Jilly_in_VA
Jilly_in_VA's JournalThe Tragic Curse of Being the 'Most Beautiful Boy in the World'
The story of the “Most Beautiful Boy in the World” unfolds like a dark thriller.
It’s a story about the perils of child stardom. It’s a cautionary tale about the exploitation of young stars and the commoditization of beauty. It’s a horror story about the stripping of one’s agency at a young age and the reverberating effects that has on the rest of their life. It’s a glimpse at the generational cycle of trauma, guilt, and depression, and the seeming impossibility of feeling one’s own worth.
Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, The Most Beautiful Boy in the World is a documentary entry in the beloved “Where are they now?” genre, albeit one of the more curious and unusual ones we’ve seen.
In 1970, when Björn Andrésen was 15, he was personally cast by famed Italian director Luchino Visconti in the film Death in Venice. The role of Tadzio required a vessel to live up to the description written by Thomas Mann in the novella from which the film was adapted: “...having honey-coloured hair, like a god in greek mythology. And the boy is not really human—rather, an angel of death.”
When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival a year later, Visconti proudly heralded Andrésen “the most beautiful boy in the world,” a coronation that made international headlines and turned the young teen into an overnight star and, to his great discomfort, sex symbol.
The Most Beautiful Boy in the World marries archival footage from the time with new interviews with Andrésen, now an aging actor and musician in his sixties living in Stockholm. (In a great piece of trivia, Andrésen played the community elder whose disturbing, grotesque death is the turning point to madness in the 2019 film Midsommar.)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-tragic-curse-of-being-the-most-beautiful-boy-in-the-world?ref=home
Mary Trump explains why she thinks Donald Trump Jr. is the dumbest of the Trump children
Mary Trump spoke to John Aravosis and Cliff Schecter promoting her latest book about the collective trauma Americans have faced over the years of the Trump administration.
In the early part of the conversation, Trump explains some information about the upbringing of former president Donald Trump's children and how her uncle carried one some of the mistakes Fred Trump made with him.
Fred Trump's eldest and namesake, Freddy Trump, was supposed to take over the business and build it bigger and better. But he was so disenchanted with what he had to deal with that he left and decided to do what he loved, flying. That was what ultimately turned Donald into the new Trump heir.
Like his father, Donald also sidestepped his namesake and elevated Ivanka to be the more important part of the business. This was, in part, because Don Jr. is the least intelligent of the Trump children, Mary Trump explained.
https://www.rawstory.com/donald-trump-jr-mary-intelligence/
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I always thought it was Eric, but she's got a point.....
Border patrol agents on horseback in Del Rio drew outrage. Why do they still ride horses?
Video and photographs of Haitian migrants pursued by Customs and Border Protection agents on horseback at the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday drew outrage and prompted calls for investigations, even as some questioned why the agents were mounted at all.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., called agents' actions a "stain on our country" Monday, while Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said it was "cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law."
The pictures showed mounted border patrol agents waving reins in the air and charging migrants as they carried scant belongings across the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, blamed the incident on the Biden administration Tuesday.
"Because the Biden administration is doing nothing to secure our border, it has been the state of Texas that has had to step up and address this challenge," Abbott said during a visit to Del Rio.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/09/22/why-does-customs-and-border-protection-still-ride-horses/5790926001/
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Perdóneme, Gov. Hot Wheels, it wasn't Texans, it was the CBP. Now STFU.
Louisiana's Native Tribes Were Crushed by Hurricane Ida. They Feel Forgotten.
When John Silver drove back into Dulac, Louisiana, just a few days after Hurricane Ida slammed into the southeastern part of the state, all he saw was a war zone.
Four pine trees had fallen through his house. Downed utility poles crisscrossed the roads. Mobile homes were upside-down. Debris was everywhere, and people were waiting hours in line for gas to power their generators, only to come home empty-handed, according to Silver, a 41-year-old member of the United Houma Nation.
“I’m not very emotional, but driving down, it really affects you,” said Silver, who also serves as the executive director of the Inter-Tribal Council of Louisiana. “People are crying out for help.”
When the Category 4 storm made landfall on the Louisiana coastline Aug. 29, 150 mph winds ransacked Indigenous communities like Silver’s and blew apart the homes of families that were already disproportionately affected by coastal erosion and climate change. But the United Houma Nation and other, smaller tribes in the region lack federal recognition, which cuts them off from a wide range of government benefits and funds. Even though the state sees several tribes in southeastern Louisiana as legitimate, being officially recognized at the national level would open up a more robust “government-to-government” relationship with the feds during times of disaster.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7bxjk/hurricane-ida-crushed-native-tribes-united-houma-nation-photos
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I know this is a FEMA thing, but a little help would be appreciated, Deb Haaland---come help your people!
Covid: Immune therapy from llamas shows promise
A Covid therapy derived from a llama named Fifi has shown "significant potential" in early trials.
It is a treatment made of "nanobodies", small, simpler versions of antibodies, which llamas and camels produce naturally in response to infection.
Once the therapy has been tested in humans, scientists say, it could be given as a simple nasal spray - to treat and even prevent early infection.
Prof James Naismith described nanobodies as "fantastically exciting".
Prof Naismith, who is one of the lead researchers and director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute in Oxfordshire, explained that coronavirus-infected rodents treated with the new nanobody nasal spray fully recovered within six days.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58628689
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This is way cool! And incidentally, my neighbor with the 3 zebras now has a small herd of llamas. They're really pretty and graceful to watch.
Angry scenes at Haiti airport as deported migrants arrive
On Tuesday, migrants at the airport in Port-au-Prince rushed back towards the plane they had arrived on, while others threw shoes at the jet.
Last weekend, the US started flying out migrants from a Texas border town which has seen an influx in recent weeks.
About 13,000 would-be immigrants have gathered under a bridge connecting Del Rio in Texas to Ciudad Acuña in Mexico.
Chaos unfolded at Toussaint Louverture airport as one man attempted to re-board the aircraft. The plane's crew rushed to close the jet's doors in time, Reuters news agency reports.
Video footage taken a the airport shows people scrambling for their personal belongings after their bags were dumped out of the plane.
There are reports that some migrants were not told they would be returning to Haiti.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-58650753
Mom says Richmond Public Schools is denying her son an education
Micah Davis couldn’t wait to start 8th grade at Binford Middle School this fall. The special needs student loves math and hates that he’s stuck home missing algebra.
His mother, Natalynne Hicks, said she was shocked when administrators told her the school didn’t have the staff to accommodate her 13-year-old son. Now, he’s just sitting at home.
“He’s not getting an education now,” Hicks said.
The mom says she spoke to Richmond school officials over the summer. She told 8News they were ready to have Micah back in the building.
“Micah has always been in-person,” Hicks said.
However, when Hicks tried to drop off Micah she said schools administrators changed their tune and told her they wouldn’t be able to accept him. Hicks recorded the encounter, during which a school official can be heard saying, “So we can’t support Micah. We can’t support him in the school building.”
https://www.wric.com/news/taking-action/mom-says-richmond-public-school-is-denying-her-son-an-education/
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Read on further. This is a real FUBAR. RPS has totally dropped the ball and refuses to admit it or do anything about it...
An Insider from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy Speaks Out
One day last spring, Ryan Hampton had a secret meeting with David Sackler, whose family’s company, Purdue Pharma, stood accused of helping to precipitate the opioid crisis. Hampton was the co-chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (U.C.C.), a powerful group that represented thousands of people and entities with claims against Purdue in what was then an ongoing bankruptcy proceeding. His job was to act as a sort of watchdog, and he had access to a trove of sensitive material that Purdue and the Sacklers were compelled to turn over in discovery. Hampton was also in recovery from a devastating addiction to OxyContin and other opioids. He wanted to confront the family that had made billions of dollars from a drug that had caused so much suffering.
Initially, Hampton had demanded a face-to-face meeting with David’s father, Richard Sackler, one of the chief architects of OxyContin’s success. But, according to a new memoir, “Unsettled,” which Hampton will publish next month, he was told that Richard’s attorneys were worried that Richard and he would “end up killing each other by the end of the meeting.” Instead, David Sackler joined a Zoom meeting with Hampton and another member of the U.C.C., Kara Trainor. They had to agree in advance not to tell anyone about the meeting, lest word get out that a member of the Sackler family was liaising directly with an adversary during the bankruptcy proceedings.
At one point, Hampton writes, he asked, “Do you know anyone that’s struggled with opioids?”
“I don’t,” Sackler replied.
Hampton had often felt stigmatized as someone who struggled with addiction. Sackler informed him that he, too, knew what it felt like to be stigmatized—because of his family name.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-insider-from-the-purdue-pharma-bankruptcy-speaks-out
A Black town's water is more poisoned than Flint's. In a white town nearby, it's clean
Bobbie Clay first realized something was wrong a few years ago.
The water at her Benton Harbor, Michigan, home had started coming out of the tap looking “bubbly and whitish”. When she filled a glass with it, she could see matter floating around inside. “I became very concerned,” she recalled in a recent interview.
She wasn’t alone. For years, residents of this small, struggling city in south-west Michigan had been having similar problems. When Carmela Patton turned on her sink to make coffee, the water came out brown. When Emma Kinnard ran hers, it came out the color of tea and “sizzling like Alka-Seltzer”. Rasta Smith said his water looked normal, but had a “horrible” taste and a smell that reminded him of rotting sewage. “It’s bad, man,” he said. “It’s real bad.”
Some immediately began buying bottled water and encouraging friends and family to do the same. Others would continue to use the tap water for years and, in many cases, still do. When residents raised questions and concerns, they said, officials in the city and county were unresponsive.
Finally, in 2018, they found out what was going on: tap water samples tested that summer revealed lead levels of 22 parts per billion – well over the federal lead action level of 15 parts per billion and higher, even, than the 20 parts per billion nearby Flint averaged at the height of the crisis that made that city a national symbol of environmental injustice.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/21/benton-harbor-michigan-lead-water-poisoned
Murdaugh Mess Spirals in New Lawsuit Over Fatal Boat Crash
Out of jail and back in rehab after botching his own murder in a depraved insurance-fraud scheme, Alex Murdaugh is under new fire for his role in the aftermath of another crime: the fatal 2019 boat crash involving his late son Paul.
The disgraced attorney late Monday was named in a new lawsuit, this time for allegedly attempting to “shift the blame” of the 2019 fiasco from Paul, who was charged in the incident prior to his own murder this spring, to another teenager onboard at the time.
According to the lawsuit, filed on behalf of Connor Cook—one of the six individuals on the Murdaugh family boat during the Feb. 2019 incident—the 53-year-old South Carolina lawyer took deliberate steps to try Paul from the legal repercussions of that night.
That included Murdaugh—whose family has almost continuously held prosecutorial power in the South Carolina Lowcountry for a century—attempting to pin the incident on Cook, the suit says.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alex-murdaugh-connor-cook-mess-spirals-in-new-lawsuit-over-fatal-boat-crash?ref=home
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The more that comes to light, the murkier it gets
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