19/11/18: Some Truly Fantastic Beasts and No More Cameos

Intro

Week 14. So, strangely this week I met a famous person. The poet Laureate was at my Uni, and somehow I wound up managing to get an interview.

Film

I went to the midnight showing of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald on Thursday, and I have to say, it was brilliant.

Not many films make me feel things, but this one really strikes a chord. The reason is down to Johnny Depp' portrayal of the eponymous villain, and while he is excessively powerful, Grindelwald is made terrifying because of his words.

Where Voldemort was undeniably a figure of evil and united everyone to fight against him, Grindelwald makes things personal. Throughout the film, he seduces almost everyone he meets, appealing to their desires, and as a result, he tears people apart.

The best comparison for him I can think of is David Tennant's Kilgrave, from Marvel's Jessica Jones. He had the power to literally brainwash people and for me that's what makes a truly horrifying villain: someone who change the way you think, without you being able to stop them.

Culture

It was a sad day for Marvel fans last Monday, as news arose of the death of legendary comic creator, Stan Lee.

Earlier this year, Lee revealed to the public that he had been fighting a battle with pneumonia and in February, he was rushed to hospital after his condition apparently worsened.

Lee was universally loved for his work, from the creation of characters like Spider-Man and The Avengers to his small cameos in most Marvel films to date, and social media has been flooded with tributes to the writer.

(Source: Wikipedia)


Lifestyle



Now for a story that has gone viral. A couple got engaged this week in the most Geordie way possible: the groom-to-be presented the ring in a Greggs Festive Bake.

Apparently, Tony Brown got down on one knee and popped the question to partner Rebecca, but the only thing he had on hand was the bake 'in case he got peckish'. According to him, he had been trying to work out how to propose for a few years by this point and the moment just felt right.

Afterwards, the pair and their two children then decided to celebrate in a fitting way: they got more food from Greggs.
(Source: Metro)


Legal Things

Donald's back at it again (sadly without any white Vans). CNN and Trump have been in legal battle after the President and Jim Acosta had a fiery exchange at a press conference.

When Mr Acosta, who works for CNN, questioned the Commander in Chief about the issue of a caravan of immigrants from travelling from South America, the President attempts to shut him down. A female intern attempted to take the Microphone from the reporter and Acosta can be heard saying 'Pardon me, Ma'am'. The White House alleged that he accosted (budum-tish) her, but footage shows this was not the case and he himself said that it is an outright lie.

Afterwards, Mr Acosta's 'hard pass' (a press pass for reporting in the White House) was revoked, and CNN sued the White House. The Judge who heard the case temporarily restored the licence, but the battle between Acosta and the POTUS is far from over.

Just today, a letter was sent from the White House saying that he will 'hold his credentials until the Judge's 14 day order is ended'. 

Do you think the President is right to hold Acosta to account or is this the enemy of free speech?
(Source: ABC)


Brexit



While this is rather terrifying, it's quite funny. While before, the country was wondering whether or not Brexit was a good idea, now many more people are sure: Theresa May's cabinet have buggered off to a man.

A little indecent and maybe not accurate, but I'm not far off. Over the course of 6 days a total of 8 MP's have resigned, 7 of them being in the same 8 hour stretch. The most important however is Dominic Raab. For those that don't know, he was the Brexit secretary, but said he cannot i good conscience support it.

By saying this, he has basically said he doesn't want to pull the trigger that may very well kill the country. If the man in charge of Brexit is saying that, then the public should start to ask some serious questions as to where things went wrong.
(Source: Sky News)

29/09/18: Why Fly When You Can Run and J. K. Rowling and the Chamber of Mild Racism

Intro

Week number 7, if I'm not mistaken. Mostly light funny stuff to talk about this week, which is fun. It makes my job easier. I probably should write about the big things, but enough people are doing that as is and, frankly, sometimes we need a bit of escapism.

Travel

Simply typing the title for this one made me chuckle. Earlier this week, a man who missed his flight, at Dublin airport, tried to catch it in a different way.

In a scene straight out of a Simpsons sketch, the passenger, in his 20s, broke on to the apron through a security door and proceeded to run after his taxiing flight, yelling 'wait!' at the pilot, in an attempt to flag the plane down. Taxiing seems a particularly apt word in this instance.

He was then tackled to the tarmac by Ryanair staff, and subsequently arrested by police. He and a woman were apparently late for a 6.50am flight to Amsterdam and, according to a Ryanair Spokesman, "were engaging with Ryanair staff at the gate and the male passenger was becoming agitated. He was banging on the window to try and get the aircraft to wait".

No-one was hurt in the man's antics, but he will appear at the Criminal Court of Justice on Thursday.
(Source: The Independent, ITV)


Film



This week a new trailer was released for J. K. Rowling's upcoming blockbuster, Fantastic Beasts: the Crimes of Grindlewald, but Twitter has found itself annoyed again at casting.

A number of disgruntled fans complained on the social media site, that the film's only Asian actor was to play a snake that was enslaved to a villain. The author hit back with a tweet stating "the Naga are snake like Mythical creatures of Indonesian mythology, hence the name 'Nagini'. They sometimes depicted as winged, sometimes as half human, half snake. Indonesia comprises a few hundred ethnic groups, including Javanese, Chinese and Betwani'.

One fan even called the casting an afterthought for the sake of representation, however Rowling has said this is not so as, according to her, Nagini is a maledictus, which is a female who has been cursed to turn into a beast, only she kept this fact a secret for 20 years. While this seems like a fair explanation, this isn't the first time creator of the wizarding world has been landed in hot water.

She has previously been criticized for her casting of Johnny Depp as the eponymous villain after claims of domestic abuse which he has denied and the fact that while Dumbledore is a gay character, this won't be portrayed explicitly. The film itself looks like it will be a success story, but whether these claims perpetuate remains to be seen.
(Source: BBC News)


Nature



Majestic right? This image of a rare white stag sneezing was caught by University student Oban van Schie in Bradgate Park, Leicestershire. He has described it as a 'one-in-a-million shot'.

The 19 year old took a motorbike ride into the country with an old SLR camera where he spotted the elusive fallow buck and proceeded to photograph the creature. Van Schie stated "I didn't realise what I had until hours later when I began editing my photos".

He then posted the shots on website Reddit where they received much acclaim, to the tune of around 90,000 upvotes on various subreddits. Many redditors suggested that the student should have watermarked the image as his own, as no others exist.

I imagine this also occurred to him some time later. He must have thought, 'Oh Deer'.
(Source: BBC News)

More Nature



If you haven't seen this video floating around the info-sphere this week, then quite frankly the rock you live under must be quite nice. This is another incidence of one-in-a-million captures, where a seal slaps a man, on camera, full in the face via the swift application of a held octopus.

Kyle Mulinder is a GoPro ambassador and was filming an advert for the product when the kung-fu mammal decided to display is crouching seal, hidden octopus fighting style. Not only had he captured internet gold, but on the camera he was attempting to advertise no less. 

As such, people have questioned the validity of the footage, but scientists have since revealed that the seal likely mistook Mr Mulinder for a rock, on which it could beat the living daylights out of it's be-tentacled prey.

However, if by some strange perversion of nature you haven't seen the clip, please watch it and see if your sharp intake of breath is high pitched enough to make dogs whine.
(Source: Newshub, Metro)


Crime



Over 10 years since "America's Dad" committed his atrocious assault on Andrea Constand, Bill Cosby has been sentenced.

The comedian was originally trialed for his crimes in June last year where the jury failed to find a verdict, but in April he was found guilty in a retrial. This week saw his sentencing hearing where Judge Steven O'Neill sentenced him to 3 - 10 years in prison and fined him $25,000 ($6,000 of which are the cost of the prosecution).

Wrists' handcuff-clad, he was taken to Montgomery County Correctional Facility. He declined to give a statement.
(Source: BBC News)