#apple watch case series 4

[thegoldensanctuary]

Louis XV's royal clutter

Castles opened to the public tend to put a great emphasis on furnitures, paintings and panellings. This focus often occurs at the expense of smaller every day items, such as tools, services, boxes and so on.

Even as far back as the 18th century, inventories of the garde meuble- the administration in charge of the French royal furnitures and collections- often omitted those smaller items, in favour of a greater focus on the furnitures themselves.

Several exception that that rule do exist for instance : When King Louis XV died the 10th of May 1774 in Versailles, his Versailles private cabinets were opened and searched, all the cash and the precious items contained in his cupboards were listed and described in an inventory made 27 days after his death.

Said inventory isn't located in the documents of the House of King(O1 series of the french national archives) like it is usually the case, but in the King's papers, namely in the K series of the national archives, more specifically the K 153.

The document in question was never published nor translated to this date.

I decided to publish it for the first time and translate it entirely to give an idea of the of the kind of clutter that was present in the king's private cabinets in Versailles at the time of his death :

Here is the translation of the provided text into English:

1: Four gold snuffboxes, three enameled, one guilloché,

2: A black lacquer snuffbox mounted in gold,

3: A snuffbox of black tortoiseshell.

4: An ivory candy box.

5: Two watches encrusted with diamonds with their chains also adorned with diamonds

6: An enameled watch with diamond hands and button, a gold cord, and two seals encrusted with diamonds,

7: A garnet box watch adorned with diamonds, attached with a blue ribbon,

9: A large rock crystal flask with a gold stopper, and two seals encrusted with diamonds

10: A small crystal flask

11: A large enameled gold flask

12: Two plain gold flasks in a roussette box

13: A shell flask

14: A rock crystal flask in a roussette case

15: Seven math instrument cases, some in plain gold, others enameled, and some encrusted with diamonds

16: A side case with an enameled gold chain but with diamond buttons

17: Two pocket cases, one enameled gold adorned with diamonds and rubies, and one in jade

18: Four lorgnettes - two in gold, two in silver, and one in copper

19: Two pencil cases, one enameled gold adorned with diamonds, the other containing a compass

20: A Baradel in gold

21: A small portable silver barometer

22: Four tablets in gold, lacquer, or Burgos, one of tortoiseshell with diamond cyphers

23: Three souvenirs, one of enameled gold

24: A hunting knife with a gold handle

25: A dog collar with diamond initials.

26: A large lacquer tablet containing eight portraits of the royal family adorned in gold

27: A lacquer tablet with a portrait inside

28: Four portraits in three plain boxes

29: An ivory barrel adorned with gold

30: A piece of jade from the Amazon River

31: A Sèvres porcelain lorgnette

32: A gold and Magellan telescope

33: A porcelain Sèvres eyewash basin

34: A small red leather writing set adorned with gold, with a gold seal and pencil

35: A damask pruning knife

36: A double-bladed mother-of-pearl knife with a gold fleur-de-lys

37: Three glasses cases, one of tortoiseshell adorned with gold

38: An approaching eyeglass adorned with silver

39: A watch with its chain and seals, all in rubies and diamonds

41: A mathematics case in yellow lacquer with diamond buttons

42: Two almanacs mounted in silver and marcasites in their roussette cases

45: Three seals, two in gold, one in stone

47: Four rings, three with diamonds or coloured stones, one with an engraved stone

48: An English lorgnette

49: Four canes - one with a gold handle, one with a porcelain crutch, one with a gold apple adorned with diamonds, one with a golden apple-wood handle and parasol

50: Six watches - one in gold, enameled with a steel chain and chime, two other enameled, three other guilloché gold

51: A steel mirror

52: A gold egg cup in a roussette case

53: A gold writing set with Charlier paintings, in miniature in a roussette case

54: A very beautiful crystal vase, measuring 9 inches in height

55: A gold breakfast set consisting of a Sevres porcelain tray, two identical cups, a gold teapot and sugar pot, two spoons, a strainer, and a sugar tong made of the same metal

56: A gold-enameled punch pot with a pump, and a second pot of Saxony porcelain

57: A small enameled gold punch pot with a pump and a crystal basin

58: Two gold-enameled candlesticks with their bobeches

59: A crystal breakfast set surrounded by gold, consisting of three goblets

60: Another crystal breakfast set consisting of two carafes and a covered goblet, with the tray of enameled gold

61: A red leather box, edged with gold, containing 12 gold spoons and 12 gold forks, two roast oval plates, two appetizer plates, two dessert plates, and six dishes, all made of the same metal, with one missing, which is in the possession of Mr. de Fontanieu.

62: A set in a red leather box containing a lacquer box with a marabout, a teapot, a spirit lamp, six coffee spoons, all made of gold, three cups, a sugar pot, and a milk jug made of Sevres porcelain

63: A set in a walnut wood box containing 12 gold tableware, twelve knives with rosewood handles, gold cup and rosette, steel blades, twelve knives with Sevres porcelain handles adorned with cup rosette landau, plus four gold plates

64: A red lacquer box reinforced with gold, containing a Sevres porcelain bowl adorned with gold, two gold spoons, a covered crystal goblet adorned with gold, two porcelain pasta pots from Sevres

65: A wooden case enclosed in a black lacquer box containing a marabout made of gold with handles made of Sevres porcelain, two large sugar pots, two saucers, and two chocolate cups made of porcelain, a spirit lamp, adorned with gold, a square crystal flask adorned with gold, two coffee spoons, and a large gold spoon

66: A gold-plated copper microscope in its pyramid case

Dom Noël, Planche 19 Microscope tripode.

67: A writing set with 12 zodiac signs

68: A wooden box reinforced with silver containing a pharmacy adorned with silver

69: A yellow lacquer box enclosed in a red leather box

70: A graphometer in a red leather case

71: A gold compass with its stand and a level in a sharkskin case

72: A black lacquer box

73: A breakfast set consisting of a painted sheet metal tray and two porcelain cups

74: A writing set made of silver-reinforced roussette

75: Supplementary gold tableware, three coffee spoons, one tea spoon, a gold set in a roussette case

76: A small black lacquer box

77: A small oak chest, we weren't able to find the key

78: A box of tools with wooden handles and silver ferrules

79: A box of Kingswood,but the key wasn't found

80: A gold-braided telescope

81: A coffee pot for four gold cups with jasper handles and six gold coffee spoons, in a leather case made to contain 12.

[bellamysgriffin]

happy october everyone! every year, i organize for myself (and my friends on the occasion that they join me) a marathon of scary/halloweeny movies for each day of the month. i usually get to almost all of them and a third of them are typically rewatches for me (it's not halloween unless you watch scream at least once), and i thought why not share my list this year in case anyone needs recs or wants to join me! (i've also included where I'll be streaming for anyone in the US)

oct. 1: ginger snaps (2000) (peacock)

oct. 2: dawn of the dead (1978)

oct. 3: scream (1996) (hbo max)

oct. 4: i saw the TV glow (2024) (hbo max)

oct. 5: donnie darko (2001) (hulu)

oct. 6: nosferatu (1922) (prime video/freevee)

oct. 7: american psycho (2000) (netflix)

oct. 8: suspiria (1977) (criterion channel)

oct. 9: over the garden wall (2014) (hulu)

oct. 10: carrie (1976)

oct. 11: the devil's backbone (2001) (peacock)

oct. 12: the silence of the lambs (1991)

oct. 13: abigail (2024) (peacock)

oct. 14: the amityville (1979) (hbo max)

oct. 15: hour of the wolf (1968) (criterion channel)

oct. 16: the cabin in the woods (2011) (peacock)

oct. 17: jennifer's body (2009) (hulu)

oct. 18: i married a witch (1942) (hbo max)

oct. 19: wendell & wild (2022) (netflix)

oct. 20: the carmilla movie (2017) (peacock)

oct. 21: crimson peak (2015) (prime video)

oct. 22: escape room (2019) (hulu)

oct. 23: white zombie (1932) (prime video/freevee)

oct. 24: the evil dead (1981) (tubi)

oct. 25: the rocky horror picture show (1975)

oct. 26: cronos (1992) (hbo max)

oct. 27: the descent (2005)

oct. 28: mr. harrigan's phone (2022) (netflix)

oct. 29: sleepy hollow (1999) (prime video)

oct. 30: little shop of horrors (1986)

oct. 31: it's the great pumpkin, charlie brown (1966) (apple tv+) & the nightmare before christmas (1993) (disney +)

i will also be rewatching the tv shows scream queens (hulu) and the haunting of hill house (netflix) as well as episodes from guillermo del toro's anthology series cabinet of curiosities (netflix)

here is the letterboxd list and here is another list with other horror recs from previous years

[lgbtpopcult]

Streaming Services & LGBT+ Women Representation in 2024

Let's do a raking of where we stand and what has been going on in the last few months in streaming...

Grades: A+ highest and F lowest/fail

Max C

Max has been having trouble getting any hits in recent years. Though they are not purposeful about giving us representation they do have some gems. There's no quantity but there's some quality stuff. First and foremost. Harley Quinn the Animated Series. The animated series, now renewed for a fifth season and with a spinoff, has gone where no series has gone before. Yeah, animated series have given us representation before there's been Adventure Time, Shera, The Owl House, Steven Universe and more. However, two popular, important characters that are part of a huge franchise getting together in an animated series geared towards adults? And the representation being romantic and sexy and a healthy relationship? Love that for us and at the same time should be the standard. Max also has The Last of Us which was the biggest hit of last year and is returning next year, the lead Ellie is gay and will have a stable relationship next season. However, there's serious lack of quantity. There's some side characters here and there in shows like Peacemaker and The White Lotus but most shows don't have gay women or if they do they get cancelled or leave or handled badly. The gay lead in The sex lives of college girls is leaving, in Vilma Mindy Kaling made us think she's giving us Vilma and Daphne only to go "just kidding she's in love with her guy best friend after all" and the new Pretty Little Liars show original sin? Has no gay girl in it. Hubris.

Apple TV+ A

Apple TV+. For everyone asking what's the best platform for gay girl content that is consistent and of high quality that is your answer. Apple TV+ is not just the place for Dickinson and For all Mankind. It is consistent in giving us wlw in its shows whether that's The last thing he told me, See or Invasion. It is also giving us leads in its big budget, important projects not some small show they made on a dime and nobody noticed while they were advertising straight romcoms. In The Morning Show one of the leads is queer, in Bad Sisters same and of course our best show you could be watching right now, Monarch legacy of Monsters. It also usually renews its shows for at least 3-4 seasons. So, yeah if ur a gay girl you can get an Amen. On Apple TV+. Yeah there's some good stuff here and there on other platforms, Max has Harley Quinn which is revolutionary and The last of us which is one of the best shows of the year, Amazon's best and most successful show Wheel of Time gave us a queer woman lead, Netflix...used to include us in its important projects back in the day when they weren't the Facebook of streaming? But the important thing is, Apple TV+ has the most quality and quantity in its recent projects we've seen in a while. The effort to cater to us is clearly there.

Amazon Prime Video C+

Amazon Prime tries. We have to give them that. They have greenlit some important shows with good budgets that included gay leads. Some of those were The Wilds, A league of their own, Paper girls, Shelter. Notice a pattern? Yeah, cancelled. To be fair that is not always the case. The Wheel of Time, one of their most important shows has a gay woman lead played by fan favorite Rosamund Pike of I Care a Lot fame. They also gave us a whole reality show about Latin American super couple Calle and Poche. However, their misses are way more than their hits and they never give shows room to breath and grow an audience. You can't trust them to do that. Hopefully, they will at some point give us stories that they can finish but for now their efforts are subpar.

Hulu: B-

Hulu has been ramping up its efforts for representation and it shows. While for a long time aquired content was their gayest content (movies like Happiest Season for example) they have some interesting stuff recently. They made a more inclusive How I Met Your Father, with a lesbian being part of the group and treated well, they of course have our fan favorite Killing Eve, and they made a gay romance movie, Crush, casting two actual bi women to play the leads (Rowan Blanchard and Auli'i Cravalho). They have some shows that have important gay women characters like Class of 09, Only Murders in the Building, Dopesick, Little fires everywhere and even their new big bet Death and other details. Hulu has only started focusing on original content in recent years so we'll have to see how it goes.

Netflix: F

Netflix as been very focused on straight people in their 30s over the past couple of years. Gone are the days when they first started with shows like Orange is the New Black, their flagship show, having a wlw couple as its main couple. GenZ, the gayest generation yet(and this research doesn't include genz under 18 or that number would not be what it is😂), will probably be their downfall so there's that but for now it's an important streaming service that has turned into network TV.

It's a shift we've seen happening gradually but became apparent in the last few years the most as there was not only very limited content for us to watch but queer characters have not been given important stories or romantic relationships. The few bright spots (like Fear Street and I Care a lot) are acquired content that they didn't greenlit themselves, they just happened to buy. On the other hand, they have endless reality shows about straight romance and straight romantic comedies. Big budget, well promoted series always have a straight lead (even if they have to straight wash her from the source material *cough archive 81 cough*). Gay women are the gay friend/side character if they exist at all. In the past few years there were some lead characters in shows with miniscule budgets that were not given any importance like First Kill (which they set up to fail by giving it a bad budget, unknown leads, untested writers etc.) and warrior nun that were swiftly cancelled. Similarly, some small budget foreign shows had some gay women leads like Feria The Darkest Light (which was very good but was not promoted at all), and Everything Now(ditto). There were some side characters here and there most notably the ones in The Fall of the House of Usher and Elite but little else. Sometimes they even make it seem like they'll be giving us a show in which the lead girl has an actual romance storyline with another girl (Chosen) only to out it's not that way and the girl is just one of her love interests, given 2 minutes of screentime and not treated all that well.

Good reenactment of how the Netflix experience has been for queer women in the past few years:

Netflix: straight romcom, straight romcom, straight reality show, straight lead, straight romcom...

Other streamers and networks: increased representation

Netflix: one lesbian side character, straight romcom, straight romcom, straight reality show, straight lead who was a lesbian in the original but was straight washed, straight romcom...

Other providers: Movies are becoming gayer look Scream, Mean Girls even the Purge movies got gay! In Yellowjackets you have a lead lesbian with romance and friends cheering her on, in NCIS Hawaii Our lead couple is two women, in Monarch legacy of monsters the lead is a queer woman and in meaningful relationships with women....

Netflix: In Chosen the lead sleeps with a girl, then sleeps with a guy, then has like two conversations with the girl before the season is done then the show is never heard from again. Also, we've been sitting on the rights of The seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo forever. Plus we took a successful podcast with a lesbian lead and ruined its live action adaptation by making her straight and we're always willing to throw in a gay girl side character XO XO

Paramount+ C-

When you think of Paramount+ and gay women you think of Special ops lioness. And that is a good show to think about. However, outside of that Paramount+ is a mixed bag with not a lot of choices. They don't have a lot of original programming, most of their stuff is CBS stuff. Other than Lioness in the original programming category we got dating show Love ALLways, a fun bisexual dating show. In the CBS shows they have NCIS Hawaii, which is awesome and has a wlw as its most important couple. They also bought Paper dolls which is another hidden gem you should definitely check out. Star Trek: Picard gave us two lead women in a relationship only to break them up. You'll find some side characters here and there like in The good fight. What adds some value is some acquired shows they have that you can also find elsewhere, like Showtime favorite Yellowjackets and MGM+ gem From. Still, definitely not enough for anything more than paying for a couple of months to watch Lioness, From and Yellowjackets.

Peacock C

Peacock has had trouble getting any of their shows to resonate with viewers. Most of their shows are the NBC shows. With their limited selection of original programming though they have shown a willingness to maje a real effort to be inclusive. The Saved by the Bell spinoff, which only run for two seasons(most of their original programming are lucky to get that far), made one of its leads bi and gave her a girlfriend. Bel-Air, one of its few shows to survive, made one of Will's sisters gay. Their miniseries The undeclared war has a gay woman lead. Their NBC shows are the ones that add some more quantity. You can find Law & Order: Organized Crime, one of the leads is gay in that one and any NBC show with a gay character from New Amsterdam to Manifest. What they don't have is some shows that you'll really want to watch and get a subscription for but to be fair, that goes for everyone.

Disney+ D

To be fair Disney+ has started its efforts for diversity and we suspect this grade will change in 2025 but for now it's a D. Right now only some small (but important) steps have been made in the right direction. Big Shot was their first show to include a lesbian kiss on the platform, it has since been cancelled. High School Musical The series took an important step by making an important side character bi and giving her a love interest...in its final season 🙃 Andor is really our big win when it comes to Disney+. A successful, already renewed show that introduces two gay women, who are important characters, and in a relationship, to the Star Wars universe. Marvel show She Hulk also threw us a marvel bone by having a gay girl side character. They also have The Owl House which is not nothing. But we need more than that, way more.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (October 29-November 4, 2023)

Like me, you probably haven't seen Godzilla Minus One yet, making Fest Godzilla 4: Operation Jet Jaguar last week's most spectacular new watch. Kazuhiro Nakagawa's ambitions grow with each entry in this series; this time, he was helped by veteran Rider/Sentai suit actor Kenya Saito inside the great new Jet Jaguar suit. The ending wasn't quite what I predicted, but still set up what should be a spectacular showdown last year.

I wish these shorts weren't effectively the last vestiges of tokusatsu in the Godzilla series; I wish even more that Toho would allow them to stay on YouTube. This one, along with its associated behind-the-scenes videos, will stay around until the end of the year, as an apology for the Godzilla Day VOD having such awful audio as to be unsalvageable. But that still means its discoverability will take a serious hit, and it's unclear what Toho actually gets out of this artificial scarcity. Maybe they're plotting to release all the shorts on Blu-ray in a few years. In any case, download this one post-haste.

While he didn't get a new suit, Megalon still made a triumphant return in the other short film released on Godzilla Day, Godzilla vs. Megalon. A sequel to Godzilla vs. Gigan Rex, it's also directed by Takuya Uenishi. The live-action footage in this one helps ground the over-the-top monster mayhem, and a weakened Godzilla displays some cool new tricks, although I found his finisher unsatisfying. As for Megalon, well, he finally shows the world just how terrifying he can be when he takes himself more seriously.

After a mercifully brief marketing campaign, the 37th Godzilla movie, Godzilla Minus One, is in Japanese theaters (and it's making bank). I'm trying to go in relatively unspoiled (always difficult as a Wikizilla admin), but what little I have read has been promising. The basic premise, which the early promos have largely masked, sounds like a kaiju story I wrote in college, which I couldn't be more thrilled by. If you're feeling daring, there's a second trailer out.

We'll get the first episodes of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters even sooner than Godzilla Minus One. Accordingly, Apple has ramped up promotion, releasing a behind-the-scenes video (above), the opening title sequence, and the first scene of the series. We also have names for a couple of the new monsters (the new Skull Island beastie is a Mantleclaw and the critters hatching from eggs are Endoswarmers) and better looks at a couple others.

I joked after the Godzilla Day livestream that it was such a technical fiasco because Toho had put all its skill points into releasing Godzilla Minus One. Similar could be said for the Fathom Events release of Godzilla 2000: Millennium. The showing I caught was fine technically (one brief frame rate hiccup aside), just... uninspired. The preshow was the same brief behind-the-scenes footage of G2K included on the American DVD and Blu-ray; the film used the same translation as the Blu-ray. And now that the novelty of actually being able to watch it has worn off, I've soured considerably on the Japanese version of this movie. The languid score and sound design are especially glaring in a theater.

Godzilla Voxel Wars, available on Steam and Epic Games, probably should have been released in a week less packed with more attention-grabbing Godzilla news. Still zero reviews on Metacritic! Haven't played it myself, but fellow Wikizilla admin Les is enjoying it.

Godzilla: Here There Be Dragons #5 also added to the Godzilla onslaught. Still impressed at how big a role the Giant Octopus had in this (and what a brutal ending for it and Ebirah), but the miniseries wrapped up a little too neatly.

Despite backing it on Kickstarter, I had nearly forgotten about Godzilla & Kong: The Cinematic Storyboard Art of Richard Bennett. Turns out the reason the book has taken so long to be published (the campaign ended last May) is the page count jumping from "around 200" to 424! It's off to the printer now, so the wait is nearly over.

Worth posting again: the third BOSS Coffee ad featuring the new ShodaiGoji suit. Very little original footage in this one, but some first-class editing.

And a few other happenings I'll keep to bullet points so you can finally stop scrolling:

I forgot to post about Viz publishing volume 7 of Asadora! Huge props for introducing a kyodai hero without derailing the story (I won't say how, but it's quite clever).

After its brief Japanese theatrical run, the black-and-white version of Shin Godzilla is "under consideration for further development." Home video next?

The newest Godzilla Battle Line units are Super Mechagodzilla and a second version of Godzilla '54 who strafes his atomic breath and ignores most status effects. I've had virtually no time to play since the new season started (this post was typed entirely in a Georgia hotel room, put it that way), but I hear they're both stellar.

Godzilla trading card update: disappointment and confusion! The Godzilla Minus One promo cards were only available for a very limited time as add-ons to a $75+ TCGPlayer order. Meanwhile, nobody can find the packs of Surreal Entertainment cards that were supposed to arrive at Five Below on Godzilla Day.

Naturally, lots of toys revealed on and around Godzilla Day. Highlights include a Super7 Godzilla figure with an Imperial-inspired paint job, a Super7 SpaceGodzilla repaint blatantly based on Super Godzilla which sold out instantly, an S.H. MonsterArts Jet Jaguar '73, and Movie Monster Series figures for *inhales* Godzilla '55, Anguirus '55, Flying Stage Hedorah, Godzilla '64, and Minilla '67. The Godzilla Raids Again figures are both getting variants inspired by a Toy Dreams set from 2006. Bandai also started up another Movie Monster Series fans-pick-the-figure poll, but what's the point? They'll have every single Godzilla kaiju represented before the decade's half over. (And maybe by the end of the decade I'll be able to afford all the ones I want!)

[x-honeycomb-x]

Detransitioning you// Your ftmtf mother is here - Part 2

See here for part 1

Wants to detransition for the kink, and need some guidance and encouragement? Here I am. This week we're gonna have a girl day out.

Last week we hugged a plushie and let the thought in that "It is okay to be a girl (although it's okay to not be one too".

This week we're gonna go to have a sexless day out. We wanna detransition outside of sex too, so you can be a more hollistic girl. We wanna have good memories with being a girl, and you can come back and masturate when the day's over.

Task 4 - Gather your girly supplies

Having girly supplies helps you ground your femininiy. There are so many and you don't need to have everything. Just have at least 5 of the following

Sports bra and AFAB underwear

Feminine or gender neutral perfume

A notebook for your girl self (must)

Some feminine clothing

Shaving cream and blades

A haircut that is mid-length or longer, hair tie and bobby pins

A plushie you can girl-mode around

A comfort hoodie for your girl self

Feminine phone case

Makeup (you don't need to do full-face makeup)

A necklace/bracelet for your girl self

Gender roles are a social construct, but still you can enjoy gender when it makes you happy. These would help ground your femininity (especially in gender-neutral moments). Put them on or just put it in your girl-supplies-bag (from Part 1, basically have a bag where you can put your girly supplies, so you can find them easily, also helps with object permanence).

Task 5 - Being a girl isn't only about material things and identity. It is also about taste and connections. Get your notebook out and write down the following.

List 3 music albums that your girl self can listen to. 2 of them must be made by feminine artists. Add them to your Spotify.

List 2 series that is written in female-gaze. Add them to your Netflix/Disney+/HBO.

List 3 books that are written by feminine authors. Put them in your girl bag. You can also go for podcasts, add them to your Spotify/Apple Music.

Do the same for other forms of media you like. For an example Twitch streamers. Visual artists. Magazines.

Listen to the music, watch the shows in a feminine perspective. How does the plots or contexts relate to you differently if/when you're a woman? You can also watch your regular favorite shows and feel that difference. You can connect to the world as a girl, and it doesn't have to be sexual or degrading.

PS. I said "feminine artists" because femininity can come from gender-diverse people. It could be made by non-binary people, and please consider trans or queer women's work too.

Have you prepared the above? You can go into this immediately, or you can give it 1-2 days to settle in first. When you're ready, we are having a day out.

Task 6 - Have a day out (sexless one)

Put on your clothes, underwear, shave your legs etc, complete 5 or above in Task 4, and let's pull out Google Map and choose somewhere to be.

It could be a museum, a park, a library, a neighborhood, a concert, a tourist spot, a cafe etc. Repeat to yourself the name and the pronouns you want to experiment with, and try to perceive and interact with the world as her.

You don't need to be extra feminine or pass to have this day out. Try to imagine a trans woman just starting out on her transition, she might not fit into society's gender or passing expectations, but you would still be supportive of her. Support yourself the way you would encourage her if you get dysmorphic, worrying that you do not pass or look weird. You're okay. There are many ways to be a woman and a human.

Let yourself take it slow and enjoy this day as a woman. If you have any thoughts, worries, things you wanna try, inspirations, write it down in your girl notebook. Let your inner girl be heard. Let yourself get inspired by her.

I have tried this and have come back with a lot more appreciation for myself and my femininity. I have come to realize that my femininity is more than the trauma that she experienced. And there is in fact a lot of life and joy in her than I expected. And on the other hand, sometimes I come back soaked and excited. Go on, ride your hand, touch yourself in your girly clothes and bra, you've earned it.

Being a girl outside of bed can be exhilirating and empowering. It makes my post-nut clarity after gender play feel lighter too, it helped with my self-hatred and let me be less shut off. It doesn't have to mean you're detransitioning irl seriously. Remember that people who like pup play also like non-sexual pup activities such as eating from dog bowls or petting. You can enjoy the non-sexual aspects of being a girl, and you're allowed to enjoy them.

I hope you had a good day out. If you find some nice jewelleries at gift shops or thrift stores, get them! You will need it for Part 3.

[motionpicturedemise]

myth's game writeup of 2023

i waited until the new year to finish this in case i managed to beat a game during december. i did not. ANYWAY.

this will contain new games as well as games i only got around to in 2023. light on spoilers but be warned

Octopath Traveler II (2023)

as far as i remember, this was the first new game I played this year, and god did it deliver. I've been a fan of octopath since the first one came out on switch in 2018, counting it as my favorite game of all time, so to have a sequel after all this time was thrilling. it did almost everything octopath 1 did and better. new path actions, day/night system, branching stories, fucking boats?? incredible.

my biggest gripe has to be the new hidden classes. I started with throne so getting inventor 10 minutes after my chapter one did definitely fuck up the progression a little bit. I think I preferred ot1 hidden classes. while the dungeons were underwhelming, the boss battles really make you fight for these secret techniques, something absent in 3 out of the 4 hidden classes of octopath 2.

overall: 4/5 BP.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (2023)

xenoblade 3 as the end of the klaus trilogy really didn't sit well with me, for reasons that don't belong on my review of its dlc, but future redeemed fixed nearly every problem i had with base xc3 — both story and gameplay wise. it ties every xenoblade game and even some of gears and saga into a neat little 40 hour bow, and is truly a love letter to the entire series. I can only think of one problem I still have with it. the fucking menu music.

where do i even fucking start with this one really. relatively speaking, I'm a new xenoblade fan, having started xc1 in march 2022 during a harrowing experience with adhd meds, and since then it had kinda consumed me. I finished it in about a week, went on to watch xenoblade 2 because I had heard the gameplay wasn't great, and got my hands on xenoblade 3 day of release.

overall: 5 dance apples.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

as someone who was not immune to the hype surrounding botw, I had high hopes for the sequel. hopes that were painfully, slowly, fed into a trash compactor over my playthrough. this is another game I got on release day, lining up outside gamestop in the heat, and lets not forget that it's the only first-party switch game with a price tag of seventy bucks.

the game plays like a tech demo. I have a lot of love in my heart for it. the story was better that botw, the world was more expansive than botw, but the problem here is that everything it does is directly compared to breath of the wild. it doesn't get enough time to shine, because we're in the exact same world as 6 years ago, but instead of pinkish black malice we have blackish pink gloom. i much prefer the runes to the zonai abilities, and the sense of wonder that permeated breath of the wild is replaced by a sense of nostalgia that just doesn't appeal to me much.

all of this isn't to say it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, honestly, but a great game that wasn't meant for me. I've seen the insane shit people do with ultrahand, but it just... isn't my style.

overall: 441/1000 korok seeds

Pikmin 4 (2023)

it's pikmin. i dont have much to say about it. it was a lot of fun, loved that part where i bulborbed all over those guys. im not a gameplay reviewer, at heart i mostly talk about story, and a game like pikmin doesn't have much for me to comment on. good fun. lived up to expectations. probably wouldn't replay.

overall: 7500 sparklium

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (2017)

oh, stormblood... the rage you still fill my veins with. I'm not going to spend too long on this one because I have better things to do with my life than shit on an expansion everyone already hates, but let me make it clear I actually do have reasons for disliking it.

having ala mhigo built up since the very start of a realm reborn, only to have half of the ala mhigo expansion take place halfway across the star, was very disappointing. the monotony of the three areas in gyr abania compared to the three far east areas was very disappointing. the treatment of the people of the steppe and honestly that entire segment in the main story quest was very disappointing. hien, as a character, in his entirety, was very disappointing.

I will say it had strong parts. the 61-70 quests for several jobs were the strongest in their entire story (see: dark knight). the dungeons started to get more interesting. it gave us the quest Child Labor, which is hilarious and I'll never be finishing it because I want it there forever.

overall: 1/3 WHM Lillies.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)

ffxiv immediately got better the second 4.0 was over. even the patch quests instantly shot up in quality. it's not even funny. the lead up to shadowbringers was the most fun I had had with the game since a realm reborn, and all of the first was heartbreaking to go through even though I was spoiled on That Character's Identity.

the duty trust system (is that what it was called?) made dungeons much more fun. getting to go through hell with alphinaud alisaie and thancred made everything 10x better, even if it was a lot slower. the story, again, heartbreaking — ryne's arc in particular felt like being stabbed by thousands of little needles while trying to play. in the best way, of course. and amaurot... amaurot. getting to quote our favorite knight in there was my 8th umbral calamity.

shadowbringers also marks when a lot of your job's functionality is really unlocked, so doing the level 80 raid series was genuinely a ton of fun. and again the thousands of little needles. i cried at least 7 times during the main story.

overall: 85/100 kenki gauge.

Katana Zero (2019)

possibly my favorite game this year. the protagonist, zero (or as i like to call him, katana from zero,) ticked all the boxes for a character I'd be absolutely obsessed with. true enough, i fell in love. the fast-paced gameplay, the diegesis of gameplay elements which would typically go unquestioned, and the care that seeps through every dialogue choice all solidify katana zero as one of my favorite game experiences ever. I'll leave it at this, because I encourage everyone to at least give it a try.

overall: Yes, that should work.

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

this is one of the few 2023 releases on this list that I didn't get on launch, because at the time I had relatively little interest in fire emblem as a series. then I made a lot of friends who enjoy it, and in october, bestie sen decided to buy it for me as an early birthday present. everyone say thank you sen.

considering this is my first fire emblem game, i have absolutely no deeper insight into how it matches up compared to the others, and plenty of people more eloquent than me have already talked about that. what I do know is that the gameplay was surprisingly fun as my first tactical rpg, and the story was passable. all the characters were appealing in one way or another, and I'm still mad I had to choose between marrying kagetsu or fogado. they're both my husbands at heart.

overall: I didn't internalize enough of this game to come up with a clever rating.

Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue (2023)

I was expecting the dlc to continue the main story, so I put it off until I had finished the base game. in hindsight, I regret it, because I'd love to have brought the winds and twins with me to fight their evil versions and alternate universe dad. the story was... alright. I really liked all the small battle interactions between fell characters and our party members which they would've known. I instantly recognized fogado in chapter 1 because I am in love with him by the way.

overall: i dont know. 1¾ dragonstones

with 2024 upon us, I'll probably be writing reviews for games as I play them. I'm trying to use tumblr more as a social platform instead of just reblogging. we'll see how that plays out. if you like any of these games (yes, even tears of the kingdom) please talk to me about them! that's all for now. look out for my mangled thoughts on SANABI and Nier: Automata next :)

[bicheetopuff]

Hi....! Can I ask, who are your top 7 favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon) and your top 10 favorite characters ever from any media? Why do you love them all? Thanks if you want to answer....

Oh wow this is gonna be quite a list…

7) Lightning McQueen and Chick Hicks - specifically the versions of them from the Cars video game that was released following the movie in 2006.

I- idk there was just something about them-

Like, in the movie they barely talked but in the game they kept bickering like an old married couple and teasing each other. There’s one scene where Chick goes “hey Lightning, check this out” and turns his bumper towards him, and Lightning was like “okay? What about it?” And Chick said something like “get used to the view😏” and it just- IT TRIGGERED SOMETHING, OKAY??

6) Langa and Reki - Sk8 the Infinity

Honestly I just really like their dynamic and I just love them as characters. Sk8 was a comfort anime for me for a while so I just really grew to love them. That’s it, no deep explanation, I just love how wholesome they are. I’m gonna go rewatch Sk8 now…

5) Chloe and Max - Life is Strange

This was the first ship I got somewhat invested into. At the time the game came out, I was just a middle schooler struggling with my sexuality and I’d tune in to each of Jacksepticeye’s playthroughs of each of the episodes. After the two of them kissed, I started to read the comments of that video and saw someone say that they were excited to find out whether Max was bisexual or if she just kissed Chloe for fun, blah blah, I don’t remember exactly what it said. Point is, that was the first time bisexuality was presented to me and it was just kind of the beginning of me finding out who I was. Once I realized I was bi, it just evolved into the pipeline of exploring my queerness and finding out the things I like and don’t like. Later I grew to like Chloe and Rachel more, but Chloe and Max did a lot for me and they just have a special place in my heart.

4) Trevor and Michael - GTAV

I have a weird obsession with this game, and playing it over and over again, the more you see how weirdly complicated their relationship is? And it’s so hinted at that Trevor was probably genuinely in love with him at some point from the way he talks about him as if they went through a bad divorce. I mean, the way Trevor reacted was lowkey justifiable, I’d probably be heart broken and feel betrayed too if my partner in crime faked his death. But I see them as toxic but codependent old man yaoi. Anyways…

3) Ruby and Sapphire - Steven Universe

They altered my brain chemistry. I don’t have much other explanation, but they genuinely changed my perception of love. I just remember watching the episode where they explained how they became one through garnet and lived together as her because they loved each other so much and I was bawling my eyes out so bad. I WANT A LOVE LIKE THAT UGHHH I ADORE THEM

2) Tie between Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash, and Nana and Hachi - Nana and My Little Pony

This is kind of a mismatched tie- one is from possibly the most relatable and gut remching piece of media I’ve ever seen, and the other is from a children’s cartoon about magical friendship horses… while that might be the case, they’re equally as important to me.

Nana and Hachi will forever break my heart with how much I related to each of them, especially Hachi. Feeling like your only sense of worth comes from the attention of men, and just letting yourself be treated how you think you’re supposed to be treated because you so badly want to be loved, that you stop caring about how you’re treated in the process. She’s the embodiment of ‘you accept the love you think you deserve’ and she breaks my heart. She deserved to live a life with Nobuo… she deserved to live a life with Nana. Nana wanted to give her the world and Hachi made herself refuse it because she thought she didn’t deserve it UGH DONT TOUCH ME THEY HURT MY SOUL!!

And with AppleDash… idk they just occasionally plague my brain. They remind me a lot of bkdk and I think that’s why I like them so much. Rainbow Dash was my favorite character ever for a really long time and I thought her and Apple Jacks constant rivalry was so cute. I love me some masc4masc lesbians. I think they also partly shaped my sexuality, cuz they helped me realize that it’s okay for me, a genderfluid masc, to like other mascs. I honestly thought I was straight again for a while because I found myself rarely being attracted to fems at a point in time, but getting back into the mlp fandom helped me somehow.

1) Katsuki and Izuku - My Hero Academia

We already know how I feel about them, and I actually got another ask asking how i feel about them in detail so I’ll link that here when I post my response.

Now for my favorite characters! This’ll be less weird:

10) Mabel Pines - Gravity Falls - she literally just reminds me of me when I was a kid and embodies the “I don’t wanna grow up yet” sentiment. I was trick or treating until I was like 14, and it was the last time anyone ever agreed to go with me so I just related to her a lot as a teenager. All she wanted was just a little more time to be herself without judgment. She’s so silly /affectionate

9) Amethyst - Steven Universe - another silly character I just kind of relate to. She just wanted to feel like she belonged and she was never able to until Steven came along. But despite not feeling welcome for so long, she still kept her fun, boisterous personality and laughed all of the time.

8) Armin - Attack on Titan - I honestly don’t know why but I adored him since his introduction. Like a puppy that I just met but would die for if someone threatened him. I always thought it was kind of unhinged that he was able to be so hopeful and kind all of the time despite the trauma, and his dynamic with Eren was just funny to me. “Eren look! The ocean! See?! The ocean! Let’s go see it together! :D” only for Eren to be like “yeah but everyone across it wants us dead” and just kind of ruined the beauty of the ocean for himself. I appreciate that he took him “sight seeing” in the end and didn’t ruin it with his emoness. Idk I’ve just always liked smart characters who so obviously mask their true emotions out of fear of burdening other people. He’s basically Deku but with a fuckass blond bob.

7) Hachi - Nana - I think this is just turning into a trend of my favorite characters just being really relatable to me. All she ever wanted was to be loved and to make whoever gave her love, happiness in return. It didn’t matter how fucked up the person who loved her was, she’d still fall in love with them because they convinced her that they loved her. After so many emotionally abusive experiences, her idea of love just became set in stone, so she just kept ending up with the same guy over and over again, and the one time she almost accepted the love she truly deserved, it went down in flames cuz of another emotionally abusive man. And I think the most tragic part about that is that it happened after she got a taste of what genuine love was really like and she was never able to savor it. I like her, cuz her character just feels so human and I feel like a lot of women and queer people can relate to her experiences.

I feel bad for putting her so low, but honestly the next six characters are practically tied.

6) AntMan - MCU - HE HAS QUESTIONABLE MORALS BUT HES A GOOD DAD, OKAY?!

5) Loki - MCU - I love morally grey characters. I totally understand him tbh. All he wanted was to be on equal footing with his brother, because everyone praised Thor their whole lives and automatically just assumed he’d be the next ruler of Asgard, and completely undermined Loki. The only person in the universe who remotely gave a fuck about him, was his mother, and he got her killed by mistake. The last person he was sure actually cared about him.

He was fucked in the head from thousands of years of neglectful parenting and everyone just underestimating him, and Thanos took advantage of that vulnerability. He said “yeah if you do my dirty work for me, I’ll let you have just a smidgen of authority,” and Loki took the opportunity because it was the first chance he was given to be something more than just Thor’s brother and Odin’s adopted son. Odin only took him in to say he was kind enough to do so, he couldn’t care less about him, and that’s why his ass got dropped off at a nursing home.

But also after the Loki series, it just made me fall in love with his character even more. It proves that he never wanted to destroy any planet or universe, he never wanted unlimited power, he just wanted to be viewed as someone important. He just wanted to find his glorious purpose. He’s an egotistical God who was neglected by his parents, which caused him to stray off the path a bit, and everyone believed that’s all he’ll ever be… hm who does that remind you of?

4) Deadpool - does he count as MCU now? Whatever. Marvel - I honestly don’t know why I latched onto Deadpool so hard as a teenager. He’s really a tragic character who hides behind vulgarity. I loved coming to understand him, and his humor makes him more lovable. How I feel about him is similar to how I feel about Armin. He’s like a puppy I want to protect from anything bad happening to him again. He doesn’t deserve what happened to him, and he literally only agreed to go through the forced mutation process, because he didn’t want Vanessa to go through losing someone to cancer by herself. He knew she had no one else, so that was him doing whatever it took to still be there for her, but what the process did to his body just made him feel unlovable, so he ended up making her go through that loss anyway.

He’s definitely an asshole, but what do you expect? He was an assassin for most of his life. He’s an asshole with feelings and I adore him.

3) Rainbow Dash - My little Pony - she worked hard to be the best at what she does. She was told she couldn’t do something and proved them wrong, which created a red string situation between her and the mane six, making all of them get their cutie marks at the same time. She’s loud, confident, funny, hella competitive, and gay… I think I definitely have a type when it comes to favorite characters. And I think she’s the one who set my standard.

2) Izuku Midoriya - like I said before, we already know this. But I have another ask in my inbox asking for why I like him and Katsuki in detail and I don’t feel like typing that all out twice in one day so I’ll just link that post here when I post it. Just know that I love him, and he plagued my brain.

1) Katsuki Bakugou - same as Deku’s. I’ll link the other post at the bottom of this one once I answer it.

That’s all for now though!!

Edit: here’s the bkdk response!! x

[pikahlua]

Pika Rambles about the new OP because why not

If there’s anything I’ve learned from season 6 of MHA, it’s that whatever Twitter’s reaction is to something, I’m likely to have the opposite reaction.

I’m not often one to go into my opinions on things in MHA I feel are “good” or “bad.” Sometimes it happens, but just generally I’ve been trained to read and analyze a lot of things without respect to whether or not I like them or agree with their philosophies. I’m usually trying to understand a story more than anything.

But OPs are a different matter.

I have a weird thing for OPs. I’ve watched many over the years, and in some cases even decided whether or not I would watch an anime based on its OPs. (I’ve also...made a lot of AMVs.) OPs are supplementary material that are opportunities for animators to showcase their creativity and their understanding of the story’s themes. For that reason, I’ll happily ramble about my love for MHA OPs 1-4 and 7 anytime (god, especially 7; I’ll never get over the candy apple sakuga).

This time, OP 11, the ramble isn’t a good one. “What? Really? But everyone agrees it’s the shiniest one yet! Is it just that weird Ochako shit they threw in there?” No, stock anon. It’s so much more than that.

I have opinions.

If you like OP 11...you may not want to read my thoughts under the cut.

I’m just gonna complain in list form from here have fun.

1. First, all the good: I like the song. I realize not everyone’s gonna like the song, but I happen to like it. I also like some of the OP, particularly the first bits of it before the title card drops. I think it’s a good use of some of the cover/non-story artwork Horikoshi drew during this arc. Except already saying that, I can’t help but notice a huge missed opportunity. This cover art would’ve made for an EXCELLENT theme in the OP:

It would’ve made up for the egregious lack of All Might too.

2. That title card is awful. Come on. They used to do fun things with the design or colors or something. This is just...weird effects that maybe will cause someone a seizure. It’s certainly not pleasing to the eye.

3. I don’t have a problem with the split screen bit. It’s not great, but it’s not terrible. Except the animation they give Ochako was basically already used in OP 8 so I don’t know what that’s all about.

4. All the Lady Nagant art is super lame sorry why do they repeat the same angle and pose twice? They could have used other camera angles at least, or even do something more with her younger self and angst? This is about as one-note as her actual role in the story (okay maybe it fits then).

5. I don’t need to complain about the weird ship bait that is the Ochako scene in the way everyone else already has done for me. I have a pressing urge to bring up though that Bones once again shows their lack of creativity here, and it feels like they have a vendetta against Ochako too. Where is her action shot? Her sakuga? There are plenty of moments from this arc that could’ve made a much nicer action shot here. Her smile is so weird because this whole arc she’s getting serious for Izuku’s sake and frowns at him a lot and stands up to him essentially. This feels like heroine-ization and it’s awful. Ochako does much more impactful and moving shit this arc than whatever the hell this is.

6. How dare you cheapen the hand-holding symbol of this series do you even know what the fuck is happening in this manga??? [clings to Iida’s leg]

7. The sakuga of Izuku swinging around is okay, probably the best part of the OP--except then we run into the Lady Nagant issue again

8. What the fuck is the weird white corpse from AoT doing here? What? What is that? Hello?

9. It needs to be said: the sakuga of Iida et. al. looks like absolute ass. I’m sick of fandom just salivating for nothing but sakuga while having absolutely no standards. “Action lines? Cool angles? Speedy animation? Yay it’s perfect!” No, seriously, if everyone’s gonna be so critical of the story and animation and pacing all the time, where’s your criticism of the actual sakuga? This shot looks awful and no one is talking about it. Not only do all the characters involved move awkwardly, you can’t even tell who they are. I wish we could have seen better highlights of the characters themselves, their faces even, including Shigaraki’s. YEAH THAT’S RIGHT. THEY’RE FIGHTING SHIGARAKI IN THAT SHOT. DID YOU EVEN NOTICE? YOU PROBABLY THOUGHT IT WAS IZUKU, RIGHT? SEE HOW DUMB THIS IS? IT MAKES NO SENSE FOR THAT TO BE SHIGARAKI EITHER, BUT IT IS. GO PAUSE A FRAME AND CHECK IT OUT. The special effects of their super attacks at the end also look like ass. This was the worst sakuga we’ve seen since the third movie and I am not impressed and I’m mad other people are.

10. Epilepsy colors Izuku is also terrible sakuga he’s so off-model it hurts I can’t stand watching this bit.

11. The Izuku+Tenko sequence is nice and a good show of creativity, and yet Izuku also looks off-model and I can’t stand how this is NOT the right season for this imagery. So that makes this a spoiler, basically? It doesn’t belong here. I like the subtle hint at the OFA star with the sun glare behind Izuku’s offered hand, but still this feels like they have no idea what this arc is about.

12. Exhibit #999999 that it feels like the animators have no idea what’s up with this arc: the ending image of Izuku doing the All Might fist in the air pose. Like, maybe it works if you read it as “he’s able to represent All Might because everyone else is there with him,” but it just doesn’t...feel right. It’s not earned based on the rest of the OP. Why couldn’t we just have them all be around the All Might statue? I don’t know what are you all even thinking when you draw this shit

[cutesxsherry]

FINISHED WATCHING – Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

This is it! Done!

I tried not to binge watch the whole thing in one day because I wanted the series to have a lasting impression on me, something that wouldn’t be possible if I had just massively consumed the whole thing all at once and ”got over it and went next”, the usual issue between following a series with one episode a week for months and just "getting it out of the way" in one afternoon...

I actually read the manga a few years ago and loved it, so I was excited about an anime adaptation and it didn't disappoint!

It ended up having darker undertones and events than I would have had given it credit for based on the manga I read (the 3 volumes covered only 4 episodes of the anime), the cutesy art and even the title. There are quite a few bishounen but it is by no means a reverse harem anime at all.

The heroine Anne was also quite mature and not a damsel in distress, distressing things happened to her but she wasn’t systematically being saved right and left, and the people around her while looking out for her were also quite harsh a few times about her needing to be independent as a Silver Sugar Master and forging her way through on her own, and she worked really hard!

Shall Fenn Shall was incredibly beautiful throughout the series, his eyes in particular were truly mesmerizing; he looked and acted as the silent type but still said the right words at the right time when needed be; he is also a very mature characters but can also sometimes be feisty and teasy, he has a difficult temperament but is very dedicated and loyal to Anne which is his most precious person; he stayed by her side supporting her and always watching over her without putting pressure on any of her actions, always telling her to do whatever she wanted and that he would follow her, forever.  

All this made me curious about the novels the anime was adapted from!

I’m surprised the ending was so open, I thought we were going straight to an ending with Anne and Shall officially together (I saw a novel cover where they are getting married a few months ago) but it seems like the anime stops here, at this point in time when -once again- Anne will be hitting the roads looking for her own way, and gathering experiences as a sugar artisan. The ending is way too open and in the middle of nowhere of sorts (yes, the events of that arc ended, but there are still questions and unfinished things), so I think more episodes are objectively a strong possibility in this particular case ? Nothing is certain but I hope so! Else, it will be like quite a few series for which the anime adaptation served as a promotion of sort, “and then continue reading the story in the manga/novel if you want to know what happens next” kind of things, only time will tell!

I have this nagging feeling I should be writing more, it’s as if there is something missing? Mmmhh, in the end I think it’s the unresolved and bittersweet ‘ending’ between Anne and Shall that is leaving me hanging after all? It was heavily hinted these two are already in love with each other but nothing conclusive happened in spite of their promises of staying together always, but it's difficult between a human with a limited lifespan and a fairy that might live forever...

The last volume, v20, was released March 1st 2024 in Japan, the summary says it’s the end of the story of the girl and the fairy. For sure, it’s a happy ending…!

[the-odd-ducks]

Apple Watch Series 10 is here!

The thinnest Apple Watch ever, with the biggest display.

Get invaluable health insights, including new sleep apnea notifications coming this month.

New depth and water temperature sensors for your aquatic adventures.

Fastest-charging Apple Watch ever. 80% battery in 30 minutes.

Series 10 is a major milestone for Apple Watch. It features the biggest and most advanced display yet, showing more information onscreen than ever. With Apple’s first wide-angle OLED Display, the screen is brighter when viewed from an angle, making it easier to read with a quick glance.

Series 10 is the thinnest watch ever. To make this possible, Apple re-engineered nearly every aspect of it, including the SiP, Digital Crown, speaker, front crystal, and antenna. It all comes together to create a watch that’s packed full of innovation.

Series 10 has the largest screen area of any Apple Watch. It has up to 75% more screen area than Series 3 and up to 30% more screen area than Series 4, 5, 6, and SE. So you can see and do even more.

For the first time, Apple Watch comes in an eye-catching Jet Black aluminum. The case is polished until it’s extremely reflective. It then goes through a 30-step anodization process to create a deep, glossy black that’s truly striking. The result is a timeless, sophisticated look.

Series 10 is the perfect fitness partner. It motivates you to stay active, tracks all your workouts, and gives you the metrics you need.

The new water temperature sensor gives you more information for your swim workouts. And a new depth sensor makes Series 10 great for swimming and snorkeling. So go on, make a splash.

Stay connected to the people and things that you care about most. Cellular lets you keep in touch, even when you don’t have your iPhone nearby. And intelligent new features help you stay informed and on top of everything.

Available from September 20, 2024

Pre-order link here

[autistic-captain]

BBC Ghosts Quiz

All information hopefully correct as of 15/09/2023. Answers can be found below once all the questions have been asked.

Question 1: What is Kitty’s favourite morning song?

Question 2: What are the colours of Mike and Alison's egg cups in the episode Not Again?

Question 3: Which actor voiced the Youtube video about the moon landing?

Question 4: What is the name of the concept character who haunted the neighbouring property and served as an example of “it could be worse” for the other ghosts?

Question 5: Who plays Dandini in the best pantomime that Mike has ever attended?

Question 6: How many swans are visible when Mary says “that one be Lucifer’s lackey, for sure”?

Question 7: According to The Captain, what items does Lucy carry secreted about her person?

Question 8: What were the items listed in “grandma went to the shops and bought an apple”

Question 9: What did Pat joke that Thomas’s variation of Cinderella would involve?

Question 10: How many scouts were there in Pat’s troupe during the archery scene?

Question 11: Where is the circus that Mr Cheese allegedly owns?

Question 12: According to Kitty, what are the colours of the rainbow?

Question 13: What does the Captain do while waiting to hear the King’s Queen’s speech on the wireless?

a. He paces across the room

b. He waits silently and patiently

c. He hums a little tune

d. He repeatedly bounces his leg

Question 14: What does Mike eat in Bump In The Night?

Question 15: What is noteworthy about the final scene of Free Pass?

a. Toby Nightingale pays for reparations to the house to prevent any further accidents

b. All the ghosts watch Mamma Mia

c. The sleeve of Thomas’s shirt appears to be wet

d. Thomas’s breath is visible

Question 16: What film do they all watch at the end of Redding Weddy?

a. Top Gun

b. The Notebook

c. Space Odyssey

d. Ghostbusters for the irony

Question 17: Who plays the ghostly doctor?

Question 18: According to Mathew Baynton, which modern musical artist would Thomas be a fan of?

Question 19: Which of the following did NOT occur in BBC Ghosts:

a. Fanny and Humphrey’s body have a romantic subplot involving cherry blossoms and Pat and Mary find it rather sweet

b. Robin doubts the existence of gravity until Florence inadvertently debunks the conspiracy

c. Thomas convincingly sells pleasing cheeses on Button FM

d. Kitty organises a sleepover and makes The Captain patrol the grounds in case Freddy Kruger is there

Question 20: Which characters does Pat have nicknames for?

Question 21: Which football game does Julian spoil for pat?

Question 22: Part 1: In “the hardest word” what does Fanny compare the sorry song rehearsal to?

Part 2: how does Humphrey reply?”

Question 23: How far did Mike say he was going to run?

Question 24: What species is the large tree houseplant in Mike and Alison’s room?

Question 25: What names does Alison call Robin when she’s shouting at the ghosts in Guerilla War?

Question 26: What is the name of the self-help book that Alison reads?

Question 27: What was the name of Kitty’s teddy bear?

Question 28: Why can Kylie Minogue see ghosts?

Question 29: The poster in Mike and Alison’s bedroom depicts what:

a. Diagrams of various British wildflowers

b. Dancing ghosts

c. A poster for a fictional band

d. Dancing skeletons

Question 30: In Something to Share, Mike is convinced that he can now see ghosts due to a peculiar concoction and a misunderstanding. He’s very excited by this and exclaims “I’m going to see a caveman” Does this ever happen in the series and how?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Answers

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question 1: What is Kitty’s favourite morning song?

Answer: There’s a Lark in the Bushel.

Question 2: What are the colours of Mike and Alison's egg cups in the episode Not Again?

Answer: white with a blue pattern and plain white. Additionally the white with a blue pattern also appears in the episode “The Hardest Word”.

Question 3: Which actor voiced the Youtube video about the moon landing?

Answer: Ben Willbond

Question 4: What is the name of the concept character who haunted the neighbouring property and served as an example of “it could be worse” for the other ghosts?

Answer: Pete

Question 5: Who plays Dandini in the best pantomime that Mike has ever attended?

Answer: Humphrey and it’s a wonderful performance.

Question 6: How many swans are visible when Mary says “that one be Lucifer’s lackey, for sure”?

Answer: 5

Question 7: According to The Captain, what items does Lucy carry secreted about her person?

Answer: A field telephone. A bag, and within that bag is a smaller bag, and within that bag, a bag smaller still that contains a stick of lipstick stick, a tiny mirror, and a comb.

Question 8: What were the items listed in “grandma went to the shops and bought an apple”

Answer: An apple, a packet of Monster Crunch Munch, a bottle of sherry, Playboy magazine, an Enfield N°2 standard issue revolver, swingball, and a lace brassiere.

Question 9: What did Pat joke that Thomas’s variation of Cinderella would involve?

Answer: Cinderella drowning herself and the prince dying of a broken heart.

Question 10: How many scouts were there in Pat’s troupe during the archery scene?

Answer: 5

Question 11: Where is the circus that Mr Cheese allegedly owns?

Answer: Bavaria

Question 12: According to Kitty, what are the colours of the rainbow?

Answer: Red, Orange, Yellow, Grey, Blue, Indigo, Very light blue (a rainbow).

Question 13: What does the Captain do while waiting to hear the King’s Queen’s speech on the wireless?

a. He paces across the room

b. He waits silently and patiently

c. He hums a little tune

d. He repeatedly bounces his leg

Answer: c

Question 14: What does Mike eat in Bump In The Night?

Answer: Trifle before falling asleep despite the very spooky circumstances.

Question 15: What is noteworthy about the final scene of Free Pass?

a. Toby Nightingale pays for reparations to the house to prevent any further accidents

b. All the ghosts watch Mamma Mia

c. The sleeve of Thomas’s shirt appears to be wet

d. Thomas’s breath is visible

Answer: d

Question 16: What film do they all watch at the end of Redding Weddy?

a. Top Gun

b. The Notebook

c. Space Odyssey

d. Ghostbusters for the irony

Answer: c. In the end they all watch Space Odyssey (although The Captain appears to be distracted)

Question 17: Who plays the ghostly doctor?

Answer: Paul Cawley

Question 18: According to Mathew Baynton, which modern musical artist would Thomas be a fan of?

Answer: Taylor Swift

Question 19: Which of the following did NOT occur in BBC Ghosts:

a. Fanny and Humphrey’s body have a romantic subplot involving cherry blossoms and Pat and Mary find it rather sweet

b. Robin doubts the existence of gravity until Florence inadvertently debunks the conspiracy

c. Thomas convincingly sells pleasing cheeses on Button FM

d. Kitty organises a sleepover and makes The Captain patrol the grounds in case Freddy Kruger is there

Answer: d. The others, despite being preposterous, have genuinely occurred.

Question 20: Which characters does Pat have nicknames for?

Answer: The Captain (Cap), Fanny (Lady B), and Maddocks (Mads).

Question 21: Which football game does Julian spoil for pat?

Answer: The Quarter Final between Argentina and England at the 1986 World Cup.

Question 22: Part 1: In “the hardest word” what does Fanny compare the sorry song rehearsal to?

Part 11: how does Humphrey reply?”

Answer Part 1: Battersea Dogs Home

Answer Part 2: “ Really? Was there a fire? “

Question 23: How far did Mike say he was going to run?

Answer: At least 10km

Question 24: What species is the large tree houseplant in Mike and Alison’s room?

Answer:

Madagascan dragon tree (Dracaena marginata). I think. I once had a Madagascan dragon tree called Gerald and Gerald looked very similar.

Question 25: What names does Alison call Robin when she’s shouting at the ghosts in Guerilla War?

Answer: Captain cave-prick and budget Tarzan

Question 26: What is the name of the self-help book that Alison reads?

Answer: Finding Sanity in the Insanity

Question 27: What was the name of Kitty’s teddy bear?

Answer: Bunty Bear. I like to think she named the bear that Alison gifted her Bunty.

Question 28: Why can Kylie Minogue see ghosts?

Answer: She fell and hit her head during the rollerskating montage scene in the music video for Spinning Around.

Question 29: The poster in Mike and Alison’s bedroom depicts what:

a. Diagrams of various British wildflowers

b. Dancing ghosts

c. A poster for a fictional band

d. Dancing skeletons

Answer: d

Question 30: In Something to Share, Mike is convinced that he can now see ghosts due to a peculiar concoction and a misunderstanding. He’s very excited by this and exclaims “I’m going to see a caveman” Does this ever happen in the series and how?

Answer: Yes, in a way. When Robin conducts the lightning in “Not again” his silhouette becomes visible.

[bebeiaarts]

My Opnion About My Childhood Cartoon (MLP)

I know it's been a while, but I've never talked about it, and I cry with nostalgia. I really didn't like the ending of MLP, I didn't want it to have shown them old, I wanted it to end with them still young. And I also didn't like that Twilight grew up like Princess Celestia, I don't think there's any idea that anyone who becomes a princess grows up like that. I don't understand, she doesn't have old woman wrinkles either, she's immortal now? And the way Spike grew up got ugly too. I thought the ending was more sad than happy.

I know it's normal in life to show that we grow and age, but every time it's illustrated in a series, it's much sadder.

I've been watching it since it premiered in 2010 with my cousin.

I used to be Twilight and my cousin Pinkie. We were very similar when we were little;My cousin was always the happy crazy one who wouldn't sit still like Pinkie, she also has similar hair. When I was little I loved math, I was smart, I had straighter hair, today I wear glasses, and I've always been shy and can't make friends online.

(Of course, physically you don't need to look like a character to identify yourself, but I'm just telling you my case).

Every time I see something related to MLP/EG I cry, because of nostalgia and remembering the good times when I was a kid and I spent the whole time watching until season 6, After that I think the story went downhill a bit.

Not to mention that there are a lot of unanswered things, like, the others stayed single?

Why Twilight isn't wearing her replacement crown for the element of harmony she did once at the end of season 4? Instead, she's using a copy of Celestia and Luna, which they turned their crowns into one for Twilight (Because yes).

Why does Twilight wear a necklace now? (She really became a copy of Celestia).

Why did Celestia and Luna leave everything on Twilight's shoulders?

And her castle? After everything they've been through, she's simply going to abandon her castle?

Did Rainbow Dash and Apple Jack become a couple in the end?

Also Twilight could have stayed her usual size, or at least Cadence's size.

Were her two pupils destined to be princesses too?

If Pinkie ended up with Cheese (I always shipped them), I'd like to see Twilight with Flash, and Spike with Rarity (After he grew up). And the end of the book closing, is this all just a story? But in episode 1 of the first season it showed that Twilight read that book.

I'll be honest, I love MLP and EG so much, but a while later I loved EG more. But this series also took a hit, making episodes instead of films, changing their designs, not having a Sunset Shimmer from this world, the Twilight pony never returning there. Scootaloo being defective in her wings made me really sad that she will never be able to fly, since she loves it. But if she doesn't mind I'll be more relieved (even though it's a cartoon)

I also know that at some point the show had to end, but everyone loved this one, and now they're changing it to MLP 3D for a new children's audience, it's horrible! They were still going to win a lot with MLP: FIM, which was the best version of MLP since the 80s in my opinion. And today's children could follow the old ones.

I think they could have done better.

But anyway, I'm very grateful for this wonderful cartoon that was a big part of my childhood, it was always there to cheer me up at any time .

(just like Sonic).

[hedamorrigan]

Thai GL shows

GAP ✅️⭐️

The Loyal Pin (Freenbecky) ✅️ 3(3/4) ⭐️

The secret of us ✅️⭐️

Only you (Lingorm)

Magic of Zero - Zero Photography (MilkLove) 🟢

23.5 (Milklove) 🟢

Show me love (Englot) 🟢

Petrichor (Englot) (Nov 23) 🟢

Club Friday the series: Love Bully (Englot) 🟢

Club Friday the series: broken anniversary ✅️, series 8, 11, 14,

Affair ✅️ 2(4/4) ⭐️

Apple My Love 🟢

Blank 🟢

Mate (Nov 26) 🟢

My marvellous dream is you ✅️ 10(3/4) (Nice plot)

Pluto ✅️ 2(4/4)

Us

Reverse 4 you 🟢

Reverse with me

Love senior ✅️⛔️

The Last Case

Sunshine in the wind

I'm your moon

Mom pet sawan (Oct 27) 🟢

Cranium (Freenbecky)

The Root ✅️

Deep Night: The Two of Us

Lucky my love (mini series) ✅️⛔️

Unlock your love (mini series) ✅️ 4(4/4) ⛔️

Girllove girlfriend

Be mine: Be my baby (hiatus)

Be mine: More & More (hiatus)

About galaxy (dk if still airing)

Love girlfriend (dk if still airing)

Love in the rain (dk if still airing)

The perfect song (dk if still airing)

Pommanataur 2 (dk if still airing)

Rolling in Love (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

Crush (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

Apo and Bo the Arrogant (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

Irresistible (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

In's Love (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

Rhythm (maybe upcoming: GAP Universe)

No Roméo the series

Movies

Uranus 2324 (movie) (Freenbecky) 🟢⭐️

The passenger (Freenbecky)

My ex's wedding (movie) (Nov 14) 🟢

The cheese sister (movie) ✅️

Yes and No (movie) 🟢

GL side couples

Secret crush on you (FreenBecky)

Bad Buddy (MilkLove) ✅️

The Trainee ✅️

Lovesick 2024

Meows Ears Up ✅️⛔️

I feel you linger in the air

SunsetxVibes

✅️ - Watched

⭐️ - Highly recommend

⛔️ - Terrible

🟢 - Confirmed series

[reimeichan]

DID Representation and The Crowded Room

So we’ve been watching The Crowded Room. For anyone not in the know, it’s a show currently streaming on Apple TV+ based off of the nonfiction novel The Minds of Billy Milligan by Daniel Keyes. The novel is about a system who is acquitted of a crime due to being diagnosed with DID. The show itself, however, is only loosely based off of the novel by the same name; many details have been changed such that the story itself is effectively quite different from (though still similar enough to) the one in the novel. As you can see, the subject matter itself is a very touchy one.

I began watching the show myself to make my own opinions on how the series may be tackling mental health and DID in particular. Mainly for my own curiosity, but also because I wanted to be able to talk about the DID aspects of the show as someone with DID, and talk about it with both people who are watching the show who don’t have DID, and to talk about it with the DID community who may not wish to support the show in any way. And to talk about it with anyone who has DID and is also watching the show to hear their takes.

Without further ado, my current thoughts so far as of the latest episode (Episode 4). Spoiler alert for anyone who is still planning to watch this show.

First of all, the alters. There’s a lot of online debate about which characters in the show are “real” and which are not, and I think that’s due to how the alters are presented in the show. The different alters are all presented as their own people, with their own unique actors, who exist alongside each other in the same physical space and can seemingly interact with each other and also the world at large. We see Ariana kissing Anabelle, we see Jack paying for breakfast, we see Jonny buying drugs off a dealer, all while Danny and others are still in the scene. For me, this comes off more like the different alters are thus a part of Danny’s imagination/hallucinations/delusions, and not like... however you wish to visualize alters. People sharing a body. Parts of a single self. Something in between, or something that encapsulates both of those, or something else entirely. But alters are not typically externalized in this way, to the point that Danny would associate actions that he’d done to things that another person entirely separate from him had done.

For people with DID, each alter is as real as the other alters in the system. Danny himself is an alter just like the rest of them; he may be the host of the system and thus the one who’s taking care of things day to day, but he is not any more real or fake than the other alters. And the show has not done a great job of showing this so far. Ariana’s reflection is missing from the window in the very first scene, the people around Danny are weirded out by his interactions with seemingly nobody else around him (ex: the time Angelo looked at Danny and asked him, “We?”). Perhaps this is done to show that these other alters may not physically exist in the space around Danny, but it comes off more like Danny has an overactive imagination and less like Danny actually interacting with the other alters he shares a brain with.

However... there are aspects of the show I do appreciate. Rya, the therapist that Danny talks to, will regularly point out incongruities in his story that don’t make sense. At first, we’re led to believe that she thinks he may be lying or hiding something from her; at the very least, that’s how Danny reacts to her questions. At the end of Episode 4, however, we see that wasn’t the case at all; she’s been aware that there’s something else going on with Danny and is trying to get him to see these inconsistencies to piece the puzzle pieces together himself. And some of the things she points out are subtle, too. She questions if he typically has trouble remembering things when he mentions that he forgot he had a date, he just waves it off as something along the lines of most people will forget things from time to time, he just has a slightly worse memory, that’s all. I saw a lot of myself there in that moment with Danny; how many times have I said similarly dismissive things about my own poor memory? It’s not amnesia, I just have short term memory loss, or I’m airheaded, or whatever. And as for the inconsistencies in the story itself, Danny will often also handwave those away with some made-up explanation that makes sense in his head. It’s often too easy for those of us with DID to let ourselves just fill in the gaps for anything that doesn’t seem to just “add up”, as this is often how the disorder will hide itself from us.

Outside of all the DID stuff, though, the story is just a mess. The pacing is awfully slow. There’s 4 episodes out already, each one about 40-45 minutes in length, but really everything could probably be condensed down into one or two episodes. Some of this can just be that Danny’s an unreliable narrator, but the story feels less like a confused young man trying to recount the events leading up to whatever crime he committed, and more like a scatterbrained kid jumping from point to point to point. Which, while potentially realistic, doesn’t really make for good narrative storytelling on the screen. Danny’s constantly acting as a terrified, jittery mess of a person no matter what situation he’s in, like some stereotypical poor traumatized child who’s afraid the entire world is out to get him. Perhaps that’s just the Danny alter, but I have yet to really see much range or nuance to Tom Holland’s acting outside of maybe one or two specific scenes that he has with Amanda Seyfried.

Overall, I’m not really enjoying the series. But I’ll continue to watch it because I’m naively hopeful that there’s a chance it may still pleasantly surprise me with better representation or better writing, or maybe both.

[scrunkore]

Scrunkore Media "Thread" 2023: Part 7 (FINALE)

the scrunko core is dragged into 2024

77) Barbie (Movie, 2023)

What a wildly meta take on the most famous plastic doll in the world, this movie is a pink-tinted ride from start to finish with a lot of words to say about the patriarchy and consumerism, and it does it in such a strange way that I honestly have mad respect for. It's easy to see why it popped off so hard, it was fun and had very explicit political theming, as well as that banger Ken song. Very quirky movie that I enjoyed. [4.5★]

78) Sonic Dream Team (iOS, 2023)

Maybe I would have enjoyed this more had I played it on a device that ran it a bit better, but still, this was a pretty nice surprise drop from Sega's mobile game developers. You wouldn't expect an Apple Arcade exclusive Sonic title to have levels as fun as these with characters that play fairly well, but here it is, and I'm here for it. Short but sweet, a nice experience that doesn't offer much but what it does have is pretty good. I will say, some characters do sound kind of bad, though. Maybe they need better directing on the next one. Also I like Ariem, do more with her please. [3.5★]

79) Bocchi the Rock! (Anime, 2022)

Every social anxious gay girlie's favourite pink blob really is that pathetic, but honestly the show is pretty real about it once you look past the delightfully expressive nonsense going on with her animations. Genuinely like how joining a band doesn't magically improve Bocchi and she's still a nervous weirdo like a lot of us are or have been, but instead she just makes slow progress with a support network around her. And it does help the show's case that it's just a fun watch with some really good music, drawing inspiration from the likes of Asian Kung-Fu Generation (the main case are named after them lol). I was a year late to Bocchi, but now I totally get it. [4.5★]

80) Pokémon Violet: The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero (Switch DLC, 2023)

Pokémon DLC seems to be their "thing" now, and I can't complain because this stuff is genuinely pretty good, though not as exceptional as the main game. Fun new and returning creatures in brand new environments from different parts of the world, being a new part of whatever the Japan stand-in is called as well as the ocean around Unova (which they really have been pandering to), along with a genuinely pretty solid character arc for the new boy Kieran and a nice supporting cast. I don't think this DLC as a whole is anything mindblowing, but it adds some substantial new content to what is one of my favourite games in the series in spite of everything it has going against it. There's an epilogue to this coming too, but that already "leaked" because they left it in the game. Oh, Game Freak. [4★]

81) I'm in Love with the Villainess (Anime, 2023)

Himejoshi of the world rejoiced, for the series they have been gassing up for ages finally made it into anime form, and it was really quite good. What is initially just a silly romantic comedy about a girl who is just extremely gay for the villainess of the game world she was reborn into ends up having some pretty genuine moments with discussions of homophobia and sad backstories that hit. What I hope to be able to call the "first season" covered a nice amount of content and ended on just the right note to get you wanting more, and overall it's just very gay and very good. Helps that the light novels' author seems like a real one too, she's interacted with fans in every language she's able to and I'll have to read her original work. [4.5★]

82) Doctor Who 2023 Specials (TV, 2023)

Doctor Who is back, and they brought back an old showrunner and even an old Doctor for a bit to pretty entertaining results, along with introducing the next Doctor in a divisive but interesting way. I will say, some odd decisions were made there, but I don't really mind too much, as the special episodes released within the last couple months of the year were really fun adventures. Concluding a story that's over a decade old, introducing genuinely good trans rep, finally going back to a classic-era villain just to kick his ass, it's great to see. I think Wild Blue Yonder was the best of these, being perfectly weird as good Doctor Who often is, but they were all nice. Christmas special showed promise for 2024's upcoming series too, May can't come soon enough. [4★]

82.1) Doctor Who: The Daleks Colour Special (TV, 2023)

A curious addition to the 60th anniversary of the series was a cut-down edit of the Daleks' original serial from the 1960s remade in colour with unnecessary inclusions of music and some odd choices of what to trim from it. I'm not sure it was very good, but it was nice of them to bring back a frankly ancient story in a new way. An interesting experiment, perhaps.

82.2) Doctor Who: Liberation of the Daleks (Comic, 2023)

Apparently they want you to read this if you want to know what happened to the previous Sonic Screwdriver, which is kind of funny because that's not actually that big a deal within this rather silly story. It's a short and weird comic plot featuring a virtual multiverse of different quirky Daleks, yet another excuse to have them in something because they weren't in the main specials. I kinda liked it, though, it was fun enough.

83/84) Scott Pilgrim (Comic, 2004-2010)/Vs The World (Movie, 2010)

Took me long enough to get into this series, and yeah it is actually pretty good. Shitty people bumbling into improvement is something that does require reading comprehension to enjoy (lol) but this is a good story where you're obviously supposed to know Scott and indeed several of the other characters have and do make a lot of mistakes. The movie does make this worse as well, kinda skimming over most of the comics' storyline, but it's well-directed so it's good enough if you want to watch it. Really has fun with it, and the series is in fact quite funny especially with how pathetic the lead character is. I do recommend reading the comics, it's a series with a fun vibe but also they say the R-slur a few times because it was the 2000s so watch out for that. Luckily other media in the series avoids doing that, because by the 2010s most people figured you shouldn't say that. [4★/3.5★] 85) Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (Anime, 2023)

I can't believe they actually made Rebuild of Scott Pilgrim and that's not really hyperbole, this new Netflix anime based on the series does a great job of both deconstructing and fleshing out the source material in some really nice ways. Characters previously treated largely as jokes in the movie especially (poor Roxie) get a lot more thought put into them and many of the cast end up happier. I don't want to spoil a lot, but this is some good stuff that comes at everything from a different angle without sacrificing too much of what made the original stuff stand out. Might be my favourite of these. [4.5★]

86) Neo Yokio (Anime, 2017)

This show is so fucking stupid, so naturally it's the last thing I watched in 2023. It's some vapid rich person hipster shit but I think it knows that, and a lot of the comedy comes from that, but I feel some of the funny stuff is unintended too. Frankly it's hard to tell what angle it's going for, and it does have one kinda transphobic Ranma 1/2 parody, so I'm not sure if I'd recommend it in good faith, but it was a good thing to just mindlessly watch and laugh at from time to time. I'll watch the Christmas special at some point. [NEO YOKIO★]

And thus, the media "thread" comes to an end. That sure was a year in my life where I consumed media, I can say that much. Maybe for 2024 I'll be better at keeping up with this thing, but no promises. Still, this was fun enough.

Last part

[greensparty]

TV reviews - Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bassists Human Too? / John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial

This week I got to review two unscripted mini-series that both dropped recently on streamers.

Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bassists Human Too?

As the singer and bassist for Rush, Geddy Lee has amassed quite a cult following. They were a thinking man's rock trio where you literally felt smarter just for listening to them. I went through a serious Rush phase as a teen. I had heard their hits, but began buying their 70s CDs one by one. I even learned some of their songs when I was taking guitar lessons. 2112, their epic rock opera, is my personal fave of their discography. In 1996, I saw the band live at the Meadowlands in NJ. Fantastic live band too. Now, Lee is getting his own limited unscripted series Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bassists Human Too? which premiered on Paramount+ last week.

TV poster

Produced by Banger Films and directed by Sam Dunn (who directed the Rush doc Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage as well as Super Duper Alice Cooper, and ZZ Top: That Little Ol' Band from Texas, this is sort of like Geddy Lee's version of a travel show, where a host visits a different location each episode, talks to a local (or many), and takes in the local food and culture. The four episodes that have been released are Lee speaking with Les Claypool of Primus and The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Robert Trujillo of Metallica, Melissa Auf der Maur of Hole and Smashing Pumpkins, and Krist Novoselic of Nirvana and 3rd Secret. Lee goes to their home, does activities with them and eventually talks and plays music with them. It is very much insider-baseball for musicians.

Lee is an engaging figure and a great host. All of these subjects so far have been bassists who came along after Rush and in some cases there was overlap between their band and Rush, but I think it might be interesting if the next season was bassists who pre-dated Rush. As a huge fan of Novoselic and Auf der Maur, and very familiar with Claypool and Trujillo, I of course was fully engaged in their rapport and conversation. Novoselic showing Lee his grange and flying with him on his plane is something I could watch all day! In some instances, it's Lee discovering things he hasn't done before like surfing with Trujillo. This is a cool show for music geeks, but beyond Paul McCartney the average person can't name too many bassists, so it's nice to see bassists talking shop and then some!

For info on Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bassists Human Too?

4 out of 5 stars

John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial

The December 8, 1980 murder of John Lennon outside his NYC apartment building at the hands of deranged "fan" Mark David Chapman is one of the great tragedies in that he was such a tremendous talent taken from us at age 40 way before his time. I was only about 4 when it happened, so I don't have any "where were you when Lennon was shot" memories (although I was into the Yellow Submarine movie). In later years as I got into The Beatles and Lennon's solo work, I saw many documentaries and specials about that tragedy. Not only was Lennon in a good place and happy with wife Yoko Ono and raising his 5 year-old son Sean, but he had just released a new album Double Fantasy, his first in five years and you got the sense it was the start of a big comeback. I've visited the Lennon memorial Strawberry Fields in Central Park many times. But I digress. The tragic murder is now a 3-part documentary mini-series John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial, which just premiered on Apple TV+.

TV poster

Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland, this is a deep dive into the day of the murder (what Lennon was doing leading up to the assassination, what Chapman was doing), the investigation, the trial and outcome.

Anyone who reads this blog, knows I am a lifelong Beatle and Lennon fanatic. Just recently, I got to review the documentary The Lost Weekend: A Love Story about May Pang’s relationship with Lennon and I also got to review the re-release of The Beatles’ Red and Blue albums. So I went into this very familiar with the subject. The thing that impressed me most was the depth of interview subjects, i.e. cab drivers that night, police and law enforcement that night, Dakota employees and residents, hospital staff and more. Hearing their recollections and some of the archival footage are quite impressive. But the thing that Lennon fans needs to understand going into this is that this is more of a true crime doc than a music or celebrity doc. I say this because there are very few Lennon musical collaborators other than producer Jack Douglas, and Yoko and Sean are shown in archival footage. There have been some fantastic Lennon docs in the past, notably Imagine: John Lennon (possibly the best Lennon doc there's been), The U.S. vs. John Lennon, and LennoNYC. This one is very much looking into the crime itself, the legal ramifications and the outcome. Do not expect to learn much about Lennon himself here if you're a fan, but you might learn quite a bit about Chapman (not that you necessarily want to know more about that monster). As a documentarian I can appreciate this doc series, but as Lennon fan I wanted a little more about Lennon, his family and the recording he was doing at that time, and it only scratched that surface.

For info on John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial

3 out of 5 stars