But the move could backfire — bigly.

Teacher Tim Walz would be embarrassed

'Our sitting president was lying on a beach'

'Defines the global trend'

'I can't continue to absorb it'

When choosing the songs for this list, we realized that it’s not just about the lyrics or the words themselves. It’s about the music, the vocalist, and the performance—it all has to work together seamlessly to create something magical. There may be thousands of songs with more creative or brilliant opening lyrics than the ten we’ve selected, but these are the ones we picked because of the scenes they set right from the start. It’s about the delivery; it’s about the magic you feel the moment you hear the song. That’s how we made our choices. We didn’t scour the The post 10 Rock Songs That Have the Best Opening Lyrics appeared first on ClassicRockHistory.com.

A zoo in Melbourne welcomed a trunkload of joy last week as their resident rhino gave birth to a little male. It’s the second calf that Mother Kipensi has had at the zoo, and it’s already displayed a “forthright” personality. Kipenzi is an 11-year-old southern white rhino, one of the most numerous rhino subspecies. Her […] The post Baby Rhino’s First Video: Adorable Footage of Southern White Calf Born in Aussie Zoo appeared first on Good News Network.

News Rumours Horror Comedy Rumours Gives Us a World Crisis, a Giant Brain, and a Stellar Cast By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 29, 2024 Screenshot: Bleeker Street Comment 0 Share New Share Screenshot: Bleeker Street The teaser for the horror comedy Rumours doesn’t tell us much, but it does give us a glimpse of its stellar ensemble cast as well as an image of a giant brain. And what more can you ask for, really? The production company, Bleeker Street Media, describes it as “a genre-hopping satire of political ineptitude.” The teaser also boasts praise from many critics (real quotes this time), who call it bizarre and effortlessly hilarious, among other things. Here’s the official synopsis: Ricocheting between comedy, apocalyptic horror, and swooning soap opera, Rumours follows the seven leaders of the world’s wealthiest democracies at the annual G7 summit, where they attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding a global crisis. With unexpected, uproarious performances from a brilliant ensemble cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, and Charles Dance, these so-called leaders become spectacles of incompetence, contending with increasingly surreal obstacles in the misty woods as night falls and they realize they are suddenly alone. In addition to Blanchett, Vikander, and Dance, the film stars Roy Dupuis, Takehiro Hira, Denis Ménochet, Zlatko Burić, and Rolando Ravello. It’s directed by three people(!): Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson. Rumours premieres in theaters on October 18, 2024. Check out the teaser trailer below. [end-mark] The post Horror Comedy <i>Rumours</i> Gives Us a World Crisis, a Giant Brain, and a Stellar Cast appeared first on Reactor.

News Blade Runner Check Out This Watercolor-Rendered Version of Blade Runner By Vanessa Armstrong | Published on August 29, 2024 Credit: Anders Ramsell Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Anders Ramsell The internet can give you good things sometimes! Over on Mastodon, user vga256 posted that he had found a copy of a work by Anders Ramsell. According to vga256, Ramsell released a 35-minute cut of Blade Runner twelve years ago, where each shot is an aquarelle painting he did after work each night. In an example of amazing dedication, Ramsell reportedly completed 12,597 paintings in total. It took him two years to do so. “[T]he video circled around the web for a few years, and quietly disappeared from every single site it was hosted at,” vga256 wrote, adding, “a few months ago i spent a few hours digging for it, and finally found a copy of the original file.” vga256 was kind enough to share where he found the video via Internet Archive, and you can now also view the 35-minute video at your leisure by following the link here. 1982’s Blade Runner is, of course, a classic example of noir sci-fi, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, and Daryl Hannah. Based on the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? it’s deservedly recognized as an iconic work of SF. Ramsell’s art is also stunning piece of work, and another example of how fandom can create wonderful things. [end-mark] The post Check Out This Watercolor-Rendered Version of <i>Blade Runner</i> appeared first on Reactor.

Excerpts Science Fantasy Read an Excerpt From A.C. Wise’s Out of the Drowning Deep Dreamy, queer science-fantasy novella for fans of Becky Chambers and This is How You Lose the Time War. By A.C. Wise | Published on August 29, 2024 Comment 0 Share New Share We’re thrilled to share an excerpt from Out of the Drowning Deep, a new science fantasy novella by A.C. Wise, publishing with Titan Books on September 3rd. Scribe IV is an obsolete automaton living on the Bastion, a secluded monastery in an abandoned corner of the galaxy. When the visiting Pope is found murdered, Scribe IV knows he has very little time before the terrifying Sisters of the Drowned Deep rise up to punish all the Bastion’s residents for their supposed crime.Quin, a recovering drug addict turned private investigator, agrees to take the case. Traumatized by abizarre experience in his childhood, Quin repeatedly feeds his memories to his lover, the angel Murmuration. But fragmented glimpses of an otherworldly horror he calls the crawling dark continue to haunt his dreams.Meanwhile in heaven, an angel named Angel hears Scribe IV’s prayer. Intrigued by the idea of solving a crime with mortals, xe descends to offer xyr divine assistance.With the Drowned Sisters closing in, Scribe IV, Quin, and Angel race to find out who really murdered the Pope, and why. Quin’s missing memories may hold the key to the case—but is remembering worth what it will cost him? The pinging alert took an insistent hammer to Quin’s dream, smashing it to pieces. “Fuck off.” He pulled the thin pillow over his head and folded it around his ears. “Voice command not recognized.” “I said fuck… Never mind.” Too late; he was awake. He threw the pillow across the room and sat up, slapping the alert into a pillar of light projected from the table beside his bed. “To any unaffiliated investigator…” A surge of adrenaline shot through him. Quin was fully awake now. If he could scoop this job before anyone else… He needed the credits, gods knew. “… Bastion…” The Bastion, where in days of old, gods were raised. Buy the Book Out of the Drowning Deep A.C. Wise Buy Book Out of the Drowning Deep A.C. Wise Buy this book from: AmazonBarnes and NobleiBooksIndieBoundTarget A ringing in his ears swept the rest of the message away. Something approaching panic gripped him, though he couldn’t think why. Where gods… He shook himself, focusing. The message repeated, text scrolling around the image like a halo, a variety of languages spoken and written, morse code pulsing like a heartbeat. He squinted at the image in the light, the message’s sender. An automaton. An old-fashioned word for an old-fashioned model of synthetic being, but it fit. Its delicate face, a hammered mask of serenity polished to a high shine, a frame wrought like the bones of a human skeleton, revealing between them the delicate inner workings of crystals, wires and gears, couldn’t belong to anything as crude as a bot. It had to be an automaton, a mechanical wonder from another time. A relic surpassed by other forms of AI, nanites and super-computers, but also lovely, made for the sake of beauty as much as efficiency. Not just a highly intelligent machine, but a creation meant to honor the gods. Or to mock them, depending who you asked. Scribe IV. Quin read the designation and a tattered memory surfaced from the recesses of his mind. The case of a missing child who’d claimed sanctuary at the Bastion, maybe five, six years ago—hadn’t he met a Scribe IV then? He’d been working steadily at the time, but not always sober. The details were hazy, a result of the pixie dust, or the simple ravages of time. Or— Quin cut the last branch of thought off before it had a chance to bloom. He’d been clean three years now. Following that line any further would only bring the temptation to slip back into old habits. Bad ones. He composed a hasty reply—his fee and the terms of his standard agreement—and fired it off. The reply bounced, as if it had struck a wall. An attempted diagnostic brought a squall of sound—unsound—crawling up his jawbone, curling with loving brutality around the base of his skull, drawing headache tears to his eyes. “The fuck?” Why call for help and then slam up a firewall blocking all replies? Unless the signal jam came from elsewhere. Quin didn’t need more than one guess at who that might be. The Sisters of the Deep, claiming whatever mystery lay in the Bastion for their own. Rumor had it they’d been after control of the Bastion for years. This—whatever it was—might just be the excuse they needed to seize it. Their justice would be swift and wouldn’t look like justice at all to any eyes but their own. “Fine. We’ll do it the old-fashioned way.” Because someone telling Quin not to only made him want to dig in harder. Prayer, pure and simple. The surest way to get an angel’s attention, to goad or compel them into action. And most importantly, a form of communication the Sisters couldn’t lock down. Quin set an incense cone to burn, and folded himself onto the floor, palms resting on his thighs, eyes closed. Once his prayer had been heard by the angels, it would also be conveyed to and recorded by the Bastion’s Scribe. Not the most secure communication network, but Quin was aiming to be overheard. Who else but an automaton in a rotting outpost on the edge of a dying world even paid attention to prayers anymore? Who else would be listening specifically for his prayers, except— No. He wouldn’t even let himself think it; he’d promised Lena. Mind clear. Breath—in, out. Focus on intent. He didn’t want to invite attention, only convey a message. Mind clear. Don’t think about anything. Don’t think about— —the chapel. Light oozing through scant cracks in the boards sealed over the window to keep— Breath—in, out, shallower now. Quin fought to bring it back under control. Ignoring the sweat prickling under his arms, panic wanting to rise like the Sisters’ tolling, buzzing, crawling jamming signal that still echoed in his bones. Hold it together. Remember to breathe. Shut out the thud of his pulse and the— —aisle between the worn pews, knees bruised with supplication,palms together as in prayer, but the litany in his mind only don’t notice me, don’t notice me, don’t notice me, lest the god of his father— Quin’s eyes snapped open, his breath drawing incense unwittingly into his lungs, leading to violent coughing. His eyes watered for a different reason now, washing out the last memory of the Sisters’ denial of his message. Washing out whatever else had tried to come through, tried to crawl up from the part of his mind that remembered his nightmares. Because that’s all it had been. A nightmare. The images went skittering back into those dark corners, and Quin breathed out. There was no way to know whether his prayer had gone through, or who else might be listening. All he could do was hope. A use for faith in a world of concrete proof, after all. Excerpted from Out of the Drowning Deep, copyright © 2024 by A.C. Wise. The post Read an Excerpt From A.C. Wise’s <i>Out of the Drowning Deep</i> appeared first on Reactor.