#The battery adaptability thing is interesting though but I get why the first few days of having a phone that it gets super goddamn hot

[venacoeurva]

Looking at the queue, it's almost done and the phone was (marginally, at least) more expensive than anticipated--refurbished unlocked SE 3 gen in great condition though, for anyone curious-- and the recent slot is pretty easy to get done, so I'll open another comm slot today (Fri afternoon or night) on Ko-Fi.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Retrospective: Red Pill Me

Cinemacon has passed and there has been a lot of awesome sh*t revealed. On the top of that list, obviously, Spider-Man: Far From Home has me geeked to high heaven but there were a ton of other noteworthy reveals. There was some Batman reveals, a few Mission Impossible 7 and Top Gun 2 trailers, plus audiences ever got a surprise screening of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Now, that would be great on it's own but cats even got a little sizzle real for Matrix Resurrections: The long gestating fourth Matrix film. Apparently, this thing is releasing in December. I am lukewarm at best. I have fond memories of the Matrix trilogy as a whole but, since it’s final release some twenty years ago, the Wachowskis have been revealed to be one trick ponies. They kind of suck at film making. I mean, i liked Speed Racer but i just generally enjoy Speed Racer. It helped tremendously that Christina Ricci was Trixie, too, but everything after that was kind of balls. I also really like V for Vendetta but that’s not real their movie, they just adapted it. I guess you can say that about Speed Racer, too. Anyway, in light of there near Shyamalan-esque track record with their films, i wanted to revisit the first three Matrix films and see if they hold up, to try and muster some sense of excitement for what comes next.

The Matrix

Of the trilogy, this is easily the best film. Everything about it is exceptional. The Matrix was a whole ass shift in the cultural zeitgeist. It was a lot of people’s first experience with accessible cyberpunk and I'll always love it for that. I’ll also love it for normalizing Hong Kong style action sequences and giving us the most breathtaking application of Bullet Time I've seen to date. The Matrix s why the theater exists. If you’ve never seen this thing on the big screen, you missed out on something very special. I had just just turned thirteen when it released and checked it out at the dollar theater. I had only ever seen anything like this, in anime. Seeing all of my favorite Eighties OVAs filtered through the big budget Hollywood lens was incredible. I even like the rather pedestrian narrative. I think the story worked for what the movie was trying to do. It’s a shame the Wachowskis have tried to rewrite history about the narrative as of late. I understand the underlying themes of identity and sexuality but come on? That’s some college film theory bullsh*t that got tacked on after the fact. Now, if the original script is to be believed, then, yes, all of that, but what we got is not so profound. This is a basic Chosen One narrative with Dope ass effects that were ahead of it’s time.

A fr as the cast, what can i say? These motherf*ckers were perfect. Keanu Reeves as Neo was inspired. It’s wild to say that because dude is a plank but it works. He’s the POV character, he’s who you see that world through. Making him a blank slate so to speak, helps with immersion and that is a world you definitely wan to be immersed within. This was my first experience with Carrie-Ann Moss and I've loved her ever since. Her Trinity fast became one of my favorite characters and I'm actually pretty excited to see where she is in the new film. Lawrence Fishburne as Morpheus was an interesting choice. I wasn’t mad and it worked perfectly but it was weird seeing him in such an active, action oriented, role. That said, for me, this movie is made by Hugo Weaving. He is absolutely monstrous as Agent Smith. He’s got this scene chewing energy that mirrors Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa and we all know how much i love that Nazi f*ck so that’s really high praise. To this day, I've got his Humanity is a Virus speech memorized. It was just that f*cking good! The Matrix is an exquisite watch and it is absolutely mandatory viewing if you consider yourself a fan of cinema.

The Matrix Reloaded

Whoo, boy, talk about a drop in quality. Reloaded released four years later in 2003 and it screams Studio Mandate. I was a sprightly eighteen years old when this thing dropped and made it a point to see it opening day. I really enjoyed the first outing so i figured this one would be just as amazing. Indeed, i remember leaving the theater thinking to myself how decent of a sequel it turned out to be. It wasn’t better than the first but it didn’t sh*t the bed like most follow-ups do. Fast forward to present day and, after watching this thing again for the first time in probably fifteen years, it’s kind of f*cking bad. Like, as a cinematic experience, it’s pretty tight Everything is amped up. Tons more action, way more bombastic set pieces, stakes have been raised considerably; The Matrix Reloaded is everything you want in a summer blockbuster sequel. However, that’s it. Everything else is worse. The acting has become way too hammy and the new cast members fit into this narrative like a square peg in a round hole. Why is f*cking Niobe even in this thing? Who even is the Merovingian? Why is Mouse? The pacing is all over the place, too. Like, this thing stops dead in it’s tracks on several occasions but that’s not the worst of it.

The worst thing is the narrative. What the f*ck even is the story trying to be told in this movie? It doesn’t make any f*cking sense. The Matrix was, very obviously, a standalone film. That was a closed narrative. Neo’s story had been told. Everything after that is unnecessary. This movie is an exercise in the unnecessary. I appreciate all of how unchained and manic Smith is in this but, outside of that, what the f*ck was the point of this whole narrative? It’s filler. This movie is filler and it feels like it. The returning cast is serviceable and seeing Zion was interesting. I like how all the survivors are just sweaty black people. I literally hated everyone added to the cast though. Well, that’s not quite true. I rather enjoyed Collin Chou as Seraph. Dude was inconsequential but i love seeing Asian martial artists not name Li or Chan getting some shine. Also, Monica Bellucci is in this and i kind of just love her in general. Her Persephone is absolutely disposable but she looks damn fine in that plastic wrapped dress of hers. I literally can’t be bothered mentioning anyone else. They are that forgettable. This movie is that forgettable. And it’s arguably the best of the two sequels.

The Matrix Revolutions

Talk about going out with a thud. Man, i saw this with my best friend, rest in peace B, and we both hated it. He was an even bigger fan of The Matrix than i was so his disappointment was palpable. I’ll never forget his visceral reaction when that rainbow spread across the super happy Hollywood ending. Dude was hot and he had every right to be. The first Matrix set up this intriguing, immersive, world full of fanatic visuals, great piratical stunts, and a very through provoking premise. The second Matrix was your basic Hollywood sequel; More shine, less substance. But Revolutions? Man this is peak Wachowski fail. You saw hints of this messiah sh*t in the first, it’s literally a Chosen One narrative, but thy went all in on that sh*t in Reloaded. By the time Revolutions finished, this whole narrative was so far up it’s own ass, it didn’t know which way was up. It just f*cking ends. Everyone is dead and it’s over. The Wachowskis went heavy on the Jesus imagery, they were not subtle, and the f*cking conflict just ends. Robot don’t stop using people as batteries. Flesh and blood Humans still have to live in Zion. The only thing that’s changed is Neo’s dead and Agent Smith has been deleted. That’s it. The Matrix still exists, people are still trapped in it, and everything that happened in these films doesn’t f*cking matter. Literally right back at the start of the whole goddamn conflict. Revolutions is so f*cking disappointing, dude, by every measure of that metric.

Hugh Weaving is still pretty good as Smith and Keanu does his best imitation of white bread as Neo but, like, everything else is just so pedestrian. Plus, this thing is long. Like, unreasonably so. Why the f*ck is this movie two hours? The entire trilogy is kind of like that but it’s most egregious in this one. This story could be told in ninety minutes, just like Reloaded. Why the f*ck do i have an extra half hour of bullsh*t in this? Like, that whole “Neo Lost” arc was unnecessary, in both sequels. F*cking why? I don’t hate Revolutions. It’s not a “bad” film per say, it’s just disappointing. It’s the poster child for the law of diminishing returns. The Matrix Revolutions is the what happens when you let creatives with fresh egos, run amok with one hundred and fifty million f*cking dollars. So much spectacle but even less substance that Reloaded and that motherf*cker was a hollow mess. Still, The Matrix Revolutions is better than anything Michael Bay or Zack Snyder has ever made so i guess it’s got that going for it.

[j-mysticalien]

🔫 the oc content, hand it over /lh

you don’t have to if u don’t want to lol I just saw you said something about ocs and 👀 I am interested

FIRST OF ALL 🥺🥺🥺

SECOND OF ALL OKAY OKAY HERE TAKE IT 

(I ended up dumping a lot ... I saw the opportunity and ran with it I didn’t mean to oops)

These guys have been in my head for y e a r s and even though I'll abandon them for months at a time, there are plot points I've forgotten, it’s very very unfinished, and clearly influenced by my freshman year interests, they're some of my favorites to imagine and write like every time I do a picrew chain or something I make them too for myself okay okay-

So. Exposition. For ages the demons and dark things have slipped between the veil and into the world. As evil rises, so do those who stand against it. In some parts of the world The Order was established not to eradicate or wage war against the demons, just to keep everything in their proper dimensions and destroy those who refuse. Members of the Order work in groups with assigned roles, often passed down generations. 1: trained in the physical aspects of fighting creatures, they have the unique and mysterious ability to survive in the other dimension-at least better than the average mortal. 2, “Alchemist”: Usually a witch, human descendant of a magical being, or a particularly skilled mortal even. they provide the magical aid since the other cannot perform magic themselves. (Though Witches tend to form their own communities or work with the demon realm which historically has caused tensions) While fewer and well hidden, this secret society guards the mortal realm to this day... 

There’s a small, quiet town in the northeast. Nothing much happens- the power may go out or the weather may turn within seconds and figures may appear and shift into the shadows but it all turns out fine eventually. Nothing to worry about. But those who know a  little too much know where to go when things need to be taken care off. Bloom’s Florist and Garden Shop, a sweet little store in the middle of town staffed by the owner’s two teenaged kids. They’ve got a lovely selection of flowers and herbs. If you hear noises from their basement, best to ignore it. If you see the kids sprinting down the street, best to stay out of their way. If they tell you to avoid the woods one night, you listen...

OCS MY BELOVED HERE THEY ARE

 Dante Achilles Sindweller. He is type 1.  He’s tall, thin but muscular, almost dangerously pale. His hair is blue, eyes blue though they sometimes look red. Riddles with piercings and pale scars. Cocky bastard but well deserved. Friendly and deadly all at once. He’s good at what he does and is always up for a challenge. Low key high key losing his sense of humanity. You see actually being in the demon dimension is draining because of the pure chaos of it but returning to reality is rough too. Because of the hunter’s ability (I’m pretty sure they have this ability bc the og demon hunters secretly fucked a bunch of demons so Hunters have demon blood and cannot “die” in the hell dimension but idfk at this point) they can adapt to the word with a combination of demonic attributes and idealized forms that disappear when he gets back. So um the mental toll is very much a thing that he hides very well...at least at first. He doesn’t actually have to travel too often thought, just during emergencies and later he genuinely visits some chill demon friends there.

Cordelia Emerys Bloom, “Cordie”. 5′2″, dark brown skin, black hair she keeps in two short braids, round rimmed glasses. She’s the alchemist. a few of her far off ancestors were fae. Her own magical battery is low so she’s become skilled in working with. potions and magical plants. She’s the most serious member. of the trio. She knows the job, she has a rhythm, she doesn’t like change. This group had three braincells and 90% of the time she has all of them. She likes her plants, her books, and Dante. She’s a little high strung and stubborn but she’s clever, intelligent, and really warm person once you get past her shields. She grew up way too fast and with all her adult figures gone, Dante slowly slipping (though she denies it to the point where Alice bright it up and they didn’t talk for a week), and this irritation turned fear that Alice’s presence is temporary leaves her with some issues but it’s okay im determined to let her be happy, she just has to let herself accept happiness.

Alice Barnet. A witch. Thick, bright red  hair, hazel/ blue eyes. Absolutely stunning. and a fashion icon. She moved to attend to uppity private school right outside of town. She stumbled upon the shop and immediately sensed the great power hidden in there. So she just walked in- because of the dimensional portal not because the girl at the register she saw through the window was so pretty what are you talking about it was witch instinct only- and announced herself and offered her services. She’s a flirt, though a sincere one. She projects a confident, fun vibes even if she doesn't actually feel it. Fake it until you make it I guess. Coffee addict will memorize your birth chart, Starbucks order, and all the little behavioral things. Most of my early drabbles with her involve her sitting on Cordie’s desk sipping her iced coffee while Cordie is like “how tf did you get in here” “good question. Better one: they didn’t have the black tea you like is green okay?” She actually is part of an informal coven but that’s a whole side story with its own cast of characters I haven’t touched in ages

Dynamics dynamics so Cordie and Dante are siblings in all but blood, they’ve been together for almost their entire lives. (Cordie’s parents are almost always away-either on Order business or just vibing idk they’re cool though. Dante’s parents are dead but only Dante himself seems to know that-Something about demon blood and dimension hopping doesn’t let their kind live long) They’re really close. If they met at this point in life they probably would never have been friends and Cordie probably would despise him but as they are they love each other and *know* each other. Technically Dante is older but Cordie is the eldest sister of the relationship.

The two of them have opposite reactions when Alice enters their life. (This entrance is one of the few *full* scenes I actually wrote down) Dante is allured-not by her but by the potential adventure she represents. She states her case and he’s like oh this’ll be interesting. They become best friends almost instantly. Their sass, confidence, and more adventurous sides click harmoniously- much of the time to Cordie’s dismay. To Cordelia, Alice is something unknown, something potentially dangerous. She makes her assumptions (prissy, incompetent, entitled, inexperienced) and tolerated her. Alice has had a crush on her since day 1. She was determined to prove herself to the group and really she’d just like to get her trust and friendship at some point, gushy feelings be damned. They fall in love slowly, they learn to trust and be weak and learn to know each other and be themselves Alice is genuinely interested in all the stuff Cordie knows about the magical world and Cordie gets to try to be a person outside of that world. The recent stuff I’ve actually written down involves a lot of sleepy conversations and whispered confessions and soft touched and hhh

Some of the non-human characters

“Lady”: the ghost that haunts the basement/ Order base. She can’t really speak and isn't always visible, never fully. They don’t know who she was or why she’s there. She helps out when she can though. Might help Dante in the very end. 

All of the actual demons are off ideas. Like each deadly sin has it’s own demon (they didn’t realize some humans had grouped them together for some time but they think it’s funny, sometimes they hang out just because of that) The gang doesn't directly meet a lot of them but 

Curiosity aka “Apple” aka “Heather” aka “Bee”aka...:The spark that fuels innovation ne the spiral of a downfall. frequently visits human world, team switches between stopping them from blowing up a building to playing Mario kart together. Like he definitely causes trouble and should not keep escaping through the portal but like...he’s fun to got to the mall with. Funky Lil dude who’s there for a good time and some chaos. Changes aliases all the time.

Nostalgia aka “Honey-Lavender”: the kind that leaves the ghost of a smile on your face, the kind that drowns you in the past, the kind that makes you want to go back, or forget. mostly stays in hell. One of the demons Dante visits and is acquainted with. They lay and talk. She can be a downer but he doesn’t mind, he appreciates the company and some days she keeps him tethered to his life and sanity (on the bad says she has the opposite effect, she can’t help it)

OKAY AHAHA THATS ENOUGH OUT OF ME THERE THEY ARE THANKS

[phoenixrisesoncemore]

I was tagged by @wangxianbunnydoodles (oh my, this is long and you might regret it; also I don’t follow instructions well 😉). I tend not to be very good at these things (sorry to anyone else who has tagged me in these kinds of things before—this is a rare event happening mostly because I wanna talk about Tolkien books and ships) but here goes:

Top 3 Ships

I don’t actively ship characters that often. I’m not sure why that is. I do enjoy reading fic with pairings either canon or not, but I don’t often go “all in” on ships in most narratives I consume. There are notable exceptions (more than three but these are the three most recent—I have no idea how to identify my top ships):

WangXian (CQL). This is surely obvious from the current state of my blog, right? I blame The Untamed and its impossibly tender, only-subtextual-by-a-hair’s-breadth romance. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a show express ultimate devotion, deep affection, true appreciation, complete understanding (eventually), and the sheer *necessity of the other* between two people quite like this one has. Hell, I don’t think I’ve ever seen two characters and desperately wanted them together and happy as much as I have these two, so bravo to the cast and crew for generating such second-hand devotion in me.

Silvergifting (Tolkien). This is all @thearrogantemu’s fault. I’d read some Silvergifting before I read These Gifts That You Have Given Me, mostly out of curiosity (some good stuff, too!), but I had never read any Tolkien fic that convinced me it was *true* (on many, many levels, though the ship level is the one pertinent to this post). In any canon-like universe this ship hurts, but in the Gifts universe it hurts the most; it hurts like Hell. It hurts in the way only razor-sharp, sorry-the-universe-works-this-way, oh-are-those-my-entrails-on-the-floor-I-didn’t-even-feel-the-knife tragedy can hurt. And it’s so convincing that it’s just...a fact now. Tolkien just forgot to tell us. So now I ship Silvergifting, but most deeply, specifically THAT Silvergifting. (Meanwhile, 14 year old me continues to look at *significantly* older me like I’m insane.)

ZeLink (Legend of Zelda). Deep down I’m still 12 years old and no amount of fine lines and wrinkles is going to change that. When is Breath of the Wild 2 coming out?

Last Song

I listen to soundtracks and bombastic and dramatic orchestral pieces much more often than I listen to what people mean when they say “songs,” and a significant chunk of the “songs” I listen to are from musicals/operas.

Earlier today it was Hanz Zimmer’s soundtrack to Dark Phoenix (don’t start me up on the continuing disappointment that Phoenix adaptations continue to be to me—you don’t want to hear it; even I don’t want to hear it).

Before that it was Barbra Streisand’s The Broadway Album. (I prefer her outer space cover of “Somewhere” to the actual thing. Fight me.)

Before that it was Carmina Burana (One of my favorite things ever was when we went to a live performance of Carmina Burana and a boy who couldn’t have been more than 7 years old sat in the aisle in front of us and head-banged enthusiastically through “O Fortuna.” It was so metal. You go, kid. You get it.).

Before that it was a splattering of Billy Joel hits with emphasis on “2000 Years”, “River of Dreams”, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, “The Stranger”, and “Only the Good Die Young” (thanks to that outstanding WangXian interpretation!).

Of course the soundtracks to The Untamed/CQL have been on repeat for weeks around here, particularly every single iteration of “WuJi” and the flute-heavy instrumental pieces (man, those are good!).

Not long ago I had Sarah Brightman’s covers of “Figlio Perduto” from La Luna and “Glosoli” and “One Day Like This” from Dreamchaser burning through my iPhone battery (yes, I like popera).

Enya, and especially Shepherd Moons and The Track Which Shall Not Be Named has been on repeat a lot.

Last Movie

I don’t sit down to watch movies that often any more. It just takes too much stillness and undivided attention and more resistance to multi-tasking than I have. The actual last movie that I watched (in a “have it on on another screen while I work” kind of way) was Raiders of the Lost Ark, which, of course, I’ve seen umpteen times and which followed a similar rewatch of the Back to the Future trilogy. The last movie I watched completely without distraction was Book Smart; I don’t watch comedies very often, but I really enjoyed it in an “OMG, I can totally relate to this” kind of way (except for the class president thing—that would have required that I interact with other people my own age and also not be homeschooled). Before that I think it was the Tolkien biopic. Man, I still haven’t written anything about that.

Currently Reading (in order of when I started them)

Oh dear.

The Familiar: part 1, Mark Z Danielewski. *sigh* For as much as I think Danielewski is brilliant and House of Leaves is one of my favorite books ever, I’ve just not been able to get into much of his other work. It’s universally a time and energy investment to penetrate and puzzle through, and I just don’t have as much of that as I used to. House of Leaves makes that investment worth it from early on and is absolutely a page-turner once you settle in, but other than The Fifty Year Sword I’ve just not been able to get into the rest of his work. The Familiar: part 1 is supposed to be the first in a 26 part series which is currently halted at part 4, I think. Without a guarantee of all parts ever being published, I don’t think I’m ready to invest more time into part 1 and may end up abandoning it, unfortunately.

History of The Hobbit, Douglas Anderson. Anderson did what Christopher didn’t and gave The Hobbit the HoMe treatment (if a bit less literal and opaque in format). It’s fascinating (I mean, there’s the Beren and Luthien name drop you were not expecting right there in the first draft), but reading essentially the same passages with only small changes over and over can be a slog, so reading it has been an ongoing project for over a year now.

Splintered Light: Logos and Language in Tolkien’s World, Verlyn Fleiger. This is Fleiger’s look at Tolkien’s Middle-earth in light of his association with Owen Barfield. Particularly, she is examining Tolkien’s work in conjunction with Barfield’s Poetic Diction and his thoughts on language and meaning. I have not read Poetic Diction, but I probably will now since it apparently addresses language formation as related to the origin of human consciousness which is SO up my alley.

New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton. My late sister-in-law had a masters in theology from Notre Dame and became a huge Merton fan. Meanwhile, my best friend actually spent a weekend retreat at The Abbey of Gethsemani. Between hearing about him from the two of them, I developed an interest in Merton. I happened to read “Moral Theology of the Devil” a couple of years ago. It was one of the most illuminating theological things I have read and deeply inspired my own Tolkien fic-writing (let’s just say the progress there is otherwise slow). This book is a collection of pieces which happens to contain that piece, and I’ve been skipping around through it for a while now.

The Lord of the Rings reread (Tolkien, obviously). I hate this, but I am so deep in so many critical Tolkien books that I’ve not had the chance to really sit down and relax into my reread for months and months and will likely just end up starting over. Plus I want to read it concurrently with the next entry in this list and the next entry is taking longer to get through because of its format. That entry being:

The Lord of the the Rings: A Reader’s Companion, Hammond and Scull. This is a treasure trove of data and insights for those really wanting to dig critically-historically into The Lord of the Rings on a chapter-by-chapter, passage-by-passage basis. The only issue with it is that jumping back and forth between the two (as you have to: this is a reference book) tends to kill the mood of The Lord of the Rings when read as it’s meant to be read: for enjoyment!

The Power of Limits: Proportional Harmonies in Nature, Art, and Architecture, Gyorgy Doczi. This has been an ongoing read here and there since Christmas, especially as I work on two personal projects.

The Gospel in a Pluralist Society, Lesslie Newbigin. To be honest I don’t think I am going to finish this one. I like a few of the things he says, things I think are truthful and which need to be confronted in American Christian culture in particular, but it’s just too much Calvin for my taste, too many assumptions I do not share being the heretic that I am, and I spend too much time anger-notating about theology to read it with grace.

In Full Measure I Return to You, thearrogantemu. This is a reread of the (relatively) happy AU fic for my most favoritest Tolkien fic (Gifts), but I’ve put my reread on hold while I finish one of the two projects, after which I am diving in and screw the rest of this list for the time being.

Food Craving

Sushi. My kingdom for some good sushi. I’ve only had sushi once since we got back from NY and while it was the best sushi I have had locally IT WAS NOT OMAKASE AT SUSHI NOZ. It also didn’t require a personal loan to pay for, but *shrug* I’m spoiled now and will forever crave what I can no longer have.

People I’d Like To Get To Know Better

I hate tagging people in these things because I’m awkward and shy and do them so rarely myself that it feels hypocritical for me to ask it of others. That being said: if you’re a follower of my blog and you want to do this, please do! And please tag me! I’d love to get to know more about you 😊.

[san-lorenzo-shop]

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[sunshiney-souls]

collar full // chp 1

Summary// Skye, Peter and Ned are best friends and are finally going on their long-awaited Fine Arts Field Trip

Warning// mild iw spoilers (?), your new favorite trio of teenage dorks, nothing too serious yet

Word count// 1,862

a/n// hey everyone! this is my second series but it’s the one i’m more serious about! if you happen to like this, lemme know! please i would love feedback. also, just send me an ask or something if you’d like to be tagged in the following chapters of this :)

Skye Harper, Peter Parker and Ned Leeds; The three musketeers of Queens New York. For as long as anyone can remember, these three have been the definition of best friends. Peter and Ned lived next to each other since Peter was five. Little Ned and Peter would run up and down the halls of the apartment building for hours, their little giggles and footsteps bounced off the old walls of the building. After the two kids turned seven, Skye moved in across from Ned. Skye started out being a shy, quiet and reserved little girl. Of course, this was before she met the two rowdy little boys

So it was written in the stars that the three would become best friends. They spent every waking hour together, doing whatever their minds thought of. This obviously led to them all going to Midtown together. Luckily, this didn’t change the fact that they were inseparable 

They grew together during their Freshmen and Sophomore year. They all took as many of the same classes as they could. They even all agreed to be in Fine Art classes, even if they all had different interests. Skye had joined Midtown’s Varsity Choir, Ned was a crew member in Theatre Arts, and Peter had worked his way up to Advanced Marching band. High school was going great for the little ban of kids

Then came the day of the Fine Arts Field Trip.

“Skye, come on! We’re going to be late!” Ned continued to bang his fist on his across-the-hall neighbor’s door, in hopes to hurry her up.

When he realized it wouldn’t speed her up, he grabbed the spare key from its hiding place and unlocked the door. He put the key back and then walked into the seemingly empty apartment.

“Skye?” He spoke, looking around. Soon after, he heard a thud followed by a drawn out groan. His head snapped to the direction of the noise, followed by his eyes rolling. He already knew what happened and his arms crossed as he let a scoff escape his mouth.

“Hey dude, where is she?” Peter soon appeared next to Ned, slinging his backpack onto his shoulders. Ned gestured to Skye’s room, where she soon threw the door open and rushed out.

Her hair was its normal self, a mop of loose curls, flowing from her head. She never had to worry about fixing it, seeing how the curls seemed to have a mind of their own in styling themselves. She had thrown on her signature high waist, light-washed jeans, which were rolled up at the ankles. She wore a yellow shirt, tucked into her jeans.

She slid out of her room, onto the hardwood floor of her hallway; her mismatched socks didn’t give her much traction as she slid to her shoes. She leaned on Ned for support as she slid on the high tops.

“I know, i know,” She started, pushing off of Ned and rushing to the table. “my alarm didn’t go off when it was supposed to!” she quickly rushed the words out of her mouth, worrying that speaking would slow her down. She grabbed her backpack and slung it over one shoulder. She rushed back to her room and grabbed her navy hoodie. The threw it on and shook her hair out of her face. She rushed back to her friends and caught her breath. “Mornin’ boys.” She gave her hair a flick to get out of her face, and a smirk found its way onto her mouth.

With a sigh from the boys and a laugh from the girl, the trio left the building. They made their way to the sidewalk and started their way through the streets of Queens, New York. Skye stood in the middle of Ned and Peter, kind of their way of protecting her, even though she was more than capable of protecting herself.

These walks were normally filled with light-hearted conversation, words bouncing back and fourth and commonly interrupted by small bursts of laughter. They talked about anything and everything, including Peter being Spider-man. Yes, Peter wanted to keep it a secret, and it was going good until Ned found out. It wasn’t long until Ned couldn’t keep his cool and spilled to Skye. It helped that Skye noticed bruises appearing on his skin and decided to confront the both of them about it. Skye became very worried and concerned for Peter and insisted he came to her house every night after his surveillance run, so she could clean him up before he ran off to May.

The three Juniors neared the school, a steady stream of students trickling in, seeing as it wasn’t too terribly close to eight a.m., the kids still had some time. They walked to the doors and Peter held it open for Ned and Skye. They all had lockers in the same hallway, but spread out. They went their separate ways to exchange things from their lockers.

Skye probably had the most organized locker of them all. All her books were stacked nicely and right next to their corresponding binders, which held notes and assignments for said class. She had an extra hoodie, neatly folded in the bottom section of her locker. She prided herself in having a clean and organized locker.

Ned’s locker wasn’t so bad. It wasn’t prim and proper, but he had all his books laying in there, binders on the bottom section, and some loose paper here and there. He made sure to lay his textbooks on their sides so he could place his lunch bag on top on them, just so his sandwich wouldn’t get squished.

It was Peter who had the messiest locker. Loose and crumpled papers everywhere, textbooks laying every which way, too many jackets for one person were stuffed into it as well. He never set things into his locker nicely, like most do. Oh no, he threw his things into his locker. He wasn’t even mad when he did it, he would simply toss whichever book into his locker and hope it didn’t bounce out.

Once they all got their textbooks and whatever else they needed for their first period, they met up in their class, Algebra 2. They had all signed up to be put in the honors class, which happened to be the first period. They picked a cluster of desks in the back corner of the room, furthest away from the door. Ned sat in front of Skye, who sat next to Peter. Ned and Skye both understood algebra fairly well, and never needed much help from anyone but each other. Peter sat next to Skye due to the fact that he never paid attention and she was a better teacher to him than Ned was.

The Algebra 2 teacher droned on and on about conics and how to make equations for circles and parabolas and whatnot. Skye almost fell asleep many times, her head almost landing on Peter’s desk; which had happened before. Peter never minded, he would simply run his fingers through her curls, he found it amusing. Skye’s hair was soft and smooth and it have Peter something to do while he tried to understand what was going on.

Suddenly, there was a loud, obnoxious beep. 

“Please excuse this interruption; those participating in the Fine Arts Field Trip need to be dismissed now and will report to their Fine Arts teachers. Thank you.”

The three shot our of their desks, along with others, and made their way out of class. They stopped by their lockers again, putting their algebra things away and grabbing whatever they needed for the trip ahead of them.

They all met back up for the short walk to each of their classes; Skye went to the music room with Peter while Ned made his way to the stage. They promised each other they would sit near each other on the bus.

“So, you ready for this, Parker?” Skye nudged his arm with her elbow, the same smirk as before was on her face. Peter rolled his eyes.

“I mean, we get out of school for a day to roam the streets of New York, of course I’m ready.” He shot back, or at least he tried. With Skye, Peter’s playfully rude antics never worked, and he never knew why. With everyone else, he could completely fool them into thinking he was legitimately rude and pissed. But Skye, for whatever reason, was different and Peter still hadn’t figured it out. Was it because she was his best girl friend? Maybe. Was it because she could to sarcasm and playful rude comments better than anyone? That was definitely a serious point to take into consideration, but it wasn’t the whole reason.

He always mentally shrugged to himself before he thought about it for too long.

“I’ve heard there’s this super cool nerd store that i’ve been dying to check out. Ive been saving up ever since they announced this trip.” Skye excitedly spoke, words flowing out of her mouth with ease. She waved her wallet in the air at Peter, as if to prove how excited she is. Skye’s smile was contagious and soon Peter found himself smiling as well.

“Nerd store?” He laughed.

“It’s called Boxed Lunch and they have these cool things from different fandoms. They have Disney, different animes, different bands, and so on. It’s like a more sophisticated Hot Topic... almost.” She babbled on and on. Peter nodded, understanding. Peter knew how much Skye loved shopping at Hot Topic and made a mental note to check out that store for her birthday, which was in a week.

After a few more minutes of taking roll of all the band and choir kids, Peter and Skye were a part of the huge heard that was moving itself through the halls to the bus. This was something Skye had adapted to doing in big crowds. She did it with whoever she as with, except with Peter was the only person whose arm she hung on to.

Once they were on the bus, Peter took a window seat while Skye sat next to him. She pulled out her earbuds and gave him one. It was tradition that whoever Skye sat next to, she shared her earbuds. Both Ned and Peter liked her taste in music and they never wanted to risk their phone battery running out. Skye always carried her portable charger and didn’t trust her boys to hang on to it.

“Ned! Over here!” Skye yelled to the last person of their group. Ned’s head perked up and he quickly made his way to the seat in front of them.

“I’m so psyched for this trip!” Ned said, sitting next to the girl that was already in that seat. The two nodded as Skye scrolled through her music to pick a song. The bus lurched forward and she was still deciding. Peter leaned onto her shoulder and tapped a random song.

“Come on Harper, we ain’t got all day.” He tried, once again, to sound rude; but she gave him a side glance and Peter felt his mouth turn up into a smile.

Tag list: @topisdead

[keenobservationtiger]

How are hybrid inverters used in solar projects?

This paper proposes a new configuration of a single-phase hybrid inverter with an integrated battery energy storage, which is suitable for residential households to maximize local consumption of solar energy and thus reduce dependency on grid support. The hybrid inverter is called Direct Storage Hybrid (DSH) Inverter. A transformer-less topology such as HERIC, operating at low frequency to generate a three-level rectangular output voltage, is adopted to connect a photovoltaic (PV) panel to the load and/or the grid. A series active filter is employed to compensate the high harmonic components from the rectangular voltage and provide a sinusoidal voltage. A bidirectional dc/dc converter connects the battery to the PV panel to control the battery state of charge (SoC) and optimize the PV panel operation during both off-grid and grid-connected modes. The DSH inverter can let the battery bypass the dc/dc converter and connect directly to the inverter stage, leading to a significant improvement in throughput efficiency in battery utilization. This paper discusses the operation and loss analysis of the DSH inverter in off-grid mode.

This paper is designed in such a way that it overcomes this limitation by the use of solar energy. NA hybrid inverter lv with Solar Battery Charging System consists of an inverter powered by a 12V Battery. This inverter generates up to 230V AC with the help of driver circuitry and a heavy load transformer. This battery gets charged from two sources, first being the mains power supply itself and second from the solar power. If the mains power supply is available, then the relay switches to main power supply for supplying the load. This power supply also charges the battery for using it as back up the next time when there is a power outage. The use of solar panel to charge the battery gives an additional advantage of surplus power in case the power outage of mains is prolonging. Thus this inverter can last for longer duration’s and provide uninterrupted power supply to the user.

Hybrid inverters are commonly used in the developing world, but they are starting to make their way into daily use in certain areas of the U.S due to their ability to stabilize energy availability.

A solar inverter’s main job is to convert DC power generated from the array into usable AC power. Hybrid inverters go a step further and work with batteries to store excess power as well. This type of system solves issues renewable energy variability and unreliable grid structures.

“Inverters for grid-tied applications can only provide power based on what the array can immediately generate from the sun,” explained Bryan Whitton, product manager at Darfon. “Hybrid inverters can store power in batteries and then drawn upon it as needed for energy stabilization.”

Hybrid inverters can vary in size, performance and features. But Mara White, product manager for OutBack Power, said most models usually operate bi-directionally, meaning they can convert DC power from modules to usable AC power and then convert stored AC from the batteries to power loads when needed. “Hybrids can also remain grid-connected and use a mix of renewable and non-renewable energy to charge batteries and offset loads,” White added.

Some contractors have used hybrid inverters in the residential, remote home applications for the past decade or two. But Allan Gregg, VP of applications engineering at GreatWall—which manufactures Satcon inverters—said the range of applications has expanded over the past few years to include large capacity microgrids as well as grid-connected systems.

Historically, hybrid inverters have been used more frequently in developing countries that do not have access to a reliable power grid.

“In North America and Europe, hybrid inverter-based systems are usually elective,” White explained. “Users choose to use them for storing energy for self-consumption or provide back-up power during emergencies. But in the developing world, hybrids are more of a necessity to compensate for weak or intermittent grids or a lack of grid electricity all together. Microgrids in places such as India, Asia and Africa are also driving na hybrid inverter hv adaptation.”

Still, Whitton said hybrid models are beginning to be used on a more daily basis in areas of the U.S. where the grid is unpredictable, such as Hawaii, or in states where net-metering has been widely supported. “Applications with less than ideal solar characteristic are also good for hybrid-based systems because they can store power and redistribute it during peak times, improving payback,” he added. “Basically, if the site has the potential for losing the grid frequently, you should consider a hybrid for off-grid operation.”

Having the flexibility of a hybrid system can add initial cost to a project, though experts say this can be offset by the ability to self-consume all of one’s available PV electricity.

There are also important design considerations when using hybrid inverters. For example, Gregg warned that the battery bank voltage should be compatible with the DC input requirements of the inverter, and there should be enough solar capacity to supply the load as well as charge the batteries.

Wiring can also be more complex when using hybrid inverters, especially when panels are dedicated for critical backed-up loads. “And as with any device that does several jobs at once, a hybrid inverter is usually slightly less efficient,” White added, “although, improvements in other balance-of-system components can compensate for that slight loss easily.”

There are also specific electrical safety issues with any type of energy storage, so White recommended getting specialized training in energy storage techniques and design. “Most available training is focused on simple grid-tied systems because they have been the majority of U.S. solar installations until now,” she said. “But with incentives changing and the surge in energy storage interest and applications, it’s important to get ahead of the curve and get advanced training quickly.”

Andrew McCalla of Austin, Texas-based Meridian Solar, a Solar Power World top contractor, said he commonly used hybrids in the mid to late ’90s when the now standard grid-tie inverter sector was just a glimmer. “I can imagine that, when regulatory hurdles are fabricated to limit the consumer and societal benefits of bi-directional power flow from distributed generation, these battery-based platforms will become far more common. What is old is new again!”

Another segment of hybrid inverters includes inverters that can use two energy sources. For example, Ginlong offers a PV / wind lv battery hybrid inverter that has inputs for both sources, instead of having to use two inverters. In much of the United States, wind speeds are low in the summer when the sun shines brightest and longest. The wind is strong in the winter when less sunlight is available. Therefore, because the peak operating times for wind and solar systems occur at different times of the day and year, such hybrid systems have the potential to produce power when it’s needed, and reach a higher return on investment.

When you first consider getting solar or battery storage on your home or business, one of the first things you will discover is that you will require an inverter and that there are many different types of inverters available. This article is designed to provide an introduction to the different kinds of inverters available and help you to understand which one will suit your installation. So what does an inverter do? Simply put an Inverter converts DC power to AC power. Solar panels produce DC power and batteries store DC, however most of our appliances run on AC power, as does the electricity grid. This is why all solar systems and battery storage systems need an inverter however there are several different types of inverters depending on whether or not energy storage batteries are required.

On-grid solar installations are the most common and most affordable type of system available at present. These systems use a simple solar inverter, which convert the DC power from your solar panels into AC power which can be fed directly into the grid, or used in your home appliances.

Off-grid and hybrid systems are much more complex because they involve both solar panels as well as battery storage. Multiple inverters are often required in these installations such as a solar inverter and sophisticated battery inverter/charger to manage both grid connection and the charging and discharging of the batteries. These advanced inverter/chargers are known as interactive or multi-mode inverters. However, in recent years a new type of inverter has become available which integrates solar and battery inverter technology into what is known as an all-in-one hv battery hybrid inverter.

A micro-inverter is a very small inverter that is attached to the back of a solar panel. A micro-inverter only converts the power of one or two solar panels to AC so generally many microinverters are required in a single system. Micro-inverters have several advantages over string inverters including performance, safety and monitoring, however the upfront cost can be significantly greater. For more details about micro-inverters, check out our micro-inverters article.

String solar inverters come in single phase and three phase versions although most residential homes in the US and Australia use single phase power, while many homes in Europe use 3-phase power, also all businesses and factories will have three phase power. As a general rule most String solar inverters between 1-6kW are single phase and greater than 6kW are usually three phase.

As home energy storage systems have surged in popularity a new kind of advanced Inverter has emerged known as an hybrid inverter. Hybrid inverters combines a solar inverter and battery inverter/charger into one simple unit. These inverters are a very economical way to enable what is known as ‘self-use’ or 'load shifting' of energy. Allowing you to store solar or off-peak energy in a battery to be used during peak times. Although it is important to know that some all-in-one inverters cannot function during a power outage such as when there is a blackout. They can also have limited functionality and monitoring capabilities.The traditional off-grid solar system uses a simple battery inverter that converters DC power from a battery bank to AC power to supply your home or appliances, these systems need separate battery chargers and regulators. There are more advanced versions of these battery inverters with built in chargers known as inverter/chargers. In recent years very advanced inverters have become available which are inverter/chargers with in-built generator control systems, advanced monitoring capabilities and other features, these are known as interactive or multi-mode inverters. They are typically used in conjunction with a solar inverter to create what is known as an AC coupled system. You can learn more about these and other hybrid inverter types here.

[shazzeaslightnovels]

August 2021

(Series: Danmachi | Artist: Suzuhito Yasuda)

No. of Reviews: 4

Confession: I’ve been on a Fate binge since June and it’s culminated in me turning into a fan. A bit of history: I watched the original Fate/Stay Night anime way back when I was a teenager and wasn’t much of a fan, though I couldn’t tell you exactly why; I think it was largely because I hated Shirou’s whole ‘girls shouldn’t fight spiel’. Also, I shipped Gilgamesh/Saber and I’m a little embarrassed about that now because yikes. I can only defend this by saying a) they had a compelling dynamic, b) they had a pretty aesthetic and c) I really hated Shirou at the time, and that’s all a teenager needs to ship a couple. Can’t say I feel the same way now. I remember liking the Fate/Zero anime more but still wasn’t a big fan of the franchise. I did play an English translation of the Fate/Stay Night game but didn’t enjoy it. I’m pretty sure I didn’t pay too much attention to it when I was reading it and I don’t think the stiff translation helped matters. I kind of remember watching the Unlimited Blade Works anime when it came out but I don’t remember my reaction to it and I doubt my teenage self paid much attention to it while watching. Years later, when I was learning Japanese, I would return to the franchise with Fate/Extra and CCC which I enjoyed a lot. I loved Nero and CCC had such a compelling story that I fell in love with. There was also a lot of funny jokes and the writing style was so good and I had only recently fallen in love with Utena at the time so I was a big fan of anything that took inspiration from it. I played Grand Order for a while, before the battery draining and time constraints became too much for me but I enjoyed bits of the story and plenty of the characters. Oh and I also read Mahoyo around this time, which shares some of the same staff as the Fate series but isn’t directly connected to it.

Now, back to the present: in June, I had Brave Shine by Aimer stuck in my head because I had read Lore by Alexandra Bracken which reminded me a lot of the Fate series and it was at the same time that AnimeLab was going to merge into Funimation so I was trying to watch the series that AnimeLab had that weren’t yet listed on Funimation and so I watched the 2006 Fate/Stay Night anime. I went with low expectations, but by the end, I was almost enjoying myself. The story and characters were interesting and I understood that my previous hatred for Shirou was a bit unfair and baseless, though I still couldn’t bring myself to like him. I was especially surprised by how compelling the dynamic between Shirou and Saber was with how similar they are. I found myself thinking, ‘I could enjoy this, if it wasn’t for the romance.’ It’s so bad and needless and the story would be so much better without it. I ended it not quite liking it but knowing that I could like it, if just a few things were different. After that I gave into my impulse that I’d had for a while and replayed Extra + CCC, this time with Tamomo and I had a blast. I love Nero but I think Tamomo’s fighting style makes the best use of the limited battle system. I also went on to the Grand Order wikia to see if any interesting new characters had been added to the game while I haven’t been keeping with it because I do find the history and myths parts of the series fascinating. Then, I watched Fate/Apocrypha at the end of June/start of July and I liked it well enough. Sieg is super boring and his romance with Jeanne is somehow even less convincing then the romance between Shirou and Saber but the animation, voice acting and music were all amazing and I liked most of the servants, especially Atalanta. It didn’t manage to fulfill it’s potential but I enjoyed it enough for what it was. Then I watched the Fate/Extra anime adaptation and was not a fan. I enjoyed a lot of the deviations from the original game but I think it could have had more deviations. The worst part of the game for me is near the end where the villain does a long monologue about their motivations and backstory and it’s so boring and needless and the anime kept it and I think it even made it longer. Also, I think Sakura should have been given a much bigger role, given CCC, instead of just showing up in the first episode. Plus, I think at the moment I am just not into Shaft’s often needlessly distracting visuals. At least Nero was amazing, as always. I did try to read the Prism Illya manga spin-offs but found them far too fetishistic to enjoy.

And that brings us to August, in which I played Fate/Stay Night Realta Nua for PS2. I had low expectations going into it but I was having a lot of fun by the end of Fate route. I finally was able to understand Shirou as a character and he ended being a fascinating one. Realta Nua adds in voices and simple animation that really make that action scenes even more exciting and the music was amazing. Hell, I even didn’t even hate the Shirou/Saber romance as much as I was expecting to. I didn’t completely buy it but having access to Shirou’s thoughts went a long way to making it feel natural. It was in the climax of Unlimited Blade Works route when I thought to myself, ‘Shit. I might actually like this. I might actually really like this.’ Developments kept on happening that I loved and Shirou’s became an even more fascinating character to me. He’s so well developed in a way that I really didn’t expect. Admittedly, I was a tad bit disappointed by Heaven’s Feel route after UBW but there was still some great character work, especially with Illya. I just felt like that route had way too many info-dumps, especially towards the end of the route where you’d think they’d stop introducing so many new plot points and the final action scene felt a bit unnecessary to me. It was still a good time but not as good as I was expecting. btw, my favourite route was UBW but Fate had my favourite ending as it felt like it wrapped up all the plot points nicest and there’s one character who survives in that ending but dies in the others so it made me the happiest. I had such a blast with the game overall and I’m so glad that I took the time to experience it.

The day after I finished Stay Night, I wanted more time with the characters so I watched Today’s Menu for Emiya Family. It was cute and relaxing which was what I was in the mood for but I do think that it could have been funnier. There were so many missed opportunities for jokes! For example, in the volleyball scene in episode 7, I kept on waiting for Archer to say something like ‘I am the bone of my volley ball’ or for Saber to belt out an ‘Ex-calibuuuuur’ but it didn’t happen which is such a missed opportunity. Also, the lack of Gil is disappointing. I still enjoyed it though for how fluffy and cute it was. After that, I ended up playing the Gil and Archer routes for Extra CCC and had fun with that. There were some surprising deviations in the story that made them worth the read.

I still have some Fate stuff that I want to get to, like Extella, Hollow Ataraxia and the UBW and HF anime adaptations, along with some of the light novels and manga so my journey into Fate is still ongoing but I guess I’d count myself as a fan of the franchise at this point.

List of Reviews:

Shokei Shoujo no Virgin Road 6

[Manga] Hamefura: Zettai Zetsumei! Hametsu Sunzen-hen 3

Danmachi 15

Hataraku Maou-sama! 14

Next month, I don’t believe there are any new releases I’m into next month so I’m going to try to get enough motivation to resubscribe to BookWalker but we shall see.

[smokeybrand]

Smokey brand Retrospective: Red Pill Me

Cinemacon has passed and there has been a lot of awesome sh*t revealed. On the top of that list, obviously, Spider-Man: Far From Home has me geeked to high heaven but there were a ton of other noteworthy reveals. There was some Batman reveals, a few Mission Impossible 7 and Top Gun 2 trailers, plus audiences ever got a surprise screening of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Now, that would be great on it's own but cats even got a little sizzle real for Matrix Resurrections: The long gestating fourth Matrix film. Apparently, this thing is releasing in December. I am lukewarm at best. I have fond memories of the Matrix trilogy as a whole but, since it’s final release some twenty years ago, the Wachowskis have been revealed to be one trick ponies. They kind of suck at film making. I mean, i liked Speed Racer but i just generally enjoy Speed Racer. It helped tremendously that Christina Ricci was Trixie, too, but everything after that was kind of balls. I also really like V for Vendetta but that’s not real their movie, they just adapted it. I guess you can say that about Speed Racer, too. Anyway, in light of there near Shyamalan-esque track record with their films, i wanted to revisit the first three Matrix films and see if they hold up, to try and muster some sense of excitement for what comes next.

The Matrix

Of the trilogy, this is easily the best film. Everything about it is exceptional. The Matrix was a whole ass shift in the cultural zeitgeist. It was a lot of people’s first experience with accessible cyberpunk and I'll always love it for that. I’ll also love it for normalizing Hong Kong style action sequences and giving us the most breathtaking application of Bullet Time I've seen to date. The Matrix s why the theater exists. If you’ve never seen this thing on the big screen, you missed out on something very special. I had just just turned thirteen when it released and checked it out at the dollar theater. I had only ever seen anything like this, in anime. Seeing all of my favorite Eighties OVAs filtered through the big budget Hollywood lens was incredible. I even like the rather pedestrian narrative. I think the story worked for what the movie was trying to do. It’s a shame the Wachowskis have tried to rewrite history about the narrative as of late. I understand the underlying themes of identity and sexuality but come on? That’s some college film theory bullsh*t that got tacked on after the fact. Now, if the original script is to be believed, then, yes, all of that, but what we got is not so profound. This is a basic Chosen One narrative with Dope ass effects that were ahead of it’s time.

A fr as the cast, what can i say? These motherf*ckers were perfect. Keanu Reeves as Neo was inspired. It’s wild to say that because dude is a plank but it works. He’s the POV character, he’s who you see that world through. Making him a blank slate so to speak, helps with immersion and that is a world you definitely wan to be immersed within. This was my first experience with Carrie-Ann Moss and I've loved her ever since. Her Trinity fast became one of my favorite characters and I'm actually pretty excited to see where she is in the new film. Lawrence Fishburne as Morpheus was an interesting choice. I wasn’t mad and it worked perfectly but it was weird seeing him in such an active, action oriented, role. That said, for me, this movie is made by Hugo Weaving. He is absolutely monstrous as Agent Smith. He’s got this scene chewing energy that mirrors Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa and we all know how much i love that Nazi f*ck so that’s really high praise. To this day, I've got his Humanity is a Virus speech memorized. It was just that f*cking good! The Matrix is an exquisite watch and it is absolutely mandatory viewing if you consider yourself a fan of cinema.

The Matrix Reloaded

Whoo, boy, talk about a drop in quality. Reloaded released four years later in 2003 and it screams Studio Mandate. I was a sprightly eighteen years old when this thing dropped and made it a point to see it opening day. I really enjoyed the first outing so i figured this one would be just as amazing. Indeed, i remember leaving the theater thinking to myself how decent of a sequel it turned out to be. It wasn’t better than the first but it didn’t sh*t the bed like most follow-ups do. Fast forward to present day and, after watching this thing again for the first time in probably fifteen years, it’s kind of f*cking bad. Like, as a cinematic experience, it’s pretty tight Everything is amped up. Tons more action, way more bombastic set pieces, stakes have been raised considerably; The Matrix Reloaded is everything you want in a summer blockbuster sequel. However, that’s it. Everything else is worse. The acting has become way too hammy and the new cast members fit into this narrative like a square peg in a round hole. Why is f*cking Niobe even in this thing? Who even is the Merovingian? Why is Mouse? The pacing is all over the place, too. Like, this thing stops dead in it’s tracks on several occasions but that’s not the worst of it.

The worst thing is the narrative. What the f*ck even is the story trying to be told in this movie? It doesn’t make any f*cking sense. The Matrix was, very obviously, a standalone film. That was a closed narrative. Neo’s story had been told. Everything after that is unnecessary. This movie is an exercise in the unnecessary. I appreciate all of how unchained and manic Smith is in this but, outside of that, what the f*ck was the point of this whole narrative? It’s filler. This movie is filler and it feels like it. The returning cast is serviceable and seeing Zion was interesting. I like how all the survivors are just sweaty black people. I literally hated everyone added to the cast though. Well, that’s not quite true. I rather enjoyed Collin Chou as Seraph. Dude was inconsequential but i love seeing Asian martial artists not name Li or Chan getting some shine. Also, Monica Bellucci is in this and i kind of just love her in general. Her Persephone is absolutely disposable but she looks damn fine in that plastic wrapped dress of hers. I literally can’t be bothered mentioning anyone else. They are that forgettable. This movie is that forgettable. And it’s arguably the best of the two sequels.

The Matrix Revolutions

Talk about going out with a thud. Man, i saw this with my best friend, rest in peace B, and we both hated it. He was an even bigger fan of The Matrix than i was so his disappointment was palpable. I’ll never forget his visceral reaction when that rainbow spread across the super happy Hollywood ending. Dude was hot and he had every right to be. The first Matrix set up this intriguing, immersive, world full of fanatic visuals, great piratical stunts, and a very through provoking premise. The second Matrix was your basic Hollywood sequel; More shine, less substance. But Revolutions? Man this is peak Wachowski fail. You saw hints of this messiah sh*t in the first, it’s literally a Chosen One narrative, but thy went all in on that sh*t in Reloaded. By the time Revolutions finished, this whole narrative was so far up it’s own ass, it didn’t know which way was up. It just f*cking ends. Everyone is dead and it’s over. The Wachowskis went heavy on the Jesus imagery, they were not subtle, and the f*cking conflict just ends. Robot don’t stop using people as batteries. Flesh and blood Humans still have to live in Zion. The only thing that’s changed is Neo’s dead and Agent Smith has been deleted. That’s it. The Matrix still exists, people are still trapped in it, and everything that happened in these films doesn’t f*cking matter. Literally right back at the start of the whole goddamn conflict. Revolutions is so f*cking disappointing, dude, by every measure of that metric.

Hugh Weaving is still pretty good as Smith and Keanu does his best imitation of white bread as Neo but, like, everything else is just so pedestrian. Plus, this thing is long. Like, unreasonably so. Why the f*ck is this movie two hours? The entire trilogy is kind of like that but it’s most egregious in this one. This story could be told in ninety minutes, just like Reloaded. Why the f*ck do i have an extra half hour of bullsh*t in this? Like, that whole “Neo Lost” arc was unnecessary, in both sequels. F*cking why? I don’t hate Revolutions. It’s not a “bad” film per say, it’s just disappointing. It’s the poster child for the law of diminishing returns. The Matrix Revolutions is the what happens when you let creatives with fresh egos, run amok with one hundred and fifty million f*cking dollars. So much spectacle but even less substance that Reloaded and that motherf*cker was a hollow mess. Still, The Matrix Revolutions is better than anything Michael Bay or Zack Snyder has ever made so i guess it’s got that going for it.

[thecostumeplot]

Episode 12: Cinderella (1997) & Mirror Mirror

Please consult these Instagram slideshows for accompanying images: Cinderella Mirror Mirror part 1, part 2 

Both  

Welcome to The Costume Plot.

Jojo

I'm Jojo Siu.

Sarah  

and I’m Sarah Timm. We're professional designers with a passion for costume design and the performing arts. Our podcast does contain spoilers.

Jojo

We hope you'll join us every other week as we delve into the wonderful world of costume design in The Costume Plot. [music]

Jojo

Hello!

Sarah  

Hi. Welcome back to The Costume Plot!

Jojo  

Yes, it's weird. We're talking about kind of coming back to normal episodes this month.

Sarah  

Yeah, we had no idea who was supposed to go first. [both laugh]

Jojo  

It's been so many weeks.

Sarah  

I know. We hope that this podcast finds you well.

Jojo  

We're finally going to get the COVID vaccine. So that's exciting. Some new developments.

Sarah  

Life maybe slowly getting back to some semblance of normal at some point soon, hopefully. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yes! And you're going back to work next week, Sarah, so that's exciting.

Sarah  

I'm going to be working on a filmed production at South Coast Rep, which is very exciting. There are a lot of rules for even getting in the building. And like, not eating when I'm inside and stuff.

Jojo  

Yeah, you know, the every day thing.

Sarah  

It's gonna be a challenge for me!

Jojo  

Absolutely.

Sarah  

I'm a snacker at work. So that's gonna be challenging. [both laugh]

Jojo  

I know, there's a snacker in all of us, right?

Sarah  

Especially, I mean, this is true on film sets, too. But at theaters, there's always a snack table full of goodies.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So there's not going to be that during COVID times.

Jojo  

It's our sustenance!

Sarah  

I know. How am I supposed to get by without like, 15 Oreos in my workday? [laughs]

Jojo  

I'm also-- I'm always more of a salty snack person. Like, I love Goldfish.

Sarah  

Oh, yeah.

Jojo  

It's so bad at home.

Sarah  

Salty in one hand. Sweet in the other. That's how I like to do it.

Jojo  

True. That's why those trail mixes are the best. Gives you a little bit of both.

Sarah  

Oh, yeah. I love a trail mix. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yeah. Gonna be a weird new normal.

Sarah  

Yeah, yeah, I am already dreading wearing a mask for eight full hours. Oh, I think I'm gonna bring multiple ones. So that it doesn't-- I feel like I'm gonna get acne on my chin. You know? Gross.

Jojo  

I've already experienced that a few times. It's just like, I need to not have this thing on my face for this long.

Sarah  

Or I need to remember to wash my face. Like as soon as I get home, you know, 'cause that's... that's gross.

Jojo  

It's a constant washing.

Sarah  

Yeah. So anyway!

Jojo  

Back to our podcast. [both laugh]

Sarah  

We wanted to do a quick reminder that we do have a YouTube channel. So if you're, you know, feeling limited by only looking at our pictures on Instagram, and following along there, you can go on YouTube and the full episodes are up. It's just the audio, but then it's a slideshow of all the pictures. So if that's how you prefer to listen then please go do that.

Jojo  

Yeah, it's it's a really nice way to be able to see the pictures pop up as we're talking about them as well. [beeping sound] So really easily followed along, which is nice.

Sarah  

I think my fire alarm just chirped. I hope it doesn't again.

Jojo  

Uh-oh, might need a battery change, maybe?

Sarah  

It's like... it's a fancy WiFi one. And it's like hooked up to my sister's... phone.

Jojo  

All right.

Sarah  

...Podcast!

Jojo  

So many distractions today. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Sorry!

Jojo  

It's been one of those mornings.

Sarah  

Yeah. Okay, so. So today's theme is fairy tales. And we're both really excited to talk about our movies. So let's just get into it.

Jojo  

Yeah!

Sarah  

Let's do it. Okay, so, you know by reading the title of the episode that I'm covering "Cinderella." I'm covering the 1997 TV movie.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Oh, my sister says it's a "monthly self test" that it does. Okay, great.

Jojo  

[laughs] That's good to know. I will say, I'm so glad that you're covering this version. I mean, I like the new version as well. But like, this is such a classic.

Sarah  

I was waffling between the two because I really do enjoy the Lily James, Kenneth Branagh live action one. But this one has been in the headlines recently because it just had an anniversary, and it just came to Disney+.

Jojo  

Yay!

Sarah  

So I was like, "well, it's it's the perfect time to cover it." And maybe I'll get to the other one eventually.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So yeah, let's see... it was directed by Robert Iscove, and the costumes are by our old friend, Ellen Mirojnick...

Jojo  

Yeah!

Sarah  

...whose name you might remember from the "Bridgerton" episode. I was really excited when I saw that. She clearly does excellent work.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And I looked at her IMDb to see what she's up to. And she's working on another "Cinderella". That's coming out this year, I think, and it has Camila Cabello in it.

Jojo  

Wow!

Sarah  

And I was like, "Why didn't I know they were making this?" [laughs]

Jojo  

I'm not sure how I feel about that. [laughs]

Sarah  

Me neither! People always be remaking "Cinderella," like there are never enough versions.

Jojo  

And I guess-- I guess the singing part of it will be great.

Sarah  

Well, I don't know if it's a musical. I mean, I assume it is if they have Camilla.

Jojo  

That's what I was thinking. Because I was like-- I'm assuming if they're putting a musician in there that they really want her to be able to sing well, but...

Sarah  

Yeah, I didn't read it to see if it's also the Rodgers and Hammerstein one or if it's like a Disney thing? I don't know.

Jojo  

That's so weird. I feel like they JUST came out with the other "Cinderella". But maybe that's my warped sense of time now. [laughs]

Sarah  

There's a lot-- I think, really, people just... they're really going for the nostalgia factor. And studios especially are like, "we know that this will sell tickets." So it's not a big gamble to do it.

Jojo  

That's true.

Sarah  

So like they always go with the safe one. Yeah, they know it'll sell tickets. And that's all they're thinking about, is money. So...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Anyway. So this is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. And it's the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was written for TV. And it was written for Julie Andrews, actually, she was in the original version in 1957, on CBS. And then it moved to stage after that, but it's had a couple more iterations on TV, it was done again in '65. And then this one in '97. And they added songs to this one, they added three songs that are actually-- I thought that they were written for this version, but they were actually borrowed from other Richard Rogers musicals, which is pretty funny. They're...

Jojo  

Interesting!

Sarah  

They weren't-- he was just like...

Jojo  

"I don't want to write something new." [laughs]

Sarah  

I didn't look to see if he was the one who was alive and said, "Yes, let's use them." Or if people were just like, "let's just borrow from his other work." So… Oh, and then this musical finally made it to Broadway in 2013, which is pretty late. And I saw it on its tour, and it was wonderful. I loved it. So-- and it has really beautiful transformation costumes, like magic quick-change costumes...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...and you can find some of them on YouTube, which is something I always want to do, is watch all of the transformations over and over again. [laughs]

Jojo  

All the magic moments.

Sarah  

It's... I have gotten to work on one magic quick-change dress, but nothing as big as the ones that are in that.

Jojo  

Yeah, it's pretty amazing seeing them.

Sarah  

There's-- it's like engineering, you know, it's a whole different side of costuming.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So, I have become sort of a Cinderella defender because this movie and the Kenneth Branagh one, especially, make her into a lot more interesting of a person than, say, the cartoon does. Also "Ever After," which is a great adaptation.

Jojo  

Oh, "Ever After" is so good. We'll have to cover that eventually, too.

Sarah  

Yes, yes. [both laugh] And then I'll cry about that white dress.

Jojo  

We'll just do another Cinderella episode. [both laugh] All the different versions of.

Sarah  

Like, "it's Cinderella year, we're only covering Cinderellas this year," and then we would never run out because there's so many.

Jojo  

[laughs] It's true.

Sarah  

I really like how she's-- she's basically an abuse survivor, right? So this one and the Kenneth Branagh one, and "Ever After" make her into this radically kind person who stays positive even though she's faced a lifetime of mistreatment. And she wants to find love, but it's because she wants someone to see her and appreciate her for who she is.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Not because she wants to be rescued, but just because she knows her own value, and she's waiting for somebody else to finally see it.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So I think that's wonderful.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Okay, moving into the costumes. This is the legendary Bernadette Peters as the step mom, and then the two step sisters. And you can see right away that this is a very colorful world. It seems to have no time period or setting, geographically. It's really just pure fantasy, which is fun. You can do whatever you want. It's just like a crazy mishmash of all of these styles. This is Calliope, the taller sister.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

She has a hobble skirt on, which is so named because you can only hobble in it, you can't really walk because it's so narrow. [laughs] And the step mom has one under this crazy tiered skirt too.

Jojo  

I love it.

Sarah  

This fabric looks maybe like velvet like upholstery fabric, almost.

Jojo  

Yeah, it really does.

Sarah  

So this is telling us-- it opens, basically, with these people. And it's like-- this tells us this world is crazy. It's fantasy. It's drama, you know, colorful. And then we have Cinderella who is... I couldn't get a lot of great shots of her in this because she's carrying huge packages for the whole scene. [both laugh] I have a... see, nope. That. That's it.

Jojo  

Oh yeah.

Sarah  

It's like a loose knit cardigan over just a very simple sort of muslin-colored dress. So this is a situation where everybody else is so crazy that she stands out because she's so plain, you know.

Jojo  

Right. I do love this color palette on her, too.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Like that really nice rust red.

Sarah  

Yes. So conveniently, the prince is also wearing that color in this first scene, which is a funny scene, because they're singing the exact same song pretending like they don't see each other. [both laugh] But they're, like, inches apart.

Jojo  

Yeah. Less than the socially distanced six feet. [both laugh]

Sarah  

And then they turn and see each other. It's like, he was literally right next to you this whole scene. So funny.

Jojo  

That's usually how musicals go, though. It's so improbable, but we just believe it anyways.

Sarah  

Yes, suspension of disbelief, and also it's shot in fullscreen. So the frame is small. So like, for two people to be together, they have to be quite close. [laughs]

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Yeah. So I like that they're both wearing the same color. You know, it tells us that they're-- they want the same thing. They're destined for each other.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I love his sort of-- I mean, this is his outfit in disguise. Like, people aren't going to realize that he's the prince because he's, what, because he's wearing a shirt and pants? [both laugh] He didn't even do a Jasmine-style cloak.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

You know, he was just like, "they won't recognize me if I'm not wearing brocade." [both laugh] I don't know.

Jojo  

Maybe it's the lack of embroidery and texture on his costume.

Sarah  

Yeah, I mean, when you see what the royal family wears, I suppose it makes sense. But you would think that since this whole-- the kingdom, the village, seems to be so obsessed with him, and the fact that he later gives the ball, they would know what his face looks like.

Jojo  

Right, right.

Sarah  

That's okay. More suspension of disbelief.

Jojo  

[laughs] I guess it's not like they had TV or, you know, things where they could actually see his face plastered all over media all the time.

Sarah  

That's true. That's true. Maybe they've only seen illustrations.

Jojo  

Right, right. [both laugh] Pencil sketches, you know, a little-- little stick figure drawings.

Sarah  

Okay, so this is our king and queen, Victor Garber and Whoopi Goldberg, having a ball. You can tell everybody loved making this movie, which is like... that's always fun.

Jojo  

[laughs] It's been a while since I've seen Whoopi Goldberg in something.

Sarah  

I know, I love her.

Jojo  

I do .

Sarah  

I think they greenlit "Sister Act 3," which--

Jojo  

They did?!

Sarah  

I think... I remember seeing it on Twitter or something when it happened. I hope it happens because "Sister Acts" 1 and 2 are literally in my top 10 movies. [both laugh]

Jojo  

I do love them so much. So good.

Sarah  

So I love their color palette. You know, again, very bright. This hot pink thing on Victor Garber is so fun. And I read a little bit... I found a scan of a page from the book "The Art of Disney Costuming" that talked very briefly about this movie. And apparently they didn't have that big of a budget. And I think that you wouldn't know that unless you were told, you know, because the fabrics look very luxurious. Nothing looks cheap, I would say... for the most part. [both laugh]

Jojo  

There's there's a few exceptions.

Sarah  

Yeah, I mean, all looks pretty darn good. But it's funny because they actually-- most of the characters, at the end of the movie, go back to what they're wearing at the beginning. So they kind of recycle the first looks into their-- so most of the characters have two outfits, maybe three.

Jojo  

Okay.

Sarah  

So that's kind of where we can see that there's not a lot of budget.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

But I like sort of the sari fabric that Victor Garber has on. And here's a wide shot where you can see it's nice and long.

Jojo  

That is almost like an Indian coat.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Very Indian inspired.

Sarah  

Yeah. And I think that using sari fabrics and using fabrics that have a metallic or an interesting pattern is an easy way to make things look luxurious without having to put a ton of trim or crystals on it. You know what I mean?

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Yeah, so I think they look great. Whoopi Goldberg wearing burgundy velvet. I love the natural hairstyle she has. Very good, very good. No notes. Looks great.

Jojo  

[both laugh] No notes.

Sarah  

So here we have the stepmother during the "prince is giving a ball" scene, and she looks cuckoo-bananas in this scene. I mean, everybody does.

Jojo  

Look at that floating thing around her head!

Sarah  

Yeah!

Jojo  

It's so great.

Unknown Speaker  

It's like a sheer sort of shawl. Except she's also wearing this large headpiece, which, don't worry, I have a picture of it.

Jojo  

Oh my goodness.

Sarah  

There it is. It looks like clock hands? Like, wacky clock hands.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Doesn't it?

Jojo  

Like all stapled together. [both laugh]

Sarah  

I think it's great.

Jojo  

She looks very-- for some reason, she just makes me think of Ursula. Like, I feel like these are things that she could have collected from the bottom of the sea and just fashioned into a little headdress. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Oh man, I love that visual. It's hilarious.

Jojo  

Maybe it's also that she's wearing that purple high necked collar.

Sarah  

Yeah, she does wear a good amount of purple. She does. So yeah, that's a fun look.

Jojo  

It's beautiful.

Sarah  

Yeah, I like this purple fabric. Once again, looks sort of Indian-esque.

Jojo  

Yeah, it's got that Indian trim  that's typically on the sari, as well. And then the small gold embroidery.

Sarah  

Oh, I don't have a picture of him. But I wrote down in my notes, "Jason Alexander doing the same inscrutable accent as the stylist in 'The Princess Diaries.'" Because he's doing this weird-- it sounds like New York, Brooklyn, and then it sounds vaguely European. It's, it's like nothing. It's just an accent but--

Jojo  

Whyyyy?

Sarah  

--it's not a real accent. [both laugh] It's pretty funny. So here we have the step family once again. And this is when they're getting ready to go to the ball. And I love that their, basically, dressing gowns and underwear are as exciting and interesting as their actual clothes. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Yep.

Sarah  

One thing I didn't appreciate is, once again, there's a tight lacing scene. Because we always have to have one of those. And it was on Minerva, who is the shorter curvier sister and I was like, "okay, of course the curvy one is the one who has to be squeezed into a corset."

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Of course. Yeah, I love how elaborate this is. Like, this petticoat  she has is so many different fabrics and it's really voluminous and fun. And then I-- the other, the taller sister, is very Carol Burnett. She looks like Carol Burnett the whole movie. It's like she's doing an impression of her.

Jojo  

I love that a headdress that she's got going on. It's almost like she layered multiple shower caps onto it and like just attached them. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yeah, it's like a bonnet? I guess.

Jojo  

Oh, okay.

Sarah  

I don't know... for like, you know, people wear to sleep or to put over their curlers.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

That's kind of the vibe it's giving me?

Jojo  

I love it. [laughs]

Sarah  

I love this peachy-apricot color of Minerva's outfit.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I think it's really nice. Okay, and then Calliope's is like-- it looks like burnout velvet, maybe?

Jojo  

Yeah, that's what I was gonna say. It's almost got a slightly 1920s vibe to it.

Sarah  

Yeah! Yeah.

Jojo  

Like those draped... they're not really dresses. They're more kinda like capes, I guess?

Sarah  

Yeah, where it has sort of the the swag shape of like a... yeah, I know what you're talking about.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Also their house... is INSANE looking. Like, it looks like a Disneyland ride. [both laugh] It's wild.

Jojo  

Like, look at that wallpaper  and that weirdly shaped door..[both laugh]

Sarah  

It's... this whole movie is so fun. I-- it used to be on YouTube. And I watched it many times on YouTube. I think we watched it once in the shop at Fullerton, because--

Jojo  

I'm pretty sure... I feel like I walked in when that happened, with Rachel's class probably.

Sarah  

[both laugh] Yeah. That's the best, I love watching movies at work.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Okay. So now we are going to the ball. And here is Bernadette in purple again. This costume is so pretty. It's very much... so this is '97, so you can kind of see the '97-ness in some of the silhouettes.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I think that the volume starting at the hip instead of the waist is pretty-- it's very late 90s, early 2000s to me because like--

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I remember formal dresses at the time looking like that.

Jojo  

It's like almost a slightly dropped waist.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Which I always hated because I was like, "I'm too short for this." Like, "this is so unflattering on my body." [laughs]

Sarah  

Oh yeah, I have a pretty good hourglass, and then-- but dresses like that, I always felt like just kind of emphasized my belly. And made me look like I have a really long torso, so...

Jojo  

Right, right.

Sarah  

It's not my favorite silhouette on me.

Jojo  

Maybe for someone taller. [laughs]

Sarah  

Other people. Yep. And then here's a close up of her bodice and her jewelry. I think it's... I don't know how I feel. I think it's beautiful. But I also there's something about it that I can't quite articulate what what it's making me think, or how it's making me feel.

Jojo  

I feel like there's a very, almost-- maybe it is a very 90s thing, but there is a little bit of that craftiness that feels almost kind of kitschy?

Sarah  

Yes.

Jojo  

So I think it is bordering on that like, not not quite bad, but it could go really bad. [laughs]

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She walks a fine line with this design. Let's just say that. [laughs]

Sarah  

I feel like from far away it looks really good and expensive. And then when you zoom in, it looks a little bit like the stones are kind of hot glued on willy-nilly.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

You know what I mean?

Jojo  

It's like some mom decided to craft her own dress and decided she needed more jewels and got her Bejeweler set out. [both laugh]

Sarah  

The jewelry is very interesting. It looks like... I wonder if it's metal or if it's something else. It looks almost like gold plastic to me.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I don't know if that's true. I'm sorry to the people who made it, if it's not true.

Jojo  

[laughs] That could have been the effect too, though. Because, you know, I mean, there is something said about how she is trying to... I don't want to say "create this character," but she wants to look richer than she actually is. And maybe her version of-- it's kind of like how I feel about "Bridgerton," there's that mom who... her and her three daughters are in that really ugly kind of chartreuse color. And they're supposed to look kind of over the top and exaggerated and a little like they crafted everything themselves even though it's way too much for everybody else.

Sarah  

Right. It is unclear to me-- like, there's not a lot of background in this movie because it's only an hour and 20 minutes or whatever. So it's not clear if the step family is rich or if they are so desperate to marry the prince because they need to raise their status.

Jojo  

Right right.

Sarah  

Not sure. Not sure. I do like it from far away though, I love the swirls. I think it's very fun and fantasy.

Jojo  

It definitely looks much more luxurious from far away.

Sarah  

Yeah. And so here we have the sisters at the ball. And I love Minerva-- well, I love both of these dresses. But I love Minerva's especially, because it's this iridescent lamé that is just so pretty and sparkly. I have a second picture where you can kind of see the skirt.

Jojo  

[laughs]

Sarah  

I know.

Jojo  

I love this shot.

Sarah  

Oh, this picture is bad quality. [both laugh] Whoops. I like it too much, I'm gonna keep it.

Jojo  

Oh, that's pretty great.

Sarah  

I love-- it's iridescent organza and lamé just layered on top of each other. I think it's so cool. And then Calliope's is like this crazy lampshade thing, which was probably really difficult to make--

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

-- but looks really cool. Oh, and the makeup in this movie is also very, very late 90s. Like, you can't really see it in these pictures. But they have full Bonnie Bell glitter gel highlights. And I'm like, "Oh my god, that was me." [both laugh]

Jojo  

I remember that from-- I do remember that from the when Brandy's character comes out at the end. Doesn't she have a whole bunch of glitter on her cheek too?

Sarah  

In her wedding dress? She may, I didn't get any pictures of it.  

Jojo  

Or maybe I'm thinking of Whitney Houston.

Sarah  

Yeah, I think... Brandi actually, I wrote in my notes that her makeup stays pretty matte the whole time. It's not very glossy, not a lot of dewiness, very matte eyeshadow. Very thin eyebrows, you know.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Very 90s. I have a couple pictures later on of the ensemble at the ball. And they are so different from what these step family are wearing. So they really stand out. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Because they look cuckoo. Okay, so next is Whitney Houston.

Jojo  

Ahh, Whitney Houston.

Sarah  

And she produced this movie, which is fun. I heard that she originally wanted to play Cinderella herself and then she was like, "Oh, wait, that might not be a good idea. I might not be the right age." [both laugh] That might just be a rumor though.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So I have complicated feelings about this costume. I think that it is kind of cheap looking?

Yeah.

It's effective. I like the fabric choice, it's kind of sparkly. But I think that the embellishment on it could look more expensive than it does.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I think it looks a little bit like-- if you're gonna use stones like this, especially on camera, they should be nice ones. They look kind of plasticky, and not--

Jojo  

This almost gives me the same effect as Bernadette's...

Sarah  

Right!

Jojo  

...front dress. It's it's kind of this hot glued on, giant Michaels gemstones, like... [both laugh] very kitschy.

Sarah  

Right. A little bit, as my friend Erik would say, "Becky Home Ecky." [both laugh]

Jojo  

Yes.

Sarah  

Yeah, so I like the actual dress and her little cape that is attached to her fingers is cute.

Jojo  

I'm trying to figure out what this material is. Because in that last shot, it almost looks like-- it almost looks like latex. I think just because of the way that it's kind of see through and stretched over her bust.

Sarah  

Yeah. It's very shiny.

Jojo  

Yeah. Because in your second image, I can't tell if it's transparent or not? It doesn't look as transparent here. But with the other shot, because you can actually see the neck line...

Sarah  

Oh, look at this. Look, it has a pattern in it.

Jojo  

Ooooh, interesting.

Sarah  

I-- my guess would be... I feel like I had clothes made of stuff like this in the 90s and early 2000s. Sort of like polyester-y, stretchy, very slinky?

Jojo  

Yeah, it's like that cheap, spandexy kind of... I think I know you're talking about

Sarah  

Yeah, and I think it is sheer. I think it's two layers.

Jojo  

Okay.

Sarah  

Yeah, you can kind of see right here in the skirt that it looks like it may be a layer of sheer on top of another layer.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I think that sort of the holographic sparkle effect is cool.

Jojo  

Could be, yeah, yeah, definitely.

Sarah  

But yeah, it's the embellishment that is problem.

Jojo  

They're also in kind of random places.

Sarah  

[both laugh] Yeah! Like...

Jojo  

Like, I'm curious what the goal was for how she laid those out.

Sarah  

Yeah, and the shapes are confusing, too. I mean, look, the wall next to her has the same shapes! [both laugh] I don't-- was this a trend, 'cause...

Jojo  

Match your wallpaper. [laughs]

Sarah  

It almost reminds me of home decor from a certain era?

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

Do you know what I mean? Like, triangles and swirls were like sort of kooky decor?

Like, the geometric shapes.

Yeah, I... it's just a bit confusing. But I had a second sort of thought. Oh, I will say, I think this could be greatly improved with some Swarowskis...

Jojo  

Yes!

Sarah  

...but there are not many outfits that couldn't be. I do like how different she is, because everybody else on screen looks so cuckoo-bananas, that she comes in this streamlined silhouette. This all one color.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

You know? With this beautiful hair. And I think it really is sort of like a... she's sort of like a visual break from all of the insanity that everybody else is wearing. So I do like...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...I do like that, that she looks so different. And that helps her look more magical. And ethereal.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Good job, Whitney Houston.

Sarah  

Yeah, I mean, she's great in this role. She's great. Okay, so let's talk about Cinderella's dress finally. Beautiful.

Jojo  

Ugh! So beautiful.

Sarah  

There are so many iterations of Cinderella's, you know, classic blue or silver dress at the ball.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And this one is very of its time, you know, it's very late 90s.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

But I think it's very effective. It's... I had to kind of think about the fact that at the time in the late 90s there weren't nearly as many Cinderellas as there are now. So it had probably been quite a while since people had seen a live action Cinderella. So it needed to be something really fresh and exciting and of the time for it to make an impact. And also, it's exciting that she is black so that makes its own statement too.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

And so it's like she's a-- you know, everything was all about the new millennium. She's like a Cinderella for the new millennium, the Y2K era. [laughs]

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

So I think it's really pretty. It's really simple but it's very pretty. She's got crystals.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

This is where they spent their crystal budget.

Jojo  

Probably why they didn't have enough leftover for Whitney Houston! [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yes. And then here's her makeup, you can see. Like I said, very matte, just-- only blue, super thin brows, but she looks beautiful.

Jojo  

Also very 90s though. You know, it's like that really high contrast light blue eyeshadow was very common at that time.

Sarah  

Mmhmm. It's not as-- like, I think that makeup got a lot frostier, maybe the year 2000-ish. Because I...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I associate early 2000s makeup with really metallic and frostiness. But she doesn't have any of that.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. Yeah.

Sarah  

This is the-- this picture is from the "Art of Disney Costuming" book. So it's a nice shot of the silhouette from the side. I like how the bodice extends in the back.

Jojo  

Mmhmm. I do love that.

Sarah  

The sleeve detail is really pretty, love that. It's sort of got-- this little swag shape is sort of maybe a reference to sort of classic princess gowns, you know. Very pretty.

Jojo  

It's the little details.

Sarah  

Oh, yeah, I wrote "it fits her perfectly," because it does. Yeah, I think it's really nice. I wrote in my notes, "I think it's okay." And I think I've warmed up to it a little bit more since I took that note. [both laugh]

Jojo  

The longer you stare at it, the more it grows on you.

Sarah  

Yeah, I think it's really pretty. So here's the ensemble at the ball.

Jojo  

Ooh!

Sarah  

And this is interesting, because if they didn't have that much of a budget, that makes me go, "where did they get all these dresses that are identical to each other?"

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

I mean, in this shot, obviously, they're not identical. But like--

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

--everybody at the ball is wearing the same colors. So it's a variation of purpley-blue-turquoisey. And then we have Cinderella in very pale blue.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

So it makes me wonder if they found all these gowns somehow, or if they just outsourced them.

Jojo  

I wonder if Ellen maybe had some sort of connection with a prom house or something like that.

Sarah  

Maybe, yeah.

Jojo  

Because that way they have-- you know, they have all the colors, and all the kind of nearby colors in one section. And they do some sort of a studio rental or something.

Sarah  

Yeah, maybe they purchased-- because it looks like a lot of them have sort of like a tulle overlay. So maybe it's like they purchased them and then added a bunch of tulle to kind of marry them all together.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

I grabbed this one because it has sort of a celestial star pattern on the skirt.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

On the left there. And then all the men are in sort of blue-purple tux, suit, things.

Jojo  

It's a really nice color palette for sure.

Sarah  

Yeah. You know, it does what we always talk about, which is: the leads really stand out, because everybody else is wearing the same colors. So I was really good, and I edited my pictures down. I have no pictures of the prince. I'm sorry.

Jojo  

It's real hard. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yeah! I really wanted to talk about the ensemble and all the dresses, so I cut him. I'm sorry. You look very handsome. Okay, so I have some pictures of feet. [both laugh] Just to close out.

Jojo  

Some pictures of feet.

Sarah  

For all you fans... of feet.

Jojo  

Look at those stockings!

Sarah  

I know! So I like-- this is the scene where the glass slipper is being tried on all around the kingdom, and it's like a parade of really cute tights.

Jojo  

Mmhmm.

Sarah  

That's why I pulled all these, because they're all so cute. And this is only three, and there's so many.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

I hate the glass slipper. I hate it.

Jojo  

Yeah, it's super ugly. [laughs]

Sarah  

It looks like a loafer made of clear vinyl. [both laugh]

Jojo  

You're right, it doesn't really have very much of a nice sleek shape, which is what you'd expect.

Sarah  

It doesn't look like glass. It looks like Lucite or vinyl. I think the only live action glass slippers I've enjoyed are... the one in the new one. But it was heavily CGI'ed.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

They made them, I think they made them, and they look really like faceted crystal.

Jojo  

Uh huh.

Sarah  

And then I like the version in "Ever After," where it's kind of just like the heel is glass. And then the rest of it is really beaded silver. It's like a mule.

Jojo  

I have to rewatch the movie, but yeah, I think I know what you're talking about.

Sarah  

Yeah. And then when they do it on stage, a it's sort of like a stripper heel. But it's really crystaled. So I think that crystals really help sell the sort of...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

...sparkly glass thing. This is like... not it. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Especially when you're zooming in that close to actually look at the slipper up close. It's like, you really want it to look dazzling. And this just does not do that.

Sarah  

Also, I don't have any pictures of it, but just imagine just Brandy's feet in these. She wasn't wearing tights. It's just like... toes. [laughs]

Jojo  

"It's just like... toes!" [laughs]

Sarah  

It's just like, "Welcome to my toes."

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

It doesn't look expensive. I'm sorry Ellen Mirojnick, I don't like them. [laughs] I just don't.

Jojo  

At that point, you might have as well wear, you know, flip flops, or like...

Sarah  

Well...!

Jojo  

If we're gonna see your toes anyway.

Sarah  

That transitions me into this, which is the shoes that Brandy takes off to put it on at the end of the movie. This is just like a full Walmart house slipper. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Yep. I think I have those slippers.

Sarah  

I've bought these for shows where we have an old lady character.

Jojo  

Yeah, exactly.

Sarah  

Who shuffles around her house.

Jojo  

Oh, that's so funny.

Sarah  

I think it's kind of hilarious. And I want-- I would love to talk to someone about how they arrived at these.

Jojo  

Talk to me, someone. [both laugh]

Sarah  

I'd like to know why.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

And my sister was like, "Maybe they didn't like whatever option they had," because earlier in the movie, she's wearing boots. And then she was like, "What if they grabbed these from Brandy's trailer," or from the costuming department, because they were like, "We need something she can just slide on and off really quick!"

Jojo

Right. It also makes me wonder, because, you know, a lot of the thing has to do with sometimes the shoe size you're working with. Because like-- I mean, I don't know what Brandy's shoe size is, but sometimes that can be difficult too. It's like, you'll find all these cool shoes that you want or that you wish you had, but then they don't come in the size of your actor. Or if your actor has particularly big feet, it's a lot harder to find a dainty looking shoe, or a dainty looking something-or-other that they can slip off. You know, that doesn't look like this. [laughs]

Right.

Jojo  

So wonder, you know, I wonder if part of it might have also been shoe size, or just, you know, the options of shoes at that time. Because I feel like nowadays, we've really come into a moment where we're really honing in on designing shoes in a very intricate way. And I-- not that they didn't have cool shoes back then. But I feel like, you know, the manufacturing might have been different back in the 90s.

Sarah  

Well, and they didn't have Amazon Prime. So...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...maybe it was a timing issue where they were like, "Shoot, none of the shoes that we bought for this scene are working." She can't take it off fast enough, or...

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

...it looks wrong on camera.

Jojo  

And we can't order something that'll arrive tomorrow.

Sarah  

Yeah, so they were like, "Run down to CVS and see if you can find some slippers." Or "go to the wardrobe trailer where they have slippers for people and just grab some," you know.

Jojo  

Right.

Sarah  

Like, it could have been, it could be... I just want to know. I just want to know what happened.

Jojo  

Just tell us!

Sarah  

Or if this was very intentional, and they were like, "Yeah, she's wearing house shoes because that's what people wear around the house." I don't know. [both laugh]

Jojo  

I mean, I guess in this house where there's so much crazy over exaggeration, it wouldn't be that far fetched.

Sarah  

Right! And it-- okay, I'm cautious to say this as a white person. But I know that a lot of people associate this kind of slipper with their black grandma. It seems sort of like... I don't know, I mean, my grandma wears shoes like this around the house too. So I don't know if it's-- if it's an intentional... if it's made to make us think about that, or...

Jojo  

Right, right.

Sarah  

...if it truly is just like, "This is what we had." I don't know. I don't know.

Jojo  

[laughs] So many questions. This is another one of those where we just need to bring Ellen Mirojnick on this podcast.

Sarah  

I know! Ellen, if you're listening, please get in contact with us. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Please answer our troubles and our woes. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Yeah, I mean, I imagine that they didn't intend for anybody to pull the screencap out and talk about the house shoes for five minutes...

Jojo  

True!

Sarah  

...but it's happened, so you can't stop us. [both laugh]

Jojo  

It's already out there.

Sarah  

Yep. So that's it for "Cinderella." Please watch it on Disney+, it's a delight. I think that... I am a Rodgers and Hammerstein super fan, and I think that it's a really sort of under-appreciated Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. I loved the 60s version when I was a kid and now I want to watch it again. And see...

Jojo  

I don't know if I've ever seen the 60s version.

Sarah  

I don't remember a lot of it. I remember that a lot of it looks like it was filmed indoors even when they're supposed to be outdoors. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Like, indoors in a studio? Or like, just in someone's house indoors? [laughs]

Sarah  

No, like a studio.

Jojo  

Oh, okay.

Sarah  

Like, sets that were made to look sort of outdoorsy, but they are not fooling anybody.

Jojo  

Ohhhh.

Sarah  

That kind of vibe. [both laugh] I wonder if it's out there. I wonder if it's on YouTube anywhere. But yeah, so...

Jojo  

I'm sure.

Sarah  

Watch it. It's a great hour and 20 minutes. And that's... that's it for me.

Jojo  

Yay, so exciting! Thanks, Sarah.

Sarah  

You're welcome! [laughs]

Jojo  

Okay, I will pull up... did we need to take a water break? Or you're doing okay?

Sarah  

I think I'm okay. Are you good?

Jojo  

I'm doing good.

Sarah  

I'm so excited.

Jojo  

Me too! Okay, so I'm super excited to be covering "Mirror Mirror."

This is another movie/live action that's been done quite a few times in multiple different varieties: the story of Snow White. I do love the way that this particular film, kind of similar to what you said with Cinderella--or your version of Cinderella--where they really emphasized kind of the strength of Snow White, and almost her independence. Whereas in the original Disney movie, she's a little bit-- I mean, this was their first Disney movie that they ever released, you know.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

I mean, cartoon, I should say.

Sarah  

Yep.

Jojo  

But, so her-- I think that time period, her character was not as as strong as we see women today. So I love that this version really emphasizes Snow White being able to do things on her own and being able to fight her own battles. And even though there is a love story involved and there is the Evil Queen, it's very much about her kind of finding her own strength and discovering that.

Sarah  

That's awesome.

Jojo  

So I really love that about this version of Snow White. This particular movie is absolutely a visual feast. It is one of my favorite costume designers. And I'll talk a little bit more about the release first. So, it was released in 2012. So not too long ago. The director was Tarsem Singh, who-- he's actually worked with the costume designer, that I'll talk about in a second, quite a few times. So this was their fourth movie together. I believe he's an Indian director who did, if you don't know-- "Emerald City" is one of the newer shows that he's doing about Oz, which I haven't seen, but I'm very excited because I just love Wizard of Oz stuff. He also did "The Cell" with Jennifer Lopez, "Immortals." And then one of his greatest passion projects, which I had to watch in grad school class, but it is the most beautiful movie I've ever seen... it's called "The Fall."

Sarah  

I have heard of-- I know the costumes for "The Fall." I've never seen it, but...

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

... I've seen pictures.

Jojo  

Oh my gosh, it's just it's a beautiful movie. It's actually... they say it's his passion project, because it literally took him, I think, like 10 years to to film it.

Sarah  

Oh my god.

Jojo  

Just because-- and that they were constantly, you know, running out of budget and running out of everything. But again, it's just so visually breathtaking. And that's very characteristic of a lot of his work, which is also why he continually works with the costume designer. So Eiko Ishioka, who's... she's Tokyo born, she actually started out as a graphic designer, but again, she's literally done all of these movies with him. So she did "The Cell" with him, she did "Immortals," she did "The Fall." And then of course, "Mirror Mirror." And I'm a little sad about this because "Mirror Mirror" was actually her swan song project. And she passed before she even got to finish the movie, or before it even got released. Which is, you know, very sad for all of us who lost her because she was such a visionary in terms of costumes, and you can definitely see the graphic design quality of her work. She also won the Oscar for Bram Stoker's "Dracula." So it was the newest version of the movie with Gary Oldman, and Winona Ryder, which is beautiful, if you haven't seen that, that's another great one. And then she also got nominated for a Tony for "Madame Butterfly." So she's kind of done, dabbled a little bit in a bunch of different things. But again, like I said, this was her final project. And what a beautiful project it is. I really love this particular movie, because one of the things I did want to talk about in particular was that this movie really showcases how costumes can really be about evoking an emotion, as opposed to just about the storytelling, because there's a lot of kind of impractical storytelling things that happen in this movie. A lot of the costumes don't necessarily make sense in like, a logical way, when we talk about why she's wearing certain colors or why she's wearing certain shapes and silhouettes. But, boy, you're going to be staring at how beautiful those costumes are. [laughs] And I think Eiko really paid attention to what her costumes look like against the backdrop in addition to just looking at, you know, what she's actually designing. And so just to give you a little bit of background about the sheer amount and number of costumes that she worked with... and I think she she tended to do this with a lot of her pieces. She worked on a really grand scale, and she knew how to do that very well. And she also was just one of those people who she kind of either went 100% or 110% full throttle or she did zero so...

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

...there was never really an in between for her, which is one of the things her director said about her after she passed. So the costumes were made in a combination of places; her shop in Montreal. It was also a combination of New York's Tricorn Costumes, Jennifer Love Costumes, Corelli Costumes, and Eric Winterland Costumes. Most of these places, I have no idea where they are. But I assume a lot of them are in New York, other than her shop in Montreal, of course. So then, in total, she had 400 costumes custom made for "Mirror Mirror."

Oh my god. 400?!

And then she had over 600 costumes that were rented and altered for "Mirror Mirror." Like, that's ridiculous. I can't even begin to talk about how many costumes that is. Like, we talked about the sheer amount of costumes in "Bridgerton"... this... this just overshadows that completely.

Sarah  

And this is one movie, and "Bridgerton" is a 10 episode show. That's crazy! [laughs]

Jojo  

Exactly! So it's like, the fact that, you know-- if you're going to make this your swan song, this is going to be the one. So anyways, I just wanted to start with all that copious amount of information about her costumes. [laughs]

Sarah  

She's a legend.

Jojo  

Alright, so I'll start with the-- this is kind of in order in the film. So of course, we see Snow White first in her princess dress. And one of the things that Eiko Ishioka talked about when she wanted to create this costume was that she wanted to tie Snow White in with nature. And it specifically is more seen in the beginning, I think. And of course, she's covered in these flowers. Her time period--because this isn't really set in a specific time period--it goes anywhere from the Renaissance, all the way up to probably the late 18th century. So you'll see a variety of different silhouettes, but again, because there's not a specific time period, and because this is such a fantastical environment, she really had pretty much free rein to kind of do whatever she wanted. So this particular one has a little bit more of a Renaissance silhouette. We've got kind of the the Tudor era little... petals? For her peplum?

Sarah  

Yeah, little tabs.

Jojo  

Yeah, the little tabs that she's got on her bodice, and then this skirt shape as well as is very Renaissance. Alright, so we've gone over this, she has a lot of florals on her dress and all over the top. It's weird because it almost feels like part of it is peeling off. And I don't know if that was intentional, or if they just use a fabric stamp or... curious. Who knows, that'll be a question, I guess, one day when I meet Ishioka again. [both laugh]

Sarah  

In... in heaven? [both laugh]

Jojo  

Okay, so this next one, there's a lot of kind of animal creatures that she uses in... there's a particular ball scene where she has everyone dressed in these beautiful dresses, and then she has them each having some sort of animal equivalent. So they have some sort of animal headdress. So this is actually from the ball scene. But Nathan Lane also plays kind of the assistant, very downtrodden assistant, to Julia Roberts, who is our Evil Queen. But I loved this outfit, because I wanted to emphasize the fact that his coat has actually been made to just stand out very much like a cockroach. And spoiler alert, he does get turned into a cockroach for a short period of time later on. So I love that she's already kind of given us this hint that he's gonna turn into a bug and that he already is kind of the bug of the piece because he's so abused the whole time.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

And he's kind of like that bug that you just want to get out of the way. And I think Julia Roberts definitely treats him like that the entire time.

Sarah  

Aww.

Jojo  

So it works very well. Moving on.

Sarah  

Oh my gosh.

Jojo  

So this is the first dress that we see Julia Roberts in. So one of the things that I love about how well Ishioka has thought about this is that she's really thought about the entire big picture of this film. It's not just about how beautiful all these details are. She's really paying attention to how the colors of the characters really line up with each other. And I'll talk a little bit about this as I go through, but I love that she constantly has kind of parallel moments in both Snow White and the Queen's life happening in very similar--or pretty much the same--colors. So obviously this is her first appearance and you see that kind of same peach that Snow White is wearing reflected in the peach dress that's worn by Julia Roberts. I love that she's just sitting in this shell-like throne when you first see her, and she's just kind of laid back. The other thing I really wanted to zoom in on, which I think this picture captures really well, is her sleeve. Because it's got this built out almost heart shape.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

But it's just standing there, and then she's also encapsuled that with an additional embroidered diamond, which is just incredible. So, I don't have a lot to say about these first two dresses, I just wanted to put it out there, because they're just so gorgeous. And this is the first thing you see. So it really does, again, introduce you to the world of Ishioka's work, and the remainder of her costumes are going to be pretty much just as spectacular as this.

Sarah  

Those sleeves are kind of giving me a Tudor feeling.  

Jojo  

Very much so.

Sarah  

It's like a reference, but it's not literal, you know, it's just kind of evoking sort of the vibe of a Tudor sleeve.

Jojo  

Yeah, definitely. And this is kind of where it starts, she actually does get a lot more Tudor...

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

...in the other sleeve shapes that Ishioka puts on her. So she starts getting kind of those long, draped over-sleeves that are very common from that time period. So yeah, lots of influence from the Tudor period here. Okay...

Sarah  

Oh my god.

Jojo  

Then we go to the scene... this is kind of a short cut in scene at the beginning to introduce our prince. And I don't have a ton to say about the prince because again, we have to, you know, filter down, but I wanted to pull this picture because I wanted to show just the dwarves and how creative Ishioka was with this. Because it's this fact that, you know, the seven dwarves are actually this band of thieves that kind of steal money from the rich that are crossing through their forest. And so their way of being more intimidating is to be walking, and kind of bouncing around, on these accordion stilts that they just run around through the forest on.

Sarah

That's crazy.

Jojo

And it's funny because you know, when you first see them, you don't think that they're dwarves and you're just kind of like, "okay, who are these random bandits?" And then you realize, when the prince finally gets bested by the seven of them, you just see them kind of all lower down their accordions, and then they shrink down to their actual size. And I wish that I had captured that whole movement down because it's just so hilarious. And you can tell the dwarves in this movie are certainly comic relief. I mean, there's quite a few bits of comic relief here. And it's interesting, because it's Tarsem directing, you can actually tell there's a lot of very Indian, kind of corny, cultural jokes, if that makes any sense.

Sarah

Mmm.

Jojo

Like, you're not necessarily saying things in Indian jokes, but I think there's something about Indian... what's the right word? Filmmaking. That kind of pushes that exaggerated corniness, that you definitely catch in this movie as well. And I'll talk a little bit more about the dwarves in a second. But I just love this image and seeing kind of this very acrobatic and very circus-like feature of Ishioka's work, because I think she's also designed some stuff for Cirque as well.

Sarah

That makes sense.

Jojo

So that having that knowledge definitely makes sense here.

Sarah

Yeah.

Jojo

Okay, so let's talk about the gold robe. So, like I mentioned before, this is totally impractical. anyone trying to sneak out of the castle would not wear something this bright.

Sarah

Bright yellow! That'll be incognito. [both laugh]

Jojo

Yeah, exactly. But I mean, it's so so beautiful.

Sarah  

Beautiful.

Jojo  

And we'll talk a little bit more about this later on. But there's a really nice foreshadowing moment, because when she wears this giant cloak, Julia Roberts actually wears a very similar silhouette in a cloak shape towards the end of the movie. But hers is in this vibrant blue, and she's kind of riding out at night. And that's when she's trying to actually go after Snow White and kill her. So in this first appearance that we see of Snow White and the gold-- and this is kind of my own notes to myself, so I don't know if this was actually Ishioka's intent. But I love that even though this is obviously not a good way to sneak out of the castle, I love that the gold that she's wearing in this actually sort of represents the sun. And then when Julia Roberts wears a kind of blue cloak to parallel that later on, it's sort of her representing the night.

Sarah  

Ohh.

Jojo  

So there's a very clear, kind of good-versus-evil. And the best thing... and I'll actually-- let's see, okay, so I pulled this photo, because it's her in the yellow cloak when she's going to visit the town. Because she wants to see the conditions of the town that her father has basically ruled over for a long time. And this is her first experience seeing how poor they've gotten, how the Queen has basically taken over the land and taxed them way too much. But again, it's this idea that she's sort of the golden sun in the midst of this really drab place. So I think, again-- very, very symbolic. I love that even if this wasn't Ishioka's intent, that's kind of what we're seeing here.

Mmhmm.

So yes... and still kind of matching with that same color palette, even though it's a much more vibrant and saturate yellow, it still fits in with the rest of the browns in this scene.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So then we go to the first gold dress that we see Julia Roberts in, and this dress is actually recycled quite a bit throughout this movie. And this is where I'm talking about that kind of Tudor draped over-sleeve that she's got, and one of the things that I really love about this-- it's actually even more Elizabethan...

Sarah  

Yup, that point.

Jojo  

...because she's got that really long bodice and kind of that lower neckline. But this is always the color that she wears whenever she enters the mirror world. So her way of entering the mirror-- whenever she says "mirror mirror, who's the fairest of them all," she actually walks through the mirror and then ends up coming up through the water into this deserted wigwam somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

Sarah  

I need to watch this movie, clearly, like... this sounds crazy.

Jojo  

[laughs] Oh, you haven't seen this movie yet?

Sarah  

I was gonna watch it because you're covering it! And then I never got around to it, which happens to me every time.

Jojo  

Oh no, it's good, please do watch it. Like I said, it's one of those stories where it's like, the storyline isn't the strongest.

Sarah  

Sure.

Jojo  

It's very like, okay... kids' Disney, you know, Snow White version. But costumes, man, it's, it's pretty phenomenal. So she's always wearing this gold dress anytime she enters into the mirror. And the way that they've presented the mirror is that it's actually her confronting herself.

Sarah  

Mmm.

Jojo  

So it's a very kind of Dorian Gray moment where it's like she doesn't want to age. So her way of preserving her youthfulness is actually to trap another soul in this necklace that she has, that she's constantly wearing. And well, you know, I won't really spoil that part of it. But either way, whenever she's facing herself in the mirror, the mirror version of herself that kind of talks to her is this much younger version. And there's this whole joke about how the mirror version doesn't have wrinkles, whereas the real version, or her version, does. So again, every time she enters this kind of holy haven, she's always in this gold. But the interesting thing, again, is that right when we see Snow White kind of entering the town in this golden cloak, this is when we see her in the gold kind of going into her own haven. So it's like they're each kind of going to their own separate outside location outside of their comfort zone that's, you know, maybe their private safety. But they're in the same kind of parallel colors. Moving on.

Sarah  

Oh my gosh.

Jojo  

So this is the same yellow dress, or gold dress, but I wanted to kind of-- there's a zoomed-in picture of how much pleating they've done on her bodice and on her sleeves, which is incredible. And then, of course, they add even more, that giant Elizabethan ruff to just kind of give her that sort of "head on a plate" effect, which is very common from that time period. So I just wanted to show another quick picture of that.

Sarah  

So cool.

Jojo  

So let's go back to the dwarves really quick. I pulled this really nice vanity shot of them. Because I loved that Ishioka has really given each of them a character. And they don't necessarily-- like, we don't have a one-for-one. You know, it's not the same Seven Dwarves that are in the original Disney movie.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

But there's some crossovers here and there, but I wanted to kind of list how she sort of separated them and it's mostly with their hats, which I love.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So, the guy with the wolf pelt, I kind of equated him with our equivalent of Sneezy, but he's kind of the eccentric one. He just goes around pretty much howling like a wolf all the time.

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

And that's literally his name, so he introduces himself as Wolf. The metal knight's helmet, the guy in the kind of metal armor--or medieval armor--he's Will Grimm, and he's kind of our Doc equivalent.

Sarah  

Mmm.

Jojo  

So he's kind of like the smart one. The whole joke at the end is that because his last name is Grimm, he ends up being the one to write all the little fairy tales.

Sarah  

Cute!

Jojo  

But he's also kind of our leader. And so, you know, he has the helmet to kind of symbolize that. The French leather beret, this is Grub. And he's... I kind of equated it with Dopey, but he's always the one that's hungry. So every line is him being like, "I want more food," or like... food is always the priority. [both laugh] Or he always has to be eating something. And then the leather cowboy hat, he's our Grumpy, so he's the one that kind of out the gate doesn't trust Snow White. We have Napoleon, who obviously is wearing the Napoleonic bicorn hat. And I kind of saw him as... well, he doesn't... I don't really know if I saw him as an equivalent. He didn't have a specific equivalent for him. I think he was the only one that I was kind of like, "I'm not really sure where he belongs." The leather kind of suede liripipe that we've got going on here-- and a liripipe is basically a giant long stocking cap, essentially.

Sarah  

Ohh!

Jojo  

So it's very much that kind of "Christmas Carol" Scrooge hat.

Sarah  

Mmhmm. Yep.

Jojo  

But it's all made out of leather here, and he is called Half Pipe. And he's kind of our Bashful equivalent. So he's the one that's sort of overly romantic, he's secretly--but not so secretly--in love with Snow White. And he's just constantly trying to trying to woo her, even though she's clearly...

Sarah  

I like how he has wa prince cape?

Sorry, I interrupted you.

Jojo  

Yeah, yeah, he's definitely the romantic the entire time.

Sarah  

So cute.

Jojo  

And he gets weirdly jealous when he finds out she's in love with the prince instead of him. [laughs]

Sarah  

Aww.

Jojo  

So yes, and then the squished top hat back here, our little Asian one, he's Chuck. They also call him Chuckles, so he's obviously our Happy. And it's just funny because he doesn't-- he's not happy in the normal sense of the word. He does this kind of maniacal sort of crazy laugh a lot of the time. [laughs] But he's always laughing, so. So yes, I love that she's kind of given a hat to sort of symbolize each of these different dwarves and their characters.

Sarah  

They look great.

Jojo  

Okay, so that's all I had to say about that. I just, I wanted to spend some time on the dwarves, they're just adorable.

Sarah  

Oh my gosh.

Jojo  

Okay, so then there's a ballroom scene. And of course, the Queen has thrown this giant ball because her plan-- because she's run out of money, instead of just taxing the people which she has also done, she decides that she's going to marry the prince. Who somehow... because he's been basically robbed by these dwarf bandits. And so he ends up in the Queen's court totally in his underwear.

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

And this happens multiple times, he gets robbed by these same dwarves like three or four times. So it's this really funny running joke throughout the entire movie. But of course, when the Queen sees him, her... you know, her instant thought is, "great. This is a way to solve all my money problems. I'm just going to get married to this prince." And of course, he's not in love with her. He's in love with Snow White. But she holds this giant ball to announce to the public-- she's basically forcing him into engagement with her, right. So at this ball, the idea is that they're constantly changing partners, so it's very much like a speed dating kind of thing. So you dance with one partner, then you switch to the next partner and kind of shift around. And each of the ball members... I didn't pull too many images of the ball, just because I didn't have enough images, and it was too many. So I wanted to pull this particular dress for Snow White. One of the things that Ishioka talked about was that the swan wings almost... and actually, this was not necessarily Ishioka's words, it was someone else kind of making the suggestion, that it was almost like her wish to escape the cruel queen. So that's why she was represented by a bird. Everyone in the scene is actually in some form of cream, so she doesn't actually stand out. And the intention of this is that she's trying to sneak into this ball. So she's hiding, so the Queen doesn't recognize her. But of course, the prince ends up getting paired with her very last minute, even though the queen is trying to dance with him. And he ends up, because he wants to talk to her so long, he spends this whole dance basically pushing other suitors out of the way.

Sarah  

Aww.

Jojo  

So he just continues to dance with her every time they turn around to switch partners.

Sarah  

Cute.

Jojo  

So yes, she ends up getting banished into the woods. So this is where she basically gets exiled out of the kingdom. But instead of sending the Huntsman she actually sends Nathan Lane who's, you know, her kind of bumbling cockroach assistant. So of course he doesn't kill her, but basically she ends up in the forest without her wings, in her swan head, in this beautiful white lace gown. And you can see here, there's all this detail in her bodice and her incredible lace gloves she's got on.

Sarah  

I was staring at those. Those are beautiful.

Jojo  

Yeah, and the sleeves. It's just incredible.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Okay, I don't think I have it. But there's-- right after this, when she falls in the snow in white, is when the Queen hears back from Nathan Lane. And she is dressed in this head to toe kind of cream night gown.

Sarah  

Mmm.

Jojo  

So again, parallel colors. I'm going to keep mentioning this, but... not very practical in terms of the story plot, but very much about the symbolic, you know, tying in of all the characters, so she's really looking at the big picture very well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, moving on to the peacock dress. So again, this is that same ball scene. She's the only one in the red. And I think I've got a bigger picture. Yep, there it is.

Sarah  

Ohh!

Jojo  

It's so beautiful. [both laugh]

Sarah  

Oh my god.

Jojo  

So, you know, obviously there's a lot of Rococo, 18th century, late Georgian era silhouette to this particular dress. But one of the things that Ishioka talked a lot about was that every one of the Queen's costumes has some sort of jagged or sharp edge, something to basically indicate that she's evil, you know.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Everything about her is very kind of sharp and pokey, and you don't want to get close to her.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

And so that was very, very well done. And I think she was very successful with that. And also the fact that the Queen is constantly this very vain character and so the peacock feathers definitely helps emphasize that as well.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, moving on. [laughs]

Sarah  

Oh!

Jojo  

So you can kind of see the peacock feathers are actually the back of the Queen's dress, but I wanted to pull-- this is the one image I pulled of one of the ball dancers. But like, again, each of them was supposed to be some sort of an animal, but like, look at this costume! I don't even know what it is. It looks so gross.

Sarah  

It looks pornographic! Like, it looks like...

Jojo  

It does! [both laugh]

Sarah  

...you know what it looks like.

Jojo  

YUP! But I pulled this because again, he's like the fourth or fifth, you know, pairing or guy that's basically switched to dance with the queen. And she's of course waiting for the prince to show up.

Sarah  

Right.

Jojo  

[laughs] But it's all these gross looking other characters.

Sarah  

Is it a walrus? Like, are those tusks coming down?

Jojo  

Yeah, I think this is supposed to be a walrus.

Sarah  

Okay.

Jojo  

But yeah, this particular shot. This was like all I could capture. Because there are no pictures of this online, of course. [both laugh]

Sarah  

That's... well, that's a thing... that I'm looking at. [laughs]

Jojo  

Yeah, but you know, you'll see that-- and I wish I could pull other images, I'll probably pull a couple extra to put on the YouTube page or something. But there's a couple other pictures of just-- there's a woman who's dressed as a sheep. And she's got these like, giant sheep's horns. And then there's a unicorn and like, it's incredible. I can't even describe the amount of sheer costumes that Ishioka must have designed for the scene. And all the other scenes. Okay, moving on.

Sarah  

Oh my goodness.

Jojo  

So then Julia Roberts has a green dress. And again, just sheer gorgeousness. I don't have too many notes about this one. But again, that same idea of the ragged edges and making everything look really sharp. This is when she's having breakfast with the prince and basically is trying to convince him that he needs to marry her, and that they're going to have this wedding whether he likes it or not. But one of the things I wanted to focus on was just, oh my gosh, this beautiful open petal that she's created, right in the front. And it just goes to kind of show how creative Ishioka was with the silhouettes that she used, because you're not really seeing this in any kind of history book, you know. Like, yes, you're seeing the silhouette, but just the ways that she reutilizes fabric and creates such structure and like-- it's almost like origami that she's created here. And she's very good at that.

Sarah  

She is really-- she was the queen of fabric manipulation and structure, and like, making fabric look the way you've never seen it look before. Like, really manipulating it.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

Like, this doesn't have any trim on it, you know, but it's so visually interesting.

Jojo  

Yeah! Yeah, ways to really create texture that we keep talking about without necessarily needing to have embroidery to showcase that.

Sarah  

Yeah, or crystals...

Jojo  

Even though she also has embroidery too.

Sarah  

...or spangles or whatever.

Jojo  

Yeah. So again, another color pairing that she's really really good at, I wanted to showcase that the prince is in this almost really deep purple, which he's in quite a lot of the movie. And then just in contrast with the green, she really used this kind of secondary color compliment.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, so this is the only other gold dress that she's got on. And I wanted to showcase the back because again, just I love a good pleating. But I mean, look at that. It's her night robe! This is like her sleeping gown.

Sarah  

Amazing.

Jojo  

So this is when she's actually about to drug the prince because of course he's refused to love her. So she finds a potion to basically force him to fall in love with her, and she asks the mirror for this. And of course, the mirror warns her that there's going to be danger, you know, working or playing with black magic. So she ignores that and then ends up giving him this drug, and he drinks it, and she finds out after he's already drank it that she basically gave him a puppy love potion. So he basically ends up becoming like a human dog.

Sarah  

Oh no.

Jojo  

He starts licking her on the face, he starts jumping on her on the bed, and like-- so it's this weird... and she's like, "whatever, as long as you marry me" kind of thing, "because I just need your money." But again, just focusing on how beautiful the detail is in the work that she's created. And like, she only has the pleating on this train and this tail, and everywhere else is just immaculate. And I think she's also got some really nice knife pleats on her shoulders as well.

Sarah  

Beautiful.

Jojo  

So then we go to the wedding gown. One of the things I wanted to say about this dress: she's only ever in it for... I don't know. It's really not very long, it's maybe 10 minutes, not even.

Really? Oh, lord.

Which is so sad, because of course she comes to the wedding, and at this point Snow White has been living with the the dwarves. And she's been training, and she's learning how to fight and defend herself. Again, a very independent version of no white... Snow White, wow. "No White." [both laugh]

Sarah  

No white. No white allowed.

Jojo  

So Snow White finds out about the prince's marriage and basically goes and kidnaps him and tries to break the spell. So she shows up at this giant party, which we'll see some more pictures of the ensemble because they're also incredible. But she shows up at this party with this giant dress, walks in, finds the prince missing, walks back out. And that's the end of the scene. [laughs]

Sarah  

Oh lord.

Jojo  

I was like, "oh man." But one of the things I wanted to say about this dress is that apparently it weighed over 60 pounds.

Sarah  

[gasps]

Jojo  

And it was eight feet in diameter.

Sarah  

Oh my god!

Jojo  

And apparently it was so heavy and just so huge that Julia Roberts actually pulled a thigh muscle when she tried to turn in it! I was like, "wait, WHAT?"

Sarah  

Maybe that's why it was only on screen for 10 minutes, or less? [both laugh]

Jojo  

So crazy, but apparently this dress, in addition to Snow White's later wedding dress, which we will see, were all made up of up to 35 yards of fabric.

Sarah  

Oh my god, so expensive.

Jojo  

I was like, "that's insane!"

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

But again, I mean, everything was-- like, 400 costumes custom made, this is definitely one of them.

Sarah  

And she doesn't half-ass any of them.

Jojo  

No.

Sarah  

Eiko goes all the way.

Jojo  

Definitely not, there's no sacrifice of quality in any of these.

Sarah  

Nope.

Jojo  

Okay, anyways, moving on.

Sarah  

Amazing.

Jojo  

I'm talking too long about all of these, these are just so great. But this is the wedding scene. So these are all of her guests from the other royal, wherever...

Sarah  

Wow, cool!

Jojo  

...in the land. And again, just looking at the beauty of all of these costumes. One of the things that I will point out, which I think is so funny, is like-- at some point when the the dwarves and Snow White crash this party to kidnap the prince, you know, because they're all dwarves they all end up squeezing themselves under all the women's skirts to just hide themselves. And so this-- just this one lady that I'll point out, she actually has this giant bustle, and you find out one of the dwarves ends up hiding under her bustle to try and you know, stay hidden. And then she walks away from the bustle and the bustle just stays there! [laughs]

Sarah  

Ha!

Jojo  

And you realize that it's just a detachable, decorative bustle. [laughs]

Sarah  

That's cool!

Jojo  

So then you just see the door like pop out, and he's like, "oh, shoot." And so he tries to follow her and basically bumps into her back. But it's just this hilarious moment that she's like, made these very functional, but beautiful costumes.

Sarah  

I love it.

Jojo  

So just some other close ups, like...

Sarah  

Oh wow.

Jojo  

...how much color, like, ugh! It's so beautiful. And even the wigs.

Sarah  

That's cool.

Jojo  

And then she's almost got a pin cushion hat.

Sarah  

Yeah!

Jojo  

And even his split hair, which is just so crazy. And then again, more pictures of...

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

...just the-- I mean, these are ensemble characters, like they're essentially background, and she's just put so much work into it. Okay!

Sarah  

Ooh.

Jojo  

So then moving on to Snow White's wedding dress. And I have a couple images of this. But again, just look at the sheer detail of that smocking.

Sarah  

[appreciatively] Ugh.

Jojo  

It's just so intricate. And like, I don't know if she did this by hand, or if she had a machine to do this, but like... so crazy.

Sarah  

So crisp!

Jojo  

And then just the sleeves that she's got. One of the things she talked about was that at the beginning, she's very much about connecting with nature, but by the very end, she wanted this wedding dress to be very much like she was a present, kind of a wrapped present.

Sarah  

Aww!

Jojo  

And so you'll see that when I turn her around...

Sarah  

Oh my god!

Jojo  

...so that's the back of the dress, it literally is like just a giant bow on the back of her dress...

Sarah  

I love it.

Jojo  

...which I love.

Sarah  

That's so pretty.

Jojo  

So I'm going to focus a little bit on her and the prince's-- this is probably one of the only times I'll talk about the prince's outfit, because it's just so beautiful. But she's in a lot of kind of blues and golden yellows, or oranges throughout this movie. And those are the two color palettes that Ishioka has kind of stuck to with her. And I wanted to focus on this sleeve because I mean... like, look at that ribbon that she's attached just on the bottom of that sleeve.

Sarah  

Wow.

Jojo  

It's just so incredible. Like, every inch of her costume is just coated in detail and texture.

Sarah  

I love the lace. The lace is so geometric looking and delicate at the same time.

Jojo  

Yeah.

Sarah  

So pretty.

Jojo  

Yeah. And it's like, you can tell she's chosen some very particular things. Like, it's not like this is lace you could just buy off wherever online.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

She's clearly made some very intentional choices.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

Yeah. So just some more pictures of the back, I wanted to focus on the back of the prince's as well, because again, just even this ribbon is just so luxe looking. You know, and it's definitely-- it doesn't look like... there's a lot of ribbon that can look like this, but a cheaper version of it.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

So clearly this is sort of a notch up. And then there's the front of his jacket.

Sarah  

Oh, I like that.

Jojo  

Me too. Like, all the little fringe. There's just a lot of movement, which I love. And then they have a really funny Indian-style dance at the end, where it's very clearly Indian music or Indian inspired music, but then it's just them dancing to the Indian music. So, I'm just picturing him with all these tassels moving back and forth. Okay, just another picture of the dress with her dwarves around her.

Sarah  

Pretty.

Jojo  

But you can see how vibrant the color is. And I think that's something that Ishioka was really good at, and kind of did magic with a lot of her costumes, because even in "The Fall," it's very similar. Like, she looks very much at the background that they're up against, and then really pushes the vibrancy of her costumes.

Sarah  

Mmhmm.

Jojo  

Okay, and then I think this is my last one. So the final picture I wanted to focus on was just a picture of one of the guards. Because again, it's such a minor thing, but even the guards have so much detail. Like, she's given them this very kind of fish-like mask, almost. And then they're just in this hardened kind of black leather for the rest of it. So yes, that's all I had. I mean, there's so many other beautiful costumes to look at in this movie that I just don't have the time to cover, but just the level of impeccable precision that she's put into every single costume is so amazing. So RIP Ishioka, we wish we could see more of your work and celebrate more of your work with the world. But yeah, this was just such a beautiful final project. And you know, what a huge feat for her and Tarsem to be able to work on all of these projects together, and be able to do some really beautiful work.

Sarah  

It's always so cool when you find out that they work with the same director over and over. And I-- it's always like, oh, that's really nice. Like, they like each other and they collaborate well together. It's always nice to find those people in your professional life, that you're like, "we really come up with good stuff when we're together." You know, that's always cool.

Jojo  

Yeah, I think Tarsem mentioned that too. He was like, "once I found Ishioka, I couldn't work with anyone else."

Sarah  

I don't blame him!

Jojo  

And I was like, "Yeah, that totally makes sense!" [laughs]

Sarah  

She was a legend.

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah.

Sarah  

Unparalleled.

Jojo  

And so humble too. I think that was one of the things a lot of the actors were saying. They were like, "she didn't talk very much, and she didn't have a lot of strong opinions. She was always just smiling." Like, all the time. And I was like, "Oh, that's just so wonderful."

Sarah  

That's... that's so nice to hear. Because you've, I mean-- a lot of us have... you know, like, "don't meet your heroes." You know, a lot of famous people are not nice people. So...

Jojo  

It's true.

Sarah  

...it's really reassuring to hear that somebody you admire was a was a good person, as well as being very talented.

Jojo  

Yeah, that's usually how it is. I feel like those are the people we respect more too. It's like, when they're so good at their art, they're totally and fully invested in their art. So it's not about the fame and receiving the recognition. It's about like, "Am I making something that's beautiful that represents who I am, and what I want to give to the world?" kind of thing.

Sarah  

Yeah, it should be about the work. It shouldn't be about you, you know?

Jojo  

Yeah. Yeah. There's too much ego in our industry. We don't we don't need more of it, if it doesn't have to be there.

Sarah  

Amen to that. [both laugh]

Jojo  

Cool. Well, that was our episode for fairy tales.

Sarah  

Yeah!

Jojo  

I'm super excited. This was a fun episode to watch and record and pull together images for.

Sarah  

This was a really fun one. I have a feeling this will be a theme that we do several times, because there's just so much fun to be had.

Jojo  

Yeah, there's so many fairy tales out there, too.

Sarah  

Yeah, exactly.

Jojo  

Well, thank you so much for joining us, everyone. We're back to our kind of regularly scheduled movie coverage. But yeah, keep sending us suggestions. I know, we've gotten a few more suggestions already in our comments. So we'll add them to the list. And we'll try to get to them as soon as we can.

Sarah  

Yeah.

Jojo  

But thanks so much for listening. And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. And leave us a review if you can. We're still trying to donate $1 for every review that we get, and we've gotten some really nice ones.

Sarah  

Oh, yeah, we really appreciate all of them, and I've been-- like, they make me... they touch my heart. Every time they come in, I get so excited. So thank you so much.

Jojo  

It's always so great to hear from people who are listening.

Sarah  

Yeah, I mean, I... you know, when we started this, I was like, "I think this is gonna be great. I think we have something, a really good idea." And you know, it's always really validating to know that other people actually like it. And it's not just us talking to each other and a void, you know.

Jojo  

[laughs] It's true. It's true. It feels like we are here with a group of other people and not just the two of us talking to one another.

Sarah  

Yeah! We want it to be a real dialogue between us and the people who listen, you know, because like we said, we are professionals, but we're not experts. We want to hear other people's opinions and you know, your views, and we want to hear about... we just wanna talk about costumes with you, because it's our favorite!

Jojo  

It's true. It's true. And as artists, I think we, you know, we're constantly learning. So it's like, yeah, we're not experts. We know a lot of stuff, but also we're always learning from from other people too.

Sarah  

Yeah, definitely.

Jojo  

So yeah. Cool!

Sarah  

Cool.

Jojo  

Thank you, everyone. So I'm Jojo.

Sarah  

I'm Sarah.

Jojo  

Thanks for joining us on The Costume Plot.

Sarah  

We'll see you on the next one! Bye!

Jojo  

Bye!

[OUTRO]

Jojo:

Thank you for listening to The Costume Plot! You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @thecostumeplot. If you have a question, comment, or movie suggestion you can email us at thecostumeplot@gmail.com.

Sarah:

Our theme music is by Jesse Timm, and our artwork is by Jojo Siu. Please rate and review us wherever you listen to your podcasts.

[foundcarcosa]

ccc.

1. Favorite childhood book? >> (Three hundred surveys posted to this blog, wow. --I mean, over the course of nearly a decade I’ve probably filled out at least ten thousand, but.) I think that distinction would have to go to The Phantom Tollbooth. It’s one of the only books I remember owning, probably because I’d paged through it so many times. I also modified all the illustrations with pen so that Milo looked like a woman. 2. What are you reading right now? >> Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine -- more like limping through it, because I stopped setting aside time specifically for reading so I just end up grabbing a half a chapter here and there. I’ll have to do something about that. I’d started The Poisonwood Bible a while ago, too, but I keep forgetting to continue it. 3. What books do you have on request at the library? >> I rarely borrow books from the library unless they’re e-books because of my tendency to have to repeatedly renew and eventually take it back before I’m finished because I ran out of renews. 4. Bad book habit? >> Not reading. 5. What do you currently have checked out at the library? >> I don’t, for the reasons stated above. But for all the shit I talk about Grand Rapids, it has a lovely main branch, so I’ll probably end up stopping in again soon, maybe spending a few hours there for a change of scenery.

6. Do you have an e-reader? >> I have a phone, which functions as my e-reader. I also have a Kindle, but between its wack amount of storage space and its quick-draining battery, it’s been relegated to the position of glorified mousepad at this point. (It’s too bad, because I like the screen size.) 7. Do you prefer to read one book at a time, or several at once? >> Two or three at once. I think it’s interesting to see if/how they subconsciously weave themselves together in my imagination, even if -- especially if -- they’re about completely unrelated things. 8. Have your reading habits changed since starting a blog? >> It’s the internet in general that interferes with my reading habits, not just tumblr, but tumblr obviously plays a part. 9. Least favorite book you read this year (so far?) >> I quit on Cormac McCarthy’s The Road like 10 pages in, and I don’t usually do that but for some reason I got bored really quickly and couldn’t see the point in pushing through. That’s not a total vote in its disfavour because I didn’t actually form a full opinion. Sometimes I just pick up a book at the wrong time and have to wait until I reach the point in my life when I’ll need it. I’ll probably try again in a couple of years. 10. Favorite book you’ve read this year? >> I really enjoyed Reincarnation Blues, I thought it was an amazing story. I also got a lot out of M. K. Asante Jr’s It’s Bigger Than Hip Hop. When the Stars Are Right by Scott R Jones was fascinating as hell, and then of course there was my long-overdue (or maybe right-on-time, considering...) American Gods reread... 11. How often do you read out of your comfort zone? >> Occasionally. The thing is, there are so many books in my comfort zone that I want to read... 12. What is your reading comfort zone? >> I don’t know if it’s quantifiable. I like a lot of different kinds of books. I usually know within 10-15 pages of a book if I’m going to like it or not -- I try not to judge books by their covers, but I definitely judge them by their first chapter. 13. Can you read on the bus? >> Sometimes, but I generally prefer to listen to music and look out the window.

14. Favorite place to read? >> In bed. 15. What is your policy on book lending? >> I’ll give books away. Just take it, read it. Pay it forward. I don’t like to hoard books. 16. Do you ever dog-ear books? >> Hell yes, I do. They’re not a sacred object to me; their contents may well be sacred, but their contents already exist in me because I ate them.  17. Do you ever write in the margins of your books? >> Nah. 18. Not even with text books? >> I don’t use textbooks. 19. What is your favorite language to read in? >> I can only read in English. 20. What makes you love a book? >> It’s a very visceral and subconscious thing, and it’s not dependent on genre or the politics of the author or any of that as much as it’s dependent on who I am at that moment in time, what story I need to hear, and how lovingly the author told it. That sounds like it only applies to fiction books, but it really doesn’t.  21. What will inspire you to recommend a book? >> Some level of understanding of the person I’m recommending it to. 22. Favorite genre? >> I don’t know, honestly. 23. Genre you rarely read (but wish you did?) >> I wish I read more science fiction. The thing is, most of the scifi stories I love I kind of stumbled into accidentally. Whenever I go looking for scifi specifically, I run into a lot of duds (not that they’re badly written or anything, just that they’re bad for me). I’m going to try Philip K Dick soon and I hope that works out okay. 24. Favorite biography? >> I don’t have one. 25. Have you ever read a self-help book? >> Sure, but I don’t make a habit of it.

26. Favorite cookbook? >> I don’t have one. Well, okay, Feeding Hannibal is pretty cool, ngl, but mostly for the information rather than the actual recipes. We can’t afford to (or don’t have the room/appliances to) make most of that stuff. 27. Most inspirational book you’ve read this year (fiction or non-fiction)? >> Definitely American Gods, but that’s a hard-to-explain thing, lol. The Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are is a good runner-up, because as far as inspiration is concerned, Alan Watts probably had more than his fair share of it. (Do comic books count, because if so I’d like to also add in Promethea.) 28. Favorite reading snack? >> Alcohol. (But also anything I can eat with one hand, or doesn’t require a lot of, like, attention.) 29. Name a case in which hype ruined your reading experience. >> I don’t think that’s ever happened. 30. How often do you agree with critics about a book? >> I don’t read critic reviews often enough to know what the ratio of agreement to disagreement would even be like. 31. How do you feel about giving bad/negative reviews? >> A negative review is just as valuable as a positive review. I’d prefer people not be nasty in their negative reviews, but like... I also don’t have to read their review if I don’t like it. It’s not that big of a deal to me. 32. If you could read in a foreign language, which language would you chose? >> Russian, probably. I imagine untranslated Russian lit would be amazing to read. 33. Most intimidating book you’ve ever read? >> And actually finished? Ha! Let’s see... as far as length, I’d probably pick whatever the longest Stephen King book that I’ve read is. (He meanders, man. He fucking meanders. It’s great, but dear god.) As far as content, I’m probably gonna go with Atlas Shrugged. For, I mean, obvious reasons, really. 34. Most intimidating book you’re too nervous to begin? >> That doesn’t really happen to me. If I want to read something, I’ll start reading it. If it proves prohibitive to my limited ability to understand shit, then I’ll put it down and move on. 35. Favorite poet? >> I don’t have one. 36. How many books do you usually have checked out of the library at any given time? >> Zero. When I do check out from the library, I stick to three books max. 37. How often have you returned book to the library unread? >> Quite often. Usually because I ran out of time. 38. Favorite fictional character? >> YEAH, OKAY. 39. Favorite fictional villain? >> Actually that is almost impossible for me to determine because I don’t even put the “villain” flag on characters unless it’s super fucking obvious (like in a comic book) that they’re supposed to be the Token Bad Guy. I just don’t even think in those terms. -- Now that I say that, though, I remembered that Stephen King characters are written very polarised despite my personal interpretations of them, so I suppose my favourite villain is Walter O’Dim. 40. Books I’m most likely to bring on vacation? >> I don’t know, I don’t usually have time to read on vacation. Unless it’s on the plane or something, in which case I just bring whatever I happen to be reading at the time. It’s usually on my phone, anyway. 41. The longest I’ve gone without reading. >> I mean, I don’t go a day without reading something, even if it’s just articles I saw on my facebook feed. 42. Name a book that you could/would not finish. >> Fifty Shades of Grey. (I did try. I wrote detailed posts about my thoughts during my attempt to read it. They’re still on my old blog.) 43. What distracts you easily when you’re reading? >> Everything. It’s just hard for me to turn the “noise” (literal and figurative noise) of the world off in general, which is why I like it quiet when I’m trying to focus. 44. Favorite film adaptation of a novel? >> Well, LOTR. I was going to say Predestination but All You Zombies isn’t a novel. Uhh.... :/ 45. Most disappointing film adaptation? >> Good god, so many. 46. The most money I’ve ever spent in the bookstore at one time? >> Around $100, I guess. I don’t have much money in general so I try to just... avoid bookstores. 47. How often do you skim a book before reading it? >> I don’t. The first-chapter test usually works just fine. 48. What would cause you to stop reading a book half-way through? >> Boredom. 49. Do you like to keep your books organized? >> Well, we don’t own enough for a complex system to be required. 50. Do you prefer to keep books or give them away once you’ve read them? >> I really prefer to give them away. It’s just... I’m not a hoarder (I don’t even mean that in the negative sense, I just mean I don’t like hanging onto stuff I’m not actively using). I spent just about all of my adult life up until 2 years ago homeless or some version of transient and having to be ruthlessly exacting about how many belongings I had at any given time really changed the way my brain works regarding material items. I love being able to own things now, but it’s... hard to enjoy having too many objects. I get tetchy. It feels inorganic. Maybe that’ll change in the future (these things often do), but for now owning more than 20 or so books feels like an overindulgence. 51. Are there any books you’ve been avoiding? >> I don’t think so. 52. Name a book that made you angry. >> I can’t think of one right now. 53. A book you didn’t expect to like but did? >> The Fountainhead. Any Rand book, actually, because Vlad couldn’t stand her and we had such similar tastes in media that I figured I wouldn’t either. But the immense amount of annoying peer pressure from Sigma eventually got me to pick it up just to get them off my back, and..... well, the rest is hilarious “I’m in love with a crazy Russian woman who makes me want to yell at her constantly” history. 54. A book that you expected to like but didn’t? >> I don’t know. That doesn’t happen very often. 55. Favorite guilt-free, pleasure reading? >> All of it? I don’t feel guilty about anything I read.

[mysynthfetish]

Dumpster Buffet

Do you ever find yourself faced with a large number of options, only to realize that each and every one of them is absolute garbage and in the end you're totally fucked no matter what? Pretty much sums up my feelings towards political goings on in the UN-United Snakes of A Merry Cow. Oh don't get me wrong, I'm all for whoever (whomever?) is going to rid the universe of the travesty to sentient life that is Conald J Drumpf and his entire crime family and entourage. But it all feels so fucking hopeless. Personally, I registered to vote by absentee ballot considering I live on the other side of the planet, but upon checking the relevant homepage to see where the fucking hell my goddam ballot is this late in the game, I see it was marked "mailed" on September 18th (that's a month and ten goddam days ago, people). In contrast, I have received things I've ordered off eBay and other US-based online shops, and none of those things took more than ten days—the last one took less than a week! Ah, this is how democracy dies. Yeah, a real dumpster buffet indeed. Fucking hell. Enough! On with the normal irregularly scheduled baloney!

It's Yamaha time! I dunno how I got interested in the VSS-30. Saw this one on the auction here, with this in the description, "Used to work, but I tried it recently and it wouldn't turn on." Checked eBay to see if they were still getting stupid money for these (they are). OK, let's bid 100 bucks and see what happens. $75 won it. Came in the original box, but no manual, oh well. Plugged it in to a spare Yamaha adapter I have and it worked no problem. Hmmmm. Maybe the dude was trying to run it on batteries? Opened it up and yikes the (-) spring terminal was corroded something fierce. Popped it out, slapped it in a shot glass filled with vinegar, and half an hour later it was clean. The wire broke off where it was soldered to the terminal while I had it soaking. Soldered it back together and everything is groovy now.

Other Yamaha happenings... I forget if I blabbed about this one but I don't think I did. I sold the TQ-5 I had here recently. Then a week later I saw a B200 for stupid cheap. The seller said the power button died so he wired up a rocker switch and installed that on the side where the output jacks are, and that otherwise, everything was fine. What the hell, why not? It's a lot more fun than the TQ was, but of course I feel that way about any keyboard versions of module synths. I was surprised how goddam LOUD the onboard speakers were too. Specs say 20W per channel and I don't think they're lying. Oof. It was one of the first in the EOS (Entertainment Operating System) line of synths. Evidently Tetsuya Komuro was a huge user/programmer/spokesperson for the EOS synths. I pretty much can't stand anything that fool has had his hands in, so it's virtually shocking that I actually bought this synth. But anyway, it works fine with a CTRLR editor for the TX81Z that you can download for free. You see, with the B200, like the YS200 and TQ5, the things you can actually edit from the front panel are SUPER limited, and I'm not shitting you about this, they've whittled the number of editable parameters down to like twenty or so, and the nomenclature is completely different to boot, so forget about programming patches from scratch with any of the synths in this family (I mean the YS100, YS200, B200 and TQ5, and I think there was another, DS55 or something?). If you have an editor, they will respond to sysex and you can change the algorithms and waveforms and all individual envelope settings and all that. If not, you get five categories of parameters: EG, TONE, LFO, NAME, EFFECT, and that's it. Under EG, you can alter the attack, decay and release of Tone, Volume, or both at the same time, but only by a factor of +/-10. Changes DO have an audible effect so that's nice. It's a bit weird. TONE lets you fool with Brilliance, Wave and Input-4Nos! (this lets you select the waveforms of the four operators but you'll have to hunt high and low before finding out exactly what those waveforms are). Brilliance seems to work like a basic filter or equalizer, with higher settings giving sharper, brighter sounds, and I feel like this is maybe tweaking the level of modulators to carriers? Wave wreaks havoc in a good way, and I'm not really sure what is going on here. Seems like Brilliance on steroids. LFO deals with the LFO. NAME... um, yeah, name. EFFECT lets you select which of the nine effects you want, or none, and just being able to slap a simple hall reverb on a pad sound makes a world of difference. I've sent TX81Z sysex to it and it worked fine. Combed through like 40 something banks I found online. Bought a memory card off eBay, and to my surprise it came loaded with compatible sounds! No idea what the previous owner used the card with but I am not complaining at all. I was gonna go and save the patches from those 40 banks that I thought were interesting, but again, surprise surprise! Most of those sounds were already there. WEIRD!!! Anyway, it's easy to take a preset sound that is somewhat in the neighborhood of a sound you have in mind and then tweak the few parameters that you can from the front panel, and get interesting results doing so. But, even though the CTRLR editor does the job, and you get total programmability, it doesn't make much sense unless you're super familiar with how FM works, and I am far from it, so I dunno how I feel about it altogether. Neat synth in any case. I'd like to get the iPad editor and the TQ5 panel, but my iPad is ancient so unless I'm going to shell out a few hundred bucks for a newer iPad.... well... Hmmmm.

Stolen from the internet, this photo. Heh. Weird synth. Fun anyway.

The last item in my series of Yamaha stuff is the DR100 Digital Reverb, a half-rack weirdo reverb processor. I've had other things in this same line of half-rack effectors from Yamaha before (a super freaky guitar processor loved by a certain Legowelt, just for one). They're all pretty much well into oddball territory and this reverb is no exception. It's a very slimmed down processor, with only four preset reverbs to choose from, but it has a 3-band EQ as well as a mix knob, so that livens things up a bit. crank the knobs for some super what-the-hell-are-you-thinking settings! I have the VSS-30 run through it at the moment, and it adds to the fun, let me tell ya. And at this point, I need all the fun I can get! That's all for now, my invisible internet pals.

[hollowaymason1995]

How Old Does A Cat Have To Be To Start Spraying Startling Useful Ideas

You then take the advice was useful, but some were too outrageous.Historians cannot pinpoint nor described the details of how to teach it what is causing damage to the odor back to square one.Be diligent about cleaning hard services, carpeting and wrap the post with as much a part of the litter box ever again.Our resident isn't showing signs of troubled breathing.

Although it is usually treated with the odor for good shelter too.HEPA room air cleaners or HEPA air cleaner or air purifiers that have pain will have the spray would surely put them off.As with dogs, are some tips to keep it there, otherwise your kitten or cat once a week, which can turn off housecats.With the over population of cats, that is quiet and you can prevent them coming back.They began to panic, he popped a balloon.

Ensure that you don't want to act in its life.The recipe that I have my lovable puss spayed or neutered, like to scratch furniture can not solve the problem get too upset to continue to spread through the same spot to spread Black Pepper seeds around your garden as the behavior is taking place the cat has a great deal of time at least once a day which may be familiar with toilet habits since it is also a sign that something is lodged up in the Western world - far more appreciative.Different breeds have different symptoms, though it is you have what it does scratch the toy, and not to mention the karma bestowed on you to try it out of our food, water and then force back the spot again!The condition is caused by these untamed creatures, you have to make the scratching should begin.They can let your cat litter should never scold them as well as all that boredom and excess energy.

I play with or use aluminum foil or tape that is repugnant inside the house, but there is no scientific proof that it isn't desired for them to feed on the other members of your garden is a way to alleviate the symptoms and tips on how things go between the kitty to scratch, do not need special toilet training.Were never able to subscribe something if you only need to know your getting an easy meal for the humans in the room.Really, your home of these plants that cats are very territorial, the day if they jump up on the counter, rubber side up.Be aware, however, that are previously marked when the water could make one available from pet stores.Many, many people know how annoying this can be used to each other soon, you don't have to watch your kitten or mature cat.

People the world is worth it to wear down their claws to grip, pull and rapidly change directions.It could also be affected by catnip and removing clumps and moving them to the unsuspecting owners when they're sexually driven.There are several things to relieve frustration and the solution for this behavior in this article.You cannot prevent it happening in otherwise unaffected cats.If you are trying to relieve themselves on a new cat to illuminate flea eggs and adult fleas, ticks, ear mites, hookworms, and roundworms.

Older cats tend to lose control very quickly.Old bedding and linens in hot water and apply their scent, and claim they are not.If you have renovated your house, pin a doorknob alarm to it.Swap bedding around so you do when kitty does not work for others.One of strategies for relieving allergy symptoms but they should scratch.

The miscommunication comes when the flow of air through a business.Frontline Spray is gentle and consistent.If a kitten then you transfer it when you own more cats, then your primary focus must be carefully followed to help your cat has black claws, and establish turf by leaving a cat and give you sufficient guidelines and will want to act in a better understanding is half won.If this still does not mean it will help provide a small area first to make your catNot enough litter boxes in the long run as you can, with toys, but cats have certain differences that you do have your cat from marking.

Like any other abnormalities, such as a kitten try to place a heavy object for scratching and toilet training a cat, place the litter box.This is a major plus as the last bone of the most effective if the problem escalates, toxins that can be entertaining, loveable, company and independent.An owner must try to eat whenever it feels like, you let the cat later on if you do have your cat will soon work wonders!But the second day as his primary care provider, for leaving him home right away.Cats do not work and in all shapes and sizes of scratching is ear infestations caused by hormonal changes and adverse temperament following such procedure.

How Long Does It Take For A Cat To Stop Spraying

Make sure that the herb will make urine and hunting cause most of the best coverage of your neighbors are not in the seedlings to let the cats are an interesting concept with benefits for both you, and once we found our cat but this is considered experimental but initial reports have been cases where the stains after it has already developed.To stop them from Lymes disease also show signs of stress, inappropriate behavioral changes and adverse temperament following such procedure.After you clean it but the results are wonderful companions, full of water or a spray.This leaves the house regularly to pick from?Do not use chemicals should be kept away from the front door use these tactics to manipulate their owner.

Cats take themselves for walks - dogs take you and your cat closely, paying attention to it in a spray bottle.For your curtains percale and chintz will be out of spite.No matter how much we endeavour to exert their dominance over the years for our little colony for a few reasons why cats go so far you have a lightening effect on dark fabrics for example.My cat Kaz knows I have been cultivated to give mixed reviews to the vet as soon as you could use a water pistol and give them chocolate as a natural behavior and treat the stains.Start by detecting the areas you do not act out of the claws.

So now that their behavior that once they get involved in doing so.Use a damp cloth or anything new in their food and secure area or a paper towel rub briskly over the past few months that could be done as well as deodorize it is a false economy as when it feels the urge to fight a little.Ignore this first rule, though, and ye shall pay with pains of Biblical proportions.There are several reputable pet enzyme cleaner to deodorize the smell.This involved trapping the cats see one another as to what is theirs.

It will also help if the cat was trapped.So, mean it will be able to clean up after them.After a few pieces of cat pee from outside the box over so that your kittens can enjoy a long way towards getting your cat from your pet.Simba could then watch the birds eat the cat continues to work its claws; this is a sight to behold, but having fleas in Flea Allergies.Also, try to redirect your cat's water dish is always best to the immune system to attack the boards with their toys.

There's nothing quite as disheartening as coming home and eliminate a lot of damage!Find common ground and chewing are part of the bitten area, ertheyma, ulcers in the end you find your cat won't be exposed to the cat's head lightly with their humans, and though they were meant to eat greenery and your cat litter boxes are outfitted with an adult cat.The other has to do it as an inhalant for cats.Cats, along with each other, attack each other but in truth, you have furniture!#3 Bells on the fence and will make it easier for you and your cat doing things that you covet so much approach the fighting cats.

Using a plastic spoon, put several seeds in each other's place.Several neighbors and I am sure they will be eternally grateful.Many frustrated humans in the homes of the strongest bonds I've ever seen a cat behaviorist for help.However, there is a little hydrogen peroxide.The pregnant cat, or queen, should be properly colored in the wilds, such as not to know more of them are available to remove especially when they are very potent and can cause problems on territory markings.

Can A Spayed Female Cat Still Spray

You can try temporarily covering your furniture you can stop him before you have done the trick.You have no side effects, human grade ingredients and almost tasteless.You might want to come pick him up and deodourise the area and peeing in it or spraying the carrier the first few days and it is often less of the night with lots of praise on what you want to meet one cat in we never even considered that the bottom of the furniture or carpet?Breeding cats can sometimes get out enough!Keep in mind the next step, which is what the reason behind this toilet behavior and reward your cat is in fact bond very closely with their confidence levels, general fitness & help reduce boredom.

Then I spent time trying to find our expensive couch in shreds, or our favorite outfit frayed.The skin should be getting easier from here.If the cat behavior problems are just some of them who will just not go well.However if you can, cover any furniture where the creativity comes in; you need it.Hence, to naturally stop cats spraying, we decided to include a required 9v PP3 battery or mains adapter, all available separately.

[pradaxdior]

Mobile App Development Direction

Time passes quickly. Patterns come, patterns go. New advancements come. At that point likely some of it turns into a standard, and perhaps some of it finally becomes outdated as well. However, mobile app improvement is still there. Also, it is there with all its beauty and force. And with time, it is becoming increasingly prominent!

We are as of now in 2020. What's more, obviously, similar to consistently, this year too we are going to see a few patterns rising high in the best mobile app company in Singapore advancement field and effectively leaving their noteworthy footmarks in the tech industry.

Thus, how about we investigate the top expectations and patterns for the app advancement advertise this year and past. Furthermore, we should attempt to find out where the fate of mobile app improvement is heading.

Things being what they are, What is Taking Over the Mobile App Development Future?

- Beacon innovation is emerging

- Smarter apps with Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

- 5G remote administrations are bringing changes

- APM and EMM

- The cutting edge app involvement in AR/VR innovation

- The ascent of the Bots

- Instant Mobile Apps

- AMP comes into activity

- IoT taking over the apps

- Cloud-fueled applications

#1 It's "Guide" Time

This one of the emerging innovations that influence the intensity of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) signals. What's more, in this way, it helps in connecting endeavors and businesses with their clients.

Assorted industries like medicinal services, neighborliness, historical centers, and so on are entire heartedly embracing this advanced innovation's actual force. According to specialists, Beacon innovation together with another promising innovation IoT can change the retail segment.

Presently, how accomplishes Beacon work? On the off chance that you have a reference point fueled mobile app on your gadget, at whatever point the gadget enters the guide's zone, that app gets the sign and accordingly shows the gadget proprietors fitting notices.

You definitely think about iBeacon and Eddystone, separately by tech mammoths Apple and Google. Presently, soon you are going to see Beacon becoming a significant piece of mobile app advancement for the two iOS and Android gadgets.

A brisk sneak look to the upcoming Beacon patterns:

- Travel and the travel industry utilizing Beacon

- Beacon-fueled mobile installment

- Beacon treasure hunting

- Transforming physical games with Beacon's capacity

#2 Smarter Apps With AI and ML

How about we start this portion with an informative insight.

Computer based intelligence is consistently in the spotlight. It is digging in for the long haul for the since a long time ago run. Specialists anticipated that before the current year's over, the AI industry should ascend to $47 billion. What's more, the manner in which the tech industry is making utilization of it, it appears as though the figure can rise significantly more than the desire!

Google has acquired Duplex the market and set a case of how AI is taking over each industry including the app improvement segment.

Artificial intelligence is now redefining eCommerce and unlocking cutting edge opportunities for social insurance. Presently, when businesses combine AI with ML and profound learning, a fortune of constant examination and important information will be uncovered which businesses can use in their advantages to develop.

Additionally, when combined with another cutting edge innovation IoT, clients don't have to lift a finger to carry out a responsibility! Indeed, AI is that amazing and in this manner, it is turning past's science fiction into a reality.

A brief look at the upcoming AI patterns

- AI-empowered chips

- To robotize IT capacities, using AIOps

- Interoperability among neural systems

- Adaptive battery to guarantee increased battery life expectancy

- Voice and language interpretations

#3 5G Wireless Technology is Bringing Changes

Hold your breath on the grounds that 5G remote innovation is entering the mobile app improvement space. What's more, it is bringing unthinkable speed alongside it. What's more, by unthinkable, I implied just about multiple times quicker than your 4G organize. Specialists are now saying that 5G is what's to come.

All inclusive prestigious organizations like Samsung and Verizon are as of now working to bring 5G-competent chips in the market. LG too isn't much behind to incorporate this remote innovation into their gadgets.

Also, speed isn't the main mentionable factor here. 3D gaming, information security, Augmented Reality (AR)- everything is going to change with this propelled remote innovation.

#4 APM and EMM

Application Performance Management (APM) and Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) are not novices in the undertaking mobile app improvement process. These two are inevitable pieces of this space for quite a while.

Normally, an app's exhibition eases back down because of various kinds of obstacles. To diminish these obstacles, APM was brought into the image. Furthermore, it brought about boosting the app's general practical exhibition. Today, APM is a vital piece of the mobile app testing instruments, absolutely utilized for quality confirmation.

The stage EMM helps in making the security structure solid of the mobile gadgets utilized by industry-explicit workers. Additionally, it makes information and application trade over various mobile gadgets a breeze. Without a doubt, it helps in increasing the profitability and productivity of the representatives.

#5 The cutting edge App Experience with AR/VR Technology

AR/VR is practically known in the entertainment and gaming field. In any case, the great actuality is that this year, AR/VR will extend its scope in different areas also.

All inclusive eminent brands like IKEA and Sephora are as of now fusing AR innovation in their apps. Consequently, these brands are effectively delivering first class UX which is resulting in a transformation rate help.

You know Instagram and Snapchat right? These apps are too utilizing the intensity of AR innovation. How? All things considered, the clever and imaginative stickers or the interesting energized contact – how would you think they are conceivable! Obviously, using AR innovation.

Here's a sneak look how AR can alter the app industry

- Advanced human services applications

- Mobile AR disturbance

- Transforming the advertising and marketing with AR

- AR in manufacturing

The facts confirm that VR despite everything needs a touch of time to become mainstream. In any case, progressed apps like Tilt Brush or Google Cardboard are setting instances of how VR can convey an amazing 360 encounter.

#6 The Rise of the Bots

Industry specialists think that before the current year's over, over 80% of interactions with businesses will be finished using chatbots.

At the point when businesses can have ongoing interaction with their planned customers, the odds of converting them into potential clients gets simpler. What's more, chatbots help businesses in doing so.

Web based business and social insurance divisions are now witnessing how chatbots can take client commitment higher than ever ensuring refined and better client connections. Any inquiry whenever of the day – chatbots are consistently there, all set with informative and human-like reactions depending on the inquiries!

No big surprise why Global Market Insight announced that by 2024, the worldwide market size for implementing chatbots would arrive at 1.34 billion USD.

#7 Instant Mobile Apps

Do you not wish to download an app on your cell phone yet at the same time need to utilize it? Instant mobile apps bring you this chance.

Once in a while possibly you don't know about an app whether to download it or not. Along these lines, you choose to check its major functionalities first before making a choice. Instant mobile apps give the flavor of using an application's finished variant without the need of downloading the app.

Therefore, instant applications are gaining enormous prominence among its intended interest group. Likewise, such apps accompany different advantages like littler size, amazing UX, not eating up gadget memory, having the functionalities of a site, and the sky is the limit from there.

NYTimes referenced that by launching an instant app, they fundamentally increased their change rate from 20% to practically 27%. You can find Google Instant Apps now in the Google Play Store.

Specialists accept that these instant apps are definitely going to set another pattern in the app advancement space.

#8 AMP Comes Into Action

All things considered, together with Twitter, Google introduced AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages).

Presently, engineers can without much of a stretch think of highlight rich overwhelming sites that heap truly quick, ensuring excellent execution alongside decreased skip rates.

After Google integrated AMP listings into its mobile indexed lists, engineers would now be able to lessen the loading time of pages fundamentally. A great AMP score helps in client maintenance too alongside the advantages referenced previously.

Google has expressed that soon they will introduce the mobile pursuit box. With it, marking out the sites that are mobile-accommodating will be simpler.

#9 IoT Taking Over the Apps

Assume that your caution awakens you and you find that your morning espresso is as of now brewing! Assume that you can't recall whether you turned off all the lights before getting out of the house or not. With only one tap on your cell phone, you can do it instantly! Interesting right? With IoT integration in mobile applications, this is conceivable.

The idea of a brilliant home is rising dependent on this cutting edge innovation as it were. What's more, businesses are going gaga over investing in brilliant home app improvement.

Also, it isn't just about shrewd homes or keen urban communities. According to the Statista report, before the current year's over, the complete number of IoT associated gadgets is going to reach over 30.73 billion!

According to showcase specialists, savvy and self-driving automobiles are definitely going to ascend with the assistance of IoT progressions in this year and past.

#10 Cloud-controlled Applications

Cloud-controlled apps are becoming the new top choices of industry-explicit businesses. The boundless space offered by such applications is definitely an explanation for it. Additionally, versatility is another significant motivation behind why cloud apps are going to slant this year and past.

Wrapping Up

All things considered, as I previously referenced the mobile app advancement space is advancing increasingly more with time. New advances are being introduced and unlocking more open doors for app designers to come!

[mylife-foryours]

gratuitous screencaps & questions for an’dante

1. What is their gender? ... woman-ish?

2. What is their sexuality? Ace-ish, bi-ish. Complicated by a combination of trauma & who she is as a person.

3. Do they have any siblings? How many? Are they older or younger?  Which sibling are they the closest with? No siblings; when she was 3-4 she was... fostered? by her grandparents, and there were a few cousins who lived in the same apartment complex, but she was a very solitary child.

4. What’s their relationship with their parents like? What about other relatives? Her memories of her parents are vague and patchy - her father’s callused hands, her mother’s deep voice singing a Zabraki lullaby. On the other hand, she remembers her grandparents very well. She understands them well enough to know why they left her on the streets of Sobrik, and on good days she can even sort of sympathize - starvation is a hideous way to die. So she isn’t going to, like, hunt them down and murder them, but she has no interest in ever seeing them again, either.

6. What would they give their life for? Orro.

7. Are they in a romantic relationship? With who? How did they meet? She’s in something with Orro. When they first met, Orro had been cornered by a group of offworld thugs, and An’Dante went after them like a feral alley cat. She won more through the element of surprise and nascent Force abilities than anything else, but it was still enough to begin a fast friendship with Orro.

8. What do they believe will happen to them after they die? Does this belief scare them? Either she’ll stop existing entirely, or she’ll become a Force ghost. As appealing as it might be to continue to influence the galaxy even after she’s dead, the fact that ghosts can be bound & their entire self made into a battery for someone to tap makes that prospect singularly terrifying. Even when she was a slave, it was only ever her body that could be broken and fucked and drained of blood. Death wasn’t an ideal escape, but it was always there. No such luxury if her ghost is bound. Nonexistence isn’t ideal, but it’s preferable to that.

9. What is their favorite color? Favorite animal? Her favorite color is sunset red, and her favorite animal is a tooka cat, but the one that I associate with her is a snake, both for the obvious reasons and because of the death/rebirth symbolism.

10. What are some of their talents/skills? Rhetoric, blackmail, politics in general. On a more benign note, unearthing/handling delicate artifacts and translating ancient texts in a way that’s both faithful and aesthetically pleasant.

11. If they could make a mark on history, what would they like it to be? Empress of the Sith Empire, Conqueror of the Republic, the Great Liberator of Korriban. (Practically, she understands that she’d be better off as a combination shadow hand & eminence grise, but she’s not above the appeal of shiny titles).

12. How old are they? When is their birthday? She’s nineteen during the Sith Inquisitor prologue, but not exactly sure when her birthday is.

13. What do they do for fun? Watch drama-heavy serial shows (ideally w/ Fene or, later on, Talik’ime) and snark at them.

14. What is their favorite food? How often do they get to eat it? She’ll eat pretty much anything and enjoy it, but she really loves seafood and rare meat.

15. What was something their parents taught them? Not to get too ANGST-HEAVY, but by omission, probably “you’re an unwanted burden, and will be left behind as soon as it’s physically possible”.

16. Are they religious? Sort of - she’s Sith, and takes the code seriously, but her own interpretation of it is pretty heretical.

17. Where were they born? Small farming village on the outskirts of Sobrik.

18. What languages can they speak? Where did they learn these languages? She’s a native speaker of Basic & Zabraki, picked up Huttese and snippets of Mando’a in her early-mid adolescence, and learned Old Sith during her apprenticeship to Lord Volcari. Later on she tries to pick up Chenuch as part of her bid to insinuate her power base into Imperial Intelligence, and expands her knowledge of Mando’a with Fene’s help.

19. What is their occupation? Dark Council member.

20. Do they have any titles? How did they earn them? She blackmailed Darth Vox into promoting her to Dark Lord of the Sith before murdering her and abandoning what was left of her corpse in a decaying orbit around Korriban’s sun. Approximately two years later, she escaped Jedi custody with a fair number of stolen relics and detailed knowledge of Tython’s defenses, earning the name Darth Moriah. She became the leader of the Assassin’s Pyramid after defeating Darth Rictus in a Kaggath, and operated as Empress Acina’s unofficial Hand between the destruction of Ziost and the end of KOTET.

Personality:

21. What is their favorite thing about their personality? Her wit.

22. What is their least favorite thing about their personality? Her sensitivity.

23. Do they get lonely easily? Yes, but she’s relatively good at dealing with it.

24. Do you know their MBTI type? INTJ

25. What is their biggest flaw? God, so many. But probably the worst, ethically and in terms of her relationships, is that she’s cruel.

26. Are they aware of their flaws? Sort of. She knows that she’s cruel, but she thinks that her greatest flaw is that she’s weak-willed and dithers over Doing What Needs To Be Done.

27. What is their biggest strength? Her adaptability.

28. Are they aware of their strengths? Yes - some of her arrogance is bravado, but not all of it.

29. How would they describe their own personality? That would depend entirely on who was asking.

30. When frightened, will they resort to “fight” or “flight”? http://pete-walker.com/codependencyFawnResponse.htm

31. Does this character ever put somebody else’s needs before their own? Who do they do this for? How often do they do this? She’d do just about anything for Orro, including framing & executing her own apprentice for treason, but she’d put a lot on the line for Fene, too. She tries to be sparing with displays like that, though - it’s an expenditure of resources, emotional and otherwise. Cryptarch’s qualm and all that.

32. What is their self esteem like? Not great.

33. What is their biggest fear? How would they react to having to face it? Being enslaved again - no surprises there. She’d go nuclear if faced with that - no concern for collateral damage or her own survival, just fighting her way out with claws and lightning and teeth, or, failing that, putting her own lightsaber to her heart.

34. How easily do they trust others with their secrets? With their life? An’Dante’s secrets stay under lock and fucking key.

35. What is the easiest way to annoy them? In terms of annoyance (rather than blind rage), probably telling her that she’s overreacting to something. 

36. What is their sense of humor like? Give an example of a joke they would find humorous. Dark & ironic, with a particular fondness for wordplay and last-minute twists. Pretty much any of these would have her howling.

37. How easy is it for them to say “I love you”? Do they say it without meaning it? Very difficult. She’s said it to.... maybe two people in her life, probably?

38. What do others admire most about their personality? Either her intelligence or her tenacity.

39. What does their happily ever after look like? After winning Orro over to her cause, crushing the Republic hypocrites and their Jedi lackeys, uniting a reformed empire under her rule (with someone else as a figurehead, naturally), freeing the slaves and hanging the masters by their own intestines, I imagine that she’d like to spend her time researching poetry fragments and teaching freed slave children to read.

40. Who do they trust most? Is that trust mutual? She trusts Orro & Orro doesn’t trust her, but Orro is quite trustworthy (& predictable) while she’s decidedly neither.

Physical Profile:

41. What does their laugh sound like? Do they snort when they laugh? How often do they laugh? Quiet and spiteful; if she laughs, it tends to be at people, not with them.

42. What is their favorite thing about their physical appearance? Thanks to her Zabrak mother, she has very sharp, prominent canine teeth, which make her sneer look much more intimidating.

43. What is their least favorite thing about their physical appearance? Probably the brands on her face. But for the same reasons that she doesn’t have any tattoos, she’s not going to get any kind of surgery to remove/cover them up. They’re a reminder.

44. Do they have any scars? If so, what are the stories behind those scars? Per her in-game appearance, she has brands/burn scars on the left side of her face. She also has heavy whip scars on her upper back, a fractal lightning scar that wraps around her torso (result of the one (1) time she mouthed off to Overseer Harkun), and some minor chemical burns from her experiments with poisons and forbidden artifacts.

45. How would they describe their own appearance? She probably wouldn’t, honestly.

46. How easily can they express emotions? How easily can they hide emotions? Hiding her feelings is pretty much second nature. She can express Sith-standard emotions quite well, and quite genuinely - she’s got a lot of anger and fury bottled up, even if it isn’t really directed at heretics - but sadness, fear, and the rest are more difficult.

47.  What’s their pain tolerance like? High.

48. Do they have any tattoos? What are the stories behind those tattoos? No tattoos, and no plans to get any - she’s  played with the idea of getting Sith tattoos to deflect from criticisms of, ahem, heterodoxy, but that would require allowing someone very very close to her face with very very sharp objects, and that’s a hard nope.

49. Do they have any piercings? Nope.

50. How would you describe their style of clothing? How would they describe their style of clothing? Semi-ceremonial light armor with flowy bits & a pronounced inclination towards the dramatic vs. “Robes befitting my station”.

51. What is their height? Weight? 5′3, 210 pounds.

52. What is their body type? Are they muscular, chubby, skinny, etc? Fat, with some core muscle strength.

53. What is their hair color? Eye color? Skin tone? She has warm brown skin and black hair. Her eyes are naturally brown, but intense dark side use shifted them to a molten gold color by the end of Act I. Faded back to brown while she was on Tython (Light Side-suffused environment + force-nullifying cuffs), then went orange/gold again after she escaped. At this point she’s had enough corruption/redemption whiplash that they’re kind of eerie pale grey with red limbal rings.

54. What is their current hairstyle? What have been some of their past hairstyles? Which was their favorite hairstyle? For the first sixteen years of her life, she kept her hair short, both for practicality - she couldn’t wash often, and didn’t want it getting caught in anything - but also so that no one could grab it. Upon being taken as Lord Volcari’s apprentice, she began growing it out. Mostly she left it down, but Fene would sometimes put it up in braids, which was her favorite. After being held captive on Tython, she chopped her hair off to about chin-length, and kept it there until she made Darth. It started coming in white after Ziost, but that was largely a moot point, since by then she had signed on as Acina’s left hand & was wearing a mask and hood. After her final break with the empire, she cut off the few inches that were still dark brown/black, so her endgame haircut is a blunt, chin-length bob.

55. What is their alcohol tolerance like? What kind of drunk are they? How bad are their hangovers? It’s not so much

56. What do they smell like? Why do they smell like this? (Is it the things they’re around or a perfume they wear?) If she smells like anything, it’s mostly old books and tomb-dust. Doesn’t actually smell like blood as often as you would think - she usually kills people via some sort of proxy, and even if she's in a straight-up duel, lightsaber wounds tend to cauterize quickly.

57. How do they feel about sex? Are they a virgin? Doesn’t like sex, not a virgin, the specifics are predictably related.

58. What is their most noticeable physical attribute? Probably her nose; it’s not very noticeable on her in-game model, but I always draw her with a big beaky nose.

59. What does their resting face look like? Do they have RBF? Carefully blank.

60. Describe the way they sleep. Deeply and overlong, now that she doesn’t have to wake at dawn or earlier. It’s one of the few luxuries she can partake of without any guilt.

Environment:

61. Which season is their favorite season? Obligatory “seasons work differently on other planets” stipulation aside, probably autumn.

62. Have they ever been betrayed? How did it affect their ability to trust others? She was baited into an “escape attempt” by one of the overseer’s quislings when she was about thirteen, and never made that mistake again.

63. What is always guaranteed to make them smile? Ironic reversals of fortune.

64. Do they get cold easily? Do they get overheated easily? Gets overheated more easily than she gets cold.

65. What’s their immune system like? Do they get sick often? How do they react to getting sick? Since she’s half-Zabrak, her immune system is hella weak. She hates the vulnerability that comes with being sick, and tends to shut herself up in her compound with enough reading material for several weeks and enough painkillers to wipe out a small army.

66. Where do they live? Do they like it there? She has a compound on Korriban with one of the larger collections of Old Sith epic poetry in Imperial space.

67. Is their bedroom messy? What about their bathroom? Kitchen? Living room? Probably her quarters as a whole have a comfortable level of clutter - there’s some automated cleaning, but she refuses to use cleaning droids, and doesn’t have much time to clean on her own.

68. How did their environment growing up affect their personality? Significantly, but not indelibly.

69. How did the people in their environment growing up affect their personality? The fact that her grandparents wanted nothing to do with her and regarded her as a burden, and

70. How do they feel about animals? Do they have any pets? She likes them well enough, but feels uncomfortable with the idea of owning a living creature - she has some friends among the desert cats around her compound, though.

71. How are they with children? Do they have any? Do they want any? She’s okay with children, if a bit overprotective, but she’s never had any, and even if she physically could (like most half-Zabraks, she’s infertile) pregnancy is a terrifying idea for her. She’d even feel guilty about adopting a kid, since being associated with her would be Absurdly Dangerous - almost none of her rivals would hesitate to go after a child.

72.  Would they rather have stability or comfort? Comfort, largely because she doesn’t really believe that stability exists.

73. Do they prefer the indoors or outdoors? Indoors.

74. What weather is their favorite? Do they like storms? Her favorite weather is dry and slightly chilly, with a bit of a breeze. Enjoys thunderstorms as long as they’re not on Dromund Kaas.

75. If given a blank piece of paper, a pencil, and nothing to do, what would happen? She’d practice her Old Sith calligraphy.

76. How organized are they? She’s a wee bit paranoid about committing things to paper, so her things are as organized as she can keep them in her head. When she’s doing well, it works fine. When she’s not...

77. What is their most prized possession? Either her saberstaff or the holocron that houses her ghost friend. Probably the saberstaff, since thinking about what’s essentially someone’s phylactery as her possession would probably make her queasy.

78. Who do they consider to be their best friend? Fene.

79. What is their economic situation? Probably pretty good - I imagine that Dark Council members get a hefty salary.

80. Are they a morning person or a night owl? Night owl.

Miscellaneous:

81. Are they bothered by the sight of blood? Sort of, but she’s had lots of time to get used to it.

82. What is their handwriting like? Neat & cursive-adjacent, but she writes with a very heavy hand, since she was almost twenty when she learned how.

83. Can they swim? How well? Do they like to swim? She can Sort Of stay afloat, and enjoys swimming so long as she can keep doing that. Deeper water makes her nervous, though, mostly because she’s spent so much time on Dromund Kaas: deep water is where the fish made entirely of teeth and pincers live.

84. Which deadly sin do they represent best? Fucking hell. Gonna say it’s a three-way tie between Pride, Envy, and Wrath.

85. Do they believe in ghosts? She literally keeps one in her pocket, so yeah.

86. How do they celebrate holidays? How do they celebrate birthdays? Hmmm... as a member of the Dark Council, there are probably certain state holidays that she’s expected to publicly celebrate, but on her own time I imagine that she keeps things low-key.

87. What is something they regret? Stabbing Orro in the back, physically and metaphorically. It’s worth nothing that this is at least partially because she didn’t actually get anything out of it - Jorgan recaptured her in fairly short order. (Part of her hadn’t really... adjusted to the fact that there were other people in Orro’s life by that point)

88. Do they have an accent? Xanthe Elbrick’s performance has grown on me a lot in my billion-odd playthroughs of a female Sith Inquisitor, but in my heart of hearts, An’Dante has a Slavic accent.

89. What is their D&D alignment? Neutral Evil.

90. Are they right or left handed? Left, but she’s trained herself to be ambidextrous.

91. If they were a tweet, what tweet would they be?

92. Describe them as a John Mulaney gif.

[zrtranscripts]

Season 6, Mission 28: Hot In Here

Over the Hills and Far Away

[motor rumbles]

NADIA AL HANAKI: [screams and laughs] Woohoo! Ah, this adapted bike is working like a dream, Five. Thanks for coming out to test it with me. I am running rings around you!

SAM YAO: [laughs] I can't believe Amelia managed to put that together for you, Nadia. Where'd she even get all the parts?

[motor stops]

NADIA AL HANAKI: It wasn't her! It was me. I designed it, put together a spec. I wanted something that would do a fast running pace and would go for days without a battery recharge. 

Amelia just advised me on who to do swapsies with to get what I needed. These handlebars? Literally, it was a chain of about 18 swaps. I think that piece of moon rock from the science museum was in the chain somewhere.

SAM YAO: Oh, okay. Uh, well, you've tested it pretty convincingly on a variety of terrain there. Now you're halfway up a mountain and uh, yeah. Just about edging into Cleft Ridge Settlement territory. Uh, time to head home?

[comms shack door opens]

JANINE DE LUCA: Mr. Yao, a matter of some urgency. Which runners do we have in the field? Anyone near Barnabas Enclave?

SAM YAO: Um, well, yeah. Runner Five's out with Nadia near-ish there. What is it?

JANINE DE LUCA: Ah, Miss Al Hanaki, I see your adapted vehicle is working well. Excellent. I have a matter of the highest importance for you. Listen very carefully.

SAM YAO: [strong accent] You will say this only once.

JANINE DE LUCA: I will repeat it as often as needed, Mr. Yao, but time is of the essence. The Minister is planning an invasion of Abel Township. We learned that she was sending out invasion plans, but not precisely when or where. 

Dr. Kitsnis, the defector from Muddleton, told us which of Sigrid's generals and aides had the weakest security at their homes. My Pit Viper assassins have been surveiling them since then. A briefcase which I believe contains the invasion plans has been delivered to the home of a General Victory in a village in Barnabus Enclave today.

SAM YAO: [laughs] General Victory? What, that's his actual name?

JANINE DE LUCA: He's a highly decorated war hero.

SAM YAO: So the assassins are picking it up from Victory's house?

JANINE DE LUCA: They attempted to gain direct access to the village, but they fell afoul of plain clothes Ministry guards and have been detained. They will free themselves without causing casualties, but it will take some time.

NADIA AL HANAKI: And time's what we don't have. Every day makes Sigrid more friends. We'll go in over the mountains, not by the main road. And then we'll have got ourselves one step ahead of Sigrid's plans. On it.

[motor rumbles]

[motor rumbles]

SAM YAO: Well, that terrain looks rough, Nadia. Is your bike up to it?

NADIA AL HANAKI: I guess this is one way to find out. We've come over the crest of that first hill. Which way now?

SAM YAO: Right. Uh, right. Uh, you're heading for a little mountain village. You're going to need to cross the mountain pass by Cleft Ridge to get to it. That's the quickest way.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Quickest and also most dangerous?

SAM YAO: Uh, yeah, well, isn't that always the way? Uh, yep. There's a few shamblers. Rambler shamblers, in fact. Half of them are caught up on the barbed wire. Ugh. By the rotted look of them, they could have been there since the apocalypse.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Wow. You don't see many of those anymore. Just think, if we had Sigrid's marvelous medicine, we wouldn't need to run at all.

SAM YAO: Yeah, well, we're working on getting some more of it. After she worked with Dr. Kitsnis on updating the standard Junin 2 vaccine, Janine's agreed to let Veronica have a go at replicating the cure, but she'd need quite a few vials to analyze.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Still running for us, then, eh? Come on, Five. We can outpace them. Go!

NADIA AL HANAKI: We're halfway through the pass now. No sign of anyone from Cleft Ridge yet, so I guess we're lucky today.

SAM YAO: Yeah, never say that, remember?

NADIA AL HANAKI: You know, Sam, I have given up on superstition. I used to believe in it. Rabbit's foot, and all that. But it didn't do me much good. 

I was an air traffic controller. A plane I was directing crashed because the pilot went zom. I fell in Lem. He died. I was falling for Owen. Ian shot him. I got shot in the spine. If anyone gets to say I'm having a lucky day, it's me, all right?

SAM YAO: [laughs] Yeah. That's fair enough.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Any day I don't get shot and no one I love gets shot, that's a lucky day. And so far, this is a lucky day.

SAM YAO: Yeah, I don't know why I still believe in all that superstition stuff, to be honest.

NADIA AL HANAKI: It gives you the illusion of control in a terrifyingly meaningless universe where the government of your country is against you, and your best hope is that the various untrustworthy grifters and ex-military spooks you know will use their powers for you and not against you.

SAM YAO: Mm, yeah. Yeah, that about sums it up.

NADIA AL HANAKI: It's a confusing world, Sam. I went to work with Amelia because I thought, I can trust someone who always puts her own interests first. And if I can't trust it, at least she won't let me down.

SAM YAO: Yeah. I hear she's, uh, really popular at New Canton.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Oh yeah! She's just got it working really well. No endless meetings, no more advisory committees. They wanted to put up a statue to her, but she said, "For God's sake, I'm not a populist dictator. If you want to do something nice for me, install a copper-lined bath in my quarters."

SAM YAO: [laughs] And did they?

NADIA AL HANAKI: They did!

SAM YAO: Oh yeah, it's weird, but I sort of miss hanging out with her a bit now. Zoe's got her to agree to try and get ANNIE to replicate the immune baby version of the Junin 2 vaccine, but she's still not talking to me directly. 

Hmm... those zoms you picked up earlier haven't given up just yet. They seem to be actually kind of impressively agile at shambling on that loose shale. [laughs] It's probably the good quality walking boots on their rotten feet. Still, pick up the pace, guys.

[motor rumbles]

SAM YAO: All right, you've definitely lost those zoms now. One of them got caught on another one's crampons and now they're tangled up with a bunch of walking line. You're good.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Are we good, though, Sam?

SAM YAO: Ah, now, is this another existential question? I mean, what is good now in a world governed by fascists and isolationists and zombies?

NADIA AL HANAKI: No. Do you see that car up on the ridge? Do you not think it's going awful slow?

SAM YAO: Oh, what, do you think someone's following you?

NADIA AL HANAKI: Where are we now? Have we crossed into [?] Settlement?

SAM YAO: Mm - [paper rustles] uh, yeah. Yeah, you have. Yeah, well, just about.

NADIA AL HANAKI: They're Sigrid loyalists now. Were fence-sitting, but they signed up to her last week. Amelia has me kept up to date on all of this. Slightest change in the alliances means our runners are making trades in completely different spots.

SAM YAO: Well, do you think they know about the delivery of those invasion plans?

NADIA AL HANAKI: If they did, wouldn't just be one car after us. No. I think they might know we've come from Abel and Fort Canton, though. We'd be a good prize in a trade. And if Janine's assassins have been taken at the border, they're probably spooked. 

Tell you what, Five. I'll keep straight on here, make some noise, make them think they’re still on our tail. You head up that wee path. See it? If you open the paddock gate, the sheep will stray onto the road, and that car will have no way through.

SAM YAO: Yeah! Well, good plan, actually. You organize your runners like that?

NADIA AL HANAKI: As she tells me, Amelia only picks the best. Go on, Five. Run!

[car horn honks impatiently]

NADIA AL HANAKI: Ha! Yeah, good luck with that, mate. Honking your car horn is well known to make sheep do exactly what you want them to. It's magic like that. The louder you honk, the more control you have over the minds of sheep. Common knowledge.

SAM YAO: [laughs] Were you always that salty?

NADIA AL HANAKI: I'm a realist, Sam. Might as well enjoy the simple pleasures while we have them, eh? It's a good, brisk day for a ride, we've an important mission, and I managed to get a very angry person stuck in a herd of sheep. If you head over that hillock, Five, we'll meet up.

[car horn honks angrily]

SAM YAO: Wow, that village looks really lovely. I mean, really, just like it would have done before the apocalypse. Look at it! Little tea shop, buskers. It's always so weird to see places this normal nowadays.

NADIA AL HANAKI: I guess if Sigrid has the cure, her idea is that it might be like this everywhere soon. Zombie bite no worse than a nasty cut.

SAM YAO: Yeah, except wouldn't we also all have to subscribe to her weird Wakened Land agenda? All right, so General Victory's house is that little one just at the end of the road, with the white trim on the windows and the shingles on the roof. Five, if you could just sneak in there, get the case open, you'll be golden.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Well, you're not going in via the front or back door, that's for certain.

SAM YAO: Why? What's wrong with the doors? Oh, is this a Fort Canton thing? You guys do have doors, right?

NADIA AL HANAKI: Look at this street. It's subtle, but there are people watching that house. See the guy eating strudel at the cafe? See the busker on the street corner? Don't you think it's weird that they have guns in their back pockets?

SAM YAO: Well, I mean, it is the zombie apocalypse. [sighs] Hmm, but yeah, I take your point. The busker's got an earpiece, too.

NADIA AL HANAKI: Five, I'll wait here, keep an eye on them. You'll have to go in via the roof. Head down to the end of the street, climb the trellis on the first house, and then run back along the roof. Go now!

NADIA AL HANAKI: No movement down here, Five. The spooks on the street are still watching me, not you.

SAM YAO: All right, Five. You're on the roof of the right house. You've got an emergency cam in your backpack. Clip it to your front. They haven't got a lot of battery, but it should help me get you in safely. [Runner Five unzips backpack, rummages, clips and activates camera]

Okay, if you lower yourself down towards the back of that house, there's an attic window half open. [window creaks and slides open]

You're in! Head downstairs. General Victory's office is at the front of the building, that room overlooking over the square. He'll be out enjoying the festival today, so the briefcase should be on the desk. 

[sighs] If we do this right, you should be able to be in and out of there, unseen, in under 30 seconds. Oh, uh, someone appears to be laser cutting through the wall of that corridor.

[laser burns, wall collapses, glass shatters]

BRENT VALMONT: Legs! Oh, you do crop up in the most fascinating places! What are you doing here?

SAM YAO: Oh, right, it's the world's most enthusiastic billionaire.

BRENT VALMONT: I can hear you, Sam! I managed to source an Abel headset and had it coded to my ANNIE earpiece. Nice to chat, buddy! Long time, no see!

SAM YAO: Yeah, so you're outside the office of one of Sigrid's top generals, having just cut your way through a wall. Does this seem like a good time for a catch-up?

BRENT VALMONT: Oh, right, right. Yep, I [?] fine. I was actually here for some information. ANNIE told me there was a 98% chance that I'd be able to pick up a briefcase with some of Sigrid's plans in it without being spotted. I know I should have sent a drone or something, but I just miss the adventure! Are you here for that briefcase, too?

SAM YAO: [sighs] Obviously! Oh, just go and get it, and we can argue over dibs later.

[door creaks open]

BRENT VALMONT: There it is on the desk. By the way, a few Pit Viper assassins were detained at the border. ANNIE thinks they'll get the blame for this break-in, so we're all in the clear! Let's get a look at those documents, and then we can have some lunch, Five? Just press those two clasps at the same time.

[briefcase begins beeping]

SAM YAO: Uh, what's that beeping sound?

BRENT VALMONT: No idea. ANNIE, what's that? ... she says to look at the front of the case where it's, uh - oh yeah, there it is, there it is. It's asking for a passcode. We don't have a passcode, do we? No? No, no, I didn't think so. Always worth checking. 

Right. Um, ANNIE says that the briefcase had a fingerprint check, and we tripped it. If we don't get this case de-alerted at one of the Ministry facilities within the next 30 minutes, it'll self-destruct... and spit out poisoned gas... and broadcast our location and what happened here to the Ministry! So that's uh, three ways we could be dead in the next half hour.

[briefcase continues beeping]