#'doing what? writing silly stories?' FUCK YOU JOHN. JACK'S FACE IN THAT MOMENT

[verdemoun]

Gonna ask about more Jack and John content pls sir. I dont remember if I said this before but I was in shock when you told that Isaac have dark hair, always imagine him a blondie like Arthur, but I fine with that. Also I think that Arthur can see that John is trying to get along with Jack, so when Jack ask if he can go with them to their father-son activits, Arthur have to unhappily say no, because it was suppost to Jack do that with John, and not use that as an escused to avoid John ( sorry about my bad inglesh, but I just relearned my art skills so I wanted to draw something of your AU) ❤

thank you! i thought it would be fun having a different isaac, considering eliza's reconstructed model had black hair very similar to mary it would be fun having a black haired isaac. also i always would've had isaac dye his hair black because he's emo and because physically i imagine he is really similar build to canon era arthur so they needed some obvious differences. just born ready to carry boundies over his shoulder.

Arthur can see John trying but he can also see how a lot of the time that trying backfires. Maybe John just has more daddy issues than Arthur but as much as John tried to change post 1907 for his family, the new John still wasn't quite the person Jack needed.

Because of this, there's a lot of things Jack would actually refuse to do with John but with Arthur he would happily go. Also spite. For example, if Isaac bullies Arthur into letting Jack come camping with them, Jack will just sit by the campfire reading while Isaac, Charles and Arthur go off for their usual father-son symbolic hunting of deer. He might join in campfire stories later or have a few swigs of beer but he actually hates hunting and fishing - which is what John associates with camping.

Maybe it's because Jack is just a gay little bookworm. Surely anyone who's ever spoken to him knows it, because Jack would never willingly admit it, but he's just - soft. He wasn't meant to be a gunslinger in every way. John knows that better than most!! He loves his son. John absolutely loves his son. All those times he sat there and listened to Jack ramble about books, completely overjoyed to see his son happy? But he never knew how to tell Jack it was because he loved seeing his son being himself, and happy! He knows his son is too soft and sensitive for his own good which is why he really believed Jack was safe FROM becoming an outlaw - yet he did.

Jack needs people so much. He's been isolated his whole life. He lost most of his family, the gang, in 1899. He got that diet child of divorce experience in 1907, lost his sister, the only other non-adult in his life, in 1910, his dad and Uncle in 1911, and mother in 1914. No one has ever just been there for Jack. He needs someone to be there for him, to understand how difficult it was for him, little gay bookworm Marston, to become an outlaw, how much he tried to be an outlaw because that's the only way he knew how to 'be a man' thanks to John.

John just. Can't be a boy dad. At least not Jack's dad. He has too many of his own issues, 90% of them are daddy issues. He doesn't know how to bond with a gay little bookworm. The days where he gets it wrong far outweigh the days he gets it right. He's fucked up too many times. Even when he tries to show interest in Jack's writing, Jack will snipe back with 'I thought they were just silly stories' because he remembers something John said in anger not even directed at him but about him in 1907. John knows how to bond with an outlaw, a bastard as rough as him - and it shows because he gets along with Isaac great. He doesn't know how to be friendly with his own son, and especially after timewarp Jack isn't willing to give him any more chances.

It's an everyone sucks. Jack knows he shouldn't have become an outlaw. He's ashamed of himself, deep down, for 'throwing away' the life so many people died to give him a change to. And John's ashamed of him for the exact same reason and it's really hard for John Marston to not wear his emotions. He might not be emotional but he's honest. If he's mad, you know he's mad.

Like god damnit Jack wants someone to be proud of him and say it's okay. That even if he thinks (or knows) it was a mistake, he did his best. He did what he thought was the right, what he was raised to think was right, because he saw John fall into the cycle of revenge and redemption over and over again so what else was he meant to do? But John - even if he said it, knowing how much Jack wants to hear it, it wouldn't be true and Jack would know.

Jack is a lot more sensitive than even modern era boys would let themselves be, let alone a 19th century outlaw, and John's judged him or let him down too many times, angsty teenage bullshit or not, for Jack to readily give him another chance. I say sensitive but I really mean Jack Marston is serving petty ass punk bitch.

Arthur would try very hard to help John out, try to give him tips on how to talk to Jack or offer to go on out father-son group things because Jack and Arthur? Great relationship! Arthur might be as emotionally intelligent as a lump of rubber, but he gets being creative and at least will give Jack the space to read and write without judging him. Sometimes it's nice, the strange days there's an activity they'll all enjoy (usually involving fire). Most of the time though, if Jack and John are talking without screaming it's because one or both of them are drunk.

[riisinaakka-draws]

It has only been a little over a year since I started watching the show and joined the Black Sails fandom. I posted my first fanart exactly one year ago and it was the one above. Thus far I have drawn over 100 of them. I tried different mediums and styles, both for practice and for capturing the essence of the things I wanted to share. Some of them are great, some are silly, some are a bit out of character or not so good in other ways and some ended up surprising me in many ways. All are nonetheless very precious to me.

Under the read more there's a list of all my doodles thus far. Most of them feature Flint, Silver or both of them (there will be more of the other characters in the future, no worries). I have to admit I laughed quite a lot while going through these again. This is a really long post.

This is a list to show what sort of things there are and also for my own amusement and archiving purposes. The list is in chronological order, from first to the latest.

I tried to make this as concise as possible, but the tag/navigation page is here if you want to find something specific or don’t want to go through all this:

- Flint takes care of Silver's leg in the darkness of the captain's cabin.

- Some quick doodles of Flint, ballpoint pen

- Sharkdate cuties (really scrappy doodles of Silver gazing at munching Flint)

- Progress. A continuation to previous pic. Silver holding a cup, covered in blood and looking affectionally at Flint. Here’s a giffed version.

- Silver and Flint go for a night walk in winter and Flint finds the streetlights amusing. Modern Au, beanies and the BS logo

- “See any treasures, Capt'n?” Billy to Flint who is looking at something “shiny” with his spyglass.

- What if Silver stole that certain ponytail and made it into "a rabbit's foot"? And what if Flint had a medallion with pictures of the Hamiltons and later a lock of dark curls... I returned to this idea several times after this, lol. (still secretly wishing that anyone would write a ficlet about this).

- Overload of Blackbeard - several doodles of different adaptations of BB

- Shark hunting. Flint has the shark on his lap and Silver stands in front of him. Composition inspired by that infamous Wolwerine and Nightcrawler cover.

- A gif of Blackbeard with flowers in his beard (I share a birthday with Ray Stevenson, that's why).

- a quick sketch of displeased Jack

- The Red Lollipop. Flint eating candy which is distracting to Silver, inspired by this awesome post (x). Silver steals the sweets and peels some potatoes. Bonus: Randall and Betsy the Cat.

- Draw me like one of your quatermasters... Flint doodles sleeping Silver in the Captain's log.

- Random sketches of Silver and Flint. Learning to draw their faces

- Flint with a horrible mustache and Silver with a long braided beard. (I should redraw this someday..)

- Flint takes Silver for a ride (modern Au with motorcycles). The Walrus gang follows "the flagship"

- Black Sails moomin AU, part I (I had so much fun with these).

The domestic modern beach au serie with 15+ doodles, various characters, inspired by this hilarious post (x). - Jack takes pictures of everything and Vane ends up buried in the sand - Silver puts some lotion on Flint (Billy tosses people up in the background) - Max and Anne Bonny enjoying each other's company - Rogers is going to get hit by a beach ball "accidentally". Anne, Max, Vane and Jack in the background - Ben Gunn shows his ship kite to Billy Bones - Vane and Flint swim butterfly. Silver (*.*) - Vane flips his hair like a merman, Eleanor is drinking and enjoying the view. - Mr Scott and Mr Gates enjoy their drinks at the bar while others fight in the water. Max and Eleanor gossip together. Anne and Jack hold hands like otters on swim rings. - Silver and Flint sleeping on the sun, Flint has a book on his face - The Ranger Crew swimming. Jack is slathered in sun lotion, Anne waits for him and Vane makes a joke. + Mysterious swimming trunks. - Silver is the sneakiest shit and likes to creep underwater and drag people down by their legs. - Silver and Flint eating ice cream + some early sketches in a gif - the Fucking Warship (minivan) rides to sunset, Vane is forgotten in the sand but do not worry...

- Silver and Flint sing the song "Dynamic Duet" from Starkids' Holy musical B@tman!

- Nooooooooo! Flint shaves his head, Silver doesn't take it well.

- Silver's character development. From little shit to actual scary fuck

- A HUG. (silverflint, done before s4. I really needed a hug)

- Bloodthirsty Bunny & Squinting Squirrel, (furries, i am so sorry)

- Flint brings water to Silver, a scene from the show. <3

- Sweetness of touch. Flint gets his hair/head touched by his loved ones.

The Walrus crew acquires some chicken. A lot of them. And a parrot. - Billy and Joji are tending them - people playing board games and ignoring the chickens - a coc- I mean a rooster between Silver's legs - Silver holding some chickens and Flint meeting "the Captain Flint"

- Flint gets his ginger crown back...sort of

Chickens, part II. Flint sends his regards. Teach has taken Anne and Jack to fishing and they get a surprise "gift" from the Walrus.

Fanart about Silverfin, a thrilling and unbeliavably funny (nsfw) silverflint fic by @jadedbirch and @zoinomiko (can’t tag u for some reason..).

Go read it :D I made some (sfw) fanart inspired by it (spoilers). - a comic of the tragic night - reunion and crowns (˵ ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°˵)

- (a recap, not really a tutorial) about some of my messy work methods.

- Anne Bonny, without her hat, ready to kick your ass, season 3

- A portait of Max

- Every fashionable pirate captain needs a hat! Silver buys some silly pirate hats. Inspired by @vowel-in-thug​'s fic (part V, nsfw) and the CBeebies Bedtime Story etc.

- "Support". Silver and Flint approaching the Maroon camp.

- A portrait of Long John Silver on his way of becoming the legend

- Swords and time. James McGraw - Captain Flint. Sword placement comparison, gif experiments etc. (I really like this one)

- A canary. Flint finds a sad-looking caged bird aboard a merchant ship and then reads books to it in his cot. Inspired by @old-long-john​'s sweet and beautiful fic (x). Also thanks to @captain-flint​ for spotting the bird cage in s1.

Inktober 2016, 20+ doodles, various characters - Silver, a sad little face doodle - A bringer of death and destruction (Flint as an angel of sorts). Quick doodle with a brush - Silver and Flint. A little doodle with an ink-dipped cotton swap - "Hungry", Silver and Flint find the whale and prepare to hunt sharks. - "SAD?" NOT TODAY! There's always Silver Lining. Silly and shitty puns. - "Hidden", The treasure has been buried. - "LOST", Silver and Flint look for a bird on board the Walrus. - "ROCK", Ben Gunn and Billy Bones play rock-paper-scissors. (sorry, still no better doodle of them) - "BROKEN", Benjamin Hornigold misses his chair. - "Lock the door", Flint on the floor of his cabin when they were becalmed ;_; - "TRANSPORT", Anne Bonny takes Jack Rackham to safety on a horse. - Madi, a little sketch - "Dufresne admires his new tattoo" - "TREE", What difference does it make? Captain Naft shares his insight. Froom and Crisp agree. Morley and Randall (+ Betsy the Cat) are not impressed (for obvious reasons...). - "RELAX", A nice afternoon at the seaside with some of the brothel girls - A little sketch of John Silver again, because I cannot resist him. - "Flint has a meeting with Death". - "ESCAPE", Flint has retired and Silver still sails the seas. Occasionally he visits James and steals some of his baked goods (with some help from his crew and birdies). - "FLIGHT", a sketch of a parrot on a napkin - "SQUEEZE", Jack Rackham enjoying his bath - "LITTLE", a little sketch of Max and Anne kissing in little rain, under Anne's huge hat. - "Surprise", Charles Vane lurking in the water - "And then! You won't believe what the.." Hal Gates and Billy Bones spend their free afternoon gossiping and having fun - "Forget-me-not" / "one dozen", Miranda finds some familiar flowers and thinks about Thomas. - "BURN", Thomas, James and Miranda, just eyes. Inspired by the powermetal duet "Wish I Had An Angel"

- Oooh, What does my reflection shoooow ~. (Lovable) Little shit.

- Accidents with the spyglass. Flint acts like an asshole, Billy and Gates are having none of it, Silver is yet to learn.

- Death builds a raft and follows the Walrus.

- Portrait of Eleanor, the Merchant Queen of Nassau

- "long johns and puns". Silver is looking for a new pirate style and Billy offers to help.

- Black Sails Moomin AU - part II

- Silver at the wrecks, light and visual practise

- Eleanor Guthrie and James Flint, looking in / out. visual practise, parallels and contrasts

- My Heart Will Go On, but I'll keep your ponytail and get a parrot for my duets. ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

- Muldoon's tattoo ;_;

Some of the following have season 4 spoilers:

- Eleanor does some embroidery (of bees and fuck-yous)

- How Silver gets his new crutch (Israel Hands is handy)

- Flint and the Wanderer above the sea of fog

- Flint's mouth saying FUCK infinitely, a gif experiment

- "That's my wee lad, Gimli." Berringer's locket and asshole Rogers.

- For a moment there was a Hat Trio. Teach, Jack and Anne

- Silver and Madi, canon kiss

- The Spare Ginger. Silver doesn't like Eleanor's plan. Madi and Israel Hands try to comfort him.

- Eleanor Guthrie, a green portrait

- Long John Silver must make a tough choice, while Flint enjoys his capture at Eleanor's expense

- All those extra spyglasses in 4.08. Maybe the answer was Israel Hands' hoarding.

- Fresh air on the balcony of the Walrus. (a drawing of the ship at night). There're celebrations on the deck, Flint and Silver have a private talk.

I find it endearing how this list ends with the balcony one. Like a parallel (ha!) to the first one, where Flint and Silver are having a private moment on board of a ship, although it is a different ship and at a different time. A year ago I had no idea where this all would lead me and how much I would learn and get to experience *pats my past-self in the back awkwardly and fondly*

Looking back at them (doodles) I feel both proud and slightly embarrassed of my enthusiasm. I have never done anything like this for any other fandom. I have never felt so much and had such an urge to engage in this sort of thing.

This show, its creators and crew, this fandom. Just something unbeliavable.  I cannot find the words to say how much I appreciate you all. The brilliancy, the humour, the love in all kinds of forms. I am so glad I stumbled on this show (it was a gif or a fanvid about ep 2.05 that made me aware of this show, btw. I cannot remember it clearly anymore and for a moment I thought Crossbones was a pilot for Black Sails and almost missed everything, but that's a story for another time...)

Know this: I have loved sharing this experience (the show, the fandom) with you and I appreciate everything you have given to me or shared with me. I will treasure this. (I apologize not thanking more people individually, but this post would’ve never reached its end otherwise).

*throws hearts and forehead kisses to the best and inspiring fandom and the greatest show that broke my heart and healed my soul so many times*

All the possibilities and love to you. Thank you <3

(This is not a goodbye, btw. There’s still so much more to come!) (◠‿◠✿)

P.S. All this started as doodles so that’s why I have kept using that word eventhough it doesn’t really apply to many of these anymore...

[latenightentertainer-blog]

Best Movies of Hollywood In 2017 So Far?

John Wick: Chapter Two Hey guys!! whats up? I was thinking why not share my opinion online for the best movies of 2017 so far or maybe later we discuss the upcoming movies in fact the most awaited ones. So here are some cool movies to talk about and some others we are waiting till we say good bye to 2017.

The Lego Batman Movie

 A little plastic bat fights the forces of evil in this mad, hilarious comic-book pastiche

The breakout star of 2014’s 'The Lego Movie' now gets his own action-packed, completely batshit superhero spinoff. The first Lego film was a real surprise: what could have been a lazy cash-in turned out to be sweet, funny and fiendishly original in the way it acknowledged and celebrated its own artificiality. And one of the film’s highlights was its take on Batman: a self-involved millionaire playboy who dresses in black body armour to fight crime and chase chicks. The inept egomaniac is a time-honoured comedy archetype – think Jack Sparrow, Daffy Duck or Donald Trump – but thanks to razor-sharp writing and Will Arnett’s snarling, impossible-to-hate vocal performance, this Batman felt fresh and fun.

Happily, the same goes for his solo debut, a ferociously paced, wildly silly pastiche of those comic-book blockbusters we’re all getting a bit sick of. The plot may draw on another creaky comic cliché – Batman inadvertently adopts adorable orphan Robin (Michael Cera) and has no idea what to do with him – but ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ is so jam-packed with ideas, asides and barmy cameos (Lego Bane! Lego Marlon Brando! Lego gremlins!) that there’s barely time to notice. Some of it might go over kids’ heads – there’s a running gag about ‘Jerry Maguire’ that will bemuse anyone under 35 – but they will lap up the frenetic action and slapstick.

Like its predecessor, ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ also manages to find an emotional centre among all this mayhem. Batman may be outwardly invincible, but deep down he’s a lonely, abrasive soul, refusing to admit to The Joker (Zach Galifianakis) that their adversarial relationship is special (‘I like to fight around’). His quest to discover the meaning of friendship and family proves borderline cheesy but ultimately rather affecting, and makes ‘The Lego Batman Movie’ feel like more than just another hectic pop-culture pastiche.

John Wick: Chapter Two

Keanu Reeves is back as the savage but sensitive hitman in this wildly enjoyable and ridiculous action flick

Before you get funny, no, they haven’t come for his cat this time. Keanu Reeves is back as the taciturn ex-assassin prone to murderous rages: 2014’s ‘John Wick’ saw him taking on the Russian mobsters who killed his dog (it reminded him of his dead wife, so he was all upset). But now it turns out John’s unsanctioned rampage broke the laws that all hired killers follow, and he’ll have to face the consequences. The ensuing hijinks will take him from New York to Rome and back again, staying one step ahead of his former colleagues.

‘John Wick: Chapter 2’ opens with a movie projected on a wall, as our hero races past an outdoor screening of a silent slapstick comedy. It’s an unsubtle but appropriate image: none of this is meant to be taken too seriously, just sit back and enjoy the stunts, the speed, the style. Reeves has more than a touch of Buster Keaton about him too, staying stony-faced as he blasts, karate-kicks and throat-punches his way through literally hundreds of faceless underworld goons.

And what a stupendously entertaining ride it is. Director and former stuntman Chad Stahelski is back in the director’s chair, and he knows his craft inside out: every punch lands hard, every gunshot roars like thunder. Neon-lit and gloomy, the film is lovely to look at – think Nicolas Winding Refn without the pretension. The humour is charmingly self-deprecating – a series of adversarial grunt-offs between Reeves and fellow assassin Cassian (Common) are a highlight – and the testosterone-heavy supporting cast is terrific: Laurence Fishburne, Franco Nero, Ian McShane, ‘Warriors’ legend David Patrick Kelly and even Peter Serafinowicz all grab their moment in the spotlight. But it’s Keanu’s film, and he’s a joy to watch: loose, long-limbed and achingly cool in a three-piece black suit, he makes mass murder look completely effortless.

Logan

In what may be his final film as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman takes it deeper and darker in an appropriately apocalyptic superhero movie

America lies on the brink of ruin in this bleak and bruising comic-book road movie. It’s 2029 and Logan aka James Howlett aka The Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is working as a limo driver in El Paso, Texas, occasionally hopping over the Mexican border to deliver much-needed pharmaceuticals to his Alzheimer's-stricken former mentor Charles Xavier (Patrick Stewart). The mutant race has been all but wiped out thanks to a combination of shady government interference and Charles's own inability to control his powers. But when Logan is tasked with looking after Laura (Dafne Keen), the first mutant child born in decades, he's forced to make a decision: keep running, or gear up for one final stand.

Jackman has repeatedly suggested that 'Logan' will mark his farewell to a character he's been tied to for 17 years and seven films. If so, it's a fitting swansong: in stark contrast to most Marvel movies, particularly last year's peppy but pointless 'X-Men: Apocalypse', this feels more like a wake than a party. The colours are muted, all rust-red and glowering grey, and the themes are weighty: loss, ageing and deep, almost unbearable regret. We're never given a full picture of how the world got so messed up, just glimpses of institutional brutality and corporate power, of ordinary people ground under the heel of an increasingly uncaring system. Given that the film went into production well before the earth-shaking events of November 2016, it all feels frighteningly prescient.

It's also, with the arguable exception of 'Watchmen', the most unremittingly violent superhero movie to date: throats are torn out, skulls shattered and limbs sliced as Logan and Laura cut a bloody course through the American heartland, on the trail of a mutant sanctuary that may not even exist. Jackman is all growl and gristle, the character's lovable grouchiness turned to outright rage. But Stewart is the film's faltering heart, as a man reeling from the destruction of everything he worked a lifetime to build.

The beat-em-up finale is frustratingly illogical, offering nothing we haven't already seen. The script can be heavy-handed, too, cementing its neo-western credentials by incorporating Alan Ladd's iconic farewell speech from the 1950s western 'Shane', twice. But overall, 'Logan' is something rather special: a moving and mournful story of life at the end of the line, and the perfect blockbuster for these embittered times.

Certain Women

 Kelly Reichardt brings a delicate touch to a trio of Montana-set stories dominated by complex women and starring Kristen Stewart and Michelle Williams

A slow-burn, low-key indie drama made up of three tales linked by geography and the inner lives of its female characters, ‘Certain Women’ feels almost like a summary of writer-director Kelly Reichardt’s films so far. Another intimate, intensely felt story of American life on the fringes, the new film has the sweeping Midwestern landscapes of ‘Meek’s Cutoff’, the aching loneliness of ‘Wendy and Lucy’ and the shaggy-bearded men of ‘Old Joy’. Adapted from short stories by Maile Meloy, ‘Certain Women’ also has a strong whiff of Raymond Carver about it: three precise, emotionally direct tales of promise and despair.

The setting is Montana in winter, where the Rocky Mountains roll down into the dry, open plains. In the first and funniest story, a lawyer (Laura Dern) has to deal with a client on the verge of losing his mind; in the drily observational second tale, a wife and mother (Michelle Williams) meets an elderly man (René Auberjonois) about buying some vintage sandstone, and has to cope with her husband’s tactlessness. But its the final story that hits the hardest, as an isolated horse trainer (extraordinary newcomer Lily Gladstone) wanders into a night class on education law and promptly falls in love, or something like it, with the teacher (Kristen Stewart).

‘Certain Women’ moves, as all Reichardt’s films do, at a languid pace, and a handful of characters – notably Williams’s – could have been a little more developed. But it's hard to recall a movie with such a precise, immersive sense of place, and the very specific mood that comes with it: stunningly photographed on celluloid in shades of brown and grey, the screen is filled with sprawling ranges, huge skies, wide open prairies. The stories themselves are intimate by comparison, and it’s from this meeting of ‘small’ lives and grand vistas that ‘Certain Women’ draws its strength.

Elle

 Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven gets back to basics with a nutso 
rape-revenge script and the fearless Isabelle Huppert.

At the start of 'Elle', the final credit to appear in the darkness (over the sounds of fucking) tells us that we’re about to watch a Paul Verhoeven film. Really? Call it a delicious redundancy. 'Elle' might just be the most Verhoeveny film yet, due to its willingness to push buttons, explore transgressive territory and take constant delight in venturing where the vast majority of filmmakers would fear to tread even lightly. This is, after all, the man who gave us 'Basic Instinct' and 'Showgirls'.

Adapted by David Birke from the novel by Philippe Djian, 'Elle' has an ace up its sleeve in the form of Isabelle Huppert, who gives a fierce (and impeccably dressed) performance as Michele, a video-game–company founder living in Paris. Those midcoital moans we heard? Michele is being raped in her living room by a ski-masked assailant. Already, her life’s been hard: she’s the daughter of a notorious mass murderer. Perhaps growing up despised by the media and the public is part of why she does not respond conventionally to her attacker but begins to seek him out, in a challenging story that will surely upset a lot of people (not that Verhoeven minds).

'Elle' is really at least three films at once: First, there’s the comedy of manners involving Michele’s adult son, mother, ex-husband and their respective other halves. A dinner party plays out exquisitely, with many tiny moments to cherish, not least Michele forgetting – or bitchily pretending to forget – the name of her Liza Minnelli–esque mom’s latest boy toy. At other moments, 'Elle' plays like a sophisticated thriller, the mystery of the masked attacker shifting and reshaping itself as we share in Michele’s heightened state of cool appraisal, scanning every man onscreen to figure out whether he might be the one.

But it’s the third film, a complex psychological portrait of an unusual woman, that might be the most alluring. As it progresses, 'Elle' takes a deep dive into dangerous territory that could be viewed as toxic misogyny or a disturbing provocation. The sheer brilliance and mastery of Huppert’s controlled, multifaceted performance will help to rally support to the latter perspective. Whatever your take, it’s a movie that will inspire debate for decades to come.

[closetofanxiety]

Show Review: Beyond Wrestling, “Americanrana ‘17″

It’s the biggest show of the year for the alternate timeline version of PWG where everyone in the crowd is a Bruins fan. Let’s take a look!

When: Sunday, July 30, 6 p.m.

Where: The White Eagle, a cavernous Polish social club in the Green Island section of beautiful Worcester, Mass.

Who: A sellout crowd somewhere in the neighborhood of 450, apparently the largest audience in Beyond’s history. I went with Mark, in the third straight Americanrana we’ve seen together.

Note: After this show sold out in less than a day, the promoter added a “matinee” show that had Bobby Fish, AR Fox, and some other guys. We did not go to that show, because man, who has time.

Team PAWG (Jordynne Grace & LuFisto) vs. The Doom Patrol (Chris Dickinson & Jaka)

First, a word on our surroundings, as this is the first time Beyond has run in this building. It’s a big, open space with old-fashioned wood paneling on the walls and oppressive overhead neon; the effect is not too different from PWG’s building in Reseda, except the White Eagle’s walls are festooned with oil paintings and murals depicting the glories of life in Poland. I don’t know if you’re from the Northeast, but this kind of thing is really common: social clubs that functioned as community gathering places for immigrants from Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, and the various other overseas places that supplied the Industrial Revolution with most of its labor force. Nowadays the ethnic composition of the cities and towns is changing, though, so halls like this have been enduring identity crises of one stripe or another, which is how the Irish Music Festival near my hometown morphed into the Food Truck Fest and how a Polish club ended up playing host to an indie wrestling show. The barmaids were wonderfully salty Polish ladies, though, that ruled.

The crowd was insanely pumped. People came from as far away as Syracuse and perhaps farther. A lot of Beyond regulars, a lot of new people at their first Beyond show. Sadly, the guy from Indiana who has been at nearly every previous Beyond show was not there. I hope he’s OK.

Team PAWG came out to a good ovation, and then, instead of Doom Patrol’s normal music, Queen’s “Fat Bottom Girls” started playing (LuFisto and Jordynne Grace are, in the parlance of the American Medical Association, thiccc). The whole place erupted, people sang along, and even wrestlers standing on the stage in the back started clapping their hands over their heads. I love the atmosphere in a wrestling crowd at a big, anticipated show just as the first match gets under way. People are ready to run through walls.

This was a great first match, too, although there were a few sloppy spots. LuFisto looked a little rusty at times, and missed a few cues. But mostly this was a crowd-pleasing demonstration of suplexes, piledrivers, and suicide dives, with an undercurrent of is-this-OK-to-watch thanks to Chris Dickinson laying it the fuck in on his chops and strikes. If you don’t like intergender wrestling, this would be a match you wouldn’t like.

Team PAWG win, though, and Dickinson and Jaka cut appreciative “Thank you fans” promos afterward. Fun match, good start.

Rating: Four Changing Demographics.

Jonathan Gresham vs. Brian Cage

Is it just “Cage” now? Gresham comes out in great new ring gear: full-length tights with octopus tentacles in red, white, gray, and black. Very spiffy. A nice improvement over the boring red trunks.

Anyway, this match is too long. The crowd never really gets into it, as they’re mostly exhausted from the opening sprint. The story is obviously Gresham trying to use his superior cunning to take down the man-mountain Cage, and there are a few neat stretches where we see a new Gresham, a cartoonishly villainous Gresham, a Gresham who delights in causing pain for the sake of causing pain. 

But mostly, this goes on too long. You need to keep Cage’s minutes down. My attention wandered, which shouldn’t happen during the second match of a show. Gresham wins with a surprise roll-up, continuing his “unlikely giant killer” thing that began back in June with a win over Michael Elgin in Connecticut.

Rating: Two Changing Demographics.

JT Dunn vs. John Silver

Before the bell even rings, these two are pushing and shoving and jaw-jacking, and I love it. I realize I’m never going to get storytelling from the indies, but just give me two guys who at least act like they want to kill each other. I can get invested. I can make my own story up. Maybe John Silver insulted JT Dunn’s silly entrance music? Maybe JT Dunn broke up John Silver’s parents’ marriage? I don’t know, but they seem really mad.

It helps that the Beyond crowd, for whatever reason, hates Dunn, and everything he does is greeted with a loud chorus of boos. It’s so hard to get audiences to really dislike a guy nowadays that it’s welcome when it finally happens.

This match, befitting the initial scuffling, is a fucking slugfest, with these two guys just unloading on each other, neither one really getting a clear advantage. When Silver is down on his knees gasping for breath, and Dunn starts giving him the hard kicks in the chest, and Silver responds by flipping Dunn off and screaming at him, it’s great. This is bedrock American wrestling. This is what we came to see. My only complaint is the complaint I always have, which is that it’s just a little too long. 

Silver wins after a sprint of clashing finishers, and they don’t ruin it afterwards with one of those stupid handshakes. I would pay to see a rematch.

Rating: Four Changing Demographics.

TLC Match: Chuck Taylor vs. Swoggle

This started as a joke on Twitter, with Taylor saying the last thing he wanted to accomplish in his career was to have the world’s second-ever “WeeLC Match,” after the Swoggle-El Torito travesty at some WWE PPV a couple of years ago. 

One thing led to another, and here we are: Chuck Taylor vs. Swoggle, who comes out to the ring as the crowd sings along to his New Found Glory entrance music. That song, I am stunned to learn, came out in 2001, which was years after I stopped paying attention to New Found Glory. How old are those guys? How old am I? Didn’t the singer used to be in Shai Hulud? Speaking of bands I haven’t thought of since Clinton was president. God almighty I’m old. I’m a walking pre-corpse.

Anyway, this match started out great, with Chuck Taylor absolutely beaning Swoggle right in the fucking face with a steel chair. Just as soon as Swoggle got in the ring, Taylor flung it right in his goddamn puss. So brutal. Very memorable.

The match then descended into what the Dadaists would have done to the theater if they had actual artistic talent: a completely magnificent clusterfuck. I don’t want to spoil the surprises, but what started out as a Taylor-Swoggle match quickly has a larger and larger cast as surprise run-ins proliferate, and purely comedic moments are interspersed with real brutality (Taylor throws himself into a ladder like an absolute madman and later on gets all slicked up by a pile of thumbtacks).  

Rating: Four and a half Demographic Changes.

INTERMISSION: I bought some DVDs and a ticket to the Women’s Wrestling Revolution show in Providence next month. There were guys selling tons of Japanese stuff, but I was way too intimidated to even browse extensively. I’ll ask the wrong question, and everyone will point and scream, “Fraud! Fraud! You’re not a true wrestling nerd!” I may be wrong about this. I have a lot of big mental problems.

One thing about Beyond shows is that there is no seating, so people can come and go as they please. Some people didn’t grasp this. They left their spots by the ring during intermission, so a bunch of us who had been farther back moved up. When the people who had left came back, they were disgruntled. One of them, a longhaired dipshit with a heavy metal band T-shirt, insisted on principle and tried to squeeze his way back to the ring. Buddy, if this were a hardcore show in 1994, I would passive-aggressively elbow you in the back of the head during one of the mosh parts in Lifetime’s set. I’ve matured, though, and so instead of slam-dancing into people, I write about them on my Tumblr blog. 

BACK TO THE SHOW!

Lucha Brothers (Penta El 0 M or whatever the fuck & Rey Fenix) vs. EYFBO/LAX (Mike Draztik/Santana & Angel Ortiz/Angel)

Mexicans vs. Puerto Ricans is lowkey a major ethnic rivalry in northeastern US cities and towns, kind of the 21st century version of Irish vs. Italians. That’s the closest thing to a story in this match, which was like a 12-minute highlight reel featuring two of the best teams doing it today.

The building was insane for this match, just people screaming their lungs out, as the two teams did their things. This was the match wrestlers came out from the back to watch. AR Fox was watching on appreciatively! This is pretty much what you expect it would be: constant high-risk moves, insanely stiff strikes from Penta, Fenix doing stuff on the ropes that seems like it should not be possible for a human being to do. No one sells a single move, which doesn’t matter in a match like this. This is a super hero story: Fenix and Penta look like comic book characters, and Draztik and Angel act like the stars of some Saturday morning cartoon show about picaresque adventures in Spanish Harlem. None of their comedy personae were on display in this match: they were all business, and the match was the better for it. 

EYFBO got the win, and the crowd threw money in the ring, like in Mexico. Afterwards, both teams took the mic to thank the crowd. 

Rating: Four and a half Demographic Changes.

David Starr vs. Donovan Dijak

Dijak is “moving South,” he is “getting ready for what comes NeXT,” he is “going to be a contracted talent in the WWE developmental system,” if you catch my drift, so this match had an air of inevitability about it: David Starr, who has been in every Americanrana and has never lost, was not going to lose to a short-timer heading out to Team Triple H. 

That honestly spoiled it a little; Starr vs. Dijak should have been a long-running rivalry culminating with a blowoff match, rather than hastily putting out what felt a little like an after-thought. 

Despite that, this is a good match. Starr is faster than Dijak and has superior mat skills, while Dijak is a nimble giant. Starr spends much of the match working on Dijak’s leg, which is very old school, while Dijak keeps looking for the elusive knockout move. At one point Starr takes the microphone during the match and taunts Dijak with “You sold out!” David, everyone in wrestling wants to sell out. Except the Young Bucks.

Starr gets the win and then says nice things about Dijak on the microphone, prefacing them with, “I know that, like five minutes and 28 seconds ago, I accused you of being a sellout ...”

Rating: Three and a half Demographic Changes

Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Trent) vs. Da Hit Squad (Monsta Mack & Mafia)

I know that Roppongi Vice broke up in New Japan, but this is the Beyond Cinematic Universe, and in this timeline they are still together. The story for this match was that Trent and Monsta Mack had been beefing on Twitter about some match in for Jersey All-Pro when Trent was a wee lad and Mack did him dirty. This started out hot, with Rocky and Maff having to pull their partners apart, lots of really nasty back and forth, Trent saying, “You think you’re a tough guy? You’re a fat bully” and Mack using the word “bitch” like a comma. Good! Anger! Emotion! Story.

This pretty quickly switched to dual brawls through the crowd, though, and those are ... not hugely fun. The crowd slowly deflated, picking back up only a little when all four were back in the ring, RPG were doing their double-team stuff, and Da Hit Squad were being big nasty dudes. Rocky and Trent get the win, and when it looks like there’s going to be a hard-won Handshake of Respect between Trent and Mack, Mack spits in Trent’s face and Da Hit Squad sulk away. You know what, Mack? You showed yourself to be the littler man here.

Rating: Two and a Half Demographic Changes.

Joey Janela w/Penelope Ford vs. Matt Riddle

This has building since June, which is what passes for storytelling these days, but it’s a great clash of very different wrestlers: Joey Janela is the brain-fried traditionalist, mixing the breakneck insanity of ECW with the overt cheesiness of 1980s wrestling, while Riddle is the cynical mercenary, just here because he smokes too much reefer to be in MMA. Both are indie darlings, and both are incredibly different. 

One of the many things I like about Janela is that he’s divisive. People are either cultists or haters. There were people behind me squealing for Riddle’s abs, whose hatred of Janela started with modest boos and just built into throat-ripping screeches of “Fuck you! You’re ugly! YOU’RE NASTY!” as the match went on. That’s good character work!

This match was basically a story about how much punishment Riddle could inflict, and how much pain Janela was willing to accept. Terrence MacSwiney once said in war it’s not the side that can inflict the most that wins, but the side that can endure the most; would that prove true here?

Janela did some genuinely insane and dangerous spots here, including a back flip from the top turnbuckle onto the apron, and then flopping onto the floor. It was one of the many “Oh my God is he really hurt” moments in the young career of Joey Janela; Chris Dickinson actually ran over to ask the ref if Janela was OK. 

He was OK! Well, as OK as Joey Janela can be. Finally, after absorbing an inhuman amount of punishment, Janela cinched a front facelock on Riddle, who tapped out, in his first-ever Beyond Wrestling loss.

I spontaneously pumped my fists and screamed. It was a legitimate surprise, and a big, emotionally satisfying ending, a symbolic reaffirmation of traditional carny values. I don’t know where Janela goes from here. I don’t know where Riddle goes from here. I just know that they put on one hell of a good match at one of the best shows I’ve ever seen in person.

Rating: Four and a half Demographic Changes.