Alexandra Simbana

How bad is the security line at @BWI_Airport this morning? Well… you can’t even get in the building right now. Line is moving, but it wraps down the outside of the building and winds around. If you’re flying this morning, would recommend giving yourself as much time as possible.

JUST IN: Right Proper is coming to the old Brookland Pint space as Right Proper Kitchen in April!! - Boom: popville.com/2026/03/right-…

You're watching a $248 million film and not a single green or blue screen was used. The alien is a handmade puppet. The cockpit physically rotates to simulate gravity. I looked at the production tech behind this 95% score, and the engineering is wild. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directing their first live-action movie in 12 years, built the entire Hail Mary spacecraft as a real set at Shepperton Studios in England. Not a miniature. Not a digital model. A full-size ship interior you can walk through. Production designer Charlie Wood studied the International Space Station, Russia's Mir station, and the Boeing 747 cockpit to get the look right. He deliberately made the panels mismatched, because real spacecraft are assembled from parts made by different companies. Nothing matches perfectly. That's what makes it feel real. The cockpit is only about 8 feet wide. It sits on a mechanical platform that can tilt, spin, and shake, so when the ship changes direction or enters different gravity conditions, the whole set moves. Chairs end up on walls. Ladders flip direction. Gosling was suspended inside a spinning ring so he could float and move through the ship for real, reacting to actual hardware around him. No guessing where a wall might be added later. Then there's Rocky. He's the alien co-lead, and he's not CGI. Neal Scanlan, the creature designer who built the Porgs for Star Wars, spent a full year on this character. Over 300 designs before they landed on the final look. Rocky is a thin, hollow shell, 3D-printed from a digital sculpture, then hand-painted in see-through layers so light passes through him like skin. His arms pop off and swap out depending on the scene: one set has a closed fist for walking, another has tiny motorized fingers strong enough to pick up objects. Five puppeteers (nicknamed the "Rockyteers") operated him in every scene. James Ortiz, an award-winning puppet designer from New York theater, voiced Rocky and controlled him on set. When Scanlan met him, he told Ortiz, "You're Frank Oz, and I'm making Yoda for you." Every reaction Gosling gives to the alien is to something physically in front of him. Greig Fraser, who won the Oscar for shooting Dune, filmed the space scenes in the larger IMAX format (that taller image you see in IMAX theaters) and the Earth flashbacks in regular widescreen. Then the team did something unusual: they took the digital footage and printed it onto real film strips, twice, using two different types of film stock. Then they scanned those strips back into digital. It sounds redundant, but it adds a texture and warmth that you can only get from physical film. Fraser used the same technique on Dune and The Batman. Drew Goddard spent six years writing this screenplay. His last adaptation of Andy Weir's novel, The Martian, earned him an Oscar nomination. He described the challenge this way: a screenplay gets about 5% of a novel's word count. The lead is alone for most of the runtime. When he finally gets a co-star, that co-star doesn't speak English, communicates through sounds closer to whale song, and has no face. Goddard called it a screenwriter's nightmare, then said that difficulty was the whole point. He and the directors fought studio pushback to keep Weir's original ending intact. 95% from 212 critics. 98% from over 2,500 audience ratings. And the lead isn't a superhero, a cop, or a soldier. He's just an ordinary middle school science teacher.

Senator Tammy Duckworth is talking about she and the Military weren’t allowed to use tear gas in a War zone against their enemies so why are ICE agents allowed to use it near schools with children all around when they know it causes major health issues! 🤬

The President of the United States said I insulted Jesus. You want to know what insults Jesus? Kicking the sick off their healthcare. Bombing schoolchildren in Iran. Deporting moms and babies. Covering up the Epstein files.

This is what pro life is supposed to mean btw

“Despite McDuffie’s minimal oversight while leading the committee that supervises utility regulators, he nonetheless acted vigorously on utility issues. In 2018, he stripped from a landmark energy law a provision that would require Pepco to lower electric bills with long-term contracts for renewable energy.” 51st.news/washington-dc-…

Real talk: Progressives have completely failed to adequately address the significant impacts of Long COVID, and this has left an opening for the far right to exploit vulnerable patients and deceitfully blame vaccines for all chronic illnesses.

@Sew20003M @Janeese4DC was fantastic and responsive to the questions asked this evening. Let’s go ahead w/our next Mayor who has always shown up listening to students, families & teachers! What I love is that her dedication is the same behind the scenes & starts with authentic listening.

Happening now at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church. DC Public Education Forum. Up first are mayoral candidates Janeese Lewis-George, Gary Goodweather, and Vincent Orange.

NEW: AYANNA PRESSLEY staffer @DagoAcevedo has created an art installation outside the congresswoman's Hill office. "The State of Our Union is Traumatizing Children" includes the letters written by children jailed by ICE in Dilley, Texas.

1% of people arrested by ICE have been accused of sexual assault while 24% of Trump’s Cabinet, including Trump himself, have been accused of sexual assault or have personally visited Epstein Island. And that’s just what’s been publicly released and reported, with millions of documents and emails still hidden.

Wait… on a rainy/ snowy day this many volunteers turned out to CANVAS for @Janeese4DC in Ward 3?? That’s some serious people power.

@W2EdCouncil @W3EdNet @Ward4Ed @Ward5EdCouncil @Ward7EdCouncil @ward8edcouncil @WTUTeacher

📣📣📣SPED families please see this link for more updated information re: SAPSE DC State Advisory Panel on Special Education @OSSEDC @dcpublicschools @dcpcsb Please share w/LSATs and all avenues to families!!🙏🙏 osse.dc.gov/sites/default/…

@AnacostiaHigh @AnacostiaPTSO @BallouDC @BallouSTAYDC @BHSEC_DC @bannekerpto @BrightwoodDCPS @BrooklandMS @BrowneEC @chmldc @CardozoEC @CHECDC @dccoolidgeshs @DealVikings @DukeEllingtonDC @dunbardc @Eastern_PTO @EasternHS @EliotHine @hdwoodsonshs @HardyMSHawks @CharlesHartMS

@RiverTerraceEC @RossESDC @Savoy_ES @WallsAtFrancis @SWSatgoding @SeatonDC @ShepherdDCPS @StantonLegend @StoddertNews @Takoma_es @takomaes_pto @nevalthomasES @TruesdellEC @TubmanDCschool @TylerPTADC @VanNessPTO @WalkerJonesEC @WestTigersDC @WheatleyDCPS @WhittierECSTEM

DC badly needs @Janeese4DC as Mayor and @RobertWhite_DC in Congress and with them a new strategy towards federal intervention in DC. The current strategy is failing every time. We need fighters who grasp the moment we're in & execute a political strategy that meets that moment.