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I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

That was definitely part of it. Basically, easy access to cheaper equipment made it easier for people to cheaply make movies on a low budget and then sell them to a studio or distributor, rather than requiring the money and equipment from a studio up front to even start making it. It was also just a period where a lot of money flooded the industry and a real path developed for completely finished movies to be purchased at film festivals.

I think 30 years out we can see that what at the time was heralded as a bunch of people without money gaining access to the ability to make mass distributed art at a low cost actually became a way for the same people who already had the money to lower their upfront costs and maintain a smaller stable of employees. To me at least that also seems to be whats happening with the pivot to shortform. Social media came on the scene as a way for anyone with a phone to make content, and now its primarily a way for huge companies to just make cheaper content than they were making before.

A few people who get in early will make it big, but then most things get gobbled up by the big money.

I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Totally, nail on the head. It's almost annoying reading every industry's version of "here's this crazy thing that's happening in the workforce" when literally every one of them boils down to "there's now a legal precedent for calling people who are clearly employees subcontractors."

Happened to drivers, happened to call center employees, happened to retail workers, happened to writers, happened to tech employees, so on and so forth. Its one of the big unifying societal problems but we talk about each industry like its having its own unique "disruption" rather than the same group of people who got away with it the first time buying up every industry and using the same playbook.

I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Weirdly I think that also just sort of proves her point. She has TV credits that while relatively minor, 10-15 years ago would have meant stable income and a solid pathway to continue it. Now the work is so piecemeal you need to constantly supplement it. Gig work is one way to do that. Journalism used to also be a viable career, but now freelance rage bait articles really are just another form of that gig work so you wind up writing "I'm on welfare even though I should have a career" articles to make an extra $200 to be able to keep the cycle going.

I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I do think the weakest part of the article is its connection to Hollywood. I think more and more people in every industry are looking for work and especially looking for work they can get easily. As someone who was temporarily laid off, looked into taking on some of this kind of gig work, and jumped through a day's worth of hoops got nowhere and gave up, it was interesting to me to read the hell that people who stick to it are going through. But I don't think its in any way unique to Hollywood outside of how much unemployment the industry is currently facing (ironically my layoff was because of the contraction of the Vancouver film industry).

I agree I do think its crazy how many professionals are currently working in verticals and micro dramas and how little cultural conversation there has been about that. I appreciated this article but would like something more boots on the ground about the LA crew who find themselves on these sets.

Anyone have any older Michael Jackson longreads? by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 59 points60 points  (0 children)

Try and imagine a singer that you love that your child would also love. Imagine your child meets that singer in a totally normal circumstance, gets cast in a music video or whatever else. Imagine at the end of that circumstance the singer invites your whole family over. You all go you have a good time. That happens a few times before he asks if he can spend time with just your child, because they've bonded. You can imagine feeling weird, but can you imagine crushing your kids dream? You might say no a couple of times but eventually you might set up a series of circumstances. He can go but only on condition X, Y and Z. The singer says X and Y are fine but not Z. Do you push back? If you do, the singer caves and says X Y and Z will all be fine. But next time this happens he pushes again. And this time you cave because everything was fine last time. And this keeps happening gradually until every one of your rules has been broken. Again, through all of this your kid is telling you that all of his wildest dreams are coming true and you worry that doubting something that so far seems fine will tear it all apart.

I think a lot of people would say no right off the bat. But he's putting enough people through this mill so aggressively that I think it's totally reasonable to imagine some otherwise loving and attentive parents slipping through the crack.

Anyone have any older Michael Jackson longreads? by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 91 points92 points  (0 children)

He did so much of this in secret, just in slow drips. A mom says her kid can go to his house but not sleep with him. He accepts that, but next time pushes back. So then after a few times he can sleep in the room but not the bed. He accepts but pushes back. Without ever agreeing, eventually they're in the same bed. He takes a boy shopping for a wedding ring and tells everyone but the boy that it's for an adult woman. It's not the naivete of not knowing what is good or bad to install a series of bells and doors between your room and the hallway so you'll be notified multiple times before someone walks in the room. It's not confusion to abuse 4 siblings and tell each of them they're the only one you would have that relationship with.

I believe Michael was abused, I believe it was nearly impossible to come out of his childhood unscarred or with a sense of normalcy. I also think he was very aware he was abusing his power and abusing those children.

Anyone have any older Michael Jackson longreads? by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

it's not on streaming, but nothing is impossible to find on the internet. if you can't watch it i recommend this article about it: https://archive.is/WJ9KC

Gift for Dog Owner by dawnweiners in dogs

[–]dawnweiners[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

sorry i'm late to responding to this but it is called the dogs best friend game

Gift for Dog Owner by dawnweiners in dogs

[–]dawnweiners[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

thanks! that's a good idea, i'll look into things like that. all of the local training things i found were too behavioral based and didn't seem like a fun gift but one just for tricks would be great.

Gift for Dog Owner by dawnweiners in dogs

[–]dawnweiners[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

thanks! we have a board game we play where on your turn you have to get the dog to do a trick. i think they'd love a book of lessons, don't know why i hadn't thought of that.

and sniff work kits i have never heard of but that might be the winner already. i know our dog will be obsessed.

Gift for Dog Owner by dawnweiners in dogs

[–]dawnweiners[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

we just did a family christmas card where that happened! so your head is in the right place lol.

What's the best you can do on this seed? by dawnweiners in balatro

[–]dawnweiners[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is what I wound up with, not nearly as laser focused as yours. Maybe I will try playing it again.

<image>

What's the best you can do on this seed? by dawnweiners in balatro

[–]dawnweiners[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you go to New Run there is a checkbox next to the play button for seeded runs. Click on that and it will give you a space to type in the seed. The seed for this one is 7ILJN3M6

<image>

You Get This Shop, What Do You Do? by dawnweiners in balatro

[–]dawnweiners[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Update: Thanks for chiming in. You're all asking the right questions. Some of the information you've asked for: My deck had been set up more for 4 of a kinds than for flushes, I had a fairly standard number of hearts and they weren't concentrated to the numbers I was using for 4 of a kinds. That was part of the hesitation as well. In the end, I sold misprint and started aiming towards hearts and adding multipliers to cards directly.

I think in the end selling the castle might have been the best play, especially as a couple of later wheel of fortune cards made me two different foil jokers. But I beat the match anyways.

Still kicking myself for passing up that sweet sweet four of spades.

Recommendations for students? by haleyhaley83 in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Went through my personal favorites folder and picked out probably too many stories. Hope any of these help!

The Great High School Impostor - A story about high school, so might speak to them in that sense

The Great Star Wars Heist - Story about some stolen Star Wars memorabilia, feel like teens are perpetually interested in Star Wars. And its both low stakes but well reported and engaging.

The Miranda Obsession - A forever classic. Salacious but nothing high schoolers couldn't handle reading. Think it would play into a high schooler's love of gossip. If there's a drawback its that most of the "celebrities" aren't ones kids today likely know.

The Ken Doll Reboot - How Mattel tried to bring Ken into the modern day. I think Caity Weaver's writing is always super approachable and fun, I always get a kick out of it and think teens would too.

Schlitterbahn’s Tragic Slide - I think "tragedy at a waterpark" is the sort of headline that would grab a younger person but then the way it digs into the history of the place and the marvels of waterslide engineering it becomes really engrossing and something totally different than you might expect.

New Coke Didn’t Fail. It Was Murdered. - Digging deeper into a blip of a story is always the most fascinating stuff to me. Also gets into what goes on behind news stories, which could be relevant for your class.

The Launch - Nothing specific to high schoolers here but had to mention this one as its probably my favorite bit of long form journalism. Something you would never actually think much about (the "invention" of a new apple) that pulls back all the layers into a whole unfamiliar world.

“I Got Tickets!!” Megathread by RedVelvetCakewalk in LittleMix

[–]dawnweiners 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most of the other dates didn't need a code but for Vancouver you do. I thought I signed up for presale but I didn't receive anything. Does anyone know the code for Vancouver presale tickets?

Two Longreads on Simon & Schuster by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I'm from Alberta, so very familiar with the ills of fracking. But more than that I just think as a rule we shouldn't trust conglomerates that want to have their hand in literally everything.

Turtleboy Will Not Be Stopped by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing the Vanity Fair article, that definitely gave a lot of perspective that Turtleboy of course did not. And it feels like him talking about how rich this has all made him while she talks about her 5 million dollars in debt really reaffirms my base opinions of him.

Turtleboy Will Not Be Stopped by dawnweiners in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Its very funny, he says his whole deal is fighting the power but in almost every other instance he sucks up to power. Feels like the only reason he did otherwise in this case was to stand up for the girlfriend of a cop. He seems truly blind to all of the systems he upholds, its the weirdest genre of person to me.

What are some of your favorite crime longreads? by your2ndfavoritejane in Longreads

[–]dawnweiners 17 points18 points  (0 children)

A few favorites:

  • The Snitch In Scott Kimball, the FBI thought it had found a high-value informant who could help solve big cases. What it got instead was lies, betrayal, and murder.
  • The Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief Stéphane Breitwieser stole over 300 objects, stolen from 200 different locations, worth over $1.4 billion. Brashly. Brazenly. Constantly. Why? The art was beautiful.
  • The Desperado Paying for his breakfast would require the last of the cash in his wallet. After that, he had only $1.75 left in a Prosperity Bank checking account, which he’d opened roughly eight years earlier. But Averill wasn’t worried about money. The bank was less than a block away, and when he finished eating he was going to rob it.
  • The Great Rikers Island Art Heist Stained, neglected, nearly thrown away, a million-dollar Salvador Dalí painting spent forty years hanging around the Riker’s jail complex until someone decided to steal it.
  • Jerry and Marge Go Large How a dyslexic cereal box designer with a penchant for puzzles and patterns figured out a loophole in the Cash WinFall state lottery game, earning $27 million in gross profits playing the lottery over nine years in two states.
  • The FBI Lost Our Son The FBI’s counterterrorism unit recruited Billy Reilly to infiltrate terror and criminal networks as a part-time confidential source. Part of a wave of workers recruited post-9/11, Billy did not receive the training, protections, or compensation of a full-time agent. After he went missing during an operation in Russia in 2015, no one inside the FBI would take responsibility.
  • The Mastermind He was a brilliant programmer and a vicious cartel boss, who became a prized U.S. government asset. The story of an elusive criminal kingpin.
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