Ironhold

When Episode 7 came out, there was such a flood of merchandise that retailers were stuck with a large quantity of unsold material once the movie was over. Had Kathleen Kennedy kept to "every other year" like we had with the Prequels, the inventory would have worked its way out of the system. Instead, she rammed Rogue One through, meaning that licensees and retailers had to shift to carrying that as well. I say "had" as licensees have to pay money to get those licenses, and so they're going to milk them as much as possible to pay for them. Thus, we had Episode 7 and Rogue One product on the shelves together. Well, Rogue One's ending nuked merchandise and toy sales, causing those items to start rotting on shelves as well. Then Episode 8 came out, and you had *all three toy lines* on the shelves together at the same time, something that is a very horrific thing from a trade perspective. Not only did Episode 8 prove to be a flop in regards to merchandise sales, the Rey and Rose figures infamously lingered on shelves long after the rest of the figures from their cases sold out. It was depressingly common for dozens of these figures to be left on the shelves, and it's become a punch line how these are often the only two Star Wars figures left at close-out and discount retailers. Then the Solo movie came out, which was yet another disaster. Cue 3 or even 4 lines' worth of merchandise on the shelves next to each other. By the time Episode 9 came out, licensees were surrendering their licenses because there was no longer any money to be made for all of the unsold product already on shelves. Even major companies like Hasbro only produced the bare minimum of Episode 9 material, instead focusing on Prequel, Original Trilogy, and Expanded Universe. Star Wars merchandise was *not viable* for over a year after this as retailers struggled to get rid of what they already had and licensees surveyed the damage done by all of the unsold overstock product. It took Baby Yoda for people to demand Star Wars product again, and once he was written out and Gina Carano fired merch sales slipped again.

When it comes to "woke", the simple truth of the matter is that there have been some pretty spectacular flame-outs over the last few years. The Disney-era "Star Wars" toys and merchandise being dismal flops for several years. The 2016 "Ghostbusters" movie being functionally dead on arrival while the 2019 film was a hit. "Bros" being an instant financial disaster. Widespread audience rejections for a number of recent streaming shows that heavily pushed "progressive" politics. The rise of Comicsgate as an indie movement pushing back against mainstream US publishers Et cetra Everyday people are starting to vote with their wallets when it comes to what they do and don't want to engage with in the media, and the elites who are pushing this "progressive" material are losing their minds about it because they can't understand why the proletariat aren't falling into ranks to obey their commands. Thus, they're doubling down on efforts to coerce people into doing what they, the elite, want.

Word is that Twitter will now be charging $20 a month for people to retain their "blue checkmark" verification, something that has a lot of people upset. ...Particularly people who are "internet famous" or something to that effect but didn't successfully monetize that fame...

Take a look at the attached image below. This is the cover for a subscriber-exclusive issue of a licensed "G. I. Joe" comic done by IDW Publishing a few years ago. Yes, subscriber-exclusive, as in "it should be a premium product to make someone want to have an active subscription". Instead, most everyone I've shown it to has quickly picked out the numerous art mistakes in the image, including the left-hand character's left leg being at an unnatural angle, the middle figure's right calf facing the wrong way, the the right-hand figure's belt pouches being visible over her parka. Quite a few people with actual military service time (this being G. I. Joe) noted that the left-hand character was visibly obese to the point that they questioned how she would realistically pass a physical fitness evaluation of the kind that members of a special forces unit would have to periodically undergo. There's also, to put it bluntly, an ugliness to the overall design. Detail is sparse, but done with heavy lines when it is done. This makes the whole thing uncomfortably dark and grim-looking, especially with the expressions on the faces of the middle and right-hand figures. That the shading is off isn't helping matters any, as the shadows are coming from inconsistent angles as to suggest multiple light sources. By any stretch of the imagination, this artwork should have been rejected. Instead, not only was it accepted by editorial, anyone who dared to comment on it risked being accused of bigotry, especially since the left-hand figure is Pacific Islander. ...Never mind the fact that the original version of the character, as released by Hasbro in 1990, was a buff, bald white guy. Writer Aubrey Sitterson would later admit that he was not a fan of the franchise and so had no respect for it when he was put on the book, and as a result the original Hasbro-official version of the character, an anti-tank trooper named "Salvo" who realistically would be ripped given the heavy weaponry he carries, offended him; in his own words, he felt that the character design had an "alt-right vibe" which he needed to "re-contextualize" for the modern day. Thus, he remade the character into an obese female racial minority, the exact opposite of the original design. Sitterson was already on thin ice with Hasbro as it was for insensitive remarks he'd made about 9/11, and so they ordered IDW to "re-contextualize" Sitterson out into the unemployment line for this admission. But the incident illustrates an ongoing concern within the US comic book industry, that modern writers and artists working for the mainstream publishers seem to be increasingly offended by characters who are designed to meet traditional norms of health, beauty, and fitness and as a result take any opportunity possible to make them anything but these traditional norms. Basically, they insist on making everything ugly in appearance, and what they can't they make ugly through inferior and unprofessional artwork and writing.

Clothing of this nature signals who and what the wearer ostensibly supports or is interested in. That being said... Never wear clothing that features text written in a language you don't speak or read. Back in the late 2000s / early 2010s, a popular trend was for people to wear clothing with Japanese text printed on it. This came to a brief halt when it was discovered that many of these clothes had messages mocking the wearer for cultural appropriation and not actually knowing Japanese.

Salt Lake proper has historically been hands-off when it comes to internet debating, essentially leaving it to the discretion of the membership if they want to do so but hinting that contention should be avoided. Because of this, they haven't actually put together the kinds of resources necessary to help members handle things when they get bombarded online; it's up to more experienced members with links to apologetics websites to save the day. Plus, there was a point where it was depressingly easy to find local-level church leaders who were terrified of the internet because it was strange and new to them, and so they wound up frightening member after member away from going online. This helped give critics of the church a foothold, as there were precious few of us to go up against hordes of often mean-spirited critics who weren't afraid to engage in full-fledged cyber-bullying. ...Which brings up another issue, how aggressive, hateful, and mean-spirited critics of the church often are. They'll roll in, drop walls of canned arguments on top of people, and demand snap reactions. They'll engage in verbal abuse, mind games, and even cyber-bullying to cow people who don't know what's going on, and a lot of today's younger individuals just don't know how to react to such behavior. It's not so much them being "soft" as it is nobody preparing them for what's happening or what's out there.

The thing is? *It's not just music where this happened.* Look at many other forms of entertainment during the period from about 1987 to 1992 and you'll see similar seismic upheavals. Comic books? That's when a lot of prominent indie houses like Blackthorne and Comico ran into problems and wound up going bust, clearing a path for Image to come and dictate the terms of the early 1990s. Animation? A great many studios and foreign content importers, like Hanna-Barbera, Rankin-Bass, Ruby - Spears, Streamline, and Sunbow were either dead or terminally ill, this in spite of their various successes. This was on top of a great many other setbacks in the industry. Kids' properties? Many prominent toy lines like Go-Bots, Transformers, M.A.S.K., and so forth all collapsed, while a great many new lines were functionally dead on arrival. Many of these properties, old and new, went down as if they'd hit a brick wall. Et cetra. It's weird.

For Hanoi Rocks, that should have been "drummer", not "driver". He had been killed in a drunk-driving accident.

Nirvana released their "Nevermind" album in September 1991. By this point: *Hanoi Rocks broke up in the wake of a car crash that killed their driver (June 1985) *Members of Motley Crue had been in and out of rehabilitation, had gone through several rounds of lawsuits with various individuals, and had fired their manager (1987 - 1991) *Twisted Sister had officially broken up (January 1988) *Dokken broke up (March 1989) *Quiet Riot had broken up for a second time (April 1989) *Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith left the band over creative differences during "No Prayer For The Dying", which would spawn a UK #1 hit that also managed to win a Golden Raspberry (throughout 1990) *Van Halen was rifting again, with the commercial success of "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge" hiding the fact that Eddie Van Halen was turning on Sammy Hagar (1990 through 1991) *Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark succumbed to his substance abuse issues (January 1991), forcing the band to hastily finish "Adrenalize" and then take two years getting a replacement up to speed *Bon Jovi was on hiatus, with Jon Bon Jovi firing the band's management, advisers, and agents (throughout 1991) *Ratt's "Detonator" album received mixed critical reaction, guitarist Robbin Crosby would be forced to enter rehab for his substance abuse issues, and the group was a year away from disbanding (1991) *Rob Halford was on his way out of Judas Priest (September 1991) *The members of Poison had just spent the last few years in and out of legal trouble due to their "party hard" lifestyle, and two years' constant touring for 1990's "Flesh and Blood" would have the band members at each others' throats (1991) *KISS, who had spent the 1980s struggling with relevance due to line-up changes and a controversial decision to take the make-up off, was dealt a critical blow with the revelation that then-drummer Eric Carr had terminal cancer; he would pass away before the end of the year (1991) Et cetra. Most of the big glam and hair bands from the 1970s and 1980s were either coming apart at the seams by 1992, had undergone significant line-up changes, or had outright broken up.

You could tell that by the time they were in the studio for this the band was pretty much in the process of collapsing. It's common for people to blame the rise of grunge for the collapse of "hair" metal and glam metal in the early 1990s, but the truth of the matter is that most of the bands who made the two genres big in the 1970s and 1980s had either collapsed under the weight of their own egos or were facing situations where they had to reinvent themselves. Grunge simply finished the job by pushing most of these groups off of the album and singles charts. Mr. Big and Nelson were the last two hair acts to go #1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The fact that Axl covers *Charles Manson* doesn't help matters any. (For those who don't know, Charles Manson was a failed songwriter; this is part of what drove him over the edge. Axl Rose insisted on covering one of his songs for the album, but the remaining band members balked. So Axl went into the studio by himself, covered the song, and put it on the album as a hidden track. The audio quality is terrible, as if Axl was also trying to run the equipment at the same time he was singing and playing.)

"St. Anger" was to Metallica as "Let It Be" was to the Beatles. The band was coming apart creatively and personally, only for the de facto leader of the group to effectively browbeat everyone into coming back into the studio for another album whose recording process would be the subject of a documentary. Cue the clash of egos and everything just generally flying apart, leading to someone quitting the band. The key difference is that Hetfield was forced to admit that he had a serious problem and that neither he nor the band would get better unless he dealt with it. Thus, actually completing the album and documentary became secondary to seeking a solution for his alcoholism... which included a very painful confrontation with Dave Mustaine, who called Hetfield out for engaging in the very same behaviors that the band fired Mustaine over so long ago. Given the comparisons with "Let It Be", one can imagine a universe where Hetfield's ego swallows the band whole and destroys everything.

The issue is that younger audiences (kids, teens, and early 20s) are being bombarded with messages that are the polar opposite of the messages that members of a stable society need to hear, and so these individuals are slowly losing their moorings. Some people in power even regard their positions of power as a license to preach their personal values, including these harmful messages. That's why it's so important we make it a point to try and reach the youth with positive, helpful messages to teach them how to grow and develop.

As far as Bob Seger goes, he's a staple of classic rock stations and radio shows that focus on classic rock, such as "Ultimate Classic Rock with Uncle Joe Benson" (which airs Monday - Friday 7 PM - Midnight local on Townsquare - owned radio stations). I can recommend some free and legal apps you can use to stream radio stations if you don't have a local classic rock station, although one of them is heavily ad-driven if you don't have a subscription.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_Inc. In 1998, Metallica decided to assemble a compilation of the various cover songs they'd recorded and released over their career. This included their infamous "$5.98 EP" that was done to help Jason Newsted grow into the band as he had been hastily recruited in the wake of Cliff Burton's death in a tragic accident while the band was touring, a cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" done for the "Rubaiyat" album celebrating Elektra Records' 40th anniversary, and a cover of Diamondhead's "Am I Evil?" that would eclipse the original on rock radio. The group figured that such a compilation would be a way for newer fans to obtain this material since virtually all of it was considered "rarities" due to limited release, but at the same time realized that there was an off-chance older fans would already have all of these songs in some fashion. As such, "Garage" was expanded into a two-disc set, with the older material on one disk and a whole new slew of cover songs on the other disk. The liner notes discussing the process of assembling the album have the band being astonished upon first hearing the song for how close "Turn The Page" was to their own personal experiences on tour and so it was chosen to be one of the new covers despite Bob Seger being far removed from the other groups they chose to cover over the years. Although Metallica's rendition of "Turn The Page" is fairly common on rock stations, it would be the band's cover of Thin Lizzy's rendition of "Whiskey In The Jar" that would steal the show, winning the band another Grammy. Tragically, this would be the band's last release for 5 years as a result of the catastrophic circumstances leading up to their dropping "St. Anger" off a skyscraper. edit - For those wondering, Cliff Burton was killed when the band's bus went off the road. Cliff had been sleeping next to an open window without any form of seatbelt or restraint when the bus rolled. Cliff was thrown out of the window when it happened and would die of his injuries. The bus driver claimed that they'd encountered a patch of black ice, but Metallica front man James Hetfield has pretty clearly stated that he never believed this as the reason why the bus rolled.

Remember that live-action "Mulan" remake from a year or so back? It was filmed in an area *where whistle-blowers had provided video of ethnic cleansing*, and the credits for the movie thanked the government organization that is believed to have orchestrated the ethnic cleansing. That finally forced even a number of pro-China apologists to wake up.

Due to a discussion a few days ago, I've been mulling over something. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superbook Not many people know this, but in the early 1980s Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network group commissioned Japanese anime studio Tatsunoko Pro to produce three cartoons that would tell Bible stories and other Christian stories in a fashion that he hoped would make them more accessible to Japanese audiences. The "Superbook" series, part of this lot, became internationally popular back in the day, and a 2011 revival series has been going ever since. Well, back in the 2000s and early 2010s there was a trend of Protestant publishers trying to produce material in a manga and anime style to reach out to kids, including "The Manga Bible" (an illustrated collection of Bible stories) and religious-themed comics from TV writer Buzz Dixon's Real Buzz studios. This has me wondering. Could Salt Lake, or another company, use anime and manga stylings, if not commissioned materials, in a similar fashion?

In the aftermath of Covid, various online sleuths estimated that China's *actual* death toll was well into the millions; I want to say 7 - 14 million is the range most of the estimates were in. Even a country like China can't take that massive a hit to its population without some form of significant social disruption. People are also waking up to the routine and often massive human rights violations going on in China and so are trying to reduce the quantity of Chinese-made products they're purchasing to pressure companies into ceasing operations there. Hollywood has also found itself under pressure to cease pre-emptively censoring movies for Chinese audiences. Hong Kong is only "secure" because of marked police brutality, and the larger world knows this. North Korea is now a hot potato. The nation serves as a physical buffer between the West and China's borders, but the Kim regime is now so unstable that war is a constant danger. The events of the last few years are believed to be slowly rattling the foundations of the Chinese communist system, and the politicians & government-sponsored media are desperately trying to keep the word from getting out.

As of last weekend, we have street preachers here in town. They come from a local church that has a history of being a nuisance, and in fact they actually caused a small Covid scare a few years ago because they brought in a guest lecturer from two states over despite most government authorities warning people not to travel unnecessarily. For the past two Sundays they've set up at the intersection of the main highway through town and a main road, both of which are surface streets. Last weekend they were handing out Chick Tracts, which is something the church has done before. I'll occasionally find these materials on random shelves at various local stores, and warn the workers there when I do come upon any. (I just don't have it in me mentally or time-wise to catalog and debunk them like I used to.) This past weekend they had professionally-printed signs of the kind you normally see in Salt Lake City or Mesa. There were also double the number of individuals, and instead of just lingering at that one intersection they were also at a nearby intersection, a service road that supports some nearby businesses. On both occasions, they've proven brazen enough to just walk right up to anyone whose car window was rolled down and try to engage them. While the two I dealt with were professional, I'm concerned that it's only a matter of time before someone gets too bold or picks the wrong vehicle to go up to. As it is, homeless individuals frequently occupy those two intersections Monday - Saturday, and at least one local homeless individual is reportedly mentally unstable. I'm just worried these folks are taking chances they don't understand they're taking.

We went over Jeremiah chapter 1 in Sunday school yesterday. I pointed out that sometimes a person is given a calling because of what they're supposed to learn from the calling rather than what they can bring to it. Cue a bit of a panic because I was in the YSA branch and none of the younger members had considered this prospect.

https://www.ksl.com/article/50494845/a-cyber-attack-breached-some-latter-day-saint-member-data-heres-what-we-know Back in March an unknown entity - likely a state - sponsored or state - sanctioned organization - breached some of the church's systems. Law enforcement asked the church to remain silent about the matter while the investigation was ongoing, but the church has now released a statement and has begun contacting affected individuals by e-mail. Hate to say it, but Russia came to mind given the hyper-nationalistic effort to force non-"Russian" religious groups out of the country.

Best-case scenario is that they *were* considering it at one point, just like AOC was considering such a super-strict reduction in cattle-based methane as to essentially mandate a cow genocide, and someone put it on the website without actually being told to do so.

Basically, those bridges exist to help Russia exert its authority over the Crimea. That even one of the bridges has been taken down makes it harder for Russia to physically insert officials to control the region. And repairing the other would require them to maintain control of Crimea, as it would take a number of vessels and likely engineers working from both sides. Word I'm hearing is that Russian warships are wary of getting too close to shore because Ukraine has been supplied with enough anti-shipping missiles as to make any excursions a risky proposition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Yankee I know it's likely going to be hard to find a copy, but I very much recommend that people pick up and read "Team Yankee". Author Harold Coyle was a major in the United States Army at the time he wrote it, and he wrote it following a hypothetical outline of WWIII as published by General Sir John Hackett of the British Army. A *lot* of what we've been seeing happen is reflected in this book (and by extension, General Sir Hackett's outline), such as the infamously terrible Soviet supply lines being so bad that units have to rotate to the rear to resupply and the critical importance of bridges in the Soviets maintaining control over regions.

Let's just say that my plans for the next six months are all courtesy of the letters "E", "K", and "G".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wichita_Falls,_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawton,_Oklahoma They'll probably be shifted to Prosper if there isn't a dedicated temple serving Fort Worth.