#In the interests of full disclosure. I got 32.

[badgersprite]

My 2024 Eurovision Top 37!!!

It's that time of year again! That time where I give my opinions on Eurovision that nobody asked for!

Is this an especially strong year for Eurovision? Eh. Yes and no. There's a lot of songs I don't like, more than there probably has been in any recent years, but there's also lots of songs I really like and would be happy if they won.

I think this is shaping up to be a very interesting year. I would argue that there is no clear and obvious frontrunner. Any winner is really probably going to feel like a "surprise", and most likely a pleasant one at that. There's a lot of songs here that feel like they'd be deserving winners, with no one really so clearly ahead of the pack to where it would feel like they were "robbed" if they lost.

But anyway, we're counting down, in reverse order, below the cut!

XX. ISRAEL - EDEN GOLAN - Hurricane

Ok, full disclosure, this is why I was kind of late to post my top. I haven't listened to this song. Frankly, I don't feel comfortable listening to this song. I don't know if I ever will. So, accordingly, I will not be giving it a rating, review, or ranking. I wish to make no further comment and please respect my decision.

Sorry for the downer start, but that's just how I feel.

36. SWITZERLAND - NEMO - The Code

I'm starting off controversial. I have no idea why this song is so popular in the community. I do not know what other people hear in this. To me, this just sounds like an annoying, disjointed mess.

35. LATVIA - DONS - Hollow

This song is a slow, dirgey wall of sludge. Sorry to this man, but I don't come to Eurovision to feel like I'm at a funeral.

34. BELGIUM - MUSTII - Before The Party's Over

This song is a slightly less slow, dirgey wall of sludge. I don't know, it feels like it's trying really hard to be artsy and ~important~

33. ICELAND - HERA BJÖRK - Scared of Heights

"I'm not one to take risks."

Yeah, Hera. We can tell. Jesus Christ. This song is so safe it feels like getting a lecture on abstinence at a Christian private school.

32. MOLDOVA - NATALIA BARBU - In The Middle

I like the chorus. Shame about literally everything else in this song.

31. ALBANIA - BESA - Titan

What's with the random banjos? Albania in its Folklore era.

30. AZERBAIJAN - FAHREE & ILKIN DOVLATOV - Özünlə Apar

As much as I want to give Azerbaijan bonus points for finally sending something partially in Azeri, I literally cannot remember a single note from this song and I relistened to it about an hour ago.

29. FRANCE - SLIMANE - Mon Amour

Every year at Eurovision be like

Eurovision: "Hey, France, how French do you want to make your entry this year?"

France: "Oui."

He's got a great voice but to me this is just a run of the mill, paint by numbers Eurovision ballad that is also French and mentions Paris.

28. GERMANY - ISAAK - Always on the Run

Okay I actually don't really care for this song at all, it sounds like the kind of generic, inoffensive, slight hint of country so they don't alienate the flyover states kind of song they make American Idol winners sing. He's only this high because I really like his voice.

27. MALTA - SARAH BONNICI - Loop

This is an average Eurovision song.

26. LUXEMBOURG - TALI - Fighter

This is an average Eurovision song.

25. GEORGIA - NUTSA BUZALADZE - Firefighter

By the time this song gets going, it really comes together. It finishes really strong. The problem is the first...half or so? It's a disjointed mess. But the fact that I like at least PART of this song so much is what puts it above all these other songs that are insta-skips.

24. LITHUANIA - SILVESTER BELT - Luktelk

Probably my next most controversial pick. I don't get the hype for this song? I mean, don't get me wrong, it's fine. I like it. But it's just, like...an average song in this genre? It's nothing special.

23. PORTUGAL - IOLANDA - Grito

This is probably a case where it's not the song so much as it's me not getting it. To my ears it sounds pleasant but dated. And slower songs are often fighting an uphill battle with me at Eurovision anyway so.

22. ARMENIA - LADANIVA - Jako

I really like this, it's the fun folk throwback of this year. The only problem with it is, it's basically just straight up folk instrumentation. It sounds very small as a result. It could have used just a bit more modern production to give it that real OOMPH factor.

21. NETHERLANDS - JOOST KLEIN - Europapa

I probably would have liked this song a lot more if I hadn't heard Finland first. Spoilers for later. Also maybe I'm just too Australian and not European enough to really be able to relate to this song.

20. UNITED KINGDOM - OLLY ALEXANDER - Dizzy

This song feels like a throwback to a lot of the kind of British pop music that would cross over onto the Australian charts here when I was a kid. Like, remember when Billie Piper was a pop singer? Remember Craig David? This song doesn't sound like either of those per se but it does sound like the kind of song that would be on like one of these albums that I have in a box in my garage somewhere

19. AUSTRALIA - ELECTRIC FIELDS - One Milkali (One Blood)

Listen, I love Electric Fields. I've seen them live, and they were great. And I love this song. It's very meditative, it gives some good kind of spiritual advice that I vibe with. I think the song is only this low because, well, the video is meh, and this kind of feels like a "safe" Electric Fields energy? It feels like they could have done more.

18. SERBIA - TEYA DORA - Ramonda

See even though this song is a slow ballad, it avoids being a dirgey wall of sludge because it actually has like dynamic range to it. It's mostly quiet and gentle, and it builds to a big high point. It doesn't just feel like a wall of melancholy sound slowly drowning me.

17. GREECE - MARINA SATTI - Zari

I think I'm not hip enough for this. I feel like I'm going to come back to this later and like it a lot more than I already do. And I do like this. It feels kind of like a Greek Russian Woman in terms of vibe, and I mean that as a compliment. This is really good. It just may be a bit too weird, too out there, and too current to really land at Eurovision. Like this song definitely feels like it belongs on the internet. This song has iPhone face.

16. SPAIN - NEBULOSSA - Zorra

I love her lack of energy, go girl give us nothing!

Seriously though, this song is for the girls and the gays. And as I am a girl and a gay, I can appreciate it. This song is about, no matter what you do, people are going to call you a bitch and try and drag you down. So she's like, OK, fuck you, I'm going to go take on the world, be an empowered woman, and be successful, and if that makes me a bitch then fine, I'm the best bitch here. And I think that's a good message, and I support it. Women shouldn't have to make themselves smaller so as to not threaten your insecurities.

15. CYPRUS - SILIA KAPSIS - Liar

There is just something absolutely FILTHY about this beat that makes me want to throw it back. Fortunately for everybody, I am incapable of throwing it back, so you don't have to be subjected to that. But, like, I feel it in this song. This beat does dirty things to me.

14. ESTONIA - 5MIINUST & PUULUUP - (Nendest) Narkootikumidest Ei Tea Me (Küll) Midagi

Every time this song comes on, I can't resist the urge to get up and start dancing to it, so it must be doing something right. But also fuck you for making me write a title that long.

13. SWEDEN - MARCUS & MARTINUS - Unforgettable

Swedes are too OP at pop. Like this song is basically perfect. Fortunately, I am too much of a lesbian to be nostalgic for boy band music. If I had been into the Backstreet Boys or N*Sync back in the day, this song would make me super nostalgic, and it would probably be my number one. But as it is I'm nostalgic for different things, and it's all those songs that are in my top ten this year. As you'll see.

12. UKRAINE - ALYONA ALYONA & JERRY HEIL - Teresa & Maria

Ukraine doesn't miss at Eurovision. If the Vidbir staging had like...any budget at all, this would probably be higher. That's really all that's holding it back. I love this song. It's great.

11. CROATIA - BABY LASAGNA - Rim Tim Tagi Dim

This was hard. I went back and forth with this and other songs in my top 10 so many times. If you ask me to make this list again five minutes from now, this is probably there. If this song wins Eurovision, I'll be happy. I love it. If there's anything holding this back in comparison to the songs in my top, it's: I'm more nostalgic for other genres apparently; there's no real vocal moment in this song; the production kind of sounds like this was made in Garageband? Don't take any of this to mean I don't like the song. I do. But I like this a roughly equal amount to like half of my top ten and I had to split hairs.

10. SLOVENIA - RAIVEN - Veronika

This is art, mama. This was the first Eurovision song I heard this year and it really started everything off on a good note. The insane vocal moment at the end is what kept this in my top 10 above Croatia. I cannot wait to see the staging because this has a vision.

9. NORWAY - GÅTE - Ulveham

This feels weird having it this low. It was my number four for the longest time. Like, until I made this list today. I think it's the verses holding it back for me. The verses are a little bit nothing. It's just a lot of "this happened, and then this happened". And that's the one thing that docks an execution point from this otherwise excellent song. But it's lovely hearing Norwegian at Eurovision for the first time in forever

8. AUSTRIA - KALEEN - We Will Rave

Things Badger is nostalgic for, entry #1 - Cascada, apparently. This is taking me back to playing fucking DDR at the Time Zone outside of Hoyts at Hornsby Westfield when I was like 15. This was one of the songs I was juggling with whether to keep in my top ten, asking myself "Do I really like this song as much as I thought I did the last time I played it?" So then I'd play it again, and every time I played it...I'd get this feeling. And every time we kiss, I swear I could fly.

Wait.

7. ITALY - ANGELINA MANGO - La Noia

OK, full disclosure, if I were ranking the songs "objectively" in terms of which one is the best, like if I were taking personal taste out of this and just telling you what song I think will or should win Eurovision, this would be my pick. This is by far the hippest thing Italy has ever sent to Eurovision. It's great. It's fun. It's fresh. It's vocally challenging but executed with unbelievable ease. Angelina Mango is style, she is fashion, she is an icon, she is the moment. She's everything. Also, BUSINESS PRINCESS. What more can you want?

6. CZECHIA - AIKO - Pedestal

Things Badger is nostalgic for entry #2 - late 80s/early 90s girl grunge rockers. This song is stuck in my head all the time, and it's awesome. You just want to scream out the chorus. Because, you know what, I relate to this. I am currently going through a phase of loving me more, loving me more than your bullshit. And it feels great. It's empowering. It's a good message. Sometimes we do need to learn to put ourselves first, and learn what self-love actually means.

5. DENMARK - SABA - Sand

This is Scandinavian pop perfection. And I am not immune to Scandi-pop. Far from it. It's a well-known weakness of mine. I apologise if it makes me boring, but I fucking love this. I love every single second of this song. I'm probably going to vote for it in the Grand Final. If this wins the Jury I will be the one person who was like yeah I told you.

4. POLAND - LUNA - The Tower

OK, I initially had this lower. This was always in my Top 10. I always loved this song. But I always kind of had it in my mind of like, oh yeah, this is a really great song, but I like other songs more.

But, do I, though? Because, other than my #1 song, this is the song I've listened to more than any other song this year. And, as I was putting together this list, I kept thinking, oh yeah, The Tower is going to be the song that I listen to the most (other than my number 1) after this contest, it's going to be on all my playlists.

And then I stopped and thought, wait, hang on. If I keep wanting to listen to this song more than all the others, and I'm already looking forward to listening to this song for years to come...doesn't that mean I like it a hell of a lot more than I keep thinking I do? And, yeah. The answer is yes. I really love this song. I think the reason I kept underrating it is because it's just a great song all the way through with no real big epic Eurovision moment, right? But this list isn't what song I think will win Eurovision, it's what songs I like best. And I like this song almost the best. This is the kind of music I listen to.

3. FINLAND - WINDOWS95MAN - No Rules!

Things Badger is nostalgic for entry #3 - Y2K era Eurodance. This is basically just Planet of the Bass with only slightly less irony. And I love literally everything about it. Eurodance is a fundamental, defining characteristic of who I am. The first album I ever owned was Aqua's Aquarium. This shit just speaks to my soul, OK?

2. IRELAND - BAMBIE THUG - Doomsday Blue

*stands and applauds* You did it. You fucking did it, Ireland. You sent something interesting. Thank God. And, like, OK, interesting in and of itself does not equal good. This song is a stylistically experimental mishmash of different genres that could very easily be an unlistenable messy clusterfuck, but it's not. It's unironically actually very good and...oddly coherent? It's honestly bizarre how well these stylistic shifts that should be jarring just flow seamlessly. Or at least to me they do.

Is there maybe a part of this song that is trying a little too hard to be different and edgy? Yeah, sure, maybe. But I was once a teenager trying too hard to be different and edgy, and maybe this song speaks to that part of me that I haven't accessed in a while.

1. SAN MARINO - MEGARA - 11:11

Man, it sucks that this is going to go out in the semi-finals because I REALLY love this song, and I don't get why other people don't.

But apparently it's because...Thing Badger is nostalgic for, entry #4, mid-2000s electronic rock, which was absolutely fucking huge in Australia at the time. This song reminds me so much of that time in my life when I was listening to, like, The Rogue Traders, The Veronicas, TV Rock, The Presets, The Potbelleez, Sneaky Sound System. I could keep going. Apparently I was hugely nostalgic for this exact sound and I had no idea until I heard this song. But apparently this is also an experience entirely unique to me because it seems like nobody else likes this song, or cares about it at all.

Whatever, it will always have a fan in me.

OK HAPPY END

[navysealt4t]

ok hold on im here with my band thoughts about riptide the musical. full disclosure this may not make sense i tried to be coherent.

i think that in the dunjon the orchestra would get real spooky during this. I ALSO REALLY WOULD LIKE SOMETHING CHOIR GOING ON IN THE BACKGROUND. what im thinking is like op 32 - 7 neptune, the mystique by gustav holst. they have an all female choir that sings this really nice chord and adds a lot to the song. this would mainly play while gillion stands before the elders and i think it would be interesting to play with the idea of the key and melody instrument changing between trials. i ALSO think it would add to the whole "this isnt real. but you dont know that" idea if the song stayed the same. no matter the scene.

assigning characters certain instrument melodies like how they do how to train your dragon is SUCH a cool idea to me. i think gillions motif would be played by a french horn. not too sure on the notes but definitely something with those typical heroic tones. chips would be played by a bassoon. hear me out on this. i actually dont have any reasoning. its just vibes alone. jay tripped me up for a bit due to her more complex character, but i think she would be played by bell chimes

going back to arrangements matching certain scenes i can TOTALLY imagine the island of zero scenes with movement three of west highlands sojourn as it is primarily navy based. (this is totally a bias since i play this piece for my competition this year. but i just generally really like west highlands sojourn)

i think it would be SUPER cool to have band involvement on stage. im not sure if this goes across for all productions, but i once saw a high school production of Catch Me if you can in which the jazz band was directly on stage in certain scenes. in certain scenes like the casino arc, anytime they enter a tavern, or just a place where there's street performers. having just soloist or a small ensemble on stage would be SO incredible. i think it would be so cool if the whole band was up there during the noctis like fancy party all dressed up. god id go insane.

i think anytime theres a navy related topic/scene there'd be this BRASS HEAVY melody (id say led by low trombones) if you've ever listened to arabesque. its a little something like the saucy lick they have going in that. i also think that whenever marshall john shows up the brass thing still plays but it sounds like a circus march.

SPEAKING OF CIRCUS MARCHES. i think that the entire time they are in Kas' Karnival (or however you spell it) a different strain of a circus march plays. specifically here im thinking Grand Galop by Johnnie Vinson because it has such wiggle room for tempo that you can play around with the mood of the carnival. in the pixieland and other peaceful areas the trio (a clarinet and euphonium led part. very soft and silly. most of the band rests during this.) plays. in the big top extravaganza the final strain plays (thats basically a rebalanced version of the trio to include the full band) i think the break strain would play anytime things got stressful. the other two strains could be anywhere really as they are pretty general.

those are the thoughts ive had so far abt it but if i have anymore ill let u know ^_^

HOLY SHIT ROSEMARY I AM SHAKING U I LOVE THIS SOOOOO MUCH….. I KNOW LIKE. VERY LITTLE ABOUT ORCHESTRA AND INSTRUMENTS BUT HOLY SHIT KM IN LOVE WITH THIS ALL OF IT!!!!!

i so so agree with u for the dunjon scene . i imagine during either the trials or gillion’s speech to the elders the choir would be BEAUTIFULL like singing rlly high notes and there’d be a lot a dissonance. like man <333

i listened to all the songs u mentioned and !!!! they are so cool i love all ur thoughts :3

AND I AGREE assigning characters a specific instrument is sooo cool <333 each character would have a little theme/motif (? idk which one is the right word) that would play in the background if a scene or song is specifically focused on them… ough man <333

i was thinking like for jay it could be something like a violin or viola. like it’s usually a fancy and elegant instrument but it can go CRAZYY when you want it to <3 and in scenes like the block i imagine jayson would have a strong cello playing for him and jay’s violin would be echoing his notes… ough. wind chimes are a really good idea though it plays a lot into some of her wind imagery (THIS IS THERE I KNOW IT IS OK<3)

and !!!! brass instruments for the navy are so really actually they are very loud and strong and generally inspiring :3 also something like a french horn for gill’s theme???? mwah mwah in love

HAVJNG THE BAND ON STAGE SOUNDS SO COOL?????? in taverns and big islands it makes so much sense. i feel like it would tie the roots back to dnd a little and it would make the town feel more real!! i love it <3

i am soosooo in love with all of this <33 gillion’s theme would be very strong and powerful like you can feel it in your bones, but through out the musical it dies down. it’s not as loud and intimidating or out there.

jays theme would be very subtle. it would be as loud but it is definitely there. the song wouldn’t sound the same without it. OH MY GOD. her theme plays in the block when she walks to her fathers side but it doesn’t have her specific instrument and it just isn’t the same. then a few measures in it gets replaced with a big cello and her instrument echoes the cello <333

chips theme would be very sudden and sharp. like it’s always on the verge of growing into something HUGE but it never really does. like ouugh. <333 sorry i’m having so many thoughts. his theme would have a harmonica ive just decided <3333

tyty rosemary for these amazing thoughts i’m going feral actually ily <33333

[mttstructures]

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[aurorawest]

⭐ If you could, write about the part where Loki and Thor are desguised as women as they escape that army camp.

Oooh, sure!

Context: this is from chapter 14 of The Real Asgardians of the Galaxy. Loki is in a massive army encampment and manages to locate Thor by astral projecting. In order to pass through the camp to actually get to Thor, Loki takes female form and barges into Thor’s tent. Thor doesn’t recognize her at first so Loki transforms into a man again. Here’s their escape:

Looking at Loki like he’d just grown a second head, Thor said, “Great plan. I only see one problem with it. We’re here and there’s no way to get out of this camp without being seen. There are guards all around the perimeter, and—” But he stopped, noticing, finally, the way Loki was smiling at him. “Wait. You’re not going to—”

“Why not? It worked for me.”

“It worked for you because when you look like a woman, you are a woman!” Thor said. “I can’t—how am I supposed to pretend?”

“My magic is easily up to the task of glamoring away your hulking masculinity,” Loki said with a flick of his fingers. When Thor still looked doubtful, Loki added innocently, “You’ll be lovely, I’m sure. Did you have a preference on hair color?”

“I’m not concerned about being pretty,” Thor said. “I’m concerned about getting stopped and questioned.”

I knew I wanted Thor to object to this plan because, quite honestly, it’s funny for Thor to object to this plan. What I did not want to do was have Thor objecting to the plan because the idea of looking like a woman was distasteful to him. I also didn’t want him to come across as disparaging the fact that Loki can be both male and female. But Loki is almost kind of pushing to object to it on both of those levels, because Loki likes to push, and he wants people to admit to ugly things so 1) he can feel superior, and 2) he can feel like a victim.

[...] “We won’t be stopped,” Loki said. “And if we are, it will be because someone wants to buy our services. That’s easy enough to make them forget. No one here has any idea I can do magic. We stick to the main paths until we get to the airfield.”

“And then what?” Thor asked. “Have you seen the wall around it?”

“No,” Loki admitted.

“It’s a pretty serious wall.”

Loki raised an eyebrow. “I’m a pretty serious sorcerer.”

Loki has already assumed Thor is going to dismiss his ability to get them out of the situation. He’s totally geared up for an argument here.

Thor looked at him. Loki stared back, wondering if Thor would discount the fact that magic could get them out of this. There was a long history between them of Thor dismissing Loki’s sorcery. It was a talent he couldn’t understand, didn’t share, and which he saw as suspect. At least, he always had in the past. 

Hm, but is this really true? This is Unreliable Narrator Loki at his finest. He’s telling us that Thor was always this way. Loki has been really hurt by what he perceives as Thor’s dismissal of his magic. If you asked Thor, though, he’d probably tell you the opposite story. The actual truth is somewhere in between. This is an example of the two of them not understanding how to communicate with each other.

Things had changed between them after Sakaar. Maybe this had, too.

Thor nodded. “Alright.”

Loki’s mouth opened to argue, but then he realized what Thor had said and he snapped it shut. A smile flashed across Thor’s face, as though he knew exactly what had just gone through Loki’s mind. 

All set to argue, and then nothing to argue with! Thor is definitely trying harder to be what Loki needs him to be, and you can see that here.

I trust you, brother, Thor had said to him before he’d manually calculated the jump that had brought their ship to Asgard. Maybe he’d meant it.

Callback to chapter 1 of the fic, where their navigation system is down and Loki manually calculates a jump on the back of a Big Mac wrapper.

With a nod in return, Loki lifted a hand and twisted his wrist. This was unnecessary, but he’d begun doing it as a courtesy to the people around him in Asgard who hadn’t liked his magic. 

I really love this particular head canon, where Loki’s magic doesn’t require any kind of gesture, spoken spell, etc. It’s a fun thing to play with, because it means he can be as showy as he wants to—but he doesn’t have to be.

[...] A green line of magic ran from Thor’s head to his feet, leaving a woman standing there in his place. Loki completed his own transformation and then said quietly, “Let’s go.”

I purposefully didn’t describe Thor here because Loki hardly thinks about Thor’s physical appearance at all. Loki’s descriptions of people’s physical descriptions tend to be very cursory. Hair color, skin color, height. He’s simply not all that interested.

So what that means is: if Loki is taking more interest in someone’s physical appearance, it might be because he’s interested in them.

The two of them peeked out of the tent. A few of Thor’s cohorts were still around the campfire. [...] Loki jerked her head and they slipped out, walked past the fire, and headed for the camp’s main thoroughfare.

“I should have said good-bye,” Thor said quietly.

Loki shrugged. “Send them a postcard.”

Definitely a little projection (?) here on Loki’s part. He too feels guilty about abandoning his unit, but it takes him ages to come to terms with it. He hasn’t even started to confront the fact that Kalmsh will likely get in trouble, maybe even serious trouble. A little sneak peek of what’s to come: this is something that Loki begins to really grapple with, that despite his penchant for casting himself in the victim role, there have been people in his life who have been willing to put themselves on the line for him, often in very serious ways. He’s way too self-absorbed at this point to recognize that.

She knew it was ridiculous, but it bothered her that Thor had given even this slightest of indications that he had formed attachments to these people. Of course he had. He was Thor. Even Loki felt some affection for her unit. It wasn’t as though Thor wanted to stay here fighting with them.

At least, she didn’t think he did.

A brief comment her on the way I write Loki in female form: I usually write these scenes using male pronouns to make sure I’m not writing female Loki any different than I would write male Loki. Then I go back through and switch them. 

But then again, Thor had preferred to stay imprisoned as a gladiator on Sakaar rather than joining Loki at the Grandmaster’s side. As much as she wished these wounds would heal, they were slow to. It had been almost seven years ago for Thor, 

Hey, I’m glad I got the timespan right here! In chapter 32, I had it wrong and didn’t catch it until right before I posted, haha.

but even if it hadn’t, Thor had always had a tendency to underestimate how his actions and words wounded Loki. He let things go so easily and Loki was the opposite. [...]

This is one of the things that’s at the heart of the House of Odin dynamic. I see both Thor and Odin being this way. They’re passionate people who speak before they think, so they’ll say these deeply hurtful, horrible things...which they don’t actually believe. And Thor and Odin can’t understand why Loki takes things so personally, why he can’t just let them go, while Loki can’t understand how they can be so cruel, and why they pretend to care about him when clearly they don’t, because one time they said this one thing and that obviously is more indicative of how they feel about him then the way they treat him on a daily basis. Full disclosure, I’m very much like Loki, lol. Neither one is right or good, but it’s the way they are, and they’re two very different ways of functioning.

This obviously wasn’t the time to bring it up, though.

“You do want to leave this place, don’t you?” Loki asked.

*rimshot*

Thor looked at her. Gods, even as a woman, that dumbfounded look was unmistakable. “You’re joking.”

“Well, you seem so broken up about the fact that you left without saying good-bye,” Loki said, sneering despite her best efforts.

There is always time for Loki to get bent out of shape for people not giving him the affection he wants. This is wildly inappropriate of Loki to do at this moment, but he just can’t stop himself. He’s so needy that he’ll jeopardize their escape to take his potshot at Thor. I remember when I wrote this, I nearly took it out, because I thought Loki was being such an ass—but Loki is an ass, and I really want to show that. I want to show how warped his perception of reality can be, and how he’ll make really bad decisions because of it.

Two Preccat men walked by them, leering, but Loki ignored them and so did Thor. The men looked disgruntled but let them pass. When they were gone, Thor turned to her and hissed, “Of course I want to leave here, don’t be stupid. Why are you bringing this up now? We’re supposed to be concentrating on getting out of here.”

Thor, the voice of...reason? A major part of Thor’s arc in this fic is actually that he’s kind of a doormat because he’s so grateful to have Loki back, and that obviously can’t hold forever. He’s kind of fighting with himself here, wanting to make Loki have a conversation that Loki’s definitely not ready to have, and which frankly Thor isn’t ready to either. Thor wants to be better for Loki because he knows he’s hurt him, but Loki also is pretty much as impossible as ever.

She scowled but didn’t say anything. Thor grabbed her arm and stopped her. Loki yanked her arm out of her brother’s hold. They glared at each other, but then a group of men came stumbling down the road towards them, obviously drunk. It snapped both of them out of it. “Let’s go,” Loki muttered.

Aaaand of course they don’t have a real conversation. Huh sure hope all this stonewalling and sweeping things under the rug doesn’t result in an explosive, hurtful, horrible argument later!

Thank you so much for asking!

Fanfic Writers: Director’s Cut

[k-odyssey]

Dramas I’ve Been Watching in February

I was going to wait till the very end of the month but I’ve already written the post so… Thoughts are under the cut like last time, and I tried not to include spoilers.

Crash Landing on You (finished)

I’ve already mentioned this one last month. Also it’s been all over my blog for a while now. My post about the finale.

The spoiler-free version is that I loved the journey this drama took me on. Did I love the ending? No, but it wasn’t bad. It was just okay.

The romance ticked off most of my favourite tropes and the acting was flawless.

Se Ri is such a good character. Businesswomen are often portrayed as cold and heartless, and it’s kind of how she’s perceived in SK, but it quickly becomes obvious that she’s anything but. She’s extremely warm, funny and charismatic, and if she trusts someone (basically, if they’re not her family) she actually shows her vulnerable side. Also it’s great to see her thrive when she’s around people who care about her.

Great ensemble. The secondary characters are so attaching. The non-evil ones I mean.

Extraordinary You (ep6 of 16)

Teenager figures out that she’s a comic book character and, unhappy with the direction of her story, takes matters into her own hands.

It’s still early on for me but I love this fresh take on the concept. I actually don’t know where this is headed, and I’m anticipating the twists and turns.

I love a heroine who takes charge of her life.

Mysterious love interest is adorable and getting more fleshed out and compelling every episode. I can’t hate Baek Kyung though. At least not so far.

Joy of Life (ep36 of 46)

Mentioned last month.

I’m still enjoying this one a lot. It’s as funny and interesting as ever.

Wan’er doesn’t get that much screentime but she’s a great character. I loved that scene with the princess in ep30 or 31.

I’m still in love with Fan Xian.

Forest (ep12 of 32)

Businessman and demoted surgeon are reunited in a countryside village when he becomes a rescue worker for all the wrong reasons.

This one comes with plenty of mysterious childhood trauma and fate.

Gorgeous forest shots.

Park Hae Jin’s character has a soft side, but I have to say he often rubs me the wrong way with his attitude and values. Although he is changing. Jo Bo Ah’s is a lot more likeable, but I’m not in love either? BUT they have an interesting love-hate dynamic that I really like.

It feels like I can predict where the story is going and I’m not sure I’m going to like all of it, but we’ll see!

Chocolate (finished)

Mentioned previously.

I ended up liking it a lot.

The hospice setting was original, you don’t see too many kdramas speaking about palliative care. And if they do it tends to be about one particular character who’s dying.

Lots of food. Lots of heartbreak, which comes with the territory.

I loved the kids and their conversations with adults.

Lee Jun, who isn’t one of the leads, ended up becoming my favourite character. I found that I could relate to him more. Like, honestly I wrote a whole post about that and then I got self-conscious and didn’t publish it.

The romance at the centre of the story is somehow the least memorable thing for me, although there were a few great emotional moments. Usually tearful ones.

Terrius Behind Me | My Secret Terrius (finished)

Fugitive spy turns into the perfect babysitter for his neighbour, while investigating her husband’s murder.

I’d watched 4 episodes back in november, and kind of picked up where I’d left it.

It’s a lovely, heartwarming drama. Terrius with the kids makes for great comedy. That and the network of neighbourhood sort-of-spies, stay-at-home parents.

Go Ae Rin is a lovely, resilient character.

Yes there’s some big conspiracy and spy stuff but ultimately it’s more of a drama about two people dealing with the loss of a loved one in different ways, and learning that they can lean and rely on each other. (And their community.)

Find Yourself (ep19 of 42)

Supervisor and intern 10 years her junior begin a secret office romance.

Full disclosure: I skipped significant parts of these 19 episodes, that happens when I’m watching stuff really late at night and I need to know what happens next. Not before ep9 or so though.

The drama gives a great insight into the kind of pressure chinese women may feel to get married and have children by a certain age. For that reason, many interactions are very frustrating to watch.

So many characters dismiss He Fan Xing’s every accomplishment because she’s single, and I really want to slap some sense into them. She’s 32 but everyone acts like she has one foot in the grave.

Also very frustrating: the plot. As funny and entertaining as it can be, I get mad at the many misunderstandings and entangled relationships. I hate it when I can see the trainwreck coming episodes in advance. Maybe that’s just a “me” thing. It makes me anxious, which is why I’m currently taking a break from it. I think I’ll try to finish it though.

In a way it’s a great guide to what not to do in a relationship. I guess they’ll end up together in the end, but it’s not a smooth ride. Like, I hate how at some point she just assumes he can’t afford the gift he gave her and returns it without telling him! Girl, learn to communicate. There’s lots of lies on both sides tbh.

They do have chemistry though! Also Zhang Yu Jian from Le Coup de Foudre plays the main character’s brother and I enjoy seeing him in this completely different role a lot. I had no idea he had this whole range of facial expressions due to the fact that Yan Mo had a blank face 99% of the time.

My Holo Love (finished)

Lonely, faceblind woman ends up with expensive AI, falls in love with it. Unless it’s the hot human lookalike she’s into…

It’s only 12 ep, perfect if you like shorter dramas.

I can believe a human falling in love with an AI very easily, but the AI becoming sentient is usually were my brain draws the line. It’s still a very enjoyable drama. The hologram aspect gives it a fresh twist. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of relationship portrayed between an AI and its maker.

These are two very good-looking people. Not that the other dramas don’t have pretty actors but, just saying.

Best thing about it: it has a proper ending, which is a rarity for netflix shows. I hope they make more like this from now on.

[avelera]

hi! im sorry if this sounds stupid, but im supposed to start uni this year, and im reallyyy nervous about it. coming across so many talented authors such as you really makes me feel incredibly stupid in comparison, and i feel like im going to set my own self back. i work really hard to improve my writing by practising and reading a lot, but i know it's never enough. there's so much out there i haven't experienced yet and i want to include but i just don't know how to express it. please help :((

Hey Anon! First of all, I'm really touched by your kind words about my work, thank you so much! And it’s not stupid at all, my dude, no one is born writing we all gotta practice at it. And don’t feel stupid either! Not knowing something is just the process of recognizing that you’re learning and growing, it’s not a bad thing! Every writer, even the most famous in history, struggled with no being able to express themselves, you are joining a GRAND tradition!

Second of all, HOOOO BOY do I understand the anxieties you’re facing right now about uni, so please forgive me for rambling but I've got SO MANY FEELINGS about what to do as a writer going to uni/college.

Uni/college can be a really hard time for writers. While I was at college in the US, I think I went almost three whole years without writing a single word that wasn’t for a class. The writing workshops I took there absolutely crippled my self-confidence, to the point where I really don’t recommend any budding authors take a college creative writing class unless they’ve already got a BUNCH of stories under their belt, and only take the class if they’re not afraid an individual student or teacher will have that one comment that breaks their desire to write or the teacher is already a mentor that they trust, or because they firmly understand that in the real world you're never going to have someone who was forced to read your story for an assignment, so the kind of apathy and dislike you’ll get for your work in a class is extremely atypical and seems almost designed to kill a new writers motivation when they’ve barely even started to write….

ANYWAY, personal rant out of the way, lemme see if I can put together some thoughts that will help you out, and don’t be afraid to follow up with another Ask if I missed something or you want me to expand on something!

Full disclosure, I’m 32 now and I’ve been writing for 20 years (with the aforementioned huge, multi-year gaps in there where I wrote almost NOTHING) and I’ve had a lot of privilege when it comes to my ability to write and freedom to do so.

If you're like me, writing is going to be hard in uni, don’t get me wrong, some people thrive as writers there, but I’m going to speak to my own experience. You’re going to have a lot of reading and writing you have to do for school and that can potentially drain your creative reserves. Be kind to yourself when that happens. The writing will come back. Maybe set aside time to do a 15 minute writing exercise once in a while if you’re feeling down on yourself, but don’t worry if writing isn’t something that happens every day!

Your note expressed anxiety about there being so much out there you haven’t experienced, but uni is great for broadening your horizons! You’re at the beginning of your road as a writer, not the end of it! Course selection is different for everyone and I don’t know your priorities. That said, if you have a chance for an elective, I recommend picking something that broadens your horizons instead of something you’d usually take. Engineering can help with sci-fi (and everything!), history can help with fantasy (and EVERYTHING), heck, accounting could give you ideas for a financial thriller, every course out there will give you new ideas AND even if you don’t have time to take a course for credit, some professors will let you sit in on the lectures for classes you're interested in but don’t have the time/energy/credits to take officially. I got very lucky my senior year and was allowed to sit in on a class on WWII with a world-renowned scholar on the subject just by asking nicely. Didn’t have to do the homework or pay extra or anything, and it gave me so many ideas for stories and fics!

Again, I actually DON’T recommend taking fiction writing courses unless you have a specific professor you have a good relationship with and want to work with or it otherwise comes highly recommended. In my opinion, it's better to broaden your horizons with a wide variety of ideas and courses over “specializing” in writing. To add to that, here’s some totally unsolicited career advice, I’d also say look into courses that build to a career that won’t suck your soul out. Having a career you don't hate, that gives you freedom to write (with time and/or money) and diverse experience to pull ideas from will be a huge boon to your writing career if it’s something you have any interest in pursuing professionally or as a hobby long-term.

Dropping the uni subject for a second and focusing on writing, one of the things I wished someone had told me sooner is that you don’t need someone else to teach you how to write. Sure, it can be really helpful at some point, but waiting until someone can tell you how to write lost me three good years at least. Again, I don't recommend taking creative writing classes in college because they can be debilitating to self esteem if administered wrong. So just keep writing and you’ll be fine! Maybe do a 15 minute exercise if it’s been a while since you wrote for fun and you're feeling down on yourself. But more importantly, be gentle with yourself if you can't get around to writing every day.

- Don’t WAIT to write the story that you’re passionate about right now. Write it now. Sure, future you might be a “better” writer, but future you might have just taken that cool WWII history class and wants to write a WWII vampire story, not about the thing you’re excited for right now. Don’t burden future you with the thing you’re excited about today, let future you write their own thing. Every story you write is going to have flaws, and is going to look awful to you at some point, but eventually you WILL be able to look back on it and see the good as well as the bad, and more importantly, see how you’ve grown and it will be an amazing feeling! But you can't get there if you stop writing entirely or give up on what you're working on.

Uuuh, other than that...just stay at it! This is a numbers game at the end of the day. Writing a bunch is the best way to progress, protect the spark of your motivation like your LIFE depends on it. If someone or something is making you want to give up writing, get that thing out of your life (to the best of your ability)! My philosophy is that the ONLY thing early writers should be worrying about is writing as MUCH as possible. All the editing and advice and “do this, don’t do that” ALL that stuff is meant for so much later in the process. If any advice makes you want to write less, ignore it! If you write 100 stories, or 10 novels, or whatever, the last one WILL be better than the first one, it’s just the super cool thing about working on something! You just have to stay at it! 

[betweengenesisfrogs]

Homestuck is My Favorite Sprite Comic

Yes, you read that right.

Homestuck is my favorite sprite comic.

Those of you who remember the earlier days of the internet are probably looking at this post in disbelief right about now. Others of you might be scratching your heads, not knowing what I’m talking about.

But here’s my pitch: Homestuck is the culmination of an entire genre of internet art, and the tools that make it so powerful are the very tools that made that genre once so reviled.

Homestuck is the greatest and most successful sprite comic of all time.

And honestly, I’ve wanted to talk about that for ages, so let’s do it.

WHAT SPRITE COMICS WERE

Many of my readers are probably too young to remember the era of sprite comics. So: what were sprite comics?

Sprite comics were a genre of webcomics made entirely by taking pixel art from video games – especially character art, called “sprites,” but also backgrounds and other images—and placing them into panels to tell a story. They were near-ubiquitous on the internet in the early 2000s, emerging right as webcomics in general were seeking to establish themselves as an art form.

They were not, shall we say, known for their quality. The low bar to access meant that art skill was not an obstacle to starting one. The folks behind the huge swell of them tended to be young people, kids and early teenagers recreating the plots of their favorite video games with new OCs—not the most advanced writers or artists. They were the early 2000s’ quintessential example of ephemeral, childish art. Unfortunately, they look even worse today—blown-up pixels don’t hold up well when displayed on higher-resolution monitors.

Today, they’re mostly forgotten, remembered only as a weird, strange moment in the youth of the internet. Someone who evoked them today, such as a blogger who compared them to one of the most successful webcomics of all time, would be inviting good-natured teasing at the very least.

It would be unfair to dismiss them entirely, though. In this low-stakes environment, comics where the author could bring more skill—engaging writing, legitimately funny jokes, or especially, a real ability to work with pixel art—really stood out. (Unsurprisingly, these authors tended to skew a bit older.)

The obvious one to mention is Bob and George. Bob and George wasn’t the first sprite comic, but it was the most influential. Conceived initially as Mega Man-themed filler for a hand-drawn comic about superheroes, it quickly became a merging of the two concepts, with the original characters made into Mega Man-style sprites, full of running gags, humorous retellings of the Mega Man games, elaborate storylines about time travel, and robots eating ice cream. It was generally agreed, even among sprite comic haters, that Bob and George was a pretty good comic. Worth mentioning also are 8-Bit Theater, which turned the plot of the first Final Fantasy into a spectacular and hilarious farce, and of course Kid Radd, my second favorite sprite comic. (More on that later.)

But even if you weren’t looking for greatness—there was something just damn fun about them. The passion of sprite comic authors was clear, even if their ideas didn’t always cohere. To this day, I think the sprite comic scene has the same appeal pulp art does—it’s crude and rough, full of garbage to sift through, but every so often, something deeply sincere and bizarre shines through, and the culture of its authors is a fascinating object of study in itself.

Okay, full disclosure: I was one of the people who made a sprite comic. I’ve written about my experiences with that in more depth elsewhere, but yeah, I was on the inside of this scene, rather than a disinterested observer, and from the inside, maybe it’s a lot easier to see the appeal.

Still, let me make this claim: even with all their flaws, sprite comics were doing some incredibly interesting things, and Homestuck is heir to their legacy.

TAKE ME DOWN TO RECOLOR CITY

One of the problems people always had with sprite comics was the sprites themselves. They’re the most repetitive thing in the world. You just keep copying and pasting the same images over and over again, maybe with a few tweaks. That’s not really being an artist, is it? It’s so lazy. Re-drawing things from different angles keeps things dynamic, develops your skill, and makes your work better in general. Right?

I’m mostly in agreement. Certainly I think it’s fair to rag on the Control-Alt-Delete guy, along with other early bad webcomics, for copy-pasting their characters while dropping in new expressions and mass-producing tepid strips. And to be fair, digging through bad sprite comics often felt like an exercise in seeing the same slightly-edited recolors of Mega Man characters over and over again. You got really tired of that same body with its blobby feet and hands.

(It should be noted, though, that there were folks in the sprite comic scene who could pixel art the quills off a porcupine. I salute you, brave pixel art masters of 2006. I hope you all got into your chosen art school.)

All this said, I think the repetitive and simplistic nature of sprite comics was often their biggest strength.

THE POWER OF ABSTRACTION

In his classic work Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud makes an observation about cartooning that has stayed with me to this day.

McCloud notes that simple, abstract drawings, like faces that are only few lines and dots on a page, resonate with us more strongly than more detailed drawings. This is because our minds fill in what’s missing on the page. We ascribe human depth to simple gestures and expressions based on our own emotions and experiences – and this makes us feel closer to these characters as readers. Secretly, simple cartoons can be one of the most powerful forms of storytelling. If you want your readers to fall in love with your characters, draw them simply, and let them fill them in.

Video game sprites work very well in this regard. They have that same simplicity that cartoons do. In fact, I’d be willing to bet a huge part of the success of SNES-era RPGs was simple, almost childlike character sprites drawing people in. I think sprites did the same for sprite comics.

Here’s the weird thing: Bob and George worked. Despite four different characters being variations on the same friggin’ Mega Man sprite in different colors, they immediately began to seem like different people with distinct personalities. For me, George’s befuddled, helpless dismay immediately comes to mind whenever I picture his face, while with Mega Man himself it’s usually a wide-eyed, childlike glee. I would never confuse them. This, despite the fact that the only actual difference between their faces is that George is blonde. It’s pretty clear what happened. The personalities the author established for them through dialogue and storytelling shone through, and my brain did the rest.

Sprites, in short, were a canvas upon which the mind could project any story the author wanted to tell. Even the most minute differences in pixel art came to stand, in the best sprite comics, for wide divergences in personality and ideals, once the reader spent enough time with them to adapt to their style of representation.

Wait a minute, haven’t we seen this somewhere before? Character designs that focus on variations on a theme, with subtle differences that nonetheless render them instantly recognizable?

Oh, right.

Look at what greets us on the very first page of Homestuck. An absurdly simple cartoon boy, abstracted to a ridiculous degree—he doesn’t even have arms!—followed a whole bunch of characters that follow suit. Though many other representations of the characters emerge, these little figures never quite go away, do they? Why is that?

Simple: they’re very easy to manipulate. They’re modular—you can give John arms or not, depending on whether it’s useful. You can put him in a whole variety of poses and save them to a template. You can change out his facial expressions with copy and paste. You can give him a new haircut and call him Jake. It’s all very quick and easy.

Sprite comics proliferated because they were very easy to mass-produce. Andrew Hussie’s original conception of Homestuck was very similar: something he could put out very quickly and easily, where even the most elaborate ideas could rely on existing assets to be sped smoothly along. We all know the result: an incredible production machine, churning out unfathomable amounts of content from 2009-2012. I’d say it was a good call.

But it goes way deeper than that. The modular nature of sprites always suggested a kind of modularity to the sprite comic premise. George and Mega Man were different people, true, but also two variations on a theme. Was there something underlying them that they had in common? Perhaps their similarity says something like: We exist in a world which has a certain set of rules? One of my favorite conceits from Bob and George was that when characters visited the past, they were represented by NES-era Mega Man sprites, while in the present, they were SNES sprites, and in the future, the author used elaborate splicing to render them as 32-bit Mega Man 8 sprites or similar.

Suppose there was a skilled cartoonist thinking about his next big project, who wanted to tell a story centered around this kind of modularity, a narrative that was built out of iterative, swappable pieces by its very design. He might very well create a sprite comic named Homestuck.

Homestuck is a story about a game that creates a hyperflexible mythology for its players, where the villains, challenges, and setting change depending upon what players bring to the experience, yet which all share underlying goals and assumptions. What more perfect opportunity to create a modular story as well? Different groups of kids and trolls have motifs that get swapped around to produce new characters, whether that’s through ectobiology, the Scratch, or the eerie parallels between the kids and trolls’ sessions. And yet each character can be analyzed as an individual.

This is an incredible way to build a huge emotional investment from your readers. Not only does this kind of characterization invite analysis, the abstractions draw readers in to generate their own headcanons and interpretations. A deep commitment to pluralism is at the heart of Hussie’s character design. Then, too, it encourages readers to build their own new designs from these models. Kidswaps, bloodswaps, fantrolls—these have long been the heart of Homestuck’s fandom. And what are bloodswaps if not sprite recolors for a new generation? With the added bonus that now a change in color carries narrative weight, evoking new moods and identities for these characters in ways that early sprite comics could only dream of.

In Hussie’s hands, even the dreaded copy-and-paste takes on heroic depth of meaning. Even when Hussie moves away from sprites to his own loose art style, he continues to remix what we’ve previously see. Indeed, Hussie talks about how he would go out of his way to edit his own art into new images even when it would take more time than drawing something new. Why? Because he wanted to evoke that very feeling of having seen this before—the visual callback to go along with the many conceptual and verbal callbacks that echo throughout Homestuck. This is at the heart of what Doc Scratch (speaking for Hussie) called “circumstantial simultaneity:” we are invited to compare two moments or two characters, to see what they have in common, or how they contrast. Everything in Paradox Space is deeply linked with everything else. And Hussie establishes this in our minds using nothing less than the tool sprite comics were so deeply reviled for: the “lazy” repetition of an image.

(It’s fitting that some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous images in Homestuck—dream bubble scenery and the like—are the result of Hussie taking things he’s made before and combining them into fantastic dreamscapes.)

But it all started with the hyperflexible, adaptable character images Hussie created at the very beginning of Homestuck.

And if you need more proof that Homestuck is a sprite comic, I think we need look no further than what Hussie, and the rest of the Homestuck community call these images.

We call them sprites.

THE FIRST GENRE-BENDERS

Was Andrew Hussie influenced by sprite comics in the development of Homestuck? It’s hard to say, but as a webcomic artist in the first decade of the 2000s, he was surely aware of them. It’s likely that he quickly realized that his quick, adaptable images served the same purposes as a sprite in a video game or a sprite comic, and chose to call them that.

One purpose I haven’t mentioned up until now: sprites lend themselves very well to animations. In fact, in their original context of video games, that’s exactly what they’re for: frames of art that can be used to show a character running, jumping, posing, moving across a screen. It’s not surprising, then, that sprite comic makers quickly saw the utility in that.

Homestuck was, in fact, not the first webcomic to make Flash animations part of its story. There were experiments with various gifs and such in other comics, but I think sprite comics were among the most successful at becoming the multi-media creations that would come to be known as hypercomics..

Take a look at this animation from Bob and George. It represents a climactic final confrontation against a long-standing villain, using special effects to make everything dramatic, but ultimately, like many a Homestuck animation, leads to kind of a pyscheout. The drama and the humor of the moment are clear, though. This relies in large part on the music—which is taken directly from the game Chrono Trigger. This makes total sense. Interestingly, it also contains voice acting, which is something Homestuck never tried—probably because it would run contrary to its ideals of pluralism. What I find fascinating is that in sprite comics, animations like these served a very similar purpose to Homestuck’s big flashes: elevating a big moment into something larger-than-life. Another good example is this sequence from Crash and Bass. Seriously, it seems like every sprite comic maker wanted to try their hand at Flash animation.

(By the way, it’s a lot harder than it looks!! I envy Hussie his vectorized sprites. Pixel art is a PAIN to work with in the already buggy program that is Flash.)

The result: because of the sprites themselves, sprite comics were among the first works to play around with the border between comics and other media in the way that would come to be thought of as quintessentially Homestuck.

What it also meant was that another genre emerged in parallel with sprite comics: the sprite animation. Frequently these would retell the story of a particular game, offer a spectacular animated battle sequence, parody the source material, or all three. Great examples include this animation for Mega Man Zero, and this frankly preposterous crossover battle sequence. Chris Niosi’s TOME also found its earliest roots as an animation series of this kind. You also found plenty of sprite-based flash games, in which players could manipulate game characters in a way that was totally outside the context of the original works.

The website the vast majority of these games and animations were hosted on?

Newgrounds, best known to Homestuck fans as the website Hussie crashed in 2011 while trying to upload Cascade.

What’s less talked about is that Hussie was friends, or at least on conversational terms with, the owner of the site, hence the idea to host his huge animation there in the first place, and other flashes, like the first Alterniabound, were initially hosted there as well.

It’s hard to believe that Hussie wasn’t at least a little familiar with the Newgrounds scene. I suspect that he largely conceived of Homestuck as part of the world of “Flash animation—” which in 2009 meant the wide variety of things that were hosted on Newgrounds, including sprite animations.

The freedom and fluidity sprite comics had to change into games and animations and back into comics again was one of their most fascinating traits. Homestuck’s commitment to media-bending needs, at this point, no introduction. But what’s less known is that sprite comics were exploring that territory first—that Homestuck, in short, is the kind of thing they wanted to grow up to be.

PUT ME IN THE GAME

I would be a fool not to mention another big thing Homestuck and sprite comics have in common: a character who is literally the author in cartoon form, running around doing goofy things and messing with the story. This was an incredibly common cliché in sprite comics, no doubt because of Bob and George, who did it early on and never looked back. You might have noticed that the animation I linked above concerns a showdown between Bob and George’s author, David Anez—depicted, delightfully, as another Mega Man recolor—and a mysterious alternate author named Helmut—who is like Mega Man plus Sepiroth I think? It’s all very strange. I could ramble for hours about the relationship between Hussie and the alt-author villains of Homestuck and what it all means, but I’m not sure I can nail anything down with certainty for these two. Maybe Bob and George was never quite that metaphysical.

But yes, bringing the author into the story in some form was already a cliché by the time Homestuck started up. Indeed, I think that’s why Hussie’s character refers to it as “a bad idea” to break the fourth wall—he’s recognizing that people will have seen this before, and are already tired of this sort of shit. And then he goes and does it anyway and makes it somehow brilliant, because he’s Andrew Hussie.

Homestuck breathes life into the cliché by taking it in a metaphysical/metafictional direction. I don’t think that was really the motivation for most sprite comic authors, though. Let’s see if we can dig a little deeper.

I think the cliché kept happening because sprite comic authors were writing about a subject that very closely concerned themselves: video games. I’m only kind of joking. The thing about video games is that even though they’re made for everyone, playing through one yourself feels like an intensely personal experience. You develop an emotional relationship to a world, to its characters, that feels distinctly your own. Now, suddenly, thanks to the magic of sprites, you have an opportunity to tell stories about that world for others to read. Of course you’re going to want to put yourself in the story in some form.

When it wasn’t author characters in sprite comics, it was OCs. You know Dr. Wily? Well here’s my own original villain, Dr. Vindictus. You know Mega Man? Here’s my new character, Super Cool Man. He hangs out with Mega Man and they beat the bad guys together. Stuff like that. Most sprite comics retold the story of a game, or multiple games in a big crossover format, with original elements added in. There was quite a lot of “Link and Sonic and Mega Man are all friends with my OC and they hang out at his house.”

What’s interesting, though, is that because these sprite comics were very aware that they were about video games, this was where they sometimes got very meta. It started with humorous observation—hey, isn’t it funny that Link goes around breaking into people’s houses and smashing their pots? But sometimes, it grew into more serious commentary. Is Mega Man trapped in a never-ending cycle, doomed to fight the same fight against the same mad scientist until the end of time? Is it worth it, being a video game hero?

Enter Homestuck. What I’ve been dancing around this whole time is:

Homestuck is a sprite comic…because Homestuck is a video game.

Or more specifically, Homestuck’s a comic about a video game called SBURB, where the lines between the game and the comic about the game blur as characters wrestle with the narratives around them, both those encoded into the game and those encoded into our expectations.

Homestuck presents the fantasy of many a sprite comic maker: I get to go on heroic quests, I get to change the world and become a god. I get to be part of the video game. And then it asks the same question certain sprite comics were beginning to ask:

Is it worth it, to be that hero?

I want to tell you about my second favorite sprite comic, a comic called Kid Radd.

Kid Radd distinguished itself from other sprite comics of the time by being a completely original production. Its sprites looked like they could be from a variety of NES and SNES-era video games, but they were all done from scratch, and the games they purported to represent were all fictional. Kid Radd used animations with original music, and sometimes interactive, clickable games, to tell its story. It also used all sorts of neat programming tricks to make it load faster on the internet of the early 2000s, which was great—unfortunately, these same techniques made it break as web technology evolved, something Homestuck fans in 2019 can definitely relate to. The good news is, fans have maintained a dedicated and reformatted archive where the comics can still be seen and downloaded.

Kid Radd’s premise is that video game characters themselves are conscious and alive—more specifically, their sprites. Sprites developed consciousness as human beings projected personality and identity onto them, remaining aware of their status as video game constructs while also seeking to be something more. The story follows the titular Kid Radd, at first in the context of his own game, commenting on the choices the player controlling him. He must endure every death, every strange decision along the way to save his girlfriend Sheena. Then the story expands into a larger context as Radd, Sheena, and many other video game characters are released onto the internet as data. They try to find their own identities and build a society for themselves, but struggle with the tendency toward violence that games have programmed into them. The story culminates in an honestly moving moment where Radd confronts the all-powerful creators of their reality—human beings.

It’s a very good comic.

The first sprite comic authors wanted to fuse real life with video games. Later sprite comic authors decided to ask: what would that really mean? Would it be painful? Would you suffer? Would you find a way to make your life meaningful all the same? Despite the limitations of sprite comics, these ideas had incredible potential, and in works like Kid Radd, they flourished.

Homestuck is heir to that legacy.

It takes the questions Kid Radd was asking, and asks them in new ways. It tries to understand, on an even deeper level, how the rules of video games shape our own minds and give us ways to understand ourselves.

At its heart, Homestuck is a sprite comic, and it might just be the greatest of them all.

EPILOGUE

I’ve seen a lot of good discussion recently on how Homestuck preserves a certain era of the internet like a time capsule: its culture, its technology, its assumptions, its memes.

I think sprite comics, too, are part of the culture that created Homestuck. Do I think Hussie spent the early 2000s recoloring Mega Man sprites? No, probably not. But what I do know is that sprite comics were part of his world. The first webcomic cartoonists came of age alongside an odd companion, the weird, overly sincere, dorky little sibling that was sprite comics. Like them or hate them, you couldn’t escape them. They were there.

And maybe a certain cartoonist saw a kind of potential in them, in the same way he summoned Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff from the depths of bad gamer culture.

Or maybe he just knew, as some sprite comic authors did, that the time was right for their kind of story.

On a personal level—Homestuck came along right when I needed it.

Around 2009, the bubble that was sprite comics finally burst. People were getting tired of them, or growing out of them, and blown-up sprites no longer looked so good on modern monitors.

I was more than a little heartbroken. I’d enjoyed Bob and George, read my fill of Mega Man generica, and fallen utterly in love with Kid Radd. I’d been working on my own sprite comic for a long time out of a sense that there was huge potential in them that we were only scratching the surface of. I’d dreamed of maybe someday doing something as amazing as the best of them did. But I was watching that world disappear. I had to admit to myself that my work wasn’t going to continue to find an audience. That I could live with. But it was painful to think that the potential I sensed, the feats of storytelling I wanted to see in the world, would never be realized.

And then, in the fall of 2010, a friend linked me to a comic that broke all the rules, that mixed animation, games, music, images and chatlogs. A comic that crafted its own sprites, just as Kid Radd did, and remixed its images into an ever-expanding web of associations and meanings. A comic that took on the idea of living inside a video game with relish and turned it into a gorgeous meditation on escaping the ideas and systems that control us.

That this comic would exist, let alone that it would succeed. That it would become one of the most popular creations of all time, that it would surpass other webcomics and break out into anime conventions and the real world, that it would become such a cultural juggernaut, to the point where it’s impossible to imagine an internet without Homestuck—

I can’t even put into words how happy that makes me. It’s the reason I’m still writing essays about Homestuck nearly eight years after I found it.

And it’s why Homestuck will always be my favorite sprite comic.

-Ari

[Notes: The image of the kids came from the ever-useful MSPA Wiki—please support and aid in their efforts to provide a good source of info about Homestuck! They need more support these days than ever.

For more on Homestuck’s place as a continuation of the zeitgeist of early 2000s experimental webcomics, this article by Sam Keeper at Storming the Ivory Tower is excellent and insightful.

Thanks for reading, y’all.]

[birdlord]

Everything I Watched in 2018

I neglected to write this list up this time last year, so I’m catching up! 2019 is soon to come.  Every Movie I Watched in 2018

The number in parentheses is year of release, asterisks denote a re-watch, and titles in bold are my favourite first watches of the year. 

01 So I Married an Axe Murderer (93)* possibly the most early/mid-90s film ever made. Centre parted hair, slam poetry, pre-tech boom San Francisco, Steven Wright cameo?!

02 The Florida Project (17) first theatre movie of the year came early!

03 The Long Goodbye (75)

04 Call Me by Your Name (17) I and some friends made an effort to see movies we thought might be oscar-nominated this year, so there’s a few of those coming up. 

05 LA Story (91)* a forever rewatch

06 Personal Shopper (17) Feels like there’s a thin veil between K Stew and the characters she chooses.

07 I, Tonya (17)

08 Comfort and Joy (84) 80s Glasgow!

09 Faces, Places (17) made me want to pick up a camera again

10 A Futile and Stupid Gesture (18)

11 Creed (15) not for me. 

12 Black Panther (18)* I found this lost a lot of its lustre the second time around. 

13 Ghost (90)

14 Youngblood (86) Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze hockey movie filmed in 80s Toronto? Sign me up!

15 The Living Daylights (87)* basically sometimes I want to see a Bond film, and really any of them will do. 

16 Brigsby Bear (17)

17 The Ice Storm (97) 

18 Disclosure (94) strong competition for Most 90s Movie, this time set in a Seattle CD-ROM company. One of those movies I remember staring at the cover of, in the movie rental place. 

19 Saturday Night Fever (77)*

20 Barry Lyndon (75) God, the look, the costumes, the performances! This killed me dead.

21 Fried Green Tomatoes (91)* Another forever rewatch!

22 Howard’s End (92)* rewatch prompted by watching the new series version. 

23 Sense & Sensibility (95)* keep those costume dramas coming...

24 The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (01)*

25 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (02)* 

26 Breakfast at Tiffany’s (61)*

27 Paterson (16)

28 Three Kings (99)*

29 The Talented Mr Ripley (99)* 99 was a good film year...I’ll go to this version of Italy anytime. 

30 The Equalizer (14)

31 Paddington (14)

32 Paul (11) the initial charm doesn’t carry the movie through til the end.

33 The Virgin Suicides (99)*

34 Friday the 13th (80)

35 Sea of Love (89)

36 Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (18) a great opportunity to shed some tears in a movie theatre.

37 Star Wars: The Last Jedi (17)*

38 Wild (14)

39 Housekeeping (87) love me a Bill Forsyth, as you can see. 

40 Predator (87)* if it bleeds, etc

41 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (77)*

42 Fever Pitch (05) the US remake...

43 Fever Pitch (97) ...the UK original 

44 Bridget Jones’ Baby (16)

45 Stand by Me (86)*

46 Three Identical Strangers (18) 

47 Mission Impossible: Fallout (18)

48 Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (11)*

49 Election (99)*

50 The Killing Ground (17) utter brutality in the Aussie bushland

51 Eyes Wide Shut (99) never saw this at the time, and thought Nicole Kidman’s perspective was more important within the film but GUESS WHAT, IT ISN’T

52 Repulsion (65)

53 Crazy Rich Asians (18)

54 Halloween (78)* the start of Spooker Season

55 A Star is Born (18)

56 The Hunger (83)

57 Annihilation (17)

58 Scream (99)*

59 Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (98) this was...terrible

60 Halloween (18)

61 Deep Red (75) one of the better Argentos, imo, but no Tenebrae

62 Dead Ringers (88)

63 Rocky Horror Picture Show (75)*

64 Silence of the Lambs (91)*

65 Nosferatu (22)

66 The Italian Job (69)

67 Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (01)*

68 Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets (02)*69 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (04)*

70 Gangs of New York (02)* Wow, I hated this! If I never see sweaty Leonardo DiCaprio again, it’ll be too soon. 

71 Shirkers (18)

72 Terminator 2 (91)*

73 Little Women (94)*

74 The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (18)

75 Life Itself (18) this movie has left my mind ENTIRELY, wow did it even happen?

76 National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (89)*

77 Home Alone (90)*

78 Gremlins (84)* turns out I’d forgotten more of this than I remembered??

79 The Shop Around the Corner (40)

80 You’ve Got Mail (98)*

81 Mr Smith Goes to Washington (39)

82 Widows (18)

83 Roma (18) I did see this in theatre, so the surround-sound experience was in full effect. 

84 Ghost Stories (17)

85 200 Cigarettes (99)

DOCUMENTARY:FICTION - 3:82

THEATRE:HOME - 11:74

I had no idea I’d watched so many movies from 1999 this year! It was certainly not done on purpose, but that year had some great movies. Spooker Season was a particularly strong one this year, too, with ten horror/spooky movies over the course of October. It’s always interesting to me to see how many comfort viewings vs more challenging fare that I manage to watch in a given year (probably correlated to how many times I was sick and/or had a rough work day). 

Every TV Series I Watched in 2019

01 The Crown S2 - the difficulties of royal marriage are a strong theme in this season, but there’s also some great sister-sister material between Elizabeth and Margaret. 

02 Lady Dynamite S2 - too weird to live, I guess?

03 High Maintenance S2 - this is the second HBO season, and the first one that really tries to grapple with high-level world events, in this case Trump’s election, spoken about as if it was a natural disaster.

04 Queer Eye S1, S2 - I’d never seen the original series, so this was my first exposure to the concept. It aims for pathos, but you have to accept a pretty rosy world to get into it. Easier to enjoy before any of the boys had book deals/got Milkshake Duck’d.

05 Love S3 - still watching for Bertie, I love her.

06 Collateral - thorny British political police procedural, ultimately pretty forgettable, barring Carey Mulligan’s performance. 

07 Alias Grace - the Atwood adaptation that people *weren’t* talking about. It’s great, though!

08 Atlanta S2: Robbin Season - Atlanta got weirder, more idiosyncratic, and even better in its second season. 09 Barry S1 - Barry got a lot of plaudits this year, and while I really liked the cast, and the plot was engrossing, something didn’t stick for me, and ultimately I didn’t watch the second season. 

10 Howard’s End - it is a truth universally acknowledged that most books are better adapted as a miniseries than a single movie. Not that I hate the ‘92 movie, but this gets deeper into the class relations than it ever could. Plus: TIBBY!!

11 Killing Eve S1 - the series that hackneyed “smart, stylish and sexy” critic descriptions were made for.

12 Detroiters S2 - pouring one out for my fave pals, who never got a chance to make another season of this little darling (though there were a couple of episodes in this season that didn’t do it for me). 

13 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat - perhaps the only adaptation of a cookbook that I’ve ever seen, and certainly one of the best food shows ever. 

14 Big Mouth S2 - More of the same, so if you could hack it in the first season, then keep it up!

15 Bodyguard - another in the sexy/dark/procedural vein, with bonus Scotsman from Game of Thrones.

16 Utopia/Dreamland S1-S3 - an Australian comedy series about a government infrastructure department, which has apparently spawned real such departments in the country, even though it doesn’t come off all that well. The first title is the Aussie one, it’s known as Dreamland everywhere else. 

17 Baroness Von Sketch S3 - Canadian series that I actually watch are rare as hen’s teeth, so I was delighted to find a woman-centric sketch show that has kept me laughing. Plus, sometimes I see my neighbourhood? That’s fun!

[theonyxpath]

Full disclosure: with flying to Gen Con being two days away, my brain is squirming like a toad. So, quick points from the meeting, all arranged haphazardly just like that toad.

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter Woohoo: With the TC: Aberrant KS down to it’s last day, we are just thrilled by the number and quality of backers and their commentary. Considering that the original Trinity Continuum KS was for both the Core and TC: Aeon and this one is mostly for one book, it really speaks volumes for how the game is gripping people’s imaginations! Big thanks also to our “KS Concierge” James Bell for his tireless efforts and never-flagging good humor all through this one! (I’ll see James at Gen Con to deliver my personal thanks and buy him a drink or twenty!)

V5 Chicago By Night Response: We sent out the Backer PDF for CbyN last week and the comments have been all about how great it looks, and how fantastic the writing is. It’s been so wonderful to hear that our first V5 book has been given top marks for quality! We particularly love hearing how we were able to show how V5 can work in a concrete way. This was always what we intended for a new CbyN, so it’s really gratifying for the whole team! Thanks for all your positive feedback!

Dark Eras 2 art by Leo Albiero

GenCon Reminder: Like I said, going there in two days. Mighty Matt McElroy and I are representing for Onyx Path and will be walking around, hanging at our sales partners’ (Studio2 and Indie Press Revolution) booths. We’ll also stop in to where The Wrecking Crew are running demos of our games in the gaming area, and, of course, running our panels. We’ll be joined by Eddy Webb and some of our other creators on the panels, and we look forward to answering your questions. We will not have a booth – this year we chose not to have one. We’ll see if that’s a great idea, or a horrible, horrible mistake.

Twitch Goodness: If you missed it, last week we started our Onyx Path Twitch Kickoff, with TC:Aberrant and other actual play sessions, interviews, and an entire episode of the Onyx Pathcast that was broadcast live on Twitch. (Fear not, it’ll be up in audio-only form as usual for the Pathcast!) We are trying out a lot of different content; either our own or by hosting other folks’ streams, and not coincidentally moving towards “Affiliate Status”, which gives us even more fun ways for everyone to enjoy Twitch streams. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/459571845

VtR2 Spilled Blood art by Aaron Riley

5e Creature Collection Kickstarter Coming: Jon Hodgson and his crew at Handiworks Games are reaaaalllly close to launching the Kickstarter campaign for what promises to be an absolutely gorgeous book of Scarred Lands monsters! One of the cool things about this collaboration has been that it is also the launch of a new official Onyx Path Kickstarter account. Since we’ve started, our KSs have been run off of my account, with my picture in the corner and folks sending comments and questions directly to me even if it has actually been our KS “concierge” James who is running them. So Jon can run this one for Creature Collection, and we’ll see how to best migrate other KSs over to the official Onyx Path Kickstarters. Here’s a preview of the book: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/283745/Scarred-Lands-Creature-Collection-Preview-2

Next Week’s MMN Blog Guest-blogger: Will be Dixie! She volunteered and so she gets the prize! We’ll send photos of the Con – some might even be worth showing off – and any other tidbits we glean out of the madness.

New Onyx Path Team Shirt Sizes Needed: Yes, we pretty much closed our meeting with this request from Mighty Matt, and we’re hoping to get these made up in time to wear to PAX Unplugged in the Fall. It has been a few years since the first official team shirt, and our crew thinks it’s time to get some that are a bit more lightweight than our previous ones. Which just goes to demonstrate that not all of our meeting is about our amazing:

Many Worlds, One Path!

BLURBS!

Kickstarter!

The Trinity Continuum: Aberrant Kickstarter HAS ONE DAY LEFT!

We’ve already passed Stretch Goals that are enabling us to recreate missing first edition books, a compilation of the web comic, three sections of a book statting out the characters, digital wallpaper and dice, a backer-only T-Shirt, a jumpstart adventure, two novellas, an art budget increase, a three-part scenario including a Jumpstart called Novas Worldwide, and:

N!WE N!TERNATIONAL WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT – A new PDF product discussing the N!WE, the performers and industry personnel, and various elements of professional wrestling in the world of Aberrant!

At $115,000 and climbing, we’ve still got more fantastic Stretch Goal rewards to come, so come check it out! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/trinity-continuum-aberrant

Right now, we are working on Deviant: The Renegade as our next Kickstarter campaign, although the 5e Creature Collection for Scarred Lands may premiere first on our new official Onyx Path Kickstarter account!

ONYX PATH MEDIA

Onyx Pathcast art by Michael Gaydos

This Friday’s Onyx Pathcast features the crew interviewing fledgling writer and developer, beer expert, and all-around Geist fanatic, Mike Tomasek: https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

And Here’s More Media About Our Worlds:

Our Twitch channel has been alive with content over the last week, and you can find it right here:  https://www.twitch.tv/theonyxpath So many of our fans and customers have been engaging with the livestreams we’ve been running through the channel, and we’re so grateful for your involvement in everything we’ve been doing. If you missed any of the episodes of Collateral Damage, the interviews with Matthew Dawkins, Eddy Webb, or the live Onyx Pathcast, or indeed any of the other videos we’ve put up, do not despair! Those videos have all been migrated to YouTube so you can watch them again. Our channel is here: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheOnyxPath

In other news, here’s The Story Told Podcast‘s review of the C20 Player’s Guide: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/episode-32-changeling-the-dreaming-20th-anniversary-edition-players-guide-review

Have you been watching one of the best Exalted actual plays ever produced? If not, now’s the time to catch up with Beamduck‘s show right here: https://www.twitch.tv/beanduck

It’s Episode 31 of Occultists Anonymous, the Mage: The Awakening actual play. Wyrd the Seer prepares for the meeting with Mr. Johnson. Mammon readies for company. Atratus and Songbird have some study time. Here’s a link: https://youtu.be/nrAg-msByS0

Do check our Fandible for a two part actual play of Monarchies of Mau! http://www.fandible.com/

Strange Assembly perform a review of one of the most highly-acclaimed V20 sourcebooks, Anarchs Unbound: https://www.strangeassembly.com/2019/review-anarchs-unbound-vampire-the-masquerade

Review – Anarchs Unbound (Vampire: the Masquerade)

And do keep up with the Saving Throw show for an actual play of Pirates of Pugmire too! https://www.twitch.tv/SavingThrowShow

And if you’re looking for some background into the history of Aberrant, check out the Keeper of the Archive‘s series on Aberrant 1st Edition: https://youtu.be/9qkrQeLqZWQ and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3SkWNjQyHc

Drop Matthew a message via the contact button on matthewdawkins.com if you have actual plays, reviews, or game overviews you want us to profile on the blog!

Please check any of these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games!

ELECTRONIC GAMING

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is now live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

ON AMAZON AND BARNES & NOBLE:

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these fiction books:

OUR SALES PARTNERS:

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost 2nd Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And NOW Scion Origin and Scion Hero are available to order!

Running RIGHT NOW until August 11 is the Dog Days Of Summer Sale! 50% many of our Deluxe Editions!

It’s time for the Christmas In July Sale! Wild savings on PDFs all across DTRPG, including ours! Check it out – it runs until TOMORROW!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, we are offering our monthly Exalted 3rd PDFs AND the Exalted 3rd Music Suites #2: Dreams of the Second Age music files on DTRPG!

CONVENTIONS!

Gen Con: August 1st – 4th THIS WEEK! Save Against Fear: October 12th – 14th GameHoleCon: October 31st – November 3rd We’ll also be back at PAX Unplugged later this year!

And now, the new project status updates!

DEVELOPMENT STATUS FROM EDDY WEBB (projects in bold have changed status since last week):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

W20 Art Book (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad (Scarred Lands)

Vigil Watch (Scarred Lands)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Redlines

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Wraith20 Fiction Anthology (Wraith: The Oblivion 20th Anniversary Edition)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum Core)

Second Draft

Tales of Good Dogs – Pugmire Fiction Anthology (Pugmire)

Dragon-Blooded Novella #1 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Development

M20 The Technocracy Reloaded (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Creatures of the World Bestiary (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Scion Companion: Mysteries of the World (Scion 2nd Edition)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

TC: Aeon Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

Manuscript Approval

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Let the Streets Run Red (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

WoD Ghost Hunters (World of Darkness)

Geist 2e Fiction Anthology (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

Oak, Ash, and Thorn: Changeling: The Lost 2nd Companion (Changeling: The Lost 2nd)

Editing

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed (Mage: the Awakening Second Edition)

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Heroic Land Dwellers (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Pirates of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

TC: Aeon Ready-Made Characters (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Chicago Folio/Dossier (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Post-Editing Development

M20 Book of the Fallen (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

V5 Chicago By Night (Vampire: The Masquerade)

V5 Chicago By Night Screen (Vampire: The Masquerade)

CofD Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Distant Worlds (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dark Eras 2 (Chronicles of Darkness)

Spilled Blood (Vampire: The Requiem 2nd Edition)

Memento Mori: the GtSE 2e Companion (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2nd Edition)

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

DR:E Jumpstart (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Indexing

ART DIRECTION FROM MIRTHFUL MIKE!

In Art Direction

Contagion Chronicle

VtR Spilled Blood – All the art that is in is approved. Felipe is working on stuff.

Trinity Continuum Aeon: Distant Worlds

Trinity Continuum Aberrant

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Ex3 Lunars

They Came From Beneath the Sea – Contracted.

TCFBtS!: Heroic Land Dwellers

Night Horrors: Nameless and Accursed

Ex3 Monthly Stuff

DR:E Threat Guide – Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties – Gonna just get Michele to do this one

DR:E Jumpstart – Sam Denmark is doing this.

Deviant for KS – Contracted.

In Layout

M20 Book of the Fallen – Files with Josh

CoM – Witch Queen of the Shadowed Citadel

Dark Eras 2 – Files with Aileen

Proofing

Shunned By the Moon – Errata gathering.

Aeon Aexpansion

C20 Cup of Dreams – Next week.

V5: Chicago – Backer PDF sent, errata coming in.

Geist 2e

Signs of Sorcery – Inputting Errata.

At Press

Dragon Blooded – Deluxe at Studio2, shipping after Gen Con.

Dragon-Blooded Cloth Map – At Studio2, shipping after Gen Con.

Dragon-Blooded Screen – Shipped to Studio2, shipping after Gen Con.

Trinity Core Screen – At Studio2.

TC Aeon Screen – At Studio2.

Book of Oblivion – PoD proofs coming.

Trinity: In Media Res – PoD proofs coming.

Scion Ready-Made Characters – PoD proofs coming.

Trinity Core – Files uploaded to printer, waiting for proofs.

Trinity Aeon – Files uploaded to printer, waiting for proofs.

DR: E – final PDF off for approval

EX3 Music Suite #2: Dreams of the Second Age – for sale on Weds.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Gen Con is this week! I started going in 1987 – missed a couple of years, so I’m going to say 30 years of going to the coolest congregation of fellow gamers that still holds the crown as the biggest TTRPG convention evah!

[firstdate-lastdate]

Define “Risk”

(Full disclosure In the interest of staying true to the title of this blog: the following events occurred over a period of FIVE dates. Yes, five. I try my best to listen to Maya Angelou, who said something like when someone shows you who they are on the first date, you should believe them. This leads me to very few second dates, even fewer third dates, and so on. Somehow this shmuck made it to date FIVE.)

I work at a restaurant a few days a week. It’s a popular spot for tourists, some regular locals, and the elderly. I don't mean people who could maybe be your parents or grandparents, I mean more like ancient human beings. So you can imagine my interest when someone under the age of 85 and remotely attractive walked in. He was tall, muscular, wearing a nicely fitted suit, but ... he was blonde. As a rule, I typically don’t go for blondes, but he was charismatic and had a nice smile. And to be fair, he was standing in a restaurant full of people wearing hearing aids and using flip phones. Safe to say he looked pretty good. 

He tried to ask me on a date for months, but I put him off, because I knew how awkward it could be for him if he blacklisted himself from one of his favorite restaurants. One day he texted me in the afternoon while I was out shopping with a friend. His office happened to be nearby, and he wanted to take both of us to lunch at an upscale Greek restaurant. This was the kind of place that’s featured in Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. I’m in.

Never one to turn down a free meal, and a chance for my close friend to vet this guy, I say yes. On this spontaneous group date, his manners were impeccable. He did a great impression of someone who is considerate, funny, and respectful of others. My friend even gave him the green light. Sure, he answered his phone at the table a couple of times, but we were willing to overlook that. 

Second, third, and fourth date were generally uneventful. He took me to places that were popular on Instagram. We would laugh at the people around us who would stop their meal to pose for photos, check the photo, pose again, and repeat. He bought every Uber, every drink, and every meal. He never said anything unkind to me and asked me a lot of questions. Things were going suspiciously well.

( A quick interruption -- these series of dates took place during a time in my life where my health was compromised and my future was uncertain. I had a lot of appointments and procedures and scary test results going on every few days, so any distraction was welcomed. Anything or anyone to take my mind off the idea of my own body betraying me was a lovely retreat. Read: I. Was. Vulnerable. ) 

So whatever, I find myself casually dating this guy for a bit. He visited me the night before a big surgery and insisted on bringing candies. He took me out in my hometown (over an hour away from Los Angeles) and brought a nice bottle of tequila for my parents. During this time, we get to know each other. We discover each others likes and dislikes. On date three, I learn that he refuses to ride a roller coaster because he feels they are “too dangerous” and “too risky,” and he wants to live a very long life that does not end with a malfunction at Magic Mountain. 

Fine. Albeit illogical, and despite my love of rollercoasters, I respect that we have our differences. On date four, instead of taking an Uber, he drove us in his car. Instead of wearing his seatbelt normally, he placed a strange piece of plastic into the red buckle of his seatbelt. Naturally a curious person, I asked him what that plastic but was.

CNC: “It’s a device I got on Amazon that stops my seatbelt alarm from going off during the car ride.” Me: “So, you don’t wear a seatbelt? Ever? At all?” CNC: “No, that would wrinkle my shirt. So I can’t.”

I sat in silence for a while. It took a few moments to register what he just said. Yes, this man just told me that rollercoasters with all their safety components, designed by mechanical engineers, and full body restraints would be much too risky, but forgoing a seatbelt is just fine.

I couldn’t wrap my head around this logic. On date five, I agreed to sleep over at his place. He was living in a house that was scheduled to be demolished and a lavish one rebuilt in its place. But until then, he lived in an outdated house in the Hills with a killer view. And his dad. Yes, his dad was his roommate. He always referred to him by first name, but it didn’t make it any less weird. It was his dad. And this man was 32 years old. 

Fast forward to the end of the night. We’re in his bedroom, and I ask him to find a condom. He looks at me, straight-faces, and tells me, “I don’t have any condoms, because I don’t wear them. I don’t believe in them.” I thought this was a joke. I truly thought this was his attempt at humor. 

It turns out he wasn’t joking. This man, at age 32, has never worn a condom. I had never been more turned off in my life. He turned to every excuse in the book: everything from his sudden latex allergy, to his alleged erectile dysfunction (because he was “old.”) He even went so far as tell me not to worry, as “everyone has HPV anyways.” I pulled back, looked him directly in the eye, and said “Ew.” He wasn't selling me on this whole no condom situation. 

At this point, I was pissed. This was the most disrespectful situation I had ever been in, from someone who had been nothing but respectful up until this point. I could not believe he was so inconsiderate of my body and my health. I put on my pajamas, my eye mask, my retainer, and told him I was going to bed. I would have driven home, but I had been drinking. So I angrily went to sleep. 

Being the pushover that I am, the next morning I tried to smooth over the situation by poking fun at his erratic views on perceived danger. “You know, the irony is not lost here.” I said as he put on his socks. “You won’t ride a rollercoaster because they're too risky, but wearing seatbelts and condoms are perfectly optional?” 

He laughed softly to himself. He had no further explanation, and I didn’t need any further explanation. My feelings went from 100 to 0 in one sentence. He’s left me speechless, and not in a good way. He’s still saved in my phone as “Calvin*-No-Condom,” which I feel has a nice ring to it.  The only time I’ve spoken to him since was when he asked if it was okay that he come back to eat at the restaurant. The answer is no, and it never will be. 

*Name changed to protect the privacy of the sexually irresponsible.

[punkdelinquent-blog]

// So full disclosure so that people don’t think I hate Courtney just because I like Duncan. I don’t blame her for being upset when he cheated. What he did was shitty and she had every right to be angry. 

HOWEVER she was manipulative and abusive before he cheated. She wrote a 32 page essay on all his flaws and how to correct them. Who does that!?

I have had people in my life try to make me change for their gain and it is fucking shitty. It’s not fun having every fault thrown into your face. 

Now cheating is bad and I don’t condone it. AT ALL. But I also don’t blame Duncan for developing feelings for someone else when his current partner was, in all honesty, really shitty to him. Again, speaking from experience. 

I don’t hate Courtney because she is Duncan’s ex I hate her for why she is his ex. She used him on multiple occasions, she insulted him at every chance she got, she toyed with his emotions, and tried to control him.

Duncan is not a saint. He has used people too and he is outright an asshole to a lot of people. I know he is problematic and has many faults. At least he doesn’t try to pretend that what he is doing is good though. He knows he’s a shitty person.

That being said if I ever come across a Courtney rper I would not be rude to them. I also won’t dis people who like Courtney. She is an interesting character and the show wouldn’t be the same without her. 

Basically what I am getting at is I don’t want people thinking I dislike Courtney for shallow reasons because I don’t want people blowing up my ask box telling me how I am being bias. 

Yeah Duncan is my favorite character and I relate to him a lot but I am not so shallow as to hate on his ex’s without having my reasons. I am also not blind to his faults. I’m not a fucking idiot. 

Peace.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 13x16 Scoobynatural

my mood after watching this: SCOOBY DOOBY DOOOOOOOOO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

03:33pm

HI FRIENDS

so full disclosure, i’m not feeling good at all and my hair is falling out!!! more than usual!!! so I’M REALLY HOPING THIS EPISODE MAKES ME FEEL BETTER

best case scenario, dean’s in the middle of a fred/daphne/cas lovefest, but frankly i’m more expecting a one-sided daphne-dean thing?? i think cas is probably just in this for the sake of having him there too but PLEASE GIVE HIM SOMETHING USEFUL TO DO pleeeease. i also figure dean ends up with the ascot because daphne gives it to him, not fred, but I AM WILLING TO BE SURPRISED

i’m not expecting actual proper bi dean and/or destiel, for the record. as fun and delightful as that would be. i’m just here to have a woofing good time

last night i watched “Scooby Doo! Shaggy’s Showdown” and it was GREAT and i thoroughly enjoyed it and I REALLY HOPE THIS EPISODE IS AS GOOD AS THAT WAS

as in, give me diverse background characters (i mean, if they can’t be be main characters), daphne actually having depth to her character beyond vanity, velma being 10/10 relatable and being genuine besties with daphne, fred being a useless lovable dork, shaggy being THE ABSOLUTE BEST & TOTALLY A ROLE MODEL, scooby being literally the coolest sweetest dog ever

BRING FORTH THE CARTOON ANTICS

-

03:45

HERE WE GO

-

03:46

at first i thought this dinosaur costume was a recap and i was like WHEN DID DEAN FIGHT A DINOSAUR

-

03:49

dean and sam mentioned a lizard and quite frankly this dude looks like a lizard

i half expected his tongue to poke out, barty crouch jr. style

-

03:50

dean: “TAKE IT EASY, SHE’S DELICATE”

love how dean makes every inanimate thing he cares about into a ‘she’

is this him sexualising random pieces of equipment; finding the thing impressive and therefore giving it the pronoun of the people who most inspire him; or is it a parenting instinct buried deep down that just happens to have a gender bias??

WILL WE EVER KNOW

from dean’s soft “shh” though i imagine it’s a parenting thing

precious tv needs to be loved and cared for like a baby

(i mean......... Baby is his car. definitely a parenting thing. BUT THEN ALSO HIS CAR IS SEXY???? CONCLUSION: DEAN HAS MOTHER/PARTNER/INTIMACY ISSUES)

-

03:56

dean: “be like elsa, let it go”

this boy has so many repressed childhood issues i don’t know where to start

HIS INNER CHILD NEEDS HELP

oh man i think i just realised what his growth this episode is gonna be. CONNECT TO THE DESPERATE INNER CHILD

SAVE HIM!!!!!

(sidenote: i did not realise i would be going into this and immediately begin psychoanalysing dean but there we go)

-

03:58

the dean cave

or the fortress of deanitude

ohhhhhhhhhhh boy

-

03:59

let me know when there’s a fic where dean and cas cuddle/fall asleep/boink in those plaid la-z-boy recliners huh.

or when dean, cas, and sam all want to watch something at the same time and there’s only two chairs sO SOMEONE’S GONNA HAVE TO SHARE

-

04:01

THEY’RE A CARTOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-

04:02

dean: “are we animated? yes. is it weird? yes.”

reminds me of zootopia a little I LOVE IT I LOVE IT YAAYAYY

-

04:06

a malt shop!!!!!! cartoon ice cream sundaes always look so tasty

EVEN BETTER WHEN SHARED WITH SCOOBY AND SHAGGY

i always thought dean and shaggy would get along so damn well

-

04:08

FRICK YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH

-

04:08

WHO DOESN’T NEED A MILKSHAKE-DRINKING GREAT DANE IN THEIR LIVES

-

04:09

sam’s hair looks really good

AND I JUST REALISED HOW WELL THEY DID DEAN’S LIPS!!! POUTY PRETTY AND PLUSH, JUST THE WAY THEY ARE IN FANFICTION

-

06:11

dean: “cas is kinda like a talking dog”

unsure whether to be offended on cas’ behalf or not

because on the one hand, RUDE

but on the other hand, the talking dog is the title character, the coolest one, the most beloved, and the most impressive of all

so

i suppose that was a compliment???

-

04:13

me: *SQUISHES MY CHEEKS* THIS IS SO CUTE AND SO WHOLESOME I LOVE THESE GUYS!!!!!!!!

my heart may or may not be pounding

maybe it’s just low blood pressure

/eats salt

-

04:17

“oh HECK yes”

THAT WAS DEAN’S ULTIMATE DREAM (also mine?)

INSTA-GIANT-SANDWICH

-

04:18

sam: “hey why do you hate fred so much”

dean: “he thinks he’s so cool ..with his perfect hair, his can-do attitude”

OH SHIT DEANIE’S GOT A HARDCORE CRUSH AND DOESN’T REALISE IT

LITERALLY DIDN’T SEE IT COMING FROM THIS PARTICULAR APPROACH BUT OF COURSE

-

04:21

WAS THAT CAS STAGGERING AFTER THEIR CARS

-

04:2

“providing you spend tonight here in this old mansion”

OH MY GOD I THINK I WATCHED THIS ONE GROWING UP?? i think it was one of the few we had on vhs!!! and we’d watch it a lot!!! and the the vhs went missing and we never found it again, pretty sure some other kid literally stole it from our house

-

04:26

daphne: “oh dean. boys and girls don’t sleep in the same rooms, silly!!!”

fred: “guess you’re with me, slugger”

I AM ENJOYING THIS

-

04:27

Y E A H

i’m so into this you have no idea

dean: “it’s freaking comfortable. it’s like i’m... wrapped in hugs”

THERE IS NOTHING ABOUT THIS I DISLIKE 12/10 WILL WRITE FANFICTION OF THIS

and it’s purple

-

04:32

dean: “doesn’t matter if WE die. scooBY DOO COULD DIE. and that’s not happening. not on my watch. i’d take a bullet for that dog.”

aaaaaaaand if scooby is cas’ parallel............

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm *u*

-

04:37

!!! their !!! hands !!! touch !!!!!

*muffled background music* and every time we touch it feels like heaven, and everything we kiss i swear i could fflyyy~

pool angel seems so disoriented and confused and clumsy

being a cartoon must really have sent him off-kilter

-

06:40

SAM DEAN I’M BACK FROM SYRIA WITH FRUIT FROM THE TREE OF LIFE. THE TREE WAS GUARDED BY A PACK OF DJINN I KILLED MOST OF THEM, BARGAINED WITH THE REST

oh man he’s so fluffy

misha looks like he’s trying not to laugh

“i think i’m... technically married to their queen now”

i don’t know what to do with this information

i hope it comes up as a destiel-centric useful plot point in a future episode

-

04:44

AH the fruits from the tree of life are pomegranates

OH COURSE. symbolising entrance to the underworld etc. etc persephone and hades

-

04:45

dean: “it’s a book we’re writing. about a killer stuffed dinosaur. it’s called--”

cas: *glances at dean* “the killer stuffed dinosaur. in........love”

IN LOVE

IN LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WHY DID CAS CHOOSE THOSE WORDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I WONDER WHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/VERY LOUD SARCASM

-

04:49

BISEXUAL DEAN DREAM TEAM

-

05:51

cas: “i once commanded armies and now i’m paired with a scruffy philestine and a talking dog”

HEY DON’T KNOCK SHAGGY OR SCOOBY, THEY’RE AWESOME AND KIND, AND TALKING DOGS ARE COOL

-

04:53

the velma/sam ship is setting sail

honestly i’ve lowkey shipped this for many years I’M SO GLAD THIS IS A THING NOW

-

04:55

I LOVE THIS ANIMATION TROPE

-

04:57

omg scrappy doo just waddled past in the door-running scene

-

04:58

jeez dean take a hint DAPHNE’S NOT INTERESTED

-

04:59

velma: “dean had him by the thigh”

cas: “you what?”

the fact it’s cas ??? asking why dean was fondling a ghost????

-

05:01

caS: “sCOOBY! SCOOBY!!!!!!”

I THINK CAS IS FOND OF SCOOBY DOO NOW

-

05:03

look at this trio!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THEM

also cas is so fucking pretty???? WHY IS CAS SO FUCKING PRETTY ;U;U;U;U; HELP

-

05:04

also sam ain’t two feet taller than cas !!

-

05:05

WHY DOES DAPHNE THINK SHE’S GOING TO HELL?? WHAT DOES SHAGGY MEAN BY “EVERY TIME”

IS SHE BANGING FRED OUT OF WEDLOCK/UNDERAGE IS THAT WHAT SHE MEANS

-

05:07

FRICKETTY FUCK YEAH

-

05:08

DID DEAN JKUST SWEAR AND IT WAS BLEEPED OG MY GODHDSFHYDGDG

also is it just me or does fred look way sexier with his hair messed up

-

05:12

dean: “lay it on me, freddy”

me: *smug noise*

-

05:16

eheheh cas poking in from the back

also daphne with two shotguns?? sign me up

-

daphne: KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!

ksjfdkjsgfgm

-

05:21

i don’t think i wanna know what dean did with the cartwright twins either

NOTE: GENDER UNKNOWN

-

05:24

guy: “is that an ascot?”

dean: “yes. yes it is.”

is that him trying to be daphne’s type, or him trying to be like perfect mr. fred

OR BOTH

-

05:27

OMG DEAN;S “SCOOBY DOOBY DOOOOO” OH JTGJSREGEBGERSHYGERSHGSREGVESGESHGHSE

JENSEN OH MY GOD

HOW MANY TAKES DID THAT TAKE

-

05:28pm

11/10 i loVED IT 

INSTANT FAVOURITE EPISODE QUITE FRANKLY WHO CARES ABOUT THE REST OF THE SHOW THIS WAS GREAT

THIS MADE ME SO HAPPY IT WAS SO WHOLESOME

MY PARENTS WANNA WATCH IT AND WE’RE GONNA HAVE DINNER IN LIKE AN HOUR SO I GUESS IMMA WATCH IT AGAIN

OH MY GOD THANK YOU UNIVERSE FOR BRINGING THIS INTO EXISTENCE

no people of colour but oh well

also not even sure the bechdel test was passed since velma and daphne only talked about sam

BUT EVEN SO THIS WAS AMAZING

YEEEE

i’m so pleased cas was in this. and i love that he loved shaggy and scooby ‘cause they’re the best and CAS+SHAGGY+SCOOBY WAS THE BEST TEAM

still not sure how cas diving out of the window after scooby actually helped but okay

oh man

feel-good happy place episode !!!

i am delight

[teachmoments]

I almost let this tradition lapse! Year End Survey 2017, y’all!

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before? I’ve quit jobs before... but never because I HAD to. I’ve quit jobs because I wanted to. This year, I hit a wall where I knew I had to choose between continuing to be the type of teacher I’ve always aspired to be... or a well-paid button-pusher. I had the stones to say no to the latter and I’ve never done that before.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions, and will you make more for next year? My biggest, stupidest NY resolution was to stop eating my favorite junk food - peanut butter pretzels... and despite having LOTS of opportunities, I made it 365 days. I was given a HUGE jar of them for Christmas and although we’re now safely ensconced in January, I’ve found I have lost my taste for them a bit. 3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope.

4. Did anyone close to you die? Nope! We made it through another year.

5. What countries did you visit?
 ZERO COUNTRIES! This answer has remained unaltered for the better part of the last ten years! Full disclosure, there is some talk about going up to Canada in ‘18. We’ll see.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017? Focus.

7. What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? July 10th, 2017. That was the day I definitively decided to leave the teaching position I had been working at for two years and go back to my old district.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? This will sound very small to most... but being able to go back to Middletown was an achievement. Some might say that’s a low bar, but I had all sorts of stupid feelings tied up in whether or not the decision was the right one.

9. What was your biggest failure? Although I work hard when I can, I have completely failed at drawing comics... which for a long time was the passion which sustained me through hard times. Honestly... I spent the lion’s share of ‘17 in a fairly depressed state. That spilled over to my artistic output.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Nothing too serious. I wrenched my back out a little bit back in October but I’m OK now.

11. What was the best thing you bought? 2017 was the year of wireless headphones... which I thought were stupid but now can’t live without. No cords! Who knew? What’s that? EVERYONE knew? Ok. My bad.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? My wife Ellen always deserves lauding but she’s become a real force to be reckoned with lately in the work she’s doing selling clothes on Poshmark. She’s made up a nice portion of the income we’ve lost with me moving back to a district where I’m paid a bit less. I should also say something nice about the team I work with, which welcomed me with open arms and made the transition back to Middletown a lot easier.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Trump. I feel like I’m in a low-level depression all the time when it comes to the state of our country.

14. Where did most of your money go? There’s not much extra money these days and that’s fine!

  15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? My sister got married in July, which was like a great big party. Cartoon Crossroads Columbus 2017. 

16. What song will always remind you of 2017?
 Meet Me in the Woods :: Lord Huron

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:


Happier or Sadder: Happier! Thinner or Fatter: Fatter. Richer or Poorer: Momentarily richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? I will always wish more more unstructured down time, sitting in the backyard with everyone, listening to music.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Being frustrated.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
 Christmas began all in a rush with the late end of school. My sister and her husband came down from New York. We spent most of our time here at the house. It was nice.

22. Did you fall in love in 2017? Sure.

23. How many one-night stands? Sure.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
 There was a lot of good television in M*A*S*H remained a strong contender for my time in ‘17 but this year will always be the year I discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation. I was pretty desperate to get away from the cacophony of insanity that’s been America lately and it was nice to plug into a show that preached someday, we conquer our petty human squabbles and get to go explore the stars.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? Not really. I feel sorry for folks.

26. What was the best book you read? The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. Wish I had broadened out from my sphere of interests more, but The Eyes of the Dragon is fantastic and an underrated part of King’s oeuvre.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery? 


Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds. 

28. What did you want and get? 

A new job. 

29. What did you want and not get? Nothing springs to mind.

30. What was your favorite film of this year? Again, firmly in my wheelhouse: IT. What an adaptation.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I was 35 and I have no memory of what we did. Whatever it was, it was low key.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More time to draw comics.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017? At work, I have branched out into being a lot more professional - four days a week, I wear a sports coat with a button-up shirt and slacks. I accessorize with lapel pins, which has become a small hobby of mine lately.

34. What kept you sane? 
Friday nights hanging out with my friends at Tolliver’s... Saturday nights hanging out with Ellen in my basement.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? EASY. Alison Brie. 

36. What political issue stirred you the most? 

37. Who did you miss? (in no particular order)
 I’m trying not to miss people. If I love you, I work to keep you in my life.

38. Who was the best new person you met? Oh, I work with a lady who absolutely cracks me up. We do “bets” at work all the time and that’s been a very fun and funny part of going back to my district. 

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2016: Money isn’t everything.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: As with the last few years, I don’t have one, but I thought I’d leave the question up for anyone who would like to copy and paste this for their own. I always hate it when someone edits these things and then I’m left with a misnumbered and confusing survey.

For example, this survey is missing many questions. The person I copied it from probably didn’t take them out, but somewhere down the line there is some schmuck doing exactly that. I don’t want to be like him/her.

[jswdmb1]

Video Killed The Radio Star

“We hear the playback 

and it seems so long ago

And you remember 

the jingles used to go”

- The Buggles

My mom asked me to help her set up an Apple TV a while back, and it made me realize how far we have come as far as entertainment options go.  I remember the day my dad came home and announced he saw that they were installing cable TV lines in the neighborhood.  He was about as excited as I have ever seen him.  It meant we increased our channel roster from about five to over thirty!  There was a network that played sports 24 hours a day!  We could watch movies at home uncut and uninterrupted.  I wanted my MTV and now I got it!  It may seem quaint to someone who wasn’t there at the time, but it was an incredibly cool and mind-blowing experience when you consider how our viewing experience exponentially changed with the installation of that little black cable.

As I was setting up the Apple TV, and all of the incredible options that come with it, I did not feel the same as that day in 1983 when I could now watch Nickelodeon and Australian rules football to my heart’s content.  Sure, the explosion of viewing options within cable and streaming services are just awesome, but sometimes it seems too much.  The immediate gratification of it all is disappointing as well.  The concept of binge watching seems to take away from the anticipation we used to have from the episode we waited all week for (or all summer for a cliffhanger).  That anticipation would start with the show’s theme song, which I feel is a real lost art.  Just the act of hearing that familiar tune along with credits and scenes of the stars of the show was almost as exciting as the show itself.  It may make me seem old and out-of-touch, but I really miss those days when we lived without DVRs and on demand viewing and got real theme songs to kick off your entertainment viewing experience.

But instead of rueing over days long lost, let’s celebrate some of those old shows (that ironically are all over Hulu and Netflix) that were not only great programs, but had the type of theme songs that really made you feel good when they came on.  It meant something that you waited for all week was about to arrive, and for an hour or two you could lose yourself in a world away from your own.  I now present to you my ten favorite tv theme songs and their shows, in no particular order:

1) All in the Family - In fall of 1973, CBS put forth what is considered the finest lineup on one night in television history. On Saturday nights, people stayed home for three straight hours of unparalleled entertainment. This was the start of it all at 7:00 (all times I give you are Central). There was no better lead off than Edith and Archie sitting at the piano singing “Those Were the Days”. How cool is it to have your lead actors sing the theme song live. All In the Family was so great it had a separate ending theme. You can read plenty elsewhere about the groundbreaking episodes that went on in between, but the theme music from this series gets us off and running.

2) Rockford Files - This show always opened with a unique montage of a client of Jim’s leaving a message on his answering machine. What followed was what I consider the best music composition on the list. Written by Mike Post, it is a funky, hard driving and timeless theme just like the Pontiac Firebird he drove. I like this song so much it is often in my normal rotation on many of my daily playlists. The program was great, for sure my favorite detective show of all time, but I would tune in just for this song.

3) Hill Street Blues - This is another Mike Poat theme, but couldn’t be more different than Rockford’s theme. Jazzy rather than funky and smooth versus hard driving, the piano of the song seemed to sum up everything this show was about. I recently caught up with some episodes on Hulu recently and forgot how ahead of its time this show was. Before Hill Street Blues, police dramas tended to tie things up neatly before the hour ended. This show, like life, didn’t always work out so well. The sadness of the lives in the people in the show is tinged throughout the theme. But, you also hear some hope in the final chords, and I think that what the show was all about. It told us that life could be a grind and full of despair, but there are also a lot of good people trying their best to ease suffering and make this world a better place. That’s a lot to pack into one theme song, but this one hits all the right notes.

4) M*A*S*H - This was in the 7:30 slot on the CBS Saturday lineup and was put there to boost its ratings in its second season. As hard as it is to believe in hindsight, the show struggled to find its audience in its first year. For many folks, the opening theme was their first introduction to this unique medical/war comedy/drama. Like the show, the theme (titled “Suicide is Painless”) was taken from the 1970 movie of the same name. The TV version dropped the lyrics and became one of the most instantly recognizable themes ever. The show that followed is very good too. I must confess that I am a bit of a M*A*S*H aficionado and the second season was one of their best (I’m partial to the McLean Stevenson/Wayne Rogers episodes). If you haven’t watched the show in a while, give a couple of episodes a spin (now on Hulu). I’ll bet dollars to donuts you are whistling the theme the rest of the day.

5) WKRP In Cincinnati - A terribly underrated show with an equally underrated theme, the quirky gang at WKRP were always good for some laughs and DJs spinning great records. While the theme song is fantastic (“...baby just think of me once in a while” is such a great line), the real soundtrack of the show was the late 70s/early 80s rock and roll in the background of each episode. Unfortunately, due to licensing issues, you don’t get those songs in the reruns, but the crazy storylines and big laughs that come with them still make this series worth your time. As a side note, the lyrics in the theme at the end are pure jibberish. The writer of the song used nonsense words as placeholders but the producers kept them in as a bit of an inside joke about how hard rock lyrics are to understand. I think that perfectly sums up what WKRP is all about.

6) Mary Tyler Moore Show - Who can turn the world on with a smile?  Mary no doubt did it every Saturday night at 8:00.  I have vague memories of this show the first time it came around as first run episodes, but found it later in reruns and discovered what a true gem it is.  The characters were quirky and unique without being oversimplified and the acting of the supporting cast was brilliant.  Any show with Ed Asner, Ted Knight and Betty White is going to end up being our gold.  As for the theme song, I think it is the most hopeful and happy on the surface, but it always struck a sad note with me.  There always seemed to be a back story with Mary in the show that we weren’t always getting that hinted of difficult times before she got to Minneapolis.  The song echos that and her throwing the hat up at the end seems to tell us that no matter how rough things were, or might end up, she’ll keep that smile on her face.  Not a bad lesson for all of us to follow.

7) Three’s Company - In the interest of full disclosure, I did not watch this show when it first aired.  It was banned from my house by my mother because it was “stupid”.  Once I left the house for college, I wanted to start trying new things and testing my independence in this world, so the first thing I did was devote every weeknight from 10:00 to 11:00 to the Three’s Company reruns on Channel 32.  What I saw was certainly a bit stupid but far from a  waste of time. Arguably, the show included some of the finest physical comedy of it’s day and was a great showcase for actors like John Ritter, Norman Fell (Mr. Roper) and Don Knotts.  Admittedly, the premise and some of the themes of the show have not aged well, but I never saw anything but an intent to have fun and provide a few laughs.  That was conveyed in the theme song which was as light and airy as the breeze coming off the Pacific while standing on the pier in Santa Monica.  For me, just the sound of that song brings back a memory of living in the college dorms and starting off an independent life full of promise and possibilities.  Each episode of this show felt the same even if each could have been solved in the first two minutes with a simple question or statement like “No, Mr. Furley, Jack is getting a Mexican pot to cook in, not the kind you smoke”.  I guess though, that wouldn’t have been all that funny.

8) Barney Miller - This one is on here purely for the bass line.  The notes are unmistakeable and leads into a full jazz combo with killer lead guitar.  The funk you hear in the theme follows along with the show.  The detectives at the precinct seemed to take what initially seemed to be mundane aspects of police work and turn every epsiode into a funky life lesson.  I read somewhere that real cops think this is the police show more true to life than any other they have seen.  I’m guessing it was because they drew up characters so real to the point where you would think of them as people first and not some exaggerated character as most police are drawn up on TV.  The whole thing just worked and really was quite funny.  The episodes hold up very well in reruns as well, so if you have never given it a try, I think you’ll find that it is as good as any other cop show you have seen recently.

9) Bob Newhart Show - Anchoring the CBS Saturday night 8:30 slot is another jazzy instrumental that is a great theme, but in this case the show behind it was the real gem.  Just like Barney Miller, The Bob Newhart Show took the fairly mundane aspects of life - whether it be at the office or at home - and mined them for laugh after laugh.  For those who are finds of Mr. Newhart (Loyola, Class of ‘52), this is no surprise.  Bob could literally turn a phone call into absolute hilarity.  His choice of profession on the show was perfect as well - for those who don’t know he played a psychologist. As someone who has spent a lot of time in the offices of mental health professionals, I can tell you first hand that the only portrayal that I have seen that is true-to-life is the one on this show.  The group therapy sessions are always the real gems and this show nails exactly what they are like.  I can’t it explain it much further, just go get a copy of the first season of this and watch it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.  Also, this show gets credit for one of the best wacky neighbors - Howard the pilot played by the incomparable Bill Daley.  Of all of the shows on this list, this is the one that I would recommend you check out before all others.  

10) The Love Boat - The show was pretty lame though I can be talked into watching anything that could have Sonny Bono, Vincent Price, and Chart as guest stars on the same night.  The theme, however, was a winner.  Sure it was cheesy, but it fit the series perfectly and always gave me the impression that I would know I made it in life if I could take a cruise on a boat like the Pacific Princess (I haven’t so I guess that I’m still waiting to make it).  Another reason that I love this show is that I have fond memories watching it with my Grandma when we would occasionally stay over at her house on Saturday nights.  Her smart comments about all of the washed up actors and how bad they looked or untalented they were was the real entertainment of the evening.  Plus, just the fact that she let us stay up late to watch it was a real treat in it of itself.  She would make us popcorn and let us have a soda and we could just live it up.  It’s funny how the most simple things in life end up being the most memorable.  I’d give anything right now for an hour again with her and that show.  Gosh, what fun.

Honorable mentions include the themes from Hawaii 5-0, The Golden Girls, Cheers, Sanford & Son, The Greatest America Hero, Good Times, The Odd Couple, Welcome Back Kotter, and Miami Vice

Now, I know that I’m being a real old-timer here by bringing out these ancient shows, but I will challenge you to a different binge-watching experience before passing judgment on my list.  Just You Tube the ten opening theme songs/credits that I list here and watch them in order.  You don’t even have to watch whole episodes of these shows (though if you the time you should). I guarantee that you will get a feel for what it was like when these shows were first on the tube.  Or, if that’s too much work, I made you a playlist with a few other favorites:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2J8rLlC3FIAvaCLmQg95vT?si=fpgJ8wYaSH-V0M0gP12rvA 

I am now at the ending point of this post.  It’s always hard for me to come up with a good finish to one of these.  I now realize that I need a good theme song.  I guess that is going to be hard to convey in written form and also because I don’t have one, but hum something catchy in your head and play it across images of the great times you just had reading this blog.  

Until next time....

Jim

P.S. - The last hour of “The Greatest Night in Television” on CBS was occupied by the Carol Burnett Show. A fantastic program, but not my favorite theme, so it did not make the list. Still worth checking out if you find it on somewhere if only to watch the cast crack up at Tim Conway’s antics.

[uomo-accattivante]

Here’s a different kind of story about media and politics.

It demonstrates how the monstrosity of a crime a century old still divides and scorches the world. And it’s one more example of how digital technology is changing geopolitics at every level, from interfering with other nation’s elections to the current wave of ransomware cyberattacks and even the release of motion pictures.

Last Tuesday, Donald Trump had a chummy meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. There was a lot to talk about — NATO, Syria, ISIS. They also discussed the continued presence in the United States of Fethullah Gulen, the Erdogan foe on whom the Turkish leader blames last summer’s failed coup d’etat.

In a Washington Post op-ed just prior to Erdogan’s visit, Gulen wrote, “The Turkey that I once knew as a hope-inspiring country on its way to consolidating its democracy and a moderate form of secularism has become the dominion of a president who is doing everything he can to amass power and subjugate dissent.”

No wonder Erdogan wants Gulen extradited to Turkey, where he would probably face certain death. So far at least, we have refused to do so. Meanwhile, as Erdogan looked on, his security detail viciously beat protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington.

So given this particular White House, and Trump’s expressed admiration for Erdogan, you know that one topic not up for discussion was Erdogan’s ever-escalating suppression of human rights, especially in the aftermath of the unsuccessful coup and the recent referendum in which he consolidated even more power.

Like his predecessors, and unlike the government of Germany after the Holocaust and World War II, Erdogan still refuses to acknowledge what the Turkish government did. Instead, he has admitted that yes, Armenians lost their lives, but as Cara Buckley at The New York Times wrote, “… He implied that they were victims of a war in which all Ottoman citizens had suffered — rather than the victims of a genocide.”

(Although Donald Trump and Barack Obama have condemned the atrocities committed against Armenians, for fear of offending their NATO ally neither used the word “genocide” while president. During the 2008 campaign, Obama pledged he would but never did).

This year, the anniversary of the beginning of the genocide has been marked by the release of two movies, each offering a very different account of what happened. Only one of them is truthful and the response has been both fascinating and troubling.

At the center of all this is the movie The Promise, co-written (with Robin Swicord) and directed by Terry George. It’s about a love triangle: an Armenian medical student (Oscar Isaac), an American photojournalist (Christian Bale) and a worldly, beautiful Armenian woman (Charlotte Le Bon) with whom both men are involved. As Turkey aligns with Germany during World War I and begins the systematic extermination of ethnic and religious minorities, their romantic rivalry is put aside and the three unite for survival.

In the interest of full disclosure, Terry George and I have known each other for a long time. Last year, he asked me and a few other friends to come screen The Promise while he still was adding the finishing touches. I thought it was terrific then and still do. The movie’s an old-fashioned love story in the style of David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago or Ryan’s Daughter, an epic set against a vast historical landscape devastated by cruelty and bloodshed.

With Jim Sheridan, Terry George wrote the movies In the Name of the Father, Some Mother’s Son and The Boxer, all of which dealt with the “troubles” in Northern Ireland. In 2004, Terry directed and co-wrote Hotel Rwanda, nominated for three Academy Awards, an unflinching look at the Rwandan genocide of 1994 and the world’s indifference to it. So jumping into the middle of the Armenian genocide dispute was not unusual for him. He joked, “If it doesn’t cause controversy, what am I doing it for?”

Last year, Terry realized that another picture on the topic was about to be released. The Ottoman Lieutenant has a similar story structure but it presents a sanitized version of the genocide in which the murders of Armenians are not part of a systematic, state-sanctioned policy but random acts of violence committed by rebellious soldiers.

The New York Times reports, “According to several people familiar with the project, Turkish producers oversaw the final cut, without the director’s knowledge.

“The people familiar with the project said that tensions emerged on the ‘Ottoman’ set after producers pushed to minimize depictions of Turkish violence against Armenians. Several people who worked on the project felt that the final version butchered the film artistically, and smacked of denialism: Dialogue that explicitly referred to systematic mass killing had been stripped out.”

Writing for The Daily Beast, Michael Daly discovered that one of The Ottoman Lieutenant’s producers, “ES Film is based in Istanbul and its co-founders include Yusuf Esenkal, who is said to be a business partner in other ventures with Bilal Erdoğan, son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The younger Erdoğan has been accused by Russia of trading in oil with ISIS and is being investigated by Italy of laundering massive sums of money there, all of which he has denied.”

ES Film also is behind a current TV series that glorifies the life of the last sultan of Turkey, “perpetrator of the first wave of mass killings that were the lead-up to the Armenian genocide.”

So, suddenly a film appears running counter to The Promise narative, produced by Turks whose motives might be less than pure. (It should be noted that The Promise got most of its funding from the late movie mogul, Armenian-American Kirk Kerkorian).

Then things got even stranger. The Promise premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. After just three screenings, IMDB, the Internet Movie Data Base, was flooded with 85,000 terrible reviews, a statistical impossibility. Only a handful could have seen the film.

As Mary Wald noted at HuffPost: “85,000 is not a few irate people. It is an organized mob. Or more likely a small network on laptops or in a boiler room working to make it look like a mob. Either way it is coordinated. And to coordinate something of this magnitude, you pay for it.”

IMDB removed all but the 32 or so reviews that they believed to be legitimate. But that wasn’t the end of it. According to Terry George, a similar smear campaign took place on the Turkish version of Twitter and the comment section at YouTube briefly had to be shut down. And he says that in Chicago and other cities large blocks of tickets were bought via the Fandango website and then refunded just before the movie was scheduled to start so that patrons would walk into near-empty theaters.

In the great scheme of things, this may seem like small ball when put up against election hacking, vast troves of leaked documents or taking down an entire national health service, but these insidious tactics add up, pile onto the “fake news” trope and give comfort to the denialists of every stripe. As Mary Wald wrote:

“Governments who are accustomed to controlling the media have put considerable energy into working out how the supposedly open and objective Internet can surreptitiously be harnessed to enforce a political agenda.”

That seems to be precisely what the Turkish government and its friends are doing as they continue to resist the reality of the Armenian genocide.

In 2014, Turkish President Erdogan tried to ban Twitter and YouTube, describing social media as a “knife in the hand of a murderer” when it was effectively used to mount protests against him. Now he has a Twitter account all his own and the knife is in his hand as well. Like deniers and haters here and everywhere, he and his allies have come to realize that the Internet, like any weapon, works both ways. It’s all about where you aim it.

The Promise opens in Spain next month and in Germany in August, and Terry George wonders whether the hostile reaction will be even more strident in Europe. Whatever happens, “We’re in it for the long haul,” he said, noting that he intends to utilize social media to generate outreach programs for classrooms that will heighten awareness of a bleak and overlooked time in world history. It’s a monstrous tale that must be told wherever it can, on movie screens or in cyberspace, never to be forgotten.

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