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chainofclovers · 3 years ago

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Ted Lasso 2x9 thoughts

It’s no secret that I absolutely adore Coach Beard; he’s one of my favorite characters on the show, and he’s so well-written and well-acted that somehow I tend to be both perfectly satisfied with the details we see and truly curious to understand more about the way he thinks, what’s really happening re: his professional and personal devotion to Ted, where he comes from and where he’s going. I don’t need to know his name beyond the name he wants to be called, but I want to know why we don’t have any other names for him. And I don’t need him to be a bigger focal point of every episode, but I very much needed this episode’s world-exploding reminder that every single character on this show has a rich inner life, full of joys and troubles.

“Beard After Hours” is like a movie, but one that scatters its climaxes and puts off its resolutions...because it’s not a movie. It’s episode nine of a twelve-episode season of TV. When the episode ended, I felt this almost frantic “But he needed to break up with Jane for good before the end of the episode!” feeling. I was so pulled in by the idea of being able to tell an entire story in one night, of going on an odyssey alongside a complicated hero, that watching Beard and Jane find each other in that club felt as intense as the fact that we don’t know if Ted responded to Rebecca’s voicemail and we don’t know what’s going to happen with Rebecca and Sam and we don’t know who isn’t getting married and who is having a funeral in 2x10 (I mean, I have my strong suspicions, but still!) and we don’t know if Richmond will be promoted back to the Premier League. And on and on. I didn’t mind feeling desperate for the story to resolve even though I understood after thinking about it for ten seconds that of course it couldn’t resolve yet. Or ever. Or yet.

I’m a big fan of the TL episode recaps/reviews Linda Holmes writes for NPR, and I have to quote something from this week’s directly because it so perfectly explains my feelings:

The power of the scene where Beard dances in the club isn't that it's a beautiful romantic climax. It's that it's an explanation of why he cannot seem to extricate himself from this bad relationship. What makes the worst relationships so dangerous is that they have elements that feel good that are very hard to get elsewhere. Beard knows that; he tells it to God. What's concerning isn't that Jane makes the world seem more interesting; what's concerning is she's the only thing that does. That doesn't take away from the joy of the dancing; it just tells you that even happiness is complicated.

I love Holmes’ perspective here so much, because it articulates something I was struggling to figure out: how it can feel so legitimate, like such a (temporary but nonetheless powerful) relief, for Beard to find Jane in that club and to have this moment of euphoria as his night nears an end. How it is possible to experience that relief on behalf of a character while fervently wishing it could end differently, because it’s so clear from the abusive text messages and the toxic calls and the manipulative interactions that Jane is terrible to him and they’re terrible for each other. But Beard knows this. He knows it when he hugs Higgins in the parking lot after Higgins is honest with him in a way Ted and Rebecca and Keeley have not learned how to be, and he knows it when part of his prayer includes the clear articulation that Jane isn’t the cure for what “ails me.” He’s inching closer to greater self-knowledge just as Ted is.

And the two big resolutions that really, really needed to happen did. I didn’t know I needed Paul, Baz, and Jeremy to get to wrap up their own night out on the pitch at Nelson Road, but I did. It brought actual tears to my eyes. And the other resolution was Beard showing up with the other coaches’ coffees for their meeting to watch the game film. As interesting as it would have been to see what Ted would have done if Beard hadn’t shown up, I’m so, so glad that he did. He’s got a messed-up face and some truly epic pants on, but otherwise this is just Beard showing up for work, showing up for his friends. It was incredible to realize that Beard and Ted haven’t been exaggerating when they’ve referred to his sex-and-drug proclivities in the past. The night documented in 2x9 might have been particularly scary and violent and euphoric and awful and meaningful, but this type of all-night adventure isn’t a foreign concept for this guy. In all the other episodes of this show, when we see Beard we’re seeing someone who might have been out all night, who might have spent the hours the sun was down desperately pushing himself closer to whatever edges he could find.

I don’t really want to touch upon all the allusions in this episode. They are abundant, they are well-documented, and also I haven’t even seen the movie After Hours. I enjoyed this episode for its allusive qualities and I enjoyed this episode for what it was and I feel like I have to be at peace with the fact that I’m never going to pick up on every single reference on this show and that is okay.

So, yeah, if this entry on my tumblr dot com blog seems remarkably devoid of references and allusions, it’s not because I’m not into it but because I find it too overwhelming to actually write about.

Very into the Misplaced and Discovered box at the Crown and Anchor. (That’s what Mae wrote on the Lost and Found box at the pub, right? Whatever it is, it’s so funny.)

Beard hallucinating Thierry Henry and Gary Lineker was truly upsetting and a great indicator not only of how broken things are between the Richmond coaching staff right now but also how deep Beard’s self-loathing might go. If you’d asked me before Thursday if I thought Beard loathed himself, I would say no. That deepening of knowledge alone makes 2x9 worth it.

James Tartt and his friends in the alley. Such a nightmare. I go back and forth on how much of the night was real, and part of me has decided all of it is, short of the images of Henry and Lineker. (And even that is real to the extent that it was a way of articulating what was in Beard’s head.) But watching Beard in physical danger brought on by the same abuser who had him so upset in the first place. It was a lot.

I’m so excited that Paul and Jeremy and Baz got some spotlight this episode. It was so wonderful to see them out of the pub. I love that they ended up telling the Oxford snots who they really were. They got to see Beard going to bat for them and smoothing over the situation socially, and that actually made it more possible for them to end up being truthful about themselves. Because they have nothing to be ashamed of, and they deserved the magic of that night. (And for it to end on Nelson Road. Every feeling. Oof.)

I feel like I barely have anything to say about the trouser-mending lady or the many places Beard goes or his key-dropping or the nightmarish feeling of wanting to be home and being unable to be home. It all happened and we all watched it and again, it was a lot. But I do feel incredibly moved and fascinated by the fact that Beard very obviously still hasn’t been home when he brings in the coffee. He’s had to sleep at the club for Jane- and key-related reasons in the past, and this time it’s not that he’s slept there but it still feels like a kind of homecoming he was robbed of for the entire night. Ted and Roy and Nate are there. He’s gotten their coffee orders correct. Ted is growing and evolving (he wants to learn from what’s happened, he’s insisting upon it even when the others resist) but he’s done a really perfect (almost romantic in its loveliness) thing by presumably spending his evening following a breakdown of his own speeding up the game film to 10x speed and adding Benny Hill. Ted is not OK and Beard is not OK and Nate is not OK and Roy is pretty OK but could very easily be not OK because he’s just joined a coaching staff with a whole lot of not OK. But they all showed up.

I am very into the realism of the lights being off in the club other than the coaches’ office (@talldecafcappuccino pointed this out!), and the way we’re seeing their desks from a different angle because this episode is unfocused on Ted. It really added to the mindset of being hungover and exhausted and unable to go home or even to know exactly what home should be; even this warm, familiar place feels off even as it’s a relief to be back there.

I am excited to return to our regularly scheduled programming with the full cast of characters, but I really adored this episode for what it taught us about Beard and what it illuminated about the humor, pain, and complexity of each person who inhabits this universe. Beard may not be loud about his long-standing beliefs or about the things he’s learned, but there’s a lot happening in there and I appreciated getting to spend 43 minutes with him and (in the case of the ticket he scrawls on a piece of paper so the pub guys can get into Nelson Road) the moments he sets in motion.

#ted lasso #ted lasso s2 spoilers #ted lasso 2x9 #meta by me #a lesbian watches ted lasso #coach beard

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archivingspn · 4 years ago

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2019: Twitter- Eric Kripke

therealKripke: “In honor of #SPN300, here's my original #SPN pitch from 2004. The pilot story is very different, but the tone always rang clear to me. Could never have imagined what this show became and the good it's done. Humbled and grateful beyond words to you all. #SPNFamily @cw_spn ‘[images of spn pilot’s 4pg script]’“ - 12:08 PM Feb 7, 2019

[source]

Supernatural

Pitch by Eric Kripke August 30, 2004

I. TONE AND WORLD

In one sentence, this is X-FILES meets ROUTE 66. Two brothers, cruising the dusty back roads in their trusty 64 Mustang, battling the things that go bump in the night. But much more than that, it's a show about an obsession of mine...

Throughout the U.S., (especially the MIDDLE, where I'm from), we have a folklore, as uniquely American as baseball, as rich and varied as any world mythology, and almost nobody knows it. For instance, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil, at an abandoned Mississippi crossroads, to be the world's greatest guitarist. But he died violently, poisoned at age 26, screaming about Hellhounds as he choked on his own blood. In the shadowy north woods of Minnesota, lives a creature named the Wendigo. Translated from Native American, it means "evil that devours.” It feeds on human flesh. And even today, dozens of witnesses say it's very real.

There are literally HUNDREDS of these stories and legends and urban legends. There are dark and dangerous things out there in the corners of our country. So here's a show that travels the diverse highways and byways of supernatural America. Black woods, ghost towns, those tourist trap mystery spots. Really, a show ABOUT our country-the bloody, beating heart of America.

Unlike X-FILES, this show isn't Vancouver rainy. It's brighter, more colorful, more VISCERAL, and more irreverent. The humor here is extremely important to me—but it has to arise from the characters and their attitudes. The characters can be funny, but the weekly stories have to be SCARY AS SHIT– I'm talking THE RING; how what you don't see is much more terrifying than what you do. I'm talking about making this series as scary as I possibly can, until you guys call and yell at me.

But I also want the tone to be GROUNDED. Where BUFFY, for example, felt HEIGHTENED, our show should feel like OUR WORLD, real-life America. With a darkness that bubbles and boils just beneath the surface. And I want to keep the weekly stories CREDIBLE- leave 'em with a question mark, the possibility of a rational explanation. Something early X-Files did very well.

Finally, I want this show to capture a certain SPIRIT. For one, that youthful electricity of dropping out and hitting the open road; the freedom of wide-open American spaces. But also, EVERY road trip story-from FEAR and LOATHING to Kerouac to The Odyssey, are inherently mythic quests, hero's journeys, real Joseph Campbell stuff. The way STAR WARS, LORD OF THE RINGS, and MATRIX are all the same story, with the same beats. So our series, too, is an epic hero's quest-- across the United States. Almost like a modern western, and our heroes are gunslingers. Or, as I like to call it - it's STAR WARS in TRUCK STOP AMERICA.

II. CHARACTERS AND FRANCHISE

Now, let's get into establishing our characters, and launching our franchise.

So if this is STAR WARS, meet LUKE SKYWALKER. SAM HARRISON, 21. Think Jake Gyllenhall, or Tobey Maguire. Smart, funny, handsome, maybe a little type-A. He just graduated Stanford with a 4.0, and now he's heading back down to L.A., where he lives with his Aunt and Uncle, he'll spend the summer clerking at a powerful law firm. And in the Fall... Harvard Law, thank you very much. Pedal to the metal, Sam is cruising the track to success. But, like all good Luke Skywalker heroes, Sam is vaguely restless. He tells his girlfriend, maybe he should drop everything this summer and blow off to Europe. But of course, he doesn't. He has too many responsibilities.

Sam's well adjusted, successful life, it's a real triumph, especially considering his background. Fifteen years ago, his dad JACK became increasingly dark and depressed. He drank. A lot. Until Mom and Dad were in a car crash. Dad was driving. He lived. Mom didn't. That triggered a schizophrenic breakdown in Dad. He swore that twisted, dark, horrific things caused that crash and took Mom away. And those same dark things were chasing after him. Dad was institutionalized. But he escaped. And disappeared.

Sam is ashamed of his tragic past. Hates his Dad, blames him for killing Mom, and NEVER, EVER talks about it.

Now, Sam's mythic CALL TO ADVENTURE, the events that will change his life forever, begin simply enough. When his big brother DEAN rolls into town. Meet DEAN HARRISON, 25, think Colin Farrel. If Sam's the good kid, Dean's the troublemaker. If Sam's Luke Skywalker, Dean's Han Solo. Charismatic and dangerous. Cocky confidence masking a troubled soul. Sam hated Dad, but Dean was older and remembered Dad in brighter days, and he worshipped the man. Sam buried his past and ignored it, but Dean was haunted by it, never quite got his shit together. Dean never went to college. Just sort of traveled around. In fact, Sam hasn't heard from Dean in almost 3 years, which Sam clearly resents.

And now... Dean makes Sam a proposition. Let me drive you down to L.A.- it's just one day, we'll get a chance to catch up a little. Reluctant, Sam agrees.

At first, they're enjoying the electric, carefree pleasures of a ROAD TRIP. Top down, radio blaring, singing their lungs out to AC/DC.

But then... at twilight... on an empty stretch of highway... Dean's driving. And he has to make a confession. (Though I'm sure we'll break this up into a few different scenes.) "Sam. There's something I need to tell you," Dean says. “I went looking for Dad. And I found him. Took just about every dime I had, but I found him. And I've been with him, for almost 2 years." Sam is shocked and betrayed: "what?! Why didn't you tell me?!" But Dean continues: "listen. I know this is hard to believe. But Dad WASN'T nuts.

Demons really DID kill Mom. Dark, awful things WERE following Dad. I know. Because I can see them. Because they're following me, too."

Obviously, Sam is BEYOND freaked and well aware that schizophrenia is hereditary. Dean goes on, getting worked up-“so Dad figured out how to kill these things, and he showed me how. Until they caught up to us in Baker. They got Dad. Before I got them." "What do you mean, you GOT them?” asks Sam. “I killed a demon. In human form," says Dean. “You killed somebody?!" "No, I killed a DEMON, it only LOOKED human.” (Which could be a scary, visceral teaser, by the way.) Anyway, DEAN continues: “Listen to me, Sam... it was Dad's wish, his DYING WISH, that I find you, that I teach you the way he taught me.” At this point, Sam goes into placating, survival mode. “Okay. Sure. Just calm down." But Sam's terrified-of his own brother.

Meanwhile, as this conversation's going on, Dean isn't going to L.A. He takes a detour-- for all intents and purposes, kidnapping Sam. They pull into a small, faded, all-American town in Central California. It's 1950's American optimism gone to seed. Basically, they pull right into the pilot's SELF ENCLOSED B-STORY. Whatever it is, the story should be simple, giving us room to focus on the brothers. It should be based in Folklore. And it should be personal—the job their father never completed.

Now, here's an example of exactly the kind of story I'm talking about. The real life ghost story of the "Weeping Woman," a sobbing wraith in a bloody white nightgown. She murdered her children by the river side, as revenge against her unfaithful husband. And today, it's said she lures unfaithful men to the river and drowns them. And sure enough, several MEN in this town have turned up dead by the river's edge. Anyway, something like this. And Dean, despite his smart ass jokes and references to the movie Poltergeist, seems to be taking this SERIOUSLY.

But Sam doesn't believe a WORD of it. First moment he's alone, he calls his Aunt and Uncle. “I'm with Dean, I think he's sick.” They tell him—"cops in Baker found your Dad's body. And a truck driver's body, too. Dean's the suspect. You have to get away! Where are you?!” But before Sam can answer-he pivots, right into Dean. Who grabs the phone, SMASHING it, furious: “Dammit, Sam, I'm not insane," Dean says, “Caspar the unfriendly fucker is really out there!"

Then, as Dean delves deeper and deeper into the ghost story, dragging a reluctant Sam along with him... INEXPLICABLE SUPERNATURAL phenomenon begin to occur, which SERIOUSLY RATTLES Sam. We'll have several good, scary set pieces. And soon, Sam doesn't know WHAT to think. And in the B-STORY'S climax, he'll even save Dean at some crucial point. (Though we'll be careful to leave things open ended, with just the possibility of a logical explanation.)

Afterwards, a beat in which Dean, vulnerable, says to his brother-"I've been thinking. And you're going home, Sam. You're smart, and you've got everything going for you. I don't care what Dad said, I can't let you live like this... Still," says Dean, "it was nice having you around. When you're with somebody... you just don't feel as crazy as

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often." Sam's very conflicted, and he feels awful, but he can't just abandon his old life. So the brothers part ways. Sam hitchhikes up the road. Meanwhile, thanks to his Aunt and Uncle, the cops have been searching for Sam, and now they find him.

At the station, Sam tells the cops, Dean's in Colorado by now. But a patrol car has spotted Dean's parked Mustang at a nearby motel. The police grab SHOTGUNS, they're going to take Dean with force. And in the face of ONE PASSING COP, Sam sees-a glimpse. A shimmer. Something DEMONIC and INHUMAN flashes across the cop's face-and then it's gone, just as quick. Did Sam imagine it? Is he going insane, too? Or is Dean really in danger? Are dark, awful things really after him, like he said?

This is Sam's crossroads moment. And he makes a decision-he takes off. Steals a car. Beats the cops back to Dean. Warns him at the last minute. It's very TIGHT and very HECTIC, but Sam and Dean get away. Escaping by the skin of their teeth.

As we leave Sam... he doesn't know if he's losing his mind. He doesn't know if Dean's a hero or a homicidal schizophrenic. All he knows is-Dean's his brother, and he needs help. And for now, that's enough.

III. THE SERIES ITSELF

I think the overall GOAL here, is building an engine that gives us SELF ENCLOSED STORIES. I am gonna pitch some very simple mythology, but STAND ALONES are a format I really believe in, they're the shows I loved and grew up on. Like the best EARLY episodes of X-FILES.

So basically, our two heroes, avenging their parents' death, cruise the golden backroads of America-picture chrome diners and bucolic farms and dusty Route 66 towns. Places that are mythic and American, but also haunting, in a way. Places where horror can strike in broad daylight. Sam and Dean are kind of like classic gunslingers, or dragon slayers, finding-and KILLING—the monsters of American folklore.

So first question-how do they find the damn things? Dean tracks these creatures in a low-tech way. He scans obituaries for strange deaths. Dean also has a loose network of contacts - defrocked ministers and trailer park psychics, who impart information to our heroes whenever necessary.

Second question-how do they KILL the damn things? The answer—they have no fucking idea. They're outgunned and desperate and in completely over their heads. They don't have a WATCHER, like in BUFFY. They don't have an OBI WAN. They're on their own. Each week, they gotta figure out what the hell they're dealing with, and how the hell to kill it. And a lot of the time, they're wrong, and they have to improvise. Whether it's finding a ghost's remains - and burning them into dust; or loading a shotgun with silver buckshot, our guys will do whatever it takes to get the job done.

#2019-Feb #2019:February7 #*spn 1x01 #*SMT #Eric Kripke #Twitter #*scripts

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florafey · 4 years ago

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Malogranatum - 5

Falling Swift As Rain

Persephone gripped Nike’s hand tighter and tilted her head back to face the glittering sky, swaying gently to the music. She was not drunk but she was closest to it she had ever been. Nike, however, was certainly drunk after four hours of partying like it was her last night alive. Persephone had started to realize that all the deities partied like Nike- like they were running out of time. To her, it was a beautiful thing. Well, beautiful might not be an appropriate word, considering Dionysus had been serenading her and Nike for the past song or two as he stood on a statue base. Naked.

Persephone had been burning with embarrassment ever since Dio had started paying attention to her without his robes on but she couldn’t help admitting it was rather funny. And the attention wasn’t bad, she just wished Dio would put his clothes on. Nike was still laughing herself hoarse and beckoning Dio down, but Dio liked where he was.

“Apollo, please, go tell him to get down before he kills Honey with embarrassment.” Nike managed to pull herself together long enough to grab ahold of Apollo as he was passing them. The god’s hands were full of food and drink he was taking to Athena and Aphrodite. He smirked at the two goddesses.

“No can do, darlings. Get him down yourself.” He winked and disappeared. Persephone giggled and said, “Forget him, Nike. Where has Helios gone? I wanted to say hello.”

They had been at the party for close to four hours but Persephone still had not seen Helios. Nike had come once night had fallen to help Persephone sneak from her mother’s house and up to Zeus and Hera’s estate where the party was taking place, and Persephone was glad for her friend’s help. Between her racing heart and fear for waking her mother, Persephone probably would have been too nervous to actually sneak out if it weren’t for Nike’s cunning smile and soft steps showing her the way.

Persephone was thankful she had come. The pale blue silk dress she wore was wet and grass stained, much like her pink one after her first party on Olympus, but she couldn’t have cared less. The wine was delicious, the food sublime, and the company of her friends irreplaceable. The goddesses had squealed and raced to her when she entered with Nike. Kisses and hugs were exchanged, Apollo and Dionysus being rather overeager with their kisses until Nike smacked them on the heads and Persephone fell away blushing.

But for all the company she currently had, she still felt as though something was missing. Someone, more like. And he was. Persephone didn’t want to admit it because the night was everything she hadn’t dared to ask for, but she was slightly disappointed that Hades was not here. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t eventually come. Parties such as these often lasted days but Persephone did not have that kind of time.

A warm hand slid around her neck, draping across her shoulders. “Who is it you’re searching for, sugar?”

It was Hermes. He had been just as surprised as the rest of them to see Persephone in attendance, and he had laughed in pride when Persephone told him she had snuck out of her mother’s house.

“Nobody. I’m just looking. Have you seen Helios?” Her answers were too quick. Hermes raised a brow but didn’t press the question.

“He arrived about half an hour ago. The last I saw him, he was wrestling Ares. Poseidon was taking bets. Care to place?”

Persephone laughed. “No, I’ll settle for watching, thank you. Walk with me?”

The three of them set off, Nike swaying slightly with drink. Dionysus was still singing atop his perch but his voice wasn’t bad and Persephone blew him a kiss as she passed. Dio fanned himself and pretended to faint.

Helios and Ares were on a stretch of lawn by the pool. They were naked as well, but they had better reason to be than Dionysus. They were grappling with each other, muscles straining and sweat gleaming in the torchlight. Persephone’s eyes grew wide as she watched them. Nike had also gone still, eyes fixed on the gods. Hermes looked from the goddesses to the gods and back again.

“You’ve never looked at me like that,” he complained.

“You’ve never looked like that,” Nike nodded at Helios, who had just pinned Ares and was struggling to hold him down. Persephone hummed in agreement. Hermes scoffed and didn’t respond.

Poseidon indeed was taking bets as the match was occurring, calling out moves and who was currency favored. It resembled what Persephone had heard of an Olympic wrestling match, but both participants were more than a little tipsy and it was taking place in a yard. Women were also forbidden to watch Olympic games as all the men competed naked, but it was clear that the goddesses were the target audience for this particular match. They sat in groups and pairs around the makeshift ring, giggling and shouting encouragement. Persephone smiled, then gasped and began to cheer Helios on when Ares slipped out of his hold.

Hermes was still peeved at the attention they were paying to wrestling match so he left them to their devices and disappeared towards the pool. Nike tugged Persephone over to where Athena and Aphrodite were seated in the grass sharing a plate of food.

“What do you think of the entertainment, Persephone?” Athena winked. Persephone blushed furiously and stuck her tongue out at her friend.

The goddesses sat through the first match and then the second when Apollo stepped in and wanted a turn against Ares. After winning both fights in a row, Ares was bold enough to challenge Janus, and the two-faced god accepted. Helios had found the girls after pulling his clothes back on, and Ares and Janus’ fight was so violent that Athena spent half of it with her face pressed against Helios’ arm. Persephone cried out with Nike when Janus’ fist crashed into Ares’ mouth and blood went spraying across both gods.

“Are they insane?” Persephone whispered to Helios.

“A little,” was the reply. “They’ve never gotten along so I assume this fight was a long time coming. Just be glad it isn’t Nike and Nemesis in that ring.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Helios,” Nike chastised. “That whoring bitch couldn’t draw my blood if you offered her half of Zeus’ estate. In fact, I’d give you half of Zeus’ estate if you could get her legs closed long enough to stand her upright.”

“She’s standing right over there, my dear,” Helios nodded to a spot across the lawn. “It seems you owe someone else half of Zeus’ estate. Shame. There’s so much I could have done with the place, too.”

Nike’s platinum hair glittered as she turned to glare at Nemesis. The goddess of revenge was indeed standing across the lawn, her sleek black hair cut into a severe bob and dark lines of kohl winging out from the corners of her eyes in sharp points. Even at a distance Persephone could practically taste the tension in Nemesis’ eyes. Persephone’s gaze slid to see who Nemesis was conferring with and almost flinched when sparks flew down her spine. Hades’ arms were bare tonight much like the other gods, and Persephone ate up the sight of his swirling black tattoos curving over muscle. Nemesis was clearly appreciating the sight as well. She kept dragging her eyes over Hades and clearly expected him to take the hint but the god of the Underworld settled himself against a curved patio pillar and drank deeply from his wine. In his hair glittered a single silver ring holding back the longest parts in a neat clasp. His profile was backlit by the soft light of the lanterns and Persephone took in his features as though she was trying to memorize them. He was beautiful. Frightening, perhaps, but beautiful nonetheless. And how frightening could someone really be if they took time to name their hound?

From besides her, Nike whistled low. “Look at him,” she said appreciatively. “I wonder what brought brother eldest out tonight.” She was looking at Hades as well. Athena and Aphrodite twisted to see.

“Perhaps Nemesis did,” Aphrodite said. “Although I can’t imagine- oh, nevermind.”

Hades had just pushed off the pillar and strode away, leaving Nemesis in mid-sentence. Her jaw twisted in irritation but she made no move to go after him.

“Oh, Hades. Always the diplomat,” Athena sighed. “It’s a shame, really. I’ve had a few conversations with him and he’s really very kind.”

“Kind? Did I just hear you describe Hades as kind?” It was Hermes, back from wherever he had gone to sulk. Persephone scooted over so he could plop down in between her and Nike. “My dear Athena, the amount of times Hades has almost sicced his hound on me should be enough to tell you that kindness is not one of his virtues.”

“Were you in his domain?” Athena asked.

“Well, yes, but-”

“Were you pestering him?”

“Yes, but-

“Were you making demands to him on behalf of Zeus?”

Hermes was silent. Persephone laughed and had to duck Hermes’ swat in her direction.

“I’ve always found him to be one of the more sensible gods,” Helios added. “It gets exhausting watching them all run around desperately trying to right their wrongs and avoid the consequences of their own actions.”

“And Hades doesn’t?” Nike wanted to know.

“Hades doesn’t fuck other gods’ wives. That makes him more sensible than nearly everyone at this party.”

“Speaking of sensibility,” Hermes rose to his feet and plucked a grape out of Athena’s hand, “I must go speak to the god himself. Since dear Athena reminded me so kindly of my duties.”

“You cannot be serious,” Helios said. “Zeus does not have you working tonight. How can he? If it's business he wants to discuss with his brother, he can do it his damn self- he’s across the lawn from him.”

Nike whistled low. “Let me know when you decide to tell Zeus that. I want a front row seat to that shitshow.”

“As much as I appreciate the defense in my honor, dear Helios, I’m afraid I’m in no position to protest against my God King. So I shall embark on this odyssey of violence and treachery only to barely make it out alive thanks to the fact that a certain demon hound is absent.”

Hermes turned to leave. Aphrodite rolled her eyes and asked, “How much have you had to drink?”

“How much of what?” Was the answer. Aphrodite grimaced. “This isn’t going to go well.”

“What can Hermes possibly need with Hades right now?” Persephone asked as they watched Hermes pick his way across the grass.

“I can’t imagine. But then again, Zeus has his own ways of dealing with business. I feel bad for Hermes. I’m inclined to think he and Hades would otherwise get along if it weren’t for Zeus forcing him to deal with Hades on his behalf.”

“But I’ve seen Zeus and Hades speak before. Surely there can’t be that much bad blood?”

“Oh, I don’t believe it’s bad blood, per se. It’s more like,” Aphrodite paused and looked at Helios for help. Helios tilted his head, considering, and said, “It’s more like Zeus tries to treat Hades’ domain as his own, and Hades doesn’t allow him to. Zeus doesn’t do very well if he’s told he can’t do something, but there isn’t technically anything he can do to make his brother submit to his wishes.”

“I see,” Persephone said. “And...you know all this...how?”

Helios winked. “I’m the god of the sun, my dear girl. I ride a chariot across the sky every morning and night, and I see everything the sun sees.”

“Does the sun shine in the Underworld?” Nike asked.

Persephone caught herself before the answer slipped out, remembering just in time that she wasn’t supposed to know anything about the Underworld or its master.

“It does, faintly. There was a long time where I wasn’t allowed to bring the sun to the Underworld but quite a long while ago Hades had a change of heart. I suppose everyone needs her now and again. She is a wonderful companion.”

Persephone wondered at Helios’ words as the conversation drifted elsewhere. They tried to keep track of Hermes but the god was quickly swallowed up among other revelers and distractions. They also looked up after nearly half an hour to find that Hades was not standing where he had been the last time they saw him. With no way to find their friend or the subject of his foolish mission, they decided to wait a while longer before starting a search.

Another half hour drifted by before the food was gone. Aphrodite pouted to Helios that she was still hungry and became affronted when he suggested she get more herself. Persephone desired to stretch her legs and thus was more than happy to offer to fetch Aphrodite some food. A small rebellious piece of Persephone’s mind knew, however, that she was simply bored and wanted to risk running into some excitement.

As she wound her way closer to the palace doors, Persephone found that she was extremely comfortable in the presence of the other deities. If this had been her first night on Olympus, she wouldn’t have dared leave Athena or Aphrodite, and she certainly wouldn’t have been wandering off looking for Hades. But here she was.

She was only halfway to the palace when she spotted Hermes. He was indeed with Hades and, not at all to Persephone’s surprise, the conversation did not seem to be going well. Hades was frowning down at Hermes as he chattered away, gesturing with his hands about something clearly important. Hades appeared thoroughly unimpressed. Persephone watched as the god of the Underworld straddled the line between irritation and anger, and wondered if she had time to turn back and get Helios before things went truly south. But when Hades snapped something vicious at Hermes, his dark eyes flashing with violence, she decided there was no time.

She backtracked from her path towards the palace, edging closer to her friend and cursing him the entire way. Her heart pounded painfully against her ribcage; Hades looked so angry, was it wise to interrupt them? But Persephone did not feel good leaving Hermes on his own, despite how he got himself into the situation just fine, so she continued on and told her foolish heart to be still.

Her foolish heart was still fluttering when she approached the pair. Hades noticed her first over Hermes’ shoulder. His expression cleared ever so slightly but the anger didn’t fade, especially as Hermes said, “This isn’t coming from me, Hades, it’s coming from Zeus.”

Hades turned his attention back to the unfortunate Hermes and growled, “Then tell my brother to speak to me himself. I will not have his messenger scurrying back and forth between us like a frightened dog. If Zeus finds it beyond himself to look me in my eye, he must not need his business done.”

Persephone closed in on Hermes before he could reply, and she called out to him to prevent him from saying something foolish. He turned, his face lighting up when he saw her. He was still inebriated and it was clear Hades knew this as well.

“Persephone! What are you doing here?”

“Looking for you. What are you doing...here?” She tactfully smiled at Hades, whose eyes hadn’t left her form and was currently drinking deeply from his goblet of wine. “You said you would only be gone a moment.”

“I did?”

“Yes. An hour ago.” She gave him a meaningful look, hoping to convey to him how important it was for him to get out of range from Hades, without making it obvious to Hades what she was doing. She didn’t think she was succeeding.

“I’m finishing up some business with Hades, I’ll- have you met him? Let me introduce you!”

Before she could say anything, Hermes was giving Persephone’s hand to Hades and making formal introductions. Any sign of anger was now gone from Hades’ expression, much to Persephone’s relief. His hand was warm as his fingers closed over her own. He brought her hand up to brush his lips against her knuckles, bowing respectfully to her. Persephone could barely keep her balance as she dipped into a shallow curtsey. A flood of heat tingled down her limbs when she felt how soft Hades’ lips were against her hand. When he finally released her, the tips of her fingers were trembling and a visible blush had bloomed across her cheeks and nose.

“It’s an honor to meet you, my lord,” Persephone managed. “I apologize if my friend has been inconveniencing you.”

“Do not assume yourself deserving of my anger, my lady. It is not who I wish to strangle.”

Hermes choked on his wine behind Persephone. She barely hid her smile as she said, “I understand Hermes has worn out his welcome.”

“Only slightly.”

Hermes made a sound of protest. “Why do I feel like I’m being turned against? Persephone, you were supposed to swoop in and rescue me with your beautiful dress and shining hair, not blush at my foe.”

Persephone’s blush only worsened at Hermes’ drunk words, and she was even more appalled when Hades chuckled into his wine. She glared at her friend.

“I have half a mind to leave you here to get the beating you had coming to you.”

“I do have business to finish, thank you for reminding me. Hades-”

“No.” The irritation was back.

“You haven’t-”

“No.”

Hermes sighed and regarded Hades like he was a stubborn child refusing to eat dinner. But Hades was not a child, he was one of the oldest and most powerful gods alive, and he was currently looking back at Hermes like he wanted nothing more than to drown him in the nearby pool.

“This is a party, Hermes, surely anything you need to discuss can wait until later?”

“Listen to your pretty friend, Hermes. She has an endearing voice, does she not?”

Persephone needed to get away from Hades if she wanted to prevent swooning. She dared a glance over her shoulder at him and was met with his dark gaze.

“I’m trying to help,” she whispered to him.

“You’re doing marvelous. Carry on.”

Hermes leaned around Persephone and said, “Hades, if you’d only consider-”

Hades rolled his eyes, clearly ready for Hermes to be gone. “I’ll give you my consideration if you give me a single thing.”

“Which is?”

Hades held out his hand, palm up. Hermes looked at it for a while before glancing down at his own hand holding Persephone’s. Slowly, hesitantly, Hermes placed Persephone’s hand in Hades waiting palm. Hades took it and said, “I’ll consider. Next time I hear this discussion will be from my brother himself or no one at all. Is that understood?”

Hermes nodded. “Perfectly, my lord.” He turned his attention to Persephone and asked, “Will you be alright, my love?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not Zeus’ messenger.”

Hermes feigned injury at her words but winked at her before he turned and left the two alone. Persephone became suddenly very aware of her hand enclosed within Hades’. He dropped it, however, to pass his cup of wine into her hand. He deftly picked another goblet up off the tray of a passing nymph who smiled flirtatiously on her way past.

“I’m sorry about Hermes-”

“I told you not to apologize for him. He makes his own decisions.” The scolding was light and lacked edge. Persephone swirled her wine in an attempt to settle her nerves.

“That was a skillful rescue, I must compliment you,” Hades said. Persephone frowned lightly. “What do you mean?”

“You hadn’t been looking for him.”

“I...he...had been gone for too long and we knew he wished to discuss business with you and so I came looking.”

Hades smiled slowly, like a cat. “No,” he whispered. “You didn’t.”

Persephone felt trapped but she didn’t want to back down. “I beg you to explain yourself, my lord. I fear you have confused me.”

“You would have me believe you left your friends to seek out Hermes alone.”

“Yes. I found him with you, not to any surprise. He did tell us he needed to speak with you.”

“You were going into the palace, not to Hermes.”

Persephone fell silent. How..? He had been watching her. That was the only answer. He had seen her leave Athena and Aphrodite; it had been clear she wasn’t searching for Hermes because she hadn’t been.

She recovered the best she could, but there was very little to save. She fixed Hades with a gentle glare. “Are you accusing me of something, my lord?”

“Only being more interesting than I initially gave you credit for.” “What does that mean?”

“Must you have everything explained?”

“Must you insist on talking in ambiguous circles?”

“Only as much as you continue to look at me like that.”

“Like what?” Persephone breathed. The words were out of her mouth before she realized she had asked for an explanation yet again. But her heart was beating in her throat now, and she didn’t know how she had managed to remain upright thus far. She didn’t know where her boldness was coming from, how she was able to exchange banter with Hades and not stutter an apology for intruding upon his night, as her mother would have surely insisted she do if Demeter had been present.

Hades tilted his head down, a few precious inches closer to Persephone. His gaze was as smooth as silk, at least for the time being.

“Like you came here for something.”

Persephone’s instinct was to deny his statement, but she found herself guilty as charged. She had stood up with the intention of finding Hades, had she not? She had left her friends with the desire to run into trouble, had she not? But she couldn’t very well tell Hades that. And it seemed like he already knew, anyways. She twisted on the spot, not knowing how to respond appropriately. But Hades didn’t press her. He leaned away, taking with him the faint scent of cold air and night sky, and took a sip of his wine.

“I’m surprised to see you without dear Demeter.”

Persephone smiled wryly. “You aren’t the first to tell me that tonight.”

“May I ask?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Do I look like I can’t?”

Persephone’s smile widened with genuinity. “Can you ever answer a question?”

He graced her with a rare smile, the likes of which she had received once before, many nights ago as she teased him from a distance. “Yes, goddess, I can keep a secret.”

“She doesn’t know I’m here. I came by myself because I wanted to come and enjoy the party without her hovering over my shoulder. So here I am.”

Hades looked mildly impressed. “A novel feat, I’m sure.”

“Yes. It is. I’m not sure why it took me so long.”

“I can think of a few reasons.”

Persephone blinked in surprise. “You can?”

Hades looked at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Love is always binding, even if it's poisoned.”

Persephone was rendered speechless yet again. “Oh,” she whispered. “Yes, I...I suppose it is.”

After a stretch of pensive silence, Hades chuckled deeply. “How Demeter would rage if she found you here.”

It made Persephone smile a little. “Perhaps she would act rationally. I have been to Olymuos before, after all.”

“I meant here within an arm’s reach of me. But yes, perhaps.”

Persephone looked inquisitively up at the god of the Underworld and couldn’t help but ask, “Does my mother not like you?”

The question didn’t seem to offend. Hades’ mouth twitched at the corners, and that was response enough, but he said, “Demeter and I fail to see eye to eye on many things. She’s a headstrong goddess, for better or for worse.”

It was the politest way of insulting someone’s mother that Persephone had ever heard. She was becoming impressed by Hades’ inexhaustible couth. She took another sip of wine, savoring the warmth as it slipped down her throat. “For better or for worse.”

“May I ask?”

“I suppose you can, my lord.”

“Hades.”

Persephone paused. “I’m sorry?”

A smile. “My name, precious. I prefer people use it.”

Persephone had only just recovered from Hades’ taunts about her motivation in interrupting him and Hermes, and now between the pet name and the permission to use his name, Persephone was right back to square one. Pounding heart and sweaty palms.

“Right. As you wish, Hades. Ask away.”

“Do you enjoy living in the mortal realm?”

“Oh, yes, I do. It’s beautiful and my mother takes very good care of what’s in her control; the mortals love her.”

“It sounds innocent.”

Before she could think about what she was saying, Persephone said, “What do you know of innocence?”

She savored the brief look of surprise that crossed Hades’ face, but it was almost instantly chased away by amusement and the spark of an accepted challenge.

“Little indeed, flower. Tread softly over this ice.” His voice had changed. It was softer now, lined with something smooth that Persephone couldn’t quite place. But she was having trouble focusing much on anything except the god in front of her.

Persephone twirled innocently on the spot. “As you wish, my lord.”

His fingers were warm when they took ahold of her chin. He tilted her face up in a firm yet gentle grasp to make her look him in the eye.

“Try that again,” he said softly.

“Try what again?” She liked the way his hand fit around her jaw and didn’t want him to let go.

“Don’t play dumb, Persephone.”

It was the sound of her name that pushed her to compliance. Coming from him, it was the sweetest thing she had ever heard. She smiled shyly.

“As you wish, Hades.”

He had gotten what he wanted, but he was slow to let go of her. He tapped his thumb against her cheek before finally dropping his hand.

“Forgive my manners. I forgot to thank you for the daisy.”

It was surprising enough to startle a laugh out of Persephone. She was glad Cerberus had known to whom to go after her visit with him.

“You’re very welcome. Will you tell Cerberus hello for me?”

“I will. But you can always tell him yourself.”

Persephone laughed and felt the warmth of a blush spreading across her cheeks yet again. If she had known she was going to have this much enjoyment away from her mother, she would have dared to sneak away years ago.

#malgranatum #hades and persephone #Persephone #Hades #Greek Mythology #greek gods #greek goddesses

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cinderellainrubbershoes · 5 years ago

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Review: The Silence of the Girls Author: Pat Barker Genre: Fiction, revisionism, mythology Revisionist fiction or retellings still fill bookshelves to the brim these days—old fables pop up with shocking twists, we see fairytales shed their Disney-fied formula to give newer nods to their darker roots, and we even come to know stories of antiquity thrown in with “cyber” sensibilities. With the unremitting creativity of writers today, the possibilities are endless. Readers may clamor for something “original”, of course, but I find that there is charm in revisiting familiar narratives refashioned for the modern eyes.

Personally, I enjoy reading reimaginings of classic myths. I was rapt, for instance, while leafing through the story of the tragic Greek hero Achilles and his bosom companion Patroclus in Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles. I devoured Circe, a feminist take on a classic character from Homer’s The Odyssey by the same author, with equal fascination. There is also Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, spun from the decades-long wait of Penelope for her husband Odysseus from the Trojan War. None of these felt old to me. In fact, they gave substantial and refreshing heft to the original materials. Since then, I’ve been on the prowl for modern narrations of old legends.

That’s why when I heard about Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls—events of The Iliad, but told from the perspective of a significant female character—I just know I have to grab a copy.

The Silence of the Girls gives a #MeToo voice to the women of Homer’s epic poem, particularly to Briseis, who becomes the “war prize” of Achilles after the Greeks sacked their kingdom. Hark back to your high school required reading days and you may remember that in the story, as a prize of honour, Briseis is the linchpin of the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. The feud resulted to the former withdrawing from the battle against the Trojans, almost bringing defeat to their side. No more than a “status symbol,” Briseis is virtually voiceless there; we are deaf to what she feels, or what any woman in the story (who isn’t a goddess, for the immortals have a lot to say regardless of gender) has to convey other than grief and sorrow.

In this book, she introduces the readers to the margins of the largely masculine framework of the Homeric poem, swinging the spotlight from swift-footed, angry halfgods and bouts for glory to the harrowing truths that the war’s “collateral damages” must suffer. Barker’s pen made their lives palpable on the pages: we get to take a peek at the “rape camp,” we meet bed-slaves, former queens made to scrub dirt, young girls who get their throats slit to appease the dead or some wrathful deity, mothers who’ve helplessly watched their husbands and children get butchered. There’s blood and spit and sweat and tears, and not just in the battlefield. Barker truly doesn’t pull any punches here.

But true to its title, Briseis’ thoughts remain either in her head only, with the readers as the only witness, or with their small circle of bed-girls. “Silence becomes a woman,” a character reminds her of an adage twinned with their fates for all their lives. The book, in effect, becomes a psychological journey of individuals “muted” by their male-dominated society. “They were men, and free,” Briseis says. “I was a woman, and a slave. And that’s a chasm no amount of sentimental chit-chat about shared imprisonment should be allowed to obscure.”

Surprisingly, the novel is not told from Briseis’ perspective alone. We get brief chapters of Achilles’ thoughts, too, starting in the second volume. The first shift of voices was jarring, and my initial thought is that this defeats the very purpose of the book, which is to give a platform to her experiences. But I think this change is understandable and necessary, as Briseis is absent at the turning point of The Iliad that made Achilles go back to war again: the death of Patroclus, Achilles’ beloved friend. The inserts also provide a helpful crutch to the portrayal of these men, where we see them get fleshed out past the observing eyes of the sidelined victims—they are characters, too, after all, and not just one-dimensional, violent caricatures. Scenes in the battlefield are a welcome change as well. Barker’s descriptive writing is magic, and the readers get treated with vivid images such as this:

“On the battlefield, the Greeks fighting to save Patroclus’s corpse recognize the cry and run towards it. What do they see? A tall man standing on a parapet with the golden light of early evening catching his hair? No, of course they don’t. They see the goddess Athena wrap her glittering aegis round [Achilles’s] shoulders: they see flames thirty feet high springing from the top of his head. What the Trojans saw isn’t recorded. The defeated go down in history and disappear, and their stories die with them.”

While most of the iconic scenes are recreated well (Achilles’ howling grief as he receives news of Patroclus’ demise at the hands of Hector, his berserker’s wrath while dragging Hector’s dead body around the gates of Troy, Priam’s visit to Achilles to retrieve his son’s dishonored corpse), I wished that Barker zeroed in more on the lives of the women at the camp. While reading the book, the Bechdel Test came to mind—will this even pass it? The lives of these girls maybe forever entwined with men, but they have their pasts to speak of, to make them rounder as characters. When Nestor tells Briseis to forget her past, I was hoping for a silent revolt. “Forget,” Briseis thinks of the order. “So there was my duty laid out in front of me, as simple and clear as a bowl of water: remember.” The rebellion seemed to have petered out early.

The writing style would have been impeccable if it weren’t for the anachronisms strewn across the whole thing, modern phrases that stick out. I’ve heard that Barker said this is deliberate on her part to emphasize the tale’s timelessness, but some of them just don’t fit, like pieces squeezed into the wrong puzzle. Still, for the most part, the narrative is a magnificent treat.

Unflinchingly honest, The Silence of the Girls is a significant work of fiction that would be best read right after The Iliad itself.

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hope-erinn · 5 years ago

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Gaming Communities: Social Gaming and Live Streaming

Week 10

Gaming has always been a part of my life, I wouldn’t consider myself a gamer by any means, but playing video games has been an interest of mine since my first Nintendo Gameboy in the noughties. This early indoctrination means that gaming has become a “familiar and resonant experience for me” (Taylor, 2018 p.2). Though recently the effect that video games has had on popular culture is more overt and noticeable than ever, with games like Pokémon Go and animal crossing, dominating the gaming sphere and social media culture, bringing a new “cultural legitimacy to the gaming industry” (Keogh 2016).

Image Source - https://gph.is/g/4L52KkR

The earliest incarnation of commercial video gaming emerged in 1967, called the “Brown Box” created by Ralph Baer, which allowed two users to control cubes, which chased each other across the screen; at this early stage, there was already a multiplayer aspect to gaming,. Fast forward to today in 2020, we see and massive variety of video gaming options, and a complex and establishing gaming culture, which is intertwined with popular culture, including live streaming to the masses though platforms such as twitch.

Demographics has always been a very important aspect to gaming, with your average gamer being envisioned as young, male and white. This perpetuated idea of white gamers is a direct result of the origins of gaming. Gaming consoles and gaming was limited to those who has the access and means, usually directly associated with economic and financial status, thus more often than not limited to the upper class; those who at the time were consequentially white. Though nowadays, the gaming community is diverse and complex, being inclusive to a variety of people from different religious backgrounds, races, genders, sexual orientations, also accessible to those who have a disability.

However, with all good, there too is the bad, the negative and problematic side of gaming. Whilst inclusion and accessibility has improved massively over time, there are still very present and raw issues associated with representation within games.

Image Source - https://tenor.com/view/harry-potter-what-matters-the-part-we-choose-to-act-on-thats-who-we-really-are-gif-15432950

The gaming industry is very often “criticised for being misogynistic”, despite a large amount of the gaming community being made up of women (Sainsbury 2013). A high percentage of video gamers are women, with 40% of regular players being women, and yet women are often seeing the same repetitive and tired gendered tropes and archetypes, some of my favourites being, “the damsel in distress, the scantily clad adventurer, and the disempowered sex worker” (Hamilton 2019). Many of these same demeaning and repeated tropes are also a reality for people of colour as well, with much of black representation being either gang related or associated with villainy; these tropes are offensive and have detrimental effects on those who see themselves represented in distasteful ways.

Image Source - http://www.feedzig.com/top-seven-controversial-shows-mtv/

Another aspect of women’s portrayal in games, is they are more often than not “targets of violence, or victims” (Hamilton 2019). This glorification of grotesques violence against women, is problematic and quite frankly disgusting; a popular example of this is Grand Theft Auto, where you gain achievements and are rewarded for violently killing sex workers on the street.

I am not saying that violence doesn’t have its time of day in games, however the way in which it is portrayed is essential. For example, my favourite game at the moment, Assassins Creed Odyssey, of course has violence involved, being an assassin and all, however the violence isn’t gendered, obscenely gratuitous, or personal. In fact, Assassins Creed Odyssey includes an amazing platform that is inclusive, where you can play as a woman, man, and make decisions exactly the way you wish, you can even decide your sexual orientation. Though some claim this ‘inclusive revisionism’ to be false and forced, though I disagree. I believe that despite a lack of exact historical accuracy, the game is progressive and is a positive force, in a very male centric gaming industry.

Image Source - https://gph.is/2nANGsj

Another aspect of female representation is the unfair and unrealistic representation of the female body, where game developers “use provocative female characterisation to sell their games” (GameDesigning 2020). This is exampled by the evolution of Lara Croft’s character design over the years, coming far from your stereotypical portrayal of a barely dressed adventurer. The latest 3 part series of Tomb Raider games have revolutionised Lara Crofts portrayal, now we see a accurate female body, who actually looks like she could survive a trip to a jungle; This is also supported by Alicia Vikander’s portrayal in the latest movie, a portrayal which saw much negative attention her lack of curves, but instead tone and actual muscle (which lets be real, is what an actual female adventurer would look like). This hate that was received is just one example, of the ‘male gaze’ being shattered, instead men had to see what a real women looks like; such a refreshing portrayal to see on screen.

Image Source - https://gph.is/2eXQglp

I got a little carried away there, because the gaming community and industry is just an amazing reflection of society and todays culture. The gaming community is diverse and colourful, and I can’t wait to see more progress and development in terms of representation in the near future.

References

Chikhani, R 2015, ‘The History of Gaming: An Evolving Community’, techcrunch, 1 Novemebr, viewed 23 May, <https://techcrunch.com/2015/10/31/the-history-of-gaming-an-evolving-community/>

Game Designing, 2020, ‘How Gaming Culture Has Envolved’, GameDesigning, 5 April, viewed 23 May, <https://www.gamedesigning.org/gaming/culture/>

Hamilton, J 2019, ‘Female Representation in Video Games: How are we doing?’, gamasutra, 24 July, viewed 23 May, <https://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JoriHamilton/20190724/347246/Female_Representation_in_Video_Games_How_Are_We_Doing.php>

Keogh, B 2016, ‘You can’t ignore the cultural power of video games any longer’, ABC News, 6 April, viewed 23 May, <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-06/keogh-why-you-should-care-about-video-games/7303744>

Sainsbury, M 2013, ‘GTA V is realised, gets (rightfully) cristused for being misogynistic: fools throw tantrum’, DigitallyDownloaded, 17 September, viewed 23May, <http://www.digitallydownloaded.net/2013/09/gta-v-is-released-gets-rightfully.html>

Taylor, TL 2018, ‘Broadcasting ourselves’, Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming, Princeton University Press, pp.1-23

Wunsch, S 2018, ‘How Lara Croft has evolved over the years’, dw, 15 March, viewed 23 May, <https://www.dw.com/en/how-lara-croft-has-evolved-over-the-years/a-42976395>

#mda20009 #Swinburne Univeristy of Technology #lara croft #assasins creed #video games #female representation

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intransigent-boy · 5 years ago

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My Top Ten Films of The Decade.

10. Her

Okay, so whether you like it or not, this movie is about the present. This movie tells a very powerful story with an embarrasingly personal narrative. You feel sorry for the main character, it makes you so uncomfortable. And the reason is, because we are all in some sense are like this guy, Theodore. We have better relationships online, and with our advices, than with real people. It’s a really bizarre conception, but we should face it, and ask ourselves: Where is the limit? The script is just brilliant, but also has very controversial scenes. Joaquin Phoenix is simply the perfect choice for a lonely man, like Theodore. Melancholy everywhere, and great visuals. Arcade Fire made the music for this, and it was pure melancholy. Very interesting film.

9. The Place Beyond The Pines

Derek Cianfrance is an exceptional director. He can wonderfully create an atmosphere with great lighting techiques, unique musics, and of course with talented actors. This movie has a linear, but quite unusual story-structure. The main theme haunts you after you watched this. Legacy!

8. Nightcrawler

Louis Bloom is something of a loner who is unemployed and ekes out a living stealing and then reselling copper wire, fencing and most anything else he can get his hands on. When late one night he comes across an accident being filmed by independent news photographer Joe Loder, he thinks he may have found something he would be good at. He acquires an inexpensive video camera and a police scanner and is soon spending his nights racing to accidents, robberies and fire scenes. He develops a working relationship with Nina Romina, news director for a local LA TV station. As the quality of his video footage improves so does his remuneration and he hires Rick, young and unemployed, to work with him. The more successful he becomes however, the more apparent it becomes that Louis will do anything - anything - to get visuals from crime scenes. The conception is just brilliant, and screams to your face, what kind of society are we living in. I think Psychopathy is going to be one of the biggest issue in our generation asides with mental illneses. And this movie reflects perfectly. You understand the character, which is geniusly performed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

7. Inside Llewyn Davis

The Coen brothers' exquisitely sad and funny new comedy is set in a world of music that somehow combines childlike innocence with an aged and exhausted acceptance of the world. It is a beguilingly studied period piece from America's early-60s Greenwich Village folk scene. Every frame looks like a classic album cover, or at the very least a great inner gatefold – these are screen images that look as if they should have lyrics and sleeve notes superimposed. This film was notably passed over for Oscar nominations. Perhaps there's something in its unfashionable melancholy that didn't hook the attention of Academy award voters. But it is as pungent and powerfully distinctive as a cup of hot black coffee. This movie is about sacrificing everything for your art, directionlessness (is there such a word?) , and finding the right path. Existential theme, with surpisingly good acting from Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver, and Justin Timberlake. This is an Odyssey-story from the 1960′s America. What more you could ask for?

6. Dunkirk

Reinventing a genre is quite exceptional. And Nolan did it. The best war movies of the last 20 years, including Saving Private Ryan and Hacksaw Ridge, have also placed viewers in the centre of battle. Nolan has not reinvented that immersive approach, but he comes close to perfecting it. The story structure is-again- brilliant. There’s no main character in the movie-just like in a war-but only scared people. They want to go home. But they can’t. We’re with them with their struggle, and fears. We’re in the air, land, or water, it’s just a haunting terror. And the soundtrack from Hans Zimmer is really remarkable. You hear it, and you recognize the movie. That’s what I call a score. Reflects perfectly, and holds the attention throughout the whole movie.

5. Hell or High Water

Another genre-twister masterpiece. This Neo-Western is just pure art. Hell or High Water is a film about a criminal who commits the ultimate offence of putting his gorgeous and much nicer brother in a ski mask for several minutes of this film. Okay actually it’s about a career criminal brother and his he-wasn’t-but-he-is-now criminal brother who team up to commit a series of small-scale bank robberies across Texas, with the aim, finally – after several generations – of lifting the family out of seemingly inescapable grinding poverty. The part of Texas they live in is dying on its feet so career criminal is pretty much the only career left open that doesn’t involve serving in a diner or herding the few remaining cattle. It would’ve been easy for Hell or High Water to to turn out a cliche-ridden double bromance as there are quite a few movie tropes in this love story / revenge thriller, so it’s a tribute to director David Mackenzie that it’s actually a very touching, at times funny, at times quite brutal story. With a bit of grudge-bearing thrown in at the end to stop it being too redemptive. Memorable scenes, great acting, and a deromanticized western-feeling. After this film, you want to live in Texas, where everything’s slower, but sometimes you can chase criminals. It’s nice, isn’t it?

4. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Martin McDonagh’s fiercely written, stabbingly pleasurable tragicomedy stars a magnificent Frances McDormand; watching it is like having your funny bone struck repeatedly, expertly and very much too hard by a karate super-black-belt capable of bringing a rhino to its knees with a single punch behind the ear. He’s a scriptwriter genius, it was shocking, how perfectly the dialouges and the actions were constructed. It is a film about vengeance, violence and the acceptance of death, combining subtlety and unsubtlety, and moreover wrongfooting you as to what and whom it is centrally about. The drama happens in a town with an insidiously pessimistic name – Ebbing, Missouri, a remote and fictional community in the southern United States, where the joy of life does seem to be receding. There is a recurrent keynote of elegiac sadness established by the Irish ballad The Last Rose of Summer and Townes Van Zandt’s country hit Buckskin Stallion Blues, a musical combination which bridges the Ireland which McDonagh has written about before and the America he conjures up here, an America which has something of the Coen Brothers. The resemblance is not simply down to McDormand, though she does give her best performance since her starring role as the pregnant Minnesota police chief in the Coens’ Fargo in 1996. It was brutal, controversial, and violent.

3. Midnight in Paris

The definitive poem in English on the subject of cultural nostalgia may be a short verse by Robert Browning called “Memorabilia.” The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present, and then it evaporates with the cold touch of reality. The good old days are so alluring because we were not around, however much we wish we were. “Midnight in Paris,” Woody Allen’s charming film, imagines what would happen if that wish came true. It is marvelously romantic, even though — or precisely because — it acknowledges the disappointment that shadows every genuine expression of romanticism. The film has the inspired silliness of some of Mr. Allen’s classic comic sketches (most obviously, “A Twenties Memory,” in which the narrator’s nose is repeatedly broken by Ernest Hemingway), spiked with the rueful fatalism that has characterized so much of his later work. Nothing here is exactly new, but why would you expect otherwise in a film so pointedly suspicious of novelty? Very little is stale, either, and Mr. Allen has gracefully evaded the trap built by his grouchy admirers and unkind critics — I’m not alone in fitting both descriptions — who complain when he repeats himself and also when he experiments. Not for the first time, but for the first time in a while, he has found a credible blend of whimsy and wisdom.

2. Beautiful Boy

This supersensitive and tasteful movie is all but insufferable, suppressing a sob at the tragedy of drug addiction afflicting someone so young and “beautiful”. It is based on what is effectively a matching set of memoirs: Beautiful Boy, by author and journalist David Sheff, his harrowing account of trying to help his son Nic battle crystal meth addiction, and Tweak – by Nic Sheff himself, about these same experiences, the author now, thankfully, eight years clean. Steve Carell does an honest, well-meaning job in the role of David and the egregiously beautiful Timothée Chalamet is earnest in the part of Nic, David’s son from his first marriage. This is like a modern-day Basketball Diaries. Honest, and Raw. Most underrated movie of the 2010′s, with an unquestionably important topic.

1. The Social Network

Before Sorkin wrote the screenplay, Ben Mezrich wrote the book based on Mark Zuckerberg and the founding of Facebook titled: The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook, A Tale of Sex, Money, Genius, and Betrayal. It was published in July 2009, and most of the information came from Facebook “co-founder” Eduardo Saverin, who in the film is played by Andrew Garfield. The screenplay that Sorkin wrote was blazing, he wrote the characters like they were in a William Shakespeare play, with a story full of lies, jealousy, and betrayal. I especially love how Sorkin balanced the story between 2003, 2004, and then 2010. It goes back and forth between the past when Facebook was just an idea for Mark, and in the current day when he is being sued by Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss for, in their minds, having stolen their original idea, and by his former best friend Eduardo for having him pushed out of the company. In fact, some of the very best dialogue (and the film is full of great quotes) happens during the deposition scenes. Well-recognizable, rapid-fire dialouges, wonderful directing, with Trent Reznor’s greatest soundtrack. The movie’s probably going to outlive the Facebook itself, and that’s just great.

#oscars #films #academyawards #2010s #best #movies #cinema #art #top ten #movies of the decade #soundtrack #cinematography

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yourenchantingcollectionwitch · 6 years ago

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The myths defined which god or goddess to turn to in times of need. For example, for a safe sea voyage, they would pray to the god Poseidon or the Roman God Neptune.

POSEIDON

Poseidon (Neptune) was known to be the god of the Thalasses (=seas), Seismoi (= Earthquakes), Kataigides (=Storms), and Hippous (=Horses/Equines). He was considered to be one of the most bad-tempered, moody, and greedy Olympian Gods. He was known to be vengeful when he would be insulted.

He was the son of the Titan Kronos and the Titaness Rhea and was swallowed by his father along with Hades, Demeter, Hestia, and Hera. However, in some of the myths, it is believed the Poseidon, like Zeus was not swallowed by Kronos. It was believed that his mother Rhea concealed him among a flock of lambs, and pretended to have given birth to a colt, which would end up being devoured by Kronos instead.

After the gods were defeated by the Titans, the world would be divided into three. The three brothers (Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon) drew straws in order to decide which they would rule. Zeus drew the skies, Hades the Underworld, and Poseidon the Seas.

– Poseidon was not only notably the God of the Sea, but he was also the protector of all waters, sailors relied upon him for safe passage.

– It stands to reason as well, that due to his influence of the waters, he would be worshipped in connection with navigation.

– Poseidon was also worshipped as a fertility god.

�� His name means that he is also the “Husband”.

– He wielder the Triaina (= Trident or three-pronged spear, and this image of him is reflected in art.)

– Poseidon could strike the ground with his trident to produce an earthquake. This earned him the nickname “Earth-shaker”.

– Poseidon was known to possess a palace that was made of gems and corals that was located on the ocean floor. He was at Mount Olympus though more often than his palace.

– Poseidon was also moody by nature: his temperament was unstable at best, and his emotional fluctuations often resulted in violence.

– In terms of his womanizing, he was similar to his brother Zeus, in that he liked to exert power over women, and flaunt his rugged masculinity. At times, however, his efforts were appreciated. Poseidon saved Amymone from a satyr.

– His primary means of transportation was a chariot that was pulled by horses.

– According to Homer’s Iliad, Poseidon assisted the Greeks in the Troikos Polemos (=Trojan War). However, Zeus commanded him to withdraw from the battlefield, and he reluctantly obeyed.

– His grudge against Odysseus is the main theme in Homer’s Odyssey.

– Poseidon was the husband of Amphitrite, who was a Nereid (= a nymph from the water). Their union produced Triton, who was half-human, half-fish. One of the original mermans.

– Poseidon also had a union with Medusa where he conceived the flying horse, Pegasus, one of the many known mythological creatures.

– He was also the biological father of Orion, Polyphemus, Pelias, and many other.

– One of his most notable dalliances involved his sister Demeter. She refused his advances by turning herself into a mare. He then transformed into a stallion and pursued her. Their relations would produce a horse, Arion.

– He and Athena also competed for the possession of the majestic city of Athens. To sway the people in his favor. Poseidon made it spring at the Acropolis. Athena, on the other hand, gave them the Elaiodentro (Olive Tree). With it, she won the contest.

In order for the Greeks to have a successful hunt, they would pray to the goddess Artemis, also worshipped as the Roman Goddess Diana.

ARTEMIS : GODDESS OF THE HUNT, FORESTS AND HILLS, THE MOON, ARCHERY

Artemis is known as the goddess of the hunt, and is one of the most respected of all the ancient Greek deities. It is thought that her name, and even the goddess herself, may even be pre-Greek. She originated from Zeus, king of the Gods, and the Titaness Leto and she has a twin brother, known as the god Apollo.

Not only was she the goddess of the hunt. She was also known to be the goddess of wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, and virginity. She was the protector of young children and was known to bring and relieve disease in women.

In popular culture and art, she is depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrow.

Artemis was a Parthena (= Virgin). She drew the attention and interest of many gods and men. However, it was only her hunting companion, Orion, who won her heart. It is believed that he was accidentally killed by either Artemis herself or Gaia, the primordial goddess of the Earth.

In one version of the stories about Adonis, who was a late addition to Greek mythology during the Hellenistic period, Artemis send a wild boar to kill Adonis after he continued to boast that he was a far greater hunter than her.

– It is believed that Artemis was born a day prior to Apollo. She was then served as a guardian to him, which provided a context for her desire to protect and nurture.

– The Arktos (= bear) was sacred to her.

– She guarded her virginity carefully. Actaeon and Orion tried to dishonor or rape her, but anyone who threatened her purity would meet a violent end.

– When Callisto was seduced by Zeus, Artemis transformed her into a bear, and created the constellation in honor of her name.

– She was sometimes associated with the goddess of the Selene (=Moon).

– Artemis acted out in anger whenever her wishes were disobeyed, especially if anyone transgressed against the animals that were sacred to her.

– She punished Agamemnon, when he killed a stag in her sacred grove.

– Apollo and Artemis teamed up to kill the children of Niobe. Niobe bragged that she had birthed more children than Leto, who was the mother of Apollo and Artemis. The twins then hunter her children and killed them with their bows and arrows.

– The temple of Artemis in Hallicarnassus was built in her honor, and became one of the “Seven Wonders of the Ancient World”.

– At least two festivals were celebrated in her honor of Artemis: Brauronia and the festival of Artemis Orthia.

Soldiers who warned victory in battle would pray to the Greek god Ares or the Roman god Mars.

ARES

The god of War. He is one of the Twelve Olympian Gods and the son of Zeus and Hera.

In literature, he represents the violent and physical untamed aspect of war, which in contrast to Athena, who represents military strategy and generalship as the goddess of intelligence.

Although Ares embodied the physical aggression necessary for success in war, the Greeks were ambivalent toward him because he was a dangerous, overwhelming force that was insatiable in battle.

According to legend, he is known to be the lover of Aphrodite, who was married to Hephaestus. Ares did play a limited role in literature, when he does appear in myths, he is typically facing humiliation.

In one famous story, they are exposed to be ridiculed by the gods when her husband Hephaestus traps them both naked in a bed by using a clever device he makes.

The Roman counterpart to Ares is Mars, who is known to be the Father to the Roman people. Because of this, he was a less aggressive and physical form, revealing a more calm and understanding demeanour.

Ares was also often characterized as a coward in spite of his connection to war. He responded to even the slightest injury with outrage.

Ares was never very popular – either with men or the other immortals. As a result, his worship in Greece was not substantial or widespread.

Ares originated from Thrace, home of a fierce people in the northeast of Greece. (NOTE: In later culture, Xena of Amphipolis, who was the warrior Princess originated from the same areas.)

His bird was the Gypas (= Vulture.)

The Amazons, who were a tribe of warrior women, were his daughters. Their mother was a peace-loving nymph named Harmony.

Otus and Ephialtes, who were twin giants, imprisoned Ares for a lunar year by binding him with chains of brass; he was eventually rescued by Hermes.

In Homer’s Iliad, Ares always took the side of Aphrodite in the Trojan War. He fought for Hector (a Trojan) until Achilles pierced him with a spear that was guided by Athena. He then departed the battlefield in order to complain about Athena’s violence.

Eros (Cupid) was the offspring of Ares and Aphrodite.

Tereus, was another offspring of Ares, known to have inherited his father’s abhorrent qualities.

Ares was also the biological father of at least three of Hercules’ enemies during his labors: Cycnus, Lycaon and Diomedes.

He also had a sister named Eris, who was the goddess of Discord. She was most famous for setting the Apple of Discord, during the Trojan War.

Hebe, was another sister of Areas, who was the Goddess of Neotita (= Youth).

He was also often associated with two other war deities known as Enyalius and Enyo.

In popular literature and art, he is generally depicted wearing a spear and a helmet.

THE SACRED MYTH PART 2: 3 OLYMPIANS – POSEIDON, ARTEMIS, ARES The myths defined which god or goddess to turn to in times of need. For example, for a safe sea voyage, they would pray to the god Poseidon or the Roman God Neptune.

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tilbageidanmark · 4 years ago

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Movies I watched this week - 18

Room 237 - Nine obsessive theorists speculate about the hidden messages of Kubrick’s The Shining. According to one, the subtext is the genocide of the American Indians. According to another, it’s about the holocaust, etc. Interesting interpretations of all the smallest trivia and inter-connections from the original.

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I wish I could relive the night 50 years ago at the auditorium of Jerusalem University when I saw Kubrick’s 2001: Space Odyssey for the first time. It was magnificent, and still is.

Dave Bowman on his death bed represented all of us very much like Neil Armstrong did around the same time.

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“Forget about morality”

In the Israeli documentary The Gatekeepers ( שומרי הסף ) six former directors of the secret service Shin-Bet describe their work in controlling the Palestinian people since 1967. Sinister banality, and for me, an extremely difficult watch.

At the end, and only after they retired, they acknowledged, on camera, that Israel has become “a brutal occupation force, similar to the Germans in World War II” .

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The law in these parts ( שלטון החוק ) is another documentary which reviews the legal history of Israel's inhuman occupation of Arab territories, as seen by nine judges and military prosecutes who wrote and implemented these undemocratic and immoral laws.

What would Hannah Arendt have made of these two films? She would probably refuse to believe that this mechanism started 6 short years after and in exactly the same location as the Eichmann’s trial.

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Ali: Fear Eats The Saul - A sad and lonely 60 year old German cleaning lady falls in love and marries a muscular Moroccan Gastarbeiter (immigrant worker) half her age.

As I’m thinking about this film-reviewing project here on the blog, I realize that a sizable portion of it is revisiting films that I saw and loved, mostly 40 years ago, when I studied cinema under Peter Schepelern.

For the last 5 months, I've been watching circa 20 films per week, and 25-33 % of them are “re-watches”: Some are my perennials to which I return again and again, but many others I have not seen since experiencing them for the first time at the old Cinemateket in Christianshavn. It’s like closing a circle.

Fassbinder belongs to the second category: He was such an overpowering, prolific force in the 70′s and 80′s, but after his death as if he disappeared without a trace.

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All that heaven allows, Douglas Sirk’s soapy melodrama that was the inspiration to Fassbinder’s homage: Fassbinder turned the love story between an older woman and younger man into a bitter racial and class exposure. But Sirk’s critique of the 1950′s conformist mores was milder and subtler. Of course he worked within MGM Studio system, while Fassbinder was an outsider rebel at the outskirts of society.

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Ozo’s Tokyo Story, considered by many to be the “greatest” film of all time:

A simple story of old parents who visit their grown up children that have no time to host them, told in a slow and minimalist style.

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Mark Ruffalo in Dark Waters. I love these kind of legal thrillers, where a determined individual goes against a powerful, corrupt corporation that polluted the water knowingly, poisoned the earth and covered it up, or mass-raped thousands of children (Like Michael Clayton, Erin Brokovitch, Spotlight, The Pelican Brief, Runaway Jury, The Informant, A civil action, many others). But the truth is that it had been done many times before, and this new version does not add anything new to the story (except the realization that American capitalism is evil to the core).

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"I am standing outside Shea Stadium, named after the Cuban revolutionary leader, Shea Stadium"

All you need is cash, Eric idle’s Beatlemania mockumentary with lots of cameos. Based on the Rutland Weekend Television show.

Chastity, the Nazi wolf vixen as Yoko Ono, was a bit too cruel.

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Welcome to the Book Guardian’s World:

A 20 minute documentary about the Reykjavík downtown library by Jiaqian Chen, who interviews staff and patrons, including a child, a musician, and a homeless person, and films various activities taking place on the first day the library opened after the latest Covid lockdown in Iceland. The interviews are in English, the narration is in Chinese, and everything is subtitled in English and Chinese. 7/10!

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Straw Dogs, Peckinpah’s regressive and misogynist home-invasion horror show. Ultra violent and unsettling story of a timid math teacher who move into a backward British village with his flirtatious wife. Released in 1971, the “Violence in cinema” year, together with A Clockwork Orange, The French Connection, and Dirty Harry.

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“Randolph Scott!”

Blazing Saddles, co-written by Richard Pryor. (Photo above)

Why didn’t Cleavon Little have a film career after that?

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Amazon Women on the Moon, a mediocre John Landis Si-fi spoof sketch comedy, in the same vain as his previous Kentucky Fried Movie. With Doctor Abe Saperstein as a pharmacist, and “lots of other actors”, as per the credits.

The “Every Van Gogh must go!” Art Sale, was the best of the lot. The rest was just not funny any more.

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““A moth goes into a podiatrist office...”

Norm McDonald’s stand-up Hitler’s dog - dry, deadpan, rambling, unpredictable - and sometimes funny.

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Because of this new, first ever interview that John Swartzwelder gave to the New Yorker, I went ahead and watched Homer’s Enemy, the mentioned “darkest Simpson episode ever”. Still, not for me.

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I also have to stop wasting my time with “comedies” like The Good Guys, which I knew before hand was going to be stupid and un-funny, and it was.

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Throw-back to the art project:

Blazing Saddles Adora.

The Simpsons Adora.

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(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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rachelkulagodfrey-blog · 5 years ago

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A [MUSIC] Review: My 10+1 Favorite Live Acts From the Last Six Months

Originally posted on January 17, 2019.

Some people procrastinate by online shopping, cleaning, or watching the first season of a Netflix show that truly isn’t worth it (Judd Apatow’s Love stole my time and I want it back).

Others make an Instagram post about how they “just can’t focus :/”, masturbate to a point where it’s almost violent, or complete every single task except for the most pressing one at hand.

I am all of these people. Baked to perfection.

As appealing as all of these options are, my favorite way to procrastinate is watching live musical performances. If I said this was my number one choice because I really love to see what each and every artist can do on their feet, I would be LYING; it’s because I’m broke. Imagining I’m in the actual audience sounds like a cute and affordable outing to me.

I was originally going to write a late post about my ten favorite live musical acts of 2018, but then The Holy Trinity™ a.k.a The Goat Trio (Noname, Smino, and Saba) decided to perform on The Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon and fuck up my whole plan.

Fucked up my whole plan, but made my whole life.

Here are the 10+1 live acts that have rustled my big and bright feathers in the last 184 days, ordered by upload date:

1. Mac Miller: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

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August 6, 2018

I was tabling at my school’s Student Activities Fair when one of my best friends approached me looking like tears were seconds from falling down her cheeks and flooding the fucking campus. Her “I have to tell you something” was followed by what most onlookers would probably describe as an unnecessarily loud processing of the Five Ws and One H of Malcolm McCormick’s death. It probably looked overdramatic, but it honestly didn’t feel that way.

Mac’s placement in my mind shifted in tandem with his style. In his “Knock, Knock” days, he was the weird white kid who Wiz Khalifa seemed to have taken under his wing. I started high school a week or two before “Smile Back” was released. And I was in attack mode after a girl had used up MY oxygen to talk about me not being a “real” Black girl. While 14-year-old-me did put a hex on her soon after, Mac’s anthem of the opposition not being worth my stress set my mind right. Did not reverse the hex, though. Sorry, sis.

His eventual Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, and Anderson .Paak collaborations reframed the way I thought of him as a creative. I realized how open he was, and how honored he was to share space and thought with a wide range of musical talents. You can hear it in the production of the songs. His NPR Tiny Desk was an elevation of this. His energy was right. Thundercat on bass was right. Watching this performance made me want to bop the shit out of my head but also call all my old niggas and let them know I was suing them for stealing energy I could have put toward studying a cool cat’s artistry. So much love to Mr. Malcolm.

Favorite Moment(s): When Mac laughs at Thundercat’s abrupt tone change during “What’s the Use?” @ 9:10.

2. Rex Orange County performing “Sunflower” live on KCRW

August 14, 2018

I know I’ll get heat for this. But Alex O’ Connor is worth the slack.

In this performance, Rex Orange County looks and sounds like the place where lo-fi, Big Mouth, and driven-over lilacs meet. Doesn’t seem like the most appealing thing that could come out of your speakers, but it’s honestly just one really sweet surprise. And romance may be a capitalist sham, but all I can say is ShamWow! After finding out that he wrote “Sunflower” for his girlfriend of 3+ years, the bridge started to make me feel like someone slipped me a “Would You Date Me?” note in detention. Uncomfortable, but definitely entertained.

Favorite Moment(s): The aforementioned bridge @ 3:02.

3. serpentwithfeet – mourning song (Live on KEXP)

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September 11, 2018

Josiah Wise, better known as serpentwithfeet, is one of the greatest storytellers I have ever witnessed. His entire KEXP performance is worth watching to see an immersive experiment in chaos and control using lighting, backtracks, and his voice. Confidence is not something we often associate with grief. In this performance of “mourning song”, he lists all the ways he will allow himself to think and feel through the end of an intimate relationship. Every time I listen to this song, I feel like he actually rips the voices from my head that tell me I am a burden, or that I must hide any part of myself.

I’m not really a church-going girl anymore so I won’t say watching this took me there. But it definitely took me to the Pokémon Center. HP on 255, bitch.

Favorite Moment(s): When he plays around with distance from the mic @ 2:30.

4. 070 Shake – I Laugh When I’m Friends But Sad When I’m Alone

September 14, 2018

My dearest New Jersey babe. The shining star of the 070 Crew, Danielle Balbuena, used to be at the top of my “Anal Sounds Great!” list after the 2016 “Bass for my Thoughts” release. Trevante Rhodes has since stolen her spot.

Shake takes her time with COLORS to sing about her unadulterated thoughts about the negatives that come along with fame, as well as how the perceived positive of always being around people can be suffocating. No matter what life decisions we try to make, no matter what our intentions, we’ll always be criticized. 9/10 times the criticism will come from people who are too scared to live out their own dreams and have decided to try and put their hooks into the dreams of others. I love this performance because she manages to make the sentiment hit relying primarily on her flow, with the beat not coming in until more than halfway through the video.

Favorite Moment(s): The belting at the end. She sounds like Roy Woods and it makes me want a collab.

5. Noname Performs A Three-Song Medley From Her Album ‘Room 25’

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October 18, 2018

I am a walking Noname stan account.

I saw her perform during my sophomore year of college, soon after Telefone‘s release. I had never felt so represented in my existential absurdity. She was as wishful as she was uncertain; the last time I had felt that seen was when I heard Paramore’s “For A Pessimist, I’m Pretty Optimistic” for the first time. But you know angsty white people are always doing something, so it didn’t really click the same. I sobbed in the first row while Noname rapped about the effects poverty has on the Black imagination, battling with addiction, and finding the will to fight our own apathy.

In this performance, she gifts us with a three-song medley, featuring “Blaxploitation”, “Prayer Song”, and “Don’t Forget About Me”, three singles from Room 25. Together, the musical collage tells a story about trying to create in a culture that values what we make more than our livelihood.

Favorite Moment(s): The GIGGLE when the music ends before she does.

6. dvsn: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

November 28, 2018

Roy Woods and Majid Jordan were my favorite OVO acts for the longest time. I had heard of dvsn and didn’t really care for the duo at first. I didn’t even know they were a duo until like a week ago.

One night I was at a party that I didn’t want to be at, and I really wasn’t feeling the music. While I waited to sober up so I could walk home, I put on my headphones and started playing my own music. When the beat in “Mood” dropped and Daniel Daley’s vocals came in, I knew it was the beginning of a spiral into a rabbit hole full of fuck nigga energy… Energy to which I am apparently still very open. In this performance, Daley’s falsetto as he sings about not wanting to pull out of his partner is literally the most disarming sound I’ve ever heard. It’s what I imagine the Sirens in the Odyssey sounded like. I’m 100% certain that behind the sunglasses, his eyes are pitch black. Because Satan.

Favorite Moment(s): 6:13 – 6:35. Mother of God.

7. Rapsody, “Sassy” Night Owl | NPR Music

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December 4, 2018

RAPSODY IS ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED LYRICISTS OF ALL TIME AND I WILL NOT REST UNTIL JUSTICE IS SERVED.

Like… I’ll sleep and all that. But I will be dissatisfied. Known for her home-hitting lyrical additions – Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion (A Zulu Love) and Anderson .Paak’s “Without You” – Marlanna Evans deserves so much more for the brilliance that went into Laila’s Wisdom. When she was nominated for 2018 Best Rap Album of the Year, she was the fifth female-identifying nominee in the 23-year history of the category. This performance of one of Laila’s singles, “Sassy”, makes me want to bounce through the streets in some high tops. It demonstrates her ability to give us all profound lyrics and pop-off sounds.

Favorite Moment(s): Her dance break @ 2:45.

8. H.E.R.: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert

December 13, 2018

H.E.R. had already appeared on NPR Tiny Desk before this performance, but five minutes of listening to her voice were simply not enough. Whenever I listen to one of her songs, I have to listen to two or three more. The cool thing is that she’s not using subliminal messaging! It’s literally just carefully-honed skill and talent! These niggas can’t even spell talent!

The transitions in this video are wild. Seeing how many times Gabi Wilson switches the instrument she’s playing is honestly just really fun. “Focus” is my favorite H.E.R. song, and this performance takes it up three whole notches. Considering the fact that she’s an actual child prodigy, I cannot help but smile seeing her get the shine she deserves; hearing people refer to her as “the girl who covered the Drake song” really made me as upset as the people who fight in the comments under Lebron highlight reels seem to be.

Favorite Moment(s): The back-and-forth between H.E.R. and the two amazing background vocalists @ 16:28.

9. JPEGMAFIA – Thug Tears | A COLORS SHOW

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December 14, 2018

I really cannot tell if Barrington Hendricks/JPEGMAFIA/Peggy is the kind of person who hates astrology and everyone who mentions it, or if he consults his Co-Star chart every morning. Regardless, as the sole member of the non-Scorpio Scorpio Fan Club, I love this Scorpio king.

One second into his COLORS episode, I thought my speakers were fucking broken. Twenty seconds in, I thought I was having a stroke. I eventually realized that I was not being Punk’d by the peculiar nigga on my screen, and decided to go back to the beginning and try this shit again.

I became so infatuated with JPEGMAFIA after watching this performance. This may mean that I need to call my therapist soon, but I would argue that my interest stems from the healing power I feel is available in his artistry. While different from serpentwiththefeet’s “vibe”, Peggy presents us with a similar sentiment: being unafraid to display your emotions, whether it be grief or anger, in ways that are not respectable or palatable can shake up a nigga’s psyche. Lord knows this shit had me shook all the way the fuck up.

Favorite Moment(s): He starts off stretching. Definitely didn’t realize how necessary it was going to be.

10. KOFFEE – TOAST (LIVE FROM KGN)

December 23, 2018

I first listened to Koffee when she performed with Chronixx on the Real Rock Riddim. This past November, the 18-year-old released the inspirational fucking BOP, “Toast”. In the song, she speaks to her performances with Chronixx and other key moments in her musical journey as well as the bright future she sees ahead. The song itself has been at the top of my morning playlist; you already KNOW I love to bust an early whine while I brush my teeth. But this performance… it’s magic. You can barely hear Koffee herself with the audience screaming all the words back at her, letting her know they’ve got her back. And with a big ass smile full of braces, you can tell she’s feeling all the love they’ve got to give. Everyone, myself included, is ready for Koffee to rise to the top.

Favorite Moment(s): Her disbelief at the room’s energy at the beginning, and when she brings on the girls to help her sing @ 1:30.

10+1. Noname ft. Smino and Saba: Ace

January 8, 2018

One day, I’ll share the story of how Noname was an instrumental part in my sexual “becoming”. It’s the same story that I shared with her after the aforementioned concert (still so sorry about that, yikes). Until then:

I screamed when I found out this performance was happening. I don’t even think I can put into words how Noname, Smino, and Saba’s performance of “Ace” changed my whole attitude. For the last eight days, my sense of clarity has been… well, CLEAR! I realized how much my hair had grown. I finished grant and job applications. I’ve received great personal news and old, important friendships are being rekindled. They have too much power. I’m tweaking.

All I have to say is that this video ran me a bath, put a glass of wine in my hand, and made me dinner. Enjoy.

Favorite Moment(s): I. Cannot. Choose. (But wow. The way they look at Saba @ 1:56. I’m emotional.)

#reviews #chewsandswallows #music #2018 #2019 #art #artists #ranking #performance

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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The Weekend Warrior 4/9/21: VOYAGERS, THUNDER FORCE, HELD, THE POWER

Well, things certainly picked up last week, didn’t they? We finally had a relatively big hit with Kong vs. Godzilla, and by that, I mean that it made more in its first five days than most of the other pandemic releases have made during their entire theatrical runs. Sure, it’s great start and a good sign for the recovering theatrical economy, but it’s just a mere start. It will be a long time before theaters can be safe for larger crowds of 50% or more and that’s probably going to be needed to counter-balance the cost of keeping these theaters open. L.A., which reopened after NYC, seems to be going that route, while Cuomo still seems to care more about other businesses and artforms. It’s been a month since NYC theaters opened at 25% capacity or 50 people tops, and other theaters and venues are opening with up to 150 people, so I’m not sure what Cuomo is waiting for. It’s fine, even if it’s the same old shit we’ve been dealing with for a year.

The widest release of the week is Neil Burger’s original sci-fi thriller VOYAGERS (Liongate), starring Colin Farrell, Tye Sheridan, Lily-Rose Depp and Fionn Whitehead (from Dunkirk), and this is an interesting high-concept movie that feels a bit like “Lord of the Flies” in space. Set in 2063, Farrell plays a counselor put in charge of a group of bioengineered teens shot into space in order to populate a new world hundreds of light years away, a trip that will take them 90 years. Things soon start to go wrong as the kids learn that the “blue” drink they’ve been taking is meant to repress their emotions and urges so that they don’t have so much sex that the cramped ship becomes overpopulated before they get to the new earth. Two of the teens, Sheridan’s Christopher and Whitehead’s Zack, discover this info about the “blue” and decide to stop taking it, and then other stuff happens.

Voyagers is definitely a fairly high concept space movie that you’re likely to appreciate more if you don’t know too much about what happens as it goes along. Colin Farrell has a decent role as the mentor and overseer of these bioengineered kids in space, but at times, it goes into fairly expected places once the kids start getting off the “blue,” creating a conflict between Christopher and Zac, especially since both have their eye on Depp’s Sela.

Of course, comparisons will be made to the fairly recent outer space movie Passengers, mainly due to the long space travel trip, but this is more about a lot of young people cramped into a spaceship and testing out their muscle as they start getting physical in more ways than one. The look and feel of the film is partially what makes the film so intriguing, as it seems to be influenced by films like George Lucas’ THX-1138 or of course, 2001: A Space Odyssey, but this is a far more primal film rather than one that necessarily tries to be cerebral.

Although the performances are a little flat, possibly as a deliberate decision, the film does build to a fairly satisfying climax and ending, and I quite enjoyed Neil Burger’s exploration of more literary science fiction and world building than other films of this ilk.

As far as box office, I wish I was a little more confident in the movie, although I don’t even know if this will get released into 2,000 theaters by Lionsgate, and there’s still that relatively huge Godzilla vs Kong, which is likely to drop 55% or more in its second weekend but that’s still a second weekend of $14.5 million, which isn’t attainable by Voyagers. I figure this will be shooting for second place with around $4 or 5 million just based on the genre and lack of much else for young people in theaters.

You can also read my interview with Neil Burger over at Below the Line

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer star in Ben Falcone’s new superhero comedy, THUNDER FORCE, which will stream on Netflix starting Friday, and while I’m under embargo until then, there isn’t a ton that I can say as you read this. McCarthy and Spencer play Lydia Berman and Emily Stanton, two very different people we meet when they’re young girls living in a world where people who have powers are known as Miscreants, and they dream about having powers themselves but as teens, they have a falling out. Many decades later, they reconnect and Emily has a teen daughter Tracy (Taylor Mosby) and the two end up taking part in an experiment to get super powers themselves, sort of. Thunder Force hits Netflix on Friday and hopefully I’ll have a review to share just as it goes live.

MINI-REVIEW (Coming Soon!)

We have quite a bit of horror this week, including HELD (Magnet Releasing), the new thriller from the directors of The Gallows and its sequel, Travis Cluff and Chris Lofing. The movie stars Jill Awbrey, who also wrote the script, as Emma Barrett, a woman in a marriage that’s having problems but is really put to the test when she and her husband Henry (Bart Johnson) decide to spend a romantic weekend away and end up trapped in a luxury home by a malevolent voice commanding them to do whatever he tells them.

I was really hoping to like this one because I was hoping for it to be an original take on the home terror genre, but it opens with a fairly ugly date rape sequence that doesn’t seem to do much for the story when it’s introduced. At first, I thought that maybe that’s an important set-up for what’s to happen later, but it’s actually a bit of a skeevy red herring. This story really begins when Awbrey’s Emma arrives at a luxurious house and waits for her husband to arrive. The first night they’re there, a mysterious man in a leather mask visits them and actually changes Emma into a different night gown. Once the couple realizes that they were drugged and something happened to them while they slept, a voice over an intercom starts to make demands on them, giving them massive shocks when they disobey.

There’s so much potential in this premise but the fact is that neither Awbrey nor Johnson are particularly good actors, and while I’ve never actually seen The Gallows, I wasn’t particularly impressed by Cluff nor Lofing as directors either. They do a fine job with creating the proper mood and environment but there’s aspects to the movie that feel so skeevy that it was really hard to get into much of this.

While Held isn’t violent enough to be considered “torture porn” perse, there’s something quite voyeuristic about it that I found disturbing and not in a good way that a thriller might make you feel uncomfortable. The situation gets worse and worse, almost painful to watch at times, leading to a pretty awful Stepford Wives rip-off of a twist that really seems to come out of nowhere.

While Held might start off like it another one of those #MeToo revenge thrillers, by the end, it becomes far clearer that this was not a particularly well-thought premise that just goes downhill as the filmmakers try to prove themselves to be far more clever than they actually are. The whole thing just feels kind of ugly and unpleasant.

While we’re into the horror section of this week’s Weekend Warrior, streaming on Shudder starting Thursday is Corrina Faith’s THE POWER, a period horror film starring Rose Williams as Val, the newest matron at a big scary hospital during wartime in London when power is being shut off at night to conserve energy.

This very eerie horror film already has a pretty daunting setting by being set in one of those old hospitals during wartime, where there isn’t a ton of things going on but when the power goes out, things start getting crazy as Val starts seeing and experiencing things in the dark, only really having a gas lantern to light her way.

I wasn’t really familiar with Rose Williams, but she gives an amazing performance as a seemingly innocent matron who is particularly scared of the dark and who gets thrown into so many horrifying incidents that she goes through this remarkable transformation from the introduction until the end. There’s also a great group of characters around her, including the evil blonde Babs (Emma Rigby), a bully from Val’s past (a real c-word) and a number of creepy male characters with seemingly lecherous intentions. Another level is brought to the mix by the young girl named Saba (Shakira Rahman) who Val bonds with and tries to protect from whatever malevolent spirit is haunting the hospital.

Faith’s debut feature is quite an achievement, and it certainly feels like she and Williams are two women to watch, because they’re destined to do interesting projects in the future. In the meantime, this is another great offering by the horror streamer that’s really been delivering the goods the past two years. (I also point out how much I loved the score by Gazelle Twin, who also scored the Blumhouse/Amazon horror film Nocturne.)

I haven’t had a chance to see Oliver Hermanus’ BAFTA-nominated MOFFIE (IFC Films) yet, but it’s definitely on my radar as a film set in 1981 South Africa as the white minority government is in a conflict on the southern Angolan border. Nicholas Van der Swart, like all white boys over 16, has to spend two years of compulsory military service to defend the Apartheid regime from “die swart gevaar” (the so-called black danger) is at its height but Nicholas must face the brutality of the army as he makes a connection with his fellow recruit. Definitely gonna try to watch this when time permits, although this coming weekend, there are four awards shows I’m covering for Below the Line.

On Sunday, I watched this amazing independent coming-of-age film called GIANTS BEING LONELY (Gravitas Ventures), written and directed by Grear Patterson, which played at the Metrograph as part of its Live Screening series, plus it will also be released via digital download this week. It stars brothers Jack Irving and Ben Irving as small-town football heroes Bobby and Adam, both of whom have caught the eye of Lily Gavin’s Caroline, but both boys have family issues, Adam whose father (Gabe Fazio) is the coach, and Bobby who is sleeping with the coach’s wife. It’s a pretty amazing movie that reminded me of early Richard Linklater, because it’s so raw and honest in dealing with young people in a small town that goes into some really dark places as it goes along. It’s now available via DVD, Blu-ray and On Demand.

Also, fans of Leos Carax’s Holy Motors will get to see the movie as part of the Metrograph’s Live Screenings program from now through next Tuesday. ($5 a month for a digital membership!) Also playing at the Metrograph until Monday is Michael and Christian Blackwood’s doc Monk (1968) about Thelonious Monk, which is running until Monday and then followed by Monk in Europe starting next Tuesday. Orson Welles’ The Stranger will start streaming Monday for a week On Demand as part of the Metrograph’s “Welles Monday.”

As mentioned last week, New York’s Film Forum is also reopened, and I watched Fellini’s La Strada this past Sunday, which has been extended until April 15. Hitchcock’s Rear Window will also play for a week starting Friday, while Pedro Almodovar’s The Human Voice and A Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and the doc The Truffle Hunters will continue in the theater, as well as the Film Forum’s terrific Virtual Cinema programming, which has added Eric Rohmer’s A Tale of Springtime.

Also, now available via digital is Michael Carnick’s THE FORBIDDEN WISH (Conduit Now), a two-hander drama that follows a young man named Isaac (John Berchtold) who visits an Ethiopian born rabbi named Nate (Sammy Rotibi) on the eve of Yom Kippur, Isaac wanting Nate to read him the Mourner’s Kaddish. I have to say that part of me really hated this movie because Berchtold just isn’t as strong an actor as Rotibi, but the writing itself is quite wearisome and not great, although it did grow on me as the scene between the two gets more dramatic and emotional. Still, it’s hard not to imagine this more as a filmed stage play then an actual movie, and maybe I just didn't understand what Carnick was trying to say with this meeting of two men from different backgrounds.

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video this Friday is the new horror anthology series, THEM, which I haven’t watched yet but hearing mixed things. Hope to write more about this once I get a chance to watch.

Other films out this week include Charlene Favier’s #MeToo drama Slalom (Kino Lorber), which will play at the Quad Cinema in New York, and Khyentse Norbu’s Looking for a Lady with Fangs and a Moustache (Abramorama), which will be available digitally.

That’s it for this week. Next week was supposed to be the release of Warner Bros’ new Mortal Kombat movie, but that was delayed a week, which means the only wide-ish release is Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth (NEON), which premiered at Sundance earlier this year.

#TheWeekendWarrior #Voyagers #THunderForce #Held #ThePower #Movies #Reviews #Streaming #BoxOffice

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eddycurrents · 6 years ago

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For the week of 31 December 2018

Quick Bits:

Action Comics #1006 pushes forward more of the ongoing plot of the corruption that has infested Metropolis from the top down. Brian Michael Bendis is definitely playing a long game with his Superman stories, but it doesn’t necessarily feel as decompressed as something like say his Daredevil which I only found enjoyable in the collections. I’m still getting a John Byrne-era Intergang vibe from this arc, which is welcome. Gorgeous art again from Ryan Sook and Brad Anderson.

| Published by DC Comics

Animosity #18 concludes the “Power” arc from Marguerite Bennett, Rafael de Latorre, Elton Thomasi, Rob Schwager, and Marshall Dillon. This issue features one hell of a reckoning, deserved, that also shows how twisted people and their behaviour can become in this kind of dramatic change of the status quo.

| Published by AfterShock

Archie #701 continues with the “Archie Forever” soft relaunch and I’m really liking what Nick Spencer, Marguerite Sauvage, and Jack Morelli are doing with it. It’s more serious than the previous “New Riverdale” initiative with Mark Waid, but it’s finding more of a balance as a teen drama rather than the harder edge of something like Riverdale. It’s also really damn good. The mystery of Reggie’s father’s disappearance is compelling, there’s some nice character work with the gang, and Sauvage’s art is gorgeous.

| Published by Archie Comics

Archie 1941 #4 continues to explore the real human cost of war, both at home and on the front, taking an interesting look at sacrifice. The art from Peter Krause and Kelly Fitzpatrick continues to shine.

| Published by Archie Comics

Batgirl #30 begins the “Old Enemies” arc and it drills down on one theme that Mairghread Scott has been exceptionally good at writing, politics. The conflict between Batgirl, the police, the politicians, and the people is a powderkeg just waiting to explode. Great art from Paul Pelletier, Norm Rapmund, and Jordie Bellaire.

| Published by DC Comics

BPRD: The Devil You Know #12 continues to let the dominoes fall, showing the connections and intersections of all of the Hellboy stories since Seed of Destruction. This issue feels like the quiet moments before the end, with beautiful haunting artwork from Laurence Campbell and Dave Stewart.

| Published by Dark Horse

Champions #1 kicks off the new, larger era from Jim Zub, Steven Cummings, Marcio Menyz, Erick Arciniega, and Clayton Cowles focus on a broader team solving problems around the world. But there’s a catch, something hinky seems to be going on that we’re not quite sure of. It’s a good start, probably more in line with what Mark Waid left before Jim Zub started in the last volume, but with the more personal voice and problems that Zub was developing already.

| Published by Marvel

Coda #8 hurts. Everything falls apart, everyone is betrayed, and we all die a little inside as people try to force positions that aren’t natural. Wow is this a punch to the heart. Si Spurrier, Matías Bergara, Michael Doig, and Jim Campbell deliver what is quite possibly the best issue to date. And damn is that art phenomenal.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Crowded #6 concludes the first arc with a confrontation with Trotter and, boy, is it a doozy. Christopher Sebela, Ro Stein, Ted Brandt, Tríona Farrell, and Cardinal Rae have just packed this series with action, excitement, and interesting characters with the mystery hanging over our heads still as to exactly what Charlie even did to get the bounty on her head.

| Published by Image

Detective Comics #995 continues “Mythology” and its full court press on Bruce and his family from Peter Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, David Baron, and Rob Leigh. It’s pretty dark, and reminds me a bit of the feel of “Hush”, “Knightfall”, and what Tom King has been building lately in the Batman title itself, but it’s good.

| Published by DC Comics

The Empty Man #3 takes an even bloodier and more violent turn as the Whisper Oracles make a full-on assault on the Kerrys’ neighbourhood as they believe they’re ushering in the next stage of the Empty Man’s wishes. This is disturbing and horrifying, but incredibly entertaining. Great work from Cullen Bunn, Jesús Hervás, Niko Guardia, and Ed Dukeshire.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

The Flash #61 continues the “Force Quest” adventure, but I’m kind of getting tired of it. I like the exploration of the new forces, I like the new characters and situations that the Flash and Iris are getting into over the course of their globe-trotting, but I’m not getting a lot of substance. It seems like the Flash is off to a new location as quickly as he arrives and there’s not a lot of actual in-depth exploration and investigation of the new ideas. That may, indeed, be part of the point, with the Flash coming up empty, but it feels like we’re getting a lot of being zipped around.

| Published by DC Comics

Giant Days #46 gives Susan a case investigating the thefts from Esther’s shop. The noir Sin City-esque sequences while she’s on the case are a wonderful use of the medium, really building the atmosphere and putting you in the right headspace for the story.

| Published by Boom Entertainment / BOOM! Box

Immortal Hulk #11 begins Hulk’s journey through Hell (or wherever they really are) beyond the Green Door and everything waxes a little philosophical. Even Puck and Creel left at the opening. This feels like a turning point in the story and Al Ewing, Joe Bennett, Ruy José, Paul Mounts, and Cory Petit continue to make this incredibly compelling.

| Published by Marvel

Infinity Wars: Infinity #1 is weird. It’s kind of an epilogue to the Infinity Wars event, it’s also kind of a prologue for whatever comes next, teasing things more than giving any kind of really concrete story.

| Published by Marvel

Jughead: The Hunger #11 concludes the Franken-Moose arc with some hints as to what Milton was doing with his resurrection experiments and a revelation about Jughead’s blood. It’s suspect, of course, but it’s an interesting development. Joe Eisma’s designs for the various patchwork men is very impressive.

| Published by Archie Comics / Archie’s Madhouse Presents

Justice League Odyssey #4 continues the investigation of the Ghost Sector as the team transports some refugees off to one of the Machine Worlds where Cyborg is worshipped as a god. Like the other planets, things don’t really go to plan. It’s interesting as to how many losses Joshua Williamson seems to keep throwing at the characters (even if not being devastating as such). It definitely is leading to a world in conflict. Also, Darkseid finds a familiar face.

| Published by DC Comics

Killmonger #3 gets even more interesting as Fisk burns King and his crew, sending them all scrambling as they’re attacked by Bullseye. There’s another twist in the tale from Bryan Hill that really needs to be witnessed. The art from Juan Ferreyra is just next level. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.

| Published by Marvel

Low #20 is confusing. Part of that is intentional as Stel gets tossed about from situation to situation of losing and finding her children for reasons that aren’t entirely clear at first. The other part of it is that it’s been a year and a half since the last issue, and even with the recap, it’s still a bit of “who are these people?” and “what the hell is going on?”. Absolutely bloody gorgeous artwork from Greg Tocchini and Dave McCaig, though. I really need to go back an re-read the rest of the series though to get a better appreciation for the story.

| Published by Image / Giant Generator

Man Without Fear #1 from Jed MacKay, Danilo S. Beyruth, Andres Mossa, and Clayton Cowles picks up from where “The Death of Daredevil” left off, but you needn’t have read that to understand this (though I still highly recommend reading the last run of the Daredevil series). It’s more explicit and abstract in Matt’s journey for survival, while also focusing here on the impact this is having on Foggy. It’s very good and looks like it’s going to serve as to a bridge to what comes next in “Know Fear”.

| Published by Marvel

Marvel Knights #5 circles back around to Matthew Rosenberg and Niko Henrichon as T’Challa storms Fisk’s tower and we get more surprising revelations for the cliffhanger to this penultimate issue. There’s a lot of action, beautifully realized by Henrichon (with colour assists from Laurent Grossat), but I think the thing I like most about this is how they handle the Hulk. His presence through the series, and this issue, has been mostly implied, much like how he was portrayed during Bruce Jones and John Romita Jr.’s tenure on the Marvel Knights volume of The Incredible Hulk. It’s a very nice touch that enhances the tribute that this series is meant to be.

| Published by Marvel

Olivia Twist #4 is the end to what has been a rather strange and loose adaptation of Dickens’ Oliver Twist in the future from Darin Strauss, Adam Dalva, Emma Vieceli, Lee Loughridge, and Sal Cipriano. It definitely goes off in unexpected directions and is all the better for it.

| Published by Dark Horse / Berger Books

Rainbow Brite #3 continues to be a fun adventure as Wisp tests out the extent of her powers. It’s a shame that this series is ending with its fifth issue as this is a solid all ages fantasy from Jeremy Whitley, Brittney Williams, Valentina Pinto, and Taylor Esposito.

| Published by Dynamite

Scarlet #5 is an interesting conclusion to this mini, getting Scarlet out of Portland and a revelation as to what’s been going on outside of the city. It doesn’t really feel like an end, though. Just a stopping point for this chapter. I definitely hope there’s more somewhere down the line as Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, and Joshua Reed have made this as entertaining a ride as the first volume.

| Published by DC Comics / Jinxworld

The Silencer #12 is one of the few of DC’s “New Age of Heroes” titles left standing and, even though it too may not be much longer for the world based on the story’s direction, it’s pretty easy to see why. It’s a good action thriller, with some interesting intrigue in regards to Talia al Ghul’s Leviathan organization, and some great art.

| Published by DC Comics

Star Wars: Age of Republic - Obi-Wan Kenobi #1 is the latest one-shot spotlighting the Star Wars characters throughout the ages, with this one providing a tale of Obi-Wan during his period with Anakin as his padawan, from Jody Houser, Cory Smith, Wilton Santos, Walden Wong, Java Tartaglia, and Travis Lanham. It’s not a bad little tale of acceptance and understanding in perceived difficult situations.

| Published by Marvel

Stranger Things #4 concludes this mini from Jody Houser, Stefano Martino, Keith Champagne, Lauren Affe, and Nate Piekos, spotlighting what happened to Will Byers while he was trapped in the Upside Down and serves as a bridge to the second season of the Netflix series. The art from Martino, Champagne, and Affe is wonderful as always and I love how Houser brings it back around to the fantasy and D&D themes that permeate the show. Also, a great nod to one of the primary influences in the library sequence.

| Published by Dark Horse

Strangers in Paradise XXV #9...man. Terry Moore is a master at changing the tone and premise of his stories at the drop of a hat. You start out as an action thriller, then you blink, and suddenly you’re in a biblical end of days scenario. Damn that’s some good stuff.

| Published by Abstract Studio

Titans #32 presents the origin of Mother Blood and a change to the Red since the breaking of the Source Wall from Dan Abnett, Clayton Henry, Marcelo Maiolo, and Dave Sharpe. It’s an interesting excursion giving hints as to the next direction for the series. Plus, a possible name drop for Primal Force, which would be an interesting return.

| Published by DC Comics

Tony Stark: Iron Man #7 continues “Stark Realities” as all hell breaks loose within Tony’s virtual world as The Controller takes..um...control. Great twists and turns here, with some interesting character developments for Amanda, Jocasta, and Friday.

| Published by Marvel

The Whispering Dark #3 blurs the lines of reality further as we’re given no reason to believe that the hallucinations aren’t real or that any of “reality” isn’t a hallucination. It’s great. Gorgeous artwork from Tomás Aira.

| Published by Dark Horse

Winter Soldier #2 is possibly even better than the first issue, as we get a flashback for who RJ was and then a confrontation between him and Bucky. The artwork from Rod Reis is gorgeous, presenting interesting layouts and colour choices flipping between the past and the action in the present. Though, there is definitely a twinge of suspicion at what RJ’s goal actually is.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #61 makes “The Just War” a little more interesting as a confused, reborn Aphrodite is brought into the mix, unsure whether or not she still wants to be the goddess of love. The mythological aspect that G. Willow Wilson is playing with in this story is interesting after the abandonment of Olympus and what’s been going on in Justice League Dark. It definitely feels like there’s something bigger going on than just the war. The line art chores are handled by Xermanico, who has a style not unlike Cary Nord’s, but somewhat cleaner, leaning somewhat towards Stuart Immonen and Terry Dodson. It looks good, but what really pushes this issue over the top is the colour work from Romulo Fajardo Jr. The colours just look stunning here.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Bloodborne #8, Books of Magic #3, Conan the Barbarian #1, Doctor Who: The Thirteenth Doctor #3, Gasolina #14, Halo: Lone Wolf #1, Hex Wives #3, Invader Zim #38, Old Lady Harley #3, Princeless: Find Yourself #3, Project Superpowers #5, Redneck #18, Rick & Morty #45, Runaways #17, Star Wars: Han Solo - Imperial Cadet #3, The Umbrella Academy: Hotel Oblivion #4, Unnatural #6

Recommended Collections: Black Hammer - Volume 3: Age of Doom Part 1, BPRD: Hell on Earth - Volume 4, The Conan Reader, Death of the Inhumans, The Girl Who Married a Skull & Other African Stories - Volume 1, Iron Fist, Jim Henson’s Power of the Dark Crystal - Volume 1, Jinx, The Mighty Crusaders - Volume 1, Pestilence - Volume 2: A Story of Satan, Powers - Book 2, Spider-Geddon: Edge of Spider-Geddon, Tony Stark: Iron Man - Volume 1: Self Made Man, Witchfinder - Volume 5: Gates of Heaven

d. emerson eddy works hard for his monkey. So hard for his monkey. And he’s going to treat it right.

#This Week in Comics

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