Rest in peace Juniper Blessing.

These last few weeks I’ve been thinking about cycles of hatred and youthful naiveté. Thinking about how when you’re young you think the world is going to improve. When you know better, you do better, right? Why would things get worse on purpose? Worse for who, turns out that’s the crucial part of the question. I never imagined we’d be ruled by such losers, or that people would fall for such obvious bullshit, or that the media would capitulate and collaborate with fascism.

Jason Collins (the first openly gay NBA player) passed away recently so he was back in the news. That got me thinking about how he took jersey #98 in the NBA as a nod to Matthew Shepard’s brutal murder in 1998. I remember that happening and thinking it had to be a turning point. This awful hate crime was going to mark the beginning of something. Things were about to change, surely. There was just no way society was going to just move past such a heinous crime.

Thursday would name a devastating song for him five years later. The song even quotes Matthew’s father from the trial. It still gives me chills.

I think about being in high school. I think about my queer friend group. It was scary and confusing to see this happen. We were used to the teasing but this was just so shocking. You want to think that this hatred is a dying ideology, that the perpetrators will be thoroughly punished, that it can’t be that way forever. You just think things will get better. You look around at your friends and wonder why someone would want to hurt them. Why do people care so much that this random guy is gay, you wonder. Why does that matter at all? There are so many actual, real reasons to judge a person. Being gay or trans just isn’t one of them. And I still feel that so deeply. It is extremely weird for someone to care about anyone else’s gender or sexuality. I would like to think that the average normal response from the average normal person, upon finding out someone is trans or gay is “um, okay?” or “who fucking cares?”

That was 28 years ago. Juniper’s death is history repeating. She was stabbed over 40 times. A human being true to themselves, brutally murdered for it. The hatred that existed that has only festered and grown in the dark corners of the globe and society and the internet. How did we get to the point where a small number of small minded sociopathic ghouls have convinced such a large number of people that their mere existence is a problem that must be solved rather than just a fact of life? Now they face constant attacks in an increasingly hostile and dangerous world. You can do anything you want in life and you choose to be an anti-trans warrior? Just the most loser shit of all time.

This Hell World piece by Victoria Scott about her is excellent, especially this part:

“These horrible fucking people building the world that kills trans children have institutional power, mass media reach, and more money than God. And yet they seem to be determined to ensure that the trans people of the future are just as scared as the ones of today. Juniper’s tragic loss is a mission accomplished moment for their project, and they know it.

While these horrible fucking people run victory laps, my community is rightly shattered by the death of a wonderful girl. I just cannot accept a future where all the trans kids of today and tomorrow have to live like this, walking on eggshells, uncertain if the next morning will be even more hostile. I never want to walk past another Pokémon-covered memorial for a murdered child from my community.

We can’t keep doing this. We can’t let this keep happening to trans kids. This pain has to become foreign and unknowable to future generations or we will have failed Juniper and everyone like her. I don't know how we build that future but we must.“

We must, we must, we must.

I really loved this Jane Schoenbrun quote from Cannes: “My whole career I’ve been trying to push back against an idea of shallow representation or art that can simplify human experience into an identitarian package. To me, queerness is all about looking inwards and being as truthful as possible about not just what’s inside me, but what’s inside the society that surrounds me.” Yes yes yes. Speaking of Jane, their new film stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder. That is a trifecta I will always be seated for.

SONGS THAT ROCK

Here’s the playlist on Apple Music and Spotify. Here are some YouTube links:

BOOOOO AI

My favorite new genre of video is people confidently giving a speech about how AI rocks and getting booed right to the depths of hell. These goons are so far up their own ass they have no clue how much real people hate this shit. Just watch. It’s so satisfying.

These videos have rocketed to the top of the Crit’s Favorite Kind of Video.

Current charts:
1. Dumb game show answers
2. 2004 Red Sox highlights
3. Local news bloopers
4. AI gets booed
5. "How big is outer space?” (after a gummy, until I get too scared and turn it off)

“The task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read.” - Ted Chiang

“I don’t understand what [AI is] supposed to do. Every time I see a video on Instagram that’s like, ‘Hollywood is cooked,’ what follows is, like, the most stupid dog shit I’ve ever seen in my life. And if your instinct is to use AI and not go through that process, you shouldn’t be a writer, because then you’re not writing.” - Seth Rogen 

TV TIME

This section could also be called “Crit likes two more shows about islands.” This is a joke for anyone who read my old blog back in the day.

Widow’s Bay (AppleTV+)

It’s spooky, it’s strangely funny, Matthew Rhys and Stephen Root are there. That should be enough. Kate O’Flynn is really stealing the show from both of them. Rhys plays the overwhelmed mayor of a possibly cursed New England island town. I’m not a fan of scary things but this is more creepy than scary. The fourth episode is one of my favorite TV episodes of the past few years.

Lord of the Flies (Netflix)

It’s four episodes, it’s gorgeous and violent and disturbing just like it should be. It is a departure from the book so if that’s going to bother you maybe skip it, but I think it’s worth it either way. The cinematography and filters are beautiful and create this hazy, disorienting, haunting pall over everything. The colors of the jungle and the water and the sky are mesmerizing. That plus the discordant sounds of the score help create the tense atmosphere on the island. The device of tight close shots of the kids’ faces drives so much emotion, especially when comparing those from the first episode with those of the last.

One more thing: Stephen Colbert hosting a public access show is just delightful.

RED SOX DIARY #2

I want to write more about baseball and politics but they both happen so much and are both so depressing because the Red Sox stink. Here are some baseball thoughts. [all stats are through May 26, except the Cora/Tracy stats which are through May 27.]

It’s going to be a long Sox season. Am I gonna watch every game? Yes. But that’s a me problem. Honestly, I don’t want them to be successful. I don’t want Craig Breslow’s shell game to succeed. I also don’t want them to be bad enough that they make some stupid moves to temporarily quell the fan base. That would be the worst case scenario. The best case might be somewhere in the middle, not great but not embarrassing. So that’s what I’m rooting for. It sucks. Hoping for some entertaining and/or weird stuff, I guess. Like last night they banged out 15 hits but 14 of them were singles. Weird!

Truly what I am rooting for is: years of big growth from Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, Wilyer Abreu, Payton Tolle, Connolly Early, Kristian Campbell, Mickey Gasper, and hopefully some of the guys in the minors like Franklin Arias (Keith Law’s #3 MLB prospect!), Anthony Eyanson, and Kyson Witherspoon. By the end of the year we’ll be one year closer to Trevor Story’s departure. I wish health to Garrett Crochet. Does Triston Casas still exist? Maybe Isiah Kiner-Falefa will spontaneously combust. I’m not wishing for that, just saying it could happen. It could!

Maybe it’s because the team stinks but I don’t think anyone is talking about how promising Tolle and Early have been. Young pitching is priceless. While the Roman Anthony hype train is in the shop for repairs, maybe they can make it a three-headed thing. Okay the train metaphor really broke down there, sorry.

The thing about making pitching and defense your winning strategy is that… it can work if both are great. The team has looked better lately. In the month of May, they are 6th in ERA. In March/April, they were 22nd.

But the hitting needs to be at least average. It’s not. In March and April, they were 2nd worst in MLB in wRC+ at 85. (League average: 100.) In May, they’re in the middle at 14th, with a perfectly average 100.

In March/April, they scored 4 runs a game. In May it’s down to 3.7, fourth worst in the league. Only four teams have scored less runs this month.

They definitely can play some defense though. They are at or near the top in the big categories:
- 3rd in Outs Above Average: Cubs 12, Rays 11, Red Sox 10. No one else has more than 7.
- 2nd in Fielding Run Value: Cubs 22, Red Sox 17.
- 1st (by a lot!) in Defensive Runs Saved: Red Sox 48, Dodgers 34, Cardinals/Giants 24.

They are swinging at the 7th least pitches in the zone.
They are swinging at the 8th most pitches outside the zone.
That’s not ideal. The contact numbers aren’t great either.

By Win Probability Added (150+ PA) the worst players in baseball are: Trevor Story, Ezequiel Tovar, Marcus Semien, Caleb Durbin, Isaac Collins, Marcelo Mayer, Cal Raleigh. Three of the six worst are Red Sox. Woof. And what the hell happened to Big Dumper? Yikes.

I love Wilyer Abreu. I like that his average is hovering around .300 because he’s going the other way a lot more than he used to. 33% this year, 25% last year, 24% the year before. His slug is down a little but he’s getting on base more by finding empty spots to hit the ball to.

We’re now at 27 games each:
Alex Cora Sox: 10-17 / 4.1 runs per game / .669 OPS / 4.44 ERA / 86 wRC+
Chad Tracy Sox: 13-14 / 3.6 runs per game / .713 OPS / 3.06 ERA / 98 wRC+

Slightly better win percentage, a half of a run less per game, OPS up a bit, ERA down a lot, close to league average wRC+. So… sure. Not sure that was worth firing a good manager for. The ERA isn’t better because you fired him.

Other baseball thoughts: I love Boxscore. Every morning I get boxscores in my email. Just like the sports page I used to read every word of when I was young.

The Yankees are 1-7 against teams at or above .500. Frauds? Did someone in the back say frauds? Okay, frauds it is.

Luis Arraez, who I already said was one of the guys I’m fascinated by, has somehow leveled up. All of a sudden he’s a great defender! He’s 3rd in Outs Above Average with 9, behind known great fielders Bobby Witt Jr. (15) and Pete-Crow Armstrong (11). His OAA by season since he arrived in 2019: -13, -3, -5, -5, -14, -12, -9, and now 9 this season.

He’s also 5th in Fielding Run Value. His FRV by season since 2019: -9, -3, -4, -3, -10, -9, -5, and now 7.

Where in the world did that come from?

THE NEWS