Eric Houstoun

its truly shocking how disconnected from reality people with that level of wealth truly are.

if you go to bed, hulk hogan will die.

YouTube video by unvmebad86 George Washington

Happy July Fourth. youtu.be/sbRom1Rz8OA?...

thank you for reminding me that this exists.

Yeah, I mean I'm pretty doom and gloom about it a lot of times but I'm frequently reminded that people to do show up for movies but the trends are changing. I think movie theatres will continue to have a place in the ecosystem but will have to adjust to make showings feel like more of an 'event'

There's still some really great independent theatres out there and from my experience they've even had a pretty consistently decent patronage. My favourite ones are the Revue, the Fox, and the Paradise.

In typical Doug Ford govt fashion, there's big changes being proposed on the Friday before a long weekend. Once again, these changes implicate conservation authorities. And once again, there are few details in this press release about what these changes actually are

news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...

It’s official. Studio Execs are now using Chat GPT to evaluate screenplays. Here’s proof from a friend’s pass letter:

Not only is it vague and unhelpful, it references one specific — an antique camera.

The problem?

THERE’S NO ANTIQUE CAMERA IN THE FUCKING SCRIPT.

I can't think of anything I struggle more with than trying to stay present and in the moment when I know something awful is going to happen. I wish I had the poise and grace to just accept things and take things as they come but it's awfully hard.

Nothing makes David Zaslavs visionary leadership more apparent than his decisions to change HBOs name twice only to bring it back to being HBO Max. Truly brave leadership.

Somehow I missed that Evan Solomon got elected. Kinda wild that his ethics weren't up to the standards of the CBC but are apparently good enough for the Liberal party.

I guess thanks to Trump conservatives can pack it in for yet another election. Guess that's what you get for cribbing your notes off an unhinged narcissist. Tough luck.

AI coming is not inevitable, AI does not even have genitals

💯

No problem, just lookin out 😉

*Dee Wallace

Nobody who actually loves studio ghibli would be giving that ai shit so much as a second look. The problem is, too many people don't love art, they love products.

It's the banner for a video entitles "Measles without fear, pediatric perspectives "

Here's the messaging right now over at Childrens Health Defense, RFK Jr's organization.

The U.S. functionally eliminated measles in 2000 and has gone without a measles death since 2015.

The current outbreak has killed two, including a six year old.

Layoffs Hit Unbelievable High Thanks to Trump and Musk Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cuts to the federal government have caused a record-breaking surge in layoffs.

BREAKING: Job losses spiked a whopping 245% in February.

This is higher than any month since July 2020 (the middle of pandemic) and the highest in any February since the Great Recession of 2009.

Canada Goose facing off against a bald eagle. Photo credit Mervyn Sequiera.

mood

There are many cynical reasons for expressing why empathy is important, many practical and utilitarian ones, but fundamentally it is about being human and is the cornerstone of society. Empathy enables us to recognize one another and to move forward. Nothing can exist without it.

So that's it, listen to the part of you that needs to create and embrace it. Avoid the traps in your mind that will stop you before you even start, the internal critic trying to protect you from failure. It's not about succeeding anyway. For anyone going through something similar, I hope this helps.

Ultimately the point is to put as much of myself into creating things that I can, some of that may make ripples in the world around me, others will just help me feel like a person. The more I'm able to make, the more both things can happen.

The challenge for me moving forward is to be aware of these traps and remember that the goal first and foremost is to create things for my own sake, for my well being. Some of those things may make it out to a wider audience and may resonate with others. Some won't, and that's ok too.

What I was helped to realize is that the desire to use art to connect with the world ends up creating mental traps that can prohibit me from even sitting down to create anything at all. Traps like "this won't matter to anyone" or "you're just going to abandon this before it's finished".

This is exacerbated when I give up on a project, the time invested feels wasted. That creates pressure to complete projects, because if it doesn't go out to the world then it can't serve its purpose. And if it can't serve its purpose it's pointless? But what then about the value for my well being?

So this creates a central tension in my desire to create art. Because I want it to resonate and find an audience, but I also need to create it for my own well being. The result is an internal struggle where I question the quality and importance of what I'm making before it's made.

The added layer to what makes artistic creation so important to me though is its ability to connect with others, as a means to find connection with the world. This feels especially important as the world seems to be getting less connected. Communication being curated and siloed.