Kevespada

A couple of weeks ago I read that the two male directors -- Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg -- of Kon-Tiki which was nominated for best foreign language film got the gig of directing the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.  Here's a line from the Deadline story that announces the gig: "They made a lot of movie with a little money and showed they knew how to shoot on the water."

These are the latest dudes who make small movies and get kicked up to franchise level.  Other members of that club include Marc Forster who made Monster's Ball and Finding Neverland and was propelled up to a Bond movie and the newest zombie film starring Brad Pitt, and Marc Webb director of 500 Days of Summer who is now the director of the Spiderman franchise.  And I'm sure there are many more.

As we reported last week, Sam Taylor-Johnson is directing 50 Shades of Grey, the first film in what I'm sure the studio will hopefully become a lucrative trilogy.  So I have to say I was disheartened to read this headline from the NY Times entitled: "Relative Unknown Chosen to Direct Fifty Shades"

Why is she portrayed as a relative newcomer male directors are looked at differently?  Is it because we have no context for women being propelled into bigger budgeted films?  It is perfectly normal for men to jump from relative obscurity to big picture deal.  And be real.  Ms. Taylor-Johnson is no novice.  She has a full body of creative work under her belt.  First, she has made a successfully reviewed feature, Nowhere Boy.  She also made a short.  She was mentored by Anthony Minghella, and she had a hugely successful career as a photographer and has done many installations before she became a filmmaker.  That type of work is embraced in male creatives, as is making commercials, but it does not have the same credibility for women.

As I keep saying, language matters, a woman is a relative newcomer and men are never seen that way, they are seen as entitled to these jobs.  

Kon-Tiki Helmers Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg Land Pirates Of The Caribbean 5 (Deadline)

Relative Unknown Chosen to Direct ‘Fifty Shades’ (NY Times)

For some growing up in Kansas, New York City, or, heck, Northern California, Point Break--starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze and directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow--is the ultimate cinematic expression of the Los Angeles experience. For others it's Encino Man, but that's a subject for a different post. Today is the first day of summer, and we're celebrating the occasion with a map of locations from a movie about a group of surfers who rob banks to finance their endless summer.

For the uninitiated, Point Break tells the story of a rookie FBI agent named Johnny Utah (Reeves), who goes undercover to track a band of bank robbing surfers (The Ex-Presidents) led by Bodhi (Swayze). There is surfing (mostly shot in Hawaii), there is the wooing of a surfer chick played by Lori Petty, there are car chases, there are shootouts (including one where LA-native Anthony Kiedis shoots himself in the foot), and there is Gary Busey shouting obscenities in the role of Utah's veteran partner Angelo Pappas. And, of course, the whole thing ends with Reeves delivering arguably the best line from a career full of magnificent lines: "Vaya con Dios."

Regrettably, there are several banks named during the movie that could not be found via Google after no small amount of searching: the Encino Savings and Loan, where the "Guard grabbed LBJ's ponytail"; Tarzana City National Bank; and Assured Trust Savings and Loan, which is where Utah and Pappas finally catch up to the Ex-Presidents (but not before Utah buys exactly two meatball sandwiches for Pappas, who claims that these particular variety of meatball sandwiches are the best he's ever tasted). Incidentally, Point Break will be screened at Cinespia on July 3.

Via hab.hrsa.gov.

Growing up as a black gay boy in Youngstown, Ohio, my mother always said “Son, you must operate in this world intentionally, you must treat others with respect, and you must keep your hands to yourself.”

My fellow gay men, I want the best for all of us. We are not automatically granted access to a woman’s body. This letter is even for me as a reminder of my male privilege regardless of my sexual orientation. This is why I humbly ask for you to examine how we operate in this world and how we utilize the space of others.

We cannot touch a woman without her permission. We are not the exception and her permission to us is not implied. We, too, can promote rape culture. We do not get a “pass” to touch her hair or her body or her clothes. We do not have an automatic right to critique her weight or texture of hair. We are still men, and women will always deserve our respect. Despite the cultural context, women still speak for themselves. We must learn this, and we must understand this. Women have autonomy over their own body. For those of us who consider ourselves feminists, we cannot constantly promote feminism and women’s ownership, then be bent out of shape when she decides that she does not want to be subjected to touching, feeling, or unwanted contact.

Fellow gay men, we cannot invade a woman’s personal space because there isn’t any sexual attraction. Regardless of us not wanting to be sexually intimate with women, we, too, must seek permission and be given explicit consent to anything on their body. We must realize that no still means no. It always will.

–Preston Mitchum, “An Open Letter To Gay Men: We Need A Woman’s Consent, Too,” Role/Reboot 6/17/13

Kickstarter just published a thoughtful, effective apology for allowing a slimy pick-up artist to use the site to solicit funds for a "seduction guide" that reads like a how-to for sexually harassing and assaulting women. Here's the company's explanation — entitled "We were wrong" — which includes a vow to ban "seduction manuals" forevermore.

In the apology (pasted in full below), Kickstarter says it didn't cancel the project immediately because of a heavy bias towards creators that "made us miss the forest for the trees" and limited time to make the unprecedented decision. Kickstarter can't defund the project after the fact, but it's officially removing "seduction guides" and all similar material effective immediately, since it "encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works." Kickstarter is also donating $25,000 to RAINN.

"We take our role as Kickstarter’s stewards very seriously," the company wrote in a blog post. "Kickstarter is one of the friendliest, most supportive places on the web and we’re committed to keeping it that way. We’re sorry for getting this so wrong."

Dear everybody,

On Wednesday morning Kickstarter was sent a blog post quoting disturbing material found on Reddit. The offensive material was part of a draft for a “seduction guide” that someone was using Kickstarter to publish. The posts offended a lot of people — us included — and many asked us to cancel the creator’s project. We didn’t.

We were wrong.

Why didn’t we cancel the project when this material was brought to our attention? Two things influenced our decision:

• The decision had to be made immediately. We had only two hours from when we found out about the material to when the project was ending. We’ve never acted to remove a project that quickly.
• Our processes, and everyday thinking, bias heavily toward creators. This is deeply ingrained. We feel a duty to our community — and our creators especially — to approach these investigations methodically as there is no margin for error in canceling a project. This thinking made us miss the forest for the trees.

These factors don’t excuse our decision but we hope they add clarity to how we arrived at it.

Let us be 100% clear: Content promoting or glorifying violence against women or anyone else has always been prohibited from Kickstarter. If a project page contains hateful or abusive material we don’t approve it in the first place. If we had seen this material when the project was submitted to Kickstarter (we didn’t), it never would have been approved. Kickstarter is committed to a culture of respect.

Where does this leave us?

First, there is no taking back money from the project or canceling funding after the fact. When the project was funded the backers’ money went directly from them to the creator. We missed the window.

Second, the project page has been removed from Kickstarter. The project has no place on our site. For transparency’s sake, a record of the page is cached here.

Third, we are prohibiting “seduction guides,” or anything similar, effective immediately. This material encourages misogynistic behavior and is inconsistent with our mission of funding creative works. These things do not belong on Kickstarter.

Fourth, today Kickstarter will donate $25,000 to an anti-sexual violence organization called RAINN. It’s an excellent organization that combats exactly the sort of problems our inaction may have encouraged.

We take our role as Kickstarter’s stewards very seriously. Kickstarter is one of the friendliest, most supportive places on the web and we’re committed to keeping it that way. We’re sorry for getting this so wrong.

Thank you,

Kickstarter

Apology accepted.

We've had a lot of heart shaped Valentine's day shots over the last couple of years, but this year we have something even more creative- A SQUARE! Though I'm pro-valentines day, and any occasion that promotes the color combination of pink and red, this jello shot represents the gross ($$$) side the holiday that we can't really relate to. You see, we're being, like, ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife!

This shot is one of our standard flavored-vodka-and-sweetened-condensed-milk recipes*. This is with grape vodka, for no particular reason. The boxes are made with two different pieces, the lids are a little less thick than the bases. The bows are drawn on with white gel food coloring as neat as I can possibly manage (so, not very). The rings are a choking hazard, so make sure you serve these early in the night!


 *Super easy: dissolve an envelope of gelatin in 1/4 cup of water, add a 1/4 cup of SCM, any food coloring, and a 1/2 cup of vodka. Do a test run to make sure they come out to YOUR PARTICULAR TASTE (see "this is how we do it" on the right column.

small rings $.80 a dozen.