The Random Thread

Topic

We need a group name for people who post on The Carrier.

In the old days we were Millarworlders – what are we now?

Carriers?

Carrierers?

Carrierists?

Replies

He won’t come back if he gets caught by the elephants and the turtle.

Well…

You can drive cross country and not feel any curvature of the Earth.
And the horizon as far as the eye can see is a straight line…

Just saying.

Al-x wrote:

You can drive cross country and not feel any curvature of the Earth.

What are you talking about? I’m constantly driving up hills and down the other side, up tall mountainsides and deep down into valleys and canyons. And anyone who’s had to run uphill on the final leg of a 10K race will attest to the fact that THE EARTH AIN’T FLAT!!

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Todd, Dave, lorcan_nagle

My favourite argument for the Flat Earth is that if the earth was round everywhere you wanted to go would be half-way uphill and half-way downhill because of the curvature. And it clearly isn’t so that’s that.

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Al-x wrote:

And the horizon as far as the eye can see is a straight line…

The Horizon literally curves, it’s why you see things appear to sink as they cross over it.

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Bruce, Todd, Dave

Dave wrote:

I watched a bit of Friday night TV yesterday and found it interesting seeing the shows that usually have a studio audience now operating without one, and how much it changes the feel of things. Panel shows like Have I Got News For You now have participants all attending remotely by video chat, and no laughter when the jokes are made, except for from the other panellists. (And while HIGNFY hasn’t been really funny for a while, even the gags that would usually raise a laugh feel really flat without a reaction.)

After watching last night’s show I have to give them some credit and say it was a belter. I don’t known if it’s an editing thing but the banter and jokes seemed much tighter in general and they had some great material to work with after the Cummings saga. Even without an audience I found myself laughing along.

We’ve discussed it before but I think there are ways to manage it as long you understand the scenario changes.

Listening to The News Quiz on the radio (which is essentially an audio version of HIGNFY) it is now a lot more chummy and an amusing chat more than a performance to an audience, they spend longer in the opening having a chat and introducing each other. They laugh at each other’s jokes so it escapes the ‘silent pause’ issue.

It’s not quite the same but I think it’s understanding that things like podcasts can be very funny indeed but in a different way to a studio audience show. It all becomes a little more intimate and less structured.

I haven’t seen the HIGNFY ‘zoom edition’ yet but want to check out the last one as I heard Hislop rather eviscerated Cummings. I’ll see what I think.

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Dave

It was the first time I’ve watched it since the start of the Zoom series and it was good (by contrast, The Last Leg, which has been doing ok with its video call format, really suffered from lag and over-talking mix-ups last night). Hislop did really lay into Cummings.

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Dave, garjones

I wonder if part of that is the Last Leg is trying to play ‘as live’

We all know by now that panel shows in normal circumstances film 3 or 4 times as much as they broadcast. In the studio it’s 2 hours or more and they cut out the jokes that don’t quite work. I assume they are still doing that but The Last Leg has more of a live chat show format. So HIGNFY may also have had those awkward bits where they talk over each other but they just cut them out.

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Dave

Yeah, that’s probably a huge help. I’m impressed the Last Leg is even working as it is, given Hills is doing it from Australia. Any kind of connection error or drop-out and they’re royally screwed.

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Dave, garjones

Yeah and it is tricky not to talk over each other on any kind of conference call. People do them all the time for work nowadays and that invariably happens at some point, even a tiny delay in sound knocks stuff out of whack.

I always like this clip from rugby pundit James Haskell, he was accused of being drunk on air, it has been made clear later he wasn’t at all but he got the replay of his own voice on a second delay through his headphones and it drives his delivery into nonsense.

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Dave

I’ve had that exact same thing happen at work and it’s massively distracting and destabilising.

Anyway, yes, The Last Leg has done alright with the live linkup format, surprisingly well really, but last night’s edition had more awkward pauses and everyone-talking-at-once moments than usual. It’s tricky and really it’s to their credit that these moments are relatively few and far between.

Due to a relaxing of lockdown rules, the seven dwarves have learned that they can meet outside in groups of six.

One of them isn’t Happy.

 

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Martin Smith, Bruce, Dave

Anonymous wrote:

My favourite argument for the Flat Earth is that if the earth was round everywhere you wanted to go would be half-way uphill and half-way downhill because of the curvature. And it clearly isn’t so that’s that.

I thought about train tracks. They’re laid in segments that are straight, if all rail segments are straight how can they cross a curved surface?

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Structural engineering accounts for the curvature. Track is flexible and laid in segments on sleepers with very slight gaps to allow for expansion in heat. High speed trains run on ribboned welded tracks. Curves in tracks are banked to keep the trains stable. The routes also incorporate viaducts, cuttings and embankments depending on the terrain to keep the tracks as flat as possible.

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garjones, DavidM, njerry

I think I can…I think I can…I think I can…I think I can….

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That’s me told.

Is it weird that I was in the midst of writing I don’t think I can do this anymore?

*gestures wearily at all the wrong thises*

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njerry

Anonymous wrote:

Structural engineering accounts for the curvature. Track is flexible and laid in segments on sleepers with very slight gaps to allow for expansion in heat. High speed trains run on ribboned welded tracks. Curves in tracks are banked to keep the trains stable. The routes also incorporate viaducts, cuttings and embankments depending on the terrain to keep the tracks as flat as possible.

Yup and it’s interesting that Isambard Kingdom Brunel worked out that any hills and dips were the biggest drain on efficiency for trains. So when he built the Great Western Railway from London to Cardiff he did everything in his power to make it flat.

He engineered a new design of wide span bridge over a narrow river so there was no hump to get over and just drilled through a hill with the Severn Tunnel. So even though built for steam trains it remains a very fast track to this day and an hour and a half faster than driving and most other railways in the world are going up and down curves all the time.

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DavidM, lorcan_nagle

On Friday my daughter and I were looking for something fun to do, so decided to enter a lockdown competition being run by my favourite online geek T-shirt store, Last Exit To Nowhere, that involved recreating a famous movie shot from home.

And today they announced that our photo had been picked as the winner!

The winner of the #LastExitLockdown competition is @ComicsDave with this inspired recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dave wins 5 https://t.co/Q3wHwOCvzD T-shirts of his choice. A massive thanks to everyone who took part. – Mike pic.twitter.com/RQA7JXoru3

— Last Exit To Nowhere (@LASTEXITshirts) June 1, 2020

Delighted by this! (Especially as I don’t really do Twitter.)

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paul f, RonnieM, Christian, Sean Robinson, Bruce, njerry, DavidM, lorcan_nagle, Todd

My biggest fear is if a woman sees me naked for the first time she’ll be so horrified that she’ll run screaming out of the park.

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Todd

Over 49k likes…I had no idea people felt this way.. amazing. A bright spot in a crazy world right now https://t.co/m8nhiJMRfX

— Denys Cowan (@DenysCowan) June 2, 2020

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Todd, Sean Robinson, lorcan_nagle

I bought an iPod Touch off eBay, but annoyingly the guy I bought it from never signed out of his account (let alone restored it to factory settings), which makes it fairly useless.

My first thought was that it was stolen and he was selling it on, as that’s what the feature is there to prevent, but the Apple ID matches the guy’s Paypal address, so now I just have to wait and hope he knows what his Apple password is.

I do get to have a look around at the apps and stuff he has on it, but there’s nothing interesting.

Dave wrote:

On Friday my daughter and I were looking for something fun to do, so decided to enter a lockdown competition being run by my favourite online geek T-shirt store, Last Exit To Nowhere, that involved recreating a famous movie shot from home.

And today they announced that our photo had been picked as the winner!

The winner of the #LastExitLockdown competition is @ComicsDave with this inspired recreation of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dave wins 5 https://t.co/Q3wHwOCvzD T-shirts of his choice. A massive thanks to everyone who took part. – Mike pic.twitter.com/RQA7JXoru3

— Last Exit To Nowhere (@LASTEXITshirts) June 1, 2020

Delighted by this! (Especially as I don’t really do Twitter.)

The shirts arrived today.

Love these, particularly this on the back of the Bill & Ted shirt.

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RonnieM, Bruce, DavidM, Todd, Martin Smith

That Wild Stallyns one is most triumphant

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RonnieM, Dave

It’s non-non-non-non-non heinous.

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RonnieM, lorcan_nagle

Do men like getting flowers by way of apology?

Anonymous wrote:

Do men like getting flowers by way of apology?

Only if they’re edible and covered in barbeque sauce.

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Anonymous wrote:

Do men like getting flowers arranged bouquets of plant genitals by way of apology?

You had me at genitals.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Do men like getting flowers by way of apology?

I’d appreciate the gesture if it was a sincere apology but would rather something else, cut flowers are rather useless and in the bin in a week.

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Todd, Dave

Anonymous wrote:

Do men like getting flowers by way of apology?

I can’t speak for all men, but I’d rather the person just said “I’m sorry”.

Plants that are actually growing are better than cut flowers in all respects, too.

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Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Do men like getting flowers by way of apology?

I’d say it depends on the man, I like seeing flowers in the wild or in gardens but I don’t care for having cut off flowers in my home.

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Todd

I don’t like cut flowers either because they die almost instantly (well, technically they’re dead as soon as they’re cut. Wilt, I guess).

Plus, I never notice the smell of them when they’re fresh and supposedly have a “bouquet” but as soon as they start to decay, the stench really cuts through everything.

KNOW THE ENEMY

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/10/know-signs-how-tell-if-your-grandparent-has-become-an-antifa-agent/

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Todd, njerry

Found a neat “how to” channel on YouTube.

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DavidM, Christian

I love Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith wrote an entire essay collection in lockdown, and you can read it in July.

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Which books of her’s have you read?

Smith’s previous essay collections are very good. Feel Free is one. Her enthusiasm is refreshing in Changing Her Mind.

I think I’ve read every novel. She has a couple of short story collections which I’ve read, but the only collection of essays I’ve read is changing her mind, which admittedly is brilliant, but I suspect her worldview has changed in the intervening decade.

What’s the general thesis if Feel Free? Or is it a genuine collection in the strictest sense of the word? She has another one too but the name escapes me.

Edit: Controversially, I think White Teeth is her fewest best book and On Beauty her mostest bestest.

Bruce wrote:

Found a neat “how to” channel on YouTube.

Whoa. That got rather more absurd than I expected.

Anonymous wrote:

Edit: Controversially, I think White Teeth is her fewest best book and On Beauty her mostest bestest.

I only read On Beauty. Didn’t like it.

Christian wrote:

Bruce wrote:
Found a neat “how to” channel on YouTube.

Whoa. That got rather more absurd than I expected.

It does a really good job of looking like a proper instructional video channel. The thumbnails and opening sections make you think “business as usual” then it just goes nuts.

Now to play the waiting game for the opportunity to pass one of them on as genuine advice.

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Todd

I haven’t read On Beauty. I’ve been trying to settle on something to read. So now I get to see if I agree with Christian or Tim. I think I’ve read all the rest.

There’s an interview with Zadie Smith here about Feel Free. I very handily still had it bookmarked. It’s described as a tour through her enthusiasms punctuated with diversions. It doesn’t really have a general thesis as such. It’s all her previously unpublished in book form work collected together. Reviews and essays and columns from The Paris Review and The New Yorker and other bits and bobs.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/21/zadie-smith-you-ask-the-questions-self-doubt

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Christian

Bruce wrote:

Found a neat “how to” channel on YouTube.

The lengths this guy goes to for his videos are staggering when you see just how many videos he’s made.

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Todd

Christian wrote:

I only read On Beauty. Didn’t like it.

Yeah well I only read your face

I watched an interview with Smith about On Beauty this morning. The extract she read included a character called Christian. I can only assume our Christian doesn’t like him.

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Christian

https://aaron-demeter.itch.io/lee-carvallos-putting-challenge

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Dave, Martin Smith

New Zealand government deploys nude ‘porn actors’ in web safety ad

Government TV ad is latest in a series of striking public service announcements using humour to tackle tricky subjects

I like the messaging here.

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Christian, lorcan_nagle, Todd

Anonymous wrote:

Christian wrote:

I only read On Beauty. Didn’t like it.

Yeah well I only read your face

And you liked it.

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Christian

The powers of photoshop have reached new heights as Star Wars meet your favourite album covers

 

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Rocket, Todd

Todd wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Christian wrote:

I only read On Beauty. Didn’t like it.

Yeah well I only read your face

And you liked it.

Look, I mean, it’s certainly a face, I’ll give him that…

Why is it advisable for law students to study ballet? That way their arguments will always be on point!

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Dave

Todd wrote:

Why is it advisable for law students to study ballet?

So that they’re not disappointed when they get a 2:2?

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Bruce, Todd

Do you see a problem here ? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/SchHJkxioO

— ✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿 (@officialbabygrl) June 15, 2020

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Todd

Just cancel america already.

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Todd

I forgot that today was midsummers eve. Shit happens when you don’t have any friends to celebrate with…

Happy Midsummer, folks! Drink and drink vigorously!

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DavidM, Todd

I’m not your friend anymore? 😔

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Anonymous wrote:

I’m not your friend anymore? 😔

I meant “friends withing reasonable visiting and partying distance”.

I’m a good swimmer, but not good enough to get over to your place with a backpack full of wine on my current budget.

Anonymous wrote:

I’m a good swimmer, but not good enough to get over to your place with a backpack full of wine on my current budget.

Sounds like someone is making excuses…

Todd wrote:

Sounds like someone is making excuses…

They’re called drinks, and yes… I have made several.

Anonymous wrote:

Todd wrote:

Sounds like someone is making excuses…

They’re called drinks, and yes… I have made several.

Good for you!

Builds character.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I’m not your friend anymore? 😔

I meant “friends withing reasonable visiting and partying distance”.

I’m a good swimmer, but not good enough to get over to your place with a backpack full of wine on my current budget.

Have you considered swimming to Scotland, then getting a bag and some Buckfast while there, and then swimming to Ireland?

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Dave

lorcan_nagle wrote:

Have you considered swimming to Scotland, then getting a bag and some Buckfast while there, and then swimming to Ireland?

I have now.

The available data suggest that I could make a swimming journey to Scotland only if I start just over the border to England, but I would have drunk myself to death before leaving the Scottish shores.

I actually like Buckfast. And I miss it.

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lorcan_nagle

Todd wrote:

Good for you! Builds character.

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lorcan_nagle, njerry, Todd

Anonymous wrote:

I forgot that today was midsummers eve. Shit happens when you don’t have any friends to celebrate with…

I didn’t even realise that when I watched misummar yesterday! Damn!

Wait, this means the days are getting shorter again now.

Fuck. Now I am getting melancholy.

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Christian wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I forgot that today was midsummers eve. Shit happens when you don’t have any friends to celebrate with…

I didn’t even realise that when I watched misummar yesterday! Damn!

Wait, this means the days are getting shorter again now.

Fuck. Now I am getting melancholy.

Winter is coming. Merry Christmas.

Anonymous wrote:

Winter is coming.

It’s 2020 so probably Nuclear Winter.

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Todd

Probably no chance.

There’s been lots of good news too. I’m sure. Somewhere.

 

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Winter is coming.

It’s 2020 so probably Nuclear Winter.

Aren’t you the optimist!

Posadism forevaaaah

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Al-x, Rocket, Bruce, Todd

I have been reading the replies of posters remarks about this and “laughing”

I have a masters degree in film and teach film at a top tier university, An over twenty five year professional career and I walk into pitches with a fully realized bible pilot and seven season arc, and often times told it’s not enough. But Lena Dunham, cool. https://t.co/E530jn5EJw

— Ahmed BEst (@ahmedbest) June 28, 2020

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Todd

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Todd

I think there would be a better argument there if Girls had been shit and failed, but as I understand it, it was a pretty successful show.

The general consensus of those who watched the show (including me) was it could have been a LOT better.

I just wonder now what real seasoned writers would have done with their shows if they had the chance.

The crazy thing is that despite how far that Hollywood Reporter tweet has spread today it’s a dead link so you can’t actually read the story. I wanted to see the context of what ‘sold’ was, that they exchange contracts there and then or they said they were interested and wanted to see more. Headlines in 2020 are often wildly misleading.

The comment from Scott Adams underneath though completely takes over that thread. (He claims that his Dilbert shows was axed because the network only wanted black creators, yet as many people point out to him the ratings were garbage and in several articles previously he’s said it was axed for poor ratings because he felt the network put it in a bad timeslot).

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Todd

Lena Dunham is trending now over there. Not so much about the show (although quite a few posts were that it was mediocre) but the opportunity she got at HBO just off a pitch comprising of a page and half of pretty much nothing as opposed to others who have more credentials, solid presentations and got zilch. Could we have gotten a better show instead? Did we get the Monkees when we could have had the Beatles?

I know – you just posted a link to the thread and a parody pic. 😂

I was discussing that the story link is actually dead, so everyone is working off a one sentence headline. 4000+ replies to the thread and nobody having read the actual article. Not surprising in this day and age.

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DavidM

Took me about seven seconds of googling to find this:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/live-feed/girls-read-lena-dunhams-original-pitch-show-972037

Which links through to this:

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/goodbye-girls-as-lena-dunham-cast-execs-overshare-show-oral-history-970777

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Yeah and I could have found it too but I was interested more in the phenomenon of an enormous discussion based on a sentence and only one guy pipes in to say the link is bust. So basically everyone seemed informed enough to give an opinion just on the headline.

Since you were kind enough to do it does confirm a bit of my suspicions. The end of the second article confirms that the pitch (which Dunham confesses was bad) nearly got her the green light. So there were discussions and maybe other treatments later. It pretty much confirms that with another part saying they had hurdles trying to get people to buy the idea of a show that skewed much younger than the usual HBO audience.

That’s not to gloss over that Best may well have a tougher time because of his background but there’s a bit more to it than first may appear.

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Dave

Oh yes, wasn’t a dig at you for not finding it but agreeing with your point that the commenters could have easily done that for themselves and been better informed.

Sadly forming an opinion without looking past the headline seems to be increasingly the rule these days.

I only read half of the first sentence of Dave’s first post about this, so this discussion is about how Dave says Girls was shit, yeah?

So I only read some of Christians post but are we talking about when Dave made his first post, right?

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Christian

tl;dr

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njerry

I know Tim’s posting in this thread so I’m going to assume it’s about puppies.

I hate the concept of pets. It’s disgusting.

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Christian

is anyone else thinking that right now @Bernadette is on her way to Sweden to murder Anders in his sleep?  all over some overhyped privileged white girl and her boring ass show. SMH

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And that’s that…

https://pagesix.com/2020/06/30/lena-dunham-agrees-white-privilege-helped-her-career/

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Todd

You have to acknowledge the privilege. White privilege and class privilege.

This is bullshit though:

“Remember Issa Rae produced TWO viral seasons of Awkward Black Girl on Youtube then made a pit stop at an online outlet before she got a deal for #InsecureHBO,” Johnson wrote. “Lena Dunham showed up with scribbles on a napkin and got a pilot.

It’s noted in every article that Dunham had already written and directed a film that had won several awards on the festival circuit, the head of HBO comedy saw it loved it. That’s what got her in the door with HBO. Even white privilege has limits, my genes aren’t going to get me into a pitch meeting alone. “Hey never made anything, just wandered off the street, but hear me out guys and I have a pale complexion”.

I honestly believe that Dunham had it easier but there’s no real need to make nonsense up to try and exaggerate it. If Rae walked in there with a 2 web series and a pitch then Dunham walked in there with a feature film and a pitch.

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njerry

I think it’s always difficult evaluating these kinds of creative things anyway. You could have seven seasons of scripts written and it could all be shit. You could have a basic idea and treatment and it clearly have great potential. You can’t measure how good a concept is by weighing the paper.

That’s not to dismiss the privilege and nepotism elements at all, clearly they are there, it’s just not as easy as saying that if you were Lena Dunham and took any old idea to them they would have loved it, there has to be some central aspect of merit and then you get into comparing different ideas and it becomes rather subjective.

In the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam there are two huge Buddhist guardian statues. One day a museum worker stuck out his tongue at one of the statues, and the lights in the room went out. A while later the lights came back on after he apologized to the statue.

 

 

 

Don’t fuck with the buddhists!

Rocket wrote:

is anyone else thinking that right now @Bernadette is on her way to Sweden to murder Anders in his sleep?  all over some overhyped privileged white girl and her boring ass show. SMH

No.

Anonymous wrote:

One day a museum worker stuck out his tongue at one of the statues, and the lights in the room went out. A while later the lights came back on after he apologized to the statue.

Sounds like a coworker with a wicked sense of humor and sharp sense of timing.

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DavidM

I was working at a large call centre and one of the managers met the security guard as he started his shift and said the car park barriers had been upgraded. If you clapped your hands they would open. He’d have a to clap a few times so it could register the signature sound of his clap.

Another manager was sat in reception watching on the CCVT and pressing the button to open the barrier whenever he saw they clapped their hands.

We then had a chuckle an hour later when he went back and we watched on the video as he was frantically clapping and nothing happened.

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Bruce, njerry, Dave

Anonymous wrote:

Rocket wrote:

is anyone else thinking that right now @Bernadette is on her way to Sweden to murder Anders in his sleep?  all over some overhyped privileged white girl and her boring ass show. SMH

No.

Please don’t murder Anders because he hates puppies and we were discussing the show, Girls.

You could murder Anders for plenty of reasons, but not those reasons, please.

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No I couldn’t.

Okay, fine, no one will murder Anders then.

I hope you’re happy now, @Anders.

Are you okay?

Probably not, but that’s a topic for another time.

Did I ever tell you…you know

Anonymous wrote:

Okay, fine, no one will murder Anders then.

Wait, why am I suddenly included in this not-murdering-Anders thing? I was just minding my own business and prepping all the murdering and stuff, and now I am hearing about this all of a sudden?

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DavidM