Month: October 2023

The big selling point of Dicks: The Musical is its exuberance, its brassy “Let’s put on a show!” bonhomie. The long and short of Dicks is this: It originated as a gonzo two-person underground theater piece conceived and performed by two members of the Upright Citizens Brigade comedy troupe, Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson. They’d always loved musicals, so they thought they’d write one. What began, as Sharp has said, as “a funny little half hour crazy queer musical,” eventually became a movie script. Then it was a script with a director: Larry Charles has been something of a medium for a certain kind of mad genius, finding ways to capture the weird-ass magic of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat, Brüno, The Dictator) and Bob Dylan (Masked and Anonymous) on the big screen.

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But Dicks: The Musical is so raucously pleased with itself and its checkerboard of absurdist gags that it feels less like a living, breathing movie and more like an outré bingo card, dutifully filled in one square at a time: Incest, rampant male and female horniness, female genitalia that has “fallen off,” small, weird creatures in diapers who have been snatched from the New York sewers and turned into prized pets. Dicks packs it all in, yet it amounts to so little.

Sharp and Jackson play Craig and Trevor, identical twin brothers who are also staunchly heterosexual bros—the movie’s opening sees them bedding various ladies with cartoony voraciousness. It turns out these two were separated at birth; they recognize their shared lineage only when they become cutthroat rivals working for the same company. (It’s a supplier of teeny-tiny parts for robot vacuums, and their new boss is a foxy ballbuster played by Megan Thee Stallion.) After Craig and Trevor get over their uncanny resemblance to one another—it takes about 10 minutes—they decide to reunite their estranged parents so they can be a family again. Trevor poses as Craig and meets, for the first time, his mother, Evelyn (Megan Mullally, working way too hard), a cracked, kooky, sex-starved loner in a wheelchair whose home is a cluttered wonderland of kitsch. And Craig, disguised as Trevor, has his first encounter with pops Harris (Anthony Lane), a debonair former explorer who now favors smoking jackets and velvet slippers, and likes to stay close to home with his beloved caged pets, a duo of spooky-looking, leering mini-cretins he calls the Sewer Boys. He has also recently come out, a development that would surprise no one. (This is perhaps the movie’s one witty grace note, over-the-top and delicate at once.) From this setup, mayhem is supposed to ensue.

Read more: 10 Raunchy Comedies to Watch After Bottoms

But madness doesn’t so much ensue as bang the audience on the head repeatedly, like Tweety Bird with his mallet, only not as subtle. It’s not that you couldn’t do something with the essential idea: who says a debauched version of The Parent Trap, in the right hands, wouldn’t work? But never do Sharp and Jackson stop to question whether what they’re doing is actually hilarious; they’re just so convinced it’s hilarious that they barrel through—they’ve confused making comedy with inflicting it on their audience.

The musical numbers come one after another, stacked tightly with no breathing room in between. The songs have a corny, campy vibe that would be enjoyable in smaller doses. In an early number, each twin laments that “the only one who understands me is me,” a riff on the duo’s mutual self-centeredness that hints broadly at what’s to come: not only are these two gay, they’re a love match made in heaven. But their grinning and mugging is tiresome almost from the start. It’s a relief when Lane shows up, because even with his magnificent charm and verve, he brings the energy down to manageable levels.

But not even he, good sport that he is, can save Dicks. Absurdist humor needs to be at least mildly grounded in reality; you can have ugly baby sewer mutants in your script, but there still needs to be at least a dream-logic reason for them to be there. Why, exactly, does Harris—an aesthete in every way—love them so much? And why would he be drawn to the sewers in the first place, when he clearly adores the drama of swishing capes and fine Persian carpets? Dicks is good for a few mild yuks when Bowen Yang shows up, in tiny, silvery shorts, as God. But it’s so in love with its own paint-by-numbers craziness that it ceases to feel inventive at all.

There’s something else: Dicks is clearly engineered to become an instant cult classic. But a movie becomes a cult classic when audiences find their own way to it, delighting in what they see as a private, personal discovery. The whole point is that it isn’t something that’s been sold to them. I’ve heard people say, with a gasp, “How did this movie even get made?” So many dick jokes, the incest thing, a loony puppet vulva that flies through the air! Our jaws are supposed to drop in awe and admiration. And there’s something to be said for pushing the boundaries of good taste in any era, particularly one in which gay rights—along with the idea of artistic freedom itself—are being threatened. But Dicks is so calculating that it unintentionally mitigates every moment of potential shock. It’s begging to be praised as bodaciously, gloriously queer—and it is that, but that doesn’t make it a great work of unhinged humor. Dicks is so in love with itself and its own overworked kooky world that it treats the audience like the outsider in a threesome. Sometimes the self is the least interesting part of self-expression.

Russia indicated on Friday that it was moving swiftly towards revoking its ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) after President Vladimir Putin held out the possibility of resuming nuclear testing.

Putin said on Thursday Russia’s nuclear doctrine – which sets out the conditions under which he would press the nuclear button – did not need updating but that he was not yet ready to say whether or not Moscow needed to resume nuclear tests.

The Kremlin chief said that Russia could look at revoking ratification of the CTBT as the United States had signed but not ratified it.

Russia’s top lawmaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, then said the State Duma lower house of parliament would swiftly consider if there was a need to revoke Russia’s ratification of the treaty.

The comments by Putin and Volodin suggest that Russia is seriously considering revoking ratification of the treaty, which bans nuclear explosions  by everyone, everywhere.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the point would be to achieve a “common denominator” between Russia and the United States. “This does not constitute a statement of intention to conduct nuclear tests,” he told reporters.

However, Putin had signalled that possibility in his comments on Thursday. “As a rule, experts say, with a new weapon – you need to make sure that the special warhead will work without failures,” Putin said.

A resumption of nuclear tests by Russia, the United States or China could indicate the start of a new nuclear arms race between the big powers who stopped nuclear testing in the years following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

For some scientists and campaigners, the splurge of nuclear bomb testing during the Cold War indicated the folly of nuclear brinkmanship which could ultimately destroy humanity and contaminate the planet for hundreds of thousands of years.

But the Ukraine war has raised tensions between Moscow and Washington to the highest level since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis just as China seeks to bolster its nuclear arsenal to accord with its status as an emerging superpower.

Russia currently has around 5,889 nuclear warheads, compared with 5,244 for the United States, according to the Federation of American Scientists. China has 410 warheads, France 290 and Britain 225.

Between 1945 and the 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, the United Nations has said, more than 2,000 nuclear tests were carried out – 1,032 by the United States and 715 by the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union last tested in 1990 and the United States in 1992. But signs have emerged that testing could resume.

In 2020, the Washington Post reported that the then-Trump administration had discussed whether to conduct a nuclear test.

Putin said on Thursday Russia had successfully tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable cruise missile – the Burevestnik – whose capabilities he has called unmatched.

China is building hundreds of intercontinental ballistic missile silos, according to the 2023 Annual Threat Assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.

CNN reported this month that satellite images showed increasing activity at nuclear test sites in Russia, China and the United States.

Washington says China is reorienting its nuclear posture for strategic rivalry with the United States and is not interested in any arms control agreements which lock in U.S. or Russian nuclear dominance.

“China and Russia are seeking to ensure strategic stability with the United States through the growth and development of a range of weapons capabilities, including non-traditional weapons intended to defeat or evade U.S. missile defences,” according to the U.S. threat assessment.

“Consequently, these new technologies probably will challenge the way states think about arms control, and we expect it will be difficult to achieve agreement on new weapon definitions or verification measures, particularly at the multilateral level.”

Scientists and government authorities were working on an early warning system for glacial floods at a Himalayan lake in northeast India when it broke its banks this week with deadly consequences.

Mountainous Sikkim state plunged into chaos on Wednesday as floods spurred by heavy rain and an avalanche killed at least 40 people. It was one of the worst disasters in the region in 50 years, and dozens remained missing on Friday.

The first part of the system, a camera to monitor Lhonak Lake’s level and weather instruments, was installed last month, officials involved in the project told Reuters.

If fully operational, the warning system could have given people more time to evacuate, scientists said.

Details of the Lhonak Lake warning system have not previously been reported.

“It’s quite absurd, really,” said geoscientist Simon Allen of the University of Zurich who is involved with the project. “The fact it happened just two weeks after our team was there was completely bad luck”.

He said they planned to add a tripwire sensor that would trigger if the lake was about to burst. That would typically be connected to an alert system that would warn residents to immediately evacuate.

“The Indian government was not prepared to do that this year, so it was being done as a two-step process,” he said.

The exact design of the system was still in development, an Indian official with direct knowledge of the project told Reuters.

The installed monitoring devices were supposed to send data to authorities, but the camera lost power for an unknown reason in late September, according to a source at the Swiss embassy, which supported the project.

As climate change warms high mountain regions, many communities are facing dangerous glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Lakes holding water from melted glaciers can overfill and burst, sending torrents rushing down mountain valleys.

More than 200 such lakes now pose a very high hazard to Himalayan communities in India, Pakistan, China, Nepal and Bhutan, according to 2022 research.

In recent years, glacial flood early warning systems have been deployed in China, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bhutan.

An Indian official with direct knowledge of the project said that the plan was to pilot India’s first early warning systems for glacial floods at Lhonak Lake and another at nearby Shako Cho in Sikkim, before expanding to other dangerous lakes.

Scientists have for years said those two lakes are at risk of outburst floods, but the design process and search for funding caused time to pass without progress.

India plans to install early warning systems at several other glacial lakes, said Kamal Kishore, a senior official at India’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

He did not answer further questions on the Lhonak project.

However, Farooq Azam, a glaciologist at the Indian Institute of Technology Indore, noted that even if the system had been in place, the potential benefits were not always clearcut.

“Such kind of events are so fast that even if we have some kind of early warning system … we may only gain some minutes, maybe an hour,” he said.

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Pakistan’s foreign minister defended on Thursday an order that all illegal immigrants, including 1.73 million Afghans, must leave, saying no other country allows illegal immigrants and the decision is in line with international practice.

The order, announced on Tuesday and with a Nov. 1 deadline for people to go, has frayed relations with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who said the threat to force out Afghan migrants was “unacceptable“.

“No country allows illegal people to live in their country， whether it is Europe，whether it is countries in Asia, in our neighbourhood,” the minister in a caretaker Pakistani government, Jalil Abbas Jilani, told Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV in an interview on the sidelines of a forum in Tibet.

“So, accordingly，this is in line with the international practice that we have taken this decision.”

Pakistan has been a refuge for people fleeing from war in Afghanistan since the 1970s.

Pakistan’s interior minister said on Tuesday some 1.73 million Afghans in Pakistan had no legal documents and the number of Afghan refugees in Pakistan totalled 4.4 million.

In defending the decision to expel Afghans, Pakistani authorities said 14 of 24 suicide bombings this year had been carried out by Afghan nationals. A Taliban spokesman rejected that assertion.

“Whenever there was any problem, people would immigrate to Pakistan, take refuge in Pakistan,” Jilani said.

“But now I think it has been more than 40 years, so the government of Pakistan has taken a decision,” Jilani said, noting that the situation in Afghanistan had stabilised.

Decades of war in Afghanistan largely ended in mid-2021 when the Taliban re-took control as U.S.-led foreign forces were withdrawing and a U.S.-backed government collapsed.

While Pakistan has for years favoured the Taliban as Pakistan’s best option in its neighbour, relations have deteriorated over the past couple of years, largely over Pakistani accusations that Islamists fighting the Pakistani state operate from Afghan territory.

The Taliban deny that.

Jilani said Pakistan had been discussing the migrant issue with Afghanistan “for a very long time” and he called on international humanitarian agencies to help with the process.

Aid officials say Afghanistan is already facing a humanitarian crisis and the forced repatriation of large numbers of people would compound dire problems.

Syria on Friday held funerals for scores of people killed in a drone attack on a graduation ceremony at a military academy in the Homs region the previous day, one of the bloodiest strikes against the military in more than 12 years of civil war.

Several weaponised drones hit the Homs Military Academy’s courtyard where families were gathered with the new officers on Thursday, minutes after defence minister Ali Mahmoud Abbas had left. Syria declared three days of mourning.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the attack. Syria’s defence and foreign ministries blamed what they described as terrorist groups, without specifying further, and vowed to respond “with full force”.

On Friday morning, coffins carrying victims and draped in the Syrian flag were sent out from the Homs Military Hospital. A military band played somberly and lined up troops gave the salute. At the scene, Abbas said the blood spilt was “precious.”

Syria’s health ministry said 89 people had been killed, including 31 women and five children. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which reports on the Syrian conflict, put the toll at above 120.

Throughout the night and into the early morning on Friday, Syrian government troops blasted artillery shells into rebel-held territory in the northern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo, according to the Observatory and the civil defence group known as the White Helmets, which operate in opposition-held areas.

At least 12 civilians have been killed in that bombardment, according to the Observatory. Authorities have cancelled group Friday prayers, fearing that mosques could be attacked.

Thursday’s strike was an unprecedented use of drones against government forces in the war, which began with protests against President Bashar al-Assad in 2011 and spiralled into a conflict that has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions.

In June, a drone attacked Assad’s hometown of Qardaha in the province of Latakia. But Thursday’s attack involving a swarm of drones represented the deadliest and most coordinated use of the weapon yet against the government side.

Assad has drawn heavily on military backing from Russia, Iran, and Tehran-backed militias during the war, after the Syrian army was rocked by defections early in the conflict. Russia has helped in efforts to strengthen the Syrian military.

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The Philippines has placed all its commercial airports on heightened alert after an anonymous warning that bombs could go off on planes headed out of Manila, including to several tourist hotspots, its civil aviation authority said Friday.

“Immediate enhanced security measures” were being implemented at 42 commercial airports across the country, the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) said in a media advisory, adding the warnings were being verified.

The warning had been sent by email to air traffic services about a threat to flights out of the capital Manila headed to Davao, Bicol and the popular tourist regions of Palawan and Cebu.

“While the information is currently under validation, immediate enhanced security measures are being implemented across all airports,” CAAP said.

CAAP did not say when the warning was made.

On Friday the aviation regulator released to media an Oct. 4 memo of the order given to airport security managers to beef up security, thoroughly inspect baggage and conduct round-the-clock surveillance after receiving the email threat.

The Oct. 4 memo included a screenshot of what it said was the threat, which did not contain the word “bomb” but said “an airplane will explode” at Manila’s international airport today and “please beware”.

“Cebu, Palawan, Bicol and Davao will also be hit”, the anonymous email said.

A source at Philippines Airlines, who declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to media, said the flag carrier was operating “business as usual”.

A spokesperson at Cebu Pacific Air said the airline was “following usual protocols”.

Transport Secretary Jaime Bautista said patrols had been increased and K9 units deployed at all terminals of Manila’s international airport, and law enforcement agencies were coordinating closely.

“There are no expected impact to any scheduled flights and we would like to ensure the travelling public that protocols are in place to ensure everyone’s safety and security,” Bautista said in a statement.

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Ukrainian officials bitterly condemned a Russian attack Thursday that blew apart a café where a wake was being held, killing at least 51 people, including a child.

The Associated Press reported that after the attack in the eastern village of Hroza, “body parts were strewn across a nearby children’s playground that was severely damaged by the strike.”

Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov told the BBC, “One-fifth of this village has died in a single terrorist attack.”

“Today, Russian terrorists launched an attack that one can’t even call ‘beastly,’” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday night in his daily address, “because it would be an insult to beasts.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the BBC that the attack on Hroza “demonstrated the depths of depravity Russian forces are willing to sink to.”

The wake was being held for a soldier from Hroza who died last year. He was being reburied in his hometown.

Officials posted footage on the Telegram messaging app of rescue workers clambering through smoldering rubble. Bodies lay alongside slabs of concrete and twisted metal.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s military said Thursday it destroyed 24 of 29 drones launched by Russian forces directed at the Odesa, Mykolaiv and Kirohovrad regions.

The Hroza attack occurred as Zelenskyy was in Spain lobbying Western allies at a summit of about 50 European leaders for more military assistance to thwart Russia’s invasion.

Zelenskyy said in his daily address that there are now “clear agreements” with his European allies for more air defense systems which are “crucial as we approach winter.” He also said there are deals for more artillery and more long-range weapons.

Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure last winter, leading to widespread power outages, effectively an attempt to demoralize Ukrainians during the coldest and darkest months of the year. Over time, the infrastructure was restored, but now Ukraine fears more infrastructure attacks are in the offing as winter approaches.

“The main challenge that we have is to save unity in Europe,” Zelenskyy told reporters as he arrived for talks in Granada.

Zelenskyy said it is important for Ukraine to have a “defending shield for the winter” with Russia expected to carry out many attacks with missiles and Iranian drones.

He also cited what he said was 100% support from U.S. President Joe Biden as well as bipartisan support from the U.S. Congress, days after a short-term funding deal that excluded additional aid for Ukraine.

Biden called key Western allies on Tuesday to reassure them of continued American military support for Ukraine after a group of congressional Republicans forced the exclusion of immediate new funding for Kyiv.

The White House said Biden spoke with the leaders of Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Romania, Britain, and of the European Union and NATO, along with the foreign minister of France.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.

I have spent much of my life advocating for gender equality and women’s rights within Orthodox Judaism. So it might come as a surprise that I have come to have reservations about women’s only Simchat Torah events.

Each year, when I find out about private gatherings, often not endorsed by the synagogues I attend, my heart sinks a little. Women are doing their best: They want a chance to celebrate and be part of Simchat Torah. Yet by taking an event private, we remove ourselves from the broader conversation and from visibility.

Simchat Torah, which comes at the conclusion of Sukkot, is a time when the entire community celebrates the completion of reading the Torah. It should be an opportunity for men and women to deepen their spiritual connection — together. 

That is not to say that women’s-only events have no place in Judaism. In my hometown of Melbourne, I co-founded an Orthodox women’s prayer group. And in my role as an ordained rabbanit, I spend a lot of time teaching women to read from the Torah and delve more deeply into Jewish texts.

I do not wish to undermine the experiences of women who find meaning and spiritual connection in women’s only Simchat Torah celebrations, especially those who previously had no other outlet.

But women’s-only Simchat Torah events perpetuate the “othering” of women in our religious communities. While women’s only spaces may be intended to empower women and create a safe space for their participation, they often inadvertently reinforce the idea that women should be hidden away.

When women break off to have their own celebration, it is often outside of the confines of a synagogue. These private celebrations separate us from the mainstream celebrations, where women are kept on the sidelines rather than integrated into the central communal experience.

Women’s-only Simchat Torah events sometimes serve as a convenient solution for men who may not be willing to acknowledge the unique spiritual needs and perspectives of women.

If women wish to connect with the Torah through dance, some men may perceive this as unconventional within the framework of Orthodox norms. While many acknowledge that there is no religious basis for exclusion, they express a preference that within their synagogue, women do not engage in activities that are considered culturally unusual or outside the accepted traditional norms. When the men deny women the right to Simchat Torah celebrations with a Torah on their synagogue premises, many women choose to leave the premises and have a private celebration.

By creating separate women’s-only spaces, we risk allowing men to distance themselves from the broader conversation about inclusivity and gender equity within our communities.

As an Orthodox female rabbi, I know there are ways for synagogues to do this with women in mind, which meet the requirements of Halacha.

This includes erecting a mechitza, giving both men and women space to dance, sing and have their own Torah.

If we want to strive for inclusivity, instead of separating ourselves from the main event, we should advocate for change within our communities, pushing for more equitable practices that truly reflect our commitment to Orthodox feminism.

TK HERE

Every person’s spiritual journey is unique. For some, separate events may provide a valuable space for growth and connection. However, as an Orthodox feminist, I believe that our broader goal should be to integrate women fully into our religious communities, rather than offering separate and private, albeit well-intentioned, alternatives.

Women’s-only Simchat Torah events can sometimes hinder our progress in this regard. They may provide temporary relief, but they do not address the root problem: The need for men to acknowledge the spiritual needs of women and actively work towards accommodating them.

If a community is serious about inclusion, there should be regular programming and classes for women that take into account working women’s schedules and all stages of life. They should encourage synagogue and community publications to regularly feature the voices of women. They should promote and honor their women for their scholarship and their Torah study in Midrashot and Yeshivot. 

And most importantly, synagogues and community organizations should provide mentorship and guidance to all women who wish to deepen their Torah knowledge, so that there are scholars there to mentor women and help them navigate Orthodox texts and traditions.

 To contact the author, email opinion@forward.com

The post On Simchat Torah, women belong in the synagogue appeared first on The Forward.