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rosiewalks · 1 month ago

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Tutorial / Techniques / Tools Roundup

These are the main ways that I customize and modify my dolls. I'm not an intense customizer, due to limitations imposed by my chronic pain -- so these are all pretty simple, basic mods. This post will be updated as I try new techniques.

I've included a rating for how much pain a mod causes me, in case you are also a chronic pain doll collector. Your pain is different than mine, but if nothing else, I hope this rating helps you feel less alone. First up, piercings (because that's the one I'm most often asked about). cut for length

PIERCINGS Piercing vinyl heads: I follow this video by Of Crafts And Curios, and use the techniques on both Monster High and Rainbow High. RH is a little more difficult, since their heads are harder.

Here are some dolls I've pierced with the above tips.

Lala: Snakebites; EVA: ears, nose, philtrum; Cruella: Nose; Lagoona: lip 2/5 for nerve pain -- one or two piercings is not bad, but if I do a bunch in a row, it's not great for my nerves. Gripping the doll and the tools is suboptimal, but it's a pretty quick mod with a big impact.

HAIR Reroot: Here's one of the videos I followed when I first started collecting. 5/5 nerve pain, I don't do this one anymore.

Fixing gnarly hair: You can "boil wash" hair. Doll hair is plastic. Wetting and then heating it will reshape those plastic fibers, often restoring smoothness. If you brush the hair straight while wet, that will also help smooth it back out. I've also used a flat iron (again, it's not human hair -- get it wet first.) NOTE: Different dolls have different hair fibers; test on a small area first.

I rescued this thrifted Rapunzel by dampening her hair and flat-ironing it.

Boil wash is 0/5 for pain; flat ironing can be up to 4/5, depending on how much hair a doll has and how damaged it is.

Washing doll hair: Honestly, just do whatever. I've used hot water, cold water, dish soap, shampoo, hand soap -- it all comes out the same in my experience. 0/5 for pain.

How to texturize nylon hair: Planning to use this for Delilah; will report back!

Dying RH hair: I haven't done this myself, but Mia has tons of tutorials on her youtube. I commission her to dye my dolls.

Saffron (orig. orange); Poppy jr (orig. orange); Gilly (orig. minty teal); Ophelia & Jade jr (orig. easter grass green). 0/5 pain if you commission Mia.

Hair restyle: I like to follow people-hair folks on IG for dolly hair inspo.

I did EVA's hair based on one of Jessica's tutorials...who may or may not be AI generated ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2/5 for pain, more if do more or braid a lot.

BODY MODS/REPAIR

Cleaning gook off vinyl & plastic: I start with soap and water. If there's still gook, I'll use a small amount of acetone to try to remove it (acetone will strip off paint, so don't get it on your doll's makeup/eyes). If something still won't budge, I bleach the plastic using benzoyl peroxide (acne cream). Dab a small amount on the stain and let it sit in the light (either sunlight or under a lamp). May take hours to days, and the cream may need to be reapplied, but I've successfully gotten Sharpie out of a Skipper's face with this method.

Head swap: I put the doll in a ziploc bag, dunk her in hot water to soften the head until squishy (longer for big ol' heads like RH), then pull the head firmly off. Be gentle and don't force it -- if it's not working, heat the head more. Barbie heads can usually be smushed back on a new body without re-heating, RH often needs to be heated again to go on a new body.

Both Thalia and Feld got new bodies this way.

1/5 pain -- can cause some pain if I'm impatient and don't let the heads soften enough.

Restring AG doll: I plan to follow this vid by A Thousand Splendid Dolls for my old Felicity doll. Will update.

RH eye swap: Hectorr uses a heat gun, but I use a blow dryer -- I put it on high, rather than medium (as is often suggested), but you'd have to experiment with your own tools. I've tried both hot water and a heating pad to soften the heads, but I like blowdryer best.

Blossom has Daria's eyes, and Genevieve has Olivia's.

OTHER

Free clothing patterns with video tutorials from Chellywood, if you are sewing novice like me and need someone to walk you through things step by step.

I made Goo's leggings, following one of her tutorials.

3/5 to 5/5 for pain. There's a lot of steps and a lot of gripping of small tools and a lot of bending of the neck.

I use acrylic paint pens to detail accessories, add freckles, and change lip color. 1/5 to 3/5 for pain, if I get too focused and don't take breaks.

Poppy's freckles and lips, and Whiskey's boots were done with paint pen. Always feel free to ask how I did something, what materials I used, or how much a tool cost -- I want to help others enjoy their collections and I'm not going to gatekeep anything.

#behind the scenes #rainbow high #monster high #barbie #making

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ayeforscotland · 2 years ago

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Hello aye, this is going to sound kind of unhinged and tirade-y so I'm sorry but I need to vent and no one else I know thinks like you.

I miss the way my wife used to be before the pandemic, she was softer, kinder, and more accepting. But during the pandemic she got stuck inside for a year with nothing but her Google feed because I was still working in the local co-op at the time, and now she's kinda TERF-y and right wing because all she got was Jordan Peterson shit and right wing doomsayers, she has decried every action the Scottish government has taken with trans folk and feels that it should be dismantled. But she always spouts the same "it's not trans people who I dislike, it's the laws the Scottish government have put in place which endanger women." What's worse is I think the environment she grew up in is what caused it, her mum did at one point have a FRAMED PICTURE of Boris Johnson hanging in her kitchen.

I still very much love her, but it's breaking my heart.

I’m sorry to hear that anon, I’m not going to pretend I know what to do in this situation.

Social isolation during the pandemic let the right wing really run rampant, and a lot of their rhetoric was geared to prey on people who were lonely.

Have any old pre-pandemic habits returned? Is there something your wife used to do but has dropped? It might be worth trying to get back into those older habits whether that’s a club or a sport or whatever.

It might also be worth having a frank discussion about it. It’ll be a tough conversation to have but the longer you keep it bottled up, the greater the impact on your relationship.

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ct-hardcase · 24 days ago

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terekeeve and song #15?

Hello anon and thank you so much for asking about terekeeve! #15 is a Ukrainian folk tune about cheating and regretting it.

Since leaving the Jedi Order to help the galaxy on her terms, Keeve Trennis had encountered many completely, spectacularly, utterly kriffed situations.

Her current predicament was similarly karked:

A warrior, famed for his resilience against the Nihil, had taken a week’s journey to a nearby moon, cavorting with a recent debutante during his travels.

A scout droid spotted them, resulting in blackmail.

Blackmail which would cause all-out planetary war were his wife’s family to find out.

After running interference for the past week and a painful conversation with the debutante and warrior about preventing further violence and bloodshed after the dissolution of the Occlusion Zone, Keeve had convinced them to minimize the blackmail’s impact by telling the warrior’s wife first, in private.

This led to Keeve’s present, where the debutante tearfully apologized to the warrior’s wife and the local planetary gods for her indiscretion, culminating in a plea to Keeve:

“Have you never been in love, felt its temptation?”

As the wife chastised the younger woman for being a silly and naive girl—Keeve had been a Jedi, after all—Keeve, as she had many times before, found her mouth running ahead of her mind as she responded to the debutante's question:

“Once.”

Memories of Terec buried close to Keeve’s heart flooded through her like a morning tide.

Years of stolen moments and touches Keeve tried to convince herself were strictly platonic, Terec turning to her in times of uncertainty, and in turn, their presence a harbor in her life’s raging storm—a harbor she’d decreasingly sheltered in as time passed. The struggle against the Nihil, the Drengir, the Nameless, the Hutts, the Blight blurred together in a relentless three years spent increasingly on the battlefield, increasingly apart. In their few quiet moments not spent unconscious, Keeve and Terec took it upon themselves to uplift their team, their friends, their family.

Simply, they hardly had time to be alone together, much less cultivate a romance. Keeve swore to herself that she would tell Terec about her feelings about them after the war, after Marchion Ro faced justice.

Then, she realized she could no longer be a Jedi.

Keeve didn’t blame Terec for staying—they were a good Jedi, one of the people who gave her a reason to believe in what the Order could still be—but just like that, they'd run out of time.

At the end, all they managed was a confession initiated by Keeve, a fervent kiss initiated by Terec, and a tearful goodbye from both.

Back in the present, Keeve swallowed hard.

“But love came second to duty, to those who needed us,” she said, more sharply than intended, but she felt the energy in the room change, laser-focused on her.

“Now, let’s talk about how to save your system.”

#ask games #thank you anon! I think of terekeeve a normal amount #terekeeve #r: always enough #star dorks #light and life #I done ficed up #bracing myself for the inevitable angst impact

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trans-beast · 2 months ago

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https://youtu.be/jqrSAWAaC9s?si=ZjiRYDhJf97dXveo

I'm not usually super political. I don't even fully agree with some of the statements made in this video, particularly involving veganism, which felt unnecessary at best and biased at worst. But to those who would be negatively impacted given the current political climate, this video has value. Most of that value is at the start. Study the policies and laws in your state. There may be more of a safety net for you than you know.

There is also a chance you may find safety in specific parts of the state you live in, even if it's a state that shows up red on a map. Dallas, Texas has a reputation for being very queer-friendly, as an example. Knowledge is power, get yourself some knowledge.

The gist of the video is that getting involved with community stuff can help. And I don't mean "let's all work at a soup kitchen", I mean find a group you vibe with and go hang out with them, and be open to new folks seeking refuge in your pack. It can be a soup kitchen, it can be a gardening club, a D&D group that supports its players and isn't run by an asshole, it can even be a club that does BDSM on the weekends and watches horror movies at Dave's house once a month. As long as it's not closing itself off to new members and everyone is willing to contribute in some form, even if it's something as small as cleaning up something someone else spilled or offering to do a chore or lending your friend a $5 bill to buy a beer to take the edge off, that is enough to do some good.

Fascism lives in the mundane. It starts growing in the spaces where justice and community are absent. Don't let it grow. By having a community you stand together with, you WILL make an impact, even if you don't know it. You will make a snowball effect. We need to change the way people think, and it starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with everyone. This is the kind of societal upheaval that leads to people being more mindful and considerate, the kind of tragedy that makes people look back and say "we should have known better", but that better future only comes if we use our heads and stick together.

We've been conditioned to think a single person can't do anything, and that only a majority can make a change. That's bullshit. Every single person in a majority is just that - a single person. We need to foster bonds and form tribes, because that's what we've been literally born to do. We evolved to survive together, not alone. We evolved to help each other out, to lend our talents to the group so we can all make it, rather than just some of us. Selfishness feels bad because we literally were programmed for this through millions of years of evolution. We are not a species that banded together out of hate, we did it out of love. We have seen fossil evidence of ancient humans caring for their injured and disabled, ensuring they live far longer than they would have on their own. We care for our own.

And even outsiders aren't exempt from this evolutionary predisposition to pack-bond. We tamed wolves and made them dogs. We barely did anything and cats decided they liked our vibe enough to stick around. We used to be ENEMIES with wolves. Humans and wolves hunted a lot of the same prey, with the same methods, and we STILL managed to befriend them and become stronger together. Even now we are keeping all kinds of weird stuff in our homes like snakes and lizards and birds and spiders and rats, we are STILL taming animals, and they don't even serve a survival purpose anymore. We just like having them around. Human instinct isn't about bloodshed, it's about bonding with another creature and protecting that bond you have made.

Go outside. Go touch grass and socialize. Some of you severely underestimate the benefit of just living your life and inviting others to join. Find a safe space with people who don't justify doing harm to others by wearing a MAGA hat. If that safe space can't be found, do what you can to build one. Build a bond with that community, look out for each other. We're pack animals. Go find a pack.

I hope everyone found this helpful and I invite discussion. Suggestions, questions, comments, concerns, whatever! Go for it! Let's talk. Put the "commune" in "community".

#serious post #lgbtq community #lgbtq #lgbtqia #lgbtq+#lgbt pride #trans pride #gay pride #pride #gay rights #trans rights #human rights #election 2024 #post election

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championofravens · 1 year ago

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Tali’s thoughts/analysis on CSM ch. 151

Or: How you haunt the narrative in a story with no afterlife

(Spoilers abound)

Makima’s death has always been very interesting in the context of Chainsaw Man and its greater world building, something not typically touched upon often by other folks in the fandom. As mentioned by user @Jelimore when they approached me to write this, there is no afterlife confirmed within the story’s canon (at least not with the sort of certainty the population accepts other facets of the divine). It’s a fascinating implication in a world where Hell is real and already populated by denizens who are born and resurrected there. Based on what Makima describes of her time in Hell with the Chainsaw Devil, it is not a metaphorical place of suffering but almost has its own societal structure completely alien to humanity’s. So it seems safe to assume it is not widely believed in this world that a damnable soul can descend to Hell after it dies.

Heaven is much more nebulous. Heaven is implied only through hallucinations at the time of death (think Aki and Yuko’s final moments of peace) or a comforting word given to those at death’s door (the Angel Devil soothing a dying woman). This makes sense as the narrative works hard to neither confirm nor deny the existence of a singular God ruling the world. The story has never invoked divine intervention or any other godlike acts. If anything, we are rapidly approaching a junction in which a God Devil is more likely to arise as we see the looming shadow of the Death Devil and Nostradamus’s prophecy.

I believe both of these decisions are what really helps the story have such impactful and painful deaths- the mundanity of it all in a fantasy world that death could just be a black nothing as far as we know.

The idea of death becomes all the more interesting as we look to Devils, who can be completely destroyed to the extent that they are eradicated from existence and their very influence ceases to remain. It goes far beyond human death. In one of my all time favorite chapters, Makima lists a number of Devils who have been destroyed so completely (eaten by the Chainsaw Devil) that whatever concepts were born from them- or vice versa- are no longer even within the human consciousness. I think the first example she brings up to Kishibe is especially telling: Nazism is something that had to exist prior to its Devil, and when the Nazi Devil was eaten, it still wiped out that political party from the fabric of reality. Though the Nazi Devil did not create Nazism, its destruction assured it was as though it had never even existed.

So. Let’s talk about Makima’s death and Chapter 151.

Barem foolishly attributes a possible reasoning for Natuya’s inability to control him as the fact his body remains under the control of Makima even beyond death. Though this is something contradicted in all we know of how Devils work, Makima is not forgotten. Makima is not erased. Makima’s physical body and arguably her “soul” have been as thoroughly killed and buried as they can be and yet we do not forget her like other Devils. This is because Makima was destroyed. Not the Control Devil herself. He is still attributing an amount of divinity to a corpse however. His second idea that his inability to be controlled comes from a pure loyalty to her… well, I think that’s wrong as well.

Makima’s power of Control is forged from a feeling of superiority, a feeling cultivated and encouraged and fed throughout her life until she had innate control over all humanity. I believe Makima was encouraged in her position to see those around her as less than, which is a task that is already easy for Devils to follow. Natuya, raised by Denji, is saved in part by the love she has for him but also the average life he gave her. Though she has a strong Devil nature that has her putting an amount of distance between herself and others, we just finished a chapter in which she retracts those feelings for the sake of continuing her life with Denji. Even though she says it should be acceptable for her to hurt and kill as a Devil, she is more bound to her happy life than to following her instinct. We know it is not an indomitable force, or rule of nature, that she has to follow and we know it is not something encouraged by those around her.

So in that aspect, a man who just so easily destroyed her happiness and took multiple gunshot wounds without faltering, a man fused with a powerful Devil, it makes sense she may falter and lose that superiority. Her powers in ch. 151 seem to stem clearly from grief and rage as opposed to the calm certainty with which we’ve seen her use it before even when she is upset (think: Asa). It’s for this reason that I think Natuya fails in controlling Barem.

An irony of this is that Barem is blind to the intricacies of Makima’s power and how it works, unlike the readers, despite his devotion to her which is what leads him to think he is being protected by a more romantic notion. He was, after all, just a puppet during his time with her. His devotion is to a Devil that no longer exists and a woman with no power beyond that of anyone seeing ghosts in the throes of grief.

I think this chapter paints a very interesting and first time distinction between what Denji killed and didn’t kill at the end of Part 1. In the simplest words- Denji killed Makima, a human woman. That is what she became when Denji ate her and prevented her healing and resurrection and allowed her to die in a way no Devil ever has. She is as dead as any other human is within the story… and that is how she haunts it. It is what gives her power even still. Denji did not eat the Control Devil. He ate the first woman he loved. That is why Natuya is alive and why Makima gets to have a surprisingly human hold on the story in death.

(Tune in for Tali’s unhinged fanon explanation about Ahashi’s role in part 2, including the effects of Makima’s eyes in his skull and his puppeting by the Public Safety Division)

#chainsaw man #csm #csm spoilers #makima #ty again so much lenga!!!!

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cy-cyborg · 1 year ago

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hi! I'm (planning on) writing a fantasy book and I want my world to have accommodations for disabled people (blind, deaf, wheelchairs, etc.) and I was wondering if you could give me some tips/things you think people would appreciate please? I want to get it right :]

This post I wrote a few weeks ago in response to an anon question is a good place to start! It has some stuff for amputees and other related disabilities (e.g. wheelchair users/crutch users) specifically.

One of the best things though is to remember that things don't have to be a specific way, just because that's how it was in the real world. e.g. Castles in the real world don't tend to be very accessible, but stairs don't have to be the default method of travel between floors in your setting. especially if magic is involved.

Changes you make to make a society more accessible will also have run-on effects so things will end up looking quite different on a surface level. For example, written language and books will probably look really different to English if they were made with tactile elements built-in for blind people. Some things will also have positive impacts on non-disabled people too, which could cause a run-on-effect to something seemingly random. A city built with wheelchair access in mind (no stairs, wider streets, sturdier paving, less hills) is more likely to also be more accessible to people using horse (or monster) drawn carriages inside the city itself. This could result in more stables throughout the city because people no longer have to leave them outside the gates anymore. That also means more people would probably need to be hired to pick up the animal poo left behind which would quickly cause accessibility issues, so the cities would be probably be cleaner - it also creates more jobs too. A lot of little things like that would end up having rather large run-on effects.

This doesn't mean you have to change the entire aesthetic though! You can still have your stone castles and overall medieval aesthetic (or whatever other fantasy aesthetic you're going for) just be mindful of what elements you're using and why you're using them,

As for stuff specific to other disabilities, I'm not really the best person to answer that. Most of what I could give you would be pretty generic, like the book thing. Best to find content creators that talk about their disabilities (folks who talk about being blind, deaf etc) and pay attention to the tools they use and what they say they would like to see more often and try to figure out how to incorporate those things into your work in a setting-appropriate way. Just be sure you listen to what they actually want, not just what people make for them. This is especially important for Deaf folks in particular since a lot of devices made for them are not things the community actually wants or needs, it's just to make hearing people more comfortable around them. Of course, if you want to ask questions about your book specifically, find content creators who talk about writing characters with the disability specifically, not every disabled content creator is open to this kind of question since a lot have bad experiences of working with authors or just don't feel comfortable answering them in general.

#disability #disabled #writing #writeblr #writing disability #physical disability #disabilities #accessibility #writing community #on writing #creative writing #writer

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feeldirt · 4 months ago

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stovetop_angels

I've been dancing with hope and fear about creating a mini-community-led space in my city that's full of clout chasers and self serving transactional labor. I am lucky enough to have the physical space to hold dinners, markets, group discussions, etc.—a space for community or simply connections between queer black and brown folks.

I have many fears; the first one is that I will fall short. Second, no one shows up. Lastly, the one that brings me to tears quite regularly—I am undeserving.

I have tried to find my home in my own skin, but I grew up being cared for by those around me; most of them are gone now.

When I think of poverty, I think of community. I think about being a kid and having neighbors—especially mothers—walk me to the bus stop when my own mother could not. The most impactful core memories and some of the happiest have been from growing up in poverty. Seeing neighbors police the police to keep us safe. Checking on our elders who lived alone.. sharing recipes from different cultures. Actively being in disagreement but still coming together. Not everyone were friends or even spoken to regularly, but we all kept each other safe; it was essential for our survival.

I have tried and tried to find my home in my own skin, but I am 25 now, and I feel so incredibly alone.

I had a conversation recently with a friend about my desire to center community; I find solace in her. I asked her to proofread my very first post on stovetop_angels that I reluctantly created on one of the most forsaken apps, Instagram. Of course she had some notes; I didn’t expect anything less from her. I felt my insides boil.

You should include a statement that says "I am, too, also imperfect," she mentioned. "Something about accountability" casually echoed through the phone. She brings up my own interpersonal friendships, where I have felt shame and guilt about my reactions to other people's behavior that went against my personhood. My record of cutting people off.

Fuck, am I deserving?

I explained the difference between friendships and community. I've learned that I can, and it's necessary to be in community with people I don't like, people I wouldn’t want to build or no longer have a friendship with. My childhood taught me that, which I didn’t realize until now. I have never ended a friendship without communication and nuance, but in my friendships, I stand on ten toes. I am reluctant but not unwilling to bend my boundaries. There's behavior I will not except; I will not be villainized for that.

Time to time I think about how I am perceived. Ive been told some fear me or hate me. Chronic shittalker. Big scary brown queer outing racists and abusers. God, I've grown so much since then, but she follows me, so I have to ask: could a cut throat create-mode shittalker making memes of abusers and racists be worthy of community?

I am not above critique or accountability; my own hypocrisy leaves me paralyzed. It prevents me from finding community, but instead of hiding, I am baring my flesh to the world once again.

I have tried to find my home in my skin, but I am full of hope and nuance, so I will peel every last piece of my flesh off my bones until I feel how I felt all those years ago, or at least come close to the feeling of home.

#me #mine #shitpost #think piece #Everything ive done has been Justified #is justified bullying ok?#I think i keep losing friendships because im seeking commuinty #nobody wants to do labor anymore labor makes community work.

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h3ntaichrist · 5 months ago

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ahem, i have some THINGS to SAY, and i'm well aware this may ruffle more than a few feathers. but i find my message to be more important than sparing the feelings of those who continuously evade accountability and the accompanying shame. TW: mentions of religious trauma, addiction, childhood trauma.

the most common response i've seen, online and irl, from christians when encountering something they don’t like or believe is wrong (often based on misguided interpretations of their scripture), is mockery and contempt. usually taking place in the form of memes, jokes, and slanderous or insulting rhetoric. it’s their gut reaction, an attempt to shame others. the only other group i've seen do this as much, if not more, than christians is gen x, but i’ll save that for another time.

this is my experience as bisexual, spiritual but non-religious, ciswoman that heavily supports the very social movements that are often targets of christian mockery: BLM, indigenous land rights, #metoo, LGBTQI+ rights, gun violence prevention, climate change action, USA’s pisspoor hEaLthCaRe system, fentanyl awareness, and systemic poverty. i could go on.

i grew up in the church and i learned a lot. my daddy was a preacher for quite some time, so i speak on these things with a WHOLE lot of experience. i was a troubled kid, born of addict parents. i moved in with my dad around 7 or 8 after my mama “moved to louisiana to be closer to her mom so she could get better”. this wasn’t the real story, nor did it happen that way for my mama, but that’s beside the present point.

i had a lot going on at home that little me couldn’t process alone, and i was never in therapy long enough for it to make a positive impact. each time a therapist started asking questions that pointed to the home dynamic with my dad and step-mom, i was transferred to a new one. this continued until i was no longer taken to therapy, entirely out of my control and earnestly at my detriment.

during this extremely transformative and impressionable period of my adolescence, i spent a whole lot of my time in the church—not just on sunday mornings. i was actively involved with my youth group, attended wednesday services, church camps, retreats, and went on a mission trip to broken arrow, oklahoma. while i made some friends and had some incredible experiences, these were also the places where i felt the most ostracized and i don’t think anything has come close to it since. i was a troubled kid from generational trauma, not wealth, and was destined to be the breaker of this cycle. its real hard to find your footing when the odds are heavily stacked against you.

i was very fortunate to have my grandparents, who provided comfort, kindness, and support, shielding me as much as they could from all the chaos and trauma i experienced at the hands of people who were supposed to protect me. but they could only do much. as a result, i rebelled—hard. or at least as hard as a girl growing up in the church, the bible belt, and just over an hour from Pulaski, TN, a city infamous for reasons you can google, could rebel.

my youth pastor welcomed my weirdness. we didn’t talk much about my situation, but there was an unspoken understanding between us that i’ll never forget or appreciate any less. unfortunately, the same cannot be said for most of the folks i encountered during this time. i often felt humiliated and alone, mocked, and held in contempt. not by all, but certainly the majority.

there are a few folks i still keep in touch with today, one of whom feels almost exactly the way i do. our conversations as adults have been very validating. my childhood best friend, despite our different manifestations of similar childhood trauma, did her best to stay close to me, and for that, i am forever grateful. but again, these supportive experiences were the minority. i wouldn’t feel right not including them, though.

so, forgive me if i do not share your sentiments regarding the “mockery” of your religion during this Olympic season. i don’t care. i honestly couldn’t care less. i know so many people ranging from young to old who share similar stories of experiences with the church, stories filled with mockery, isolation, false concern, and contempt.

i’m not trying to say that one wrong makes another right. this extends beyond some simple tit for tat. so much wrongdoing has occurred throughout history at the hands of christians supposedly carrying out the justice and desires of their lord. it’s time christians learn about, if they aren’t already educated, and subsequently acknowledge this. it’s time christians listen to the stories of those they cast out from their communities, whether indirectly or directly, and work to understand the impact those experiences had on them.

i personally think a step in the right direction would be attempting to understand WHY their religion and its followers are so often mocked and ridiculed by those who have suffered at its hands. but as long as its members choose to blame the devil for the current discourse, rather than acknowledging their transgressions, i will continue to care absolutely zero about the mockery of their religion.

my experiences and observations have shown me that the mockery and contempt often displayed by christians towards those they disagree with is not just a reaction to modern social movements, but a continuation of a long history of exclusion and judgement. this behavior has deep roots in the very bones of the church and its misguided teachings. its crucial for christians to reflect on this history and the pain it has caused, and to seek understanding and MAYBE reconciliation with those they have marginalized. only then can we hope to move forward in a way that fosters genuine compassion and respect for all. until that happens, i will remain indifferent to the mockery of their religion, as it pales in comparison to the suffering inflicted by those who claim to follow it.

and to the few and far between christians who are on the right track in this regard, i’m so sorry for the burden you bear due to the actions of your fellow members, past and present. your efforts to show understanding, compassion,and genuine respect are invaluable. please, don’t give up. your work is crucial in paving the way for a more inclusive and empathetic future.

rest of pics in replies

#christianity #religious trauma #church hurt #olympics 2024 #equality for all #accountability #social justice

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donutwatches · 2 years ago

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MHA 2.6 - The Boy Born with Everything - part 2

This one is longer than usual because this episode is too damn juicy. Strap in folks, this one is an ESSAY.

I was not prepared. The implications of this are so much darker than anything I was expecting for this show. How did Endevour convince the Mom’s relatives for a marriage? Did the Mom’s opinion on getting married matter here? Was she forced? This is a rabbit hole of horror, it only get’s worse the more I think about it.

I mean, MHA is lighthearted and generally feel-good. The darkest elements so far was the bullying and arguably All Might overworking himself to the point of emaciation/illness. While those are weighty subjects, the story has not dug into them with depth yet. Is it wrong of me to want this show to lean into some of its darker potential?

Daddy issues manifesting. I love that he is rejecting his Dad’s nonsense. He is clearly in a bad mental state and I wonder how that will impact his role in the tournament fights going forward.

Ouch. His own mother said “You so ugly, let me fix that with some BOILING WATER”. It’s like she burned him twice.

Forgive me, this is clearly horrific, but my coping mechanism is tacky humor. So Dad and Mom are both abusive bags of shit? Todoroki’s left side resembles his Dad. Does his Mom hate her son for reminding her of Endevour?

I get that Todoroki wants to rebel against his Dad by rejecting the fire half of his quirk, but I worry that this is also a form of self-rejection. It is emotional self-harm to cut off part of his own identity. He is rejecting the half that his Mom called “unsightly”. He might have internalized that his mother hurt him/hates him due to any resemblance he has to his Dad. I love a juicy backstory.

I also love good art direction. The lighting on Todoroki has him split with half of his face in shadow and half in light. This is using lighting to communicate that Todoroki is torn between two paths, one dark, and one with hope. I do not know what the story is going to go with him, but the animators are showing us with the visuals that, while he is in shadow now, there is still light, and potential hope for him.

This visual storytelling is also shown below with Bakugo in total shadow. Bakugo has been on a dark path from episode 1. Bullying, misdirected anger, pride, and selfish motivations have put him in a dark space.

However! He is shook by what he just eavesdropped on. His expression is, dare I suggest, introspective. This gives me hope for Bakugo’s character too. This loud mouth kid quietly listened to Todo’s story, and is now, maybe, self-reflecting. Am I deluding myself? It would be a long road for our resident rage monster to change his ways. I am an optimist, ok?

If Todoroki leans into the shadow, he will be regressing into what Bakugo represents in the story, someone who is held back by narrow-sighted motivations and anger that will only stunt his growth.

Honestly, Midoriya is in an awkward situation. I would have no idea how to respond to that level of trauma dump. To be fair to Todoroki, there is something so trust-worthy about Deku’s face. I also would have told him my worst trauma in 10 flat seconds, but that has got to be overwhelming for Deku to process.

The symbolic lighting triad is completed with Deku being in total light. Not a speck of shadow on this lil’ sprout. He needs that sunshine to grow!

We know that being half way in the light equals hope for Todoroki, because Deku is in that light. We know that Midoriya represents hope for true heroism. That is his role as protagonist in MHA. If Todoroki is able to step into the light completely, he would become closer to Deku in his values, and therefore closer to true heroism.

What are those values? Well, after struggling to find the words, our Baby Chia lands on ‘I have hope for myself because of the hope placed in me by people who support me.’ I love that as a corner-stone for heroism, and it is SO opposite to what I am used to seeing in U.S. based stories.

This part fell flat for me. It kind of threw me off. Midoriya, your classmate just told you he is being abused, this is not about winning a silly school competition.

I am used to hearing Naruto level talk-no-jutsu, so this sub-par response from our protagonist initially disappointed me. BUT, I recognize that this is a teen who just had radioactive trauma dropped on his lap. How would he know what to say? Deku has no experience with this form of ‘villain-ness’ (abuse), because it is outside of his childish comic book conception of evil.

Ok, now my over-thinking, absolute reaching is over, thank god, let’s get back to goober jokes next time.

Part 3 is here.

#mha #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #todoroki #todoroki shoto #bakugo #katsuki bakugo #deku #izuku midoriya #Midoriya #anime #abuse #abuse mention

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fereldanwench · 2 years ago

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okay so

i guess i'm doing this

i've avoided talking too publicly about any of this because it's... messy and uncomfortable for me, and probably other people, too. i also don't want to perpetuate drama and i was hoping i could just move on, but i don't think i can without unburdening myself a little here and i need to be witnessed, lmao.

i think this fandom also has a culture of whispering and gossiping in discord servers and dms rather than addressing anything head-on, and breaking that norm is also uncomfortable.

but the thing is, even if no one explicitly shares anything, that energy still obviously influences more public spaces and how we interact with each other. it breeds a lot of paranoia and mistrust, i think, even for people who aren't predisposed to dealing with issues like social anxiety or RSD. but given how many of us do actually deal with those things, it makes it even worse.

(although on the flipside, i think there are also plenty of conflicts that should be resolved privately and sometimes going full salted-earth publicly is also the wrong move, but I DIGRESS)

and look, yes, i am bad in this regard, too. i got sucked into this shit with everyone else, and i fuckin' hate it. i hate how much inconsequential knowledge i have rotting inside my already very overloaded brain about who's besties and who blocked whomst and WHATEVER THE FUCK I DO NOT FUCKING CARE

i didn't get involved in this shit in high school, i certainly don't need to be getting involved in it now

having said all that, here's some internal fandom conflict i've been dealing with on and off since january of this year.

about a week after lizzie's shutdown, i did notice that people i thought i was cool with were seemingly no longer cool with me. it was also happened not too long after i made the how-to fandom guide that i realized missed the mark for some folks, so i was like, well, maybe it was just that.

but to be completely honest, even if it was just that, that still kinda sucked too. although i agreed with the feedback that i should have taken a different approach to some areas in that guide and been more sympathetic to other sensitivities for creators in the fandom, my heart was in the right place. intent doesn't override impact, of course, but intent should still count for something, i think.

and i'm not asking for sympathy, i don't want or need it, but i do just want to share where i was mentally at the time to set the stage for later anxieties: no one likes getting yelled at for doing what they thought was a good thing.

but yanno, also, again to be fully transparent, i did feel like some folks were projecting their insecurities onto some sections and were just taking an uncharitable read on it as a result. i think a handful of people just didn't read it at all and wanted to revel in some righteous indignation, an impulse i unfortunately also understand too well so i can't judge too harshly there. sometimes you just see a phrase that just gets under your skin and nothing else said before or after that matters. i know. I've been there. but it is still kind of unfair to the person on the receiving end.

but i tried to walk away from that situation with humility and understanding and as a lesson to be more thoughtful in the future. i also had enough people say that it was helpful for me to feel like ultimately was a net positive, and i felt like everyone was moving past it.

so a few weeks later, after lizzie's had shut down under INCREDIBLY ABRUPT AND CONFUSING CIRCUMSTANCES TO ME, and i noticed i was being seemingly shunned or even blocked by folks i was like...

are people mad at me again for the how-to-fandom post?

or, because i am publicly friends with some prominent members of lizzies who have been accused of bullying and other bad things, that i am guilty by association?

at the time, i actually considered making some sort of public statement, but i took a step back, and i told myself "no, you're just still dealing with some lingering anxieties about The Fandom Post and you're extra sensitive and inclined to some paranoia right now. you were mostly active in the 3 months in lizzie's before it shut down. you don't have a strong association with the server. that's silly. and making a post like that will probably just make things worse because people will assume a guilty conscience is an admission of wrongdoing in and of itself."

(and i do have a guilty conscience, but i was raised catholic, my natural state is to assume i did something wrong even if i quantifiably didn't, lmao.)

but i would still catch little comments here and there, notice passive-aggressive tags on someone's post, or even just feel a vibe that kept me thinking... maybe i actually am accused of doing something.

so when That Blog started up (and yes i hate myself for being enthralled by it and i just blocked it because i know my curious monkey brain will continue leading me to the dark side if i don't), and i saw that i was explicitly accused of being a part of some inner cabal of 30-year-old women who were bullying everyone in lizzie's, i was like OH okay. so it wasn't paranoia, i was right. being friends with a few people who have been accused of wrongdoing and i guess... winning a photomode contest once was enough for some people to assume that i was one of the big baddies in the server? cool.

but the other big reason i didn't want to say anything publicly at the time was the two incidents that i was aware of did not involve me at all. i literally just did not do anything. and it wasn't my place then nor is it my place now to weigh in on other of those, especially in a public setting. i don't even want to say anything beyond this, really. i wasn't involved in any capacity, and i don't want to be involved. they're just not my conflicts.

and i know some people will take that stance in and of itself as being complicit or whatever, and that's your perogative, but i just don't feel right about inserting myself in a situation that never involved me. and i certainly don't want to drag anyone, friend or otherwise, into anything when they're probably trying to work past it in their own ways, too.

i'm also not even that pressed about people deciding they don't "trust" me or whatever for being friends (or just being friendly with--some of the people I'm accused of conspiring with i don't even know that well) with people they don't like. I'm sometimes wary of people who are friends with people i don't vibe with, too. i get it. so if you want to label me as guilty by association, knock your socks off. but just know that within the context of The Lizzie's Situation, that is the extent of my trangressions.

and outside of The Lizzie's Situation, the only two things i can think of that i did were 1) foot-in-mouth guide as addressed up there, which i really think is more of a miscommunication than an actual Bad Thing and 2) acting like an asshole in another server to someone because i was mad about how they treated my friends, which was still the wrong way to handle those feelings, and I apologized for the best way i can under the circumstances.

i genuinely cannot think of anything else I've done to cause harm to anyone in this fandom. even with people i don't like, i still don't want to hurt them. i just don't want to interact with them. if there is something else i did and you want to talk to me about it, i am open to hearing about that and doing what i can to alleviate that hurt (if it's possible, i know sometimes it's not) and making the effort to not do that again in the future.

i know i can't do anything about people who are already convinced that i am the devil, but i don't think i could really accept that and move on without at least getting my side out there. so if you read this, thank you.

that said, i do think i need to disconnect for a while so if anyone reaches out one way or the other, I'm taking the day off from social media, lol. maybe the weekend, idk, we'll see.

but yeah. that's it. thanks. 💙

#t: wench on fandom

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blogofblogofblogs · 1 year ago

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50 CELEBRITIES YOU (MAYBE) DIDN'T KNOW HAD TIES TO PRO WRESTLING

Even before Mr. T got involved in the first Wrestlemania, celebrities of one form or another have been stepping into the squared circle. A list of those well-known famous folks appearing just on WWE shows over the decades would be near-infinitely long, let alone once you add the ones that showed up in WCW, ECW, IMPACT and, now, AEW. But this list/article, which I first started putting together over five years ago, is an attempt to go beyond the more mainstream publicity stunts. With only a couple of exceptions, this list is going to be a little different, covering 50 of the movie stars, athletes and even politicians who appeared outside of those notable promotions. Now, in fairness, some on the list were wrestlers first and foremost, but I feel their connections with popular culture outside of the squared circle qualifies them for such a list. And now, the list:

50. BELA LUGOSI

Kicking things off is Dracula himself. One of the earliest examples of a celebrity taking part in a wrestling show, Bela Lugosi appeared on one show managing/seconding NWA legend Lou Thesz. While this may sound unreal considering Thesz' stance on theatrics in wrestling, Lou himself verified it on his old message board. It was essentially a publicity stunt (as all these things are, honestly) arranged by Sandor Szabo, as all three men with ties to Hungary had been acquaintances prior. Sadly, beyond Thesz confirming it happened, little else of the match and event have surfaced; no date, venue or opponent (possibly Szabo?) is known, nor is whether or not Bela wore his famous Dracula cape to the ring.

49. KIWI KINGSTON

Lugosi wasn't the only Universal Monster to get involved with pro wrestling. Unlike Bela, New Zealand-born Erine "Kiwi" Kingston was a wrestler first - with a 20+ year career stretching back to the late 1940s. - but his turn as the Frankenstein Monster in the Hammer/Universal co-production THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964) late in his career is undoubtedly what he is most well-known for today. He would have two more unremarkable cinematic outings and wrap up his wrestling career by 1969. He may not have been the most well-known Frankenstein Monster in either the Hammer or Universal series, he is technically the final Universal one, so that counts for something.

48. MAX PALMER

One of the legit giants of the wrestling ring, Max Palmer's billed height ranged anywhere between 7'7" and 8'2 While neither is likely accurate, he was still a tall, tall boy. Palmer originally took his massive frame to Hollywood, but only managed to snag a handful of (known) roles while there. Mostly used for sight gags on comedy shows starring the likes of Martin & Lewis as well as Jimmy Durante, Palmer would become somewhat iconic as one of the more prominent Martians in INVADERS FROM MARS (1953).

Palmer was also the titular monster in the B-movie KILLER APE (1953), sparring with Johnny (Tarzan) Weissmuller's Jungle Jim. Leaving Tinseltown behind, Palmer would soon find another calling in the squared circle. Originally billed under his real name, he would soon alternate between it and Paul Bunyan (and later, a third gimmick - Hercules) as he worked territories across the country, including (what would eventually be known as) Mid-Atlantic, CWF, AWA and Tri-State/Mid-South often taking part in battle royals and 2-or3-on-1 matches, but also working with the likes of Verne Gagne, Bobo Brazil, Dory Funk and Angelo Poffo. While it lasted longer than his acting stint, wrestling was also not Max's ultimate calling; he would retire from the ring after only five years. After that, he became an evangelist billing himself as Goliath For Christ. Most of us just know him as a classic movie monster.

47. TOR JOHNSON

An icon to bad movie buffs everywhere, Tor Johnson's wrestling career isn't *that* big a secret, especially if you watched Tim Burton's ED WOOD (1994). However, I'm a petty bastard and I want to use this as a platform to set one of that lovely film's many, many factual errors straight. While the movie shows the inept director discovering the brutish Johnson at a wrestling show and convincing him to be in a movie, the truth is Johnson's acting career (and to a degree, his wrestling career) were much more robust than Burton's take on things. In truth, by the time Wood and Johnson met, Tor had not only been wrestling for 23 years, but had been acting for 21 of them as well. With over two dozen film credits to his, er, credit prior to the Wood films, Tor had appeared (albeit often uncredited) in the films of W.C. Fields, Erroll Flynn, Abbott and Costello, and Bob Hope. His rasslin' career was nothing to sneeze at, either, with Buddy Rogers being the wrestler Tor worked with the most during his career. Very little of his actual ring work exists (the image used above is from a movie in which he portrayed a wrestler), which is a shame, but how many wrestlers can say they were a Don Post mask?

46. HAROLD SAKATA

Since we're kind of in the "actual wrestlers, just more well-known for some one-off in Hollywood" zone, let's continue with one of the most famous examples. First gaining some amount of fame winning a silver medal in weightlifting for the U.S. at the 1948 Olympics, Sakata began a wrestling career that would span nearly 30 years, working under his own name and as Tosh Togo. During that time, he traveled the world, worked over 2000 matches on record, feuded with the likes of Nick Bockwinkel and helped introduce Rikidozan to the business during a tour of Japan. In 1964, Sakata was cast in his first acting gig as the villainous henchman Oddjob in the James Bond film GOLDFINGER (1964). The film proved a massive hit, eventually amassing $124 million off a $3 million budget. With his sudden demand in Hollywood, Sakata would lighten his grappling schedule over the years as he took on more roles; while most of the films he appeared in were most of the B-movie nature, he fared better on television, where his instantly-recognizable appearance saw him cast in everything from the ROCKFORD FILES to GILLIGAN'S ISLAND. A memorable parody of Sakata's Oddjob would appear decades later in the first AUSTIN POWERS film, proving this great wrestler's legacy in the cinematic world doesn't look too shabby, either.

45. MACH FUMIAKE

Mach Fumiake (born Fumie Watanabe) is a legitimate legend of the ring. Starting off as a teenage singer and television personality, Mach would joining All-Japan Women's before she was 15. While her career was brief, she became a legend - winning (and losing) their top title, the WWWA World Championship before she turned 16 and retired before 18, leaving behind a legacy that influenced a number who followed and flourished.

BUT...as that may all be well and good and awesome, she's mostly known to western audiences as the lead superhero alien Kilara in the 1980 kaiju film GAMERA SUPER MONSTER. Sadly, little footage of her in-ring work has survived, so even many of those who know of her career have only ever seen her in this film.

44. / 43. LITTLE MAN MACHAN / LITTLE FRANKIE

Moving from Gamera to Godzilla, we have two wrestlers most widely known for portraying the Big G's son. Portraying Minya throughout the original Showa era staring with SON OF GODZILLA (1967), Masao Fukazawa - better known professionally as Little Man Machan - had been a theater performer and professional wrestler before stepping into a rubber suit and his most famous role. Sadly, very little is known about Fukazawa's wrestling career other than he apparently had one.

On the other hand, his successor Little Frankie (real name Masanobu Okamoto) had a very well-documented 10-year career, working for All-Japan, DDT and FMW. Two years into his wrestling career, he was hired to portray Little Godzilla in GODZILLA VS. SPACE GODZILLA (1994), essentially the same character as Machan's Minya in the rebooted continuity.

42. PAT ROACH

Another ring veteran with a long and storied career, Pat Roach enjoyed four decades as a mainstay on the British wrestling scene, stretching from 1960 until he retired in 1998 and holding the British World Championship in the mid-'80s. Nearly a decade into his grappling career, Roach was hired to play a small role in Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971) and spent the next thirty years working the two professions concurrently with pretty decent success. He ended up appearing in a number of notable films including three different Robert E. Howard adaptations (CONAN THE DESTROYER (1984), RED SONJA (1985) and KULL (1997), Harryhausen's CLASH OF THE TITANS (1981) and the James Bond vehicle NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983). But there would be two roles in particular that would imprint Roach in wider social awareness, the German Mechanic in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) and WILLOW (1988)

Roach's appearance in the first Indiana Jones film - he actually appeared in all three of the original trilogy in different roles - was brief but memorable, as his eager but ill-fated hulking mechanic spars with Indy for a few before eating an airplane propeller. It would prove memorable enough that his character received action figures, including a vintage Kenner release at the time of the film. Toward the end of the '80s, Roach would step before the camera again as General Kael for WILLOW, and while the film did not reach the heights of Lucas' previous STAR WARS, it was still marketed heavily and Kael's fearsome visage was plastered all over it.

41. MIKE LANE

Mike Lane may not be that well-known in either the wrestling or film worlds, but he definitely deserves a spot on this because, let's face it - how many wrestlers got to be villains on the 1966 Batman TV show? (Spoiler: There was at least one more, featured later on this list). Lane was a tall man - billed at 6'8" - and turned his size into a career, starting off as a circus act before getting into wrestling, where he was billed as Dick Hollbrook for a time before switching to Tarzan Mike. Throughout the 1950s, Lane worked mostly California promotions, battling the likes of Mad Dog Vachon, Hard Boiled Haggerty and Duke Keomuka.

But not long after getting into wrestling, Lane's height landed him a role as a boxer in THE HARDER THEY FALL (1956), which was Humphrey Bogart's final film role. While still wrestling, Lane picked up a side gig as an actor, parlaying his frame into multiple roles as the Frankenstein monster (FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (1958) and the 1976 television show MONSTER SQUAD) and Hercules in one of the many peplum films made in Italy at the time. Oh, and he was a Batman villain. Sure, he was just one of the "goons," as Tallulah Bankhead's Black Widow was the main villain for the two-episode story, but Lane's goon was a rarity in that he got his own villain name: Daddy Long Legs. Mike would bring his wrestling career to an end at the start of the '60s, devoting more time to appearing in the likes of KOJAK, KNIGHT RIDER and THE MONKEES, though he apparently returned for one single match in 1985, facing Outlaw Ron Bass.

40. RUSS FRANCIS

Moving away from movies to sports, here's one that has some of you saying "Wait, I thought we weren't counting WWF appearances and everyone knows this guy was in the Wrestlemania 2 battle royal." Well, yes, that's true, but here's what's also true: Russ was something of a "ringer" for the match. Russ was the son of wrestling promoter Ed Francis and teamed with his brother Bill for a number of years in the mid-1970s (all while playing football at the same time), even winning the NWA Hawaii Tag titles.

39. ERNIE HOLMES

And Russ wasn't the only ringer on the football side of that WM2 battle royal. About five years before taking part in that spectacle, two-time Super Bowl winner Holmes had previously dabbled in the wrestling territories, working a little over a dozen matches for the Georgia territory (feuding mostly with Baron Von Raschke), a tag team match with Buck Robley against the Freebirds (Hayes & Gordy) in Mid-South and a few sporadic appearances at a smaller Texas territory.

38. OTIS SISTRUNK

From a Super Bowl-winning Steeler with ties to the Freebirds, we turn to a Super Bowl-winning Raider with ties to the Freebirds. A Pro Bowler, Sistrunk's time in professional wrestling was fairly short. After a one-shot for Mid-Atlantic against Big John Studd, Otis went to Georgia, where he was recruited by Michael Hayes to help him against Terry Gordy and Jimmy Snuka. The ad hoc pair ended up winning the tag titles, but the business proved not to be for Sistrunk, as he would suddenly vacate the title and retire from wrestling after half a dozen or so matches.

37. WOODY STRODE

Few of the football players on this list are as legendary as Woody Strode. When the NFL finally allowed Black men to compete, Strode was one of two such men who broke the race barrier in 1946. Alongside a healthy film career (Woody was nominated for a Golden Globe for his role in SPARTACUS (1960)) that saw him appear in around a hundred roles in 55 years, Strode featured in Tarzan/jungle and Hercules/peplum movies, westerns, and was even a Batman villain at one point, as the Grand Mogul (told ya Mike Lane wasn't the only Bat-Villain on this list).

But before Woody ever played professional football, he was a pro wrestler. Strode first jumped into the squared circle in 1940, working the California area for a short time before his football career took off. Once touchdowns were in the past, Strode would again return to wrestling in 1949, spending the next eight years working the likes of Gorgeous George as he traveled everywhere from Hawaii to Canada. After a brief comeback half a decade later, Strode finally hung up the boots and focused on acting.

36. ALEX KARRAS

Few football players on this list had a more controversial career than four-time Pro Bowler Alex Karras. For about six months, Karras turned to pro wrestling between his college and NFL careers, having matches with the likes of Wilbur Snyder, Dick the Bruiser, the original Nicoli Volkoff, Don & Jackie Fargo, and Bronco Lubich. In the early '60s, Karras admitted to gambling on NFL matches, a serious no-no for an NFL player. With nothing else to do while serving out his suspension, Karras went back to his old grappling stomping grounds, joining the AWA for a losing effort against Dick the Bruiser before returning to the gridiron. Now, while a 4-time Pro Bowl player might be enough to get someone like Karras on the list, it's really what happened after both of his sports careers ended. See, Karras discovered he was only a pawn in the game of life.

Alex turned to acting, and in-between smaller roles in films like M*A*S*H (1974) and PORKY'S (1981) had two breakout roles that endeared him to millions. His supporting role of Mongo in 1974's BLAZING SADDLES and later starring with Emmanuel Lewis on the hit show WEBSTER (1983-87) as George Papadopolis. Oh, and he was the Hooded Fang in the children's cult classic JACOB TWO-TWO MEETS THE HOODED FANG (1978). Not bad for a guy that started off making some bad bets.

35. JACK DEMPSEY

While football is the most common sport one transitions from to wrestling, boxing isn't far behind it and some of the biggest names in the game have dabbled in wrestling as well. In the modern era, we have the likes of Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali and Tyson Fury, but the legacy goes way back. In the 1920s, Jack Dempsey - while still World champion - would take part in public exhibitions with his friend Luigi Montagna, aka Bull Montana the wrestler to entertain crowds before his title matches. In 1925, the two fought at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as part of a celebration for military athletes and personnel, with Dempsey tossing Bull out of the ring to win the match. After his heyday, Dempsey would do some referee work in wrestling, apparently reffing at least one match between Lou Thesz and Buddy Rogers, and by the 1940s, he would occasionally pop up on North Carolina wrestling cards in straight-but-semi-worked boxing matches.

34. JOE LOUIS

Dempsey was only a pioneer in the pugilist-to-wrestler field, and many World champions would follow. Joe Louis, whose title reign still holds the record for length, found himself in the same place as his boxing career drew to a close. Shortly after retiring from one ring, Louis stepped into a new ring in 1954, working across the Midwest, but his life as a grappler would be short-lived, as an injury in '56 led to his retiring from active competition as well. Joe would then become a referee before he returned to active wrestling in later '60s, usually as part of tag matches, and retire from the ring for good in the mid-70s.

33. JOE FRAZIER

Knocking out the boxing round of this list, Joe Frazier. The first man to defeat Ali, once Frazier was done in the ring (for a time, he attempt multiple comebacks), he found himself in the world of wrestling. While many are aware of his shots as referee for the Flair/Dusty match at the second Starrcade and as cornerman for Mr. T at Wrestlemania 2, Frazier had been part of wrestling for years prior. As early as 1979, he was reffing for Carlos Colon in Puerto Rico. He would put on the tights himself in April of 1984, having matches against Colon and Victor Jovica before refereeing a match between Colon and Bruiser Brody that same month (with the finish seeing Brody taking a punch from Frazier).

32. BABE RUTH

Few names on this list - or many lists, for that matter - are more legendary than the great Bambino, Babe Ruth. Still considered by many to be the greatest baseball player ever, Ruth remains an icon many decades later. After his days as a slugger were over (and even during them, according to the Bleacher Report), Ruth spent some time in 1945 as a celebrity referee in the Maine, Boston and Portland areas, and as pics suggest, would get more physical with the wrestlers than many refs of the era would.

31. TONYA HARDING

After finding herself exiled from figure skating after her husband orchestrated an attack on a fellow skater, Tonya Harding became a tabloid regular in the mid-'90s. Seeking to exploit her notoriety, wrestling promoters quickly began courting her. Weeks after the attack, the WWF made her an offer to appear at Wrestlemania X (she declined) and soon after, Takashi Matsunaga offered her $2 million to work for All-Japan, but for whatever (likely legal) reason, that did not pan out. That didn't stop wrestling from wooing the disgraced skater.

On June 24, 1994, Harding would make her wrestling debut in less grand fashion in Oregon, agreeing to appear on a bizarre show comprised of Portland-territory regulars and lucha libre stars, with even the press conference for that getting air time on CNN. For one night only, Harding was the manager of Los Gringos Locos (Eddy Guererro and Art Barr) and their trios partner Brian Cox, facing off against Blue Panther Jr, Perro Aguayo and Konnan. Things got really odd, as the promoters never had time to procure a manager's license for Harding, so after the ring introductions, she had to spend the match sitting in a chair halfway down the entrance aisle. That would be it for Harding's time in wrestling for over a decade, during which she found a new calling as a professional boxer. Around 2008, while competing for a boxing promotion in Arkansas, Harding was confronted in the ring by local wrestling personality Boss Campbell, who trash-talked the crowd and Tonya before she punched him out.

#wwe #wwf #wrestling #pro wrestling #celebrity #celebrities

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prettyboykatsuki · 10 months ago

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i'm bombarding you with asks i'm so sorry but i have FEELINGS about this game—

i was so adamant about you helping the church folks in Saint Denis because the scene with Arthur and the sister would NEVER have happened if you didn't do the side quest! 😭 instead you get a small scene with Swanson which isn't nearly as impactful imo. literally the way he LOOKS and SOUNDS when he finally says out loud, "i'm afraid" fucking KILLS ME EVERY TIME.

he's so TIRED and EXHAUSTED and he knows Dutch is going to be his death but he loves Dutch and the gang and STILL tries to save him because he has nothing else and doesn't see his own skin as worth saving. but you know who he sees worth it?

John.

the same John he was (rightfully) giving grief to for abandoning the family that Arthur WISHES he still had. the same John who he would needle and bicker with, but in hindsight it resembles the needling from an older brother trying to keep the younger in check. and because he is who he is, it's so vividly clear that Arthur, despite everything, still loved John and still cared about him and his family SO much.

hell, Arthur loved everyone else in that gang more than himself. except for fucking Micah. but because he's so loyal to Dutch he would never do what he wants to do to Micah and played nice with him longer than he ever fucking deserved.

i just. i'm sick. i'm sick in the head. he gave EVERYTHING for the gang and tried to get those he loved safe, no matter what.

i love how you say that Arthur is too good for you. he'd never, ever believe you.

IM REALLY GLAD I DID THE QUESTS!! and i really enjoy how these little inconsequential meetings and quests impact arthurs journey as a character. like the sisters quest was simple and nothing too dire at all - but it has such a big impact on arthurs life. him saying in his journal that that conversation unburdened him after everything made me sooooo fucking weepy.

seeing arthur get more perpetually sick and seeing the cloud of death hang over him as the game progresses and him still doing everything he can to save dutch when he is well passed saving. dutch is an unforgiveable piece of shit and i do hatre him for what he did. it was truly truly truly so painful to see arthur continue to give to dutch. partially because he loved him and partially because he wasn't sure what else there is

i had a very long conversation about this w lamb but i really. i really love the relationship there is between john and arthur. i really love that they have a genuine sense of brotherhood between them and that the corruption in the van der linde gang stems so much from this corruption of the family structure. arthur sees john as his brother. like in a serious sense.

both the way he reprimands john and the way he looks out for him. the way he's willing to sacrifice everything and believes that his life will have at least meant something if john makes it out. i think arthur projects a lot onto john in a way that is only experience with older brothers. his hopes and wants and dreams. even his grief. he passes those things onto john and john, like younger brothers often do - take them on. he absorbs so many of arthurs mannerisms and tries hard to make good on what arthur wanted of him.

it was . so painful for me to hear that john heard arthurs voice in his head after everything. arthur loved that gang to pieces even when it didnt do him the courtesy of returning that love in the sligtest. oughhsdjs

YURI YOU SAYING THAT IS MAKING ME SO SICK. he is TOO good for me like so genuinely i dont think i could date a man so decent but you're right that he would never believe it and that makes me sick. arthur morgan you foolish and silly man

#return to sender #im experiencing such genuine and empty grief thinking about him #a.rdr2 #he is . such a good man. he was such a good man. i cant explain what it was making me feel #he was so decent. the picture of him and mary linton when he was young absolutely destroyed me #i simply could not be with mr morgan he frightens me

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dweemeister · 2 years ago

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June 22, 2023

By Josef Adalian

(Vulture) — It seems somehow appropriate that the company whose TV library includes Dallas is now being run by someone who often seems to be channeling the ghost of J.R. Ewing. Okay, maybe that’s not fair: J.R. was a villain audiences loved to hate, while many in Hollywood (at least those on social media) don’t feel any love at all toward Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. That became clear again this week when the latest round of layoffs at WBD took out pretty much the entire senior leadership of Turner Classic Movies, one of the company’s most beloved brands.

Officially, nothing has changed about TCM’s on-air offering. There are no announced plans to shutter the network or to fire all the on-air hosts who film introductions. And Warner Bros. Discovery execs are still issuing memos saying how important the brand is to the company. “I want to assure you that we remain fully committed to this business, the TCM brand, and its purpose to protect and celebrate culture-defining movies,” Kathleen Finch, chief content officer for WBD’s U.S. TV networks group, told staffers at the company Tuesday in a note announcing the departure of TCM general manager Pola Changnon. Problem is, after a year of cost-cutting and brand-eroding moves by Zaslav during his first year in charge, it’s hard to believe Finch’s words will match reality as the full impact of this week’s firings is felt over the next few months.

For one thing, what Finch didn’t mention in her memo (which doubled as a press release for the showbiz trades) was that she hadn’t just parted ways with one senior exec. As The Wrap would later report (and other outlets confirm), WBD also let go TCM’s program chief, its head of production, its head of events, and its marketing chief. Or, as one industry insider I spoke to this week told me upon hearing the news, the folks who were fired are “the people who’ve been the architect of the brand for decades.”

Networks go through creative shuffles all the time, and it is possible for even the most storied of brands to survive a regime change. HBO, after all, has launched some of its biggest hits ever in the years since longtime boss Richard Plepler stepped down and Casey Bloys took over much of his role. But what’s happening at TCM isn’t just a changing of the guard. Instead, it feels a lot like what Zaslav has been doing with his company’s youth and animation brands (Cartoon Network, Adult Swim) or what Paramount Global execs have done with MTV and Comedy Central. It feels like the beginning of the end. As the industry vet lamented to me, “They’ve completely dismantled the networks so that they don’t have their own identity anymore. They had these passion brands they managed, which had rabid fan bases. It’s gone.”...

... In researching this story, I came across one more example of how WBD seems to be moving on from TCM, its words aside. Buffering has learned that there have been serious conversations at TCM in recent weeks about ending the practice of producing outros for its feature presentations as soon as next month. Introductions to movies wouldn’t be impacted, but the network would no longer regularly tape new segments to air following the conclusion of a film, according to three people familiar with the talks. The good news is that, apparently, that plan is no longer happening: A source familiar with the situation says that while the idea was discussed, there are no plans to move forward with the cutback.

TCM killing outros would have prompted loud howls of protest from the network’s many supporters, particularly given the backlash to this week’s layoffs, which was so intense, it resulted in Zaslav talking to directors Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Paul Thomas Anderson. After that meeting, the trio of directors released a statement Wednesday saying they were “heartened and encouraged by the conversations” they’ve had with the WBD chief. “We have each spent time talking to David, separately and together, and it’s clear that TCM and classic cinema are very important to him,” the statement said. “Our primary aim is to ensure that TCM’s programming is untouched and protected.”

I don't trust Zaslav's honeyed words to Spielberg, Scorsese, and P.T. Anderson. I just don't. He is going to hollow out the one place where so many of us learned almost everything we know about classic films. TCM is American cinephilia at its most inviting, accessible, expansive, and life-affirming best.

#saveTCM

#TCM #saveTCM #David Zaslav #Warner Bros.#Warner Bros. Discovery #WBD #Steven Spielberg #Martin Scorsese #Paul Thomas Anderson #film #classic film #Vulture

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unnursvanablog · 1 year ago

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As one kdramas ends (king the land) new kdramas begin! which in this case is My Dearest, which is apparently only 10 episodes and a part 1 to the story for some odd reason according to mydramalist.

Now, I could understand this part 1 and part 2 for dramas longer than 20 episodes (like Alchemy of Soul was) but why not just make a 20 episode epic sageuk like they used to do back in the day.

But anyhow, My Dearest captured my attention pretty much from the start with the almost quiet start to the character introduction and the whole setup, some gorgeous scenery, some folk singing and with the alluring darkness of the Qing invasion.

Depicting the small, simple country life of the people in Gil Chae's small village and the sort of mundane, simple problems that she has to deal with was a good, impactful start because you sort of get this sense that the invasion is coming by the end of episode two and change all of that. It's very good storytelling in my opinion. The buildup was nice.

The leads are really good, the do have a nice chemestry (but it's not sizzling at the moment) and I do find the sort of brass, over-confidance of Gil Chae who seems to have been coddled by her family and by the communtiy that she grew up with. It will be interesting to see her growth as a character as she is thrust into the real world (if the drama does not sideline her for the sake of the male leads storyline).

Jang Hyun is a fun character but I get the feeling that both Namkoong Min and the writers are almost holding the character back right now, making him almost aloof to us and the other characters on purpose. I think it will be a lot of fun unraveling this character as the story progresses.

Despite the first episode starting with darkness and sort of what is to come message here was a lot of light and airyness to the first two episodes without it feeling like a total fluff - like some more youthful romantic focused sageuks tend to feel. This felt romantic and light but still in a sort of growup way to me. Not quite Bossam, but still. It didn't feel YA romance, if that makes sense depsite some sweeping moments that were written there to be swoonworthy (who does not enjoy a good falling of a swing and magically being captured in the air sort of moment).

(but my god… do I want and need it to be like Bossam in like mood and just overall sageuk goodness)

I adores the moment where she was running after the red thread all the way to Jang Hyun because of the symbolism of the read thread tying their fates together.

I am intriqued and hopeful that the more serious part of the story will be interesting. There was just the right amount of palace politics and other things sprinkled into the first two episodes without it being overbearing to the story or feeling info-dumpy. But I do suspect that aspect of the story, the presence of that storyline will only grow and grow with each episode and I just hope the drama will be able to tell both the romance and the other aspects of the story well and make it so it does not feel like two different stories in one.

That sort of thing was the downfall of dramas like Joseon attorney and just made both of those stories very uninterested and sort of meatless.

Because if that moment on the beach at the start is what is to come you need to bring your a-game. Give me drama, give me action and tragedy and some sweeping romance. Like I want to be sobbing by the end of this. I just wonder if splitting the drama into two parts for no real reason is going to kill the momentum, but we shall see. But I for one am eagerly awaiting for this drama to eat my heart and spit it out again.

I was also going to say that those folk singing / pansori scenes reminded me of Rebel: Thief Who Stole the People and then I looked it up and it's written by the same person… so it's going to be great and break my damn heart and the women characters will probably not be totally sidelined and have an impact on the story and omg I can't wait.

#my dearest #first impressions

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