I don't use ad blockers, but I seem to have made myself so uninteresting to advertisers, that I often see large blank spaces on sites where the adverts normally go. This is in part by declining cookies ("I have cookies at home") and in part by just being uninteresting.

This is e.g. how the recent article I shared looks to me:

It may seem I always initially forget to enter tags on my PeerTube posts, but I don't. It's just that you need to 'hit the enter key' to fill in the tags and there's no 'enter key' to hit on my phone. Tapping the button on my touchscreen keyboard doesn't work...

So it'll have to wait till next time I'm at a computer.

A post by Alyssa Milano on Instagram alerted me to this clip of an upcoming podcast (this Tuesday on YouTube and their podcast channel) by Pod Save America, where President Obama is the guest. Here he speaks some truths about the complexities of the Gaza situation in relation to people trying to debate it on social media. He puts it much better than I ever can.

I'm embedding the video on PeerTube, since most people here don't like to go to Instagram. But the original Instagram link is in the description if you want it.
#BarackObama #Gaza #PodSaveAmerica

Gidi's PeerTube: President Obama on the violence in Gaza and Israel (Mirror Mirror)

President Obama speaking about the complexities of reacting to the violence in Gaza and Israel, while we're trying to have these conversations on social media. As always he puts it much better than I ever can.

Great interview in Harper's Bazaar UK with Jenna Ortega, not about her films due to the strike, but about her career and her life, about the past and future, about her 21st birthday which was the first in a long time she was not working, about never being home, about representation, and about what she wants in the future. I like reading about her thoughts, she's a deep thinker.

Great photoshoot by Agata Pospieszynska as well. She's one of five cover stars for the 'Awards edition'.
harpersbazaar.com/uk/fashion/f…

Rewatching Dark Places because I recorded it off tv recently and it has Chloë Grace Moretz in it somewhere. Though you have to wait until 30 minutes into the film for her to show up, but then it instantly feels less dreary.

I can't quite remember the story from the first time I saw it, except maybe that it was indeed 'dark'. Chloë did much dark stuff in her youth (in films I mean).
#ChloëGraceMoretz #DarkPlaces

Also, why does a post get federated with the wrong accounts of people tagged as well, even though I removed these before posting and these tags don't show up in the post on the origin server?

And why does Mastodon show images of a cw'd post even though the cw is collapsed, while Pleroma does it right?

And why don't post scopes work properly between platforms...

So many little incompatibilities can pop up in this fediverse thing.

@dansup fyi, and I don't consider it a problem for me, but the Pixelfed Android app installed from f-droid (1.0.0.37) triggers a warning by the Lookout scanner. It says the signing key is accessible to multiple developers. I guess this is just a result of releasing via f-droid. However, I'm not getting this message on any other apps I got from f-droid.

For the warning, see screenshot.

In related news: in the past you needed to type well into her last name before type ahead search results on the various sites considered you might be meaning "Jenna Ortega", but I can report that now for IMDb "Jen" is enough and for Netflix a simple "Je".

The autocomplete on my phone needs nothing more than "J", or in fact just a #, but that's years of training...
#JennaOrtega

Now watching Karen Gillan twice in Dual. I haven't seen this before but from what I gather the premise of this film is that in some sci-fi future, before someone dies, they can have their whole being copied into a new body. Karen's character is in that situation and does that, but then she doesn't die but her copy also doesn't want to go away. Karen plays both the original and the copy.

Karen Gillan is of course known as one of the great companions from Doctor Who: Amy. (There have been many... Clara, Rose, Martha, Yaz, Ace...)
#KarenGillan #Dual

From that post I recently shared, with the interview with Queen Rania, I also like to highlight the quote:

There can never be a resolution except around the negotiating table. And there's only one path to this: a free, sovereign, and independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with the state of Israel.

These are words I can get behind. Better worded than some loaded slogans.

This time of year:

*looking up from my monitor after a debug session* Who made it dark?

Trailer for Finestkind is on YouTube. The film will be on Paramount+ from 15 December. The great thing: Jenna Ortega is in it!

youtu.be/O8aPzwMl37g?si=tO0afB…
#JennaOrtega #Finestkind

Finestkind | Official Trailer | Paramount+

Finestkind tells the story of two brothers (Ben Foster & Toby Wallace), raised in different worlds, who are reunited as adults over a fateful summer. Set aga...

^YouTube

You're the Raven in my bloodline
-- Goody

#Wednesday

Just saw Pearl, the prequel to X, and it's quite a good film. It's not a prequel in the traditional sense, but something they made on the back of filming X while they were at that location anyway. Basically it seems like after the actress playing Pearl and the director had worked out the backstory, they figured why not film it.

There's an amazing monologue in that film, as well as other great things.

Interesting that they basically put the whole cast and crew of X in the thanks session in the credits here, acknowledging how connected making these films were. (So yeah, technically Jenna is in the Pearl credits)
#Pearl

Looking for an Emilia Clarke film to watch... The Pod Generation is still not available here and neither are the other films of her I still have to watch.

I was already thinking to rewatch Voice from the Stone for Emilia's 37th birthday today, so that one it is. From my own blu-ray, since this one is also not available on the services of course.
#EmiliaClarke #VoiceFromTheStone

Opened a substack reader account as yet another rss-like app to probably ignore over time and have new buildup of stuff to read.

From what I can tell so far it really is just rss but with better looks. Except they also have non-free subscriptions, but since credit card is the only option, probably not.

Now trying to remember who of those I follow here said they had a substack.

In honour of Katie Douglas' 25th birthday last Thursday, I'm rewatching Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey. It's moved from Netflix to Disney+, where I've nicely searched for the film via Katie's name so the statistics show why people are watching this (as opposed to any recommendation by algorithm). I've got my tea and popcorn ready.

It's a harrowing story played intensely and touchingly by Katie. The deep misery her character Lisa is in even before she's abducted, then the strength of character Katie portrays to fight her way out of it, make a lasting impression. And it's a true story.

More films of Katie should be released in my country, she's certainly made more.

"Wings up and wands out!"
-- Tooth

#Tooth

Yasmin Paige is an actress I wish I'd hear more about. She did some great things. She was in the Doctor Who spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures as Maria and also in Pramface and the film Submarine. She was the reason I watched Ballet Shoes, a film with the very talented trio of Yasmin, Emma Watson (yes, the Hermione) and Lucy Boyton (who I've recently seen is still very good). I saw her first in The Mysti Show (yes, I knew Maria before TSJA).

Now I'm watching this film from that same early time, Tooth. Her name may not be on the cover, but she is as the title character, presumably a young tooth fairy. I like how sparkly this cover is! It changes colour with the light falling on it differently.

As a lifelong Helena Bonham Carter fan I've of course seen Wings of the Dove already (in the cinema even I think). It's long ago and this is the first time watching it from my own blu-ray.
#HelenaBonhamCarter #WingsOfTheDove #NowWatching

letterboxd.com/film/the-wings-…

The Wings of the Dove (1997)

Kate is secretly betrothed to a struggling journalist, Merton Densher. But she knows her Aunt Maude will never approve of the match, since Kate's deceased mother has lost all her money in a marriage to a degenerate opium addict.

^{letterboxd.com}

I hope someone somewhere finds a solution for the Israel/Gaza problem, but the only ones I can make up are utterly unrealistic. Of course the militants and instigators of the 7 October massacre need to be brought to justice (not necessarily by Israel). And of course the Israeli military needs to safeguard Palestinian civilians and definitely not block water and food. But with Hamas operating among civilian populations and no other Palestinian authority being present in Gaza to arrest and try them, any military action by Israel against Hamas can only be (and already is) disastrous. So hoping that Israel will stop its military actions and its siege is hoping for a miracle, but hoping for a miracle is all I've got.

And eventually, will Israelis and Palestinians be able to coexist? Will the factions that want to eliminate the other side give in? Or is this also an impossible dream of mine.