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kottke.org posts about Rihanna

Justina Miles’ Electrifying ASL Performance of Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

This will probably get taken down soon, but in the meantime… This is the ASL performance of Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show by Justina Miles. So good โ€” I love how her long fingers and fingernails accentuate and amplify her signing.

CNBC ran a short profile of Miles and other Super Bowl ASL performers yesterday before the game.

Miles, a Philadelphia native and current nursing student at HBCU Bowie State University, is hard of hearing, according to reporting from Billy Penn. Her mom is deaf, and her family is mixed with hearing people.

Miles was also part of the USA team that went to the 2021-22 Deaflympics in Brazil and won a silver medal as part of the 4x100 women’s track relay team. She was the valedictorian at the Model Secondary School for the Deaf in Washington D.C., according to the National Association of the Deaf.

You can find more of Miles on TikTok.

See also Translating Music Into American Sign Language and Eminem’s Lose Yourself in ASL.


Rihanna’s Super Bowl Halftime Show

Yesterday, Fox aired a very short, very good Rihanna concert, preceded and succeeded by a football game โ€” you can watch it in its entirety on YouTube (possibly US-only). I caught this live and loved every second of it. The set design, choreography, costumes, the baby bump, and, of course, the music & singing: all pitch-perfect.

Update: I took out the embedded video because for some dumb reason the NFL doesn’t allow embeds on that video.


The first trailer & great poster for Ocean’s 8

Published just the poster last night and lo-and-behold, the first trailer is out this morning. Can’t wait for this.

Oceans 8 Poster

Oh don’t mind me, I’m just hyperventilating over this poster for Ocean’s 8. Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Sandra Bullock, Anne Hathaway, and Cate Blanchett.

Update: A new trailer and a release date: June 8.


Ocean’s Ocho

They’re rebooting Ocean’s Eleven with an all-female ensemble including Helena Bonham Carter, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Sandra Bullock, and Cate Blanchett. As a lover of Soderbergh’s Ocean’s Eleven, I am totally on board with this.

Ocean’s Eleven director Steven Soderbergh, who is based in New York and is expected to be deeply involved with the spinoff โ€” perhaps taking on a below-the-line job like he has done on other studio films like Magic Mike XXL โ€” is producing solo (Oceans Eleven producer Jerry Weintraub passed away last year). Olivia Milch and Ross wrote the screenplay.

And while we’re at it, let’s reboot everything with female leads. We’ve already got Ghostbusters and Ocean’s Ocho. Someone I was talking with at a party last week suggested an all-women A-Team reboot, which would be fantastic.1 What else? Reservoir Dogs? Indiana Jones? Back to the Future? Any movie Tom Hanks/Cruise/Hardy has ever made?

  1. The same person also suggested a Charlie’s Angels reboot with male leads. Charlie is a woman and they’re still referred to as her Angels. I am also on board with this.โ†ฉ