#flim funding

[galleryyuhself]

Galleryyuhself - TTFF - Trinidad Remains - Check it out.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Thinking about the Crossover and uh. I have. A lot of questions about Scooby Doo. I am so sorry.

Which Scooby Doo do you use? Or at least what's the timeline? Because it is SO unclear for these dorks! Did they start mystery solving in high school, or was that like an after they graduated thing? Are they still in high school? Do they just like live in the Mystery Machine or motel surf? Does anybody have a real job, or are they coasting on money from rich parents (bonus points if it's just Shaggy financing them, because I've always found that thought hilarious).

Are we using like the Mystery Inc canon? Other series with genuine supernatural shit going down?

Is Scrappy a villain? Did the mystery gang ever consist of Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and that weird little Flim-Flam kid? If so, where the hell were Fred and Velma during that time (I've been asking myself this forever and have never known the answer). Did it ever have just Scrappy, Scooby, and Shaggy?

Anyway, sorry to dump all this on you (and that it's not BNHA). I am currently ill and have been sitting and stewing in delirious thoughts for perhaps a bit too long.

OKAY SO

I have decided that the Scooby Gang in my au is a bit of an amalgamate of all the versions. Yoinking from different ones.

I do take a good bit of inspiration from the Mystery Incorporated series, though I'm not going all in on the eldritch gods and rewriting reality. (mostly because I think the whole 'we ended up in a reality not truly our own' could be it's own focus).

They started solving mysteries in high school, and after graduation they decide to travel and solve more mysteries. Their funding is mostly through Daphne and Shaggy's families, though the gang does accept 'hey you solved a mystery stay for free and enjoy the buffet' rewards. They also have side gigs that would get them money. Like Velma has some IT stuff and is low-key writing her own mystery novel, Shaggy and Daphne could def rock online stuff(think cooking tiktoks for Shaggy and like. Some legit journalism for Daphne because I liked that in Zombie Island).

They do often live in the van for convenience on the road trip, but they do take hotels when they plan to stay in one place for a while.

I like Scrappy well enough. I get why some audiences hated him but come on he's just a little guy. Actually I kinda went on a tangent with @azure-wolf-227 a while back of a Scrappy spin-off that was about Scrappy and his siblings being mystery solvers or something. I think in the grand scheme of things I'd kinda merge them with the Secret Six from the 'What's New Scooby Doo?" era. Where Scrappy and co show up on occasional episodes.

And yeah over time there's points where the gang is in different locations. They never really 'break up' but they do go on their own adventures at times.

[alanaartdream]

Ok so my copy of dreamworks trolls band together little golden book has just arrived today

(Don’t worry I’m not gonna post anything spoilers on here I want everyone to watch the movie 🍿 like I’m planning on doing)

Now I’ve seen some posts saying it’s ok to pirate this animated film because dreamworks is a big animation company

That is the lamest excuse I’ve ever herd

Dreamworks isn’t Disney; it’s not got the funding to buy out other animation companies like Disney been doing; it doesn’t own a a bunch of parks based on it’s movies/ shows all over the world; plus dreamworks pays their writers/ animators/ artists for the work they do

Dreamworks started out as a group of animators who Disney screwed over after treasure planet movie was made by them (witch is a very underrated flim) ((also it’s what I’ve herd from a lot of animation fans have told me about dreamworks animation history))

Look I get not being able to afford to see a movie or it never being available in your part of the world so that’s why you pirated I get that excuse but if you can afford it and have the time and can get it on dvd then don’t be a cheapskate go pay for it but if you can’t I get it no hate to you

It’s the cheapskates people who like to put every animated film company as like Disney when no the others are not Disney in fact Disney the only one right now who can afford for many people to pirate their films/ movies/ shows right now

I mean they own stars wars and marvel AND Pixar

They we’re it’s competition and they just bought them over so that they can do whatever it is they want

The competition they have now is studio ghibli: dreamworks; and maybe Sony animation

Too often Disney gets away with how they handle their artists/writers/animators and even it’s actors (Disney has a lot of skeletons in their closet and not talking about jack skeleton here; I’m talking about the stuff alot of people like to ignore and just say oh it’s *Disney* we’re just gonna ignore it because it’s them)

Also if you think pirating doesn’t effect a movie series

Let me remind you of dreamworks Rise of the Guardians (you know the movie with Jack Frost the character so many like to ship with Disney frozen Elsa character? You know him)

That movie cost a lot to make but it didn’t make enough for it to have it’s story continue; they were planning on fleshing out Jack Frost’s story more to go with the books the movie was based on but being as soo many had pirated that movie the year it came out they couldn’t get the money together for that so those plans were cancelled

Because it was pirated to kingdom come

It was at a time before streaming services were a thing and people didn’t want to wait for it to finish being aired AND couldn’t wait for it to come to dvds either so any ideas they had to continue the story got cancelled this no more story of teenage Jack Frost or even about night light (character from the books) or anything

So look I get it if you can’t afford it and it’s not coming to your part of the world so you pirated the movie but could you at least wait until after the movie been out in and makes it to dvd before you pirate it?

And if you can afford it; have the time AND can get the dvds AND it’s showing where you are

DO NOT BE A CHEAPSKATE

Go pay for it to see it it could all the support it can get

This isn’t a Disney film that can afford to lose a few dollars

If you want trolls to last as long as my little pony; transformers; Care Bears; kung fu panda 🐼 and teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 🐢 have done then

WE NEED TO SUPPORT it however we can (within reason; don’t make yourself broke for it ok thank you)

Just don’t let yourselves turn into poor Floyd’s captors who are killing him for their own gain not caring that they are killing him for their own selfish gains

If you can’t afford ok I get it but please be patient and don’t post spoilers for others who are planning to see the movie maybe try to wait until after the movie comes to dvd; also if you can check out the books while you wait if you can

Because we all want this movie to do well

We all don’t want a repeat of what happened to rise of the guardians movie to happen to trolls band together ok

[reblogalanaartdream]

If you want to see animation flim but can’t afford it and you’re in a hard place

Or live in part of the world that flim will never air?

Ok I get it go pirate that movie 🍿

If it’s a Disney Disney animated movie

Yeah go pirate that flim they can afford a lost and they’re not always known for treating their creators and animators well (( find ways to go support their creators and animators and artists wherever you can please))

But if you can afford to pay to see your animated movies and you want them to do well and you know maybe keep on going you better NOT be the asshat who pirates that animated flim

You go watch it in theatres and buy the dvds for it

Do NOT be a cheap if you can afford it

Because unlike Disney

Animated companies like Sony; Studio Ghibli and Dreamworks had to work sooo long and soo hard

Against Disney just to get to where they are today

Heck once Pixar was against Disney but then being as 3d animation costs a hold lot more to make than 2d and requires a hold lot more people to make they nearly went bust but the Disney bought them and Disney had less competition

Also dreamworks started being as Disney didn’t want to invest money into 3D animation after how much it cost to pay 3d animation & animators for treasure planet movie and their piss off the animators so bad they got together a team of their own and started dreamworks animation team away from Disney to compete with them

Also if you’re saying oh but dreamworks a big animated movie company now

Let me remind you of the movie

Rise of the guardians

The one with the Jack Frost character so many of you like to ship with Disney’s frozen Elsa character

Do you know even though it was such great well received movie it couldn’t get it’s story continued

In fact it’s 2nd movie got canceled

As you see here it didn’t make it to getting more movies 🍿

Because not enough people went to go see it

It was the most pirated movie when it came out

It didn’t make the gross it needed to prove people would watch it’s story to continue so it got canceled

Shrek

Kun fu panda

How to train your dragon those movies got the funding it needed for their stories to continue but never rise of the guardians

Dreamworks isn’t Disney they cannot afford to keep doing stories that will not make profit

Disney can afford to lose to dreamworks

But Studio Ghibli and dreamworks can’t lose to Disney

So when studio ghibli and dreamworks make an animated film and you can afford to go see it and to get the dvds please don’t pirate it

There’s a hold team of animators / writers and artists working on their movies who you are stealing work from when you pirate animated films

Plus someone needs to go against Disney

Disney needs to be taken down a few pegs

Because Disney has taken awards it didn’t deserve to get when they should’ve gone to studio ghibli and dreamworks as well

Heck man I know Sofie from howl’s moving castle

And Branch & poppy from trolls

Would want you to be more supportive of animated films (( within reason))

I just don’t want what happened to rise of the guardians to happened to any other animated flim that isn’t Disney one

Don’t let Disney keep on winning it doesn’t deserve it

Look I get it if you cannot afford or movie not available where you are I’m not attacking you

I’m mad at those who can afford it that pirate

Animated films (( wish they did it more to Disney films to be honest; because Disney can afford it let’s be honest here; plus Disney has a lot of dark history on not treating their writers/ animators/ artists/ actors all that great that people seem to ignore because oh it’s *Disney* witch isn’t ok for Disney to keep getting away with))

Look if you can’t afford it or it’s not available to you or you don’t have the time or just waiting for the dvd

Of it to come out cool

But please if you can afford it please go see the movie and not pirate it (or get it when it’s on dvd)

Just don’t do Disney a favour by stealing from studio ghibli / dreamworks thank you

[kujo1597]

It’s been a bit! But I suppose that’s normal for these. I did have a good reason for it taking so long this time. In the first episode recap or whatever you’d like to call these posts I said that I started doing them to get back into writing Unbreakable. Well! I’m done chapter 6!!! 🥳 Woo! Well… mostly done it. I have to like, write at least a couple verses for a song Stormer wrote and do my usual week of proofreading before I post it. But! I’m 99% done it!!!

Let’s celebrate my new spare time with an episode of Jem.

I had literally no idea what this episode’s title was. It completely escaped me for some reason. Why am I so confused by that?

Kimber’s my favourite character! How did I forget the episode with her name in it? I think the actual answer is that there are a couple episodes where Kimber’s rebelled and those ones were a little more of a meaningful rebellion. Especially the one that really kicked off my favourite Jem ship.

Oh by the way. I actually forgot that the last episode ended on the yacht being on a crash course with an oil tanker. I think part of why I don’t feel too bad about how densely packed my Jem fanfics tend to be is because the show itself covers a lot in each episode.

Let's get to it.

So the yacht almost crashes into the taker ship, Danielle’s crew manages to save the ship. Although the party guests get a little thrown around.

Jem included!

So… Is this how boats work? I grew up in a landlocked province; I didn’t even see the ocean until I was in my mid-20s. My family would go to a lake but it was small, probably too small for a speeding yacht. I don’t know boat physics.

Anyway, Rio pulls Jem back onboard.

And here is our first kiss between Jem and Rio. Jerrica got caught up in the moment and gave her boyfriend a kiss on the lips. But of course she’s Jem right now and Rio to his credit, pulled away and said that it’s wrong to cheat on Jerrica with Jem.

He’s not bad in these first few episodes!

With the crisis averted everybody makes sure Jem and Rio are okay, then they see the Misfits taunting them from their little speed boat. And Stormer does a Flim Flam as hell laugh. Sorry Sue Blu I love The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo so I associate this style of laugh with the lovable scam artist. Now that everybody’s nice and frustrated with the uninvited guests they decide that they need to start filming Jem’s first music video as soon as possible. Anthony says he’ll direct it, and the countess offers to fund the whole thing and fly everybody to Paris.

Kimber wanted to do the whole thing the very next day. But Jem being Jerrica is like, “Sounds great, but we need to actually record our album first.”

Now we cut to Starlight Mansion and the girls. Krissie says that Jem and The Holograms will be leaving in two days. Deirdre is pretty into the idea of Paris but Ashley sure isn’t. She’s pretty darn bitter about how everybody is talking so much about Jem.

Lela asks Ashley how much money she’s made for the Honor Jar (We’re almost done with this thing. So far I haven’t spelled it Honour Jar once.) and Ashley presents the $30 she got off of Stormer. But Lela explains the rules of the jar, you must say how you earned the money because the work is as important as the cash.

Ashley has a pretty understandable reaction. She’s new and feeling unwelcome. She’s been getting criticized a lot lately and reached her breaking point. Ashley throws the money to the floor and storms out.

Yeah she didn’t earn the money in a way that would be seen as “acceptable” but I feel like at this point Ashley feels like nothing she’ll do will be good enough for the people in this foster home. And who knows what her previous one was like. This could be something she’s been dealing with for years for all we know.

Time to watch Jem and The Holograms record their first album. The song playing is Twilight in Paris, I’ll say more about it after the actual music video.

Rio asks the band to tighten up the song and asks them if they can keep going. Jem tells him that they’ll keep at it until they nail the song.

Then we get an immediate comparison to The Misfits who are recording their album. Eric tells them to pick up the tempo, Stormer enthusiastically agrees to work at it. But Pizzazz and Roxy have very little interest in honing their craft.

Then Pizzazz complains to Eric that he’s not flying her group to a place like Paris. And Eric tells her that he can only embezzle so much money from Starlight Music before he owns it.

But he does fly Zipper to Paris in order to sabotage Jem’s music video.

After a quick pan over Paris we see Anthony going over the steps for the music video with Jem. Kimber gets jealous of Jem and storms off.

She starts heading towards Zipper and her first kidnapping of the show. But Rio catches her in time. And well

is pretty rough with Kimber.

Kimber’s frustrated and tells Rio to not play big brother with her. And then after a little fight she goes to tell Rio that Jem’s not so great because she’s actually Jerrica. Shana and Aja stop Kimber right in time.

Kimber points out that Rio has the right to know. And she’s right! And Shana agrees with her! But also points out that this is Jerrica’s love life so she should be the one to tell Rio.

After that scene Zipper looks up at the top of a skyscraper and sees the gargoyles and he hatches a plan.

I’m fond of the song Twilight in Paris. Not because it’s a great song. It’s really not, the music video is kinda neat. No. I’m fond of this song because the lyrics feel like Kimber was scrambling to think of stuff that has to do with Paris, and France in general. And I just love the mental image of that. Kimber scribbling in a notebook everything she knows about Paris and coming up with only four things, the Eiffel Tower, City of Lights, a location Jem sings that I can’t understand, and France being a romantic country. And that’s it. That’s all Kimber could come up with in a day. It’s wonderful.

After the music video we see Zipper’s plan in action. What is this plan?

Why crush Jem of course! Literally!

The gargoyle misses the mark though. Zipper is very good at his job.

Rio gives Jem a tight hug after her close call and she asks him to never let go.

Kimber’s not dumb and knows exactly who sent Zipper.

Time to get an update on the Ashley subplot. She runs away from home and to a bar frequented by the Misfits.

Stormer likes kids. I did a post about it. She sees Ashley at the bar, leans down to get closer to eye level and asks Ashley for her name, and if she’s in trouble.

Pizzazz leads Ashley into the bar and I highly doubt it’s because she likes kids. She probably just saw an opportunity to get at Jem. Or Jerrica. At this point she probably dislikes them equally.

Now we see the Misfits giving Ashley some life lessons. These lessons are the opposite of what Jerrica’s been teaching her girls. Be rude, be pushy, never thank people.

Back to the stars of the show, intended stars anyway, and they’re discussing things with Danielle. Kimber’s still jealous of Jem. I do like how Danielle calls Kimber “my petite.” It’s pretty cute. I think the countess likes Kimber.

After getting into the airport, whatever section this is, I’ve never been on a plane, Jem runs off to change. And we get our first instance of Rio’s pissiness. Aja reminds him that Jerrica is supposed to meet them at the airport and he blows past her to be all mopey. Jerrica’s disappointed that Rio took off.

Aja promises her that taking a look around town will cheer her up. However...

*laughs hysterically*

Oh, sorry. I just forgot how shitty this poster looks.

Um.

Okay, so while Jem and The Holograms were in Paris The Misfits were busy putting up posters advertising them. Or maybe Eric hired a bunch of people because Pizzazz and Roxy couldn’t be bothered. Either way, their faces are plastered all over town.

Song time! This is a pretty nice song complete with convenient hole for Pizzazz to climb out of. We see Jem and The Holograms along with some Starlight Girls running around town trying to hang up all their posters and just advertise their band in general. But they’re being sabotaged the entire time. And one of the saboteurs is Ashley.

Kimber sees this and she is not happy.

She confronts Eric in his office where he is writing directly onto his desk.

And Eric starts being creepy as hell! Stop it! Jesus. If Jerrica’s 18 then Kimber’s only 15.

Eric tries to butter up Kimber by saying that as the songwriter she deserves far more credit than she’s getting, that she should be star instead of Jem. And even offers to sign Kimber on without Jem. She doesn’t outright say no to the offer but she does leave.

Now to Starlight Mansion where we see Aja and Shana reading magazines, Kimber playing guitar, and Jerrica being bushed from all the work they’re been doing. Then the phones rings.

It’s Lindsey Pierce! She asks to speak to Jem and after filling her sisters in Jerrica speaks to Lindsey in the exact same tone of voice she normally speaks in and says, “This is Jem.” I can excuse Lindsey for not really caring because Jerrica is currently a nobody. But it’s just very funny.

Lindsey says that she only wants to interview Jem and she’ll do something with the Holograms at a later date. But when Jerrica tells Kimber that only Jem is invited to this interview Kimber yells and storms out declaring that she’s going to go solo.

Hey look, Kimber’s first cry of the show. Not counting the funeral. *adds this to the Kimber rarely cries around others pile* Don't worry I won't call attention to every time a character cries. I'm just putting these into my crying folder. That is a totally normal sentence I just typed.

After Aja and Shana try to comfort Jerrica she decided to make a phone call to Lindsey to insist that the entire band be on her show. And Lindsey doesn’t mind one bit.

With that mess sorted out it’s now time to sort out a different mess. Getting Kimber back. Jerrica knows her baby sister well and figures that Kimber’s driving aimlessly while listening to her favourite radio station. And heads there in the Starlight Express to ask the DJ to broadcast a message to Kimber. Jerrica figures she’d be too unknown to get any air time but Jem definitely would be allowed on the air.

They deliver their message and Kimber hears it and returns home saying that with no Jem there is no Holograms.

Rio pulls up and calls out to the group that they’ve got 15 minutes until air time. Jerrica tells her sisters to take the roadster while she rids with Rio in his van.

There’s a lot of vans in this show.

During the drive Rio tells Jerrica that he can’t be Jem’s manager anymore. That he’s afraid he’ll hurt Jerrica. And she insists that Rio keeps working for them because they all need him and he’s irreplaceable. Rio does give in because it does mean a lot to Jerrica that he stays a part of the team.

He did not appreciate Jerrica being pulled off to do more work for Jem, as shown by him shaking his head. Part of the problem probably was the fact that Jerrica got yanked out of their hug.

Live interview time! The Misfits see this and are not happy. They run out of whatever building they're in to put a stop to it.

So, before I started this episode summary I tried very hard to remember which Misfits song played in this episode. There’s a reason I couldn’t remember! There wasn’t one!

I like this song a lot. I find myself singing it on occasion. To be honest I generally prefer Misfits music and those are the songs that tend to get stuck in my head. But there are some Holograms ones I find myself humming and singing.

Boop.

What was I doing? Oh yeah, the interview!

At some point the Misfits picked Ashley up before arriving at the TV station. Last time we saw them they were hanging out in one of their houses. I think. It's unclear where they were.

Well, trying to get in with the Misfits name didn’t work so Pizzazz sent Ashley in. And Ashley distracts the guard by kicking him really hard in the shin.

Lindsey asks Jem and a really good question. Where did the name Jem and The Holograms come from?

I suppose an easy answer would be to say that it sounds cool and futuristic.

But before Jem can think of that explanation the interview gets interrupted by The Misfits. They’re their usual pushy selves and Jem stands up to them and insults them. Good for her! I like how this show isn’t afraid to have the protagonist be rude right back.

A quick tangent because my brain is funny. I listened to the Jem audiobooks a while back and was amazed by how completely rude Jem is in some of them. Not because she was being rude to Pizzazz, but because she was being rude to everybody. The show strikes a nice balance. Jerrica does get more patient with Pizzazz post-syndication but not a lot more patient, and in season 3 all that patience is gone. With good reason!

Back to the show, Lindsey sensing a brawl on her hands asks the station to cut to commercial. She informs the Misfits that she was planning to invite them onto the show for an interview too, but now she doesn’t want to.

The Misfits demand equal time and that they get to play a song so they take the instruments on stage. But Jem isn’t having any of this and pulls Aja’s guitar out of Stormer’s hands.

Lindsey’s had it. She asks the men on the set to escort these ladies off of the set.

And we get our first slap of show. Pizzazz tells Lindsey that her show isn’t classy enough for The Misfits.

Rio is one of the people dragging the Misfits away. He grabs Pizzazz and she makes an offer to Rio, that he should work for her. And Rio turns her down. So Pizzazz elbows Rio in the gut sending him careening off into some equipment which causes a domino effect putting Jem’s life at risk.

A fire breaks out and that is where the episode ends.

A lot of fire in this show.

And well, now you see what I mean when I say that Jem is a densely packed show. A lot happens in it. Part of why these first five episodes are like this is likely the nature of the original release of them. But wow, this is a lot to take in. Imagine being a kidling trying to keep up, watching the shorts once a week. What if you missed one? You’d be so lost!

The next one of these should get done a lot sooner than my current pace. I'd like to finish the opening five episodes before I finish writing that dreaded wedding I promised.

[miss-nerd-alert]

My pitch for a Scooby Doo show:

The gang are in college and already well-known mystery solvers, having spent their high school years becoming friends and solving their earliest cases. Both the gang and other characters mention their prior cases, which are all references to earlier Scooby Doo shows (including Mystery Incorporated, What’s New Scooby Doo, and Scooby Doo Where Are You). The series has an overarching mystery centered around the college they’re attending, while maintaining the mystery of the week format of prior series. While some villains are just dudes in costumes, the gang does encounter actual supernatural phenomena over the course of the show.

Fred is the mechanic of the group, building the traps, maintaining and driving the Mystery Machine (even though Shaggy’s the actual owner), and is the one to figure out how the villain’s gear works and geeking out about it. He and Daphne are a long-established couple, and there’s never any drama about them possibly breaking up or falling out.

Daphne is the resident badass, beating up bad guys while looking better than everyone else. To quote JelloApocalypse “makeup swatches and kicking crotches”, she’s the one who funds the gangs escapades and does the most actual fighting of the group. As an homage to her earlier reputation as “Danger-prone Daphne” she will sometimes allow herself to be captured in order to get more information on the villain of the week, or to be in the best position for a surprise attack. She also uses her encyclopedic knowledge of fashion to help solve the mystery like she’s Elle Woods; she can tell where the villain got the materials for their costume just by looking at the scrap of fabric torn off their cape.

Velma is more of a book-nerd than a tech-nerd. She’s similar to characters like Hermione Granger and Gwen Tennyson, the one who goes to the library or archive to research the lore and history of whatever villain/location they’re dealing with, and the one who knows all about occult rituals and dead languages. She learns actual magic over the course of the series.

Shaggy is a laidback theater kid, with random but surprisingly useful skills and trivia. He’s good at stuff like ventriloquy, and uses his improv skills to set up Bugs Bunny-style distractions for the villain of the week (something seen in earlier series). Even when he’s scared, he enjoys solving mysteries with his friends, and was actually the one to suggest they solve mysteries in the first place.

Scooby is the emotional core of the group (he’s Shaggy’s service dog, helping him deal with his anxiety), who supports his friends even when he’s scared out of his mind, and makes sure everyone else is doing okay. A lovable goofball who can make any bad situation seem just that little bit better.

Other characters making appearances in the show include the Hex Girls, Scrappy Doo, Vincent Van Ghoul, Flim Flam, Red Herring, and Hot Dog Water.

[worldofwardcraft]

Another GOP tax scam.

August 5, 2024

At a rally in Nevada this past June, convicted felon and rapist Donald Trump — in addition to pushing his usual litany of lies, bloviated self-praise and whiny grievances — floated a proposal to exempt tips from federal income taxes, something he promised to do "right away, first thing in office." Republicans, of course, were quick to embrace their god-emperor's whim, regardless of whether it made sense. Or was even feasible.

Part-time Texas senator and full-time Trump toady Ted Cruz immediately offered up the "No Tax On Tips Act." Which would affect 2.24 million wait staff across the country whose tips make up a large percentage of their income, according to US Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates.

But like so many GOP schemes, this one is merely another con aimed at enriching the rich while not doing much, if anything, to help working people. For a start, it would provide precisely zero tax relief for the more than 95% of low- and moderate-wage workers who are not in tipped occupations. And the fine print of Cruz's bill reveals just how scammy it is, even for the ones it supposedly covers.

For example, under the proposed No Tax On Tips legislation, a single parent with one child, who earns $5,000 in wages and $19,000 in tips per year, would receive no tax cut at all. Nor would a married couple making $28,000, even if the whole amount was tips.

In fact, the bill does nothing at all for a lot of tipped workers. Economist Ernie Tedeschi of the Yale Budget Lab estimates that more than one-third of tipped employees actually don't pay any income taxes because their earnings are so low they're already exempt. These peons wouldn't benefit the tiniest iota from Trump's tip flim-flam.

On the other hand, nothing in Cruz's bill prevents high-income professionals, such as hedge fund managers and lawyers, from declaring their compensation as tips and obtaining a far heftier tax break than low-income workers. For instance, a married couple making $1 million in wages could get a tax cut of $180,000 by shifting half of those wages to tax-free tips.

Clearly, the Trump-inspired No Tax on Tips Act would provide no — or, at best, paltry — benefits to many tipped employees. Moreover, such a law would give these laborers tax cuts that are far less than they would receive if we simply restored the tax credits in President Biden's American Rescue Plan. But Republicans would never allow that. Not when their objective is to fleece the working class.

[writer59january13]

Dumbfoundedness still prevails three weeks later...

when held spellbound courtesy grifter Flim-flam man left lasting emotional whiplash his derelict perfected artifice to hijack every last cent smarted me with indelible smash; living daylight delivered I kidney you not envious affliction affecting last named member and founder of the Byrds with crosby, stills, young and nash entire corporeal being turned to hash condemned state yours truly relegated, cuz cremation unaffordable, though pulverized and transformed into powdery ash; Impossible mission to conceptualize transmutation into cremains, the brain lodged within me noggin ill equipped to envision mine gray matter even after asking mister Google to explain that cremation takes place in a specially designed furnace, referred to as a cremation chamber or retort, and exposed to extreme temperatures – up to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit– leaving behind only ashes. Following the procedure, a cooling period required before the remains can be handled. Yours truly can best attest, when succumbing as victim to virtual heist I most likely flip flopped into one percent atavistic Neanderthal state; a surprising revelation 23andme genotyping results yielded said presence of proto human after analyzing DNA courtesy saliva sample from eldest sister. No other logical satisfactory explanation doth chime lapsed consciousness, hence reasonable rhyme whereat one twenty first century mortal man virtually travelled in time cast into nasty, shortish brute obliging deft inducement outsourcing valuable dough. Though aforementioned far-fetched notion smacks of high skepticism, yet no more ridiculous than hominids over bajillion years springing forth from flotsam and jetsam in the ocean I may as well broach another theory of creation (just came to my mind), that divine omnipotent wizard sprinkled magic potion across primordial sea after watching an advertisement promotion claiming said product contained the seeds of life and white lily. Convinced that snake oil salesman wrought deleterious influence triggering a debacle that rocked the financial market, (albeit constituting one singular naked ape), an attorney general based in Philadelphia believes I presented a convincing case, which hopefully witnesses recouping all or most of my funds.

[fromtheheartproductions]

Film fiscal sponsorship

Film fiscal sponsorship is majorly used when a film project intends to secure funding from any individual, foundation, or corporate source. As long as they can give only to nonprofit organizations. They offer sponsorship for different projects, including; narrative features, short films and other works of nonfiction, multi-media projects with videos or film, as well as film events like film festivals or screening videos.

Film fiscal sponsorship also serves as a platform for financial resources and support for independently produced film projects.

[natalieironside]

I think the government should give a taxpayer-funded stipend to all flim-flam men, mountebanks, dubious people, and anyone who acts the fool

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Fintech is a scam, a listicle in eight parts

The world’s economy ground to a halt during the pandemic as millions died, production slowed or stopped altogether, and the resulting supply chain disruptions made many essential products and services impossible to deliver. And yet, the world’s billionaires added $5.5t to their net worth during that time.

https://ips-dc.org/global-billionaires-see-5-5-trillion-pandemic-wealth-surge/

Thank “financialization,” the subordination of the real economy — the economy that makes and delivers the things we need — to the financial economy, a global high-stakes casino where wanton destruction of businesses and lives can be a path to unimaginable wealth and power.

Financialization has infected every sector of our economy. No matter who you are, there’s a casino game for you. But as with every casino, the only way to win is to own the casino, not to play the games. We’re all the proverbial suckers at the table.

Take the investor class. They are piling into “fintech” startups, with 2021’s fintech investments cresting $91.5b, more than double the eye-popping 2020 figure. What’s “fintech,” then?

Writing for Naked Capitalism, Satyajit Das — an ex-financier turned critic — calls fintech “the untidy agglomeration of finance and technology.”

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/12/satyajit-das-fintechs-flim-flam-innovation-games.html

Das divides fintech into four buckets:

i. Payments (e.g. Stripe and Square)

ii. Lending (including the spectacular fraud of ‘supply chain finance’ epitomized by Greensill Capital)

iii. Buy now/pay later (BNPL) — short term consumer loans

iv. Deposit taking (online banking startups)

All follow the same simple formula: “take a function, digitise it, toss in a little jargon — ‘financial engineering,’ ‘technological disruption.’ Season generously with mystique; add some high profile spruikers or fawning media endorsements.”

Fintech uses some combination of the following eight tactics to transfer money from investors and users to the finance sector:

I. Disguise the true function. For example, supply-chain finance exploits disclosure rules so it can treat debts as accounts payable, disguising unsecured personal finance as a secure business, leading to spectacular losses.

https://www.ft.com/content/4dbbe048-a426-4551-9c4f-3968235adcdb

II. Mask the true economics. How do you make a 26% APR look reasonable? Both BNPL and supply-chain finance manage it. They pay the seller immediately, at a 4% discount, then the buyer pays them back in installments over two months — 26% per year! Yes, this is borne by sellers, not buyers, but of course, sellers then charge more to cover it, so cash buyers end up subsidizing BNPL users.

III. Find an attractive demographic. Supply-chain finance and peer-to-peer lending prey on weaker borrowers who lack the economic power to demand better deals. BNPL uses high-minded talk of “democratizing capital” to extract huge returns from young and financially illiterate clients.

IV. Exploit and expand regulatory blind-spots. Fintech boosters have convinced regulators that they need “regulatory sandboxes” to “innovate in.” These are free-for-all zones that allow companies to act as banks…without being regulated like them.

V. Increase risk. To bring fresh suckers to the table, you need to make increasingly risky bets with sky-high returns. Ignore profitability, and make up your own benchmarks to dazzle investors with, based on how much you’re losing, and insist that this is the price of growth, which will eventually produce profits.

VI. Obscure risks. Use “soft credit checks.” Lend money to your shareholders. Borrow against non-existent future revenues. Use short-term funding mechanisms (like supply-chain finance) for long-term capital expenditures. Engage in large, “related party” transactions, where two closely related entities trade money back and forth.

VII. Target frightened, technologically ignorant investors. Find people who made money in non-digital realms and use FOMO to convince them that they’re going to miss the next big thing because they don’t understand how their phones work. Banking automation is a boring, low-return business, but call it “fintech” and suckers will beat a path to your door.

VIII. Use investor cash to fund short-term growth. Sell products at a loss. Pay for celebrity endorsements. Fake your automation, simply paying an army of low-waged workers to do repetitive tasks that you can’t figure out how to computerize, but pretend it’s “AI.” And of course, spend a fortune on marketing:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/11/17/do-well-do-good-do-nothing/#greenwashing

That’s financialization for traditional investors, but like I said, the casino’s got a game for every player. Stephen Diehl is consistently the best-informed critic of bitcoin and blockchain, and his essay, “The Token Disconnect,” is a must-read:

https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/disconnect.html

Cryptocurrencies aren’t currencies. They suck as stores of value, units of account, and units of exchange. Imagine if your house was denominated in bitcoin instead of US dollars: a two-emoji tweet from Elon Musk could cause your home to lose 80% of its value. “This is a dystopia.”

https://www.stephendiehl.com/blog/crypto-absurd.html

If tokens aren’t money, what are they? For venture capitalists, cryptos are a change to “arbitrage securities regulation” — that is, to do finance without being subject to financial rules, especially rules about whose money they’re allowed to spend.

The median return on a given VC investment is zero. So securities regs limit who can invest with VCs, because the amount of technical knowledge you need to distinguish good VC investments from doomed scams is formidable, setting up a lot of everyday people to lose their life’s savings.

But tokens let VCs bypass those rules: “an asset class that you can buy from your portfolio companies that looks like a security, swims like a security, and quacks like a security, but is not regulated as a security. In fact it’s not regulated at all.”

This is the true meaning of “financial engineering” and “financial innovation” — a way to do an end-run around investor protection rules. It’s a way to let sophisticated investors unload their bad bets on the public without filing an S-1 or even producing a prospectus detailing a business model. Tokens — unlike shares — can be liquidated at any time, including the moment just before the company craters.

If fintech is the high-roller section of the casino, tokens are the regular tables, where everyday people can get fleeced.

But anyone who’s been to Vegas knows that the games aren’t limited to high-roller tables and regular games — casinos give over vast amounts of real-estate to nickel slots and other chances for working stiffs to enrich billionaire casino-owners.

Financialization’s nickel-slot is the multi-level marketing scheme (MLM), lately reinvented as a Gen-Z, influencer-driven powerhouse that uses the same old providential horseshit (poor people are poor because of their “mindsets” — change your mindset, manifest a fortune and grow rich).

Writing in The Atlantic, Kaitlyn Tiffany offers a fascinating dissection of the Breakaway Movement, a sales-cult that markets scientifically incoherent “functional water” filters with a mystical blend of “ethical consumption,” Instagram filters, and vibes.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/11/breakaway-movement-gen-z-multilevel-marketing/620592/

If “functional water” sounds like a stupid thing to build a fortune on, don’t worry. It’s incidental to Breakaway’s business — the point isn’t to sell people magic water filters, it’s to recruit people to recruit people to recruit people to sell magic water filters…maybe.

Breakaway, like other contemporary MLM cults, prey primarily on young women, urging them to commodify the social support network — family and friends — that they depend on, eschewing mutual aid for predatory transactionalism. Other examples include Lularue, Doterra, Beachbody, It Works, etc).

But as Tiffany writes, young women are wising up ahead of the wealthier, “more sophisticated” people who are sinking money into tokens and NFTs and fintech investments. Reddit’s r/antiMLM has grown from 1,000 members in 2017 to 740,000 today. There’s a whole new anti-MLM influencer movement, who use their social power to warn their followers away from these scams. And of course, there’s FTC Chair Lina Khan, whom Social Selling News — a trade rag for MLM — called a “progressive millennial” (like that’s a bad thing?!).

https://socialsellingnews.com/features/lina-khan-takes-the-helm-at-ftc/

MLM con-artists are privately fretting that they’ve run out of suckers. People are wising up. This week, Microsoft announced that it would integrate a predatory Buy Now/Pay Later app into its Edge browser, only to face a user uprising:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2021/11/microsoft-plans-to-integrate-a-buy-now-pay-later-app-into-edge/

The real economy may have been swallowed by the financial economy, but reality has a well-known anti-finance bias. You can’t eat financial products, or live in them, or heat your home with them.

Well, not unless you’re harnessing exhaust heat from an environmentally devastating Bitcoin-mining rig:

https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/30/massive-wants-to-rent-your-spare-compute-power-to-pay-for-apps/

Real people need the real economy. Every bubble eventually pops. We are currently living through “the bezzle,” which JK Galbraith defined as, “the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it.”

Young women are wising up. The rest of us will eventually follow their lead. While I’m waiting, I’m going to read Das’s latest book, A Banquet of Consequences RELOADED, an update of his 2015 book on “How we got into the mess we’re in, and why we need to act now”:

https://www.penguin.com.au/books/a-banquet-of-consequences-reloaded-9781761041921

[ask-iamnotanalicorn]

Previous: The Discord Timeline

The Industrial Devolution Timeline:

The road to economic domination was creeping and insidious.

First, Nightmare Moon returned. Celestia and Cadance were able to subdue her, locking her in a (very comfortable) prison while Celestia sought a way to free her sister of the evil influence warping her mind. With the monarch so distracted and Princess Cadance struggling to take up the slack, a few opportunistic entrepreneurs began getting their roots into the market.

Then the Crystal War began, dividing Celestia’s and Cadance’s attention even further. The Changelings attacked, sowing destruction and distrust until Cadance defeated their queen. Tirek cut a swath through the countryside before being stopped, increasing the economic struggles. It was as if a domino of assaults on the Equestrian daily life had started, with none able to stop the ever-larger dominoes from toppling.

Celestia was terribly injured during the final fight that destroyed King Sombra. Luna finally overcame her rage and the parasitic magic fueling it, but went into seclusion out of shame and a desire to tend to her wounded sister. Cadance’s focus was split between post-war rebuilding in Equestria, assisting the confused, freed, and much-distrusted crystal ponies with stabilizing their crippled city, and tending to her own first child. With their leaders so distracted and the country still reeling from so many attacks, ponies desperately reached out for any kind of financial and necessities stability. 

Perfectly fertile soil for the country’s most hostile economic takeover in its history.

Flim and Flam’s tactics were simple yet effective: move in wherever large numbers of companies had collapsed and fill the void with simple, cheap necessities that anypony could afford. As their finances grew, they began to expand, beating out surrounding competition with their rock-bottom prices until they could either buy out or crush their competitors. They continued this strategy further and further out, their influence spreading like hives across Equestria until hardly any retailers of food, drinks, household goods, small machine parts, and pretty much every other goods reseller below industrial level still operated. (Although who knew what the future might hold for FlimFlam Industries?) Once competition decreased to almost nill, they raised their prices to just barely affordable, swelling their already full pockets.

By the end of the Crystal War, they had such a grip, so much financial and political power, that even if the princesses should realize the toxic hold this company has on the market, it will be a long road back to rebalancing the economy. The country has, regrettably, come to rely on Flim Flam Industries, and their stranglehold would not be easily broken.

Sales always dreamed of being a traveling salespony. He’d even gotten a taste of it before the war. But now... well, there was no one to sell for. Companies kept dying out from under him. And if it weren’t bad enough that FFI already sold cheap, unexciting product options, the further lack of competition gave them even less incentive to TRY. They could cut costs on everything from packaging to flavor to color options; there was absolutely no consideration for variety or improvement or innovation. Soon everything in those blasted pop-up depots came in bland, uniformly labeled containers, with names like FLOUR and SOAP and TOWELS. There was no ART to it, and worst of all, no heart. And certainly no need for a door-to-door sales technique - not when F&F Depots were on every corner and people already had little choice but to get their goods from them.

So that’s how Sales ended up here, running one of those blasted depots. It is barely salesponyship, but it was still the closest thing he could find to his special talent. Meanwhile pollution and unchecked labor laws are creeping out from the cities, and farms are being consumed for their timber and factory locations. Quills & Sofas went under, leaving Sales’ father without a job and one more worry for Salespitch. Everypony prays that Celestia would heal, that Cadance would realize the depths of what was happening and make some move to stop it, that even the once-evil Princess Luna rumored to be tending her sister in the castle would take a stand. But for now, FFI is taking full advantage of the rulers’ distraction and obliviousness to tighten their hold on the country’s economy. Sales works and keeps his head down; it’s too great an issue for one pony to tackle, especially a pony whose only real talent is talking.

He tries to remind himself that things could be worse. Despite crummy wages and the soul-deadening monotony of just grabbing standard crap off a shelf when asked, Sales IS making a living. He makes an effort to keep his depot looking like the pony who works there actually cares (a façade FFI has long since abandoned.) Black took up work as a stocker in the store, so at least they get to hang out. Pollution isn’t as bad in Featherhorn (yet), although the deforestation and smog have been spreading nearer. But Sales just can’t get around the fact that there’s a briefcase-shaped hole in his soul where good, honest, smart salesponyship was meant to be. It’s hard not to be bitter and miserable when your purpose has been almost completely taken away from you.  Still... if Sales can find a way to get a new company going without being ground under Flim and Flam’s hooves... maybe he can go back to doing what he loves, and the world will feel a little more right again. Fun Facts About The Flim Flam Timeline:

- I got my idea for a total economic takeover from a book 6 of the Pendragon series, “The Quillen Games” by D.J. MacHale. Its setting is a world where a single corporation has such control that they even own the people to an extent, but I didn’t want to go THAT dark (although this is still darker than my initial draft), so I stopped at just owning all of the selling outlets. Lack of competition in capitalism breeds complacency, leading to high prices with minimal improvement or variety. (That book may have also stuck in my mind because it was the first time an author so thoroughly pulled the rug out from under me that I was too depressed to finish the series. I can’t HANDLE that kind of catastrophic reversal, MacHale!!!)

- Sales’s dad, Sales Patter, lost his job as Head of Sales at Quills & Sofas after the company was eaten by FlimFlam Industries. He currently lives at home taking care of Pitch Perfect while Pitch Forward does her best to bring in funding through her competitive high-diving sponsorships. Sales and Black contribute money as well, although Black has a surprisingly well-stocked savings account that he refuses to explain to anyone.

- Flim and Flam offered Sales a job as their company spokespony, mainly because they loved the idea of having an ‘alicorn’ as their mascot. Obviously he turned them down, but he did still grudgingly accept a position at the Featherhorn depot since it’s the closest thing he can find to what he’s good at. (Flim and Flam do still like to give people a show, especially when it comes to the smoke and mirrors they must use to keep the wealthier populace and government from paying too much attention to some of the ways FFI cuts their spending - at the expense of their workers, mostly.)

- I’ve seen others do this timeline harsher; there’s a fimfiction that had an interesting take on Celestia being injured in her fight with Nightmare Moon and then IMPRISONED by Flim and Flam’s company so it could take over, which led to an ever-rising problem with pollution, underage workers, poor labor laws, and backhoof politics. Some of that does exist in this timeline, but I went with a severe injury and seclusion in the palace. The Princesses are still AROUND, but being carefully shielded from the truly dark nature of some of Flim and Flam’s machinations. It may just take someone getting their attention drawn to the right things to start the ball rolling...

- Sales and Patter do team up to create a small startup company, selling goods made by Featherhorn’s citizens to the local area. Black uses his connections as a Royal Service agent to sneak them into the palace, where they get an uber-rare meeting with Princess Celestia, who is blessedly awake enough to recognize the little AI and hear their plight. She convinces Luna, who has been taking care of her this whole time, that something needs to be done. Luna is grossly undereducated about modern economics and business practices, but she pulls Cadance in, and while Cadance works on investigating these horrible labor practices they’ve reported, Luna begins brushing up on her education and offers some protection to Sales’ little company. She does, in fact, find some obscure ancient laws that give them a leg up in the fight against FFI when they inevitably try to buy out, sue, and/or bankrupt Sales’ and Patter’s company into the ground. But they start making some headway. 

- It’s a long road back to a balanced market, and much of the work will be done by the Princesses. But the inspiration ponies draw from the changes they see starts the dominoes again - this time, in the direction of positive change.

Next Week: The Wasteland Timeline (finale!)

[tragedyloved]

A few things about Shaggy’s main verse, which is a crossover / mash up with Supernatural:

Shaggy is psychic and does not know this at all, but he gets bad feelings all the time about bad things that are going to happen and has a target on his back because spirits and bad luck just kinda...gravitates toward him.

His kid to teen years are very loosely based off a mix of A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo Where Are You? and What’s New Scooby Doo? with very little influence from Mystery Incorporated.

As kids, The Gang called themselves The Scooby Doo Detective Agency. This last until they were around fifteen-sixteen years old and Fred decided he was more interested in being literal mystery solvers, not detectives. 

That’s where Mystery Incorporated came from, funded in part by Daphne Blake, despite her poor relationship in her family-- she knew how to get her money.

The events of movies: Witch’s Ghost, Zombie Island, and Alien Invaders occur when Shaggy is around 17-19 years old.

Sometime around the events of Witch’s Ghost and Zombie Island, Shaggy meets a few hunters.

Most of Shaggy’s main verse is inspired by the Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo, in which Shaggy and Scooby opened the Chest of Demons and release thirteen terrible ghosts and have to recapture them all.

The initial incident is actually more loosely inspired by Cabin in the Woods mixed with the first episode of Thirteen Ghosts. 

He is 20 when he opens the Chest of Demons and begins working for warlock/magician Vincent Van Ghoul. Shaggy is cursed by the Chest and is the only person capable of sending the ghosts / monsters / demons back inside of it, or else he will succumb to the curse itself, which is slowly killing him.

During all of this, Shaggy takes courses in university for his history degree--mostly online, and also does various other things. Like become a private investigator and has a license to carry a weapon (which he manages by the time he is around twenty-five, after working for Vincent Van Ghoul for four years).

Shaggy meets Dean Winchester ( @tobeblamed​ ) when he is around 21, sometime shortly before / in the beginning of Season 1. 

Hunts with Dean on and off as the other helps him out with the Chest. 

It takes Shaggy approximately ten years to seal all thirteen ghosts.

During this time, he decides to open a paranormal detective agency--on the outside it’s a regular private detective agency, but if someone knows about the supernatural and is in the right circles, they know the agency is not normal at all. Shaggy names it the Scooby Doo Detective Agency after the old one with the gang.

Shaggy still regularly meets up with the Gang for their mystery solving--about every other month or so, if he can manage it.

The Scooby Doo Detective Agency is made up of Shaggy, Daphne, Ignacio “Flim-Flam” Rodriguez, and “mascot” Scooby-Doo. With connections to Vincent Van Ghoul’s Global Investigations Agency. 

[popculturebuffet]

Pinky and the Brain: Brain’s Song Review or Why You Hatin on Bruce Willis? (Comissioned by BlahDiddy)

Hello, Hello, Hello you wonderful people! It’s back to the Animaniacs Cinematic Unvierse for some more pinky, pinky and the brain brain brain brain brain, as I still have those two christmas reviews left in the queue. And since I went over the ins and outs of the characters history last time, we can just get right to it. 

We open in Acme Labs, where Brain, tired of pinky’s antics is trying to a clockwork orange him into being emotionless by having him watch some emotional stuff. We also get some good gags but as usual for coveirng this show I can’t stop and cover every one, but this is a damn funny episode Point is Brain tries showing him things like evil kenivel and prscilla presley’s dear john letter to micheal jackson.. this episode has not aged well in places and we will get to that. Point is Pinky’s already tearing up when we get to a pastiche of the lion king but with tigers, which naturally opens the flood gates.. but in a nice twist it’s for BOTH of them. Brain despite himself can’t help sobbing and leaning into his buddy and the two hug. awwww.  Pinky tells him there’s no shame in it as “No one can resist emotionally manipulative story telling with a sad score.. except maybe g gordon liddy”.. I don’t get that last part, but the rest is really funny and naturally gives brain an idea: to make his OWN emotionally manipulative film. to make people so depressed they can’t do anything and wil lhand him the world. Making a supercut of bojack horseman’s gutpunching moments would be faster but neither supercuts nor that show exist yet so he’s left to instead write a pastiche of the movie Brian’s Song.  Brian’s Song is a tv movie about football players Brian Picollo and Gale Sayers, two star football players in college. According to tv tropes the two start out as rivals, become friends, Picollo helps Sayers recover from an injury.. then Sayers stays by Picolllo’s side as he slowly subcumbs to cancer. I only vaugely remembered it from I love the 80s and that it made people sad. Look i’ll go to the moon and back for comissions, even ones given out as a gift, but I draw the line at watching an entire 70′s tv movie, even with the unstoppably cool Billy Dee Williams starring in it as Sayers. I have limits.. and a best episodes of the year list to work on/watch the last few episodes for. I gotta draw a line somewhere.  That said.. this team knows how to do GOOD parody: i.e. you shoudln’t have to know the thing being parodied to get it, it just makes it even funnier. So while the Brian’s Song parody is lost on me, it still works as schmaltzy sports movies captalizing on real life events never died. SOMEHOW. Please stop hollywood, please, I know i’m not a sports guy but even that aside we don’t need any more. Or if your not going to at least give us a revivial of friday night lights. That’s how you make me care about sports. SO it still works well.  What dosen’t is most of the next bit, where our boys head off to hollywood. And look some bits are really funny: Brain having a rat tail and goatee

Don’t ask me why, pinky, who weirdly dosen’t have his own mechanical human suit, as his agent, it’s good. And what’s GREAT is the two pitching the film to tom hanks, the nicest guy in hollywood, only for him to throw a tantrum and demand they call him lord ruler. Given Hanks is STILL the nicest guy in hollywood to this day.. the joke is sitll hilarious, helped by the fact he’s one of my mom’s faviorite actors, so i’ve grown up with the guy my whole life. Love the guy genuinely great stuff, easily on par with that bit from the simpsons movie.  But the issue is.. that’s the ONLY funny gag for the next three minutes, as Brain pitches it to bruce wilis, who is on board till demi reminds him he has to watch the kids and stuff. GET IT BECAUSE HE’S A FAMILY MAN... LAUGH, LAUGH AT HIM BEING A RESPONSIBLE AND LOVING PARENT LAUGGGHGHHH. Seriously Bruce Williams is awesome what the hell man.  It gets no better as we get an unfunny montage of eveyrone turning down brain including Donny Most, as he just rose from the haze

Sunday Monday, happy days. Point is that one bit was funnier than the handful of minutes of my life i’m not getting back. Seriously a fourth of the episode is wasted on thiis and the bruce willis bit combined. Why. The ONLY funny part is the ending where they get rejected by vanilla ice.. which is only funny now because he’s since made a small career in film showing up in Adam Sandler films, so his threshold for being in shit films is low. Then again his musical talent took a steep decline.. yes it somehow got worse. 

Just in case you think I was bullshitting you. Point is no one will star in Brain’s film or help fund it so he decides to go full wiseau and make it himself.  So our heroes head home and we get some great bits in how they put it together. Brain INTENDS for Meadowlark Lemon, who I somehow knew was a Harlem Globetrotter, and who Brain taught to play his sidekick.. but he backs out so PInky gets the part afterall. Why? I don’t know.. seriously the joke dosen’t even remotely synch up. The only things he and bill dee share are being black and if that’s the reason they wanted to shove a globetrotter in this...

Yeah. Thankfully we’re past the poorly aged bits of this as the rest of the episode .. is just nonstop hilarity. There’s just too many jokes to go over, but some of hte best include: Brain’s hairpiece, mimicing Jame’s Caan, which is made of lint, Pinky having to wear stilts for one scene, using a treadmill to mimic walking, pinky finding great sets by raiding the garage finding a barbie playset for the hospital room and a game of electric football for the field. Huh I think ken burns made a documentary on that once. 

That’s also the only reason I know what Electric Football is.. also how did pinky carry all of that. Questions for later. Point is it’s just one clever gag after the next and you really DON’T need to know Brian’s Song to find this uproriously hilarious. Our heroes also flim it live, hyjacking the airwaves not to offer wishes but to air the film. Again the film is just one long string of great gags, no question so I’m not recapping it. But it works and the world leaders are too bummed out to do anything. Insert your own 2020 joke here.  But in a nice chekovs callback Brain sustained injuries being on the electric football set, so he vibrates at inportune times, thus causing everyone to laugh, foiling his plan> It’s a great payoff and I do like how, as I mentioned in my last pinky and the brain review, it’s often Brain’s own fault and not ALWAYS just “pinky screws up” like I remembered. Here his insitance on doing the scene again and again depsite the risk and not acknowlding his pain screws him over. 

Final Thoughts; This is a pretty good episode. Despite the down spot the last half of it is just so damn funny, again I coudln’t properly recap it because it was just one long string of great jokes and set pieces, and trasncends the film i’ts parodying. Worth a watch if you have hulu just fast forward a bit after the tom hanks bit. Also that was Dave Colier, aka terrible replacment venkman aka uncle joey aka that guy who somehow had sex with alanis morsette but is probably not the one that song is about. It was about Alf, wake up people. And for now I bid you all goodbye, goodbye, goodbye. 

[checkoutafrica]

Koby Adom is a well accomplished flim maker, film director and screen writer with a lot of awards and achievements under his belt. In 2018 Koby saw his BAFTA longlisted short HAIRCUT win the Film London Calling Plus Award for Best Film- as chosen by David Yates- before he went on to become a Screen Star of Tomorrow. He was also made a Broadcast Hot Shot in 2019. In the same year he received the John Brabourne Award for which he was awarded funding towards the development of his first feature, SE28. He then went on to shadow on Netflix’s TOP BOY and, before the year was out, he was chosen to direct the second half of the BBC series NOUGHTS AND CROSSES based on the hit Malorie Blackman novel. Koby is now developing his debut feature HAIRCUT with Film4 and producer Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor as well as developing another feature film, SE28, with DBK Studios, which he owns. He is now shooting episodes of TOP BOY for Netflix. . . . #globalafricanawards #africandiaspora #africanpride #cmgmediagroup #checkoutafrica #brandsouthafrica #awards #blackexcellence #africanexcellence — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/3srbA9e

[bugaboowritings]

Cameras and Dead News - Emilie Agreste Is Missing - Fic

Adrien is Rocking Some Shades From The ‘90s. 

I got the idea from a post, that I can’t find- lucky me. But basically, Gabriel doesn’t go out after Emilie’s death/disappearance so the paparazzi couldn’t ask him questions. Do you guys know who still leaves the house tho... Adrien.

Just imagine how that would go. A kid missing his mom, forced to hear questions about her disappearance. 

(Found the post, it was @chloe-is-a-lesbeean. Buzz Buzz, Bitches --> the post) 

hope everyone is alright as we handle these COVID-19 shutdowns. 

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“Damn,” The young flim-maker sighed before folding the newspaper in his hands. 

His lips pursed together in thought, not knowing how to feel or to even believe what he was reading. All while he sat in a cafe, one that’s tucked under the shade of another building, his friend gladly munched on the breakfast they ordered. He hasn’t touched his plate since he got there and the other has been debating with their wallet if they should order another coffee for the trip back to the studio. Idly slouching on the bean-bag as he sat rigid against his wooden chair, gripping the paper in his hand. 

 He’s a small artist in the north of town, who sleeps on his friend’s couch because art doesn’t sell, not at a price that will pay for rent, only for that of a good breakfast and lost dinner. Only known underground for his camera and his good eye for color, but never really having any real connections to the silver screen nor the crowds usually involved painting on it, but he was one of the many victims that a certain star carried her influence over. You had to be living under a rock to not know the blonde, the one who fostered a new generation of artists under her wing and films. 

Even though this director didn’t know her personally, it didn’t stop the heavy stiffness from setting gently on his chest. Wondering if he should even take this headline to heart. 

Hell, he’s unsure if what he was reading was even true or just another clickbait story. Shaking off the bitter feelings just in case this was fake. A stunt pulled by some hot-shot manager or rowdy marketing team. 

If so, it’s utter bullshit to write an article like that just to sell crates full of print. 

It wasn’t until his friend noticed the cold and untouched coffee, that they raised their eyebrow and nodded their head to him to speak up. Yet, the director didn’t talk, only giving a heavy sigh before passing the newspaper down. They, an able writer and a genuine friend willing to give up a couch, hastily sucked the syrup off their fingers and wiped their sticky hands on their loose denim jeans before taking the press in their hand. 

Licking the sweet cream off their lips from their breakfast before staring hard at the page. 

Suddenly that bagel on the white clean platter didn’t seem so appetizing. The cream cheese turned bland and the orange juice after-taste went sour and disgusted their taste buds. 

“. . .Wow.” 

Quickly after that, the two flipped to the main article inside. Scanning the black text to see if this could even be true. Their fingers pinched the press a little tighter as their hands got clammy.  Swiftly scanning to see if there was any reason to believe the bold headline that was selling fast in Paris. 

           EMILIE AGRESTE MISSING            A STAR NOW DIMMING...?

From her famous production skills to her unforgettable acting, along with her hand in public service with the Mayor and to aid the City of Paris, her strong love for the arts and her endless funding for them, and her infinite support towards the young creators in Paris- Emilie Agreste was famous and known around for not only her marriage but her character. 

She’s the very reason that so many got their chance and felt like they could make it in a field that seemed impossible to touch. 

Agreste, along with being caring, she was talented in so many ways.  She had the audience in the palm of her hand when she played the sickly lover to the crazed workaholic on the screen. When she shed a tear, the spectators wept with her. When she smiled, the world seemed fine and the sun always shined. When she sighed at the sky, people wondered what she was daydreaming about. Her name was used in tv shows and other movies, as an homage to her and to her fame. 

The blonde really was Paris’ muse. 

Emilie Agreste, an icon that was thought to never fade from the minds of Parisians or from their headlines. 

This proved more true when people just wanted to know more as the news traveled further and further in France. All everyone wanted to hear, read, or watch were the updates on this case or the basic details that the public has access to. 

Where was her last known location?  

What could be the cause of this? 

Why did this happen?

How could this happen in the first place? 

Then the one that astonished everyone. 

Where is she now? 

‘What happened to Emilie Agreste?’ became the most searched thing in Paris in under 24 hours. 

The world faced the media for answers and clarification, but they too were speechless. Even the journalists notorious for finding the small secrets from cheating scandals,  friendship drama, secret pregnancies or always managed to know an inside-source for everything— 

They too came dry.

Not with a drop of gossip or a hint of rumors. 

All that there was, was the police report filed days ago by her husband, who seems to disappear from the public eye as his wife did from the earth. 

Calls to interview him went unanswered. Emails for a comment on this situation got clicked and dragged to the trash bin. Cameras that waited outside the mansion,  like starving lions waiting for the picture-perfect prey, only got a snap of the maids taking out the trash. The Agreste fashion-shows, ones that were planned months ago, were canceled the day before they took place. The spring collection had to be pushed back before releasing the photos to the magazines weeks later. 

No one could get the details of Parisian Darling and that didn’t change no matter how much the reporters bid for the voices of assistants and maids to speak on the matter. 

The only person out in public and with a tight connection with the Agreste was Emilie’s one and only child.

Adrien Agreste. 

Blossoming model to the Agreste Brand a few months back and the only Agreste that would step out to the sun to go to his fencing lesson and photoshoots. The reason the gates opened again was to only to let in his Chinese tutors or piano instructor. Then, the gates would shut again when he stayed in his rooms for hours on end. Not really a public face until his father released his anticipated winter collection last year, all with the teen as the front cover of every fashion magazine advertising it.

And man, was it well received. 

There were times where Adrien had to be shielded from the press by his bodyguards to get to his fencing competition. Deciding early on to take his Chinese lessons at home instead of going off to the university for his studies when he got pestered by hidden paparazzi and nosey students. 

Reporters, photographers, and the curious were hot on his heels as they shouted things to make him turn around, to get a reaction. Anything to make their salary bigger.  Anything to put on a tabloid. Anything to print on the press. Anything to get something that sells. 

“Is your mother dead?”

“Is it true that there is a ransom note at Emilie’s last known location?” 

“Do you think your mother left with her own will and didn’t disappear?” 

“Adrien, do you think that your mother left willing or is this just a stunt for the new film with Grand-”

“-How is your father dealing with this situation?” 

“ADRIEN, turn around! Tell the public what they were waiting to hear!” 

“Is Gabrial Agreste so disheartened that he can’t step out? Should we still expect the fall collection with-” 

“What is the police saying about your mother’s case?” 

“Are there any new leads about her disappearance?” 

“Adrien, what do you think of this situation?!” 

The heir to the Agreste Brand, the name and legacy stopped in his tracks on the stone staircase. 

It’s a sunny morning out, so his hair managed to glimmer nicely thanks to the sun’s rays. It was also an excuse to wear sunglasses, to pull a curtain over his face so no one could dare to notice how much he wanted to cry. Covering the bags under his eyes and shielding them away from the bright lights since his eyes got more delicate the longer he went without sleep. 

But no one would see that. All they would point out would be the fact his shades are his dad’s old collection from the ’90s. 

They wouldn’t see how he picks his lips because he can’t tap his toes against the marble floors in his house without creating an echo that makes him feel more alone. 

But no one would see that. They would just ask what his lip care routine or if he used any innovative k-beauty products to keep them that shade of pinky-red or that glossy. Totally not the ointment that keeps them from bleeding. 

He would come to practice in all grey or wear minimalistic clothes because he doesn’t want to think about how to match the patterns or the fact it felt so wrong being so bitter when wearing mustard yellow or baby blue. 

But no one would notice the reason for his monochrome wardrobe and call it a new style for the summer. 

Taking little ways he showed his grief when everyone seemed to move too fast. Adrien barely felt the ground under his feet as Natalie changed the times for his lunch again to fit another appointment and meeting. 

Processing the last time he saw his mom before he got asked for another interview on her disappearance. 

How the little interactions and moments popped into his head only to taunt him. The way she stirred her tea, how she comforted him that one time he fell on the concrete, how she always got a plate of cut fruit for him when he was studying, then how she winked at him and said, “Let me talk to your father. He’ll come around,” whenever Adrien asked to go out but there was some hesitation, or how his mother managed to make even the scariest things seem not so scary in the end. 

So to answer that question, he didn’t know.

 Everything was growing out of place in his life but it was in an excepted way. His father was never a man of conversation but became one secluded in isolation without his mother pulling him in with her words out of his cave and keeping him sitting by the dinner table. Adrien didn’t even know if his father locked himself in his large office and buried himself in work or if he still in his parent’s room- trying to process what’s going on. Adrien has been out of the house so much that he doesn’t even know if he left his bedroom the way it is or the maids cleaned up when he was gone, not knowing if his game is still paused at this point. 

 It also just hit him on that nice, sunny day that he may have lost the ability to say ‘parents’ when only one is currently at home. 

As hungry reporters encroached the teen, Gorilla shoved them back and away. Setting his palm on the young Agreste’s back to urge him to keep moving. Only getting a nod, letting a few seconds pass before he hurried up the staircase and into his lessons.