#lots of great casually delivered representation and such it’s wonderful

[eggs-love-loki]

My boyfriend and I picked up a book called Threads that Bind (Kika Hatzopoulou) for a mini book club while we were at the beach this week and we didn’t realize it was a first in a series and not a standalone and I finished it and I’m OBSESSED with the world and characters and plot but there’s no sequel yet 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #388

Top Ten Things Tim Burton’s Batman Films Did Right

Thirty years ago, give or take, the first Tim Burton Batman movie was released in cinemas (according to Google, its UK release date was 11th August 1989). Everyone knows the story; it was a phenomenon, a marketing juggernaut, a hit probably beyond what anyone was reasonably expecting. I was too young to understand or appreciate what was going on, but for twenty years or more the image of Batman in the public consciousness was intertwined with Adam West and pop-art frivolity. Suddenly superheroes were “dark” and “grown-up”; suddenly we had multi-million-dollar-grossing properties, franchises, and studios rummaging through their back catalogues of acquired IPs to land the next four-quadrant hit. Throughout the rest of the nineties we got a slew of pulp comic adaptations – The Spirit, The Phantom, Dick Tracy – before the tangled web of Marvel licenses became slightly easier to unpick, and we segued into the millennium on the backs of Blade, X-Men, and Spider-Man. Flash-forward to a super-successful Batman reboot, then we hit the MCU with Iron Man, and we all know where that goes. And it all began with Batman!

Except, of course, that’s not quite the whole story. Studios were trying to adapt superheroes and comic books for a number of years, not least because Richard Donner’s Superman had been such a huge hit a decade before Batman. And the Batman films themselves began to deteriorate in quality pretty rapidly. Plus, when viewed from the distance of a couple of decades or more, the supposed dark, gritty, adult storytelling in Burton’s films quickly evaporates. They’re just as camp, silly, and nonsensical as the 1960s show, they’re just visually darker and with more dry ice. Characters strut around in PVC bodysuits; the plots make little to no sense; characterisation is secondary to archetype; and Batman himself is quite divorced from his comic incarnation, killing enemies often capriciously and being much less of a martial artist or detective than he appeared on the page (in fact, Adam West’s Batman does a lot more old-school deducing than any of the cinematic Batmen).

I think a lot of people of my generation, who grew up with Adam West, went through a period of disowning the series because it was light, bright, campy and, essentially, for children; then we grow up and appreciate it all the more for being those things, and also for being a pure and delightful distillation of one aspect of the comics (seriously, there’s nothing in the series that’s not plausibly from a 1950s Batman comic). And I think the same is true of Burton’s films. for all their importance in terms of “legitimising” superhero movies, they have come in for a lot of legitimate criticism, and in the aftermath of Christopher Nolan’s superlative trilogy they began to look very old-fashioned and a much poorer representation of the character. But then, again, we all grow up a little bit and can look back on them as a version of Batman that’s just as valid; they don’t have to be perfect, they don’t have to be definitive, but we can enjoy them for what they are: macabre delights, camp gothic comedies, delightfully stylised adventure stories. They might lack the visual pizazz of a Nolan fight scene or, well, anything in any MCU movie, but they’re very much of a type, even if that type was aped, imitated, and parodied for a full decade following Batman’s release. There’s much to love about Burton’s two bites of the Bat-cherry, and here – at last – I will list my ten favourite aspects of the films (that’s both films, Batman and Batman Returns).

Tim Burton’s Batman isn’t quite my Batman (but, for the record, neither is Christopher Nolan’s), but whatever other criticisms I may have of the films, here are ten things that Burton and his collaborators got absolutely right.

Great Design: seriously, from an aesthetic point of view, they’re gorgeous. The beautiful Anton Furst Gotham, all gothic towers and industrial pipework, is a thing of beauty, and in terms of live-action the design of all of Batman’s vehicles and gadgets has never been bettered. It gives Batman, and his world, a gorgeously distinctive style all its own.

Wonderful Toys: it’s not just the design of the Batmobile and Batwing that impresses (big, bulbous round bits, sweeping curves, spiky wings); its how they’re used. Burton really revels in the gadgets, making Batman a serious tech-head with all manner of grappling hooks, hidden bombs, and secret doo-dahs to give him an upper hand in a fight. It makes up for the wooden combat (a ninja Michael Keaton is not), suggesting this Batman is a smarter fighter than a physical one. Plus all those gadgets could get turned into literal wonderful toys. Ker-ching.

He is the Night: Adam West’s Batman ran around during the day, in light grey spandex with a bright blue cape. Michael Keaton’s Batman only ever came out at night, dressed entirely in thick black body armour, and usually managed to be enveloped in smoke. From his first appearance, beating up two muggers on a Gotham rooftop, he is a threatening, scary, sinister presence. It totally sold the idea of Batman as part-urban legend, part-monster. Burton is fascinated with freaks, and in making his Batman freaky, he made him iconic.

You Wanna Get Nuts?: added to this was Michael Keaton’s performance as Bruce Wayne. Controversial casting due to his comedy background and, frankly, lack of an intimidating physique, he nevertheless utterly convinced. Grimly robotic as Batman, he presented a charming but secretive Bruce Wayne, one who was kind and heartfelt in private, but also serious, determined, and very, very smart. But he also excellently portrayed a dark anger beneath the surface, a mania that Bruce clearly had under control, but which he used to fuel his campaign, and which he allowed out in the divisive but (in my opinion) utterly brilliant “Let’s get nuts!” scene. To this date, the definitive screen Bruce Wayne.

Dance with the Devil: The counterpoint to this was Jack Nicholson’s Joker. Cashing a phenomenal cheque for his troubles, he nevertheless delivered; his Joker is wild, over-the-top, cartoonish but also terrifying. In my late teens I was turned off by the performance, feeling it a pantomime and not reflective of the quiet menace and casual cruelty of, say, Mark Hamill’s Joker; but now I see the majesty of it. You need someone this big to be a believable threat to Batman. No wonder that, with Joker dead, they essentially had to have three villains to replace him in the sequel.

Family: Bruce’s relationship with Alfred is one of the cornerstones of the comic, but really only existed in that capacity since the mid-80s and Year One (which established Alfred as having raised Bruce following his parents’ deaths). So in many ways the very close familial relationship in Batman is a watershed, and certainly the first time many people would have seen that depicted. Michael Gough’s Alfred is benign, charming, very witty, and utterly capable as a co-conspirator. One of the few people to stick around through the Schumacher years, he maintained stability even when everything else was going (rubber) tits up.

Meow: I’ve mostly focussed on Batman here, but by jeebies Batman Returns has a lot going for it too. Max Shreck, the Penguin, “mistletoe is deadly if you eat it”… but pride of place goes to Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman. An utterly bonkers origin but a perfectly pitched character, she was a credible threat, a believable love interest, and an anti-hero worth rooting for, in a tour-de-force performance. Also came along at just the right time for me to experience puberty. If you’re interested. Plus – and this can’t be overstated – she put a live bird into her mouth. For real. I mean, Christ.

Believably Unreal: I used to criticise Batman for being unrealistic, just as campy in its own way as the ‘60s show. But that’s missing the point. It’s a stylised world, clearly not our own thanks to the Furst-stylings. And Burton uses that to his advantage. The gothic stylings help sell the idea of a retro-futuristic rocket-car barrelling through city streets; the mishmash of 80s technology and 40s aesthetics gives us carte blanche for a zoot-suited Joker and his tracksuited henchmen to tear up a museum to a Prince soundtrack. It’s a world where Max Shreck, looking like Christopher Walken was electrocuted in a flour factory, can believably run a campaign to get Penguin elected mayor, even after he nearly bites someone’s nose off. It’s crazy but it works.

Believably Corrupt: despite the craziness and unreality, the first Batman at least does have a strong dose of realism running through it. The gangsters may be straight out of the 40s but they’ve adopted the gritty grimness of the intervening decades, with slobby cop Eckhart representing corrupt law enforcement. Basically, despite the surrealism on display, the sense of Gotham as a criminal cesspool is very well realised, and extends to such a high level that the only realistic way to combat any of it is for a sad rich man to dress up as Dracula and drive a rocket-car at a clown.

The Score: I’ve saved this for last because, despite everything, Danny Elfman’s Batman theme is clearly the greatest and strongest legacy of the Burton era. Don’t come at me with your “dinner-dinner-dinner-dinner-Batman” nonsense. Elfman’s Batman score is sublime. Like John Williams’ Superman theme, it’s iconic, it’s distinctive, and as far as I’m concerned it’s what the character should sound like. I have absolutely no time for directors who think you should ever make a Batman film with different music. It’s as intrinsically linked with the character as the Star Wars theme is with, well, Star Wars. It’s perfect and beautiful and the love-love-love the fact that they stuck it in the Animated Series too.

Whelp, there we are. The ten best things about Burton’s two Batman movies. I barely spoke about the subsequent films because, well, they’re both crap. No, seriously, they’re bad films. Even Batman Forever. Don’t start.

[parkminijiminie]

I think Black or White was self-explanatory today, but what did you think about it? What about the party, in general? I'm love your blog

Hey, sweet Anon. Thank you for your love 💙💛😍😘

I first have to say that I applaud Seokjin for his strength and professionalism to participate in the Prom Party in his family’s time of grief and loss. It must have been very hard to do and ARMYs should be really thankful to him.

Overall, I enjoyed the Party a lot, perhaps more than last year. I was surprised by it in a positive way. I didn’t expect this particular units nor their respective performances apart from Ddaeng. I thought we would get a JK+V+Jhope, RM+JM and Sope units as the comeback show suggested. Still, I wasn’t disappointed; I loved their perfomances very much.

Taejin really came for me with “Even if I die it’s you”. I loove the song and have always wanted to hear it live and they did not disappoint in the slightest. Their vocals were impeccable, Jin with his high notes truly mesmerized and of course Tae’s voice was on a different level. It seemed he really enjoyed performing it, the song must hold very special and fond memories for him. Their outfits were totally my style and once again I was reminded just how much chemistry Tae and Jin have while performing as well as in general. They sound and look wonderful together.

Ddaeng left me speechless. The Asian aesthetics in the choice of outfits, the energy of the performance all made me enjoy it tremendously. BTS truly have a superb and very unique rap line. I particularly liked Hoseok’s part as his way of rapping is really different to me. To be fair, I had to watch the performance at least twice because the first time I was so distracted trying to figure out if Namjoon had a shirt (and trying not to die), that I missed half of it. Speaking of Joon, he really came for me in this performance. I felt attacked by him on a new level. Suga of course killed it but that is nothing new, he always does. My favorite part was Tae hopping on stage in the middle of the song. I died laughing. He finally made his dream come true albeit very shortly. It’s one of my most favorite moments.

I really liked the choice of songs. Butterfly and Whalien 52 were awesome. The BT 21 costumes were really cute (Jimin’s little ponytail 😂), Fake love sounded great and I liked that the Encore stage included Best of me and Pied paper as I like both songs and choreographies very much. Particularly funny I found the segment with the members trying to remember their old dances. Jimin was sooo bad, yet so cuutee and Tae was a literal king. The games and skits were very good too. I found them more entertaining this year perhaps due to the fact that each member was playing for himself. It made them more competitive and therefore pettier. Bangtan arguing over who got what right is a whole mood. Truly like a Run episode.

Random little things I loved: Jin’s falling headband during Anpanman; Jimin’s little ballet dance; Tae’s cameo; Tae and Kook plotting against Suga and Hoseok and Jimin turning it around to include all of them; that Minjoon hug 😍😍😍; JM pleading the staff to take down his old photos; Kookie and Tae arguing for Minie’s attention; Jimin leaning on Jk during Butterfly and much more.

Now about The Dance, The Performance, The Black and White Couple.

First, no-one is allowed to say anymore that JM and JK don’t know about the black and white thing. Ofc it’s logical that they would know, especially since there was a Korean article about it, but now it’s painfully obvious. They really are aware of everything, huh. Those little Chick and Bunny onesies were not random too. They just wanted us dead.

Second, their outfits.. God, their outfits. The all black look really suits JK the best as well as the all white is made for JM. Both of them were very sexy, Jimin in a softer, more sultry and delicately seductive way with that choker and Kook in a more raw and aggressive way. Each of them looked the best they’ve ever looked in my opinion and together they were intimidatingly attractive. They were like a cross between a wet fantasy coming to life and a royal couple. If I see them on the street I wouldn’t be able to lift my jaw from the ground to be honest.

The Dance itself was magnificent. The choreography suited their individual styles perfectly and each of them shined. JK’s high kick must be my most favorite move he’s ever done. The moments where they danced together were on another level, that jacket taking off move is something I can’t wait to see in the practice video. The song itself holds a lot of meaning and I’m really glad they chose it. With it’s message being “love transcends differences” I don’t think it was a random decision at all.

All in all, I was very surprised to see them paired up for a third year. I thought that for sure they would switch things around this time but nope. They proved once again that if they have the opportunity they will always choose each other. And why not? They really are something else together. The chemistry they have while performing, be it dancing or singing, is phenomenal. Their voices, dancing styles and personalities go so well together as if they were made for each other. None of them overshadows the other, each shines and compliments the other in creating a masterpiece. Truly, every time it’s just the two of them, I think to myself that it can’t be a coincidence they met. They were meant to find each other even if just to deliver us amazing performances. When the time comes for sub-units, I hope they form one because it would be a total shame if they don’t. They really are that pair: insanely talented, insanely attractive and insanely in-love. Okay, that last one was just a joke. Or was it, really? 

Apart from the dance, there were many other KM moments throughout the Prom Party that I find meaningful. JK openly thirsting over JM’s abs as well as Jimin thanking Jungkook for growing up and showing his body were very funny. That hint of Jinjikook vlive also left me very very excited. I think Jimin being equal parts exasperated and dying of laughter is an accurate representation of the trio’s vlives that we’ve seen so far. Also, Jin complaining of KM always ordering their food for his room is an entertaining glimpse of Bangtan behind the scenes. How often are Jimin and Jungkook together? Are they ever even more than 2 meter away from each other? How many times have they ordered their food to Jin’s room for him to complain about it? And of course, the whole Jikook annoying Jin skit was also very funny as it’s probably very accurate. This is exactly how I think JK and JM are off camera: in their world, doing their own thing and tormenting their hyungs in the process. Particularly heart-warming to me is the moment in which JK oh-so-casually admits that he doesn’t have any secrets from Jimin. The fact that his answer to a member keeping something from JM was immediately and without any thinking “It wasn’t me then” is so telling for the state of their relationship. JK said it so casually, so simply, as if that’s obvious and goes without even mentioning: If it’s a secret, then it automatically isn’t his.

If his doesn’t convince people of how close Jimin and Jungkook are, I don’t know what will.  I don’t think there’s even one person in the world that I don’t have at least a very small secret from and I don’t think that’s a problem. But of course JK and JM will outdo us all and be that couple, the “we tell each other absolutely everything” one who finish each other’s sentences and have at least three nicknames for the oneother. Come to think of it, it’s really not that much of a surprise considering they’re known as Jiminclopedia and Jeonclopedia. They really are putting everyone to shame with their healthy and ever stronger relationship. 

The other also casually delivered curve ball that hit me right at the heart was that “I told Jungkook I would go to the moon with him”. Like, what? WHAT? I’d really really like to know in what context exactly did that came up? I can’t think of even one entirely platonic situation in which I would choose these exact words in a conversation with a friend. Sure, I’d say “I’ll be there for you through everything” or “I’ll support you always, you can count on me” but “I’do go to the moon with you”? That’s such a strong and romantically sounding statement that it is not something you’ll often hear between just friends, let alone bRotHerS. And the meaning of it is so precious: Jimin would follow Jungkook everywhere, he would be there with him in anything and everything, he will not leave his side. Again, it isn’t something we didn’t know but hearing it stated so explicitly and so directly gives it a whole new level of impact. 

Which leads me to my next thought: will we ever know what is the deal with KM and the moon? It obviously holds a significance for them as it’s been mentioned several times now but in what way?

It’ll probably stay a mystery as many other KM things. Which is actually a big part of what I love about them: their relationship has layers upon layers, it deepens in roots and grows in height every year. It’s a beautifully intricate thing, like a century old tree in the beginning of its life or a masterpiece painting yet to be finished. It’s the one “ship” that keeps on giving because it’s not really a ship. It’s two people loving each other thoroughly and continuously in and through time (in whatever way that love knows form). 

[elliepassmore]

Exit West Review

3/5 stars Recommended for people who like: contemporary fiction, very mild magical realism, metaphors, refugee representation, LGBTQ+ characters So I had to read this book for a class and I'll say that the book and I started out on the wrong foot from the get-go and it went downhill, then uphill a bit, then just plateaued. For starters, I bought the book without reading the synopsis or really knowing anything about it, but since the class is a writing class and we were talking about the representation of refugees in media, I was expecting this to be nonfiction. Gratitude goes to my mother, who actually read the synopsis and pointed out the book was fiction, because at least that was a better way to find out than when I opened it for the first time. The second issue that offset the book's and my relationship is that, however much of a metaphor the book is and however much it's about refugees and global migration, it's also largely about romance and while I read books with romance, there is something about reading a book that is even partially about romance that I just don't fuck with. So there was that. Or, perhaps, you could classify some of the books I read as being about romance, it's more about the genre, which is contemporary fiction, which I definitely don't touch with a 10-foot-pole. I live and interact in reality, I don't need to read about it fictionally too. Anyway, the book and I got off on the wrong foot, but I will say that it isn't a bad book, it juts isn't a good one. The author waxes poetic, which I actually like and find nice to read so long as the author doesn't go overboard (re: Ernest Hemingway). I thought a lot of the intangible descriptions were really poignant and apt for the situation, like this line: "so by making the promise he demanded she make she was in a sense killing him, but that is the way of things, for when we migrate, we murder from our lives those we leave behind" (98). It's a bloody fantastic line and it's one of the few that I highlighted in purple (personal pleasure) instead of green (relevant to class). However, I think because Hamid is so intent on writing in this manner and on getting all his metaphors into the book he fails in adding emotion. Like...that line is great and I love it, but I don't feel it and I don't feel Nadia feeling it. There are plenty of raw lines in the book, but there are so few lines that actually impart any sense of emotion onto the reader. Nadia and Saeed fall in love and we read the description of that, but I didn't receive any of the emotion behind it. (view spoiler). I think, ultimately, this is what killed the book for me, because let's be honest, as long as we can relate to the character's and feel the situations then we have an opinion of the book one way or another. Maybe we relate and feel and still hate the book with a burning passion, or maybe we relate and feel and love the book more than any other, or maybe the book falls somewhere between, but I don't think I've ever had a book that properly got me to relate to a character and feel for them where I was left with just no opinion at the end of it. I don't dislike Exit West, but I don't like it either. It just sort of exists as a book I read and will analyze in class and that will be that. Beyond the lines and lack of emotion, I will say that this book is very obviously a giant metaphor. I will also say that I am shocked at how many of my classmates believed that the 'doors' in the book were metaphors in the book (they are not, they are literally doors in the book, the metaphor is purely for the readers). For starters, this book opens up in Unnamed City in Unnamed Middle Eastern Country at the brink of Unnamed Conflict in an Unspecified Time with Unspecified People. Right? So it could be anywhere, anytime and I actually think Hamid actually does a good job capitalizing this later on in the book, but for the first half it's just annoying. The conflict doesn't actually matter, the doors do. The doors represent migration, obviously. People go through the doors and end up in places like San Francisco and Mykonos and Tokyo. People in the countries with doors either have people leaving or people arriving. Those countries with people arriving don't want people arriving...and you see where this is going. There's this whole conflict about rich countries guarding their doors to prevent people coming through and leaving doors to poorer countries unguarded in the hopes people will return to wherever they came from. There is, in the book, a 'crisis of migration,' and it causes a rise in hate crimes. There are nativists and there are nonnativists, there are the police and the refugees, there is the desire for homogeneity and the reality of heterogeneity. I'm really not being superfluous when I say the entire book is a metaphor, it really is. It's a reflection of the 'migrant/refugee crisis' of today and people's reactions to it, and it's a reflection of globalization and the increased speed and efficiency of global travel, and it's a question of what really constitutes a national identity and borders and whether these things can be chipped away at if people from different cultures come to live in a new area en masse. Writing it like this, I can really see the potential for the book. I really, really think Hamid had a great idea when he sat down to write a book that was a metaphor for all those things, he just didn't execute it very well. Of course it is also a metaphor for romance and how people can love each other fiercely in one place and time and then find out down the line that they are different people for one reason or another and don't want to let go but also don't want to hold the other person or themselves back, which is a metaphor that I would prefer in a different book entirely, though it does fit in this one. Going back to the idea of Unnamed Place, Time, People, etc., is another idea Hamid had that just wasn't executed that well, though its potential definitely picks up in the latter half of the book. I started reading the book and immediately placed Nadia and Saeed in some Iranian city, 1970s. Iran-entering-Revolution. Cell phones were invented in 1971, the Revolution began in 1973, that's probably enough time for Nadia and Saeed to have them. Chat rooms have pretty much always been a thing, though I did skip over the fact they need internet to function, and that definitely wasn't invented for another decade, but it was really when I was analyzing the first half of a book with a friend from class that I began to see holes in the time-frame. For starters, she pointed out they had internet. She also pointed out they used social media, which is another thing I just happened to skip over (really shows the bias effect). She was convinced it was set modern day, I still thought it was in the '70s. Then I began reading the second half of the book and began to wonder if it's set in the future. There are iridescent, hummingbird-sized drones and robots that "walked or crawled like animals" (154), and just casual drops of things in general that made me wonder if the book was set forward in time. I've come to a new conclusion, perhaps a crazy one, but it's the one I'm sticking with since the book is a metaphor anyway, and that's that the book is set in all times. Nadia and Saeed are simultaneously in the 1970s and the 2010s and the 2050s. The book is a metaphor for migration and globalization and perhaps a little bit about the rise of hate and the far-right, and those things can occur anytime in anyplace and the confusion of when and where and who is intentional because it's everywhen and everywhere and everyone. The only names we are given are Saeed's and Nadia's and their starting place is not given and, as mentioned, there is no time period given either, but fragments of many, and so they could just as easily be in the 1970s or 1980s (if you ignore the Internet and social media) as they could be in 2009 or 2015 (if you ignore their cellphones have antennas) or even 2056, or you could say whatever and assume like I am that they and the events of the book are transcending time just as they are transcending space. Exit West has a lot of really great concepts that just weren't executed all that fantastically. I can definitely tell it had potential to be a really great book, but the lack of emotion in the writing really just kills it for me. I also feel that some of the concepts weren't fully fleshed out, the doors being a fantastic example. I can't even express how many people in my class thought the doors were a metaphor the characters were using for something else instead of a metaphor the author was using for us. Plus, we get to see the immediate impact of the doors, but there's not really a mention of their long-term impact and we don't see any sort of discussion going on for how this is transforming the world aside from "oh we have more refugees now." I also thought the ball was dropped when it came to the nativists in the book. They have a couple of riots and something burns down in London and suddenly it's all good? That doesn't make any sense at all, but Hamid builds them up to this conflict and then after the conflict they aren't really mentioned again for the rest of the book. There were also just some weird things Hamid included, such as the details about Saeed's parents' sex life. Like...I didn't need to know the mom was super horny and the dad became impotent, and it's also not at all relevant. Hamid also goes into some detail about Nadia's shrooms dealer, but the character doesn't really play a role except for that one scene where he...delivers...shrooms. He could've been described and added in in one sentence instead of with detail, but Hamid added it anyway. It makes me wonder if he'd've had more room for some of the better concepts to be explained/fleshed out more if he'd dropped some of these bits. But anyway, I don't really have an opinion about the book itself, parts of it yes, but not the entire thing.

[countlessstorieswithoutend]

Alright, I have a lot of thoughts on the first episode of Vrains, like, a ton, so get ready.

We start with our first look at virtual reality...interesting. A representation of countless pockets of data verging into a cohesive whole. It's aesthetically pleasing, even if it could be more stimulating. Revolver is the first character we see, denoting his importance. He's a symbol of power and anger. His monster circles around a pillar, presumably representative of a server. That's one thing that's interesting about cyber space, everything we see therein is symbolic of something else. We see anthropomorphic programs, determined to help, but sealed. Right from the start this is interesting. They are artificial lifeforms that look over Link Vrains, and they seem to be sapient...you could explore the nature of artificial life, creatures that are created purely to serve a purpose. Then Ignis appears, and he's just...great, right from the start. "Your savior has arrived!" "Lol, too bad you got yourself trapped." He's so nonchalant and boastful, it's really entertaining. He also says that being hated has its perks, which...what does he mean by that? Is he used to being hated? And if so, what advantage does that give him? Is it how he avoided being sealed? The trap for the AI reminds me of a Fullmetal Alchemist transmutation circle...though there are definite differences in design. Ignis has this great little smirk, and it's even built into his face, I love it. His first action is to save the network, even at cost to himself. He's a good guy. Also very powerful. He saves the target of their attack by hiding it within himself...making it so no one can get their hands on it. The programs say he won't be able to return that way...for some reason. Because it makes him an outlaw? Then, surprisingly, they brutally slaughter Ignis, if he weren't a program that would be so gory. Notably, despite acting human, programs aren't flesh and blood like humans. Suggesting they're something less...or more. You must wonder why exactly Ignis was helping out, since he seems to be some sort of rogue program. Because this is where he lives? Because he thinks it's his job? Altruism? Lulz? maybe some combination of the above. So we skip to five years later. Interesting. So after five years the knights are still unsuccessful. What's the significance of the timeskip? We get a scene of...someone, or something, surveying many different areas with some sort of digital apparatus. We don't know what it means yet. We get introduced to our hero fighting evil, he's confident, and the music is great. Notably, he attacks with "Link Slayer." In other words, a severer of bonds. An odd monster for the hero to have. Is it foreshadowing? Notably, the monster also attacks with an item of hope. Things are just starting off, but already the technology in this series is pretty cool. We see self repairing areas, manipulation of space, teleportation... The opening is nice, typical showcase, it looks promising. The thing I like most is how it starts in reality, then around the halfway point the lines blur and we get introduced to virtual reality. I hope that's a theme that gets followed up on. Despite the heavy focus on virtual reality, the ending shot of the opening is something natural and optimistic. We get out first hint of Yusaku's past as he dreams in the aftermath of class. I presume he's sleep deprived from all his fighting with the knights. You can tell Naoki is something of a bumbler, just from the way he holds himself. He points out Yusaku must not have many friends, which, dude, rude. But I kinda like that touch, because it gives him some personality. He's tactless but still trying to reach out to a stranger, as well as putting on an air of confidence. Yusaku so deadpan...he doesn't give a fuck. The guy's clearly proud of his new duel disk, which apparently doesn't need cards because it's all virtual reality. Wow, cool development, Vrains has invented Dueling Network. I wonder if Yusaku's unusual duel disk will be a hint about his identity to others...it's cool that they're going for something new. We get these shots that suggest that they're being watched. But who is doing the watching? It can't just be a dramatic flourish, right? It has a real big brother feel. "I have a program that helps me in duels." That's nothing to brag about kid. The scene has good exposition, it's natural. Sol Technology is in charge of the new duel disks. They who control the duels, control the world. The guy says that Link Vrains is only for the elite, which makes me wonder. Is SOL Technology really elitist, only allowing the most qualified into their system so as to curate their output? Yusaku agrees with him that it's not so easy to go to Vrains, but later in the conversation he says the fact that Naoki hasn't gone to Vrains yet means he doesn't have much faith in his skill, and we see virtual reality spectators later on, so...not sure what to make of this. It's kinda confusing. Is spectating allowed but not participation without special permission? Or is it actually really easy to get into Vrains and it's just being blown out of proportion here? He can just access the class's projector with his duel disk? That's some real high tech. I want to see more applications of this high tech...they've already shown us several. Oh my god. Language is regulated by AIs...like, that's just so hilarious. It tells you a lot about SOL technology. They've built their company's image so completely around decorum and class that their userbase isn't allowed to say "fuck." Maybe that's why the Knights want to destroy the network, they can't deal with how stiflingly restrictive it is. You know, this kid seems like a bit player, but I wouldn't mind seeing more of him. Charisma Duelists are namedropped, and I'm immediately interested... I like how Playmaker has his own fanclub, but Yusaku wants nothing to do with it. He's just interested in defeating the knights of Hanoi, he doesn't like standing out (though if he doesn't like standing out he's really doing a poor job of not standing out. Maybe he secretly wants attention?). He has a cool, disaffected personality. I wonder if this classmate is gonna have greater significance. I wouldn't mind if he did. So, does dueling a Knight of Hanoi somehow facilitate their arrest? I mean, i'm kinda assuming that, because everything in Yugioh is solved by dueling and otherwise dueling them would be kinda pointless, but what's the mechanism for it? Also, what incentive does a Knight of Hanoi have for dueling Playmaker? Will it make him go away somehow? The episode is unhelpfully vague, though I will cut it some slack because it's just one episode in. On the one hand, I'm kinda happy that we're getting right into PLOT, but at the same time I remember looking forward to potential slice of life regarding Charisma Duelists and Yusaku coming out of his shell. I imagine we'll still get some of that, but it's gonna be far more plot heavy than initially assumed. I like how Yusaku casually asks if Naoki has any evidence on Playmaker, only for those doubts to be assuaged. He's really good at not giving stuff away, but I imagine the pressure of maintaining a secret identity must get to him. Yusaku shows his analytical chops, pointing out Naoki's flaws and virtues. It shows that he's kinda blunt and has a hard exterior, but also has a good heart. It also rather illustrates Naoki's personality. We keep getting shots of something surveying the surroundings, and I wonder what it could be. It can't be the Knights of Hanoi or Sol Technology, because if so they'd have already figured Yusaku out. Though if it were Sol Technology, that'd really bump up their big brother cred. Is anyone else surprised by how deep Yusaku's voice is? We get a shot of Ignis in VR, being found by some drones. I gotta say, this shot is really confusing because the VR world looks just like a regular city, so at first it's kinda hard to tell where the AI even is. For some reason the way the life form retreats looks funny to me. Bishop too wears a mask of anonymity. Both to save his true identity for a later reveal, and because masks are power in Vrains. Though seriously, making an alias and avatar based on a chess piece is kinda weird. I guess he's just trying to look sophisticated. Notably, they say SOL Technology is the leading group in the network, meaning they aren't the only one. The Cyverse creates Data material, whatever that is. Something to generate new digital landscapes? The scene is expository, but it delivers some good tidbits in the process. SOL Technology is interested in staying on top, but also in maintaining order. They've been on the decline, and are convinced that capturing the program is for the best, positioning them as potential antagonists. I wonder what Ignis' motive was. Like, he hid the Cyverse to prevent it from being destroyed, but now no one is using it. So what was even the use of saving it? People in this setting don't see AIs as people, although they clearly have sapience. I wonder if that's going to be a point of conflict, gradually awakening to the personhood of non-human life, and fighting to protect them. I like how we're dropped right into a power struggle between three parties. Notably, there are many shades of gray here. The Knights of Hanoi seem devious but probably have some sort of goal that they think is noble, given the name "knights." SOL Technology is interested in profit but also thinks it's doing what's right by returning what was stolen from them. And Yusaku seems heroic, but as we'll soon see, Anti-Hero seems more appropriate. He'll take the program for himself even if it means hiding it from its rightful owner, he hacks to make a difference, and he threatens to erase the AI to maneuver himself into an advantageous position against the knights of Hanoi. SOL Technology has a platform in the middle of nowhere in its building, taking up who knows how much space. Those eccentric businessmen. I think it's notable that Yusaku is only able to hide his presence through his hacking skills. Without them he'd be doomed. You can't fight against the powers that be in Vrains by playing by the rules. You have to subvert them. Which makes sense. In a virtual reality, those with admin powers are absolute. We get introduced to Shoichi, and already we get a good idea of their friendship. Shoichi brings up speed dueling to Yusaku, presumably out of a desire to try to cheer him up after he lost his interest in dueling. He feels responsible for getting Yusaku involved, but Yusaku doesn't hold it against him; he's doing this of his own free will. They work together as equal partners. Notably Shoichi is working class. Right from the start that tells us a lot about him. He's a guy who's had to struggle to survive, a guy who knows the meaning of hard work, an underdog. All likeable traits. It's interesting that Yusaku is motivated by a vendetta, adding yet more to his anti-hero cred. It's pretty dark for a Yugioh protag. We get a nice bit of humour, and Yusaku being pushy, but it's urgent, and Shoichi is too reliable to turn him down, he's happy to work alongside him. They also have their hacking station set up in a hot dog stand. That's just...priceless. Yusaku shows his smarts, creating a plan to capture the AI. I hope he remains consistently smart throughout the series. Though frankly the very fact that he's hacking without being caught by SOL Technology shows he's impressive. "It can be done, if we work together." There's that typical Yugioh protagonist friendship speech, Yusaku knows all about kizuna. Though fittingly for Yusaku, this speech is relatively subdued. It seems SOL Technology basically runs the city, not just VR. Are they contracted with the government or something? We get introduced to charisma duelists, and it's nice. Blue Angel clearly loves the adoring crowd, I like her already. Oh look, a generic announcer guy. He'll never measure up to 5D's announcer guy. Man, how must Go and Blue Angel's opponents feel, to not even get their names dropped? The plot is pretty well put together, it feels fairly real. So Ignis is running from SOL. So he clearly doesn't work for them...but what is he then? He still helped SOL. I guess it'll come to light later. They could break through the firewall because of the weakened power from the scan. So wait, normally they couldn't do that? Why do I get the feeling that these firewalls are gonna be next to useless in this series. He gets a feeling while searching for the AI while the knights make their move. Wonder what it means. Oh my god that woman got roasted. Though I've gotta say, this scene was initially really confusing, because according to Shima's words regular people shouldn't be in Vrains, yet here they are. This is further compounded by the fact that the monster seems to do damage even in the area Yusaku is in, despite clearly not being part of virtual reality, which leads you to wonder if they can materialize into reality or something, or if Yusaku is already in virtual reality. It's really confusing. best I can figure, spectators are allowed in Vrains, and virtual reality somehow has some sort of effect on actual reality. Took me my second watchthrough to puzzle that out, because it was not EXPLAINED. Still, that is a pretty great moment, because it shows how ruthless the Knights of Hanoi are. They mean business, they'll do whatever it takes to achieve their goals (not that the guy seems to have a good reason to be attacking people, he kinda seems like a colossal dick). Though at the same time, I have to ask. What happens to people who get attacked in VR? Do they die in real life? Or do their accounts just get deleted? I need to know. The episode is less than forthcoming. "Link Vrains Might Collapse!" What, seriously? Just how fragile is your network? One guy crashing random virtual reality buildings is enough to bring the entire thing to its knees? How has this place not been destroyed by now? Stupid. The monster has a sense of real power to it, but I gotta ask, why only send one guy? Do they not have a lot of guys? The opening suggests otherwise. Yusaku is out in the open, does no one see him? "I'm just a lil'old passing through AI!" Look at him humble himself to try to get out of this. Man that's cute. Yusaku really has a rough start with Ignis, on account of not seeing him as a person. Yusaku gets his own transformation sequence, neat. Yusaku saves Blue Angel, showing his innate heroism, but I have to ask, is there any reason why she couldn't defend herself? Yusaku was able to duel off the Knights of Hanoi before, so what was stopping her from preventing his rampage? Was she just scared? Yusaku sets it up so they have to beat him to get the program. Of course. It always comes back to dueling. Was it impossible to stack the deck more in your favor Yusaku? Revolver seems pleasantly surprised, perhaps happy to see a worthy challenger? The knight of Hanoi seems confident, but...doesn't he look a lot like the knight we saw Yusaku fighting at the start of the episode? What's up with that? And for that matter, isn't he using Revolver's monster? Is revolver letting him borrow it? That could be interesting. Yusaku has snark. So AIs are secular beings. Ignis is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but his natural altruism kicks in, coupled with deciding that Playmaker is better than the Knights of Hanoi. He helps Yusaku out. So this is how speed duels are introduced. I'll withhold judgment on them for now, the setup seems kinda cool. The ending is nice, not much to say about it though. A nice glimpse of things to come. By the way, isn't it kinda odd that the ending song in this purely technological world is "believe in magic?" And a bit of hope at the end. Yusaku already knows how to speed duel. My first impression is that this is effort to make Yusaku super special awesome, but maybe it's more than that. maybe it's tied into his missing past? All told, real solid first episode. My only real issue is the several important questions that were left unanswered. So, thoughts?

[swelldomains]

Moore`s Law, Golf, and Your Business Tools

In the past 50 years, golf devices has actually enhanced tremendously. Yet in spite of clubs that struck the sphere farther and straighter, despite the surge of swing instructors, videos, as well as much better training methods, the ordinary rating for a round of golf remains at around 100, where it has actually rested for decades.

Credit: Jeff the Trojan

The average gamer's driver is qualified of hitting the ball 60-70 yards farther today. Irons are much more forgiving, regardless of where effect is made on the clubface. Golf rounds go further without any loss of feeling or spin.

My preferred breakthrough is GPS. From this, you get the precise distance to the opening, and also to the threats. How has it allowed us? Well, it helps some gamers keep in mind which hole they're playing after the draft beer cart has made one a lot of visits.

Some pros do effectively by pressing the equipment guidelines to their restrictions. Unidentified Matt Every started this year with a putter that looked like a black metal train line connection. Transforms out the 'Black Swan' putter has some rather innovative engineering integrated in: the highest possible 'putter momentum of inertia in putter record,' as well as a 'wonderful area 3 balls vast'! Every led the Sony Open entering into the final round, however dropped back a bit, choosing a tie for sixth, and also $178,062.50. A little bit much better compared to my $62.50 in life time golf earnings.

Why, with all the hardware in the bag, do not amateurs' average ratings boost? A few reasons:

Practice and technique imply a great deal more to racking up efficiency compared to equipment.

Commitment and passion feed right into practice as well as technique.

The 10,000 hours rule: You're not getting there playing 10 rounds a year (that would certainly take you 200 years - as well as arthritis postures an actual trouble at this moment.)

Strategy: Top pros 'believe their way around the training course.' Golf provides a collection of challenges with each opening. Not trying to fix them gnaws at your score, bit by bit.

Games often get harder when everyone has access to the exact same improved tools. To make up for the added size of players' drives, training course were extended, and given more 'teeth'.

Feel: You need to turn the club, which means a connection between mind, body, ball, circumstance, and area. Having scientists enhance 'rate as well as power' without readjusting various other variables might make you a worse player overall.

Forgiving clubs keep even more helpless players keep coming out. Such players don't even discover the basics like a right grasp. The typical rating suffers.

Leonardo da Vinci's Traveling Machine

When you hand over a wonder device to the general population, the wide divergence in responses to them is amazing.Casual golf players always made use of to make the excuse that unlike the pros, they really did not have a caddie who carried around a 'yardage book' for every space and cranny on the program. With the advent of GPS, that reason was gone.

So just what does the ordinary gamer do when provided the info that on a 370-yard hole, the water risk begins 230 backyards from the tee, and ends 260 yards from the tee? Pulls out his 'huge stick,' as well as aims to clear the water, or thinks/hopes 'I hardly ever struck that far, so at worst I'll comfy up 227 yards down the fairway'. And ... whack! 252 yards, a beautiful looking shot ... so ... that risk had not been there. Plop! All along, there was a much greater probability of racking up par by beginning with a shot of about 205 lawns, using a 205-yard club (most gamers will certainly score no differently from 95 lawns out as well as 165 backyards out).

In various other words, you provide an amateur a powerful tool, and he does not utilize it for any kind of constant, routed purpose. The gamer spends virtually no strategic initiative in order to take advantage of brand-new information he has at his disposal. The concern to be lookinged there was 'what should be done regarding the hazard'? The response was, by default: nothing. Keep playing the means you always do.

Moore's Legislation as well as the Cloud-Based Blister Economy/Bubble

In every area - perhaps in computer than others - we've seen spectacular increases in raw power as well as performance over the past fifty as well as 10 years. Moore's Regulation (not purely a scientific 'law'), the feverish press for boosts in computing rate (which drove Intel to terrific efficiency over the years), has actually equated into end results as well as financial makeovers that could not have happened without them.

Yet as a society we still encounter numerous obstacles. We do not face bandwidth shortage or material circulation expenses like we did twenty years ago, yet we still deal with several zero-sum video games, including those including precious commodities like water, breathable air, and also yes, also food.

Before the mania for 'computer in the cloud' really started to take off, but long after leaders had actually already assembled low-cost commercial property devices to launch their one-of-a-kind dreams and plans, I was struck to hear Google CEO Eric Schmidt reviewing the impressive company environment we live in today.

The 'expense of introducing a startup' was near zero, went the line. And on paper I understand this to be true.

The Eric Schmidt Perspective

The price of running some sort of technology startups dove - 90 to 98 percent, probably - in between 1996 and also 2006. So you could virtually do anything you set your mind to (presuming you have a computer science degree or more, a one-bedroom house, and a Net link.) This ended up being a preferred line at Google, delivered by other prominent Google keynote speakers. It was as if they and also others in Silicon Valley were component of a liberating army, eliminating expenses from the environment of chance, to enable the very best and also brightest triggers to spark without the burden of debt or massive VC fundraising efforts.

It's only been regarding fours years given that those remarks, but on representation, they plainly painting an extremely partial picture of the reality.

An 'unprecedented great environment for business' became a credit history press, a deep recession, as well as a recognition that much of the larger economic bubble that had actually been sustaining so much risk-taking was maintained by unsustainable financial need and also document degrees of home debt.

So that's something. Rental fee as well as food will certainly still cost you. And also to gain those, you normally need a job, not an amazing startup plan as well as totally free software.

And amusing point: the largest news to come was not concerning all the small start-ups somehow flourishing, but rather, just how a lot more financier cash was starting to pile right into young business to allow them at the seed rounds throughout to A, B, and also C rounds of venture financing as well as beyond. That doesn't count all the large media companies divesting (or just shedding) old assets as well as putting whatever funding they have actually left or can elevate right into a range of digital enterprises.

Web 2.0 Propaganda

Web 2.0 VC 'bubble' cash (after briefly running out in the crunch) fed smoothly into the next phase: a doubling-down into a massive technology IPO blister that compensated the boldest and also biggest players (and their investment bankers). Pandora, Groupon, LinkedIn, Zillow, Angie's Checklist, Zynga, TripAdvisor, (as well as, coming soon, Yelp and Facebook) elevated big amounts of resources in their attempts to go for broke as well as end up being 'classification killers' - high as Amazon.com had done (as it turned out, effectively) all those years ago.

Facebook, Zillow, and also Twitter incorporated raised at one billion bucks prior to going public.

So much for the concept that beginning a business is economical, as well as that practically anybody can do it without the aid of the economic markets. Impressive founders, remarkable teams, impressive capitalists, remarkable network effects with users, amazing media tales, and so on created a 'spiky' globe of brand-new technology giants with large customer followings, not a level, enjoyable world where everybody reached work with their animal projects.

So the availability of low-cost bandwidth, remote teamwork, as well as helpful SaaS devices - also ones that cost 90-98% much less compared to they did a decade ago - gets a lot more individuals to the very first tee currently, yet few struck it all right to be able to quit their day job.

True pioneers and enthusiasts could not be so different from normal people - approximately some commercial property books now tell us. Well, they're absolutely human. And also they're not reckless, always. They're usually enormous outliers in some way. You give them the devices, and also they are in a tiny minority of people who could spark those stimulates into a bonfire of development. [For more on this, see the section on Bill Gates' exceptional success in Jim Collins, Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Turmoil, and also Good luck - Why Some Thrive Regardless of Them All (HarperBusiness, 2011, pp. 162-166) .]

Limitations: Moore's Legislation as well as Economic situations of Scale

Moore's Regulation has actually definitely made a wide range of technical innovations feasible, as well as this has an effect not only on your lifestyle, but on all fields.

But such 'legislations' don't always appear to change our lot of moneys. Some environments aren't even suitable with such laws.

A Fish Out of Water - Credit rating: Julian Burgess

Golf comes with an integrated social and physical atmosphere that dictates a tempering of raw 'power.' We could not have Moore's Legislation in golf clubs - to name a few traits, training courses would ultimately get to the size of our planetary system. A 'club' has to do its trait within specific limitations. Gamers cannot push the round into orbit with rocket launchers. Probably that's just common sense. Then there is decorum to think about.

Moore's Law does not, on its own, make excellent business. Neither do cheaper, quicker tools generally.

If barriers to access on (for example) computing and also storage were lowered to zero, it would certainly could develop an entire new collection of challenges in any industry.

We can't all be cover girls...

Moore's Legislation does not suggest you can come to be Tiger Woods.

Moore's Law can't even exist in social environments that limit pure developments in rate, power, or outcome. Playing 'better,' or a lot more 'positively,' not 'larger, much faster, and also dirtier' is often absolutely the game you're playing ... something that gets lost in breathless media as well as coverage of the 'pure advancements' in things like chip innovation. [For a thoughtful counterpoint to out of breath technology as well as business media, see Umair Haque's sights on value cycles, sustainable sources, as well as the tech industry's propensity for producing 'thin worth'. Umair Haque, The New Capitalist Manifesto: Structure a Disruptively Better Company (Harvard Company Press, 2011) .]

Cloud computer will not turn all garage hackers right into Mark Zuckerberg.

Plus, you wouldn't want it to.

These are devices, ordinary and simple.

The devices are exceptionally powerful in the right-hand men. And also virtually ineffective in the wrong ones.

Making them less expensive, or totally free, does not constantly spur a sudden uptake of thankful users.

Most middle-class family members today can afford gym memberships, Nordic skating skis, and also personal trainers.

All family members can afford running shoes.

And yet the excessive weight epidemic shows no signs of abating.

Why Cost is Good

Where am I goinged with all this? I need to be right here to discuss marketing automation tools, which is mainly the subject of the Acquisio blog site, right?

I'll chat about all of that rather a bit in the coming year. Yet I just needed to obtain that off my chest.

I like that many of these devices are budget friendly to numerous people, that's for sure. I once created a write-up that lauded then-new Google Analytics for 'equalizing' actionable analytics, to put it accessible of the average business.

GA's complimentary power is a terrific instance of today's incredible as well as more level playing area for the smaller sized business, definitely. Nobody would certainly desire this video game to be playable just by a cartel of firms that could manage six figures a year for Internet Analytics, for example.

But some cost is good. Some expense (whether it remains in time, rush, or money) allows the much more passionate and also fully commited amongst us obtain a little a benefit over those that will not invest.

Back to the broad world of sporting activities: in my brief, inauspicious profession in high institution cross-country skiing, those people that lived in warmish environments spent a fair bit of time in the offseason doing exactly what was called 'dryland training': running up as well as down ravines in sweltering temperatures, and also strapping on very early 'roller skis' to pole around on dead-end streets.

Credit: Daniel Malmhall

The investment in odd (as well as somewhat costly) devices settled in performance. And also would not you understand, dryland training becomes an additional spectacular instance of just how approaches that offer you a side in one age come to be simple 'tablestakes' in another.

All expert hockey players, as an example, train throughout the summer season. Being 'in shape' isn't much of an advantage in pro hockey today.

Despite the reality that others will at some point reach your business use of brand-new tools and also methods, maybe that's simply it.

An 'side' is never ever for life. Those that seek an edge are frequently rewarded.

The tools will never literally be your side, but if you locate on your own leveraging their power when others are active with something else, opportunities are your enthusiasm to uncover effective brand-new tools is a sign of your individual commitment to remarkable performance.

How dedicated can you be? To be really fantastic at anything, you need a degree of commitment that is - to place it gently - unbalanced. As the great David Feherty put it: 'If you're great at this video game, there's something seriously incorrect with you. [...] If you have dinner with Vijay Singh and also a pea rolls right into his mashed potatoes, he's got a fork in his hand, however he's checking out a shelter shot.'

[groupkiller]

it's not that people don't see it. i LOVE johnlock, i check the tag! i see the content, i didn't think it'd happen bc the series made it clear those dialogues were nothing but a joke. at the beginning i was like hmm? but then it made me angry as fuck that they were playing it for the laughs, since it was obvious it didn't mean they'd be endgame. be angry at the writers for turning queerness into a joke. imo they did not queerbait: they made fun of queerness (also angry at what they did to irene)

____________________________________________________________I am actually curious as to how many people did see the romantic “sub” plot :) I know the johnlockers saw it of course. But how many of the casuals saw it? Maybe quite a lot saw the romance, but like you didn’t think it would happen.And I am sure a lot of people didn’t want it to happen(Which may or may not have been different, if either John or Sherlock had been a girl, and it had been the classic hetero normative boy-meets-girl).And I understand people who want a friendship story.

Personally I love friendship stories. I am a bit tired of the “boy-meets-girl” story, because I have seen it so many times. If creators can put a new spin on it, it’s fine. And it’s not like I didn’t cry by the end of Titanic and Forrest Gump. I like a good romance if I like the characters and the foreshadowing is good. I just often think friendship stories are more interesting, because I see fewer of them. (And because I can ship the bromances ^_~)So I don’t want to hate on the people who really wanted a friendship Sherlock story. 

I might go into a lengthy discussion with people who claim, I am mad for seeing a romance, but luckily I haven’t had to deal with many of those people :)And I would probably also shake my head in frustration if the only argument against a johnlock romance was: “But it’s not in the canon!” “Neither is the modern setting or Molly and loads of other things on the show. ARGH!” I like it when people take existing stories and give them a new twist. But I know that the more old versions seem alike, the harder it is to make a new version that will be accepted, because people want more of what they already like.I am a pastor, and if I ever tried to come up with new suggestions for Christmas carols for Christmas eve I would most likely not survive the shit storm. Tradition changing is very hard, when people love what they already have ^_^I am a slash fan girl, so I of course shipped johnlock from the start.

1) In the first season, I didn’t think johnlock would happen either. I just enjoyed the show with it’s humor. (I am straight, so gay jokes never bothered me personally, and my gay and bi friends don’t seem to mind. My queer friends have never uttered concern about queer baiting, so it came to my attention only years ago.)

2) In the second season I thought: “I still like the gay jokes, now it’s a running gag. Ha ha, still funny.” But then came John’s grave yard scene, and I thought: “Hmm it’s no longer JUST gay jokes or cleverly hidden subtext, now it’ in major scenes too… interesting. Because he already said that Sherlock was his best friend, so that wasn’t the thing John couldn’t say.” (It has been suggested to me, that what he couldn’t say was that Sherlock’s platonic friendship saved him from suicide, and I am open to interpretation-suggestions, but I think this is undercut by John “moving on” from Sherlock before his poposal in the next season)

3) In the third season I thought the romance got so blatant that I started thinking: “OK, Mark is gay, they might ACTUALLY be going for this. They didn’t just put it in for the humor, but as very clever foreshadowing, wow!” Here we got the “moving on after Sherlock before proposing”, the whole wedding episode with the sad-leaving-early-scene, and the Sherlock restarting his heart for John, and the tarmac scene. And I thought that since this again was major important scenes, this had to be a Chekhov gun, they were hanging on the wall. I still thought it was clever, because Sherlock COULD just be sad, that his best friend moved out, and he COULD just be trying to protect the only real friend he had without it being romantic, and in theory he COULD just be trying to cheer John up at the tarmac (Or well, no I didn’t think that for a second, and I don’t see how “moving on so soon after Sherlock” could ever be platonic, nor the look they give eachother on the dancefloor before Sherlock leaves, but since my sister didn’t see the romance, I racked my brain and came to the conclusion, that maybe there was a fair no-homo-interpretation, though I of course thought, that my queer-reading was the right one ^_^)

4) After The Abominable Bride I was getting very excited. I was starting to look forward to a 2017 where we would finally get a huge show with queer main characters. I had stopped even thinking about how casual viewers saw this as platonic.So many people said: “I don’t mind queerness.” So I thought: “Great, then no one will object if johnlock happens. If they claim it comes out of thin air, there is loads of subtext to support it, and they will realize that it WAS properly foreshadowed.”UNFORESEEN YET INEVITABLE are the best kinds of twists anyway.

And I asume that other people would support a romance between characters with chemestry if it is properly foreshadowed, like I do, even if it’s not my favorite ship :) (Just like I would support the friendship arch if that was what was foreshadowed the best, but yeah - clearly people don’t agree what the show foreshadowed here ^_^).

So yeah, I am of course very disappointed that johnlock hasn’t happened (yet?).

It is totally OK that writers are free to write what they want! They don’t cater to my wish fulfillment. And seeing as I am straight, I personally wont cry myself to sleep because I am not getting representation… or, well, the fact is that I actually DID end up crying myself to sleep three nights in a row.I am not sure if it’s because I was influenced by how sad queer people, who really relied on Sherlock to represent them, were. Or if it was just because I had invested so much time in this show and was so sure that the subtext was foreshadowing a romance, that I was just way more disappointed than I usually am, if I watch a movie that is great up until the ending, and then the ending is disappointing… Usually it’s only two hours I wasted. In this case it was many times 16,5 hours. (And they are not wasted, they just let to something that really disappointed me. That doesn’t take away the joy I have had until The Final Problem. But then there is the discussion about whether it is queer baiting. Because if it is, then that might actually force me to reevaluate the enjoyment I had the first times I watched the show.)

It is not fair to demand what you want of someone else, just because you want it, however I think it IS OK to be disappointed in a show/movie or book, if it makes promises to the reader/viewer and don’t deliver. Chekhov’s gun again.But the whole discussion is, whether or not those promises WERE made, and if they were intentional. 

When I write fiction, I always ask my beta-readers to point out EVERYWHERE I might make a promise to the reader, that I am not aware of myself, so I can address it later.

Many people are baffled that johnlockers think the show promised a romance, so is it fair to claim this is what the show was dangling in front of us?Personally I think the answer is YES: I think they MUST have known, they did know, hence the interviews. Many people expected a romance.And if johnlock really isn’t their endgame, I guess it’s fair to say, that in those many interviews they specifically said, Johnlock wasn’t going to happen. But since they lie about a lot of things, it’s difficult to know which interviews to trust and which not to. Therefore I think it should have been at least addressed in the show,I am now wondering: if johnlock isn’t endgame, is the hug scene their attempt to address it?Sherlock: “Romantic entanglement, while fulfilling for others…”John: “…would complete you as a human being.”

Sherlock: “That doesn’t even mean anything.”

John: “Just text her! Phone her! Do something while there is still a chance.”

I personally saw this as romantic foreshadowing and REALLY opening the possibility that this WAS end game, especially because I thought it obvious that this whole conversation was about John and Sherlock, not Sherlock and Irene.

Sherlock would out live God to have the last word, and his contradiction doesn’t stike me as very heartfelt. Others might see this differently, but I took it as a grammar correction more than contradicting the point/meaning/message about finding someone to love. Again I took this as clever foreshadowing, because it COULD be interpreted in a no-homo way as well. Because I have talked to people, who saw this as a way of showing how different John and Sherlock are.John thinks romance is important, Sherlock doesn’t.That is one way to interpret that scene, and it might have been the writers way to show, that a romance was going nowhere. 

Personally I think, if this is the case, it would have been wise to do it in reversed order, so that the writers’ message got the last word - not John.Thus I think the scene should have gone: John: “Sherlock, romance would complete you as a human being. I think you should call Irene, or if you really don’t text her back and aren’t interested, then find SOMEONE.”Sherlock: “John, romance might be fulfilling for you and others, but I am not interested in a romance with anyone.”This would have been much more clear, and would have send a clear message, that the romance wasn’t going to happen.I know johnlockers would still have hated that, but at least it would have been clear that this particular Chekhov gun was off the wall and out of ammo. (But if they wanted to leave that interpretation open, this IS the better way to do it… oh so many ifs >.

You mention both Irene and queer baiting.

I can see many problems with Irene. I really hope she isn’t flirting with Sherlock anymore, and that John’s deduction is accurate: She just wrote him a “happy birthday” without the “let’s have dinner”.

Because if she is a lesbian and in a nice relationship, then I find it very problematic if she also falls in love with Sherlock. 

To see her as some kind of lesbian cupid works a bit better for me, but yeah - there are maaaany problems with that character -_-* 

I am not sure I am the right person to talk about queerbaiting, since I am straight. The thing is, that I believe most people want to be good, and I doubt that many people actually wake up in the morning shouting: “MWA HA HA I WANT TO BE AN EVIL TROLL, I WILL DELIBERATELY HURT PEOPLE AND MAKE A PROFIT BY INCLUDING THESE THINGS IN MY SHOW AND LURE SLASH FAN GIRLS AND QUEER PEOPLE IN, ONLY TO SPIT THEM IN THE FACE IN THE END BWA HA HA HA!”

And I doubt that Mark and Steven did that. At least intentionally. (And since I am still a hopeful tin-foil-hatter waiting for extra content, I hope johnlock could still be canon.)But that doesn’t change that I think Mary’s conclusion to the series is annoying as hell.Not only because many queer people think it is a personal insult, and that the message is: “who you are and your queerness and the identity you have been fighting to create and preserve doesn’t matter. And the time you spend analyzing Sherlock was wasted you stupid idiot!”(And though this was actually what I felt myself. After three nights of crying I remembered that I don’t think anyone would be that evil, and maybe I am a bit full of myself if I think Mofftiss would actually sit down and plan this sort of thing against me personally or against a huge group of fans.)

I hear Mary tell me that the drama I had been watching, and expected to be a romance was actually not important. It was the cases and the detective-story-part of the show that was important.

That is what I hear. But casual viewers might hear it differently. They might think it is a fitting end for a new interpretation. A nice way to conclude the new origin story of a 130 year old legend. But it was annoying to me, because I enjoyed the show BOTH as a detective story and a drama. AND I invested so many hours analyzing the show, and it sounds to me a bit, like that analyzing time finding out who Sherlock and Watson are (queer or not) was a waste of time, if that "doesn't matter".

And I guess that not only johnlockers like me spent a lot of time watching the show again and again for details. I am not saying that casual viewers are less worthy or stupid because they like to see the show just once or twice and move to the next show. Not at all. I think shows are best if they can be enjoyed in different ways. But it seems unwise to piss off the viewers who rewatch for detail regardless of what they seek to confirm, be it johnlock, how Sherlock or Moriarty survived or easter eggs or whatever.

I felt that this ending told me that only the detective part mattered. And the drama and character arches I had been invested in, didn’t matter (be they romantic or platonic). But I guess the words “legend, stories and adventures” can be interpreted in many ways.

If this really is the end, I think they could have made it different in so many ways that would have pissed many people of less.Made John do the final voice over is just one of the suggestions. Different wording would have been nice too, if you ask me, and they could still have made it a clear friendship story, if that’s what they wanted.If they DID want to cater to more fan groups they could have made it more ambiguous too maybe? (I as a johnlocker would still be sad that the romance wasn’t stated outright - but there are so many casual fans who wanted a friendship ending, and who says my wishes are more important than their’s?)

Endings are tricky though. I would have loved to at least see a moving crate to indicate that John moved back in. Which could have been part of both a friendship story and a romance (at least until Rosie needed a room of her own, and John and Sherlock would have to share Sherlock’s bedroom ^_~).Playing with Rosie is ambiguous I guess, it can both be viewed as John and Sherlock raising her together, but it could also just be two no-homo friends entertaining Rosie when John comes to visit.Sigh, I have a very hard time being objective about the ending.If either John or Sherlock had been a woman I am sure many casuals would have been disappointed, that there was no clear romance.Sorry for the wall of text.Thank you for your comment. It is really nice to see other people’s perspectives, because I so easily forget, that not everyone watch the show the same way I do ^_^  

[cannibalcountry-blog]

The left needs a Million Dollar Extreme

by Michael Siebert

Million Dollar Extreme is very funny. Its members are also very likely terrible people, but that does not preclude them from being good comedians.

This was often largely left out of the conversation when the Massachusetts-based sketch comedy troupe were in the spotlight over the cancellation of their Adult Swim series, Million Dollar Extreme Presents: World Peace. The show was axed over the group’s connections to the alt-right, which brought them controversy almost as soon as it was announced they would be joining the late-night block.

Million Dollar Extreme began in the early oughts as a YouTube channel, where comedians Sam Hyde, Nick Rochefort and Charls Carroll became notorious for their confrontational, brazenly offensive sketches and pranks. Many outlets had a difficult time determining whether or not their attitudes — accused of being misogynistic, racist, transphobic and more — were meant to be ironic. In the beginning, at least, it did not seem to matter. 2013-era MDE was more consistent than anything Wonder Showzen ever did.

But Hyde’s support of President Donald Trump, as well as his disdain for social justice politics, recently planted MDE in the good graces of young conservatives. World Peace was broadly referred to as an alt-right series, with rumors circulating that they had hidden swastikas and other “coded racist messages” throughout the show’s six episodes. Hyde roundly denied these accusations in a Reddit thread:

We've worked without pay for ten years to get on TV (an example of male privilege, if we were female it would've taken 20 years), can you imagine how stupid we would have to be to risk fucking it all up by hiding swastikas in the video?

Regardless of whether they embrace the label, their sense of humor certainly appeals to a certain type of hentai-gobbling Breitbart enthusiast. Throughout World Peace’s only season, jokes about beta males, women and Jews were plentiful. It’s not difficult to find Hyde and other members disparaging everything from Black Lives Matter to so-called Tumblr feminism.

But it is also important to recognize that, for its numerous faults, the members of MDE know how to write a joke.

The alt-right’s use of humor as a propaganda vehicle is a large part of what has made it such a  successful movement. Conservatives have traditionally failed spectacularly in the comedy world, with most notable attempts, (like the Zucker Brothers’ An American Carol) feeling like misplaced jokes at a child’s funeral. Liberalism, has maintained its grip on everything from late night TV to adult animation for time immemorial, in spite of the fact that Seth Meyers is the single least funny person on the planet.

But as progressivism has started to become synonymous with the majority, conservatives, particularly young ones, found themselves in the interesting position of being in the minority on many issues. With little media representation, they took to the task of generating their own content.

This movement is still in its early stages, and most of it has been largely unsuccessful. Comedians like Stephen Crowder are still basically making Achmed the Dead Terrorist-tier jokes, and it’s difficult to feel like old guard entertainers like Dennis Miller have even a modicum of relevance outside of their crotchety target demographic.

Million Dollar Extreme, however, are different. Rather than attempting to recreate liberal comedy standbys for a conservative audience, MDE’s members instead cornered the alternative comedy market. Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! initially helped satiate the market for irreverent, surreal and absurdist comedy. The Eric Andre Show further popularized it. World Peace managed to take that same formula and not only truly politicize it, but make it palatable to right wing audiences.

It is no surprise that MDE has roots in do-it-yourself YouTube sketch comedy. Hyde attended the Rhode Island School of Design, and the troupe has maintained a consistent visual aesthetic since their inception, utilizing glitch art tropes and scattershot editing techniques to cohesively present a deranged, apocalyptic vision.

MDE’s members have deflected criticisms of oft-criticized sketches — like this one, where disinterested Adult Swim execs watch as an (unfunny) sketch entitled “Jews Rock” is being filmed — as not too far off from what other shows on Adult Swim bring to the table. Eric Andre’s interview with Tachina Arnold, in which he asserts that she starred on a series called “Everybody Hates Kikes” comes to mind.

Other sketches are deemed misogynistic, which is totally fair. There is a good amount of woman-bashing, (sometimes literally, as in this sketch where Rochefort trips Hyde’s fictional wife, smashing her through a glass table), as well as casual racism, (like here, a sketch where a blackfaced Hyde gets broken up with). In spite of this, South Park’s Mr. Garrison is more outwardly offensive than anything that during World Peace’s six episode run.

MDE’s YouTube presence makes it clearer why the alt-right would gravitate toward the group’s content. The nearly 45-minute “An Inconvenient Anime,” in which Hyde and cohorts deliver a presentation at an actual anime convention, utilizes much of the shock humor so beloved by the Pepe Brigade, (like projecting a swastika during their Powerpoint and referring to it as a Buddhist symbol.)

Still, a good portion does not feature this kind of outrage-baiting, and is instead simply very funny. Hyde’s most well-known work, a twenty minute TedX Talk he conned his way into delivering at Drexel University in 2013, won him praise from Business Insider, of all places.

It would be a mistake to justify Million Dollar Extreme’s actions. After all, they have done nothing to disavow their alt-right supporters, and a lot of their content is unnecessarily derogatory. And yet, alt-right or not, MDE have succeeded in generating a lot of publicity. The show is well-supported. Their fanbase is rabid, regularly smearing Adult Swim execs and stars like Tim Heidecker, who regularly disavows the alt-right and recently got into an argument with Hyde on his web series Office Hours.

Should dyed-in-the-wool neo-nazis get in the good graces of Time Warner in the near future, it is safe to say that the true alt-right could one day weasel its way into a TV series, comedy or otherwise. At that point, it won’t be coded racial messages that we’ll be discussing — it will be outright bigotry.

Perhaps in response to the rise of the alt-right, the left has begun to abandon overly-sensitive respectability politics in favor of crudeness at the service of economic justice. The “dirtbag left” is more than willing to make jokes that would make many a Tumblr user cringe if it means appealing to a broader base to get a point across.

The left should not only understand what makes programming like World Peace so appealing, but utilize those elements to spread an anti-capitalist, anti-fascist message. So far, no one outside the podcasting world has been particularly successful at this tactic. The Eric Andre Show and others are generally too concerned with situationism and outlandishness to pack much meaning into their grotesque worlds. Funny as they are, the alt-right has taken what makes those shows enjoyable and made it genuinely satirical.

Take notes. While the future of American politics won’t be in late night cable programming, there is something to be said for dropping some of our ultra-wokeism in favor of something edgier, a little more provocative — maybe, even, occasionally offensive. In 2017, ideas are best spread through confrontation. The alt-right knows this better than anyone. The success of World Peace has signaled that unless leftists are willing to piss off the opposition, they won’t have a leg to stand on.

@michaelcsiebert

[survivingart]

ART AND ENTERTAINMENT

More and more you see art shows being coupled with support programs that, to an art goer from a couple of decades ago, would resemble more a visit to the local club than an actually gallery — albeit a club that, for whatever reason, seems to also have some “art” on the walls.

But why is that?

I hear a lot of people in the business say that the market has shifted and that — just like with any other commodity in today’s competitive business environment — the target audiences have changed, so the products and presentation have to change, too.

Well, I don’t believe that, at least not to the extent that such galleries describe the state of the “casual art consumer” to be.

The main issue I have is that a lot less energy and commitment is being given to figuring out where exactly the art market (or the art world in general) is going, but quick and careless decisions by people who operate in these “middle ground” segments cause weird and probably quite negative effects on the all-around well-being of the arts precisely by blatantly coupling arts with entertainment.

And here, it’s time for a very brief history check:

If we take a peek at what has been happening over the last few decades, it’s quite obvious that art  used to be whatever the antonym of commodity is (I am yet to find out and I find this incredibly fitting for the times we are living in), where the production was scarce and quality was judged on actual craftsmanship and “objective” skill — like being able to paint a person’s portrait to the point where one could hardly distinguish between the painting and the real thing.

After science and society evolved, this merit upon which good artistic expression was evaluated had to go, at least for a while (it comes back in cycles and my guess is, it’s slowly coming back again), and exploration of “What art can be?” lead the development of both taste and the markets.

Picasso and Braque, the Futurists and Dada sealed the deal of what the Impressionists, Fauvists and Expressionists began and both the industrial and societal revolutions during that time correlated to it: the defining factor for great art became philosophical and political reflection in all its glory.

After Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven’s urinal (that by a combination of chance, old-school misogyny and the influence of Marcel Duchamp is still being fought over as to who really “made” the artwork that would forever change contemporary art), well, things changed.

The question of “What is art?”, or more precisely “What can be art?” was answered just a few decades after the 1917 exhibition by the Society of Independent Artists in New York, when people began to talk and discuss the oddity; while people still love to quarrel about the real definition of art, the objective fact (if there ever is one) is that art can be and therefore is, everything we decide.

There’s no heavenly blueprint of what art looks like and as such anything can be art.

This was a turning point for our business as suddenly anyone could become an artist. But one can imagine such a lack of functional barriers to entry (there’s really no official national exam for becoming an artist anywhere in the world) could not stand for long, and a merit by which artistic status was to be decided upon had to be drawn up.

And so it happened.

Economic growth and the long periods of abundance caused a lot of new money to appear and (depending on your country) legislation on tax-cuts and other subsidies for art offered the affluent a wonderful mechanism for not only saving money, but making it.

A lot of money to be exact.

Art that sold for 800€ in 1920 now sells for tens of millions — a prime example to such rising prices is the current record-holder, the alleged Da Vinci painting titled Salvator Mundi, that sold for a humble 450 million. And the best part; the art world is already happily chirping away about the first billion euro work of art coming soon.

The top end of the market has risen to heights where one can’t but start to wonder when the sun will burn down its wings and send it tumbling into a depression.

But, this is something for another blunder, today I’m focusing on a different segment that came to be exactly because of this rise in contemporary and modern art sales (and prices), but in the end could not be more disparate.

It’s the well-off but not rich folks in their 20% bigger-than-average apartments located 20% closer-to-the-city-centre-than-most-others that drive just a bit better cars and eat just a tad healthier.

I’m talking about the high end of the middle class.

This “target market” is the playground for all the primary beta galleries (the bottom feeders of the art world) as well as for some of the top players (like Saatchiart, or Saatchionline as it was once called, when it still belonged to Charles Saatchi). And this part of the market is also where more or less most of us are currently located.

But it’s not a shabby place to be, if that’s what you’re thinking.

In fact, it’s the most common place where the majority of all artists in the world can be found and, the ineffable amount of competition aside, for me a very interesting space to work in.

Let me explain:

I believe we are in the midst of an enormous change, the era of a new and dare I say never before seen market is about to unfold (the beginnings of which have been happening for almost 10 years). 

Soon, a new kind of collector will arise, because her messenger — the art buyer — has already appeared.

The art buyers, distinct from the art collectors and as the name already implies, do not collect nor do they wish to use their art purchases for the same means as those that do; they only wish to be part of the action, the money action.

Art buyers are more or less real-estate flippers with a tad more cash and maybe a semi-functional understanding of art (no offence to anyone, but basic psychology agrees). They rarely care for the product they flip, and even rarer appreciate it. 

All they appreciate is to buy low and flip high. And such a view is symptomatic of a degradation in standards or rules by which any game is played, because one gets a bunch of new players that completely forwent the rule-learning stage and just came to have a blast.

It’s the trust fund and second generation oligarch families that tend to appear in this group; the people in power that never learned, but more precisely understood, how power is earned, maintained and lost, and that came to lead a highly complex and decades long chess game their parents and sometimes parent’s parents started and plunge it into a gradual and slow oblivion by playing checkers.

But the art buyers are just the beginning, now we’re going to see (and already are in more developed markets) that because of the sheer amount of purchasing power and capital, floating about in our wonderful world, something’s happening with the middle class, too.

And the best part, the model for what is happening is as old as society itself, and anyone of us that wishes to ride the coming waves of potential abundance is welcome to do so with more or less a step-by-step guide lurking in every history book — all one has to do is replace carriage or copper pick-axe with computer and wi-fi, really.

The middle class is getting more and more affluent and the same thing that happens whenever a segment of the population grows in purchasing power is happening in the arts — and it’s not just more art sales in that particular segment (300€  -1000€ give or take), it’s a more specific and more refined taste in the art that is being bought that is accompanying them.

That’s why Instagram shops, Etsy and Facebook Marketplace are working so well for a lot of artists right now. And, to finally get to the main, juicy part of today’s blunder, it’s why arts and entertainment have risen as a spectacle in many a gallery and will eventually fail as a model of operation for most if not all such galleries. 

People think that mid-tier art collectors need DJs and beanbags to buy art, while the main issue really resides in the fact that nobody wants to be looked down upon — especially not by a shabby, 2nd or 3rd tier gallerist that was never allowed to sit at the adult’s table and whose rooster of artists were never accepted to an evening sale at Sotheby’s.

Of course you have people that come to such openings that genuinely enjoy the lights, music and the superfluous conversations about art that happen at many an opening, but as the gallery owners are slowly beginning to find out, such people really do come for the music and wine, not to actually buy the art that’s being displayed.

This, coupled with the fact that playing in the big league now requires tens if not hundreds of millions of liquid cash in the bank, it’s no wonder that galleries are closing by the hundreds.

What the art world in this segment currently lacks is humility and understanding for the newly formed segment and a business model to back it up. 

Many of them behave like textbook examples of what no to do: 1st) Dumb down your product and marketing so you’ll reach “everyone”, 2nd) package it in shiny, superfluous glitter and do a circus act to try to sell it and 3rd) magically reach a strong market saturation and expect the sophisticated buyers you’ve been targeting all along to just magically become interested in the light and music show, because a couple of hundred folks came to your opening and drank your cartoned-up Cabernet Sauvignon.

It just doesn’t work like that.

That’s why my personal belief is that a lot of us artists that have either not been born into a well-connected family or are incapable of becoming well-connected (more or less because of introversion or some other form of inability), to completely change the way we think about the art world and stop dreaming about ever getting representation by a gallery.

It’s not that it’s impossible — more than ever, our chances of getting signed are quite strong if indeed we are up to the task of delivering a quality product and are capable enough in getting to know the right people to deliver it to — but it’s improbable that such a model will work in the lower segment of the market, where more or less all of us will stay, forever.

The facilitators of art just aren’t up to the task and it will take a long time before this changes (if ever).

It’s much better to partner up with a friend or acquaintance that can help you out with marketing and finances and split the profits, because they are much more likely to actually know what the hell is going on with the people that are really going to buy the work in that segment, than many of the so called gallerists in the primary beta segment of the art market.

And to be honest, there’s a lot of good social media marketeers and a lot of fresh economic graduates to go around, many of them squirming at the thought of becoming another cog in their perspective industry’s machines in order to either sell a few more knickers or getting the cost basis for said knickers down by 3.2 percent in the next quarter.

People need and want fun and excitement, they yearn for a purpose and by god if a possibility of someday becoming professionally involved in one of the most subjective and creative industries in human existence doesn’t present itself as the universe stretching out an olive branch amongst the bleak and pointless populist nihilism of today, I don’t know what can. 

from Surviving Art https://ift.tt/33gTpXV via IFTTT

[sloanerisette]

#GamesThatMade2015: The Most Important Games Released This Year

I have a few different games that I want to talk about today. It’s my “GOTY” list, so to speak, but it’s also much more than that. These are some of my favorite games of this year—and in some cases, they are my favorite games of all time—but I want this list to be far more than that. When thinking about doing something for the end of the year on FemHype, I didn’t want to just offer your average “Game of the Year” list where I talk about how rad some graphics and characters are (though there’s definitely nothing wrong with that). I wanted to do something more.

These are five of the games that I consider to be the most important of the year in terms of what they convey, what they cover, and what they end up bringing to the medium. So, without further ado, here are my five most important games of 2015!

5. Super Mario Maker

I find Super Mario Maker to be an absolutely unexpected game. Nintendo gives you the tools to make levels for one of the most famous franchises of all time? To upload online and play another person’s levels? It’s kind of amazing, to be honest.

What was first seen of Super Mario Maker last year made me think we wouldn’t get anything nearly similar to what we got. Possibly a toned down, basic level editor of Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. with bad online features, but instead, we got a full-fledged, fantastic package. And the best part about it? It’s probably one of the best game design tools, as I see it. Super Mario Maker is incredibly easy to use with an array of tools at your disposal, and the touch screen of the Wii U gamepad makes all of it easy to control when it comes to making and editing levels.

It’s a lesson in game design, that’s for sure, and I think it’ll be an important tool for teens, adults, and kids who are interested in getting started. While not all levels online may be Miyamoto classics, the sheer amount of variety and creativity some people come up with is absolutely amazing. I think the fact that something like Super Mario Maker exists is wonderful, and will give way to a lot of great designers in the future.

In terms of pure game and level design and making use of game mechanics, there are few better templates to work from than Mario. It has also shown no sign of slowing down in terms of creations, which leads me to believe that over time, people will just keep creating more and more levels, with levels getting better as time goes on.

4. Read Only Memories

A game where queerness is normalized, if not celebrated. Early in Read Only Memories, you get to pick your name and your pronouns, and you’re even allowed to enter custom pronouns. It was unexpected, but amazing nonetheless; an adventure game where your comfort as the player is what’s important.

Not only that, but Neo San Francisco is absolutely beautiful. It’s colorful with a huge array of great characters filling the story. Queerness of characters is the norm, and gay relationships are talked about casually and aren’t made a big deal of in the same way that straight relationships are treated in the majority of current media.

I also found the parallel between gene therapy in Read Only Memories to how queerness is treated in our present day society very interesting—especially in relation to trans people, as I saw it. This as a person who had to wait a long time to get and start hormones, and has had plenty of friends go through the same things, even now.

All in all, one of my favorite things is the sheer positivity behind the queer characters. They are treated like everyone else, and Neo San Francisco is a place where queerness happily thrives and is talked about and acknowledged. Not only do more games need more queer representation, but more genuinely positive queer representation and acknowledgement, too, which Read Only Memories delivers in spades.

3. We Know The Devil

I was surprised by what We Know The Devil turned out to be in comparison to what I initially thought it was. I thought any game with that name was surely some sort of horror game meant to leave you feeling uneasy, but it turned out being a very intense experience with a focus on being queer and coming to terms with it. For someone who’s started to transition this year—and has had to deal more and more with telling friends and family—this game was a bit tough to handle. Having to see characters come to terms with their queerness around their friends reminded me a lot of myself when I was first figuring out who I was.

Not only that, it’s a game centered and focused on queerness that was made by queer people. Gay and trans characters are rarely written by people who are gay, people who are trans, or people who are queer, so people like Aevee (and others) creating these games and stories is incredibly important. The writing is incredibly sincere and personal, as I felt intimately connected to the characters right away and throughout the entire game as I went through each path and saw the different routes and pairings that were possible.

One thing I really love about We Know The Devil—even as much as it pangs my heart each time—is something that is talked about in the game’s description, which states, “Pick Your One True Pairing.” As someone who loves shipping (sorry, not sorry), it was something I loved—even if it meant leaving one of the others to wait for the devil. Having someone there for you and being close with them while discovering yourself is definitely a theme in this game, and it’s something I’ve learned and experienced as I’ve figured out who I am as a woman—including having to struggle with choosing who to leave out at times.

2. Cibele

I see Cibele as the type of game we need more of—one I hope we’ll be seeing far more in 2016 and beyond. It’s a game that is highly relatable in this day and age. Not only is it a deeply personal story—something we don’t commonly see even in independent games, or games in general—but it’s also just a deep, meaningful story. A young woman experiences love on the internet and goes to mutually pursue that love, only to end up betrayed and heartbroken. It’s a small, intimate story that left me stunned at the end. It’s a game that was constructed and crafted so beautifully with a character who feels so interesting, and would feel so real if you didn’t know the background behind the game.

The world of Valtameri (the MMO within the game) and the real world that Nina herself lives in becomes more and more fleshed out as time goes on, and what you see in Nina and Blake’s lives equally grows more and more interesting. I wanted to look through everything—even if it did feel more than a bit unsettling to do so, knowing that it’s based on real experiences.

The work by Nina and Star Maid Games doesn’t disappoint, and everything comes together and meshes so well, creating something small, intimate, and haunting. It’s a direction I definitely want to see games go in more and more, without a doubt, as I feel like more games taking approaches like Nina did with Cibele will help expand the breadth of the stories told and how far video games can go in a very positive way.

1. Life Is Strange

Life Is Strange, as you all know, is important to me. Deeply, deeply important. It’s a game focused on young queer women in a type of setting I absolutely adore, and one that we don’t usually see in most games. Slice of life high school mysteries are something rarely, if ever featured—let alone in games by big publishers. Not only does Life Is Strange hold a lot of my love on a personal level, due to my overall adoration of the game, it feels important for so much more than that.

The whole of the game itself is something, as I noted, we don’t see, and it’s because of this that I consider Life Is Strange to be so important. If a game that covers themes like bullying, assault, and suicide can be picked up by a publisher like Square Enix, it really gives me hope for the future of big budget, narrative-based games. The idea that we have this great starting point for games focused on darker themes that are tough to talk about—games that focus on friendships and romantic relationships between young women—is what really makes me see Life Is Strange as so important.

Characters like Max, Chloe, Kate, and Victoria are all people who are so similar and relatable to young women, and that’s something I love. These girls have moments of weakness, moments of strength, and intricacies and flaws that seem so realistic in the small town of Arcadia Bay. Not only that, but even for all their worst moments, they’re sweet cinnamon rolls I just want to hug and help be okay.

It has its problems, no doubt about that. But it really shines far brighter than most Telltale games have to me since the first season of The Walking Dead. I’ll hold it dearly, and if you can handle tough topics, I highly recommend trying it out—the most out of any game this year, without a doubt.

[ethelbertpaul444-blog]

5 Ways Being Rich Was Flat-Out Crazy Hundreds Of Years Ago

Sure, being rich has its benefits, but it’s am going to be boring, right? If life’s huge necessitate are from battle and solidarity against overwhelming quirkies, then being rich is playing on easy state( with the invincibility and infinite ammo cheats on ). Where’s the enjoyable? Well, we aren’t the first ones to ask that investigate. The historical experiences shows that the old-timey rich, in their struggle to fend off ennui and entropy, lay some singularly comical ways and means of move the time. Like how … 5 You Could Improve Your Sex Drive By Implanting Radioactive Material Up Your Butt Sexual impotence isn’t a modern phenomenon. Your great-grandparents maybe had “performance editions, ” just like you( and if you didn’t, you do now that we positioned that mental image in your pate ). So how did they inhibit the long quit? We can’t are talking about the poorest of the poor and how they dealt with “losing ones” verve( wishing really hard, maybe ), but the rich had a little proficiency called “jamming in a radium suppository.” Vita Note the entirely unrelated item that it’s “also splendid for pilings and rectal sores.” div > Read Next 5 Random Things You Had No Idea Had Tons Of Love Overseas At the grow of the 20 th century, an part industry revolving around solving sexual imperfection formed up, so to speak. One of these products was Vita Radium Suppositories, anal submarines “carried in a cocoa butter base”( for better … spice ?) which promised to turn “weakened organs” into Godzilla by irradiating the bloodstream, and by proxy the chunks. What about refuge? Well, the manufacturers had certainly heard about that abstraction. Harmonizing to their marketing folders, the radium would leave the patient’s arrangement in three days, which is approximately two days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds longer than we’d like. The 1930 s viewed the exhaust of a product with the seducing honour of “Scrotal Radiendocrinator, ” which promised users they could kick-start their shattered scrotums by leaving a radium-filled jockstrap on their garbage and going to bed. We can’t wholly vouch for the scienceness of such products, but it’s worth noting that its inventor died from bladder cancer — a total coincidence, and definitely not a warning that maybe Geiger counters shouldn’t need to be sold in adult emporia alongside battery-operated gender dolls and blow-up representations of Clark Gable. The Home Products Co. Denver, CO Why does the term “plutonium rod” seem apt? There was, surprisingly, a solid motivation behind the madness. At this moment, the technical finding of the working day was that hot springs, which it was claimed could medicine afflictions, were radioactive. Instead of waiting to hear more science, nonetheless, the medical-industrial complex immediately moving forward putting radium into a ton of health concoctions, including water coolers and force alcohols like RadiThor. As radium is expensive, however, exclusively the richest members of society could open to partake, and that’s why it never blew up into a bar( liter) ic state crisis. The damage was reduced to a tiny person, comprised of beings such as Eben Byers, an industrialist who downed two bottles of RadiThor every day for three years until his bones started disintegrating and he died in incalculable agony. Still, we gambled his dick examined amazing . 4 You Could Be The Envy Of Your Pals By Owning( Or Renting) Your Very Own Pineapple When “youve been” think it is right it, status badges haven’t changed that is something that from the days of yore. There “ve always been” high-end modes, big houses, fast cars( horsepower used to be less figurative ), and status foods. It’s just that in the past, did nutrients used to be less “gold-plated donuts” and “avocados, ” and more “pineapples” and “seriously, pineapples.” John Raphael Smith Hendrick Danckerts “Check out my pineapple” was an artistry progress of its own. div > For the high houses of Europe during the 1700 s, the pineapple represented the very essence of abundance. The outcomes is already exclusively found in South America, until enterprising someones in England and the Netherlands developed hothouses that allowed the growth of these elegant forces in wetter, more Europey maladies. They were still scarce, of course, and so owning one was mostly a giant signal advertise how well-to-do you two are. Repeat patrons included Louis XV, Catherine the Great, and Charles II, all of whom we’re sure requirement the help signaling their wealth. But soon, owning a pineapple wasn’t fairly. The hardcore pineapple fandom of the 1700 s meant that people did everything from outlining them on wallpaper and tablecloths, to plowing their manors in wooden and stone carvings of pineapples, to hosting dinner parties where the pineapple “wouldve been” virtuoso centerpiece. Eat it? No, you two are meant to look at it and gaze in wonder at its beautiful, and that was severely fairly. Charles II even commissioned a covering of someone handing him a pineapple. To the elite of society, pineapples were the Szechuan Sauce packets of the working day, and by Jove, woe betide your honour if you set that shit on pizza. Otter/ Wiki Commons A house, yes. A pizza , no. div > But what if you were a middle-class person or persons craved for the trappings of asset, but still wanted to write shall verify that exclusively a pineapple could currency? Well, there was also a thriving pineapple rental market. In the same behavior that celebrities lease thought tuxedos and sports cars before attending culture jamborees, it was a tend du jour to combine and cradle a pineapple in your appendages, before reverting it the next morning and trying to justify to the renter why you shouldn’t lose your security deposit because someone took a bite out of it. 3 You Could Hire An Old Person Garmented Like A Wizard To Live In Your Garden It’s easy to look at the gig economy and shake your ability at how poorly megacorporations like Uber, Amazon, and Seamless discuss their independent contractors( predict: people working independently of hire rights ), but it could be much worse. They could be living in the reasons for their Jeff Bezos’ stately possession and dressing like Gandalf. div > We’ve mentioned that in the 18 th century, it was all the rage for landowners to hire “hermits” — mostly the olden equivalent of that crazy person from the bus terminal — to rove their soils and dispense sage-green wise to anyone who walked past. But what exactly were the roles and responsibilities of this position? Chiefly sitting around and looking strange. Here’s what guests to one manor were was welcomed by when they entered the hermit’s abode TAGEND via Google Books Why is his name only Francis if he’s awake? div > In order is so that their monks didn’t expire of exposure or wild animal onrush, most owners improve them a plaza to live — anything from a shack or outhouse to an earthen hammock to a place of bogus archaic wreckings they could specter like shaggy, well-learned haunts. This might voice expensive, but it was worth it for the landowner to invest in their loner. A “good” hermit could entice tourists from miles around, delivering coin and prestige to the owned — so much so that some landowners faked the whole thing by constructing a shack, leaving some spooooky components on a counter, and pretending that their hermit had popped out to the supermarkets for the day. The trend didn’t been a long time, croaking out following the completion of the century. It’s thoughts, nonetheless, that hermits afterwards acted as the insight for your common-law garden gnomes. That’s something to think about, especially the next time your landlord or HOA bitches about your lawn embellishes. It’s either the terracotta fishermen and pink flamingos, or a hairy chap who lives in your fence exclaiming problems at passersby. 2 You Could Wear A Creepy Mask To Shun Catching A Tan, Like A Filthy Commoner If you’re rich, money can buy you a lot of things — a lot of things . i> But there’s one indispensable stuff it can’t buy: sovereignty from beings inadvertently mistaking you for a poor person. In the 16 th century, this anxiety so horribly warped the minds of the rich that they thought it was better to look like a serial killer or a monster from the void dimension than someone who has to buy the generic-brand haras inoculation. Day of Archaeology They were also willing to endure being stomped by Italian plumbers. div > This is a visard mask, bought by upper-class madams to prevent them from contracting a horrific suntan on their porcelain-white buttocks — “hideous” because in those daytimes, having a tan or even a reminder of melanin were of the view that you were one of those dreaded poverty-strickens who had to work outdoors all day. But hey, at least they suffered for it. The masks were made from velvet, silk, and mantles of pressed paper, which doesn’t sound too bad … until you realize that there was no such situation as elastic. So how was it held in place? Well, the inside of the concealment contained a glass dot hanging on a short section of fibre. In line-up ensuring the cover-up, the wearer would have to hold the ball between her teeth, thus preventing her from doing anything other than sitting there in total stillnes. Which was probably part of its pattern, to be honest. Wiki Commons “I have no mouth and I’m this close to screaming.” div > Although only a few disguises survive to this day, they were favourite enough that children’s dolls from the period emanated accessorized with miniature visard masks, so that young girls could become used to their forthcoming lives of total stillnes and casual defect. The disguises remained in vogue for most of the century before expiring out, maybe after person wondered whether they weren’t being really a little silly. 1 You Could Steal Ancient European Builds, Brick By Brick On the aspect of it, it isn’t surprising that historical rich people liked to voyage to faraway country level make whatever they wanted. That’s how we dissolved up with the slave traffic, after all. What is surprising, nonetheless, is how dumb it wound up coming. Case in time: A spate of 20th-century American moguls used to plagiarize antique structures and have them carried back home, to be reassembled brick by brick like the world’s most ostentatious planned of Legos. And too like with Legos, sometimes they’d get bored halfway through and leave the segments laying around. div > Between 1914 and 1934, it’s estimated that 20 archaic buildings happened to fall onto a back of a lorry in Europe and fall off of again where reference is stateside, in sites straddling from New York and San Francisco to Milwaukee and Philadelphia. One of the most famous crypt thiefs was sled enthusiast and original imitation word proprietor William Randolph Hearst. In 1926, he imported a 12 th-century convent, St. Bernard de Clairvaux, with plans to install it at Hearst Castle. Due to financial difficulties, nonetheless, he subsequently abandoned the portions( still in the shipping crates) in a warehouse for nearly 30 years, before person Storage Wars ‘d them and had the monastery reassembled in Miami, where most old-fashioned stuffs go to rest. RossbetReynet/ Wiki Commons Daderot/ Wiki Commons The friars inside the boxes were starting to get a little cramped. essay > As the country hardest hit by these frauds, Spain afterwards play-act various rules intended to stop rich assholes from plagiarizing their heritage, but forgot to account for the fact that money is freaking narcotic, you guys . In 1930, Hearst paid an prowes marketer $30,000 to buy, disassemble, and carry another structure — the convent of Santa Maria de Ovila. You might think that buying convents was Hearst’s way of atoning for his years of being a total shitheel, but noooo. He wanted to turn it into a literally goddamned swimming pool, complete with diving boards( situated where the altar used to sit ), changing rooms, and an indoor beach. He later wound up abandoning this project too, because he was, like, the William Randolph Worst. Adam Wears is on Twitter and Facebook , and has a newsletter about depressing record that you should definitely subscribe to . i > b> You laugh at the pineapple occasion, but have you indicated your friends how a pineapple corer labor ? i > b> Support Cracked’s journalism with a see to our Contribution Page. Please and thank you . i > b> For more courses our ancestors were utterly terrifying, check out 7 Popular Old-Timey ‘Hobbies’ That Will Give You Ordeal and 6 Fun Works That Were Shocking Throughout History . i > b> Follow us on Facebook. If you like pranks and nonsense . i > b> Read more: http :// www.cracked.com/ article_2 5562 _5-ways-being-rich-was-flat-out-crazy-hundreds-years-ago. html http://dailybuzznetwork.com/index.php/2018/06/03/5-ways-being-rich-was-flat-out-crazy-hundreds-of-years-ago/

[tribotexreview-blog]

TriboTEX Review - Mustang GT Burnouts

Sturgis Mustang Rally

As someone who loves cars, I need to love the Mustang. I actually do. However I've the hardest time welcoming it into my coronary heart, mostly due to the huge cloud of negativity that covers each constructive side with adverse representations. In my 26 years on this planet, 90% of the Mustang homeowners I've interacted with at automotive events Mustang GT Burnouts have been jerks, completely un-accepting of something other than a their wonderful Mustang. From flat billed teens rocking their V6 4th Gen 'Stang, to the center-aged divorcee clinging to any hope of his twenties through a completely restored Foxbody, slamming Miller Excessive Life's and successfully tarnishing any worth in his words.

The latter could also be offensive to a couple folks, and for those individuals, I have one bit of advice - stop what you're doing, promote your car, and accept that not everybody feels the same means you do about your car. Sure, there are a couple of actually quick Mustang's on the market, some really clear restored Pony's, and some superior owners with plenty of positive perception and great data saved under their lid. Mirror on if that is you, change accordingly, or transfer the hell on.

Now, to the explanation why we're all here: the 2015+ EcoBoost Mustang. In my view, the 6G is without doubt one of the most tasty cars to meet Ford's showroom ground, ever. The strains are easy but unique sufficient to worth a second look, gas financial system that's acceptable in at this time's competitive market, and enough pop from the factory to appease the needs of most fanatics. The listing of good things is lengthy for the 6G Mustang, and the EcoBoost possibility adds another outlet for automobile lovers and efficiency guru's alike. It offers a rising listing of aftermarket modifications equal to that of the V8 powered 'Stang, which implies it'll only get higher and more refined as time goes on.

This leads to the purpose of this submit: rising out of the predisposed clique that every Mustang proprietor is robotically positioned in once they leave the vendor lot. Your opinion matters - Yes. But you don't need to throw apart different folks emotions about your automobile like yesterday's rubbish. Stop being douche's. Stop doing burnouts at meets in an attempt to bolster your ego. For the love of God truly interact with Chevy guys. You might not just like the Camaro or Corvette, however do not ignore them. They have wheels, engines, and so they're awesome too.

We're all car guys, we're all right here for the same cause, and we all value the approval of our fellow man. Step one to being accepted is to just accept your own weaknesses, and being a jerk is a weakness unfit of forgiveness, so you'll all the time be caught in the area of interest of pimple-faced teenagers and jort carrying middle-aged men wearing bowling shirts and sipping overrated beer.

The Mustang EcoBoost has tons of potential to take action, and I feel it simply could challenge Mustang and Mustang owners into a brand new stratosphere. Here's why: the EcoBoost has a turbo. What's the first thing that comes to thoughts whenever you assume turbocharger? To me, it's weekend automobile meets and observe days, usually attracting young guys and old people alike. In my expertise, these events blossom casual car guys who never take into account modifications into savvy aftermarket customers, hungry for efficiency, worth, and increasing knowledge. In addition they aren't afraid to communicate strengths and weaknesses with regard to mods.

Ever since I can keep in mind the Ford Mustang had a spot in my heart. The primary Mustang that stood out for me was someplace round 1971 when a neighbor has a New Red Mach 1 Mustang in their driveway. I might drive my bicycle previous it and questioned, how the phrases on the trunk lid have been pronounced, Match 1, Mock 1, March 1, Mach Received, and so forth. However no matter the way it was pronounced, the long sloping roof, rear louvers, and wing (as I referred to as it) was charming. Five years later I bought my very personal pony automobile. Taking $300 of my hard-earned cash from a component time stock boy job, I bought a 1967 Mustang Convertible from my boss.

The one downside was that I was 15 years previous, and could not even get a learners permit for an additional yr. That yr was a terrific alternative to get my arms greasy, and study body work. Sure, this stangs ground boards were rotted in areas, as well as the rear quarters. This experience opened the door for my love of this special breed. Thirty years later and having filled the secure at one time or one other with a 1970 Mach 1, 1989 GT, and now a 1969 Mach 1 and one other 1970 Mach 1 my need for this automotive has not waned. Each considered one of these Mustangs had something particular.

The 1967 Mustang with its power convertible roof was a gem in its own right. The Mustang badge in the grill was what people seen coming in the direction of them. Because it obtained closer, they realized it was making an excellent bolder assertion with the finned facet scoops, the slight rumble of the 289 engine and when the roof was down it could be even more fascinating. This was not the facility hungry, throaty loud exhaust model, however quite, a classic car that you simply needed to go slow where heads would flip. Fords creation was a masterpiece in its own proper, and right now it might probably draw the same level of desire as a Picasso.

The 1970 Mach 1 was in a category of its own, and is still there even at the moment. There were a massive variety of choices that could be ordered together with engines, transmissions, rear ends, and body accents, however the purpose was a guidelines for what level of performance you desired, or might afford. Don't get me mistaken, even the smallest engine nonetheless roared with performance and turned heads. In lots of instances, before you seen this Mustang approaching you would hear it.

The rumble of energy, and that deep throaty exhaust made individuals stand still to see what was coming. Without seeing the car, folks anticipated a Chevy, Mopar, or a Ford. As the automotive grew to become visible, the entrance chin spoiler and low floor clearance gave the looks of a race car, and it was! This Mustang was white and optioned with shaker hood, and the big bold black stripe. The shaker hood was the key feature for me. Once I was on the lights I would rev the engine so folks could see it shake back and forth as if the engine was so highly effective that it was attempting to burst out. The other excellent options have been the rear window louvers or slats, and the rear spoiler additional including to that racing automobile look.

This automotive was a head turner and an consideration grabber, which in some circumstances was not a great factor. I recall a few instances when the blue lights have been flashing behind me as a result of exhaust noise, to a few different causes that I cannot point out. That was the one time that I needed it did not get consideration. But it was still fun! This Mustang as with the 1967 each required quite a bit of labor to get them to the fantastic situation they ended up with. As with the 1967 requiring a number of physique work, this stang solely wanted minor physique work and paint. The main work for this beast was beneath the hood. Unfortunately the original engine didn't final lengthy with me, and one evening it self destructed with one gap as giant as a coke can within the block. Being an optimist, this was a possibility.

At the local junk yard, I was capable of finding a used 351 Cleveland and get my fingers dirty once once more. Nine months later, and spending each cent I had from my half time job, this engine was fully rebuilt inside and out with a flair for performance. A Crane cam, Edelbrock consumption manifold, Holley carburetor, Hooker Headers, and some head and block modifications boosted the ability even more. It not solely looked like an influence house from the skin, however when the hood was popped open, it confirmed it much more. The ability from this engine was delivered to the highway with a set of Jetson Revenger 50 collection tires within the again, and 70 series in the front providing that racing raked look, in addition to loads of smoke when a burnout was desired.

These experiences with the used stangs made me want to purchase a new one. In 1989 a Mustang GT absolutely optioned was corralled. It was a terrific automobile, and was every part that Ford advertised and more. The problem was, it was off the shelf, not customized, and anybody with money may purchase one.

We started going to the Sturgis Mustang Rally in 2007 and haven't missed a yr since. As a few of the rallies go this one will not be the oldest but certainly one of the best if not the very best rally within the country. This 12 months the rally starts on September 1st and runs to September fifth.

I'm simply guessing in round numbers but I believe in 2007 there was about 500-600 vehicles last yr (2010) I believe it was extra like 1,000 cars. I have been to a number of automobile shows and rallies in my time and I might need to say that this is one of the finest organized occasions I've ever been to. From the check in to the ultimate dinner it's well attended and well organized. Most individuals have heard of Sturgis due to bike week which is just two weeks earlier by the way in which.

Plenty of folks have requested me how it compares to bike week and I simply inform them it is like bike week except there is no fights, no gangs, not almost as many drunks and no topless women. So, for the most parts it is very household friendly. We did received on the bar crawl the final two years and so they have a number of drinking video games but for the most parts everyone could be very effectively behaved.

I noticed that registration this year is at the Thunderdome, in previous years it has been held downtown. Also, I observed that they've added a burnout competition which is on the Thunderdome from 6-9 on Friday. Guess I am going to throw some previous tires on my trailer before I am going this 12 months.

The spotlight of the rally for me is the poker run tour. They take us by way of a few of the prettiest areas within the country. I am going to warn you it's pretty lengthy, I neglect how far it was final year but I wish to say it was over 100 miles. But they'd some nice stops arrange, I want I may bear in mind the name of the little fuel station reward store. It is out in the midst of nowhere however tons of fun.

I'm not an enormous gambler however it's really enjoyable to go as much as Deadwood within the evenings and put some pennies within the slots (I did win $250.00 final year although). The casinos are clear and nice and the town is enjoyable simply to stroll around.

They have an autocross that runs a number of instances over the weekend, it looks like a lot of enjoyable but frankly I'm method to anal to work my automobile that arduous. On Saturday night they do open up the 1/eight mile drag strip and allow you to run down it. We haven't carried out that in the past but when all goes we'll try it this year.

The rally is getting an increasing number of standard so it is very essential that you get lodge reservations early! We made ours nearly a 12 months early this time. Should you attempt to look forward to the final second you will be camping out.

The new Ford Mustang is definitely the newest mannequin that promises to ship even bigger and more memorable things. The well-known automobile manufacturer has just launched this new mannequin. It is redesigned with a spectrum of colors resembling Competition Orange, Triple Yellow, and Ingot Silver. The famed steed logoed automobile might look completely new but it surely nonetheless maintains the distinctive soul of the Mustang.

As what many automobile enthusiasts say, the new Ford Mustang promises a dynamic driving expertise with its completely placed shifter and completely engineered steering wheel. The 5.zero-liter V8 ensures enhanced power, while the turbocharged 4-cylinder EcoBoost engine improves efficiency. Due to expertise, today's Mustang also comes with a complicated communications system and has the ability to detect cars in blind spots. And for disciples of the convertible, the brand new Ford Mustang now shifts to "topless" in half the time.

Many trusted automotive sellers and retailers should be highlighting Ford's different models such as the ever so common F150, Focus, and Escape, but you may need to try some blogs online for updates on when the dealership may be getting the redesigned and reinvented Mustang - so you'll be able to immediately get your arms on one. Except for the design updates and tech tweaks, the brand new Ford Mustang has additionally been engineered to satisfy both the drag racer and the highway journey warrior.

The over-the-prime action flick often called "Quick and Furious" could have used the 1967 Mustang, but the 2015 Mustang's Line Lock may just find this well-identified mannequin figuring in future, motion-packed automobile scenes in different motion pictures.

The Line Lock allows you to maintain front tires locked whereas rear tires freely spin (to your drag racing heart's content material) and construct traction. In accordance with Ford, this nifty little feature will save racing fans from spending more cash on modifying their Mustang.

[recentanimenews]

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017: Everything Else

  Movies, music, comic books, great food, everything goes in this last category. With Part One and Part Two out of the way, here's our final Crunchyroll 2017 Favorites with everything else!

PETER FOBIAN (@PeterFobian)

Blade Runner 2049: I never in my entire life actually scoffed until I came upon news of this movie. On the heels of a few monstrously bad Hollywood adaptations and reboots, I couldn’t imagine this movie being anything but another disappointment. I’m so happy to be wrong. Visually this movie was every bit the cinematic marvel as the original. That’s not to say it’s faultless. The story was perfectly serviceable until the forced shoehorning of Harrison Ford’s character left the plot a mess, but the atmosphere was maintained and it had some great modern takes on the content of the original. If every adaptation were this good I’d welcome them all.

John Wick 2: Another visual marvel that gives me hope for modern movies, John Wick 2 is every bit as good as the first, a combination of novel sequences and set pieces with great cinematography. The unapologetic daisy chain of fight scenes the raise the bar for Hollywood action. Like Blade Runner, the movie suffered a bit for the sake of a cameo, with Reeves and Fishburns' reunion taking up altogether too much screen time, but otherwise the film is a spotlessly choreographed action masterpiece. I can’t wait for the post-apocalyptic part 3, in which John Wick has killed 99.99% of Earth's population.

Atomic Blonde: Capping off my style-over-substance cinematic trilogy for 2017 is Charlize Theron’s rampage through Cold War Germany. I respect this film trying to deliver all the hyper-stylized, tightly-directed action as John Wick while including a compelling story, even if it didn’t quite land. Falling back on a few bored tropes left the later half of this movie feeling narratively stale, but the final sequences were marvelous all the same. I hope this grows into some sort of franchise all its own.

Takeshi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal: Two of the greatest anime disappointments of my anime life were the Blame! OAV series and the Blade of the Immortal anime, which were both made right in 2017. Polygon Pictures provided a Blame! Movie which satisfied (for now) and Blade of the Immortal got perhaps the man most suited in the world to direct its live-action adaptation. This movie is just the kind of bloodbath that the 100-man slayer and the 100-movie director both deserved.

Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi: It’s honestly cheating putting this movie in this list since it’s 100% anime. I’m pretty sure the middle of this film was just Gunbuster. Unfortunately it did actually sort of feel like two movies, one of them much better than the other. The plot following Rey and Kylo was marvelous from start to finish, as well as its branching conclusion with Luke, but the subplot with Finn dragged on forever and led to some themes that felt confused and left me wondering if they even knew what they want to do with his character (bring back Benicio though). That one scene, you know which one, was inspired (also very anime) and I hope other directors and studios take note.

RENE KAYSER (@kayserlein)

Baby Driver: If you forced me to pin down my single favorite movie, game or song, I could hardly come up with an answer. When it comes to my favorite director, this one’s a lot easier, though: It’s Edgar Wright, hands-down. No other director manages to reinvent himself every single movie while also staying true to what his fans love about him, and Baby Driver is his first “Big Budget Movie” (it does star several big Hollywood actors but only cost $34 million!). It not only combines its visuals with its soundtrack like no other movie but also tells a genuine heart-warming story. While Hot Fuzz will remain my favorite action movie of all time, Baby Driver keeps its distinctive shape in its rearview mirror.

Spider-Man: Homecoming: I’ve enjoyed almost every MCU movie thus far but with me being a lover of great villains, I have also suffered from Marvel’s biggest flaw: Having good antagonists. I couldn’t warm up to Loki like everyone else and had almost given up hope ... but then my third-favorite superhero swung in and gave me a great villain who was also played by a major actor of my favorite one! The rest of the movie may not hold a candle to the first two Raimi movies but I hope that we can keep this momentum with the MCU and may one day see a proper depiction of Dr. Doom.

Wonder Woman: If you were to ask me whether I preferred DC or Marvel, I would easily side with the bat and the man of steel. But even I can’t proclaim the current state of the DCEU as anything but bad while Marvel keeps hitting it out of the park. However, after the two trainwrecks of 2016, Wonder Woman gave us a glimmer of hope and a fantastic movie in which we also finally(!) got a female lead. Justice League was in turn bogged down by its production issues but I sincerely hope that we will start to get a proper representation of all these amazing characters from now on - even if we have to flashpoint it along the way.

Star Wars - Thrawn Trilogy Audioplay: My birds have told me the concept of an audioplay isn’t as common in the US as it is in Germany, so I’ll preface this with a short explanation. An audioplay is basically the same as an audiobook but instead of a single narrator, you have an entire cast of actors who act out the written story which is usually formatted to work with only dialogue and sound effects (though there are ones who use a narrator).

This year I, as a major Star Wars-fan, was delighted to discover a production I had never stumbled upon: An entire audioplay of Timothy Zahn’s famous Thrawn trilogy. While it may seem trivial at first, the people behind this not only got the entire German voice cast of the original movies (who actually dub every movie and even cartoons to this day!) but also paid close attention to absolutely every detail. They licensed John Williams’ famous score and made sure that the listener was able to distinguish each ship by its engine sound, each fighter by their weapon sound and each alien race by their own made-up language. Disney may have eradicated these books from the canon (though they thankfully brought Admiral Thrawn back in the Rebels cartoon) but this production will forever allow German fans to experience this original sequel to Return of the Jedi as close as possible to actual movies - all thanks to some amazing voice work and love from some serious fans.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi: As I’m writing this, less than a day has passed since me attending its premiere. So while I may be still blinded by the early “Honeymoon Phase” of still getting my emotions sorted and not having contemplated everything a thousand times, I am currently convinced that this is the best Star Wars movie I have ever seen. Rian Johnson mixed up the characters we love in a tale that’s both completely and yet faithful to the franchise and it almost disappoints me that Disney gave him “only” one additional trilogy to handle. This movie not only changes up Star Wars completely and for the best, but it also serves as a perfect capping stone for 2017 itself. A lot of bad things happened over these past twelve months but the final shot of this movie serves as a reminder that no matter how bad things get, we can still change the world for the better - no matter who we are and where we come from.

Game of Thrones Season 7: Game of Thrones got dumb this year. The time it takes characters to travel doesn’t match up in the slightest, we got a lot of scenes the audience was clearly intended to not think too hard about and a lot of it devolved into fanservice … but I completely loved it! After six years of buildup, we got an entire season with payoffs and while they didn’t always make perfect sense, they certainly were satisfying. I hope that the writing will improve a little for the final season  but I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it.

Female Doctor Who & other awesome ladies: This year has truly been great for awesome female leads in popular media. I already mentioned Wonder Woman and Star Wars: The Last Jedi who both have amazing female leads not to forget Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn!) but one of the oldest British TV series also finally made the jump to change things up. At the time of writing, I haven’t seen Jodie Whittaker’s take on the Doctor but I can’t wait to see that Christmas special and what fresh air she will bring to the show!

KARA DENNISON (@rubycosmos)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return: If you’re a fan of the original series, you’ll know within the first half hour that the show is back for real. And if you’re unfamiliar with it, the new series is a great jumping-off point. The new selection of movies is impressive, as is the new selection of cameos. Season 12 promises to be amazing!

Doctor Who Series 10: “Extremis”: “Extremis” is one of the riskiest episodes of Doctor Who ever made, and that’s saying something. I’ve been enjoying the Twelfth Doctor’s run immensely, but the fearful and challenging nature of this story makes it stand out for me. The gut drop of the big reveal still hasn’t left me.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: As a fan of Lemony Snicket’s dire children’s book series and all the puzzle-solving that went with it, I was thrilled with the new iteration of the story. Neil Patrick Harris is a perfect Count Olaf, and it’s just the right mix of dire and hilarious. There will be new mysteries to unravel whether you’re a casual reader, a hardcore fan, or a newcomer.

Night Mind: Halloween 2017: I get all my nightmare fuel analysis from Nick Nocturne, the host of the YouTube channel Night Mind. And this year he pulled out all the stops for Halloween. The latest SCP Vault imagines how certain entries might be interpreted by the public, Monster Hunt explores local legends, and his Candy Bowl vid combines an “Internet Ghost Tour” with world-premiere horror shorts. Lovers of the macabre need Nick in their lives at Halloween and year-round!

NICK CREAMER (@b0bduh)

Sick Scenes - Los Campesinos!: For my “the rest” this year, I’m just gonna go with a couple albums that have been circling my brain. And in this tumultuous year of 2017, Los Campesinos!’s Sick Scenes feels like the most urgent of releases. Marrying the band’s consistent indie rock hooks to tortured reflections on surviving in the age of Brexit and Trump, Sick Scenes is simultaneously a symbol of artistic maturation and a redoubling of youthful intent, a resounding cry saying even though we’re all very tired, we’re all very tired together.

After the Party - The Menzingers: If Sick Scenes casts its anxious eye outward, The Menzingers’ After the Party feels like a more inward-focused release, a monologue spiraling into a panic attack as the band’s longtime punk rockers face the onset of true adulthood. At twenty-nine-and-three-quarters years old, I must be the ideal mark for a record that opens on “whoa-a-o-o, whoa-o-o, where we gonna go now that our twenties are over.”

THOMAS ZOTH (@ABCBTom)

Blade Runner 2049: When a sequel to Blade Runner was announced, I made fun of it, because Blade Runner didn’t need a sequel. Any time there was an announcement about it, I would retweet it with a snide comment about how the film didn’t need to exist. But then, rumors started to spread that the film was good. I gave in and watched it, and I agree. A fully worthy companion to the original Blade Runner, less an exploration of what makes humans human and more about how people define their identities in Kafkaesque bureaucratic nightmares. I waited years to hate it and couldn’t. I’m looking forward to buying it on Blu-ray.

Get Out: An amazing directorial debut by Jordan Peele, Get Out is an acclaimed and fantastically realized horror movie, of all things. I love horror as a genre, but it’s usually far from respectable. By making a Rosemary’s Baby of race, Peele manages to make a funny, smart, and scary film that has resonated widely with audiences. I had never seen Key and Peele before this, so this was my first exposure to Peele (who also wrote), and I’m now looking forward to his future work.

Twin Peaks: The Return: In a documentary about the original Twin Peaks, David Lynch seemed genuinely sad that the original series ended the way it did and expressed a desire to go back. So when the series was announced, fans of Lynch knew this wasn’t a quick cash in, especially when Lynch seemed to walk away from the table when he wasn’t going to be given complete creative control. But the series arrived, and no one knew what to expect, and what we got was massively different than anyone could have imagined. At 18 hours, Twin Peaks: The Return nearly doubled the amount of Lynch-directed content in existence, itself a delicious treat, but it also updated Twin Peaks for the modern age in uncanny ways. Stunning and important.

Big Mouth: Images of this Netflix series circulated the internet as an example of how unbelievably ugly American cartoon designs are, and those opinions aren’t wrong. But if you can get past the aesthetic, Big Mouth is incredibly funny, starring favorites Nick Kroll and John Mulaney of The Kroll Show and Oh, Hello. It’s the puberty series that everyone needed during puberty, that you couldn’t watch during puberty because no adult would show this series to a kid. But now you can watch it and heal some old wounds.

Lady Bird: Written and directed by Greta Gerwig, who I mostly know as the voice of Pony in China, IL, Lady Bird is an assured debut film about adolescence in a time period very close to my own. It’s funny and charming, but also saves up some really painful emotional arrows in its quiver for the final act. Centering on the relationship of Lady Bird and her mother, it also touches on larger social questions and the common experiences of high school. Support an up and coming director by checking this one out.

JOSEPH LUSTER (@Moldilox)

Baby Driver: I didn’t see nearly as many movies in the theater as I wanted to in 2017, but Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver was one I enjoyed from the first frame to the last. Some of the musical elements were a little too clever for their own good, but the final product is a fast-paced action/chase/comedy flick that’s incredibly fun to watch.

Thor: Ragnarok: Speaking of comedies, Thor: Ragnarok certainly didn’t seem to leave many jokes on the cutting room floor. Thor is the bro-iest Avenger, but it kind of works. If they had focused more on the Planet Hulk storyline and less on the typical world-ending Marvel plot that swirled around Hela, it probably would have gone down as my favorite of the Marvel movies.

Fantasy Sports No. 3: If you’re not reading Sam Bosma’s Fantasy Sports series, you need to get on these comics ASAP. They’re so colorful and full of energy, and all of Bosma’s designs are damn near perfect. The third one came out this year, but I’d happily list every single installment in a best-of year-end list.

ISAAC AKERS (@iblessall)

Shihai Surunoha Kimito Koi No Aji by MOSHIMO: 2017 was the year I discovered you could actually find some J-pop and J-rock on Spotify, which lead to an exploration of all sorts of new discoveries for me. Among the best was a little band called MOSHIMO, which puts out a charming sort of pop rock sound—with a female lead vocalist who actually plays guitar! You can only watch so many idol lives before you start to long for singers who can play instruments. Anyways, MOSHIMO’s 2017 EP is, I’d wager, their best effort yet, showing a level of musical sophistication that’s a step above their previous works.

Baby Driver: The movie that grabbed the hearts of a great number of anime fans (as shown by its presence in other people’s lists here), I adored the film—which was the only movie I saw in theaters all year—primarily for amazing gimmick of writing a whole film to a playlist. I mean, back when I was at university, I’d skip around campus walking to classes much the way Baby does in the movie, so seeing that aspect of my life made into a whole dang film was pretty fun. It gets a bit long in spots, but overall I had a ton of fun with it.

Duolingo’s Japanese Course: Earlier this year, the popular language learning app Duolingo released the beta of their Japanese course, providing me with the convenient tool I needed to start actually learning the language. I’m under no illusions that I’m going to become fluent using Duolingo’s course, but just having something like this available makes it so much easier to fit some beginning learning into my head and busy schedule. If I manage to go on and truly learn Japanese someday, it’ll be because it started with this course. It’s worth checking out!

NATASHA H (@illegenes)

Mr. Robot S3: I’m admittedly biased about this one; Mr. Robot is one of my all time favorite shows, and this year, Sam Esmail took us on a hell of a ride as opposed to last season, which was far more slow paced and Lynchian. While not necessarily reaching the same highs, season 3 remained incredibly consistent, bringing two very different seasons together in full circle as we travel with Elliot to the depths of despair, but also, back into a hopeful and determined future of self awareness, culpability, and responsibility. The show only continues to break TV standards and I can’t wait for next year to raise my stress levels and churn my brain again.

The Expanse S2: Someone once told me The Expanse was like ‘sci fi Game of Thrones’. While I understand that to an extent, this is a form of clickbait, they’re not completely wrong either. Season 2 ramps up from Season 1 as more political factions are introduced and old characters make relationships with new. The show isn’t afraid to take risks, but at the same time, none of its twists or moments of tension feel haphazardly done. Likewise, the character development continues to be stellar, with no clear ‘good’ or ‘bad’ side to root for. One of my favorite things about this show is how firmly committed it is to diversity, featuring one of the most diverse casts I’ve seen in years. Its attention to realistic space physics is also incredibly neat and something I respect.

Blade Runner 2049: When the trailer for this movie first came out, I was half furious, half terrified. How could a movie possibly live up to the groundbreaking Blade Runner, let alone, be a direct sequel? After seeing it however, I can say that Blade Runner 2049 rose to become one of my favorite movies in recent years, surpassing its original with a soul of creativity and respect that few sequels possess. It borrows the best from Blade Runner, reinvents it for the current age, and then adds nuance in ways I’d never expect. It also happens to be, possibly, the most visually stunning thing I have ever seen. Nearly a 3 hour movie? Totally worth it.

The Night is Short, Walk on Girl: I recently watched Tatami Galaxy a year ago, and while it was great, I still felt like I missed watching it at the right time in my life for it to really have an impact on me. The Night is Short, Walk on Girl corrects this by combining many of the show’s strengths into a single feature film while also expanding upon the show’s main themes. Filled with the same charmful designs, warm and wacky adventures (and characters!),  Night is Short is a movie about living life to your fullest, and the need to connect with another human being, even if we can’t fully understand their perspective. It’s one of Yuasa’s strongest works and my favorite animated movie of the year…..

A Silent Voice: …..other than A Silent Voice. Naoko Yamada is a powerhouse in the animation industry, and she brings that talent to this movie based off the manga and one-shot. While many have complained about how the movie fails to mesh the two into a fleshed out and nuanced story, for me, the movie was nearly perfect in its portrayal of topics like miscommunication, depression, anxiety, and self guilt. With stunning animation at every turn along with small but brief details that are rewarding upon rewatch after rewatch, this movie is guaranteed to win you in some way or the other. And make you cry. A lot.

SAM WOLFE (@_Samtaro)

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Return: I was in the middle of a major MST3K kick when I heard that the Satellite of Love was coming to Netflix. Like anyone, I had my reservations about this new series; with an all new cast, and only some of the original writing staff, how would the new show hold up? As it happens, even with new voices, Crow, Tom Servo, and Gypsy were as great as ever, and Jonah Ray was an excellent addition as the human on board. My only complaints were with the new Mads, Felicia Day and Patton Oswalt; their bits were clearly filmed in bulk, and were host to several odd editing tricks (the liquid technology gag was really only there to cover the jump cuts between takes, wasn’t it?). Despite that, the movie selection was great, the sketches were silly, and I’m hoping we see even more from this crew in the not too distant future.

Twin Peaks: The Return: I watched Twin Peaks for the first time in 2014, and I was still antsy with excitement about the show’s final chapter; I can’t imagine what the wait was like for those who watched it when it first aired back in 1990. Twin Peaks: The Return is a masterful metatextual experiment that is as brilliant as it is polarizing. The show is conscientious that the audiences who hung on this long are thirsty for answers, and provides them in deliberate bites of surreal, disturbing television that David Lynch has both spearheaded and mastered. The Return’s slow windup seems loaded with fanservice and levity at first until it shocks viewers with episode 8 (which is presented completely in black and white, and is almost entirely silent), as if to say “alright fairweather friends, it was fun, but your time being comfortable has come to an end.”

The Return borrows a lot more from Lynch’s cinematic playbook, in many cases resembling Eraserhead more than the Twin Peaks it comes from. The result is a challenging, engaging, and almost paradoxical ending that both resolves the now twenty year long mystery, as well as igniting a spiral of new questions about reality, time, and what exactly is at stake for the characters we’ve come to know and love.

I particularly enjoyed seeing how the show flirted with the metanarrative, teasing the audience by introducing Kyle Mclaughlin’s character early on, but keeping Agent Dale Cooper well out of reach, instead forcing us to spend time with the dull but lucky Dougie Jones.

While Twin Peaks: The Return is a far cry from the show it’s derived from, and it’s certainly not for everyone, I would invite anyone who loves serial storytelling to challenge themselves and give it a try (after watching Twin Peaks seasons one, two, and the movie Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, of course).

Grape-kun: I remember waking up one morning to see the top story on the anime subreddit: an aged Humboldt penguin had fallen in love with a life size standee of penguin-girl Hululu from Kemono Friends placed in his enclosure. I knew I would be making a video about this penguin, but I never could have predicted how much of an impact he would have on my life. Over the next nine months, the story developed, and I made a new video for Crunchyroll as each new chapter unfolded. I know it’s silly, but I really felt an affinity for the little penguin who was enamoured with a piece of cardboard. So much so, that when planning a trip to Japan this fall, I had scheduled a day to visit the Tobu zoo and see Grape-kun for myself. Unfortunately, that visit never happened, as Grape-kun passed away just weeks before my trip.

So what’s the takeaway? When this little penguin made an innocuous decision, he was abruptly elevated to the world’s stage, and people several continents suddenly away had opinions about him. There were responses on all sides of the spectrum (thankfully mostly positive), but none of those responses ever reached Grape-kun. Grape-kun just kept doing what he was doing, and I think that’s what we can learn from him: be yourself no matter what the madding crowd says. Rest in peace little guy. Thank you for sharing your story with us.

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That's it for our three-part series on 2017! Be sure to check out Part One and  Part Two! If you're still in the mood for past CR Favorites, check out the previous years' features here:

  Crunchyroll Favorites 2016 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One Part Two Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One Part Two

  What were your favorite "everything else" of 2017? Comment below and share with us! Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST OF list, so there's no wrong answers!

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Peter Fobian is an Associate Features Editor for Crunchyroll, author of Monthly Mangaka Spotlight, writer for Anime Academy, and contributor at��Anime Feminist. You can follow him on Twitter @PeterFobian.

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[epchapman89]

A Coffee Lover’s Guide To Vancouver, British Columbia

Canada is a big place. And though we claim only a handful of distinct regions compared to our neighbor to the south, each province has its prominent stereotypes. Fishing in the east, the agriculture of the interior, the mountains to the west. And when you get down to the granularity of each city, there are some stereotypes that continue to ring true. For Vancouver, it is the coffee.

The current Vancouver cafe landscape is a strong point of pride for locals and absolutely lives up to the hype, even giving its Pacific Northwest brethren south of the border a run for their money. With everything from established local roasters to internationally renowned multi-roaster cafes to high-quality one-off shops, there has never been a better time to experience everything the city’s coffee bars have to offer. The list that follows is purposely intended to be used in conjunction with the cafes previously featured on Sprudge, as together they give a wonderful representation of Vancouver in 2017.

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters

When many people around the world think about Vancouver coffee, whether they’re a coffee professional or a casual consumer, the first name that often comes to mind is 49th Parallel. With their recognizable light teal packages found on shelves across North America and other countries around the world, 49th has been a great ambassador for helping to put this city on the map. But it’s the coffee itself to which the brand owes its success. You would be hard-pressed to find a barista connected to the Vancouver scene who wasn’t intimately versed in the difference between their Old School and Epic espressos. And with their dedicated focus on sourcing, their rotating selection of offerings are deliciously consistent and don’t miss a beat.

If becoming a staple in Canadian coffee wasn’t enough, to every customer’s delight the 49th team developed another in-house brand that puts them in a best-in-class category: Lucky’s Doughnuts. A classic coffee and donut combo is too tantalizing to pass up with the incredible selection beckoning through the glass. With exciting plans in the pipeline for Vancouver, don’t sleep on this established veteran to continue to earn its reputation.

49th Parallel Coffee Roasters has multiple locations around Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Elysian Coffee Roasters

Quietly established as one of Vancouver’s most popular local roasters, Elysian Coffee Roasters is continuing to grow its presence across the city. Their newest location is located in The Burrard hotel, with a large front patio drawing foot traffic from Burrard and providing an excellent locale to enjoy the sun and some friendly people-watching. The shop itself is a fantastic coffee upgrade for any hotel to offer to its guests. With an adjoining door to the front lobby, one can only imagine how excited the hotel staff must be to recommend a cup.

The cafe is classically styled. White walls are accented by design features like the chic wooden furnishings and a chalkboard poster of Canada. The cafe’s front sign is, too, alluring: the background is Elysian’s now-signature illustration of a mountain range that inspires thoughts of tranquil growing regions nurturing the delightful coffees presented inside.

Elysian Coffee Roasters has multiple locations around Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow them on Twitter and Instagram.

Propaganda Coffee

Propaganda is your favourite barista’s favourite coffee shop. The place just oozes cool. When you walk in the door you will undoubtedly hear jazz playing over the speakers while you observe an array of trendy locals sitting amongst elegant furnishings and minimalist decor. When ordering your beverage—sorting through a mix of both standard and innovative offerings—your eye is drawn across the counter to Vancouver’s only Modbar. A menu of creations curated by owner William Wang focuses on Canadian roasters and the highest quality preparation. With agreements in place with specific roasters, Wang will often purchase entire lots of a given roast and be the only local source for a sought-after coffee.

Vancouver’s constantly changing Chinatown neighborhood is a perfect location for Propaganda, as the owner and the menu follow a similarly dynamic approach. Seasonal offerings and special coffee creations aside, it is Wang’s innovative ideas that really set this place apart. What would it taste like to have an espresso out of a keg? Or—have you ever seen an old-school milkshake mixer in a specialty coffee shop for an espresso milkshake? Regardless, if you are looking for a basic espresso or whatever idea Wang will come up with next, rest assured you will long remember having visited Propaganda.

Propaganda Coffee is located at 209 E Pender St, Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Timbertrain Coffee Roasters

These are exciting times at Timbertrain Coffee Roasters as owners Jeff Shin, Peter Kim, and Min Shin have just opened their new “Depot” location to extend the business beyond their original Gastown cafe—a local favorite on its own in recent years. The Depot space is stunning, with a beautifully sharp, painted wall drawing the eye from the front door to the back of the warehouse space. The new location allows them to expand their operations into new and exciting territories, bringing roasting—previously done in Langley, BC—closer to home. Even their homemade baking has been able to move within this extremely functional space.

The Timbertrain team hopes this new location will be a natural extension of its business and an opportunity for growth while providing the ability to interact even more closely with the local community. Rather than opening a carbon-copy second cafe, Timbertrain has succeeded in delivering a new and exciting space to the city. Look for cupping events, latte art classes, brew method training, and roasting tutorials here in the near future.

Timbertrain Coffee Roasters is located at 311 West Cordova Street, Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Revolver Coffee

Revolver Coffee has managed to accomplish a feat that every athlete, every student, every professional, and every business continually strives for: sustained excellence. More than six years after opening its doors, Revolver is still seen by many as the benchmark for coffee in Vancouver. The Giannakos family has managed to consistently master the multi-roaster concept by bringing in an impressive array of coffee from roasters all around the world—like Heart Roasters, Phil & Sebastian, and Ritual Roasters, to name only a few. By partnering with these roasters, whether through water testing, taste exploration, or customer feedback, Revolver has stayed atop the heap and taken it upon themselves to always be looking forward.

The shop still rivals any that have come after it in terms of design. From the tall ceilings with dramatic front glass windows, the industrial and rustic features and furnishings to that one unbelievable piece of finished wood sprawling the length of the bar, take one look around and it is clear why this place has set such a high standard.

Revolver has inspired a cohort of serious coffee drinkers and is a—well—revolving door for a bright future of coffee professionals. This is the type of place that brings on emotion when you experience it in person. Simply put, you look forward to visiting, and cannot wait for the opportunity to come back.

Revolver Coffee is located at 325 Cambie St, Vancouver. Visit their official website and follow them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Peter de Vooght is a freelance journalist and photographer based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Read more Peter de Vooght on Sprudge.

The post A Coffee Lover’s Guide To Vancouver, British Columbia appeared first on Sprudge.

seen 1st on http://sprudge.com

[janellehalverson-blog]

David Copperfield.

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[winonaberrios-blog]

What Ladies Need to Endure A Cruise.

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