The Payday Report website offers a COVID-19 Strike Wave Interactive Map showing feisty labor actions (some of which might have been prevented if Pelosi and Schumer weren't busy assisting Republicans).
via Naked Capitalism
April 2020
film art disclaimers
“I see filmmaking as a business and pity anyone who regards it as an art form."
--Herschell Gordon Lewis (director of Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs, The Wizard of Gore, etc)
"We have not aimed for the single picture that is going to make us rich. We are looking for the business that's like turning out Ford cars or anything else. If there is a certain profit per picture and we make so many pictures, then we have established a business that is on a basis that's economical."
--Barry Mahon (director of The Dead One, Pagan Island, Musical Mutiny, Thumbelina, etc)
“I’d shoot one day on this stuff and throw it together. . . . I was in the business to make money. I never, ever tried in any way to compete, or to make something worthwhile. I only did enough to get by, so they would buy it, so it would play, and so I’d get a few dollars. It’s not very fair to the public, I guess, but that was my attitude.”
--Jerry Warren (director of The Wild World of Batwoman, Frankenstein Island, etc)
around the web
The finance blog Calculated Risk continues to publish its "unofficial problem bank list." The Fed money spigot may result in less failed banks this time around but if you have money in a bank it's worth watching. "The first unofficial problem bank list was published in August 2009 with 389 institutions. The number of unofficial problem banks grew quickly and peaked at 1,003 institutions in July, 2011 -- and has steadily declined to well below 100 institutions." [Calculated Risk]
The April 2020 list has 64 banks. [Calculated Risk]
Update: The August 2020 list has 66 banks. [Calculated Risk]
At the end of World War II, Federal troops seized Montgomery Ward (an Amazon of its day) and bodily carried its CEO out of its Chicago headquarters. Most Americans thought this was "going too far" at the time and in the "Orange Man Bad" era it seems even less likely we'll see Bezos being frogmarched to a khaki colored truck (pleasurable as that might be). [Lawfare]
recent film discussions
Alex on Film continues to tolerate my comments -- here are some more discussion threads (next time I won't wait a year and half before compiling these):
Conspiracy Theory (1997)
The Night Eats the World (2018) (and I Am Legend-based films generally)
The Curse of La Llorona (2019) (my plug for Curse of the Crying Woman (1961))
The Stuff (1985)
Serial Mom (1994)
Hellboy (2004)
Cloverfield (2008)
First Reformed (2017)
The Naked Prey (1965)
Suspiria (1977)
Night of the Hunter (1955)
The Boys from Brazil (1978)
Funhouse (1981)
The Meg (2018) (my plug for Deep Blue Sea (1999))
The Equalizer 2 (2018)
The Equalizer (2014)
Baby Driver (2017)
Election (1999)
Rawhead Rex (1986)
The Mummy Returns (2001) (my plug for Monkeybone (2001))
Dick Tracy (1990)
Black Panther (2018) (and "Marvel Universe" films generally)
Ghostbusters (2016)
happy songs for pandemic
UK drum-and-bass-era musician Tony Colman shines for his jazz chops and high level of technical polish. Earlier in the '90s he played guitar and keyboards for Izit, featuring bellbottom style a la Deee-Lite and vocal pop songs on the acid jazz periphery.
The two tunes below are infectious in the non-coronavirus sense of having excellent songwriting (by Colman) and mellifluous singing (I believe by Nicola Bright-Thomas):
One by One [hooktube]
Don't Give Up Now [hooktube]