Pheaturing Dexter Fletcher

 

Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Monday. How are you? What is going on, America? The United States has tragically seen 45 mass shootings in the past month as the states begin to reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic, with a total of 147 mass shootings recorded this year alone. The incidents are now being tracked by the Gun Violence Archive which defines a mass shooting as when four or more people are shot. The most recent mass shooting located in an Indianapolis FedEx facility had multiple deaths, including eight people killed and several others injured. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to ban high-capacity magazines and assault weapons after several mass shootings occurred earlier this month, as well as issuing several executive orders on the issue. Republicans and Democrats have been at battle over gun legislation with Democrats wanting to crack down on assault weapons and Republicans refusing to move on the measures they see as restricting the Second Amendment Rights. There are also measures telling the Justice Department to propose a system in order for states to implement red flag laws, proposing several rules to make guns that a person assemble themselves at home subject to background checks and putting pistols that have a stabilizer brace on the National Firearms Act. 

“Unidentified aerial phenomena.” That’s what the Pentagon has confirmed is in the mysterious UFO video which surfaced online last year, taken by a U.S. Navy pilot. Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough said in a statement to CNN that a Navy video taken in 2019, which was leaked online last year, does indeed display unidentified aerial phenomena, or, what most Americans refer to as UFOs: unidentified flying objects. The terms are now used interchangeably. The video shows, most noticeably, something blinking and triangular moving through the nighttime clouds. Gough acknowledged that three unidentified flying objects were photographed: one spherical, one “acorn”-shaped, and one looking something like a “metallic blimp.” Gough added, “As we have said before, to maintain operations security and to avoid disclosing information that may be useful to potential adversaries, DOD does not discuss publicly the details of either the observations or the examinations of reported incursions into our training ranges or designated airspace, including those incursions initially designated as UAP.” The hazy video, originally taken by Navy personnel, was obtained by documentarian Jeremy Corbell and shared on his website extraordinarybeliefs.com. For months now, the twinkling green images have fascinated UFO fanatics and skeptics alike. Pentagon spokeswoman Sue Gough’s statement continues a contemporary trend of surprising government disclosures. Last August, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAPTF) was officially founded within the Department of the Navy, overseen by the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security. The purpose of the UAPTF is to investigate military UFO sightings. The pyramid-like UAPs from the trending video, now confirmed by Sue Gough, are reportedly being included in such analysis and should receive a thorough review. This is just one of many recent moves made to de-stigmatize discussions about UFOs and possible extra-terrestrial life. For decades, the U.S. government shied away from admitting any knowledge about possible UFOs. Now, thousands of pages of key documents have been unclassified and are up online for anyone to view on the Black Vault. Former CIA Director R. James Woolsey sat down just this month with the Black Vault founder John Greenwald Jr. to discuss his personal awareness of regular UFO activity. Another ex-CIA director, John Brennan, admitted on a podcast in December that it is “presumptuous and arrogant for us to believe that there’s no other form of life anywhere in the entire universe.” Additionally, John Ratcliffe, the Director of Intelligence under Donald Trump, told Fox News in March, “There are instances where we don’t have good explanations for some of the things that we’ve seen, and when that information becomes declassified, I’ll be able to talk a little bit more about that… There have been sightings all over the world. And when we talk about sightings, the other thing I will tell you, it’s not just a pilot or just a satellite or some intelligence collection. Usually, we have multiple sensors that are picking up these things.” The acknowledgment of UFOs is no longer fringe David Fravor. Their existence is known to be a genuine consideration of our country’s military, intelligence agencies, the Department of Defense... and likely NASA. Sue Grough’s April 15th statement marks the latest official divulgence. No doubt the new blitz of new information regarding UFOs is an exciting advancement. But it does make you wonder what 2021 has in store for us… that leaked video feels like just the tip of a glittering cosmic iceberg. Who knows what bewildering beings await on the other side?

Controversy sparked an uproar from parents when a North Carolina teacher taught a lesson on slavery that downplayed the Holocaust and compared 19th-century Americans to Nazis. Lisa Patrizio, an English teacher at Ardrey Kell High School, asked her 11th graders to answer a multiple-choice question, with answers that shockingly compared American slavery to the Holocaust. Patrizio had asked her students to describe a fictional character’s thoughts after reading about World War II, with the correct answer to the multiple-choice question implying that Americans gave too much weight to the nightmare that was the Holocaust. The answer read, “While the monstrosities of the Holocaust may have been more intense over a shorter period of time, those who lived through slavery endured conditions just as horrible over a much longer duration. Yet while Americans are largely comfortable acknowledging the events of the Holocaust as the worst impulses of mankind, there is often more hesitancy to take responsibility for the degradations of enslaved people that took place on American soil,” as a response to the question about what the character had learned after reading that, “the Germans had been trying to do in only a few years what the Americans had worked at for nearly two hundred.” Brooke Weiss is the mother of one of the students at the Charlotte public school, and she explained how her daughter was shocked at the question but didn’t speak up out of fear. Weiss, who is Jewish, has many concerns regarding the school’s curriculum, pointing out how it’s unnecessary for the school to compare the two historically horrific events. She said, “Slavery and genocide are different things, but they’re both atrocities. There’s no value in putting those words in the same sentence, other than pitting those two groups against each other.” Weiss also expressed how she sees a trend in teaching “reframed” Marxism, emphasizing white vs. black instead of proletariat and bourgeoisie. And she was also concerned when the school gave a policing presentation featuring an ex-cop who “rallied” against another policeman, as her own husband is a retired police officer. But she was met with criticisms as another Charlotte public school teacher, Sivonne Stone, called her crazy and privately messaged Weiss to, “Fuck off.” High School English department head Sarah Payseur and Patrizio have not responded to Washington Free Beacon’s request for comments, and Principal Jamie Brooks explained that the school has handled the matter with Weiss and her family. Nevertheless, Ardrey Kell High School has been sending “Social Justice Newsletters” to families that teach students about relations and interactions between minorities and law enforcement, asking the children to reflect on their own experiences with privilege and oppression. Ardrey Kell students are also learning about black nationalism and black power movements, including the extremist, anti-Semitic Nation of Islam. Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Simon Wiesenthal Center explained that although there are similarities between slavery and the Holocaust, it’s crucial that students learn about the historical events without establishing a hierarchy of suffering. He told the Free Beacon, “So the whole issue is not to compare. We don’t need a pecking order of victimhood and suffering. We need to learn objectively what happened.” In emphasizing learning and empathizing with one another’s history instead of categorizing which human-rights abuses are worse, Cooper added, “Where you start first and foremost is you start with the facts. You have to try to humanize history. Beyond that, especially for Americans, we need to be empathetic to our neighbors, and to do that you need to do research, you need to read, and you need to knock at your neighbor’s door.” 

Rebecca Roberts, a woman from Wiltshire, England, has given birth to so-called “super twins” conceived three weeks apart. Roberts’ fertility treatments last year resulted in her getting pregnant twice! The unique twins were born in September but are now going trending on social media. Roberts, who is 38, and her husband Rhys Weaver had trouble conceiving a baby naturally. So the couple went to a fertility clinic in Bath, England where Roberts has prescribed a drug to induce ovulation. And on her first cycle, Roberts became pregnant! But, she told CBS News, “This is the fun part. I found out there was a second baby at my 12 weeks scan.” Roberts had already undergone two scans, both of which only showed the original baby boy, who has been named Noah. She was excited for this first child, not realizing a second was also on the way. That’s when the couple learned about the possibility of a “superfetation pregnancy” in which the fertilization of a second conception can occur. “All of a sudden I have twins and now they are super special rare twins. It felt magical,” Roberts said. Most fraternal twins are fertilized from two different sperm during single ovulation. But not Noah and Rosalie Roberts. These “super-twins” were not conceived at the same time. As such, when Roberts gave birth, the younger fetus... a baby girl named Rosalie... was just 2 pounds and 7 ounces. An issue with her umbilical cord had forced doctors to deliver early and so her brother Noah was also small, at 4 pounds and 10 ounces. Both babies were cared for in the neonatal intensive care unit of Bath Royal United Hospital. And though both babies are thankfully healthy, the second twin Rosalie was still seeing a NICU nurse until early April. The superfetation twins have been a happy bit of pandemic content. 

We are now down to the final episode of "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" and fans are already wondering what will happen in the series finale. So is it possible that Episode 6 will feature the surprise cameo of a beloved Marvel Cinematic Universe character? There is little doubt that fans have been hoping to see more Avengers in "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" after James "Rhodey" Rhodes showed up in the premiere episode. However, there haven't been any major MCU stars in the next episodes of the Disney+ series. But is it possible that things will change in the series finale? There have been speculations that there will be another major cameo in "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 6". Some even believe that it could be another Avenger, or maybe one who has already retired. Some people are still holding on to hope that Chris Evans will reprise his role as Steve Rogers, or at least Old Steve. On the other hand, a few have theorized that Old Steve has already passed away and the cameo could be someone new. At this point, it is unclear whether "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 6" will bring in another MCU star. After all, the series finale has a lot to deal with like revealing the identity of Power Broker. For now, we believe that the biggest cameo on the show is Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. It's probably best not to get our hopes up. After all, fans were hyped up about Mephisto or Doctor Strange or Reed Richards showing up in "WandaVision" and that all ended in disappointment. Nevertheless, we're hoping that "The Falcon and The Winter Soldier" will not disappoint us by giving fans an explosive conclusion. 

Instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this album...

Maybe not. You know what makes me chuckle? When people reenact pictures from their childhood... like this one.

Hahaha. We all know that BB King played a mean guitar, but did you know he played the giant slug as well? No? I'll show you...

Told ya! Hahaha. If I had a TARDIS I would go and try to meet Microsoft founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen, but I'll find them as teens as they connect to a PDP-10 computer at the University of Washington, through a teletype terminal at their Lakeside School in Seattle in 1968. 

Today's guest is Dexter Fletcher who directed the Elton John movie Rocketman. Did you know before Taron Egerton had the part of Elton I was supposed to be in that role? If not here's proof...

Hahaha. Looks like a wax figure. So, sometimes I go to Twitter and look up certain words and this is one of the words I look up... "Foghat." This is a tweet I saw last December...

If only. The whole "work wife"/"work husband" thing might be fun to some people. But to others, it's just inappropriate. One man is wondering whether he did the right thing by kicking his co-worker out of his wife's baby shower for going on and on about her self-proclaimed "work wife" status. He emailed the Phile to ask if he was wrong for taking such drastic action. 

"I work in a pretty tight workspace. We have about 9 of us in my department and it's a pretty even split between men and women. There's one coworker "Eva" who started working here a few months back. She's really good at her job and seems to get along with everyone. We get along well as we work on projects together and are usually in the group of people that are the last to leave most days. I learned some weeks ago that she was calling herself my "work wife." I knew what the term meant, the sentiment wasn't shared and I've expressed as much. I don't think I've been rude about it, I just let her know that I'd prefer for her to keep things a bit more professional. There's no real harm in the term, but for someone who doesn't understand the joke, it just looks and sounds wrong. I'm also a happily married man, and my co-workers including Eva know this. I thought I had done a pretty good job nipping things in the bud after our conversation (I no longer heard the jokes from her) so I didn't think it would be an issue to invite her to my wife's baby shower. My co-workers are all vaccinated (our job helped us get them) and my wife WFH so there wasn't much concern for the sickness that shall not be named. Eva comes in and immediately starts back up with the jokes. "You're his home wife? Nice to meet you! It's so nice to see who takes care of my hubby when I send him home!" My wife is a very sweet and patient woman so she just laughed it off, albeit uncomfortably and moved on. However the jokes got worse and wouldn't let up. At one point Eva was telling people she would be our baby's second mom. My wife's friends and family were annoyed and my wife looked very uncomfortable. I had pretty much had it by then, and took her aside and told her that the jokes weren't funny and that she could either apologize to my wife right now for being so inconsiderate and gross, or she could just leave. She chose to leave. Word got around to our co-workers what happened and while they agree that she was acting inappropriately, that I should have let her down a little easier, as it was "obvious she likes you." Am I really wrong for kicking her out?" You have addressed this with Eva before... I’d borderline say it’s harassment at this point. It’s not cute, it’s not funny and Eva needs to be a mature adult and act like a professional. Completely inappropriate, but especially at you and your ACTUAL WIFE’s baby shower. Why did you invite this person to your wife's baby shower? Your wife doesn't even know her? She has her own family and friends there, yet you invite some random person from work who you have told before to keep it professional? If you want to keep a relationship professional... don’t invite them to your wife’s baby shower. Still, you did noting wrong. This is creepy behavior from Eva. You already told her to stop, set a boundary and then she behaves like that at your baby shower?! I think she more than likes you and you were right to tell her to apologize or leave. You didn’t kick her out; it was her choice to go. I think you should speak to your manager and HR and explain this situation just to make sure they are aware and can support you if Eva’s behaviour continues. So there you go. It's totally fine to shut down "work wife" talk when it's inappropriate! If you have a problem you want my advice on then email me at thepeverettphile@gmail.com. 

If you spot the Mindphuck then let me know. Let's take a live look at Port Jefferson, New York shall we?

It looks like a nice day there today.

Dessert

Bonus round

The 149th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Tori will be on the Phile on Friday. 

Today's guest is an English film director and actor. He made his directorial debut with Wild Bill, and also directed Sunshine on Leith and Eddie the Eagle. He replaced Bryan Singer as director of Bohemian Rhapsody, a biopic about the band Queen, released in October 2018; due to DGA rules, he received executive producer credit. In 2019 he directed Rocketman, a film based on the life of Elton John. Please welcome to the Phile... Dexter Fletcher.

Me: Hello, sir, welcome to the Phile. It's great to ave you here. How are you? 

Dexter: It's great to be here, Jason, and I loved your interview with Elton. 

Me: Thanks. I was ecstatic to have him on the Phile. I had Bernie here a few years ago as well but having to get to interview Elton was so freaking cool. So, were you a big Elton fan before you directed the movie Rocketman? 

Dexter: Yeah, I was a fan, I think that's fair enough to say. Who doesn't love "Your Song" or "Rocketman"? "Good-Bye Yellow Brick Road," these are all great titles to the backdrop of our lives. Especially when you're my age... 50 plus. 

Me: What was it like the first time you met Elton? 

Dexter: Um, it was quite wonderful actually. I met his husband first and talked about what I felt the film was about and what I'd like to do and touching on some of the ideas I had and the possibility it being a musical and being R-rated and being a little bit on the edge. Which was great. Then I got a phone call on a Monday following that saying, "Elton would love to have lunch with you on Wednesday." I thought this was fantastic. This is great. "But he's in Vegas." So I realised I entered this different world. I've never been further than Central London for a lunch appointment before but now I was a plane go to Vegas to have lunch with Elton John. That was good, and I had an hour, so I had these questions... how far can I go? I really wanted to dig deep and press him on some things. We sat down and the first thing he said was, "Ask me anything. Anything you want to know let's talk about it. Whatever." So that was exciting and wonderful and took me by surprise. Then four hours later we were still talking and he said, "Look, I've got a show to do." Because he was performing at Caesars, but he said, "I really got to go but let's talk some more." Off he went. We went that night and saw him play and saw him backstage afterwards and sat with him again for another hour and a half. Just backstage talking about more stuff, it couldn't of been more perfect really. 

Me: I wasn't allowed to ask him just anything. Haha. When he said to you to ask him anything what are some of the questions you asked? 

Dexter: I sort of started with his parents, and his mum. Then I started touching on some bigger issues that the film touches on. He's obviously had his history with addiction and stuff. I thought how can I dance around this. I don't want to particularly upset him or piss him off. But he was very forthcoming. There was one time that he told this incredible story and I was like oh my God, which I won't relate to you. 

Me: Was it one of those how are you still alive kinda stories? 

Dexter: Absolutely. And long nights, dark lights of the soul those situations can produce. He was very generous and open about it and he always has been. I'm not revealing anything he probably talked about before. They're his stories to tell really, not mine, I have to be respectful of that. But he had complete frankness and honesty which I needed. I needed to create a film that was authentic. Although it's a fantasy it spoke to what his experience was. And that's something what he clearly really wanted. 

Me: I have to say I loved the film so much. It was so great! Taron Egerton did a great a job playing Elton and sung just like him. What made you decide to use Taron singing instead of him lip-syncing to Elton? 

Dexter: I absolutely did approach it like a musical rather than a biopic. I understand it's based on the life of Elton John, but it was always going to be a musical fantasy. What I'm getting at is it's a musical first and foremost. If I go to the theatre and I see the musical of Wicked or Grease or Hamilton, those actors sing those parts. That's a prerequisite for the musical, that they sing their roles. So with that kind of in mind it was always clear to me that the actors should. All the actors sing their own roles in this film and Elton said it, or I said or someone said it, "If you hear Elton's versions you're not short of opportunities to do that." They're there to access, you can absolutely go out and download them, stream them, but them, and this is a fantastical re imagining of his life and his music. 

Me: The songs I noticed weren't in chronological order, right? 

Dexter: No, it's not in chronological order.

Me: Why is that?

Dexter: Because I'm using the songs as emotional shortcuts or props to move through the storyline like a good musical does. We did the same with the costumes. There's a lot of great costumes but I was clear to Julian Day the costume designer we must take influence and take our lead from what Elton wore but we've got to reimagine them because Elton's telling the story through the prism of being in rehab, he's a man trying to unpack his life, trying to understand who he is now and how he came to be and where he's at. So the film is about recollection and memory and the people in those memories and moments and the emotional points in his life that got him to where he's at. It's not a factual telling of "Monday I washed my socks, Tuesday I wrote 'Candle in the Wind.'" It's more if an imaginative and emotional leap. 

Me: How did you ride that line where this is the story of Elton's life but I have to add stuff to it here and there? 

Dexter: I suppose I kept mining those songs to reflect where Elton was at in his life. Even the lyrics that Bernie Taupin wrote are linked to his experience to Elton. They're very much close friends and that's why I think the songs that they create together are two sides of one coin, these two guys. I learnt on Eddie the Eagle and even with my interaction on Bohemian Rhapsody the biopic is a difficult beast because I can't please everyone because there's always going to be someone saying, "Oh, he's wearing the wrong shoes." Or "he never sang that song then." Of course there's those technical things that I can't iron out. I choose to find a way to telling Elton's story that circumnavigated that thorny issue by it's based on a true fantasy which allows me to be factually incorrect. It's someone's memory, memories fallible you know. I'l tell you a story about a Swiss holiday I went with my family when I was five, I'm going to get a lot of stuff factually wrong but I will create the emotional memory I had being in a feeling cold swimming pool or whatever it was. I use my imagination and storytelling skills to do that. 

Me: You were a child star, am I right, Dexter? 

Dexter: Yeah, I was in films with Al Pacino and Anthony Hopkins when I was a teenager. I was in a hit TV show called "Press Gang" when I was in my 20s and then by my 30s I had problems mostly brought on by fame. I was deep in debt, living in my car. 

Me: Shit. So, how much was this going through your head when you were telling Elton John's story? 

Dexter: Well, I thought I could speak to it. Elton and I spoke about these things when we sat down for that four hour lunch. It wasn't like I didn't have sort of candle on what it was, the issues on what the film is addressing or what we go through personally and emotionally to try and tackle these issues that life throws up to you for various reasons. I was never as famous as Elton was, or as rich maybe, and that led me to a particular place in my life, but I can speak to my own experience around certain elements of it... what the impact of fame at an early age is and what that could be. There are parallels that he and I can connect on and I understand what heroes through and visa versa. And that, of course, informs the film and how that story is told. The advantage that it gives me is that I can tell his story in an empathetic and hopefully sympathetic way bit not in a kind of romanticised way. 

Me: So, in your mind do you think you succeeded with it? 

Dexter: I hope so, or not some sentimental way. I think that is the key word... sentimentality. It's a though thing, but I will come through it. I need to learn to be humble. There's a lovely little scene where Elton is mopping the hallway near the end and that simple act, that simple gesture is something about how he came around back to being, after being a world superstar someone says, "Here's a mop, go out and mop the hallway." He can't go out and say, "Well, I'm Elton John." Or "I'm Dexter Fletcher." Or "I'm whoever it is." We have to find that place and I think I have an understanding of that and we could connect and talk about those things. 

Me: You mentioned Bohemian Rhapsody, so I have to ask you about it. You were supposed to be the director for it, right? 

Dexter: Yeah, I originally signed up to direct that film but the studio decided to go with a different director, Bryan Singer, with a different kind of approach to it. 

Me: So, how did you come back and finish the film? What happened? 

Dexter: Simply Rami Malek who played Freddie Mercury asked me to come back and finish the film. 

Me: How did that feel when he asked you that? 

Dexter: That was actually a conversation Rami and I had in a restaurant. At first I was like what, it didn't make any sense to me. Then I was in the middle of prep for Rocketman. But I understood why I was being asked because they got to a point where they needed someone to come in on very short notice, its got to be said. I did have a relationship with the material but it was in a different form. I suppose they looked around and thought who would be the best person to step in on the 11th hour with no preparation, or very little? This was a phone call I'd taken on Wednesday and I was expected to be on set by Monday. It was a fairly big undertaking but I relished that actually, once I got over my little "ah well, now you've come back to me." That's all a load of nonsence. It's irrelevant to be quite honest. That's how I feel about it, it is a great opportunity and I kind of relished it really. 

Me: How did you do with people comparing the two movies? I have to admit I liked Rocketman a whole lot more than Bohemian Rhapsody. 

Dexter: You mean they are both stories of larger than life gay rock stars in the 70s? 

Me: Ha. That's true. People did compare the two, right? What did you think? 

Dexter: Sometimes I was like "ugh," but I have to be logical. I get it there are many comps and I am proud that Rocketman has a different approach from Bohemian Rhapsody. I think Bohemian Rhapsody is a great film with an incredible central performance. They were all great in that, that cast. And of course I can't help to be proud of my involvement with that. It's got awards and millions of people have seen it and thought great about it and that's really good. But if it opened the door slightly for more people to come and see Rocketman which I'm extremely proud of and has a good message and is a very uplifting and positive film even though it has its darker moments then I'm all for it. 

Me: When Elton and Bernie first saw the film they were next to you, right? What was that like? 

Dexter: It was pretty thrilling actually in its own way and of course nerve-racking because I finished the film on a Friday and by Thursday I was in Cannes sitting next to Taron who was sitting next to Bernie who was sitting next to Elton watching it, so it was a quick turnaround. I'd had seen the film a lot so I could spend more time watching them react to it. It was nerve-racking but they were loving it so much, laughing, holding each others legs, and hands and gripping each others arms, then they moved to tears and was absolutely wrapped by it. Jamie Bell and Taron captured that male friendship so beautifully and so authentically, and that's one of the things I'm really proud of. It's not two guys punching each other in the arm going, "Hey, you're my buddy! Let's go drink!" These are two diametrically opposed guys who were both sort of outsiders who had a a real friendship and platonic love for each other. I don't know if we see that betrayed very often in a movie, let alone see it in life. There they were 50 years later, sitting side by side. So just on a personal level I was proud of that. Their reaction was everything to me. 

Me: So, when the film ended how did they react? 

Dexter: By the end of it Elton was absolutely blubbering, he was in rehab looking at his life being unpacked and he's in tears. And Elton was being held by Bernie's support. It was quite extraordinary really. 

Me: Dexter, thanks for being on the Phile. This was fun. 

Dexter: Likewise, I really appreciate it. Thank you.

That about does out for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to Dexter Fletcher for a great interview. The Phile will be back on Friday with Tori Amos. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye. Kiss your brain!

Give me some rope, tie me to dream, give me the hope to run out of steam, somebody said it could be here. We could be roped up, tied up, dead in a year. I can't count the reasons I should stay. One by one they all just fade away...