Does the Trump regime really believe it can tell other nations how to run their societies?
Image courtesy of Flickr user Giuseppe Milo https://www.flickr.com/photos/giuseppemilo/
If this were not true before, it’s true now: The Trump regime has jumped the shark – the shark, the cow, the moon, everything jumpable.
I saw this yesterday and didn’t believe my eyes, so I did some digging. Sure enough, it’s true.
The Trump regime has informed the city of Stockholm – as in Stockholm, Sweden – that if it and its contractors intend to continue doing business with the United States it had better set aside its DEI policies.
Apparently other entities in Europe – private companies, municipalities, even nations – have received similar instructions.
At this point I have one question for the Trump regime:
Just who the hell do you think you are?
Who do you think you are, that you can require a foreign entity, be it a private company, a city, or a state, to follow your loathsome guidance on issues of internal policy? The unmitigated gall of this demand, the towering hubris, defies belief.
A few weeks ago I heard a report that during the trade negotiations between the United States and Great Britain, the United States demanded that London terminate its protections for the LGBTQ community. I didn’t think that could be right, so I did some online research. I found a single newspaper article, which used an unnamed source, so I dismissed it as not credible.
Now, I’m not so sure.
Such a demand would be entirely consistent with the Trump regime’s current irrational behavior.
The city of Stockholm, as did the other European entities presented with this ridiculous requirement, told the Trump regime to go fuck itself. Good. That was the correct response.
Because the Trump regime is like an out-of-control cur dog that is running loose and biting everybody. It needs to be yanked back on its chain.
The arrogance is breathtaking.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
In a recent interview Secretary of Education Linda McMahon made several references to what she called “A-1 learning.”
What she meant, of course, was AI learning – “AI” as in “artificial intelligence.”
Sounds like McMahon could use a dose of AI learning herself.
I’ve got to be honest, I don’t know which scares me most: the thought of Skynet teaching our children, or having a secretary of education who conflates artificial intelligence with … a steak sauce?
Either way, it bodes ill for education in this country for the next four years.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Have you seen the pathetic new videos the MAGAts are producing, the ones where they clap along with the Iggy Azalea song “Black Widow” while displaying an obnoxious MAGA-inspired message such as “My momma didn’t raise no liberal!” or “We’re getting EXACTLY what we voted for”?
You haven’t seen those?
Be glad. You can hear the brain cells dying as you watch them. The sound is like Rice Krispies.
You know, when I was a kid we went to one of those aquatic parks, the ones where the animals perform tricks for food. They had a seal that would swim out of a pool and up on a stage, where it would balance a rubber ball on the tip of its nose, toot a little horn, and then, with its handler holding a mackerel above it, clap its little flippers – clap clap clap clap clap – and the handler would drop the mackerel down its gullet.
Those videos remind me of that seal, clapping its little flippers so somebody would drop a mackerel down its gullet.
And forgive me for noticing but these videos are being produced by a certain, shall we say, demographic. That demographic would be the one where the women apply their makeup with a cement trowel so they can strut their stuff in the parking lot down at the dollar store, and the men stand around all day admiring other men’s trailer hitches, especially those with the little metal scrotum swinging off the end.
Then, at the end of the day, they pick up a $7 case of Natty Light and a bucket of Walmart fried chicken and they all get together for a romantic evening under the stars of shooting rats with the .22 down at the garbage dump.
Keep clapping, little MAGAts. Maybe somebody will drop a fried drumstick down your gullet and you can celebrate with $10 worth of scratch-offs and the dollar store special, a real glass bottle of Miller High Life.
Clap, little MAGAts, Clap!
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Marvel Studios and Disney.
Starring Florence Pugh as unhappy Yelena Belova, Julia Louis-Dreyfus as evil Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, Hannah John-Kamen as space warping Ava Starr, David Harbour as lovable Alexei Shostakov the Red Guardian, Sebastian Stan as Congressman Bucky Barnes with the super arm, Wyatt Russell as Captain America wannabe John Walker, Lewis Pullman as bipolar Robert Reynolds, Geraldine Viswanathan as implementer of evil Mel, and others. Directed by Jake Schreier. 2 hours 6 minutes. Rated PG-13. Theatrical release.
Plot summary: Three former foes, the reformed Winter Soldier, and a father figure-like limo driver team up to help Bob (aka Robert), a Super Man-like personage, lift himself from the pit of despair to keep himself, themselves, and at least a part of New York from getting consumed by the Blackness of Past Bad Deeds and Regrets which he generated.
Mladen’s take
This feels weird. I’m writing my first Movie Faceoff without the Face Off. Del, for some mealy and vague reason, chose not to see “Thunderbolts*”. Too bad, Stone, it’s a pretty good piece of moviemaking. And, yeah, it helped that Dusty and I saw the film in a Dolby-equipped theater. Lots of gunfire, explosions, concrete fracturing, metal twisting, and a crane falling from great height make for terrific entertainment when you can feel the noise throughout your body.
“Thunderbolts*” is an odd superhero film. Sure, even the B-tier superheroes portrayed in this movie are way more capable than your average Joe but, if the film has any message about the wonders of having exceptional power, it’s this: One’s mental health is important, too. It wasn’t until I mentally accepted the movie’s premise that I was able to sit back, legs reclined, to enjoy the vast chaos unfolding before my eyes on a two-story screen.
Two characters in particular made the movie enjoyable, though all the acting is good.
Louis-Dreyfus’s de Fontaine, the director of the CIA and mastermind of a program to make the next superhero because the Avengers are gone, is an immaculate evil-doer. De Fontaine takes the hunger for power and her self-image as America’s savior to the next level. She plays with fire again and again without getting burned. Hell, she even tries to overpower Bob through the con games of persuasion, motherly guilt, and intellectual bravado and, get this, survives. Impressive. Why? Because Bob is starting to realize he doesn’t have to listen to anybody about anything. Why? Because he can kick anybody’s ass anytime. In fact, he can kick multiple asses at the same time as a neat fight sequence about half-way through “Thunderbolts*” demonstrates.
Harbour as the Red Guardian is an ox of a man with a heart as big. He also has a sense of humour, ah, humor. He is the film’s light-hearted comic relief, extracting optimism from a flood of bad news at every turn and spraying the hope again and again that everything will be OK. The Red Guardian does all of that without getting campy. Stick around for the two scenes as the credits roll. He’s great in both.
I suppose the film’s focus on the debilitating effects of traumatic childhood events and the feeling of purposelessness in adult life should be commended. That both are central to the plot of “Thunderbolts*”, a film that falls squarely in the superhero genre, is captivating, sort of. Maybe it’s even cathartic. Many people believe what they see in movies is true. A superhero suffering from mental illness shows regular folks that depression can afflict anyone, that it’s not a weakness or a character flaw. But, in the film, the effort to depict the psychological impact of a troubled mind as a tangible fixture of, I don’t know, the Marvel multiverse, leads to confusing imagery and hyper-kinetic action amid the clutter of moving rapidly from one space to another with intermittent bouts of shattering glass and walls disappearing and such. It is a jumble of “Inception”-like confusion. Thank goodness for the Dolby-amplified noise that came along with those scenes. The sound effects rendered those parts of the film only mildly frustrating.
Also, I’m irritated by the asterisk in the title of the movie. Anyone know what it means? I didn’t see a footnote at the bottom of the movie poster or as the credits rolled explaining the asterisk. So, I’m guessing that the asterisk provokes the question about what’s next for Marvel. Come on, Disney, are the gang of five mostly do-gooders in “Thunderbolts*” the new Avengers or are they not?
Film grade: B
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
To quote MAGA, “The Ford Motor Company is bringing back four factories, and 25,000 good-paying jobs as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“But go ahead, liberals. Keep telling us tariffs don’t work.”
Well, OK.
The Ford Motor Company is NOT bringing back four factories, and 25,000 good-paying jobs, as a result of Donald Trump’s tariffs.
It’s not bringing back four factories, and 25,000 good-paying jobs at all.
That story is a fake, a hoax, a joke story posted on a humor website.
But go ahead, MAGA. Keep telling us tariffs work as you stand there, looking like a complete idiot, waiting for Rapunzel to let her hair down.
You people are ignorant.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
The other day, as President Brandon gleefully slashed funding for NPR and PBS, he posed a rhetorical question:
Why should a coal miner have to pay for PBS?
Ignoring the obvious implication that coal miners are too stupid to enjoy anything as intellectual as PBS, I would point out that when you use that kind of rhetorical gambit, you’d better be prepared to respond to that kind of rhetorical gambit.
So I have a few questions for President Brandon.
Why should I have to pay for you to play golf?
Why should I have to pay for your wife to live in splendor in New York City?
Why should I have to pay for a South African billionaire to wreck the government and steal our data?
Why should I have to pay the salaries of the criminals, morons, imbeciles, thieves, liars, cheats and scumbags you’ve hired to work in your administration?
You see, President Brandon, I don’t mind some of my tax dollars going toward any effort by our government to educate and ennoble the population. I feel like an educated and ennobled population makes for an educated and ennobled society, and that’s the kind of society I want to live in. You wouldn’t know anything about an educated and ennobled society, because you don’t know anything about education or nobility.
You’re just trash.
And by the way, President Brandon. I’ll bet there are lots of coal miners who enjoy PBS and NPR.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image courtesy of Warner Brothers.
“Sinners” Starring Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond and others. Directed by Ryan Coogler. 2 hours, 17 minutes. Rated R. Theatrical release.
Plot summary: Twin brothers Smoke and Stack return to their Mississippi hometown to open a juke joint after working for Al Capone in Chicago. That decision leads Smoke, Stack, and several of their relatives and friends into a confrontation – not just with racial prejudice and the poverty of Depression-era America, but a more sinister, otherworldly oppressive force.
Del’s take
Ryan Coogler channels “From Dusk Till Dawn” and “In the Heat of the Night” to make statements about racial prejudice, poverty and oppression with his new horror movie “Sinners,” out now in theaters.
The prolific writer, producer and director of films like Marvel’s “Black Panther” series, “Fruitville Station,” the “Creed” movies and even “Space Jam,” pulls no punches with his look at racism in Depression-era Mississippi, and the transformative power of music both within and outside the black community.
“Sinners” is a competent and entertaining movie, and if it sounds like I’m damning it with faint praise you are correct. While I think “Sinners” is a good movie, it has problems which I think stand in the way of it being a great movie.
The story follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played in a remarkable performance by Michael B. Jordan, who have returned to their Mississippi roots to open a juke joint with money they “earned” by working for gangster Al Capone. They buy an old sawmill owned by a local white supremist and transform it into a backwoods dive bar after recruiting several of their former friends, family members and lovers to help.
But on opening night, music emanating from the joint reaches the wrong ears – a troika of vampires led by a centuries-old Irish bloodsucker, Remmick, who lays siege to the bar. Before the night is over scores of newly converted creatures of the dark are stalking the surviving humans with the intention of creating a “new world” where everyone is “equal” – equally dead, that is.
“Sinners” in some ways resembles “From Dusk Till Dawn,” the George Clooney, Quentin Tarantino and Danny Trejo vampire thriller of the 1990s, in that it uses the premise of a siege at a backwoods bar to explore complicated themes. But “Sinners” is more aspirational, sometimes poetic, sometimes confuddling.
Suffused throughout is music – not just blues but other kinds of music – hymns, Irish folk songs and the kind of raucous, dance-worthy music one would expect from a juke and jive joint. Clearly the message is that music possesses the power to transform and uplift. But the sword of song has two edges in that can also enslave and oppress. That part of the commentary, I think, is represented by the vampires, who appreciate a good dance tune themselves.
And what of those bloodsuckers? They’re symbols – for slavery, discrimination, prejudice, and the sense of futility that overcomes a group of people who are hopelessly oppressed. They offer an egalitarian future where everybody is hobbled by the same, soul-denying limitations. I see parallels between that message and the choices we Americans are being forced to make by an oppressive and autocratic regime that would have us all become well-behaved consumers of state-approved commodities, services and ideas.
Performances are mostly very good. As I said, Michael B. Jordan is remarkable as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, somehow evincing two distinctly separate personalities for the men. Miles Caton as the callow Sammie, a gifted guitarist and singer who throws in with Smoke and Stack despite his pastor father’s admonition that music will lead him down a sinful path, is also effective. My personal favorite was Wunmi Mosaku, Smoke’s former lover, a hoodoo practitioner who reminds us that Smoke is more than just a gangster. She impressed me with her authenticity and sympathy.
The score was terrific, a memorable, powerful presence in the movie. Be sure to stay in your seat through the credits – a Marvel-style coda, this one musical, awaits.
But the movie is not without its problems.
“Sinners” takes place during the height of the Great Depression yet everybody seems remarkably flush with cash, and nobody appears to be suffering. The movie conveyed little to none of the desperate poverty of that era, a sticking point for me. Also, the dialogue was often hard to hear or understand, maybe because I’m unfamiliar with black idioms, maybe because my hearing ain’t what it used to be. Full disclosure: I use closed-captioning for all videos I watch on Netflix, Apple TV and Prime.
I think director Coogler failed to resist the temptation of stereotyping, both black and white. The whites were a little too Southern for my sensibilities, if that makes sense. I understand the concept of murderously racist people but I’ve lived in the South practically my entire life and rarely have I encountered anyone like that. Meanwhile, even the black ne’er do wells leaned a bit saintly.
I couldn’t figure out what I call the “Irish connection.” Irish vampires, Irish music, Irish beer … what did it mean? Was Coogler drawing parallels between the black community and how Irish immigrants were treated in this country? I couldn’t decide.
My biggest gripe is that “Sinners” is too ambitious. Its message about music would have sufficed by itself, but to attack oppression, racism, poverty – many of the themes of human suffering – was almost too head-spinning for me to take in as a viewer. Kudos to Coogler for trying, but I was confused by the different elements competing for my heart.
Overall, “Sinners” is well put together and holds your attention for its 2-hour, 17-minute run time. Mladen and I caught a Saturday afternoon matinee and while the theater wasn’t empty, it was sparsely attended – nothing at all like our viewing of “A Minecraft Movie.” I believe all movies should be seen in a theater, at least the first time. We have the rest of our lives to stream them on little boxes in our hands.
I give “Sinners” a score of B on the strength of its ambitions, music, and technical achievements. I’m lowering my score for some logic and structural flaws.
It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good.
Mladen’s take
The best musical made to date is poignant “Fiddler on the Roof.” The best vampire film made to date is a stunner from, of all places, Sweden. “Let the Right One In” combines friendship and menace with the most thoughtful end-of-movie slaughter recorded on celluloid.
“Sinners,” which Del correctly described to me immediately after we saw the film as a vampire musical but then avoided using it in his review, threatens neither for the title. “Sinners” is watchable. The music is terrific. Jordan handled the dual role of playing Smoke and Stack very nicely. All the supporting actors were top notch. Still, “Sinners” left me somewhat dazed and a bit unsatisfied.
Let us start with the movie’s violence. There was too much arterial bleeding depicted. It seemed like every other wound was obliged to squirt a lot for a long time. Be it a bite or a gun shot, the blood pulsed from bodies in streams like someone turning a water spigot on and off again and again. Necks gushed. Limbs sprayed. One abdomen geysered from a place where there are no major arteries. Sheesh. And, yeah, there’s a scene where, I don’t know, a dozen bad guys with pistols, revolvers, rifles, and shotguns were able to hit one of our protagonists only once and that was late in the gun battle. He, of course, put an end to all of them.
Also, there were two gratuitous sexual encounters in the movie. In the first instance, a deep, soulful kiss would have better represented two lovers finding each other after a long absence than the mating scene that unfolded. The second encounter was perfectly pointless.
Maybe the most irritating part of the movie was that a major plot point was revealed after some of the credits rolled. This wasn’t to set up sequel. The reveal actually had a direct link to the movie that had ended a couple of minutes earlier.
“Sinners” touches many themes. A young man torn between chasing a dream and staying on the right side of God as his preacher father interpreted God’s will by referencing the Bible. Slavery was abolished after the Civil War but Jim Crow reigned in Mississippi, where Smoke and Stack opened a juke joint in 1932 so that blacks could enjoy a bit of fun and freedom after the cotton had been picked. Is it better to stay human and endure social injustice spawned by something as biologically inconsequential as skin color or should I sacrifice my soul for a shot at righting wrongs such as the Ku Klux Klan?
“Sinners” illuminates or tackles these issues and others. But, that’s also what makes the film somewhat viewer unfriendly. It tries to do too much. At one point, the movie sallies deep into the past and far into the future and I’m like what the hell just happened?
“Sinners” is a movie with a conscience. It offers a unique, ambitious perspective on Mankind’s fallibilities. “Sinners” is also tough to follow, hitting the filmgoer with so much kinetic energy that they’re knocked off balance and beyond the capacity to absorb the issues it raises.
The movie is a B-.
Mladen Rudman is a former journalist and technical writer. Del Stone Jr. is a former journalist and writer.
This disgusting piece of trash is allegedly responsible for the rampage at Florida State University yesterday that cost two people their lives and left several others wounded.
It seems as often as not the people behind these tragedies are young, white, aggrieved males who have embraced a philosophy that celebrates hate, rage and violence.
It’s not just a cult. It’s a cancer, and it’s eating away at our society.
God, we need a cure … and soon.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
Image by Jessica Rodriguez Rivas. CC license.
Those morons in Congress went ahead and passed the SAVE Act.
I’ve told you about that stupid law in the past. It makes it damn near impossible for certain groups of people to vote because it requires you to have a copy of your birth certificate and your legal name has to match the name on your birth certificate.
It’s based on a law that was passed in Kansas a few years ago. That law resulted in mass chaos – tens of thousands of eligible voters were denied the right to vote. It was eventually found to be unconstitutional and the entire shitshow was dumped in the garbage can.
People who don’t have access to their birth certificates, people who were born in other countries or came from war zones, people here who born at hospitals that have since closed and they just can’t find their records – they wouldn’t be able to register to vote.
And women, who have gotten married and assumed their husband’s surname – they wouldn’t be able to vote either because their name no longer matches the name that’s on their birth certificate.
Why would the Republicans want to deny these people access to the ballot?
Because they tend to vote Democratic.
But this time the Republicans appear to have shot themselves in the foot, and here’s why:
It IS true that in general, women tend to vote for more Democrats than Republicans. But married women tend to vote for more Republicans than Democrats. I don’t know if that’s because they’re trying to please their idiot husbands, or if just being around men makes them stupid. But they do tend to vote for more Republicans than Democrats. And by making it more difficult for married women to vote, the Republicans in the House of Representatives have denied themselves access to a significant constituency.
You guys didn’t really think this one through, did you?
It doesn’t really matter because the Senate will never pass it, and even if the Senate passes it and Trump signs it into law, some judge will rule it unconstitutional.
We’ve just got to rediscover that dumb wheel time and time again.
This is why they teach history in school!
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .
This is me in 1985, standing at the door of my '84 Firebird. Wasn't I a sleek, svelte little punk? Image by Joyce Stone
Di you enjoy Thanksgiving?
I didn’t. I had a plate brimming with guilt, an extra helping of disgust, and I topped it off with a bowl of frosty self-loathing.
See, it’s the weight thing.
As in, I’m gaining weight. After 16 years of tipping the scales at 145 pounds, I’m starting to blimp out.
It’s all because I quit drinking and smoking.
Seriously. Back when I guzzled three six-packs of beer and smoked half a carton of cigarettes every day, I was a slim, svelte, lithe creature who could spring from bed with an eye-popping hangover and jog five miles, no trouble at all.
Now that I eschew alcohol in its every form, frown at smokers as I hurry by (hand over mouth-nose), and eat nothing but low-fat, vitamin-enriched fruits and vegetables, I feel like HELL. My gut hangs over my pants so extensively it’s giving me hernias. I can barely fall out of bed in the morning, and five miles along city streets is possible only if my body becomes snagged in the axle of a passing truck.
How did this evil thing happen?
“Metabolism.”
Some people are lucky to be born with a “high” metabolism. What this means is they can eat their body weight in fried lard every day and never gain an ounce, and have the cholesterol level of a Buddhist monk who has subsisted on nothing more than pure thoughts and serenity.
How nice.
The creeps.
Meanwhile, there are the Sad Sacks like me. Our metabolisms are “low.” We eat a Grape Nut and have to go purge, lest the waistbands of our slacks cut off the blood flow to our brains. Our arteries resemble root-clogged sewer drains. Our blood pressure reminds the doctor of that boiler scene from “The African Queen.”
That was my life story until 1979, when I stumbled across the secret to losing weight. It had nothing to do with cabbages.
It had everything to do with NOT eating, and what a splendid diet that was – for a young dissipated person with nothing to spend his money on but vice. You drink as much as you like, smoke as much as you like, and LOSE WEIGHT DOING IT! Never mind those chest pains and migraines. Everything equaled out on the Scales of Poundage. Sign me up!
I lived like that until six years ago, when the beer went bye bye. I actually LOST weight – a cookie for being such a good boy.
Last year, the smokes joined the beer. But did I get my cookie?
Apparently I got a whole BAG of cookies because BOOM! Instantly, my body took revenge for all the abuse I’d heaped on it. Flab rolls sprang forth. Nerves pinched. Joints ached. Pants cut into flesh. Lips started sweating – you’re in trouble when your lips sweat.
It had to be metabolism. Now that stimulates no longer forced my heart to pound sparrow-like, my other bodily functions slowed, energy consumption went down, fat stores went up. …
And the Michelin Man rolled forth.
If you hadn’t noticed, I RESENT this. I’m not trying to rationalize a return to the booze and smokes, but I WANT MY COOKIE for giving up those vices. I want to fit into my pants again.
I’m dieting now. I haven’t lost any weight, and I’m starving, and it’s Thanksgiving for crying out loud.
Give me my cookies – the entire bag, please.
This column was originally published in the Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1996 edition of the Northwest Florida Daily News and is used with permission.
About the author:
Del Stone Jr. is a professional fiction writer. He is known primarily for his work in the contemporary dark fiction field, but has also published science fiction and contemporary fantasy. Stone’s stories, poetry and scripts have appeared in publications such as Amazing Stories, Eldritch Tales, and Bantam-Spectra’s Full Spectrum. His short fiction has been published in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII; Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine; the Pocket Books anthology More Phobias; the Barnes & Noble anthologies 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, and 100 Astounding Little Alien Stories; the HWA anthology Psychos; and other short fiction venues, like Blood Muse, Live Without a Net, Zombiesque and Sex Macabre. Stone’s comic book debut was in the Clive Barker series of books, Hellraiser, published by Marvel/Epic and reprinted in The Best of Hellraiser anthology. He has also published stories in Penthouse Comix, and worked with artist Dave Dorman on many projects, including the illustrated novella “Roadkill,” a short story for the Andrew Vachss anthology Underground from Dark Horse, an ashcan titled “December” for Hero Illustrated, and several of Dorman’s Wasted Lands novellas and comics, such as Rail from Image and “The Uninvited.” Stone’s novel, Dead Heat, won the 1996 International Horror Guild’s award for best first novel and was a runner-up for the Bram Stoker Award. Stone has also been a finalist for the IHG award for short fiction, the British Fantasy Award for best novella, and a semifinalist for the Nebula and Writers of the Future awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies that have won the Bram Stoker Award and the World Fantasy Award. Two of his works were optioned for film, the novella “Black Tide” and short story “Crisis Line.”
Stone recently retired after a 41-year career in journalism. He won numerous awards for his work, and in 1986 was named Florida’s best columnist in his circulation division by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. In 2001 he received an honorable mention from the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association for his essay “When Freedom of Speech Ends” and in 2003 he was voted Best of the Best in the category of columnists by Emerald Coast Magazine. He participated in book signings and awareness campaigns, and was a guest on local television and radio programs.
As an addendum, Stone is single, kills tomatoes and morning glories with ruthless efficiency, once tied the stem of a cocktail cherry in a knot with his tongue, and carries a permanent scar on his chest after having been shot with a paintball gun. He’s in his 60s as of this writing but doesn’t look a day over 94.
Contact Del at [email protected]. He is also on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest, tumblr, TikTok, and Instagram. Visit his website at delstonejr.com .