Black Mirror, Mirror

Here’s the way life is these days:

1- People take an action and STUFF HAPPENS.

2- Those happenings become EVENTS – and the most noteworthy, salacious or even occasionally the most interesting among them are reported to us by other people and/or sources as INFORMATION, nee NEWS. (Note: Current or just friends and family gossip).

3- This NEWS of the day, whether personal or broadcast internationally, can simply be new facts or stories we’ve acquired. But way, way, waaaaaaay too often it is quickly turned into CREATIVE CONTENT. (Note: Either by the professionals currently on strike (#WGAStrong) or anyone with a cell phone)

4- That CREATIVE CONTENT is then heard, watched, produced and/or ingested via platforms round the world. (Note: Not only on TV and film, or via music, theatre and books but in far, far, far too many personal and public conversations on social media #IKnewTikTokWasGood..OrBad…ForSomething).

my brain when I try to think about TikTok

5- And then, just like that, there is COMMENTARY on all of the above, often before we’ve even had the chance to fully digest it.

6- Which then sparks bigger EMOTIONS, which fuels further CONVERSATIONS, some of which become new HAPPENINGS and EVENTS and CONTENT and even more COMMENTARY, which all feed on each other in a kinetic continuous cycle of….

US.

It all happens so quickly, and at such dizzying speed, that ultimately all we are left wondering are the answers to just two questions.

#1 – IS ANY OF THIS REAL, and if so, which part?

And —

#2– WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED – because the only thing l am now is TOTALLY LOST.

Yes, too many of us are left feeling that way by how fast it all flies by. But what’s even worse, at least from this Chair, is never quite knowing exactly what to absolutely BELIEVE (Note: Not to mention what to believe in).

I mean, even when you know what is LIKELY true on one subject,, it’s hard to believe much of what so many adamant, or even smart, people are saying about so many other things.

Especially when you are forced to get stuck in the weeds of misinformation, arguing with idiots about the ethicacy of —

DRAG QUEENS?

Seriously???

What about Shakespeare, 18^th century France and every man in the Continental Congress?

Not to mention…

CLOWNS!!!

Aren’t clowns, drag? I can testify that it is…I mean, THEY are.

When I was a very little boy I watched The Howdy Doody Show on TV and there was a clown named Clarabelle.

And she was played by a……MAN!!!

And no, she/they is NOT the reason why I turned out the way that I did.

This week saw the season six return of Netflix’s Black Mirror, and in its very first episode, Joan Is Awful, it brilliantly tackled all of the above and more.

Almost immediately we are introduced to a silver streak haired, upper mid-level tech manager, Joan – the kind of self-involved wealthy-ish supervisor of something or other that most of us have personally encountered or watched from afar being a very characteristic kind of awful to everyone in her life.

She’s bored with her loving boyfriend, bitches about her coffee to her gay assistant, rolls her eyes at having to be bothered firing an employee in person, text cheats with her oily ex, whines about her life to her therapist and then returns home that night to start the cycle all over again.

By all accounts, she IS awful.

Not quite Trump-y awful, there are new definitions for that, but awful nevertheless.

That is until she and the bf snuggle in that night and turn on their big flat screen to search for a new, of the moment TV series or movie to watch on Streamberry – the Netflix doppelganger platform where you click your remote and do the all too familiar content browse.

One seems too creepy, the other is said to suck, and still something else is too close in theme to something they’ve already watched before.

But suddenly, there is something on screen that looks interesting. It’s a new series entitled JOAN IS AWFUL, with the silver-streak haired image of a woman that looks a lot like the Joan that we see on the couch – but not exactly.

This Joan is billed as Salma Hayek with a silver-streaked wig and wardrobe that is unmistakably Joan. (Note: And yes, it is indeed THE Salma Hayek).

And when the real Joan is forced by her boyfriend to click on the fake Salma Hayek/Joan image, it begins playing out the events we’ve just witnessed in the real Joan’s life in real time, complete with physically accurate actor replacements of everyone else she has just interacted with over the course of that day.

Now forget that we are watching this episode of Black Mirror ON Netflix, which for all intents and purposes IS Streamberry, which includes the very same dulcet DUH-DUM audio tone we all so look forward to hearing once we’ve pushed our remote and chosen our viewing treasure for the evening.

All you need to know is that it all gets lot more complicated, nee confounding, nee troubling, from there – but not in a way we don’t recognize.

And it raises a few questions:

#1- Is it legal for a streaming platform to just take your life and film it? Well, it turns out it is. I mean, do any of us read the fine print of what it says when we click accept?

#2- Have any of us been filmed doing stuff we didn’t want others to know we did and had it broadcast somewhere? Well, um, we can’t really know for sure. But if you have you glanced on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook even once in your life and tittered at the misfortunes of someone else you are still part of the problem, and not in a solution-oriented way.

#3- Will artificial intelligence, aka A.I.., evolve to the point where what we did hours or even minutes ago could be broadcast to millions across the world? Well, okay, it already can be. But could it happen with computer-generated ACTORS playing US on a mainstream service like Netflix?

Well, why do you think there is a WGA strike to begin with?

I spend all this time on Joan Is Awful not merely to urge everyone to watch the opening episode of a superior series that is sort of a mash up of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, by way of Orphan Black.

Though it is pretty great and you won’t do much better if you’re looking to be entertained, diverted or, heaven forbid, prompted to think for an hour.

Rather, it’s to consider in real time what constitutes our daily realities and attempt to understand exactly how aware and present we are in them. Not to mention, what we want to do with them.

On a cosmic scale, Joan is not quite as awful as we think but in reality she is a lot more awful than she ever believed she was.

If creative content can serve any real purpose in 2023 it’s to show us that we need to dare to do better as we to share our mutual stories of survival.

Before forces beyond our control commandeer our every experience and put their own spin on what is left of our humanity.

“Mirror, Mirror on the Wall” – Snow White

12.17.17

by notesfromachair

Creeps

Who are these men???? That’s the question I keep asking and answering for myself.

In the entertainment business they are some of the men I’ve always known and either instantly disliked or was intimidated by. Though I’m sure in a few cases they might have also been men I worked with or acquaintances I’ve even liked.

I really hope this mostly remains true

So far none of them are good friends, or even friends, and I don’t imagine that they will ever be revealed as such. Of course, at this point, I wouldn’t swear it.

Up is down, down is up and these days a bigoted sociopath from my hometown of Queens – the kind I’d met many times growing up and that I can assure you I was NEVER friends with – is the president of the United States. This is the type of guy most of us loathed and ran away from, especially members of the opposite sex, who usually deemed him as CREEP.

So quaint is that word – CREEP. It was the ultimate insult in the sixties and seventies. Nowadays it doesn’t even begin to describe what has become the almost indescribable. Instead, we’re getting vividly detailed accounts of what beforehand defied description. The true definition of what it REALLY meant back then to BE a CREEP.

Creeps everywhere!

Who knew? Certainly, none of us did. Or even do to this day. Though we’re learning – kicking and screaming as we’re dragged through the mire against our wills. Which is an essential element in this area of RE-education.

It was encouraging this week that Alabama rejected Roy Moore – an accused sexual predator of underage teenage girls from multiple sources and women – as their Senator. This was the first time in decades the most red of states in the Union will be represented there by a… DEMOCRAT.

ho ho ho!

But don’t get too encouraged. A plurality of Alabamians still don’t believe his accusers and most certainly the leader of the free world doesn’t. That is, if you believe our current U.S. president is still in the lead anywhere.

Talk about tough lifts.

Which brings us to the real story – POWER.

Who wears the shoe?

Tempting as it is to lump in sexual crimes with, well, sex – experts tell us it is seldom about the act and more about domination – what one can get away with. The latter is the real thrill – something that not only leaves a lifelong affect on the human objects subjected to each violation but on many other aspects of society as whole.

Who HAS the POWER and how that POWER is wielded determines quite a bit aside from who will eventually get to target a new VICTIM (or suffer as one). It can also very much tip the scales on who gets ahead in the world and how much gets, or doesn’t get accomplished – and in what way.

These roadblocks now seem metaphorical #womeninhollywood

This week Salma Hayek bravely wrote of how she had to say “no” to deposed, disgraced and as of now not-yet-charged ex Miramax/Weinstein Co. chair Harvey Weinstein. This list included saying no to:

taking a shower with him or allowing him to watch her take one
getting a massage from him OR his naked friend (while he watched).
receiving oral sex from him
or she performing #3 on another naked woman that he would provide.

and allow me to add: No, no, no, no, NO

Salacious and CREEPY as that may seem — what felt almost as bad if not worse (because we’re so used to the sex stuff from him at this point) were the ways in which she says Mr. Weinstein used his expertise in the business to derail her career once she said “no, no, no, et al.”

The ways in which he tried to NOT make Miramax’s Oscar-nominated “Frida,” which Ms. Hayek produced and starred in, after signing an agreement to do so.

And we’re glad Ms. Hayek persevered

The ways in which he belittled her artistic work to her face while she was filming the movie.

And the ways in which he tried NOT to release the movie once it was done and it became very clear he would NEVER get to HAVE her.

Though NONE of this mirrored the way in which he and his company took CREDIT for the movie AND her work on it, at every public turn of the film’s release.

Though trust me, she tells the tale far better than I do.

As do women like Mira Sorvino and Ashley Judd. Oh sure, right now most of us are all #MeToo and #MeTooSupporters. But there was little guarantee of this when both actresses were first speaking to Ronan Farrow in several New Yorker exposees that broke the story nationwide a mere handful of months ago.

Anyone involved in any type of power position in the film biz during the last 20 plus years or so (as I have occasionally been) has heard numerous stories about those who were in the life is too short to work with category. Those whom you wanted to stay away from at all costs, if possible. The ones who were impossible, difficult and a NIGHTMARE on a project, who would get you derailed.

Kind of makes you think about how actresses are perceived #iseeyouKatherineHeigl #whatsthetruth

Well, as it turns out, both Ms. Judd and Ms. Sorvino were two names I had heard were impossible nightmares and difficult over the years – as had many of my friends.

I never gave it much thought since I hadn’t specifically been in a position to hire or reject either one of them on anything. I just took it as merely a well, perhaps – to be filed in the back of my mind as a small red flag if ever the opportunity arose for myself or any of my friends to choose, or not choose, to work with or hire either one of them – ever.

So, imagine my surprise – and that of many others, I suspect – when these particular tweets of support and testimony finally came this week – decades later – corroborating the smear campaign against both Ms. Sorvino and Ms. Judd.

Kind of makes you wonder what we could have seen from these ladies

From Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings – one of the most successful film trilogies ever made –– on the two actresses:

I recall Miramax telling us they were a nightmare to work with and we should avoid them at all costs. This was probably in 1998… I now suspect we were fed false information about both of these talented women – and as a direct result their names were removed from our casting list…

And this tweet from Terry Zwigoff, director of Dimension Films’ Bad Santa:

https://twitter.com/realzwigoff/status/941864029051428866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdeadline.com%2F2017%2F12%2Fterry-zwigoff-peter-jackson-harvey-weinstein-blacklist-mira-sorvino-1202228593%2F

Needless to say both actresses tweeted their appreciation to finally know the truth after years of rumor and innuendo, and publicly thanked both directors for coming forward in support.

And yes it’s true, it does take courage even now with a deposed mogul like Mr. Weinstein, to volunteer the behind-the-scenes dirty laundry stories of how decisions are made at the major studio level. Other power players wonder, if the goings for them were to get tough, if even you – a financially and/or creatively successful director of hit movies – can be trusted to hire on a still incubating new project of theirs. Why take the risk? Is it worth it? Surely there is someone as equally talented. Not to mention…cheaper.

No, it’s not in the same league as being the victim of a sexual predator. But it’s a real good example of

who these men are
how they operate
and exactly what they are capable of.

In business, that is. You, well, now know some of the rest.

#WatchYourBack. But more importantly, #WatchYourColleaguesBack.

Eric Clapton – “I Shot the Sheriff”

notes from a chair

Tag Archives: Salma Hayek

Black Mirror, Mirror

Creeps