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saintsmith · 11 months ago

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i probably ought to give a bit of a primer for tenuvo pronunciation. it's the same for all dialects, they just shape words and phrases a bit differently with the same sounds. gonna put a readmore bc this got a little longer than i anticipated.

consonants:

everything is basically the same as english, with a few small changes/caveats. "c" is never pronounced like "s" or "k," always being "ch" as in the english "chat" or "batch." "g" is always hard, like "goat." "h" by itself tends to be a bit throatier than in english, but there are some other uses for "h" i'll get to in a bit. there's a separate letter for "kh," which is like the "ch" in scottish "loch" or german "ach". there's also a separate letter (in the script tenvo use) for the "ng" sound, which usually comes at the end of syllables but can also come at the beginning. "q" never makes a "kw" sound, instead being a kind of "hard k," coming from the back of your throat, very much like the sound "q" makes in arabic. "r" is usually tapped, not like the english "r" but more like the spanish "r." "sh" has its own letter in the tenuvo script, pronounced like english "shy". "th" has its own letter, pronounced usually as the hard "bath," but dialectical variation sometimes allows for "this" (try saying both words; you'll find there is a difference!). "y" is always a consonant, pronounced as in english; most consonants have a special form for when "y" follows it. also, consonants can geminate (double), and technically this produces a unique sound compared to a single consonant, but it's rarely phonemic (as in, matters for telling between similar words) anymore.

aspirated consonants:

there are also "aspirated" consonants. ("kh" is technically one, but it's the only one that gets its own character. the rest are a combination of the normal consonant and the letter "h".) aspirated consonants are kind of breathier versions of the regular consonant, kind of the same as aspirated consonants in indian (as in the subcontinent) languages. just pronounce the consonant like it has an "h" right behind it (which it kind of does lol). aspirated consonants include: bh, dh, fh, gh, jh, kh (which has its own character), lh, mh, nh, ph (never pronounced like "f"!), qh (often very similar to kh tbh), rh, sh (as in s + h, not the "shy" sound), shh (this is sh + h, the "shy" sound), th (as in t + h, not the "bath" sound), thh (this is th + h, the "bath" sound), vh, wh, xh, yh (last two are very rare), and zh.

vowels:

so vowel length, while not always like.....actually length related, does matter in tenuvo! it's just a thing of the actual vowel sound being used mostly now. short "a" as in "cat," long "a" as in "father," short "e" as in "bed," long "e" as in "hey," short "i" as in "hit," long "i" as in "seat," "o" always as in "oh" (no length differences here), short "u" as in "cut," long "u" as in "boot." some diphthongs (all are technically "long" vowels): "au" as in "ow," "ai" as in "eye," "oi" as in "boy." (all diphthongs are rather archaic, but "aurena" uses one so yeah. there's also "oe" which is a long "cut" sound, but it's extremely archaic lol. never used anymore.) vowels preceded by a "u" develop a "w" sound, as in "Uodh" and "Uorh." if a vowel would be preceded by a long "i," the "i" is replaced by a "y."

small note on how vowel length is written: there's a few rules. typically a vowel followed by a single consonant (or none at all) is considered "long," but a vowel followed by a cluster of consonants (unless the first consonant is an "r"!) or a geminated consonant is considered "short." in some cases, though, you want to force a "long" sound even when the following consonant is geminated. to do this, you write in an "h" right between the vowel and the geminated consonant/consonant cluster.

however, as you may have noticed by how i've been writing most names, there's an alternate way of denoting vowel length: doubling the vowel for a long vowel. so for "shiaaj," for example, the "i" is short, making the "hit" sound, whereas the "aa" denotes a long "a," making the "father" sound. if it was written "shiaj," the "a" would make a "cat" sound. and, of course, the "i," being short, does not turn into a "y."

consonants as vowels:

"l," "m," "n," "ng," "r," "s," "sh," and "z," as well as their aspirated counterparts, can also be used as vowels! take, for example, the "r" at the end of "olsekr," "otr," and "utstr." that "r" at the end is a vowel! it's basically like putting a short "u" in front of the "r," but it's said so quickly that the "r" sounds like it's on its own, just floating there. the "s" in the middle of "utstr" is also serving as a vowel between those "t"s! that ends up sounding kind of like a "psst!" but with a "t" at the beginning instead of a "p." i've written some words with vowels that technically don't need them, mostly for ease of reading. for example, the southern peninsula of "gurduu" would be spelled in the tenuvo script as "grduu," with the short "u" implied and wrapped up in the "r." "olsekr" could also be spelled "olskr!"

i might be forgetting some other things, but i'll leave it here for now! i'll append this if i remember

#my worldbuilding #my setting #my conlanging #tenuvo #aurenna

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wrestlegameslegacy · 2 years ago

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Marketing Methods THQ Nordic Could Employ For AEW: Fight Forever

For the last year and a half, fans have been frustrated at the silence regarding the upcoming THQ Nordic and Yukes title; AEW: Fight Forever. It has been nearly two years since it was announced, and very little information is known about what the video game contains. The publisher, THQ Nordic, has remained silent while people like myself beg for the smallest bits of information on social media. “Please Sir, can I have some more?!”

While it’s clear THQ Nordic is taking its time on its marketing campaign and will speak when they are ready, we’ll look at some unique methods THQ Nordic could use to market itself a little bit differently from the competition. This includes marketing techniques ranging from direct involvement from the fans, to cross promotion and even emulating the methods of the old THQ company. Personally, I’ve been a part of the online wrestling game community since 2009. I’ve seen over a decade of changes happen to the community, the video games, and the way they’re marketed. There has been peace, chaos, and mysterious behavior throughout the years. The question is, which one will THQ Nordic choose? At this point, it could seem like the game is shadow dropped for us without an announcement.

Create A Tie-In Dynamite Event

So far, the marketing and enthusiasm for AEW: Fight Forever on its television programs have been extremely minimal. It’s as ground-breaking as watching paint dry. Every few weeks on AEW: Dynamite, the game cover will appear in the corner of the screen with the words “Coming Soon”. This is sometimes accompanied by a commentary sound byte by Excalibur. Real followers of the game – like myself – remember that on an episode of AEW: Dark in August 2022, Excalibur claimed the game was coming in the Fall. We’re six to eight months past that deadline now.

If AEW wants their fans to be enthusiastic about their own video game – which is looking rare on social media – they’ll have to make the fans believe that they, too, are enthusiastic. One possible method for this would be to name an AEW: Dynamite special episode after the game, using the same logos. A smaller scale version of this has already been done. AEW: Fight Forever made an appearance at GamesCom in Germany and Tokyo Game Show in 2022. Select members of the AEW roster were flown out to these gaming conventions, where a pop-up wrestling venue was created on the show floor. The ring and stage were dressed in the game’s logo, making sure everyone knew what was being promoted. Back during this stage, it really seemed like THQ saw the game as something magical to invest in. They were really pulling out the big guns and hosting full wrestling matches at a video game convention. WWE 2K has never had pop-up wrestling events to promote their game, so to me this seemed like a step in the right direction. And then…CM Punk and Kenny Omega got suspended and there’s been silence ever since. That’s not to say there is a direct correlation, but the timing is suspicious.

On the AEW side, we’ve not seen much from them. Tony Khan likes to mention the game being near-complete in interviews with wrestling press, however people who only watch the product and don’t engage online could easily forget this game even exists. AEW needs to turn up the gas, and start pushing the game hard. Dynamite is no stranger to special episodes in lieu of Pay-Per-View events. Designing one influenced by their video game, main evented by a huge championship match could drive sales up just from the pure hype alone. It’s not unheard of, either. WCW hosted a Pay-Per-View event called ‘WCW: Mayhem’, the same name as their latest video game at the time. They also released a “Best of WCW” VHS with the same name, finding strength in the brand. Another poster claims that the tape was a pre-order bonus for the video game. AEW: Fight Forever has yet to reveal a pre-order bonus, but a piece of merchandise would go a long way over a digital character.

Sources have indicated to me that the game is coming much sooner than most think, and THQ’s marketing campaign could be quick and like a bullet train. If the game is hypothetically set to release in June, my selfish Canadian self nominates the June 28th edition of AEW: Dynamite from Hamilton, Ontario to be branded AEW Dynamite: Fight Forever. Canadian crowds are hungry for All Elite Wrestling, as their AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door event in Toronto sold out quickly. The Hamilton crowd will be very hot, seeing as they almost never get televised events. Hosting a championship match with Canadian star Kenny Omega in the main event whilst the video game’s logos are plastered all over would make fans feel hyped up on dopamine and impulse buy the game after the event if they haven’t already. Who doesn’t love falling into the “feeling of missing out”?

Host Competitions And Tournaments For Prizes

Despite the fact that there has been mostly silence regarding their own video game, AEW has kept a consistent foothold in the video game space with their “All Elite Arcade” Youtube and Twitch series. This channel is similar to WWE’s “UpUpDownDown”. The channel also has video game competitions between AEW wrestlers for the “All Elite Arcade Gaming Championship” belt. THQ Nordic and AEW need to heavily utilize this channel to spread the word about AEW: Fight Forever. Not only do they have to feature their own wrestlers playing the game, but they also need to get the fans engaged with the channel.

Once upon a time, about ten years ago while still under the thumb of the original THQ…@WWEGames on Twitter did massive giveaways. Almost weekly, RAW and Smackdown events had an opportunity for fans to win WWE prizes ranging from copies of the video game, new books, DVDs and sometimes even event tickets. I actually won something myself from one of these giveaways. After 2K took over the account, there were still a few odd merchandise giveaways. Now, they rarely exist beyond a digital code for the video game. Whilst it’s true these things have become expensive to maintain, it’s also true that 2K just isn’t interested in doing it. They are not mutually exclusive. The WWE Games social media has become insanely sanitized and corporate, and AEW could capitalize on this by acting the exact opposite.

First of all, THQ and AEW could host competitions on Twitter and TikTok that involve the video game. Examples of this could be replicating your favorite entrance or taunt in the game, showing off your favorite “markout moment�� you’ve recorded, or even your player creations. They could also make it a popularity contest, forcing users to spread their clips in hopes of accumulating likes to win AEW merchandise. The fact of the matter is, players love being engaged with the creators of video games. 2K Sports took this luxury away from us, as the WWE Games account never acknowledges actual discussion. They only reply to tweets that help them to boost their reach. THQ and Yukes have an opportunity here to keep the game alive and growing post-launch by regularly keeping the players engaged with competitions that actually give them an incentive to join.

A second idea would be to host tournaments for players, with finals taking place on the All Elite Arcade channel. The winning player could earn a replica All Elite Arcade championship belt. One of the biggest influences for AEW: Fight Forever is the old AKI Engine wrestling games, such as WWF No Mercy and WCW/nWo: Revenge. These games are heralded as some of the best wrestling titles ever made. Most of the players from that era will tell you that multiplayer was hot and it was incredibly fun to play with friends, myself included. If AEW: Fight Forever hopes to recapture that magic of competitive play, they must encourage the players to try. I’m not a competitive gamer myself but if the environment is nurturing enough, I’d take the leap.

WWE 2K has been failing miserably in making online play fair, balanced, and reliably functional for at least the last decade. When it comes to WWE 2K online, mostly people who have a friend group play online regularly. It’s very rare a casual fan without any wider circle will jump online with random people due to the fact that the gameplay does not foster an online competitive environment. If you’ve ever had a friend group play WWE online, you probably had “House Rules” to follow to make sure nobody exploited some of the game’s native functions.

If Yukes manages to bring a smooth, balanced and fun perspective to online play to Fight Forever, hosting tournaments and filling slots with the player base should come as zero issue. We would actually look forward to competing, and it could become a mini eSport if they play their cards right. But to reiterate, it’s not going to happen without the feeling of being involved and personal with AEW, nor will we feel like we have to enter unless there is an incentive. The prize could be as minimal as an autograph from Ruby Soho, but there will be someone determined enough to win it. This could then break up into content creators hosting their own Fight Forever tournaments for their own prizes, turning it into a splinter of the fighting game community.

In summary, AEW and THQ just need to feed the fanbase regularly. It doesn’t have to be game content updates. It just needs to feel like the game wasn’t dumped to make some money and forgotten about. If the people responsible for its creation aren’t in love with the product, why should I be? Sometimes it seems like THQ just lost interest in the AEW brand. Other times it feels like they’re planning some huge marketing campaign that takes forever to prepare.

AEW Needs To Encourage Creations

It’s very unfortunate that I have to remind AEW fans every so often that they shouldn't expect Fight Forever’s creation suite to be as nearly as robust as WWE’s. But that doesn’t mean it will be unusable, nor does it mean there won’t be some insanely creative community members. Ever since Yukes’ original games like WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth, Here Comes The Pain, and Smackdown vs Raw, members of the community made incredible created wrestlers with limited technology from the early 2000s. Even though WWE 2K may have superior creation tools thanks to over a decade of legacy content, they make one brutal mistake; They don’t promote the community’s creations.

It’s fair to say that they shouldn’t promote created versions of wrestlers not currently signed to WWE, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t ignore all creations. There’s nothing stopping them from encouraging people to download a Cody Rhodes Wrestlemania 39 attire creation. Does anyone else remember that back before 2K revoked control of the socials from Visual Concepts, they did occasionally drop some love to mainstream creators like Dre41? WWE 2K has an incredible amount of community creation power behind it, yet you wouldn’t know that if you just follow their Twitter and nothing else. Community Creations is never promoted by 2K, which is odd since it’s the main beef of a wrestling game for many fans.

AEW and THQ Nordic have a chance to completely change the landscape here. We know for a fact that AEW: Fight Forever hosts multiple create modes. The game listing states “Wide range of customization modes: wrestler attire and appearance, move sets, entrances, teams, and arenas”. One example would be centered around Kenny Omega. He regularly comes out with special gear inspired by pop culture, once dressing in Ghostbusters and Undertale inspired attire. If a player created this in the game, the official AEWGames or THQNordic Twitter accounts endorsing it would make the creator feel insanely validated. THQNordic could also use the creation functions as an opportunity for cross-promotion, showing off characters or arenas influenced by their other titles such as Spongebob, Destroy All Humans and Trine.

In a more extreme example, AEW and THQ Nordic could emulate a former WWE contest. After Smackdown vs Raw 2011 was released, THQ and Mattel hosted a contest to turn your original created superstar into an action figure. The winning creation with the most likes from the community would be turned into an action figure. However, the caveat was that only the winner would receive it. So why would I vote on the best if I couldn’t buy one myself?

That contest was so messy it deserves an article of its own. The winning creation can be found in this video. However, it later created controversy across the fan base as the winner was accused of stealing the design from another creator. AEW, THQ Nordic, and Jazwares could try to repeat this contest with better results, such as turning the winning figure into an actual mass produced item in the line. Personally, I would love to own community-created action figures.

Overall, creators just want to feel acknowledged. Flattery goes a long way in creation circles, and having it come from the developers themselves would encourage community members to create more and more content to keep the game alive longer-term. Unfortunately, members of the mod community already have received confirmation that THQ Nordic and AEW won’t condone our work, but that can be remedied by promoting work made by the in-game tools.

Work With Smaller Content Creators

Despite not being a viewer of much of it myself, I have to admit the wrestling game community is in love with YouTube content. Anyone involved in the community follows some of the most popular creators such as Smacktalks. Influencers have incredibly strong reach in the wrestling game space, and there are a lot of young fans who live and breathe on their content. While I do not consider myself an influencer, I do have people who look up to me and ask me for my counsel on things when it comes to wrestling games. 2K knows this all too well, as the bulk of their marketing for the WWE 2K campaigns come from asking the YouTube community to do free labor and advertise the game for them. The slave program is called “2K NextMakers”.

However, THQ Nordic is completely new to the wrestling game space. Do they know of these influencers and how important they are to the community? Do they even know who people like Smacktalks, Vybe, ElementGames, TonyPizzaGuy, WhatsTheStatus and others are?

Even if they did, there is a major obstacle in place for THQ Nordic; the 2K Next Makers program. This is the official influencer program for the WWE 2K series, a contractual agreement to help market the game and get access to perks such as free copies of any 2K title. Almost every wrestling game creator with a very high following is a part of this program. From what I’ve heard from anonymous members inside the program, it’s very unlikely their contract would allow THQ Nordic and AEW to provide exclusive reveals or similar “official” marketing partnerships. I’ve also spoken to a few creators who are prepared to leave the program if this ends up being the case.

Though, it’s unlikely many of these creators would jeopardize their pampering to cover a smaller, non-yearly title. Despite this, THQ Nordic could utilize smaller creators and give them a chance to be seen, boost their numbers, and spread positive word of mouth to their small but loyal army of subscribers.

Considering the game is significantly smaller in scope to WWE 2K, it’s only poetic that the creators who get a chance to preview the game also be smaller. This is not to say they should entirely ditch the usual, like IGN or GameInformer. It simply means that channels below a certain milestone (perhaps, under fifteen thousand subscribers) would be able to exclusively post some small tidbit of information, such as a gameplay screenshot.

This would not only make these smaller influencers feel like their hard work has paid off, but also give off the impression that THQ does indeed care about its fanbase and the video game by pushing it through channels you wouldn’t expect. Long term benefits can be seen as the creator would develop a positive bias towards the game, get their numbers boosted by the promotion and continue creating content as long as they enjoy it leading to a longer period for word of mouth.

There are plenty of creators in the wrestling game space who have been busting their ass for years creating content, but are unable to break through the complex algorithm to be seen by major eyes. THQ Nordic and AEW offering some sort of chance to them to break through the ceiling would go a long way in public perception of AEW: Fight Forever.

Look To The Past For Advice

If you ask wrestling game fans about the current handling of the WWE Games Twitter account, you’ll get nothing but displeasure. The marketing campaign tactic nowadays compared to ten years ago with THQ is completely different. 2K opts for more of a “general overview” of the game to target casual gamers who typically do not buy a WWE title. The focus of their campaigns is star power and a spotlight on features in the game such as MyFaction and MyGM. 2K rarely flaunts the wrestling fan service part of these games, unlike THQ where their marketing campaign had wrestling fans as the focal target. Now, one could argue this is why the THQ games never popped off and sold as well as the WWE 2K series has. Though, one could rebuttal it’s simply because 2K has more money to pump into game budget and advertising. In reality, 2K probably has hours of market research to confirm their methods are better. However, there are some strings THQ Nordic can pull from the past to tug at wrestling fans’ heartstrings.

We can all see clearly that THQ Nordic’s main tactic for their catalog is nostalgia. After purchasing the THQ name post-bankruptcy, they also worked on collecting former titles like Thanos and the Infinity Stones. One could speculate this was the main reason THQ decided to publish the next Yukes wrestling game in AEW: Fight Forever. So, if nostalgia is their brand, they need to target that nostalgia hard during marketing. Cut and dry standard advertising is not going to make this game a success.

One of the more favorable methods that THQ employed was weekly entrance videos. There is no doubt at all that wrestling game fans lose their minds over well done entrances in video games. Releasing the entrances of nearly every superstar before launch was a staple of THQ marketing and kept fans engaged long-term. 2K on the other hand, only opts to release the entrance videos of superstars who may go viral, such as Cody Rhodes. Someone with some knowledge of the situation once told me that “2K doesn’t see any value in constant entrance videos”.

Personally, I do not believe the fact that AEW: Fight Forever’s shorter entrance cutscenes are even an issue. The scenes seem to be reminiscent of WWE All-Stars and TNA iMPACT, with them being 15-20 second clips. AEW and THQ Nordic could release 5-10 a week to showcase and keep people engaged long term. Even though they are not full cinematic cutscenes like WWE 2K, they still strive to replicate the television entrances in the best way they can. I fully believe that utilizing regular entrance releases will tap the nostalgia inside fans hearts. They can also be accompanied by raw gameplay finisher animation reveal videos, a tactic also employed by THQ. This would show more transparency to the fanbase, as 2K releases finishers with edits and fake camera work.

One other tactic to gain trust with wrestling fans and tap into nostalgia is to do a developer Q&A. You can watch a sample version for WWE ‘13 featuring Bryan Williams, one of the early creative driving forces on Fight Forever. Whilst the community trusts Bryan Williams, he unfortunately left Yukes last year to return to the WWE 2K franchise. His first title – WWE 2K23 – released in March 2023, still before Fight Forever. It is unknown if Yukes has any English speaking “talking heads” to take on this endeavor. One option would be to host a live-stream with the No Mercy director – Hideyuki Iwashita AKA “Geta” – to talk about how much influence he had on the product. Or, perhaps, the “visionary” behind the game – AEW Wrestler Kenny Omega.

The reason the fans romanticize the THQ era is simple. THQ believed in being honest and transparent as best they could when it came to development. Sure, there were things they couldn’t talk about like WWE’s requests and restrictions. If something was a design choice though, they’d tell you that directly. It wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Community Managers such as Marcus Stephenson and Aubrey Sitterson came and went, all of them having different ways of engaging the fanbase. In the end though, answers were always found. It even came down to technical things like Marcus explaining why PS3 had less Create-A-Superstar layer limit than Xbox. If THQ Nordic wants to win over the wrestling game fan base, they have to not only be as transparent as the water in Bikini Bottom, but also use someone who knows what they’re talking about directly from the development team.

TL;DR?

Over the last decade of 2K’s reign as the license holder of WWE, fans have increasingly felt neglected more and more as the years go by. I don’t even look forward to their reveals anymore. The social media handles are becoming more corporate and sterilized by the day. Bugs are not even acknowledged to even exist by the official WWE 2K accounts. AEW and THQ need to tap into that part of the niche that has felt like they are the reason for their parents’ divorce.

Kenny Omega has a huge opportunity here to herald in a golden era of casual wrestling gaming again, regardless of how polished the game is. Word of mouth is a strong, viable method to help sell this game over the long term when it comes to holiday sales and negotiating for a sequel or more content updates. Consistent patches to fix issues are key to the game’s long term survivability, even without something like Community Creations.

THQ and AEW seem to have a strained relationship to the outside world. People will instantly forget about the mess of waiting for information and constant delays if they work together to put on the best campaign they can for the game. A Dynamite tie-in event featuring big matches would get the entire AEW fan base worldwide interested and engaged. Hosting regular tournaments and giveaways would give people an incentive to buy the game and play more as well as practice competitively. Highlighting the creations made by the players would encourage hard work and repeat usage of the creation suite, even without a Community Creations feature. Smaller content creators would fall in love with THQ Nordic or AEW Games if they got a chance to have their ‘big break’. And as we just mentioned, the old THQ knew how to really break things down for the wrestling crowd, so take a few notes from them.

AEW: Fight Forever has yet to start a marketing campaign, so let’s hope they ponder some of the points I made.

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mi4011amandithewarathanthri · 2 years ago

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Assessment 1

3. share these stories and more of your research on their journey

Jack Stauber - Weirdcore influences and its use as an art style

Weirdcore is an internet ‘aesthetic’ centred around amateur or low quality visual media such as photography, videos, animations, collages, and illustrations. These images have been specifically constructed or edited to convey a sense of nostalgia but also unease. Weirdcore evokes feelings of confusion, disorientation, dread, alienation, and nostalgia or anemoia. Visually, the images and videos often resemble media from the early internet of the late 90s and early 2000s. The style is often characterised by amateur editing, primitive digital graphics, lo-fi photography, distorted music, and image compression.

Although the aesthetic is not strictly horror, Weirdcore often communicates feelings of dread, brought about by its confusing, obscure nature and lack of context. The distorted familiarity of Weirdcore make it comforting with an underlying ominous feeling.

Weirdcore began to develop around the early 2010s, around the same time Stauber was experimenting with his music and animation style. His influences to Weirdcore can be seen from very early on in his YouTube channel with his first few animations. In addition his VHS aesthetic, odd music, and Microsoft Paint animations all contributed to defining the characteristics of this aesthetic and specific emotions that that would elicit. His animations, videos, and other projects range from completely incomprehensible to oddly bizarre, giving almost all of his works this weird feeling that would become a staple of Weirdcore. His style of mixing melancholic themes within a childlike pair of eyes is the icing on his influence on the aesthetic and its heavy themes of nostalgia and foreboding.

Historically, aestheticism as an art movement has been used to position art as merely a thing to be beautiful and pleasing to the eye, instead of the powerful tool it can be to enact social, political change. Nowadays an ‘internet aesthetic’ is defined largely by many of the same parameters. Aesthetics have now come to mean a collection of images, videos, colours, sounds, objects, writings, and even products that are first and foremost visually pleasing. They may also evoke very specific emotions, although, these emotions are rarely ever used to convey a message.

Jack Stauber not only popularised the Weirdcore aesthetic but also demonstrated how these internet aesthetics could actually be used to create didactic and meaningful art. Almost everything Jack has created has an underlying theme or message:

Most famously, “Opal” deals with childhood abuse and trauma, and how children attempt to digest and cope with their trauma, often leading to extreme bouts of dissociation and memory loss.

“Rain” also deals with complex emotional experiences. Even though “Rain” is only 36 seconds long there are few animated pieces that better convey the crushing disappointment of doing everything correctly and still experiencing something you were attempting to avoid. The rain itself could be anything: failure, grief, etc. but the one I’ve always interpreted it as is that it symbolises long term depression. The kind that so pervasive that even if you do everything right, even if you do all the stuff your therapist says or the tips your friends and family give you, your sadness just seems to follow you whenever you go. There’s a bitter sense of injustice to experiences like that made worse by the fact there’s nothing that anybody can truly do about them. Except maybe find some form of comfort in the fact that its a pain everyone has expected at some point.

“Bread” from “SHOP: A Pop Opera” discusses performative activism, virtue hoarding, “goodness” as a class signifier, and consumerism and how it is used to make oneself’s identity more easily consumable. This is all done in just 2 minutes and 45 seconds. The short poses a question about the intentions behind doing morally righteous things and whether they matter in making you an ethical person.

“Help” deals with modern society’s treatment of people with depression (especially chronic depression) and how completely dehumanised they are. The mainstream mental health zeitgeist for the past 15 years or so has really focused around ‘normalising’ mental illness. But the version that they’re normalising is mental illness as this nebulous quirk that everybody seems to have but nobody seems to actually suffer from in a tangible way. The short looks at how we’re at this place culturally where everybody knows that mental illness exists an that’s supposed to be progress but it feels like there’s been very little progress in terms of reckoning with mental illness as a tangible thing that hurts people, and hurts relationships, and hurts your ability to work. Because people with mental illness have been ‘normalised’ before they have been offered liberation. The characters in the story recognise that the main character is struggling, but they don’t at all react how you should when you see someone crushed under a large boulder. The aesthetic recognition of mental illness has been prioritised far above the structural acceptance of it, which causes people in real life to push aside the struggles of mentally ill people. For example, if you tell your boss that you’re having a depressive episode, their response to that should be as though you’ve told him that you’ve broken your leg. But their response would probably be something like “I believe you. You’re valid. Now show up on time to work tomorrow.” Jack forces the viewers to reckon with how mental illness has been so culturally normalised but also entirely defanged in the process that when somebody shows real symptoms of severe mental illness, the cultural response is often “I know what depression looks like, and it doesn’t look like that. So you must actually not want help or want to get better.”

These are just a few examples of the vast variety of topics Jack tackles in his work, and how much you can interpret from his pieces. I think this displays just how important messaging is to Jack and how he uses his influence as a popular artist and public figure as a way to enact change, bring awareness, or even just spark a conversation.

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innuendostudios · 4 years ago

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Thoughts on... some funny games

[no spoilers to speak of]

Thoughts on Lair of the Clockwork God

The wisdom of the gaming cognoscenti insists that comedy is hard to do in video games. Having grown up with Monkey Island and Zork, I've never found this convincing. But one true thing is this: it's hard to write about comedic games. The ineffability of humor is hard enough to describe in less-interactive media; I can't even explain to my partner why Gretchen saying "I met January Jones once!" on You're the Worst busted me up, and they were sitting right next to me when she said it. Throw in the "you had to be there" nature of the player's active participation and I lose myself in a cornfield. The thing I found hilarious might come a beat to early for you, or not at all, or not be funny in text like it is in gameplay.

Why did I like Lair of the Clockwork God? It made me laugh.

The premise and particulars are a lot of "that could go either way." Ben and Dan - stars of Ben There, Dan That and Time Gentleman, Please! - have returned. Ben is still an adventure game star, but Dan has adopted platforming mechanics in an attempt to get with the times. So playing the game involves switching back and forth between a character who can leap across canyons but can't pick up items or talk to people, and one who can combine inventory but can't climb over a 3-pixel rock.

Does that sound potentially funny? Potentially grating? Yes to both!

The plot centers around our heroes trying to save the world from several simultaneous apocalypses and having to teach human emotions to a supercomputer in order to do so. (Don't ask.) These means, rather like Ben There, Dan That, traipsing through a number of fantasy worlds (read: computer simulations) until the correct emotion is provoked. This requires cross-genre cooperation: finding ways to get Ben to areas only Dan can access, getting Dan new power ups by combining objects in Ben's inventory (an act Dan insists on calling "crafting").

The best bits are at these intersections, when Dan's platforming is the puzzliest and Ben's puzzles take advantage of Dan's skills. Periodically the game gives you a Dan-centric platforming gauntlet the controls are NOT precise nor pleasant enough for, or a Ben-only moon logic puzzle that leaves you googling the walkthrough.

But I liked it! A lot. The genre-hopping seems to have invigorated the developers, Ben Ward and Dan Marshall. I discussed my favorite joke in Ben There, Dan That (in what is probably the least popular video I've ever made that wasn't asking for money), but was also dismayed that the game was never that clever again. But this one is, several times over! Progression here involves cheating your way to a better respawn zone, goofing around in game menus, exploiting "glitches," exiting out and loading up entirely other games. There is a lot of poking and prodding at what a game of this nature can or should be.

But, honestly? The only real selling point is... it was funny. The humor is as anarchic and metatextual as in previous titles, but it feels good-natured in a way BT,DT didn't. And there are, here and there, little bits of meat on its bones - the characters wondering if, as a couple thirtysomething white guys, the world hasn't left them behind, no longer comfortable with the juvenile humor of their youth but not really understanding the youth of today, but having not yet fully escaped the mentalities they used to hold. (There's an unspoken humor to Dan's idea of "modern" gameplay being 2D platforming mechanics, especially at a time when adventure games are significantly more popular than on his last outing; this is a good joke whether or not it's intentional.)

Also: this game contains the most poignant urinating-on-a-grave puzzle in gaming history, and you may quote me on that.

Having finished it months ago, I can't even remember what all the gags were that tickled me at the time. Comedy fades from memory faster than drama or frustration. Mostly I just remember having a good time.

Thoughts on The Darkside Detective

Here's a hook: sometime after the mayhem ends in Ghostbusters, The Exorcist, Evil Dead 2, or some other paranormal blockbuster that you watched over and over in the 90's until the VHS wore out, some overworked detective has to come into your town and piece together what the hell happened.

This is his story.

It's a good gag, and the devs wring every drop from it. Existing in a world where these things are commonplace and you have to fit them into some notion of "police procedure" is just funny. Like, it's one thing to have a running gag where you keep observing the moon in outdoor scenes, commenting, with increasing hostility, that its behavior is suspicious (it has been present at multiple crime scenes); it's a slightly different thing when, given the things you've encountered, the moon being the Big Bad is actually somewhat possible.

The game is divided into six main cases and three bonus DLC missions (which come included in the base game now, and the third of which is the proper ending/setup for the sequel). You are the cop tasked to deal with The Other Side - and, when The Other Side bleeds into our own world, its cops have to deal with you. You have a sidekick with a mental maturity of about 6, which I guess makes you the straight man. (You have to grade on a curve to find a straight man in this game.) And you solve tasks like rounding up escaped gremlins or finding an AWOL lake monster all juxtaposed with mundane problems like inter-office squabbles and having not bought your Christmas presents early enough. It's (pleasantly) lo-res and sparsely isolated, so the dialogue and premise do most of the work, but they are ably up to the task.

The gameplay... not so much. I'm an adventure game lifer, so I can put up with a lot of nonsense. It's mostly straightforward inventory puzzles and occasional minigames. Most of the puzzles are fine enough. As the cases progress, things get more involved, and the DLCs especially involve some awful moon logic. And the minigames are not above using that same jumping peg puzzle you've solved in a dozen other games already. So gameplay ranges from serviceable to irritating, but it mostly exists to string together funny lines and silly images. (Christmas mall elves being secretly in service to Krampus - that's the kind of thing we're talking about here.) You won't feel much guilt for opening up a walkthrough; the puzzles aren't why you're here.

The sequel has just been released, and both games are cheap, so check them out if you feel like smiling.

Thoughts on The Procession to Calvary

It's rare for a game to be hilarious to look at.

The Procession to Calvary takes its name from the Bruegel painting. It also takes all it's graphics from Renaissance oil paintings, and the designer delights in making famously rendered heroes and religious icons steal, stab, fart, and swear.

A strong Terry-Gilliam-with-After-Effects vibe is what we're describing.

You play as a lady knight from a war that's just ended, which sucks for you because, in this age of peace, you're no longer authorized to kill. And killing's, like, you're whole thing. But the one person your new, pacifist king wouldn't stop you from killing is the warlord you just deposed, who fled to the South. So you embark on a nonsensical journey to seek out the one human on Earth you are authorized to kill, because killing is just The. Best. Ever.

Of the three games we're discussing, this is the most overtly cheeky, and, at times, the most scatological. I could've done with a bit less scatology, if I'm being honest, but the cheekiness is very winning. As with Lair of the Clockwork God, a lot of jokes could go either way - a field of people being tortured and a woman on a blanket selling commemorative torture merch could be painfully try-hard. But something about the victims being seemingly everyone ever crucified or broken on the wheel in a famous painting, and having them writhe on their crosses in a way that is both gruesome and goofy, and having a cacophonous soundtrack of their screams and moans that you will now imagine every time you look at one of those elegantly elegiac paintings from now on... it works. That the music score is being played by an extremely jaunty piper who dances behind you just out of sword's reach as you traverse the field pushes it over the top.

Oh, and the puzzles, while never hair-pullingly obtuse, will leave you stumped at times. Push past that to get the proper ending, but, if you're sick of trying, you can, at any point, just start stabbing your way through problems. Which, again: it takes a very deft touch to make "protagonist resorts to violence" actually funny rather than lazy and obvious. And maybe, in another game, the perfect timing of every animation, the clever quips, the careful contrast of cathedrals and high-society music halls with gleeful sword-swinging wouldn't be enough. But something about it being frickin' Renaissance paintings carries it the last mile.

This is probably the basest game of the three, but it's also the one that made me giggle the most. Having a BFA that required several art history classes may have something to do with it. But check this thing out.

#capsule review #darkside detective #lair of the clockwork god #procession to calvary

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centrally-unplanned · 4 years ago

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Allocating Your Aesthetic Budget: Sailor Moon Edition

Sailor Moon is a show that undoubtedly built a powerhouse of a visual brand. Should I even bother posting a screenshot of the sailor scouts, given that I am 100% confident anyone reading this can recall them instantly? I guess it won’t hurt:

Anime is often really good at creating iconic designs like this, through repetition of the visuals. It is awkward in live action shows if characters just wear the same outfit every scene (what, they only own one outfit? Are they homeless/work in the tech industry?), but animation gives us enough aesthetic “distance”, an awareness that this isn’t accurate to real life, that you can buy into the conceit. By wearing the same outfit every time, it just becomes the character. Not to mention a studio can really save quite a few bucks by streamlining production with neat tricks like having only one character design to animate - when you are on a shoe-string budget, like pretty much every anime in the 90’s was, every cut corner counts.

What is interesting about Sailor Moon is that most of the time it doesn’t really use this conceit at all.

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Episode 15 of Sailor Moon’s first season has, in its opening act, this shot of all of the Senshi (at the time) talking to the plot-of-the-day character, who clearly trains rock Pokemon in 16-bit caves in his off hours:

If you knew nothing about these three characters, you could probably infer about 80% of their personality just from their outfits. Usagi (the blond one in the middle, if that's necessary) is wearing:

Light pastel colours, with pink on top of that: girly, feminine, bubbly and breezy

Short-but-not-too-short of a skirt, and red heels: cares about fashion, wants to project an image of being a woman with a romantic hint to it

Long-twin tails w/ buns: Contrasting the shoes, she is still immature and childish. It also means she is the protagonist of an anime

Rei (far right) rocks a very different look:

T-shirt and jean shorts, shoes over heels: sensible, practical, a bit sporty

Very short shorts, long black hair: Confident, a bit aggressive, and suggestive of a more overt sexuality

Ami (far left) settles into a more restrained vibe with:

Full, long, but sleeveless dress, bob-cut hair: Chaste, more conservative, but not to the point of prudishness; particularly with the length (and the hand posture, shielding her body) probably a bit shy

Monochrome blue colour in outfit & hair: reserved, serene, possessing a calm demeanor

I know I have seen the show already, but really none of these details are a stretch - this is just the language of fashion. And all of these outfits are outfits that the characters have never (or rarely) worn before up until this point. The cast of Sailor Moon, far from that animation conceit of “standard outfits”, change clothes all…

the….

time.

I just randomly clicked on episodes to find these, it requires no hunting

And while it isn’t always as spot on as the top picture, they all in some way embody the language of visual design to speak to the personality of the characters. If you want to see more, check out one of the multiple tumblrs dedicated to the everyday clothing the Sailor Senshi wear, because of course those exist.

If this was a 2010’s Kyoto Animation show, pointing this out would be the end of it - every one of their shows has this level of impeccable detail. Sailor Moon is notable in that it is not at all that kind of show; the animation and designs in Sailor Moon take perpetual shortcuts to get the job done. I don’t think the transformation sequences need to be belabored - the way they permitted the team to recycle identical animation sequences, multiple times per episode, was surely a godsend to the production schedule. Yet not all of the budget limitations are so prettily masked:

I’m sure they finished the background art in the...VHS release?

The show is filled with dirty animation, unfinished backgrounds, backgrounds that are a simple color gradient for no clear reason, and so on. It is clear that the Sailor Moon team did not have the resources for every detail - which is why the decision of what details they did choose to prioritize is so interesting.

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What is the point of Sailor Moon? I do believe that shows have “points”; and by that I don’t mean a message or theme but a core appeal to an audience, something specific that they will get out of the show. Almost every show appeals along multiple axes, and Sailor Moon is no exception, but I want to focus on one: aesthetic identification.

If you learn someone is a Sailor Moon fan, there is the obvious follow-up question you have to ask, namely “which Sailor Senshi are you?” It’s the which-Harry-Potter-house-are-you question of anime, a horoscope where you can choose your sign (in this case literally). The premise of this concept is not hard for media to execute on - it is just personality traits and aesthetics grouped together under a label, a basic building block of media and clickbait internet quizzes. Harry Potter, ironically, raised up its memetic question almost by accident, as its focus is so squarely on House Gryffindor that the others are almost forgotten; it was just so mind-bogglingly popular that it didn’t matter.

Sailor Moon, however, takes this concept and allocates so much of its aesthetic budget into making it a centerpiece of the show. Sailor Moon herself is a klutzy, lazy romantic, Sailor Mercury is a shy, earnest bookworm, and so on, with none of them ever really becoming very complex characters. However, the show devotes itself to making you *feel* these archetypes as strongly and intricately as possible. All of those outfit changes are chosen because not only do real girls care about their outfits and can therefore identify more strongly with characters who do the same, but so they can constantly emulate their archetype in diverse, different ways. The show doesn't have the budget for intense action scenes, so after Sailor Moon engages in her hyper-serious transformation sequences, she proceeds to, nearly every time, bumble through the combat scenes like this:

Oh sure, the scenes are done this way because it is funny (and good comedy can be done on any budget - these shots are frequently still frames with motion lines!), but it is also done this way because Sailor Moon is a total screw-up, and if you identify with that it is validating to see someone “just like you” able to pull off wins despite it all. The transformation sequences are not only beautiful animation that showcases aspirational power, but are also crafted to highlight the personalities of the Senshi in question - unless you think aggressive, combative Rei got fire powers by coincidence. Half of the run-time of every episode is spent, not on the plot du-jour, but on light-hearted personal squabbles between the cast because those scenes are not just funny, but also allow for far more moments of character expression.

All of that work pays off in building with the audience, not a connection with a character who reflects their identity in total, but a connection that reflects one aspect of their identity in an extremely deep (dare I say multifaceted?) way. I think if you were to describe Sailor Moon as a “shallow” show, you would actually be right to say so, in a sense. These characters will never have the true depth of personality, themes and so on of a more ‘adult’ show. But those adult shows have to spend their effort somewhere - for all that the themes of say Evangelion or Paranoia Agent are pristinely detailed and impactful, you aren’t ever going to be memorizing the moves of their transformation sequences. The way Sailor Moon committed so strongly to fleshing out the archetypes the Senshi stood for is, I think, one of the keys to how this cast of five became so iconic.

Not even their school uniforms match! They had to spend time in-universe *justifying* this!

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A Final Note:

At least, everything I’ve said here applies to Sailor Moon at its peaks. The show, however, is not one without its stumbles, even in Season 1. This section doesn’t flow into the core essay too well, but I wanted to note it because if you were to watch Sailor Moon today, you might struggle to feel the dynamic outlined above. The biggest culprit here is the length - Season 1 is 46 episodes long, and sections of it most certainly drag. They also take a startlingly long time to introduce the cast - this choice builds tension around their arrival, but it also means the later Senshi get a lot less time to establish themselves. Sailor Venus in particular gets hamstrung by this - she is introduced and then immediately arc plot elements sweep the narrative, and so she is left as a hollow shell for some time. The pacing of the show is undoubtedly flawed.

I think Sailor Moon is a show that you do have to keep its time and place in mind for - namely, middle schoolers and anime nerds watching it on broadcast TV in the 90’s. As an adult you “get” the point of the show pretty quickly, and get satiated on it almost as fast. Watching it all in a few sittings only heightens this problem. For a younger audience, and one that is waiting for a week between episodes with no internet for plot reminders, all that extra time is needed to jog memories and build connections. And younger audiences just have that limitless commitment to the things they love! If you think no one could actually enjoy seeing the same transformation sequence for the 30th time, watch it with someone who would have died for this show when they were 10 and you will be disabused of that notion *very* quickly.

Still, we can’t travel back in time - Sailor Moon is a show of its era. There are “filler-reduced” guides out there, though I caution that the plot of Sailor Moon is absolutely not the point of the show in comparison to the character dynamics, and so sometimes the filler is the best part (Cat-Rhett Butler is the best character in the show YOU KNOW I’M RIGHT). Certainly, however, some method must be used to cut down on its length. If you are going to be a first time viewer in adulthood, that reality should be kept in mind, and if you do accept it for what it is you can really appreciate its core appeal - and don’t forget to finish it off with a 1990′s era internet personality quiz to really wrap it up!

#essay #anime analysis #sailor moon

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beabaseball · 4 years ago

Note

hey i was wondering, in the post you rbd about the cave older than bones, which cave is it! im in the appalachia region myself and id love to learn more or visit if possible!

So I got a few requests about this and since I don’t actually want people to go out during a pandemic, I’m going to provide a list of a handful of caves in Virginia on the Appalachian Karst trail. The sites have pictures and some have video tours available. Once upon a time, I planned to make a documentary about the Virginia cave systems, but alas, a pandemic hit before I had more than two filmed :(

Remember about white nose syndrome. If you’ve been in a cave that’s been infected disinfect your clothing INCLUDING shoes, or wear different clothes entirely.

The Very Old Cave I referred to in the post is Shenandoah Caverns. It will depend on the tourguide you get how good your tour info is, but Shenadoah Caverns is just a weird cave in general as it is made by both earthquake and flooding, whereas most caves are one or the other. It has areas with large formations as well as a handful of nooks and crannies, and 75% is wheelchair accessible, but maybe not wheelchair comfortable, as everything is gravel. Do not touch the bacon.

Skyline Caverns is north of there, near skyline drive, which is already a popular site. It is completely different to Shenandoah Caverns but they have the same naming system because they shared the same owner and he wanted to create a McDonalds cavern experience (as in, regardless of which mcdonalds you’re at, the food is all the same). Skyline Caverns has trout?? that I assume are safe and happy?? There are only two. They also have anthodites, which are rare crystal formations that resemble sea anemones. There are only a handful of caves with true anthodites in the world. They also have something called the ‘tuning fork,’ which is very cool, but also your tour guide is technically not allowed to demonstrate to you. Don’t touch shit, even when left alone. Be nice to the tour guides, they aren’t allowed to leave the cave before an hour has passed.

Luray Caverns... sure is a cavern. I am mean to them, but I did actually buy their VHS as a kid and rewatch it a lot. Luray is maybe the most commercialized cave, which is both a blessing and a curse, because they do bring a lot of tourism to Luray but also the tours are very crowded sometimes and the guides need microphones to be heard. It’s pretty easy for people to just sneak off if they are in the back of the group. Luray is a very young cave, actually, but it has lots and lots of colorful formations because it is also shallow! The minerals don’t have to travel as far down to be deposited. They now have an elevator and are largely wheelchair accessible. They also have an underground organ. What they play is a recording, to not damage the cave any further, but it does really work. Do not touch the eggs, even if your tour guide tells you to.

Endless Caverns are called that because we can’t find the dang end of it. Literally people have walked for a full two days and not found the end, as far as I know, so stick to the path the tour guide gives you. They’re an earthquake cave that has lots of windy little tunnels and an excellent total darkness experience (or maybe I just had a great tour guide). They are closed over winter for the bats to chill inside, and will open up again this April for tours.

Grand Caverns es Grande. The oldest operating tour cave in the US, it has extremely large rooms, chandeliers, and also so many shield formations/angel wings that it’s literally almost the only thing I know about it. HOWEVER. They are also one of the only caves that can offer an adventure tour with headlamps and knee pads and everything. Fountain Cave has no lights installed inside, a path from the 1800s, and hasn’t really been open to the public until recently.

Cumberland Gap Cave ... listen. listen. This cave is $8. For adults. It is also Virginia’s only candlelight cave tour. It’s a bit of a hike, 1.5 miles, and with lots of steps and some of that being a wilderness trail. HOWEVER. The bats in the cave are in danger of White Nose syndrome. Do not use shoes you’ve been in other bat caves with. They also have Sand Cave nearby, which is not technically a cave, but it is the end of a hiking trail and there is rocks over your head. If you swarm these areas and go off the trail or litter, I’ll end you.

Natural Bridge Caverns are, as implied, close to the Natural Bridge, which is a mile hike on its own and shouldn’t have been imposed on 3rd graders if they wanted us to pay attention. Natural Bridge Caverns go down 34 stories (340 ft or 104 m) making them the deepest caverns on the east coast. It’s not a very long tour, about 45 minutes. Lots of flowstone.

Dixie Caverns was discovered by a dog, and we appreciate the kids who ran into a hole in the ground to get their pup back up. This is another pretty cheap tour, with tickets at $12 for adults. I haven’t been there myself and I can’t find much online about them, as they’re pretty small commercially, but apparently this is a cave where you go up the mountain instead of down, which sounds very fun. Looks like it has plenty of formations and several water pools. It has a gem and mineral shop nearby. It is in Salem, but it is not the Witch Trials Salem.

....and these are all the appalachia caves I know about (in virginia, which is all I know)

et Carthago delenda est.

#caves #cave tours #caverns #appalachia #appalachian mountains #geology #don't do tourism we're in a pandemic #beatext

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surveys-at-your-service · 4 years ago

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Survey #333

“imaginary chain / the one you never break / seething all alone”

Do you have any fears you would rarely admit to anyone? Nah, I'm pretty open about what I'm afraid of. What website do you spend most of your time on? YouTube. What class in high school did you struggle with the most? I honestly don't remember with certainty, but it was probably math or economics. At least, I think econ was my senior year. What could you talk about for hours? Mark, meerkats, a few game franchises... maybe a couple more topics. Who is your favorite character from Harry Potter? I wouldn't know. Do you salt your popcorn? Yes. Do you have a Steam account? Yeah, but I don't have many games on there and rarely touch the ones I do. Do you like gaming? I do, but not as much as I did for most of my life. I mostly just play WoW now, and even that I'm not that into anymore. Part of it though comes from not buying any new games that I'm interested in because 1.) no money and 2.) no proper console, and you can only replay games so many times before you're just... yeah, done. Do you like reading books? Some days. Do you like religion? All things considered? No. Do you like Grand Theft Auto V? Y'know, growing up, I actually liked watching my younger neighbor play one of those games, but I don't remember which. Though he never actually "played" it... just ran around wreaking havoc, lol. I do however think GTAV was the one that Jason and Jacob started playing together when we moved into the apartment, and I thought the story was okay; I don't think they ever got far into it, though. Definitely wasn't Jason's sort of game, and I don't think it was too much up Jacob's alley, either. Can you twerk? I haven't tried and you will never see me try either, lmao. Do you have a Spotify account? Yes, but I almost never use it. If the last person you kissed tried to kiss you again, would you start kissing them back? Yes. If your best friend of the opposite sex tried to kiss you, would you start kissing them back? No. Have you ever kissed someone who has previously kissed someone you hated? Yes, because of how badly she hurt him. I don't have any negative feelings towards her now, though. We're actually friends, haha. The irony. Are you an easy lay? What weird wording. But whatever, quite the polar opposite actually. When’s the last time you said you were sorry? A few days ago. Are there any songs you listen to everyday? No. Would you like living on the coast? As someone who lives in a state hit by hurricanes usually every year and has seen the incredible damage they usually bring to the coast, no. I don't like the smell or gritty feel of salty air, either. When’s the last time you were really late to something? No idea. That's usually not a problem with me. Why did you stop liking the last person you liked? The last person I actually stopped like-liking would be Girt, and that would be because I just came to the realization I saw him too much as my brother instead of boyfriend. It just always felt awkward. Do you still talk to that person? Yeah, we're good. No hard feelings or anything between us. Are you keeping a secret from someone who needs to know the truth? No. Do you trust easily? Fuck no. I'll be cautious, at least to some degree, about new people for a while. What is the last song to make you cry? Since I've actually behaved and not listened to any trigger songs, it's been a long while, but it was probably "Another Life" by Motionless In White. Last person you hung up on? I'm sure some automated message. I barely ever answer the phone to numbers I don't recognize, though. Where was your last car ride to and from? To Wal-Mart w/ Mom to pick up our order and then back home. Next big outing? *shrug* Do you find it difficult to stay invested in online relationships? Not really, no. Considering I'm by far my most authentic self online, I actually tend to appreciate virtual friends more, if I'm being honest. I try to keep up with those people. Are you the type of person who pays close attention to the release dates of movies, music, etc., and will, for example, go see a movie or buy an album on the date it is released? If so, when is the last time you did so? Not really, no. I think I saw Warcraft the day it came into theaters, though. Do movies often make you cry? What kind of films/scenes make you tear up most? Yep. Tragic romance tends to do it the most, I think. Do you use any apps to track your health or medications? I have one to track my menstrual cycle as well as another that tracks my daily caloric intake, but I'm bad at using it because it's tedious if I actually have to measure something. Whose opinions/recommendations do you value most? Ummm if you mean like, in general, probably my mom's. But this most certainly depends on the subject I'm taking feedback on. What is something society "expects" you to do that you don't want to do and/or don't plan on doing? Shaving my legs came to mind first. Granted, I will if there is almost any chance of someone seeing them, but otherwise, I just don't care. We respect women with body hair on this account and see them as no less feminine. Are you interested in architecture? Is there any particular style that you're drawn to? I think it's cool, yeah. I should have an answer for this, given architecture was a massive focus in Art History the last time I was in school... Roman architecture comes to my head first, if that says anything. What was one of your favorite things from the nineties? BOY OH BOY, SO MUCH!! I'm probably gonna say the toys. There was some dope shit, man. Do you collect things pertaining to an animal? ANYTHING and EVERYTHING featuring a meerkat!!!!! :''') Do you wish that people were kinder to spiders? Well, yes. I hope everyone in their heart wishes this, even if they're afraid of them. They're very important to our ecosystem, and none are out there to harm us; their existence does us a favor. Where do you normally order pizza from? Domino's (my favorite) or LIttle Caesar's for the price. Did your parents keep anything of yours from when you were a baby? Oh yes, loads of stuff that's stored away somewhere. Do you own one of those "____ For Dummies" books? No, but I feel like we had one at some point? What was the last VHS tape that you watched? Yikes, who knows. Did you watch Boy Meets World back in the day? I actually didn't, no. Our old neighbor though loved it so much that she named her daughter Tapanga (deliberately spelled that way). Who is your favorite Scooby Doo character? I never really had one. Maybe Thelma. If I were to give you a coloring book, what would you want its theme to be? Animals. Have you ever won a stuffed animal at a carnival? Possibly a small one. I can tell you I did however accidentally stab the guy who ran the dart-throwing booth though, lmfao. He was obviously fine, and it wasn't a bad wound. I felt SOOOOOO bad. Are you a fan of narwhals? I'm a fan of any animal. Narwhals are definitely fascinating creatures. Grape or orange soda? Orange. Grape-flavored soda ain't my thing. Have you ever wanted to vlog? Noooo. My life is so painstakingly boring and repetitive. Did you have a favorite Disney movie as a child? It was and still is The Lion King. Do you or have you ever owned a portable gaming console? Yeah, a GameBoy Advance and Nintendo DS. Is shyness cute? It definitely can be. Have you ever had alcohol poisoning before? No. Do you like to gossip, or do you prefer to keep your mouth shut? I'm not a gossip fan. Have you ever vandalized someone else’s property before? Most definitely not. Are your parents divorced? Yes. Have you ever been under suicide watch for 72 hours in a psychiatric ward? Yes; at least here, that's protocol when you're admitted for suicidal thoughts/tendencies. Have you ever gone through your significant other’s phone or social media accounts, or do you respect their privacy? Absolutely not. That shit pisses me off so badly. Do you wear any sort of clothing for religious reasons? No. What's something you worked extremely hard to get? My sanity back. Sounds so dramatic, but I'm literally not kidding. Have you ever been labeled negatively or otherwise been called something extremely derogatory? Not that I remember. How many kids do you want to have? I don't want kids, but to entertain the question, when I did, I wanted three. It's fuckin wild to imagine for even a second that I once wanted that. Do you believe that being gay is a sin? *eye roll* Are you any good at photography? If so, what’s your specialty? I mean it with modesty, but I think I'm pretty good. My favorite thing to photograph are animals, but I generally take most pictures of people by request or pay. Judging by my deviantART account, my nature pics definitely get the most attention. Have you ever been a member of a gang before? Fuckin yikes, no. An infamous gang tried breaking into my childhood home once, so you can probably gather that I would never take part in their "big bad guys" bullshit. Have you ever felt like you were neither male nor female? No, I'm comfortable as a cisgender female. Do you like oatmeal raisin cookies? NO. Anything with raisins = NO. Do you think you’re attractive? No. Has a teacher ever caught and read a note you were passing in class? No, not that I really passed notes to begin with. I'd be mortified, regardless of what it was about. Would you rather live in a tropical or arctic climate? Arctic. Do you have an older brother? Yes. He's technically my half-brother, but I don't see "half"s. Have either of your parents ever been to jail? No. Are your collarbones prominent? Bitch I wish so I could get the damn dermal piercings I've wanted for years. Have you ever in your life worn overalls? As a kid, yeah. So ugly. Do you love yourself? It's... weird. Therapy is making me realize that a part of me, maybe even the bigger one, doesn't, but at the exact same time, I know I have worth just like every other human. I just don't treat myself like I do. What TV shows do you keep up with? None, until Meerkat Manor returns this summer. :') When’s the last time it snowed where you live? A couple months ago we got a little bit of it. Is your belly button pierced? No, but it would be if I was actually skinny. Just in my personal opinion, I don't at all think that that piercing would look nice on someone as overweight as me. Even if my damn dreams come true and I lose all the weight I want, my stomach will never look "normal," even after I get the excess skin removal surgery that will be very high on my priority list for my own self-image that's been nothing but loathsome since 2016. What is your favourite dinosaur? Spinosaurus is the obvious answer. What do you remember the most about your childhood? Lots of imagination. Parents arguing. Playing with my little sister. What age did you get your first hair cut? I have no idea. Do you have a favourite toy from childhood still? No. I wish I hadn't gotten rid of it. Have you ever made bread? No. Would you ever consider shaving your head? Nah. Would you like to live in a realm where the zombie apocalypse is possible? Who says we don't now? Zombifying parasites already exist among insects and such, so like... it's not unimaginable to one day see one developed enough to infect humans. I sure as fuck hope not, but. What do you use to dry your clothes? (Tumble dryer, radiator, etc) We have a dryer. Do you ever play the built-in games on your computer? Which ones? Nah. What was the last spontaneous thing you did? I did this many, many months ago, but I guess watch an episode of The Witcher by my own volition. I don't really do spontaneous things with how routine I am, but I had a random urge to check it out one morning. How loud can you whistle? Not very loud at all. Does anything on your body hurt or itch right now? My knees really hurt. They're getting worse. When was the last time you built a sandcastle? There's noooo telling, it's been many years. Have you ever ridden a mechanical bull? No. Well, not a *real* one, anyway. Just the little ones for kids. If you had to appear on a game show, which one would you choose? Family Feud. What is your favorite hot beverage? Hot chocolate. Do you have an alter ego? Describe them: No. Food: Are you adventurous or do you stick to what you know? I absolutely stick to what I know. I am SO picky. Is there anything (out of the obvious) that makes you feel really ill? I'm not immediately sure, but there's probably something. Do you bump into things often? Yes. I've always had this weird habit of like... drifting when I walk, so I do this easily. I just kinda wander to the sides a bit without realizing it. What design is on your calendar this year? I don't have a current one. Did you enjoy playing Hop Scotch when you were younger? I did. Do you feel uncomfortable going to the movies by yourself? Nah, not really. I did that with Warcraft and it was actually pretty chill. When thinking about your dream home, what do you think would be your favorite thing to shop for? The ~g o t h i c~ decor. Do you ever listen to those lo-fi hip hop/study music playlists on YouTube/Spotify? No. Are you likelier to work harder if you’re being paid? If not, what drives you to give your best effort? I mean, yeah. I'd assume that's pretty normal. Does the fashion sense of a potential partner matter to you? No. Is there anything that you prefer to write down rather than type? I'm unsure. If you download/torrent things, do you remember the first thing you ever torrented? Oh, the Limewire days of music pirating... but no, I don't remember. What was the last thing you posted on Instagram? Something photography-related, but I don't feel like checking. What do you wish your hair looked like? I wish I could pull off pastel pink hair rn. It also desperately needs a trim. Do you still feel anything for the first person you fell in love with? I'm sure I always will, at least a little. Do you get any magazines in the mail? No. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? Uhhhhh have I? I don't think so. Who’d you last see in a tux? Probably the groom of the last wedding I shot. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? No, but I used to do that big time because I loved "rewatching" stuff when I was on the computer. Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? My mother, big time. Who’s the bravest person you know? Also my mother. Or Sara. What profession do you admire the most? Teachers might just win. The patience that must take, among so many other things. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? No.

#survey #surveys #questions #lyrics: ''bornless'' by 3teeth

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bmoviedragonsreloaded · 5 years ago

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Review: American Samurai (1992)

“Why couldn’t we just have been brothers?”

SOURCE

This review is based on the Region 1 DVD release of the film.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The Cannon Group was on its last legs in the early 90s and American Samurai was one of the last movies distributed during its lifetime. The first of several collaborations between director Sam Firstenberg and star David Bradley, this is a picture with a lot going for it that still manages to confound me. When I first saw it, I was shocked by many of the creative and technical decisions, but having recently seen it again, I think I can hang a lot of them on the old sin of studio overreach. Still, it shines in some important and gratifying ways and is worth a watch if this is your kind of thing.

The plot: An American reporter trained in the ways of the samurai (Bradley) and his photographer (Valarie Trapp) investigate a murder in Turkey, where he uncovers a deadly tournament championed by his vicious half-brother (Mark Dacascos).

Writer John Corcoran (RIP) was a well-known figure in the world of martial arts publication, but his sole movie script is basically Bloodsport with weapons. It starts off incredibly pulpy with the baby protagonist surviving a plane crash and being raised by a modern samurai (John Fujioka), but it almost immediately begins hitting recognizable beats of the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle, down to a blatant Donald Gibb knockoff character (Rex Ryon). Nevertheless, I think the film originally intended to distinguish itself by being a more dramatic and heartfelt story, with the crux being the conflict between the brothers. We get hints of an emotional undercurrent, with Bradley’s character conflicted about fighting the sibling who feels jealous of his parental favor. However, in the end, we only get a superficial and choppy representation of their feud, including a rushed prologue and a head-spinning psychedelic scene where the lead confronts his brother’s demonic form in a dream. (Shades of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story?)

That’s a recurring trend: parts of the story and action giving the impression of having once been very different. It’s most apparent in two instances: (1) the breakneck romance between David Bradley and Valarie Trapp, with an abrupt sex scene entirely performed by body doubles, and (2) the final duel between the brothers, which I’m certain was initially a short and minimalistic fight before being expanded with footage obviously transplanted from previous scenes. I get the impression that the script was heavily edited to focus on exploitation, and then the movie saw substantial content changes during post-production. It complicates what probably a pretty simple film, to the point that I don’t feel like I can accurately critique the screenplay and the acting. I don’t assume it was ever a dramatic masterpiece, but I wonder whether even Mark Dacascos’ hamfisted acting didn’t seem more appropriate before his character’s motivations were screwed with after the fact.

Speaking of Dacascos, he’s retrospectively one of the main drawing points of the movie. This was his first substantial film role and he’s still in proto form. His presence and intensity are already apparent, his acting would improve, but the filmmakers don’t quite know how to get the most out of his fight scenes. Dacascos looks great with a katana, but if you’re hoping to find the equivalent of his fight scenes from Drive or even the following year’s Only the Strong, you’ll be disappointed at his comparatively restrained adrenaline pieces.

That said, the action is pretty good. I definitely appreciate it more than I did during my first viewing. Weapons are the name of the game, putting the film in the same subcategory as Ring of Steel and the Swordsman series. There’s some purely hand-to-hand stuff in the first half, with David Bradley demonstrating some cool throws, but for the most part, the action’s a variety of colorful opponents fighting each other with a plethora of bladed weapons. The quality of the fights isn’t static, with more than one marred by an overabundance of cutaway shots, but a lot of thought has been put into the choreography. The flashiest match is a rare onscreen appearance of Hong Kong choreographers Dion Lam and Anthony Szeto, but my personal favorite is a sword-versus-ax encounter between David Bradley and a viking-themed opponent (Mark Warren). I like how Bradley first uses only the hilt of his katana to fight, then only the dull side of the blade before he actually starts slicing. It’s not spectacular stuff, but definitely enjoyable.

“Definitely enjoyable” is a good summation of the movie, but only if you’re already into this genre, are a fan of some of the performers, and/or are prepared to find pleasure in the little details. I like Sam Firstenberg’s signature gore (even though the content is clumsily censored in the DVD release) – not just because of how it helps spice up the duels, but because I appreciate how he was one of the few karate filmmakers who utilized special effects in his action scenes. I get a kick out of Valarie Trapp, who’s nothing special as an actor but whose real-life story of being a struggling writer taking small movie roles to get by is genuinely inspiring. And, of course, I love the fact that two action heroes in different stages of their careers were able to do a film together, because even if this isn’t the best, it’s not so for lack of effort. If this sounds like your kind of picture, it’s worth spending a bit of money on…though you might be better off getting the VHS version in this case, which I don’t recall being quite as heavily censored.

SOURCE

American Samurai (1992) Directed by Sam Firstenberg (Revenge of the Ninja) Written by John Corcoran (editor of Inside Kung Fu magazine) Starring David Bradley (American Ninja 3 & 4), Valarie Trapp (Mr. Stitch), Mark Dacascos, Rex Ryan (The Man in the Iron Mask) Cool costars: The late, great John Fujioka plays another benevolent martial arts master, much like his role in American Ninja. The list of tournament fighters and other onscreen combatants include Hong Kong action masters Dion Lam (Black Mask) and Anthony Szeto (Wushu), karate staple Ron Vreeken (Under the Gun), and award-winning stunt pros Koby Azarly (Sector 4: Extraction) and Rocky McDonald (Mission Impossible II). Second unit director and action coordinator Guy Norris has since moved up the studio ladder, nowadays coordinating for major motion pictures like Mad Max: Fury Road and Suicide Squad. Video game fans may recognize composer Craig Stuart Garfinkle from his later work on the World of Warcraft and Fallout series. Content warning: Extreme violence, violence against women, kidnapping, police intimidation Title refers to David Bradley’s lead character, who plays an American trained in the art of the samurai. In a roundabout way, it could also refer to Mark Dacascos and John Fujioka, who are real-life Americans playing characters with samurai training. (If you want to be a pedantic nitpicker, the title’s a total misnomer since no character’s an actual member of the old Japanese military caste.) Cover accuracy: David Bradley and Mark Dacascos posing with swords, the latter seemingly wearing his outfit from the tournament, are certainly very true to the movie. That said, the Japanese syllabery and paper walls in the background don’t convey that hardly any of the story takes place in Japan. Number of full-length fight scenes: 10 Copyright Cannon Pictures / Global Pictures

#film review #film criticism #film critique #action #martial arts #karate #samurai #kendo #kenjutsu #american samurai #david bradley #mark dacascos #valarie trap #rex ryan #sam firstenberg

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infernalyearning · 5 years ago

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CKPQ and V? For your choice? :)

C = Cuddle (How do they cuddle?)

Doppio: It’s sort of exactly what you’d expect. He prefers being face to face, whether it's a full on tangle of limbs or just lightly draping his arms over Taralli. He doesn’t usually hug too tightly but he does like to hold Taralli’s hands when they cuddle. He also loves to give kisses while he cuddles- especially kissing Taralli’s eyelids, wrists, and knuckles.

Melone: Mel is super physically affectionate so he adores cuddling! He doesn’t have much preference for position- he just wants to cuddle any way, anywhere, any time. He loves the chance to rest his head in the crook of Amaretti’s shoulder and nuzzle his neck. Teddy-bear holds and tight squeezes are high on his list of favorite things. When laying down, he’ll sometimes go full koala and start entangling legs too.

Risotto: He likes to be laid on. He’s happy to serve as a pillow and even happier if Vitello reaches up to play with his hair. The “half-spoon” and “sweetheart cradle” poses are pretty easy go-tos since he likes to wrap his arm around his partner. If he’s in the mood to initiate cuddling he’s got a habit of simply wrapping Vitello in a hug, lifting him up by the waist and collapsing backwards into a full on pancake press. Let Riz be a mattress.

Prosciutto: He’s not high on physical affection so it’s very rare for him to initiate any cuddling. He’s open to being cuddled (provided he isn’t in On Guard Mode) but generally he’s just the sort to passively loop a loose arm over his partner’s shoulder. However, when he’s half asleep there’s about a 50/50 chance that his go to back-to-back sleeping position will sometimes turn into him rolling over and spooning Torrone. (Which is fine by Torro, he’s not big on cuddling either- and with [Guns N Roses] falling asleep on people can be a little risky.)

K = Kiss (How do they kiss? Who initiated the first kiss?)

Doppio: Generally, Doppio’s kisses are very soft and sweet. He’s the type to absentmindedly give Taralli a kiss on the cheek before going somewhere. He’s not the type to just throw kisses around like certain assassins, he likes to keep them as a special sign of trust. While he typically sticks to short close-lipped kisses, he isn’t opposed to open-mouth kissing (no tongue) and enjoys those for longer, more romantic kisses. He initiated the first kiss between him and Taralli and likes to play with Taralli’s lip rings before, after, and in between kisses.

Melone: He’s highly opportunistic and will jump at just about any chance to steal a kiss. He adores the chance to absolutely cover Amaretti in quick, soft kisses all over his face, neck, shoulders, hands, collarbones, etc- if he can get his lips on it it’s fair game in his eyes. Melone’s easily excitable and eager to please, so kissing sessions can spiral out of hand quickly from gentle romantics into sloppy spit-swapping. He’s extremely biased towards putting his tongue to good use and he’s absolutely thrilled when taking a break for air in the middle of a makeout results in a trail of shared saliva. Amaretti initiated their first kiss, at Melone’s request.

Risotto: He’s pretty inexperienced and honestly he’s a bit embarrassed about it. Starting out, his kisses tend to be very hesitant- even more casual ones like a peck on the forehead, he always seems slightly unsure if he’s really allowed to be kissing anyone. He does gain more confidence as time goes on and primarily enjoys slow, sensual kisses when there’s time to devote to it. He really enjoys trailing kisses over Vitello’s jaw or pressing them behind his ear. He initiated the first kiss.

Prosciutto: Try as he might, Pro’s kisses are always back-against-the-wall aggressive. Even if they aren’t rough, they’re hungry- utterly starved for connection. His professionalism completely buckles and he gives in to impulses. He can and will use his teeth. He has a horrible habit of constantly talking when kissing, making anything he’s trying to say effectively indecipherable. His preferences for closed vs open mouthed kissing tends to fluctuate depending on his mood and he’ll throw a fit if he decides a makeout has gotten too messy- stopping to lecture Torro and attempt to clean up before he finds himself distracted by wanting to lock lips again. Torrone initiated their first kiss.

P = Pet names (What pet names do they use?)

Answered here!

Q = Quaint (What is their favourite non-modern thing?)

Doppio: Tape recorders and polaroids are some of his favorites. He has a bit of a bad memory at times so he likes anything that can help him have a physical bit of the past, even if he knows it could be dangerous to do so. Every record he has he keeps knowing that at the drop of a hat he might have to destroy it. He’s also got a soft spot for board games, though he hasn’t been able to play many.

Melone: Old tech! Melone really likes the aesthetic of it as well as the actual feeling of the plastic/metal. He likes the sounds older tech makes especially- the click of a rotary dial, the hum of an old tube TV, the clack of a chunky CRT keyboard, the shuffle of a tape being rewound, etc. If you leave him alone with VHS tapes you’ll come back to find him fiddling with the wheels on the back just to listen to the springy sound it makes.

Risotto: Writing letters. He doesn’t send them for the sake of not leaving a paper trail so instead he keeps them in a lockbox (or on rare occasions gives them directly to the person they’re written for). In his office at LS HQ he’s got a secret stationary collection that includes some calligraphy pens and wax seal stuff. He once bought special ink that had iron in it and let [Metallica] try to write on its own (they didn’t so much write as they did draw a bunch of squiggles but Riz kept the ‘letter’ anyway).

Prosciutto: Candles and card games. There’s something so classy and atmospheric about candlelight that Prosciutto adores. And he’s just a fan of the mental games that happen when playing cards. He’s fond of teaching others how to play as much as he is matching wits with other skilled players.

V = Vaunt (What do they like to show off? What are they proud of?)

Doppio: He doesn’t quite show off in the usual sense but he does feel a little puff up of pride when his habit of observation pays off and he notices something everyone else seemed to miss. He isn’t a super prideful guy, he’s happy to know he’s useful so he tries to show off his versatility when he gets the chance.

Melone: His knowledge. Mel knows his range of interests isn’t very appealing to most people so when someone gives him the chance to babble about genetics and pseudoscience divinations he’s always excited!

Risotto: His food, actually. Sometimes Risotto worries the only thing he’s good for is intimidation and violence so he enjoys getting the chance to unwind by cooking/baking and see people enjoy what he’s made.

Prosciutto: Prosciutto puts a lot of effort into his looks, he always wants to make sure he’s presentable and makes a good impression so of course he adores the chance to show off an especially well fitting suit.

#long post #loving babble #📞🍧#🍈📶#🔪🤘#🍾⏱️

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mrjoelgarcia9 · 6 years ago

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Let’s Talk #Disney’s #Aladdin and the King of Thieves

Following the conclusion of the Aladdin TV series, Disney released a second direct-to-video sequel which served as the animated franchise’s finale.

For a review of Disney’s Aladdin and the King of Thieves, feel free to keep reading. There will be spoilers.

The film begins with a mysterious figure leading camels carrying baskets towards Agrabah, presenting them as gifts for Princess Jasmine and Aladdin’s wedding. As this occurs, Aladdin tells Genie about his supposed late father. As the wedding begins, the forty thieves attack. While everyone else fights them, Aladdin confronts their leader. After the thieves retreat, he finds out they wanted a staff containing an oracle who could lead them to a treasure. The oracle also tells Aladdin his father is alive and with the thieves.

This film is not only better than The Return of Jafar but also one of Disney’s few good direct-to-video sequels.

The biggest thing to note about it is Robin Williams reprising the role of Genie after having resolved his conflict with Disney. He brings back the comedic charm Genie lacked in the previous sequel. Like in the first film, Williams references several pop culture characters such as Walter Cronkite, Pumbaa from The Lion King, and even his previous film role of Mrs. Doubtfire. His performance helps make the film more than just a cheap direct-to-video movie.

This film can be seen without having watched either The Return of Jafar or the TV series, since none of the characters introduced in those productions are involved with the story, although some from the latter appear in cameos during the wedding. Additionally, when Genie mentions Jafar in the opening song, it can be interpreted as a reference to either the first or second film.

The plot is very straightforward, with Aladdin having to confront the Forty Thieves just as he is about to get married. With a few more improvements, such as developing the titular thieves and the climax’s pacing, this could have worked as a theatrical feature.

Two major characters were introduced in the film: Aladdin’s long-lost father Cassim and antagonist Sa’luk.

The revelation of Aladdin’s father being alive is rare for a Disney film. Normally, when the protagonist’s parents do not appear at the start of the story, it is heavily implied they are dead. This film, on the other hand, reveals his father to be alive and leading the Forty Thieves. Cassim is shown to be conflicted by trying to be the father he never was to Aladdin while still wanting to find the treasure he spent most of his life looking for.

Sa’luk is a breath of fresh air in comparison to Jafar and the TV show’s villains. Rather than use magic, he uses strength and intimidation to challenge Cassim and seize control of the thieves. Jerry Orbach’s performance helps make the character more than just a forgettable villain, although at some points he sounds like an evil Lumiere.

The Forty Thieves were bland and generic henchmen who barely contribute anything to the film. Additionally. their involvement contradicts the opening line of “Friend Like Me”, in which Genie references Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, although it could be waived off as just another one of his many references.

The animation improved for this final outing. While still not as bright and colorful as the first film, it was far superior to The Return of Jafar. There is a night and day difference between the sequels. An effort to make it look great can especially be seen during Genie’s scenes and the climax. It still had a coloring issue but now looked more like a proper film and not just a TV episode.

The music similarly improved. “There’s a Party Here in Agrabah” sets up the film and reintroduces Williams’ Genie. “Welcome To The Forty Thieves” is catchy, especially if you watched this film’s trailer on one of many Disney VHS tapes. “Father and Son” is yet another fun performance from Williams. The ending reprisal of “Arabian Nights” bookends the film trilogy.

The only other thing to note is Disney’s 2016 Blu-ray release of the film sold alongside The Return of Jafar as a “2 Movie Collection” Disney Movie Club exclusive. The films are presented in 16:9 widescreen even though they were originally animated and distributed in 4:3 full screen. This also extends to their respective 2016 DVDs, current digital versions, and modern TV airings.

It is sad to see this film’s HD releases are only available in a cropped format. There are moments where characters look like they are either in extreme closeups or cut off by the top and bottom of the screen. It is especially obvious during the Oracle’s appearances and a sequence in the song “Father and Son” when Genie references The Brady Bunch.

The only ways to watch the film in its original aspect ratio are on the 1996 VHS and Laserdisc releases. Unlike The Return of Jafar, this film’s 2005 DVD was presented in a similar cropped format.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is a good conclusion to the animated Aladdin franchise. It has a good story, great new characters, and is the rare good direct-to-video sequel from Disney.

Whether you only like the first film or the complete franchise, this sequel is worth watching and comes Recommended.

Aladdin and the King of Thieves is available to own on Blu-ray and Digital. The original aspect ratio is only available on VHS and Laserdisc.

Until next time, thank you for reading!

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radical-rad1986 · 5 years ago

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50 Questions for Fic Readers

Original here by braveten.

What fandom(s) do you read? Esca, TMNT, Firefly/Serenity, Criminal Minds, and NyxEtoile and OlivesAwl’s MCU.

If you could request more of a certain type of fic, which would it be? Type no. Pairing YES: MaMa, MaA, DxM!

What is your favorite all-time fic? Aerika S’ Eries fics. (They’re parts of the same story, so ha. :) )

Do you ever re-read fics? How about triple-read? If I favorite the fic that means that I want to read it again in the future. I’ve read Aerika’s fics more than three times.

Do you prefer angst or fluff? Both.

Do you prefer long fics or short fics? LONG. Some topics don’t work for long, but I definitely prefer long haul.

Name some incomplete fics that you wish were completed. Dyce’s Firefly fic(s); they disappeared from the face of the Earth. :( I’m sure there’s a few Esca ones on ff.net that I wish were complete.

Talk about the ships that you read. VH, duh. Astons x men. Just search my tags for my rambles.

Do you read smut? Extremely rarely.

What’s the most hard-core smut or kinky fic you’ve ever read (be honest)!

Do you read AUs? Depends on the type of AU. I’ll read some slight/major canon divergence but not a fan of ex: coffee shop or college AU.

List a few of your favorite AUs. Fayrin’s Vis Arcana is the only one that I’m currently reading. F/E by Konstantya and Pethics. Thief of Hearts comes to mind.

What type of AUs are your favorites? Give a general description. Slight/major canon divergence.

What makes you give up on reading a fic? Bad grammar. Solid blocks of text without spaces. Summary doesn’t give the vaguest idea about the setting and isn’t anywhere near “canon setting/normal.”

What makes you pick up a fic, what makes it sound interesting? The summary has to have at least a few good sentences. “Lol its better than the summary” usually deters me, unless its an interesting concept. I totally understand that summaries are tough, but if you don’t even try then why should I read it?

Name a fic that made you cry (or that made you come close). There have been a few but Idr them.

Name a fic that made you laugh a lot. ---

Do you have a fic recommendation page or master list? AO3 bookmarks and my favorite list on ff.net. Something more narrow would be Aerika’s Eries fics, Dyce’s Firefly fics, and floatingkhoskekfloat’s Criminal Minds fics.

How many fics do you think you’ve read before? Before now? 200+. 177 favorites on ff.net and 11 on AO3. Plus the who knows how many on Tumblr and dA.

What’s the weirdest fic you’ve ever read? Describe it. Idr it and I can’t find it but Van/Chid (12+yo) was weird.

Do you read crack!fic? Not usually; not my cup of cocoa. If a fandom friend wrote it I’m more likely to read it.

Name a few of your favorite crack!fics. ---

Has fluff ever made you cry? What about angst? ---

What’s the longest fic you’ve ever read? Um... Probably Aerika’s trilogy?

What’s your opinion on reading dubious consent or no consent? Dub con is ok depending on the context but not no con.

Name a type of fic you’ll never ever read. Non slight/major canon AU.

Name a type of fic that you wish there was more of. Eh. I’m happy people add content to the fandom.

Who are your favorite fanfiction author(s)? Aerika (moment of silence), Esca fandom peeps, Dyce (mos), floatingkhoshekfloats (mos).

When you find an author you like, do you follow them? YES!!!!!!!

How often do you read fanfiction? Depends on life factors. Close to weekly.

Do people know that you read fanfiction? Online friends do, husband does, brother does, his girlfriend would probably guess yes; I don’t share my online life with real life people.

Do you leave reviews after reading fics? If so, what do they sound like? Not usually; I need to get better. I try to follow my personal three sentence rule. (Does NOT include “I hope you’re able to update soon.” I think I saw this rule online somewhere.)

When you read a good fic, do you go to the author’s page? YES!!!!!1

Name a common type of fic that you cannot stand. ---

Name all the Work in Progress fics that you are currently reading. Uh. That’s too much work.

Has a fic ever left you unable to fall asleep or think about anything else? A few. Idr them.

Are you good about keeping up when reading Work in Progresses? Yes! (Usually.)

Name some of your favorite fic recommendations pages. I don’t have any? I’ve never seen one. Unless you mean favorites like on ff.net or AO3.

Name a fanfiction author that you’re scared to talk to because they’re so amazing. ---

Have you ever written fanfiction or considered it? ... LLooolll

Name a fic that has a perfect ending. Um...

Name a fic that you wish was longer. All of them? XD

Do you read OT3 fics commonly? Have you ever? No.

Do you mainly read TV shows, movies, or books? TV shows.

Do you read fanfiction about Anime? AHAHAHAHA.

If you could imagine the perfect fic, what would it be like? Mine, finished. Ha.

If you had to introduce someone to fanfiction with a few fics, which would you suggest? Depends on the fandom.

Have you ever read a fic containing character death? A few. Ron and His Sakura wrote one that Millerna died. That comes to mind.

Do you have an AO3/Fanfiction.net/LiveJournal page? Link it.

AO3

ff.net

dw (almost nothing fic related there yet.)

Pifo (nothing fic related there yet.)

What sites do you typically use to read on? AO3, ff.net, Tumblr, dw, LJ.

#fic #Rad rambles #questionnaire #fic ask #reading fic

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suiomi · 6 years ago

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With the rise of mobile devices being used to browse the web, the need for mobile-friendly sites is growing extremely fast. Unfortunately, making a layout responsive is still a challenge for many people.

By request of an anonymous user, I’m sharing my own method of making responsive themes, so this post will only cover what I personally do and the way I do it.

This post addresses the following:

Media queries

Viewport & Percentages

Difficulty: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

You need to have good knowledge of CSS to understand this post. I tried to explain things as clearly as possible but if you don’t have your way around CSS, you may not be able to follow it.

Media queries are rules used to make something happen depending on the condition you define. In other words, you get to tell media queries that if a screen is a certain size, then something happens.

The following media queries are the ones I use by default:

@media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { } @media only screen and (max-width: 992px) and (min-width: 601px) { } @media only screen and (max-width: 1024px) and (min-width: 993px) { }

As you can see, all of these media queries are defining a specific size. All of them say that if the screen is at least X and at most Y, then make Z happen. The first media query refers to phone screens where the width is rarely above 600px and the second one refers to most tablet screens.

There’s no special way of using media queries. All you have to do is add the CSS coding for whatever elements you want to change depending on screen size inside the media queries’ { }.

The tricky thing about these, however, are the sizes you define. The code above covers the general differences among sizes, so using those should be enough. Still, there may be some cases where you need to add different sizes.

To test my layouts’ responsiveness, I use Responsive Web Design Checker. Whenever there’s a size that I don’t have listed above, I simply add it. Either way, you should always cross-check with live devices to make sure it’s working properly. Either test it on different physical devices or ask someone to do it for you or cross-check results from different tools like the one I mentioned.

One suggestion, however, and to point this out: notice how there’s always 1px of difference between each media query. There is no screen size that will be, for example, 767,5px. So, to ensure there are no mistakes when it comes to calculating the size of the screen, I tell the queries to only apply the CSS if the screen is 1px above the size previously mentioned.

An example of two different media queries with CSS:

@media only screen and (max-width: 600px) { #sidebar{ display:none; } #posts{ margin-bottom:40px; } } @media only screen and (max-width: 1024px) and (min-width: 993px) { #sidebar{ display:block; } #posts{ margin-bottom:100px; } }

In the code above, I’m telling the queries to hide the sidebar and have a margin-bottom of 40px between posts if the screen is smaller than 600px wide.

Whereas, in the last media query, I’m telling the code to show the sidebar and add a margin-bottom between posts os 100px if the screen is at least 993px wide and at most 1024px wide.

With media queries, you can create a completely different layout for each screen size combination you want without interfering with the other sizes.

Note: There’s no need to add your own screen size as a media query. Whatever code that stays outside of media queries will respond to your own screen size. You should only add media query codes to sizes that differ from yours since that’s what you’re adapting your layout for.

Pixels are a static unit. This means that they don’t adapt to the size they’re in. Pixels are the same size regardless of the size of your screen, so if you tell your code that an element is 600px and you’re using a 1920x1080 screen, that element will remain the exact same size on a mobile screen.

To solve this problem, I use viewport units and percentages, which adapt to the size of your screen.

First off, to be able to use viewport units you have to add the following code to your <head>:

Viewport refers to the visible area of a site in your screen.

You have two varieties of this unit:

vw - viewport width

vh - viewport height

You use either one of them depending on whether you’re setting a height or a width.

While viewport units adapt to screen size, this doesn’t discard the use of media queries. For example, if you set a viewport value of 30vw on a 1920x1080 screen, it will look ridiculously small on a 600px screen. This happens because viewport adapts to the screen size it’s in without minding functionality, which is your responsibility to ensure. This is where media queries come in once more.

The advantage of viewport units is that you don’t have to worry much about them fitting correctly a certain screen size because they’re adaptable on their own, while pixels require you to define them individually for each size because they’re not dynamic. So, using viewport allows you to sit back without having to go through every single resolution in existence.

Percentages are yet another dynamic unit. They work pretty much like viewport but they have their specific rules to work the best way possible.

I found that it’s better to set a viewport unit to an outer container, give it a relative position and then use percentages with absolute positioning in inner containers. This will make inner containers respond to the outer container and remain visually the same because the outer container’s viewport makes it respond to the screen size itself.

Now, you can use these units on font sizes, though I advise against it. If you want adaptable font sizes, you should go for rem or em units. I personally prefer using rem.

Example of viewport and percentages working together:

In the example above, outer-box will take up half of your screen’s width and its full height. The inner-box, consequently, will take up half of the outer-box’s width and its full height.

Hopefully, this post was helpful. I tried to make it as clear as possible but, as mentioned at the beginning, good CSS knowledge is required to easily follow it.

A reminder that this is what I personally do in my themes and I’m in no way suggesting that this is the correct or best way to do it. This is what I personally find easier and simpler, and it’s what works for me.

#completeresources #yeahps #responsive #themes #suiomi: tutorials #blog: all #suiomi: articles #blog

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filmsthirteen · 5 years ago

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Finding Myself through Cameron Crowe Films

*Minor Spoilers*

There are a handful of directors, writers, artists, and singers who have influenced my life. Yet there is only a handful of them who consistently released art that contributed to the person I have moulded into, (despite only being 19 and thinking this is the final version of myself). But one filmmaker in particular, resonates as having created films that were pressed play constantly as a teenager. That filmmaker is the man, the myth, the legend, Cameron Crowe. If it were up to me, he’d be Sir Cameron Crowe. An artist who had managed to shape multiple generations and accurately reflect on generations that once existed. From the early eighties, Crowe has contributed to the films that teens flocked to the theatre to see when they were released, and many years later, those teens would show their kids those films. Thus, I was thankfully brought up by brilliant films such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Say Anything, Singles, and Almost Famous. All those films manage to capture adolescence and young adulthood, through numerous characters, eras, and most importantly, through the use of music. Now that I’m in my final year of being a teenager, and entering the next phase of my life, I thought it was time to thank Cameron Crowe for guiding me through these seemingly treacherous years.

I was raised on eighties films. I always had the blessing of having parents who were really into films, and so I was constantly shown film after film. Many of them were teen films of the eighties. So, of course, there were many late nights of watching Pretty in Pink, Heathers, and Risky Business. Though Crowe's films obviously ended up in the mix, the first time I remember sitting down to watch one of his films ended up being around thirteen. My Dad got me one of those three pack special DVDs from Walmart, with Sixteen Candles and The Breakfast Club. Both of them I was absolutely obsessed with and made me long to be a teenager. Despite John Hughes being the legend he is, the third film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was the one that stuck with me through all four years of high school. I watched the film on my own the night before my first day of high school. I was starting that year off fresh; all my friends were going to the public school, while my parents shipped me off to the Catholic school the next town over, where I’d have to wear khaki cardboard material like pants, and polyester shirts in either green, white or blue. I worried my entire summer about the first day of high school; walking down halls I didn’t know, sitting beside people I never had the pleasure of knowing since kindergarten. On Stacy's (Jennifer Jason Leigh) first day of high school, American Girl by Tom Petty plays. Immediately I grabbed my iPod touch, added it to my iTunes, and played it on repeat on my hour and a half long bus ride, and into the doors of the school. Minus doing it with an older dude, getting pregnant, and brushing up my blowjob skills with a carrot in front of the cafeteria, I wished I was like Stacy. Having a cool job in the mall, somehow being gorgeous all the time (even during exam season?) and having a really sweet guy like Mark take you on a date to a really fancy German restaurant, seemed like an experience I deserved. But Cameron wrote about things in this film so painfully realistic to the high school experience, even thirty years later. I knew girls who went out with weird guys way too old for them, having plans for the future destroyed, and of course, having a teacher who thinks that everyone is on dope (which they're totally right about). It doesn't exaggerate the experience of a teenager, making the film so close to the truth as a film can get. Perhaps its due to Crowe actually spending the year as an undercover student, and honestly, all teen films should've been fact-checked like this one.

Less than seven years later, Crowe came out with Say Anything. Though my Mom loves this movie, and used to watch it whenever it would come on TV, it was the 2010 film Easy A that actually got me to watch the movie. I made it a point to go back and watch all those films that Emma Stone’s character lists off when discussing if chivalry is dead. Thus I ended up watching Can’t Buy Me Love, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, and of course, Say Anything. I wanted my life to be like an 80s movie directed by John Hughes, but I got it so much better, I got a life unintentionally directed by Cameron Crowe. And because of that, I fell in love with wanting to be that smart girl like Diane Court. I look back now on how much studying I did in high school, and how it paid off to where I am now. It’s important for filmmakers to add these characters, ones were they say that girls can be pretty and smart, not settling for the cliched pick and choose scenario. So I worked hard, writing endless essays, studying late at night for a math test, and juggled clubs and activities. But still, I wished to also have that and be wanted by someone. Like Lloyd Dobler, who wants Diane so much, its all he thinks about. But listen, for once I can say the character of Lloyd isn't some creepy dude, who has an obsession and is purely motivated by this girls essence. Again, there are way too many films with the lead guy being solely provoked by a woman's body. But when he gets her, he holds on, noting that her feelings are reciprocated. She could go off to Oxford, and he’d be right there. Perhaps love at this age is rare, but when you know, well you know. And that's a huge difference that my generation can see. Though many of us have grown up with divorced parents, constant cheating, and unreciprocated feelings, at such a young age, we shouldn't keep that from the actual emotions that we are meant to feel for another human. Maybe we are supposed to give it all, and as I watch this film, I’m not wondering what if Lloyd didn't go about the relationship as he did, I wonder how Lloyd and Diane are. Because like I said, he wants her so bad that he stands outside of her house after a fight, holding that boombox up high, blasting the best love song of all time, In Your Eyes by Peter Gabriel. I can’t even tell you the amount of times I’ve had that song on an endless repeat, but I can promise that I most likely broke the record the summer of ‘18. I longed to be sought after like Diane (cause who honestly doesn't want to be so enormously desired by someone you love?). By the end of the August heat, I laid awake at night, waiting for that song to be played outside of my window (actually would've freaked me out but still, the thoughts nice). But that song ended up being played during the fall, plenty of times in the cold winter days, and in the early spring, all the while so content with listening to it at this very moment. Sometimes boys and girls, it's good to just say anything (add wink emoji here).

Despite still being totally obsessed with all things of 80s culture, it's time to bring up that phase that wasn't ever a phase, but the depths of my soul. The tenth grade brought about my “grunge phase.” I got my nose pierced, splurged on Doc Martens, stocked my closet with various coloured flannel shirts and band tees. I wanted people to know that I listened to Nirvana, Guns n Roses, and Pearl Jam, despite it being on my shirt that I’d wear under my uniform sweater. My eyeliner was thick black, and my tweets were usually lyrics from some band part of the Seattle Sound. My Dad was in his teens when the Seattle sound came about, and thus as a kid, I spent many car rides hearing Alice in Chains ‘Dirt’ album, Pearl Jam’s the ‘Ten’ album, and Nirvana’s ‘Unplugged’ album on the radio. For me, I was the real shit when it came to this era of my life. And that became the perfect opportunity for my dad to introduce me to Crowe’s ‘92 film Singles. A group of young adults who all live in (a now extremely famous) the same apartment complex, during the height of the Seattle sound. Surprise surprise, they reside in Seattle. Honestly, there could've been no better film for my dad to turn on. With cameos from my bae Eddie Vedder and the late Chris Cornell, the film brings so much to the group of young adults who chose to immerse themselves in real boy bands, compared to whatever the other ones who sang with earpieces paired with synchronized dances did. No offence. Dealing with the idea of relationships, whether we are to settle or have fun in our 20s, Singles is supposed to be about Gen Xer’s, yet, I can see how many millennials still have this issue. There are plenty of girls I know who have used their ex’s t-shirts to clean their toilets, and though we aren't making dating VHS’s, they are perfecting their tinder profiles, hoping that actual human connection exists on the other end. The biggest point in the film that got me, (despite being sixteen trying to imagine myself in four years time), was the whole fear of what if you commit and what if you don’t? There are many ways you can mess up potential, and still, it lies within not calling after a date, or in our case, texting after hanging out. Sometimes we just need people to say and do the right things without having to tell them what is the right thing to do or say. And if it all works out, we’ll end up like Steve and Linda who move out the single bedroom apartment, and into never having to be labelled again as a single.

Eight years came about the semi autobiographical story of Crowe himself, Almost Famous. The film with the best soundtrack of all time, due to it having a budget of 3.5 million, compared to most films with budgets of about 1.5 million. Honestly, that's the best use of money in all of human history. And thanks to Zooey Deschanel’s duffel bag, we get to hear Simon and Garfunkel, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, and everyone's favourite, Elton John. You cannot tell me you did not get goosebumps hearing Tiny Dancer being sung in unison by Kate Hudson, Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Jason Leigh, and well I could go on forever about the well-casted film. Before watching the film, I remember that Fool in the Rain was my favourite Zeppelin song. But after watching it for the first time, I had probably had listened to Led Zeppelin’s song Tangerine a hundred times. If a film has such tangible (see what I did there) scenes, and a song contains such a powerful presence, then that is mastering filmmaking in my opinion. Thus, this film was watched during all sorts of moments in my adolescence. The time I wanted to work as a journalist for Rolling Stone, when I was in need of a change, and when I was absolutely alone and only a Cameron Crowe film understood me. And each time I was damn near tempted to be a roadie for a somewhat known band, who hopefully was opening for Black Sabbath. Actually, it was very much this film that got me more obsessed with concerts than I was before. I’d buy tickets as soon as they’d go on sale, mostly to smaller bands, that way I’d have a chance of being up close, and even meeting the band. Like William, I’d wait by the stage doors for the band. Dragging my friends to the concert at least twelve hours before the show would start, just so I could meet bands like Peach Pit, Pale Waves, Colouring, and well other indie bands that I’m sure slim to no adults know. Believe me, I’d wait a week for Black Sabbath if I could. But beyond that, I think that every young person deserves the life, encapsulated in this film; of just going out there and being absolutely free. You know, before life kicks in. And that's really what this film, amongst nearly all of Crowe's films, demonstrate. Get out there kid, put on those headphones, blast some Lynyrd Skynyrd, and just live before you die. Being obsessed with listening to classic rock, I devoured the only season of Paul Feig’s Freaks and Geeks, and had Almost Famous’s soundtrack on repeat. I owned a long green army jacket, and also a faux sheepskin sherpa coat. I was both Lindsey Weir and Penny Lane. I was walking down the two hallways of my high school, and the one street of my small towns downtown, earbuds in, Fleetwood Mac blasting. And through the many characters of these films, they reminded me that I’m here for the art. For the music from the Bookends album, the score of a Tim Burton film, and the tracks of a Tarantino picture. Like Kathy and Paul who went off to see America, Lindsey who goes off to a Grateful Dead concert with her best friend, and Penny Lane who is off to her dream destination of Morocco, I myself am off to see and hear the world.

It's odd to look back on these films that meant so much to who I was and who I’ve become. I’m in my last year of being a teenager, and I’m almost done university’ yet I still feel so attached to these characters I feel that I someway embodied. But that's not because I based my life off these characters Crowe created, it's really because Crowe based these characters off of people that exist in life. In those years of watching any teen film out there, Crowes (and of course Hughes) inspired me to look around constantly, taking notes on the friends I had spent lunches on Thursdays, discussing films with, just in case I’d make a film reminiscent about them. In my seemingly ordinary life, Crowe told me to go out and grab those who write seemingly precognition notes in your yearbook. Most importantly, Crowe told me to just let the music guide me through life. And for that, I got my life to be directed by Cameron Crowe.

INT. Credits being to roll, as ELTON JOHN’S TINY DANCER plays.

FADE OUT

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