#by stuart barker

[kwisatzworld]

“In appearance Valentino has a friendly, clean and beautiful personality but in reality he’s not like that. It’s easy to make people like you in front of the cameras, make yourself look nice and funny when you’re not. I don’t like racers who, like him, criticise their colleagues.” - Max Biaggi

“When I started to race well with him he changed a lot. When we were growing up we were very good friends. Valentino plays games with everybody…the way he talked to the media – he tries to never say something good about you.” - Marco Melandri

“He blamed me but it was nothing I did. Of course I didn’t report him – I didn’t even see what happened. I’d had a very good relationship with Valentino for many years but after that it just came around.” - Sete Gibernau

“As soon as I became a fierce competitor everything was different but it wasn’t me who changed.” - Casey Stoner

[bitterkarella]

Midnight Pals: Castle Freak

Stuart Gordon: submitted for the approval of the midnight society, i call this the tale of the castle freak King: is this a freak who lives in a castle or someone who's a freak for castles? Gordon: Gordon: what do you think steve King: probably the first thing? Gordon: obviously

Gordon: so this castle freak Barker: wait i also have a question Barker: a question about the castle freak Gordon: what do you want to know about the castle freak? Poe: can you all stop saying castle freak Barker: no

Barker: what kind of freak is this castle freak? Barker: is it, like, someone who, say, has a whole room full of stale candy? Barker: or a four foot fence? Gordon: no it's the good kind of freak Gordon: like a mutant Barker: now we're talkin!

Gordon: so this american family inherits an italian castle Gordon: but what they don't know Gordon: is that this castle comes with a freaky little surprise Barker: is the surprise a castle freak? Gordon: Gordon: yes but Gordon: don't give it away

Gordon: don't give away the ending! Barker: feel like the title already gave it away Gordon: what? Gordon: how does the title give away that there's a freak in the castle? Barker: the title is "castle freak" Gordon: Gordon: that's a typo

Gordon: so this american family now owns a castle with a castle freak Gordon: grit eatin' freak Gordon: scum suckin', pea head with a lousy physique Gordon: he's a one man, no gut, losing streak Gordon: nothin' but a castle freak

Gordon: then a prostitute mysteriously disappears from the neighboring town Gordon: and the cops are really intent on finding her Barker: phhbt i could buy a castle freak Barker: but this is getting kinda unrealistic

Gordon: but picture this Gordon: the dad is played by a young jeffrey combs Gordon: in his joel hodgson era

[albumscan]

Cradle of Filth - Cruelty and the Beast (1998)

[ogradyfilm]

Halloween Horror Marathon 2023

Due to an unprecedented (and extremely unfortunate) excess of free time, I was able to watch at least one horror movie per day for the entirety of October—a good mix of theatrical and home video/streaming releases; mostly first viewings, with a handful of revisits (especially towards the end of the month). Decided to compile all the titles in one convenient list for future reference:

Blood and Black Lace

Phantom of the Paradise

Re-Animator

Nightbreed

The Mystery of the Wax Museum

No One Can Save You

Spiral/Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein

X

100 Monsters/Exists

Doctor X/The Wolf Man

Hellboy: Sword of Storms

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)/Hocus Pocus

Door (Brooklyn Horror Film Festival)

The Timekeepers of Eternity

Tenebrae

Dracula 3D (Dario Argento)/Haute Tension

Edge of the Axe

Eyes Without a Face

Tetsuo II: Body Hammer/Tetsuo: The Iron Man/The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo

The Exorcist III

Killers of the Flower Moon

Ginger Snaps

Freaks

Daimajin/Return of Daimajin/Wrath of Daimajin

The Brides of Dracula/The Terror (Roger Corman)

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)/White Zombie/Sisters

The Editor

Five Nights at Freddy’s/Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

The Mad Fox

Suspiria (1977)/Dracula (1931)

The Exorcist (50th Anniversary screening)

[jonathanarcher]

I need to create one of those tumblr wide brackets but for the great directorial freaks of cinema. So far I only have Cronenberg, De Palma, Verhoeven, and Yuzna

[mariocki]

New Scotland Yard: Papa Charlie (2.7, LWT, 1972)

"You realise, of course, that anybody, no matter what their rank or position, anybody who was at that meeting - who had sight of this - is now under suspicion of passing information to that gang, don't you?"

"Yes, of course."

"Someone's working on the inside. Could be anybody. Could even be Sergeant Ward - or perhaps you?"

"No."

"Well, we'll see. I intend to find out who it is. And I'm going to give myself one hour in which to do it."

[duranduratulsa]

Now showing on my 90's Fest Movie 🎥 marathon and Stevegoolie Saturday Night...Sleepwalkers (1992) on classic DVD 📀! #movie #movies #horror #sleepwalkers #stephenking #BrianKrause #madchenamick #AliceKrige #tobehooper #joedante #ronpearlman #johnlandis #clivebarker #glennshaddix #rustyschwimmer #stuartcharno #dvd #90s #90sfest #durandurantulsas3rdannual90sfest #stevegoolie #Svengoolie #METV

[thewhumpcaretaker]

Seven Songs of Suffering: Secrets

I'm gonna give all my secrets away - OneRepublic

I’m not sure whether a list will count for the challenge. Let me know if not! I'll try to do another one. But since today is whump day and people are talking about their whump journeys, here's every character I can think of who I’ve treated as a whumpee in my head at some point. Some were romantic for me and others were just pure whump. I left out nothing, even if it’s problematic looking back on it (I have regrets). Although I'm sure I forgot a few because there are a LOT! These are in roughly chronological order starting when I was a toddler to present day. Some have stayed blorbos in the back of my mind and others have not, but they were all important to me at some point. Send an ask about any of them if you want to know why I liked them so much!

Note: Characters from the same media are listed together, but it doesn’t mean that I shipped them.

Mickey Mouse

Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Daisy

Anakin Skywalker

Mulder from The X-Files

Frodo Baggins

Stuart Little

Harry Potter

Aislinn, Tyris, and Tamika from Heroes of Might and Magic III

Mary Cicily Barker fairies

Any of the Rainbow Magic fairies

Any Babysitter’s Club character

River from Firefly

Howl from Howl’s Moving Castle

Marianne from Sense and Sensibility

Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre

Seven of Nine from Star Trek

Hamlet

Dr. Horrible from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog

Tyler/Narrator from Fight Club

Jason Dean from Heathers

Neo from The Matrix

Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock

Light and L from Death Note

Ciel Phantomhive from Kuroshitsuji

Deadpool

Batman

Lucifer from…the Bible I guess

Michael Corvin from Underworld

Lestat and Louis from Interview with the Vampire

The unnamed narrator of Notes from Underground

Guts from Berserk

Karl Heisenberg from RE8

Shane from Stardew Valley

Heathcliffe

Astarion from BG3

John Wick, Marquis de Gramont, and Santino D’Antonio

Michael Corleone and Kay Adams Corleone from The Godfather

[nezumidoll]

Listening to Valentino Rossi - The definitive biography by Stuart Barker and it is such a good read with a good narrator. I haven't watched much MotoGP at all but of course I have heard of Rossi. Also seen "the doctor" race a bit in WEC this year. What an absolute legend.

[artfilmaesthetics]

𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔰𝔲𝔟-𝔤𝔢𝔫𝔯𝔢𝔰 𝔬𝔣 𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯:

➞ 𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔬𝔫𝔢 | 𝔟𝔬𝔡𝔶 𝔥𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔬𝔯

a sub-genre of horror characterized by the graphically depicted destruction of the human body

• Videodrome (1983) dir. David Cronenberg

• Titane (2021) dir. Julia Ducournau

• Alien (1979) dir. Ridley Scott

• Raw (2016) dir. Julia Ducournau

• Hellraiser (1987) dir. Clive Barker

• The Fly (1986) dir. David Cronenberg

• Re-Animator (1985) dir. Stuart Gordon

• Audition (1999) dir. Takashi Miike

[vertigoartgore]

30 Days of Horror - Halloween 2024 horror movies picks :

#1 : The Frighteners (Peter Jackson, 1996, 1h50)

#2 : The Blob (Chuck Russell, 1988, 1h35)

#3 : Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000, 1h48)

#4 : Martin (George Romero, 1977, 1h35)

#5 : Prince of Darkness (John Carpenter, 1987, 1h42)

#6 : Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (John McNaughton, 1986, 1h23)

#8 : Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara, 1993, 1h27)

#9 : From Beyond (Stuart Gordon, 1986, 1h25)

#10 : Candyman (Bernard Rose, 1992, 1h39)

#11 : Night of the Creeps (Fred Dekker, 1986, 1h28)

#12 : Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987, 1h34)

#14 : Event Horizon (Paul W. S. Anderson, 1997, 1h36)

#15 : Fright Night (Tom Holland, 1985, 1h46)

#16 : Frankenhooker (Frank Henenlotter, 1990, 1h25)

#17 : Messiah of Evil (Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz, 1974, 1h30)

#18 : The Serpent and the Rainbow (Wes Craven, 1988, 1h38)

#19 : Bubba Ho-Tep (Don Coscarelli, 2002, 1h32)

#20 : Nightbreed (Clive Barker, 1990, 1h42)

#21 : Waxwork (Anthony Hickox, 1988, 1h35)

#22 : Night of the Living Dead (Tom Savini, 1990, 1h32)

#23 : Fade to Black (Vernon Zimmerman, 1980, 1h42)

#24 : Dellamorte dellamore (Michele Soavi, 1994, 1h43)

#25 : Ghost Story (John Irvin, 1981, 1h50)

#26 : Don't Look Now (Nicholas Roeg, 1973, 1h50)

#27 : The Hitcher (Robert Harmon, 1986, 1h37)

#28 : Drag Me to Hell (Sam Raimi, 2009, 1h39)

#29 : Maniac (William Lustig, 1980, 1h27)

#30 : Slither (James Gunn, 2006, 1h35)

[kwisatzworld]

Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau

In Qatar, Rossi’s hitherto friendly rivalry with Gibernau came to a crashing halt under the most unusual circumstances. With the track being completely new and therefore rather “green” and slippery, Rossi’s crew took a scooter out to his third-row start position on the night before the race and performed a few burnouts, leaving a mass of grippy rubber on what was effectively going to be Rossi’s launch pad. Rossi was not present and Jerry Burgess did not inform Yamaha boss Davide Brivio of what he and the team had done. Spotting the black rubber on his rider’s grid position, Brivio reported it to the circuit manager, thinking that someone had tampered with Rossi’s slot. Then Honda became aware of the melodrama and Gibernau’s team boss Fausto Gresini filed an official protest, claiming Rossi’s team was trying to gain an unfair advantage.

It all seemed rather petty and, while the Yamaha team was not found guilty of breaking any specific rules, race organisers decreed that it was “against the spirit” of the sport and slapped Rossi with a six-second penalty, which meant he had to start the race from the back row of the grid. Max Biaggi, incidentally, was handed the same penalty after his own crew had been caught sweeping his grid slot (an action that was quite specifically forbidden in the rules). Rossi immediately made his position clear: “I’ve been looking for an excuse not to talk to Sete. Today he gave me one.”

In the event, Rossi crashed out of the race while Gibernau won and closed the title gap to just 14 points. But Rossi solely blamed his rival for the protest and the goodwill between the two was at an end. “Sete was the one who was behind all this,” he said. “He has acted like a child. It is like a knife has been pushed into my back.”

From here on in Gibernau would be the new Biaggi, the new nemesis, the new motivation for Rossi to dig deeper in order to beat him. And that made Rossi even more dangerous, as Jerry Burgess pointed out: “Valentino is the sort of rider I wouldn’t want to get angry. He can take you apart on the track.”

At the following round in Malaysia, Rossi began the mental destruction of Gibernau. After vowing never to speak to the Spaniard again he blanked him at the pre-race press conference to such an extent that Gibernau appeared genuinely shaken. While giving his rival the cold shoulder, Rossi joked with the world’s press after setting pole position, saying, “This was a very important pole position because at least we know exactly which part of the track we have to clean.”

After beating Gibernau by more than twenty seconds in the race, Rossi then refused to shake hands when the Spaniard tried to congratulate him on the slowing-down lap. Then he stopped and started sweeping up the track with a broom before donning a T-shirt boasting details of his new fictional cleaning company, La Rapida. “We clear out rats,” he said. ‘We disinfect, clear drains and clean starting grids.” Then, in a direct reference to his six-second penalty in Qatar, he added, “We also do night jobs – all done in six seconds.” It was a classic example of Rossi’s mind games: while the gag was funny to everyone else, the words were carefully chosen to wound and belittle those they were aimed at, in this case Gibernau, who Rossi clearly viewed as a “rat”.

“Hijo de puta! Hijo de puta!” “Son of a whore! Son of a whore!”

Rossi was accustomed to hearing his name being chanted at race meetings, but this was something entirely new to him. This was undistilled hatred – and he was on the receiving end of it. Thousands of Spanish fans joined in the insulting chant as he completed his victory lap at Jerez, the opening round of the 2005 MotoGP season.

Rossi had always been the beloved one, the charmed rider who could do no wrong, who counted every race as a home race. Adored wherever he went, he could always be assured of looking out on to grandstands filled with tens of thousands of fans dressed in his own brand of Rossi yellow. Now the love had turned to hate as the Spanish crowd bayed for his blood.

Local hero Sete Gibernau had led all but three laps of the 27-lap Jerez Grand Prix, but if he believed Rossi had calmed down over the winter and would now forgive and forget what had happened at Qatar the previous year, he got a rude awakening on the final lap of the race. It was Gibernau’s home Grand Prix and he was desperate to win it and start the season with a victory. He very nearly managed it, too, and had he not riled his rival so much in 2004 Rossi might just have conceded defeat. Instead, he waited until the last corner of the last lap of the race before ramming his way up the inside of the Spaniard, clattering into his Movistar Honda, and knocking him off the track and into the gravel trap while he himself went on to win the race.

The pair were so far ahead of the rest of the field that Gibernau managed to get back on track and finish second, but the damage had been done – and it was extensive. Rossi, so accustomed to fans cheering his name, now had to get used to another chorus as tens of thousands of Spanish fans booed and chanted vitriolic slogans.

To his credit, Gibernau acted like a gentleman throughout the aftermath of the race. Unlike Rossi at Qatar, he accepted his rival’s handshake, however stern his expression while doing so. The normally placid Spaniard was clearly furious, his body language speaking volumes both in parc fermé and on the podium, but Rossi remained unrepentant. “There was enough space for me to pass him in the final corner,” he said at the post-race press conference. “It was the only place where I could pass. We touched but motorbike races are sometimes like this. I know Sete is not happy, but there are going to be sixteen more races this year and there will be many more hard battles.”

Gibernau maintained a dignified silence, refusing to make any comment on the last lap, no matter how many times he was asked for his opinion. Perhaps he had learned from the Rossi/Biaggi feuds that there was little to be gained by making an enemy of the most popular man in racing: if you turned on Rossi, you turned on at least 60 per cent of MotoGP’s fan base.

But then, in a sport where the winning margins are so miniscule, each and every tiny advantage must be pursued and that includes gaining a psychological edge over your rivals and mentally upsetting them if the chance presents itself. Rossi was no fool; he had already been through this with Biaggi and had seen the demoralising effects of his constant jibes towards the Roman to the press. He and Gibernau had not started out as natural enemies, but as soon as the Spaniard became a legitimate threat on track – as he had over the last year – then Rossi sought to neutralise that threat in any way he could. Psychological dominance is part of the arsenal of weaponry at Rossi’s disposal that has helped him become the greatest motorcycle racer of all time. What was becoming increasingly clear was that beneath the perma-smile, the curly locks, the post-race antics and the seemingly laid-back approach to life, Rossi was in fact a ruthless, driven and determined motorcycle racer. Of course, no sportsman reaches the top of his game without these attributes, but in Rossi they were so well disguised that it came as a bit of a shock when they revealed themselves. He was a smiling assassin – and all the more dangerous for it.

On the podium at Jerez, Sete Gibernau had looked like a beaten man, and he was. After the grid incident at Qatar, Rossi had reportedly vowed that Gibernau would never win another race (although he later denied saying this), and the Spaniard never did, despite racing in the top class for another two years. Rossi’s work, by fair means or foul, was done. He had neutralised another threat to his continued dominance of MotoGP.

[black-bentley]

Book Meme: 9, 11, 30 please. :)

9. if u were stuck on an island and could only have three books w u what would they be? (series would be counted as one)

Ok, I'm going to go with three series, because I can:

The Biggles series by Capt. W. E. Johns (OBVIOUSLY!)

The Temeraire series by Naomi Novik

The Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch

11. the best book u have ever read?

Noooooooo, the impossible question! My answer to this would probably change depending on what day you asked me, but at this precise moment in time I'm going to say Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart, because it absolutely blew me away the first time I read it, it's phenomenal.

30. give any 3 book recs to ur followers

The Liar by Stephen Fry (because it's my favourite)

Regeneration by Pat Barker

Ice Station Zebra by Alistair MacLean

Thanks for the asks! <3

[albumscan]

Cradle of Filth - Cruelty and the Beast (1998)

[ogradyfilm]

Recently Viewed: The Substance

[The following review contains SPOILERS; YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!]

I’m trying to remove the term “body horror” from my film criticism vocabulary; it’s simply too broadly applicable to be useful as a proper genre classification. In the case of The Substance, though, the shoe fits. Following in the footsteps of such trailblazers as David Cronenberg, Stuart Gordon, and Clive Barker, director Coralie Fargeat embraces the inherent allure of physical transformation, finding sensuality in what might otherwise be considered grotesque; metamorphosis is, after all, an act of rebellion, symbolizing spiritual rejuvenation, liberation from social norms, and transcendence of the flesh.

The movie is, however, a razor-sharp satire first and foremost—a pitch-black comedy drenched in a dissonant cotton candy color palette. The story dissects the shallow superficiality of the entertainment industry, which equates value with conventional beauty; this exaggerated (albeit to a very small degree) depiction of the Hollywood machine reduces human beings to mere commodities, callously discarding them once they’ve been thoroughly exploited—a cruel (and fundamentally misogynistic) attitude personified by Dennis Quaid’s sleazy, arrogant, amoral producer archetype. I hate to hand it to a guy that recently starred in right-wing propaganda masquerading as a run-of-the-mill biopic/vanity project, but Quaid absolutely understands (and relishes) his assignment here, delivering quite possibly the best supporting performance of the year—a crude, vulgar caricature of masculinity so toxic that it infects and corrupts everything it touches. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley both excel in their comparatively nuanced and emotionally demanding roles, of course, but without Quaid’s deliciously depraved and unapologetically one-dimensional antagonist, the conflict wouldn’t crackle with nearly as much urgency and intensity.

Unfortunately, The Substance is as flawed as the chemical procedure around which its plot revolves, resembling the shambling, misshapen monstrosity that emerges during the climax. At 140 minutes long, the narrative is too bloated and unwieldy to sustain the premise, even taking the genuinely unpredictable twists and turns into account; additionally, the central theme occasionally drowns in its own metaphors and allegories. Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed the experience, blemishes included; its minor imperfections only serve to make it more compelling.

[alexlikesbooksandtea]

24 reads in 24

thanks @traeumenvonbuechern for tagging me!! 🥺

for the most part, these are books that have a Storygraph buddy read set up or i already own so should really read. a lot of these were also picked by my friends as part of a challenge i do every year to help get through owned books! in no particular order....

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Pluralities by Avi Silver

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (assuming they're able to publish it 😅)

All These Sunken Souls edited by Circe Moskowitz

Emperor of Ruin by Django Wexler

This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Magic Between by Stephanie Hoyt

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen by KJ Charles

Thornfruit by Felicia Davin

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

The Lost Hero by Rick Riordan

Book Boyfriend by Kris Ripper

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

Discerning Grace by Emma Lombard

Icarus by K. Ancrum

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

A Wreck of Witches by Nia Quinn

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

tagging (with no pressure ofc): @givemonetatry @tanouska @read-and-write- ❤️✨