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alex-the-nonsensologist · 1 year ago

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Disney Dreamland - Part 1: World Galleria

I posted about my idea of a Mysteryland a while back and decided to finally post the rest of my ideas for my personal Disney Park (nicknamed Disney Dreamland; may change the name later, who knows). This outline is a mix of ideas and random commentary related to each idea (I tend to blab a lot in my writing. Sorry in advance). Some ideas are half-baked as I only have an idea how I want them to look and feel rather than function, other ideas are intentionally left vague because they are dependent on experts on the subjects (which I am not). Also, I had trouble coming up with nice-sounding names, so that's why you’ll see a lot of names that are just basic descriptions in quotation marks. Would love some feedback wherever possible!

A bit of background, I originally envisioned this park as a Disneyland in New York (it's one of my favorite self-indulgent daydreams), and that led to my park being a sort of homage to the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair by featuring some iteration of all four of the attractions that debuted there, as well as my version of Main Street being a sort of mini World’s Fair.

Shout-out to @disneylanddilettante , I was inspired to write this after reading her ideal version of Disneyland.

World Galleria

My version of Main Street would be under a lovely glass roof to shield from the weather, and resemble a Victorian arcade. Inspired by Tokyo’s World Bazaar (their equivalent of Main Street), and in homage to similar places throughout Europe’s history, such as The Great Exhibition of 1851, Passage des Panoramas in Paris, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Italy, etc.

The architecture would be mostly Victorian with a bit of Turn of the 20th Century. To help carry the theme of “World’s Fair”, international restaurants would be featured here; their building exteriors would follow the Victorian look, but their signage, window displays, and interiors would fully reflect their respective cultures (for example, see Restaurant Hokusai in Tokyo’s World Bazaar).

The entire place would have plenty of ventilation, especially in the summer, to prevent it from feeling like a greenhouse. To help traffic flow, the street would have crossroad branches in the middle like Tokyo does, leading out into Adventureland on the left, and Discoveryland on the right. The parade does not run down this route (more on that later). This allows the center crossroads space to have special decorations for seasonal events, again just like Tokyo does.

The entire avenue would have accessible second stories to make space for everything. I would also love to have at least one little alcove or mini-courtyard somewhere to relax, containing a small garden with a decorative fountain.

Disney Dreamland Railroad main station: Victorian style with partial glass ceilings. Other stations will be in each of the five lands, all appropriately themed, and with dioramas in the tunnels teasing each land’s theme / attractions. I also think it would be really neat if the park’s entrance ticket booths were underneath this station.

Great Moments in Storytelling: Successor to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, one of the four New York World’s Fair attractions. Due to personal reasons, I’m not entirely comfortable making any President, past or present, shown as a celebrity or a friendly buddy. So I decided, how about famous authors instead? Perhaps Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, or all three and more? There would also be a narrative or discussion of some kind, so it’s not just them spouting random popular quotes from their works.

“Mini Disneyland model” : The models of the Storybook Land Canal Boats are a very neat idea, but I personally prefer taking my time to see models up close, not in the blink of an eye from afar. I think it would be really cool to have a scale model of the original Disneyland as an homage, and a learning exhibit.

“Galleria Cinema”: Showcases old Disney shorts, including Steamboat Willie, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and the Alice Comedies. Maybe on special occasions it could even showcase foreign films, like The Red Balloon.

Penny Arcade: Mutoscopes and other coin-operated games.

World Emporium shop.

"Snack tin shop": In Asia the parks sell snacks in these absolutely GORGEOUS decorative tins. This shop could sell a variety of international snacks with unique Disney art themed to each region / culture on the tin.

Wishing You Were Here: Stationary shop and post office. Send postcards to your loved ones. Yearly calendar with exclusive artwork available here (Tokyo’s calendar artwork is ASTOUNDING).

For restaurants, I would include restaurants with the following cuisines:

Japanese, as a nod to Tokyo Disney Resort (French and Chinese cuisine will be elsewhere in the park).

Norwegian, Moroccan, and Canadian, as a nod to the remaining countries of EPCOT that won’t have restaurants elsewhere in the park.

Thai, as a nod to Amphibia without specifically being IP themed, though there could be a few hidden references to the show in the decor and menu.

Greek. Interior could be themed to mythology and have a few hidden references in the decor to the animated Hercules.

There won’t be any American cuisine in this area as they can already be found elsewhere in the park.

‘‘ it’s a small world ’’

One of the four New York World’s Fair attractions. In place of the classic Disney castle, here I put "it’s a small world" as my park’s icon. If you think about it, Small World is in its own way a kind of castle, it certainly looks like one, but also a small city. I think it neatly adds on to the theming of World Galleria. Shout-out to @pureimagineering , who also imagined Small World as a park icon, but for different reasons.

This version’s facade would be castle-sized. Color scheme could be either pastels, or white with various shades of blue, and touches of gold. Entrance and queue would be on the back of the building to leave the front free for live entertainment, and nighttime fireworks and projection shows. The main central garden plaza hub would at least be the size of Tokyo’s, but nowhere near as big as Shanghai's, who only gets away with it because their castle is so dang huge. The hub would be surrounded by a river making it an island, much like Orlando’s hub. Features include a structure inspired by Tower of the Four Winds, and fun topiaries. For my park, the parade would follow a similar route to Tokyo and Shanghai, originating from the west and wrapping around the central hub before exiting eastward.

There would also be a back garden plaza behind the ride building, with plenty of topiaries, flower gardens, and a little river running through the garden with lovely bridges crossing over it. This area transitions into Fantasyland. There would be an international buffet restaurant and a gift shop placed on the second floor of Small World, above the ride, with the entrance also on the back of the building. The classic clock tower would of course be in front, but there’d also be a smaller version in the back for the people in the queue and the restaurant.

A World of Tastes: International buffet. Interior architecture would resemble the finale room of the ride. Buffet would feature a little bit of something from every single country featured in the ride, with emphasis on cuisine not already featured anywhere else in the park.

‘‘it’s a small world’’ Toy Shop: Does anyone remember the singing Small World Animators’ Dolls that Disney Store released back in 2013 / 2014? I would love to have this store re-release them, as well as mini playset versions (non-singing). The store can of course also sell other Disney character plush, and plush keychains in unique outfits like the ones sold in Tokyo.

The Ride Itself:

I definitely want to have a queue designed by Joey Chou like the one he did for Tokyo’s version’s 2018 renovation. He is pretty much this generation’s Mary Blair. I just love all the kinetic sculptures, the delightful murals, and star-shaped lights dangling from the ceiling. It’s all so adorable and colorful!

For the ride itself, there would be more countries added. For example, Europe could have a few more Eastern European / Slavic countries at the end to transition into Asia. Similar to Hong Kong’s version, the Asia room would also have more dolls and scenes, but rearranged so that the Middle East is in the back to better flow into the Africa room. I would also definitely add the Mandarin and Cantonese versions of the song to Asia’s audio. It would be great if there were more countries represented in Africa, or at least a portion added for the savanna, a marketplace scene, and Mount Kilimanjaro. Maybe also include audio of the song in Swahili and Zulu. I’m not opposed to a North America room, so long as there is decent representation of various Native American tribes, and Canada.

For the ride music, I’d love a version that closely resembled the soundtrack that Paris used to have. I think the instrumentation and vocals from that version is simply top tier joy-inducing. For the finale room I’d use the EPIC orchestral rendition from the Small World finale unit in Tokyo’s Electrical Parade Dreamlights.

While I myself have no problems with the dolls, I am willing for the dolls’ faces to be redesigned to be slightly more cartoony to reduce any uncanny valley.

Controversial opinion, I personally have little issue with most of the Disney character cameos that are in the Hong Kong, California, and Tokyo versions of the ride. Since most of the human characters are portrayed in doll form, and the non-humans match the stylized look of the animals throughout the ride, they tend to blend in rather well and make for a fun Easter Egg game. I will admit, some characters stand out too much, like the Toy Story gang, or had unnecessarily extravagant sets added just for their sake, like Rapunzel who had her whole tower added in Tokyo. As a middle ground, for my version of Small World, I narrowed down the Disney cameos to only 4 specific groups in homage to the movies that Mary Blair had a heavy influence on.

Alice in Wonderland: I’m a little biased as Lewis Carroll’s Alice is my favorite book. Alice and the White Rabbit fit in well at their current location next to the UK chessboard, and are fine to leave as is.

Peter Pan: Peter and TinkerBell flying above the audience works just fine as they are decently hidden out of view most of the time. While I think Wendy sitting on the moon is a very cute image, I’ll leave her out to keep the cameos to a minimum.

Cinderella: The current versions stand out a little too much, especially Hong Kong’s where she and Prince Charming have the castle added behind them. For my version, I would only have Gus and Jaq tucked away on the Eiffel Tower (where Mary’s cameo is hanging out), but I would also have the Eiffel Tower rendered in white, blue, and silver in the style of Cinderella Castle.

The Three Caballeros: While Donald, José, and Panchito stand out the most of the four cameos I’ve picked, they were part of a genuine cultural movement as a result of the Good Neighbor policy, not to mention warmly received by Latin America, so they’re perfectly in the spirit of Small World, and I think they’re fine to leave as is.

Starting in the hub, the five themed genre lands of the park, going clockwise, are:

Adventureland

Mysteryland

Fantasyland

Create-It-Land

Discoveryland

#disney parks #disney dreamland #armchair imagineering #main street usa #it's a small world #theme park design

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deke-rivers-1957 · 1 year ago

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ECU High - Vince's Attitude

A Lincoln Town Car drives up to ECU High's front door.

"Jeeves stop here. I wanna get out now." Vince orders.

"Yes, Master Everett," his chauffeur says as he stops.

Vince gets out of the car with his Ralph Lauren backpack wearing high end clothes.

"You better be back at 3:15 or else." he says as he closes the door.

Jeeves drives away as Vince walks into the school.

"What's up poors!" Vince yells as a flex.

"Ah shut up, Vince!" some of the boys yell as he walks by.

"And a good morning to you too Charlie, Steve and Walter. I know you're all so jealous but oh well. We can't all appear on MTV and land a huge recording contract." Vince starts to laugh and walks away.

Walter has to hold Charlie and Steve back. "He ain't worth it. If there's any justice in this world, he'll get his one day."

Vince keeps laughing as he walks to his locker.

"Vince you really need to end this state of hubris and narcissism."

Vince rolls his eyes as he opens his locker. "Ah what do you know Scotty boy. You ain't got much room to talk with that silver spoon shoved in your mouth. Beat it."

Scott just sighs and walks away. Vince turns to his left.

"What ya got something to say to me Chad?"

Chad just chuckles. "You know, Vince. I never thought you'd be the kinda kid who becomes a complete ass just because he made a million bucks. Didn't anybody tell ya to be nice to the people on the way up? If they did then you'd know that you're only gonna run into them on the way down. Keep it up and -"

"Ah shut up!" Vince interrupts.

Chad just shrugs as if to say "Can't say I didn't warn you." and walks away.

Vince groans in annoyance as he grabs his books to put away. He looks at his schedule and finds that he has American Literature as his first class. When he walks into the classroom he immediately gets annoyed.

A teacher is talking with her student about a project. "What did you want me to help you with, Johnny?"

"Ms. Xana, Ah'm tryna write a story about a man who performs on riverboats in the 1860s. Where should Ah look?" he asks sitting at a desk.

She thinks as she goes through some books at her desk. "I think I have just the book for you, Johnny."

She pulls out "Life on the Mississippi" and hands it to him. "This is a memoir by Mark Twain. He used to work as a steamboat pilot before the Civil War. This should help you get started with your research."

Johnny takes the book smiling as Vince rolls his eyes. "Are ya done with the theatrics Johnny? Nobody reads your damn plays."

Ms. Xana gasps. "Vince watch your language. I won't have that type of talk in my classroom."

Vince scoffs as he sits down and waits for the bell to ring so class can start. His mind starts to wander and thoughts become sour.

"Why'd my stupid parents decide to keep me enrolled at this stupid school with these stupid kids and naggy ass teachers? I'd rather go to a private school or drop out all together."

Tag list: @vintagepresley, @jaqueline19997, @presley72elvis, @vintagegirl50s60s70s80s, @j-v-9-2, @lawdymissclawdy68, @almightybigbrain, @arrolyn1114, @tupelomiss, @thetaoofzoe, @mydarlingelvis, @phil2135561 @just-another-boring-bisexual, @leopardandstuds, @ellie-24, @heart-of-ep, @thatbanditqueen, @gayforelvis, @be-my-ally, @alienelvisobsession, @mercsandmonsters, @ashtag6887, @whitepontiac, @richardslady121, @aliengoth3, @ash-omalley, @eptodaytommorwforever, @kendralavon7, @thehillbillycat, @melaninpvssypoppin, @wildhorseinkansas, @pinkcaddyconfessions, @comebackep, and @miniaturerunawaykid,.

AN: Also shoutout to @xanatenshi as the literature teacher. I hope I did you well.

#ecu high #vince everett #elvis fanfiction #elvis fanfic #were critics wrong for thinking vince was just a jerk? evidence suggests no

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historyhermann · 1 year ago

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 4 Spoiler-Filled Review

Star Trek: Lower Decks is a mature animation which combines elements of the adventure, comedy, and sci-fi genres. Series creator Mike McMahan is known as a co-creator of Solar Opposites, a producer on Rick and Morty and as a consulting producer on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This is the ninth series in the Star Trek franchise and second Star Trek animated series after Star Trek: The Animated Series ended in 1974.

Reprinted from Pop Culture Maniacs and Wayback Machine. This was the fifty-sixth article I wrote for Pop Culture Maniacs. This post was originally published on November 30, 2023. PCM editor Jean Henegan she said she added some content "since I'm a massive Trek nerd/fan, I added a bit of context around some of the things you pointed out...and cleaned up a couple of things that weren't quite accurate...Nice piece, overall." I have incorporated those additions here. Most of the text is the same as what I submitted on November 28th.

This animated series, which has aired for three seasons, takes a different tact than previous Star Trek series. It focuses on lower-ranked officers who engage in menial labor, known as lower deckers. Others are supporting characters. Star Trek: Lower Decks focuses on Starfleet, the military and exploration division of the United Federation of Planets, in the 24th century. It is tasked with establishing contact with races across the galaxy using a ship no one cares about: the USS Cerritos.

Four lower deckers are protagonists: Beckett Mariner, Brad Boimler, D’Vana Tendi, and Sam Rutherford. They are voiced by Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero. Four others are recurring characters: captain of the Cerritos (Carol Freeman), first officer Jack Ransom, tactical officer Shaxs, and head medical doctor T’Ana. Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O’Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman voice these characters. All are well-known voice actors.

This series stands out because of its animation style, comedy, plot, and characters. Mariner is a big part of this. Her romantic relationships became a big part of the series, especially in the third season, when she is dating Jennifer Sh'reyan (voiced by Lauren Lapkus). Like actual relationships, they don't stay together, partially because Jennifer does not stand by her. She abandons Mariner when many on the Cerritos incorrectly think she is a traitor. Mariner is bisexual or pansexual. Previously, she dated Steve Levy. She tells Tendi, in a season two episode, that she dated "bad boys, bad girls, bad gender non-binary babes, [and] ruthless alien masterminds." She dated Amina Ramsey (voiced by Toks Olagundoye) while at Starfleet Academy. McMahan stated that "every Starfleet officer is probably at the baseline bisexual" and that there was no intention for "anybody to be strictly heteronormative or straight or cis."

Unfortunately, this is rarely explored in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 4. There are some romantic vibes between Mariner and T’Lyn (voiced by Gabrielle Ruiz), a fellow crewmember on the Cerritos (who also happens to be Vulcan), in the fourth episode. They care for each other (as much as a Vulcan can care, with their repressed emotions), especially after knives keep stabbing Mariner during the episode. In the episode after, T’Lyn calms down Mariner’s emotions after her fever causes everyone’s emotions on the Cerritos to go out of control. In another episode, Mariner enjoys being kissed by a guy. Otherwise, her development during the season revolves around her promotion to a higher rank and ramifications of that decision. Although she is still part of “lower decks,” she is now a junior grade lieutenant, which makes her uneasy.

Boimler and Rutherford get closer, especially after the fourth episode. They even solve a disagreement by dressing up as Mark Twain and talking on a simulated steamboat. Both struggle with their promotions, although in different ways than Mariner. For instance, Boimler gets his first mission as commander and attempts to do everything himself. With some prodding from T’Lyn, he ends up sacrificing himself to save everyone and is later brought back to life. Rutherford also tries to find his place on the ship following his promotion. The closeness between Boimler and Rutherford has led some to ship them together. After all, in the eighth episode, Boimler doesn’t mind taking off his pants when Rutherford asks. Presently, there are less than 20 fics shipping them. Comparably, there’s over 120 fics for the Marinler ship (Mariner and Boimler). The latter has a small chance of canonization as compared to the Rutherford/Boimler ship.

Otherwise, there are wild plotlines, whether about Betazoid “diplomats” (actually undercover intelligence officers) with a hidden agenda who almost bring the Cerritos into the neutral zone where Romulans await battle, a fake marriage between Tendi and Rutherford, or megalomaniacal A.I. – known as Badgey – trying to get revenge. In the case of the latter, the A.I. comes out of the Daystrom Institute on Earth, returning following its initial appearance in season two. In the time between the seasons, it was imprisoned in a penitentiary holding other A.I. of a similar nature. His plans are foiled when he realizes that ultimate power is too much. The plans of two A.I., Peanut Hamper and Aegus, also fail after they realize that killing others isn’t worth it. Both commit to reforming their selves, so they aren’t evil anymore.

The depiction of A.I. in Star Trek: Lower Decks is somewhat similar to the rogue A.I. in Futurama's Season 8 Part One, or near-planet-destroyer Light Hope in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. It differs from the mixed representation in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur and Cleopatra in Space, or more positive depictions in My Dad the Bounty Hunter, Kizuna no Allele, and Supa Team 4. This matters considering social media rumblings that some actors will not vote for the recent contract between SAG-AFTRA and the Hollywood studios due to reportedly subpar A.I. provisions [Note: The previous line was removed from the PCM version.]

Throuhgout the season, there are also scenes with spoken poetry, a bar fight (started by Mariner, naturally), and an instance of Boimler getting addicted to a Ferengi television series. There’s even a funny episode where everyone recounts their experiences about being stuck in a cave with different Starfleet officers. However, it’s the journey that Mariner takes over the course of the season that truly hits home as the season comes to a close. Following her promotion Mariner struggles to be a leader, desperate to keep bucking command. How can you be rebellious against the command structure when you are part of it? She asks herself this question, trying to determine what her purpose within Starfleet is. It isn’t until the close of the season that she truly understands who she is and why she is so hesitant to take on more responsibility.

In that episode, Captain Freeman is worried about Mariner. She’s unsure why Mariner is taking risks and trying to get herself killed. She orders Mariner’s friends to distract her. This backfires. Mariner, along with T’Lyn, Tendi, and Boimler, all teleport to a planet surface before their ship is destroyed. When they admit they are worried about her, and reveal the Captain’s order, she is unhappy. She agrees to stay with them until she slips out during the night. In the process, she bonds with a Klingon, who tells her what no one has stated directly: she’s at war with herself.

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This is only part of Mariner’s attempted self-examination. It is akin to Yor Forger asking herself why she is an assassin in episode 33 of Spy x Family, lingering doubts of Teru Momijiyama / Shy in Shy about her reasons for being a hero, or Sora Harewata-ru / Cure Sky wondering why she hesitates to fight the Undergu empire in episode 42 of Soaring Sky! Pretty Cure. Mariner reveals she is partially in Starfleet to honor Sito, a friend from her time at Starfleet Academy who died a senseless death several years earlier, which makes her continue to question Starfleet’s mission. She admits that while she doesn’t hate Starfleet, she tried to get out of a promotion. She believes Starfleet should solve the puzzles of life, not start wars (which could violate the Prime Directive). As she tells the Klingon, she doesn’t want to send her friends off to die. She wants to be an ensign and nothing more.

Ma’ah (voiced by Jon Curry), the Klingon, suggests that she honor her friend, slay her enemies, and study to be better. In response, she hugs him, rather than fighting him, and says they should work together. The episode hints at her future leadership, possibly in Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5. She rallies everyone together in a rousing speech. Unfortunately, she is kidnapped by “Nicholas” Nick Locarno (who, like Sito, previously appeared in live action in Star Trek: The Next Generation and were once again portrayed – in voice over – by their live action actors Robert Duncan McNeil – who also starred on Star Trek: Voyager – and Shannon Fill), who beams her up into a mysterious ship – a ship that has been “destroying” various species’ ships throughout the season. Thanks to her efforts, Boimler, T’Lyn, and Tendi, along with new allies, destroy a Klingon warbird. They are disappointed that Mariner isn’t aboard.

The Season 4 finale ends with a bang, as it turns out that ships “destroyed” across the galaxy have joined the renegade Nova Fleet/Squadron. It resembles the rag-tag rebel fleet in Star Wars Rebels. There’s a major difference: Nick is willing to engage in terrorism, i.e., threat or use of violence to cause panic or intimidate, especially as a method to affect political conduct, as defined in the Third Pocket Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary. Mariner easily stops this. She calls out Nick as selfish and brainless, then steals a genesis device, which can destroy planets.

Captain Freeman shows her dedication to her daughter, and to the well-being of her crew. She goes to extreme lengths to rescue Mariner. After a failed contest on her homeworld of Orion, Tendi agrees to work for her pirate sister, D’Erika (voiced by Ariel Winter), so they can get a battleship. They use the decrepit warship to smash through the barrier. It creates a hole big enough for the captain’s yacht to enter. In the process, they save Mariner. Nick is left on her ship after he tries to kill her and activates the genesis device. In a moment of clever dark humor, Nick is destroyed by the device since he can’t pay the money needed to deactivate it (since it is a Ferengi model, of course).

The episode ends with Captain Freeman not court-martialed, T’Lyn refusing to return to her previous ship, and the four protagonists come together for a party in the mess hall. While they party for a short bit, this soon ends, as Tendi feels obligated to fulfill her end of the bargain she made with D’Erika: she must return to a life of piracy alongside D’Erika. Although this depresses Rutherford, neither he, Boimler nor Mariner, stop her from leaving. Tendi prepares herself for what comes next. Undoubtedly, her story will be expanded in Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season, which was in production as of March.

As noted earlier, queer representation was lacking in this season, as opposed to previous ones. In the past, I’ve written that the ship engineer, Andy Billups (voiced by Paul Scheer), was possibly asexual. A recent post on treksphere makes the same claims. It argues that Tendi is aromantic, Billups is an asexual icon, and points to possible asexual vibes from Spock, Data, and Odo in the Star Trek franchise – although all three characters have relationships with women at various points in their stories. Such claims are only headcanons, similar to those who believed that Page in Tron: Uprising was asexual. There are no asexual characters in the Star Trek universe, to my knowledge. As such, having a canon asexual character in Star Trek: Lower Decks, outward in their identity like Todd Chavez in Bojack Horseman, would be great.

Asexual representation in animation, and in popular culture, is slim. While Alastor in Hazbin Hotel, Lilith Clawthorne in The Owl House, Peridot in Steven Universe, or Perry the Platypus in Phineas and Ferb, are asexual, they were confirmed off-screen. The same is the case for Spongebob Squarepants and Percival "Percy" King in Epithet Erased. Some have stated that Seiji Maki in Bloom Into You and Shōko Tanimoto in The Case Files of Jeweler Richard are asexual. In a previous review, I noted this was the case for Hime Shiraki in Yuri is My Job!. I've seen social media chatter about the manga which comes to a similar conclusion.

Hopefully, Star Trek: Lower Decks fifth season expands on Mariner‘s personal relationships and her identity, and that of the other protagonists. Undoubtedly, it will retain its mature comedy and quirkiness. All the while the characters will be thrown into conflict-prone situations, a breeding ground for trauma. This is not unique. There are multiple series airing this fall featuring characters in tense and stressful situations, sometimes involving murder of human beings. This includes certain The Vexations of a Shut-In Vampire Princess and Spy x Family episodes.

Otherwise, people anonymously described their conditions at Titmouse in a largely-circulated spreadsheet about animation studios. In the spreadsheet, which has 11 entries for the aforementioned animation studio, people praise Titmouse for good pay, flexible and healthy working hours, opportunities for rapid advancement, and good management. Others criticize Titmouse for disorganization, overwork, low pay, and say it is only good for those entering the industry. Clearly, it’s a mixed bag. There are different experiences, depending on each production, if I’m understanding these entries correctly.

In my previous review of Star Trek: Lower Decks, I noted that LGBTQ+ representation is at the heart of the show. I pointed to myriad examples of such representation (and in the franchise), and note that many fan fictions for Mariner are skewed toward men. As such, I still see the interactions between Mariner and Boimler as platonic rather than romantic. I understand how people see them as the latter, shipping them as Marinler, but I see them as good friends, rather than good lovers.

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In the past, this series had some of best queer representation in mature animation. Other examples include RWBY, Disenchantment, Final Space, Bojack Horseman, and Harley Quinn. In season 4 of Star Trek: Lower Decks, this was less emphasized. Even so, the series is still moving in an inclusive direction. It isn't like Star Wars: The Bad Batch. That series had "four White men and one person of color, in the main cast," as I wrote in January.

This direction is clear from the cast and crew. Tawny Newsome and Dawnn Lewis, who voice Mariner and Captain Freeman, are both Black women, like their characters. Noël Wells (voice of Tendi) is of Tunisian and Mexican descent. Eugene Cordero (voice of Rutherford) is of Filipino descent. Gabrielle Ruiz is of Mexican descent. Carlos Alazraqui is Latine. Black men such as Marcus Henderson, Phil LaMarr, and Carl Tart also voice characters. There are some White male voice actors, such as Jack Quaid, Jack McBrayer, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, Paul Scheer, and Paul F. Tompkins. White women like Gillian Vigman, Lauren Lapkus, Georgia King, and Jessica McKenna voice characters too. Although, they are not the majority of the main cast, they comprise much of the recurring cast.

Many of these names were familiar. For one, Newsome voiced Jessica Williams in Craig of the Creek, Quaid voiced Clark Kent / Superman in My Adventures with Superman, and Cordero voiced Jamie in Steven Universe. Lewis voiced LaBarbara Conrad in Futurama, Professor Klabrax V in Cleopatra in Space, The Chief/Tamara Fraser in Carmen Sandiego, and Fannie Granger in Spirit Riding Free. LaMarr is best known for voicing Hermes Conrad in Futurama, Virgil Hawkins / Static in Static Shock, and John Stewart / Green Lantern in Justice League, along with Sky Gunderson in Disenchantment.

Alazraquiprominently voiced Puff in The Proud Family (in the reboot/revival) and Skylar in Elena of Avalor. Winter voiced Princess Sofia Cordova for the entire Sofia the First series, in the Elena of Avalor series finale, and in Elena and the Secret of Avalor, a backdoor pilot for Elena of Avalor. Wells, O'Connell, Tataiscore, Scheer, McKenna, McBrayer, Lapkus, Tart, and Tompkins, had assorted voice roles, as well. However, this isn't counting anyone in the guest cast.

In terms of the show's music, the opening and closing themes were good, and it fits with the action. I don't recall any tracks there were necessarily memorable (apart from the opening and closing tracks). So, I'm downgrading the music score for this review. Even so, Chris Westlake did an excellent job as the series composer. The music echoes Star Trek scores in other parts of the franchise. Those who directed, wrote, storyboarded, and animated each episode, including some well-known names like Jamie Loftus, McMahan, and Grace Parra Janney, deserve plaudits for their hard work as well.

I look forward to the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I hope that the personal identities of the main cast are explored more in the next season. I'm optimistic that Paramount executives realize the series' value. It would be devastating to have the series cancelled unceremoniously like Star Trek: Prodigy. Netflix recently nabbed that series as part of the streaming wars.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is currently streaming on Paramount+ or for purchase on PrimeVideo.

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mysterytheater · 2 years ago

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Watch "Henry Twain" on YouTube

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This is a song about Mark Twain's brother, Henry Clemens (Twain, for our purposes), who died in 1858 after suffering an explosion on the steamboat Pennsylvania. He'd followed his older brother to a job on the river. Mark was kicked off the ship days before the accident. He was at Henry's side when he died seven days later in Memphis, TN.

This is the first single off Rookin's debut LP, 'Unionism.' Out October 2017.

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How far am I from the steamer now?

Me and Henry were sleeping when the boiler blew.

Now I see him swimming

Like his brother was watching—

By the time he realized he was hurt, there was nothing to do.

A little bit of water never hurt anybody;

A little bit of water's all it takes to drown.

#Youtube

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cpw-nyc · 2 months ago

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Don’t Quote Him on That: Did Mark Twain Really Say This?

By Editor November 10, 2020

To this day, Mark Twain (1835–1910) remains the most frequently quoted American author. But there’s a caveat: many of the clever sayings commonly attributed to him were actually someone else’s.

In his lifetime, which began 184 years ago this past November, Twain had indeed voiced many opinions that reflected his sharp wit, intelligence, and an often quirky way of seeing the world. He was able to capture the American spirit of the era, and his wisdom was derived from his many varied activities, ranging from piloting a steamboat and prospecting for gold out West to traveling the world on a cruise liner (which led to his widely popular book, The Innocents Abroad). All these experiences inspired the sometimes biting, often funny, and always pertinent sayings—even the ones that he never claimed as his own.

This is an opportune moment to separate fact from fiction, which Twain, a one-time journalist, would have surely appreciated.

Here are just a few of the more famous quotations mistakenly ascribed to Twain:

“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.” (In fact, Twain’s contemporary, British politician Leonard H. Courtney, said this.)

“Golf is a good walk spoiled.” It’s a great quote but, unfortunately, not Twain’s. It appears that American novelist Harry Leon Wilson said it in 1904.

“The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer day I spent in San Francisco.” There’s some debate about who this quote should be attributed to, but Twain never voiced this.

“Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” Though Twain liked to use this quote, he credited it to a journalist and fellow humorist, Edgar Wilson Nye.

These are just a few of many quotations that have, over the years, been misidentified as Twain’s. But the fact remains that the author of such literary classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, really did have a fine sense of humor and delivered plenty of his own witty lines.

For instance, he DID say: “You can’t depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus.”

“Get a bicycle. You will not regret it—if you live.”

“All dentists talk while they work. They have inherited this from their professional ancestors, the barbers.”

And—perhaps the most pertinent one to this subject—It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive.”

Twain really did have a clever way with words, even if—to paraphrase another American icon, baseball great Yogi Berra—he never actually said most of the things he allegedly did.

We can only imagine that this confusion over the quote attribution might have prompted Twain to voice an appropriately amusing remark, which we could, in good consciousness, attribute to him.

https://www.simplycharly.com/read/blog/dont-quote-mark-twain-really-say/

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10 Things You Might Not Know About Mark Twain October 3, 2021

1. Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He took his pen name in 1863. The reason for this particular choice may have been that the phrase “mark twain” was often used in navigation to measure water depth, and the theory is that he heard it during the four years he piloted steamboats on the Mississippi River.

2. Before becoming known primarily as a novelist, Twain was a newspaper reporter and a travel writer. He may have been the most widely traveled author of his era, having crossed over 300,000 miles at a time when international travel was a rarity.

3. His overseas trips inspired such bestselling books as Innocents Abroad, A Tramp Abroad, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, and Roughing It.

4. While Twain’s primary purpose for traveling and writing books about his adventures was to make money, these experiences inspired him to make a living from writing novels.

5. Authors Eugene O’Neill and William Faulkner called Twain “the first truly American writer” and “the true father of American literature.”

6. Among Twain’s best-known and popular novels are The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

7. Starting in 1885, the year Huckleberry Finn was released, it was banned from many libraries, schools, and bookstores because of its use of “coarse language,” as spoken by its uneducated protagonist. Some writers of that time, like Louisa May Alcott, criticized Twain’s language, while later authors defended Huckleberry Finn. Ernest Hemingway said, “All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.”

8. To this day, the book remains controversial for its frequent use of the “n-word.” However, many school districts are now replacing the offensive language with alternative wording.

9. Although Twain has a reputation as a humorist (and many of his stories do have elements of humor), he also experienced dark moods sparked by the deaths of several family members, including his oldest child, Langdon, and brother, Henry.

10. Though an acclaimed writer, Twain did not have such luck in his business endeavors. His investments failed, resulting in a hefty debt.

https://www.simplycharly.com/learn/facts/10-things-you-might-not-know-about-mark-twain/

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#Mark Twain

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sohannabarberaesque · 5 months ago

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Postcards from Snagglepuss

So what attracted Bristlehound and Dum-Dum to houseboating and Friday fish fries?

ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER NEAR GUTTENBERG, IA: "Just think of it this way, Snagglepuss," explained Dum-Dum, storied boon companion of Touché Turtle, as to the backgrounder over some highly interesting German cuisine at a modest little cafe. "It all came up on the sidelines of a Character Convocation of ours coincident, I believe, with Steamboat Days back in Winona."

Bristlehound picks up the story:

"I do have to admit that this onetime Faithful Sheepdog Protector was at a loss for something new and exciting, wandering around for the most part. Up, down and on the ground, as the Cattanooga Cats put it, for the most part."

"So," Huckleberry Hound asked Bristlehound, "if I don't mind asking exactly, how did you come across the houseboat, to begin with?"

"Huck," observed Bristlehound, "Dum-Dum and I crossed paths out of nowhere back at Winona Steamboat Days, and over coffee and donuts, we stumbled across a 'for sale' ad on my mobile phone offering a housboat for sale, older model, owner wanted to get rid of same ... said he was moving in with relatives."

"And I believe he was getting up there in years," Dum-Dum added, "by his own admission over coffee to negotiate the sale. The house he had was older, with some siding put on a few years back concealing a mostly working-class patina going back. But he was somewhat on the affable side, like Touché 'himself.'"

"I'd have to concur there," Touché remarked over some potato pancakes he was dipping into some of the sauce for the Sauerbraten we were sharing. "The seller, admittedly, was a little surprised initially at my presence alongside Dum-Dum and Bristlehound, though Bristlehound did ask to clarify that saying along the Mississippi about those who could drive a car could also drive a houseboat ... and from experience, the guy selling it said 'yes' pretty much."

"Heavens to Mark Twain!" saith I.

"Though I admit we did have to get some coaching to understand the hang of things houseboating," Bristlehound remarked. "Mainly some short excursions, about as far as Trempeleau or Alma and back--"

"To get the feel of things," Dum-Dum noted.

"And, if I may just ask," asked I, "how much did you have to put down to get the houseboat?"

"If you count as much the houseboat as the lincence, registration and other incidentals," Bristlehound noted, "all in all, about $1,000. Pooled mostly between us out of some savings we managed to build up."

"So that explains everything," asked Huckleberry. "Meanwhile, what explains the Friday-evening fish fry interest?"

"We probably just stumbled unto it by chance," Bristlehound explained. "We took ourselves a little jaunt downriver after managing to get our houseboat, and stumbled across one of those 'quaint little drinking towns with a fishing problem,' borrowing from a tacky tourist trap T-shirt meme ... Friday evening, rather clement outside, tied our houseboat down at the local docks and checked the local bar to find out the local cuisine, and discovering the sheer popularity given to the fish fry."

"Oh yeah," Dum-Dum pointed out, "beer-battered fish, French fries galore, cole slaw and some decent sweet tea. The locals, it seems, can't get enough of it, or so the waitress assisting us explained it. Neither could the tourists."

"How did it all turn out?" Huckleberry explained.

"It was alright," Bristlehound explained. "Even if it was a little pricey, considering where we took walleye ... otherwise, cod is the most common choice, though the high price of cod could be enough to have some taverns consider other species just to stay afloat."

Touché Turtle chimed in by remarking that haddock and walleye are likely possibilities should cod get all the more pricey, "and blame overfishing, cutthroat competition from fishing crews in prime cod waters of the north Atlantic and depletion of stocks."

"Or bass," added I.

(At any rate, the sauerbraten we had was rather hearty-tasting, to say the least. Yet for some reason, the potato pancakes were remarkably not all that greasy.)

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @iheartgod175 @artistic-octopus @indigo-corvus @theweekenddigest @archive-archives @thebigdingle @thylordshipofbutts @screamingtoosoftly @themineralyoucrave @warnerbros-blog1 @jellystone-enjoyer @thebestofcartoonscomics @railguner34 @kuni-dreamer @aquablock68 @warnerbrosent-blog

#hanna barbera #fanfic #fanfiction #road trip #houseboating #postcards from snagglepuss #huckleberry hound #bristlehound #touché turtle and dum dum #crusing down the river #friday night fish fry #german style dinner #hannabarberaforever

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kawaiibreadbeliever · 7 months ago

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Ariel sees the Mark Twain

Mark Twain also had a Steamboat named after him.

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patchesoftimerevisited · 9 months ago

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Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Vintage Disney Sleeping Beauty's Castle Souvenir Glass Bowl.

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maximumtalewonderland · 1 year ago

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Disneyland opens

Disneyland, Walt Disney’s metropolis of nostalgia, fantasy and futurism, opens on July 17, 1955. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 18 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion.

Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist before setting up a small studio in Los Angeles to produce animated cartoons. In 1928, his short film Steamboat Willy, starring the character “Mickey Mouse,” was a national sensation. It was the first animated film to use sound, and Disney provided the voice for Mickey. From there on, Disney cartoons were in heavy demand, but the company struggled financially because of Disney’s insistence on ever-improving artistic and technical quality. His first feature-length cartoon, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938), took three years to complete and was a great commercial success.

Snow White was followed by other feature-length classics for children, such as Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), and Bambi (1942). Fantasia (1940), which coordinated animated segments with famous classical music pieces, was an artistic and technical achievement. In Song of the South (1946), Disney combined live actors with animated figures, and beginning with Treasure Island in 1950 the company added live-action movies to its repertoire. Disney was also one of the first movie studios to produce film directly for television, and its Zorro and Davy Crockett series were very popular with children.

In the early 1950s, Walt Disney began designing a huge amusement park to be built near Los Angeles. He intended Disneyland to have educational as well as amusement value and to entertain adults and their children. Land was bought in the farming community of Anaheim, about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles, and construction began in 1954. In the summer of 1955, special invitations were sent out for the opening of Disneyland on July 17. Unfortunately, the pass was counterfeited and thousands of uninvited people were admitted into Disneyland on opening day. The park was not ready for the public: food and drink ran out, a women’s high-heel shoe got stuck in the wet asphalt of Main Street USA, and the Mark Twain Steamboat nearly capsized from too many passengers.

Disneyland soon recovered, however, and attractions such as the Castle, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, Snow White’s Adventures, Space Station X-1, Jungle Cruise, and Stage Coach drew countless children and their parents. Special events and the continual building of new state-of-the-art attractions encouraged them to visit again. In 1965, work began on an even bigger Disney theme park and resort near Orlando, Florida. Walt Disney died in 1966, and Walt Disney World was opened in his honor on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center, Disney-MGM Studios, and Animal Kingdom were later added to Walt Disney World, and it remains Florida’s premier tourist attraction. In 1983, Disneyland Tokyo opened in Japan, and in 1992 Disneyland Paris—or “EuroDisney”—opened in Marne-la-Vallee. Disneyland in Hong Kong opened its doors in September 2005.

#Disneyland Day #This Day in History

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profgandalf · 1 year ago

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Huck Finn: Profoundly Anti-Racist, Not to Be Altered But Tom Is Still Sometimes Annoying

When approaching a nearly universally praised work of literature like Huckleberry Finn there is a temptation to just throw up one’s hands and say “it’s a masterpiece” and anyone who says otherwise has rot in their brains. But this is too easy. One must respond to the text to evaluate and incorporate it as must be done to all art. Conversely, those who judge any work with their own parameters of social worthiness—the secular mirror of religious acceptability that once dominated so many who judged texts—are traveling into a narrowing black hole and dooming themselves to literary spaghettification. Thus one must respond to the text within its own understanding of reality. One should not complain that a Puritan from the 16th century (like Robinson Crusoe) does not understand the concept of animal conservation any more than to fuss over the fact that the poet Homer does not acknowledge the existence of the one true Jewish Christian God. The concepts just did not exist when the work of art was created. What should be considered is what was the author struggling over during his or her own lifetime?

In the same way the social abhorrence to the word “Nigger” (now only spoken by black comics and referred to as the “N word” by everyone else) did not exist in Twain’s day. Instead in 1885 it was still used often. However Mark Twain was certainly aware of the stain of slavery in America and the racism upon which it was built. He needn’t go after slavery, the terrible war had doomed that institution, but the prejudice still needed to be addressed. The rise of the novel’s action, its regular presentment of personal folly which those who use the term while supporting slavery (people as diverse as Pap Finn and Aunt Sally) and Huck’s gradual growth to the wrongness of this position so that he declares that “he will go to Hell” if it means not helping his friend Jim escape from slavery all show an author critical of his own culture. However the fact that so many currently are encouraging the expurgation of the word “nigger” because they feel it is such a foul word, completely miss the powerful anti-slavery anti-racist elements in the novel and dilute the narrative as they do so.

Actually I think that Twain pushes his abolitionist perspective too much in one part of the text at the cost of its artistic verisimilitude. Huck, who is pretending to be Tom Sawyer, tells the tender hearted religious Aunt Sally about a supposed explosion in the steamboat on his way down river.

"Now I struck an idea [on how to explain himself], and fetched it out:

`It warn’t the grounding—that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.’

`Good gracious! anybody hurt?’

“No’m. Killed a nigger.”

`Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt. . . .’”

This woman is pictured as a religious, affectionate, good woman whose husband has church services for the local slaves and who joyfully takes in two rambunctious boys and who is treating Jim the captured slave very well. She would likely weep over a wounded dog and yet is then credited to such insensitivity. This indifference to a slave’s life while effective as humor and commentary seems to fail on being true. It still shows Twain’s commitment to the antiracist nature of his book—and makes its alteration in the name of inclusion all the more absurd.

If I have a complaint about the novel, which took Twain eight years to compose, it is Huck’s submission to the ascendency of Tom Sawyer’s cultural and educated superiority near the novel’s end. Huck begins the novel playing with Tom with make-believe pirate fights, pursing the role of attacking robbers against rich merchants thwarted by evil magicians (whom Huck says looked more like a Sunday School picnic defended by its teacher). The fact that Tom answers Huck’s queries by filling his explanations with references to Don Quixote shows what a dream world Tom lives in. That’s all well and good.

But when Huck escapes his dangerous alcoholic father and goes down river with a runaway slave, there is no more fantasy. But there is glorious spectacle and imminent danger. He sees a host of terrible and violent things (bloody feuds and murder in the streets) and shapes his decision about Jim partly in the shadow of these events. Also it is in this section that Huck describes with wonder and beauty the world of the river and the nature which surrounds it.

To have Huck then retreat into the world of Tom’s dream play at the novel’s end—until Tom is shot and Jim has to sacrifice himself to make sure the boy is cared for—is difficult for me to accept. (It’s notable that the beautiful descriptions end at this point as well.) I felt the same way about Mary Tyler Moore stepping into the spin off show Rhoda after she had been through so much. I found Mary annoying, and so do I find Tom. But perhaps I underestimate the appeal which Twain portrays for a traumatized boy of returning to a safe place emotionally and physical after such a perilous journey. Howsoever, the book is a masterpiece and I am glad to have read it again.

#Mark Twain #huckleberry finn #racism #n-word #verisimilitude

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