Month: January 2020

Checked into AMC Santa Anita 16
Dreadful experience standing in line for 25 minutes to get tickets (couldn’t use the app or kiosks) because there was only one employee for two lines. Then we get into an almost completely sold out show to discover that someone else is sitting in our seats with the same tickets.

Fortunately we finally found reasonable seats without too much fuss and later discovered they sold us tickets for an earlier 11:30am show instead of the 3:15 show. Annoying, but we got comped tickets, popcorn and drinks.

Watched Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019) from Walt Disney Pictures

Directed by J.J. Abrams. With Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Adam Driver, Daisy Ridley. The surviving members of the resistance face the First Order once again, and the legendary conflict between the Jedi and the Sith reaches its peak bringing the Skywalker saga to its end.

Not too bad, but not quite as triumphant as I might have liked.

Rating: ★★★½

Listened to Climate Change, News Corp, and the Australian Fires from On the Media | WNYC Studios

In Australia, the conservative press has been denying that climate change is fueling the bushfires.

For years, climate change experts have said that hotter and drier summers would exacerbate the threat of bushfires in Australia. Fires have been raging since September and a prolonged drought and record-breaking temperatures mean the blazes won't stop for weeks — if not months. 

But to read or watch or listen to the conservative press in Australia is to get an altogether different story: that it's arson, not climate change, that's mainly responsible for the deaths of nearly 30 humans and an estimated one billion animals. Damien Cave is the New York Times bureau chief in Sydney, and he recently wrote about "How Rupert Murdoch Is Influencing Australia's Bushfire Debate." He spoke to Bob about the media landscape of denial and deflection, and why critics say it's making it harder to hold the government accountable. 

Listened to Family Feud from On the Media | WNYC Studios

Bernie-Warren coverage, political hobbyism, and the rise of two American oligarchs.

A pre-debate news drop from CNN threatened the relative peace between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. On this week’s On the Media, why the feud is more distracting than illuminating. Plus, why paying close attention to political news is no substitute for civic participation. And, the origins of two oligarchic dynasties: the Trumps and the Kushners.

1. Rebecca Traister [@rtraister], writer for New York Magazine, on the inevitability of the questions facing women in politics. Listen.

2. Eitan Hersh [@eitanhersh], political scientist at Tufts University, on the political hobbyism and news consumption. Listen.

3. Andrea Bernstein [@AndreaWNYC], co-host of WNYC's Trump, Inc. podcast, on the corruption, improbabilities, and ironies of the Trump and Kushner family histories. Listen.

The segment on political hobbyism is particularly interesting and apt. Definitely worth taking a closer look at and implementing.