#*Adam explaining Star Wars to Michael*

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Sam and Dean periodically remembering that Adam is in the cage feeling a split second of guilt: hm, we really did leave him in the cage with two evil bastards huh. Welp, nothing we can do about that now. Hope he’s not getting tortured too bad by Michael down there.

*Adam and Michael making out in their mind palace*

[blackterrae]

Ideas for Black!Reader Fic

I am going to try my hand again at writing. And I wanted to share some people and fandoms that I love. If you don’t know these shows/actors/franchises/movies/streamers/games

I’m putting you on! For the following:

Princess Bride

Alice In Borderland

Johnny Depp- All his characters

Napoleon Dynamite

Cameron Monaghan- I know that there are fics out there but it’s only always his Jerome/Jeremiah roles never just him or Cal Kestis

Anthony Carrigan- I loved Anothy as Victor Zsasz

Paul Dano- There are Riddler fics but not as many for his other roles

Damsel

The Entire Cast of Hawaii Five-0 (2010) - Don’t even get me started on how good this show is! And the cast looks amazing!

Chicago Med/Fire/PD- These shows have so much potential for fanfic storylines!

The Game (2006)- Has great potential for slow burns and fluffs.

Star Wars franchise (1977-present) - I know I said Cal Kestis but there are also other characters like Anakin, Luke, Obi Wan,Boba Fett (etc.)

NCIS franchise- I honestly love this franchise and it’s characters!

Hamilton

Any/All Sports Men- Jude Bellingham,Lewis Hamilton,LaMelo Ball,Allen Iverson(etc.)

Berleezy - He’s handsome and he’s funny!

Coryxkenshin- I literally love him and his videos!

Albert Aretz (Flamingo)- Look … he may be the epitome of mediocre white man but I like what I like!

AMP- Duke Dennis, Kai Cenat, Agent 00, ChrisNxtDoor,Davis, and Fanum ( all I gotta say is love a black man from infinity to infinity🗣️)

Beta Squad- A British YouTube/ streamer group!

SOMEBROS- Berleezy, Rico, ,PG, Joe (etc.)

WWE- come on now, do I even need to explain!!!

Four Brothers- All the cast but Garrett Hedland in particular!

Peacemaker - Don’t get me wrong I love Adrian Chase but I want to see just as much Peacemaker x black!reader fics because 2 words… JOHN CENA

MAWS- New animated Superman show! Love!

Smallville - The entire cast is hot! Tbh I fell hard for Tom Welling when I was younger when he was in Cheaper By The Dozen. Plus they literally whitewashed Vixen. COME ON! Vixen is a black female hero btw. She was also with Jon (Green Lantern) at one point.

Justice League/Justice League Unlimited (2001 and 2004)- I mean I literally can’t find any Jon Stewart x black!reader fics and he was with a BLACK WOMAN!

Warner Bros Franchise (minus the looney tunes & space jam)- There are lots of popular franchises that this company has from Fast & Furious to The Matrix!

Peaky Blinders- Saw a Tommy shelby x arms dealer black!female reader fic on my previous account but even then I couldn’t find it again on that account. So it’s gone with the wind. And the cast (i.e the actors and other characters they’ve portrayed). Example: Cillian Murphy as Johnathan Crane.

The Bear

FBI (All)

The good doctor

Tiktokers: Vinnie hacker

Blue Bloods

Will Poulter- I haven’t really seen any Adam Warlock fics

Slashers

Stranger Things

Cruel Intentions

Burnt

Dave Lizewski

Eddie Redmayne

Macgyver (2016)

Fresh Prince of Belair

Guardians of the galaxy- Explanation? Do I really need one?

On My Block

Descendants (characters will be the actors age in real life.duh)- Love Boo-boo Stewart & Mitchell Hope!

Matt Rife

Joey Bragg (Liv &Maddie) - What can I say I love dorks!

The Boys- Haven’t seen that many fics about the characters and a black reader

Once Upon A Time- I love dark fairytales sometimes because they remind me that not every story has a happy ending and you have to learn from them. But this series is good for any theme really.

Walker Texas Ranger (1993)

Top Gun

Nicolas Galitzine

Magcon: Whether you saw their vines on YouTube or vine, you know who they are

Dolan Twins

Mission Impossible

Euphoria- Entire show has great storylines with the potential of drama in fics

Shameless- Especially Carl Gallagher and Lip Gallagher

Creed- Michael B Jordan need I say more

Keanu Reeves- There are very few fics about Keanu but I’ve seen a few of his John Wick x black!reader fics (chef’s kiss) but never see any of The Matrix Fics!Also Ted (Bill & Ted)

River Phoenix

Batman Beyond

Rider Strong

Danny Gonzalez

Timothée Chalamet

Past-Present Singers & Rappers/ Groups -Bow Wow, Tupac, Lil Baby, Nelly, Omarion, Prince, Michael Jackson, Jon B,Usher, Central Cee, Måneskin, New Edition, BTS, James, PRETTYMUCH Bay, Daniel Caesar, October London, Steve Lacey, Artemas, YUNGBLUD, Andy Biersack,Eduardo Vega(etc.)

Anime(Any kind!)- Would love to see other shows, I know hunterxhunter,aot,one piece (etc.)

Bridgerton- There is very little Bridgerton stories catered around a black reader.

Marvel- Now that’s not to say that there aren’t any in fact there are many but I never see (Tobey Maguire Spider-Man stories and it seems like everyone tends to focus on the famous Marvel characters like The Avengers but not on other aspects like X-men or better yet, heroes that haven’t even gotten their own movie but are just as amazing like Squadron Supreme , it’s equivalent to DCU’s Justice League.

Secret Invasion- Not gonna lie , I’m feening for Gravik.😳

DCEU- Another franchise that pushes its other characters to the side. For example, Hush (Thomas Elliot) is literally the epitome of Bruce Wayne gone bad!

Ross Lynch- There are so many roles that Ross did so well in Like Teen Beach Movie or Sabrina.

Highschool Musical Franchise (2006- present ) I’m not just talking about HSMTS (2019), I mean even further back than that. I don’t see any Troy Bolton x black!reader and that’s crazy. I also can’t find any Zac Efron x black!reader

Interview with a Vampire (1994) and (2022)

Austin Butler- He did well in his role as Elvis!

Vikings - There are a good amount but still!

Transformers

Suits

Saved By The Bell

The Goldbergs

Parks & Recreation

Leverage

The Outsiders

Heart of Stone

New York Undercover (1994)

Addams Family

Victorious

Matpat

ICarly

The Real Bros of Simi Valley (2017)

Think Like A Man (2012)

One on One (2001)

Scorpion (2014)

The King of Queens (1998)

G.I. Joe Franchise

Terminator

Beware the Batman (2013)

Any and all Asian Idols/Actors

Seal Team

Mortal Combat

Bill and Ted

Barbie

Detroit: Become Human

Will Trent

Bones

Tokyo Vice

Growing Pains

Graceful Family (Kdrama)[Any Asian Drama shows or movies would be great as well]

The Regime

Batman: The animated series

The Sympathizer

The Invitation

Jawbreaker

Hunger Games

Saved By the Bell

Eve (2003)

Yellowstone

Superstore

Rodrick Heffley

Tracker

Girlfriends

Grown-ish

CSI

Kingsman

Jury Duty

Scoot Pilgrim vs the world

21 Jump Street (The Show and Movies)

Sky High

The Outsiders

Left

Midsomer Murders

Wayne (perhaps college AU characters will be the actors age in real life)

Carrington Bornstein

Yakuza

He’s Harmless I swear ( Webtoon comic)

Kaleidoscope ( formerly Webtoon turned Tapas comic)

Legends of Tomorrow

You

Scrutinized

Dexter

Arcane

Hudson and Rex

If anyone needs ideas for these franchises/movies/shows/actors/webtoons , then holla at me! I got you!

Also add more to the list if anything that you would like to see comes to mind.

Also tag black writers who you want to see this!

@sheabuttahwrites @shinsouscatpisssmell @cocoamoonmalfoy @heathenarmyimagines @cinewhore @cocoamoonmalfoy @stxxllaaa @glitterjuju @lilvampirina @breanime @blackmissfrizzle @afro-hispwriter @stargirlfics @lavenderursa @clydesducktape @pettyprocrastination @theblvckvenus @plantvenuss @punani @n-slayaaaaa @infernalodie @halfofmysoulsblog @iridecsense @tomhardydallasstarsgirl @supremethunda @thekrazykeke @canumoveurseatup-no @hiatuswhore @avintagekiss24 @ohcaptains @iguessweallcrazyithinktho @xsapphirescrollsx @bakarilennox @batfamily14 @ramp-it-up @blackreaders-assemble @royallyprincesslilly @funnyexel @blackterrae @slashisms @shelbydelrey @toocriticalharlow @v-era-18 @vampsired @queenimmadolla @sinnerlillith @greengoblinswifey @apocalypse-shuffle

[trashquisitor-shirozora]

*enables you* what happened with TLJ 👃

After all these years I still can't properly find words to explain how deeply betrayed I felt after the credits rolled and I shuffled out of the movie theater with everybody else. There was a TON of hype surrounding this movie, an absolute fuckton. I only saw positive reviews about it, the cast, the director, the plot. I got excited to see where Rian Johnson & Co. would take the ST.

The only remotely negative comment I saw before watching the movie was a fandom blog saying they didn't like what happened to Poe. Since this blog was about racism in fandom, I knew something was off. That was my only warning.

And y'know, it was like, five minutes in? Ten minutes? And Poe makes a "Yo mama" joke at Hux? I used to go into movies with an open mind and spent days gathering my thoughts about them because I was always slow to react, slow to gather my thoughts into coherent strings of words. It's how I enjoyed Michael Bay productions and JJ Abrams' love affair with lens flare. I never got actively angry with a movie I was watching, and I was fucking angry by the time the movie ended. I still remember texting a friend while standing out in front of the theater because I was so confused. The response to TLJ was so positive so why did I come out of the movie so frustrated and confused and dissatisfied with the whole thing?

It's been years and we all know how this movie divided the Star Wars fandom and just... broke Fandom Spaces in a way I never expected. We all know what TLJ did and didn't do, and how TROS provided the final nail in the coffin that was the ST experiment. But back then, all I saw was positive commentary about the themes and messages of TLJ, how it portrayed failure and the dangers of putting someone like Luke Skywalker on a pedestal, how the Force was female, how... important it was to see Poe get characterized as a hotheaded hotshot who needed to be demoted, slapped around, and stunned in order to learn some kind of lesson, how important it was to see Finn lose everything he gained in TFA so that he could relearn how not to be selfish or something while starring in a fucking incredibly tone-deaf B plot, how Rey... I'm not sure exactly what because she didn't need training anyway and then spent most of her time trying to bring Ben Swolo back to the light????? Rose was so promising as someone who grew up under the FO's thumb but she and Kelly were fucking abandoned by Disney so I don't know if Rose existing was actually a good idea if it meant giving Kelly unending trauma. Mark slipped up by calling Luke "Jake" and expressing his displeasure in front of cameras, and I was so fucking baffled and alienated by his character after knowing how his story ended in ROTJ that I couldn't connect with whatever lessons I and he are supposed to be learning. JJ set up Snoke like a mystery box and Rian just yeeted him off without so much as a fucking explanation so what was the point of that? Hux was a fucking joke. Phasma was barely there. The only character that Rian cared about was fucking Kylo Ren and Adam says years later that he was never supposed to get a redemption arc anyway.

Like, this was the movie everyone hyped up? This was the movie that didn't answer any questions left unasked by TFA and didn't bother to move forward with character development for any of the known characters? I spent money watching a slow space chase that ended on a planet made of salt and killed off Luke for Reasons? Am I stupid? Am I dumb? Am I a peasant incapable of understanding the masterpiece Rian directed, this so-called Best Star Wars Movie Since ESB?

But I couldn't say anything. I couldn't be dogpiled for hating such a empowering movie for women, a diverse and inclusive movie that had the likes of John and Kelly and Oscar. I couldn't be lumped in with the Star Wars dudebros with their raging misogynistic and racist takes on the movie, the cast, Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm, Disney, etc. I couldn't be seen as one of them just because I didn't like a movie that I should like, I'm supposed to like. So I sat in silence, read meta, witnessed the fucking catastrophic explosion around some wild ass AO3 fandom essays written by a racist OG member of OTW about Finn/Poe, saw hate piled on black and bipoc fans, saw r*ylo fans come for John and John clap back at them, just saw an absolute fuckton of hate, and so by the time TROS came around I just... checked out. There was no way JJ could salvage what Rian had done and I was right. TROS was a corporate-run soulless garbage end to the Sequel Trilogy, but it ended just as The Mandalorian finished its first season and regained a lot of good will with this small story about a lonely Mandalorian bounty hunter who encountered a Force-sensitive Baby Yoda.

And then TBOBF/Season 3 of the Mando Show happened, just like how TLJ happened. All the promise, all the unanswered questions of the previous movie/season, all fucking dropped or provided with the worst, most unsatisfying answer. I'm sure others have found better answers and can live with what Star Wars gave us, but I haven't been able to. TLJ came out years and years ago, and I am still so bitter today. I'm still so bitter because TFA had such an incredibly compelling setup with such promising characters, and then TLJ Did That.

I got so heated while writing this. I'm still so mad. I'm still so bitter. I bury my head so deep in the sandbox I built for myself so that I don't have to think how Disney is twisting and contorting all these Mando'verse shows so that they all eventually lead to the ST, their precious hot potato child that just... didn't have to end the way they did if they actually had a fucking plan and fucking stuck the landing. I'll give the MCU this - their Phase 1? They fucking stuck the landing. I fell off the train tracks and haven't really watched the MCU since Captain Marvel, but at least they had a fucking plan and didn't fucking derail themselves like Disney did with the Sequel Trilogy.

I could be nice to people who like this movie but I'm not going to be. They can be nice on their own blogs.

Man, I can't even watch Knives Out or Glass Onion because my blood starts boiling. Just. TLJ did a lot to ruin what I hoped would be a positive and creative connection with Star Wars, and it took the Mando Show and the 2 minutes where Din and Luke locked eyes on the Imperial light cruiser to bring me back.

I'm gonna stop before I get way too heated for sleep.

[angst-king]

Fall from Grace CHp8

(I hope you all liked this fic, I know I enjoyed writing this for you all. This will be the final chapter ^^((unless I get an idea of course)) CW Mention of suicide attempt, and suicidal behavior) It was a midafternoon in hell, Gabriel was helping repair the hotel as well as the damage in hell’s pride ring itself when his phone rang.

“Hm on Samael’s calling, I’ll answer it- SAMAEL IS CALLING!?!” Gabriel exclaimed in a panic, since when was he back?! Oh shit! Shit shit shit shit!

“Hello” “Hello Gabriel, are you free to chat?” “U-um sorta I’m just um, down here fixing things up is all, wh-why. And ey didn’t know you were back!” “Yes i’m back I got here earlier this morning to find my daughter dead!” Gabriel almost dropped the phone, his mind began to race. Had she not survived the building collapse?

“Shit did she not survive the fall?!” Asked Gabriel, Adam could hear his father and went over to see what the fuss was about.

“Wh-what fall, Gabriel? No, I came home to see Charlie with a sword through her chest! Look get your ass back to heaven right.now.” Samael didn’t give Gabriel the time to ask questions before hanging up.

“What’s going on Dad? I heard yelling” Gabriel dusted himself off and gave an uneasy smile.

“I don’t know all I know is Charlie might be dead and Samael is demanding I come to heaven.” “Woah what?! I-I’ll come with you.” “Fine, let the others know we’ll be gone for a little.” With that, Adam gave the group an alert him and Gabriel needed to head back to heaven. When they arrived back at the castle both were greeted with sad expressions. Uriel once again was the first to guide them but her usual bouncing energy was nul.

“Samael is waiting for you in his office.” Gabriel knew it was serious when every angel was standing in the hall with their heads down.

“I-is Charlie…” He didn’t want to say it but Uriel knew what he meant.

“Thankfully not anymore, Raphael brought her back in time but it was close.” She explained, Gabriel let out a shaky sigh of relief, Adam wanted to ask what had happened but he kept quiet. As they grew closer to Samael’s side, yelling bellowed through the halls it wasn’t clear on the subject but Gabriel knew it was Samael. Reaching the door the noise got louder until Uriel knocked and let Samael know Gabriel and Adam had arrived, the yelling seized.

This was the cue for them to be let in, inside were Samael, Lilith, Michael, and Vaggie, Vaggie had been dismissed as soon as Adam and Gabriel entered.

“Good to see you’re still punctual Gabriel and you brought your son, good. Have a seat.” The two grabbed a chair and nervously sat down.

“I’m sure I worried you over the phone so I will clarify things and explain what happened.” Started Samael, Gabriel nodded attentively.

“Lilith and I had finally come home this morning, and upon entering I saw my daughter levitating a sword towards her and impaling herself with it. From what Vaggie and Michael just told me, Charlie has been struggling with suicidal tendencies. Thankfully she will be alright physically, mentally we will have to check in on that later. For now, though she will recover, what I want to know is what in the stars above happened for you to be locked out of heaven!? Because our brother won't give me a clear answer!”

Gabriel swallowed nervously as he recalled the accident that he had explained to Adam not sparing a detail this time. He even finished with an apology expecting to be thrown back down. Yet Samael’s head snapped at Michael shooting him a glare.

“So he started another argument to the point my young daughter had stepped in and got hurt…. How old was Charlie when you got locked out.”

“….a-around 12 maybe?” “And you say Charlie was the one to lock you and Eve out?” “Y-yes” Samael wasn’t stupid he knew he had raised his daughter to be reasonable and that those sort of decisions weren’t supposed to be placed on a child, heir to the throne or not.

“Alright, I have a few more questions, what’s this about a war?” Even though Gabriel wasn’t happy to explain the war he did take great pleasure in telling Samael what Michael had done to Eve. Samael almost choked on his drink when he heard about it. Lilith looked angry, Lilith and Eve had a rather close bond with each other both during and before the switch. So hearing that Michael had done something to her like that pissed her off.

“Oh Samael you know how I mentioned on the phone some sort of collapse or fall?” “Yes?” “So the war did happen even though Adam tried to apologize and defuse it and while they were fighting, Michael mistook Charlie’s demon form for someone else and blasted the hotel causing for both Adam and her to be almost completely crushed bit it.”

“HE DID WHAT?!” Both Lilith and Samael shouted, Michael shrunk in his seat holding his hands up defensively.

“I’m sorry I didn’t know it was her I was just trying to help-” “Help my ass you tried to keep me from getting them out!” Countered Gabriel, Michael stammered out excuse after excuse but Samael wasn’t having it.

“Michael.” Michael looks sheepishly at his brother.

“C-come on Samael, brother please, I didn’t mean to, you know I-I’d never hurt Charlotte. I was doing everything I could to make sure everything ran well and they brought that war on themselves. They asked for it.”

Lilith then pulled Samael towards her and whispered something in his ear, Samael let out a sigh.

“Here’s what I’m going to do. 1: the gates between heaven will be reopened. 2: the exorcist army reproduction will be halted until I figure out what to do with them. 3: Gabriel you, eve, and Adam are fully welcome back to the estate with your ranks as well. 4: I will go down myself and help with the damages. And 5: Michael will be placed in a holding cell, stripped of your power and rank until I figure out what to do with you.”

Michael tried to argue his current verdict but Samael wouldn’t let him.

“I’m not in the mood for this Michael, so unless you want to be speed-dropped into hell, best keep quiet.

It was dark when Charlie finally woke up, she tried sitting up be the pain kept her down. She looked down at her body to see bandages, some from her previous injuries during the war, though the one around her chest had been from the sword. When she realized she was alive tears welled up and a soft whimper escaped her.

“No no no no no, why why why?” She cried why did she have to be alive? She was supposed to be dead! Who saved her?! Her fingers tangled themselves in her messy hair, yanking and pulling as she cried. This alerted Vaggie who had been sleeping beside her.

“Hey hey, what’s wrong?” She asked gently while turning on the bedside light.

“Why the fuck am I still a-alive, I’m supposed to be dead!” Even after all this she still wanted to die, Vaggie didn’t know what to do besides hug her. Charlie cried into her chest almost sobbing at this point, Vaggie was a little startled when Charlie shifted forms once again but said nothing. She did find it rather cute when her demon tail gently wrapped itself around her as if making sure Vaggie wouldn’t just up and leave.

The only time Charlie stopped crying was when a knock came and she immediately started fixing herself up letting Vaggie see who was at the door. Upon opening it, Samael and Lilith appeared asking to come in, Vaggie hesitated and looked at how uneasy Charlie seemed.

“L-let them in” Charlie approved although she looked ready to run away at any second. Vaggie nodded and stepped aside to let the king and queen in.

“Oh Charlie, I’m glad you’re alive, you scared us!” Samael started as he sat on the bed, even if he didn’t seem angry, due to past experience with Michael Charlie started to apologize profusely.

“I’m sorry I’m really sorry, I-I know I fucked up, I shouldn’t have tried it, it was stupid of me! Fuck I failed at killing myself, lost the war and other shit too, just please don’t hurt me.”

“Sweetheart, we’re not upset with you, and we’re not gonna hurt you,” Lilith reassured while opening her arms for a hug, Charlie stalled and pulled away.

“B-but I failed, I failed s-so much-”

“You didn’t fail, honey, you were misguided and placed in the wrong hands.” “We’re sorry for being gone for so long, we should have come back sooner but got too comfortable.”

Charlie slowly sunk into her parents’ hold as all they wanted to be together again. They could finally breathe now knowing she was alive. "I missed you both" (time skip)

“Vaggie?” “Yes, princess?” Vaggie replied while they walked through the halls together. Charlie stopped and gently pushed the knight against the wall and kissed her lovingly. Vaggie let out a soft squeak before kissing back and looking up at the princess when she pulled away. Flashing a genuine smile at her she finally said it.

“I think I’ve fallen for you.” “Y-you, you love me?” Vaggie asked, Charlie nodded.

“Yes Vaggie, I love you.”

And they lived happily ever after~

[dystini]

Indycar Driver Lore

Indycar Driver Lore Masterlist

Jack Joseph Murray Harvey

Birthdate: April 15, 1993 Hometown: Bassingham, England Residence: Indianapolis Height/Weight: 5’10”/168lbs

Rookie Year: 2018

Team: Dale Coyne Racing

Follow him on: Instagram Twitter

Career Stats

2017 1 race w/ Michael Shank Racing w/Andretti Autosport, 2 races w/ Schmidt Peterson Motorsports - 28th Overall 2018 1 race w/ Michael Shank Racing w/ Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, 5 races w/Meyer Shank Racing w/Schmidt Peterson Motorsports - 24th Overall 2019 10 races w/Meyer Shank Racing w/Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports - 21st Overall 2020 Meyer Shank Racing - 15th Overall 2021 Meyer Shank Racing - 13th Overall 2022 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - 22nd Overall 2023 Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing - 24th Overall (Fired with three races left)

A two-time INDY NXT by Firestone championship runner-up,

Has lived in both the United States and France but has remained grounded in his sense of home – the small village of Bassingham in Lincolnshire, England.

Among the drivers who have won on both the oval and road courses at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with wins on both circuits in 2015 while racing in INDY NXT.

Has 10 racing championship wins in his career, including the British Formula 3 title in 2012.

enjoys baking, target shooting, watching Star Wars and Marvel movies and watching soccer and American football.

has been roped into collecting baseball cards and star wars trading cards

-big star wars fan

-bakes, and is known to make very good cookies

Iconic/memorable moments

Jack Harvey Takes Flight with Red Bull Air Race Pilot Kirby Chambliss 2022 PACE CAR LAPS // GRAHAM RAHAL AND JACK HARVEY Christmas Questions with GRAHAM RAHAL and JACK HARVEY! GRAHAM RAHAL and JACK HARVEY Answer Thanksgiving Questions! HONDA PACE CAR // HELIO CASTRONEVES AND JACK HARVEY TRACK WALK WITH JACK HARVEY // FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF ST. PETERSBURG Jack Harvey reflects on the time he lived in the IMS president's basement Jack Harvey Explains His Dislike For IndyCar Silly Season IndyCar Driver Jack Harvey Joins Us at Indy 500 Media Day Who is Jack Harvey? Motorsport101 Interviews… IndyCar's Jack Harvey! Indycar driver Jack Harvey trains at gym to be race ready Jack Harvey, Max Chilton, and Simon Pagenaud go skeet shooting Jack Harvey snatches last spot in the Indianapolis 500 from teammate | Motorsports on NBC Doug and Drivers: Jack Harvey Almost Didn't Want To Race in America IndyCar driver Jack Harvey shows off his RV at IMS You Don't Know Jack! Playlist Go BTS with Jack Harvey at our Hy-Vee Commercial Shoot! Colton Herta & Jack Harvey Are Pumped For "Kenobi" | Indy 500 Happy Hour

Sweet and kind, Jack often spends extra time interacting with fans at races. A huge Star Wars nerd, he was thrilled to meet Adam Driver when he was the honorary starter at the 2023 Indy 500. Jack loves baking, especially cookies.

Fanfic Lore

none

[mischiefs-hawk]

good omens post s2 idea

So based off some stuff on twitter

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 2 ENDING

What if the coffee theory is true and the Metatron is somehow drugging Aziraphale into a state of compliance. And, worse, Crowley finds out about it?

He can't get into heaven for whatever reason, maybe Muriel can't let him in. Or Heaven was actually competent enough to make sure Crowley couldn't come up again.

So instead of up, he goes down.

He lets himself go, doesn't let a single demon get in his way all the way up(down?) to Satan himself. Lucifer- the morning star. God's most beloved angel before he fell.

Crowley swears then and there that if Satan gives him command that he'll bring heaven to its knees. But only if Aziraphale isn't harmed.

Satan doesn't /really/ believe Crowley is doing this for hell but also he's willing to take advantage of this immensely pissed off demon.

Basically- now Prince of Hell and commander of all the legions of the damned (ignore the whole issue with hell being severely understaffed) and he's ready to march on heaven itself.

Que Crowley calling for a meeting between heaven and hell so hell can formally declare war. Crowley is expecting the Metatron or Michael or Uriel he doesn't expect to see Aziraphale who can't even recognize him anymore.

And that's like just too much for Crowley- he spirits Aziraphale away (possibly Muriel too?) and has to try to detox the poor principality.

(Maybe to Jasmine Cottage? Or a cottage in South downs?)

(Muriel probably asks to go with them because she's worried about Aziraphale and is honestly scared of heaven now).

The detox does not go well. Crowley tries waiting it out, various Anathema suggested remedies. Adam even tries using his demonic abilities but nothing works.

Now during all this, Muriel has been hanging out with Newt and the Them learning all about human culture (or at least British/European culture) and asks Crowley to try the human cure.

Crowley is essentially ??? so Muriel explains that in stories whenever someone is cursed, true love's kiss saves them and doesn't Crowley truely love aziraphale?

And since Aziraphale is the only person who can get Crowley to do anything, the hell prince just flounders and panics and procrastinates.

I'm not sure what happens, maybe God intervenes, maybe crowley just thinks about Aziraphale and it pushes him to do it. IDK

Crowley tries talking to still drugged Aziraphale and the angel, at this point, knows Crowley is important to him. He knows he trusts Crowley even though he very obviously shouldn't.

So this time, Aziraphale kisses Crowley.

[goodomensmostlyoftenscrowley]

Neil Gaiman has confirmed that "twice" refers to Lucifer but he's not exactly known to be 100% honest with us. "gentle and romantic".

Also David Tennant's traumatized characters aren't exactly known for being good at communication. Ever see the Tenth Doctor try to relay his feeling for Rose Tyler?

Yesterday, I found a TikTok on a possible identity for Crowley and I reblogged/replied to another Tumblr user. I copied and pasted my answer below explaining the theory I found:

I've just found the theory that Crowley may have been the archangel, Kokabeil who was the angel of the stars.

However, he did fall but not because he was evil, no, no, no--but because he didn't like how the demons were treated after they fell and think about it, the impulsive, curious Crowley voices his opinion and remember how angry God got at Job for wanting to know what happened to his children. She acted like he had no right to ask her what her actions had done to his own children, now think about a much younger God being questioned by a high-ranking archangel and this is Crowley so likely it wasn't really done with lots of politeness even back then, Crowley wasn't exactly as polite as Aziraphale but more innocent. This means that he didn't fall during the "Fall" but after the "Fall" which is why he insists he didn't fall but "sauntered vaguely downwards"

There are persoanlity traits that line up. Kokabiel was described as being childlike and fair, especially when it came to the stars just like how Crowley was acting when he was creating the nebula. And his name literally translates into "Star of God" which was fitting because he taught his pupils--other angels about the constellations just like he was doing with Aziraphale.

One source states that he was quite philosophical to the point that his readings didn't make much sense. Even Aziraphale seems to think Crowley is a bit off when he can't remember the saying of what water slides off of while they're at dinner and then later when they're back in the care at the very least half an hour later he suddenly shouts out, "DUCKS!" (Though I've always thought of this as proof Crowley may be ADHD but that's another argument/rant)

Aziraphale and Crowley often have philosophical debates with Aziraphale having having little opinion himself, always staying firmly on God's and heaven's side, "the ineffible plan" but when Crowley points out the unfairness to everyone else like the poor opposed to the rich or how banishing Adam and Eve from the garden from just taking an apple as if was their first offense, Aziraphale always brushes it off, stating it's best not to speculate while Crowley does speculate. Crowley's morals always seem to be for equality and fairness as oppose to Aziraphale's subtle (or subtle compared to other angels') holier-than-thou attitudes. Aziraphale is insistent that good will always win while Crowley doesn't want anyone to win because it's not fair to anyone, he seems to feel that with the war, everyone loses, especially the humans which is why he's so upset when he speaks to God saying "don't test them to destruction" because he knows they'll all die and angels and demons are just going to get hurt again, just like before while Aziraphale sees it as an unfortunate inevitability but is only convinced by Crowley's "tempting". You have to remember, Crowley fell but Aziraphale did not. Crowley mentions not being the "original concept designer" but working very closely upstairs on it, presumably God or at the least Metatron.

Also this may be for all angels but I always found it odd that Neil Gaiman specifically confirmed that Crowley was genderfluid, I mean, Crowley specifically, instead of several angels and demons at once, but why Crowley specifically? Sure, fans speculated because he played the female nanny to Warlock but there are plenty of angels who are generally considered to be the opposite gender than they're portrayed by in the show, God is generally assumed to be a male and so is Michael and Shax but they're portrayed by female actresses. Uriel is typically shown as male but is played by a female actress and is portrayed as non-binary. Pollution and Beelzebub were both male in the books but portrayed by female actresses and are presented as non-binary, sure, they're general gender is angel or demon or... horseman (whatever pollution is) but Crowley specifically is referred to as gender fluid and Kokabiel is generally presented as male but some believe he can appear as female. I may be reading into that one though but it's always been struck me as odd that only Crowley is described to be genderfluid, the only one out of all the angels and demons. But again, this is just according one source I found on Google so it may just be that Neil Gaiman sees Crowley as Genderfluid which is great and totally acceptable.

But my point is I am certain that Crowley is Kokabiel and it counts as a reference to Doctor Who so what else do you expect from David Tennant.

Sorry for this long rant.

Good Omens dropping hints that Crowley has apparently Forgotten at least some of his former high-and-mighty angelic status in heaven.

[amostexcellentblog]

Pride Viewing Suggestion: TROG Live!

Every June I say to myself that I should put my interest in retro pop culture and queer media to good use and make some sort of recommendation list. Well, for the first time, I'm actually following through on that... Sort of. What I'm recommending isn't a list, or a title you're likely to see anywhere else. What I am recommending is... TROG Live!

Yes, instead of Moonlight, Carol, or Brokeback Mountain, I am asking you to watch an amateur recording of a Drag show parody of the legendary Joan Crawford's infamously bad final movie about a scientist trying to stop a recently discovered caveman from terrorizing the British countryside. If you stick with me, I'll explain...

During the pandemic, OASIS, a San Francisco drag cabaret, began putting recordings of its shows online to raise money. Most of them were adapted from specific episodes of TV shows queer people like (the Youtube algorithm brought me to them via their Golden Girls parodies.) Trog stood out initially because, at 90 minutes, it was twice as long as the others, and by far the oldest media being parodied. I also strays farther from the source material than any of the others, moving beyond spoof into surrealist territory.

It's impossible to summarize the plot because there isn't one. Instead it's a series of jokes and sketches loosely built around a team of scientists trying to control a caveman. The jokes fly fast and range from crude to absurd. A running gag is that the main character can't seem to decide if she's actually Joan Crawford or Crawford's character in the film. Likewise, her sidekick, Anne, also seems to be Christina Crawford.

As the show progresses this blending of personas continues, as references to not just Trog but also What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, The Women, Johnny Guitar, and, inevitably, Mommie Dearest, are woven into the dialogue. The show becomes a love letter to Crawford's legacy, and the generations of LGBTQ audiences that have found comfort in it.

Drag is in a weird place right now, simultaneously under renewed attack and more mainstream than it's ever been before. Amidst this political climate, I think there's something powerful about this low budget, do-it-yourself recording, as a reminder of what drag is. Beneath the reality TV gloss and culture war battles, it's always been a way for queer people to come together through their shared love for divas and cult films, and anything else outside the mainstream. And that's what TROG Live! is, and that's enough to make a perfect watch for Pride.

[the-last-dillpickle]

DS9 trivia from IMDB - Part 1

- Colm Meaney was initially reluctant about signing onto the series. Meaney was comfortable playing O'Brien on an episode by episode basis for Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), and at the time, was unsure if he wanted to play a full time television role.  

- Although we only rarely see it, there is an ATM in Quark's bar. It dispenses the various types of currency used by major races visiting the station: Federation credits, Bajoran litas, Cardassian leks, and Ferengi latinum.  

- Constable Odo was originally envisioned as a young Clint Eastwood type. When Rene Auberjonois was called in for his audition, the casting director told him that none of the previous actors had been "grouchy enough". So Auberjonois improvised his lines using his most gravelly voice, and secured the role. Odo's scoff eventually became such a character trademark that the screenwriters would often script it into his lines (as "harrumph!"), much to Auberjonois' annoyance.  

- Michael Dorn did not want to reprise his role as Worf, since the daily make-up application was exhausting, and he was relieved to be able to move on. Dorn said that the salary he was offered made him reconsider.  

- The Dominion storyline was originally only meant to span two episodes. Ronald D. Moore and Ira Steven Behr lobbied to make the storyline on-going, but met with resistance from Executive Producer Rick Berman, who wanted to maintain an episodic format to the series. After Berman left production to oversee the launch of Star Trek: Voyager (1995), Moore and Behr were given more creative control over this series, making the Dominion War the main plot of the show, and adopting a serialized format.   

- Wolf 359, mentioned as the battle site between the Borg and the Federation where Sisko lost his wife, is a real star that is seven and a half light-years from Earth.  

- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations (1996) when Sisko and Dax see Kirk and Spock, Dax has the hots for Spock. In August 2017, Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax) got engaged to Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy (Spock).  

- The jars of "pills" in Dr. Bashir's office were filled with M&Ms. In many instances during the early episodes, the level of the pills would change between shots because crew members kept stealing them. The problem was solved by epoxying the lids in place.   

- When Colm Meaney was fitted for his Deep Space Nine uniform, he made two requests of the costume designers. He explained that unlike the officers, the non-commissioned Chief O'Brien was a working man. So he needed to be able to roll up his sleeves, and he needed pockets for his tools. The costume department altered his uniform accordingly.  

- The character of Morn (Mark Allen Shepherd), the Lurian bar patron who is always seen sitting at Quark's bar, was written as a nod to the character of Norm Peterson, played by George Wendt on Cheers (1982). Morn is an anagram of Norm. The mask worn by Shepherd originally had no opening for the mouth, so make-up artist Michael Westmore gave him lips over the course of the series, in case the character needed to speak. Several lines for Morn were scripted over the years, but unfortunately for Shepherd, these were always written out at the last moment. So Morn never said one word during the entire run of the show, leading to a running gag where bar patrons, station crew members and civilian residents often mention that Morn is excessively talkative off-screen, and "never shuts up."  

[atopfourthwall]

Ive only recently gotten into classic Star Trek so I don't think I can properly answer but what is it specifically about Discovery and recent Star Trek that classic Trek fans hate?

Putting this behind a cut because... it's a lot.

Well, first of all a big rejection of it is just on an aesthetic level. Up until the 2009 movie (which was considered a reboot, even with time travel elements), Star Trek tried to treat the original series and how it was portrayed as pretty sacrosanct. Sure, they might occasionally make jokes about goofier aspects of it and discard some of the stupider stuff (like how in the final episode, penned by Gene Roddenberry himself, that women weren't allowed to Captain starships), but how TOS looked? That's how the 23rd century looked. Buttons and multi-colored outfits and boxy computers and smooth, undetailed ships WAS what was appropriate for the time. When Scotty came back in TNG, they had him on the holodeck and it was the TOS bridge. When DS9 traveled back in time to that era for an episode? They went onto the Enterprise and visited it. When in an Enterprise 2-parter we had a TOS-era ship? It looked like a TOS ship. They even did a 2-parter on Enterprise to explain why Klingons had smooth foreheads when later (and earlier) they didn't. Star Trek up until then cared about maintaining that continuity of appearance. But Discovery is set in the TOS era... but nothing looks like TOS. Even when we got the Enterprise and those uniforms and we saw inside the ship, it was an upgraded form. The only logic I've seen people try to argue about WHY it doesn't look like it actually did was "Well, audiences won't accept something as cheap as TOS being futuristic." Well, then you've got a few responses there: -Don't set in TOS era, then. -That's horseshit, because audiences from the 90s through the 2000s accepted it just fine. Even a piece of dialogue from DS9 explained it perfectly: "I LOVE 23rd century design." It LOOKS cheap, but it was just the aesthetics of the period. And the Enterprise 2-parter it still looked good in HD. Hell, arguably it looked BETTER in HD because they knew how to light it and create mood and its own unique flavor. -It's even more horseshit because people are STILL going back and watching it even today, as indicated by you saying you've started watching it, so clearly it's not that much of a barrier. But what's even more egregious is the TECHNOLOGY. You might be able to accept updated aesthetics if at least matches what was present during the period... and it doesn't. Holographic displays and communication (holodeck technology AT ALL, frankly - it's possible it was there, but TNG seemed pretty adamant that the holodecks were fairly new, very impressive technology), weapons not looking or acting like they traditionally did, Enterprise and Discovery having R2D2-style repair droids that certainly did not exist in TOS, the wrong sound effects being frequently employed, replicator technology for good-looking food instead of food dispensers that gave out marshmallows and cubes, and honestly the tech level shown in Discovery looks just as advanced - if not MORE advanced than seen on TNG 100 years later. And this is a minor thing, but despite the attempt to make the future LOOK futuristic, from a cultural perspective, the future looks... way too damn similar to now. The excessive swearing (it was said in particular in Star Trek 4 that while they certainly did cuss, it was less common and they sure as hell weren't dropping F-bombs), a party on Discovery that looked like a rave (when previously it seemed like the most popular music and culture of the 23rd/24th century was considered fairly high-brow entertainment [classical music, Shakespeare, great works of literature and plays, etc.] - and while you could certainly argue that that snootiness and love of that stuff is a problem with Star Trek and a sign of how sterile and homogenized it is, THAT is the future they presented and a character in Voyager loving some of the goofier parts of 20th century culture like jukeboxes and old sci-fi serials was considered unusual), and just the general way people talk betrays the idea that the writers aren't thinking about how society changes in the future. It's just the modern day, but with cooler technology. But hey, let's set aside the general aesthetics - some people aren't going to mind that and find

ways to handwave away a lot of stuff (even Discovery season 2 TRIED to handwave away stuff like the holographic communications, but did a piss-poor job of it). This brings us to the problem of the WRITING. And the problem with the writing is a big Michael Burnham-shaped indentation. To be clear, I don't mind Michael as a character or her actress - there are interesting aspects to her, centering a Star Trek show around the science officer is a neat idea (though that means you should probably NAME IT AFTER HER and not around the ship, because it suggests this is a standard ensemble group and not JUST her)... but the actual execution is that it feels like the entire universe bends over backwards for HER. She has a unique relationship with a beloved longtime character that is retconned in. She has unique relationships with several important characters to the point where the fate of billions of people hinges on her and the decisions she makes. She is presented as almost always correct about everything, and those that oppose her are often wrong, naïve, or active enemies. Now, this is less of an issue in the third season - but that has its own unique problems - but in the first season, the resolution of two major storylines (mirror universe and the Klingon war) revolves around her and her relationship to the Terran Emperor and Lorca. In season 2, her mother trying to help or save her is the basis of the ENTIRE friggin' plot with time travel and the like, with special knowledge and history having to do with her and everyone ready to abandon their lives for her so she won't be alone when she has to go to the future when arguably they barely know her (the timeline of the show is debatable). Season 3 has a few different problems with her - the first is that she keeps being involved in things that don't concern her (why is she going down to Trill?) and she keeps violating orders. Now, her violating orders is a problem throughout the entirety of Discovery - in fact, it's kind of the instigating factor OF the series. And arguably, other Star Trek characters are guilty of that and they face no consequences, just as she faces none... and yet it's the brazenness with which it happens, and in those other series it's arguable because the series tries to avoid excessive continuity changes for its episodic nature, so the status quo MUST return to normal... but Discovery is pivoted as one of MAJOR continuity, so her lack of consequences (and indeed eventual PROMOTION) is baffling to the point of frustration. Now again, let me be clear here - she is not a bad character in and of herself. Honestly what it shows is that being the science officer on a starship is not where her talents lie. She should be in a position where she has a lot more freedom to act and not in a major command structure... but being in that command structure, what we see in season 3 is that she lacks the discipline, emotional maturity, responsibility, leadership qualities, and general other traits necessary to be a Captain. Only once during season 3 did she display such a quality - putting the safety of the Federation above a friend and colleague... but other times she will happily disobey orders and put herself and others in harm's way, creating potential new problems. Now, again, Star Trek is rife with characters doing that... but usually not the Captains. And, in fact, when this happened once on DS9 with one officer disobeying orders and putting their own personal feelings above the greater responsibility, it was made VERY clear that the incident would mean that they would never be able to command a starship because of the unofficial reprimand. What's even more frustrating about her is that the character is ALWAYS shoved to the forefront so much to the point where we just get sick of her. SHE is the one giving log entries (usually pretty piss-poor ones, at that - very flowery and nonsensical and kind of dumb) and not the Captain. SHE is the one given so much focus and how the plot of the episode affects her. Barely anyone else gets any focus episodes - I STILL can't

remember the names of some of the secondary characters because they're so rarely said, and a PTSD-related plotline in season 3 for one of the secondary characters basically gets resolved OFF-SCREEN. Michael would be fine if we actually had a chance to miss her... but we never do. Arguably one of the best episodes of the show is in season 2, when it focuses on Saru and his people because Michael DOES take a back seat. It's his story and his development and problems relating to him and his people. And even if, again, we forgave the idea of so much focus on her even in plots that aren't about her... she never seems to really change that much. She'll TALK about how she's changed, but I see no real difference in the way she acts (MAYBE season 1 to 2, where in season 1 she was stiffer and more Vulcan-like, but that's it). But hey, let's assume that's not a problem for you - you really, REALLY like Michael and are fine with so much focus on her. Simply put, the writing of the rest of the show... is just kind of dumb. The ship is powered by magic mushrooms that let it teleport everywhere because the universe has super fungus capillaries throughout it that nobody can see and also it's magic and can resurrect the dead. The time travel plot of season 2 doesn't make any sense when you sit down and diagram it. Well-established Trek lore is just kind of sprinkled in, but now in ways that doesn't match what it was before or at least in ways that completely recolor how it's supposed to work, because it needs to serve THIS plot. Everyone remembering a murdererous monster fondly after she leaves because "Hey, she was coooool." The explanation for the big mystery in season 3 is just fricking stupid and one of the two big reasons why I've finally given up on Discovery, because it's just so absurd, doesn't match how anything works, and just feels like the writers giving the middle finger to the audience because they care more about "YOU MUST FEEEEEEL THINGS!" instead of it making sense. And indeed, there is certainly a balance to be made of plot vs. emotion-driven storytelling - some stories are dumb, but are forgivable because the character writing and emotion are so strong that they override how goofy the plot is... but sometimes a plot is just so dumb it overrides anything I'm SUPPOSED to feel. And it would help if I already liked the show, already gave it some benefit of the doubt... but I don't and it hasn't done enough to impress me. A little thing that's a problem with ALL of current modern Trek shows is that whole sprinkling lore thing - I don't think a single episode goes by in ANY current modern Trek series that doesn't have a random reference to classic Trek lore. A name, a line of dialogue, etc. It comes across like the creators don't trust you to enjoy it on its own merits, but want you to like it because "Hey, remember thing? We know about thing! Like us because we mentioned thing!" But hey, I recognize that these are things that other people may not have any problem with or just disagree in general. But for me and my family, these are the big ones that keep us from enjoying it. Hell, my brother and dad still watch it for hatewatching purposes, but I was done after season 3. I gave it plenty of chances to impress me, and while each season MARGINALLY got better as it went along, I'm tired of waiting to actually like it and to stop feeling like it thinks I'm a fucking idiot. If other people still like it, great - it clearly appeals to them in a way that it doesn't appeal to me and they are free to enjoy it. Other people probably have their own issues, but this long, rambly bit is the major stuff for me.

[andrea-lyn]

The Recs (Less Travelled)

I’m excited to bring you the first installment of my ‘roads less travelled’ recs! I will be doing another round of this, probably once the Ted Lasso fic tag hits about 25 pages, and then I’ll also grab a couple more fandoms to collect in there! 

The Rules:

Each fandom/pairing was sorted on Archive of Our Own by completed works. Anything recced here was not in the first ten pages when sorted by kudos at the time of reccing. There may be some more well-known authors on this list, but the specific fics I’ve picked are ones that didn’t crack that top ten or just didn’t get much traction and I think deserve it, so hopefully I have also balanced it out with other under the radar (and still great!) works. As ever, I have a pinned post of my other recs (none have been duplicated from there), so you can also check those out! Under the cut you’ll find 10 recs in each fandom for:

Raven Cycle

Roswell New Mexico

The Old Guard

Inception

Star Trek (mainly Kirk/McCoy)

The Raven Cycle

savor all the little pieces by littlelionvanz

“Since when do you garden?”

Ronan snorted, “Since I grew up on a fucking farm, genius. Jesus who gave you permission to pursue higher education.”

the old grip of the familiar by littleseal

"There is a single black feather and a printed out picture of Gansey, Blue and Cheng standing in front of some fucking monument Ronan didn’t care enough to remember the name of. Gansey sent it to Ronan’s phone some time ago, but it sat in his messages until Adam picked it up and grinned at it so hard that, one afternoon later, Ronan cursed and kicked and glared his old printer back to life in order to print it out.

Fuck, he thinks, I’m in love with a hoarder."

Adam collects things. Ronan is in love with him.

No Sweeter Innocence Than Our Gentle Sin by gansey_is_our_king

Ronan Lynch has wanted to kiss Adam Parrish for a long time.

(alternately titled: four times that Ronan could have kissed Adam)

Cheers to Another Seven Years! by skyermirth

Adam left Henrietta for Harvard and never returned. Now, seven years has passed, and an unexpected work assignment has brought him back to a place and people he hardly recognizes.

Row, row, row your boat by emmerrr

“What. Why are you smiling at me,” he says suspiciously.

Adam shrugs. “You’re cute.”

“I’m not cute, I’m terrifying.”

“Terrifyingly cute,” Adam says.

and now the world is ours to take / and every single move is ours to make by thatlittleblackcat

"Adam was the scientist, Ronan was the data, and Orphan Girl was the key that explained the strange outliers that Ronan presented, his previously unexplainable actions."

//

Adam sorts out his feelings, Ronan helps him, Gansey is the number one dad friend, Blue is the number one mom friend and Henry tries to make Ronan smile. Otherwise known as the story of how Orphan Girl became Opal.

All These Things You Make Me Feel by SilverOpals394

It was late. Adam could feel the long day catching up to him as he left Boyd’s, all his energy exhausted. When he started his car, the tape deck whirred to life once more. He sighed and raised his hand to turn it off, but before he did a soft melody began to play.

AU in which the mixtape Ronan made for Adam only plays the murder squash song until Adam realizes he's in love with Ronan, too.

Ways to Communicate by Jalules

Blue Sargent reflects on an early memory (and gets busy with her boyfriends.)

(The two things are related, trust me.)

Hold Me Closer, I'm Safe in Your Arms by actuallyronanlynch

“You wanna tell me why I had to hear from Henry Cheng that my boyfriend was at the hospital?” Adam hissed, though his voice wasn’t as acidic as it could’ve been. Ronan took small victories where he could.

“You don’t have a cellphone,” Ronan pointed out flatly. “It’s not like I could’ve gotten a hold of you.”

arts and crafts and the inevitability of death by sunshineinthestorm

Adam comes to the public library in search of a study spot, not a boyfriend. 

But it must be his lucky day—because he ends up with a bit of both.

 Roswell New Mexico

a conversation between insignificant others by Bellakitse

“Hey…have you noticed that our boyfriends are madly in love with each other?"

“You noticed that too, huh,” she answers dryly, letting out a huff of reluctant amusement.

***

Forrest and Maria share a drink and a conversation and start a friendship.

Own Personal Hell by BeStillMySlashyHeart

Now that Isobel's getting the hang of her telekinesis, Michael decides to test out his telepathic abilities. It backfires. Badly. Now Michael's trapped inside his own mind and only one person can break him out.

Drop the Hammer by brightloveee

Max makes a new friend at the shooting range, who turns out to be even more bad-ass than he expected.

(Takes place mid-S1)

Boys Like You by forgadgetsandgizmos

Curly, dirty blond hair (the mere description ‘curly’ felt like an injustice) twisted in every direction off his head, a sharp contrast with the scruff darkening his strong jawline and scowl-ridden face.

Alex made a mental note to compliment Maria on her excellent taste in men.

—

Or, Alex has coffee with Maria's one-night stand, a man who he definitely does not have a crush on.

let's exchange the experience by lostin_space

Michael decides they need to quarantine.

OR

Michael floods Alex with love and care over and over and over.

This Is Hardcore by Anonymous

Michael makes a proposal. Alex accepts. Michael wonders what the hell he’s gotten himself into.

i don't know what to think (but i think of supernovas) by Milzilla

michael discovers that the console can talk. then, he discovers it can do far more than that.

iridescence on skin by Lire_Casander

In a world where (almost) everyone has a tattoo on their right wrist with one set of coordinates that point to the place where their soulmate is born, Alex thought he wouldn't be any different. He couldn't be more mistaken.

He has two.

The Real Thing by elliebird

Max checks on Michael the morning after Michael saves Max’s ass from Wyatt Long and his dumbass buddies. He sees more than he’s supposed to.

Written for a Tumblr anon who one of their friends walking in on them or anyone of them finding out about Michael and Alex in an interesting way 

Sundering by romancandles 

“You know it was just an Air Force balloon, right?” says Alex.

Michael smirks. “That’s what they want you to think,” he says, with a wink.

The Old Guard

Peer Reviewed by ishandahalf

[From:] Journal of Medieval Studies (jms.eds@jms.com)

[Subject:] Ad-hoc note from the editor

I have noticed an uncommon level of animosity in your responses to your reviewers (or rather, one reviewer in particular). I am writing to ask if you would please do your best to keep your interactions civil. In fairness, I have also sent a similar request to the reviewer you seem to have this friction with. I trust you will both try and remain more professional in the future.

Again, thank you for submitting your work to this journal.

Sincerely,

James Copley, PhD

Editor-in-Chief

Journal of Medieval Studies

An (accidental) academic epistolary romance as (inadvertently) documented via a (theoretically) rigorously blinded peer review process.[citation needed]

third for a word and the song keeps going Macremae

It was honestly shaping up to be a pretty uneventful year before the Vatican got on Nicky’s bad side.

Or: three times in 2008 that the team genuinely thought about killing Nicky if only to get him to shut up about the changes to the Catholic English Mass and his unrelenting opinions on them, and one time Nile did.

Apex Predators In Island Ecosystems (Freeman et al., in press) by Sixthlight

Palaeobotany PhD student Nile Freeman and her supervisor Joe al-Kaysani are invited to billionaire Stephen Merrick’s new project – a theme park full of cloned dinosaurs. What could possibly go wrong?

This Rough Magic by Marivan

When Joe came to Scotland to study the sea, he did not expect to also encounter a beautiful man claiming that A. he’s a selkie and B. they’re married because Joe picked up his scarf.

It sounds like a fairy tale and that’s a problem. Because Joe’s a scientist. And selkies don’t exist.

Wars for the broken by Yuliares

Five years into his exile, Booker is joined by a companion he never expected to meet. Together, they try to work on healing.

Sometimes they go down to the sewers just so she can scream and scream. “I like to hear it echo,” she explains. “Underwater, you can’t hear anything. Here, at least I can be heard.”

“I don’t feel like a warrior anymore,” she tells him, throwing bread crumbs at pigeons. “I feel broken.”

“You’re still a warrior,” he says roughly. “This is still fighting.”

a good (eighth) impression by deanniker

Over the next few months, Joe runs into Nicky every so often at the farmer’s market. Some weekends Nicky doesn’t make it, because of his work schedule - Joe doesn’t understand it because he doesn’t ask, though he does start to recognize when one of those missing weekends is coming up because Nicky will stock up on things with longer shelf-life. When they do run into each other, they make small talk and move through the stalls together.

Joe doesn’t mention it to Lykon when he stops by, because it is kind of weird, that Lykon’s ex-boyfriend texts Joe things like - If you’re here, the apples look particularly good this week and thank you for that recipe, I did not know what I was going to do with that much couscous

Or,

Joe wouldn't usually consider starting anything with his best friend's ex, but as long as they keep it casual, it shouldn't be weird... right?

get back to where you once belonged by tenderjock

Nile takes a sip of her cappuccino and closes her eyes.

(Booker and Nile get that coffee. Life happens, along the way.)

a house; a home by mehm

“Is this a kidnapping?” Joe asks as Nicky checks both their seat belts. “Like, I don’t mind. It’s just not quite what I expected for my birthday.”

In which Joe gets a birthday surprise, because that’s the stuff you have time for when you and the love of your life become mortal at the same time.

the ties that bind by damaskrose

“There’s a story I heard many times,” Andy begins, “in the Mediterranean. Threads of fate and three sisters. One to spin, one to measure, and one to cut.”

Clutter And Croutons by flawedamythyst

Joe and Nicky have an argument, and then Nicky talks to Nile about what it really means to be in a relationship for 900 years.

Inception

My Big Fat Slightly Annoying Wedding by jibrailis

Arthur and Eames elope for ~tax reasons. Certain people in their lives are not happy at the lack of a wedding.

Remember Sydney by pathera

When Eames shambles into the safe house outside of London, he finds a red light blinking on the phone.

For the inception_kink prompt:

Arthur is on a plane which is about to crash. No way anyone is going to survive. Instead of panicking he calmly calls the team's office and gets the answering machine. He hangs up before the plane crashes.

Give me Arthur's last message to the team.

 (TW: Character Death / Angst)

Of Such Deceitfulness and Suavity by delires

In which emotions manifest themselves in unusual ways.

YO, K2tog (it's like a code) by lazulisong

“Oh my God,” moans Arthur. “I’ve paid less for Somnacin. Good Somnacin.” A horrible thought strikes him. “How much is the yarn --”

“I want you to have an unguarded reaction,” Eames tells him, and pulls him up from the floor.

(They run an extraction on a knitter.)

hit the ground running by orphan_account

"I travelled halfway around the world for you. I dealt with the French for you."

Valley by wldnst

It's an old story: a knight, a prince, a kingdom in peril.

If This Is Rain Let It Fall On Me and Drown Me by Brangwen

We used to be so brave, Eames thought. Of the two of them, Arthur had always been the more fearless.

a gentle familiarity by jollypuppet

Two weeks later, Eames is on his doorstep with bad Italian takeout and a grin, and Arthur tells him he can sleep on the couch.

Your Crisis Cannot Be Completed As Dialed by sevenimpossiblethings

Arthur doesn't do snow, Ariadne is determined to be as Midwestern as possible, and blizzards make cell phone service unreliable.

Let’s Say I Do (I Do) by xsilverdreamsx

There were, perhaps some things worse that this, Arthur thinks, as he glares at the letter in his hand with his name printed clearly in bold ink, indicating his presence in two weeks for his esteemed marriage to one William H. Eames, III, at St. Catherine's Church in London, England.

Star Trek (predominantly Kirk/McCoy)

Show the World That Something Good Can Work by knune

Leonard McCoy is a doctor, not a personal assistant, and maybe that's why he can't stand working for Jim Kirk.

It's in the little things by winterover

Bones is bemused by a persistent secret admirer.

"Wedding" Away with It by pendrogon

One morning, Bones wakes up and he's single. By the same afternoon, he's married to Jim Kirk for Arbitrary Fic Reasons(TM).

How Long Will You Stay (For Your Whole Life) by withthepilot

Jim Kirk, deputy director of the Enterprise parks and recreation department, sees all of his hard work fall to pieces when budget specialist Leonard McCoy arrives from the state capital to cut Jim's budget and threaten the livelihoods of his colleagues. But thanks to a major parks project, Leonard finds a place in the department, as well as in Jim's life—and when all is said and done, Jim doesn't want him to leave.

All-Time Favorite by mardia

What to do when your best friend suddenly starts making new friends. 

Joy Ride by Cards_Slash

While running for their lives from an alien species Kirk had accidentally enraged, they come across a car. And well, if you were to come across a car while being chased by aliens that wanted you dead, and you possessed some lingering knowledge of how to drive a car similar to said car, you would have decided to drive it toward the nearest cliff too.

Also a gunfight.

Syncytia by epistolic

He’d signed up for Starfleet on an impulse, but Starfleet meant James Tiberius Kirk: the first – and second, and third, and fourth – big mistake of Leonard McCoy’s life.

Renovation by canistakahari

Jim has a whammy put on him by an alien death ray and he suddenly craves domesticity. He's crazy with longing to shop at space!Ikea and get potted bamboo and he starts looking into adopting AND HE HATES HIMSELF AND CANNOT CONTROL THE SHIT. Luckily, McCoy is drunk all the time and plays house.

17:08 by butterflycell

She'd watched the news holos with a sick feeling, searching for information that was completely obvious in its absence. Amidst the reports of the the Enterprise's miraculous recovery and the damages sustained, there had been next to nothing about the crew or her captain. Jim had been mentioned only in passing, his name shied away from as his first officer limited interaction to the bare essentials.

The Honey of Hybla by shrift

"Bones, prepare to be my date."

[stareyeddistinguishment]

Midam Soundspiration Prompt 5: A Whole New World

EEEEKKKKKkkk!

EEEEKKKKKkkk!

If Adam thought that waking up to the insistent pinging of his digital alarm clock was unpleasant, waking up to the piercing shriek of the apartment’s overhead smoke detector was much worse. He was out of bed – his heart pounding frantically – galloping barefoot across the front room before he was even aware of being awake.

EEEEKKKKKkkk!

EEEEKKKKKkkk!

The entire apartment was hazed by a thick gray cloud of smoke. What?

“Mic-” Adam coughed, inhaling a mouthful of smoke. “Mi-Michael?”

And instantly, the apparition of Adam’s angel was before him.

“Fire?” was all that Adam could sputter in between choking coughs.

“Now, it is contained,” was the chagrined reply.

“Op-” more coughing. “Open the door. Wi- Windows. Let out. Smo- Smoke.”

Immediately, the front door and every window in the tiny granny flat apartment were wide open. The choking cloud of smoke swiftly vented, and then, Adam could breathe again. The shrill braying of the smoke detector died with a final EEEEKKKKKkkk.

The sudden silence that followed was deafening.

“So…” Adam cleared his throat. His eyes stung, and his nose was dripping. He irritably wiped his pajama sleeve across his face. “Good morning, followed by what’s happening?”

Wordlessly, Michael headed for the tiny kitchen. Adam followed.

If the lingering smell in the rest of the apartment was bad, then the kitchen was nearly unbearable. Adam immediately pulled the collar of his pajama shirt over his nose. The fabric masking did stifle the smell, but only marginally so. His nose was still assaulted by the smell of burnt. Burnt. Plastic. Chemicals. And cheese?

But the disgusting stench was completely at odds with just how clean the kitchen appeared. The avocado green Formica countertops were sparkling. The beige linoleum floor tile was gleaming. Even the kitchen appliances – which were old enough that they couldn’t even be affectionately termed “retro” anymore – were so highly polished as if to appear new. Adam gaped in bewilderment. The immaculateness radiating across the kitchen was almost a spiritual experience. He suddenly felt disrespectful standing there in only his Star Wars pajama shirt and boxers. (He should at least be wearing shoes.)

Michael stood silently nearby.

“What …?” Adam sputtered. It was early in the morning, even when Adam routinely got up at 5 AM, and Adam had just woken up to a small residential fire. He couldn’t be blamed for his lack of coherency.

“This was to be a surprise,” Michael explained woodenly.

“A really clean kitchen?” Adam finally hazarded. (Bejeezus, he hoped the apartment fire wasn’t the surprise.)

“Yes.”

Initially, Michael had been fascinated by the litany of chores required to maintain their apartment. Fascinated. Then, unnerved. And, finally, resolved. He had announced that the shared apartment was part of their shared life together, and it necessitated a shared responsibility. Adam’s angel had then started pitching in with the chores whenever possible – with varying results.

“The kitchen demands daily upkeep. Therefore, a well-ordered kitchen would reduce your laboring. However–” Then, Adam’s angel gestured helplessly towards the yellow-toned appliance that stood beside the sink. Here was the proverbial smoking gun (literally – it had been on fire less than five minutes before). The dishwasher.

The dishwasher hung open insinuatingly, like evidence from a crime scene. It was crammed full. Dishes. Cups. Flatware. Bowls. Mugs. Pots and pans. The entire set of kitchen knives and the knife block and the two bamboo cutting boards. Every single mixing bowl and casserole dish and plastic measuring cup they owned. The stainless-steel toaster. The tea kettle. Holy shit, even the entire KitchenAid blender (the glass pitcher and the motor block). Everything was somehow fitted perfectly into place – in between the slots of the dishwasher rack – and stacked neatly three or four objects high to make the most efficient use of the space. There were also shards of broken glass, chipped pieces of ceramic, and deformed bits of oozing plastic everywhere.

Adam wearily rubbed his eyes. It really was too damned early for this. He regarded the angel beside him in bemused disbelief.

Michael was standing rigidly, his face completely impassive. (When Adam’s angel reverted to the body language of their early Cage days, it was never a good sign.) Beneath the blank-faced veneer, Michael was awash with a whirlwind of emotions. Confusion. Disappointment. Embarrassment. Shame. Adam could feel Michael’s emotions churning across their bond.

Adam sighed internally. When he’d promised to show his angel a whole new world if they ever got out of the Cage, he’d assumed it’d involve introducing Michael to all the cool stuff that humanity had to offer – the sights and the sounds, so to speak. But sometimes, that whole new world involved showing Michael the little things – those small inconsequential things that Adam was so accustomed to that he took them for granted.

Like how to correctly load a dishwasher.

“Well, it was a really nice surprise,” Adam spoke firmly. His voice was slightly muffled as he spoke into the collar of his shirt. The fabric was still protecting his nose from that terrible burnt-plastic-cheese stench. Then, to reiterate his words, Adam pushed his gratitude and delight across the bond to his angel.

Michael’s emotional rollercoaster stalled on its downward spiral of shame. There was a momentary silence, and then-

“Truly?” Adam’s angel verified; voice hesitant.

“Yeah,” Adam assured. “You went to all this trouble of cleaning the place, and I really appreciate it.”

Ignoring the mess of destroyed everything that lurked within the cavern of a dishwasher (they were making an emergency restocking trip to Target as soon as Adam was more awake), the kitchen was still sparkling clean. And that part of the surprise was pretty nice.

Smiling reassuringly, Adam pulled his angel into a tight, full-bodied hug, slotting his body against Michael’s apparition. He continued pushing his gratitude and delight across their bond. Then, he added his love and appreciation for good measure. Beneath Adam’s outpouring of affection, his angel reanimated. Michael’s rigid posture suddenly relaxed, and his blank-faced expression evaporated. Michael was suddenly glowing with happiness, outshining even the ridiculous luster on the avocado-colored countertop. (How the hell did he get those countertops so shiny? Formica was opaque.)

Then, Adam removed the pajama collar still masking his face. He made a dive for Michael’s cheek, depositing a quick kiss before masking right back up. (It really stunk in here.)

“Okay, so after we clean this up, I’m going to show you how to properly load a dishwasher,” Adam decided.

Michael smiled, his small smile. “Yes,” Adam’s angel agreed instantly. “I should like this.”

Releasing Michael from the hug, Adam crouched down before the charred-out large appliance and the steaming remains of what once constituted all the kitchenware in their entire kitchen. He began clearing out the mess.

Even though there would be ups and downs in their shared life – this was not the first small apartment fire Michael had caused through sheer ignorance, and it would likely not be the last – Adam was grateful daily for his angel. They were out of the Cage, and they were together. They were happy. And Adam wouldn’t want to be sharing this whole new world with anyone else.

 .

.

“Okay, so first rule of thumb: we don’t dishwasher anything with an electrical cord.”

“Yes. Yes, I see.”

[aughtpunk]

As Mayflies

“Why are you here?”

Aziraphale looked up from his tea and met Anathema’s steady gaze. There was a gleam in her eyes. One that often appeared in the eyes of humans who have important questions. He placed his cup back down on the saucer and tried to play it cool. “You invited us over for tea, my dear.”

Anathema’s nose twitched. Oh dear. “That is not what I meant and you know it. Why are you here?”

“Ah. Well. You see, Crowley and I were on The Garden’s walls, expecting to be picked up at any moment when suddenly--”

“Aziraphale.” Oh dear oh dear. Aziraphale usually only heard that stern tone in the voice of the upper management. Anathema did remind him a bit of a younger Michael, before The Fall had hardened his heart. “Why are you, an immortal being who has been alive on Earth for millions of years--”

“Six thousand, the Earth’s only six thousand years old.”

That stopped Anathema’s train of thought long enough for Aziraphale to get another sip of tea. It was nice of Anathema to invite him and Crowley over for tea. The weather was absolutely perfect and he was already determined to get Newt’s lavender scone recipe before they left. Crowley had forgone tea and was currently further down the yard playing with Adam and his friends. He wasn’t sure what game they were playing but it seemed to involve chasing after Newt while screaming ‘with milk’ in French. 

Anathema took a deep breath and continued, “You’re an immortal being that’s been around for a very long time, and I imagine now that everything is sorted out you and your husband will be here for much longer.”

Aziraphale’s stomach fluttered at ‘your husband’. He could correct her, be decided not to. “Personally between the two of us I’m hoping for at least another six thousand years. Crowley says two thousand but I do think he’s low-balling it.” 

“So why are you spending time with us mortals?”

Aziraphale was taken aback. Usually when a human sniffed them now (very rarely, the last one had been dear Oscar and all he had been interested in was heavenly gossip. He found it rather hilarious.) their questions were about the afterlife and that sort of thing. “Well dear, as I said before, you did invite us over for tea.”

“But, but we must be nothing to you in the grand scheme of things, right? Your husband mentioned that he once took a seventy year nap! That’s a lifetime! And he spent it in bed! What’s a lifetime to us is a mere boring Sunday afternoon to you. We’re nothing more than mayflies buzzing long your path. The fact that you’ve decided to sit down and have tea with us is nothing short of baffling.”

Across the yard Aziraphale heard the telltale hiss of Crowley turning into a snake. Newt’s loud scream and the cheers of the children confirmed this to the point that he didn’t even bother to look over. “And what do you think we should be doing instead?”

“I dunno. Traveling the world? Exploring the bottom of the sea? Traveling through the stars? Enjoying Earth before it gets taken over by cockroaches? There must be a better use of your time than being here with us.”

Aziraphale smiled, the love in his body pouring out in waves. He did love humanity so much, and Anathema here was a prime example of why. But he knew she wouldn’t accept an answer so simple as that so he instead called out, “Darling!”

“Yessssssssss angel?” Crowley hissed from across the yard. He was playfully wrapped around Newt and the kids and was pretending to crush them to death. Well he knew the kids would be safe at least, Newt’s safety might be a gamble. Crowley untangled himself and slithered over to the pair. 

“Crowley darling, do you remember that winter we spent in the Himalayas?”

One might think it would be impossible for a snake to look ill, yet Crowley somehow managed. “I remember the yak tea. And the yak milk. Yaks. Lots of yaks. Why?”

“What was the name of that dear woman who made us that wonderful Shyakpa? The stew with the hand-pulled noodles?”

“Dawa Yangzum Ssssssherpa.” Crowley nodded his snake head as if double-checking his own memory, “Lovely woman. She gave me her best shawl, said I would need it for the trip down. It’s still in my linen closet somewhere.”

Aziraphale nodded before asking “And when was that, my love?”

Crowley made an odd snake-noise at that nickname but barreled through anyway. “Eleventh, no, twelfth century. Bit after the Normandy invassssion. Any reasssssson?”

“None at all darling, just reminiscing. Oh, and I wanted to distract you long enough for Adam to sneak up on you.”

“Wh--” Crowley was brutally cut off by four children pouncing him at once as Newt cheered in the distance. What followed would no doubt a vicious war of tickling and snake-grappling. Possibly even hugs from the children. Truly a fate worse than death for the Serpent of Eden.

Aziraphale turned back to Anathema and smiled. “You are correct, of course. Human lives are barely a blip on the celestial radar. But you must understand that neither you nor Newt nor the children are mayflies to us. Certainly not bugs of any type. You are the rainbow after the storm. You are the frost before the dawn. You are a wave of ocean foam and the flashes of light sung between fireflies. You are mortal, yes. But you are beautiful. Far more beautiful than the glory of Heaven or the delights of The Garden. And one day far in the future, when London is nothing more than memory engraved on a museum plaque, Crowley and I will look back and think fondly of you all and this wonderful summer day.”

“Oh.” Anathema whispered. Aziraphale became suddenly interested in his cup of tea to give the poor thing a moment to compose herself. A bit of divinity may have slipped out near the end there. She took a hearty swig of tea herself before finally getting out a weak “Thank you.” What she was thankful for she didn’t say. 

Aziraphale smiled, “Think nothing of it at all my dear.”

They watched the children and Newt battle against the suspiciously much-larger snake in silence until Anathema found her voice again. “Wait. If the Earth’s only six thousand years old then what’s the deal with the dinosaurs?”

“Bit of a red herring. Something to throw humans off of our scent while we got everything ready for the end. You know, I knew the angel in charge of placing the fake skeletons in tar pits and such. Wonderful chap. Great sense of humor. Kept putting fancy wrist-watches on dinosaurs and posing them with ‘End Nuclear War’ signs. ”

“Oh?” Anathema asked as if Aziraphale was telling a perfectly normal story about an old coworker and not something that went against all her scientific beliefs. . 

“He did get in trouble with the head office for that, though. I hear Gabriel still grumbles about the amount of paperwork that caused to this day.”

“Was Gabriel the prick at the end of the world?”

“Oh yes.”

“And the um, fly-person?”

“Beelzebub. Crowley’s old boss.”

“Ah. That explains the flies.” 

Aziraphale soaked in the moment. The warmth of the tea, the crumbs of the scones, the sound of children’s laughter and his sorta-husband’s fake scary hisses as he pretended to eat Newt. In his mind he traced every petal of every flower and every sweet gust of wind that blew by. He would remember that tea party along with all the other tea parties Anathema would invite him and Crowley to. He’ll remember them long after the Earth has settled into silence and he and Crowley leave to explore the stars. But that was later. This infinitesimal moment of wonder was now.

“Aziraphale?”

“Yes, my dear?”

“Your husband isn’t really going to kill and eat Newt, is he?”

“He better not. I still need that scone recipe.”

[batmannotes]

DC SHOWCASE

BATMAN: DEATH IN THE FAMILY

WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT AND DC PRESENT COMPILATION OF 2019-2020 ANIMATED SHORTS

COMING OCTOBER 13, 2020 TO BLU-RAY™ & DIGITAL

NEW COLLECTION INCLUDES ACCLAIMED TITLES SGT. ROCK, ADAM STRANGE, DEATH AND THE PHANTOM STRANGER

BURBANK, CA (July 30, 2020) – Five fascinating tales from the iconic DC canon, including the first interactive film presentation in Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE) history, come to animated life in DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC, the anthology of 2019-2020 animated shorts arrives from WBHE on Blu-ray and Digital starting October 13, 2020. 

Anchoring the compilation of shorts is Batman: Death in the Family, WBHE’s first-ever venture into interactive storytelling that allows fans to choose where the story goes through an innovative navigation guided by the viewer’s remote control. Central to the extended-length short is an adaptation of “Batman: A Death in the Family,” the 1988 landmark DC event where fans voted by telephone to determine the story’s ending.

Inspired by characters and stories from DC’s robust portfolio, the 2019-2020 series of shorts – which have been individually included on DC Universe Movies releases since Summer 2019 – include; Sgt. Rock, Adam Strange, Death and The Phantom Stranger.

DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family will be available on Blu-ray (USA $24.98 SRP) and Digital (19.99 SRP). The Blu-ray features a Blu-ray disc with all of the shorts in hi-definition, including the fully-interactive, extended-length Batman: Death in the Family, plus a digital version of the four other 2019-2020 DC Showcase shorts. The Digital distribution features the Batman: Death in the Family extended-length short in a non-interactive format (pre-assembled version of the story, entitled Under the Red Hood: Reloaded), along with the other four 2019-2020 DC Showcase shorts, and three other non-interactive versions of the Batman: Death in the Family (entitled Jason Todd’s Rebellion, Robin’s Revenge and Red Hood’s Reckoning) as bonus features (Note: not all Digital retailers offer bonus features with purchase). The Blu-ray also offers approximately five minutes of additional content within the Batman: Death in the Family story that is not included in the Digital version.

Produced, directed and written by Brandon Vietti, Batman: Death in the Family offers an inventive take on the long-demanded story. In the new animated presentation, the infamous murder of Batman protégé Jason Todd will be undone, and the destinies of Batman, Robin and The Joker will play out in shocking new ways as viewers make multiple choices to control the story. And while Batman: Under the Red Hood provides a baseline, the story also branches in new directions and features several characters previously unseen in the original film. Bruce Greenwood (The Resident, Star Trek, iRobot), Vincent Martella (Phineas and Ferb) and John DiMaggio (Futurama, Adventure Time) reprise their Batman: Under The Red Hood roles of Batman, young Jason Todd and The Joker, respectively. Other featured voices are Zehra Fazal (Young Justice) as Talia al Ghul and Gary Cole (Veep) as Two-Face and James Gordon.

“Batman: Death in the Family is essentially a comic book come to life,” says Vietti, whose DC Universe Movies directing credits include Batman: Under the Red Hood and Superman: Doomsday, and he is co-creator and co-executive producer of the popular Young Justice animated television series. “We’ve paid homage to the 1988 interactive experience of DC’s ‘A Death in the Family’ comics release by giving fans a unique opportunity to craft their own story through a branching tool that can lead in multiple directions. The viewer gets to choose these characters’ paths, and each choice paves an alternate future for all of the characters and, ultimately, the story.”

The interactive Blu-ray presentation offers many different ways for viewers to tell the Batman: Death in the Family story, with numerous twists and turns in the middle, and several possible endings. The choices along the way put greater weight on the viewers’ decisions and result in even stronger stories. Viewers can also choose to allow the story to tell itself, as there is an option to let the Blu-ray decide its own path.

Packed with Easter Eggs, the centerpiece short’s story – with its foundation grounded in the original “Batman: A Death in the Family” comic run, and the acclaimed Batman: Under the Red Hood animated film – balances a number of integral themes within its entertainment, including fatherhood, mental health, death, rebirth, revenge and redemption. Along the route, viewers encounter new, surprising looks at some classic DC characters.

“From the very first navigation card, we wanted to give the audience an impression of what they’re getting into, but then also give them something unexpected – maybe even something they’ll regret, so they have to think twice about every future choice they make,” Vietti explains. “Branched storytelling has to be stronger than just the gimmick of the choices – it has to be rewarding and offer new and worthwhile insights into the characters. It needs to involve you, and keep you searching for the next twist. So we sought to subvert expectations and do something very different.”

Beyond Batman: Death in the Family, the additional four shorts on Blu-ray & Digital are:

Originally attached to Batman: Hush, Sgt. Rock is executive produced and directed by Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series) from a script by award-winning comics writers Louise Simonson & Walter Simonson and Tim Sheridan (Superman: Man of Tomorrow, Reign of the Supermen). The original tale finds battle-weary Sgt. Rock thinking he has seen everything that World War II can dish out. But he is in for the surprise of his life when he is assigned to lead a company consisting of legendary monsters into battle against an unstoppable platoon of Nazi zombies. Karl Urban (Star Trek & Lord of the Rings film franchises) provides the voice of Sgt. Rock. Also voicing characters in Sgt. Rock are Keith Ferguson, William Salyers and Audrey Wasilewski.

Inspired by Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman,” Death is produced & directed by Sam Liu (Superman: Red Son, The Death of Superman) and written by J.M. DeMatteis (Batman: Bad Blood). In the story, Vincent, an artist with unresolved inner demons, meets a mysterious girl who helps him come to terms with his creative legacy … and eventual death. Leonard Nam (Westworld) provides the voice of Vincent, and Jamie Chung (The Gifted, Big Hero 6) is the voice of Death. The cast includes Darin De Paul, Keith Szarabajka and Kari Wahlgren. Death was originally included with Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.

Attached as a bonus feature on the release of Superman: Red Son, The Phantom Stranger has Bruce Timm (Batman: The Killing Joke) at the helm as executive producer & director, and the short is written by Ernie Altbacker (Justice League Dark: Apokolips War, Batman: Hush). Set in the 1970s, the short find the enigmatic DC mystery man simultaneously playing both omniscient narrator and active character in a story of supernatural comeuppance for evil doers. Peter Serafinowicz (The Tick) gives voice to The Phantom Stranger, and Michael Rosenbaum (Smallville, Impastor) provides the voice of Seth. The Phantom Stranger also features the voices of Natalie Lander, Grey Griffin and Roger Craig Smith.

Adam Strange is produced and directed by Butch Lukic (Superman: Man of Tomorrow), who also conceived the original story – which is written by J.M. DeMatteis (Deathstroke: Knights & Dragons, Constantine: City of Demons). The short was initially attached to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. On a rugged asteroid mining colony, few of the toiling workers are aware that their town drunk was ever anything but an interplanetary derelict. But when the miners open a fissure into the home of a horde of deadly alien insects, his true identity is exposed. He is space adventurer Adam Strange, whose heroic backstory is played out in flashbacks as he struggles to save the very people who have scorned him for so long. Charlie Weber (How To Get Away with Murder) provides the voice of Adam Strange, alongside with Roger R. Cross, Kimberly Brooks, Ray Chase and Fred Tatasciore.

All five new DC Showcase shorts credits include Jim Krieg (Batman: Gotham by Gaslight) as co-producer and Amy McKenna (Wonder Woman: Bloodlines) as producer. Sam Register is executive producer.

Initially launched in 2010, DC Showcase was originally comprised of four animated shorts produced by Bruce Timm and directed by Joaquim Dos Santos: The Spectre (released on 2/23/2010), Jonah Hex (7/27/2010), Green Arrow (9/28/2010) and Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam (11/9/2010). An additional short, Catwoman (10/18/2011), was attached the following year to the release of Batman: Year One, and was directed by Lauren Montgomery (Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths) and executive produced by Bruce Timm. Screenwriters on the initial quintet were Steve Niles (The Spectre), Joe Lansdale (Jonah Hex), Greg Weisman (Green Arrow), Michael Jelenic (Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam) and Paul Dini (Catwoman).

“Interactive storytelling offers an entirely new dimension of entertainment for DC animated movie fans, and an exciting look into potential titles for the future,” said Mary Ellen Thomas, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Senior Vice President, Originals, Animation and Family Marketing. “Brandon Vietti has crafted a uniquely involving, multi-tiered approach to captivating the audience with both popular story devices and some very unexpected plot twists.”

DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family Special Features – Blu-ray

Audio Commentaries – Commentary tracks on Sgt. Rock, Adam Strange, Death and The Phantom Stranger, plus one of the linear “Death in the Family” shorts (Under the Red Hood: Reloaded), by DC Daily hosts Amy Dallen and Hector Navarro.

DC Showcase – Batman: Death in the Family Special Features – Digital

Three non-interactive versions of the Batman: Death in the Family – entitled Jason Todd’s Rebellion, Robin’s Revenge and Red Hood’s Reckoning. (Note: not all Digital retailers offer bonus features with purchase).

Running Time: 96 minutes (151 minutes for interactive storylines)

Preorder now at Amazon.

[somedayonbroadway]

Have you ever done oe thought about a Bandstand AU? Because I'm now obsessed.

Okay, so I was obsessed with Bandstand for a good six months after they performed at the Tonys. Kid you not, it was the only thing I listened to. For six months straight. And it still hasn’t gotten old.

Quick rant:

Corey Cott deserves a Tony.

Laura Osnes deserves a Tony.

The show deserved to at least be nominated for best musical, if not win the whole thing.

Dear Evan Hansen is great.

But it is nothing compared to Bandstand.

(Also, DEH won best orchestrations against Great Comet… like… what? Did the judges even see that show? DEH had like… a violin, a piano and a couple guitars. It hardly had orchestrations. Great Comet is a ****ing masterpiece of complex, insane music.)

End rant.

Anyways.

Bandstand AU

Characters

Jack Kelly — Donny Novitski (Piano)

Katherine Plumber — Julia Trojan (Singer)

David Jacobs — Wayne Wright (trombone)

Spot Conlon — Davy Zlatic (bass)

Racetrack Higgins — Jimmy Campbell (saxophone)

Crutchie Morris — Johny Simpson (drums)

Albert DaSilva — Nick Radel (trumpet)

Joseph Pulitzer — June Adams

Medda Larkin — Oliver

Bryan Denton — Jo

Specs — Michael “Rubber” Trojan

Okay, so…

Newly back home, Jack Kelly is having difficulty adjusting to life after the war. After losing his best friend from friendly fire, he’s guilt ridden. The minute Jack gets home, he’s bombarded with propaganda that everything would go back to the way it was before. He doesn’t believe that as he is now jobless, is struggling for money, is struggling hard with insomnia and PTSD.

As a composer, vocalist, accordion player and pianist, Jack begins to go to old clubs he used to perform at, only to find he’d been easily replaced. Finding an old friend, Medda, for whom he’d worked with before, he manages to secure gigs at weddings, getting slim money, just enough to eat and pay rent.

After a few weeks, he finds himself slowly losing it. He hears stories of soldiers’ funerals. Those guys came back fine a while ago.

They needed a way to make it stop.

Jack is on the verge of a breakdown. He can’t go a night without a drink. He can’t stop thinking about the war. About Specs.

He can’t get it out of his head.

He’s a genius and he knows it. He’s been musically inclined his whole life. He started playing when he was seven and he started composing when he was nine. And here he is, fifteen years later, still playing weddings. No one’s giving him a job. No one seems to care that he’s struggling or needs to play because if he can’t play, there’s nothing left for him.

But he hears about a contest on the radio. A contest for a swing band to compete in a contest as a tribute to the troops just back from the war.

In a moment of clarity, Jack decides that he’s going to put together a band made up of his fellow vets to shoot for fame and fortune, to show the vets that made it home that there’s hope for them.

So he takes a name that he remembers his best friend mentioned at one time, and he goes out to find a man about to play a gig at a club named Antonio Higgins who Specs had used to call Racer. Racer is a sax player, now studying to be a lawyer. While Race does try to send him away, he realizes that he might need this as much as Jack did and once he finds out that Specs is dead, he can’t say no. He’s doing this for Specs.

Race leads him to find more musicians who served. Spot, David, Crutchie and Albert.

Race doesn’t trust anyone.

Spot is an alcoholic, cracking jokes to get through the day as best he can.

David is OCD. He has clear schedules and plans out every minute of his day.

Albert is a control freak. He’s constantly irritated and just wants everything to be done the right way and for things to work out.

Crutchie lost a leg in the war as well as receiving brain damage in an accident that sent his vehicle flipping three times while he was in the war

Not all of them get along at first. But, for the sack of all of the vets that are losing hope in a post war world where there’s no place for them, they keep it together.

They get through their first gig together. All is well for about two minutes as Race tells Jack he’s glad he decided to play with him and Spot jokes around with Crutchie after Crutchie tells the guys about his meds and how they slow him down, asking him how much slower he can get without being put in reverse. Crutchie is very slow and goofy most of the time, unable to truly remember the events that occurred overseas, but he is a monster on drums. He doesn’t mind the jokes, in fact, he takes a liking to Spot.

It’s after this that Jack tells Albert he needs to come down off the ceiling while playing his solo, claiming that it’s selfish and out of line. Albert argues with him, sparking a bit of tension between the rest of the group. Albert then announced he has a chance to play with Dwight Anson Orchestra. Davey explains that Jack needs to work around his schedule. Albert says that they need to get paid.

Jack shoots back that the gigs they get are where and when they are going to play and he promises to try and give more of an advance in the future.

Once the others leave, Spot with Crutchie, trying to joke with him as he’s taken a liking to the youngest kid of the group, Race approaches Jack and tries to gently explain to him that he needs to learn how to talk to people if he’s gonna be a band leader. This sparks a small argument, almost leading to Race giving up and leaving, only resulting in Jack admitting that he has to do this for Specs.

He explains that Specs’s death was friendly fire and that he’d promised Specs should anything happen to him, he’d check in on his wife. Race advises Jack not to tell Specs’s wife how he died and tells him not to go to trial unless he was prepared to lose. Then he leaves, promising to see Jack for their next gig on Sunday.

So Jack goes to talk to Specs’s wife.

Katherine Plumber.

He knocks on the door before chickening out and turning to leave.

But he’s not quite fast enough.

Katherine laughs at him, accusing him of being too old for ding dong ditch. Jack laughs and shyly walks back, introducing himself as Spencer’s friend. Katherine’s smile fades and she asks him more questions, resulting in Jack telling her he has some pictures that might be of interest to her. Katherine invites him over for dinner.

Explaining to her father the situation, Joseph Pulitzer (yes, he’s very nice in this one. Deal with it.) he agrees to the dinner, telling Katherine that they won’t be great hosts. He tells Katherine to be careful and not to pry, that if Jack wants to tell her more information about Specs, he would.

So Katherine tries to respect the boundaries.

Katherine explains to her father that she feels selfish because sometimes she wishes she could be the same person she was before and that she doesn’t want to be defined as a Gold Star Wife. She used to have a life and she used to be somebody.

She pulls herself together when the knock on the door comes.

Joe welcomes Jack inside and Jack thanks him for his kindness while Katherine jokes that he works hard at being nice and explains that her mother is away visiting her grandparents.

While getting to know each other a little, Jack learns that Katherine can sing but she only sings a church and jokes that if he wanted to hear her sing, he’d have to go to a service. Katherine learns that Jack lost his parents when he was very young and has fended for himself ever since.

Eventually, they get around to looking at the pictures Jack brought. He tries to make the memories light.

But Katherine can’t help but ask if Jack was there when he’d died.

Jack tells her yes.

And Katherine can’t take it. So she excuses herself before dinner has even begun, leaving Jack and Joe to have dinner alone.

That Sunday, Jack finds himself at church, watching Katherine sing beautifully in front of an entire gathering of people.

He catches her afterwards, asking why she didn’t tell him that she got to perform the big finale. He then asks her if she’d like to see him and his band play that night, eventually convincing her that it might be fun.

Joe encourages her to go, telling her that she hasn’t been out since her husband had died. So she goes.

After watching their set, Katherine is surprised to be invited up onstage to sing a standard. She’s incredibly nervous, forgetting the bridge of the song but finishing strong with some encouragement from Jack. She meets the boys. She takes a liking to all of them, telling Davey that his family should be proud, joking along with Spot, immediately wanting to protect Crutchie, much like Spot does.

Jack tells them that he wants to win for the guys who got nothing.

Katherine asks him if he means Specs. And he tries to take it back but she runs off, upset. And Racer tells the guys that she has every right to be a part of this band as she lost her husband in the war. The guys tell Jack that he should try to get Katherine to sing with them.

So he goes to her work the next day. She tries to send him away, claiming she doesn’t need to be saved. Jack counters. “What if I do?” And then he sings her First Steps First before inviting her to rehearsal that night walking away. Katherine tells him on his way out that she’ll be there, on the condition that Jack tells her more about Specs.

At rehearsal, things are a little tense. Katherine quickly finds that Race tries his best to stay out of confrontation, David is constantly questioning Jack’s harmonies and chord progressions, Spot is always drunk, Crutchie is often confused, and Albert is hard to rely on. Katherine loosens up the tension as much as she can, learning the music and getting to know all the boys. She loves talking to Crutchie. She constantly takes Spot’s drinks from his hands and offers him coffee and water. She tries to get Race to open up and Davey to loosen up, while also somehow getting on Albert’s good side.

She finds that once they’re all playing together, things seem a little easier, like they all get along and work well together.

They play at a club in town called Medda’s, playing a song Jack hopes to be a winning song called “You Deserve It”. It’s snappy and catchy and all the boys really enjoy it. After this, Medda asks the band to play the next night and Jack and Kath celebrate with drinks.

Jack then asks Katherine if she’d be willing to take on a stage name, Kathy Pulitzer, saying it had a better ring to it than Katherine Plumber. Katherine doesn’t like this and leaves, unable to handle the idea of losing another part of Specs.

Jack follows her, apologizing after Katherine breaks, crying about how she’ll never see her husband’s body or get to say goodbye.

Jack promises to give her answers if she comes back to the band. So they go tell the guys they have another gig.

The next night, after escorting a very drunk Spot home, Jack expresses his worries that Spot will be wasted on the night of the competition to which Albert replies he has bigger problems and reveals he’d been rehearsing with Dwight Anson and thinks they might have a better song. He leaves, telling Jack he’d be playing with the band that had the better song.

Jack walks Katherine home, angry and scared and exhausted knowing he can’t sleep. He tells Katherine that if it were Specs, he’d be saying how they’d be winning this thing, on their way to New York in some Pullman cars, living the dream.

Katherine shows Jack a poem she’d written that makes Jack feel better. After promising — mostly — not to tease, Jack asks Katherine if he can look through more of her poems. Reluctantly, Katherine agrees.

The next day, Jack returns Katherine’s book with a new song, word for word lyrics to one of Katherine’s poems. He explains that this is the song they need to win. Katherine is hesitant but agrees to sing it.

Going to the contest, the band wins easily, hitting the judges hard with a song with a true story and one that many were too scared to tell.

Ecstatic, the band has a moment of victory before reality sets in.

They’re told that no one is paying for them to get to New York. They’re responsible for travel and getting there doesn’t guarantee them a spot on the broadcast. Jack and Race try to argue, telling them that they have to help them get there because everyone just heard them win, to which one of the producers replies that hardly anyone was listening.

And if no one saw it, it never happened.

(That moment gets me every ****ing time. The lights go out and a spotlight hits every single one of the boys. It hurts so bad.)

Their arguments get nowhere. And they’re left with this crippling news.

Jack falls to the ground in mental and emotional agony. The guys are arguing and getting worked up but Katherine is holding onto Jack, trying to make sure he’s alright.

Jack finally stands and tells them that they’re going to that contest. They have to make it there anyway they can and they’ll take every gig they can get because they have a right to respect.

And all the guys agree.

They’re done fighting for their country. It’s time to fight for themselves.

They take every gig offered to them, writing new songs and winning the hearts of their hometown (Cleveland). They even write a song about their hometown. Everyone adores it.

Jack and Katherine are closer than ever, Jack telling Katherine all the stories about Specs he can remember. He tells her one of his favorite memories of Specs which was when they were playing with some other cats in the army. Specs was playing the drums so fast, telling everyone to go faster and faster until finally he looked at Jack and just told him to sing. And Jack did. It was less of a song than a battle call.

When they write their new song, they begin to perform it everywhere they can as their town loves the song that’s all about them. While they do this, a certain club owner overheard the band talking about making enough money to get to New York. And Miss Medda hatches a scheme.

She asks the band to play more often for more pay and gets the rest of the town in on the game. Jack doesn’t realize what she’s doing.

Davey admits to Albert that his wife kicked him out. Albert offers up his home, igniting the first selfless act any of the others had ever seen from him.

Katherine tried to get Spot to give up the bottle. He refuses.

Spot starts massaging Crutchie’s back every now and then to help him relax and make him feel better after his injury.

In the midst of all of this, Katherine explains to Jack that she has to quit her job in order to make sure she could be at the contest. She says she’d be taking all the overtime and lipsticks as she could before then. She tells Jack how she lied about her mother being away to visit family and how she walked out on her and her father years ago.

And she says she wants to know what happens to Specs.

Unable to keep dodging the question, Jack breaks. He loses it, telling her that she couldn't understand. He’s crying as he recounts every detail in his brain, telling her how it happened, how it was his fault that his best friend was dead.

And Katherine runs away from him, horrified at what she’d just heard.

She doesn’t show up to the gig the next night.

Jack confides in Race who tells him that he’s letting this girl slip away from him. Jack tries to joke about Race not chasing after any pretty girls even though he has plenty of girls lining up to get a kiss from him after shows. Race says that he thought a smart guy like Jack would’ve had him figured out already.

Race lost his partner in the war.

Suddenly, things make a lot more sense.

Katherine stays home with her father, sobbing, explaining that it was Jack’s fault her husband was dead. But Pulitzer tells her that there aren’t reasons for what happens. Everything just happens. He tells her the only thing that matters is what she does next.

Katherine writes a poem and shows it to Jack the next day, apologizing even though Jack says she has nothing to apologize for. She says the same thing goes to him. She explains that she doesn’t know and cannot understand what happened in the frontlines. And this poem was for Jack and the boys.

Jack sets it to music knowing this song is too real and genuine to be played for an audience. So they change the lyrics.

This is the song Katherine would have sung if Specs had come home.

After performing this song for the first at Medda’s, Jack stands up to tell the audience that they won’t make it to New York, getting emotional and telling them that he was no hero and that the wrong guy made it home from the war. Medda stops him and explains to him he doesn’t need NBC when he has Cleveland. She hands him seven tickets to the Cleveland Limited. Pullman Cars. First class.

Jack literally breaks into tears and hugs Medda as tightly as he possibly can.

The band’s going to New York.

Jack gears up the guys for a successful contest while being awestruck and exploring New York City. Jack walks Katherine back to her room after a night exploring. They stop themselves from going into her room together after they both admit there’s more than just friendship between them.

They part ways that night, promising to see each other in the morning.

The next day, they go through preliminaries and are told they’ll be on the broadcast. Jack and Katherine sign the contract and the whole band celebrates until the next night when no one can seem to find Racer.

When Race arrives, two minutes before they’re on, he explains that Jack and Katherine signed away the rights to their own song and would be no more than walk ons if they won.

This just about breaks Jack.

Spot suggests leaving. The rest of the guys agree.

But Jack asks Katherine if she remembers all the original lyrics to Welcome Home, the poem she’d written for her boys.

She says yes.

And they know what they have to do for the soldiers out there to know they’re not alone.

They get on stage and they blow it up.

Crutchie starts the drums. Jack tells him to go faster. Faster. Faster.

Then he looks at Katherine. And he tells her to sing.

Charlie made it home.

Most of him at least .

Had three operations,

But the pain has not decreased .

Al learned to survive.

Means you never trust .

Once you see the worst in man,

Then how do you adjust?

Sean, he cracks a joke.

Claims to be alright .

Drinks a fifth of vodka

In his kitchen every night

And I stand here trying

Like mother Mary

With my private burden

Of grief to carry  

Welcome home my boys

Welcome home my sons

Welcome home my husband

Welcome home my love  

Welcome home

Welcome home

Welcome home  

David’s never free.

Schedules out his day.

Filling every minute

Just to keep the ghosts away .

He could never get

Back the life he had .

Faced with raising kids

Who did not recognize their dad .

Tony made it back to town

Four months ago

Lives to tell the things

No one could bear to know

Keeps his guard up now

A lot goes undiscussed

Focuses on fighting

What he finds unjust  

Welcome home my boys

Welcome home my sons

Welcome home my husband

Welcome home my love  

Welcome home

Welcome home

Welcome home  

Jack, he does his best,

Trying to pretend

What he doesn't talk about

Won't matter in the end

Jack, he made it home

But thinks it wasn't fair

How he made it out

But left his buddy there

Jack, he doesn't sleep

Because the nightmares come

Jack looks for an answer,

Jack, he looks for absolution,

And I'd give up anything

If I could give him some

And I stand here helpless

My arms extended

Knowing full well, darling,

Your war's not ended

Welcome home

Welcome home my husband

Welcome home my love

Welcome home

Welcome home

Welcome home my boys

Welcome home my sons

Welcome home my husband

Welcome home my love

Welcome home

Welcome home

Welcome home

It’s the most honest performance these men have ever given.

Months later, Jack and the band walk out of a movie theatre, joking about how good Dwight Anson Orchestra looked while Sinatra sang their song.

And some girls run up to them, asking for an autograph.

Jack gives them one, telling them to bring their father who served backstage at their next concert.

And then they leave.

They have a gig to get to.

What do you guys think? Wanna see any specific scenes?

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[greensparty]

This Month in History - December

There’s a ton of pop culture anniversaries to raise a glass to this month:

Dec. 3, 1965: Rubber Soul released

In Dec. 1965, The Beatles’ 6th studio album was released. Here is what I wrote in 2015. Happy 55th Rubber Soul!

Dec. 7, 1990: Edward Scissorhands opens

In Dec. 1990, Tim Burton’s deeply personal fantasy and his first collaboration with Johnny Depp was released. Much like Twin Peaks at the time, it had a lot to say about there being more to suburbia than meets the eye and it showed the “Frankenstein” creation who doesn’t meet the norm, but has such creativity and brings so much to the community. I saw this not once but twice in the movie theater. Still one of Burton’s best. Happy 30th Edward Scissorhands!

Dec. 8, 2000: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon opens

In Dec. 2000, Ang Lee’s martial arts epic was released. At the time I was heavy into Hong Kong action cinema and I was even directing my homage To Be John Woo, which had references to Chow Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh, so I was super excited to hear about this movie starring Yun-Fat and Yeoh from the excellent director Lee! It had some of the most lyrical action and beautiful cinematography of this century. As of this writing it is the biggest grossing foreign language film in the U.S. box office, showing U.S. audiences will read subtitles. Happy 20th CTHD!

Dec. 9, 2005: Brokeback Mountain opens

Speaking of Ang Lee, in Dec. 2005, his other Oscar-winning drama was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. Happy 15 Brokeback Mountain!

Dec. 11, 1970: John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band released

In Dec. 1970, John Lennon’s first studio rock album was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. Happy 50th JL/POB!

Dec. 11, 2015: The Big Short opens

In Dec. 2015, Adam McKay’s smart and funny financial crisis movie was released. The characters were the kind of people you don’t normally see in movies and it was using celebrities and pop culture to explain complexities of the economics to the masses. McKay, who was known for directing Will Ferrell movies, had the last laugh on all the haters and even won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay. I named it my #6 Movie of 2015 and my #50 Movie of the 2010s. Happy 5 Big Short!

Dec. 12, 1980: Sandinista! released

In Dec. 1980, The Clash’s 4th album was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. In 2019, I named it my #3 Clash Album of All Time. Happy 40th Sandinista!

Dec. 15, 1995: Heat opens

In Dec. 1995, Michael Mann’s crime movie epic was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. Happy 25 Heat!

Dec. 18, 2015: Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens opens

In Dec. 2015, the long-awaited 7th chapters in the Skywalker Saga of Star Wars was released. It is the biggest grossing film in U.S. box office history. Say what you will about the sequel trilogy, but its impossible to not be as excited as a school boy when watching the original cast 30+ years later passing the baton to the new characters. Happy 5 Force Awakens!

Dec. 23, 2005: Munich opens

In Dec. 2005, Steven Spielberg’s historical thriller was released. In Knocked Up, Seth Rogen’s character mentions that this movie is awesome because "Jews get to kick some ass" and then says "if any of us get laid tonight, it will be because of 'Munich.'"! Spielberg’s film takes on a covert operation from the Israeli government in response to the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics and it is one of Spielberg’s best and most underrated films. Happy 15 Munich!

Dec. 25, 1995: Four Rooms opens

In Dec. 1995, the anthology film from 4 indie-film directors in their prime (Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell) was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. Happy 25 Four Room!

Dec. 25, 2015: The Hateful Eight opens

Speaking of QT, his epic western character study was released in Dec. 2015. Filmed in 70mm, I made a trip to Coolidge Corner Theatre to see it in all its glory when it was released. The violence in QT’s movies isn’t for everyone, but here it was similar to Reservoir Dogs, where it’s a group of criminals are in a room who are all suspicious of each other and not entirely honest. Ennio Morricone finally won an Oscar for his score to this film too (got my soundtrack on vinyl). I recently named it my #26 Movie of the 2010s! Happy 5 Hateful Eight! 

Dec. 29, 1995: 12 Monkeys opens

In Dec. 1995 Terry Gilliam’s bleak futuristic noir was released. Here is my piece I wrote in 2015. Happy 25 12 Monkeys!