The last time I wrote about my “thoughts on the culture,” I wrote about the Olympics, the senatorial primary between James Talarico and Jasmine Crockett, and the controversy over the BAFTA awards. I can remember that, shortly after I scheduled the post, the Iranian War started up and I had to quickly amend my post to mention it.

In my mind, it seems like that all happened a year ago. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the date of the post and I saw that it was published on March 2nd. A lot can happen in two months!  With our current news cycle, a week can feel like a month and a month …. well, you get the idea.

It’s May Day!

It’s the first of May. For centuries, May Day was observed as a time of rebirth and a celebration of nature. It was the true Earth Day. Then the communists decided to take it over and turn into a celebration of their totalitarian ideology. International Workers Day, as it is officially known, is a day largely celebrated by people who are rich enough that they don’t have to work. Since 1992, this day has also been known as Worthy Wage Day. Again, the majority of the people celebrating have never actually lived paycheck-to-paycheck. My father, on the other hand, definitely valued each paycheck that he got and he considered unions to be a “pain in the ass.”

In the 1950s, The United States responded to the communist takeover of May Day by establishing two new holidays, Law Day and Loyalty Day. To be honest, both of those sound like communist holidays as well. It’s easy to imagine George Orwell imagining a mandatory Loyalty Day.

(Speaking of Orwell, I recently read a review of Andy Serkis’s adaptation of Animal Farm. Apparently, Serkis added a third act where a piglet named Lucky leads a revolution against the pigs. That’s the culture of 2026. It’s Animal Farm, with a happy ending and an anti-capitalist message.)

According to Checkiday, today is also Theraputic Massage Day so remember that if you’re feeling overwhelmed. You’ve earned a break.

Cole Thomas Allen Is a Dork

Last Saturday, a California teacher and avid Bluesky user named Cole Thomas Allen attempted to assassinate Donald Trump and his cabinet at the White House Correspondents Dinner. He failed, though the fact that he got near the ballroom with a gun is alarming. Also alarming is that, culturally, we’ve reached the point where this type of violence and potential violence is just shrugged off.

That said, the most memorable thing about Cole Thomas Allen is just how dorky he appears to have been. To be honest, all three of the men who attempted to assassinate Trump have come across as being incredibly dorky. I mean, Lee Harvey Oswald was definitely a nerd but even he looked like James Bond compared to Ryan Wesley Routh. As for Allen, he was apparently planning on dying in his attack and he couldn’t even pull that off.  Instead, he was arrested and forcibly undressed before being sent off to jail.  He left behind a manifesto that read like a Bluesky timeline and a selfie of himself wearing black pants, a black shirt, and ludicrously wide red tie, as if he wanted to make sure that the Secret Service had an easy target at which to fire.

Seriously …. loser!

Speaking Of Losers, How Is Maduro Doing?

I was recently trying to remember when Nicolas Maduro was removed from Venezuela.  Again, due to our hyper news cycle, It seems like it happened a year ago.  But actually, it was on January 3rd of this year.  Maduro is in prison right now.  Apparently, for a while, his cellmate was Tekashi 6ix9ine, the rapper who is so stupid that he failed his court-mandated GED test.  I’m no fan of Maduro but that really does seem like cruel and unusual punishment.

A Trip Through Time

This week, I started reading through the Shattered Lens archive. I started with our very first post, Arleigh’s review of Avatar. I’m currently worked me way through to September of 2011. It’s been interesting to read and to see how much the culture has changed over the past 14 (going on 15) years. When we started this site, DVDs were still a big deal. My first year of reviews are filled with excited anecdotes about the movie theaters that I loved to visit. Most of those theaters are gone now.

It made me a little bit sad to see how enthusiastic I used to get about certain films. I couldn’t wait to see Black Swan and Sucker Punch. I used to eagerly look forward to the Marvel movies. The Oscars used to be the center of my life. I used to watch my favorite trailers over and over again. I still do get excited about some movies. I still look forward to any new film from Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, Andrea Arnold, Joel Coen, Richard Linklater, Joseph Kosinski, and a handful of others. But the Marvel films no longer enchant me. Every trailer has the same flat Netflix look it.  Every mainstream movie seems to feature the same collection of stock characters and the same mind-numbingly banal outlook.  Meanwhile, the indie films have become just as predictable, their moments of subversion carefully choreographed so to not ruin any potential streaming deal.  The knowledge that every film will quickly be available for me to watch at home has taken the thrill out of planning a night with a movie.

The more time passes, the more I find myself ignoring new releases so that I can enjoy films from the pre-streaming era. I guess that’s just a part of getting older. Every generation thinks that the generation that comes after them is full of heathens who are destroying the culture.

Spencer Pratt Is Running For Mayor Of Los Angeles….

….and his first commercial was surprisingly effective.  In fact, my twitter timeline is full of people who are convinced he’s going to win.  Of course, my twitter timeline is also full of people who thought Gary Johnson was going to win in 2016.  As for my opinion, I’m torn.  On the one hand, I don’t think I would vote for Karen Bass, not after what happened during the January 2025 wildfires.  David Lynch died as a result of having to leave his home due to the fires.  As far as I’m concerned, that’s reason enough to vote against Bass.  But Mayor Spencer Pratt sounds like it would be a better TV show than a reality.  Fortunately, I don’t live in Los Angeles so I don’t have to vote for anyone running over there.

(I am looking forward to President Pratt’s 2044 inaugural ceremony.)

Things Are Going To Get Easier

I watched the 1979 classic Over the Edge this week so, of course, I’ve got this song stuck in my head.

Is that it?

I guess that’s it! Whatever you celebrate, enjoy the first of May!