Dave's "Lost" New Years Column

I missed my shot to run it at Takimag, so here it is

It’s tradition for me at Takimag to run a New Years column that’s just little bits and pieces of things I couldn’t stretch to a full column by themselves. It’s a no-effort column, and I can only get away with it on special occasions (Christmas, New Years, election day). But then I got caught up in the Vivek/Musk visa thing, and then the fires, and before I knew it it was three weeks past New Years and, well, too late to run it at my paying job where I’m justifiably expected to make an effort.

But there’s never any reason to waste a column, so here it is, as written last month, the New Years piece that never was.

Year-End Cobbles and Bits

Regular readers know that I like to end the year with a roundup of leftovers. Ephemera unworthy of a full column, but still of potential interest.

Hell, you folks don’t want anything deep on New Years Eve, right? You should be out celebrating. Be in Times Square watching the ball slide down the shaft, or in Nick Fuentes’ bedroom viewing a cheaper version of said event.

Anyway, to continue the tradition, here goes.

Mr. Sailer, I love you, but you’re wrong

Cynthia Onyedinmanasu Chinasaokwu Erivo’s name sounds as alien to me as she looks. Honestly, I barely view that bald, nose-boned creature as a member of my own species. She’s a monstrosity, reverse-Viagra to any man who views her.

Recently, my friend and colleague Steve Sailer tweeted his astonishment that Erivo landed the lead role in the film version of the Broadway mega-hit Wicked:

“Wicked” (the play) has made $1.7 billion just in one theater on Broadway. Shouldn't “Wicked” (the film) have enjoyed the biggest casting cat fight since Scarlett O'Hara? How did the movie wind up casting as its stars your VP of DEI and an anorexia victim?

When David O. Selznick was casting Gone with the Wind, every major actress in Hollywood wanted the O’Hara role. It was a bitter, contested process. But with Gone with the Wind, all that was needed was an attractive, capable actress. That could’ve been any number of players. But with the role of Elphaba in Wicked, a magnificent voice is a requirement. Not a plus, but a necessity. And as monstrous as Erivo looks, that creature can sing. Real well.

Universal learned a lesson from the negative feedback it received regarding Les Misérables. The studio cast Russell Crowe, a movie star with a decent voice, for a part that required an exceptional voice. Universal was pilloried online with viral videos side-by-side comparing Crowe’s passable singing to the exemplary singing of the dude who played Javert on Broadway.

It was embarrassing. Crowe’s lackluster singing was mentioned in every review.

So I don’t blame Universal for erring on the side of voice with Wicked. Opening up the role of Elphaba to every A-list floosie would’ve led to a repeat of the Crowe fiasco. The role had to go to a singer first, “star” second.

But more to the point, Elphaba is supposed to be ugly. She’s supposed to be repulsive to the eye. Now come on, Steve. You take a phenomenally beautiful white chick and paint her face green, what’ve you got? A phenomenally beautiful white chick with a cute little green face. It doesn’t make her repulsive, or did you learn nothing from Captain Kirk?

We must always be reasonable in these matters. At the same time that we rightfully point out how it’s an offense to Creation when ugly black actresses play Anne Boleyn, Amelia Earhart, or Grace Kelly, we must also cede that when a part comes along that’s specifically for an ugly ho with a great voice, the ugly ho with the great voice deserves the role.

Remember, I’m a former casting director and lifelong hetero theater faggot. I know this stuff.

See, this is why people don’t like Zionists

The amount of fucks I give about Palestinians is so minuscule it cannot be seen by the Titan Krios. I’m pro-Israel to the extent that I’m always pro-civilization in any clash with bunga savages. South Africa was of better value to the world when it was white, and Israel is better off in the hands of Europeanized Jews as opposed to akbars who think the height of civilizational advancement is shoving a bomb up their daughter’s nuner.

That said, the pro-Israel neocon crowd can be an unconscionable pain in the ass. The pandering...the incessant pro-Israel pandering. I can do no better than to quote my friend Ann Coulter’s tweet from 2015, during a GOP presidential primary debate as each candidate was one-upping the other with effusive Israel slobbery: “How many fucking Jews do these people think there are in the United States?”

I don’t really mind AIPAC’s meddling...they took out several of the worst anti-white Dems last year, so, good. I don’t even mind foreign aid, because the debate over foreign aid (not just to Israel but to all the recipients) feeds the fantasy that things aren’t getting done here because we’re spending the money there.

Grow outta that, okay? Congress always finds the money for what it wants to spend on. Or did you sleep through Covid and the trillions in instant welfare conjured up under Biden and Trump? Congress can muster a trillion for anything, anytime. The idea that if we weren’t giving money to Israel, Egypt, and Ukraine we’d be able to “solve homelessness” is childish. It’s the kind of thing that contributes to the infantilization of the right. Because it’s not how things work. When Congress doesn’t spend, it’s because Congress won’t, not because it can’t. And money doesn’t solve “homelessness;” we’ve certainly proven that in California. The only solution to homelessness – a return to mass institutionalization – is off the table, including among rightists. Because you guys would lose your favorite Tweeters to a padded cell.

But FFS, what’s this new shtick of “conservatives” partnering with the worst humans on earth to “show solidarity” with Israel?

The Spectator’s in-house homo Douglas Murray recently toured the Gaza border with crotch-grabber Kevin Spacey. Okay, that I get. They have “shared interests” (lifetime members of the Dick-of-the-Month Club). But earlier last year Murray partnered with hideous leftist actress-beast Debra Messing for an Israel PR slobber-fest. Murray, a supposed “free speech” advocate, runs a site called “Uncancelled History” while palling around with a leftist who literally canceled a history book (Messing’s the one who got my book banned from Amazon).

I support Israel 100%, but never at the expense of my principles. Now granted, I’m a man of few of those. But one is, I’m against banning books, mine or anyone else’s. And that’s non-negotiable.

Rightists who support Israel are not helping their cause by doing to their supposed principles what Spacey fantasized about doing to Palestinian boys during that Gaza trip.

A Dave in the life

Here’s the kind of crap I deal with on a regular basis.

I got this Substack, see? And people can DM me there. So in September I get this message from a lady who runs a crime blog (no, I will not link to it).

Her message:

Being a world-class nuisance is why I find you so much fun to read. You, Jim Goad, Steve Sailer, and Taki are my vices. So I'm leading a pretty virtuous life, I suppose. I lost my job, was targeted by Emory University (thrown out of my department), attacked by Abe Foxman, who declared me an enemy, and by FBI contractors for my principled and public (lobbying and academic research and an Atlanta Journal Constitution op-ed, ffs) opposition to hate crime laws in Georgia decades ago -- put on some shadowy "bias person" list, and I'm as pro-Israel as they come. So I know a bit of what it's been like for you. I just got back from Chicago. I infiltrate leftist protesters. The Palestinians took over every single march. They even threw out Antifa, who pitched a fit online.

To you this might seem like a pleasant and supportive email. But to me it’s semaphore school with only red flags. Strangers telling me their life story is a red flag (I don’t care. I literally do not care). Strangers saying they know “what it’s been like for me” (you don’t, and you shouldn’t care) is a red flag. Chatty unsolicited emails? Always bad news.

So I didn’t respond. But the lady subscribed to my Substack anyway (which is free, BTW. And if you haven’t subscribed yet that means you’re a crisis dwarf who faked Sandy Hook for Obama). And then a few weeks later I was engaging my subscribers in a discussion about movie casting, and I mentioned how Deb Aquila, one of the best casting directors ever, made an impact on the biz:

Deb Aquila, one of the top-tier casting directors in the world, responsible for, among other things, discovering Edward Norton (the producers of Primal Fear insisted on a “name” actor to appear as the villain opposite Richard Gere, but Deb told them, “cast Norton…he’ll get an Oscar nom.” They did and he did), and convincing Frank Darabont to hire Morgan Freeman for Shawshank Redemption (the part of “Red” in King’s novella was white - an Irishman - but Deb knew that Freeman would make the film, and nobody’s ever been more right).

And “crime blog” lady left the following comment:

Oh yeah, Shawshank Rebellion (sic), where the unrepentant murderer of a white woman and female child is a role model because he is black, and, because it's Steven (sic) King, that also makes him a Christ figure who magically cures the warden's wife of her fatal "white privilege" disease afflicting her throat. Why don't you just jack off to Robin DeAngelo? I say this as the surivivor (sic) of a black serial killer. I didn't give a shit about his skin color as he tortured me, but when I hear you fetishistic Hollywood types ejaculate about black criminals because they're black, I think Taki should be more selective. You're no Jim Goad.

My response? “For the first and only time in my life, I’m sorry that a black serial killer failed.”

I find nothing charming or tolerable about insanity. Indeed, I find it repulsive (you should too). Hence why I never respond to DMs if I get even the smallest whiff of instability.

And for the record...just because you praise an actor’s performance doesn’t mean you’re praising the character. If you laud Anthony Hopkins for his portrayal of Hannibal Lecter, you’re not advocating cannibalism. Also, the Irish “Red” of King’s novella was the character that murdered two women and a child, not the black “Red” of the film. You can’t hold the book iteration of a character against the film version. In the book Jaws, Hooper sleeps with Chief Brody’s wife. In the movie Jaws, he doesn’t. You accept the movie on its own terms.

Too many of my “fans” are like that lady nutcase: hot/cold schizos, turning on a dime. I say something they agree with, it’s “bravo, you’re the BASEST!” I say something that challenges their biases? “Boo on you, sir, you’re a cucked kike baby-eater.”

And that’s why I limit my fan interactions.

That said, my core readers are the best people on earth, and I’m grateful for all of you. January 14 will mark ten years writing this column. It’s the best job in the world, and I’m blessed to have had the opportunity, for a decade, to share my musings with you every week. I hope to continue for as long as the Good Lord and my bad liver allow.

Happy New Year, and a wonderful 2025, to you all.

Buy Me a Beer!