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Celerity
Celerity's Journal
Celerity's Journal
May 21, 2024
A dark new biopic starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump is the talk of Cannes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/05/20/donald-trump-the-apprentice-cannes/
https://archive.ph/uc8K2
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in a scene from “The Apprentice,” which premiered Monday at the Cannes Film Festival. (Mongrel Media/Cannes Film Festival)
CANNES, France — Had a movie called “The Apprentice” about a young Donald Trump’s rise to power premiered in America — during an election year in which said protagonist is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president — one imagines there might have been protests and police in riot gear. Instead, this Monday evening at the Cannes Film Festival, the film received the usual reverential treatment: a gala audience in gowns and tuxedos and star Sebastian Stan posing for photos on the red carpet. (Jeremy Strong, who plays the ruthless lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, is on Broadway; during the eight-minute standing ovation, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi held up a still photo of the actor in his dressing room with his fingers in a peace sign.)
The film follows Trump in his years as a New York real estate mogul, as he strikes up an almost filial relationship with Cohn (and then abandons him as Cohn contracts AIDS), and falls in and out of love with his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”). Going into the premiere, the main questions swirling around the movie seemed to be about tone. Did the presence of Bakalova mean that this was going to be a biting satire? (The Cannes party invite, for instance, says, “If you’re indicted, you’re invited,” which is a line from Cohn’s Christmas party invitation in the film.)
Or would it be a dark look into Trump’s power grabs and predatory behavior? After all, the screenplay is from Vanity Fair journalist Gabriel Sherman, and Abbasi’s last Cannes film, 2022’s “Holy Spider,” is about a serial killer targeting sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad. When the lights rose, the applause was instant and robust, with Cate Blanchett and Cynthia Erivo somehow leading the charge down in the orchestra seats near Abbasi and Stan. There had been spots of laughter, especially during moments of physical comedy, like when Trump slips on ice while courting Ivana and boastfully telling her he knows how to ski. But, by and large, it is a very dark and chilling origin story.
Stan’s Trump is not a clown but a vicious “killer,” as the character categorizes his ambition. In details that seem to be based on a 1990 divorce deposition from Ivana Trump, we see him go under the knife, in gory detail, to get liposuction and a scalp reduction surgery, as a solution to his growing love handles and bald spot. And we watch when, as Ivana also alleged in that deposition, Trump pushes her to the floor of their home during an argument and rapes her. (Ivana’s testimony had brought the concept of marital rape into mainstream American conversation at the time, but she recanted her statements about it in 2015.) He’s also depicted receiving oral sex from a topless blonde in Atlantic City while married.
snip
Controversial Donald Trump movie 'The Apprentice' depicts him as rapist
A dark new biopic starring Sebastian Stan as a young Trump is the talk of Cannes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/movies/2024/05/20/donald-trump-the-apprentice-cannes/
https://archive.ph/uc8K2
Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stan as Donald Trump in a scene from “The Apprentice,” which premiered Monday at the Cannes Film Festival. (Mongrel Media/Cannes Film Festival)
CANNES, France — Had a movie called “The Apprentice” about a young Donald Trump’s rise to power premiered in America — during an election year in which said protagonist is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president — one imagines there might have been protests and police in riot gear. Instead, this Monday evening at the Cannes Film Festival, the film received the usual reverential treatment: a gala audience in gowns and tuxedos and star Sebastian Stan posing for photos on the red carpet. (Jeremy Strong, who plays the ruthless lawyer and political fixer Roy Cohn, is on Broadway; during the eight-minute standing ovation, Iranian-Danish director Ali Abbasi held up a still photo of the actor in his dressing room with his fingers in a peace sign.)
The film follows Trump in his years as a New York real estate mogul, as he strikes up an almost filial relationship with Cohn (and then abandons him as Cohn contracts AIDS), and falls in and out of love with his first wife Ivana (Maria Bakalova of “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”). Going into the premiere, the main questions swirling around the movie seemed to be about tone. Did the presence of Bakalova mean that this was going to be a biting satire? (The Cannes party invite, for instance, says, “If you’re indicted, you’re invited,” which is a line from Cohn’s Christmas party invitation in the film.)
Or would it be a dark look into Trump’s power grabs and predatory behavior? After all, the screenplay is from Vanity Fair journalist Gabriel Sherman, and Abbasi’s last Cannes film, 2022’s “Holy Spider,” is about a serial killer targeting sex workers in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad. When the lights rose, the applause was instant and robust, with Cate Blanchett and Cynthia Erivo somehow leading the charge down in the orchestra seats near Abbasi and Stan. There had been spots of laughter, especially during moments of physical comedy, like when Trump slips on ice while courting Ivana and boastfully telling her he knows how to ski. But, by and large, it is a very dark and chilling origin story.
Stan’s Trump is not a clown but a vicious “killer,” as the character categorizes his ambition. In details that seem to be based on a 1990 divorce deposition from Ivana Trump, we see him go under the knife, in gory detail, to get liposuction and a scalp reduction surgery, as a solution to his growing love handles and bald spot. And we watch when, as Ivana also alleged in that deposition, Trump pushes her to the floor of their home during an argument and rapes her. (Ivana’s testimony had brought the concept of marital rape into mainstream American conversation at the time, but she recanted her statements about it in 2015.) He’s also depicted receiving oral sex from a topless blonde in Atlantic City while married.
snip
May 20, 2024
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (commonly called Lowlands or Lowlands Festival), is an annual three-day music and performing arts festival, held in the Netherlands. The festival is held 68 kilometres (42 mi) east of Amsterdam in Biddinghuizen, at Spijk en Bremerberg, which is adjacent to Walibi Holland.
Viagra Boys was formed in Stockholm in 2015 by members active in other bands such as Nine, Les Big Byrd, Pig Eyes, Nitad, and Neu-Ronz. Lead singer Sebastian Murphy is the only foreign-born member of the group, being an American from San Rafael, California, who moved to Stockholm to live with his aunt at the age of 17. His mother is from Sweden and he grew up speaking Swedish. A heavy drug and alcohol addict at the time, Murphy worked as a tattoo artist and met the other band members while performing Mariah Carey's song "We Belong Together" at a karaoke night. Murphy is the chief songwriter of the band.
Viagra Boys - live at Lowlands 2023, a ripper of a set
A Campingflight to Lowlands Paradise (commonly called Lowlands or Lowlands Festival), is an annual three-day music and performing arts festival, held in the Netherlands. The festival is held 68 kilometres (42 mi) east of Amsterdam in Biddinghuizen, at Spijk en Bremerberg, which is adjacent to Walibi Holland.
Viagra Boys was formed in Stockholm in 2015 by members active in other bands such as Nine, Les Big Byrd, Pig Eyes, Nitad, and Neu-Ronz. Lead singer Sebastian Murphy is the only foreign-born member of the group, being an American from San Rafael, California, who moved to Stockholm to live with his aunt at the age of 17. His mother is from Sweden and he grew up speaking Swedish. A heavy drug and alcohol addict at the time, Murphy worked as a tattoo artist and met the other band members while performing Mariah Carey's song "We Belong Together" at a karaoke night. Murphy is the chief songwriter of the band.
May 20, 2024
Label: [PIAS] Recordings – PIASX040DLP, [PIAS] Recordings – 940.0040.012, Stones Throw Records – 940 0040 012
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 26 Mar 2004
Genre: Hip Hop
Style: Alt Hip Hop
Madvillain - Madvillainy (MF DOOM & Madlib) 2004 🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤
Madvillain was an American hip hop supergroup formed in 2002, consisting of rapper MF DOOM and producer Madlib.
Their only album, Madvillainy (2004), earned critical acclaim and cult popularity, widely regarded as one of the greatest rap albums of all time and a benchmark record for alternative hip hop.
Their intricate rhymes and lyrics, short song structures and use of obscure, stylistically diverse samples made for a sound that was generally unfriendly to commercial radio but was lauded for its influence on underground rap.
A follow-up album to Madvillainy was rumored to be in production at various times since the late 2000s, but no further original material has surfaced from the duo since 2010, and MF DOOM's death in 2020 has left the future of the project uncertain.
Their only album, Madvillainy (2004), earned critical acclaim and cult popularity, widely regarded as one of the greatest rap albums of all time and a benchmark record for alternative hip hop.
Their intricate rhymes and lyrics, short song structures and use of obscure, stylistically diverse samples made for a sound that was generally unfriendly to commercial radio but was lauded for its influence on underground rap.
A follow-up album to Madvillainy was rumored to be in production at various times since the late 2000s, but no further original material has surfaced from the duo since 2010, and MF DOOM's death in 2020 has left the future of the project uncertain.
Label: [PIAS] Recordings – PIASX040DLP, [PIAS] Recordings – 940.0040.012, Stones Throw Records – 940 0040 012
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 26 Mar 2004
Genre: Hip Hop
Style: Alt Hip Hop
May 20, 2024
The Misfits - Hybrid Moments (Extended version of the original Static Age C.I. Studios recording from 1978)
May 20, 2024
Label: Abstract Records – ABS 012
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: Oct 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk
U.K. Subs - Police State (Shake Up The City EP version) 1982
Label: Abstract Records – ABS 012
Format: Vinyl, 7", 45 RPM
Country: UK
Released: Oct 1982
Genre: Rock
Style: Punk
May 20, 2024
Label: Legacy – 19075803531, Columbia – 19075803531
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Record Store Day
Country: Europe
Released: 23 Nov 2018
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock, Hard Rock, Punk
Iggy And The Stooges - Gimme Danger (Josh Mobley Remix)
Label: Legacy – 19075803531, Columbia – 19075803531
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Record Store Day
Country: Europe
Released: 23 Nov 2018
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock, Hard Rock, Punk
May 20, 2024
https://twitter.com/vgescobar/status/1791514939259011107
Sad to see Fetterman 'bothsides-ing' MTG attacking House Reps Crockett and AOC. Glad to see one of Biden's National
Campaign Co-Chairs, Veronica Escobar (TX-16) pushing back on him.https://twitter.com/vgescobar/status/1791514939259011107
'Don't come for me.' Rep. Jasmine Crockett to Marjorie Taylor Greene
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1791502857792823550
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1791505169470902478
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1791507750763065426
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1791505169470902478
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1791507750763065426
May 20, 2024
If the Iranian president turns out to have lost his life in a helicopter crash, it will set off a fierce scramble for power.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/05/who-would-benefit-from-ebrahim-raisis-death/678428/
https://archive.ph/uefye
Accidents happen everywhere, but not all accidents are equal. Many hours after initial news broke about an “incident” involving a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s state media has still not confirmed whether he is dead or alive. Various state outlets have published contradictory news—Was Raisi seen on video link after the accident? Was he not? Was the National Security Council meeting? Was it not?—signaling chaos and panic. A source in Tehran close to the presidency told me that Raisi has been confirmed dead, and that the authorities are looking for a way to report the news without causing mayhem. I have not been able to independently confirm this.
Iran doesn’t sound like a country in which presidents die by accident. But it also is a country in which aircraft crash, due to the sorry state of infrastructure in the internationally isolated Islamic Republic. In previous years, at least two cabinet ministers and two leading military commanders have died in similar crashes. Raisi’s chopper, which also carried Iran’s foreign minister and two top regional officials, was passing through an infamously foggy and mountainous area in northwestern Iran. The “incident” might very well have been an accident. Yet suspicions will inevitably surround the crash. After all, air incidents that killed high political officials in Northern Rhodesia (1961), China (1971), Pakistan (1988), and Poland (2010) are still often subject to speculation. In this case, much as in the others, one question will likely drive the speculation: Who stands to benefit politically from Raisi’s death? Even if the answer to this question does not ultimately tell us why the helicopter crashed, it could shed some light on what will come next in the Islamic Republic.
Raisi ascended to the presidency in 2021, in what appeared to be the least competitive election Iran had held since 1997. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had made sure that all other serious candidates were barred from running. Among those disqualified were not only reformists but also centrist conservatives and even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former hard-line president whom Khamenei came to see as a rival. Raisi appeared to have been picked precisely because he could never be a serious rival to Khamenei. In 2017, he revealed himself to be utterly uncharismatic in electoral debates against then-President Hassan Rouhani. His time in office since 2021 also speaks not only to his sheer incompetence but to his political irrelevance. Some call him the Invisible President. During the Women, Life, Freedom movement, which rocked Iran in 2022-23, few protesters bothered to shout slogans against Raisi, because they knew that real power rested elsewhere.
For Khamenei, what mattered was that Raisi could be counted upon to toe the regime’s line. Although competition is tight, Raisi may have more blood on his hands than any other living official of the Islamic Republic. Starting in the 1980s, the Islamic Republic has executed thousands of Iranian dissidents. The judiciary is the arm of the government that carries out this murderous function, and Raisi has held leading positions within it from the very start; he rose to become the head of the judiciary in 2019. The same qualities that likely made Raisi seem like a safe regime choice for the presidency also made him a primary contender for succeeding Khamenei as the Supreme Leader. According to the Iranian constitution, only a cleric with serious political experience can become head of state. By now many clerics who fit that description have died or been politically marginalized (many of them did not share Khamenei’s hardline politics), leaving the field open to Raisi. In turn, many political observers expected that Raisi would be a weak supreme leader, allowing real power to flow elsewhere—to the IRGC, for example, or to other power centers around or ancillary to the regime. Who better for such a position than an unimpressive yes-man?
snip
Who Would Benefit From Ebrahim Raisi's Death?
If the Iranian president turns out to have lost his life in a helicopter crash, it will set off a fierce scramble for power.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/05/who-would-benefit-from-ebrahim-raisis-death/678428/
https://archive.ph/uefye
Accidents happen everywhere, but not all accidents are equal. Many hours after initial news broke about an “incident” involving a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s state media has still not confirmed whether he is dead or alive. Various state outlets have published contradictory news—Was Raisi seen on video link after the accident? Was he not? Was the National Security Council meeting? Was it not?—signaling chaos and panic. A source in Tehran close to the presidency told me that Raisi has been confirmed dead, and that the authorities are looking for a way to report the news without causing mayhem. I have not been able to independently confirm this.
Iran doesn’t sound like a country in which presidents die by accident. But it also is a country in which aircraft crash, due to the sorry state of infrastructure in the internationally isolated Islamic Republic. In previous years, at least two cabinet ministers and two leading military commanders have died in similar crashes. Raisi’s chopper, which also carried Iran’s foreign minister and two top regional officials, was passing through an infamously foggy and mountainous area in northwestern Iran. The “incident” might very well have been an accident. Yet suspicions will inevitably surround the crash. After all, air incidents that killed high political officials in Northern Rhodesia (1961), China (1971), Pakistan (1988), and Poland (2010) are still often subject to speculation. In this case, much as in the others, one question will likely drive the speculation: Who stands to benefit politically from Raisi’s death? Even if the answer to this question does not ultimately tell us why the helicopter crashed, it could shed some light on what will come next in the Islamic Republic.
Raisi ascended to the presidency in 2021, in what appeared to be the least competitive election Iran had held since 1997. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had made sure that all other serious candidates were barred from running. Among those disqualified were not only reformists but also centrist conservatives and even Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a former hard-line president whom Khamenei came to see as a rival. Raisi appeared to have been picked precisely because he could never be a serious rival to Khamenei. In 2017, he revealed himself to be utterly uncharismatic in electoral debates against then-President Hassan Rouhani. His time in office since 2021 also speaks not only to his sheer incompetence but to his political irrelevance. Some call him the Invisible President. During the Women, Life, Freedom movement, which rocked Iran in 2022-23, few protesters bothered to shout slogans against Raisi, because they knew that real power rested elsewhere.
For Khamenei, what mattered was that Raisi could be counted upon to toe the regime’s line. Although competition is tight, Raisi may have more blood on his hands than any other living official of the Islamic Republic. Starting in the 1980s, the Islamic Republic has executed thousands of Iranian dissidents. The judiciary is the arm of the government that carries out this murderous function, and Raisi has held leading positions within it from the very start; he rose to become the head of the judiciary in 2019. The same qualities that likely made Raisi seem like a safe regime choice for the presidency also made him a primary contender for succeeding Khamenei as the Supreme Leader. According to the Iranian constitution, only a cleric with serious political experience can become head of state. By now many clerics who fit that description have died or been politically marginalized (many of them did not share Khamenei’s hardline politics), leaving the field open to Raisi. In turn, many political observers expected that Raisi would be a weak supreme leader, allowing real power to flow elsewhere—to the IRGC, for example, or to other power centers around or ancillary to the regime. Who better for such a position than an unimpressive yes-man?
snip
May 19, 2024
https://twitter.com/mersedeh_eye/status/1792274450722791904
Wounded women dance with the news of Islamic Republic president's helicopter crash. Sima and Mercedeh, were blinded in
one eye and lost use of an arm during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising, are now celebrating the possible death of Raisi, the Butcher of Iran.https://twitter.com/mersedeh_eye/status/1792274450722791904
May 19, 2024
President Biden Morehouse commencement speech
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Gender: FemaleHometown: London
Home country: US/UK/Sweden
Current location: Stockholm, Sweden
Member since: Sun Jul 1, 2018, 07:25 PM
Number of posts: 43,933
