The photo actually shows an image of a comedian that often circulates following mass shootings.

'The animal with the failed collar is traveling with another animal with a functional collar'

The Mountain Lion Foundation estimates there are 4‚500 mountain lions in the state of California.

Asked for a 60-78 month sentence

The presidential lineup is charging attendees for photos

Our selection of the top 10 Living Colour songs showcases the highlights of a versatile American band that has captivated audiences with its award-winning and critically acclaimed music. Often categorized as a hard rock ensemble‚ Living Colour’s sound is a masterful fusion of heavy metal‚ alternative rock‚ jazz‚ hip-hop‚ punk‚ and funk. The band’s formation took shape between 1984 and 1986 under the leadership of guitarist Vernon Reid‚ but it wasn’t until 1986 that they solidified their lineup with Vernon Reid on guitar‚ Corey Glover as vocalist‚ Will Calhoun on drums‚ and Muzz Skillings handling bass duties. In the subsequent The post Top 10 Living Colour Songs appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

Movies &; TV Star Trek: Discovery Star Trek: Discovery’s Doug Jones Hints Saru Might Make Appearance in Starfleet Academy The actor teases what’s in store for his Star Trek character By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on March 28‚ 2024 Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+ icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Credit: Michael Gibson/Paramount+ The final season of Star Trek: Discovery is almost here‚ and one can’t help but hope that the characters we’ve met over the course of the show’s five seasons might make appearances elsewhere in the Star Trek franchise. On that front‚ there’s some good potential news: During a roundtable discussion Reactor attended‚ Doug Jones‚ who plays Saru on Discovery‚ teased that we might see more of the Kelpien. “Saru‚ he’s been on a trajectory of one promotion after another‚ it feels like‚” Jones said. He added with a sly smile‚ “He’s reaching a point and maybe an age and a maturity and a wisdom level‚ where he might be asked to come be a guest speaker at Starfleet Academy… perhaps.” Jones’ comment was vague enough that it could be interpreted as Saru joining Tilly (Mary Wiseman) at the Academy during the upcoming season of Discovery. I’d put my 21st-century money‚ however‚ on Jones teasing that Saru will be at least be a guest star on the new Star Trek series‚ Starfleet Academy. If that is the case‚ his presence further supports the assumption that the show will take place in Discovery’s timeline (aka 3190‚ after the Burn). Credit: Marni Grossman/Paramount+ One thing we know for sure‚ however‚ is that Season Five of Discovery will see the relationship between Saru and his paramour‚ the Vulcan T’Rina (Tara Rosling)‚ grow. “At the last episode of Season Four‚ we finally held hands‚ and the crowd went nuts‚” Jones said about Saru and T’Rina’s romance. “That was so sweet to see such an innocent love story unfolding.” Jones added that the relationship will continue to unfold in Season Five. And while the actor was coy as to what will happen‚ he did hint at what’s in store for the two: “They face their challenges. The closer you get‚ the more conflict you might find‚ in places you never thought to look for it. With Saru’s career advancement‚ opportunities coming‚ and how he weighs that out against his relationship with T’Rina. Can they work in unison? Can we all do this together and get the most out of career and relationship‚ and love? I think they’re going to find a way. I hope so.” You watch the first two episodes of the fifth and final season of Star Trek: Discovery when the show premieres on April 4‚ 2024 on Paramount+. Subsequent episodes drop weekly‚ with the finale airing May 30‚ 2024. [end-mark] The post <;i>;Star Trek: Discovery<;/i>;’s Doug Jones Hints Saru Might Make Appearance in <;i>;Starfleet Academy<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

Book Recommendations Mark as Read On Letting Go of the Idea of “Keeping Up” “So‚ what have you read lately?” It sounds like an innocent question‚ but it came with a pile of expectations. By Molly Templeton | Published on March 28‚ 2024 Photo by Jean Vella [via Unsplash] icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Photo by Jean Vella [via Unsplash] The first time I felt the tiniest spark of competition where books and reading are concerned‚ I was probably eight years old‚ thrilled to bits by a librarian’s instruction to put a gold star inside a construction paper folder—one for every fairy tale I read. There were at least two long rows of stars by the time I was done. I was only competing with myself: I wanted as many stars as I could possibly get‚ and given my love for fairy tales‚ this wasn’t particularly difficult. But lately—and by lately I mean the last decade‚ give or take a few years—I’ve noticed a different sense of competition about reading. And competition isn’t even exactly the right word; it’s not like people are jumping online to yell about being first to finish the next Brandon Sanderson tome. (If they are‚ don’t tell me.) But there’s no word that means exactly what I see and feel. It’s a combination of obligation‚ social performance‚ genuine curiosity‚ love of books‚ and a desire to be involved‚ plus a dollop of early-adopterism and cheerleading.  All of these things are good‚ in balance. But they’re also easy to knock out of balance‚ shifting the vibe of talking about books online from “this thing I want to do” to “this thing we wind up feeling like we have to keep up with.” Reading itself should be productive‚ in the sense that it produces ideas and feelings and thoughts and empathy and a lot of other things‚ too‚ across the whole range of human experience. The kind of productivity I mean is the quantifying kind‚ the kind that wants to get to a certain number of books read‚ or tick all the bingo boxes‚ or simply read more books than someone else did. Sometimes it arises in the form of a complaint: “Ugh‚ I’m so behind on my Goodreads challenge.” For one thing‚ this is just a branded way of saying “I’m not reading as much lately as I’d like to be.” This is Goodreads inserting itself into your reading life and reshaping the way you talk about books. But it’s also more than that. It’s turning reading into a task‚ a tickybox‚ a number of pages or books. It’s setting a productivity framework around something that doesn’t need it. Yes‚ you set your own goals‚ but even if you’re entirely self-directed and pay no attention to the norms or the huge numbers of books other people read‚ some of us aren’t quite so independent. Those numbers influence people. They make reading very fast‚ tearing through book after book‚ seem like the norm.  If you read slowly‚ that’s okay. If you read very few books‚ that’s okay too. The secret truth is that there is absolutely no reason to care how many books you read in a year‚ unless you like stats and numbers and tracking things and in that case‚ might I suggest a spreadsheet and doing your own tracking‚ far from the Goodreads crowd. About a decade ago‚ I had only just discovered that a person could stumble into rooms where people hung out‚ discussing books. They were also discussing authors and gossip and how bad the box wine was and how long the subway ride home would be‚ but they were there because of books‚ because these rooms were bookstores during author events. I had moved back to New York‚ which had a lot more bookish events than the college town where I’d been living. I got myself a bookstore job and became part of the book ecosystem‚ delighting in access to galleys and trying to find just the right book for customers. It was a world I had not expected to find myself in‚ and I loved it. I loved the conversations and the enthusiasm and the lit gossip and the people‚ and I loved feeling like part of it. But there was a weird side to it‚ sometimes. There could be a sense of just having to hold opinions about certain books or authors‚ or having to have already read new books. And then the weirdest thing happened: I found myself in a situation where I simply did not want to talk about books. At all.  This was an extremely strange experience‚ anathema to everything I’d ever felt where books were concerned. But in the basement of a bookstore‚ a friend’s friend asked‚ an intense gleam in their eye‚ “So‚ Molly‚ what have you read lately?” It sounds like an innocent question‚ but it came with a pile of expectations. This person kept up with everything. This person wanted to know what they could tick off the list with me. Had I read Big Book X? Had I gotten my hands on an advance copy of Massive Novel Y? Did I have opinions about the books a person in my job “ought” to have opinions on? I did not‚ and what’s more‚ in that moment‚ I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to talk about what I’d been reading in the way this person wanted me to respond. I suddenly wanted to hold my cards‚ and my books‚ extremely close to the chest. Reading felt gamified‚ like a thing where you went down a list of titles and got points for which ones you’d read. This was no longer gold stars inside a folder. This was something else entirely. This vibe has crept into so much online book discourse. People stress about not having time to read—a fair complaint‚ but one that has a different tone when the subtext (or text!) is “I’m getting behind.” Behind on what‚ and to whom? Who is served by all this stress‚ by reading challenges and goals and lists and shelfies and book hauls? What is it for? What are we getting out of it? What difference does it make if you read a book that came out last week or one that came out last century? If these things bring you joy‚ by all means: continue. If you just don’t even notice them: Bless you‚ I envy that ease! But if‚ like me‚ you find both that you can’t ignore the social-media side of reading and find it sometimes overwhelming‚ and depressing‚ and makes you feel like there’s a right and a wrong way to read a book‚ please: Give yourself space. Step away from the internet. Ignore the websites that want you to rate and review art like it’s a toothbrush or a new pair of sneakers. Don’t even keep a list of books read‚ if you don’t want to. What we get from reading is not quantifiable‚ not a statistic to earn or an item to collect. It’s an experience‚ a process‚ an education‚ a gift. You will get something out of it whether you read 10 books a year or 100. And no one has to know‚ either way.[end-mark] The post On Letting Go of the Idea of “Keeping Up” appeared first on Reactor.

Lists movies Five Films With Unexpected Genre Shifts One minute you’re watching a crime thriller or historical drama‚ and the next you’re knee-deep in sci fi or horror… By Lorna Wallace | Published on March 28‚ 2024 icon-comment 1 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed The vast majority of films remain the same genre (or the same mix of genres) throughout their entire runtime‚ but every so often a film that seems to be telling one kind of story switches to another part way through. There are‚ of course‚ a few films where this abrupt change is expected from the beginning: Anyone pressing play on James Cameron’s Titanic (1997)‚ for instance‚ has it in the back of their mind that the romance between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) is going to be rudely interrupted by an iceberg‚ turning the love story into a disaster/survival story. Below I’ve compiled a list of five films which I think brilliantly execute unexpected genre shifts. Some may consider the following discussion of these films to be spoiler-y—I’ll try to avoid major plot points‚ but if you don’t want to know anything about the twists and turns of these films‚ consider yourself warned as I will mention (or at least hint at) the genre switch in each. (The same goes for the trailers below‚ most of which tease or reveal a bit more than you might expect…) From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) I’m kicking this list off with one of the best-known genre shift films: Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn. The film starts off as a tense crime story‚ with brothers Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Quentin Tarantino‚ who also wrote the screenplay) on the run for robbery and murder. Wanting to cross into Mexico‚ they kidnap a father (Harvey Keitel) who is vacationing with his two teenage children (Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu) and force the family to smuggle them across the border. About halfway through the movie‚ the group make it to the Gecko brothers’ destination: the Titty Twister‚ an isolated strip club in the desert. There’s a palpable feeling that sh*t is going to hit the fan‚ but the form that sh*t takes completely changes the film’s genre. If you’ve managed to avoid the twist of this movie for all these years‚ then here’s your warning to stop reading… It turns out that the Titty Twister is actually home to a group of bloodthirsty vampires who feast on their patrons‚ forcing our unlikely gang to work together to avoid becoming dinner. From this point on the film becomes an enjoyably violent B-movie; it’s pulpy‚ it’s bloody‚ and it’s full of fangs. One Cut of the Dead (2017) I’m a big fan of zombie movies‚ so I was down to watch One Cut of the Dead‚ which was written‚ directed‚ and edited by Shin’ichirô Ueda‚ just based on the zombie aspect; I had no idea going in that the film would be playing around with genre. Although some people think that the zombie genre is nothing but a mindless shambling corpse itself these days‚ I promise that One Cut of the Dead offers a fresh take. The film starts with a single continuous shot that lasts 37 minutes. We follow a group of actors and crew as they attempt to make a low-budget zombie flick‚ which isn’t going so smoothly thanks to the demands of intense director Takayuki Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu). But his anger issues are soon eclipsed by the appearance of actual zombies. Desperate for the film to be a hit‚ Higurashi recklessly insists on keeping the camera rolling. That’s all the plot I’m going to reveal‚ because this film really benefits from the element of surprise. Just trust me when I say that it becomes both innovative and funny‚ and while its first section may feel clunky‚ you’ll be rewarded if you stick with it—I even found myself wanting to restart it as soon as the credits rolled! The Prestige (2006) Personally I find Christopher Nolan’s films to be pretty hit or miss‚ but The Prestige is a definite hit in my eyes. Based on the novel by Christopher Priest and set during the Victorian era‚ this period drama film follows the bitter rivalry between two stage magicians‚ aristocratic Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and working-class Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). The animosity between the pair feels raw and real‚ and their various magic tricks are impressive and intriguing. One trick in particular is more intriguing than all the others though‚ that being Borden’s “The Transported Man‚” which sees him seemingly teleport across the stage. Angier is obsessed with finding out how this illusion is done and pulling that string eventually leads him to inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie—a truly brilliant casting choice). The film enters genre-switch territory at this point… and that genre can probably be guessed given the film’s inclusion of a fictionalized version of Tesla. I can understand why the introduction of certain speculative elements might be off-putting to some who’d expected the film to continue as a psychological thriller (especially those unfamiliar with the original novel)—people who dislike The Prestige often cite it as one of their main criticisms‚ along with Angier and Borden’s destructive obsession making them unlikable characters (which I think is the point!). To each their own‚ but I leaned in to all the various twists and loved it. Overlord (2018) Overlord opens with an American paratrooper squad being shot down over France in a scene that is so chaotically brutal that it’s on par with battle scenes from Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016). Four surviving soldiers—played by Wyatt Russell‚ Jovan Adepo‚ John Magaro‚ and Iain De Caestecker—band together to complete their mission to destroy a Nazi-controlled radio tower near Normandy. A good portion of this film plays like a typical World War II movie—there’s the evasion of Nazi forces‚ the infiltration of a base‚ and the befriending of a French villager—but the film eventually winds up in the realm of sci-fi and horror. Our soldiers discover that the Nazis are performing some disturbing scientific experiments—but what exactly those experiments are I’ll leave for you to discover. All you need to know is that their scientific tinkering leads to some gory body horror‚ but it doesn’t feel that scary. Director Julius Averywent on to make The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) after all‚ so the scares tend to lean towards entertaining silliness rather than nightmare fuel. Bone Tomahawk (2015) S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk has a classic Western setup: it’s the late 1800s and the sheriff of a little town called Bright Hope must lead a rescue party into the wilderness after three people are captured by unknown (and allegedly cannibalistic) assailants. For a while the film proceeds like a regular Western—there’s horses and campfires and shootouts‚ oh my! Our classically heroic Sheriff Hunt is played by Kurt Russell‚ who is always a joy to watch (particularly when he’s sporting fun facial hair!)‚ but the posse soon develops an uneasy dynamic. There’s Deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins)‚ who is well-meaning but perhaps a little too old for the mission‚ Arthur O’Dwyer (Patrick Wilson)‚ who has a severely injured leg but insists on coming along because his wife is one of the abductees‚ and John Brooder (Matthew Fox)‚ whose morals might not be quite in the line with the others. Once the film hits its third act‚ things take a turn for the truly horrific. Now‚ it’s fair to say that classic Westerns tend to have a lot of killing in them‚ but it’s not usually can’t-look-at-the-screen grisly. Bone Tomahawk‚ on the hand‚ offers up such gruesomely stomach-churning visuals that it turns into a full-on horror movie. If that sounds like your can of campfire beans‚ enjoy! Have you got any recommendations of films that succeed in pulling off an effective or surprising genre shift? Drop them in the comments below![end-mark] The post Five Films With Unexpected Genre Shifts appeared first on Reactor.