#anyway.....crackers are the mvp of life

[dailybaizhu]

eating crackers,,, he deserves a lil graham cracker,,, me thinks

40: crackers!

[measuringbliss]

Spider-Man Read-Through 017: Let's get smashed (ASM 116-118)

MASTERPOST

So John Romita Sr. just died. A great artist. I don't need to tell you, by this point.

1973 is here! Now, as I said, I'm very familiar with the few upcoming years. But will I look at them differently? Hmm!!!

The issue recaps what happened last time, and it feels surreal to now see exactly what happened. It's pretty much how I imagined it, except slightly more complicated.

Richard Raleigh is back! Or rather, here. What's up with that?

Well, turns out issues 116-118 re-publish Spectacular Spider-Man Magazine #1 (that special in black and white!) but edit it to fit continuity. In the original print (of ish 116), Stan Lee explains that SSM#1 was published around an election year, and they felt like the new election year was apropos for a lil' lifting, handled script-wise by my baby Gerry Conway, and visuals-vise by John Romita Sr. naturally.

So let's read them!

Ah, Romita. Your art never disappointed.

Maybe it's my contemporary look, but this single panel on the right raises so many alarm bells it's hilarious. I've head that kind of words coming from my politicians. *sigh*

The GwenPeter drama continues, and with the recent realization that Romita worked on romances, it all makes a lot of sense.

Man, I'm sure I commented on that back when---

Yup.

It's very nice to see how much Romita's art improved (more perspectives! And the colors help him a lot too.

You know, as we get on to issue 117, I feel like Conway's writing is easier to understand for me, as-in, not difficult at all, whereas Stan's writing was often annoying to parse due to some expressions. You really see the difference. Of course, Stan wrote the original issue, but Conway pretty clearly rewrote pretty much everything.

We've got a new masked baddie, and he reminds me of when the Kingpin's son was the antagonist for a bit. I hope we get to see him and his mother again!

Back to the gentleman's club (with no George Stacy in sight, since he died), Norman is still interesting and Robbie continues to be the MVP.

Yeah, Pete, things haven't really changed.

...I'm saying that, but actually, it's the opposite in my country now. Presidential candidates are about appealing to the voting majority... that is, old people. That is, people who don't work anymore but support the government's effort to raise the age of pension YES THIS WAS A POLITICAL POST FROM THE START MUAHAHAHA no but seriously. OLD PEOPLE WHO AREN'T GONNA BE AFFECTED BY IT ARE THE ONES MOST SUPPORTING IT. what a bunch of assholes.

anyway.

The multiple references to Peter's ulcer make more sense now too! Forgot about that. Poor baby. (Honey you're about to live through the worst two years of your life, and I will be seated. With popcorn. Actually, I have a coke and crackers. Yes, it's not even noon yet. Who cares. I'm a freelancer. My schedule is random.

Robertson's digging into Raleigh makes him a prime target (as usual), so the Disruptor's about to attack him with the Smasher. But wait... Huh?

In the reader's letters, people are praising Gerry Conway and overall issue 113. Which. Yes. He gets the soap opera. He gets it!!!

In issue 118, Robertson tries his best against the Disruptor, and to be fair, his best is a whole lot. Of course, he isn't fit to fight him, but still!

As the final battle, rages on, those messages down there interspede, and it's a genius move. It wasn't present in the original and I've got to say, it's excellent. It gives pacing, foreboding, and foreshadows what's about to happen...

The Disruptor says "he won't run off with his tail between his legs like a jackal" and oh boy, did they know about the upcoming villain of the same name? It's a line present in the original, but I can't help but wonder...

Of course, the Disruptor was actually Raleigh all along (it couldn't be anybody else), which makes his behavior kind of wonky, but oh well.

This set of issues is fine, I love me some intrigue, and we get to see the supporting cast, but it lacked something. As to know what, exactly, I'm not sure.

In the letters, Bill Creighton complains that the supporting cast hasn't had much appearances recently (before the previous batch of issues) and Stan reassures him that Conway, as was already seen, is attached to showing more of them. He also teases a bigger part for Harry soon... and laughs maniacally. Muahaha.

[eatsbop]

After running five laps around the house I've decided to write this. Cause you're right @kaasjee we gotta extend some empathy towards those nerds. Like.. I'm very.. empathy. Em.. empathetic, empathic. Ya. Whichever of those two are correct.

I chose to write on glasses nerd's pov cause he uses big words like percentile. I'm not even sure I can pronounce that word. Percentile haha. Tf.

The day started as per usual.

I woke up at 4 am on the dot (not a second later) feeling totally refreshed. I, after all, got a solid 20 minutes of sleep after some extra revisions I did the previous night.

I meditated for five minutes, chanting affirmations to claim victory once again.. it goes "ballin ballin highballin babey". Afterwards I went through my usual routine to get ready for another, I'm sure, amazing school day. By time I was done it was already 5 am. Skincare takes a bit of work as I have to apply precisely 15 layers of sunscreen. Got to have all my bases covered.

After grabbing my schoolbag and phone, I left my room with a vigorous bounce in my steps. That's totally not a tic from lack of sleep, I already told you I slept a solid 20 mins.

Going in the kitchen, I procured one (1) crispy soda cracker. I had forgotten the face of my dad in my moment of weakness and ate ramyeon last night.. because I kind of got stuck on a problem and needed some energy booster! So ya! I'm already pretty full! After finishing my filling breakfast, I drank two glasses of water. Like a wiseman once said, "The light of the world will illuminate within you if you purify yourself." Yeah boi. I can already feel the headache that comes with having such big brain energy™ first thing in the morning.

Before leaving the house, I checked myself once more by the mirror at the entryway. Gotta make sure there's no unsightly wrinkles or ties askew. While clothes don't maketh the man, teachers give points for conduct.

I arrived at school one hour early for class. I always make sure to arrive an hour early to show the teachers who the real MVP is around here.

The day passed like a blur. Like. Ya.

I'm deskmates with the top student, Ji Yeonwoo. He's like.. a mega brainiac. Like I said, he's the top student. He's also athletic, charming, polite, handsome, popular.. all the good stats. When you're around him, you sometimes forget who you are. Like you're just a side character. Or an extra.

It's not because we're deskmates that we became friends. It's totally because you tend to attract the people with the same energy that you do!

Yeonwoo, straight A's? Me, straight A's. Yeonwoo, glasses? Me, glasses. And so on. Totally same. Almost identical.

Anyway we planned to head to a cafe after school to compare notes of today's lessons. But then.. something unusual happened before we could step out of school.

A guy intercepted us.

At first we thought he was Yeonwoo's friend. As I've said earlier, you attract the energy that is similar to the energy you give. We, of course, are excited! There isn't that many of us! But here he is, Yeonwoo's friend. Another tall, cool, good-looking guy with perfect stats. One of our people.

Then the next thing I knew, all the air in my lungs are gone and the world is turning black.

What happened?..

Is it something that we've said?

What did we even say.

My life flashed before my eyes.

What did we even say?

"Oh. Are you fighting to see who has the best scores?! Then we want in!"

Oh.

[jan-uinely]

hot takes [pt. ii]

good[e] morning campers! we have more thoughts on \_ |_ | _/  RuPaul’s Drag Race episode 9... because i have nothing better to think about... lol. This is a novel, btw. 

SO... I have said it before and i will say it again... the in memorium segment gave me life. Robot Barbie Cheerleader. also RIP to jan’s clear drink in untucked. 

Let’s get into the gig, because why not. Unsure if readers are aware, but I am very politically minded. [do I use tumblr as a way to put politics aside for a little while? sure. but I have also worked on campaigns, did not take Elizabeth warren dropping out of the presidential race well... I mean she dropped at the beginning of march and now look at where we are.... anyWAYs.]

I did not like this episode. I did not like the challenge. From what I understand, the only other time this challenge was done was in season 4, but I stopped watching season 4 when sharon wore a conf*derate flag bodysuit for a mini challenge, prior to which she wore a mccain/palin shirt. I still don’t know if it was a joke, but #yeet. 

So this episode took the place of a “roast”/ stand up episode. Those are usually fine. They separate folks a little bit more. But, as someone who followed the recent primary with a VERY close eye, but was could also be humorous about it... Debates are hard to do. What makes a debate work is that everyone is well versed on everyone else’s platform, and knows how to attack them, because they have been the same person the whole time. For some reason, everyone “invented” a different character to play.... no one had a real platform... and it’s really hard to ~volley~ when people don’t really understand everyone’s characters. I also think, similar to the democratic primary- that there were too many people on stage. I also think snatch game happened too early... but that’s another story never mind anyway [did you catch that into the woods/bernadette peters joke???? @ JAN ]. 

So everyone has these “characters” which for the most part are not super consistent with who they’ve been portraying on the show... which makes it challenging. Then, it was moderated very poorly, and then edited together very poorly. There was no flow... it was very choppy. Again... not a fan. 

Season 8 also had a political challenge, but if i remember correctly, that was just a branding challenge kind of. It was better than this. Now, do I appreciate the fact that Drag Race is taking this election very seriously?? YES. But this challenge was just Not It. 

I thought Jaida was very consistent, I liked Jackie’s a lot [It seems like a running gag that she is too prepared in the same way that Jan was too energetic... which has its own election flashbacks....] I am really enjoying crystal... I thought she also had what was close to a fully formed character.. it just needed to bake a little more. 

So... next up... ms. goode. #cringe. tbh I don’t care about the performance. Were they just trying to redo snatch game? basically. were they the only person to try and do that? No. 

This mirror chat was the bomb dot com tho. best part of the episode.

We’re talking about the “oh i’m not political” We knew from episode one that Gigi grew up in a lot of privilege- and wasn’t the only one [@ jan] but jesus has it shown in gigi the most... I mean bob the drag queen said it best.. Gigi goode’s mom vs Jaida Essence Hall. 

But the nerve to openly say “i’m not political, and I don’t like it” when you KNOW at this point in time what the contestants have gone through... it’s just really insensitive. Also to be the open front runner knowing that the RPDR fans can be young and impressionable.. is really irresponsible TBH. 

Guess what? I don’t like to follow the news sometimes. I don’t watch tr*mp’s press conferences. Sometimes I log off twitter and go to tumblr. But I still stay INFORMED on the issues and am able to back up my positions. I VOTE. [cannot believe i’m saying this but i would not be surprised if gigi did not vote in 2016.]

[sidebar]

Maybe it’s bc I stan jan in a way that I have stanned no one else before [the only ru girl who even comes close to it while I was actively watching the show without prior knowledge is naomi] Maybe it’s combined with the quarantine that I have nothing else to do. And with that comes a [virtual] introduction to basically everybody who’s anybody in the NYC drag scene. [I will say the Bob-Monet-Cracker-Jan quad is just A+] So maybe I just have a better idea of what it is [have I gone down a Youtube rabbit hole on this subject? yes] 

Is new york also my personal favorite city? yes. Have I been to LA? no. Do I like the concept of LA? no. Have I been west of the mississippi river? no. So maybe it’s a combination of all of these things [including Jan saying on repeat that New York is the greatest city to do drag] but. The NYC girls are just so much more political. Brita, Bob, MOnet, tbh Jan is also on the record saying some A+ shiz. Marti Cummings is a non binary drag artist running for city council in manhattan. “Everybody black and aquaria.” 

Is NYC politics like any city, full of machines and garbage too? Sure. But NYC is just so much more powerful and political. LA is just the embodiment of privilege.

 I also think it’s interesting that some of the smaller town/city gals will move to LA [Trixie/Katya/Alaska? I’m looking @ you] after they get the drag race coin. Not that it’s a bad thing or anything, it’s just an interesting dynamic. [another aside: the non NY/LA girls deserve it all and i think it’s really powerful when the show directly addresses issues of wealth/privilege/access to drag on the show.] 

[end sidebar]

And Gigi came into the competition saying “I want to be on vogue” which is great. Their fashion sense is great. Most of their outfits are great. It’s great that they can do comedy [sometimes- like when they are not playing the role of Gigi] But something else I take issue with- and don’t get me wrong humility is great- is the whole “I’m not a dancer” that’s BS. they whole back handspring etc, madonna challenge. Maybe you weren’t a trained dancer, but ffs cut the crap. [if you haven’t look up gigi goode showgirls] 

And yet the judges continue to give Gigi [and SP] free passes. It’s like Ru is so afraid that if either of them end up in the bottom, they won’t turn it out and then there will be no frontrunner. Well guess what? In season 7, Max had 2 wins before anyone else and came in 9th. valentina going home was a total gag. Brooke and Yvie lip synced on the snatch game ep. But Apparently when the skinny white fashion queen from the big city [gigi, aquaria] does less than well, they don’t get put up for elimination??? [did aquaria deserve to lip sync for the makeover? idk.]

Gigi is getting a “winner” edit and it’s not really fair to anyone. People who should have won certain challenges were IGNORED, and instead the producers give all the credit to gigi, giving them almost a worse edit. Like we want to see humans, not robots. If we learned ANYTHING from last week is that the judges don’t like when you just “start on 100 and stay there THE WHOLE TIME”. Bc the truth is that [aside from the loads and loads and loads of privilege,] Gigi is really nice and very talented. But I, as a viewer of reality TV, live to see the perfect fail. I want everyone to shine [this is why I loved when Naomi sent manila home, oops] 

Also.. I would like to address the fact that Gigi basically used the same outfit twice... this runway and entrance look have almost the same pattern, with just a slightly different skirt type. I would like for this behavior to be called out bc it is such a memorable silhouette. 

Also- Shout out to Crystal for the most bomb ass runway... I want that whole outfit pls. 

but aside from that... TBH I just want a show with the real top 7 [ the heidi and widow have been cracking me up saying “we’re at top 5″ or “we’re at top 6″ before the ep aired on instagram and I’m loling.. and that VERY AWK moment when Jan is on the x change rate saying that they couldn’t justify putting anyone other that her and widow in the bottom bc gigi and 3 wins and trying to work around not saying SP’s name had 2. [also shout out to jan the real mvp for unfollowing SP on twitter]] doing competitions and having fun. And I’ve said this before. This is a really good season that did not need production’s handprints all over everything. But they chose to cast RuPaul’s Best Friend Race, so they shouldn’t be complaining or trying to manufacture drama.

I was cracking up when Jaida was [clearly prodded by producers] asking is there anything we need to talk about? and then Jackie goes to talk to widow right before they leave and they are just nice to each other. lol no drama here. It’s the season of the inner saboteur. 

So Jackie and widow are in the bottom and tbh I don’t know. I would have liked to see Gigi lip sync. I would have liked this challenge to not happen. but it did. The lip sync song.. I just didn’t love the cut... Katy perry’s voice is so over produced [trend alert] that the illusion of the lip sync didn’t work in the first chorus. Jackie’s plastic bag was just A+. These lip syncs, tbh starting w jan v widow have been very good. not good enough to make up for the garbage that was everything since ep. 3, but close. [and some of that was song choice, some of it was not. I will say brita killed her first one but rip to rock]

Jeff gold bloom. I just don’t know. Maybe it’s bc I never saw jurassic park. Maybe he was just a bad judge. maybe he too was being prodded by production. ugh. You can read the takes on his interactions with jackie somewhere else. 

[cyguyandjolamajama]

Prompt where Jonah and Cyrus get stuck in a closet together. Maybe have Cyrus make a joke about coming out of the closet

awesome prompt!! this’ll be fun to write~Finally. Jonah was going to give Cyrus a proper skateboarding lesson. After Cyrus broke his thumb, he begged Jonah to teach him more. He wanted to be his skateboard buddy. “Ready to start your first official day of training?” Asked Jonah, eager to start teaching the confident boy. “Sir, yes, sir!” Cyrus joked. Of course he was ready. “Okay, great,” Jonah giggled, “we just need to get the board and safety stuff out of the closet. Follow me.” The two boys walked into a small room and turned on the light. Thats when Jonah remembered, you can’t close the closet door, or you’ll get locked in. “Hey, Cyrus, could you keep the door ope-“Jonah was cut off by the sound of something slamming. “n, cause’ if you don’t, the only way to unlock the door is from the outside…”“Shoot.” Cyrus whispered. “Yeah…”“Um, what should we do? Do we call for help?”“My parents aren’t home, and our phones are in the kitchen.”“Fudge.” Murmured Cyrus. “We’re gonna be in here for the next seven hours.”“Fudge.” Cyrus repeated. Jonah spotted something in the corner of his eye. “Food!” He yelled. He saw some ritz crackers and goldfish sitting in the corner. “Shall we enjoy this for the next seven hours?” Asked Cyrus, in a some-what fancy accent. “We shall.” Jonah smiled. The boys sat down in the cramped closet and decided to make the best of the seven hours. They talked and ate snacks until Cyrus checked his watch, and three hours had passed by. “Wow, that wen’t quick.” Jonah pointed out. “Yeah, no joke.” Replied Cyrus.There was silence for a few seconds. “I’m literally in the closet.” Cyrus broke the silence and began to giggle. “Wait, what?” Cyrus hadn’t come out to his crush yet, but he figured, why not now?“Jonah, are you good at keeping secrets? Like, potentially life-changing, huge, no one can know ones?”“Uh, yeah, what is it?”Cyrus took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Jonah, i’m gay.”Jonah paused, trying to think of what to say next. “I’m sorry. Now the next four hours are gonna be awkward, and you think i’m weird, and-““Cyrus! It’s okay, I support and accept you. My aunt is married to a girl and my mom’s best friend is gay.”“R-Really?” Cyrus wiped off the tear running down his face. “Of course. You’re still the person you were five minutes ago. You’re still Cyrus Goodman, Space Otters MVP, professional lip reader, and soon-to-be skateboarder.”Cyrus chuckled at he hugged Jonah as tight as he could. Jonah hugged back as he began to hear his vest friend sobbing. “I’m here, dude.” Jonah told Cyrus. He let him cry into his shoulder for the next few minutes until Cyrus let go. “Thanks, Jonah.”“Anytime, Cyrus.”“I just came out of the closet while being locked in a closet. Huh.” Both boys laughed. They talked until Jonah’s parents arrived home and the boys were forced to yell like crazy to get their attention and be let out.Though it didn’t go as planned, it was an amazing day.~~~~~~i hope this is what you were looking for!! and haha i couldn’t resist having Cyrus come out of the closet in a closet. i had to make it happen. anyways, thanks for the prompt!everyone else, fill up that ask box!!