Josh Billinson
@jbillinson.bsky.social
I do the skeets for @semafor.com
My job is to get people to read the news, but I think push notifications are deeply unhealthy and it’s fine to just seek out news on your own time instead of letting someone shove it in your face at all hours of the day.
Brendel@brendelbored.bsky.social · 12mo agoThere’s a thin line between staying as informed as you should and making yourself anxious in a way that is completely unproductive and every single day the news is trying very hard to push you over into the latter
The people of Earth-818 in FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS
![A screenshot from ITYSL of baby Harley Jarvis captioned “[audience booing]”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ms4dzr3m4o5ns57pk4uinu7j/bafkreihyfocjgrq5kfgfjoc4fofu7uhfzqcqdq4ny533mtsmspzr2ulm7u)
Hilarious number of your former colleagues to have immediately running to Politico to trash your new book announcement
Politico@politico.com · last yr.Karine Jean-Pierre’s announcement that she’s leaving the Democratic Party — timed with the rollout of a new book — is reigniting long-simmering frustrations among her former White House colleagues. “Everyone thinks this is a grift,” one former Biden official told us of her book project.
I love when the New York Post does Eric Adams mad libs
“It was another win for a well-organized lobbying campaign led by manufacturers of dark roofing materials.”
How the little-known ‘dark roof’ lobby may be making US cities hotter
As cities heat up, reflective roofs could lower energy bills and help the climate. But dark-roofing manufacturers are waging a quiet campaign to block new rules
theguardian.com
Almost opted against submitting expenses for a work trip to avoid having to tell a coworker that I went to Taco Bell three times in one week
I never really considered that the Secret Service would do this but now I need to know if anyone has ever been picked up on an outstanding warrant because they visited the White House
Semafor@semafor.com · last yr.🟡 NEW: The White House decided against hosting a reception for an Air Force veteran released last week from a Venezuelan prison due to the man’s lengthy criminal record and outstanding warrants. www.semafor.com/article/05/2...
There’s a great bit in THE FINAL RECKONING where Ethan Hunt, finally forced to confront the reality that he regularly hurts innocent people in service of his missions, apologizes to someone just for the guy to brush him off and say Ethan actually made his life way better by accident
Really did not love the first hour or so of MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING, which falls to near FAST & FURIOUS levels of silly self-seriousness, but then Tramell Tillman almost single-handedly saves the movie by being the first person to remember this is supposed to be campy fun
NYC Tourist Tip: Disoriented coming out of the subway? Just stop at the top of the stairs and wait for a helpful New Yorker to give you directions
Timothée Chalamet auditioning for the UNCUT GEMS prequel
So you’re telling me that in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION, the IMF is subject to Senate oversight and closed door hearings, but in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - DEAD RECKONING we learn that the DNI doesn’t even know about the existence of the IMF?
Any store could shell pistachios for added convenience, but the real Trader Joe’s magic is in coming up with just the perfect repulsive and humiliating name for it
My dog has been sitting next to me on the couch absolutely locked in for nearly the entire MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE marathon. He can’t get enough of Ethan Hunt and the IMF.
Rewatching MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - FALLOUT and it’s so funny how both big stunts Tom Cruise does between the HALO jump and the helicopter could have so easily been done by a stunt men? We can barely see your face, Tom!
I don’t love the Knicks but the Pacers are a deeply evil team (have a QR code on their jersey)
I worry about Timothée Chalamet at these Knicks games. A sickly little Victorian boy can only handle so much stress
Just rewatched MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III for the first time in years and for as much as I love Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance in this movie and think he’s the franchise’s best bad guy, I totally forgot how he ends. MADAME WEB ass villain kill!
“You can’t make an emotional Star Wars for grown ups unless it’s rated R” is an incredibly funny thing to say like a week after the Andor finale
Star Wars Holocron@swholocron.bsky.social · last yr.Ryan Reynolds reveals that he pitched an R-rated STAR WARS project. “It doesn't have to be overt, A+ characters, there's a wide range of characters you could use. And I don't mean R-rated to be vulgar, R-rated as a Trojan Horse for emotion” (Source: open.spotify.com/episode/53Dv...)
Actually really enjoyed revisiting this one despite the flaws. Still my least favorite but now I think the real problem isn’t how disconnected it feels from the rest, but that John Woo waited until the last 30 minutes to really start doing John Woo shit.
Josh Billinson@jbillinson.bsky.social · last yr.My wife who has never seen any of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies and would not commit to the rewatch marathon is in the room while MI2 is on. Afraid this will make a bad first impression.
They need to do George Lucas style special editions of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE franchise in a few years where they just go back and add Kittridge to all the movies he’s not in.
My wife who has never seen any of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movies and would not commit to the rewatch marathon is in the room while MI2 is on. Afraid this will make a bad first impression.
Incredible power move by George Lucas during negotiations over TEMPLE OF DOOM, as recounted by Barry Diller in his new memoir: “This deal, the most generous in history, isn’t worth it?” “No, not really.”
MLB is going to experiment with bat-tracking for check swing challenges in the minors, and I think that’s great, but they’re going to define a swing as “when the head of the bat moves ahead of its knob by more than 45 degrees.” What???
“The chatter at the conference, unaddressed by Microsoft executives during their keynotes on stage, was the extent to which the exact features the company is selling to developers will replace those same developers in due time.”
‘Marching off a cliff’: Developers at Microsoft Build question their future relevance
“Is there going to be a Build 2035, or will there not be any more developers?” a software engineering vice president attending the event told Semafor.
semafor.com
