#but when the devs and writers can blend it into one is So Good

[impossible-rat-babies]

no don’t like watching ultimate/savage raids for the mechs—it’s for the Music. It’s for the STORY

[soulswimmr]

godzilla singular point is so goddamn good for so many reasons and its honestly a mystery to me why the internet isnt FREAKING THE FUCK OUT over it

look maybe im biased. i've been watching goji films since i was 4. but i was YELLING and CHEERING at my screen watching this anime. it is so damn satisfying and mind blowing

singular point is an anime not just made by people who are godzilla fans. these are writers and devs that dug deep in the original films to fish out some of these kaiju and incorporate them in. not only that, the score and sound effects are the original themes/roars, if altered a bit to add its own flair. the devs sat down and decided to make something way more than just a love letter to godzilla. its something truly building on the original content

and like. its so visually stunning. the cgi is cell shaded, so it actually blends with the environment. and holy fuck you guys. what was the budget for this anime????? the animation is STUNNING, the cinematography is INSANE, like just for the visual aspect alone, it's worth a watch. you will be mesmerized

its got some of the most fucking complicated physics mumbo jumbo explanations i've ever heard, so much so that my head hurts, but they dont bullshit any of their explanations. its very pure sci fi in that sense. im gonna have to rewatch it to make sense of it

you get invested in both the monsters AND the human characters!! the kaiju beat the SHIT out of stuff, but the plot and characters are so riveting, you dont notice how much build up they create before revealing godzilla, and when they do, the payoff is SO worth it

but you know what i like most about singular point? the characters are adults, intelligent adults, and the most important player in the plot is a grad student. a young, nerdy woman who just happens to be fucking brilliant, who is also adorable and sometimes goofy

and no one EVER calls her intelligence into question on account of her gender or young age. she's taken VERY seriously for the entire plot. she's not there as a sex object, not for a single moment.

but it gets better. singular point features some of the most fantastic character designs i've seen in an anime, and the female characters are no exception. there are women everywhere in this anime— in the military, in the government, all on the front lines of the conflict.

their female characters come from all different age groups, body types, races, and capabilities, and it's treated so casually. there's no avengers endgame moment where all the girl characters come together so the showrunners can pat themselves on the back for including a "feminist moment". women as powerful leaders and riveting characters are woven into the fabric of the show. the resolution is inseparable from the female characters

i genuinely havent seen female character designs this varied and well thought out in anime since fullmetal alchemist.

tldr: you should watch Godzilla Singular point, if for no other reason, for the Goth Girl Who Doesn't Do Much But Still Became My Favorite Character

<3 <3 <3

[aion-rsa]

Netflix’s Never Have I Ever: Great TV Comedies to Watch Next

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If there’s justice in this world, high school comedy Never Have I Ever will return for at least a third season. The story of 15-year-old Devi Vishwakumar, a Los Angeles teen reeling from her beloved father’s sudden death while trying to navigate all the usual boys/school/friendship mess of adolescence, deserves to continue long into the future. (Here’s our spoiler-free season two review.)

While fans wait for news on a third season commission, the 10 great shows below are well worth discovering or (re)discovering. They’re not all teen shows, nor are they all strictly comedies, but somewhere along the line, they share some DNA with Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher’s Never Have I Ever. Add your own additional recommendations below.

Fresh Off the Boat

Six seasons (2015 – 2020)

Since the cruel early cancellation of her show Don’t Trust the B**** in Apt. 23 (Krysten Ritter’s funniest performance to date) it’s pretty much mandatory to watch anything Nahnatchka Khan makes. Fresh Off the Boat was her follow-up comedy for ABC, based on the early life of celebrity chef Eddie Huang as his family moved from Washington DC to Orlando. It’s set in the 90s and concluded last year after six seasons. The cast is great, in particular Randall Park (WandaVision, Always Be My Maybe) and Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians) as young Eddie’s Taiwanese immigrant parents, each of whom has very different mileage on adjusting to life in the US. 

The Mindy Project

Six seasons (2012 – 2017)

This romantic comedy was Mindy Kaling’s post-The Office project – the story of self-absorbed, pop-culture obsessed, lovable OB/GYN Dr Mindy Lahiri (Kaling) and her search for love in Manhattan. After some cast changes in its first season, it really found its feet and settled into a sharp workplace comedy with a great ensemble. It survived a post-season three cancellation by FOX thanks to being picked up by Hulu for a further three seasons, and ended in 2017. US comedy fans can enjoy playing actor bingo too, thanks to appearances from many of Kaling’s The Office co-stars, including writer-producer B.J. Novak, Ellie Kemper, Ed Helms and more. 

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Four seasons (2015 – 2019)

Rachel Bloom and Aline Brosh McKenna’s comedy-musical series is inventive, boundary-breaking and packed to the rafters with talent. Like a few of the shows in this list, it’s distinctly adult in theme and not a high school comedy but still shares the wit, high-key colour and bold approach to life’s harder moments as Never Have I Ever. It’s the story of high-flying NYC lawyer Rebecca Bunch, who gives up everything to move to a backwater Californian town to pursue her summer camp first love Josh (Vincent Rodriguez III). Rebecca’s love of musical theatre bleeds into the show, turning it into a mental health musical complete with funny, original, sharply written song-and-dance routines.  

Popular

Two seasons (1999 – 2001)

The debut series from super-producer Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Pose, Glee, Nip/Tuck) co-created by Gina Matthews, Popular is the story of Brooke and Sam, two high school sophomores from opposite ends of the popularity spectrum who are forced together when their single parents become a couple. It ran for two seasons on The WB before being cancelled, and has since attracted a cult following for Murphy’s characteristically sharp blend of comedy, romance and serious themes. It landed in the 90s, so yes, the teens are played by 25 year olds, the unpopular nerd (Carly Pope) has model good looks, it’s not exactly diverse (though there is LGBTQ representation) but it’s seminal in Never Have I Ever’s genre. 

Sex Education

Three seasons so far (2019 – )

Laurie Nunn’s charming British comedy-drama is a frank and funny look at sexual hang-ups and teen relationships. It has a great ensemble cast led by Otis (Asa Butterfield), a shy teen embarrassed by his sex therapist mother’s forthright attitude to all things physical. When Otis teams up with ‘bad girl’ Maeve to offer anonymised sex therapy to their schoolmates, he discovers that he’s not the only one with issues. It’s a bright and funny high school series with characters to invest in, a stand-out performance by Ncuti Gatwa as Eric, and oh, the sex therapist mother is played by Gillian Anderson. Season three arrives on Netflix this September.

Read more

TV

Never Have I Ever Season 2 Review: This Netflix Teen Comedy Deserves to Run and Run

By Louisa Mellor

TV

Never Have I Ever Season 2: Episode 3’s Last-Minute Celebrity Narrator Change

By Louisa Mellor

Freaks & Geeks

One season (1999 – 2000)

A must-see high school comedy. Paul Feig and Judd Apatow’s 1980s-set series is most discussed these days for the outstanding cast of unknowns gathered by Allison Jones (who went on to cast The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Good Place, Arrested Development, Veep and basically every US sitcom worth watching). The prematurely cancelled NBC series kick-started the careers of Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Martin Starr, Busy Phillips, Linda Cardellini, James Franco and more. It’s the story of Cardellini’s Lindsay Weir, a maths star who crosses social boundaries from ‘geek’ to slacker ‘freak’ after the death of her grandmother. It’s brilliant, weird, funny and painful, and a total antidote to mainstream, slick, rich-kid Beverley Hills 90210 high school glamour, so of course, hardly anybody watched it, the network didn’t get it, and it was cancelled well before its time. 

The Wonder Years

Six seasons (1988 – 1993)

Husband and wife team Neal Marlens and Carol Black created a classic in The Wonder Years, a coming-of-age story about Kevin, the youngest son of a suburban American family, growing up against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the hippie movement. It’s fuelled by nostalgia and the sweet romantic yearnings of its young lead Kevin Arnold (played by Fred Savage, now a top comedy director-producer), but doesn’t gloss over life’s more serious moments. Never Have I Ever’s choice of John McEnroe as its wry adult narrator may well have been influenced by Daniel Stern’s role on The Wonder Years. It’s available to stream now on Hulu in the US.

Skins

7 seasons (2007 – 2013)

Not strictly a comedy, but with plenty of comedic moments, Skins has to be in the running for the best British teen show ever made. The first four seasons especially are filled with great writing, strong performances, and characters whose lives – and complicated love lives – are easy to invest in. It followed the students of a Bristol sixth form college through their A levels, giving it the chance to renew the cast every two years as the previous generation graduated/dropped out/ran away/were murdered. Like Freaks and Geeks, its cast of young actors, from Nicholas Hoult to Dev Patel, Joe Dempsie, Daniel Kaluuya, Jack O’Connell, Kaya Scodelario and more went on to very big things. Much more layered and satisfyingly weird than the reputation it was given by the British press as an orgy of sex, drugs and bad behaviour, it’s another must-watch. 

Daria

Five seasons (1997 – 2001)

Developed from a character created for Mike Judge’s animated MTV comedy Beavis & Butthead, Daria Morgendorffer is a cynical 16-year-old with a gimlet eyed take on suburban US life. She’s a 90s icon with a monotone voice (provided by Tracy Grandstaff) and a wry take on her schoolmates, parents, and cheerleader sister Quinn. Her witty, dry animated series aired for five seasons plus feature-length TV specials, and is soon to have a new spin-off coming to Comedy Central, focused on Daria’s classmate Jodie’s travails in the modern workplace.

My So-Called Life

One season (1994 – 1995)

When My So-Called Life aired its only season on ABC in 1994, it was the anti-teen TV show. Muted and realist rather than upbeat and aspirational, it cast actual teenagers, not models, and ventured into areas avoided by many other teen dramas of the time: alcoholism, sex, domestic abuse… Its first-person narration from Claire Danes’ lead character gave it a distinctive voice, and influenced many shows to follow. It’s worth saying that My So-Called Life is a drama, not a comedy, and paints teenage life with a totally different colour palette to bright, satirical Never Have I Ever. Acknowledging that, it’s a cult favourite, and possible to trace a line from Devi’s love triangle with nerdy academic Ben and hot, popular Paxton, and MSCL’s Angela Chase’s love triangle with nerdy academic Brian and hot, popular Jordan (would that line continue all the way back to Pretty in Pink? Probably). 

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Never Have I Ever season 2 is available to stream on Netflix now.

The post Netflix’s Never Have I Ever: Great TV Comedies to Watch Next appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3xLtTsw

[theparaminds]

Creativity has been the anchor point to much of Jimi Somewhere’s life, whether by force or by natural instinct. All he feels, experiences and knows is translated into artistry. Though at times, this has left him expressing him the worst of what he’s been going through, sounds he didn’t feel sure of or fully understand. That reality is now a distant memory.

With both his new work and new outlooks on life, Jimi has learned to embrace his past mistakes and misunderstandings. He no longer takes them as dark points, but as moments to learn from. He stands with a new found positivity, a newfound confidence, in all he does and all he represents.

Now, with the memories truly in the past, the failures finally teaching and his passion stronger than he could have imagined, all seems ready. His mentality, concepts, and vision have fully formed into what he has dreamed of. For the first time, the Somehwere that trails his first name doesn’t seem so distant, so impossible to grasp.

Our first question as always, how’s your day going and how have you been lately?

Hey! Its going good. Been working on music stuff all week and just being productive feels great.

To begin, your sound and artistic stylings are incredibly unique and singular, though that asks the question of how you even got into music and art in the first place? What forces pushed you upon the path?

I’m not sure. I’ve always been this way. My father is a photographer and writer himself so I think the need to create runs in the family. Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve always been heavy into music and reading up on all my favorite artists and stuff. It’s second nature to me. I also played in a lot of different bands in elementary & wrote raps all through middle school. I don't know life without music.

Specifically, have you found your location to be a part of how you’ve shaped yourself sonically? Either by embracing all that is around you or by rejecting it completely.

I think it’s more of a middle ground. I had a great childhood in this small place with lots of nature. But considering it wasn’t a big city or anything, there wasn’t that much stuff to do. Which resulted in creating a lot. I also didn't really have any friends that were as into music or art as I was, and they didn’t live in the same place, so I was mostly on my own in that field. I met Milo, who produces all my music, in eighth grade but even then he lived on the other side of Norway. It resulted in me just discovering and diving into music on my own on the internet, which led me to enjoying all kinds of different stuff.

When developing yourself artistically, how did you come to the name of Jimi Somewhere? What does the moniker mean to you and how does it represent you as a musician?

First of all, I never wanted to make music under my real name because I wanted to create this character I could play with. I feel like if I made music under my real name I’d be much more obligated to tell 100% the truth. Now I have this pseudonym I can write about more, like a book or film character. And for the name, I just thought the way Odd Future named themselves sounded so cool. Like Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean. So I just took a name and a word I’ve always gravitated towards and combined the two.

Now currently, you’re in the process of a new EP, which you’ve been building to for a while. What is the message you hoped to resonate with this piece and do you feel you achieved the goals you set out to?

The overall message of the EP is just ‘take a punch, get up and keep going’. Life gets hard but It’s important to just keep moving no matter what, you feel me? Of course, It’s not as easy as that, but I really hope I can inspire people in some way to not stop, no matter what they get hit with. 2018 treated me both very good and very bad, but we’re still here. Not giving up. I can take these punches! As for goals, I think we made exactly the project we set out to make. Now all I can do is show the world and wait and see if it resonates with the people.

How would you personally compare both the process and final result of your new work compared to older projects, such as Memoria?

Well, the overall sound quality is way up. Milo Orchis mixed both Memoria and this one, and he has gotten so much better. Some of the mixes on Memoria are really bad. Other than that It’s all pretty different. I feel like I’ve gotten better at songwriting and using my voice. The process was different too, considering we made this whole EP in Los Angeles. I think we needed to get away from Norway for a minute just for inspiration. Still me and Milo in a tiny room with bad speakers though, like how we made Memoria, just with new experiences and new inspiration.

Part of this release was also creating a playlist of influential songs to this EP, which actually has a wide range of genres and ideas, what was it that was drawing you to these songs in the time of creation, and what truly was their importance to the process?

I listen to music all the time when I’m not making it. I think it’s so important to listen to as many different genres as possible when you’re an artist. That's when you make the most exciting stuff. When it comes to their importance in the project, I would say some songs have inspired stuff heavier than other stuff. But I love to take different genres and just blend them. Experimentation is key, and to be able to experiment you need to hear what's out there. I think the common denominator in the playlist is melancholy though. Both me and Milo are very drawn towards melancholic stuff, as you probably can hear if you listen to our music.  

But of all time, what’s been the album, or maybe three, that have shaped you as an artist the most? From where in the projects do you draw from and continue to find joy within?

Okay, so for 3 albums that have shaped me the most, I’m gonna say:

‘MTV1987’ by Kevin Abstract. First time I heard something sound so professional and intriguing while made by two 17-year-old kids in their bedroom. That's like the album that showed me that I could do this too. I didn't need a real studio or anything.

‘Because the Internet’ by Childish Gambino. Such an experimental project. With the script he wrote to go with the album, the short films, music videos, and artwork. The way he created a whole universe like that has inspired me so much in my own work.

Lastly, I’m gonna say ‘Pure Heroine’ by Lorde. She’s just such a good writer. And the way she portrays nostalgia and growing up is so pure, no pun intended. Might be the greatest pop album ever, in my opinion.

In your mind, what’re the greatest personal and musical improvements and changes you’ve been able to make, and how do you hope to continue growing as an artist?

I don’t know about changes or improvements, but I’m just trying to perfect everything I do. I want to be considered one of the greatest when I die, so that’s what I’m working towards. I'm still young & learning. Just gonna keep maturing and growing. Hopefully, that will lead me in the right direction.

As well, you just were touring around with Boy Pablo for a minute, how did you find the experience of travel and live experimentation and is it something you hope to pursue further in the future?

I loved it. We joined Pablo on his UK tour and even though it was just a week, I learned so much and had the most fun ever. Performing live in front of a good crowd is the best feeling there is and it's definitely what I want to be doing for the rest of my life. Seeing music we made on a shitty computer with a cheap mic make 1000 people jump up and down is so amazing. My live show is still very in the works so I’m looking forward to getting better at performing and communicating with the crowd.

If you could recommend one film to everyone reading this currently, which would be your choice and for what reasons do you think its an essential watch?

Right now I would recommend ‘A Ghost Story’. It's been on my mind ever since I saw it. The way it captures grief and an existential crisis is amazing. Such a different movie and the feeling I was left with after I saw it was something else. Definitely an essential watch. Other than that ‘Her’ by Spike Jonze is my favorite movie ever and I aspire to create something as genuine and beautiful as that movie.

Do you have anyone to shoutout or anything to promote? The floor is yours!

My EP Ponyboy is on its way! And 1st Place is already out, so go listen and let me know what you think, all comments are appreciated! Thanks for having me.

Photos by Dev Dhusni

Follow Jimi Somewhere on Instagram and Twitter

Listen on Soundcloud and Spotify

[victorineb]

Fic Recs Mega Post

Whenever I write one of these posts I’m struck by the sheer amount of incredible writing talent in this little fandom of ours. It is quite astonishing, and it’s a privilege to get to read all of this wonderful work. Below there’s a small selection of the fantastic stuff I’ve been reading recently, featuring gods, monsters and feral jungle men - and that’s just for starters!

Storms (series) by @lovecrimevariations (KareliaSweet): This frankly astonishing series starts out in barnstorming but fairly innocuous style in Where Are The Storms I Was Promised, in which Will Graham, famous monster hunter, is called to deal with the Wendigo that’s been terrorising an entire town. And then it proceeds, over the course of a further six instalments, to document the beautiful, bloody, often painful course of the relationship between Will and Hannibal, constantly deepening and recontextualising the ‘verse as it goes. Reading this series is almost like watching a really good magic trick – every time you think you’ve got its measure, it pulls something new and surprising out of its hat. And it’s not just flash and sparkle either, the writing is utterly beautiful, the characters are perfectly captured and it is both deeply funny and enormously moving (I was genuinely weepy a number of times throughout). Plus, it also features a majestic, powerful, do-not-under-any-circumstances-fuck-with incarnation of Bedelia, who is worth the price of admission all by herself. Seriously, she was my favourite part of this whole series and I love it beyond any sense or reason. If you have any love of writing whatsoever, read this series, it is a masterclass.

You’ll be in my heart by @starkaryen: Based on the totally beautiful art (here and here) by @camilleflyingrotten, here Will is a scientist on an expedition to find and study gorillas. Instead, he ends up finding Hannibal, a mostly-feral man who lives in the jungle, has an adopted gorilla family, and takes an immediate shine to Will. Who, because this is Will and Hannibal, finds himself taking a shine right back. And all is rosy in Camp Hannigram, until Jack damn Crawford sticks his nose in (like always) and threatens Hannibal’s way of life. As befits the utterly gorgeous artwork, this fic is just lovely from start to finish. It features a particularly adorable version of Hannibal – the scenes in which he indulges his obsession with Will’s safari hat are nothing short of precious – and a charmingly earnest Will. It’s a simple, innocent bit of loveliness, which is rather refreshing in this dark and sophisticated fandom of ours XD.

(Also, if you’d like a little more Tarzan AU, this time with an A/B/O flavour, check out Hannizan by @hotsauce418, which is just pure filth and utterly wonderful with it XD.)

We, the common by @thelongcon23 (thelongcon): A retelling of the show (and beyond) in omegaverse style, this fic alternates masterfully between Hannibal and Will’s POVs as the omega becomes fascinated, obsessed, and ultimately falls in love with the alpha. The result is that while the course of events remains largely the same         (Will still gets framed and gutted, and they still go over the cliff in each other’s arms), others change drastically (the way Will locates Hannibal in Florence, for instance, gets a very clever omegaverse twist). And their relationship after the fall? Well, I can pretty much guarantee you’ve never seen it go down quite like this before. If you’re looking for fluff, I suggest you go elsewhere, but if you’re after passion, intensity, and that terribly Hannigram sense that love and cruelty are not mutually exclusive, this is the fic for you. The writer has a firm grip on the characters’ voices and motivations and is uncompromising and incisive in their betrayal of both. This is not necessarily an easy read (particularly towards the end, when Hannibal gives Will a reckoning of his own) but it is a compelling and fascinating one.

Cookies by @desperatelyseekingcannibals (TigerPrawn): Now, those of you who are after some fluff, here’s some of the best around. Tiger’s non-cannibal AU is an absolute treat, full of emotional idiots, kick-ass women and a totally adorable kid (and I don’t say that lightly cos kid!fic ain’t my thing!). It all starts when Will accompanies his daughter Abigail as she goes door-to-door selling cookies for charity and finds himself face to face with the ever-so-handsome Doctor Lecter. And then somehow, before he knows it, Will is agreeing to a date in exchange for Hannibal buying all of Abby’s stock, and soon finding that he might have stumbled into a real relationship. Not that it’s smooth sailing, of course, this is still Hannigram we’re talking about! It is my deep and ardent belief that Hannibal dreams of being a romcom when it grows up and with this utterly charming, romantic, as-sweet-as-its-name-suggests fic, that dream is made a reality. Anyone who’s ever wanted to see Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter fall in love the old-fashioned way (you know, without all those annoying stints in prison and near-fatal injuries), treat yourself and read this fic. I guarantee it will melt even the most dark and twisted of hearts.

Picture Imperfect by @shiphitsthefan: Will Graham is a very special alpha – unlike many of his sex, he can be trusted not to turn into a hormonal animal around omegas. It’s how he’s made his career as a photographer. That is, right up until he’s in a room with concert harpsichordist Hannibal Lecter and everything goes to hell when they scent each other and can barely keep themselves from ripping their clothes off and bonding right there and then. Seems like they’re true mates and it’s only a matter of time before they give into their urges – so Will, being a decent and respectful alpha, has to get this courtship show on the road before that happens. Well, mostly before that happens. Given the UST inherent to the plot, this is every bit as intensely, stupidly hot as you’d hope, but it’s also a really clever, thoughtful exploration of the omegaverse concept, set in a ‘verse in which omegas are the ruling gender, a nice reversal of the usual a/b/o setup. Plus it has an almost indecently adorable version of Hannigram, in which progressive Will and traditionalist Hannibal attempt to conjoin their lives so that they can get on and shag already! Smart and sexy a/b/o is one of our fandom’s greatest strengths and this is truly just an exemplary version of it.

Space Invader II: A Very Darko Sequel by @devereauxsdisease: A sequel to the utterly wonderful Space Invader (and if you haven’t read it, I’m begging you, go remedy that this instant), this return to Dev’s Spacedogs ‘verse sees Adam and Nigel still ensconced in blissful coupledom. So blissful, in fact, that it’s making Darko wonder if he might want some of that relationship stuff for himself. Cue the appearance of a certain sassy lab tech last seen working for the FBI. That’s right, Beverly Katz is alive, in town and about to rock Darko’s world XD. This is just an utter joy to read, stuffed with Dev’s trademark mix of fantastic dialogue, heartfelt emotion and wickedly dirty jokes. And best of all is her way with the characters, all of whom are wonderfully loveable and who work beautifully together. I spent the whole fic marvelling at the way in which these disparate characters come together and feel like they were always meant to be that way – they make a lovely, entertainingly weird family and are never less than an utter delight to spend time with.

Forgemaster by @llewcie: Valhalla Enchanted by way of the Greek gods now, in this peerless piece of sweetness by the lovely Llew. Char and Ella are the new Dionysus and Aphrodite (in this ‘verse, the gods can retire and be replaced) and live like brother and sister, i.e. bickering, winding each other up, pushing each other’s buttons... They particularly like making bets, which winds up with Ella making Char agree to three dates with Hephaestus, being played in this fic by One Eye. Given that One Eye is unsociable, ragged, and constantly dirty from his forge, Char is less than impressed with his companion and says so… somewhat unfortunately within One Eye’s earshot. So when, despite himself, Char finds himself falling for the blacksmith god’s charms, he’s got a lot of work to do to convince One Eye that he’s worth the trouble! Llew has the charm turned up all the way to eleven in this gorgeously frothy, funny little comedy of errors, with a sweetly vain version of Char melting under the steadily growing appeal of One Eye’s gentle strength. If you need cheering up for any reason, this fic should be your first port of call.

Pure Imagination by @constructfairytales (beforethedawn and Destinyawakened): Stranger Things was one of my favourite shows last year (admittedly it’s no Hannibal, but what is?). It was smart and weird, and as an 80s baby it pressed every last one of my nostalgia buttons, from soundtrack to costume design. So, of course, it was with nothing but delight that I started this crossover AU, in which Will is police chief of the town where young Will Byers goes missing and Hannibal is the psychiatrist he brings in to counsel the traumatised community. And I wasn’t disappointed – this is a fantastic blend of Hannibal’s surreal romanticism with the full-on monstery weirdness of the ST ‘verse, with plenty of unexpectedly but pleasingly fluffy Hannigram at the centre of it. Though it follows the basic plot of ST, having Will and Hannibal involved inevitably shakes things up (Will’s empathy is given a brilliant twist) and predictable this certainly ain’t. Instead it’s fun, thrilling and playful, with at least one story development that genuinely had me on the edge of my seat. And did I mention the Hannigram? Cos, yeah, there’s no slow burn here. Our boys are goners from the second they meet and the intensity of their connection is all kinds of wonderful.

The Estate by @bokuno-jinsei: Amusingly, the tags on this fantastic fic eventually turn into a short plea for Will Graham to stop thinking so much (a plea which anyone who’s written the over-analytical little shit will know is hopeless). Fortunately, Will clearly paid no attention, and so we readers are treated to this charmingly introspective piece of canon divergence. So, Hannibal gets as far as sitting Will at the dinner table in Florence. But, before he can get out his bonesaw, he seemingly has second thoughts and so Will wakes some time later to find himself ensconced in the last place he expected to revisit – Lecter Castle. Where, he finds, Hannibal has decided to change the game between them: if Will agrees to see if they can live together, Hannibal will cease any attempts to change or influence Will. So the pair find themselves as the unlikeliest of roommates as Will wrestles with his demons, his desires and, inevitably, his feelings for Hannibal. Anybody who enjoys intense conversations, brewing sexual tension and Hannibal in waders (yes, really), step this way, you’re in for a treat.  

Inevitable by Vulcanmi: I do adore canon divergence. And I have a weakness for prison fics (love Hannigram falling in love while incarcerated). So this fic is entirely my jam. It picks up in the second half of s3: Hannibal is in jail, Will is “happily” married to Molly, and Jack is still desperate to have his pet empath back on board to deal with the Tooth Fairy. Except in this ‘verse, Will decides not to give into Jack and remains with his family, far away from Baltimore. In order to make it up to his former boss, though, Will writes a letter to a certain inmate, suggesting that he offer his services where Will cannot. Of course, it’s not the last letter Will ends up sending to Hannibal. Not by a long shot. And we all know what happens once Will gives Hannibal an inch… (hey, I didn’t mean that kind of inch, you filthy perverts!). Though it starts out as an angsty exploration of Will’s determination to separate himself from Hannibal, somewhere along the way this fantastic fic transforms into a twisted yet adorable romcom, as our murder muffins confront their feelings and try to figure out whether there’s any version of the world in which they might be together. And, frankly, it’s an utter delight to read. One for those (*raises hand*) who like their hurt/comfort 20% hurt and 80% comfort.

Inside the Imitation by @belladonnaq (Belladonna_Q) with artwork by @reapersun: A confession. I’ve never seen The Thing (because I’m a scaredy-cat who doesn’t watch anything that could remotely be described as scary. “But Vic, isn’t Hannibal scary?” Yeah, yeah, I contain multitudes, now hush mango, I’m working). However, I’ve never let ignorance get between me and my Hannigram and so I jumped headfirst into the The Thing/Hannibal crossover which, fortunately, works utterly brilliantly with absolutely zero knowledge of the film. So, once again Jack Crawford finds reason to call upon the services of Will Graham and Hannibal Lecter. Except this time, it’s not in order to investigate the Minnesota Shrike, but a strange case with its roots in a decades-old tragedy in Alaska. Soon things turn weird and monstery and Will and Hannibal find themselves reluctantly (well, as ever, Will’s reluctant, Hannibal’s thrilled) investigating a burned-out government building with something truly frightening at its core. This is thrilling, clever and wonderfully creepy, a fantastic reframing of canon (especially the Hannigram) and tons of fun throughout. I have to admit, I did not see the twist coming in this fic (though that’s possibly because I’m a dim bulb when it comes to plot) and it was delivered brilliantly, turning everything on its head and upping the stakes for our beloved murder muffins. Oh, and make sure to check out @reapersun’s fabulous artwork that accompanies the fic, it’s staggeringly gorgeous.

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: Volume 2 by @fragile-teacup: A continuation of the marvellous The Spaces Between series, this picks up a little after volume one, with our boys enjoying Argentinian high society. Unfortunately, while the end of the previous instalment hinted at full-blown murder husbandry, it quickly turns out that Will and Hannibal haven’t quite sorted out their feelings to anyone’s satisfaction (you’re shocked, I can tell). Fortunately, we’re pretty much out of slow burn territory here and the idiots manage to get their act (mostly) together just in time for some ghosts to rear their perfectly-coiffed, millionairess heads and throw a spanner in the works. This sequel continues the achingly lovely tone of its predecessor, with romance a-plenty amongst bouts of emotional idiocy and bloodlust. It’s sweet and tender without compromising on the intensity and darkness of our beloved boys and builds their relationship with care and patience, allowing for a believable building of trust and love between them. It is, in other words, a treat to read in every way, so get yourself to ao3 and have at it!

As ever and always, if I’ve miscredited anyone or if there are bad links, please let me know and I’ll correct it ASAP. Happy reading, lovely fannibals!

[contrastbalance]

music becoming visual

This edition of contrastbalance is primarily about music becoming more and more visual, part of the reason I want physical copies out. Everyone featured in this entire thing has a strong image in some way – some are bold and some are enticing. Some use it as a stand alone statement, others to create something as eye catching as they do ear catching. Others use your eyes as a horizontal platform, ingraining into your cheekbone to reach being one step more relatable over the process of rolling out releases and 5 steps away from their ephemeral counterparts.

In early 2014, everyone’s favourite adopted artsy sibling Dev Hynes gave a stellar Ted Talks. The lecture’s focus was his understanding of the neurological condition of synaesthesia, and also featured a beautiful soundscape using keys he associates with certain colours. His projectile talent becomes far more transparent, opening up to the sniper focused audience, all while the speaker is reminiscent of Grace Jones mixed with a Lemony Snicket character.

Chromesthesia is the more particular type of the condition where colours link to sound, another known carrier is Pharrell. In an interview with Psychology Today he talks about over-active parts of his brain being forced to temporarily halt. He states “you ask any great rapper or writer or musician, and they’ll tell you their craziest ideas come from the shower or the plane because in both places there is sensory deprivation.” Williams linking his heard with his seen when meeting minds is integral to his much covered juxtaposition, which everyone knows he’s interested in creating. He sees his music the same as he does with getting dressed and everything else in between, drawing variation from a multicultural background, he is maybe someone you wouldn’t expect to be interested in what he is.

When A$AP Rocky was a can of spaghetti with the little sausages bursting onto a line of bridesmaids in 2011, what people who make music wear was at one of it’s highest points of fast changing scrutiny. He and the Mob were seen in the places to be, alongside the elite likes of Jeremy Scott, Michele Lamy and Kris Van Assche.

He had grown up bouncing between Harlem and Soho, at a young age mixing with people who inspire inspirers. Tales of acid-induced friendliness at SXSW give some sight into his individual and groups’ participating stabs at hedonism – but he has mixed in plenty of the high-brow sensibility to brilliantly market himself as someone standoffish when it comes to actually being a designer himself, a lane that has distracted musicians from every corner and status. He said in an early interview with SBTV “I’m not a designer, I’m not a fashion designer, I could consult like ‘yeah that’s dope but maybe you should fix this collar a little,’ but I don’t know the first thing about designing, I think that’s disrespectful to the culture. For me to just take advantage of it due to my fame, come in and pretend I can design – that’s not what I do.” Genuine interest and admiration saw designers, models and everyone hanging on in between every side of water huddle around Mayers, safe in the knowledge that artists are very aware of creative processes of those adjacent to them in other fields. He’s in the same vein of Bowie in terms of recreating himself.

While he’s admitted that Long.Live.A$AP leaned too much on the logical option at the time of trying to jump into pop minefields, At.Long.Last.A$AP showcased his genre-blending abilities. Following and probably coinciding with the hardship of losing one of his closest friends, fellow inspirer-of-inspirers A$AP Yams – seemed like he was having fun after making something he was sure he wanted us to hear and see. From the outside he’s the most pertinent visible link between underground music and wide arrays of fashion, and didn’t need to capture considerable numbers in pop audiences to do so.

Donald Glover’s creations always seem to meet at a drunk yoga class. The casual nature in which the creations are born is easily recognisable and even portrayed on-screen. Where Rocky and other massive acts could be described as embodying the more material, often recent and biographical side of rap, those like Kendrick Lamar, Chance The Rapper and Glover prefer telling interpersonal stories that drop listeners in the midst of varying turmoil.

Moonlighting as Childish Gambino, a dad and a guy who seems to place a lot of emphasis on changing his facial hair, Glover lives a really quiet life. His first exposure to the public eye came after Tina Fey was shown a spec screenplay for The Simpsons by David Milner, intrigued, she dug up some of the short films Glover made while at New York’s Tisch School of the Arts as part an improvisational comedy group, and she subsequently hired him to write for 30 Rock at just 23. After an 89-episode stint as Community‘s Troy he was written off the show, later stating that he casually asked to leave because his “heart wasn’t really in it. They, thankfully were just like ‘yeah’ and they let me go”, to Vibe Magazine, which wasn’t imparted to public knowledge at the time – leading many to boycott the show confused about the demise of a character and actor that had quickly impressed and maintained the sole reason for them to bother watching.

Not until 2013 and the rollout of because the internet would he post pictures of handwritten notes on Instagram, one stating “I didn’t leave Community to rap, I don’t wanna rap. I wanted to be on my own.” He says he was “mildly inconvenienced” by the resulting phonecalls.

Ambition to create using so many different artforms, even ability to do so at the level Glover consistently does is one thing, balancing all of them into your waking hours with a newborn is different. In August 2013 work began with FX on Atlanta, around following his short-lived recommencement with Community, around finishing because the internet, around shooting self-written short films featuring tripping pornstars, around the Deep Web Tour, recording and releasing STN MTN and then a day later Kauai.

Atlanta premiered on FX on 6th September 2016. It follows around Earn, who dropped out of Princeton to return back to Atlanta and become a full time slacker, part-time Airport salesman, part-time parent, post-retirement-occupation-time boyfriend. He realises first what his cousin is doing, then an episode length later that said cousin Paper Boi is on the brink of rap stardom and takes on an impromptu role as his manager. In the past few years the city has reached previously inaccessible heights in recognition as a culturally rich paradise for particularly African Americans – while the pressures of rubbing shoulders with some of the country’s artistic, business, innovative and sometimes underworld elite is present in the feel of the series, it’s Glover’s real-life cool in the face of doubt that makes the show so fluidly, deftly written, quaintly shot and highly addictive. “I tried to, I just wanted to make Twin Peaks with rappers,” he offers on The Ellen Show.

There is a brooding undercurrent that’s gained the critical acclaim and also a commissioned 2nd series just 2 weeks after it first aired. An all-black cast is few and far between, but been done – and all-black writing team is a less talked about issue in conversations about opportunity. President of FX, John Landgraf says of the pre-production meetings; “with Donald, he didn’t always articulate his vision in a way that we could see it, but his passions and ambition were clear.” There’s so much scope for a quirky show with (to many viewers) unconventional dialogue to go so wrong, just look at Bored to Death.

The issues that Atlanta portrays Earn tackling are those held varyingly stagnant over long spans of time in different lights by different people – police brutality, parenthood, mental health, institutionalised fear, gender identity, exploitation, flawed or complete lack of ethics in the entertainment industries, attitudes to firearms over racial lines and also portraying Justin Bieber as a black teenager in a charity basketball game – at no point does the show make an effort to not seem like it was written by an all-black team looking outwards. Glover downplays any political role the show may play in a Wired interview, while giving some insight into the casual first steps towards the brilliance the show exudes: “I like it when black people are hit with a certain light, like purple. It just felt good to play around with the look of the show.” An incredibly curious person, no one could’ve written the dialogue for Van and Jayde in the restaurant in the ‘Value’ episode without having experienced a defining moment while leaning over fumes from a squash based appetiser.

Gambino reached what you could call the 2nd phase of marketing with Awaken, My Love! reaching almost 200 million Spotify plays. The album was first played alongside a full band and 6-part choir at PHAROS, a Joshua Tree installment that Glover curated with Wolf and Rothstein, Microsoft and Miles Konstantin. The latter developed the PHAROS Earth app, purchasable for $99, locked to the phone and owner acting as a ticket to the 3-day wilderness based festival, that Glover would state would be his only live performance in 2016. The app was to make sure no tickets could be accordingly resold for such an exclusive event, and after the phones were checked for eligibility at entry they were placed in magnetically locked bags that were handed out – to halt any leakage from the cult event to the outside world. The event placed so much emphasis on first hand purity, as broken down into 5 sections upon purchasing the app – “tribe, ritual, experience abstraction, architecture, language.”

Another peek at Glover disillusionment, this time with technology was displayed by a complete clearance of his Twitter and Instagram accounts at the end of 2014, only returning with a Tweeted countdown in June 2016. “Be helpful. Do not be a detriment. No irony” the app also stated alongside the 5 human experience intuitives. In September fans appeared at Joshua Tree in the “vibrancy colour” of blue, that acted as another entry requirement. Wading through a mixture of Brokeback Mountain sets and a party in a garage ambience the crowds saw an artist in full control of everything they were seeing.

Due mainly to cold callers from Birmingham we’re probably now in the stage of evolution where we know not everyone is going to have a fully suitable voice for their chosen direction in life. Expectations naturally make up reaction and Rick Astley had all you shallow bastards annoyed. If you do listen to people’s music based solely on physical appearance you’ve probably got a relatively neo-nazi dad and you’ll frequently set fire to the family balaclava lexicon so you won’t have to accompany him on his shopping list. Album art is the forward-thinking way to live up to or fail to with regards to listeners expectations that they made with their eyes.

They act as a documentation of what they entomb and the location of the graveyard, modern graphic design actively swingy-chairs into the shins of people holding wine who don’t move out the way. When previously artwork was revealed ahead of release to moonwalk dropping breadcrumbs, that was a linear step like most steady marketing – today the rules often get told as you consume the experience. It lets you in for an all round view of a possibly new genre of image and you can easily find the cover you want to see, it might not match what you wanted to hear but you remember what you saw and go from there – much like casinos in the UK.

The hopefully budding romance of Zack Fox and Thundercat is communicated to the “here for this” spectators vibrantly through the covers of the deluxe vinyl copies of Drunk; feline optical illusion, trap mixtape reminiscent kaleidoscopes of viagra, guns and horses, also a seemingly constipated album artist. The visuals are a cue to using humour to help push through dark moments, it’s just as abstractly debilitating and distracting as that is. In an interview with Creative Review, the mystic force formerly known as Bootymath summarised: “I definitely just wanted to capture my sense of humour, which some would consider absurd or psychedelic. When life is just punching you in the back of the head, you start laughing at shit that doesn’t even correlate – it’s a coping mechanism but it helps create timeless inspiration. I wanted to inject those experiences and let designs be bold and confusing.”

If the Drunk covers would be for the Peter Saul fans, Bonobo’s Migration is probably whispered to those into Dan Flavin. Simon Green’s 6th album cover was designed by Neil Krug – responsible for visuals accompanying sounds from Lana Del Rey, The Weeknd and Tame Impala. The art dads know Bonobo from scenic and melancholy drives drowning out your wife in the boot, and the story of how the album art came about is equally as Californian-style ritualistic.

The consistency of the crispness Krug captured definitely affected his sleeping pattern horribly – he would drive out into the Mojave in the middle of night to have a chance to capture the divinity in the area’s sunrise. Picturing the desert came from Green’s recent life choice of moving to Los Angeles, while finalising tracks he would drive out to find required portions of solace. In an interview, also with Creative Review he says, “You can hear things in a new way just from moving environment. The car test is a classic thing. Producers will say, ‘take a drive with the music’. I like to go up to the mountains – there’s lots of really weird and wonderful landscapes around where I live – and just spend time with the music. It’s very inspiring… it can spark an idea that you might not have had if you’d just been sat in an air conditioned studio.”

The intensity of the supposed subject and the serenity it’s happening in narrate Krug’s skill as a press photographer and the same contrast correlates very effectively as something that could stand without explanation. The cover designer says in the same interview: “Once Si and I sat down and talked I knew the artwork needed to be something other than just landscape images. I thought, if this is going to grab your attention and create a narrative – you need something else in there – but what’s in there can’t be too loud or comment too much on what the music is. It had to stand out in an unusual way.”

Another past-time visual components to music can choose to aim at is discourse on identity. 2016 was a massive year for image around music, particularly in acknowledging vulnerability in places it wasn’t seen previously. I was losing my mind watching a reaction video of Frank Ocean, and the channel owner states “he doesn’t know how to market himself apparently” – yet the singer has had strangers from passing by cars shouting “Frank where’s the album!” If people verbally assault you for more of just you, you’ve created a demand for yourself in infinite ways for constant consumption. Beginning with Endless, Ocean perfected the unorthodox rollout of artistic identity that included two albums, a magazine, a seemingly for-view-only clothing line, pop up retail locations, a music label and apparently a racing team. The most adored gift to date was in the shape of Blonde.

Forever a mystery in an information age, Ocean’s most revealing statement came from that Tumblr note, which in turn made you a chiropractor studying the backbone Channel Orange, just as expected after that he money-danced into the abyss. He stands so close to the likes of West, Knowles, Mayer that reflections off of royal-like jewels fully expose his complete innocuous desire to go and live and them come tell us about it, although he seems to be making that arthouse full time. Post Channel Orange activities forced him to enter into the wilderness, absolutely no interest in TMZ harassment. He has all the cliché qualities to live as a genius like those who handed the torch to him, including the inhuman work-rate; Blonde‘s clear perfectionism required it’s creator to work for at least 17 house a day at the height of production and there’s rumoured to be 150 versions of ‘White Ferrari‘. Apart from a casually released ‘Nikes‘ video, none of the tracks have received even slightly the treatment you’d expect to see for as a single.

Since the album was released at the end of August 2016, Ocean has already given a short interview while wearing Vans in the White House, a longer form conversation in the New York Times, had a filmed interview about the making of possibly his last stab at an “album format” and even released one and been featured on another song – he seems all set to fire himself off to the moon.

What made Blonde all the more enticing was the visual attitude around the release – in the most unconventional cyclical portrayal he maybe could’ve thought of. There is a consistency throughout most of the imagery and what it’s getting it. Self reliance is the quality many align with Ocean’s character. In the New York Times article he revealed that since Channel Orange and the following borderline unwelcome attention, his label and management situation had grown all the more murky, and he had been in the process of buying back his masters from Def Jam. His deal with the label was covering two albums – after they indefinitely shelved his would-be solo album Nostalgia, Ultra he released it himself, Channel Orange followed just over a year later. Personal privacy requirements aside, the label still needed a second release, so Ocean slapped them with the carpentry tutorial that was Endless on the 1st of August 2016, to end the “seven year chess game” – less than 3 weeks later Blonde was released on his label Boys Don’t Cry.

His possible last album-album will be remembered as a great one – widely played and picked apart for years. Blonde lends from many corners, musical and lifestyle. Vulnerability is also set into specific genres, a recent champion of divulging is the Seattle based synth-pop artist Perfume Genius. An artistic contradiction with shared qualities of an 8-year old child prodigy, his music has been growing into larger sounding forms. His melancholic intimate pianist base-point works well bouncing off of lyrics about his past substance abuse issues, his sexuality, his living with Crohn’s, modern wellbeing concerns of gay men inside masculinity and domestic abuse.

Along with the growing mechanics, the nature in which the recordings take place has majorly shifted. Just like the growing catalogue of projects which is set to extend in May, Mike Hadreas is experiencing strength in numbers in terms of albums, fans and relationships – namely with Alan Wyffels, who alongside Mike is 8 years sober. Perfume Genius could very well be in the same philosophical field as Zack Fox, using humour to patch up some past, some continuing difficulties, struggling to not look back with angst upon death threats from school days and even a hate-fuelled beating that forced him to elope with a lifestyle from Seattle all the way to New York. In that city Mike fell into the common grounds of coming of age searching, ending up with you shaking next to a radiator. “When you are a drug addict and alcoholic, you function in crisis mode all the time. Learning and Put Your Back N 2 It was Mike processing those things. Too Bright was a lot of anger. And this album is like, ok, we’re on the other side” Alan tells Fader.

He seems absolutely focused on intense personal growth, which is admirable for a 35 year old. Also in Fader, Mike says of rehab – “I didn’t talk at all for the first four days. I was so terrified. Then there’s something so freeing: there’s lots of group therapy, and you’re just around people all the time because you’re all locked together. By the end of it, I was facilitating the discussions.” His ability to let loose is maybe most striking on his first album’s 3rd song, ‘Mr Peterson‘ about a school teacher who groomed and took advantage of him and subsequently committed suicide.

The new album is said to be a triumph of overcoming personal demons, but fears about growing hostility in his native country are just as scary as we move into increasingly accepting mindsets and heightened security measures see people referred to as “eggshells.” The response of strength in numbers also has Perfume Genius looking to create his new album in an innovative-to-himself manner, creating the melodies before the lyrics. His growth from nihilist to domestic bliss he admits doesn’t feel fully solid, but at the time it’s being focused on by the man himself and those observing prove important – that ascending joy with a gay backdrop is what the outlying masses need.

I take credit for the words and absolutely zero of the photos.

[bookwormdeluxe]

Star Daughter

by Shveta Thakrar

Publication Date: August 11th 2020

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 but in a good way!

I received an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book from the publisher and Caffeine Book Tours as part of my participation in their tour.

This gorgeously imagined YA debut blends shades of Neil Gaiman’s Stardust and a breathtaking landscape of Hindu mythology into a radiant contemporary fantasy.

The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending to be “normal.” But when an accidental flare of her starfire puts her human father in the hospital, Sheetal needs a full star’s help to heal him. A star like her mother, who returned to the sky long ago.

Sheetal’s quest to save her father will take her to a celestial court of shining wonders and dark shadows, where she must take the stage as her family’s champion in a competition to decide the next ruling house of the heavens–and win, or risk never returning to Earth at all.

Brimming with celestial intrigue, this sparkling YA debut is perfect for fans of Roshani Chokshi and Laini Taylor.

Shveta Thakrar is a writer of South Asian–flavored fantasy, part-time nagini, and full-time believer in magic. Her debut novel Star Daughter is coming 11 August 2020 from HarperTeen, and her short fiction and poetry have appeared in a variety of magazines and anthologies. When not spinning stories about spider silk and shadows, magic and marauders, and courageous girls illuminated by dancing rainbow flames, Shveta crafts, devours books, daydreams, travels, bakes, and occasionally even plays her harp.

YOU GUYS! I’m so excited for this tour! I’ve been waiting to read this book ever since I’ve heard a teeny-tiny whisper of it and I can’t thank Hear Our Voices Book Tours enough to have selected me for the tour! I’m gonna be reviewing as well as sharing my dream cast for this book. Check out the tour schedule to see what others had to think about this gorgeous piece of art!

*deep breathing* * tries not to flail*

*FLAILS AROUND*

asdfghjkl. You guys, I’m so happy that Hindu mythology is finally getting the spotlight it deserves. 😭😭😭

Star Daughter follows the story of Sheetal Mistry, a half-star baby whose star-mom returned to the heavens after leaving her on Earth with her father. When Sheetal, who is unable to control the starfire burning within her, accidentally burns her dad, it’s upto her to journey to the heavens and bring back something that’ll help save her dad.

Star Daughter is GLORIOUSLY Indian. Ahh, my heart feels so full reading Indian fantasy content! It is filled with references to overbearing aunties, Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar music, and Gujarati delicacies. I loved every single desi reference.

Coming to the characters, I can safely say that Minal, Sheetal’s cousin and her best friend, is my favorite! I’m so glad she gets to accompany Sheetal on all her adventures. And I can happily read a novella or two exploring what all mischief Minal was upto alone during the time they were at the starry court! 😁

Sheetal is also an incredibly real character, conflicted by dilemmas no one should have to face. She tries to stand up for her beliefs against her family even though it takes a lot from her. I loved how villainy her family is, scheming grandparents in Indian fiction is something that never gets old. 😋

Coming to the super-side characters (since I already covered my favorite side-character i.e., Minal), Padmini was my favorite! An ethereal fashion designer? insert a heck-load of hearteyes Safe to say I was invested in the side-romance even more than I was in the main romance 🙈💖

Coming to the setting, IT WAS GORGEOUS. The starry court is the most beautiful setting I’ve read this entire year omg 😭😭😭💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

Just…. those descriptions. The palaces, the food, the tailor’s lounge, and everything. I cannot, for the life of me, tell you how lovely it is. Just go read it. And I SWEAR TO GOD, all of them GLORIOUS SAREES?! I NEED TO HAVE THEM IN MY LIFE. There’s nothing more ethereal than the sarees described in this book. I. NEED. TO. SEE. THIS. ADAPTED. INTO. A. MOVIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Those sarees and this setting would be HEAVENLY.

I only deducted a star and a half cause I wasn’t particularly fond of the dialogue at places and because the climax felt a tad under-whelming. The world-building could’ve been stronger, in my opinion. But ultimately, I really loved the experience I had while reading this book. And I’m soooo getting a physical copy because that cover! Who wouldn’t want to hold THAT beauty in their arms 🙌😤 and honestly, thank you so much, Shveta, for giving us a lead we can see ourselves in 🥺💗

Anyway, moving on to my dream cast for the book:

Banita Sandhu as Sheetal

Mithila Palkar as Minal

Shantanu Maheshwari as Dev

Siddharth Chaturvedi as Jeet

Sanya Malhotra as Padmini

Sneha Prasanna as Charumati

Madhavan as Gautam

Tabu as Radhika

Naseeruddin Shah as Nana

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – DECEMBER 11: Lifetime Achievement award winner actor Naseeruddin Shah attends a photocall during day three of the 12th annual Dubai International Film Festival held at the Madinat Jumeriah Complex on December 11, 2015 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for DIFF)

Suhasini Mulay as Nani

Shilpa Shetty as Rati

Shriya Pilgaonkar as Priyanka

Aditya Rao Kapoor as Sachin

Farida Jalal as Leela

Aaaaand that’s a wrap, guys! I hope y’all had as much fun reading this post as I had making it. See y’all! ♥️

Star Daughter // My dream cast! – blog tour Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar Publication Date: August 11th 2020 Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 but in a good way!

[terryblount]

Call of Cthulhu Review

“Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” (“In his house at R’lyeh, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.”). H. P. Lovecraft’

No, this is not a first person shooter starring the lord Cthulhu; trying to save the world in the name of duty. It is a very different game, a much slower game so some will love it and some will hate it. I did neither of those… I just fell asleep in my chair… twice.

Madness? More like sadness

It’s been almost two decades since I read the books by the world famous writer H.P. Lovecraft. Now, after 90 years, we have Call of Cthulhu the official game. To be honest I was pretty excited when I first heard the announcement. I was expecting something a bit different, something like an open-world-ish adventure game with a heavy focus on the protagonist’s mental state. Now while the devs said it will be a survival/horror rpg investigation game – and it is – in my eyes it looks like a glorified walking simulator. While this is just my opinion I do not necessarily say the game is bad. It isn’t great but I had fun playing it, even if some parts did put me to sleep.

Ah yes, sleeping pills, how original. Why not painkillers? Max would approve!

Call of Cthulhu tells the story of Edward Pierce; an alcoholic WWI veteran working as a private investigator who is called to investigate (obviously) the death of a wealthy family at the remote island Darkwater near Boston.

This is the best vacation spot ever, said no one ever

The game is not very pretty, and some assets – like the 3D models – look awful. At least it runs fine with everything maxed. There were some places that dropped the frames below sixty but thankfully that was a rare occurrence. If you want a more detailed read regarding the game’s performance go ahead and check our analysis.

Seriously, with a face like that a shotgun is just overkill

I really have almost nothing to say about the music or sound effects. Nothing really stuck in mind and the soundtrack was absolutely forgettable. Sounds are basic at best, and the sound of walking in high heels must be the most unrealistic one yet I’ve heard in a video game.

The voice acting is a mixed bag. While the main characters are mostly OK, the rest are not and for some reason I find Pierce’s voice a bit boring and emotionless. Even when there is slight bits of emotion in one voiced line, the transition to the next line can be in a completely different emotion state. He can scream his lungs out one second and the next second sounds as cool and relaxed as possible (like having drinks at the beach). I did not like the voice acting in Vampyr and I don’t like it here, though this is a personal preference and if any of you enjoyed Vampyr you have nothing to be concerned about; the protagonist sounds absolutely the same.

Every night in my dreams, I see you, I feel you

Now while the world is dark and creepy, just as it should be, it is not scary. I usually do not play horror games and this is not a horror game. Dark Corners of the Earth scared me a whole lot more than this. Call of Cthulhu does have a few sequences which produce a bit of anxiety but never fear. And how it can create fear when the game uses checkpoints? Though I do have to say that I really appreciated them.

Seriously lady get a dog, a cat or something.

Speaking of checkpoints and difficulty, one part where you do the classic hide & seek from something sinister and extremely angry “thing” that wants to wear your face for Halloween was fun, hard and stupid at the same time. That is because you have a limited time and knowledge to choose the right tool for the job from many other tools that look alike, so every time you choose wrong you will probably have to replay the sequence which, once again, destroys the flow and immersion of the game. Thankfully these kind of sequences are few. But hey, at least the game does feature skippable cutscenes.

Who in their right mind hangs such an unbelievably disturbing butt ugly painting? Oh wait…

The investigation gameplay is basic. You find clues by collecting items and speaking with specific NPCs. In some scenes you can initiate an “ability” which lets you, in a way, to reconstruct the past scene. Honestly, this mechanic is completely silly and out of place since the game never explains why you are able to see what you see the way you see it. It reminds me the female detective from the Netflix TV series “Luke Cage”. Yeah sure it looks cool and cinematic but it makes no sense.

Psychic Detective: The Cthulhu Incident

There is also a skill-tree with several skills to choose from and each one of them increases specific attributes. To be honest though, I did not fully understand how you gain the ability points. I think it is predefined how many points you get and when you get them, but I might be mistaken. The most important skill, I believe, is the one which unlocks extra dialogue options but unfortunately the dialogues do not blend naturally in the conversation and feel weird. Actually, many dialogue options do not feel natural and do not match the flow of the conversation.

Cthulhu my lord grant me power to level up

You might know the devs from previous titles like Styx, Space Hulk or the recently announced Werewolf, which I really hope to be better than this or their previous released games. The whole game is around eight to ten hours depending on how much investigation you are willing to do and costs forty-five dollars.

Finding something like this in the creepiest place around makes it even more disturbing

This isn’t a bad game, though it feels a bit rushed. There are good things in it but the presentation is lacking and if there was a better balance between the investigation and action parts, the game could have been better by keeping you on your toes during the whole playthrough… or at least a bit more interested along the way. My recommendation is to wait for a price drop, even if you are a fan of the books and the Cthulhu mythos in general. After all, Christmas sales are coming really soon.

Story

World

Pace

Music

Visuals

Playtime: 8+ hours total

Computer Specs: Case: CoolerMaster Cosmos S CPU: i5 4440 GPU: MSI 960GTX 4GB Mobo: MSI B85-G41 RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X 8GB HDD: Crucial 275GB MX300 PSU: Thermaltake Toughpower 1200W OS: Win7 Monitor: LG 23″ 1080p

Call of Cthulhu Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[njawaidofficial]

Critic's Notebook: Un-Demonizing Muslims, One Comedy at a Time

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/04/critics-notebook-un-demonizing-muslims-one-comedy-at-a-time-2/

Critic's Notebook: Un-Demonizing Muslims, One Comedy at a Time

Using charm, humor and universal themes, a pair of Netflix shows and a big-screen rom-com are providing a timely corrective to Trump-era alarmism about Muslims.

Amid the inflammatory rhetoric and bigotry of the Trump presidency, film and television seem to be entering a brash new era of social activism. The ban on travel to the U.S. from certain Muslim countries may be in effect, but several smarter-than-fear autobiographical comedies are shattering the kind of ugly stereotypes that, at least in part, have provided the rationale for such a ban: Kumail Nanjiani’s hilarious, emotionally warm rom-com The Big Sick, Aziz Ansari’s brilliant Netflix series Master of None and Hasan Minhaj’s sharply funny Netflix standup special Homecoming King offer a realistic and refreshing corrective to alarmist images of Muslim immigrants and their American-raised children.

Separately, each of these actor-writers has a distinctive style, from Nanjiani’s droll, raised-eyebrow reactions to Ansari’s lightning-quick out-of-the-box social observations and Minhaj’s politely understated barbs. What unites them is the way their work approaches cultural identity — through the relatable theme of relationships between grown children and their parents.

The fictionalized Kumail, played by Nanjiani, pretends to his Pakistani parents that he’s religious, even though he watches YouTube videos while they think he’s praying in another room. He even lets them believe he’s up for an arranged marriage. Ansari’s character, Dev, hides another secret from his Indian parents: He eats pork. Meanwhile, Minhaj recalls in his standup how anxious he was when telling his Indian Muslim father that he wanted to marry a Hindu woman.

Each character respects his heritage but doesn’t want to turn into his parents. Nothing is more universal. The comic fear of being yelled at by your mom or dad, even as a grown-up, spans every ethnicity and religion in existence. In depicting that common experience, social themes emerge naturally in these works, with complexity and ambiguity.

In The Big Sick, Kumail performs a fumbling, earnest one-man show about his Pakistani roots. But the film is a romance before anything else, based on the true story of Nanjiani and his wife, the film’s co-author, Emily V. Gordon. Just before Emily becomes ill and is put into a medically induced coma, the couple breaks up because Kumail’s parents insist he marry a Pakistani woman or be cut off from them forever. “I can’t lose my family,” he tells Emily.

Later, he comes clean to his parents about his love for a white woman and his ambivalence about religion. “Islam has been good for you. It has made you good people,” he says. “But I don’t know what I believe. I just need to figure it out on my own.” His honesty is touching and his need to find his own way hints at a truth about generational change that goes beyond cultural particulars.

Dev, an actor, is only loosely based on Ansari, but it’s well known that Ansari’s real parents play his mother and father. The older generation’s different grasp of culture is woven throughout the series. The recently released second season of Master of None finds Dev having his own come-clean moment. His mother stops speaking to him because he has admitted he’s not religious and ordered pork in front of religious relatives. In a conciliatory conversation, Dev’s father explains that he can drink and eat pork, but “when you do it in front of Mom it hurts her feelings.” The exchange is about Islam but applies to hundreds of other situations. In fact, Dev and his Korean-American friend, Brian, often compare their similar generational issues.

The popularity of these comedies — especially The Big Sick, a major indie hit — reveals how effectively they have touched universal emotions. A major part of their appeal is that they make their points without preaching. The resolution of Dev’s quarrel with his mother is wry, loving and irreverent. He pulls out the Quran she gave him when he left for college and texts her a quote: “To you be your religion, and to me my religion.” She replies that at least he read it. When Dev asks if it’s OK to eat bacon, she texts back: “BOY GET OUTTA HERE.”

Although these comedies speak across ethnic divides, their creators are astutely aware of countering the demonized image of Muslims that persists in pop culture as well as politics. As Ansari noted in an interview with New York Magazine, if all Muslims on screen resemble the terrorists on Homeland or 24, of course, the public will be horrified. “If every time you saw a Muslim person on TV, and it’s my dad, you’ll be like, ‘These goofy people! They’re probably gonna ask me for a bite of my sandwich,’” he said.

The parents in these comedies are not just warm and goofy; they are white-collar professionals. Dev’s father and Minhaj’s mother, for example, are doctors. Their professions refute the stereotype of immigrants feeding off America. But Minhaj’s standup reveals that class doesn’t save anyone from bias. A major segment of his routine concerns his high-school girlfriend, whose parents were just fine with him until prom time, when they decided their white daughter could not turn up with a non-white date. The special is virtually a coming-of-age story about a California-born son of immigrants forging his own identity — which in Minhaj’s case includes skewering anti-Muslim images on The Daily Show and triumphing with anti-Trump jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Traditional comedies tend to deal with immigrants in a more timid way. Network and cable shows have broadened their range of ethnic groups recently to include families like the Taiwanese-American Huangs on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat and the Cuban-American Alvarez clan on Netflix’s rebooted One Day At a Time. But most shows have avoided focusing on Muslims. Safely traditional sitcom characters don’t often deal with the type of problem Kumail does in The Big Sick, when a heckler at his comedy show yells: “Go back to ISIS.” And artistically, most series that touch on immigration and conflicts of cultural identity are still bound by the cookie-cutter tropes of the old-time network model. (The exception is Fresh Off the Boat, which deftly blends the parents’ immigrant status and culture with idiosyncrasies of character.)

Though the daring works by Ansari, Nanjiani and Minhaj are taking powerful steps in redefining the image of Muslims, the process may be long. Veep, the most pointed satire on television, reveals the distance between the humanistic optimism of these new comedies and the actual state of American politics today. This season, former President Selina Meyer has a romance with Jaffar, a Muslim diplomat from Qatar. (He’s also the great-grandson of an arms dealer: This is Veep, so no one is pristine.) She seems to have found happiness. Then she decides to run for president again. We have never seen her so emotionally raw or genuine; still, there is no question in her mind or her advisors’ about what she has to do — break up with the Muslim guy to preserve her political life. It’s not as charming a picture of American society as on Master of None, but capturing that brutal reality is its own kind of resistance.  

Source

#Comedy #Critics #Muslims #Notebook #Time #UnDemonizing

[o-zicc-blog1]

Unturned Code

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[njawaidofficial]

Critic's Notebook: Un-Demonizing Muslims, One Comedy at a Time

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/04/critics-notebook-un-demonizing-muslims-one-comedy-at-a-time/

Critic's Notebook: Un-Demonizing Muslims, One Comedy at a Time

Using charm, humor and universal themes, a pair of Netflix shows and a big-screen rom-com are providing a timely corrective to Trump-era alarmism about Muslims.

Amid the inflammatory rhetoric and bigotry of the Trump presidency, film and television seem to be entering a brash new era of social activism. The ban on travel to the U.S. from certain Muslim countries may be in effect, but several smarter-than-fear autobiographical comedies are shattering the kind of ugly stereotypes that, at least in part, have provided the rationale for such a ban: Kumail Nanjiani’s hilarious, emotionally warm rom-com The Big Sick, Aziz Ansari’s brilliant Netflix series Master of None and Hasan Minhaj’s sharply funny Netflix standup special Homecoming King offer a realistic and refreshing corrective to alarmist images of Muslim immigrants and their American-raised children.

Separately, each of these actor-writers has a distinctive style, from Nanjiani’s droll, raised-eyebrow reactions to Ansari’s lightning-quick out-of-the-box social observations and Minhaj’s politely understated barbs. What unites them is the way their work approaches cultural identity — through the relatable theme of relationships between grown children and their parents.

The fictionalized Kumail, played by Nanjiani, pretends to his Pakistani parents that he’s religious, even though he watches YouTube videos while they think he’s praying in another room. He even lets them believe he’s up for an arranged marriage. Ansari’s character, Dev, hides another secret from his Indian parents: He eats pork. Meanwhile, Minhaj recalls in his standup how anxious he was when telling his Indian Muslim father that he wanted to marry a Hindu woman.

Each character respects his heritage but doesn’t want to turn into his parents. Nothing is more universal. The comic fear of being yelled at by your mom or dad, even as a grown-up, spans every ethnicity and religion in existence. In depicting that common experience, social themes emerge naturally in these works, with complexity and ambiguity.

In The Big Sick, Kumail performs a fumbling, earnest one-man show about his Pakistani roots. But the film is a romance before anything else, based on the true story of Nanjiani and his wife, the film’s co-author, Emily V. Gordon. Just before Emily becomes ill and is put into a medically induced coma, the couple breaks up because Kumail’s parents insist he marry a Pakistani woman or be cut off from them forever. “I can’t lose my family,” he tells Emily.

Later, he comes clean to his parents about his love for a white woman and his ambivalence about religion. “Islam has been good for you. It has made you good people,” he says. “But I don’t know what I believe. I just need to figure it out on my own.” His honesty is touching and his need to find his own way hints at a truth about generational change that goes beyond cultural particulars.

Dev, an actor, is only loosely based on Ansari, but it’s well known that Ansari’s real parents play his mother and father. The older generation’s different grasp of culture is woven throughout the series. The recently released second season of Master of None finds Dev having his own come-clean moment. His mother stops speaking to him because he has admitted he’s not religious and ordered pork in front of religious relatives. In a conciliatory conversation, Dev’s father explains that he can drink and eat pork, but “when you do it in front of Mom it hurts her feelings.” The exchange is about Islam but applies to hundreds of other situations. In fact, Dev and his Korean-American friend, Brian, often compare their similar generational issues.

The popularity of these comedies — especially The Big Sick, a major indie hit — reveals how effectively they have touched universal emotions. A major part of their appeal is that they make their points without preaching. The resolution of Dev’s quarrel with his mother is wry, loving and irreverent. He pulls out the Quran she gave him when he left for college and texts her a quote: “To you be your religion, and to me my religion.” She replies that at least he read it. When Dev asks if it’s OK to eat bacon, she texts back: “BOY GET OUTTA HERE.”

Although these comedies speak across ethnic divides, their creators are astutely aware of countering the demonized image of Muslims that persists in pop culture as well as politics. As Ansari noted in an interview with New York Magazine, if all Muslims on screen resemble the terrorists on Homeland or 24, of course, the public will be horrified. “If every time you saw a Muslim person on TV, and it’s my dad, you’ll be like, ‘These goofy people! They’re probably gonna ask me for a bite of my sandwich,’” he said.

The parents in these comedies are not just warm and goofy; they are white-collar professionals. Dev’s father and Minhaj’s mother, for example, are doctors. Their professions refute the stereotype of immigrants feeding off America. But Minhaj’s standup reveals that class doesn’t save anyone from bias. A major segment of his routine concerns his high-school girlfriend, whose parents were just fine with him until prom time, when they decided their white daughter could not turn up with a non-white date. The special is virtually a coming-of-age story about a California-born son of immigrants forging his own identity — which in Minhaj’s case includes skewering anti-Muslim images on The Daily Show and triumphing with anti-Trump jokes at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Traditional comedies tend to deal with immigrants in a more timid way. Network and cable shows have broadened their range of ethnic groups recently to include families like the Taiwanese-American Huangs on ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat and the Cuban-American Alvarez clan on Netflix’s rebooted One Day At a Time. But most shows have avoided focusing on Muslims. Safely traditional sitcom characters don’t often deal with the type of problem Kumail does in The Big Sick, when a heckler at his comedy show yells: “Go back to ISIS.” And artistically, most series that touch on immigration and conflicts of cultural identity are still bound by the cookie-cutter tropes of the old-time network model. (The exception is Fresh Off the Boat, which deftly blends the parents’ immigrant status and culture with idiosyncrasies of character.)

Though the daring works by Ansari, Nanjiani and Minhaj are taking powerful steps in redefining the image of Muslims, the process may be long. Veep, the most pointed satire on television, reveals the distance between the humanistic optimism of these new comedies and the actual state of American politics today. This season, former President Selina Meyer has a romance with Jaffar, a Muslim diplomat from Qatar. (He’s also the great-grandson of an arms dealer: This is Veep, so no one is pristine.) She seems to have found happiness. Then she decides to run for president again. We have never seen her so emotionally raw or genuine; still, there is no question in her mind or her advisors’ about what she has to do — break up with the Muslim guy to preserve her political life. It’s not as charming a picture of American society as on Master of None, but capturing that brutal reality is its own kind of resistance.  

Source

#Comedy #Critics #Muslims #Notebook #Time #UnDemonizing