The trailer for Harriet is here! Cynthia Erivo stars as Harriet Tubman. [Pajiba]
Is Project Runway coming to end next year? Is Karlie Kloss to blame? [Dlisted]
I really don’t “get” what The Witcher is trying to be? [LaineyGossip]
Love and Hip Hop might have a big cheating scandal. [Starcasm]
Two stars of The Orville were secretly married, and now they’re divorcing. [Seriously OMG]
Photos from Entertainment Weekly’s Comic Con party. [GFY]
Awkwafina’s Harper’s Bazaar editorial is cute. [Tom & Lorenzo]
Leonardo DiCaprio was starstruck working with Luke Perry. [JustJared]
One of my favorite women since grade school. Can’t wait to see Harriet. If anyone is interest, The History Chicks did a really good podcast about Harriet Tubman. Heartbreaking and uplifting.
Thank you for the podcast recommendation! I have been jonesing for more well-told stories about amazing / interesting women since the first season of no man’s land ended! <3
Yay for the History Chicks! One of my favorite podcasts!
I teach English online to primary school age children in China. And one of the lessons teaches them about the amazing Harriet Tubman. Even little school kids in China know she is a hero!
Ohh what company do you work for? Sounds like a great job.
Yes! Cannot wait to see this!
It DOES look amazing.
I know this sounds old ladyish, but kids these days aren’t being taught History.
They aren’t being taught Geography or cursive writing anymore either and I’ll give you $5. for any one of them who knows who Harriet Tubman was.
The other day, one of my young men said something so stupid in regard to American History, I actually said, “I’m going to find you a grant and send your dumbass to college and you are going to major in American History.”
They don’t know.
They just don’t know but you don’t have to go to college to learn.
READ.
I’m surprised you’d say people are dumber today? I told my son that yesteryear’s average person rarely owned entire sets of encyclopedias- other than libraries & all had to be updated. He grew up in this internet age & was shocked. So w info a few clicks away- how are ppl “uninformed”? My answer is we don’t live in an age of lack, rather an era of want. Not enough Americans are attracted to factual history or current events!!
Today, I didn’t say that.
Read again.
I said kids today aren’t being taught History, Geography or cursive writing.
I didn’t say they were dumb and I AM HR at my store and that guy I mentioned is a family friend who works for me.
My youngest child just help me set up my new phone.
I was talking about specific things.
I feel like it’s different knowledge. We don’t know anything about how things grow our how things are affected by weather, or how to read our environment anymore, but can access information if we need (but don’t internalize it). We have loads of info that doesn’t affect our day to day, but most don’t understand the crazy amount of information that your average farmer or worker might have known before. I think we all sell everyone a bit short because we measure “intelligence” in different ways now. Maybe someone couldn’t spell back then, but they sure as hell could look at a crop or bug infestation and understand what kind of weather was due it how to remedy it in a way that we couldn’t, and we could easily starve in their position.
I’ll take you $5! There’s a great series of books for young kids called “Ordinary People Change the World” and it’s biographies on MLK, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, George Washington, Sacagewea, Ghandi, Jim Henson, and Harriet Tubman, as well as several others. At 6, she knew who Harriet Tubman was and even gave a speech on her for her 2nd grade class. It’s a great series of books and I always recommend them.
I’m 51 years old…
I wasn’t taught about Harriet Tubman in school…and THAT was by design and it’s STILL by design today
I’m 63 and white and was definitely taught about her and the underground railroad.
I’m “almost 50” and I learned about her in several different history classes.
might also be because the Underground Railroad went through my town, and there are still remnants of it in some buildings in town. hidden rooms and tunnels.
That’s weird. My 62 year old mother was taught about Harriet Tubman in grade school, and she was a white girl from Connecticut. I was taught about her in 3rd or 4th grade, in California, as were with my young Ney York nephews and nieces. In fact, I know literally no one in American—black or white or Hispanic or Asian–who has not heard of her. She has been long immortalized as an important American who is an enduring icon of the long, passionate struggle of black Americans against white cruelty, inequality, and oppression. She is also, in the U.S., one of our only FEMALE symbols of courage and freedom Sorry, but I don’t believe your suspicion at all that the fact she was somehow overlooked in your school years was “by design”, just as there is absolutely NO plot at all to have her somehow canceled from the pages of U.S. history, either.
That preview literally gave me chills. I watched it without the sound because I’m at work. We did learn about Harriet Tubman and the underground railroad at school. I’m not sure what kids are getting taught nowadays though.
My daughter is 9 and was taught cursive in her 3rd grade class. So, it really depends on where you live.
AJ, I’m sure that’s true but we live in one of the best public school districts in America and it is somewhat lacking.
We’ve been paying tutors for years and we live in a rather affluent town in Colorado.
Private schools might be better.
I wouldn’t know and since I’m here…
what I was saying above was not directed at older people.
Yeah, we were taught things that KIDS today are not taught but kids today can reprogram your phone and computer and t.v. and GPS your way to some destination.
Gawd, I wasn’t saying they were dumb.
Two best things I learned in High School: Accounting and I can type really fast and really well.
You wouldn’t think that would be a THING but it turned out to be. 🙂
It depends on where your child goes to school. Mine is at a Quaker school, so Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad feature heavily in the curriculum beginning in early elementary school. I was watching the trailer for Harriet when she walked through the front door this evening. “What are you watching?” “A trailer for a new biopic about Harriet Tubman.” “COOL! I want to see that!” She knew exactly who Tubman was, despite not having gotten to US History yet in her high school (rising sophomore with another year of World History this year, US History in 11th grade and a history elective as a senior).
The kids were taught cursive writing in 3rd grade, but honestly, who actually uses it anymore? It’s rapidly approaching “making a quill out of a bird feather” level of necessity. Legible print is far more important. I just don’t see being able to write in cursive script as the mark of being well-educated.
Please let me know when you will volunteer at your local school to remedy that. Be the change you want to see in the world.
My district does teach all of those things so 🤷♀️
Thank you Rose, that is the mantra I live by.
Cursive writing is hardly nessecary skill. I was taugh it but used it only in signatures and when I write stuff myself during classses but actually only read the notes the professor provides so my writing is mainly because you remember something better if you write it.
The Witcher (show) will be based on the series of books by a Polish guy. Short version: Witchers are genetically fiddled with mostly guys who kill monsters for money. They are tougher faster stronger than humans because they have to be and lead an itinerant life because most people don’t like them much. Henry Cavill’s Witcher is the most famous of them due to his hair and general hotness. Witchers are also sterile so they tend to be a sex fantasy for women but do insist on getting paid cash money for monster killing not “in trade”, so to speak.
Additionally, in the world it’s set in, there are four or five kingdoms quietly fighting each other that ramps up massively, over the course of the books. It includes dwarves as the socially acceptable second class citizenry and elves as the rebelling shower of rebels who are close to getting genocided. Elves also speak Irish, much to my amusement. There’s a lot of underlying philosophy and moral and ethical standards throughout the books as Witchers do not believe in tolerating evil, whether it be lesser or greater.
My fiancé said it looks like the game. Is the game based on the book?
Mostly yes but, uh, the makers of the game bought the rights for cheap years ago and ended up popularizing the hell out of the books, which really pissed off the writer as he is a grumpy sort. The game developers kind of went their own way but the basics are the same. There was a previous Polish show based on the books also, called Hexer? You can find it on Youtube but I’ve no idea how good it is. I suspect cheap looking.
wow, this should be good!
Harriet looks like a great movie and I hope it wins big at the Oscars!
I watched The Witcher trailer and am not feeling Cavill with his bad Fabio wig as the main character. There is just something lacking with him – he’s pretty on the eyes with a jawline the camera loves but thats about it.
I saw the trailer for Mr Rodgers and it made me cry – am a Brit so I don’t know much about him but I want to see the movie now. We need some of his kindness today more than ever.
Oh yeah Mr. Rogers melted my cold cold heart
Oh, Harriet looks like a great movie.
If anyone is in the mid-Atlantic, there is an EXCELLENT museum/visitor’s center for Harriet Tubman on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Its free (but donations are accepted) and its really well done and interesting. She and Frederick Douglass were from that area.
(random fact, tying to this Leo: Leo’s plantation in Django was based on the place where Frederick Douglass lived for a time, with an owner who was sadistic and evil, called Mount Misery. Donald Rumsfeld lives there today.)
Thanks Becks…I live in MD and there is some great history in this area. I’ve thought of joining a MEETUP group that explores history in MD, VA and DC. Looking at articles on Mount Misery now.
Wow Becks…that random fact. Donald Rumsfeld living there now sounds about right. I’m totally gonna research this now too!
And Dick Cheney lives across the street!
I can’t wait to watch this film! As an African-American woman, I am always in awe of my ancestors and their ability to persevere despite everything that they endured. Whenever I feel like giving up, I have to remind myself that I come from generations of strong people and cannot allow my “first world problems” to prevent me from pressing forward.
Book recommendation: “Never Caught,” story of Ona Judge, enslaved by George & Martha Washington. If you are interested in Harriet Tubman, you’ll love this book!
Harriet Tubman is an American hero and every new fact I learn about her, the note obviously amazing she is. How many people did she lead into freedom? Those spells she suffered? The Civil War stuff?!
Can anyone explain to me why Leonardo DiCaprio is a thing? Ok he’s an actor, but I find him kind of repulsive physically. I guess he was cute as a kid, but as he gets older he just becomes more and more strange looking. Last night I read this incredible puff piece on the Hollywood Reporter website about how he is the last hold-out great actor who doesn’t do TV and how all the directors want to work with him because his movies make money. I don’t think there was a woman director on that list. He strikes me as being emblematic of all that is wrong with the movie business. So many women actors have slayed it in roles and never gotten an Academy Award. What made DiCaprio’s Academy Award quest so damn important?
There is literally a post with 160 comments on it about this very topic lol.
Black Moses! I can’t wait
Harriet looks amazing! This is a “Superhero” movie I will actually watch, she was incredible. I grew up in the 70-80’s in a mostly white southern town and we learned about Harriet Tubman. I was so interested in learning more about her.
I hope this movie is PG-13 so my kids can see it. I hate when influential movies like this come out and they put in a few graphic sex scenes and rate it R and young kids can’t watch it. This generation of kids need to learn history! There are so many brilliant and brave people who have helped changed the world In a positive way. Our country focuses so much on the bad things going on and not enough on the brave men and woman who made and make this country great. There are plenty of Harriet Tubman heros still out there doing their thing!!!
Real Superheros.
HARRIET!!! I can’t wait. This looks absolutely stunning. Mother -Daughter Movie Day.
Please please don’t end, Project Runway. That and top chef (and all the baking show/cooking shows in Britain) are the only reality tv show’s I still watch. People actually doing things and being (usually) nice to each other!
The trailer for ‘Harriet’ moved me to tears and I sobbed when I read the tagline. ‘Be free or die’. Thousands of African-Americans took that chance and freed themselves and their families.
And then I was filled with rage because that piece of shit whose family has been in the United States for a little more than a minute thinks he can tell the descendants of the people who fought and bled and BUILT the US to go back where they came from.
Those congresswomen would be welcomed into the countries of their ancestors with open arms. Would Scotland or Germany take Trump back?
I will be at opening weekend for ‘Harriet’. I’ve admired her since I was a child.
I am imagining doors slamming shut at the idea of Trump and his coven moving there. Those Congresswomen are very brave. I have read that they receive daily death threats.
Harriet Tubman. What a light she still shines! Her story should help us all see how much we have to be thankful for, and how we indeed can successfully fight back against and destroy oppressive systems. She led the way!
This looks like a stunning film, and what a cast! As I was watching this trailer I started to feel angry that it took this long to create a feature film about Harriet Tubman.