The Underground — Issue #131
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: James Cameron talks about some new movies, a new movie starring Benedict Cumberbatch that documents the war of the currents, a chess Grandmaster takes on a chess hustler on the streets of NYC, and how capturing carbon could save our future.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention that’s our job: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about. That’s The Underground.
1. James Cameron discusses Terminator 6 and Alien Covenant. Say what you will about James Cameron, but the man has never made a bad film. He’s also never made a film that really looks dated unless you watch Terminator. It’s low budget, but it still kicks ass. Terminator 2 looks like it was just made, and that movie is over 20 years old. Hell, look at the recent piece of garbage film and compare the CGI to T2. T2 still looks better.
Cameron took some time out from developing 9,000 Avatar films to talk about a new Terminator film, and the clusterf*ck that was Alien Covenant. He also talks about Terminator 2: 3D. Not really a fan of 3D, but I think I will drop some cash to see that. Avatar is the only 3D movie that didn’t make me want to pour crushed up painkillers into my eyes. So there’s that.
2. Benedict Cumberbatch is Thomas Edison in The Current War. Let’s get one thing straight: I despise Thomas Edison. He took advantage of genius like Nikola Tesla. He’s the reason why Hollywood is where it is because filmmakers travelled across the United States just to get away from him. His idea of direct current would mean we’d have to have a power station every mile or some versus Tesla’s alternating current.
That being said, I won’t turn down a chance to watch Benedict Cumberbatch play him in a movie. Or Michael Shannon. Jeez, look at all the people in this trailer!
Premise: Inventors Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Westinghouse (Michael Shannon) battle for dominance in the use of differing electrical currents.
This baby comes out on November 24th. Prime real estate for award season.
3. Chessmaster Maurice Ashley plays against a chess hustler in NYC. Chess is a fun game. It’s probably the essential game of how far you can think ahead for possible moves in the game for yourself and your opponent. Maurice Ashley is a mental wizard who plays chess for a living. The hustler tries to cheat a few times, but Ashley, being a master, quickly calls him out. The both move so fast that it’s almost hard to tell what is happening.
Note to self: If you play chess on the street, make sure you know who some of the famous chess masters are in the world. You might end up trying to hustle one, and he will video tape you getting obliterated in front of a group of people.
4. Capturing carbon dioxide could be the thing that saves our planet. If you aren’t drinking varnish or watching Alex Jones videos online, you probably accept that climate change is real. It’s week one of science class that you learn that the more carbon dioxide you put into the atmosphere, the warmer the planet will get. This in turn leads to droughts, major storms, historic fire… and, well. Just turn on CNN. There are actively THREE hurricanes in the gulf and in the Atlantic. These stop being generational or 100-year storms when they happen every other year.
Currently, we have record setting amounts of carbon dioxide being released every year. It’s no wonder why every year is hotter than the year before it. Below is an infographic from the always amazing Futurism.com about the levels of carbon we have, and some methods to reduce or capture carbon. It’s gets a bit technical, but I think it does a great job of explaining everything for you to understand it.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.
Contact: jeff@socialunderground.com