Hello to all my wonderful World Outside Our Window Subscribers!
I know, I know, I was supposed to be covering DOC NYC, America’s biggest regional documentary film festival.1 It turns out however, that covering an entire film festival alone, while still being a full time student and working part time was harder then I expected. Not to worry — I am on track to have my DOC NYC piece up by mid-December. This is of course after the festival ends, but as my girlfriend always says: Alright Max, whatever, I guess it’s the thought that counts.
That being said, I set a goal for myself to write on this blog consistently. Goals are important, and I like to keep them, because without a routine I am liable to become a full-time Trickster, living a life of tomfoolery and lollygagging. This would not be good, as certain important players in politics, entertainment, and business rely on this blog. With that in mind, I am happy to announce the start of a new series — News On The March. This will be an irregular series where I write about various topics in the world and also my life, from a pointedly subjective view point, of course. Inevitably, this may be seen as what I write when I don’t have time to write anything deeper, but I’d argue if I get far enough that people are analyzing when and why I drop certain posts, I’m doing something right!
Let’s start things off with some local news. A few days ago, Gothamist reported that many of the MTA’s October delays can be traced back to one man’s serial copper stealing habits. Transit officials said a vandal disrupted service on three separate days by tampering with signal wires, delaying 755 trains across six major lines. Apparently, copper theft has long vexed MTA officials, with one particular offender, Prince Hayes, avoiding capture for over a decade. I was struck by this story, and found myself considering what a society should do about crimes such as this. While this may be me being “annoyingly woke,” I simply do not believe prison is a fair punishment for copper theft, a crime that is certainly not victimless but surely not serious enough to warrant the inhumane conditions seen in all American jails. Plus: wouldn’t copper thieves simply take the metal out of the jail wall and make a key, securing their escape? Or perhaps, god-forbid, as they are stripping the prison compound of all its precious metals, get struck by some sort of radioactive lightning, and become a metal thief supervillain? These are the questions we must wrestle with.
In other NYC news, our very own Mayor-Elect had quite a big week. At Wednesday’s DSA Endorsement forum (which was so crowded I couldn’t get in!) Zohran Mamdani made his case for why the organization should not endorse City Councilman Chi Ossé in his primary challenge against House Minority Leader Hakeem Jefferies. The specifics of the debate aside — the vote ended, and DSA will not be endorsing — it was incredibly cool to see the next Mayor of NYC show up to our org’s meeting, and participate as just another member. This is mass, democratic politics in action, and the future looks bright. Mamdani also went to The White House, conceded no ground at all, and called Trump a fascist who is enabling the genocide of the Palestinian people, all while our 47th President sat there smiling, heaping praise on Zohran, and generally acting strange. Beyond the distinct possibility that we all woke up in a bizzarro world a few weeks ago, I feel like there isn’t much to say about that one which hasn’t already been said, but man is it cool to be living in Zohran’s NYC. Also, here is a suggestion for a future NY Post headline:
MamDonny? Trump cozies up to Commie Mayor: “a rational person.”
Moving on to some national stories, a Texas politician’s bizarre announcement caught my eye. Bo French, who up until very recently was Chair of the Tarrant County GOP (one assumes this is a county in Texas, one will not be looking into it further) declared his intention to run for Texas Railroad Commissioner. Why is he running? Well, in order to “stop the Islamic invasion” of course. His statement reads in part, “With Iran and radical Islamists attacking our allies in the Middle East, the Chinese Communist Party pushing its agenda worldwide, and the radical Green New Scam artists waging war on domestic energy production, our state needs a strong leader who will fight back.“ Beyond the obvious humor innate in running to be Texas Railroad Commissioner for these particular reasons, I do think the deeply bigoted justification for this run is something to consider. I am not the first to say this, but in many ways it feels we are living in repeat of the Dubya Years. Random GOP politicians are coming out of the wood work to run on Islamophobia and fear, unwilling to acknowledge the intense failures of their party’s leader. When they have no solutions for the vast economic despair plaguing our nation, all they can do is blame minorities. It is not a new trend, but one that is coming back in full force.
In more important news, there was a new Now You See Me film released last week. A lot of people don’t know this, but I love the Now You See Me franchise. And to be clear, in no way do I love the NYSM films as a bit — I think they comfortably fit in the heights of modern American filmmaking. The newest one, Now You See Me: Now You Don’t (Ruben Fleischer, 2025) is inarguably one of the most important films to come out this year. Almost revolutionarily in its aversion to the so-called “vibe shift” Now You Don’t seems like a movie ripped from a not so distant past. The script, which surely was written a decade ago, reaches level of woke and libbed out that I simply did not think were possible anymore. There are multiple conversations about the lack of female representation in the magic world, and one of the characters claims that due to “wars, pandemics, climate change [and] AI,” we need magic more then ever. That is a sentiment I can get behind. The villain is a South African Diamond Miner whose father was a Nazi War Criminal, and in case you thought it couldn’t get better, she is played by Rosamund Pike, doing one of the worst accents I have ever heard (complimentary). Reports of Gen-Z’s shift to the right have been greatly exaggerated, as NYSM topped the box office last weekend, led by an army of dedicated 20-somethings. I know it may seem like I am being facetious, but I truly believe the implications of a film as 2018-libcoded as this one beating out something like The Running Man is notable, and I hope to see more mainstream films buck the conventional wisdom and go all in on unapologetic wokeness.
In direct contrast to the joy of NYSM, however, I also saw Wicked: For Good (John M. Chu, 2025), which reminded me that in order to appreciate the height of American filmmaking, one must also experience the low. As anyone who has seen the stage show knows, act two of Wicked is really quite weak, and unfortunately for us, For Good is somehow an extended version of it. The songs are not as good, the story is overstuffed, and Chu’s poor direction makes it all the more miserable. Seriously, it is unbelievable how bad he is at blocking, seemingly going out of his way to make almost every musical number a bland and forgettable mess. Dorothy is in this film, but they make a pointed choice to shoot around her, never showing her face or even full body. This seems fine on the surface — her most iconic attribute is her shoes after all — but as many may already know, the Wicked films did not get the rights to Dorothy’s Ruby Red Slippers, so they are instead silver. This is undeniably funny, and I honestly respect their commitment to just pretending it doesn’t matter. Also, a man who looks so uncannily like SpongeBob that he was literally cast as him on Broadway plays a character named Boq. I forgot about Boq from the first one, and could not stop laughing whenever Boq was on screen. Eventually, Boq becomes the target of dictatorial rule and turns into a tin-man. Weird stuff.
Well, that’s all from me on today’s edition of News On The March. I hope you all enjoyed this casual post, and will be patient with me as I work on more involved ones. A great mind like mine never rests, but sometimes, it does need a break.
Signing off,
Max Bolen
Contains Multitudes
I’ve been informed it is just the biggest documentary film festival, but saying “America’s biggest regional” is really quite funny.