#Frank Fritz funny moments

[voguegenics]

The Legacy of Frank Fritz: Picking Through Memories

So, here’s to Frank—the man who made picking cool, who reminded us that treasure is often where you least expect it, and who always knew how to crack a joke at just the right moment.

When I heard the news that Frank Fritz, the beloved co-host of American Pickers, had passed away at age 60, I did what any die-hard fan wou,ld do. I sat on my couch, sipped my coffee, and pretended like I was sifting through an old barn full of dusty treasures while reminiscing about all the quirky moments he brought into my living room. I mean, let’s be honest—Frank wasn’t just an “antique…

[pollylynn]

Title: How the Mighty WC: 900

“Are you a fan?” — Danny Valentine, Dead from New York (7 x 22)

He doesn’t quite subscribe to the Never Meet Your Heroes philosophy. He’s been hero-adjacent enough times in the course of his career that he’s had pleasant interactions. Hell, he’s come to call some of his former heroes friends—or at least poker buddies. And it’s not just his ego talking when he thinks he’s been the hero worth meeting, just as he’s been the hero caught in a bad moment, in an unfortunate mood, who could stand to have his public cut him the occasional break. So, no, he’s not among the hero avoidant. 

But it’s been a rough little while on that front. He’s still smarting over Lance Delorca and the whole goat herder incident. And there are days when he feels like he can’t shower vigorously enough to rid himself of the Brock Harmon funk. More immediately, Mickey Franks has been a disappointment. 

The man is funny, to be sure, but he’s also hot mess. He is, in fact, a type of hot mess Castle recognizes, given his childhood, his teen years, his lifetime of living with his mother’s professional trials and tribulations. Mickey Franks is the guy whose issues everyone excuses in the name of his genius—the guy who is absolute hell for everyone who has to share a scene with him, who is up till dawn just trying to survive another rehearsal when Mickey’s gone rogue. He’s the guy who blames circumstances, conspiracies, cast mates for the way his career has stalled and doesn’t realize that it’s him—that he’s such a performative hot mess that he’ll never be anything more than small-screen funny for five to six minutes at a time. So, yeah, there’s a hero he probably could have given a miss. 

But Danny Valentine is the real blow in recent memory, and the shock to his system is all the worse for the fact that he was riding he Danny Valentine wave right up to the point that the man revealed himself to be an utter creep. It’s all the worse because a part of him wants, wants, wants that Righter vest from the Model Cop sketch, and even kind of wants that terrible wig or hairpiece or whatever it was the man hand on his head for the live performance. He wants to be flattered. He wants to dine out on and regale his heroes-cum-poker-buddies with the story of Danny Valentine playing him, but he would also like to find a convenient necktie and elevator shaft for all his lecher-dispatching needs. 

His ambivalence has led him to some dark and stupid places. He really needs to be writing, but instead, he spends his time on his laptop hate-watching everything the man has ever been in. He has found every embarrassing commercial for every humiliating product. He has hunted down the unaired episodes of Starfleet—a show so bad that its narrative sins make him long for the poetry and coherence of Nebula-9. Family Practice leaves him cackling in smug satisfaction at the man’s inability to pronounce even the simplest of medical terms. 

But it’s in the dead of night that his obsession really gets off to a gallop.  He pops in his earbuds and scowls at episode after episode of Hot Suspect. He plays a game with himself where he scrawls down the name of the entirely obvious perpetrator before the end of the first act, and if he’s right—and he is right ninety-nine percent of the time—he gets to spend ten minutes Googling for dirt on the man, and there is a seemingly endless supply of dirt. 

He has fallen into it. He is up to his neck in dirt on ex-hero Danny Valentine when she finally catches him in the act she’s certainly suspected him to be guilty of for weeks. He is so engrossed in being grossed out by the man’s transgressions and excesses that she’s able to work her way entirely behind him and slam her palms down on the desk on either side of the laptop. 

“Why?” She demands. She sinks her teeth into his shoulder for emphasis. “Why are you obsessing over this guy?” 

“I’m not.” His voice shoots up a perfect fifth above normal. He slams the laptop closed with a force he very well may regret. “What guy?” He blinks in a vain attempt to land the denial he really should have opened with. “Obsessing!” He tries for a scoff, but that’s on the fritz, too. He scowls down at the desk, completely out of words. 

“Castle.” She swings the desk chair around and trust falls into his arms. He catches her, of course, and she winds her arms around his neck. “He’s a celebrity creep. Forget him.” 

“He is.” It comes out as a sigh that’s far more disappointed than angry or disgusted. “But I—“ He shakes his head and burrows into her shoulder. “He was—“ He doesn’t finish the thought. He can’t finish it, so she does. 

“He was a hero.” That comes out as a sigh of her own. It’s several different kinds of relief to know he’s not alone here. “So we we find a better one.” 

“Way ahead of you, Detective.” He smiles as he wraps his arms tightly around her.  It’s true. He is. He’s had a better one drop right into his lap. “Way ahead.” 

A/N: So the real thing is that Evelyn, who is in her sixties if she’s a day, runs 7 mph, like, right out of the gate. But also Danny Valentine is a creep. I’ve had it with creeps. That’s why this is not a thing. 

images via homeofthenutty

[dropintomanga]

Attack on Titan's Ending - We're Now All Free

So this was finally it, huh? A manga that debuted in 2009 which became an anime/manga phenomenon in 2013 and would later still have a significant place in manga history ended this month. Hajime Isayama's Attack on Titan was a title that I liked a lot and while there were some great moments in its final arc, the manga seemed like it tried a bit too hard to emphasize the complexity of human beings. Then again, maybe that's been the whole point of the series.

Spoilers abound after the jump.

I got to read up on the chapters that made up Volume 34. To be honest, it felt like somewhat of a mess. The whole backstory about Ymir Fritz confuses me a bit. I know that I will need to re-read the entire series to get a clearer idea. I got that the series became some kind of commentary on how people are always finding ways to divide one another via their differences.

It's just that I missed the old days, pre-basement. Attack on Titan was labeled as a horror action manga to a certain degree. I recently was reading an article about CM Punk (a former WWE wrestler who was very popular, but left the business after frustrations with management) and he talked about a horror movie he was cast in. Punk was asked about his love of horror and he said:

"I grew up on it, you know? I grew up on it because it was taboo. When things are taboo and you’re told you’re not allowed to watch it, what do you do? You watch it! You watch a lot of it. As you grow older, smarter and get some wisdom about the world, you realize that horror is the genre that tackles, before any other movie genre, the hard-hitting issues. Dating all the way back to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead tackling racism. I love a great slasher movie, right? Jason Voorhees and some camp counselors. Just let them loose."

As many fans who follow Attack on Titan will tell you, the story takes a huge shift from the days of Titans eating humans and the mystery surrounding them to a world where humanity is actually thriving and politics are a big reason why the events of Attack on Titan are the way they are. I know some people dropped the series after that. I don't blame them because to be frank, the series loses some of its unique appeal as most fans have seen stories of the latter quite often. There were still horror elements (albeit very few), but the tension delivered later on in most scenes weren't ones that gave readers chills down their spines.

I wrote a lot about Attack on Titan. I wrote about Mikasa, Hange, Annie, Eren's stress, Levi's past, etc. But once that time-skip happened, I never felt compelled to write about Attack on Titan much. There was some good exploration about Reiner's guilt about his actions early on. But nothing was super-compelling to talk about honestly to me. I think the time-gap between the 1st and 2nd anime seasons didn't help and so many exciting series (mostly from Shonen Jump) were coming out around that time period.

I did think the ending was okay. I do believe that Isayama was trying to point out that bringing real change in society comes from talking to one another in person despite differences. This was reflected in a campfire scene before the final battle where all of the "good guys" and the "bad guys" sat together to hash it out. You don't have to like one another, but never let differences become radicalized to the point of no return. I'll admit that this isn't easy and these things never are. Plus, talk should mostly be a starting point to get rid of injustice.

What I've learned from my own experiences is that I sometimes get anxious over certain conversations with people that I may not agree with. But once they happen in a safe environment and no one's shouting, I actually learn something and so does the other person. I can't assume everyone who disagrees with me is an awful person. I will never, ever suggest social media as a way to have those kinds of conversations because some people are either too awful or just say well-intentioned things without thinking about the person's true feelings.

And about people I truly dislike, I just look at them with pity because I know they're just being brainwashed by grifters/scammers/cult-like leaders.

Having those kinds of perspectives really benefited my mental health, so I guess I can appreciate Isayama for highlighting what it means to live among people who I don't always feel comfortable around.

I also love the Ackermans (Mikasa and Levi) for being the ones to take out the end-game threats. They're a family known to be Titan-killers, but there's also some Asian blood within them. I got a funny sense of Asian pride in seeing Mikasa and Levi wreck shit and getting respect for it.

While the ending felt similar to Code Geass, I kind of understand the view point on being the world's enemy to bring the world together. It's just a bit too naive. Even after all that, people are still at conflict with another only without Titans around. Maybe that's the whole point - the fact that self-sacrifice isn't a panacea to life's complexities. Martyrdom is sometimes worshipped a bit too much and there's a good number of disenfranchised young men who fall in love with that idea.

To end this post, I think back to how Isayama came up with the idea of Attack on Titan. He said that the story came to him after seeing a frustrated customer grab him by the collar while working at an internet cafe. Isayama noted how scary the person was and it was hard to communicate with him. The whole point of Attack on Titan is not just freedom, but getting past communication barriers with other people we fear.

When it comes to freedom, a lot of people seem to have a naïve and/or child-like sense of it. I see this a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic. They think freedom is basically the right to do whatever you want and not be punished for it. However, true freedom involves doing as you please and having the ability to be responsible to yourself and other people.

I know this viewpoint irks people, but the whole ending gives off that vibe. I have to respect Isayama for that.

I think that's all I have to say about Attack on Titan. This series played a big part in helping the anime and manga industries post-2008. It also made me see the possibility of a mainstream shonen hit that wasn't from Jump. I was one of the first people to pay attention to the series before it was licensed in English. I even got praise from Kodansha folks saying that I played a huge part in bringing the series over.

So I have a lot of fun memories. One of my personal favorite memories was during NYCC 2013 where a huge gathering of Attack on Titan cosplayers at Kodansha Comics' booth and Japanese news programming was there to film it. I got to witness all of that interaction between Americans and Japanese. I left the gathering thinking that things were really on the up-and-up for anime and manga perception over in the U.S. We're now in a golden age of anime/manga and Attack on Titan deserves credit for bringing us to it.

So thanks, Hajime Isayama, for showing the world what Kodansha stories are all about - inspiring impossible stories.