#50 bucks they even use the same soundtrack

[honestlyeddie-im-bi]

Nobody asked for this but last night I couldn’t sleep and my only thought was ‘wait what kind of music does the firefam listen to????’. So, here are my opinions:

Bobby: dad rock. I mean it. 70’s and early 80’s music is his jam. Even at his most depressed he still accepted to go to a Springsteen concert with the probie. David Bowie is like his hero tho.

Athena: she still listens to the same stuff she used to listen to while in college and before Emmett died. Late eighties/early nineties RnB mostly.

Hen Wilson: I feel like her playlist would be a bit all over the place time wise BUT what all the artists she listens to have in common is that they’re either self-made women (particularly self-made black women) or big sapphic names in music. She loves Rihanna a lot, but Chappell Roan has been on a loop in her ears in the last couple of weeks.

Karen: I could make a joke here and say that she listens to lots of musicals but I won’t do that. She mostly likes instrumentals, quite stuff she can listen to when she studies or works. Her favourite album is the OST to Pride and Prejudice (2005)

Chimney: he does not have a favourite genre, his playlist is the current Top 50 and he has an incredible memory for them. He loves EVERYTHING. I know you guys like to believe Buck is a Swiftie, but Chimney is the one who has been listening to her religiously since Day 1. Fun fact no. 1: the only times he did not keep up with the top 50 was when Kevin died and when Maddie left for Boston. Fun fact no. 2: one day he came into the 118 singing Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter and the rest of the firefam did not know what to do with that fact.

Maddie: BALLADS BALLADS BALLADS BALLADS.

Eddie: This man cannot get himself to listen to new music to save his life. Most of the songs in his library are songs he just stumbled upon on the radio or that were part of soundtracks. For this reason, there are lots of Spanish songs from his silly little telenovelas in there. He mostly loves poetic songs. For some reason, he cried for like 30 minutes straight while listening to Dos oruguitas from Encanto for the first time

Buck: he doesn’t really listen to much music. He used to have this playlist for the gym but now that he trains at the station he loves listening to the people that he loves moving around him. When he’s driving he puts on a podcast and he tries to learn something new everyday.

Tommy: Bobby but like 20 years later. Rock music from the late eighties and early nineties. He cried when he heard that Guns n’ Roses where splitting up and was the first in line to buy Chinese Democracy when Axl Rose finally released it. He loved Kurt Cobain. He still listens to Foo Fighters. He LOVES Metallica. Enter Sandman was his favourite song for a long while but now for some reasons his favourite song is Patience by Guns n’ Roses.

[steve0discusses]

S5 Ep 15 Pt 1: The Gang Gets Lost in India

Ah, back to Yugioh classic. Sort of. We’re going into the second filler arc before Bakura, which I have been told is kind of nonsense. And youknow what, from the first scene--this is the first scene by the way--yeah I can see the nonsense.

We got Yami cosplaying as the Chrysler building, we got Yugi saying WTFWTF, we got...this thing?

This thing tells us “Join my game, Yugi!” and then the demon just kinda bounces.

K, bye, I guess.

(read more under the cut)

Waking up from this nightmare, Yugi reveals that he has outgrown his good pajamas. Or maybe he just overused them like I did to my favorite pajamas during quarantine (which, not gonna lie, I hand sewed my favorite pajama pants back together 2 or 3 times like they were the Velveteen Rabbit. Quarantine pajamas and me were like best buds for a year there.)

RIP Yugi’s good pajamas.

It’s fine. I’m fine.

I can get used to Yugi in his normal ass old man pajamas without any cute stars on them. I can accept this. He’s getting older. So much older that for a second I thought he was learning Hebrew, by the looks of his books on his counter. I thought...wow, is Yugi actually attempting to learn a language spoken around the time of ancient Egyptians???

But uh...I went a searching and unfortunately that’s not Hebrew, and if that is a language, I don’t know what it is. Pretty sure it’s just random marks because this show has to be translated in so many languages. Man. For a second there that looked like really sneaky world building, but nah, Yugi is still kind of a dumbass who has yet to attend a solid year of school.

Also, I got to take in this mustard yellow as if I’ve seen it for the first time.

It has strong building blocks energy. It’s...so much yellow and it’s extremely the vibe of that one set of animal crossing decorations that I have because it’s a very common recipe, but, can’t figure out for the life of me how to fit into any room.

What am I supposed to do with these, Nintendo? Other than recreate Yugi’s Muto’s haunted game store/house?

Like I live in the Bay area and we have wild painted houses so you can see them through the fog (back when we...still had fog, RIP California) --but this is a little much. This is such strong Protagonist energy but as a house.

Also, I’ve don’t think I’ve brought this up before, but like...Yugi is loaded, right? Like he’s way too good and humble to ever say he’s loaded, and they sort of make it seem like he’s not (when compared to Seto Kaiba) but damn, this location of his real estate sure is something. That and Grandpa’s tiny shop seems to run on a constant deficit and his family just doesn’t care.

We flash back a bit to Gramps sneaking out, and Yugi is like “oh great, my only Father figure I ever talk about is getting a backpack together and just...leaving without any notice, huh? Without telling me you were going to go? Didn’t think that would maybe be a little off putting?“ and Gramps is like “Yes?”

Like Gramps nearly died going to an amusement park a few episodes back so I can see why Yugi is a little bit concerned.

Down the street at a little town lottery, Joey is getting further into gambling (I don’t know what those little street lotteries are called, it’s in a lot of anime--but kinda looks like mom lotteries for moms.)

I’m not sure why India is on Joey Wheeler’s bucket list, seems a little random, but he went to Pegasus’ country, after all and that’s barely even a country.

Joey going nuts on a lottery machine instead of going to school was pretty peak filler, so I’m not really minding this stuff so far.

And then, just to spook me, check this out:

I can’t believe they even let them back into a classroom. In my nerd school, if you missed one too many days, you were sent to the bad schools to be someone else’s problem. But in Yugi’s case...that either IS his school or...Yugi is failing International School, which is just a thing he’s allowed to do, because, as I said before, this kid has got to be loaded. Even Seto Kaiba was like “I’m not spending money on this school anymore. That outfit is like 50 bucks a jacket.”

Youknow, I have seen all the other characters knock on Tea’s choice of cute ass monsters for the last 5 seasons, and she has never once changed them out. She is holding onto this scary seraphim thing with the many wings like every child with their first Pidgey. She does not care.

Also how is this thing cute?

like the front of this orb has a face with hearts on it but like...it is kind of remarkable what Yugioh decides is cute. Magma golem: not cute. this thing? This thing that looks like it’s a chibi version of the last chapters of the bible and will sound the trumpets of the second coming? So cuuuuute.

Tristan used to be the Janitor/hall monitor/square archetype. Like hell he can walk around with that 00′s R+B soundtrack.

Joey appears in order to get us the hell out of school, and the art team retires this school background for the rest of what I assume is this entire series.

Goodbye school. Maybe you’ll come back with Bakura. Which would be weird, since rumor is that arc takes place in ancient Egypt.

On their walk home, Tea lets out in an inner monologue that no one could hear that after 5 straight seasons of his BS, she’s sick and tired of Pharaoh being the center of attention all the time and she needs a freakin break.

TBH, as she was thinking in her head like “Pharoah is just so freakin much” Yugi switched over to Pharaoh and was like “WHATS UP TEA, THINKING ABOUT ME??” and I thought for a split second maybe he read her mind with his Pharaoh powers.

And like...maybe he did? Seems like a thing he can just do but chooses not to tell anyone about. I mean would you tell anyone? I wouldn’t.

So, unlike Miho in Season Zero, who at least had the decency to try to take her Mother to Australia, Joey Wheeler has wisely decided that the 3 other ticket holders will not be the 3 other members of his immediate family. That would have been the most awkward trip between Serenity, his mother he hasn’t really spoken to in 7 years, and his absent father who was written out of the series for being a raging alcoholic. They would have not even made it to the plane.

Instead he’s gonna take the ghost in Yugi’s head and call that an adult (two tickets in one, really). It’s honestly not that bad of a plan, since his only other father figure, Grandpa, is MIA, and his only other, other father figure, Roland, charges like 300 dollars an hour and wants stock options and health insurance.

And honestly they should have taken Roland because he’s one of their best plane guys.

So they take the smallest little Amelia Earheart plane in the world, going from Japan to (checks map) India...which 2 times the distance this plane can go and it crashes...which is exactly what would happen if you took a teeny tiny plane over the Himalayan mountains without refueling that thing.

We call this a magical incident later in the episode, but this is just basic math.

So, fun fact, (and probably why I discuss planes so often on this blog) two of my Grandfathers were pilots (well, three, since my grandmother remarried another pilot), which sounds like a crazy coincidence until you recall that their generation was in WW2 and we just shoved children in planes for 20 years and called that normal.

Anyway, to save on travel costs, my engineer Grandfather built his own plane out of junkyard parts, which, as you can imagine, is a living nightmare, and it was held together by like duct tape and gasoline (which at one time used to be cheap). Tempted God every day that Howls Moving Castle touched the sky.

And while I only know it from photos since I wasn’t exactly born yet, it looked exactly like this plane. So looking at this, all I can think is...yeah...that’s what you get for flying to India in a tin can car. To this day I cannot trust any plane of this size.

So, they climb out of their wreckage virtually unscathed and into familiar Californian territory.

At least Joey thought about bringing a tent.

It’s interesting how our cast has become so accustomed to this that they’re not even all that shell shocked. It’s just another day in the life.

So next time we shall find out what India has in store for us. Or if we’re even in India...because again...feels a lot like this BG team doesn’t do any research into their landscapes and every place feels a whole lot of the same. But...at least they didn’t put any Arizonan mesas in India.

[omegatheunknown]

AEW Full Gear 2021

In which AEW once again proves 'predictable' never precludes 'satisfying,' and every proper ending opens up a world of new possibilities. - There are many great essays on the success of the Hangman Page story and so I hesitate to write my own, and it seems silly to state the obvious -- charting the course from the genesis of AEW, hell, even from the then-anonymous Page being the fall-boy for Bullet Club in ROH, through to the unexpected title match against Jericho at All Out 2019, the uneasy Tag Champ, the insecurity and anxiety caused by his so-called friends in The Elite, the long wandering of the lonesome lush and the rebuilding of the crowd's chosen avatar, this anxious millennial cowboy who is more over than CM fucking Punk because he's gained the power of self-respect? -- it's one of the best wrestling stories I've ever seen. More on the main event later, obviously. - One of the issues with good ol' JR is that he's so iconic as to seem stale or anyway his 'good moments' are almost background noise, he's the soundtrack of pro-wrestling, his gaffes are all we really notice, aside from his catchphrases. He did have some good moments though. ...Hangmin. - No notes about production, really. Pacing of the card was such that I wasn't fatigued by main event time -- I was ready. Full Gear did not beat the brakes off like All Out, but it was a good card, overall.

*Pre-Card Hikaru Shida & Thunder Rosa v Nyla Rose & Jamie Hayter (**) - Theoretically a table-setter for the TBS tournament, the women here get a good amount of breathing room as the only match on the buy-in, but it doesn't really mean anything. I do like that both Shida and Thunder Rosa have the same sort of pragmatic alignment-- they're fundamentally just and will aid any and all faces, but that never rules out viciousness. - I am ready for Jamie's turn on Britt. I am ready for Jamie to show what she's got, she's a main event level talent. - Reflecting on Eddie's passing 16 years ago to the day in the same city... Is there a better use for the beloved backstage Vickie than to be screaming and shrieking ringside? After all this time? Especially given how superb Nyla is when she gets the mic? *Main Card MJF v Darby Allin (****1/2) - Note of appreciation for Max's lilac gear and terrible entrance robe. He knows exactly what he's doing. - I underrated MJF's ring work here, though that's exactly what he wants us to do, he's not going to give the fans flash or a reason to begrudgingly appreciate him. He sells magnificently, and he has a bag of tricks we will never see. No accident either, that his best matches are against Sammy, Jungle Boy and Darby. - This one was the best of the best though. An excellent chemistry between these two, with MJF big and strong enough to really manhandle Darby (backbreaker spots, lovely) and Darby going full human missile. -I understand the logic of the dirty finish from the heel trying to close down their talented rival, but Bryce took too long with the skateboard and was in poor position for the count. Otherwise a 5 star match. The Lucha Bros (C) v FTR for the AEW World Tag Team Championship (***1/2) - I am all the way back in on FTR since they've been back, even if I still have a no better than 50/50 chance of identifying Dax or Cash from each other. The gimmick of not caring to match the pace of the Bucks or Lucha Bros has melted into the background of just being hard working and clinical and not opposed to fancy moves if they get the job done. Which actually suits the Bret Hart mega fans very very well. - Penta El Rainbow Fish gear = fabulous. Alex Abrahantes continues to be a value add out of nowhere, more power to him. - Obligatory comment about the inhuman ability of Rey Fénix, I cannot believe he exists. - ...finish sucked. What was that about? So they pinned the wrong dude because he put on a mask? Miro v Bryan Danielson (***1/2) - Fascinatingly, just the second head to head match between these two, though with an abrupt build due to Miro's replacement status, and what appears to be a legitimate injury limiting The Once-and-Future Redeemer's explosiveness, a certain inevitability crept in early. This is the prototypical Danielson match, working steadily, menacingly, from underneath, finding a strangely realistic path to victory against a bigger and stronger opponent. - Outcome leaves two large questions, 1- re: Miro v God, once again de-railed just outside the station, 2- Bryan Danielson, underdog of all underdogs, is headed to a title match a couple months into his tenure in the promotion.

The Super Kliq v Jurassic Express & Christian Cage (***) - Match-up did not augur an excellent match, Jungle Boy simply isn't on the level (yet?) and Christian's pushing 50, so unless this was going to be an unexpected showcase for Luchasaurus, the Super Kliq was operating at reduced speed, and the Bucks at a reduced speed is generally just less fun. - That said, Christian's timing, especially as someone who moves a little slower now, is impeccable, and thus he still looks so natural and fluid, especially compared to his partners. - Boondoggle at the top of the stage and subsequent back and forth was not a technical or spectacle success and 22 minutes felt greedy, relative to the rest of the card. - Does anyone else feel like Adam Cole isn't exactly best served by tagging with the Bucks? He's their size so not stronger or heavier hitting, but also somewhat slower, less daring and acrobatic. He's a bigger bastard, and he has the presence, but as a wrestler he's lost in the wash next to them? - Has Jungle Boy become a Jungle Man after killing Nick? Probably leads to a rift between him and full-heel Christian if they continue down this road.

Cody Rhodes & PAC v Andrade El Idolo & Malakai Black (*1/2) - Pass. - Kidding, but like, enemy of my enemy leading to this strange carousel where three excellent workers and Cody manage to have a nothing of a match... I mean could it have at least devolved into chaos? - Andrade probably looked best in this one, he has a fascinating affect where he's a cool looking guy who can work with the best of them but it's like he's restrained, his fashion choices are iffy, he doesn't connect with the crowd right away... anyway he's coming into his own in AEW slowly but surely. Dr Britt Baker, DMD (C) v Tay Conti for the AEW Women's World Championship (**1/2) - Tay didn't bring back up, which continues to be a curious strategy against Britt and her goons. A lot of the improvement in Tay's work is attributable to her focusing on the judo and adding high-risk maneuvers to distract from her so-so footwork and striking, she's found her niche and is thriving there, but she was not going to upset the champ on the strength of a half-assed program about... asses? nepotism? - Which is really, I mean, Britt's not a great wrestler, and neither is Tay, and the story is once again nearly MIA, meaning this reign goes on and on until something personal happens. Which is why I see Jamie Hayter as the best option available, even more so than Thunder Rosa. I want something compelling out of this division, the talent is there!

Eddie Kingston v CM Punk (****) - Best match since the curtain jerker, a deeply personal brawl between two greying oversized boys that delivered on the promise of their war of words and left both bloodied and somewhat defeated, somewhat humbled, mostly still angry. - What if Eddie had won? Suppose he's excused because he didn't even really want to win, he wanted to hurt Punk, and he did, he did... I don't know, I have been sort of fascinated with what hasn't happened to Punk, namely the idea that he can't come back and be a world-destroying Best in The World type despite the magic and fervour he can conjure on the mic. But he's back and he's good and he's a problem to be met head on. Is it gauche to speculate when Mox is gonna be back? The Inner Circle v America's Top Team in a Minneapolis Street Fight (**) - I have been skipping these segments for a couple weeks now, I simply do not care for a feud between competing chauvinisms, and am curious who is served by this? Ethan Page and Scorp are taking the backseat to the MMA dudes, but Paige Van Zant seems like the only real prospect there and she wasn't even in in attendance. - Dan Lambert is funny though, and the blue sweatsuited clown was the highlight of this trashfest, right after the recurring commentary bits about the toaster and the bundt pan. - More fun than anticipated/dreaded and a decent palette cleanser in the scheme of things. Finish was... something, I assume it was meant to look like the Popeye Guy (who I am reliably informed is an MMA legend I guess) knocked Jericho clean out. - Do I wish we could've had a Sammy Guevara TNT title match? Maybe, but any given wrestling card is better served by approaching the night as a variety show, and this was fine, really.

Kenny Omega (C) v Hangman Adam Page for the AEW World Championship (****) - So Kenny's injured and has been injured and yet they went all out with this shit. Springboard top rope powerbomb whatever the fuck, Tiger Driver 98, Snap Dragon on the apron, some sort of top rope exploder suplex...slam? - Kenny sold that ringside sign of 'What would Kota think?' deadly well, and you know, that's the obvious reason we weren't going to get a Hangman kick-out of the OWA. And actually, that's good, though... it did leave this match with a bit of a deficit-- Page was rarely on the verge of defeat, rarely looked overmatched, and in the homestretch was stealing Kenny's moves (and by extension, Kenny's old oMegaman gimmick,) and had the champ dead to rights long enough for the Young Bucks to move to intervene and then think better of it. - My main complaint with the Bucks inserting themselves there is that it messed up the camera work and cheapened the final blow of the buckshot lariat and then it was just... over. Kicking out of Kenny's finish would've given that titanic moment, having the Bucks let him win, in a way? A blemish, albeit a small one, for now, until we see how it shakes out in the reign of Hangman Page, World Champion. - Page has held the Carolina Wrestling Federation Mid-Atlantic Heavyweight Championship, but this is obviously his first major singles title, and he is obviously the least heralded of the AEW champions, and definitely the first to have made his star from the ground up in AEW. It feels good, it feels natural.

[slash-em-up]

A Quiet Evening In: The Collector x Chromeskull

This is all smut. Rough, rowdy, bloody smut. One person in particular is to blame for this. You know who you are...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Asa could not have been unconscious for more than a few minutes; but that was apparently all the time Jesse needed to do his work.

The smaller man groaned as his obsidian eyes fluttered dazedly open, swallowing painfully around the bruise on his neck. A huff of breath met his bare skin as his companion observed his confusion.

Asa jerked forward, intent on returning the crushing choke-hold he’d been held in several minutes prior, only to find his arms and legs immobilized by thin lines of chord. He snarled as he struggled, unwilling to admit defeat this quickly in the game - but Jesse was having none of it.

A palm swung out quickly and caught the side of Asa’s face in a blow that would have brought a lesser man to his knees - thankfully, Asa was already sitting, splayed out on the mattress, completely exposed, and didn’t have far to fall.

His teeth snapped at the retreating hand, and Jesse broke away from sucking a deep bruise into his collar bone to reach for the phone he kept placed on his side of the bed.

‘Ah-ah old man, you’re mine tonight. I won fair and square.’

The electronic voice echoed through the cavernous room, and the bound man heaved again, attempting to buck his partner from his seat between his spread legs; but only succeeded in pressing his cock against the muscular thigh planted casually between his own.

The bastard had gotten re-dressed while he’d been… indisposed, and the expensive black fabric caressed his length in a maddening sensation.

Jesse rose just enough to smirk at Asa, the thrill of getting the better of the other man obviously doing wonders for his ego - and his arousal, if the bulge beneath his leather belt was anything to go by. The thigh was back in an instant, rubbing against his naked dick in a way that was clearly deliberate as Jesse pressed against Asa’s shoulders just enough to allow the taller man to bend him and access his chest once more.

His head dipped and Asa pursed his lips hard to keep from crying out as Jesse’s teeth sunk into the meat of his pectoral; roughly sucking but never coming quite close enough to the spot he knew would drive the bound-man mad.

It was only by Asa’s nearly super-human self-control that he was able to keep his hips from humping desperately into Jesse’s grinding thigh as the tall man switched sides, viciously attacking his sensitive nipple with teeth and lips.

His teeth bared and an involuntary keening growl left him as Jesse made his way slowly down his abdomen. Tracing each scar and mark with a playful tongue - nipping anywhere that made Asa flinch; but not truly biting until he was face-to-face with Asa’s now fully-aroused cock.

Abruptly, Jesse sat up - snapping his fingers as if he’d just remembered something important - leaving Asa to heave and writhe against his ropes in an effort to escape before the man returned.

Jesse nearly skipped back to the bed, holding aloft a silver ring.

It took Asa a moment to recognize the toy for what it was; but when he did his struggles increased ten-fold.

“Fuck you, fuck - you’re not putting that on me - fuck!”

Sadly; Jesse was a master at his work, and the ropes held - allowing the taller man to use his considerable strength to press Asa down before he slipped the chrome cock-ring over his dripping arousal.

He could only growl incoherently as Jesse lay in-between his spread and bound legs - looking for all the world like the cat that caught the canary - before beginning to mouth mercilessly at the sensitive skin along the crease of Asa’s thigh.

The first sharp bite wasn’t unexpected; but it did make him jolt. The second was even closer to his red, weeping cock, and if Asa was a lesser man he’d have been begging by now.

One of Jesse’s hands rose to play with his nipples as his mouth continued to suckle and tease Asa’s thighs.

The other slid like a serpent into the space he’d created between the bed and Asa’s body to fondle the other man’s weighty balls.

Asa did buck at this - though whether this was to knock the hand away or present the man with more skin to mark was unknown even to him.

His head tossed back and forth as Jesse switched to his other thigh, giving it the same treatment before his hand moved from his swollen sac to wet two long fingers briefly in his mouth.

“… The fuck… are you…?”

But Asa’s question was answered before it was even asked as Jesse pulled the broad man down by his hips, gripping his skin and keeping his legs spread as his fingers circled Asa’s thick cock, his balls, then down to his hole - pressing inside without pause.

Groaning at the stretch, Asa jerked his legs attempting to trap Jesse between them; but the slack on the ropes holding him spread were still too tight - all he accomplished was giving Jesse a good laugh as he began to thrust his hand roughly into the quivering hole of his partner.

Every breath exited Asa’s heaving chest in a breathy snarl as Jesse located and began to pound against his prostate, while his clever fingers wrapped teasingly around Asa’s cock and slid up and down in time with his thrusts.

The entrapped man collapsed back on the bed as Jesse’s hands abruptly left his body, only to reach and quickly undo the ropes holding his legs to the bed.

Asa sprang.

But Jesse was too quick, and ready for his attack.

A hard fist met his face like a sledge-hammer, and though he writhed and fought he still ended up tossed roughly to the floor on his knees - arms tightly bound behind him.

The blood dripped from his nose down into his mouth - giving him a feral look as he snarled and tried to whirl on Jesse; but once more the tall man had him beat.

His bruised neck was gripped tightly from behind, leaving him bent on his knees, forehead touching the cool granite floor of Jesse’s bedroom.

A flurry of colorful exclamations ran through the scientist’s head as a hand came down on the meat of his ass.

He was getting fucking spanked!

His head tossed back and forth against the floor as the painful blows rained down.

Jesse had always appreciated his ass… and he better enjoy this, because once Asa was out he was going to flay him alive.

Once the strikes ceased Asa could barely move - only peripherally taking in the sound of a zipper being undone, before Jesse’s hands were on him once more - this time taking large handfuls of his hips - pulling him up until his heated skin was met by Jesse’s own hard cock.

Asa could have cried at the sensations assaulting his body - the bruises, the bites, the blood, the god damn cock-ring - and if Jesse didn’t fuck him right now he might actually explode.

“Get inside of me Cromeans…” he snarled lowly into the silent room.

Jesse obliged.

The pair had a running bet that Jesse could always get Asa to scream for him when they fucked and he was feeling very, very close to winning that wager as his long cock sunk into the stretched hole before him.

Asa’s mouth dropped open with a loud “Ungh!” as Jesse hilted and began a punishing pace.

It was times like these that he bemoaned his lack of voice the most, because the litany of filthy praise that ran like a soundtrack in his mind every time he was able to get Asa under him would have been enough to make a piggy squirm. And he longed to see the blush he was sure would rise on the other man’s face. Still shy and unwilling to be complimented, even after all they’d done together.

This thought more than anything caused Jesse to throw his full weight into his motions, gripping the thick handfuls of skin and muscle that made up Asa’s hips like a life-line as he aimed for his prostate.

He could tell he hit it dead-on when Asa tried to bury his face in his own shoulder - muffling the rasping cry that left his bruised throat.

Each cry was hard-won and thoroughly enjoyed.

What little he could see of the man’s face was a mess of blood and sweat. His beautiful onyx eyes glazed in pleasure; but occasionally sharpening just enough in anger for Jesse to know that the cock-ring was holding Asa back from that final edge and he knew it.

He’d enjoy making the stubborn man beg for release.

Speaking of which…

Jesse pulled himself away from Asa’s body - taking a moment to appreciate how his hole fluttered in emptiness, small trickles of him pre-cum gliding down the bruised skin as Asa’s hip chased his own - before walking to face his partner.

Asa’s hair was thick and soft under his palm as he grasped it, forcing the other up from his sprawl.

There’s that look - the cold -ire promise that the second the tables turn and Jesse’s the one in Asa’s place… Jesse better cancel his plans for the day after.

But for the moment all Jesse can do is grin down at the bloody, bruised face of his lover.

He taps Asa’s lips.

They remain stubbornly shut.

Asa glares up at him defiantly.

Jesse sneers down before grabbing his face in a crushing grip.

Open or I break your jaw.

There’s a 50/50 chance he might have to anyway.

Asa contemplates for a moment before casually opening his mouth - long tongue lolling out like it’d been his idea all along, and would Jesse just get on with it?

The glint in his obsidian eyes betrays his pleasure as Jesse works himself to orgasm, spilling his cum across Asa’s face.

No sooner had Jesse stopped the final movements of his hands when his pleasure-filled fog is broken by the sound of ropes snapping.

Asa is on him like a tiger before he’s even fully aware of it - shredding Jesse’s clothes and yanking his slacks down his long legs.

A bright tinkling sound signals the removal of the cock-ring as Asa tosses it across the room; and Jesse can’t help but smirk as he’s man-handled back to the bed.

Fair’s fair, after all, and Jesse’s never been one to deny his partner a chance at pay-back.

As he feels a pair of handcuffs snap roughly around his wrists Jesse knows he’s in for a long night.

He wouldn’t have it any other way.

[justwritethatdown]

High school au set somewhere around 2009 - it’s gonna be a multichapter but I don’t have a title for it yet… Avril Lavigne is gonna be the soundtrack for this 💜

Beca is an introverted fifteen years old who loves music and is about to start high school. Chloe is The Popular Girl™ and they meet because their parents are friends. There’s a lot of Jesse but Bechloe is gonna be endgame (obviously) It’s supposed to be a slow burn but i’m an impatient idiot so we’ll see about that…

Words Count: 2K

Rating: T

Read it on AO3 or under the cut ↓ 

Please tell me what is taking place (‘cause I can’t seem to find a trace)

“Bec, can you please be nice tonight? It would mean a lot to Sheila and me" repeated her father for the millionth time. Beca just sighed heavily at that and crossed her arms around her chest. They’ve talked about that ad nauseam, there was no way for her to get out of this stupid dinner at Sheila’s friends.

Sheila – a.k.a. the step monster – was the most irritating being on the planet. Beca was sure she only acted nice to her to make a show for her father and actually hated Beca just as much as Beca hated her.

“Oh come on sweetie, they have a daughter your age, I’m sure you’ll become very fast friends” she promised in that annoying high pitched tone she had “I don’t want to make any friends” Beca grumbled and could swear she heard Sheila whisper something to her father about her being weird and having no friends, but decided to ignore that.

She didn’t need new friends, she had Amy and that was enough – more than enough sometimes – Amy was a lot, mostly to someone as introverted as Beca, her loudness and recklessness were pretty hard to handle, but they knew each other since forever and Amy stood by Beca’s side during her parents’ divorce, which meant the world to Beca.

“Come on kiddo, I’m sure you’ll like her. She goes to Barden high, so you can ask her advices for next year" said her father turning in his seat after parking the car “so she’s older than me!” stated Beca “oh for God’s sake what’s one year, specially at your age?” gasped Sheila, her nice facade starting to crack at Beca’s brattyness “never mind" spat out Beca under her breath getting out of the car.

Her father stopped her when he saw she was about to put her big headphones over her ears “don’t make me take these away from you" he warned her with a glare, so she just snorted and left them hanging around her neck.

__

Beca suffered immensely all through dinner, Chloe – the girl she was supposed to become best friends with to please Sheila – was hideous, she barely introduced herself without stopping pushing the buttons on her Blackberry, obviously more interested in her text than in Beca. Her parents were two pompous idiots – just how Beca imagined Sheila’s friends would be.

As soon as they finished eating, Chloe left the table without even excusing herself, focusing on her phone again.

“Chloe why don’t you show Becky your room, honey?” encouraged Chloe’s mother “sure" answered the redhead without any kind of emotion and left.

Beca gulped, she didn’t know what to do – was she supposed to just follow her? Did she had to wait there for Chloe to come back and invite her to her room? – it was clear that Chloe didn’t want her in her room.

“Beca? Go" pushed her Sheila and the girl found herself following Chloe’s path, she thought she heard someone whisper “that kid is so weird" but she shook it off, too focused on how weird she felt to intrude into a stranger’s room like that.

It turned out that Chloe didn’t mind her intrusion – one could say she didn’t even notice it, if not for the short nod she gave Beca along with a “this is it" before sitting in front of her computer and spending the night chatting on MSN.

After standing awkwardly in Chloe’s room for some moments, Beca decided to sit down on a pink fluffy bean bag sofa and finally put her headphones on. She spent the night with her iPod Classic, as she did most of the times.

Beca had the time to properly look at Chloe, to study her – something she liked to do with people.

The sixteen year old was definitely a popular girl in school – definitely someone Beca would have never wanted to be friends with – she seemed to be coming straight out of Mean Girls – that stupid Lindsey Lohan high school movie Amy made her watch once.

A shiver run down Beca’s spine. She didn’t love the idea of starting high school at all, with all those jocks and beautiful girls who thought they were better than anyone else – Beca could totally see Chloe being one of them.

Chloe was undeniably attractive, the computer light flashing on her face highlighted the perfect traits of her face and the sharp angle of her jawline, her red hair was coming down in large soft waves and her soft blue eyes made her look like a Disney princess. Her slender fingers flew quickly over the keyboard of her computer while she replied to the dozens of beeping notifications blowing up on her screen. Beca had to look away, feeling a weird grasp at her stomach she’d never felt before.

__

To Beca’s displeasure these stupid dinner dates became a thing, and she was forced to see that girl at least a couple of days per month, even if Chloe seemed to have the power to defect those events, since she never showed up when the dinners were at Beca’s father’s.

Beca wasn’t sorry about that, she was just upset she didn’t have the same luxury.

Chloe smiled at her once, greeting her with a soft “hi" when the brunette went to her house to yet another dinner, and Beca kept thinking about how warm that made her feel for a long time – because it caught her off guard obviously, she wasn’t expecting that, it’s not like she stopped thinking about how beautiful Chloe looked when she genuinely smiled or why she smiled at her anyway.

__

Months passed and it came the time for Beca to start high school. Amy was out of her mind excited about that and it only made Beca more nervous.

Her first day – the first month even – could have been described with one word, better yet a name: Jesse.

Jesse was in most of her classes and for some reason he was obsessed with her. He managed to learn more about her in only the first week than most people have ever tried to know in her life – he asked so many questions.

At first Beca was annoyed by him and tried to avoid the guy every time she spotted his stupid face in the hallway or at the cafeteria, but it was pointless because Jesse always managed to find her. Amy even started to tease her about her new boyfriend and Beca hated it.

She started to get used to his intrusive presence somewhere during week two, when he casually mentioned a concert of a Sum41 cover band he was sure she would have liked.

It opened up a crack in the big wall she spent so long building up – obviously what Jesse was trying to do since day one – but she didn’t push him away like she would have done with any other intruder trying to tear her defences apart, she instead decided to show him something she considered super intimate and private, something she had never shown to anyone before, she decided to show him one of her playlists.

She even agreed to go with him to the concert – telling herself she really wanted to see the band and couldn’t go without the fake ID Jesse had promised her.

Thinking about it, it didn’t take a genius to understand Beca would have liked such topic. After all, the girl always wore her headphones and from her style – heavy dark eyeliner, pierced ears, studded bracelet and dark boots – it wasn’t that hard to guess her musical tastes either.

“I knew you liked Avril Lavigne” was his first reaction scrolling through the titles in her iPod, Beca blushed at that; there were many other artists on there, such as Linkin Park, Green Day, Evanescence, Blink182… and he decided to point out the one that meant more to her.

“I love her, I think she’s great" he added pressing play on Sk8er Boi “you kinda remind me of her" he shouted over the sound filling his ears. Beca’s eyes widened for a moment and she looked around the schoolyard to check if he had drawn any attention towards them, she still couldn’t believe she was letting him use her headphones.

__

“It’s Be c a, with one c" she repeated to the guy who was paying very little attention to her anyway – Luke apparently.

“All right guys, it’s gonna be 50 bucks each and it’ll take a couple of days” he said looking at them with a charming smile “to pay now" he clarified clearing his throat and Jesse rushed to pay him “thanks Johnny. I’ll reach out to you when I got them" he said before leaving.

“It’s Jesse…” sighed Jesse when Luke already had left.

“Dude, I’m giving you the money first thing tomorrow, don’t think I’m letting you pay for my ID" “I could’ve never thought something like that" he joked smiling at her.

Okay so maybe Jesse became her friend and maybe Beca liked that – not that she would admit it.

__

After a month Beca thought she was starting to get used to the whole high school thing and she had to admit it wasn’t as bad as she thought, classes were boring and had nothing useful to form her regarding what she really wanted to do in life, but at least she had Amy and Jesse to lighten her mood.

The brunette was walking down the hallway, headphones on as usual, when she saw Chloe. Beca’s breath caught in her lungs at the sight of the redhead leaned against her locker animatedly chatting with a group of friends. She looked so different from the girl she was used to see at dinners; she looked radiant, like a ray of sunshine. Beca could tell all her friends were hypnotized by her energy and enthusiasm.

The sudden collision with a guy running in her opposite direction brought her back to reality “Dude! What the fuck?“ she hissed, but the guy didn’t bother stopping to check on her, so Beca shook her head and walked to her classroom. She didn’t notice Chloe looking at her.

From that moment Beca’s high school experience became a little different, she was always looking out for any signs of Chloe, she turned her head at any glimpse of red hair around a corner or every time she heard a particular kind of giggle – yes, she stopped wearing headphones in the hallways just to hear that – she’d even learned the faces of those she believed to be Chloe’s best friends and, obviously, her boyfriend – Tom, or something.

During the course of the first semester there had been almost zero dinners and her father told her she didn’t have to attend them because he was sure she was busy with homework, so the only occasions she had to see Chloe were those when she ran into her at school – not that she cared – they never interact and Beca understood, Chloe was a popular girl and with that role you have to maintain the appearances, she couldn’t risk to be seen interacting with some freshman alt girl just because they ate at the same table a couple of times, it wasn’t like they were friends anyway.

__

Beca was nervous. She would have never expected to open her front door to find Chloe Beale standing in front of her. She felt her ears heating up when the girl smiled at her “h-hi… you’re here too” she babbled hating herself immediately, but Sheila appearing behind her to greet the Beale family gave her enough time to disappear into the kitchen.

Now they were in Beca’s room after dinner. Chloe didn’t feel as awkward as Beca did entering her room all those months ago – or as awkward as she felt right now, for what is worth – she immediately made herself at home sitting on Beca’s bed, bounching on it a little while looking around.

Beca blushed at the amount of posters – mainly Avril posters – hanging on her walls. Her room was much darker than Chloe’s and she was sure the redhead must have thought she was a freak.

“I like your room, it’s pretty cool" “…you do?” asked Beca in shock “yes! And your bed is so much softer than mine" added Chloe lying down. Beca was silent for a while, her brain was filled with so many thoughts she couldn’t speak, she’s never been good with words anyway.

Beca gasped when she saw Chloe stretch to reach for the iPod and headphones resting on her bedside table but couldn’t stop her from taking them.

“What do you always listen to anyway?” asked Chloe sitting back up “beside Avril Lavigne” she added with a giggle that made Beca feel more attacked than she should have, the brunette moved to sit on her bed next to Chloe and took the device from her, holding it protectively against her chest “stuff… you wouldn’t like it" she scoffed “try me" said Chloe tilting her head, smile still in place.

Beca couldn’t find it in herself to say no.

They laid on her bed with her headphones placed between them, listening to Beca’s playlist until Chloe drifted off to sleep. Beca kept laying beside her, looking at the redhead sleep on her pillow and completely ignoring the weird feeling she had in the pit of her stomach that was starting to be something not unusual when it came to Chloe.

[aion-rsa]

Will the Rocky IV Director’s Cut Kill its Charm?

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Rocky IV remains a prototypical example of 1980s American franchise filmmaking, having conveyed a patriotic Cold-War-evocative ethos through the aesthetically shiny lens of scrappy superhuman pugilists pummeling each other over revenge and world peace, all to Vince DiCola’s absurd synthesizer-strewn score. Oh, and lest we forget, it had a robot!  While those attributes entitled the 1985 film to the smug dismissal and earnest appreciation of posterity, star/writer/director Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming director’s cut risks erasing its allure.

Stallone, who announced his plan for a new Rocky IV cut last year, has completed his redux of the famous franchise‘s four-quel. However, unlike that other director’s cut dominating current conversations, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Sly’s upcoming Rocky IV Director’s Cut is an update of a film that was properly released by its director. Having premiered back on Nov. 27, 1985, Rocky IV was a box-office-topping hit that proved profoundly profitable for studio MGM, with a worldwide gross of $300 million ($733.3 million adjusted for inflation,) against a budget of $28 million. Moreover, despite its oft-focused foibles, the film retained enough interest 33 years later to be directly followed up in Creed II. However, to borrow his parlance from 2006’s Rocky Balboa, Stallone seemed to have “stuff in the basement,” to unleash for the fourth film.  

“We’ve just been working on punches and sounds because it’s never complete,” explains Stallone of his director’s cut approach in an Instagram update. “I’ve said this before, you can go back and see a movie that you’ve done 50 years ago and go, ‘I’ve got to re-edit that.’ And every director feels the same way. It’s not about making a movie, it’s about remaking. Unfortunately, you run out of time, you run out of money. They basically throw you out of the room. So, therefore, you don’t get a chance, but on this one, I finally got a chance, so I’m feeling great about this.”

While the full extent of the changes Stallone made to Rocky IV obviously won’t be known until he premieres his new cut, some tidbits have made the rounds. One of the earliest-known changes is the elimination of one of its most campy, pseudo-sci-fi elements, the aforementioned robot. Specifically, the Jetsons-esque talking robot—a real-life invention called SICO, created by International Robotics Inc.—that well-to-do champ Rocky gives as a birthday present to his leachy live-in brother-in-law, Paulie (Burt Young) in the film’s first act. However, the robot—complete with a fancy-for-1985 cordless phone system installed—became a punchline, even for within film, during which it was implied that Paulie eventually altered its settings to sound and act like an alluring female maid that worships him while fetching his beers. Thus, the elimination of the robot not only deletes the amusing automaton, but it also necessitates an essence-altering recut of Paulie’s birthday party scenes. Yet, Stallone’s response to a fan’s posted desire to give SICO a reprieve was met with Ivan Drago-like coldness, stating, “I don’t like the robot anymore.”

MGM/UA

And that brings us to the film’s Siberian Bull big bad himself, Dolph Lundgren’s Ivan Drago, whose claim-to-fame fight in which he beat Carl Weathers’s Apollo Creed to death will apparently be extended in a yet-unknown manner in Stallone’s new cut. The role positioned newcomer Lundgren for stardom in what was only his second onscreen appearance, having previously appeared six months earlier in 1985 Bond movie A View to a Kill as a thug named Venz; a role he acquired due to his real-life romantic relationship with co-star Grace Jones. Besides being an imposing spectacle of a human being (which he remains to this day), Lundgren’s outing as Drago was meant to depict him as the ultimate villain, a soulless Soviet slayer shaped by communism, steroids and all-around godlessness. However, while that façade was shattered by the end of the film (and even more so in Creed II), it remains to be seen if extended Drago scenes—specifically in the Apollo fight—ends up weighing the film down unnecessarily.

Read more

Movies

Rocky IV Director’s Cut Will Ditch Robot

By Mike Cecchini

Culture

Could Rocky Balboa Really Have Gone the Distance?

By Tony Sokol

If there’s one thing that critics can’t take away from Rocky IV, it would have to be Stallone’s artfully economic approach as a director. The film manifests as a slim, trim 91-minute affair that saves money by being deliberately diluted with lengthy montages—FOUR of them in total. In fact, even if we generously discount his blatant reuse of Rocky and Apollo’s Rocky III-closing sparring session for the opening scene, two of said montages fully consist of recycled footage from the previous three films. Indeed, the movie kicks off by playing “Eye of the Tiger” during the franchise-obligatory recap of the previous film’s final fight, and Rocky’s contemplative car ride after Apollo’s death is riddled with flashback scenes, during which a soundtrack song, Robert Tepper’s “No Easy Way Out,” plays out in full! You certainly have to hand it to Sly, the man knows how to get a big bang for his production buck. Yet, as with other intrinsically-Rocky IV aspects, one must wonder if Stallone has soured on his in-retrospect-amiable montage method of movie-making as much as the Robot.

On another note, Rocky IV is also known to be riddled with major movie mistakes, and I do mean A LOT of them; proverbial warts that have also come to define the film. For example, a major continuity mistake occurs before the Apollo/Drago fight when Apollo is in the ring trash-talking Drago, shouting, “I want you! I want you!” while his bare hand mockingly points at the Russian. Of course, just minutes earlier, we saw Apollo getting his hands taped up in his dressing room, and he was clearly gloved up when he came down to the ring in a James Brown-accompanied spectacle entrance. Additionally, a similarly bizarre mistake occurs during Rocky’s mid-movie vision of Drago in the aforementioned “No Easy Way Out” montage, which shows the Russian in the red trunks that he would later wear in the film’s final fight. Yet, most egregiously, Drago is clearly sporting the actual cut under his left eye that Rocky would deliver to him in the second round! While I could see Stallone wanting to fix mistakes like this, it would still be a shame to lose them.

However, a director’s cut of Rocky IV could yield benefits. After all, it could correct Apollo’s funeral scene, in which an odd focus error occurs on the right side of the frame that blurs out a few attendees, leading viewers to think it was censored. Moreover, it could prospectively integrate legendary lost elements. For example, Drago’s iconic evil line—delivered after he just killed Apollo—declaring “If he dies, he dies” was originally complemented by another would-be famous line that wasn’t even delivered in the film, but could finally get its onscreen due. Rocky IV’s teaser trailer featured an ominous introductory monologue from the villain that, contemporaneously, was just associated with the character as the movie line. Delivered in Lundrgen’s labored Russian accent, lines such as “My name is Drago” and “Soon, the whole world will know my name” were prominent pieces of the film’s early ephemera. In fact, the latter line was famously sampled at the end of New Wave act Sigue Sigue Sputnik’s 1986 hit (famously used in Ferris Beuller’s Day Off), “Love Missle F1-11,” in which the trailer clip—along with imitated lines from Scarface and The Terminator—was included to exemplify the song’s commentary on American cinematic ultraviolence.  

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Regardless of how it turns out, fans of the campy four-quel will be anxious to see what surprises Stallone has in store for the Rocky IV Director’s Cut. However, he has yet to reveal release date.

The post Will the Rocky IV Director’s Cut Kill its Charm? appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[theshadowbastard]

The Top 8 Frankenstein Movies

8. Victor Frankenstein (2015)

This movie got a pasting from critics upon release, but I couldn’t care less, because I had a ball watching this.  Mainly designed as a showcase for the stars Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy, the result isn’t exactly highbrow cinema but if you’re looking for a fun trip filled with hammy acting, overwrought (and overwritten) dialogue, and some pretty neat special effects, you could do a lot worse.

7. Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Of the 7 movies made by Universal Studios featuring the Frankenstein monster between 1931 and 1948, only the first three are really worth your time, and of those the third film, Son of Frankenstein, is easily the weakest, but it’s not without its strengths, mostly in the form of the performances of Basil Rathbone as the titular sire and especially Bela Lugosi as the malignant Ygor.  The infamous star of Dracula is all but unrecognizable under a brilliant makeup design, and gives a magical performance that’s about as far removed from Dracula as anything he ever did.  The big downside of Son is the monster himself, who is barely in the film and spends most of it lying motionless on a table.  Boris Karloff turned 50 while shooting, and decided to never play the creature he made famous again after this flawed but fun film.

6. Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994)

As the title implies, this is a (fairly) faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley’s original novel, and while a lot of the subtext of the story is lost beneath the weight of director and star Kenneth Branaugh’s ego and abs, the movie has a captivating quality and is gorgeously shot, and Robert DeNiro turns in a surprisingly nuanced and emotional performance as Victor’s patchwork creation.  It’s a little oversexed and too self-consciously operatic at times, but it’s still one of the better stabs at bringing the actual text to the screen, even with the ridiculous electric eels.

5. Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)

Hammer studios made a bunch of Frankenstein movies throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s, and while none of them ever quite managed to capture the spirit of their first, they came up with some clever ideas, and none more so than the bizarre, inspirational, ingenious and insane Frankenstein Created Woman, a film that dares to ask the question “So you figured out how to bring the dead back to life--what next?”  The answers this film explores are chilling, awe-inspiring, horrific and at times borderline blasphemous in their implications.  And while it’s not a perfect film (two minds/souls in the same body gets kind of confusing), it’s compelling ideas and strong performances more than compensate.

4. Young Frankenstein (1974)

Mel Brooks’ loving tribute to the Universal Frankenstein films might be in it for the laughs (”SAID-A-GIVE?!”), but at it’s heart is a keen understanding of the themes of the Frankenstein story and why they’ve worked so well for so long.  The cast is perfect, with each character instantly hilarious and iconic, from Marty Feldman’s endlessly-quotable Igor to Gene Wilder’s over-the-top Frederick Fronkonsteen to Cloris Leechman’s masterclass in comedic timing as Frau Blucher, but the real standout is Peter Boyle as the monster, who is quite possibly second only to Boris Karloff as the most effective Frankenstein monster we’ve ever seen.  

3. Frankenstein (1931)

It was not the first Frankenstein movie (there were a couple of silent shorts), but it was the first that mattered; the one that change the whole game.  Crackling electrical lab equipment, thunderstorms, grave robbing, grisly murders, blasphemous implications and truly inspired performances--audiences of the time had never seen anything like this, and the movie was a box office sensation that led to a whole slew of horror and gothic-themed movies in the early 1930s.  James Whale’s direction is clever, creative and just unusual enough to make the movie still a lot of fun to watch today.  Colin Clive as Henry Frankenstein is superb, giving us a nuanced and relatable Frankenstein that gets to speak what is arguably the most famous line in horror movie history (”IT’S ALIVE!”).  The sets and cinematography are stunning, cementing the “Hollywood Gothic” style that would dominate horror cinema for the next three decades, and the special effects were striking for their time.  But standing above it all was Boris Karloff’s shocking, heartbreaking, horrifying, unparalleled performance as the Monster.  Overnight the heretofore little-known actor became a star and, with the help of a once-in-a-generation makeup job from the legendary Jack Pierce, set in stone the image of the Frankenstein monster that would stick in the public consciousness for all time.

2. Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Legend has it that Universal Studios sent a letter to the heads of Hammer Films that essentially said, “If you do ANYTHING that even remotely resembles our Frankenstein movie, we’ll see you Brits in court.”  But Hammer had entirely different ambitions, choosing to ditch the look, style, and structure of the Universal movies entirely in favor of something much darker, more disturbing, and infinitely more violent.  While the classic Frankenstein movies of the 30s and 40s focused on the misadventures of the monster, Hammer chose to focus on the titular mad doctor.  This might have seemed like strange choice at the time, considering the rather bland parade of various Dr. Frankensteins we’d seen in the Universal films, but actor writer Jimmy Sangster, director Terrence Fischer, and especially actor Peter Cushing went for something completely different.  Cushing’s Victor Frankenstein is nothing less than a vile, contemptible bastard, remorselessly murdering people for spare parts for his pathetic monster; a monster who is killed and brought back to life several times over, and used by the villainous doctor as a tool to dispatch his enemies and those who threaten his work.  This film took the conventions of the Frankenstein story audiences were then used to and knifed them in the face, and the result was a spectacular success with people lining up around the block to see this new level of ghoulish and bloody horror.  Throw out everything you think you know about the Frankenstein story and give this one a spin, if you’ve got the stomach for it.

1. Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Seriously, what else was it gonna be? Let’s be honest here--horror sequels are usually crap.  Quickly churned out to make an even quicker buck, they’re rarely worth the film they’re shot on and very few are anywhere near as good as the original.  However, the only one that actually might be better that the original is the simply unique Bride of Frankenstein.  Whole books have been written about this movie, and to be honest there’s simply too much to talk about.  The themes of blasphemy.  The homosexual overtones.  The Faustian narrative about death and damnation.  The incredible performance of Ernest Thesiger as Doctor Pretorious.  The monster’s dialogue (”Friend...good!”)  The design of the titular Bride that kicked off a fashion craze.  Franz Waxman’s angelic soundtrack.  Any one of these topics is worth an essay all by themselves, but for me what really makes Bride a masterpiece is simply its heart.  No other film has explored the tragedy of the Frankenstein story as effectively as this, and no other film gets its moral message through as clearly: it’s the simpler things in life, like love and friendship that are truly important, and while the pursuit of knowledge may be a worth endeavor, those who pursue it to whatever evil and horrifying end are far more monstrous than any stitched-together being they shock into life.

[artist-cabanel-blog]

how to edit movie

$$$$ How Much Does YouTube Pay You For 1 million Views? $$$$ title> The timeline is below the video sequencer (see picture below). Then you should make the settings for the output size of the later film. The size corresponds to that of the imported movie clips (see image below). The example picture shows a section of the animated film Big Buck Bunny from 2008 by the Blender Foundation - Open Projects. This format allows the sound to be processed without loss of quality. Processing option of system clipboard added - now it is possible to insert images from clipboard, as well as video and audio images under the link from clipboard. A thumbnail preview can be displayed by activating the corresponding button (see image below). The Backdrop option marked at the top of the image would display a preview in the background directly in the same editor, in addition to the tracks. You can do it if you want! An additional window is often more practical. More on that in a moment. If clip 2 is selected, you will receive the information that clip 2 starts at frame 90 and the playhead (playhead - blue bar) is at -89. From the point of view of clip 2, that's true (see picture below). Instead of movie clips, whole single-frame sequences can be loaded into the sequencer and rendered as video. Another window can now be opened above the Sequence Editor and another Sequence Editor can be opened with the Preview setting. The grouping can also be exited with the TAB key. If you want to connect two sections with each other, e.g. to move them together in the future, etc., you can mark both parts one after the other and group them with the shortcut CTRL-G (see animation below). The soft click here for more Cut the outer left handle so you can soft cut are expanded by images that are invisible due to the cut. Even with the hard cut, the handle can be moved. However, the images here were cut at the cut and nothing can be restored (see animation below).

Values ​​can be scaled on a scale of values.

The world's leading video review and collaboration platform that enables content teams to create and deliver better videos faster.

Hue and saturation curves have been added as another tool for advanced color correction. li>

VSDC Free Video Editor not only offers ready-made profiles for export to social networks, but also uploads your videos to YouTube directly from the app without changing windows or tabs.

Video editing programs help create professional-looking videos and films for education, advertising, and entertainment.

More information. The video editor enables the editing of video files and the creation of video clips of different complexity with a variety of video and audio effects. The program is characterized by its great functionality and a multitude of capabilities - at the same time it has a simple and intuitive user interface with which you can create your video files with minimal effort.

The SWF and GIF files can now be compressed. This enables the size to be reduced. Three special quality profiles for YouTube and direct uploading of files to YouTube.com. One recommended export profile for Facebook. Two profiles for Twitter and four profiles for sharing videos in the "Social network" option. The audio spectrum effect has been added with more than 400 presets so you can visualize the soundtrack. The "Skip Frames" option has been added to the player, allowing you to choose which frames to skip to speed up the preview. Sound can be played when the video is played back faster and inversely. Filters, decoders and encoders have been optimized. Many codecs like H264 now work at least 50% faster. Functions to set up the quality of the representations in scale have been added. Multiple processors are used to encode and decode, record and read videos. The video can now be edited using sound data (e.g. cutting out silent parts). All settings of the app are now in one central place. This simplifies the administration of the app and additional functions can be added (e.g. auto storage and reservation). Added are the effect of changing the tempo, the speed, the sound of the playback, the effect of the inverse sound playback.

[chiseler]

The Briefly and Occasionally Great Del Tenney

He wasn’t as culturally attuned as Roger Corman. He wasn’t as obsessively prolific as Jess Franco. He wasn’t as personally flamboyant as Ed Wood. Still, writer/producer/director Del Tenney is a legend in the annals of low budget horror. That he’s a legend is in itself legendary, given that he’s remembered for only four films, all of which were made during a two year stretch in the early 1960s.  I’m hard-pressed to think of another director with a filmography that brief who earned a legacy like Tenney’s. They weren’t great films, some weren’t even particularly good, but they had a spark to them, and they were undeniably memorable, sometimes for reasons that had nothing to do with the films themselves.

“My friends used to come up to me and ask, ‘How could you do all those terrible films?’’’ Tenney was fond of saying. “And I tell them, ‘I cry all the way to the bank,’”

He was born in Mason City, Iowa, but in the early ‘40s his family moved to Los Angeles. Tenney began studying theater in school, and by age 15 he was already working, both on stage and later as an extra in the likes of The Wild One and Stalag 17. His focus was on theater, though, so in the late ‘50s he moved to New York and found work in summer stock. A number of the young actors he worked with then, like Roy Scheider, Dick Van Patten, and Sylvia Miles, would later appear in Tenney’s films, many making their screen debuts with him.

By the early ‘60s Tenney and his wife, actress Margot Hartman Tenney, had also started directing productions of their own. After a conversation with a friend who was involved in (as it was described in polite company) “the exploitation film business,” Tenney took a job as assistant director on a couple of pictures, including the merely sleazy Satan in High Heels (a nasty little cheapie involving carnival strippers, junkies, robbery, sex, and murder) and nudie cuties like Orgy at Lil’s Place, (which concerned two girls who decide to get into the nude modeling racket). In later years, while Tenney spoke freely about the former, he rarely mentioned the latter. Still, his experience there inspired him to start making films of his own.

While in the theater he preferred to stick with Shakespeare and the classics, when he moved into film it was all about the bottom line. His goal was not to make great art, but to make a few quick bucks, and to do that he knew what audience he had to aim for. He was determined to give them exactly what they wanted.

Seeing potential in a story his wife had told him about a girl she knew in college who was found murdered, in 1962 Tenney sat down and began working on a script he initially called Black Autumn. Later it would be called Violent Midnight. Then shortly before its release the distributor changed the title to Psychomania, thinking it would cash in on Psycho and  pull in the kids.

Financed by his father-in-law and filmed (as all his pictures would be) in Stamford, CT,  Psychomania focused on a string of brutal sex murders in a small college town. The obvious suspect is that eccentric painter with a family history of mental problems who lives all alone out in the boonies and paints nude models who often end up getting stabbed (Lee Philips). The above-mentioned Dick Van Patten and James Farentino co-star as a couple of suspicious detectives, and Sylvia Miles appears, well, doing that great Sylvia Miles thing.

It’s a sharp and surprisingly stylish little b/w suspense thriller clearly influenced not only by Hitchcock in the camera work, but also by film noir and horror films of the ‘30s and ‘40s in its use of deep shadows. The shadowy murder scenes are especially shocking here. But none of that really mattered. The picture guaranteed its drive-in popularity by including plenty of nudity along the way. In fact prior to its release the same distributor who changed the title also insisted on more boobs, so without any tantrums about “integrity” or “artistic vision,”Tenney went back and shot another ten minutes of skin and mild sex and cut it in.

Although  Richard Hilliard receives the on screen credit as director and Tenney’s only credit is as producer, he would later say that  Hilliard  was a friend of his and a theater person who knew nothing about making films or dealing with actors, so he had to step in himself and take over, making this the first picture he wrote, produced, and directed.

The film made a lot of money (given its budget, anyway) but today is the least recognized of his films. That always confused me a little, given that in technical terms alone it’s the best thing he ever did. But I guess that’s not what people are always looking for in low-budget films.

There’s something else going on in Psychomania, though, that I’ve been touting for years even if no one seems to care.  In terms of genre film history, those self-satisfied types who concern themselves with such things comfortably and endlessly cite Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace as the first giallo, the film that launched a thousand copycats made by everyone from Fulci to Argento. The Bava film is the immovable cornerstone. Without taking anything at all away from what is undeniably a great picture, I’d still argue that Tenney beat him to the punch. Psychomania (released on DVD as Violent Midnight) contains everything that would later be cited as fundamental to any giallo picture: a string of sex crimes, an obvious suspect, several other obvious suspects, lots of boobs, savage violence, and a twist ending. But Psychomania was released in early ‘64, roughly  14 months before Bava’s picture. Okay, so maybe it’s not Italian, and maybe it wasn’t based on those tawdry little yellow paperbacks that were so popular at the time, but dammit it’s still a giallo, and it was the first.

I’ll shut up about that now.

After making a film with style, intelligence, and even a little class compared to the usual drive-in fodder, a film whose influence would be felt for the next twenty years (even if no one will admit it), and a film that made him a little money, Tenney took a hard left.

Filmed over two weeks in 1962, Curse of the Living Corpse was a  costume melodrama set in 1892 that’s  reminiscent of those AIP prestige numbers or early Hammer films. When a wealthy, possibly crazy, and just plain mean old man dies, his will stipulates that if the surviving members of his family don’t shape up and fly right, he’s going to rise from the grave and kill them off one by one. Well, they don’t and he does. Or at least it looks like that’s what’s happening.

It’s still a film with style, intelligence, and class, but of a different kind. While Psychomania was intense, sexy, and at times brutal, Curse of the Living Corpse was a very stagebound, theatrical piece, a bit slower, a bit more deliberate. A sitting room murder mystery heavy on the dialogue, punctuated here and there by a thematic murder. Plus most of the  characters are wearing too many layers for things to get terribly sexy.

Curse features Roy Scheider (in his film debut) as one of the profligate heirs in question,  Carnival of Souls’ Candace Hilligoss, and Tenny’s wife Margot Hartman. It’s one of the things that has always made Tenney’s films, cheap, fast, and DIY as they were, stand out. By pulling in friends from the theater, good, professional actors willing to work on a goofy movie for no money, he ended up with performances several cuts above what you’d normally find in something like this.  When none of the actors in a costume drama are, say, chewing gum, it just adds a layer of credibility to the story, no matter how ridiculous that story might be.

The other thing that made Tenney’s first two films stand out was the sharp b/w cinematography. The shadows are so deep here, the contrast so sharp and detailed, the film at times reminds me of those early Bava pictures (to go back there again). Even when the story lags a bit, the atmosphere carries it along. It’s something that can’t often be said about the low-budget pictures of the era.

Well, even as he was still working on Curse of the Living Corpse, pre-production was underway on his next film, The Horror of Party Beach. Shooting began about three days after Curse wrapped. If Tenney took a hard left from Psychomania into Curse, this time he had to jump all the way to the other end of the spectrum.

He admitted he wasn’t sure the genre-mashing satire, the horror musical beach movie, would work, but he charged ahead anyway. What made it work was sticking so tightly to the conventions of both the bug-eyed monster film and the beach blanket movie, while at the same time pointing up the ridiculousness of those conventions. Plus there’s a great fucking soundtrack provided by the Jersey-based surf band The Del-Aires.

In the film’s first five minutes he lays everything out. We meet an assortment of young attractive couples and character types on the beach, each with issues of their own. We meet the potential (human) villains in the form of a local motorcycle gang. And out in Long Island Sound, nuclear waste is being dumped into the water where it settles down on a shipwreck and transforms (with the aid of some neat in-camera trickery) the skeletal remains of lost sailors into an army of fishmen in search of human blood.

After that, well, there you go. The monsters are intentionally silly takeoffs on the usual “man in a rubber suit” creatures (note particularly the eyes and the teeth). But if the monsters are silly, so are the people, and in between  the two Tenney crams in as many drive-in standbys as he can fit: motorcycle chases, baffled scientists, malt shops, some of those crazy teenage dances, doomed drunks, convertibles, incredulous cops,  superstitious black maids who accidentally save the world. And he holds it all together with some editing that’s a bit more clever than you’d expect. The first victim, for instance, dies during a series of cuts between the attacking fishman and The Del-Aires performing the unbelievably catchy “Do the Zombie Stomp” to a bunch of dancing teenagers on the beach. For something this goofy it’s surprisingly disturbing.

(Jokes and surf bands aside, Humanoids From the Deep owes a serious debt of gratitude to Horror of Party Beach).

This and Curse of the Living Corpse were released as a double bill by 20th Century Fox later in ‘64, complete with a gimmick. Would-be audience members were required to sign a release before entering the theater absolving the theater owners of any blame should the viewer die of fright during the screening. It’s unclear if there were any casualties.

The double bill was the last thing to play at the legendary 3,000-seat Paramount Theater in Times Square, and Horror of Party Beach went on to become Tenney’s most successful film.  After that things started to slip.

His next picture, which he completed in ‘64,  was Voodoo Bloodbath, a horror comedy that can trace its roots directly back to Val Lewton’s classic I Walk With a Zombie, but with more bad jokes. William Joyce stars as a bestselling, wisecracking, playboy author of adventure novels. Given that he hasn’t turned anything in to his editor for months, his editor drags him onto a plane and flies him to, yes, Voodoo Island in search of inspiration. See, not only is a famed scientist conducting cancer research there, but the place is supposedly overrun with zombies, too.. It’s a million-selling novel in the waiting. When they arrive they discover three things:

1. The Caribbean island is actually populated by Mexicans for some reason.

2. The scientist has a beautiful blonde virgin daughter.

3. The local natives are preparing for a human sacrifice that night.

None of it bodes well for anyone, though no one realizes this yet.

The humor arises mostly from the editor’s shrill and boorish wife, and the author’s overbearing attempts to pick up any woman he sees (particularly the scientist’s daughter). Neither are terribly funny. The rest of the film is straight-faced and boilerplate, reminiscent of a dozen voodoo pictures from the ‘40s. It’s not very good, either.  Compared with his first two films in particular the production values and direction had gone straight to hell. It’s a clumsy, sloppy picture with very little charm. There’s not even much of a bloodbath. Drumming’s good, though. Up to this point he had worked near miracles with standard storylines and no budgets by bringing in good actors and skilled editors and cameramen. Here he didn’t seem to be trying all that hard. Of all four films, this one really did look and feel like everything else out there.

I wasn’t the only one who thought it could’ve been better. The picture sat on the shelf for nearly seven years until 1971, when low-budget distributor Jerry Gross came nosing around in search of a film to drop in the bottom half of a double bill he had in mind. After a quick and simple title change, the Tenney film was just the ticket he was looking for. As great and fun as those first three films had been, it was Gross who, if accidentally, helped make Tenney a legend.

Today Voodoo Bloodbath is all but completely forgotten. Even under its new title, I Eat Your Skin is less remembered for what it is as a movie than for being half (together with the utterly unrelated I Drink Your Blood)  of one of the most notorious double bills ever released. After seeing them we may not remember anything that happened in either, but we sure do remember those newspaper ads, and sometimes that’s worth a hell of a lot more.

Tenney didn’t talk much about the experience or the film after the fact, but while Voodoo Bloodbath was still sitting on the shelf he  all but completely stepped away from the film business, though he admits he kept the monster suit from Horror of Party Beach and wore it at parties. He and his wife had never strayed from Connecticut, never became part of the hobnobbing Hollywood crowd, so they simply settled down where they were all along, and returned to their first love. They founded what would become a very well respected theater company, putting on three or four productions a year.. Years later when they moved to Florida they opened another. In between Tenney got involved in real estate up and down the East Coast.

Then in the late ‘90s, over thirty years after retiring from motion pictures, he and his wife, together with producer/director Kermit Christman (Wicked Games) , founded DelMar Productions and Tenney began writing, producing and directing again. Between ‘99 and 2003, he made three pictures: Clean and Narrow, about an ex-con trying to go straight in a small town; an I Know What You Did Last Summer knockoff called Wanna Know a Secret?; and a supernatural thriller called Descendant,  in which a would be writer is haunted by the spirit of an ancestor who happens to be Edgar Allan Poe. The last was particularly dear to Tenney, because he’d always loved Poe and wanted to do some kind of movie about him.

Ah, but the movie business was a very different animal by then. It wasn’t merely a matter of borrowing a few bucks from your father-in-law to make a silly monster picture, then hooking up with an independent distributor. Now even making the smallest film meant raising a few million dollars. Worse, the lawyers had gotten involved. And forget about any kind of distribution if you aren’t connected to a major studio. The fun had been sucked out of the game, and this was evident in the films themselves. Sure those films he made in the ‘60s were blatantly, even cynically commercial, but commercial in a ragtag, adventurous, slapdash way.  The new films were commercial, but much more carefully so. They were  slick and serious. If they weren’t slick, audiences wouldn’t look at them, and you had to be serious about the whole process, because there were millions of dollars at stake. Hell, there was even a desperation evident on the screen. While before Tenney had been working with a bunch of young actors on their way up, now he was working with a bunch on their way down (William Katt, Sondra Locke, Wings Hauser), and you can almost hear their nails scratching as they scramble to hold onto anything at all before they vanish completely.

No, it wasn’t much fun,  But those aren’t the films Tenney will be remembered for, and they won’t take anything away from his status among fans. He’ll be remembered for those four pictures from back in ‘64 (even if one wasn’t released until ‘71). They weren’t as good as some, but a lot better than most.  In all four pictures he never once repeated himself. They were all radically different in mood and style and story, and there was a seductive, sloppy magic about them that’s inescapable. No matter how many times I go back to Psychomania/Violent Midnight (and I go back to it a lot) the ending still catches me off guard. After all these years “The Zombie Stomp” still gets stuck in my head.   I even find myself returning to I Eat Your Skin every couple years, not to laugh at it, but just to wonder. I guess that’s why Tenney, on the basis of only those four pictures, can now take his rightful spot among the pantheon of cult directors.

by Jim Knipfel

[roseisread]

My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 3)

In case you missed it, check out part 1 and part 2! Now picking up where we left off...

28. My Cousin Vinny (1992, directed by Jonathan Lynn, country of origin: US)

I know, I know. I can’t believe it either. But I really hadn’t seen this one til just a few short months ago. Marisa Tomei is, of course, a megababe in it; and Joe Pesci wears the hell out of some ridiculous outfits as he portrays a very unconventional defense attorney trying to help his cousin and a friend beat a murder charge. I laughed and laughed and cheered and laughed some more. Best courtroom scenes I watched all year, (and I watched A Few Good Men this year so that’s saying something). If this is still a blind spot for you, or you just want to revisit it, you can rent it on Amazon for 99 cents right now. 

27. After Hours (1985, directed by Martin Scorsese, country of origin: US)

Talk about things that escalate quickly: In this movie, Griffin Dunne’s character Paul meets a fellow book lover/manic pixie dream girl type (Rosanna Arquette). However, when he accepts her invitation for a late night rendezvous at her place, she quickly turns into a manic pixie nightmare girl. By morning, Paul finds himself a fugitive on suspicion of burglary, sex crimes, and murder in a neighborhood it’s safe to say he will never visit again. It’s a more heightened, comedic take on the classic “wrongfully accused” genre, and Dunne plays every note of desperation perfectly. You can watch this for free on Vudu, or rent on other streaming platforms. 

26. The Big Clock (1948, directed by John Farrow, country of origin: US)

The Big Clock actually has a few things in common with the aforementioned After Hours--hardworking New York City guy agrees to drinks with possibly sketchy woman and winds up the prime suspect in a murder. The whole thing takes place over a 36-hour period, and as you might guess the Clock of the title is ticking. The cast is great--Ray Milland, Charles Laughton, Maureen O’Sullivan--and the film balances humor and suspense with ease. Fun fact, the movie is directed by John Farrow, father of Mia. The movie is available for online rental through Amazon, Vudu, and iTunes.

25. The Doll (1919, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, country of origin: Germany)

I adore Ernst Lubitsch, who directed The Shop Around The Corner, To Be or Not To Be, Trouble in Paradise, and Design for Living. Before his English-language talkies, however, he got his start in Germany with silent films like Die Puppe (The Doll). Starring the effervescent Ossi Oswalda (basically the silent era’s Greta Gerwig), this comic fantasy skewers romantic conventions. 

Lancelot is a young prince who must marry in order to receive his inheritance; but he’s afraid of women (or possibly gay... it’s easy to read it that way). He buys what he think is a life-like doll to deceive his family and avoid marriage to a real girl; but little does he know Ossi is actually a real girl pretending to be a doll. It’s all very silly and over the top and winking, and also one of the most hilarious and charming rom-coms this side of the Hallmark channel. The physical comedy is outstanding, the social commentary is scathing, and Ossi is the hero we didn’t know we needed. There are a few versions floating around on YouTube or you can rent it for a few bucks on Amazon. I caught it on Filmstruck during a Lubitsch spotlight, and my life has never been the same.

24. Talk To Her (2002, directed by Pedro Almodovar, country of origin: Spain)

Pedro Almodovar can take the most seemingly absurd situation or plot contrivance and draw out something truly human and moving. He excels at shining a light on damaged but compelling characters, and doing everything with such style and panache that you let your guard down completely and before you know it you’re rooting for someone you ordinarily would scoff at from a distance. This movie’s story focuses on two comatose women and their caretakers, and delves into the limits of love and consent in fascinating, disturbing ways. I had no idea where this film was going but I was with it every second. Available for rent on most online platforms.

23. Crash (1996, directed by David Cronenberg, country of origin: Canada)

From the king of body horror, David Cronenberg, comes a movie about people who find eroticism where most people would find repulsion. Based on the controversial book by J.G. Ballard, this film follows a group of people who are aroused by car accidents and the injuries that result from metal and flesh colliding. It sounds macabre and at times it is, but under the surface are deeper themes that question what is considered “normal” versus “fetish” and why bodies that are whole and untarnished are worshiped while those that have distinguishing marks are tossed aside. There’s also certainly a critique of consumerism and cars as status symbols, and probably a lot more I missed on first viewing. Who better to portray a sexual deviant than James Spader? He’s joined by Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas (you’ll never think of Casey Jones the same way again), Deborah Kara Unger, and Rosanna Arquette. This is a tough one to track down--nowhere online right now, and it’s out of print on physical media; but if you see it at a thrift store or your local library, check it out. 

22. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920, directed by Robert Wiene, country of origin: Germany)

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is one of those movies that gets referenced a lot but I still wasn’t sure exactly what to expect from this silent German Expressionist film. Sometimes watching such a revered classic can be a little daunting--will I like as much as I’m “supposed to”? Thankfully, I did. Basically all of goth culture could probably trace its lineage back to this weird, creepy, twisty film. The elaborate, off-kilter set design and mind-bending story got under my skin in the best way. I won’t say much about the plot--just watch it (on YouTube unofficially or rentable on various streaming services).

21. Duck Soup (1933, directed by Leo McCarey, country of origin: US)

My introduction to the Marx Brothers was A Night at the Opera, and I went gaga for their rapid-fire verbal gymnastics and their gonzo physical comedy. This film takes it to the next level and throws in some political satire for good measure. So many incredible, iconic routines; song and dance sequences; and dialogue that you have to watch at least 4 times to catch all the jokes. I’m officially a fan of the Marx Brothers after this. You can rent it on most streaming sources, but I’m guessing if you have a male relative over the age of 50 you could probably borrow it from their collection. It’s very popular with Dad/Uncle demographic, and I can see why.

20. They Live by Night (1948, directed by Nicholas Ray, country of origin: US)

Nicholas Ray is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite directors. Rebel Without a Cause, In a Lonely Place, Johnny Guitar, The Racket, and now They Live By Night--just stunning movies about troubled souls who don’t quite fit in with the rest of the world. This film lays the template for so many that would come after it: Young couple, good girl falls for bad boy, they go on the run from the law, love is not all you need.

When things are good, they’re really good and lead characters Keechie (Cathy O���Donnell) and Bowie (Farley Grainger) are rapturously crazy in love. But they also bicker believably when the past begins to bleed into the present, leading to one of my favorite exchanges in the film. Bowie confronts Keechie about her whereabouts, and when she informs him she’s been to the doctor “about the baby we’re gonna have,” he bursts out, “That’s all I need!” She fires back, “You don’t see me knittin’ anything, do ya?”

This is a Criterion film, so you may have to get it from the library or catch it on TCM until the Criterion streaming service launches later this spring. Either way, it’s a must-watch, especially if you love movies like Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde.

19. Paprika (2006, directed by Satoshi Kon, country of origin: Japan)

Look, I love Inception as much as the next person, but now that I’ve seen Paprika I must admit Christopher Nolan owes a major debt to Satoshi Kon for the way he portrays dreams and reality intersecting in uncanny ways. The difference is Satoshi Kon did it with much more weirdness and color and unsettling body horror. Don’t ask me to explain this movie, I’m not even 100% sure it can be unraveled all the way into a linear structure; but it is zany and wonderful in the best way. There’s no Tom Hardy but there is a girl who turns into a butterfly and a band of frogs and a creepy clown and a really fat guy who’s in love with the smart scientist lady... I’m telling you, you gotta see this thing. You can stream it for free on Crackle; otherwise it’s a $2.99 rental from Amazon and Vudu.

18. Good Time (2017, directed by the Safdie Brothers, country of origin: US)

If you missed this in 2017, PLEASE watch it now. Robert Pattinson gives his career best performance as a fast talking petty criminal trying to get his mentally handicapped brother out of jail after making him an accomplice to his own crimes. The soundtrack by Oneohtrix Point Never combined with the Safdie Brothers mesmerizing cinematography make for a hypnotic, propulsive viewing experience. Newcomer Taliah Webster delivers an excellent supporting performance as an unwitting sidekick partway through the film. Watch for free on Amazon Prime or rent on Vudu or YouTube.

17. Cleo From 5 to 7 (1962, directed by Agnes Varda, country of origin: France)

My first foray into the filmography of Agnes Varda, and I loved it. Cleo, a French pop singer, spends a couple hours trying to distract herself from anxiety and dread as she awaits the results of a biopsy. She buys a hat, plays with her kittens, and argues with her male collaborators over song choices. 

Eventually she meets a stranger and they walk around Paris in a vignette that almost certainly influenced Richard Linklater’s entire milieu. Cleo mulls her possible fate and concludes “as long as I’m beautiful, I’m alive”--a notion Blondie would later reference in their tongue in cheek tune “Die Young, Stay Pretty.” But as much as she is fixated on her appearance, she finds herself struggling to be taken seriously by men who dismiss her because of her beauty. 

Special shout out to Michel Legrand, who we learned today has left the mortal plane: He composed the lovely score for this film and also appears in it as Cleo’s pianist.

I watched this on the now-defunct Filmstruck, but it’s part of the Criterion Collection so your best bet is probably getting it from the library or waiting for it to show up when Criterion’s streaming service launches later this spring.

16. Happy Together (1997, directed by Wong Kar-Wai, country of origin: Hong Kong)

Wong Kar-Wai captures unfulfilled romantic longing on film better than just about anyone. If you’ve seen In the Mood for Love or Chungking Express you already know this. Happy Together turns the director’s eye once again toward people on a collision course of love, lust, and disfunction. Leslie Cheung (RIP) and Tony Leung portray a couple hoping their toxic relationship will hit the reset button with a change of scenery when they relocate from Hong Kong to Argentina. At times their passion manifests as tenderness, as in a moving dance sequence; other times, volatility erupts into violence. When one of them meets someone new, the possibility of a simpler, sweeter kind of love  offers an alternative to the cycle of codependency and betrayal. This one is out of print right now on DVD, but check your local library or used movie store and you may get lucky.

15. La Dolce Vita (1960, directed by Federico Fellini, country of origin: Italy)

You’ve got sumptuous Italian vistas, Marcello Mastroianni being gorgeous, Anita Ekberg dancing in the fountain, and a bunch of hedonism that leads down a path of inevitable emptiness and/or destruction. Personally, I prefer this one to Fellini’s 8 1/2--it’s filled with  so many scenes that could work as stand alone short films; and there’s more humor and exuberance here than in his better known, meta film experience. The 174 minute runtime may seem intimidating but for me it flew by. Available with Filmbox on Amazon right now, also part of the Criterion Collection.

14. Cooley High (1975, directed by Michael Schultz, country of origin: US)

If you’ve enjoyed movies like Dazed and Confused, American Graffiti, Boyz N the Hood, or even Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, you should really watch Cooley High. Filmed in Chicago, it follows a group of friends in high school as they skip class in favor of visiting the Lincoln Park zoo, recite poetry, go to parties, make out with girls, get into fights, and navigate the tenuous border between youth and adulthood. Full of laughs, heart, and clear-eyed realism in place of the occasional sentimentality that seeps into movies about “young folks,” this must-see of Black cinema influenced independent filmmakers like Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino. You can rent it on Vudu, or pick up a physical copy on Blu-ray or DVD.

13. Poltergeist (1982, directed by Tobe Hooper, country of origin: US)

Out of all the major blindspots I caught up with in 2018, this is the one that both impressed me the most and made me wonder why it took me this long to see it. I think I just assumed that it would be super cheesy or super scary or somehow both? Needless to say, I was wrong. It’s a blast! Funny, scary (but in a way I loved), original, and one of the best portrayals of family I’ve seen on screen. I now plan to watch this at least once a year to celebrate Halloween the same way that I watch Independence Day on July 4th, Elf/Jingle All the Way/Christmas Vacation at Christmas, and Nightmare Before Christmas/Donnie Darko for Halloween. I’m sure that everyone else in the world has seen it, but if you by some chance have not, go watch it right now! It’s available for rent on YouTube, Amazon, and GooglePlay.

12. Arthur (1981, directed by Steve Gordon, country of origin: US)

This one really surprised me. I became vaguely aware of its existence around the release of the terribly reviewed Russell Brand version; but no idea what to expect when I impulsively clicked the “watch now” button on Filmstruck. At first, Dudley Moore came across as an obnoxious drunken boor, but as I kept watching I realized the levels to his character went much deeper than it seemed at first. John Gielgud immediately won me over as Arthur’s butler Hobson, who loves Arthur like a son despite his many shenanigans. Then Liza Minnelli shows up on screen and isn’t she cute as a button! If you only know her as Lucille II from Arrested Development, you really owe it to yourself to see her in her heyday. You might not think Buster is so crazy for embracing “our nausea.” 

This movie became one of my favorite romantic comedies, in some ways a Cinderella story and in some ways a coming of age story and in most ways something wholly original. It’s a very special film, and deserves a wider audience among today’s movie fans. It’s a $1.99 rental on most platforms right now, so you have no excuse.

11. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971, directed by Robert Altman, country of origin: US)

I knocked out a few Altman films last year, and they were all good but this one was my favorite. I’m not always a fan of Westerns, but this one, which finds Julie Christie’s Madam teaming up with Warren Beatty’s Gambler to open a brothel, well, it’s different. I have a feeling Altman (and maybe his cast) watched Johnny Guitar, an earlier entry on my list, because this is another case in which a powerful woman with a mind for business upends the natural order of things (aka men being in charge). 

The writing here is wonderful, especially the dialogue, which includes such gems as “You know how to square a circle? Shove a four by four up a mule’s ass!” but also some more gentle, sweet exchanges and voiceover. There are also some gorgeous shots in this film, unsurprising with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond on board (who also shot Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Deliverance, and Blow Out just to name a few). 

Watch it via rental on Amazon, GooglePlay, or iTunes.

Next up: The Top 10! Stay tuned! 

[corystssides]

Roommates, Part 4

Words: 1464

Summary: Roman gives Patton all the details now that he’s back.

Warnings: second-hand embarrassment, probably, talking about one-night stands, mentions of a couple gay stereotypes, speculating about other people’s  orientations, betting, mentions of arguing, I believe that’s it but let me know.

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7

Roman was headed back from the communal showers when he saw Logan emerge from his own room and stride furiously toward him. He wondered if Logan was going to solve all of Virgil’s problems with varying degrees of annoyance. But no--he diverted left when they got to the staircase. He nearly ran into Patton, who was coming off the staircase, but he didn’t acknowledge either of them, almost as though he hadn’t even seen them.

Patton stared after Logan, bewildered, as Roman came to stand next to him. “I wonder what bee’s in his bonnet,” Roman said.

“I dunno. He looked really mad though. I hope he and Virgil aren’t fighting,” Patton said, bewilderment turning to concern.

“Do they even have reasons to fight? They’re ‘just roommates, not friends,’ after all,” Roman said, mocking Logan.

“I feel like that gives them even more reasons to fight, since friends are supposed to get along,” Patton said, dryly. “Whatever it is though, I hope they work it out, otherwise game night is gonna be really awkward.”

“Yeah...about that…” Roman said, trailing off with a grimace.

“What? Is dating Virgil going to interfere with game night? Game night is sacrosanct, Roman!”

“I don’t know what that means, Pat,” Roman said, starting to walk towards the dorm. He pulled out his keys and started to wiggle the dorm key into its lock. “But no, dating Virgil isn’t going to interfere with game night,” he got the door unlocked and swept into the room, quietly adding, “uhh, especially since we’re uh, not, dating.”

The door closed behind Patton, which was good, because Roman would have died on the spot if the entire dorm could have heard him say, “Oh my gosh, you had a one-night stand with Virgil?!”

“Patton!” Roman squeaked, gesturing to the wall that they shared with Virgil and Logan, as though to say he is right there!

“Sorry,” Patton said, and then, in a whisper, “You had a one-night stand with Virgin Mobile, though?”

“Okay, first of all, I don’t like the judgement in your tone--” Roman said, already putting on the Heathers soundtrack so his neighbor couldn’t hear whatever ridiculous thing Patton said next.

“No no, that’s not what I meant to sound like!” Patton said. “Of course, expression of sexuality is totally normal and should be encouraged--”

“Patton.”

“--even if, uh, it doesn’t take a necessarily traditional route--”

“Patton!”

“--and as long as everything was consensual, I mean, there’s totally nothing wrong with that, I didn’t mean to make it sound like--”

“Patton!” Patton shut up, and Roman ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. “We didn’t--we’re not dating, we didn’t have a one-night stand, nothing---nothing like that, okay? I asked Virgil to help me with my math since Logan wasn’t there and it’s positively incomprehensible, and then we were watching Lion King at like one am, and Virgil fell asleep, and I didn’t know if I had permission to sleep on your bed in situations like that, and I didn’t want to text and ask at one in the morning, so I just didn’t, okay? It was completely platonic sleeping together--not sleeping together--just--we were sleeping, just sleeping, not doing anything but sleeping, and it happened to be in the same bed, and--and that’s it, nothing else. No feelings towards each other, whatsoever, except, y’know, like friendship.”

“Well, you could have fooled me!” Patton said cheerfully.

“Patton what in the name of the Bard Himself is that supposed to mean?” Roman asked with a glare.

“Nothing,” Patton said, smile dropping, “I’m sorry. If you say there’s no attraction between the two of you, then there’s no attraction between the two of you.”

“Great,” Roman said. “As long as we’re clear on that.”

“Totally clear,” Patton said. “One thing that’s not clear, though: how is this going to make game night awkward?”

“Well, with the way Virgil sprinted out this morning, I have a feeling he’s, uh, pretty embarrassed about what happened. Heteros tend to do that, you know, when anything kinda gay happens.”

“Heteros?” Patton asked disbelievingly. “Virgil? Straight? Would you like to borrow my glasses?”

“I think you need your prescription checked,” Roman said, rolling his eyes. Now that the topic had turned lighter, he made his way towards the dresser, since he really should put clothes on instead of just a bathrobe. “Have you seen the way he acts towards me? Every time he sees me, he gets, like, this look of fear in his eyes or something. And until we spent the whole night arguing about coin flip problems, he wouldn’t even be within like a yard of me. It’s like ‘no homo’ deluxe. I’m just the only gay he knows about, obviously, because of the theater gay stereotype, which is why he acts normal around you.”

“Listen, Roman, the way he acts around you is like...the total opposite of ‘no homo.’ If anyone is an oblivious straight around here, it’s clearly Logan.”

Roman pulled out a tank top and a floral print shirt to put over it. “Patton, nobody owns that many NASA shirts unless they’re gay or literally living on the International Space Station. You’ve clearly been deciev--wait, what? What do you mean Virgil acts like the opposite of ‘no homo’?”

Patton gave a knowing smirk, picked up the note he’d left for Roman that morning and waved it around a bit. “You said there’s no attraction between the two of you, so there’s no attraction, but I’m just saying there’s a reason why it was so easy for me to assume that you two were dating now. Well, besides the fact that you two were literally in bed together.”

“Are you trying to imply something?” Roman asked, pulling on a pair of skinny jeans.

“I don’t really imply things, being straightforward is usually the best bet, but if I was implying something, I’d probably be implying that we’re not the only useless gays who don’t know how to ask someone on a date. But I don’t imply things. So you definitely shouldn’t act upon subtext like that.”

“Very subtle,” Roman said. “But first off, My Chemical Bromance isn’t my type, second off, I 100% doubt he even likes me in a neighborly way, and third off, not everyone in the world is gay, Patton. And besides, four gays in neighboring dorms who are not part of the gay residential community? Don’t be ridiculous.”

“We are part of the gayest generation,” Patton said. “Only half of us identify as straight.”

“Well, there you go, looks like neither Logan nor Virgil are gay then, sorry.”

“That’s not how statistics works and you know it,” Patton said.

Roman raised his hands up in a mocking surrender. “You’re right, you’re right. If we use statistics, there’s even less of a chance all four of us are gay. 50% chance, it’s exactly like a coin flip problem, which means the chance that all four of us are gay…” Roman pulled out his phone and pulled up the calculator. “...a little over six percent. Which means super unlikely.”

Patton’s smug look had yet to be removed. “Bet?”

“The numbers are on my side.”

“I’m not confident in your math skills. Bet?”

“Fine. Sure. Fifty bucks says that one or both of our neighbors is straight, and it’s probably Virgil.”

“Fifty bucks it is then!” Patton said, cheerfully. “No outright asking them though. They have to volunteer the information. We don’t want to put them in a situation where, if they were gay, they’d lie because they’re uncomfortable.”

“Great,” Roman said. “Can’t wait to be fifty bucks richer.”

“Don’t count your chickens before they cross the road,” Patton said teasingly. “In the meantime though, you should talk to Virgil about last night, and resolve the awkwardness between you two. Game night is Wednesday, after all.”

“Yeah…” Roman said, flopping backwards onto his bed. “I need to come up with a way to do that first. And since we are on the topic, if something like that happens again with anybody else, would you mind terribly if I sleep on your bed for the night?”

“Not at all!” Patton said.

“Fantastic,” Roman said. “Hopefully I won’t need it, but thanks.”

Patton grabbed a sweater and put it on. Then, he turned back towards the door. “Have fun talking to Virgil. I’m gonna go find Logan.”

“Why?”

“I want to find out if he and Virgil are fighting.”

Roman made a noise of amusement. “You can’t force them to get along.”

“I’m gonna make them friends if it’s the last thing I do,” Patton said. “I will fight them! With friendship!”

“Okay Patton.”

“See you later. Good luck!”

“Same to you.”

~

Next

[asiawrites]

The Ramblings Inside My Creative Mind: I Only Like You For the Nostalgia... Probably

        Last week I got a chance to see U2 for the third time. I know they get a lot of flack and I get a lot also for still being a fan. I don’t know why, outside of fans, they are so hated, but I have a few ideas and a lot of them hit me in the days before the show.

        There is no denying (at least there shouldn’t be) that Bono, Larry, The Edge, and Adam are excellent showmen. And you have to admit they are talented. Say what you want about Bono, but to blow off the skill of The Edge’s guitar playing, Adam’s rhythm with a bass, and Larry’s preciseness with the drums is a little crazy to me. I know for people who aren’t fans, it’s hard to see past Bono’s need to do the absolute most, but trust me these dude’s are talented.

       It’s weird that, even though, I said this was my third time seeing them, this was the first time I felt like I belonged in the crowd. The sad part of that was the excitement for the show had started to die weeks before the trip to Chicago, and had almost completely died hours before the show (I’ll get to that totally embarrassing and probably bratty reason later). The first time I saw them was a little rushed. I’m the type of girl who likes to get to concerts super early, with hopes of meeting the band. Lame, but whatever. This time I had fractured my foot a few weeks before so I was in the dreaded boot. Long story short, a doctor’s appointment, traffic, a few errands, and more traffic later I was later than I hoped to be. The part that bummed me out is that, other than the couple that sat next to me, everyone was kind of asshole-ish. I know the band has a reputation for being sort of pompous, but I thought “Even the fans too?!?” Just the rudest group of people ever. The second time was more of the same. It was the Joshua Tree tour of 2017. I was able to get to Soldier Field early enough for their first show (I had tickets for the show the next day) to get a great video of Bono greeting fans, still no autograph, because in a world of tall people us short folks don’t stand a chance. At the show I had tickets for GA. I’d gotten close enough to the extended part of the stage out in the crowd, with the exception of the 6ft plus women (IN HEELS!) who decided to stand in the way and causally nudge me out of the way any chance they could. To make that even worse is that once the show got started Larry’s drum set was positioned to face the other side of the crowd, and for some reason the rest of the band decided to play that direction as well instead of working the whole crowd. So whether the gargantuan women were in my way or not all I got to see was U2 ass for two hours. Immediately after the show was over staff were complete dicks telling people to get out and even resorted to pushing people, which was unnecessary. Third times a charm I guess. My boyfriend was with me and we were around a group of people who came to enjoy the show, talked and laughed with us and it was great.

        My boyfriend and I had a discussion while waiting for the show to start and it was about something that disturbed me about my favorite band. On their unique stage there were images that popped up saying things like “Equal Rights”, “HERstory”, etc. All things that have to do with equality, ending hate, caring for one another, you know? All the shit we’ve become accustomed to when you think of them and the charities they support. And I looked at my boyfriend and said “Yet our sweatshirts are $75 and buttons that literally say nothing about the band are $15.” Now mind you, I don’t know where the funds from their merch go to. Most of it could very well go to the ONE campaign. All I know is that I’ve gone to many concerts and at none of them have shirts being sold for more than $25-$30, nor are the knick knack accessories over $10. Almost all merch has something dealing with the band on it, whether it be just the name, their image, a lyric, etc. They are also the only band I know of that has a fan club fee. Someone like me can’t afford to give $50+ bucks just so I’m notified early when tickets go on sale and therefore give you MORE money. I wish they were a little more like what they stand for. Realize that not all of your fans are loaded, but also want to be included because they love you.

        My bratty reason for my excitement dying is that they kinda crushed me beforehand. When they’re in Chicago they stay at the same hotel and roughly leave for a show around the same time. That first day Bono stopped, shook a few hands from the car window, and focused his attention on the little girl that he’d let up on stage at a show in the past. That girl wasn’t born to know about the greatness that was Joshua Tree, but I digress. The next day I showed up and was relieved there wasn’t as many people there as the day before. Surely they’d stop and I’d FINALLY get my autograph on this book that I’d been carrying around for years whenever they were near. Nope. They didn’t even stop, roll down the window, wave, honk the horn. Nothing. I was heartbroken. Yeah, I cried. Whatever. My boyfriend hugged when I told him not to cause it would get worse. Cause you know if someone hugs you when you’re already sad it’s guaranteed to make you cry like a baby. That was me. I hate that it effected me so much because at the end of the day they’re just people. It’s a catch 22 because they are just people and don’t owe us anything, but at the same time without fans to buy albums, tickets, etc, then where would they be? People judge me for being a fangirl, but for some celebrities it’s because they mean a lot to me for very specific reasons and U2 fits in that category for me. They are the band that made me comfortable with myself. For me being a young black girl who liked rock music, it was tough. I was bullied, told I was trying to be white, called weird, and just overall made to feel like I was trying to be something I wasn’t and that I didn’t belong anywhere. Hell, oftentimes my own family made me feel that way. It was hard going out in the world and dealing with that type of ridicule and then have to come home to it. I didn’t have a break. My break was Mtv and the radio. The moment I saw the video for “Mysterious Ways”, I was hooked. I started not to care what people thought. I loved U2 and I didn’t care who knew. What made that acceptance much easier was from the video I thought Bono was Latino, so I felt that a nice rebuttal if people teased me for liking “white music” I could say that “Well the lead singer for U2 is Latino! So there!” I later found out I was wrong, but I didn’t care. I was a U2 lover. In some ways I was still ashamed of the music I liked so the only ones I didn’t care about people knowing I liked were U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Aerosmith, (with black people Aerosmith got a pass because of Run DMC). It wasn’t until I was 13 and discovered The Beatles that I threw all fucks to the wind and started being the nerdy rock and roll black girl that I was destined to be. So did I feel hurt when I didn’t meet my idols? You damn right I did.

       Before that concert I had an inner talk with myself, and that talk was along the lines of “Do I still love U2 or do I love the acceptance they made me feel for myself when I was a child? Am I just caught up in the nostalgia?” I honestly don’t have an answer to that. Do I love their music still? Yes. Does it touch me the same way Achtung Baby did? Not really. There will always be a place in my heart for them, but do I really want to keep spending my hard earned dollars to see them? Maybe. Maybe not. Their music will always be a part of the soundtrack to my life. Their music will stick with me.

-Asia Aneka Anderson, 2018(c)

[wantingtobekorra]

The Music I Can Give You - Part 8

Summary: Generally, you’re a fairly open person with the team. You tell them about your past and in turn they seem to open up to you as well. The only thing is, is that no one on the team knew of your intense love of music. It was something incredibly personal to you and you kept it close to your heart, not willing to open yourself up to other people’s judgement. That is, until Bucky Barnes came to the Tower. You never spoke to Bucky but the more you watched and observed him, the faster you found yourself falling for the kind, strong man. It’s only after seeing Bucky being tormented by one of his nightmares do you realize that maybe there is something that you can do to help him, and quietly show your love for him at the same time.

Word Count: 1.9K

Warnings: swearing

A/N: This is Bucky’s POV. Thank you so much for your feedback! Lemme know your thoughts on this chapter! 

Previous Chapter

 Bucky’s POV

Opening my eyes, I blinked several times and turned my head into my pillow, trying to block the sunlight from my face and grab a few more minutes of sleep. Burying my head further into my comforter and pillow, I froze. Jerking up, the warm comforter and sheets pooled around my waist. Why the hell was there sunlight coming into my window? And wha-, what was it doing waking me up? Rubbing my hands down my face, I pulled them back and stared down at my left hand, the morning light glinting off the polished metal. Never, in recent memory had I ever woken up naturally, it had always been from a nightmare or Steve coming to shake me out of a night terror that I couldn’t escape from.

Looking again at the sunlight streaming through my curtains I pulled the covers off and swung my legs over the edge, stretching my back as I stood up, something that I couldn’t remember ever doing I was so relaxed. Turning back towards the bed, I let out a little laugh; every morning was usually a huge hassle to make my bed after the previous night’s thrashing but today, today it was already practically made. Leaning over to straighten the sheets, I tried to figure out why last night had been so different from every other night. I couldn’t think of anything that had changed, anything that I had done differently. So caught up in my thoughts, I almost missed the glint of something silver half hidden under my pillow.

Pulling out the small metal rectangle I recognized it as an iPod, something that Steve had excitedly shown me when I first came to the Tower. Reaching down, I picked up the red headphones that seemed to go with it, untangling the knotted mess as I studied them. The headphones themselves were a bright cherry red while the iPod was silver. Where the hell had these come from? God knows I didn’t own one, I had a hard enough time adjusting as is. Turning it over in my hand, I froze when I spotted the red star on the back. Bringing it closer to my face, I could see the small paintbrush strokes that made up the sharp lines of the star. Someone had hand painted this. Someone had hand painted this iPod and then accidently left it in my bed? No, that didn’t make any sense, and neither did the star, the symbol on my arm.

Trying to remember the tech lessons that Steve had attempted to give me months ago, I managed to turn it on. Scrolling through the playlists, I scanned the folder before one caught my eye. 40’s. Clicking on the title, I was startled to realize that I knew a majority of the artists and songs listed. Sinking onto my mattress I pushed the headphones into my ears and pressed play. Immediately I was transported back to my era. Mine and Steve’s era. It was like the room I was sitting in disappeared and I was back in 1940’s Brooklyn, looking through alleys for the punk, dancing through the night, and spontaneous trips to Coney Island. It was so vibrant, I could feel myself there, really there. How I was back then, carefree and happy, actually happy. With the last notes I could feel myself come back to reality, resurfacing from memories and feelings that I thought I had lost forever in that fucking chair under HYDRA.  Ripping out the headphones, I buried my face in my arms and cried. I had forgotten, forgotten what it had felt like to be that happy and now, somehow, with this music, it had come back. Laying down on my bed I curled on my side and continued to sob. It had been a lifetime since I had cried this much, let this much pain out, and in some twisted way, it made me happy. It actually made me feel alive, like the actual human man that I had been trying for months to recover.

An hour later I felt as light as air. I had scrolled through every playlist on the iPod, picking any song that caught my eye before skipping over to the next one, wanting to experience every emotion that each song brought as quickly as possible. There were playlists from almost every early era: 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, and the 50’s. There was one other playlist that had quickly become my favourite though, a playlist full of hour or more long soundtracks, with entire orchestras working together to create the music. I recognized some of the names of movies that the team had watched together but I had never realized how hauntingly beautiful and powerful the music was on its own when it was unaccompanied by the actual film.

 Finally pulling the headphones from my ears I pulled myself up and leaned against the headboard, fingering the iPod gently as I slowly wrapped the headphones around it. Someone had bought this, hand painted it so I would know it was for me, had taken the time to find, collect, and create all the playlists and then somehow get it into my room without me noticing. I had no idea who would do this, who would want to do this, to put this amount of effort and care and….love into something like this for me. God knows I didn’t deserve something like this and the only person who I knew could paint and even knew me well enough to do this was….Steve.

 Jumping out of bed with the iPod clutched in my hand I raced into the kitchen hoping that Steve would be there so I could thank him.  Running around the corner I almost slammed into the counter but managed to stop myself. Glancing up, I noticed the kitchen was empty, except for you, staring at me with those big eyes of yours. Watching her face I just noticed the dark circles under your eyes before I saw them glance down at the iPod in my hand. You had always seemed to hate me but stupid me, couldn’t help noticing you. Every time we were in a room I could never seem to catch your eye or even gather up the courage to start a conversation to try and get to know you better. The other night I thought I had made some progress, finally scrounging up the courage to talk to you when you had accidently left your laptop on the kitchen counter. As soon as I had said a single sentence to you though, and offered you your laptop, you practically sprinted out of the room, probably terrified to be in the same room as the Winter Soldier. Shaking my head, I shook the memory of your obvious disgust for me and met your e/c eyes which stared at me in shock and something else that I couldn’t pinpoint. Clearing my throat, I managed to find my voice,

“Hey, umm have you, have you seen Steve? I need to ask him something… about this,” I said, holding out the iPod. Your eyes glanced down and widened slightly upon seeing the iPod.

“Um, why’s that? And is that an iPod?” you asked, getting up from your spot at the counter and walking towards me, trying to get a closer look at it.

“Uh,” I stuttered, looking down at the iPod, trying to form a coherent thought. You had never spoken more than a few words at a time to me and now you were starting an actual conversation. “I found this in my bed this morning and uh, I just wanted to thank Steve for it, for all the…yeah,” I finished lamely. Taking in a deep breath, I looked up and froze. You were standing a foot away, eyes looking between my face and the iPod I now realized I had been protectively holding against my chest. Up close your eyes were the deepest e/c that I had ever seen and had flecks of gold that I had never noticed before. My eyes fluttered when you spoke, the smell of mint hitting my face,

“I think Steve is in the training room with Nat.”

Trying to normalize my breathing I took a step back, and nodded my thanks, missing the look of disappointment and hurt as I turned away, almost running towards the training area. Right now I was desperate and I needed to find Steve, now.

Standing in the doorway to the training room, I watched as Nat and Steve sparred, waiting until one of them pinned the other before clearing my throat. Looking up at the sound, Steve spoke quickly with Nat before walking towards me, a questioning look on his face. Turning down the hall, I motioned for him to follow me. Lightly tracing the edges of the iPod I turned back around and almost bumped into the Steve.

“Buck, what’s wrong?” Steve’s eyebrows were drawn down over his eyes, turning the normally bright blue to an almost dark grey. This guy, my friend, even now, after all the years of pain and confusion that our lives had brought us, this Punk still had my back. Reaching out, the iPod still clutched in my hand, I pulled Steve into a hug, something I realized I hadn’t done since we were just normal soldiers in the War. I felt Steve freeze before his arms wrapped around me hesitantly, holding me just as tight as I held him. Pulling back after several moments, Steve spoke before I could say anything.

“Buck, as great as it is to see you like… this, I’m confused. Why the sudden hug?”

Half smiling, I held up the iPod, my iPod in my hand in answer but Steve just stared at it, a mixture of confusion and hesitant happiness marring his features. I felt the smile slip off my face.

“This is from you, isn’t it Punk?” I asked, looking closely at his face for any signs that he might be lying to hide the fact that he had given me the gift.

“What? No, I’ve never seen that before. Why do you ask?”

Completely confused now, I stared down at the red star painted over the back of the silver casing. “I found this in my bed this morning,” I said, handing the iPod over to him “and I figured you had given it to me”. Gingerly taking the gift from my hand, Steve slowly turned it over and studied the painted star on the back,

“Yeah sorry, I didn’t give this to you. Why did you think I did though?” Steve questioned, handing it back to me. Fingering the edges of the paint for what must have been the thousandth time since finding it this morning, I sighed,

“I just don’t get it then,” I muttered. Looking up, I spoke louder, holding the iPod up at eye level, “There’s music on here, Steve. Songs from our era, things that sound like the original and bring back memories… and emotions.” Shaking my head I continued, “The songs on here, only you know me well enough to be able to put this together Punk”. Reaching out, Steve took the iPod out of my hand and studied it again,

“I don’t know what to tell you Buck. I’ve never seen this before in my life and I sure as hell didn’t sneak into your room to give it to ya”.

Next Chapter

PERMANENT TAG LIST: (OPEN)

@melconnor2007 @00greekgeek00 @chameerah

TAG LIST: (OPEN)

@thefridgeismybestie @beautiful-aravis @gloriavox @learisa @aeonvalentine @mypandabuddy311 @crazy4thewinbros @thelostswan @slender–spirits @spookyscaryscully @buckybear5 @le-petit-croissant @agentsinstorybrooke​​

[mttsus]

Free Music Downloads

youtube mp3 Who hits CD shops these days? Definitely not the youth! Today almost every teen or college going boy or girl has their own iPods or MP3 players. They no longer trust CD shops or they no longer have time to rush to shops when they urgently want to hear something they heard is good. Such a short gratifying tendency is good or bad is a thought left to critics! What we know is satisfying our music buds whenever we get a chance! Obviously we are tired enough by day to day routines and studies and music is a great pastime for all of us. No wonder almost all youths today have memberships of one or more music download sites. As the music industry is growing by leap and bounds, there is tremendous competition between music download sites. Many people keep looking for newly emerged sites that give huge discounts to their clients. However, it's not a good idea to go for a totally new download site without knowing its features. If you approach it just because you save money, the music quality may be too poor at times. So do search for good download sites that give quality service. There are countless websites offering download music for your zune media player. Most of them ask for a fee when downloading music. The problem is that the price looks good per download per song, however added it up can become a big sum of money. If you want to pay for your music downloads for zune, is better make more out of your money. There are lots Zune music download sites where you can get most of the music files on the net. Also, you can enjoy the access to other software and freebies. The multitude of the sites offering music download services have grown up big lately as the demand increase. So it is quite hard to know which one is better than the other. One hint to find out is to compare the quantity of the files they have. Each paid membership should have millions of songs, movies, soundtracks and games. Only the price comparisons is not enough. Is better take a look at the reviews of people who have used them for a more accurate view on the service. These websites let you download as many songs as you like after you pay once. It counts as a lifetime membership on that site. This fee is rarely more than $50, and there will be no charges at all after that. You can do whatever you like with the songs after you download them - burn CDs, move them, anything at all. There are more options that answer the question of from where to download music. Some websites offer a combination of pay-per-download as well as subscription, but this is not exactly the best offer financially. If you want to download often, a lifetime membership is your best bet. Plus, it is undisputedly legal. You can fill your player with all the songs you love best, as soon as you decide which option is right for you, without overpaying or messing up your player or computer. All your options regarding where to download music from are right here - revealed and obvious! Are you drooling at the offer now? Let's look at what are some of the criteria that makes a membership site a good unlimited music downloads site. Most unlimited music downloads sites offer lifetime memberships only. Only a selected few offer 1-year or 2-year memberships. But frankly, the lifetime memberships almost always give you the best bang for your bucks. Even if these sites do offer 1 or 2 year memberships, the price difference is only a few dollars. We recommend that you opt for lifetime membership for a better deal. All of us have our favorite genre of music. Some don't mind listening to any song. But if you are a more discerning shopper who prefers only specific music such as classical pieces, do check out at the unlimited music downloads site and see if they offer you your choice. Frankly, a safe and lazy way around this is to get hold of a music download site that offers a huge and constantly updated library of music downloads. There are numerous sites which allow digital downloads but at the same time, there are many sites which allow people to download music through peer-to-peer (p2p). This method allows people to download music from someone who might be having the collection that you are searching for. Such web sites are legalized now but they were not so in the recent past. Web sites such as Napster and Wippit are at the top of this list. Most of the mp3 download sites have all the genres of music catering to a wide taste. Some web sites even have songs of different languages for people from all over the world. It is advisable to go for web sites that charge a fee instead of scouring for the free sites. More often than not, the free web sites offer very low quality music and also provide a gateway for malicious software. There are many websites which charge a one time fee which is very reasonable. After registering on their website, one can download any number of songs as he pleases. At the same time, some of the paid sites which have a legal existence even allow people to directly burn the tracks onto CDs which makes it very convenient for the user. Some of the more popular web sites for downloading music are Napster, iTunes, Rhapsody and eMusic. Napster was the first to provide free mp3s in a quality manner. But once Metallica went to the officials about this, it was goodbye to the good things. Rhapsody is pretty much similar to Napster with the same amount of downloads available. These are the sites basically which offer legalized mp3 downloads.

[humorlessproductions]

[movie] Fire, Ice & Dynamite (1990 Willy Bogner)

Here's a ridiculous project I recently completed. I did this project strictly for myself, so I wasn't even going to post it to YouTube, but I thought there might be one or two people out there who might be entertained by this movie, so here it is.

I have a confession to make- I'm a sucker for ski movies. Which makes sense, because I'm an avid skier as well as a pro audio/video engineer. The old ones are cool; the new ones are cool. I tend to prefer the big mountain / ski porn type flicks, so I usually head straight to the films from Teton Gravity Research. Matchstick Productions or even the old Greg Stump videos are cool. Sure, there are the old Warren Miller standbys, and I'll watch those as long as I can mute the audio.

This one, Fire, Ice & Dynamite, isn't a ski film in the same style as those ones I mentioned. This one is an action/sports flick with a super ridiculous plot, but a plot nonetheless, which includes a bunch of skiing, but also some other, so-called 'extreme' sports like downhill mountain biking, whitewater kayaking, wall climbing, and bungie jumping. That all sounds pretty tame by today's standards, but back in 1990, this was the gnarly stuff. And even by today's standards, some of scenes in this movie are pretty nuts- the wall climbing on the face of a dam, the fast mountain biking on a narrow cliff ledge, the skiing down a mountain with no snow on it, just a bunch of rocks and gravel.

In fact, I just saw a FB post the other day (in Feb 2018) from the Teton Gravity Research people who were hyping somebody who had combined mountain biking with paragliding, using the bike to build up some speed and launching with a paraglider 'chute on. Definitely a cool idea, which Willy Bogner employs in this movie (48:20-50:00), released almost 3 decades prior to that post. Willy Bogner was waayy ahead of the curve.

Any way, I first saw this movie when I picked it up on VHS for a buck at the old Tower Records (RIP) outlet which was just a couple doors down from the old Knitting Factory (also RIP) in Hollywood. For no other reason than it had this amazing cover-

And if you haven't seen this movie, you can trust me when I say nothing in that image is false advertising. All of that is actually in the movie.

But, of course, those were the old VHS days, and the movie not only was in 4:3 pan-and-scan, but also the audio was in mono. Total bummer. I'd heard that it had come out in the 90s on DVD, in widescreen, in Germany, but I was never able to track down a copy.

Now, I see that somebody has finally uploaded a widescreen version to YT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXWxYR45tIY&t=2910s), although it has some problems. First, it's tiny- 640x262. Although that's a standard dvd rip, yes? 640 across the top? I have no idea what software they used to rip the dvd, but their version on YT looks pretty rough.

Second, there's some guy translating the entire movie in Russian (Turkish?, not sure). He's literally speaking every character's parts through the entire movie, even during that super cheesy song that the woman performs in the club. That's actually all reasonable and understandable, because for their purposes, they were just uploading the movie for all the well-informed Russians who are into this sort of thing. But it's a total bummer for my purposes, because you can hear in the underlying English audio track to their version, that audio is in stereo. If they could have just posted a second, clean version without the translator, I wouldn't have had to do any of this work.

But, here's what I did- I took their video, and applied the audio from my English version to it. Sucks that it's in mono, but this is my best and only option.

And of course, there was more work to it than it sounds.

The first thing I did was remaster the English audio version. Sometimes I'll have to go through a whole bunch of plug-ins to really dial in how I want it to sound. I forget how much trial and error went in to this, but I ended up throwing on a T-RacksS CS by IK Multimedia, and pulled up the FM Broadcast preset. I always throw on a FabFilter limiter at the end, to avoid any redlining at all. That was pretty much all it needed.

The only audio I could use from the Russian version was the outro song. I could have used the English version, but the Russian version not only is in stereo, but the translator guy doesn't talk over it. So obviously, I'm gonna use that one, right?

Well, not so fast. In listening to it, I heard some really weird phasing going on. I didn't necessarily fix that, but I minimized it by pulling in the stereo separation of the two channels, from 100% to 55%, using Stereo Tools by Sonalksis.

That, actually, was the easy part. The difficult part was syncing. Here's a shot of my final edit in Presonus Studio One-

You see all those vertical blue lines on the English track? Presonus calls those Audio Bend Markers. Those are really easy to use, but it's time consuming to have to match up the soundwaves on the English track to those on the Russian track (which I call Turkish, because I wasn't listening to the foreign language too closely). Word by word, second by second, for the entire length of the film. All those markers designate a place where I had to stretch the audio one way or another to get the English audio to match up with the timing of the Russian audio. You'll also notice at the end where I crossfaded the English audio out and the Russian video in for that outro song.

Once that was exported, it was time to import the Russian video and the remastered and retimed English audio into Final Cut Pro X.

The work in FCPX would have been very straight forward and easy, except I wanted to make a couple edits.

First, there's a weird bit at 48:55 where a short clip is in fast motion. You can see it in the Russian version if you want to. That little clip, even though it's only 2 seconds long, always bugged me. So I fixed it- I slowed it down to something that looks closer to real time, and then shortened it to fit in the same 2 seconds and 11 frames as the original sped-up clip, just so that the timing of it works out and I don't have to re-sync all the audio that follows that scene.

The second edit was just a mistake on the part of the original editors / filmmakers. There's a scene at 54:07 that shows the inimitable Marjoe Gortner (as sports announcer voice guy Dan Selby) in the helicopter clearly moving his mouth, saying some words, but yet there are no words in the soundtrack. You can also see that one in the Russian version. Curiously, in my English VHS version, that scene isn't there. There's just another b-roll shot of the dam.

Luckily for me, after I edited that shot out, the two adjoining scenes weren't too much of a jump cut, so I didn't have to do any fancy footwork to make that work, either with the video or the audio.

Here's a screenshot of my FCPX edit-

I know I didn't have to type out all of this. I could have just posted the video and said, 'hey, here's a cool thing I did. I matched up the English audio with the widescreen video. Enjoy!' But I figured some people might like to know some of the technical stuff that goes into projects like this. And honestly, they're usually much more complicated than this one. This one was relatively simple.

But in any event, enjoy!

Brian / Humorless Productions.

[keramalusundeep]

‘KABALI’ PEAKED AT THE TRAILER. HERE’S WHY

First of all, I don’t do movie reviews. I am the guy who just watches a movie and then maybe talks about it during lunch at work to avoid awkward silences. So, why am I writing this review about a movie I watched a half hour ago? Because you know, how sometimes when you have a near death experience, your perspectives change and suddenly you want to do all this good in life, save lives, be a better person? Yeah, I am in that zone right now. I have been hit by something powerful. And it’s time to share it with the rest of my species.

Two months before today, I accidentally came across the trailer of Kabali on YouTube. I was immediately arrested by the killer original soundtrack for the movie. That’s where it had begun, for me.

Every time I watched the trailer at home, I’d go on and on to my wife about how I would not miss this movie. I don’t know why I had suddenly become such an aggressive fan of Rajinikanth. My mom was always a diehard fan, though. Two decades ago, I stumbled upon a large biology drawing book that had cut-out pictures and childlike hand-drawn sketches of him at my house in Bangalore. The book belonged to my mother. When I confronted her, she said that she was supposed to get rid of that book after marriage, but somehow it had come along with her. Super jealous of the superstar, my father would often mock Rajinikanth. I don’t blame him. He was just an ordinary South Indian man born in a conservative family. He is well educated and open-minded, yes, but he is still a man. I mean, when my wife used to look at Jason Momoa’s buttocks in Game of Thrones, I would run to the bedroom and do 50 squats and come out like I was all chill.

When you watch a Rajinikanth film, you better go to a local theatre. Not the multiplex ones where one is too shy to even release a silent fart. No, go to a local theatre. The kind where women best not venture. That’s the kind of place where you will know what it is like to be a Rajini fan.

In these theatres, as the lights dim, a new wave of energy crackles to life. Whistles, throat-burning screaming, firecrackers, shirtless dancing on seats. The entire room becomes a five-dimensional stimulation ride. Your seats rock. The walls vibrate. You smell smoke. It’s exhilarating to witness the madness, but deafening and annoying beyond a point as you can’t hear shit. Because from the time Rajini’s name pops up in the opening credits till the interval (where the fans begin to get a little tired), it’s a war zone. You would be lucky if you came out of the theatre entirely unbroken.

When you are watching a Rajinikanth movie, there is a 3000% chance that you will see something superhuman. Death-defying. Nonconforming to every law of nature. But you tell your mind to hush. During a Rajinikanth movie, only his fans can make a sound. If you are a non-fan and say something mocking, well, leave the address to your coffin.

Well, this time, I watched the film in a multiplex. Families and kids. So even if I had said something, I probably wouldn’t have got my ass whooped. Still, I watched quietly and saved everything for my keyboard. So now I’m going to spill my shit out. Here, I am Spartacus. Unyielding. Veracious.

Being 2016, being Kabali, being Rajini, you’d think, mafia being the spine of the story, it’d have all the beef in the universe to make Martin Scorsese take note. The opening scene, is the ending scene. When will writers learn that when you are showing Rajinikanth to be the gangster (especially when he is being released from jail), you know for sure that all his enemy gangsters will be dead, no matter what! Keep a little surprise, man! Henceforth, I want Santa Claus to write all the scripts for Rajini movies.

The story takes place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It’s a beautiful city. But they decided to show only the dark world. The Tamils. Their dark skin. Their dark labour problems. Their dark mafia. In all of this darkness, the only contrast in the colour palette was the ostentatious bling that these gangstas flaunted from start to finish.

After all these great movies in the West about drugs and gangsters, you’d go on to have this divine hope that the Tamil industry would go easy on making every hero a superhero. But nope. First of all, what kind of a gangster is comfortable with only a handful of business associates who also moonlight as security? I comprehend the fact that it is Rajinikanth and he can take care of himself, but he is old now. Besides, he carries only one gun. Not even an extra magazine!

When you are out of commission for 25 years, don’t you need money when you come back? Don’t you still need to be in business? Apparently, when Rajini is a gangster you don’t need to do gangster business to earn money. You just have it all sorted. Somehow he is able to run a free school for drop outs, drug addicts and ex-gangster kids. The funny part is, he himself is a gangster and hires kids on his team. So the point is that when you are in Kabali’s gangster squad, you don’t need to be rehabilitated, life’s all good.

P.A. Ranjith, before I forget, take this — you suck. You suck big time. Basha, for that time, had so much more swag than you have managed to squeeze out of Kabali. To a gangster, his family is very important. I mean to all of us, families are important. But to a gangster, it’s more of a prestige issue. If a gangster has let his enemy harm his family, it would convey that he is weak, incapable of protecting his own family . . . how then will he protect his business and other people who are dependent on him? But you could have involved his family saga in the movie in such a better way. There was no need for all the flashbacks. You have permanently ruined “once upon a time” for me.

I still cannot digest the fact that the director completely omitted to show us or explain Kabali’s business model. Maybe every time Kabali and his men whimsically went after the villains and delivered some soggy dialogues the producers would give them some candy money? Also, I think Indian movies should stop making the villains troll the hero and his affiliated people with dummy guns. Can’t take that shit anymore. If you want to shoot, just pull that plastic trigger and be done with it. Why do you have so many extras pointing all those useless toy guns at one old guy and still end up getting laid low by his stunt double?

Radhika Apte, who plays Rajini’s wife in the movie is a good actor. However, in this movie, she is a bad actor. When you have a bad script and a dumbass director, even a lion becomes a pig. I was happy to know that she was killed by the villains. Good riddance, I thought that’s what she must have thought. But no, she was brought back from the dead 25 years later and made to run for her life again. What torture, marrying Kabali!

Dhansika has tried to play a version of Rooney Mara in The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, but the result is extremely unpleasing. The director concluded, perhaps, that if she is a girl and an assassin, she’s got to sport a punk bob cut and a lot of badly done temporary tattoos (which keep drastically changing and moving places). By the way, she is Kabali’s daughter, who he reunites with. Sadly.

What’s with the suit? I thought when you wore a suit, you had the license to kill. Oh, wait a minute! That was 007. In Kabali, if you wore a suit, well, you have the license to get killed.

The villain gangsters are real pussies, I tell you. I can’t fathom why they are so scared of Kabali. He is just a vintage chap with a few old friends who masturbate on the rusted bullets in their guns. Then again, it is Rajini. He can get bin Laden to marry Gandhi if he wanted to.

Movies in the south always thrive on comedy. In Kabali, there is nothing to laugh about. Nothing to cry for. Absolutely nothing to rejoice about. The soundtrack was the only saving grace. The movie was a drab, unsexy 150-minute quest for finding his family, which he could very well have done without us having to sit and watch. I liked the free trailer on YouTube. Not the full movie I spent 200 bucks for. Kabali, no magizhchi for you.

Reminds me of the famous Bruce Lee quote: “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.” With all due reverence and respect for you as a great human being, I am afraid, Rajinikanth Sir, we are no longer afraid of your 10,000th kick. You have overdone it. It’s the same kick and it doesn’t give us any kick anymore. I know it’s the directors asking you to do lame stuff, not you per se. However, you could say no to them, yes? Maybe make meaningful cinema? You have earned that. But not the right to disappoint us, after all that hype.

P.S. Watch out for Tony Stark. He makes a sensational cameo.

Photo by Soloman Soh