Megalopolis seems to be one of those "love it or hate it" films. Sitting at 49% on Rotten Tomatoes right now:

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/megalopolis

So of course I had to see it to make up my own mind about it.

It is a brilliant, beautiful film, that likely nobody will "get" for 10 years or so, and by the time they do get it, all the societal and political references will be so dated, it will need footnotes, much in the same way that Gulliver's Travels needs footnotes today.

https://studycorgi.com/satire-in-gullivers-travels-by-jonathan-swift/

The film is probably 75% Shakespearian archetypes, to the point where I could point out "Ok, that character is from x, this character is from y" and that's before Caesar quotes the entire "To Be or Not To Be" soliloquy from Hamlet.

The remaining 25% is kind of an inverted "Atlas Shrugged", where the main character invents a miracle building material, but instead of squirrling it away for his own private enrichment, dedicates himself to using it to build a city of the future to benefit everyone.

Adam Driver plays Caesar, Inventor and Architect

Giancarlo Esposito plays Cicero, mayor of New Rome and chief antagonist to Caesar

Nathalie Emmanuel as Julia, Cicero's daughter. Goes to work for Caesar to get back at dad, falls in love.

Jon Voight as Crassus, 80+ year old media mogul and financier. Kingmaker.

Aubrey Plaza as Wow Platinum, very blonde "news" host. Initially involved with Caesar, marries the 3x older Crassus.

Shia LeBeouf as Clodio, Crassus' money hungry grandson, cousin to Caesar. Has hated Caesar since they were kids.

I'm not going to lie, there are parts of the film that are VERY hard to wrap your brain around, particularly when Caesar goes on a drug and alcohol fueled bender.

Overall, I loved the look and feel of the film, feel the need to watch it again, there are parts that I need to freeze frame when it inevitably is available at home.

For references, Crassus is very clearly Rupert Murdoch with all of his potential heirs cutting each others throats for a slice of the empire. Bonus for the creepy marriage to a much younger wife.

Clodio is clearly Trump, down to the fascist symbolism, populist messaging, and "Make America Great Again".

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20257795

> "In virtual meetings Thursday afternoon, the cloud software giant notified staffers who report to its Hillsboro office, thirty minutes outside of Portland, of its decision. Customer-success employees, who account for much of the Hillsboro office's staff, were given until November 26 to decide whether to take a severance package or relocate to Indianapolis, Atlanta, or Seattle, where Salesforce also has offices. Other employees were told they could continue to work for Salesforce remotely."

"In virtual meetings Thursday afternoon, the cloud software giant notified staffers who report to its Hillsboro office, thirty minutes outside of Portland, of its decision. Customer-success employees, who account for much of the Hillsboro office's staff, were given until November 26 to decide whether to take a severance package or relocate to Indianapolis, Atlanta, or Seattle, where Salesforce also has offices. Other employees were told they could continue to work for Salesforce remotely."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20244730

Posting this up here because we've already had to remove links to the Substack blog at least twice that I'm aware of.

Substack, like all social media, reddit, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Blogger, WordPress, etc, is an un-vetted workspace. As a result, we don't allow links to any of those sources.

If you're interested in the Dossier, this article tells you all you need to know to run it down.

If it gets linked through a legit news source, feel free to post it, but you'll find legitimate news isn't coming within 10 feet of it (so far, that could change!)

"Under seal" - Boooo!

"It will now be up to District Judge Tanya Chutkan to determine how much of that evidence the public gets to see and when they will be able to see it.

Prosecutors filed the documents under seal as of 4:40 p.m. ET, according to Peter Carr, the special counsel office’s spokesman."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20190118

> Between Sept. 22-28, for any book bought from Powell's Banned Book list, 20% of the sale will be donated. There are over 150 books on the list available to be purchased, including book titles such as "Hunger Games," "1984," "Heartstopper" and "The Color Purple." > > Also applies to www.powells.com > > https://powells.com/banned-books

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/20190118

> Between Sept. 22-28, for any book bought from Powell's Banned Book list, 20% of the sale will be donated. There are over 150 books on the list available to be purchased, including book titles such as "Hunger Games," "1984," "Heartstopper" and "The Color Purple." > > Also applies to www.powells.com > > https://powells.com/banned-books

Between Sept. 22-28, for any book bought from Powell's Banned Book list, 20% of the sale will be donated. There are over 150 books on the list available to be purchased, including book titles such as "Hunger Games," "1984," "Heartstopper" and "The Color Purple."

Also applies to www.powells.com

https://powells.com/banned-books

"The brief due Thursday (9/26) – which is expected to exceed 200 pages, including exhibits, and is meant to convince courts Trump should be prosecuted for alleged obstruction and conspiracy criminal activity — is a rare avenue for evidence to be aired in court before a trial.

Chutkan of the DC District Court, in a six-page opinion, said she would allow such an outsized briefing because the Supreme Court, in its recent decision to give Trump’s actions while president immunity from prosecution, has directed her as the trial judge to look closely at facts in the case to decide if some allegations could move forward to trial."

Coca-Cola Spiced, BTW.

"Members of the Multnomah County District Attorney Access Program also were on the scene, police said. They directed three people toward “deflection” – drug treatment. Two accepted."

33 arrested, 3 qualified for deflection, one would rather be arrested.

"The man destroyed the large blue and white Porcelain Cube at a busy private opening for the exhibition “Who am I?” at Palazzo Fava in Bologna on the evening of September 21. Local police arrested a 57-year-old Czech man who has been identified in Italian media as Vaclav Pisvejc, a provocateur and self-proclaimed artist known for targeting important works of art."

Following up on the "Baking in the American South" post, I picked up some Nordic Ware pans today for bundt cakes and pound cakes.

Included was a Angel Food cake recipe requiring 12 egg WHITES.

!

I have no problem separating, but it seems a waste of a DOZEN egg yolks.

Any ideas on what to put them in?

I guess I could make the egg sauce bottle here, but I'd have to buy a Sou Vide machine. :(

https://youtu.be/KL4PDa6PpLQ

"State and federal laws prohibit non-citizens from voting in national and local elections.

The mistake occurred in part because Oregon has allowed non-citizens to obtain driver’s licenses since 2019, and the DMV automatically registers most people to vote when they obtain a license or ID, Glenn said."