Your chance to choose the next director of Marvel's ANT-MAN.

With Adam McKay passing on the job of directing the soon-to-be-in-production ANT-MAN after negotiations with Marvel, here's a list of potential directors to consider:

A. EDGAR WRIGHT (should Marvel/Disney change its collective mind)
B. JOE DANTE (who has experience with films about miniaturization e.g. SMALL SOLDIERS, INNERSPACE)
C. PATTY JENKINS (almost tapped to direct the THOR sequel which went to Alan Taylor)
D. DAVID WAIN (experience with directing Paul Rudd e.g. ROLE MODELS)
E. MIMI LEDER (experience directing big-budget studio actioners e.g. THE PEACEMAKER AND DEEP IMPACT)
F. LOUIS D'ESPOSITO (Marvel producer who directed a couple of Marvel One-Shot shorts, including prototype for upcoming AGENT CARTER TV series)
G. RUBEN FLEISCHER (director of ZOMBIELAND and GANGSTER SQUAD; still mentioned for projects such as the yet-to-be-made GHOSTBUSTERS 3)
H. RAWSON MARSHALL THURBER (auteur of DODGEBALL and WE'RE THE MILLERS)

A few words about Eliot Rodger.

Whether one thinks Isla Vista mass-murderer Eliot Rodger was mentally ill, simply a raging misogynist, or as someone whose mind-and-soul sickness manifested itself in hatred of women, it's important that men (younger and older) be led off the cognitive distortion paths of all-or-nothing thinking and dominant-male/submissive -female view of relationships between the genders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology)
http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/dlp/understanding-depression/all-or-nothing-or-black-and-white-thinking-and-depression/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misogyny

Film blogger Devin Faraci on Marvel, Disney and ANT-MAN.

Excerpted from Devin Faraci blog post:
"Marvel's always been autocratic - this is the house that (Kevin) Feige built, and he's been leading it with an iron fist - but things have been getting uglier over there for some time, especially now that Disney is getting involved. Why would the studio fuck with the division that's making money and having a huge cultural impact right when they're at their best? Because of dumb egos. Hollywood is dumb, run by dumb, venal people, and the executives who aren't creative resent the people who are, and want to get their stink on the movies. And you have to understand that Disney doesn't care about the movies - they want the Marvel IP so they can sell diapers and shirts and bedsheets. The movies are just commercials for the IP."

Full article can be found at:
http://badassdigest.com/2014/05/24/is-this-the-end-of-the-marvel-movie-age/?utm_content=buffer9775a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

JEOPARDY helps determine which authors survive posthumously.

Quoted from Noreen Malone's THE NEW REPUBLIC profile of JEOPARDY host Alex Trebek:
"Today's games feature far fewer questions in subjects like philosophy or classical music, statistically the most difficult categories."
(Skip To)
"According to head writer Billy Wisse, "Jeopardy!" is merely adjusting along with the evolving canon.  His team needs to write the games so that contestants will still have a shot at knowing the answers; just as important, they have to ensure that the people playing along at home still get to feel good about their intellects.  "They don't know as much about Theodore Dreiser as they used to," Wisse said.  "It's sad, but it's so big that it seems a shame to mourn for it.  There's not much anyone can do.""

As Barbara Walters retires, some irreverent comments on her legacy.

Yes, Barbara Walters interviewed many Important News Figures and was treated abominably by then-ABC News colleague  Harry Reasoner when they were a nightly news anchor team in the 1970s.  But, for balance, the stories below need to be factored into her decades-long impact on news and infotainment.

SALON article: http://www.salon.com/2014/05/15/barbara_walterss_real_legacy_is_the_view_and_thats_worse_for_women_than_we_realize/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow

HUFFINGTON POST article  in which Barbara Walters defends hiring vaccine-hating Jenny McCarthy for co-host on THE VIEW: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/03/barbara-walters-jenny-mccarthy-criticism_n_4193956.html

Article on Barbara Walters' relationship with infamous attorney (and Joseph McCarthy ally) Roy Cohn: http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2008/05/barbara-walters-why-i-was-roy-cohns.html

Maureen Dowd on Monica Lewinsky--again.

Here's the sum total of relatively snark-free content from Maureen Dowd's op-Ed column in THE NEW YORK TIMES on former White House intern Monica Lewinsky's re-engagement with the public:   "there’s something poignant about a 40-year-old frozen like a fly in amber for something reckless she did in her 20s, while the unbreakable Clintons bulldoze ahead..."

New poem: FOUND POEM BASED ON ANDY GILL BOOK ABOUT BOB DYLAN.

verbal artillery trained on outsiders passing by
plus the NYC folk music insiders
seated at the Table of Bob
wanting to see inside his mind
and find out Secrets
pick up Crumbs
see if they too can become Dylanesque
while Bob rubs their noses
in their opportunism,
telling them they would never
be as successful as he,
then saving the Silver Bullet
for Phil Ochs--
suggesting that Phil should find
a new line of work,
since he wasn't doing very much
in his current career
Phil handled this withering blast quite well,
offering this assessment of mid-60s Dylan:
"...you really had to be on your toes.
You'd walk into a threshing machine
if you were just a regular guy,
naive and open,
you'd be torn to pieces."