@MattMerk@mastodon.social cover
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

MattMerk

@MattMerk@mastodon.social

I work in the #movies. I've done #VFX in the #StarTrek universe, made it possible for Tom Cruise to find precrime clues in #MinorityReport, and now I have a little boutique company that does #3Dtracking and #matchmoving for even more movies and streaming (née "#TV") shows.

I mostly lurk on social media, but enough about me. How are YOU doing? Drop by and say hello!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

rooster , to random
@rooster@chaosfem.tw avatar

It took so many years to develop effective birth control for men but I'm so glad the cybertruck finally arrived

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@dan @rooster Or did you mean the wankpanzer?

antipode77 , to bookstodon group
@antipode77@mastodon.nl avatar

#History #Economy #Fascism @bookstodon

Karl Polanyi
The Great Transformation

https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/jun/23/the-greatest-thinker-youve-never-heard-of-expert-who-explained-hitlers-rise-is-finally-in-the-spotlight

... in the 1930s, wealthy Germans who saw the Nazi party as a “battering ram” against trade unions and socialists were persuaded to overlook Hitler’s antisemitism because it allowed the market system to flourish."

... a lot of German elites said to themselves: we’re quite happy funding Hitler because his street fighters will help crush the trade unions, so that we can make more profits.”

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@antipode77 @bookstodon “The Nazis are just a gang of stupid hooligans, but they do serve a purpose. Let them get rid of the communists, later we’ll be able to control them.” - Baron Maximilian von Heune, in the film CABARET

HunkThunderzone , to random
@HunkThunderzone@beige.party avatar

"I'm kinda over superheroes" is not something I really thought I'd ever say.

I've been a comic book geek as long as I can remember. My parents had a box of Archie Double Digest, and they'd pick up Star Trek or other books for me.

I think superheroes are a draw for gays, the whole "people don't understand or know me fully" and having to hide parts of yourself. Plus the power to make those assholes pay.

The MCU really grabbed me. I already knew some of the Avengers, but didn't get into the books until 10 years before they started making MCU movies.

It's not the quality of the films, that's honestly par for the course. There's plenty of bad writing in the books, too. The target demographic is children, it's not always going to be sophisticated.

It's that they're cops. They're supercops. They have the power to topple dictatorships and end poverty suffering and injustice, but instead they mostly do the bidding of governments and capitalists. They could be transformative agents for a better world, but they mostly just defend the status quo.

Outside of the X-Men, who are more interested in peaceful coexistence (or isolationism) than being supercops, the rest just defend things as they are, when they could be fighting for a better world. The only time they get involved in world changing events is to stop them. The writers only ever imagine large scale change as destructive and oppressive, never freeing.

I don't want to wear the symbols of supercops anymore.
I kinda don't want to contribute to that part of our culture as much.

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@HunkThunderzone
I cannot agree with you enough!

The short story "Model Minority" in the compilation RADICALIZED
(by @pluralistic ), explores this topic satirically, yet eloquently. A "superhero" who abides by some sort of code that is really just what you describe, only reacting, but at a scale that is ultimately unhelpful to society. It's pretty great.

It's available wherever books are sold, but here's a link to the author's page, if you should have any interest.
https://craphound.com/shop/

MattMerk , to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

Microsoft hates you. It also hates everyone else. You are Microsoft’s enemy. Another great read from @pluralistic

This one features a quote that has been a personal favorite of mine for some time.

“Anyone can design a security system that you yourself can't think of a way of breaking. That doesn't mean it works, it just means that it works against people stupider than you." - Bruce Schneier

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/14/patch-tuesday/

MattMerk OP ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@vosje62 @Herman I feel like @pluralistic has radicalized me in many ways in the computer science arena, I think starting with the book LITTLE BROTHER. 😂

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend!

benroyce , to random
@benroyce@mastodon.social avatar

"More than half of supporters say main reason for backing is to oppose "

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4712618-over-half-of-joe-biden-supporters-say-main-reason-for-backing-is-to-oppose-donald-trump-cbs-poll/

Some people think this is terrible

I consider it ideal

I don't like passion in . That gives us cults like . To me every should be a cold calculation. That's an ideal society, to me

If enough people vote tactically, they can move a party in the direction they want, until they get a candidate worthy of love

But even then I will never mix passion and politics

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@benroyce 1000% I always raise an eyebrow whenever I hear anyone say they love a politician. That's never a good sign.

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@zagone Mekka is not wrong. @benroyce

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@philip_cardella Whenever I hear anyone say, "Not all white people!" My immediate response is: "As a duly appointed, official representative of the white race, yes. Yes, all white people." And then I snicker at them (because ridicule and mockery are underrated and ridicule and mockery is all they deserve).

(Same goes for "Not all men!")

@benroyce @zagone

grammargirl , to random
@grammargirl@zirk.us avatar

What words do you think capture the zeitgeist of the year so far?

We're about halfway through 2024 (ack!), so I want to get a jump on collecting candidates for the word-of-the-year vote in December.

What do you think the 2024 word of the year should be?

#WOTY2024

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@stephenjbell @grammargirl @pluralistic I second this vote. I only worry about the word’s definition drift.

E.g.: “I made a concerted effort.” To which I always ask, “With whom did you make this effort?” But that example I just gave is now accepted.

With “enshittification,” the word is quickly being used to describe anything at all people don’t like, not the shifting of a thing’s value from consumers to advertisers, then from advertisers to shareholders.

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@pluralistic @stephenjbell @grammargirl The best reply! 😂

loren , to random
@loren@flipping.rocks avatar

the dance of the weevil

#weevils #insects

same weevil on my finger now with both front legs up above their head as if their are at another point in their little dance
same weevil on my finger but their front left leg is now out to the left and right front leg is hidden behind their body again as if they are doing a little dance

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@loren I can hear the music in my head! It's Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees, by the way.

MattMerk , to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

This may be my favorite @pluralistic post of all. A must read for writers and artists!

The “modified” hack is definitely going into my toolbox.

I loved seeing a Leverage reference (a show I worked on for years).

I loved the bit on comedy: “[The audience member’s] mind is furiously trying to defuse the comedian's bomb before it detonates.” Having done stand up myself, when they do diffuse it first, you are the one that bombs!

And much, much more… https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112514085581355762

pluralistic , to random
@pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

One of my favorite nuggets of writing advice comes from James D Macdonald. Jim, a Navy vet with an encylopedic knowledge of gun lore, explained to a group of non-gun people how to write guns without getting derided by other gun people: "just add the word 'modified.'"

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/27/cmon-do-it-again/#better_to_remain_silent_and_be_thought_a_fool_than_to_speak_and_remove_all_doubt

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MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@mattdm @pluralistic We’ve all been guilty of this at some point. 😆

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

We live in a timeline where Libertarians have more sense than the alt-left

Here’s Trump getting booed…

Trump being rotund asking for votes. This is the Same timeline as Libertarians having more sense than students getting their DoorDash sent to their hunger strike before receiving a degree in imagination and poetry as interpreted through a Marxian lens

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost The last time I heard someone use the term “alt-left” was at a Hollywood lunch meeting. He was talking about Bernie Sanders and Alexandrea Ocasio Cortez. He was very angry about the “alt-left” and I still have no idea what that term means.

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost Wait, did that actually happen? The door dash hunger strike thing? Because that is kind of stupidly hilarious! What you describe is pretty specific though, and what my co-producer friend thinks is the “alt-left” was also pretty specific. Both definitions, however, would seem to make a Venn diagram with circles on two different pages of the kooky sociology textbook they’d appear in. 😆

I need to look into this. First internet search result …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt-right#%22Alt-left%22

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost So these people then. I like Steinbeck’s turn of phrase here: “Temporary embarrassed capitalists.” Seems to fit particularly well with the door dash hunger strikers motif. 😂

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost My quest for learning about the “alt-left” moniker and if it even has a definition continues then. I’m learning it is very popular with Fox News reportage and centrists though.

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

My name is Flexghost

I like peanut butter, bananas and Nutella on toast

This is a peanut butter, bananas and Nutella #MastoRando thread

Also, happy #caturday

1/

The human version of Garfield getting attached to a tiny playful redhead kitten

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost Halloween wins this one, if only because the story behind it: it is based on a piano exercise taught to John Carpenter (director of the film and composer of the theme song) by his father. His dad made him play the exercise over and over and over and over…. Truly terrifying! 😂

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost Okay, I misremembered the story a bit. It was a 5/4 time exercise his dad taught him on the bongos. 😂 https://youtu.be/1K_y1TWBOvs?si=pkcy1nNDWL2YS3b4

But yes, The Exorcist is a better composition. Nevertheless, now that I’m reminded it was the bongos, Halloween still wins for me! 🤣

Also …

MattMerk , to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

This latest from @pluralistic is yet another great peek behind the curtain.

"... this is exactly what the self-driving car bros did over the past decade to convince us all that the human driver was already obsolete. The playbook was nearly identical, right down to the shameless huckster insisting that 'full self-driving is one to two years away' every year for a decade ..."

https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112457035116703740

MattMerk , to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

I just had a conversation with a guy who said, “Yeah, well I’m a capitalist.”

So I asked, “Okay, how much capital do you have?”

Boy, oh boy, does that question put things in perspective. He became a caricature of an old Warner Brothers cartoon character, trying to compose himself as he fumbled for words, all while he avoided actually answering the question.

So I simply repeated the question. I highly recommend.

MattMerk , to random
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

I feel like Eve who ate from the apple of truth, only the apple for me has been years of reading texts on the subject of economics. This has spoiled a lot of my previously casual news consumption, and it's ruined my ability to just watch people discuss politics.

By the way, the subject of "economics" should really always be called the more accurate: "money sorcery," and economists: "market warlocks."

As many have said before me, "The stock market is just a mood ring for wealthy people." >sigh<

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

i am become #MastoRando thread destroyer of worlds

1/

Video of adorable kitten carrying a snack along a fence til they get to their puppy friend who really wants to share it

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@flexghost My favorite day!

rbreich , to random
@rbreich@masto.ai avatar

I did NOT inhale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy5dkyJu8jQ&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

MattMerk ,
@MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

@rbreich Tell me you inhaled without telling me you inhaled. 😆

flexghost , to random
@flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

Let’s chat

Do you feel you have less interest posting about politics / current events lately?

Why?

Do you notice the same responses over and over again?

Do you feel headlines and events seem to go nowhere or seem to repeat?

Do you think people are more polarized or less polarized?

Are people beholden to their sides’ ideology— the kind of people where if you looked at their profile you would know exactly what they think on most issues without nuance?

I just wanna hear where you’re at…

Image of kitten with eyes glazed over and paw crossed staring into screen captions sit down we need to talk Holy shit I might just be over this. The same shit over and over every fucking day. Except for a few people it feels just like an echo chamber wherever you look And when I step out of line with some nuance in my opinion.... what happened to nuance? If I even talk to someone right leaning online the left jumps and vice versa. Some of you were cool. Some of you. Many people are just fucking NPCs and it makes me sad.
ALT
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    • + flexghost
    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost Amen to that. I regularly think of this unattributed quote: "The right looks for converts, while the left looks for traitors."
    @escarpment

    flexghost , to random
    @flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

    It’s Sunday

    Just another good day in which to say Fuck The New York Times

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost Ugh. "Some" is doing a lot of heavy lifting and stretching in that headline.

    Also, days that are good to say "Fuck the New York Times" are days that end in "day." I hate them more with every passing year.

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost And people thought me a nut when I'd cite Chomsky. Now it's pretty inarguable he was always right about the whole manufacturing consent thing.

    In the original Star Trek TV series there was the episode where everyone had an evil doppelganger in another dimension. I fear that's the dimension we all live in.

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @Alon @flexghost The great thing about mansplainer types is their stunning level of self confidence in their bullshit. Your reply reads like a ChatGPT hallucination.

    So, not only did you miss the point in my post, you did so in such a fantastically large way. you leave me wondering if you’ve even read the book I mentioned—a book very specifically about the propagandistic nature of U.S. News Media (of which the New York Times is a participant).

    You are not a person I’ll be taking seriously. 😂

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost I blocked the guy. It’s what I do with obvious shit-stirrers whom I do not take seriously. 😂

    flexghost , (edited ) to random
    @flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

    O.J. Simpson can take solace knowing that Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson‘s murderer has died

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost LOL! It's almost as good as the best thing you can say about Hitler: "Hey, at least he killed Hitler!"

    MattMerk , to random
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    Just re-watched the film CABARET (1972), and it has some pretty great lines:

    “The Nazis are just a gang of stupid hooligans, but they do serve a purpose. Let them get rid of the communists, later we’ll be able to control them.”

    Or how about …

    “If all the Jews are bankers, how can they be communists too?"

    Can recommend.

    rbreich , to random
    @rbreich@masto.ai avatar

    The end of the necktie? https://robertreich.substack.com/p/the-end-of-the-necktie?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @rbreich I heard a guy once quip that the only good thing about a necktie was where it pointed. Apparently he needed a reminder? Nevertheless, I’d be very happy to see them go.

    flexghost , to random
    @flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

    Joe Lieberman

    Lobbyist for Chinese telecom giant ZTE
    Man responsible for killing the Obamacare public option
    Democrat who voted for McCain and helped Trump via 3rd parties saying “people want something different”
    And Betsy DeVos simp

    Has died.

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost Shhh… I’m celebrating over here.

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    It's always bothered me that when people adapt Kafka's Metamorphosis they depict Gregor Samsa as a roach. Cockroaches do not undergo metamorphosis. They are born as nymphs which are just smaller wingless versions of the adult form.

    Kafka writes that Gregor can only enjoy rotten food. Which also makes him not at all roach-like. Roaches strongly prefer fresh vegetables to rotten ones.

    I always imagined him as a beetle. Which implies that the man Gregor was a larvae for all his pre-bug life.

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @futurebird It always bothered me that he was (is) visually depicted as a bug at all, since Kafka himself admonished against this! 😂

    flexghost , to random
    @flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost A map?

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Rat tales

    #nyc #rats

    SEEKING: RAT STORIES HAVE YOU HAD A MEMORABLE ENCOUNTER WITH A RAT IN NEW YORK CITY? WE'D LIKE TO HEAR IT. WE ARE TWO FRIENDS ON A MISSION TO COLLECT THE VERY BEST AND TRUE STORIES ABOUT LIFE IN THE RAT HOLE (NYC). WE RE SEEKING BRIEF ANECDOTES (500 WORDS OR LESS, PLEASE), POEMS, SONGS, COMIC STRIPS, ETC FOR PLACEMENT IN AN UPCOMING ZINE IF INTERESTED, PLEASE SEND TO NEWYORKTHOLENIGMAIL.COM SAIKE
    ALT
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    • MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @pluralistic My favorite personal rat story from NY happened late at night. I had to save a screaming woman trapped inside a fenced-off trash bin area as scores of rats swarmed the ground below her. She was standing on a broken chair, and trying unsuccessfully to climb over the fence. With great effort, I was able to help her over from the rat-free side by letting her climb on me like a ladder. When I got her to safety, she offered me sex. I declined.

    Should I email the OP? 😆

    tante , to random
    @tante@tldr.nettime.org avatar

    (And if you still follow Aral Balkan, you probably don't want to follow me. Cause if you are OK with his antisemitism and Holocaust relativism I wonder where our common base could ever be)

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @katzenberger @tante @aral Me either. I always find it sloppy, or even dodgy, when people who call themselves writers don’t provide citations for their accusatory statements. That should be a simple writerly habit, yet here we are.

    loren , to random
    @loren@flipping.rocks avatar

    Going to see dune 2 with this goose

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @loren And pooping!

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @loren @akamran I can think of no more efficient way to convert popcorn to poop!

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @loren @BjornIdle (And pooped!)

    ElleGray , to random
    @ElleGray@mstdn.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @ElleGray Same.

    A dog with black and white fur hugs a brown dog. GIF

    flexghost , to random
    @flexghost@mastodon.social avatar

    What the hell is this?

    I made it 3 minutes into Katie Britt’s astonishingly bad SotU rebuttal

    Drop on the comments how far you can make it into this clip before turning it off

    Video of Katie Britt turning in her audition for Mr. Johnson’s junior class presentation of Our Town

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @flexghost HAHAHAHA!!! This literally looks like a bad acting-class recorded monologue!

    parismarx , to random
    @parismarx@mastodon.online avatar

    Italy’s far-right party proposed using AI to assign youth mandatory jobs.

    “The young person will no longer be able to choose whether to work or not, but [will be] bound to accept the job offer for himself (sic), for his family and for the country, under penalty of loss of all benefits.”

    https://algorithmwatch.org/en/italian-neofascists-artificial-intelligence/

    #tech #ai #italy #government

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @parismarx Wasn’t this what right-wingers said would happen if communism won?

    (That question was rhetorical. This is exactly what I heard throughout my youth in the 1980s.)

    philip_cardella , to random
    @philip_cardella@historians.social avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @philip_cardella At time like that I turn on my crazy eyes and say, “Whaddya kidding me? There are cameras everywhere! You want your face showin’ up in some gubmint database?”

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    My next novel is The Bezzle, a high-tech ice-cold revenge thriller starring Marty Hench, a two-fisted forensic accountant, taking on the sleaziest scams of the first decades of the 2000s, from hamburger-themed Ponzis to the unbelievably sleazy and evil prison-tech industry:

    https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

    If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

    https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#bezzle-tour

    1/

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @pluralistic Just got it! Now I’m wondering if in this book your seemingly favorite literary pharmaceutical will get a mention. 😂

    (I giggle every time I see Modafinil mentioned in one of your stories.)

    azforeman , to poetry group
    @azforeman@mastodon.social avatar

    In which I recite the prologue to Romeo and Juliet in early 17th century English pronunciation, about two households /boːθ ələik ɪn dɪɡnɪtəi/

    Note the mid-vowel /eː/ in "scene", the lower front vowel /æː/ of "make", the diphthong preserved in "pair", the velar fricative in "nought", the rounded vowel in "grudge", the non-raised TRAP vowel in "hand" and the preserved voiceless "wh" sound

    @linguistics @litstudies @histodons @histodon @bookstodon @poetry

    video/mp4

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @azforeman @linguistics @litstudies @histodons @histodon @bookstodon @poetry I just read this and am now reading Othello. What you have done here is brilliant.

    luckytran , (edited ) to random
    @luckytran@med-mastodon.com avatar

    Hmmm. It’s like GenZ has spent their formative years living through a historic pandemic that is causing mass death and disability.

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @luckytran Fuck the New York Post.

    BeAware , to random
    @BeAware@social.beaware.live avatar

    Hi friend! 👋 @selzero just a warning, I sometimes post LOTS of AI art. I noticed the AI tag in your profile, but if it gets too much, feel free to filter the AIart tag.👍

    MattMerk ,
    @MattMerk@mastodon.social avatar

    @selzero @BeAware If this is going to be a t-shirt competition, fine!

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