#Brit Method Review

[steampunkforever]

Peeping Tom is a film that feels like if they released Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho the same year that they released Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. Except in color, with slightly more lurid imagery and definitely more lurid colors.

Even though both films came out in 1960, both with plotlines following deranged serial killers with parental childhood traumas and interesting slaying methods, Psycho is considered to be one of the foundations of slasher horror as a genre and Peeping Tom is hardly considered at all.

The main difference between the two films is really Hitchcock. Not so much in his directing style as much as Hitchcock's status as a director. You see, both Psycho and Peeping Tom received scathing reviews from british critics scandalized at seeing someone do something bad onscreen, but (expat making American movies) Hitchcock not only went on to make many more films, even the brit critics who hated the film cast it as a blot on an otherwise excellent career. Micheal Powell, on the other hand, had his career in movies ended by the reception of Peeping Tom.

Which is to say, Peeping Tom got the short end of the stick. Especially because of how fantastic a movie it is. The colors and lighting are positively gorgeous, the editing is phenomenal, and the plot overall is interesting and engaging. As one of the first slashers (before anyone really solidified Slasher as a genre) it certainly done with an artistic dedication to its craft that many of the films following in its footsteps could have benefited from.

This film is solidly a cult film, but like many I've seen, Peeping Tom by no means needs me to make excuses for it. It's a movie sophisticated for its time and for ours, and a darn good one at that. Watch it if you can find it, it's well worth the effort.

[underachievers-please-try-harder]

Review // The 1975 - The O2 - 12 January 2023

For the Evening Standard. Read online.

Few frontmen polarise opinion quite like Matty Healy. The greatest popstar of his generation or an irritant of epic proportions depending on who you ask, there’s absolutely no denying his notoriety, not least because his antics during The 1975’s most recent live dates have been the talk of TikTok for months.

Pulling up in London on the same day the band were nominated for three BRITs – including Album of the Year for 2022’s Being Funny In A Foreign Language – the playfully-titled ‘The 1975 At Their Very Best’ tour more than lived up to its billing. Over the course of two and a half hours, fans were treated to some truly theatrical staging, a plethora of huge hits and A-list interval entertainment courtesy of Taylor Swift.

Playing out across a set cleverly replicating a two-storey house, the first half of the show turned all perceived notions of arena rock on its head. Devoted almost exclusively to material from their latest LP, it saw band members stationed in different rooms while Healy roamed the set playing the role of louche rockstar, mumbling, chain-smoking and alternating swigs from a bottle of wine and a hip flask. Impressively, none of these affectations distracted from the music, be it the piano-powered groove of Oh Caroline, About You’s slow-burning shimmer or the stunning vocal harmonies that closed out When We Are Together.

Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable if worryingly convincing portrayal, made doubly disorientating every time he broke the fourth wall by eyeballing an artfully positioned video camera, embracing a stagehand, or by explicitly acknowledging the artifice in lines like, “So here we are, method acting.” The performance reached its famously surreal climax with Healy alone on stage, stripped to the waist, devouring lumps of raw steak and performing press-ups before crawling into a TV.

Preceding a more straightforward second act in which Healy switched back into conventional frontman mode, Taylor Swift appeared through a door, strapped on an acoustic guitar and gave her latest smash Anti-Hero its live debut, before covering early 1975-track The City. Any worries that the band had been upstaged by the world’s biggest popstar were instantly allayed by the barrage of big singles that followed, including fan favourites Robbers, The Sound and It’s Not Living If It’s Not With You.

“The thing about us is we just keep getting better, baby,” Healy had bragged following Chocolate, displaying some of the cockiness that his critics find so maddening. And yet on last night’s evidence, he’s right: The 1975 might just be the most compelling pop band on the planet right now.

[techy-guy]

Things to consider while choosing a No-Code, Low-Code app development platform | Sachin Dev Duggal

The right AI development tool is crucial since it may make or kill your project. Because there are so many possibilities, choosing the ideal AI development tool might be challenging. Let's discuss the subject that was left over from the last blog post on the crucial elements to assist your decision-making. In the previous blog we’ve given you few composable app platform and it founder such as Marc Benioff’s Salesforce Lighting, or Builder.ai founded by Sachin Duggal, or QuickBase by Ed Jennings that might be an appropriate platform for your as per your requirement

Avoid letting price become the deciding factor.

No-code technologies might be costly, particularly if you require them for larger businesses. If you decide to get the greatest tool available, it will prevent you from having to deal with a lot of hassles later. It can be difficult and time-consuming to transition between tools, so it will be simpler for you to spend more money up front and stick with one solution until you reach scale.

When you're stuck, ask for clarification.

If you need a certain feature but aren't sure where to go for your preferred no-code tool, ask. Take advantage of this and find rapid solutions to your difficulties because the tool's developers want it to be effective for its clients. Depending on the program you choose, the creators could be open to creating additional features or functions depending on your requirements. You can profit from the fact that feedback can go a long way.

Making something unique can really make a difference

Flexibility may be quite beneficial. Today's tools are very focused on providing customization options, allowing you to utilize the tool in your own special way. It's crucial to explore and discover a method that works for you since many no-code tool types may be tailored to meet your processes.

Complete the integration process

Integration can improve your teams' productivity by accelerating procedures and systems. You may encourage even more efficiency and productivity by having a smooth information transfer between teams and departments as long as your apps can interface with one another. Automation is useful since it may make your staff members' work go even faster.

Raising awareness

If you don't know how to utilize a new program, it might be quite perplexing. To assist motivate your staff to really utilize your new no-code product, spend some time training them in its features. When choosing an application, it's best if your entire team is on board so that its functions may be used often. Nothing is worse than an application going unfinished because of a learning disability. Internal documentation may clear up misconceptions about the application and get everyone on the same page with regard to the tool's intended use.

Express your opinions and give reviews

Providing input after locating a no-code application that meets your objectives can make the tool even more effective. Reviews can also offer guidance for other businesses seeking to address comparable issues within their own operations. By assisting people in locating the ideal application, you may help them stay clear of the complexities and challenges involved in this process.

Conclusion!

Your choice of the appropriate AI development tool will determine the outcome of your project. By considering the requirements of your project and the budget, analyzing the tools at your disposal, accounting for the learning curve, and making future, you can make an educated decision.

[thebritishblogofeverything]

The British blog of everything - what does it mean?

I will give you an idea of the topics that maybe covered at some point in the future.

Books - I love reading from thrillers, romance, some fantasy and classics. Expect a few reviews along the way.

Children's Books - As a children's author, I love to read new releases that are in the same genre as mine. As a parent and grandparent I do have many Julia Donaldson books, who doesn't of course and I will leave the review of these books to others. However there are many other talented authors out there and I keep uptodate by reading their works and I will post reviews as I do.

Fitness - I love running I have run often throughout my life. However before my eldest son got married in 2012 I took up running to lose weight and it became a constant, I took part in 10K and Half Marathon races. However when covid came in 2020, already struggling with bad knees, my mobility worsened. I will detail my struggles with getting back to fitness and some methods I have used and their effectiveness. Please note I am not a personal trainer and what works for me will not necessarily work for everyone else.

Food - I love food of all kinds. Currently I am loving following people on Facebook and Instagram and have tried some delicious recipes and I am happy to share them here with you. With all credits given of course.

Grandparenting - my greatest achievement and I am grateful for six healthy, happy, funny, bright, grandchildren, ranging from 17 down to almost 2. I love having them over to sleep and days out. The best time for me is when we are all together, thirteen in total, it makes for crazy times.

Poetry - I took up poetry in 2017 after being knocked over by a motorbike. I had one arm in a cast and the other in a splint and I was walking through the streets of London feeling very anxious. People were completely unaware of my predicament or indeed anyone else's, as they were on their phones and I was inspired to write my first poem "More" - see below:

Sport - I like most sports. As a child I was brought up on football in the winter and cricket in the summer. I love football, cricket, rugby, formula one, speedway. A great mix.

Weight loss - goes hand in hand with fitness. It has been a struggle the last four years but I am now seeing progress and will discuss it here with you.

Writing - as you can tell from this page I love to write. I enter competitions and set myself challenges and I will share them here with you.

Weather - As a brit I couldn't omit this topic. We love talking about it, all the time. Maybe its because our weather is so diverse, being an island, we get a lot of rain! but I will talk about how the weather affects our every day.

[modernloveclub]

"Stars, Stripes, and Visas: A Comprehensive Guide for British Applicants"

Introduction:

For many Brits, the allure of the United States is undeniable. Whether drawn by its storied institutions, cultural dynamism, or sheer landmass, the journey to the US begins with understanding its visa process. This guide serves as a beacon for those from the UK, ready to unlock the gates of the US, providing clarity on the sometimes complex visa navigation process.

The ABCs of US Visas for UK Citizens:

Purpose Matters: Differences between immigrant and non-immigrant visas.

Popular Options: Spotlight on B1/B2, H1B, L1, and F1 visas.

Duration Distinctions: From short-term stays to permanent residency.

Initiating Your Application: A Step-by-Step Breakdown:

Understanding Eligibility: Matching UK applicants' purposes with US visa types.

Commencing with DS-160: The foundational online non-immigrant form.

Accumulating Essential Documentation: Ensuring you have all papers in order.

The Art of DS-160: Perfecting Your Application:

Navigating Sections: Tips for filling out each part accurately.

Picture Perfect: Meeting US visa photo requirements.

Final Checks: Reviewing and saving the confirmation.

Making Your Case: Acing the US Visa Interview:

Scheduling Considerations: Choosing between the US Embassy and Consulate.

The Interview Blueprint: How to present oneself and typical questions.

Understanding Outcomes: From approval to requests for more evidence.

Deciphering the Financial Aspects: Visa Fees and More:

The Basic Fee Structure: An overview of standard visa charges.

Additional Possible Expenditures: Delving into other potential costs.

Fee Payment Protocols: Clear methods to avoid complications.

Overcoming Setbacks: Handling Visa Denials:

Common Reasons for Refusal: Understanding why some applications don't make the cut.

Reconsideration Pathways: Appealing and the process involved.

Considering a Fresh Attempt: When and how to reapply.

Post-Approval Procedures: Getting Ready to Land in the US:

Packing Essentials: Key documents and items for smooth entry.

Arrival Protocols: US Customs and the initial entry process.

Maintaining Legal Status: Adherence to visa rules and regulations.

Bringing Your Tribe: US Visa Procedures for Family:

:

Introduction to Dependent Visas: Taking family members along.

Family Application Nuances: Streamlining their visa processes.

Rights and Restrictions: Setting clear expectations for family members.

Enhancing Your Stay: Visa Extensions and Adjustments:

Criteria for Extension: When and who can apply.

The Renewal Roadmap: Required steps and documents.

Life After Extension: Transitioning seamlessly post-renewal.

Conclusion:

For Brits eager to venture into the vast expanse of the United States, understanding the visa process is the first step to ensure a hassle-free journey. This comprehensive guide offers insights and actionable steps, helping UK nationals turn their American aspirations into lived experiences. Here's to every Brit ready to unlock the US and embark on their unique adventure across the pond. 

For more details contact: https://bit.ly/48QgvX0 

[aimmyarrowshigh]

8, 14, 17?

8. Is there a story idea in your mental vault that you’ve never been brave enough to try writing? Is this the year? Can you tell us about it?

Not really! I either at least start trying to write the thing or just... don't have the idea for the thing fully cooked enough to call it an idea yet. I guess I've always wanted to write an original fiction thing with main characters in fandom, but those are HARD to pull off and again, I don't have the idea cooked enough yet to really call it an idea. Fanfic-wise, I tend to just write what I want to write, and at least have it exist as a WIP on my computer if nothing else.

OH, though, you know what I really want to figure out how to write? A "Bucky follows Wanda through the Hex and finds Steve in Westview" story. That's on my tentative to-write list for this year.

14. Have you ever lost large chunks of your work in the past, due to not backing up your work? Will you change your methods this year?

Yes, although it's backing them up that caused me to lose them -- external hard drives are not worth the money they fucking cost. I lost my ooooold LJ backup files at the beginning of 2022, which is part of why Literally Every Fanwork I've Ever Written In My Life Since 1998 is now on AO3. I trust AO3 to stay up more than I trust my externals to keep goddamn working. I lost 300 Brit Pack drabbles and the only existing backup of withoutdrowning pre-Release 88, and I am very sad about it. Technically the files still exist on the hard drive, I would just need to pay like $800 to get them recovered, and I do not have $800.

17. Do you typically answer all comments/reviews individually? Do you plan to change the way you interact with your readers this year?

I try to reply individually, but I'm usually too flustered to say more than "thank you for reading! :D" or something. I'm trying to get better about actually responding to what was said, especially if there's a question in the comment, but I'm genuinely so painfully shy. I LOVE getting comments, they all mean SO MUCH to me, genuinely. I'm just too adgladgllah; to answer them in a way that comes across well.

[transformativeworksandcultures]

TWC 37: FANDOM HISTORIES [SPECIAL ISSUE]

Editorial

Fandom Histories

Theory

E. Charlotte Stevens and Nick Webber, The fan-historian

Edmond Ernest dit Alban, I also eat the straights

Taylore Nicole Woodhouse, Digital archives, fandom histories, and the reproduction of the hegemony of play

Chris Comerford and Natalie Krikowa, Archive-lensing of fan franchise histories

Praxis

Lauren Chalk, Representing reggaeton through fans' online community archives

Katriina Heljakka, Fans, play knowledge, and playful history management

Ellie Jane Turker-Kilburn, Reimagining queer female histories through fandom

Kimberly Kennedy, Fan binding as a method of preserving fan fiction

Shire Belen Buchsbaum, Binding fan fiction and reexamining book production models

Kameron Dunn, Furry fandom, aesthetics, and the potential in new objects of fannish interest

Symposium

Emily Coccia, Femslash fandom and the cultivation of white queer genealogies

Qiuyan Guo, Historical poaching within celebrity fandom practices

Kyle Meikle, Time for the theme park ride-through video

Andre Magpantay, Fandom.com and fan-made histories

Tosha R. Taylor, Historicizing the fan archive of Talia al Ghul

TWC Editors, What is an anti? Exploring a key term and contemporary debates

FanLIS

Ludi Price, Lyn Robinson, Building bridges: Papers from the FanLIS 2021 symposium

Paul Thomas, How Adventure Time fans understand the 'true' producer: A close analysis of two encyclopedic fan texts

J. Nicole Miller, Information-seeking behaviors of young adult readers of fiction and fan fiction

Argyrios Emmanouloudis, Twitch (still) plays Pokémon: When spectators become archivists

Eleonora Benecchi, Colin Porlezza, Laura Pranteddu, Filling the gap: An exploration into the theories and methods used in fan studies Eleonora Benecchi, Colin Porlezza, Laura Pranteddu

Nele Noppe, Ludi Price, Kimberley Chiu, J. Nicole Miller, Erika Ningxin Wang, Serena M. Vaswani, Sarah Kate Merry, D. E. Pollock, Suzanne R. Black, Rhiannon Hartwell, Naomi Jacobs, Paul Anthony Thomas, Argyrios Emmanouloudis, Erica Hellman, Amy Spitz, What if academic publishing worked like fan publishing? Imagining the Fantasy Research Archive of Our Own

Book review

Suzanne R. Black, "The republic of games: Textual culture between old books and new media," by Elyse Graham

Judith May Fathallah, "Loving fanfiction: Exploring the role of emotion in online fandoms," by Brit Kelley

John Francis, "Manga cultures and the female gaze," by Kathryn Hemmann

Kristine Michelle Santos, "Otaku and the struggle for imagination in Japan," by Patrick W. Galbraith

Ross Hagen, "Emo: How fans defined a subculture," by Judith May Fathallah

[thebtseffect]

Comp Reading Lists

In an attempt to self-study several areas and expand my own knowledge, improve my ability to do research, and keep current with fields of interest, I'm building my own "comps list" here of relevant books. There are so many academic articles that I'm not sure if I'll include them here, but I'd like to at least track my reading of books. Comps lists are typically for Ph.D. students studying for exams, but I thought it might be a useful tool for me too. If you have suggestions, I welcome them.

BTS Studies

BTS, Art Revolution, Jiyoung Lee.

BTS and ARMY Culture, Jeeheng Lee.

BTS: The Review, Youngdae Kim.

Philosophizing about BTS, Cha Minju.

Bumping into BTS, Ji Kim, Mick Shin, and Jane Do.

Map of the Soul - Persona: Our Many Faces, Murray Stein.

Fan Studies

Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture, Henry Jenkins.

A Fan Studies Primer: Method, Research, Ethics, Paul Booth and Rebecca Williams.

Understanding Fandom: An Introduction to the Study of Media Fan Culture, Mark Duffett.

A Companion to Media Fandom and Fan Studies, Paul Booth and Rebecca Williams.

Exploiting Fandom: How the Media Industry Seeks to Manipulate Fans, Mel Stanfill.

Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, Jonathan Gray, Cornell Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington.

Fan Cultures, Matt Hills.

Fame and Fandom: Functioning On and Offline, Celia Lam and Jackie Raphael.

The Adoring Audience: Fan Culture and Popular Media, Lisa Lewis.

The Fan Fiction Studies Reader, Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse.

Loving Fanfiction: Exploring the Role of Emotion in Online Fandoms, Brit Kelley.

Fandom as Classroom Practice: A Teaching Guide, Katherine Anderson Howell.

Straight Korean Female Fans and Their Gay Fantasies, Jungmin Kwon.

Emo: How Fans Defined a Subculture, Judith Fathallah.

Squee from the Margins: Fandom and Race, Rukmini Pande.

Game Studies

Gaming Masculinity: Trolls, Fake Geeks, and the Gendered Battle for Online Culture, Megan Condis.

Learning in Video Game Affinity Spaces, Sean Duncan.

Ready Player Two: Women Gamers and Designed Identity, Shira Chess.

Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, T.L. Taylor.

Metagaming: Playing, Competing, Spectating, Cheating, Trading, Making, and Breaking Video Games, Stephanie Boluk and Patrick Lemieux.

The Toxic Meritocracy of Video Games: Why Gaming Culture is the Worst, Christopher Paul.

My Life as a Night Elf Priest: An Anthropological Account of World of Warcraft, Bonnie Nardi.

Communities of Play: Emergent Cultures in Multiplayer Games and Virtual Worlds, Celia Pearce.

Ethics, Psychology, & Philosophy

Moral Boundaries: A Political Argument for an Ethic of Care, Joan Tronto.

Jung's Map of the Soul: An Introduction, Murray Stein.

The Ethics of Care, Virginia Held.

Research Ethics in the Real World, Helen Kara.

The Portable Nietzsche, Friedrich Nietzsche and Walter Kaufmann.

General Reading & Methods

Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project that Matters to You, Thomas Mullaney and Christopher Rea.

The Practice of Qualitative Research: Engaging Students in the Research Process, Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber.

Destination Dissertation: A Traveler's Guide to a Done Dissertation, Sonja Foss and William Waters.

Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Series Books, William Germano.

Learning to Make a Difference: Value Creation in Social Learning Spaces, Etienne Wenger-Trayner and Beverly Wenger-Trayner.

Ethnography and Virtual Worlds: A Handbook of Method, Tom Boellstorff and Bonnie Nardi, et. al.

An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method, James Paul Gee.

[skellingtonbutmusical]

look at me, posting consistently!

i'm back with another album review, and although it's worlds away from the last one (if you haven't seen it, check it out!) it's worth reviewing all the same.

the album in question? Actual Life 2 (February 2 - October 15 2021)

when one of my favourite producers, Fred again.. came out with a new album, you bet i was excited, especially after how good his last offering was,and i could not wait to dig into it. the latest piece from the multi-talented, shape-shifting, brit-award-winning producer, this album is not much of a departure from the gorgeous electronic soundscapes of his previous album, but Actual life 2 has enough variety in it to hold your interest for all 46 minutes of its playtime, although admittedly some parts feel like they blend into one big mass of sound, and can be somewhat stale. that being said, this is still a fucking solid album, and the more dance-oriented tracks of this work well and mostly succeed. of course, his trademark "actual life" method of production, grabbing samples from real life conversations, facetime calls, and Instagram videos is on full display here, and shows that fred is really a rising star in the electronic world, even though he already has a star-studded list of production credits including Ed Sheeran, Headie One, and the Blessed Madonna. some pieces that stand out to me on this album include Kahan (last year), featuring Kodak Black (he of "lemme drive da boat" fame), Roze (forgive), and certified sure-to-be club hit Tanya (maybe life), but some other tracks simply don't have enough variation from his previous album. i like this album a lot, and it's a very high quality, polished piece of music, but i can't honestly give it more than a 7.5 out of 10. still definitely worth a listen, as is the rest of his music. i should be posting again soon, in the mean time stay safe and listen to good music :)

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Grisly, Grim and a Fucking Delight: Feedback Review

TRIGGER WARNING: Torture, rape, daytime radio DJs. Don’t blame me, that’s just what’s in the movie.

Wow. Wow and a half. Wow and a half between two slices of thick white whoa. What a fucking movie. I’d say something like ‘they don’t make ‘em like that any more’, but they clearly do, because Feedback only came out a few years ago. I am astonished that I didn’t hear about it until tonight. You see, I was looking for an epic, slow-burn thriller to watch with my girlfriend and glamorous assistant, and I came across this little British movie about a radio talk-show host getting trapped in his studio when a bunch of masked psychos invade the premises. “Neat!” I thought upon reading the synopsis and watching the advert. “It’s Diehard but without schlubby, sarcastic Brits instead of overblown yanks.” As it turns out, I was wrong. Feedback is not an enjoyable but ultimately inconsequential gas pocket of a movie: it’s actually one of the most tense, conceptually horrifying and incendiary pieces of cinema- nay, Cinema with a capital C- that I’ve ever had the good fortune to witness. The more I think about it, the more impressed and enamoured I become. Unfortunately, in order to explain why, I’m going to have to spoil the whole freaking thing. For those of you who actually watch movies based on my recommendations (which would be, maybe, like two of you?) I’ll give you a nice non-spoilery recommendation right now: the acting is on-point, the plot is serpentine but not in a pretentious way, every prop and narrative element is used to maximum effect, the atmosphere gets tenser and tenser without ever letting you catch your breath and it’s exactly as long as it needs to be: there’s nothing missing and not an ounce of spare meat on it. It’s a lean, nasty predator of a movie and, if you let it, it will pin you down and rip out your jugular. I’ve only ever described one other movie as ‘transcendent’- a little psychological horror called The Perfection. Well, Feedback gets that exact same sticker but for completely different reasons. If you’re going to watch it- and you should- stop reading this review right now and go do it. It’s amazing.

And now for the spoilers. Consider this more of an analysis than a review. You see, the film reveals early on that the masked psychos invading the studio aren’t just randos with a political or philosophical axe to grind. They have beef with the radio host (whose name is Jarvis, incidentally. You don’t see enough Jarvises, either in real life or in movies. It’s a fun name and grossly underused, but I digress). You see, they think Jarvis’s friend raped a woman, killed another woman and beat the shit out of her boyfriend… and they think Jarvis knows all about it and may even have been involved. They force Jarvis to extract a confession from his friend early on and then kill him live on air, meaning that the rest of the film is devoted to a battle of wills between them and Jarvis as they try to force him to admit complicity, again live on air. Along the way, it’s also revealed that they aren’t just crusaders: they’re survivors of the incident and relatives thereof. Now, from the moment all these pieces were in place, I watched with an expectation of being disappointed. You see, I thought I knew what I was watching: Jarvis is visually and linguistically coded as am older slightly privileged but spiky elitist, so in most movies made after 2010 he’d automatically have been the bad guy (fuck me but do ageing white movie directors love to pretend they’re ‘woke’), while the people attacking him are visually and linguistically coded as youngish (except in one case) and victims, meaning that, in most movies, they would automatically be the good guys (hey, everyone loves an underdog, right?). I assumed I was watching one of those films. You know the ones I mean. One of those oh-so-clever ones that gets you to connect with and root for a character then reveals that he’s a shit-bag and punishes him and- by extension- you the viewer for taking his side. That was clever once, but I’ve now seen it on at least eight separate occasions, and it’s become trite. It’s particularly irksome because the victim-coded characters always get a free pass for their own shenanigans: they can murder, torture, brutalise and dehumanise but it’s always okay because something bad once happened to them. Frankly, I thought that’s what I was in for. Luckily. I was super wrong. That’s like regular wrong, only sexier and with sharper graphics.

You see, Feedback is way too smart to go for a black-and-white good-victims-versus-evil-central-character narrative. Instead, it’s a film about dehumanisation… or is it? You’ll see what I mean. In order to force Jarvis to admit complicity, his assailants don’t just fuck with him and his friend: they straight-up murder an innocent bystander and threaten to murder someone close to the protagonist. They hurt and do terrible things to Jarvis and the people around him, using torture methods that would make fucking ISIS throw up its hands and go ‘steady on, bruv’. They have a version of events that they’re convinced of but have only one unreliable character’s word for and Jarvis has a version of events that they refuse, point-blank, to believe. Jarvis’s story does begin to alter, but it’s never really apparent if he’s actually done something or if he’s just saying he has in order to keep the people around him (and himself) alive. Meanwhile, the ringleader of the little troop trying to extract a confession from Jarvis might be victim, but it also becomes apparent that she’s an unhinged psychopath intent on spilling as much blood as possible for her own personal sense of satisfaction and has as much interest in justice as a black hole has in the history of the stars it swallows up. Hooray! Some fucking moral ambiguity in a movie! I thought the entire industry had just forgotten how to fucking do that!

Much to my delight, Feedback doesn’t stop there. Merely by forcing the audience to make up their own minds about what they think happened and who’s actions are most justified, Feedback is already introducing a level of sophistication alien to modern cinema. But then it goes one step further by also subverting narrative expectations. You see, in a bleak, introspective, what-monsters-are-we-all flick like this, you expect the antagonists’ plan to succeed: you expect the last shot to be of the protagonist broken by the moral blankness of his reality, sitting in the wreckage of his life, unsure of whether he deserves what has happened to him or not. And that would have been a perfectly acceptable way to end this movie. But it doesn’t end like that. Because Jarvis is that rarest of things: a competent and determined dude. He’s not a superhuman. He doesn’t have special training. The flick doesn’t turn into an action movie or anything ridiculous. Jarvis just refuses to accept the bullshit happening to him and systematically works through every possible strategy to extricate himself without caving and admitting culpability that he doesn’t feel. He tries reasoned negotiation. He tries subduing one of the assailants temporarily and using them as a bargaining chip (the minimum necessary force approach), he tries escape and, finally, when all else fails, he uses a combination of psychology, surprise and familiarity with his environment to fight back with lethal force. It’s a considered, intelligent approach and, because his assailants aren’t organised terrorists just ordinary people who may (or may not) have a legit grievance with him, it succeeds and- to cut a long story short- he kills all of them in incredibly satisfying ways. There’s a bit involving a smug, I-can-be-as-evil-as-I-like-because-I’m-a-victim character getting skewered with a pair of scissors that instantly outranks anything in the Saw or Friday the 13th franchises as one of my all-time favourite movie kills (outright all-time favourite still goes to that bit in John Wick 3 with the really creative use of a library book, but that’s off topic).

During the climatic scenes of the movie, Jarvis screams his confession, but- as I said- it might only be a tool to distract his attackers and gain the upper hand while preserving the lives of the people he cares about. Equally, though, it might not. There’s a coldness to the character at the end of the film that wasn’t there at the beginning. Has he just been changed by the trauma of recent events, or are we seeing the facade drop away to reveal the true face of ruthless monster? And here lies the film’s final genius: not only doesn’t it answer this question (ambiguity for the win!) it also seems to suggest that the answer might not matter. Jarvis didn’t prevail because he was innocent- though he might be. His attackers didn’t fail because they became as bad as the thing they sought to fight (though they did). Victory and defeat aren’t defined by moral superiority. The film doesn’t assign winners and loser based on ethical or philosophical standpoint. Jarvis wins because he knows what the fuck he’s doing and his attackers are a bunch of overemotional quarter-wits with a half-baked plan that they can’t even stick to because they get too worked up. Survival, Feedback reminds us, has everything to do with being good at things, and fuck all to do with just being good. At every turn, the film tries to convince us that it has a moral point to make. Characters talk endlessly about truth and lies, justice and injustice… but in the end, it’s all smoke and mirrors. The film doesn’t have a central moral thesis (or, if it does, it’s a profoundly nihilistic one). Its real subjects are survival and will. It’s a study of what happens when two packets of brutal, remorseless determination meet eachother coming in opposite directions. It’s a dissection of the self-preservation instinct and its only real moral is ‘don’t fuck with a smart, grimly determined guy on his home turf if all you have to bring to the table is a short fuse and a big hammer’. Maybe that shouldn’t be refreshing, but in a cinematic landscape where every movie is determined to plant its flag on one side or the other of the political or ethical spectrum, it really fucking is. The fact that it gets you to think about ethical issues and who you believe on route elevates it, but the core of the film- the thing that makes it solid- is that refreshing element of nihilism. Breathe it in, folks: we don’t get many movies like this very often.

[danwhobrowses]

WWE Wrestlemania 37 Day 2 - Review

And we are back! Wrestlemania hit hard with Day 1, good shit and big moments fitting of the show

So let's see if Day 2 can match up to it, lots of big matches on the card, we'll see how it goes.

See the Night 1 Review Here

Spoilers for Night 2 and References to Night 1 included, you have been Warned

Pre-Show Like the last Night, no matches on the Pre-Show, just drivel and promos. So the same criticisms really, Lawler saying 'Wrestlerainia' doesn't make it any better than when Cole said it, his attempts at jokes were awful even when they were his material. When they recapped Night 1 though they should've shown footage of Ford celebrating with Bianca rather than just say it - a Picture says a Thousand Words. Standard Promo Package lies apply too, 'Rhea Ripley has brutalized everyone she's come through' ...except Io Shirai and Raquel Gonzalez, similar went down for the second half of HOF because Great Khali is only there to pander to India - also what did the Mayor of Knox County ever do for WWE? Sonya also popped up again, strangely to talk about the Nigerian Drum Fight - which Booker T talked about the most, if I wanted to watch a bunch of old dudes talk over Sonya Deville I'd be drinking bleach. She also stuck for Sami vs KO, and barely talked in that too.

Also the promo they had about Kofimania was rough to watch, considering how it ended and how Kofi fared on Night 1, all this to promote a cheesy Cricket commercial about him not touching the ground...

The 24/7 title even got a continuation of ads, but it was more a 'to be concluded on Youtube' - honestly the belt has run its course, Truth has ran out of jokes and it's been reduced to an Old Spice ad crossover.

Main Card Starting once more with 'America the Beautiful', replacing the boob window with a bright yellow hat. It was fine, as a Brit 'America the Beautiful' does nothing for me.

They then did the same intro package as night 1 just with some different clips, skippable. And the shoddy camera switching is still there.

Hogan and Titus came out again this time in pirate outfits, there was noticeable boos in Hogan's bits with cheesy pirate puns. In the end the host concept was wasted on them. Reminder that names in Bold are those I predicted to win.

Randy Orton def. The Fiend [w/Alexa Bliss] (Pinfall via RKO) Orton opened night 2 in white tights and a fairy long-winded entrance, the melted Fiend then walked through a corridor of fire LEDs as CGI burned away into his original Fiend look...but Alexa's Firefly Funhouse music hit. Cutesy Bliss approached a giant Jack in a Box commentary act like just 'appeared'. The Fiend arose from the box in a combat vest, posed then dove right at Orton. Red lights cover the match throughout, Uranage and a neck snap started the match as the Fiend continued to do his spooky thing, it looks like he was gonna set up the punt but Randy rolls out of the ring. Randy hits the back body slam on the Announcer's Desk but it's no sold into the Mandible Claw, rope break and apron DDT from Orton only staggers the Fiend but rebounding his neck off the ropes grounds him momentarily. Orton tries to methodically beat down the Fiend but the monster hits back hard, a missed Senton and a senton follows some head kicks and another apron DDT, he sets up for an RKO but the Fiend gets the Mandible Claw (which commentary no sold even though he has won titles with that move), he sets up Sister Abigail but the ring posts pyro like Kane and before Fiend is Bliss with new makeup, dripping in black goo she extends her hand to the Fiend from the jack in the box, RKO and...3!? Post match Fiend and Alexa stare down, the electricity shorts out and both members disappear.

That's it? That's what we got? The Fiend was burned alive and survived but 1 RKO does it? The Fiend no sold so much in his career and one RKO felled him. The fuck man, this was as bad as the last time these two went at mania, you'd think like the brilliant Firefly Funhouse Match last year we'd get some course correction. But nope, Fiend's story is just being taken over by Alexa and this daft-ass black goo stuff, I don't get the motivation either. Fiend helped Alexa straddle Orton for a 3 count at Fastlane, talked all big for months about how the Fiend was going to obliterate Orton and it lasted about 8 minutes, the entrances lasted longer! Last year the Fiend was great with a cinematic match, but WWE have somehow managed to systematically destroy one of their most inventive characters time and time again, not a good start.

Backstage once again Bayley gets buried by the Hosts and this time Eric Bischoff as she tried to push Ding Dong Hello and got jealous of them talking up Bianca vs Sasha from last night.

WWE Women's Tag Championship - Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax (c) def. Natalya & Tamina (Ref Stoppage Submission by Baszler on Natalya via Kirufuda Clutch) Not a promising sign to follow the opener with this match, the challengers entered quickly with Natalya having a slightly altered attire. Jax and Baszler came in with red, black and gold. Natalya and Baszler start the match with some mat wrestling, Natalya almost gets the Sharpshooter so Shayna tags Nia in, Nia shoves Natalya and demands that Tamina - her old tag partner - be tagged in. Both trade headbutts, Tamina almost lifts Nia but fails, she tags in Natalya for the double back body drop and drops the blind tagged Shayna onto her partner. Natalya tries a Sharpshooter but is schoolboy'd for 2, Natalya retaliates with a German Suplex, whipping Shayna into a Clothesline, then launch pad into a superkick. As Shayna strikes back an advantage she stiffs Natalya in the mouth with a knee (legitimately, there was a picture of a welt before) Nia brawls with Tamina outside, hitting a powerslam outside of the ring. Another knee strike floors Natalya for 2 as Shayna works on the leg, kneebar and then an ankle stomp, Nia follows up with a Legdrop over the injured leg, another kneebar and then combos of swing/knee strike and irish whip/powerslam. Nia runs into the turnbuckle as Natalya floors Nia with multiple lariat attempts, Nia though hits back with a Chokeslam/Powerbomb thing they called a Spinebuster but the pin is broken by Tamina. Tamina gets the hot tag against Shayna, Baszler tries to weaken the leg, then the Kirufuda clutch but Tamina powers into a Samoan Drop. She goes up for a Superfly Splash but Shayna kicks her, Nia looks to do an Avalanche Samoan Drop but Natalya pulls Tamina away, she lariats Baszler but Nia hits the crossbody on both opponents for 2, favouring the knee after. Talking trash to Tamina she gets hit with a slam, Nia's repositioning couldn't be missed by the wide shot as Tamina goes for the Superfly Splash, but nobody home. Natalya's tagged and she goes for Baszler in the corner, Baszler counters and blind tags as Nia lifts Natalya up, but she wriggles out, floors Baszler again and sets the Sharpshooter on the now not legal Nia. Baszler cinches in the Kirufuda clutch and the match is over.

The fact that this was more eventful than the opener speaks volumes. It was a match, I don't think there's many people who feel like Nia and Shayna deserve this spot. Shayna was great in NXT but she's not doing herself any favours stiffing her opponents, Nia's rubbing off in a bad way. I had the challengers to win because I'm bored of them still being champions - only briefly giving it to Asuka and Charlotte so Charlotte can add that to her list - they should've either dropped to NXT or let the Riott Squad win, there was nothing in this match to invest in.

Rey Mysterio is used to promote 2K22. A surprise since we thought WWE and 2K's partnership was done, I am a huge fan of Rey so it was nice to see, much nicer if he was actually on Wrestlemania and getting a push...

Kevin Owens def. Sami Zayn [w/Logan Paul] (Pinfall via Stunner) JBL is the guest commentator for this...for some reason. Sami struts to the ring in dark green trying to pull off a Che Guevara look, a mini tantrum at the ramp before heading to the ring and grabbing the mic to introduce Logan Paul, who walks to the ring as Sami dances super embarrassingly in the ring. Owens then charges into the ring with vigor to get the crowd amped up. The bell rings, Sami tries the Helluva Kick and gets hit with a Pop-Up Powerbomb. KO punishes Sami in the start, dropping Sami gut-first on the ropes, corner clothesline and Cannonball as the camera awkwardly keeps cutting to Logan Paul. Sami gets a suplex on the apron to get back some momentum as he demands for Owens to be counted out, Owens rolls in at 8 but Sami continues to club at KO's head. Cole calls a Michinoku Driver a Blue Thunder Bomb but this time gets called out on it, pinfall is 2 and Sami gets into the ref's face. Attempted Superplex leads to a fistfight in the corner, Owens headbutts him off and Frog Splashes for 2, tries the Pop-Up powerbomb, Sami leapfrogs, Sami tries the Michinoku Driver but Owens reverses it into a meaty Pumphandle Neckbreaker for 2. He goes for the Package Piledriver but Sami hits the corner exploder, tries for the Helluva Kick but misses, KO tries the Stunner but it's reversed into a Blue Thunder Bomb for 2 as well. Two Exploders and a Brainbuster for 2 frustrates Sami further, brawling in the corner, he tries for a Superplex but gets hit with an Avalanche twisting Fisherman's Suplex. KO hits Sami with some corner clotheslines but as he runs to bounce off the other corner he runs into a Helluva Kick, Sami catching his collapsed friend as he sets it up again, 2 Superkicks from Owens and a Stunner finishes Sami off as Logan Paul applauds. Post-Match Logan checks on Sami and congratulates Owens, which Sami takes umbrage with. Logan shoves Sami as he storms off, Logan holds KO's arm in the air to boos, cheers start to rumble as Paul is hit with a stunner to a pop.

KO and Sami rarely disappoints, I don't think they really got to get out of second gear but it was still a good match. The Logan Paul stuff though was stupid and unnecessary, sure we got him to eat a Stunner but the ends don't justify the means. Also why was JBL there?

Backstage Riddle scooters across to Great Khali, stoner comedy doesn't land as Khali no sells it, RVD shows up to wish Riddle luck. Segment was meh.

US Championship - Sheamus def. Riddle (c) (Pinfall via Brogue Kick TITLE CHANGE!) Sheamus arrives blinding white but no special gear, Riddle scooters down in an Evil Knievel jacket, hologram doves with pirate hats and eyepatches adding to the cheese. Sheamus uses his power to start, but Riddle comes back with some chops, Sheamus hits back in each of his attempts; knee to the gut, then driving Riddle's sleeper in the corner, then a reversal swinging slam. Irish Curse gets 2, Riddle tries a Tarantula Armbreaker but Sheamus hits his Beats of Bodhran, he goes up high but Riddle reverses with a Spanish Fly Belly to Belly on the top turnbuckle. Riddle rallies with strikes, hits a Pele Kick and a Senton, to slight Goldberg Riddle hits the Jackhammer on the second time of trying but only gets 2. He tries the Bro Derek but Sheamus rolls back, Riddle kicks Sheamus away but in his slingshot lands into a Brogue Kick, 1, 2, No. Alabama Slam, 1, 2, No. He tries a White Noise on the Apron but gets pushed into the Ring Post and then German's on the Apron. An Apron PK and Moonsault keeps Sheamus down enough for Riddle to hit the Twisting Moonsault, he locks in the Reverse armbar but it's reversed into a deadlift powerbomb, Riddle then latches the sleeper for the rope break. Sheamus tries again for a Top Rope White Noise, Riddle tries to Sunset Bomb but fails, Riddle tries the Spanish Fly Belly to belly again but Sheamus grabs him. A stumble means that the two hop off the Turnbuckle for a normal White Noise, Sheamus goes up with a Knee Drop but it only hits 2. Sheamus calls for the Brogue, gets rolled up but catches the Knee strike, Riddle dodges the lariat, goes for a Springboard Moonsault but lands into the Brogue, 1, 2, 3. Post match Riddle is bleeding from the mouth, he angrily stares at the gleeful Sheamus who leaves with the title.

A good title match and much deserved from Sheamus, who has delivered in many matches on the later stages of of the Wrestlemania year, shame he was on the wrong brand to complete the set, he only needs the IC title to win everything. Riddle doesn't do it for me in this gimmick (which as I gather is mostly himself stoned) but credit where it's due, he put a good performance and that was a strong finish.

An odd package followed where Triple H handed Bad Bunny a golden briefcase with a skull microphone, which he opened atop his truck. The briefcase says Tour 2022 to promote his future tour.

Nigerian Drum Fight for the IC Title - Apollo Crews def. Big E (c) (Pinfall via Dabba Kato Chokeslam TITLE CHANGE!) The promo really hurt my ears to hear Apollo's accent devolve into this foreign heel gimmick. Wale though performs to enter Big E, more questionable camera cuts to E and the Fireworks. E's jacket represented Feeding Tampa Bay as a nice nod to the food bank, Apollo came out in Nigerian colors with his scarf and Spear. Commentary's line saying 'this isn't about percussion' falls kinda flat when there's drums around the ring.

Both men roll out to grab Kendo sticks, trading blows which E gets the power advantage over. E grabs the giant cymbal but Apollo knees it away, hits E with some more Kendo Shots back into the ring. You can hear the WAFT of Apollo's missed shot as E knocks him away and then does the out-of-ring spear. E sets up the lower steps near the apron but gets hit with a DVD on the apron, pinfall gets 2. Crews grabs the top half of the steps, lays E on the one he sets up and throws the other steps at it, but E rolls away just in time. On the apron Apollo hits a big boot, but on the second attempt falls into an Uranage onto the flat steps (which Cole called an Uranage Suplex for some reason...), after some trash talking E gets a table set up in the ring near a corner. Apollo kicks back and flurries E with a Kendo Stick, he rolls E onto the table to go for the frog splash, but E rolls away sending Apollo crashing through the table. E hits the Big Ending, but Dabba Kato/Babatunde in a military jacket breaks the pin, a sorta Samoan Spike and a Chokeslam leads to him dragging Apollo onto E for the win. Apollo gets a lot of unnecessary pyro and shakes his new comrade's hand.

Bit short that, the gimmick didn't really come into play. I mean, I'm glad Apollo gets a chance to hold another title and E can look towards the top of the card but I don't think this was really the way to do it. It didn't need to be a 'Nigerian Drum Fight', could've just been a No DQ, Dabba Kato gets his third repackaging since Greatest Royal Rumble probably as Apollo's 'General' which is kinda no different to what AJ and Omos are doing just with more foreign heel-isms. But yeah, bit disappointing on the means of it but the outcome was right, just...kinda stop faking a thick accent it's getting you nowhere acting like you're on the set of Black Panther.

Again we look back at Night 1, this time with minor clips of Ford congratulating his wife, but should've been a segment on its own rather than a flash-through recap. Stone Cold Mania 38 Texas promo and the HOF promo they did on this Pre-Show happens again which is unnecessary but the hologram of a ghost ship was cool, the HOFers come out and Kane gets the entrance, he does his pyro and that's it - that's how you do it, Hogan.

Raw Women's Championship - Rhea Ripley def. Asuka (c) (Pinfall via Riptide TITLE CHANGE!) THIS IS MY BRUTALITY! performed live as Rhea wastes no time coming out, leather biker outfit this time, no Vegeta costume. Silly camera cuts to Rhea and the Singer AGAIN though, stop it WWE it's distracting. Asuka dances down the ring in a bit of a Jason mask, but the camera keeps cutting to Rhea which is off-putting. Also commentary on 'she has never seen Rhea Ripley up close and personal', they were in a tag match together a week and a half ago and in Survivor Series 2019 she faced her in Team NXT as part of Team RAW, seriously WWE...

Asuka starts hot with her athleticism, dropkicks, rebounds and rollups met with more shoddy camera cuts, Rhea leaves the ring to take a moment as Asuka taunts her, she baits Asuka out of the ring as she rolls in but her leg is caught, pop-up knee strike returns Rhea to the ring but she misses the hip attack, gifting Rhea the slamming facebuster for 2. Rhea wears the champion down and taunts her with leg scissors and hits a couple of clotheslines, Asuka reverses the third into an ankle lock but Rhea rolls into a Release German Suplex. Rhea grinds away at Asuka's back and sets up for a super German but Asuka elbows her away and lands the Missile Dropkick, Release German, Hip Attack, a strike combo, another Hip Attack but it only gets 2. Asuka goes up top but is dropkicked to the outside, Asuka tries a PK on the apron but is caught into an Electric Chair position and dropped chin-first onto the apron. Trying to roll Asuka back into the ring, the champion returns to hit a DDT from the apron to the outside, after breaking the count Asuka only gets 2, stomps at Rhea but her running knee gets caught, Rhea stomps at Asuka and sets up the Texas Cloverleaf, Asuka rolls out and into the Armbar but Rhea swings Asuka into the bottom turnbuckle. Deadlift suplex back into the ring for 2, Asuka reverses a waistlock into two armbar variations and then an Asuka Lock, Rhea rolls back for 2 and the hold to break but gets gutted with kicks to the chest, Rhea demands more so Asuka runs to the ropes, Rhea catches her, Riptide, 3!

That finish came out of nowhere, which was not a good thing. We were having quite an enjoyable match which ended around the 15 minute mark, it wasn't short but the narrative wasn't quite there yet. I'm happy for Rhea, who I predicted to win but like Sasha/Bianca it came with the heavy heart. Like Sasha, Asuka has often been slighted especially at Wrestlemania, she deserves her moment too, especially Asuka who carried the Women for most of the Empty Arena era.

WWE recapped the opener which was a bad idea, Hogan and Titus thanked all the viewers at home and the fans but were interrupted by Bayley who demanded and got her pyro, then out came the Bella Twins. Bayley got a good zing by calling them Elmo but then Nikki slapped the mic away from her when she says 'John Cena isn't here tonight', Bellas said 'Ding Dong, Goodbye' and beat down Bayley. This was shite really, Bayley had been buried across 2 nights and her 'comeuppance' is the Bella Twins, not the woman beginning with B I was hoping for, and the John Cena comment was heavily forced, fans know they broke up ages ago Nikki has a kid with her husband who is not John Cena, fans aren't stupid WWE.

WWE then promoted 'Wrestlemania Backlash' for May 16th, a whole month away. They say it'll be a whole new season for WWE so I'm wondering if it's just a storyline reset...y'know how Wrestlemania is supposed to be, slapping Wrestlemania on other show names doesn't make it Wrestlemania-tier guys.

Universal Championship - Roman Reigns (c) [w/Paul Heyman & Jey Uso] def. Daniel Bryan and Edge (Pinfall on Edge and Bryan via Con-Chair-To) To the Main Event, one of the few storylines in Mania's card that was consistently good in build. Bryan comes out first, camera angles flashing during the YES! chants. Huge pops and smoke rage for Metalingus and Edge enters in white and Red (bookending with Orton), fireworks camera shots though. For once, Roman Reigns enters the Main Event without a chorus of deafening boos, but he takes his time to come out, in his red wreath flanked by Jey Uso and Heyman, cameras cutting to each opponent's faces a bit too much, especially to Bryan. Bad call not to bring in Justin Roberts to announce Edge either. Roman makes sure to hoist the belt while facing both his opponents before the bell.

Reigns starts by suckering Bryan and then going after Edge. He throws Bryan out of the ring where Jey superkicks him and sends him into the steps thanks to Triple Threat rules. Edge eats a superkick from Uso too when he's thrown out as Roman cleans up the announcer's table, as Edge is grabbed by Uso, Reigns is hit by Bryan's suicide dive but eats an Uso superkick, this gives Edge time to throw Uso into the steps, pinballing Reigns against the barricade and apron until bouncing off of the ring post. Edge then sets his sights on Uso, hitting a DDT on the steps to take him out of the equation, medical team swarm Uso as Heyman halfheartedly looks concerned. Edge chases Heyman away and enters the ring with Bryan - a moment which would've been sold better if the camera didn't cut to a close up of Roman alive and well on the outside. Bryan gets the Yes Kicks in the corner but his Super Rana is reversed into a sunset flip, Edge-o-matic but it's only 2. Roman comes back on the apron both men attempting to suplex the other, Bryan slides under Roman and cuts Roman's legs from under him - jawbreaking Edge on the ropes - he hits the Missile Dropkick on Edge, kips up and hits the uppercut, after dodging the lariat he tries to suicide dive Roman but he's caught by the champion and hit with a belly to belly suplex. Edge brings Roman to the ring but gets hit with a clothesline, Roman sets up the Superman Punch but Edge turns it into an Edgecution. He sets up the Spear but Roman knocks him down, Roman sets the Spear but it is reversed in a Sunset Flip, both men collide with spears to take each other out. During a wide shot Bryan goes up top, he lands a diving headbutt on Edge, then on Roman, he pins Roman but only gets 2. Yes Kicks to both men, Roman dodges one and pushes him towards Edge, but Bryan ducks the Lariat and hits the Buisaku Knee, Roman tries the Superman Punch but is kicked in the gut, Buzzsaw Kick! 1, 2, No! Bryan stomps on Roman's head and sets up the Yes Lock, but Edge breaks the hold, so Bryan puts Edge in the Yes Lock and Roman breaks the hold, clubbing at Bryan and powerbombing him onto Edge. After dumping Bryan, Roman pauses before setting up half the steps near the Announcer's Table, he's incited by the 'Roman Sucks' chant and powerbombs Bryan through the Announcer's table, but is then blindsided with a Spear! Edge goes to bring in a chair but Roman keeps his foot on it, he pulls the chair away and tries the Guillotine but Edge locks in the Crossface, as Roman powers out Edge grabs a part of the chair leg that fell off and uses that in his Crossface - a humorous face from Reigns as I pause the vid as well XD - he's about to tap but Bryan grabs the hand, and locks in the Yes Lock! Annoyed that his win is stolen, Edge demands he break the hold, but Bryan refuses, leading to a headbutt fight and Bryan pounding at Edge. Bryan then stomps at Edge's head and looks for the Buisaku Knee, but gets hit by a Spear! Roman tries a Spear but Edge hits one of his own! 1, 2, Bryan pulls the ref out of the ring. Furious, Edge introduces more chairs, hitting Bryan and Edge one after the other. He sets up Con-Chair-To to both men, hits it on Bryan but Jey Uso returns to attack, eats a Spear and a load of Chair Shots, Reigns hits the spear on Edge, hits the Con-Chair-To, drags Edge over Bryan and pins both for the win.

The show closes with pyro and Fireworks as Roman talks trash on his opponents and holds the title aloft, ending Wrestlemania 37.

It was a very good back and forth match, Roman of course relying heavily on Jey's interferences and the animosity between Edge and Bryan to come out on top. Keeping the Spear and the Con-Chair-To for last was the right move and the latter was definitely impactful enough to ensure that Bryan could sleep for a few minutes, especially with his and Edge's history of neck injuries. I bet on Roman because of his past record, how after finally turning heel he gets the right heat and because in Triple Threats involving a Heel Champion and 2 Faces, you either bet on the third man or the heel champion, since the story was that Roman could lose without being pinned I chose the latter, the heel often finds the escape. All three men had great chemistry together and I hope for more, SD's world title scene having an absolute slew of competitors waiting to challenge the head of the table.

Conclusion Overall another good night of wrestling...just not better. There were some super baffling and poor moments in the first half of the show and 3 title changes in a row (as well as 2 live performances in a row) was probably not the best card layout Night 2 could've done. Overall it was still a good show though and as a whole Wrestlemania 37 was a success, if not without its glaring flaws. But it goes to show that a 2-Day Wrestlemania continues to flourish as a new season of WWE kicks off.

[diverse-writing]

Book Review: “Queer City” by Peter Ackroyd

Thanks to @kyliebean-editing​ for the review request! I have a list of books I’ve read recently here that I’m considering reviewing, so let me know if you’re looking for my thoughts on a specific book and I’ll be sure to give it a go!

2.5 ⭐/5

Hey all! I’m back with another book review and this time we’re taking a dip into nonfiction with Peter Ackroyd’s Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day. Let’s dive right in.

The good: Peter Ackroyd is a hugely prolific writer and a historian clearly trained for digging through huge archives of history and his expertise shows. This particular volume--his 37th nonfiction book and 55th overall published work--provides a startlingly comprehensive timeline of London’s gay history, just as promised. Arguably, the book’s subtitle short sells the book’s content; Queer City actually rewinds the clock all the way back to the city’s origins as a Celtic town before it became Roman Londinium. From there, Ackroyd’s utilizes his extensive historical experience to trace proof of gay activity through the ages. From the high courts of medieval times to the monks of the Tudor era, the gaslit back alleys of Victorian London to the raging club scene of the 1980s--gay people have lived and even thrived in London for literal millennia, and Ackroyd has the receipts to back it up. If you need proof that homosexuality has been a staple of civilization since the Romans--and the homophobia has often recycled the same arguments for the same period of time--then look no further.

The mediocre: All that being said, Ackroyd’s “receipts” often tend towards the salacious, the scandalous, and often the explicit. It seems that legal edicts and court cases made up the foundation of his research, so us readers get to hear in full detail the punishments levied against historical queer individuals, from exile to the pillory to the gallows. Occasionally, Ackroyd dips into the written pornagraphic accounts of the time to describe salacious sexual encounters, which add little to the overarching narrative except proof that gay people do, in fact, have sex. Later down the historical record, once newspapers became more common, we also receive extensive account of the gossip pages of the day, complete with rants about the indecency of “buggery” and the moral decay of “the homosexual.” Throughout the book, ass puns and phallic wordplay run rampant, so much so that it occasionally feels like it’s only added for shock value.

While I’m not a professional historian, as a queer person I can’t help but feel that there must be more to the historical record than these beatings, back alley hookups, etc. In focus on the concrete evidence of gay activity--that is, gay sex and all the official documents surrounding the subject--it feels like Ackroyd neglects the emotional side of queerness in favor of the physical side. Even the queer poetry excerpts or diary entries of the time (which I’m nearly positive exist throughout the historical record, though once again I’m not a professional) sampled in this book are all focused on the physical act of sex. No queer person wants a pastel tinted, desexed version of our history--but we also don’t need to hear a dozen explicit accounts of gay park sex. Queer love and queer sex go hand in hand and to focus on one without the other is disingenuous, not to mention dangerous in promoting the idea that queer people are hypersexual and predatory. Admittedly, I do think the omission of queer love is an unintentional byproduct of Ackroyd’s fact-checking and editorial process. He may not have intended to leave out tenderness, but his intentional choice to focus on impersonal records--court cases, royal decrees, newspapers, etc.--rather than personal ones--diaries, poetry, art, etc.--meant that emotion was largely excluded anyway. 

The bad: Though Queer City does a good job of following queer history through the ages, Ackroyd fails to connect his cited historical examples with larger sociocultural movements of the time. He discusses queer coding in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales but not the larger (oft homoromantic/homoerotic) courtly love traditions that Chaucer drew on. He describes the cult followings around boy actors playing female parts in Elizabethan and Jacobian London but neglects to put those theaters and the public reaction to them within the context of the ongoing Renaissance. Similarly, Ackroyd omits explicit connections to the Enlightenment, Romanticism, Neoclassicism, free love, and countless other cultural movements that undoubtedly shaped both the social and legal responses to the queer community. This exclusion, unlike the exclusion of queer love, had to be intentional on Ackroyd’s part; it’s hugely unlikely that a historian with his bibliography accidentally forgot to mention the last millennium’s worth of Western civilization cultural movements. It’s a massive oversight that utterly fails to place London’s queer history within the context of wider history.

And finally, last but definitely not least, oh boy does Ackroyd have some learning to do when it comes to gender, gender presentation, and gender identity. From the very first chapter, it’s apparent that Ackroyd’s research and writing focused largely on MLM cisgender men, with WLW cisgender women as a far secondary priority. While there are chapters on chapters dedicated to detangling homosexual men’s dealings, homosexual women are often pushed to the fringes of London’s queer history. They receive paragraphs, here and there, and occasionally the closing sentence of a chapter, but overall they’re clearly downgraded to a secondary priority within Ackroyd’s historical narrative. Some of this can once again be blamed on the type of records Ackroyd uses; sex between women was never criminalized or discussed in the public sphere in the same way that sex between men was, so it was a less common topic in London’s courts and newspapers. (And, once again, I have the sneaking suspicion that turning to less traditional sources would’ve helped resolve this issue, though in part the omission can likely be pinned on Ackroyd’s demonstrable preference towards male history.)

Additionally, Ackroyd tends to treat crossdressing as undeniable proof of homosexuality. While it’s true that historically queer individuals found freedom or relief in dressing as the opposite sex, the latter didn’t necessarily equal the former. Additionally, if the crossdressing individual in question was female, dressing as a man was often a way for a woman to secure more freedoms than she would receive while wearing traditional feminine outfits. (Also, he tended to use “transvestite” over “crossdressing,” and while I tend to think of the latter as more preferred, the former may be more in use among queer studies circles or British slang). Though Ackroyd briefly acknowledges that women could and may have crossdressed to more easily navigate a misogynistic world, he nevertheless continually dredges out records of crossdressing women as concrete proof of historical sapphics.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room; in clearly identifying crossdressers as homosexuals, Ackroyd entirely overlooks the existence of transgender and nonbinary people in London’s historical record. This omission, arguably unlike the others, seems definitively intentional and malicious. In the entire book, I could probably count on one hand the number of times Ackroyd mentions the concept of gender identity, and I could use even fewer fingers for the number of times he does so respectfully and thoughtfully. Though he largely neglects to discuss transgender history as a subset of queer history, when he does bring up historical non-cisgender identities it’s often as a component of his salacious narratives rather than a vibrant and storied history all on its own. In the final chapter on modern gay London, Ackroyd’s casual dismissal of the concept of myriad gender identities felt dangerously close to modern day British “gender criticism,” which is likely more familiar to queer readers as TERFism masquerading under the guise of concern for women and gay rights (JK Rowling is a very public example of a textbook gender critical Brit, if you’re wondering). By the end of the book, Ackroyd’s skepticism of so-called “nontraditional gender identities” is so glaringly evident that he might as well proclaim it outright. 

The verdict:  For a book supposedly focused on queerness, the focus on male cisgender homosexuality is both disappointing and honestly not surprising. This book is a portrait of gay London, yes--but it’s also a portrait of Peter Ackroyd as a historian and a professional. It’s clear from early on that he’s writing from the perspective of an older white gay man (I think queer WOC know what I’m talking about when I say that that POV is very distinct, and his clear idolation of 1960s-1980s gay culture makes his age quite evident as well). As you progress through the book, his blindspot in regards to gender and gender politics become increasingly clear, as does his simultaneous obsession and criticism with transgender identities. Overall, Queer City is a clear example of how “nonfiction” doesn’t necessarily mean unvarnished truth--or at least not all of it--and how individual historian’s methods and biases bleed into their research. 

A dear London friend suggested Matt Houlbrook’s Queer London: Perils and Pleasures of the Sexual Metropolis as a more gender inclusive review of the famous city’s queer history. While I take a break from London for a bit, I would welcome any and all thoughts on either Queer City or Queer London, the latter which I fully intend to get to eventually so I can properly compare the two.

[mapsontheweb]

Walking distance to the nearest pub.

by ueberklaus:

OC from u/cremepat

Walking distances come from Google Maps. The data collection and mapping was done in R. My website has all my code and a more detailed overview of my methods, if you’re interested.

Pubs data comes from the following places, but you can get the final dataset I put together here.

- UK pubs come from the UK Food Hygiene API

- Irish pubs come from liquor licenses

- Isle of Man comes from Google Places

- Bare bits of Scotland were selectively filled in with Google Places. Turns out a lot of Scottish pubs are also hotels, and are coded as such in the Food Hygiene data so they didn’t get picked up. I checked these against Trip Advisor reviews: if a real live Brit described the place as a pub, I added it to the dataset.

Of course, this is meant to be lighthearted. Is 56.625, -4.25 really the absolute furthest spot from a pub? Probably not, but it’s the furthest spot I found 😊! Google’s API costs are too high for me to do a finer grained search.

A brief overview of my method:

Find as many pubs in the British Isles as possible (see above, over 60,000 found. Some may be more of a bar/nightclub, but there’s no good way to tell)

Create a grid of points over the British Isles. I used a fairly coarse spacing due to API costs.

For each point, find the closest pub by walking distance. Why walking? For one, driving drunk is bad! For another, Google Maps doesn’t always return driving distances if your points aren’t on roads.

Create a Voroni diagram, trimmed to the shape of the British Isles, to illustrate the walking distances.

[homespork-review]

Homespork Act 1: The Note Dawdling Tension Plays (Part 3)

CHEL: John heads outside, finally, but finds the mailbox empty and the car locked with a package inside. It seems he’ll have to confront his father to get the game he seeks. And then, we get the internet equivalent of a splash page, with ominous wind chimes, slow-pan animation, and lyrical text.

You have a feeling it's going to be a long day.

Regarding the term “ominous”, it applies in ways Hussie intended, implying the strangeness to come, but also in ways he may not have. Notice anything absent from that animation? Go on, guess.

FAILURE ARTIST: John’s neighborhood is more bland than Privet Drive.

CHEL: True, but “character” wasn’t really what I meant. What would one expect to see at least one of, in a nice suburban neighbourhood, even a bland one, in the daytime, when we know John’s dad is home from work, even if through a window? What are we not seeing here?

FAILURE ARTIST: No people and not even any pets.

CHEL: Hot dog, we have a wiener. Not character, characters. There are no signs of life at all. Not even a wild bird. Now, John is the focal character here, so that might come under the heading of unnecessary detail, but considering what happens later, this becomes very creepy. The big dangerous thing has not happened yet, so there should still be people in the neighbourhood, and the sound of wind chimes implies at least one of those houses is inhabited. But we don’t see them. Come to think of it, John never mentions his school at all, nor any other friends apart from the other kids featured in the comic, and nor do they. It’s as if they literally sprang into existence on that day and got plopped down in place just in time to be in the comic.

FAILURE ARTIST: Given that John is home in the middle of what would be a school day I think he might be home-schooled.

CHEL: That didn’t occur to me. I’m a Brit and I guess I was thinking “Easter break”, but the school year pattern in the US is different. But that raises further questions. Doesn’t he know any local kids? His dad works full-time and he has no other family - when does his dad find the time?

FAILURE ARTIST: Maybe it would be Spring Break in Washington State. I don’t know.

CHEL: Regardless, it’s eerie. If he’s home-schooled, he still ought to have some local friends or at least be on wave-hello terms with neighbours, unless he really is stuck in his bedroom almost all the time. I’m tempted to add an ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY point for the implication that John’s been raised locked in a room, but that’s just silly speculation so I won’t.

While on the topic, John does live in a literal suburb, but I’m not going to give points for WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM here. That count is for when the characters’ behaviour comes across as white/suburban/wealthy and that contradicts how the author is trying to present them. John is supposed to be the everyman figure with an ordinary life, living in a regular respectable town.

Let’s move on. It’s time to confront the Parental Figure.

TIER: John finds himself heading to the kitchen to retrieve his game, and it's now that we get a good look at his dad, along with one of the neat little details about Homestuck's world being brought to the forefront.

I am of course, talking about STRIFE!

"[S] John: Enter and Strife!" (Watch on YouTube)

The more or less fighting system for lack of my vocabulary, and seemingly a thing you just do in this world.

CHEL: John gets to actually use his “hammerkind” weapon, and Dad’s preferred method of combat is offering yet more cake.

FAILURE ARTIST: John threatens his father with a hammer. In the real world, this would be horrifying. But it’s not in this video game world. The other Beta Kids have “STRIFE” with their parents and in only one case does it end up as being treated seriously. Yet that will wait to be seen.

CHEL: One case which is significantly less disturbing than one of the other cases, in some ways. But yes, that’s for later. To be fair, John could have been trying to hit the cake with the hammer, not his dad, but most parents still wouldn’t be pleased to have their kids waving hammers in their direction regardless.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 2

TIER: After a short few rounds, John manages to properly distract his dad and successfully gets to his mail. A winner is you Johnny boy. Then we find ourselves with another hit of sylladex fuckery happening, joyous.

When we get back to John's room, it's pesterlog time, this time with a little sneak peak at the last of our fabulous foursome of thirteen years olds, gardenGnostic, or GG! They're only present for three short lines, but damn if they aren't pretty telling. From what little is seen they're an overall pretty chipper person, and to me at least adorable with those emojis.

CHEL: The beta’s finally in John’s hands, after all that effort to get it. So what do we do now? Why, it seems like a great time to go waste some time reading an entirely different imaginary webcomic promoting Hussie’s other work! Though, to be fair, the Midnight Crew will turn out to be relevant later. Keep that name in mind.

FAILURE ARTIST: The Midnight Crew actually started as the OCs of Problem Sleuth fan Mayonka who paid to have a extra episode.

CHEL: And then, FINALLY, he installs the thing, and it... gives us a loading page, and he goes off to read up on data structures and fuck about with his fucking sylladex some more!

TIER: The sylladex thing really knows how to wear its welcome thin with the shenanigans, thought I'll admit that John getting a razor embedded into the face of one of his posters was amusing in how dangerous the dang thing can be.

GET ON WITH IT!: 3

"Get on with it! (Monty Python)" (Watch on YouTube)

CHEL: Because I’m feeling bitter, I’m adding another point too!

HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 5 The Lost Sock - wherein the plot is too slight Here the main conflict is barely adequate to sustain a Partridge Family episode. Remember that this drama has to carry the reader through 300-odd pages. The central dilemma of a novel should be important enough to change someone’s life forever.

Our main plot hasn’t been introduced yet, so as far as the reader knows, what’s happening now is the plot. Getting a video game out of the kitchen should not take this long and is not much of an epic adventure! By now, Hussie’s committed almost all of the sins listed in HNTWAN’s section on beginning a story! NOTHING IS HAPPENING!

Okay, something happens. It’s not plot, but it’s adorable. John opens the birthday present from Dave, to discover a souvenir of his favourite movie; the very stuffed bunny prop featured in Con Air. Look at how happy he is!

TIER: I do believe that up to this point, there hasn't been much of a plot, just people doing stuff. It's boring in the same way that someone telling you about an average day is, not much going on to be honest.

FAILURE ARTIST: I enjoyed reading Act 1 when I first read it but I was coming in under no expectation. Homestuck as a deep meaningful story hadn’t begun yet.

CHEL: Okay, NOW a thing is happening. The game is installed, on comes the loading page, and… Well, that’s peculiar. Now, at last, we see what the big deal with this game is. It permits TT, who installed the “server” section of the game while John installed the “client” section, to reach into his actual bedroom with the cursor and move things around, place bizarre-looking machinery in the rooms, or even add parts to his house a la The Sims. Now that’s a game worth the hype it got! Too bad it took almost 140 pages to actually reveal this.

The kids don’t seem very surprised by all this, yet the reviewer hadn’t heard the game could do that. One would think even such a disaffected dudebro would be curious about that, if he knew. Maybe the game really does have some kind of built-in failsafe to keep adults away?

FAILURE ARTIST: This is a world people have inventories instead of pockets and an RPG battle starts every time you argue with your parents.

CHEL: Does that apply to all people in it, though, or just the lead characters? They are, as it turns out, special already, and we never see a person who’s not involved.

John wants to try moving things around, but he needs the “server” CD-ROM to do so, which is still in the car. TT’s attempts to help result in not only a large machine called a “Cruxtruder” blocking the front door, but also the toilet, which John earlier accidentally filled with cake during sylladex shenanigans, being ripped out and dropped in the yard, and the bathtub similarly ending up in the hallway, which is pretty funny, I admit.

EB: you can see me, right. EB: tell me what is wrong with this picture.

Perhaps sylladex shenanigans could be trimmed without being deleted entirely. SBurb shenanigans, similarly, are funny but might possibly do better to be compressed into fewer pages, but that’s not as big a deal, I think. The shenanigans aren’t entirely TT’s fault; she keeps losing her internet connection due to bad weather. GG’s earlier mention of an explosion near their home implies that things are starting to happen around them, too. Meantime, John finds a sledgehammer, a much better weapon, the implication being he’s going to need one, even if he turns out to be unable to lift it. TT helps him to hit the Cruxtruder with it, and said machine produces a glowing… thing and starts a four-minutes-and-thirteen-seconds countdown. Countdowns are never good in this context.

The glowing thing is a Kernelsprite, which needs to be “prototyped”, so into it goes the harlequin doll, causing it to take on the shape of a harlequin’s head and hand. Attempts to use the mysterious machinery TT has deployed result in the production of a shiny blue cylinder called a cruxite dowel and three green cubes labelled by the game as Perfectly Generic Objects, using up the game’s abstract building currency dubbed Build Grist. Wasting time playing with the machinery proves to be an unwise idea, however, as John looks into the sky and sees…

Even worse than the meteor heading directly for his house, Dad is coming back!

FAILURE ARTIST: THIS is where I came in. It is the most impressive flash animation so far. It is still awkwardly animated compared to later ones.

CHEL: I think it’s one of his earlier efforts, so I wouldn’t say it was bad. It succintly gets the point across and it’s better animated than anything I could do.

John messages TT again.

EB: oh man who cares about the bathroom, now there's a meteor heading for my house!!! TT: I see. TT: Do you suppose it has anything to do with the game? EB: i don't know, maybe! what do i do! TT: I think it's very likely. TT: The walkthroughs vaguely suggest an impending threat before they end. TT: The already poorly constructed sentences become even more curt and ambiguous. TT: As if written hastily and with a sense of alarm. TT: Actually, their dedication to updating the walkthrough under such circumstances is admirable.

TT concludes that if the meteor is caused by the game, succeeding at a game objective must be the way to stop it, and investigates while John talks to TG, resulting in one of my favourite conversations in the comic, but also leading into another count.

EB: we'll talk later if i am still alive and the earth isn't blown up. TG: like the size of texas TG: or just rhode island TG: theyre always throwing around these geographical comparisons to give us a sense of scale like it really means anything to us TG: but its like it doesnt matter its always just like: WOW THATS PRETTY FUCKING BIG TG: like mr president theres a meteor coming sir. oh yeah, how big is it? its the size of texas sir TG: OH SHIT TG: or, how big is it? its the size of new york city sir TG: OH SHIT TG: sir im afraid the comet is the size of your moms dick TG: OH SNAP TG: sir are you familiar with jupiter TG: you mean like the planet? TG: yeah TG: well its that big sir TG: hmm that sounds pretty big TG: i have a question TG: is it jupiter? TG: yes sir, earth is literally under seige by planet fucking jupiter TG: OH SHIT TG: anyway later

I don’t know if TG is supposed to believe John here. If he is, then we get another count:

HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 1

FAILURE ARTIST: Hate to be a killjoy but the line about your mom’s dick is transphobic.

CHEL: My original intention with the PROBLEMATYKKS count was to point out cases where it wasn’t justified by the character saying it, so I wasn't going to count this. Thirteen-year-old boys trying to be witty say all sorts of awful bullshit. Though the writer’s old enough to know better and it didn’t ever get called out, so yeah, okay, I’ll expand the original intention.

CLOCKWORK PROBLEMATYKKS: 4

The rest of it’s still funny, though. Besides, I was more immediately concerned with the fact that TG seems remarkably unconcerned about the possible risk to his friend’s life. There isn’t really anything he could do about it even if he tried, obviously, but one would expect he’d at least say “oh shit, run!” or something. This will become a recurring pattern in the comic, as will be shown fairly soon, hence the DO NOTHING count.

FAILURE ARTIST: I think that conversation is also from real life. Hussie and a friend talked about meteor movie conventions and Hussie decided to use it. However, I assume during that conversation they weren’t threatened by an actual meteor.

CHEL: Possibly he’d have done better to make it clearer that TG did not believe John actually had a meteor heading for him. John is a known joker, after all. It would be quite easy, and I would have assumed that in a comic which had had fewer unremarked wacky happenings already.

Dad Egbert is also remarkably calm about the bathtub in the hallway. TT’s attempt to move it is foiled when her connection is lost, causing her to drop it in front of John’s bedroom door, trapping him inside. John is now on his own.

[famder-news]

Vid Review Wednesday!!

Hi guys! Welcome to another video review!! I know it’s technically not a Wednesday but I wanted to get this out to you guys since Thomas dropped a new video last week - I wanted to share my thoughts with you all!

Mod: Brit (@romanticsanders) Date: 4th July 2019  Topic: Videos and Reviews  Warnings: SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST SANDERS SIDES EPISODE, Remus

Video Review Wednesday: Dealing with INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS | Sanders Sides

Video Length: 41:16

 Characters In Order Of Appearance: Thomas, Virgil/Anxiety, Patton/Morality, Roman/Creativity, Logan/Logic, Remus/The Duke 

 Watch it HERE 

So I’ve already seen a ton of discussion about the new video online but I thought that I’d offer my two cents since no one’s opinion is going to be the same from each others! 

First of all, I wanna say that as a production, this video was so, so impressive. Like every single person on Thomas’ team worked so hard on this new video to bring us new graphics, new costumes, new characters, a SONG, and new content to play with! That is an amazing feat in itself and it truly speaks to Thomas’ growth as a creator <3 

Second of all, I just wanna say this: I was thoroughly entertained and horrified. Throughout the entirety of the video I just kept imagine Virgil, Thomas, Logan, Patton, and Remus all having a casual discussion whilst Roman is just.....passed out face down on the floor. Like, did y’all not wanna try and wake the boy? 

The early allusions to Roman and Remus’ brotherly relationship was super interesting to me - not to mention their matching names. As a person with siblings, a writer, AND a Roman stan, giving Roman a whole ass brother was just *kisses hand*.

Now, let’s talk about Logan. Logan...was so good in this episode. He was phenomenal. Whereas Virgil and Patton showed slightly more biased opinions (Something that I thought we also saw in the previous video with Deceit) regarding the ‘Dark Sides’, Logan’s analysis of the situation and his method of helping Thomas was just so amazing to me. He was honestly giving out “Caring schoolteacher who knows you’re going through a hard time and tries his best to genuinely help you” vibes to me. 

I noticed that Virgil and Patton have very black and white definitions as to what makes a “good person” which I think makes sense for their characters. Patton is supposed to represent morality, a literal sense of right and wrong and good and bad - so it makes sense to me that he would have very strong opinions about Thomas’ behaviour. 

Virgil however has been on the receiving end of such antagonism and, in my opinion, could be overcompensating? Perhaps in his attempt to prove to the others that he’s good now and that he is trying to change and he’s ‘not always the bad guy’, he is pushing Thomas slightly too far in the only definition of “good” that he knows - which is Patton. 

And finally: Remus. The glorious trash king rat bastard himself. I think as a character, he is absolutely amazing. There’s so much to unpack when it comes to him, right down to his character aesthetic, his accent, his backstory, and his purpose when it comes to Thomas and how Thomas functions. I also am so intrigued about his relationship with Deceit and just how he thinks in general. 

Him giving away his name at their first meeting could’ve been an attempt to antagonise Virgil, especially with the way that he looked at Virgil after saying it, but I thought that it also showed a lot about him. Like Roman, he is desperate for attention (but maybe not validation to the extent that Roman is). Perhaps him revealing his name right from the get-go is him trying to outshine the others and stand out as different and important to Thomas and his wellbeing. 

Just a theory!! These are all my opinions on the video - if you have any thoughts, pls reblog or reply bc we’d love to read them!! <3

I haven’t touched base on everything that I could’ve talked about and wanted to talk about but these were my initial thoughts!

End Card 

Thomas is attempting to go through his night and get ready to go to sleep but Remus shows up in the darndest places, munching on a stick of deodorant.

I thought it was incredibly well done and tied into the overlying theme and moral of the story completely. With intrusive thoughts, sometimes all you can do is ignore them and hope that they’ll pass - try and distract yourself with tasks so that you don’t think about the glaring thing in the corner eating a stick of deodorant. I loved it and thought it was so poignant.

Stray Thoughts 

I’m a slut for Roman and I thought there wasn’t enough Roman in it - although I GUESS I get that his being unconscious is an integral part of the video. I’m very excited for his arc, I can see it coming in the horizon. My body will not be able to handle it.

Quotes of the episode 

“Singin’ to myself...because I’m not uncomfortable at all!” - Patton

“You can’t have a bawl without a prince!” - Roman

“What are you ta...What are you talking...What are you talking about?” - Logan

“You guys are acting fishier than the kraken’s crack.” “Alright, so I’m acting fishy. So sushi. I mean...sue me!” “...Don’t act like that was an accident.” - Roman, Virgil, Roman

“Everybody, Virgil...*clap clap*...let’s give it up for the purp-man.” - Thomas

“The very same ‘Just Like Heaven’ that won the teen choice award for best chick flick?!”  “You Ruffal-know it!” “...Were there any other ‘Just Like Heaven’ films released in 2005 starring Mark Ruffalo and Reese Witherspoon?” - Roman, Patton, Logan

“What’s fruit without the pits?” “...Apples don’t have pits.” - Remus, Logan

“Don’t say juicy in that context!” “Uh...juicy butthole?!” - Virgil, Remus

“I love being given 2 D’s at once!” - Remus

“Look, pleasant metaphors aren’t really my strong suit.” “You have a strong suit?” “Yes! My birthday suit!” - Remus, Virgil, Remus

[jessyshyam-blog]

Trading in the Appropriate Time Frame

Stochastic Indicator is the next indicator that measures the momentum of the market. This warns the trader about the overbought or oversold market. Hence a trader buys when the indicator shows oversold and sells when it shows overbought. This is based on the idea that the prices tend to move in waves and wait for the pull back is essential for a trader. This indicator not only warns but also monitors the market momentum. It means that even if the prices continue to climb high, but stochastic indicator does not show higher highs, it is a warning that the market is running out of momentum. In such a situation the market prepares for a pull back.

Last but not the least is the Moving Averages indicators. The traders use this indicator for trend identification. When the price is above the simple moving average, the trend is up and the traders look to buy only. When the price is below the simple moving average, trend is down and the traders always look to sell. Traders also use it in the areas of support and resistance. To sum up, these indicators are trader's lighthouse to show him direction in the vast sea of swing trading business.

Swing trading is a trading style in which stocks, commodities or index are bought or sold by a trader within a period of one to four days. The ultimate aim of swing trader is to make profits by riding on the direction of the major market trends. The traders aim to discover this extraordinary potential of the stocks that move in a really short period of time and make profits by trading in them. He uses a number of strategies that help him identify this trend and discover the high probability trades. He studies market patterns and make use of market indicators that enable him reach the goal of a profitable trade.

Swing trading process can be used in any kind of market but it is most popular in stocks. There are two major tendencies that a trader needs to look for if he wants to deal in stocks. Firstly, the stock should have a tendency to trend. Stocks show a sporadic movement at times and there is no explanation of its movement in that particular style. Swing trader must trade in such stocks that trends and not the one that move sideways.

https://dietsheriff.com/anaconda-xl-review/

https://wildforexguide.com/keto-one-review/

https://dietsheriff.com/brit-method-review/