#also there’s gentleman alan rickman

[foolishlyzephyrus]

2005’s pride and prejudice this, 1995’s pride and prejudice that. where’s the love for ang lee’s 1995 adaptation of sense and sensibility?

[muiitoloko]

OMG OMG OMG I LOVED YOUR RECENT ALAN FIC! The unscripted love one! Would you be willing to do a part 2? Like reader has a new project and being paired with a heartthrob celebrity who is charming and kind.

Alan is professional and is proud of her but he can't help but be all jealous and possessive. Especially when fans create tiktok edits of her and the actor lol or even make fanfics about them HAHAHAHA.

Something along those line but u can totally add or remove plots to ur liking.

Title: The Price of Fame.

Summary: Caught between the pressures of a public career and his private insecurities, Alan grapples with the jealousy that arises from seeing you with Colin Firth.

Pairing: Alan Rickman × Fem! Reader

Warnings: Jealousy

Author's Notes: Thanks for your request! I hope this hits the spot for you! 😊

First, Second and Third part here.

Also read on Ao3

Weeks passed, and to your relief, the media frenzy over your public kiss with Alan quickly died down. The video that had circulated online, capturing that intimate moment between the two of you, had initially sparked some curiosity, but it wasn't long before it was overshadowed by other headlines. After all, you were known for your spontaneous nature, having surprised more than one interviewer or co-star with a playful kiss in the past. So, when you and Alan brushed off the incident as just a bit of fun between friends, the public and the press accepted it without much fuss.

Still, there was a secret between you and Alan that the world didn't know: that the kiss was no joke, and that you had finally confessed your feelings to each other. But with both of your careers in the spotlight and your publicist insisting that any romantic entanglements remain under wraps—at least until the release of your upcoming film—you and Alan agreed to keep your relationship private for the time being. It wasn’t ideal, but you both understood the need to keep things quiet, especially given the delicate nature of your current project.

The film you were promoting was a steamy romance that had already garnered a lot of attention, particularly because of the sizzling chemistry between you and your co-star. Fans had been shipping the two of you ever since the trailer dropped, and your publicist was determined to capitalize on that buzz. You found yourself immersed in a whirlwind of interviews, photoshoots, and press junkets, all designed to build anticipation for the movie. You played along, laughing and flirting with your co-star in front of the cameras, knowing that this was all part of the job.

Alan, always the supportive partner, understood the situation completely, even though it wasn’t always easy. He knew your professional duties meant you had to maintain the illusion of an on-screen romance, and he never once complained.

But one evening, Alan found himself in his study, the warm glow of a desk lamp casting soft shadows as he leaned back in his chair, his hazel eyes fixed on his laptop screen. The faint sound of your voice filled the room, and Alan’s fingers drummed absentmindedly on the edge of his desk—a habit he couldn’t shake when he was deep in thought. The YouTube video played on, showing you and Colin Firth, your co-star, sitting together during an interview for your latest film.

He had only recently learned how to navigate YouTube, thanks to your patient instruction, and while he was still a little unsure of how to access most features, Alan had managed to find this particular interview without much trouble. At first, he had clicked on it out of curiosity, wanting to see how you handled the press, but as the video progressed, he found himself growing increasingly unsettled.

Onscreen, you were your usual charming, mischievous self, flashing that brilliant smile of yours as you exchanged playful banter with Colin. The chemistry between the two of you was undeniable, a fact that made Alan’s stomach twist in ways he didn’t want to admit. Colin, ever the gentleman, was equally engaging, his deep voice complementing yours as you shared inside jokes and light touches that sent waves of laughter through the audience.

Alan tried to remind himself that it was all part of the act, part of the job. You had both agreed to keep your relationship private, and he knew better than anyone how important it was for you to maintain the illusion of romance with Colin for the sake of the film. But knowing that didn’t make it any easier to watch.

As the interview continued, Alan couldn’t help but notice the way Colin’s hand would occasionally brush against yours, or the way your eyes would linger on him just a bit longer than necessary. Each little gesture, each subtle glance, felt like a small dagger twisting in Alan’s chest, though he would never admit it to himself.

Then, the interviewer brought up the topic of on-screen chemistry, asking how the two of you managed to create such a believable connection in the film. You laughed, your voice light and teasing as you replied, "Well, Colin is just so easy to fall in love with, isn’t he? I mean, who wouldn’t be charmed by Mr. Darcy?"

The audience erupted in laughter, and Colin played along with a modest grin, shrugging as if to say, "What can I do?" The two of you shared a look, one of those knowing, conspiratorial glances that sent a fresh wave of jealousy coursing through Alan. He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to remain composed as he continued to watch, his heart heavy with a mixture of frustration and longing.

When the interview finally ended, Alan let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. He closed the laptop with a bit more force than necessary, leaning back in his chair and running a hand through his hair. He knew it was foolish to feel this way, especially since you had made it clear that your feelings for him were genuine. But still, seeing you with Colin, seeing the way the world reacted to your on-screen romance, it was hard not to let that seed of jealousy take root.

Out of curiosity, Alan reopened the laptop and scrolled down to the comments section of the video. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for, but something compelled him to see what the public had to say. As he skimmed through the comments, his eyes caught on a few that only served to deepen the bitter taste in his mouth.

"OMG, the chemistry between [Your Name] and Colin is insane! They’re definitely dating IRL, right?"

"I’m convinced they’re secretly together. Did you see the way they looked at each other?"

"Sorry, but that kiss with Alan Rickman was so awkward. There’s no way they’re a real couple. He’s too old for her anyway."

Alan felt a pang of anger and hurt at that last comment, but he tried to push it aside, reminding himself that these were just random people on the internet, people who knew nothing about the real connection he shared with you. Still, it stung. He had always been a bit self-deprecating, aware of the age difference between the two of you, but hearing others voice those doubts brought them to the forefront of his mind.

He clicked on the comment about the kiss, and as the responses loaded, he scanned through them with a mixture of dread and curiosity.

One response read, "I thought the kiss was sweet! Alan Rickman is such a classy guy, and you can tell he really cares about her."

Another, less kind comment said, "I don’t get it. Why would she go for him when she has someone like Colin around? The chemistry is so forced with Alan."

Alan sighed, closing the laptop again and rubbing his temples. He didn’t want to let these comments get to him, but they did. He couldn’t help but compare himself to Colin—tall, handsome, charming Colin, who was much closer to your age and clearly had the world wrapped around his finger.

He stood up from his desk, pacing the room as he tried to shake off the gnawing feeling of insecurity. He hated that he felt this way, hated that he was letting a silly interview and a few comments online make him doubt himself and, by extension, you. But the truth was, he was scared. Scared of losing you, scared that you might one day wake up and realize that you deserved someone younger, someone more vibrant, someone like Colin.

Alan sighed deeply, trying to push the unsettling thoughts from his mind as he made his way to the bathroom. The tension in his chest hadn’t eased since he’d closed the laptop, and he hoped that a splash of cold water might help clear his head. As he flicked on the light and approached the sink, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror and paused, his gaze lingering on his own features.

It was an involuntary habit—this analyzing of himself. His eyes traced the lines on his face, the creases at the corners of his eyes, the silver strands that now took up almost all of his hair. He noticed the slight droop at the corners of his mouth, the way time had subtly reshaped the contours of his face. His hazel eyes, once so vibrant, seemed a bit more tired now, as if the weight of the years had dimmed their light.

He leaned closer to the mirror, examining every little imperfection, each line, each wrinkle, as if they held the answers to the doubts that had been plaguing him. His gaze fell on his nose—his hooked nose, as he had often heard it called. It had been a defining feature for as long as he could remember, one he’d grown accustomed to, even if he’d never quite made peace with it. He traced the curve with his eyes, wondering if that, too, was something that made him less appealing in the eyes of others.

As he studied his reflection, his thoughts drifted to his teeth. He smiled faintly, though the gesture lacked its usual warmth. His teeth, at least, were one of the few things he didn’t scrutinize too harshly. The top teeth were perfectly aligned, great for photos, and gave him a smile that was charming enough to disarm even the most skeptical of critics. but the bottom teeth nagged at him. Were like little reminders that he was far from perfect.

Alan sighed again, his breath fogging the mirror slightly as he leaned his forehead against the cool glass. "Damn," he muttered to himself, his voice tinged with frustration. He wished he could turn off the part of his mind that constantly compared himself to others, especially to someone like Colin Firth.

But then, a small, self-deprecating smile tugged at his lips. "At least Firth doesn't have a baritone voice," he thought to himself, his tone dry as he spoke aloud. It was true—his voice was one of the few things he took pride in. It was deep, rich, a voice that had captivated audiences on stage and screen alike. Women, and indeed many men, had often complimented him on it, and he couldn’t deny that it had served him well over the years.

He chuckled softly, though the sound was tinged with a hint of bitterness. His drama teacher’s words from so many years ago came back to him, echoing in his mind. "Rickman," she had said, her tone sharp as she critiqued his performance, "your voice sounds like it’s coming out of the back end of a drain pipe."

At the time, the comment had stung, but Alan had learned to take it in stride, even to laugh about it. He had proved her wrong, after all. His voice had become his signature, something that set him apart, something that made him uniquely Alan Rickman. But even now, after all these years, he couldn’t help but let those old insecurities creep back in when he was feeling vulnerable.

He straightened up, running a hand through his hair as he stared at his reflection with a mixture of resignation and determination. "Stop it," he told himself firmly, his voice carrying a note of command. "You’re Alan bloody Rickman, for God’s sake. You’ve done more with that drain pipe voice and hooked nose than most men could ever dream of."

The words were meant to bolster his confidence, but the lingering doubt remained, gnawing at the edges of his thoughts. He knew he shouldn’t let himself be dragged down by comparisons or by what strangers on the internet thought. He knew better than to let a few comments shake his confidence in the relationship he had with you, the woman he loved.

But knowing and feeling were two very different things, and no amount of self-talk could fully banish the insecurities that had taken root. Alan splashed some cold water on his face, hoping to wash away the lingering doubts. The shock of the cool water against his skin jolted him back to the present, and he took a deep breath, letting the water drip from his chin as he stared into the mirror.

"She loves you," he whispered to himself, the words a quiet affirmation. "She chose you."

It was a simple truth, one that he needed to hold onto. You had confessed your feelings to him, had chosen to be with him despite everything. That was what mattered. Not the comments, not the comparisons, not even the whispers of doubt that lingered in his mind. What mattered was the bond you shared, the connection that had grown between you, and the love that had been there all along, waiting to be acknowledged.

Alan straightened up, a renewed sense of determination settling over him. He would not let his insecurities undermine what the two of you had built together. He would not let his own self-doubt taint the happiness you both deserved.

With one last glance in the mirror, he turned off the light and left the bathroom, his steps more confident now as he headed back to his study. He needed to call you, to hear your voice, to remind himself of the connection you shared. And perhaps, once he heard your laugh, your voice filled with that familiar warmth, he would finally be able to shake off the lingering doubts and focus on what truly mattered—your love for each other.

As he reached for his phone, a small smile played on his lips. He knew that, despite everything, he was a lucky man. Lucky to have found someone like you, lucky to have your love and support, and lucky to have a voice that, despite his old drama teacher’s critique, had become one of his most cherished assets.

He dialed your number, the sound of your voice on the other end bringing an immediate sense of comfort. "Hello, love," he said, his tone warm and affectionate. "I was just thinking about you."

And as your laughter filled his ears, all the doubts and insecurities that had plagued him earlier began to fade away, replaced by the steady, reassuring beat of his love for you.

Alan lay back on the couch, his cell phone pressed to his ear, listening intently as you recounted the details of your day. He stretched his legs out, settling into a comfortable position as your voice filled the room, a soothing presence that made the lingering tension from earlier begin to fade. He smiled to himself, enjoying the familiar rhythm of your words, the way you always managed to make even the simplest events sound interesting.

"I received some scripts today," you were saying, your tone tinged with excitement. "I can’t talk about them in detail just yet, but they were definitely intriguing. I’m seriously considering one of them."

Alan’s ears perked up at the mention of new projects, a mix of pride and curiosity swirling within him. "Sounds exciting," he replied, his baritone voice warm with encouragement. "Anything that caught your eye in particular?"

You hesitated for a moment before answering, "There’s one that really stood out to me. It’s different from anything I’ve done before, and I think it could be a great challenge. But I’m still weighing my options."

Alan nodded, even though you couldn’t see him. He admired your thoughtful approach to choosing roles, always ensuring that each project would push your boundaries and allow you to grow as an actress. "I have no doubt you’ll choose the right one," he said softly, his voice filled with genuine belief in your talent. "You always do."

You laughed lightly, the sound bringing a smile to Alan’s face. "Thanks, Alan. That means a lot coming from you."

There was a brief pause before you continued, your tone shifting to one of casual familiarity. "Oh, and I forgot to mention—I went to lunch with Colin today."

The words hung in the air, and Alan bit his tongue, forcing himself to maintain a neutral expression. He felt a flicker of jealousy, a possessiveness that he didn’t particularly like but couldn’t completely shake off. The image of you and Colin together, laughing and sharing a meal, made his chest tighten. He reminded himself that it was just lunch, something you had done with countless friends and colleagues before.

"He’s so funny and charming," you added, your voice filled with genuine affection. "A real British gentleman. We had such a good time, just catching up and talking about the film."

Alan felt a knot form in his stomach, though he kept his tone light. "I’m glad you had a good time," he said, though he couldn’t entirely mask the slight edge in his voice. "Colin does have a way of making people feel at ease."

You picked up on the change in his tone, and there was a pause on your end before you responded, your voice softer now. "Are you okay, Alan? You sound… different."

Alan sighed, closing his eyes for a moment as he gathered his thoughts. He knew he couldn’t let his insecurities get the better of him, especially not with you. "I’m fine," he replied, though he could hear the hesitation in his own voice. "It’s just… I suppose I’m a little jealous."

There was a moment of silence before you spoke again, your tone gentle and understanding. "Jealous? Of Colin?"

Alan smiled faintly, though it was tinged with a hint of self-deprecation. "It’s silly, really. I know you’re just friends, and I trust you completely. But I can’t help feeling a bit… possessive, I suppose. Especially when I hear about how charming and wonderful he is."

You let out a soft laugh, the sound warm and reassuring. "Alan, you have nothing to worry about. Colin is a great friend, but he’s just that—a friend. You’re the one I’m in love with, remember?"

Alan’s heart swelled at your words, the knot in his stomach loosening. He knew you meant it, knew that your feelings for him were genuine. But the insecurity lingered, just below the surface, a reminder of his own fears.

"I do remember," he replied, his voice softening as he spoke. "But sometimes, it’s hard not to feel a bit insecure. Especially when I think about how easy it would be for someone like Colin to sweep you off your feet."

You sighed, your voice filled with affection as you responded, "Alan, before you were my boyfriend, you were my best friend. And that means so much more to me than anything else. I chose you because I love you for who you are, not for who you think you need to be."

Alan felt a rush of warmth at your words, his heart beating a little faster. "I suppose I forget that sometimes," he admitted, his tone more self-assured now. "I just want to make sure you’re happy, that you know how much you mean to me."

"You make me incredibly happy, Alan," you said, your voice filled with sincerity. "And I don’t need anyone else to do that. Just you."

Alan’s smile widened, the last remnants of his jealousy melting away. "Well, in that case, I’ll do my best to keep being the charming, slightly self-deprecating man you fell in love with."

You laughed, the sound like music to his ears. "That’s all I could ever ask for, Alan."

Both of you were silent for a moment, the warmth of your conversation settling between you. The comfort of knowing that your feelings were shared, that your insecurities were understood, made the silence feel almost intimate. It was you who eventually broke the stillness, your voice teasing as you said, "You know, Alan, I actually like you a little possessive."

Alan's eyebrows shot up in surprise, a curious smile tugging at the corners of his lips. He turned on the sofa, lying on his side, cradling the phone against his ear. "Oh? You like me possessive, do you?" he asked, his tone light but tinged with genuine curiosity. "And why is that, my dear? I thought I was supposed to be the epitome of British restraint."

You laughed softly, the sound filling him with a warm sense of contentment. "You are," you replied, your tone playful. "But there’s something exciting about a man being possessive of his girl. It’s like those dark romance fanfics I read."

Alan's curiosity was piqued, and he raised an eyebrow, even though you couldn’t see it. "Fanfics?" he repeated, his voice laced with intrigue. "I’m not entirely sure I know what that is. Care to enlighten me?"

You grinned, loving the opportunity to explain something so modern and yet so deeply ingrained in internet culture to him. "Fanfics, short for fan fiction, are stories written by fans of a particular book, movie, or even a real person. They take the characters or people they love and create new stories about them—sometimes completely different from the original plot."

Alan hummed thoughtfully, turning the idea over in his mind. "So, these are stories written by fans about, say, a character from a film or even about… well, an actor like me?"

You hesitated for a moment, a mischievous smile playing on your lips as you replied, "Well, mostly Severus Snape, but yes, there’s some about you too."

Alan’s curiosity deepened, his voice now carrying a hint of amusement. "About me? I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, given the… well, let’s call it the legacy of Snape. But what do they write about? I can’t imagine there’s much material to work with."

You hummed over the phone, the playful tone in your voice making Alan’s heart skip a beat. "Oh, you’d be surprised, Alan," you teased. "In fact, I once read a fanfic about you on Wattpad where you were quite the flirt. Spreading your seed around, as they put it."

Alan couldn’t help but laugh, the deep sound rumbling through the phone. "Spreading my seed, you say? My, that’s quite the image. I take it this version of me is rather… shall we say, prolific?"

You giggled, the sound bringing a smile to his lips. "Yes, and it’s amazing how most authors paint you as a god of sex. You’d be shocked by some of the things people write about you. Well, not you specifically—mostly Snape—but still."

Alan was both amused and intrigued, a mixture of flattery and disbelief coloring his thoughts. "A god of sex, hmm? I suppose I should be flattered, though I must say, I never imagined myself being portrayed in such a… shall we say, enthusiastic manner."

You could hear the amusement in his voice, and it made you grin even wider. "Oh, Alan, you have no idea. There are entire fanfics dedicated to just how irresistible you are—how women can’t help but fall at your feet."

Alan chuckled again, the sound filled with a mixture of humility and curiosity. "It’s rather fascinating, really. The idea that people would take the time to write stories about me, or at least a version of me. But I must admit, I’m a bit curious. What do these fanfics usually entail? Am I always the flirtatious rogue, or do they explore other facets of my… shall we say, charming personality?"

You hesitated for a moment, knowing that some fanfics delved into rather explicit territory. But then you decided to tease him a little. "Well, it varies. Some portray you as a dark, brooding figure with a heart of gold. Others have you as a misunderstood genius, and yes, quite a few make you the ultimate seducer. But all of them seem to agree on one thing—you’re incredibly sexy."

Alan couldn’t help but laugh, the sound rich and warm. "Sexy, am I? Well, I suppose I can’t argue with that. Though I must say, it’s rather flattering to know that people see me in such a light. Perhaps I should start reading some of these fanfics myself—see if they live up to the legend."

You giggled, imagining Alan diving into the world of fan fiction. "I’m not sure you’re ready for that, Alan. Some of them are… well, let’s just say they’re very detailed."

Alan’s curiosity only grew at your words, and he couldn’t resist the urge to probe further. "Detailed, you say? I must admit, you’ve piqued my interest. Perhaps you could read one to me sometime? I’d be interested to see just how these talented writers envision me."

You blushed at the thought of reading some of the more explicit fanfics to him, but you couldn’t deny the thrill it gave you. "Maybe," you teased, your voice playful. "But only if you promise not to judge me for my taste in literature."

Alan chuckled softly, his tone warm and affectionate. "My dear, I could never judge you. After all, you’ve already read one about me spreading my seed around, and you still love me. I’d say that’s quite the testament to your open-mindedness."

You laughed, feeling the last of your earlier tension melt away. "Well, in that case, maybe we’ll have to schedule a little fanfic reading session. But I warn you, some of them might make you blush."

Alan’s smile widened, his heart swelling with affection for you. "I look forward to it, my dear. And who knows? Perhaps I’ll find some inspiration for my next role. After all, it seems I have quite the reputation to live up to."

Later that evening, after saying goodbye to you and hanging up the phone, Alan returned to his study, settling back into his chair with a sigh. He reached for the script on his desk, the one for the comedy film, and flipped it open, skimming through the pages. But try as he might, he couldn't concentrate. His thoughts kept drifting back to the conversation he'd had with you, particularly the part about the fanfics. The idea of these stories, these alternate realities where he was portrayed as a seductive figure, had piqued his curiosity more than he cared to admit.

After a few futile attempts to focus on the script, Alan set it aside with a resigned sigh. His gaze drifted to his laptop, and before he could stop himself, he was reaching for it, the glow of the screen casting a soft light across his features as he opened it and began to type.

"Fanfiction about Alan Rickman," he muttered to himself as he entered the search query, half-amused, half-apprehensive about what he might find.

The search results flooded in almost instantly, a mix of titles, summaries, and fan sites dedicated to his roles, particularly that of Severus Snape. Alan's eyes scanned the screen, his curiosity growing as he clicked on one of the links, leading him to a popular fanfiction website. The homepage was filled with categories, tags, and featured stories, many of which prominently displayed his name.

Alan hesitated for a moment, his finger hovering over the touchpad. He knew that this was a rabbit hole he could easily get lost in, but the pull of curiosity was too strong to resist. He clicked on the "Severus Snape" tag and was immediately presented with a list of stories, each with its own summary and tags. Some were more innocent, focusing on romance and drama, while others... well, they were decidedly more explicit.

He clicked on one of the top-rated stories, his eyes widening slightly as he skimmed the first few paragraphs. The writing was surprisingly good, the descriptions vivid, and the portrayal of Snape, while not entirely accurate to how he had played the character, was intriguing. But it was the explicit scenes that caught him off guard—detailed descriptions of Snape engaging in passionate, almost primal encounters that left little to the imagination.

Alan leaned back in his chair, a wry smile tugging at the corners of his lips. "A god of sex indeed," he muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. It was both flattering and a little unnerving to see himself—or rather, a version of himself—depicted in such a way. But as curious as he was, he knew that this was just one corner of the fanfiction world. There were other stories, other pairings that might be even more surprising.

A thought crossed his mind, and before he could second-guess himself, he typed in your name along with his. The results that popped up were both fascinating and a little shocking. There were stories featuring the two of you together, some sweet and romantic, others steamy and explicit. Alan couldn't help but smile at the thought of you being paired with him in the minds of fans, their imaginations running wild with the possibilities.

But as he continued to scroll, he noticed something else—stories featuring you and Colin Firth. A small, unwelcome pang of jealousy twisted in his gut as he clicked on one of the stories, his curiosity now tinged with apprehension.

The story was titled something innocuous, but the summary hinted at a much more intimate scenario: "After a long day of interviews, [Your Name] and Colin Firth find solace in each other’s arms, their secret romance finally taking a passionate turn."

Alan's heart sank slightly as he began to read, the words on the screen blurring together as his mind tried to process what he was seeing. The story was explicit—graphic, even—detailing a secret, torrid affair between you and Colin, filled with stolen glances, heated kisses, and moments of passion behind closed doors. The more he read, the more his jealousy grew, until he could barely stand it.

"Good Lord," he muttered, rubbing a hand over his face as he closed the laptop with a bit more force than necessary. "I didn't need to see that."

Alan leaned back in his chair, trying to shake off the unsettling feelings that the story had stirred up. He knew it was just fiction, just the product of someone's overactive imagination, but it still struck a nerve. The idea of you and Colin, even in a fictional context, sharing such an intimate connection, was enough to make his blood boil.

He stood up, pacing the room in an attempt to clear his head. The rational part of his mind knew that he was being ridiculous—after all, you had made it clear that you loved him, not Colin. But the irrational part, the part that was fueled by jealousy and insecurity, couldn’t help but wonder. What if there was more to your relationship with Colin than you were letting on? What if those playful touches and lingering glances weren’t just for the cameras?

Alan clenched his fists, frustrated with himself for letting these thoughts take hold. "Get a grip, Rickman," he muttered under his breath. "You’re letting a piece of fanfiction get under your skin."

He knew he needed to talk to you, to hear your voice and reassure himself that everything was fine. But it was late, and he didn’t want to disturb you, especially over something as trivial as this. Still, the thought of you and Colin lingered in his mind, like a dark cloud that refused to dissipate.

Finally, Alan returned to his desk, sitting down heavily in his chair. He stared at the script, but the words swam before his eyes, his mind too preoccupied to focus. The fanfiction had opened a door he wasn’t sure he could close—a door that led to a world where his deepest insecurities were laid bare.

He knew that the only way to quell his jealousy was to trust in your relationship, to trust that what you had was real and strong enough to withstand the pressures of your careers. But that was easier said than done, especially when his own doubts kept creeping back in.

With a heavy sigh, Alan closed the script and leaned back in his chair, staring up at the ceiling. He needed to find a way to push these thoughts aside, to remind himself that you had chosen him, that you loved him for who he was, not for who he thought he needed to be.

But as the night wore on, those insecurities remained, a constant, nagging presence in the back of his mind. And as much as he tried to ignore them, he knew that they would continue to haunt him until he could confront them head-on—until he could find the courage to talk to you about how he was feeling, about the fears and doubts that had been gnawing at him ever since that video surfaced.

For now, though, all he could do was wait and hope that the next time he saw you, those fears would begin to fade, replaced by the warmth and love that had always been there between you. Because in the end, that was what truly mattered—your love for each other, not the fantasies of strangers on the internet.

But until then, Alan knew he would have to wrestle with those demons on his own, finding a way to silence the voices that told him he wasn’t good enough, that he wasn’t the man you deserved. And as he finally closed his laptop for the night, he couldn’t help but wonder if he would ever truly be able to silence them.

[hismercytomyjustice]

Let me preface this by saying things got wildly out of hand. I am so so so so sorry. I have a lot of feelings and I’ve seen way too many musicals. Do not even remotely feel obligated to read this veritable novel.

Under a cut to protect the innocent from the wall of text below.

Apologies if some of the YouTube links start in the middle. I was trying to make sure they were the right ones and idk if I have it in me to go back and fix the links to get them to start at the beginning. ಥ_ಥ

Anastasia - Gotta second this! It deviates from the cartoon movie (no Rasputin), but is still SO GOOD. This scene will FOREVER HAUNT ME. In addition to others! And it has Ramin Karimloo (my fave Phantom) in the OG cast. Amnesiac orphan Anastasia unknowingly agrees to pretend to be herself to help a pair of con men swindle her only remaining family member. Feelings are caught and secrets come out.

Bat Boy - A friend introduced me to this one and I thought she was kidding but oh my god I love it. I’ve never seen it BUT OH MY GOD IT’S ON YOUTUBE AND I’M DEFINITELY GONNA SOON! Tells the story of a vampire boy trying to be human.

Pierre Natasha and the Great Comet of 1812 - Omggg this is on YouTube too?! Sorry I am just ECSTATIC. Based on a portion of War & Peace. OG MC is Josh Groban and he kills it. Saw a local production and was completely blown away. OG MC for Natasha is same for Eliza in Hamilton. Sweet, funny, and has a lot of heart.

Epic the Musical - This is a concept album only but oh my god it is SO GOOD. Highly highly highly recommend!!! There are a ton of really cool animatics out there for it too. Follows the plot of the Odyssey. Completely sing through and a WIP tho a lot’s done already. Truly stunning music.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder - OG MC is the VA for Stolas in Helluva Boss. Looks like you can find it on YouTube too. A down on his luck man finds out he could be the heir to a vast fortune so long as he murders all the people in line before him!

Beetlejuice - OG MC plays Adam in Hazbin and Fizz in Helluva Boss. So funny and irreverent but also a really poignant story about grief and found family. Might not be able to find online, but there are clips of the songs.

Repo! The Genetic Opera - This one is actually a film. It includes Sara Brightman (OG ALW Christine ftw!). MC is actually the girl from Spy Kids. Story about a future megacorporation loaning out organs to a struggling populace and repo-ing them if they miss their payments.

Legally Blonde - Full version (originally aired on MTV which is where I saw it) is online! Yup, it’s based off the movie/book! OG actor for Emmett the main love interest is none other than Vox’s VA in Hazbin! He is SO SO SO good in this! He also plays Willy Wonka in the OG soundtrack for the Willy Wonka musical (which I also recommend).

Hadestown - Musical based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Music is more NOLA jazz and catchy af. Looks like it’s online too. Recommend going into it knowing the story if you’re unfamiliar. Went with some friends who didn’t and they had strong feelings about it lol.

Sweeney Todd - This is the one about the barber who seeks revenge through serial murder and his “situationship” who bakes his victims into meat pies! Lots of catchy songs! You can probably find on YouTube or somewhere similar but there’s a film version too starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things Vecna in a musical?!). I really enjoyed the movie when I saw it years ago.

Groundhog Day - This one is based off the movie/book too and on YouTube! The story of the guy stuck in the time loop until he learns how to not be a dick! I have only seen the YouTube version but I’m a huge fan.

Six the Musical - This one is about Henry the 8th and told from the POV of his very unfortunate six wives. There are a couple of recordings on YouTube. The music is kind of more poppy and it’s presented like a concert.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog - I think it was free originally but it’s on streaming now (I think Prime). MCs include Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion. Created by Joss Whedon. Story is about a wannabe supervillain trying to make his way up the food chain while dealing with a love triangle (including his archnemesis) in the process.

Fiddler on the Roof - You might be able to find a filmed production of this online but it also has a really great movie version from I think 1971. Very sweet, but with some darker themes mainly around antisemitism. A poor Jewish man tries to find husbands for his three daughters. The daughters have their own ideas about who they want to marry. Hijinks ensue.

Mamma Mia - The ABBA musical! Love the actual musical and the film (starring Meryl Streep, Dominic Cooper, Amanda Seyfried, Cher, Colin Firth, and more)! They put out a sequel a few years ago too that made me cry like a bitch! Story about a girl about to marry her soulmate who is trying to figure out which of the three men her mother was seeing at the time of her conception is her father. Includes found family and it is just such a sweet and heartfelt story about love in its many forms.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Musical tv show! This one is about a successful lawyer who has a panic attack and runs away from her life to pursue her childhood crush. I gotta admit I haven’t seen the full show (I think I’ve seen through the second season?), but I really enjoyed it! The songs are a bit silly but fun! Stars include Rachel Bloom, Santino Fontana (first 2 seasons, he’s also Prince Charming in the OG soundtrack for the Cinderella musical - also highly recommend), and other great cast members!

Annie - This one will always have a soft spot in my heart. Huge fan when I was a kid. The 1982 film is great (Tim Curry is in it, need I say more), but the 2014 remake is phenomenal too (and includes Jamie Foxx)! It has the famous “You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile” song in it, which apparently heavily played a role in Alastor’s character in Hazbin. Annie’s an orphan holding out that her bio parents will return for her one day. Meanwhile a rich workaholic decides to temporarily sponsor her for the holidays for the sake of his image. She teaches him life isn’t just about money and legacy.

Big Fish - This is also based on the movie/book! If you haven’t seen the movie, HIGHLY recommend. It’s up in parts on YouTube. It follows the story of a man’s grown up son trying to uncover the real version of his father under the fantastical version of himself he’s always played. It’s a story about fatherhood, optimism, and mortality.

The Prince of Egypt - This is an older movie but I still listen to the soundtrack to this day. You often see it on lists of “soundtracks that didn’t need to go that hard” haha. Follows the story of Moses from the Bible, reckoning with his destiny and how it will destroy his relationship with his brother. Extremely star studded cast and music is composed by Hans Zimmer.

Nevermore - This one I’ve only listened too but I’ve really enjoyed it. Loosely based on the life of Edgar Allen Poe. There are clips on YouTube but I’m not sure if a full version exists somewhere online.

guys drop more musicals for me to watch pleaseeee

so far i’ve seen phantom/hamilton/rocky horror picture show/frankenstein/dr jekyll & mr hyde/les miserables & some others i can’t remember lmao

[impishtubist]

you know that gif set you just reblogged? it made me google young david thewlis and 90’s david thewlis and actually i think he does look like he could play remus (if he were younger, y kno) and i also googled young alan rickman amd he’s, perfect. and i also googled young gary rickman and he’s very pretty and i mean i guess it could work but for the way sirius looks in my head his face is too… sweet? BUT, his son charlie oldman looks kinda perfect ( i dont know why i never googled what they looked like when they were younger before)

Yes! Young David Thewlis is totally Remus. Like, honestly, David Thewlis in his 30s is a perfect Remus in his 30s. I just hate that they cast him when they did, because he was far too old for the role.

Here he is at 30. Look at this perfect disaster of a man. This sweaty, scruffy man is who Remus should have been:

This is an unpopular opinion in fandom, but I actually don't hate Gary Oldman as Sirius? He embodies Sirius more than DT embodies Remus, imo. Yes, he's too old, but he pulls it off. Now Gary Oldman as a person? Terrible. Gary Oldman as Sirius? Not bad, not bad at all.

I love Alan Rickman but I hate Snape so I have no opinion on that, sorry.

However, I just Googled Charlie Oldman, and if this picture is actually him? Then yes. I agree. This is Sirius:

But do you want to know my absolute batshit, off-the-wall Sirius fancast?

Ready?

Kevin Kline in the 1983 Pirates of Penzance:

Look at that chest hair! That open shirt! Those hips! That eyeliner! That hair! And you can't see them in this photo, but he has boots that go above the knee. Incredible. Sirius Black, ladies and gentleman.

okay thank you and goodnight

[e-louise-bates]

It’s Jane Austen’s birthday! I hate ranking lists that claim objectivity (Austen Heroes, Worst To Best, Absolutely And Completely The One Correct Way To View This, No This Isn’t Clickbait Why Do You Ask?), so here, instead have my own personal opinions of least-favorite to favorite Austen Heroes and Heroines.

First, the dudes, because, well, why not:

7. Edmund Bertram. Look, Edmund is unfailingly kind, but good grief. So judgmental toward others! So blind to his own weak spots! So unforgivably dense about the Crawfords! I could forgive the blindness and denseness if he didn’t set himself up as the wise and unfailingly correct judge and mentor. Edward Ferrars is also an idiot (see below), but at least he doesn’t go around considering himself better than everyone else.

6. Edward Ferrars. A bit of an idiot, but trying his best, poor thing. Kind of remarkable he turned out as well as he did when you consider his family and his tutor.

5. Colonel Brandon. A bit boring (unless portrayed by Alan Rickman), but a true gentleman and a man of sterling worth. Not much else to say about him.

4. Captain Wentworth. I disliked Captain Wentworth for a long time because of his unyielding bitterness against Anne. But you know, the older I get, the more I like the fact that he’s not perfect, and his flaws are actually kind of major ones, and he really does have a lot of growing to do throughout the story--and he does so. And yes, the letter. Swoon.

3. Mr. Darcy. The man who recognizes his flaws and then acts to correct them, both out of love for the woman who shoved them in his face and because it was the right thing to do. I have little patience for those who claim Mr. Darcy’s “real” problem was social awkwardness--Austen makes it thoroughly clear that yes, he is socially awkward, and that’s no excuse: he doesn’t think highly enough of other people to work to overcome his discomfort.

2. Mr. Knightley. I’ve already written an entire post on why Mr. Knightley is one of the best Austen heroes, so here I will simply say: I love his kindness, and empathize with his dislike of social gatherings, and admire his willingness to participate in said gatherings despite his dislike (unlike a certain other Austen leading man ...)

1. Henry Tilney, of course. He has a sense of humor! He cares about people! He’s kind! He makes mistakes, and then acts to rectify them! He’s mischievous! He’s human and adorable, and I love him.

The ladies!

7. Marianne Dashwood. Oh, Marianne. When I was sixteen, I too believed I knew exactly how the world ought to be, and was convinced my views were utterly correct and would never change. I suspect I was just as irritating to the people around me as you are. Marianne is a difficult character to really like. Yes, she does grow and improve by the end of the story, but I suspect she will always remain an exhausting individual.

6. Catherine Morland. Poor naive Cathy, she is so easily mistaken for a nitwit--that’s how I read her for years, until I had enough maturity myself to recognize that no, she’s simply an innocent girl who is too prone both to letting her imagination run away with her AND to expecting everyone else to be as straightforward as she is. Her character development isn’t as finely drawn as it would have been had Austen written her book later in life, but it is there.

5. Fanny Price. I love Fanny--she is not a drip!--but even I can admit that she is a difficult protagonist to admire. Her quiet steadfastness and strong moral compass are incredibly admirable, but her timidity and lack of self-esteem make for difficult reading, especially for modern readers who more easily resonate with a “headstrong, impertinent girl,” then with someone who cowers in the corner and passively accepts the terrible treatment she is given. That said, I do love her for the fact that despite the terrible treatment, despite her natural inclination to avoid conflict, despite her lack of faith in her own judgment, she still stands firm on what she believes is right and wrong, and won’t bend from that.

4. Emma Woodhouse. Emma is such a complex character. She’s not very likeable, but her journey from self-absorption to genuinely thinking of others (not just of how wonderful she is for appearing to think of others) is compelling. I especially appreciate Romola Garai’s portrayal of her as a too-intelligent woman desperate for mental stimulation and broader horizons, yet compelled to remain closed in a tiny box out of love and duty, and the indication that much of her errors came about as a result of that situation.

3. Elinor Dashwood. Elinor is nineteen at the start of S&S, and man, the poor girl. The only person with any sense (hah) in her family, she is forced to crush down all her emotions because otherwise her mother and sisters would be destitute and most likely disgraced. She’s not a very joyful character, but she is lovable, and especially when played by Emma Thompson, you rejoice all the more with her at that glorious ending.

2. Elizabeth Bennet. She is witty and intelligent, she makes mistakes and then strives to do better, she sparkles, and she is utterly lovable. There you go.

1. Anne Elliot. Anne is The Best, and that’s that. (Oops, I said I was going to stay away from objective statements, didn’t I? Let me rephrase) So far as I am concerned, Anne is The Best, and that’s that.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Which route is your personal favorite to write?

I honestly don’t have a favourite; I love all my “children.” Here are my favourite parts of writing each love interest:

Robin: I like thinking up silly phrases for him to say and finding ways for him to be a flirt but without being creepy (I hope!).

John: He’s so refreshingly normal. Just a solid, kind, respectful gentleman. Though his issues will start coming out more once you’re on his route, he’s always going to be the cub scout dad of Sherwood Forest.

Will: I love that he’s such a sullen little sarcastic cloud of “omg I want to smack him but I also kind of want to kiss him just to see what he’d do.”

Meissa: I’d heard tales of characters who, once an author started to write them, took over and said, “Nope, this is who I want to be.” That had never happened to me until Meissa. They are very determined to be their unique self and apparently I’m just along for the ride!

Geoffrey: When I write Geoffrey, the voice of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape echoes in my mind. Are they similar characters? Not really. But something about that voice really gets me in the mood to write Geoff.

Alanna and Gui: I have written the least for these two, so I don’t have solid favourite parts of writing them yet. I’m looking forward to finding out what they are as I complete the Nottingham demo!

[cbs-scorpion-coffee-shop]

Also I think Marianne should have been the main character. She is much more flawed, and can deliver a better story and message by her relationship with Colonel Brandon aka Alan -the sad misunderstood lover- Rickman.

Marianne desires love and believes that love should be burning and uninhibited like stories and poetry.

Colonel Brandon desires love too and believes that he is too old for love, plus he has had bad experiences with love.

Here's how their story could go:

Marianne meets the Colonel and Willaby and falls for Willaby. He shares her 'burning love' demeanor. She disregards the Colonel's small but loving acts of service and friendship towards her as a gentleman's courtesy.

Willaby breaks her heart.

The Colonel supports her. She starts to appreciate his acts of service and they become friends. They read poetry and Marianne learns a duet to sing with him. They become bff's and even talk romance with each other. Marianne is telling him about other men she would like, about how she wants a man whose love is burning for her. Brandon is having his heart constantly crushed, but bears it because he loves her. He wants to be with her but is simply too afraid.

They stay like that until a major event happens: Willaby comes back!

He has had a change of heart and confesses to Marianne, and on top of that, Elinor (the one who is all about confirming a person intention and using her head) and the Colonel both confirm the truth of Willaby's affection.

But she still rejects him.

Why? Because she just had a major realization: she loves the Colonel. She loves being with him, his small acts of service, singing, playing piano, reading poetry. Her love for him wasn't burning. It was like a gentle stream that engulfed her heart before she even noticed. She realizes love doesn't have to be burning. She declares that there's a man in her life whom her heart belongs to, and wishes Willaby happiness.

The Colonel has his realization. Being this close to Marianne, he knows he is the only man in her life. He knows that he is the one she loves.

So as soon as Willaby exits the door and leaves, the Colonel rides on his horse, declaring that he will return. He fetches ring and flowers and professes to Marianne. Happily ever after!

I recently watched some of Jane Austen's work (Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility) to help me write my story since she was a master at a using subplots.

I came to notice how weak Sense and Sensibility was compared to the other two, especially Emma since that was the best one (in my opinion), and learned greatly from it.

In Emma, the main character Emma Woodhouse has a desire for love. She believes that she knows truly people's hearts which is why she goes on matchmaking others, and truly knows her own which is why she doesn't want to leave.

In Sense and Sensibility, the main character Elinor Dashwood also has a desire for love. She believes that its best to use her head instead of her heart and ascertain a person's intentions before investing in them.

Over the course of Emma's story, her belief is constantly proven wrong when her matchmaking goes wrong for her and others, she is scolded by Mr Knightley and has to learn that the only right response to those less fortunate than you is kindness and respect. She goes from crushing on Mr Churchill to Mr Knightley which proves to her she doesn't even know her own heart. She is constantly proven wrong by the side characters and changes accordingly, which makes for a good character arc and a satisfying story.

However, over the course of Elinor's story, she is constantly proven right. She falls for a Edward but instead of throwing her heart at him, she goes to the cottage and doesn't speak of her attraction. Low and behold, she was right to do so because he was engaged for five years, and she had just saved herself pain and embarrassment. Her sister mindlessly throws her heart at Willaby and what do you know, he is also a douchebag who won't marry her. She is hurt and embarrassed, and says that Elinor's conduct was right. Elinor doesn't change because she isn't proven wrong. Just because her sister got sick and then well, and just because Edward's fiancé magically got attracted to his less handsome brother and he came to her, she was wrong? All of her actions were right which doesn't make for a very satisfying story.

Anyway, that's my opinion. What do you think?

[bisluthq]

Joe should aspire to be someone like Alan Rickman.// Fun fact- Today's Alan Rickman's bday too. Rip and also HBD😅

No way!

He was a proper gentleman.

[cromulentbookreview]

Weaponized Jaws

Or: Seafire by Natalie C. Parker!

Action on the seas featuring badass female protagonists? Yeah, I’m definitely going to read that. Very little needed in the way of convincing me to read this book.

Seafire had been advertised before as Fury Road meets Wonder Woman meets the ocean, which makes sense. Though with much less Wonder Woman and way more of Kevin Costner's Waterworld.

Alright, children, gather around while I explain to you what Waterworld was.

Yeah, Waterworld. Not a video game, it was a movie starring Kevin Costner, the world’s only American-accented Robin Hood (hey, I like that movie, Alan Rickman was a treasure and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise). Waterworld came out in 1995 and was massive flop, now a bit of a cult-classic. I remember 1995, somewhat vaguely. God I’m an Old now, aren’t I?

I’ll never be as cool as Steve Buscemi, though.

For those of you who enjoy both Fury Road and Waterworld, then you’ll definitely like Seafire. I love anything that takes place on the ocean - a side effect of my strange Dudes on Boats fixation that I’ve mentioned previously (my apologies to For a Muse of Fire, . Sea stories are kind of my thing. So is post-apocalyptic YA fiction. So this book ticked all the “I need entertainment and want to forget the news exists right now” boxes and worked out perfectly.

Caledonia Styx lives in Crapsack Waterworld, a post-apocalyptic flooded version of our world (referenced occasionally as the “old world”, flooded/destroyed as a result of some unknown calamity). Caledonia has the misfortune to live in an area controlled by Aric Athair, a vicious warlord and sir-not-appearing-in-this-book (since Seafire is the first in a planned trilogy, I’m sure we’ll meet him eventually). Anyway, Athair controls his war boys, called Bullets, by drugging them with something called Silt, made from some sort of weird hybrid poppy-flower-thing. Life in Athair’s territory sucks, so Caledonia’s mom, Rhona, and a bunch of other families have gotten together on the Styx family’s ship, the Ghost, to break through Athair’s blockade and head off to freedom elsewhere.

Unfortunately, the night the Ghost intends to escape, Caledonia and her best friend Pisces (they’re really big on the names from Greco Roman mythology in crapsack Waterworld) are sent ashore to gather some last minute supplies. Caledonia comes across a bullet called Lir, who asks for her help. It’s all bullshit, though - the second Caledonia gives away the location of the Ghost, Lir and his fellow bullets attack, slaughtering Caledonia and Pisces’s families and sinking the Ghost.

Pisces didn’t witness Lir’s treachery, though, and Caledonia, feeling responsible for the deaths of all those onboard the Ghost, keeps that bit where she gave away the position of the ship to herself. That makes sense, considering how guilty it feels, but later, as Caledonia refers to Pisces as her “sister”, the fact that she kept this bit of intel under wraps does become a tad annoying. Especially when Caledonia refuses, multiple times, to clarify why it is she does’t trust Bullets. She’s just like “nope, can’t trust Bullets” instead of “no, that one time I trusted a Bullet, he slaughtered our families.”

Anyway!

Four years after the deaths of their families, Caledonia and Pisces have raised and repaired the Ghost, renaming it the Mors Navis.

(Language nerd sidebar: Mors Navis, by the way, is Latin for Death Ship. Thank you Google translate! No thanks to my 10+ years of German education. Why couldn’t I have picked a Latin language? Noo, I had to go with the Germanics. Mors Navis does sound way more menacing than Totenschiff. Eat it, B. Traven).

Over those four years, Caledonia, acting as captain, and Pisces, her first mate, have collected a crew composed entirely of girls and women, all of whom have no love for Aric Athair and his Bullet army. Caledonia and her crew basically go around the Bullet seas, making life hell for Athair’s people. During one such mission, Pisces is wounded and then captured, only to be rescued and returned to the Mors Navis by a Bullet who claims he wants to escape. Caledonia, who has literally zero reasons to trust Bullets, doesn’t trust him. Pisces points out, reasonably, that he saved her life when he could have left her to die. But Caledonia simply repeats her mantra of “no trusting Bullets” while refusing to elaborate.

Until the Bullet lets it slip that Donnally and Ares, Caledonia and Pisces’s brothers, respectively, survived the massacre on board the Ghost and were pressed into Athair’s drug-addled Bullet army. He knows what ship Donnally and Ares are on, and the route it takes to bring in conscripts (read: children stolen from their families, drugged, and forced into Athair’s army, refusal to comply met with extreme violence, in the usual fashion of a murderous tyrant).

Suddenly, Caledonia has reason to question her strict “don’t trust Bullets” policy. But it’s one of those Meek’s Cutoff situations: the Bullet could be a lying sack of shit and leading the Mors Navis into a trap. Or he could be telling the truth, leading Caledonia and Pisces to their long-lost brothers. What to do?

Well, it’d be a pretty short book if they just shot the Bullet, dumped his body in the ocean and moved on, wouldn’t it?

It took me a little longer to read Seafire than I intended - I’m a slow reader anyway, but while I was reading Seafire, I was also binging on Scott Lynch’s Gentleman Bastard series (which are fantastic by the way - highly recommend the audiobooks, Michael Page is an amazing audiobook narrator) so my focus may have been just a wee bit divided. My biggest complaint is now we have yet another seafaring heroine with red hair. How come all the seafaring heroines have to have red hair? Also, it’s funny you should bring up red hair, because in the world of the Gentleman Bastards, bad things happen to girls with red hair. Seriously, how come all the fiery heroine types have to have red hair? I mean, it’s not like I’m jealous or anything. I mean, it’s not like I should have been born with red hair, but no, it ended up a dull, boring blonde, and hair dye is expensive and smells terrible...

Uhm.

I mean.

Seriously, though, red hair is a rare thing - if Caledonia’s father had dark hair and her mother had red hair, the most likely outcome would be a bunch of kids with...dark hair. Though if her father did have a recessive red-hair gene, then it’s entirely possible for him to have produced red-headed children... So I guess it’s possible. 

Not that I’m annoyed that my hair didn’t turn out red. Even though it should have, goddamn it! I know those recessive genes are in there somewhere!

Stupid lousy blonde hair grumble grumble grumble...

Ok, back to Seafire - it is definitely a highly enjoyable book, lots of nonstop action, but not a lot of resolution because it’s the first in an intended series. I highly recommend breezing through the book in one go, rather than endlessly picking it up and then putting it down in order to find out whether or not Locke and Jean finally kiss (they don’t). 

But yes, jealousy over fictional characters’ red hair aside, the only major complaint I have about Seafire rests with a single line. The thing about reading ARCs, which I think I’ve mentioned before but, again, nobody reads these, so I might as well: ARCs are not finished copies. The final copy of Seafire might not even feature this line, so it seems silly to complain about it, but complaining is fun so I’ll do it anyway.

So the secondary-boss villain, Lir, Caledonia’s sworn enemy as he killed her whole goddamn family, is described as having a “long face with a jaw that looked sharp enough to be a weapon of its own.”

From that line onward I found I was unable to focus on anything except how a man’s jaw could be sharp enough to constitute a weapon. It’s a question that’s been driving me to distraction for weeks now. Is Lir’s jawline sharp enough that it comes to a point, like a knife? What would that look like on a three-dimensional human person? How would one wield their weaponized jaws? Like a battering ram? Or would you just like, wave your head around like a sword? Does this mean his chin comes to a point, too? That one line of the galley proof of Seafire has caused me more consternation than anything else in the book - and this is a book that features lots of violence. Lots and lots of it. And here I am contemplating a man with a weaponized jawbone. 

I mean, of the whole book it’s one line and it doesn’t even matter but...but...gah, I can’t help but picture a guy with knives for a jaw. 

RECOMMENDED FOR: Fans of badass female protagonists kicking ass on the high seas, fans of YA lit who also happen to be fans of Kevin Costner’s Waterworld.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR: Anyone who takes physical descriptions of fictional far too literally.

RELEASE DATE: August 28, 2018

RATING: 4/5

ANTICIPATION LEVEL FOR SEQUEL: Lhotse

OBLIGATORY STYX REFERENCE:

[dweemeister]

2017 Movie Odyssey Awards

For all my followers out there, I have two final posts left for this year’s Movie Odyssey. This is the penultimate one and the second-most important of all: the awards ceremony. Based on 230+ feature- and short-films that I saw this year for the first time in their entirety, here is an Oscar-like ceremony celebrating twenty-six categories of filmmaking completed over a hundred years. The ten best motion pictures of the year that I saw this year lead us off.

Thanks again for everyone’s support. A Happy New Year to you and your loved ones, and the full list for the 2017 Movie Odyssey will be out at around 8 PM Pacific!

Best Pictures (I'm naming ten, I'm not distinguishing one above the other nine)

A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Taiwan)

Captain Blood (1935)

Friendly Persuasion (1956)

In the Mood for Love (2000, Hong Kong)

The Lady Vanishes (1938)

Lonely Are the Brave (1962)

A Man There Was (1917, Sweden)

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Tokyo Twilight (1957, Japan)

A Touch of Zen (1971, Taiwan)

In the Mood for Love, The Lady Vanishes, Sweet Smell of Success, Tokyo Twilight, and A Touch of Zen received 10/10 ratings. All others received 9.5/10.

Best Comedy

Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968)

Destry Rides Again (1939)

Dr. Jack (1922)

The Great Muppet Caper (1981)

Kung Fu Hustle (2004, Hong Kong/China)

Mr. & Mrs. ’55 (1955, India)

Much Ado About Nothing (1993)

Porco Rosso (1992, Japan)

The Sandlot (1993)

Yoyo (1965, France)

Hey, I’m just looking for the movie that made me laugh the most here.

Best Musical

Coco (2017)

Funny Face (1957)

The Great Muppet Caper

It’s Always Fair Weather (1955)

Kid Galahad (1962)

Mr. & Mrs. ‘55

Nashville (1975)

Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982)

Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949)

You Were Never Lovelier (1942)

It’s not a fully original musical, but it contains some of the best arrangement of George and Ira Gershwin music you could find. You Were Never Lovelier and Mr. & Mrs. ‘55 and It’s Always Fair Weather also threatened here.

Best Animated Feature

The Breadwinner (2017)

Castle in the Sky (1986, Japan)

Fantastic Planet (1973, France/Czechoslovakia)

My Life as a Zucchini (2016, Switzerland)

My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Japan)

Ponyo (2008, Japan)

Porco Rosso

The Red Turtle (2016, France/Belgium/Japan)

Your Name (2016, Japan)

A much stronger year for animation this year than the previous Movie Odyssey. Fantastic competition, with what I think is a great winner.

Best Documentary

Don’t Look Back (1967)

The Horse with the Flying Tale (1960)

Jungle Cat (1959)

Life, Animated (2016)

Monterey Pop (1968)

The Statue of Liberty (1985)

Swim Team (2016)

The Tattooed Police Horse (1964)

Tyrus (2015)

Best Non-English Language Film

Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972), West Germany

A Brighter Summer Day, Taiwan

Charulata (1964), India

In the Mood for Love, Hong Kong

My Life as a Zucchini, Switzerland

My Neighbor Totoro, Japan

The Salesman (2016), Iran

Sound of the Mountain (1954), Japan

Tokyo Twilight, Japan

A Touch of Zen, Taiwan

Best Silent Film

Camille (1921)

Dr. Jack

Ducks and Drakes (1921)

The Last of the Mohicans (1920)

A Man There Was

Now or Never (1921 short)

Sparrows (1926)

Strike (1925, Soviet Union)

Tokyo Chorus (1931, Japan)

West of Zanzibar (1928)

Personal Favorite Film

Akeelah and the Bee (2006)

Coco

Destry Rides Again

The Goonies (1985)

The Great Muppet Caper

Lady Bird (2017)

The Lady Vanishes

Lonely Are the Brave

My Life as a Zucchini

Pollyanna (1960)

It might be one of the best neo-Westerns I have ever seen. Kirk Douglas said it was his personal favorite movie, and it’s obvious and you can see why.

Best Director

Michael Curtiz, Captain Blood

Stanley Donen, Funny Face

Alfred Hitchcock, The Lady Vanishes

King Hu, A Touch of Zen

Rex Ingram, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Alexander Mackendrick, Sweet Smell of Success

Jean Renoir, The Southerner (1945)

Victor Sjöström, A Man There Was

Wong Kar-wai, In the Mood for Love

Edward Yang, A Brighter Summer Day

Holy hell this is a strong field. I desperately wanted to find an excuse to put in Greta Gerwig as Best Director for Lady Bird, but I never found it. Congrats to Hitchcock, for may be the best-directed work I’ve seen from him.

Best Acting Ensemble

A Brighter Summer Day

Caged (1950)

Fences (2016)

Friendly Persuasion

Pollyanna

Road to Perdition (2002)

Sense and Sensibility (1995)

Sound of the Mountain

Sweet Smell of Success

Tokyo Twilight

Now, none of the actors from Fences are going to win an individual award as you seen down below. But together, they were outstanding and surpassed all comers this year.

Best Actor

Gary Cooper, Friendly Persuasion

Tony Curtis, Sweet Smell of Success

Kirk Douglas, Lonely Are the Brave

Charles Laughton, Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Gregory Peck, Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

Edward G. Robinson, Scarlet Street (1945)

Andy Serkis, War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Victor Sjöström, A Man There Was

Denzel Washington, Fences

Robin Williams, What Dreams May Come (1998)

I’ve already commented how brilliant Douglas is here. Also in prime contention were Robinson, Serkis, and, yes, Robin Williams.

Best Actress

Ineko Arima, Tokyo Twilight

Leslie Caron, Lili (1953)

Maggie Cheung, In the Mood for Love

Viola Davis, Fences

Olivia de Havilland, Captain Blood

Chôko Iida, Record of a Tenement Gentleman (1947, Japan)

Dorothy McGuire, Friendly Persuasion

Madhabi Mukherjee, Charulata

Eleanor Parker, Caged

Mary Pickford, Sparrows

As a lonely wife, Mukherjee does so much with so little dialogue. You almost wonder if she could have excelled in silent film, too. Cheung, de Havilland, and Iida were also considered the strongest contenders here.

Best Supporting Actor

Dan Duryea, Scarlet Street

Henry Gibson, Nashville

Stephen Henderson, Fences

Burt Lancaster, Sweet Smell of Success

Paul Newman, Road to Perdition

Anthony Perkins, Friendly Persuasion

Alan Rickman, Sense and Sensibility

Patrick Stewart, Logan (2017)

Gustav von Seyffertitz, Sparrows

Mykelti Williamson, Fences

Supporting categories love a villain. And as the immoral columnist J.J. Hunsecker, Burt Lancaster commands Sweet Smell of Success whenever he is on screen. A terrific performance.

Best Supporting Actress

Ronee Blakley, Nashville

Hope Emerson, Caged

Elsa Lanchester, The Big Clock (1948)

Charlotte Mineau, Sparrows

Agnes Moorehead, Caged

Kay Thompson, Funny Face

Lily Tomlin, Nashville

Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea (2016)

May Whitty, The Lady Vanishes

Kate Winslet, Sense and Sensibility

I’m usually not kind to comedic performances, but I have to give it to Kay Thompson here. She was ebullient and heavens-to-goodness hilarious in Funny Face. A great singing voice, too.

Best Adapted Screenplay

James Bernard, Roy Boulting, Paul Dehn, and Frank Harvey, Seven Days to Noon (1950)

Kenneth Branagh, Much Ado About Nothing

Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, The Lady Vanishes

Yasunari Kawabata and Yôko Mizuki, Sound of the Mountain

Al Morgan and José Ferrer, The Great Man (1956)

Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman, Sweet Smell of Success

Satyajit Ray, Charulata

Bernard C. Schoenfeld and Virginia Kellogg, Caged

Céline Sciamma, Claude Barras, Germano Zullo, and Morgan Navarro, My Life as a Zucchini

Michael Wilson, Friendly Persuasion

Best Original Screenplay

Sean Baker and Chris Bergoch, The Florida Project (2017)

Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water (2017)

Asghar Farhadi, The Salesman

Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird

Tadao Ikeda and Yasujirô Ozu, Record of a Tenement Gentleman

Frances Marion, Joe Farnham, and Martin Flavin, The Big House (1930)

Yasujirô Ozu and Kôgo Noda, Tokyo Twilight

William A. Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker, and Alan Campbell, A Star Is Born (1937)

Wong Kar-wai, In the Mood for Love

Edward Yang, Hung Hung, Alex Yang, and Mingtang Lai, A Brighter Summer Day

Best Cinematography

Hoyte van Hoytema, Dunkirk (2017)

William H. Daniels, The Far Country (1954)

John F. Seitz, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

Ray June, Funny Face

Christopher Doyle and Mark Lee Ping Bin, In the Mood for Love

Karl Struss, Island of Lost Souls

Julius Jaenzon, A Man There Was

Conrad Hall, Road to Perdition

James Wong Howe, Sweet Smell of Success

Hua Hui-ying, A Touch of Zen

Best Film Editing

Lee Smith, Dunkirk

Frank Bracht, Funny Face

Norman R. Palmer, The Incredible Journey (1963)

William Chang, In the Mood for Love

R.E. Dearing, The Lady Vanishes

Gene Havlick and Gene Milford, Lost Horizon (1937)

Ray Boulting and John Boulting, Seven Days to Noon

King Hu and Wing Chin-chen, A Touch of Zen

Tom Held, San Francisco (1936)

Henri Lanoë, Yoyo

Best Adaptation or Musical Score

Richard Baskin, Nashville

Adolph Deutsch, Funny Face

Adolph Deutsch, Take Me Out to the Ball Game

Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973)

Leigh Harline, You Were Never Lovelier

O.P. Nayyar, Mr. & Mrs. ‘55

Alfred Newman and Lionel Newman, There’s No Business Like Show Business

André Previn, It’s Always Fair Weather

Joe Raposo, The Great Muppet Caper

Richard M. Sherman, Robert B. Sherman, and Buddy Baker, Summer Magic (1963)

This comes to the strength of the entire adaptation or musical score, not just the best songs. As a whole, I felt like It’s Always Fair Weather had the most going for it compared to the other seen here. I didn’t care for Baskin’s or Dylan’s work outside of a single song from each. Funny Face, Mr. & Mrs. ‘55, and There’s No Business Like Show Business were next in line.

Best Original Score

David Arnold, Independence Day (1996)

Elmer Bernstein, Sweet Smell of Success

Alexandre Desplat, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (2017)

Patrick Doyle, Sense and Sensibility

Jerry Goldsmith, MacArthur (1977)

Joe Hisaishi, Castle in the Sky

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Captain Blood

Thomas Newman, Road to Perdition

Dimitri Tiomkin, Friendly Persuasion

John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Tiomkin has never won yet, but now one of my favorite movie composers has finally triumphed in this category with a gorgeous, lush score that swats away close competition from Independence Day, Castle in the Sky, and Captain Blood.

Best Original Song

“Blue Gardenia”, music and lyrics by Bob Russell and Lester Lee, arranged by Nelson Riddle, The Blue Gardenia (1953)

“Bonjour, Paris!”, music and lyrics by Roger Edens and Leonard Gershe, Funny Face

“I Like Myself”, music by André Previn, lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, It’s Always Fair Weather

“I’m Easy”, music and lyrics by Keith Carradine, Nashville

“Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, music and lyrics by Bob Dylan, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid

“My Neighbor Totoro”, music by Joe Hisaishi, lyrics by Hayao Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro

“No Wrong Way Home”, music by Alexis Harte and J.J. Weisler, lyrics by Alexis Harte, Pearl (2016 short film)

“Remember Me (Recuérdame)”, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Coco

“San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair)”, music and lyrics by John Phillips, Monterey Pop

“Zenzenzense”, music and lyrics by Yôjirô Noda, Your Name

Thanks again to all those who participated!

Best Costume Design

Milo Anderson, Captain Blood

Edith Head and Hubert de Givenchy, Funny Face

Dorothy Jeakins, My Cousin Rachel (1952)

Walter Plunkett, Pollyanna

Adrian, San Francisco

Jenny Beavan and John Bright, Sense and Sensibility

Leo Bei, Gerdago, and Franz Szivats, Sissi (1955, Austria)

Leo Bei, Gerdago, and Franz Szivats, Sissi: The Young Empress (1956, Austria)

Charles LeMaire, Travilla, and Miles White, There’s No Business Like Show Business

Li Chia-Chih, A Touch of Zen

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Roy Ashton and Frieda Steiger, Brides of Dracula (1960)

Tom Savini, Taso N. Stavrakis, Katharine Vickers, and Cecilia Verardi, Friday the 13th (1980)

Charles Gemora and Wally Westmore, Island of Lost Souls

Sarah Craig and Stephanie Ingram, It (2017)

Uncredited, Jigoku (1960, Japan)

Jordan Samuel and Paula Fleet, The Shape of Water

Fritz Jelinek, Jupp Paschke, and Heinz Stamm, Sissi

Uncredited, The Southerner

Uncredited, Sparrows

Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen and Félix Puget, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Best Production Design

Anton Grot, Captain Blood

Joseph Calder and Amos Myers, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

J. Michael Riva and Rick Carter, The Goonies

Stephen Goosson and Babs Johnstone, Lost Horizon

Carroll Clark, Robert Clatworthy, Emile Kuri, and Fred M. MacLean, Pollyanna

Cedric Gibbons, San Francisco

Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff, Sissi: Fateful Years of an Empress (1957, Austria)

Fritz Jüptner-Jonstorff, Sissi: The Young Empress

Chen Shang-Lin, A Touch of Zen

Eugenio Zanetti and Cindy Carr, What Dreams May Come

Achievement in Visual Effects (all films nominated here are winners because it’s unfair to have a 1930s film with groundbreaking visual effects compete with a 2010s film)

Captain Blood

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Dunkirk

Independence Day

Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Lost Horizon

San Francisco

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Tom Thumb (1958)

Tremors (1990)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

War for the Planet of the Apes

What Dreams May Come

Worst Picture

Ben (1972)

Beyond the Poseidon Adventure (1979)

Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (1965)

Friday the 13th

The Happening (2008)

Independence Day: Resurgence (2016)

Olaf’s Frozen Adventure (2017 short)

Return of the Fly (1959)

Willard (1971)

The X from Outer Space (1967, Japan)

OH GOD WHY

HONORARY AWARDS

Five Came Back (TV series), for illustrating the history of WWII experiences through the prism of Hollywood

Loving Vincent (2017), for giving new meaning to the phrase “every frame a painting” – an international artistic triumph

National Film Board of Canada (NFB), for decades of delights and invention in its animated short films

June Foray (posthumously), for a long, accomplished career that made her one of the greatest voice actresses in film history

Pearl, for innovative use of virtual reality in animated filmmaking

Robert Osborne (posthumously), for many years of introducing classic movies on TCM – a calming, erudite presence to his fans and a hero to this blogger

Jack Shaheen (posthumously), for his tireless research spotlighting and critiquing portrayals of Arabs and Muslims in cinema

Tyrus Wong (posthumously), for his impactful artistry long overlooked – one of the greatest artists that ever worked in Hollywood   

FILMS WITH MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS (61... excluding Worst Picture) Eight: Funny Face; Sweet Smell of Success

Seven: Captain Blood; Friendly Persuasion; In the Mood for Love

Six: The Lady Vanishes; Nashville

Five: A Brighter Summer Day; Fences; A Man There Was; Sense and Sensibility; Sparrows; Tokyo Twilight; A Touch of Zen

Four: Caged; The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse; The Great Muppet Caper; Lonely Are the Brave; My Life as a Zucchini; Pollyanna; Road to Perdition; San Francisco

Three: Charulata; Coco; Dunkirk; Independence Day; Island of Lost Souls; It’s Always Fair Weather; Lost Horizon; Mr. & Mrs. ‘55; My Life as a Zucchini; My Neighbor Totoro; Sound of the Mountain; There’s No Business Like Show Business; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; What Dreams May Come

Two: Aguirre, the Wrath of God; The Big House; Castle in the Sky; Destry Rides Again; Dr. Jack; The Goonies; Lady Bird; Monterey Pop; Much Ado About Nothing; Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; Porco Rosso; Record of a Tenement Gentleman; The Salesman; Scarlet Street; Seven Days to Noon; The Shape of Water; Sissi; Sissi: The Young Empress; Sound of the Mountain; The Southerner; Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Take Me Out to the Ball Game; War for the Planet of the Apes; You Were Never Lovelier; Your Name; Yoyo

WINNERS (excluding honorary awards and Worst Picture... 31) 3 wins: In the Mood for Love; Lonely Are the Brave; Sweet Smell of Success 2 wins: Captain Blood; Dunkirk; Friendly Persuasion; Funny Face; The Lady Vanishes; A Man There Was; Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets; What Dreams May Come 1 win: Blackbeard’s Ghost; A Brighter Summer Day; Charulata; Coco; Dawn of the Planet of the Apes; Fences; Independence Day; It’s Always Fair Weather; Kong: Skull Island; Lost Horizon; Monterey Pop; The Red Turtle; Road to Perdition; San Francisco; Sissi; Star Wars: The Last Jedi; Tokyo Twilight; Tom Thumb; Tremors; War for the Planet of the Apes

111 films were nominated in 26 categories.

[snyderspoint]

For Sam  (in recognition of Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month)

I still remember the day Sam died. I was at home, hoping to enjoy the remainder of my weekend before returning to my university job, when his long-time assistant called to tell me that he’d lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. 

Those of us who knew him had understood it was only a matter of time before our phones would ring, but still we hoped. 

Sam was, after all, a brilliant, gifted physician at a renowned medical research hospital—one of those genuinely good guys who was as beloved by his colleagues and patients as he was by his family and friends. So, surely, the university physicians who were treating him—a team of equally talented men and women who were taking this particular fight against cancer very personally—would use every ounce of skill they possessed, and they would win. They would save Sam, he would spend some time recuperating and regaining his strength, and then he’d resume his medical practice, and we’d all get back to our regular routines of daytime meetings and engrossing conversations with him over great dinners. 

That’s the evil of pancreatic cancer. An insidious trickster, it fools people into thinking their loved ones will be just fine because its sufferers usually have no symptoms during its early stages. 

Perhaps even more frustrating and shocking is the realization that, even if those who develop pancreatic cancer happen to have the best timing in the world and somehow manage to schedule their annual physicals just as their tumors are starting to form, it wouldn’t matter because the organ where this cancer starts—the pancreas—is buried so deep within the human body (behind the stomach) that even the most skilled physicians on earth wouldn’t be able to discover those tumors by touch or sight. 

The simple, maddening fact is that, by the time a person’s pancreatic cancer is identified, the disease is often already so far along that the patient is only given months to live. 

In Sam’s case, his incredibly talented and dedicated medical team managed to extend his life for a year. 

One. Year. 

The speed with which pancreatic cancer took my mentor and friend’s life nearly twelve years ago was breathtaking and soul crushing—a profoundly huge loss not just to those who loved and regularly interacted with him, but to the many individuals who never had the benefit of his compassionate medical care after his passing. Described by the writers of his San Francisco Chronicle obituary as “a voice of reason in the early days of the AIDS crisis when hysteria threatened the ability of at-risk populations to receive surgical treatment,” he also became known and respected for the medical services he so generously provided to underserved women. 

The “true embodiment of a gentleman and a scholar,” he was just sixty-one years old when he died in January of 2008. A sunny day in the San Francisco Bay Area, I had stepped outside after the call into the wow of one of those picture-perfect, blue sky days that have to be seen to be believed. And that somehow seemed wrong. Mother Nature could have at least had the decency to summon a powerful rainstorm.

Eventually, our moods lifted, and life went on. Over the past decade, though, I began to see a disturbing pattern as news story after news story announced more and more deaths from pancreatic cancer, and reinforced my nagging frustration that Sam’ s death had come too early: Patrick Swayze (2009), Steve Jobs (2011), astronaut Sally Ride (2012), Alan Rickman (2016), and so many others. 

Sadly, the speed at which pancreatic cancer wreaks havoc is still a common experience for far too many pancreatic cancer patients even today—even with the many inspiring advances which have been made in cancer research over the past decade. And that’s because most men and women still don’t understand the risk factors for developing the disease—diabetes, obesity, pancreatitis (chronic inflammation of the pancreas), tobacco use, and workplace exposure to the chemicals typically used in dry cleaning or metal working. 

Tobacco users, in fact, may make up as much as 25 percent of the pancreatic cancer population—a staggering figure when you realize that, in just the year 2019 alone, this terrible disease is expected to kill more than 45,000 Americans. 

Stop and think about that figure for a moment. And then consider my next statement carefully. If we were at war and sustaining casualties at the same level of those projected pancreatic cancer deaths, our elected officials would be spending billions on bombs and bullets to annihilate the enemy. But because it’s a healthcare matter, we are treated, still, to shoulder shrugs and meaningless platitudes that “scientists will find the answer some day” (despite never having enough funding to do so). 

So What Can We Do?

If we want to dramatically reduce and then finally eliminate the scourge of pancreatic cancer, we need to: 

1. Fully prepare ourselves by learning all we can about the disease and the actions we can take as individuals to try to reduce our risk for contracting the disease. One of the best times of the year to do this is in November when America observes Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month. (Note: Because this observance takes place in the same month when we also observe Thanksgiving, it’s also a great time to share what you learn with family and friends.) 

2. Fully fund promising cancer research programs and patient support initiatives nationwide to help patients increase not just their survival time while waiting for researchers to find a cure, but to make sure that they also have an improved quality of life that enables them to enjoy the extra time they’ve been given.

With Giving Tuesday coming up on December 3, 2019 and income tax-incentified end-of-year-giving in full swing throughout December, there’s no better time than right now to make a donation to the fight against pancreatic cancer. It doesn’t have to be huge; just give whatever amount you can afford. To find out more about how you might be able to help in this regard, contact your local cancer treatment center or community hospital.

Do it for yourself, do it for your Grandpa, favorite aunt, or neighbor, or do it in memory of Sam. To learn more about his life, please read the obituary of Samuel C. Hughes, M.D. 

[freawaru2020]

Hi! Thanks to my mum, I've been obsessed with Austen since I was a child and I recently saw North And South and now I'm desperately looking for more period dramas/romances Got anymore recommendations?

OH BOY have I got a list for you!!! *cracks knuckles*

Long list is long. I got really carried away. I’m so sorry.

Books

Bleak House - Charles Dickens: Being Dickens, it’s a lot more dense and dark than Jane Austen, but quite good. Really interesting commentary on the legal system at the time, with very interesting characters, one tragic romance, and one very satisfactory one. I have linked a truly excellent reading of it.

Little Dorrit - Charles Dickens: The story is about a family whose father is in debtor’s prison, the trials, tribulations, and eventual romance of Amy Dorrit (the titular Little Dorrit) and Arthur Clennam. Of course, there’s the full complement of twists, turns, characters, and subplots necessary for any Dickensian novel.

Our Mutual Friend - Dickens: This one’s got it all. Murder, mystery, romance, mistaken identities, false accusations, society expectations, and finally, a reasonably happy ending. The river Thames is almost as much a character as the people!

The Chronicles of Barsetshire (The Warden, Barchester Towers, Doctor Thorne, Framley Parsonage, The Small House at Allington, and The Last Chronicle of Barset) - Anthony Trollope: These books are something of a combination of Dickens and Austen. Very involved like Dickens, but much lighter in tone, generally. It is about the families who live in and around the fictitious Barchester, primarily the Grantleys, the Hardings, the Proudies, Thornes, and the Stanhopes. There are very satisfying romances just about all of them (though I found The Small House at Allington less satisfactory than some of the others). (Regarding the audiobooks, some of the readings are better than others :/) Fairly religion heavy (doesn’t beat you over the head with theology or anything), simply because so many of the main characters are either in the church, or around the church.

The Belton Estate - Anthony Trollope: I really liked this one, but it’s not to everyone’s tastes, for sure, mostly because the main female character is kind of annoying at times.

Wives and Daughters - Elizabeth Gaskell: If you love North and South, you’re probably already familiar, but just in case! Centres around Molly Gibson, her father, the doctor of Hollingford, her stepmother, and her step sister Cynthia, as well as the local squire and his two sons. 

Cranford - Elizabeth Gaskell: Cranford tells the stories of various persons living in the fictitious small town of Cranford as told by Mary Smith, who used to live in Cranford, and now frequently visits it. There’s not a very strong over-arching plot, but each of the stories is still connected, both by the persons concerned, and by the locality.

Middlemarch - George Eliot: This one is kind of like the Chronicles of Barsetshire, but with some mystery and such. (Really, in a similar vein to the others recommended above.) (There IS a BBC production version of it, but I haven’t seen it, so have no idea if it’s any good. Ruffus Sewell is in it though, so that’s probably a good sign!)

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins: I love, love, LOVED this one. It’s mystery, suspense, and romance, and is told all through letters and diary entries of the various characters. 

The Scarlet Pimpernel and it’s sequels are also delightful, if you haven’t read those. They take place in England and France during the French Revolution, where a daring English gentleman and his band snatch aristocrats from the jaws of the guillotine itself.

And then ALL the Georgette Heyer. Georgette Heyer is basically Jane Austen lite. They’re SUPER easy reads, all of them, so they’re ideal if you need some period fluff to break up some of the much, much heavier books recommended above.

My favourites are the following (not necessarily in order) (You will also discover that my favourites include nearly the whole body of Heyer’s Georgian/Regency work…):

Cotillion - Kitty Charring is an heiress - upon condition that she marry one of her guardian’s nephews. Her first choice, Jack Westruther fails to make an appearance, so she talks Freddy Standen into entering into a fake engagement so that she can see London (and avenge herself on Mr. Westruther). You know the trope. You know how this ends.

The Grand Sophie - Charles Rivenhall’s life is orderly, respectable, rigid. He’s towing his family out of debt, his fiance is everything that is respectable and decorous. Everything is going according to plan until his cousin, the dashing Sophia Stanton-Lacy sweeps in and turns EVERYTHING upside-down.

Powder and Patch - Cleone Charteris would be more than happy to marry Philip Jettan…if only he would bother bringing himself more into the mode. Instead, he won’t wear a wig, or powder, or dress in the first style of fashion. So she (and his father) send him away to acquire polish, which he does. But when he comes back, everything they professed to want him to be, they discover that perhaps they were mistaken.

These Old Shades (Book 1 of the Alastair-Audly series) - Justin Alastair, the Duke of Avon, is known to his cronies as Satanas for a reason. Both for his uncanny awareness of all the things happening in society, and for his devilish lifestyle, which includes a longstanding feud with the Comte de Saint-Vire. When the fire-haired “Leon” stumbles into his life one dark night in Paris, the key to his revenge is his. 

Devil’s Cub (Book 2 of the Alastair-Audly series) - Lord Dominic Alastair, the Marquis of Vidal is every bit as bad as his father, the Duke of Avon, and Mary Challoner has no intention of letting him run away with her sister Sophie. Her intervention does NOT go as she planned…Lots of characters from These Old Shades make appearances!

Regency Buck (Book 3 of the Alastair-Audly series) - Miss Judith Taverner and her brother Peregrine are traveling to London to obtain the permission of their (presumably) elderly guardian, the Earl of Worth, to set up house in the metropolis. Julian Audley is not at ALL what they expected, but he may end up being just who they needed…Beau Brummell makes an appearance, as do a number of members of the royal family.

An Infamous Army (Book 4of the Alastair-Audly series): This is basically the War and Peace of regency romances. Julian’s brother Charles Audley is one of the primary characters, but plenty of the other characters from the series also are important players in the events leading up to (and during) the Battle of Waterloo.

Arabella - Arabella Tallent is the daughter of a Yorkshire clergyman, and is on her way to London for her first season when her carriage breaks down near the hunting lodge of the fabulously wealthy Nonpareil Robert Beaumaris. When she overhears him assuming that she’s throwing herself at his head for the sake of his fortune, her pride leads her to make a series of rash declarations which change the entire course of her visit.

Frederica - Respectable but poor, Frederica Merriville seeks the patronage of distant relation Lord Alverstoke in hopes that he will present her ravishing younger sister Charis to fashionable London society. He does, and they are both determined that that should be the extent of his involvement in their affairs. However, what with all the misadventures that Frederica, Charis, and their three brothers fall into, Lord Alverstoke becomes far more invested than he ever meant to be.

The Nonesuch - Miss Ancilla Trent considers herself on the shelf, due both to her age, and her occupation as the chaperone of the spoiled but lovely Tiffany Wield. Sir Waldo Hawkridge is, despite being the Nonesuch, blessed with wealth and good looks, a confirmed bachelor. Throw in outings to picturesque spots, spoilt heiresses, runaways, and balls, and you’ve got yourself a rollicking romance.

The Corinthian - Penelope Creed is running away to avoid marrying her fish-like cousin. Sir Richard Wyndham, a noted Corinthian, is about to make a loveless offer of marriage to the respectable daughter of a debt-ridden but noble family. Coming home slightly drunk, he encounters Pen climbing out of her window in the dead of night, dressed as a boy, and determined to set out for her childhood home - and promised husband, . Her neck-cloth and hair will never do, so he takes her in hand, and ends up embroiled in the adventure of a lifetime. 

The Talisman Ring - murder, mystery, romance, smuggling, and a stolen ring are all ingredients in this absolutely delightful romp.

Other good ones include Venitia, Faro’s Daughter, Charity Girl, The Unknown Ajax, The Quiet Gentleman, Bath Tangle, Lady of Quality, The Foundling, and The Masqueraders.(Really, what this boils down to is that I’d recommend all of them, except perhaps Friday’s Child.)

Movies/TV Shows

Bleak House (2005) - Charles Dickens: Has an AMAZING cast, including Gillian Anderson, Carey Mulligan, Burn Gorman, Louise Brealey, and a ton of others.

Little Dorrit (2008): Matthew Macfayden and Claire Foy are the main characters.

Our Mutual Friend (1998) - Paul McGann, Steven Mackintosh, Keeley Hawes, and Anna Friel are some of the primary characters

The Barchester Chronicles (1982) - a young Alan Rickman makes an appearance!

Doctor Thorne (2016) - Beautiful costumes, great cast! Tom Hollander is Doctor Thorne!

Wives and Daughters (1999) - Really terrific cast, as I’m sure you’re starting to notice, lots of overlap in those BBC pieces…

Great Expectations (2012) - there are a LOT of good versions of Great Expectations, but this one is probably my fav. This is, of course, the Bonham Carter/Fiennes version. Holliday Grainger is Estella. 

Jane Eyre (2011) - Wasikowska/Fassbender

Lark Rise to Candleford (2008-2011)

Cranford (2007) SO many good actors in this one, including Judi Dench, Imelda Staunton, Tom Hiddleston, Michael Gambon, and quite a few others.

I hope you like at least some of them, and would be delighted to hear if you end up loving any of them (or if you find others in a similar vein that you would recommend in return)!!

[antarctic-echoes]

I was tagged by the wonderful @skaoi-on-ao3!  I have just done one of these things and can’t think of any new questions, so I will answer skaoi’s questions and then repost my questions from the other post.  And since I already tagged 11 people, I will open this up to anyone who wants to play!  :D

RULES:

Post the rules

Answer the questions given to you by the tagger

Write 11 questions of your own

And tag 11 people

Questions:

1.  Innie or outie?  Innie. 

2.  What’s the last song  you listened to?  Two bodies by Flight Facilities, just for the wonderful clip of the interview with Rod Serling at the beginning.  I can listen to that all day.

3.  Hoarder or minimalist?  Hoarder.

4.  Got ink?  Nope. 

5.  Have you traveled outside of your home country?  yes, Japan and Canada.

6.  You can see any three bands (alive or dead) - who do you see?  Beatles, Luis Miguel (okay, he’s not a band, but....) and Tomoyasu Hotei (I know, he’s not a band either, but I’m just not a band person, sorry).

7.  You invited five people to dinner (alive or dead) - who are they?  God, Lucifer (I want to see fireworks at the table, lol), Toshiro Mifune (he always seemed like such a gentleman in real life), Tom Ellis (of course!) and Alan Rickman (he also seemed like such a gentleman). 

8.  What’s your favorite genre to read (mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, etc.)?  Cookbooks. yes, I read them like novels, lol.  And nonfiction.  :D

9.  What movie can you watch any time, regardless of how many times you’ve seen it?  Akira Kurosawa’s Ran.  Depressing as hell, but the costumes and the sets are amazing.  They built a castle just for the movie AND THEN SET IT ON FIRE AND FILMED IT IN ONE TAKE.  yep, I can watch that scene over and over.  It’s amazing.  the runner up would be the last 10 minutes of “throne of blood,”  Just to see people actually shooting hundreds of REAL ARROWS at poor Toshiro Mifune.  That look of horror on his face is real.  that always amazes me.  i can watch that all day.  (I guess I’m a sadist, lol.)

10.  Can you cook?  Yes.  :)

11.  You’re a superhero!  What can you do?  Throw out the things I need a week later.  This really is my superpower, lol. 

My questions:

1.  what’s your favorite hobby?

2.  What’s the movie you hate more than anything?

3.  which would you rather be: Ninja or British Spy? And why?

4.  What’s your favorite book of all time?

5.  If you could go anywhere, whether it be a real or fictional location, where would you go?

6.  Which would you rather fight?  An angry horse-sized duck or a hundred angry duck-sized horses?

7.  If you could have any dinosaur as a pet, which one would you have?

8. What is your favorite animated movie?

9.  What is your favorite dessert?

10.  what is your movie score?

11.  If you could go to dinner with any fictional character, who would you choose and why?

Anyone who wants to play, hop in , the water’s just fine!  :D

[itsiotrecords-blog]

http://ift.tt/2rbzwhk

Whether we mean to or not, we probably all spend way too much time looking at and reading about viral pictures on the internet. We’ll be sitting at our desks and relaxing on our lunch breaks and decide to take out our phones and look at our Facebook and Twitter accounts — “just for a minute,” we all tell ourselves (as we bold-facedly lie to ourselves). Then we see some outrageous picture and cannot manage to rip our eyes from it. “Is that Bigfoot?” “Who is that with Marilyn Monroe?” “THERE IS NO WAY THEY WILL BE ABLE TO CATCH THAT BEAR!” Much to our annoyance (and sometimes displeasure, or relief, or frustration), many of these pictures are fakes. They’re often real pictures that have been doctored in some way, filters or angles making things look more real than they truly were, or digital editing software making us all the butt end of a practical joke. Over the years of phony photos populating our social media accounts, some of us have come to believe that any picture we scroll through — unless it has our close friends in it — is probably a fake. But that’s not fair either because many of the pictures we’re seeing are incredibly real; we’re just too skeptical to believe that an awesome photographer caught the perfect picture at just the right moment. So let’s clear some of the fog and call them out, once and for all. Here are 20 popular viral photos, both the fake and the real:

#1 REAL This picture is very real, and we love that it went viral. It’s a picture of a window washer at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital giving a little fist bump to a kid that certainly needs it, no matter what’s gotten him stuck inside. These photos started going viral a few years ago when a window washer dressed up for Halloween and gave all the kids inside a magical experience. Ever since then, window washers have been teaming up to make lives a little bit brighter for children stuck in hospital rooms. How cool is it to see Spiderman or Captain America or Superman just outside your window? Even if you were mortally ill, you couldn’t help but smile a bit at these ordinary heroes! Here’s to the window washers all over the world who’ve become copycats to the original superhero window washer, making children smile one hospital room window at a time.

#2 FAKE Just as a blanket statement: you aren’t going to be seeing a whole lot of new pictures of Marilyn Monroe. In case you didn’t know, Marilyn’s not really modeling anymore — mostly because she died a long time ago. Most of her work has been out there for years and seen by millions over and over again. So if you’re seeing a new picture of Marilyn Monroe for the very first time, odds are that it’s fake. Same goes for Elvis Presley. So when everyone saw this picture of the two together, chilling on a rooftop, they should have immediately questioned its authenticity. Two photos were mashed together in a good, but not overwhelmingly believable composition, though it would be really cool to think of the two of these crazy kids just savoring the city air and kicking back between living the high life. Just because it’s in black and white doesn’t mean it’s real!

#3 REAL Yes. That is indeed a bear falling from a tree. When the picture was released, everyone immediately thought that it was a fake. To be fair, it did look like someone just photoshopped a picture of a bear into a normal shot of police officers standing around and looking at something. A really lazy photoshopper, too — it looks like there was a picture of a bear standing upright that was shrunken down and tilted diagonally. Well, sadly, this is a real picture! A wild bear had wandered into the suburbs and animal control was called in, shortly followed by police. The bear had retreated into a tree because it was scared, but of course, they couldn’t allow it to stay there. Animal control shot a tranquilizer at the bear and, when he could no longer resist sleep, he fell from the tree onto a giant mat. The bear was taken back into the wilderness and lived on to grumble about us lousy humans.

#4 FAKE Really, guys? Did you not know that this one was a fake? To be fair, the picture itself is real. To the keen eye, it kind of looks like the picture was photoshopped and like the image on the left side of the sign was conveniently pressed up against the image on the right side, just well enough to match the body up at the waist. But the picture is real! However, it was crazy staged! It was taken to commemorate the many criminals who have met this sort of fate. The picture was taken long ago, back in 1939 — way before people were talking about building giant walls and making those we were keeping out pay for it. It was also taken to discuss how problematic the border is between El Paso and Juarez. Imagine how much more problematic that border will be if we have an 18-foot high wall separating the United States from Mexico…

#5 REAL This adorably sad picture is, to our disappointment, real. It’s a picture that a nanny took one sad day when she wanted to take one of her toddlers to the zoo. Back in 2013, we suffered a government shutdown that really gave a scare to almost everyone in the United States. Everything closed, from post offices to museums to zoos. This nanny wasn’t aware of the closures, and this child was so horribly disappointed that he climbed onto the gates of the Smithsonian zoo and hoped that maybe, just maybe, if he looked pitiful enough, someone would come and let him in. No one did, and the picture caught fire and spread around the internet with people asking to “please open the government again.” Funny how people value government so much, but only when it goes away or stops providing their many services.

#6 REAL Teeheehee. It would be a darn shame if this picture weren’t real. It’s just so cute and innocent and ridiculous that it would have been such a grand disappointment if someone had just messed with the child’s face! But NOPE! This picture is of a mega-excited little girl who has just spent so much time blowing bubbles and is overwhelmingly excited to move on to the next thing. The picture caught fire on the internet for no good reason. She’s just so adorably excited, and her little chubby grin is too much to resist. The picture quickly became a target of memes everywhere for all trollers, with captions running across it like “GOTTA GET BREAD AND MILK, IT’S GONNA SNOW,” “IT’S BLACK FRIDAY, I NEED PRINGLES,” “DALLAS COWBOYS BE LIKE RUN, THE EAGLES ARE COMING,” “REALIZING THERE ARE MORE TOASTER STRUDELS,” and our current personal favorite, “BETTER RUN, HERE COMES JOSH DUGGAR!”

#7 FAKE Okay. We need to talk about this one. For a lot of reasons. Alan Rickman, who played Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movie series, passed away not too long ago. He was such a beloved member of the cast and of the series that his death hit all of his fans hard. If you were a fan of either the books or movies, you likely remember these quotes, and you might want to tear up at how sweet and beautiful they are. But don’t. Because Alan never said this. A Tumblr user, mypatronusisyou123437597309, actually posted a variation of the quote in July of 2010, and in 2016, when the supposed Rickman quote went viral, she clarified that she really was the source of the quote. That Rickman said it is a load of crap.

#8 FAKE What did we say about Marilyn Monroe pictures? If you’ve never seen it before, that’s probably because it’s a new picture — and if it’s a new picture, it’s a fake picture. This photo was edited in the exact same way that the last photo featuring Marilyn Monroe with Elvis Presley was, and it, hilariously enough, even used a picture from the same series of those taken of Marilyn that the last fake photo poster used! SHE’S WEARING THE SAME DRESS! This doctor of photography was even lazier than the last, simply pasting a picture of James Dean from East of Eden over Marilyn’s original photo. Cute to think that these young troubled souls were smoking and drinking away their problems atop skyscrapers in The Big Apple together, and maybe they were, but this picture is certainly no evidence of that. You can never trust an unfamiliar Marilyn Monroe picture…

#9 REAL Yes, this absolutely hilarious picture of a dog playing underwater is real! Photographer Seth Casteel is a real dog lover and has already made a living for himself taking pictures of pups and other animals and pets. But he had an extra special creative idea: to wait underwater while dogs jumped into swimming pools, chasing after toys or treats or just excited to take a dip, then to take snapshots of the goobers upon entry to the water. And the reactions he got were priceless! He released a book containing the photo series called Underwater Dogs and has gotten even more money since the series went absolutely viral. There were some adorably hilarious pups that he managed to capture on camera, and for that, we thank him, his underwater camera, and his impeccable timing. But someone get this dog a towel and a big treat for his hard day of work!

#10 FAKE Not so real: this gentleman’s guide to amputation. This viral picture of an 1800s poster was released not too long ago when the craze of gentlemanly behavior (including ridiculous mustaches, odd facial hair, and weird facial hair care products were blowing up the market) was just getting going. The picture depicts a step by step guide on how to amputate a limb, including two calm gentlemen sawing off an arm like it’s just another day at work. After the men finish severing the limb from one man’s body, the two share a glass of brandy in celebration of their accomplishment. Well, of course, the poster is fake. Turns out, it was someone’s school project (what kind of school are they going to?), and someone spread it around as if it were authentically from the civil war era. Though we’re relieved to hear it’s a joke, we also kind of want to hang it in every doctor’s office…

#11 REAL This viral picture went all over the internet shortly after one of the biggest missions of the Obama Administration was completed: the takedown of Osama Bin Laden. Some people guessed that the photo was a fake when they initially saw it because rarely are the president, the vice president, and the secretary of state all in the same room — what if something were to happen that took all three out of commission? Fortunately, nothing of that nature happened, and we all had huge reasons to celebrate that evening. However, before we were parading through the streets with American flags waving and cheers abounding, these White House officials were all crowding around a table, awaiting what would either be a wonderful evening of victory or a tragic failure of the administration. The victory was one of the proudest moments of the Obama administration, alongside the passing of the affordable care act and all of the wonderful advancements made on addressing pollution and global climate change.

#12 FAKE Obama’s administration has been succeeded by the Trump administration — though we’ve got our strong opinions on the matter, we’ll just say that the two administrations are VERY different. When Trump was running for office against Hillary Clinton, America was very divided (edit: America is still divided over the issue to this day). There were rallies in support of candidates and against others, and many times, these rallying groups collided, and things got a little physical. One Trump supporter posted this picture saying that “loving and docile democrats assailed a Trump supporter, causing this damage.” Well, not only was this supporter a liar — he or she was also a lazy and bad liar. This picture is of actress Samara Weaving, who starred in the show Ash vs. Evil Dead and was only taking a picture of herself in makeup for the show. Once the photo was unveiled as a fake, the Trump supporters got harangued for lying, abusing social media, and perpetuating fake news.

#13 REAL This must be one of the funniest pictures of the transition between the Obama and Trump administrations. In fact, it was SO funny that a lot of us didn’t believe that it could be real at first. The photo was released right after President Obama had a meeting with his soon-to-be-successor, Donald Trump. Obviously, Barack was pulling for Hillary Clinton in the election: he loudly supported her campaign and even trash-talked Trump a bit to try to get his point across. Well… things didn’t work out the way he’d liked. At all. And in this picture, where Obama is pretty much forced to shake the hand of a man he doesn’t trust, doesn’t like, and doesn’t have faith in, Barack could not hide just how much he hated everything. But at least his expression is better than Donald’s — it’s not an arm-wrestling contest, Trump.

#14 FAKE So, we’ll admit — this one is a bit of a cheat. This is one of those pictures that borders on meme because the picture itself means very little — the wording on it says a lot, though. Very recently, this picture surfaced and spread around the internet like wildfire. It’s a quote from Thomas Jefferson saying, “The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first.” Yeah, okay… except Thomas Jefferson never said that. Actually, Jeffersonian scholars say there’s no record of him ever saying ANYTHING like that and that if this quote were actually from anyone famous, it’s really a loose translation of an Ayn Rand quote!

#15 REAL This is no statue, this is no piece of art, and this is no demonstration — this is a nightmare, a tragedy, and a sadness to anyone with a heart. This is a real live dog from Argentina that was doused in tar by abusive humans. Two young boys found the pitiful pup in this state and took him home, carefully cleaning and scouring the dog until the tar was removed. The dog has indeed been restored to health and is now a proud pet of good owners, but the world shuddered in horror as we saw what sick and horrible people can do to innocent and harmless animals. How could anyone deign to commit such a horrible act to something so kind and small and pure? It was just another example of how cruel this world can be and how people can be cruel in either grand measures or in tiny and seemingly unimportant cases.

#16 FAKE Donald Trump and his supporters are… well, let’s just say that there has never been anyone quite like him. A lot of nasty things have been said at Trump rallies by fans, supporters and the big boss himself. But we have to be honest, and so do you: Trump supporters are humans, too, with consciences and reasons behind their logic and hopes and dreams. Remember when Trump supporters posted that fake picture of a woman getting beaten up by Clinton supporters? Well, this was essentially retaliation from the Clinton side. The third woman from the left was wearing a shirt that said “GREAT,” not “WHITE.” But it was so easy to photoshop the photo that we really are not surprised someone did. Everyone bought the fake picture for a while, but come on — nobody is that cruel, right? Maybe they’re bigots that are thinking that, but no one would get shirts for that…

#17 REAL Could this actually be a picture of two of our all-time heroes talking philosophically, sharing their wisdom and experiences? Or is it just two pictures of these amazing men doctored and brought together like the many pictures of Marilyn Monroe with Elvis Presley and James Dean were? Most people thought that the latter was the more believable response in this case, but this picture is actually real! Leonardo is very passionate about the effects and impacts of climate change, which was one of Barack Obama’s greatest concerns while in office. After Leonardo made an address on the lawn of the White House, the two had long conversations about what had to be done, what could be done, and how soon we could do it. They spent a long time talking about these topics, proving just how amazing both of these guys are.

#18 FAKE Last year (actually, almost exactly a year ago — how crazy is that?), this picture was posted by a man as he was road-tripping through Canada. He was a United States citizen, and even though the U.S. is getting a lot better about cutting down on homophobia, we have a long way to go before LGBTQ+ issues are commonly accepted and not constantly labeled and harassed and attacked. So, as this fellow was driving through the gorgeous Canadian countryside, he paused when he saw a baby moose on the side of the road. Adorable! But also a great photoshop opportunity… he easily pasted a LGBTQ+ Pride flag in the photo, and everyone lost their minds over this adorable baby moose that was concerned about topical social issues. Almost everyone could spot that it was a fake pretty early on, since it was such a simple editing job… but darn it all; it was so dang cute.

#19 REAL What are we even looking at here? A weird statue of a man? Why is his face like that? Is this an ice sculpture in a lake? Forget it, we’re bored and confused. Scroll away, scroll away… Actually, this picture is real, and it’s one of the most gorgeous feats we’ve ever seen. The picture was taken by a photographer named Francois-Xavier Marit, who was waiting underwater as Olympic athletes in Rio were taking their dives into the water. He perfectly caught Britain’s Thomas Daley as he entered the water and began to push the water away from him before reemerging to the surface. Look: his feet haven’t even entered the water yet! Thomas is still probably worried about and focused on his form, not on any photographers that are chilling underwater! This was immaculately timed, and we hope that the artistry encourages more swimmers to consider the art of diving in the future.

Source: TheRichest

[silvestriste]

To be honest, I’m not one to be affected by celebrity deaths. I don’t mean that in a callous way, and I don’t consider myself to be otherwise lacking in empathy, but I think this is due to some combination of experiencing a large amount of familial death and perhaps simply not yet having lost a celebrity who meant enough to me. The loss of Robin Williams, for example, inspired a huge amount of grief among people my age, and I can understand why; as a comedian known for his jolliness, who entertained so many during their childhoods, his suicide came as a great shock. But while I enjoyed Mrs. Doubtfire and truly loved Dead Poets Society, I’ve never seen Hook, Jumanji, or Good Will Hunting, and I barely remember Aladdin if I ever even watched it. While I should perhaps watch these movies at some point, my point is that, for whatever reason, I just didn’t feel the same pain at his loss as I would have had he been someone close to me, someone I’d known personally. Even when people I felt more of a ‘personal connection’ to, like David Bowie or Alan Rickman, passed, I can’t say I ever felt anything approximating grief.

While I still can’t say I’m grieving, the death of Robert Osborne truly saddens me. Yes, he was 84, as far as I know it was a natural death, and no one can say it was out of the blue. In fact, part of what makes me sad is how obvious it was that his health wasn’t what it used to be when he came back from his hiatus several years ago and had to lighten his workload. But there was a period of time when TCM meant the world to me, and Robert Osborne, with his kindly, reassuring manner, was a great comfort. Both of my grandfathers died before I was born, but Robert Osborne was what I imagined an ideal grandpa to be. I was obsessed with old movies, ‘the Golden Age of Hollywood’, and Robert Osborne, who seemed like a true gentleman from a bygone era, taught me so much with every introduction he gave. His love of films, his passion for cinema, always shined through the knowledge he imparted, all those interesting little tidbits. I don’t think it would be an exaggeration to say that some of those old movies saved my life, back in the day. So thank you, Robert Osborne; thank you simply for being there every time I turned on TCM. May you rest in peace.

Another part of why I’m sad is because a girl I was only tangentially related to died this past weekend. I kind of feel like I don’t have a right to be sad, because I only really knew her by name, as contrasted with all the people whose lives actually intersected with hers. But it’s sad because it’s shocking, because while I know this kind of thing can happen (I’m hesitant to get into any kind of detail), as clichéd as it sounds I guess subconsciously I never expected it to happen here. I’m so distant from her that I don’t even know exactly what happened, but at this point I can guess. And it makes me sad because she was so young, and seemingly had so much going for her (although she also had some big hurdles to overcome), and was so connected to the community around her. Selfishly, it makes me wonder, as these things usually do, what they’d write if it were me instead. If anyone’s actually reading this (and I don’t mind if no one does, because this is really long, probably confusing, and I’m writing it largely for the sake of just getting it out there) and can read through my vague wording, don’t worry; I’m not thinking about this in any ‘active’ sense, even if I too have my problems. It’s just that somehow, it makes me feel lonelier to think that this could happen to someone who was so much more ‘plugged-in’ than I am.

But the saddest part of all (well, not really; we’re talking about people dying after all) is that I’m probably not even sad at all in the conventional sense; it’s just that the medication I’m on, when combined with too much caffeine, causes a stress reaction of tightness in my chest, which makes me think I’m down mentally even if I’m not. So basically it’s something I can’t even control, and it’s likely not even real, but I need it to get things done, so what can ya do?

(Sorry if that last part sounds glib, if that’s even the right word; it’s just that sometimes all I have in these situations is a bit of very mild dark humor.)