answer

If I see one more person saying that the only way to truly experience Christopher Nolan’s vision of “The Odyssey” is to see it in Imax 70mm, I am going to start turning cinephiles into swine.

I understand that this is a technically true statement. As we all know by now, Nolan went on his own hero’s journey with this film, using an unwieldy and extremely loud Imax camera to shoot it (a feat only he and perhaps a few other directors would be given the finances to do). Like many, I applaud his efforts and those that were made to increase the number of theaters capable of projecting Imax 70mm (and 70mm in general).

There is an undisputed cultural magnificence to reimagining a nearly 3,000-year-old tale in the most artistically immersive format currently available to filmmakers. Unfortunately, the vast majority of filmgoers will never be able to see this master vision; only 25 theaters in the country are capable of showing the film in Imax 70mm — eight in California (including four in the L.A. area); two in Colorado, New York, Texas and Tennessee; and one in Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

So a little more than twice the number of U.S. World Cup venues this year. But then, you could watch the World Cup on TV.

Not that you’ll be able to watch “The Odyssey” on TV anytime soon. As a rigorous defender of the theatrical experience, Nolan requires that his films stay in cinemas and off streamers for much longer than the average movie — “The Odyssey” will likely not be available on NBCUniversal’s Peacock until early 2027.

It is a noble mission; movie theaters need all the help they can get and heading into its second weekend, “The Odyssey” has already more than recouped its $250 million production budget. It will need to make between $625 million to $750 million to break even, which seems more than doable. “The Odyssey” could well become the third-ever R-rated movie to gross $1 billion.

Film snobbery notwithstanding, however, much of that will be accomplished via non-Imax 70mm screenings, which come in a near-Homeric list of types. On top of reacquainting the populace with a story that most of us have not thought much about since that middle-school project or college classics class, “The Odyssey” is offering a lesson in “premium formats.”

On the film’s website, one can view the trailer in Imax 70mm, regular Imax, regular 70mm, Dolby Vision and large format. Given the limitation of personal screens, this only reveals the varying frame dimensions, but it’s pretty fun to flick through them.

What is less fun is trying to figure out on which, and where and when, you can actually see the damn thing. While not on par with battling carnivorous Cyclops or world-weary witches, getting a ticket to “The Odyssey,” even after opening weekend, is a voyage filled with many obstacles.

Including but not limited to the recent crash of the AMC app.

I may or may not have contributed to this crisis, having recently spent well over an hour trying to get a measly two tickets.

Though it went against all my anti-elitist beliefs, I did try to leverage my L.A. privilege and see “The Odyssey” as Christopher Nolan intended — in Imax 70mm. Alas, the only seats available for days, even in standard Imax and 70mm, were in the first row. I was forced to “downgrade” to Dolby Vision at the Burbank 16, where, by the grace of Athena, I found two non-front-row seats, albeit in the middle of a weekday. (Mercifully, this actually counts as work for me.)

I am not equipped to argue saturation levels or whatever else differentiates one format from the other, but the Dolby experience was quite immersive, both in cinematic detail (The storms! The slaughter! The suitors’ slopping wine!) and cardiac-disruptive bass notes.

Certainly, I felt a bit like Odysseus as I crept — drained, disoriented and trailing popcorn crumbs like Ithican sand — out into the sun. It was an experience like no other (seriously, to survive Imax 70mm, I might have to go into training).

So I am a bit bewildered as pundits declare that the success of “The Odyssey” reflects some larger theme about what film audiences want. Beyond, you know, a very powerful movie.

This is one of the most singular films made in recent years. So singular that it all but defies any kind of tea-leaf-reading or, heaven forbid, attempts at replication. I don’t see a future in Homeric spinoffs (unless someone wants to do a limited series on Circe, starring Samantha Morton), and while it is vital to celebrate the craft of Imax 70mm filmmaking and projection, the theatrical experience cannot afford to put all, or even many, of its eggs into that basket.

An increased reliance on “premium formats” may seem like an obvious weapon in the increasingly one-sided war between at-home and theatrical viewing, but it is not the answer. Or at least not the only answer. (For one thing, there aren’t enough Imax 70mm cameras or projectors to go around.)

Like sports fans, many cinephiles are happy to spend hours, and dollars, to have the ultimate experience — tales of folks driving across state lines and/or paying thousands to see “The Odyssey” in Imax 70mm echoed the recent stories of international visitors saving up for a year to see their team play in the World Cup.

Though marvelously affirming for film fans, this is not a sustainable business plan. Movies are supposed to be for everyone. Not just those with a neighborhood Imax 70mm theater or the ability to pay $30 for a regular Imax seat. Going to the movies should not require hours of research to choose a theater, negotiating with a scalper or finding AI-aided plots to game the system. And there shouldn’t be such an obvious and geographically rigged hierarchy.

Before you know it, Live Nation will be involved and then where will we be?

Christopher Nolan’s non-CGI visions of the Trojan Horse, the Cyclops, the sacking of Troy, the transformation of men into pigs do not require an “ultimate” aspect ratio to be remarkable.

(Melinda Sue Gordon / Universal Pictures)

“The Odyssey” is a legitimate phenomenon and that’s terrific; more power to Nolan and the theaters that benefit. As a solution to flagging box office, well, if Hollywood does not want to go the way of — as Timothée Chalamet famously said — ballet and opera, it cannot afford to become dependent on premium experiences that are accessible only to a small percentage of the audience.

Of course it’s great that “The Odyssey” was shot, and is being shown, in Imax 70mm and regular 70mm, especially in a year when stories that originated on YouTube are also burning up the big screen. Art should never be an equation of replacement. Supporting all manner of work is always the best way of preserving and celebrating the splendid diversity of filmmaking.

No matter how unparalleled the form, it still must follow function. “The Odyssey,” in whatever format it is seen, is an epic adventure with emotional undertones beyond the original story and an existential message that resonates far more than its smattering of modern language. Nolan’s non-CGI visions of the Trojan Horse, the Cyclops, the sacking of Troy, the transformation of men into pigs do not require an “ultimate” aspect ratio to be remarkable.

All the various formats have their proponents and the conversations about them have been entertaining and informative, but no matter the film or screen size, it’s a very good movie.

And that’s the only template Hollywood needs to follow.

Men’s defending champion Jannik Sinner and women’s top seed Aryna Sabalenka both arrived at Wimbledon with question marks hanging over them but answered the doubters with contrasting first-round victories.

Italy’s Sinner – playing his first match since his shock collapse and defeat in the second round of the French Open on a scorching day in Paris – was stretched to the limit by Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic but survived, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3 on Monday.

Sabalenka, who left Paris in a “deep, dark place” after losing the last 10 games of her quarterfinal against Diana Shnaider, followed Sinner onto Centre Court and breezed past Serbian qualifier Teodora Kostovic 6-2, 6-3.

While world number one Sinner, the overwhelming favourite in the ⁠⁠absence of Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, lived to fight another day, there were some early seeded casualties.

Norway’s 11th seed Casper Ruud was handed a tough draw in the shape of big-serving Pole Hubert Hurkacz and duly lost 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7), while 12th seed Andrey Rublev was edged out in a five-set battle against fellow Russian Roman Safiullin, losing a deciding set tiebreaker 14-12 after missing two match points.

There was heartbreak too for surprise French Open runner-up Maja Chwalinska as she lost 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 to Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew on Monday after the Pole fell and ‌‌hurt herself while on match point.

Several women’s seeds moved through on a day mercifully cooler than the heatwave that gripped London last week.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka once again dressed to impress, walking on court in a Kill Bill-inspired white kimono and tennis shoes that shone as the 14th seed beat Elsa Jacquemot 6-1, 7-5.

American fourth seed Jessica Pegula beat Darja Vidmanova 7-5, 6-3, while newly crowned French Open champion Mirra Andreeva, seeded fifth, beat Magda Linette 7-5, 6-4.

Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic had far too much experience for young wildcard Mika Stojsavljevic, whose defeat was one of many on a miserable day for home players.

Home hopes ebb away

It was a grim day for the home nation, who failed to celebrate a single victory.

Twenty-one players, including 12 wildcards, were in the first-round draw, but after Emma Raducanu withdrew with an injury on the eve of the tournament, she ⁠⁠was followed on Monday by Jack Draper, who announced he was also pulling out with an arm injury.

Ten British players lost, including British number ⁠⁠one Cameron Norrie, seeded 26, beaten in five sets by inspired American qualifier Michael Zheng.

Sinner’s meltdown in the Roland Garros furnace against Juan Manuel Cerundolo had raised questions about his durability in long matches, but he answered those, albeit in relatively cool conditions, against Kecmanovic.

Sinner racked up his 94th Grand Slam match win, equalling the Italian record of Nicola Pietrangeli, but shed plenty of sweat and a little blood in reaching that mark, his white shoe stained red after injuring a nail in a fall.

“It was a little tight in the beginning; I didn’t play at my best, but I tried to get into it,” he said. “I’m happy I turned it around because the third set was very tough to swallow.”

Sinner had a point to go two sets to one ahead but lost it, and Kecmanovic pounced. Sinner was in danger ⁠⁠of becoming only the third defending Wimbledon men’s champion to lose in the first round, but dominated from then on and later said his foot injury was not serious despite the pounding it took during his third-longest match at Wimbledon at three hours and 30 minutes.

“I’m actually surprised that they let me keep playing, because my all-white outfit turned into a little red,” he added.

New generation triumph

Court One fans expecting to see Raducanu in action were left ‌‌disappointed as the replacement match saw home hope Harriet Dart beaten by Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.

Next up was a duel between two more former US Open champions, Daniil Medvedev and Marin Cilic, but that fell flat as Cilic was made to look all of his 37 years as eighth-seed Medvedev romped to a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 win.

Two of the new men’s generation lit up the opening day.

Brazil’s Joao Fonseca, cheered on by a large contingent of fans in yellow football shirts, beat Spanish veteran Roberto Bautista Agut 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-3, before heading off to watch Brazil beat Japan to reach the last 16 at the World Cup.

Rising Spanish teenager Rafael Jodar, also aged 19, made an impressive debut, beating British wildcard Felix Gill 6-3, 6-3, 7-5.

This beautiful seaside town has become a popular staycation destination in recent years

The French Riviera is an enormously sought-after holiday destination, renowned for its breathtaking coastal scenery and magnificent cities. But you don’t necessarily have to travel abroad to find turquoise waters and sandy beaches, as one charming town right here in the UK has been likened to France’s most glamorous stretch of coastline.

Salcombe in Devon has been hailed as a spectacular alternative to heading off to France by one lucky visitor. Taking to Instagram, UK travel content creator Hannah, who shares guides and reviews under @postcardsbyhannah, posted a video of the gorgeous seaside spot.

Questioning why Brits are always quick to moan about living in the UK when “it’s home to places like this,” she drew comparisons between the town and the stunning vistas of the French Riviera region, which takes in Nice, Cannes, Saint-Tropez, Antibes and Monaco.

She wrote: “Welcome to South Devon… Salcombe to be exact! Once a quiet fishing village, it’s now one of England’s most sought-after seaside escapes, where pastel-coloured cottages sprawl down the hillside towards bobbing sailboats on turquoise waters.”

Hannah went on to say that Salcombe boasts a relaxed and understated sense of luxury that feels almost effortless, with family-run boutiques, art galleries, ice cream parlours, and waterside pubs dishing up oysters freshly harvested straight from the estuary.

She continued: “Salcombe’s estuary is stunning, surrounded by rolling green hills and sandy coves reached only by foot or boat. Have a wander round town and visit Cranch’s Sweet Shop, one of the most iconic establishments in the town, selling sweets since the 1800s.”

Salcombe boasts numerous breathtaking beaches, including Salcombe North Sands, with its rockpools and panoramic views of the ruins of the nearby Salcombe Castle, and Salcombe South Sands Beach, regarded by many as one of the most pristine beaches in South Devon.

Another well-loved beach in the vicinity is Hope Cove Bay, where watersports enthusiasts can hire kayaks and paddleboards to venture out onto the water.

One visitor to Salcombe North Sands expressed their affection for the beach on TripAdvisor, writing: “Love this little place.

“Tide was in when we arrived but after a stroll around town and lunch at The Winking Prawn, it had started to go out revealing a beautiful sandy bay with low shallow water for paddling in. Dog friendly too!”

Meanwhile, another visitor to South Sands penned: “A lovely day to spend the day as a couple or with the family. Beautiful beach, especially when the tide goes out. Spectacular scenery from the beach.

“A small kiosk sells sandwiches and salads along with wine and tin beer and of course tea and coffees and soft drinks. You need to bring your own chairs (no deck chairs) A great place to visit!”

Once you’ve soaked up the stunning beaches, why not pay a visit to Overbecks Garden — a Grade II registered garden dating back to the Edwardian Era, brimming with tender and exotic sub-tropical plants that are well worth exploring at a leisurely pace.

One visitor wrote: “Stunning gardens with absolutely fabulous views. Couldn’t believe the size of the tropical plants! Nice route around the garden.”

“In my humble opinion, you have never known how to make coffee or Negroes. The former you leave too light, the latter too black.”

– Venezuelan poet and politician Andrés Eloy Blanco to US visitors, 1944

Contemporary racist attitudes in Venezuela have deep roots in the colonial period (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries). After independence, Venezuela constructed a national narrative that claimed to have overcome racism through miscegenation. We were (are) a “café con leche” (coffee with milk) nation, a blend in which racial differences had dissolved. But this supposed harmony concealed a persistent idea: whiteness remained the ideal, while African and Indigenous identities were seen as something to be diluted and gradually eliminated. 

This whitening process was not only biological, but also cultural and political. Paradoxically, racism in Venezuela became invisible to those who practiced it and even to those who suffered from it, masked under the pretext that “here we are all mestizos.” However, we have seen that when political conflicts intensify, the mask of mestizaje falls away and colonial prejudices resurface. 

The origin of an ideology

Although the validity of the term “race” has been questioned – on the grounds that we all belong to the human race and differ only in phenotypic traits – according to Venezuelan historian Luis Felipe Pellicer, “…if racism exists, race exists,” but only as an ideological construct of domination, and by no means as a scientific truth.

Racism emerged in Venezuela as a result of an exploitative and extractive economy that created a need for enslaved labor. Initially, this labor force consisted of Indigenous people and was later supplemented by individuals brought from the Atlantic coast of Africa. Countries such as present-day Ghana, Togo, Benin, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo were particularly affected. 

Now, the issue of slavery in Africa has deeper roots that warrant a more comprehensive examination, but in the Americas this system underwent a transformation, and what began as an economic activity ultimately established ideas that created negative associations around those subjected to slavery, thereby inventing the political and social category of “blackness.” By merging the condition of slavery with skin pigmentation into a single concept, the colonial mindset ended up stigmatizing every cultural and vital expression of these groups, considering them inferior, ugly, and despicable.

One of the characteristics of enslavement in the Americas was dehumanization and its racial justification. That is to say, here the idea of enslavement due to war or debt repayment was abandoned. The automatic association was: you are a slave because you are a Black African, and vice versa. This phenomenon created the idea that all Africans and their descendants were predestined for servitude and forced labor. 

The racist backlash

The recent incident in Madrid that saw supporters of far-right leader María Corina Machado shout slogans against Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez reflects a deep social divide. Sectors of the opposition who identify – whether phenotypically or aspirationally – with a Eurocentric worldview and the ideal of “whiteness” believe that the exercise of power by groups they associate with or perceive as people of African descent constitutes a historical affront. For decades before the Bolivarian Revolution, epithets like “monkey,” “mulatto,” “zambo,” “bembón,” and “bad hair,” among others, paraded across TV screens and in the national press with complete normality and often disguised as jokes – another mechanism for propagating Venezuelan racism. Following his government’s post-2001 radicalization of revolutionary reforms, Hugo Chávez was himself notoriously called a “monkey” and prominently caricatured as such by Venezuela’s right-wing opposition.

It is no surprise, then, that the presence of figures such as Venezuela’s current acting president transcends the issue of political ideology to constitute a rupture in “quality,” a term used in eighteenth-century Venezuela. “What is quality or race?” asks Pellicer. “It is an idea of inferiority regarding a human group that is transmitted, corporeally, through sexual reproduction.” It is an affront, then, to the natural order of things, to the pyramid of colonial society that placed peninsular Spaniards at the apex and people of African descent at the base. 

With the chant “Fuera la mona” (“Out with the monkey”), the Venezuelan far-right hurled an insult that reveals their undemocratic nature. But more importantly, these insults are not even linked to any incompetence in governance, but rather to what these groups perceive as “racial incompetence.” It is the expression of a wounded “whiteness” that uses racism as a defense mechanism against what they see as a displacement of their traditional privileges. It is, in essence, an attempt to restore a colonial order. 

Racism is a power structure. “Colonial thought,” Pellicer observes, “invents the other, whether Indigenous, mestizo, mulatto, or Black, as well as the white self … thereby establishing the ideology of race as the primary marker of inequality, beginning with the invasion of the Americas.” The struggle for honor in the colony was a struggle for differentiation and political recognition. Today, the “animalization” of non-white political leaders is the continuation of that colonial war, which is why the Madrid slur is not a simple rudeness; it is an act of historical violence. It is the voice of the eighteenth century trying to silence the twenty-first. And at this point, one must ask: what is admirable about the idea that, based on skin color, some are more or less fit to govern a country? 

The slave owner/racist does not see a person; he sees a tool, a piece of property, and for this to happen, the mind must adopt a psychopathic and callous mindset. The racist needs to strip the oppressed of their status as subjects in order to invoke a visceral fear of otherness that, if acknowledged, threatens their illusion of superiority. Choosing to be part of this ideological operation of domination today should be a source of shame, for it is the most glaring expression of a violence that heralds the end of humanity.

From Cortés to Díaz Ayuso

This exclusionary mindset is part of a transatlantic trend toward neocolonial revival that seeks to re-legitimize old hierarchies. A telling example is Spanish right-wing politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s recent visit to Mexico, where her proposal to celebrate the figure of Hernán Cortés serves as an ideological parallel to the “Fuera la mona” chants heard in Madrid. By attempting to portray the invasion and genocide in the Americas as a “civilizing” feat, Ayuso revives the logic of the “society of qualities”: a structure where moral and political superiority is an exclusive Hispanic and white inheritance, while Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples are reduced to a state of barbarism remediable only through paternalistic tutelage.

This narrative is not merely a historical debate, but a contemporary validation of the racial hierarchy and justification for overthrowing processes of popular sovereignty in Latin America. Ayuso’s discourse seeks to reaffirm a “Hispanic identity” that views ethnic otherness as a threat to the values of Western civilization. In this sense, what happened in Madrid is a clear symptom of the reactionary neo-fascist wave sweeping large parts of the Global North and South.

Racist remarks

The trauma of Venezuela’s War of Independence (1810–1830) and the Federal War (1859–1863) created the need to invent a narrative in which Venezuelan society was free of conflicts and differences, and thus the persistence of racial and social tensions has been glossed over. However, it resurfaces in comments such as: “Fuera la mona”; “We need to improve the race”; “Black but refined”; “Money whitens.” 

In 1948, conservative writer Arturo Uslar Pietri responded to Rómulo Gallegos’s presidential campaign by stating: “Anyone who speaks of blacks or whites, anyone who invokes racial hatred or privileges, denies the essence of Venezuela. In Venezuela, in political and social matters, there are neither whites nor blacks, neither mestizos nor Indigenous people. There are only Venezuelans .” This argument was almost exactly the same as that put forward by María Corina Machado when asked about the event at La Puerta del Sol, stating that it had occurred because of the fissures of hatred that Chavismo introduced into its discourse over 27 years in power. 

The end of denial

As part of the commemoration of the Day of Venezuelan Afro-Descendance, established under the Hugo Chávez government in 2005 to be celebrated every May 10 [on the anniversary of the 1795 slave uprising led by José Leonardo Chirino], it is both pertinent and necessary to reflect on and understand that racism in Venezuela is a long-standing phenomenon that surfaces with particular virulence during times of political crisis. The historical association between power and whiteness, inherited from the colonial era and reinforced by twentieth-century positivist thought, remains alive in the minds of sections of society that refuse to accept the nation’s diversity, including among working-class communities through what is known as endoracism. 

Understanding the origin of this phenomenon is the first step toward dismantling it. We must move from the false harmony of “café con leche” to true decolonial justice, where a person’s “quality” is not dictated by their “whiteness.” The Madrid incident reminds us that the battle for Venezuela’s mental independence far from over.

Rosanna Álvarez holds an MSc in History of Republican Venezuela from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). She is a researcher at the Centro de Estudios Simón Bolívar and Fundación Hugo Chávez, as well as a writer at the Libertador 8 Estrellas magazine. She is the author of Venezuela vista e imaginada. Un recorrido visual por nuestra historia and host of the Bolívar Nuestro show on Radio del Sur.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and I’m wondering why no one ever talks about Roy Hobbs as one of the all-time greats. It’s like he didn’t even exist.

The next part of our “Ask …” series is here, and it’s a big one. Former Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, now playing for the Tijuana Toros in the Mexican League, has agreed to answer selected questions from Dodgers Dugout readers.

Do I really need to remind you of who Turner is and his feats as a Dodger? I don’t think so. He is one of the most beloved Dodgers in recent times.

Turner agreed to answer questions from readers of this newsletter. Please send me an email with your question to houston.mitchell@latimes.com. Please make sure the subject line reads Ask Justin Turner. I will select some questions for him to answer. His answers will appear in a future newsletter. You have until Sunday at 6 p.m. to send in your question.

Ohtani is a decent player

It appears reports of Shohei Ohtani‘s demise were greatly exaggerated.

On April 24 against the Chicago Cubs, he went 0 for 3, striking out all three times. His batting splits (batting average/OB%/SLG%) dropped to .237/.361/.433), his worst numbers in a few seasons. Stories started to appear everywhere that pitching and hitting is too much for him. The Dodgers needed to give him a lot more days off, or, have him stop pitching altogether, since no one can do what he is trying.

Ohtani heard all of that, I’m guessing, and used it to stoke his competitiveness.

His numbers since April 24:

Hitting: .344/.461/.576. He’s now hitting .301/.420/.521 this season. Last season he hit .282/.392/.622. His power is down, but power is down across the majors this season. At current projections, there will be 400 fewer home runs this season.

On the mound since April 24, Ohtani is 4-2 with an 0.97 ERA.

Will he become the first person to win MVP and Cy Young in the same season? Well, on Wednesday, MLB.com announced the results of a survey of 35 experts, asking them to vote as if the season ended that day. Here are the results:

NL MVP
1. Ohtani
2. James Wood, Nationals
3. Corbin Carroll, Diamondbacks

They didn’t do voting for Cy Young, but most places have Ohtani third right now, behind Cristopher Sánchez of the Phillies and Jacob Misiorowski of the Brewers.

Comparison

The Dodgers have played 63 games this season and are 40-23. How do they compare to last season’s team at the same point in the season?

Record
2026: 40-23
2025: 38-25

Runs per game
2026: 5.24
2025: 5.69

Batting average
2026: .264
2025: .265

OB%
2026: .343
2025: .341

SLG%
2026: .443
2025: .466

Doubles
2026: 108
2025: 106

Triples
2026: 7
2025: 9

Home Runs
2026: 85
2025: 101

Walks
2026: 249
2025: 234

Batter Strikeouts
2026: 483
2025: 515

Grounded into double play
2026: 56
2025: 47

Left on base
2026: 438
2025: 416

Stolen bases
2026: 27
2025: 40

ERA
2026: 3.08
2025: 4.12

Starters’ ERA
2026: 2.96
2025: 3.69

Relief ERA
2026: 3.31
2025: 4.27

Hits per 9 IP
2026: 6.87
2025: 8.09

Walks per 9 IP
2026: 2.79
2025: 3.54

K’s per 9 IP
2026: 8.99
2025: 9.13

IRS%
2026: 26.8%
2025: 23.4%

Don’t be like these people

I’m sure some readers get annoyed when during my semi-annual reminder that it’s only a game, and if you are angry five minutes after a game is over, perhaps you should find a new hobby.

But there was a reminder last week as to why it is so necessary to keep it in mind. The world is a much angrier place now than when I was younger (uh oh, old man rant). I blame social media. Everyone can find their own echo chamber of people who agree with them and never have to see an opposing opinion. And when they do, they can’t handle it (generally speaking, of course).

And the anonymity of social media gives people false bravado, causing them to say things they never would in person. Such was the case Saturday, after Dodgers reliever Tanner Scott had his first blown save in what has been a good season for him.

The next day his wife, Maddie, shared some messages the Scott family received on social media. One of them was, ““Hope this mutt d i e s soon,” on a photo of the Scott’s child on Instagram. And that was the most tame of the messages. All because Tanner Scott blew a save and the Dodgers lost.

Disturbing? That doesn’t begin to describe it. While I’m sure none of the Dodgers Dugout readers are this depraved, it serves as a reminder that these people are human beings trying their best. Be critical of their performance when warranted. But don’t get angry. You should see some of the emails I get after the Dodgers lose two in a row. Some people are just beyond furious, calling players names, etc.

“I don’t speak out often. Ever actually,” Maddie Scott wrote over a screenshot of the hatred she received. “I promise you, you don’t know what it’s like unless you’re living it. When did it stop being a game?”

Astros pitcher Lance McCullers Jr. received death threats after a loss last season, telling reporters, “I understand people are very passionate and people love the Astros and love sports, but threatening to find my kids and murder them is a little bit tough to deal with just as a father, I think. So just as a father, I think there have been many, many threats over the years aimed at me. But I think bringing kids into the equation, threatening to find them or next time they see us in public they’re going to stab my kids to death, things like that, it’s tough to hear as a dad,” McCullers said, in the understatement of the year.

I realize the stupid people doing this are a small, small percentage of any team’s fan base. But, don’t give in to the anger when the Dodgers lose. Be disappointed, sure. But just think, if the worst thing in your day is that the Dodgers lost, then you’ve had a pretty good day.

Scott got the loss Thursday when he gave up a walk-off homer. Disappointing? Sure. Ruin the rest of your night? I hope not.

It’s All-Star time

Time to vote for who you think should start in this year’s All-Star game. You can click here to vote. I still miss the days at Dodger Stadium when ushers (wearing their straw hats) would hand people stacks of ballots. Some ushers even had ballots with the Dodgers already selected for you.

Up next

Friday: Angels (*Reid Detmers, 2-5, 4.63 ERA) at Dodgers (Roki Sasaki, 3-3, 4.59 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, KTTV, AM 570, KLAA 830, KTNQ 1020

Saturday: Angels (Jack Kochanowicz, 2-4, 5.23 ERA) at Dodgers (Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 5-4, 2.86 ERA), 7:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, KCOP 13, AM 570, KLAA 830, KTNQ 1020

Sunday: Angels (José Soriano, 6-4, 2.72 ERA) at Dodgers (Emmet Sheehan, 3-2, 4.50 ERA), 1:10 p.m., Sportsnet LA, KCOP 13, AM 570, KLAA 830, KTNQ 1020

All times Pacific

*-left-handed

In case you missed it

Shaikin: MLB’s wild pitch: Using fan-despised TV blackouts as leverage against players

Dodgers pitcher Tanner Scott’s wife reveals death threats she received about their child

Plaschke: Ryan Ward becomes an unlikely star in memorable Dodger Stadium debut

And finally

Justin Turner‘s walk-off homer against the Cubs in Game 2 of the 2017 NLCS. Watch and listen here.

Until next time …

Have a comment or something you’d like to see in a future Dodgers newsletter? Email me at houston.mitchell@latimes.com. To get this newsletter in your inbox, click here.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder has come to an end on BBC and Netflix, but there are plenty of loose ends to tie up in a potential third season

Pip Fitz-Amobi has one final mystery left to unravel.

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder made its eagerly anticipated return this week for a second thrilling season, adapted from the bestselling novels by Holly Jackson.

On this occasion, Pip Fitz-Amobi (played by Emma Myers) investigates the disturbing disappearance of Jamie Reynolds (Eden H Davies), the elder brother of her friend Connor (Jude Morgan-Collie).

Elsewhere, Max Hastings (Henry Ashton) stands trial for drugging and assaulting female classmates, yet proceedings are thrown into disarray when Jamie surfaces before crucial evidence can be presented.

Now that another compelling six-part series has concluded with a breathtaking cliffhanger, we examine all the loose ends that a potential third season would need to resolve, reports Bristol Live.

**Warning – this article contains major spoilers for A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 and minor spoilers from the third book, As Good As Dead.**

Will Charlie and Flora face justice?

By the conclusion of Pip’s second investigation, the truth behind Jamie’s disappearance is revealed to be her neighbour Charlie Green (Jack Rowan), who had been hunting for Child Brunswick — the son of a notorious child killer who had lured his sister to her death.

Child Brunswick had been assigned a fresh identity under a witness protection scheme, and is unmasked as security guard Stanley Forbes (Misia Butler). Stanley meets his end in the finale at Charlie’s hands, who subsequently flees alongside his wife Flora (Anna Brindle).

By the season’s conclusion, audiences might question whether police eventually apprehend them. The third instalment in Jackson’s series, As Good As Dead, offers some resolution to this, though the adaptation may potentially pursue an alternative direction.

When will Max Hastings get taking down?

Pip finds herself incensed at the close of the second series when predator Max evades punishment, despite testimony from his victim Becca Bell (Carla Woodcock), after he attributed his offences to murder victim Sal Singh (Rahul Pattni), who couldn’t refute the accusations.

In the final episode, Pip conducts a funeral for Stanley and endures harassment from Max, who appears to have acquired a new girlfriend. She’s additionally enraged by graffiti daubed on a neighbouring structure stating “Child killer burn in hell Child Brunswick”, presumably created by Max or his associates.

Max cannot face retrial, but has Pip devised a plan to bring about his downfall? Again, this matter is explored in As Good As Dead and will presumably feature in the third series.

Who is Pip’s stalker?

Season two featured Pip receiving threatening communications from an unidentified stalker, which could represent further provocations from her adversary Max or potentially sinister warnings from another danger concealed in the darkness.

In the finale, her bedroom suffers an intrusion and she discovers repeated instances of the message “Who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears?” on her laptop.

This enigma provides the foundation for Jackson’s third instalment in the series, so everything will be unveiled should A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder progress.

Will Lauren and Robin split up?

A significant departure from the novels in season two involves the arrival of Max’s cousin, Robin Hastings (Freddie England), who starts a relationship with Pip’s friend Lauren (Yali Topol Margalith).

In the penultimate episode of season two, Lauren is last spotted at a family meal with Robin, Max, and their relatives, suggesting they remain together by the finale.

Nevertheless, in Jackson’s books, Lauren actually starts seeing a character named Ant Lowe, who hasn’t featured in the television adaptation. Fans may consequently witness her romance with Robin take a somewhat different trajectory in the third season.

What’s season three’s storyline?

Fans eager to discover what unfolds next are urged to read the third and concluding book in the series, As Good As Dead.

For non-readers, here’s a brief synopsis, according to HarperCollins: “Pip Fitz-Amobi is haunted by the way her last investigation ended. Soon she’ll be leaving for Cambridge University but then another case finds her… and this time it’s all about Pip.

“Pip is used to online death threats, but there’s one that catches her eye, someone who keeps asking: who will look for you when you’re the one who disappears? And it’s not just online. Pip has a stalker who knows where she lives. The police refuse to act and then Pip finds connections between her stalker and a local serial killer.

“The killer has been in prison for six years, but Pip suspects that the wrong man is behind bars. As the deadly game plays out, Pip realises that everything in Little Kilton is finally coming full circle. If Pip doesn’t find the answers, this time she will be the one who disappears…”

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder season 2 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.

“In my humble opinion, you have never known how to make coffee or Negroes. The former you leave too light, the latter too black.”

– Venezuelan poet and politician Andrés Eloy Blanco to US visitors, 1944

Contemporary racist attitudes in Venezuela have deep roots in the colonial period (sixteenth to nineteenth centuries). After independence, Venezuela constructed a national narrative that claimed to have overcome racism through miscegenation. We were (are) a “café con leche” (coffee with milk) nation, a blend in which racial differences had dissolved. But this supposed harmony concealed a persistent idea: whiteness remained the ideal, while African and Indigenous identities were seen as something to be diluted and gradually eliminated. 

This whitening process was not only biological, but also cultural and political. Paradoxically, racism in Venezuela became invisible to those who practiced it and even to those who suffered from it, masked under the pretext that “here we are all mestizos.” However, we have seen that when political conflicts intensify, the mask of mestizaje falls away and colonial prejudices resurface. 

The origin of an ideology

Although the validity of the term “race” has been questioned – on the grounds that we all belong to the human race and differ only in phenotypic traits – according to Venezuelan historian Luis Felipe Pellicer, “…if racism exists, race exists,” but only as an ideological construct of domination, and by no means as a scientific truth.

Racism emerged in Venezuela as a result of an exploitative and extractive economy that created a need for enslaved labor. Initially, this labor force consisted of Indigenous people and was later supplemented by individuals brought from the Atlantic coast of Africa. Countries such as present-day Ghana, Togo, Benin, Angola, and the Republic of the Congo were particularly affected. 

Now, the issue of slavery in Africa has deeper roots that warrant a more comprehensive examination, but in the Americas this system underwent a transformation, and what began as an economic activity ultimately established ideas that created negative associations around those subjected to slavery, thereby inventing the political and social category of “blackness.” By merging the condition of slavery with skin pigmentation into a single concept, the colonial mindset ended up stigmatizing every cultural and vital expression of these groups, considering them inferior, ugly, and despicable.

One of the characteristics of enslavement in the Americas was dehumanization and its racial justification. That is to say, here the idea of enslavement due to war or debt repayment was abandoned. The automatic association was: you are a slave because you are a Black African, and vice versa. This phenomenon created the idea that all Africans and their descendants were predestined for servitude and forced labor. 

The racist backlash

The recent incident in Madrid that saw supporters of far-right leader María Corina Machado shout slogans against Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodríguez reflects a deep social divide. Sectors of the opposition who identify – whether phenotypically or aspirationally – with a Eurocentric worldview and the ideal of “whiteness” believe that the exercise of power by groups they associate with or perceive as people of African descent constitutes a historical affront. For decades before the Bolivarian Revolution, epithets like “monkey,” “mulatto,” “zambo,” “bembón,” and “bad hair,” among others, paraded across TV screens and in the national press with complete normality and often disguised as jokes – another mechanism for propagating Venezuelan racism. Following his government’s post-2001 radicalization of revolutionary reforms, Hugo Chávez was himself notoriously called a “monkey” and prominently caricatured as such by Venezuela’s right-wing opposition.

It is no surprise, then, that the presence of figures such as Venezuela’s current acting president transcends the issue of political ideology to constitute a rupture in “quality,” a term used in eighteenth-century Venezuela. “What is quality or race?” asks Pellicer. “It is an idea of inferiority regarding a human group that is transmitted, corporeally, through sexual reproduction.” It is an affront, then, to the natural order of things, to the pyramid of colonial society that placed peninsular Spaniards at the apex and people of African descent at the base. 

With the chant “Fuera la mona” (“Out with the monkey”), the Venezuelan far-right hurled an insult that reveals their undemocratic nature. But more importantly, these insults are not even linked to any incompetence in governance, but rather to what these groups perceive as “racial incompetence.” It is the expression of a wounded “whiteness” that uses racism as a defense mechanism against what they see as a displacement of their traditional privileges. It is, in essence, an attempt to restore a colonial order. 

Racism is a power structure. “Colonial thought,” Pellicer observes, “invents the other, whether Indigenous, mestizo, mulatto, or Black, as well as the white self … thereby establishing the ideology of race as the primary marker of inequality, beginning with the invasion of the Americas.” The struggle for honor in the colony was a struggle for differentiation and political recognition. Today, the “animalization” of non-white political leaders is the continuation of that colonial war, which is why the Madrid slur is not a simple rudeness; it is an act of historical violence. It is the voice of the eighteenth century trying to silence the twenty-first. And at this point, one must ask: what is admirable about the idea that, based on skin color, some are more or less fit to govern a country? 

The slave owner/racist does not see a person; he sees a tool, a piece of property, and for this to happen, the mind must adopt a psychopathic and callous mindset. The racist needs to strip the oppressed of their status as subjects in order to invoke a visceral fear of otherness that, if acknowledged, threatens their illusion of superiority. Choosing to be part of this ideological operation of domination today should be a source of shame, for it is the most glaring expression of a violence that heralds the end of humanity.

From Cortés to Díaz Ayuso

This exclusionary mindset is part of a transatlantic trend toward neocolonial revival that seeks to re-legitimize old hierarchies. A telling example is Spanish right-wing politician Isabel Díaz Ayuso’s recent visit to Mexico, where her proposal to celebrate the figure of Hernán Cortés serves as an ideological parallel to the “Fuera la mona” chants heard in Madrid. By attempting to portray the invasion and genocide in the Americas as a “civilizing” feat, Ayuso revives the logic of the “society of qualities”: a structure where moral and political superiority is an exclusive Hispanic and white inheritance, while Indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples are reduced to a state of barbarism remediable only through paternalistic tutelage.

This narrative is not merely a historical debate, but a contemporary validation of the racial hierarchy and justification for overthrowing processes of popular sovereignty in Latin America. Ayuso’s discourse seeks to reaffirm a “Hispanic identity” that views ethnic otherness as a threat to the values of Western civilization. In this sense, what happened in Madrid is a clear symptom of the reactionary neo-fascist wave sweeping large parts of the Global North and South.

Racist remarks

The trauma of Venezuela’s War of Independence (1810–1830) and the Federal War (1859–1863) created the need to invent a narrative in which Venezuelan society was free of conflicts and differences, and thus the persistence of racial and social tensions has been glossed over. However, it resurfaces in comments such as: “Fuera la mona”; “We need to improve the race”; “Black but refined”; “Money whitens.” 

In 1948, conservative writer Arturo Uslar Pietri responded to Rómulo Gallegos’s presidential campaign by stating: “Anyone who speaks of blacks or whites, anyone who invokes racial hatred or privileges, denies the essence of Venezuela. In Venezuela, in political and social matters, there are neither whites nor blacks, neither mestizos nor Indigenous people. There are only Venezuelans .” This argument was almost exactly the same as that put forward by María Corina Machado when asked about the event at La Puerta del Sol, stating that it had occurred because of the fissures of hatred that Chavismo introduced into its discourse over 27 years in power. 

The end of denial

As part of the commemoration of the Day of Venezuelan Afro-Descendance, established under the Hugo Chávez government in 2005 to be celebrated every May 10 [on the anniversary of the 1795 slave uprising led by José Leonardo Chirino], it is both pertinent and necessary to reflect on and understand that racism in Venezuela is a long-standing phenomenon that surfaces with particular virulence during times of political crisis. The historical association between power and whiteness, inherited from the colonial era and reinforced by twentieth-century positivist thought, remains alive in the minds of sections of society that refuse to accept the nation’s diversity, including among working-class communities through what is known as endoracism. 

Understanding the origin of this phenomenon is the first step toward dismantling it. We must move from the false harmony of “café con leche” to true decolonial justice, where a person’s “quality” is not dictated by their “whiteness.” The Madrid incident reminds us that the battle for Venezuela’s mental independence far from over.

Rosanna Álvarez holds an MSc in History of Republican Venezuela from the Central University of Venezuela (UCV). She is a researcher at the Centro de Estudios Simón Bolívar and Fundación Hugo Chávez, as well as a writer at the Libertador 8 Estrellas magazine. She is the author of Venezuela vista e imaginada. Un recorrido visual por nuestra historia and host of the Bolívar Nuestro show on Radio del Sur.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Venezuelanalysis editorial staff.