Alistair Montbaum

I have never seen a ghost.

[lasher @fatherlasherart]

"she's making excellent progress. she only tried to bite me twice during today's reading."

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@Anluanx Are they the same women?

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@tii_bag Engagement farming: This story has been floating around for a while.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

Oh, you don't need to be black to recognize black racism.

[Nick @PubPlanPosting]

@AliceFromQueens You’re not black so you don’t understand it. A black Dusk Till Dawn knockoff should not be considered Oscar worthy. Whole hype and nominations feels fake and forced tbh (to be honest)

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

It IS dumb. A movie which makes expects the audience to prefer the 'authentic' non christian 'black' music over the more appealing Irish/english folk christianity of the 'vampires' is dumb.

[Alice @AliceFromQueens]

@PubPlanPosting oh to me that would make it more interesting. when I hear vampires I just think it's dumb

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@AliceFromQueens It's ideology is that Christian spiritual music is inauthentic black culture, erasing the history of Christian-inspired black music, which results in a tone deaf display of soulless black music, devoid of Christianity, versus the appealing white Christian music of the vampires.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@wynrosei Chainmail bikini, like Red Sonja.

[Sci-Fi World Museum @hollywoodscifi]

Disney is releasing the original 1977 version of Star Wars is returning to theaters for the 50th on February 19th 2027. No New Hope, no digital add-ons, no greedo shooting, nothing but the original remastered and beautiful.

All we can say is it's about dang time!

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

Are you all totally forgetting that he was totally awesome?

[TheBruh @Number1Bruh]

@BuzzingPop Norse god depicted in a hollywood movie

[Sandy Petersen 🪔 @SandyofCthulhu]

This book is the best book EVER on the Bermuda Triangle. If you are curious about the triangle, read the book. It give chapter and verse in great detail.

Summary: there are no more mysterious disappearances in the Triangle than anywhere else, proven rigorously.

My conclusion: the whole ocean is a mystery.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

It's fine because there really is no threat to the man, as 99 percent of women could not overpower a man to eat him. Most men could overpower most women.

[YEYEmeta 🥲 | KIND @YEYEmeta]

@FilmUpdates So it's fine to talk about the actor with sentences like "Twenty women were like frothing at the mouth." and "If he walked in right now, I think they would eat him." ?

What if the roles were reversed?

[J. Whitebread @JWhitebread1]

Okay, so I can actually explain this. It's not what you think at all. It's a silent battle between the conflicting goals of directors, set dressers, screen writers and actors, and the cost benefits of set dressing and redressing, that eventually settled on a weird convention where no one really eats in movies or TV shows.

First, no director likes an empty table at a meal. It looks dull, and lacks vital interest. So the director tells the set dresser, make it look good! So the set dresser piles on food and other things to fill up the empty space, often far more than would be rational at a regular meal because film is a visual medium and it's easier to make something look good with MORE than less, BUT, it's not actually made to be eaten.

It's gotta last for several takes, which could take HOURS to film, so some of it isn't even actual real food, just props, and the stuff that is real food, is cold, congealed (and not really sanitary or safe to eat after hours under hot lamps) and it's also covered in more carnuba wax than than you can find at a car detailer.

It's only made to look good on camera, and only a little of it is actually designed to be eaten by the actors, but here's the thing, even that small part has gotta look good too. So what is stable, safe and doesn't need a lot of maintainance to look good on camera? You got it...TOAST. Toast is dry, can last for hours without much hassle, it doesn't go off, etc., so it's usually the part of the meal on set that someone can actually eat. Either that or something like crackers or breadsticks. If it's mass-produced crackers, all the better because it's easier to match shot after shot.

Now enter the actors. They have to sit around all this food, that is made to look good, but is actually fake, cold or gross, and they have to do many, MANY takes, but here's the thing. If you actually go at with full gusto like a regular meal, you'll end up eating several meals worth of food, which is very hard to do.

Also, actors tend to be particular about what they eat and no sane person wants to eat cold, congealed food covered in carnuba wax for hours on end anyway. So they pretend to eat or only nibble on the safe things to eat, which is most often again, something like toast.

Oh! And I didn't even mention the continuity problems! If you are filming something over hours and the actors are eating your props, they destroy your food/props in the process, which means if you DON'T get the take, you have to reset the food and REMAKE the food to match what was on screen before and it's a total nightmare. So again, you need a food that's easy to copy and replicate so you can reset for the next shot quickly and once again, TOAST fits the bill. It's quick, cheap, easy and all toast looks the same. Same for crackers, etc. Seriously, once you know this, you'll never see toast in films quite the same way. It's incredibly ubiquitous in films.

Now enter the screen writers. You have to write a scene at a meal, that allows people to talk, without actually eating all that much, because that would get in the way of the dialogue and would force you to redress and reset the table and food after every take anyway, which costs time and money. You have a table FULL of food that no one can or wants to eat. How on EARTH can you make that make sense?!

Well, the easy thing is, you interrupt the meal. You have something come up, a fight, someone tosses a drink at someone and storms out, or they are running late and have to go and can't eat, or something else, doesn't matter, just give the actors a reason not to eat and save everyone from the director and the set dresser the hassle.

So no one actually eats a meal in the movies except maybe some nibble on some crackers and toast. Seriously, actors go hours and hours filling up on stale toast and bread, it's boring and not very tasty, but at least it's safe and sanitary.

The director gets a set that is dressed nicely, the set dressers have food and props they don't have to reset too often, actors don't have to eat too much, and the shot goes through and everyone is happy! Except the audience who thinks, why didn't they eat the food?

It's so funny how all the behind-the-scenes logistics and drama is the actual source for so many of the tropes we see in TV and film.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

The surrogacy debate on the LEFT also focuses on gay couples using it, for the same reason. They are really advocating wealthy couples' right to use poor women as incubators.

[Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald]

The surrogacy debate on the right typically focuses on gay couples using that option, even though surrogacy is overwhelmingly used by wealthy straight couples or affluent single women who can't (and, far more often, simply don't want to) carry the baby themselves.

[The Goddamned Penguin @who_shot_jgr]

the plane remaining fully rigid and intact, the facade bulging like jell-o, the concrete frame reveal

a masterpiece

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

Another sheep bleating 'buccal fat removal' pretending he is an expert on plastic surgery.

[Dash R Period (-R.)  @dash_r_media]

@baltic_dan This buccal fat removal is out of control, she looks older than her mom

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@W_B_Rick Have you ever bothered to read the books? I used to read them every 2 years until I saw the movies, and something about them killed my desire to read them again. I hope it will come back.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

And no smooth, sound reflecting surfaces.

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

In my area, a trend with new restaurants, or redesigned restaurants, was to put up mirrored walls to make the space feel bigger. This resulted in a horrid cacaphony of sound, every vocalization and plate clink bouncing around and overwhelming any conversation.

[David Lang @davidtlang]

There is a restaurant in downtown Berkeley called Comal, which has good Mexican food. I recommend it.

I suggest you go, if you can, to observe for yourself that they have SOLVED the pesky restaurant noise problem.

You can hear everyone at your table clearly, without anyone straining their voice, all while the whole place maintains a lively background buzz of conversation and ambiance.

It's a technical and design marvel. I hope they figure out how to make these tools cheap and ubiquitous.

[Mike Bales 🫡🇺🇸 @MikeBales]

Why is peeling hard-boiled eggs sometimes so easy and other times an absolute nightmare? FFS 🤬

[Alistair Montbaum @montbaum]

@chefsevenn Welch's grape juice