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With how often film shooting locations are re-used, just think about how many movie characters have crossed paths over the years. Today, I'm at Griffith Park looking at one of Hollywood's favorite places to film: The Bronson Caves!
Full list of clips used in the video below.
FILM SERIALS Lightning Bryce (1919) The Three Musketeers (1933) The Phantom Empire (1935) Flash Gordon (1936) Zorro Rides Again (1937) Dick Tracy Returns (1938) The Lone Ranger Rides Again (1939) Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941) Atom Man vs. Superman (1949)
FEATURE FILMS The Vampire Bat (1933) Call of the Canyon (1942) Flame of Araby (1951) Unknown World (1951) Carson City (1952) Robot Monster (1953) Killers from Space (1954) Crashout (1955) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) The Lone Ranger (1956) It Conquered the World (1956) The Searchers (1956) Night of the Blood Beast (1957) The Brain from Planet Arous (1957) The Cyclops (1957) Attack of the Crab Monsters (1957) The Bride and the Beast (1958) Earth vs. the Spider (1958) Monster from Green Hell (1958) The Return of Dracula (1958) Teenage Caveman (1958) Invisible Invaders (1959) Teenagers from Outer Space (1959) The Cape Canaveral Monsters (1960) Eegah (1962) Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962) Batman: The Movie (1966) The Mighty Gorga (1969) Equinox (1970) Octaman (1971) The Human Tornado (1976) Munchies (1987) Blood Diner (1987) The Wizard of Speed and Time (1989) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991) Army of Darkness (1992) The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001) Cabin Fever (2002) Return to the Batcave (2003) Tremors 4: The Legend Begins (2004) D-War aka Dragon Wars (2007) Princess of Mars (2009) Mega Python vs. Gatoroid (2010) Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus (2010) Time Trap (2017) Palm Springs (2020)
TV SHOWS The A-Team (Lost in a Diamond Mine) The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (Pilot) Batman (1966) The Dukes of Hazzard (Hazzard Connection) Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue Power Rangers Lost Galaxy Mission: Impossible (1960s) The Outer Limits (1960s) Perry Mason (1960s) Star Trek: Original Star Trek: The Next Generation Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Star Trek: Voyager Star Trek: Enterprise Twin Peaks Wonder Woman
COURTHOUSE SQUARE Gremlins (1984) Back to the Future (1985)
Is the key to success in financial markets a matter of luck or skill? One former bond manager shares his strategy: Win big by avoiding winning. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.
Good morning. The main event for our near-term weather is the arrival of a cold front late tonight that will bring a line of storms through our area early Wednesday, likely reaching the metro area shortly before sunrise. This front will usher in some briefly drier air, with Thursday looking especially spring-like with morning lows possibly in the low 60s. Memorial Day weekend looks warm and sunny.
Tuesday
Yesterday I talked about the potential for an upper-level system to bring some showers and thunderstorms into the metro area on Tuesday morning, but noted that all of the ingredients might not come together for the showers to hit Houston. Well, they haven’t, and the bulk of the rain will remain offshore today. Accordingly rain chances are only about 50 percent today, and any scattered showers that move through should do so fairly quickly from southwest to northeast. Otherwise, expect mostly cloudy skies today with highs in the mid-80s. Winds may gust as high as 20 mph out of the south.
Tuesday night and Wednesday
I’m more confident in the arrival of a cold front tonight, likely reaching the College Station and Conroe areas around midnight, pushing into central Houston around 2 to 4 am CT, and off the coast by sunrise. A line of storms will accompany the front, bringing thunderstorms, straight-line winds, hail, and even the potential for a tornado or two.
HRRR model depiction of a line of storms approaching Houston at 2 am CT on Wednesday. (Weather Bell)
I expect that some of these thunderstorms will bring heavy rainfall, and overall accumulations will probably range from 1 to 3 inches for most of the metro region, with higher isolated totals. While the bulk of the rainfall should have passed by around sunrise on Wednesday, some light to moderate showers may linger into the late morning hours. High temperatures on Wednesday should top out in the upper 70s as skies probably won’t start to clear until Wednesday evening.
Thursday
This is going to be a pretty amazing spring-like day in Houston, especially for late May. Lows will start out at 60 to 65 degrees, and despite sunny skies we’re going to see temperatures likely top out in the mid-80s. With dewpoints in the low 60s, the air will also feel reasonably dry. The evening should be pretty great as well, with some drier air holding on and temperatures dropping. Lows on Thursday night should eventually fall into the mid-60s.
Low temperatures on Thursday morning will be pretty incredible. (Weather Bell)
Friday
This will be a transition day back to more summer-like weather, but there still should be a smidge of drier air, with highs in the upper 80s, sunny skies, and overnight lows dropping to around 70 degrees.
Memorial Day Weekend
The forecast over the weekend will bring three days of sunny skies, highs around 90 degrees, and lows in the 70s. It will be plenty humid outside, but not boiling hot as this holiday weekend can sometimes be. Conditions should be perfect for outdoor activities, although please be sure and protect yourself during prolonged exposure to the sun.
Next week we’ll be monitoring the potential for a tropical disturbance to form in the Bay of Campeche, in the far southern Gulf of Mexico. This may eventually bring some moderate rainfall our way next week, but right now it’s not something to be concerned about at all.
Last week, Knowledge Rights 21 released a strong call to action to ensure that libraries can continue serving their centuries old role in society of providing access to knowledge to the public. Knowledge Rights 21 is an Arcadia funded project advocating for copyright and open access reform across Europe.
In their Position Statement on eBooks and eLending, Knowledge Rights 21 explains that government action is urgently needed because the market for eBooks now operates outside of the current copyright law that permits libraries to acquire, lend and preserve physical books. Monopolistic behavior by commercial publishers including refusals to sell, embargoes, high prices, and restrictive licensing terms have frustrated libraries’ ability to undertake collection development, hurting those who rely on libraries for education, research, and cultural participation.
The Position Statement demands that “governments must wake up and act now before the rights of citizens to access information and learning through libraries are eroded any further.” The Statement proposes the following clarifications in EU law:
1.The right for libraries to acquire, preserve and make a digital reproduction of an analogue and / or an electronic book / audiobook that has been made available in the market under sale or licence; 2. No more copies than have been acquired under 1 above, shall be loaned to members of the public at any one time. Libraries should have the right to lend directly to users, as well as via other libraries as part of interlibrary loan; 3. Neither contracts nor technical protection measures shall be enforceable to prevent this; 4. Any loans made under this shall require the payment of [Public Lending Right] monies by public libraries in line with existing practice with paper and or audiobooks.
The Internet Archive agrees that action on this issue is important and necessary. We are defending these principles in US court, in the lawsuit brought by four of the world’s largest publishers over our controlled digital lending program. We look forward to working with Knowledge Rights 21 and the library community “to help libraries not only to survive, but also to flourish” as the EU Court of Justice said in its landmark case supporting eBook lending by libraries.
Video game publisher Electronic Arts (EA) is actively seeking a potential buyer or merger. Apple has reportedly been in talks with the company about buying EA out according to Puck. Disney and Amazon have also been in talks about purchasing the video game company. 9to5Mac reports: The Redwood City-based firm has published hits like Apex Legends, Madden, and The Sims franchise. According to Puck, EA ideally would like a merger so Andrew Wilson can remain CEO of the combined company. [...] EA's roots actually go back to Apple. Back in 1982, Apple's then Director of Strategy and Marketing, Trip Hawkins, left the company to start EA. A buyout wouldn't be Apple's first venture into gaming, however. The Cupertino company unveiled its gaming service Apple Arcade back in 2019. Through Apple Arcade, users can play ad-free games on their iOS, macOS, and tvOS devices.
I’m the safety manager at a small manufacturing company. Last week I was having a friendly chat with someone out in manufacturing (Fred) and somehow he got on the topic of a coworker’s (Bill’s) shoes smelling bad and how they all try to get out of the locker room before Bill takes off his shoes. It was entertaining and harmless, although I did make a mental note to see about adding an air freshener to the locker room.
A few days later, Bill came in to find that his shoes had been tampered with and he developed a rash on his feet as a result. (His shoes had been moved from in front of his locker to over in the shower area and he said they were damp. He thought the janitorial crew had just moved them, so he went ahead and wore them. A few hours later he felt his feet burning and found that a rash had developed. Our janitorial crew does not come in on the day in question, so it wasn’t them.)
There may have been no ill intent meant – even a standard shoe deodorizer spray may have resulted in a reaction. We have no reason to think Fred was involved and actually suspect a different person, although we can’t prove it.
The day after the shoe tampering, I was chatting with Fred again, so I asked him if he had any idea who did it. I made it clear I didn’t think it was him, I just thought it was a weird coincidence. He said he didn’t know who it was, that he would never do it, etc. This seemed like another friendly and harmless conversation to me – I did not approach it as if I was doing a formal investigation.
Now here’s where it goes off the deep end. Fred got upset that I left his area without asking anyone else if they knew anything. He went to his manager claiming that I said I was going to talk to everyone but then only talked to him, so he felt targeted and that it was racially motivated (I’m white, he’s not). I never intended to ask everyone about the shoes and I don’t remember saying anything along those lines. The only reason I talked to him about it at all was because he had brought up Bill’s shoes smelling just a few days before. His manager has explained that to him and also that I did ask other people if they knew anything, they were just in another area. These conversations haven’t helped at all. Today I walked through the area he works in and tried just giving a little wave hello as I walked by at a distance. He scowled and shook his head angrily and seemed to be muttering to himself.
The manager wants to give it some time and continue trying to smooth it over. They say that based on previous experiences with him, they think this is the best approach and also that he has jumped to thinking things are racially motivated in the past. I feel terrible that Fred is upset and that what was previously a good relationship seems to have been destroyed.
I can’t just avoid the area he works in – I have a responsibility in my position to walk through regularly and address issues if I see any. I obviously won’t go up to him right now and try to initiate friendly chats, but if there is an issue I need to be able to approach him and talk to him about it. I also don’t know how to act when I don’t need to talk to him. If he looks my direction and we make eye contact, it feels wrong not to acknowledge him in some way – that’s why I gave the little wave earlier. How should I act around him?
Should I just leave it in the manager’s hands for now? Should I ask for a discussion to be arranged between me, him, and a third party? We don’t have HR, so the third party would likely be either his manager or our company president (the closest we have to HR).
Why not just … apologize to Fred?
You didn’t mean to make him feel singled out but he does and you feel badly about that. Why not tell him that? It doesn’t have to be a huge thing — it could just be, “I want to apologize for giving you the impression I was singling you out about Bill’s shoes. I wasn’t suspicious of you; I brought it up because we’d just talked about it a few days before. I’m really sorry that I left you thinking it was anything more than that. I have no reason to think you would ever do something like that.”
If Fred’s manager is convinced you shouldn’t do that … well, I’d try pushing back about why. Right now you’ve got an obviously upset employee who thinks you were accusing him of something you weren’t, and you might be able to solve the whole thing by just talking to him.
If you have the sense that we’re living in a ruder, more hostile world, you’re not alone. Some of that hostility has gotten a lot of attention—like the aggression directed toward flight attendants for enforcing mask mandates or the rise in assaults on health care workers—but what’s gotten less attention is that workers in nearly every sector say they’ve experienced a dramatic increase in abusive behavior from the public.
At Slate today, I wrote about the rise in rudeness from the public, and how it’s affecting the people whose job it is to deal with them. You can read it here.
I work for a government organization that is a subset of county government. In this organization, very rarely, employees may be sent on trips to pick up items that cannot be mailed. These trips vary from one hour to eight hours round trip.
Last week, my department had one of these trips, and I was told that I might need to accompany the point person to break up the driving. A few days before the trip, I was told that I did not need to go and that a person from another department, who had no involvement in the items being picked up or the project that they are involved in, would be going instead. It is relevant that the point person and the person who ultimately accompanied them are both men and I am a woman.
A few days ago, I was told that my manager removed me from the trip to ensure that there was not a situation where “false accusations might be made.” I am personally offended by this and feel like the manager questions my integrity, but I am also deeply concerned that if I had gone on the trip and the point person had done something inappropriate, my manager would immediately dismiss it as a false accusation. I feel that this has serious implications far beyond my personal feelings.
The person who informed me of this witnessed the discussion that led to the decision. She is horrified and has already informed our HR of the incident, but I don’t know if anything has been done at this point. No one has spoken to me directly except the person who told me, who is a supervisor but not mine.
Is it worth my going to HR as well, even though someone has already informed them? If I feel like nothing has been done, is it appropriate to go to the HR department of the county that oversees us?
Hell yes and hell yes.
Your manager removed you from a work duty (a) because of your gender and (b) because they apparently don’t believe men and women can safely travel in a car together, and they’re willing to make work decisions accordingly. And your manager’s default is to believe that allegations from a woman are false. Each one of these is incredibly problematic and opens the company to legal liability, as well as casting doubt on whether your boss can manage employees impartially at all.
That is more than enough to warrant going to HR, but it also raises questions about how else these biases might play out at work. If your manager is a man, is he willing to have closed-door meetings with men but not women? Does he give men more face time than he gives women because of concerns about allegations or propriety or who knows what? Is he selecting who gets sent on business trips based even slightly on gender? All of this is wildly problematic and would present more legal liability for your company.
So yes, HR and then escalate to the county HR if needed. You’d be doing them a favor by ensuring they hear about it and take it seriously. Even if they’ve heard from the person who witnessed it, a complaint from you — the person who was directly affected — should carry significant weight, and sometimes that’s needed to move things along.
1. Manager came to work with Covid and infected high-risk people
My partner works in a small regional office (of a larger company) with about 12 other employees. He has worked there through the entire pandemic and has been fairly up-front about the fact that his partner (yours truly) is high-risk for Covid due to medical problems. He has also been struggling with his own health problems which put him at risk and which he has received accommodation for, as has another of his coworkers.
The problem: His manager tested positive on Wednesday a few weeks ago, continued to come in to the office, and did not disclose her positive test until the following Monday. No one knew they had been exposed, which means no one knew to quarantine from each other or from anyone else in their life.
All but three of the staff have since tested positive (including my partner and his at-risk coworker) and so did everyone they came in contact with, including me.
My issue is that she didn’t tell anyone they’d been exposed for over half a week. Maybe that’s a risk that’s alright to take for most of staff, but when you know you have employees who could suffer long-term harm? This probably sounds histrionic given we’re all vaccinated and no one was hospitalized, but this may have seriously complicated my heart condition in the long term and I won’t know until I see my doctors again next month. It’s a similar situation for the others.
Is there anything we can do? With how relaxed Covid policies have gotten in 2022, is there any consequence at all to endangering employees by knowingly exposing them to Covid without warning when it’s only the disabled employees who are going to suffer?
Aggggh, what the hell is wrong with your partner’s manager?!
Does his company have any policies on quarantining when positive that his manager violated? If not, he could still try reporting what happened to his company’s HR, pointing out that the manager acted with reckless disregard, including knowingly jeopardizing people who were medically vulnerable. Ideally he and his coworkers could also use this to advocate for stronger policies (following the CDC guidance on quarantines and masks after a positive test would be a good place to start) so it doesn’t happen again.
2. Should I lie on my resume?
I am extremely tempted to lie on my resume. For the last several years I have worked in an industry which, while not small or niche, is an industry where a lot of people know each other, even when working for competitors. While working in this industry, I have applied for promotions several times. Yet each time, I get rejected generally because Candidate B has X experience or Y qualification.
In a few circumstances I have worked with these other candidates and know for a fact that experience X or qualification Y on many of their resumes isn’t true. Sometimes the experience is highly embellished (claiming a longer time in a management role that actually held). Other times it seems that the other candidate is out right lying (claiming positions, experience, or training they actually haven’t had). I feel that if I were to address this issue, it would be dismissed as nothing more than sour grapes.
So. Should I lie on my resume when everybody else seems to be doing it?
No, don’t do it! Integrity issues aside, it can come back to bite you in really bad ways. While your current company doesn’t seem to do much to verify people’s backgrounds, that could change at some point (like if a new HR person comes in or management changes). A lot of companies reconfirm a person’s background info when they’re up for a promotion, and people have been fired for lies found on their resumes years after they were initially hired. If you care about that, you’d be signing up for a future where you wouldn’t be able to ever feel secure.
I know this won’t level the playing field when your competition is lying, but if you haven’t yet, can you talk with your manager about what a path to promotion would look like, and whether there are opportunities you can be given to strengthen your candidacy the next time one opens up?
3. Can I have stickers on my wheelchair at work?
I’m a student about to start applying for my first internships. I’m also a wheelchair user, coming up to a year of using my chair. I love my chair because it’s made a huge difference to my life and is what allows me to even consider applying for internships in the first place.
I take a lot of pride in decorating my wheelchair spokeguards with stickers. My friends give me them as presents and I also buy from artists I like at conventions. They’re very brightly colored and it’s a real range of imagery—I’ve got tarot cards, Star Trek, song lyrics, cute creatures, some small pride flags… The overall effect is really cool.
These stickers are really important to me. Like many wheelchair users, I consider my chair something like an extension of my body, and to me the stickers are sort of the equivalent of tattoos. My whole life has changed as a result of my disability which has been really difficult to adapt to not just for me, but also my friends and family. Decorating the chair together helped everyone accept the situation better.
The stickers have a lot of positives. It makes me feel better about needing the wheelchair for one, but it’s also a great icebreaker. People start conversations with me about them all the time. I believe a lot of people’s awkwardness around disabled people comes from not knowing what to do or say, and in my experience I can use their interest in the stickers to broach the topic and lead the way on my own terms.
But I’m concerned that with my stickers, I won’t look professional enough. I don’t want to be discounted in interviews for having them. I am able to remove the spokeguards, but it takes the help of someone else and I need new cable ties each time I reattach them. With my chronic fatigue, that’s a lot of effort for something I don’t want to do anyway! Do you think I’ll need to remove my stickers to have a professional job? And I was hoping the readers could let me know if you’ve seen someone with a noticeably decorated wheelchair in a professional environment before, and did it change your perception of them?
(Also, just as a note — I prefer to be called a “wheelchair user” rather than “in a wheelchair” because I feel this way emphasizes my agency and the use of the wheelchair as a tool to aid me, rather than something I am stuck in or constrained by.)
You should be fine in most fields. The stickers might feel out of sync in a particularly conservative field where a very buttoned-up appearance is expected (think banking) but otherwise I wouldn’t worry much. It’s an interesting question because you presumably wouldn’t show up to an interview wearing, say, a t-shirt with song lyrics or a tarot card on it, but a wheelchair feels different (in part because you can’t be expected to have a separate wheelchair for work).
4. Turning down an internal transfer
I had a question about possibly turning down an internal transfer. I’ve been temporarily helping with a role in addition to my current position, and as I found the new work very engaging, I applied to transfer to that role full-time. I’m still waiting to hear back, but I’m told my initial interviews went well.
However, today I heard that due to some changes from high up in the company, the role I wanted to transfer to is likely going to change substantially from what I thought it would be, and the kind of work I have been temporarily taking over and enjoying.
I know it’s generally expected that if you apply to transfer roles internally, you’ll take it if it’s offered to you. But given that the role is now going to differ from what I expected, would it be rude for me to turn it down if it’s offered to me? Do you have any advice on how I could politely do so?
Speak up now! You can turn down internal transfers, but it’ll definitely be less awkward if you do it now rather than waiting until you’re formally selected. Talk to the person in charge of hiring for the position, explain what you’ve heard, and ask if they can share anything with you about how the role might be changing. If they confirm what you heard, it’s perfectly okay to say, “My interest was really in doing XYZ, so it wouldn’t make sense for me to pursue it if it’s changing to ABC. It sounds like I should withdraw from consideration, but I really appreciate you talking with me about it.”
5. My vacation leave request didn’t save
I have a strange situation afoot. I took a vacation back in April from Friday through a Monday. I submitted my leave request and went on vacation. Now over a month later, I realize my leave request was not saved, so my time card shows I worked those days.
I have over 300 hours of leave, so there is no reason for me to not use my leave. My concern is that it will look shady if I contact HR and have them retoractivly adjust my leave days.
Thoughts on how to proceed? I guess my boss assumed I was working those days? But will she now think I was trying to cheat the system?
It’s very unlikely that you’ll look like you were trying to cheat the system! If you were, why would you go back and correct it now? As long as you don’t have an existing pattern of shady behavior, people aren’t going to assume you’re suddenly trying to cheat them.
You can just be very straightforward: “I submitted April 15-18 as vacation but it doesn’t look like it saved in the system. How do I get it corrected?”
Chris Hemsworth has a workout app called "Centr." People love it. It encourages its subscribers to follow the holistic approach to nutrition, fitness, and mind-body practice that Chris Hemsworth does. It makes being Chris Hemsworth aspirational and cements the actor as a muscular goal post for better living. This isn't an offshoot of the Hemsworth experience, but rather a core facet of his public-facing persona. Hemsworth is so singularly handsome, chiseled, and appealing that he was cast as Marvel Comics' God of Thunder in 2009 before anyone truly knew his name. That initial impression has both made and haunted his career.
Hemsworth's time in Hollywood is a diptych: On the one hand, you have his Marvel Studios efforts and that company's journey to omnipresent monolith; on the other, there's a series of films by iconoclastic directors that aim to stretch contemporary cinema's limits. The former has been successful, the latter often misunderstood, much like Hemsworth himself. The Australian actor has distinguished himself as a performer who relishes testing his physical and emotional boundaries, surprising himself and audiences along the way. He is forever capable of growth and always improving. He is an artistic force of nature ... no wonder he's got an app. Here are the 14 best Chris Hemsworth movies, ranked.
In The Heart Of The Sea (2015)
It's easy to forget "In The Heart of The Sea" is a Ron Howard film. To be fair, it's hard to pinpoint what makes a Ron Howard movie singular. The "Happy Days" actor has carved out a resume as dense as it is diverse, one that includes trite romantic comedies ("The Dilemma"), underrated thrillers ("Ransom"), and stone-cold classics ("Apollo 13," "Willow"). He's also collaborated twice with Chris Hemsworth, and it pains me to report that "In The Heart of The Sea" is the lesser of their efforts.
"In The Heart of The Sea" adapts Nathanial Philbrick's 2000 book of the same name to plumb the depths of the real-life event that inspired Herman Melville's "Moby Dick." Accordingly, the movie is a minor marvel of old-school craft, visually splendid and rife with mounting dread. It's also terribly paced and riddled with cliches. There's little that Hemsworth, Cillian Murphy, Benjamin Walker, and a pre-Spider-Man Tom Holland can do with the thin material. This is a film that would play well in a bar on mute, its images impressive every time they were glimpsed at, its story best left at sea. It's easy to forget it's a movie at all.
12 Strong (2018)
Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Michael Pena, and horse soldiers aren't the ingredients for a great movie. They should be, and that's the downfall of "12 Strong." On paper, director Nicolai Fuglsig's tale of a Special Forces team that rode steeds and took out the Taliban plays like dad-movie gangbusters. In practice, it's cliche-riddled. The script is overly jingoistic, and it's every line of dialogue is either over or undercooked. Those expecting greatness will be disappointed.
That said, enter "12 Strong" with zero expectations and its pleasures are bountiful. The battle scenes are brisk and muscular, equally rooted in war film and Neo-Western flourishes. Hemsworth is good and sturdy as the Special Forces commander, but Shannon, Pena, and — the somehow still underrated — Trevante Rhodes ("Moonlight," "The Predator") are better. At the end of the day, "12 Strong" is solid, and given that Chris Hemsworth's filmography is a study in cinematic ups and downs, a simple but solid entry deserves some commendation.
Thor (2011)
"Thor" isn't the best Marvel movie, but it is the most important one. Consider: Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), upon seeing Thor (Chris Hemsworth) for the first time, quips "Shakespeare in The Park? Doth mother know you weareth her drapes?" That only makes sense because of "Thor" as directed by Kenneth Branagh, a guy who loves Shakespeare so much he's brought six of his plays to the big screen. Branagh turns "Thor" into Groundlings-worthy theater. Its spectacle is mediocre, but its family drama is appropriately grandiose and exquisite. The sibling rivalry between Thor and Loki is far more Edgar and Edmund from "King Lear" than "Game Of Thrones." Their dynamic, one informed by admiration and jealousy alike, becomes a bedrock of the MCU's Infinity Saga, as do the themes of paternal legacy which play out between Odin and his sons. "Iron Man" makes the MCU fun, but " Thor" gives it weight.
It also gives the MCU Chris Hemsworth. A decade-plus on from "Thor," it's hard to overstate what Hemsworth accomplishes as the God of Thunder. He doesn't just give a star turn, he sets the template for 11-plus years of MCU star turns. Hemsworth was a global unknown when he got cast as Thor and the speed with which it made him a household name formed the blueprint for going A-list. Hemsworth would be better as Thor down the road, but he would never be more indelible.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
"Avengers: Infinity War" is improved by "Avengers: Endgame." It's almost impossible to separate the two. The epic swan song of Marvel's Infinity Saga is so packed with spectacle, payoffs, and bombastic popcorn cinema that it makes you believe Kevin Fiege planned every second of it. As a Chris Hemsworth showcase, "Infinity War" has few equals. From the opening moment when Thanos (Josh Brolin) chokes Loki (Tom Hiddleston) out before Thor's very eyes, the Russo Brothers' film asks Hemsworth to be an audience surrogate and bear the weight of devastating stakes. He does so and then some. Thor's arrival on the battlefield of Wakanda is an all-time Marvel moment, as is his attempted destruction of the stone-craving warlord from Titan.
That said, as a standalone effort "Infinity War" is subpar. It moves all its pieces onto the "Endgame" board with aplomb but rarely tells a compelling story. What works about the movie is everything that led up to it. The death of Gamora isn't ostensibly well-shot, but her loss is devastating because the "Guardians" films are classics. Even the most lasting moment of "Infinity War" — Thanos's snap blipping half the world's population and heroes into dust before the audience's eyes — hinges on audience familiarity. "Endgame" somehow doesn't fall into this trap so often. It's painful to admit that it and "Infinity War" aren't in balance (as all things should be), but there's no world in which they are, in this or any multiverse.
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
"A Perfect Getaway" is written and directed by David Twohy, the author of 1993's "The Fugitive" and Vin Diesel's "Riddick" trilogy. Those films are varying degrees of stone-faced, but they're not meta in the slightest. "A Perfect Getaway" is. The characters of "A Perfect Getaway" — from a self-proclaimed American Jedi played by Timothy Olyphant to Steve Zahn's upstart screenwriter — talk about what makes a good film tick, from red herrings to second act plot twists. They also discuss Nicolas Cage a lot.
If this sounds confusing, it's far smoother in execution than on paper. "A Perfect Getaway" takes three couples vacationing in Hawaii (Zahn and Milla Jovovich, Olyphant and Kiele Sanchez, Marly Shelton and Chris Hemsworth) and sticks them in the thick of a classic potboiler. A pair of newlyweds have been killed on the island. Every couple suspects every other couple and each has dark, ludicrous secrets. The film becomes increasingly convoluted but is charming front-to-back. This is largely thanks to Olyphant and Jovovich, who both tap into their characters' specific ids and spill them onto the screen through bold, Nick Cage-worthy choices. Hemsworth, for his part, workshops the icy cool aggression he would deploy with scientific precision later in his career. "A Perfect Getaway" isn't perfect, but it's a diverting trip worth booking at least once.
Extraction (2020)
There's a fight scene during the back half of "Extraction" where gun-for-hire Tyler Rake (Chris Hemsworth) fights a gang of mercenary street kids. The kids don't pull their punches, and neither does "Extraction." These youths get stabbed, slammed through car doors, and crushed by motorcycles. It's an awesome and deeply upsetting sequence. It's also a litmus test for your enjoyment of Sam Hargrave's gritty action film, which premiered to instant adulation on Netflix in 2020. In many ways, "Extraction" is the most successful Chris Hemsworth movie not produced by Marvel and the strongest expansion of his brand that isn't a workout app.
Tyler Rake is cold-blooded and nihilistic to a fault. Rake doesn't kill his aggressors so much as man-handle them cruelly: one nameless bad guy is disposed of via, yes, a rake right through the eyes. "Extraction" is a lot! Hargrave gets on his wavelength, directing-wise, as the film was instantly notable for its one-take action sequences and cruel violence. It isn't much more than that. The script by Hemsworth's "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame" directors The Russo Brothers is paper-thin at best. Any scene not involving combat of any sort falls flat, but combat is the movie's big-ticket item and "Extraction" makes no bones about it. Sometimes a filet mignon is too delicate ... sometimes you need a porterhouse. "Extraction" is rare-meat cinema, blood dripping from the bone. Take it or leave it.
Ghostbusters (2016)
The internet loves to talk about "Ghostbusters." It discusses how the film's box office failure propped up a legion of toxic, close-minded fanboys. Those fanboys claim "Ghostbusters" is an affront to art-making decency. Paul Feig's funny movie gets lost in this chatter and it shouldn't. While 2016's "Ghostbusters" isn't 1984's "Ghostbusters," no film could be. Instead, it's a very funny movie starring four very funny women (Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristin Wigg, and Leslie Jones) who cut their path through the archetypal territory. The set-pieces are good, the characters are better. For a film that's been so hotly debated, "Ghostbusters" feels like a hard movie to argue over or with. It's that charming.
Feig's film is immensely appealing in no small part thanks to Chris Hemsworth, who exudes maximum himbo energy as Kevin, the Ghostbusters' receptionist. Whether he's naming his dog "My cat" (Mike Hat) or auditioning his shirtless, saxophone-playing headshots for the crew, Kevin is as dull a bulb as he is adorable. He also becomes the film's bad guy for a stretch due to possession, allowing Hemsworth to flex both his acting and actual muscles. For a guy who's been touted as a movie star, Hemsworth is wonderfully relaxed and at home in a supporting role. He, unlike a large swathe of social media, knows this Ghostbuster team is worth backing.
Blackhat (2015)
Chris Hemsworth is, for all intents and purposes, a massive movie star, but outside of Marvel his movies have rarely been hits. These truths live in concert with one another, not giving a quarter. The Australian actor's success hasn't translated to the sort of films Marvel's success is making increasingly rare. That even applied to Michael Mann's "Blackhat," a film that should hold some appeal to audiences. Mann is a neo-noir master, his films and TV shows include pop culture staples ("Miami Vice," "Heat," "Ali") and films that blend blockbuster and art house ("Collateral"). Mann is exactly the sort of filmmaker Chris Hemsworth should work with, as his innate style is a bridge between the spheres the actor wishes to operate in. What's surprising about "Blackhat" is that it's a blockbuster built from inaccessible elements.
"Blackhat" takes a steely-eyed look at technological collapse and the meltdown of financial systems. There are no heroes to swoop in and save the day here. There's a disinterested hacker named Hathaway (Hemsworth) and two government institutions already reeling from rampant cybercrime. This is just part of what makes "Blackhat" brilliant and misunderstood: it's a blockbuster that deliberately tests the building blocks of popcorn movies only to knock them down like the terrorists it antagonizes. There's no world in which it believes things are turning out well for humanity. Chaos is inevitable. The systems don't work.
Bad Times At The El Royale (2018)
"Bad Times at the El Royale" failed as a "Cabin in the Woods" follow-up, but Drew Goddard's meta-horror blockbuster is nothing less than a game-changer. Asking the same filmmaker to comment on and transform another genre — let alone noir — is an impossible task. So if you haven't seen "Bad Times," some advice: forget who made it. If you don't know, never look it up. Focus, instead, on the star turn from Cynthia Ervio, who manages to give a naturalistic, tough-as-nails ingenue turn that's also worthy of a musical. Relish the intricate and occasionally shocking plotting. Most of all, enjoy Chris Hemsworth. Hemsworth's range has always been underrated, but he stretches every acting muscle as Billy Lee, the film's proverbial devil. Watching Hemsworth weaponizing his hotter-than-thou charms into a genuinely chilling cult leader is mesmerizing. He makes being charismatic and chiseled feel downright wrong. His performance is arguably the film's secret weapon.
Yet that's the "Bad Times at the El Royale" conundrum, in that it's a movie only built from secret weapons. Every one of its pleasures lingers more than lands, but they do linger. You need only look up the "Can't Hurry Love" sequence on YouTube to see it's been streamed more than 600,000 times for proof of this. Like the best noir, "Bad Times at The El Royale" lingers in the shadows of its audience's minds, of showier films, and of the movie which made its director famous. It's anything but a failure.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
"Thor: Ragnarok" is admired and remembered for its gonzo sense of humor, but let's get something clear: it's also the most radical Marvel movie. Taika Waititi is a self-proclaimed Polynesian Jewish filmmaker of Te Whānau-ā-Apanui Māori descent who, through "Ragnorok," tells a story about one culture burying another and how the solution isn't reintegration but burning it all up and starting over. You can't save the land when there's blood in the soil. That's a fiery idea at the core of a film that, memorably, features a character screaming "Piss off, space ghost!" and improvised monologues about Loki becoming a snake when he was eight. It's also what makes "Ragnarok" special.
Waititi understands that comedy can be angry and joyous all at once. The line between yelling from joy and howling with rage is a thin one, and Waititi never tries to walk it. Instead, he hops from side to side, synching Hulk punching wolves to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" shortly after a stark act of mass slaughter. Thor loses an eye. Jeff Goldblum has an orgy spaceship. Every one of these elements belongs and is wonderful. If comic book films threaten to become more homogenous with every passing release, "Ragnarok" is a field guide to keeping them fresh. Sometimes you have to burn the rule book up and start again.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
It's hard to critique "Avengers: Endgame," and even harder to think of it as a film. "Avengers: Endgame" is the end of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" extended to a three-hour length. The Russo Brothers' final salvo of The Infinity Saga is all payoffs, so even its quiet is bombastic. If the movie isn't rewarding viewers who showed up for this *and* ABC's "Agent Carter," it's shaking the cynicism loose from IP-driven blockbusters. Many films try to recreate the childhood feeling of playing with toys in a sandbox, but "Avengers: Endgame" actually does it. It's a dizzying accomplishment and you're either onboard from the first frame or not.
It's also impossible to overstate how crucial Chris Hemsworth is to making "Endgame" work. There's been a lot of intelligent writing about the highs and problematic lows of Thor's arc here, but the latter isn't on Hemsworth in any way. He delivers a funny, focused, and quietly primal portrait of PTSD. If he didn't, those lows would be easier to ignore. His work (and every performance in "Avengers: Endgame," really) is a reminder that the MCU's not-so-secret weapon has been their performers. There's a reason it ends with their signatures. "Avengers: Endgame" is a cinematic curtain call. Here's hoping the encore's half as good.
Rush (2013)
For a film set in the 1970s, "Rush" is remarkably ahead of its time. Ron Howard's whip-smart and exhilarating sports film about the rivalry which fueled Formula 1 Racing's glory days is made from winning parts. It stars Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl as rival drivers, the latter on the verge of his own Marvel-spurred stardom. In 2013 Formula 1 was a forgotten brand, but is now a global phenomenon thanks to an upstart class of incredible drivers and Netflix's "Drive To Survive" docudrama. The script comes courtesy of Oscar-nominee Peter Morgan, who previously made the great "Frost/Nixon" with Howard, so everything about "Rush" is geared to cross the finish line in style.
What's remarkable is that "Rush" cuts to the heart of why racing is compelling and why we watch sports. During the film's midsection, Niki Lauda (Brühl) is on his honeymoon and staring at the ocean after a deeply relaxing day. His wife Marlene (Alexandra Maria Lara) asks him what's wrong. Niki's response is wonderful and chilling: "Happiness is the enemy. It weakens you. Suddenly you have something to lose." Most sports movies steamroll their way to a moment of triumph. "Rush," asks why triumphs are necessary in the first place, and why seeing a car cross the finish line is cathartic and not calming. Humans need to see other humans striving and be reminded of their discontent, their dreams, and their desires. "Rush" is a sterling reminder.
Star Trek (2009)
Plenty of actors have foreshadowed their impending stardom through small roles. Alfred Molina infamously rubbed his fingers together before betraying Indiana Jones in "Raiders of The Lost Ark." Kevin Bacon screamed "Thank you, sir, may I have another?" during a legendary scene from "Animal House." Chris Hemsworth, in under five minutes, takes command of a Starfleet ship and hears his son born right before he passes. It's an incredible set of circumstances and Hemsworth is up to them.
In many ways, Hemsworth's work is emblematic of what makes J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek" so wonderful: its humanity. His first effort is anything but a gritty reboot or a glorified attempt to make an "old" franchise "cool." Instead, "Star Trek" hones in on what makes the original characters so endearing by highlighting grace notes which never got their due. Chekov's exuberance is expertly realized by the late Anton Yelchin. Chris Pine gets to the heart of the cocky but wounded and well-meaning daring that makes James T. Kirk the Captain he is. Eric Bana's Nero, crucially, is a villain with purpose, one whose arc provides the social commentary that's always been an artery of the Star Trek franchise's heart. "Star Trek" would've found new life with or without J.J. Abrams, but "with" yielded one of the century's more effortless popcorn blockbusters.
Cabin In The Woods (2011)
The "twist" movie was reborn in the wake of "The Sixth Sense." Bruce Willis being dead the whole time gave us "They called me Mr. Glass," the first reveal of Jigsaw, and the prestige of "The Prestige." For out money, though, the single greatest twist is the conceit that transforms Drew Goddard's "Cabin in the Woods" from a very good, pretty familiar horror film to a bonafide classic. "Woods" is a horror movie for people who love the reasons horror movies tick. It's a gateway picture for audiences that don't get it. If you were to beam it into space, there is a chance alien cultures would better understand humanity and then head Earth-ward to rent "The Shining," "Hellraiser," and so many more.
If it seems like I'm talking around the plot details of "Cabin in the Woods, " it's because they're best experienced blind with no context. Know that it's about five college students spending a weekend at someone's cabin when things go full horror movie. Then the twist occurs, and then the most surprising twist of all: the convention which transforms Goddard's movie reinforces the humanity of its core characters even as it becomes a love letter to the genre that doubles as an excellent examination of free will. Book a trip to this cabin as soon as possible.
The Avengers (2012)
The longer Marvel's monolithic cinematic experiment progresses, the more miraculous its best movies seem. For better and worse, Kevin Feige's brand is established now. Even a film like "Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness," which is unmistakably the work of Sam Raimi, feels like Raimi Trojan Horsing an "Evil Dead" sequel smack dab into Phase Four. The MCU is trying to top and reinvent itself with every new entry to remain on top of Hollywood.
Not "The Avengers," though. "The Avengers" is hungry. Joss Whedon's movie wants to take classic conventions from comics, TV, and blockbuster cinema to make their sum a brand new number. No one was ready for what "The Avengers" added up to. Multiple studios and IP conglomerates have tried to replicate its arithmetic (RIP Dark Universe), but no one has. Its collisions of character and tone still feel fresh, a decade after the fact. It's an all-timer. "The Avengers" is also, not surprisingly, the film which truly makes Chris Hemsworth Thor. It sharpens the character's sense of humor, while the familial drama — less of the main attraction than it was in Braghnah's "Thor" — plays better in brief but meaningful snippets. If Hemsworth's first appearance made you believe the Norse God existed, "The Avengers" convinces you he's a superhero. It's truly miraculous.
1. I’m drowning in work and don’t know if my expectations are unreasonable
I finally got a job in my field after graduating in 2020. It’s my first entry-level role in marketing, and in the beginning (nine months ago) I enjoyed it so much, but in the last few months I feel my employer is pushing me to the brink of my capacity without a thought of how much work is on my plate.
The best way I can describe the company work style — think of restaurants and then put that into a white collar job. No on-boarding and it feels like chaos constantly. No matter how much I try to keep on top of things, I just don’t have enough hours in the day to keep up. I try to be proactive, create structure, and work effectively but my day/work is constantly interrupted by changes or unimportant or medium important tasks that are always “urgent.” If I ignore the task to work on important things, I’m questioned in the next meeting with my manager if it was done. Or if I do the small task, then it’s bound to be a conversation about why the larger tasks aren’t getting done. Every month the parameters, frequency, and demands of my responsibility grow. I am never once asked “do you have capacity for this?” It’s just thrown to me to do.
It’s causing a huge issue in terms of my mental health. I’m emotional and angry and feel resentful. Last Friday I had to lie and say I was sick because I was up all night stressing about work. Today I got visibly irritated with my manager, which they picked up on. I cried alone in the boardroom after a meeting today because I was so angry for more being added to my plate.
It doesn’t help that the first positive feedback I got on my work was when an unofficial payband scale was accidentally shared with me, exposing that I’m the lowest paid staff member. I finally received a compliment that wasn’t directly followed by a “but.”
Since this is my first real job in my field of education I can’t help but wonder if I’m just being entitled. Is this is the way it always is for most companies? Maybe I’m dramatic and exaggerating the situation? My last job, while boring and not in my field, was at a nonprofit and a great place to work. But I don’t know anymore if they are in the wrong, or if I have just bad expectations for an entry-level job.
You don’t sound like you’re being dramatic or entitled. There are a lot of organizations that function with this kind of chaos and high workload, particularly smaller ones, but the key is what happens when you talk to your boss about your workload and ask for help prioritizing. In a reasonable organization, that conversation will lead to changes or at least clearer guidance to help you prioritize; in a dysfunctional one, it probably won’t. I can’t tell if you’ve tried that kind of conversation that yet but if you haven’t, there’s advice on how to do it here and here.
But you also might be at the point where you’d be better off simply getting out. It’s harming your mental health, you’re underpaid, and you’re crying in the boardroom. (Also, the part about not receiving praise that’s not followed by a “but” is not okay.) You’ve been there a year; there’s nothing wrong with moving on if you’d rather just get out.
2. Should my cover letter mention that my dad used to be a VP there?
So back in the late 80s/90’s my dad sold a patent to a global tech company and part of that deal was they made him a vice president. During his time there he grew the company to such a significance they were priming him to be the next CEO, but due to family-related issues he was not able to take that position, and he had to step down from his VP position altogether.
Fast forward to today and this company posted a job in a field I am looking to get into, and I am wondering if my family history with this company is worth mentioning at all, either in the cover letter or interview process? My dad checked with his old contacts from when he was there, but since so much time has passed he doesn’t know anyone on the current leadership team.
If your dad had contacts he could flag your application to, that would be worth doing. But just mentioning the history in your cover letter would be about your dad, not you, in a letter that needs to be about why you would excel at the job. There’s also a very high risk that would come across as thinking you deserve an interview because of who your father is, even if that’s not your intent. Don’t do it!
3. How soon is too soon to ask for a raise in the current job market?
I recently moved jobs in my industry for a really good pay raise (from $52k to $68k.) Due to the nature of the job market at the moment, I’m having a ton of recruiters reach out to me on LinkedIn with even better paying opportunities. I’ve only been in my position for two months at my new place, but I’ve been getting great feedback. The most recent offer was to interview for a position with a range of $70-80k. Is there any way I can utilize these offers to ask for more money at my current position, or am I still too new?
Too new. Generally you really can’t ask for a raise until you’ve been there a year, or very close to it, unless your job changed in some significant way from what you were brought on to do. You could probably get a way with shortening that a bit in the current market, but asking after only two months will seem like you’re operating in bad faith. You haven’t been there long enough to argue that your contributions have increased, so you’d really just be saying “whoops, I should have held out for more money” … not that different from if the market changed in the other direction and your employer announced they wanted to pay you less as a result. (Then again, I wouldn’t put it past some employer out there to do exactly that, and we’ll probably hear about it at some point.)
It’s just not going to go over well at eight weeks to say, essentially, “Wait, I think I should get more” (especially when “more” sounds like it may only be a couple thousand more, and these are just interview offers, not job offers).
4. My boss has been really awkward since I quit
Last week I gave notice at my job that I will be moving on. We are parting on good terms: I gave over a 30-day notice, and I’m trying to be really proactive about tying up loose ends and transitioning projects. I’m still really engaged at work and doing early morning and late night meetings (with our international teams) without complaint. I genuinely like and get along with my colleagues and believe that I am genuinely liked as well.
I feel that I am doing all of the things I can do to not burn bridges. I am simply moving on because my passion is elsewhere (I am a medical professional in industry going back to medicine).
The problem is that my boss is now really awkward around me. Avoiding eye contact, excluding me from meetings that my team is involved with (maybe this is reasonable since I am leaving, but it’s still affecting some of the work I am doing because I am out of the loop), and very, very awkwardly inviting everyone except me on my small team to grab coffee (even the people who don’t drink coffee).
I’m supposed to meet with my boss discuss how best to prioritize my time left at the company and where to focus my energy. I’m afraid this won’t actually happen unless I chase my boss down because he’s avoiding me. I’m also trying really hard to leave on good terms and not burn any bridges.
I just can’t help but wonder, did I already burn the bridge just by quitting? Should I say anything to clear the air to try to help smooth this transition? Or should I just put my head down and do my job acknowledging that I can’t control or help how someone else responds to my departure and put no more thought or energy into it?
Your boss is being an ass. Resigning a job is an utterly routine business event. It’s not personal, it’s not a betrayal, it’s just a business decision. You didn’t burn a bridge. Your boss might be in the process of burning a bridge with you by the way he’s acting, but this is about him, not you.
And not only is his reaction weirdly juvenile, it’s also incredibly short-sighted since this is the kind of behavior that the rest of your team will see and it’s likely to make them think twice before giving anything more than minimal notice when it’s their turn to leave.
You’re under no obligation to try to smooth things over, but if you want to try you could indeed chase him down for that transition meeting and be aggressively normal and see if that nudges him to reset himself. But that’s 100% optional; if he doesn’t get a transition meeting with you because he’s avoiding you, that’s very much his problem, not yours. (Although if you decide it’s in your interests to smooth things over, that’s a legitimate call to make too.)
Image enhancement is probably a good topic for a library collection. Almost all the job hunting books out there will discuss this issue. Dating books, etiquette materials, and other social type of activities often touch on this issue as well. The premise of this book is that how you present yourself is critical to both your business and personal life.
The information is weighted more for women than the information for men. Lots of makeup and hair tips for the ladies. I get the feeling if men simply got a haircut and combed their hair, they would knock that image out of the park.
I will also throw out for discussion that image issues in COVID driven workplace might make many of the job prep resources obsolete. Example: Interviewing via Zoom vs live. People, adjust that lighting and make sure you aren’t accidentally showing something distracting in the background. Even when if COVID is gone, video conferencing and interviewing will probably stay around and absolutely be a part of any image enhancement.
From Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center:
“Entropy is an exhibition of recent works by Venezuelan artist Mery Godigna Collet. Her works of art utilize a multitude of diverse materials and she works in different media from installations, paintings, sculptures, photography, and video. She challenges her viewers by consistently modifying and utilizing new techniques and unconventional materials so one can confront the ways humans survive, cope, and deal violence or by inviting one to deeper contemplation and self-introspection.”
Nelson Morales, “Reina a bordo (from the Muxes series),” 2015, chromogenic print on metallic paper, 23 5/8 x 33 3/8 inches. Collection of Bank of America, Photograph courtesy of the artist.
From El Paso Museum of Art:
“Luces y Sombras: Images of Mexico | Works from the Bank of America Collection features more than 100 photographs dating from the 1920s to present day. The collection explores a timeline of Mexico’s modern history, including the last century of indigenous roots that reflect the survival of community traditions and the reality of social marginalization. Portraits of artists such as Frida Kahlo—by acclaimed photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo—and photographs of indigenous cultures by Manuel Carrillo and Graciela Iturbide are presented alongside contemporary photographs exploring the body, identity, and place.”
“ENTRY POINTS” at the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art in Houston.
From The Orange Show:
“Entry Points features large-scale environmental pieces by six contemporary Houston artists working with creative reuse and community engagement: Jonathan Paul Jackson, Ronald L. Jones, Gabriel Martinez, Ayanna Jolivet Mccloud, Patrick Renner, and Emily Sloan. In each case, visitors enter a site-specific environment, as defined by the artist, that in some way intersects with the aesthetic or spirit of the Orange Show and its expanding campus.”
Promotional Flyer for “Inyang Essien: Sacred Seeds,” on view at Msanii HOUS Fine Art in Carrollton.
From Msanii HOUS Fine Art:
“Sacred Seeds is a multimedia exploration of cultural technologies in Black culture and history and prevalence today. The impact of fractals is explored through portraits of African threaded hairstyles paired with patterned fabrics, images accompanied by audio of storytelling rhythms of Yoruba talking and Capoeira drums, intricate haircuts, and hair designs, and estimation within the game of Mancala.”
An artwork on view as part of “Nuanced Black,” at Community Artists’ Collective in Houston.
5. Nuanced Black
Community Artists’ collective (Houston)
May 7 – 28, 2022
From the Community Artists’ Collective:
“Nuanced Black, showcasing the artwork and contributions of Black graduates of the MFA program, opens Saturday, May 7, at the Community Artists’ Collective, 4101 San Jacinto, Suite 116, with a reception beginning at 2 p.m.
Brian Ellison, photographer, cinematographer and creative director; Garrett Griffin, artist; Catherine Davila-Martinez, mixed media sculptor; and Sarah Alderson, artist, are among the participating artists.”
There’s no question it has been a dry spring for the Houston area. Much of the region south of Interstate 10 has received less than 50 percent of normal rainfall, and this dry spell has come on top of an exceptionally hot May. Add these two factors together, and soils are rather dry heading into summer, which is a solid recipe for a significant drought. But summer is not fully here yet, and fortunately for us there’s a pattern change ahead this weekend that should bring some much-needed rainfall to the region before the onset of June.
Percent of rainfall received by the Houston area since mid-February. (NOAA)
Thursday
The rain isn’t here yet, however, and Houston will experience a few more blazing hot, sunny days before some relief arrives this weekend. Temperatures will reach the low 90s for most today, with mostly sunny skies, and a pronounced southerly flow. Look for winds out of the south at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts up to 25 mph. Lows tonight won’t drop below of the mid-70s for most.
Friday
This will be another hot and sunny day, with high temperatures in the low-90s and gusty southerly winds. With increasing clouds, look for a very muggy night Friday, with lows only dropping into the upper 70s.
Saturday
The weekend will start out with cloudy skies and muggy conditions as temperatures reach the lower 90s on Saturday. For the most part, I expect rain showers to hold off on Saturday, with the possible exception of areas well to our northwest, including College Station. This will be due to a slow moving, weakening cold front that is likely to reach the Houston metro area late Saturday night or early Sunday morning. For the most part, I don’t really expect much rain in the Houston region until after midnight.
Sunday
As the front moves into Houston and essentially stalls, we should see widespread showers and thunderstorms. Overall, I’m not expecting anything too extreme, with accumulations likely on the order of 0.25 to 1.0 inch for most. Highs on Sunday will probably reach the upper 80s beneath mostly cloudy skies. Lows on Sunday night should drop to near 70 degrees overnight.
Rain accumulation forecast for now through next Wednesday. (Weather Bell)
Early next week
The overall pattern for Monday through Wednesday is one where we have an unsettled atmosphere, with the remnants of the front hanging around, and disturbances passing overhead. With this kind of pattern I expect most of the region to pick up an additional 1 to 4 inches of rainfall through Wednesday. Highs should generally slot into the mid-80s with mostly cloudy skies. We should be back into the low 90s by the end of next week, with drier conditions. So for the sake of our region’s soils, and with apologies to those who have outdoor activities, I really hope the forecast for rainfall comes through next week.
