#I think Monkey Wrench is a great example

[gay-fieri-05]

It’s so wild not being fully in the HH fandom but also not being completely critical of it either

[greml1nb0i]

I remember stumbling upon this user named "@haru-kuneko" here on Tumblr and would create these zany fanmade magazine covers called GLITCHX featuring different indie projects like The Amazing Digital Circus, Welcome Home, Murder Drones, Helluva Boss, etc. Her blog centers around art, writing (as she is also a budding writer), fandoms and commentary. She also posts relatable content.

I know she may not be that popular but the fact the kid openly supports various fandoms, big and small, is superb. I hope more people will get to help her and give her more job opportunities where she can put those talents to good use. I think having a trusted online magazine on the Internet is a great idea.

I hate how people on the Internet mostly talk about TADC and Helluva Boss as if there aren't many other pieces of media that deserve more attention and can be just as good.

i just checked out her page, and you weren't kidding her art is AMAZING.

i get where you're coming from Anon, shows like Monkey Wrench and even The Art Of Murder get very little attention compared to what we would consider more "mainstream" indie projects like TADC or Helluva.

I highly encourage people to like many different genres and to branch out their interests. Staying in the same genre of interest can cause burnout and even boredom and we dont want that.

So for example, i was an avid horror fan, hated all thing cutesy. Thought if it looked glittery, its gotta be for girls or lil babies. I watched a show that you could say pandered to girls more than boys. I ended up loving the show and becoming an avid fan of it for many years. That show was Steven Universe. I ended up realizing that the phrase "dont judge a book by its cover" was literal. I enjoy many different genres of EVERYTHING now; Music, movies/tv shows, art, etc. [except country no one ever gonna make me like that no offense to anyone who does]

Branch out folks, it never hurts to. An if you find out you don't like it, move on.

Please give "@haru-kuneko" a look-see and enjoy your Monday's people. Thanks you Anon for sharing.

[ctrl-alt-tahu]

The Last Toa

I have a not-quite-100% finished thought rolling around my head about the legacy of the Toa Metru, and in attempt to get it complete, I'm trying to write it down.

So, the Toa Metru are the final stop in a line of Toa going back to the foundation of Metru Nui, right? They were made Toa by Lhikan, the last of the Toa Mangai, and as his heirs and mentees, they are the last Toa of Metru Nui.

Indeed, the GSR generally, they come awfully close to being the last Toa--period. Not the last Toa in existence, obviously, but the Mata/Nuva, Takanuva, and the Inika/Mahri are all Toa in some other special way: Artahka originals, the Mask of Light, and intervention by the Red Star. None of them represent the passage of energy from Toa to Stone to Matoran: that lineage, which I assume goes back all the way to the earliest days of the GSR.

I think Krakua is the only real monkey-wrench in the idea that the Metru were the last Toa made in the conventional way. I'm pretty sure he's the only non-Inika example we know of in canon definitely after the Cataclysm.

There's something wistfully sad about the Metru being the Last Toa Ever™ and yielding their own Toa power to revive the Matoran, with no new Toa to follow them. When the Toa Mata arrive on Mata Nui, it becomes something like an Arthurian return, but it's also a supplanting: "the line of Dume and Lhikan and those even before them has failed" and a better thing takes their place.

Some basic Googling/BioSector01ing seems to suggest that there's not a lot of canonical detail in HOW Krakua becomes a Toa--so even if we accept that he's a fairly recent Toa, we can allow ourselves some speculation that he ALSO might not have been an old-school Toa-Stone-made Toa.

Why does any of this matter--other than poignancy, which is a consideration of its own? Well, I was thinking about Matoro (as one does) and the unique way in which he could carry on the legacy of the Toa Metru: he's the one Matoran (and thus the one transformed Toa) who knows their tale before the reveal at the end of MoL. Alone of the amnesiac Matoran, he has knowledge--though not memory--of Metru Nui, and while he kept the Turagas' secrets, he can't have helped being shaped by them in the 1000 years of doing so.

Destiny is the will of Mata Nui (well, destiny is a thorny subject, but let's call it that here). The Toa Mata, Takanuva, Krakua--what if they were all attempts in some way or other to supply the "needed" Toa to save the Great Spirit? But, though he is dying, the Great Spirit doesn't want any of these: he doesn't want to saved by Artahka's demiurgic Toa, or the Avokhii-wearing saviour, or any of the washed-up leftovers (Lesovikk, "the forty living Toa," the Hagah): instead, when the Red Star intervenes--the Red Star that echoes his will in a way the Order of Mata Nui can never hope to--he chooses one of them, and he chooses the one of their number who is the truest heir of the Toa Metru--his Toa.

Destiny is a big theme of the Metru in a way that was never true of the Mata (unity is their theme), and this really comes to the fore with the dancing back and forth between who was destined: them or the Mask Matoran. Destiny also comes up big with Matoro--and perhaps their destinies are the same.

[monkey-wrench-series]

I love strange universe and Monkey Wrench looks like it has such a great world building!! There are many things to ask but first, I'm very curious about one of the first things we saw, which is the pixel currency 👀✨:

Are they strictly money? Or are they also ressources (for example used for fuel or for jewelry)?

And what are they made of? Are they fabricated/manufactured or collected from a certain source?

Is there any other form for them other than the cubic crystal like pixels we saw in the first episode (just like our money can come in papers or coins)?

What would be their value compared to, let's say, dollars?

Thanks in advance for your answer ^^!

I'm still playing around with the concept of the currency. For now, pixels are little coloured flat squares, ranging from a muddy copper colour to a bright golden hue (Think pennies but square). Once you get 100,000,000 then they can be compressed into the more 'fancy' 3d currency, Voxels, which you saw Chester toss at a certain assassin~ As for value, i dunno, it's more than USD thats for sure.

[anthony7612]

ANIMATION SHOWDOWN - Q&A

Q: What inspired you to create "Animation Showdown"?

A: I had a thought in my mind. "So, Videogames had Mario, Sonic, Kirby, etc. What could be the Indie Animation equivalent to them?" And then my thoughts shifted to: "What if there was an Indie Animation Smashlike game?" And then, history was born. It's pretty much my gift to the Indie Animation community, showing off the dedication and passion it has.

Q: Can I make fanart/fancontent/etc. for this game?

A: Sure! Just tag #Animation Showdown or something like that so that I can see it. Alternatively, tag me.

Q: Will there be a blog?

A: I'm not planning on making it right now, but it would be awesome to share concepts and stuff about this game on a seperate blog. Maybe that blog will be the way on how I hire people to work on the game.

Q: What engine will "Animation Showdown" be made on and where will it be released?

A: Currently, my options are either Godot, Game Maker or Unity. I'm leaning more on Godot because of how easy it is to use. It will be released on Game Jolt and itch.io and will be playable on PC. Although with some external tweaking and apps, you can play it on Mac and Linux/Steam Deck.

Q: Any Mod Support?

A: I don't think I'll be adding Custom Character support. The only modding support you'll see is Custom Stages (With the Stage Builder) and Custom Music for Stages.

Q: Any Smash Bros. Gameplay Mechanics that will be brought over to the game?

A: I would love to do Assist Trophies! Caine (The Amazing Digital Circus) would be a great example of a possible assist trophy. As for Final Smashes? That's complicated. I know some characters that can get some, but for some? That's gonna be tough thinking about some Final Smashes for them.

Also, Items. Can't forget about them.

Q: Which character are you excited to play as?

A: I don't know. Maybe Hank? Mera? Lorelai? Weegee? The Chosen One?

Q: Any concepts for DLC?

A: My current candidates are Zooble (The Amazing Digital Circus) and Yoomtah (Epithet Erased). I originally wanted Zooble in the base roster but I relegated them to the DLC Category.

Q: Any characters you want to bring to the game?

A: I really want to bring victim (Animator VS. Animation) and Cyn (Murder Drones) to the game. So they're on the list of newcomers. As for the others (Besides Shrike (Monkey Wrench), ENA, Dorkly!Sonic, Gogo (Punch Punch Forever) and The Dark Lord (Animator VS. Animation) )? They're gonna be a mystery.

That does it for now! If you have any questions about the fangame, send them to the upcoming Animation Showdown blog!... Or just send them to me.

See you next time!

[puutterings]

What intrudes is my passion for bricolage, puttering at the multiple pretexts

  I have been trying to get down to work. It is extremely difficult, even though I’ve taken leave from the office this week. What intrudes is my passion for bricolage, puttering at the multiple material and even mechanical problems which are involved in living here, this winter.   ₅₃

Yet, when I hear a tap dripping, I make a dash for my pliers and my monkey wrench. P. W. Strauss, the complete plumber! The fact is that the seeking and haggling and fixing interest me — quite independently of the eggs and butter and the silence of the tap. I have a compulsion to putter.       Why? Of all Americans, I am surely one of the most committed to what Hegel calls the “nonserious existence.” Then how can I spend hours installing stoves and fixing faucets?       First, of course, because bricolage adjourns the real problem. It is a pretext for putting off the struggle.       But also because my life, everyone’s life, is so charged with frustration. War, collapse, constant crisis — all this muck we live in and no way out. The problems that matter most are insoluble. How soothing, therefore, to enclose a small area of experience and control it perfectly! The tap drips? Well see to that! We putter with the tap, and it no longer drips. What a vindication of the will and the intelligence of man!       So, after all these years, I come to the conclusion that the overall function of puttering in my life is merely a variant of the desperate hunt which is always going on at home — for pretexts to avoid certain fundamental questions; to avoid assuming one’s death, for example.       In America, people spend a fantastic percentage of their time in bricolage, from fixing taps to “earning their living.”   ₅₄

This interests me. There is something about unconsciousness which challenges my instinct for puttering...   ₉₈

— a long reminiscence follows, of Tarski and Marie before the war, of their “most brilliant and germinal salon,” that “extraordinary apartment always in the process of growth and change” —

...and they always seemed to be saying: Very well, then, God is dead. An infinity of choice lies before us. What are we going to do?   ₁₀₀

I, on the other hand, was waiting for Mireille, for the apartment upstairs, for Tony’s story (the bare facts of which he had already blurted out) and, please excuse my insistence, for my death.       I am an old man. I have learned how to wait.       She thanked me profusely and then, as I turned to go, gave me (with a perfidious air of commiseration) the disastrous news. Under the weight of this blow, I staggered upstairs to the mezzanine. Mireille was puttering around the kitchen, rearranging pots, pans and crockery, and taking inventory for dinner.   ₁₂₇

A great deal “going on,” but I’ve been swallowed up in my puttering and my serious life. Office becoming so exigent that I think of throwing it all up, provided Style can support me.   ₁₉₅

The letters, I suspect, are trash, and I have puttering enough to do. . . . Over all this, there is an already pervasive smell of boredom. I sit at my Empire desk and wonder: wherever shall I begin?   ₂₃₅

all from H. J. Kaplan, The Plenipotentiaries (1950) via archive.org : link

—

more on Kaplan, and this book (and with yet more to come) at 495  

[thefeathereddragon]

Hey Tumblr. I dont post much on here but if you follow me on my other socials you know my sweet Monkey!

Well, this week, something triggered him to go into anaphylactic shock and the only vet that would see him was an hour out.. i didnt think to grab a charger and got there with 1% and directions there and back written all over my hand. The whole way there i kept my hand in his carrier, and he would put his forehead in my palm and cry whenever i had to take it away. As i passed Florida and North Carolina tags, i just sobbed. I certainly had a right to be stressed with a dying cat in my passenger seat but i knew to count my lucky stars that there was a vet to go to, that the roads were there to drive on, and so many other factors.

They kept him overnight. My baby wasnt doing good at all. His face was so swollen, his body was trying to seize as they took him back, and he wasnt able to come off of oxygen at all overnight. He was still breathing fast when i picked him up, but once we got in the car headed home he slowly but surely leveled out. He takes medicine like a champ and so far he’s been doing great- swelling all the way down, breathing normal, sleepy from meds, and maybe a little anxious (he’s been sleeping closer to us and hanging out closer) but things are looking up in that regard.

But it’s just my boyfriend working. We were able to put the expense on his credit card this time, but this year we’ve also spent $15k in car repairs, and had just started to recover from that when this happened. By next wednesday 10/16, we’ll have spent $3000 and we still arent 100% sure if he will have to go on medication for life or not. Im not asking for donations without giving back in return so ive been brainstorming on how i could help build ourselves back up and keep an emergency vet fund on me in case this happens again. But as it stands right now, if it happens again too soon, i may not be so fortunate and will have to make a gut-wrenching decision.

I know cats don’t live forever, but Monkey is only a year old. He came to me last September as a 3 week old kitten, who had been lost from mom for so long he was starving, dehydrated, and so weak. I had lost my 9 year old, Pixel, earlier that year, and my cousin Andy was murdered the same weekend he was born. When i first held him, i said the same thing my granddaddy said about me as an infant; “just like a Monkey!” cause i had long little toes and Monkey is a Polydactyl. In many ways, it feels like all three of them hand picked this cat for me, so he is very special to me.

So here is some of my art! Ive been working on improving and growing my skillset so I’d love to tackle animals/pet portraits, classic cars, landscapes/skies, etc but my forte as of late has definitely been more anime/cartoon style. If you feel led to donate or support me in any way, put a prompt in the notes or message me and i will get back to you asap. I’ll post some more examples soon or you can follow my IG/FBpage; thefeathereddragonart and if you’d like to see some extremely cute videos of Monkey, go check out my tiktok TheFeatheredDragon

My cashapp/venmo is triangularbird ! Thank you so so much in advance. Even if you cant help monetarily, i genuinely appreciate if you share or reblog or even just follow in case you might be able to in the future or you just want to see Monkey. Thank you again. 🫶🏻☮️

[l0stinadaydream]

IWBYS music video | interpretation - pt6      ↳music videos: similar details

                    «Great things are done by a series of                                           small things brought together. »―Van Gogh

First of all, this is my personal interpretation. I’m not in the director/band minds so these are just the associations I made while watching the video. Secondly, English is not my native language so... sorry for any mistakes.

----

1]

The shot with the boots clearly refers to a specific kink, still it made me think of that scene from Billy Idol's Flash for fantasy (1983).

The song, said Idol in his autobiography, " spoke to the audiences of the time who were in the process of discovering their own sexualities. “

Ain't it strange what we do to feel alright

2]

When I saw  Damiano taking off his lipstick smearing it with his arm my mind went directly to David Bowie at the end of 'Boys keep swinging'(1979).

In the promotional video for the song ( that "lyrically blurs the lines between genders") Bowie appeares in drag. During one of these scenes he «smears his make-up in the style that he’d observed at Romy Haag’s Berlin nightclub». [ x ]

When you’re a boy other boys check you out

3]

The scene with the glass floor reminded me of the cover art for the album ‘Spirito’ by Litfiba (another italian rock band) released in 1994.

4]

Some examples of the fish eye being used in rock music: album covers ( Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Smashing Pumpinks, Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam...) photos (Beatles, Rolling Stones, Guns ‘n Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blur...) videos ( Blink 182 - 'The Rock Show' , Foo Fighters - 'Monkey Wrench'... )

[sketching-shark]

Character huh? How about Long Xiaojiao?

How I feel about this character

Overall a fun and cheerful young woman up until very recent events! It was nice how she had (has? maybe) such an obvious and exuberant love of life even with her struggles with familial expectations. Also really cool how her parents obviously love and want what's best for her and for her to be happy even if the things she loves aren't for them. Her sword and motorbike skills are really cool as well, to say nothing of her ability to manifest an entire dragon. I feel like a big part of her story has been based around the power of healthy communication, both how it helps people and how not doing so can devastate them. Really sucks how the last episode left her in a state of suffering the worst part of her family's legacy (the embedded flame of Samadhi), Sun Wukong's frustrating but perhaps understandable secrecy, & Macaque's frustrating but perhaps understandable refusal to listen to the Monkey King :(

All the people I ship romantically with this character

I don't particularly ship her with anyone at present.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

OBVIOUSLY QI XIAOTIAN. What they have is genuinely one of the strongest friendships I've seen in media. It's awesome how much they support and risk for each other in addition to just enjoying being in each other's company. Friendship so strong they can walk through flames for each other :.)

My unpopular opinion about this character

Hmmmmm little hesitant to say this buuuut I am slightly worried that she's getting roped into being another element of the Sun Wukong bashing that Monkie Kid might be getting into. Like yeah maybe we'll see what kind of tragedy is driving the Monkey King to behave with such disastrous secrecy but between his constant failures with catastrophic consequences (with Long Xiaojiao being the most recent victim of this trend) and now multiple loved characters yelling at him for this (with Long Xiaojiao standing as the most heart-wrenching example) I am a bit worried that the characterization of "stupid monkey who breaks everything" is slowly but steadily creeping into Monkie Kid's portrayal of the Monkey King. And as it is with Long Xiaojiao there is the open question moving forward if her story is going to be more about what she's going to choose to do or if it's going to be about things that are done to her. And either way, with the fallout from the flame of Samadhi being awakened and Long Xiaojiao suffering from it it seems like Qi Xiaotian is going to be forced to choose between Sun Wukong and Long Xiaojiao, as I can't imagine her forgiving the Monkey King for any of this no matter what, at least not right away.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I would love a Long Xiaojiao-centered episode of her just getting a chance to genuinely interact outside of world-shattering circumstances with her great-many-times uncle Ao Guang and maybe the other three Great Dragons of the Four Seas! I think it would be neat to see how her beliefs, morals, love of family, and struggles to determine who she wants to be might play off of these much older and much more established dragons (might also be neat to see some of the long and more sordid histories of some of these dragons get brought up like yell at Sun Wukong all you want for being a thief but Ao Guang literally spent years running what was essentially an extortion racket by causing all kinds of weather-based disasters unless humans gave him tons of offerings DX).

[greensparty]

Talking with What Drives Us crew

In addition to Dave Grohl being known as one of the nicest guys in rock and one of the most hard-working (this year alone has seen the release of a new Foo Fighters album, a memoir book later in the year, a documentary film and a documentary mini-series), he is also slowly becoming a prolific filmmaker too. Beginning with Foo Fighters’ music video for “Monkey Wrench” in 1997, Grohl has directed several music videos for his band and he even directed Soundgarden’s video for “By Crooked Steps” too. Over the last decade, Grohl has made the leap to documentary director as well. 2013′s Sound City profiled the LA recording studio and went deeper to look at the human element in music and recording technology. I named the doc my #1 Doc of 2013 and my #6 of the 2010s. He followed that doc up in 2014 the HBO documentary series Foo Fighters Sonic Highways which showed the band recording a different song in 8 different cities as they explore the music and culture of each city. This past week, Grohl’s newest feature-length doc What Drives Us was released on Amazon’s The Coda Collection. The doc looks at the drive and ambition of musicians to get into a van and follow their rock and roll dreams. Grohl has a tremendous list of musician pals he interviewed including Ringo Starr, Steven Tyler, Brian Johnson, St. Vincent, Flea, Lars Ulrich, Slash, Duff McKagan, and too many more to name here. 

Through Grohl’s Roswell Films (a subsidiary of Roswell Records) he has worked with several key collaborators on his documentaries. I was lucky enough to speak with his producers James A. Rota and John Ramsay as well as editor Dean Gonzalez via zoom about this terrific new doc. It was super fascinating to learn about Grohl’s creative process.

movie poster

Me: How exactly did this project come about and start?

James Rota: As always it begins with a very excited text from Dave [Grohl]. For example, when we made Sound City, that was really the first one, and as the story goes I was with him when we were moving the console out of the actual Sound City. We got this printout from the owner of Sound City of all the records that had been made there. It was about an inch thick document. And as [John] Ramsay can attest, you see the wheels turning in Dave’s head and then he goes “we should interview as many people on this list who recorded there and make some YouTube clips”. And I said “yeah that sounds cool, that’d be great. Go and interview Tom Petty, that’s awesome”. So we were walking around the parking lot and he says “we should make a movie of this”. I said to him “You don’t want to make a movie”. Knowing the commitment that had to be done, and he’s already a pretty committed guy. That guy doesn’t take no for an answer, so I was standing there wracking my brain, so I said “You’re serious about making a movie? We need to call my friend John Ramsay that I think you’ve met before.” John and I met when I was in 10th grade and he was in 9th grade back in New Jersey. I’ll put it this way, we’ve been putting up with each other for that long. John and I love music, we always have. And we just got really lucky that Dave wanted to make all this awesome stuff and put it out into the world. That’s how it happened.

John Ramsay: Yeah, specifically for this project: Dave owned this van, it was the original Foo Fighters tour van. They did their first tour in it 26 years ago. Then after they graduated to bigger touring vehicles, he sold the van to a mutual friend of all of ours, Brian Brown. Then Brian toured around the country in that van and then his brother was using the van for his construction business. Then all of a sudden the 25th anniversary of the Foo Fighters was coming around and Dave started talking about wanting to get that original van and re-do the original tour. The idea just kind of evolved over the last 5 years. So he bought the van back from our friend Brian Brown. Then he was like “I got my original tour van back”. Then the idea was they were going to bring the van all across the country and into the shows. Then, of course that whole tour got blown up. But we were in the midst of making this film to coincide with the tour and the release of the new record. So when the pandemic blew up the whole tour, we were like “well we still have this great movie”, so we dug in extra deep at that point and tortured poor Dean [Gonzalez] many more months than he was expecting. But it all kinda stemmed from the idea that Dave wanted to pay tribute to this vehicle. He’s talked about how a big part of why they are still a band is because they started out in this van and had those experiences together. 

Rota and Ramsay on the set of Sonic Highways

Me: At this point you’ve done enough projects with Roswell Films and Dave Grohl, so did this documentary feel really organic and natural jumping right into it?

John: Yeah, for sure. Like Jim was saying before, Dave’s process is, he mainly communicates through text messages. So he’ll just be on a roll one day and boom, boom, boom, boom. Text after text after text, he’ll be like “I got this cool idea, I want to do this, do that”. His rolodex is pretty impressive, so he’ll just say “oh, I’m going to be interviewing Ringo Starr for this thing in Rolling Stone next week. Get a camera crew together and let’s interview him about touring with The Beatles in the early days.” And that was our first interview. And from there it was just reaching out and he knows everybody and everybody knows him. And the calls them up and just says “Hey, I want to talk to you about when you were a baby band and just getting started. Let’s get together and talk”.  And we’re off to the races. We’re always racing to keep up with his ideas.

Grohl is cruising in the van in What Drives Us

Me: The topic of this one was a little broader than Sound City, which was focused on the recording studio, or Sonic Highways, which was about the band recording in various cities. The topic of this one could’ve gone in any number of directions. Tell me about the structure.

Jim: I would say really fast - when we were doing that Ringo interview and Ringo told us that The Beatles fart in the van, that was the moment I knew we were making the right movie. What I mean by that is that - the great thing about working with Dave is that its rare that you have a peer interviewing a peer. In other words, if Jim Rota and John Ramsay sat down with Ringo Starr, it’s a very different conversation than if Dave Grohl sits down with him, for obvious reasons. But that brings a lot of the passion and the vibe to a lot of these projects. 

John: I do feel like a lot of walls get taken down with these big talent, just because they’re speaking to a peer.

Jim: I think Dean can speak to that the best because he sifted through all the talking. 

Dean Gonzalez: Yeah, I mean all of the conversations were so great. I think the first week, he brought [AC/DC’s] Brian Johnson into the office and they were doing the interview. That alone is mind-blowing. And I was very upset because I came in the day after he had interviewed Dave Lombardo [of Slayer]. But yeah, I feel like everyone across the board connected with his inquiries about being in a band. Everyone loves that they come from that world. Everyone was so incredible and so gracious with their time. Everything that they said was so heartfelt. Its a part of their history that not everyone might know and that’s what Dave really wanted to show. 

Jim: My favorite interview of all of them was the Steven Tyler interview, because it was like following a ribbon in the sky. You had to pay attention to know what the fuck he was talking about. Listening to that guy’s brain, I could do that for like 100 hours. Then he sang “Back in the Saddle” in Steven Tyler voice in the van. He was doing an interview voice and answering questions and then suddenly his voice changed and he sang “Back in the Saddle”.

Dave has lived a pretty substantial life. And every time that we get in the room with someone like The Edge or Brian Johnson, they are legendary artists and Dave’s vibe is that he is equally shocked that we are getting to do this as we are.  

Dean: And even after every interview, instead of just ending “hey thank you for your time” even after we stopped rolling, he’d spend an extra 20 minutes just talking to them. About anything - their kids, family. He would continue because they are friends. I think that’s what really comes across is that its a common connection that they share.  

Me: One of the things I really liked was that there was a a real variety to the interview subjects. It wasn’t just U.S. bands from the 90s, it was artists of all different locations and time periods. Was there anyone who he wanted to get and for one reason or another couldn’t get them to be interviewed for this documentary?

John: I’m trying to think if there was anyone we chased and didn’t get? I mean its such a treat working with Dave because he has such access to everybody. [Pause] I think we might’ve gotten to everybody we wanted to. 

Jim: At this point, not to sound like an asshole, but if you’re an artist and you’ve seen Sound City and Sonic Highways, you’re probably thinking “that seems like some quality shit, so I’ll do the interview.” Dave has a reputation for setting up an environment where people can come in and talk and feel comfortable. Like John said, that’s the magic of working with Dave. You know, when Tom Petty doesn’t call you back for Sound City, Dave sends an email. Again, they’re all peers.

editor Dean Gonzalez

Me: Dean, I wanted to ask you because you were the editor on Pearl Jam: Let’s Play Two (which I reviewed in 2017). Can you contrast the experience of editing What Drives Us, which wasn’t just about Foo Fighters but several musicians, to editing Pearl Jam’s concert doc about playing Wrigley Field?

Dean: Yeah, that was a completely different animal. It was 2 nights at Wrigley Field that Pearl Jam played. I never even met the band. I was at one of the shows. The band walked by me and Eddie [Vedder] kind of stared at me for a minute - he probably thought I was somebody - and then he went out onstage.

Jim: He probably thought you were Dave!

Dean:  I think he did! [laughs] So it was completely different. We were asking the band what songs they wanted in the concert film. Basically Ed wrote back “whatever you want”. It was 2 nights, 3 hours, I think they did 64 songs. There was only a few duplications the next night. So I think we had a list of like 30. Me and [director] Danny Clinch just put together a list that was story vs. song of what we thought could work. That project was supposed to be 3 months. Actually kind of like this film! [laughs] 3 months turned into a year. Docs are always that way, but that was more of a concert film, and the reason it kept going longer is because the Chicago Cubs kept winning. No offense, but nobody expected the Cubs to keep winning. So once they did, we were like “Shit, we need to keep filming.” So we kept rolling out, Danny had to keep filming all of the World Series playoff events. And like I said, the band was gracious and just said “you guys pick whatever you want”. They gave Danny free reign. I think I actually cut 32 songs for that. But I think we only used something like 15.

So on this film [What Drives Us] I started with the interviews, whereas on that film I started with the concert. This one had a lot of archival stuff. With Pearl Jam it had some archival stuff, like Ed walking around Wrigley Field. But you know, it was 2 totally different things. I was actually editing out of Dave’s actual office. He converted his office so that I could edit out of, because he was working on another project From Cradle to Stage. And he was also finished the new record [Medicine at Midnight]. So he’d be working on the album, take a break and stop in on the guys working on From Cradle to Stage, then stop in and talk to me. As he is in the interviews with the icons he talks to, with me, he was like a kid in a candy store. He would just watch the footage and be like “Awww that’s so rad!” That was amazing, it was really fun! I think the first clip I showed Dave, it’s in the film it was the first time Foo Fighters ever played “My Hero”. I showed it to him and he knew instantly where it was and when it was. He was like “I know that shirt! I wore that shirt everyday!” He knows every aspect of his tour life. It really comes across, his enthusiasm. I think that’s why it really stands out, its not just like “here’s a bunch of questions”, he truly believes every word he says. And that’s what brings in other artists because they see his excitement and they’re all talking about living in a van, sleeping on people’s floors. That is a connection of the heart. 

Jim: That’s what I like about this movie so much. This started out as this thing about getting in a van and having fun, to this follow-your-heart story. If you’re a person who has a dream and the rest of the world is telling you “you’re fucking nuts” then it’s always been a sign to me personally that that’s what I should do. The minute everyone tells me I’m being an idiot that’s when I know I’m doing the right thing. It hasn’t always worked out, but in a lot of instances it has. And I think that’s true for most people. That’s what I love about the movie the most. As you arrive in your golden years (or silver years), you want to tell young people to follow your dream. Because a lot of people my age didn’t get told that. I know so many talented people who just were never nurtured right to follow their dreams, and its depressing. 

I think with everyone from Dave, to the band, to the management, to John and his company Therapy Studios to Dean (whose an amazing editor) and the entire crew, it’s just nice because everyone feels included in the process. That’s what I think makes our project special. 

Me: John mentioned the upcoming mini-series From Cradle to Stage. What is everyone working on next, with Roswell Films or otherwise?

John: Honestly, we’ve been going so hard all through the pandemic, so I’m looking forward to a nice long nap. [laughs] I mean Dave always has ideas. He’s a never ending fountain of creativity. He’s sort of mentioned casually in conversation, maybe another feature-length doc. But he’s still kind of work shopping the idea in his own head. So I don’t think I want to spoil the surprise before he’s ready to talk about it. You know, he’s such a force of nature. He has to be creating all the time, whether its music, or film or TV. So I’m quite certain there will be more. 

Jim: Since 2010, I’m going to tell you Eric, there hasn’t been a single moment where Dave hasn’t told us about the next project before we finish the current project. That is not a complaint, that’s fabulous. We have a few projects going with him at the moment, and then we all have other things. So I’m ready for some relaxation, but I’m also ready to fire it up if he called in an hour and said “let’s go interview”. 

For info on What Drives Us: https://codacollection.co/films/what-drives-us

[sunbird-tells-stories]

What are your headcanons for Omi, Clay, and Raimundo in reference to MW? If you don't get the chance to fit everything into your story, would you consider writing one-shots to go along with it? What was your inspiration for writing MW, aside from wanting a Jack Spicer redemption? What's your writing process? How long have you been writing? Are there other fandoms you're into besides XS?

This is going to get LONG and I don’t want to split it up because internet is bad here so apologies In advance but here we go:

What are your headcanons for Omi, Clay, and Raimundo in reference to MW?

I’ll start writing them and posting them as soon as I finish answering this one. It might take a bit, but you’ll see them up in a few hours or so.

Believe it or not those headcanons help me a lot when it comes to figuring out characters. So thanks for asking! I appreciate it.

If you don't get the chance to fit everything into your story, would you consider writing one-shots to go along with it?

Hell. Yes.

There is SO much I want to do. I want to write about how each Dragon found their element. I want to write ALL OF THE SHIP FUEL for Jack x Jermaine x Timber. I want to write about them having little mini episodic breather adventures in lots of different countries and cities, I’m talking Mumbai, St Petersburg, Venice, Paris, Capetown, Aguascalientes, Melbourne, everywhere! And maybe run ins with villains, for no reason. I want to write about them teaching each other about their strengths, like Jack explaining science to Jermaine and Timber or Timber teaching them two city boys how to fish and forage for food.

Also more moments of Jermaine reigning these two natural disasters in and teaching them how to be actual people. Because that’s always fun.

I want to write little moments between characters in Team Xiaolin during their quest to track down Team Spicer and I want to write moments between Seon Yeong, Rai and Kim as a trio. I want to write post-MW! Fics between characters and how they learn and grow after the events of the story - especially Kimiko and Timber as total opposites and the only two girls on the team. And I really want to write a ‘beach episode’ where Jack, Jermaine and Timber just end up warping to a tropical area and just have fun for once.

I want to write solo fics about Jack and Jermaine and their personal struggles as they grow up with their own troubles prior to MW!

And a part of me really, really wants to start posting a mini fic about Timber’s life in Silent Harbor, to show her slow, sad descent into the troubled teen she has now become and as a build up to the events of Chapter 6 of MW! where she runs into Jack for the first time. It would be SO spoiler-y though.

There’s a lot that might not fit in MW! And I would definitely write a bunch of mini stories. I don’t know who would be interested in reading all of that, but I might do it just to brainstorm ideas and explore character interactions.

What was your inspiration for writing MW, aside from wanting a Jack Spicer redemption?

I’ve been wanting to tell a XS story since I was a kid! This show was my everything! The characters were my everything. And even now it holds a special place in my heart. So the drive to write something for this fandom has always been there.

As for MW! itself....I’ve always had a fondness for Jack Spicer. I’ve always wanted him to find some semblance of happiness and have someone there so he’s not alone. And a long time ago, that someone became Timber.

But Timber wasn’t who she is today. She was Latina, and Californian, and a bubbly pink ray of sunshine and positivity. And Jack had a crush on her and she was his bestie and she was essentially an overly competent sidekick for him and then Clay had a crush on her and she was the Dragon Of Wood and Jack was the Dragon Of Metal and he was going to sell his soul to the Heylin side to finally earn Chase’s approval and she was gonna save him from himself...well, you get the picture. And I liked her a lot, and I still miss that version of her sometimes, but...she wasn’t interesting enough. And there wasn’t really a story there. At least not much of one. What was there could have been interesting on its own, but it was pretty self indulgent and I don’t think anyone besides me would have enjoyed reading it. And that’s no fun.

Then I had the idea to somehow bind Timber, an innocent civilian girl, to Jack through magic by having her make the idiotic mistake of betting herself in a Showdown with him over a Wu that was hers and then lose, and then essentially being dragged along on all of his adventures and slowly becoming friends with him while hilarity ensues. Then I had the idea to make a game breaking Wu that just...caused trouble. And the story then became about Jack accidentally dragging a civilian girl along on a warpy portally adventure with that Wu and run into all these villains as they become friends.

But when I did this, it didn’t feel balanced. I had someone on the Heylin side and I had someone who was Neutral. So then I needed someone as a buffer between Jack and Timber so they didn’t kill each other and to represent the side of Good aka someone who was Xiaolin.

And then Jermaine came along!

And as I developed the story more, I realized I wanted to tell something serious, and have all the characters grow and play off of each other and talk about the XS universe and answer questions and give everyone this big, long journey and great trial and give Jack actual character development and actual friends/love interests and have someone from Chinese Mythology be the Xiaolin’s ultimate adversary and Jack’s final test of character. And along the way, MW! was born.

And I’m really grateful for that.

What's your writing process?

Usually first I write up a few ideas of what I want to happen, like the general flow of the chapter. Then I make a chronological skeleton of dialogue, and I tweak it until I’m satisfied. Then I write the rest of the stuff like actions and descriptions.

One of my flaws is being redundant. Another is being overly wordy. So after I write it all out, I try to trim it down and tweak it as best as I can until these flaws are no more (I sometimes skip stuff) and then I just play around with the chapter until it feels right. It has to strike an emotional chord with me and get me excited to write it before I publish it. If I don’t feel that spark, it doesn’t go up.

I had a few people in the fandom volunteer to be beta readers, but my chapters are so long...so right now it’s just a couple of my closest friends who are looking at it, the main one being my friend CVD, who also wants to be a writer. She’s got a good eye for what does and doesn’t belong and I’m forever thankful. My other two, Trinket and Papillion, look over it and help let me know how they feel about things so they’re also a big help. So shoutout to you guys!

And then after all that noise, my stuff goes up.

However, my older chapters could use one final spellcheck and revision so I’ll eventually go back and polish those up a bit. Typos man. Typos....

A lot of times I’ll also take breaks to do some research and find inspiration music. Honestly there are days where I can’t figure a character or a scene out until I find JUST the right song for inspiration. And since a lot of characters in my fic are from a different country and cultural background than mine, I’ll do plenty of research to try to stay true to who they are. I’m doing a lot of research on the Bedouin tribe and its history and looking for a lot of pretty Middle Eastern music right now, for example. YouTube is a great resource for these things! Bless the internet!

How long have you been writing?

Since forever! I’ve always been making up stories in my head! And they’d get elaborate too! I’ve built so many worlds and characters just by playing around as a little kid, I can’t even begin where to start talking about them all. As I grew, I started to write them down and now I want to get serious about it! Besides Monkey Wrench!, I want to write a fanfic for the Ducktales 2017 fandom and the Black Butler fandom, and I have two original novel ideas I want to write out and get published. It’s my dream to make stories that other people love and that inspire others to learn, write, make stuff and have adventures and stuff. Literally my dream is to make stories that get a buttload Of fanart and cosplays and fanfic and just...move the world for the better somehow. That is my highest goal rn. Being a published and famous author.

Are there other fandoms you're into besides XS?

Hell yeah! Although I do tend to have periods where I hyper fixate on one at a time. Besides Xiaolin Showdown, I also like Gravity Falls, Storm Hawks, Steven Universe, Star vs The Forces Of Evil, and Ducktales 2017. There were a lot more in the past, such as Teen Titans, King Falls AM, The Boondocks, and Samurai Champloo, but I haven’t been very active in those fandoms as of late.

I really need to get into Tangled: The Series, OK KO, Victor and Valentino, and Craig Of the Creek. They all look phenomenal, I just don’t have time to get into them all yet.

[bastardsunlight]

//LONG-ass headcanon sesh for D, Alucard (Hellsing) and Adrian (CV’s Alucard) all kinda rolled into one.

So, since I don’t have radiantDecay anymore, I’ve sort of pulled back from the verse where Adrian BECOMES D. There was a lot of movement and timeline adjustment that had to happen for that one, and while it is in some way still possible, I’m not terribly interested in upkeeping a unique interpretation for a character that’s never really going to come into play. If you’re writing with D, it’s thousands of years after he was Adrian. If you’re writing with Adrian, it’s pre-1999 pretty much.

So, I have some documents someplace that I had written regarding D’s origins. The novels heavily imply that he’s somehow enhanced—y’know the movies hint at him just being super powerful Mary Sue turbo ultra dhampir simply because he is the son of “Our Sacred Ancestor” whomst we all pretty much know is Dracula himself right? Certain novels even hint that Mina Harker is his mother, if they don’t just outright state it. It might be the clunky translation (they really should have been more carefully transliterated because WOW some of those sentences just… don’t), but thus far it’s not been made CRYSTAL PERFECT CLEAR. However, I’m more than willing to run with that idea.

Dracula is, by the time Mina et. Al. come up against him, quite old, nigh ancient. I think that the Dracula of the Bram Stoker novel is or, rather, was the historical Vlad III Dracula Tepes (the impaler), born in the 1420s, “died” in the 1470s, iirc. Supposedly, the sultan at the time… Mehmed Fatih, kept his head in a box for a while before pinning him up on the walls of Constantinople, which the Turks controlled at the time. Ugly period in history for Eastern Europe… With Wallachia and Transylvania, in particular, two kingdoms in Romania, times were triple trouble. They were sandwiched between the Ottoman Empire to the east, then west was Eastern Orthodox Christendom—further west was Roman Catholicism and if you think THOSE guys didn’t fight, ding dong ur wrong!

BUT this period of violence produced one of the most well-known and controversial heroes (sometimes called a war criminal) of all time. Also he had a great ‘stache. Now when I write Hellsing’s Alucard, I roll with this same lore, so D and that Alucard could absolutely exist in the same ‘verse. It’s kind of a “darkest timeline” deal, a world in which the Belmont clan never existed. Before that even, Lisa never made Dracula’s acquaintance so the guy’s motivations are a little different. In addition, he is NOT Mathias Cronqvist, a tactician during the first crusades in 1090 AD. In that case, he would have revamped (PUN) his whole personality and integrated himself into one of the other great houses of Wallachia/Transylvania and re-emerged four hundred years later as Vlad the Impaler. That could work fine—not like he hasn’t got time—and that would have been around the time he met, and lost, Lisa. Now whether THAT part of history looks the same is dubious, since Vlad’s exploits during the period of his reign/deposition/reign/deposition/beheading are pretty decently documented. In this case, I’m going to say the Belmonts’ existence is in a timeline where those conflicts also may have played out differently. As these are all fictional worlds, I guess this’s up to ME atm. Nice.

So this is part “how I write D” and part “how I’d be inclined to write Alucard (Hellsing) in interactions that take place BEFORE the manga—like WAY before”. Since Adrian would have been a major contributing factor to the Belmonts’ strength from Trevor onward (so in the games idk if folks know this, but Adrian is Trevor’s father, with Sonia Belmont being his mom), that would also have contributed, at least in part, to the ability of the Belmonts to stomp Dracula and his minions.

With D, there is no need to include Mathias and his ebony/crimson stone conundrum, which does tend to throw a small monkey wrench in the ol’ gears (but not big enough I can’t adapt, trust me). The difference, aside from lack of Belmonts, is the origin of vampires. Clearly, they’re a magical construct or a spell-woven form of sentient life in Castlevania. In Vampire Hunter D, it’s heavily implied (once again, not outright stated) that the Nobility, some of them anyway, are simply a mutation of humanity (Dark Gene vs Light Gene, Lina’s whole deal, among other passages here and there), who also happen to be allergic to garlic, crucifixes, running water, and basic-ass Bram Stoker weaknesses. They’ve even got labs full o’ Nobles tryin’a conquer the sun issue.

So to know D, we gotta know his dad first. At the beginning, Vlad III is born to (big surprise) Vlad II. He and his brother are sent to Edirne as part of the Ottoman Empire’s “tribute” of however many young  boys from noble houses, to be trained in the ways of Islam and Turkish mannerisms, etc. This is more for pacification of that region of Europe, which is still Eastern Orthodox, than it is for real “peace”. It’s “peace because you guys are a good buffer zone between us and the rest of Eastern Orthodox-dom”, anyway. Every _voivode_ of Wallachia has to swear allegiance to either the Ottoman Empire or to the Eastern Orthodox church. While most of that area is EO, it’s in their best interest to swear to the Ottoman Empire. They’re bigger and closer. Vlad’s dad has done some underhanded shit, but he’s also a member of the Order of the Dragon and has propelled it to new heights within the EO and that’s where Vlad gets his name: Dracula, which is Son of the Dragon. So Vlad II’s immediate family are known as the Draculesti, which is fucking cool—it’s like “children of the dragon” and that’s not even his like, NAME name—it’s a frickin’ nickname, or sobriquet, as is Tepes.

In the world of Vampire Hunter D, vampirism appears to be a genetic phenomenon—ironically, a mutation. No Noble is going to admit that, OBVIOUSLY. And while it’s true, they were probably born that way, they’re still a mutant human derivative. Rather than mutating due to radiation or whatevermstthefuck like the actual mutants in VHD, they’re just born that way. So what I’m rolling with is Vlad III was born with that particular mutation and, kind of like my OC Toby, who is also a genetic vampire, it takes a violent or unnatural death to trigger the actual symptoms, else you’re just a normal-ass person. In fact, in this interpretation, I’m going to say that maybe quite a few people are BORN with that mutation, but if they live to a ripe old age and die, it never triggers. Most likely, the body is too enfeebled to handle it, maybe it dies after menopause/andropause? Either way, the body has broken down too much and there’s no material to work with.

That might also go a long way to explain the animosity many old vampires have toward humanity. Sometimes it’s straight up contempt, of course, but every single time, it seems to be a removal. Carmilla is a good example. Most of the time, her backstory involves a vicious assault that might very well have killed her. Imagine dying that way and waking back up to find that you had to KEEP living in the world that did this to you, that death is FAR far off. I can understand being VERY PERTURBED, to put it mildly. By the same token, what about war? How many folks die in war? Thousands? Millions? Of all those, how many have the mutation? Probably quite a few. Some folks might not figure out what’s going on and stay where they are, buried for decades, before just wasting away without sustenance—Vampires DO require blood, after all, to keep doin’ their thing. Plenty more are probably just torched in the sun. Since they were KIA, it might be rough finding their bodies in the first place…

So Vlad is beheaded—now this part intersects VERY well with Hellsing’s Alucard in my portrayal—and Mehmed Fatih keeps his head close at hand for a bit, probably talking to it. What happens when it starts talking back? We know Dracula has some SERIOUSLY kickass abilities and putting himself back together would definitely be one of ‘em, in my humble opinion. Mehmed dies not long after he achieves “victory” over Vlad the Impaler and no one knows where Vlad’s remains are. Maybe they up and walked the fuck away, hm? Maybe it was HE who ensured Mehmed’s destruction. How poetic would THAT be? Spoiler alert ||very||.

Now imagine going through everything he did—the guy had a tumultuous life. He might be one of the few, lucky ones who figure out that sunlight is a no-go, hide himself away, eventually go back to haunt his castle in the mountains between Transylvania and Wallachia. Now fast forward to the 1800s, MODERN TIMES (heehee okay) and one very ambitious realtor who wants to sell a creepy old abbey to some weird foreigner. Seems legit. Anyway by now we can see that Dracula’s gotten kinda nutty? He has three scary “wives” but he doesn’t seem to care much for ‘em. They’re obviously vampires, too, though I cannot recall if they’re turned by him or if they’re LIKE him—anyone who’s read it recently, do feel free to refresh me.

He’s kinda senile and while he’s crafty, he’s outsmarted by a dandy, an ancient-ass doctor, a dude who cannot stop fainting, a man named Quincey (my husbando), and Jack Seward—nuff said. He has some kind of congress with Mina, though ofc it’s the Victorian age so the only penetration is that of his li’l toofers on her poor neck. Nom. I don’t think Dracula banged Mina Harker. I think that, in THIS world, a dhampir is a nigh-impossibility, because at this point (and their cool-ass vampire science might’ve changed this), vampires are The Undead™ and therefore cannot CREATE LIFE. Not even if they have a raging turboner (that’s a turbo boner, for those of u not in the know). So he bit Mina, but before he did that, Mina married Jonathan—like as soon as he got home. They were married and living together and doing the frickle frackle, presumably, before Drac shows up in London to mess up their day.

In this case and for the sake of sanity, to create a dhampir, the vampire must chew on a pregnant lady. The curse lifts from her when the master is killed, but his blood has already entered and changed the child; the process is much longer and more involved for an adult human, who has an immune system and much more ground to cover. If the smol bean was in embryo stage or even fetal, it had no defense and mom’s body provided it with everything, Dracula’s blood, included. The final set of letters in Dracula mentiones a young boy, Jonathan and Mina’s son, Quincey, named after their fallen friend. So little Quincey is a dhampir!

Now, a bitten vampire cannot, in this universe, turn anyone else. They can feed and create thralls, but they can’t make VAMPIRES. In Hellsing lore, if a vamp bites you and you’re a virgin, you become one—if not, you become a ghoul/zambolio thingamajigger. Integra narrates this for us pretty early on. But it’s not Alucard’s venom doing this. It’s the vicar of Cheddar Village, who is a manufactured vampire. He’s not a true vampire, not like Alucard. Now, Alucard DOES ask Seras if she’s a virgin ‘fore he kills and bites her, which makes sense… IF HE LOVED MINA.

Hear me out. So, he saw this strong-ass bitch and thought “goddamn I’m sick of my whiny, vicious wives UGH I need me a woman like that”. So he’s gunna turn her. It probably takes longer since he hasn’t been powered up by Hellsing and their dark science-magic shit, or whatever it was… OR as he chomps on ‘er, he realizes “well fuck me she’s preggo, so even if she changes, I can’t have her”. Pregnant blood has GOTTA taste different, all those hormones and shit, even early on. I think he did have some weird admiration-affection for her. His arrogance and greed, however, has taken him over, so perhaps he decides to change her slow, to make the fellas suffer. They’ve fucked with him so he’s gunna fuck with them, but I think it pains him a little to do so, because lbr Mina’s the woman of his dreams.

So when Quincey is born, he’s perfect, healthy, rosy-cheeked, and by god only Mina knows something’s amiss. Damned if she’s going to say shit to Jonathan, who’s liable to faint, the absolute fucking walnut. They live fairly well, having taken over the real-estate business from their wonderful, generous, dead benefactor. 

Much like Carmilla’s weirdo ghost, however, Dracula’s spirit absolutely lives on.

TL; DR D was born Quincey Harker. 

[medea10]

Medea Rambles - Changing Voice Actors (in anime)

Your favorite character! You love the way they look, the way they act, and in many cases, the way they sound. Yeah, voice actors are a vital role when it comes to bringing life to any character in animation. But what happens when your favorite character doesn’t sound the same as he/she used to?

It could mean your favorite character’s voice actor has CHANGED.

Don’t fear! This happens all the time and many factors can come into play to make that happen.

Because I’m bored today and have nothing better to talk about...

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BETTER TO TALK ABOUT!

(seriously, I do like this movie)

I want to talk about voice actors! Because I like talking about them. I have the highest respect for these people and these people give it their all with the characters they voice. Every scream Sean Schemmel ever gave as Goku, every cackle Sayaka Ohara gave as Beatrice, these performances can be considered remarkable and memorable as time goes by.

But we must all remember this. Voice actors are just like you or me. They are human. No one lasts forever. And when the unthinkable happens and a voice actor dies, many creators grapple with either retiring the character or hire a replacement.

In the anime world, it’s most likely the latter because there’s no way in fuckdom Professor Oak would EVER be retired as a character (R.I.P. Unshou Ishizuka).

Even though no one could match the charm of Unshou Ishizuka as Professor Oak and many other roles, we accept the change. But it’s not just death. Life in general can get in the way. Many voice actresses have long-running roles to voice even when they’re pregnant. So when they go on maternity leave, they’ll need a replacement. However these are thankfully temporary so we were able to get Mariya Ise to voice Bonnie on Pokemon again and soon Brina Palencia will be back to voicing Juvia on Fairy Tail (and congrats to her for the birth of her first baby).

Child actors in anime will probably not have the same voice they had 10 years ago and if a role is making a revival in the present, that person will more than likely not play that same role. Perfect example there would be Aaron Dismuke who was a young boy when playing roles like Al on Full Metal Alchemist and Hiro on Fruits Basket. When FMA: Brotherhood came out, it was very clear that Dismuke was well past puberty and so his role of Alphonse had to go to someone else.

And voice actors who sustain injury to their voices during production. Jessica Calvello, the original voice of Excel from Excel Saga literally blew out her vocal chords for this role and had to have her role replaced for the second half of the series. Was it noticeable? Fuck yeah it was. But it was for the greater good. Plus her replacement wasn’t that bad. In fact she did a good job with the wacky behavior of Excel. The dubbing company was on a deadline and it had to be met. So what’s done is done. I’m just happy Calvello healed from that and is still a voice actor.

And other issues like scheduling conflicts and controversial issues come into play throwing a monkey wrench in productions. But we all move on for the most part.

WE ALL MOVE ON!

Anyways, for the most part these are just singular acts concerning one or more characters at a time. What happens when AN ENTIRE CAST IS CHANGED?!

Well...it happens! It just depends on the circumstances with the anime. And let’s face it, some of these changes can be for the greater good. Take Sailor Moon for example. Yes, we all know this tale! Sailor Moon was originally licensed by DIC for the first few seasons. And then the next few seasons it was taken over by (the thankfully gone company) Cloverway. With both companies, the anime was given the royal fuck-over with skipping episodes, chopping or editing scenes, Americanizing everything, downplaying homosexuality, shotty voice work, and blow off an entire season. And during the transition from DIC to Cloverway, some of the voices were changed and it was noticeable.

Decade later, Viz Media swoops in and gives the fans what they waited for. The entire series redubbed with original names, Haruka and Michiru are lesbians, Fisheye has a penis, and season five can finally be shown. But for many of us, we were delighted to hear the voices to the characters we grew up with finally getting some justice. While many of us loved Sailor Moon growing up, it was kind of painful to hear some of the voices. I once again point to Haruka’s original voice (or Amara as they called her). And the same could also be said about the first dub to One Piece. This redub needed to happen! No one objected to this, nor should they! But that’s just one person’s opinion here. Others, not so much. Especially the next one!

POKEMON! Yes another anime that went through a giant change. In 2006 (right in the middle of a fucking arc mind you), Pokemon switched the dubbing rights from 4Kids to TAJ/Pokemon Company. To which we all said...

And then they got rid of all the voice actors who have voiced these characters for YEARS and replaced them. To fans of the show from the very beginning it was noticeable and STILL IS. To people who were born in 2006 and are watching this now as a teenager (fucking shit I feel old just realizing that), they probably wouldn’t give it a second thought.

I know it hurt fans and voice actors at first but look at the bright side, a lot of them went on to do great things after Pokemon. Veronica Taylor is busy doing Sailor Moon. Eric Stuart is still touring. And Andrew Rannells...I don’t think I need to bring up Book of Mormon. As it has been over 13 years since the change I think many of us have gotten used to or have accepted this.

Does that mean you’ve accepted Tracey’s new voice?

No. Fuck no. And I never will.

Yeah, Tracey’s a different story. I refuse to accept that change.

Anyways back to voice actors changing! Pokemon and Sailor Moon were kind of special cases as those had a bunch of in-fighting to get what we got. Same with One Piece because no one wanted to watch that hot mess get raped with censored items, Americanized names, and a horrific rap song that even Vanilla Ice would say that’s too much. But sometimes, an anime that has finished its airing and has been dubbed and released in the states, it will be out of print or its license will be expired.

Animes like Berserk, Squid Girl, Rozen Maiden, and Shakugan no Shana were all owned, licensed, and dubbed by a company. But then their licence would go belly-up and their title would no longer be available for purchase (at a decent price) or streamed on a website. Luckily, these titles were eventually saved. Kept the same is a different story there.

All four of those titles had one or more of their seasons dubbed and anything else the series had that wasn’t dubbed was now going to be dubbed by their current licencor. In many of these cases it was changed due to the fact that many of the original voice actors for these roles are not where this certain anime is being worked on. Like in the case of Shakugan no Shana, many of the voice actors reside in Vancouver BC and FUNimation, the licensing company is in Texas. Hence, you get the second and third season sounding way different from the first season. Yes, it’s convenient or cheaper to use people in your studio instead of waiting to hear from Canada. So that’s a possibility of why they do that. Or of course, scheduling issues/conflicts or wanting to do things their own way. Haven’t decided on which one to believe.

And then there are some animes like Escaflowne (an anime that was already dubbed and licensed and released in the late 90s) only for the whole thing to be redubbed by FUNimation decades later. Reasons? They re-licensed it? There was over 8 minutes of new footage found that was never dubbed? They found it necessary to do that? Take your pick!

Now most of what I’m talking about is mostly America problems. Does Japan redub classic anime? To my knowledge, no. But if they remake, reboot, or give a sequel, the cast might change. In recent reboots such as Fruits Basket, Berserk, Sailor Moon, and Genshiken, the entire cast will change to either appease the original creator’s wishes or start over with a clean slate. And if a series makes a return after several decades, of course they’re going to change voices, are you insane?

Why did I find the need to spew a bunch of useless information today? I felt inspired after Netflix decided to grace us with IT’S presence.

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

A classic in the anime community. A gateway anime for many. A massive mindfuck wrapped in a brainfart. A clusterfuck of many proportions.

The television series was licensed and dubbed by ADV back in the 90s. But of course that company went belly-up and so this series has been unreachable in terms of purchasing for over a decade. Even when Japan gives us reboots in the forms of movies for the Evangelion franchise, only those movies would be picked up (by FUNimation). They didn’t even touch the series. Didn’t they realize fans would pay through the nose to get a blu-ray release of this series? The most fans could get were split-up copies on DVD and old VHS tapes. This was a goldmine.

Alas, FUNimation was not the one to save the Neon Genesis Evangelion series.

It was Netflix.

But...all things come at a price when you make a deal with the devil. Netflix found it necessary to redub the entire series (both movies included) without giving word or even consideration to the original cast (that has been doing the voices to these characters for over 20 years). Spike Spenser, Amanda Winn Lee, Tiffany Grant, and Allison Keith wanted to help with this as they all had a lot of input in the original (especially Lee). Now before I cast stones upon this, I do give this dub some credit. They do make an effort to make this sound like an improved version of the 90s dub. And in some aspects I find the new voice to Shinji bearable. And I’m okay with many new casting changes. I mean NGE was okay, but the dub wasn’t the greatest. My only gripe with the change...

Downplaying Shinji x Kaowru.

Netflix, you just undid like a decades worth of change when it comes to homosexuality in anime. You just took us five steps backwards! Kaowru says he LOVED Shinji. “Like”? No, you like a pair of pants. You like that new Bruno Mars song. Kaowru said he LOVED Shinji. Why the fuck didn’t you keep that translation? The 90s dub was kind enough to have Kaowru say that and the 1990s were run by a bunch of prudes! I thought we were past this shit when we put an end to the old Sailor Moon dubs!

Now with this Netflix dub, many characters on Evangelion officially have 2-3 different voice actors. Or in the case of the character Toji, Johnny Young Bosch is the fifth person to voice him. But some platforms can have the anime itself, just not get the right with the english dub probably due to some legal loophole.

Whew, a lot of changes in anime, right folks? It almost feels like these dubbing companies want to erase the past, right? Well to be fair, everyone seems to be doing that. Disney keeps giving us live-action remakes to classic Disney animated films. Classic anime titles are being rebooted. Dubbing companies are taking older animes and redubbing them. I know it feels like they want us to forget these dubs existed. But I know they just want to improve them.

No matter what, everyone will find fault with everything. And in the anime community, it feels like a never-ending flame war. Older animes will get hated on by how crappy it sounds or looks. And nostalgic fans will hate on the new dub because it’s with new people who sound nothing like the original.

YOU CAN (NOT) WIN!

Heh, I made an Eva-build joke.

With these redubs, many names get pronounced the correct way, many translations will be accurate to the Japanese version, and in some cases it’ll sound a lot better. Dubbing companies try to aim at new viewers and to introduce a new generation of anime fans to an old classic. But for people who grew up with animes like Pokemon, Escaflowne, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and many others, we grew accustomed to the dub. And when hearing it changed, it’s kind of a kick in the ears hearing anything penetrated or different from all the years you spent watching these animes.

Everyone has their own opinion of what they like and don’t like to hear. I like to give things the benefit of the doubt for the most part. Especially when I watch an older anime for the first time that has several dubs. When I began watching Rurouni Kenshin about 7 years back, I was warned that there were three English dubs to that. And I heard all three. I made my choice of which one I prefer, which one was okay, and which one needs to be set on fire. In case you don’t know, the original TV series had the best, the OVA series was okay, and the redub Sony did needs to be set on fire.

And that would be my advice to new anime watchers. Give both dubs a chance and make your decision on which one you like best.

Sadly, these changes will continue to happen whether for the better or the worst. While there are some changes that upset me, some I’m okay with if not pleased about it. But with the recent upset over fans hating on Evangelion’s new dub and change, do you think the fans will get a revolution and their old dub/old translations back? Let me put it to you this way. If Pokemon told us to sit and spin after many of us outraged over the cast change, what chance do Evangelion fans have against Netflix? But you never know, stranger things have happened. Maybe a miracle will occur and the old dub will get a blu-ray release.

In the meantime, I’ll have to re-write my thoughts on Evangelion with the ADV dub, FUNimation dub, and Netflix dub. TOO MANY DUBS!

This has been another Medea ramble. I’ll go back to doing whatever it is I normally do around here.

[sirfrogsworth]

Climate Buffoon

Trump did another crazy interview with the Associated Press. I thought I would post his thoughts on climate change. I have highlighted the extra ridiculous parts. 

________________________

AP: In your interview with ’60 Minutes’ over the weekend, you were asked about climate change, and you said you believe it, but that also, it could go back.

Trump: I said the worst hurricane was 50 years ago, far worse than what this one was. Then, in 1890, they had one that was even worse. This was No. 3 or 4 or 5. We had worse hurricanes in 1890, we had worse, a worse hurricane 50 years ago. We’ve gone through a period, actually, fairly recently, where we have very few. I live in Florida to a large extent and spend a lot of time in Florida, and we had a period of time where we went years without having any major problem. And then you have a problem and it goes in cycles, and I want absolutely crystal clear water and I want the cleanest air on the planet and our air now is cleaner than it’s ever been. Very important to me. But what I’m not willing to do is sacrifice the economic well-being of our country for something that nobody really knows. And you have scientists on both sides of the issue. And I agree the climate changes, but it goes back and forth, back and forth. So we’ll see.

I mean, you know, I am a person that believes very, very strongly in the environment. I am truly an environmentalist. I know some people might not think of me as that, but I’m an environmentalist. Everything I want and everything I have is clean. Clean is very important — water, air. But I also want jobs for our country. And if we would have, as an example, entered certain agreements with other countries, I actually think that we’re doing it so they could have an economic advantage. Because we would have had a tremendous— we would have been at a tremendous economic disadvantage if we entered into certain agreements.

AP: But scientists say this is nearing a point where this can’t be reversed.

Trump: No, no. Some say that and some say differently. I mean, you have scientists on both sides of it. My uncle was a great professor at MIT for many years. Dr. John Trump. And I didn’t talk to him about this particular subject, but I have a natural instinct for science, and I will say that you have scientists on both sides of the picture.

WE’RE DOOMED.

A few things... 

There was no devastating hurricane in 1890. There was one in 1980. 

There have been 33 category 5 hurricanes since 1924. Eleven of these have occurred in the past 14 years.

Crystal clear water is actually quite rare in nature. We need water with less contaminates. Like with no mercury or lead or flushed birth control that changes the sex of fish.

“our air now is cleaner than it’s ever been” Around 60 percent of Americans live in areas where air pollution has reached unhealthy levels that can make people sick.

“Something that no one really knows.” There is a 97% consensus among publishing climate scientists.

“you have scientists on both sides of the issue” No, you really don’t. Also, both sides? Really? That expression didn’t go over well the last time you used it. 

“So we’ll see.” Yes, let’s just sit back and wait to see if the world ends.  If it does end... whoopsie daisy! Who could’ve seen that coming??  If it doesn’t end... damn, thank god we didn’t put all that effort into cleaning the air and water and making the world’s energy infrastructure more efficient. 

“Some say differently.” NO ONE IS SAYING DIFFERENTLY. See: 97% consensus.

Let me get this straight... You had an uncle at MIT who you didn’t talk to about climate change, but just having that uncle gives you some sort of scientific instinct about climate change? 

I have an uncle who was a homicide detective. One of the best in St. Louis. Perhaps I’ll go to the police station and demand they let me solve some murders. 

Maybe I’ll even do a cool pun as I remove my Aviators.  

“It looks like someone killed this guy with a monkey wrench.

That’s... *removes sunglasses* bananas.”

[kas-e]

Cyclones & the Road

Vanity won't stop this new school vagabond from shamelessly admitting acts of vagrancy in coffee shops across America while either writing, working on my photography, or just getting a hot cup of coffee and a meal while speaking with strangers and introducing them to the man behind the green & wild bloodshot eyes.  I've become an expert at stealing moments of their time to share some skunky smoke, give them some wide smiles, tell them a few bad jokes, and remind them that there is indeed still soul out there in this plastic & tragic country.  The corporations can flood the world with tech of all sorts, phones, laptops, computers, etc, but after this past year I've realized that there are still some people out there like myself that are unable to be pacified by the plastic.  

The road is still the home of the true individual... the hyper-inspired, so-called insane ones.  Though a dying breed it seems and some may say, I beg to differ as there are still souls out there like me who live truly free, who are working on perfecting the art of a pure and true underground life, the subterranean version of the American dream created by the anarchists and travelers and artists and poets who found themselves in the soul sucking period in time of America in the 40's & 50's.  The similarities are striking to me... the current version being reinvented in a strange, sleek, and subliminal strain easily adapted to our current age in time.  Over the past few years I believe it is now safe to say that the times have undoubtedly mirrored the old days of a bland, restless, post-war America - the very scene that initially caused the underworld to bubble with activity, originality, drive, and creativity and later spawn the subculture which still remains the root of every movement towards pushing the the boundaries of intellectual progress, creative expression, and a free-form style of living absent of requirement save the unspoken law which is absolute freedom and originality - of which all in the tribe silently abide.   Such a law is quite difficult to articulate, but I'll take a crack at it regardless.  The mantra is to Go, with a capital G, but Go in a direction never gone before, pave the path instead of tracing another, stay true to your sister and your brother when you meet them along the way, live by the laws of karma and understand that the only catalyst is the Dharma and that God lives in the eyes of every person you meet, give without the phrase "on the arm" and expect nothing in return & receive with great gratitude and grace, and leave the rest up to the wind, the world, and the driving force behind this strange thing called life that we are all so lucky to be a part of.  Be Here Now & practice the art of living without expectation while keeping the body healthy, the mind active and innovative, the soul open and transparent, all while remaining conscious of just how detrimental the energy we put out into the world actually is to those who we come in contact with... to be mindful and free simultaneously is a feat in itself, it is a challenge to even the most weathered veterans of our fringe underworld. 

While on the road, driving clear across America for the second time within 2 years, I found myself entranced by the painted lines which naturally set my mind spinning in a manner that only extremely long stretches on the road can cause.  I thought a great deal about the cycles of this life, and about how similar moments become during a persons phases while in times of transition.  Today as I write this, marks my 38th year on this planet, and at this time in a man's life if you don't start to not only notice - but also brood on these things - then you are not paying attention, or of the type who simply never makes it to the deep end of the pool.  The fact that this was going to be one of the big mountains I'll have to climb during my time on earth both terrified me and inspired me at the same time.  I was as alone as a man can be, as troubled as a man can be, yet at the same time I realized I was as free as a man could be.  It was an interesting dichotomy, a confusing thought to think on, but instead of switching gears and avoiding such a complexity the road allowed me to continuously peel back the layers of this onion and really go deep.  It is this realization, it is the fact of facing the fear of such thoughts that has since been my anchor in the face extreme desperation, intense struggle, and pestering suicidal thought patterns that would strike during times of weakness.  If you are reading this, and you ever find yourself in such a headspace, always remember these very personal cycles that we go through as humans... and if you find yourself fighting with these things, if you find yourself fighting a battle that feels impossible to ever win, I beg of you to focus on the reality of these cycles.  Meditate on this reality.  Know that if you have reached a low of this magnitude, it either means you are at the tail end of a high of equal magnitude - or how I like to believe, that you are currently paying your dues for the next high which will peak sometime in the near future after fighting your way back up to the top.  Hindsight allowed me to visualize this, and I feel the greatest thing about getting older is the ability to view the past through a clear and concise lens, and rest assured that this too will pass as it has in the past.  Don't lose faith.  If the world has it's foot on your throat and your back pressed upon the pavement, understand that it is because you are not just another humdrum monotonous drone of a human - it is because you are one of the few that pushes the limits of progress and strives for greatness, and if you want to achieve greatness in this life, well then it is only right that you will also have to endure great struggle in order to do so.      

The same idea can easily be applied to society, our existence as a society is also unarguably cyclonic.  As the wheel turns we now find ourselves at a very pivotal moment in human existence.  The incorporation of technology has genuinely thrown a monkey wrench into the rusty gears of the Great American Experiment.  Birthed at the turn of the century with the prominence of the PC, it is now almost 20 years later and we are all essentially cyborgs with perpetual connectivity in our pockets, super heightened intelligence thanks to our good friend Google, and eagerly watching as the once enigmatic Artificial Intelligence gets it's footing in the world of reality.  I subscribe to the theory that we are on the brink of truly strange times to come, and that during this age in time we could possibly undergo a total revolution of our everyday life as human beings due the arrival of a new, synthetic consciousness that we are in the process of creating.

If this age in time were a human, the human would be taking their first steps on their own as I type this...  and the fear among those following this strange progression naturally lies in the unknown.  The question is, what will this human do when it is not only able to walk on its own - but when the human no longer needs us to survive?  The latter question, in my opinion, is a non-issue, but with the smartest people walking the planet, for example Sam Harris and Elon Musk both harboring such a fear, I think it's only right that any intellectual worth their salt entertain the theory and follow the progression of this very strange matter.  

All of that said, I think it is very important to note that as creative individuals the addition of technology must be delicately balanced and incorporated in our work.  I find it essential to resist the misuse of these machines, and always remember, they are simply tools to us - use them as such.   The very worst thing that you can do is resist the technology entirely, because the sad fact is that if you do, well, you will be left in the dust as the rest of the creative community masters these tools and marches forward.  Take them for what they are, a means to create, a means to communicate, a means to make your work more polished, and a tool which allows your methods to be more fluid and your process to become more seamless.  Most people are either consumed by the technology, or work so hard at resisting it that it really does hinder their quality of life.  An artist must not subscribe to either of these camps, and instead do what artists do... take control of what's in front of you, and manipulate it to work for you thus enhancing the final product of which you create.  At one point in time, artists across the world sat with canvas and charcoal, today we sit with laptops and photoshop, and I honestly believe that the difference between them is near non-existent.  

[douxreviews]

The Merchant of Venice (2004) Review

"I am a'weary of this world."

When a merchant's ships are all lost and he forfeits a debt, his debtor Shylock demands exactly what the bond stipulates – a pound of his flesh...

The Merchant of Venice is a tricky play, because although popular and including some of Shakespeare's most famous lines, the themes of the play make it difficult to produce for modern audiences. As far as Shakespeare was concerned, the play was clearly a comedy. It ends in marriage, generally a marker of comedy in Shakespearean drama (it was written before the late 'Romance' plays). Most of the plot is clearly ridiculous; Portia's late father's method for choosing a husband for her is obviously ludicrous, there are women dressing up as men and tricking their new husbands, and even Shylock's demand for a pound of flesh has a comedic aspect (note that although in the court the bond is written to stipulate a pound of flesh from near the heart, when he first suggests it, Shylock says he'll take it from 'what part of your body pleaseth me' – and if I've learned anything about Shakespeare's sense of humour over the years, I can guess what that refers to). But we in the twenty-first century don't generally find anti-semitism, condoning slavery, implied homophobia, references to racism and forcing people on pain of death to change their religion terribly funny.

There are only really two solutions to this – play the romantic scenes for comedy and the Shylock scenes for drama, or play the whole thing for drama. Michael Radford's film goes all out for drama, and it mostly works very well. Unlike Hamlet, which I quite like modern dress versions of, The Merchant of Venice is a film set in a very specific time and place (here it's given it a date of 1596, when the play was probably written) and the film places it firmly within history by outlining the history of anti-semitism in early modern Venice in title cards at the beginning. This is pretty much essential to understanding the story, and the visualization of Antonio spitting on Shylock (referred to later in dialogue) also helps to set up the characters and the root of Shylock's anger effectively.

Shylock is a character much like Euripides' Medea – he has a wonderful speech outlining how badly he's treated and arguing passionately for better, but his actions later in the play suggest that the author did not intend him to be entirely sympathetic (rather under-cutting the suggestion that Shakespeare was making a plea for tolerance or Euripides a feminist). For modern audiences, though, he is a compellingly conflicted character, and here he is played brilliantly by Al Pacino. Pacino's performance is captivating and heart-breaking and the courtroom scene is absolutely gut-wrenching.

The decision to play the story completely straight (there are elements of humour, of course, but none of the really broad comedy or light atmosphere of, for example, the lighter scenes in Much Ado About Nothing) mostly works. Some of the romantic scenes come across as a bit overblown and melodramatic, but the conflict between working from a script written as comedy and making it a drama only really becomes an issue in the courtroom scene and especially in the final twenty minutes or so after it. It's great that Portia saves the day with her quick thinking, but the fact that she makes the least convincing man since Bob in Blackadder is a bit distracting, and there's just no way we can feel really invested in the lovers messing around with rings and easily broken promises after watching the absolute devastation of Shylock's defeat.

Still, these are pretty much unsolvable problems in this play, and it would be a terrible shame never to produce it because its attitudes are out of date (it's hardly alone there). I think this film really does the best possible job with this material. All of the cast, as well as Pacino, are fantastic, and the American actresses playing Portia and Nerissa are doing the best and most convincing fake English accents I've come across. It looks absolutely gorgeous and it has one of the most beautiful film scores I've ever heard. A combination of medieval-inspired music, Tudor-inspired music, a boy soprano and a song sun by Hayley Westernra, the score is utterly gorgeous and is matched by the incredible cinematography and beautiful costuming.

According to Wikipedia, both Jeremy Irons (playing Antonio) and director Michael Radford thought that they had portrayed Antonio and Bassanio's relationship as just platonic good friends. I'm not sure what film they were watching, because one of the first observations that came to me as I re-watched it was "this version really plays up the suggestion that Antonio is in love with Bassanio." Joseph Fiennes (as Bassanio) did deliberately play up the idea of a homoerotic attraction (possibly a history) between them. I am a person who will argue for hours that Frodo and Sam have an entirely platonic relationship, and I can see how you could play Antonio and Bassanio as just good friends, but I don't think that's what they've actually achieved here – and I think that's a good thing.

Because of the dramatic approach taken to the material, the film has a deliberately melancholy air, and rather than ending on everyone going off to finally get laid, as the script does, the film finishes on a shot of Jessica, who is revealed not to have given away her mother's ring for a monkey after all, looking sad and pensive. This melancholic atmosphere is enhanced by the shots of Antonio looking on wistfully as Bassanio and Portia embrace. The film has turned Shakespeare's bawdy comedy into a serious drama about love and pain and betrayal and acceptance, or lack thereof, so it seems entirely appropriate to interpret Antonio's love as another example of a character constrained and made to suffer for what he is, and every choice both director and actor make seems to reinforce that, from Antonio gazing out at Bassanio and denying that he's in love (methinks he doth protest too much) to his emphasis on his willingness to put his body on the line for Bassanio. You almost have to be trying not to see it to miss it. If that wasn't what Radford and Irons intended, they've gone wrong somewhere.

This is a difficult story, but this film does a fantastic job making it accessible, approachable and absolutely beautiful. I love me some Kenneth Branagh, as you know, but in terms of tackling something really difficult really well, this has got to be one of the best Shakespeare adaptations I've ever seen, and much as we might have come to expect it of him, it's worth saying again that Pacino completely blew me away. Beautiful in every way.

Notes and Quotes

The cast is absolutely full of familiar faces, some known before this film, some after; Joseph Fiennes, Kris Marshall from Love Actually/My Family, Charlie Cox from Stardust/Downton Abbey, Zuleikha Robinson from Rome, Mackenzie Crook, John Sessions, Jeremy Irons...

The quote at the top of the page is the version of Portia's opening line used in this film, but the full line is usually "my little body is a-weary of this great world." It's one of my Mum's favourite Shakespeare quotes, partly because of the 'little body' bit.

Prince of Morocco (reading from a scroll): All that glitters is not gold...

Shylock: I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

Portia: The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.

Juliette Harrisson is a freelance writer, classicist and ancient historian who blogs about Greek and Roman Things in Stuff at Pop Classics.