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During the height of the Vietnam War, a group of military spouses connected at a kitchen table intent on finding ways to support their newly widowed sisters and their children. In the midst of political chaos and social change, these brave women started a movement that would evolve into President Barack Obama designating November to be Military Families Appreciation month in 2009.
From the inception of the United States, African-American families have been a vital part of the military. During the American Civil War, enslaved Africans were conscripted by the armies of the North as “contraband” and forced to work as soldiers while conscripted enslaved Black women were forced to work as military support as cooks and launderesses. As always Black Americans figured out how to work within the system to disrupt the system and advocate for their freedom, which changed the landscape of this country. During the 20th century, Black soldiers were a vital part of both World War I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and every military conflict since.
For many African-American families, military service has been an option to gain access to resources and education that provided a pathway to home ownership and generational wealth. Oftentimes the stories of Black families in military service are connected to injustice. Those stories are important and relevant to hear, and they are not the only experiences out there.
The military has been one of the first integrated spaces in America where Black families have had equal opportunity and access to housing, healthcare, and resources that are the foundation of wealth and opportunity. But every few years you are required to pick up and move to new areas of the world. Just as you find your bearings, you have to move again. But the wonderful aspect of being a part of a military family is the opportunity to be exposed to different cultures. Some of the most fully racially integrated communities exist among the enlisted women and men in the military.
I come from a military family. My eldest living uncle served in WWII, and at 96 years old is the last living WWII veteran from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. My dad went into the military when he was right out of high school and served in the Korean War. My dad retired from the military when I was very young, but I grew up in the shadow of my elder siblings, who spent their elementary and middle school years living on Air Force bases in Europe and Asia throughout the 1960s and early ’70s.
Being a military family required sacrifice. In my family’s case for example, in the late ’60s my father was given the choice for the family to be stationed in Kentucky (where my elder siblings would have had to have gone to segregated schools) or Turkey (where soldiers’ families were not allowed to accompany them in country so he would be separated from his wife and kids for two years). My siblings lived on military bases for the majority of their lives and had always gone to integrated schools on military bases. My parents made the tough choice to live apart during that time so that their children would be spared the trauma of the Jim Crow South. After that tour, my dad was sent back to Japan where the family joined him and I was born.
Military families are a special breed of people. When someone feels called to protect the nation as a warrior, there is a unique combination of humility, valor, and bravery that is required not only by the individual who signs up to be the soldier, but for the entire family unit. Military spouses are quite incredible human beings. Military spouses develop the skills to pack up and move a home in a moment’s notice and integrate the family into a new space several times during a decade, all while being able to guide children through a life where you are in the same school for one or two years at the most.
Being a military kid gives you the ability to be independent, flexible, adaptable and you have a unique community filled with people from all over the world. When you are stationed in Europe and Asia you’ve got access not only to the gated community on the military base but to the larger world around you. Being able to spend two years stationed in various countries allows a wider view of the world that you’d ever be able to experience on two-week vacations or school trips.
Military families have always been able to rally together to support one another through the triumphs and the challenges of military life. November is a month dedicated to gratitude. As we celebrate family, save a blessing for our soldiers who protect our freedom and to the military families who lovingly care, nurture, and support the warriors who keep us all safe.
During the height of the Vietnam War, a group of military spouses connected at a kitchen table intent on finding ways to support their newly widowed sisters and their children. In the midst of political chaos and social change, these brave women started a movement that would evolve into President Barack Obama designating November to be Military Families Appreciation month in 2009.
From the inception of the United States, African-American families have been a vital part of the military. During the American Civil War, enslaved Africans were conscripted by the armies of the North as “contraband” and forced to work as soldiers while conscripted enslaved Black women were forced to work as military support as cooks and launderesses. As always Black Americans figured out how to work within the system to disrupt the system and advocate for their freedom, which changed the landscape of this country. During the 20th century, Black soldiers were a vital part of both World War I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and every military conflict since.
For many African-American families, military service has been an option to gain access to resources and education that provided a pathway to home ownership and generational wealth. Oftentimes the stories of Black families in military service are connected to injustice. Those stories are important and relevant to hear, and they are not the only experiences out there.
The military has been one of the first integrated spaces in America where Black families have had equal opportunity and access to housing, healthcare, and resources that are the foundation of wealth and opportunity. But every few years you are required to pick up and move to new areas of the world. Just as you find your bearings, you have to move again. But the wonderful aspect of being a part of a military family is the opportunity to be exposed to different cultures. Some of the most fully racially integrated communities exist among the enlisted women and men in the military.
I come from a military family. My eldest living uncle served in WWII, and at 96 years old is the last living WWII veteran from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands. My dad went into the military when he was right out of high school and served in the Korean War. My dad retired from the military when I was very young, but I grew up in the shadow of my elder siblings, who spent their elementary and middle school years living on Air Force bases in Europe and Asia throughout the 1960s and early ’70s.
Being a military family required sacrifice. In my family’s case for example, in the late ’60s my father was given the choice for the family to be stationed in Kentucky (where my elder siblings would have had to have gone to segregated schools) or Turkey (where soldiers’ families were not allowed to accompany them in country so he would be separated from his wife and kids for two years). My siblings lived on military bases for the majority of their lives and had always gone to integrated schools on military bases. My parents made the tough choice to live apart during that time so that their children would be spared the trauma of the Jim Crow South. After that tour, my dad was sent back to Japan where the family joined him and I was born.
Military families are a special breed of people. When someone feels called to protect the nation as a warrior, there is a unique combination of humility, valor, and bravery that is required not only by the individual who signs up to be the soldier, but for the entire family unit. Military spouses are quite incredible human beings. Military spouses develop the skills to pack up and move a home in a moment’s notice and integrate the family into a new space several times during a decade, all while being able to guide children through a life where you are in the same school for one or two years at the most.
Being a military kid gives you the ability to be independent, flexible, adaptable and you have a unique community filled with people from all over the world. When you are stationed in Europe and Asia you’ve got access not only to the gated community on the military base but to the larger world around you. Being able to spend two years stationed in various countries allows a wider view of the world that you’d ever be able to experience on two-week vacations or school trips.
Military families have always been able to rally together to support one another through the triumphs and the challenges of military life. November is a month dedicated to gratitude. As we celebrate family, save a blessing for our soldiers who protect our freedom and to the military families who lovingly care, nurture, and support the warriors who keep us all safe.
Art made with artificial intelligence is starting a lot of conversations. One artist’s masterful use of the AI program Midjourney tricked a lot of people into thinking Tom Holland will be playing Link in a The Legend of Zelda Netflix movie. And honestly, we’d watch it. Unfortunately, it’s not real. Yet. After all, Holland’s track record of wish fulfillment casting includes his most famous role as Spider-Man. But maybe Dan Leveille’s AI art could very well be the first step to making this a reality. He shared a variety of posters showing Holland as the Hylian hero. They vary in their realism and ear pointy-ness, but on the whole, the character design is stunning. The project also spread to fan-casting every character a The Legend of Zelda movie… And also to casting Tom Holland as every character in a The Legend of Zelda movie called Temple of Tom.
Tom Holland as Link in AI Art
We saw these amazing “teaser photos” on Geeks Are Sexy. While we continue to wait for that Breath of the Wild sequel, let’s add “Tom Holland plays Link in a Legend of Zelda movie” to our wish list. Leveille’s Instagram feed is full of other AI art, including other versions of Link as well as realistic versions of Super Mario characters.
Leveille took it one step farther after the artwork gained popularity online. He had OpenAI’s GPT-3 program write a script to go with them. The prompt? Link revealing he’s gay. It’s great and leads to dialogue like “I’m not just the hero of time, I’m also the hero of gayness.” Again, we’d watch it. Just maybe not the version where every line is delivered in the voice of an AI program.
The Full Cast of the AI-Generated The Legend of Zelda Movie
Now, the whole cast of Netflix’s fake live-action Zelda can also be seen via AI. Take a look at what Leville created. From Emma Watson as Zelda to Idris Elba as Ganon to Gemma Chan as the Great Fairy to Sadie Sink as Malon, we support this whole cast.
Tom Holland as Every Character in The Legend of Zelda
Hilariously, many across the internet missed that this Tom Holland-led The Legend of Zelda movie came from an AI generator. Unsurprisingly, parts the internet believed Tom Holland would really star in the fake Netflix production. (He won’t!) In the spirit of that, Leville created even more AI art for his fictional piece. In this latest version of The Legend of Zelda meets Tom Holland, Tom Holland actually plays every role in the movie. Leville calls this movie: Temple of Tom.
Check it out:
This artwork is certainly less unsettling than some other movie posters created using Midjourney and a similar program called DALL-E. Midjourney has also shown what characters from The Simpsons would look like in real life. This version of fan-casting is an interesting use of AI. We’re intrigued.
Melissa is Nerdist’s science & technology staff writer. She also moderates “science of” panels at conventions and co-hosts Star Warsologies, a podcast about science and Star Wars. Follow her on Twitter @melissatruth.
Originally published on September 20, 2022.
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The post An AI Program Flawlessly Casts Tom Holland as Every Character in THE LEGEND OF ZELDA appeared first on Nerdist.
In September 2000, Blockbuster CEO John Antioco turned down the opportunity to join forces with a little company known as Netflix for $50 million, having them handle the online DVD-by-mail side of things while Blockbuster put its focus on in-store rentals.
Twenty-two years later, Netflix is thriving and ironically, debuting an original series about the last remaining Blockbuster. But the workplace comedy, created by showrunner Vanessa Ramos (Superstore, Brooklyn Nine-Nine), doesn’t spend its time roasting the formal rental giant’s poor business decisions. It’s all about the days of in-person conversations about movies that no algorithm can replace. Blockbuster is also about coming together in the face of possible closure at any moment and how absurd life can get.
The super optimistic Timmy Yoon (Randall Park) loves everything about his job as a store manager at Blockbuster in Michigan, a place he’s worked since middle school apparently. His employees are more like his family, which makes things difficult when he finds out they’re the last operating Blockbuster in the world. Timmy is the heart of the series because no matter what life throws at him he smiles and keeps a positive attitude even though he’s panicking on the inside. His longtime crush Eliza (Melissa Fumero) left to pursue her big Harvard dreams but dropped out after one semester, married her high school boyfriend, and had a daughter. Now she’s back working retail and going through a divorce.
Having worked at Blockbuster around the time everything went downhill, I can attest to the show’s accurate portrayal of the various personalities of Blockbuster employees. There’s always at least one aspiring filmmaker, and here it’s Carlos (Tyler Alvarez), the resident movie genius with more knowledge of film history than anyone else in the store — especially his coworkers who “don’t really know a lot about movies” like Hannah (Madeleine Arthur). She may be a little naive but she’s too sweet not to love.
Everyone’s Blockbuster mom Connie (Olga Merediz) isn’t a big movie buff either but she’s a people person who genuinely enjoys working there, unlike 16-year-old Kayla (Kamaia Fairburn). She’s the sarcastic teenager who looks like she’d rather be anywhere else and spends more time on her phone than actually working. Her dad Percy (JB Smoove) happens to be Timmy’s best friend, owns the entire strip mall, and runs the party supply store nearby. They have the recognizable dynamic of a dad trying too hard to be in his kid’s life and a daughter who can’t have a conversation without insulting him.
Blockbuster’s cast of characters is one of the best parts of the series. Each of them has hints of an archetype but the writers developed them in a way that makes them both unique and familiar. As Randall Park told EW, it’s a show about everyday working-class people. “I feel like this show captures that perfectly and it doesn’t make a huge statement about it — it just reflects the reality of our world.”
For example, Carlos is the college-aged wannabe Tarantino who makes obscure movie references and gives the best recommendations. But he’s also the son of immigrants and feels a responsibility to be what they want him to be. He tells Hannah about learning English from watching movies, showing that his love of the medium goes beyond just entertainment.
There are more touching moments between the coworkers since everyone has their own struggles outside of working for a company as it collapses. The series revolves around how they handle the transition from corporate to franchise/small business.
With it being loosely based on The Last Blockbuster documentary, I feel like this could’ve easily been another mockumentary-structured workplace comedy and I’m so glad it’s single-camera. As one would expect, the majority of the show takes place inside the Blockbuster store, with its obnoxious yellow and electric blue color scheme that fuels our nostalgia. The store I worked at didn’t have an actual break room with a TV and a vending machine, and the manager definitely didn’t have a big office. It’s probably different for other stores, though, especially franchise locations like the one in the show.
The wardrobe may seem limited to navy polos and khaki pants, but just like actual employees, the characters add their personal touches: Connie’s cardigans, Kayla’s crop top (hilarious, by the way), Timmy’s occasional blazer.
The biggest theme in the series is the lack of and need for human connection. Several people in the documentary talk about that being one of the things they miss the most about Blockbuster. Streaming is convenient and usually offers a massive library. But some still appreciate the Blockbuster era, like Melissa Fumero, who said, “It was such a staple of childhood…I feel like now, I just took it for granted.”
Blockbuster is a feel-good show with relatable characters and a lot of heart. It’s a nostalgia-heavy look into the lives of people working at a dying company that they still love. Randall Park is his usual charming, hilarious self as Timmy Yoon, a guy who loves movies, human connection, and most of all, his employees.
To quote one happy customer in the series, “Algorithms can suck it. Long live Blockbuster!”
Blockbuster begins streaming November 3, 2022, on Netflix.