#but here we go. my odyssey and dark star verse!

[lightshielded]

verse / odyssey + dark star 

— from the heavily urbanised coreworlds to the outermost edge of the galaxy, adventure awaits! the great demaxian empire has laid claim to almost every inhabited system, ignoring the objections of the ancient templar order and the criminal syndicate alike, in pursuit of the wondrous bounty of ora. this mysterious golden essence—drawn from the vast, majestic creatures that patrol the stars—is the lifeblood of all civilisation, but also promises untold power to those who can wield it for themselves…

              born on the demaxian empire’s locus armada ( the seat of the demaxian empire after the empire’s home - world was destroyed long ago ) like his father and grand - father before him, jarvan iv has never had a ‘ home - world ’ to speak of, though if you were to ask him he would simply respond with ‘ demaxia is my home ’. as a result of his upbringing, his adolescent years were saturated with exposure to the vast forces under the empire’s control, the pinnacle of the empire’s technological prowess, and the strict law and authority which the empire demanded—and he was not exempt from.

for the majority of his youth, jarvan iv’s days were consumed by study of the various species and worlds which made up the empire, the intricacies of imperial politics, interplanetary trade and commerce, and, of course, combat tactics and weaponry. strict tutors and merciless weapon - masters coupled with a strong instillment of justice and idealism, the prince was efficiently shaped into the perfect candidate for the emperor’s successor by his eighteenth summer. 

it was during this time that the young emperor - to - be met an ordinal in - training named shieda kayn. the ordinals were an elite force of soldiers who served directly under the emperor’s command, each one’s tactical and combat skills easily the match of forces many times their number. so to see someone so young training in their ranks, and advancing so quickly, was wholly unusual. and, what begun as curiosity of the ordinals slowly shifted into curiosity for the new recruit.

and curiosity lead to conversation and conversation lead to friendship. an accumulation of their closeness in age ( and lack of any others near it ) and their time spent training together cemented the pair as dear friends. a fact deeply important for the crown - prince who had grown up surrounded by almost only elder soldiers and staff of the armada prior to their meeting. this bond carried through their training and to both of their succeeded positions, as emperor and ordinal, and beyond.

when jarvan took the crown of demaxia, kayn became more than just an ordinal under his command and an old friend but a trusted personal confident for the emperor as well. often he would admit his worries and self - perceived shortcomings to him, any plans he felt he failed to truly achieved or those all but scrapped with little chance of fruition. in shieda, he thought they would be safe, and maybe find some advice. though, he often knew what his friend would suggest before he said it.

his suggestions were ruthless and pragmatic, looking at the situation as a problem to be solved but not at those lives and people surrounding it. at first he had chided shieda for his suggestions, quite recoiling from their brutality and shocked that he would even suggest such a thing. but, over time, he knew that he was only doing as asked, and as an ordinal it was shieda’s duty to suggest such alternatives. they were the ‘ emperor’s attack dogs ’ after all, a common enough title which the emperor did not care much for.

and, to shieda’s credit, the suggestions were well thought out and would likely be very effective, facts the emperor knew all too well. with the military might of the demaxian empire, truly, nothing could stand against them. any resistance could be crush in a matter of days, entire planets could be forced to submit in mere weeks, and hard - line suppression achieved across the system in months. it could be so easy. but, that was far from the hopes he hand carried to the crown in his heart.

he had dreamt of a new golden age for the empire. peace. freedom to worship. closure of class gaps. equal opportunity. and such things were not compatible with shieda’s ideals. but his friend had also once said that he had always thought that holding on to this society would be harder than winning it. war is simple. peace is harder. it was a sentiment jarvan took to heart, helping buffer his worries of setbacks or failures. he would not let himself be known for taking the more simple solutions. 

without empathy, what difference was he from a common warlord or dictator. he was an emperor and these were his people, and he cared for them regardless of their own opinions on him. clinging yet to his ideals, jarvan held a tight leash on his ordinals, their intervention only allowed by his own order and when every other alternative was exhausted. but, he knew frustration stirred within their ranks, he saw it within each of their eyes and the tone of their words, even his own friend.

yet, he did not expect it to be shieda to be the first to step out of line. he was his dearest friend, he was privy to any if not all of his thoughts, after all. he could never had considered he would start testing the boundaries of his orders, nor disobeying them completely. he did not know when it had started but it must have started small. a white lie, a partial mistelling, withholding a brief detail. but he had seen it grow into something noticeable, something which pained the emperor deeply, cutting him to the core. 

henceforth, the emperor found himself withdrawing, speaking little of his troubles and focusing purely on his work. he fought to convince himself that every suspicion was unfounded, his friend’s actions must be for good reason. anything to help alleviate the burden on this thoughts and heart. but doubts were quick to fester in the recesses of the mind. and soon deities of blackened light plagued his dreams, their impossible forms lingering in a corrupted cosmos of a star - system he did not know. 

they were just nightmares, a product of his stress, he would assure himself. nothing more than terrors which greedily stole his sleep. any foreboding he felt when gazing upon the emptiness of space, something which had once instilled him with wonder in his youth, was simply a figment of a tired mind. any rising chill along his spine at the sight of the strange weapon, which kayn now favoured, was just his on concerns of their growing distance. nothing more.

but, how can one be sure? 

extra / one two three

— in the vast darkness of space are born terrible, beautiful things—cosmic creatures of sublime love, and the unknowable monstrosities of the dark star. these are the children of silent gods, and they are finally coming home.  

              golden light seeped from himself and to his assailant, his eyes following it through the air, enchanted by its ethereal beauty. he traced its path to the weapon blade that cut into his chest and to the one who wielded it. he felt his grip slacken on the weapon slacken, its hold not shaken by his dawning death but by a pain deeper than this physical wound could ever hope to rend his heart. his hands now slipped on his own blood and the crescent edge now pressed clean through his chest. 

his voice was naught but a strangled cry, a single tear falling to splash on the scythe’s edge to mingle with his pooling blood. and, as if on cue, his attacker had vanished, ribbons of energy streaming back into his wound. veins and eyes aglow with the power to fuel suns. and, just as so, it burnt. his head lolled back, eyes trained at on the scythe which now hovered so precariously above. sight darkening and body trembling its last, he gave in. 

betrayal. sorrow. grief.

acceptance.

he did not feel the executioner’s blade come down or the body cleave its way out of his chest. in this new horizon he was free of pain, he felt nothing. but even in death that sight tormented him. he thought he recognised the face behind the waning of his life. over and over the vision had played. his last moments, his own personal purgatory until all the lights in the universe burned out. and yet, with each repeat he remembered it less. 

had his end been struck by a sublime being of cosmic dust or corrupted soul of cold entropy? he could no longer recall, the vision warped and faded, the memory devoured along with him. that swirl of emotions he had once felt was left muted and confused, as unknowable as his current state. all that remained was the hollowness of his chest, hands still clutching at a phantom shaft to hold back a blade which no longer pierced him.

the one who had killed him, who were they? 

now even their name eluded him. 

they had been important to him? hadn’t they? 

his in - vain grasp loosened.

he wondered how much time had passed, in this horizon between, it seemed like both an instant and an eternity. time had no meaning here, where ever here was, only light and darkness. it had slowly begun to dim during his solitude. the distant lights he could not reach, flickering before blinking out one by one. in their places came whispers, so sweet and terrible. their words carrying the seductive promise of release, if only he would give in.

and with every new star gone their calls grew louder, their baleful chorus echoing throughout the vast abyss. it urged him to reach out and pluck the fading stars from the sky, to hold them tight against his chest until they were stifled of their light, to plunge the surrounds into a deeper night. to claim them for his own. no, those very stars were what he had once strove to protect, the worlds which orbited them were once his charge. 

once? 

he paused. 

why were they once? why were they not still? 

he could not remember.

barely one light clung to the night sky. and with its fade, there was no reason to resist, there was nothing to resist for nor did he have the strength to continue to do so. and, so he submit himself to those whispers of entropy. formless hands blindly seeking the system’s last star, abandoning their fruitless hold on nothing, in hopes of salvation from this lone abyss. he could feel the heat beneath his palm, the warmth spreading to his chest as he pulled it close. he swore he almost felt his still heart beat.

the singularity commanded him to breathe, and, even without atmosphere or lungs or life, he breathed. gasped. choked. his empty chest filling with the last star's light and exhaling void. it called for him to awaken, and so his eyes slowly opened, their depths now bathed in an ethereal glow, a vicious mockery of those celestial bodies used to reform them. even in darkness, his gaze cut through the night as if it were bright as day, moving to study first his own newly altered form and then the world around him. 

those constellations, which once decorated the evening sky, now mapped along his form. the star which had suffocated in his grasp now hovered dark and beckoning in his hands. and beyond him was nothing, a canvas wiped clean of blemishes, a silent world of peace and calm. around him, the cycle of life and warmth and energy had all but ceased, his rebirth the last damning act of weeping stars. truly, he was a child of silent - gods, and his cradle was their graves. 

but, he could feel stirring beyond the emptiness of his fallen star - system. this cemetery did not extend the full universe, true and eternal entropy was still yet to be met. and, from the dark star hovering in his palms, the whispers raised to a baleful chorus, he knew the singularity demanded it so. for his freedom from his purgatory, and by the dark powers which reforged him, he was bound to their will. and, for every moment he wasted, the deep hunger lapped at his own essence and threatened to return him to that place.

and so he submit to their commands, striding forth towards the distant stars and collecting a cosmic trail in his wake. his closely held hands extended out, bathing the dark star in the remnants of worlds, and crafting a weapon to serve as its instrument and its pedestal. his grip tightened around the lance’s grip, admiring his work and the effortlessness it took to bend reality to his whims. he would reap a wound across the universe, one that would never heal. he would carve into all life to feed his master. he would—

his hand cupped the solar system with ease, marvelling at the swirling lights which fit so precariously in his palm. with but a clench of his fist or strike of his lance, billions of voices would silence all at once. just as his own memories, his own life, had been stripped bare. it would be so easy. just as his master wished it to be and ever closer to his final release. yet, he continued to hold the swirling cluster of planets and stars within his hands, making no action to extinguish it. 

but, again, the singularity did not command his pause. 

so why did he wait?

‘ rally your armies and prepare. your cataclysm awaits. ’ 

stand and fight, so you might have a chance.

extra / one two three four five six

— a mortal emperor unbound by the destruction of his world, jarvan’s essence has since been reforged by the ageless energies of deep space. his humanity and his people now lost forever, he stands ready to welcome the dark star incursion, in the final subjugation of all existence.beneath the corruption, a noble soul. behind the cataclysm, a hero’s will. beyond the splintered worlds, a gasping star.

[davidmann95]

Comics this week (4/21/2021)?

Superman: Red and Blue #2: I got the sweet David Choe variant cover I was hoping for! A win. The Seagle/Douleau/Brosseau story was...odd, character-wise, the Brown/Cowan/Stanisci/Sotomayor/Sharpe story was a fun adventure with some neat ideas but felt surprisingly light given this was the first use of Val-Zod in however long, the Phillips/Zarcone/Leigh story was the exact story you’re always going to get with every Superman anthology ever from now until the end of time, and the Howard/Napolitano final entry was fun and also happened to nail pretty much exactly how I’d like Cyborg Superman to be portrayed. The clear standout however was Dan Panosian’s Luthor story, a total hoot.

Justice League #60: We’re starting to get rolling on the vibe of the team dynamic here if not especially the plot, but keep giving me those pretty Marquez drawings over Bendis-chatter and those delightful V/Xermanico Justice League Dark backups and I’m more than good.

Catwoman #30: Ok I kept saying I was waiting for V and Blanco’s tack for this run to reveal itself, and that it’s “Selina WANTS to be in a nice Brubaker/Cooke run where she’s comfy, but dopey Batman shit keeps creeping in around the edges and fucking with her equilibrium” is basically EXACTLY what I want to see. And that double pager from Blanco? Baby.

Batman vs. Ra’s Al Ghul #6: I’d reread this if I thought it’d explain anything that happened, but I know it wouldn’t and for that I’m grateful. Could this live up to being the sequel to Batman: Odyssey? No. Is there still an extended sequence where Neal Adams characters, who speak and act like Neal Adams characters, perform a science demonstration? Yes. God, yes.

Haha #4: I liked this one! Definitely the least Ice Cream Man thing Prince has written since he started that, which I note mainly because everything else about his work remains at a steady rate of high quality so it’s that variation that most stands out.

Radiant Black #3: Ok, it’s got me sold through at least the three remaining issues of what’ll be the first trade. This is the most the superhero stuff and the personal work have felt like they meshed, and also the most interested I’ve been in the former thus far.

Ultramega #2: Aw yeah, we’re on that good worldbuilding kick I’m here for.

Orphan and the Five Beasts #2: This issue pivots on the most hilariously nightmarish twist I’ve seen in comics in god knows how long and I am enthralled, even with Stokoe firing on all cylinders I don’t know how he intends to match this issue in the remaining issues.

The Many Deaths of Laila Starr #1: The title on critics’ lips this week, this takes a well-worn “what if a higher being had to live among us miserable meatsacks and learn how rough things can be down here” premise and manages to not just reinvigorate it, but set it up with legs that look like they’ll be carrying it forward for a ways to come. The star of the show is Filipe Andrade, who pivots sharply between rendering the divine mundane and the standard bursting with energy as serves the scene; he actually gave me a bit of a Nick Dragotta vibe here, though the end product is something entirely his own. Not quite my favorite of the week as I know it was for a lot of folks, but I’m in for wherever the long haul takes us.

The Mighty Valkyries #1: I’ve been hoping since Gronbekk started that we’d see more of her clear potential as she was hopefully given more opportunities, and this issue represents a titanic leap in that direction - I was already impressed, but there’s a steady hand and conceptual boldness here that’s leaps and bounds beyond what she was already doing and I’m so glad this book is back to give her the chance to flex these emerging muscles.

Carnage: Black, White & Blood #2: The Zdarsky/Checchetto and V/Fernandez stories are both solid, but this isn’t anybody’s best work.

Avengers #45: Ahh, this is what I was starting to miss from this book. It isn’t good, but it’s definitely the exact kind of high-concept brain droppings Aaron’s versed in that effortlessly short-circuit any normal sense of good taste I might possess.

S.W.O.R.D. #5: I’m following multiple X-Men books, and enjoying seeing threads cross between them. Incredible. Is this what it’s normally like for people who dig these? I can’t see it being enough to build an entire comics-reading identity around them, but it’s a treat nonetheless.

Way of X #1: As someone with complicated feelings on X-Men: Legacy and very uncomplicated feelings on how great Doctor Nemesis is I was really looking forward to what Spurrier would do here, and honestly? One issue in and this feels a lot closer to what I want out of Hickman’s X-Men than that book itself has often delivered. This feels like the perfect balance of what I want out of these books and what people who like X-Men comics *not* by Morrison or Hickman want, and while there’s no way it’ll get the audience it deserves I hope it’ll at least get a sizable enough fraction of it to see it go as long as all involved please.

Eternals #4: An extremely good and dense issue, maybe my favorite in a week with some stupendous competition, that I just don’t have a ton to say about - its virtues are self-evident and we already know that this book is great and the specific kind of great it is. My biggest personal item of note that’s not immediately obvious is that it’s with this issue that it clicked for me for the first time that the expressions Esad Ribic gives his characters remind me a bit of Steve Dillon’s.

[dweemeister]

2020 Movie Odyssey Awards

Because the 2020 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song final was extended, the 2020 Movie Odyssey Awards themselves are late once more - and all because of me this time out (oops). As you may know, this is the annual awards ceremony to recognize a year of films that I saw for the first time in their entirety in the calendar year. All films featured - with the exception of those in the Worst Picture category - are worth seeing.

The full list of every single film I saw as part of the 2020 Movie Odyssey can be seen in this link.

Best Pictures (I name ten winners, none of which are distinguished above the other nine)

The African Queen (1951)

The Haunting (1963)

The Irishman (2019)

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Mädchen in Uniform (1931, Germany)

Once Upon a Time in America (1984)

Ordet (1955, Denmark)

Parasite (2019, South Korea)

The Shop on Main Street (1965, Czechoslovakia)

The Trial (1962)

Seven of these films received 10/10 ratings. The others received 9.5/10 ratings. This Best Picture lineup were the ten best films I saw in all of 2020. The African Queen is a rollicking adventure film with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn that took me by surprise (I was long put off from the film because of its reputation). It displays some of the most charming moments that only Golden Age Hollywood can offer. Golden Age Hollywood horror may not be scary to viewers; but what it lacks in elicited screams, it makes up in goosebumps. The Haunting is one of the great haunted house movies of all time with its thick atmosphere, fantastic production design, and spectral ambiguity. Watch it in the dark, if you dare.

Two gangster epics with a mournful disposition are also here in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America. The former sees Robert De Niro seeking absolution despite personally not being fully regretful; the latter sees a regretful Robert De Niro seeking not absolution, but peace.

Made in Weimar Germany in the years just before the Nazi takeover is a classic of queer cinema, Mädchen in Uniform. Beyond its LGBTQ themes, it is a tale of young women finding friendship amongst each other. On the other side of Europe after its Nazi takeover is The Shop on Main Street - which switches gears between drama to lighthearted comedy to tragedy so nimbly. Another film exemplifying mastery in tonal shifts was the headline-grabber Parasite - an explosive, justly historic movie.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s A Letter to Three Wives is a suburban feminist ensemble piece, reflecting on the martial anxieties of women questioning their spousal bliss. The ending there, though not quite storybook, is poignant. Questions of faith, too, are asked in Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Ordet - not in others, but in God. The film, one of the greatest films ever made about religious faith, ends impossibly, provocatively.

Best Comedy

The Battle of the Century (1927 short)

Best in Show (2000)

Elmer, the Great (1933)

It Happened on Fifth Avenue (1947)

Klaus (2019)

One Hour with You (1932)

The Princess and the Pirate (1944)

Road to Utopia (1945)

Soul (2020)

Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

Now I typically give this category to the film that elicits the most belly laughs from me. None of these comedies did that for me this year. So I went with Ernst Lubitsch’s One Hour with You - starring Lubitsch regular Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald. It is what some folks might call a sophisticated comedy. But if you read between the lines, this pre-Code romantic comedy was probably one of the raunchiest things I saw all year.

For example:

POLICE OFFICER: Come on, come on. Where do you think you are? What are you doing? What’s going on here? ANDRE BERTIER: The French Revolution! [resumes kissing Colette] POLICE OFFICER: Hey, you can’t make love in public. ANDRE BERTIER: I can make love anywhere! POLICE OFFICER: No, you can’t! COLETTE BERTIER: Oh, but officer, he can! ANDRE BERTIER (joyously): Darling!

Otherwise, runners-up included It Happened on Fifth Avenue and Best in Show.

Best Musical

Blue Hawaii (1961)

Flower Drum Song (1961)

Hamilton (2020)

The Magic Flute (1975, Sweden)

My Dream Is Yours (1949)

New Orleans (1947)

New York, New York (1977)

One Hour with You

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947)

Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

You know, if Hamilton was an original musical and not a filmed version of the original Broadway run, it would certainly threaten in this category. Instead, it rounds things out. Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York - as a deconstruction of the mid-century MGM musical - wins out not only its strong soundtrack, but glossy aesthetic that one would not associate with Scorsese. Runners-up are Flower Drum Song (the last movie with at least a majority Asian-American cast until The Joy Luck Club thirty years later and Crazy Rich Asians after that) and Bergman’s adaptation of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute.

Best Animated Feature

I Lost My Body (2019, France)

Klaus (2019)

The Last Unicorn (1982)

Mad Monster Party? (1967)

Marona’s Fantastic Tale (2019, France)

Melody Time (1948)

Saludos Amigos (1942)

Soul

Weathering with You (2019, Japan)

Wolfwalkers (2020)

Perhaps the least known animated feature of these nominees takes the prize. Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale is gorgeously animated, attempting to tell its story through the point of view of its small canine protagonist. The film appears as a dog might understand the confusing mess that is humanity. Close behind is Cartoon Saloon’s Wolfwalkers and Pixar’s Soul.

Best Documentary

Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (1963)

Diego Maradona (2019, United Kingdom)

Elvis: That’s the Way It Is (1970)

The Eyes of Orson Welles (2018)

The Great Buster: A Celebration (2018)

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

I Am Somebody (1970 short)

The River (1938 short)

The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Japan)

This was the best year for documentaries in a year’s Movie Odyssey for a long, long while. As a part of the tradition of Olympic films, Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad is a chronicle of the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The film resembled nothing like the Olympic documentaries before it - choosing not to concentrate on just gold medalists and reportage, but a story of Japan’s reintroduction to the Western world and the pains of the many also-rans in any Olympics. I also considered Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (a JFK/RFK real-time documentary on the racial integration of the University of Alabama system), Elvis: That’s the Way It Is, The River (a New Deal-funded documentary short about the importance of the Mississippi River - narrated in free verse!), and The T.A.M.I. Show as potential winners, but nothing could eclipse Ichikawa’s monumental effort.

Best Non-English Language Film

The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005), Mongolia

Emitaï (1971), Senegal

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), India

Olivia (1951), France

Ordet, Denmark

Parasite, South Korea

Persona, Sweden

The Shop on Main Street, Czechoslovakia

Sleepwalking Land (2008), Mozambique

Tokyo Olympiad, Japan

My god, this is always a stacked category. So why do I even bother? Because non-English language films - though they shouldn’t be ghettoized and considered a specialty - are nevertheless ghettoized and considered a specialty in America. This sort of category also gives some attention to a few films that don’t make much of an impression in other categories (namely the wondrous Sleepwalking Land and stunning The Cave of the Yellow Dog). But it is Ordet the reigns supreme here, edging out The Shop on Main Street, Parasite, and Kaagaz Ke Phool for this prize.

Best Silent Film

The Battle of the Century

Body and Soul (1925)

Bumping into Broadway (1919 short)

The Dragon Painter (1919)

I Do (1921 short)

Next Aisle Over (1919 short)

Ramona (1928)

The Scar of Shame (1927)

Shoes (1916)

Young Mr. Jazz (1919 short)

Lois Weber was as instrumental to shaping early American cinema as D.W. Griffith or Cecil B. DeMille. And in Shoes, she brings her sense of social righteousness and cinematic innovation to the fore. It is one of her best feature films, and its release came at the height of America’s Progressive Era - a time of greater awareness of industrialization and unregulated capitalism’s ill effects. Distant runners-up are new National Film Registry inductee The Battle of the Century (a Laurel and Hardy film with one of the best pie fights you will see) and Body and Soul (Paul Robeson’s theatrical debut). 

Personal Favorite Film

The African Queen

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

The Haunting

A Letter to Three Wives

Marona’s Fantastic Tale

McFarland, USA (2015)

Murder Most Foul (1964)

Stars in My Crown (1950)

Three Little Girls in Blue

The Trial

An understated but nevertheless eloquent screenplay, light humor, and careful attention to all three of its lead actresses roles define A Letter to Three Wives. It is one of the best exercises of empathy I saw all year, amid its tremulous and anxious narrative backdrop. We like to deride post-WWII American film as depicting an idyllic suburbia that never existed... but not here. Byambasuren Davaa’s The Cave of the Yellow Dog captured my heart, too. The film, from Mongolia, was one of the gentlest movies I’ve had the pleasure to see in the longest time. McFarland, USA revived memories in me of high school cross country days; Murder Most Foul was a Ms. Marple whodunit that cements Margaret Rutherford as one of my favorite actresses; the homespun Stars in My Crown is Americana at its finest.

Best Director

Ingmar Bergman, Persona (1961, Sweden)

Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ordet

Guru Dutt, Kaagaz Ke Phool

John Huston, The African Queen

Kon Ichikawa, Tokyo Oympiad

Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in America

Joseph L. Mankiewicz, A Letter to Three Wives

Leontine Sagan, Mädchen in Uniform

Ousmane Sembène, Emitaï

Orson Welles, The Trial

Dreyer is in command of the film’s mise en scene from the beginning - culminating in breathtaking scene set-ups for conversations spoken in hushed tones. The style is never oppressive, never showy, and just right for a deeply introspective movie of tried and troubled faith.

Best Acting Ensemble

Edge of the City (1957)

Gosford Park (2001)

The Irishman

A Letter to Three Wives

Little Women (2019)

Marriage Story (2019)

Once Upon a Time in America

Ordet

Parasite

Stars in My Crown

Subtract any one actor from Parasite and the film cannot work as well as it does. Perhaps Song Kang-ho has the best performance in the movie, but that isn’t possible without his fellow cast members putting out the incredible turns that they offer. Ordet is a close second. Behind by a country mile are Gosford Park, A Letter to Three WIves, and Little Women.

Best Actor

Humphrey Bogart, The African Queen

Maurice Chevalier, One Hour with You

Guru Dutt, Kaagaz Ke Phool

Jozef Kroner, The Shop on Main Street

Alan Ladd, This Gun for Hire (1942)

Joel McCrea, Stars in My Crown

Paul Robeson, Body and Soul

Howard Vernon, Le Silence de la mer (1949, France)

Jon Voight, Deliverance (1972)

Denzel Washington, Malcolm X (1992)

Arguably Denzel’s finest. He inhabits Malcolm X - the bravura, the attitude, the pastor-like (and occasionally incendiary) rhetorical devices, the early rage, the standoffishness. It is a magnificent performance. Just behind is Bogart and the irresistible Chevalier.

Best Actress

Bibi Andersson, Persona

Edwige Feuillère, Olivia

Helen Hayes, The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931)

Katharine Hepburn, The African Queen

Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story

Ida Kamińska, The Shop on Main Street

Liza Minnelli, New York, New York

Lucia Lynn Moses, The Scar of Shame

Madhabi Mukherjee, The Big City (1963, India)

Waheeda Rehman, Kaagaz Ke Phool

As Ms. Lautmannová, Kamińska - in the autumn of her career - gives us a portrait of devout religiosity, elderly naivete, and otherworldly trust. She and co-star Jozef Kroner play off the other’s performance, one benefitting from the other. It is a delicate, heartbreaking performance. Some ways away are our two Indian actresses, Madhabi Mukherjee and Waheeda Rehman, as well as Bibi Andersson in the dizzying Persona.

Best Supporting Actor

Stephen Boyd, The Man Who Never Was (1956)

Haren Chatterjee, The Big City

James Edwards, The Steel Helmet (1951)

Moses Gunn, Aaron Loves Angela (1975)

Victor McLaglen, The Princess and the Pirate (1944)

Victor Moore, It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Sidney Poitier, Edge of the City

Song Kang-ho, Parasite

Richard Widmark, Kiss of Death (1947)

James Woods, Once Upon a Time in America

For the sixth straight year, Best Supporting Actor - a category almost always filled to the brim with villains - goes to an actor playing a menacing villain. That smirk, that creepy laugh. Holy crap. Widmark knocks it out of the park as the psychopathic Tommy Udo in his debut role. The role, taken by some the wrong way, inspired Tommy Udo frats in American colleges and universities (their central premise: male chauvinism and anti-feminist beliefs). Who else did I consider for a win here? Victor Moore, Sidney Poitier, Song Kang-ho, and James Woods (before he became a twitter conspiracy theorist).

Best Supporting Actress

Tsuru Aoki, The Dragon Painter

Ethel Barrymore, Pinky (1949)

Ruby Dee, Edge of the City

Laura Dern, Marriage Story

Nancy Kwan, Flower Drum Song

Maggie Smith, Gosford Park

Genevieve Tobin, One Hour with You

Emilia Unda, Mädchen in Uniform

Ethel Waters, Pinky

Dorothea Wieck, Mädchen in Uniform

Emilia Unda beats out fellow co-star Dorothea Wieck as the headmistress of the boarding school featured in Mädchen in Uniform. As the strict, uptight disciplinarian, one can see hints behind the facade she displays in front of the girls at the school. Nevertheless, yet another antagonist takes home this award. Also contending are Nancy Kwan and Ethel Waters.

Best Adapted Screenplay

John Huston, James Agee, Peter Viertel, and John Collier, The African Queen

Ladislav Grosman, Ján Kadár, and Elmar Klos, The Shop on Main Street

Steven Zaillian, The Irishman

Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Vera Caspary, A Letter to Three Wives

Christa Winsloe and Friedrich Dammann, Mädchen in Uniform

Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Enrico Medioli, Franco Arcalli, Franco Ferrini, and Sergio Leone, Once Upon a Time in America

Samson Raphaelson, One Hour with You

Carl Theodor Dreyer, Ordet

Teresa Prata, Sleepwalking Land

Orson Welles, The Trial

And unlike the mistake the Academy made in just giving the Oscar to Mankiewicz back in the day, the award also goes to his co-screenwriter, Vera Caspary.

Best Original Screenplay

Juan Antonio Bardem, Death of a Cyclist (1955, Spain)

Ousmane Sembène, Emitaï

Julian Fellowes, Gosford Park

Jérémy Clapin and Guillaume Laurant, I Lost My Body

Everett Freeman, Vick Knight, and Ben Markson, It Happened on Fifth Avenue

Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, Parasite

Ingmar Bergman, Persona

Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, Road to Utopia

David Starkman, The Scar of Shame

Delphine Girard, A Sister (2018 short, Belgium)

This is Sembène’s first Movie Odyssey Award, and I think he was probably one of the most overdue. As one of the fathers of African cinema, Sembène’s movies are colored by politics, specifically anti-colonialism, racism, tribal relations, and the destruction of traditional Senegalese life. His biting work to Emitaï is an excoriating piece, and essential to anyone seriously wanting to learn more about movies. No real challengers, in my mind, but the next ones up would have been Bergman and Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won.

Best Cinematography

David Schoenauer, The Cave of the Yellow Dog

Michel Remaudeau, Emitaï

Davis Boulton, The Haunting

Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman

V.K. Murthy, Kaagaz Ke Phool

Norbert Brodine, Kiss of Death

László Kovács, New York, New York

Tonino Delli Colli, Once Upon a Time in America

Kazuo Miyagawa, Shigeo Murata, Shigeichi Nagano, Kenji Nakamura, and Tadashi Tanaka, Tokyo Olympiad

Edmond Richard, The Trial

The Trial unfolds and is shot as if it was a nightmare, albeit a nightmare without any dreamlike elements. With Dutch angles and unconventional use of focus, it is a remarkable film to look at. Having the soon-to-be Orsay Museum as an interior certainly helps. The Cave of the Yellow Dog, The Haunting, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Once Upon a Time in America, and even Tokyo Olympiad would have been worthy winners too.

Best Film Editing

Don Deacon, Born Free (1966)

De Nosworthy and Nicholas T. Proferes, Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

Tom Priestly, Deliverance

Ernest Waller, The Haunting

Barry Alexander Brown, Malcolm X

Nino Baragli, Once Upon a Time in America

Yang Jin-mo, Parasite

Ulla Ryghe, Persona

Tatsuji Nakashizu, Tokyo Olympiad

Yvonne Martin and Frederic Muller, The Trial

Best Adaptation or Musical Score

S.D. Burman, Kaagaz Ke Phool

José Feliciano and Janna Merlyn Feliciano, Aaron Loves Angela

Nat W. Finston, Woody Herman, Louis Alter, and Edgar De Lange, New Orleans

W. Franke Harling, Oscar Straus, Rudolph G. Kopp, and John Leipold, One Hour with You

Maury Laws and Jules Bass, Mad Monster Party?

Joseph J. Lilley, Don Robertson, Hal Blair, George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, Sid Tepper, and Roy C. Bennett, Blue Hawaii

Alfred Newman, Flower Drum Song

Edward H. Plumb, Paul J. Smith, and Charles Wolcott, Saludos Amigos

David Raksin, George Gershwin, and Ira Gershwin, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim

Harry Warren, Ralph Blane, and Howard Jackson, My Dream Is Yours

Oh geez what a line-up. But this category favors original musicals above all. And though some might hesitate to call it a musical, Kaagaz Ke Phool’s soundtrack - in its melding of dramatics and music - is as cinematic as they come. As opposed to the let’s-just-put-a-song-here-to-kill-free time attitude of some of these musicals, Kaagaz Ke Phool uses its songs purposefully. In other words, with feeling. Alfred Newman’s adaptation of Flower Drum Song was probably up next.

Best Original Score

John Barry, Born Free

Elmer Bernstein, The Comancheros (1961)

Akira Ifukube, Destroy All Monsters (1968, Japan)

Zdeněk Liška, The Shop on Main Street

Toshiro Mayuzumi, Tokyo Olympiad

Ennio Morricone, Once Upon a Time in America

Alfred Newman, The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)

Leonard Rosenman, Edge of the City

Virgil Thomson, The River

John Williams, Empire of the Sun (1987)

This is not a sympathy prize for the recently-departed Italian composer. The key cue is the second one featured, "Deborah's Theme" and, when you listen to it, I think it tells you all you need to know about this movie. It's deeply expressive. And in the movie, it's allowed to be prominent. I've seen people say the late Morricone considered this his best score, but I can't find any official word of that anywhere. It is tremendous work, with Bernstein, Newman, and Thomson just behind.

Best Original Song

“Angela”, music and lyrics by José Feliciano and Janna Merlyn Feliciano, Aaron Loves Angela

“Can’t Help Falling in Love”, music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss, Blue Hawaii (1961)

“Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari / Bichhde Sabhi Baari Baari”, music by S.D. Burman, lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, Kaagaz Ke Phool

“(Do You Know What It Means to Miss) New Orleans”, music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans

“Farewell to Storyville",  music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans

“Happy Endings", music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York

“Here They Come (From All Over the World)", music and lyrics by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, The T.A.M.I. Show

“Is There Still Anything That Love Can Do?", music and lyrics by Yôjirô Noda, Weathering with You

“Theme from New York, New York”, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York

“Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam”, music and lyrics by S.D. Burman, Kaagaz Ke Phool

Thank you to all of those who participated in the 2020 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song!

Best Costume Design

Uncredited, The Duke Is Tops (1938)

Irene Sharaff, Flower Drum Song

Jenny Beavan, Gosford Park

Jacqueline Durran, Little Women

Henry Noremark and Karin Erskine, The Magic Flute

Ruth E. Carter, Malcolm X

Marcelles Desvignes and Mireille Leydet, Olivia

Gabriella Pescucci, Once Upon a Time in America

Travis Banton, One Hour with You

Bonnie Cashin, Three Little Girls in Blue

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Daniel C. Striepeke, John Chambers, Verne Langdon, Jack Barron, Mary Babcock, and Jan Van Uchelen, Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Sallie Jaye and Jan Archibald, Gosford Park

Judy Chin and Fríða Aradóttir. Little Women

Uncredited, Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)

Uncredited, The Magic Flute

Marietta Carter-Narcisse and John James, Malcolm X

Michael Westmore, Christina Smith, Mary Keats, June Miggins, and Sydney Guilaroff, New York, New York

Carmen Brel, Simone Knapp, Jean Lalaurette, and Maguy Vernadet, Olivia

Ben Nye, The Shocking Miss Pilgrim

Ben Nye, Three Little Girls in Blue

Best Production Design

Norman Reynolds and Harry Cordwell, Empire of the Sun

Alexander Golitzen, Joseph C. Wright, and Howard Bristol, Flower Drum Song

Stephen Altman and Anna Pinnock, Gosford Park

Elliot Scott and John Jarvis, The Haunting

Bob Shaw and Regina Graves, The Irishman

M.R. Achrekar, Kaagaz Ke Phool

Henny Noremark, Anna-Lena Hansen, and Emilio Moliner, The Magic Flute

Harry Kemm, Robert De Vestel, and Ruby R. Levitt, New York, New York

Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales, 1917 (2019)

Carlo Simi, Once Upon a Time in America

The production design, or the haunted house, was a character. Nothing else in this category could compare.

Achievement in Visual Effects (all are winners because it would be unfair to compare the visuals of 1917 against When Worlds Collide)

Babe: Pig in the City (1998)

Destroy All Monsters

The Irishman

1917

Red Dawn (1984)

Plymouth Adventure (1952)

War of the Worlds (2005)

When Worlds Collide (1951)

Worst Picture

Age 13 (1955 short)

Fireman, Save My Child! (1932)

Frankie and Johnny (1966)

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Red Dawn

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Fuck Fallen Kingdom.

Honorary Awards:

Colored Players Film Corporation, for its thematically courageous race films, tackling issues neglected by Hollywood

Harold Michelson, for his contributions as an illustrator and storyboard artist (posthumous)

Lillian Michelson, for her dedication as a film researcher and archivist

Tadahito Mochinaga, for achievements in stop-motion animation with Rankin/Bass

Floyd Norman, for his pioneering career in cinematic animation

FILMS WITH MULTIPLE NOMINATIONS (excluding Worst Picture... 57)

Ten: Once Upon a Time in America Nine: Kaagaz Ke Phool Seven: New York, New York; One Hour with You Six: The African Queen; Gosford Park; The Irishman; Parasite; The Shop on Main Street; The Trial Five: Flower Drum Song; The Haunting; A Letter to Three Wives; Mädchen in Uniform; Ordet; Persona; Three Little Girls in Blue; Tokyo Olympiad Four: Edge of the City; Emitaï; The Magic Flute; Malcolm X; New Orleans; Olivia Three: Aaron Loves Angela; Blue Hawaii; The Cave of the Yellow Dog; It Happened on Fifth Avenue; Marriage Story; The Scar of Shame; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Stars in My Crown Two: The Battle of the Century; The Big City; Body and Soul; Born Free; Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment; Deliverance; Destroy All Monsters; The Dragon Painter; The Greatest Story Ever Told; I Lost My Body; Kiss of Death; Klaus; Mad Monster Party?; Marona’s Fantastic Tale; My Dream is Yours; 1917; Pinky; The Princess and the Pirate; The River; Road to Utopia; Saludos Amigos; Sleepwalking Land; Soul; The T.A.M.I. Show; Weathering with You

WINNERS (excluding honorary awards and Worst Picture; 28) 3 wins: A Letter to Three Wives; Ordet 2 wins: The Haunting; Mädchen in Uniform; Once Upon a Time in America; Parasite; The Shop on Main Street; The Trial 1 win: The African Queen; Babe: Pig in the City; Blue Hawaii; Destroy All Monsters; Emitaï; Gosford Park; The Irishman; Kaagaz Ke Phool; Kiss of Death; Malcolm X; Marona’s Fantastic Tale; New York, New York; 1917; One Hour with You; Red Dawn; Persona; Plymouth Adventure; The Shocking Miss Pilgrim; Shoes; Tokyo Olympiad; War of the Worlds; When Worlds Collide

92 films were nominated in 26 categories.

[highordinal]

Kayn's stupid (for his dumb husband and we love him for it

Send “Kayn’s Stupid” for a headcannon about my muse. @bikmui

For those who don’t know, my Kayn and @exemplarum‘s Jarvan are married in their Odyssey verse. Because’s it’s cute as shit but also really sad and these two boys always melt my heart ;^;

Kayn’s big dummy thicc husband is his entire world, especially with the way the lore about my particular Kayn has progressed. Because his love influences his actions, there are three different ways Kayn’s whole story could end and I’m going to be expanding on them at a later date but here’s the breakdown:

Rhaast: Kayn will succumb to Rhaast’s influence and become a dark star, being chained within his own mind as Rhaast runs amok. Rhaast will eventually kill Jarvan and Kayn will watch- and that will break him causing him to let go completely and cease to exist.

Cosmic Emperor: Kayn will have the power he’s always wanted, but it will get to his head. Of course he still loves his husband, but I would assume that Jarvan would take up arms against his beloved to try and stop him. He can see Kayn quickly losing his mind and would take it upon himself to put him down. If Jarvan dies, Kayn would continue his rampage but with a dull ache constantly in his heart. If Jarvan were to win, I assume the galaxy would return to normal and it would only be Jarvan who grieves. 

Ordinal Kayn aka The Happy Ending: This would need to come about with the help of the Crew of the Morningstar (losers) where they finally beat Kayn and stop him from becoming a horrible tyrant :^) I WOULD ASSUME that the Crew would let Kayn live and he would be shipped back to Demaxia where he would realize what a mistake he made and try to mend his ways etc, etc. Jarvan would obviously play a huge role during this time, being there for Kayn when he needs him and keeping an eye out for him. Kayn would be embarrassed, defeated, and full of regret for ever picking up Rhaast in the first place so he’d need someone to lean on. And eventually a happy ending! After the mental trauma is over and done with!

Either way it’s going to be sad but just varying degrees of it. I want to end with the happy one because I have a lot of good ideas for it, but going insane sounds fun to write too :)

[antiquery]

el’s guide to the lovecraft mythos

hey! so this is mostly a post for my dear friend will @wellsforboys, who asked for a primer of sorts on the best lovecraft stories, because his collected works are such a doorstopper, and reading them all in chronological order is quite an intensive task. these are, in my opinion, the cream of the crop; keep in mind that, for a lovecraft fan, my tastes tend towards the unconventional, and if you ask someone else you might get a very different list. i’m going to try my best to avoid the most intensely, egregiously bigoted, but if there’s something i feel merits inclusion despite the aforementioned bigotry i’ll include a warning. i’ll also provide links to all of these stories through the free online archive, but if you’d like to get a hard copy and delve deeper, i recommend this one from arcturus or this one from barnes & noble. if you’re strapped for cash and/or would prefer to read more online, here’s the link hub for the complete works. let’s get started!

lovecraft stories are typically broken up into two categories: the “mythos” stories, and the “dreamlands” stories. the former are the stories you typically think of when you think of lovecraft, if you know weird fiction— they tend more towards hard sci-fi, and usually deal with doomed scholars, hubris-ridden scientific exploits, the massachusetts countryside, outer gods, and various types of aliens. they’re far more famous than the latter, most of which concern the adventures of various vaguely keatsian protagonists in a narnia-ish realm dubbed the dreamlands, which is internally consistent and frequently cross-referenced. the distinction between these two types of stories is only a very broad one, though; characters, locations, and themes. frequently appear in both. the term “mythos” is rather misleading— all the stories take place in the same ‘verse, with the same gods and the same cosmology. really, it’s a division of style and subject material. personally, i prefer the dreamlands stories, but most lovecraft fans (unsurprisingly) prefer the mythos tales (which i will admit are more technically, narratively apt). i’ll try and include a roughly equal amount of both, so that you can get a feel for what you prefer.

so, without further ado, here’s the list! in chronological order:

the statement of randolph carter: first story, first appearance of my boy! here he’s wracked by ptsd from the great war and the recent eldritch demise of his boyfriend research partner; the story is told in the form of a police statement. this is one of the most gothic of lovecraft’s tales, and also the one with Alternate Universe Florida. it’s a fave.

celephais: sort of a dry run for the dream-quest of unknown kadath, but clever and unique in its own humble way. it’s got the same themes of refuge in dream, and it’s got a sweet ending that’s cleverly subverted by the protagonist’s later appearance in the dream cycle.

from beyond: people have mixed opinions on this one, but i’m fond of it. while usually classed as a dream cycle tale, it has that element of scientific hubris that pops up so often in mythos stories, and an absolutely chilling central premise.

nyarlathotep: first appearance of probably the most well-known mythos baddie after cthulhu. here he’s terrorizing innocent humans in the guise of Eldritch Modernist Nikola Tesla. will, for you specifically— if you like nikola orsinov from the magnus archives, you’ll like nyarlathotep (both the character and the short story).

the nameless city: this might just be my favorite one-off tale (though i am fond of the lovecraft reread’s hypothesis that the unnamed protagonist might be our boy randy carter, because this is precisely the kind of stupidity he’s so prone to). top-notch archaeological horror about exploring a deserted city that might not be as empty as it seemed.

the music of erich zann: lovecraft doing chambers, basically. it’s a clever little tale, and has an innovative use of auditory horror, which wasn’t all that common for hpl.

hypnos: probably the second most homoerotic story lovecraft ever wrote (though there are a lot of those, surprisingly enough). local keatsian meets a supremely beautiful, nameless man, they fall into dreaming (and opium addiction) together, things go downhill from there.

herbert west— reanimator: this one’s a bit longer, but it’s a cult classic, adapted into a delightfully campy 1985 film starring jeffrey combs. it’s about a scientist who goes Too Far, in the frankenstein sense, in pursuit of...well, you can guess from the title. it’s a fun modern (for the twenties) twist on the gothicism of mary shelley, and the title character is so much fun.

the hound: another super-gothic tale, and probably the single homoerotic story lovecraft ever wrote. actually, it’s kinda like a mini the secret history via poe. local decadents get into the occult over their heads, pay the spooky spooky price. gotta love it.

the rats in the walls: this one’s another classic poe-esque story, pretty clearly a riff on fall of the house of usher. it’s a wonderfully psychological piece of gothic horror, but huge trigger warning for The Infamous Cat Name. aside from that bit of unpleasantness, this is one of the first pieces where lovecraft handles the horror of ancestry well, with the classic conceit of a literal decaying house (or priory, as the case may be), and it’s pretty cool to see him really come into his own with something that’d so fundamentally define his work.

the unnameable: another carter story! this time he’s acting pretty transparently as lovecraft’s author avatar, talking about the value of horror fiction and, uh, fainting in terror at the slightest hint of any actual horror. better luck next time, randy. we’ll check in with him again in a few.

the festival: first canon mention of the necronomicon! exciting! and, if i recall correctly, the only story actually set in kingsport, one of the small massachusetts towns (along with arkham, dunwich, and innsmouth) that make up the major landmarks of lovecraft country. it’s about, as the title suggests, a Nefarious Ritual, and also astral projection? cool. it’s a pretty neat bit of creepery, nothing really special, but a good example of the kind of regional horror lovecraft was starting to handle particularly well.

the call of cthulhu: i’m basically obligated to include this one, though to me it’s not really a standout, because it’s so damn famous. it does get points for a clever and thematically intelligent narrative structure, and the astoundingly creepy idea of artists’ dreams being influenced by an Imminent Horror. 

pickman’s model: another super chambers-esque story, and one where the monologue formatting works loads better than it did in statement of randolph carter. like in music of erich zann (and, to some extent, call of cthulhu) this is lovecraft wrestling with the cosmic-horror implications of the fine arts. it’s also got a lovely twist at the end, one of those really chilling clincher lines lovecraft is starting to develop a knack for.

the silver key: chronologically the third carter tale, though no one’s entirely sure where it fits in the narrative sequence of his stories. it’s basically a modernist diss track, wherein our boy wrestles with the ennui that comes from, uh, reading t.s. eliot? (funnily enough, this is basically “the hollow men” via keats.) it’s not really a horror story, but it’s one of my favorites nonetheless.

the dream-quest of unknown kadath: FINALLY, we get to my favorite. this is a short novel chronicling randolph carter’s adventures in the dreamlands as he seeks out a dream-city that the gods have denied him. it’s the odyssey via lord dunsany, with a few twists— carter’s not really an epic hero, polutropos or otherwise, and it’s fun to watch him navigate a treacherous landscape in such an unconventional fashion. it has an excellent, atypical twist ending, and my favorite appearance of nyarlathotep ever. it’s also the chronological end of the carter cycle,* and our boy goes out with a very pratchett-esque bang.

the case of charles dexter ward: a lengthy slow-build tale of an evil necromancer and his impressionable descendent. it moves somewhat slowly, but it’s so delightfully atmospheric that you don’t really mind. bonus points for the clear riff on wilde’s the picture of dorian gray. also, first appearance of mythos deity yog-sothoth!

the dunwich horror: aaaand now we get into the string of very well-known mythos tales that lovecraft wrote around 1930. this is a classic, about an insular family with a destructive predilection for the occult.

the whisperer in darkness: a lovely slow-build and partly epistolary tale, featuring the classic Intense Stupidity of mythos protagonists. also featuring aliens from...pluto? and the first real appearance of the theme of bodily dissociation, which lovecraft got super into near the end of his career.

at the mountains of madness: this one’s so good. it’s more of a novella than a short story, about a doomed expedition to the antarctic sponsored by our favorite Dark Ivy, miskatonic university. it’s an awesome piece of worldbuilding about the pre-human earth, and a near-unique bit of sympathy for the non-human. it was also the inspiration for john carpenter’s 1982 classic the thing, as well as a tragically abortive guillermo del toro adaptation.

the shadow over innsmouth: i’d call this the climax of lovecraft’s writing on hereditary horror, and it’s brilliant. the ending is one of my favorite final paragraphs in all of lovecraft, maybe surpassed only by dream-quest. the story proper is about a young massachusetts native investigating the strange coastal town of innsmouth, and just why, exactly, something isn’t quite right about it. it loses points, though, for a truly horrible and lengthy application of dialect, and for being a very obvious metaphor about interracial marriage. sigh.

the dreams in the witch house: probably my favorite story after dream-quest of unknown kadath. it’s...kind of dark academia-y, actually, about a miskatonic undergrad who moves into a house formerly owned by a famous witch and discovers a method to travel to other dimensions— at a price, of course. lovecraft was never good at character building, but he did manage to create a genuinely sympathetic protagonist in walter gilman, which makes the ending all the more chilling. there’s also an awesome rock opera adaptation of this story, which i highly recommend.

the shadow out of time: another favorite! it’s the culmination of lovecraft’s late-career fondness for body-swapping horror, and as well as being genuinely cosmically terrifying (and wondrous) it’s quite psychological, in a way lovecraft wasn’t usually very apt at. it’s got alien civilizations! anticipatory soviet terror! the horrors of interplanetary colonialism! awesome libraries! what’s not to love?

the haunter of the dark: the last independent story lovecraft wrote before he died in 1937, it’s a beautiful send-up of providence, hpl’s hometown, and a delightful final appearance of my man nyarlathotep (albeit in a new form). plus...eldritch journalism? it’s great. also, i can’t mention this story without referencing this fic, which you should absolutely read immediately after the actual tale. 

and that’s it! happy reading!

* you can read “through the gates of the silver key” if you want, it’s technically the culmination of the carter cycle, but it was mainly written by e. hoffman price and edited by lovecraft, and i (along with plenty of other hpl scholars) don’t really consider it canon. it was lovecraft’s first real foray into body-swap horror, but because he’s trying to shove it into a character arc that’s already over and done with it doesn’t do very well. you get essentially the same narrative with “the shadow out of time,” done much more skilfully. to me, “gates” smacks intensely of derleth, lovecraft’s “posthumous collaborator” and Mythos Manichaean, which...ack.

[kraztaco]

Smash Ultimate Costume/Echo Fighter Ideas

Just gonna spitball some ideas for potential costumes or echo fighters for the new Smash. Mostly costumes, though a few could be either or.

I’m all for more echo fighters, since they don’t seem to take much development time, like Dark Pit and Lucina, so we get more beloved characters to enjoy beating the tar out of. I’d even be fine with them slapping a few on as DLC (as long as they’re not the only DLC).

These are just what I could think of while looking over the fighter list, there could be plenty of potential I’m missing, so feel free to add some you’d like. (just be semi-reasonable)

I did something similar for DBFZ, but I’m gonna do a cut here do it doesn’t take up your entire page.

We’re going in order of what they have listed on the site.

I only put the official renders of characters I have ideas for, so you can scroll down to them if you’re only interested in a specific character.

We already have Wedding Mario and Builder Mario confirmed, but any of the awesome Odyssey outfits would be good.

-Funky Kong -any similarly shaped Kong. Except Rabbit Kong. No to them.

-Ocarina of Time Link -Twilight Princess Link. I know we’ve had these designs for the past two and a half games, but they’re good designs. The other LoZ characters will have them listed too. -Hyrule Warriors Link

-Dark Samus -Any of the other suit designs

-Birdo. I’m not 100% sure how this would work, but I think it could.

(got nothing for Kirby)

Other Star Fox game designs. I never played Star Fox, but they do have different looks each game.

-Shiny Pikachu

-Dr. Luigi. He doesn’t incorporate his hat into any moves, so I think it could work -Masked L (from Super Paper Mario)

-Ninten

-Blood Falcon -Black Shadow

-Shiny Jigglypuff

-Wedding Peach with Captian Toad as her guard during her special. -Motorcycle Peach (from Mario Kart) -Any of the other Odyssey outfits

-Motorcycle Daisy

-Dry Bowser -Wedding Bowser

(nothing for Ice Climbers)

-Ocarina of Time Sheik -Hyrule Warriors Sheik

-Ocarina of Time Zelda -Twilight Princess Zelda -Hyrule Warriors Zelda -Midna (True Form) -Lana (Hyrule Warriors)

(got nothing for Dr. Mario)

-Shiny Pichu -Spiky Eared Pichu

-Other Star Fox game designs

-Other Fire Emblem protagonists? I dunno, I’ve really only played Awakening, so I don’t have any solid examples here. Chrom could work, but we already have Lucina (they have the same fighting style since he trained her), but he’s been compared to Ike before.

-Masked Lucina ("Marth") on that note, I really liked Lucina’s crossdressing disguise look.

(got nothing for Young Link. all the good ones went to Toon Link, sry)

-Phantom Ganon (from Wind Waker, or any other game he showed up in) -Twilight Princess Ganondorf -Wind Waker Ganondorf -Hyrule Warriors Ganondorf

-Gigyas (Earthbound) Credit where it’s due, this wasn’t my idea. https://twitter.com/edmendozaart/status/1008035130630443008 On this note, I really like the idea of echo fighters not being from the same franchise as their base counterpart. I just can’t think of any good ideas. -Armored Mewtwo (from Mewtwo Strikes Back) -Shiny Mewtwo

(got nothing for Roy. Could go the same idea as Marth but, again, I’m not well versed in FE enough to have any suggestions)

-Paper Mario somehow? I’ve seen mods of it, it might work

-Galaxia Knight -Morpho Knight

-Three Sacred Treasures Pit, since his Final Smash was changed. He gets a new one every game.

(got nothing for Dark Pit)

-Pink Suit Green Hair "Justin Bailey"

(got nothing for Wario or Snake)

-Chrom. Same logic as Roy here.

-Shiny Pokemon in Master Balls

-Dixie Kong

-Masked Man (i think that's what he was called)

-Shadow the Hedgehog -Metal Sonic

(got nothing for King Dedede)

-just keep Alf

-Shiny Lucario -Lucario wearing Sir Aaron's hat from the movie

(got nothing for R.O.B. I liked the mods PM gave him where he was a Virtual Boy or a Wii, but I doubt that’s happening)

-Minish Cap -Spirit Tracks Conductor Suit -Outset Island Toon Link

-You guessed it, other Star Fox game designs

(got nothing for Villager)

-Proto Man and Bass (just swap them for Mega Man during Final Smash)

(got nothing for Wii Fit Trainer)

(got nothing for Rosalina and Luma. She has the motorcycle suit, which I like, but it would definitely look weird with the way her model moves in game. Same thing for any of her other costumes, really.)

(got nothing for Little Mac)

-Shiny Greninja -Ash Greninja

-Medusa -Original Palutena Design (the one on the statue in Skyworld, and in Pit’s Brawl Final Smash)

-Ms. Pac Man

-Grima Robin (you know, the one from Heroes everyone seems to love)

(got nothing for Shulk, Bowser Jr. or Duck Hunt)

-Ken -Akuma -any shoto-clone, really -not Goku

(got nothing for Cloud or Corrin)

-Jeanne

-Octoling

-Nothing besides Meta Ridley for Ridley

[eurosong]

Undo my ESC - Semi-final 1

Hey there, folks – with this year having so many ESC national finals with results that I personally found lamentable, I thought I’d do a little write-up, Undo my ESC, where I take this year’s entrants and make a feasible change, anything as small as tinkering with a few minor touches or as big as another person winning the national final completely.  Obviously, just my opinion and a light-hearted review, but I hope the people that always unfollow this page because they disagree with something I say on the few occasions I go into personal opinions stop reading here. Let’s take a look, first, at Semi-Final 1. Azerbaijan: she’s a jazz and soul singer. Get her singing a song in one of these styles that is comfortable to her! If the Azeris really think they wouldn’t have a chance with these genres, then they haven’t been paying attention to the last few winners of the contest. Even if she didn’t emulate them, she’d surely get to the final with their qualification rate, and would have more of a chance of standing out than with this generic “bop” (my most hated overused word of this season.) Iceland: Iceland this year may have sent the song with the most excruciatingly hackneyed lyrics in several years. Take a Hallmark card poem, drown it in treacle and you have an idea of how syrupy and twee the song is, almost as if they were some pretty bad satirists trying to write an over-the-top “humankind is one” pastiche song. I didn’t really pay much heed to Söngvakkepnin this year – finding their offerings a tame lot compared to recent years, like the excellent showdown between Svala and Daði Freyr last year – so I don’t have a horse to back, but since Í stormi was winning the contest televote before the superfinal, in this alternate timeline, I will have it win instead. Albania: This song is as close to perfection almost as you can get to me. Some people don’t like the revamped version, but – after what feels like an entire era of bad revamping – I like it and think it makes the song melodically tighter. I guess my change would be that Eugent would get the visa needed to attend the pre-parties, as he really needs all the exposure he can get to get out of this semi-final of death. Belgium: A really nice effort from Belgium, with Flanders stepping it up a gear to match the Walloons’ quality over the past years. Not sure how to change it, except to perhaps incorporate some Dutch in there? The separation of broadcasters made sense when Wallonia was sending songs in French and Flanders in Vlaams, not so much now when they’re both sending English songs. It’d be nice to hear the first bit of Dutch from Belgium since 1996 in, for example, one of the reprises of the choruses. Czechia: The Czechs surprised a lot of onlookers by joining the wave away from internal selections and towards national finals, but there was only ever going to be one winner here, Mikolas Jozef, whose song soared above an otherwise weak crowd melodically – but not lyrically! Even his new “family friendly” version for the ESC feels sleazy, misogynistic, and raises a bunch of questions that I definitely wouldn’t want to have to explain to my students. My change would be that he take the opportunity of writing a new set of lyrics to write something to go much better with the admittedly catchy score. Lithuania: This is gorgeous on every level and is soaring up my personal chart. Ieva’s vocals, powerful in their delicacy, are really moving and add to the poignancy of the lyrics. I originally found the English version sorely lacking compared to Kai myliu, but they have a certain understated simplicity and naïveté that I find lovely. She’s letting the words speak for themselves and I love that. My one change? Make it bilingual and add some Lithuanian to the mix, something she did in the final but is unclear whether she’ll replicate on the big stage.

Israël: Netta was rightfully the breakout star of the Israëli preselection, and having seen interviews of her, she seems genuinely lovely. I wouldn’t change her as the representative picked, but I wóúld go for a different song. Listening to or watching “Toy”, for me, feels like sensory overstimulation, like entering a room with a blur of a thousand noises and flashing lights. It feels too try-hard for me, like they want to be the memetic entry of the year, which some people will vote for just because of the chicken memes rather than the musical value of the piece. I also think that trying to posture it as a #!MeToo anthem is the biggest reach since Brisa Fenoy’s acclamation of Lo Malo. Belarus: As much as I’ve come to ironically appreciate the song and Alekseev’s bizarre accentuation, Farevvahh doesn’t hold a candle to Chmarki for me, which would have been a second unusual and unique pick for Belarus. Estonia: Eesti Laul was a bit of a dud for me this year, unlike the previous year where I loved Spirit Animal and Slingshot liked almost every song in the final -except for the eventual winner (my luck in a nutshell, there.) My pick would have been the sweeping and otherworldly Külm, which would have brought about an overdue return to the exceedingly musical Estonian language at Eurovision. If we have to keep Elina, give her a song (rather than a vocal exhibition) in Estonian, a language whose vocalic richness is perfectly suited for operatics. Bulgaria: The thing letting this darkly atmospheric piece down the most is the female vocalist, Žana Bergendorff, who doesn’t add much to the five-piece combo and has done very little except for gawp distractingly at the crowd in live performances. Bulgaria’s broadcasters teased much bigger names… I would have had them follow through on them. Macedonia: I’ve really grown to like this song from Macedonia, though on first listen – and those first impressions are crucial for folk who haven’t been listening to the songs for months in advance – it seemed a bit messy rather than the musical odyssey I currently consider it to be. It’s a risk, but I’d leave the composition as it is – except for inserting some of the supposed Macedonian we might have got. Croatia: Go back in time and tell Franka not to make a version of Sam Brown’s “Stop” with trap beats? Austria: Another composition that I can barely find fault with and really like. I love the light and shade of this – the dark and despairing verses offset by the build of the bridge and the upbeat, gospel-twinged verses. Only a special voice could pull that off, but Cesár’s husky and soulful timbre is perfect for both. The only part of the song where my attention flags is between the 2nd and 3rd choruses, where I think a fully-fledged third verse would be more interesting. Greece:  Actually have a national final. Don’t eliminate all but one song in the shadiest way possible. And have the winner be Don’t forget the sun/ Μην ξεχνασ τον ηλιο, which I feel brought a truly Greek atmosphere and combined English and Greek effortlessly, avoiding the clunkiness that bilingual songs often have. Finland: I would rather have had a proper UMK with more than one candidate, rather than what we got, 3 songs from Saara Aalto, which doesn’t represent that much choice. If that were impossible – as it seemed YLE was dead set on that path – then I’d probably have gone with Domino instead. Monsters is, musically, a more interesting piece and doesn’t have the atrocious rhyming of “falling, oh” with “domino” (troolee jeenyus riming), but her performance of Domino was considerably less shaky, and I find the chorus a bit gratingly shrill. Armenia: I love that Armenia are sending a song in their beautiful native language, and Qami is a grower with mystical and poetic lyrics. But I can’t lie – I much preferred If you don’t walk me home and would have it win Depi Evratesil instead. Switzerland: I’m going to be honest: in the last few years, I haven’t expected much out of Switzerland except for “non-qualifier” fodder, having brought us only 3 songs I like (Cool vibes, Unbreakable and especially the verbosely charming Hunter of Stars. Come back, Sebalter!) … since their last victory in 1988! I don’t mind Stones, even if I think it’s pop that’s rolled around in the mud a bit to present itself as grungey. However, there was something truly beautiful and stirring in the selection, Chiara Dubey’s “Secrets and Lies”, which seemed elegantly pared back despite also having something of an orchestral flourish. And her voice, as smooth as velvet, crowning the composition. Unfortunately, it had no chance… but I would make it my personal winner of the Swiss selection. Ireland: Ireland’s song this year is not daring or likely to make a splash, but quite lovely, with beautiful harmonies. I find the representative this year to be very unctuous and shifty though, especially his fake news about his video – whence I imagine most of the hype comes from, representing his song about a boy and girl breaking up with a romantic interpretive dance between two fellas falling in love, naturally – that he propagated against Russia.  Cyprus: Just no on every level to the current package, one of my absolute least favourites this year. I’d have a national selection with some Greek language songs. Whilst I begrudge how ERT handled their “national final” fiasco, at least they made a few steps in the right direction. This is the equivalent of flying half way around the world in the wrong direction. And the direct finalists voting in this semi-final:  Portugal: Whilst I have grown to find Isaura’s meditative song about the loss of her gran quite an extraordinary and emotive listen, I found this year’s Festival da canção of great quality and diversity and would have preferred Beatriz’ Eu te amo, Diogo Piçarra’s Canção do fim, or even better, Janeiro’s “(sem título)” as the host nation’s entry. Spain: This is one of my huge favourites this year, so I can pick little fault with it at all, though I think I prefer their pre-revamp version, which was a little more subtle in its lack of additional adornments. United Kingdom: The only thing I was happy about when it came to the result of You Decide, (which should be renamed You decide 50%, a jury decides the rest and we never tell you who réálly was decisive!) was that this prevented the more hideous hymn of unwarranted self-aggrandisement that was “Legends” from getting the ticket. But the eventual winning song, and especially the revamp, which sounds like the producers got bored and let their six year old kid go wild on a Casio, is such a wet weekend for me, especially when it was up against a soaring voice and poignant set of lyrics in Jaz Ellington’s “You”. 

So, that’s my summary of what I consider to be by far the stronger semi-final of this year’s Eurovision, and where only a few of my changes needed to be drastic. Join me soon to go through SF2, as I navigate a nearly wall-to-wall litany of horrors and share how I would like to try to right them!

[coolestdragonever]

Bowser and Mario: more than just enemies?

(Super Mario Odyssey spoliers!!!) 

Okay so this has been bothering me for a while now and I need to write it down somewhere. Don’t take it seriously, it’s just my silly thoughts.

When I played Super Mario Odyssey and came to the final boss I was completely blown away. My childhood dream was always to play as Bowser in a big mainstream Mario game. I had played Bowser’s inside story but it wasn’t enough for me, so when I played odyssey I couldn’t help but squeal with excitement when I saw Mario going into Bowser’s head and take over his body.

So after I had smashed alot of blocks and stones to pieces I came to the room where you have to break four pillars so that they fall down on the big moon block in the middle. The music changed completely to something that I didn’t expect at all. The music ‘’Honeylune ridge: escape’’ sounded like something that would be in a Sonic game at first, but the more I listened to it, the more I loved it. So of course I had to search it up on youtube so I could learn the lyrics.

Here’s where it got weird for me though. When I looked at the lyrics I thought that they sounded a little bit weird. Many of you may believe that it is Peach that’s supposed to sing to Mario. But the more I though about it I couldn’t help but have another thought in mind.

Let me explain by making it cringy and putting the text in this post.

Smash through the blocks that bar your way, yeah No time for fear, just let it all fall away (it all fall away)

Yes, this sounds like something Peach would say to Mario possesing Bowser. But it could also be Bowser speaking to Mario since their minds are connected during that moment. Bowser wants to survive and trusts Mario to save him and his body as well as Peach.

Nobody believes in me and you Just look at the way they stare So what if we live in a walled garden As long as I've got you then I don't care

Well that’s something weird to say to MARIO who is the HERO of the mushroom kingdom, heck, even the whole galaxy! Maybe the meaning of this is that nobody believes that Mario and Bowser would ever work together. Hence why they say ‘’just look at the way they stare’’. Nobody would stare if Mario and Peach would do something together because they’re basically a couple... not after that rejection in the end though...

Something to also look into here is the thing with living in a walled garden. It sounds like it could mean that Peach is saying to Mario that they only need each other and they’ll be happy. But considering the rest of the text’s meaning I can only imagine that Mario is saying this to Bowser.

Kick up the wall, and take the plunge Shiftin' through two dimensions Up on the moon, we'll twirl and swoon Just lead the way (I'll follow you)

I imagined that since Bowser was the one leading Mario all the way to the moon this could mean that Bowser maybe... wants to be with Mario? Nah!

I'll put my hat in the ring, 'cause you're the one A miracle in three dimensions Follow the brick path straight to my heart And we'll grab the flag together, the fireworks are gonna start

But uhh... Bowser’s the one who has the ring... It is also very suspicios that Bowser’s theme from Super Mario 64 is playing after this first verse.

Shake off the chains, you're running free You'll be amazed at all that there is to see (there is to see)

Well, Peach isn’t really chained together like a prisoner. So they are probably meaning invisible chains that holds one back from certain things. But is Peach held back when she’s NOT kidnapped? No, she can do whatever the hell she wants. I imagine that Mario is saying this to Bowser since he’s often hated by everyone and cannot go to Peach’s castle even if he just wanted to get a piece of cake. But this sounds like Mario wants to be friends with him and show him that the world isn’t such a dark place.

Together we're racing for the goal And no one can stop us now Maybe we don't know where we're going But we're gonna get there somehow

Bowser and Mario is racing together for the goal and ensures each other that they’ll get there somehow even if they don’t really know where the goal is.

Climb up the vine, land in the clouds Maybe then we'll swap up for down Cross the sea, we're still you and me I'll follow you (just lead the way)

Swap up for down? Climb up the vine? Alright, I have nothing to say here.

You've got me over the moon, and that's no jest We're miles above the rest Look in your eyes and I know we'll be fine So let's shoot for the stars and make this love really shine

Mario says that Bowser got him over the moon, which is true actually. He led him there. But then it sounds like they both is, dare I say it: in love with each other.

Think about it. If they were then they would be worried about what everyone else would say about it. Mario the greatest hero of all time and Bowser the evil lord of the koopas together? People would probably freak out over it. So they both keep it a secret. But they know that people are going to find out sooner or later and now wants to tell everybody but the fear of being looked upon with disagreeing and disgusted eyes scare them. But if they look each other in the eyes they gain encouragement and know that they’ll be fine. So they’re shooting for the stars with this and will make the love between them shine.

The reason I think this may be possible is because when Mario took over Bowser’s body he got to see every one of Bowser’s memories. They were connected, and maybe that evolved into a bit of love that only grew stronger as they progressed through the underground of the moon and saw that working together was far better than being enemies.

I know about the Mario x Bowser ship but personally dislike it. Mario x Peach (or maybe Pauline) all the way for sure. But I cannot let this go unnoticed. And this has maybe changed my mind on how I see the ship. I’m not trying to convince anybody about that Mario and Bowser is in love with each other but at least think about it. Maybe Bowser only kidnaps Peach to have her be the mother of his children but actually LOVES Mario and wants his attention?

Or maybe I’m just sounding like an idiot right now. This is what happens when you don’t get enough sleep and play Mario games too much.

If you actually read through all of this then I applaud you, this was a very long post.

[backlogged]

Letter of introduction Dear. mr. neuman I had a take and thought it could be done better. This is a letter introducing Adam Carpenter He is  young, about 20 He is an absolute sweetheart and Very personable. He loves music, beer and can play a mean chord. He is well versed in his trade You know he will make a name for himself in whatever he does. I know it will be a pleasure for everyone concerned and hope you will enjoy hearing him play. affectionately Emily. Pizza: 8 Water:5 beer : one pack Pringles: if deal three Matzo ball soup: 1 Golden peanut snack: kosher: 1 Pizza kosher snack: 1 PBR: 1 JFK comes up a lot At work, where I work I work at the cinemas And we talk a lot about JFK People like to tell their favorite jfk quotes My favourite quote from JFK is as followed ich ein bin berliner It is the best quote ever The story is even funnier JFK went to germany He went to germany smoochez the germans and visit the berlin wall He went to germany show solidarity he told the german people ich ein bin berliner Which means I am a doughnut. Frames: 6 Baskets Hangers Socks Pants New shirts Laces Smaller belt More books More vinyl Wine glasses should be picked up By the stem rather than the bowl by the bowl Rather than the stem This helps keep the wine cool No one likes hot wine Unless you are an alcoholic In that case You just do not care Fruit or soup in cups Eggs or shellfish Fowl or meat {not a roast} Never a roast Please never serve a roast If you serve roast than you are bourgeoisie Salad dessert A Memory Banished        Disturbance        Gratitude and Suffering        Deception        Onward - As If To Breathe        A Memory Promised        Careless Whispers (Wham)        The Re-Evaluation of Tina        Silent Night (Gruber)        Altitude        The Doll in the Trees        The Berlin Dog        Stability        My Best Friend's Girl (The Cars)        Memorandum        Dog Stroll        Desire (A More Desperate Hell)        His Threads Are Bare And The Winds Are Marrow        Continence (From The Outside) Veal scallopini Roast turkey Mashed potatoes String beans with mushrooms Cranberry sauce, stuffing gravy How much would you pay? CITIZEN KANE CASABLANCA THE GODFATHER GONE WITH THE WIND LAWRENCE OF ARABIA THE WIZARD OF OZ THE GRADUATE ON THE WATERFRONT SCHINDLER'S LIST SINGIN' IN THE RAIN IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE SUNSET BLVD. THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI SOME LIKE IT HOT STAR WARS ALL ABOUT EVE THE AFRICAN QUEEN PSYCHO CHINATOWN ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST THE GRAPES OF WRATH 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY E.T. DR. STRANGELOVE BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID Butter tolls Fresh fruit compote Cookies coffee How much would you pay? Moss Pebbles Clip on lamp Heat bulb Another vase This sandgrain day in the bent bay's grave He celebrates and spurns His driftwood thirty-fifth wind turned age; Herons spire and spear. Who tolls his birthday bell, And the rhymer in the long tongued room, Who tolls his birthday bell, Toesl towards the ambush of his wounds; Herons, stepple stemmed, bless. Who tolls his birthday bell, Through wynds and shells of drowned Ship towns to pastures of otters. He In his slant, racking house And the hewn coils of his trade perceives Herons walk in their shroud, Who tolls his birthday bell, More spanned with angles ride The man souled fiery islands! Oh, Holier than their eyes, And my shining men no more alone As I sail out to die Who tolls his birthday bell. Three of four varieties of cold cuts Such as Ham, turkey, no roast beef, lamb, or cold cuts. Never serve roast beef Scalloped potatoes Vegetable salad Buttered tolls Vanilla ice cream with green mint sauce Cookies Coffee He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like to believe in yourself. Curried lamb or chicken Rice ring Chutney, raisins, ground nuts French bread, butter Raw spinach salad Ice cream and cake or cookies coffee The truth was that Jay Gatsby, of West Egg, Long Island, sprang from his Platonic conception of himself. He was a son of God—a phrase which, if it means anything, means just that—and he must be about His Father’s business, the service of a vast, vulgar, and meretricious beauty. So he invented just the sort of Jay Gatsby that a seventeen year old boy would be likely to invent, and to this conception he was faithful to the end.Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that's no matter – to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther… And one fine morning – So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. Alpha Desperation March palmcorder yajna Alpha Negative Transjordanian Blues Cry For Judas Golden boy Power in a union Quito Heel Turn 2 Lobster, shrimp newburg or beef stroganoff Rice Green olives Croissants Caesar salad Cheese and crackers Fresh fruit Coffee I am a big dylan fan I love most of what he put out My first album I got for my birthday My nana took me to get it It was hard rain I thought it was peter frampton on the cover I felt pretty ripped The recording of that was a mess The title of the album tells you all you need to know It was raining The band lost their steam from the rolling thunder revue But dylan just went out and blew everyone away It is one of my favorite live performances ever from him The lyrical changes are golden as well. Everything is intimate I still have it Seven years later For everyday use One complete set of four or six place settings of inexpensive china, pottery, or unbreakable plastic ware. Which now comes in the most attractive colours This set should include: Dinner plates Dessert plates {can be used for salad} Cereal dishes {can be used for soup, pudding canned fruit!} Cups Saucers Dinner plates Cups Cream pitchers 2 platters Dessert plates {can be used for salad} 2 vegetable dishes Which now comes in the most attractive colours so get this guess who’s the other j.lo? JON LOVITZ he’s the best j.lo also has the biggest bum no doubt WERQ IT 2ND J.LO 10 Beautiful Things That Can Kill You 10 ryan gosling 9 Sheep 8.Poppy 7 Sky Dancers 6 Moonlight’s Reflection 5 Beards 4 Blue Hole 3 Yarn 2 Art Sculpture 1 Hope Diamond A Great Big World, Christina Aguilera - The ending of most of Rick and Morty season 2 episodes Ghost Town (for some reason) The last scene in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 6: A Very Sunny Christmas The Notebook Brokeback Mountain The Fault in Our Stars movie and book thenicestplaceontheinter.net Sad Japanese Commercials R.E.M - Everybody Hurts Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah Avril Lavigne - Wish You Were Here It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Season 6 Episode 10 I’ve read Goodnight Moon almost every night for the past two years.  It’s a wonderful book which my son enjoys.  Here are some of my issues with the bedroom depicted in it. 1.  The Size of the Bedroom This bedroom is enormous.  There is no one, I think, who has not noticed this.  As someone who has lived in apartments only slightly larger than “a little toy house,” it’s mildly vexing that this bedroom is the size of a banquet hall in Downton Abbey. Nice bedroom and/or place to possibly hold the 2024 Olympics 2. The Little Toy house. The little toy house would rent out for $2500 a month in Manhattan (not including utilities) This is not that little of a toy house.  Not only could the rabbit easily fit inside the “little toy house,” the little toy house also has working electricity.  Why are these rabbits so civilized?  Is this some f**ked up Watership Down sequel??? 3. The color scheme we’re going for is “exploded paint factory.” “So what color have we decided on for the upstairs child’s bedroom?” “Which child’s bedroom?” “The enormous one.  The one with the expansive tomato-colored floor.” “I was thinking for that room maybe a dark green?” “Really?  Dark green?  You don’t think maybe dark green walls with a tomato-colored floor is a bit much?” “No, it’ll look amazing.  We can break up the monotony of the color with some dark green and yellow striped curtains.” “That’s an amazing idea.  On non-matching red and yellow spearhead curtain rods?  Do you think a tiger skin rug would be overkill?” “For a young child’s room?  No.  Not at all.  ”   5. The  Bookshelf “For tonight would you rather read ‘Hop on Pop’ or the entire Encyclopedia Britanica?” Why are these books so thick?  This is a child’s bedroom, not a law library.  Unless this rabbit is defending a doctoral thesis, there’s no need for him to own every non-fiction hardcover from Farrar Straus and Giroux. 7. The Idea That Anyone Would Keep a Comb and a Brush and a Bowl Full of Mush on the Same Table 8.   Continued… Meanwhile, back at the ranch… “So what color do you think for the child’s bed?” “I was thinking like a tomato-ish red color?” “You remember the floor’s a tomato-ish red color.” “Yeah.” “You don’t think that’s a lot of red for a child’s bedroom?  We don’t want it to look like the Amityville Horror kill room or anything.” “You don’t trust me?  I’ve been decorating children’s bedrooms for almost twenty years.” “No, I trust you, I trust you.  So you want to do all the furniture in red?” “Are you out of your f**king mind?  Of course not.  For the rest of the furniture I was thinking something sophisticated, like a mustard yellow.” “For everything??  All the furniture?” “All the furniture.” “Even the little toy house?” “Are you seriously asking me this?  No.  Of course not.  The little toy house should be red.” 10. The Dangerously Non-childproofed Fireplace Also, nothing says “child’s bedroom” like an expensive mantelpiece clock bordered by Cookie Monster-blue funeral urns. 11. The Totally Ignored Existential Mouse As casual about their infestations as they are exacting about their interior design. 12. The idea that a child this young (rabbit or human) would need a black office telephone by his bedside. “Goodnight, Technologically-out-of-date telephone” Who’s calling, his financial adviser?  Why would someone this age need a telephone unless it’s to call the woman across the vast expanse of his bedroom to ask her to stop whispering, “Hush.” This Picture of Bears in a Couples Therapy Session "So you say your mother was protective. Tell me more..." “So you say your mother was…protective?” Husband Bear:  We’ve started fighting more since our son was born.  I feel like she resents me.  I feel like every little thing turns into an argument.” Wife Bear:  “How could I not resent you?  We have a newborn and you’re off eating salmon in a PBS documentary while I’m stuck at home 24/7. Husband Bear: “Don’t start, Janet!  That documentary was a once in a lifetime opportunity!” Therapist Bear:  You sound angry. Husband Bear:  Brilliant observation!  It took you eight years of graduate school to figure that out? Therapist Bear:  Let’s all take a deep breath.  In, two three, out, two three… (They are all silent for several seconds) Wife Bear:  Also, a tomato red floor seems like a really bold choice for a psychologist’s office, doesn’t it?

[wavenetinfo]

Every Friday, artists drop anticipated albums, surprise singles, and hyped collaborations. As part of New Music Friday, EW’s music team chooses some of the essential new tunes. From Foo Fighters’ raucous return to Fifth Harmony’s first post-Camila single, here are the week’s most noteworthy releases.

Foo Fighters, “Run”

The latest single from Dave Grohl & Co. is unadulterated alt-rock radio goodness, fusing the sweeping arpeggios of 2007’s “The Pretender” with the breakneck thrash of 2011’s “Rope.” The Foos might’ve dressed up as old folks for the song’s music video, but that’s only because on record they sound as youthfully vital as ever. —Eric Renner Brown

Fifth Harmony ft. Gucci Mane, “Down”

The first Fifth Harmony single since Camila Cabello’s 2016 departure features a bouncing beat, polished vocals, and an unlikely assist from Atlanta trap king Gucci Mane. Best of all, the unexpected union totally works. —E.R.B.

Lorde, “Perfect Places”

For the closer from her upcoming second album Melodrama, due June 16, the New Zealand pop sensation turned to “Green Light” collaborators Jack Antonoff and Frank Dukes once again, as well as Miike Snow frontman Andrew Wyatt. The resulting cut is — you guessed it — another blast of anthemic arena-pop girded by vibrant synths and stomping percussion. —E.R.B.

Arcade Fire, “Everything Now”

The wait for new music from the Canadian indie-rockers has been long — outside of their January collaboration with Mavis Staples, they’ve stayed largely quiet since their absolutely bonkers 2013 double LP Reflektor. But they rewarded patient fans Thursday with the announcement of their fifth album, Everything Now, and the release of its slow-rolling title track. Queue this up and hit the road — this is highway music at its finest. —Madison Vain

Bleachers, “Gone Now”

In recent years, Jack Antonoff’s name has been associated with superstar collaborators like Lorde and Taylor Swift — but Bleachers’ second album, an anthemic collection built around the ideas of loss and moving forward, proves the musician’s just as impressive as a frontman as he is behind the scenes. With songs that range from jazzy to full-on pop, the set is a cohesive but varied compilation of sounds tied together by Antonoff’s dance-worthy brand of catharsis. —Ariana Bacle

Radiohead, “I Promise”

OKNOTOK, the forthcoming 20th-anniversary reissue of Radiohead’s seminal OK Computer, will contain three previously unreleased tracks. Friday, the British alt-rockers shared one of them, “I Promise,” and a music video to go along with it. The cut is peak ’90s Radiohead, with a rat-a-tat, military-issue drum beat and solemnly strummed guitars that evoke “Fake Plastic Trees.” —E.R.B.

Halsey, “hopeless fountain kingdom”

Since breaking big in 2015 with her lo-fi debut, Badlands, Halsey has sung on the Chainsmokers massive hit “Closer,” duetted with Justin Bieber, and, along with playing massive festivals like Coachella, sold out Madison Square Garden. Now, she’s returned with her arena-sized second LP. “Badlands was this kind of DIY record,” she told EW last month. “Now I’ve toured the world and have dans that I want to make happy. The space I need to fill with my sound is not a bedroom anymore, it’s an arena.” —M.V.

Dan Auerbach, “Waiting on a Song”

In a recent interview with EW, the Black Keys frontman described his second solo effort as a “musical stew” of American genres including rock, country, blues, and soul. Auerbach invited ace session musicians such as John Prine, Duane Eddy, and Jerry Douglas to his Nashville studio to bring cuts like shuffling “Livin’ in Sin” and slinky “Cherrybomb” to life. —E.R.B.

Major Lazer, “Know No Better”

Just in time for summer, Major Lazer have returned with a six-song EP packed with club-oriented, globally influenced jams. “Our goals are just to make great music,” de facto frontman Diplo told EW earlier this week. “and these [songs] are all pretty weird.” Dig in. —M.V.

Roger Waters, “Is This the Life We Really Want?”

For the Pink Floyd founder’s first solo album in 25 years, he teamed with Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich. Originally conceived as a radio play, it’s long on ballads, but there is the killer uptempo rocker, “Smell the Roses.” It’s also full of his characteristic doomsaying: “It’s like truth is now a completely alien concept,” Waters told EW in May. “Keep people dumb, uneducated, whatever, so you can go on milking them.” —Kevin O’Donnell

alt-J, “Relaxer”

Delicate and sinister, alt-J’s third album is an exercise in extremes and experimentation. “Hit Me Like a Snare Drum” is straight from the ’60s-era New York rock scene, while the menacing “In Cold Blood” could easily soundtrack the villain’s entrance in a ’90s video game. “They are eight very different songs and eight very different moods,” the group’s keyboardist and vocalist Gus Unger-Hamilton told EW. “It’s quite a well-balanced meal — gives you all the food groups emotionally.” The English band could have easily peaked in 2012 when they won the coveted Mercury Prize for their debut, An Awesome Wave; Relaxer is proof that’s far from true. —A.B.

Liam Gallagher, “Wall of Glass”

The mercurial Oasis singer teamed with star producer Greg Kurstin (Adele, Sia) for his swaggering solo single, off his upcoming full-length As You Were. “Wall of Glass” isn’t Oasis, but with its wailing harmonica, angelic backing vocals, and propulsive guitar, it ably revives the iconic sound of the legendary Britpop group’s early records. —E.R.B.

Prophets of Rage, “Unf— the World”

When Prophets of Rage — the supergroup comprised of Rage Against the Machine members, Public Enemy’s Chuck D, and Cypress Hill’s B-Real — debuted last year, they seemed to be a temporary novelty borne from the unrest wrought by America’s controversial election season. But the election of Donald Trump appears to have spurred the radically progressive hard-rock group, and they’re releasing their self-titled debut album in September. Over a quintessentially pummeling RATM beat, Chuck lays out their mission statement on “Unf— the World”: “Give a damn, evil can’t stand when the people take a stand.” Michael Moore directed the cut’s disturbing video, adding to its incendiary effect. —E.R.B.

Elton John & Jack White, “Two Fingers of Whiskey”

For The American Epic Sessions, Jack White and T Bone Burnett recreated Depression-era recording equipment and invited modern artists of all stripes to cut versions of classic tunes. They’ve already released songs by Nas and Alabama Shakes off the upcoming compilation and shared the White and Elton John collaboration “Two Fingers of Whiskey” on Thursday. John’s honky-tonk piano and White’s raw guitar highlight the song, composed by the former’s longtime songwriting partner Bernie Taupin. —E.R.B.

Amber Coffman, “City of No Reply”

The debut solo LP from the former Dirty Projectors singer-guitarist is a batch of 11 effervescent indie-pop songs. “No Coffee” and “Dark Night” feature irresistible, instantly memorable melodies, while cuts like “If You Want My Heart” incorporate some of the sonic weirdness that defined her previous band. “I wanted to do this since I was about five years old,” Coffman told EW last month of the project, which features musicians like percussionist Mauro Refosco (Atoms for Peace, Red Hot Chili Peppers). “It was a really special experience.” —E.R.B.

Dua Lipa, “Dua Lipa”

“I never want to seem weak in my songs,” the 21-year-old told EW earlier this year. “The second I start writing a sad song, I always change it to make it seem like I was more empowered.” That approach yielded her debut, which is the disco record of the summer and features proven hits like “Be the One” and “Blow Your Mind (Mwah)” along with fresh cuts like the strutting Miguel duet “Lost in Your Light.” —K.O.

The War on Drugs, “Holding On”

Propelled by twinkling synths and shimmering guitars, the lead single from the Philly band’s upcoming album A Deeper Understanding, out August 25, picks up where their 2014 smash Lost in the Dream left off: Windows-down-and-speeding-down-the-highway heartland rock bliss. —E.R.B.

PARTYNEXTDOOR, “COLOURS 2” EP

The four-song surprise EP from the OVO-affiliated crooner is a gorgeous, brief display of his chilly, after-hours R&B. —E.R.B.

Todd Terje, “Maskindans”

No word yet on when fans can expect the second album from the Norwegian disco-house artist, but Terje dropped a kinetic cover Det Gylne Triangel’s 1982 song “Maskindans” Friday — featuring fresh vocals from Triangel. Nearly breaking 10 minutes, the unrelenting track is another essential dancefloor odyssey from Terje. —E.R.B.

Various Artists, “Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)”

The soundtrack for the Captain Underpants film adaptation is as outrageous and silly as the movie it accompanies. There are original compositions from Lil Yachty, Adam Lambert, and, of course, “Weird Al” Yankovic’s absurd theme song for the tidy whitey crimefighter. —E.R.B.

Benjamin Booker, “Witness”

The 27-year-old Booker sounds something like Otis Redding covering Ty Segall in an abandoned warehouse. His second album is also his best, from the Arcs-esque lilt of “Overtime” to the gospel-tinged title track. —E.R.B.

Broken Social Scene, “Skyline”

Broken Social Scene are no strangers to lyrical repetition — 2003’s “Anthems for a 17-Year-Old Girl,” one of the Canadian collective’s best-known tracks, is almost entirely made of the hypnotizing chant, “Park that car, drop that phone, sleep on the floor, dream about me” — so it’s no surprise their latest song, the folksy “Skyline,” is just one repeating verse. It’s also unsurprising that its four minutes don’t redundant or tired, but soaring, rousing, and perfect for sunsets. —A.B.

Luke Combs, “This One’s For You”

The country breakout found chart success this year with his moody rocker “Hurricane” — and now he’s dropped a whole collection of scorchers. His debut LP scans the modern country landscape, blending nostalgic heartland rock (“Memories Are Made Of”), cornfield-sized party jams (“Beer Can”), honky-tonk delights (“Honky Tonk Highway”), and bleeding-heart guitar ballads (“One Number Away”). —M.V.

U2, “The Joshua Tree” (Super Deluxe Reissue)

Not lucky enough to catch U2 on their special summer tour commemorating the 25th anniversary of their seminal album The Joshua Tree? Never fear: The Irish rockers have goodies for you, too. This sprawling reissue collects the original album, B-sides from the era, fresh remixes, and a 1987 live set from Madison Square Garden for the definitive document of perhaps the band’s greatest period. —E.R.B.

Bob Marley & The Wailers, “Exodus 40”

The album that TIME named the best of the 20th century celebrates its 40th anniversary tomorrow, and this three-disc reissue marks the occasion. There’s the classic LP, but also a reworked, resequenced version by Marley’s son Ziggy — featuring unearthed vocals and instrumental passages from the sessions — and a sizzling 1977 Marley concert recorded at London’s Rainbow Theatre. —E.R.B.

2 June 2017 | 5:56 pm

Eric Renner Brown, Kevin O’Donnell, Ariana Bacle and Madison Vain

Source : EW.com

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