Bay website being for committing illegal acts, but all the same, it appears that The Pirate Bay has been hijacking the CPUs of site visitors to dig for Bitcoin, according to Coin Telegraph.
(09/20/17 3:17pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
Not that anyone would have experienced this phenomenon, on account of the Pirate Bay website being for committing illegal acts, but all the same, it appears that The Pirate Bay has been hijacking the CPUs of site visitors to dig for Bitcoin, according to Coin Telegraph.
The illicit website has accepted Bitcoins as donations since April 2013, but like many sites that conduct business based on people not paying a dime, The Pirate Bay has been struggling to find a steady stream of income to keep their ship afloat.
Users visiting the site (probably to download Darkwood) experienced sharp spikes in CPU usage, causing a bit of alarm. Users soon found out that some software hosted on the site was using the hardware of their computers to mine for cryptocurrency. For a more detailed rundown of how Bitcoin mining, check out Forbes. Though mining cryptocurrency may solve some of The Pirate Bay’s cash flow problems in the short term, the world’s most well-known cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has already been banned in two major Chinese markets. This move has not only made Bitcoin less valuable; it is also more unstable than ever.
In an official statement, The Pirate Bay has stated that this was a 24-hour test and not indicative of regular practices for the foreseeable future.
Ultimately the question at hand here is how much of a right you have to your computer hardware. If you bought the machine, should you dictate how the hardware is used, or are visitors beholden to the will of the site that they are visiting so long as no harm is done and no identifying information is collected? What kind of privacy risk might this sort of software pose?
If other websites start implementing similar Javascript cryptocurrency mining software that takes over privately owned hardware, how might this invite online regulations from governmental bodies? It might be Pirate Bay now, but bigger online platforms may utilize this sort of software in the future.
Sources: Coin Telegraph, Forbes, TorrentFreak, BBC
Image: Creative Commons
(09/19/17 12:00pm)
Warning: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Rick and Morty.
(09/17/17 8:56pm)
by Jeremy Rogers
Warning: This review contains spoilers for this episode and previous episodes of Rick and Morty.
This episode took a lot of people by surprise. Last week’s teaser gave the impression that this week’s episode would be, like the title implies, about Rick and Morty visiting an underwater city. Instead of following Rick and Morty as they explore the depths, the audience follows a few stories taking place on the Citadel as the society of Ricks rebuilds.
The worldbuilding on display in this episode is spectacular. The Citadel is painted as a society incredibly close to that of modern America. The Citadel, though neither cast as utopia nor dystopia, has the instantly recognizable features of racism (placing the Mortys in a “racial” underclass), and classism with working class Ricks toiling away while the wealthy Ricks live like kings.
The episode follows four different narratives all happening at different places in the Citadel: a group of Rick-less Morty students trying to find a purpose, an assembly line worker Rick who kills his co-workers in a class-fueled rage, a doe-eyed Rick cop paired with a corrupt Morty cop who hates all other Mortys, and the campaign manager for the Morty Party’s candidate for Citadel president.
The group of Mortys get together to try to find a magic portal that grants wishes. However, after throwing in their most valued possessions and one Morty melodramatically throwing himself in, they find out that the portal was used for the Citadel’s trash disposal. This does not dampen the remaining Mortys’ spirits, as they truly come to believe that their wishes came true in the end despite them doing nothing to affect any change.
The Working Class Rick is passed over for a promotion, so he murders his supervisor and takes a key employee hostage. He talks to the Rick SWAT team about how Ricks are told they are special but are stripped of what makes them unique. However, this Rick’s rebellion ends up with him being another cog in the machine he wanted to tear down, his delusion of breaking the system being the very thing keeping the system alive. The classist subtexts here are really interesting, especially when intertwined with the racial subtexts in the cop plotline.
Speaking of, Cop Rick is sympathetic to the plight of the Morty underclass, but his grizzled, old Morty Cop partner hates his own kind. As they go, Cop Morty breaks rules to harass Mortys breaking the law while Cop Rick protests. In the end Cop Rick has to kill Cop Morty and his own innocence in the process. The commentaries on racial and economic disparity really shine here. As do the scenes depicting a corrupt justice system.
The main story of the episode follows the beleaguered campaign manager of the Morty candidate. He has little faith in his candidate, because it seems no one takes Mortys seriously on the Citadel, since the Ricks are in power. The candidate gives a rousing speech that all but seals his chances of winning, and afterwards he fires his campaign manager. While drinking in a bar, the Dejected Morty is given an envelope by a trench coat-wearing Rick. Dejected Morty then finds Presidential Morty on the campaign trail and takes matters into his own hands.
This does not go over well with the government. This traitorous Morty is killed before he can warn everyone about the new president: Evil Morty. This twist was not particularly exciting, but it does give the overarching narrative of the season a much-needed shot in the arm.
This episode does not offer much in the way of inventive animation, heart pounding action, or even fantastical sci-fi concepts. Instead it delivers on a very relatable, real world that feels surprisingly familiar.
Another great facet of the episode is the performance given by Justin Roiland who voices all but one character in the episode. Each character is given their own unique feel, making each one feel like a distinct resident of the Citadel.
For all of the bizarre spectacle in Rick and Morty, “The Ricklantis Mixup” might just be one of the truest pieces of classic science fiction in the show’s canon. It doesn’t wow its audience by showing how different and strange its world is, but instead shows different ways of looking at our own world.
All images from Rickipedia and "The Ricklantis Mixup"
(09/14/17 8:00am)
by Jeremy Rogers
YouTube’s most popular content producer, Felix Kjellberg, has had a rough time in 2017.
He had his contract with Disney-owned Maker Studios terminated after an anti-Semitic joke aired on his channel in mid-February. Then after half a year without incident, Pewdiepie announced he would stop making Nazi jokes because of the Nazis marching in Charlottesville (but not before getting in a few of his own). Apparently, no one informed Felix about the KKK present at the rally, so he ended up using the N-Word in a recent livestream of Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds.
When Felix had his contract with Makers studios terminated, several prominent YouTubers came to his defense, such as Boogie2988, Markiplier, and more. This event was followed up by another prominent YouTuber, Jon “JonTron” Jafari, started making headlines for his consistent repetition of alt-right talking points.
Soon after, YouTube was making headlines, because advertisers like Walmart, Verizon, and McDonalds started pulling their ads from the online video platform due to ads being found on videos with racist or violent content. Channels have cited the resultant loss of ad revenue as a primary reason for their departure from YouTube.
Now YouTube’s biggest star has made headlines again for using a racial epithet.
Not only have YouTubers such as Matt Collins of Nerd3, “Angry” Joe Vargus, Danny O’Dwyer, and more condemned Felix for his words and actions as of late; some like Jim Sterling have even started claiming that PewDiePie is a liability for everyone else who uses YouTube to obtain their income because of his new racist image. “It’s because of shit like this that the ‘adpocolypse’ is happening where people’s videos are being flagged as inappropriate for advertisers, because advertisers don’t anything to do with [inappropriate content]… I worry [government regulation] is coming for YouTube, and I worry it’s gonna be the fault of people like PewDiePie who keep getting attention for shit like this.”
Fellow content creators aren’t the only ones lashing out at the embattled Swede. Sean Vanaman, one of the co-founders of game development studio Campo Santo, announced that the development studio will be issuing a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice on PewDiePie’s video that shows him playing the game they developed, Firewatch.