#i imagine it would be like a 'saving america's youth for a brighter tomorrow' thing idk

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

thinking about nora again

[taylorslockedgates]

I recently wrote a #LetterToMySenator over why I encourage and support the Equality Act. It was passed by the House of Representatives on the seventeenth of May, and is now on its way to the Senate. In summary, “this bill prohibits discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in areas including public accommodations and facilities, education, federal funding, employment, housing, credit, and the jury system.” While so much progress has been made towards the benefit of the LGBTQ community, there are still many people that don’t feel safe in their own homes/communities, and that’s why this bill is SO IMPORTANT. It being passed could help to change the lives of so many Americans, and set an example for other countries to (hopefully) follow. As you may or may not know, I strongly believe in the importance of voicing your opinion in politics. YOU have the power to determine YOUR future. If my generation and I don’t pay attention to what’s going on in our government now, we’re going to make the same mistakes, leading to lesser progress. Just while writing this letter, I’ve learned so much more about what’s going on around the globe. I highly encourage you to do the same, and speak up for what you believe in. Express and voice your opinion, because YOU can change the world. 🌎 🌈 Here’s my letter:

Dear Bob Peterson,

Hello! My name is Megan Herrnstein, and I’m a rising high school sophomore from Chillicothe. I feel that it is very important for not only me, but teens and young adults around my age to be involved, aware of, and able to express our opinions on modern/global politics. Those my age are going to make up the next generation of doctors, lawyers, politicians, business (wo)men, etc., and if we are uneducated in what is going on in our country now, we’re going to end up making the same mistakes that are being made now, leading to lesser progress. By writing to you today, I feel that I’m doing my duty to help build a better tomorrow for everyone.

As you know, an important and necessary vote is arising: the Equality Act. It was first introduced to the House in March of this year, and then later passed on the seventeenth of May. This bill, in summary, prohibits the discrimination of someone based on their sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity in (but not limited to) public places, education, federal funding, and employment. It’s important that this Act is voted for because it will help to improve the lives of LGBTQ+ citizens in America, as well as influence other countries to do the same.

Here’s a little bit of history: in 1950, the Mattachine Society was formed by an activist named Harry Hay. It’s one of the first groups of its kind in the US, focusing on the support and social acceptance of homosexuals. Later, on January 14th, 1975, “the first federal gay rights bill is introduced to address discrimination based on sexual orientation” (CNN). Fun fact: the first rainbow flag was stitched together three years later, in 1978. Throughout the 20th century, there were many things done to support and protect members of the LGBTQ community, but many negative actions took place as well. Same-sex marriage was banned in many states, shootings and acts of violence occurred, and discrimination in social and political positions against gay and transgender citizens were present. With this Equality Act voted and passed into place, we can allow for a brighter future for not just the LGBTQ community, but everyone.

As a quote from the Declaration of Independence, written by the founding fathers of our beautiful country, states: “all men are created equal.” Is this really true if important and valuable members of our society are being mistreated and discriminated? Imagine being unable to get proper healthcare, education, financial support, and so many other daily normalities, just because of who you love. If all men are created equal, then why, as of January 22nd, did the Supreme Court allow President Trump’s transgender military ban to go into effect? To me, it doesn’t make sense as to why all of this is a problem in the first place. If we just allowed American people their right to love, wouldn’t it save a ton of time and effort. // Trust me when I say that I’ve read the arguments against freedom of the LGBTQ community. I’m aware that it is against the religion of some Ohio citizens, but why should we have a say in someone else’s life and decisions? Shouldn’t we love everybody? Queer members of society are just as brilliant and able to contribute to society if employers would just let them. By making places of employment, education, worship, recreation and more a safe and accepting place to these members of society, queer citizens will feel that they are able to grow, flourish, and be themselves in their neighborhoods and cities. // Despite all of the recent recognition and acceptance of LGBTQ people in society, I still have friends that don’t feel the ability to be themselves around other classmates, peers, and even friends. Granted, it’s better than past situations with homosexual and transgender discrimination, there’s still a present problem. Resentment is still present through the fact that certain students are treated unfairly by teachers and others, which isn’t good for the developing mind. If we pass this act, students will be closer to being treated like others. Today’s celebrities, influencers, and leaders are doing a great deal towards making LGBTQ adults and youth feel accepted. Voting for the Equality Act can change the lives of so many. // Your vote would make queer members of society feel safer in their own homes and communities, and I feel like that’s what this is all about. Shawn Copeland, the Ohio director of the Human Rights Campaign, stated that “about 1.8 million ‘equality voters,’ including 400,000 LGBTQ citizens, plus their family members, friends, and other allies” have been identified in Ohio. By voting towards this act, you will be helping to support millions of queer and allied citizens in the United States, as well as their future. // I’d like to thank you for your time and consideration, as well as voice my respect towards you and your position. I may just be a teenager from a small town, but I’d like to make a difference and help to determine the future for me and my peers. I highly encourage you to use your voice and influence to make a difference, too. By voting for the Equality Act, you’ll brighten the future for, and help, so many. This bill can and will change lives in a positive way, and I truly hope that you consider all of this while voting on such an important thing. Thanks again, and happy Pride Month!

[peanutdracolich]

Peanut Dracolich Watches Horror: Poltergeist (1982)

So first things first I have in fact seen this film before. I might have missed the very beginning but I have seen it in pieces and in most of its entirety at least once as a child between the ages of the youngest two in the film. As it did not scare me then, I didn’t expect to be scared now even though it would probably be easier (due to willing buy in with the scary instead of child-like obliviousness).

That said intestinal issues had me pausing the film for about 2 hours during its 2 hour length, and was having some level of distracting physical sensation throughout. As a horror film, like a short story, is made with delicate pacing, and direct single sitting consumption this hurt the film a lot and yet it was still a fun enough movie to be enjoyable, and one that I don’t think hit my horror buttons well so much as fun buttons. It was a film I didn’t mind watching in this state and a functional distraction.

I’d guess at it being worse than The Omen, at least as a horror movie; it’s just not scary, but ghosts are a hard sell for me (not because they’re unbelievable, but because as a kid I fervently believed in them and that they were highly likely to be good). Still the use of music struck me as worse than The Omen, the lighting was, well it used the bright and cheering lighting for a purpose, the cast was worse. Where The Omen was solidly B all around (with grah protagonist being a C-), Poltergeist was C+. I’ve not watched enough Horror movies while paying full attention to form a top 100 (I mean I haven’t counted, I might have watched 100 but ordering them wouldn’t be my cup of tea) but I’d not guess at Poltergeist coming in above 60. Still it is a fun film, and the reason it sank into the American subconscious is evident; in fact as it plays on the horror laying beneath the skin of the idealized America of the time (which we’re more jaded about now) it was probably a better film then.

Play by play and a shrunken Good/Bad/Ugly below the cut.

The Good:

The Special Effects: While rudimentary by today’s standards they’re good enough for the purposes of weaving the spell (just require a little imagination on the viewer’s part) and have some nice ones.

The Bad:

Putting the children back in that bedroom: I don’t care if it was only for 1 hour, I don’t care if it was only for 1 minute. I don’t care if the psychic lady said the house is cleansed. You do not put your children back in that room. You do not let them in that room. It was stupid and sort of feels out of character and forced.

The Ugly:

The Tree: While the special effects are basically good throughout the film, this scene looked goofy.

The Play by Play:

Poltergeist (1982)

 So I started this earlier but comp crashed losing my writing, had to update. Things went poorly. Let's give this a take 2. Since I'll be giving the basic intro of what I know when I write an overview tomorrow or whenever I do it, I'm not going to here, I'm going to go straight into the film.

 The start with the American Anthem is neat in that it's that all-American sound that really sets it at home in the American suburb. It is not a story of horror on merely the personal level, but of the rot in the American people. It also starts with blurry images in a TV screen, including the flag raising at Iwo Jima which from there gives way to static.

 Quiet start with a dog seeing if it can wake people up or not by stealing the food they're sleeping on. Disgusting people by the way. Dog likes potato chips, not that I can completely blame him. Husband does not like embracing his wife, having chosen to sleep in the chair watching TV instead. I mean the little girl is being drawn to the flashing TV, and talking to the static fairies that live within, but really of the four bothersome things this is the most normal. Small children talk to the static fairies, the ones in my TV as a child told me to play video games, and this girl seems to have trouble hearing them. Play video games. The fairies love Mario. Still this is normal. The TV flickering and flashing that brightly is not, you might want to have that checked on. But the big problems are: You're using potato chips as a pillow, and dude you prefer the cold embrace of a chair to your wife. One of you might need some help with eating habits and the parents might just need marital counseling.

 We get to see the suburbs, and the little shits of kids who live there. They send RC cars out to crash the bike of a guy carrying a load of six packs. They're little shits, and no one reprimands them. The guy is in too much of a rush and just carries spraying beer cans into the house for fear of missing one extra moment of fools' ball.

 A bird has died in one of the children's Star Wars themed rooms and the mom wishes it'd have waited till a school day and flushes it hoping the daughter won't see. I'm going to say the bird died from negligence.

 We also get more 'people are obsessed with TV' and a show that these people have much better TV remotes, through 2 walls, and 10+ ft while not directly pointed at the set. This is a much better remote than I ever had.

 They bury the bird instead of flushing it since the little girl caught her. More important than the TV but less funny. The girl gets over the bird quickly and wants a gold fish. There's also a creepy tree. I do not remember the creepy tree, but conservation of detail promises me it is an important thing so I am noting it.

 And we see that the young boy and young girl share a room and the Star Wars themed part is the boys and he reads Captain America comics. He's an all American boy and excepting his creepy clown doll has good taste; Star Wars is awesome, and classic Cap (before Marvel decided to play around with the idiot ball) is awesome. Boy also has an Alien poster. This implies he has seen Alien.

 We see the parents have a TV in the bedroom. WHY WAS THE DAD SLEEPING IN A CHAIR WATCHING IT INSTEAD OF WITH HIS WIFE? I'm not sure what they're watching, it could be a war movie, or it could be Twilight Zone. I feel I might be missing something by missing the reference; I'm thinking I've seen it and as I don't watch war movies, but have marathoned the Twilight Zone I'm guessing it's an episode of Twilight Zone. Apparently the daughter sleep walks, which is not what we saw, and the mom did as a kid, which makes getting a diving board problematic. Bits of middle aged man yearning for the glories of youth, and kids' room. And actually I think it's a war movie; I don't know why it's familiar.

 The boy is scared of flashes of thunder outside, and his clown doll. This is weird. Kid's clown doll is implied to have been there, and same with the tree, yeah stormy night makes it worse, but the kid has a night light. This bothered me as a kid. He seems mostly bothered by the thunder, but that's after he covers the clown. I found the clown logically bothersome as a child and remembered bother is bothering me now. The tree bothers me less. It's a new house, maybe it's the first thunderstorm, and the boy thinks the tree wants to kill him. Trees have faces sometimes. Trees watch you. Old trees grow wicked and cruel. They can hate you. Most trees are friendly spirits. They are normally protective and kind. Loving and caring things. This is an evil looking tree. The little kids end up in their parents' bed; the tree is conspiring against their marriage.

 We get a non-blurry version of what the dad was watching last time, images of the Lincoln Memorial, the Iwo Jima flag raising pose (really a statue). AMERICA (Fuck yeah), and then the TV becomes much brighter as it begins to flicker with static, drawing the girl in. She has become its creature. The TV controls her. There are actual static fairies, flickering lights which reach out for her as a skeletal and spectral hand, and then move as cartoonish ghost spirits over the bed, before causing the room to bounce and leap. "They're here." It's a happy, cheerful, little line. The presentation sells it, and the movie goes from vaguely toxic suburb to something is wrong.

 As a note I'm pretty sure my make believe of static fairies as a child was me mocking this movie having seen most of it. Oh and a glass spontaneously drops its bottom, that's a bad sign, a fork and spoon are twisted that weren't moments earlier... and the girl is watching the static.

 The elder daughter is hit on by the pool digging construction crew, who also do thigs like taste the cooking beans(?) and put the spoon back into the beans, and steal the mom's coffee through the window. Chairs move themselves, and dog sees people where there are none. The chairs have stacked themselves. There's a ghost, and the mom believes something is up.

 We get a scene of the father trying to sell a house that is either the house earlier or more likely an identical house. And it's Phase 4, where the family is in the first Phase 1 house. There's a comment about how all the houses are the same, and the dad tries to sell their customizability. He arrives home to an excited wife, who wants to show him how the magic chairs work. She's not cooked any dinner because she's been playing with them all day (understandable, but the little girl complains). We get to see the magic chairs moving on their own.

 The dad and the mom go to the neighbors and... are awkward. As they stand outside getting bit by mosquitoes, they eventually ask if they've had anything of that sort. Neighbors think they're crazy; a good use of showing through implication as opposed to directly doing...

 How the hell did I forget the scene with the tree reaching through the window and abducting the boy. I might have missed it. Some bad 80s effect show up. Oh and before I forget we got some of the dad thinking about the safety of his family first in saying everyone should stay out of the kitchen, and the mom just being excited. Still there's a tree eating a child and it's exciting. Though the parents are there to save him... unlike the daughter who is getting sucked into the bright light in the closet. The father saves the son, as the tree is pulled into Arthurian times by the Necronomicon, and they realize no one is watching their baby girl and... she's missing. Adult fear is real, and having seen the film before I know the film would do something to a small child.

 They look for the girl, and there's just a gnawing knot of worry in my stomach... though that might be my intestines being a pain as a stomach bug and too much wheat has left me with some intestinal rebellion. Still they start to look everywhere, and the boy, covered in ketchup and mustard (I think it's supposed to be blood and mud from the tree attack but it looks like someone just squirted ketchup and mustard on him), finds her in the tv behind the static.

 And the knot was intestinal. So while things are paused let's look at the tree scene in more detail, since the purity of pacing is wrecked anyway, and my lack of memory of it is bothering me. It's not scary enough for me to believe I blocked it out. I was never one to be scared of trees as a child, though the cartoon scenes like this were creepier and scarier. Maybe it's just the lack of fear made it not stick. It's supposed to be scary, though, but... maybe it just failed that hard. Maybe there's the instinctive trust that the parents would get him safe at work. I mean right now being distracted with my stomach going angry at me definitely didn't help, the boy's counting build up to it was theoretically good. Hands reaching in and grabbing him, but looking a little phony. I don't know. Maybe it's just that the creepy whispering of something trying to lure the little girl is more terrifying, and the look of everything being pulled it. It is definitely overshadowed by the creepier but less immediately dangerous events, and its special effects are just not all that. Maybe, though, I just deeply trusted most trees as a child. I can't say. Whatever it is I wasn't scared as a child and I'm not scared now... though again part of that might be that stomach gives a more immediate and dominant visceral reaction.

 Either way back to continuing. The girl is now in the TV and the mother reaches for it to try and push into the Darkside, and pull her daughter from the Mirror Universe. Yes I know this came before Prince of Darkness. Still they go get parapsychologists to investigate what's going on. They're talking about how much paranormal energy is involved in moving a matchbox car 7 ft in 7 hours, and the dad is just giving them a look of 'yeah that's impressive hurry up' and opens the children's room to them and despite bad special effects you get a fun scene where things are flying about and the parapsychologist lady's just shocked.

 Still they start talking about the difference in a haunting and a poltergeist. Hauntings are about places, poltergeists are about people. Hauntings last years, poltergeists are short term. Given the film's name...

 We get a good scene of the mom talking to the missing little girl, and the parapsychologists watching. Good reactions, good creep with the girl's voice, stuff to make us feel for the family. It's a good scene, a good combination of pathos and creep, and the parapsychologist's warning to stay away from the light helps sell the lady as a character. The relief of the mom as 'smelling' her daughter after she 'moves through her soul' is... well the acting isn't good enough to really get past the cheese and it comes off a little melodramatic but is touching with a mother's desperation sense, and adult fear. And then something dark drives her off... and something bit a dude.

 Dad wants them all out before night, he doesn't trust the house (reasonable), mom doesn't want to leave it as long as her daughter is stuck in it (also reasonable). The older daughter wants out (Also reasonable). And we cut to the night with them all still in the house, and the parapsychologists having a little freak out in private (also reasonable). It's reasonable in they're trying not to freak out the family, and she actually does confide in the mom that she doesn't perfectly understand and is scared, that she's out of her depth. It's an example of hiding thing because on the same side that makes sense; after watching Saw yesterday and Adam this is nice to see.

 The boy child (Robby) makes things creepy, though, by being morbid. 1) He thinks his little sister is dead and a ghost (reasonable). 2) He thinks that if he died he would have the same thing happen (he's a small child this is reasonable). 3) He thinks they could tie a rope around him to pull him and Carol Anne out (sort of odd; like if I wasn't writing it I'd not question it, but weird thought for a small child). 4) The dad gets an idea lightbulb from this (and remembering they do that in the end, sort of odd).

 Parapsych lady tells how ghosts happen and it's mostly a good, sort of chilling scene, except that the 'they stay around to watch TV' line is a little too... I get it the film is about TVs. Still it's a nice scene.

 So I've mentioned being in the midst of some stomach issues. I am eating because by Hades I need to eat. Watching the meat begin to rupture from within, the chicken leg drop from his mouth crawling with maggots, and then the parapsych aide guy dig his own face apart was not what I needed with food in my mouth. Good job movie. Good job. Nah the scene was legit good, creepy, and gross, but wasn't what I need with my stomach at the moment.

 Other parapsych aide is slacking and listening to rock music (drawing the stairway to heaven with a girl's head at the bottom), and ignoring that the machines are saying 'shit's about to go down'. Good going watch dude. Good job. And yes this time it is sarcastic.

 Movie is sparing with the music but it begins to rise to emotional effect as a ghost arrives. Now in Saw I complained about laugh track of horror, and to an extent that is common to horror movies. Sound is an extremely important part of horror movies. Music can make things many times creepier. This film has been doing not the best on music, band that makes it more obvious that this is 'be creeped now music' but it's effective, it's not a sudden jarring sound, but a building one that builds with the scene. It is not an auditory jump scare, it is not a laugh track of horror, but your standard horror music. It works, even if I do find that The Omen and anything John Carpenter made has better music.

 The kids are shipped off. Aide #1 has fled. Aide #2 is staying. Parapsych lady is taking the tapes, leaving, and will be coming back with help. Get the feeling that she cares about the family. And the dad's boss arrives to see why the dad hasn't shown up for work; the excuse is the flu but... well they try and rush him from the house. The boss drags him away to show him something, and we learn Carol Anne was born in that house. We also learn that the house was built on a relocated cemetery.

 Music tells me to be scared. Not the most effective. I'm going to say that is largely because the purity of effect of the film has been shattered by stomach and pausing. More than any genre I find horror suffers when you break it up (this is movies, and short stories, and others intended to be taken in with a single sitting; novels and series are traditionally exempt). So it does hurt my enjoyment of the film, that said despite feeling much worse than yesterday (but not the day before where I didn't watch anything) I am enjoying the film. I am not scared by the film, but the fact that I wasn't scared by the film as a child (I believed in ghosts as a child, but held no fear of them) sort of sabotaged it anyway.

 The vaguely creepy (she scared me as a child), Southern old psychic lady has arrived. The father doesn't believe in her, the mother does. The father has not generally been the disbeliever, but he has been cautious. Still she earns some points by... hearing him whisper? I'll accept that it's supposed to be quieter in comparison to the rest than it seems, everything is vaguely whisper in this film. The psychic lady (I have not caught her name if it's been said) begins to explain what's happening, the daughter is a light that the ghosts want, and distracts them from the other light. There is an evil presence, the beast, that is perceived as a child by Carol Anne and is keeping her, using her to keep the others from moving on. Still Lady Van Helsing gives the call to arms and preparations begin.

 The father has to threaten the daughter into coming, using her fear of discipline (he threatens a spanking after making it clear he has never spanked her in her life), and she begins to pull from the beast and... Lady van Helsing makes the mom tell the girl to run towards the light (the true afterlife instead of limbo) and lie about being in the light waiting for her. It's a painful scene to watch (in a good way). The mother pained to do it, but doing it trusting that it is for her daughter's own good.

 They establish that the closet it linked to the living room ceiling, a wormhole that passes through the limbo realm. The mother then tells the small girl not to go into the light, making it almost certainly confusing to the small child who they keep telling 'avoid the light' 'go into the light' 'avoid the light'.

 One of them will have to be tied to the rope and go into the Limbo Realm. The mom, the dad, and Lady Van Helsing fight over who gets to go, but the mom wins because she's the best choice. I want to say you know that the mom will be alright, that she'll get the child, but ... I want to say I was certain as a child, and my foreknowledge makes it hard. Still the psychic lady starts to try and encourage the souls to pass over and the father pulls them back early, drawing the Beast to attack... Still when he drops the rope, the mom and daughter fall out. Despite lacking real worry it's a good scene.

 The psychic lady declares the house clean, and we see the family beginning to move. A conversation with the elder daughter highlights that the mom's hair has gone gray in places and that the daughter is family with the motel they're going to because... she's gone there for sex. I didn't catch that as a child.

 Husband is quitting his job, they're moving, and they're going to sleep in a motel tonight, but... the children's bed time is before he gets home, they go to bed in the house. In that room. Sleep on a sofa. This is just... Worrisome. And the mom knows it and... Gah.

 And there's the scene of the creepy clown trying to kill the boy! I've been waiting. I remembered that one. It's an effective use of a... well there's build up and it's not 'remove a sheet from something HORROR MUSIC' to generate horror, it builds and grasps. A ghost attacks the mom, the closet turns evil, and the bedroom door locks itself. Fungus grows from one door, a strange four legged ghost-skeleton with weirdly long front legs appears in front of the other. It looks sort of cool.

 We learn they didn't relocate the graveyard. Skeletons are floating up out of the pool, coffins rising from the ground. This movie is not going to have skeletons kill the mom or do anything that bad to her. It's child friendly horror, but for a moment you almost feel it might, and the scene works regardless. The neighbors arrive and save the mom (who had been calling for their help), but are freaked out by the strange sounds and lights.

 We get a lot of nice effects in this part. Some nice momma bear too. She manages to pull them free as the husband arrives home... with the boss? And the graveyard erupts preventing him from getting in two help. The mom and children are calling for the dad. He ends up screaming at the boss about 'you left the bodies behind and only faked moving them' and the family escapes the house. They get in the car and the older daughter arrives, but won't get into the car (she's having a freak out)... Her extended freak out there is a bit... Get in the car already. The house implodes into the portal and the boss doesn't seem to have gotten any comeuppance which disappoints me. I mean he's breaking down and crying, but 'lost his best employee' doesn't sting enough.

 They arrive at the holiday inn, battered, bruised, scared, but whole and a family. The father immediately pushes the TV out, they have escaped its curse. I for some reason thought there was an ending of it trying to call the young daughter out again. I guess not, childhood memories playing with me. I wash the credits just in case of course. After all if it's a poltergeist it's tied to a person not a place, but there's nothing.