#1999 writers are genius!

[adylote]

OI YOU PIECE OF—

[raisedbythetv89]

Seeing all of this transphobic, anti-queer rhetoric, the Kids Online Safety Act - all aimed at silencing and censoring queer people and queerness in general is making me think of the “Gingerbread” episode in season 3 of buffy:

All the moms band together to burn their own children alive for ironically, the sake of “the children” who turn out to not even be real but just an evil demon in disguise. And that is EXACTLY what conservatives do anytime they went to pass something hateful they invoke “it’s for the safety of our children!! HOW can you say no to keeping our children safe???” Always invoking this idea of innocence that must be protected at all cost. Meanwhile the very real children of our country are separated from their parents, have SCHOOL LUNCH DEBT and go hungry, their parents have to leave them with day care staff or nannies to work WAYYYY too soon because parental leave does not exist in the US and most households rely on dual incomes and far worse things that require a trigger warning that if you are paying attention you know all too well what I’m referring to. The US is doing a HORRIFIC job of actually protecting the emotional, physical, and mental well being of children so it’s honestly such a joke and I cannot believe anyone is still falling for the “it’s for the kids” line when they now sell bullet proof backpacks….

That episode aired in January of 1999 for crying out loud.

I know the episode itself it a little hokey but my god I was speechless the first time I saw it because it so perfectly illustrated this mob mentality and fear mongering that can lead parents to do absolutely horrible things to their own children because they’ve been manipulated into believing it’s necessary to protect this concept of innocence from harm and how in the episode it was so easy it was to deem their own children - mostly teen girls - as evil and demonic and in need of being destroyed and how many parents in our world sacrifice the wellbeing of their own children because they have been manipulated by religion or politics to do so, all the while so fervently believing they are in the right and that abusing or disowning your children is the right thing to do for the sake of society as a whole.

The episode uses witchcraft and devil worship as the red herring which was very much what was used at the time in the US and now it has shifted to drag queens, trans people, and queer culture in general as this bogeyman type thing out to get your kids so you better get them before they get you! It is so transparent and literally such fucking bullshit it is so frustrating to see so many people still fall for this tactic that has been used literally forever to mobilize people into hating each other so the people in power can stay there.

And of course my beloved Jane was one of the writers for this ep. I fucking love her with my whole heart she is an absolute genius who just gets it and this is why such a campy supernatural show has such longevity, the themes of the episodes are timeless and were often so ahead of it’s time when it first aired.

[celaenaeiln]

Hi cl! I was wondering if you have or one day would make a recommended reading list for dick?

Yea!! I would love to!

For Robin- the best would be Batman 1940, Batman: Golden Age Omnibus, Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet, and Robin: Year One

Untainted by bored and desperate authors, the comics are genuinely funny and interesting and action packed. I love puns and humor and good fighting so Batman 1940 was top tier for me. Batman: Golden Age Omnibus I really liked Bruce and Dick's casual "you're like a brother-son-friend-partner" thing that flowed so naturally.

Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet and Robin: Year One show Dick's capabilities and and how excellent he is even though Batman 1940 shows that too, these are more recent. Whoever wrote The Gauntlet-I'm kowtowing to you. It's god tier work, thank you.

Batman and Robin, A Boy Wonder

I know this is a controversial one because of what Frank Miller makes Dick do but also I just considered it to be part of this universe's batman's psyche. But Frank Miller aside from this one can go suck it. I love everyone in it.

Robin and Batman by Jeff Lemire

This comic talks about Dick directly after his parents' passing. It shows how instead of angry like people think, he was mostly sad and lonely and how he and Batman both grew from this. Going from grief to the light of Batman's darkness that he's known to be.

The Detective Comics

It's Batman and Robin stuff but you know it's just like a progression of the Batman comics but different stories.

The World's Finest Comics both the 1941 and the new one.

Dick's relationship with the Titans and family- Batman: A lonely place of dying.

It takes place some time after Jason's death and shows how Tim joined the family. I love the way they wrote every character. I'm going to put up a post later about Dick and the Titans and this comic is quintessential to that. MUST. READ.

Want more incentive? It's all about Dick and Alfred's relationship and how they're the best father and son.

Dick's relationship with the Titans and Outsiders

Teen Titans (1966) - the silver age, og titans.

The New Teen Titans (1980)

The New Teen Titans: Judas Contract

The New Teen Titans (1984)

JLA/Titans

Titans Secret Files

Titans (1999)

Outsiders (2003)

Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files

Teen Titans Lost Annual

Titans (2008)

Titans Hunt

Titans (2016)

Titans United

Titans United: Bloodpact

Titans (2023)

World's Finest: Teen Titans

Nightwing Dick- Nightwing 1996 and 2011

Okay. I know people hate Chuck Dixon but honestly, I think he's one of the greatest Nightwing writers. With him, the writing felt continuous and fluent. It takes you from Dick being fired to the majority of his life. Every arc that was written was excellent because even when Dick was at his worst mentally, emotionally, and physically, he was a formidable foe. He's a tactical genius and one of the strongest fighters and Chuck Dixon put him through a lot but one thing he never did was nerf him. This was very good.

ACTUALLY NO- I LOVED THIS SPECTACULAR, MARVELOUS, BEAUTIFUL, EXTRAORDINARY, BRILLIANT WORK. LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS.

Nightwing 2011 will be one of my all time favorites. Undefeatable badass boy. The entirety of Nightwing 2016 has nothing on even a single panel from Nightwing 2011. Glorious work.

Batman Dick- Batman: Streets of Gotham

The things is, Dick was a very good Batman. Actually, he was an excellent Batman. Maybe it's because he's an excellent actor but the internal struggle he had was not outwardly shown when he was Batman thus effectively convincing the public that there was not a different man under the mask (They could only tell because he actually cared about people unlike Bruce). Actually I like him better than Bruce Batman because Dick's actions as Batman at that time were cooler than any Bruce has taken. I know it's hard to believe but this comic was fantastic in showcasing that.

Other top favorites- Nightwing: The New Order, Future State: Nightwing, and Grayson Comics

I'm literally going feral over New Order. Nightwing is the world's favorite (as expected) and has an entire army to himself. He also has a kid named Jake Grayson and JAKE IS THE CUTEST ADORABLEST KID EVER. I LOVE Kori but what I love even more is Dick is a single mom to Jake because Kori left and Jake loves Dick so much! I cried at the end because how badly I was moved.

Future State! Future State Gotham was trash. It was so bad I had to search for a trashcan to dry heave over because it's character assassination. That comic was so bad other DC authors just refused to acknowledge its existence. Future State: Nightwing showcases just how brilliant Dick is. Ever heard the saying, "There's method to my madness?" Dick always has a plan. It's only madness for those that don't understand the full scale of it.

Heh. Everyone hated the Grayson comics but honestly? I loved it. Dick was manipulative, talented, excellent fighter, and a spy. Every task he took he excelled in it. They said that Dick wasn't made for spying but they weren't talking about his skill set. They were talking about his emotions. Even Tiger- Spyral's number 1 asesst and spy- was outplayed by Dick multiple times. If Helena hadn't become Matron, Dick would've burned Spyral to the ground so completely not even ashes of the fire he had set would have been left as evidence for beetles to collect.

Batman/Nightwing: Bloodbourne

Pure fighting prowess. It reiterates the fact that Dick is undefeatable.

Batman and Robin (2009)

Dick!Bats and Damian's run as Batman and Robin. It sheds light onto the hardships of raising an assassin child. People think that Damian would just follow someone along and become good if they knew him earlier but you don't understand. Dick. Put. Work. Into. Damian. Their obsessed with each other relationship exists because Damian is fully aware of the amount of time, effort, and love Dick has given him and reciprocates that. He loves Dick beyond measure and will fight anyone who says even one word against him.

Batman and Robin Eternal

Really talks about Bruce's impact on Dick, Dick's impact on Bruce, family dynamics, batfamily working together, intelligence and fight skills of Dick Grayson. There's a couple plot holes in the middle with about 2-3 panels being wrong but everything else is so correct.

Convergence

Do you want to know how important Dick is in terms of the multiverse's perseverance and continuation? This one!

COMICS I HAVE READ A BILLION TIMES BECAUSE THEY'RE SO GOOD - DARK CRISIS, DARK CRISIS, DARK CRISIS!!!!

DARK CRISIS

DARK CRISIS

DARK CRISIS

I SAVORED every letter of that comic.

[uttersorcery]

10 Horror films for Halloween

By David K Frampton

The Curse Of Frankenstein (Terrence Fisher 1957)

Hammer’s classic features a fine pair of performances from Chistopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

It also features the first time in cinema history to feature red blood. It’s so atmospheric and deep

And I love the way that Dr Frankestsein (Peter Cushing) becomes more and more evil as the film progresses yet somehow we still care about him. Classy early Hammer with tons of charm, atmosphere and darkness.

Les Yeux Sans Visage (Georges Franju 1960)

This French horror from the late 50s pioneers body horror. Beautifully shot and featuring some of the most haunting imagery of the era. There are some heart in mouth moments and a powerful performance my it’s cast…

Lake Mungo (Joel Anderson 2008)

This Australian horror flick might be the most terrifying movie I have ever seen…at least the most upsetting. But it is extremely well made and realised. A mockumentary with an edge it recounts the last days of a persons life. The gut wrenching finale is unforgettable and truly deeply scary.

Skinamirinck (Kyle Edward Ball 2022)

For true fear and originality try Skinamirink this film utilises atmosphere and tension to build a truly terrifying portrait of a young girl alone in her house. Too say anything more would spoil it but from a technical perspective this film uniquely creeps it’s way into your mind through showing and hiding key information leading to a disorientating and captivating stew of pure dread.

Raw (Julia Ducourno 2016)

Sometimes horror needs to be gut wrenching to truly have fun. And it doesn’t get much more gut wrenching than Raw. What makes this horror film so elemental is that this sort of pairs up as a coming of age tale as much as a cannibal horror. Beautifully shot and finely acted by Garance Marillier).

Jennifer’s Body (Karyn Kusama 2009)

Megan Fox arrived in this sensational witty and huge fun demon flick alongside Amanda Seyfried, writer Diablo Cody and director Karyn Kusama. The film deals with themes such as female sexuality, male gaze and the occult. It’s great fun, very bloody and somehow strangely moving.

From Beyond (Stuart Gordon 1986)

It’s always a pleasure to see some good old 80’s slime in a horror movie. This “slime classic” from Stuart Gordon is fun to watch, intense and woozy. When a scientist opens a portal to hell it is up to Jeffrey Combs to try and close it with disastrous results. This is a staple in the body horror diet as we witness flesh giving birth to flesh.

Audition (Takeshi Miike 1999)

Japan’s “Audition” is about as extreme as it gets as a film maker holds a fake audition to find a wife with terrible consequences. Takeshi Miike’s skill is to never let go of empathy for all of the characters leading to a finale that is both visceral and horrific aswell as heartbreaking. Essential horror.

Prevenge (Alice Lowe 2016)

If like me you think Alice Low is a genius then you’ll truly love her take on the slasher genre incredibly written and directed when she was pregnant. This movie contorts gender roles of men and women into new shapes as one nightmare situation bleeds into another. It’s dark…very dark but also shot with blackest humour. Stunning cinematography by Ryan Eddlestone.

Thanksgiving (Eli Roth 2023)

Eli Roth likes to make horror movies. He’s very good at them. And this is his best yet. My final entrance is a bit of fun. This slasher movie gets more and more crazy and gory as it progresses..almost a love letter to slasher movies the kills get more creative…and he keeps it in at a tight 90 minutes. It’s exhilarating, a little bit exploitative but the tension throughout is crafted immaculately.

[retrochenle]

I'M NOT JUST A DEMI - GOD ⊂⊃ I'M HALF - BLOODED

meet zephyrus ' zero ' riley, lead singer &&. song - writer for alternative rock &&. pop &&. hip - hop group HALF - BLOODED ( band claim : waterparks ). originally born in manchester, england zephyr ( on - stage name : zero ), moved to the small town where he quickly became friends ( perhaps more?? ) with lead singer seven lawless, of soft violence.

ABOUT ZERO:

trans - male ( he / they ), twenty - four years old, capricorn ( january 12th, 1999 ), queer, INFP, traits: musical genius, creative, loyal, &&. materialistic, tropes that apply to zero: childhood friends to lovers, rivals to lovers, second chance love, found family, etc.

new and improved @infamous-if oc

note * : everything used on my sim is custom content and can be found on tumblr

[greensparty]

Stuff I'm Looking Forward To in May

How is it already May? In addition to being Asian Pacific American Heritage Month as well as Orthodox Easter (5/5), Cinco de Mayo (5/5), Mother's Day (5/12) and Memorial Day (5/27) here is what's on my radar this month:

Movies:

The Idea of You

A Michael Showalter movie is always a highly anticipated for me. I was a huge fan of his comedy group The State and I named his film The Big Sick my #1 Movie of 2017. Since then his films have been mixed (including The Eyes of Tammy Faye) but they are always unique in their own way. His new one is a romantic drama with Anne Hathaway premiering on Amazon Prime Video on 5/2.

Star Wars Episode 1 The Phantom Menace

When the first Star Wars prequel was released in May 1999, there was no way any movie could live up to the expectation. While it's not perfect by any means, it is better than people initially thought. I saw it a few times in the theater in 1999 (including opening day) and in 2012, I saw the 3-D re-release. Without the hype and fanfare it wasn't bad. There's been quite a few revisionist appraisals of Ep 1 in recent years. In addition to select theaters doing a Star Wars Eps 1-9 marathon, Ep 1 is getting a 25th anniversary re-release on 5/3.

Unfrosted

Jerry Seinfeld is a comic genius! Now he's making his directorial feature film debut with a comedy biopic about the creation of the Pop Tart in 1963. With Jerry directing, co-writing, producing and starring I'm on board! Premieres 5/3 on Netflix.

Let It Be

The 1970 documentary about The Beatles recording their final album has been out of print for years and now it has been remastered by Peter Jackson for a Disney+ streaming premiere on 5/8. Fingers crossed a blu-ray follows!

Back to Black 

Amy Winehouse had such a short musical career, but her legacy lives on. After the excellent documentary Amy in 2015, she is now getting the music biopic treatment directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson, the director of the criminally underrated Nowhere Boy about the early days of John Lennon. Opens 5/17.

IF

John Krasinski proved himself as a director with A Quiet Place. Now he is back with a fantasy about imaginary friends and it's one of those "everyone is in it" casts! Opens 5/17.

Hit Man

A Richard Linklater film is always a high film priority for me! His new action-comedy has been creating quite a buzz since its festival premiere last year. It's adapted from an article by Skip Hollandsworth and the last adaptation of his from Linklater was Bernie! Star and co-writer Glen Powell has worked with Linklater on Everybody Wants Some!! and Apollo 10 1/2. I could not be more psyched! Limited theatrical release on 5/24 and Netflix premiere on 6/7.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

2015's Mad Max: Fury Road, the 4th Mad Max movie, set the bar pretty high for high octane action. Now George Miller is back with a prequel about Furiosa. Opens 5/24.

Music:

Aerosmith Get Your Wings 50th Anniversary Limited Edition

In March, Aerosmith's second album turned 50! To celebrate the anniversary they are releasing a special edition vinyl on 5/17!

Slash Orgy of the Damned

GN'R guitarist Slash is back with his sixth solo album featuring tons of guest stars including Brian Johnson and Steven Tyler doing blues covers. Album drops 5/17!

Ringo Starr Crooked Boy

Sir Ringo Starr has been on a roll knocking out tons of EPs including EP3 and Rewind Forward. Now he has his 5th EP since 2021 (my God - put all of these EPs together and it'd be a killer album!). This one was written and produced by Linda Perry. After an RSD and digital release last month, a physical release will be on 5/31 (review to come)!

Film Festivals:

Independent Film Festival Boston

My favorite film festival in Boston (and possibly the world) takes place at the best indie cinemas in Boston from May 1-8 (see my preview here).

In a category all its own:

My birthday is on 5/20! 

[fox4789]

Family Guy 1999 seasons 1-22 and beyond upcoming changes on May 5th 2024

Family Guy will a lot of laughs and adventures with the Griffins and their friends as the show gets rewritten in May 5th 2024.

This year Stewie Griffin, Brian Griffin, Meg Griffin, Chris Griffin, Lois Griffin, Peter Griffin, Joe Swanson, Cleveland Brown, Glenn Quagmire, Olivia Fuller, Jillian Russell, Patty Patterson, Ruth Rutherford, Esther Esthederm, Neil Goldman, Connie D'amico, Tom Tucker and Diane Simmons becoming Main Hero characters would be very amazing in 2024. 18 main characters will become outcasts and enjoy family dinners at the Griffin house in every season. Griffin Family and their friends Olivia, Jillian, Cleveland, Quagmire, Joe, Patty, Ruth, Esther, Neil, Connie, Tom and Diane will become one family. A family always keeps secrets. Stewie and Olivia being a couple, Brian and Jillian also being a couple, Tom and Diane working as anchors also being a romantic couple. Peter, Quagmire, Cleveland and hanging out at the Clam, Meg, Patty, Ruth and Esther going on adventures and being bullied, Chris and Neil planning mischief. Connie being popular and watching over Stewie and Olivia as a baby sister, Lois watching over her family, keeping her husband Peter and her kids out of trouble, Lois is a great piano organist. Brian is a great writer. Stewie and Oliva being the baby genius duo. Fans will seeing the griffins and their friends getting into mischief in seasons 1-22 and beyond. Family Guy will become a family friendly show.

[freshdotdaily]

A lot of y'all know I been obsessed with Rammellzee for a hot second now. I don't have the crazy obsession y'all have w/ Basqiuat, or Andy Warhol. But of that downtown scene, I reaaaally loved Haring as a yute dem and I really fucked with A. Charles just off seeing their work publicly all around me.

But once I found Ramm, it was another revelation. A convergence of a lot of shit I like wrapped in one enigmatic weirdo artist's ideas to pick apart and break down. Bruh, this nigga straddles genius and mental illness in a wild way. There's a touch of Rammellzee in MF DOOM.

One of the reasons I liked the young rapper Wiki when I found him in 2012, (outside of this video) is because him/his crew "Ratking" refers to "Letter Racers". I instantly thought, "yo, this kid is tapped in!".

Also, I'm guilty for really obsessing over late 80's and 90's era NYC culture. Y'all wasn't outside, but there's just something super ill about that downtown time/space that incubated so much of our culture from my hometown. Alex Corporan (of Supreme's OG crew) summed it thusly: "The ‘90s in NYC lands as the last of the epic, raw, untouchable, unstoppable, fearless times for life. You're unable to replicate the experience of what was happening in New York during this time. Skateboarding, music, nightlife, art, fashion... you name it! 2000-2004 held onto that energy for a bit, but from 1990-1999 you grew up real fast and experienced shit in light speed."

Anyways, NY Times did a piece I wanna hit y'all with. I sprinkled in some video/links/pics for razzle-dazzle. Long live Rammellzee! In the late nineteen-seventies, the sociologist Nathan Glazer had grown weary of riding New York’s graffiti-covered subways. The names of young vandals, who identified themselves as “writers” rather than as artists, were everywhere—inside, outside, sometimes stretching across multiple train cars. Glazer didn’t know who these writers were, or whether their transgressive spirit ever manifested itself in violent crimes, but that didn’t matter. The daily confrontation with graffiti suggested a city under siege. “The signs of official failure are everywhere,” he wrote in an influential 1979 essay. Graffiti, with its casual anarchy and cryptic syntax, offered glimpses into a “world of uncontrollable predators.” In the nineties, Glazer’s essay would help inspire the concept of “broken windows” policing—a theory that preserving the appearance of calm, orderly neighborhoods can foster peace and civility.

Graffiti has always had this kind of metaphorical power. It is somehow more than art or destruction (even though it is both), and it prompts awe or dread, depending on your tolerance for disorder. For every Glazer, there were romantics like Norman Mailer, who had written the text for a book of photographs elevating graffiti to the status of “faith.” From his perspective, graffiti forced the upper crust to reckon with the names and the fugitive dreams of a forgotten underclass: “You hit your name and maybe something in the whole scheme of the system gives a death rattle.”

Few people understood and internalized this power as deeply as the artist, rapper, and theoretician Rammellzee (which he styled as The ramm:ell:zee). He believed that his time in the train yards and the tunnels of New York gave him a vision for how to destroy and rebuild our world. He was born in 1960 and grew up in Far Rockaway, Queens. His birth name is a closely guarded secret; he legally changed it to his artistic tag in 1979. (He also insisted that The ramm:ell:zee was an “equation,” not a name.) Little is known about his youth, aside from passing aspirations to study dentistry (he was good with his hands) and to be a model (in a 1980 catalogue, he is identified as Mcrammellzee).

Ramm—as he became known—believed that language enforced discipline, and that whoever controlled it could steer people’s thoughts and imaginations. His hope wasn’t to replace English; he wanted to annihilate it from the inside out. His generation grew up after urban flight had devastated New York’s finances and infrastructure. Ramm channelled the chaos into a spectacular personal mythology, drawn from philology, astrophysics, and medieval history. He was obsessed with a story of Gothic monks whose lettering grew so ornate that the bishops found it unreadable and banned the technique. The monks’ work wasn’t so different from the increasingly abstract styles of graffiti writing, which turned a name into something mysterious and unrecognizable. Ramm developed a philosophy, Gothic Futurism, and an artistic approach that he called Ikonoklast Panzerism: “Ikonoklast” because he was a “symbol destroyer,” abolishing age-old standards of language and meaning; “Panzer” because this symbolic warfare involved arming all the letters of the alphabet, so that they might liberate themselves. He lived these ideas through his art and his music, and by being part of the hip-hop scene during its infancy.

In 1983, Rammellzee and a rapper named K-Rob went to visit the painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. Though Ramm and Basquiat were friends, they were also rivals. Ramm would later say that Basquiat wasn’t a “dream artist”—he didn’t so much radiate visions outward as take things in like a “sponge,” learning about genius from books. He and Ramm once bet on who could most convincingly parody the other’s work. (Ramm claimed not only that he won but that Basquiat’s art dealer, who wasn’t in on their ruse, told Basquiat that “his” work was the best he had ever done.)

That night, Basquiat invited Ramm and K-Rob to record a song he’d written. Ramm, who had rapped in the movie “Wild Style,” was already known for his unique nasal sneer. (He called it his “gangster duck” style.) The two men looked at Basquiat’s elementary rhymes, laughed, and tossed them in the trash. Instead, they made up their own lyrics—a brilliant, surreal tale of a kid (the earnest, bemused K-Rob) who’s on his way home and a hectoring pimp (Ramm) who tries to tempt him toward the dark side. Basquiat called the song “Beat Bop,” and paid for it to be produced; he painted the vinyl single’s cover art himself. The song was murky and strange, like a spiky funk jam slowed to a sinister crawl. In the background, someone tunes a violin. There’s so much echo and reverb on the track that it sounds like an attempt at time travel.

In the eighties, graffiti gained acceptance in the art world. Despite Ramm’s charisma, the intensity of his work and his stubborn, erratic personality kept him on the movement’s fringes. Where Basquiat and Keith Haring seemed shy showmen, Ramm came across as a nutty professor. His early paintings took inspiration from the psychedelia of comic books and science fantasy, with mazy train tracks running across cosmic reliefs. His palette was attuned to the era’s anxieties about nuclear war and nuclear waste. The colors were bright and garish, suggesting a box of neon highlighters run amok.

Rammellzee created and wore full-body suits of armor that he called “Garbage Gods.”

Photograph by Mari Horiuchi / courtesy Red Bull Arts New York and the Rammellzee Estate

In the mid-eighties, he began rendering these ideas in 3-D. He made sculptures that evoked the fossilized remains of twentieth-century life: newspaper clippings, key rings, chain links, and other junk, floating in an epoxy ooze. The most remarkable works were his “Garbage Gods,” full-body suits of armor, some of which weighed more than a hundred pounds. They look like junk-yard Transformers doing samurai cosplay. His most famous character, the Gasholeer, was outfitted with a small flamethrower.

Ramm’s art, thought, and music are the subject of the exhibition “ramm∑llz∑∑: Racing for Thunder,” at Red Bull Arts New York.

Befitting the popular drink’s own sense of iconoclasm, “Racing” bathes in Ramm’s frenzied, free-associative, and occasionally overwhelming energy. There are his early canvases and sculptures, along with flyers, business cards, manifestos, and patent applications. A small theatre screens previously unseen videos of Ramm rapping at nightclubs. The most impressive part of the survey is a floor devoted to his “Garbage Gods” and “Letter Racers”—skateboards representing each letter of the alphabet, armed with makeshift rockets, screwdrivers, and blades.

Throughout the exhibition, you can hear moments from Ramm’s lectures on Gothic Futurism—a thrilling jumble of street-corner hustling and technical language, all “parsecs,” “integers,” “aerodynamics.” As I was examining a collection of hand-painted watches, I kept hearing Ramm pause as he reached the end of a long disquisition on ecological catastrophe and graffiti-as-warfare, and then bark, “Next slide!”

In early May, the Red Bull Music Festival staged a Ramm-inspired concert to mark the opening of the art show. Ramm had continued to make music after “Beat Bop,” never wavering from his philosophies, just declaring them against increasingly turbulent, industrial-sounding backdrops. The eclecticism of the bill spoke to his wandering ear, and ranged from the terse hardcore of Show Me the Body to the wise-ass raps of Wiki. K-Rob, wearing a T-shirt featuring a mushroom and the words “I’m a Fun Guy,” reprised his verse from “Beat Bop,” grinning the whole way through. Gio Escobar, the leader of the deft punk-jazz band Standing on the Corner, dedicated a song to a late friend. The departed are everywhere around us, he said, as a groove emerged from the band’s dubbed-out chaos. “And they’re waiting.”

As hip-hop and art changed, as graffiti vanished from New York’s trains and walls, Ramm delved further into his own private cosmos—namely, the enormous loft in Tribeca where he lived, which he called the Battle Station. His obscurity wasn’t a choice. In the early eighties, he offered to send the U.S. military some of the intelligence he had gathered for national defense. (It declined.) In 1985, he wrote an opera, “The Requiem of Gothic Futurism.” In the nineties, he tried to promote his ideas by producing a comic book and a board game. He thought that toy manufacturers might want to mass-produce his “Garbage Gods” models.

He was the first artist to collaborate with the streetwear brand Supreme.

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There was a series of infomercial-like videos to seed interest in “Alpha’s Bet,” an epic movie that he hoped would finally resolve the narrative arc of his extended universe.

By the time Rammellzee died, in 2010, after a long illness, New York City had been completely remade by mayoral administrations that took broken-windows policing as gospel. The Battle Station became condos.

The Internet has made it easy to take what the culture provides you and rearrange it in some novel, cheeky way. It’s much more difficult to build an entirely new world—to abide by an ethical vision with a ferocity that requires you to break all the rules. I was surprised by how moved I felt standing underneath Ramm’s “Letter Racers” and studying the textures of the “Garbage Gods.” To see their meticulous handiwork up close was to believe that Ramm’s far-flung theories, his mashup of quantum physics and “slanguage,” made sense as an outsider’s survival strategy. I noticed all the discarded fragments of city life—bulbs and screws, a billiard ball, a doll’s head, old fan blades and turn-signal signs, visors stacked to look like pill bugs. His commitment was total. These are works of devotion.

This is where Ramm wanted to live—at the edge of comprehensibility, but in a way that invited others to wonder. Cities are filled with strangers who possess an unnerving energy, who hail us with stories, songs, and poems. Ramm was one of these. In an interview filmed in the aughts, Ramm sheds light on his everyday life. Sometimes, he says, he’ll be walking down the street or sitting at a bar, and people will just look at him. And sometimes they’ll come up to him and ask, “Who are you?” He’s explaining all this while wearing one of his “Garbage God” masks. You notice his paunch, the warm crackle of his voice at rest. “I’m just an average Joe,” he says, and he sounds like he believes it. 

♦Published in the print edition of the May 28, 2018, issue, with the headline “Graffiti Prophet.”

[appears]

Pizzicato Five: the international playboy & playgirl record

25th anniversary

By 1998, Pizzicato Five had settled into the perfect groove: they had found their voice and niche as leading purveyors of the Japanese indie-pop/Shibuya-kei scene, were regularly releasing some of the most interesting and stylistically original music anywhere, and had also established their signature look, incorporating their love of 60s ye-ye, 70s funk, soul, and disco, and 90s hip-hop and house into the now iconic throwback looks ripped from the pages of Petticoat and Queen. This mid-90s period was their most fruitful, with almost one studio album released every year that decade (not to mention the countless remix and best-of compilations, and EPs) -- when genius burns, it positively scorches. At their height, right on the cusp of the end, they released the international playgirl & playboy record.

Pizzicato Five were one of the very rare and lucky Japanese groups to have a cult international following, with the indie label Matador distributing their music beginning with 1994's Five By Five and Made in USA, a compilation record, before finally doing the group justice enough to release albums mostly unchanged. Thus, the international playboy & playgirl record became, simply, Playboy & Playgirl for the U.S. release, coming out seven months after the original in the spring of 1999. By many hipsters' account, Shibuya-kei was mostly done by the late 90s, a hip trend taken to its logical dead-end with the number of copy-cat groups and zero-sum looting of obscure musical samples that rendered obsolete the special "insider's knowledge" of bragging rights that made the genre so fun. I can also see how some might think Yasuharu Konishi, the main writer, producer and one half of P5, with Maki Nomiya on vocals, was running out of ideas.

Certainly, the music on Playboy & Playgirl is some of their most commercial yet, tending towards a more standard J-pop sound with singles like "WEEKEND" and the title track "PLAYBOY PLAYGIRL." It's certainly some of their most lush, with the orchestral hints on previous album ROMANTIQUE '96 now making way for full string quartets and roiling brass popping up throughout the album like Burt Bacharach on caffeine. Along with the iconic jacket art, it's a very cinematic sound, the fulmination of Konishi's entire aesthetic now in its full, no-cost-spared production. It's absolutely gorgeous, and the fact that the focus shifted from showing off Konishi's esoteric musical influences to crafting actual masterpieces only made the music better and stronger on its own. Sure, you might be a more sophisticated listener for being able to name the James Taylor, Herb Pilhofer, and Richard de Bordeaux & Daniel Beretta samples, but even if you didn't recognize them, you could still enjoy the songs.

I don't want to ignore Maki Nomiya -- she may not have been the ultimate mastermind like Konishi, but you can hardly imagine P5's entire aesthetic without her. Besides being the face of the group, she has one of my favorite voices in Japanese music history. While she may not have the bold, endless range and gymnastic ability of what people in the West associate with great vocalists, like Christina Aguilera or Mariah Carey, say, she has what I consider quintessential 90s J-pop vocals: light but steady, clipped and precise, smooth, and impeccably articulated. There's nothing immediately recognizable about it in the context of her J-pop contemporaries, but her voice is absolutely perfect for the type of music P5 did, and her essential presence enhances the warmth of their sound.

the international playboy & playgirl record was released in many different versions, and since this is my favorite P5 record, I finally own all of them. It was first released in Japan on the group's own Readymade label under Nippon Columbia in a slim DVD-sized cardboard box, as well as on 12" vinyl that included selections from the album, rather than the record in its entirety. It was also distributed on the indie label Matador in the US, which came in a digipak with a booklet featuring various photos, and the lyrics printed in the original romaji next to English translations. Many of the song titles are close or close-enough adaptations of the original Japanese titles, although the Matador version swaps out a track called "THE INTERNATIONAL PIZZICATO FIVE MANSION" for a track that doesn't appear on the original Japanese release, called "La Règle du jeu." This is most likely due to the fact that the former is a track composed almost entirely of inconsequential "background music" set to Japanese dialogue. "La Règle du jeu" was originally released in 1998 as a stand-alone single with "Atarashii Uta," or "New Song." Matador also released this album on 12" vinyl, featuring different cover art than the original Japanese vinyl version (which are all different from the CD version), as well as a slightly different song selection (it also includes the missing track “THE INTERNATIONAL PIZZICATO FIVE MANSION” not found on the Matador CD).

There are a lot of Pizzicato Five songs and albums that I really like, but for me, this album really captures the essence of the group at their most commercial, and therefore, most inclusive, best. ROMANTIQUE '96 and HAPPY END OF THE WORLD might have cooler samples, but it also rendered them a bit more exclusive and closed off to anyone without the requisite hours spent in the stacks memorizing long-forgotten jazz riffs of the 1960s. Playboy & Playgirl took the snobbery out of Shibuya-kei in a way that made anyone capable of appreciating its ornate Copperplate flourishes. That’s what makes pop music so great, and while that might have contributed to the genre’s and group’s eventual dissolution, I will never pass on the opportunity to hear a sound made more accessible by appealing to more common-denominator foundations, rather than less, as long as it's done respectfully and successfully. P5 made both approaches work, and here, still managed to retain their signature sound without succumbing to a loss of what made them so unique.

Happy 25th anniversary to the international playboy & playgirl record, one of the greatest albums of time.

[fdlvh]

Book review

The Alaska Sanders affair by Joel Dicker 5/5

Description:

April 1999, Mount Pleasant, New Hampshire. The body of a young woman, Alaska Sanders, is found on the shore of a lake. The investigation is quickly closed, the police obtain the confessions of the culprit, who kills himself soon after, and of his accomplice. Eleven years later, however, we discover the case is not really solved. Sergeant Perry Gahalowood, who was conducting the investigation at the time, receives a disturbing anonymous letter. What if he followed a red herring? The help of his writer friend Marcus Goldman, who just had huge success with The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, inspired by their common experience, will once again be crucial to uncovering the truth. But there is a mystery in the mystery: the disappearance of Harry Quebert. Ghosts of the past return and, among them, the one of Harry Quebert.

Actual thoughts:

This is the third book having Goldman as protagonist (before this there's the truth about the Harry Quebert affair and the Baltimore one) which I encourage to read before Alaska's as you'll be familiar with sergeant Perry despite this book dwelling much more on the obsessive compulsive, funny tie wearing detective and his family. This case was brutal and that's not even taking into account the emotional baggage behind this book's murders. Absolutely genius I couldn't stray from the pages until I'd found out who the murder was. A book that doesn't only keep you guessing until the very end (given that Dicker's MO seems more and more to make compelling accusations against at least eight other characters before the protagonists are able to catch the real killer and using police batons as murder weapons. Like batons really Dicker?) but it was also very entertaining. Small towns where everyone knows everyone, where everyone has a past that entwines with one another which gives many and I mean many possible suspects and good reasons for murder, this book has it all from friendships broken by death and jail to a trigger happy detective (you'll know if you'll read around 600 pages, wink wink. I swear it's worth it).

This book was surprising, from the littlest twist and detail to the bigger picture. What I found especially funny was that the main suspect has been in jail for like two decades, his sister which believes him innocent even changed her life to try and make others believe it as well, she became a police officer and that man still lies constantly during interrogation like, we're trying to get ya out mister! You could do the bare minimum of answering honestly. Not to talk about how heart wretching romance is in this book, the author clearly didn't have luck in relationships while he wrote this or the previous book or... Better not dwell on the author's sentimental life. One thing I can also credit, despite making me cry (the courage, unbelievable right?) is the realism most relationships have in the story; siblings who don't know every tidbit of the other, who question whether they could've actually committed a crime, how they can still love each other despite accusations and doubt. Married couples that simply admit that love's not easy, that it's a day by day work in progress, that sometimes you can love your partner less in the years you're together and that it's no one's fault, that nothing happened, that nothing's different despite the fluctuation of feelings. I love in how many shades one can find jealousy in the book. There's also silent pining, even sexuality realization which isn't born from doubt but from certainty, which doesn't bring stupor or embarrassment, which is taken as it is.

All in all the book was just as perfect as all before it, a great job on everything, the planning must've been hell given everything matters and is taken into account later on in the story (some might find it hard to follow but the book does a great rundown of when and where characters came in possession of used information or deduction).

Now onto Harry, Jesus Christ, this man and his guts. I'm not sure if he deserved a happy ending, nonetheless it had something very telling and poetic about it, something out of Seagulls of Aurora, something that truly suited him and that's all I'm afraid; if you want to know more about the most toxic loves in existence, a missing wrist watch, a death sentence, a far too throughout psychologist, Goldman's old and new friendships (maybe even love) and a sneaky snakey culprit then you'll have to read it for yourself.

[kammartinez]

By Luis Alberto Urrea

I was born in Tijuana and spent much of my boyhood in a neighborhood — “colonia,” in TJ-speak — called Independencia. There was an ersatz European-style castle at one end of our street, a tamed bear living at the bottom of the hill, a madman next door who regularly got drunk and shot his pistola at the moon, and a yard with bananas and a tall old pomegranate tree. Sounds tropical. Sounds like Gabriel García Márquez. Doesn’t sound on the surface like the deadly desert, like the frightening shadow land of crooked policías and narco hit men.

The borderlands are the most interesting book in the world, being rewritten every day. Currently, I can attest that much of that contested region, from coast to coast, is alive with tourists seeking good food and cheap medical care, a developing street scene of boutiques and gourmet eateries, baristas and art galleries, vivid music and literary movements, ballet companies and symphonic concerts and, in my hometown, the best street tacos on earth.

The Mexican cultural journalist Jaime Cháidez Bonilla recently wrote this on Twitter (I’ve translated from his Spanish): “I like it when evening falls over Tijuana, a poetic act. A city so defamed, a city so generous.” I dare say most people don’t think of any border city, on either side of the wall, as generous. I have been fortunate enough to write about Tijuana and the border for many years, and of course I have read a library’s worth of other authors wrestling with the region. My favorite border pop song is by Nortec Collective (more on them below), and it’s called “Tijuana Makes Me Happy.” Yeah — the border makes me happy. A tip: Expect the unexpected.

I need to pause here in recognition that immigration is the relentless theme of this area and this era. But I do not believe that immigration stories are a subset of the literature of the borderlands: Though there is some cross-pollination, I believe immigration literature is a genre of its own, deserving of its own spotlight. I do not include it here.

What books and authors should I take with me?

One grand feature of border culture is the lure of a bargain. For decades, the clarion call of cheap muffler (“mofle”) shops drew tourists south; now, it’s cheap dentures and Viagra. So let us offer a one-stop classic, the anthology “Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots and Graffiti From La Frontera.” Edited by Tijuana’s greatest literary son, Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, along with El Paso’s late, great Bobby Byrd and his son John William Byrd, this wild anthology covers the good, the bad and the ugly. Many of the greatest border thinkers and writers are contained within its covers: Charles Bowden, Leslie Marmon Silko, Sam Quinones, Juan Villoro and Doug Peacock (model for the infamous hero of Edward Abbey’s novel “The Monkey Wrench Gang”), among others. Funky, funny, literary, angry — it will show you things you may have wondered about and things you might not have imagined.

What writers or books will help me feel the spirit of this place?

Even if you do not read poetry, the borderlands require it. In a place both lush and austere, alien and homey, full of symphonies of languages and accents, smells and sounds, silence and raucous music, nothing can touch the experience of being there like poetry. It is not a coincidence that most of the writers on my list are also poets. They will transport you.

Ofelia Zepeda, a 1999 MacArthur fellow, is a Tohono O’odham poet of such elegant and exact rhetoric, such integrity of culture and vision, that you miss her quiet genius at your own risk. She gave the songs of the Tohono O’odham back to the land. Come to the chapels of her books “Ocean Power: Poems From the Desert” and “Where Clouds Are Formed.”

I highly recommend a book that gives me endless delight as a reader and endless inspiration as a writer: Harry Polkinhorn and Mark Weiss’s seminal anthology “Across the Line/Al Otro Lado.” It covers the broad and surprising corpus of Baja California’s poetry, from Indigenous chants to postmodern epics, and it includes works that reflect the flavored cross-genre/cross-cultural/cross-border adventures the writers foresee in the distance of this decade.

Arizona’s first poet laureate, Alberto Ríos, born in Nogales, Ariz., is a true writer of the borderlands. Though all of his poetry books are excellent, “A Small Story About the Sky” remains my favorite. However, of particular interest for this list is “Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir.”

No one is better positioned to affect this literature than Natalie Diaz, the director of the Center for Imagination in the Borderlands at Arizona State University. A winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry and a self-described “language activist,” Diaz is brilliant and powerful, and you need to read both “When My Brother Was an Aztec” and “Postcolonial Love Poem.”

Finally, the wizard, the curandero, the presidente: Juan Felipe Herrera. A former U.S. poet laureate and son of migrant farmworkers. My homeboy from Barrio Logan in San Diego. His selected poems in “Half of the World in Light” are a magical mystery tour, not only along the border but through the universe. Herrera is a kind of psychedelic drug and he will make you see visions. His voice is the distillation of all of our journeys.

What novels will transport me?

Borderlands authors are many. One of the best and most authentic is Denise Chávez. Her milieu is the often overlooked southern New Mexico and West Texas world of frontera families, and the tall tales that flourish there. She is the queen of the generation that surged in the 1980s and beyond — a strong feminist voice free of cant and bursting with delight. Her novel “Loving Pedro Infante” will begin your Chávez collection, and you won’t want to stop. Another groundbreaker is the poet and novelist Ana Castillo and her border classic “So Far From God.” Both of these writers tell the stories of women on the American side of the line in vivid color, in many tones and in both languages.

I also highly recommend anything by Benjamin Alire Sáenz. His “Aristotle and Dante” young adult novels are immensely popular, but I regard his poetry with helpless envy. Start with his story collection “Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club,” which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and his poetry collection “Elegies in Blue.”

What audiobook would make for good company while I walk around?

The oldest, most venerable literary tradition along the borderline is oral. I didn’t start out reading books: I sat at the feet of old women telling ghost stories and fanciful family histories (and recounting dyspeptic gossip about other relatives). They were my first lit professors.

In my opinion, rather than audiobooks, you should listen to the music of the border, because it will be easier to absorb and you can dance to it. Every song is a novel or a book of poems, because the borderlands don’t talk: They sing. Music transcends and leaps over border walls like wild doves. Two of the best musical portraitists of this world are Lila Downs and Nortec Collective. Downs’s “The Border” is an elegant and lively album that paints indelible portraits with depth and wit. And her album “Shake Away” is a wild ride through the sounds and tales that we will never see on a tour bus or a beach holiday. (Suggested track: “Minimum Wage.”) For dance lovers and electronica fans, the Nortec Collective duo has created a hybrid of techno music that absorbs and transforms traditional instrumentation and themes into a rollicking dance music of joy and, yes, generosity. There are few bands that spawn a huge cultural and literary movement, but Nortec has opened gates for creativity in literature, theater, dance and visual art throughout the region and across the world that are constantly bearing fruit.

I must also recommend Los Lobos from Los Angeles, Calexico from Tucson, Ariz., and two wildly rollicking bands from Monterrey, Mexico: El Gran Silencio and Jumbo.

Anything I should add to my bookshelf?

For literate thrills and occasional chills, turn to Rubén Degollado (“The Family Izquierdo” and “Throw”). A splendid collection by Oscar Cásares, “Brownsville,” gives the inside scoop on a place in Texas that you may not think of without an author’s guidance. And Sergio Troncoso is such a beloved writer of the borderlands, there is a public library branch named for him in El Paso. His “A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son” is simply brilliant.

Luis Alberto Urrea’s Borderland Reading List

“Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots and Graffiti From La Frontera,” edited by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, Bobby Byrd and John William Byrd

“Ocean Power: Poems From the Desert” and “Where Clouds Are Formed,” Ofelia Zepeda

“Across the Line/Al Otro Lado,” edited by Harry Polkinhorn and Mark Weiss

“A Small Story About the Sky” and “Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir,” Alberto Ríos

“When My Brother Was an Aztec” and “Postcolonial Love Poem,” Natalie Diaz

“Half of the World in Light,” Juan Felipe Herrera

“Loving Pedro Infante,” Denise Chávez

“So Far From God,” Ana Castillo

“Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club” and “Elegies in Blue,” Benjamin Alire Sáenz

“The Family Izquierdo” and “Throw,” Rubén Degollado

“Brownsville,” Oscar Cásares

“A Peculiar Kind of Immigrant’s Son,” Sergio Troncoso

[d3atherection]

MUSIC RECOMMANDATION🎵

hey i decided it’s time to put yall on some fire music and that being Psí Vojáci

Psí Vojáci was a czech underground band formed in 1979 by pianist Filip Topol, drummer David Skála and basist Jan Hazuka. I could go on a whole rant about Filip since my man was a musical genius who played the piano like no one else and wrote the most insane lyrics ever. In short they had problems with the communist regime since the very beginning so they naturally ended up in the underground scene which they slowly left in the 80s. Filip had severe problems with alcohol, he was often drunk during concerts and had to undergo a pancreas surgery in 1999 - which is detailed in his solo album Střepy (Shards). In their early days most of the lyrics were written by Filip’s older brother Jáchym Topol (he’s actually a pretty well known czech writer). Psí Vojáci disbanded in 2013 after Filip’s death.

ALBUMS I RECOMMEND

• Leitmotiv (1991)

• Brutální lyrika (1995)

• Nechoď sama do tmy (1983 - 1986)

• Národ psích vojáků (1996) - compilation

FROM FILIP’S SOLO WORK

• Střepy (1999) - sadly this is a much better expirience if you understand czech

• Sakramiláčku (1995)

[lizardsfromspace]

tl;dr I actually tried reading her book, you'll find that a few paragraphs down etc etc

I've always been baffled by her claim that The Terminator and The Matrix were plagiarized from one story by her.

Like, on a practical level, there's little overlap between them. The Terminator was produced by Gale Anne Hurd for Orion (a studio that didn't even exist by 1999), The Matrix was produced by Joel Silver for Warner Bros, I obviously didn't check every minor crew member but there's no one above-the-line who could've leaked shared details from her story to both crews. Also, Terminator came out two years before the contest, so I guess she meant Terminator 2, which was produced by Gale Anne Hurd again and released by Columbia.

But like. There's not much overlap between Terminator and The Matrix? I can think of two things:

Both revolve around a future Earth ruined by a robot uprising, and a human resistance

Both spend the bulk of their plots in contemporary Earth

But both of those are fairly broad, and the presentation and nature of the tropes are wildly different in each film, as I mentioned in the OP.

My best assumption is that she wrote a robot apocalypse story, and claims she owns the idea of the robot apocalypse.

We can't tell though - and here's a fact I left out of the OP, even though it's the part that haunts me most - bc Sophia Stewart has never really written anything. She's spent decades trying to get legal recognition for herself as the ur-creator behind all of modern science fiction, but going off reviews, it appears the story that was plagiarized exists just as an outline, and her published book of it is primarily documents about her case.

Her other books include one purely about the legal case, and...her fanfic version of The Matrix 4, which has a lot of glowing one-line reviews, and some longer one-star reviews that claim she constantly misspells character names. In all her time spent losing lawsuits and telling the press how she's a genius writer, near as I can tell, that's the only fiction project she's written as more than a outline. Her bio lists script work, but her only IMDB credit is appearing as herself in a documentary about herself.

I had to find out in what way both Terminator and The Matrix were plagiarized from her work.

So I downloaded a PDF of her magnum opus, The Third Eye to find out myself. The first 18 pages are her bio, then we get into the work, which she's described as a novel, a comic, and a script, which is...a movie treatment. It's a thirty page long outline...followed by the same outline, but as a scan of the original manuscript. So just thirty pages of this 250 page long book are actual story

In the Terminator, the world was destroyed by a military computer. In the Matrix, it was oppressed robots rising up against their human masters, and it was the humans who wrecked the world, by blacking out the sky. Let's see who's responsible for the robot uprising in her original pitch!

Globalist bankers who control the media.

Hmm.

So there's a huge culture war component to all of this. Sophia Stewart is Very Christian, and says her movie was stolen specifically bc it was Too Christian for Hollywood, because she believes there's some group that controls Hollywood, and the media, and the banks, and that wants to oppress Christianity

And also the sigil of the villains in the movie - a villain whose goal is to kill a hybrid child born unto a mortal woman via a god-like alien - is two pyramids forming a six-pointed star

Wow, wonder what she's implying! I guess we'll never know!!!

I'll be honest: I can't read the whole thing. She includes a whole file of rejection letters the treatment got, mainly boilerplate, and reading it? Yes. This film is not just incomprehensible dogshit full of LORE LORE LORE LORE, and an extremely unsubtle conspiratorial antisemitic subtext, as well as a healthy slathering of Ancient Aliens Hotep nonsense about the pyramids, but also it's full of plot. It would be a dozen hours long and cost billions of dollars today, and she wanted to do it pre-CGI in 1981. It's absolutely unfilmable. And her treatment missed the assignment; it goes on at length about "pyramid imagery" and then will just gloss over huge amounts of plot developments in a paragraph.

And it has NOTHING in common with The Matrix or The Terminator. It's more Star Wars than anything: a planet-hopping space opera. Hell, it's even split into a trilogy with three parts. The plot is driven by, like, Ancient Aliens stuff. The similarities are that Earth is post-apocalyptic, and there is a chosen one with Messianic overtones, but like. Sophia Stewart, you don't own the concept of robot wars or Jesus figures.

SHE CONSISTENTLY MISSPELLS "GALACTIC" AS "GALATIC". Am I the only person to ever try actually reading her manuscript??? I know I'm not, but I've read negative reviews and none of them mentioned the constant rants about "bankers" or the pyramid power stuff

She includes a list of "similarities" that includes that her pyramid-shaped Spacestar is a spaceship, and The Matrix has non-space ships, so it's the same

But my fave is that she claims Switch is a ripoff of one of her characters, bc both are...underdeveloped with no real part. Sophia Stewart owns the concept of underdeveloped characters now. Well, she can have that one I guess

The queen of dubious Hollywood plagiarism cases is Sophia Stewart. She's the woman who The Matrix and The Terminator were stolen from, if you've heard that legend; she won a billion dollars and her victory over the studios was so big it was only ever reported by...the college paper of Salt Lake Community College. In truth she didn't win the case, she won the right to not have it dismissed, which it eventually was when she failed to show up.

Like, she wasn't claiming The Matrix and The Terminator were stolen from her work as a whole; she claimed they were stolen from the same story, even though the only real similarity they have is "robots destroyed the Earth and there's human rebels". How can this be? Well the story was unpublished in the 80s. But you can buy it now! ...but that version's from after she made her case, so who knows if it looks like the original. The Amazon reviews include a lot of glowing ones from people without avatars, and a lot of one star ones from people who seem to exist saying that it's more or less a plot outline and the majority of the book is just legal documents

But you don't have to dig into that bc she claims she sent it to a contest for story ideas run by the Wachowskis. In 1986. When they were not only not filmmakers, but a teenager and in college respectively. That's ten years before they made their first feature film, and she claims they were running a contest for story ideas in a national magazine she cannot name, even though she obsessively documents every other aspect of the plagiarism case. You literally don't have to look up any other facet of her argument: this one basic fact making no sense chronologically, and being the only element she can't produce, lets you dismiss the rest. The Wachowskis simply were not running national filmmaking competitions when they were in college

And yet! It spreads. It still spreads. When the fourth Matrix movie came out there were "Actually, the Wachowskis stole The Matrix from an African-American woman" reminders everywhere. It spreads on TikTok, Twitter, and even Tumblr. All from people who haven't actually tried looking up her story, and who are going off a Utah community college paper's misinterpretation that her slightly delaying losing her case was somehow her winning billions. It sounds good, and that's all that matters

[denimbex1986]

'...3. Ripley (Netflix)

If revisiting Mr. & Mrs. Smith seemed like an odd choice, offering a new, series-length take on Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley just seems like folly, given the genius of the 1999 movie version with Matt Damon and Jude Law. (The show was even abandoned by its original home, Showtime, and picked up for a song by Netflix, though the streaming giant doesn’t seem interested in adapting other Highsmith books.) But writer-director Steve Zaillian’s chilly, methodical take on the material — taking us step-by-step through the various cons and murders committed by an older, less sympathetic Tom Ripley (so well played by Andrew Scott) — made this familiar story feel new again. And the black and white photography by Zaillian and cinematographer Robert Elswit offered some of the most stunning imagery ever seen in dramatic television...'

[diaryofnie]

July 6, 2024 The Beginning

8.56 am

A 24-year-old obese(97.35kg) with hair loss, dark circles, blackheads, and other ugly spots. Yeah! That’s me. As for how I ended up in this state, that’s a long story. Now, I haven’t slept at all last night. As to what I was doing? Why? Of course! My brain was on overdrive. Inspiration! INSPIRATION to write this damn blog won’t leave my mind. Why did God make me mediocre? If I was dull-witted, I would have seen through my capabilities and would work hard in a down-to-earth manner or If I were a genius, I would never be in this state. But God made me mediocre he gives me bursts of inspiration from time to time making me believe myself capable of great things but it is all a dream because inspiration will only accompany me for a few days and afterward it is nowhere to be found.

Anyways, I am Nie, born in a local hospital of Dibrugarh, Assam, India on 24th September 1999. As for the rest of the introduction, we will slowly get to know each other.

5.47 pm

Good evening, I slept all day. I have messages to call My Friend Y.  So talk to you later.

5.55 pm

Sighhhh…. Y gave me the task to modify their project’s white paper yesterday. Wait let me explain some things first I will be going to Delhi this Tuesday to hopefully join Y’s business team as a content writer. Y is a friend I met when we attended college together. Because of COVID, we only got to know each other properly for like only one and a half years but I think he is a good person. At least I hope so.

Anyway, I think they are not satisfied with my work. They told me to make their technical content more professional and not to simplify it…. If Y was not my friend, they probably would not want me on their team. I have a feeling I won’t be able to rely on this job to earn money because of my low skills. 

8.49 pm

I have no words to explain this. Y showed me some work the design team their team contracted to have done. It was like okay. I have no idea about this. Sure, the designs do not have the wow factor but it is not like I have the say. I only sometimes browse Instagram reels.so I have no idea what social media expects. But then he told me that the designs were very substandard and then told me to make some. I was like perplexed. My self-confidence was already low, and now it took a big hit. I am such a loser and I don’t even know how to improve myself. I know the standard response in this situation is to learn some designing and somehow show them even though I don’t have the skill I should be willing to learn and improve for the team. But to really follow through it is complicated. I feel like standing before a blank canvas but my fingers holding the brush do not move. 

I don’t want to face failure. I hate it. I can’t believe I can’t create value for myself when I dreamt of creating value for others as a child. The disappointment, loss, and other complex emotional issues are making me nauseous. I casually asked perplexity but the AI’s answer brought me to a halt.

Suddenly, I understood why I was waiting for the past six years. I was waiting for someone to hold me, guide me, and reassure my way towards the future. I just wanted to wholeheartedly trust someone. I wanted to feel a sense of stability and security. I can only blame myself for the fact that it took an AI to make me see sense. 

11.18 pm

Good night

Short term goal– Earn enough money to buy    Iphone 13 pro

Long Term goal–  travel around the world

[culttvblog]

Bugs: All Under Control

I know that I pride myself that everything I blog about here is cult TV, but in this post we are in proper cult TV territory, in fact a show I haven't long known about. Bugs (1995 to 1999)is not one of those shows that just everyone has watched, but has a definite cult following in the UK, with actual fans. I don't know whether it has much or any of an international following. In fact Bugs has been described as 'an Avengers for the nineties'.

Frankly I wish people would mostly stop comparing shows to The Avengers. It doesn't do, they don't usually compare, and it sets up an unrealistic expectation of what the show can come up with and places the show under unfair stress. Adam Adamant Lives is a show this has been done to, as is Virtual Murder, and both shows are quality entertainment in their own right and don't need comparing to anything else. However in the case of Bugs it's not just anyone describing it as the Avengers of the nineties, but it's Brian Clemens. Yes, that Brian Clemens, script writer, editor and producer of The (actual) Avengers, who had an input into this show. Holy cow, this show had the bloke who did The Avengers working on it. Of all the shows compared to The Avengers, this actually *is* as close as we'll get to The Avengers of The Nineties.

It's an action/adventure cum science fiction show about Gizmos, a team of crime-fighting technology experts. And so we have the witty dialogue, we have the fantastic technology, we have the sexual chemistry, we absolutely have the great and the good gone bad, and while the complete unreality has been toned down a bit, it has rather been transferred to the technology that features in the show. Oh, the technology that features in the show. I don't mean the fictional technology, I mean the technology of the nineties. Thirty years later this show might as well be set in 1960 because some of the technology looks so outdated it's like a trip down memory lane. Of course this wasn't intended at the time. My personal opinion is that it doesn't really matter that the sort of futuristic fictional technology depicted didn't really come to pass in most cases, because that aspect of the show can firmly be consigned to fiction. It's against a familiar nineties background, though.

One of the things which makes the background so nineties it that the show is shot with a very definite aesthetic in mind. Its palette is predominantly blues, and greys, with splashes of yellow or read in places. Essentially if you heap up a collection of vintage nineties computing equipment you would have exactly the aesthetic of this show and it's glorious.

Another interesting feature of this show is that it was impacted twice by IRA bombs during the tail end of the Troubles. Initially it was mostly filmed around the reveloped London Docklands with its futuristic appearance, but this was ended by the IRA bombing of the South Quay Plaza in 1996. Then the Omagh bombing in 1998 severely disrupted the broadcast of the final series. Truly of its time.

All Under Control is perhaps slightly different from the other episodes because it's about the team's investigation after a passenger aircraft is hijacked by remote control. Not to beat about the bush here, I love the dead nineties computer set up with a mouse that the hijacker uses to hijack the plane. Otherwise the episode is a great opportunity for filming outside the city, including obviously at an airport and also at the homes of the genius who designed the state-of-the-art navigation system of the plane. It's great stuff.

I have to say that the plots of Bugs episodes are fairly straightforward in the early episodes (I haven't got there yet but apparently in later episodes more human interest stuff starts intruding): basically they are presented with a problem, investigate it and find the solution. It's about as no-nonsense as you can get, while still having that Avengersesque/futuristic feel. I suspect this is the reason this show has a cult following: you'll either take to it or you won't, and personally I don't follow the plots too closely and just let it wash over me.

If I have a criticism it is that I think the episodes are possibly a little longer than they could be, at least in terms of plot. the good looks and nineties state of mind never gives up. I wouldn't go to the stake for this opinion though.

I have to say it is a pleasure to find a series which might actually have a claim to be a successor of The Avengers because of having Brian Clemens work on it and I recommend it very highly. I'd suggest starting at the beginning if you've not seen it because the fans seem to like the earlier ones better than the later ones.

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