#and albert STILL gets 90% of the hate; and his fans get all of it

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

since the rusty lake tags are about to be a hellscape of nastiness toward albert fans who enjoy him in any other way than one-dimensional unattractive hate sink,* i just want to say y'all are valid and it's great that you're having fun and contributing to the fandom, and i hope the new content brings you the excitement and joy you've been looking forward to ✨️

*(boy i could go on about how Very Yikes the latter trend is for a number of reasons, but that's a whole post of its own and i will be making it lmao)

[i-did]

hi hello i couldn't sleep last night so i was scrolling thru all ur asks and stuff and ur opinions and analyses are so interesting!!! and then afterwards i was thinking about what u were saying about mlm smut and i'd also been thinking about such things a little bit recently bc like.....at a certain point it becomes quite clear that the vast majority of smut-writing is just imitation. like there's the sex noise verb list and all and the whole general mechanics of the sex and those things just .... replicate over and over. and the whole thing w people writing mlm vs wlw smut regardless of their own sexual orientation..... like i feel like a big part of that is just a self-perpetuating thing. like if u have not had sex and u r getting all ur (pleasure-related) sex ed from fandom (even if u do watch porn, that doesn't rlly tell u how to describe stuff? idk) regardless of What fandom , the majority is going to be mlm smut. which is itself majority imitation of other mlm smut, imitating and imitating back to whoever knows what the first smut fanfic was etc. there's just way More to mimic than there is on the women side of things. which then becomes a self-perpetuating thing, bc the mimicry continues and generates more and more. and---if there are fundamental misunderstandings of anatomy involved---those self-perpetuate as well. and maybe even exaggerate. and yeah. does this all make sense? idk i was just thinking about it. like all the stereotypes and stuff continue bc writers are getting their inspo from other writers rather than their own brains. or something. idk!!!!! it's just all... divorced from reality? bc words. or something!! i hope u get what i'm trying to say. just thoughts i've been thinking. anyway i think ur thoughts are cool. and ur writing. ok bye have a good day!!

Okay yeah this is kinda messy but hope u see this, uhh yeah I think you're right about the echo chamber effect fr about stuff. I think it's a mix of projecting too sometimes. talk more under the cut and also link to a video essay since I love video essays.

Here’s a video that sort of touches on this topic: 

“Gay fanfiction” by Sarah Z. (has CC)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8E_C00dKwI

This video begins to talk about fetishization at the end, but also… not really. The words “gay fanfiction” is used as a catchall, when really gay fanfiction is largely mlm written by non-mlm.

Fandom is a largely women's space dominated by the female gaze in a media industry world that is dominated by men and the male gaze. I'm really glad women have this space to explore creativity and queerness, and I don't expect the female gaze to go away, but I am still ultimately bummed out I can’t read most fanfic or interact with most fandom spaces without having fetishization in my face. 

So about 80% of fandom is women, and most of those women aren't straight, but 90% of those women prefer mlm ships. Why don’t they prefer wlw ships? Well definitely part of it is the fact that queerbaiting is centered around white straight men, and then there is also the fact that women tend not to be written as well charcter wise. But the fact still remains that you get jerjean getting priority over Layla and Alvarez who are in canon just as much and are a canon wlw couple who actually interact as well as Alvarez could likely be a woc because of her Hispanic last name. Korasami doesn’t get nearly as much hype as zuko and saka, despite the fact that they are 2 fully dimensional characters who canonly kiss and hold hands, something the creators fought for and ended up having to sacrifice another reboot for. 

I do believe the fandom echo-chamber is largely responsible for… a lot of things, like you're saying. But what's interesting is that the complaints I've heard about visual porn from non mlm in the fandom space is that they can’t get off to it because its for the male gaze and misogynistic usually. But they also don't seem to notice how the mlm smut circles has the female gaze and is also… almost always mlm. If it was a pure anatomical not knowing thing, I get that, but I also think that leads to the question of “then why the male body for porn, and not your own? The one you know and are familiar with?” 

I know some people want to get outside of their own body for porn and don’t want to think of their own anatomy at all, but overall I'm still uncomfortable. If an anglo said “well I watch porn of only Mexicans so I don't self insert” I'm gonna be like … hhhh in a similar way. I understand people “like what they like” but I wish they also noticed said patterns in the first place. I understand the t4t tumblr porn circle, and how it's different from cis people who only watch trans porn. 

I actually wished that instead of fandom focusing on mlm ships where some asshole guy hits on bottom troupe charcter for top troupe character to save, was instead… a wlw character experiencing said shitty getting hit on and other wlw swooping in. what's interesting is fandom writes a lot about misogynistic experiences without often realizing it. Ive read fanfic where guys get called sluts for sleeping with people or called bitch for speaking their mind, these arent things men usually experience, but rather women. Fandom has a lot of internalized misogyny and also queerphobia imo. Women characters often get pushed to the sidelines and men become the canvas for female fans to project onto. 

There is this natural inclination to mlm. When people are talking about “gay shipping” or “gay books” or “gay feels” or even just “gay” mlm is what’s largely in mind. I honestly am kinda saddened by this because if gay fanfiction was really solely about writing more to feel represented, then you would see a lot of bi and ace and lesbian rep, but this isn't the case. Queer women are seriously underrepresented, and I want to hear their stories and read them in fanfiction as well as published. 50% of lgbt literature is mlm, and of that its largely written by women. Becky Albertalli, Rainbow Rowell, Maggie Stiefvater, are the YA big names and are all women writing mlm. Red white and royal blue is written by Casey McQuiston and Captive prince (which is not YA) is written by C. S. Pacat, who is non-binary, but is also TME and not mlm. These are all the big names in mlm lit, behind them is some gay men, but honestly their stories aren't preferred, they're not the right “flavor” for the consumers usually, who are largely women. In general YA consumers and authors are women, but I wish that they… just wrote about women too. I think there is a certain… snowball effect to the overrepresentation of mlm representing the whole LGBT community that leads to fetishization, as well as misogyny playing a factor in: less women characters being written well to write fanfic on, when they are written well they're taken less seriously or the audience struggles to relate to them, they're less marketable then men. 

Idk I never feel “seen” or “represented” by any of the books above, which don't address boyhood and manhood and queerness intersecting really, and AFTG doesn’t either. I relate to AFTG as a trauma victim who has experienced a lot of what many of the characters go through and have gone through in the EC as well as them just overall being very well written characters, but I don't relate to it as a mlm really. I've never seen like.. gay voice or being straight passing or femphobia or how boyhood can be affected from a young age by those around you sensing you're ‘other’ or if you didn't experience this you feel outside the mlm community. Let alone sub cultures like bear and leather and pup, at most you see the word “he's such a twink” in fandom which... i fr hate non mlm using that word because it's usually used to replace the f-slur essentially, used derogatorily or to call him “such a bottom” and stuff like that. It’s like a joke or an insult.

Long story short, idk mang this was a ramble and I think I'm coning down with something. I wanna see more queer women rep and women authors writing about being a queer woman too. I think it's a complex web of fetishization and a bit of forbidden love yaoi culture (or it used to be in the BOYXBOY days) as well as misogyny on an industry level, creator level, as well as reader/consumer and fandom level. I don’t think it’s inherently wrong to explore other peoples stories and what we read has to be segregated, “only mlm are allowed to read and write mlm, only wlw are allowed to read and write wlw,” but I also think author’s intent and audience and background is telling, as well as overall statistics. Like about an hour ago I was looking for cookbooks in spanish or in english, and I was looking for some mexican food cook books, but I had to look for them using words in spanish because otherwise what came up was a bunch of “fiesta party, easy as uno dos tres authentic cooking!” and I was like… hm. Since I could tell they were marketing to anglos. (also the author’s last names were like michelle smith, james cooper, and this could be for a variety of reasons, but I trust Hispanic names more tbh and deadass would look at the authors pictures and if they had other books in Spanish or what their specialties were.)

anyways. not sure how to end this. uhm if anyone has any book recs (my to read list is like 500 books tho no joke) preferably not YA white mlm written by a white lady, hopefully queer women written by queer woman, LMK, I need more wlw and queer women stories on my list. I have a decent amount but always looking for more. I kinda wanna link my goodreads or my storygraph but I also don't want to get doxxed and it has my legal name on it so.

Also, I'm dyslexic and using spell check but if there's like some wild typos my b.

[pauls-broken-a-glass65]

hi!! i recently discovered your blog and i honestly looove it so much!! (fellow paul mccartney girl here, especially for 80s paul ehehe~) since i want to get more into paul’s solo music, i was wondering if i could ask for some song recommendations? for reference, my favorite songs by him at the moment are “only love remains”, “the back seat of my car”, “beautiful night”, and “wanderlust” and i recently discovered and fell in love with “this one” :’) thank you so much!!! <3

Hi "anon"!

I know who you are ;)

I am happy to know that my blog makes someone happy. Well, on one thing we agree: Paul is beautiful, isn't he? *Sighs*

We have good taste.

I love all the songs you quoted <3

From what I could see, you like ballads and Paul is an expert at it. I'll recommend songs from each of his albums from the 70s to the 90s (my favorite albums), I'll try to pick the best ballads, I promise.

Let's see 🤔🤔🤔

"McCartney", 1970:

"Maybe I'm Amazed"

"Junk"

The first one: I couldn't stop talking about this song. Whether the melody, the piano, the voice of Paul, this song is perfect in any sense. IT'S A CLASSIC! And it's a ballad......❤

The second one: It's a shame this song is so small. She is so calm, cozy, Paul's sweet and somewhat romantic voice makes everything better. My favorite version of this song is from the 90s (Unplugged) but I'll get there soon.

2. "RAM", 1971:

"Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey (Medley)"

Ok, can we talk about how wonderful this album is? How great Paul and Linda are together, especially singing? My favorite song from the album.

I confess that this album is a bit snobby but I decided to listen to it again and I fell in love. In the case of this song, I love the second part of it, I can't explain it, it gives me a feeling of being in a beautiful big garden, running towards the sun, it's such a good vibe.

(Sorry, but I will include his albums with Wings because YES!)

3. "Band On The Run", 1973:

"Mrs. Vanderbilt"

"Band On The Run"

"Jet"

"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five"

Energetic. This word defines the whole album (or part of it). The 70s energy is here, everywhere. Listen to the whole album and you understand. My favorite is "Mrs Vanderbilt".

4. "Back To The Egg", 1979:

"Getting Closer"

"Spin It On"

"Arrow Through Me"

"Baby's Request"

"Rockestra Theme"

I don't know which song I speak first, maybe my favorite "Arrow...", the beat, Paul's "Ooh Babe", is one of the sexiest songs I've ever heard.

"Getting Closer" is awesome. Since the melody, the end of the song is everything to me.

I confess that I'm obsessed with this song for the simple fact that Paul shouts the word "Closer" over and over again at the end.

I don't know, this man gives me energy by doing this and other things...

"Spin It On" it's a very punk rock song.

In other words, "Punk" Paul! 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

I doubt you'll be still when this song plays.

"Baby's Request" it's one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard. Listen and you will understand why.

"Rockestra Theme":

"Bringing together the best in rock to make rock music in the form of an orchestra? Impossible!"

Well, tell that to Paul and his famous friends.

There's nothing this man can't do.

(80s Paul now! Here we go!!)

5. "McCartney II", 1980:

"Coming Up" (Live At Glasgow 1979)

"On The Way"

"Waterfalls"

Well, I love the extended studio version of "Coming Up" but this version is live version....

I read in somewhere that he doesn't like it when his voice is like this live version, "husky". I Love. It gave a better difference to the music. Let's Dance!!!!!!

"On The Way" is one more song that you fall even more in love with, mainly because of the sensuality of the song and his voice itself. Trust me, I would love for him to put me against the wall to this song😏

Is "Waterfalls" a ballad? In my view, yes. And a good one!

I already cried listening to her. His need and tenderness in this song make me hug him tight and fill him with kisses every time he says he "needs love".

6. "Tug Of War", 1982:

"Take It Away"

"Ebony And Ivory"

"Somebody Who Cares"

"Get It"

(I was going to recommend "Here Today" but you're going to die of dehydration from crying, anyway....)

One of my favorite albums! It was difficult to choose a few songs from several that I like.

"Take It Away" is one of those songs that you need to hear the song before it for the magic of transition to happen. She makes you dance, dream. Happiness? Is here.

"Ebony And Ivory" is a MASTERPIECE!!!!

If you've never heard this song, go do it now!

It's a classic!!!!

"Somebody Who Cares" and "Get It" are the songs that almost no one pays attention to.

The first one : Can we talk about the guitar? It's amazing, it brings me peace.

The second one: The only thing wrong with it is that it ends. It should be longer. That song sticks in your head.

7. " Pipes Of Peace", 1983:

Honestly, I recommend you listen to the entire album more carefully at:

"Pipes Of Peace"

"Say, Say, Say"

"Keep Under Cover"

"Through Our Love"

"Pipes of Peace" is one of those essential songs for you to hear from him. Great vibes! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

"Say....." is a CLASSIC, THAT'S IT.

Paul and MJ❤

"Keep Under Cover" is my favorite song of this album <3

Do you know "On The Way"? Same feeling. Sometimes, I get the impression that he's sexy in certain songs on purpose, to tempt the fans.

The sensuality and feeling of a "forbidden love" of him make me sigh madly.....*Bites lip*

You wanted a ballad, right? "Through Our Love" is for you as well as some others from the album I didn't name. It's romantic, in a way sweet, I want a man like him in my life.🥺❤

8. "Give My Regards To Broad Street", 1984:

I recommend this entire album focusing on:

"Ballroom Dancing"

"Silly Love Songs"

"No More Lonely Nights (Ballad)"

"The Long And Winding Road"

My favorite album of his! Say what you want, I love the movie!!!!

"Ballroom Dancing" is maybe the song I listened to the most this year. It's great to have a party in your room, just you and the music. It's a trip to the 80s.

"Silly Love Songs"..........I think her title speaks for itself. I prefer this version to the original (Wings).

80s vibes YES PLEASE-

The last two are a masterpiece.

And I think you'll really like "No More Lonely Nights", hehe.

"The Long And Winding Road" is something else......❤

9. "Press To Play", 1986:

One of my favorite albums, regardless of how most people hate this album.

"Press"

"Only Love Remains" (!!!!!)

"However Absurd"

Don't be fooled by the apparent innocence of "Press". Nothing like Paul talking more subtly and discreetly about sex. I LOVE HIM.

The last two are the best quality ballads.

The first one you must know very well and the second one will make you even more in love with him, believe me.

10. "Flowers In The Dirt", 1989:

YEEEEEEAAAHHH!!!!!

Sorry, my favorite album right here.

Please listen to the whole album, it deserves all the attention in the world, especially:

"This One" (!!!!!!!)

"Distractions"

I don't have words to describe how much "This One" is important to me.

It's one of his most beautiful songs in my opinion.

"Distractions" is one of his most beautiful ballads. The guitar, the lyrics, his calm voice, it's perfect❤

11. "Off The Ground", 1993:

"Off The Ground"

"Hope Of Deliverance"

Both songs have great vibes and won't fail to cheer you up, especially the second one.

Now, let's go to the honorable mentions (that song from the whole album, I just like it) :

"My love", From "Red Rose Speedway", 1973 (This song IS love)

"Mull Of Kintyre", From "Wings Greatest".

"Calico Skies", From "Flaming Pie".

"Rock Show", From "Venus And Mars", 1975.

"Let 'Em In", From "Wings At The Speed Of Sound", 1976.

"C Moon" (90s Version) (Soundcheck)

"Goodnight Tonight", From "WingsPan"

Well, I think you have a lot of songs to know, then let me know if you like any.

Thanks for asking!!!!💖💖💖

[jcmorrigan]

blakeworther- I personally I love your hc’s so much- any au’s or anything ya got for them? I really wanna know more about what goes on.

This was once again a BAD QUESTION TO ASK

Aside from the Skyward Sword AU, which I never went back to again, there’s only one AU that I like for Blakeworther, which is the AU that I like for everything ever. I’m not even sure I consider it a true AU, even though it absolutely is. So, okay, I have this thing called the WHAM ARMY, which is a massive crossover group of my favorite villains (led by the eight who make up the acronym but this ain’t about them). Obviously, because Victor, Vincent, and Albert are all pretty firmly villains (even if they lean “those weird morally bereft people we end up being friends with somehow”), I want them to join the WHAM ARMY. So my thoughts for them here are pretty much how they’d react in a multicrossover setting, which of my other villain loves they’d get along with, and what the intro arc is for them. Keep in mind I haven’t gotten here in the fanfic yet, so some of this could change in practice, but here are my plans right now.

Cringe ahead.

-They aren’t the originals. I want to make something that doesn’t trip over canon’s current trajectory, even though I don’t know exactly where canon is going, so what happens is that Vexen (Kingdom Hearts) is going to rebuild the three of them as replicas, since he can easily find memory cores for Victor and Vincent in Myers’ storage rooms and there’s just going to be an Albert core there for no reason.

-Vexen then pulls some Chain of Memories magic and restricts the memories they have access to. They will only remember things we have literally seen in VTSOM/TWDAK, and then I can have him release more of their memory banks to them as we get more chapters. (Even if they all three get redemption arcs, my replica versions can stay little shits!)

-He DOES NOT tell them that they’re not the originals! For all they know, they fell asleep at the last day they remember and woke up here. But they figure it out on their own despite his best efforts. They still want to get their memories back anyway so they know what the people they were replicated from were like and have a framework to build their personalities from.

-Yes, of course they’re cyborgs! Cyborg replicas. Since they’re operating by KH rules, they prooooobably don’t need to eat human meat? But also I like when villains do fucked-up things and I have jokes about the others packaging “cyborg chow” to embarrass them so maybe they still do engage in a little cannibalism, as a treat

-Each was engineered with a different specialty. Vincent’s is raw physical strength; he can walk into a gunfight without even needing a weapon and still have a chance of winning. Victor’s arms have been upgraded to hold a variety of cannons; he’s the team sniper. Albert is the team “mage”; he can conjure Dream Eaters. In this AU, TWDAK Dream Eaters and KH Dream Eaters are basically the same thing. Albert has mastered a strange art of being able to draw Dream Pieces out of the Realm of Sleep and implant them in physical forms of creatures in the waking world, creating his army. They look like they do because he hates the pastel aesthetic of KH Dream Eaters and redesigned his personal ones to look more fitting with his aesthetic. He’s also a speedster.

-The intro mission involves Vexen attempting to track down a newly-rebuilt Xion (this AU is divergent from KHIII) in Radiant Garden so he can bring her back under his control with some brainwashing. I’m also bringing in the Tsviets as past experiments of Vexen’s, so he’s basically pitting his newer models of experiment against his old ones.

-The party he already has built by this point is going to be Demyx, Simon Laurent (Infinity Train), Tsumugi Shirogane (DanganRonpa), skekSil (The Dark Crystal), and a couple other people I haven’t hinted at instory yet and don’t quite want to spoil. But Simon, Tsumugi, and skekSil will all also be Vexen’s creations - Simon and skekSil are replicas and Tsumugi is an android.

-Vincent, Victor, and Albert wake up for the first time, and while Vincent and Victor remember each other as friends, they’re just like “And why is our nemesis from RMU also here?”

-Albert probably fights with Vincent for dominance of the trio and I’m not sure which one of them is the trio leader at this point.

-I moved Nine Bean Hill from World of Final Fantasy to Radiant Garden because Radiant Garden needs a coffee shop and first of all, thanks to Hunger Games Simulator fuckery, my friends and I have an in-joke about Vincent Edgeworth having an eternal grudge against Dunkacino, so I’m going to use the coffee shop to reference this somehow without having to put actual Corporate Brainwashed Al Pacino in this ‘verse

-But also I like to think Lann and Reynn play a lot of bubblegum pop, so catch Victor and Albert dancing to the PA like idiots and then getting Demyx, skekSil, and Simon in on it while Vincent and Vexen are like “Oh God why are these our friends”

-(There are reasons this particular Demyx goes by a different name instory and it’s weirding me out to type “Demyx” for this post)

-Without spoiling too much of the arc, there IS a part where Blakeworther beats up the Tsviets, there IS a part where they battle the Anima summon from FFX and win, and there IS a part where despite all of this, Xion kicks their asses across the city

-They go through this mission seeing each other as partners and friends (though Vincent and Albert are reluctant to use the “friend” word at first), but after they all get back to base, they’re just...suddenly overwhelmed with the fact that they’re strangers in a strange land missing half their memories.

-They room together, and they end up crawling into the same bed for solidarity reasons. This is actually where I first envisioned the “rough day” sleeping position - Vincent and Victor are chest-to-chest, then Albert just snuggles in behind Victor and the other two are like “Okay, we’re gonna just let this happen” and Vincent and Albert touch at one tangent point where their arms cross.

-The days might get a little rougher after they realize they aren’t even the originals.

-Eventually they assimilate into the chaos house with no problem.

-Vincent tends to hang out with the party poopers of the house. Especially Mozenrath (Aladdin: The Animated Series). (P.S. If there are any VTSOM fans out there who also know the 90s Aladdin TV series...I CAN’T be the only one who noticed the surface similarities here, right?)

-Victor Blake and Roman Torchwick (RWBY). Oh, God, this is the hell duo. They’re party animals who love to dance and drink and dance drunk. It was not a good idea to let these two redheads meet.

-Albert and Neopolitan (RWBY)! They both love stabbing people and Victorian button boots! I actually kinda have this idea that they would pick up more fucked-up serial killer types to hang out with them - Mad Madam Mim (The Sword in the Stone) is their patron despite being a much tamer example, but Albert also decides he really likes Scaramouche (Samurai Jack), Junko Enoshima (DanganRonpa), and Jerome Valeska (Gotham).

-For a real deep cut, Albert also opens up a joint Dream Therapy office with Dr. Cheshire Broach (Crypt TV). It’s either called “Krueger & Broach” or “Broach & Krueger” depending on how long it takes either to notice that the other moved his name to the front of the sign again. You should ABSOLUTELY not trust either of these men to give you legitimate therapy (though if you’re good friends with them, they can and will use their dreamon powers to help you best your nightmares in a bloody fashion).

-Actually this ‘verse is the entire reason I thought of them doing drag karaoke to “United We Stand” by Amberian Dawn because the WHAM ARMY is all about karaoke, drag, and any combination of the two

-I haven’t decided yet if their romance will be a slow burn or a faster affair. I’m expecting them to tell me as I write out the fic. But I think in a lot of respects, it’s going to be more of a friends-to-lovers story than their original forms had. The three of them are forced to become an elite cyborg warrior unit created by the same mad scientist, they had a big bonding mission together where they became ride or die (whether or not they want to admit it), and eventually...we can start revealing that they’re CATCHING FEELINGS.

-The WHAM ARMY has many, many power couples and ships of various numbers of people but Blakeworther ends up becoming yet another POWER THROUPLE around base, and it’s understood that messing with one of them will earn the wrath of the other two

-They go on to assist in many, many missions with the purpose of taking over various worlds and kingdoms and just fucking them up

-Vincent Edgeworth will kill the TBTC equivalent of Dunkacino

You have to understand that TBTC is my hyperfixation to end all hyperfixations. Every piece of fiction I touch ends up related to it in some way. At some point the majority of how I interact with Blakeworther is going to be through this AU. I’m just a sucker for crossovers and villains having a place to be bros and party.

[adriannaelle]

Treehouse and Chill

The Simpsons reached another milestone this year with the recent airing of its thirtieth “Treehouse of Horror” special which, coincidentally, is the show’s 666th episode. While certainly not the best installment of this annual series, “Treehouse of Horror XXX” was pretty funny. Still, even the funniest jokes in this episode pale in comparison to some of the classic “Treehouse of Horror” specials. To this day, iconic segments such as “The Shinning”, “The Devil and Homer Simpson”, “Nightmare Cafeteria”, and “Citizen Kang” are still hard to top.

So, in honor of Halloween, thirty years of scary tales, and 90’s nostalgia, I want to briefly discuss my favorite five episodes of the Treehouse of Horror series. As always, ranking articles like these are subjective and are based on personal taste. Therefore, I don’t care if you nor yo’ mama thinks “Treehouse of Horror III” was trash. It’s still going on this list!

Alright, let us continue.

Honorable Mentions: “Treehouse of Horror II”, “Treehouse of Horror VIII”, and “Treehouse of Horror X”

Number Five: “Treehouse of Horror VII” (Season 8, Episode 1; 1996)

Although “The Thing and I” was a strong first segment, I enjoyed it least in “Treehouse of Horror VII”. Don’t get me wrong, I thought the story was pretty funny, I just like the second and third stories better. However, I do have a bone to pick with the ending of “The Thing and I”. Instead of confining Bart to the attic, why not keep both Hugo and Bart around after they discovered Bart was the evil twin? I mean, the family already lived with Bart for 10 years. They might as well kept the mistake going.

“The Genesis Tub” was amusing.  It may be the creative in me, but I really enjoy the concept of creating your own world and overseeing it.  Still, I felt the ending of “The Genesis Tub” was a bit abrupt.  I feel like the writers could have done so much more with the concept of Lisa creating and ruling her own Universe. Maybe she could have assaulted Bart with more fighter pilots. Maybe she could have built a massive ray gun a la the ray gun seen in “Citizen Kang”.  The ideas are limitless.

Speaking of “Citizen Kang”, this story is one of my favorites in the entire Treehouse of Horror series.  It's a brilliant satirical take on elections in the United States and the country’s politicians.  I especially like how the writers make fun of our ridiculous two-party system.  Like really, are our only choices between a drooling, Gangreen Gang, cyclops squid, and his twin sister?  Ross Perot should have brought up Kang’s and Kodos’ emails.  That always works.

Number Four: “Treehouse of Horror III” (Season 4, Episode 5; 1992)

Akin to my feelings about “Treehouse of Horror VII”, I’m only a big fan of two of the three segments in “Treehouse of Horror III”.  “King Homer” was just a’ight to me. Granted, the segment did have a great exchange between Mr. Smithers and Mr. Burns about the former’s distaste of seamen and women mixing.  Yet overall, I didn’t get a kick out of this story as much as I did the other two.

“Clown Without Pity” is a parody of the lauded Twilight Zone episode “Living Doll”.  This segment had its share of funny jokes, particularly the line from Patty about losing the remaining thread of her heterosexuality after seeing Homer horrifically run through the house butt naked.  I also like how the key to turning off the Krusty doll’s murderous rage, is switching the lever from “evil” to “good”.  Like, what happens if the lever accidentally switches back?  What if it breaks and he gets stuck on “evil”?  Take the doll back and get a refund!  Like, what are y’all doing?!

Finally, there is “Dial ‘Z’ for Zombie”.  No matter how self-aware I am about the absurdity of my kinemortophobia (fear of zombies), I still have it.  That is why I hated this segment as a child.  But as a grown woman, I find this story very funny.  It’s a pretty simple zombie story, but the jokes strewn throughout are what make it a highlight of the series.  The joke about Homer being immune to the zombies because he lacks brains is one that stands out in particular.  Also, what are George Washington, Albert Einstein, and William Shakespeare even doing in Springfield?

Number Three: “Treehouse of Horror IV” (Season 5, Episode 5; 1993)

Choosing between “Treehouse of Horror IV” and “Treehouse of Horror V” as my second favorite episode of the series was the hardest.  Ultimately, I prefer V ever so slightly over IV, but IV is a heavyweight in its own right.  “The Devil and Homer Simpson” shows just how far our dimwitted protagonist is willing to go to get his favorite, sugary snack.  You got to be desperate as all hell to sell your soul for a donut!  Other than Homer’s enjoyment of his ironic punishment, the best part of the segment is the trial itself.  The Devil’s voir dire game is trash.  How do you select the jury and still lose the case?  Never hire this man for anything.

“Terror at 5 ½ Feet” is yet another hilarious spin on an old Twilight Zone classic. This parody of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” stays true to the basic horror elements and story structure as the original tale, but, of course, adds its own Simpsons brand of humor to it. However, unlike the original, Bart is still tormented by the gremlin after he’s hauled off to the psych ward.  Side note, Ned Flanders really took a lot of L’s in this episode.

I’ve never seen nor read the original Dracula, so I do not know how faithful “Bart Simpson’s Dracula” is to the original story.  Well, I guess that doesn’t really matter here because this story is so funny and scary that it holds your attention from beginning to end.  From the super happy fun slide that leads to the vampires in the basement to Homer staking Mr. Burns (Burnscula?) in the crotch, this story provides many laughs that make this story a classic.  Also, the plot twist that Marge (Margecula?) is really the head vampire is funny as hell.  Sorry if that was a spoiler but in fairness, this episode is 26 years old now.

Number Two: “Treehouse of Horror V” (Season 6, Episode 6; 1994)

“Treehouse of Horror V” is solid from beginning to end.  “The Shinning” is firmly in my top five list of favorite Treehouse of Horror segments.  This segment has several hilarious moments, from Homer taking three days to make the voyage to the cabin due to his forgetfulness to the blood not getting off at the right floor, to that scene where the complete lack of television and beer made Homer go . . . something . . . hmm.  Well, anyway, I can definitely say that every time I watch “The Shinning”, I’m feelin’ fine.

“The Shinning” is not the only highlight of this episode.  Homer’s time-traveling escapade in “Time and Punishment” introduced us to numerous interesting alternative timelines that ultimately drove Homer to a pure state of “IDGAF” at the end.  Still sucks that he missed out on that donut rain.  That timeline would have smacked!  

This episode’s final segment, “Nightmare Cafeteria”, truly is the stuff of nightmares. I mean, it’s super funny now that I’m grown, but this segment used to legitimately scare me as a child.  It also didn’t help that I was a fat kid.  Like, imagine living your best life and then the next moment, you’re Ms. Wilson’s Fried Adri.  Woo, chile.

Number One: “Treehouse of Horror” (Season 2, Episode 3; 1990)

It’s often said that nothing beats the original, and in the case of Treehouse of Horror episodes, this sentiment rings true.  The very first Treehouse of Horror is the greatest episode of the series.  One of the highlights of this episode is the dulcet baritone of James Earl Jones as the mover, Serak the Preparer, and the narrator of “The Raven”.

The first segment “Bad Dream House” is a comedic spin on the classic haunted house movie trope.  The quintessential 80s style horror music that accompanies the story throughout greatly adds to the mood of the piece without overdoing it.  The conclusion of “Bad Dream House” is what makes this story so funny.  The house destroys itself rather than live with the Simpsons. I don’t know what it feels like to be curved by a house, but it must make you feel all kinds of insecure.  

“Hungry Are the Damned” is our first introduction to Treehouse staples Kang and Kodos.  It is also our introduction to the sorely missed Serak the Preparer, who definitely needs to return at least once in this series.  This segment parodies the classic Twilight Zone episode “To Serve Man” and gives us a humorous plot twist at the end.  I suppose this episode also serves as a sort of origin story of Kang’s and Kodos’ beef with mankind because this is the only episode where they are genuinely nice.  Dang, all Lisa had to do was sit down and eat her food. Literally.

Finally, there is “The Raven”, which is absolutely my favorite segment in any Treehouse of Horror Episode.  What I like most about “The Raven” is how the crew manages to add comedy to the piece without losing any of the mystique of Edgar Allen Poe’s riveting poetry.  It also made this poem a bit easier to understand, which I greatly appreciate.  It’s a refined piece of television without the pompousness of the bourgeois.  In short, I like it. 

Honestly, no matter which of the thirty Treehouse of Horror episodes you like best, all are great for watching on Halloween for squeamish, easy-to-scare people like me.  So for those of us who aren’t bravely equipped to watch the more realistic, gory, and scary productions, I highly recommend binge-watching these episodes for some softer scary vibes and lots of laughs.

[introvertguide]

Apocalypse Now (1979); AFI #30

The next movie on the AFI list that we watched was the famous Vietnam Era war film, Apocalypse Now (1979). Even though the movie only received lukewarm reviews on release and was a modest success, the movie is now considered a classic being ranked highly on the AFI film registry (#28 and #30 a decade later), the Sight and Sound Poll (#12), and #6 on a director’s poll of the greatest films of all time. There was some initial recognition as the movie was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and took home 2 for Best Cinematography and Best Sound and both were well deserved. There was actually quite a bit to the making (and almost not making) of this film that I would like to discuss, but first standard brief summary:

SPOILERS!!! You all should know by now but I don’t want hate mail for neglecting to mention it.

The story is really about two people at its core: a Special Ops Officer named Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando) goes crazy when entrenched in Vietnam and starts killing civilians and anyone who doesn’t agree with him. To stop Kurtz, a specialized troop named Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is sent down a river through Vietnam and into Cambodia to kill the rogue Kurtz with “extreme prejudice.”

The movie begins when Captain Willard is recruited and then escorted to the mouth of a river that will take him to Kurtz. His escort is the air cavalry, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who fly into a beach possessed by Viet Cong. Kilgore picks this point of entry because he is a surfing fan and wants that specific beach so he can have an opportunity to catch some waves. It does not go well and he calls in a napalm strike on the tree line of the beach. This is when Kilgore says his famous phrase, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

Willard takes a small river patrol boat to go up that river with a small group. The boat members are Mr. Clean (Laurence Fishburne), Lance (Sam Bottoms), Chef (Frederic Forrest), and Chief (Albert Hall). The boat goes down the river and runs into increasingly strange situations. There is a USO show, a standard boat search that goes very wrong, and a bridge outpost that is build every day and blown up every night. 

Not everyone on the boat survives, but the remaining members make it to the end of the river to be met by a group of jungle natives and soldiers that all worship Kurtz like a god. There are dead bodies (and body parts) everywhere to show the madness of Kurtz and his soldiers. Willard realizes that he respects Kurtz but will have to kill him. 

Willard is taken by the group and held prisoner, but Kurtz likes him and allows him to roam around. After an undetermined about of time, Willard uses the cover of a ritual bull slaughter to assassinate Kurtz with a machete. Willard then goes back to his boat with the one surviving crewman and leaves. The end. 

This seems like a really short summary for a war epic that lasts for 170 minutes in the short version and over 200 in the extended versions, but very little actually happens in the film. It is a whole lot of voice over, 80s keyboard ambience music, and shots of a boat going down a river. It is supposed to be a film about the decent into madness as Willard gets further from the militarized Kilgore and closer to the vigilante Kurtz. It is hard to really show and not tell emotions of gradual loss of sanity and so there is a lot (I mean a whole lot) of 3rd person narrative. 

I will admit that I am much more of a fan of the story behind the film because almost everything went wrong. The movie was originally set to be directed by George Lucas and have the lead played by Steve McQueen. This did not work out because McQueen did not want to go to the jungle for 4 months. Neither did Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, or Al Pacino. Coppola took over the job of director and sank some of his own money into the project to get it going since Lucas was busy with Star Wars when the film had accumulated some budget and Harvey Keitel was chosen as the lead. Coppola did not like the character that Keitel tried to give the role of Willard so he was replace with Martin Sheen. It felt like things were good at this point but it really went downhill from there.

The movie had not been completely written and was based on Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness (which really doesn’t have an end) and it becomes evident as the movie goes on. The initial attack on the beach that is lead by the helicopters of Kilgore is a scenic wonder and one of the most cinematic things I have seen. The war horrors that are portrayed are brutal and disassociation that Kilgore has from what he is doing and what is going on around him is spectacular. Duvall really earned his nomination for Best Supporting Actor because he steals every scene that he is in. 

The movie was shot in the Philippines and there were many problems with safety for the crew since there was civil unrest and martial law declared in the area that filming was taking place. It was very dangerous and the president of the country at the time did not protect the members of the project like was promised. It continued to get worse because the jungle is very dangerous and the number of military/police in the filming escort was few to none. 

The heat and general environment is very harsh and people who have not grown accustomed to it suffer greatly. All of the crew had constant illnesses and injuries general anxiety. Charlie Sheen had a heart attack and his brother was shipped in to do some of the distance and dark shots. The crew got super antsy and started to do a lot of drinking and drug use with Dennis Hopper in the lead, even getting the teenaged Lawrence Fishburne addicted to heroine. Through all of this, the shoot was way over budget due to weather delays, injuries, and the fact that the script of the movie had not been finished.

To top off everything off, Marlon Brando finally showed up and he was 90 lbs overweight, drunk, and took an immediate hatred towards everybody. He still had a chip on his shoulder about the pay for The Godfather and was there to screw things up for Coppola. The director was reported to be having almost daily anxiety attacks towards the end of the shoot. The toll became apparent since the direct lost almost 100 lbs. during the shoot from stress and general sickness. 

Everything was finally scrapped together and it became apparent that the whole thing was a fiasco. People almost died. The planned out five month shoot ended up taking almost fifteen months. The script was being written while the shoot was occurred. The weather and jungle had done a lot of damage to the tape and the lack of environmental control meant that there was a lot of voice over work. Coppola went bankrupt investing his own money into the project and a lot of it went to a highly overpaid and generally scheming Marlon Brando for a truly terrible performance.

A total of over 200 hours of film was edited down to a film that lasted around 160 minutes and it took 3 years to do. I have been disappointed by the film every time that I have watched it because it is slow and I really hate the sci-fi music and constant voice overs. I love the characters at the beginning and I dislike the new people more at more as the movie progresses. I know that it is supposed to get more and more crazy and unrealistic as the boat progresses down the river, but to me it is like watching somebody that you like get drunk over an evening and turn into an annoying spectacle. 

I want to note that this movie seems to be most favored by directors and others who are in the film business. People who have been on set realize how difficult it was to do the project and that the movie is as any good is phenomenal. Despite the lack of a real ending, the movie does have a definite plot and it follows the narrative almost like the filming was a research project and all of the data was combed to find a story. The film is too long and kind of boring for me, but I can recognize that there was some aspects of genius in the making. In my opinion, none of those aspects came from Marlon Brando.

This series is supposed to be objective so I will deal with the normal questions from my opinion and from a film standpoint. Should this film be on AFI list? I would so definitely from a film standpoint because it is a lesson about how a professional film can be made despite everything going wrong and it is a directorial and editing achievement like no other movie I know. The production wanted a realistic descent into madness in a war time situation and that is exactly what is on the tape. I personally don’t find it as interesting because of the lack of real character development outside of Willard and Kurtz, but I am just one person with my personal tastes and I recognize the accomplishment. Would I recommend it? I think it is good to see and there are a lot of things to learn from the filming. It is well liked generally speaking so I would not dissuade somebody who wanted to watch. I would not actively search this out. It is very long and is extremely boring and weird (not interesting weird) for a lot of the movie and Brando, Hopper, and Bottoms all play parts that just annoy me.  I would watch the film as far as Kilgore is involved (first 45 minutes) and then I would stop it there. 

Side note: I would highly recommend Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’ s Apocalypse (1991), which is a documentary directed by Eleanor Coppola and shows the struggle throughout the making of Apocalypse Now. Really gives a an idea of how stressful and dangerous the whole situation and it also shows what a real jerk Marlon Brando was being during the shoot. 

[hops1982blr-blog]

Weekend Football

Welcome to my first blog. I’ve chosen an incredibly original subject to write about, that being men’s association football, seeing as nobody ever talks about it and it’s seldom seen on TV.

 However, despite this, I am going to try and look at it from a different angle including TV coverage. I’d like to use the word ‘irreverent’, but this just reminds me of an irritating, try-hard ‘comedian’ who’s just got his (or her) own vacuous show on some late-night slot on BB3 (RIP) or ITV2.

 A little about the author. I’m a cantankerous, cynical sports fan, born in the 80s, a misty-eyed romantic, harking back to ‘the good old days’ of football in the 90s, when players like Shearer, Gazza, Baggio and Weah were my heroes. When social media and being ‘woke’ wasn’t a thing; players weren’t trying to make side careers in broadcasting, making clothes, giving themselves nicknames like ‘J.Lingz’ or being cool and looked like the supporters on the terraces.

 And so, as you’re losing the will to live, onto the football. The weekend started (for me, at least) with the lunchtime kick off at the Olympic Stadium for West Ham vs. Tottenham. Of course, all the talk was about Jose’s return, and I’ve a feeling he took the Spurs job simply because the first game was the welcoming prospect of facing West Ham; like returning from holiday and getting a hug off your mum, this was as nice a comeback as is possible.

 The downside of the lunchtime kick-off is that we’re forced to watch the game on BT Sport. From the annoying, smarminess of the presenter Jake Humphries, a man who’d probably show you his bank balance on a night out, to the twee, cockney geezer analysis of Joe Cole. How appropriate that this match featured the ‘Ammers, because the latter always reminds me of a member of Albert Square.

 The game itself was as underwhelming as Joe’s hairline, with West Ham playing up to their ‘mumsy’ role and allowing a Spurs team with only one away Prem win in the last 12 months to romp into a 3-0 lead, before showing some sort of commitment and getting a couple of late goals back. In truth, 3-2 flattered West Ham, who were so bad in the opening 45 minutes, that it prompted the pundits to laud Dele Alli, who is now apparently ‘back’, a conclusion that was drawn primarily from one on-the-floor back flick to Son which brought about the second goal, and not much else in the way of hard evidence.

 Accordingly, Mourinho had a part to play with a fantastic bit of man management in which he supposedly asked ‘Dele’ if he was the real person, or if it’d been his brother playing for the past year. With insight like this, why is ‘The Special One’ (I hate that nickname, so please read it with the highest level of cynicism humanly possible) wasting his time managing Tottenham and not involved in the Brexit negotiations or middle east peace negotiations? It baffles me.

 Fast forward past Gillette Soccer Saturday, which is now becoming trite given that Charlie Nicholas and Phil Thompson are still on our TVs every week. With a similar, baffling level of ubiquity, they’re like a football version of Ant & Dec, but without any of the wit, charm or entertainment value. Nicholas still thinks he’s living in the 80s with his poncey haircut and daft earring, and Thommo is just annoying, spitting out heavy clichés with his guttural scouse accent for six hours each and every grinding Saturday afternoon.

 Saturday tea-time brings us the delights of crisis club (again, find that sarcasm level and ramp it up to 11) Man City at home to Chelsea, who, as many before me have remarked, have become weirdly likeable. I guess when John Terry isn’t involved with a club, they immediately become 1,000 times more affable and it feels acceptable to not hate them.

 The game itself was dull, with not much to talk about except the disallowing of Raheem Sterling’s goal because his armpit was offside. Thank God for VAR, otherwise the heinous, egregious error to award Sterling that goal would've stood. What a time to be alive and how grateful we should all be that this fantastic piece of technology has been brought in to 100% improve the world's greatest sport. Truly joyous. As is probably obvious, I hate, hate, HATE VAR. It’s sucking the life out of football, with its sanitation and cleansing of passion. I’d rather see 100 incorrect decisions per season that be forced to spend five minutes watching the fun police disallowing a goal because a striker’s pubic hair is beyond that of the last defender.

 Talking of fun police, in the studio are Roy Keane and Jamie Redknapp, a couple of pundits whose opinions are polar opposite in terms of validity. Keano could tell me that Primark made the world’s best garments, and I’d believe him. On the other hand, Redknapp would, for me, struggle to sell water to a man dying of thirst. He should be put out to pasture now, free to pursue his interests, which no doubt include heading into town after the match to see how young a woman he can pull (to be clear here, I’m not suggesting he’s the new Adam Johnson, just more that he’s probably a bit of an old sleazebag) and trying on as much aftershave as possible.

 Saturday ends with Match of the Day, which is still the only way to watch Premier League highlights. If you don’t enjoy watching and listening to the obvious dad jokes of Lineker, then you’re probably someone who votes for the Brexit party and can’t see past your right-wing views. On the other side of that weird, low table they have are Danny Murphy and Alan Shearer.

 Murphy, for me, always looks like he’s just stepped out of Burton’s menswear but is annoyed at himself for once more going back in after being disappointed with his previous purchases. I heard a BBC commentator/presenter once say that Murphy is ‘hilarious and great company’. That same commentator also spent some time in a correctional facility in the early 2000s, so his gauge of fun and good company might be somewhat skewed. Shearer is Shearer. As a Blackburn fan, I won’t say a bad word against him, and his punditry has drastically improved over the years, but he does have a habit of, have a habit of repeating himself, which is his idiosyncrasy that I find quite endearing.

 As I’m writing this, Sheffield United are playing Man United. In the studio, Graeme Souness and Brian Deane are both dressed like country gents who are about to go shooting pheasants and grouse at Sandringham (with Prince Andrew and Jamie Redknapp, perhaps?), and on the field, another Blackburn connection is Phil Jones, the gift that keeps on giving, handing the Blades the lead with a fantastic piece of misjudgement that allowed the striker Lys Mousset the opportunity to pull the ball back and give his team the lead. The final 25 minutes was chaos, with two mid-table sides scrapping it out to a 3-3 draw with awful defending getting the assists.

 That’s all I can muster this week. If you managed it, congratulations on getting to the end. What will football bring us next week? I can hardly contain my excitement at the prospect.

[gaarfielf]

Not to be that guy but here’s an analysis on LGBT characters/rep in the lupin iii universe nobody asked for. I’m gonna cover Twilight Gemini, Harimou’s Treasure, Angel Tactics, TWCFM, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 5

Twilight Gemini is arguably one of the least popular films of the series pretty much based on the fact it’s just not a good movie. But this ain’t a movie review that’s just the facts. Anyway the villain’s henchman, Sadachiyo, is gay and the movie does not skirt around it at all. Lupin makes several “jokes” about the character being gay and the character is written to be very perverted and evil (obviously because he’s a henchman) but nonetheless very stereotypical to downright offensive (his character wearing lipstick is a little uh). Ultimately, Goemon returns at the very ass-end of the film to stab him directly in the chest and that’s where that story ends. Now, there isn’t much to say about this character because he really was only around for Lupin to make jokes that weren’t funny before dying. Gotta love them yep huh /eye roll/

Harimou’s Treasure gave us the double whammy of not only a bad joke against intersex people and trans women, but also a nazi joke! hooray. The film uses a slur that some may argue “wasn’t a slur back then” but nonetheless leaves the film to have aged terribly. The character...../sighs/ Herr Maphrodite /SIGHS LOUDER/, is once again a huge offensive stereotype and coincidentally, another villain. By the end of the film Fujiko manages to take him down by.... kissing him.... and he’s so repulsed.... that they just... win somehow. It’s really just an unpleasant scene. But luckily the film isn’t hugely popular (in comparison to Secret of Mamo, Cagliostro, Fuma, etc).

Angel Tactics threw in a new idea with a bisexual woman........... who is also a villain. Detecting a pattern yet? Her name is Lady Joe /HUGE SIGH/ and she is shown to be pretty masculine which there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with until you consider that TMS might have argued otherwise, but the film eventually reveals her “true form” (???) where she’s actually really perverted and her outfit changes to be very revealing and “sexy” (TMS wouldn’t know sexy if it bit em in the ass tbh). It’s almost as if TMS associates being gay with being evil and perverted? Wild.

TWCFM is a split audience in this aspect, with a gay character that some believe is pretty accurate representation and others believe is just another TMS classic gay stereotype. Personally speaking, the fact that Oscar was designed to look like a woman (the same head shape, wide hips and skinny body as Fujiko) and also being notably... /excited/ around Zenigata, I disliked the representation. However, other people (gay people specifically b/c why would I ask straight people how they felt about him lol) believe that he’s actually really speaking to them as a gay character. I mention this because I didn’t personally finish TWCFM so I don’t wanna throw him under the bus as a character, but I will say, he is still a villain in the series as made apparent by his strict hate for Fujiko (presumably out of jealousy).

Part 2 gave us a fast one with the Rose of Versailles episode. It was a crossover episode between the two series and TMS decided to do a very interesting take on it where Lupin literally falls in love with a character disguised as a man. In the episode it’s very apparent he has no idea that the character he’s in love with is actually a woman and actually convinces Jigen and Goemon later that it’s not a big deal. Jigen and Goemon by the by, are not cool with their relationship but eventually grow more neutral about it as the episode progresses. Speaking bluntly, this episode is a very wild outlier in Part 2 as an episode which literally outright confirms Lupin as bisexual (or pan, or any degree of not-straight that tickles your fancy). However, it’s often not acknowledged for ??? reasons. Alongside this in Part 2, there is another episode Lupin disguises himself as a woman to seduce a man for his money, only to find that after revealing himself that the man... doesn’t care. They get married in the episode. I don’t know how this goes over peoples head. Granted, Lupin was in it for the money but I think Lupin of all people could’ve come up with a different plan if he really didn’t want to legally marry a man.

Part 3 also gave us something new with various episodes that imply Jigen might swing that way too. Bear with me here but Part 3 delivers /a lot/ of secluded scenes with Jigen outwardly upset that Lupin ditched him for a woman. Scenes where he looks away from women that Lupin are talking to/about, scenes where he leaves the room when there’s women, scenes where he refuses to look at Lupin when he’s with a woman and just generally more outwardly not interested in women compared to previous Parts where he more-or-less ignores them. Previous Parts, Jigen might not be crazy about women but there isn’t really as many strong visuals as their are in part 3 that suggest he’s explicitly attracted to men (though there are scenes in Part 1 and 2 where he quite literally goes into hysterics over Lupin, thinking he’s dead, though take it as you will). Speaking of more visuals surrounding Jigen specifically related to being gay, I’ll bring up the obvious one being the classic Play Bohz scene, where Jigen is very visibly reading a muscle magazine (a kind of magazine that was specifically popular among gay men in the 80s as a more ‘discreet’ way of essentially reading filth) and I mean. That’s pretty concrete. But there’s also other nods to it like him and Lupin smoking under a billboard with two men kissing on it, Jigen telling Goemon he looks cute in women’s clothing, etc. Part 4 even gives us Fujiko implying that Jigen is jealous at Lupin and Rebecca’s wedding which Jigen.... doesn’t respond to.

Part 5 is where TMS reverts back to its old ways. Actually it’s new ways because part 2 and 3 were the 70s and 80s and all these outwardly homophobic movies happened in the late 90s through the 2000s. But nonetheless we get....another... gay.... villain. hooray. again. His name is Albert in case you haven’t watched it yet. Not only that but he is mentioned offhandedly to be gay in one (1) episode before it’s never mentioned again (not exactly what I’d call representation) and the series also doesn’t shy away from gay jokes that purposely make fun of fans for shipping the characters and just in general make fun of gay people. TMS, it’s 2018, can we stop making gay jokes? They aren’t funny. Zenigata pulling his gun on Lupin for making the joke wasn’t funny, Jigen attempting to kick Lupin’s phone out of his hands wasn’t funny, and even the article claiming they were dating wasn’t very funny because it was deadass a joke made at the expense of fans. A wacky gay joke accompanied with hating your fans is a funny way of writing, huh?

In conclusion, why is it that the 70s and 80s somehow handled hinting at these supposed “controversial topics” better than it was in movies made in the 2000s and then rinsed and repeated again in the year 20 fucking 18. I think if Part 2 can have an episode where Lupin deadass flirts and falls in love with a man, Part 5 should have been capable of not writing homophobic characters. and thats the hot but true take of the day.

NOTE: if y’all try to message me to argue keep in mind 1) theres literally nothing straight about Lupin falling in love with a man and Jigen reading a muscle magazine literally known to target gay men and 2) theres nothing you can do to convince me otherwise so you best be ready to swallow that pill and 3) Don’t @ me with ‘bUT lUPIN lIKES wOMAN’ because yeah. no shit. read up on what being bi means before opening your mouth.

[floraone]

Do you have any favorite episodes of Sailor Moon? Original or Crystal!!!

So, I’m sorry this took me so long to answer, love xDThe short answer is: I am very bad at picking favorites xD.

But, so … instead, I decided to do something out of your ask that I’ve been wanting to have but not found a reason to make so far: Make a list of the episodes I value the most. So, I’m not sure which of these are my favorites, but I love them for Reasons, which I’ll be telling you.

(And let me warn you, first. Because I’m a very visual person, and animation style does play a major role in this list, lol.)

Aaalso, this is gonna be a LONG post, so more under the cut.

So, first up: Crystal. This is gonna be short, because it’s THE ENTIRE INFINITY ARC.I mean, it gave us shots like THIS.

I know some people weren’t big fans of the style. But hands down, it’s my favorite. It’s what I try to recreate in most of my fanart, because it’s FRIGGIN GORGEOUS. And also, it gave us Mamoru as part of the team AND family and instead of just Usagi’s boyfriend who nobody really knew outside of that. So there is that xD.

Before that, I would have to say episodes 6 (Tuxedo Mask) and 7 (Mamoru Chiba) - because those are such perfect renditions of the Manga chapters in my books, and the chemistry between Mamoru and Usagi in those represent pretty much the reason those are my OTP.

I love Crystal, totally, but I do also love the 90s anime. It had some crazy giant plot holes, and some really stupid changes that I love to pick apart in fanfic, but I grew up with that shit. I taped that shit every episode as a kid, and re-watched those episodes until the VHS broke and I taped them again when TV circled back to them. As I said, it’s hard to pick favs, and the 90s anime belongs to Sailor Moon in my heart as much as the Manga and Crystal do.

So, here’s a list of the Classic episodes that I appreciate the most:

Episode 28. That’s the one with adorable painter Yumemi Yumeno, who gets visions of the SilMil cause she’s a Rainbow Crystal carrier, and forces Usagi and Mamoru to sit for her. Mamoru is being an obnoxious ass, but you kinda see a little chemistry for the first time in my books, and it’s crazy adorable. Plus, his locket is being casually handed over in this, and this is hella cute. Plus, its animation director here is Kazuko Tadano, who was easily among my favorites in Classic.

Episode 40. This, actually, is a kinda surprising pick for me. Because it’s a Masahiro Ando episode - the animation director I liked the least. An episode by him had to be REALLY good if I liked it despite of that, and this one kinda was. It’s the episode where Usagi is on a family retreat in the mountains, onsen-ing and ryokan-ing and yukata-ing away, and the youma this episode is not a youma, but a legendary star-crossed ghost-y couple, that Evil!Endy decides to wake and then not be very evil about it. In fact, this episode would fall under the category of “MOST UNUSED POTENTIAL” for me, because there is so much in it, and so much feeling, and so much… ugh. It could have been so perfect, this episode. I’ve been meaning to write a fic surrounding it, but I’m still lacking the inspiration for it to get as perfect as it should be in my head.

Episode 44. Short reason: Our first complete glimpse we get of the SilMil, when the girls Sailor Teleport to the moon and Queen Serenity tells us how the SilMil ended. Also, Hisashi Kagawa is an amazing animator.

Episode 46. The last episode of Classic and I bawled when Usagi was left behind, and I bawled when Usagi held that locket out, and I bawled when Mamoru died, and I bawled when Usagi stood there as Serenity and the ghost hands of the girls helped her out. BAWLED.(Also Kazuko Tadano again.)

Episode 49. This has one reason, and one reason alone: It’s the song that played in the german dub in this episode (“Dort im Regen”), instead of “Anata no Sei Janai” (Makoto’s image song) in the original. It’s the same melody, and it’s friggin BEAUTIFUL, and I held my cassette recorder to our TV set when I was 9 to record that song, and listened to it so long and so often that even now, 20 plus years later, my MOTHER still knows the german lyrics by heart.

Episode 51. This was hanami school trip, Umino The Burrito, Usagi’s adorable scene with Luna, and her power up and badass-ness. Also lots and lots of cherry blossoms, and Hisashi Kagawa’s animation was bloody GORGEOUS.

Episode 56. It’s the snow white episode and it was so, so, so very silly, and where do you suppose you suddenly got those “friends” from that you talk about here, Mamoru, but I love it.

Episode 61. The break up episode. And god how I curse that break up arc all the time (or more correctly, its execution, not its existence, because that’s some sweet torture). But, let’s face it. This episodes hurts. And it’s GOOD.

Episode 69. The one other break up arc episode that I really, really like. The Sleeping Beauty. And surprise, surprise, it’s the one other episode where Mamoru shows some emotion about it, and we get to see how much this breaks him apart. (Also it has motorcycle and Unazuki, so yeah.)

Episode 91. The rod of looooove. Also adorable little kitties and a Mamo-chan that thinks the funnest, best date ever is a broken down house and several dozen stray cats.

Episodes 110 and 111. Those are the ones where the Talismans come together, where Uranus and Neptune sacrifice themselves and Pluto comes to save the day, and Usagi transforms into Super Sailor Moon for the first time and it’s animated by Ikuko Ito who’s just a friggin amazing artist.  (Also 110 is the episode with that hand HaruMichi hand-dance. so there.)

Episode 125. Ikuko Ito strikes again. I talked about this episode a couple days ago, in the ask that lovely @queenrisa14 asked. It’s when Usagi is literally being purer than the purest heart crystals, and transforms into Super Sailor Moon to save Saturn. And it works. And she comes back with a baby. And it’s wow. And it’s one of the two most emotive scenes that I could name when I was asked about them.

Episode 136. NINJA USAGI. AERIAL BUTT. NINJA USAGI IN NINJA OUTFIT THAT FITS OVER HER ODANGOES.

Episode 141. Because Minako two times two ASSHOLES and then kicks their butt.

Episode 152. This is the most random filler episode. The one with Rei’s little fan, who tries to look like her. BUT IT’S THE MOST GORGEOUS EPISODE OF THEM ALL. Ikuko Ito was always amazing, but to me, never better than here. Randomly.

Episode 159. Because Chibs looks friggin gorgeous in her Serenity dress and her Pegasus wings in that dream sequence. Because Mamoru interogating Chibs on who’s that boyfriend is friggin awesome. Because Mamoru hangs out with the girls and we never get to see that otherwise. And because of Ikuko Ito.

Episode 166. BECAUSE OF IKUKO ITO.

Episode 167. It’s the first episode of the first Stars arc, and it’s GORGEOUS because Katsumi Tamegai has turned into a friggin animation god by the time Stars came around, and it starts with that scene where baby Hotaru sits in between Sakura blossoms and dreams of Eternal Sailor Moon, and end with baby Hotaru being bad-ass, powering the Outers up and skipping toddler-hood altogether.

Episode 172: Last episode of Nehelenia, and Usagi is the Usagi I remember here. Warm and wise and forgiving and redeeming, and she turns into Eternal Sailor Moon for the first time and that transformation is so much prettier than what came after for her.

Episode 173. Let me say something first, here, maybe. Because I FRIGGIN LOVE STARS. Stars is my fav season. I hate that it had no Mamoru, but I loved that shit. And this was bye bye Harvard episode, that at least gave us a promise ring, and a dorky meet cute for Usagi and Seiya.

Episode 174. Three Lights join the girls’ class. It was adorable.

Episode 180. Albert von Garajan. Michiru’s concert with the Three Lights. Usagi being cute. You guys know I love this episode, I referenced it in Yugen so  much.

Episode 181. Doki-doki date! C'mon guys, that shit was CUTE. Also Usagi x Takoyaki 4Ever.

Episode 184. Usagi is home alone, Seiya comes to house-sit, and everyone, EVERYONE joins. C'mon guys, even if you may hate Seiya, that episode was comedic gold and I wish the 90s anime would have had more episodes like that, AND WITH MAMORU IN IT. It’s the kinda Sailor Moon comedy that I’m TRYING to aspire to whenever I try to be funny in my fics. (Also Minako Ito is ALSO a friggin perfect animator)

Episode 194. Sailor Tin Nyanko knows Usagi is Sailor Moon, and that fierce protection the girls give her breaks my heart. As does Usagi, missing Mamoru, in the rain, with Seiya breaking down and so many people hating him for it. (I’m not gonna rant about that again, lol. I already defended him for it here.)

Episode 200. There. That’s my Usagi. Saving the world with her love and her hope. Also Serenity with wings. Also Mamoru is finally back. Also Katsumi Tamegai.

AND THEN THERE’S THE R MOVIE AND IT MIGHT BE MY BIGGEST LOVE OF ALL.

So there you go, love. I was thorough ;)

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior Home Edition May 22, 2020 – THE TRIP TO GREECE, MILITARY WIVES, INHERITANCE, THE LOVEBIRDS

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the “Summer That Never Was” continues this weekend, which is…. Are you seated for this next part? Memorial Day weekend!  Yeah, there will be none of the usual BBQs and block parties, but most of all, there will be none of the voracious moviegoing that signifies the pyrrhic start of the summer… that is, if you don’t count the normal first weekend of May or the actual start of summer later in June.

This was an even tougher week to write a column, because just as I was starting on it this weekend, one of my favorite filmmakers (and just a wonderful person), Lynn Shelton, died quite unexpectedly and tragically. It really shook me up, and I’m not quite sure how long it will take me for me to get unshaken. But I’m going to try to push on through the tragedy. Just bear with me, please, if this column doesn’t see the light of day until Thursday.

After a rather drab weekend with not too many new releases and fewer that I was very excited about, we’re getting a few semi-decent films that hopefully will find an audience at the drive-ins, including some newly reopened ones.

But first… SPAGHETTIMAN!!!!

I’m pretty excited to hear that the virtual Oxford Film Festival is doing a special one-day screening of the HeckssBender’s hilarious superhero comedy, which I saw at the festival way back in 2016, where it became a bit of a sensation. You can get tickets to watch the movie and attend a special commemorative QnA, moderated by yours truly, right here! As you can imagine, I’m a huge fan of this indie superhero movie set in L.A. where a slacker named Clark, played by Benjamin Crutcher (who I think will be a huge comedy star someday), ends up getting superpowers… um… to produce spaghetti. When his roommate and best friend Dale (Winston Carter) finds out, he prompts Clark to use his powers to fight crime, but Clark has a better idea… he can fight crime for MONEY! It’s a very funny and sometimes silly premise but man, I love what these guys did with that premise. If you’re a fan of Broken Lizard and other comedy collectives, you should use Spaghettiman as your entry into the wonderful and wacky world of HeckBender! (They made a second feature since then called Cop Chronicles: Loose Cannons: the Legend of the Haj-Mirage and they have a YouTube channel, if you want more laughs.)

Oxford also adds more things to its Virtual Cinema this weekend, including a block of “Black Lens Narrative Shorts,” the documentary Queen of Lapa and the third “Fest Forward” block, all of which you can order at Eventive (including a few that will end on Thursday).

Also, the second Film Festival Day will take place this Saturday through the Film Festival Alliance with a virtual screening of Angela Pinaglia’s documentary, Life in Synchro, which is all about synchronized ice skating. About 34 regional film festivals, including the Oxford Film Festival, are taking part in the program which takes place this Saturday, May 23, and you can learn more about it at the Film Festival Day site.

Now that we’ve gotten some of the festival news over with, let’s begin this week’s column with a trip to England… well, not quite. The movie I’ve been most excited about is Michael Winterbottom’s THE TRIP TO GREECE (IFC Films), the fourth (and sadly, final) movie in the series of mockumentaries, starring best frenemies Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, who have really turned these movies into quite an art and science.

As the title will attest, this time they’re in Greece, basically doing the same things they did in Italy and Spain, visiting restaurants, eating food, squabbling with each other while also trying to one-up each other with a choice of selection of impressions. There’s a lot of Bee Gees and John Travolta references, as well as the duo recreating scenes from movies like Marathon Man and Midnight Cowboy. When that’s not happening, Rob is teasing Steve for his roving eye for women, while Steve gets him back since he’s found more fame and success in his career. 

These aren’t documentaries, though, and Winterbottom includes a few scripted scenes to tie things together. We even get an arty black and white dream sequence dealing with Steve’s dying father, and these all offer good opportunities for Coogan and Brydon to show off their dramatic acting chops, which is another topic of dissension.

What’s nice is that The Trip to Greece works well as a standalone film even if you haven’t seen the previous three films. If you have seen the previous “Trip” movies, you may already know what to expect. If you’re a fan, you’ll already know that spending time with these two hilarious guys is a perfectly fine alternative for being able to go on trips yourself.

The Full Monty director Peter Cattaneo’s new movie, MILITARY WIVES (Bleecker Street), is another movie I saw right before the NYC movie theater lockdown, when it was supposed to be released in mid-March. Bleecker Street has finally decided to give the movie a digital release, although maybe it’ll get into some of those newly-opened drive ins where it would play beautifully. As the title suggests, it takes place on a British military base where a group of wives, including Kristin Scott Thomas’ Kate, come together to form a recreational chorus to have fun and get their minds off their spouses at war. Kate is a type-A control freak, so she is immediately at odds with Sharon Horgan’s Lisa, who is more popular among the wives.

Going into this movie knowing that it’s based on a real story about wives who formed a singing group and knowing that this is directed by the guy behind The Full Monty may be all you need to know about what is generally a cutesie dramedy where a wide variety of group of women get together to support each other with all sorts of ups and downs. Listen, this isn’t exactly redefining the wheel other than this being a younger group of women than, say, Calendar Girls, but it’s in the same vein. This is basically a feel-good movie with a last act that gets a little corny, but it’s otherwise a wonderful story and Thomas leads a strong cast of women, joined by Greg Wise as her husband and Jason Flemyng as the officer in charge of the base.

This isn’t a terrible movie, and even though the last act starts to get corny as the women prepare for an Albert Hall performance, the film is otherwise a wonderful film full of emotions that only true curmudgeons would feel like their time was wasted by watching it. Bleecker Street will now release Military Wives on Hulu and digital just in time for Memorial Day weekend, which actually may have been more appropriate than its original March date.

The suspense thriller INHERITANCE (Vertical), directed by Vaughn Stein (Terminal) revolves around a wealthy and powerful Monroe family whose patriarch suddenly dies, leaving his daughter Lauren (Lily Collins) and wife (Connie Nielsen) with a shocking secret inheritance that could unravel their lives. I won’t say much about the secret, but it involves an almost unrecognizable Simon Pegg, spending much of his time in the dark with an American accent and giving a very different performance than we’ve seen from him.

I’m a big fan of Lily Collins as an actor, and I’m all for actors trying to stretch out a bit with their roles, but I’m not sure she was well-suited to play District Attorney Lauren Monroe, which may have worked better with an older actor. Although Collins is in her early ‘30s, she still looks very young, and because of that, it’s hard to believe her already being the D.A. (something which would generally take a dozen or more years as an attorney, one would expect). Pegg isn’t much better, and maybe because he too is trying something different from the norm. Since the majority of the movie is just the two actors, it involves as lot of over-emoting to creating dramatic fireworks that never fully arrive. Collins in particular tends to go over with every emotion in a performance that desperately needed to be scaled back. The rest of the cast is just okay with Nielsen having an even smaller part than Patrick Warburton -- an odd casting choice as Lauren’s father -- who dies as the film begins. Chace Crawford plays Lauren’s brother who is running for office, a subplot that add so little to the mix, except to try and create more tension.

I haven’t gotten around to seeing HBO’s Succession to know if there are any similarities in terms of its exploration of dark family secrets, but Inheritance is just not very good or interesting.  The writing (by Matthew Kennedy) is weak, a bit like a bad television drama, in fact, and the severe miscasting just makes it harder for anyone to deliver on the material. Realizing this, Stein overpowers every scene with overdramatic score that makes it even harder to appreciate the actors’ efforts. In some ways, Inheritance reminded me of the recent Human Capital, which was generally a better film with a stronger story, but Stein’s inspiration clearly comes from all those ‘80s and ‘90s thrillers that try to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. Like David Tennant’s Bad Samaritan a few years back, this one fails to get the viewer even remotely excited. (The movie was also valid proof of why I hate watching movies on my computer since most of the scenes are so dark, it’s hard to really get much out of it.) Inheritance has been playing on DirecTV since April 23, but it will be available On Demand and Digitally this Friday.

Paramount Players is the latest studio to go the VOD route with the found footage supernatural thriller, BODY CAM (Paramount Players), directed by Malik Vitthal (Netflix’s Imperial Dreams) and starring Mary J. Blige, Nat Wolff, Theo Rossi and more. It involves a routine traffic stop by police officers that leads to the grisly death of one of them, and the surviving officer (Mary J. Blige) realizing that the victim’s body cam footage may be able to show what really happened as she tries to understand the supernatural force behind a series of murders. Sadly, Paramount Players wouldn’t supply critics with early screeners to watch and review, so I may have to wait for one of my colleagues to shell out the bucks.

A movie I saw at least year’s Tribeca that will be available digitally this week is Sasie Sealy’s LUCKY GRANDMA (Good Deeds Entertainment), starring Tsai Chin as a recently-widowed and quite ornery 80-year-old Chinatown resident who goes to see a fortune teller who tells her she is going to have a very lucky day. Of course, she takes that as advice to go to Atlantic City where she wins big, but it’s her trip on the bus back where she gets lucky when a man with a bag full of cash dies. Grandma’s newfound bag of cash ends up attracting the attention of local gangsters, so to protect herself, she hires a rival gangster as her bodyguard. This is a really fun movie that I probably before I saw my #1 movie of 2019, The Farewell, and it’s only similar in that it involves a lovable Chinese grandma, and it mostly takes place in and around Chinatown in New York, but Sealy has a filmmaking style more in the vein of a Tarantino or even the Safdie Brothers where it really pushes the genre aspects of the story with the music choices, which are particularly fantastic. But really, it’s the amazing character created by Sealy with Tsai Chin that makes the movie so entertaining. I’m so glad that this is finally being released so more people can see it since it was such a popular but underseen movie at Tribeca last year.

Another film to look out for this weekend is Benjamin Ree’s documentary THE PAINTER AND THE THIEF (NEON), which won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s the story of Czech artist Barbara Kysilkova, who has two paintings stolen by Karl-Bertil Nordland, but when she seeks out the thief, she ends up befriending him and asking him to sit for a portrait as a bond is formed between these unlikely people. It will also be available on Hulu, VOD, on various Virtual Cinema platforms AND at select drive-ins starting this Friday.

Also on digital this week is Philip (Boiling Point) Barantini’s action-thriller VILLAIN (Saban Films), starring Craig Fairbrass as ex-con Eddie Franks, who is trying to start a new life after leaving prison. He soon finds that impossible when he learns his brother owes a large amount of money to a dangerous drug lord, so Eddie has to return to that life of crime in order to help him.

FilmLinc’s Virtual series continues this week with a combination of new and repertory films, including Bruno Dumont’s Joan of Arc/Jeanne (KimStim), a sequel to Dumont’s 2017 musical, Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc. This one, which premiered as a selection in this year’s cut-short “Rendezvous with French Cinema,” stars ten-year-old Leplat Prudhomme, and it will get a one-week exclusive rental with 50% of its $10 rental to go to FilmLinc. Also this week, the venue’s Virtual series will include Raúl Ruiz’s 2010 film Mysteries of Lisbon, an HD premiere that includes new footage.

As mentioned last month, the docuseries, Time Warp: The Greatest Cult Films of All Time (Quiver Distribution), will continue this week with Volume 2: Horror and Sci-Fi, which is available right now on digital, On Demand, and while I haven’t watched this episode yet, if it’s even remotely as good as Vol. 1, this will be a must-see.

STREAMING AND CABLE

Paramount has another planned release going to streaming, and in this case, it’s Michael Showalter’s THE LOVEBIRDS, reuniting him with The Big Sick co-writer/star Kumail Nanjiani and pairing him with Issa Rae from HBO’s Insecure.  Despite the title, the googly-eyed love between Nanjiani’s Jibran and Rae’s Leilani only lasts a few minutes before the film cuts forward after they’d been together for a few years, and things aren’t as copacetic. They are close to breaking up, but on a trip to their last party together, the couple’s car is hijacked by someone who claims to be a cop and is chasing a guy on a bicycle. When the carjacker kills said cyclist, Jibran and Leilani realize that they may not have been helping the good guy. They’re soon sent on a trip through an underground world of crime and conspiracy to clear their names since they feel as if they’re the primary suspects in the murder.

I actually was looking forward to The Lovebirds after seeing its first trailer at CinemaCon last year. I generally like Nanjiani and really wanted him to bounce back from last year’s Stuber, which was pretty disappointing. Teaming him Rae seems to have done the trick since they’re both funny in their own right, but then they have former “The State” and “Stella” member Showalter at the helm, and he’s proven with his growing filmography as a director that he’s good at mixing laughs and even going fully R-rated when necessary.  While the trip the duo takes isn’t particularly enlightening or different from other “buddy action comedies” (other than bringing together their own comic sensibilities), it all leads up to quite an amusing Eyes Wide Shut parody before its semi-obvious climax and endings.

Sure, some of the funniest bits of The Lovebirds were in the trailer, and some moments are downright corny, because you generally can figure out where it’s going. I did prefer this more comedic take on the premise that was slightly similar to last year’s Queen and Slim, and the combination of Showalter, Nanjiani and Rae allows the movie to go to newer comedic territory than we’ve seen from any of them.

In other words, this is still far better than Stuber and a lot of the Adam Sandler comedies produced by Netflix, so the streaming network kind of lucked out by having the opportunity to stream this semi-decent comedy, which more people are likely to see on the streaming service than they would have in theaters.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have bothered to read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or drop me a note or tweet on Twitter. I love hearing from readers … honest!

[letsdealwithdepression]

Depression Isn't Necessarily Evil

Depression isn't necessarily a bad thing. Its a form of art if you haven't already noticed. It lets you feel sadness which most people can't. Sad, horror book writers are excellent examples.

Let's take an example of J.K. Rowling. She wanted her pain to magically disappear and then she wrote about her depression in her whole five series of magical fiction books. That's pretty good imaginative power you can gain from depression. If you're like me, you'd think about floating in the stars, connecting planets with bridges, I mean these are stupid but depression helps you think about these stuffs. And common they're imaginations, how bad can they be?

And some people might as well complain like wow you are crazy. Why'd you think about joining planets with bridges? That's just plain stupid. And then I say, hey I could write whole fiction book about it because its my imagination. You don't even know anything about imagination. You're just so self satisfied that you just want sex in your life but I'm pretty good with dealing my depression in an imaginative way.

We have many examples containing rages of crippling depression like let's say Adolf Hitler was kind of depressed, Shakespeare was depressed, Albert Einstein was depressed and there are many examples of depressions and they have turned out to be our all time celebrities. Maybe some are in good ways and some are in bad ways but they've shaped our minds cause they're taught to everyone in middle schools. So even if you don't like Hitler, he has carved an art of what depression can do to you and it has pretty much shaped history of the world. His life is an art I must say, painted with blood of innocent Jews. Its cruel but he was an artist. If you're an artist your goal is to influence people. It doesn't matter if your way is positive or negative. I'm not encouraging you to be like Hitler and be mad cruel but if you can influence someone in any ways possible then that's art.

Let's not forget to address artists consumed by depression. Let's say painter, hmm A LOT of musicians, etc. I mean obviously there are some musical genres which make fun of depression. For eg, if you listen to mainstream hiphops and pop songs released these days, then you're likely to notice that their quality of lyrics is just based on bragging about how much they earn and how many times do they have sex in a day. But even in those genres, if you go through some highly remarkable personalities like Eminem, TuPac Shakur, etc., they're pretty good in expressing themselves on what they've felt, what they've experienced and all.

If you are "oldies are goldies" kind of person like me, then you must have probably listened to EVERY Pink Floyd albums ever. Like Pink Floyd is my life. Now if you talk about late 90s rock music, I'm a huge fan of Guns N' Roses. But then I listened to Queen, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, etc. I actually felt like I was losing a part of me on their songs. Like as if they're consuming me.

Mainstream pop artists Iike Adele, Sia, Lana Del Rey, Lorde, Melanie Martinez, etc. explain what they feel in their lyrics and I love them so much. There are some people who are big fan of metal genre and if they complain about pop or hiphop genre then they're missing A LOT of things that could actually help them from overcoming depression. Try everything you think that could actually help you to get rid of depression. But if someone is shaky, salty and weird like Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes and all, then that's weird. I'm not saying that they don't have talents. I still love Shawn Mendes and he has got talents, I still listen to Justin Bieber to kind of respond to my peers and I still listen to "Thinking out loud" by Ed Sheeran. But I don't listen to them hoping that they might actually work like antidepressants. Just look at the songs "What do you mean?", "Shape of you", " Holding Me Back", I mean obviously they're kind of entertaining and I'd not mind going to their concerts but they're not antidepressants for me! I'm not hating them and I still listen to them but if you really need to compare them with my musical taste then I'd say "NO"! And for your information, I've a whole Twitter fan account dedicated to Shawn Mendes! :)

Suicide on the other hand is pretty helpless. I couldn't hold my suicidal thoughts and I want to be pretty open about it cause I've nothing to hide and I won't hide. If I try to hide myself like all the freaking time, then I won't move on, like NOT AT ALL. So if you are feeling suicidal, don't isolate yourself. I know that you'll feel worthless and weird and nobody cares sort of thing. But remember you're doing that to yourself because you aren't taking care of yourself. First of all, you need to feel yourself. If you don't feel yourself then you're just going to expect from people you want attentions from and that is not healthy, like NOT AT ALL. First of all, maybe you can touch your body, maybe you can look in the mirror and instead of saying "I'm ugly", which I used to do, you can just kind of at least be like "hi there me on the other side of nowhere, you're pretty and I love you." Best thing to do is don't look at mirrors.

Let's address recent suicide of lead singer of Linkin Park. Linkin Park was a sort of antidepressant for me when I was in my middle school and when I was bullied as hell. Like nobody would kind of even talk to me and nobody would shake their hands with me in a very comfortable way. I thought maybe I was the worst thing that could happen to anyone I'm meeting in my life. I was so self destructive and linkin park's "Numb" video got me in a whole lot of ways. There is a scene at about 01:36 on that video where a girl tries to join her friends and her friends kind of walk away. That was literally my condition. It was just so perfectly illustrated and visualized and it was my story. So I completed linkin parks every albums ever in my middle school and they were kind of antidepressants for me and music actually helps.

I think I learnt values of my life and my imaginative power which A LOT of people don't have. I'm unique in that way. I'm just 18 years old and when I talk to my peers, I feel way older cause they don't understand me AT ALL. I'm more kind of forgiving and accepting kind of guy and some friends from middle school question me if I've got rage issues and when I reply them that I don't hate anyone, they're like dude you're lying. I mean yeah, depression can lead your brain progressively to a good shape and quality which a lot of people don't have.

So take depression as your part of life and you can fill the hole created by depression via music or paintings or physics or mathematics, everything you do is an art. DEPRESSION IS A FORM OF ART!

[beamheat2-blog]

The 2019 Cubs ZiPS Projections Are Out … and, Hey, They Don’t Hate the Cubs!

In previous offseasons, I was happy to find Dan Szymborski and FanGraphs holding back the Cubs ZiPS projections as one of the last teams to be revealed, because it usually meant their roster – and, thus, the projections – were more complete/reflective of what we’re going to see on the field come March/April.

Obviously, the free agent and trade markets used to be more complete by now anyway, but this ZiPS process gets going in January and there’s usually still more to be done at that point – even under the old, normal circumstances. But this winter, well, let’s just say I was ready for the projections a whole lot earlier, as not much was gonna change with the Cubs.

Indeed, the Chicago Cubs roster picture has basically long been finalized, so I’ve had a lot less patience waiting for the ZiPS projections (my personal favorite). Fortunately, I have to wait no longer. They’re here. Check them out.

First, with a high-level snapshot:

With broad strokes, Szymborski is effective at explaining the Cubs’ 2019 outlook, vis à vis his projections: “The outfield remains the primary weakness of the team, at least in ZiPS’ digital eyes … the group is serviceable, but unimpressive.” Szymborski continues: “If only an outfielder was available in the free agent market, one who could bring a significant boost to a contending team!”

But the real money quote comes shortly thereafter: “The Cubs can win the division without spending more, but they can’t put any prognosticating daylight between themselves and the Cardinals or Brewers without doing so.”

Doesn’t that just about nail how we’re feeling? The Cubs could stand to add in the outfield – and there’s an obvious and immediate upgrade available – but it doesn’t look like they’re going to do do that. And if they don’t, they may just be fine, but there’s no way you can have the sort of pre-season confidence to which we grew accustomed from 2016-2018.

Szymborski offers similar 10,000-foot takes on the bench, bullpen, and rotation, so be sure to head over to FanGraphs for more ZiPS-led narrative discussion. 

In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at a few cherry-picked players, starting with the offense.

Anthony Rizzo – 4.0 WAR

Anthony Rizzo is projected to lead the Cubs offense this season with a 129 OPS+ and a slash line of .277/.383/.492 and 26 home runs. The slash line is above his career averages across the board, though the home run total feels a little light. Rizzo has proven himself among the most consistent offensive forces the Cubs have ever had and I think you’d be happy to lock in this sort of production right here and now, even if his upside is probably a bit better than this (remember, he went on an absolute tear in the second-half of the season).

Kris Bryant – 4.5 WAR

Kris Bryant (123 OPS+) may trail Rizzo in offensive projections with a .270/.365/.493 slash line and 28 homers, but his 4.5 projected WAR total is the highest on the team, including the pitchers. If he really is as healthy as he reports – and is capable of deploying his OG swing – I will gladly and easily take the over on these projections from A to Z. Bryant was on pace to shatter his career marks early last season before the injury, and I suspect he’ll return to that level in 2019 (obviously, projections are conservative in nature, so I don’t fault the system for having its reservations).

Javy Baez – 3.8 WAR

Javy Baez projects to take a subtle step backwards this season, but I’m not actually all that discouraged by a .275/.318/.514 projected slash line. The 114 OPS+ is certainly beneath his potential, but he basically has only one season of high-level production at his back, so that doesn’t feel unfair. Together with Bryant and Rizzo, Javy Baez completes the Cubs obvious “All-Star” position player projections.

Everybody Else

Kyle Schwarber (112 OPS+) projects to be the Cubs next best hitter, and although that’s more or less in line with his career numbers, it actually strikes as a bit too conservative. Of course, these projections are objective and don’t take into account how we feel about Schwarber as a hitter. More unfortunately, Ian Happ  is (101 OPS+) is the only other above-average offensive contributor projected by ZiPS. Willson Contreras (98 OPS+) is next in line and then … Mark Zagunis (93 OPS+).

Yes, that means Ben Zobrist (90 OPS+), Jason Heyward (89 OPS+), Albert Almora (81 OPS+), Daniel Descalso (87 OPS+), and everyone else is expected to take some pretty significant steps backwards this year. If Contreras’s, Zobrist’s, and Descalso’s forecasts come to pass, the Cubs offense might be in some serious trouble come mid-season.

Now how about the pitchers?

Jose Quintana – 3.6 WAR

It’s become common to see Jose Quintana projected as the Cubs most valuable starter (by fWAR) over the past two years, despite the sentiment among most fans, given his age and history of success. Remember, Quintana’s 23.1 fWAR from 2013-2018 ranks 10th best in all of baseball during that stretch – ahead of Jon Lester, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Carrasco, Madison Bumgarner, Jake Arrieta, and so on. ZiPS thinks he’ll start 30 games and pitch to a team-leading 3.67 ERA. That would be good for a 120 ERA+ and, with the exception of a low projected inning total (176 IP), would constitute a wonderful year for the Cubs lefty.

Kyle Hendricks – 3.3 WAR

Kyle Hendricks is projected to finish just behind Quintana in 2019 – and his 3.3 fWAR would be a fine season – but I’ll take the over on him pretty much across the board. Given Hendricks’ style, he’s almost always under-projected, in my experience, and usually outperforms his peripherals. He’s had enough seasons of high-level success for me to be confident in him going forward.

The Rest of the Rotation

Cole Hamels (3.1 WAR) receives a wonderful projection by ZiPS, relatively speaking, as I would lock in his 115 ERA+ (tied with Hendricks) right now if I could. Obviously, you hope he topples the 167.3 IP projection, but with Mike Montgomery (109 ERA+, 1.6 WAR over 111.0 IP) as the sixth starter, that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Then again, the Cubs will need Yu Darvish (124.3 IP) to vastly exceed his projected inning total next season if they want to win the division, especially because his 118 ERA+ is the second best among the starters. And finally, Jon Lester (108 ERA+) is projected to get better-than-average results, but I think he’d be disappointed with just 2.5 fWAR and only 165.3 IP (the former would be tied for the second lowest WAR total of his career and the latter would be the fewest innings he’s ever thrown in a season).

And the bullpen …

The bullpen is a tough positional group to write about succinctly, because there aren’t eight obvious guys taking the reins, and I’m not sure the projected inning totals are going to actually happen. For example, Alec Mills (122.3 IP, 1.3 WAR) and Duncan Robinson (131.3 IP, 1.1 WAR) are projected for big year volumes as starters, but I don’t think they’ll come anywhere close to those totals in 2019 (I mean, hopefully they don’t). But among the pleasant surprises, you’ll find …

Xavier Cedeño – 0.7 WAR

Cedeño is projected for a modest WAR-total in 2019 largely because he’s projected to complete only 46.0 innings. However, his 3.33 ERA (133 ERA+) is projected to lead the entire team. Clearly, ZiPS likes him. We, too, see the potential.

Pedro Strop – 0.7 WAR

Pedro Strop is projected to toss a solid 51+ innings next season, but his 3.48 ERA is fair bit worse than we’ve come to expect out of him. Strop has been a model of consistency (if you laugh at that, read a book) for the Cubs over the years, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But at some point, his age (33) might catch up with him.

The Rest of the Bullpen

The Cubs nominal closer, Brandon Morrow, is projected to wind up with the third best ERA on the team when all is said and done (3.37), but that’s obvious much worse than what he probably should be as the team’s best reliever. ZiPS is guessing he’ll finish just 37.1 IP this season, which is actually more than he posted last year (and would be his second-highest inning total since 2013). New guys Tony Barnette (3.35 ERA, 43.0 IP) and Brad Brach (3.41 ERA, 63.3 IP) come across as more than serviceable relievers. And if they were to reach those forecasts in 2019, you’d feel pretty good about the Cubs pen.

They’ll still need one of Pedro Strop/Carl Edwards Jr./Brandon Morrow to be dominant if they want to last deep into the postseason, but there’s definitely a large group of arms you could imagine succeeding.

Source: https://www.bleachernation.com/2019/02/20/the-2019-cubs-zips-projections-are-out-and-hey-they-dont-hate-the-cubs/

[talkcarol17-blog]

The 2019 Cubs ZiPS Projections Are Out … and, Hey, They Don’t Hate the Cubs!

In previous offseasons, I was happy to find Dan Szymborski and FanGraphs holding back the Cubs ZiPS projections as one of the last teams to be revealed, because it usually meant their roster – and, thus, the projections – were more complete/reflective of what we’re going to see on the field come March/April.

Obviously, the free agent and trade markets used to be more complete by now anyway, but this ZiPS process gets going in January and there’s usually still more to be done at that point – even under the old, normal circumstances. But this winter, well, let’s just say I was ready for the projections a whole lot earlier, as not much was gonna change with the Cubs.

Indeed, the Chicago Cubs roster picture has basically long been finalized, so I’ve had a lot less patience waiting for the ZiPS projections (my personal favorite). Fortunately, I have to wait no longer. They’re here. Check them out.

First, with a high-level snapshot:

With broad strokes, Szymborski is effective at explaining the Cubs’ 2019 outlook, vis à vis his projections: “The outfield remains the primary weakness of the team, at least in ZiPS’ digital eyes … the group is serviceable, but unimpressive.” Szymborski continues: “If only an outfielder was available in the free agent market, one who could bring a significant boost to a contending team!”

But the real money quote comes shortly thereafter: “The Cubs can win the division without spending more, but they can’t put any prognosticating daylight between themselves and the Cardinals or Brewers without doing so.”

Doesn’t that just about nail how we’re feeling? The Cubs could stand to add in the outfield – and there’s an obvious and immediate upgrade available – but it doesn’t look like they’re going to do do that. And if they don’t, they may just be fine, but there’s no way you can have the sort of pre-season confidence to which we grew accustomed from 2016-2018.

Szymborski offers similar 10,000-foot takes on the bench, bullpen, and rotation, so be sure to head over to FanGraphs for more ZiPS-led narrative discussion. 

In the meantime, let’s take a closer look at a few cherry-picked players, starting with the offense.

Anthony Rizzo – 4.0 WAR

Anthony Rizzo is projected to lead the Cubs offense this season with a 129 OPS+ and a slash line of .277/.383/.492 and 26 home runs. The slash line is above his career averages across the board, though the home run total feels a little light. Rizzo has proven himself among the most consistent offensive forces the Cubs have ever had and I think you’d be happy to lock in this sort of production right here and now, even if his upside is probably a bit better than this (remember, he went on an absolute tear in the second-half of the season).

Kris Bryant – 4.5 WAR

Kris Bryant (123 OPS+) may trail Rizzo in offensive projections with a .270/.365/.493 slash line and 28 homers, but his 4.5 projected WAR total is the highest on the team, including the pitchers. If he really is as healthy as he reports – and is capable of deploying his OG swing – I will gladly and easily take the over on these projections from A to Z. Bryant was on pace to shatter his career marks early last season before the injury, and I suspect he’ll return to that level in 2019 (obviously, projections are conservative in nature, so I don’t fault the system for having its reservations).

Javy Baez – 3.8 WAR

Javy Baez projects to take a subtle step backwards this season, but I’m not actually all that discouraged by a .275/.318/.514 projected slash line. The 114 OPS+ is certainly beneath his potential, but he basically has only one season of high-level production at his back, so that doesn’t feel unfair. Together with Bryant and Rizzo, Javy Baez completes the Cubs obvious “All-Star” position player projections.

Everybody Else

Kyle Schwarber (112 OPS+) projects to be the Cubs next best hitter, and although that’s more or less in line with his career numbers, it actually strikes as a bit too conservative. Of course, these projections are objective and don’t take into account how we feel about Schwarber as a hitter. More unfortunately, Ian Happ  is (101 OPS+) is the only other above-average offensive contributor projected by ZiPS. Willson Contreras (98 OPS+) is next in line and then … Mark Zagunis (93 OPS+).

Yes, that means Ben Zobrist (90 OPS+), Jason Heyward (89 OPS+), Albert Almora (81 OPS+), Daniel Descalso (87 OPS+), and everyone else is expected to take some pretty significant steps backwards this year. If Contreras’s, Zobrist’s, and Descalso’s forecasts come to pass, the Cubs offense might be in some serious trouble come mid-season.

Now how about the pitchers?

Jose Quintana – 3.6 WAR

It’s become common to see Jose Quintana projected as the Cubs most valuable starter (by fWAR) over the past two years, despite the sentiment among most fans, given his age and history of success. Remember, Quintana’s 23.1 fWAR from 2013-2018 ranks 10th best in all of baseball during that stretch – ahead of Jon Lester, Gerrit Cole, Carlos Carrasco, Madison Bumgarner, Jake Arrieta, and so on. ZiPS thinks he’ll start 30 games and pitch to a team-leading 3.67 ERA. That would be good for a 120 ERA+ and, with the exception of a low projected inning total (176 IP), would constitute a wonderful year for the Cubs lefty.

Kyle Hendricks – 3.3 WAR

Kyle Hendricks is projected to finish just behind Quintana in 2019 – and his 3.3 fWAR would be a fine season – but I’ll take the over on him pretty much across the board. Given Hendricks’ style, he’s almost always under-projected, in my experience, and usually outperforms his peripherals. He’s had enough seasons of high-level success for me to be confident in him going forward.

The Rest of the Rotation

Cole Hamels (3.1 WAR) receives a wonderful projection by ZiPS, relatively speaking, as I would lock in his 115 ERA+ (tied with Hendricks) right now if I could. Obviously, you hope he topples the 167.3 IP projection, but with Mike Montgomery (109 ERA+, 1.6 WAR over 111.0 IP) as the sixth starter, that wouldn’t be the end of the world. Then again, the Cubs will need Yu Darvish (124.3 IP) to vastly exceed his projected inning total next season if they want to win the division, especially because his 118 ERA+ is the second best among the starters. And finally, Jon Lester (108 ERA+) is projected to get better-than-average results, but I think he’d be disappointed with just 2.5 fWAR and only 165.3 IP (the former would be tied for the second lowest WAR total of his career and the latter would be the fewest innings he’s ever thrown in a season).

And the bullpen …

The bullpen is a tough positional group to write about succinctly, because there aren’t eight obvious guys taking the reins, and I’m not sure the projected inning totals are going to actually happen. For example, Alec Mills (122.3 IP, 1.3 WAR) and Duncan Robinson (131.3 IP, 1.1 WAR) are projected for big year volumes as starters, but I don’t think they’ll come anywhere close to those totals in 2019 (I mean, hopefully they don’t). But among the pleasant surprises, you’ll find …

Xavier Cedeño – 0.7 WAR

Cedeño is projected for a modest WAR-total in 2019 largely because he’s projected to complete only 46.0 innings. However, his 3.33 ERA (133 ERA+) is projected to lead the entire team. Clearly, ZiPS likes him. We, too, see the potential.

Pedro Strop – 0.7 WAR

Pedro Strop is projected to toss a solid 51+ innings next season, but his 3.48 ERA is fair bit worse than we’ve come to expect out of him. Strop has been a model of consistency (if you laugh at that, read a book) for the Cubs over the years, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But at some point, his age (33) might catch up with him.

The Rest of the Bullpen

The Cubs nominal closer, Brandon Morrow, is projected to wind up with the third best ERA on the team when all is said and done (3.37), but that’s obvious much worse than what he probably should be as the team’s best reliever. ZiPS is guessing he’ll finish just 37.1 IP this season, which is actually more than he posted last year (and would be his second-highest inning total since 2013). New guys Tony Barnette (3.35 ERA, 43.0 IP) and Brad Brach (3.41 ERA, 63.3 IP) come across as more than serviceable relievers. And if they were to reach those forecasts in 2019, you’d feel pretty good about the Cubs pen.

They’ll still need one of Pedro Strop/Carl Edwards Jr./Brandon Morrow to be dominant if they want to last deep into the postseason, but there’s definitely a large group of arms you could imagine succeeding.

Source: https://www.bleachernation.com/2019/02/20/the-2019-cubs-zips-projections-are-out-and-hey-they-dont-hate-the-cubs/

[kamamo1]

Flash Season Three

I don't even like the original graphic, but even I have to say they did Flashpoint wrong..

Ok the first mistake was trying to cram it all in one episode.

The second was the world was not at all interesting or changed. The emotional beat of Barry getting his family back was not there, his parents are barely a presence.

The Rival was not that much of a threat, and Wally getting hurt and not healing was too contrived.

The whole who's the villain was contrived too because a world where Barry had his parents and was still the Flash was the original one, why should he be punished for setting the timeline back

Asking Eobard for help has no weight because this episode and premise was too rushed.

Why didnt Barry just stop himself like in the original series? Why get Eobard involved?

The Rival is still not a big threat

I thought I'd be more charmed by Julian because the fandom seemed to like him, but uh no. Which is a shame because I like Albert Desmond from the comics and his friendship with Barry, and he was a Silver Age character and they are not know for their sparkling personality.

Alchemy is not much of a presence, and I already know the reveal so..

I was going through the first episodes back to back to get to the Mirror Master and Top episode, because I needed some good Rogues content, and there was only one cool shot of Sam coming out of the mirror, and that's it. Wow, maybe fans wouldn't get annoyed with this show for using Wally's villains if they actually utilized Barry's actual Rogues Gallery, but ok.

Don't see why everyone is against Wally having powers

Barry should be the one supporting Wally and teaching him but whatever

Actually me when I was about to watch the Shade episode: "You know I only read Shade in old comics , I need to read his revamped version, he's seems like an interesting villain... oh that's it?"

So that was Killer Frost? It feels like she went from scared but herself to 'ultimate ice queen' in zero seconds. Why make Killer Frost a Flashpoint thing, we knew who she would become since the first season, she's Killer Frost!!, if you didn't want to committe to it bring back the old versions of Killer Frost like Crystal or Lincoln

Hate this show for everyone telling Barry what to do in his ear all the time. He's the Flash!! He doesn't need someone to tell him to phase through something if projectiles are following him!!

Feel like they really rushed Iris and Barry's romance because now they're engaged and I'm like, where's the chemistry?

Was excited for Gorilla City, until I watched it.

Solovar and Barry's friendship was something that I unironically love from old comics, and here Solovar is a dick so fuck me I guess.

The fight scene was cool, but again, why does people tell Barry what to do in his ear all the time?

Saw Grodd scheme a mile away, who didnt?

Why is killing a big issue for Barry now? Did they forget he killed Blackout and Atom Smasher?

Jesse and Wells did a 180 from last season from where Jesse wanted to go back home, and Wells wanting to stay on Earth 1 and there was no buildup to this at all. Just needless drama

The formula for this show/episodes should spawn a lot of parodies, but for now it's annoying, and also distracting after you catch on to it

Holding out for the Abra episode because Rogues Gallery, and I obviously have not learned my lesson

Barry catching Abra by phasing through the ship, A+ Everything else? Meh.

Barry literally just stares as Wally gets sucked into the speed force, no emotion or attempt to help as Wally calls for him. What the hell

Jay's sacrifice would be more meaningful if we had more time with him before this but ok

Savitar.. is..there.. I dont really care

Apparently the Philosopher Stone is 'calcified speed force' because of course it fucking is

The Future Barry is oh my god, who thought that hair was a good idea, dear god I can't even look at it.

I knew about the reveal with Savitar and then Iris, so I dont really care.

My thing is Savitar in the comics was too 90s anyway so I dont care about what they did with him, and was surprised that fans did ( but I think it had to do with representation? so I guess I get where they're coming from) But if you wanted to adapt Future Blue Barry, you should had made him more sympathetic and did a swap between the two Barry's.

I thought this season would be more dark and depressing, but I guess I'm too apathetic and just trying to finish the series to actually care.

So.. that finale happened...

[igeneralbouquetbasementblr-blog]

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[junker-town]

16 amazing things about the day Tennessee almost hired Greg Schiano, but didn’t, after incredible backlash

There’s a lot to digest here.

On Sunday, people took to the internet, the streets of Knoxville, and the phone lines to prevent Tennessee from making Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano its next football coach.

Word came out in the early afternoon that the Vols were closing in on Schiano, and the sudden backlash was massive, even by college football standards. Players, politicians, and fans all raged against Schiano’s hiring.

Many of them cited an allegation that former Penn State assistant Schiano had been aware of sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky. Other arguments by Vols fans included Schiano’s failed Bucs tenure, his one-game-above-.500 record as Rutgers’ 11-year head coach, the fact that his best year in the Big East was more than a decade ago, reports about many of his NFL players and even Peyton Manning hating him, his defense giving up 55 points to Iowa this season, and his perceived similarity to recently fired coach Butch Jones.

By nighttime, it was clear that Tennessee wouldn’t follow through with the hire. UT athletic director John Currie looked out of touch, careless, and incompetent.

That was an unusual day. Here were a few things about it that stand out.

1. It worked.

Tennessee fans, boosters, politicians, and alumni refused to accept the hire, and they found a way to take charge of the program.

2. Tennessee’s first-year AD, whose job is to hire coaches, might have gotten himself sidelined from hiring a coach.

Just asked a source familiar with the Tennessee search who might be offered next. “Gotta see if Currie is still involved.” https://t.co/TUuJhweRq2….

— FootballScoop Staff (@FootballScoop) November 27, 2017

3. A Facebook account pretending to belong to the White House press secretary weighed in and got widely cited in sports media.

Also, the fake page has since been deleted or something. It’d been posting daily for months with tens of thousands of followers. A Tennessee coaching search is what got it removed from public.

At least, I think it’s fake, but in this particular moment in both the United States and the Tennessee football program, I can’t say with certainty. The thing about the Vols is that I don’t think anyone has a firm grasp on where fantasy ends and reality begins.

4. This fake Twitter account seemed believable for a second, because this is the kind of staggering incompetence Tennessee could pull off.

Sources close to #Vols AD John Currie tell me he wasn’t aware Greg Schiano coached at Penn State - nor was he aware of the sworn testimony identifying him as having witnessed the abuse of minors - Currie only vetted Schiano’s time from his days at Rutgers thru present day

— Jimmy Hyams (@JiminyHyams) November 26, 2017

Again, that’s not real.

5. Same with this almost certainly incorrect tweet:

There are reports that TN will owe Schiano $20 million in a buyout for a contract that was signed but TN backed out of it. But only speculation on this. Fox Sports Knoxville mentioned this.

— Brad Jones (@BradJonesBBBTV) November 27, 2017

6. All of these local politicians spoke up.

I have reached out to @John_Currie and others in administration at UT expressing that WE as a TN Community do not approve of Schiano. #higherstandards

— Rep. Jason Zachary (@JasonZacharyTN) November 26, 2017

@UTKnoxville if you hire him, the backlash will be insurmountable and devastating to the University and the state.

— Jeremy Faison (@JeremyFaison4TN) November 26, 2017

Our Tennessee standards mean something, and a Greg Schiano hire would be anathema to all that our University and our community stand for. I sincerely hope that these rumors are not true, because even serious consideration would be unacceptable.

— Eddie Smith (@RepEddieSmith) November 26, 2017

@John_Currie YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!! So you plan to hire you're close friend... someone who knew about the Penn State abuse? This says volumes about your judgement & lack of respect for Tennessee. St. Rep Dan Howell http://pic.twitter.com/69TOlTTYQa

— Dan (@DanHowell10) November 26, 2017

We expect the highest standards for our public institutions. The special few chosen to lead within those institutions should have a demonstrated history of integrity and character. I hope today’s rumors are not true, because protecting children is more important than anything.

— Bill Lee (@BillLeeTN) November 26, 2017

7. This politician is the pro wrestler Kane.

Too many well-founded concerns about Schiano from our community. Hiring would be very unpopular and hurt UT.... https://t.co/MryvM8Qrfc

— Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) November 26, 2017

This guy:

WWE

8. One prominent Vol announced he’d choose a new college.

I’m just going to say this if we hire Greg Schiano as our next head coach my options will be open to which college program I will Be donating my TIME and MONEY to. (No disrespect to GS) but if UT leaders don’t take football serious then I will find the program that will!!!

— Albert Haynesworth (@haynesworthiii) November 26, 2017

9. A local coffee shop joined in.

Greg Schiano is not allowed in our establishment.

— Remedy Coffee (@remedy_coffee) November 26, 2017

10. There was in-person protesting.

https://t.co/OpziFKo6Wn

— Jon Reed (@Jon__Reed) November 26, 2017

One leader of the picketing in Knoxville said, “We’re reclaiming our program tonight.” That person was right.

11. Lane Kiffin, who once literally abandoned the Vols in the middle of the night, suddenly seems like a great idea.

Protests on Tennessee's campus on hiring of Ohio State defensive coordinator Greg Schiano - Now.. per @Mark_Schlabach - it's not happening - #bringbackkiffin http://pic.twitter.com/FK2P0c5DKW

— Zach Klein (@ZachKleinWSB) November 27, 2017

12. This is what was written on The Rock, a Tennessee icon.

The Rock on UT's campus. http://pic.twitter.com/aG3BXrkKOW

— Louis Fernandez Jr (@LouisWBIR) November 26, 2017

The basis for this allegation was a reference to an alleged secondhand discussion. Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel, who’s covered the case, explains the origin:

From the deposition [of former Penn State assistant Mike McQueary]:

Q: “Did [former Penn State assistant Tom Bradley] tell you that he had had information concerning Gerald Sandusky and children?”

A: “He said he knew of some things. … He said another assistant coach had come to him in the early ’90s about a very similar situation to mine, and he said that he had — someone had come to him as far back as early as the ’80s about seeing Jerry Sandusky doing something with a boy.”

Q: “Did he identify who the other coaches were that had given him this information?”

A: “The one in the early ’90s, yes.”

Q: “And who was that?”

A: “Greg Schiano …”

Q: “And did he give you any details about what Coach Schiano had reported to him?”

A: “No, only that he had – I can’t remember if it was one night or one morning, but that Greg had come into his office white as a ghost and said he just saw Jerry doing something to a boy in the shower. And that’s it. That’s all he ever told me.”

Bradley and Schiano denied it when it came out.

In response to media reports from earlier today: I never saw any abuse, nor had reason to suspect any abuse, during my time at Penn State.

— Greg Schiano (@OSUCoachSchiano) July 12, 2016

13. Tennessee got itself blasted for trying to hire a former Buccaneers head coach.

This after a search that had included the following Jon Gruden-related things:

A continuation of a decade of Knoxville infatuation with the former Super Bowl winner.

Thousands of UT fans tuning into a live stream of an airport parking lot in the hopes that it’d reveal Gruden getting off a plane and heading to an introductory press conference at Neyland Stadium.

A local ribs joint confirming false reports that Gruden was dining in Knoxville one night, then walking back that confirmation in an apologetic tweet.

A fan following Currie around the stadium hollering Gruden’s name for the better part of a minute, as the AD masterfully pretends not to hear him.

14. Currie seemingly thought a hire of Schiano would go over fine.

This might be the most amazing part.

15. Now the Vols still have to hire a coach.

Some actual good ideas are here.

16. And while this was all happening, SEC East rival Florida was hiring a great head coach who happened to be the one Currie actually wanted.

Other than that, Tennessee had a smooth and positive day.