#Madison is racist as HELL in general

[solarbird]

I just want to get it out there that Elon Musk keeps saying – in words – that the Trump plan is to crash the economy. He keeps saying it, because he thinks it’s a good thing. Ordinary Americans will have to “embrace the pain.” People like him won’t have to do that, of course not!

But, you know.

You.

The little people.

Then and only then, after a big crash, will the economy be allowed to recover under what one supposes would be a new hyper-austerity regime.

From all historical experience, this “austerity” regime would really be a looter regime. It’d also be deflationary, which is great if you’re a billionaire and terrible if you’re everyone else, since most people will make less and less over time, while the billionaires will keep more and more since the rich won’t be paying any taxes, and the value of their stored wealth – their idle, uninvested, non-productive money caches – will increase all on its own.

The MAGA government would be gambling on the idea that American memory is so short that they’ll forget before the collapse.

Well, that, and…

And I give this credence because, well, one, yeah, Trump’s plans will crash the economy. But I also give it credence because of something Trump said before even running for office. He said this:

When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell and everything is a disaster, then you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great. – Donald J. Trump on Fox and Friends, 2014

Because Elon’s saying that’s the plan this time. It wasn’t the plan last time maybe, but it’s the plan this time. And “go back to where we used to be” was white supremacy with women as men’s property. That’s what he wants.

Trump’s Director of Whitehouse Personnel just today called to end voting rights for women, saying that women shouldn’t vote and that the 19th Amendment “might have to go.”

I mean really, at this point in the campaign, what people generally need to be focusing on is getting out the vote. But sometimes things happen that are big enough to talk about, like the explosion of race hate coming out of the Trump rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday. And that raw hatred – and their doubling down on it on Monday and Tuesday – is the most important item this week, absolutely.

But for the “fuck you I got mine” crowd amongst your friends, particularly the ones who are perfectly happy to laugh at racial hate jokes and really kinda like it since hey, it’s not their problem, well…

I would think that intentionally crashing the economy might give them something to care about.

Just maybe.

Because Elon keeps saying it, out loud. Elon, who would be in a Trump administration, who would be the one doing the broad strokes of fiscal planning, keeps saying that they will crash the economy, and that they will do it on purpose.

That might be something to tell your more racist family and friends.

Maybe – just maybe – they’ll care about that.

5 days remain.

[mariacallous]

For the apotheosis of his entire “poisoning of the blood” campaign, Donald Trump has planned a spectacular extravaganza in Madison Square Garden on 27 October, a week before the election. When JD Vance sings Trump’s fulsome praises to introduce him, his ominous tribute will not inspire comparison to the night in the Garden of 19 May 1962, when Marilyn Monroe sang Happy Birthday, Mr President to John F Kennedy.

Trump’s climactic rally will not be in the spirit of any past presidential event ever held there. His gathering for the great racist replacement theory will be the culmination of his spiraling descent since the Charlottesville rally in 2017 when neo-Nazis chanted, “Jews will not replace us.” “Fine people on both sides,” Trump said then. Now, at his night at the Garden, Trump will revive the memory of the infamous American Nazi mass rally held there on 20 February 1939 through his reflected Hitlerian rhetoric.

In the last week, Trump has pledged to deploy the military against “the enemy within”, domestic opponents he claims are worse than foreign adversaries – those Hitler called “Feind des Volkes”, or “enemy of the people”. Trump has threatened to destroy CBS, ABC and the New York Times. About ABC, after it conducted the debate in which he performed disastrously, he called to “take away their license”. After Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview, having refused his own, he tweeted on 10 October: “TAKE AWAY THE CBS LICENSE.” About the Times, he said on 9 October: “Wait until you see what I’m going to do with them.” He has singled out by name journalists for the Times and the New Yorker as “FAKE OBAMA LOVING ‘JOURNALISTS”. At every rally he denounces the “fake news”, a drumbeat for years, echoing Hitler’s pejorative slur, “die Lügenpresse” – “the lying press”.

Trump traveled on 11 October to Aurora, Colorado, where he claimed a Venezuelan gang had seized control, “scum” and “animals” who have “invaded and conquered” and “infected” the town, a description dismissed as false by its Republican mayor. “We have to clean out our country,” said Trump. His language represented the Nazi idea of “Rassenhygiene” – “race cleansing” that required purification, not an academic interest in genetics but a program of eugenics for designating inferior races to be isolated or eliminated.

As Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “A people that fails to preserve the purity of its racial blood thereby destroys the unity of the soul of the nation in all its manifestations. A disintegrated national character is the inevitable consequence of a process of disintegration in the blood.”

The former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, retired general Mark Milley, according to Bob Woodward in his new book War, told the veteran journalist: “No one has ever been as dangerous to this country as Donald Trump. Now I realize he’s a total fascist. He is the most dangerous person to this country.” Trump had stated that for Milley’s communication with his counterparts in China on January 6 to reassure them that the US military was stable, he deserved “DEATH” – to be executed.

On 14 October, retired general Mike Flynn – Trump’s former national security adviser, whom he pardoned for failing to register as a foreign agent and obstructing justice – was asked at a Christian nationalist rally for Trump whether he would preside over military tribunals in a second Trump term to “not only drain the swamp, but imprison the swamp, and on a few occasions, execute the swamp”. “Believe me,” Flynn replied, “the gates of hell – my hell – will be unleashed.”

Trump has been inevitably drawn to the Garden, in the city that made and unmade him. He is irreversibly entrapped in his endless neurotic syndrome of desperately seeking approval there that he constantly repels and success he inexorably undermines, a cycle of failure, rejection and humiliation. He wants New York to love him unreservedly, but his relationship with the city has been one long unrequited romance. His true love affair has always and only been with himself. When he does not receive the adoration he feels he deserves, he hates New York. Then, he tries to win its love again by performing a disgusting act, which, when he is predictably rejected, triggers his anger once again. And, then, he engages in gestures of infantile defiance, like holding a Nazi-esque rally. Trying to show himself triumphant over the city, he invites its scorn once again, and again, and again. He never comprehends that he is the cause of his continuing narcissistic injuries.

Trump’s rally, through the rhyme of history, will be a rebuke to the greatest campaign speech delivered by Franklin D Roosevelt, which, though given 88 years ago in the Garden on 31 October 1936, rings remarkably contemporary, a speech for “the restoration of American democracy” and its “preservation”.

“We have not come this far without a struggle and I assure you we cannot go further without a struggle,” FDR said. “We know now that government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me – and I welcome their hatred.”

Three years after FDR spoke at the Garden, another rally was held there, on 20 February 1939, under the sponsorship of the German American Bund, raising the slogan of “America First”, to advance the great replacement theory that Jews and other “inferior races” were displacing white Aryans. The Nazis claimed the mantle of true Americanism and Christian nationalism. Swastikas framed a gigantic portrait of George Washington as the backdrop to the stage. From the balcony hung a banner: “Stop Jewish Domination of Christian America.” “Wake up!” shouted the Führer of the Bund, Fritz Kuhn, “you, Aryan, Nordic and Christians, to demand that our government be returned to the people who founded it!”

Gerhard Wilhelm Kunze, the Bund’s public relations director, declared that white supremacy was the essential basis of the nation. “The spirit which opened the west and built our country is the spirit of the militant white man,” he said, citing racial segregation and immigration quotas as its bulwarks. “It has then always been very much American to protect the Aryan character of this nation.”

In 2019, a seven-minute documentary about the Nazi rally of 1939, A Night at the Garden, was nominated for an Academy Award. To promote it, a 30-second TV ad was produced with the tagline: “It Can Happen Here.” The line was a reference to Sinclair Lewis’s 1935 novel, It Can’t Happen Here, about a populist demagogue defeating FDR and imposing a fascist regime. Lewis’s wife, the famous journalist Dorothy Thompson, a columnist for the New York Herald Tribune, who had reported on the rise of Hitler, pointedly attended the Nazi rally. “I saw an exact duplicate of it in the Berlin Sports Palast in 1931,” she wrote.

When the film distributor of A Night at the Garden sought to buy time for a spot on Fox News, its CEO, Suzanne Scott, rejected it as “not appropriate for our air”. After the 2020 election, during Trump’s ramping up to the January 6 insurrection, she ordered that Fox News suppress factchecking his lies because it was “bad for business”.

Now, in his announcement of his night at the Garden, Trump advertised a clipped version of the replacement theory, declaring that New York was “reeling” from “Kamala’s reckless open-border policies”, “flooding” the city with criminal “illegal migrants”. For nearly a $1m contribution to attend the event, the top tier, donors are promised an “Ultra MAGA Experience”, details to follow.

Trump’s Maga rally will be the first time since the 1939 Nazi rally that the same themes of the replacement theory will echo in the Garden. But his closing argument is more than Nazi cosplay. He cannot help but reveal his deepest desire to be loved and then to fling the middle finger to the city whose unconditional admiration he has sought since he first crossed the Queensboro Bridge.

Trump’s permanent physical move to Palm Beach after his failed coup in 2020 has not transformed him into a contented Florida Man. To the inveterate New Yorker, the Sunshine state is strictly for snowbirds, God’s waiting room for shuffleboarders. Mar-a-Lago, his winter escape, has become his unnatural embittering palace-in-exile. Florida represents disgrace to Trump.

Trump’s emotional journey back to the White House must travel through New York. He has nothing but contempt and indifference for Washington. He despises policy, flaunts his ignorance and detests anyone who has ever tried to temper him, from four-star generals to Republican congressional leaders. He wants the pomp without the circumstance. January 6 played out Trump’s true view of the capital.

Trump plots his night at the Garden as the climax of his comeback tour. He may have been president, but never top of the heap. Roy Cohn could tell him how to skirt the law and ingratiate himself with the mob, but Cohn was not a Virgil to guide his protege to respectability. Trump’s lowlife publicity antics, tutored by Cohn, made him into one of the revolving cast of characters populating tabloid trash. The larger the headline of the sordid story about himself, the bigger Trump’s delusion that kitsch burnished his class. He was always crestfallen when his frolics did not win his admission into the club.

Trump has only been truly comfortable strutting in his old New York, conning and threatening, greasing the palms of the mafia, stiffing his contractors and workers, while trying to buy his way into society affairs. Time and again, the city spat him out. He was ridiculed and reviled. He went bust six times. He defaulted on the Trump Shuttle. The banks denied him loans. He had to sell his yacht named for his daughter, The Princess. His brutish father, who financed his wild ventures, throwing good money after bad, had to buy chips illegally to momentarily float his sinking Atlantic City casino. He dumped two wives. He allegedly sexually assaulted dozens of women. When he tried to lowball Frank Sinatra, an idol, Ol’ Blue Eyes told him, “Go fuck yourself.”

After Trump had plunged in what seemed to be his final bankruptcy, he was rescued by a TV producer, Mark Burnett, who created the reality TV show The Apprentice, which depicted Trump as a business genius reigning over the Manhattan skyline. The sheer fiction was the veneer that enabled his grubby lucrative product placement side deals. His motive for running for president was a branding scam gone haywire.

Now, he has returned to the city on his road to redemption. Yet, so far, he has been held accountable for his vast crimes only in New York. He has been found liable for defamation and sexual assault and termed an adjudicated rapist by the judge in the E Jean Carroll case, and ordered to pay $83.3m in damages plus continuing interest; found liable of widespread financial fraud and ordered to pay $364m for ill-gotten gains plus continuing interest; and convicted of 34 felony counts of financial fraud for hush-money payments, to a porn star and Playboy model with whom he had affairs, in order to affect the outcome of the 2016 election.

Once again, he intends to prove himself in the city that never sleeps, the city that will give him another shot at murdering someone on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it. A star is reborn.

These little town blues are melting away I’m gonna make a brand-new start of it in old New York And if I can make it there, I’m gonna make it anywhere It’s up to you, New York, New York

Trump now says that if he loses he will blame the unappreciative Jews – he hasn’t been “treated right” by the Jews and their support for Democrats is a “curse”. But Trump, who has picked up a few Yiddish words, uses them unconsciously like a native New Yorker. On 2 January 2021, he displayed his proficiency in his notorious telephone call with the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, in which he sought to intimidate him into committing election fraud to switch the state’s voting results.

“So look,” said Trump. “All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”

Raffensperger resisted Trump’s strong-arming, the Georgia outcome stood, and four days later Trump incited the assault on the Capitol in a last-ditch effort to thwart the certification of the election: “Hang Mike Pence!” Trump has since been indicted in Georgia for election fraud, a case in legal purgatory until after the 2024 election.

Twice, during his call with Raffensperger, Trump derided the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, who refused to be complicit in Trump’s scheme, by calling him a “schmuck”. Perhaps the word was lost on Trump’s listeners. According to Leo Rosten’s The Joy of Yiddish, it carries several meanings, including “penis” and “a dope, a jerk, a boob, a clumsy bumbling fellow”. Rosten wrote that “few impolite words express comparable contempt”.

Now, New Yorkers can only wonder, what kind of schmuck holds a Nazi-esque rally in Madison Square Garden?

[therebelwrites]

A longtime Madison Metropolitan School District educator has been placed on leave and is under both school district and police investigation after allegedly pushing, punching and pulling hair out of the head of an African American 11-year-old girl at Whitehorse Middle School last week, Madison365 has learned.

The girl’s mother, Mikiea Price, said she has seen security video of the February 13 incident, which she said shows Rob Mueller-Owens, 52, throwing her daughter to the ground and punching her before another teacher covers the girl with her own body to protect her.

“As a District we take any situation of this nature very seriously,” MMSD Representative Rachel Strauch-Nelson said in a statement. “All of our students need to be safe and supported in school, and we have a thorough investigation process and protocol that we follow. While we cannot talk about the details of a specific student or personnel situation, it is our responsibility to consider all of the facts of the situation and determine the right next steps.

“The staff person was put on leave while the situation was investigated. Based on that investigation, the staff person will not return to Whitehorse Middle School, and we are determining next steps. In addition, our team is coming together to create a full support plan to ensure that students are safe and fully supported at school.”

Mueller-Owens is the seventh educator to be caught up in racial incidents at Madison schools since November 1. Four teachers and two substitutes have been terminated or forced to resign after using racial slurs in class over the last three and a half months. Additionally, in Middleton, a school bus driver was terminated last fall for striking a black child and a high school teacher resigned after using a racial slur in class.

Price, herself a substitute teacher in the district for the past five years, told Madison365 in an exclusive interview that her daughter, a sixth-grader at Whitehorse Middle School, called her last Wednesday and was clearly upset.

“She was just like … crying and extremely upset,” Price said. “I could tell, like by the way she was crying and talking, that something traumatic had just happened.” She said her daughter told her, “Mr. Rob hurt me,” referring to Mueller-Owens.

Price said she immediately went to the school where three adults were speaking with her daughter about what had happened.

“She was crying and her lip was cracked, bleeding, and she handed me three of her braids that were pulled out from her scalp,” Price said.

Price said a classroom teacher had called on Mueller-Owens, who is dean of students and was acting principal that day, because Price’s daughter and another student had sprayed too much perfume or body spray on themselves and each other. When Mueller-Owens asked the girl to leave the room, she initially refused, and things apparently escalated.

“When he came in, he asked (my daughter) to step out and she didn’t listen, and didn’t step out and as he walked toward her, she said she went toward the window and just wasn’t following direction, and he told her in front of the whole class, to the teacher, ‘Take the class somewhere else,’” Price said. “And (my daughter) said, ‘No, that’s fine. They can stay, I’ll go.’ And as she was heading out, she said he pushed (her) with two hands trying to push her out the classroom, and she turned around and said, ‘Don’t put your hands on me.’ And he pushed her again … and she said he started punching her.”

She said the video, which she reviewed on Friday along with her mother, as well as Pastor Marcus Allen of Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Urban League of Greater Madison CEO Ruben Anthony, did not capture what happened in the classroom but does show what happened in the hallway.

“I didn’t see the punching but on the actual video that I was able to review on Friday from the school district, I did see him throwing her down,” Price said. “And you see another teacher that I also spoke with that said that she had to lay on top of (my daughter) to prevent her from getting hit or punched.”

Strauch-Nelson said the school district intends to release the video later this week, after police conclude their investigation. Madison365 has not viewed the video but has requested to do so. Allen corroborated Price’s account of the video to Madison365. Allen also said the man in the video resembles a photo of Mueller-Owens, and that in meetings, school district staff had referred to the man as “Rob.”

Price said she called police on Wednesday, and followed up on Friday after viewing the video to ask why Mueller-Owens had not been arrested.

“The police told me that I said that I didn’t want to press charges, and that’s not true. I never said that. That’s the whole point of me calling the police,” Price said. “I told (the police officer) I wanted to press charges, and when I told him that he turned around and told me (Monday), if I press charges on the teacher than my daughter is facing charges as well for disorderly conduct.”

Madison Police Department spokesman Joel Despain declined to comment because the investigation is ongoing.

“I know those investigating want to talk with more school staff members before reaching conclusions,” Despain said in an email to Madison365 Tuesday morning, and Wednesday said officers were still looking to interview more witnesses.

Mueller-Owens’ public persona is that of an educator committed to positive behavior reinforcement and restorative justice, and he seems to have positive connections with many community leaders.

On his Facebook page, which has now been deleted or hidden, Mueller-Owens listed his title as “Director of Culture and Climate” at Madison Metropolitan School District. His LinkedIn profile lists his current position as Positive Behavior Support Coach and Coordinator of Academic and Career Planning. Online records indicate he started as a teacher at Malcolm Shabazz City High School in 2000 and a Teacher/Coordinator at the Transition Learning Center from 2008-2014. He then moved to East High School, where from August 2014 until June 2015 he was Positive Behavioral Specialist and held “community-building circles regularly,” as part of his approach “in which participants are guided in candid, confidential discussion,” to help strengthen student-teacher relationships according to an MMSD article where his work on restorative circles was amplified. He was later Interim Assistant Principal at Madison West before moving to Whitehorse in November 2017. Most recent public State records indicate he earned $93,303 per year in that role.

The Capital Times reported that he attended a conference on “Rethinking School Discipline” with MMSD Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham and Elementary Schools Chief Nancy Hanks in 2015. In a 2016 Q&A with Madison Magazine, he touted the virtues of restorative justice as a means of school discipline.

“Healing happens in a relationship, and that is what we often miss,” he said in that interview. “There are incredible demands placed on teachers, and most non-teachers do not understand the emotionally grueling work that every teacher experiences on a daily basis. The real power of restorative practices (which include circles, restorative dialogues and mediation) is that they are all predicated upon restoring meaningful relationships so that common goals can be accomplished. In our setting, that common goal happens to be education.”

Just last November, he told online news site Madison Commons that greater understanding of cultural differences is required when it comes to school discipline.

“The dominant culture lacks an understanding of how other cultures interact with each other,” Mueller-Owens said in that article. “Sometimes there are different ways of working together. And those differences allow for those disparities to exist. We need to work together more often. There is a lot of misunderstanding in Madison about diverse cultural ways of being.”

Price said Mueller-Owens’ background just means he should have known better.

“If he has all that training, why would you approach that and why, when a kid told you don’t touch me, why did you come and meet them with more force?” she said.

“It’s very frustrating, you know,” Price said. “Even as a mom, like I can’t protect her. This is an educator. This is not a kid that jumped on her. And you’ve got to be patient and talk to the parents. This is an educator.” 

Whitehorse Middle School, near Olbrich Park on Madison’s east side, has a student body that is 46 percent white and 21 percent Black. Overall, MMSD is about 42 percent white and 17 percent Black.

[vive-la-revolution]

Was hamilton a bad person? /gen

ooh, hello anon!

this… is a loaded question, and i’m assuming it stems from my “have fun in hell” post.

technically speaking, hamilton wasn’t as bad as a person as other people at the time, but there were a couple of things that certainly wouldn’t make him a good person.

an obvious reason, of course, would be the reynolds affair, but there are other things that could possibly categorize him as bad; for example:

he claimed to be an abolitionist, then purchased slaves as a gift to someone (i can’t remember at the moment);

he was an english sympathizer, and was originally considering loyalty to the british;

adding on to that, he suggested a government built like england’s, most prominent that of a president who served for life. that didn’t go well in congress;

he refused to assist the french in their war with england, despite their enormous support efforts in the american revolution;

despite his more “progressive” views, he was like 99% of men at the time, and had some sexist and racist views;

like all politicians, he had many controversial opinions, as nobody can be totally satisfied;

going out on a whim here, but the “supposed” (and highly unlikely) relationship between himself and angelica schuyler church, which would be very low of him, considering she was his wife’s sister.

despite all this, i think it’s safe to say the good outweighs the bad.

he kept the nation’s debt in control, even though his ways of doing so were skeptical;

no matter what any musical tells you, hamilton actually did take time to spend with his family! he was set on being a good father and made sure his children all had good education;

his federalist papers (written alongside james madison and john jay) helped massively to shape their emerging country and pull it together after the war;

he proposed the us mint and dollar, therefore giving us our own currency (at the time, the most circulated form of money was spanish currency);

his other interpretations of the constitution helped to set precedents for federal authority and shape court systems;

he was considered “the greatest man of our epoch” by french diplomat charles maurice de talleyrand;

and of course, his assistance in the revolution was an important asset in his life, as he contributed greatly to the cause—so great that at least five generals asked him to be an aide, including general george washington, the most renowned man of the time

in conclusion, no, i won’t say that alexander hamilton was a generally “bad” person, but he definitely did things that could be represented or interpreted as bad.

[rudystree]

Hmm how are you a Rudy stan and still have the audacity to criticize Rudy stans on twitter for defending him? Rudy stans on twitter never say a bad word about Drew. but the Drew stans always have Rudy’s name in their mouth, calling him names, making fun of his clothes, hair, moustache, face, body, saying he’s a racist for dating Elaine and say he has a “bad attitude”. While all Rudy stans ever say about Drew is criticize him about being silent on BLM. Do some digging before you post your bullshit “let’s all treat each other with kindness” posts because the Drew stans who get “attacked” sure as hell deserve it. But sure Rudy stans are the nasty ones.

I am so sick and tired of this stuff, truly.

I love and support Rudy Pankow. Period. That does not put me in any sort of category of morality that you’ve established, and it doesn’t mean I’m on anyone’s side or team or whatever. It just means I love and support Rudy Pankow.

Stop generalizing people and pitting them up against each other. “Rudy stans do this” “Drew stans say that” or “Jiara stans are this” and “JJPope stans are that” ; it is so fucking stupid. Do you know the thousands, if not millions, of OBX fans personally? Or are you just extrapolating from the behavior you observe from your friends in your little Twitter circle?

It’s not okay to post mean or demeaning shit about any of the cast, period. We can share our opinions respectfully, but if you’re gonna say something shitty about someone’s fave, then expect them to rightfully come for you. I’m not “defending” Drew stans or Rudy stans or whoever, I just want this ridiculous drama to stop. This sounds like a personal problem you have with your friends, and my advice? Find better ones. Follow better, more respectful people. Block the ones that make you upset.

Here on Tumblr, I have a beautiful dash filled with all types of OBX fans. Some love Drew, some love Madison, many love Rudy, a lot don’t even care for the cast at all. But the second someone says dumb shit like this, they disappear from my dash. Because I alone control my experience on this website. I won’t be responding to your other ask about this, and please don’t send more. I’m sorry if you don’t feel heard in your Twitter circle but that’s probably because a lot of your views are close-minded and disrespectful.

[sciencespies]

The Dangers of Space, Military Rivals and Other New Books to Read

https://sciencespies.com/nature/the-dangers-of-space-military-rivals-and-other-new-books-to-read/

The Dangers of Space, Military Rivals and Other New Books to Read

Reading astrophysicist Paul M. Sutter’s latest book, How to Die in Space, will surely help any adult erase regrets they may have about their failed childhood dream of becoming an astronaut. As the SUNY Stony Brook professor observes, outer space—populated by such threats as black holes, acid rain, asteroids, planetary nebulae and magnetic fields—is, to put it frankly, “nasty.”

The latest installment in our “Books of the Week” series, which launched in late March to support authors whose works have been overshadowed amid the COVID-19 pandemic, details the many ways one might meet their demise in space, six notorious military rivalries, the Italian Renaissance’s dark undertones, the history of swimming and the culinary implications of so-called “wild foods.” Past coverage has highlighted books including Karen Gray Houston’s exploration of her family’s civil right’s legacy, St. Louis’ racist history, James Madison’s black family, and modern conservatism’s roots in the antebellum South and post-Civil War westward expansion.

Representing the fields of history, science, arts and culture, innovation, and travel, selections represent texts that piqued our curiosity with their new approaches to oft-discussed topics, elevation of overlooked stories and artful prose. We’ve linked to Amazon for your convenience, but be sure to check with your local bookstore to see if it supports social distancing-appropriate delivery or pickup measures, too.

How to Die in Space: A Journey Through Dangerous Astrophysical Phenomena by Paul M. Sutter

Despite its macabre title, How to Die in Space is a surprisingly lighthearted read. Adopting what Kirkus describes as an “informal, humorous persona,” Sutter—host of popular podcast “Ask a Spaceman!”—guides his audience through the cosmos’ deadliest phenomena, from Jupiter’s dense atmosphere to radiation, solar flares and exploding stars, which he deems “slumbering dragon[s], just waiting for the chance to awaken and begin breathing flame.”

The book also dedicates ample space to speculative threats, including dark matter, extraterrestrial life, wormholes and “other relics of the ancient universe.”

How to Die in Space’s description emphasizes that while “the universe may be beautiful, … it’s [also] treacherous.” Still, Sutter’s musings cover more than simply doom and gloom: As the scientist writes in the text’s closing chapters, “It’s really an excuse to talk about all the wonderful physics happening in the cosmos. … There is so much to learn, and we need to study it as closely and intimately as possible.”

Gods of War: History’s Greatest Military Rivals by James Lacey and Williamson Murray

Following the release of their 2013 bestseller, Moment of Battle: The Twenty Clashes That Changed the World, journalist James Lacey and historian Williamson Murray started brainstorming topics to explore in future books. Eventually, the pair landed on the premise of rivals, defined in Gods of War’s introduction as “military geniuses who … fought a general of equal caliber”—or, in the cases of World War II commanders Erwin Rommel, Bernard Law Montgomery and George Patton, multiple generals.

Bookended by essays on war’s “changing character” and the role of military genius in modern warfare, the six case studies read like a Who’s Who of global history. Representing the ancient world are Hannibal and Scipio (the latter of whom the authors describe as “the better strategic thinker”) and Caesar and Pompey. Crusader kings Richard I and Saladin; Napoleon Bonaparte and Battle of Waterloo victor Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington; Union Army commander Ulysses S. Grant and Confederate officer Robert E. Lee round out the list of 13 featured men.

Lacey and Murray liken their approach to chess strategy. “There is only so much you can learn by playing someone inferior to you or by revisiting the games of neophytes,” the duo writes. “There is, however, much to absorb, think about, and learn from studying games that [pit] one grandmaster against another.”

The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West by Catherine Fletcher

As alluded to by its title, Catherine Fletcher’s latest book juxtaposes seemingly discordant aspects of the Italian Renaissance: its aesthetic brilliance and, in the words of fellow historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, the “filth and thuggery, slavery, sex, slaughter and skullduggery behind [this] exquisite art.” Framed as an alternative history of the much-explored period of creative rebirth, The Beauty and the Terror contextualizes the Italian Renaissance within the framework of European colonialism, widespread warfare and religious reform. Rather than focusing solely on such artistic geniuses as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Botticelli, Fletcher lends a voice to the women writers, Jewish merchants, mercenaries, prostitutes, farmers and array of average citizens who also called the Italian peninsula’s competing city-states home.

The “lived reality” of 15th- and 16th-century Italy involved far more violence, uncertainty and devastation than widely believed, argues Fletcher. Forces beyond its residents’ control—a series of wars, the rise of the Ottoman Empire, the advent of the Protestant Reformation—shaped their lives yet have been largely overshadowed by what their greatest minds left behind.

“We revere Leonardo da Vinci for his art but few now appreciate his ingenious designs for weaponry,” notes the book’s description. “We know the Mona Lisa for her smile but not that she was married to a slave-trader. We visit Florence to see Michelangelo’s David but hear nothing of the massacre that forced the republic’s surrender.”

Splash!: 10,000 Years of Swimming by Howard Means

In lieu of visiting a swimming pool this summer, consider diving into Howard Means’ absorbing exploration of aquatic recreation and exercise. As the journalist writes in Splash!’s prologue, paddling, floating or wading through water can be a transformative experience: “The near weightlessness of swimming is the closest most of us will ever get to zero-gravity space travel. The terror of being submerged is the nearest some of us ever come to sheer hell.”

The earliest evidence of swimming dates to some 10,000 years ago, when Neolithic people living in what is now southwest Egypt painted individuals performing the breaststroke or doggy paddle on the walls of the Cave of Swimmers. Swimming endured throughout the classical period, with ancient texts including the Bible, Homer’s Odyssey, the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Chinese Book of Odes all containing references to the practice.

The advent of the medieval era—with its rising “prudery” and insularity, as well as its lack of sanitation and efficient infrastructure—quickly brought this “golden age” of swimming to an end; in Europe, at least, “swimming slipped into the dark for a full millennium,” writes Means.

During the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, swimming was more closely associated with witchcraft than leisure. The practice only regained popularity during the Enlightenment period, when such prominent figures as Benjamin Franklin and Lord Byron reminded the public of its merits. By 1896, swimming had regained enough popularity to warrant its inclusion in the first modern Olympic Games.

Feasting Wild: In Search of the Last Untamed Food by Gina Rae La Cerva

Part memoir, part travelogue and part culinary adventure, Feasting Wild examines “humans’ relationship to wild food and the disappearing places and animals that provide it,” according to Publishers Weekly. Broadly defined as fare foraged, hunted or caught in the wild, the “untamed” foods detailed in geographer and anthropologist Gina Rae La Cerva’s debut book hail from such diverse locales as Scandinavia, Poland, Borneo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, New Mexico and Maine. Once “associated with poverty and subsistence,” writes La Cerva, wild foods including broad-leaved garlic, bushmeat, sea buckthorn flowers and moose meat are now viewed as luxuries, reserved for five-star restaurants that cater to an elite clientele.

La Cerva argues that this shift in perception stems from the onslaught of “settler-colonialism,” which used the dichotomy of wild versus tame to “justify violent appetites and the domination of unfamiliar cultures and places.” Within a few centuries, she adds, “the world [had] traded wild edibles at home for exotic domesticates from abroad.”

The flipside of this “fetishization of need” is the standardization of humans’ diets. As wild places across the world vanish, so, too, do undomesticated or uncultivated plant and animal species. Preserving wild foods—and the knowledge imparted by the women who have historically collected and cooked them—is therefore “fundamentally about recovering our common heritage,” writes La Cerva. “The urgency of the environmental crisis is precisely why we must slow down, take time, [and] become complicated in our actions.”

#Nature

[tessatechaitea]

Teen Titans Spotlight #11: The Brotherhood of Evil

Judging by the last few issues starring Robotman, Beast Boy, Mento, and the Brotherhood of Evil, this series could have been Doom Patrol Spotlight On:.

Warp might be the most intelligent super villain in the DC Universe!

Actually I'm not quite done not talking about The Brotherhood of Evil! I don't mean to suggest that the people who fled one kind of oppression weren't the best and kindest people in the world! The only reason I said all the awesome people wound up in California is because I'm from California and my family is pretty awesome. Don't worry! I can see all of the erasure in the above statement! It's just sometimes, you're speaking about a thing and you can't get bogged down by small details like Native American genocide or blatant anti-Chinese laws enacted in San Francisco (pretty much the coolest place in the U.S. (at least before the tech boom fucking turned it into a capitalist fascist run by tech start-ups and the angels who finance them)). The main point was that some people become comfortable with a status quo that oppresses others. And instead of fighting it, people flee from it. The people who flee often do so because they have their own status quo they want to enact and it's rarely one that provides opportunity for everybody. At least in the modern view, I tend to think (and hope it's more than hope and fantasy and wishful thinking) that those fleeing small town bigotries into big cities are actually more compassionate toward the entirety of humanity. We still make lots of mistakes but the key point is that we're trying to do better. When people discuss locking up immigrants at the border, you can either fight against the injustice and racism inherent in the entire process or simply shrug your shoulders like a douchebag and try to sound super smart by saying, "Well, they should have thought about that before they came here!" As if everybody in the world has access to media that somehow preempts the two hundred years of American propaganda that we're willing to accept the hungry and the tired and those yearning to breathe free. I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 70s and the reality of the world that existed around me at the time was fucking Star Trek: The Next Generation compared to what's going on in 2019. We had station ID breaks on KTVU Channel 2 out of San Francisco that would show a kid running around and playing and introducing the viewer into their world that would end with the kid saying, "I'm proud to be a Chinese American!", or "I'm proud to be a black American!" It's the kind of thing that would get so many people in a huff now and yet it was a simple and effective means to introduce younger viewers to the heterogeneity of their community. And now, in 2019, we have Comicsgate who can't stand to be reminded that people other than white people can be protagonists. It boggles my mind that people can get so upset over shit that won't make a millimeter wave on the cultural yacht they were born on. Fucking grow up, assholes. Not everything is about you. I think I was going to say more things about erasure! I don't mean to make light of it since it's absolutely a strategy used to disenfranchise groups or exclude them from social movements. But it's your go-to argument against everything you read, you're not going to make many friends. Lots of essays or articles or arguments need to be specific and they can't include every situation or group in the specific argument being made. Maybe it's tough to accept laser focused arguments on the Internet when the audience is harder to gauge. I know peanut allergies exist and they're deadly but I still stick the knife I just used for peanut butter in the preserves. Not because I don't give a fuck but because I know the audience using my apricot preserves. But if I were to mention this on the Internet, everybody who knows nothing about the context of my preserves and my audience and my entire existence would jump all over me saying things like, "That's really irresponsible!" and "You're going to kill somebody!" and "Apricot? You fucking monster!" I usually hate analogies but sometimes they're fun. The general problem with analogies is that people don't use them to help clarify arguments; they use them to try to simplify their argument into something nobody can disagree with. But by that time, the relationship between the actual argument and the analogy is tenuous at best! But I think my peanut butter allergy analogy is pretty rock solid! Hey! You know who's diverse?! The Brotherhood of Evil! They have a French gorilla and a British woman and a bald white guy (also French but what can you do? This team was all up in France and shit) and a brain in a jar. Hopefully Brain was African or Chinese or Pakistani. Maybe he was also autistic. He's enough of a cypher to allow any reader to identify with him, I guess. He's definitely gay! Unless he's into bestiality. One of those reasons is why he winds up fucking the French gorilla. Hmm, maybe not making it clear what Brain's intent was was a mistake by DC because doesn't that just amplify anti-gay sentiment by associating it actual deviant behaviors? If DC did make it clear and I'm the one who's obfuscating the matter, I should probably shut up. The Brain and Mallah are definitely gay for each other's human dicks. The fact that Mallah's dick is gorilla and Brain's dick is non-existent shouldn't hamper their love. The Brotherhood of Evil are being set up by some guy named Toulon. There was a lot of narration boxes that explained it but I was too busy thinking, "How is Brain going to suck Mallah's cock?" So all I know is that Toulon managed to fuck up Warp's powers and he teleported the Brotherhood to a strange world.

Hmm, looks like Earth-11 to me!

I know this takes place after Crisis on Infinite Earths and Earth-11 shouldn't exist but it does! Maybe this story takes place before Crisis? Maybe when the story reveals they're on Earth-11, the editor will provide a note, "*This story takes place before Crisis on Infinite Earths! -- Know-it-all Knobby!" Mallah introduces himself to Tin, the leader of the good guys, I guess?, by saying, "We're the Brotherhood!" I suppose I'd shorten the name of my organization when I met new people too if it were called The Brotherhood of Evil. Unless the new guy I was introducing myself to was like Kim Jong-un or Donald Trump or Mark Zuckerberg. I'm so tuned in to world events that I first typed "Mark Zupperberg" and couldn't figure out why it looked wrong.

Welcome to my new preschool, Tiny Tots Fucktown.

You might want to be upset with me for sexualizing young children but I'm not the fucking monster who made that advertisement. Ad Exec #1: "What if we show a guy building the model with a bunch of hot women getting wet over how well he's done it?" Ad Exec #2 Who is in Prison Now: "What if they were little kids?!" Was Earth-11 the one where DC put Tin Tin after they bought the rights? I mean, I don't know if they ever bought the rights but this guy is definitely Tintin, right?

He also rides a big white dog that he has yet to call Snowy but it's only a matter of panels.

Trapped on a world about to be destroyed (in a worse way than Tintin and his cohorts know! Crisis is coming! Or came? No, no! I sometimes forget comic books can tell tales from the past! Although weren't writers supposed to completely ignore the Pre-Crisis universe once Crisis on Infinite Earths completed? Or why even fucking bother?!), The Brotherhood of Evil decide to help Tintin and his rebels take back control from some guy called Minos. But they're only doing it for their own selfish ends. You might remember how their name has "evil" tacked onto the end.

You might have thought "cutting them down like grass" was the correct phrase and "mowing them down like paper mache" is stupid but this is Earth-11, dumb dumb.

Paper mache is how you spelled "papier-mâché" before you had the Internet. There might some other difference in this comic book due to the place in time it was written:

Fuck. Now I'm horny.

The Brotherhood help Tintin and his friends steal a space ark from their enemies so that Tintin and his friends can survive the destruction of Earth-11. Never mind what happens to the people of Earth who weren't offered the opportunity to become one of Tintin's group. In payment for their help, The Brotherhood of Evil are helped back to their own Earth where they can continue to be weird and impotent. The conclusion of the story has something to do with Doctor Mist and the Global Guardians helping make the universe a better place by saving Tintin (somehow! I mean, Crisis, right?! What the fuck?), getting some guy named Toulon killed (he's only "some guy" to me because sometimes these espionage plots are just too convoluted with too many normal characters I don't care about), and getting the Brotherhood of Evil killed. They fail in getting the Brotherhood killed but seem content with their other machinations. Plus, I'm sure Doctor Mist was happy to get a small role in this comic book to pay for his bowel cancer treatments. Teen Titans Spotlight #11: The Brotherhood of Evil Rating: B-. You know I don't put any thought into the grades I give these comic books, right? You know this isn't really a review site and just a way for me to enjoy my time reading comic books while journaling, right? You know my nemesis is still the Weird Science comics blog, right? What a bunch of squares!

[newagesispage]

                                                  APRIL                      2019

PAGE   RIB

***** The Rolling Stones have cancelled their North American tour. Mick Jagger apologized for cancelling due to undisclosed medical treatments.  Oh Baby, Get Well Soon!!!!

***** Mick and his squeeze, Melanie Hamrick have put together a ballet set to Stones music called Porte Rouge. After premiering in Russia it will come to NY on April 18 for an opening night charity event to benefit Youth America Grand Prix.  Tickets start at $600.

***** Tina Fey and Carol Burnett  are working on a movie about Carol’s book, Carrie and me: A Mother –Daughter love story.

***** When I hear Bernie Sanders going on, I can’t help but think of Jimmy Carter. He was pushing many of these messages in the seventies. He tried to get us to have more respect for the land and to save energy and the greedy wrote him off as boring and the era of greed took over. Will we listen this time?

***** The Mueller report was finally turned over to Attorney General William Barr. This has started a whole new set of problems. Barr gives us a summary that is like springtime for Trump. He jumps right in to those that done him wrong and FISA warrants. Should congress get a look at the full report? Everyone is talking over each other and don’t seem to hear what the other is saying. Everybody piles on Adam Schiff because they think he isn’t accepting the report like a good Dem should. If they would listen, he makes it very clear that he respects the findings but they need to see the report. How dare they ask HIM to resign as Intel committee chair. It was heartwarming to see his backbone. They must quit backing down. We still don’t have the whole story but he still free to say that he thinks the actions we already know of were wrong. What the hell is wrong with that? Barr is supposed to release the heavily redacted report in mid- April. No collusion? Perhaps, Scary Clown 45 would probably not get his hands dirty. Obstruction? We’ll see. ** Tyler Mcgaughey, William Barrs son in law will now advise Trump and the White House staff. ** I am really sick of listening to the old white man POV.

***** Dow chemical has donated a mil to Trump’s campaign. Strange that Trump has blocked a report  that took years of research and shows proof of Dow toxic pesticides which jeopardizes over 1,200 endangered species.

***** US from Jordan Peele opened to 70.3 mil. Just like his last movie, critics tell us to watch it twice. How great for the bottom line.

***** John McCarty, a dead man is running for village President in Spring Bay, Il.

***** Look out for the new film, The Kid, directed by Vincent D’onofrio. The western stars Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, Hawk , D’onofrio , MorningStar Angeline and Leila George.

***** Did you ever see the reunion movie ‘Return to Green Acres? ‘  They tried to warn us of who Trump was a long time ago. How strange that it came full circle with that ridic Emmy Green Acres thing he did.

***** Shaq has become a deputy sheriff and has also been added to the board of directors of Papa John’s where he is an investor.

***** In sexual harassment news, Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman has accused Joe Biden of unwanted touching and kissing at a 2014 campaign event.

***** Mark Hamill will voice the Chucky doll in the new Child’s Play.

***** Law and Order will get its 21st season.

***** The daytime Emmy noms have been announced and Days got the most this year. WOO HOO! The soap was nominated for drama, writing, costume, music, casting, art direction and oh, just everything. In the acting category the lead noms are Marci Miller, Tyler Christopher and Billy Flynn.  Kate Mansi was noticed for a guest spot as Abigail so 2 actresses are up for Emmys in the same role. Other guest noms went to Thaao Penghlis and Philip Anthony Rodriguez. Kassie Depaiva, Linsey Godfrey (really?), Martha Madison, Greg Rikaart and Eric Martsolf were all nominated.  Younger actor nods went to Olivia Rose Keegan, Lucas Adams, Victoria Konefal and Kyler Pettis.  C’mon , why nothing for Lauren Koslow, Greg Vaughan, Casey Moss, Susan Seaforth Hayes and Robert Scott Wilson?? I think I would switch a few of these around but it is still great to see Days so blessed.  I was also happy to see Max Gail from GH get noticed. CBS led the networks in noms. Hooray for Wayne Brady for game show host and Mark Hamill, Ruth Negga and Steve Buscemi in animated programs. Watch for the Daytime Emmys on May 5 which will not be on television again.

***** General Robert Neller has told the Pentagon that funds diverted to the wall are keeping Marines from rebuilding hurricane hit bases.

***** Devin Nunes is suing Twitter for the parody accounts, Devin Nunes Mom and Dvin Nunes cow which is pretty funny.

***** The EU is banning straw, cotton swabs and plastic cutlery by 2021.

***** Jenny McCarthy has a book out that slams The View.

***** Roseanne is thinking about suing ABC and has said some rather nasty stuff about Sara Gilbert.

***** Michael Avenatti was arrested for trying to extort $20 mil from Nike in NY. He claims he was just doing some lawyering.  California has him on bank fraud charges.  Why is there so much shadiness in this world? Let’s start rewarding the people doing good in this world and quit talking these headlines everyday.

***** Why did this Jussie Smollett thing go away?

***** Wal Mart is walking back this getting rid of the elderly and handicapped greeter thing.

***** Tracy Morgan and Will Forte are to star in the new animated Scooby Doo movie.

***** Johnny Depp has sued ex Amber Heard over the abuse allegations.

***** Martha Stewart is diving into the Marijuana product industry.

***** New York charges Manafort with 16 crimes. Perhaps he won’t get off as lightly with the state crimes.

***** Season 9 of American Horror Story has no premiere date yet. Emma Roberts is confirmed to return. It looks like it will also include Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and silver medalist Gus Kenworthy.

***** New California Gov. Gavin Newsom has halted executions for now.

***** Dems will hold their convention in Milwaukee. And if I hear again that Hillary didn’t go to these sorts of places, I am gonna puke. She went! She went! Just not so much at the end.

***** Howard Stern will release his first book in 20 years this May.

***** Ok, so glad to see Whoopie Goldberg is starting to get back to work but it is just so unbelievable in this day and age and access to info that she seemed shocked that the insurance companies decide people’s fate. Of course, that is if you are lucky enough to have insurance.

***** Sandy Hook families can take lawsuits against the gun companies to court now.** Three suicides have recently come from survivors and a parent of Parkland and Sandy Hook. The pain goes on.

***** The Senate voted 59-41 to terminate the emergency declaration. VETO

***** Rick Singer, founder if a college prep business had pled guilty to money laundering, obstruction of justice and racketeering. The nationwide college entrance exam scandal involves about 50 people including Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin that dates back to 2011. People paid millions to use ringers to take or fix their children’s exams and sometimes faked photos with coaches to include them in sports they were never involved in. The U.S. attorney does not believe the schools themselves were involved. **Lawsuits have already begun from those claiming they could not get into a good college because those spots were taken by these alleged cheaters.

***** Jennifer Hudson will play Aretha Franklin in the biopic.

***** Experts say a recession is on the horizon.

***** Two Sacramento police officers will face no charges for their overkill of the unarmed Stephon Clark. Oh Big surprise!!

***** White supremacist groups on line are growing faster than ISIS. ** I never get it, if white supremacists are so supreme, so wonderful, wouldn’t they rise to the top naturally? Why do they need to rid the world of others or keep minorities down?? If they think others are so inferior, those they hate or fear should not be a problem .

***** Jeanine Pirro was pulled off Fox news after a racist rant about Muslims. ** And where is Rudy? The lawyer hasn’t been seen on the air since January. ** Is this true? Did Ivanka and Jared really try to resign? Did Scary Clown 45 try to push them into it and then not accept those resignations?

***** This can’t be true. Only 5 states have laws requiring patient consent for medical students to do vaginal exams on women under sedation.

***** I rarely think about Jay Leno but he was right about the late night comics all doing different versions of the same joke.  But, who is he to talk? I mean how many different things did you do on OJ and Clinton?? At least these guys are funny.

***** The talk that people stay in their bubble becomes crystal clear when you see the poll asking if the President is truthful: Fox viewers : 84%, MSNBC viewers : 21% and CNN viewers: 1%. Whoa!

***** Word is that Scary Clown ordered economic advisor Gary Cohn to pressure the Justice Department to file a lawsuit to block the Att-Time Warner merger to retaliate against CNN.

***** At least 250 power plants across the country are leaking toxic chemicals into nearby water.

***** Jay Inslee is running for president! I think Stacey Abrams and Jay Inslee would be a nice ticket>

***** Beta O’Rourke is running for President! The psychedelic warlord!

***** Kristen Gillibrand is running for President!

***** Conor McGregor was arrested and charged with felony strong armed robbery and criminal mischief in Miami.

***** The process is in the works to get Trumps tax returns.** The house Judiciary committee has requested 81 documents.** This can’t be true. Trump was signing Bibles for volunteers and survivors in Alabama??

***** Just when it can’t get any weirder: Li Yang and her hubby, Zubin Gong run a string of massage parlors with questionable reputations. Until recently they ran the one that Robert Kraft was busted in. They also had a web site that seemed to sell access to their buddy, Donald Trump with Chinese business contacts. As soon as the story broke, the sites for an international consulting firm, text only in Chinese and no prices for the meets came down. Li Yang and her associates are in pictures at the inauguration, the White House, Mar A Lago and Trump’s super bowl party with the Pres, his sons and other Trump family members. We should have seen this coming. The old adage that always holds true with this administration seems true here. They always blame others for what they are really guilty of, this explains the Pizzagate garbage. This could be bigger than we ever dreamed. Even stories that we may have thought a bit out there need to be looked at closer. Can we connect the sex trafficking, the White House, the money? It is time to quit fucking around with the sellers and customers of those exploited in the sex trade. I don’t get it, all these men from Trump to R Kelly have the power over the women they supposedly use and abuse and yet they are always so angry. Perhaps they wouldn’t be losing their power if you treated others with respect and dignity. They always want all the power for themselves. And c’mon media, stop talking your heads off about the Omar story and give this Li Yang story a closer look.

***** The story of the fall of Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes is a sad one. It does show that greed and massive fraud are not just for the men of this world. When I first heard of her plans for the blood testing, I was so impressed with what she was accomplishing at her age. Yes, she was another poor little rich girl whose family fortune was quite diminished by the time it got to her. Even without the Fleischman yeast money, she did seem to have advantages. I can see how some of us were fooled but what about the big investors, the stalwart statesmen?  Do they not remember that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is? How can all the hype, the press, the marketing snowball before there is any proof that something is what is actually supposed to be?? I always assumed that by the time I am hearing about it, things are about ready to go. Seeing all these stories like Trump and Deutsche bank, light sentences for Manafort and now Holmes and her partner in crime seeming to get off lightly, there is not much hope for the little guy. WHY can’t we hold those involved in big money crimes really responsible??

***** It’s true, rich people cause socialism – Neal Brennan.

***** Even in 1692 the rich were different. –Stacy Schiff- The Witches.

***** FEMA released the personal data of 2.3 million victims.

***** They have dug up old words from Fox’s Tucker Carlson. Big surprise that he seemed to empathize with Warren Jeffs, thought women should just shut up and called a woman “cunty.”  The women who lap up the words of these men must not think much of themselves.

***** Why are we letting the banks finance detention centers and prisoners? It’s more than immigration or punishing criminals. Why is this big business?? I can’t believe this is still going on. Wake up!!! When will the children be free?  C’mon House and Senate, Pass the Shut Down child prison camps bill.

***** Somebody has to pay for this President’s folly: The scary clown new budget cuts:$ 1.5 trillion from Medicaid/ $845 billion from Medicare/ &25 billion from Social Security.

***** About 1 rural hospital a month is shutting down due to lack of support and lack of funds.

***** Globalization seems to be spreading a pathogen killing the olive trees in Italy.

***** A fake Melania?? WTF? UGH!

***** Matthew Whitaker is out! Bill Shine is out!

***** When will we ever be able to buy the boxed set of Late Night with Dave?? Hurry so the next generation can see the genius they may have missed.

***** Pete Davidson and Kate Beckinsale??

***** Hey Bill Maher, way to go with your PETA message about the terrible treatment of the geese used to make Canada Goose down jackets.  I will stay away!!

***** J Lo and A Rod are engaged.

***** Bette Midler and Judith Light will join the cast of The Politician.

***** Jussie Smollett has been indicted on 16 felony counts.

***** HBO’s Crashing was cancelled. Pete Holmes was great in this but I never really saw much promotion for it. I hate it when good stuff falls thru the cracks.

***** Kathy Griffin has a new film about the ridiculous Trump head, nearly career ending, Government harassment crap in her life. Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a story. Make that lemonade!! A girl has to take care of herself. It premiered at SXSW.** Speaking of SXSW, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez drew great crowds while she was there.

***** R Kelly lives in Trump tower in Chicago. Well, of course he does.  Why is it ok for the rest of us to put up with these arrogant, abusive males in this society? Everyone is giving kudos to Gayle King for her calm demeanor in her interview. Yes, how professional of her but why should she be subject to that disrespect??  She is in her workplace. Would R Kelly have liked his Mother or daughter to be treated that way?

***** So, word is that Isaiah 45 is a Trump thing with the evangelicals. This scripture refers to Cyrus , the anointed one. OY!

***** Days alert: Robin Strasser is coming OH BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!** Judith Chapman and her old style soap acting just too much. ** C’mon Chloe and Rex!!** More Nurse Shelly!! ** Is Johnny Dimera on his way to town? ** I was so glad to see Tony, one of the best characters ever anywhere, even if it was part of an out of body experience.

***** Why do we have to keep talking about George and Kelly Ann Conway?? Are they just covering their bases? With one on each side of the Trump argument, they win no matter what happens right?

***** So now we know that about 400 Catholic clergy have been accused of sexual  misconduct in Illinois. It never ends.

***** End the electoral college!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***** S

***** Fox has hired Donna Brazile. People seem to finally be taking Bill Maher’s advice and telling their point of view to the other side. How else will sanity prevail if we don’t find common ground? We cannot look to this administration for guidance in this world, we have to figure these things out for ourselves, which we should be able to do anyway.

***** Suicide is the second leading cause of death for 15-24 year olds.  We have to find our self- worth.  

R.I.P. Andy Anderson, Katherine Helmond, Nathaniel Taylor, Luke Perry, Alabama tornado victims, Jan Michael Vincent,  the Ethiopian airlines disaster victims, Hal Blaine, victims of the New Zealand Mosque shootings, Sydney Aiello, the Ogossogou village attack victims, Denise DuBarry, Larry Cohen, Jeremy Richman, Ray Sawyer, Tania Mallet and Nipsey Hussle.

[theticklishpear]

You always have the best advice, so query? I'm starting in on a story that's been bugging me for five years now, but I'm having a bit of trouble with it. Basically it's about a girl (young woman? 19yo) who inherits a decrepit old house from her murdered grandmother. The catch is the house is in an small college town in the rural south and it's populated solely by preternatural beings. Witches, werewolves, fae, kappa, etc. and she doesn't know. By small town I mean 40-70,000, so smallish. (A)

and the college is entirely preternatural beings as well. But MC doesn’t know anything about this because her grandmother married a human and got the hell out of dodge, basically. Anyways the house has a ghost who is not loving the roommate life, and MC just figures she’s got a small kid breaking in and tries to make friends with what is basically an angsty Victorian dude who died young and is bitter* about it and fashion. Anyways I’m struggling with the whole town bit since I grew up in a city and I only lived near a small town once while in a tiny ass college in Indiana for a year. I know I want them to be pretty set in their ways, since a lot of them are super old, and kinda racist in a ‘human?!?!!?’ type way. But beyond that I’m fairly lost? Also plot is killing me. I have a lot of subplots (tea witch? Tea witch!) but no real major plot. Super rambly sorry, but any advice you’ve got would be greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so like, I realize 40,000 is not what most consider a small town, but I’m basing this off the town near where I went to school. So Madison, Indiana? Which has an amazing downtown totally visit worthy. Thanks again though!!

Or…12,000 people. Where on Earth did I get 40,000??? Sorry ignore that last one. 40,000…. wow.

Thanks for the kind words! I do my best–and don’t worry about rambly. I tend to get rambly, too. Let’s see what I can jump-start for you.

I’m going to start with finding plot in your setting and how to deal with your subplot ideas first and then move on to That Small Town Feeling™ under a cut, if that’s okay.

Finding Plot

Plot is all about finding the story, and the story is sorting out what you want to talk to the audience about. If you’re just looking to show off the town and the scenarios the character has to deal with as she learns where she’s moved to, then you’re probably not looking for a huge, high-stakes, world-changing kind of story–you might be looking for smaller things to showcase the supernatural abilities and characteristics of the people around her.

It might help to think of this more in terms of shorter story arcs that overlap to create a larger picture of her life in this new, strange place. The old SyFy show Eureka is probably a good place to start looking to get a feel for the way these kinds of shorter-arcs-to-paint-a-larger-picture look.

Think about what her goals are in this new place. Why did she come? What is she trying to do? Is she trying to make new friends so she can feel more like she belongs? Is she trying to fix up the house so she can sell it? Is she looking for a job so she can actually afford to live here?

What kinds of conflicts do these goals create with the people in town? Are there folks who are actively opposed to her being in town? How do they react toward her? How do they keep standing in her way? Are there others who welcome her and go out of their way to give her opportunities, thus creating a bit of inter-town tension?

Some of the best initial conflict is going to be with the ghost in the house, obviously. So think about what his goals are and what he wants. How does he go about trying to accomplish those goals? Does he have friends that help him? This doesn’t have to be the whole story arc; at some point she’ll have to find out the nature of the town she’s arrived in, and the arc of dealing with a ghost rather than rowdy kids won’t be so important or intriguing. So how does their relationship change once she finds out his nature? Does he ever help her with anything?

What kinds of conflicts do the creatures’ natures provide for your character? Does she accept their mythic natures well? Does she take it poorly? How do these new identities change how she sees the town or how she interacts with it.

Struggling with “the story you want to tell” but not worldbuildingConcept Is Not PlotFrom Concept to PlotGetting Started with Your Story from @plotlinehotlineThe GOTE MethodHow to Transform Raw Inspiration Into a Solid Novel Plan from David Safford20 Basic Plots from @thewritershandbookNaNo Overview Week: Conflict Resources from @writeblrconnectionsBuilding Tension with the Six Key Components from @hollyhamwrites5 Moral Dilemmas That Make Characters and Stories Even Better

Handling the Ideas

For the ideas about other real Characters™ in town like your tea witch and whatnot, these are perfect characters for scenes! You can explore them through your character’s curiosity without having the weight of building an entire complex plot out for them. If, as you’re writing, they become a recurring character, then consider what they’re doing in the time they’re not “on-screen” with the main story. What are they pursuing? What are they trying to accomplish with their life? What kinds of troubles are they going through?

Not all of their story has to go on the page, but throwing in moments where a character may see them on the street exiting a store, or wearing a new pendant they were given by a partner, or cleaning up a mess made in an attempt at magic (or something) will help to give depth to the character and a feeling that the town continues to live and move and breathe while you take your audience away from them for scenes elsewhere.

If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, think about how these various smaller side characters and ideas interact with what your main character is trying to achieve. Can you build threads of other things going on that your main character only sees parts of that later become the main character’s focus once she’s started to settle in to the weirdness of the town.

If a selkie’s backyard above-ground pool springs a leak and collapses, blocking off the street out of the character’s neighborhood, you’ve not only created an obstacle toward your main character’s goals, but also provided a hook for your character to go do something with that character. Or maybe several side characters are working together toward something, and while you follow the main character’s struggle with a fae contractor’s refusal to install wrought iron railings in the antique staircase, the side characters’ plan fails and things happen in town that the main character has to handle or is impacted by later when she’s out trying to accomplish something else.

Small Town Feeling

Okay, so Madison, IN is just shy of 12,000 people, like you said. In your initial ask, though, you mention the town for your story being approximately 40-70,000 people, which is a rather large difference. So I’m not entirely sure if you mean to base your story off 12,000 or ~55,000, but I assume you’re going for kind of the smaller end of things, maybe 30-45,000.

I grew up moving every two years, and I’ve lived in two towns of the size you’re talking about, and in fact, one of those two towns is where I’m living now, so I’m fairly well equipped to talk to you about some things about towns that size. (One was ~60,000; where I live now is ~55,000 centered around a university, with a small add-on town that’s growing into this one that’s ~14,500.) My grandparents also live in a small university town that’s a little over 30,000 whom I visit on a regular basis. Unfortunately, none of these were in the south–they’ve all been in the west–so while I’ve been in the south, I’m not entirely sure how some of these things change for that locality. Obviously, these are generalizations; they can be twisted, bent, exaggerated, ignored, whatever you want to fit your story. It’s all believable here.

Everybody knows where everything is in town, and they forget that new folks don’t know that the Brass Rail restaurant used to be an old train station. This means that people always say things like, “Oh, it’s down where [a non-existent store] used to be.” And that means nothing to the new person. “Great. What’s around it now?” Or, “Have you been to that new place where the [non-existent thing] was?” …. “Maybe?? Where is it?”

There are a couple of “main drags” in town, and at least two of them involve the street names “Main” and/or “Center.” The rest are named after location-relevant historical people or places. There’s usually the commercial drag, the old downtown drag, and the university drag. (I mention this one particularly because you mentioned there’s a college in this town. There are distinctly different amenities around the university than around the rest of the town.) They vary in how nice they are and take pride in either their ability to maintain the facilities (in the commercial districts) or in how long they’ve survived in the town (in the old downtown districts).

Changes at the university are the Talk of the Town forever and people who work at the university never get to hear of anything else because everyone wants your opinion on the latest department name changes and the removal of the extremely-dangerous-but-extremely-nostalgic landmark on campus. Universities and colleges employ a lot of people, so parking hang-tags are a common sight around town, and can be a hot-ticket item for car theft. If someone new moves to town, it’s safe to assume they’re either a student, a university employee, or working at one of the packing plants (or in our case, the semi-conductor plant) in town. People will talk about those changes for years past when anyone cares.

Stores tend to be a mix of mainstream and homegrown. Where I live right now is about 50/50, but the smaller it gets, the more homegrown stores there’ll be. And a lot of those homegrown stores will have strange stock lists. You’ll get a yarn store with hardware in the corner, and an old-fashioned candy store attached to a specialty clothing boutique attached to a seasonal decorations store. It can get weird and quirky.

Going to other nearby towns/cities isn’t a big deal. Everybody has to go at some point for something, because there just isn’t a shop for everything in town. Driving an hour (probably closer in the south, tbqh; the west is very far-flung) to the next town isn’t new, and it’s not treated as anything special. You just do it.

Roads are not in great condition and they never will be. Smaller towns do not have the monetary infrastructure to be able to keep the roads nice even within town, and that means all over town, not just isolated to poorer communities within town. The main drags may have pot holes or sink holes open up that are enough to take out your car, and it may take months for the city to fix them. And even then? The fix was pouring road surfacing into the hole until it looked level, but that road surfacing isn’t concrete and it sinks and compresses over time. That pot hole will be back in a matter of days, weeks, or months if you’re lucky. It won’t be as bad, but it sure will dip your car.

The streets don’t make sense sometimes. Some sections do–some are convenient grids, particularly around the university–but some sections are weirdly meandering. Some parts of town seem to be where the state decided to dump all their one-way signs, which results in either a lot of backtracking or out-of-towners driving the wrong way. Stop signs are common. Stop lights are reserved for major drags and intersections, otherwise it’s a 4-way stop. But it does seem like the city is always evaluating whether they need a stop light–the long black wires stretched across a street to gauge how many cars drive through are very common–regardless of whether one actually gets put in. Where sections of town grew into each other wind up with really weird junctions, and sometimes they get nicknamed. “It’s in that complex of buildings down by the wiggly bit” is a legit direction to give someone. Don’t worry about your town layout being perfect. Downtowns are particularly notorious for poor layout.

Special note: My town is where the state comes to test new road layouts, interchanges, and junctions, so we have a lot of weirdness going on. When I say don’t worry about your layout, I freaking mean it. Towns are weird.

Roads are 2-lanes most of the time, by which I mean 1 lane each way. Main drags are usually 4 (2 both ways) with a middle turn lane for a total of 5. That’s it. It doesn’t usually get bigger than that, and that’s usually at the commercial drag.

Outside city limits isn’t that far away, and while it’s mostly farms and whatnot, there are reasons to head out that way. Sometimes it’s faster to go out to the back roads to get home than it is to go down the main drags.

There’s an absurd amount of pride for something trivial about the town. There’s a festival each year for something weird. There’s events around town for things that would never happen elsewhere. The farmer’s market is A Destination (it’s nothing particularly special, but folks talk about it like it is). The rotary club is a visible entity (and it’s a little weird just how visible they are).

There’s a definite culture about the town. Attire for certain events heightens or relaxes depending on not only the size of town but the location within the country. There are expectations about How Things Are Done that don’t change. Holding on to the past is how they know they’ve survived, so they cling to it. There’s a prevailing slant of political opinions and religious practice, with a small smattering of other minorities that most folk ignore. Some of those minorities are LOUD, though, and that can grate on folks. In a university town, they tend to be a bit more accepting of other ways of life and belief, but mostly because “accepting” can just be “ignoring without actively disliking.” Don’t rock the boat and we won’t rock you.

You are known. This obviously isn’t a thing isolated to small towns, but it’s noticeable. People in towns this size all mingle in the same places–everybody has habits and routines, and you become a part of that with time. You wind up with relationships with your serving staff at restaurants and you know when certain grocery store clerks have their shifts. Heck, I don’t go in to the Perkins here in town that often, but the manager knows me and comes to talk, and when I need to reserve space for our NaNo group every November, I don’t even have to say anything. When I come in in October, she just sits down at my table with her book to schedule the group in. I left a scarf there and when I came in three days later, she just handed it to me over the counter without me having to see if they’d seen it. People know you, and the world is small: They know everybody else, too.

There are a few well-known figures in town that maybe not everyone has met, but they all know who they are. The McKee family runs the pet store and plant nursery on the main drag, and they’ve been running it so long that when you say you’re a McKee, everyone asks you about the store. Gloria Howell is the best real estate agent in town and everybody got their house from her. Tom runs one of the coffee shops downtown but he’s also the in-town LGBTQIA+ front-man, so to speak. Everybody knows him and everybody’s got their opinions.

If there’s anything more specific you’re looking for advice on in regards to your town, please let me know. These are just basic generics since the question wasn’t very specific. Good luck and have fun! -Pear

[filmfreak1994]

Change the Channel

A lot of people have been talking about their experiences with Channel Awesome in the wake of the 60+ page document released by Allison Pregler and several other former content creators for Channel Awesome. I figured I might throw my own experience with the site and its people (mostly Doug) too while the topic is relevant, even considered dusting off the old camera I got for Christmas to film a video but allergy season is upon us and I’m coughing up my lungs so the written word it is.

I was a frequent user of YouTube in the early days of its inception, mostly to look up viral videos and just go on a stream of pointlessness for hours on end with each recommended vid in the sidebar (mostly consisting of parodies to Star Wars, LotR, and entire Simpsons episodes uploaded before the great purge of early 2008). In all that time between 2006 and 2007, reviewers like the Angry Video Game Nerd and The Nostalgia Critic eluded me. I saw plenty of the 5 Second Movie clips and thought they were hysterical but didn’t even make the connection that they were made by a “Nostalgia Critic” until around the end of 2009, when a friend of mine at school told me to look up NC’s review of Sonic the Hedgehog (the weird TV show and the futuristic evil Jim Cummings one). I finally gave in which led me to watching some of his other, recent reviews like the “Star Wars Holiday Special” which was freaking hysterical (and still brings a warm smile to my face just thinking about it). By the time the new year rolled around and I had discovered That Guy With The Glasses I was hooked.

For a while I stuck to watching reviews on YouTube when fans would rip them from the main site, but decided to eventually support the site itself where I mostly stuck to NC videos but also watched content from the other producers when it interested me; Spoony and his Final Fantasy reviews, Linkara and any comic with a subject material I was familiar with, Marzgurl and her Don Bluth retrospective, so on and so forth. Like many other people, I wasn’t keeping up with every producer’s videos weekly like I was with NC, but when I decided to watch something else their content was worth it, being funny and informative all at once, even creating new branches of my interest and giving me new perspectives on media criticism.

I watched Nostalgia Critic religiously every week and, sorry to say, started to take his opinion as gospel, and the opinions of other reviewers as well, treating certain movies and shows as bad just because they said so and didn’t have an opinion for myself for the longest time. It was when I started to pay attention to Doug Walker himself and his philosophy that you should like what you like and every movie is a miracle that I started to chill out and even disagree with his opinions at times (I remember his “Little Nemo” review made me seek out that movie and I actually quite enjoyed it).

TGWTG was a formative site for me in my high school years, developing much of my sense of humor and how I look at movies. I watched all the anniversary specials, started to watch a greater portion of producers that included Lindsay and Kyle’s more analytical reviews and Brad Jones’s and Matthew Buck’s mix of cynicism and snark with genuine analytical praise and criticism. I even started to look at music critics like Paw or Todd even though I can’t judge music for shit (if it has a catchy beat I’ll more or less dig it, I’m not picky). I always imagined when I moved out for college (yeah, how’d that work out for ya, younger me) that I would start my own review series in the vein of these online personalities and even be picked up for the site where I too could join in on the anniversary movies and have a swell time and make friends with the people I looked up to and have a good time filming huge crossover events with them (in hindsight I can only imagine what role Doug would have me play in them, if I was even deemed important to be in them at all). Whenever people criticized the anniversary movies I just shrugged it off and said, “Yeah, they’re dumb, but I like em anyway,” and when rumors starting going around about some upside down crucifixion going on I shrugged them off as just rumors (and to be fair it wasn’t upside down but the real thing isn’t much better).

Anyway, around the time when To Boldly Flee came I enjoyed the movie a lot (I only saw it the once and I was eighteen, eighteen-year-old me and present me don’t get on anymore) and thought it was a bittersweet conclusion to The Nostalgia Critic but was excited to see what new projects Doug and the company would do after its conclusion. Plus the other contributors still had their content to keep TGWTG going strong into the foreseeable future. At least I thought.

I didn’t hate Demo Reel, but I didn’t like it all that much either. I only caught around a few episodes before losing interest, saying I’d get back into it eventually but never going out of my way to see them. By accounts they got better as they went along and I was interested in the episode that paid tribute to Elizabeth Hartman (which I think is the same episode that had Mara Wilson and Arin Hanson? I might be wrong (I didn’t even know who Arin was at the time but hindsight is 20/20)), but I just put off watching them until, oh look, NC’s back. At the time I thought this was interesting, there was plenty he could still do with the character given his new ground rules and the emphasis on skits gave the show a different tune that I felt, at the time, kept it fresh from what it was before. I missed the simplicity of the earlier reviews but I happily stuck with the NC again, as well as the same creators I’d happily watched before and plenty more I started to watch like Phelous (around the time he did that weird Aladdin meets Pagemaster movie, I used to rent that from Hollywood Video all the freaking time).

It was around this tumultuous time that Doug actually kinda started to annoy me. Never to the point where I stopped watching NC, but he sort of seemed to forget his whole “Like what you like,” message and outright attacked fans who disagreed with him. Certain jokes in his reviews rubbed me the wrong way (if Irate Gamer can’t get away with blowing up Ubisoft cuz they wouldn’t let him into a conference, you can’t get away with pretending to blow up Happy Madison just because they make shit movies) and he had a general vindictiveness to those who liked movies like “Man of Steel” or “The Lorax” that just seemed mean spirited and not a funny little video meant to entertain (though I guess the signs were always there like when he added in a dig at “Avatar” in his “Conan” review for no reason). But by and by he seemed to mellow out (no doubt dealing with problems letting go of Demo Reel and how big a success he thought it would be) and I still watched his stuff, including the vlogs he did with Rob regarding “Avatar” (the good one, hey I did it too!), “Korra,” “Adventure Time,” and any recent movie that came out. I started to agree with them less and less but they were still entertaining guys and I liked what they were doing.

Some of the shadier stuff going on at the site more or less flew over my head. The game show they did was pretty much “Demo Reel” part two for me in how much interest I had in it and that faded from public consciousness pretty quickly, and it was around the time the site switched from TGWTG to just Channel Awesome that a real shift began to become more noticeable. People were leaving. People I may not have watched all the time, but they were leaving, often times unannounced and seemingly unprovoked (because quite a few of them were). I read about what happened to Allison, aka Obscurus Lupa, who I had watched on and off again and thought that was pretty shitty, and got a general grasp that the management of CA itself wasn’t very good from what she and Lindsay alluded to (or just straight up said, they really should’ve had some NDAs if they cared so much about how they look) in some posts on Tumblr or Twitter but I still carried on watching NC and the other creators on the site mostly because I just figured what every fan figured at the time, Doug was mostly innocent and it was Michaud and Rob who were the real strings behind big decisions like who stays and goes (I liked Rob fine, but even back then I knew he could be kind of an ass).

More and more people from the classic era of TGWTG were leaving or not producing as much for the site as they did and that was a shame. CA was never what TGWTG felt like to me, even if the purpose was to put more focus on the other producers (supposedly (hell, TGWTG did a way better job of featuring producers in my opinion even if it wasn’t perfect)). But whatever, I carried on every Tuesday watching NC, watching other creators when their stuff interested me, but it still wasn’t quite the same as before, and I had become more aware of the general bad experience most people had filming the anniversary movies even if the full extent of that didn’t come until a few days ago.

It was really when Lewis announced that he had left and I found the Change the Channel hashtag that I started to take notice of these stories, finding plenty of them on my own from the links to Twitter conversations many of the former contributors were having before reading them on the Google doc. I was torn, wondering if I should boycott NC with all that I had read and decided to make it a temporary one until the doc came out and to see if he or CA would provide a statement. Well, the doc came out and the apology not long after. And yeah, I moved it to a permanent ban after that bullshit.

I’ve given up watching people I loved before, JonTron and his racist bullshit was the last straw in supporting anything he did, and even with the Me Too movement I’ve given up any kind of support for people like Kevin Spacey who I used to love as an actor (now it’s pretty easy to see how he was able to play such scumbag villains over and over again). I know Doug isn’t a Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, and to my knowledge he hasn’t used his position to sexually take advantage of anyone (though he has turned a blind eye to others doing the same and the same can’t be said for taking advantage of people in other ways), but I just couldn’t watch stuff directly made by him and for Channel Awesome with all this information. It wouldn’t be right, even with an adblocker. 

I don’t mean to threaten the livelihood of people on his team like Malcolm or Tamara, I like them a great deal and they’re very talented, heck I even enjoyed the skits on NC a lot more than most because of them (and Rachel, she was great too). But I said to myself until an actual apology is listed and some form of action is taken to truly better the site, I wouldn’t watch them. Others have suggested and I have thought the same, that the best thing to do would be to fire Michaud, though I realize this would create a slew of problems given that he owns the IP for NC and is the founder of CA. Still, some form of acknowledgement from the Walkers would go a long way to bettering the public response to all this. More and more contributors have left in the wake of this document, either out of fear for their own image or to show solidarity with the many complaints levied toward the site (and their reasons are completely valid no matter what, they’re trying to make a living), looking at the site today it’s practically a ghost town. I don’t blame those that have stayed for anything, but the reputation of CA is tarnished and at this point, especially with that piss-poor “apology,” it’s going to take several huge leaps to get it back.

I realize the purpose of Change the Channel was never to create a boycott of NC or any of the Walker’s content, at least by the majority of those who contributed to the docs, and those who choose to boycott do so of their own volition. Well, that’s my volition. No matter how much NC shaped my sense of humor in my younger years and inspired me to look at movies critically myself, I can’t deny the damage that Doug and Rob have been complicit in nor turn a blind eye to the shady practices they, Michaud, and past executives on the site have done. 

I really do wish that what was seemingly apparent in front of the camera, that this was a site filled of talented people who were also good friends having a good time, was true behind the scenes as well. People have been hurt, assaulted, taken advantage of, and tossed aside when they were no longer useful to the site. It’s not right, and I’m literally changing the channel until actual change is made.

[mermaidsirennikita]

hey! just saw your post about AHS and just wanted to know your thoughts on why you disliked coven.... it was definitely my favourite season, and i felt it was a lot more fun and light-hearted(if you can even say that about a show like AHS) than the others, but maybe thats what people didn't like about it? maybe I'm just biased cause I love all that witchy shit.

First off, anything I say about Coven is totally not directed towards you (I hope this is obvious) like what you like, etc.

I just didn’t find Coven lighthearted so much as I found it fucked up in a way that... was too joking.  It had some pretty serious issues on the table, and to me the jokes just often weren’t appropriate.  I think the moment that really made me go “nope” was when an entire salon of black women (a salon!!!! full, which makes it even worse somehow) was gunned down.  On the season Ryan Murphy touted as his racially aware season.  Plus there was the whole thing where Delphine, a character based on a real life racist serial killer of black people, was this punchline?  The show never should have touched her.  The plotline wherein Queenie tried to make a racist slave owner and serial killer of black people “see the light” only for her to not (obviously) and sort of... idk, humiliate Queenie via how much she DID NOT see the light... it left a bad feeling in my stomach.

I love witches, don’t get me wrong, but the “next Supreme” thing also really bored me on another level because like... oooh, instead of the Supreme being one of the women lined up for the position, we’ll have a twist by completely breaking the established rules and having... their teacher... be the Supreme?  In general, that being such a Thing also dragged the plot down.

It also really bugged me that Marie Laveau was initially painted as this really interesting women, and then they decided to strip her of all sympathy by making her this baby killer while also botching her religious beliefs.  I don’t expect this show to be super accurate, but if you’re going to mess with voodoo or hoodoo, get it right.  Respect that shit.  I also hated that she ended up “punished” in Hell.  To me, it was a total bait and switch to have Angela Motherfucking Bassett presented as this powerful black woman who punished Delphine and then sort of go with the “nuuuur everyone’s bad” thing in the end.

I also really hate Emma Roberts lol so that didn’t help.  All of the weird sexualized shit that Madison and Zoe did with Kyle, who seemed to have the mind of a child for most of the season, was not great, Bob.  

Obviously, I loved Murder House... and that season also did fucked up shit I didn’t like, but the overall entertainment level was higher for me and I also didn’t get the vibe that the show was promoting itself as “reaching out to marginalized people” when it really didn’t.  RM DEFINITELY did that with Coven; I remember the interviews.  I mean, everyone knew he’d fuck it up because he’s Ryan Murphy, but Marie Laveau got a lot of people’s hopes up.

[elephantsneedwater]

and to your point about cassidy i do not see it either (granted jennifer morrison's racist ass did impact my appreciation of the character), they didn't have that kind of chemistry to me and addicts shouldn't date as a general rule, it's dangerous. kevin met her and he had recently relapsed he was clearly not ready to be in a romantic relationship and neither was she. hell he might still not be but his chances of making it with madison are greater because she's not an addict.

Im not a fan of her as an actress so I’m glad she was just a stranger with a small tie to Kevin.

[cosmichelps]

BLACK LIVES FUCKING MATTER

A Rant. Please forgive any and all typos. 

https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/  

Support black businesses, creators, artists, and more. Don’t stop just because Black Lives Matter stopped “trending.”

-

I, as a Black Woman, have been online spreading awareness about everything that’s been going on. If you support Trump, or anything that’s been happening against and to my people, then please unfollow/block me now, because APPARENTLY.......MY BLACK LIFE means absolutely NOTHING to you even WITH all these protests going on. It literally took 9 DAYS. NINE. DAYS. for the officers that BEAT AND MURDERED George Floyd to get arrested. Whereas, it only took 8 minutes and 46 seconds for them to kill that man. 

I have been seeing EVERY STATE protest and I believe - and please correct me if I’m wrong - 13 Countries come together for the Black Lives Matter movement. It took all of that, and NINE DAYS for 4 COPS to be arrested. I hope they raise the degree to first degree murder. I see things are “getting back to normal”, business that have made statements or even silenced their brand/voices during Black Out Tuesday retract/remove their statements and black boxes. That is nonsense. I’ve seen people/influencers/celebrities sending out emails and stopping their support of places like Dolls Kill that were praising cops for protecting their businesses from “looters” (Let’s not forget Dolls Kill also are thieves, and they had death/rape clothing before), and turned around and saw Black owners of businesses getting locked up for simply asking for the cops to help them. I don’t agree with ANYTHING the cops, national guard, military etc are doing to these poor protesters.

Literally, ALL OF THESE PROTESTS STARTED PEACEFUL BEFORE THE COPS AND ALL THE OTHER “GOVERNMENT” OFFICIALS - WHOSE HANDS ARE IN Y’ALL’S PRESIDENTS POCKET - SHOWED UP. ALL OF THEM. People from different cities and/or states going to another city/state to break into these businesses and start the looting. Hell, SOME OF THE FUCKING COPS were breaking glass and looting too. White people literally walking out of stores with the store’s merchandise in their hands getting painted as “Oh, i hope she’s not stealing”, WHEN SHE CLEARLY IS STEALING, YOU DUMB FUCKS. But let one of my people do the same shit? We get painted as “Thugs, looters, rioters, animals etc.” ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?!

I’M SO TIRED OF THIS BULLSHIT!! I’M TIRED OF MY PEOPLE GETTING PAINTED THIS WAY. And miss me with that “they shouldn’t have been stealing in the first place”. YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT STEALING? Christopher Columbus didn’t “discover” America. COLONIZERS STOLE NATIVE AMERICAN SOIL. AKA; AMERICA!!!!!! WHITE PEOPLE STOLE AFRICANS AND BROUGHT THEM TO AMERICA AND SOLD THEM INTO SLAVERY!!!!!!!! AND YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT STEALING????? NOW????? 

FUCK THAT. FUCK TRUMP. FUCK “ALL LIVES MATTER.” ALL LIVES CAN NOT MATTER UNTIL BLACK LIVES MATTER. AND WE DON’T FUCKING MATTER TO Y’ALL BECAUSE WE’RE STILL DYING AT THE HANDS OF OUR OPPRESSORS AND VIOLENT, MURDEROUS COPS!!! I FEEL THREATENED. BUT Y’ALL DON’T CARE, RIGHT? AS LONG AS THE PRECIOUS LIVES OF THE WHITE PEOPLE ARE PRESERVED AND WE’RE DEAD, YOU’RE GOOD, RIGHT? WHAT ABOUT THE MUSLIMS? THE ASIANS? THE INDIANS? THE NATIVE AMERICANS?? COME ON NOW!!!!!!!! IT’S NOT ENOUGH TO BE “NOT RACIST.” BE ANTI-RACIST AND USE YOUR VOICE TO STAND UP FOR US!!! OUR LIVES FUCKING MATTER. AND IF YOU CAN’T SEE THAT SHIT, MOVE THE FUCK ON. 

All of these protests going on for the past nine days has literally drained me of energy. Seeing people dying, getting locked up for protesting PEACEFULLY! Getting choked, people literally making this movement about themselves, making George Floyd’s murder a challenge, trying to be “CUTE” and post your generic influencer post that doesn’t mean shit because you used the movement to show yourself off (Madison Beer and many other people), to make yourself look good. WE DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU USING THIS MOVEMENT FOR A PHOTOSHOOT/PHOTO-OP. PUT THE DAMN CAMERAS DOWN, AND FUCKING WALK. If you must use a camera, use it to record what’s happening, use it to record the fucked up shit the media doesn’t want everyone to see. And for the celebrities who were literally silent the whole time during the Black Lives Matter movement and literally ONLY posted a black square like they did shit for us? (Taylor Swift and many other celebrities). BA - BY!!!!!  KEEP IT. 

If you can’t listen to a black person when we say: “STOP!!! PLEASE, STOP!!!” Are you REALLY for us? Or are you using this movement to act out violence? Because GUESS WHO YOU’RE MAKING LOOK BAD? US!!!!! YOU’RE MAKING BLACK PEOPLE LOOK BAD!!! WHEN WE SAY “STOP!!!”; FUCKING STOP!!! SHOW US YOU’RE AT THE PROTESTS FOR/WITH US, AND FUCKING STOP.

Listen, I could go on and on about all this shit. Like I said, I’ve been spreading awareness, and speaking out on my personal accounts. Which is why I haven’t been here. It’s been draining me. I’ve been crying on and off. This is literally affecting my mental health, but this NEEDS TO HAPPEN!!!!! Sorry for this long rant. I just needed to get this out. Reblog if you want to show solidarity.

[aquaticsapphic]

if its not too much, all the asks! and for #60: what time in your weekly routine do you treasure most?

ooo wow okay! if you want me to expand on anything leave me a second ask I guess?

1. selfieI’ll post this separately bc I know tumblr likes to fuck up formatting

2. what would you name your future kids?I don’t really think I’ll have kids, but I really like silly related names like naming one john and the other kennedy, or one james and the other madison, etc.

3. do you miss anyone?hmm maybe my brother? he’s a rad dude

4. what are you looking forward to?when I got this ask, the weekend. hmm.... now I don’t really know what it would be. I don’t really know honestly. I don’t feel like I’m ready for most of the fun stuff I should be looking forward to (d&d, winter break, etc.)

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?I honestly don’t keep track

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?maybe? this past week I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ex friends from my high school, so I feel like that really skews my answer

7. what was your life like last year?answered!

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?over half of the times I cry is bc I’m annoyed

9. who did you last see in person?bree!

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?I’d like to think so

11. are you listening to music right now?yup! I got bored of listening to my Spotify Discover Weekly, so now I’m listening to..... character genres....... right now it’s I’m A King Bee by The Stone Foxes (guess which oc it’s for and you get bonus points)

12. what is something you want right now?umm..... I’m kind of sleepy? but not enough to want to sleep..... that’s the only thing that comes to mind though.

13. how do you feel right now?pretty content! a little sleepy.

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?I don’t really keep track..... a few days ago?

15. personality descriptioncalm, chaotic neutral, nonchalant, gay

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn't?hmm, I don’t think so? I say what I want and I don’t say what I don’t wantactually I take it back. I have so many good comebacks I never got to use in the moment. please let me redeem myself.

17. opinion on insecurities.yeah.... they’re here

18. do you miss how thing were a year ago?oh hell no. I’d take physical sickness over mental sickness any day.

19. have you ever been to New York?just once! last winter, actually.

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?Razorback - Rachel Mallin

21. age and birthday?21 actually, and nov 8!

22. description of crush.a real fuckin’ cutie

23. fear(s)hate roaches. yuck. gross.

24. height5′8″

25. role modelI look up to a lot of different people for a lot of different things.

26. idol(s)What’s The Difference

27. things i hatebugs!! slimy things!! lack of motivation!!

28. i'll love you if...you devote your entire life to me

29. favourite film(s)answered!

30. favourite tv show(s)MTV’s Scream is p good. I really like The Good Place.

31. 3 random facts- I currently have 236 tabs open (save my browser)- I’m Gay- I can’t think of 3 random facts for some weird reason

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?girls and nb or gnc people!

33. something you want to learnhmmm I wanna read Macbeth, but if that doesn’t count as “learning”, I think learning a spoken language besides english would be cool

35. favourite subjectpsych!

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?umm it doesn’t ask for them to be realistic, so I’d like to be royalty, super rich, and super hot.

37. favourite actor/actressummm hmmm..... natalie dormer

38. favourite comedian(s)not really a fan of comedy..... maybe kate mckinnon?

39. favourite sport(s)I really like basketball

40. favourite memoryhmmm, my ex's 16th birthday party. a group of friends and I all went to the beach and dug a huge ass hole and played games and watched movies and it was really fun

41. relationship statussingle

42. favourite book(s)song of the sparrow / the great gatsby

43. favourite song everHollow Moon - AWOLNATION

44. age you get mistaken forI don’t really know. I don’t think anybody’s told me lately.

45. how you found out about your idolwhen I heard ‘royals’ on the radio

46. what my last text message saysfb messenger - “Lum/river momma?” to breetext - “Will do!” to my dad

48. turn offscigarette smoking, racist, sexist, conservatives, significant age gap (I can’t for the life of me find cate blanchett to be sexy, sorry), dicks, noncon, etc, etc, etc.

49. where i want to be right nowI like being in my dorm room actually

50. favourite picture of your idolprobably that one rockin’ picture of lorde w her scorpio emblazoned jean jacket

51. starsignscorpio

52. something i'm talented atsleeping excessively long amounts of time

53. 5 things that make me happy- friends!- queer representation!- mermaids!- d&d!- the light of my life: catsby 💞💞💞💞💞

54. something thats worrying me at the momentthe papers I have due......

56. favourite food(s)strawberries!!

57. favourite animal(s)answered!

58. description of my best friendwhich one?

59. why i joined tumblroriginally just bc I wanted to see what it was all about and my friends had accounts and said it was cool and wanted me to sign upthis account I made bc I missed tumblr tbh

60. ask me anything you want#60: what time in your weekly routine do you treasure most?I like when I’m in bed trying to get to sleep but still kind of winding down, where I’m just scrolling through tumblr or playing acpc and just generally relaxing and winding down before I fall asleep

[bookishplays-blog]

some advice

so, you’re joining the hamilton fandom and want to produce content? great!! scared of the unofficial etiquette in this mess? let me help. (disclaimer: this is an UNOFFICIAL guideline. i’m aware that this fandom is a problematic mess that’s full of discourse and the only adult ones tend to be actual legal adults. don’t fuckin @ me saying that hur durr i’m wrong and should rot in hell. this is based off personal experience.)

-SHIPS •Most pairings are accepted. The main ones are Hamilton/Laurens, Hamilton/Burr, Hamilton/Eliza, Jefferson/Madison, Jefferson/Hamilton, Washington/Lafayette, Maria/Eliza (or any Schuyler sister rly) and Mulligan/Lafayette. These usually have the most content, but also contain the most discourse. There’s also some major minor character ships out there; Lee/Seabury, Lee/KG3, Seabury/KG3 etc. I found Eacker/Philip H smut once. This fandom is literally the reason why Rule 34 exists. If it exists, there is porn of it. •Polyamorous ships are widely accepted. I don’t ship any personally, but a few big ones are Hamilton/Eliza/Laurens, Laurens/Hamilton/Lafayette/Mulligan, Hamilton/Jefferson/Madison, etc. Basically, a lot of people like the idea of Hamilton’s cheating being converted into a happy, consensual relationship that’s polygamous, and that’s okay. (Please note I’m not equating cheating with polyamory. Hamilton being a dirty cheater doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with poly ships if you don’t want, but to me it seems particularly common, especially with the ships containing Hamilton and Eliza.) •And I know you want to ask; what’s not accepted? Hard question. This fandom loves its angst, so there aren’t many ships that seem untouchable. For the love of God, though, don’t write anything that’s incestuous. I’m talking father/son, sibling/sibling. Don’t make any of Hamilton’s kids end up with the characters in the show. No, Washington/Hamilton doesn’t count as incest, although I personally can’t stand it. •BASICALLY, don’t be a dick. Also, bear in mind that James Reynolds is the Umbridge of this fandom. If you portray his relationship with Maria as anything less than abusive, there will be riots. I’ve yet to see an (educated) James Reynolds apologist.

-CHARACTERS

•In terms of physical appearance, this fandom is a little wishy-washy on guidelines, unofficial or no. Tip: don’t whitewash if you’re drawing/writing them as their musical characters. Just don’t whitewash in general. This fandom seems to be okay with historical-era fanart and fanfic, which usually involves the characters looking like they did historically, but don’t romanticise them. Don’t romanticise them in general, but especially if you’re making them historical-era. •SPEAKING OF ROMANTICISING, these characters were BAD PEOPLE. Jefferson owned slaves, Burr owned slaves, Washington owned slaves, the Schuylers owned slaves, evidence points to Hamilton owning at least one slave. Don’t let the Alexander apologists fool you; they were bad people historically. Don’t refer to them, ESPECIALLY I HISTORICAL CONTEXT, as ‘cinnamon rolls’. They were misogynists against the rights of women and minorities. Don’t forget that, no matter how much you like their characters. The Jefferson you like is portrayed by a black Jew; the Jefferson in history was a racist with a history of sexual assault and a slavery apologist. •KEEPING THAT IN MIND, personality-wise, what we get from the musical is a little murky. Peggy is a great example of this. Fanon Peggy is very outspoken, sarcastic and a typical millenial. In the musical, she’s shy, hides behind her older sisters and very cautious. This is because of the fact that a) Peggy’s vocals are only apparent in one song through listening alone and b) historically Peggy was very similar to fanon Peggy. THIS DOESN’T MATTER. PORTRAY THEM HOWEVER YOU THINK SUITS BEST. Don’t let the musical force you to make Eliza’s main trait be 'nice’. For all you Laurens stans out there, it’s okay to let him have interests other than art, turtles and Hamilton. Feel free to give them depth, complexities, flaws. Not only is it fucking refreshing amongst the collection of bland chatfics and high school AUs that seem to reduce each character to a single trait, it’s good for original character practice as well. •THE SCHUYLER SISTERS get their own section. If you’re doing something historical, remember that they had other siblings. It’s generally agreed that Angelica and Eliza were closest, but Angelica and Peggy and Eliza and Peggy are shown in the musical as being close too (see Angelica dancing with Peggy and hugging her in Satisfied, and Peggy helping Eliza put away her letters and being dragged along with her in Helpless and The Schuyler Sisters). Sometimes it seems that fics reduce them to plot devices, minor characters or love interests; I won’t go all 'SJW!1!1!1’ on you but they are their own people as well, and flesh them out. (This problem is not as common in artwork, since art of them tends to focus on them either as a trio or Satisfied and Helpless companion pieces starring Angelica and Eliza.) Also, fun fact that this fandom seems to have overlooked - all three of them could play instruments. -REVOLUTIONARY SET AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS. Things to remember include Madison and Hamilton being friends before Jefferson showed up, Jefferson and Lafayette being close, Mulligan historically being Hamilton’s biggest hypeman (oh, I wish I was kidding) and Laurens and Lafayette being close friends. As for Burr, he’s traditionally relegated to the strange outsider by the fandom. This is more of a personal view, but Burr started off as a member of the Revolutionary Set, and progressed into a Democratic Republican, and this fandom likes to forget that. -THEODOSIA JR. Theodosia is never seen, only mentioned, which basically means everything about her is fanon. Literally. The only confirmed thing about her are her parents. This means Theodosia is good for inserting an audience-type character into; she’s an empty vessel, essentially, so anything you do to her involves zero fact checking. BEAR IN MIND that Theodosia is usually shipped with Philip, and that some members of the fandom will have expectations of her. Ignore those people. Theodosia is a shell of an OC, so as long as you don’t murder her in childhood or something, there’s no real discourse you have to be wary of. (Apart from Philip/Theodosia discourse, which is apparently a thing? But there’s discourse in practically every ship, so by all means, ignore that too.) •UNMENTIONED/UNSEEN CHARACTERS. I’m talking Ben Franklin, John Adams, James Monroe, Governor Clinton, them. John Adams appears to be universally hated, John Jay is often used as a filler or plot device, and the others are just used as names. Don’t bother about continuity with them.

-SOME COMMON AU IDEAS •High School/College Modern AU. This is a big one. There are flaws in it, namely romanticising too much and relegating major characters to 'minor’ status, but it’s so widely used that it’s good to know if you’re new here. •Modern Government/Law AU. Another big one. Not as commonly used because ugh, research and maturity, but there’s a massive pro to them - more complex themes and 'child’ characters can be added because the main lot are usually older. My personal favourite. •Chatroom AU. What it sounds - no real fic, just usernames and text speak. Good for laughs or plain fights, but bad for complex emotion, fluff, angst, or major plot. Also, they clog up the tags of less major ships, especially on AO3. •Soulmate AU. A variety of soulmate AUs exist, but essentially boil down to having some kind of matching mark, etc. Amazing for angst, fluff, plot and character development, but not so great for humour or multi-chapter fics. •Domestic AUs. Exactly as they sound. Massive fluff traps, no real substance but they’re amazing if you’ve had a shitty day and need something to cheer you up. Fan favourite.

So there you go! Everything you need to know if you’re entering the Hamilton fandom, give or take a few things. Don’t bash ships, don’t romanticise them too much, and take Ron Chernow’s content with a pinch of salt (he’s known for 'not finding’ easily accessible content regarding the women of the Hamilverse). Good luck!

[reistellae]

A really really long reflection 1/3

So, the other day, there was some controversy and I’ve been having thoughts about it since literally last night. This’ll be a long post, so don’t feel the need to read through all of it if you are not interested or don’t know what I’m talking about. 

NOTE: I realized this one was getting super long so I made it a multipart. I’ll add links to any subsequent parts as they’re posted.

Part Two

Part Three

I won’t dwell too long on the initial thing, but basically a post from an anonymous opinion blog was shared around Twitter. Those of you who know what happened, know pretty well how quickly that post went to all hell. People were being accused of racism and one blog even reported getting death threats (one that was posted told the user to “get r**** and die of AIDS.”) I won’t give my opinion on the subject in question itself, but I do want to give further context into how this situation happened and what it means about stan culture, conversations about race, and diversity within pop culture as a whole.

America has been historically racist against every non white group, that shouldn’t be a surprise. And since racism is something that is deeply rooted within a society, it is not something that can just easily be erased because of some laws or some money. Reminder that the slavery of Africans had been occurring for 300 years before they were “free.” Just because African-Americans have civil rights and white people love Beyonce, doesn’t mean that racism is dead. 300 years of mistreatment, trauma, stripping people of their humanity cannot go away in the nearly 60 years since the civil rights movement. 

In the entertainment industry and pop culture alone, minorities are still discriminated against (large due to the fact that those in charge of entertainment agencies were/are old white men). Japanese silent film actors in the 1910s-1930s were popular until WWII virtually wiped out all main roles for Asians/Asian Americans. They were relegated to yellow face or straight up racist caricatures of dog eaters, communists, and unable to speak English properly. This role of “the comedic Asian” has prevailed almost unchallenged except for in martial arts films. Asians/Asian-Americans also are ignored within the music industry. Every now and then, there would be a glimmer of change, but the status quo would remain unchanged. Genres like jpop and jrock saw a surge in popularity in the 1990s-late 2000s because of the rise in popularity of anime but these were mostly considered niche interests and the Internet was not quite as widespread or sophisticated as it is now. 

Enter kpop. Kpop used to also be a niche interest, usually only indulged in by Korean-Americans and other Asian-Americans. Around the late 2000s/early 2010s is when kpop had its initial huge surge in Western visibility. Wonder Girls were on tour with the Jonas Brothers, BoA and Girls Generation released albums in the United States and had made appearances on Good Morning America and Late Night with David Letterman, Psy’s Gangnam Style had become a viral sensation, and Super Junior, Bigbang, 2NE1, and Girls Generation were being nominated for and winning various international awards such as Mashable, Youtube, MTV and more. Bi Rain was featured in TIME Magazine in 2006 and 2007, sold out two Madison Square Garden shows in a matter of days, topped TIME polls for 3 consecutive years, and starred in three Hollywood films (Speed Racer, Ninja Assassin, and The Prince). Aside from Gangnam Style, kpop itself had not yet fully entered the mainstream, but 2012 definitely saw a surge in the visibility of kpop.

Around this time, the Internet had become more widespread and was becoming the dominant source of entertainment and information for the average home. Youtubers began making videos reacting to popularly requested kpop videos like EXO’s Growl, 2NE1′s I Am The Best, BIGBANG’s Fantastic Baby, and Super Junior’s Mr. Simple. Some of these channels only did them for the additional views, but some Youtubers and their regular fans became curious and looked more into kpop. Reaction channels were huge in the early 2010s because of this and this trend would continue well into 2015.

2015 was what, I would consider, the first initial surge in popularity for a particular kpop band; BTS. The group had debuted in 2013 and appealed to a lot of western listeners with their early dark hip hop concept and their songs featured lyrics that deeply resonated with their teenaged audience. Themes consisted of following their dreams, wanting to be successful, and young love. 2015 saw the beginning of what some ARMYs would call their greatest era: HYYH/The Most Beautiful Moment In Life. One of the promoted tracks, Dope, would become a viral hit. The song was infectious and high energy and really showcased the group’s crisp choreography. HYYH would have 2 part mini albums before part 3 came out in 2016. Each video they dropped would do consistently well: I Need U, Run, Fire, Spring Day. Their fans, enthusiastically spreading about the Internet, would want to share their favorite songs and communicate with like minded fans, thus creating the phrase “Any ARMYs here? XD” that would often show up in Youtube video comments, regardless of the content of the video. 

I know this history lesson is long winded and most of you guys DON’T want to/need to read it but as I said, I think it’s important to look at things contextually before drawing a final opinion on a topic. Me personally? I got into kpop in 2011 and it was the natural progression from me liking jpop from 2008. So most of what I’m saying, I saw firsthand. Obviously my perception isn’t unbiased, but I am reading articles and pages to make sure I’m stating things correctly and am trying to not come off as biased. 

Part Two

Part Three