#james walter wayland

[anonymousbug]

celebrating my return to tumblr with late birthday art for the rat, the brit, the orange himself — TIMOTHY SIMON ROTH🎂🎉🎈

here's the first version I made in 2021, three years later and i finally get the sequel out 😔✌️tim roth nation is where i will always belong🧡🐀🍊✨

[glampire-rockstar]

JOE ANOA'I - Roman Reigns/Joe Leakee

GALINA BECKER - Zoie Jordan/Sierra Moore

JONATHAN GOOD - Jon Moxley/Dean Ambrose

RENEE PAQUETTE - Faye Wayland/Renee Young

COLBY LOPEZ - Seth Rollins/Tyler Black

SARAH ALESANDRELLI - Kourtney Scott/Danielle Morono

FERGAL DEVITT - Finn Balor/Jonah Arsene

VERO RODRIGUEZ - Amy Grayson/Jane Sharp

DANIEL GILLIES - Gavin Powers/Travis Dawson

ASHLEY FLIEHR - Charlotte Flair/Ashley Diamond

IAN SOMERHALDER - Hayden Evans/Brendan Smith

SARAYA BEVIS - Saraya Calaway/Paige Knight

JOSEPH MORGAN - Elijah Gonzales/Hunter Prince

REBECCA QUIN - Becky Lynch/Rebecca Knox

PAUL WESLEY - Isiah Alister/Zakai Danger

APRIL MENDEZ - AJ Lee/Mey Zodiac

═════•.·:·.☽✧✦✧☾.·:·.•═════•.·:·.☽✧✦✧☾.·:·.•═════•.·:·.☽✧✦✧☾.·:·.•═════

I've found the best characters for my AEW/WWE Fan-Fiction stories, I got the main boys from the Vampire Diaries and the Originals, and got the three married wives and a former girlfriend turned friend.

We know that most of the wrestlers here will be faces or heels, but I want them as the baddest bosses while the good guys are gonna be portrayed as sixteen newcomers who's shorter.

I got Jordan "Dan" Sweeto, Kayleigh "Wolfy" Smyth | Wolfychu, Patrick "Patty" Walters, Dorothy "Dottie" Martin, Johnnie Guilbert, Alexandria "Alex" Dorame, James Tyler Hagen, Shannon "Shan" Taylor, Nathan "Nate" Owens, Leda "Monster Bunny" Muir, Damon "Dee" Fizzy, Carson Fanikos, Luke Jeydon Wale, Samantha "Sam" Rochelle, Kyle David Hall, and Meghan Marie Hogan for the OC portrayals cause I like people within the goth/punk/emo/scene style.

I figured that modern day of straight history meets attitude era for their bad influence; my sixteen OCs doesn't care for the rules and are the most rebellious people in WWE.

This takes place from SummerSlam 2012 for the Fallen Angels and their first victory in Night of Champions: Gold Rush; Survivor Series 2012 for the Shield and their first victory in TLC; Royal Rumble 2013 for the Dark Gods and their first victory in Elimination Chamber; WrestleMania 29 for the Resistance and their first victory in Extreme Rules; they're known as the Pack of Lone Wolves.

For each OC stable...their names are the following; the Unholy Circle for the girls, the Genesis for the girls, the Blood Order for the boys, and the Demolition for the boys; they're the Pride of Wild Lions.

Comment down on ring names for my OCs and follow me at Wattpad on GlampireRockstar...sayonara guys!

[reservoirblogs]

*blows a kiss* for james walter wayland 💕💕

[strawberrywindow]

tim playing evil, pretty bois in the 90s is one of the purest forms of cinema. wayland's not quite as apathetic as jack but he's still a psychopath. not only did he possibly cut a woman in half - we'll never know after he gaslit those cops interrogating him into thinking they did it 🤪 - but he drinks milk with a SPOON. absolute menace 💚

[caramailsalt]

🥰💕💕

[amiyourhiro]

Wayland

[mr-stolz]

[acourtcfmuses]

Wanted Characters to write with!

This list is long, but it’s not extensive, there is likely ones I’ve missed!

This list is for all kinds of ships - familiar, platonic, enemies and romantic- I just really wanna write against these characters!

Bold = 100% always down

***Edited to add - this is just canons, but I’m always down for writing with/shipping with OC���s!

Updated 05/10/2024

Wanted Canon Male muses 

Misc

Daemon Targaryen / HotD

Aemond Targaryen / HotD

Nick Goode / Fear Street

Tommy Slater / Fear Street

Adil of Tarim / Fort Salem

Walter Bishop / Fringe

Morpheus/Dream / The Sandman

Ed Mercer / The Orville

Isaac / The Orville

Kalabar Junior / Halloweentown

Dylan Piper / Halloweentown

James Beaufort / Maxton Hall

The Ghoul (Cooper Howard) / Fallout TV Show

The Doctor (any iteration but especially 9-15) / Doctor Who

Ray Hall / Panic

From Blood and Ash

Casteel Da’Neer 

Kieran Contou

Folk of Air

Cardan Greenbriar

ACOTAR

Rhysand

Kallias 

Azriel 

Tamlin

Fourth Wing

Xaden Riorson

Liam Mairi

Tairn (the Dragon)

Garrett

Bodhi

Dain Aetos

Ridoc

Teen Wolf

Peter Hale

Derek Hale

Stiles Stilinski

Scott McCall 

Myth

Hades

HP

James Potter

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Sebastian Sallow

Ominis Gaunt

Garreth Weasley

Amit Thakkar

Aesop Sharp

Eleazar Fig

Harry Potter

Draco Malfoy

Charlie Weasley

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Blaise Zabini

Cedric Diggory

Godric Gryffindor

Salazar Slytherin

Scorpius Malfoy

Twilight

Edward Cullen

Jasper Hale

Jacob Black

Carlisle Cullen

MCU

Alexei Shostakov

Pietro Maximoff

Foggy Nelson

Thor Odinson

Loki Laufeyson

Druig

Dane

Peter Parker (any iteration)

Tony Stark

Steve Rogers

Bucky Barnes

Bruce Banner

Clint Barton

Shang-Chi

Groot 

Doctor Strange

Lost Girl

Hale Santiago

Dyson Thornwood

Trick

Shadowhunters

Jace Wayland

Simon Lewis

Alec Lightwood

Magnus Bane

Luke Garroway

CAOS

Nick Scratch

Caliban

Ambrose Spellman

Harvey Kinkle

Fate: The Winx Saga

Sky 

Riven

Grey

Saul Silva

Agents of SHIELD

Grant Ward

Leo Fitz

Phil Coulson

Lance Hunter

Alphonso Mackenzie

TVD/TO

Elijah Mikaelson

Klaus Mikaelson

Tyler Lockwood

Stefan Salvatore

Damon Salvatore

Kai Parker

OUAT

Killian Jones

Neal Cassidy

David Nolan

Henry Mills  (platonic/familial only due to character age)

The Witcher

Geralt of Rivia 

Jaskier

Vesemir

Bridgerton

Anthony Bridgerton

Benedict Bridgerton

Colin Bridgerton

Simon Basset

Lucifer

Lucifer Morningstar

Amenadiel

Stranger Things

Steve Harrington

Jonathan Byers

Eddie Munson

Dustin Henderson (platonic/familial only due to character age)

Jim Hopper

The Quarry

Max Brinly

Dylan Lenivy

Nick Furcillo

Charmed (1997)

Chris Halliwell

Wyatt Halliwell

Leo Wyatt

Julie and the Phantoms

Reggie Peters

Alex Mercer

Luke Patterson

Mass Effect

Garrus Vakarian

Thane Krios

Grunt

Commander Shepard (Male)

DCTV

Oliver Queen

William Clayton

Barry Allan

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Raymond Holt

Terry Jeffords

Charles Boyle

iZombie

Major Lilywhite

Blaine DeBeers

Wednesday

Xavier Thorpe

Tyler Galpin

Sheriff Galpin

Gomez Addams

Shadow and Bone

Matthias Helvar

Kaz Brekker

Jesper Fahey

Aleksander Morozova

Mal Oretsev

Tolkien World

Halbrand / Sauron

Fili

Kili

Thorin Oakenshield

Bilbo Baggins

Legolas

The Covenant

Caleb Danvers

Reid Garwin

Tyler Simms

Pogue Parry

Chase Collins

Night World

James Rasmussen

Ash Redfern

John Quinn

One Piece Live Action

Monkey D Luffy

Sanji

Roronoa Zoro

Usopp

Buggy 

Arlong

Shanks

How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup Haddock

Hazbin Hotel / Helluva Bos

Lucifer Morningstar

Alastor

Angel Dust

Husk

Sir Pentious

Adam

Blitzo

Moxxie Knolastname 

Stolas

Fizzarolli

Asmodeus

Grimm

Nick Burkhardt

Monroe

Dark Romance Novels

Constantine Blackwood (Slash or Pass by Tylor Paige)

Kansas Foxworth (Slash or Pass by Tylor Paige)

Koi Maitland (Knife, Comment, Share by Tylor Paige)

Dennis Swayze (Knife, Comment, Share by Tylor Paige)

Rowan Kane (The Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne Weaver)

Lachlan Kane (The Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne Weaver)

-x-

Wanted Canon Female muses

Misc

Rhaenyra Targaryen / HotD

Helena Targaryen / HotD

Vonetta Contou / From Blood and Ash

Taryn Duarte / The Cruel Prince

Tris Prior / Divergent

Olivia Dunham / Fringe

Kelly Grayson / The Orville

Claire Finn / The Orville

Alara Kitan / The Orville

Vanessa Afron / FNAF Movie

Marnie Piper / Halloweentown

Ruby Sunday / Doctor Who

Amy Pond / Doctor Who

Ruby Bell / Maxton Hall

Lucy MacLean / Fallout TV Show 

ACOTAR

Nesta Archeron

Emerie 

Catrin Berdara

Lady of Autumn

HP

Luna Lovegood

Ginny Weasley

Hermione Granger

Pansy Parkinson

Rowena Ravenclaw

Lily Evans/Potter

Marlene McKinnon

Female MC of Hogwarts Legacy

Poppy Sweeting

Natsai Onai

Imelda Reyes

Mirabel Garlick

Matilda Weasley

Dinah Hecat

Sirona Ryan

Victoire Weasley

Fourth Wing

Violet Sorrengail

Rhiannon Matthias

Mira Sorrengail

Sloane Mairi

Sgyael (the Dragon)

Descendants

Evie Grimhilde

Mal Bertha

Audrey Rose

Fear Street

Deena Johnson

Alice

Ziggy Berman

Twilight

Bella Swan

Esme Cullen

Rosalie Hale

Alice Cullen

MCU

Natasha Romanoff

Yelena Belova

Melina Vostokoff

Wanda Maximoff

Jane Foster

Darcy Lewis

Monica Rambeau

Karen Page

Jennifer Walters

Sylvie Laufeydottir

Makkari

Sersi

The Hunger Games

Annie Cresta

Katniss Everdeen

Johanna Mason

Shadowhunters

Clary Fray

Isabelle Lightwood

Teen Wolf

Malia Tate

Lydia Martin

Kira Yukimura

Allison Argent

Melissa McCall

Laura Hale

Satomi

Braeden

Kate Argent

Lost Girl

Bo Dennis

Kenzi Malikov

Tamsin

Lauren Lewis

CAOS

Sabrina Spellman

Rosalind Walker

Prudence Blackwood

Agatha Night

Dorcas Night

Hilda Spellman

Zelda Spellman

Fate: The Winx Saga

Bloom Peters

Terra Harvey

Beatrix

Flora

Stella

Musa

Aisha

Agents of SHIELD

Skye / Daisy Johnson

Jemma Simmons

Melinda May

Bobbi Morse

TVD/TO

Rebekah Mikaelson

Freya Mikaelson

Hope Mikaelson

Hayley Marshall

Elena Gilbert

Caroline Forbes

Bonnie Bennett

Katherine Petrova

Lizzie Saltzman

Josie Saltzman

OUAT

Emma Swan

Snow White

Alice Jones

Regina Mills

The Witcher

Yennefer

Cirilla

Francesca Findabair

Bridgerton

Kate Sharma

Edwina Sharma

Daphne Bridgerton

Eloise Bridgerton

Violet Bridgerton

Queen Charlotte

Lucifer

Chloe Decker

Mazikeen Smith

Linda Martin

Ella Lopez

Stranger Things

Robin Buckley

Nancy Wheeler

Eleven / Jane Hopper (no ship as kid muse)

Max Mayfield (no ship as kid muse)

Joyce Byers

Disney

Elsa of Arendelle

Anna of Arendelle

Maleficent

Fort Salem

Abigail Bellweather

Scylla

Raelle Collar

The Quarry

Abigail Blyg

Emma Mountebank

Laura Kearney

Kaitlyn Ka

Charmed (1997)

Piper Halliwell

Phoebe Halliwell

Paige Halliwell

Mass Effect

Tali’Zorah Nar Rayya

Commander Shepard (female)

Jack / Subject Zero

The Sandman

Calliope 

Johanna Constantine

Death

Rose Walker

Lyta Hall

DCTV

Felicity Smoak

Kara Danvers

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Amy Santiago

Rosa Diaz

Gina Linetti

iZombie

Liv Moore

Peyton Charles

Wednesday

Wednesday Addams

Enid Sinclair

Bianca

Yoko

Morticia Addams

Larissa Weems

Marilyn Thornhill

Shadow and Bone

Alina Starkov

Inej Ghafa

NIna Zenik

Zoya Nazyalensky

Genya Safin

Tolkien World

Galadriel

Tauriel

Night World

Poppy North

Mary-Lynnette Carter

Rowan Redfern

Kestrel Redfern

Jade Redfern

One Piece Live Action

Nami

Hazbin Hotel / Helluva Bos

Charlie Morningstar

Vaggie

Niffty

Carmilla Carmine

Cherry Bomb

Lute

Millie Knolastname

Loona

Octavia

Grimm

Rosalee Calvert Monroe 

Adalind Schade

Dark Romance Novels

Eisley Rosales (Slash or Pass by Tylor Paige)

Domino Risky (Knife, Comment, Share by Tylor Paige)

Sloane Sutherland (The Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne Weaver)

Lark Montague (The Ruinous Love Trilogy by Brynne Weaver)

[losinmortalesperdidos]

// What if I finally rewatch Deceiver and add James Walter Wayland as a new muse? Just a thought but opinions are accepted and welcomed.

[nightmareonfilmstreet]

The Fraught and Remarkable Production of James Cameron’s ALIENS

In 1979, director Ridley Scott took the genres of horror and science fiction by storm with his groundbreaking film Alien. As is often the case with runaway successes such as this, a sequel followed. However, unlike Alien – Aliens was to be an altogether different kind of beast.

    Aliens Conception

After the success of Alien, producer David Giler declared in 1979 that production house Brandywine were intent on making a sequel. Initially having the full support of  20th Century Fox’s president Alan Ladd Jr, that year Ladd left amid Fox’s transition to new owners. The new management at Fox had no interest in the sequel. In the meantime, Giler and partners Walter Hill and Gordon Carroll sued Fox regarding the disbursement of the Alien profits after reneging on Ladd’s promise. The subsequent lawsuit would not be settled until 1983. By this time, Fox had once again acquired new executives that were more interested in continuing Alien as a franchise. Giler pitched the project to the new management as a cross between Hill’s Southern Comfort and The Magnificent Seven.

  Enter James Cameron

While the producers sought a writer for the proposed sequel, Development executive Larry Wilson came across James Cameron’s screenplay for The Terminator. The screenplay was passed on to Giler, the general feeling was that Cameron was the man for the job. Giler approached Cameron, who was completing pre-production of The Terminator at this time. A fan of Alien, Cameron was interested in helming the proposed sequel and began work on a concept for Aliens. Cameron produced a 45-page treatment in just 4 days. Fox management once again put the film on hiatus. The pitch was met with mixed feelings and cold feet that Alien had not generated enough profit to warrant a sequel. 

Filming of Cameron’s The Terminator was also delayed by nine months at this time. Due to its star, Arnold Schwarzenegger filming Conan the Destroyer, production was delayed. This was a serendipitous turn of events allowing Cameron additional time to write a script for Aliens. While still filming The Terminator, Cameron wrote 90 pages for Aliens. Even in its unfinished state, the work piqued the interest of Fox’s new president Larry Gordon. Cameron was told that if The Terminator was a success, he would be able to direct Aliens. Bringing aboard Gale Ann Hurd to produce, The rest, as they say, is history.

    Express Elevator To Hell: A Change Of Approach

Where as the original Alien is oft quoted as being a “haunted house in space”, Cameron’s approach for the sequel was to be something entirely different. The extra time Cameron had been afforded to work on his treatment for Aliens had been well utilised. The story he came up with took the series in a brave new direction.

Ellen Ripley has been drifting in space for some time after the events of the first movie. To be more precise, Ripley has drifted through space for 57 years. Picked up in her EEV by Wayland-Yutani, the ever-present, shadowy “Company”, Ripley’s tasked with returning to LV-426, now a terraformed colony. All communication with LV-426 and its inhabitants has been lost. Accompanying a squad of kick-ass colonial marines, they need to establish why contact has broken down.

Aliens is Bigger, bolder, and much more action oriented than its predecessor. Where as the original was more a traditional thriller, Aliens was to be all out war. Perfectly pacing exposition, slow building suspense and intense action, Cameron certainly knew what he wanted to deliver. From its bombastic James Horner score, to its groundbreaking Stan Winston effects, This is how a sequel is done right.

  Hard Times

Cameron now had his film and a $18 million budget, he now needed to secure his leading lady. Sigourney Weaver was reticent about the project. Weaver met Cameron who explained his ideas, piquing the actors interest in revisiting her character. Fox, however, refused to sign Weaver over a payment dispute and asked Cameron to write a story excluding her character. Cameron refused on the grounds that Fox had indicated that Weaver’s involvement when he began writing his treatment for Aliens. Cameron doggedly insisted in Weaver’s involvement and Fox signed the contract. Weaver obtained a salary of $1 million, a sum 30 times what she was paid for Alien.

Bringing together the likes of Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton, who had all worked with Cameron on The Terminator. They were joined by Paul Reiser, Janette Goldstein, William Hope and newcomer, Carrie Henn to round off the principal cast.

    Us & Them

Filmed over the best part of a year at Pinewood studios in the U.K., the production was notoriously fraught. The U.S & U.K crews would frequently butt heads. Notoriously tensions strained over, of all things, was the Great British ‘tea break’ frequently bringing production to a halt. A very much ‘us & them’ attitude punctuated the production. Many of the experienced crew had worked under Ridley Scott on the original film and believed Cameron to be too young and inexperienced to carry so large a film. Tensions reached their peak when Cameron fired D.O.P Dick Bush over negative approaches to schedule and difference of opinion, causing the crew to walk out on the production. Hurd, working her production magic, managed to coax the crew back. With such a pervasive atmosphere, it is a wonder the film turned out as well as it did. 

Praise has to be given on the magnificent sets that were built. Production converted part of a disused power station in Acton to become the alien nest. An interesting piece of trivia, the set that was used for the atmosphere processor was reused a few years later as The Axis chemical factory in Tim Burton’s Batman. I was never aware of this until recently and must confess to geeking out a little.

    Building A Better Movie

Robert and Dennis Skotak were hired to supervise the visual effects for Aliens. Two stages were utilised to construct the colony on LV-426.  Cameron used these miniatures and several effects to make scenes look larger than they really were. Namely through methods including forced perspective, rear projection, mirrors and foreground miniatures. Practical effects supervisor John Richardson (who earned the Oscar for Best Visual Effects for the film in 1987) declared his biggest challenge was creating the power loader. Requiring three months work, The model could not stand on its own, requiring either wires dangling from the shoulders or a pole through the back attached to a crane. While Sigourney Weaver was stood inside the loader, a stunt man standing behind it would move the arms and legs.

  Aliens Reborn

Stan Winston designed alien suits were made more flexible and durable than the ones used in Alien to allow more freedom of movement. This new suit allowed the Xeno’s to crawl and jump. Dancers, gymnasts, and stunt men were hired to portray the aliens. 8-foot-tall mannequins we’re constructed to make aliens that stood could have charges detonated to simulate gunshot wounds. Winston’s team also created fully articulated facehuggers that could move their fingers; these were moved by wires hidden on the scenery or the actors’ clothing. This was a remarkably simple trick that allowed the facehuggers to appear more real than ever.

    The Queen Lives!

The alien queen provided one of the most difficult challenges to film. A life-sized mockup was created by Winston in the U.S. to act as a dry run  to see how it would operate on set. Once the testing was complete, the crew working on the queen flew to England and began work creating the final version.

Standing at 14 feet tall, it was a phenomenal physical creation. The Queen was operated using a mixture of puppeteers, control rods, hydraulics, cables, and a crane above to support it. Two puppeteers inside the suit operated its arms, and 16 additional were required to move it. All sequences involving the full-size queen were filmed in-camera with no post-production manipulation. Let’s just consider that for a moment. The majority of the queens shots, excluding some minimal miniature work, all happened on set. Even by today’s standards, that is remarkable.

  Now That Sounds Like A Franchise: The Success Of Aliens

Aliens was released in North America on July 18, 1986. In North America, the film opened in 1,437 theaters with an opening weekend gross of $10,052,042. It was #1 at the North American box office for four consecutive weeks, grossing $85.1 million. The film’s worldwide total gross has been stated as high as $180 million, making Aliens one of the highest-grossing R-rated films at the time. Due to its resounding success, the Xenomorphs would return to our screens again in 1992 for Alien3, helmed by first time director David Fincher. In the subsequent years that followed their would be another 3 Alien movies and a further 2 Alien vs. Predator spin-offs. 

The Alien series has proved to be a franchise that refuses to lay down and die. Arguably its real turning point came with the leap of faith taken by James Cameron in taking the series in a bold new direction and expanding upon the mythos of the Xenomorph race in such an inventive and breathlessly engaging way.

  The post The Fraught and Remarkable Production of James Cameron’s ALIENS appeared first on Nightmare on Film Street - Horror Movie Podcast, News and Reviews.

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[all-my-books]

2017 Reading

262 books read. 60% of new reads Non-fiction, authors from 55 unique countries, 35% of authors read from countries other than USA, UK, Canada, and Australia. Asterisks denote re-reads, bolds are favorites. January: The Deeds of the Disturber – Elizabeth Peters The Wiregrass – Pam Webber Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi It Didn't Start With You – Mark Wolynn Facing the Lion – Joseph Lemasolai Lekuton Before We Visit the Goddess – Chitra Divakaruni Colored People – Henry Louis Gates Jr. My Khyber Marriage – Morag Murray Abdullah Miss Bianca in the Salt Mines – Margery Sharp Farewell to the East End – Jennifer Worth Fire and Air – Erik Vlaminck My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me – Jennifer Teege Catherine the Great – Robert K Massie My Mother's Sabbath Days – Chaim Grade Not the Israel My Parents Promised Me – Harvey Pekar, JT Waldman The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend – Katarina Bivald Stammered Songbook – Erwin Mortier Savushun – Simin Daneshvar The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran Beyond the Walls – Nazim Hikmet The Dressmaker of Khair Khana – Gayle Tzemach Lemmon A Day No Pigs Would Die – Robert Newton Peck *

February: Bone Black – bell hooks Special Exits – Joyce Farmer Reading Like a Writer – Francine Prose Bright Dead Things – Ada Limon Middlemarch – George Eliot Confessions of an English Opium Eater – Thomas de Quincey Medusa's Gaze – Marina Belozerskaya Child of the Prophecy – Juliet Marillier * The File on H – Ismail Kadare The Motorcycle Diaries – Ernesto Che Guevara Passing – Nella Larsen Whose Body? - Dorothy L. Sayers The Spiral Staircase – Karen Armstrong Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel Reading Lolita in Tehran – Azar Nafisi Defiance – Nechama Tec

March: Yes, Chef – Marcus Samuelsson Discontent and its Civilizations – Mohsin Hamid The Gulag Archipelago Vol. 1 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Patience and Sarah – Isabel Miller Dying Light in Corduba – Lindsey Davis * Five Days at Memorial – Sheri Fink A Man Called Ove – Fredrik Backman * The Shia Revival – Vali Nasr Girt – David Hunt Half Magic – Edward Eager * Dreams of Joy – Lisa See * Too Pretty to Live – Dennis Brooks West with the Night – Beryl Markham Little Fuzzy – H. Beam Piper *

April: Defying Hitler – Sebastian Haffner Monsters in Appalachia – Sheryl Monks Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho The Man Without a Face – Masha Gessen Peace is Every Step – Thich Nhat Hanh Flory – Flory van Beek Why Soccer Matters – Pele The Zhivago Affair – Peter Finn, Petra Couvee The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake – Breece Pancake The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared – Jonas Jonasson Chasing Utopia – Nikki Giovanni The Invisible Bridge – Julie Orringer * Young Adults – Daniel Pinkwater Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel – John Stubbs Black Gun, Silver Star – Art T. Burton The Arab of the Future 2 – Riad Sattouf Hole in the Heart – Henny Beaumont MASH – Richard Hooker Forgotten Ally – Rana Mitter Zorro – Isabel Allende Flying Couch – Amy Kurzweil

May: The Bite of the Mango – Mariatu Kamara Mystic and Rider – Sharon Shinn * Freedom is a Constant Struggle – Angela Davis Capture – David A. Kessler Poor Cow – Nell Dunn My Father's Dragon – Ruth Stiles Gannett * Elmer and the Dragon – Ruth Stiles Gannett * The Dragons of Blueland – Ruth Stiles Gannett * Hetty Feather – Jacqueline Wilson In the Shadow of the Banyan – Vaddey Ratner The Last Camel Died at Noon – Elizabeth Peters Cannibalism – Bill Schutt The Handmaid's Tale – Margaret Atwood A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry The Food of a Younger Land – Mark Kurlansky Behold the Dreamers – Imbolo Mbue Words on the Move – John McWhorter John Ransom's Diary: Andersonville – John Ransom Such a Lovely Little War – Marcelino Truong Child of All Nations – Irmgard Keun One Child – Mei Fong Country of Red Azaleas – Domnica Radulescu Between Two Worlds – Zainab Salbi Malinche – Julia Esquivel A Lucky Child – Thomas Buergenthal The Drackenberg Adventure – Lloyd Alexander Say You're One of Them – Uwem Akpan William Wells Brown – Ezra Greenspan

June: Partners In Crime – Agatha Christie The Chinese in America – Iris Chang The Great Escape – Kati Marton As Texas Goes... – Gail Collins Pavilion of Women – Pearl S. Buck Classic Chinese Stories – Lu Xun The Return of the Soldier – Rebecca West The Slave Across the Street – Theresa Flores Miss Bianca in the Orient – Margery Sharp Boy Erased – Garrard Conley How to Be a Dictator – Mikal Hem A Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini Tears of the Desert – Halima Bashir The Death and Life of Great American Cities – Jane Jacobs The First Salute – Barbara Tuchman Come as You Are – Emily Nagoski The Want-Ad Killer – Ann Rule The Gulag Archipelago Vol 2 – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

July: Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz – L. Frank Baum * The Blazing World – Margaret Cavendish Madonna in a Fur Coat – Sabahattin Ali Duende – tracy k. smith The ACB With Honora Lee – Kate de Goldi Mountains of the Pharaohs – Zahi Hawass Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy Chronicle of a Last Summer – Yasmine el Rashidi Killers of the Flower Moon – David Grann Mister Monday – Garth Nix * Leaving Yuba City – Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni The Silk Roads – Peter Frankopan The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams A Corner of White – Jaclyn Moriarty * Circling the Sun – Paula McLain Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – Al Franken Believe Me – Eddie Izzard The Cracks in the Kingdom – Jaclyn Moriarty * Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe – Fannie Flagg * One Hundred and One Days – Asne Seierstad Grim Tuesday – Garth Nix * The Vanishing Velasquez – Laura Cumming Four Against the Arctic – David Roberts The Marriage Bureau – Penrose Halson The Jesuit and the Skull – Amir D Aczel Drowned Wednesday – Garth Nix * Roots, Radicals, and Rockers – Billy Bragg A Tangle of Gold – Jaclyn Moriarty * Lydia, Queen of Palestine – Uri Orlev *

August: Sir Thursday – Garth Nix * The Hoboken Chicken Emergency – Daniel Pinkwater * Lady Friday – Garth Nix * Freddy and the Perilous Adventure – Walter R. Brooks * Venice – Jan Morris China's Long March – Jean Fritz Trials of the Earth – Mary Mann Hamilton The Bully Pulpit – Doris Kearns Goodwin Final Exit – Derek Humphry The Book of Emma Reyes – Emma Reyes Freddy the Politician – Walter R. Brooks * Dragonflight – Anne McCaffrey * What the Witch Left – Ruth Chew All Passion Spent – Vita Sackville-West The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde The Curse of the Blue Figurine – John Bellairs * When They Severed Earth From Sky – Elizabeth Wayland Barber Superior Saturday – Garth Nix * The Boston Girl – Anita Diamant The Mummy, The Will, and the Crypt – John Bellairs * Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal The Philadelphia Adventure – Lloyd Alexander * Lord Sunday – Garth Nix * The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull – John Bellairs * Five Little Pigs – Agatha Christie * Love in Vain – JM Dupont, Mezzo A Little History of the World – EH Gombrich Last Things – Marissa Moss Imagine Wanting Only This – Kristen Radtke Dinosaur Empire – Abby Howard The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – Terry Pratchett *

September: First Bite by Bee Wilson The Xanadu Adventure by Lloyd Alexander Orientalism – Edward Said The Lost Crown of Genghis Khan – Carl Barks The Island on Bird Street – Uri Orlev * The Indifferent Stars Above – Daniel James Brown Beneath the Lion's Gaze – Maaza Mengiste The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde * The Book of Five Rings – Miyamoto Musashi The Drunken Botanist – Amy Stewart The Turtle of Oman – Naomi Shahib Nye The Alleluia Files – Sharon Shinn * Gut Feelings – Gerd Gigerenzer The Secret of Hondorica – Carl Barks Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight – Alexandra Fuller The Abominable Mr. Seabrook – Joe Ollmann Black Flags – Joby Warrick

October: Fear – Thich Nhat Hanh Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 – Naoki Higashida To the Bright Edge of the World – Eowyn Ivey Why? - Mario Livio Just One Damned Thing After Another – Jodi Taylor The Yellow Wallpaper – Charlotte Perkins Gilman Blindness – Jose Saramago The Book Thieves – Anders Rydell Reality is not What it Seems – Carlo Rovelli Cranford – Elizabeth Gaskell * The Witch Family – Eleanor Estes * Sister Mine – Nalo Hopkinson La Vagabonde – Colette Becoming Nicole – Amy Ellis Nutt

November: The Golden Notebook – Doris Lessing The Children's Book – A.S. Byatt The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin Under the Udala Trees – Chinelo Okparanta Who Killed These Girls? – Beverly Lowry Running for my Life – Lopez Lmong Radium Girls – Kate Moore News of the World – Paulette Jiles The Red Pony – John Steinbeck The Edible History of Humanity – Tom Standage A Woman in Arabia – Gertrude Bell and Georgina Howell Founding Gardeners – Andrea Wulf Anatomy of a Disapperance – Hisham Matar The Book of Night Women – Marlon James Ground Zero – Kevin J. Anderson * Acorna – Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball * A Girl Named Zippy – Haven Kimmel * The Age of the Vikings – Anders Winroth The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction – Helen Graham A General History of the Pyrates – Captain Charles Johnson (suspected Nathaniel Mist) Clouds of Witness – Dorothy L. Sayers * The Lonely City – Olivia Laing No Time for Tears – Judy Heath

December: The Unwomanly Face of War – Svetlana Alexievich Gay-Neck - Dhan Gopal Mukerji The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane – Lisa See Get Well Soon – Jennifer Wright The Testament of Mary – Colm Toibin The Roman Way – Edith Hamilton Understood Betsy – Dorothy Canfield Fisher * The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse - Vicente Blasco Ibanez Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH – Robert C. O'Brien SPQR – Mary Beard Ballet Shoes – Noel Streatfeild * Hogfather – Terry Pratchett * The Sorrow of War – Bao Ninh Drowned Hopes – Donald E. Westlake * Selected Essays – Michel de Montaigne Vietnam – Stanley Karnow The Snake, The Crocodile, and the Dog – Elizabeth Peters Guests of the Sheik – Elizabetha Warnok Fernea Stone Butch Blues – Leslie Feinberg Wicked Plants – Amy Stewart Life in a Medieval City – Joseph and Frances Gies Under the Sea Wind – Rachel Carson The Red Virgin and the Vision of Utopia – Mary and Brian Talbot Brat Farrar – Josephine Tey * The Treasure of the Ten Avatars – Don Rosa Escape From Forbidden Valley – Don Rosa Nightwood – Djuna Barnes Here Comes the Sun – Nicole Dennis-Benn Over My Dead Body – Rex Stout *

[kenshiliker]

current mood: that scene where james walter wayland (tim roth’s character in deceiver) just starts laughing

[strawberrywindow]

james: why are you guys so convinced im not telling the truth?!

*the past five minutes*

james: sits like a hunched up gargoyle perched on his chair, openly admits to not telling the truth in his initial statement, insults the cops interrogating him, admits to having assaulted a girl when drunk in the past (althoughit's not explicitly said if this is ANOTHER lie or not), fails to mention he had epilepsy and takes pills for it which could mess up his polygraph, is all in all just a weird fucking dude

james: I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU THINK IM LYING.

[stochastinaut]

Alien Covenant (2017)

Ridley Scott brings us the next installment in the Alien franchise with Alien Covenant and he does not disappoint.  This review is spoiler free, although I will be going more in depth about some of the themes later on below, but will let readers know so they can stop reading if they haven’t seen the movie yet.  The film follows a ship of 15 crewmembers as they escort over 2,000 sleeping “colonizers” on a mission to start a new life on a habitable planet 7 years flight time away.  The film takes place in the same universe as the other Alien films and is simultaneously a sequel to the film Prometheus, also by Ridley Scott.  

The film explores themes of religion, creation, artificial intelligence all the while giving its audience some good scares bundled in the oh-so-often-used siege narrative.  Scott’s storytelling ability has only gotten better and this fact coupled with better special effects and a bigger budget may make this the most powerful of all the Alien movies.

The cast of this movie includes some big names like Michael Fassbender and Danny McBride and was advertised as featuring James Franco, even though he gets less than ten seconds of screen time.  Fassbender most definitely steals the show here, and his dynamic performance is one of the bigger highlights of the movie.  Moreover, as far as I know this is the first time we are introduced to hybrid Xenomorphs.  Xenomorphs that are apparently bred with other species that look entirely different than the traditional ones in the original movie.

The film fills in some questions viewers of Prometheus may have after they finish viewing that film, and answers what happens to David and Shaw after they leave to find the Engineer’s home planet.

Overall I loved this movie.  It is as if Scott took the most successful portions of all of the previous films in the franchise and melded them into this movie for a well done, no nonsense script.  Scott took no risks and followed the hollywood recipe of a three act film to the T to produce something safe, that will have a wide appeal.  I’ll rate this film an 8/10 and give it an unabashed recommendation.

Now, I’m going to discuss some of the themes of the movie and my interpretation of them here with spoilers so If you haven’t seen it yet, this would be a good place to stop reading.

One of the crewmembers’ main struggle, being captain, is that he doesn’t think that his subordinates respect him because he is a “man of faith.”  The film takes place almost 100 years in the future so perhaps atheism is widely prevalent, and religion is seen as something that only insane people subscribe too.  However, later on in the movie, after all hell breaks loose Daniels looks to the captain and says she needs his faith.  Sort of a nod to the understanding that Daniels can’t believe but she will use the Captain’s God as her rock to get her off that planet.  Moreover, before the captain is killed he is in a conversation with David where he asks David what he believes.  David answers simply, “Creation.”  I think I would have liked this theme explored a little bit more throughout the movie, because it left me unsure of what Scott was attempting to portray here.  Perhaps that faith is bad, after all it didn’t save the captain.  Perhaps, as an artist Scott is portraying to the audience that he is like David and that he, too, believes in “Creation.”

Another theme present in the film is artificial intelligence, and it is displayed in the contrast between David and Walter, the two androids created by Wayland.  David is an earlier version of Walter, and Walter is much more robotic.  He even has a deeper, more metallic voice.  Apparently David was too human for the humans that created him, and his unsettling demeanor needed to be curtailed in the next model.  Walter is also unable to create anything, as revealed within the film, despite being incredibly intelligent and powerful as a supercomputer.  The entire film really boils down to David going rogue, in the end, and his attempt to create the next step in the evolution of life.  He makes a comment to monkeys walking upright, as a metaphor for the point in time where AI robots may eventually take over and become superintelligent.  This is another theme that I would’ve like Scott to explore further, and maybe he will.  After all, the movie sets us up for another sequel.

[liosi-stefan]

Alien: Covenant Review

I'm going to save everyone some time here. Alien: Covenant is a bad movie. There, you can save the 5 minutes it would take to read the rest of this review and the two hours the Covenant runs all in one fell swoop. It is a movie mired with bad writing, lame looking xenomorphs, as less scares then notable James Cameron action movie Aliens. I'll get into details below.

 Alien Covenant drops us in with the creation of Adam (Michael Fassbender), the android from Prometheus. It offers a brief set up into the mind of a early production model Wayland bot who is capable of independent thought and creativity. This serves to give insight into his actions from Prometheus and foreshadow the themes of creation gone awry that act as the overtone of Covenant and Prometheus. The story then jumps forward 10 years after the events of Prometheus to the colonization ship Covenant which also has a Fassbender-bot of its own named Walter. The Covenant is beset with a cosmic event that causes the death of Captain James Franco, who really only seems to be in the movie because his friend Danny McBride has a starring role and has maybe 45 seconds of collective screen time. This of course creates a power vacuum that has to be filled by the second in command who is, of course, not prepared for the role and makes bad decisions because of it. 

During repairs of the ship, the crew discovers a faint message from another human in a nearby star system and they decide the best course of action is to risk the lives of not only the crew, but all 2,000 some colonists and 2,000 more human embryos, to check it out as a possible colony instead of the planet they have spent the last two years trying to get to. The only justification they give for abandoning their mission and taking this huge risk is one lady saying she doesn't want to go back into cryosleep and the rest of the crew agreeing. Only Lt. Daniels (Katherine Waterston) recognizes this as the stupidest plan ever conceived and objects. She is of course right, because the dissenting, play it safe, opinion is always right in horror movies, just as it is always ignored, because what fun would the movie be if nothing goes wrong? Unfortunately for Alien Covenant, the movie is neither fun, nor scary regardless of what path they would choose.

Things go bad, people die, aliens are about. You know the drill. This is about as by the numbers as you'll get. There is also a twist that is set up about 3/4 of the way through the movie that you will spot immediately that they 'reveal' in the last couple seconds of the movie. The whole thing feels pretty insulting. Probably the worst thing is how they handle woman characters. Alien is a franchise built around one of the strongest female characters in recent history. Sigourney Weaver's Ellen Ripley was a bad ass who didn't let anything stop her. Charlize Theron and Noomi Rapace both were very strong characters in Prometheus. Conversely, every woman character in Alien Covenant is hysterical at the drop of a hat. Even the lead character Daniels spends most of the movie in shambles over her husbands death. Rapace's character from Prometheus also gets the honor of one of the most unceremonious sendoffs to a character I have ever seen. It comes off as the writers of Alien Covenant knowing they have to make their movie a direst sequel to Prometheus, but not wanting to have to figure out a way to deal with the fact that Rapace made it out of the last film. 

Overall, the acting in this movie is all over the place. Fassbender, who has had some of my favorite performances in the last several years, is incredibly inconsistent moment to moment. Some of his dialog being laughably cringe-worthy. Danny McBride gave the best performance of the show as Tennessee, the hard nosed pilot of the Covenant.  Waterston does what she can, but is hamstrung by the poor script she was handed. This movie adds nothing of merit to the Alien franchise and actually only serves to make the timeline for the original Alien more confusing with a mid movie reveal about the origins of the facehuggers. The whole script comes across like a fan fiction written by people who don't understand subtly, but still really want to keep rape as the scary undertone. It is filled with nonsense, plot holes, and missed opportunities for much more interesting plot directions. Worst of all, it is just boring and goes nowhere. The whole thing resolves at what feels like the end of the second act of a better movie. Additionally, on a technical note, Alien Covenant is loud. It is probably the loudest movie I have watched since Interstellar. This doesn't really affect anything, but I figured I'd point it out since it caught me off guard. 

You're time is more valuable than this movie. If you are not a fan, this won't win you over. If you are a fan, it will only bring disappointment and muddle the timeline of the rest of the films. If you are deadset on watching a bad Alien movie, you have no less than 4 more entertaining options available to you. 

2/5

[magica-pseudoacademica]

United States - Articles

Last edited 2019-08-15

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* Woodward, Walter W. “New England’s Other Witch-Hunt: The Hartford Witch-Hunt of the 1660s and Changing Patterns in Witchcraft Prosecution.” OAH Magazine of History 17, no. 4 (July 2003): 16-20.