#big moves for a tv show in 2005!!!!

[sparrowlucero]

Instead of discourse about showrunners and lesbians and whatever, I'm gonna bring a different type of discourse...whats ur fav and least Dr Whomst monsters. Hard mode: only the practical ones.

ok so I do like all the obvious ones, I like the angels, I like the vashta nerada, I like the not-things, I like the eternals. Here's a few deeper cuts (focusing on the tv show specifically):

they peaked with these maggots. they rock. pretty sure they're made with taxidermy? really great puppetry. I really like this thing:

what a cool design for this kind of forgotten midseason episode.

this is such a fun design for a langolier-type monster. I love how their crest and tail gives them the silhouette of a grim reaper

The 60s cybermen rock. I feel like they're hesitant to use them often in the modern show because they do look very 1960s but I think there's something really uncomfortable and evocative about the cloth faces that's lost when they're cool metallic robots. The mix between looking like an old diving suit and the implication of there being a chopped up person inside is gnarly and I love it. Simple, creepy, iconic design.

My favorite design in the show is probably this:

The 456 from the spinoff series torchwood. They didn't need the puppet to emote or move a ton since it spends the entire season in a little tank obscured in mist, so they just went crazy with the design and made it really bizarre looking. Extremely top tier alien. Anyways, negative. I really don't like this satan. the satan kind of sucks. the impossible planet is great atmospheric sci fi horror; every image of build up in it is haunting and leagues ahead of the climactic scene where he meets the satan. It singlehandedly kind of kills the vibe.

Personally I would have just kept the actual appearance off screen, just have it be eyes in the dark or something. Apparently they also tossed around the idea that it would end up being a normal little girl who was chained up in the cave and I think that would have visually fit the rest of the episode better.

I'm really not big on the modern design for the sea devils (the green one on the right). I think the classic ones clearly took a lot of direct influence from real animals and generally is a pretty thoughtfully realized design, the modern ones seem like they were first and foremost using the classic ones for reference and didn't quite capture the nuance of the design. Sad, as I would really like to see design for these guys with modern puppetry.

I think this is actually a pretty contentious opinion but the work of the specific studio who headed this redesign generally wasn't my favorite. Apparently there was some sort of major, semi public falling out between the fx studio that had been working on the show since 2005 and the people who started running the show in 2018, and they were briefly replaced with a much less experienced studio. No hate to them of course (I think this was actually their first job like, ever, and a lot of the work was done in crunch time?) but the difference did stand out to me:

[found--family]

i dont want to hear any complaints about a shortage of content bc of the strikes when theres 15 seasons of Supernatural to consume thats 327 episodes at 45minutes each of Dean Jackles Winchester and 12 seasons of Gayngel Castiel in the longest running tv fantasy series and one of the most meta-rich shows ever created from 2005 to 2020 the likes of which we will never see again with Destiel awarded best onscreen chemistry before it was canon and most popular ship on ao3 with over 100k fics plus a prequel series and hopes for a reboot and while we're talking you can also check out their other recent projects including award-winning Roadfood and The Boys and Big Sky and Gotham Knights and you might even enjoy over 400 vintage episodes of young jackles on Days Of Our Lives circa 1997 to 2000 and various other guest and spot and main appearances for Jensen and Misha on shows like Dark Angel and Dawson's Creek and Smallville and NCIS and 24 and Charmed and ER and Monk and Timeless and the masterpieces that are TSA America and The Plight of Clownana and movies like My Bloody Valentine and Devour and Ten Inch Hero and Stonehenge Apocalypse and Finding Home and Moving Alan and of course voicework of animated Batman and podcast Bridgewater and if thats still not enough you have 17 years (and counting) of convention footage and countless other projects the rest of the spn cast have appeared in so dont worry there is no shortage of content

[absolutely-not-my-main-blog]

Writing this on my phone at work so a lil jumbled but one of the things that really does make Macdennis one of the greatest will-they-won't-theys in tv history and why it doesn't annoy me they haven't gotten together yet even this far in when I would usually be pulling out my hair in other cases much earlier on is that it doesn't fall into a lot of the common pitfalls of the genre because in most shows, you *know* the characters are going to be together from the start and they don't actually have a solid reason why it can't happen sooner, other than they need to drag it out for the show, so rather than use the tools they have and naturally play off the existing tension between characters, they almost always feel the need to throw in arbitrary, extraneous, and often frustrating external obstacles instead, like a series of random cardboard cutout boyfriends/girlfriends/wrong place/wrong times that last entire arcs over and over again for the *sole purpose* of keeping them apart and being like not yet tee hee, to the point where you're just like okay, okay, get on with it, already, but with Sunny, almost every obstacle is *internal* (or based on already built in external factors that affect them internally and haven't just been fabricated on the spot to create problems in the relationship): Mac's struggles with his sexuality and religion, both their parents' intense homophobia and neglect, Dennis' past experience of being sexually assaulted, and his fear of being perceived as anything less than perfect in a society he's learned he has to hide from/always be stealthy in, lest you be taken advantage of or hurt, in general that societal expectation, you will get married to a woman (Maureen), start a family, live a "normal" nuclear life, that's how the story goes, etc. etc. not to mention the culture of the time the show itself first aired, network tv of 2005, they didn't start with this endgame in mind, practically unheard of that they would ever get together in any official capacity even if they did, so they were able to grow separately from each other before starting to grow together, naturally inclined toward each other, yet just as naturally held back by themselves and the world that made them this way. But eventually... they outlived that world, and after being so used to standing still, now they're struggling to keep up, to find themselves, to find their place in an environment they no longer recognize, and to reconcile the fact that maybe they don't have to hide anymore, maybe they don't have to be miserable, to run away, it's okay it's okay, but it was not okay for so long, they need time. And I'll get into the parallels more another time because I'm obsessed with them, but in Waiting for Godot (and in turn Big Mo), there's the theme of "The whole world changes, only we can't," but Mac comes out, Dennis claims back his heart, Big Mo shows up, so maybe they can maybe they can, and that change is necessary before anything else can move forward. And god, do I have a lot more to say on *that* topic and theme of change, but I'm saving it for a full essay, god willing🤞

[terastalungrad]

The biggest thing Doctor Who fandom gets wrong is the assumption that Doctor Who works the same as Star Trek, or Star Wars, or Marvel comics.

You see this when people ask whether something's "canon", or when they refer to the Doctor Who "extended universe".

But the show's too old and too strange to work in this way.

By now, Doctor Who's spinoff media are more similar to other big franchises. But until the show's 2005 return, the spinoffs carried greater weight in a lot of ways.

From the late 70s, the writers and artists working on Doctor Who comics were more prestigious in their fields than the writers and directors working on the TV show. Even before this year's adaptation, The Star Beast was already a stronger influence on the Russell T Davies version of the show than anything shown on TV the same year.

Before the mid-80s, Doctor Who wasn't available on VHS. And since the UK didn't syndicate the show like the US did for Star Trek, most of the show was unavailable in the present day.

For most people, then, the definitive versions of Doctor Who stories were novelisations. The books are a stronger influence on the Moffat era than the TV serials were.

When the show ended in 1989, the books continued - now telling original stories (known as the New Adventures). Writers from the show moved into this medium. Unrestrained by the limitations of the TV show, these novels became hugely influential.

This can be counterintuitive for a Star Wars fan, where the films take precedence over novels, or for a superehero comics fan, used to a strictly-defined canon that determines what "counts".

[golby-moon]

and now it's time for the art I did for the @spnangelsanddemons-rb (which is related to the @spnangelbang if anyone's curious which they're probably not but)

anyway. here's the banner I did for the fic on the left, and the original art thing I threw out there for the reverse bang that got it claimed. the original idea I had was based on Dean saying if he ever goes dark side, he wants Cas to 'take him out' and Cas being Cas completely misunderstands this and decides that means he should take Dean on a date (hence the flowers)

I tried to give Dean a demon-y sort of true form thing inspired by the dark smoke thing they do while adding stuff like the cracked soul to more subtly imply hey that's a demon. idk why everything is so glow-y either I just wanted to light up Cas' halo and angel eyes there and uh yeah now everything's glowing oops

by contrast this has no glowing though it does have a giant mirror because I love suffering. I actually did model this with weird cat erasers we have for some reason that naturally don't even erase anything and that's the only reason why the mirror isn't extremely wacky

the idea of having the mirror was to show the true forms of Dean and Cas as Dean becomes less and less of a demon as the story progresses and Cas sits there staring like normal even as his wings are totally visible which he doesn't even notice or worry about. I designed the little plates and food without realizing that none of them would appear at this angle and that's why everything's kinda pushed to the sides I was just happy they looked like food and couldn't make myself delete them dbjsudru

the only thing I didn't move was the vase of flowers that I had set up in the center of the table, which inspired me to make a little divider thing for the second time ever. along with the flowers, there's a fancy crane napkin thing and ofc a pie. never used this pen for anything big before really but I do like how these turned out so I might try it again sometime

the fic this is made for is called "Take Me Out" by @crematosis for the spn angels and demons reverse bang

(04/30/24)

[scotianostra]

Happy birthday Scottish TV host and entertainer Craig Ferguson born in Glasgow, on May 17th, 1962.

Ferguson was born in Stobhill Hospital and brought up not far from where I now live in nearby Cumbernauld. He admits to growing up "chubby and bullied" At age sixteen hen left Cumbernauld High School and began an apprenticeship to be an electronics technician at a local factory of American company Burroughs Corporation.

In the early 1980s, Ferguson drummed in punk bands for a few years before a bartending job led him to Michael Boyd, the artistic director of the Tron Theatre. Boyd talked Ferguson into giving acting a shot, which Ferguson soon did, finding the comedy prong of the art too compelling to ignore.

Ferguson soon created an outrageous—and successful—stage character called Bing Hitler. On top of the local success he was experiencing, Ferguson used the experience as a backdrop from which to move into mainstream acting roles.

Craig Ferguson’s first TV appearance came on an episode of the sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf in 1988, and it was enough to get Ferguson to head overseas to the United States for his first role on American TV. The part was playing a teacher in the pilot episode of High (1989), which starred Gwyneth Paltrow and Zach Braff. The pilot wasn’t picked up, though, and Ferguson headed back to Scotland.

Once back in the UK, Ferguson found that roles came sporadically before he landed his own BBC show The Ferguson Theory in 1994 While the sketch comedy show put the funnyman front and centre, it only lasted five episodes.

When Theory was no more, Ferguson packed his bags once again for America. But this time he’d find a lot more success waiting for him than he did years before. When Ferguson joined The Drew Carey Show as Nigel Wick in 1996, his run lasted several seasons and led to the actor becoming a known quantity in the world of U.S. television.

Ferguson’s busy life on TV and the big screen got a lot busier in January 2005, when he took over the late-night comedy series The Late Late Show. Once it found its footing, Ferguson’s show was another hit, earning its first Emmy nomination a year into its run. Mixed in with his work on the show were several high-profile big-screen roles, often voice-over work, in movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Winnie the Pooh and Brave.

Ferguson, who became an American citizen in 2008, is also an author, publishing Between the Bridge and the River and American on Purpose.

On 28 April 2014, Ferguson announced he would be leaving The Late Late Show at the end of 2014, with the final episode airing on 19th December that year.

Ferguson is a recovering alcoholic, sober since 18th February 1992, another Scot who has dealt with his depression, he admits to having considered suicide before giving up the bottle.

In 2017 he released a six-episode web show with his wife, Megan Wallace Cunningham, titled Couple Thinkers. For two seasons from 2021, Ferguson hosted the American game show The Hustler, which airs on ABC.

In 2022, an adaptation of Ferguson's film Saving Grace (2000) was announced as a stage musical in which Ferguson will portray a "villainous banker". It was adapted by April De Angelis from Ferguson's and Mark Crowdy's screenplay, with music by fellow Scot KT Tunstall. In October 2022, the musical was confirmed to run for a limited twelve performances at Riverside Studios from 22 November until 4 December 2022 as an "intimate first run.

The rumor mill has been buzzing that Craig is thinking about returning to the talk show ranks In a recent interview he said;

“I have meetings next week in Los Angeles for a show,” Ferguson said, calling from New England while on vacation with his family. “I’m considering doing a show but I just don’t want to do one every day. I like doing a talk show, but not enough to do it every single day.”

[kwebtv]

Louis Cameron Gossett Jr. (May 27, 1936 – March 29, 2024) Film, stage and television actor who won The Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in An Officer and a Gentleman and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor for a single appearance in a Drama or Comedy series for Roots.

Predominantly a film actor who appeared in many acclaimed moves he made many guest appearences in many television series, including The Big Story (1957-1958), The Doctors and the Nurses (1962), East Side West Side (1964), Cowboy in Africa (1967-1968), The Invaders (1968), Daktari (1968), The Bill Cosby Show (1970), The Young Rebels (series regular 1970-1971), The Partridge Family (1971), Bonanza (1971), Longstreet (1971), The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1971), Alias Smith and Jones (1971), The Rookies (1972), Owen Marshall, Counselor at Law (1973), McCloud (1974), Lucas Tanner (1975), Petrocelli (1974-1975), Caribe (1975), Good Times (1974-1975), The Jeffersons (1975), The Six Million Dollar Man (1975), Little House on the Prairie (1976), The Rockford Files (1976-1977), The Lazarus Syndrome (series regular 1979), Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1981), The Powers of Matthew Star (series regular 1982-1983), Gideon Oliver (series regular 1989), Picket Fences (1994), Touched by an Angel (1997), Promised Land (1997), Early Edition (1997), Ellen (1997), Half & Half (2004), Stargate SG-1 (2005-2006), ER (2009), Madam Secretary (2014) and Extant (2014-2015) plus many made for TV movies. (Wikipedia)

IMDb Listing

[tnc-n3cl]

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction? 🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it 🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Thanks for the ask @unmaskedcardinal !

🍓 ⇢ how did you get into writing fanfiction?

Well, I've been a huge Trekkie since like '93 or so and actually wrote a few stories in high school that were deep into my Trek fanfic idea (I'll explain more in a moment). So these were your typical short stories, and I edited them a lot over the years and worked on the lore stuff. Then 2005 rolls around and Star Trek: Enterprise got canceled, and I read a few script based "virtual series".

These were basically a group of fans writing and editing stories and making some art (and even a few videos with some of them) in script format and trying to release one episode every week as if they were doing a TV show. So I got it in my head to try that and started working on my Star Trek fic.

I had this plan for a long saga: Frontlines (10 years after VOY, "mini-series" lasting roughly a year), New Frontiers (12 years after Frontlines, another "mini-series"), Dark Frontiers (picks up right after New Frontiers), First Line & An unnamed series (full length series running concurrently, like 30 years or so after Dark Frontiers, don't have the exact date on hand) and finally Redemption to wrap everything up.

Those stories I wrote in high school were set during First Line, the first one actually intended for use as a season finale. Frontlines revolved around a galaxy wide conflict against the Borg, each episode focusing on two different fleets (after a couple episodes that bounce around a LOT). For example, "Battle Has Begun" focuses on the U.S.S. Archer (an Akira-class ship) assisting the Xindi in repelling the Borg (said ship's tactical officer is one Lt. Comm. Jack Archer while the XO is Comm. Tuvok) as the A Plot, while the B Plot revolves around a new Klingon ship (with Ambassador Worf aboard) helping out a Nebula-class U.S.S. Einstein who eventually aid Picard aboard the Enterprise who's working with a Romulan taskforce lead by Sela.

More or less this conflict with the Borg is to get most of the major powers of the Milky Way working together. The Borg were receiving help from Borg from an alternate quantum reality (not the Mirror Universe). Blowing up the Borg Transuniversal Gateway leads to the formation of an anomaly that Lenara Kahn does science on to form a stable wormhole to another galaxy. This is where New Frontiers picks up.

Jack Archer's captain of the Enterprise-F now and heads to this new Galaxy (the Mura Galaxy) and gets an assignment to find out what happened to a Klingon survey team, which leads to an encounter with a race that get named the Dinozons who are velociraptors that were moved off Earth by some mysterious race for mysterious reasons. Their evolution was tampered with via self-replicating nanomachines that are passed down from parent to child and effectively deactivate the humanoid program from TNG's "The Chase".

So they still look like velociraptors, and things just get weirder from there cause there were dolphin aliens, wolf aliens, and raptor (bird) aliens all fitting this mold. Oh, and they all know they're originally from Earth. They were all in this big alliance 1,000 years ago until this big galaxy wide war ripped apart the Mura Galaxy and they all drifted apart in the aftermath. Archer gets ordered to make first contact with them all, conspiracies happen, the bad guys from the war 1,000 years ago return and seal the wormhole stranding the Milky Way people in the Mura Galaxy.

That's where Dark Frontiers comes in, dealing with that whole mess. So by First Line, the Federation, Klingon, Romulan, etc. survivors had all formed an Alliance with the weird aliens and one of these Alliance ships (Excalibur) was the hero ship for the stories that I wrote in high school.

Then I drew a Stargate ship that lead to me writing Stargate: Crusade, then LoZ brain weasels started burrowing and now I've got The Realm Walker...

TL;DR I got into writing fanfiction as a coping mechanism of sorts for the cancellation of ENT. Or at the very least that's what made me really buckle down and write down the ideas that had been floating around in my brain for a decade or so.

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

I have to pick a favorite?! Oh man... Um... *spins wheel* How bout this BotW themed Midna?

Well first off I love Midna so anything with her is more or less guarantied to be a fave. Love the blue glow of the Ancient Sheikah tech added to the Fused Shadow. In general I really love this artist's style (check out this kinda scary Kass or this Teba).

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Hmm... I guess an untagged kink I'm not into? Or maybe a really bad take on a character?

Writer Truth & Dare Ask Game

[familyofpaladins]

tmnt asks #2

When were you first introduced and what was your first reaction/thoughts on the franchise?

thank you for the ask!!! <3

this is a (hopefully)funnily long answer

SO, when I was little I used to go to an in-home daycare (meaning it was just one lady babysitting about 10 different kids). When I was little we got a whole two (2) channels to watch tv, because we lived out in the country and didnt (couldnt) pay for cable. My babysitter however DID have cable, so for the hour or two we were allowed to watch tv, TMNT (2003) was occasionally watched when ever it happened to be on during tv time. Once me and my siblings were old enough we stopped going to the babysitter and no more tmnt. I could not have told you much about what I remembered of the show from that time but I know I liked it. That was roughly around 2005 or 6, so the show was still ongoing.

Fast forward (pun not intended) another 4 or 5 years and my family moves. When we move I suddenly have access to over 20 channels. I spent a couple different Saturdays watching differnt saturday morning cartoons to find ones I liked. One of those channels hosted 4Kids Saturday morning cartoons. On one of my channel surfing escapades, I saw an advertisement of Tmnt, and remembered that I liked it before. So I started watching that channel. Now this was in 2009, so I'm not sure if Back to the Sewer was just airing or it was on repeats already, but I remember watching parts of fast forward and Back to the sewer. I even got to see Turtles Forever air on TV at the time!

Then they stopped doing reruns of it, and showed other shows and I forgot about 90% of the show.

I Did know that I liked the show. And that Either Leo or Mikey or maybe Don (I was indecisive lol) was my favorite. But not Raph. I didnt like Raph because he was always so mean to Mikey and picking on him. (And this is HILARIOUS now because, Raph is one of my favorite characters lol).

Fast forward another 10 years or so and I start seeing random stuff here on tumblr about Rise of the tmnt. I wasnt sure how to feel about the style/ fact that the turtles were all different species, but well I liked the other tmnt show, so I decided to go ahead and watch it.

I LOVED IT. I wasnt sure how I felt about Leo not being the leader at first, but I LOVED this Raph, and he was a good big bro and leader. At first I also didnt know how I felt about splinter, and didnt like how distant from the boys he seemed to be. But as the show went on I loved him more! I really liked the rise series and was sad that it ended.

Another year or two later I decided to rewatch the 2003 series since I didnt remember a whole lot of it. I honestly expected not to like it as much, or that watching it as an adult would make it seem silly. But it was serious!! It had EXCELLENT continuity! I had expected things in one episode to be forgotten in the next, but it wasn't!!! It was so good, I fell in love with it all over again, (and appreciated Raph much more this time round lol).

Chilled out with other media for about 6 months, then decided to watch the 1987 series for the heck of it, enjoyed it more than I thought i would (Turtles Forever, as much as I love the movie, did the 87 boys dirty).

I had seen a clip of the Batman vs tmnt movie here on tumblr, and couldnt find anywhere to watch it online. So when I saw it in a set of tmnt movies at the store I bought it.

Also included was the three 1990's movies and the TMNT 2007 movie.

I like the 90s movies a lot more than I thought I would, the puppetry was AMAZING, kudos to all the stunt guys fighting in those suits!

At that point of watching the 87 cartoon and all those movies, I became obsessed with the franchise and have been now for over a year lol.

I got the 2012 series on dvd and was worried I wouldn't like the 3D animation style, but I actually enjoyed it WAY MORE than I thought I would. They did fun things with the eyes and backgrounds which was cool.

Each iteration is so unique, and yet has so many ties to other versions, it's just a wonderful universe and I'm so happy to be here. :)

Am now realizing that all of that is WAY more than just "initial first thoughts of the franchise" lol. but yeah I think I just really liked the serious tone of the 2003 series when I was little and the fact that it wasnt a "baby show" that brb I was allowed to watch. And turtles are cool!! So yeah little me loved it and remembered it even though if you had asked little me to tell you anything about it, all I would have probably been able to say is "WATCH OUT FOR SHREDDER" from the theme song, and that Leo got hurt at one point and the others all told stories about him and that in raph's story they fought a giant crocodile.

[the-phantom-author]

i love the idea of hasan, who grew up in turkey and missed a huge chunk of american media/pop culture, and former child star gf who blew up in the early/mid 2000’s.

she didn’t come up doing typical child star disney stuff, she was more so horror movies and shows like supernatural, so it’s not obvious that she was a child either meaning it’s not till around six months in that he fully registers ‘wait you’re only 25? but you’ve done all these things?’ and she’s just confused like ‘yeah i’ve been working since i was basically able to talk? i won my first emmy when i was 9?’

also her being besties with caroline and will as well and will forcing hasan to have movie nights catching up on her filmography lmao, maybe a series for the patreon of him reacting to her old shows, sometimes with her.

Child actor!gf!!!!

Like he knows she's a big deal now, you can see her in many of the big cultural defining movies that have been made in the past six or so years, he's heard Will talk about her a lot every award season. What Will doesn't mention, is that she's been on TV since she could walk.

She's talking with Will or Caroline or Nick (from The Yard). And someone brings up a movie that Hasan knows is older, it's from the late 2000's, so Hasan asks and she's like "yeah, I've been in films since 2005 🙂" and moves on with the conversation.

[mrs-foleys-baby-boy]

Some Backstory on Wrestling and Me

I was quite young when I first got into the WWE. It was something that my dad had been into for a long time, but I only really took notice of it around 2004, 2005. I was quite young at the time so it's hard to remember. My dad can be a pretty abrasive, won't take shit dude, and so his appreciation for the WWE has historically centered itself around a respect for the ability to get the shit kicked out of you. He paid attention to the kayfabe and the story arcs but they took a back seat; the star of the show was the fights.

Which for a lot of outsiders looking in at the world of professional wrestling, I can understand how you might think that wrestling... Is about wrestling. And it is, to an extent. But it's truly so much more.

Even from that young impressionable age where I was grappling with anger issues, I think I always had a lot of appreciation for the theatrical side of the WWE. Truly my budding love for the theatre and my love for sweaty men yelling at each other walked hand in hand. I loved the costumes. The character designs. The backstories. These fantastical larger than life characters that in practice boiled down to a big guy in a cool looking jacket, but by god these men knew how to sell it. Raw and Smackdown in these eras had a habit of focusing on darker, edgier characters, and a tiny me lapped it right up.

As a child, my favorite wrestler was Kane. A big, foreboding figure who by this point had stopped wearing his cool mask and shaved his head, admittedly a much less cool looking wrestler than he was when he debuted as Kane in the late 90's, but he had the dark backstory and the fire and the chokeslams so I loved it.

Despite my love for the brooding heels, I also had love for the babyfaces. John Cena was getting a lot of screen time, beginning to distance himself from the edgy gangster image he had once had where he would tell the Rock he was going to give him a Cleveland steamer (yes, really)

But I also had a soft spot for Rey Mysterio. A relative newcomer to the promotion who was a huge babyface that would play the David to many much larger, meaner wrestlers' Goliaths (particularly Big Show, another favorite of mine.)

On some level I think I saw what many young children see in pro wrestling, role models who face endless adversity and continual strife in their lives but go out and prove themselves every single week to be strong. Tough. Bigger than the hardships they had to face.

It also provided me a nice outlet for my budding artistic creativity. The time-honored tradition of hand-making signs to hold up in the audience was alive in my household, despite the fact that I never actually got to see an event live. I would draw my signs on printer paper and store them tidily in a cardboard box beneath my TV, with my Rey Mysterio mask. Frequently I would make them for wrestlers I didn't actually care all that much about, just because I wanted to make another sign.

But then at some point around 2007, (or perhaps sometime after, time dilation is a bitch) I stopped watching Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown. I don't recall there being any reason for it. When you're young these passions can burn very brightly but flicker out without a moment's notice for unclear reasons. The interest simply wasn't there anymore for one reason or another.

And so life moved on. I abandoned my wrestling hobby, although the WWE still moved on without me. As did a number of other promotions that people have come to know and love. I would carry a vague shadow of my once intense passion forward with me in life, but it didn't really come up a lot. The friends that I made didn't really have any interest, or if they did it was a long-lost childhood one like mine. That is until 2017, when I discovered what would become my new favorite band— the Mountain Goats.

If you're not familiar with them, they are a post folk band with a very eclectic and poetic lyrical style. They are much more than this, and I have much more to say on the matter, but I'll try to keep it brief for the purpose of this post; John Darnielle, singer-songwriter for the band is quite fond of concept albums. In 2015 they released Beat the Champ, a concept album about professional wrestling.

In these songs lies a haunting and deeply personal exploration of a profession that involves injuring yourself for the attention of screaming fans. It grapples with mortality, with the shortcomings of the human body when you treat it so harshly for so long, with the emotional turmoil that comes from sacrificing your own well being for the happiness of another, and in an angle that speaks specifically to John's own experiences, it explores the relationship an abused child has with his abuser, and with searching for justice in the form of a moonsault press off the top rope.

This album floored me. I loved it musically, lyrically, and the subject matter spoke to a part of that young wrestling fan that I never even knew existed until that moment.

When a long-time wrestling fan accepts you into the fold and teaches you how wrestling works, generally they're going to tell you that while the things that they're doing are dangerous and shouldn't be attempted at home, the people performing these stunts have an extreme amount of knowledge on how to perform them as safely as possible, being able to sell it for the camera but not actually sustaining (major) injury.

For much of wrestling, this is true. But it fails to consider the side of wrestling (i.e. "hardcore" wrestling) that is predicated on actually getting hurt, and much more importantly it downplays the fact that these men and women do still get legitimately injured on a regular basis. It's not unusual at all to see wrestlers going about their high impact job with a broken foot. A brace here. A cast there. Sure, many of these injuries are played up for kayfabe, but to say that the risk of injury in the sport is negligible is simply ignorant. It fails to take into account the horrifying cases of people like Jimmy Snuka and Chris Benoit.

But as a child you're more likely to accept what you're told as fact. And I watched wrestling understanding that at the end of the day, these people would be okay. But that didn't stop the queasy feeling in the stomach you get when you see someone get hit really hard, when you see them start dripping blood from the head. When I listened to that album, it put things into perspective. That fear that I felt was justified. It was vindicating. But also saddening.But though I had a newfound respect for my childhood passion, I would not get back into actually watching wrestling until August of last year. And it was all because of Mankind that I did.

I've always loved Halloween, and I've always loved putting together costumes and playing characters, so as the autumn months approach I'm on the lookout for what I can put together. As a taller, heavyset guy with a beard and hair that I prefer to keep long, I sometimes struggle finding characters from things that I enjoy to dress up as and feel like I properly represent the character. The year prior I had been Brad Armstrong, protagonist of the game LISA: The Painful RPG who is an emotional wreck who solves his problems with his fists. It's funny the sorts of characters I find myself gravitating towards.

But that August I had stumbled across Mankind, a wrestler that I vaguely knew to exist but had never really properly engaged with. Mick Foley, despite his long tenure with the WWE, was largely absent for the years that I watched as a child. The most I knew of him was his appearance as an unlockable character in the PS2 game Smackdown Vs. Raw, which did him no favors.

But as I looked more at him, I discovered how much I loved the character design. A relatively simple design, but an odd juxtaposition of deranged and disfigured while simultaneously trying to look professional. And the body type was perfect. The biggest sticking point was the mask, but I found a nice quality latex replica on Etsy. All the rest could be easily thrifted and weathered by hand.

And the more I researched Mick Foley, the more I came to discover that this was a man that was the epitome of everything I had ever loved or respected about pro wrestling. A man who played not just one larger than life character, but three interchangeably. Intriguing and iconic costume designs (Though I say this, I recognize that they probably look really fucking corny to a lot of people, but it's The Aesthetic). He explored the subtleties of these characters on a regular basis while presenting them as human, as emotionally complex people going through struggles in their lives.

And perhaps most famously, he was a man who was really good at getting hurt. You see him seemingly take massive amounts of punishment and then continue to keep fighting. He loses blood. Teeth. Appendages. Okay maybe just one appendage but that's still too many. And he wears those scars and injuries as a badge of pride. Every one is an audience full of people for whom he performed and left everything he had out on the mat. Because he loves the art. He loves the fans. Pro wrestling is historically a subculture for outcasts, and he draws on his own experience as an outcast to empathize with his audience, and to say "I see you. I will fight for you. We can make it through life together."

And by god I love the man.

He's also just a genuinely very good person with (to my knowledge) good opinions, which is surprisingly rare for WWE superstars from the era. Remember my childhood favorite, Kane? Yeah, he's the Republican mayor of Knox County, Tennessee now. Like. What. But Mick has come out in vocal support of LGBT rights (trans rights in particular) as well as donating his time and labor to various good causes. Also he plays Santa for children and makes Christmas a big part of his personality. While I try my best to keep all of my "idols" at arms length because the human experience is multifaceted and anyone can turn out to be a very specific brand of shithead at any time, everything I've seen seems to suggest that Mick is good vibes.

Which brings me to the current day, where I currently sit, progressing my way slowly through the WWE catalog at a rate that will never catch up with reality, but I'm enjoying myself nonetheless. I started, of course, with the episode of Monday Night Raw that saw Mankind's debut, April 1st, 1996, and as of now have only just gotten to June 9th, 1997. It's slow going, and it only stands to get slower as the programs get longer and they start adding more pay-per-view events. But I've found myself engaging with something I love, which is always a nice feeling.

If you've made it this far, I thank you for reading my ramblings, it really does mean a lot to me. I don't intend to post anything nearly this long going forward, but I feel like a bit of context for my specific perspective is good.

Have a nice day!

[bellmo15-blog]

I Loved The Bionicle Movies

Today is Bionicle Day!

… Okay well actually it was Bionicle Day yesterday for me because time zones but everyone else is celebrating it today so still counts. As you can probably tell from this journal I admit I rushed to put together because I got inspired to, I don’t actually have anything special planned for today. I mean I COULD just get out my old tub that contains all my Bionicle sets I own and show some of those but most of them are either deconstructed or broken and even then the idea of getting out a bunch of toys just for the sake of this day only to put them back once it’s over isn’t that appealing. So instead, I wanted to talk about some bits of Bionicle related media that I really like and hold a special place in my heart. The movies.

Now if you follow me mostly for the art I commission then chances are you know what ONE OF the reasons I love one particular movie are but in truth I actually like all three of the classic Bionicle movies and there’s actually a bit of a deeper reason for that. You see, I was pretty into Bionicle since day 1. I got the original 6 matoron from the McDonalds happy meal promotion back in 2001 and while I didn’t get every single set in this themes lifespan, I still collected enough that I was super into it from a really young age. Then I learnt about the first movie that was getting released, the Mask of Light and with how into this line I was of course I wanted it. My parents eventually got it for me after like a few weeks after it came out with me eventually getting both Legends of Metru Nui and Web of Shadows for my birthday in 2005 and of course I loved them but one of the reasons why that is was because of something I only found out while watching the first film.

Bionicle had lore! Obvious statement to say now especially with how much of a meme it is just how much lore Bionicle had but back then I barley looked up anything online relating to Bionicle and only really just played with the sets my parents would buy for me and the commercials for these sets rarely played when I watched TV so I had no idea there was actually this big, grand storyline that was going on. I mean yeah, I do remember the Rahkshi sets coming with a comic panel as well but I never really read them so these movies were my first clue that these were not just some cool LEGO toys I was building. These were cool LEGO toys I was building that were also actual characters with their own stories, personalities and roles in a world that was only going to get bigger from this point onwards. Yup, these movies were basically what kick started me wanting to pay more attention to the lore of the theme. Or at least as much as I could or have the patience for.

A majority of the lore for Bionicle was told though books, both comic books and story books. And even back then I wasn’t much of a book reader only really reading books that were required of me in school or this one Mario themed choose your own adventure book on a train ride during a school trip where we had nothing else to do since we couldn’t bring out portable game consoles. My mindset back then was basically “if it doesn’t involve characters actually talking or moving pitchers I’m probably not going to be interested” and one of the few Bionicle books I did get I only really wanted because it came with a version of Tahu’s Hau Nuva after it’s been poisoned by Lerahk so most of my Bionicle lore knowledge came from the movies.

Granted that probably might not of been the best call on my part growing up since with how expansive Bioncle’s lore is these movies tended to be VERY condensed versions of that years storyline at the time and would often skip over major parts such as the Toa Metru’s hunt for the great disks being condensed into a minuet long montage with the Morbusa from that half of 2004’s story only being seen in the background of that montage and not being able to see the Toa Hordika test out there new abilities like they do in some of the comics. Hell, Web of Shadows actually has a pretty big lore breaking error in it with Nuju using X-Ray vision even though while Nuju’s mask does have some degree of X-Ray vision one of the negatives to being a Hordika is that you CAN’T use your mask powers!

But, with how my preferred way of consuming media growing up was purely visual could you really blame me for wanting to get my lore from these movies!? To the films credit, Web of Shadows DID also have Roodaka, Norick and Nuju’s voice actors from the film doing voice over for a few comic panels in the special features of the DVD and also a short preview of the flash animations for that year so I did still engage in some of the lore outside the movies.

Another reason why I enjoyed the movies as much as I did growing up, and this is going to be a VERY hot take I know but it’s actually because of the designs they gave the characters in the movies. Some people REALLY do not like the movie designs for the characters because of some of the liberties they took for certain characters but I actually think they look really dam good. Stuff like how the Nuva chest pieces are uniquely coloured for each toa instead of all just being purely silver like they are in there sets, having actual hands and fingers, the Turaga having robes re-enforcing the whole wise elder thing, the Rahkshi being actual nightmare fuel compared to their original sets, female characters like Gali and Nokama having slimer figures compared to the male characters, the Rahaga’s helicopter blades that get lowered when not used, the Hordika have one arm that was permanently having there weapons fused to them while still having a semi normal if elongated arm which really helped drive home how the Hordika transformations literally turned you into a monster, it’s hard for me to not like these designs a lot. Granted they aren’t perfect translations of the toys since Pohatu doesn’t have the inverted torso his set usually does and Makuta not looking a thing like his actual set (although to be they were basing his design of an early prototype LEGO sent over during Mask of Light’s production and his finalised design for retail hadn’t been decided yet) but most of the issues I do have with the designs are so minor they aren’t worth me making a big deal over. I never had Sidorak growing up but even if I did I’d MUCH rather his design in the third film than his original set. I DID have Roodaka though and let’s just say it caught me off guard when I found out she was a woman. Yes, I really did think Roodaka was a guy before watching Web of Shadows. Considering Roodaka’s race consists of both male and females AND there’s not body differences between either gender meaning that even the guys have those boobs… yeah.

Still on the topic about how these movies presented themselves there’s also the soundtrack to these films and allow me to be blunt. Holy fuck, these movies go hard with there soundtrack! It’s kinda hard to explain how good these are though a written form but I seriously encourage you to look up the soundtrack to these films and give them a listen. They are actually all officially on Spotify to my surprise, and I am so glad they are because it’s a great trio of soundtracks. I mean they had no reason to go as hard as they did with the soundtrack for a direct to DVD movie trilogy, but they did and I love it! These movies might not be perfect by any means especially since Mask of Light literally resurrects a character a few minuets after he dies which I hate in ANY story but the amount of work they put into these movies on top of just being really fun movies with some pretty good morals if you look into them is what kept me watching them multiple times as a child.

When I got back into Bionicle again last year one of the first things I did was watch these movies again since they were all on the Bio Media Project website which is an archive of every single bit of Bioncle related media there was including the movies and I still enjoyed watching them as an adult as I did as a child. I mainly used Bio Media Project for watching them because I haven’t been able to find my old DVD copies of these movies. Sadly, Web of Shadows was the last movie we would get in a long time. The Bionicle storyline might have continued but we were not getting anymore movies at least until 2009 which was always sad to me. Because the storyline from 2006-2008 was this big multipart story where Mata Nui, the God of the Bionicle world, was dying and our heroes needed to find the Mask of Life to save him with the story arc eventually ending in the reveal that Mata Nui wasn’t actually a god but rather a giant robot and everything that had happened in the lore up to this point had been happening inside this robot! AND the toa sets for 06 and 07 specifically were some of the Matoron from 01-03 which included Jaller and Hali who were in the first movie so seeing a film where these characters I knew as being small civilians who were barley able to defend themselves turned into super powered badasses would have been so cool. Honestly, I just wanted to see how these hypothetical films would of adapted the character Karzani! That guy is the definition of “Oh good god, how are we going to translate this mentally unstable miss mash of parts into our style!?!?”

I would try to make more of an effort to play the flash games beyond this point since I did go onto the internet a lot more from 2005 onwards to varying degrees of if they were cannon or not and also got Bionicle Heroes which even as a child I knew wasn’t cannon but it wouldn’t be until 2009 when we would get one more Bionicle movie. And it was terrible!

This isn’t even a “Oh, I grew up with this movie and loved it back then and now as an adult I don’t like it” thing either. No, even as a child I knew this movie wasn’t very good! Unlike the previous three movies which were made by Mirirmax, The Legend Reborn was done by a new animation studio of TinclleTown Toons and it shows. Because to put it bluntly, this pretty much felt like a watered down version of the previous three movies. The animation to me at least looks worse, the soundtrack was pretty forgettable, the dialogue felt incredibly awkward at times, it toned down a lot of the more darker aspects of the previous films for silly slapstick and while the characters do look a lot more accurate to the toys this time they also for some reason put these spinning gears on them that are pretty distracting. Yeah, it’s not a very good movie. The worst part about this movie being as toned down as it is was is that the story line of this year was set in a pretty violent place as well and outside of the Glatorian Areans where you couldn’t kill your opponent’s there were no rules on Bara Magna and anything goes. It was pretty much the Bionicle equivalent of Mad Max but with cool cyborg people. I watched this last year as well and had to stop in the middle of the climax because unlike the last three movies I couldn’t download an MP4 of this one so I had to stream it from Bio Media Project itself since I wasn’t aware it was the only Bioncle Moive you can still buy normally today via Youtube for some reason and it froze before the reveal of who the traitor was. I only ever watched this film once before this point and it was the night after my mother got me this film and I really don’t think I missed out on much not rewatching this as much as I did and I’m only really talking about it here because I know if I don’t, I’ll get a bunch of comments asking me about it.

So yeah, that’s pretty much all I have to say. The Bionicle Movies excluding Legend Reborn were my favourite Bionicle related media growing up and with how into Bionicle I’ve been again since the middle of last year I thought it was only appropriate to talk about it for Bionicle Day. Now then, since I am still in a bit of a nostalgic mood I’m off to go play some Bionicle Heroes while blasting the movies soundtrack and then maybe later visit the old websites on my Windows XP Virtual machine. Because 2000’s nostalgia is like cocaine to me right now!

[brigitteblackwood]

hiii thanks for rbing my horror recs post! here's your recs! :)

based on ginger snaps i'd recommend let the right one in (2008), the lure (2015), the witch (2015), the living dead girl (1982), stoker (2013), bones and all (2022) and carrie (1976) about (blood thirsty) outcast girls who want to be loved :(. 

based on hausu i'd recommend suspiria (1977), beetlejuice (1988), eraserhead (1977), the love witch (2016), the cell (2000) and the rocky horror picture show (1975) because they have unique aesthetics that they really commit to, and tetsuo: the iron man (1989), brain damage (1988), possessor (2020), killer klowns from outer space (1988), the machine girl (2008) and videodrome (1983) because they're some of the more unhinged batshit insane movies i've seen.

based on we're all going to the world's fair i'd recommend i saw the tv glow (2024), pulse (2001), skinamarink (2022), may (2002), censor (2021), swallow (2019) and eraserhead (1977) which are all strange but beautiful movies with themes of loneliness. 

based on scream i'd recommend urban legend (1998), behind the mask: the rise of leslie vernon (2006), house of wax (2005), you're next (2011), haunt (2019), the final girls (2015), totally killer (2023) and the cabin in the woods (2011) because they're all about (masked) killers starring cool female characters.

based on the blair witch project i'd recommend the ritual (2017), horror in high desert (2021), the strangers (2008), the tunnel (2011) and them (2006) which are all quite simple but effective horrors about something lurking in the shadows.

hope there's some you haven't seen yet! :)

Thanks for the recommendations! Some of these I've seen already, but there are plenty I still haven't watched. In fact, a few have been on my watchlist for a while, so I'll take this as a sign to get to them soon (or, in the case of Let the Right One In, hurry up and read the book since I want to finish it before checking out any of the adaptations).

I thought it might be fun to share my thoughts about the ones I have seen:

The Witch (2015) - I read The Crucible when I was far too young (I stole it off my parents' bookshelf after I got bored with reading Junie B. Jones) and was obsessed with dark fairy tales about witches living in the forest as a child. So this was very much my shit.

Stoker (2013) - After watching this, I spent so many nights just wondering whether India Stoker and Merricat Blackwood would get along or try to kill each other if they ever met. I still don't have an answer.

Carrie (1976) - Love the use of split screen and Sissy Spacek really only moving her eyes during the attack on the gym. Hate the aggressive male-gazeyness of the locker room scene and the under usage of Amy Irving (I thought she was a interesting choice to play Sue, and I'm forever bitter she and Carrie didn't get to have their confrontation at the end like they do in the book).

Suspiria (1977) - The colours! The Goblin soundtrack! Sure, the actual plot barely makes any sense, but I adore it so much!

Beetlejuice (1988) - The last time I watched this was back in high school, so I should probably give it a rewatch soon. I remember loving the Maitlands and the Deetz family but absolutely hating Betelgeuse; I think he's the weakest character and would argue that you could still get a great story without him, but I understand I'm likely in the minority here.

Eraserhead (1977) - God, I always get so mad on the baby's behalf. He cries all the time! Well, he probably wouldn't cry so much if you didn't leave him lying on a hard table 24/7! 🙄

The Love Witch (2016) - I'm conflicted about this one. I thought it was beautifully shot, and I love anything that pays homage to older films. But since Anna Biller has gone full TERF since its release, I've found my viewing experience somewhat soured (which sucks because I was really interested in seeing her upcoming Bluebeard adaptation before I found out).

Videodrome (1983) - Another one I need to revisit. I'm a big Cronenberg fan, but I don't think I really gelled with this one the first time I watched it. James Wood (🤢) being the star probably didn't help.

I Saw the TV Glow (2024) - I got to see it at my local indie cinema as a double feature with The People's Joker last month! I bawled my eyes out, but thankfully, so did everyone else around me.

May (2002) - She's so me (minus the murder and mutilation, of course).

Swallow (2019) - Has one of my favourite ending shots in film history.

The Cabin in the Woods (2011) - The script was far too Whedon-y for me to enjoy, but I cheered so loud when they unleashed all the monsters on the staff.

Rocky Horror (1975) - I have fond memories of my mother sneaking 14-year-old me and my 10-year-old sister into our first live viewing (I think the only reason she succeeded was because my sister hit puberty early and looked a lot older). We'd known about the show for most of our childhood because both our parents worked in theatre and would often play showtunes around the house, so we'd already memorized most of the songs (minus Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me, which our parents would skip for obvious reasons).

I'd love to hear some of you're thoughts on these films. If you're comfortable sharing.

[eurovision-revisited]

Eurovision 2005 - Number 51 - Sugarfree - "Raining On"

By 2005, the Lithuanian national final had developed into one of the bigger ones. LRT opened the competition up for submissions. They got sixty. Prior to the final, they managed to reject only six. Another five were removed thanks to withdrawals and one of the acts essentially being a reworked version of Michael Jackson's Ben. That left forty-nine almost unfiltered songs to compete live on national television and in front of large, young audiences jostling for space in the LTV studios.

One of those bands in both 2004 and 2005 was Sugarfree. There are several bands around the world with this name, but the Lithuanian incarnation is possibly the one that is the least storied on the English language internet. They're from Kaunas and are led by Neringa Nekrašiūtė.

She's been singing since the age of six and had several singles released as a child star in the 1990s. Her childhood was one of tours, singing and TV appearances - to a certain generation of Lithuanians, she was one of the faces of their childhoods. A sweet, smiling, blonde, safe singer. By the early 2000s, she was becoming a Lithuanian version of Britney Spears only without such extreme sexualisation or controversy.

Her father died in 2001 and it seems that was the trigger for some changes. She started wearing glasses and her music went in a different direction. The band Sugarfree formed around her and took her music in a new direction. Whether this was an initiative of her record company or management to protect her, or if it was her idea to surround herself with father figures and move from a long childhood of being the sweetest thing on Lithuanian TV to being the singer in a band called Sugarfree, I'm unsure.

However it happened, Sugarfree tired to get into Eurovision in 2004, missing out by some distance. They tried again in 2005 with Raining On. It's bit of light pop-reggae, a million miles away from the stuff she'd been singing before. The chorus shifts into a more straight-four pop rhythm and a major chord as Neringa tells us about the weather. As ever, if there's ever weather mentioned in a pop song, you know it's a metaphor. To my music-hardened ear, this sounds like authentic 1980s indie music. The production quality, the rawness and the whimsical musings on life all fit that time and place - as does the look of the band. Perhaps that why I like it so much despite it's many rough edges.

Sugarfree didn't get to the final in 2005 either, though they came closer; finishing fourth in heat three. The top three got through. The shift in Neringa's musical output must have proved too challenging for her fandom.

After a further period stepping out of the spotlight, she re-emerged doing a number of different things. Sugarfree continued as an on-and-off concern touring and gigging around Lithuania. She collaborated with a large number of Lithuanian musicians, and sang everything from choral music to Big Band numbers. She's the voice of Anna in the Lithuanian languages version for Frozen and Frozen II. She's appeared on TV a lot as well as continuing to feature in the Lithuanian celeb magazines semi-regularly owing to her past. She also took part in a few TV music shows including winning celeb music talent show Muzikinis Iššūkis in 2017 with Lithuanian 2014 Eurovision entrant Vilija Matačiūnaitė as a duet.

She's now back to writing and recording her own music. As recently as last month (June 2024) she released a single Nesustoki on YouTube. Her first solo for some time. Here it is.

[thesolarangel]

8 movie & TV show soundtracks that shaped my taste in music

I have always discovered new music I liked through soundtracks❤️ I'm a metalhead these days, but I still listen to other stuff and I wanna share some artists/songs I've only noticed because they were on a certain soundtrack...

Shrek (2001)

Ah being 9/10 years old and listening to Smash Mouth and Eels in my room on my CD Player. Big time nostalgia right there. (I almost wrote Joan Jett, but it's actually a cover by another band)

Billy Elliot (2000)

I watched this movie when I was maybe 12/13? The music of T.Rex really got across the freedom Billy must've felt while dancing. I still listen to "Cosmic Dancer" and sway around in my room, pretending I'm Florence Welch and wearing a long dress with a cape wishing to be free...

A Knight's Tale (2001)

This was my first time actually listening to a David Bowie song! What a great dancing scene... Of course I knew Queen and "We will rock you" before this movie, but it was so much fun how they used it! Queen and David Bowie had a huge impact on my music taste...

10 things I hate about you (1999)

My Heath Ledger era.... It broke my heart when I heard the news in 2008. I'm a huge fan. I watched this a few years after "A Knight's Tale". This songs from this soundtrack feel so romantic and nostalgic to me, I love it. I have a playlist with several songs from 90s/00s romcoms like this and Clueless, Freaky Friday,...

Here is my whole playlist

Elizabethtown (2005)

My Orlando Bloom era. I remember it well. I was 13 when this one came out. My dad is from NY (I live in Germany. Long story short: paternal grandparents are from Germany, moved to the US in the 50s, settled there, had 3 kids, then moved back to Germany in the 70s) and I grew up bilingual. Although there's a lot of stuff that separates me from the American lifestyle and my family members who still live there... this movie somehow sparks a deeply cozy feeling inside me and a longing for the friendliness and warm attitude of US-Americans that I experienced in my visits in 2005 and 2016. And the soundtrack plays a big role in that.

Twilight (2008)

Paramore & Muse, 2 bands I still listen to occasionally. Both have changed greatly and I like to listen to the old stuff. It takes me back to the long train rides to school when I was 16-18 I think.. I had an orange iPod nano!

Starter for 10 (2006)

I found this during my James McAvoy era! It's really cute! Idk when I watched it exactly. I know I had heard of The Cure, The Undertones, Tears for Fears before, but this time I really listening to their songs!

Good Vibrations (2012)

I absolutely love music films... This one is based on a true story about the punk rock scene of Belfast in the 70s and it's amazing.

Here's my complete playlist of my fav 70s/80s punk rock

Originally this list had Supernatural and Stranger Things on it, but that's just basically my love for 80s pop and dad rock and they don't need a mention :D

Tagging everyone who might want to know more about me: @fenharel-enaste @lotrnonsense @lazymeriadoc @elrondscalaquendi @starlady66 @elronds-pointy-ears @bananaphanta @runawaymun @jefferson-in-the-tardis @depressedplatypus @kesiadebv @moriondors @corrodedbisexual @goldfearless

[wrestlinghistorywithkay]

If Cena Wins , We Riot: Looking Back On John Cena vs Rob Van Dam

In honor of tonight’s new episode of Biography: WWE Legends on A&E about Rob Van Dam, this article is going to be looking back at the match between John Cena and Rob Van Dam at ECW One Night Stand in 2006.

Extreme Championship Wrestling ( ECW ) was once a popular wrestling promotion founded in 1992 by Tod Gordon as a branch of the National Wrestling Alliance ( NWA ) , however , in 1993, wrestling manager and businessman , Paul Heyman ( previously Paul E.Dangerously ) , took over creative control. Heyman made the promotion into being known for hardcore wrestling, which meant weapons such as tables and sometimes fire would be used during the shows. He also had different wrestlers of different backgrounds come in to the promotion and show styles of wrestling that were never seen before . Wrestlers such as Rob Van Dam, Raven , The Sandman , and Tommy Dreamer are examples of stars of the promotion. Heyman described his promotion as a grunge version of the WWF as Grunge Music was a popular genre of music during the 90s. However , Vince McMahon bought out the company after it went bankrupt in 2003. Thus, McMahon would make it WWE’s third brand in 2006.

Paul Heyman would be in charge of creative for the rebrand of ECW in 2006 with McMahon supervising his role for a few months. Heyman’s brand would be the third one to be on TV alongside Monday Night RAW and Friday Night Smackdown. Therefore, he would also bring back the ECW World Heavyweight Championship and the first champion being Rob Van Dam. Van Dam received the championship as a reward for winning the main event of One Night Stand.

Following One Night Stand’s success in 2005, WWE decided to bring back the show for 2006 under the rebrand of ECW. The show took place on June 11,2006 in New York. Paul Heyman opened the show with a promo and welcoming fans. Nevertheless, wrestlers from all three of WWE’s shows were there as well as ECW originals . The card for One Night Stand was stacked with matches such as Edge, Lita, and Mick Foley vs Tommy Dreamer , Beulah McGillicutty , and Terry Funk , and Sabu vs Rey Mysterio for the World Championship. The main event was Rob Van Dam vs John Cena for the WWE Championship.

The ECW fans did not respect John Cena before the big match started. Cena did his entrance the same as he did on RAW by throwing his T shirt out to the crowd , fans threw the shirt back multiple times due to their hatred of the future WWE Hall of Famer. When Rob Van Dam made his way to the ring , the fans erupted with cheers. During the match , fans kept shouting expletive chants at Cena and telling him that he could not wrestle. The match went outside of the ring with RVD hitting a moonsault off of the steel ring steps onto Cena. While the match was continuing and RVD getting out of Cena’s submission , the STFU , Cena decided to clothesline the referee. RVD also blocked Cena’s attempt to use his finishing move, the FU ( now the Attitude Adjustment). Nick Patrick was the substitute referee for the remainder of the match. Therefore , a person wearing a motorcycle helmet decided to run in the ring and gave Cena a spear through a table. Nevertheless, the person who wore the motorcycle helmet was revealed to be Cena’s rival , Edge. Edge also knocked out Nick Patrick with the fans cheering him on.

Paul Heyman rushed to the ring and counted to three, giving RVD the victory and the WWE Championship. On Monday Night RAW the next night , Heyman came to the ring and announced that Mr.McMahon looked back on the match and ruled that RVD was the WWE Champion . Heyman would reintroduce the WWE Championship as the ECW World Heavyweight Championship on the season premiere of ECW on Sci-Fi ( SyFy). Van Dam wanted to keep the WWE Championship because it spun and became the ECW World Heavyweight Champion and WWE Champion. He would soon be speared by Edge with John Cena coming through the crowd to attack Edge and punching Paul Heyman. Cena was chased away by ECW originals. At the Vengeance Pay Per View , Van Dam would retain the WWE Championship by defeating Edge. Cena defeated ECW original , Sabu , in an Extreme Rules Lumberjack Match. Rob Van Dam and John Cena’s One Night Stand Match was 20 minutes and 40 seconds.

Fun Fact: Kevin Steen ( Kevin Owens) was in attendance at One Night Stand.

My Final Thoughts:

This match has to be one of my all time favorites. It had so much drama with it and a lot of controversy to it , which is something I love to see because I think it is great storytelling when it comes to wrestling. Yes , you might be angry if your favorite loses but if it is a great match , it will be a classic. Cena and RVD put on a great show . I wasn’t expecting Cena to basically be booed out of the building . I also thought RVD was pretty cool as a kid and I still do. If you could go back in time , would you watch this match live?

Love You All,

- Kay