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the-rewatch-rewind · 1 year

Text

Another special guest episode!

Transcript below the break.

Rosemary

(singing) Pulitzer and Hearst, they think they got us.

You going to put my singing on there as a teaser?

Jane

Yes. Yes I am.

Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind, the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies. Usually these are movies that I love for my own personal reasons, but for this episode, I will be joined by my sister Rosemary to talk about one of her comfort movies, which is #32 on my list: Disney’s 1992 historical musical Newsies, directed by Kenny Ortega, written by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White – who I just learned are married to each other, so that’s fun – and starring Christian Bale, David Moscow, Bill Pullman, and Robert Duvall.

It’s 1899. The streets of New York City echo with the voices of newsies, carrying the banner on every corner, bringing you the news for a penny a pape. Our story starts the day David Jacobs (David Moscow) and his younger brother Les (Luke Edwards) begin their newsboy careers and team up with experienced newsie Jack Kelly (Christian Bale). But soon after, the head of the newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer (Robert Duvall) decides that in order to increase profits, he needs to further exploit the newsies, so David and Jack decide to lead a strike.

This movie is truly bizarre, and I don’t think I’ve ever quite figured out how I feel about it. I’ve somehow managed to watch it 16 times, and most of those viewings were either directly or indirectly because of my sister, so without further ado, let’s talk with Rosemary about Newsies.

Hello!

Rosemary

Hi!

Jane

Very excited to talk to you about Newsies, because the only reason that it made it onto this podcast is because of you.

Rosemary

Yeah, that is my fault, I think.

Jane

I don't think I would have watched it again after the first couple of times we watched it if you hadn't gotten into it.

Rosemary

And I don't really know why I loved it so much.

Jane

Yeah, I don't really either, but I think we should tell the listeners how we were introduced to this movie because we were introduced to this movie in the weirdest way possible.

Rosemary

The weirdest way.

Jane

So why are we even there? Why did we go to this Kid Court thing?

Rosemary

So we did this summer camp. It was like a day camp where it was kind of like mock trial. And it was for like 10 to 14 year olds or something.

Jane

It was the summer of 2003, because then you did it again the next year but I was too old.

Rosemary

OK. Well, roughly for like 10 to 13 year olds, putting on a trial to figure out how to be lawyers or something. I think like the premise of the camp, like it was somebody's dad, that was a lawyer and he like, it was through the parks and Rec department. And it was just like a summer camp day camp class and it was a week long class to teach young ones about what it's like to be a lawyer and kind of like, get people interested in criminal justice. And they based it on a movie. And so the premise of the camp was they showed a movie and then had some sort of trial, like a premise of a trial. And we were supposed to play like the lawyers and the people themselves and put this trial on for the parents who would come and be the jury at the end of the week.

Jane

Yes, and why they decided to do a trial based on Newsies, I don't know.

Rosemary

No idea. It is the most random thing they could have picked in 2003. Like this movie that came out in 1992, like 11 years later, we're like, let's do a mock trial on if Jack Kelly or Pulitzer should... I don't even remember the premise of the trial.

Jane

I think it was trying to decide if Pulitzer should go to jail for cruelty toward the Newsies or something. Because I played Pulitzer.

Rosemary

I played Jack Kelly.

Jane

I'd forgotten about that.

Rosemary

Because I had to call you Joe all the time, because that was really cool. Because that's what Jack Kelly did.

Jane

Oh man, I forgot about that. I just remembered that I had a beard made out of construction paper. Because I remember we were trying to argue about whether Weasel had any culpability. Or if he was just taking orders from Pulitzer. But the thing the thing was like we had never heard of this movie before.

Rosemary

We had never heard of this movie and we also were not that interested in becoming lawyers.

Jane

No, so that's, why were we there? Was it because, because, OK, so as we're recording this, my Chicago episode has not come out yet, but it will have before I release it, and the friend that I will talk about in that episode came to this camp with us.

Rosemary

Correct.

Jane

So was it because she wanted to do it? Is that why we were there?

Rosemary

Truly I don't remember.

Jane

For some reason we're at this like mock trial day camp for preteens, and for some reason that makes even less sense, we're doing a trial based on this movie that we never heard of before, and I remember, so it was 2003 cause that was the first year that I was keeping track of my movies and we watched the whole movie. But then we like were watching bits and pieces of it again, but I didn't know how many times to count it, and I remember that being like a real dilemma. And that's kind of a running theme with this movie is a lot of times I'll just watch certain parts of it. So I don't really know how many times I've watched the whole thing. I would count it if I watched most of it. So the the counting might be a little off on this.

Rosemary

Oh dear.

Jane

Anyway, we watched it and we did a trial and the trial made no sense because none of us understood the movie.

Rosemary

Or how to do a trial.

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

So anyway, I remember the first day of camp. We're in this like classroom in the Community Center, and they dim the lights, they bring in this TV on wheels, and we watch Newsies. And it was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Like it was singing, dancing teenage boys from 1899, going on strike, singing about it. And I don't know, it was like a mesmerizing experience. And maybe also because, like, we watched it in a group setting and nobody was really that familiar with the movie, I don't think, and we just watched it and we were supposed to like really get into it so we could do this trial. So I remember like watching it with my senses on alert being like, OK, what's the trial going to be and how are we going to defend them?

Jane

I just remember like not following the plot of the movie at all.

Rosemary

Oh.

Jane

Like I liked the singing and dancing, but I did not know what was going on.

Rosemary

Huh.

Jane

So I had a a hard time with this trial because I was like, I don't even understand what happened in this movie. I don't super remember watching it for the first time that vividly, so I think I might have like, just zoned out. I just remember, like when we were doing the trial, I was like, I don't even understand what's supposed to have happened in this movie, so I don't know what we're doing.

Rosemary

(laughing) That's fair.

Jane

I mean, I got that they went on strike. I just didn't really understand, like... there were too many little like intricacies of like what exactly they were protesting and stuff like that. I mean, now I know what it's about, but at the time I just thought, This is weird. I don't understand this movie.

Rosemary

I also remember because we would go back and watch different clips from it because that was our like evidence, it would sit on the DVD menu for long stretches of time, and this one girl in the class she like made this whole dance routine for the, like, menu music that we listen to over and over again.

Jane

Oh yes.

Rosemary

So I think about that. Every time I watch it on DVD.

Jane

I I do remember that. But I don't remember a ton about the mock trial. I just remember that it was weird.

Rosemary

It was weird. Somebody made a poster of brass knuckles.

Jane

Oh, yeah. (laughs)

Rosemary

Um, and... I was supposed to be Jack Kelly, and that's pretty much all I remember.

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

One of the witnesses was this random person that was where the milk jugs got knocked over.

Jane

We never actually see that person in the movie.

Rosemary

He's not in the movie. They don't exist.

Jane

Somebody decided to be the person whose milk jugs got knocked over. I realized to the listeners that this is going to sound weird, but it's like weirder than you think it was based on what we're saying.

Rosemary

Yeah, none of this makes sense.

Jane

It almost feels like it didn't happen, like I made it up, but I know that it happened because that's how we got introduced to this movie. But then I don't remember why we watched it again after that.

Rosemary

So how many times did you watch it in 2003?

Jane

I counted watching it twice. Then I watched it again in 2004.

Rosemary

OK. So I know that we rented it from Hollywood Video.

Jane

Oh, OK.

Rosemary

Because they had like, one copy of it. Because why would you need more? And I just remember being like, I need to see this movie again, and one day we were at Hollywood Video and got it. So that must have been the 2004 watch? Because I imagine you counted it twice for mock trial.

Jane

Yeah, I think so.

Rosemary

So we would get it from Hollywood Video and then I think the library had a copy of it that wasn't very good. And then eventually I got it on DVD, which I think was probably in 2005. When we got our DVD player like that was the year of the DVD's right?

Jane

I think so.

Rosemary

I think I got it then.

Jane

But I also feel like I remember being like at work and talking to someone about it and saying that we didn't have it on DVD. And then they got it for me at the same time that we got another copy because we ended up with two copies of it on DVD.

Rosemary

Oh well, maybe I didn't get it in 2005. I definitely had my own copy when I went away to college.

Jane

Yes.

Rosemary

Because I took it with me.

Jane

Yes. Because I think that that someone gave you a copy and one of my coworkers gave me a copy. That would have probably been like 2009.

Rosemary

Yeah, that makes sense. OK, I don't know.

Jane

It was a long time ago. But like your friends were also really into it.

Rosemary

Yeah, I was kind of like, my circle of friends kind of overlapped the theater kids ,and it was big in the theater kid circle. And this was like my like middle school friends. And so we would frequently watch it, like at sleepovers or hangouts or whatever, we would just turn on Newsies and have, like, a whole sing along.

Jane

Yeah, because I remember like being really annoyed by it for a while. And that was like your thing that you did with your friends. And I was like, this movie is so bad though.

Rosemary

Oh, I didn't know that you had that period of time.

Jane

Yeah, and then I don't know, I I kind of came around to it eventually and like, I mean, there's parts of it that are definitely bad.

Rosemary

No, like full disclosure: this is not a good movie.

Jane

No, but it is enjoyable.

Rosemary

(laughs) When it comes down to it, it's not good. Like the acting isn't very good, the singing is fine, the editing needed... it needed to be shorter. It's a very long movie.

Jane

Well, it's almost like it's like two different movies because there's, like, the musical, and then there's the drama.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

The whole, like, Pulitzer part doesn't fit with the rest of the musical because, like, he kind of seems like he's in a completely different world, which maybe was intentional. I don't know. But I feel like it's kind of like they were combining two different types of movie into one, not very well.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

But also what's funny about it is that, like it was a total flop when it came out. I think it was like the lowest grossing Disney live action film to date. Or one of them.

Rosemary

Which doesn't like.... it's not a great movie, but that just doesn't feel right. Like, it's fine.

Jane

But the thing is that like then it became really popular later and it's like kind of a cult classic. And so they... the initial box office loss was made up by video rentals, once it came out for home viewing. And now there's like this whole group of people that absolutely love it. I mean, and then it was turned into a Broadway musical, like way later, because it was super popular.

Rosemary

Yeah, in like 2014 or something?

Jane

Yeah like in the 2010s. And so it's just really funny how it was like when we first watched it, nobody knows what this movie is, and then like a few years later, everyone was like, Oh yeah, I love Newsies! And I was like, what? You know about Newsies? I thought that was just our thing. And now it's like, oh, OK, everybody knows Newsies, but most people I think are maybe now more people are familiar with the stage version.

Rosemary

Yeah, especially since they've filmed it and it's on Disney plus, and you can watch it anytime you want, so...

Jane

Yeah.

Rosemary

I think they're different. I think the choreography is really fun and exciting in the Broadway stage show because they have Broadway dancers to do the choreography and not Christian Bale, who I don't think is known for his dancing.

Jane

No, oh, it's just so funny that Christian Bale is in this movie. Like, can we talk about how random that is? Like, he's not a musical guy.

Rosemary

But he's a good singer.

Jane

Yeah, no, I think he does a good job. It's just very not on brand for him.

Rosemary

Nope, but he was also like, a child.

Jane

It's true. And then, like Pulitzer is played by Robert Duvall, and he doesn't get to sing, even though Robert Duvall could sing and sang in other movies. So I do like that the stage musical gave Pulitzer a song. I think it makes him feel more part of the story.

Rosemary

Well, yeah, that needed to happen. And then Ann-Margret is randomly there?

Jane

Her character did not need to be there. I don't understand why her character was there.

Rosemary

Why was anyone there?

Jane

But like, the music isn't great, considering that it's Alan Menken. Like, he wrote much better songs.

Rosemary

But it's fine.

Jane

Most of the songs are pretty good, but Ann-Margret's songs are bad. Like, they are bad songs and I don't know why they're like that because because they change that character a little bit for the stage musical, and gave her different songs that are actually good. And I'm like, why couldn't the movie have good songs for this character?

Rosemary

Um... yeah.

Jane

But I actually do love Carrying the Banner. I think that is a great opening number.

Rosemary

It is!

Jane

The rest of the movie doesn't necessarily live up to that start, but I love that. But there's other good songs.

Rosemary

I mean Carrying the Banner is great. King of New York is fantastic. Seize the Day is fine. The World Will Know is a good song. And it's a play on The World.

Jane

Oh yeah, they do enjoy that pun.

Rosemary

They like that a lot.

Jane

The newspaper is called The World, and so they, like at one point, one of Pulitzer's assistants is like, “It’s like the end of the world. Oh, no. I didn't mean that!” There's a lot of that in that movie.

Rosemary

So it's really just... I mean, even Santa Fe is not a bad song.

Jane

That's true. It's that the songs don't save the rest of the movie and the dancing could have been better. I think that's the thing.

Rosemary

But see, we need to talk about how Kenny Ortega, the director/choreographer, was kind of ahead of his time with this movie. Because, had it come out ten years later or 15 years later, like when High School Musical came out, Kenny Ortega's Magnum Opus, it would have been way more popular. Like, the world was not ready for a musical of teenage boys in 1992, but they were ready for a musical of teenagers in 2004.

Jane

Also like, I wonder if this had been a Disney Channel original movie instead of a theatrically released movie, would it have been more popular?

Rosemary

Well, and they probably would have edited it better if it was a direct for TV movie because it's so long and if it was a Disney Channel original movie, it would have been shorter and a little faster pace. And possibly better. Like maybe they were, they were trying to make this Mary Poppins-esque feature and maybe didn't realize that that was not what they should have been shooting for.

Jane

Well, and it it is long, but it feels longer than it is.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

Which is not what you want.

Rosemary

No. (laughs) Like there's so many things that don't need to be in the movie, and I say this as a person that loves this movie, but it's like, pick up the pace, man.

Jane

Yeah, it definitely drags. And I think a lot of musicals have this problem where there just aren't enough songs in the second act. But if it was going to be as long as it is, they needed more songs, like good songs, not just High Times Hard Times, in the second act.

Rosemary

Yeah, that doesn't help because it's like the second act needs more songs, and then the songs that are in the second act are not good.

Jane

Yeah, it really loses steam.

Rosemary

It does. We haven't talked about how Bill Pullman is randomly in this movie.

Jane

Bill Pullman is great and also that they completely changed his character for the musical and turned him into a woman who has a romance with Jack.

Rosemary

Yeah... I mean that's much more like Hollywood, Disney romance. And so it's kind of weird that they didn't do that in the movie version.

Jane

Well, so also like the character of Sarah.

Rosemary

Oh, geez.

Jane

There's like two women in the whole movie that are actually important. There's Medda, who has the horrible songs, and then there's Sarah, who is David's sister, who kind of has a romance with Jack. But it's very forced. It's just like kind of stuck in there. I- there's no reason for it to be there.

Rosemary

No. They were just like, I guess this movie should have some romance in it.

Jane

Yeah. And it's like her, her character is completely underdeveloped and all that. But also like, I don't remember when we read this, but at some point I was looking up facts about Newsies and people were talking about how it kind of seems like Bill Pullman's character, Denton, and David have, like, romantic chemistry? And now I can't unsee it.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

It's a little creepy because I don't know how old David's supposed to be. I think he's supposed to be a teenager, and Denton is a grown man, but there's just like so many moments between them, that's like, oh, this is interesting.

Rosemary

Yeah, they're very flirtatious with each other and are having a good time, and it's... it's just a little odd that they staged it the way they did.

Jane

Yeah, and I don't know how intentional that was or what they were trying to do with that. I didn't notice it before I read it, but it's it's there.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But I mean, I know it's based on a true story, but I'm not sure like how much they were trying to stick to the true story and how much they were just going off of the basic premise of like, oh, these newsboys went on strike this one time. Because I don't know if, like, they're based on actual people or if they just decided like, OK, we're just going to make up some Newsies, because that might make a difference. Like, maybe there really was a reporter like that who hung out with them and, I don't know. But yeah, Bill Pullman does his best.

Rosemary

He always does his best and we are grateful for that.

Jane

He's a good singer!

Rosemary

He is! Yeah. I have definitely watched the special features on this movie a few times and there is one that's like all about the historical, like the true story of the Newsies. Um... I don't know why I'm saying this, because I don't actually remember so. But there's a special feature on the DVD if you have it, so you can go check it out and learn your history of the Newsies. There is audio commentary from Kenny Ortega throughout the whole movie as well. That's a treat.

Jane

I don't think I've ever watched it.

Rosemary

I definitely have.

Jane

Yeah, I believe you.

Rosemary

You learn little fun facts, but you don't actually have to watch it with commentary with Kenny Ortega. If you're watching it with me, because I will tell you when things come up.

Jane

It's true.

Rosemary

I'm like, did you know this fun fact that I just happened to know? Like I'm doing my own commentary on it. But I was thinking about, like, why did I like this movie so much? Like, why did it have such a hold on me from like 2003 to 2012? Like, why was this my go to comfort film? Why could I spend the whole day like watching it and the special features and going on IMDb to look up the actors? And I don't know. It doesn't make sense knowing like, who I am as a person and the things I normally like and things like that like it's it's kind of odd. But I think I enjoyed the like sense of friends who are family and that camaraderie and these boys have nobody but each other and they care about each other a lot. They know each other's quirks and idiosyncrasies and accept them all into their little family. Like they live in that boarding house together. And I'm sure it's, like, very idealized. And like they were very poor and hungry and cold and probably stinky, and it probably shouldn't be, like, romanticized, I guess. But I think I was really drawn to that like, sense of community that they had. And they're fighting for something. And I think that the little like social justice warrior in me was like, yeah, we just all have to be friends together, and then we can like, change the world.

Jane

Yeah, that makes sense. I I definitely agree that I I enjoyed the ensemble aspect of it, but I like always wanted more from the side characters. Like I want like a whole TV show of just like them hanging out.

Rosemary

Oh yeah! I definitely made-up back stories in my head of a lot of those background guys because they're really good background actors and they did a good job getting like this whole crew together. And I'm like this part is what's truly fascinating is these people that are all part of this story that aren't the Jack Kelly or the David, but they don't want to pay $0.10 more for 100 papes.

Jane

Yeah, and just that they have such pride in what they're doing.

Rosemary

Yeah!

Jane

The whole “Headlines don't sell papes, Newsies sell papes” thing is cheesy, but it's nice, like they're like, yes, we're doing something important. We're bringing news to people and... the movie kind of like glosses over this to the point that I didn't even notice it at first: the whole like branching out the strike to other child laborers?

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

That kind of confused me because it's like there's so much that drags and then that, they kind of rush through that in one musical number. But they were really trying to help stop child workers from being exploited, so they have pride in what they're doing, but they also recognize, like we are children and we are being worked way harder than we should be, and this is the last straw. And I think that's really cool. I don't know if that's actually accurate to what actually happened with this strike.

Rosemary

I don't think it was like one strike changed everything but, part of the whole like, labor rights movement at the turn of the century and like safe working conditions and limits on working hours and working ages and stuff like that. And I don't think they did a bad job of telling that story.

Jane

No, it's just they could have done a better job.

Rosemary

For sure.

Jane

But I also think that part is like one of the most moving parts of the movie now that I like catch that it's there. The World Will Know Reprise, I guess is what it is. Where they're like, waiting for people to show up. And they're like, oh, it's just gonna be us. Nobody else is listening to us. And then like that whole group of people come in to, like, stand in solidarity with them. I love that part.

Rosemary

When you've got a million voices singing,

Jane

Who can hear a lousy whistle blow?

Rosemary

And the world will feel the fire and finally know.

Jane

It's like to a certain extent, the reason that I watched this movie is because it's, like, so bad it's good in some ways.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But also like there are parts of it that are actually pretty good.

Rosemary

Yeah!

Jane

There's a lot of like they almost got there, but it just I think they didn't quite know exactly what they were trying to do, like what story they were trying to tell, and it gets a little unfocused.

Rosemary

But also like, as you said, like the Newsboys take pride in being the ones that deliver the news? Those young actors at the time, took like huge pride in being in that movie and in the special featurettes of like, what was it like on set? Like these teenage boys were like having a great time and were really proud of their, you know, their singing and dancing and bringing this story to life. And maybe Christian Bale doesn't like to talk about it anymore, but you know who among us likes to talk about what we did when we were 16?

Jane

Well, and like Christian Bale is by far the like most famous one of those kids like now.

Rosemary

Oh for sure.

Jane

A lot of those people are still working and some of them are like have done other things that I know about. But like in terms of name recognition, if you named the other actors that played the kids, like Christian Bale is on a completely different level of fame than the rest of them.

Rosemary

Yes.

Jane

And I think even at the time he was, like, embarrassed to tell people that he was making a musical. And I think like everybody else was just like, yeah, of course, we're making musical. This is fun. And I think he was kind of like, this is beneath me. But I mean he still did a good job.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

But it's not a typical Christian Bale movie.

Rosemary

It definitely is not.

Jane

But it’s the only Christian Bale movie that made it in my Top 40, so what does that say?

Rosemary

Something. But I think you know like why did I, why was it my like comfort movie? But it it really was for a time and truly, it's baffling, I don't know.

Jane

Yeah, I mean, it doesn't always have to make sense. A lot of times you just, a movie makes you feel good, so you watch it. Like it doesn't have to be for a particularly deeper reason. I think that that's totally fair. And I think, that that part of why I keep returning to it, is it like makes me think of you, so it's comforting for that and there's a little bit of nostalgia from back when you were watching it constantly when we lived in the same house. So yeah, I don't know. And I don't think we have to know why we watch it a lot, but it is strange. And just like, thinking about trying to tie it into the theme of the podcast of like watching it from an aroace perspective, the worst part of the movie is the romance, and most people agree about that. So it's like, OK, I'm watching it for the, for the friends and most other people are. So I think that has something to do with it, that like, it's more about friendship and camaraderie than romance. But then it's just kind of like, oh, but we need to have romance in here cause there's a female character, which I hate so much.

Rosemary

Yeah, I mean, I would have loved like, we could have done a side story of like those girls that were working in the sewing factory or whatever?

Jane

Oh yeah.

Rosemary

That come to the strike or whatever? We could have had a whole side story about them and their friendship and their camaraderie and all of that to talk about their experiences. And kind of just make it a movie about friendship, which it mostly is.

Jane

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

Rosemary

And fighting the man.

Jane

Yeah. Well, and then there's the whole thing about the children's refuge.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

And locking kids up and all that.

Rosemary

The commentary on the pipeline to prison system.

Jane

Yeah. They don't get into racism at all like...

Rosemary

Yeah...

Jane

They have some characters of color, but it's more colorblind casting is what it feels like. But it is definitely a commentary on, like poor people just getting locked up, and there's a little bit about like disabled people because there's the character of Crutchy, who at one point they're doing strike activities and they're kind of, I don't even know. They're, like ripping up newspapers and stuff like that. And everybody gets away except for the kid who can't walk very well. I don't know what his condition is supposed to be, but it's interesting to see how different characters treat him and that, like the other Newsies, are like, yeah, he's our friend. And then the people in power are just kind of like, let's throw him away and beat him up and stuff like that. I don't know if they were trying to say anything in doing that. But I think it's interesting to see his character and how he's treated.

Rosemary

Yeah, that they at least included him, when they didn't have to, like, have that representation at all.

Jane

Yeah, I mean it, it would have been better if he was played by an actor who was actually disabled.

Rosemary

Well, yes.

Jane

That's too much to ask for now, let alone 30 years ago. So...

Rosemary

Yeah... yeah. I mean it's like it is rich versus poor. It is, you know, the powerful against the not powerful, and you know the way that adults treat children, and don't take them seriously and kind of want them to disappear unless they're doing something that makes them money.

Jane

Yeah. And I think that that actually is why Ann-Margret's character is there because she is like, she and Bill Pullman's character are, like, the only adults that really support them and take them seriously. And so I think it is kind of important to show that like, I mean, the kids are doing most of it on their own, but they do have some support and it comes in unexpected ways. You know, romanticizing David and Denton kind of cheapens that a little bit. It is it... they just have weird moments together.

Rosemary

They really do.

Jane

I think ultimately it's not intentional like he's just supposed to be helping them because he wants to support their cause. And he gets silenced temporarily, and it's interesting how they show that like he feels like he has to follow the rules because he'll lose his job and stuff, and these kids have very little to lose because they don't have much. And so it's interesting the way they showed that that like he's kind of ready to give up, but then the kids talk him into staying and fighting.

Rosemary

Doing what's right.

Jane

Yeah, they're they're ready to go on without him. But I like that he comes back and joins up with them and helps them rally all of the other child laborers. So yeah, it's it's an uplifting story. Like it does make you feel powerful in a way. I just, they miss what they're trying to do a few too many times that it, like, doesn't quite work. But there's moments that work. It's just it's a weird tone of a movie, like it doesn't know how serious to be, and I think that part of that is good. Like, I think it's nice to have a balance of like, the lighthearted musical numbers and the actual, like, really tough messages. But I just, I don't feel like it strikes the right balance somehow. And I'm not sure how, like I don't know how it could be better. I don't know exactly how to solve the problem of Newsies, cause I think the the musical like, I like the movie better just because... the thing I don't like about the musical is that they changed the words to the songs that they kept. Like add new songs? Great, but why did you change the words just for the sake of changing the words? That's my biggest gripe with the musical.

Rosemary

And can we talk about the line, “both the Delanceys pee in their pantsies” because like, what is that? I'm personally offended by that. Like what? Who wrote that?

Jane

Like there's no reason to change the words to that song because it was already a pretty good song. But then that they changed it to that of like, what? Oh, also another thing that I was going to mention is that so Alan Menken wrote the music and Howard Ashman was going to write the lyrics, but then he died. And I don't even remember who wrote the lyrics. Sorry person who wrote the lyrics.

Rosemary

Jack Feldman.

Jane

OK, I don't know, did he write the lyrics for the stage show? The reason that I bring up the Howard Ashman thing is, I feel like if Howard Ashman had written Newsies lyrics before he died, people would have felt less OK messing with them because like, he's such a legend. But I don't know. Maybe maybe I'm wrong about that.

Rosemary

I think he did both. Jack Feldman.

Jane

Yeah so it's almost like they recognize, like, OK, the movie didn't quite work, so we're going to try and make the musical work better, which I think that ultimately, overall, it does work better in telling the story. But, they incorrectly identified certain things that didn't work and changed things that didn't need to be changed, and that irritates me.

Rosemary

I feel that.

Jane

It makes it so I don't want to listen to the cast recording because they changed the words to songs that didn't need the words changed. But the new songs they added I think were really good. And the the songs they took out were not missed, so there is that. But they didn't need to change King of New York.

Rosemary

Sorry, I'm now reading an article about Newsies. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.

Jane

What?

Rosemary

The tea!

Jane

Oh dear.

Rosemary

Apparently there were behind the scenes drama because Christian Bale and the girl that played Sarah, Ele Keats, they started dating during pre production, but then they broke up right before filming.

Jane

Oh dear!

Rosemary

And so they weren't even, like talking to each other before they had to film these scenes of them being like, “I'm in love with you!” So maybe that's why it doesn't work.

Jane

That's definitely part of it. I was also reading that Sarah was supposed to have a song, but then they cut it.

Rosemary

Mmm.

Jane

Because her character does like very little in the movie. Like...

Rosemary

Yeah, she does nothing.

Jane

We don't need her to be there.

Rosemary

Apparently Howard Ashman died the day before the first songwriting session for Newsies.

Jane

Awwww, so sad. Yeah, so I don't know. I mean, again, I like a lot of the songs in the movie and I think that they have better lyrics than the Broadway versions of them. But I wonder how different things would have been if Howard Ashman could have written the lyrics for these songs, but. On the one hand, like I keep saying, like the movie doesn't work, they should change stuff, but also I do kind of love it the way it is. I love that it's broken and and a little bit of a mess. That's part of its charm. And it's sad if you think about some of the issues too hard, but it doesn't let itself get too sad, so it feels uplifting. And I mean it has an encouraging ending. They won, but it's unclear exactly what that means going forward other than that the price they have to pay for the papers is what it was. But also OK. That was the part that really confused me when we watched it the first time. I didn't understand like why raising the price was hurting them because I didn't realize that it was the price-

Rosemary

Of the distribution apparatus?

Jane

Like the Newsies had to buy the papers and then sell them? I like kind of missed that whole thing. So I was like, what exactly are they fighting for? Also, it makes it so much more complicated because it was two for a penny, and then they were raising it 10 cents a hundred. It's like so much harder to get the right change for the number of papers when it's like that. So for that reason alone, they shouldn't have raised it.

Rosemary

It just wasn't a good idea and one that was just sort of thrown out there during a brainstorming session. And, um, they just ran with it.

Jane

It's a really good indication of how big companies operate because the other idea that was thrown out in that brainstorming session was that they cut the salaries of the people at the top and they're like, “We can't do that!”

Rosemary

Mmm-hmm.

Jane

That's still a thing of like we gotta exploit the lowest workers who already are struggling to eat, while the people in charge are making more money than they could spend in several lifetimes.

Rosemary

And it's a Disney movie, is it?

Jane

Yes, it's it's it's a good point. The message does kind of get lost because it is a Disney movie and it's like Disney is in control of the entire entertainment world now it feels like.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

But they're still like, “Oh yeah, no, we champion the underdog. We definitely pay all of our workers fairly.”

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

So... yeah, I don't know. It's hard to explain what we love about the movie because it is objectively bad.

Rosemary

It's objectively not good, but I wouldn't say it's objectively bad.

Jane

Yeah, that's a better way to put it, because there's definitely some great moments in it.

Rosemary

It's definitely watchable, especially if you fast forward some parts.

Jane

Yeah, well, that's why it's hard because a lot of times I would just like go through and watch the good songs and skip everything else.

Rosemary

So when was the last time you watched Newsies?

Jane

I watched it last year.

Rosemary

Oh. Why? (laughs)

Jane

I don't remember why. I watched a lot of movies last year. Last year was the year I watched the most movies since I started keeping track. I might have, like, convinced Mom to watch it on Robert Duvall's birthday. I know I did that once recently.

Rosemary

That checks out. There it is. Not Ann-Margret's birthday?

Jane

No.

Rosemary

Not David Moscow's birthday? Not Pulitzer's birthday?

Jane

Apparently the movie came out on Pulitzer's birthday.

Rosemary

Oh! Interesting.

Jane

It's just funny because it's like, Robert Duvall is this big star who's been in a ton of things, and like, this is the movie of his that I've seen the most?

Rosemary

Well, and apparently according to the special features, he like got super into the role and read like a 500 page biography of Pulitzer, and like, was really into the character and everything, was fascinated by the character. And I'm like, well, maybe for Pulitzer's biopic, but that's not what this is.

Jane

Yeah he's not in enough of the movie to justify it. I will say one of my favorite parts is when he makes all those like adding machine noises.

Rosemary

Yeah.

Jane

That's pretty great. I I do enjoy that.

Rosemary

Yeah, so he tried to stay true to Pulitzer.

Jane

You gotta respect that.

Rosemary

And maybe we do need a Pulitzer biopic one of these days.

Jane

Yeah, I think he's a little bit old now. Is he still acting?

Rosemary

Is he still alive?

Jane

I think so, but he's very old. Yeah, he's 92. Also, we haven't talked about Les, but I love Les. That kid!

Rosemary

He is so genuine.

Jane

He is dedicated. Both the actor is dedicated to being in the movie, the kid is dedicated to the cause.

Rosemary

He’s dedicated to being dedicated.

Jane

He really is. And I love the part in The World Will Know Reprise before all the people show up when they're singing and they're just like, yeah, whatever. And he's like, NO! He's like into it. Like, how dare you suggest that we would give in? He is dedicated to the cause from the get go and he is like, very devoted to Jack, and he's like “Jack knows what he's doing” and all this stuff. It's just, while I think that Sarah could have easily been eliminated, I love that Les is there. I think that he's he's a good addition to the group. And again I would love a TV show of just everybody hanging out.

Rosemary

We didn't talk about Spot Conlon either.

Jane

Oh my gosh. Scott Conlon is iconic and they OK, that's another thing I have a problem with the stage show about: they almost completely eliminated him from the stage show. He’s like barely there

Rosemary

But they did get a song for the Brooklyn crew.

Jane

Yes, but it’s very short. And that's like the only time we see him. Like I couldn't even tell which one was supposed to be Spot Conlon, cause it's just a bunch of people singing about Brooklyn. It's interesting that they kind of get into a little bit of the like politics within the Newsies in the different boroughs and stuff, but they don't explain it well.

Rosemary

No.

Jane

It's like a little bit lacking.

Rosemary

But it's also kind of like, you're just, like dropped into this.

Jane

That's true, and you're kind of following David in that sense, of like he gets dropped into this world and he doesn't understand it at all. And nobody really wants to, like, sit him down and explain it to him. It's just like, figure it out.

Rosemary

Yeah, because they don't really, even like sit down and explain it to themselves. Like it's just the way things are and like, he's this newcomer and they're just, like, catch up!

Jane

Yeah. It's like there's just, it's such a a weird thing of, like, some of it is like, yeah, this is really interesting. And then some of it's, like so boring.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

The pacing is weird.

Rosemary

Mm-hmm.

Jane

There's parts that are boring that don't have to be boring, like the story isn't boring, that they're focusing on. They're just focusing on it in a weird way.

Rosemary

They're just not telling it well.

Jane

Yeah! It's like there's so many things that almost work, but just don't, and I don't even really know how to explain it, which is why I keep floundering about it. But yeah, it's it's just a strange movie that is fun to watch.

Rosemary

There you go. Sums it up.

Jane

I definitely would have completely forgotten about it after that Kid Court if you hadn't gotten back into it.

Rosemary

It just... had a hold on me.

Jane

It did, and I think that that's great. There's lots of movies like that for me, but most of the movies that are in my Top 40 are because I enjoy watching them by myself. And this one I I'm sure I have watched it by myself, but usually I watched it because you wanted to watch it. So...

Rosemary

You're welcome.

Jane

Thank you for keeping this movie in my life.

Rosemary

For carrying the banner.

Jane

Carrying the banner.

Thank you, Rosemary, and thank you to anyone who is still listening. That was a fun chat, although I don’t feel like we were particularly coherent. Then again, I don’t know that there is a particularly coherent way to talk about this movie. Even though we were pretty critical of it, I truly believe that everyone should watch Newsies at least once, so if you’re still here and you haven’t seen it yet, definitely do that, and hopefully you’ll understand.

I’m going on vacation so there won’t be a new episode of The Rewatch Rewind next week, but I will be back the week after, so make sure you’re subscribed or following so you don’t miss that. When I return, I’ll be discussing the first of three movies I watched 17 times. As always, I’ll leave you with a quote from that next movie: “A pleasant little foursome. I predict a hatchet murder before the night’s over.”

#newsies #the rewatch rewind

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homomenhommes · 7 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

c.1350 BC – Pharoah Akhenaten, husband of Queen Nefertiti, may also have had a male lover - his younger general, Smenkhare, who later became pharoah himself.

After the discovery in 1922 of the tomb of Tutankhamen (a child of unknown relationship to Akhenaten), Percy Newberry noted that objects had been taken from Smenkhkare's burial chamber to increase the treasure in Tutankhamen's tomb; and among these was a box inscribed on its knobs with "Smenkhkare beloved of Akhenaten" and "Akhenaten beloved of Smenkhkare."

Newberry in his article (1928) also drew attention to a small private stele (upright stone slab) in the Berlin Museum, originally made for a military officer, which showed two kings (identified by their crowns, one the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt and the other a war crown), nude and sitting side by side. Although the piece is unfinished, with its cartouches blank (ovals which usually contained names), the figures seemed easily identified as Akhenaten and Smenkhkare, the former caressing the youth's chin while Smenkhkare rests his arm around the older king's shoulder.

Two other pieces then also came to mind, a relief of a similar youth pouring wine into Akhenaten's cup (Berlin Museum) and a sculptor's trial piece of Akhenaten kissing a child seated on his lap (Egyptian Museum, Cairo) - and some scholars pondered whether these pairs might also include Smenkhkare. (Actually the former conveys no sexual meaning, and the child in the latter seems very young.)

Subsequently, Egyptologists battled over Akhenaten's sexual biology and orientation. For example, Donald Redford, a Canadian archaeologist, wrote (1984) that he personally disliked "this effete monarch, who could never hunt or do battle," while Cyril Aldred, Keeper of Art and Archaeology at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, saw (1968) "homosexual relations between the elder and the younger monarch" pictured on the Berlin stele, taking into account also the same-sex "beloved" titles, and the disappearance of Nefertiti's name from all records near the end of Akhenaten's reign.

1928 – Robert Indiana, best known as the creator of the LOVE series of paintings and sculptures, is an openly gay American artist who has incorporated autobiographical and gay themes within his work.

Indiana was born on September 13, 1928. Oil company manager Earl Clark and homemaker Carmen Watters of New Castle, Indiana, adopted the infant as their only child. Clark attended local schools before studying Russian at Syracuse University. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1946 to 1949 and then entered the Art Institute of Chicago with the assistance of the GI Bill. He won a scholarship to the University of Edinburgh. He earned an M.F.A. there in 1954 and moved to New York City. Clark rented a loft in an old warehouse on the southernmost tip of Manhattan that became an artistic center because of its cheap rents. There he became part of a group of young artists including Agnes Martin, Lenore Tawney, Jack Youngerman, and Ellsworth Kelly. For a time, he and Kelly were lovers.

Clark changed his surname to Indiana in 1958 to reflect better the American focus of his work. He first attracted notice in 1959 with unpainted assemblages, stenciled with short words and constructed from scavenged wood, pieces of iron, and wheels. Indiana is part of the pop art movement, though he deprecatingly refers to himself as a "sign painter." Like other pop artists he invests commonplace objects and familiar images with new meaning. However, his works occasionally deviate from the pop art norm by evincing intense personal and political engagement. They express concern over social issues and make pointed political statements.

His painting Yield Brother (1962), for example, focuses on the peace movement while his Confederacy series (1965-66), created during the Civil Rights movement, attacks racism in four southern states.

In addition, Indiana tends to be more autobiographical than other pop artists. For example, his EAT/DIE (1962) diptych focuses on the last word, "eat," spoken to him by his mother on her deathbed. The painting also evokes the diner his mother managed, which had the familiar "EAT" sign looming overhead. Indiana also collaborated with gay pop artist Andy Warhol on the 1962 short film Eat.

Indiana has also been influenced by the great American queer writers Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, and Hart Crane. His Melville Tryptich (1961) is considered one of his classic images, and several paintings have been inspired by Crane's poem of longing and gay affiliation, "The Bridge."

In 1964, Indiana received a commission from the Museum of Modern Art for a Christmas card design. He created a picture that emphasized the words Love is God (1964). Typical of pop artists, Indiana serialized the image. In 1966, he exhibited a series of "love" paintings, including a definitive version featuring four red block letters completely filling the canvas against a blue and green background. Each letter fills a quarter of the picture, the L and a tilted O in the top quadrants, the V and E in the bottom quadrants. The LOVE image had an immediate impact, especially among the youth culture of the 1960s. As a painting, graphic design, and a sculpture, it has become one of the most pervasive and widely disseminated images of all time.

In 1973, the U.S. Postal Service commissioned Indiana to do a LOVE postage stamp. The resulting product became the most popular stamp ever issued by the U.S. government.

In 1978, Indiana moved to Vinalhaven, Maine. Working with Vinalhaven Press, he has used the traditional printmaking media of etching and lithography to depict the solitude and isolation of his life in rural Maine. Indiana's more recent works include biographical elements of gay lives, including his own. Indiana continues to accept commissions.

c.570 BC – Anacreon, born in Teos, Ionia was one of the nine Lyric Poets of the golden age of Greek poetry. And being the good and manly Greek he was, Anacreon's poems and odes were largely about the beautiful boys he loved or longed for or held in his arms as he cooed lyrical poetry to them. He kisses and tells; he names names: Smerdis, Leukapsis, Smialus, Eurylus and Bathylus, are among the youths he sings to. From his erotic verse there survive striking images of his beloved young men: the peaceful character of Megistes, the eyes of Cleobulus, the blond locks of the Thracian Smerdis.

Anacreon's poetic sentiments and style were widely imitated by Hellenistic and Byzantine Greek writers, though they tended to exaggerate the strain of drunken eroticism and frivolity present in his work.

The structure of his poesy was so popular in its own time that others imitated the eponymously named "Anacreontics." Anacreon was rediscovered by English poets int he 19th century and they swooned for him like a well-oiled boy in the gymnasium. The vogue for Anacreontics in English culminated in the popular song "To Anacreon in Heaven." In 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote "The Star Spangled Banner" on this day, based on the then popular "To Anacreon in Heaven."

1952 – Randy Jones, born in Raleigh, North Carolina, is an American disco and pop singer and best known as the cowboy from Village People.

He attended Enloe High School in Raleigh, North Carolina and graduated in 1970. While there, he was a founder of Enloe's Drama Club, which was then called "Amicus Scaena"; Latin for "friend of scene" or "friend of theatre". He then studied at North Carolina School of the Arts before moving to New York.

Jones had a marriage ceremony with his boyfriend of 20 years, Will Grega, at a New York club on May 7, 2004. Although the marriage is not legally binding, as gay marriage was still illegal in New York state, Jones commented that: "It's only a matter of time before the courts rule in favor of what's morally right and humanly decent." The pair published a book together in 1996, titled Out Sounds: The Gay and Lesbian Music Alternative.

He released in 2007 a disco and pop solo album Ticket to the World. In 2009, he appeared on Flight of the Conchords in their music video for "Too Many Dicks".

2001 – On Pat Robertson’s 700 Club, Jerry Falwell says feminists and gays and lesbians were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

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weddingtiara9 · 11 months

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Meghan Markle's wedding tiara

One of the perks of being the granddaughter of the British Queen is that you can wear a sparkling wedding tiara. The Duchess of Sussex wore the Queen Mary Bandeau Tiara, which was given to Queen Mary by the County of Lincoln in 1893. Queen Mary's Diamond Bandeau Tiara

The bride's jewels are a must for a royal wedding. Meghan Markle chose to wear the Queen Mary Diamond Bandeau Tiara for her big day. The classic Art Deco tiara was a big hit with fans, who saw it as an appropriate complement to the stunning Givenchy Haute Couture by Claire Waight Keller gown.

According to a book written by royal expert Omid Schobie, Meghan did not get her first choice for tiara on her wedding day. She was reportedly rejected for an emerald-colored tiara in the Queen's collection. Meghan Markle wedding tiara

The tiara, designed by Garrard, was made in 1932 for Princess Mary of Teck, Meghan's grandmother, who married Prince George, Duke York, later King George V. The center brooch was a gift from the County Lincoln to Princess Mary, and was given to her upon her marriage. The Story of the Tiara

Meghan Markle wore the Queen Mary's Bandeau Tiara on loan to Her Majesty when she married Prince Harry in 2018. The diamond piece, which was originally owned by Queen Mary's great-grandmother, is centered by an 1893 brooch. Meghan described her tiara-choosing day as "surreal" in an audio recording made for a Windsor Castle exhibit.

The Duchess' 16 foot-long silk veil included flora from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries, as well as two personal favorites - wintersweet (Chimonanthus Praecox), a flower that grows in front Kensington Palace at Nottingham Cottage, and California poppy Eschscholzia Californica, the state flower of her home.

The final look was stunning, and showed off Meghan's elegance. What's the story behind how Meghan chose her tiara, and why did she do so? According to a royal expert and a new book, there was drama around the process. Prince Harry was reportedly forced to intervene in the dispute between Meghan and Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser. How the Tiara came to Meghan

Meghan Markle's big day was a memorable one, but it might have been even more so if there hadn't been a disagreement about her bridal headpiece. According to Robert Lacey of the Royal Historian, Markle wanted an emerald encrusted tiara for her wedding day, but Queen Elizabeth refused.

Lacey said that the former monarch was worried that the tiara could be associated with the Russian Revolution because it had been passed through "dodgy" channels. He also thought that Meghan wouldn't look good wearing the tiara at her wedding, as it would distract her from her role as the wife of Prince Harry.

The palace denied the claims and it appears that the Queen Mary Tiara was the one that Markle wore. Princess Eugenie chose a Greville Emerald Kokoshnik tiara for her wedding six months after Meghan, and the tiara has a clear history. The Final Look

Markle chose to finish her Givenchy wedding dress and 16-foot silk veil with the dazzling Diamond Bandeau Tiara of Queen Mary. The piece, which is made up of 11 flexible sections with interlaced ovals and was worn by Princess Margaret, was borrowed by Meghan to wear on her wedding day.

According to a book, Harry claims he and Angela Kelly, the Queen's dresser had a little argument over which tiara Meghan could borrow for her wedding. Harry claims that while the Queen offered a tiara to her daughter-in law with a Lincolnshire link, Kelly refused to lend it to her before her hair trial.

The Queen finally gave in and let Meghan borrow the heritage art-deco tiara that she paired with a stunning floral veil. The Duchess opened up in an audio recording of a royal exhibit that opens on Friday at Windsor Castle about her tiara-shopping experience.

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ukrfeminism · 2 years

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TW: femicide

“In England and Wales there are on average 23 recorded homicide-suicides each year – around two every month. The rate varies from year to year – between April 2010 and March 2011 there were 46 murder-suicides in England and Wales, while between April 2018 and March 2019 there were only 18 cases. The perpetrators are mostly men, the victims usually women. ‘Whatever official figure exists, I can promise you that’s an underestimation,’ says criminologist Jane Monckton Smith, professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire. She says that although the rate of domestic violence increased during lockdown, it’s too early to say whether there have been more murder-suicides during this period – the data isn’t in yet.

‘It would be reasonable to assume that the actual number, not necessarily the rate, of homicide-suicides will have increased [during lockdown],’ says Dr Sandra Flynn, lecturer in psychology and mental health at the University of Manchester. ‘The proportion of homicide offences where the person took their own life is on average 4.75 per cent over the past decade. Therefore, if homicide (rather than domestic violence) has increased during lockdown, the number of homicide-suicides is likely to follow the same trend.’

According to an overview of studies carried out in 2011, the rate of murder-suicide in Europe has ranged from 0.05 per 100,000 people per year in England and Wales and the Netherlands to 0.2 per 100,000 per year in Finland – four times as many. In America, the rate is higher, varying from 0.27 in Kentucky to 0.38 in central Virginia (per 100,000 people per year).”

Soon after her 40th birthday, Kelly Fitzgibbons started to make a list of all the things she wanted to do before she turned 50. Some of her dreams were lavish, such as a trip on the Orient Express or taking her two young daughters to Disneyland, while others were more modest: joining a baking class, going to a drive-in cinema. But her bucket list wasn’t all about having fun. Her aspiration to get her silver donor card, a recognition that a person has given blood 25 times, was an indication of her compassionate, caring personality.

Yet she never got the chance to fulfil these ambitions. On 29 March 2020, three months after her 40th birthday, Kelly was found murdered – shot to death – at the house in Woodmancote, West Sussex, that she shared with her long-term partner, self-employed builder Robert Needham, 42. At the crime scene, the police also found the bodies of the couple’s two children, Ava, four, and Lexi, two, as well as the family dog. The culprit was Needham, who, after the killing spree, turned his shotgun on himself.

‘Kelly was a wonderful human being – she was warm, caring, funny and had such a contagious laugh; she lit up a room,’ says Kelly’s twin sister, Emma Ambler, 42. ‘She was a fantastic mother, dedicated and devoted, and her world revolved around her girls – it was the role she took most pride and pleasure in. Their deaths have caused so much destruction to everyone close to them.’

As the surviving relatives of the victims observe, with the crime of murder-suicide – or homicide-suicide, as it’s often described – there is no one to stand trial, and no justice for the living. Families and friends are often left in limbo, desperate for answers, fractured by shock, grief and anger.

One of the most common motivating factors in murder-suicides is the end of a relationship or the threat of separation. However, in the case of Kelly Fitzgibbons, the family appeared to be a happy one. ‘I still don’t have any idea why Rob did it, and the last time I spoke to the police they said they hadn’t found anything “significant”,’ says Emma.

Kelly was 26 and working as a legal secretary when friends introduced her to Rob, a good-looking man two years her senior. In April 2006, Kelly moved into the house of one of her best friends, Kerri Harris, whom she’d known since secondary school. ‘I was with her and Rob a lot in those early months; it was obvious that Rob doted on Kelly,’ says Kerri, 41, who lives with her husband Steve, 47, and daughter Gracie, nine, in Southwick, near Portsmouth. ‘He’d do little things to surprise her and they always seemed like a really good match. Over the years, she was the social secretary of our group. She always wanted to try new things, and go to new places. Rob was quite quiet, not outgoing, the opposite to Kelly in lots of ways. But he had friends from school and mates who were in the same line of work – he certainly wasn’t a loner.

‘I would have been 14 and Kelly 15 when we first met at Bourne Community College in Southbourne. It was an almost immediate friendship. Kelly was really cheery, positive and happy. She was very sociable, not in the sense of wanting to be the centre of attention, but she liked being around people. She had a big, warm smile and you could hear her laugh miles away. We were friends from our teenage years through our 20s and 30s.’

In August 2015, Kelly and Rob had a daughter, Ava, and two years later Lexi was born. In 2017, the couple moved into the large detached house owned by Needham’s mother, Maureen, in Woodmancote, so as to keep an eye on her after his father’s death. Needham embarked on an extensive renovation project, and the family lived in a converted self-contained space with two bedrooms at the top of the house, and a kitchen and dining room on the ground floor. Kelly would do errands for Maureen.

Every so often, Kelly would meet up with Kerri and her daughter, Gracie. Needham was a keen fisherman and took up pheasant shooting, for which he was granted a gun licence. ‘But that didn’t worry anyone,’ says Kerri. ‘It wasn’t a big deal at the time.’ He was without a gun for a number of years, but in March 2020, a week before the murders and unknown to anyone else, he went out and bought a shotgun.

At home, all was seemingly normal, despite the anxieties of the first Covid lockdown. On Friday 27 March, Kelly posted a photo on her Facebook page captioned, ‘Our walk for the day,’ along with a love-heart emoji. Taken by Kelly, the picture shows Needham with the family dog, Billy, a Staffordshire bull terrier, and the two young girls walking through fields in the spring sunshine. At around teatime on the Saturday, Kerri received a message from Kelly in a group chat with a photograph of a climbing frame that Needham had erected in the garden, together with the words, ‘This should keep them busy,’ referring to Ava and Lexi.

That Saturday, Emma and Kelly talked via a video call. ‘Kelly was her normal, chatty self, and we spoke about lockdown and how weird it was knowing we couldn’t go out,’ she says. ‘Kelly chatted to my daughter, then I spoke to the girls – Ava showed me her marbles and Lexi was running around just being her lovely, noisy self.’

At around 9pm, Kelly and Rob ordered a Chinese meal. It was the last time anyone saw them alive.

By Sunday Emma had still not received a reply to a text she had sent on Saturday night. She started to message other friends, including Kerri, and family members, but there was no news of Kelly.

By this point, Emma was panicking. She was convinced something awful must have happened. ‘I said to my husband, “I know she’s not alive,” and he looked at me as if I was crazy,’ says Emma, who lives with her husband, Tom, 51, and two children in Birmingham. ‘But I had an instinct something was terribly wrong. I said, “I don’t know what it is, but I know I’ll never see her again.” I just knew. Perhaps it was a twin thing, that sense you know what your twin is feeling and thinking. We were so, so close.’

Emma lived 140 miles away from Kelly so she asked some relatives nearby to go to the house in Woodmancote. When the police arrived, they discovered the bodies of Kelly, Ava, Lexi and Needham, all of whom had died from shotgun wounds.

‘Emma called me to say that they were all dead,’ says Kerri. ‘To begin with, I assumed it was something like a gas leak. She rang back later and told me that it was looking like Rob had done it. I understood the words, but I couldn’t take them in. I just lost it and I went into shock. I was trying not to let my daughter see me like that. I didn’t sleep that night, and I couldn’t stop shaking for several days. I kept asking myself: how, why?’

In England and Wales there are on average 23 recorded homicide-suicides each year – around two every month. The rate varies from year to year – between April 2010 and March 2011 there were 46 murder-suicides in England and Wales, while between April 2018 and March 2019 there were only 18 cases. The perpetrators are mostly men, the victims usually women. ‘Whatever official figure exists, I can promise you that’s an underestimation,’ says criminologist Jane Monckton Smith, professor of public protection at the University of Gloucestershire. She says that although the rate of domestic violence increased during lockdown, it’s too early to say whether there have been more murder-suicides during this period – the data isn’t in yet.

At the end of last month, the bodies of British expats John Boyes, 64, and his wife, Kathryn, 65, were discovered at their home in Boudrac, south-west France. French police claim that Boyes beat his wife with a baseball bat and strangled her before he hanged himself in an outhouse – although his brother, Robert, 60, has questioned whether the deaths were a result of murder-suicide and is calling for a full investigation.

This is just the latest in a number of cases reported in the past 18 months. On 19 March 2021, Ken Flanagan, 26, murdered his mother, Karen McClean, 50, at her home in Newtownabbey, north of Belfast, before stabbing to death his girlfriend, Stacey Knell, 30, and then killing himself.

On 10 April 2021, the bodies of National Trust volunteers Jonathan Metcalf, 72, and his wife, Sally, 68, were found at their ��500,000 home in Woodbridge, Suffolk. Sally died from compression of the neck, while Jonathan hanged himself.

On 4 May 2021, at the Majestic Hotel in Harrogate, 29-year-old childcare specialist Chenise Gregory was stabbed to death by her ex-partner Michael McGibbon, also 29, who then killed himself. A statement released by Chenise’s family said, ‘We’re heartbroken to learn that our beloved Chenise was lured to her death at the hands of her controlling and manipulative ex-boyfriend.’

On the morning of 18 June 2021, 23-year-old Gracie Spinks was tending her horse, Paddy, in a paddock in Duckmanton, Derbyshire, when she was attacked and murdered by a man who had stalked her. The police discovered the body of her killer, Michael Sellers, 35, in a nearby field.

According to research published in the journal Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology in 2016, a typical perpetrator is a 44-year-old white man, while the average victim is a 38-year-old woman. The study, which examined 60 cases of homicide-suicide in England and Wales, also concluded that nearly two-thirds of victims were in or had been in a relationship with their killer.

Knives or other sharp instruments were the most commonly used weapons in murder, while hanging was the most frequent method of suicide. The same study found that only 12 per cent of perpetrators are women. In May 2018, former Playboy model and author Stephanie Adams killed herself and her seven-year-old son, Vincent, after a reported custody battle.

‘Homicide-suicides are different in nature compared with cases of homicide only or suicide only, making them a unique form of lethal violence,’ says Dr Flynn, one of the authors of the 2016 study. ‘In these cases, individuals attribute blame both externally towards the victim, resulting in acts of outward violence and aggression, and also inwardly towards themselves, leading to suicide. While there are clear overlaps in the characteristics of homicide and suicide cases, it is the assimilation of both these behaviours that make this act so distinct.’

But what drives people to murder and then to suicide? ‘These men – because they’re mostly men – are controlling, possessive and jealous,’ says Professor Monckton Smith, author of the book In Control: Dangerous Relationships and How They End in Murder. ‘When they kill themselves as well as the victim, it’s a sense of, “I own you – whatever I do to myself, you’re coming with me. I’m not going to let you escape this.”’

For years, domestic homicides have often been regarded as spontaneous crimes of passion, a scenario that has little basis in reality. In truth, these killers, motivated by patterns of coercive control, spend weeks, sometimes months, planning the deaths. According to Professor Monckton Smith, there are steps that can be taken to prevent such murders – in her book she outlines the patterns of behaviour that she calls the ‘homicide timeline’. And, if you’re in a controlling relationship, you need to be aware of the warning signs.

‘If the man is possessive and controlling from the get-go, don’t see that as romantic, don’t see that as love,’ she says. ‘If you’re further down the line and you’re trapped in a relationship and your partner starts threatening suicide, be concerned because they intend to take you with them. I can’t put it any more starkly than that.’

The inquest into the deaths of Kelly Fitzgibbons and her family has been delayed four times; at the moment it’s scheduled for July 2022. Friends and family have racked their brains for clues, sifting through memories and past experiences, but the motivation for the murders remains a mystery.

As far as anyone knows, Kelly didn’t suffer from domestic abuse or coercive control. ‘And there was nothing to suggest that Kelly was thinking of leaving Rob,’ says Kerri. Could it have been financial pressures? While it’s true that, in October 2019, Needham’s building company was dissolved, the couple had bought a second home that they’d hoped to rent out. ‘My sister was working and it wasn’t like they suddenly didn’t have any money,’ says Emma.

Since the murders happened at the beginning of lockdown, some of the initial newspaper reports linked the deaths with Covid restrictions. ‘But Rob got the gun the week before lockdown and personally I don’t think it was anything to do with Covid,’ says Emma. ‘Normally, he’d work at weekends, but we know he didn’t that weekend, and instead spent time with the family. I wonder – because he’d made it a nice last day for them – whether it was all planned and premeditated.’

The only clue lies in Needham’s medical history. ‘We do know that Rob had suffered from depression in the past,’ says Emma, who works for the NHS as a commissioning manager of mental health services, and is aware that the majority of people with mental health issues do not go on to commit this kind of crime. ‘I think he made the awful decision that, because he wasn’t happy, his family should not be allowed to enjoy or even live their own lives.’

In the summer of 2021 Emma met with Jess Phillips, the Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley who included Kelly’s name in a list she read out in Parliament, detailing the 118 women killed by men between 11 March 2020 and 11 March 2021. ‘One of the issues I talked to her about was gun licences and the loopholes that exist in the law,’ says Emma. ‘It’s a difficult balance between individual rights and the safety of the general public, but if someone has had recurring depression or mental illness, or has been found to have lied on their initial application form, I don’t think they should be allowed to have a gun. It’s not as if they’re applying for a swimming pass – they’re applying for something that can kill.

‘Something needs to change because as we saw in the tragedy in Plymouth [in August 2021, 22-year-old Jake Davison shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself] these horrific incidents are just going to keep happening. I knew absolutely nothing about gun licensing until I lost my sister, but I’ve been appalled and shocked by how many people in the UK hold a gun licence and how easy it is to obtain one. If Rob had never had access to such a deadly weapon, there may well have been a different outcome – he may have just taken his own life and not the lives of the whole family.’

To forge something positive out of the traumatic experience, Emma has founded the Kelly Fitzgibbons Foundation, which aims to provide help and support to families of those lost in similar circumstances. ‘If I hadn’t set up the charity, it would have been so easy to drown in grief, anger and negativity,’ she says. ‘We’d like the foundation to be a place that can provide all the information a family will need to get them through what is likely to be the worst time of their lives. It’s as if your life has suddenly turned into what feels like a TV drama.’

Kerri feels as if she’s been irretrievably changed by the murder of her close friend and her two young daughters. Whenever she’s doing something nice for her nine-year-old, like putting up a Christmas tree or wrapping a birthday present, she feels the loss particularly keenly, knowing that Kelly and her girls will never be able to experience such simple pleasures again.

‘I can’t get my head around the fact that Rob took away their futures, their lives,’ says Kerri. ‘Kelly did all these lovely things with her girls and wanted them to have the best start in life and to have all these wonderful memories. He ripped that away from them, and from all of us.’ She makes an effort to choke back the tears as she speaks. ‘I will never understand why he couldn’t have just taken his own life. Why did he have to take theirs too?’

National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808-2000 247; Samaritans: 116 123; kellyfitzgibbonsfoundation.org.

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tickernewsng · 2 years

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RnB star, R. Kelly, a US singer, was found guilty of child pornography.  R.Kelly After a month-long trial in Chicago, American singer Robert Kelly, also known by his stage name R. Kelly, was found guilty of child pornography.  The singer was found guilty on Wednesday and is currently serving a 30-year sentence. He was found guilty on three counts of producing after a federal jury found him not guilty on seven other counts, including allegations that he obstructed justice in a prior trial. Three charges of enticement of a juvenile as well as child pornography were brought up in court. The singer's 2008 child pornography trial was allegedly rigged, and Kelly and two former associates were prosecuted alongside him and found not guilty of obstruction of justice.

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squarwell-breakingnews · 2 years

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R Kelly Found Guilty Of Child Pornography

R Kelly is serving a 30-year sentence for sex offense. Washington: Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly, who is serving a 30-year sentence for sex offenses, was found guilty of child pornography and other charges on Wednesday after a month-long trial in his hometown of Chicago. Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of three counts of producing child pornography and three…

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room42 · 2 years

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Johnny Depp's Instagram About The Amber Heard Trial Went Viral

Johnny Depp’s Instagram About The Amber Heard Trial Went Viral

Celebs who liked Johnny Depp’s post Ryan Adams (commented “❤️🙌🔥”) Patti Smith Michelle Branch Ashley Benson (commented “🙌🙌❤️❤️❤️”) Bella Hadid Gemma Chan Halle Bailey Naomi Campbell (commented “❤️❤️❤️❤️”) Emma Roberts Rita Ora Chase Stokes Ian Somerhalder Kelsea Ballerini Cazzie David Zoe Saldaña Jason Momoa Kelly Osbourne Vanessa Hudgens Jennifer Aniston Chase Hudson Tony Lopez Suni Lee Henry…

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#Amber #Depps #Heard #Instagram #Johnny #trial #viral

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slowlyandrogynousmiracle · 3 days

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The Boondocks: Season 1 "The Trial of Robert Kelly"

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cyarsk52-20 · 27 days

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See 35 Totally Accurate Reactions To R. Kelly’s Explosive Interview With Gayle King

Xaviera BryantMarch 6, 2019

Part one of R. Kelly‘s explosive and shenanigan-filled interview with Gayle Kingaired on “CBS This Morning” and it has the social media streets buzzing!

[Read Also: 13 Quotes From R. Kelly’s Explosive Interview With Gayle King + Video]

🗣what about Aaliyah? she was under 17 and you married her! #rkellyinterview#cbsthismorning — HRH👑 (@hrhqueenbih) March 6, 2019

R. Kelly trying to explain to Gayle King that he's innocent. 🙄💀💀#rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/9qqjLbPUrf — @summer0001 (@summer0001) March 6, 2019

If he can't afford to bail himself out of jail, but you live in TRUMP tower Chicago? #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/8RD3iPTwkO — Christianne (@CrissyLawson1) March 6, 2019

Got some real Denzel Washington from 'Training Day' vibes off this performance #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/SYGq9k9uOX — BLACK NATIVE (@AliasEmanon) March 6, 2019

R. Kelly trying to read those so-called fake blog posts about him. #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/L4WEe6VyJt — Blanche NeverHo (@Black_Daria1) March 6, 2019

When you know they’re lying but you let em tell the story anyway. #rkellyinterviewpic.twitter.com/dny1ZuQToE — philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 6, 2019

Live look at R Kelly's lawyers after the Gayle King interview #RKellyGoingToJAIL#rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/nsLwZcZioW — Paco (@PacoRadioShow) March 6, 2019

When my mom yelled at me as a kid for putting aluminum foil in the microwave #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/hlRlIewEhp — Platinum J (@iamPlatinumj) March 6, 2019

When your mom says, “I’m gon give you one more opportunity to tell me the truth…” #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/Pp62rJxo0v — Notorious J.P.G. (@kidnoble) March 6, 2019

“Robert…” @GayleKing’s professional way of calling R. Kelly on his BS. @CBSThisMorning #rkellyinterviewpic.twitter.com/P6uFHvBRDN — Lonnell Williams (@3LWTV) March 6, 2019

R. Kelly flips out during #rkellyinterview Gayle King: Robert pic.twitter.com/kEmyVBkYA7 — Troy CLE (@TroyCLE) March 6, 2019

R. Kelly thinks it’s wrong that the parents brought the girls on stage, but don’t see nothing wrong with him taking them home and keeping them away from their families for years…. OK. #RKellyinterview — Raven Simone (@RavensRantz) March 6, 2019

Our collective reaction to R. Kelly acting performance in his interview with Gayle.#rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/AGY5R8g08Z — Pet Wisdom for Life (@SDWisdom) March 6, 2019

R. Kelly: 🗣🗣🗣!!!!!!!!!!!! Gayle King: (calmly) Robert… #CBSThisMorning #rkellyinterviewpic.twitter.com/eZlZNm00yK — Nikki Pressley-Brown (@NikkiPressley) March 6, 2019

#rkellyinterview Cue fake tears in… pic.twitter.com/zaI3JeR1IQ — Del Sandeen (@DelSandeen) March 6, 2019

I’m sorry who’s yellin at Gayle? #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/reGouLLYlB — k. waldorf (@KayMcCrayCray) March 6, 2019

All my years attending the law school of Oliva Benson have taught me that this mutha fucka past guilty. Like why even have a trial? Let this interview be his closing and opening remarks. #rkellyinterview — Defund. Release. Rinse. Repeat. (@DefundRepeat) March 6, 2019

Damnnnn This is gonna be a close one!!! I thought the #Jordan Crying #Meme was gonna live a lot longer…Drum🥁roll please #RKelly #CBSThisMorning#RKellyInterview #BullsNationpic.twitter.com/7si5x8j17W — Tweet-Pac Shakur (@IbnCutByIbn) March 6, 2019

Definitely a good way to show you’re not an abuser of women is to shout at a woman about it. #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/9Wk2ouaodw — The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) March 6, 2019

Rkelly talking to Gayle right now #rkellyinterview pic.twitter.com/L9A7vJbLqg — Lemon Obby (@waistbeaddealer) March 6, 2019

Just because you “beat” your case doesn’t make you an innocent man…#UseYourCommonSense🙄🙄🙄 #rkellyinterview — 🎇New_Year_Who_Dis? 🍾 (@MackTenn74) March 6, 2019

All I am saying on the #RKellyinterview is this; all those years he wasted on lusting after girls younger than 18 and he could have went to school to learn to read ,write , and communicate well — Cricket ™ (@finemamaof4) March 6, 2019

#rkellyinterview all l can say is…ego is one hell of a drug. — Chantal F Glover (@ChantalfGlover1) March 6, 2019

Your thoughts?

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uselectionnews · 6 months

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“Joe Biden’s Big New Hampshire Blunder,” by Jonathan Martin in Politico.

“The Simple Truths of Nate Bargatze on SNL,” by Esther Zuckerman in The Atlantic.

“Biden takes on AI – and the tech industry,” by Mohar Chatterjee in Politico.

“Co-workers knew he was struggling. They didn’t expect he’d buy an AR-15.,” by Robert Klemko in The Washington Post.

“Netanyahu blames security agencies for intelligence failure, then pulls back,” by Federica Di Sario in Politico.

“Fidelity has marked down the value of Twitter/X by 65%,” by Dan Primack in Axios.

“Gaza receives largest aid shipment so far as deaths top 8,000.,” by Associated Press in Politico.

“Israel’s ground assault of Gaza is happening. Here’s what we know,” by Ellen Ioanes in Vox.

“Residents of Maine gather to pray and reflect, days after mass shooting left 18 people dead,” by Associated Press in Politico.

“Trump’s Old Legal Arguments Are Coming Back to Haunt Him,” by Aaron Tang in Slate.

“Iranian foreign minister deflects question about threatening U.S.,” by David Cohen in Politico.

“Iowa poll: Nikki Haley surges as Ron DeSantis frozen in place,” by Justin Green in Axios.

“"‘I really don't see what he is doing’: Jayapal baffled by Phillips' White House bid," by Kelly Garity in Politico.

“Wisconsin might get an official state cocktail: the brandy old-fashioned,” by María Paúl and Emily Heil in The Washington Post.

“Biden tells Netanyahu that Israel must protect Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” by Barak Ravid in Axios.

“One of the Hardest Things About Being a Professor Is Only Getting Harder,” by Kelly Ritter in Slate.

“The Other Group of Viruses That Could Cause the Next Pandemic,” by Katherine J. Wu in The Atlantic.

“Biden risks Jimmy Carter redux as global crises spiral,” by Josh Kraushaar in Axios.

“Once Again, the History of Witch Trials Has Inspired the World’s Most Annoying Merch,” by Eleanor Janega in Slate.

“The world will see this as Biden’s war,” by Jonathan Guyer in Vox. Axios.

“After setback, antiabortion forces struggle before key Ohio vote,” by Annie Gowen in The Washington Post.

“The Old-Fashioned Charm of The Golden Bachelor,” by Isabel Fattal in The Atlantic.

“Johnson "not afraid" of vacating rule that drove McCarthy out as speaker,” by Shauneen Miranda in Axios.

““Lord of the Flies”: The House’s chaotic next era, explained,” by Ben Jacobs in Vox.

“Anderson Cooper’s Co-Author Discusses Their New Bestseller About the Astors,” by June Thomas in Slate.

“Biden’s re-election horror shows,” by Jim VandeHel in Axios.

“Cookbooks Are Finally Telling the Truth About the Worst Part of Cooking,” by Marian Bull in Slate.

“House Speaker Mike Johnson’s Louisiana hometown guided by faith and family,” by Molly Hennessy-Flake in The Washington Post.

“‘I Am a Practicing Catholic and I Am a Proud Jew’,” by David I. Kertzer in The Atlantic.

“Prisons are banning thousands of books,” by Shauneen Miranda in Axios.

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rhetoricaltheoriesincomm · 6 months

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Exploring Rhetoric through Huey’s Critique of Celebrity Worship

In this second entry, I examine the critical question of how this artifact aligns with Isocrates’ criteria of good rhetoric (Kairos, appropriateness, originality) and whether it is ethical and productive for democracy and society. This analysis delves into Huey’s impassioned speech in The Boondocks, which offers a critical analysis of contemporary celebrity culture, with a focus on the controversial figure, R. Kelly, exemplifying Isocrates’ criteria of good rhetoric – Kairos, appropriateness, and originality. Additionally, it scrutinizes the ethical and productive implications of the speech, underlining the significance of responsibility and accountability within the realm of celebrity culture.

The Boondocks, created by Aaron McGruder, is renowned for its satirical and socially relevant commentary. This specific episode, titled The Trial of Robert Kelly, aired on November 13, 2005. Huey Freeman, one of the show’s central characters, serves as the intellectual and social critic who frequently addresses contemporary issues with unwavering conviction. In the episode featuring this speech, Huey confronts the complex subject of R. Kelly, an artist with a massive fan following, despite facing serious legal allegations, including charges related to sexual misconduct toward a minor. The speech embodies the essence of the show, using sharp wit and critical analysis to prompt viewers to reflect on societal norms and values, especially in the realm of celebrity culture.

In Isocrates’ ‘Against the Sophists,’ he provides critical insights into rhetoric, education, and the criteria for effective oratory. He highlights the importance of ‘kairos,’ signifying the right moment and context in communication, forming the basis for assessing the timeliness and appropriateness of Huey’s impassioned speech in The Boondocks within the context of contemporary celebrity culture. Isocrates’ emphasis on ‘appropriateness’ stresses that rhetoric must be fitting for the occasion, prompting us to evaluate whether Huey’s speech navigates its subject matter with due regard for what is pertinent. Additionally, the concept of ‘originality’ calls for creative and innovative speeches, encouraging us to explore if Huey’s rhetoric introduces fresh perspectives within the discourse on celebrity culture. These concepts provide a robust framework to scrutinize Huey’s speech’s adherence to Isocrates’ criteria of good rhetoric – Kairos, appropriateness, and originality, while also examining its ethical and productive implications for society, emphasizing the importance of responsibility and accountability in the context of celebrity culture.

Huey’s speech in “The Trial of Robert Kelly” seizes a critical moment (Kairos) both within the context of the episode and in the real world. In the episode, the critical context leading to this speech is the trial of R. Kelly. Before taking the stage, Huey encounters public adoration for R. Kelly, who is not only a famous singer but also faces criminal charges. The real-world context during this episode mirrors the public’s divided opinions about R. Kelly’s legal situation and his immense popularity. The real-world events surrounding R. Kelly’s arrest and trial were highly publicized, sparking intense debates about his actions and guilt. Huey’s speech captures the essence of this moment in the episode and reflects the ongoing public discourse around R. Kelly’s case. Huey’s speech, containing lines like “You wanna help R. Kelly? Then get some counseling for R. Kelly!” addresses the specific real-world moment when people were conflicted about separating R. Kelly’s musical talent from the accusations against him. This rhetorical act was strategic and timely, utilizing the heightened awareness of the situation and the emotional reactions it triggered in the public. Huey seizes this Kairos to convey his critical perspective on R. Kelly and the public’s reaction to the trial, emphasizing the need for responsibility and accountability, especially when it comes to popular figures.

Huey’s speech in The Boondocks, while passionate and confrontational, raises questions about its appropriateness within the context of a satirical animated series. Huey’s speech begins with a direct challenge to the audience, using phrases like “What the hell is wrong with you people?” and “stop the damn dancing.” This confrontational tone might be considered abrasive by some and could be seen as inappropriate for addressing a mixed audience. Moreover, rather than following a traditional path of addressing R. Kelly’s legal issues, Huey resorts to unconventional suggestions like “introduce him to some older women” and “hide his camcorder.” While intended for satirical effect, these suggestions may be deemed inappropriate given the seriousness of the allegations against R. Kelly. Huey’s speech’s appropriateness hinges on its intention and the context of The Boondocks. If the goal was to provoke thought and critique the adoration of celebrities despite their wrongdoing, then the confrontational style and unconventional suggestions might be seen as appropriate. However, if the intention was to engage in a thoughtful discussion, the tone and approach may be considered inappropriate. This dynamic raises questions about the blurred lines between effective satire and a lack of decorum.

The appropriateness of Huey’s speech in The Boondocks can also be seen through the lens of satirical commentary. The show often uses humor and exaggeration to spotlight societal issues, and Huey’s speech follows this tradition. By using a confrontational style and unconventional suggestions, the speech can be interpreted as a satirical critique of the public’s sometimes misguided adoration of celebrities. In this context, the speech may be considered appropriate, as it challenges the status quo and forces viewers to think critically about their idolization of famous figures. Moreover, the fact that Huey is a fictional character within a satirical animated series adds another layer to the appropriateness of the speech. The Boondocks is known for its sharp social commentary and the use of exaggerated characters to make its points. As a result, Huey’s speech could be seen as an extension of the show’s satirical style. To fully assess the appropriateness of Huey’s speech, it is crucial to consider the medium and context in which it was delivered. The Boondocks is not a traditional platform for solemn discussions, but rather a satirical animated series aiming to provoke thought through humor. Therefore, the appropriateness of the speech may ultimately depend on the viewer’s interpretation and expectations when engaging with the show.

Huey’s impassioned speech in The Boondocks introduces a unique dimension of originality to the discourse surrounding contemporary celebrity culture, particularly in its critique of the controversial figure, R. Kelly. One notable aspect of this originality lies in Huey’s choice of subject matter. While mainstream media often avoids addressing contentious issues like R. Kelly’s alleged wrongdoing, Huey’s willingness to confront such topics head-on adds an unconventional and fresh perspective to the speech. Furthermore, the satirical approach that is a trademark of The Boondocks shines through Huey’s speech. His blend of satire and genuine concern creates an original and distinctive voice in the critique of celebrity culture, ensuring that the speech doesn’t merely follow conventional patterns of discourse. This is reinforced by Huey’s proposal of unorthodox solutions, like “introduce him to some older women” and “hide his camcorder,” which deviate from the expected and offer an original and thought-provoking critique. In essence, Huey’s speech embodies originality in its content, tone, and approach, effectively enhancing its impact in examining the intricate issues of responsibility and accountability within the realm of celebrity culture.

This speech delves into the intricate nuances of contemporary celebrity culture, particularly concerning R. Kelly, highlighting the ethical dilemmas associated with endorsing artists embroiled in controversy. Firstly, the speech challenges the audience to reevaluate their responses to celebrities entangled in legal and ethical issues. Huey employs a confrontational tone, urging individuals to question the blind adoration of artists who may have transgressed societal norms, offering insight into the multifaceted dilemma that accompanies supporting such figures. Secondly, Huey’s rhetoric encourages a sense of responsibility and accountability within the audience. He implies the need for standards and critical evaluation, suggesting that individuals should be more discerning in their idolization of celebrities. This prompts viewers to reflect on their roles in perpetuating a culture that often places famous figures on unassailable pedestals, regardless of their behavior. Huey’s speech exemplifies Isocrates’ principles of ethical and productive discourse. It motivates individuals to embark on introspective journeys, reflecting on their ethical responsibilities and roles in society. In doing so, the speech contributes to more meaningful dialogues on cultural issues. It serves as a catalyst for ethical introspection and productive conversations, aligning with Isocrates’ vision and addressing the pressing ethical and productive concerns of contemporary celebrity culture. Huey’s speech transcends its role as animated satire, becoming a powerful rhetorical tool that challenges societal norms and expectations, inspiring individuals to engage in more thoughtful, accountable discourse.

In summary, Huey’s impassioned speech in The Boondocks exemplifies Isocrates’ criteria for good rhetoric, including Kairos, appropriateness, and originality. This speech raises essential ethical and productive questions about endorsing controversial artists and emphasizes the need for responsibility and accountability. Through its thought-provoking and original approach, it challenges societal norms and encourages meaningful discourse on celebrity culture. In a world where celebrity adoration often overshadows ethical considerations, Huey’s speech serves as a powerful catalyst for introspection and dialogue, aligning with Isocrates’ vision of effective rhetoric.

Work Cited

Barnes, Rodney, et al. “The Trial Of R.Kelly, The Boondocks.” Genius, 13 Nov. 2005, https://genius.com/The-boondocks-the-trial-of-r-kelly-annotated. Accessed 28 Oct. 2023.

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