#all the acting and soundscaping and story is just

[kristsune]

my friends, if you have not listened to trice forgotten i would highkey recommend doing so. the entire show was absolutely incredible, but the finale delivered in such a beautiful and magnificent way. 

[robo-milky]

[NBC! Cloche]

An amiable girl hesitant to say what’s on her mind, mistaken for shyness by others. She’s comfortable acting as soundscape, reacting to others and prompting them with questions. Her expressions are a bit exaggerated and can switch tones in a heartbeat, which comes off as disingenuous to some. Prefers to subtly hint at her wants (sometimes passive aggressive).

NBC! Cloche is a snapshot of Cloche’ optimism and drive before losing it all. She had always lacked empathy from the start, treating altruism as nothing more but a social obligation. NBC! Cloche overcompensates for her apathy towards others through helpfulness, even if it means self-sabotage.

[RSA! Cloche]

A stubborn girl who will only cooperate on her terms. Not very expressive unless she has strong personal opinions on a topic. Quick to make sarcastic remarks and crude jokes to steer conversations away from sore spots, sometimes coming out as a bit self deprecating. Will not hesitate to be blunt as long as she’s stating the facts.

RSA! Cloche is the perfect balance of identities after Cloche finds her sense of self. After coming to terms that feigning emotions and acting like they don’t exist are both exhausting, she decides to act a little more true to herself. Despite the improvements, nihilism still runs strong in her blood and she has difficulty imagining a future.

[Stepping In]

NBC! Cloche had always dreamed of going to a cleaner, nicer school. Now that she’s actually thrusted into one, she’s having second thoughts. She’ll play nice and try to get into Rollo’s good graces, but finds herself drifting to the “troublemakers” of the school over time. The student council’s unofficial “barista”.

RSA could have been the perfect isekai and escape if it wasn’t for one thing, that damned hoodie. Does it really belong to Cloche? Nobody knows. Aside from a couple gasps and eyebrow raises, the student body is more concerned with getting Cloche back home and adjusting her to this new world with magic. She’ll complain about RSA’s stuffiness, but she’s never met a community so welcoming and kind before. An honorary dwarf hanging around Neige. (After some Magicam stories and appearances, conspiracists speculate she’s a hidden sibling of Neige)

[Notes]

• I did always imagine them to have their own curses, like NRC! Cloche, but not sure if I wanted them to make it to the final cut. NBC! Cloche would be cursed with obligatory honesty, and RSA! Cloche would be cursed to always do what she perceives as the right thing.

• Since NRC is the only school to specifically be a boy’s school (iirc?), Cloche has her women’s rights again.

• During the events of Glorious Masquerade, all Cloches side with NRC in the end. NBC! Cloche is like that one NPC who gives helpful information/lore, and RSA! Cloche ends up with NRC, since Neige and Chenya wouldn’t want a defenceless junior hanging around as they sacrifice themselves.

• RSA! Cloche would 10/10 dye her underlayer an array of colours, but I left it white as a blank canvas. (May also be a hint to tie to Neige). NBC! Cloche still has virgin hair.

• I’ve had this idea marinating since forever and I’m happy to finally do something with it!

• I do have a mini AU/idea where all them coexist at the same time, and there’s a big dilemma in which Cloche to keep/send home. All schools advocate for their Cloche to be the “main” Cloche allowed to exist.

• I’ve always wanted to dive into Cloche as a person and her growth over time— not just her brooding over the cat maid shebang 😭

• To be completely honest- RSA! Cloche started as an old throwaway joke of “what if isekai’d with ahegao hoodie” and I guess I’m sticking with it. She’s not a coomer I swear- For a more fleshed out explanation, Cloche ran away from home wearing the hoodie instead of any else, cause it’s the only jacket she bought with her own money and wants to make a statement of leaving everything she doesn’t own behind. Mystery solved 😔

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.)

💀Thanatos💀

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- listens to ‘dark ambient’ soundscapes

- learn about butterflies

- if able, visit a cemetery

- learn about the work that death doulas, hospice workers, funeral directors, morticians, cemetery caretakers, and grief counselors do

- if able tend to the grave of a loved one (tidy it up, bring new flowers/decorations, etc.)

- talk to deceased loved ones (doesn’t have to be anything fancy- I talk to my dead dog all the time I say good morning to him and when we leave I tell him we’ll be back etc. whatever you wanna tell them you tell them!)

- learn the stages of grief and how complex grief is

- if interested and able (I know this can be touchy) learn about the process of dying and what happens to the body after death

- learn about what you can have done to your body after death- there’s lots of interesting options out there! Burial at sea is still very much a thing that can be done, I didn’t know that until I got curious and looked this stuff up!

- if able and willing talk to your loved ones about what your wishes are for when you die- what do you want to happen to your body, what do you want your funeral to be like, etc. (I include this because I used to work in assisted living and nothing is worse than your family just not knowing what your wishes are for when you die, I’ve heard too many horror stories)

- learn about death magic and spirit work

- learn about the Victorian era spirituality craze (like the uptick in things like seances and all that, it’s all very interesting)

- learn about the many ways to communicate with the dead

- destigmatize death- death has become a very hush-hush subject which doesn’t really do us any favors in my opinion so don’t be afraid to talk about it, talk about your wishes, etc.

- learn about funerary practices throughout history and around the world

- learn about the meaning of death throughout history and around the world

- listen to songs about death

- read poems, books, plays about death- there’s a lot of them and they’re quite interesting

- watch movies/shows about death (my personal favorite is the seventh seal)

- if able and willing reflect on your own thoughts and feelings on death (can be death in general, about your own mortality, etc.)

- look up cemetery symbols and symbolism! And whenever able do a cemetery scavenger hunt

- wear black

- learn about how to help someone who is grieving

- listen to goth music

- be kind to spirits

- learn about haunted locations

- read ghost stories (idk if this counts but my personal favorite is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow)

💤Hypnos💤

- listen to a devotional playlist for Him

- listen to calming soundscapes

- learn about symbolism in dreams

- learn about the stages of sleep

- if able establish and practice good sleep hygiene

- learn about good sleep hygiene

- if unable (or you have a hard time sleeping) look up calming and quiet activities you can do instead

- listen to calming music

- if able make your bedroom into a cozy safe space

- learn about herbs and plants with calming and/or sleep inducing properties

- if able donate some bedding you don’t use anymore (even animal shelters will take some! Bedding is always in high demand in all sorts of places so if you’re needing to unload some this is the chance to do it!)

- learn about our sleep cycles and the circadian rhythm

- if you have young family members (kids, little siblings) tuck them in and/or read them a bedtime story

- if able slow down and rest

[booksiboo]

CAUGHT UP ON PROTOCOL (Started around a week ago as its summer for me rn-)

First of all. I love all of these characters. They are all so human. Bar Lena. I hate Lena. She scares me. But the Voice Acting? PHENOMENAL. Genuinely brilliant. I love how each of the characters react to stuff-

Now. Onto my questions/comments.

ALICE IS A VIBE I LOVE HER. SHE IS TIM 2.0

Aww Sam I feel so bad for you rn-

WHY IS CELIA HERE? WHEN DID SHE SHOW UP? GO HOME CELIA.

Awww Georgie is now S2 Jon- ALSO YESS GEORGIE YOU ARE OK.

WHY IS JON DEAD? STOP IT. CEASE BEING DEAD.

WHY DOES CELIA KNOW WHO THESE PEOPLE ARE? CELIA. CELIA NO.

Sam being fully ok with the idea that the government killed a bunch of random people yet somehow completely opposed to the idea that, despite working in the 'THIS IS REALLY WEIRD' department, supernatural stuff is real-

Wait.. Jon, Martin and some guy are the computers? Huh? WHY. THEY SOUND SO HUMAN CAN THEY NOT DO THAT. MY THEORIST BRAIN ONLY HAS ENOUGH SPACE FOR CELIA BEING A DIMENSION TRAVELLER.

And now... The game of... is it a family emergency or is Celia a demon?

COLIN WHAT THE HELL? WHY?

WHY IS THE BABY A DEMON HELLO? Also why is Celia so involved in these stories and WHY DOES THE DEMON BABY LIKE HER?

Why are all bosses in the Magnus Universe Evil?

Also good for Basira being a teacher I'M SO HAPPY YOU ARE OK. BUT ALSO WHY DO YOU STILL HATE EVERYONE?

Magnussing- I CANT-

HELEN. HELEN IS OK. Well she is a Tory so she isn't ok but still SHE'S ALIVE. Misstortion (Miss + Distortion.. Get it? Get it? I need sleep dear gods-)

THE BABY IS A TORY-

Trevor Herbert is WHAT? Trevor Herbert, Homeless man who murders people, IS A WHAT?

(I morally refuse to state what he is even though it makes sense-)

Gwen.. Gwen stop.. AM I GOING TO HAVE TO FIND MY METAPHORICAL JON LEASH AGAIN. WHY CAN NO ONE HERE COMMUNICATE UNLESS THEY ARE ACTIVELY DYING?

Great writing though, thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. Sam and Celia are very sweet, very wholesome, very not going to end in tragedy (please. Please I just want some people to LIVE HAPPILY FOR ONCE)

THE VAs ARE BRILLIANT THOUGH. THE EDITING? AMAZING. THE SOUNDSCAPING? *CHEFS KISS* PERFECT. Good job people!

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Interstella 5555

The process I employ to figure out what movie to cover on this little column of mine is more of an art than a science. Some times it has me scrolling mindlessly through my letterboxd or netflix history looking for a movie I feel strongly enough about to write about. Other times, I decide to listen to Alive 2007 and realize Daft Punk is one of the best musical acts of all time. So, with that in mind, let's talk about that time they made a movie.

As one might expect for an almost feature-length movie to the 2001 Daft Punk album Discovery, Interstella follows the story of a group of alien musicians who find themselves abducted by extrasolar interlopers, shortly revealed to be humans who takes our blue-skinned friends to earth. Once there, the Interstella gang are brainwashed and disguised as humans in order to work for a skeezy producer slash symphonic orchestra conductor, later revealed to have struck a Faustian bargain with some sort of space satan for eternal life and riches provided he can sacrifice 5555 golden records, and the artists who produced them with it.

It's not the most complex story once you get over the novelty of the reverse alien abduction and space satanism bits, but that is perhaps inevitable, considering this movie has no spoken dialog apart from the odd line or lyrics that is meant to be diegetic. Secondary protagonist who I have dubbed as "guitar spaceship guy," for example, sings Digital Love to himself while cleaning said guitar-shaped spaceship and day-dreaming of the alien band's bass player before receiving his call to action.

The movie probably shines the hardest when there's lot of mechanical stuff going on. The sequence when the Interstella crew gets their brainwashing and humanface disguises, the mechanical beats Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger makes it seem like a How It's Made episode from a much MUCH darker timeline.

It's also interesting to me how the brainwashing does seem to take just fine, but the crew, now under the name Crescendolls, seem morose, still every bit as able to make killer tracks as in their pre-abduction days, but without the clear and apparent joy. Granted, the hardships of being a Commercial Super Hit Artist does probably play into it, but even before that, there's a profound malcontent in them. I almost find myself wishing there was some expository dialog here to explore this. Do they know on some level that they don't belong on earth? That they're being made to do the thing they once loved wholeheartedly for someone else's gain?

It's hard not to speculate on the auteur side of this. The context that Discovery was a departure album from Daft Punk's established house music style, and arguably their entry into the attention of wider pop culture, is similarly hard to ignore. Considering Daft Punk adopted their now-iconic robot mask personae at the same time, it's not hard to read a fear of becoming part of the Pop Machine in Interstella 5555.

If I can now only take a brief digression to talk about the music. Discovery is one of my favorite albums of all time. Filing off the rough edges and at times consciously abrasive soundscapes from earlier releases makes for a compulsively listenable album. I'm particularly fond of how Daft Punk uses vocal performance, primarily through samples as a musical element. The sample of Barry Manilow's paranoid cuckold anthem Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed in Superheroes is somehow both basically incomprehensible and instantly iconic, and the thought of having ears keen enough and musical intuition sharp enough to pick up on it in the first place is one of those genius moves that I understand, but could not replicate for all the gold in the world.

If Interstella 5555 has any flaws, apart from annoyingly being 5 minutes too short to be classified as a feature length film at 65 minutes, it's probably the slightly disposable tragedy of Guitar Spaceship Guy, who's doomed but heroic quest to save Interstella 5555 arguably could have been cut in its entirety. His infatuation with Interstella's bass player plays out in this structurally sound but kind of lifeless romance by the songs Digital Love and Something About Us, and the fact that GSG and Bass Player Lady doesn't actually know each other becomes impossible to ignore. His dying... dream sharing or whatever else is going on there feels like it's following a character arc that isn't there. Bass Player Lady doesn't know him, and crucially, he doesn't know her. It's all parasocial, and he dies shortly thereafter. It's not to say something beautiful couldn't grow from this, and I think that's what they're getting at with the Something About Us sequence, but it does feel like mourning what Didn't Happen, and if we're getting started on that we'll be here all day so let us move on.

Speaking of flaws, the movie does drag a little in the third act. Part of this is the Act 2 Climax feeling more fitting for that sort of thing than the actual climax. It is admittedly a little sweet that the plot resolves when immortal conductor guy's plot is discovered and humanity reacts by rightfully pointing out that a crime has been committed, and hasten to help the Interstella gang find their way home, that's not normally how these plots go, but the slight nuance given to the abduction/humans are the villains plot is very heartening. Seeing our blue alien friends seen off as beloved heroes feels very correct, and similarly, their rediscovery of the joy of music and new role as interplanetary ambassadors is one of those "fuck yeah a better world is possible" things that I'll take a million times over more cynical Dark Forest scenarios.

Speaking of drag, though, the Too Long segment, feels a bit like a lengthy coda to the story we don't need, which is, coincidentally what I think about the song's role on the album as well. All the same, it must be said that while the final showdown by immortal conductor's guy in psychedelic FTL space is pretty cool, and while it still doesn't work for me, Guitar Spaceship Guy helping out the Crescendolls one final time from beyond the grave does endear me ever so slightly to that whole subplot.

Interstella 5555 is an interesting watch, it's clearly a project of way more creative freedom than most animated fare is allowed to be, and it's wild that I can say the phrase "it's also exciting that the movie straight out states that Mozart, Ella Fitzgerald and... I believe Flea of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (?) all were sacrificed to Space Satan." This isn't important to the plot at all, but I feel it just needed to be said. So in short, check it out. Among it's many strengths, the soundtrack kicks some serious ass.

[jazzically]

mag 190

wait the cultists are freaking cute

Nightmare supermarket,??? omegamart??? hello???

OMG ANIL GETS A POET CAMEO that's absolutely lovely

hey is this the first episode that hasn't had a statement??

mag 191 (why is it titled What We Lose???)

oh mh god he sleeps with his eyes open i cannot decide how i feel about that detail

MELANIE AND GEORGIE MELANIE AND GEORGIE <33

oh..oh that's so sad...melanie no i love you please

dude this is amazing

192

I LOVE THEM

new headcanon jon is very pedantic about various aspects of various works of obscure literature

ROSIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! underrated!!!!!! i think she probably looks like joan of arc but specifically the joan of arc from bill and ted's excellent adventure

ah yes me when jonny does an impression of the archivist's impression of the eye's impression of alasdair's impression of peter (seriously though he nailed it the speech patterns sounded the same in that line)

tempted to build the panopticon or the new institute tower in minecraft

OH MY WHAT

that speech was SO EPIC but also WHAT

193

OK HOLD ON THIS IS THE SICKEST THING EVER. U KNOW WHY cause cause ben got to do this epic speech thing and in order to make it hit hard jon probably wrote it with a lot of consonants idk but ben's acting in the background is just AMAZING and deserves to go noticed. like HELLO CAN WE TALK ABT IT PLEASE EEEEEE it's also incredible ???? i cant yet understand what he is saying but ALSO THE SOUNDSCAPING IS BRILLIANT LIKE it makes me think of the swirling storm things over ominous buildings in like my little pony or the bossfight in the animated sleeping beauty ?? yknow dramatic cinema weather. i can hear the hurricane. IT'S SO GOOD.

umm ya :D ok i did listen through those first three minutes or so twice so i could follow along, first with the main story and then with ben's monologue which btw did i mention was INCREDIBLE it sounds similar to when the archivist did his hell-world-door-opening speech thing at the end of mag 120

yk i dont think ill get through all of s5 tonight. i thought i would but i shouldn't lol

ITS AMAZING THOUGH AAAAAAAA RRREEEEEE

[the-moons-not-haunted-you-are]

Spoilers for Malevolent Ep. 45

Filled out the bingo card @ridethemindway made <3

Also yall this episode gave me SO many feels. I was almost crying when Malam was talking about Faroe. She's still with him?? She believes he doesn't deserve to die?? Arthur has found hope and that's what keeps her with him?? Ough ough ough

"Don't trust him; he isn't what he seems" could be Yorrik, could be Alexander, might even be John, though I doubt it. I think we've had enough of discovering what John was, now it's discovering who he will be.

Anyways, I missed hearing their voices <333 I forgot how delightful it is to actually listen to this podcast (let's just say I've been reading a biiiiit too much fanfic lol). The soundscaping, voice acting, and story are all So Rich and immersive

Oh! I almost forgot William! More Arthur backstory! Not sure if we'll actually get to learn more about this guy, but hopefully the name drop means we will lol

[lindsaynichols]

I just finished listening, for the second time front to back, to @camlannpod — a Welsh, post-apocalyptic, queer, intersectional, #feminist, fictional #podcast about three friends and a dog exploring identity, mental health, and Arthurian legend. The story is completely original and utterly hopeful, the soundscape is lush and bright, the acting is brilliant and award worthy, the music gives me chills — all told, it’s simply, impossibly gorgeous. Possibly the best scripted podcast EVER. I highly, highly recommend! Thank you Ella Watts and Amber at Tin Can Audio. I hope Camlann’s home fires burn for a LONG time.

[roskirambles]

Horror Movie of the day: Dracula (1931)

The 1897 Bram Stoker's novel, a well known literary classic: the nefarious vampire who comes from beyond the Carpathians to take over England by settling in Cairfax Abbey, London. A blood eating fiend who is drawn in by the virginal Mina Murray, to then be confronted by her fiancé Jonthan Harker and Dr. Abraham Van Helsing. So when Tod Browning was hired to adapt it to the silver screen, from its theatre adaptation nonetheless, the end result became transformative in the world of cinema… forever.

Now, it's easy for modern audiences to be desensitized to its lack of violence and campy theatrics, with a performance from Bela Lugosi as the count that has been parodied to death and then some. And yet, over 90 years after it was seen for the first time it's still considered as THE iconic interpretation of the vampire upon which Halloween costumes are based on and from which many lines not found in the novel are imitated. Why is that? The key word is charisma.

Behind the obvious camp, there's something performative if not outright uncanny about the count. Yes, a 6 feet tall vampire who is always staring and cups the sky in his hand like a poorly directed Shakespeare villain can come across as a tad goofy, but he thoroughly sticks out and it's hard to look everywhere else when someone acts so strangely and somehow makes everyone start following his pace, simultaneously a relic of the time yet still captivating, magnetic even.

A pragmatic adaptation that simplifies the story (cutting out Lucy Westenra's suitors entirely, cutting Jonathan's trip Trannsylvania out) this film keeps most of the essentials about the book while optimizing the screen time, while changing the angle to emphasize the rivalry between Dracula and Van Helsing. The end result is moody and atmospheric, with some admittedly hooky effects but hitting just right at many moments.

It's only natural for a movie still worth watching.

Yes, I emphasized Lugosi's performance during the main body of review, but that was honestly warranted: a movie named after its antagonist lives or dies by that performance specifically, and the classically trained Hungarian honestly knocked it out of the park to the point he codified what vampires look like for decades, only horror film legend Cristopher Lee ever coming remotely close to the same leve of iconicity. But reducing the movie's success to JUST Legosi's performance is undermining the effort of the rest of the cast, with Edward Van Sloan's performance as Abraham van Helsing playing a great foil to the count, or Dwight Frye's compelling range as Renfield really selling the madness and tragedy of his character.

But above all, Tod Browning's directorial achievements in what was effectively a new field.

Sure, horror films existed before this one, so did Dracula adaptations even. But this movie had a challenge past ones didn't have to deal with: making horror work with sound. An herculean task he understood better than some people might give him credit for; while archaic to modern eyes with it's nigh total absence of music (including the now awkward use of Tchaikovsky's Swan's Lake as the opening credits theme), finding things like the sound creaking doors used to build tension THIS early in cinema history isn't as self explanatory as it might seem. It required an intuition as to how the soundscape of a situation instinctively affects the emotional state of the viewer.

That isn't to mention that for how shoddy those bats on strings look, the atmosphere of the film still manages to hit the mark. Even fairly goofy facial expressions can be rendered creepy under the right lighting conditions.

But then, there's some other matters about this film, like how the changes to the book have affected the perception of many characters (hitting Mina the hardest by making her JUST the damsel in distress), the fact Lugosi was not the first choice for Dracula and had to fight for it(showing that even back then you had an internal politics conflict in Hollywood), or the existence of a score which was added in later releases and adds to the film's atmosphere.

...or the fact it's actually TWO separate films from from the same script.

As dubbing and putting subtitles to films wasn't a common practice during the 30's, to export this movie to other markets a completely separate version in a different language would have to be made for each. And since Mexico is the immediate neighboring country, a Spanish version was shot at nights on the same sets as the English one, helmed by George Melford.

The end result is a very similar yet also decidedly different movie, lasting over half an hour more, addressing plot points that are either glossed over or shortly talked about, and having more ambitious cinematography, but with acting that doesn't quite match the overall level seen in Brown's effort. Specially poor Carlos Villarias, who was mandated to imitate Lugosi as close as possible and wasn't allowed to make the character his own, remembered only as a pale imitation of the so called original.

Still, a window into two different takes from the same script is a rarity in the world of cinema and well worth looking into.

[readordiebyemilyt]

Here's the next round of scary movies I've enjoyed this October:

Return of the Living Dead: I'd never seen this one before: it was at the Last Picture House last weekend, and I had a lot of fun. The punks were great, the zombies were scary (and looked fantastic), and Clu Gulager was, to my surprise, a serviceable action hero. (Also, I like a deus ex machina when it's exactly what the military industrial complex would do to "solve" a problem.)

Ju-On: It's been a long time since I first saw this movie, and I'd forgotten how it plays with time: each section focuses on a different character, and how they're cursed in different ways. Rika's story bookends the film, and even her eventual understanding of what happened in the house can't save her, but it's a haunting journey.

Killer Fish: The MST3K version of this features a great song, Crow as a killer fish, and, you guessed it, piranhas eating people.

Halloween: I watched this with Rifftrax, as I do most years: it was the first movie at the Dusk Till Dawn event at the drive-in on Saturday. There are so many sequels, and at least three continuities I can think of. (Four?) But this one is the first, and it's still the best.

Halloween II: I'll be honest, I tuned out for parts of this one, mainly because I wanted to finish an audiobook. It has its moments, and the use of Mr. Sandman is a great musical leitmotif, and we start to get into the druid stuff that comes up in movies 4, 5, and 6. Probably the scariest thing is the fact that most of the hospital staff act like horny teens, which they're of course standing in for for the sake of the plot.

Christine: Another first time watch for me: the fact that the cursed car Christine has, in 1983, what look to be LED headlights that she uses to blind her victims further proves the evil of that invention.

The Shining: Again, there are parts of this movie that I just sort of tune out, especially since this watch started around 2:30am. The scariest parts IMO are when Jack yells at his family: this movie is full of effective visuals that stick in your head and an iconic soundscape. In many ways, it's a beautiful film, and every time, I wish Scatman Crothers didn't die. (Spoiler alert: he doesn't in the book! He becomes an important part of Danny's life!)

The Most Dangerous Game: Can we go back to some movies only being 63 minutes long? I just think it would be a nice change of pace: not every film needs to be two hours long. Anyway, I watched this with Rifftrax, and it was fun. A man hunts people for sport, Faye Wray is there, and the protagonist here seems very unmoved by the deaths of his best friends in a shipwreck. Maybe he's in shock? Or maybe they didn't have time for that trauma when the whole "our host is trying to kill us" plot point was coming.

Ringu: Still compelling and deeply disturbing even after all these years: Sadako is one of, if not the best, modern horror icons. I'd forgotten that her victims die not from fear, but because of her incredible psychic power, which she possesses even after death. Also, the way to break the curse is interesting, because in theory, would-be victims could just keep showing the tape to others, copying it, then instructing others to repeat that cycle indefinitely, with no one dying.

Nope: This is my favorite Jordan Peele movie so far. It explores the consequences of thinking you're chosen, or just a mere spectator when, in fact, you are a participant in whatever entertainment you consume. So in watching this, you the viewer are engaging with spectacle, and seeing the characters try to survive that very thing. As a former English major, watching this always makes me want to write an essay.

[mars-and-the-theoi]

Low energy Devotional Acts for when you don’t have a lot of energy (or time, or money, etc.) pt. 5

🗡️Phobos & Deimos🗡️

- watch a horror movie

- watch war movies

- watch documentaries or do a Wikipedia deep dive on various wars and battles

- look up the difference between terror and horror

- watch Halloween movies (doesn’t necessarily have to be scary) or Halloween episodes of tv shows

- look up types of self defense

- learn about the role of charioteers (they do drive their father’s chariot after all!)

- listen to a devotional playlist for Them

- watch combat sports (boxing, wrestling, etc.)

- listen to horror movie soundtracks

- listen to Halloween or ‘scary’ soundscapes

🐚Aphrodite🐚

- light your favorite candle, put on your favorite lotion or perfume, put on your favorite piece of jewelry, your favorite article of clothing something small that just boosts your spirits!

- enjoy a sweet treat

- watch a romcom

- watch a regular romantic movie or show or read (or listen to audiobooks are very much valid) your favorite romantic story

- if you’re in a relationship maybe text/call or talk to your partner(s) for a bit maybe even make some plans to do something together for when the opportunity arises

- if you’re not in a relationship maybe text/call or talk to a good friend (online or irl friend!) or a close family member that you have a good relationship with! Maybe even make some plans with them!

- if you’re maybe a bit more introverted or don’t have anyone irl that you’re super close with, that’s okay! Make a plan for yourself! Maybe there’s a restaurant you’ve been curious about, or maybe a new park opened up near you, etc. it can be anything. Treat yourself to something you enjoy!

- if you have a pet and they like to snuggle, snuggle or lay with them. Talk to them and tell them how much you love them. If able take them for a walk or a ride.

- listen to ocean/sea soundscapes

- read up on all the many kinds of love

- engage in an act of self-care for me it’s enjoying a cup of my favorite tea but it can be whatever is most meaningful and/or viable for you

- listen to love songs

- listen to a devotional playlist for Her

- make a Pinterest board of all your favorite things and things that you love! Your favorite band, favorite flowers, etc. doesn’t matter what it is

- learn about the different kinds of love

- do things that boost your self esteem (even if only temporarily, I know how tricky this can be)

- be gentle with yourself! Slow down, take it easy, etc.

- watch a ballet

- read love poems (or try to write your own no matter how cheesy it may be! It’s always fun to try)

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded

The story of Boogie Down Productions is necessarily a two part story. I'm not sure if the follow up album By All Means Necessary is on this list. It should be. In 1987 only a few months after releasing this album DJ Scott La Rock was killed in a shooting while trying to break up a fight. Criminal Minded is typically seen as the first gangsta rap album. It introduced the exaggerated kayfabe of kids with guns shooting each other over Petty squabbles over which borough is best. BDPs second album By All Means Necessary is a stark stripped down album with serious lyrics about inner city violence and other socially conscious themes. Scott La Rock's fingerprints are all over both albums in very different ways. Criminal Minded is full of camp bravado and the beats are matched to that energy. A little cheesy and a lot of heart La Rock chooses samples that keep the mood light despite the violent subject matter. And both La $ock and KRS-One will often devolve into silly little riffs on completely random songs (Hey Jude by The Beatles and It's Still Rock And Roll To Me by Billy Joel). It's a light and cheesy album that still shows off frank depictions of life in the Bronx while also ahowcasing the talents of KRS-ONE, D Nice, and of course DJ Scott La Rock.

Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express

By the time Kraftwerk hit the scene electronic music had already existed for decades. But before Kraftwerk it was mainly the realm of experimental mavericks and there was little commercial interest outside of a few oddities. With Trans-Europe Express Kraftwerk found themselves refining their sound in a more ambient and minimal direction. Tracks average six minutes a pop and feature rolling soundscapes of mechanical synths. The songs take more influence from minimalist composers and feature melodic ideas that slowly evolve over a long run time. It's an amazing album although it definitely overshadowed by the follow up album The Man-Machine which makes this one look like a warmup.

Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger

This was Willie Nelson's eighteenth album, but the first where he had full creative control. The result is a sparsely arranged concept album about a man trying to get away with the murder of his wife and her lover. The use of perfectly placed covers of country classics interspersed with original numbers to tell a coherent story is incredibly well done. And the stark instrumentation makes every single note feel significant. Every sorrowful guitar solo and walking bass line communicates as much story and emotion as the lyrics themselves. This is one of the greatest masterpieces in all of country music.

Daft Punk - Discovery

Where Daft Punk's debut Homework featured very traditional Chicago style House music Discovery evolved the sound into something completely new. The rigid mechanical grooves are replaced with a new, softer sound influenced by pop and R&B. Naturally fans of their first record hated it. In fact hating the newest Daft Punk record is kind of a tradition in the fandom. The instant commercial hits that were One More Time and Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger are well known but the album is loaded with catchy enjoyable tracks from start to finish. Whether it's the buzzsaw arpeggios of Aerodynamic or the slow balladry of Something About Us, the albums deep.cuts hit just as hard as the hits. Not to mention Too Long, my favorite Daft Punk song, which is a sprawling ten minute prog house epic.

Metallica - s/t (the black album)

After riding high as one of the greatest thrash acts of all time Metallica finally hit the mainstream by putting out one of the most tedious and boring pieces of shit imaginable. Yeah Enter Sandman has a pretty iconic riff, well one good song doesn't make a good album. Literally everything after that sucks and it's the opening track. The album is a slow plodding mess that is constantly on the verge of becoming the thrash metal version of a Cinderella ballad. And let's not forget the overtly libertarian song Don't Tread On Me! Fuck this cringe ass album. I scooped the cat box right after listening to this and I'd rate that as a better experience than listening to the black album.

Black Sabbath - Master Of Reality

Master Of Reality provides the blueprint for all slow, sludge, stoner, and doom metal to come. The guitar and bass are down tuned and the sound is chuggy which hugely influenced later bands looking to make their sound heavier. The opener, Sweet Leaf is the original stoner metal song. And the acoustic interludes, Embryo and Orchid are definitely echoed in the slow acoustic intros to a million death metal songs.

Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes

Tori Amos seems to be working through some emotional baggage here, but my god is it the most overwrought garbage I've ever heard. Plodding piano ballads come one after another only occasionally pausing to become interesting. Little Earthquakes wants to be meaningful so very badly. It wants to be Hounds Of Love so very badly. But where Kate Bush can craft evocative beautiful music and lyrics Tori Amos produces melodramatic piano ballads and lyrics that feel like chatgpt trained on Kate Bush songs. I'm gonna say it again just to be mean: listen to Kate Bush instead.

John Coltrane - Giant Steps

After an iconoc tenure in most of Miles Davis' groups in the 50s saxophone legend John Coltrane set out as a solo artist. Giant Steps wasn't his first outing as a bandleader but it was the one that cemented him as the jazz artist of the 60s. The performances are monstrous here super special credit goes to Paul Chambers on bass for not just being able to keep up but for doing it with flair. The real thing about this album though is the chord changes. Coltrane pioneered a series of chord changes that used third intervals to keep the root of the chords equidistant from each other resulting in a loss of tonal center. The songs rapidly change keys and wind up being famously difficult to improv over, and that's before the frenetic pace of many of the songs comes into play. You may not understand any of what I just said, but trust me your brain can hear the effects. It's beautifully disorienting and you have no choice but to give in to Coltrane's whims, trusting that he knows where it's going

[miyakuli]

Raging Loop

Hungry Wolf

Take The Werewolves of Millers Hollow, sprinkle it with Japanese mythology, blend everything with a time-loop system, and serve it up at the macabre feast of Yasumizu village. This psychological horror visual novel is sure to delight your palate, but will you even dare to taste the experience…?

❤ Let's start with the main dish: the game's storyline. The story is intriguing and very rich in folklore, and I really enjoyed unraveling its mysteries as the revelations unfolded. In fact, I was surprised in many ways by the course of events, I couldn't anticipate many of the twists, and some of the secrets were well kept until the very end. ❤ As side dishes to the meal, the game offers us some very…particular characters. Their personalities are quite atypical, and we can glimpse both their sensitivity and their utter madness… but that's why we end up loving them all. The game also takes the time to develop them over the loops, making them all memorable and endearing individuals. Between our main protagonist who's as intelligent as Light in Death Note but with a nonchalant personality, a flirtatious but lunatic young woman, a teenage boy in a dress with super-powered instincts, a loving but depressive mum, and the list goes on….you can guess that the interactions in this group will never be boring and will provide you with scenes that are both delirious and uncomfortable. ❤ The game's overall design perfectly seasons the plot, with varied chara-design and beautiful (and creepy) illustrations. ❤ To round off the meal, you can wander through a flowchart whose chapters are unlocked by keys obtained each time your character dies. It's more than just an accessory for the player though, and plays an integral part in the story, just as it does in Zero Escape saga - a little icing on the cake.

However, I think that some of the food would benefit from a better balance of flavors. +/- All dialogue is dubbed in Japanese (and although the seiyuus are largely unknown, their acting is excellent). The soundscape is also really well done, despite being a little cheap…but some of the musical loops are a little too apparent and, above all, the heartbeat track… seriously, you can find much better in free sound banks. +/- The game takes its time to develop the story and characters while keeping a steady pace, so you don't feel the hours fly by…but there's an overload of explanations condensed into the last few chapters, a little indigestible. +/- Also, the ending could chill people's appetite, and I think this story direction will have an effect on the atmosphere of the game; replaying it won't have the same flavor knowing this outcome. +/- The don juan attitude of the main character towards almost all the girls in the game wasn't always necessary and a bit clunky in my opinion, although yes, these relationships will have an interesting impact. +/- In the end, the game is very linear, so it doesn't offer much replayability…but the bonus content does add some nice elements to the plot.

While I was well satisfied with this meal, a few elements left me with a slightly bitter taste. ✖ The sound balance is poor; if I put everything at the same level, some dialogues are eaten up by the music, but if I turn the voices up a little, they take up too much space. ✖ I wish we'd had more choice during the feasts; that we'd been much more involved in unmasking the culprits. ✖ The "hints corner" don't add much and break the creepy effect of the bad endings.

Raging Loop is a very savory VN, and despite the lack of interaction, it's a treat thanks to a convincing scenario set in a well-managed anxious atmosphere, and will easily keep you on the edge of your seat for several hours. Enjoy your meal.

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

[malevolentcast]

Howdy Harlan,

This may have been asked before, but do you have a favorite character voice in the show so far? If not, which ones have been the easiest or hardest to do?

Is there a favorite scene of yours from a soundscaping/foley perspective? (i.e. which was the most fun/rewarding to put together from the creator’s perspective?)

(Also, I just wanted to say that Malevolent (and Dice Shame) have had such a positive impact on me and I just think they’re really neat shows and you do an absolutely incredible job every time there’s a new episode or chapter. The writing, soundscaping, voice acting, and every last that goes into creating the story is absolutely amazing and I applaud you for all of it👏👏)

Kayne.

Most are Easy, Guests are hard. Most fun? Not many cause they all take a lot of work but it's fun thinking of new places? I enjoyed Prelude.

Thank you! I really love that!

[pb-dot]

Film Friday: Event Horizon

Fun fact: Time is an illusion and I keep forgetting what weekday it is, but anyway: This October, I've decided to dedicate my FF entries to horror movies that I feel deserve a little more attention. First up to bat is none other than the best space horror movie that doesn't feature Sigourney Weaver and Ian Holm, the infamous Event Horizon.

In the real world, an Event Horizon is the zone around a black hole where the gravity is so strong that not even light can escape, and as such we cannot observe what's going on there in any meaningful way. In retrospect, it was perhaps unwise to name the ship built to take humanity's first Faster Than Light journey by performing a jump by using experimental gravity technology after the phenomenon, but hindsight, as they say, is 20/20.

The story follows the salvage crew on the salvage vessel Lewis & Clark who are sent to recover the Event Horizon. The Horizon has, after a lengthy absence in Parts Unknown, jumped back towards Sol and is now caught in Jupiter's gravity well and showing no signs of life. Along for the ride is Dr. Weir, the troubled physicist whose work was instrumental in the gravity drive that took the Even Horizon out of charted space, and indeed regular space itself.

One thing in particular I like is that the movie takes the form of a journey from a haunted house in space to something considerably more Hellraiser-esque. Something in the ship, or perhaps the ship itself, has been changed by the journey, and its effect on its former crew is messy and unsettling, to say the least. For the first two acts, it's all about having a Bad Feeling About This Place and Weir growing steadily more unreliable as events escalate from the expected search and salvage mission into a desperate struggle to survive in a location that very much wants you vivisected, surrounded by the mercilessly uninhabitable world of Open Space.

Things turn Hellraiserways bit by bit as we're offered recordings of the Event Horizon's former crew, there's a very notable change of tone. Turns out that the ship's journey outside of normal space took it on a jaunt through hell or some secular equivalent of the same, and the things the crew did to themselves and each other are gruesome and kept just vague enough to leave a little room for the imagination to do some gnarly work.

There's actually some controversy around these scenes, and a rumor of a longer "uncut" version of the scenes have achieved a sort of "La Fin Absolute du Monde" genre nerd infamy. For my money, I think less is some times more, and the brief flashes of the atrocities we get to see are more than enough to establish that the movie isn't fucking around and force the tone from "Man this ship sure is spooky" to "WE! HAVE! TO! GET! OFF! THE! HELL! SHIP!" which is honestly what it's there for.

If I'm honest, restraint isn't really a thing the movie deals with outside of these scenes. The third act features some rather notable scenery-chewing by Sam Neil's Dr. Weir going full Store Brand Cennobite, and although he doesn't go quite as hard into the realm of ham, Laurence Fishburn also left the more subtle acting tools at the door for the movie's climax. It isn't bad per se, and it leads up to one of my beloved Hard-Earned W's Against Evil-endings, but it does leave me wishing Neil had either dialed it down a little to allow for meanance, or somehow went even more bombastic and reached that humanity-transcending intensity that he's trying for but not quite hitting.

Before I close up, I want to talk briefly about sound design. Event Horizon doesn't do much out of the ordinary, except for making some truly memorable soundscapes of Hellish Mayhem, and the sound of our heroes beating Dr Weir with some sort of Sci-Fi Tube being truly hilarious. One sound design decision I really like, however, is the background noise. There's a persistent bassy drone sound present in the first two acts or so of the movie, barely audible without amping the bass, and it's a simple, but clever move to unsettle your audience, because this almost-hearing-it does make our lizard brains get all sorts of wibbly.

So, in closing, Even Horizon is good messy fun. It's the kind of sci fi horror I feel we get in both games and books, but almost never in movies. It's probably because making dimensions of suffering and haunted space ships look good in the movies on a B-movie budget is easier said than done, and while I do love Event Horizon and know little about its budget and box office, I kinda doubt it made its money back. It's a shame, and probably one of the reasons we're not getting more of these, but boy howdy is it fun.

[oddygaul]

REDLINE

I’m not going to backdate this too far - the whole reason I’m doing this is realizing the frighteningly quick rate at which I forget my critical thoughts on a work, after all - but a few things from the past few months solidified enough for me to still be able to write about them.

So, what better way to start this blog than with Redline? In August, I had the privilege to watch Redline on a rented-out, full-size theater screen with about 30 other people I love who also love this stupid fucking car movie I’ve forced them to watch for a decade.

I’m not writing my thoughts on the entirety of Redline… this space is intended to be much more about the thoughts I can’t get out of my head after just experiencing something, rather than holistic reviews of everything I’ve engaged with. There’s so much I could say and have said about Redline, but this will just be what I took away from this particular viewing.

The experience of seeing it in a theater setting truly is special. Even putting aside the Rocky Horror-esque fun of having the whole theater yelling along to their favorite moments, Redline is a movie with such attention and care put into the audiovisual experience that it felt fresh seeing it so huge, even having watched it untold dozens of times before. In particular, I’ve always been immensely impressed with Redline’s audio design - not just the music, but the foley, the FX, the panning, the soundscape - so hearing it on a theater speaker system was a treat.

As time goes on, the only thing that gets harder to swallow every time I revisit Redline is its gender issues. Nowadays, I’m always dreading the restaurant scene where Shinkai’s harassment is played for laughs, and breathe a sigh of relief once it’s passed. In general, Redline is very contradictory in its treatment of its women characters. Often they are strong, relevant to the plot, have plenty of agency, hell, it even passes the Bechdel test (although that likely shows the flaws of the Bechdel test more than anything)... it’s just the way the camera looks at them that feels scummy, and to a degree is baked into the character designs themselves.

Sonoshee is, by all rights, the deuteragonist of the story. She has more depth and nuance introduced to the audience, in terms of backstory and personality, than anyone outside of JP; she’s easily one of the top 3 racers in the movie; and, we see her accomplish so much on her own (from defining, genuine character moments, to pure badass anime shit, like shooting a missile out of the sky with a handgun). Despite this, the camera leers at her so repeatedly that it becomes hard to ignore, from her Gainaxing after winning Yellowline to the topless scene in Act 2. The latter is sort of played off as self-aware with the “nice shot of my ass, guys” quip, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’s objectified in a way none of the male characters are*. The really unforgivable one, I realized on this watch, is the worm’s eye shot during the flashback, when Sonoshee’s digging her car out from the dirt. It’s a pretty high-emotion scene throughout which Sonoshee is sobbing, and serves to show both her passion for what she does and her level of determination to be set apart from all the other racers. There is, narratively, absolutely no fucking reason for there to be an ass shot here**. And yet.

Anime in general, of course, is no stranger to sexualized women, ogling camerawork, and sexist character tropes. The frustrating thing about Redline is, they really didn’t trip up at all in the writing - there’s solidly written women characters with agency, who aren’t falling into the most common tropey pitfalls - they just couldn’t shake the fanservice camera angles endemic to the medium for the most important woman in the movie. No male characters are treated this way by the camera; honestly, no other women really are, either. The SuperBoins are horny as hell the whole movie, but they are FULLY in on it, it’s their brand and they’re taking it to the bank. When we see the camera on them, it’s literally a diegetic camera that they’re performing for, Bayonetta-style. It’s just with Sonoshee that they seem to undermine her character at every turn by reminding you that, yes, while she is a real person with dreams and flaws who’s one half of an otherwise shockingly wholesome romance story, she’s also a hot anime girl, so please go ahead and objectify her.

Anyway, I still love Redline, despite that flaw. It remains an absolute testament to the medium of animation, and I’ll never stop being sad Koike hasn’t done more in the setting since. After this rewatch, I even saw the first ever hint of a theme, with the die-hard traditional racers who refuse to use new machines representing the old guard of traditional animators giving it one last hurrah before the switch to a digital workflow… but I think I’ll save that for the next rewatch.

*We get a grand total of ONE male booty shot, it’s Old Man Mole, and honestly, it’s debatable in terms of sexualization.

**The only way I can find to give benefit of the doubt, were I to want to do so, is that Koike honestly is just a weird little freak that loves animating every motion of the human body he can. This is the man who came up with and directed World Record just to capture all the minutiae and physical nuances of a running figure, after all. Given the legitimately tough camera angle and torsion-filled full-body movement, from a purely technical perspective, it is a very well-done shot. But I don’t actually know who boarded or keyed this, and even if that was their real motivation, it doesn’t really matter when the viewer obviously isn’t going to see it this way at first blush.