Category: Align
Conan O’Brien calls out lazy Trump-hating comedians
Late-night host and writer Conan O’Brien says Trump-deranged comedians need to step up their game.
Speaking at the Oxford Union Society, the former talk-show host and “Simpsons” writer lamented that some in the comedy establishment have given up on laughs in favor of angry tirades about President Trump.
‘We don’t have a straight line right now. We have a very bendy, rubbery line.’
“I think some comics go the route of, ‘I’m going to just say F Trump all the time’ [and] that’s their comedy. And I think, well, now, a little bit, you’re being co-opted because you’re so angry.”
“You’ve been lulled,” added the Harvard alum, likening the allure of crowd-pleasing but joke-free anti-Trump material to a siren song.
The comedian continued, “You’ve been lulled into just saying ‘F Trump. F Trump. F Trump. Screw this guy.’ I think you’ve now put down your best weapon, which is being funny, and you’ve exchanged it for anger.”
Finding the funny
The 62-year-old noted that he has always prided himself on finding a way to be funny in any situation, and he did not give his peers an out when it comes to political comedy.
RELATED: ‘I wouldn’t ask for no f**king charity!’ Mickey Rourke blasts ’embarrassing’ GoFundMe plea
“Any person like that would say, ‘Well, things are too serious now. I don’t need to be funny.’ I think, well, if you’re a comedian, you always need to be funny. You just have to find a way,” O’Brien told the audience at the esteemed student debating society.
“And you just have to find a way to channel that anger. … Good art will always be a great weapon, will always be a perfect weapon against power, but if you’re just screaming and you’re just angry, you’ve lost your best tool in the toolbox.”
Playing it straight
Earlier in the interview, O’Brien recalled that some of his most joyful memories in comedy were parodying different magazines or news outlets by mocking their tone and style. At the same time, he said it was impossible to parody something that doesn’t follow a “straight line.”
He referred to the National Enquirer, describing the outlet’s content as impossible to make fun of because it would print stories like, “Elvis found in Titanic lifeboat 105 years after sinking. He is now a woman, and he’s married a giant peanut-butter sandwich.”
“How do you parody that? You can’t,” he explained. “And I think with Trump we have a similar situation in comedy, which is people saying, ‘We’ve got a great Trump sketch for you. In this one, he’s kind of talking crazy and he’s saying stuff, and he tears down half the White House to build a giant ballroom, and he says it’s going to be the new Mar-a-Lago.’ Yeah, no, that happened yesterday,” O’Brien joked.
RELATED: How ‘conservative’ art can go from cringey to cathartic
Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
“Comedy needs a straight line to go off of,” O’Brien added. “And we don’t have a straight line right now. We have a very bendy, rubbery line. We have a slinky. We have a fire hose that’s whipping around, spewing water at 100 miles an hour or something else.”
BURN NOTICE: ‘Hills’ heel Spencer Pratt to run for Los Angeles mayor
“It’s official. I’m running for Mayor of LA.”
After a year of calling out Democrat leadership for its handling of last year’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, Spencer Pratt is offering Angelenos an alternative: himself.
Pratt, who shot to fame playing a villainous version of himself on hit MTV reality show “The Hills,” lost the Pacific Palisades house he shared with wife (and former castmate) Heidi Montag and their children in the January 7, 2025, conflagration. Since then, he has emerged as one of the most prominent critics of L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom, both Democrats.
‘Gavin Newsom and his state park policies actually literally dictated that we let the Palisades burn.’
Fired up
The Palisades native has accused Bass of bungling the response to the deadly blaze, which eventually spread to 23,448 acres, costing 12 lives and destroying almost 6,000 homes.
Pratt has also claimed that Newsom’s inadequate brush-clearance policy helped cause what was otherwise a preventable disaster.
Pratt kicked off his mayoral campaign on Wednesday with an impassioned speech to at least 1,000 attendees.
RELATED: ‘Reckoning day’ for Newsom: Trump DOT yanks $160 million over illegal trucker licenses
“It’s official. I’m running for Mayor of LA,” Pratt announced in a post sharing video of the speech. “I’ve waited a whole year for someone to step up and challenge Karen Bass, but I saw no fighters. Guess I’m gonna have to do this myself. Let’s make LA camera ready again!”
Brush-off
Pratt addressed the enthusiastic crowd with a mixture of defiance and sorrow.
“Standing here one year later, I have to tell you the most heartbreaking part of the past year wasn’t being displaced or losing everything I own. It was the realization that all of this was preventable,” he explained, fighting back tears.
The 42-year-old continued, “The state and local leaders let us burn. Gavin Newsom and the state of California let brush grow wild … no wildfire maintenance.”
RELATED: ‘Send in the next guy’: Nicki Minaj savages Newsom over his desire to ‘see trans kids’
Photo by Steve Granitz/WireImage
Policy pinch
Like many of the would-be constituents in attendance, Pratt faced the fires without standard homeowners’ insurance, after insurers declined to renew policies for thousands of homes in the Palisades, Altadena, and other designated fire-prone areas in recent years. Most notably, State Farm announced in 2024 that it would discontinue coverage for roughly 72,000 houses and apartments statewide.
Pratt’s sole coverage came from the state’s supplementary California FAIR Plan, which he has previously said did not provide enough money to rebuild.
In his speech, Pratt laid the blame squarely on Newsom, who he said “created an insurance market so hostile that every major carrier stopped writing policies” and thereby “dictated that we let the Palisades burn.”
The candidate also had harsh words for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which he blamed for “fail[ing] to deploy sufficient firefighters, fire engines, and firefighting resources, whether it be due to lack of budget, lack of knowledge, or simply DEI.”
Pratt concluded by touting his showbiz experience as something that made him uniquely attuned to the workings of power in the city. Singling out “NGOs, nonprofits, and unions,” he vowed to make it his “mission” to dismantle what he labeled a “machine designed to protect the people at the top.”
‘I wouldn’t ask for no f**king charity!’: Mickey Rourke blasts ’embarrassing’ GoFundMe plea
Actor Mickey Rourke says asking for handouts is not his style.
Earlier this week, a GoFundMe page was created by sources close to Rourke who claimed he needed help paying back rent on his Los Angeles home in order to avoid eviction.
”I’d rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger.’
The fundraiser page was organized by Liya-Joelle Jones for the benefit of Kimberly Hines, the page says. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Jones is Hines’ assistant, and Hines has been Rourke’s manager for nearly a decade.
Under the gun
“Fame does not protect against hardship, and talent does not guarantee stability. What remains is a person who deserves dignity, housing, and the chance to regain his footing,” the fundraiser wrote.
Stating that Rourke’s “full permission” was given, the page said he needed $60,000 to avoid losing his home. Now, with donations at over $100,000, the campaign has been paused after Rourke posted a video to his Instagram page denouncing the fund.
“I wouldn’t ask for no f**king charity. I’d rather stick a gun up my ass and pull the trigger,” Rourke began, with his dog on his lap.
RELATED: ‘Frankenstein’ director’s AI warning: It’s here to ‘debase’ our humanity
“I don’t understand it,” the actor continued. “I wouldn’t know what a GoFund foundation is in a million years. My life is very simple. I don’t go to outside sources like that. And yeah, it is embarrassing,” he added.
Rourke explained that he would never approve a charitable cause for his benefit, and urged fans and supporters to stop giving money and seek refunds.
Anger management
Since the video was posted late Monday, Hines has spoken out about the campaign despite both her and Jones reportedly posting the page “with Mickey’s permission.”
In a phone call with the Hollywood Reporter, Hines said that in 48 hours, her management team had paid for Rourke to move into a hotel, have his clothing packed, and put his belongings in a storage unit.
“All of this is being paid for by his management team, which is me,” Hines said. “We said, ‘Mickey, there’s some people that want to help you out.’ He’s like, ‘OK, great.’ I don’t think he understood, and now it’s taken on this media frenzy, and he flipped out,” she went on.
Photo by Panayotis Tzamaros/NurPhoto via Getty Images
After confirming the fundraiser was legitimate, Hines further explained that the locks were being changed on Rourke’s home as she spoke, and she was setting him up with an apartment in Koreatown.
Return to sender
Hines blamed the state of Rourke’s home on the property owner, who allegedly raised the rent from $5,200 to $7,000 in mid-2024. The house was allegedly littered with black mold, had no running water, and was heavily damaged.
Hines added that Rourke told her he had been receiving calls from all over the world asking to give him money, and she told him to let them help. However, before stating that Rourke “has to say” that he did not know who started the fund, she was happy to return the money to donors if he would not accept it.
“This money has been to help Mickey. If Mickey doesn’t want the money, the money will go back. It’s putting me in a very bad position where now I’m financing his move and the hotel and the movers and his storage. Mickey was cool with getting help the other day. And now Mickey’s like, ‘I’m not taking charity.'”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
‘Frankenstein’ director’s AI warning: It’s here to ‘debase’ our humanity
Art created by artificial intelligence is an attempt to reduce a society’s sense of humanity, according to one Hollywood director.
This sort of treatment of art is “always a prelude to fascism,” the director also warned.
‘That is always the prelude to fascism.’
No ifs, ands, or bots
While accepting an honor from Variety at its 10 Directors to Watch and Creative Impact Awards, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro continued his recent onslaught against the use of artificial intelligence for art.
“Be kind, be involved, and believe in your art,” del Toro said, emphasizing that when art is minimalized, bad times are ahead.
“In a time where people tell you art is not important, that is always the prelude to fascism. Always. When they tell you it doesn’t matter, when they tell you a f**king app can do art, you say, ‘Well, if it’s that easy and if it’s that unimportant, why the f**k do they want it so bad?'”
The director answered his own question, warning that the reduction of art to a line of code removes a certain degree of humanity.
“The answer is because they think they can debase everything that makes us a little better, a little more human. And that, in my book and in my life, includes monsters.”
RELATED: Guillermo del Toro stops awards show music to drop ‘F**k AI’ bomb
Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images
Monster high
Del Toro’s tirade came on the heels of similar remarks last month at the 2025 Gotham Film Awards, where he made a point of announcing that his widely praised “Frankenstein” was “willfully made by humans for humans.”
After praising the movie’s “designers, builders, makeup, [and] wardrobe” teams, the director paused and added, “F**k AI.”
The 61-year-old — one of the most prominent Hollywood power players to speak out against the dangers of AI — also hinted at why he prefers to work in the horror/fantasy genre: “Sometimes the world gets so complicated, you can only explain it with the power of monsters.”
“We are in a time like that right now,” he added.
RELATED: The Oscars will leave TV — and may never come back
‘Death’ wish
Despite his anti-AI stance, del Toro is far from a techno-phobe.
In 2023, he praised Japanese video game auteur Hideo Kojima’s “paradoxical creation” and his ability to “break the barrier between cinema and games.”
Del Toro appears as the character Deadman in Kojima’s 2019 game “Death Stranding,” as well as its 2025 sequel.
Do blue-light glasses actually work?
It’s impossible to imagine that anyone reading this on their computer, tablet, or smartphone has made it to 2025 without hearing about the dangers of blue light.
What’s more, for every warning about those blue-light hazards comes the equally ubiquitous solution: blue-light glasses.
Blue-light glasses are built with lenses that shield the eye from shorter, higher energy wavelengths of light.
Since screens are ubiquitous now and there’s unfortunately very little chance that they will be going anywhere, the next best solution is to learn to live with them to the best of our ability. But that leaves an important question to be answered when it comes to dealing with blue light: Do those blue-light glasses actually work, or are they a gimmick?
RELATED: Hello, darkness, my old friend: How to get your body’s circadian rhythms back on the beat
Photographer: Anindito Mukherjee/Bloomberg via Getty Images
LED blues
Most people have seen the studies: Blue light, which is emitted by screens and indoor LED lightbulbs, may cause quite a few health problems, including the disruption of your circadian rhythm, leading to poorer quality sleep. Some believe that this is because blue light signals to the body that it is time to be alert and awake, which is obviously problematic when phones are used at night.
Blue light may also increase stress and lower cognitive output, but one might be surprised to learn that other studies have found the opposite to be true.
It’s also important to note that blue light is natural and is emitted from the sun at a higher frequency than from screens or LED bulbs. However, many have turned to blue-light glasses as a solution to eye fatigue and other issues as well.
People whose job involves staring at a screen for long periods of time have often reported eyestrain, which is sometimes called computer vision syndrome.
Blue-light glasses are built with lenses that shield the eye from shorter, higher energy wavelengths of light, notably blue light.
Science ambivalent
However, the science is still quite ambivalent on the question of blue-light glasses and their effectiveness, with most sources leaning toward saying you do not need them.
In a 2023 study that examined 17 different blue-light-filtering lens trials, it was discovered that the blue-light glasses had little to no effect on any of the relevant symptoms, including sleep quality and eye strain.
So while you may not need to go get any blue-light glasses according to these studies, the question stands: Can anything be done to reduce the negative effects of blue light?
20-20-20 vision
The answer is yes, but it’s not nearly as fancy as a pair of new spectacles. Eye doctors recommend avoiding screens at night or turning on the “night” filter on your phone to reduce the blue-light display, effectively negating any need for lenses in the first place.
“There is reason to think blue-light exposure may signal our brains that we should stay awake, so reducing blue light in the evening may be beneficial and glasses may help,” Dr. Craig See, an ophthalmologist and cornea specialist, told US News. “However, devices can automatically reduce blue light in the screens.
Others recommend following the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds or more. This will hopefully reduce any eye discomfort without adding any unnecessary accessories.
Pope Leo calls out gambling addiction and ‘demographic crisis’ in Vatican meeting
Pope Leo XIV says people need more face-to-face interaction in their lives.
Speaking with Italian mayors from the association of local Italian authorities, the Assocazione Nazionale dei Comuni Italiani, the pope touched on some of the biggest issues faces the world today.
‘Democracy atrophies, becomes just a name, a formality.’
During the Vatican meeting, Pope Leo noted that a “demographic crisis” and “struggles” among families and young people remain top issues. According to Vatican News, the Catholic leader also stated that social isolation and “social conflicts” are pervasive issues in Italy.
At the same time, the pope — Robert Francis Prevost — said he wanted to focus on one of the biggest topics in today’s world: gambling. The Chicago native explained that he wanted to “draw attention in particular to the scourge of gambling,” which has “ruined many families.”
Citing a “major increase” in gambling in Italy in recent years, Prevost cited a recent report that described gambling as a “serious problem” in terms of education, mental health, and societal trust for Italians.
RELATED: New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan resigns; pope appoints his replacement
Photo by Simone Risoluti – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images
The pope stressed that gambling addiction is a form of “loneliness” and called on the local mayors to promote “authentically human relationships between citizens” as a way to tackle the issue.
Pope Leo reportedly drew from 20th-century Italian priest and activist Don Primo Mazzolari in order to illustrate the need for social interactions between Italians.
“[Italy] does not only need sewers, houses, roads, aqueducts, and pavements,” but also “a way of feeling, of living, a way of looking at one another, and a way of coming together as brothers and sisters.”
Photo by Jacopo Raule/Getty Images for Philipp Plein
To solve many of these modern issues, authorities must listen to the weak and the poor, the pope said. If not, he said, “democracy atrophies, becomes just a name, a formality.”
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Where do Advent calendars come from?
While most people are very familiar with and practice the lighthearted tradition of Advent calendars, many might be surprised by its relatively recent development as a Christian tradition.
The Advent calendar is a Christian tradition dating back only to the 19th century, making it less than 200 years old. Advent, derived from the Latin word “adventus,” means
coming” or “arrival.”
‘Lacking windows at first, Lang’s design is essentially the same style we have today, though war and a few subsequent alterations would change it slightly.’
The calendar counts down the days until Christmas during the Advent season, which is also the very beginning of the liturgical calendar. The Advent calendar then, in its most basic form, is a method of counting down the days until the coming of Christ on Christmas day.
RELATED: More than a countdown: Do you know the full meaning of Advent?
Photo by AMAURY CORNU/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images
Often, in more recent iterations, small treats, gifts, and pictures are placed in the doors of the calendar, the number of which usually range between 22 and 28 days depending on the day that Christmas Day falls on. Because of the possible range, most Advent calendars simply begin on December 1 and end on December 24, Christmas Eve.
Counting down
The Advent calendar has seen quite a few variations in its relatively short-lived existence, though the basic idea has always been the same.
A tradition originating among Lutheran Christians, Advent calendars first involved chalk marks that would be erased as the day approached. This practice helped believers anticipate the coming of Christ.
Originating in and around Munich, Germany, in the 19th century, Advent calendars were used to count down the days until Christmas Day.
Gerhard Lang is widely regarded as the creator of the modern Advent calendar. A partner at the lithographic institute Reichhold & Lang, Gerhard Lang is credited with printing the first Advent calendar in 1908, though some say it was some years later.
Lacking windows at first, Lang’s design is essentially the same style we have today, though war and a few subsequent alterations would change it slightly.
Knock, knock
The small, numbered doors, a staple of contemporary calendars, were introduced in 1920. They sometimes had Bible verses or little pictures behind them.
Lang produced around 30 different calendar designs up until the end of the 1930s, when paper shortages and a national ban on paper calendars forced him to shutter the popular business.
However, Advent calendars made a post-war comeback. Richard Sellmer, the founder of the Sellmer Verlag publishing house, published the first Advent calendar after the Second World War, reviving the tradition.
Eighty years later, Sellmer Verlag still sells Advent calendars.
Coming to America
It is believed that American soldiers brought these calendars back after the war, and the tradition spread to the United States.
According to Britannica, the tradition of chocolate behind the doors was introduced in the 1950s, presumably to keep children engaged.
In America, the Advent calendar’s popularity spread quickly in the post-war era. These days, children and adults alike can enjoy counting down the days until the Lord’s Nativity with a vast array of different calendar designs.
‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’: The perfect song to drown out 2025’s pop dreck
The top songs this Christmas should certainly offend anyone who thought “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” was worthy of outrage.
At the height of the woke era, media outlets argued over whether the 1944 Frank Loesser classic should be banned, as radio stations pulled the song because its lyrics allegedly alluded to “date rape.”
‘Baby, I’m a dog, I’m a mutt.’
The media apparatus sprung into action with parody after cross-dressing parody. Few defended the song — surprisingly, Variety was one of the biggest outliers — and the “Me Too” mantra carried on looking for more scalps to take.
Robin Thicke’s “Blurred Lines” soon received similar treatment, despite garnering almost a billion views on YouTube. With featured artist Pharrell saying the song he profited off of was evidence of a prominent “chauvinist culture,” that art was not allowed to exist as art.
While offense can be taken in any generation’s music, it seems appropriate to note that it seemingly goes one direction, and progressive cookie-cutter sexual content cannot be questioned.
This has not changed in 2025, as slop tops the charts with stereotypical soft-core imagery.
Sombr, ‘Back to Friends’
Topping the Billboard charts in the rock and alternative category as of Dec. 17 is “Back to Friends” by Sombr. In this song by New Yorker Shane Michael Boose, he talks about the difficulty of returning to a normal friendship with some one he has slept with.
The song about being forgotten by a presumed love one remains fairly generic until the music video is taken into account, which features multiple gay make-out scenes juxtaposed with explosions of lava.
RELATED: Taylor Swift isn’t a role model — and it’s time for moms to stop pretending she is
Leon Thomas, ‘Mutt’
The R&B and hip-hop category is led by Leon Thomas’ “Mutt.”
Although the song came out in 2024, it is hitting new highs for the 2025 Christmas season, with lyrics about Thomas convincing a woman that there is no need for them to wait to have sex, because, “Baby, I’m a dog, I’m a mutt.”
Thomas notes that he wishes for him and his new lady to “break in” his new apartment, while adding that he believes in the Second Amendment, with the lyrics: “Thirty-two, like my pants size ’cause a n***a tried breaking in.”
The song is really not offensive, but neither are lyrics from the 1940s saying, “My mother will start to worry.”
RELATED: The viral country anthem that has girlboss Twitter melting down and trad women cheering
Kehlani, ‘Folded’
Not to be forgotten at No. 2 on the R&B list is Kehlani’s “Folded.”
Kehlani Ashley Parrish, an Oakland-born singer who once aspired to be a Juilliard-trained dancer, shows off her moves in the video, where she sports a completely see-through dress and essentially dances naked alongside women in their underwear.
Again, while this is not a new phenomenon for a music video, it seems extremely egregious when placed next to the 1949 film “Neptune’s Daughter” that popularized “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”
While Kehlani carries laundry and talks about folding clothes in her music video, the obvious inference is that she is talking about her preferred sexual position.
The lyrics website Genius states, “Here, Kehlani seems to be implying she can ‘fold’ her body for her lover if they decide they want to become romantic again.”
Taylor Swift, ‘The Fate of Ophelia’
It comes as no surprise that Taylor Swift is topping the pop charts with “The Fate of Ophelia,” even though the music video came out in October. Swift obviously sexualizes herself — maybe Dean Martin did too? — as a 1950s showgirl, but the song centers on Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and has Swift nearly dying from heartbreak in the lyrics.
Some lyrics are almost direct lifts from “Hamlet,” but the song as a whole is light-years away in terms of degeneracy in comparison to the other items on this list.
However, it is hard to imagine how it is conceivable that Swift dancing in lingerie and being groped on a pirate ship is less controversial than, “My sister will be suspicious (Gosh, your lips look delicious).”
While music lovers may notice that wild offense-taking now skips the industry unless it serves a political purpose, that equilibrium rarely holds forever. Cultural pendulums do swing.
When they do, the correction sometimes arrives loudly — through provocation, politics, or spectacle. But just as often, it comes quietly, in the form of art that refuses to scandalize at all.
Ella Langley, ‘Choosin’ Texas’
Which brings us to Ella Langley. Topping the country charts this Christmas with “Choosin’ Texas,” the Alabama native commits a far subtler transgression: She sings plainly about heartbreak, drinking alone, and the ache of love gone wrong — without sexual exhibitionism, ideological signaling, or manufactured outrage. She even manages to say a few positive things about Texas and Tennessee. In 2025, that kind of restraint may be the most disruptive posture left.
Does your city feel like Disney? Blame Robert Moses
A single man had near-unending influence over the infrastructure of the largest North American cities.
Robert Moses, born in 1888 in New Haven, Connecticut, helped pioneer large-scale urban infrastructure built around cars and commerce. His top-down planning approach later influenced other controlled, master-planned environments, including those created by Walt Disney.
‘An extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework.’
Moses held many titles during his time in politics and city/park planning, including secretary of state of New York (1927-1929), the first chairman of New York State Council of Parks (1924-1963), and the first commissioner of the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (1934-1960).
Mr. Moses’ neighborhood
Moses’ influence can be seen all over New York City, and he is predominantly responsible for turning a collection of neighborhoods into the common metropolis that most cities appear as today.
It was Moses’ idea to run expressways right through the middle of cities to maximize access to commercial zones. He was responsible for infrastructure projects like the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, the Staten Island Expressway, and the Cross Bronx Expressway. Many bridges that lead into New York City and Manhattan were his doing as well.
FDR Drive, where the United Nations headquarters is located, is also a creation of Moses.
All’s fair
Aside from numerous bridges and expressways, Moses also built nearly 30,000 apartment units by 1939, which is discussed in his biography, “The Power Broker,” by Robert Caro.
The book describes Moses as “an extraordinary man who, denied power within the normal framework of the democratic process, stepped outside that framework to grasp power sufficient to shape a great city and to hold sway over the very texture of millions of lives.”
It was that influence and power in New York that led him to becoming the president of the World’s Fair in 1964. Which, according to a documentary by Defunctland, led to Moses implementing mass evictions in low-income neighborhoods to make way for road systems.
RELATED: Comedian Shane Gillis shocks ESPN crowd with Epstein and illegal alien jokes: ‘This is Disney’
Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
Moses planned to make at least half of the fairgrounds permanent and openly said that much of the infrastructure was meant to stay as part of his vision of a futuristic park. This plan mirrored Moses’ suggestions for many of the city projects he worked on.
Shopping block
At the same time, the fair was more heavily commercialized than any before it. Moses abandoned the visual and thematic consistency of earlier fairs to maximize profit, allowing companies to design their own exhibits in exchange for high rental and repair fees — services that were allegedly monopolized by a small number of favored contractors.
Moses’ success in commercialization was noted by Disney, who wished to replicate his overall design thesis when plotting out Disney World in Florida. The two had worked together on the 1939 World’s Fair, for which Disney created a special promo cartoon and even licensed a Donald Duck Day.
The first animatronics were created for the 1964 iteration of the fair as well.
Moses’ influence goes far beyond Disney, though. He either directly consulted on, or influenced, the planning of at least a dozen North American cities. He is responsible for the infrastructural theory that cities should be focused on commercial centers, not residential housing.
Room for vroom
The idea that cars should move swiftly through cities on expressways took hold in places like Portland, where Moses was hired to help design the freeway network.
In Pittsburgh, Moses put his skills in planning both parkways and parks into practice when he was hired by the Pittsburgh Regional Planning Association to solve congestion issues. He ended up building the Penn-Lincoln Parkway, the Crosstown Boulevard, and the Point State Park.
RELATED: Tragic Kingdom: String of mysterious deaths shakes Disney World
Photo by Paul Hiffmeyer/D23 EXPO via Getty Images
Moses acted as a consultant for a “high-speed freeway” in New Orleans in the 1940s and “stressed the benefits of removing vehicle traffic from the crowded streets,” according to an article by urban planning expert Jeff Brown.
While most of his suggestions were not taken in New Orleans, they were in Hartford, Connecticut, where he planned another freeway. The city declined his suggestion to build a parking garage in tandem with the expressway, though.
Interestingly, Moses’ road was reportedly placed through a slum in order to capitalize on “urban renewal funds” to help pay for the project.
Goin’ south
Other cities like Boston, San Francisco, Baltimore, Memphis, Phoenix, and Toronto, Canada, have seen indirect influence from Moses. In the 1940s and 1950s, Moses eventually faced resistance, and many of his highway projects were scaled back or canceled, according to the New World Encyclopedia.
As the desire for Moses’ planning skills eventually soured, he and others looked to opportunities in Latin America.
The article “Transforming the modern Latin American city: Robert Moses and the International Basic Economic Corporation” discusses how in 1950, the mayor of Sao Paulo, Brazil, hired a commercial corporation headed by Nelson Rockefeller to design the public works for the city.
Moses was appointed director of studies to work in the “Program of Public Improvements” for Sao Paulo and allegedly caused great controversy in Brazil due to his intentions to import American companies to operate in the country.
Moses’ influence is still visible in major cities where congestion is chronic and housing is scarce. Disney World succeeded for a simpler reason: It was designed entirely around consumerism, without the complications of cars, housing, or civic life.
In that sense, Disney World represents a kind of Robert Moses ideal — an urban space devoted purely to consumption, perfectly controlled, and freed from the democratic friction and human needs that constrained Moses in the real world.
Christian children’s movie ‘David’ beats out ‘Spongebob’ and Sydney Sweeney in box-office shock
A faith-based children’s movie is making waves just before Christmas.
“David,” an animated Christian musical about the story of David versus Goliath performed valiantly up against some monstrous titles over the weekend.
‘David’ is now the second-biggest blockbuster for Angel Studios, the studio that brought ‘Sound of Freedom’ to theaters.
In a field dominated by animated pictures, “David” managed to outperform both “The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants” and “Zootopia 2.”
Spice rack
While “Zootopia 2” took in just $14 million, that figure comes with a huge asterisk, as it has already been in theaters for a month with more than $1 billion taken in worldwide. However, “David” can relish the fact that it outperformed the beloved SpongeBob character as well as Sydney Sweeney’s new movie “The Housemaid” on their opening weekends.
SpongeBob made $16 million, according BoxOffice Pro, while “The Housemaid” garnered a respectable $18.95 million. At the same time, “David” shocked the media with just over $22 million in its opening, according to Box Office Mojo.
RELATED: ‘Kevin Costner Presents: The First Christmas’ brings scriptural authenticity to Nativity story
While SpongeBob has an established (but aging) fan base, controversy around the film came just ahead of the release when one of its voice actors, rapper Ice Spice — real name Isis Naija Gaston — attended the premiere in a revealing outfit.
The mostly transparent lingerie the rapper wore on the red carpet may have been a factor in parents’ choice of which film was most suitable for their children.
Blue Christmas
“David” is now the second-biggest blockbuster for Angel Studios, the studio that brought “Sound of Freedom” to theaters. The movie about child trafficking went viral online in terms of publicity and took in more than $250 million worldwide. No other film on the studio’s roster has made more than $21 million before “David.”
None of these movies could touch the No.1 film of the weekend, though: James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third in the franchise. It took home a whopping $88 million, more than second through fourth place in the box office combined.
Two more “Avatar” films are set for release, in 2029 and 2031.
RELATED: ‘Matrix’ co-creator: ‘Trans rage’ drives my work
Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images for Paramount Pictures
Wrung out
Also to be considered is the SpongeBob franchise’s flailing numbers.
The first movie in 2004 had a promising opening weekend of $32 million, later drawing $142 million worldwide against a budget of $30 million, per the Numbers.
In 2015, the next film in the franchise took a $74 million budget and, despite making just $55 million in its opening weekend, ended up making over $300 million.
In 2020, though, “The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run,” with a $60 million budget, drew just $865,824, likely due to COVID-19 restrictions, and made just over $4.8 million at the end of the day.
Now, with an alleged $64 million budget, according to Variety, Paramount may have cause for worry, with double the budget producing half what original film did in 2004. Then again, the studio may have streaming numbers in mind, instead.
