#editorial-list

[palimpsessed]

COC, day 26: Savour

But I still didn’t let myself dwell on any of the good things, you know? It’s the good things that’ll drive you mad with missing them.

I keep a list—of all the things I miss most—and I’m not allowed to touch it in my head until I’m about an hour from Watford. Then I run through the list one by one. It’s sort of like easing yourself into cold water. But the opposite of that, I suppose—easing yourself into something really good, so the shock of it doesn’t overwhelm you.

I started making my list, my good things list, when I was 12, and I should probably cross a few things off, but that’s harder than you’d think.

Anyway, I’m about an hour from school now, so I mentally take out my list and press my forehead against the train window.

@carryon-countdown

[shiranuieditorial]

20 inspirational names for a super summer!

List summary: 新夏、夏向、夏涼、夏艷/夏艶、琉夏、夏樂、夏怡、夏悅、夏嬉、夏歡/夏懽、梨夏、夏梅、夏蓮、莽夏、青夏、勇夏、承夏、平夏、峰夏、and 夏緒！ (Keep reading ’til the end to discover their meanings, readings, pronunciations, guide to etymology and history, and more linguistic knowledge!)

Is it just me or has this summer been unnervingly chilling for us tropical islanders? 🌞🥶

Check out this summer-inspired name bank I’ve been working on for the past 5 months!

Each name was…

→ meticulously hand-picked like exotic cherries 🍒

→ carefully translated to the best of my ability 🉑

→ and then packed with a mini beginner’s guide to 夏 (the Han character/Chinese character for “summer”, used throughout the Sinosphere) 📖

→ which contains its standard readings in many languages: Mandarin Chinese, Dungan Tili, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, Wu, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese! 🀄

(If you need info on any other topolect, dialect, or time-specific variant not mentioned here, just ask away! I’ll see what I can do for ya!)

👉🏼 An incredibly versatile character, it’s impossible to run out of given names containing/based on 夏!

The possibilities are endless, and the only limit is our imagination! 💡

👉🏼 If we visit the Wiktionary entry for 夏, we’ll see a whole lot more linguistic variants & historical hypotheses on this ancient grapheme dating back to 2070 BC, and even a reconstruction of its Middle Chinese & Old Chinese pronunciations based on recovered millennia-old scripts! 😱

👇🏼 Comment “Wiktionary” and I’ll send you the link to read further. It’s very interesting to read, whether you’re a curious beginner or a veteran Sinologist.

❓ QOTD 1: Which name stood out to you in particular? 🤔

❓ QOTD 2: Do you know what the difference is between “reading” and “pronunciation”? 🗣️

👇🏼 Also also also, let me know what you think of this list! 📜

Is it interesting enough? Are the tables mathematical enough? Are my font choices weird enough? Have I managed to convince you that I’m secretly an omniscient Taoist immortal from the 16th century BCE here to steal all the trees off your backyards, or should I try harder? If so, what other attempts at floor-length grocery lists should I make to satisfy your most honourable expectations?

Remember—your plants are at stake here! 🧚🏼‍♀️🌲🌳🌴

[batsplat]

wait, is there a dovi/jorge feud???? i didn't know this!! also thank you so much for all you do for this community ❤️

not the only ask I've gotten about this and... look, rather than doing a proper write up that would take forever, I'm just gonna give my top ten fun... facts? bits of trivia. tidbits related to the two of them. quite long tidbits, on second glance. the highlight reel, if you will

(1) that time andrea dovizioso made 14 year old jorge lorenzo cry

the two of them already raced each other before the start of their grand prix careers, competing for the first time in 2001 in the cev when dovi was around 15 and jorge around 14. in riveras tobia's biography, here's jorge talking about their first fight:

I led the way at the start and Dovizioso and I escaped. It was our first head-to-head encounter, the first time we raced each other. My dad had heard that Dovi was a really clever rider and he warned me before the race. But just like in 1998 at Jerez, with Olive, I acted like a dummy and pushed for the whole race. I kept looking behind me to see the bastard still there! It was impossible to shake him off, he was watching me the whole race until the last lap. Three comers from the end I could hear his engine getting closer and I saw his shadow to my left, but he didn't come past. I thought to myself "This guy is going to try something in a second!" I decided I had to on a tighter line and close the door. Sure enough, Dovi went wider through that comer and then dived up the inside. I didn't close the door in time and tried to get in his slipstream, desperately hoping I could get him the next corner, but I ran wide and he won. I came back in tears, I didn't even want to go to the podium, I felt so cheated. I'd been on the limit for the whole race and I felt like I deserved the win more than he did.

so that's a nice and positive start! there's something charming about how even fifteen year old dovi was an absolute menace on last laps

also about that race:

'Jorge beat Dovi in Braga but in the previous race at Most, what a tantrum!' recalls Juanito, laughing. 'He didn't even want to go to the podium, he was crying like a baby! I can still see Dani (Antatriain) talking to him, trying to convince him. In the end he went but he didn't want to look at anybody.'

(2) the photo finish

in 2004, they were rivals in 125cc - a year in which dovi claimed the title and jorge was p4 in the standings. in the very first grand prix ever at the lusail circuit (pretty eventful weekend, you have to say), jorge and dovi crossed the line at the exact same moment

(3) dovi's top three favourite career win

dovi and jorge progressed through the categories at the exact same rate, and after their 125cc rivalry they continued fighting in 250cc. they were title rivals in both 2006 and 2007, with jorge's aprilia winning out both times against dovi's underpowered honda. (the general pattern was that dovi clawed back a bunch of points from jorge in the wet - jorge, with perhaps the exception of a few years in the premier class until around 2013, has never been much of a wet weather racers, while it's always been one of dovi's strongest traits.) for dovi's 300th career start in 2019, he was asked what his top three wins were - and one of his picks was from way back when in 2007

I'd recommend the race! which... well, I did in the race rec post - and I can only reiterate that these two kids do not acknowledge each other, not good vibes at all

(4) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2008

Jorge has a lot of respect for Andrea Dovizioso and feels that his two 250cc world titles have even more prestige because he had to beat the Italian to win them. 'You wouldn't label Dovizioso as fast, particularly, but he's much faster than he looks. He doesn't set many pole positions but he is always up front in a race, fighting to win. He is very intelligent and you can't trust him an inch on the last lap. He has been faithful to Honda, he has great belief in them. His negative side is that he tends to play the victim too much. He'll say that if his bike had a better engine or if it was a bit faster he would win. He's even said that if he was on the same bike as me he'd give me a hiding. I think he looks for excuses too often sometimes, but as a rider and a person I don't have a bad word to say about him.'

some dovi traits read as very familiar, from how he's a better racer than qualifier to the intelligence to the last lap prowess. as for jorge saying dovi plays victim too much? well

also this:

ER: Don't you think that Dovizioso wanted to be World Champion too in 2006 and 2007? Don't you think he gave everything to achieve it? JL: He will think he gave his maximum but he will be lying to himself because nobody does that. Nobody gets close to their maximum, not even me. He will think that he didn't win because he was riding a Honda. There are very few sportsmen who will say, I deserve what happened to me and there are no excuses. I didn't know how to do any better and I've done things wrong.' That is the only way to be the best, the only way. People who make excuses don't get to the top. I know riders who haven't made it for just that reason.

plus ça change

(5) jorge's thoughts on young dovi from 2018

when they were doing their thing as ducati teammates (bickering), here is one of the things jorge said about dovi:

dovi's been trying to undermine jorge's morale his WHOLE career... even when they were but teenagers... love it when you can really tell someone's been sitting on something for over a decade

(6) "also lorenzo is not my friend"

both of them moved up to motogp in 2008, jorge with factory yamaha and dovi with satellite honda. dovi had a very strong rookie season and finished in p5, only sixteen points behind jorge in p4 (who after a promising first few races had spent a lot of time that season crashing). after that, their fortunes diverged. dovi did not have a particularly happy time in the factory honda team and needed to do some shrewd negotiating to be retained by them for 2011 in that three-man squad, while jorge of course won the championship in 2010

here's a deep cut from 2011, a season where much of the excitement and drama was caused by marco simoncelli alone. jorge had exchanged tense words with sic in estoril, one race before simoncelli was responsible for a crash where dani broke his collarbone. the crash and sic's subsequent penalty meant that the three-way fight between jorge, dovi and valentino became one for the podium, with dovi and valentino eventually grabbing the two remaining spots behind casey. but during the race, jorge had executed a... questionable manoeuvre on dovi, one that did have some similarities to the sic/dani incident. given jorge's strong previous comments on racing standards, unsurprisingly the journalists pounced on this incident in the post-race presser and ask the podium sitters about it. here is the clip:

in this clip, dovi essentially says it was a dangerous move from jorge, but he wasn't sure what jorge's intent had been and he needs to watch the footage again. valentino (who had been the most outspokenly critical of sic of the three of them earlier in the presser) takes the opportunity presented to him to have a bit of a potshot at jorge. he says that dovi doesn't have the best relationship with sic but jorge had done something pretty similar in the race... at which point dovi goes "also lorenzo is not my friend"

which, you know. not exactly a major incident, but I find it very charming dovi felt the need to clarify that, actually, he doesn't like either of them. valentino also adds that by jorge's own standards, surely he too should have gotten a penalty. not exactly a meeting of jorge's biggest fans hm

(7) mapping eight-gate

well I can't leave it out, can I

so in 2017 jorge switches from yamaha to ducati and does not have a great time of it. a lot of weekends, he's just too slow, other times he shoots to the front of a race at the start (typically not great news for the rest of the field in his yamaha days) and then chews up his tyres before gradually dropping like a stone back through the field. at some point that year it became a bit of a running gag - especially when you saw he was the only big name to be picking a soft tyre and just went... buddy we ALL know how this is gonna end....

while this was happening, his teammate dovi was for the first time in his premier class career in championship contention. an extremely close title fight throughout the year with five protagonists until pretty late in the season, it eventually went to a title decider in valencia between dovi and marc. you know, the kind of year where every point counts. the race where marc put a bit of daylight between himself and dovi was phillip island, with marc winning a great dogfight out front while dovi had a bit of a horror show of a weekend. this meant that a lot would have to go right for dovi to have a chance of still winning the title... and sepang was already a match point race for marc

ducati had not won a championship since their 2007 title, courtesy of one casey stoner. after that year, their bike became steadily less competitive every season, reaching a nadir around the 2011-13-ish period. so by the time 2017 rolled around, they wanted this so so badly - even if they wouldn't have expected dovi to lead the charge. dovi had only narrowly beaten out iannone in the 'who's going to be fired for our shiny new lorenzo hire' contest of 2016, and really it was supposed to be jorge who was carrying ducati's dreams on his shoulders. but, never mind, they were throwing everything behind dovi now... no stone left unturned

which brings us, of course, to the subject of team orders. this discourse really took off at the penultimate race of the season at sepang, but was already brewing before that - and in phillip island, satellite ducati rider redding had been told early in the race to let dovi past

here from marc at sepang:

dovi had been in great form all weekend at sepang - and with his wet weather prowess being what it was, really there shouldn't have been any need for team orders at all. but he got a sluggish start, and the race unfolded from there... until eventually jorge was in first, dovi was in second and marc in fourth. in those positions, marc would have clinched the title there

and then, jorge got a message on his dashboard. suggested mapping: mapping 8. pit boards and dashboards and all sorts of boards will feature various codes during races, most of them completely innocuous - but of course they are a healthy source of all sorts of conspiracies. the timing of this one was certainly... notable, and speculation immediately started about how it might be a way of telling jorge that he should swap positions with dovi

jorge didn't end up letting dovi pass - it is questionable whether he really would have done so with what would have been his first ducati win on the line. in the end, he made a mistake that let dovi through so that dovi claimed the win anyway, keeping himself in mathematical contention in valencia. and jorge did say afterwards he was keeping dovi's title hopes in mind, kind of

jorge also said he hadn't gotten any message indicating team orders, and of course nobody at ducati confirmed that mapping eight did have anything to do with team orders

for what it's worth, this is what dovi said about their relationship at this stage:

lovely! let's see what the vibes are like a few months later

anyway, onto valencia. this race was pretty boring despite being a title decider, but the jorge/dovi bits were just unequivocally the weekend's most enjoyable aspect and rather nicely spiced up the whole thing. dovi's chances were always slim going in, given he'd have to win the race and marc would have to barely get any points at all... but still, you never know, right? marc could always crash (narrator: he did almost crash). jorge plays coy early in the weekend about the whole 'helping dovi out thing', and basically just started putting in place...? ... very specific conditions...? under which he'd help:

so during the actual race, dovi got stuck behind jorge in p5, with marc ahead of both of them. valencia is traditionally not a fantastic track to overtake at... so even if dovi had been faster, it's not like he'd have an easy time clearing jorge and cracking on. but they were beginning to drift further away from dani in p3 as ducati watched on, increasingly unamused by what was happening - and the tv cameras were of course kind enough to repeatedly show the ducati box looking deeply unamused. again, they went for the good old mapping eight message, which, hey, that could mean anything! they sure did keep showing it to jorge though, almost like he wasn't paying attention to it

eventually, they abandon all subtlety and go for a pit board message that does just straight-up tell jorge to swap positions. jorge kept ignoring the messages, lap after lap, and he never ended up letting dovi past. eventually they both crashed and marc claimed the title with a p3 finish, so it wouldn't have mattered anyway, but... still. the feeling was that this might things rather awkward inside of ducati

publicly, ducati was extremely keen to smooth over the whole controversy, saying they totally weren't mad at jorge blatantly ignoring team orders. jorge had, after all, explained to them (and the media, repeatedly) that he had totally been intending to help dovi by dragging him closer to dani

Giving his take on events, Lorenzo acknowledged that he ignored Ducati’s instruction because he felt Dovizioso’s chances would be boosted by having him directly ahead. “Even looking at this [dashboard] suggestion, I keep pushing until the end, because I knew it was the best thing for me, for Ducati and for Dovi,” said Lorenzo. “I helped him to improve his pace by one or two tenths, to be as close as possible to the first group. My intention was, and it was the case, that we arrive at the first group. If he had the option to win, I would have gone wide and let him pass. But unfortunately it was not like that. Maybe in some corners Dovi was close and I slow down a little bit his pace, but in general terms, having my wheel in front of him made him improve slightly his pace. I helped him stayed closer to the front group. “I knew Dovi was struggling, I knew his pace during all the weekend, and I knew he was making the best pace of the weekend just in the race. It was [because of the] help from my wheel. I’m happy because I was not wrong. If I was wrong and slowing him, I would be very sorry. But it’s not like that, my feeling was true.”

which, you know. is it really that easy to tell how much faster you are than someone who's sitting on your rear tyre? who's to say. dovi did certainly seem rather keen to get past

anyhow, of course there were plenty of fun dramatics post-race:

'our rider ignored team suggestions not team orders' is a great line, fairs. there's plenty more of this from ducati, some excellent spin doctoring - and dovi was extremely magnanimous about what had happened:

the whole thing was pretty undignified from all non-dovi parties, but it was also very funny so who's to say if it was bad or not

(8) runner-up-gate

let's check in on them in 2018, the second and ultimately last year in which they were teammates. remember that 'undermining morale' quote from above? those are from early 2018, after dovi says he wouldn't be surprised to see jorge elsewhere the following season. so, once jorge has complained that dovi had been trying to put him down his entire career, comes this:

so that's something. jorge, dovi and dani have a three-in-one crash in jerez, after which some fingers are pointed but it all remains fairly civil, and a bit later dovi says that jorge's approach doesn't work at ducati:

by the summer break, jorge's results had gotten better, but it was already too late to save the relationship with ducati and they parted ways. anyway, here's dovi and jorge having another go at it:

And while a rough patch for Dovizioso coupled with breakthrough back-to-back wins for Lorenzo in Mugello and Barcelona have now left the pair just three points apart in the standings, Dovizioso refused to back down from his claim when speaking to Spanish sports daily Marca ahead of the upcoming Brno race. “He’s won two races,” Dovizioso said. “Winning two races does not solve the problem of a year and a half. Lorenzo was not signed to win two races. Therefore I do not change my mind.” When the comments were put to Lorenzo, the three-time champion offered an ardent retort, stating that Dovizioso's rhetoric was proof of the claim he'd made back in April. “I'm a bit fed up with this situation, mainly because when I had trouble and he was winning, I was down there applauding,” Lorenzo told Spanish broadcaster Movistar. “What I said in Argentina - and the comments caused a big surprise - you can see that I was right. “He tried to undermine me, or downplay what I achieve or just attack me. As you can see, I wasn't lying. He's still doing it and now he says my method is not good, according to him.” Lorenzo intimated that Dovizioso was in no position to criticise him, as the Italian could do no better than runner-up to Marc Marquez in a 'perfect' 2017 season. He said: “I think my method has not worked too bad in my career. I've won three MotoGP titles and have 46 wins.” “In my second year in Ducati I'm usually faster than him, but maybe I should look at his method closer if in his best season, with everything going perfectly, he was second. Otherwise he's fourth or seventh usually. I'd tell him to leave me to go my way and to focus on his own and everything will be better, because when you have an angry Lorenzo it's usually worse for you.” 

fair to say that by this point the pretence at civility has mostly been dropped. I'm rather fond of the "lorenzo was not signed to win two races" line, though "when you have an angry lorenzo it's usually worse for you" is also really strong stuff. dovi tries to restore a little bit of peace:

Responding in turn to Lorenzo's tirade, Dovizioso sought to play down the conflict. “Jorge has his ideas and I think they are based on particular things. I don't think like him, but it's not a problem,” he told Movistar. “Everybody creates their own ideas based on what they see and how they live. “I don't think he has everything clear in his head about what's happened, but we continue the relationship that we started last year with respect, there's no particular problem. If he thinks this way, that's his problem."

so basically the classic 'idk what he's on about but it's not my problem' approach to attempting to defuse feuds

(9) twitter-gate

there's a few more on-track battles where it's nicely obvious how badly they want to beat each other, with jorge beating marc just ahead of dovi in austria and then dovi beating jorge in brno. jorge's season is increasingly derailed by injuries, which sets the stage for their next big spat:

The row was sparked by Dovizioso's comments to Sky Italia after qualifying at Sepang on Saturday, as he was asked what he thought of Lorenzo having to pull out of the Malaysian GP weekend with injury. "I don't know the details, I don't want to get into this, it's a bit of a strange situation," said Dovizioso."It happens often in Ducati or to certain riders, but I don't understand the details and I don't want to get into it and give my opinion." When it was put to him he was offering 'cryptic words', he added: "I leave things there, it's not my problem."

pretty vague, yeah. but anyway, I'm sure jorge had a proportionate response to this

Dovizioso's comments prompted a series of irate posts from Lorenzo on Twitter, with his first reaction being "Thank you very much @AndreaDovizioso! You are a real gentleman!". In his next post, he went on to call Dovizioso "an exemplary teammate", adding: "You applaud him under the podium when he wins and then... (That's right, he does not give his opinion, it's not his problem)." After that, Lorenzo labelled Dovizioso "envious" and described him as "a world champion... in 125cc."

the podium thing really bothered him, don't you think. their ducati in-fighting follows that general pattern where dovi says something... a little shady, a little ambiguous, where his intentions aren't entirely obvious... at which point jorge goes all in at fighting back and has a go at dovi - often not as much for what dovi is actually saying, but what jorge thinks dovi is implying. which is based on his understanding of dovi, the image of dovi he's built up in his head over the years, so that he is... predisposed to think ill of the intentions of the 'intelligent' dovi who always knows exactly what he's saying

again, dovi tried to downplay the argument, while simultaneously not exhibiting much patience for jorge's stance:

After the Malaysian GP, Dovizioso was asked about Lorenzo's responses to his comments, and the Italian accused his teammate of reading too much into headlines. He said: “Why should I talk to Lorenzo? I do not waste time on these things. He makes the usual mistake of giving too much importance to what is written, even without the context. "I have not pointed my finger at anyone and I have no problem with Jorge."

if I were ducati, I probably would've let the whole thing blow over given jorge was off soon anyway. but they decided the whole thing was so bad they had to organise a peace summit

Asked about the situation, Ducati sporting director Paolo Ciabatti admitted to Motorsport.com that the Bologna marque has already planned to sit its two riders on Tuesday in Milan to make it clear what its priorities are. Ciabatti said: “It is clear that the interests of Ducati come before personal problems between riders. On Tuesday we will be together in Milan, for the EICMA [motorcycle show] and we have in mind to spend half an hour to sit and talk to Jorge and Andrea. "We want to avoid similar things to what happened last weekend. "I understand that these kinds of situations can happen. Sometimes riders get nervous during a Grand Prix weekend and on a rainy day, with tricky conditions, sometimes they say things they shouldn’t have said."

god knows how that turned out

(10) wow, you guys aren't gonna let this go, huh

late 2020 and jorge's career is already over, while dovi's looks like it will be... paused, at the very least. which is always a good time to check in with riders on how they feel about their rivals - if they're still being nasty you know that shit was personal. from december:

some quality petty material here. "I can't understand his somewhat peculiar mind" vs "he was envious of me since 250cc, but I wanted to give our relationship a chance". note too jorge talking again about how generous he had been in the face of dovi's 2017 successes, and how he feels like this was not reciprocated at all. jorge's complaints don't stop there:

merry christmas!

not the only rider jorge has beefed with post-retirement, but compare and contrast with how he really hasn't been doing any of that with some of his biggest career rivals. valentino, marc, dani - sure, he still talks about the controversies he's had with them pretty regularly (to put it lightly), and he's hardly free of complaints... but mostly it's a distinctly nostalgic tone he's adopting with these guys. admittedly, it helps that none of those three have gone out of their way to say anything particularly inflammatory about jorge. still, the absolute lack of any sort of rapprochement with dovi of all people is pretty funny

bonus: that time when jorge skittled all of marc's rivals

you know how in catalunya 2019, jorge took out like? all of marc's major rivals in that era including himself in one go? with half a decade of hindsight, this was kind of hilarious, and it did also feature jorge having to eat a hell of a lot of humble pie and go to the three other blokes to apologise. anyway I have a lovingly assembled set of screenshots of all three of them emoting in their boxes after the incident, all suffering some form of an existential crisis. here is dovi contemplating the bleak realities of our brief lives on this planet:

truly one of the world's least enthusiastic waves

bonus 2: another one for old time's sake

already posted this elsewhere, but this from late 2023 made me laugh

"jorge came to ducati and thought he was going to beat everything, but in the end he didn't" uh huh

[age-of-moonknight]

“For Now,” Phases of the Moon Knight (Vol. 1/2024), #4.

Writer: Fabian Nicieza; Penciler and Inker: Moisés Hidalgo; Colorist: Fer Sifuentes-Sujo; Letterer: Cory Petit

[cer-rata]

Zdarsky when I get my hands on you I swear to god--

[thefaeriefeatherdark]

I do think the wildest part of the Skyrocket/Connie concept is that Visaggio seemed to legitimately believe that Kon-El is like... a D-List superhero. Which is just like, a wild thing to believe considering the Comic Kon won in a fan poll hadn't even finished coming out at the time she pitched her idea.

[ciegeinc]

CIEGEINC's FAVORITE FASHION EDITORIALS 2023

Anok Yai by Nadine Ijewere for Vogue Japan May 2023

Ajah Angau Ajok , Akon Changkou , Amar Away , Rejoice Chuol , Awar Akway & Nyawurh Chuol by Tyler Mitchell for W Magazine September 2023

Bharath Murugaiyan, Neeraj Saini and Ankit Karki by Vivek Vadoliya for How to Spend It Magazine May 2023

Tianna St Louis by Jouke Bos for Vogue Netherlands July 2023

Kirandeep Chahal, Puja and Vaishnavi by Bharat Sikka for T Magazine

Akon Changkou by Nadine Ijewere for Vogue US April 2023

“Le Grand Bleu” featuring Naomi Apajok by Txema Yeste with styling from Bernat Buscato for Numéro Magazine 239 Summer 2023.

Aminata Ba , Coumba Dieye , Sophia Makibdji and Mariama Balde by Mikael Jansson for Dazed Magazine Spring 2023

[primepaginequotidiani]

PRIMA PAGINA Le Figaro di Oggi mercoledì, 29 gennaio 2025

[81scorp]

My top 6 movies of 2024

Hey folks! It`s that time again! That day you`ve all been waiting for.

That day of the year when I talk about movies I`ve seen and rank them according to my own personal taste and bias!

Why 6? Because I`m not a professional filmcritic who has time to see most of the movies that came out this year and sometimes other duties got in the way. So I only had time to see 6 movies in the cinema.

And yes, one of these movies came out 2023, but it didn`t come to cinemas in my country until 2024, so it still belongs on this list.

M`kay? M`kay.

6: Moana 2

Part of me feels a little bad for putting this movie so low on the list, part of me doesn`t.

This was originally not meant to be a movie but a TV-series and when I watched it the plot had a bit of that "made at eleventh hour" feeling.

It`s not bad but it`s not as good as the first movie. The songs aren`t memorable, there were some issues with the pacing at some parts, like it moved a little too fast and both of the antagonists felt underutilized. It did get a little better in the third act though.

It would have been better if the movie had been longer or if they had just let it be a TV-series. The first movie didn`t even feel like it needed a sequel, it felt like a complete, self-contained story.

The first movie felt like a story that someone wanted to tell, this movie felt like it was corporately mandated.

5: Dune: part two

Just like the first one, this one is also visually captivating, you can tell that this was a story that someone wanted to tell. It`s very long but most of the time it`s running time feels justified.

At first I thought that the Dune Saga was gonna be a two-parter and that this would be the final part, but what I can tell from this movie`s ending the story isn`t over yet.

4: Furiosa: A Mad Max saga

This one gets a higher spot than Dune because it is, at some parts, funnier. This is the story of how Furiosa gets kidnapped by from her home by Raiders who work for a man called Dementus. Dementus adopts her and then later trades her to Immortan Joe who runs the Citadel. Things that were briefly mentioned in the previous movie: Mad Max: Fury Road gets fleshed out in this one. This is a prequel, so it has to work with the same limitations that most prequels have to struggle with. Since the story of what happens later has already been told it can`t do much more than tell what it was that led up to the conflict in the already seen next chapter. Trying to live up to Mad Max: Fury Road is a pretty tall order and it feels like the filmmakers knew that and just tried to, while still following the rules of prequels, make a good story. It has some impressive action-scenes, like the way that the camera follows Furiosa when she`s in a gun-fight. I`m glad to see that this movie still has that old, bonkers Mad Max charm and it was fun to see Chis Hemsworth go hard as the villain Dementus. He shows us why we should not question his boss-ority.

3: Deadpool and Wolverine

This movie kinda reminds me of Disney`s Wish.

Hear me out.

Like Wish, this movie has references to movies that came out before it, but it is not completely dependent on those references. Most of the movie is carried by Reynolds and Jackman and unlike Wish this movie doesn`t feel compromised by corporate suits.

There`s some metacommentary about the MCU and there`s some shameless fan service, but it feels earned and over all, at the end of the day, this is a fun movie. Give it a watch.

2: The wild robot

A robot known as ROZZUM unit 7134 (aka: Roz) is washed onto a forest island and learns to adapt to the environment.

This is the final film to be animated entirely in-house at DreamWorks and if that is the case I`m glad they got to go out on a high note. since Roz`s face is vey limited, most (if not all) of the emoting comes from Lupita Nyong'o`s voice performance. Roz`s voice starts as a very customer-service-type of robot voice and, as the story progresses, gradually evolves with the character to sound more human. And as usual, feels are my kryptonite and The Wild Robot did not dissapoint me there.

A few things I take with me from this movie is that nature is harsh, parenting isn`t easy and kindness can be a survival skill.

And now...

My number one pick....

will be revealed after these honorable mentions!

These movies ended up in the honorable mentions category because I didn`t see them in the cinema, which these lists are about. And I included honorable mentions on this list because there were so few movies on it, I usually watch at least 7 to 8 movies a year.

Venom: The last dance

Eddie Brock and the Symbiote continue their odd couple buddy comedy road-trip as they are being chased by goverment agents and aliens from another planet. Hijinks ensue.

Better than Let there be Carnage, but I hesitate to call it good, certainly entertaining at least. It felt like they had ideas for two movies that they squished together into one. Id`have preferred if they`d made one movie where Venom was chased by the government agents and Knull`s apperance was saved for a post-credit cameo. The next movie could then focus on the outter space stuff.

If this movie wasn`t an honorable mention I think I`d put it last on the list, behind Moana 2.

Poor things

Bella Baxter, a woman with the mind of a toddler, who lives in late Victorian London with her surrogate father, Dr. Godwin Baxter, leaves her home to go travelling the world with amoral lawyer Duncan Wedderburn. As the story progresses she grows as a person and becomes more independent (much to the displeasure of Wedderburn) and learns about the life she had before she became Bella.

Poor things is an odd, interesting, dark, twisted fairytale. It is fun to see a movie that is strange, different and over the top, kinda like if Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton made a movie together. And it is also fun to see Mark Ruffalo in an over the top, villainous role.

Maybe not for the entire family since it has scenes with sex and nudity. But that aside: give this movie a watch.

If this movie wasn`t an honorable mention I think I`d put it between Deadpool and Wolverine and The Wild Robot.

And now...

Drumroll please.

My number one pick for 2021 iiis...

1: Inside out 2

Once again we get to meet Riley Andersen and the emotions in her head.

Plot-wise this movie is very similar to the first one in that an emotion decides that another emotion is unnecessary and throws them aside, resulting in that emotion getting thrown out of the head quarters, having to find an important Macguffin and navigate their way back through the chaotic mindscape. The biggest difference here is the message. If the first one was educational with the message that all emotions are necessary, this one feels like a reminder and a commentary on how hard we can be on ourselves. Even if the first one was very selfcontained and there was little to no need for a sequel I`m still glad that this was made.

Was it good? Yes.

So good that it deserved to make over a billion at the box-office? That`s debatable, but I`m glad that it was a hit.

The Wild Robot gave me the feels, Inside out 2 gave me the feels and the thinks.

This year really was the year of the sequels, at least when it came to my list. I`m glad that I could squeese at least one movie that wasn`t from an already existing franchise into it. Would have liked to see a few more movies but other duties and bad timing got in the way.

Do we have anything to look forward to in the year 2025... movie-wise at least?

Well... for me there`s the new Superman movie, and Mickey 17 by Bong Joon-ho.

I hope that 2025 is, if not a good year for movies, then atleast not a bad one.

Be safe and take care of yourselves.

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Started writing this 2024-12-20

The tradition of me sharing my movie going experiences online continues.

And as usual: English is not my first language, so if my writing doesn`t seem to flow naturally, you know why

[shiranuieditorial]

Vocabulary list for writers: EXPLANATION

📚✍️ Looking to spice up the way you explain your explanations? Check out these cool options!

List summary: Account, accountancy, aide-mémoire, alibi, amplification, analysis, anatomising (also spelled anatomizing), annotation, apologia, argument, assay, assessment, breakdown, briefing, caveat, clarification, commentary, confession, construction, contextualisation (also spelled contextualization), and counsel.

💭 Uhh, why this topic in particular? 🤔

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You see, we’ll be doing a lot of explaining, discussing, analysing, surmising, and whatnot during our

🗨️ Q&As

🗨️ Consultations

🗨️ Creative collaborations

(That’s a promise! 🫵🏼)

So, I thought, “What could be a better list to write than EXACTLY about the sheer level of clear communication we’ll practice?”

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Anyway, anyway... I bet you won’t believe I originally intended this list to have only around 5–10 words! 🤯

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🦗🦗🦗

[Crickets suddenly stop in shock]

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Yep, it’s true! I overdid myself with this one… 😅

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Now that you’ve read the first 21 out of 77, why not stay tuned for more vocabulary fun?

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The next parts to this Masterlist of Words Similar/Related to “Explanation” will launch soon! 🚀 ...enough. Hold on to your rockets, fellas 😂

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🍔 QOTD 🍔

Which word here is your favourite?

Yes, you have to choose just one!!! 🔪

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‼️ DISCLAIMER‼️

I’m not claiming these words are true synonyms (i.e., having the exact same meaning as one another). They are not at all synonymous with each other, but they convey ideas or actions that resemble, complement, or specify the word “explanation”, which—if used with caution—can enhance the quality and impact of your writing, speech, and even your own thoughts and mindset.

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In any case, it’s always a good idea to expand our vocabulary, even if we don’t use these new words right away. After all, science says language learning is good for brain health, so, why not? 🧠

[chvwat]

i made some drawings about the good books i read this year. see them all over at substack.

[theotherklm]

My Favorite Movies

Check out my latest blog post for a lighthearted take on some of my favorite movie plots.

I have a hard time narrowing my list down to just ten, but I will try. The one about the underdog sports team full of lovable losers. Somehow they win the championship. I like it because nothing says believable like a bunch of underachievers who couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat suddenly becoming world champs after one pep talk from a guy in a tracksuit. It’s like watching Congress…

[grimmiearchive]

1 November 2015

Christina's editorial with Nation-A-List Magazine is released Photographed on 30 September 2015

[cluescorner]

I'm pissed af that there are so many DC characters named some variation of 'John/Jon/Jonathan/etc' and somehow all but 1 of them are cool and fun and epic or at least interesting. But the LEAST COOL AND INTERESTING one is who gets all the attention both in publishing and in fandom

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing References: World-Building

20 Questions ⚜ 100 Words for World-building

Basics: World-building ⚜ Places ⚜ Imagery ⚜ Setting

Exploring your Setting ⚜ Habitats ⚜ Kinds of Fantasy Worlds

Fantasy World-building ⚜ World-building Vocabulary

Worksheets: Magic & Rituals ⚜ Geography; World History; City; Fictional Plant ⚜ A General Template

Editing

Setting & Pacing Issues ⚜ Editing Your Own Novel

Writing Notes

Animal Culture ⚜ Autopsy ⚜ Alchemy ⚜ Ancient Wonders

Art: Elements ⚜ Principles ⚜ Photographs ⚜ Watercolour

Creating: Fictional Items ⚜ Fictional Poisons ⚜ Magic Systems

Cruise Ships ⚜ Dystopian World ⚜ Parts of a Castle

Culture ⚜ Culture Shock ⚜ Ethnocentrism & Cultural Relativism

Food: How to Describe ⚜ Lists ⚜ Cooking Basics ⚜ Herbs & Spices ⚜ Sauces ⚜ Wine-tasting ⚜ Aphrodisiacs ⚜ List of Aphrodisiacs ⚜ Food History ⚜ Cocktails ⚜ Literary Cocktails ⚜ Liqueurs ⚜ Uncommon Fruits & Vegetables

Greek Vases ⚜ Sapphire ⚜ Relics ⚜ Types of Castles

Hate ⚜ Love ⚜ Kinds of Love ⚜ The Physiology of Love

Mystical Objects ⚜ Talisman ⚜ Uncommon Magic Systems

Moon: Part 1 2 ⚜ Seasons: Autumn ⚜ Spring ⚜ Summer

Shapes of Symbols ⚜ Symbolism ⚜ Slang: 1930s

Symbolism: Of Colors Part 1 2 ⚜ Of Food ⚜ Of Storms

Topics List ⚜ Write Room Syndrome

Vocabulary

Agrostology ⚜ Allergy ⚜ Architecture ⚜ Baking ⚜ Biochemistry

Ecology ⚜ Esoteric ⚜ Gemology ⚜ Geology ⚜ Weather ⚜ Art

Editorial ⚜ Fashion ⚜ Latin Forensic ⚜ Law ⚜ Medieval

Psychology ⚜ Phylogenetics ⚜ Science ⚜ Zoology

More References: Plot ⚜ Character Development ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[ohsamtumbles]

Why is this polls account frequently throwing Sam fans under the bus in their tags? :( We're not one big hive mind, dang.

Dean, Cas